Transcript (Auto-generated)

This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Well, I thought before we get to the Bible passage, I might just give you a chance, kind of a warning of what we are to come. It's quite a heavy passage, I would say, this morning, and if I reflect on my own style when I'm normally up at the front, if you were here Christmas morning for Paddington Bear, I think that's normally the way I would go. Genesis 4 isn't quite that passage. And we're going to kind of sit in that a little bit this morning. And my big hope and prayer as I've been preparing is that as we again, kind of see the darkness and sin in the world and that lurks within that, that will actually help us.

Kind of like putting a diamond on a black background. See again the richness of the gospel and just how brilliant it is that Jesus has come for us. Why am I giving that warning? Because we've left the world of Genesis 1 and 2. We are now east of Eden.

It's our first little taste of ordinary life beyond the world that God had made. And think of it a bit like this, the beautiful ceiling above us. Imagine if it held a wonderful sphere, a glass kind of circle, huge and beautiful. That's the world of Genesis 1 and 2. Intricate, amazing unity together.

Man and woman and God and creation. Just brilliant. But it's like the strings have been cut from that sphere. When Adam and Eve said, we want to go our own way, Steve so helpfully took us through that last week. They reject God and it's like the world comes crashing down and smashes in front of us.

Not entirely broken, but so much damage and decay. The taint of sin, the kind of infection that's got into every aspect of life. And just to press this home, I don't know if you've heard a list like this. That just helps us, I guess, recognise that that is our plight as a human race. Let me read to you from this list of the things, some of the things that we experience as a result of that decision.

We feel anxious and alone. Maybe there are unkind words spoken even in our childhood that still hold the power and haunt us. That feeling when you jam your fingers in a door or when the family dynamics just break down, a friend that you trusted becomes distrustful. A little lie that slips off the tongue, gets out of control. That feeling when you fear, did I lock my door?

And you have to go back and cheque, Worry about our ageing bodies or someone stealing credit or influence at work, facing ridicule or bitterness or complaint. That ache that won't go away when you just can't let an issue be put to bed, or there's a mistake in the justice system, or simply when you're stuck on every red traffic light as you drive along. Fears around job security, someone lying in court, someone lying awake at night wondering whether they said the right or the wrong thing in a conversation. Struggles within families, arguments and bitterness that happen behind closed doors. Getting furious at your children, getting furious at anyone.

The anxiety that sits in the pit of our stomach. Feeling isolated, betraying what we promised. Having someone betray what you thought they promised. Loss of precious things and of course, the reality of death.

See, these things and much more have flooded into our world and seeped into everything. I don't know if you know, Elon Musk in the States is constantly sending out messages of what he thinks the world should do. And his grand plan is to take the best of us and put us on a rocket ship and fly us to Mars and start again. I would suggest you that's not the best plan because we can't escape these things. They'll follow us even if we go to Mars.

But last week, Steve showed us from Genesis 3 that promise, the promise that a serpent crusher will come. We saw God's grace and goodness as what happened. A sacrifice was made on Adam and Eve's behalf. They were clothed so the world didn't end. In Genesis 3, there was a promise.

And in Genesis 4, it's our first chance to have a look at a potential serpent crusher, at Cain, who's going to be born. Will he be the one that will reverse the curse? Well, we'll see very quickly. Of course he won't. But as we sit in that passage this morning, again, I just pray.

And let me lead us in a word of prayer now, prayer now that we will see something of the Gospel despite the darkness. So let me pray and then Jonathan's kindly going to come and read the Scriptures for us.

Lord, from that list, we experience in our own lives so much, so much brokenness, and we bring so much, so much of our own sin and brokenness. And yet you are the God who still offers relationship with us. Lord, please teach us what it is to walk by faith in this world, to look to the Lord Jesus. Do that for us this morning we ask in his name. Amen.

So you'll probably want a Bible in your hands. And Genesis 4, Jonathan's going to come and read to us. Thanks, Jonathan.

Are we reading in Genesis chapter four, starting verses one to six, and it's on page six in the Bible. So Genesis chapter four on page six, Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, with the help of the Lord, I have brought forth a man. Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil.

In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering, fat portions from the firstborn of his flock. And the Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering. But on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favour. So Cain was very angry and his face was downcast.

Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door and it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.

Now Cain said to his brother Abel, let us go out to the field.

And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, where is your brother Abel?

I don't know. He replied, am I my brother's keeper?

The Lord says, what have you done? Listen. Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. And when you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you.

