[00:00:01] Welcome to the River Church podcast. We're all about bringing the life, hope and love of Jesus to everyone around us. For more information, check out our
[email protected] okay, thank you. It's great to be with you today.
[00:00:19] And excuse my voice, I've had a bit of a funny throat, so excuse that if it sounds a bit weak and weedy, but I'll do my best.
[00:00:29] So we're continuing today with this series on the Greatest Story.
[00:00:34] And when I was asked to do this part for today, I thought, yeah, that's great. It's a good story.
[00:00:39] It's a bit of drama, a bit of excitement. Then I realized that this story that we're going to look at, part of the aim is to sort of connect the Bible and all the Bible stories to connect them with Jesus.
[00:00:53] And this one's a really sad story.
[00:00:56] Oh, no. What are we going to do with this? How can we make this work?
[00:01:00] It's the story of Cain and Abel. It's a story about where things go wrong after God's created a perfect world. Where are the encouraging bits in this story?
[00:01:11] Well, there are some encouraging bits, so don't worry, it's not going to be totally miserable.
[00:01:18] Let's just summarize where we've got to so far. I decided to do that because we've got the opportunity and we haven't been going very long in this series. So you won't get this when we. Towards the other end, but basically where we are at the moment is we started with Genesis chapter one. In the beginning, God created everything. He made light and darkness. He made seas and dry land, vegetation, sun, moon, stars, fish, birds, animals, human beings in his own image. And it says then that when God looked over all he'd made, he saw that it was very good.
[00:01:55] Okay. I love that, don't you? When God looked over all that he'd made, he said, this is great. I love what I've done. I'm pleased with what I've done. It's very good.
[00:02:06] Move on to Genesis 2. There's a bit more detail about how God made man and woman, placed them in a beautiful garden. Then he told the man Adam that they could eat any of the trees, except. Except for one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
[00:02:23] And chapter two finishes telling us that the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame. Okay. You might wonder why we slipped that bit in.
[00:02:33] I mean, it is in the Bible. So Genesis chapter three, the fall.
[00:02:41] Eve gets tempted by the serpent. She's persuaded to eat the fruit of the one tree they've been told not to eat. Then in verse seven of chapter three, it says at that moment their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness.
[00:02:54] So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
[00:02:57] Then verse 21 of chapter 3 says the Lord made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife, but because of their disobedience, they were banished from the beautiful garden.
[00:03:09] And today we've got to Genesis chapter four. There you go. The whole summary of the whole series so far.
[00:03:16] So today we've got to Genesis chapter four. It's about Cain and Abel as Adam and Eve's sons, but it is a story of jealousy. It's a story of envy, of murder, of lies. It's shocking to see how quickly things have taken.
[00:03:32] They've disregarded what God has told them. It's shocking to see how this creation that God saw was very good, is actually not very good any longer.
[00:03:47] And sometimes we can find ourselves asking, why did God let it fall apart so quickly?
[00:03:54] Why didn't he build some sort of safeguarding that would prevent us from disobeying his laws and his rules?
[00:04:01] Well, before we move on, let me just sow a little seed into your minds.
[00:04:07] When we think of what God is like, what his characteristics are, what are the sort of words that come to mind? Call some out to me.
[00:04:15] Holy. I'm looking for four particular words, and holy wasn't one of them. But it is a good word.
[00:04:22] Sorry. Sovereign. Sovereign. That's a good word, too. But it's not one of my four.
[00:04:28] This could take a while, couldn't it? I thought they were pretty obvious ones. Just a couple more. Loving. Loving. Loving. That was one of them. Well done.
[00:04:37] Merciful. Yes. That was another one. Gracious.
[00:04:41] Gracious. Gracious. Gracious. Yes. That's three. One more to go.
[00:04:48] Not quite. Not quite.
[00:04:50] Nice, nice.
[00:04:54] Forgiving. Yes, splendid. Okay.
[00:04:59] Let's just take this little seed and let it take root in our hearts. When you realize that you've let God down or that you've disobeyed him, come back to him quickly. Because the nature of God is God, who is patiently waiting to show us his love and his grace and his mercy. And he's willing to forgive. Okay. Isn't it great having a God like that? A God who loves us, a God who's merciful, who's gracious, who's forgiving.
[00:05:28] And he's also demonstrating those characteristics that he wants us to embrace and us to make known to People around us.
[00:05:40] Now let's get back into Genesis 4.
[00:05:42] So Genesis 4 from verse one. Oh, it's there already. Brilliant.
