Highlight Moments
- How did we get to a world where people want to murder so much?
- Always have to look at the context before we look at what a text means.
- Cain's heart was far from God in this moment.
- Sin is ready to pounce on you to take control of your life if your heart is far from God.
- Anytime someone decides for themselves what is right and wrong, what always happens is people say, I'm the good one, I'm the right one, everyone else around me is bad.
Summary
The sermon explores the commandment 'You shall not murder' by examining the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. It discusses the cultural and textual context of the commandment, emphasizing the importance of understanding the heart's condition in relation to sin and moral choices.
Sermon Audio
Transcript
Great job, Ryder. You got it. Ten Commandments. We're in Exodus, Chapter 20. And how many of you guys, without looking at the screen, can tell us some of the Ten Commandments? Yeah, give me some. Not lying. Not lying. What's another one? Don't murder. Don't murder. What's another one? Don't murder. One more? You shall not have any of God's full meat. Perfect. One more? Honor your father and mother. So that's all the examples that we'll take for right now. Now this week, you can throw them up, Dharma. You can throw up the slide. So these are all the Ten Commandments. Now this week, on our next slide. Dharma. On our next slide, we have our commandment for this week, which is you shall not murder. Now how many of you guys are actually going to prison after this for murdering? Yeah? Awesome. Perfect. So for all you guys who just rose your hands, this one's for you. How to not murder. And for you guys who didn't raise your hands, this one's also for you guys, and we'll see why. We'll go over three points today. Now the first point is, how did we get here? How did we get to a world where people want to murder so much? Number two is, I'm not a murderer, so this doesn't apply to me. Right? And number three is, Abram. Number three is, where do we go from here? I will ask questions if I would like comments, guys. Thank you. That's the third one. Where do we go from here? So let's take a look at our first point, which is, how did we get here? Instead of being in Exodus 20, please open your Bibles to Genesis, which is the first book of the Bible. Chapter 4. We'll go from verses 1 through 11. Genesis 4, verses 1 through 11. Now I'll read the story out for us while you guys are getting there. Then we will look at the context, and then we'll look at what it means for us. Abram. Thanks, bro. All right. Genesis chapter 4. Now Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. Then she bore again, and this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance, or his mood, fell. So the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. Now Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. And the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother? And he said, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. That is the first section that we're in today. How did we get here? So, let's look at the context, because as we know, we have to look at the context before we look at what a text means. What do we have to look at before we look at what a text means? Always have to look at the context before we look at what a text means. So, we have three different types of context that we'll be looking at. The first is cultural, the second is textual, and then we will have a little summary. And the cultural context is our first one. It's really easy. Cultural is referring to the people around our text. So what can you guys tell me, just shout them out, some ideas about the people around this book. Meaning, the first one is, who do you guys think wrote this book? Moses. Any other guesses? No, not Genesis. So, Moses is writing this book called Genesis. And who is he writing this book to? The Israelites. So, in the book following this one, we find the story of the Israelites. So, we find the story of the Israelites. Just like we saw in the video, these Israelites are a nation that God has chosen for himself. Now, they became slaves in Egypt, and after a few hundred years, God decided it was time to take them out, make a new nation out of them. When he did this, he gave them a brand new leader, whose name was Moses, and gave them new laws to show them how to handle a proper relationship with God. And the Ten Commandments are ten of those laws that we're looking at to see how to handle a proper relationship with God. Now, these people, they were wondering something. They were wandering around the wilderness, and they were wondering to themselves, how in the world did we get here? And so, God told Moses to write this book called Genesis, which means beginnings. So, what are some events that happen in the book of Genesis, from this side of the room? Jordan, what's an event that happens in the book of Genesis? God makes the world. Bo, what's another one? Great. Ryder, you got another one? The flood? And Drake, one more. That's it. Cain killed Abel. That's great, man. You definitely paid attention. Alright, so