This sermon delves into the lessons from Genesis chapter 4, emphasizing God's acceptance based on faith, the dangers of anger and jealousy, the proximity of sin, the need to be overcomers, responsibility for our brothers, accountability before God, the seriousness of sins against others, leaving vengeance to God, the impact of our example on our children, and the importance of humility and honesty.

So this is the third in our series of 40 messages that we find in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. We want to look today at Genesis chapter 4. This is the first chapter of man's history after he was put out of Eden and there's a whole chapter that teaches us many many lessons. First of all we read about this offering that Cain and Abel brought in Genesis chapter 4 and verse 3. It came about in the course of time Cain brought an offering the Lord of the fruit of the ground and Abel brought the firstlings of his flock and their fat portions and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. For Cain and his offering he had no regard. So the first lesson we can learn is that God accepts us on the basis of faith in our hearts because it says here that God accepted Abel and his offering. Now we shouldn't put it the other way around like some people do. I think a lot of Christians preach that. Most Christians I'd say 90 percent. They reverse what the Bible says in verse 4. They say the Lord had regard for Abel's offering and therefore for Abel and then they read the Lord did not have regard for Cain's offering and therefore he didn't have a regard for Cain. It's amazing how people twist the scriptures and 90 percent of even believers twist it like that and say that Abel brought blood. That means his offering so God accepted Abel. Cain did not bring blood so he didn't accept Cain. But is that what the Bible says? It's amazing how many errors you can go into when you don't read the Bible carefully. Read it. The Lord had regard for Cain, Abel and then for his offering and the Lord had no regard for Cain and for his offering. Don't ever think that because your offering is so wonderful God will accept you. Maybe you give a hundred thousand rupees. God will just throw it in the trash can. Somebody else like the widow brings two mites, two pices. God accepts it. Not the offering. The person is the person that God accepts and then the offering. Don't ever make that mistake. People think, oh I'm serving the Lord so much because he'll accept me. Rubbish! Martha served so much in the kitchen and God said you're wasting your time. I come to so many services. I take part in the choir. I do this. I do that. There are multitudes of Christians who because of a wrong interpretation think that because they offer something to God, God will accept them. I want you to get that out of your heads today forever. That if he doesn't accept you, whatever offering you bring, however wonderful and however sacrificial, God will not accept it. He does not accept us on the basis of what we bring. Hebrews chapter 11 explains that. Hebrews 11 and verse 4. What was it that made Abel's offering better? It wasn't the offering itself. It was faith. God accepts us on the basis of faith in our hearts. Hebrews 11 verse 4. By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous. And God testified about his gifts and through faith, though he's dead, he still speaks. What Abel is speaking to us today is of his faith. Through faith, he still speaks, even though he's dead. Salvation is by faith in our hearts, with the heart man believes unto righteousness. Jesus also made that clear once in Matthew chapter 5. Is it the offering or the person that God accepts? It's a very important question, because many of us may be deceiving ourselves in this area. See Matthew chapter 5 and verse 23. Now you've got to read this in this context. Don't jump in the middle of a verse. He's talking about somebody who got very angry with his brother one day. Verse 22. Someone who's angry with his brother and went and said to him, you good for nothing. And then went and said to him, you fool. That's verse 22. This is the context. Then this man brings an offering to the altar. Verse 23. And there you're presenting your offering at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you because you hurt him. Will God accept your offering? It may be a wonderful offering. God won't accept it. He says, you fool. First of all, I mean you said you're a fool to your brother. Leave your offering there. Verse 24. First be reconciled to your brother. Get your heart right. Then come and present your offering. Then only God will accept it. In other words, God will accept you only when you have set your heart right. That's so important because some people think, oh I come and I present the sacrifice of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus. Don't think saying the blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus will open you up into fellowship with God. It will not. If your heart doesn't have faith, if your heart has not set matters right with other people, Jesus said that. That if you don't forgive others, your heavenly father will not forgive you, even if you claim the blood of Jesus. A lot of people have gone to hell claiming the blood of Jesus because they didn't forgive somebody. So remember, God accepts us on the basis of faith in our hearts. If he accepts you, he'll accept your offering. And he accepts us on the basis of faith in our hearts. It's faith that God looks for, a trust. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust in him and you shall be saved. It's trust, not just emptily presenting an offering. And that is so important. And there's something else I want you to see here. That the man of faith, here's a manifestation of what faith really is and an example of what true faith brings. Notice a difference here in Genesis 4. The reason why Abel brought a lamb was because that was his job. He brought the lamb because he was looking at keeper of the flocks. And Cain didn't keep flocks, so he didn't have any lambs to bring. He tilled the ground, so he brought from the fruit of his ground. And that was perfectly okay. In fact, even in the book of Leviticus, you read that people could bring a grain offering to God in which there was no blood and God accepted it. So that was okay. But you see a difference here. Where do we see faith in Abel? Notice, Abel brought the firstlings of his flock, the very best of his flock. He looked around his flock and he said, I'll take the best and give it to God. Cain, it says here, brought an offering. Verse 3. You notice the difference? Cain brought an offering. He just went into the field and say, okay, I'll just pick up something from here. But Abel brought the very best. And that is how you know whether you have faith in your heart or not when you come to God. If you come to God and you bring the very best in your life, the very best of everything you have, then you have faith in your heart. That's what Abel did. Cain just went casually and picked up something, an offering. And all of us may be giving offerings to God, but there's a difference. There's that Cain and Abel division line even in our midst. Some of you are bringing an offering to God. Some of you are bringing the very best you have. And there's the dividing line. It's an invisible dividing line you find in every church, including this one. Those who give their very best to God and those who give an offering to God, those who give the very best of their energy, their life, their time, their money, their everything, the very best to God and those who give an offering to God. So today you know whether you're following Cain or whether you're following Abel. Don't forget it. Don't ever forget it. That's the mark of faith. The man of faith always gives the very best. You know I've had people write to me that I'm retired from government service now and I'd like to join your organization. They spent the best of their life living for the world and now they want to make money joining some Christian organization. There's multitudes of people like that. It's like giving the dregs to God. You invite somebody for a cup of tea, drink your cup and then give him the dregs. That's exactly how some people are treating God and that's why their lives are so shallow. They never get victory over sin. They never read the Bible. They never get any revelation on the Bible. They wonder why. How is it other people are getting revelation? They're giving their best. That's the difference. You can make that choice today. Say Lord from today I'm going to give my best. It's your choice. Okay the second lesson is this in verses five and six. Beware of anger and jealousy. It's one of the first, it's the first sin that you read of in the garden of, I mean after being, man was put out of the garden of Eden. Anger and jealousy which led to hatred, murder and so many other things. We think of anger as not something very serious but notice here the very first sin mentioned outside the garden of Eden. The very first sin is verse five last part. Cain became very angry and his face changed and that's true. When a person is angry you can see it on the face. When a person is upset with you you can see it on the face even if they manage to produce a weak smile. You know they are upset and you see that in the very first man that was born into the world, that is Cain. He was angry and this mark was on his face and when it was there the Lord said to him why are you angry? We saw that in our study of Genesis 3. God says where are you? Here's another question. Why are you angry? You like to hear God say where are you? What about when God comes to you and says why are you angry? Do you ever hear God asking you that question? Why are you angry? You're hurt about something. You're hurt because I bless somebody else more than you. You're angry with God. You're angry with your brother. There's a lot of that in Christendom. Maybe somebody else was given some preference in the church which is not given to you and you get angry with the elders. Could be anything. There could be so many reasons and the Lord if you can hear that voice saying why are you angry you can be saved. But if you shut that voice out and say keep quiet. You say to God keep quiet. I don't want to hear it. Then you continue to get angry and that's why I believe some of you haven't got victory over anger even after 25 years. 