[00:05:48] Says that Adam had sexual relations with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant.
[00:05:53] And when she gave birth to Cain, she said, with the Lord's help, I have produced a man.
[00:05:58] And later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel. And when they grew up, Abel became a shepherd while Cain cultivated the ground.
[00:06:07] And when it was time for harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. And Abel also brought a gift, the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. And the Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift.
[00:06:25] And we can look at this story. And what's your immediate thought about those verses? Just so far. It just doesn't seem fair, does it?
[00:06:35] And you think it's so unfair. That's a cry from our hearts for all sorts of things. Isn't it? So unfair.
[00:06:45] We can look at this story and we can feel that.
[00:06:48] And I'm sure many of you have felt that when you've read this story. At times, it's just a quick glance at the story. It shows two brothers, and they take gifts to present to the Lord. And the gifts seem to be associated with the sort of work they do. So Cain is a farmer. He brings some crops. Abel's a shepherd. He brings the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. And God accepts one and not the other. So unfair.
[00:07:16] So we need to give a little bit of guidance here because we don't want to get stuck in this thing where we think sometimes God doesn't act fairly.
[00:07:24] So if ever you find yourselves concluding that God's not acting fairly or he's done something wrong or he hasn't, read the human rights stuff and all that, just remember who we're talking about.
[00:07:36] We're not talking about just somebody who seems to be a nice person. We're talking about about God. And Moses described it in this way.
[00:07:45] He said, I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
[00:07:50] How glorious is our God. He is the rock. His deeds are perfect. Listen here. Everything he does is just and fair.
[00:07:58] And he is a faithful God who does no wrong. How just and upright he is.
[00:08:06] Okay? If ever we're in a situation where we think God got that wrong, or God wasn't acting fairly, or that if it comes to thinking who's right, who's wrong, it's more likely going to be God than you. In fact, it's always going to be God rather than you. God is the one who's always fair. If there's any sort of discrepancies about how he acts, we're looking at it the wrong way. We've got to get that clearly in our heads.
[00:08:32] And sometimes people say, well, it doesn't seem fair that God let some people go to heaven and others go to hell. Let me just read you a couple more verses.
[00:08:43] John 3, 16 well known verses. This is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only Son, So everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
[00:08:54] 2 Peter 3 says, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promises. Some understand slowness.
[00:09:00] Instead, he's patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
[00:09:07] See, God is more than fair. He gives opportunities to those who don't know Him. He's patient with those who are ignoring him.
[00:09:15] And he doesn't want anyone to perish.
[00:09:20] What a wonderful God we have. He's more than fair.
[00:09:24] He's more than fair.
[00:09:26] And so if we begin with this view that God is just and fair, let's look again at these gifts that were brought by Cain and Abel. And to do that we have to just go back to chapter three for a few moments where we read about Adam and Eve disobeying God and eating the fruit they were forbidden to eat and the consequences of their disobedience. Now, Ian referred to this a couple of weeks ago, but I just want to remind you of that. Verse 7, chapter 3 says at that moment their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
[00:10:04] And then in verse 21, the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
[00:10:11] And in this, right at the very beginning, we get this insight into God's plan for salvation for sinful people.
[00:10:21] Their clothes made from animal skins involved that animal having to be killed, having to be.
[00:10:29] His blood was definitely shed. Everything inside the skin was shed. It was a total messy job. But that caused or that enabled the Lord to make clothes for Adam and Eve that will cover them from their shame.
[00:10:47] The death of the animal brought covering for shame and it was a preview into what God was going to do to deal with the sin of the whole world at a later time when Jesus would come and people would put their trust in him.
[00:11:02] And it would seem that Adam and Eve would have told their children about this experience they'd had of God and about the gifts that and the gifts that were offered by Cain and Abel were not just representative of their roles as shepherd and farmer.
[00:11:23] They seemed to have some understanding, or Abel particularly seemed to have some understanding about the gift that he was bringing of the lamb. The lamb that had been killed, the lamb that had been slain, the lamb that was then presented to God as God has chosen the way he wanted it to be. It says Abel brought the best portions from the firstborn lambs, but Cain brought some of his crops.
[00:11:54] And as we read through the Bible, we find again and again the people of God made sacrifices of animals to take the place of sinful people in order they could be forgiven. It was something that kind of God put into them as an understanding of his grace and his mercy.
[00:12:11] And as we go into the New Testament, we read about the coming of Jesus. And at the beginning of his ministry, John the Baptist identifies him. He says, behold the Lamb of God.
