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Hebrews 11:4, Genesis 4:1-16
4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
(ESV)
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.
[1] 4:1
[2] 4:7
[3] 4:7
[4] 4:8
[5] 4:13
[6] 4:16
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
I invite you to turn to Genesis chapter 4 and also Hebrews chapter 11. Genesis chapter 4, Hebrews chapter 11. I'll also be there in your worship guide. So we've been going through Genesis for over a month now, and one of the reasons that we've been studying Genesis is because it answers so many foundational questions that we have. Questions like, who is God?
Joel Brooks:Why are we here? Who are we? What does it mean to be human? We've actually looked at that question, what does it mean to be human for a few weeks, because it's a question that our culture is pretty confused over. Depending on who you ask, you are going to get a different answer for what it means to be human.
Joel Brooks:I was reading an article, about a certain college campus in which students were protesting, the way that illegal immigrants were being treated, saying that they were being treated like animals at our borders. But the reality is once these college students finish protesting, and they go back to class, and they go to their science class, they'll hear their science professor basically say that all humans are animals. If you're a human struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, you can go to a professional like a psychiatrist. He's going to tell you shouldn't kill yourself, that your life as a human being has meaning and has value. Then if you're to go down the street and go into the classroom of a philosopher, you will be told that there is no meaning to life and that no human has value.
Joel Brooks:You could turn on the TV and you're gonna listen to the talking heads, go on and on about what it means to truly be a free human. And to be a free human means you need to follow your heart. You need to, yield to your desires. But then, we will literally lock up the abuser or the pedophile who says all that they were doing was following their heart and their desires, and we will call them subhuman. So what does it mean to be human?
Joel Brooks:Who who do you ask? What what field of science do you go to? Do you go to science at all? These these are the questions that are percolating all around in our culture, and it's one of the reasons that we're here studying Genesis. It's because our culture is massively confused over what it actually means to be a human.
Joel Brooks:But God teaches us what that means to be a human created in his image. And today, what we're gonna do is look at what it means to be a human created in his image, living in a world that is broken. We're gonna look at this through looking at the story of Cain and Abel. And now when you first think of Cain and Abel you are tempted to think of, oh yes, this is a story about the the first murder that we have in the Bible. But it really isn't so much a story about murder.
Joel Brooks:It's really a story about what life looks like in a broken world. With this in mind, let's look at Hebrews chapter 11 in Genesis 4. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. To which he was commended as righteous. God commending him by accepting his gifts, and through his faith though he died, he still speaks.
Joel Brooks:Genesis 4. Now Adam knew his 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.
Joel Brooks: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. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry?
Joel Brooks: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 his brother Abel his brother, and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Joel Brooks: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.
Joel Brooks:You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the lord, my punishment is greater than I could 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.
Joel Brooks: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. This is the word of the Lord. It is to be found.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Our Father, we thank you for the way that you pursue us In the midst of a broken world and in the midst of our own brokenness, you are relentless in your pursuit of us. And we give you thanks. And I pray that as we open up the word that you have given us, we would come to see you more clearly. Jesus, we would hear you calling to us.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So after all of the sin, the death, and the cursing that we got to see last week, this story actually has a happy beginning.
Joel Brooks:Adam and Eve have a child and having a child is always a joyful occasion, but it it had to be an especially joyful occasion for Adam and Eve. Think back to when you were little and do you remember when you broke something? Maybe you dropped one of your mom's favorite plates and it shattered all over the kitchen floor. Remember that feeling you felt? Like, just horrible, horrible guilt to that pit in your stomach.
Joel Brooks:Adam and Eve broke the world. They broke the world and they had been feeling this horrible guilt and shame. Everywhere they looked, it reminded them of what they had done and how they had broken something that once was perfect. And now all around them, they they see this brokenness and they've been told that death has entered their bodies and now death is part of this world and this is the world they now live in, but then life comes. Actually, there is new life breaking through into this broken world and that had to mean the world to them.
Joel Brooks:They had to be overwhelmed with joy. This child, it represented hope. Hope in the midst of a land that's been cursed. When Cain is born Eve says I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. I love that.
