Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - East of Eden: Sin and Grace

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

It’s fratricide, it’s brother killing brother, it’s a sensational story—the story of Cain and Abel. People call this the first case study of murder, but I think that’s missing the point. It���s actually the first case study of life east of Eden.  In Genesis 4, we see three realities are always present in every day, every part of life east of Eden. It shows that in every aspect of life you always have three things operating: sin, grace, and the possibility of salvation. Let’s look at what this teaches us about 1) the secrecy of sin, 2) the gentleness of grace, and 3) the subtlety of salvation. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 26, 2000. Series: Genesis – The Gospel According to God. Scripture: Genesis 4:1-16. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The Book of Genesis is an ancient book that gets down to some of the most foundational questions we have. We get answers to the big why questions and the what for questions that have plagued us for centuries. Join us today as Tim Keller preaches from the Book of Genesis. Genesis 4, 1-16. Adam Lay was his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man. Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil and in the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord.

But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of the flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and on his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. His face, pardon me, I'll tell you about that in a minute, his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it. Now Cain said to his brother Abel, let's go out into the field. And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. And then the Lord said

to Cain, where is your brother Abel? I don't know, he replied. Am I my brother's keeper? The Lord said, what have you done? Listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth. And Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you're driving me from the land.

I will be hidden from your presence. I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me. The Lord said to him, not so. If anyone kills Cain he will suffer vengeance seven times over and then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden." This is God's word. Now you see, it's a gripping narrative and in some ways that's a problem, just a small problem because it's a sensational event.

It's a fratricide, I mean it's a brother killing brother. It's very sensational and it's very typical for people to entitle this or call this the first murder, the first case study of murder, the first case study of violence. But actually I think we're missing the point and that's what I want to show you tonight. It's actually the first case study of life, life east of Eden. At the end of chapter three it says, it says, Adam and Eve were driven out east of Eden. It says, Adam and Eve were driven out east of Eden. Here we're told that Cain lived east of Eden. And all we know what that means is east of Eden.

It's interesting in, well, never mind. It's very interesting how this works. The idea of living east of Eden means life in a fallen world, life outside of paradise. And it's really, it's's true it ends up in murder but we actually have here is the very first case study of life East of Eden. Not just first case study of murder, life. It's the first place where we actually see three factors that always are present. Three realities that are always present

in every aspect, every day, every part of life East of Eden. And here's what these three factors are. Sin, grace, and salvation. The first place the word sin ever shows up in the Bible is right here. And therefore, sin is always a factor. Secondly, there's grace. God is always there, cushioning, moving, trying to wake us up. So in every situation, East of Eden, there's always sin, even though, as we're going to see, it's subtle and hidden. There's always grace, even though even that is very gentle, subtle and hidden. And then there's always, thirdly, the possibility of salvation, the possibility of cooperating with grace and escaping sin. And, I mean, that's awfully basic. Of course, this is basic. This is about life east of Eden. And so what I want to do is I want to look at those three things and I want you to see that

in everything you do, in every aspect of your life, you'll always have those three things operating. Sin, grace, and the possibility of salvation. Okay? In fact, let's put it this way. We're taught three things here. We're taught about the secrecy of sin, the gentleness of grace, and the subtlety of salvation. Because the murder kind of overwhelms the sensational thing that happens, sort of overwhelms our senses.

And we don't see that sin, grace, and salvation are incredibly subtle things, easy to miss, things that are very easy to not be able to discern. And this narrative is here to help us discern them. Okay, first of all, first thing is we're told about the secrecy of sin. By the way, in early 1996, I did a whole sermon just on this first point. It's a very important point. What does this text tell us about the nature of sin? And if you, if I'm, when I'm done, if when you go through the three points, if you say, gee, the only good point was the first one, you probably want that tape because it, it spells out the subject a little better. But here's

the first thing. We're taught, of course, everybody knows sin when it becomes murder. Everybody knows sin when it becomes robbery. But can you recognize sin in its beginnings? So the thing about Abel and Cain is on the surface they were the same. We're going to get back to this, but what's the difference between Abel and Cain? Was Abel a good boy who went to church and obeyed his parents and was Cain somebody who was riding around in a jalopy or I don't know what it would have been, a camel and drinking beer and shouting epithets against God and religion and moral and traditional values? No. They both work hard. They both offer sacrifices to God. They both believe in God. They're

both trying to obey God. They're both worshiping God on the surface of the same. And here's what's so intriguing. God comes and he says something to Cain. He says, Cain, verse 7, sin is crouching at your door. Its desire is to have you, but you must master it. Now that is an amazing metaphor. What is he saying? He's saying this. He says sin always hides itself. That's the idea of the metaphor.