25 years after being born again still learning ABC, sitting in the kindergarten. Haven't got victory over anger because the first time you got angry you never heard God speak to you and saying why are you angry? The second time you got angry you never heard God saying that to you. The 10,000th time you got angry you still never heard God saying to you why are you angry? Well I'll tell you something. After a while God may just stop speaking to you and go your way and he probably has said that to some of you. That's why you never hear that voice anymore. Why are you angry? Do you hear it? Do you hear God speaking to you in your conscience? Why are you angry? I remember the days I was a slave to anger even after I got married. But I never took it seriously. I thank God I did finally and I heard God's voice. Why are you angry? And I could see I was hurt. It was me. I hadn't died. I was not willing to die with Jesus and be crucified. That's why I was angry. Jesus was never angry. They would call him Beelzebul, prince of devils. He didn't take them to court for calling him prince of devils. They crucified him, killed him, spat on him. He got angry when people made money in the name of religion. Sure that concerned the glory of God and I want to get angry all my life when I see people making money in the name of Jesus Christ, swindling poor people and calling themselves preachers. Jesus turned the money changers out of the temple but when it concerned himself he was never angry. That's the meaning of be angry and don't sin. Be angry when it concerns the glory of God but not when it concerns yourself. So anger is the first sin that God wants us about here and he was jealous. It's sort of coupled you know. Very often anger is coupled with jealousy. You're jealous that God has given somebody else more than you. I think those three preachers who came to preach to Job, Halifa, Zophar and Bildad were jealous of Job because he was a spiritual man. He had 10 God-fearing children and he was rich. I mean if he was poor living in a hut okay they'd have been happy but when a spiritual man is rich they get upset. They're jealous. Why is he rich and spiritual? Why are his children following the Lord? And they were so happy when Job got sick and when his children had died and lost all his money they pretended that they sympathized with him. They were jealous. Be careful. Is jealousy that destroyed Saul when he saw David a younger brother rising? Let me ask you older brothers how do you react to young brothers coming up who are gifted with the word and can speak far better than you and are anointed? Do you rejoice and say Lord that's wonderful? If you're not then you're really not functioning as the body of Christ. See in the body no part is jealous of another. The right hand can do certain things better than the left hand and left hand is not jealous at all not even for a second. That shows we are part of the body subject to the head. When you're jealous of some other member of the body and particularly somebody younger than you it proves you're not really part of the body. You think you are. You better wake up and what we see here is that religious people can be very evil. Remember Cain was a religious man. He wasn't an idol worshiper. He wasn't an atheist. He didn't go and offer to some other God. He offered to Jehovah the true God but his heart was full of anger and jealousy and evil. You can call yourself a Christian and your heart can be full of anger and jealousy. It's the heart that God looks at. So there's something that we can learn. Lesson number three chapter four verse seven. Sin is closer to us than we think. Sin is closer to us than we think. That's what the Lord told Cain. He says here sin in the middle of that verse seven. Sin is crouching at your door Cain. It's crouching at your door. You've got a wrong attitude in your heart and something worse is crouching at your door. I mean if you knew when you looked out of the window that the fierce tiger or lion is crouching outside your front door. I think you'd be a little careful opening that door because once that lion puts its foot into the door you're not going to escape. How many of us really believe that sin is crouching. Crouching is a word in the English language used always for wild animals. You don't say a dog is crouching at the door. It's a lion is crouching or a tiger is crouching at the door. It's a wild animal who's determined to tear you to pieces. If we can recognize that sin is not far away. It's not one mile down the street. It's not even 10 yards away. It's not even one yard away. It's crouching at your door all the time. Not just anger. There'll be so many things. It could be sexual lust. It could be so many things. If you can recognize that sin is crouching at your door you would be constantly alert. I mean if you really knew a fierce lion is just sitting outside your door you'd be extremely careful all the time it's there until it's gone. You try every means to get rid of it. I want to say to you my brothers and sisters that as long as we live in this earth sin is crouching at the door of our hearts. That's why we sin so easily. People wonder how is it I sin so easily? How is it I had a wonderful time of praise and worship and listened to a powerful message on Sunday morning and then I went home and suddenly I sinned. I'll tell you why because you never realize that sin is crouching at the door of your heart. It doesn't matter which meeting you go to. It doesn't matter how many hours you spend worshiping God. Sin is crouching right outside the door. That's why we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and constantly look at Jesus our example. That's the only way we can keep that door shut and drive sin away and conquer it like Samson tore the lion to pieces. The power of the Spirit we can tear that lion to pieces. But recognize it's closer to you than you think and if you recognize that you can be saved from sin. Number four. Genesis 4 7. God wants us to to be overcomers. God wants us to be overcomers. Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you but you must master it. What a word. You must overcome sin is way back in Genesis 4. It's not in Romans 6. It's in Genesis 4. You must master sin. God's desire for man. Why is it more Christians are not preaching that? Why is it more preachers are not preaching that you must conquer sin even after Jesus has come and the Holy Spirit has come. A message that is found way back in Genesis 4. Not you should try and master it. I mean if it was something which was too tough for God to help us to overcome then we'd say try. You know like some difficult situations you go to somebody to help you and you say well I'll try to help you. I'm not sure whether I can. You know supposing you have some problem and you go to some official and say can you help me with this problem? He'd say well I'm not so sure. I'll try to help you. It's a tough problem. Some you go to some doctor and you have some disease and the doctor says well I'll try and heal you but I'm not so sure whether I can. You think God says that about sin in your life? Yeah that's a tough sin. I'm not so sure whether I can help you overcome it but maybe I'll try. No. Which sin is stronger than God? You must master it. You must overcome. There are no two ways about it. I wish we would understand there are no two ways about it. You must conquer it and can God say that to Cain if it was not possible? Now God didn't ask Cain to overcome lusting with the eyes or dirty thoughts because that would have been impossible under the old covenant. Until the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within it is impossible for any man to overcome dirty thoughts and sexual lust in his heart. No. Impossible. And if you're still not defeated still defeated by it maybe you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit in your heart and live in the fullness of the Spirit. God didn't ask Cain to overcome those things inward sins and coveting and desiring in your heart because he knew nobody could do that. What he told him to conquer was this anger against his brother, this jealousy against his brother. That was possible even without the Holy Spirit dwelling within. Otherwise how in the world could God tell Cain? You must master it. Imagine God telling a man who did not have the Holy Spirit you can conquer anger even without the Holy Spirit. This attitude, the external application of it. I mean you may still not be able to conquer it within but this thing, this attitude towards your brother. That's why God gave the commandments in the Old Testament to people who did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. They could conquer murder. They could conquer adultery. They could conquer idol worship and many of them did. How many, how many millions of non-Christians have never committed adultery, never committed murder, are very honest and don't steal. So there are external sins that can be conquered even without the power of the Holy Spirit. When it comes to inward sin, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That could be possible only after the day of Pentecost where God gives us grace within. But the principle remains the same. You must master sin. So don't ever forget that God wants us to be overcomers. Number five, the fifth message we get here is in chapter 4 verse 9, the Lord said to Cain, where is your brother? Next question. We are responsible for our brothers and sisters. That's the fifth lesson we need to learn. We are responsible for our brothers and sisters. Where is your brother? You know it's just like if one part of the body is injured. Say accidentally I got an injury in my left hand. My right hand doesn't say, oh that's not my hand, I'm not bothered. I mean your hand may say that because it's not part of my body, but my hand never says that. My hand immediately says, hey that's a part of me, I got to fix it. That's how we discover whether we are in the body or not. If one member suffers, we all suffer with it. If one member rejoices, all rejoice. If one member is honored, all rejoice. It's very easy to find out whether we are integrated with the body of Christ. When a member is honored, if you are jealous, that's the proof you don't really belong to that body. If you rejoice, you're part of that body. I mean take a football match. Now here's you know most of the goals in football are scored by the forward line. Those five people who stand up in front who are called the forwards, they go and score the goals. Here's a person playing at the back or a goalkeeper, they never score a goal in their whole life. But how is it they're so happy when some center forward scores a goal? Because they say it's our team, so what if I didn't score it? But who's the one who's not happy? Somebody on the other team. And when you're not happy that somebody, not you, but somebody else did a wonderful thing for the Lord or preached a wonderful message or is very gifted and you're not happy, it proves you're on the other team. You're not on the same team, that's why you're not happy. Or you're a spy or it's a match-fixing case where you are really pretending to be on the same team. I tell you