You will be a restless wanderer on the earth. And Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is more than I can bear today. You're driving me from the land and I'll be hidden from your presence. I'll be a restless wanderer on the earth, and. And whoever finds me will kill me.

But the Lord said to him, not so. Anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over. Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. This.

This is the word of the Lord, Jonathan. Thank you. A heavy passage this morning. I'm sure there were some questions as it was read. My caveat is that if we don't answer all the questions, go to your connect group and you can dig into some more there.

But it is a kind of intriguing passage. It starts, I guess, quite well in the place of continuation, because despite the chaos and the pain that comes in as a result of Adam and Eve's decision in Genesis 3, there is still some life going on. And Adam and Eve have birth. Give birth. Eve gives birth to a son.

God's grace continues. The marriage covenant remains intact. Boy. If anyone needed the marriage enrichment course, it's probably Adam and Eve. They experienced life fully together in perfect union and then they had to adapt to this whole overwhelming new world.

But God's there with them, helping them still. Let's have a look at the opening of our passage. Verse 1. Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, with the help of the Lord, I've brought forth a man.

Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel also brought an offering, fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. We'll just pause there.

Names in the Old Testament are really important. It wasn't just like going and picking from the catalogue and saying which name did you like? They have significance. And Cain, I say hesitantly, I'm no linguist, but Cain has this kind of strength and purpose and he's going to do stuff that's the kind of feel of Cain. Whereas Abel, it's a really odd name.

It's kind of like a bit weak and helpless and a bit kind of just vanishes. There's not much to Abel, but you could imagine that there's a lot of expectation on Cain, the serpent crusher. Could it be him? God's given us a child. And Cain takes the hard task of getting to grips with the soil and turning over.

And Abel, I'm not saying it's not hard, but he has the slightly more kind of he looks after the flocks, but both of them bring an offering to the Lord.

Have a look again. Verse 4. Abel brought an offering, fat portion, some of the best of his firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favour. So Cain was very angry and his face was downcast.

What is going on here? Why does God cherish one and not the other? Well, I think there's little clues for us as to what's going on within the text. And Cain, this self made man, he's got some food left over, some of his fruits of the soil and he just brings some of that. But Abel takes a risk in his sacrifice.

He brings the firstborn of the flock and there's no guarantee if you have a bad year that there's going to be lots more, but he brings the best and the firstborn, he lays that at Jesus feet, at God's feet. Presumably Adam and Eve have taught them about that sacrifice that happened in Genesis 3. And God has kind of been there and speaking and sharing with them and they thought, right, we're gonna, we're gonna give back to God a bit like we said in our liturgy. And Abel is able to recognise that he comes with pretty empty hands. He's weak and helpless and he's only giving back to God what God's already given to him.

But Cain, he comes with a different attitude. He. He's just, I'll come to God on my own terms, thank you very much. And Jesus tells a little story very similar to this in the Gospels. Maybe you remember it.

The Pharisee and the tax collector, they come into the temple, they come into church this morning. Two attitudes, they come. Pharisee says, aye, I'm fine, I'm good, I've done all this stuff, yeah, I'm right with God, I've sorted it. And the tax collector, aware of his own weakness and sin, cannot even lift his eyes to heaven and just praise God, have mercy on me, a sinner. And the surprise of that parable that Jesus tells, and the surprise of this passage is that the weak one is exactly the right way to go to recognise our weakness before a mighty and holy God.

That's the way to approach God. And yet at this point, Cain has a choice, doesn't he? I didn't see this first time of reading it, but Cain, he's very angry, his face is downcast, but he could look to his brother's sacrifice and say, oh, now I get it. I was approaching this all wrong. I was coming in my own strength and own capacity.

I should have been like Abel, let me have another go. In fact, God says that to him. God the counsellor comes and speaks with Cain. Not words of judgement, but words of encouragement. Do the right thing.

Verse 6. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what's right, will you not be accepted? But if you don't do what's right, sin is crouching at your door.

It desires to have you, but you must rule over it. Cain could just change tack at that point, say, gosh, I've been really silly, haven't I? Thought I could do it in my own strength. Abel showed me the way of faith. Let me go back and have another go.

But of course he doesn't. We're going to see the spiral downwards. And we get this vivid image of sin crouching at the door, ready to spring, to coil, to uncoil itself. And I was thinking about this in my own life when I've experienced that kind of thing. I was thinking about someone who really, genuinely, really hurt me very badly, pretty intentionally.

