(Genesis) Genesis 4:6-7

We have now come to the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis, and if you have your Bible, and we'll turn there to the sixth verse, and we have seen that Cain and Abel have come together to worship God. And these two boys that were identical, I think, some actually think they were twins, I think that was the position of the late Dr. Harry Rimmer, but I think they were even closer than twins because of the fact they had no bloodstream that reached way back on both sides that might cause a difference. They were the sons of Adam and Eve, but there's a great divergence between the two, and it's not necessarily a character divergence.

It happened to be on the basis of one accepted because of his sacrifice which he brought by faith, the other, Cain, brought his without any recognition at all. Now we find that Cain is angry. Verse 6, And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? Why is he angry? Well, notice what he says.

Let me read on what God says, and then we'll go on. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted, and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. Now, the important thing to notice is that Cain was angry.

Why was he angry? Well, he's angry enough that he's going to slay his brother, and back of murder, always there's anger. Our Lord said, Well, if you're angry with your brother, you're guilty of murder, and back of anger is jealousy. Back of jealousy is pride, and spiritual pride means there's no sense of sin whatsoever in that.

You will recall that James put it in language like this, in James 1 15, Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. So this man here is angry, and it led to murder, but back of that was his jealousy and also his pride, and God deals with him like that. He says, If you do well, shall you not be accepted.

Actually, the meaning is better to translate like this, Shalt thou not have excellency? That seems to me to be a much better translation, and what it means is this, that the eldest son always occupied a place of preeminence, and this boy thought now he'd lose that. God says there's no reason for you to lose it if you do well, and what would be to do well would be to bring that which God had accepted from Abel, a sacrifice and acknowledgement that he was a sinner, but not this boy. He's just angry, you see, and he says, Sin lieth at the door.

Now, there are those that have interpreted that as means sin offering lies at the door. That is, there's the little lamb. Now, that, may I say to you, it makes sense, all right, because that was true, but I don't think it means sin offering here.

Up to this time and beyond this time, in fact, up till Moses, as far as I can tell from the Word of God, there was no sin offering. You find the sin offering, instructions given for it in the book of Leviticus, in the first part, where you have these five offerings, and one of them is a sin offering, and the sin offering did not come into existence until the law was given. You remember that that is the thing that Paul had said in Romans 320, by the law is the knowledge of sin, so that the offerings that were brought up to that were burnt offerings.

You find Job in his day, which obviously was before Moses, he brought a burnt offering. It was not in any way a sin offering, and I think if you go through the scripture, you'll find that that is true. And it is said of Cain, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

Now, if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. Well, to do well would be to bring the kind of offering that Abel had, and that would be a burnt offering. That would be the one that was offered, and you find Abraham offering that type.

And as we say, there could be no sin until the law was given. That is, sin would not become a trespass against law until then. And therefore, you'll notice God actually protected this man.