Blood on the Ground

If you'd please join me and by opening your Bibles as we hear God's word from Genesis 4. It's on page four in your Bibles. We're going to read the whole chapter 1 26. Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And again she bore his brother Abel. Now, Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of his firstborn, of his flock, and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and of his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. Cain spoke to Abel, his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother? He said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? And the Lord said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. And whoever finds me will kill me. Then the Lord said to him, not so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord put a mark on Cain lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. 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 Arad 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 Zilhah, 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 77fold. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called him 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 him his name, Enosh.

At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord.

Genesis4 is one of the most tragic chapters in the Bible. We move from the hope of new life to the horror of the first murder, from the joy of a child being born to the grief of a son being buried. But from the beginning, the question that Adam and Eve would have had in their minds is, is this the one? Is this the child who was promised in Genesis 3? Is this the one who will crush the head of the snake? When Cain was born, the hope must have been electric. This is the firstborn, the miracle child, the one whom God helped bring forth into the world. But Genesis 4 tells us something sobering and important. Not every child of Eve is a child of promise. Not every sacrifice is acceptable. And not every worshiper worship rightly, worships rightly. Genesis 4 is not just the story of two brothers. It's the story of two ways to live, two ways to worship, and two lineages that would stem from here in Genesis 4. All throughout Scripture, as the dust settles, we see sin move from the garden into a family and into culture. And eventually it threatens everything.

Sin does not just disappear after the fall, it follows into our worship. Because the first story we see after the Garden of Eden doesn't focus on work. It doesn't focus on marriage or politics. It focuses on worship. And this is why we need Christmas. Genesis 4 shows us that sin does not just break Eden. It breaks families. It breaks communities, breaks culture. And Advent is the story of God stepping into the world, that world that Cain built, a world of blood on the ground, a world where anger is in Our hearts and worship has gone wrong. It forces us to ask a question and wrestle with a question we often ignore. Does God care how we worship? Because if we. I think because most people assume that worship is simple, that if we are sincere, then that's enough. If I show up, then God will be happy. If I give something, well, God will accept it. But Genesis 4 shows us the opposite. Two brothers come to worship. Two offerings are given, yet only one is accepted. And here's the uncomfortable truth. Both men believed that they were worshiping God, and yet only one actually was.

Genesis 4 shows us something that we would never guess on our own. Sincerity is not the same thing as obedience. That brings us back to our main question, our big question. Does God care how we worship? Fortunately, the Bible has answers for us. So if you would keep your Bibles open to Genesis chapter four as we see these three movements in this passage. First we'll see worship and warning, the story of Cain and Abel. And then we'll see judgment and culture, Cain's legacy and a new beginning with Seth. And worship. Even after the first murder, Cain, God appoints a way to redeem his people. And that's what we'll see in this chapter. Let's look at this first section, though, as we see worship and warning through Cain and Abel, verses one through eight. So Adam and Eve are cast out of the garden. That's where we find. And that's where he starts this, this chapter. They have two children, Cain and Abel. And it's easy for us to look at this story through our lens of understanding the end of, you know, we see the whole context of the Bible. We even know the end of this chapter.

But for a moment, I want you to think about what Adam and Eve must have been thinking when these two boys were born. Remember the prophecy that came from Genesis 3, that from the seed of the. From the woman an offspring would come to crush the head of the snake. They must have been thinking, it has to be one of these two boys. Cain was the farmer and Abel was the shepherd. Cain is the likely candidate here. He's the firstborn. In fact, look at how he is talked about in verse two or in verse one and two. For Cain says, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And Abel, he's only mentioned really as Cain's brother that she bore his brother Abel. Imagine that being your epitaph on your, you know, so and so's brother. You know, that's. That's all you were remembered as. But Cain seems to be the Likely candidate here. They grow up together, and clearly they're instructed on how to worship, right? They're told how to bring offering to God, that this is something that God delights in. So they bring an offering to God, and one brings something good and the other brings the best of what he had.

