of Genesis chapter 4, and hold
your place there, and then turn to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter
3. We're going to begin in Ecclesiastes
after we read Genesis 4, and then we will continue the sermon
from there. This is actually the second part of our study
in Genesis chapter 4. And I hope you don't find it
too much of a repetition, but I will summarize some of the
things that I said last time when we looked at this. Ecclesiastes
is one of those chapters, or those books of the Bible that
we don't really read as much, at least in my own reading, but
there's a powerful lot of doctrine in there. And so I want to bring attention
to one of those places in Ecclesiastes after we look at Genesis 4. Before
we begin, let's pray. Dear Lord, we pray that you would
help us as we look into your word. Give us understanding. I am not sufficient, nor are
we sufficient to hear. from you and lest you give to
us your spirit and cause us open our hearts and open our ears
that we might hear the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus Christ and
our salvation in him alone your purpose of grace your eternal
purpose and what you're doing in this world we pray Lord that
you would save us for your namesake according to your mercy according
to your righteousness which our Lord Jesus Christ has worked
out for us And we pray, Lord, that you would bless us today.
Bless us all of our lives. Bring us to Christ, our Savior,
and keep us looking to Him. And be with us in the infirmity
of our flesh. Help us, dear Lord, to overcome
this infirmity with this God-given faith. In Jesus' name we pray,
amen. In Genesis chapter 4, I want
to read through the whole chapter today. Last time we only looked
at the first eight verses. And we will be picking up at
verse 7 this time, and a little bit of repeat there, but not
much. And then we're going to go through
the last part rather quickly. But look at this in Genesis chapter
4. It says, And Adam knew Eve, his
wife, and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten
a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother
Abel, and Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller
of the ground. And in process of time, it came
to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering
to the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the
firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord
had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and
to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and
his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain,
Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou
doest well, shalt thou not be accepted, and if thou doest not
well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire,
and thou shalt rule over him. And 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 slew him. And
the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel, thy brother? And he
said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? And
he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood
crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from
the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's
blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground,
it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive
and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto
the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou
hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from
thy face shall I be hid. And I shall be a fugitive and
a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that every
one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said to him,
Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken
on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon
Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from
the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the
east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she
conceived, and bare Enoch. And he builded a city, and called
the name of the city after the name of his own son, Enoch. And
unto Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begat Mahujael, and Mahujael
begat Methuselah, and Methuselah begat Lamech, and Lamech took
unto him two wives. The name of the one was Ada,
and the name of the other Zillah, and Ada bare Jabal. He was the
father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. And
his brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all such
that handle the harp and organ. And Zillah, she also bared Tubal-Cain,
an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron. And the sister
of Tubal-Cain was Naamah. And Lamech said unto his wives
Ada and Zillah, Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto
my speech, for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man
to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
truly, Lamech seventy and sevenfold. And Adam knew his wife again,
and she bare a son, and called his name Seth. For God, said
she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain
slew. And so to Seth to him also there
was born a son. And he called his name Enos,
then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. It's a bit of a lengthy chapter
there. I don't know if I'll actually
get through it all. I want to focus on a couple of things in the
latter part. We may actually go back and look a little more
detail in some of these, but I confess that there's a lot
of things in here. I just don't know precisely how it fits into
the gospel, except by contrast, and in a negative way. But I
want to, before we begin this, I want to look at this first
place here in chapter 4, verse 3. It says, after Eve bare Cain,
and then again bore Abel, these sons, and it's not clear if there
were other children between Cain and Abel. I used to think they
had one son named Cain, then they had one other son named
Abel, and that was all their kids until they had Seth. But
that's not the way it was, because when Cain left, he married one
of his sisters, and it doesn't mention the sisters here. It
just says that, he just mentions these two because God wants to
focus on them. God doesn't mention everyone
ever born in the Bible. Even in the nation of Israel,
he only mentions those people who were the designated men in
the line that he wanted to trace through scripture. There were
millions of people in the nation of Israel never mentioned. Just
like there are here with the family of Adam and Eve. But here we see in verse 3 that
after these two were born, after they had their vocation, Abel
was a keeper of sheep and Cain was a tiller of the ground. It
says, "...in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought
of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord, and Abel
he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof."
