By Faith Abel Brought a Better Sacrifice (Genesis 4:1-16)

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An exposition of Genesis 4:1-16, the narrative of Cain and Abel.

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 4 and hold your place at verse 1.
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On September the 1st, 2019, we began a series of lessons in Genesis.
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We spent several weeks looking at the three opening chapters, several months actually, examining creation, examining the fall.
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And our last message in Genesis was on October 11, 2020, where we finished chapter 3.
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So today we pick up our exposition where we left off back in October.
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And I want us to remember something that we learned in chapter 3.
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After the fall, when God was pronouncing judgment upon the serpent, upon the woman, and upon Adam, we have something there called the Proto-Evangelium.
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The Proto-Evangelium is simply a Latin phrase which means the first reference to the gospel.
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God told the serpent that He was going to put enmity between His seed and the seed of the woman.
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And we would learn later in Scripture that ultimately the fulfillment of the woman's seed was the Lord Jesus Christ.
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The Apostle Paul tells us that.
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He says, in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son born of a woman.
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And that is, I believe, a reference back to the seed of the woman in Genesis 3.15.
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But it also tells us of a principle.
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Genesis 3.15, the Proto-Evangelium, tells us of a principle which we see throughout the Scripture.
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And I believe it really begins right here in chapter 4 of Genesis.
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And it is the principle of there being two lines, or might I better say, two types of people.
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The Bible describes only two types of people.
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The righteous and the wicked.
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The sons of God and the sons of the devil.
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The line of the faithful and the line of the unbelieving.
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The Apostle Paul describes them in 1 Corinthians as the natural man and the spiritual man.
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The spiritual man understands God and His Word.
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But the natural man does not understand God, does not understand His Word.
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And so there are only two types of men.
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There are only two types of people.
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There are those who are by faith made righteous.
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And there are those who are in unbelief, wicked and unrighteous.
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In fact, Psalm 1 begins, the very first Psalm begins with a dichotomy of men.
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It says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, or stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.
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But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates all day long.
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You see, the idea is there's only two types of men.
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There's the righteous man and there's the wicked man.
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There's the blessed man and there's the cursed man.
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Well, today we are going to see this line of separation exemplified personally and clearly in the life of two brothers.
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The first brothers in history.
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Cain and Abel.
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Abel, as we will see, was a son of God by faith.
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And Cain, John tells us in his first epistle, was of the evil one.
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So that is the introduction to our text.
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Let us stand and read it.
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We're going to read Genesis 4, verses 1 to 16.
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Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.
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And again she bore his brother Abel.
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Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.
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In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.
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And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.
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So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
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The Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
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Its desire is for you, but you must master it, or rule over it.
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Cain spoke to Abel his brother, and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
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Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know.
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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.
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When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength.
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You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.
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Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
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Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden.
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I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.
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Then the Lord said to him, Not so.
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If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.
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And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
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Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I pray even now that you would fill me with your spirit as I preach, that you would keep me from error, Lord, and that you would keep me from cowardice.
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I pray that your people would be moved towards faith and repentance at the preaching of your word, and Lord, if there are those here who are not yours by faith, if they have not bowed the knee, Lord, if there are those who are here walking in the way of Cain, I pray that today they would repent, and that they would come to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who can save, the only sacrifice available.
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Lord, the only one to whom we must believe and in whom we must believe.
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We pray it in his name.
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Amen.
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One of the most repugnant truths of the message of Christianity in the minds of lost people is the exclusivity of the gospel message.
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Most people don't mind if you say, Jesus is my Savior.
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Most people don't care if you say, Jesus is a Savior, but few people will tolerate when they hear you say, Jesus is the only Savior.
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Most people do not want to hear John 14, 6, where Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.
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We hear time and time again the world saying, there are many pathways to God.
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They draw the picture of the mountain in their mind, and they say, we're all trying to get to the top of the mountain, we're just all taking different roads, not understanding that every road except Christ leads not to the top of the mountain, but off of a cliff and into the pit of hell.
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The Bible teaches one way.
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It does not teach many ways.
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It teaches only one.
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And God is not wrong in only giving one.
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He is gracious in giving any at all, for we deserve not even one.