But only one was appreciated. We'll see later, the heart posture between the two. But before we move any further, I want us to look at verse seven. Verse seven is a confusing passage, or it's a confusing verse, not just in the English, but in the Hebrew. This is a grammatically weird verse. It reads weird in English and it reads even weirder in Hebrew. So let's camp out here because I think this unlocks a lot for us. Verse 7 says this. 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. I think at first glance, when we read this, we read the if you do well, and it sounds like God is giving Cain a second chance. If you do well, if you bring another offering, then I will accept it if you do it in the right way. But that's not what this passage is saying. So what does God mean here? He's talking to Cain and he's saying, respond from this moment and act like the firstborn. In fact, that's what to do well means.

The Hebrew word for to do well actually carries the connotation of act. Acting like the firstborn, acting in integrity, acting in a way that brings honor to your family. And at the same time, this word isn't about action, but it's about character. It wasn't about physical actions. This word to do well meant.

To.

Have the character that is honorable, to have a heart change. God isn't rejecting Cain's vegetables. He's exposing Cain's heart. Worship without obedience is not worship God. God gives Cain a choice here, an option to rule over sin, or it will rule over him. God's saying essentially to Cain, this is the moment to change your heart. Please change your heart, and I'll be right here. But Cain has that choice. And it says, sin is crouching like a vicious animal. And this is how sin works. It starts off small and it grows. It's actually what we see in James, chapter one. This is what the brother of Jesus says about sin. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. Then desire, when is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown. Brings forth death. This is how sin works. It starts off small, it starts off as a seed, and it grows if we don't stop it. Cain becomes or believes that he has become like a train on tracks, that he has no option except what's set before him. And God is saying, no, stop, turn around, come back.

You can come back from this. And yet he continues on the path set before him. And he kills his only brother. He allowed Satan to plant an idea in his mind and let that mature and become full grown. And sure enough, it brought forth death. Some people have commented on this word that sin is crouching at the door, and that it really should be translated as the crouching one in reference to a demonic presence or in reference to a demon. I think that there's something interesting here with that, to read this passage in that way. And if you do not do well. Sin is the crouching one, waiting at the door. And its desire is contrary to you. God is almost coming to Cain and saying, do you remember the enemy who tempted your mom and dad? Do you remember what that did? Do you remember how that tore? Tore a rip in the fabric of the universe. Look at what he did to the world. Imagine what he will do to you. God is gently calling Cain and asking him to come back to him, asking him, where does this path lead you, Cain?

This is the first time in scripture that sin is mentioned. And how we are introduced to it is that sin will take you captive by force. Sin will dominate you. Sin will take its desire. Its desire is to go contrary to you. It's not to be a contrarian. I almost think that that language is too weak. The desire of sin is to go against you. It's to work like a parasite. It's to come inside you and absolutely take you over, to eat you from the inside out. This is true for us as well. For Cain, sin is there to do us harm. Sin always wants mastery over us. Sin never stays small. You cannot pet what God calls a predator. What you refuse to kill will grow up and kill what you love. Cain's story reminds us that no human being, no child of Eve, can reverse the curse. The serpent wasn't going to be crushed by the next generation. We needed someone greater. We needed someone born of a woman. But unlike Cain, sin is something that we must rule over. We cannot play with. We cannot believe the lie of Western civilization, that as long as it's not hurting someone else, that it really doesn't matter.

No, sin will destroy us. Sin destroys us. It destroys culture. It destroys our community. The serpent may have spoken to Adam and Eve in the garden's ruin, but here his voice grows stronger. Sin was born in Genesis 3. It matured here in Genesis 4. And next week we will see it grow and take over the entire world and consume it. In Genesis 6, that leads us into our second point, judgment and culture. Cain's legacy in verses 9 through 24, so God comes to Cain like he did to his parents before, gently, with a question. He comes to Cain and says, where's Cain? Or where's Abel? Where's your brother? And Cain retorts back almost, I imagine, almost cutting God off before he can get the question out. I'm not my brother's keeper. I don't know. I don't know where he is. What God had just told him in verse seven to act like the firstborn. Cain retorts back so fast, saying, I'm not in charge of him. I will not act like the firstborn. I will not act in a way that honors my family or honors you. Cain lies to God and God will have none of it.

