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3:19So, how does somebody become a murderer? Now, I know that's a somber question to start a teaching with, but unfortunately, it's a relevant one. It's a question that a lot of intellectuals are asking right now. If you've been following the news, you're probably familiar with the name Alex Murdo, who was just charged with a double homicide for the murder of his wife and son. And I think we all remember March 24th of last year, that's almost a year ago, when an 18-year-old walked into an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and gunned down 19 children and two teachers. I think as a society, we've been forced to shake the illusion that murderers are just gang members and drug dealers. Sometimes, they're successful lawyers, and sometimes they're just kids. Why does this happen? What could possibly drive an individual to do such evil? Did the Uvalde gunmen just wake up one day and decide to kill children? Was there a pattern that could have been stopped? And by the way, that's not just me.

4:30These questions. That's the law enforcement, it's professors at AM, it's the TV anchor on the news. Everyone recognizes that something has gone wrong, and what can we do about it? How do we stop a murderer before there is any bloodshed? Is this kind of evil even preventable in the first place? Because even if society doesn't use the word sin, I think they would all agree that it's far better to address the root of sin than to clean up the aftermath of the fruit of sin.

5:07And I think it is far better to stop sin before it happens. And tonight we're looking at a passage that illustrates the answer to that central question: How does a worshiper become a murderer? And I know that seems dramatic. I hear you. But please hear me out because the story of Cain is not just the story of a murder. It's primarily a story of a man with a sinful nature. Actually, the first man who was born with a sinful nature. And I don't know about you, but I have one of those too. Maybe it's hard for us to see ourselves in Cain because we know how the story ends and we know what he does. But there are eight verses here about Cain before he commits murder, and that's what we're going to examine. Before Abel's blood was shed, what happened to Cain? Cain's heart, and why was sin crouching at his door?

6:06I think if we look into our own hearts, we will realize that there is also sin crouching at our door, too. And I don't know about you, but in the light of the news I'm hearing, I'm not so sure that I am strong enough, or smart enough, or good enough to overpower it by myself. In this passage, we're going to look at three aspects of Cain's sinful nature that contributed to his descent into bloodshed. The first is Cain's disposition. That's verses 1 through 5. The second is Cain's disappointment, found in verses 5 through 7. And finally, Cain's disobedience, found in verses 7 through 8. So, for those of you taking notes, that's going to be our outline this evening. Once again, those aspects of Cain's sinful nature in this passage, I am calling Cain's disposition, specifically his disposition of the heart, the disappointment which is found in his face, and then finally, the disobedience which was wrought by his hands.

7:09So, let me read the passage again, starting in verse 1, then I'll go through about halfway through verse 5. Now, the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, I have obtained a male child with the help of the Lord. And again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now, Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a cultivator of the ground. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part, also brought an offering from the firstborn of his flock and from their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard.

7:49When I was growing up, I always learned this story as the story of Cain and Abel, and maybe you did the same. And honestly, that's what the heading in my Bible is: Cain and Abel. But I'd like to be bold this evening and propose a different heading to this chapter. I think a more fitting title for this story would be Cain and Yahweh. There are a couple reasons why I think that this is a more fitting title. Cain is definitely the main character of the story, not Abel. We see that in verse 1, right out of the gate. Cain is the male child with the help of the Lord, the seed of Adam and Eve, which, by the way, reminds us of a very hopeful prophecy about the seed of a woman in chapter 3. You remember the one that crushes the serpent's head? So if we embrace this overall narrative of Genesis to this point, we're already expecting some pretty great things out of Cain. Abel, for his part, he is never once quoted in the whole chapter. Cain and Yahweh, however, they have multiple dialogues, including an exchange in this passage that we're reading today. You'll see that it's important, in my view, to be able to. To frame the story as a tension between Cain and Yahweh, because that's what's at stake. Genesis 4 is way more epic than just two brothers having a fistfight. The relationship in jeopardy is a vertical relationship, it's a cosmic relationship. It's the relationship between Cain and Yahweh, the created and the Creator. So let's just quickly review where we are in Genesis. The very fact that we have Genesis 4 in our Bibles is evidence of God's grace. That's because God's relationship with mankind could have ended in Genesis 3 after the fall. God doesn't owe mankind anything at this point. Man was created, chapter 1. God created the heavens and the earth. And he's given relationship with God in chapter 2. He's given a job to do in chapter 2. But then man betrays God in chapter 3 and he falls out of relationship with God. So Genesis 4, where we are today, already begins with the implicit question, man is fallen, now what?

