Further and Further Away, Pt. 1
There’s a phenomenon in open water that swimmers have learned to respect: the undercurrent. You can’t see it, and you can barely feel it, but it’s moving slowly and steadily… carrying you further and further away from where you intended to be. Pastor Nick Gatzke reveals how sin operates the same way
Anyone who’s ever lived in a major city knows that public transportation is a key component to a quality of life in that city. And so after moving to a big city, people will often spend a handful of days trying to figure out the map and the structure of the buses and the trains. And those days are usually filled with confusion, mistakes, wasted time as you learn the train system, as you try to figure out the layout of the stations that you go to, and as you make sure that you are going on the right train, on the right track, in the right direction. Now it doesn’t sound all that complicated.
But when you are looking at two trains on parallel tracks and you are standing between them And they look like they’ve come from the same place and they look like they’re going the same place and one is marked Eastbound and the other one is marked north or westbound But you are trying to go northbound and you know you have to take one of those trains to get there It can get fairly confusing Because the choice that you’re going to make has consequences The choice that you’re going to make is either going to lead you closer to your destination Or it’s going to lead you farther and farther away And in a lot of ways this is analogous to life and the story of Genesis Highlights this for us in these first number of chapters
Life is a life in which there are parallel tracks and these tracks take you in opposite directions. Faith and obedience to God leads you in a relationship that is close to him. And disobedience and rebellion against God, a lack of faith leads you further and further away from his track of blessing. We see that in Genesis chapter four. It makes this point very clearly to us as we go to a well -known story of Cain and Abel. So I wanna ask you to open the Bible with me. Turn to Genesis chapter four. It’s found on page three of the Pew Bible in front of you. And listen, as we continue this series that we’re calling Beyond Repair.
It starts this way, verse one. Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And again, his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain was a worker of the ground. And in the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why is your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you.but you must rule over it.” Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. And then the Lord said to Cain, “‘Where is your brother Abel?’ He said, “‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said, “‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is now crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You should be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.'”
And Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground and from your face. I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth and whoever finds me will kill me. Then the Lord said to him, not so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest anyone who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife and she conceived him for Enoch.
When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and to Irad, Mehujael. And to Mehujael fathered Methuselah, and Methuselah fathered Lamech. And Lamech took two wives. The name of one was Addah, and the name of the other was Zillah. And Addah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all of those who played the lyre and the pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal-cain. He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron, and his sister, the sister of Tubal-cain, was Naamah.
Lamech said to his wives, “‘Addah and Zillah, hear my voice. “‘You wives of Lamech, listen to what I say. “‘I have killed a man for wounding me, “‘a young man for striking me. “‘If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, “‘then Lamech’s is seventy -sevenfold.’ And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called him Seth. “‘For she said, God has appointed for me “‘another offspring instead of Cain, “‘instead of Abel, for Cain killed him. “‘To Seth also a son was born, “‘and he called his name Enosh. “‘And at that time, “‘people began to call upon the name of the Lord.'”
Genesis four makes the point very clearly. We notice in this tragic story, the snowball effect of sin. We often ask what the main character of any given story is, and there is a main character in this story, and the main character is sin itself as we see what happens in rebellion to God. Look with me as this progression takes place. We see at the beginning of the story the half -hearted worship from Cain turns toward anger, anger toward God’s approved ones. Cain and Abel both bring an offering to God. Cain brings his offering which is fruit of the land. It says Abel brings his offering which is the firstborn and the fatty portions of his flock.
And the text says that God gave regard to Abel and to his offering, but to Cain, he gave no regard. We don’t really know why, but we can surmise why. The text doesn’t say, some people say, well, it’s because Abel’s offering was a blood sacrifice and Cain’s wasn’t, but we don’t really know what kind of sacrifice this is. I think more likely, the reason why God chose Abel’s sacrifice as pleasurable is because Abel came to God in faith with a whole heart of worship and Cain came with a half -hearted act of worship to him. This bears itself out in what happens next. Cain’s anger about the sacrifice.put him in a bad place. And this was truly one of those moments where he stood before God and God said that wasn’t sufficient. And he could have said, all right, God, what do I do next? I came up short here. I made a mistake. Help me understand what is next for me. God tells him as much in verse seven. He says, if you do well, will you not be accepted? But Cain doesn’t take God’s instructions. Instead, he appears angry, but he’s not angry with himself. He’s angry toward God. And then he goes and takes his anger out on the one that God approves of, namely his brother. He lures him into a field. He raises up against him and he kills him.
His half -hearted worship turns to anger against God’s approved one. Now, this type of behavior isn’t exactly logical to us, but we know that this is something we experience all the time. It’s something we witness all the time, isn’t it? This is what happens when my three -year -old blames my four -year -old for something that she’s done. This is what happens when the middle school kids who haven’t done their homework make fun of the smart kid who has done his homework. He deserves no shame, and yet they try to inflict it upon him because they have come up short. This is what happens to adults when the lazy employee looks upon his fellow employee who’s been working very hard and holds him in contempt for the promotion that he just received.
And this dynamic is exacerbated even more so in a world today in which the world, many of which are against God in his ways, look toward God’s people with disdain as his hand is upon them and he blesses them in certain ways as they try to follow him. This is just the beginning, however, because the snowball effect of sin for Cain is going to get bigger. And we see that as not only half -hearted worship turns toward anger, but half -hearted following of God disregards the warning that God gives against sin. So Cain’s upset.
And God gives him the opportunity to make it right. But not only did he give him the opportunity to make it right, he warns him about the dynamic that he is now entering. This is what he says, grab your Bible and look with me. Verse six, the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. The opportunity is ever before us to make a sinful choice.
