The First Murderer and the First Martyr

Introduction and Review of God's Disfavor Towards Cain

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, March 15th, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 Now let us turn together to the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, and I shall read in your hearing, as I did last Lord's Day evening, the first eight verses of chapter four. And the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah. And again she bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

0:58 And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.

1:15 And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why are you angry?

1:35 And why is your countenance fallen? If you do. And if you do well, shall it not be lifted up? And if you do not well, sin couches at the door, and unto you shall be its desire.

1:51 But do you rule over it? And Cain told Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. Now let us again seek the face of God.

2:11 For his blessing upon the opening up and the application of his holy word. Let us pray together.

2:24 Our Father, we thank you for your presence with us in this evening hour of worship. We thank you for already speaking to our hearts through your word. And we pray that once again you will speak through the scriptures. We ask that this familiar story will, by the present, and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit become something more than an interesting story of an ancient happening outside the Garden of Eden.

2:59 But, O Lord, may it become your very word to the heart of every man, woman, boy, or girl in this place, so that if we leave knowing nothing else, we shall leave knowing that you have spoken to our hearts. O God, we thank you. O God, we thank you. O God, we thank you.

3:16 O God, we thank you. And hear and answer our cry, we plead, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

3:28 In our initial study of the account of Cain and Abel last Lord's Day evening, we focused our attention upon verses 1 through 5a, in which, as we saw together, we have, first of all, the introduction of Cain and Abel, secondly, the occupations of Cain. And thirdly, the offerings of Cain and Abel. And as we take up our study tonight, we shall consider verses 5b through verse 8. And I've entitled our study, The First Murderer and the First Martyr.

4:11 The First Murderer and the First Martyr. And in order to set the stage for tonight's study, let me remind you of the last statement that we examined in our previous study, that is, verse 5a, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. God's response is described to the two offerings as one of favor towards Abel in his person and towards his offering, and one of disfavorment, towards the person of Cain and to the offering of Cain. And we considered the reason for this radically different response on the part of God to the two men and their two offerings. And we saw that we need not speculate as to the cause or the reason for that response, for it is clearly given to us in three New Testament passages, Hebrews 11.4, 1, John 3.12, and Matthew 23, and verse 35.

5:26 And the summary teaching of those verses is this, Abel brought his offering as a believing man. By faith, Abel offered unto God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. And if Abel brought his offering as a believing man, then Cain obviously brought his offering, as an unbelieving man, a mere religious formalist, doing his religious thing, but without that faith, without which it is impossible to please God. And then secondly, we saw that Abel brought his offering as a righteous man. 1 John 3.12 and Matthew 23.35 describe Abel as one whose deeds were righteous.

6:20 Righteous. He was not only justified and righteous in the court of heaven, based upon the righteousness of Christ imputed to him as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, but as one whose heart had been changed, so that he loved to do what was right in the sight of God. Whereas Cain is called that one who was of the evil one. He was a son of the devil.

Cain's Reaction: Inward Anger and Outward Manifestation

6:49 And John says, his deeds were unrighteous. Now tonight we pick up the story at 5b and note first of all the reaction of Cain. The reaction of Cain. After we are told that the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, he had no respect unto Cain and his offering, this is Cain's reaction to this, obviously, perceived differing response of God to their offerings.

7:28 And Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. It's evident that God's favor and disfavor were clearly communicated to both men. How, we simply don't know. The speculations are several, but I'll not weary you with, One thing is clear.

7:54 Both Cain and Abel knew God's response to their persons and to their offerings. And when Cain perceived that his brother Abel was accepted along with his offering and that he and his person and with his offering was not accepted, there is a two-fold reaction described in this passage. First, the inward disposition of his soul, and then the outward manifestation of that disposition in his face. First of all, the inward disposition of his soul.

8:37 Our Bibles say, and Cain was very angry. More literally rendered from the Hebrew, it burned for Cain. His inner spirit became like a volcano, his inner spirit became like a volcano, his inner spirit became like a volcano, a volcano of pent-up anger ready to explode. It burned for Cain.

9:02 Now, while it is not explicitly stated, it is clear from the results that the anger was directed both at God and at his brother. He was angry that God accepted his brother and his offering. He was angry that his person and his offering, He was angry that God accepted his brother and his offering, his offering were rejected. Rather than being humbled at God's evident displeasure to his person and to his offering, and coming in the spirit of humility and saying, Oh God, you have obviously accepted my brother and his offering.

9:41 What has been deficient in my person and offering that both have been rejected? Oh God, teach me, show me, and by your grace and help I'll make whatever adjustments, I must make. That would be the proper posture of the creature before the Creator. That would be the only proper posture of the sinner before a holy God.

