Let's turn now to Genesis and Chapter 4.
We were considering the last part of Chapter
3 in our last study, where we saw
that God drove Adam and Eve out, and
now they are outside Eden.
We read here in Chapter 4, verse 1,
Now the man had relations with his wife,
Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to
Cain.
And she said, I have gotten a man
-child with the help of the Lord.
And again she gave birth to his brother
Abel.
And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but
Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Now we know the story that develops from
here, how these two brothers couldn't get along
with each other, and how one killed the
other.
But what we see here is that how
quickly sin that separated man from God, and
that separated man from his own wife, spread
immediately to his children, so that it separated
the two brothers from one another.
There's a lesson here for parents, that when
parents are out of fellowship with God, and
out of fellowship with each other, it's like
a disease, like leprosy, that very quickly, or
let's...
leprosy is not so quickly transmitted.
Think of some disease that's much more quickly
transmitted, very quickly transmitted to the children.
And they get that infection.
And so, right at the beginning of the
Bible, we see that though God does not
hold the children responsible for the sins of
the parents, yet, when the parents sin, and
are not in fellowship with each other, not
in fellowship with God, it does affect their
children.
That happened 6,000 years ago.
And I'm sure many have proclaimed that truth,
and we have proclaimed it many times in
the Church, that when parents are out of
fellowship with each other, they are opening the
door for the devil to come into their
home and attack their children.
But it's amazing how, in spite of hearing
that, and in spite of seeing it in
Scripture, yet, so many parents take it so
lightly when their fellowship is broken with one
another.
They don't realize that what they see in
their parents, and what they see in their
own children, is the effect of their own
unwillingness to humble themselves in their relationships with
each other.
And that's why it's very important what we
learn here from this passage, for parents to
keep fellowship with one another and with God.
Of course, when Adam and Eve had this
first child, they had such expectations.
It's quite interesting to see, in the margin
it says, in verse 1, I have gotten
a man-child, Eve says, and in the
margin it says, the Lord.
Somehow she knew that that promise which God
gave in Genesis 3.15, that the seed
of the woman would bruise the serpent's head,
she knew the serpent was Satan, and the
seed of the woman, in some way I
think she probably knew it would be God
Himself coming in human form.
And when she got this baby, she thought,
this is it.
This is the seed, I've gotten a man,
the Lord.
What expectations she had when she saw that
little baby, how she must have dedicated it
to God, and hoped that this lovely boy
called Cain would grow up to crush the
serpent's head, just like many a mother has
wonderful expectations of their son or daughter when
they are small.
And yet all those longings and all those
expectations are not enough.
Even getting so excited to think that this
is the one who is going to crush
the serpent's head is not enough.
If those children are not brought up in
the fear of God, and if the father
and mother don't have fellowship with one another,
and the children don't see that, I can
imagine that Cain and Abel saw Adam and
Eve blaming one another.
You think they blamed one another only in
Genesis 3?
That must have continued all through the 900
years of Adam's existence.
And that infection got a hold of Cain,
and instead of being one who would crush
the serpent's head, his own head got crushed
by, he himself got bitten by the serpent.
What a tragedy and what a warning for
all of us.
We can say in one sense, spiritually speaking,
that he became the seed of the serpent.
He became a child of the devil instead
of being the one who would crush the
serpent.
But Abel was a God-fearing person.
And that's also an amazing thing, that two
brothers can grow up in the same home
with the same instruction.
I'm sure that Adam and Eve taught them
about God.
But two brothers can grow up in the
same home and be so completely different, with
the same parents and the same instruction and
the same teaching, and be so completely different
that one can be a child of God
and the other can be a child of
the devil.
And that Adam and Eve see these two
sons of theirs grow up, separated for all
eternity, one into an eternal heaven and the
other into an eternal hell.
That happened again and again and again and
again and again and again and again.
We see that in verse 3, it came
about in the course of time that Cain
brought an offering to the Lord of the
fruit of the ground.
And this obviously was the result of parental
teaching.
The parents must have taught Cain and Abel
that you can't approach God except by sacrifice.
And they must have taught them what they
had learned before they left Eden, when God
killed an animal and took the skin and
covered Adam and Eve with the skin.
And there God must have taught them that
a lamb needs to be killed, an animal
needs to be killed, its blood needs to
be shed to atone for your sin.
And they taught that to their children.
But Cain did not bring an offering of
blood.
He brought an offering from the fruit of
the ground.
But Abel, on his part, also brought, but
he brought an offering of blood.
And not only that, it says here he
brought the best of his flock.
We don't know what Cain brought.
It doesn't mention that it was the best
of the fruit.
He just brought something along.
