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Genesis 4
4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten1 a man with the help of the LORD.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted?2 And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to3 you, but you must rule over it.”
8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother.4 And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 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.” 13 Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.5 14 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.” 15 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. 16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod,6 east of Eden.
17 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. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. 19 And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20 Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. 22 Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
23 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.
24 If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold,
then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”
25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed7 for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” 26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.
[1] 4:1
[2] 4:7
[3] 4:7
[4] 4:8
[5] 4:13
[6] 4:16
[7] 4:25
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you would, open your bibles to Genesis chapter 4. The text we are reading from tonight is also in your worship guide. Begin reading in verse 1. 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.
Joel Brooks:Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time, Cain Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard.
Joel Brooks: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 for you.
Joel Brooks: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?
Joel Brooks: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.
Joel Brooks: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 shall I 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 7 fold.
Joel Brooks: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. Pray with me. Our father, we are here to worship you. Worshiped you through through singing.
Joel Brooks:And now I pray that we would worship you through listening carefully to the words you have for us. Spirit of God, you're welcome to come here and to lift up the name of Jesus. May Jesus be clear to us as we read from your word. I pray that my words would fall to the ground, that they would blow away and nobody would remember them Lord, but may your words remain and may they change us. In the strong name of Jesus, I pray.
Joel Brooks:Amen. When I first introduced the book of Genesis, and we were going through Genesis 1, I mentioned some of the incredibly complicated literary structures that are in Genesis. For instance, in chapter 1, we we saw everything is grouped into tens or everything is grouped into sevens, both being the the number of completion and the number of perfection. And so, for instance, you would read things like, and God said 10 times, And it was so 7 times. And God made 7 times.
Joel Brooks:God saw that it was good 7 times. God names and blesses things 7 times. And all of that is just the tip of the iceberg as to how complicated, incredibly complicated and well written Genesis is. And it goes this way through the first few chapters. And in chapter 4, it's astounding.
Joel Brooks:At the very end of chapter 4, look at verse 28. It says to Seth also a son was born and he called his name Enosh. At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. And when you get to that Lord there, this is that verse there is a focus. It's kind of the climax of chapter 4.
Joel Brooks:This this launching pad for what comes for the rest of Genesis. And that word Lord is the 70th time that the name of the lord is used. It's the 70th time. And so the the author, even in things like that, is structuring things so well, He does not add a word, he doesn't take away a word, except for what is absolutely necessary. And I think we need to understand this because we we kind of think at times, oh, the author forgot to say something, or wonder why the author said this, like, you know, what city does Cain go off to?
Joel Brooks:Where did Cain get his wife? You know, all these things. And then, you have all these questions that you wish the text had answered. And And it wasn't that the author forgot. Every word is intentional.
Joel Brooks:Every word. And and and in some ways, he just doesn't want you to be distracted with with the purpose of what is going on here. If you have questions about things like that, that's why we have the coffee table set up there, and be sure to ask me how Cain got his wife or, you know, what city did he go to. And trust me, there'll be plenty, plenty more questions as we go through Genesis. But do not think that the author is being careless.
Joel Brooks:Every word is important. And we will see this for sure as we go through chapter 4. Certain words are loaded. Now this story here is about the first murder of man, but that is not all this story is about. Really, it's about life east of Eden.
Joel Brooks:If you look at the end of chapter 3, it says he drove out the man and at the east of the Garden of Eden, that's that's the gate that they had to leave. So man now lives east of Eden. And east of Eden is a harsh environment. There there's things like death, hard work, there's jealousy, there's murder, but there's also grace. There's also life.
Joel Brooks:This is where we live. We live east of Eden. We live in this fallen world. And one of the most remarkable things to me about this text is God is still speaking to people. He's he's still communicating.
Joel Brooks:He's still pursuing a relationship with them, even though they're out of the garden. He even pursues people like Cain. The story that we read, it begins with Cain being born, and then Abel. And Cain is described as a worker of the field, and so he's just like his daddy. He's just like Adam, a gardener.
Joel Brooks:And then we have Abel who is a keeper of sheep. And then both of these brothers come to bring an offering before the Lord, but the Lord only accepts Abel's offering, and he rejects Cain's. I've heard, I don't know about you, I've heard this text preached on a number of times. And normally, the the preaching centers around, Abel brought a blood sacrifice and that was what was required. And Cain just brought fruit, which didn't have any blood.