10:08Genesis 4 starts with a profound and seemingly irreversible strife between God and man that will be the undertone for the rest of Scripture. Well, I think Cain probably had this mind and his question in his mind too. Man is fallen. Now what? I think he likely grew up hearing the story of the Garden of Eden from his parents. What true fellowship with God was like, and how their rebellion caused loss and death and separation from God. And according to verse 2, we know that Cain was a cultivator of the ground. So he was probably reminded each and every day when he cultivated the ground the curse of sin because how hard he had to work and how the ground did not yield its fruit willingly. So Cain decides to do something that's pretty noble on the surface. He tries to patch things up. His parents lost the favor of the Lord, and he wants to get it back. And the way he tries to do this is through an offering. Verses 3 and 4, I think, imply that Cain's offering came before Abel's offering, which probably means it was Cain's idea in the first place. I mean, that's not bad for the villain of the story, right? Well, not so fast, because we read in verse 5 that not only was the Lord's favor withheld from Cain, but it was given to Abel, his brother, instead. Now, I'd like to pause here and talk about offerings for just a minute. I want you to try your best. I know this is hard. It's hard for me. Try your best to temporarily erase from your mind everything you know about priestly offerings under the Mosaic law. And the reason for this is because in the great unfolding of Scripture, we call this progressive revelation at this point in history, Genesis 4. The law has not yet been revealed. Cain and Abel did not have the Torah. And personally, I don't think it is theologically fair to assume that Cain's offering was rejected because he was in violation of the Levitical law. When we infer this, it's easy to accidentally read a misinterpretation into the passage, namely that Cain and Abel were required to make blood sacrifices. We read about blood sacrifices in Leviticus 4. God commands a blood sacrifice to be made for the atonement of the people, but there are also other types of offerings that do not require a blood sacrifice in Leviticus. In Genesis, so far, as we know, God has not required any sacrifice out of Cain and Abel. It would seem that their offerings were offered, probably out of worship and of their own free will. The language of the text supports this interpretation. The word offering in this passage is the Hebrew word minha, which has a little bit of nuance to it. If you are familiar with Genesis 32, you may remember this story where Jacob is on the run from his brother Esau, and Esau is pursuing him, and so Jacob sends a delegation to meet Esau, and he sends that delegation with a gift. And that gift is the same word minha that's used here in Genesis. And minha is used in Levitical law, but it is more often referring to a grain offering or an offering of incense, not a blood sacrifice. So, if we read offering this way, then a plain reading of Genesis 4 yields no indication that Cain was in error because of the content of his sacrifice. Most likely, Cain offered God produce from the ground because that was all he had. He was, after all, a farmer. Produce from the ground was the most natural thing for him to offer. So, if the content of the offering was not the issue, we are faced with the question: why did God reject Cain's offering? It's a good question. I see two plausible answers. The first one is admittedly a bit disappointing. Maybe it doesn't matter. What I mean by that is the narrative doesn't explicitly say why God chose to accept one offering and reject the other, and perhaps, as one commentator puts it, silence might be the message itself. And wouldn't this be within God's authority? In Exodus 33, 19, God says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. It's almost like the childish excuse of, well, just because. Why? Because. For the sake of argument, let's imagine that Cain did everything right when presenting his. Offering, that he earnestly desired to please the Lord, and he spent the better part of his life cultivating the ground to produce something worthy in his eyes of offering to Yahweh. And then he prepared it well and offered it sincerely. But even so, even when we do everything right, does God reserve the right to say no?

15:25Of course, he's God and we're not. He is not obligated to accept or reject anything we bring to the table because God's favor is not a bargaining chip and our works do not merit God's blessing. There's another plausible reason why God rejected Cain's offering. And we find it when we fast forward to the New Testament. Hebrews 11. You can turn there if you would like, but you don't have to. It's going to be quick. It's Hebrews 11, chapter 4, which 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. So the author of Hebrews gives us a little more color commentary on this story in Genesis 4. We learn that faith played an important part in the offerings of Cain and Abel, perhaps cluing us to the fact that the Lord is far less interested in the content of the offering and far more interested in the heart. Of the offerer.