He was also religious.
He also wanted to offer something to God,
but not in God's way.
He didn't offer the best to God.
Abel brought the best, their fat portions.
And there are two things it says in
the last part of verse four.
The Lord had regard for Abel first, and
for his offering.
It is the man first that makes the
offering acceptable.
The Lord didn't just regard Abel's offering.
He regarded Abel and his offering.
The offering was right, and the man behind
the offering was also right.
In Cain's case, the offering was wrong, and
the man behind the offering was also wrong.
So there was something in Cain's character that
wasn't right.
And I don't want to speculate as to
what the cause of that was.
But having observed many families through these years,
I've come to see that sometimes parents have
a soft corner for their firstborn child.
Particularly if it's a boy.
And they allow their firstborn to have a
soft corner because it's their special one.
And those are the ones who are groomed
for the devil.
Who are not disciplined because it's the parent's
pet.
I can imagine that when Eve got a
baby and she thought this was the Lord
himself in human form.
She must have thought this is special.
Abel, he's second class, but this one is
first class.
And therefore, that son was ruined.
I have a feeling that could be the
reason.
But parental partiality is a very common thing.
You see that in Isaac and his sons.
Isaac loved Esau, Rebecca loved Jacob.
And both of them also separated, just like
Cain and Abel.
And we see that happening again and again
in history.
Parents having a favorite child, who's allowed so
many things.
And if Cain does something wrong, we say,
oh Cain, he's so innocent.
He can't make a mistake.
Groomed for the devil by the parents.
I feel sorry for parents who think that
their children are innocent and harmless.
Obviously they haven't read the word of God.
It is such parents who prevent their children
from becoming men of God when they grow
up.
Because they always think, my children can do
nothing wrong.
My lovely little darling Cain can never do
anything wrong.
And see what he turned out to be
later on in life, a murderer.
Yup, that's a warning for us.
And Abel was the second class one.
He sought God.
And he was a God fearing person.
And Jesus called him, in Matthew 23, Jesus
called him Righteous Abel.
Matthew 23, verse 35.
Righteous Abel.
That's the title, Jesus Cain.
So there was a difference between Abel and
Cain.
Righteous Abel.
That despised second son.
Was righteous.
And the darling first one was a rogue.
But the parents didn't think that.
So we got to be very careful.
We read here that not only there was
no blood in Cain's offering.
If you turn to Hebrews 11, there's something
else.
We see there was a difference between these
two.
Hebrews 11 and verse 4.
We read about Abel there.
That by faith, Abel offered to God a
better sacrifice than Cain.
The sacrifice was better.
Why?
Hebrews 11, verse 4.
Because it had faith.
There was faith in it.
And there was blood in it.
And that's what we see here that made
the distinction between these two types of religion.
We read that God testified about his offering.
There in that verse, Hebrews 11, 4.
God testified.
And that's most likely by fire coming down
from heaven upon that altar.
I can imagine Cain setting up his altar
like the prophets of Baal.
And Abel setting up his altar like Elijah.
And they're both offering their sacrifices and the
fire comes and falls upon Abel's offering.
And Cain sees that.
Cain sees the fire of God fall upon
his brother.
And he's jealous.
There are lots of cases like that since
then.
Of people who see the fire of God
in another brother and they're jealous.
There are two religions in the world.
One is the religion of Cain.
And the other is the religion of Abel.
Right from the beginning of history, there have
been two religions.
The religion of Cain and the religion of
Abel.
The religion of good works without any blood
sacrifice, without the blood of Christ.
The religion of human understanding which can modify
God's word.
That's what Cain did.
There was no need of a blood sacrifice.
He thought, I'm a good man.
I'm alright.
I haven't harmed anyone.
I've lived an upright life.
And he comes with some offering to God.
He's religious.
All heathen religions are like this.
To do good, be accepted before God.
No, the fire of God never falls on
that.
There must be blood.
There must be faith.
Not only blood, not only faith.
And that's why we need to preach the
blood of Jesus Christ, and we need to
preach faith.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
That's clear.
And without blood, Hebrews 9.22, there is
no forgiveness of sin.
Absolutely none.
There's two things the Bible says.
Without blood, there's no forgiveness of sin.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
And Cain had neither.
But Abel had both.
He came with faith, and he came with
blood.
Not according to his reason.
And he was accepted.
And we need to bear this in mind,
that there are these two, we can say,
spiritually speaking, the seed of the woman and
the seed of the serpent.
Two religions.
The real Christ, and the devil, imitating Christ.
False religion here.
And we can say that, in these two,
the Lord regarded.
It says the Lord had regard, verse 4,
for Abel and his offering.
