Genesis 4:1-10 "Cain & Abel: The First Murder" - Dr. Steven J. Lawson

i've just returned from los angeles where i've been teaching at the master seminary and able to preach there at grace community church and so it's just a great joy to be back home and to be with you and to step back into the flow of the book of genesis as i told you i think two weeks ago i've never had the privilege of preaching through the book of genesis all these years i've preached individual passages but never through the book and so that there is a real joy of discovery for me week by week by week to really walk the land of a passage and not just to have read it from 36 000 feet but to get down into the the soil of the passage and for it to be in me and so the passage that we're going to be looking at today is an extremely relevant and practical chapter and i think you will find a great help for your spiritual life and your walk with the lord in this passage of scripture if you would please take your bible and turn with me to the book of genesis chapter four and today we're going to look at verses one through ten the title of this message is cain and abel the first murder as always i want to begin by reading the passage and just reintroducing it to you so that we will have it before our eyes as we work our way through it in just a moment the word of god reads beginning in verse 1 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 firstlings 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 is 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 his 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 his brother and killed him then the lord said to cain where is abel your brother and he said i do not know am i my brother's keeper he said what have you done the voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground let's go to the lord in prayer father we feel the the weight of this passage the seriousness of this passage as we have just read through it and we feel a sense even of sorrow as we see the first murder take place and we see division in a family and in a home and lord we pray that even as we gather today that you would administer your grace to us through your word that we would never find ourselves in such a position that we could truly say there but for the grace of god go i we pray that you would restrain sin in our own hearts and in our own lives that there would never be such jealousy within us and such sin and certainly never the acting out of sin like this so we know this passage is here for our good and for our instruction though it is filled with tragedy use this story of tragedy to produce triumph in us so we look to you for you to do your work within our hearts within our minds this day from this passage from this text in jesus name amen well as i've just read these verses they contain the first murder in the bible in fact in this passage we see the first of many things we see the first conceptions we see the first first birth deliveries we see the first vocations we see the first questions we see the first murder and we also see the first casualty of spiritual warfare that was pronounced in the previous chapter as you recall in genesis 3 verse 15 god said i will set enmity between your seed referring to the seed of the serpent and and yours or the seed of the woman and there was announced already in genesis 3 that there would be spiritual warfare and there would be casualties in this warfare and here we see the first of those what makes this spiritual conflict so sad in genesis 4 is that it is not being played out between two hostile armies that are led by two opposing generals with two clashing armies what makes this so sad is that this is in-house that this is sibling rivalry that this is brother against brother that this takes place really in the same household here is the battle line drawn in the home here is the battle line that involves darkness clashing with light and error clashing with truth and an unbeliever clashing with a believer it's false religion clashing with true religion and it's all under one household and so this is the first struggle that we see being played out of genesis 3 15. the first struggle between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman so we want to look carefully at this first battle between the children of the devil and the children of god so as we go through this passage it really is a series of contrasts and as i give you this outline it will be two words and the first word is always two t-w-o and then we will add um a second word at each heading of the outline and so this this uh this passage really has a a great separation i want you to note first two sons that's in verses one and two and what follows are the first two births of the human race we see in verse 1 now the man had relations with his wife eve of course the man is adam and when it says had relations with his wife i do want you to know that it had relations it's just really one word in the original hebrew language when moses wrote this and it is the word for no k-n-o-w to know and the reason i draw that to your attention is that this word will be used throughout the bible to refer to our personal relationship with jesus christ the difference between knowing about god and actually knowing god and it also gives insight into the word for knowledge that will be used in the book of revelation it says here that the man knew his wife eve and in the bible for a man to know a woman is to enter into the most intimate and personal love relationship