20241103 Genesis 4:1-16 - Life East of Eden

Rodrigo Borgia lived in the 15th century. His claim to fame was his ability to lead a double life. On one hand, he had at least eight children from at least three different affairs. He rose to power through bribery and used power and violence to exploit and oppress. He threw lavish banquets that were scandalous. On the other, he was Pope Alexander VI of the Catholic Church. He was a religious leader whose job was to represent Christ and point people to Christ. It is right for us to recognize the hypocrisy, as long as we realize we are fellow hypocrites. While everything may seem fine externally, our hearts can be far from God. This is life East of Eden.

Genesis 4 is about Adam and Eve’s descendants. Genesis 4 illustrates hostility and alienation in a world marked by sin. It is life as we know it. Cain’s life is a prototype of our sinful life. The account of Lamech teaches us about the downward spiral of sin that we experience. Genesis 4 also teaches that amid our battle with sin, our gracious God is never too far.

We will look at the nature of sin, the effect of sin, and the hope for sinners.

Gen 4:1-9 First, we look at the Nature of Sin.

Gen 4:1-5a First aspect of the nature of sin is that it begins hidden in our hearts.

Adam and Eve have two sons. Abel was a shepherd and Cain, a worker of the ground. They both bring offerings to the Lord. The Lord accepts Abel’s but not Cain's. We are not told why, but the lack of comment is the point. The Lord looks over Cain for something unseen. His heart is not right.

In 1 Sam 16, God tells Samuel, “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Hebrews 11:4 teaches the difference between Abel and Cain was Abel's faith. 1 John 3 teaches that Cain was from the evil one.

The story of Cain and Abel begins with the hidden motives of our hearts when we worship. We can shower, dress well, be polite, sit and stand at the right time at church, and our hearts can still be far from God. This story must confront our inability to offer a pure sacrifice based on our own abilities. A second takeaway is that if God looks to our intentions, we need to be slower to judge people's actions. Jesus taught that a widow who offered two copper coins offered more than the rich. This is because she offered all she had (Mark 12:42-44). We do not know people's hearts. We must be slow to judge the worship others offer.

Gen 4:5b-7 The second aspect of the nature of sin is that it is an ongoing battle.

Following Cain’s rejection, he becomes very angry. In his book, Good and Angry, David Powlison writes that anger reveals what we crave, what we trust, what we hate, and what we love. He says, “When anger goes astray, it says something about how we are going astray.” How did we react the last time someone said we did something wrong? Did we try to improve? Did we deny that we needed to correct it? Is our identity connected with our performance, so that criticism shatters us? Do we become aggressive when people show us how we can improve?

Cain wanted at all cost to be accepted or at least he did not want to fail where his brother succeeded. God does not accept Cain’s offering, but he pursues him. He says in Gen 4:7, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

The statement, "If you do well, will you not be accepted," does not declare a sinner's good deed earns God's favor. It does speak of the importance of good works. Salvation by faith alone, in Christ alone, without works does not mean we live as we please. To accept Jesus, we all need to get on our knees, recognize the severity of our sins, and plead on the Lord’s mercy.

Cain’s rejection and then his anger reveal that he was not doing well. Something has to change. God's warning to Cain is for us. “Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for us, but we must rule over it.” Sin is portrayed as a creature waiting to pounce. We are never safe.

Chapter 13 of the Westminster Confession of Faith explains our ongoing battle with sin this way: “… sanctification works in the whole person, but not completely or perfectly in this life. [In the life of a Christian,] the old sinful nature retains some of its control in body, mind, and spirit. And so, a continual and irreconcilable war goes on in every believer. … Although the old nature temporarily wins battles in this warfare, the continual strengthening of the sanctifying Spirit of Christ enables the regenerate nature in each believer to overcome.”

This means that sin is never far away. We need to actively practice delighting in God. We must foster and enjoy deep community with fellow believers. We need a healthy spiritual diet of God’s Word. We need these things, and still, we will continue to sin.

Gen 4:8, 9, 19-24 The third aspect of the nature of sin is that sin compounds quickly.

In the space of four verses, Cain goes from anger to murder. Other sins that follow are denial and refusing to take responsibility. Because sin compounds quickly, we must take little sins seriously. When someone says something that hurts us, we need to learn to identify that it hurt us. If we do not, we can turn into a predator looking for an opportunity to strike back. Resentment, jealousy, and pride can derail our lives if we do not identify them before they take over our lives.

Later in Genesis 4, the downward spiral of sin continues. A descendant of Cain, Lamech, has two wives. This is the first recorded polygamy in the Bible. Lamech boasts of murdering a young man who injured him. And he presumes that God will protect him from his enemies. We see things can quickly get out of hand.

In the early 90s, a young Texan was a great cyclist. He needed a little help from banned substances to become one of the World’s Best. This cyclist was diagnosed with cancer and won that battle. Early in his career, doping allegations started to come out. But his story as a cancer survivor protected him from the accusations.

From 1999 to 2005, this cyclist, Lance Armstrong, won seven consecutive Tour de France titles. All the while, the doping had become the most sophisticated doping program that we are aware of. The bigger it got, the uglier it became. Armstrong had to lie and intimidate teammates. He even aggressively sued anyone who accused him of doping.

In his personal life, he seemed to have had a great start. He was married and had three children. The cheating in sports was also happening in his marriage, which led to a divorce. Growing up in the late 90s and early 2000s, I was such a fan of Lance Armstrong. Tragically, his story can remind us of the compounding nature of our sins if we do not rule over it. We saw that sin begins hidden in our hearts, sin is ongoing, and sin compounds quickly.

Second Point, Gen 4:11-16 The Consequences of Sin

Gen 4:11 The first consequence of sin is a curse.