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And yet He has given us one.
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He has given us one great way, one only way, one powerful way of salvation, His Son Jesus Christ.
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And therefore it sets up a simple dichotomy in the world.
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You are either right or you are wrong.
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When it comes to salvation, there is no gray area.
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There is not almost saved.
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There is not like in horseshoes, where if you're just a little close, you make it.
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No, you're either in Christ or you're outside of Christ.
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There was no one hanging on the side of the ark.
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You were either in the ark or you were in the judgment of God in the water.
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There is either the way of the godly or the way of the worldly.
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The way of Christ or every other way which leads to hell.
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And in our text today, we see two men, one who exemplified the godly way and the other who exemplifies what I am going to describe as the worldly way.
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And the narrative of their life is not long.
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It only takes up 16 verses.
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Their whole life, essentially, is given to us in 16 verses.
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But their story is deep, even though it is not long.
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And we have an outline today.
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I didn't put it on the screen for you, so forgive me.
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I didn't get a chance to do this.
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But again, if you ever want my notes, just feel free to send me an email.
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But here's the outline.
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I have seven points.
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But it's quick.
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There's actually six.
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Six short points.
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We're going to see two brothers, two offerings, two opportunities, two questions, two punishments, and two protections.
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So that's the outline of the 16 verses.
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So without wasting time, let us move right into the text and look at the two brothers.
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Verse 1 says, Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.
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And again she bore his brother Abel.
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Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.
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This is the introduction of the two firstborn men in human history.
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If you think about it, Adam and Eve were not born.
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They were made.
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Adam and Eve were created.
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God spoke and formed Adam from the dust of the ground.
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And He took from Adam a rib, and He created Eve from that rib.
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And so Adam and Eve are created, not born.
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So we have these two men.
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They are the first to be born in all of human history.
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And we have here an account of their conception.
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And the biblical euphemism is, Adam knew Eve.
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Interestingly enough, the word know in the Bible rarely simply means to have a passive knowledge.
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Like if I say, well I know this person, or I know that person.
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In the Bible, when the word know is used, it's almost always used in the sense of the intimate, loving relationship.
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The Bible talks about God knowing Israel, Amos 3.2.
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It talks about Him foreknowing us before the foundation of the world.
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Romans 8.28 and 29, it says, For whom He foreknew, He predestined.
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That's God's knowing.
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And we see here in Adam, we see He knew his wife.
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And this reminds us something about the intimate relationship between a husband and a wife.
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Brothers, the relationship you have with your wife is more than merely physical.
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The relationship that you have with your wife is intimate, not only in the body, but in the mind and in the soul.
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He knew his wife.
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This is what's different between fornication and the marriage relationship, which has sexual union and the loving sexual union.
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It's not only a union of body, but it's a union of mind and soul.
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Whereas in fornication, it is simply for bodily, physical pleasure.
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As Reverend John Thackway said, he said fornication is Satan's substitute for marriage.
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He gives you the physical, but without the knowing.
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And remember when Potiphar's wife went after Joseph? She didn't say, know me.
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She said, lie with me.
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She didn't care about the union of soul and mind.
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She cared about the union of the physical.
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But in this we see a union of body, soul and mind.
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We see Adam knew his wife.
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And from that union, from that intimate union, comes conception.
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So she conceived and bore Cain.
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And she said, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.
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Interestingly enough, the phrase with the help in the ESV, that is not in the Hebrew.
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That is a translational addition.
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The Hebrew simply says this.
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I have gotten a man, the Lord.
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That's all.
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Now the preposition can be added.
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I've gotten a man from the Lord.
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I think that's what the King James or the New King James says.
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Or I've gotten a man of the Lord.
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The preposition can be added to aid in interpretation.
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So it's not wrong to necessarily do that.
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But the point I want to show is when Eve exclaimed, I've gotten a man.
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She's saying, in my heart I believe she's actually referencing back to the promise given in the curse of the serpent.
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What was the curse of the serpent? Your seed will crush his head.
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And she says, I've gotten a man.
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Why does she care? Why is it such a big deal? It's not just because she had a baby.
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It's because she thinks this is the one.
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This is the one who's going to crush the head of the serpent.