And so he rebukes him then and there and gives him a curse. Cain's curse is that the ground will not produce what it used to and that he will be a wanderer. And Cain's response, I think, is so ironic here to say to God, this curse is too great. And that's the reality of sin. The consequences of sin are always greater than what we think that they're going to be. And the promises that sin make never live up to what it says it will. This is the reality for Cain. It's the reality for us. And even so, God promises to make sure that Cain will not be killed in his. In his obstinance towards God. God still promises to take care of him. Yet in Cain's, Cain's response to God, God's anger or God's gentleness is anger. He says that he longs for God's presence, and yet he went away from the presence of the Lord so quickly. What follows in this section? In this chapter, in verses 9 through 24, we see the line of Cain. I think oftentimes we get to a section of scripture, like a genealogy here, and. And we gloss over it and we move past it, and I listen, I get the impulse to do it, right?

Genealogies are not super fun to read, except they're incredibly important. And you might still be thinking, of course he's got to say that he's a pastor, right? Genealogies, right. But they are important. Especially in Genesis. Genesis. The genealogies serve to point to something. In fact, Genesis itself as a book, is a genealogy with stories listed in between them. And the point of listing this genealogy, the point of listing these people, is to show the line of the promise. Where would the Savior come from? It's to list that line, and it's also to list the line of the serpent. That's what happens here, listing the line of the seed, Cain. You look at the way that he was talked about at the beginning of this chapter. He was the Promised One. He looks like he was the one who was going to crush the head of the snake. Or at least he was going to be the one that the line of the promise would come from. Right? And now how do we end the chapter? He's furthering the curse. And now he becomes the surrogate for the line of the serpent. The first murderer produces a culture of murder.

Sin is not stagnant. It grows. It multiplies. Look at the last descendant that is listed. Look at verse 23. Lamech says, Ada and Zyla, hear my voice, you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say. I've killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is 77fold. Lamech talks to his. His. His relative, his. His ancestor, almost, you know, making fun of him, saying, you think that Cain was hard. No, no, my heart is even harder. Look at how harsh my revenge is. Cain's descendants, they don't make it out of the book of Genesis. In fact, they don't make it out of Genesis 7. They will die in our next sermon in the Flood. Cain's descendants are notable, right? They look like they've got some things going for them, right? They are the ones who forge instruments of bronze and iron. They build culture, they contribute, they build cities. But Genesis 4 tells us that you can be gifted, you can be productive, you can be culturally impressive, but if you worship wrongly, your descendants will inherit that worship. We think as people, that we can act as individuals, and that what we do will not affect anyone around us.

Time and time again, story after story, not just in scripture, but in the world we see. What we do follows us in our children and our grandchildren and those around us. If Genesis 4 ended with Cain's descendants, the story of the promise would die in the very next chapters. But God refuses to let darkness have the last word. God raises up a new beginning. And that's what we see in our last section here, a new beginning. With Seth and worship. Verses 25 and 26. Here in the middle of this tragedy, God keeps the Christmas promise alive. The line of the snake crusher does not die. With Abel, God appoints another seed, Seth. A whisper that the promise is still moving forward, still alive, still moving towards Bethlehem. Notice how this chapter started. Notice how Cain is talked about as he's being born. I really look at how Eve talks about Cain. I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord, emphasizing that she's done this. Almost a clear and evident result of the fall, the first inclination of works righteousness. I have done this. God helped, but I did this. Now look how she talks about Seth.

She says, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel. She comes to this realization, seeing what sin has done in her two boys. And she realizes that any gift from God, any gift that she's been given is from God. This isn't just another child, that this is the seed, that this is the offspring from which the promise will come. God promises to make right what man made wrong. The Heidelberg Catechism, question 6 reminds us of what humanity was supposed to be, is supposed to be. God created man good and in his own image so that he might truly know God, his creator, love him with all his heart and live with him in eternal life, happiness. Genesis 4 shows us how far we've fallen. But Seth's line shows us that God is still restoring people to what they were supposed to be. Worshipers. Instead of following the line of Cain, the line of achievements, the line that the world would follow. The rich, the powerful, the educated, the artistic influencers, the people who build cities. God will use the most unlikely people. God will go through the line of Seth, the third born.