[00:12:25] Behold the Lamb of God. This isn't just some sort of, you know, woolly kind of name for Jesus. This is referring to the one who's going to be the sacrifice.
[00:12:38] And oops, So things are going to change.
[00:12:49] The Lamb of God that John identifies is the ultimate sacrifice that God provides.
[00:12:56] He himself as part of the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus. God the Son was born into the world as a baby. He grew up as a sinless man. It became a sacrifice for all who would put their trust in him. The Lamb of God, his sacrifice of himself, it was sufficient to secure forgiveness for every sinner who would repent of their sin and put their trust in Jesus.
[00:13:22] It's an amazing story that right at the beginning of time, God had planned what he was going to do. And in this story of Cain and Abel, where the lamb's presented, he's looking forward to what's going to happen some thousands of years later when Jesus comes.
[00:13:42] The writer to the Hebrews tells us it's by faith that Abraham brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel's offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.
[00:14:04] Hebrews 11.
[00:14:06] Abel seems to have understood something about the sacrifices given to God.
[00:14:11] Presumably, as I said earlier, his parents would have talked about these sins, talked about how God himself covered their sin with the clothes that he'd made from the animal skins.
[00:14:23] Leaves were not enough to deal with the shame. It needed more Hebrews again. Hebrews 9 says, in fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified by blood. For without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness.
[00:14:45] God right at the very beginning wanted forgiveness to be something that people would understand.
[00:14:54] So let's pick back up again. In Genesis 4, verse 3, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift, the best portions of firstborn lambs for his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but not Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry and he looked dejected.
[00:15:12] Why are you so angry? The Lord asked Cain. Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, watch out.
[00:15:24] Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master.
[00:15:34] If you remember what we said earlier on about God always being fair, well, here's a great reminder of it.
[00:15:41] Cain is angry and dejected. God asks him, why? Why are you like this? What's the matter with you?
[00:15:48] And God tells him that he will be accepted if he does what is right.
[00:15:54] See, God sees right through us. He sees our motives, he sees our jealousies, he sees our pride. He sees everything.
[00:16:00] And he saw Cain and all the bad stuff that was going on inside him.
[00:16:06] He warns him against refusing to do what's right. He warns him, he says, sin, this is such a powerful image that he uses here. Sin is crouching at the door eager to control you.
[00:16:22] And he says, you need to subdue it, get it under control.
[00:16:28] Such a lot of encouraging things there.
[00:16:34] And I'm not going to ask you for a show of hands on this. But if we're honest, I suspect most of us have had some situations sometimes where there's been traits of Cain lurking below the surface.
[00:16:47] Times maybe we see others do better than us.
[00:16:52] Times we think, I wish I could pray like that, or I wish I could prophesy like that, or I wish I could preach like that.
[00:16:59] And we think of God using other people but not us. We can get jealous, or maybe we've slipped into some sort of a sin, something that we know is wrong, but we don't want to do anything about it.
[00:17:12] Sin is crouching at the door, waiting to control.
[00:17:17] Listen. At this stage, God is warning Cain and he's offering him a way back.
[00:17:26] If you're aware of any Cain like attitudes, don't resist God's warnings.
[00:17:33] God warns us of things so that he can draw us back and we can experience his forgiveness.
[00:17:40] There's nudges of the Holy Spirit that he gives us.
[00:17:45] Let's not ignore these things. Let's not ignore the warnings that he gave us. Don't allow sin to crouch at your door. Don't be like Cain and refuse to come back to God.
[00:17:55] This story shows us that if we ignore the warnings, things just get worse.
[00:18:02] Pick it up in verse eight.
[00:18:04] One day, Cain suggested to his brother, let's go out into the fields. And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
[00:18:15] And afterward, the Lord God asked Cain, where is your brother? Where is Abel? I don't know. Cain responded, am I my brother's keeper? My brother's guardian?
[00:18:27] But the Lord said, all what have you done? Listen. Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother's blood. No longer will the ground yield good crops for you. No matter how hard you work. From now on, you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.
[00:18:48] And in these few verses, we see the results of ignoring God's warning and resisting the offer of a way back to God.
[00:18:56] Cain attacks and kills his brother. Then he lies to God about where his brother is. What a stupid thing to do, to lie to God.
[00:19:08] Let's just remember that you can con some people, but you can't con God. You can't lie to God and get away with it.
[00:19:19] He shrugs off any responsibilities that he has as an older brother watching out for his younger brother.