in the book of Genesis, we have all the first events that are happening to lead up to where the Israelites are. So, we have God creates the world. That's the creation of the world, Ryder. Ryder, stop talking. Then we have Adam and Eve, the first people. We then have their children, the first children ever, which is Cain, Abel, and then their later son, Seth. We have the first murder ever, which is when Cain kills Abel in our story. We have the first and only flood of the earth. And, at the end of the book, we have the first time the Israelites make it into Egypt, which is through Joseph. So this book, Genesis, answers the question the Israelites are asking. How in the world did we get here? And that's the same question that we're asking in the text today. How in the world did we get to a place where so many people want to murder? And later we'll see what Jesus thinks about it. And it's important to know, how in the world did we get to a place where people hate each other so much? And that's what this story is going to answer, which is what we'll take a look at in just a second. Now, textually, what chapter are we in? Chapter. Chapter 4? 4? Nice. Yeah, we're in Chapter 4 of what book? Genesis. Genesis, guys. We're in Chapter 4 of Genesis. That's the story of Cain and Abel we just went through. So we're in Chapter 4 of Genesis. It comes before Chapter 4. Chapter 3. Great job, guys. Look in your Bible. Look in your Bible. Talon. Look in your Bible and tell me what happens in Chapter 3. Someone else. Tell me what happens in Chapter 3. Go for it. The fall of man. So Adam and Eve take the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil for themselves, and they decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. That's what happens before. Adam and Eve. Talon. Bro. Adam and Eve decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. And they decide we're the right ones, everyone else is wrong, and if God disagrees with me, then God is wrong too. That's what happens in the chapter before. Now we have our chapter. And what happens after? What are some of the bad things that happen after this chapter? Jacob and Esau. So after this story, another story later down the line happens where Jacob is evil to his brother Esau. We have Adam and Eve choosing for themselves what's right and wrong. And in their very first children, one of them kills the other. And then evil just keeps happening throughout the rest of time. So before the garden, everything was great. And we've gone through this the past few weeks. Before the garden, everything's great. And then we have the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve decide for themselves what is right and wrong. And they decide we're right, God, you're wrong. And then the result of that is that their children one kills the other. So that's what happens textually. To summarize what's going on here, we have Cain and Abel. And Cain kills Abel. It happens right after Adam and Eve have their kids, a few years after, which is right after they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, when they decide for themselves what's right and wrong. And why does it happen? This is one of the most important questions of this text. Why does Cain decide to kill Abel? It says so right on the next slide. So let's take a look. Let me summarize this for you guys. So Adam and Eve have their two kids, Cain and Abel. Now, they worked different jobs, but they both ended up offering God a sacrifice. Who here knows what a sacrifice is? Bo, let's see it. Giving something up to God. So they both gave something up to God. And for some reason, the text isn't exactly explicit on it, but for some reason that we'll see in a second, Cain's sacrifice was rejected. God said, I don't want your sacrifice, Cain. It is not pleasing to me. But Abel's was accepted. And God says a little bit later why Cain's sacrifice was not accepted. And he says, if you do not do well, no, he says, sorry, if he says, if you do well, will you not be accepted? So God rejects Cain's sacrifice. And he says, well, if you do good stuff, won't I accept you? Cain's heart was far from God in this moment. Cain's heart was far from God. So because of that, God rejected the offering that he presented. Abel's heart was close with God. So Abel's sacrifice was accepted. Because Abel's sacrifice was a reflection of his heart that loved God, that was close with God. But Cain's heart was far from God. And he was just giving up a sacrifice just because it was the thing. It was the thing to do to give a sacrifice to God. His brother was doing it. So he gave a sacrifice to God, but not because his heart was close to God. And this is shown because God then says, if you don't do well, if you're thinking evil thoughts, if your heart is far from me, then sin, the flesh, wanting to do evil things, is at the door. Sin is ready to pounce on you to take control of your life if your heart is far from God. And that's what he warns Cain in this verse. He says, Cain, if you do not do good things, if you are not close to me in your heart, then sin is ready to take control of your life. And