This astounding metaphor of an animal crouching down, crouching in the shadows, crouching in a corner, crouching just out of your view. It's an astonishing metaphor. What God is trying to say is Abel and Cain on the surface look the same, but there is something wrong with Cain's heart. It's very, very subtle. You'll never see it on the surface, and even Cain doesn't see it yet. Because, God says, sin always hides from you. Sin is always crouching down. Now, what does it mean to crouch down? Crouching down means one of two things. You crouch down, first of all, so that the person won't see you at all, right? Or if they do see you, they'll think you're very small and not too big. Or asleep or dead or inert or something. In other words, sin always presents itself

to you as either a virtue, you know, either something good, and I'm not a workaholic, I'm just productive. In other words, sin always presents itself as something good, or else it presents itself as something, yeah, it's a flaw, yes, I probably shouldn't do that, yes, I probably shouldn't nurse that grudge, yes, I probably shouldn't have that attitude, but it's not all that bad. It's crouching down. This is very interesting because it's not only crouching down. Sin always stays hidden, it's always trying to stay just off your radar, it's always presenting itself as something else, and yet, it uncoils someday. See, when God says, sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you, but you must master it. What he's saying is that we tend to walk on a razor's edge.

That in the very, very earliest stages of self-pity, in the very earliest stages of bitterness, in the very earliest stages of pride or of prejudice, in the very earliest stages of greed, in the very earliest stages, you see, of some sort of addiction, in the very earliest stages sin, you actually still have some control. You know what's going on. You really do. You can do something about it. But he says, here's what's interesting. When you give in to the greed, to the self-pity, to the prejudice, to the pride, to the selfishness, when you give in to the thoughts and the words and the deeds, you shouldn't. Sin is not just really a matter of just something that goes off into the air. Sin is not just a matter of personal choice.

Sin is a power. You know, sin, when you do a sin, it creates a force in your life. It creates a being. It takes shape. Isn't this astounding? You think this is just metaphorical when God says, it wants to have you. So the point is, you give in to selfishness, you give in to pride, you give in to dishonesty, you give in to greed, you give in to these sorts of things.

And next thing you know, you have created something in your life that shadows you. In fact, almost literally, here's what God says. Almost literally. He says, if you do sin, sin will do you. Right now you're in a position where you can perform sin, but it won't be long before it will come back and it will have you, it will want you, it will do… How can he give sin this sort of… How can he talk about sin as if it's an agent? And the answer is, because it has that kind of power in our life. Sin is not just something you do, it's a power. And here's what he's saying. He's saying

it starts small, but it's not long before it's taken you out. It's just taken you out. Gossips will find themselves being gossiped about. Haters will find themselves being hated. Cowards will be deserted. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. People who will do anything to be popular will be the most unpopular people. Who would want somebody like that? No principles. There is something about sin, the Bible says, that it's not just a choice, it's a power. It starts as a choice and then it takes you over. So let me end this first point. I don't know whether you want, maybe you don't want to hear more on this subject than through the wonders of modern technology. Steve Schaefer, who leads the Tate ministry, will be very happy to find you that sermon.

This is a very unpleasant subject, but let me end with this question. Do you know you're Steve Schaefer who leads the Tate ministry will be very happy to find you that sermon. This is a very unpleasant subject, but let me end with this question. Do you know your crouching sins? By definition, the things in your life right now that can most destroy you are the things that you don't think are that bad. The things that you've been making excuses for. You know, I'm going to give you an example, I'm going to give you a couple more. I'm not a workaholic, I'm just productive. I'm not ruthless, I just have sharp business sense. I'm not stingy, I'm just prudent.