10:04 But instead of taking the occasion of God's explicitly manifested favor to his brother as a call to repentance and humiliation, he uses it as an occasion to allow his heart to become like the internal sections, of a seething volcano building up pressure and ready to explode. But his reaction is not only described in terms of the inward disposition of the soul, but notice secondly in terms of the outward manifestation in his face. For our text says, Cain was very angry and his countenance fell.

10:55 We think we're very smart. When in the 20th century we discover and write about what is called body language. My friends, it's as old as this plot of ground outside of Eden with the firstborn of Adam and Eve. For God not only tells us of the inward disposition of the soul, but he specifically focuses on the outward manifestation of that disposition, not generally in his body, but specifically in his heart.

11:28 Specifically in his face, his countenance fell. Men have often said that the face, particularly the eyes, are the mirror of the soul. And when his soul began to seethe with envy and anger and become this heaving internal pressured volcano of wicked internal disposition, it could not help, but affect his facial muscles and the muscles in his neck and the muscles in his eyes. And Cain becomes a sullen, shifty-eyed, fallen, countenanced man, reflecting the inward disposition of his soul. With that volcanic rumbling within his breast, he becomes a man filled with the accusations of his own self-condemnation. He becomes a man filled with the accusations of his own self-condemnation. He becomes a man filled with the accusations of his own self-condemnation.

12:30 He becomes a man filled with the accusations of his own self-condemnation. He becomes a man filled with the accusations of his own self-condemnation. He becomes a man filled with the accusations of his own self-condemnation. And also shifty-eyed in the presence of others, as he is preoccupied with this burning, devilish, demonic volcano of pent-up anger within his breast.

The Face as a Mirror of the Soul and the Anger of the Formalist

12:48 Let me say briefly by way of application before we move on to the response of God, that as then, so now, your face is often the mirror, of your soul. Isaiah 3.9 says, The show of their countenance doth testify against them. In other words, the look of the countenance is often, not always, but often, an accurate mirror of the state of the soul.

13:23 And it's amazing how you see it when you stand before a group of people like this and you preach. Some, the soul is in a state of waiting, expectation, and teachableness. And it's mirrored in a countenance that has all of the appearance of a dry, thirsty sponge, ready to soak up every insight God will give as His servants expound the Word. Whereas others have a countenance that has the look of skepticism that says, Look, preacher, nobody else ever got to me and you're not going to get to me either.

14:03 And others have a look that say, Look, preacher, nobody else ever got to me and you're not going to get to me either. When will all of this boredom end? You'd be surprised what you declare in your countenance. The show of your countenance testifies against you.

14:18 And you know when I first learned that text? I learned it when I was assistant to the Dean of Men in a Bible college. And there would be guys who were students and I had a peculiar kind of pastoral responsibility to them. And when they were fighting the things of God, being in that context, where the Word of God was brought to bear upon them continually in the classroom and in the chapel and in the dormitory and everywhere they went, you could see the look of sullen rebellion or of seething hatred and discomfort with that whole environment written upon their faces.

14:55 And often when God would have dealings with them, long before they'd come into my office to talk to me and tell me what God had done for them, I'd see it on their faces. Just as they walked across the room, walked across the camp. But the Scripture tells us in Psalm 34, 5, they looked unto Him and their faces, literally, their faces were not red with shame. As they looked unto Him, and the Word is translated in our version, they were radiant.

15:29 The inward disposition of the soul, of the gaze of faith and love upon the living and true but unseen God, reflects itself in the very countenance of those who look upon Him. As then, so now, the face is often the mirror of the soul. And as then, so now, nothing so angers a formalist in religion than to be told that his smug, self-righteous religious acts are unacceptable to God and that he is rejected by God. Nothing so angers a formalist than to be told, yes, you've done your religious thing, you've done it properly, at the end of the days, at the proper time, you've brought an offering to the proper place, but God has no respect to that religious service that comes from an unbelieving, impenitent heart, that is a stranger to its own sin and wickedness, a stranger to the true self-loathing, of true repentance, a stranger to the emptiness of faith that looks totally out of itself and away from itself to find its hope in the doing and the dying of another. To tell a formalist God looks upon all of his religious deeds, his baptism, his church membership,

16:57 his confirmation, his prayers, and all the rest as so much gilded sin is as now, so then, to cause a volcano of anger and resentment to rise up within his breast. John Calvin hit the nail right on the head when commenting on this fact. In his commentary on Genesis he wrote, Moreover in the person of Cain is portrayed to us the likeness of a wicked man who yet desires to be esteemed just and even arrogates to himself the first place among the saints. Such persons truly by external works strenuously labor to deserve well at the hands of God, but retaining a heart enwrapped in deceit, they present to him nothing but a mask, so that in their laborious and anxious religious worship there is nothing sincere, nothing that is more than pretense. When they afterwards see that they gain no advantage, they betray the venom of their minds, for they not only complain against God, but they break forth in manifest fury, so that if they were able they would gladly tear God down from his heavenly throne. Such is the innate pride of all hypocrites that by the very appearance of obedience

18:24 they would hold God as under obligation to them. Because they cannot escape from his authority, they try to soothe him with blandishments as they would a child. In the meantime, while they count much of their fictitious trifles, they think God does them great wrong if he does not applaud them. But when he pronounces their offerings frivolous and of no value in his sight, they first begin to murmur and then to rage.