And I started to feel very bitter towards that person number of years ago. But I started to feel very bitter. And in some ways I felt I was in control of that bitterness. If I saw them, I might plaster on a smile and a nod. But behind a closed door, when I thought about them and thought what they did to me, I thought, how dare they do that?

I cannot believe they treated me like that. And weirdly, that bitterness almost tastes sweet. You kind of feel like you're in control. I can open that door and I can shut it when I like. But then what I began to realise was I couldn't shut the door.

My mind, I couldn't stop it from feeling that kind of bitterness and rage and anger. You see, sin has a way of us thinking that we are masters over it and then it has power over us. Thinking a bit like, I don't know how you react when you see a spider, a big spider in your house. Maybe it scuttles along the floor. What do you do?

Move a little bit away, you see the spider. But then maybe you're in trouble. Gosh, that was a really big spider. Maybe you go and try and follow the spider, have a little look, get a little bit closer, not too close, but a little bit look. Maybe you even call someone else in.

You say, gosh, have you seen the size of this spider? Not so in Australia. I found in Australia. My wife's Australian. I spent some time out there.

I remember vividly sitting in a living room one day and a spider running across the floor and bam. Before I knew it, someone had taken the shoe off and squashed the spider and killed it. You don't mess with it, it's nasty, it's going to hurt you. Back in the day, it could have killed you if you don't get the anti venom.

Sin crouching at the door and God says, kill it. Don't entertain it, don't welcome it, don't think about it, kill it. And he says that to Abel, doesn't he? It desires to have you, but you must rule over it and we cannot do it ourselves. What should Cain have done at that point?

He should have thrown himself on the mercy of God and said, God, I am so angry I'm so angry at you for the way that you've looked at Abel. I'm so angry at my brother. But please help me. Help me change my heart. I need your help.

Please, God.

And maybe there's a situation in our lives where we've been inching closer towards that. Maybe we've been inching towards the sin. And maybe the sermon, almost as it were, ends for you here this morning because you just want to spend the next few moments praying and saying, God, this thing. And it's heavy on my heart and you need to help me, God, to kill it. Because without it, we'll see in the next few verses, the spiral just continues downwards and downwards.

Because what happens in verse eight, Cain said to his brother Abel, let's go out to the field. While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

We are only just out of Eden and already jealousy, bitterness, rage has led to murder. And the next few weeks we'll see. The spiral just keeps going down and down.

But even in that moment, there is grace. Maybe you come in this morning and you say, wow, I've messed up so much. There's that thing that I've almost hidden from myself, but it's in my past and it kind of has this power and hold over me. Even in that moment, God is gracious to Cain. What does he do?

He comes and speaks to him again. The Lord said verse nine to Cain, where is your brother Abel? Very similar to the Garden of Eden. God comes close and asks the question to draw out the response. But Cain's response is flippant.

I don't know. He replied, am I my brother's keeper? The Lord said to him, what have you done? Listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hands.

When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is more than I can bear today. You're driving me from the land. I'll be hidden from your presence.

I'll be a restless wanderer on the earth. And whoever finds me will kill me.

That should have been the end of Cain's story, should have been done. And our own sin and weakness should be the end of our story.

When we sense that sin, the hurt that we've done to others, we can feel helpless and lost. And I just want us to sit there if we can bear it for just a tiny bit longer. I was with some of our young people, recently played different pieces of music, just secular music, and said, what are you thinking? What are you feeling? And I played a piece of music and one person said, when I hear this music, I think of someone who has walked far away from God and is lost.

The words within the song talk about hiding away, fading away. And it says this. You can't find paradise on the ground on the earth can't find paradise on the ground. It could be Cain's song. So we're just going to listen, just to feel the weight of it for a minute or so, and then we'll look at the final bit of the passage.

All you do is hide away all you do is all you do is hide away all you do is chase the day all you do is all you do is chase the day all we do is lie and wait all we do is all we do is lie and wait all we do is feel the fade all we do is all we do is feel the fade I've been upside down I don't want to be the right way round I find paradise on the ground I've been upside down I don't want to be the right way around I find paradise on the ground should be Kane's story. Game over. He's killed his brother. Violence and death. His life should be done.

But I wonder, as it was read, did you hear that? Mark of Cain? It's a bit bizarre, wasn't it? The mark of Cain. What's that all about?

Verse 15. Oh, let's go from 14. Today you're driving me from the land and I'll be hidden from your presence. I'll be a restless wanderer on the earth. Whoever finds me will kill me.