I'm not bitter against the opposite sex, I'm just experiencing righteous moral outrage. In other words, sin always crouches down, but here's what I want you to know, it will poison you. It will have you. You can't stay bitter against the opposite sex without it hardening you and poisoning you and distorting your ability to assess individuals. It will screw you up. You can decide, I'm going to stay bitter at my parents, but it won't be long before it will uncoil and it will poison you and it will harden you and it will embitter you and in all sorts of ways you won't even see,

of course, because that's what it means to have you. There's nobody more under the power of something than someone who doesn't know it's under anybody's power. Do you know you're crouching sins? Or do you think I'm exaggerating? If you do, you're so vulnerable. Do you know what they are? Okay, so the first thing we learn is that sin is always a factor. East of Eden. Sin is dangerous, sin is powerful, sin is subtle, sin is nuanced, sin is complex, sin is hidden. It's always hiding itself. And it's always a factor, it's always a problem, it's always involved. Now that's the first thing we learn. But the second thing, we don't just learn about the secrecy and subtlety of sin, we also learn about the gentleness of grace.

Now I want to show you a God who completely defines the stereotypes. What stereotypes do I mean? Well, I think the typical person in New York, first of all, says the God of the Bible is a God of judgment and condemnation. He lays down the laws and if anyone is disobeying the laws, he comes down and smites them. And then there are some people who kind of give the Bible a break and then they have this slightly better but still completely erroneous view. I mean, how could that be? But anyway, there's other people who say, well, you know, the God of the New Testament is a God of love. But it's the God of the Old Testament, it's the God of, you know, fire and brimstone and thunder and lightning and smiting.

Well, here's the Old Testament. This is about as old as the Testament gets, by the way, Genesis 4. And do we see a cosmic policeman here? Absolutely not. We see a wonderful counselor who utterly refuses to choose between justice and mercy. Absolutely refuses to choose. He's going to exercise them both. This is the wonderful counselor. What do I mean? Take a look. And I'll summarize at the end what I mean. What does this mean about my life? But let's take a look at God for a second. First of all, he gently and

graciously initiates. He comes and nobody called. When does he get there? After the murder? Oh no. Oh no. As soon as Cain starts to spiral down, verse 5 is what? Then Cain was angry and his face was downcast. Did you notice I slipped when I was reading it? In the Hebrew, literally in the Hebrew it says, and his face fell, which is a really vivid way of talking about depression. You can see it in people's face. Here's a... he started to spiral down and look, verse 6, then the Lord said to Cain,

the Lord's not upstairs tapping his foot saying I wonder if Cain's gonna pass the test. Down he comes. Nobody called him. This is the reason why everybody who has ever found God spiritually, anyone who's ever had a spiritual discovery of God, always can look back, always can look back and see that he was there without being called, coming,

initiating, trying to wake us up early, trying to, you know, clear our mind up. You know, there's the old hymn that goes, "'My heart owns none before thee, for thy rich grace I thirst, this knowing, if I love thee, thou must have loved me first.'" Thou must have loved me first. So we see God loving Cain first. He comes, he initiates, see? He's always there. I mean, the Bible says, at the very, very least, God has put in every human being what's a conscience, some of God's moral DNA. In other words, there's something that God is essentially at everybody's elbow all the time. Sin shows up and there he is, saying now, do you know what you're doing? Do you recognize what you're doing? You know, maybe not audibly, hopefully, in most cases, but he's there. He initiates. That's the first thing. Secondly, he doesn't just graciously and gently initiate.

Secondly, he graciously and gently affirms. Now, here's what I think is interesting. I'm not sure I'm very good at counseling, but here's what I noticed. God does not come as a teacher. He comes as a counselor. He does not come as a prophet. He comes as a priest. God does not show up and say, how dare you get mad at me because who do you think? No. Nor does he come in saying, let me tell you what you need. See, teaching assumes that the other person is ignorant. But a counselor comes in not with answers but questions, not because the counselor doesn't know any answers, not because the counselor is clueless, hopefully, the counselor comes in and says, well, questions, why? The questions of a counselor affirm the self. The questions of a counselor come in and when you ask a

person questions rather than tell them what they need to hear, what you're affirming is their ability to get it. You're affirming their ability to get it. In fact, look at what he actually says. This is amazing. He's coming to Cain. Cain clearly has got a lot of problems. He comes to him and he says, I want you to be a master. Look at verse 7. You must master it. You can master it. What is he saying? You've got potential. You've got ability here. I want to see you exercising it. God comes in as a counselor with questions. Do you understand your anger? He says Do you understand what's going on here? Do you know what's going on here? You can do it. You can do it amazing