And that's when it says the Lord had respect to Abel and to his
offering. So now I want to turn to Ecclesiastes
with you, chapter 3. And I want to look at just one
verse there. I'm not going to spend much time here. I just
want to point this out to you. The Lord says, "...in the process
of time..." Here, he says in Ecclesiastes 3, verse 14. If you're there, Ecclesiastes
3, verse 14. I'm waiting for everyone to get there because
this is a very compact verse of scripture. He says, I know
that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. That's a very
powerful statement, isn't it? Whatever God does, it's eternal. God's not like us. He doesn't
pass away. And His work doesn't pass away,
but whatever God intends to do, that's what He does. Nothing
can be put to it. That means nothing can be added
to it. Nor anything taken from it. Man cannot add to or take
away from what God has done to improve on it. And God doeth
it that men should fear before Him. Now look at verse 15. That
which hath been is now. That which hath been is now.
That's a strange way of saying things, isn't it? Listen to the
next part. And that which is to be hath
already been. And God requireth that which
is past. It says in Genesis 4 that in
the process of time it came to pass. Time is not some random
occurrence of events. Have you ever thought about what
happens in the world? Why does it happen? It says here
in verse 15 of Ecclesiastes 3 that that which hath been is now. In other words, God's will is
what has been. And what has been, what God's
will is in heaven, that's what comes to pass on the earth. That's
what is now. Whatever God determined from
the beginning, that is what happens. And then he says, and that which
and that which is to be hath already been." What God has purposed
has already been purposed from before the foundation of the
world. Whatever is future has already been determined to be
by God. That's what this is saying. And
then it says something very powerful, and God requireth that which
is past. That which has passed is what
God requires. Well, it can mean that God requires
what's passed in our lives because He's the judge of all. But more
importantly, it means that God requires to come to pass what
He already determined and agreed to from eternity. And what did
He determine? Well, His eternal purpose is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 3 verse 11. And we
know He determined to save His people from their sins by the
offering up of His only begotten Son. As He commanded Abraham
to offer up Isaac, His only and well-loved son. And so we know
that what God determined to be was determined between God the
Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit from eternity.
And that's what God requires. When God sent His Son into the
world, it was because God required it. When God looked upon the
Lord Jesus Christ and received from His hand full satisfaction
to His law and full fulfillment of His law, He required the justification
of His people. God required that which was passed.
The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, God required the
blessing be given to His people. God required it. And so what
we read here in Genesis chapter 4, and it came to pass, we know
that time is simply this. It's not the tick of some atomic
clock in Boulder, Colorado, or even the concentric orbit of
satellites around the globe. Nor is it the movement of heavenly
bodies, the Earth's rotation around the sun and its axis rotation. That's not time. Even Einstein
recognized that time was some relative thing. Time is the unfolding
of God's will and purpose. That's what time is. And so what
happens is just simply the bringing to pass of God's eternal will.
But the way He does that, and the purpose for which He does
that, is mysterious to us. But we see the effects of it.
And so I've entitled this message, The Distinction of the Cross.
the distinction of the cross and the separation of the cross,
but that's too long a title, so I'll just leave it as the
distinction of the cross. Now, as we saw last time when
we looked at this chapter, and I'm going to summarize this now,
Abel looked to Christ. Abel looked to Christ. He believed
the Lord Jesus Christ. His salvation was entirely in
Him. This is what God taught him.
And God required sacrifice be brought in order to be a witness
to what he believed, to testify outwardly what he believed in
his heart. And so he brought a lamb of his
flock and he offered it in blood. He didn't just offer its wool,
he offered the lamb itself in blood. And so God had respect
unto Abel and to his offering. He looked upon the offering He
looked upon the one to whom Abel looked, which is what the offering
pointed to, and he had respect unto Abel because of what he
received from Abel in Christ. This is important. The only way
that we can be accepted by God is what God receives from the
Lord Jesus Christ. We contribute nothing to our
salvation. God does it all. And Christ performed
it at the cross. When he said, it is finished,
then it was done. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. And this is what Abel looked
to. The blood of the Lamb of God slain before the foundation
of the world And he offered the lamb to point to that blood.
And God had respect to Abel and to his offering. And he says
in Hebrews 11.4, By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain. And very carefully listen to
this. By the which he obtained, by the which, that offering,
that sacrifice, by the which he obtained witness that he was
righteous. The witness of God was, Abel
is righteous. Why? Because God found him righteous
in Christ, because God in Christ worked out his righteousness.