But the Lord said to him, not so. Anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over. Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.

Cain, when he hears the judgement of God, he has like a little tiny seed, like a little kind of gem of faith, just really small. And he kind of pleads to God, this is so much. I don't know if I can take it. Being sent from your presence, facing death, I don't know how I'll do it. And God puts this mark on Cain.

Not a mark of character, judgement, but a mark of grace. The next time we will hear these words in Genesis, or this idea of a sign, it will come in Noah's time, it will be the rainbow, the sign of grace. And here is Cain, the worst. And he has shown grace upon grace. You see, in this downward spiral, God is still giving Cain a chance.

Verse 16. So Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. He's east of Eden now. He's gone, but he's outside of the presence of God. It suggests that he could come back.

It's not the end of his story. It's not death. Even now, he's still got a chance. And the New Testament says that you and I have a chance, a chance of a way back through the Lord Jesus, through the serpent crusher. Hebrews 12 picks up this idea and says that you and I, if we believe in Jesus, have come to Christ Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.

To the blood. Sorry, to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Tim Keller, very helpfully on this, says that all unshed blood cries out for justice. That's what's happening in verse 10. Did you hear it? God says, what have you done? Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.

And Keller points to the verse in 1 John 8. We often have read here that we say, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and he's just to forgive us our sins. If you confess both faithful and just, and you say, how's that possible? How is Jesus blood better for me than the blood of Abel? How does it speak a better word?

Again, Keller on this says that the blood shed for you means that God has paid the price forever and ever and ever for the payment. That's a total full payment of Jesus blood on our behalf. And it would be unjust of God to ever ask for a second payment. He won't do that. He can't do that.

Keller says, you're utterly safe, utterly secure. And some of us think, well, I'm secure if I just don't do too many bad things, if I don't really mess up. But then maybe I'm secure. But no, God will never ask for a second payment. Jesus first one was full and complete.

For every sin, every mistake that haunts us from the past. See, we all have things that we would be deeply ashamed for other people here to know about, things that happen internally and externally. But Jesus in that courtroom on that final day can say to God, God, act in a just way. Please, God, don't change your nature. Be just towards Matt Porter and his sin.

Deal with it just as you need to God, but know that it's been paid for here, not at Matt's door, but at Jesus door. And then Jesus can turn to you or I. And he can speak a better word than Abel's sacrifice, than Abel's blood. His sacrifice can speak words of mercy and forgiveness, mercy and forgiveness to us.

See, verse 16 says that Cain is outside of God's presence. But while he was alive, presumably, he could seek a way back. He could have even at that moment, fallen on his knees and asked for forgiveness. He could have said, please take by faith the same path that Abel was taking to trust in God's promises, not in his own resolution to fix it, but in God to sort it out. And Jesus, death and resurrection shows that Cain's like us can have a way back too.

See, the offer on the table is stand before God and answer for every drop of wrongdoing you or I have ever accumulated in our life. Or instead. Or instead, look to Jesus. Precious, precious blood. And like Abel, by faith, find God's eternal favourite and forever home.

That's the offer on the table. The old hymn says, what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fountain. Ow. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. It's a great truth.

And so just before I pray. Let me. I know it's been a kind of heavier passage and tone. Let me lift you just a tiny bit. I was sat the other day.

I was driving back into Linfield and I was driving and I was sat behind a bus and on the back of the bus it said this. It said, we're hiring people like you.

Read it a few times. Thought you're hiring people like me. I would love to see the Venn diagram overlap of Church of England curates and bus drivers. You're hiring people like me? Are you sure about that?

But this passage tells me that I am in the line of Cain. Undeniable. I've felt jealousy. So has everyone in this room. I would love to be sinless, but I'm not.

But it tells me if I'm like Cain, I could be like Abel. I could be like Abel. I could act in faith despite persecution and death, despite all that might come against me. I can put my faith in Jesus and I could be like Abel and follow his path. See, we've all hidden.

We've all hidden from God. We've all turned to our own way. But Jesus has kept open the door and given us a way back. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, in that list of sin and chaos that's come into our world, we recognise much has happened to us. How much have we brought ourselves from our own hearts. And please spare us from being like Cain and trying to fix it and sort it ourselves. It won't work, Lord, and you show us that so clearly. But instead give us hearts of faith like Abel, to trust in your promises, to bow before you and to know that Jesus blood has dealt with every sin.

Precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fountain. I know nothing but the blood of Jesus. Amen.