God will work through the seed of a woman, through someone totally unlikely, through a baby. This is to contrast everything that Cain has done. Cain's line is a story of downward descent into sin and misery. And Seth will go on to worship the Lord. This goes back to the beginning of the chapter. God is seeking true worship, something that Cain could not do, could not give God. But now sess line will. It's interesting. Enosh, his son. The name Enosh means mere man. This line will not be people who are impressive. This line will be the nobodies. It will be the shepherd boys, the ones who slay Goliath, the ones that come from nowhere. It will be kings born in a manger. But the beauty of this is that God is made perfect in our weakness that leads us into our main idea. Sin seeks to master us But God provides a new beginning marked by true worship. Sin seeks to master us, but God provides a new beginning marked by true worship. God is making a way a new beginning by giving us someone who would master sin by defeating it itself. And that would result in us worshiping God the Father.

That's what Genesis 4 points us towards. That's what this whole story is about, about worship. God wants us to worship him not with external signs, but with our heart. I think we can come to church week after week doing the right thing, singing the songs, kind of playing church, but miss the heart of God. God looked at Cain's offering and he saw something. He saw something that no one else would have seen to anyone else. If Cain were sitting here right now giving his offering, no one would have batted an eye. It would have passed the eye test. And yet it was not good enough for God. Cain exposes a frightening truth that you can be in the right place doing the right rituals with the wrong heart and believe that you're worshiping and yet you're not. You can be standing in church, singing the songs, placing something in the offering, serving in ministry, all the while quietly withholding the very thing that. That God wants your heart. Cain wasn't trying to please God. He was trying to manage God. He brought an offering, but he did not bring himself. He participated outwardly, but resisted inwardly.

He performed all the right rituals without surrendering the rule of his life. This is about worship. This is about your heart. That's why when God talks to Cain before he sins, he doesn't say, give me a better offering, bring me better fruit, bring me better produce. He's saying, I want your heart. True devotion means wholehearted devotion. We cannot come to God and give 15, 16 of our heart. We can't let him have a majority of our of our life. He has to be the Lord over it. He cannot be a mere consultant. We need to let him rule and reign over every aspect of our. Of our heart. One aspect of this leads us into our application that we must worship how God wants to be worshiped. This is the regulative principle in worship. This is. That's the nerdy theological word for it, but really in essence, saying that God gets to tell us how he wants to be worshiped. Yes, absolutely. We need to do the right things with the right heart. That's what this passage is showing us, that it's not merely just doing the right actions, the right rituals, and it's not merely just having a sincere heart, but doing them both together.

Some churches will Say things like, as long as you're genuine God, God will be happy. I've seen churches over and over kind of water down the gospel, say, well, if your heart's in the right place, then that's, that's good enough. It sounds nice and loving. Sounds like trying to throw off legalism. It sounds like an attempt at trying to be genuine or authentic, one of those buzzwords that we like to say. But the truth is it makes worship about us. God has told us how he wants to be worshiped. I think in worship, our natural reaction, our natural response is to say, well, this is the way I want to do it. This is what connects with me. These are the songs I want to sing. This is the kind of stuff that I want to do. These are the types of worship elements that I think should be included in a worship service. These are the ways in which I'm going to worship God. Even outside of church, we say, this is how I want to do it. But have we ever asked God, how do you want to be worshiped? We become like people who plan a birthday party for someone else and yet plan things that only we want to do.