I mentioned this, that it's not only that
Abel's offering was acceptable, but Abel's character had
faith.
Something else we read in 1 John 3
about Cain and Abel.
In 1 John chapter 3, when we compare
the Old Testament with the New Testament, we
get a better understanding of the Old Testament.
In 1 John 3, verse 12, it says,
not as Cain, who was of the evil
one, or in other words, Cain who was
of the seed of the serpent.
Quite the opposite of what his mother thought
he was.
His mother thought he was the seed of
God.
And actually, he was the seed of Satan.
Just like lots of mothers who think their
children are seeds of God, they're actually seeds
of Satan.
Cain, who was of the evil one, and
slew his brother.
And for what reason did he slay him?
Because Cain's deeds were evil, and his brother's
deeds were righteous.
So you see, there was not only a
difference in their offering, the Word of God
says something about their private life.
Cain was living a wicked life.
Abel was living a God-fearing life.
I'm sure their parents didn't know about all
the tricks that Cain was up to in
his private life.
But, he was living a wicked life.
The Holy Spirit says that in 1 John
3.
And therefore, God did not regard Cain.
Notice 1 Genesis 4 5.
But for Cain, and for his offering, God
had no regard.
The man first, and then his offering.
Notice that in verse 4.
Abel, and his offering.
Cain, and his offering.
It's the man behind the offering that makes
the offering acceptable.
You can have blood in the offering, but
if the man behind the offering is not
a righteous person, is not a man of
faith, it's not acceptable.
And that's very important in these days when
a lot of people, when they come to
this passage of Cain and Abel, the only
thing that most evangelicals will say is this,
there was blood in Abel's offering, there was
no blood in Cain's offering.
That's all.
Pushed off.
But is that all the Word of God
says?
Does it mean that if a person just
brings in the blood of Jesus Christ, that's
enough?
What does God's Word say?
The Lord, it doesn't say the Lord had
regard for Abel's offering, for Abel and his
offering.
And what does it say?
The Lord didn't have regard for Cain and
his offering.
Yes, the offering is important, that we emphasize
the blood of Jesus Christ, but it is
possible for a person like Cain who doesn't
have faith, who does not have righteousness in
his life, to present the blood of Christ.
And then the Lord doesn't have regard for
that.
Because the man behind the offering is not
upright.
The man behind the offering is not sincere
and straightforward.
He's deceptive.
There's guile in him.
And God sees through all that humbug.
And so it's important for us to see
this.
That it's not only the offering, but the
two things God's Word says about Abel, that
he was righteous and he had faith.
And obviously, Cain didn't have faith.
He had his reason, his cleverness, and his
deeds were evil.
And I would even say this, even if
Cain had brought a lamb and killed it,
God would not have accepted that offering.
Because it's not a question of bringing a
lamb and blood, it's a question of faith
and righteousness.
Let's see that distinction very clearly.
And then we see here in verse 5,
then Cain became very angry.
And when we are angry, it affects our
face.
It says here, his face was fallen.
A darkness came over his face.
And when a man is angry, you know
it's reflected on his face.
He can't hide it.
He was angry.
And there we see in the Word of
God the first instance of anger in the
human race.
And I want you to notice one significant
thing, that that anger is connected with religion.
And the first murder in the world was
a religious murder.
I don't like this man's religion, Abel's religion.
Therefore I'm angry.
That is always the mark of false religion,
even false Christianity.
When a man is angry with me because
he doesn't believe my doctrine, because he thinks
I'm a heretic, and he's angry with me
and upset with me, he clearly proves that
he's got the religion of Cain.
No, that's not Christianity, to be angry and
jealous.
Jesus was not upset because people had false
religion.
He was not bothered about the Pharisees.
The thing that made him angry was when
those Pharisees tried to push their religion on
those simple poor people sitting in the synagogue.
That's what made him angry.
But the Pharisees, if they wanted, they could
keep their religion and go to hell with
it.
He told them, how will you escape the
damnation of hell?
But notice this, that religion, religious difference, brought
anger and the first murder in the world,
between two brothers.
And that's why Jesus taught us that we
were to love our enemies.
And I believe that the test of love
is when I see someone who doesn't see
eye to eye with me on something, then
I know whether I love him or not,
or whether I've got the religion of Cain
that cannot love, just because that fellow is
different from me.
I may not agree with the person, but
what's stopping me from loving him?
If I can love only those who agree
with me, I've got the religion of Cain.
I can stand for the truth and never
compromise.
But I have to love all, whether they
agree with me or not.
Makes no difference.
I can love them, even though I can
tell them to their face, I believe you've
been deceived by Satan, I can still love
them.