it's like that, the devil fixes a lot of matches. Why is it you're jealous when something good has happened for the kingdom of God but it didn't happen through you? Why are you jealous when a younger brother is mightily anointed by God and says does something and he came to the church three years ago whereas you came 20 years ago and you're just sitting there wasting your time like a useless brother and that brother has come forward and is anointed. Why are you jealous? Why aren't you rejoicing? Hey it's our team that won, that scored the goal. Because you're not on the same team. We are responsible for our brothers. Where is your brother? If your brother is hurt, are you concerned? See that's why God puts us in small churches. You know in a mega church with thousands of people sitting there, you don't even know if your brother is hurt. You don't even know if something has happened to that person. That's why God puts us in small churches where we are committed to one another and we know what's going on with our brothers. I don't mean everybody who attends the church. I don't believe that everybody who attends CFC is really committed. You can see that pretty clearly by the amount of responsibility they take. So well then I don't bother about such people either. I mean they come and sit here and break bread but I don't think they're committed to the church. I mean over a period of time you can discover who is committed to the church, who has a concern, who is burdened. And those are the only people I feel any responsibility for. So we are responsible for such brothers. And Cain says, am I my brother's keeper? Yes you are. I mean it's not that every single, all the millions of brothers in the world, but a few ones. God was not asking Cain about someone he didn't know but his own brother there was closely connected to. Those we are closely connected to, we have a responsibility. We can't wash our hands and say well it's none of my business. It's like the story of the Good Samaritan. You know that man lying down there was an Israelite and so therefore he was a brother of the Levite who walked by. The Levite saw his brother lying down there, didn't do anything. The priest was also a son of Abraham and that was the son of Abraham who was beaten up there. He didn't do anything. Then a Samaritan came who was not a son of Abraham. Samaritans came from Assyria and all. He went and helped. That's the point of that story. People didn't help their own brothers so somebody else helped. That's the story of rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus was his own brother. Both were sons of Abraham but he didn't care. So that's the fifth lesson. We're responsible for our brothers. Number six. We read in chapter four in verse 10. The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. We will have to give an account to God for everything. We will have to give an account to God for everything that we have done. It may take time but one day there is no escaping the fact that even the things done in secret no man saw can kill Abel. And maybe no man saw that sin which you committed somewhere in some dark corner many years ago and because it's happened many years ago and nobody knows about it you think it's all conveniently covered up and forgotten. No it isn't. One day God will say I saw it and you have to answer for it. We have to give to God an account and that is why we need to be absolutely honest with God and be broken and confess our sin especially those sins that nobody knows which you committed in secret maybe many years ago which your husband doesn't know your wife doesn't know. Go before God and repent of it and if you have hurt some other human being go and ask that person's forgiveness. Settle all accounts before Christ comes again. I tell you it's far better to settle it here than to have to settle it at the judgment seat of Christ. Everything that is not settled on this earth you will have to settle one day when you stand before God. There's no escaping that and if you recognize that we shall be very quick. See I don't want to stand before the Lord and the Lord brings up some sin of mine and I say hey Lord I forgot that. Well the Lord said why did you forget it because every time I brought it to your mind you just cast it off. I brought it to your mind a hundred times you cast it off gradually you forgot it. That's how we forget it. You can't commit a sin that disturbs your conscience and say you forgot it unless you kept on no no no no I won't remember that I won't remember that after some time you'll forget it. Yeah what your conscience disturbs you about I'm not saying that we should rack our mind and dig up all the dirt and mud and try to discover what we did in the past. Ask the Lord to show you the things that you have not settled with God and with man and settle it now so that you don't have to face those things when Christ comes again. I many times told the Lord I said Lord if there's anything which I have need to settle some money I owe to somebody maybe even to the government I don't want it to be in my account I want it to go to the government. I probably mentioned this once I was many years ago I prayed this prayer I said Lord I don't want to have one rupee in my account which doesn't belong to me and if there is something I accidentally I've cheated the government or something I want you to somehow or the other make sure the money