And that righteousness is the entire work Christ did for his
people in his living and in his dying, in his offering himself
to God. We know that's true. Romans 10, verse 4 says, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Abel
believed. It didn't make Christ his righteousness
when he believed. God had already made Christ his
righteousness, but his faith made it evident that this was
his righteousness. God gave witness, it says, he
obtained witness that he was righteous. God gave that witness
to him. But Cain did not come by Christ. He came by the fruit of the labor
of his hands. Able to believe Christ, Cain
trusted in himself that he was righteous. He trusted that God
would accept him for what he was by his birth, the firstborn.
and what he did to bring the works of his hands to God in
order to be accepted by Him. Now, that's what we naturally
do. All of us naturally do that. In our minds, and by what we
do, we bring a sacrifice. Whatever it is we think of God,
that's the way we act towards Him. We think that He's not very
holy, we think we're pretty good, and that we have a potential
for doing what's necessary to meet God's requirements. So we
might think, well, that's just our response to God. Our response
will make His salvation work for me. But that's not the way
it works. Salvation is God's work, and He gives it to us and
opens our eyes to it. That's when we believe. So Cain
trusted in himself that he was righteous, and the works of men's
hands in scripture is called idolatry. Cain was an idolater. He worshipped the works of his
own hands. And Cain despised Christ because
he brought another offering, and he didn't look to Christ.
He was ignorant of God's holiness, he was ignorant of his own sinfulness,
but most especially he was ignorant of Christ's righteousness. And
so, like the Jews, he went about to establish his own righteousness,
and he refused to submit himself to the righteousness of God,
which is the Lord Jesus Christ, and his doing and dying for sinners. Now, God only accepts us for
the work of Christ. Period. That's it. God only accepts
us for the work of His Son. But when God accepts us for the
work of His Son, in the process of time, God is going to make
a distinction. And the distinction that He makes
between all men is the cross of Christ. That is the distinction. What do you think of Christ?
Whose Son is He? Remember what Jesus asked the
Pharisees? Who do you think He is? He asked His disciples. Who
is Christ? And Peter said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. Who is the Son of Man? And
He said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. But
the Pharisees, when Jesus asked them, Whose Son is He? They couldn't answer. They just
didn't want to answer because they didn't want to admit who
He really was. They didn't believe Him. But
that's the issue. It's the cross. God uses His
Son, Christ crucified, to make a distinction in time between
His people and between those who are not His people. It's
always the cross, the offense of the cross. Remember, the cross,
the Lord Jesus Christ crucified is called the stumbling stone,
the rock of offense. So, look at verse 7 of this. I wanted you to see that because
we're going to see that more as we progress through this chapter. He says in verse 7, after the Lord had respect to
Abel and to his offering and did not have respect to Cain
and to his offering, and Cain grew angry, angry with God, angry
with his brother. His whole face, his whole appearance
showed it. And in verse 6, the Lord said
to Cain, Why art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen?
Why do you look dejected? Why do you look so angry? Why
is your brow furrowed? Why do you have hate in your
heart towards your brother? Which is murder in the heart,
which he carried out. Verse 7, the Lord says to Cain,
this is a difficult verse. He says, If thou doest well,
shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin
lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou
shalt rule over him." Now, we want to approach this verse carefully,
but with a great deal of humility also, because it seems as if
it means one thing. I mean, it seems like it's difficult
to know exactly what it means. I don't know about you, but when
I read that verse, it leaves me stupefied. But I think we
can understand this if we just take it carefully. He says, if
thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted. That's the first
phrase. And I think you can understand
this in one of two ways. And both of them ultimately lead
to the same conclusion. So we'll look at both of them.
First, What was it that Cain refused to do? He refused to
submit to the righteousness of Christ. We know that that's what
he actually was doing when he brought the sacrifice of the
fruit of his labor. We know that because that's what
the whole New Testament is about. The contrast between those who
trust in themselves and those who trust Christ. That's the
distinction throughout time revealed in Scripture. So that was what
he failed to do. So if that's what he failed to
do, then, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted, could
be understood simply as, submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, come
to God by His blood alone, and you'll be accepted. Look to Christ. all the ends of the earth, and
be ye saved." That's what the Lord says. Look to the Lord Jesus
Christ and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. But here Cain,
and every natural man, including us, will not look until God convinces
us. Abel had been convinced, and
it doesn't discuss that process with Abel, but it does show the
effect of it. He had been born again, because
only those who have been born of God look to Christ. That's a very important concept,
and that was one of the reasons I wanted to go to John 3, and
we spent some time there. The evidence of our being born
again is that the Spirit of God causes us to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ, put on the pole, cursed of God, made sin, and
cursed of God under the law. And looking to Him, we have eternal
life. Looking to Him is all of our salvation and acceptance
before God. But here, Cain refused to do
that. And so, "...if thou doest well,
shall thou not be accepted?" I think most probably means that
he should look to the Lord Jesus Christ, and if he does, then
in Christ he's accepted. That's the evidence of his acceptance.