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In fact, some have even went as far as to argue that what she's actually saying is I've gotten a man, Yahweh.
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I've gotten a man, the Lord.
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Now I don't know if her particular theology would have been robust enough to come up with an understanding of God incarnate.
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But that is what would happen.
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Eventually God would come in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And a man, the Lord, would come.
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But whether or not we know if Eve really understood that much to insinuate that in this text, I don't know.
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But I do know this, her statement is I've gotten a man.
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And it's an exclamation.
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And whether she says from the Lord or the Lord or how we are to take that, I'll leave that to you to decide.
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But I'll say this, she is excited I believe because this is the one to her that's going to crush the head of the serpent.
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And I think Satan may have thought that as well.
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Why does he put it in the heart of Cain to be a murderer? Why does he attack this one so viciously? Because maybe he thinks he's the head crusher as well.
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So we have this man, Cain, is born.
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And there's an exclamation of the mother.
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I've gotten a man from the Lord.
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And notice it says, and again, she bore his brother Abel.
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I want to suggest something to you today that you may come to me later and you say, Pastor, that's not in the text.
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I understand it's not in the text, but I want to explain why I think this may be the case.
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I think Cain and Abel may have been twins.
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Here's why.
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And this didn't come from me.
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This actually argued by Calvin and several other commentators.
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But Calvin makes the argument that only one conception is mentioned but two births.
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Later, when Seth is mentioned at the end, it mentions another conception.
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But for Abel, another conception is not mentioned.
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And Calvin's argument was basically this.
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As the Lord is filling the earth with people, twins may have been more common as to bring more people into the earth and to fill the earth.
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That was the purpose of creating Adam and Eve to begin with, was that they would fill the earth and subdue it.
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So you say, can you prove they were twins? No, but I can prove this.
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It doesn't mention Abel's conception.
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It only mentions one conception and two births.
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So is it possible that the two may have been twins? Yes, it is possible.
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And I think later as we see, these men are very similar and yet very different.
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And oftentimes we see throughout the Scripture God uses twins.
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Think about Jacob and Esau.
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Two very similar.
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No more similar in the sense of when they were born, how they were born, what womb from which they came, and when they came, and yet very different.
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And the distinction God makes between the two is what? From the womb I chose Jacob and not Esau.
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An interesting reality.
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So we see the two men.
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We see they are both born to Adam and Eve.
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We know not whether or not they are twins, but there's evidence to suggest they possibly were.
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But we also see their occupations.
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It says in verse 2, it says that Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground.
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Interesting.
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You say, well, why does it mention this? Well, it's going to go on to talk about their offerings, and I think that's part of the reason why it's mentioned.
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But it also tells us something about the fact that work is something that has been going on since the beginning, and the idea of occupation is something that has been going on since the beginning.
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Oftentimes our occupations help define us.
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What's the first thing you ask a man when you meet him? Hi, I'm Keith, you're Mike, and I'm talking to six of you.
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There's Mike.
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Okay, Mike, what do you do? Isn't that the first thing? We ask one another.
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Now, that isn't how we should define each other, but it is because often what we do does tell something about us.
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And so we see the occupations here.
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We see that these men were workers.
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One was a worker of the field, the other was a worker of the flock.
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And again, I referenced Reverend Thackway, who was very helpful to me in what he spoke on this.
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He says, leisure is an interlude, not a calling.
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Leisure is an interlude, not a calling.
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We're called to work.
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We're called to be workers.
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And we see these two men, their occupations are mentioned.
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One is a worker of the field, the other a worker of the flock.
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So we see the two brothers.
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Now we see, beginning in verse 3, their two offerings.
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It says, in the course of time came brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel also brought of the firstborn of the flock and of the fat portions.
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And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.
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So Cain was very angry and his face fell.
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The phrase, in the course of time, here actually refers to a specific time.
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We know not when.
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It does have, in the Hebrew, an idea of the end of something.
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So this could be a reference to an end of an interval of time.
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Some believe this is a reference to the Sabbath, that at the end of the days, at the end of seven days, this would have been the time that they brought forth their offering.
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But the text doesn't tell us that.
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That's simply something we can infer, possibly, from the text.
