This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig is all about connecting you to the never-changing truth of God's Word through verse-by-verse teaching. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others. Before we get started with the program, we want to invite you to check out connectwithskip.com. There, you'll find resources like full message series, the CWS app, and more. While you're at it, be sure to sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails and receive teaching from God's Word right in your inbox each day. Sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. There's three reasons or three ways that Abel's sacrifice was superior to Cain's. Number one, the kind of offering that he brought.
The kind of offering. It was a blood sacrifice, and he did it by faith. That is, I believe by faith that a substitution must be made.
An animal must die on my behalf. As I bring this offering before the Lord, I'm making a testimony that I believe in the necessity of substitutionary atonement. And that's the idea behind verse four, by faith.
He did it by faith. Cain brought what he had, but he left out the blood. So the kind of sacrifice. Number two, the quality of sacrifice.
The quality. There is no mention of the quality of Cain's offering. There is a mention in Genesis of the quality of Abel's sacrifice.
He says he brought the firstlings and their fat or literally even the fattest ones. In other words, he brought the very best he had to God. Nothing was too good for God. He didn't go out to his flock and say, OK, which is the weakest, scrawniest, sickliest lamb that's going to die anyway? I'll give that one to God. He gave the best to God.
That happens to be a pattern of giving to the Lord throughout the scripture. Rather than seeing some dumpy old thing that we have in the house that's really not doing us any good. We've used it. In fact, we've broken it. And to look at that broken down piano or broken piece of furniture and say, let's give it to the church. We've destroyed it anyway. It's not serving us anymore. It's not really good enough for our house. Let's give it to the church.
Surely they can use it. The idea is to give God the best. When David wanted to build a temple for the Lord, he was looking for a place in a high place in Jerusalem, which is today the Temple Mount, was at that time the threshing floor of Arana. And he went to him and said, I want to buy your land.
Arana said, you're the king. You're doing it for God. I'll give it to you.
And David said, no, I will not offer to the Lord burnt offerings from that which cost me nothing. It's got to cost me. I've got to feel it.
It's got to pinch. So you give it to me. You sell it to me for full price and I'll buy it and we'll build a temple. And God can have sacrifices at that temple. So the kind of offering, the quality of offering, and third, the character behind the offering.
Now watch this. Verse five. He did not respect back in Genesis four.
Verse five. He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your countenance fallen? He just was moping. He was bummed out. God said, why art thou bummed out? If you do well, will you not be accepted?
Did you notice the wording? If you do well, if you live right, if you're practicing truth in your own personal life, if you do well, will you not be accepted? If you do not do well, sin is lying or crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. God never separates the worship that you bring from the worshiper that brings whatever it is you bring. He always looks at the heart of the worshiper.
He looks at the worship, but he attaches the outward form of worship, whatever it might be, the raising of hands, the singing of songs, the giving of time, the giving of treasure, and he looks at a person's heart. And here, Cain is showing his true colors. He's showing his heart. He's angry. And he's got murder in his heart. The seed of murder is in the heart because the seed of murder is what? Anger.
Anger. Jesus said, you've heard that it was said in times of old, you shall not murder, but I say unto you, if you're angry at your brother without a cause, you've already committed murder. Cain was a murderer in his heart long before Cain was a murderer with his hands. And so he brings the sacrifice. He brings the worshiper.
Now, keep this in mind. The Bible never talks about Cain as if he's some heathen, some pagan. He's a worshiper. He's a false worshiper. He's bringing his own stuff that would bring a sense of pride. And he's angry.
He's got the wrong attitude. So God says, if you do well, will you not be accepted? Jesus, in Matthew chapter 15, quoting Isaiah, spoke about the worshippers in Jerusalem, in Israel. He said, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draws near to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me.
It's interesting. We judge worship outwardly. The same group that would say, It's not fair for God not to respect what Cain brought, is the same group who would look outwardly at worship, I believe. See, let's say you take two people in a worship service, and you see one person with the hands raised, and they're even swaying a little bit, and they're singing loudly and clearly, and tears are rolling down their cheeks.
There's such an intensity. We would look at that and say, Boy, that person is really worshipping. But if we catch somebody out of the corner of our eye, and their hands are sort of like this, or their hands are down, and they're just sort of saying the words, but they're not singing too loudly, we might judge them and say, That person needs to learn how to worship. I've got to get this crowd motivated. But what is worship? It all begins with the heart. And it's possible to raise the hands and sing loudly and be intense, while you're thinking, They're going to notice me as my hands are raised, and as I sing really loud, and especially with these tears, they're going to think, I'm really worshipping.
Now you've entered into a danger zone, right? Or maybe they're thinking, Look at that outfit that she's wearing. Or I don't like this song. I never really liked this song.
Or this is going way too long. It's possible to say something with our lips, but not be engaged with the heart. You remember the story Jesus told of the two men that went up to the temple to pray, the Pharisee and the tax collector? And Jesus said, The Pharisee prayed thus with himself.