Not the cause, not his looking. His looking is not the cause,
but the evidence of his acceptation in Christ. Or it could mean what
the Lord Jesus said to the rich young ruler. Remember the rich
young ruler who came to Jesus? Good master. And this is in Matthew
19. What must I do to have eternal
life? And so Jesus answered the fool
according to his folly. He said, it's not a bad answer. It's a good answer. It's what
the law says. You know what the law says. Keep the commandments. And maybe I should read that
to get it more accurately quoted here. Let me look at that in
Matthew 19 just briefly here so I don't misquoted, he says
this, this is the Lord talking, he says in verse 16, he says,
one came to him and said unto him, good master, what things
shall I do that I may have eternal life? Notice the emphasis on
he's looking for something. This is the most ironic thing
of all. Without exception, everyone I've
met in this area since we've been here who's come to us who has been an outcast and has
been completely without a home, without any place to go, and
they come and you think that of all people, this person should
be interested in the gospel. Without exception, what I hear
them say is, this is what I need to do, this is what I need to
change, how I need to reform, what I need to be doing in order
to get right with God. They'll say that one way or the
other. And so this man, that's what we think. We cannot think
outside of that box. We're in the prison of our own
natural mind that God only accepts us. Because of what we are, because
of what we do. But here, this man comes like
that. And you know what happened. He said, which ones? And Jesus
said, he names off the last half of the law, the last half of
the Ten Commandments. And he says, well, I've kept
all those. Don't kill, don't steal, don't commit adultery,
honor your father and mother. I've done that from my youth
up. And Jesus didn't name that last one, which was don't covet.
So he said it this way, then go sell all that you have and
give it to the poor and come follow me. And that's when that
young man went away sad, because he was very rich. And so, the
second thing I think that this could mean here, if thou doest
well, shalt thou not be accepted, is that the Lord's telling Cain,
listen, Cain, if you want to come by the doing, the labor
of your hands, then you are obligating yourself to come entirely. by what you do and what you are.
In other words, if you want to come by keeping the law, then
you have to keep the whole law. And you have to fulfill it in
its demand for satisfaction to justice as well. Now that's a
heavy load, isn't it? That's a burden no man can bear.
But that is what the Lord means by this. Look at Galatians chapter
5. And this is just as effectively
the same result if you do well, if you look to Christ. But if
it's this way, if you do well, if you come by your own, then
you've got to keep the whole law because doing that will drive
you to insanity unless God gives you faith to see that that's
done in Christ. He says in Galatians chapter
5, "...stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free." Liberty from the guilt of sin and the condemnation
of sin. Liberty from all the consequences
of sin. Christ has made us free. And
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. In other words,
coming to God by our own personal obedience. But by the liberty
which is coming to him by Christ's obedience. But verse 2, he says,
Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if you be circumcised, if
you do one thing, In order to make yourself better in God's
eyes, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again
to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the
whole law. And Christ is become of no effect
to you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. You are
fallen from grace. Now that's a heavy thing, isn't
it? If you do well, shall you not
be accepted? If you want to come like the
rich young ruler, Or if you want to come by as those in Galatians
who thought that they needed to be circumcised in order to
make it complete, Christ made up all of it and I just have
to do this last thing in order to really be pleasing to God,
then you're duty-bound to do the whole law, both in His precept
and suffering its penalty. But I really favor the first
one. If you do well, look to Christ, you'll be accepted. And
then he says in the next phrase in Genesis chapter 4, 7, right
after that, he says, And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at
the door. Now, this is the consequence
of not looking to Christ. Sin lieth at the door. And the
words there being, it's like a lion crouching. If you look
up the word lying at the door, it's like couched crouching. And so, what's the result? What does Scripture say? What
does the New Testament say about what happens to us when we do
not submit ourselves to the righteousness of Christ? When we don't come
to God by Christ alone, when we don't find that God has been
merciful to us in Christ only, but try to produce something
and manipulate God by what we do and think in order to get
Him to favor us. What's the consequence of that?
