Study the Word

Guest (Male): It's the heart of worship that matters most, as pastor Tom Keller explains.

Pastor Thom Keller: God doesn't look at your presence here and give you points because you're here. God looks at your presence here on the basis of your heart. Why do you want to be here? The same thing is true of every active service you do. Why do you do it? To appease an angry God? To do penance? Why do you give gifts? Why do you give offerings? Is it because you have a sense of obligation? Or is it out of a heart that overflows? It's not in the act of sacrifice. It's not in the gift. It's in the heart behind the gift.

That's why the size of the gift is immaterial.

Guest (Male): Someone described worship as our response to the overtures of love from the heart of our God. That's a tender description of worship and a good reminder of what God delights in. Hello and thanks for joining us for today's study the word, the radio outreach of Calvary Chapel Lebanon. We've just begun a new study in the book of Genesis. And in chapter four, we'll encounter the first murder. It's hard to believe that it takes place sometime after bringing an offering in worship to God. It's striking to hear of a worshiper of God falling into sin. How does that happen?

For some answers, let's join pastor Tom again in Genesis four as he begins today's study.

Pastor Thom Keller: Genesis chapter four. Says now Adam slept with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant. When the time came, she gave birth to Cain, and she said with the Lord's help, I have brought forth a man. Later, she gave him she gave birth to a second son and named him Abel. When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain was a farmer. At harvest time, Cain brought to the Lord a gift of his farm produce, while Abel brought several choice lambs from the best of his flock. The Lord accepted Abel's offering, but he did not accept Cain's.

This made Cain very angry and dejected. Why are you so angry? The Lord asked him. Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you respond in the right way. But if you refuse to respond correctly, then watch out. Sin is waiting to attack and destroy you, and you must subdue it. Later, Cain suggested to his brother Abel, let's go out into the fields. And while they were together there, Cain attacked and killed his brother. Afterward, the Lord asked Cain, your brother, where is Abel? I don't know, Cain retorted. Am I supposed to keep track of him wherever he goes?

But the Lord said, what have you done? Listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. You are hereby banished from the ground. You have defiled with your brother's blood. No longer will it yield abundant crops for you, no matter how hard you work. From now on, you will be a homeless fugitive on the earth, constantly wandering from place to place. Cain replied to the Lord, my punishment is too great for me to bear. You have banished me from my land and from your presence. You have made me a wandering fugitive. All who see me will try to kill me.

Fine, they will not kill you, for I will give seven times your punishment to anyone who does. Then the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who might try to kill him. Cain left the Lord's presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Then Cain's wife became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and they named him Enoch. When Cain founded a city, he named it Enoch after his son. Enoch was a father of Irad. Irad was a father of Mahujael. Mahujael was a father of Methuselah. Methuselah was a father of Lamech.

Lamech married two women, Adah and Zillah. Adah gave birth to a baby named Jabal. He became the first of the herdsmen who live in tents. His brother's name was Jubal, the first musician, the inventor of the harp and flute. Lamech's other wife Zillah was born Tubal-Cain. He was the first to work with metal forging instruments of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain had a sister named Naamah. One day, Lamech said to Adah and Zillah, listen to to me, my wives. I have killed a youth who attacked me and wounded me. If anyone who kills Cain is to be punished seven times, anyone who takes revenge against me will be punished 77 times.

Adam slept with his wife again, and she gave birth to another son. She named him Seth, for she said, God has granted me another son in place of Abel, the one Cain killed. When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. It was during his lifetime that people first began to worship the Lord. Well, today's story is the most the most famous story of murder throughout mankind. If you ask people for the most famous story where someone was murdered, most people would come up with this story. The chapter reflects the rapid decline that mankind went through from Adam and Eve's poor choice in the garden to the next very next generation, one brother murdering another.

In chapter four, verse one, it says that he slept with his wife. The King James says that he knew his wife. Uh to know is a politically correct way in the Old Testament of saying that they had sexual relations. Knew that phrase knew that he knew his wife or to know his wife is used throughout the Old Testament uh to reflect that. It says in King James, he knew his wife and she became pregnant. Do you think that this is the first time that they had sexual relations? That Adam and Eve that this was the very first time?