Joel Brooks:And and the point of this is a blood sacrifice is required. I I don't think that's what's going on here. I don't think that's the reason at all. I want you to notice. I think the author gives us a pretty clear hint here at what's going on.
Joel Brooks:Notice that the lord is regarding the person before the offering. Says the lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. And what the author is trying to say is it's not so much the offerings, it's the person coming to do the worship. It's the heart of the person here that I want you to focus on.
Joel Brooks:And God only has regard for Abel. And we're not exactly sure what the word regard means. You know, know, you kind of wonder, well how did he show that he had regard? Did did he talk to Abel? Say, Hey Abel, I have regard for you.
Joel Brooks:Hey Cain, I don't have regard for you. I had one of those, you know, colorful children's Bibles growing up, and they illustrated this by having it was like Abel had this huge barbecue. There's flames shooting up on on Abel's sacrifice, and Cain is looking, and this is just a little pitiful thing of smoke. You know, is that is that what happened? You know, flames and no flames?
Joel Brooks:I think it's actually what's going on here is Abel has this inner joy. He has this delight and satisfaction in making this offering and Cain did not. And I think that this is what happens because look what happens to Cain after he makes the offering. Says he's very angry and his face fell. In Hebrew, that it's an idiom to have your face fell or your face fall means you become discouraged.
Joel Brooks:You become depressed. And so Cain, he makes this offering and he's just, there's nothing there. He's spiraling down into depression. What's going on in Cain enables hearts? Why does Cain have this reaction?
Joel Brooks:There there's a temptation and and certainly there is not a shortage of sermons or commentaries that will talk about how Cain, you know, must have been some hellion. You know, he's the one who was, you know, always drinking, sex, drugs, rock and roll, all that stuff. That's Cain. And it's tempting to think of them that way because that way there'd be such this clear difference between Cain and Abel. But don't make that mistake.
Joel Brooks:Do not read into this that Cain is some horrible person. He's not. And it misses the point if you label him He's making the offerings. He doesn't have to make sacrifices. Nobody's pointing a gun to his head saying, making a sacrifice.
Joel Brooks:No, he comes willingly to make a sacrifice. He obviously wants God's approval. Because when he doesn't get this, he's he's just sad. He's depressed. So when you see he came here, think of probably a hardworking guy.
Joel Brooks:A guy who grew up in a family going to church, maybe sang in the choir, went through all these right little motions here, but his heart really wasn't in it. And I did read from several commentators, really, the person you should have in mind here is the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son. The other story that Jesus told where there were 2 brothers. He's very elder brotherish here. I think Cain's very name alludes to this elder brother syndrome.
Joel Brooks:His name is Cain, and some of you might have have a footnote there. You know, it talks about he's got or he gets. Cain means achiever. He gets or he produces. That's Cain's name.
Joel Brooks:And he was likely named this for a couple of reasons. For one, Eve, when she had Cain, Adam and Eve, they they named them achiever or the producer because like any parent, they have, you know, high hopes for their child. But more than that, they're they're thinking he is possibly the one. The one who's gonna crush the serpent. It's gonna be, you know, from the seed of Eve that this is gonna happen.
Joel Brooks:Happen. So he's the one who will achieve this. He's the producer. Possibly named after that. Or just, we expect great things from our child.
Joel Brooks:And every parent does that. You know, when Caroline is born, we're like, wow, the first female president of the United States was born today. You know, we have these great expectations of what she will achieve. And Cain likely did not disappoint. He took up his dad's profession, which meant that he would have spent all of his time with his dad working in the field.
Joel Brooks:They would have been really close. He did what they wanted. He worshiped God. He made his sacrifices. And so he becomes a good farmer.
Joel Brooks:He worships God. He he is the one who produces. Some of you firstborns out there can identify with this. The name Abel, however, means vapor. Breath.
Joel Brooks:When you go out in a cold day and you blow, and then it disappears. Abel means nothingness. Now, why in the world a parent would name their child nothingness? I don't know. I have no idea why they named their child this.
Joel Brooks:But it does tell something about their expectation for that child. His name is Cain, the achiever, the producer. Abel, nothingness. Probably a little low expectations, the bar set a little low there. And yet, here when these brothers come to worship, it's Abel who succeeds, and Cain fails.
Joel Brooks:And as elder brother, Cain would have been the one who made his sacrifice first, and yet it bombed. And Abel comes and and he makes his sacrifice and he's accepting the word. The word for have regard is to lift up, or his countenance probably was lifted up. He's joyful as he's doing this. And this had to drive Cain mad.