So there's a warning for us, that our
religion and our religious convictions, if they make
us mad, we've got the wrong religion.
If they make us angry and upset with
someone, we've got Cain's religion.
We've got to cleanse ourselves from that.
That's not standing up for the truth which
has been delivered to the saints.
Some people can have Cain's religion and think,
I'm going to stand up for the truth
delivered to the saints.
Not in the spirit of Cain.
In the spirit of Christ.
And one test of that is, I'm not
upset.
I'm not angry with people.
The Lord said to Cain in verse 6,
and there again we see, before I come
to that, I think another reason for Cain's
anger was, is also worth considering, and that
is that his brother was honored by God
above him.
Leave aside the religious part now.
That another brother, or sister, has been honored
by God in a public way.
The fire of God fell upon his altar
and it didn't fall on mine.
And I see that, and in the eyes
of others, he's honored by God and I've
not been honored, publicly dishonored, publicly honored.
There is a test of my religion, whether
it's the real one or not.
Whether I can humble myself and rejoice that
a brother has been honored.
And let me tell you the more difficult
part, my dear brothers and sisters.
When that brother who is honored is younger
to you in age.
And younger to you in experience.
And younger to you in the Lord.
And God honors him.
And you don't have the humility to humble
yourself and stand back and say, Lord, I
acknowledge the fire of God on that younger
brother.
I praise you for it.
If we don't have that attitude, we have
something of Cain's spirit within us that we
need to cleanse ourselves from.
And that can happen right in the church.
When we see the anointing of God on
someone.
God giving a ministry to someone.
Transformation of character in someone.
God blessing someone in a material way, perhaps.
In a way he has not decided to
bless you.
And jealousy.
And criticism.
And complaints.
All can prove that the spirit of Cain
is penetrating your life.
And if you don't cleanse yourself from it,
your face will remain fallen and you'll never
have salvation.
That's a warning right at the beginning.
Rejoice when you see God honoring somebody else's
brother.
Stand back and rejoice that God has seen
the hearts of you and that person and
he's seen that that person's heart is more
upright than yours.
And he's honored.
The fire of God is on his life.
And you sort of become cold and lukewarm.
And he's retaining the fire of God in
his life.
Just humble yourself and rejoice that the fire
of God is there.
You know?
That's the right spirit.
And the Lord said to Cain, There again
we see just like God approaching Adam when
Adam has sinned.
God approaching Cain.
It wasn't Cain who approached God.
It wasn't Adam who approached God.
We see this wonderful thing.
That God is so eager.
When Cain got offended, God didn't say, Oh
well, if you're offended, get out.
I'm not interested in you.
He went after him.
That's the heart of God.
Just like the in the story of the
prodigal son.
When the father welcomed the younger brother and
the older brother who had the spirit of
Cain.
The same story.
Cain and Abel all over again.
In the story of the prodigal son.
The younger brother is accepted.
And the older brother comes and sees that
the younger brother is accepted by the father
and he's jealous.
And he won't come inside the house.
And who goes out to meet him?
The father.
God loves the Pharisees too.
He doesn't only love the sinners.
He loves the Pharisees.
Jesus died for the Pharisees too.
And even if you're Pharisees, God will come
out to us, reason with us, but the
elder brother would not come inside the house.
And God reasoned with Cain.
And the sad thing is that Cain would
not accept even Almighty God reasoning with him.
And that is how some people are lost
eternally as Pharisees.
But God speaks to them.
The Lord came to Cain and said, Why
are you angry?
And why is your face fallen?
And that's something we must remember is the
first question that God asked a man in
the Scriptures as far as we know after
they were thrown out of Eden.
The first question, Why are you angry?
is the first question recorded in Scripture outside
of Eden.
Why are you angry?
Why is your face fallen like that?
Second question.
If only we can keep these two questions
before us when we are angry and we
hear God asking us Why are you angry,
my son, my daughter?
Why is your face fallen?
Why are you so depressed right now?
Is there something in your heart?
You're upset with some brother because of something
he didn't do or something he did or
some acceptance that I've given him that I've
not given you?
Something in your heart against your brother?
That's why your face is like that?
That's why you're angry?
That's why you're upset?
That's why you're irritated?
And when God comes to you like that
you can either react like Cain and justify
yourself and give some reason or you can
humble yourself and say, Lord, that's right.
I've got a wrong attitude in my heart
against that brother.
Please forgive me.
That would delight God's heart.
Why are you angry?
If only every time we got angry God
would...
we could hear God asking us this question
Why are you angry?
Why is your face fallen?
It would make a tremendous difference in our
life.
Perhaps we could get victory over anger much
sooner.