Amazing Not up in heaven tapping his foot waiting for us waiting to see whether we Pass the test and then coming down with lightning and thunder on our head there is that our elbow saying I know you can do it Do you understand? Let's only show this. Let's discover this together. Amazing. But, grace does not only affirm, because we don't only need affirmation. I certainly don't only need affirmation. The other thing God does here is he graciously comes, he initiates, secondly, he affirms, thirdly, he uncovers. And he says, why are you angry? Now here's the question, why is he angry? Why is it that when God regarded Abel, now look back at the, we're going to, I'm not going to answer this quite yet, give me the next point, wait, be patient. But you

see, it says Abel brought fat portions, Cain brought the first fruits of the soil, so they brought their sacrifices to God. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and on his offering, but on Cain he did not look with favor. Now we're not totally sure about, I'll give you some ideas in a minute. We're not totally sure how God did that. Did it mean, for example, that God just started letting great things happen to Abel's life? Does it mean that Abel sensed God's favor inside, which I think is kind of hinted at by the text, because literally it says, God respected Abel. Isn't that interesting? Abel experienced the respect of God and Cain sensed he didn't have it. So it's a little bit mysterious. But here's the point. Why when he sees his brother getting something from God, does he get furious? Why doesn't he say, hey great little brother?

No. You know, what if two brothers go and they try to get into something or they apply for something or they get into some contest and one wins and the other one is absolutely discouraged, utterly bitter, murderously, murderously discouraged. You say, what's going on? Here's what's going on. God will not let Cain refuse to look inside. Most people think Christianity is either incredibly inclusive or unbelievably exclusive.

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What is God trying to put his finger on? What was wrong with Cain's heart? Nobody's better than… Of all the commentators I've read to try to get some idea, there's a guy named Miroslav Volf who has a study of Genesis 4, and he says this. It's intriguing. I'll read you the quote in a second, but here's what's interesting. How do you understand why Cain's so mad? First of all, we cannot miss the fact, the significance of the names. I have to admit that over the years in studying

this I did. You know in the Bible, the names are extremely important. People did not choose names for their kids the way we do today. You know, why did you name him Herman? Well, I just liked the sound of the name Herman. That's not how they did it back then. Okay? In fact, we all know that when people's natures change, their names changed. You know, you're no longer Simon, you're Peter. See? You know, you're no longer Abram, you're Abraham.

I won't get into all those reasons why, but the point is your name was given to you because your parents or the namer discern something about you. The word cane means productive, fruitful, and successful. The word able means worthless and the nobody. Why in the world do these two kids have this name? And there's only one possible answer. I mean, it's not an accident. That's just not an accident. And the only possible answer is you can almost see it a little bit in the very beginning. When Eve gets so excited when Cain comes along and we don't hear anything about how she felt about Abel and here's the answer. Cain was

the winner in this family. Cain was the person who was successful. Cain was the apple of his parents' eye. Cain was the one who was prosperous. And Abel was always a failure. Abel was always behind. Abel was always maybe slower. Abel was unsuccessful. So why would Cain go nuts? Why would he go ballistic when God comes down and shows his favor for the weaker one, for the lesser one, for the less successful one? And this is what Miroslav Volf says in his exposition of Genesis 4, and it's fascinating. He says, first came envy. Cain was angry because Abel, who was literally a nobody, would be regarded, and Cain, he, who was clearly a somebody, should be disregarded. Why was he angry? Cain's identity was constructed from the start in relationship to Abel. He was great because he was better than Abel. And when God favored Abel, Cain either had