[00:19:25] But now his farming career is over, there's going to be no more good crops, and he is destined to be a homeless wanderer on the earth.
[00:19:39] Pick it up at verse 13.
[00:19:41] Cain replied to the Lord, my punishment is too great for me to bear. You have banished me from the land and from your presence. You've made me a homeless wanderer. Anyone who finds me will kill me.
[00:19:54] And the Lord replied, no, for I will give a sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills you. The Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who might try and kill him.
[00:20:05] So Cain left the Lord's presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
[00:20:12] Cain, who'd murdered his brother Abel, is now telling God that the punishment is too great for him to bear.
[00:20:20] I mean, it's absurd, isn't it? He says, anyone who finds me will kill me.
[00:20:27] And the amazing thing is that God doesn't say to him, well, it serves you right.
[00:20:31] It's your own fault. You killed your brother. No, he says, I will punish anyone who tries to kill you.
[00:20:38] Don't you find that amazing?
[00:20:40] It's like God is keeping the door open, for Cain is still offering a way back if he repents.
[00:20:49] As far as we know, Cain doesn't do that.
[00:20:53] As I said at the beginning, it's a sad story, but it's also a story with lots of hope in it. Let's remind ourselves of the hope that we've seen so far.
[00:21:04] We've seen jealousy, envy, murder and lies in this story. But despite all of that, God shows his grace, his forgiveness, his love is mercy.
[00:21:13] Whenever we're aware of sin in our lives, let's be quick to come back to God.
[00:21:20] We've seen that God is never unfair.
[00:21:23] We remind ourselves that Moses said of God, he's faithful God who does no wrong. Everything he does is just and fair.
[00:21:31] We've seen that God wants everyone to believe in Jesus and have eternal life, everyone to come to repentance.
[00:21:38] We've seen that God himself provides a blood covering for our sin and shame, foreshadowed in clothing for Adam and Eve. Seen fully in Jesus.
[00:21:48] We've seen that although Cain was angry with God, God reached out to him, saying, you will be accepted if you do what is right.
[00:21:56] And he warns him, sin's crouching at your door, eager to control.
[00:22:00] He also tells Cain to subdue it and be its master.
[00:22:04] And we've seen that Cain did a terrible thing in killing his brother and that his punishment was no more good crops, no more home comforts.
[00:22:16] Cain even argues with God. My punishment is too great.
[00:22:19] People will find me and kill me. But despite all that God's done, God promises him protection.
[00:22:24] And Cain doesn't respond.
[00:22:28] Let me close with just one more passage from 1 John, chapter 3.
[00:22:37] There we go.
[00:22:40] This is the message that you've heard from the beginning.
[00:22:43] We should love one another.
[00:22:45] We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. But why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil and his brother had been doing what was righteous.
[00:22:57] So don't be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
[00:23:01] If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life.
[00:23:07] But a person who has no love is still dead.
[00:23:10] Anyone who hates his brother or sister is really a murderer at heart.
[00:23:14] And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them.
[00:23:18] We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us.
[00:23:23] So we also ought to give up our lives to our brothers and sisters.
[00:23:30] As we've looked at this sad story where a man kills his brother, John urges us to Learn from this story, to apply it by loving our brothers and sisters, those who are believers, and to follow the example of Jesus, who gave his life up for us, and to look out for one another and to serve one another. Well, let's just pray together.
[00:24:04] Lord, as we look at this sad story, although it's got so much hope in it, Lord, we ask you to forgive us for the times when we've let you down.
[00:24:20] And, Lord, we ask you to help us to recognize those times when sin is crouching at the door.
[00:24:27] Help us to subdue it and be its master.
[00:24:33] Thank you, Lord, for your grace, your forgiveness, and your love and your mercy.
[00:24:40] Thank you, Lord, that you give us reasons for hope.
[00:24:46] And, Lord, help us to love one another and bring you glory.
[00:24:53] Amen.
[00:24:55] Amen. If the band could just come back in a moment, we're going to sing about God's goodness and his faithfulness.
[00:25:05] Let me just say there is a prayer team that's going to be available just in the middle section at the bottom of the stairs there.
[00:25:11] If you feel that there are situations in your life where God's speaking to you about where he's warning you of sin, crouching at your door, where some things that maybe you've said or done which you know are not pleasing to God, you can't hide them from him, but we can reach out to him. And while he's holding that door open for us, let's make sure we take advantage of that.
[00:25:35] The prayer team will be there during this song, I think. So do come and receive prayer if you need that. Okay, let's stand together.