Interesting description. Is it possible to pray not to God, but to yourself? Uh-huh. You pray it, you say it out loud, and you listen to yourself, you go, You know, that was pretty good. That was a pretty cool prayer. This is what he prayed, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people.
And he got so impressed with himself. Wasn't any true worship in that at all. Cain brought worship, but the character behind the worship was lacking. The kind of offering he brought, the quality of offering that he brought, and then the character that's behind it.
All those three would make God accept one and reject the other. Continue in verse seven. And if you do not do well, then sin is lying at the door, that is crouching at the door. Picture a wild animal crouching ready to spring into action. But you should rule, its desire is for you, that is to control you, but you should rule over it.
Now, nothing has changed. It's true in our lives. Sin is always crouching at our door.
For some of us, it's crossed the threshold, and it's inside the house, and we've given it its own room, desiring to control, but it says you must rule over it. There's a book out, put out a few years ago, called Death in the Tall Grass. It was written by a big game hunter in Africa who spoke not only of hunting wild game, but that there were a certain kind of lion that hunted human beings. Certain kind of predatory cats that were brilliant. They worked with stealth. They got the taste of human blood, and he said they would creep into the camp at night walking over several people who were sleeping to target their prey that they had targeted in advance.
Incredible stories. In fact, one large cat, he said, had killed over a hundred men and would stalk them. And they're fast.
Once they crouch and they spring, they can cover 100 yards in three seconds. So, if sin is crouching at the door, close the door. Or if Satan is knocking at the door, would you just say, Jesus, would you answer the door for me? Instead of opening the door and saying, okay, there's the devil. I rebuke you, devil, and start carrying on a conversation with him. Hide behind Jesus. Don't deal with it yourself. You ain't got the power.
Sin is crouching. Desire is to control you, to rule you. It's the battle we have, the flesh and the spirit.
But you must rule over it. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, understanding Genesis is critical to understanding the rest of Scripture. And in his book, You Can Understand the Book of Genesis, Skip Heitzig helps you discover the meaning and message of this foundational book. Embark on an epic journey to where it all began so you can understand the amazing story of God's love and our redemption in Christ. You Can Understand the Book of Genesis is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copies when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. Now Cain talked with Abel, his brother. By the way, aren't you impressed that God, instead of writing off Cain after he brought the wrong sacrifice and it wasn't by faith, that God didn't just write him off but he approached him and talked to him and reasoned it out, saying, hey, why are you so angry? See, he didn't have a right to be angry and he could stop the anger. It was his choice. The problem wasn't outside of him.
It was within him. And it could be fixed. It could stop. So God is reasoning with him, warning him, something bad is about to happen, buddy. You've got to master it.
You've got to control it. But he didn't listen to him. Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. Now there's the first murder. And it is not second-degree murder. This is not negligent homicide. This is murder in the first degree. This is murder one. And he becomes the prototype of murderers and manslayers who would come after him.
Now violence has entered the human race in a powerful way. And the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? So we have a lie and a revelation.
A lie, I don't know. You know exactly where you left his dead corpse. And it's a revelation that his heart had become so callous, so hardened toward his own fellow man, his own brother, that he would ask in an aloof, snippy kind of a way, am I my brother's keeper?
Answer, uh-huh. You are your brother's keeper, especially your own blood brother. You're to protect his life.
You're certainly not to take his life. Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground, so now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth, to receive your brother's blood from your hand. At the point that he let his anger take control and he let sin master him, that which was crouching at the door pounced upon him, he gave in to the temptation. At the moment he let sin master him and did not rule over it. He became part of, in a spiritual sense, the seed of the serpent that was opposed to the seed that would bring forth the deliverer.
And that battle goes on. Now, in the New Testament, there is a warning using Cain as an example. In the book of Jude, verse 11, it speaks about those who have gone the way of Cain. Now, the way of Cain seems to have been a pattern. I mean, the fact that Jude would call it the way of Cain, it was a known, established pattern.
And this is what I think it means. Somebody who goes the way of Cain rejects God's solution for the sin of mankind, which comes through the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ alone. Somebody who would reject that and say, I'm going to come to God the way I feel like it with my own good works or my own religious affiliation. I'll do it my way is the way of Cain. Further, to reject the admonition of God in the Scripture, to refuse to repent like Cain did when God told him, why are you angry? Don't let it happen, is to go the way of Cain.
So it's become a pattern, and many people in our world have gone the way of Cain in rejecting God's solution for their issue. So he says, verse 11, God says, so now you are cursed from the earth, the earth has been cursed, now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened up its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you, a fugitive or a wanderer and a vagabond you shall be upon the earth. So he was consigned now to a nomadic lifestyle, a wanderer in the ancient cultures, the ancient Sumerian, not Samaritan, Sumerian of that Persian Gulf area, Mesopotamia area. To be banished from the land was a phrase that was used.