to readjust his identity or eliminate Abel. When Cain is confronted with God's measure of what truly matters and what is truly great, he has to exclude both God and Abel because his premise goes like this, if Abel is who God regards him to be, then I am not who I understand myself to be. The power of sin, he goes on to say, rests not so much on an unsuppressable urge of violence than on the reasoning of the perverted self which insists on maintaining its own false identity. Of course, these reasons are only persuasive to the perverted self, not to anyone else. That is why Cain keeps silent when God asks,

why are you angry? Did you get all that? The essence of sin is to build an identity outside of God. The essence of sin is to say, what makes me cool, what makes me okay, what makes me significant is, I am living up to what my parents say, I am a successful farmer, I am this, I am that. And that means I am a somebody and he is a nobody. And when God shows that he has a completely different value system, Cain goes berserk. Because, see, Cain, and this will happen to you. If you build your identity on anything except God all kinds of things will make you go berserk. People don't recognize you when you work so hard

nobody wants to marry you when you have worked so hard. Things aren't going well in life when I think I've tried so very very hard or you say this is who I am I'm a great writer or I'm a smart person or I'm or I'm a great writer, or I'm a smart person, or I'm a sweetheart, or I'm an understanding person, and you reject it. People don't see it, they don't acknowledge it. And you go nuts. Why? Because your identity is based on something, some aspect of your performance. Your identity is based on something besides God. And when God shows up and begins to show that he's a God of grace,

that he doesn't regard those things, that he's looking for something very, very different in human beings, Cain goes nuts. And that's why it's so intriguing that the commentator that I just read you said that we tend to think of violence as some unsuppressable, irrational thing. In fact, I can't believe how often I read in these, some of the commentators were saying, violence is always an irrational thing. And Wolf is smart. He said, that's not true. There's a reasoning. If you build your identity on anything other than God, there will be some things that you will do anything to keep. You'll keep the illusion that you are somebody. In other words, Cain had defined himself all of his life as being the better kid. He couldn't handle it. If Abel is actually the better kid in any way at all, who the

heck am I then? I don't even know who I am. And this is where everybody's identity, based on something outside of God, is unbelievably fragile. Because only God's regard, only God's love, only God's grace is utterly unchanging. Only God's love, only God's grace is utterly unchanging. Only God's love, only God's grace is utterly secure and utterly sure. And nothing else is. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. And God is there to say, let me tell you why you're angry. Do you see why you're angry? Do you know what's going on?

Do you realize why you weren't happy for your brother? I mean, after all, your brother has been losing and losing and losing, and for one time he wins. Why don't you turn to him and say, hey, great little brother, because you've based your identity on being the better kid. And of course you say, well, I haven't done that. No, but you've based your identity on something besides God, every one of us has, including me. And I want you to know, some years ago, when we first started Redeemer, I remember thinking, why just don't want this to fail? Oh my gosh, I don't want this to

fail. I've never tried anything this big. I don't want it to fail. Now, it didn't fail. But I realized just this year, I said, you know what? What's interesting? Unless I pray, unless I have a great prayer life, unless I sense the love of God in my life, I'm constantly unhappy and I've got something I wanted. See, don't sit on this side of something you want. Say, if I get to the other side, if I just got this one thing that I really want, everything will be alright, no way, no way. I will be just, I'm unhappy unless I've got Jesus, Unless Jesus is a reality to me, I'm unhappy. Because if I let my identity slide into anything besides Him, then getting it doesn't make

me any happier than not getting it. It makes me… doesn't make me go ballistic, but in the end it just cannot satisfy. And so God comes after him and says, now do you see? So God's grace is so gentle and God's grace is initiating and God's grace is affirming, but God's grace is also convicting. And see, here we are, we come to the third point now, but you see where we are? In absolutely every situation, sin is a factor and God's grace is a factor. Sin is working and God is coming in some way and trying to show, do you see your foundations? Do you see what's going on at the root of your life? Do you understand what your life is built on? Every problem in your life, everything that makes your face fall, everything that knocks you over, is the grace saying, you

have an opportunity to grow here. Do you see what your identity is really based in? Be careful. If you don't, if you don't make the shift, if you don't cooperate with grace, you'll just get more angry, you'll get more anxious, you'll get more discouraged, you'll get more despairing, it'll take you over. It'll take you out. Okay. Now, third, how can we make sure that we cooperate Okay, now third, how can we make sure that we cooperate with grace and escape the sin? And the answer is here, okay? Let's look at the subtlety of salvation. The subtlety of salvation is the blood. What's the difference between Cain and Abel on the surface?