goes to the government from my account maybe in some way so that so that ultimately when I stand before you my conscience is clear. So one day I was making a long distance phone call with my landline and when I finished the call and I put the phone down it didn't turn off it was still on and I said hey those are the days when we had to pay 60 rupees per minute for a phone call those are those days more than 20 years ago. I didn't know what to do and I didn't have another phone there were no cell phones there's no way to call the telephone exchange and say hey your thing has not tripped and the call is still on and I'm paying. I had to go somewhere else to somebody else's house and make a phone call to the exchange to get that thing done and I don't know how many minutes passed by that time but it did cost quite a bit of money and I felt ah maybe I owed the government some money which I didn't know and God has settled the account through the telephone department which in some countries doesn't go to the government in India it does thankfully. So I was very thankful I came back and praised the Lord. Are you really serious about being wanting to have your conscience absolutely clear for God and men? Okay number seven we read here in chapter 4 verse 11 you are cursed what a word when God looks at a man and says you're cursed he never said that to Adam so that's the seventh lesson sin committed against another sin against another is more serious than sins that harm only yourself sins that harm another are more serious than sins that harm only yourself please remember that sins that harm another are more serious than sins that harm only yourself when Adam sinned he harmed himself that's all when Cain sinned he harmed another Abel and so Adam was not cursed when God told met Adam he said the ground is cursed Genesis 3 17 but when God met Cain he said you are cursed you see the difference between saying the ground is cursed your work is cursed and you are cursed why the difference I call them Genesis 3 type of sins and Genesis 4 type of sins Genesis 3 type of sins are those which I harm myself I take drugs or get drunk I harm myself but you gossip and speak evil about somebody you've harmed another how many of you really believe that gossiping is worse than taking drugs I don't think there are many Christians who believe that how many of you believe that gossiping is worse than getting drunk or smoking cigarettes supposing you saw a brother smoking smoking 10 cigarettes a day and here's another person who just gossips once a day how many of you really believe that person is worse than this cigarette smoker I don't think many Christians believe that but yet that cigarette smoker has only harmed himself the gossiper has harmed somebody else one is a Genesis 3 sin where he hurt himself another is a Genesis 4 sin where you hurt another person do you speak against others at home evil to harm others try to tear people down and their reputation it's worse than getting drunk it's worse than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day it's worse than taking cocaine and marijuana and opium I don't know whether you believe it it's there in the first chapters of the bible that sins that harm another are more serious in God's eyes than sins that harm only yourself we need to have a proper understanding of sin there's a human understanding of sin and the so-called Christian's understanding of sin taking drugs is worse than gossiping but God's opinion is very different if you want to know what sin is you better get God's opinion I mean if you want to harm yourself go ahead and harm yourself as much as you like think of the Gadarene demoniac there was that demon possessed person in Gadara who had thousands of demons in him he used to take stones and cut himself he didn't hurt anybody else he was not as bad as the gossiper you'd think he was worse right no he only hurt himself you take a stone or a knife and hurt another person with your tongue or in some other way you spread a story about someone and afterwards you discover it's not true but it's too late to rectify it because what you've said has already spread many places that's why it says guard your tongue from evil you won't have any regrets when you stand before the lord you won't be cursed take it seriously if you're determined to sin, sin hurting yourself but don't hurt other people when you hurt other people God takes it seriously that's why it says if you hurt another person God will not accept your offering we saw that earlier go and set it right with that person otherwise God will not accept your offering there are so many husbands and wives who hurt one another with hard words angry words and they don't even apologize to one another there are people who hurt others in the church and don't even apologize maybe you think it's beneath your dignity because that person is on a lower social level than you shame on you which religion are you following the caste system who is there who's if you hurt a beggar on the street by your words you must go and apologize to that beggar say i'm sorry for speaking like that forgive me do you believe in the equality of all human beings are you a christian it's very very serious to hurt another person number eight chapter 4 verse 12 we will reap what we sow when you cultivate the ground it will not yield its strength to you you'll be a homeless wanderer on the earth yeah