THE DOOR OF DISOBEDIENCE
It is good to be in God’s house during the Christmas Season. Next week, Lord willing, I will bring a message about the birth of Christ. But I am impressed of the Lord to try and finish last weeks message about “lawlessness”, as it relates to God’s Holy Word. This is important for us to study because of how people fall prey to the consequences of sin.
It has been said that a preacher can always tell how important it is for him (or her) to preach about sin by how quiet people get during the sermon.
(If that were true) I suppose that the longer the church people remained quiet, the longer the preacher would think he needed to preach on sin.
Seriously, how many of you want to overcome any sin that might be controlling your life?
What is amazing is how people look at sin today. Many of us can remember the time when sin was bad. If someone sinned, they would worry that God would come down on them with a big stick and smack em’.
And then the church people found out about God’s grace…
But the problem, nowadays, is that many people do not fear the judgment and wrath of God. They only think they see God winking at sin, and putting up with folks little faults.
We have all heard it said that -
“God will accept you just the way you are…”
That is one of the most common half truths in Christianity today.
The whole truth is this,
“God will accept you just the way you are…(but only) after you repent of your sins!”
While people are redefining sin for themselves, God has not changed His mind on how He looks at it.
God simply wants us to obey Him.
God is not interested (or amused) how people try to rationalize and justify the sin they live in.
In the meantime, the devil is still your enemy and is doing everything he can to deceive you, pull you down into his traps of sin, and enslave you.
Listen closely. There is one sure way you can overcome the devil and sin. OBEDIENCE.
Text: Genesis 4:3 thru 13
Our text today is one of the more difficult stories of the Bible for some of us to understand. And yet, this story is crucial if we are to come into submission and obedience to God.
We look at two young men, Cain and Abel, living in the most godly home, with the most godly father and mother in all of the world.
Not much is told of their upbringing, but I would imagine Adam and Eve did their very best to teach these two young men all they needed to know about the things of God.
Adam and Eve could still remember how they had failed God when they lived in the Garden of Eden.
No doubt, they had learned a lot from not being obedient to the Lord.
If there were ever two parents that knew the importance of doing what they were told, it was Adam and Eve.
One of their sons, Abel, knew exactly how to make a suitable offering to God. And I have to believe the other son, Cain, also knew what to do.
Apparently, Abel was submitted to God’s authority, but Cain was not.
I have heard those who have questioned the fairness of the Lord in this story. They are not too sure about the way God handled this problem with Cain. They point out that Abel was a shepherd, while Cain was a farmer. They had two different ways of making a living. So why wouldn’t they have two different kinds of sacrifices for the Lord?
I don’t know much about either one of these occupations, but my guess is that farming would be much harder work than sheep herding.
When I rationalize this story in my own mind, I see Abel bringing to God what he had, and Cain bringing to God what he had.
So what can be so wrong with that?
But then I suppose that is the same kind of thinking that Adam and Eve had when they ate the fruit after God told them not to.
The point of this story is OBEDIENCE.
It really is simple. We are talking about doing what God tells us to do.
Both men, Cain and Abel, knew what God wanted for an offering.
Abel was obedient and Cain was not.
When it comes to disobeying God, we all will try to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. Never mind the fact that we don’t know what is best for us. We must always remember that God does.
Disobedience means that I will make my own decision as to what is right and what is wrong. Not God.
Both of these young men knew what they had been told to do.
This was not a matter of
“I didn’t know any better…
“I forgot what you told me to do… “come on – lighten up – so I made a simple mistake...”
Our problem is that we sometimes look at obeying God as if it were a homework assignment in grade school. Oh well…whatever?
When it comes to the spiritual things in life, we must not think on our own.
The only decision God wants us to ever make is to submit to exactly what He is telling us to do.
In our story (and in our lives), God does not want our sacrifices of fruit and vegetables. God will only honor and respect the blood sacrifices.
We cannot decide for ourselves what we think pleases God.
When we bring God anything else but what He requires, we dishonor Him and His laws. We become “lawless”.
And that is exactly what happened with Cain. Cain decided for himself what would be acceptable to God.
Some would say, “Well Cain meant well. He’s not a bad guy. He just wanted to do what he likes to do.”
Some people make disobedience sound acceptable. God help us.
I will tell you that what Cain had done was more than just a mistake.
He wronged God, and he had no one to blame but himself.
You see Cain had heard the story of how his mother, Eve, had been deceived by the serpent. But there is no mention of the serpent in this story.
This story records the second sin, but there was no mention of deception.
If my math is correct, this tells me that 1 out of every 2 sins is a result not of what the devil has done to us.
Rather, what we have done to ourselves.
I’m thankful that God is merciful to us.
Notice how God responded with Cain in verses 6 and 7.
“Why are you angry?…if you do what is right, you will be accepted…if not, sin lies (crouches) at your door; it (sin) desires to have you…”
As much as the devil gets blamed, he had nothing to do with the sin of DISOBEDIENCE in Cain’s heart.
Listen church. The sin of DISOBEDIENCE “lies at your door…it desires to have you…”
I would suggest that, according to this passage, there is a spiritual door we all have in our lives. Prophetically speaking, I can see where many of God’s people may find themselves.
We stand in front of THE DOOR OF DISOBEDIENCE trying to decide for ourselves what we should do.
On this side of the door:
1. We are living in obedience to God’s Word and His commands.
2. God respects us, and we give him the true sacrifices and offerings He deserves from us.
3. We know God and live is His Light
From time to time we are tempted with opening THE DOOR OF DISOBEDIENCE. We think that God is not that concerned with how we live.
Perhaps things will be better for us if we do what we think is right.
And then, just like Cain, we open THE DOOR OF DISOBEDIENCE. At that very moment, we loose our “countenance” with God.
We hang our head in shame and remorse. If we wait long enough, we even get angry with ourselves, with others and with God.
We walk thru THE DOOR OF DISOBEDIENCE, and the door shuts.
Yes we knew better.
We were warned not to, but we are no longer strong enough to help ourselves and keep from going in.
And to our dismay, we can no longer see our loving and heavenly Father.
Where we are –
1. It is dark. We cannot see where we are or where we are going.
2. It is lonely. We are out of fellowship with God and His people.
3. We are on our own. We will make more foolish decisions that will displease God. They may be little mistakes at first, but eventually they will become the big mistakes that will destroy us, and those around us.
4. We don’t care about anyone else but ourselves. We can only make ourselves comfortable by isolating ourselves even further. We learn how to hide from our problems and those who love us.
In spite of the lost condition of our soul, God will now come to us with a means to save us from our darkness.
When all is lost, we hear something.
Knock – knock - knock
At first we say, “Go away…leave me alone. I am like Cain, son of Adam.
I am a sinner. I am a murderer. I am cursed. My punishment is more than I can bear.
KNOCK – KNOCK – KNOCK!
WHO IS IT?
And we hear the voice…
(Revelation 3:20)
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