No difference. This is one of the first places the Bible brings us out, but it's one of the themes of the Bible. The average person says, oh I know what the Bible says about how to cooperate with grace and escape sin. Be good. Go to church. Make your offering. Give to the poor. Give to the church. Study your Bible. Try to obey God. Cain's doing all of that. Don't you see? He's doing all of it. That's not it. Well, what's going on? Why was Cain's sacrifice not regarded? Why was Abel's sacrifice regarded? Hebrews chapter 11 verse 4 says this. It's very simple and I just go with it. Abel offered his sacrifice

in faith and Cain did not. When I say, oh, okay, Abel offered it in faith, that means Abel believed in God and Cain did not. Oh, that can't be. Cain's talking to God and he's answering him back and he's talking, I think Cain believed in God. I mean, you know, when you're having these conversations with God, I don't think there's any doubt in your mind that he's there. That can't be it. So what are we talking about when it comes to faith? It's not faith in God in general. It's not even faith that there is a God that I need to obey God. It's faith in the grace of God. It's faith in the gospel of God. It's faith in the work of God. Because Abel and Cain knew through their parents that God had said, someday I'm going to send

one who will crush the serpent's head. Someday I will send one who will save you from sin and death. You won't do it. I will send somebody to do it. And what that means is Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices in a very different way. Cain and Abel offered a sacrifice in faith, which meant it was a response to the gratitude of God. It was a gratitude and part of a response to the grace of God. He was offering it in gratitude. But if Cain wasn't offering a sacrifice in response to the salvation of God, then the only other way to offer sacrifices to God is as a means to salvation. Do you hear me? If you're not coming to church, if you're not giving your tithe or whatever you want

to call it, if you're not doing good deeds as a response to the fact that you know that God completely accepts you in Christ, then your sacrifice is a way of trying to get God to do things for you. And that means you, a Cain rather than an Abel. What are the marks of a Cain? Cain's mad at God. Very mad. God's not doing the right thing. If you say, oh, I know I'm saved by grace, but you're always mad because God is not giving you the life you expect him to, you think he owes you, there you go. Look, you may think you're saved by grace, but if you're always mad at God, God owes me something. You don't believe you're saved by grace. You're a Cain, you're not an Abel, you're an elder

brother, like the elder brother in the parable. You're a Pharisee. You're a religious leader, maybe even. But you're trusting in your good works and Abel was not. And this is the key. Well how can you make sure that you're not a grumpy, bitter Cain looking down your nose at other people, needing to feel superior to them, angry at God all the time, and lacking an inner sense of the respect of God? Lacking an inner sense of his assurance. How can you not be a Cain but be a sweet, joyful Abel? The answer is in Hebrews chapter 12 where we have this incredible verse. You have not come to Mount Sinai but to Mount Zion, says the Hebrew's writer, and listen to this,

and to the shed blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel. Do you hear what that is? There was a true Ab able that came many years later and you know who killed the true able? The prostitutes? The pimps? The marginal? The outsiders? The outcasts? The irrelig- oh no, who killed the true able? The canes. The good one. The good people. The elder brothers. The leaders. The kids that their parents always were so proud of, you see, the Pharisees. They're the ones who killed, the religious people killed Jesus. Cain's killed the true Abel, but this Abel is better than that Abel. We like that Abel, but I have a better Abel for you.