that's what happened to Cain and he got only himself to blame he murdered his brother and he thought he could get away with it because nobody saw it a lot of christians think that they can get away with sins because nobody saw it it doesn't matter if nobody saw it God saw it and the things which nobody saw you will still reap what you saw i mean a person can go secretly and commit adultery with a prostitute and get aids so what if nobody saw it he still got aids so just the fact that you commit sin in secret doesn't mean that you're going to escape reaping supposing him a farmer in the middle of the night when nobody's watching goes and sows bad seed in his own field he's going to get a bad crop he can't nobody saw me sowing that it doesn't matter no farmer is so foolish only christians are foolish they think that if they did something in secret well nothing will happen you will reap brother you sowed something you'll reap it and the farmer knows if i put one seed a hundred grains will come out of that what you sow may be little but the reaping will be abundant you're going to be homeless and a wanderer on the earth and i have seen that with many christians who never get established in a church they never get committed to a church they never become part of a body they are wanderers i think there are people coming here like that they are here and they are somewhere else they go tasting sermons they're here they're there they're wanderers they're not part of anybody they're not committed to anything because you have to pay a price to be committed they don't want that and that's part of god's curse when people are wanderers no church is good enough for them because they are so perfect at least they imagine they are they go from here and there to the other we've had people like that in the early days who came here wonderful brothers young brothers zealous and then ultimately they thought they were so spiritual they could only fellowship with me nobody else they were others were all beneath their level and after some time i knew what would happen after some time even i would be beneath this level and he couldn't even fellowship with me he left the church and i told somebody i know what will happen to these people either he'll fall into adultery or he'll go after money anyway he went only after money and went away we've seen people like that wanderers and all these years as far as i know they're all still wanderers we remember a number of young brothers who were with us in the early days wanderers today here and there going here and there never part of anybody that's part of reaping what we sow pride which makes us think we are somebody no church is good enough for us i can only fellowship with great men of god i can't fellowship with ordinary believers you'll be a wanderer i'll tell you that i can tell you that the bible says in 1 corinthians 12 that jesus says have you read that verse the head does not say to the feet i don't need you that's in 1 corinthians 12 the head jesus christ does not say to the lowest member in the body who's not gifted who's not a great preacher who's not very cultured i need you do you feel that way think of jesus going to peter james and john say brothers please pray with me i'm going through a struggle when was the last time you go to a brother younger than you say pray with me oh you think only the great men of god you're such a holy person you can only pray with great men and women of god that's why your life is so shallow that's why you're a wanderer wanderer wandering wandering wandering cain was like that it's a reaping of what you've sown pride produces that type of thing number nine vengeance belongs to god alone you know when cain said my punishment is too great verse 15 cain said oh lord spare me and see how kind god was even to cain he said being he said in verse 14 people who see me will kill me because you put a mark on my forehead and the lord said if anybody kills cain i will take vengeance on him sevenfold the lord appointed a sign so that no one finding it would slay him even on evil people vengeance belongs to god i'm not here to take revenge on evil people i'm not talking about the police or the judges god has given them authority to judge and punish evil people i'm not talking about them supposing a man is very evil towards me it's not my business vengeance belongs to god alone even against evil people you know there's a verse like that in romans chapter 12 where the the bible says romans chapter 12 verse 19 never take your own revenge beloved never never means never never take your own revenge but leave room for the wrath of god for it is written vengeance is mine i will repay but then what should i do to my enemy verse 20 if your enemy is hungry feed him if he's thirsty give him a drink and thus you will heap burning coals of love the fire of love on his head and maybe he'll repent so don't be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good you know the devil tells us the only way to overcome evil is with more evil do you believe it that fellow's been evil to you the only way to overcome is by more evil god says the way to overcome it is by doing good who do you believe the devil or god god says overcome evil with good the devil says overcome evil with more evil do you know the number of christians who try to overcome evil with more evil vengeance belongs to god alone leave it to god you know the