18:53 Their impiety alone hinders God from being reconciled unto them, but they wish to bargain with God on their own terms. And when this is denied, they burn with furious indignation, which though conceived against God, they cast forth upon his children. Thus when Cain was angry with God, his fury was poured forth on his unoffending brother. As then, so now.

God's Response: Probing Question, Sobering Alternatives, Concluding Appeal

19:26 Well, having considered what the text tells us of the reaction of Cain, now let us notice in the second place the response of God. Cain reacts to God's acceptance of his brother and his offering, his non-acceptance of his person and offering. Now God responds to Cain. Verses 6 and 7.

19:51 And there are three basic parts to God's response to Cain's anger and his pouting countenance. We have first of all the probing question in verse 6. Secondly, the sobering alternatives in verse 7. And finally, the concluding appeal at the end of verse 7.

20:16 The probing question, verse 6. And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why are you angry? And why is your countenance fallen? In some method of clear verbal communication, the precise nature of which is not revealed, God asks a question of Cain.

20:43 And in this question, God is doing basically two things. Number one, He is informing Cain that all of Cain's ways are known to God. You see the strict parallel? In reacting to what God did, our text says that Cain was very angry, a disposition of the soul, inward.

21:07 His countenance fell, an outward manifestation. Now when God responds, He responds first of all with a probing question in which He is informing Cain, I know the state of your heart and I take notice of the look on your face. Why are you angry? Your anger is known to me.

21:35 Though it is an inward disposition, it does not escape my eye. And why is your countenance fallen? Though you may think that in the ordering of my universe, the look on your face in private and in public situation is of no consequence to me as I have greater things to do. No, Cain, I tell you that I not only read and know the disposition of your heart, but I take notice of the very look upon your face.

22:10 The probing question God brings home to Cain's conscience first to inform him that Cain's response is fully known to God in its inward disposition and in its outward manifestation. But then secondly, by this probing question God is seeking to bring Cain to an honest awareness and assessment of the true state of his soul. By this question God is seeking to bring Cain to face reality concerning himself. You see, the first step in ever getting right with God is in coming to accurate self-knowledge. The person who is determined to gloss over what he really is will never, never know the blessing of God's salvation and the inexplicable privilege of coming under the canopy of God's grace and God's forgiveness. Cain, are you angry because I've accepted your brother and I've accepted his sacrifice? I have set out the terms on which my banished creatures may approach me.

23:36 I have said they must come in the way of faith. I have said they must come in the way of owning the reality of their sin and their undone-ness and look totally out of themselves and unto me for forgiveness and acceptance. Cain, is that unreasonable that my response to your brother and his offering should reflect the reality of how things really are? In my universe in which you and your parents have sinned, in my universe, Cain, I set the terms of how men may approach me.

24:13 That I should even make a way of approach is all of grace. That I should have revealed it to your father and he to you is all of grace. Cain, why are you angry and your countenance fallen? My response to the two offerings simply reflects the reality of what I've revealed as the only way that sinful men can approach me.

24:38 Why are you angry? That I'm being consistent with myself as God? That I'm being consistent with the reality of what you and your brother and your mother and father are as sinners? Cain, are you angry because I am God?

24:56 That's the intent of the probing question. Why are you angry? Why is your countenance fallen? Then he sets before him after the probing question of verse 6 the sobering alternatives of verse 7.

25:16 If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? And if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door, and unto thee shall be its desire. Here God sets before Cain two sobering alternatives. Alternative number one is repentance leading to forgiveness and acceptance.

25:50 Repentance leading to forgiveness and acceptance. If you do well, shall it not be lifted up? That is, shall not your downcast countenance be lifted up if you do well? If you follow the pattern of your brother, if you will take the posture of your brother Abel as a guilty, wrath-deserving sinner, if you'll take the posture of your brother Abel acknowledging that the only way of approach to me is the way I've revealed by going out of yourself and trusting only in my mercy, and if you will experience what your brother has experienced, that change of heart, in which he regards me as the pearl of great price, the one who is worthy to have the best of the best in whatever is brought to me, who is concerned with more than just doing his religious thing, but you've seen him go out and take the best of the best, the firstlings and of the firstlings, the fattest of the firstlings. If you do well, if you follow the pattern of your brother, if you will go in the way of honest self, honest self-assessment, if you will go in the way of true repentance, in the way of faith, and growing out of that in the way of devoted service to me, if you do well,

27:17 will you not then know the purging away of the anger and then the fruit in the lifting up of your countenance? Or as one acute student of the Hebrew, in fact two commentators that I read took this position and were quite adamant in supporting it, that it could be rendered, is it not so if you do right, there is acceptance. The very thing that's made you angry that you've not received. I've not accepted your person or your offering.