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But one thing that we do know is this, is that they had a time in which they brought their offerings to the Lord.
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And both bring their offerings from their labors.
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Abel brings from the flock.
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Cain brings from the field.
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But special notice, I want you to notice something.
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Special notice is given to Abel.
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Look again at verse 4.
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It says, Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock, and of their fat portions.
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So what this tells us about Abel's offering, is that Abel brought not only the first, but the best.
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He brought not only the first of the flock, but he brought of the fat portions, the better part of the flock.
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This indicates that Abel came to God desiring to give a good offering.
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But nothing like that is said of Cain's offering.
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Notice when it says of Cain's offering, it says Abel brought of the firstborn of the flock, and the fat portions.
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But in verse 3, it says, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground.
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It says nothing about the first fruits.
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It says nothing about the best fruits.
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It simply says that he brought fruit.
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And as Brother Brian Borgman mentioned, he says, you could interpret this as to simply say, he brought any old pumpkin.
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He was walking to the offering, remembered that he had something that he needed to give to the Lord.
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So he looked around and he saw a pumpkin.
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And he said, well, here's a pumpkin.
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I'll take this and make it my offering.
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So there is an attitudinal difference between these two men that can be inferred from the text.
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The attitudinal difference is that one is bringing any offering, the other is bringing the first and the best of his offering.
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And it says God had regard for Abel's offering, but for Cain's offering, he did not have regard.
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And I want to mention this.
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The text does not tell us two things.
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Number one, the text does not tell us how they knew that God had regard.
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I think it's interesting.
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The text doesn't tell us how they knew that God accepted one and didn't accept the other.
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Some commentators suggest that perhaps that there was a fire from heaven that came down and consumed the offering.
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And we actually see this in the Bible.
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Leviticus 9.24, they would lay the offering up and a fire would come down from heaven and would consume it.
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And it would show that God was receiving it.
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So perhaps what happened, and I'm not arguing this, I'm just saying this is an option of what possibly happened, is Cain came and laid his pumpkin.
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And again, we don't know if it was a pumpkin, it could have been anything.
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But he came and laid his fruit up on the altar and Abel came up and laid the firstling of the flock in the fat and God's fire fell and took up Abel's offering and it was gone in an instant showing that God received it and there sat Cain's pumpkin wilting in the afternoon sun.
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Could be.
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Doesn't tell us.
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But they knew.
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Now we know later that God is still interacting verbally with Cain and Abel, so it could have just been that God said, hey, I take that one, I don't take that one.
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I mean, it could have been as simple as that.
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We don't know.
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But we do know that God had regard, meaning He received one and He did not receive the other.
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So we don't know how they knew, but we know that they did know.
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And we also do not know for certain why God received one and not the other.
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But I want to make some arguments based on the text.
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Because some people will say this.
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Some people will say the reason why God accepted Abel's offering and He didn't accept Cain's offering is because Abel's offering was an offering of blood and Cain's offering wasn't.
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And there is in the book of Hebrews a reminder to us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
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So some have used that to say it's because it lacked blood was the reason why God accepted Abel and not Cain.
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But here, let me just challenge your thought, because that may be the way you're thinking today.
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Let me just challenge this.
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There are many passages of Scripture which tells us that God did in fact receive fruit and grain offerings in the Old Testament.
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And there is nothing that indicates that this is a sin offering.
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Were it a sin offering it would have required blood.
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But if this is not a sin offering, if this is simply an offering of thanksgiving, then the issue of blood wouldn't be the issue.
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If you have your Bibles open, hold your place in Genesis and turn to Hebrews 4.
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I think Hebrews 4 actually tells us the answer to the question.
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And it isn't the blood that is the main thing.
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I think what is the main thing is the heart of the giver.
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And I'll show you in Hebrews 11-4 what I mean.
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If you go to Hebrews 11, you probably are familiar with Hebrews 11 because it is called the Hall of Faith.
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And it refers to the great faithful men and women down through history.
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And when I preached through Hebrews several years ago, I spent several months going through the lives of each of these faithful people.
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Such a wonderful testimony is given.
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But if you look at verse 4, it says, 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 yet speaks.
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So notice what the text says twice there about Abel that was different than Cain.