16:33And here is where we come to Cain's disposition. What was the orientation of Cain's heart when he offered the produce of the ground to the Lord? Well, according to the narrative, we don't know for sure. Perhaps Cain was lazy, or presumptuous, or rebellious, or withholding, and maybe he was one of those things, maybe he was all of those things. But this is not explicitly stated. We do know from Hebrews that Cain's heart was not surrendered to the Lord's, and Abel's heart was through faith. So, if I had to guess, based on how I would have felt personally, perhaps Cain thought that he, being the seed of the woman, that he would be the one to fix the broken relationship with Yahweh. But do you see Cain's fallacy in that line of thought? Does Cain have any ability whatsoever to fix his relationship with Yahweh? We know the answer because God says no. God rejects Cain's offering, and when he does, Cain flies off the handle. And that is indicative of a heart that was not humbled before God. Not trusting in the Lord's ultimate promise of mercy and forgiveness, Cain's attempt at reconciliation failed because it never had a shot. And Cain's response to God's rejection was not one. Of submission, it was, God, how dare you?

18:04Cain's disposition was subtle and deceptive. It was not, I desire the Lord's favor. Somewhere in his heart, his sinful nature had convinced him, I deserve the Lord's favor. So let's pause and examine our own offering. I'm not just talking about financial gifts, I'm talking about any offering of worship, be it our time, our service, our devotions, anything that we give to the Lord. In Psalm 51, verses 16 through 17, David writes, For you, O Lord, will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering, because the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

18:56I think there is something good and natural for us as children to want our Heavenly Father to look upon us with pleasure. I don't think desiring the favor of the Lord is a bad thing at all. It's a very good thing, worthy of being desired. But beware of desire. Beware of your disposition. James 1, 14 through 15 says, Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, because when desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is concerned. Fully grown brings forth death.

19:34What happens in your heart when you've done everything right and it seems like God's blessings are being poured out on someone else? How does that make you feel? What happens in your heart when it feels to you like God is withholding his favor? Maybe you have a thorn in the flesh, like Paul. He talks exactly about this. Maybe you faced a rejection, like losing your job, a close friend, boyfriend, girlfriend. When this happens, examine yourself. Examine your disposition. Do you feel like God has wronged you? Beware, because even a little seed of entitlement will grow into rebellion if it's given the chance. It did for Eve in the Garden of Eden. Remember, she desired to be like God.

20:27Even a desire for righteousness, if it is not humbled before the Lord, will morph into a works-based self-righteousness that says, if I give God my worship, then God owes me his blessings. Be careful, because that is not worship. That's bribery. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. So, how did Cain go from worshipper to murderer? Well, it's Started with a heart that was not broken and contrite. And it changed the way he responded to God's instruction. So let's keep reading about the disappointment that covered Cain's face when God confronted him. So I'll pick up in verse 5, Genesis chapter 4. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain became very angry, and his face was gloomy. Then the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why is your face gloomy? If you do well, will your face not be cheerful? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it.

21:41So, excuse me, I have a three-year-old daughter, and one of the things I love about this age and with her is that there is basically no filter on her emotions. I think adults, we've sort of mastered the art of masking most of the things that we feel and that we're thinking. But Ellie, my daughter, has not learned that skill yet. And you can read every little emotion that crosses her face. One thing that Ellie particularly reacts strongly to is denial when Beth or I tell her no. And when we do tell her no, it's like we can watch all five stages of grief pass by on her face one by one. You can see her process the data, comprehend the meaning, and then her face. Face just starts to contort. And very literally, her face falls. The ESV translation talks about Cain that way. His face was fallen. And I've never seen it happen except for my daughter. It's like the glue holding her face together just starts melting.

22:51And all this time I'm thinking, come on, kid, I just told you you couldn't eat the hand soap. Like, I just saved your life. What are you doing? In a way, Cain is kind of like my three-year-old daughter in this moment. And that's what I find interesting about this passage: that in the moment when Cain is in full pout mode, God approaches him just like I would approach Ellie if she were doing this. I know this is just my imagination, but I kind of imagine God coming to Cain in this moment and doing that thing where he crouches down next to the kid, you know, puts his hand on his shoulder and says, All right, you know, let's talk. You know, just kind of this fatherly advice. I don't imagine it's very harsh. I was actually telling this observation to a friend, and he tells me, Hey, John, you realize that genealogically speaking, Cain or God is Cain's grandfather. It's like, huh, I never really thought about that before. But yeah, Cain, son of Adam, son of God, it makes sense. It's kind of neat. And in this situation, it kind of seems like God is giving Cain some grandfatherly advice. It's not harsh, it's very profound, and it takes the Tone of gentle instruction, which honestly Cain desperately needs right now. So God essentially tells Cain in verses 7 and 8 to watch his attitude. Now we know why Cain was in a bad temper, but I want to explain a little bit more why Cain's mood here is so important and ultimately so dangerous. God's conversation with Cain is similar to another conversation that God will have with a prophet Jonah.