so what does Cain do? Does he stop thinking evil things? Does he repent and go back to God? Absolutely not. What he does is he goes and he devises a plot and he takes his brother and he goes and he chats it up with him and then he kills him and murders him. And this is because it was a reflection of a heart that was far from God. Cain did the same thing that his parents did when his parents decided for themselves what was right and what was evil and decided for themselves who was good and who was evil. And like what we've talked about the past few weeks, anytime someone decides for themselves, takes the fruit, so to speak, decides for themselves what is right and wrong, who is good and who is evil, what always happens is people say, I'm the good one, I'm the right one, everyone else around me is bad, everyone else around me is evil because they disagree with me. And if that includes God, then so be it. And this is the same thing that Cain does. He says, you know what? Even if God thinks that I'm going down the wrong path, he's the wrong one. I'm right. God wronged me. And we'll see that in a second right here. So God says, go back to the other slide. Thank you. God says, if you do good, he will accept the offering. But if his heart is far from him, he will not accept the offering. So what he should have done was repent, go back to God, but instead what he does is kill his brother. And then God says, where's your brother? And so Cain brushes it off and says, what? Am I supposed to know where my brother is at all times? And God says, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So you are now cursed from the earth. And then right after this, what Cain does is he says, no, God, this is too much for me. Your punishment is not right. Rather than repenting and apologizing to God and saying, you know what, God? I was wrong. You were the one who was right. I shouldn't have killed my brother, which he could have done. Instead he said, God, you're going to punish me for this? I'm the right one here. He doubles down and he continues down the path of saying he's the right one. And that if God is going to punish him, then God is the evil one. This is the reason the Bible gives for the first ever murder. It's because Cain was so convinced in his mind that he was the right one and that everyone else around him, including God, was wrong for opposing him, for not accepting him, and for wanting to punish him for what he had done. Everyone around Cain was evil in the eyes of Cain. Because Cain, to himself, was the most right person around even if he did murder someone. So this is how we got here. Cain did the same thing that Adam and Eve did. And we do the same thing that Cain does and the same thing that Adam and Eve do. It's when we take for ourselves the knowledge of good and evil. We decide for ourselves who is right and who is wrong. And like what I've said every week leading up to this, any time we decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, we say that we're the ones who are right and that God is the one who is wrong because God is standing against us because he wants justice, which is what we don't want because justice for us means that we get punished for the bad things that we do. But we don't want that. We're the right ones. God must be the evil one. That's the same thing that Cain does. That's how we got here. That's how we got to a world where people want to murder each other because they think I'm the right one. Everyone around me who opposes me is just evil and deserve to die. And that's what Cain did. And Jesus comes into this same world on our next point, which is, well, I mean, I'm sitting here. I didn't do what Cain did. I haven't actually murdered anyone. But Jesus disagrees. So let's see. Our second point is I'm not a murderer. Right? Mm-hmm. So that's our point. Let's look at our text. Flip in your Bibles to the New Testament to Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 through 24. We got four verses this time around. So someone in the audience. Okay, SJ, go for it. 21 through 24. Matthew 5. They shall not murder. And anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who injures a brother or sister will be subject to judgment again. Anyone who says to his brother or sister, Raca, is an insult to the poor. And anyone who says he's cruel will be taken to a higher place. Therefore, you are often to get on the altar and bear in mind that your brother or sister has something against you. Remove your gift there to the altar. Quick, go and be baptized in the same cup as Matthew. Perfect. Thank you so much. All right. Now, again, before we look at what a text means, we always have to look at the context. So let's look at the context for the book of Matthew. Cultural context. Who is writing the book of Matthew? Drake, who's writing the book of Matthew? John. Very funny. No. Yeah. Matthew's writing the book of Matthew. Great job. All right, guys, focus up. Matthew is writing the book of Matthew. Drake. Stop. So who is this Matthew guy? Any ideas? Who is Matthew? Yeah. He's one of the apostles. So Matthew is a disciple of Jesus. And a disciple