Because we're told that that Abel, his blood cried out for justice. Isn't that right? Look, verse 10, your brother's blood cries out from the ground. But we've got a different able, a better able. Jesus' blood cries out too. And actually I want you to know something. It cries out for justice. Did you know that? All shed blood, unjustly shed blood. It's a metaphor of course,

but all unjustly shed blood. It's a metaphor, of course, but all unjustly shed blood cries out to God for justice. But Jesus' blood dries out differently. Here's why. Do you know that great place in 1 John 1, 8 where it says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness? Did you listen to that? I like to say this every year. If you confess your sins, if you're a Christian, if you confess your sins, is faithful in what? Just to forgive us our sins. Do you realize how secure you are in the acceptance and love of God? Do you realize how secure? Maybe some of you are thinking, well, you know, if I don't do

too many bad things, it'll be alright, but if I start to really do too many bad things it'll be alright but if i start to really do too many bad things god will just give up on me now listen it do you believe in jesus do you make him your savior do you trust in him that means his blood was shed for you what that means is his blood was shed it paid for your sin for god to ever ever ever failed to forgive you would mean he'd be asking for two payments for that sin

he'd be getting jesus payment and your payment. And therefore, Jesus' blood cries out for justice but says it would be utterly unjust for you to ever give up on the ones who believe in me. It would be utterly unjust for you to ever fail to acquit the ones who believe in me. Jesus Christ in a sense is standing as it were before the Father saying, I do not ask for mercy for my brothers and sisters, I ask for justice. My blood cries out from the ground and says, I was shed for their sins and therefore they must be saved. Utterly must be saved. If you've got that in, if you've got this kind of certainty in God, if you've got this kind of certainty, that will make you a sweet, able, and not a grumpy, bitter, superior, condemning, self-righteous Cain.

Always angry at the way your life is going. And you know what it means? It means in the end, you will be able to do to Cain's what God did. You notice something interesting at the very end? God says, you killed your brother, and what does Cain say? Wow. Am I my brother's keeper? That's a very ironic statement. And when he does start to cry out, all he's saying is, I'm afraid my punishment's going to be too bad, much for me. When God puts a mark on Cain, you know what it is a mark of? Do you think it's, what did you think the mark of? Derek Kidner, great commentator on the book of Genesis,

says this about the mark of Cain. Listen to this. God's concern for justice for the innocent is matched only by his care for the sinner. Even the prayer of Cain contained a germ of an appeal. God answered with his mark or his sign, which is the same word used of the rainbow in chapter 9 verse 3 and of circumcision in chapter 17 verse 11. The mark of Cain is not a stigma, but it's a mark of safe conduct. God is virtually becoming Cain's goel or protector. It's the most mercy he can do for the unrepentant. Do you see? Cain says, they're going to kill me out there. And God puts some kind of sign on him that says, no, I will be your protector. How can he be that merciful to an unrepentant sinner? How can he be that merciful to somebody who

won't even give in? That's God. And what that means is, if you want to become like Abel, if you want to become like Jesus, if you want to get this internal sense of God's respect and honor of you so that your identity is completely based on him, you'll be able to look at people like Cain who disagree with you and maybe oppose you and don't believe the right thing and you will love him. You will be merciful. You might tell him the truth, you might tell him where they're wrong, but you will never vilify, you will never demonize. You will never hate them Canes hate Abel's Abel's never hate Canes, which are you? Do you want to move out into the world with so much love inside?

that even the people who don't agree with you and don't live right and don't obey God and who You know believe all sorts of heretical things and you can love them and you can care for them, you can be as merciful and gracious to them as God is to Cain, then you have to become an Abel. How can you become an Abel? By trusting in the greater Abel whose life was lost for you and his blood was shed for you, and that blood speaks graciously, more graciously than the blood of Abel. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for giving us this vision of two brothers and a choice. Which one should we be? Father, there's a great danger in coming into the church, great danger in studying the Bible, great danger in getting religious because it's easy to become like a cane. We ask that you keep us from that.

because it's easy to become like a cane. We ask that you keep us from that. Instead we ask that you make us like Abel, trusting in faith in your grace, and becoming like the antitype of Abel, which is Jesus Christ, the one who really came, who really lived as a nobody, and was killed by the cane so that we could be saved. We pray that you'd help us to use this in our hearts and apply this to our lives with the

help of your spirit. In Jesus name, amen. Thanks for listening to today's message from Tim Keller. If you have a story of how the gospel has changed your life or how Gospel in Life's resources have encouraged or challenged you, we'd love to hear from you. You can share your story with us by visiting gospelinlife.com slash stories. That's gospelinlife.com slash stories. Today's sermon was recorded in 2000. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to

2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.