Well, you make yourself an entire slave to sin. And this is seen
in Romans chapter 8. If you want to look at this,
Romans chapter 8, where in the first part, Romans chapter 8 has got to be
the most comforting of all chapters in the Bible. He says in Romans
chapter 8, "...there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus." Because they're in Christ, there's no
condemnation, and for no other reason. Because Christ has answered
God for them. who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit." Now, that last phrase is very important
in light of what we're reading here in Genesis chapter 4. Because
there's no condemnation to Abel because he's in Christ. And he
walks after the Spirit. He looks to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He does not walk after the flesh, as Cain did, who trusts in himself. And doesn't come by Christ. Verse
2. For the law, the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
What Christ did by the spirit of God has made me free from
the law of sin and death because he answered the law, he fulfilled
it. Verse 3. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through my flesh, the flesh, any man's flesh,
God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin condemned sin in the flesh. In His flesh, and His
flesh as a representative man was the flesh of all His people.
So God condemned our sin in Christ's flesh, crucified on the cross,
suffering the curse that we earn by our sinning. And God received
from the Lord Jesus Christ full answer to His justice. And so
God condemned it in its entirety. And it was fully discharged from
us because He put it away. And now we're forgiven. Then
verse 4 says, God condemned sin in His flesh that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. Because Christ did it for us,
God counts it ours. Because it was put to our account
by God's act of imputation, our sin to Christ and His righteousness
to us. But the result of that in our
life, the effect of it, the distinction that grace makes is that we walk
by the Spirit. So the question is, what does
it mean to walk by the Spirit of God? What does that mean? That sounds mysterious, doesn't
it? Walk by the Spirit of God. That's got to be something very
complicated. Because I can't understand it.
But if we think about it for just a little bit, it won't be
complicated. Remember what Nicodemus did in
John chapter 3? These are very foundational places
in scripture. Nicodemus comes to Christ. Jesus
tells him, you can't see and you haven't entered unless you're
born of the Spirit. And he says, man, I don't know
what you're talking about. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. By your parents birth, you became
flesh, a natural man, and that's all you are. But when you enter
the Kingdom of God, you enter by birth. And that birth is by
the Spirit of God. Now, Nicodemus says, how can
these things be? And we might ask the same question. How can it be? I don't understand
how I become born again. Well, it's all the work of the
Spirit of God. The wind blows where it pleases.
You hear the sound of it. You don't know where it came
from or where it's going. It's the work of God. It's a
sovereign work. It's a work of His alone. But
then He tells us the effect of that when He gets to a little
later in John 3 when He says, "...as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."
And then the next phrase, "...that whosoever believeth on Him may
have everlasting life." Those believing Christ are the fulfillment
of those in the wilderness, bitten by the serpent, who look to that
serpent on the pole. These, believing Christ, are
those who look to Christ and see in Him the sin-bearing, curse-bearing
substitute God has accepted. That's the work of the Spirit.
In the birth, we're caused to look to Christ. Do you agree?
That's what it means? Then the walking in the Spirit
has got to be the same thing. If we're born into God's kingdom,
by the Spirit of God, and that effect is to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ, and that's the evidence of our new birth and
life in Christ, Then walking in the Spirit is a continuance
and abiding in Christ and looking to Him throughout our life. Believing
is not a one-time act. So I was raised thinking that. And I think it was probably because
that's the way it was taught. And the people who were with
me in that church, I know that's what they believed, because they
always used that as the evidence that someone they knew who had
died, well they made a decision back there at some point in their
life. That must have been That must
have been the time they became saved, but that's not what God
talks about. He talks about believing as something
we continue to do. Walking in the Spirit is looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It has to be. It has to be. We know it by contrast because
it's not those who walk after the flesh, but those who walk
after the Spirit that are in Christ. And to walk after the
flesh is to do what the Pharisee did in Luke 18. He trusted in
himself that he was righteous, as Paul did before he was saved. He said, I trusted in my works. I was an Israelite. I kept the
law. I did all these things. Circumcised
the eighth day. But now, now those things I counted
gain, I count to be dung and loss. He trusted in his flesh. Now he trusts in Christ. We are
the true circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit. And
have no confidence in the flesh. So to walk in the flesh is just
that. It's to take... The things that
God has given us in Christ to see them and be persuaded of
them and live upon them. Jesus said it in John chapter
6, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, we live upon
him. It's our life. It sustains us
and it satisfies us. That's living and walking in
the Spirit. Christ becomes all to us in salvation
and we continue in that way. And so here he says, The distinction
here between these two, we see it in their act of their offering,
but we also see it in their life, because if you... I'm sorry,
I'm trying to read Genesis 4-7, and I'm not back there, but let
me go back there. He says, if thou doest well,
shalt thou not be accepted. And if thou doest not well, sin
lieth at the door. That's the phrase I was considering. If we walk by the Spirit, There's
no condemnation because we're in Christ. That's the evidence
of our being in Christ. That's the evidence that we believe
God. We look to Christ. And sin, if we don't look to
Christ, sin lieth at the door. Sin has dominion over us. Now,
how often do you feel like sin has dominion over you? Do you
ever feel like there's a time when you're free from it? No,
see, that's the problem that faces us. That's the struggle
that we are constantly in, is that we don't feel like we ever
have dominion over our sin. But this is the promise of God.