27:52 If you do what is right, I will accept your person and offering. And the Lord is not certainly saying, if you do what is right, that is go out and earn your salvation. No, do what is right. Do that which accords with the way revealed to you.

28:06 In which sinful men can approach me. The way that your brother has come. The way of faith. Faith born of accurate self-knowledge.

28:15 Faith trusting only in my pardon and in my forgiveness. If you do well, you see the sobering alternative before you came, as you feel this volcanic eruption of anger now written all over your face. Cain, there is a way of repentance leading to forgiveness. And to acceptance.

28:38 That's one alternative. But then the Lord says there's a second alternative. It's the alternative of impenitence leading to the conquest of sin. Impenitence leading to the conquest of sin.

28:56 Look at the passage again. If you do not well, sin couches at the door and unto thee shall be its desire. Now what do those strange words mean? If you do not well, that is if you will not go in the way of your brother, if you determine to go on in the way of self-righteous formalism and indulging this fury of hell within your breast which pulls down the very muscles on your face.

29:39 That's called the way of Cain by Jude. I warn you, God says, if you do not well, if you do not heed my appeal to repent, if you do not accept my offer of forgiveness and acceptance in the way of repentance and faith, if you do not well, you will be in the way of impenitence leading to the very conquest of sin over your life. And God likens sin to a beast of prey crouching at the very door of Cain's heart and life. If thou doest not well, sin coucheth, we would say in modern English, sin crouches at the door and unto you shall be its desire. It is there like a beast of prey. And if you go on in the present way, its desire is utterly to consume you and to destroy you. Listen to Leupold, the Lutheran commentator, writing on this very passage.

30:57 Now the warning becomes still more pointed, applying directly to Cain's case, showing what the situation is if a man does not do right. In that event, sin, here mentioned for the first time in Scripture, a word bearing the basic meaning of missing the mark, has become a very definite possibility, even a menacing threat. It is likened to a wild beast. The Hebrew word is in the masculine, not feminine, agreeing in gender with the word sin.

31:31 It is masculine and it is crouching at the door. And as promptly as such a beast immediately at hand, would seize a man going out at the door, so promptly will sin leap upon one and hurt him. The figure is appropriate from this point of view. The hurt is inevitable.

31:48 The ultimate escape possible, but problematic. Completing the picture, there is the expression, it is striving to get at thee, which the authorized version renders unto thee shall be its desire. In other words, towards thee is its desire. Towards thee, towards thee is its striving.

32:08 It is there at the door. It's clawing, it's pushing, keying your about to open the door. And it is no pussycat, no lap that is there at the door. It's a beast.

32:22 It is not a pussycat that you can let in and purr on your lap and when you're done, you can shoo it out the door or throw it out the window. It's a beast of prey. It's clawing. It's seeking entrance.

32:34 You children, remember the old story you learned when you were much younger than you are now? The three pigs and the wolf? Was the wolf just looking for a lap in the different homes of the three pigs? No, he was looking for a meal.

32:54 And I'll puff until I blow your house down. And why did he want to blow down the house of the little pigs? So he could fill his belly with pork chops. He won out to come in and be their house pet.

33:14 He was at the door puffing to get in and consume them. That's the alternative, God says, is before Cain. If you do well, Cain, here's the alternative of repentance, leading to acceptance of your person and your offering. If you do not well, if you go on determined to nurse this spirit of anger and of envy boiling within, affecting your very face, sin like the angry beast is there at the door of your life, and its desire is towards you.

33:56 So God's response begins with a probing question. Then it goes on and sets before him the sobering alternatives, but then notice in 7C the concluding appeal. But do thou rule over it? What's God saying?

The Deceptive Power of Sin: A Beast of Prey

34:20 My friends, this is the gospel. This is the gospel. Although sin is ready to devour you, you need not be its conquered victim, Cain. Do you remember what Ezekiel said in chapter 18 and verse 31?

34:39 He said, Make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will you die? Is that verse teaching that man has the power to regenerate himself, to take out his heart of stone and plant a heart of flesh? Of course not. But when God says, Make you a new heart and a new spirit, he is saying, Apply yourself to the God who alone can do this for you.