that could ever exist on the earth and it came to refer to the intimacy of a sexual relationship that adam knew eve in a way that was so intimate and so personal that it resulted in it says she conceived and gave birth to cain this is the first child to be born as a result of the first pregnancy that would take place in the human race and eve said i have gotten a man-child with the help of the lord that needs a little explanation and if you have a new american standard like i do uh the words the help of the help of is in italics which tells us it's not in the original uh language with which moses wrote this it's only been supplied by the translator to try to smooth out the sentence to go from one language to another language and most literally this reads i have begotten a baby boy the lord and in eve's mind she still has what god told the serpent that there would be a seed of the woman that would be born that would be the deliverer of adam and eve and it was a foreshadowing of course of the coming of christ but eve does not know that this will not take place for centuries and centuries in her mind this conception is the fulfillment of the promise that this is the one that was promised in chapter three i i have i have gotten a man-child literally it's just a baby boy it means a um a boy that is a baby i i have gotten a baby boy the lord and so in her mind either this conception i mean this conception and delivery has come about by the help of the lord and that is very possible or more probably her expectation is this is the answer to the promise that was made in chapter three but of course it was the very opposite the one born to eve was cain who was born with the sin nature of her husband adam and the very sin nature that she herself has come to possess for adam and eve are now plagued with a sin nature in their heart and in their soul which is a disposition to sin that there's already bound up now in the human nature because of adam's original sin this this this desire to sin and that is in cain and that's in you and that's in me no one ever had to teach us to sin we had to be taught not to sin and so the bible is very clear on this and i think it would be important to me for me to just give you a few cross-references so that we are very clear on this i remember when i attended the the grave of ronald reagan out in california and there is a plaque next to where he is buried that speaks to the goodness that is in all men and the goodness that is in the human race and we must understand it's the actual opposite that sin has polluted the human nature of every single person who has been born on planet earth and these cross references the first is psalm 58 and verse 3. listen to this the wicked are estranged from the womb these who speak lies go astray from the womb meaning that there is already sin in the nature of the child as they come out of the womb in fact that's why there is sometimes sadly even death in the womb because sin is already in the womb psalm 51 verse 3 behold david says i was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me and that does not mean that the act of conception was sinful what it means is there was the transmission of the sin nature from adam to jesse his david's father to david himself and at the moment of conception that pollution of sin was already in the baby while david was in the womb in ephesians 2 3 says we are by nature children of wrath you see the reason that we sin is because we are sinners it's already in us and it was in cain the moment he was conceived in the womb and we continue to read and we we see again she gave birth to his brother abel and it is possible that that word again could indicate they might have been twins that there was not a time gap in in between or a nine month pregnancy in between that they could have been twins just like jacob and esau were born twins and the word the name abel means a vapor or a breath something that's fleeting and passing away and it would be a foreshadowing of his own life as he would die from our perspective a premature death and we see there are two professions here and and abel was a keeper of phlox that means he was a shepherd and we're not told what the flocks are it could be lambs it could be sheep it could be another animal but cain was a tiller of the ground that means he was a farmer and these are both honorable professions there's not a right and wrong in these professions they they are both honorable and so there are many similarities already at this point and abel himself would have been born with the same sin nature and so both sons have the same parents both sons grew up under the same influence both sons grew up under the same roof with the same instruction both sons had honorable possessions both sons were hard workers both sons were exercising dominion over god's creation just as genesis 1 26 and 28 would say but how strange it is is it not that two children with the same parents living in the same house having grown up with the same instruction would go in two opposite directions so that leads us to our second heading in verse three two sacrifices verses three and four show us that the similarities end and so in verse 3 we see so it came about in the course of time that cain brought an offering to the lord what is implied here not stated though it is implied that there was an appointed time that god had revealed to adam and eve and cain and abel that they were to come and worship him just like there is an appointed time that you and i have been assigned to