And so this is the effect of walking in the Spirit is that
sin shall not have dominion over you. Why? In Romans 6.14 it says
this, "...sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are
not under the law..." "...you're not under a principle by which
you come to God on the basis of what you do or are, but you're
under grace." You're under that principle in which God provides
and finds everything in Christ, and you come to Him in Christ
alone. In verse, Romans 6, verse 15,
it says, "...what then shall we sin, because we're not under
the law, but under grace, God forbid, know ye not, that to
whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, His servants you are,
to whom you obey?" That's what he spoke of in Genesis 4-7. If
you do well, you'll be accepted, and if not well, sin lies at
the door. Whoever you obey, that's whose
servant you are, whether of sin unto death or of obedience to
righteousness. But listen to Romans 6-17. Romans
6-17 says this, But God be thanked, God be thanked, that you were
the servants of sin, But you have obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from
sin, you became the servants of righteousness." What is this?
What is this doctrine? And what is this having obeyed
this doctrine from the heart. Again, this is believing the
Lord Jesus Christ. The obedience of faith. The truth
that we hear, we become persuaded of it and we lay hold of it.
It becomes our whole life. We think about it. We're sustained
by it. It satisfies us. We desire it. We want to hear it all the time.
It's the only thing that comforts us. It's what we live upon. We live upon Christ crucified. That act of faith, laying hold
on Christ, having confidence in Christ, and having a hope
for eternal glory, that act is God's work in us. It's a gift
of God. God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin. Completely under sin's dominion,
unable to see beauty in Christ, unable to lay hold upon Him,
but now By the grace of God, you've been given grace to see
and believe Him. This is the opposite of sin taking
dominion over us. It's seeing Christ and believing
Him. If you come to God by Christ, then sin will not have dominion
over you. But we struggle, don't we? The
flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh,
so that you cannot do the things that you would." Galatians 5.17.
And Paul said, "...when I would do good, evil is present with
me." There's a constant battle. But we overcome by faith, by
faith in Christ. Because we see that our salvation
is in heaven. Our King, the Son of Man reigns
and rules in heaven over all our enemies. We will have the
victory. Sin shall not have dominion over
us. Though sin reigned by death, now grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the promise of God and
we lay hold on that promise. We live our lives on it. If we
didn't have that hope, we would go crazy. Because God has shown
us our sin and we have no hope before God without Christ being
our all. And so to Cain, God says, if
you do well, you'll be accepted. Or, if thou doest well, shalt
thou not be accepted, and if thou doest not well, then sin
lies at the door. Sin will have the mastery over
you. If you don't look to Christ, you will have no power against
your flesh. In fact, this is what God described
in Romans 1. Because when they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain
in their imaginations. Therefore God gave them over
to their own lusts, just to do what's in their heart. Sin lies
at the door. You get to do whatever you want
to do. And it's a monster. And so he says in Genesis 4-7,
now more particularly, he says, "...if thou doest well, shalt
thou not be accepted, and if thou doest not well, sin lieth
at the door." So far, it's not that difficult to understand
the verse. Because we look at it always back through the lens
of the New Testament. But here he says, "...and unto
thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." Now
that is a complicated thing to say. I think. It's complicated
for me to understand. It wasn't complicated for God
to say it. But because I'm very... It's difficult to understand. And I find that commentators
differ on what this means. Most of the good commentators
come to this conclusion that it means that, and this is what
I mentioned the first time, so I think it's a reasonable thing
to understand it, that it means that if Cain does do well, Then,
as the firstborn, Cain would receive the right of the firstborn,
and he and Abel would live at peace together. Cain would continue
to have that place, thou shalt rule over him. But, I have a
problem with that understanding. First of all, there's really
no gospel truth in it that I can see. And we know that the scriptures
were written to reveal the gospel. And secondly, it just has to
do with the relationships in this life and some simple things
in this life, the possessions of things. So I just don't think
that that's a very satisfying explanation of it. That it simply
means that Cain would retain his right as the firstborn and
have an inheritance. The whole earth was empty at
this time, practically. What did he need? What did Cain
want from this world? I imagine he wanted everything,
but it was wide open, so there was plenty of space. But I think
it means something different, and this is something that I
want to propose to you, because I didn't find this in another
explanation, but it seems to me, as I think about it, the
right way to look at it. He says, if you do well, won't
you be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin
lies at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire. I think
that has to do with sin lying at the door. If you don't look
to Christ, sin will have the mastery over you. Unto thee,
concerning you, sin will have all of its desire. In other words,
you will become outwardly and inwardly a slave of sin. You
are, but you won't be freed from it, but it will continue. You
will continue on this downward spiral. There won't be any recovery. But even though that seems to
be plain, the next one, and thou shalt rule over him, seems to
not fit that explanation. And that's the reason it's difficult.