35:01 The same way on the day of Pentecost after Peter preaches about Christ crucified, risen, and Christ sending the Spirit, it says in Acts 2.39, with many other words he testified and exhorted, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. Is he teaching self-salvation? No.

35:21 But he is saying, as he previously told them in verse 38, If you repent and believe and commit yourself to Christ, you will be saving yourself, delivering yourself by repentance and faith from this crooked, this condemned, this apostate generation. And so when God says in his concluding appeal, But, in spite of these sobering alternatives, this is the wish and disposition of my heart toward you, Cain, not that the beast should be let within the door, pounce upon you and destroy you, but my desire is that you should rule over it, that you should conquer that sin, that you, like your brother, should cast yourself upon my mercy, that you would own the absolute folly of thinking that running out into the field and grabbing a few fruits of the ground and throwing them in my presence at the right time in the right place will fix you all up when you've had no change of heart, when you do not see your sin, you do not see your need of grace and pardon based upon my own mercy. This is a gospel appeal to Cain. That's God's response. And by way of application, I want to say particularly to you young men and women,

36:49 do you get the picture? Particularly in that central part of the passage where God sets before Cain the two alternatives. He says, Cain, don't underestimate the power of sin. It's no domestic pussycat.

37:06 It's a devouring beast of prey. And oh, dear young people, children, will you hear me? Will you please? Even if you've come with a countenance that says, nobody's going to get to me tonight.

37:20 Nobody's going to touch me. Will you for just a moment, if you have any, any sense that maybe there's just a little element of genuine love in my heart and the hearts of God's people for you, won't you listen for just a moment? Listen, listen. The lie of the devil is that you, like Cain, can entertain sins in your heart and keep them in the posture of domestic pets.

37:51 Domestic pets that you can shoo out of doors when you want to. You can put off in a room when you desire. Leave them at the vet's or leave them at the dog pound when you go on vacation. You are the master.

38:05 That domestic pet, in that sense, is the servant. The devil's lie is always to persuade you that that's the way it is, but reality is found in the words of Jehovah to Cain. Sin couches like a beast of prey and its desire is towards you. Not to lie in your lap to make you feel comfortable by the fire.

38:31 You young men, you come into puberty and all of a sudden you feel the roaring of these engines of your sexuality. You begin to experience almost a perpetual fascination with sex and then it isn't long before you get your first glance at a girly magazine and your conscience screams at you that sin that's looking to lust on a body that doesn't belong to you. Don't do it! And you ride over your conscience.

39:07 And you know what happens? That sin of mental fantasies and uncleanness precipitated and fed by filthy girly magazines is a beast of prey waiting to consume in thirties and forties enslaved to pornography. And it all started when they were some of them before their teens. Thinking it was a little pussycat they could let in and play with and nestle in their lap and when it came time they could shoo it out of door. Now they lie helpless, bleeding, torn and rent. And I heard three weeks ago of someone who once preached in a reformed pulpit that filth has ruined his life, ruined his marriage, ruined his family and will take him down to hell. And you guys think it's just a little pussycat?

40:32 Oh no. Crouches at the door of your life and its desire is to consume you till you won't be able to look upon any woman including your own mother without undressing her in your mind. Having eyes full of adultery, who cannot cease from sin. That's what my Bible says.

41:11 Eyes full of adultery. Eyes that wherever they look, full of adultery, they cannot cease from sin. The beast is consumed. Please value your son tonight and tell your mom and dad, say I'm hooked.

41:36 The beast has already got its fangs in my neck and in my back. And then get down on your knees with them and before God and say, Oh God, deliver me from the bondage to this filth. Deliver me from the chains of uncleanness. Lord Jesus, set me free that I may rule over sin that would devour me.

Warnings Against Vanity, Drugs, and Deception

42:02 For sin shall not have dominion over you if you are under grace. Romans 6 and verse 14. You girls, some of you, God's given you fair face and fair form. And you know that.

42:21 Oh, I know when you get a zit, you think you got the biggest one in the world. And wherever you go, the whole world's looking at it. And you can't quite get the clear sill on just enough to cover it and not make it so evident that it is covered and you put some on and take a little off and...

42:40 How do you know, Pastor? Because I had a face full of zits once. And I thought the whole world was doing nothing but looking at my zits. I didn't read this in a book.

42:50 I lived with it. But in spite of an occasional zit, you've been told you got a pretty face, a nice figure, and you've begun to indulge the sin of worshiping yourself. And you're picking up the tricks of how to glance and hold yourself in such a way that you're tipsy and the guys pick up on it. And you like that, that they turn and look the second time.

43:19 And you think it's a little pussycat of vanity. And flirtatiousness that's at the door. Just a little pussycat, scratching at the door, saying, let me in. Sit on your lap.

43:29 I'll make you feel nice and warm. You young women, listen to me. Sin couches at the door like a beast of prey. And the sin of vanity and flirtatiousness is a beast that will consume you.