It was one of their greatest fears. It meant to be turned away from your family. You can't hang out at home. You have to leave. You're banished to be a wanderer. So you're leaving the protection of your family. So he said, am I my brother's keeper? Now God is saying, no one's going to be your keeper.
You're now a fugitive. You're consigned to wander, that nomadic lifestyle. And when you till the ground, it will no longer yield its strength for you. Do you realize that when Adam sinned, he didn't just make it bad for all of us. He made it bad for the environment.
I think the environmentalists should be down on Adam. Because the earth, the ground, the environment was cursed. It says that all of creation, Romans chapter 8, was made subject to futility.
Not by reason of itself, but by reason of the one who subjected it in hope. All of creation, said Paul in Romans 8, all of creation groans and travails in pain waiting to be delivered. One day it will be delivered.
It's called the millennial kingdom of Christ. The reason a millennium must occur is for God to fulfill that promise. Until then, creation groans and we groan. And we see its effects. Entropy, the second law of thermodynamics, showing that matter is degenerating or energy is actually being lost, thus matter is degenerating, is fully in play.
Things tend toward decay and getting worse rather than order and getting better. Now look at verse 13. Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear.
Oh really? Greater than you can bear? Now this is a case of self-pity when there should be repentance. I have to believe that if Cain would have said, Lord, I admit my wrong. I was angry and I did sin and it was murder. It was wrong. Please, God forgive me.
That God would have forgiven him. That's his character. That's his nature. But here, he's saying, punishment is worse than I can bear.
No, it's not. In just a few chapters, God's going to say in Genesis 9, whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. God could have killed him. That's what he deserved.
He deserved capital punishment because if God gave humanity the right to exercise capital punishment, certainly God reserves the right to exercise it as well. But he didn't do it. So here's Cain, disregarding the previous instruction of what sacrifice to bring, entering into anger, letting the anger push him down, he descended to the level of being a murderer. And now he says, it's worse than I can bear.
Waaah. Surely you have driven me out this day from the face of the ground. I shall be hidden from your face and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me. And the Lord said to him, therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him, sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. What was the mark that God set on Cain?
A lot of books written about it. We don't know. That's the best answer. You can conjecture all you want. It just says a mark. Maybe it was a mark only God could see, sort of like invisible ink. God just says you're a marked man.
It could just simply be that. God made a promise. In fact, the word sign could also be translated pledge or promise. It could be simply that God made a declaration that you're a marked man and because of what you just said is a possibility, is true, I'm going to make sure that you're marked, you're set aside. Or it could have been a physical mark of some kind.
It wouldn't be the first. If you've read the Bible before, you're familiar probably with Ezekiel chapter 9. In Ezekiel chapter 9, God tells the prophet to go through Jerusalem, actually a man with an ink horn, and mark on the foreheads a mark, a sign, of all of those that mourn or sigh over the wickedness done in Jerusalem, those who are brokenhearted because their culture is so decayed and so corrupt and they go, oh, I hate it.
I hate this sin that's around me. God says find those people and mark them so that when I wipe this city out, they'll be spared. The second case of a mark on the forehead is in Revelation chapter 7.
Remember that, 144,000. God said to the angel, mark them, put a mark, a seal on their forehead so that they would be protected during the tribulation period. So it could be either or, physical mark or simply a pledge, a declaration. Then Cain went out, verse 16, from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod. I find that when I preach, some people dwell in the land of Nod. On the east of Eden. Nod means wanderer. This was the land that he inhabited called the land of the wanderer. And Cain knew his wife.
Now wait a minute. Where did Cain get his wife? It's always the big question. It's funny, there are predictable questions that people have in Genesis.
They're so interested in this man's wife. Where did Cain get his wife? Well, look over to chapter five, verse four. After he begot Seth, that is Adam, the days of Adam were 800 years and he had sons and daughters.
And that's a long time to have a lot of them. So no doubt, and I have no problem with it, Cain married one of his sisters. Which at that time wasn't a problem. It wasn't a genetic danger zone. Today if you have close inner breeding, there's all sorts of genetic problems that occur. The gene pool is polluted.
It lowers IQ among lots of other problems. But before pollution had fully entered the human race, this is close now to the very spring of life itself. This is the offspring of the first man and first woman. And so it was much purer then and by necessity he could have married a sister. Now, if you were going to drink water from the Rio Grande, would you rather go up to Colorado at the base of Mount Canby where the origin of the water is pure and fresh and drink from it there? Or would you rather drink from it in New Mexico or Mexico or Texas after it has run its course past several cities and absorbed the pollutants from those civilizations and animals? No way!
And so too the human race over time has been polluted as time went on, so the effects prohibit, for a lot of reasons, this kind of activity, but back then, not a problem. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will take you back to where it all began so you can understand all of God's word more clearly.
Pastor Skip's book, You Can Understand the Book of Genesis, is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copies when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888.
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Simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.