come and worship the lord today on the lord's day and they were to come at this appointed time and to worship god and all worshipers must bring a sacrifice all worshipers may not come with empty hands in an empty heart all worshipers must bring that which they give to god and for us in new testament times romans 12 1-2 we are to be the living sacrifice placed on the altar we are to give ourselves and our lives to the lord as well as our gifts well here they were to bring a sacrifice they could not come into the presence of holy god and be received by holy god as they are in their sinful state no sinner can enter into the presence of holy god without a blood sacrifice you say why a blood sacrifice because the shedding of blood represents one person dying in the place of another and the wages of sin is death and so for a sinner to enter into the presence of holy god someone else has to die in my place someone else has to shed their blood and that person must be a perfect person who would have no sin of their own who could offer their life in my place or god will have no regard for that person in fact god will be offended that you would come into my presence with your sin and so what is implied here though not directly stated is that god has indicated to cain and abel you are to come and worship me at the appointed time and you have sin in your life and there has to be a a covering for that sin and the sacrifice that you would bring would have no efficacy value to it whatsoever it would be a foreshadowing of the lamb of god who would take away the sin of the world and as you would believe god and worship the true god the true way there would be the merit and the benefits of that ultimate sacrifice that would be given for you the lord jesus christ who would redeem us with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless the blood of jesus christ well cain thought he could worship the true god his own way that he could reinvent worship that he could reinvent church if you will that he could concoct his own manner of approaching god because he's very sincere and god will see his sincerity and he can come and bring a good sacrifice that will please god and so cain brought an offering to the lord of the fruit of the ground that is to say something that he would harvest from his tilling the soil whatever that fruit would have been he would have gathered it in a basket and he would have come at the appointed time and come before the one true god and in worship offered to god the best that he had to offer drawing from his own will drawing from his own religiosity in his own and his own efforts cain i want you to hear this again cain chose to worship the true god the wrong way uh cain chose a more humane way to worship god that did not require a death it it was too offensive to cain's own sensibilities he he wanted a bloodless religion he he wanted to worship god without the shedding of blood uh cain chose a more sophisticated religion he he chose the more cultured religion he chose a more civilized religion he chose one that was less offensive to to him and one that was more appealing to his flesh cain's bloodless sacrifice represents the worship of every false religion and the worship of every false believer who thinks they can come just as they are jude 11 refers to this as quote the way of cain the way of cain it is the way of defiant disobedience against god it's referred to in psalm 1 verse 6 as the way of the wicked it is referred to by jesus in matthew 7 13 as the way is broad that leads to destruction this is the path that cain chose to travel as he comes to attend this worship service and so it is today there there are denominations there are churches that have removed hymns that talk about the blood it just doesn't sit well with them to be singing there's power in the blood of the lord jesus christ it's just not sophisticated enough it sounds so barbaric it sounds so antiquated that we would be singing about the blood and then they go into their doctrinal statements and they begin to remove mention of the blood of the lord jesus christ because it just doesn't quite fit them for what they want in a religion and every one of those churches are on the way of cain which is the way to hell it is the way to eternal destruction no cain thought he could reinvent worship he thought he had a better approach he thought there's another road that leads up the other side of the mountain that leads up to god he thought well there's this way that god has given us but it's not the only way there there has to be other ways god is a god of broad mercy and wide mercy and so therefore we can come up the other side of the mountain and we'll meet at the top you have your religion i have my religion you worship god the way you want to worship no i'll worship god the way i want to worship and i'll meet you at the top it's the way of cain it's the way of the devil and it leads to hell an eternal damnation you can't come up with your own way to worship god there is worship that's true and there is worship for which god has no regard so next verse four abel on his part this is in contrast to cain on the other hand abel on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock he he he brought not fruit he he brought calves he brought sheep he brought lambs he brought we're not told what but the firstlings of the flock from which blood can be can be drawn after the shedding of blood and so abel humbles himself abel puts himself under the authority of god abel in obedience to god