The Door Of Disobedience

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.