Joel Brooks:Never heard a mother say that. Most mothers say like, look at my precious little angel. Look at my beautiful child. I've I've never met met a mother who said, look at my man. But that is what Eve says.
Joel Brooks:It's very unusual language. It's the only time we have in the Bible that any baby is ever described as a man. But what she has to be thinking is this, This is the man. This is the child, the seed that God promised would come forth from my body and would slay the serpent. This is the one who's gonna make everything right again.
Joel Brooks:Who's gonna undo the mess that we created. This is the man child who's going to slay the serpent and defeat evil. And so she names this man child here, she names him Cain. And this name actually expresses all the hopes she has for her child. Cain means achiever, producer, successful.
Joel Brooks:Cain holds their hopes. Now they do have a second child, but unlike Cain's birth nothing is said about his conception nor does Eve say anything after he is born. They just name him. So they call the son Abel, which means vapor or breath or mist. It's the word that we actually translate in the book of Ecclesiastes as meaningless.
Joel Brooks:They named their child meaningless, Which is just I I can't imagine. Maybe they're wrestling between John and meaningless, you know, and just decided we're, you know, meaningless. They they put a whole lot of thoughts in their names. We usually just think of I like the sound of that or maybe it's a family name and we use that. But they named their children based on the expectations they had for that child.
Joel Brooks:And it shows that all their expectations went to Cain, but they didn't expect much from Abel. Abel's life in comparison to the achiever. Well, it just didn't matter as much. And of course, Abel would live up to his name of a mist or a vapor. His life would be just a mere breath.
Joel Brooks:We read on to see that Cain takes on the profession of his dad. He becomes a farmer. He works the ground, probably working in close proximity to his dad in the fields. Abel, well Abel's sent off to the fields to be a shepherd, which would have been a new profession at this time. In verse 3, we read that in the course of time, Cain and Abel brought forth their offerings.
Joel Brooks:That phrase in the course of time, it, it can mean at the appointed time. There seems to be this appointed time that God set up. Perhaps an appointed time in an appointed place in which man would bring him offerings, sacrifices. Perhaps it was a yearly harvest festival, we're not sure, but there was an appointed time and place for them to worship the Lord. And Cain is described as coming, and he brings fruit.
Joel Brooks:Abel is described as bringing his firstborn and the fat portions. Abel's described as bringing his best. And now we read that the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but not for Cain and his offering. The wording of that sentence is very important. Notice that the Lord is regarding the person first before the offering.
Joel Brooks:He has regard for Abel and his offering, but not for Cain and his offering. God is looking at the person more than the offering they bring And for some reason, some reason that we are not told of here, God has more regard for Abel but not for Cain. In order to find the reason for that, there's some hints in the text, but in order to find the real reason for that we have to go to the new testament to Hebrews chapter 11, where we read these words at the start of the service. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. So apparently Abel had faith and Cain did not have faith, but what does that mean to have faith?
Joel Brooks:Because it certainly looks like Cain had some measure of faith. Cain wasn't an atheist. He believed in God. He's even, he even talks to God. He has some kind of a relationship with God.
Joel Brooks:Cain brings an offering to the Lord. So from the outside it it doesn't look like Cain is really any different from Abel. I know it's tempting for us to think of Cain as some kind of pagan atheist, you know, goes out binge drinking and cursing all the time and and that's why God hates him and disregard his offering, but you don't find that here. And when you project that on Cain, you actually miss the point of the text. That's not what Cain looks like.
Joel Brooks:He's a hardworking man who participates in family worship, who brings sacrifices. Once again from the outsider, he doesn't really look different from Abel. But when God rejects Cain and his offering, what he's doing is is exposing some things that are actually going on in Cain's heart. After Cain's offering was rejected, we read that he became angry and his face fell. To have your face fall in Hebrew that that means you become deeply discouraged or depressed.
Joel Brooks:A deep depression comes upon Cain. So he's angry and he's depressed, but it's not just because he was rejected. It's because he was rejected and Abel was not. That was the source of his anger and his depression is that Abel was not rejected. You see up to this point Cain had always been first.