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It wasn't the type of offering that was brought.
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It wasn't that it was blood versus unblood or that it was flock versus field.
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The difference is Cain did not bring his offering by faith, and Abel brought his offering by faith.
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Notice again it says, By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice or a more acceptable sacrifice.
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So what was the difference between Cain and Abel's offering? One was given in faith.
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And if you go back to Genesis and you read the story again, with that in mind, you start to notice things like the first fruits.
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Abel brought the first thing of the flock.
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He brought the fat of the flock.
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Cain did not.
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Why? Why? Because Cain is not coming in faith.
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He's coming perhaps out of religious obligation.
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Perhaps he's coming because this was what was supposed to be done.
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This is what mom and daddy, which would have been Adam and Eve, told me I'm supposed to do.
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This is my obligation.
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This is my religious activity.
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But it's not what I want to do.
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And it's certainly not what I'm doing in faith.
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So of the two offerings, I think the quality stands not so much in the quality of what was given as much as in the quality of the heart that gave it.
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We have the heart of Abel, which gave in faith.
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And by faith, Abel gave a better sacrifice.
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So I would ask you today, honestly, why are you here? Just to stop and put a quick application point.
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Are you here out of obligation? Or are you here by faith? Are you here because you feel like you need to be and have to be? Or are you here because you want to be? Because you know the Lord has called us to gather.
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Do you come and sing in faith? Or do you sing for some other reason? Cain did not come in faith.
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He came, but he did not come in faith.
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Abel, by faith, brought a better sacrifice.
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I think sometimes we get so caught up as, you know, Reformed Calvinistic believers, we get so caught up in election.
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We think about election so much.
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We talk about God choosing and predestining and all that.
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And we forget the reality that faith is still a part of that.
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You see, we are chosen by God, but we believe.
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You see, God gives us the ability to believe, but we still believe.
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That's an important reality is, why would Romans 10 tell us faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God? By the way, that also tells us something about Abel.
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Why was Abel able to have faith? Abel, Abel, sorry.
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Why was Abel, I can't say it any other way.
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Why was he able to have faith? Because he had heard the word of God and he believed it.
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Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
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He had heard the word of God through his parents.
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He had heard the word of God from God and he believed it.
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Now you could say this, he was a sinner by birth and so God had to give him the ability to believe it.
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Yes, we know that.
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That is the gift of regeneration and it is necessary for us to believe.
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Absolutely.
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But still he believed it.
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Cain did not believe it.
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Cain knew God existed, did not have regard.
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You get upset.
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By the way, some people get upset that God didn't have regard for Cain.
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Do you ever get upset that Cain didn't have regard for God? Because that's really the issue.
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It's not that God didn't have regard for Cain's offering.
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It's that Cain did not have regard for God's grace.
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So we see there, that takes us to verse 5.
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Verse 6, two opportunities.
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The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
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Its desire is contrary to you or its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
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Cain spoke to Abel his brother and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
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Now I want to talk for a moment about verse 7.
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But before I do that, I just want to make reference to verse 8 quickly.
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This is the first murder in human history.
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And it reminds us something.
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Sin did not take long to go all the way.
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It isn't as if we see sin beginning with Adam and Eve and then it began to incrementally get worse and then eventually, several generations down the line, you've got murder.
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No, first generation, right out of the box.
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The first two men in history that were born of parents, that were born as sinners.
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One murders the other.
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We see the doctrine of total depravity described here because that is what Cain is.
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He is a depraved sinner working after the heart of stone that is within him.
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He was angry.
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Why was Cain angry? He was angry because God showed no regard for his offering.
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He was angry because God did not give him regard for his offering.
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But he couldn't kill God, so he kills the image bearer of God.
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By the way, that's an important reality because men today would kill God if given the opportunity.
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The heart of man hates the God who created him.
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Because he is responsible to that God.
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Given the opportunity, he would kill God, but he doesn't, so what does he do? He kills God's image bearer.
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He kills God's man.
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He kills God's faithful one.
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But this murder was preceded by a conversation with God.
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God spoke to the sinner, Cain.
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He says, why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, and there's a translational difference here.
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There's a interpretational difference because I want to share with you very quickly.