24:26You remember the story of Jonah? He was the prophet that was sent to the wicked city Nineveh, and after a whole incident with a big fish, he goes on to Nineveh and he preaches repentance in the city. But then Jonah sets up a little booth nearby after he's done preaching, and he sets it up nearby to watch the destruction rain from heaven on the city. Well, if you know the story, then you know that this doesn't happen because the city repents. And our God is a merciful God. And he relents from the judgment. And Jonah loses his cool. Now, this is in Jonah chapter 4. If you want to read the story for yourself, I encourage you to because I'm going to paraphrase it. As Jonah is pouting in this moment, just like Cain, God comes to Jonah and asks him essentially the same question that he asked Cain. He says to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry? And Jonah answers and he says, Yes, I'm angry enough to die, which to me totally sounds like a three-year-old.

25:29God responds. He tells Jonah, essentially, this is my paraphrase, but essentially the message I think he's communicating is: Jonah, you think you know anger? You have no idea what anger is. Because God then causes a plant to grow and then die to illustrate to Jonah just how petty Jonah's anger is. And it's nothing compared to the offense of the vile wickedness and open-handed treason of the people of Nineveh committed against God for decades. And God says, If I know how to have pity over this great city, excuse me, if you know how to have pity for this little plant, can I not have pity for this great city?

26:14You see, anger is dangerous to us because we really don't understand it very well, and we have a very poor record when it comes to controlling it. Anger arrests our capacity to think clearly, we know this, and it often makes us act like little children. I believe this is why Paul warns us about anger in Ephesians 4:26 through 27, where he says, Be angry, but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil a foothold.

26:471 Peter 5:8 likewise warns us to be sober-minded, be watchful, for your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Let me be clear. Clear here. Strong emotions are not sin. But there is a clear warning in Scripture that they can make us vulnerable to sin. I think the same principle that we're talking about anger here, but I think it can be applied to other strong emotions like fear, anxiety, shame, depression, or even good emotions like mirth. How many times have you ever sinned against a brother under the guise of, oh, I was just joking? I have.

27:29In Cain's case, Cain was intensely disappointed that God did not accept his offering, and frankly, I don't blame him. I would have been too, especially if my brother got the offering, if my brother got the blessing and I didn't. But Cain's disappointment doesn't stop behind his face, it affects his face. His face fell. He was gloomy. I like the word that the King James Version uses in verse 5. It says, Cain was very wroth. And if you've seen someone in a temper, you know exactly what that looks like. It has a look to it. I can't remember where I heard this advice, but it went like this. If you ever want to be cured of a bad temper, just ask your wife to record the next time you lose your temper. Then, when you've sobered up, watch the recording of yourself. And I guarantee you that the man you see in the video will be unrecognizable to you. This experiment illustrates that sin not only clouds the judgment, but it affects the face, the posture. The behavior, and it's completely obvious to everyone except for the person that's in the middle of it, you. A professor of mine at Shepherd Seminary is fond of the phrase, sin makes you stupid. And most of the time, I'd say he's right. The lesson we can take from Cain's demeanor is another warning. When you find yourself emotionally compromised, be it with fear or anger or guilt or envy, just recognize, just recognize that in that mindset you are vulnerable and beware.

29:06Now, the antidote is not too difficult. It's accountability and discipleship. It's the very thing God offers to Cain when he was very wroth. But because of Cain's overwhelming disappointment over the offering, Cain completely ignores it and he enters deeper into the trap of sin. Luckily for us, we have a couple resources in this. One is the church. Accountability and discipleship. It is good to surround yourself with people who will see your face. But we also have a wonderful counselor. He comes to us when we are emotional and he sympathizes with our temptation to sin. As Hebrews 4:15 says, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who, in every respect, has been tempted just as we are, yet without sin.