Joel Brooks:Cain was the producer. Cain was the achiever. Cain was literally named the successful one. Cain was the one who held all the hopes of his parents. Abel Abel was a nobody.
Joel Brooks:How in the world could God have regard for a nobody and not have regard for him? They came furious. Now God sees all of this going on in Cain's heart, and God has such compassion for him. Quickly, God comes to Cain not to smite him, but but really to expose what's going on in Cain's heart in order to help him. He comes not with accusations, but he comes like a counselor with questions, and he asked Cain, why are you so angry?
Joel Brooks:It's a really probing question. Why are you angry, Cain? Why can't you be happy for your brother just this once? Why can't you be happy for your brother who has been inferior to you your whole life, a brother who has always come in second? Why couldn't this one time you just be happy that he came in first?
Joel Brooks:But Cain couldn't do it. What we see here is that Cain found his identity and always being better than his brother. His identity was not built on what God thought about him. His identity was built on being the achiever and achieving more than his brother, And what we see here is that Cain is the first of many elder brothers that we will see throughout the pages of scripture. Cain is the first elder brother.
Joel Brooks:The first of many who when they see God lavishing grace on someone else, they hate him for it. They don't rejoice, but they hate God for it. Because elder brothers believe they have worked hard. They believe that they are more deserving of God's favor than anyone. An elder brother derives his value by comparison not by grace.
Joel Brooks:And an elder brother just cannot accept the fact that God loves us and saves us by grace alone. That's the faith that Abel had. That he was being saved by God's grace. It was not a faith in what he could achieve, but it was a faith in God's promise in what God would later achieve. And that God would send someone to rescue them.
Joel Brooks:So Cain despises. He despises a God who saves by grace, but here's the problem. Cain can't kill God. He can't kill God. So he decides to kill the one whom God has regard for.
Joel Brooks:And there is a lot that you can unpack here. About how the true nature of violence and the true nature of murder is not that we hate one another, but there's actually a deep seething hatred towards God underneath it all. But notice God's response. Notice how gracious God is here. I mean, first off, God uses this time of worship to to bring out and to expose this evil thing that's happening in Cain's heart.
Joel Brooks:And this is often what God does when we come to him in worship. Yes worship is a time in which we celebrate in God's grace, but but worship is also a time when as we're doing this, he exposes us. He exposes sin in us. Remember when we were looking at the sermon on the mount and Jesus talked about how when you're going and you're bringing an offering to the altar, he said if God brings it to your remembrance, if there you remember that somebody has something against you, leave. Go make things right with that person and then come back and make your sacrifice.
Joel Brooks:And what we see there is even Jesus is saying, when you come to worship him, he's gonna expose things. He's gonna bring up in your heart sins that you need to deal with now. And that actually is an act of worship to deal with those sins now as he brings those up. And so that's God's first gracious thing he does is he takes his time of worship to expose some of Cain's heart here. And then he doesn't yell at Cain when Cain gets angry.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't smite him with boils or give him commands. Once again, he comes as a counselor. He's so gentle. He wants to understand what's going on in Cain's heart here, And then he encourages him, don't give in to this sin. Don't give in.
Joel Brooks:You can do better. Try again, Cain. Then we come to verse 7. Verse 7 is a hugely important verse. If you've ever read Steinbeck's East of Eden, it's one of my favorite books.
Joel Brooks:The entire book is really about this one verse. Verse 7, 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. Now the reason that this verse is so important for us is because here for the first time in scripture, we come across the word sin.
Joel Brooks:This is when sin as a word is introduced to us and God himself tells us the nature of sin. And God describes sin as something alive. Something powerful. Something stealthy. Something that wants to devour you.
Joel Brooks:God describes sin as crouching and desiring us. Sin is not described as a mere bad decision that you make. It's described as a predator hunting its prey. God says that sin crouches. Now what does crouching look like?
Joel Brooks:Crouching is when something that is big makes itself look small. That's what crouching is. Something that's big makes itself look small. It hides itself. When a lion crouches, what it's doing is it's trying to disguise its strength.