Will you read here?
The Lord further said to him If you
do well, we can't hide from Him.
God was up in Heaven but down here
on that speck of dust called the planet
Earth there was one fellow called Cain who
had an angry face.
And I want to tell you something.
Cain and Abel were not the only two
people on Earth apart from Adam and Eve
at that time.
We'll come to that later on.
I think there must have been at least
twenty, thirty thousand people on the face of
the Earth at this time.
By this time.
Because we read later on that Adam and
Eve were about a hundred and thirty years
old when this happened.
Or nearly that.
And during those a hundred and thirty years
they had sons and daughters who married one
another.
The cousins who married one another and the
population of the Earth by this time must
have been twenty, thirty thousand at least or
fifty thousand perhaps or even alike.
But among all these people who were on
the Earth, God saw one man whose face
was angry.
And it's just as easy for God to
see on four billion people on the Earth,
one man somewhere in Bangalore whose face is
angry.
And he comes down to that one man
and says, why are you angry?
Why has your face fallen?
Let's never forget that.
That God sees our face all the time.
And he sees anger in our heart whenever
it comes.
And he said to Cain, if you do
well, that means if you've got a good
attitude in your heart, your face will be
lifted up.
And to me that's a very helpful test,
like your litmus paper test in the laboratory.
If my attitude in my heart is right
towards all people, my face will always be
cheerful and bright.
It's when there's something wrong, something with which
I'm upset that it affects my face.
My face can't be lifted up.
That's the warning.
But if you don't do well, and the
Lord says here, if you don't do well,
sin is crouching at the door.
That means sin is in your flesh.
Crouching at the door of what?
At the door of your heart.
Here we see what temptation is and what
sin is.
Temptation is sin crouching at the door of
your heart, that is in your flesh, wanting
to get in if you will just open
the door like a tiger sitting outside your
door waiting to get one paw inside, even
if the door is open just a wee
little bit, and he gets a paw inside
and then the whole tiger is inside in
a few seconds.
It's waiting for just a slight wrong attitude
towards someone.
Sin is crouching at the door and its
desire is for you.
Here is a teaching on sanctification here.
Sin's desire is to swallow you up.
This tiger wants to just come and ruin
your life.
Wants to come in and destroy your whole
life.
Sin is crouching.
Be careful.
And here is the gospel of victory over
sin and the first person who proclaimed it
was God and the first person he proclaimed
it to was the first human being born
into the world, Cain.
This gospel of victory is not new.
It's as old as Genesis 4.
You must master sin.
One would think that's Romans 6.14. It's
not Romans 6.14. It's Genesis 4.7.
You must master sin.
Think of that.
You see, when we preach the gospel of
victory, we are coming back to the original
gospel, which God proclaimed to a sinner like
Cain.
We don't proclaim victory over sin only to
highly mature, sanctified believers.
If there's a roguelike Cain, we can proclaim
to him the gospel of victory over sin.
You must master sin in your life.
God didn't believe that you've got to lead
people to this message by stages.
You know, Cain's not ready yet for the
message of victory.
Let's just tell him something like, God loves
you brother.
He's a father and he cares for you.
Straight away you must master sin in your
life.
The gospel of victory that God himself proclaimed
to Cain.
And we're in his footsteps when we proclaim
that, what?
You must master sin.
We're in God's footsteps when we proclaim that
sin is crouching at the door of your
heart and your flesh.
We're in God's footsteps when we proclaim that
His desire is to master you and swallow
you up and ruin your life.
And we're also in God's footsteps when you
say, but you must master it.
You mustn't let it in.
You must resist it.
And I'm sure that God would have helped
him if only Cain had said, oh God,
please help me.
I feel this pressure so much of jealousy
against my brother.
Please help me.
God would have helped him.
But the fellow didn't have the humility or
the honesty to do that.
And he just, what do we read there?
What's the next sentence?
We don't even see Cain bothering to reply
God.
It's almost as though it's like somebody comes
and says something to you eagerly, and you
just turn your back to him and walk
off.
Think of that.
That the Lord reached out to Cain, and
Cain didn't even have the decency to reply
to him.
He just walked off.
He's not interested.
He's got a grudge against God as well
for setting that fire on Abel's offering.
If you do well, will your countenance not
be lifted up?
And the margin says, if you do well,
you'll also be accepted.
And we can take that also as the
meaning of what the Lord was saying.
Cain, I'll give you another chance.
Come on.
Straighten out your attitude and come to me
in faith and bring the offering I require
of you, and you'll be accepted too.
And he didn't want it.
His ego was hurt.
That the first time he was not accepted.
How true.