Joel Brooks:Being that firstborn producer. It's it's not just that he failed, he failed and Abel did not. That wasn't acceptable. The author of Hebrews speaks about Cain a couple of times, Cain and Abel. And chapter 11 verse 4 in Hebrews says this, by faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous.
Joel Brooks:So by faith, Abel made his offering. And you've got to ask, well, what what does that mean? What does it mean by faith? It it cannot mean that Abel just believed in God, because Cain believed in God. Cain talks to God later.
Joel Brooks:He's praying to God. Cain believes in God. So, so having faith means more than just a general belief. And so faith throughout scripture never just means belief. There's always this notion of a delight and a trust.
Joel Brooks:Usually, when when I see the word faith in my mind, I always say treasure. You're not just to have faith in Jesus, you are to treasure Jesus. And that's what saved Abel. I think Abel had faith. He treasured, he delighted in the fact that, not just that God was there, but that God would save him.
Joel Brooks:That Abel's likely believing the promise, that was promised to Adam and Eve that a serpent the serpent would be crushed, that there would be this one who would come, that he needs salvation. One of my favorite pastors, Tim Keller, has mentioned on numerous times. He said, there's only two reasons for anyone to ever make a sacrifice. And I think we see those two reasons here. You can either make a sacrifice out of a heart of thanks and joy for your salvation, or you can make a sacrifice in order to achieve your salvation.
Joel Brooks:So you, it's either at a thanksgiving because God has saved you or you're going to make a sacrifice to try to earn your salvation. And I think you see those 2 things played out here in which Cain, the producer, is trying to achieve his salvation. You might say Cain is the first pharisee. Now notice what God's response is to Cain. God doesn't get angry with him.
Joel Brooks:God doesn't, you know, see, you know, that sacrifice and his heart isn't in it, and it's like boils, you know. I'm going to he's not coming to him in anger and fury. But he actually comes, and he counsels him. He he asks questions. He wants Cain to think about, why are you so sad?
Joel Brooks:Why are you so depressed? Why is your face falling? This is what a counselor does. And then he tells Cain, you've got a choice. You know?
Joel Brooks:You can do well. That there's this other option over here and you can choose it. And so what you're seeing here is absolutely remarkable that after Cain has sinned against the Lord, after his heart's not in it, God doesn't smite him, but he comes up alongside Cain and he's like, you can do it. Come on there. What's what's the sin underneath this sin here?
Joel Brooks:What's really driving you? Why are you so depressed? You don't have to be that way, Cain. You can do it. Make the right choices.
Joel Brooks:Verse 7 is is an enormous verse. God says, 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 for you, but you must rule over it. Now this is the first time the word sin appears in the Bible.
Joel Brooks:It's the first time. For those women who've been coming to the, women's Bible study on Tuesday mornings as we go through Esther, One of the things we looked at this past week is anytime Hebrew literature introduces a person or introduces, a thing or a character for the first time, stop. Take notice. They're actually building the foundation of what this thing is. They're hinting about what's to come as well.
Joel Brooks:And so, here's the first time sin is mentioned. So we need to stop. What does it say? What what is sin at its root? What what is sin like?
Joel Brooks:What's the foundation that's being built here for sin? And here we see sin is crouching at the the door and is desirous for you. And so, sin is not described as just an action, how we would describe sin, but it's it's not just something bad that we do and we call it sin. Here we see sin crouching. Sin having desire.
Joel Brooks:This this seems to be something that's alive. Something that's hunting us. Something that can have a power over you. And you see this in Romans 7 when Paul talks about sin. Paul describes sin this way.
Joel Brooks:For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me. Through it, killed me. And then he goes on to say, now the good he wishes he does not do, but he practices the very evil he does not wish. Wish. So it's no longer him doing it, but it's the sin living in him.
Joel Brooks:And so, Paul, he sees sin as something alive, something powerful, something haunting him. I mean, it's just, does that not freak you out when you think about sin? It's just scary that it has that power. It's not just something you do, it's out to destroy you. All Paul is doing in Romans 7 is explaining Genesis 4.
Joel Brooks:Sin crouching. And this desire is to have you, wants to devour you. Have any of y'all ever seen a tiger hunt? If you have YouTube, probably all of you have. How many of y'all seen, you know, the the the YouTube video?