If it means that by not believing Christ that sin has the mastery
over us, then what does this next mean, and thou shalt rule
over him? Because Cain clearly wasn't going
to rule over sin if sin was the master. But I think the way to
understand this is to understand it the way sometimes the scriptures
are written, is that it connects the last phrase with the first
one, and it puts something in the middle that separates them,
and it's not clear that that's done until you read it in that
context. And I want to show you that in Hebrews chapter 2, because
this is one of those verses, sometimes If you read the whole
verse, it fits in this light, but if you don't, it seems confusing. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9, after
saying that God has given man dominion over all things, he
says, but we don't see him having dominion. In verse 9 he says,
but we see Jesus. Now listen to this, the way that
this is written carefully. "...who was made a little lower
than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory
and honor." And stop there. That makes sense. That seems
clear. Christ was made lower than the angels in order to suffer
death, and because He suffered death, He's crowned with glory
and honor. That's clear, isn't it? And then the next phrase,
"...that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every
man." That seems to be out of order, doesn't it? It sounds
like that he by the grace of God should taste death for every
man should be in front of, crowned with glory and honor. But that's
the way it's worded because he wants to tie the glory to his
death and his accomplishments. But then he also adds this afterwards. He was made lower than the angels
and he suffered death in order that he might, by the grace of
God, taste death for every man. or for every son, literally,
which is the word man isn't in the original. It was added by
the translators to clarify this, and if you look later, it's just
every son. Every one God made Christ sin
for. Now, if you understand that,
if you go back to Genesis 4-7, then if you read it this way,
which I think, to me, is the satisfying way to read it. If
thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted, And then, if you add the very
last clause, and thou shalt rule over him, he's already introduced
the concept of sin, and being a slave of sin, if you don't
look to Christ, and now he adds back, in reference to the first
phrase, if you do well, shall you not be accepted, and thou
shalt rule over him. In other words, this thing we're
talking about, sin, and your subjection to it, if you do well
in looking to Christ, then sin. You will have dominion over that,
and not the reverse. So for me, that's the way I understand
this. And I want you to consider that.
I can't be dogmatic about it. Because, as I said, I couldn't
find anyone else who said that. But this is the way the scripture
presents the truth of this. Because when we walk by the Spirit
of Christ, what happens? What do you experience when you
walk by Christ? Don't you actually in your heart...
sense a desire, a true desire for the Lord Jesus Christ, that
you actually want him. You need Him, and you find Him
to be attractive to you because He is the Savior of sinners,
foul and filthy, and unable to do anything, and has provided
in Himself everything for them. How could you not love Him? Faith
enables us by the Spirit of God to actually love the Lord Jesus
Christ. And isn't love the fulfilling
of the law? So, we see that in believing Christ, everything
else follows. Faith worketh by love. That's the fruit. The result
of looking to Christ is love. And so, I think that that's what
fits. And this is what God is saying in Romans chapter 8. If you look back there now, I
want you to revisit that chapter. Romans chapter 8. And perhaps I've spent more on
this verse than it deserved, but because it was complicated
to me, I was compelled to do so. He says in verse 5 of Romans
chapter 8, after he talked about Christ fulfilling the law for
us, And the result of that is that we walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Because the effects of Christ's
righteousness fulfilled for us is that God made a distinction
in time. He brought to pass His will.