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And I could spend all day on this.
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I don't want to.
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In most of your Bibles, it says sin is crouching at the door.
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Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
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And most people interpret that to mean this.
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If you do well, you'll be accepted.
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And if you don't do well, know this.
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Sin is at the door like a crouching tiger seeking to overtake you.
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So you have to master that sin.
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That is a very popular interpretation.
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In fact, that's the way that the ESV in one of its versions translates it.
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In one of the versions of the ESV, it says sin is crouching at the door.
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Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.
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So the idea there is sin is personified like an animal waiting at the door to pounce.
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And that is one way of interpreting this passage.
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And I would say it is among commentators a pretty popular way.
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And so if that is the way to understand it, then basically what God is saying is you have two choices here.
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Do right and you'll be accepted.
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Do wrong and know that sin is waiting at the door and it's going to attack you.
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And so you need to master that sin.
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But there is another way to understand this passage that I want to share with you that I think at least deserves our attention.
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The word sin here, it says sin is at the door.
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Sin is crouching at the door.
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Is the same word which is often used for offering or sin offering.
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In fact, throughout the writings of Moses, that is the vast majority of the way that that word is translated.
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Not as sin, but as an offering for sin.
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And so what it could be saying, God could be saying this.
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If you do not do well, there is an offering that is available.
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It's at the door, but you must take advantage of it.
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You must receive that offering for your sin.
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And in this sense, it would be a sin offering.
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Going back to the question of blood versus not blood, it would be a blood offering.
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It would be a sin offering.
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And in Matthew Henry's commentary on this passage, he mentions this.
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He says, those well-deserved to perish in their sins that will not go to the door in interest of the sin offering.
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Ultimately, what Matthew Henry is saying is this.
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He's saying those who do not take of the offering that God has provided are abandoning all hope.
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There's an offering that's available for your sin, but you have to go and take of that offering.
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And if you don't, you will be lost.
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And Matthew Henry compares this to Revelation 3, where Jesus stands at the door and knocks.
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He says, think of the sin offering at the door.
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Available, but Cain is unwilling to receive it.
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You say, well, brother, which is right? I think it's a difficult translation.
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I think it's difficult.
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As I said, the more popular one is the first one I mentioned, that sin is like an animal crouching to attack.
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But I do think that there's merit in the idea of seeing this as an offering.
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God has provided an offering that we must take.
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And if we don't, the consequences are disastrous.
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So we see two opportunities, do well or not do well.
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And then we have two questions.
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Verse 9, Then the Lord said to Cain...
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Oh, I'm sorry, I jumped ahead.
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Verse 8, Cain spoke to Abel his brother, and he led him out to the field, and there he murdered him.
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Now we don't get much in that verse, but what we do get is this.
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This was premeditated.
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The murder here is premeditated.
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He spoke to his brother Abel.
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I believe that that's specifically referring to leading him out.
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Come out to the field for a conversation, brother.
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Come out to the field for a conversation.
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And when they arrived in the field where no one was watching...
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And by the way, at this point, we don't know for sure, but at this point, there's more people in the world.
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We don't know how many.
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But at this point, because later he's going to talk about people are going to kill me.
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Cain's going to talk about people are going to kill me.
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These would have been his brothers and sisters.
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So Cain, in killing Abel, is drawing him away into the field where nobody will see.
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So this, again, speaks of premeditation.
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This isn't just I'm angry and I hit something.
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No, I think about how can I do this where no one will see me.
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So he goes and he convinces his brother to come out into the field.
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He rises up against his brother Abel and he kills him.
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Couldn't come up with the verb for slay.
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Slew, thank you.
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And he slew him right there.
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And then we see the two questions.
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Then the Lord, verse 9, Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel? And he said, I do not know.
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Am I my brother's keeper? Can you imagine getting sassy with God? I read that several times this week, thinking about my 8-year-old.
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Because I love my 8-year-old with all of my heart.
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But she's just getting old enough to get sassy.
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She didn't used to be.
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But she's getting to that point where she'll say like, fine.
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I'll say, go clean your room.
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Fine.
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And everything in me just grates.
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Because I know that it's not fine.
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That sassiness is not an endearing quality.