Or do you think that there was they had sexual relations before the fall? You know, some people think that sex is dirty and for that reason it wasn't a part of the pre-fall Adam and Eve, but we know that's not true, that it was created by God to be something beautiful and wholesome and to bring a couple together in marriage. There's very little doubt that they did in fact have sexual relations before the fall. In chapter one, verse 28, it says God blessed them and told them, multiply and fill the earth. So in the pre-fall state, God commanded them to multiply and fill the earth.

There's only one way to multiply, and uh you know, you know. And so they probably did. They probably tried. That gives a fairly clear answer to another question that the Bible never directly answers. And that is how long were Adam and Eve in the garden before they fell? You know, if you think about it, in a pre-fall environment, everything was pretty fertile. The ground was fertile. Adam and Eve didn't really have to work at growing things. They just happened. The part of the curse was that the earth would turn to bronze and they're going to have to work hard at at producing.

But prior to that, it was a very fertile earth. The same was probably true of Eve, Adam and Eve, that they were probably fertile. So if they had sexual relations and God told them to multiply and fill the earth, they obeyed God and everything that he told them to do, they would have obeyed him in that as well. Now the facts if some people say, well, they may have lived 10 years, 100 years, 1,000 years and Eve prior to. Well, what do you do with the fact that with the whole world being fertile, Adam and Eve probably being fertile, that they had sexual relationships in obedience to God's command and yet there were no children yet?

It makes the case that in all probability the fall didn't happen that far in to the garden. And knowing your nature, knowing my nature, is that so hard to believe? I mean, I tell you if if you took if you took Ted and put him in the kitchen and said, Ted, there's one thing in this kitchen you can't eat and we're going away tonight. When we came back, that thing would be missing. I can guarantee you. It wouldn't take 100 years for Ted to eat that thing. It'd be gone. Now before I pin this on Ted, I'm exactly the same way.

You know, and the Bible says that that that that the Bible which was meant to to bring blessing to us actually helped bring about our demise because it's in telling us that we shouldn't do these things that make us interested in doing the things that we shouldn't do. So although we don't know that and the Bible doesn't say that clearly, that time in the garden was probably somewhat limited as evidenced by the fact that there were no children born in the garden. It happened outside of that. Unless of course there was a uh birth control in those early days, but I don't think so.

Well, verse two it says that she bears Cain. She has her first son named Cain. And Cain means I've got him or here he is. Can you imagine the very first birth of a child? There's no mother there. There's no mother -in-law. It's just Adam and Eve. Now they've seen this watermelon take shape over these nine months. And you know, they have seen other animals. But again, it says in Genesis that that the bearing of children as a part of the curse for the woman would be in intense pain and labor. The pregnancy and the birth would be accompanied by intense pain.

So as this thing starts happening and the baby starts taking shape, this must have been very curious to Adam and Eve. And when she delivered, can you imagine she probably thought for sure she was going to die? How many women here thought you were going to die when you gave birth? Did you? Okay, I see some hands going up. I'm sure glad I'm not a woman. You remember Bill Cosby saying it's like pulling a watermelon through your nostril? You know, nice nice thought for me. But that's how God created it. So be it. It's for me to say, right, I'm a man.

Well, you know, and it says that uh she that she says that he came, he was born with the Lord's help, with the Lord's help. Now she could mean that because of God assisting in the in the whole creation that it was with the Lord's help that she that he was created. But you know, it also could mean something else. It could mean that the Lord was actually there at the delivery, but the Lord actually helped at the delivery. It doesn't say that, but I want to make a case. In Genesis five, verse 23, it says that Enoch was one that God loved.

And it says that Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. It says that Enoch walked with God. And the understanding there is that Enoch literally walked with God. A case could be made that in these early years that the Lord continued to walk among man. You know, we have a tendency to read the count in in in Genesis of the garden scene and where God was walking in the garden, he asked the question, he he finds out and that he never walked with them again. Well, that's not the case. Or talked with them again directly.