of Jesus is someone who followed Jesus around and wrote down things that he did. Jordan. That's very distracting, dude. Please move. Jordan. Look up here. Please move. Jordan. Please move. Please. Okay. Are we good? I appreciate it. All right. Sorry. That's very distracting. So we have Matthew, this disciple of Jesus. Right? Now, this disciple of Jesus is writing down the things that Jesus has done. And he's writing this into a book that is a gospel. And gospel means it's an account of Jesus' life. And he's writing it to show the Jewish people who are the Israelites. He's writing it to show the Israelites that Jesus is the king that they've been wanting. And so he writes this big or he records this big sermon that Jesus gave which is known as the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talks all things heaven. He talks about what things will be like in heaven and how God, the real king, sees things. And what he says in this text, we'll look at just a minute, is that textually, like what I just said, this is in the middle of what's known as the Sermon on the Mount. So he's, Jesus, is talking about all these different things about the kingdom of God. What is heaven like? What is it like to be in the presence of God? What's it like to have a relationship with God? This is a concentrated sermon on just that stuff. Now to summarize what's going on, Jesus is talking to a bunch of people around him. He talks about the kingdom of God and how God sees anger and how God sees murder. And why does God see murder this way? Why does God think that murder is just as bad as anger? Let's take a look. So here, we see that Jesus is saying, you guys have heard before, right, you guys in this room have heard before that you should not murder. Right? I would hope you guys have heard it. I just said it. You guys should not murder. But what Jesus says is he says, anyone who's angry with their brother without cause is guilty of murder. And this is for something that we just saw in Genesis. Cain's problem was not that he just killed his brother. Cain's problem didn't start when he killed Abel. Cain's problem started when his heart was far from God. Cain's problem started when he was angry with God, when he thought he was the right one and that everyone else around him, including Abel, including God, were evil for opposing him. Cain's problem started even before he gave the sacrifice to God because God saw his heart and his heart was far from God. And so Jesus comments on this same problem. And he says that people who murder and people who are angry with other people are guilty of the same thing. And the same thing that they're guilty of is having their heart far from God. There's no sin that takes us away from God. Murder doesn't take us away from God, as we'll see in a second. What takes us away from God is our hearts being separate from him, saying that we're the right ones and that God is the wrong one. And when we do that, a reflection of that heart could be murder, but it's the heart that's taking us away from God. And because murder is just a reflection of that heart, anger is a reflection of that heart, too. The thing that takes us away from God is having a heart that is separate from God. And both murder and anger are a reflection of that heart. And Jesus points that out here. He says, if anyone says, which is like, if anyone says, you have nothing in your head, you're an idiot. If anyone says that to someone else and is hateful towards them in their heart, it's because their heart is far from God. And that's where the problem is. That's the problem that Jesus points out here. Is that Cain's problem is that his heart was far from God. His problem started way before he killed his brother. His problem was that his heart was far from God. And then, he says, even if you're going to sacrifice something to God, if you're going to give something up for God, you have to fix your heart problem first. Because what God is not looking for is something on the outside. He's not just looking for you to come to church. He's looking for you to have a heart that's close to him. Coming to church, giving up things that you shouldn't be doing, should be a reflection of a heart that is close to God and not just something that you do because it's the thing to do. Because you want to come here and see your friends. Which is a great thing. But going to church should be a reflection of a heart that is close to God. Not just something that you do because you think God wants you to do it and your heart is far from him. He does not take pleasure in things like what Jesus is saying. God does not want the sacrifice that you're making to have a heart that is far from him. The sacrifice that he wants to see, the thing that he wants from you, is your heart to be close to him. And in our last point, we will see how you can have your heart close to God. So let's take a look. So as a reminder, Jesus says the problem, which is the problem of Cain, the problem Cain had was not just that he murdered. His problem was that his heart was far away from God. And that resulted in a murder. And the problem of having