Following the sin in the garden, the serpent was cursed and the land was cursed. Adam and Eve were not cursed. Now, in Gen 4:11, Cain is cursed. This is an intensification of the consequences of the first sin. In the garden, the land provided in abundance. Outside of the garden, the man would have to work hard for food (Gen 3:17-18). Now Gen 4:12 reads, “When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you.” As a worker of the soil, this affects Cain in one of the most central areas of his life. He is also driven from this land where he grew up (Gen 4:11). He becomes a restless wanderer as he heads further east of Eden, away from the Lord's presence (Gen 4:16).

Genesis 4:12 The second consequence is restlessness and lostness.

The restless wandering away from the presence of God is life outside of Christ. Humans were made after the likeness of God so that he would be our father. Human beings are designed to have a relationship with God. Ecclesiastes 3:11 teaches that God has placed eternity into man’s heart. Augustine said, our heart is restless until it finds its rest in God. There is something missing until God fills our hearts.

In my own life, I resonated with the word in the song, Amazing Grace, "I once was lost, but now am found." I felt lost in life. Like Cain, I was a restless wanderer. Nothing was able to satisfy me. I thought a life of meaninglessness or trying to create your own path of meaning was a common curse of humanity. Then, I encountered God. I started reading the New Testament, I found that the world and life finally made sense! God became my meaning in life. He changed every aspect of my life. For the first time I felt true peace and hope.

God made us for himself. Until God is the foundation, we will experience a sense of restlessness and wandering. When I find myself feeling restless in my wandering, I realize I still try to find meaning outside of God. I need to turn back to him.

Gen 4:16 The third consequence is separation from God.

Genesis 4 also warns us of judgment. Adam and Eve had been ousted from the Garden to go East of Eden. In Gen 4:16 Cain is forced to go further east of Eden. We learn that sin separates us from God. This is still true for all of us outside of Christ. The fullest expression of this separation is “eternal destruction.” This is being away from the presence of the Lord for eternity (2 Thess 1:9). The Bible warns of this state of torment (Rev 14:10), which is the devastating consequence of sin. Jesus makes a way for all those who turn to Him, to escape this judgment that is to come. The effect of sin are a curse, restless wandering, and separation from God, but Hope is already found in our text.

Genesis 4:4, 7, 15, 25-26 The Hope for Sinners

Gen 4:4 The first way we see God’s grace is that he accepts a sinner’s offering.

The talk of impure hearts leads us to identify more with Cain than Abel. But we must remember that Abel is a sinner. How can we be like Abel, sinners whom God accepts? In Gen 4:7, God tells Cain, “if you do well, will you not be accepted?”

Abel’s name is a clue. Abel’s name means “nothing/vanity” or “breath” or “vapor” it speaks of something exists and no longer does. It could be a reflection on how long Abel is in the story. In any case, Gen 4:4 becomes fascinating, "The Lord looked with favor upon ‘vapor/vanity/breath.’” In contrast to Cain, does Abel's name teach us he understood his unworthiness?

Cain and Abel may be like the Pharisee and the Tax Collector who pray in the temple in Luke 18. The tax collector thinks he can enter the presence of the LORD based on his achievement, he says, “I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.” 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Jesus comments, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.”

The second clue is the ending in Gen 4:25-26.

Following God’s warning to the snake about a seed of the woman who would crush him in Gen 3:15, the theme of seed is important. In Gen 4:25, Eve calls her third son, Seth, saying, “God has appointed for me another seed (Gen 3:15) instead of Abel.” According to Gen 5:26, in the time of Seth, people began to call upon the name of the LORD. East of Eden, calling upon the name of the Lord is our only Hope. Rom 10:13 teaches that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

If we think we have what it takes to bring an offering it will be rejected. Jesus, the son of God became a human being, lived the perfect life and died for all those call on him for the forgiveness of sins. If we come as “Hevel”/Abel, vapor, breath, calling upon his name, he accepts us and makes us worthy worshippers.

Conclusion

We need pure hearts. Jesus said in Matt 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” 1 John 3:3 tells us that “everyone who hopes in Jesus purifies himself as Jesus is pure.” In the Old Testament it meant recognizing your sin and trusting that God would provide the seed of the woman.

Today, pure worship is Gospel-shaped. It acknowledges God’s attributes. It calls on the name of the Lord to look favorably on us sinners. Pure worship celebrates Jesus’ gift of eternal life by what he did on the cross. Pure worship depends on God rather than our ability. This is worship that glorifies God that is acceptable in his sight.

Russel Moore shares a story about when he was a young pastor. A visitor at his church told him that he wanted to learn more about Jesus. Russel Moore speaks of going to this man’s house with an elderly couple who were mature Christians. He describes this sweet couple like everybody’s spiritual grandparents. They go into this man’s home.

Russel Moore shared the Good News of what Jesus had done on the cross to forgive sinners who believe in him. The man, responds and says he wants to be a Christian. Russel Moore tells him to prayer in his own words his response to God. This is when the profanity began.

He prayed: "Blank." God, I am such a blankety blank blank blank. He went on describing himself with the harshest words. He went through all of his sins using profane language.

Russel Moore was so shocked at all the cussing. He started to worry about the sweet elderly couple and how offended they would be. He peaked to see how they were doing, and tears were coming down their cheeks.

Later, when they later walked out of the apartment, the older couple were in awe. They said, "Can you believe we just saw the miracle of someone being born again!?" Russel Moore responded, "Oh, I was worried you would be offended at all the cussing."

To become a Christian we do not learn to say the right things. To become a Christian we do not learn to look the right way. If we are worried about appearances, like Russel Moore we may miss the miracle of someone being born again! Mess in our lives must not prevent us from calling on the LORD today. Even if we do not use the right words – calling on the name of the LORD is the purest form of worship that God loves!