That's not the case. He walked with Enoch. And in this chapter we just read, you can see the Lord has a dialogue back and forth with Cain. So there is a there is a continuation of that relationship. In all probability, Jesus was there when Cain was delivered. And that may be why she said, with the Lord's help, I brought forth this child. The second son is then born uh is Abel. The Abel word Abel is probably from the Sumerian language which means son. Abel is a shepherd, Cain is a farmer. You know, if you're wondering, I wonder how old these these guys were.

I mean, were they 15 or 19 or how old were they when this all happened? In all probability, Cain, when Abel was killed, must have been about 129 years old. And we can deduce that because in chapter four, verse 25, it says that Seth was born shortly after Abel's death. And in chapter five, verse three, it says that Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born. So if Seth was born right after Abel's death, if Seth was born right after Abel's death and Adam was 130 years old, Cain and Abel probably Cain at least would have been probably at least about 129 in that range.

So he should have known a little bit better by this time. He's not just a young guy. Of course he has a long time to live in all probability. Verse three it says he brought forth an offering. Why did they bring forth an offering? Where did that come from? There's no law yet. There's no command yet to bring an offering. This is pre-Moses. And this is the first reported offering that's brought before the Lord. So where did this understanding come from? They probably got it from Adam and Eve. In all probability, Adam and Eve brought sacrifices, gifts to God.

And unlike the the attempt to appease the angry gods, it was probably a gift of gratitude. In the Bible it says that God's kindness is made made to is to lead a man to repentance. It's God's kindness that is meant to lead us to him. The fact that he brings up the sun and every day and we have air to breathe and we have shelter and food and that day by day just seems that things work out. That kindness for all men, that he makes the sun to shine upon the just and the unjust. That that procedure that seems unfair to us, unjust sometimes is actually a means of God to lead the unsaved to repentance to him.

In Hebrews seven, we're told that Abraham offered tithes to this man named Melchizedek or this being named Melchizedek. The Bible says that he has no beginning and he has no end. Now if Melchizedek has no beginning, that means no beginning is no beginning, which means he predated the garden because the garden had a beginning. Melchizedek was a type of Christ and it says that Abraham offered tithes to Melchizedek pre-law. Why did he offer tithes to Melchizedek? Hebrews never says. It just says that Abraham had an understanding that he was the greater. Melchizedek means the king of justice.

It also uh Hebrews calls him the king of peace. In all probability, Melchizedek was a type of Christ or was Christ. It may be it may be in the same way, the same kind of understanding that Abraham had, which we are not privy to know why. The same reason that he offered tithes is the same reason why Cain and Abel offered tithes. Why was Abel's offering accepted and Cain's rejected? Why was Abel's offering accepted? Again, the book of Hebrews gives a little clue. It says that by faith Abel offered up a more excellent sacrifice. He offered up a more excellent sacrifice.

Now the one brings fatty cuts of of uh of lamb. The other brings a grain offering. And it's been speculated that that that the blood offering was a more pleasing offering. Well, that's not really true. Grain offerings are pleasing sacrifice to God as well later in when the law Moses brings forth that those laws. First John brings a little more clarity to that. In first John three it says, Abel was accepted because he was righteous. Abel was accepted because he was righteous. Now we start to get to the heart of the issue. That the issue was not the sacrifice itself.

The issue was the heart behind the sacrifice. And this searching for what what was the defect in in the sacrifice itself is just off the mark. The whole issue is what was the heart behind the one bringing the sacrifice? The same is true today. Why do we bring our sacrifices? Why do we come to church? A sense of obligation? Sense that we have to bring our kids or uh you know, we we just feel we need to do that. You know, God doesn't look at your presence here and give you points because you're here. God looks at your presence here on the basis of your heart.

Why do you want to be here? The same thing is true of every active service you do. Why do you do it? To appease an angry God? To do penance? Why do you give gifts? Why do you give offerings? Is it because you have a sense of obligation? Or is it out of a heart that overflows? It's not in the act of sacrifice. It's not in the gift. It's in the heart behind the gift. That's why it's the size of the gift is immaterial. There are people that have given a million dollars to a cause and another person given a dollar.