your heart far from God is the same problem that causes you to hate other people. And now let's see what another guy says about it. And this guy, trust me, this guy is an expert in hate and murder. For our last text, please open up to Galatians chapter 5. Book of Galatians chapter 5. You want to read it? 13 through 26. Alright, go for it. If you bite into the bowels of each other, watch out, for you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not be outside of each other for life. For the flesh of God is what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit is what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are the flesh of the Spirit, you are not to do that. The acts of flesh are obvious. Sexual immorality which God has created sits towards jealousy, sticks to words, rage, selfish ambition, distinction, faction, and envy, contempt, impurity, and lies. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Spirit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, filthiness, faithfulness, and love. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Spirit of the Spirit is love, joy, filthiness, kindness, forbearance, and love. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Spirit of the Spirit is love, joy, faithfulness, forbearance, filthiness, and love. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Spirit of the Spirit is love, joy, filthiness, and love. I warn you, as I did before, that those who have a single heart and soul will not inherit the Kingdom of God. I warn you. So Paul did not want to follow Jesus at all. But one day Jesus appeared to Saul and called him out on it. He told him that he was trying to get Paul, well sorry, his name was Saul which was then changed to Paul, he was telling Saul that Saul was pushing against Jesus but that Jesus, God, was trying to push him along the right path, back to a relationship with Jesus. And then later writing letters to those churches to encourage them to help them to know how to be more like Jesus. And that's what this book, Galatians, is. This book, Galatians, was written to the people in the place known as Galatia. So it's this big area and then Paul is writing a letter to them and they're known as the Galatians just like we're known as the people of Galatians. And he's talking about the Holy Spirit and how we live according to the Spirit which is how we live according to a proper relationship with God, with God living inside of us. How do we please God and how do we not please God? That's what Paul is touching on at the end of his book. To summarize what he's talking about, you have Paul talking to these people, what he's talking about is how he's talking about a few years after Jesus's death and resurrection and why does he do it. Why is he talking to this church about how to please God? Well that should be obvious because people that want to have a relationship with God want to please God. But why does he say this? Why does he talk about the Spirit and the flesh? Let's take a look. In Genesis, way back in Genesis, what we've been talking about the last few weeks, we talk about how Adam and Eve chose for themselves what was right and what was wrong. And when they did this, always what would happen, always, for all of us, what happens is we say we're the right ones, everyone who disagrees with us is wrong and is evil. So wanting to be in the presence of God, wanting a relationship with God, looks like saying that we were the ones who were wrong and that God is the one who was right. But that's not what Adam and Eve did, that's not what Cain did, and these are the two different types of living that Paul is talking about. Living according to the self, choosing for yourself what is right and wrong, living according to the flesh, versus living according to the spirit, living in a relationship with God, saying that I was wrong, God you're the right one, I just want to do what you want me to do. So he talks about these two different types of living and the first one he talks about is the bad one. These are people who are envious of other people, they're drunks, they're murderers, these are a reflection of a heart that is far from God. And this is not a good thing. Remember, a heart that is far from God is one that is not in relationship with God, one that's not going to be with God forever. But the second one that he talks about is people who are defined by love, by peace, by kindness, by goodness to other people, by self-control, which is what Cain was not. The people who live according to the Spirit, the people who say, you know what, God, I was wrong, I'm sorry, I just want to do what you want me to do, are defined by these positive traits at the end. They're defined by goodness and by self-control and by faithfulness. There's two different ways to live that Paul describes here. And we have to choose which one we want to do because we automatically, we want to be selfish. And we want everything to be serving us. Cain felt like he was wronged by God, wronged by Abel because Abel was accepted by God. And so he took it into his own hands to kill Abel. That's the kind of life that Paul says