abel does what is prescribed by him on how to pro approach god he is a sinner god is sinless he is unholy god is holy there's no way i can come before a holy god just as i am there must be an intermediary there must be a a mediator there must be someone to stand in between and for there to be the shedding of of blood that would make a covering for my sin in order to enter into the presence of god so abel brought a blood sacrifice abel chose to worship the true god the right way how much of all this abel understood we're not told he doesn't necessarily have to understand he's simply to do what god has required of him and so again this sacrifice offered by abel is but a foreshadowing there's no efficacy in the shedding of blood of a of a real animal there's no taking away a sin of that there is only one sacrifice that takes away sin and that is the perfect sacrifice of our lord and savior jesus christ that would be offered up upon the altar of the cross but putting faith in god on the basis of the foreshadowing of this coming death results in forgiveness of sin it results in a covering for your sin it results in righteousness hebrews 9 verse 22 listen to this verse hebrews 9 22 without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness is what god says and so beloved i trust that today as you've come to worship god that you're worshiping the true god the true way that you're under the blood of the lord jesus christ that you are not trusting in the fruit of your own labors or your own goodness or your own morality but that you have come to confess your sin and put your faith in jesus christ who is the only lamb who takes away the sin of the world notice the two responses in verse five the two responses what follows are two responses one by god one by cain and in in the first half of verse five we see the first response it is god's response what is god's response to this mixed worship service in which there are both is a believer and an unbeliever in the same worship service when is god's response verse five but for cain and his offering his bloodless offering he god had no regard god had no pleasure in cain's offering it didn't matter how sincere cain was he was sincerely wrong he was dead wrong it was displeasing to god it was dishonoring of god it was unacceptable to god it was offensive to god it was insulting to god it was blasphemous of god it was not a small thing it was not a trifling thing the worship of god is the ultimate purpose for which every person is made the the ultimate reason that you are on planet earth the ultimate reason that you were conceived in your mother's womb that you were born it is to live solely dale gloria for the glory of god alone this isn't a small matter this is at the head of the list and this is what believers do we will do for the rest of eternity we will just give glory to god and worship god but cain he sinned at the highest level this is not a secondary sin this is a primary sin and it was offensive to god and god had no regard for it god utterly rejected it it would have been better if cain had not even come to church at that time it would have been better if he had just stayed with his flocks or out in the field than to come in an offensive manner to god so what was kane's response to this we saw god's response no regard so it was cain's response the second half of verse three had did cain respond to god's response did did did cain repent did cain confess his sin did ken did cain just fall on his knees and and plead for mercy with god did cain humble himself did cain run to one of abel's herds and and grab a lamb and slay it and come with a blood sacrifice is that how cain responded this it's just hard to even conceive of this so cain became very angry his flesh was provoked he wasn't just angry it says he was very angry and the word very in the hebrew means exceedingly angry he was in a rage he lost all sense of self-control and the word angry here in the original language means literally to become hot to burn to be burned up he he became furious at god i mean his head was like a smokestack with smoke just peeling spewing out of it how dare god not accept my sacrifice shaking his fist in the face of holy god i'm just as good as abel and then we read in his countenance fell it was written all over his face he couldn't even conceal it or hide it from adam and eve or from abel his face fell to the ground he was so enraged against god what we learn from this is that our responses need to be in response to god's responses in other words what upsets god should upset us and what god causes god to rejoice should cause us to rejoice right that we should be of one heart with god we should be of one mind with god cain should have grieved over that which caused god's heart to grieve but we see the very opposite response in cain so notice next two questions in verse six two questions in response god asked cain two questions then the lord said to cain what why are you angry to be sure god knows that cain is angry it's not a diagnostic question for god to learn why cain is angry hebrews 4 13 says every creature is laid bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do now the question is really a question of mercy it is for cain to examine his own heart why would god want cain to examine his own heart that it might lead to the confession of that sin that it might lead to repentance i mean this is like the ministry of the holy spirit who has come into the world to convict men of sin and righteousness and judgment john 16 verse 