And depending on the heart, that million dollar gift was not a pleasing gift to God. And that dollar was just God delighted in that gift because of the heart that was behind it. You know, an analogy of this story would be this. Imagine two boys both working for their father on a farm. One boy does the books of the farm. He keeps all the the the financial dealings of the farm and uh also works in the farm and the other farm they and and the other son they share responsibility. In reality, this one son who's keeping the books is robbing his father blind.

Father doesn't know it. The other brother doesn't know it. The father has a birthday party. And at that birthday party, both sons bring a gift to the father. Right before the birthday party, before the father has a chance to talk to either sons, he discovers that that one son is stealing from him. So as the boys come to the house and they come and give their gifts, the father realizes the hypocrisy and the lie that is in this gift behind this gift. And the other son, a dutiful son, his gift. Now the question would be if you were that father, would the issue be that the gift itself is defective or pleasing?

It's not the gift. It's the heart behind the gift, the deception, the lie behind it all. That's why the Bible says that God hates the gifts of the wicked. God hates the gifts of the wicked. Says especially if they're trying to bribe him. Well, how did they know that their sacrifices were accepted or rejected? Because it clearly says the one was and the other one wasn't. Abel's sacrifice was, Cain's was not. We don't know. The Bible doesn't say how. We just know that it was very clear that his was not. It says in verse five that this made Cain angry and dejected.

Anger is always a smoke behind the fire. Anger is never the driver of what's going on. One of the evidences that is just a a saying that we've all said, why are you so angry? The question, why are you so angry reflects the truth that there's something behind the anger. There's something driving that. Where does that come from? So what do you think the root cause was of Cain's anger? What do you think it was that was driving this? What was the driver behind his attitude toward his brother? What was the driver behind this anger?

In all probability, it was pride and jealousy. In all probability. You know, Proverbs says that jealousy is more dangerous and cruel than anger. Jealousy is more dangerous and cruel than anger. And then you know, if you have if I have a jealous streak in us, it's a very dangerous issue to leave unattended to. You know, I like to I like to ski and in skiing, the thing that takes snow off a mountain faster than anything else is not the sun, is not warm weather, it's not rain. You know what it is? It's fog. Nothing eats snow like fog because it just lays there.

It just lays there and eats at it. You'll see fog takes snow away faster than anything else. Rain will go through it. Fog will just eat at it. That's how jealousy is. Jealousy just lays there and eats and eats and eats. Anger comes and goes. Jealousy is more dangerous and cruel than anger. Anger rises and drops, rises and drops. Jealousy just lays there and eats and eats. In all probability, this was the issue behind Cain. It's reflected in his countenance. It's also interesting to note how quickly this epidemic of sin is growing. The only sin that we know about up until this point is the eating of fruit.

Now just one generation later, one brother hates his brother enough to actually kill him. In verse six, God says, why are you so angry? It's worth noting again that God is still in a dialogue with man. They're having a conversation back and forth. George Otis speculates uh that there's a good chance that it's actually the sinfulness of man through the generations that causes us to be less and less sensitive to God's presence. I will readily acknowledge and admit it. I'm just telling you my theory is that little children see God. And as a part of that understanding is that as they grow older, their remembrance of that goes away as well.

But I think some of it's the innocence, some of it's that they haven't been drawn into sin yet. But I think in some way and George Otis makes this point, in some way the early generations still had that ability to connect with God in a way that has diminished through the years increasingly through the generation.

Guest (Male): Interesting thought pastor Tom Keller concludes with on today's study the word, invoking a renewed desire to be aware and sensitive to God's presence. You can hear this message again by going to ccleb.com. Again, we're at ccleb.com. There are many other messages for your growth and edification there too. Or call and request a CD copy at 717 507 7862. That's 717 507 7862. Thanks for remembering that study the word is a listener supported ministry. We look to listeners like you to help us provide these Bible studies on your station every day. Here's where to write. Study the word 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046.

Or call 717 507 7862. Tom Keller is a senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Lebanon. And if you're in the area, we hope you'll come by for a visit. For directions and service times, go to ccleb.com. When you get a chance, download our free Android app. Search Calvary Chapel Lebanon in the Google Play Store. Thanks for studying the word with pastor Tom Keller. We'll get back into Genesis with pastor Tom next time. We hope you can join us.