And what a picture of so many people
today.
They are hurt.
They were not invited for something.
Accidentally their name got dropped off the list.
They are offended.
They are hurt.
And the person recognizes the mistake and comes
back and says, sorry, I forgot your name.
Why don't you come?
No, I won't come now.
I'm hurt.
Followers of Cain, millions of them, even so
-called believers, hurt.
When your ego is hurt, you can either
follow Cain or humble yourself and find salvation.
Beware of that hurt ego.
I believe a hurt ego has led more
people to hell than almost any other sin.
That pride.
Being offended.
Here's the first fellow who was offended.
That's why we often say, get victory over
getting offended.
If we don't get victory over getting offended,
the chances are we'll never get victory over
anything else.
Particularly when something happens to hurt your big
ego.
When God sticks a pin into that balloon
called your ego and it's deflated and all
the air goes out of it.
You're hurt.
Humble yourself.
And we read in verse 8, and Cain
told his brother, Abel his brother spoke to
Abel his brother and it came about when
they were in the field that Cain rose
up against Abel his brother and killed him.
We read there the first murder, a religious
murder.
It's the progression of sin that we read
in James 1.15. Every man is tempted
when he's drawn by his own lust then
when lust has conceived in the heart it
gives birth to sin and sin when it
is finished brings forth death.
So we see the same progression here in
Cain as well.
And we read here in verse 9 Then
the Lord said to Cain Where is Abel
your brother?
And he said I do not know.
Am I my brother's keeper?
And he said What have you done?
The voice of your brother's blood is crying
to me from the ground.
The number of things we can learn there
that there is no sin that is committed
in secret that God does not see.
No doubt Cain led Abel to a quiet
spot in the forest where nobody would see
him there were no police no CID's those
days to follow up a murder but he
couldn't get away from God.
God sees every secret sin committed anywhere in
the world.
He sees it and he questions us through
our conscience What have you done?
Where is Abel your brother?
And he said, I don't know.
A liar.
He not only became a murderer, he became
a liar.
Sin multiplies once you get into this sin
it's just one after the other.
You tell a small lie, then you've got
to tell another lie to cover up that
one.
Another one later on.
Am I my brother's keeper?
It's a very interesting question.
Am I my brother's keeper?
Of course the answer is yes.
God didn't create us on this earth to
live just for ourselves thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself is one of his laws
and that makes us our brother's keepers.
We are responsible for our brothers and sisters
when they stumble if we had something to
do with it we are responsible.
We have a responsibility if we are the
cause of our brothers stumbling.
And we read here that Cain tried to
cover up his sin he was not even
honest Adam his father was at least honest
to say this woman gave me the fruit
and I ate it but Cain wouldn't even
do that.
Sin had gone one stage further in the
son than it was in the father.
If the father tried to hide a little
bit, the son is a greater crook to
hide even more and he tries to cover
up his sin.
Notice here in verse 10 it says the
voice of your brother's blood is crying to
me from the ground.
It's an amazing statement there that you see
blood has got no life in it.
It's poured out it can't speak.
We can say that blood is lifeless matter.
It's amazing that lifeless matter can cry out
to God and say this fellow is a
sinner.
Think of the day of judgment and the
lifeless matter that will proclaim the sins of
various people.
Lifeless matter proclaims that Cain is a sinner.
Your brother's blood is crying to me from
the ground.
It's not in English or some human language
that that inanimate matter speaks, but it's speaking
in a language that God can understand.
That blood was speaking to God.
Judge this man.
Punish him.
Take vengeance on him for what he's done
for me.
And we can see in contrast it says
in Hebrews chapter 12 a beautiful contrast in
the New Testament where it says here in
Hebrews 12.24 that we have now come
it says here verse 18 you have not
come to a mountain that may not that
may be touched.
That is Mount Sinai which blazed with a
fire.
In other words you have not come to
the old covenant at Mount Sinai, but in
contrast verse 22 you have come to Mount
Zion.
And you have not come to Moses verse
21 but you have come verse 24 to
Jesus.
The mediator of a new covenant and to
the sprinkled blood of Jesus which speaks better
than the blood of Abel.
So what have we learned there?
That there is the blood of Abel was
symbolic of that old covenant attitude people had.
You read that in the Psalms.
Lord don't spare this enemy of mine finish
him off he has harmed me Lord don't
spare him and don't spare his children and
when I see him suffer and when I
see his children suffer it shall delight me
because I am an old covenant follower of
Moses delighted to see vengeance on my enemies.
But now we have come to the new
covenant to Jesus blood the blood of Jesus
also fell to the ground just like Abel's
blood fell to the ground.