8 that's not a bad thing that's a good thing it's like going to the doctor and the doctor beginning to poke on you does this hurt does this hurt does this hurt until finally he puts his finger on the lump or upon the cyst or upon whatever needs to be dealt with that's not a bad thing that's a good thing a right diagnosis is half the cure and so that's what god is doing here he's he's probing the heart and the soul of of cain so that cain will come clean so that cain will confess his sin so that cain can be restored so that cain would actually become a believer and put himself under the authority of the lordship of god and the authority of his word why are you so angry helping cain to pull back the the the mask and see his own heart that you're angry and you're angry with me and then here's the second question and why has your countenance fallen you know what the answer to that is cain's countenance has fallen because of cain because of sin because of pride because of arrogance because he does not want to be told by god how to live and how to worship he does not want to be told by god how to conduct his affairs why is your countenance fallen because cain is going the way of cain which is the way of the wicked which is the broad path that is headed for destruction and i want to underscore that these two questions are questions really of god's mercy god could have just cut off the conversation at this point god could have just left cain in his sin and these questions are intended to bring cain to see his sin and to bring him to the point of repentance how good of god to do this how good of god to do this in our lives we must be examining ourselves at the end of psalm 139 it says show me if there's any hurtful way within me well this leads now to verse 7 two paths there there are two paths that are open before kane at this point these two paths are open before every human being who's ever lived these two paths are open before you and path number one is at the beginning of verse seven and and this just drips with mercy and grace if you do well your countenance will will not your countenance be lifted up if you do well in other words if you repent if you do a 180 if you confess your sin and now choose to submit your life to me and worship me as i have prescribed if you will come to me under the blood of a sacrifice if you do well if you do what is right before me if you do what is required by me god is saying if you do what is pleasing to me what's the result of that he says will not your countenance be lifted up the answer to that is an implied yes peace like a river will come flooding into your soul if you will confess your sin and repent and submit your life to me repentance always leads to joy it always leads to happiness listen when sin moves in happiness moves out but when repentance moves in sin moves out and happiness moves back in happiness is never to be a destination that we intend to to aim at the most miserable people in the world are those trying to be happy happiness is a byproduct of going god's way and living on the narrow path that god has set before us obedience to god leads to joy it leads to peace why because you now are at peace with god think of it this way there is objective peace and there's subjective peace taught in the bible objective peace is our peace with god that comes only through the blood of the lord jesus christ subjective peace is the peace that floods our heart and our soul when we are right with god it is always objective peace that produces subjective peace if you can follow the train of thought it is always being at peace with god that leads to the peace of god but when we are not at peace with god there is no peace of god in the heart and in the soul and that is what god is saying to to to cain and this is a god of a second chance this is a god swinging open the door of forgiveness and mercy if you'll just do right if you just do well your countenance will be lifted up and there will be there will be serenity and calmness and stillness returned to your heart it'll be well with your soul but you must do well for it to be well with your soul sin is like an acid in the heart that just eats away and strips away all vitality so that's path number one and cain you can go through this door you can go through door number one you can repent and the blessing of heaven will be upon you or the other path and the other path is at the end of verse seven and if you do not do well in other words if you just continue to harden your own heart if you just continue to to bow your back if you continue to stiffen your neck if you continue to just have a death grip on your own way and you will not humble yourself if you continue with deliberate defiant disobedience to me notice what it says at the end of verse 7 sin is crouching at the door you see one sin always leads to another sin which leads to another sin which leads to another sin sin never travels solo sin always is accompanied by other sin you can never commit one sin in the area one area of your life and for the rest of your life to be unaffected no it's like a drop of cyanide in a glass of water it that cyanide that poison just permeates the whole of the glass and so if you do not repent cain sin that you have not yet committed sin is crouching at the door it's pictured as a lion ready to spring forth and devour its prey and for every sin that we commit we are being weakened to resist the next sin and then we're being weakened against the next sin and we're on a slippery slope as as we go