I don't know if you've ever been around one of those people, but it's awful. I had a birthday party like that once. It was terrible. What happens when worship becomes about something we like rather than what God likes? Well, it becomes self serving, it becomes about the individual, it becomes about, I don't know, it takes that saying of that Christianity isn't a religion, it's a relationship. It takes that to its furthest extra extent. It becomes something that says, well, you don't really need to come to church if you want to worship God by yourself in your deer stand or at home or you know, on the golf course, wherever it is. Right. You can do that. That's fine as long as you're sincere. We have a heart shift here. God has given us things that need to be a part of our worship. Specifically, what need to be part of our worship in church. I think sometimes these are things that we overlook. And so my challenge initially, more than just knowing exactly how God wants to be worshiped, I want to challenge you to these things in a worship service that God calls us to, maybe you're not doing these things and that's the first stepping stone, is to do some of these things.

God calls us and commands us in scripture to sing, to give, to pray, to read scripture, to, to sit under teaching and to serve one another. If you're not doing these Things. This is not a suggestion. This is a command from God that these are the things that we must be doing. I don't want to be mean, but if your heart right now is saying man, that seems like too much for me. I just want to say I'm so glad that Jesus didn't say that when he was hanging on the cross. I'm so glad that he didn't say man, this is too much for me. When we see what God calls us to do in light of our salvation, it is nothing. It is light. It is easy. It is an easy burden that we bear. It should be a joy. In fact, true worship is not giving God what we prefer. It is giving God what He has prescribed. And that leads us into our second point of application, mistake turn into two. This is something that has become a life principle for me. I learned this phrase when I was playing football. And yet it has spiritual relevancy.

Cain didn't bring his best to God. He wasn't given a second chance either. God was trying to correct him. God was trying to tell him, cain, don't let your mistake turn into another. We all will make mistakes. It's part of our nature. We'll probably make a mistake today.

But.

The call for us is to recognize it, unlike what Cain did, to recognize our sin and to not take it one step further. We always have the option when we are letting in sin. Let us not turn our back to the Holy Spirit who's convicting us and calling us to repent. Don't allow sin to become full grown. This is a call to kill sin while it is still in seed form. I think sometimes we read passages like Genesis 4 and we think, well, sin isn't, you know, that bad because I would never murder. I could never do something like that. I mean, that would be so far outside what I'm capable of. And yet to see that is to minimize the sin that is inside you. Murder is anger all grown up. Adultery is lust all grown up. Stealing, embezzling is greed and envy all grown up. It's a seed form of the later thing. What is easier if you have to kill an oak tree? What is easier to kill it as an acorn or to try to chop it down when it's full grown? We have the ability to walk away from our sin when they're small, but it becomes much harder when they are ruling over us.

Cain's story ends in wandering, but the story of the Gospel ends in worship. Genesis 4 shows us how deeply our sin has mastered us. But Advent shows Us how Christ has come master sin. And this is where the Christmas story becomes personal. The baby in a manger didn't come merely to inspire us. If that's all that we get away from Christmas this season, we have totally missed it. He has come to rescue us from the sin that mastered Cain and the sin that threatens to master us. In this story, we see that the ground drops drank Abel's blood. The world learned the cost really how costly sin really is. But centuries later, another son would bleed, not in a field this time, but on a hill. Not as a victim of jealousy, but as a willing sacrifice. Abel's blood marked the beginning of human ruin. Jesus blood marked the beginning of human redemption. Abel's blood cried out for justice. Jesus blood cried out to satisfy that justice. Abel's blood announced the spread of sin and death. Jesus blood announced the end of it. This is the wonder of Advent. The long promised offspring has come.

The one whose heel would be bruised so the serpent's head would be crushed. Sin seeks to master us, but God provides a new beginning marked by true worship. Let us worship this morning. Let us stand and would you pray with me as we sing our closing song? Let's stand and pray. Father. God, we thank you for who you are. God, we thank you that you have given us a way to resist our sin, to run from it, to flee from it, to not let it rule over us. Father, I pray that you would convict us of our sin through your Holy Spirit, that we wouldn't feel condemnation because we know that your son was condemned for us. God, help us. Help us to stand and sing in worship longing for your second coming. God, help us to sing this next song. O come, oh come, Emmanuel.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.