We can say that Cain religious Cain is
the picture of the religious Jews who were
jealous of Jesus because the fire of God
was on him.
You see Abel and Cain are a picture
of Jesus and the Jews.
Exactly they were all religion but Abel's religion
was one type Cain's was another type.
The religion that Jesus brought was different and
the religion the Jews had was quite different.
And that's what made the Jews mad.
What made Cain mad Cain was jealous.
The Jews were jealous because there was an
anointing on Jesus life which they didn't have
and it finally made them so mad that
they did what Cain did they killed Jesus
just like Cain killed Abel exactly the same
story 4000 years later and the blood of
Abel fell to the ground and cried out
for vengeance and the blood of Jesus fell
to the ground too and cried out father
forgive them that's the difference between the old
covenant and the new covenant and when we
come to the breaking of bread and we
take the cup Jesus says this is my
blood of the of the what new covenant
and I drink it and then I go
away from there and I have the attitude
of Abel's blood towards someone I am a
liar I am a hypocrite I have no
right to drink from that cup at the
Lord's table because I'm drinking the blood of
Abel in my daily life vengeance on that
man Lord revenge on that person delight when
something bad happens to my enemy joy when
some punishment comes on someone who has harmed
me in some way what is that the
blood of Abel I've got no right to
come to the Lord's table I need to
go somewhere else and drink the cup of
Abel because that's how I'm living that's the
difference between the new covenant and the old
covenant how many people have understood it we
have a Christendom that's completely blind to revelation
on God's word the human bakeries of bible
schools have taught them all kinds of stupid
things they don't know what the blood of
the new covenant is no the blood of
Jesus is better than the blood of Abel
and we praise God that we fellowship with
Jesus in his blood in that same spirit
in which Jesus' blood was shed father forgive
them have they done a great crime against
you not greater than the crime committed against
Jesus do you know that the greatest crime
that was ever committed in the world was
the crime that the Jews committed in killing
Jesus Christ there is no greater crime anything
that you may think another person has done
to you is far inferior to what Jesus
suffered so if he could say father forgive
them you can also say it if and
there's a big if if you have entered
into the new covenant if you are a
follower of Moses and of the old testament
then of course it's another thing but if
you have entered into the new covenant then
we have to have the attitude that Jesus
had and now verse 11 this is very
interesting to see here something this is the
first time that God looks at a man
and says you are cursed you know he
never said that to Adam we saw that
when we studied Genesis 3 he only cursed
the ground you read Genesis 3 carefully he
never cursed Adam but for the first time
now he looks at a human being and
he says you are cursed because of the
wrong attitude that you had towards your brother
and because you killed him what does it
say in 1 John 3 turn back to
that this
is the message verse 11 which you have
heard from the beginning that we should love
one another not as Cain who was the
evil one to whom is that exhortation given
is it an exhortation given to unbelievers you
unbelievers don't be like Cain is John writing
to unbelievers no my little children you born
again children of God you can become like
Cain if you are not careful that's the
meaning of this exhortation and if I don't
see seriously that all that we are speaking
about Cain is not referring to some ungodly
Jew or some unbeliever but to me if
I don't see that in the volume of
the book it's a warning for me then
I am in great danger if I don't
see that I have the same flesh that
Cain had is there anybody here who's got
a different flesh from what Cain had that's
why the warning comes not like Cain my
dear brothers and sisters don't be like Cain
that's John's exhortation who was of the evil
ones and slew his brother why because he
didn't have victory over sin and his brother
had victory over sin that's basically the reason
that's what it says there the person who
doesn't have victory over sin is upset with
the brother who has victory over sin and
we see that even today religious people who
don't believe in victory over sin are upset
with their brothers who are righteous, who believe
in victory over sin who are they following,
such religious people okay do not marvel my
brethren verse 13, when these so called worldly
so called Christians, worldly people hate you, but
we know we have passed out of death
into life because we hate nobody we love
the brethren he who does not love his
brother abides in the same death that Cain
was living in and God spoke to Cain
and said you are cursed from the ground
which has opened its mouth to receive your
brother's blood from your hands and when you
cultivate the ground it shall no longer yield
its strength to you you shall be a
vagrant and a wanderer on the earth yeah,
and what does Cain say to all that,
he said Lord to the Lord, my punishment
is too great to bear he doesn't say
my sin is too great, he's not bothered
about that, my punishment he still doesn't have
any consciousness of the greatness of his sin
even after all this only my punishment and
that is the language of people who go
to hell burning in hell like the rich
man who went to hell, the words they
say is my punishment is too great to