He gave us His Spirit. Christ endured the curse for
us that the promise of the Spirit might be given to us. Galatians
3.13 and 14. But here He says, verse 5, "...for
they that are after the flesh..." What do they do? "...they do
mind the things of the flesh." But they that are after the things
of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in
the flesh cannot please God. That describes Cain to a T, doesn't
it? And it describes every one of us apart from the grace of
God. But when grace gives us faith in Christ by the work of
the Spirit of God, then we find Christ to be altogether lovely
and attractive. And we wake up in the morning
and we're... I was telling my wife, I wake
up in the morning and I feel like I'm in a daze, I'm confused
and everything is disoriented. My mind seems weak and frail
and my body is whatever. And yet, by God's grace, we cry
out to the Lord, don't we? Look at a few verses with me.
I love these verses. I'm just going to take you to
a few of them. Psalm chapter 34. The result of God's Spirit. The distinction that God makes
between His people. He says in Psalm chapter 34 and
verse 17, the righteous cry. And the Lord heareth, and delivereth
them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near, he is nigh
unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be
of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." You see,
the stress of the new nature causes us to Anguish over our
unbelief and our sin and our need to see Christ moment by
moment and day by day. And so we cry. And the Lord is
near us because He's broken our heart. We find our heart doesn't
work unless we see Christ. And turn to another one in Psalm
50. Let's take you to a few of these
in the Psalms. I delight in these verses. Psalm 50 verse 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble. How about the hour and the minute?
Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee. And the
result of that? Thou shalt glorify me. Our salvation
glorifies God, doesn't it? And we say so. The redeemed of
the Lord say so. Look at Psalm 55. In verse 16. As for me, I will call upon God,
and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon
will I pray and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice. Look
at Psalm 65. Verse 1. Praise waiteth for thee,
O God, in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. O
thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. Verse
3, one of my favorites. Iniquities prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. This is God's work. We feel and
know that our iniquities, like enemies, are coming against us
and have power over us. They prevail against me. They
have power over me. So we cry. Iniquities prevail
against me. And then God's grace comes in
like a flood and He points us to Christ and He says, "...as
for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away." In the
Lord Jesus, purged. "...Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach to thee, that he may dwell in
thy courts, and we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house,
even of thy holy temple." Look at Psalm 79. In verse 8, Psalm 79 verse 8,
Oh, remember not against us former iniquities. Let thy tender mercies
speedily prevent us, go before us, for we are brought very low
because of our sin. Help us, O God, of our salvation
for the glory of thy name. Do it for your namesake, Lord.
According to your righteousness, save us, he says, and deliver
us and purge away our sins for thy name's sake. Two times there
he says it. Look at, I'm just taking you
to some of my favorites here. Psalm chapter 94, look at this. In verse 17. Unless the Lord
had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. When
I said, My foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. Isn't
that a wonderful thing? In the multitude of my thoughts
within me, thy comforts delight my soul. Look at another one. I'll just take you to these.
Psalm 119, verse 41. Brad was waiting for me to get
to this one. Psalm 119 verse 41, Let thy mercies
come also unto me, O Lord. I see that others, you've had
mercy on others. Lord, let your mercies come also
unto me, even thy salvation according to thy word. So shall I have
wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me, for I trust in
thy word. Look at Jeremiah chapter 17,
er, 15. Jeremiah 15. This is what the righteous do.
They cry, and they look to God's word. They want to see, is it
really true? Has Christ really become all
to God for me? In verse 16 of Jeremiah 15, Thy
words were found, and I did eat them. And Thy word was unto me
the joy and rejoicing of mine heart, for I am called by Thy
name, O Lord God of hosts. Do you see that? Blessed is the
man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness. Look at chapter
17 of the same book, Jeremiah 17, verse 14. Jeremiah 17, verse
14. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall
be healed. Save me, and I shall be saved,
for Thou art my praise. And verse 17, be not a terror
unto me, thou art my hope in the day of evil. We could just
keep going, couldn't we? Don't you find God's words precious?
Jesus said, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting
life. But to Cain, he says, if you
don't do well, then sin lies at the door, and it'll have the
mastery over you. And so I completely underestimated
how much time we would spend on that, but I wanted you to
see those things because next week we will try to cover Some
of this about Cain being a vagabond and so on. I want to point you
to the very last verse of Genesis 4. He says, And to Seth, to him
also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos. Then
began men to call upon the name of the Lord. What a blessing.
You see the distinction God makes? What is the distinction that
God makes? How do we see that distinction in our lives? The
cross. It's the cross. What do men think
of Christ? What think ye of Christ, whose
Son is He? Let's pray.