30:01In case you haven't heard, this high priest has a name. It's Jesus. And he can handle your pity party. So, when you face any of life's disappointments, and there will be lots of them, do not shun him like Cain did. Christ was infinitely more rejected than we will ever be. And he has felt the fullness of sorrow to an extent that you cannot begin to imagine. Therefore, when we are angry or afraid or weary, ask others to watch your face. Invite others to enter into your pain. The church body is a great place for that. Ultimately, we are invited to cast our anxieties on Jesus, and he will sustain you because he is gentle and lowly of heart. And when we fail to do that, that is when we are in extreme danger. Because disappointment does not often stay disappointment.

31:00Unchecked anger will just about always lead to hatred and sin. And it did for Cain. That is exactly what caused him to disobey the command from the Lord, which we are going to read about next. So, a brief recap. We've seen how Cain's disposition of his heart led to a profound disappointment, which showed up on his face. And that disappointment led him to a decision to disobey, which was the final step in his descent from worshipper to murder. So let's keep reading, picking up with the text in verse 7, and we'll go through the end of verse 8.

31:37God is speaking to Cain, If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. Then Cain spoke to Abel, his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother, Abel, and killed him. Some of y'all may remember this, but last November, I might be butchering this name, but Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano, started erupting for the first time in 38 years. Now, I think Hawaii is beautiful, but if there's anything that never makes me want to step foot there, it's a headline like this. But people braver than me still travel there and they still live there. And that's because volcanoes don't just spontaneously explode. There are warning signs that can be measured. Seismic activity, temperature changes, pressure readings. These things serve as a warning to the people nearby. They say, hey guys, you better get out. So at this point, Cain's heart is like a volcano that's about to erupt. It hasn't quite reached its inflection point, but Cain has allowed sin to fester and multiply so that an explosion is just about inevitable. But before this happens, God gives Cain a choice. He tells Cain in verse 7, he said, sin. He says, sin is lurking at the door. It is contrary to you. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must master it. I love the imagery that God uses because I can just picture it in my head. Sin is lurking or crouching in some translations. So it's like a predator. It's there. It's ready to pounce. And it knows Cain is vulnerable in this moment. God knows that Cain is vulnerable too. So he approaches Cain and He gives Cain this choice. God tells Cain that sin wants to destroy him once and for all, and you can't avoid it and you can't ignore it, but you must master it. Notice the imperative. You must master it.

33:46I want to be careful of a certain interpretation to this imagery, because it can seem from a point of view that Cain is the victim of an ambush here. But we know this isn't true for the simple reason that God tells Cain that sin is there. This is not some out-of-the-blue ambush. We know that Cain is not a victim for another reason. Cain is given the choice, give in to sin or master it. There's a way out here. In effect, God is giving Cain a miniaturized version of the law in Deuteronomy 30, 19, which says, I have set before you life and death. Choose life. But just like the Israelites, In the wilderness, Cain's biggest obstacle from choosing life is not some disembodied sin. It's not Satan. It's Cain. It's himself.

34:42Did you notice who is absent from the narrative of Cain and Abel? There's no serpent. In Genesis 3, the first sin, as it were, the serpent is a key player. He's the external, malicious force that deceives and tempts Eve into sin. But here, we have something different. We don't have that. This isn't a matter of Cain resisting the devil. This is a matter of Cain resisting something else, himself, his sinful nature. This is the first example we have in Scripture of sin spreading through Adam to his descendants as it's described in Romans 5:12, which says, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sin.

35:30Cain isn't caught in the middle of a fight between God and Satan. He's fighting a battle of his own nature. The crouching beast, as it were, is already at the door. It's already in his nature, and he's got to deal with it before it deals with him. Now, this reminds me, in a way, a lot of y'all will recognize this, of the character Gollum and Lord of the Rings. And if you're familiar with the books or the movies, then you'll know that Gollum is an actual. Real. He's an alter ego of another character named Smeagel. And Smeagel is just a fisherman. He's a simple fisherman, but he finds the one ring, the ring of power, which is Tolkien's symbol for personified evil. And that the power of that ring splits Smeagel into two personalities. You have Smeagel, who represents the purity of life before the ring, and then you have Gollum, who obsesses over the ring, calling it my precious. And as long as Gollum possesses that ring, the ring and Gollum quite literally destroys everything that Smeagel loves just to keep possession of it. It's a lot like what sin does to us. The choice presented to Cain is not just whether he should kill Abel or not kill Abel. It's a choice between two masters. Will Cain be the kind of man to rule over his sinful nature or let his sin nature rule over him? God commands Cain to master his sin, and Cain disobeys. He does not do it. Because we see how the story ends in verse 8, Cain murders his brethren. And just to be clear, the word for murder here is harog in the Hebrew, and that's not used to describe just a killing like there would be in battle. This is a word that means to slay or to slaughter. So there's no doubt as to Cain's motives. Cain is telling God by his actions, you want a blood sacrifice, I'll give you a blood sacrifice. And in doing so, Cain chooses sin to be his master. He chooses the way of Gollum.

