1. Cain was the first son of Adam and Eve.  He became the first murderer, and his murder vividly illustrates the rapid development of sin within the human race.
2. In Genesis 3:15, God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman (Eve), and between thy seed (children of the devil) and her seed (children of God); it (good seed) shall bruise thy (Satan) head, and thou (Satan) shalt bruise His (Christ’s) heel” (cf. Romans 16:20).
3. Here in Genesis 4 we see this enmity developed right away – this enmity between the two seeds – the wicked Cain and the righteous Abel.  What a vivid picture of the strength of sin!
4. The NT refers to these two brothers:

• Hebrews 11:4 tells us that Abel was a man of faith, that he offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, and that by this “he obtained witness that he was righteous.”
• On the other hand, I John 3:12 tells us that Cain “was of that wicked one,” and that his works were “evil.”

5. Cain was a tiller of the ground, whereas his younger brother Abel was a keeper of sheep (4:2).
6. “And in the process of time,” Cain offered up a sacrifice to God, and so did his brother Abel.  Cain offered up the fruit of the ground, and Abel offered up the firstlings (firstborn) of his flock (4:3, 4).
7. But God was not pleased with Cain’s offering (4:4, 5).  Some offerings are not acceptable to God.
8. One of the important lessons of Genesis 4 is that God is to be worshipped, and He is to be worshipped properly (cf. Heb. 11:4).
9. From the earliest pages in Genesis we see that God is to be worshipped through sacrifice, and this sacrifice must be appropriated by faith (Heb. 11:4).
10. According to the Bible, there is worship that is not acceptable to God.  Much of what passes today as worship is unacceptable to God.
11. Just recently, Bill Hybels, the founder of the huge and wildly successful Willow Creek movement, has admitted the whole thing is unscriptural.   It is popular but God is not pleased with it.
12. Cain’s worship was unacceptable to God because Cain did not acknowledge the necessity of an atonement for sin.  The Scofield Bible says Cain is a “type of the religious natural man, who believes in a God, and in ‘religion,’ but after his own will, and who rejects redemption by blood” (pp. 1328, 9).
13. First John 3:11 and 12 says, “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.  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.”
14. Jude 11 warns of evil apostates, who “have gone in the way of Cain”

I. CAIN DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE CHARACTER OF GOD.

1. Way back in the Garden of Eden, the devil attacked the character of God.  Speaking to Eve, Cain’s mother, Satan said, “Ye shall not surely die” (Gen. 3:4).  Here he was attacking the integrity of God.
2. Next, Satan said, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (3:5).
3. Here he was attacking the goodness of God.
4. Cain did not really understand the character of God.  A.W. Tozer said that “we tend, by some secret law of the soul, to move towards a mental image of God. What you think about God will directly affect how you live as well as how you worship.”
5. Cain had an inaccurate understanding of God; therefore his walk with God and his worship of God was not right.
6. It is a fact that too many people have the wrong concept of God.  They have an inadequate view of God.
7. For example, God is holy.  Habakkuk 1:13 says, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.”
8. First Peter 1:15, 16 says, “But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
9. God had no respect for Cain’s offering (Gen. 4:5) because Cain did not understand that God is holy and must be approached accordingly.
10. One cannot properly worship God without knowing who God is.  When the LORD spoke to Moses out of the midst of the burning bush, He said, “Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Ex. 3:5).
11. And now I hear that there are people coming to church in their pajamas!  Would they meet President Bush in their pajamas?  Would they attend their son’s wedding in their pajamas?
12. (Nowadays you have to wonder!)
13. Do you recall what Saul of Tarsus said when God met him on the roads to Damascus?  Saul said, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6).
14. He had just gotten saved, but he understood the character of God.
15. We are saved by God’s grace through faith.  Abel understood this but Cain did not.  Hebrews 11:4 says, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain…”
16. God did not accept Cain’s offering because Cain refused to come by faith through grace.
17. First Timothy 4:1 warns us of “doctrines of devils.”  This goes all the way back to the false worship of Cain.

II. CAIN DID NOT UNDERSTAND THAT MAN CANNOT HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD ON HIS TERMS. (It has to be on God’s terms.)