bear, it is too great to bear in
hell, but do they think of their sin
what does that teach us that when I'm
more afraid of the punishment of sin than
of sin itself I'm not really holy, I'm
just like Cain Cain was also afraid of
the punishment oh, if I do this God
may punish me punishment is bad, I don't
want it, but the sin itself I'd like
to do it if only I could avoid
the punishment, there's no holiness there, my brothers
and sisters the language which says my punishment
is too great to bear is not the
language of a godly person, it's the language
of an ungodly child of the devil and
he says Lord you have driven me, he
doesn't even call him Lord, thou hast driven
me this day from the face of the
ground and from thy face I shall be
hidden I shall be a vagrant and a
wanderer on the earth and it'll come about
that whoever finds me will kill me so
what is the Lord's punishment for him, there'll
be no fruitfulness in your life, verse 12
when you cultivate the ground nothing will come
there'll be no stability in your life, you'll
be a wanderer and that is the spiritual
condition of all those who have a loose
attitude towards sin we can apply that spiritually
when a person's attitude towards his brother is
not right when a person's attitude towards sin
is not right there's no fruitfulness in his
life, he works, he comes to the meetings,
he does this, he does that, the ground
yields nothing ten years of cultivation yields nothing
and he's a wanderer, there's no stability in
his life, because the man doesn't take sin
seriously he just comes to the meetings, I'm
sure Cain would have come to the meetings
if he were living in Bangalore he may
have even come to CFC, sure why not
I think the religious type, he may have
come here and sat here but there'd be
no stability in his life, no spiritual stability,
no spiritual fruitfulness, the ground yields nothing, wanderers
wandering around drifting no growth, no stability no
fruitfulness only afraid of punishment I don't want
punishment my punishment is too great to bear
God's face hidden, verse 14 from thy face
I shall be hidden says in verse 16,
he went out from the presence of the
Lord and that is what hell is hell
means to be forsaken by God out of
God's presence that's what Jesus suffered for three
hours on the cross, hell and Cain began
to experience it right there when he says
it will come about that whoever finds me
will kill me there are so many there
are 40-50 thousand people on the earth
already any of them may kill me now
so the Lord said to him see God's
mercy even to a man like Cain who
has rejected him we see something of the
fantastic mercy of God therefore if anybody kills
Cain vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold
mercy, in God's judgment there is mercy and
the Lord appointed a sign set a mark
on Cain lest anyone finding him should kill
him and I want you to see here
brothers and sisters I said that Cain and
Abel were a picture of these two religions
one the true religion that Jesus brought and
the other the false religion which is a
perversion of the truth we can say the
origin of Jerusalem and Babylon is here in
Genesis 4 Babylon is a religious system and
Cain was a religious man and the Jewish
religion in the time of Jesus was thoroughly
Babylonian spiritually it was like Cain that's why
as I said they were jealous of Jesus
and like Cain killed Abel they killed Jesus
and what was the result like God cursed
Cain God cursed the Jews that's the symbolic
meaning of Jesus cursing the fig tree he
cursed the Jews and what happened for 2000
years like we read in verse 12 the
Jews have been wanderers on the face of
the earth never able to live in any
country for 2000 years and whoever saw the
Jew wanted to kill him it's not so
much in the 20th century except with Hitler
who killed 6 million of them but it
has really been true in history that the
Jew has been hounded to death just like
Cain but the Lord has put a mark
on the Jew like he put a mark
on Cain that was mercy so that's where
people have killed the Jews vengeance has been
taken on them 7 fold on Hitler on
Haman and all the others and that's just
in passing to see how all this is
pictured there in Cain and Abel in the
religion of the Jews, in the religion of
Jesus now today it's not the Jews today
it's harlot Christianity that followed on in the
stream of Cain and those Pharisees of Jesus
time and it has become what we call
today Babylon and that true faith that began
with righteous Abel to stream that began way
back there with Adam's children and that's come
on right down to the end of time,
now so don't think there's not much of
a difference between Babylon and Jerusalem that's like
saying there's really not much of a difference
between Cain's religion and Abel's religion there's a
world of difference one is born in the
pit of hell and the other is born
in heaven and we know that there's a
warning to those who live in Jerusalem in
the epistle of John don't be like Cain
be careful that you never allow even a
small seed of such an attitude towards another
brother even in seed form you may never
kill, none of us will ever kill but
the seed, God sees the anger says why
are you angry, you aren't a murderer yet
but why are you upset why are you
upset with that brother why have you got
all those thoughts in your heart against that
brother right now why have you got all
those thoughts in your heart against that sister
right now if you can hear God there
and judge yourself there at that point we
can save ourselves from Babylon otherwise we can
sit here and be a part of that
religious system that Cain started may God save
us