43:45 The day will come. You don't think so, but it will come when you'll sell your virtue and your virginity and your dignity and your nobility. Why? Because the beast will have sunk its fangs in you and its claws.

44:04 Its desire is toward you, young woman. Its desire is toward you. Don't you think otherwise. Its desire is toward you.

44:19 Same way with the drugs. I'm sure some of you, you've not already fooled around with them. You've been given the opportunity. Ah, just try a little.

44:31 How are you going to say, no big deal. You should try it. Just a little pussycat of a little mild high with a little pot. Just a couple of pills for a little high.

44:43 That's all. Just a little pussycat. Just air in your lap when you want to get rid of him. Go find a junkie sitting homeless in New York tonight with needle tracks up and down his arm and ask him if he thought that's where he'd end up.

45:02 Ask him! Ask him! No, it all starts when under peer pressure he took his first puff on the joint. And then when people told him, ah, pot ain't no high, I'd try something with a little more pop to it.

45:19 Just a pussycat, of course. Young people, don't thank God that with all the remaining sin in me the devil has no hook of any feeling of ever having a chemical high that he can stick in me and say, I'll get you with that. No, there's nothing in the memory bank for him to put a hook in. And how I thank God for his mercy in preserving me from chemical highs.

45:55 His desire is toward you. Pornography, flirtatiousness, plain cutesy, drugs, pride, lust. Oh, another, another beast that would seek to consume you young people is that of deception. Lying to cover your sin.

46:14 Oh, just a little. Just a little. I mean, lying doesn't have to come away alive. Just an occasional lie to be a little pussycat to make life a little more comfortable, to get out of a spanking here or there or pull privileges here or there or being grounded for a while.

46:31 Just a lie here. Just a pussycat lie. That's all. A little domestic pet, my friend.

46:40 As surely as drugs are addictive to the psyche and to the body, some of them, and alcohol is addictive, so lying is a kind of addiction to the soul. And God speaks of those who breathe out lies. Do you have to work hard to breathe? Oh, if you have emphysema.

47:00 But a normal person, anyone here been working hard to breathe tonight? I haven't seen anyone sitting here going, What are you doing out there? Oh, I'm just breathing. No, you've just been breathing.

47:15 It's just a natural activity. God says, get to the place where it is easy to lie if you breathe. Young people, listen to me. Sin couches at your door like a beast and it's designed and it's desire is to you.

47:35 But in the name of the God of heaven and the God of grace, do thou rule over it. In your youth, be an able who throws yourself upon the mercy of God and the power of God to break the power of sin and walk through life nobly, Christ free man, because you are Christ's bondsman. And so we've looked at the reaction of Cain. Inward, outward.

The Result of Sin: Envy and Anger Issue in Murder

48:11 The response of God, beginning with his question, setting forth the alternatives, the concluding appeal. But now verse 8, as we close the exposition. Having looked at the reaction of Cain, the response of God, thirdly, the result of sin. Verse 8.

48:33 And Cain said unto Abel his brother, and read it as though there were a dash. And the narrative broke off. Cain said unto Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. Now again, I'll not weary you with textual problems in what is called the Masoretic Text, the text that is used for the Hebrew Bible that the men in the academy use in their studies.

49:08 That's the way the text reads, as though the sentence were broken off. There are some of the old translations which supply a phrase to complete the notion. For example, in a footnote in the NIV, they do this, and they acknowledge where they get it from. He said unto his brother Abel, Let's go out to the field.

49:32 And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. However, I cast in my judgment with those who say that what we have in the Masoretic Text is correct, that God is giving us a kind of verbal shorthand. And Cain said unto his brother Dash, There was communication, communication obviously in which Cain did not disclose the intention of his heart. He did not speak out anything of God's dealings with him and of the volcanic pressure, volcanic pressure of his own anger to God and toward his brother.

50:14 But he spoke to him enough to secure his good will, and before long they're out in the field. Maybe he said, Hey, bro, let's go on out and look at my vegetables today. For remember, he was a tiller of the ground. Come and see how my corn's doing.

50:29 Not quite the fourth of July, and it's already knee-high. Come, brother, look with me. The stage is set. The stage is set.

50:37 The stage is set. He speaks to his brother Abel. He convinces him to take a walk out into the field. And after the stage is set, the deed is done.

50:50 It says he rose up and he slew him. And he slew him in such a way that it was a violent death that drew forth his brother's blood. It was not death by strangulation. It was not death by smothering.

51:08 It was death in such a violent way that the ground soaked up his brother's blood so that as we'll see God willing next week, God comes to make inquisition and says, Thy brother's blood cries unto me from the ground. Cursed are you from the earth which opened its mouth to drink up your brother's blood. And we read in Hebrews chapter 12 of that blood that speaks better things than the blood of Abel. Thus the firstborn of Adam and Eve becomes a full-blown child of his spiritual father the devil.