Joel Brooks:It's trying to make itself not look like a threat, make itself seem harmless and small. My kids asked me, what I was going to dress up for for Halloween, Because they put great thought in this and, and I said well I'm just gonna wear this. It wasn't actually this, but this is pretty much what I wear every day. You know, jeans, buttoned down, short sleeve. And they're like, dad, you have to dress up as something.
Joel Brooks:And I said, I am. I'm dressing up as a as a homicidal maniac. They're like, dad, you know, that's not what a homicidal maniac looks like. I said, oh, yes. It is.
Joel Brooks:The best ones look completely normal. They go, dad, you can't do that. I said, fine. I'll dress up like a spy. Well, how are you What are you gonna wear?
Joel Brooks:I'm gonna wear this. Because the best spies you never know they're spies. That's what sin does. Sin doesn't want to attract attention to itself. Sin wants to look completely normal.
Joel Brooks:It wants you to think of it as small or harmless. So sin's gonna come to your door and it's gonna knock, but it is not gonna announce itself like, hello, my name is jealousy. Can I come in and rob you of all joy? It's not what sin does. Sin's hello?
Joel Brooks:Hey, I didn't mean to bother you. I'm just one of your neighbors. I just wanna say that I noticed your house is a little bit smaller than your neighbors and I just want you to know I think you deserve better. Really? Do you want to come in?
Joel Brooks:Yeah. I'd be happy to come in. Sin doesn't want to look like a threat. Wants to look harmless. Sin wants you to believe that you are not in danger of being a workaholic, but he wants to crouch and say, no.
Joel Brooks:You're just busy right now. It doesn't wanna come to you and say, you're in danger of being greedy. It wants to say no, you're just you're just a little stingy. It's not that you worry about money, it's just no, you're actually you're prudent. Sin wants you to believe that you're not committing lust, you're just admiring somebody's looks.
Joel Brooks:I mean, it's it's harmless to just take a look, isn't it? Sin wants you to believe that you're not telling a big bold lie. It's Just a little white lie. It's just a little fib. It doesn't really matter.
Joel Brooks:It wants you to think it's small, but it's spring loaded, and it is ready to spring on you. God says it is hunting you. Sin is hunting you. Years ago, I took my kids to Homewood Park. For those of you familiar with that park, you know that, there's a little water area there.
Joel Brooks:Everywhere there's signs that say, do not play in the water. And so I told our kids, hey, let's go play in the water. And, they're like, dad, there's signs that said we're not allowed to. And I said, those signs are, like, suggestions. They're just suggesting we don't play, but, come on.
Joel Brooks:I'm a fun dad. So we're gonna go play in the water. And so we go and we play in the water and I was teaching them how to find and to catch crawfish, which there's tons of crawfish there. And I was saying, you know, a lot of times crawfish they hide underneath the rocks here and so I got a little rock and they're all around me and I just pull up the rock and a water moccasin launches out and it it bites onto the edge of my finger, the tip of my finger. I'm alive.
Joel Brooks:You know, spoiler alert. So it it it didn't it didn't kill me. It didn't have time to inject venom just just puncture my fingers, my finger and I was able to shake it off. I didn't even see it. It was small, crouched, spring loaded, but it was just waiting for me.
Joel Brooks:God says that's what sin is. That's what sin does. It looks so small and so harmless. Perhaps you don't even see it, but it's hunting you. Some of you have let sin into your life and God bless you because you are actually convinced it's harmless.
Joel Brooks:And that is exactly what it wants you to think. It's not small. It's crouching. It's not harmless. It will consume you.
Joel Brooks:And when you let it in the door, it starts to gain power. It immediately starts to master you. Remember how the first lie you told to cover up something? Remember how that one was the hardest? Are you just oh, I don't know if I could And then you said the lie.
Joel Brooks:It wasn't so hard the second time, was it? Or the third? It's because sin is gaining a power over you. Remember how hard it was that that time that you you clicked on that inappropriate website? Wasn't so hard the next day, was it?
Joel Brooks:That is sin gaining a power over you and it wants to destroy you. And God says here, you don't let it master you. You must master it. Rule over it. How do we rule over it?