And the picture that God gives to Cain is supposed to make him afraid. The picture that God gives to us is supposed to make us afraid. It’s the picture of sin personified as a beast. A beast that is crouching and waiting for its small opportunity to pounce upon you. Doesn’t wanna play, it wants to devour. Every so often you hear a story of a mountain lion attack here in the United States. One such story happened just a few years ago in the summer of 2014 when 40 -year -old Kyra Kopinstonsky was hiking by herself near Telluride, Colorado. And as she was into her hike, she noticed that a mountain lion had been stalking her.
And as she continued, the stalking continued, 20, even 30 minutes. When she came to a point where she realized she had to do something and so she turned to confront the beast that was paralleling her along the hiking trail. And as she stood up tall against it and grabbed a big stick, the mountain lion froze. But as she began to back away, the large cat would then approach until she stopped again. And so slowly and surely over the course of the next number of minutes, she began to back her way down the mountain. And every time she backed up, the cat would approach. And every time she stood tall, the cat would freeze. Until after this mountain lion lost interest, he wandered away into the woods.
Three to four minutes later, she heard a crackling in the forest, and she realized that the mountain lion had taken a new position, trying to flank her again, just looking for any opportunity to pounce. At its most dangerous moment, the lion was only about eight feet away from Kyra, and she stood tall and froze, and she did the only thing that she could think to do. She started to sing opera. Well, surely the mountain lion did not know what to do with that. His ears lowered, he looked confused, and he began backing away.
“And over the next number of minutes, Kyra finally began to back her way down the mountain, keeping one eye on the cat the whole time, until she was met at the trailhead by a local sheriff and brought to safety. Now, this story is illustrious on many levels, isn’t it? I mean, in one sense, it is really nice to know that opera singing is not only offensive to the human ear, but it’s also quite offensive to some animals. But in a more serious way, this is the picture that God gives of sin. It’s stalking, it’s prowling, it’s waiting to pounce. You might remember 1 Peter 5, 8. We talked about it just a few weeks ago. Be sober -minded and watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
There’s a sense in which sin is lurking in many places in your life, in your human experience, and it’s just looking for that moment that you lower your guard, that you embrace it, and when it finds that moment, it will pounce upon you. Yet standing tall, acting rightly, will not give sin such an opportunity. The warning here is this. The warning is that when you take your worship of God casually, this is an indication that you also take sin casually.
Did you hear that? When you take your worship of God casually, it’s an indication that you probably also take sin too casually. Cain didn’t rightly see God for who he was, and so he approached him casually in his sacrifice. And this led him then to disregard the warning that God gave him when he failed. How do you approach your worship of God, whether that’s daily or even here on Sunday? That is an indicator of how you approach sin. Because I don’t know about you, I look at my own life, and certainly the lives of many that I know, and it’s so easy to take sin too casually, isn’t it? We say things like, it’s not that big of a deal. We say things like, well, I can keep it in control.
We say things like I’m just gonna take a couple steps down this path, but it’s not really gonna become a part of my life I mean after I just want to have a little fun But what we learn in this story is that when you embrace sin in this way You cannot control the outcome and It will lead you to places that you never thought you would go The power of sin is more destructive And you can imagine And we see that as we continue to go through the story because we see that Cain embraces sin and that spirals him toward Rebellion look at it with me Some stories are centered around the events that happen in the story But this story is centered around the interaction between Cain and between God himself we see that In this interaction, God is shown as one who is steady and he’s gracious in his approach. Yet Cain is one who has a growing sense of pride and self -importance. It was prideful for Cain to respond to God in anger. And now after he made a mistake, a significant mistake on top of his mistake, he responds to God in pride once again after he kills his brother. God comes to him graciously, much like he came to Adam earlier in Genesis saying to Adam, Adam, where are you? As they were hiding because of their sin. And now God comes to Cain and he says, Cain, where’s your brother? Abel.
““And the response is, I don’t know, am I my brother’s keeper? The compound sins now reveal the heart. And the heart is full of pride. That’s why the Bible warns us so clearly against a prideful disposition. If you are here today and you know that pride is a sinful struggle of yours, listen closely, don’t think about anybody else but yourself in this moment, as you hear just a couple of the warnings. Proverbs chapter 11 two says, when pride comes, then comes dishonor. But with the humble is wisdom. Proverbs 29 23 says, a man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.””
““James 4, 6, but he being God gives us more grace and that’s why the scripture says God opposes the proud but he gives favor to the humble. In Isaiah 47, 10 the prophet speaks and he gives a description of what it looks like to be enraptured in pride and sin. He says it this way, he says you felt secure in your wickedness and said no one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you for you have said in your heart I am and there is no one besides me.””
The power of sin is more destructive than you can imagine. And the warning for us is that if you have a prideful disposition in this life, then this destruction is nearer to you than maybe you even realize at the moment. I mean, just think about how this spiraled out of control for Cain. It went from bad to worse in a hurry. It started with an improper sacrifice, a half -hearted response of worship. He then responds in anger to God, and he’s got a choice. He can do what is pleasing to God, but instead he chooses to be angry toward God, and in jealousy he kills his brother. God confronts him, and the response to God now is belligerent rebellion. This was a God that he was just trying to worship just a day before. And now he’s already gone to outward rebellion.
God renders judgment on him and he still doesn’t repent. But he worries merely about self -preservation. And God shows grace in that he protects him in the general sense, we call this common grace, but he removes him from his presence and from his blessing. It all started with just an act of half -hearted worship, not that big of a deal, but it ended up in a place where you couldn’t imagine. And that is the power of sin.
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* This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.