descend downward into more sin and more sin and and more sin sin never stops at a high level sin always continues to push the the fence posts out and take over more of a person's life and so sin is crouching at the door and it will eat your lunch and you will be defenseless until you repent until you confess your sin and then at the end of verse 7 and its desire the desire of sin it's a metaphorical picture it's desire it's longing it's craving is for you and it's ready to absolutely destroy your life so at the end god says but and this this is even a the the door of mercy is is being opened ever ever so slightly there's still opportunity for cain god is extending grace to cain even still but you must master it of course cain cannot master it in his own flesh and in his own strength none of us can overrule sin in our own lives we must be mastered by the grace of god in order to master sin right we need a force that's stronger than sin sin is like this lion ready to devour we need one who's stronger than this lion and we are so weak in and of ourselves and in our own flesh we we need the grace of god we need the mercy of god to overcome temptation and to overcome sin we can't do it on our own so god says you must master it either sin will master you or you must master sin there's no neutral ground there's no middle ground there's no sitting out this this this war on the inside this conflict either you master sin or sin will master you and the only way that you can master sin is for you to be mastered by the grace of god so these are the two paths we either go god's way or we go the way of sin we either go god's way and our countenance is lifted up or we go sins way and our count countenance is lifted down don't ever think that sin will make you happy that is the devil's lie sin will depress you sin will defeat you sin will discourage you sin will devastate you sin offers you nothing but death and destruction you must go god's way by his grace so this leads to verses eight and nine two sins two sins sin number one is in verse eight sin number two is in verse nine and these seem to always travel together in pairs so verse 8 cain told abel his brother moses does not record here what cain told his brother it is reasonable to assume meet me in the field meet me over in that corner of the field at noon i have something for you cain told abel his brother and what follows now is the result of what he told abel and it came about when they were in the field the cain rose up his countenance is down but his anger is up he he he rose up angela in a jealous rage he rose up in unmitigated anger cain rose up against abel his brother and this hurts so much just to read the next three words and killed him cain is on this slippery slope and he is just descending at mach speed and there is nothing for which cain is not capable of doing because sin is the master over cain and cain has yielded his life to sin and he rose up and he killed him kane what are you thinking this is intentional pre-medicaid pre-medicated first degree murder and you know what this is this is the devil's work this is the in enmity between the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman that was prophesied in genesis 3 15. this is spiritual warfare that is being carried out the seed of the serpent with his venom into the the veins of everyone born into this world with this sin nature and this bent to sin here is the playing out of the first battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent and cain kills his brother and i want you to know that the devil is the one who is behind this jesus when he was addressing the pharisees in his day in john 8 and verse 44 listen to what jesus said to the pharisees jesus said you're of your father the devil and you want to do the desires of your father he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him whenever he speaks a lie he speaks from his own nature for he is a liar and the father of lies the devil was behind this first murder from the beginning according to jesus it was the devil who was pouring gas onto the fire just in re increase the rage within cain it was the devil who has taken over cain's mind and his heart and his disposition and it was the devil who's poking him to to go further and to go further and to go further until he finally acts it out and he kills his own brother sin will always make you stupid sin will always lead you to destruction sin is never your friend now here's the second sin in verse 9. remember jesus said murder and liar go together in john 8 verse 44. so what do you think we're going to find in verse 9 after we see murder in verse 8. we're going to find exactly what jesus said the way it was from the very beginning then the lord said to cain in verse 9 where is abel your brother again god knows where abel is god knows everything the point was for cain to come to his senses i mean this question is like a wake-up call and it's still god dealing with cain god has not turned cain over to his own ways cain where's your brother abel will you not confess that you killed him there would be mercy there would be forgiveness for cain but he's too arrogant he's too prideful he's so stuffful of himself that even when god comes to him like an investigative reporter and says where is your brother abel he still he still will not confess his sin how stubborn is the human heart so here's kane's big answer what what an answer and he said i do not know he is lying through his teeth the question itself should have implied god