Joel Brooks:What are we supposed to do? Well, one of the things I think we're supposed to do, or actually 2, is we're supposed to get a friend, and we're supposed to turn on the lights. Get a friend and turn on the lights. So Halloween is approaching, or All Saints Day. That's what we celebrate.
Joel Brooks:No. So Halloween's approaching, so there's all these horror movies that are coming on now. And I I hate horror movies. I won't watch them. It's not because of the blood and the gore.
Joel Brooks:I just hate watching stupid people. And, and that's what horror movies are filled with. And so there's always, you know, you you've heard, like, you know, the news was out there that there's some kind of murderer loose in the neighborhood, and then there's somebody at their house and they hear something crash in the basement, and they're like, oh, I think I'll just go into the basement. You're like, please. Alright.
Joel Brooks:And so, they go and like, oh, the lights don't work. And they don't bring a friend with them. They don't bring a flash light with them. They just decide to go down into the basement. And it that's the reason I can't watch horror movies.
Joel Brooks:It's it's I'm not aghast at the blood and guts. I'm just aghast at their stupidity. And I it's natural selection at work there. And so I won't watch it. But that's what we do.
Joel Brooks:We know sin's there somewhere crouching it wants us and we go in there blind without a friend. Bring a friend turn on the lights. By bringing a friend I mean this, deputize someone in your life to point out your blind spots. Someone who could look into your life and tell you the areas that you are weak. The sin that is crouching around you that you do not see.
Joel Brooks:And I wanna say this that, sometimes you're gonna deputize something and they're gonna point out something in your life. You're gonna be like, I really think you're wrong. And you know what? They might be wrong. They might be completely wrong and you might be completely right.
Joel Brooks:But I want you to act as if at least something of what they said is true. Be paranoid. Listen and at least hear some truth and what that person you have deputized to point out things in your life what they are saying. And then turn on the lights. We turn on the lights a couple of ways.
Joel Brooks:First is this. We not just deputize people to point out our blind spots, but the areas that we know are there, that are we are weak in, that we are tempted in, or that we sinned in, we confess these areas to someone. And we expose the sin. Predators hunt in the dark. And the more you keep that struggle in the dark and you don't tell anyone, the more it has power over you.
Joel Brooks:Confess that to someone. Another way we bring it to the light is we name it for what it is. It is sin. It's not stinginess. It's greed.
Joel Brooks:This isn't just eye candy, it's a porn addiction. We name it for what it is. It is sin. It wasn't a little fib. No.
Joel Brooks:It's an outright lie. Label sin sin. Bring it to the light. Bring a friend and bring it to the light and rule over this. God is pleading with Cain to do this.
Joel Brooks:So how does Cain respond? Because God's like, you can do it. You can do it, Cain. What does Cain do? He literally runs straight to sin without hesitation.
Joel Brooks:Cain, he gets his brother to go out with him into the field and once they're alone he rises up and he kills Abel. This is cold blooded premeditated murder. The first person to ever die in the world did not die by natural causes, died by the hand of his brother. Think of how crushing that would have been to Adam and Eve. I mean the child that they thought was gonna be the serpent slayer slayed his brother.
Joel Brooks:I mean their hopes are dashed at this point. No parent should outlive their child and they outlived Abel. And the only thing I can even think that might be worse than that is if one of your children was a killer. They experienced both. They lost 2 children that day.
Joel Brooks:They had to be devastated by this. How does God respond? I mean, how does God respond to someone who just created such devastation? Someone who just ignored his counsel, ran straight to sin and murder. He doesn't respond how I would respond.
Joel Brooks:He responds with a unbelievable kindness. God is so, so merciful to Cain here. He doesn't smite him. Instead, once again, he comes as a counselor, and he asked Cain questions. Where is your brother?
Joel Brooks:Cain callously smugly answers, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? Right there the lightning bolt would have gone for me if I was God. I mean instantly. I'm like, I've had it gone.
Joel Brooks:I mean Cain shows no remorse whatsoever. God responds by saying, what have you done? What have you done? Your brother's blood is literally crying out from the ground to me. And then he curses Cain.