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But that's this.
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Am I my brother's keeper? Is it my day to watch him? That's the sarcasm, right? That's the sass.
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Can you imagine sassing the Lord Almighty? This is what Cain is doing.
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This is the hard heart of sin.
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You can almost hear the searing of his conscience like a steak on a hot pan.
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And God demonstrates that nothing is beyond his sight.
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Verse 10, it says, The Lord said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.
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What have you done? I want to make a mention of something from verse 10.
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Abel never says anything.
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If you read the text again, go home today.
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Read over verses 1-16.
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Abel has no voice in this narrative at all.
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And yet, if you go to the book of Hebrews, it says his faith speaks.
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His faith speaks.
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And what does God say to Cain? Your brother's blood is crying out from the ground.
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Your brother's blood is crying out from the ground.
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So even though he never speaks verbally, his blood cries for vengeance and his faith speaks volumes.
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And then we see the two punishments.
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Verse 11, And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
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When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength.
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You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.
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Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
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Behold, you've driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden.
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Shall I be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth? And whoever finds me will kill me.
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God punishes Cain in two ways.
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One, he says, The ground will no longer reward you for your labor.
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Cain had a way with the ground.
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No more.
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That gift that he had to cause the ground to yield up its fruit to him would no longer be his gift.
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His green thumb is going to turn white.
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And he will now be a fugitive in all the earth.
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And this is why I believe that there are more people at this point who have been born.
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I believe Cain and Abel were first, but, well, and then we have Seth and we have others.
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There'll be others that are born.
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But notice Cain is sorrowful.
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He's sorrowful but not repented.
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Can you be sorry and not repented? Well, if you don't think you can, go to 2 Corinthians 7 and look at verse 10.
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2 Corinthians 7, 10 says this, Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation, but worldly grief produces death.
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I preached this at Set Free this week.
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There's a difference between godly grief and worldly grief.
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You want to know the greatest difference? You want to know the example of that? Look at Peter and Judas.
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Peter had godly grief which led to repentance.
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Judas had worldly grief that led him to the noose.
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That's the difference.
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Cain has grief but it's not repentance.
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Why do we know this? Because what he says, it's more than I can bear.
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My punishment is more than I can bear.
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Lord, what are you doing to me? You're going to make me a fugitive in all the earth and you're taking away my ability to produce for myself.
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But, you know, he never says this, I'm sorry that I hurt my brother.
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I'm sorry I stole my brother's life.
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I'm sorry that I attacked an image bearer of God.
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He never comes about his sin.
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Only the consequence of sin.
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And I will tell you this, if all you care about is the consequences of your sin and not the sin itself, you have not repented.
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The sin itself must be addressed.
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Like David in Psalm 51 who said, Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight.
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But God provides protection because Cain says they're going to kill me.
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When people hear about this, they're going to kill me.
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God provides him protection even in the midst of his judgment.
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God judges him.
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Takes away his ability to work the ground and he takes away his home.
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He says you're going to be a wanderer.
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You're going to be a fugitive.
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But verse 15, we have two protections given.
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It says, Then the Lord said to him, Not so.
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If anyone kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.
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So God provides a verbal protection.
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Nobody lays a hand.
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I've already judged him.
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I've already put on him the judgment.
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Therefore, no one else.
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What does the Bible say? Vengeance is...
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I've heard people say that about themselves.
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The Bible says vengeance is mine.
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No, it's not mine.
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It's his.
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The person speaking when it says vengeance is mine is God.
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And God is the one who judged Cain.
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And somebody says, Well, Cain deserved to die.
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He took life.
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Genesis 9, 6.
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Life for life, right? Genesis tells us he should die.
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God's the one who determines that.
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And at this point, God did not determine that he would seek the death penalty in Cain.
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But rather, he gave him a different judgment.
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And we are not to follow up God's judgment with our own.
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And not to seek vengeance above, beyond what God has done.
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But there's a second thing he does.
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He puts a mark on him.
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It says, And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest anyone who finds him should attack him.
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Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
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Well, the mark, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this because there's really not a lot that we know.
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He's given a mark and it marks him out.
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Was it a physical mark? Most likely, because people could see it.