51:52 For he is supremely two things according to John 8.44. Ye are of your father the devil and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning.

52:06 Here his spiritual child, the seed of the serpent, shows the family likeness. And he is a murderer like his father. Next week we'll see him in the second major characteristic. He is a liar and abode not in the truth.

52:22 And when God says, Where is your brother? He blatantly lies to God. He says, I don't know. What do you mean you don't know?

52:30 You killed him and you buried him. You threw him out there amidst the corn stalks. You know exactly where your brother is. You are fully conformed to your father the devil, a murderer and the liar.

52:42 And so under our third heading, we see the result of that sin. The stage is set. The deed is done. Envy and anger issue in murder.

Lesson 1: The Frightening Power of Sin

52:58 Now in my concluding applications will you notice with me these three very simple but vital lessons that lie on the face of the whole passage. Number one, behold in this passage the frightening power of sin. Doesn't it make you want to inwardly wretch before the ugly sight of the power of sin? No wonder James says, Be not deceived.

53:26 Be not deceived with regard to the power of sin. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Lust when it hath conceived brings forth sin. And sin when it is finished brings forth from the beginnings of the first stirrings of envy.

53:49 Envy grows into anger. Anger into volcanic wrath and wrath into murder. Surely, surely Cain found it was no pussycat outside his door. It was a beast of prey that consumed him.

54:08 Bishop Hall's works that we're trying to get into the bookstore, his contemplations in which he meditates out loud through the scriptures, his section, all of it is pure gold, but his section on Cain and Abel, Abel is masterful. This is what he says, thinking out loud as he reads this scene. Oh, envy. The corrosive of all ill minds and the root of all desperate actions.

54:36 The same cause that moves Satan to destroy the first man. The same moves the second man to destroy the third. It was Satan's envy of God's supreme place of honor and glory in the pre-created reality, pre-earth creation reality. And he said, I will ascend.

54:59 He envied and became the devil. And he moves the first man and tempts to sin and now moves the second man to destroy the third. If there be an evil heart, there will be an evil eye. And if both of these, there will be an evil hand.

55:20 There never was an envy that was not bloody. If not in act, yet in disposition. What a horrible picture of the power of sin. Think of it.

55:34 Boys and girls, men and women, so near to the Garden of Eden. At the most, a hundred and a few years from the time when man walked in the pristine glory and innocence of Eden. And we'll see why we take up that figure as we read further in the chapter. But such a short, short time from all the glory and the wonder of Genesis 1 and 2.

56:01 The firstborn of Eve, whom she holds in her arms, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah. And perhaps even secretly wondered, is this the promised seed? All her hopes are dashed when Cain's hands drip with the blood of his brother. Behold in this passage the frightening power of sin.

56:30 I wouldn't be standing here tonight before such a power. With any sanity were I not hidden in Christ, the mightier than the strong man, who for every Christian has bound the strong man and spoiled his good. And dear young people and adults, there's no safe place but in the mighty conqueror who despoiled principalities and powers, triumphed over them in his cross and in his resurrection. For this purpose was the Son of God manifested to destroy the works of the devil.

Lesson 2: The Lot of the Righteous – Persecution and Martyrdom

57:11 Hallelujah. But then secondly behold in this passage the lot of the righteous. I said I entitled the sermon The First Murderer and The First Martyr. In the first two brothers the great principle of the word of God comes to clear expression here, as clear as anywhere in Scripture.

57:35 Galatians 4.29 articulates the principle. Galatians 4.29 As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, so also it is now.

57:54 As then the one born after the flesh persecutes him that is born after, excuse me, the Spirit. In the context this is referring to the son of the handmaid, Ishmael, and the son of the promise, Isaac. But the principle is the same. Paul says as then so now.

58:19 Here's a universal principle. The one merely born of the flesh, the seed of the serpent, will constantly persecute him that is born after the Spirit who is in the line of the seed of the woman. This is why Jesus said in John 15.18 and 19 and John 17.14 The world hated me. It will hate you. It will hate you because it hated me and you are united to me. The first man murdered on God's earth was murdered for his religion.

58:52 And not by a Madeleine Murray O'Hare who was an atheist, but by a religious formalist. And there is more blood on the hands of religious formalists than upon atheists. The church of Rome, the whore of the seven hills, her skirts dipped in the blood of the martyrs. Formalism with its ritual, with its rubrics, and with its professional clerics, and its superstition, whenever there has been vital, able-like religion, with the seal of God upon it, Rome has come forth and shown her true colors. That's the lot of the righteous. You'll not only be persecuted by a world that hates God, but by religious formalists who hate the reality in a truly godly man or woman. Some of you kids have gone even right here in Trinity Christian School.