Joel Brooks:When Adam sinned, God cursed the ground. When Cain sinned, God cursed Cain. The ground was already cursed, but now he curses Cain on top of that and says never try as hard as you want. You're never bringing anything up from this ground. It will never produce to you its fruit.
Joel Brooks:It says you're gonna be a wanderer, basically, over the earth. Basically, it mean he's gonna be begging for the rest of his life. Cain cries out not in repentance, but he says, no the punishment is too great. Whoever finds me is going to kill me. If I'd been God, I would have said, good.
Joel Brooks:You deserve it. You brought this all on yourself. But once again, God is so unbelievably kind. So kind. He puts a mark on Cain.
Joel Brooks:There's been a lot written about this mark, a lot speculated about this mark, but this is this is not a stigmata. This is not a mark of a curse. This is a mark of protection. This is gonna be the same word that's gonna be used later to describe the rainbow after the flood. The same word that'll be used to describe the mark of circumcision.
Joel Brooks:This is a mark of mercy providing protection for Cain. It's not a mark of wrath. Now hear this church. If God is this merciful to someone who refuses to listen or to repent, imagine what he will do for those who turn to him and cry out for mercy and for forgiveness. If he responds this way to people who don't give a rip about him and do whatever they wanna do, just keep on sinning.
Joel Brooks:Just imagine how he will respond to you if you go to him and he plead for mercy. And actually we don't have to imagine because we know exactly what he will do because we have seen it in Jesus Christ. Jesus is to whom this story points. Jesus is the one who's the true serpent slayer. Not Adam or not Cain.
Joel Brooks:We're actually gonna see Cain's story happening over and over and over. It's just on repeat all throughout history. We're gonna keep putting hopes on a certain person and they're gonna sin and disappoint over and over, and the whole world's been filled with violence and sin. Not till Jesus do we finally get the serpent crusher. Jesus is like Abel.
Joel Brooks:The good shepherd killed by his brothers. Jesus' blood falls to the ground, but unlike Abel's blood, Jesus' blood speaks a better word to us. Jesus' death means something different than the death of Abel. We read this in Hebrews chapter 12. In Hebrews 12, we read that Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, and we read His blood speaks a better word than Abel.
Joel Brooks:His blood speaks a better word than Abel. Now in the story of Cain and Abel, Abel never speaks. He never does, But as should we read in Genesis 4 that his blood speaks, cries out from the ground. In Hebrews 11 we hear that his blood is speaking or Abel is still speaking. In Hebrews chapter 12, we hear that his blood is speaking.
Joel Brooks:So Abel is telling us something about his blood. Even though he never says anything actually in the story. And what his blood cries out is justice. It's what the blood of every innocent person cries out is justice. And that actually is what the blood of Jesus cried out, justice, but it didn't remain there.
Joel Brooks:Jesus's blood cries out justice and justified. It's a better word. It's not just about appeasing the wrath of God. God's punishment must fall on somebody, and yes it falls on Jesus. Justice happens, but it also cries justified.
Joel Brooks:Christ cried out forgiveness from the cross. His blood cries out mercy. Abel's blood cries out for revenge. Jesus's blood cries out redeemed. Such love.
Joel Brooks:Jesus has looked at us in our sin and the utter mess that we have made of our lives and he says, I will fix that. I will pay for that all with my own blood. His blood speaks a better word. And this means that we need not ever fear coming to God and confessing our sins ever. We confess our sins, and we call out for mercy because we know we have a savior.
Joel Brooks:He was actually purchased that forgiveness for us. His blood speaks a better word. Pray with me. Father, we thank you for your immeasurable kindness that you have shown us through your Son, Jesus Christ. It's a kindness we do not deserve.
Joel Brooks:Lord, we keep singing how we're saved by grace, and we're saved by grace, and it's just the theme of what we sing. Lord, I pray that would hit home with us. And you would just truly show us that we are saved not because of what we have achieved, but because of what you have achieved on the cross.
Jeffrey Heine:Thank you,
Joel Brooks:Jesus. We pray this in your name. Amen.