1. This has been a problem ever since Cain.  That is why Jude 11 says, “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain.”
2. The “way of Cain” is the worldly way.  It is the proud way.  It is the way of the self-willed, arrogant, unregenerate religionist who thinks he can approach God on his own terms.
3. But beloved, it has to be on God’s terms.  Cain refused to approach God in God’s prescribed manner.
4. And ever since, man has devised his own form of worship, rather than obeying God and worshipping God in the way God has instructed.
5. Merrill Unger has written, “Cain’s false worship represents the fountainhead of all spurious religion, the essence of which is man’s approach to God in his own way rather than in God’s prescribed way” (Unger’s Commentary on the OT.)
6. Let me give an example: there is no “mass” in the Bible.
7. Do you remember the man from mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah?  (Not to be confused with the prophet Micah.)
8. The story of the man Micah is recorded in Judges 17.  You will remember that the days of the Judges were days of declension.  The Bible says, “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).
9. Micah did that which was right in his own eyes.  He stole eleven hundred shekels of silver from his mother.  But rather than correct him, his mixed-up mother gave him her blessing, and instructed him to make a graven image and a molten image (Judges 17:1-3).
10. Next he built a heathen temple and ordained one of his sons to be his priest (Judges 17:4-6).  Of course, all of this was contrary to the Bible.
11. We have many people like this today.  They claim they are preaching the Gospel, but God is not in it.  While flying from Detroit to JFK, I sat next to a Christian lady who lives in the St. Louis area.  Her daughter sells real estate and had the misfortune of meeting the charismatic TV preacher and author Joyce Meyer.
12. First of all, Joyce Meyer is not even saved.  She is a modern-day Jezebel deceiving foolish, Biblically-illiterate worldlings.
13. Second of all, Joyce Meyer has no business preaching because I Timothy 2:12 says, “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
14. Thirdly, Joyce Meyer owns three huge mansions and pays herself a $1 million/year salary.  That is outrageous.
15. This Christian lady sitting next to me on the plane said her daughter called her on the phone very upset because Joyce Meyer cursed her out!  And yet Joyce Meyer has a huge following and has made millions of dollars preaching a false gospel.
16. Here are some of her teachings:

• Jesus ceased to be God when He was on the cross (tape called “From the Cross to the Throne.”  Strangely enough false prophet Kenneth Copeland came out with a tape by the same exact name many years earlier, teaching the exact same doctrinal errors, (yet Joyce Meyer claims she got this information by divine revelation from God).
• Joyce Meyer teaches that after Jesus died on the cross, He was tortured in hell by demons for three days.  Then when He arose from the dead He was “born again.”  This foolishness is taught by many charismatic false teachers.

17. There are many false teachers who are leading people astray.  Our Lord said in Matthew 24:11, “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.”
18. Cain assumed that he was deserving of the Lord’s acceptance, but Cain did not do it God’s way.  Hebrews 9:22 says, “And without shedding of blood is no remission.”
19. Abel’s offering was accepted by God because it was a sacrifice in which atoning blood was shed. This is why God had respect unto Abel and to his offering (Genesis 4:4), “but unto Cain and to his offering He had no respect” (4:5).

III. CAIN DID NOT UNDERSTAND JUST HOW SERIOUS SIN IS.

1. The Scofield Bible says of Cain: “Cain (“acquisition”) is a type of the mere man of the earth. His religion was destitute of any adequate sense of sin, or need of atonement” (p. 10).
2. Cain refused to accept the judgment of God that man had been alienated from God by sin (cf. Genesis 3:23, 24).
3. We need to understand that God hates sin.  Proverbs 6:16-19 says, “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”
4. It grieves me that our churches are filled with professed Christians, whose lives are not much different than the sinners around them.
5. God is holy and cannot look upon sin (Hab. 1:13).  God knows that sin has filled this world with pain and sorrow.

CONCLUSION:

1. After Abel, we see Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then the Levitical priests all offering up blood sacrifices.
2. This all pointed to the cross of Christ.
3. That is why John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
4. Have you received His free gift of salvation?