knows but he's so blind now by his sin i do not know and he offers this pathetic pathetic pathetic excuse which only compounds the evil that's taking place here am i my brother's keeper as if to put a moat around his life pull up the drawbridge to keep god at arm's length what am i supposed to do am i my brother's keeper as if to dismiss god god go on your own way god i don't want to continue this conversation god be gone so this concludes in verse 10 with two voices two voices the first is god's the second is abel's first god's voice he said god said what have you done i mean he he's pleading with cain to to come clean confess your sin acknowledge your sin where sin is abound grace does much more abound god could wipe the slate clean god could cancel out the certificate of debt put your faith in me come under a blood sacrifice what have you done i noticed abel's voice that was god's voice here's abel's voice the voice of your brother's blood is crying to me it's a metaphorical expression of figure of speech assigning life to an inanimate object it's a very vivid descriptive way let's say this murder it is screaming out of the grave to the heights of heaven and it has reached my ears in heaven the voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground which is where your brother lays dead in a pool of blood and you didn't want a blood sacrifice you didn't want to see the blood you didn't want to smell the blood you wanted something that was so sophisticated and so cultured you didn't want to have to deal with a blood sacrifice you wanted to come to me your own way and so cain do you see where it has brought you it has brought you to blood it's brought you to the blood of your own brother as he is laying dead in a pool of blood that's how irrational sin makes you that's how illogical sin makes you that's how incongruent sin makes our thinking we think up is down and down is up we think right is wrong and wrong is right it just unplugs the brain sin brings moral insanity you didn't want a blood sacrifice so now this is the blood you're left with what a passage what a passage how real to life is this and in some ways this is just a foreshadowing of the rest of human history until the very end jesus said there'll be wars and rumors of wars jesus said i've come to bring a sword not peace i'll set a father against a son and a mother against a daughter and a mother-in-law against a daughter and the members of one's own family will be their enemies matthew 10 and so this is just really a template for everything else that will happen this this is what's behind all the racial tension this is what's behind all the political tension this is what's behind all the international tension it's the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent at war and the choice that every one of us have to make as will we go god's path or will we go our own path everyone in this building today is either cain or you're able you're either standing in the shoes of cain refusing the offer of the gospel refusing the mercy of god refusing the offer of the cross and you want to just make up your own life and your own way to come to god that's cain or you're able today you recognize your own sin you confess your sin you see that there's a blood sacrifice that's been made you believe in god through his son jesus christ and your whole life and all of your sin is under the blood of the lord jesus christ so this is the offer that god makes to you he spoke it through the prophet isaiah when god said come let us reason together says the lord though your sins be a scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be white as wool you need to have your sins forgiven you cannot come into the presence of holy god without being under the blood the blood of the lord jesus christ shed at the cross and that blood is offered to you today and for what is to the world a gory story is for us a glory story the eyes of the world say it's child abuse what god the father did to his son but for us who have eyes of faith and we see the truth it is the greatest thing that has ever happened to our lives everything else is a far distant second this is number one i've come to christ and there's a fountain filled with blood drawn from emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that flood they lose all their guilty stains come to the fountain flowing from the veins of the lord jesus christ and there is blood to wash away all your sins blood to to purge you and to make you clean and to find acceptance with holy god in heaven abel found that blood cain rejected it in hebrews 10 it says if you reject christ you are trampling underfoot the precious blood of the lord jesus christ and insulting the spirit of grace you're either under the blood or you're trampling under the blood of christ come to christ come to christ and receive his forgiveness come to christ receive mercy untold let us pray father thank you for mercy thank you for forgiveness thank you for grace because we have all started out as a cane we have all started out in resistance to you defiance of you and it is only your mercy and your grace by the new birth that has transferred us to become like abel one who worships by bringing a blood sacrifice lord instill the truth of these verses deep within our heart and soul we pray this in jesus name amen

Channel: Trinity Bible

Views: 25,565

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Id: uSYNxLxVaTE

Length: 66min 46sec (4006 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 08 2021