we don't want to be a part of because that's the kind of life that defines people whose hearts are far from God, who will not be with God forever. He says to live according to the Spirit, be defined by traits of joy and love and peace because these are the things that people whose hearts are far from God are the things that we should be doing. And Paul should know best of all because like what we said, Paul was a murderer. Paul was a murderer. And this is an encouragement to us while the life of Cain is a warning to us. Next slide. Just as a recap before we look at the encouragement and the warning, how did we get here? How did we get to a world where so many people are hateful, so many people want to murder each other? It's because we decide for ourselves what is right and wrong which always results in us saying we're the right ones. Everyone around us is evil and wrong and it results in a heart that is far from God. One that wants everyone else to serve us. And how Jesus views that is that even if we don't murder, if we hate other people, it's still a reflection of the same heart. We hate other people because we say we're right, you've wronged us somehow and we're going to take it into our own hands to be hateful towards you rather than having a heart that is close to God. And then where do we go from there? We have to live in relationship with God, live by the spirit, live with a heart that's close to God. And the way that we do that is by stop saying that we are right all the time and that God is wrong. We have to flip it around. That we're the ones who've been wrong and that God is right and we just want to do what He wants to do. That's what it means to live according to our relationship with God. And the two people we looked at today, which is Cain and Paul, are both an encouragement and a warning. And that's because the life of Cain and Paul was a life of The life of Cain is a great, great warning to us because Cain was called out by God. Cain hated his brother and so what Cain did is he said, you know what, God? I've considered what you said. I'm still right. And he took it into his own hands to kill his brother. And then when God punished him, he said, whoa, this is too much for me. I'm still right. You should not be punishing me like this. He continued down the path away from God and his heart was open to God. And he said, I'm still right. I'm still right. He continued down the path away from God and his heart was far from him. So he will not be in a relationship with God forever. He won't be in heaven with God living with him forever because his heart is far from God. And we don't want to be in that situation. It was easy for Cain to say, you know what? I'm right. I'm the one who was wrong by Abel. I'm the one who was wrong by God. First, he doesn't approve of my offering and then he curses me and sends me off somewhere. God is wrong me. It was easy for Cain to have his heart far from God because he felt like he was the right one rather than saying, I'm sorry, God, I just want to do what you want me to do. But it's also an encouragement because Paul did the same sort of thing. Paul was a murderer of Christians and probably killed more Christians than Cain did because Cain only killed one person, but Paul probably killed much more than that. And for Paul, it would have been just as easy when he encountered Jesus to say, you know what, Jesus? I'm still right. You're still wrong. I don't want to have any part with you. But instead, he didn't do that. He stopped resisting. He stopped resisting the call of God. He stopped resisting relationship with Jesus and said, you know what, I was wrong and I'm sorry. And God, if you want to do something with me, I just want to follow down that path. And God did. And God does for all of us. And for Paul, that meant walking towards Damascus, taking a step in relationship. But the first thing that has to happen to have that relationship with God is to say, I was wrong. God, you're right. I just want to do what you want me to do. It's easy to do both of them. But having a relationship with God is defined by saying, I was wrong. God, you were right. I just want to do what you want me to do. So I'm going to invite worship back up. We have one more song. And then we will be closing out for today. All right. Pray for us. Jesus, we thank you so much for this time. Lord, I just pray that you would speak to our hearts, that you would show us that we're not right all the time, that you're the one who's right all the time, God. You'd show us what it means to have a relationship with you, to be defined by saying that we're the ones who are wrong and that you're right, God. And that we just want to do what you want us to do. We thank you for the example of Cain and the example of Paul. We pray that we'd be like Paul, that no matter where we've been, no matter what we've done, that we know that we always have the opportunity to turn around and say that we were wrong. We just want your plan for our life, God. We thank you for this time. We pray that you'd go out with us for the rest of our week. You'd allow us to pray for you. Amen. Amen.