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But what was the physical mark? We don't know.
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We know this.
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There's later in the Bible marks given in the book of Revelation.
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A mark is given to the righteous and a mark is given to those who take the mark of the beast.
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So it seems to be that's hearkening back to Cain.
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But we don't know in what way or how and how physical that mark's going to be.
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But we know this.
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Cain was given away a protection because God had already leveled his judgment.
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It wasn't for his brothers and sisters who would have wanted to take vengeance.
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It wasn't for them to seek vengeance.
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God had already enacted his vengeance on Cain.
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And now Cain would go on, and we'll see next week, Cain would go on and produce a generation.
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And from that generation, we will see many ungodly people come.
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But one last thing in verse 16, it says, Then he went away from the presence of the Lord.
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Notice, he went away from the presence of the Lord.
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That's actually not possible.
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Because the Bible says that we can't actually escape God's presence.
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It says, If I go up into heaven, you are there.
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If I go down into Sheol, you are there.
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God's everywhere.
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But, there is a reality where this isn't talking about the physical presence of God, but there is a reality where one can divide from fellowship with the Lord and can leave the presence of God in a spiritual sense.
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And I think that Cain's departure is one, not only of the physical place where he would bring his offering to the Lord, but he was separating himself from God.
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He would no longer be meeting with God at the end of the time, at that appointed time.
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He would no longer be going and offering his offerings.
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He would no longer be in relationship with God.
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Cain would go to Nod.
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We'll talk more next week about what that means.
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But he'll go to this place where he and his wife will create a generation of ungodly people.
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At the outset of today's message, we pointed out that this was a story about two brothers.
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The first born men of history.
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And they were alike in several ways.
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They were both worshippers, though one was a false worshipper.
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They were both religious, though one had a false religion.
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They were both creationists.
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They would have heard from their parents that they were created, not born.
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And they were both reared by parents who feared the Lord.
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You say, why are you bringing this up? Well, beloved, I look around this place and I think about the fact that there are many, many children in this room.
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Many of them are being raised as worshippers.
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You're bringing them here.
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You're raising them as religious.
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You're raising them probably as creationists.
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And you're God-fearing parents raising them up.
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And I know that many parents say, well, I just hope my child doesn't turn out to be an atheist.
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Well, remember this.
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Cain wasn't an atheist.
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Cain believed in God.
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But he didn't believe God.
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Oh, how many times have I heard people say, I'm saved because I believe in God.
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Understand this.
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The demons believe and shudder.
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Believing in God is not faith.
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Believing God is faith.
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Trusting in Him.
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So as I look around and I ask you this, do you believe in God today? Certainly you do.
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The Bible says every man knows God exists.
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It's known by nature and in our heart.
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But do you believe God? Or are you walking in the way of Cain? He came to church.
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He gave his offering.
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But his heart was not right with God.
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He came and did all the religious things.
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But he was not a man of faith.
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The Bible clearly tells us there were two men that came to the offering that day and one of them brought a better sacrifice.
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Why? Because he had faith.
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The way of Cain is not the way of someone who doesn't believe in God.
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The way of Cain is someone who does not want to come to God on his terms.
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And how my hope and my heart is that none of you today are walking in the way of Cain.
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The Bible tells us clearly in Jude 11, Woe to those who walk in the way of Cain.
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I pray that you would be walking in the way of Abel.
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I pray that you would be walking by faith today.
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Because it was by faith that Abel brought a better sacrifice.
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And his blood cries out from the ground.
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But do you know what the Bible says in the New Testament? The blood of Christ is better than the blood of Abel.
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Because the blood of Abel cried out for vengeance.
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But the blood of Christ cries out and says, Come to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.
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Have you come to Christ in faith today? Is the blood of Christ what covers your sins? And do you know that you have trusted in him by faith? My prayer is that you would.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for your truth.
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And I thank you for the example of Abel who by faith brought a better sacrifice.
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And Lord, we know that ultimately his sacrifice looked forward to the one great and final sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And I pray Lord that our hearts would be trusting today not in what we do, but in the final and perfect work of Jesus.
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And it's in his name we pray.
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Amen.
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We come now to our time where we're going to receive the Lord.