37:48Sometimes I'll hear a phrase along the lines of, I've fallen into sin, I've just fallen into sin, or I'm struggling against sin. And I've used these phrases myself, and I know typically what is meant by these phrases, but I want to push the brakes just a little bit because I think there is a slight problem to this vernacular, and it reflects something in our worldview that is just a little bit incorrect about sin. The reality is, nobody falls passively into sin. We walk willingly into sin. Sometimes we leap into it. The first step to resisting the allure of sin in your life is realizing that the devil is not actually the problem. The problem is you.

38:36Romans 8, 6 through 8 says, The mind that is set on the flesh, which is you, by the way, is death, for it does not subject itself to the law of God. It is not able to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Let me be clear: sin is disobedience. It's about time we stopped pretending that our Our sin is the devil's fault, and we're just helpless victims. Sin only pounces because we choose to walk through the door. And by doing so, like Cain, we willfully disobey God's command and exercise to exercise mastery over our sinful nature. See, what is sad and ironic about Cain's story is that the very thing that Cain craved, the favor of the Lord, that was right in front of him the entire time. If he would just submit to God, when Cain's offering was rejected, God came, excuse me, it was right in front of him the entire time if he would just submit to God. Because when Cain's offering was rejected, God tells Cain in verse 7 that if you do well, you will be accepted. God is calling to Cain to repent and to come into his acceptance, which is being offered.

39:58Evidence of God's mercy is all over Genesis 4. And you'll see if you read ahead that God continues even after he murders Abel to offer him mercy. But the final disobedience of Cain was his decision to choose another master, and it could have been avoided if Cain only realized that Yahweh is a God who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and that submission to God is submission to a gentle and lowly master. But Cain was deceived by his. Sinful nature, and he chose to follow another master. And that is the very thing that we must not do. So let us heed the warning of Cain.

40:401 Corinthians 10, 11 through 12 says, These things happen, speaking of the Old Testament, as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So if you think you are standing firm, be careful so that you don't fall. So what can we do? Well, I feel a little discouraged. I mean, if Cain wasn't able to master his sin, what hope is there for the likes of us? How do we keep from descending deeper and deeper and deeper into sin? Well, we can start by watching the disposition of our hearts and its inclination to say, I deserve God's favor. We can also watch our reactions by inviting godly men and women to watch our face and to keep us accountable and to tell us when we are taking our emotions too far. But we can also decide to obey a different master than sin. And this is possible because sin is not the only one at the door. We're in Revelations in our morning service. And you'll know this will sound familiar. Revelations 3:20.

42:00Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him and eat with him, and he with me. You see, when we repent of our sin and submit to the rule and the reign of Jesus Christ, God promises to meet us with grace. Romans 6, 14 says, For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law. You are under grace. You see, there are two masters at your door competing for your attention. And like Cain, you must submit to one or the other. There is no neutral ground. One of those masters is a crouching predator. The other is your creator. He's your true master. And he's also the one that you have willingly betrayed. And yet he still knocks. When you choose Christ over your sinful nature, you can rest in the promise that if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

43:08So the narrative of Cain and Yahweh is a good warning to us of just how dangerous our sinful nature can be to ourselves and to others if it's left to its own devices. It's also a reminder that when we try to treat sin, which is more of ourselves, we just spiral deeper and deeper into our own prison. We need another master. We need... An intervention. The narrative of Cain and Yahweh is a picture of that intervention. It's a picture of God's grace. God's grace is found in the church to resist sin, to keep us accountable. It's found in His Word. Psalm 119.

43:51But it's ultimately found in His Son. He offers us grace through faith and submission to Him. Colossians 2:13-15 says, And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him Jesus, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. Can we stop our sinful nature before it ends in catastrophe? No, we can't. Not alone, but by the grace of Christ through faith, we can. Praise the Lord. Let's pray.

44:46Father, Lord, it is a humbling experience for me to be up here, Lord. And Father, I desire for your Holy Spirit to illuminate your word. I desire for it to penetrate our hearts, even mine. Lord, that we would be teachable, or that we would be willing to submit to you. So we thank you for your grace that is found in Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.