apostle paul once said in 2nd timothy 4 about somebody who had done him a lot of harm you know in his ministry he says in verse 14 2nd timothy 4 14 2nd timothy 4 14 alexander the coppersmith did me much harm but i'm not going to do anything to him the lord will repay him according to his deeds some people have asked me this question was it right for paul to say the lord will repay him you know some people try to be more spiritual than christ and more spiritual than paul i said what should have god what should paul say when god says vengeance is mine i will repay say no no no lord don't do it don't repay no he has said i will repay i'm not going to fight with god's word god's word says vengeance is mine i will repay i say lord go ahead but i'm not going to take vengeance i'll forgive him i love him i'll give him food if he's hungry i'll give him water if he's thirsty but god will still take vengeance on him when jesus said father forgive them when he was hanging on the cross but they know not what they do as far as he was concerned he forgave them but in the day of judgment those fellows who crucified christ will be punished very severely because vengeance belongs to god i know times when i face um somebody has hurt me i mean tried to harm me in some way and the lord said you want me to deal with him or you want to deal with him i said lord you deal with him i'm not interested and he does vengeance belongs to god don't ever take your own revenge then the 10th lesson is our children will follow our example see what happened to cain's children one of his descendants is a man called lamech descendants of cain lamech said to his wives in verse 23 hada and zillai first of all he married two wives he sees see what happens when parents go away from god children go astray this guy married two wives ada and zilla and you read that in verse 19 he took two wives in verse 23 he tells them listen there's something more that i want to tell you i killed a man verse 23 he hit me and i decided to kill him and i also killed a boy for striking me if cain is avenged sevenfold lamech will be a 77 fold he's got big hopes that god's going to defend him when he goes and kills somebody this is this is how did he turn out like that because his father was cain his ancestor was cain our children and our grandchildren are affected by our example and look at this look at another of those descendants of cain uh verse adagibba to jabal verse 21 his brother's name was jubal he was the father of all those who play the lyre and the pipe rock music started over there yeah children who are indisciplined whose parents don't have the fear of god they've turned out pretty bad and if you wonder why your children are going astray ask yourself have you feared god you lived in reverence have you spoken evil of others have you been angry with people are you walking in humility and brokenness do you confess your own sins you live in constant brokenness before god you think highly of yourself well your children follow your example one last thing in the same connection is see eve she had two children we read when she got the first child chapter 4 verse 1 the real meaning of that is genesis 4 1 eve said i've created a man with god's help and it looked like that because she produced this is the first baby born she's absolutely amazing that she thought hey i can produce a man can you believe it even adam can't but i can do it i produced a man she was proud of it and cain got her pride i produced a man of course with a little help from god that's how a lot of people say i did this of course with god's help i did this with god's help but when she got a second son verse 25 she named him set which means granted by god oh how she changed after she had seen her first son whom she thought she had created become a murderer she changed a little so i got a son i'll call her call him granted it's god's gift not my accomplishment do you glory in your accomplishments do you boast in your accomplishments watch out what your children are going to be do you boast about your children's accomplishments watch out always say granted god gave it god gave that to me god gave that to my children it's not anything we can boast about then verse 26 through the descendants of seth see men began to call upon the name of the lord so there's a good and bad example there our children follow our example so there's a lot we can learn from genesis chapter 4 let me repeat those lessons for your benefit once again number one god accepts us on the basis of faith in our hearts to beware of anger and jealousy free sin is closer to us than we think for god wants us to be overcomers five we are responsible for our brothers number six we love to give an account to god one day for everything number seven sin against another is more serious than sins that harm yourself alone eight we reap what we sow nine vengeance belongs to god alone and number 10 our children will follow our example let's pray there are probably many things god has spoken to you today dear brothers and sisters there's one solution to everything humility and honesty they go together humble yourself and be honest with god humble yourself and be honest with god heavenly father help us we pray to humble ourselves before you to see ourselves not as we see ourselves or as others see us but as you see us and help us to walk in reverent fear of you all our days pray in jesus name amen