“Seeking The Lord’s Acceptance”
Text: Genesis 4:1-15
10-23-2022
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. You may not realize this, but this is a unique Sunday. No, not because I’m filling in for Pastor while he’s gone. {Although, you have to admit it’s pretty cool.} Anyway, because of the dates when various holidays on the church calendar fall, we don’t always get to the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost. So, our readings for today rarely come up. More importantly, though, in the reading from Genesis 4 the destructive character of original sin is vividly on display. But also on display is God’s guidance on how to avoid temptation along with His mercy towards sinners. So lets dive in, shall we?
As you’ll recall, Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden when they sinned by disobeying God. The devil had made it out to be a good thing to desire to be like God with His knowledge of good and evil. It seemed so harmless, but it wasn’t. That simple act of rebellion infected the human race with sin and its consequence, which is death. That’s no small thing. Anyway, God showed His mercy by promising a Savior who would come from their eventual offspring. The Lord also clothed Adam and Eve because their uncomfortable nakedness reflected the shame of their sins being laid bare.
Genesis 4 then picks up the story with the birth of their first of many children. They certainly experienced joy like any parents, but they were especially thrilled because it meant the process of the world’s redemption was underway. First there was Cain and then Abel. Everything sounds normal as these brothers take up different occupations; one a crop farmer and the other raising livestock. But then came the day when they brought an offering from their labors to the Lord. Verses 4 & 5 tell us that God had “regard” for Abel’s offering but not Cain’s. In other words, the Lord accepted and was pleased with Abel’s offering. But why? Well, there’s lots of misunderstanding about that and we need to clear it up now because it’s a major part of the lesson in this passage. First, it was not because Abel offered an animal sacrifice and Cain brought grain, as if God liked one better than the other. Also, it’s not because Cain was being stingy or offering God only his leftovers. The text never says that. Rather, the acceptance of one and the rejection of the other was due to the attitude of these men’s hearts.
Scripture interprets Scripture, so let’s apply that principle to our question here. In Psalm 51, David writes, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” You see, the thing that’s offered isn’t the issue. A repentant heart is. But 1 John 3 gives us even more specific details about this situation in Genesis 4. John writes, “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.” Hebrews 11 also tells us, “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.” Twice we’re told that Abel was righteous in the manner that he offered to God his sacrifice. By faith, he approached God with a completely different attitude than Cain did.
What was that attitude? Well, if you’ll look at the parable Jesus told in the Gospel reading, you’ll see the difference as clearly as night and day. The Pharisee stood before God and basically praised himself for all the seemingly “righteous” deeds he had done. He thought he was doing a pretty good job and thought God should commend him for that. The tax collector, on the other hand, humbly came before the Lord recognizing his grievous sins and begging for mercy. The one man thought he was already righteous. The other man knew he wasn’t and pleaded for God’s mercy to forgive his sins and make him righteous. And as Jesus said, it was the tax collector who went home justified.
All of this points to the fact that Cain’s heart was not right. Like the Pharisee, he didn’t come with his offering asking to be made righteous by God’s merciful forgiveness. Abel did. That’s why Cain’s offering was not accepted and Abel’s was. Both of these brothers wanted to be accepted by God. But the one was relying on his own righteous deeds, and the other was relying on God’s righteousness alone. Like a gentle, loving father, God tried to correct Cain by saying, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” In other words, He was encouraging Cain to repent and be humble so that he could receive the Lord’s forgiveness and therefore His acceptance.
God could have left it at that, but His mercy is overflowing as he extends a warning to Cain. He says, “And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” What a vivid picture and apt description of sin we have here! It’s like a vicious lion hiding outside your door, waiting to pounce and devour you. And God is basically saying, “I know what you’re thinking, Cain. Don’t go there! You can resist this temptation with my help. Just DON’T GO THERE!” The Lord was giving him ample opportunity to avoid this rising urge to sin, but he ignored it.
Parents certainly know how frustrating this scenario can be when it plays out in their children or grandchildren. We warn them repeatedly about avoiding certain people or situations that might lead them down the path of trouble. We even flat out tell them, “Don’t go there and do it!” But sometimes they don’t heed our warnings as they race towards disaster. That’s what happened with Cain. He quickly transitioned from anger, to hate, to murder. And it all could have been avoided if he just would’ve listened to God. Now why would anyone do that? The answer is simple. We don’t see sin as a dangerous, vicious beast that wants to devour us. It’s crouching at the doorway of our life and we treat that beast like a cute, overgrown pussycat. We foolishly think we can tame it. So we toy around with temptations acting like it won’t come back to bite us. We seriously think we can control it, but we can’t. Then, when we’re consumed with the sin, we feel trapped by it.
Think of sin as a monstrous beast that’s caged up deep inside us. We try to hide it from our fellow man. But the devil whispers in our ears that it’s safe and that we’re in control. Go ahead. Just crack open the door to the cage a tiny bit and pet the beast. It’ll behave. That way you don’t have to keep such a vigilant eye on it. At first, it seems to work. However, as you let down your guard that beastly sin rises up and overwhelms you. The next thing you know you’re sitting there like Cain with blood on your hands from all the people you’ve hurt with your monster of sin. You’re guilty and you know it. But when God confronts us, our tendency is to deny it. And the damning consequences loom large before us. Like Cain, we’re marked men and women, marked by our sins and condemned to die. It fills a soul with despair!
And yet, there IS hope. The message in the Old Testament text and the Gospel reading is the same. Like the tax collector and Abel, if we acknowledge our sin before God, confessing that we are hopelessly unrighteous and ask God to forgive us He will show mercy and make us righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ. But the Lord also offers us a way to prevent from getting to that point of regret. Through God’s Word He urges us to identify sin before it pounces and He shows us how to avoid it by His power. We do that by regularly praying the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer where we say, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” That is a recognition that you are helpless when attacked by sin, and that you’re relying on God to save you. We also avoid falling into the clutches of sin by recognizing that we are not righteous on our own. We need God’s righteousness. And so, relying on His promises, we humbly come before Him asking for that which we so desperately need. And He provides it through His Word and Sacrament. Not only that, He also supplies us with the power to be strong and resist the temptation to sin through His means of grace. Yes, sin still resides within you. But empowered by the Holy Spirit, your faith is able to defeat that beast and destroy its power over your life.
Knowing all that, you can now walk away from worship today like that tax collector with the confidence that you are indeed justified and made righteous by God’s grace and mercy. May the Lord keep our hearts humble so that we will be able to bring to Him acceptable offerings of thanksgiving for the grace He has wondrously bestowed upon us through His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!