Joel Brooks:I've seen it probably 20 times to terrorize my kids. But you know, there's it's in India, there's a man on an elephant looking out at this grassy field, and they know a tiger's out there. I mean, they're armed, they have guns, you know, this is a group of people on elephants and video cameras, looking, looking. You see nothing. All you see is grass, and the elephants are spooked.
Joel Brooks:You know something is out there. And then just like that, despite all their looking and everything, all of a sudden this tiger launches out of the grass, up onto the elephant, and slashes the guy. He lives, otherwise it wouldn't be telling the story. But it just, I mean, you're looking looking, every time, just scares you. That's what sin is like.
Joel Brooks:It crouches. Crouching, it means you make yourself small. You hide yourself so that nobody can see you. And then when they least expect it, you pounce. It crouches at your door and it does not come to your door and knock.
Joel Brooks:Hey, my name is greed. Can I come in and invade your life? Doesn't do that. It's in crouches. It it it it it crouches, and it it comes in and says, you know, hey.
Joel Brooks:I'm just the idea that, you know, you've worked really hard for what you have in life, and you probably need to keep saving for a rainy day. You're like, Oh, this sounds so bad. Come on in. Come on in. You know, lust or sexual addiction doesn't come.
Joel Brooks:Hey, I'm sexual addiction. Can I come on in? You're like, no. The doors open, you look in. It's like, Oh, that's that's just eye candy.
Joel Brooks:Just, you know, just just, you know, something I can look at and doesn't have any effect at me. But it's crouching. And its desire is to have you. Its desire is to devour you. Tolkien, I think picks up on this when he made this most powerful evil thing in the world, a little ring.
Joel Brooks:This teeny little beautiful ring. When people see it, they don't think much about it. Yeah. It's just a little ring. But then all of a sudden their minds start getting consumed with this little ring.
Joel Brooks:And then when they have on the ring, they don't want to take off the ring. And soon the ring starts taking over their body, dictating what they think about, how they act. It it makes them pure evil by the end. But yet, it was just this shiny little harmless ring. But that's what sin is.
Joel Brooks:I'm nothing. I'm just crouching. I'm just here in the little corner. Don't worry about me. Don't be fooled.
Joel Brooks:If some of you think this is being a little extreme when looking at sin, and you're like, you know, alright. I don't have any of those huge sins in my life. I don't have to worry about that. I just want you to know that the reason you're thinking that is because sin is somewhere in your house, crouching. Somewhere in your life, crouching.
Joel Brooks:We usually don't see the little crouching sins ourselves. All you have to do is be married to know that it's true. I used to think I was a really good guy. Had a lot going for me. Then I get married.
Joel Brooks:I get married, and and being in such close community, all of a sudden I become aware of a lot of sins in my life. A lot of faults in my life. Things that Lauren can see, things that Lawrence can graciously she could graciously point out that I never knew were there. The the way to fight this is to get into community. Some of you think you don't have any problem at all because you've never been in Christian community.
Joel Brooks:A tight knit community you could say, Look out behind you. Look over there. There's a sin in your life. You're letting this in and you're not even aware of how dangerous it is. And so we've got to deputize one another.
Joel Brooks:You know, go to somebody and say, You have freedom. I deputize you now to point out sin in my life. Sin that I cannot see until it's pouncing. We need to do that for one another. We need to listen to the Lord and his warning that this is something we have to fight.
Joel Brooks:This is something we have to rule over. For Cain here, since crouching, it appears first, it's just this little hint of jealousy. Nothing big, just this little hint. And then it turns into premeditated murder. It pounces on him.
Joel Brooks:And then after Cain kills his brother Abel, we have a very similar scene to after Adam and Eve sinned. Very similar scene to the garden. In which God doesn't come running out after Cain. Now he's already bombed once, and now he doesn't say, I warned you. You know, I'm gonna smite you.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't do that. And that's that's our tendency that we think God's like that. You know, he's just up there. He's just he's just ready to destroy us. But he seeks Cain out, and he asked him more questions.
Joel Brooks:Once again, he he comes as a counselor. Seeking that relationship. He says, where is your brother? Where's your brother? What what have you done?
Joel Brooks:I find it interesting here that unlike Cain's parents, Cain doesn't shift blame. He doesn't repent. He doesn't confess. You get from Cain total apathy. He doesn't care.
Joel Brooks:You know, what what's what's happened to your brother? Who cares? Am I supposed to watch over my brother? There's there's not even a hint of remorse here. And so the Lord punishes him.
