Sin Crouching At The Door Series

Cain was the first human to ever be born on earth. His parents, Adam and Eve, both had special creation births. Many parents will read this story of Cain and remember what it was like to wait for the birth of their first child. So many hopes and dreams are wrapped up in that little baby who is your firstborn. I am sure Adam and Eve had big dreams for Cain. No doubt they hoped he would make his mark on the world. He certainly made a mark, but as is often the case, things did not work out as they intended. Instead of fulfilling their dreams, the first baby, the first son, the firstborn after the Fall, broke their hearts and left a trail of blood and tears in his wake.

It wasn’t long before Adam and Eve had a second son, Abel. Let’s learn about two brothers, Cain and Abel, and their worship experience and what we can learn about worshipping the Lord God from them. Please turn to Genesis 4.

Three principles of worship we learn from Cain and Abel:

I. What you bring to God in worship does matter

Cain and Abel shared the same parents, the same spiritual background, the same home life, and no doubt both heard the same stories from Adam and Eve about life in paradise and about their expulsion because of sin. Yet as often happens in families today, one boy went in one direction and one boy went in another. One followed God; one followed his own desires. And one man murdered his brother.

Verses 3 and 4 gives us information on their worship experience. Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by the Lord God and Cain’s was not.

• NIV – the Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering

• KJV – the Lord had respect on Abel and his offering

• ESV, NAS and Holman – the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering

We wish we knew how God revealed that acceptance and rejection. However, God did it, they knew the result. Our point is that what you bring to God in worship does matter. How was Abel’s offering different or better than Cain’s?

A. Blood sacrifice

Verse 2 Cain made an offering from his work - fruit of the field. Abel made an offering of one of his lambs.

Although nothing is stated in the text, scholars believe God had informed them a sin offering requires a blood sacrifice to be accepted. Abel offered God a lamb as his sacrifice. I can almost hear someone argue - Cain gave God what he had - fruits and vegetables – he was a farmer and not a shepherd. He did not have lambs. Although he didn’t raise and tend sheep, Cain was expected by God to get one for his sacrifice. Now the picture is becoming clearer on Cain’s problem, he didn’t make the effort to give God what God required in a sacrifice. Cain gave what he wanted to give. What Cain did may have been frugal and practical, but it wasn’t what God demanded.

Application: we are to offer God a blood sacrifice as well for our sins. How we do that is get saved through the blood of Jesus.

B. Give God your best

The second way Abel’s offering was better than Cain’s --- notice in verse 3 the wording of Cain’s offering “some of the fruit of the land”, where Abel offered “the firstlings of his flock”. Firstlings indicates his best. Abel gave to God the best lamb he had where Cain gave to God his second best.

Application: you and I ought to give to God our best in worship and service too. It is so easy to make do, cut corners, or be half-hearted in our public or private worship and our service. Think of one thing you could begin doing to give God your best in. Don’t think of 5 things – it will overwhelm you – choose one and begin doing it tomorrow.

Three principles of worship we learn from Cain and Abel: the first one was “what you bring to God matters”

II. How you bring your offering is known by God

Our emphasis on how you bring your worship offering to God is your attitude, faith and intent of your heart.

A. The writer of Hebrews offers a third idea as to what was wrong with Cain’s sacrifice. Hebrews 11:4 it was not offered in faith. Faith in God motivates a person to do things right. Cain knew what to do, but definitely refused to do it.

B. In the book of Jude 1:11 he offers the fourth insight on what was wrong with Cain’s offering to God, Jude says “some had gone the way of Cain”. What do we believe he meant by this? He was religious but lost. They went through the forms of religious activity, but failed to have true faith and heart felt worship. Even in our culture, the concept has lingered, if you are intentionally looking for trouble or to be wild, we call it “raising Cain”.