60:06 And this is not to fault the board. It's not to fault the teachers. It's not to fault parents. But Christian nurture and Christian education doesn't make Christians.

60:20 And in Trinity Christian School, any one of you kids who gets up into that fourth or fifth grade and onward, determined to be unable to be a righteous boy or girl, not to titter and laugh when dirty jokes are told, not to gather in the men's or ladies' room and talk about the teachers behind their backs, you'll suffer persecution from the other kids. I've never known of any kid in a Christian school who meant business with God that didn't suffer persecution. Why? As then, so now.

60:54 He that is born of the flesh will persecute him that is born of the spirit. I don't care if it's Trinity Christian School, Parsippany Christian School, I don't care where it is. This is the lot of the righteous. In the case of Abel, the persecution took the ultimate expression, martyrdom.

61:11 But little did Cain know, all he did was chase his brother up to heaven early. That's all he did. Just chased him up to heaven early. Chased him up to heaven early.

61:21 Saved him all the heartache and the agony and perhaps the disappointment and the grief and the agony of seeing repeated in his own children what Adam and Eve had to see in theirs. So you see, you're invincible when you're a child of God. You're in Christ and the devil cannot destroy you. No.

61:45 He that is born of God overcomes the world. He that is born of God, the devil touches him not, the scripture says. And we overcome in Christ even the frightening prospect of martyrdom. All our most bitter enemies can do is chase us up to heaven earlier than we had hoped to get there.

Lesson 3: The Amazing Patience and Longsuffering of God

62:12 It's a wonderful thing to be a Christian. And then finally behold in this passage the amazing patience and long suffering of God. He comes to Cain when sin first, begins to gain the upper hand. God could have let him go from his volcanic anger and his downcast face.

62:37 God could have let him go until he took his brother in the field and murdered him and then struck him dead. But he didn't do that. No sooner does his sin of envy merge into settled boiling anger but God comes in grace and seeks to bring him into touch with reality and awaken his conscience. Are you angry?

63:00 Why is your countenance fallen? He says if you do well it shall be lifted up. There is acceptance. There is mercy for you.

63:10 The door through which your brother has walked is open to you, Cain. And then he warns him. Sin is couching like a beast of prey at the door. Its desire is toward you.

63:24 But you need not be its passive victim. Do thou rule over it. Put yourself into my hands and I will give you power to conquer the beast of your own sin. How patient he is.

63:40 Seeks to awaken the conscience of Cain. Seeks to call him to repent. That's the God who is here in this place tonight. That's the God who has come to your conscience, young man, young woman, older man, older woman.

63:57 The God who has brought you here, preserved you in life and sanity and sufficient health to be here. He has given us our civil liberties that we need, unafraid of our congregation being busted up by the intrusion of secret police. This is mercy. This is God's kindness.

64:17 This is God revealing His heart, His disposition of good will, saying, Come, I do not delight in the death of the wicked, but that he turn and live. If thou doest well, there is acceptance for you. Oh yes, like Cain, you've already indulged your sin. Your heart may be a boiling cauldron of lies and deceit and lust and pride and flirtatiousness and self-preoccupation and a host of other things.

64:53 But the Lord Jesus is mighty to save. And He's brought you here in His providence and set His word before you. Turn ye, turn ye. Why will ye die?

Prayer for Repentance and Deliverance from Sin

65:08 Let us pray. Father, how we thank You for Your Holy Word. We thank You for Your Holy Spirit. We thank You for gathering us together in this place tonight.

65:29 And oh God, we would entreat You that the word preached may not be preached in vain, but that this night there would be some whose response would be, By the grace of God I shall do well. I shall, by the grace of God, enter the path of repentance and faith. I shall become an able with an acceptable offering. Oh God, we plead especially for young people who in their naivety still want to believe that they're the exception for whom sin will not be the devouring beast of prey but the mere pussycat, the mere lapdog.

66:12 Oh God, Oh God, track them down. Give them no rest until they face reality, until they face themselves in Your presence, until they cry out for mercy. We thank You for the many who here are Your twentieth-century ables, who by grace have come to You in faith, who by grace have owned their sin, thrown themselves upon Your mercy in the way of Your own self-revelation, even the way of the cross. And oh God, we thank You that we are invincible till our work is done.

66:52 And should You even allow some vicious cane to slay us, how we thank You they can only chase us up to heaven. Oh God, fill us with joy, fill us with boldness, fill us with a measure of responsible but holy recklessness that we shall not fear the faces of men and those who can kill the body, but ever fear You who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Oh God, hear our cry, and may Your Word bear fruit unto everlasting life in each one of our hearts, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.