Joel Brooks:He curses him. He says, although you're a farmer, you are cursed and no longer will the ground yield to its fruit. Like before, it was just hard to get fruit. Now it's impossible. You need to see that as an incredible act of mercy from the Lord because he just killed somebody.
Joel Brooks:So the correct response would have been, hey, you disobeyed me, and you killed me. You're dead. But he doesn't kill him, even though there's no remorse. And then what happens next is even more astounding. After Cain hears this punishment, he cries out, that's unbearable.
Joel Brooks:So and not only does God not kill him, and so he God's already showing mercy, but then in the punishment, he still says, that's unbearable. I can't live this way. To which God should have said, well, you know what? Abel is not living at all. Okay?
Joel Brooks:But he doesn't. More mercy. Verse 15, when after Cain says, hey people are gonna kill me. He says, not so. Not so.
Joel Brooks:If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him 7 fold. And the lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Now, we have no idea what this mark is. Every commentary I read said something different. We don't know.
Joel Brooks:It is the same word that's used for, after the flood, God put his mark or his sign in the sky with the rainbow. So when people, when he saw it, he would not judge or he would not kill it. It has a very similar thing. Somehow, there's a mark on Cain and people know, I am not to judge. I am not to kill.
Joel Brooks:So God is being extraordinarily gracious here. And this is to a person who shows no remorse, no signs of repenting. And so I I just want you to think that if God has this reaction to Cain, pursuing him, gracious to him, counseling him, have mercy on him when he fails and fails and assures no remorse. Just think how the Lord would respond if you turn to him. Just imagine.
Joel Brooks:And you don't have to be scared. You don't have to think, I haven't cleaned up my life enough. I haven't done all this. Look at how he's pursuing Cain. The mercy that's there.
Joel Brooks:Just imagine if you came to him and said, I have sinned, I confess and I am sorry. The mercy of God would overwhelm you. That's the kind of God we serve. That's why we would sing, thy mercy thy mercy. Actually, you really don't have to try to imagine how God would respond, because we have seen how God responds in the mercy of Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:And that's whom this story points. Another thing we've been going in this women's bible study is every time you read the Bible, whether it's the new testament, oldest, whatever, you read it and you say, where is Jesus? How does this point to Jesus? Because, you know, we're not just supposed to learn from examples here. This is all sign.
Joel Brooks:This is all pointing us towards someone. And this points to Jesus. Jesus who had mercy on us. Jesus who was murdered, not by a bunch of drunken heathens, but was murdered by the righteous. Murdered by the do gooders.
Joel Brooks:Murdered by the Pharisees. Jesus was murdered by Cains. That's who killed him. Those who went through all the religious motions, who did all the worship, but their heart wasn't in it. And they despise people who came along and were truly joyful there.
Joel Brooks:And, Jesus is like Abel, but his death means actually something different. To understand that, you have to go to Hebrews chapter 12 verse 24 than the blood of Abel. The blood of Jesus, we are told, speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. The blood of Abel cried out, justice. Vengeance.
Joel Brooks:That's what the blood, every, all the shed blood, you see that all the blood is always crying out to the ground, from the ground. Do something, god. Revenge me. Justice. But here the blood of Jesus speaks a better term and it doesn't say, no, there won't be justice, but says, no, I am equally as passionate about mercy for the sinner.
Joel Brooks:So there will be both justice and there will be both mercy through my blood. The blood of Abel can't save anybody, but the blood of me can. And so, the blood of Jesus spilled speaks out mercy, and forgiveness and justice. His blood was poured out for the forgiveness of many. Now, is this something that registers you?
Joel Brooks:Is this something that moves you? A god of such mercy. Are you still scared of him? Are you still hiding from him? Is there still some area that you're just thinking, no.
Joel Brooks:I I can never come because how he will respond. God is abundant in his mercy. And we need to embrace that mercy. And we also need to heed his warning. That sin is crouching in our lives, and its desire is for us.
Joel Brooks:And for those of you who have opened up that door, and sin is all over you, consuming you, know that the blood of Jesus speaks a better word than Abel, and can forgive you. Pray with me. Our father, we thank you for the better word of the blood of Jesus. We thank you that both justice and mercy are satisfied there. Lord, I pray for those here who are running from you.
Joel Brooks:May they turn around and embrace. May they hear your voice calling out to them saying, what's wrong? Why are you so discouraged? Why are you doing those things? Come to me.
Joel Brooks:May they hear you clearly in these next few moments calling out to them. Jesus, we give you thanks and praise for your work on the cross, and for your resurrection, and for what awaits us someday. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.