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The
Sixth Sunday after Trinity.
The
Collect.
O
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GOD,
who hast prepared for those who love thee such good things as pass man’s
understanding; Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee
above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A
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nd
Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have
gotten a man from the LORD. 2 And she again bare his
brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the
ground. 3 And in process of time it came to pass, that
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. 4 And
Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.
And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: 5 But
unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and
his countenance fell. 6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why
art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7 If
thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin
lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over
him. 8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came
to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his
brother, and slew him.
9 And
the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am
I my brother's keeper? 10 And he said, What hast thou
done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. 11 And
now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy
brother's blood from thy hand; 12 When thou tillest the
ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a
vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. 13 And Cain said
unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold,
thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face
shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it
shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. 15 And
the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be
taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him
should kill him. 16 And Cain went out from the presence
of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. (Genesis 4:1-16)
This is an account which hails back to the dawn of time and the beginning
of the generations of the human race. It is taken from a Book of the Bible
called ‘Genesis’, and appropriately so for genesis is a word meaning origin or
beginning.
When the name of Cain is uttered, and seldom is it uttered, what thoughts
are evoked by its mention?
No
thoughts of virtue or loveliness, but thoughts of murderous treachery. Cain was
a treacherous murderer of the worst kind. He murdered his own brother and he
did so over jealous outrage of a religious nature. Some of our most destructive
wars have had false religion as their cause.
When
a young high school scholar, one of my favorite poems was one by Alfred Lord
Tennyson entitled “Charge of the Light Brigade”. The poem was based on a true
account of a meaningless but courageous charge of Britain’s best Brigade during
the Crimean War.
The order to charge was recklessly given by Lord Cardigan without full
knowledge of battlefield intelligence. But the Light Brigade responded to the
order without question – a trait that would become us as Christians in
obedience to God.
Here are the first three verses from that
poem:
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
" Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Cardigan was no man of divine perfection. He was a manmade lord and not the
Lord of Heaven and earth. Yet, the Light Brigade responded precisely as they
should have. It is not the soldier’s duty to question why, in the heat of
battle, but rather to obey immediately. It is a sad sequel to history that only
56 of these brave six hundred survived the charge.
The War in which this event occurred was the Crimean War – one of the
most bloody of contest since the battles of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane. The war
occurred between the western European Powers and Russia from 1853 to 1856. The
results, after needless loss of many lives, was a token victory for the Western
Powers ceding the Holy Land to the Roman Church for oversight.
What was the spark that ignited the fervor of war?
Hostilities had been building in the Holy Land over the oversight of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre. At the time, the Eastern Orthodox Church had
oversight of the building and grounds.
A leak developed in the roof of the structure and water was threatening
to damage the interior of the structure. The Roman Catholic church made known
their intentions to make repairs to the roof which would require a thin sheet
of copper about the size of a common page of notebook paper. The Orthodox
Church refused to allow it since they feared the process would allow Rome to lay
claim to the Holy Sepulchre. Rance intereceded on behalf of Rome. Russian
dispatched an Army Division to the Danube to prevent France and Rome from
gaining the right to repair the roof.
Great Britain was allied with France. Hostilities broke out resulting in
many useless deaths. The only good that came of the war was the services of the
angelic Florence Nightingale in treating the wounded of both sides on the
battlefield.
Why would I relate such historical facts of war in a sermon?
I
tell you this story so you can better understand the full impact of Cain’s evil
intentions and motives. Nothing has changed in the heart of fallen man since
the beginning. Selfishness and jealousy are at the heart of personal, as well
as national, warfare.
When Eve conceived her first son, Cain (possession), she considered this
to be the man who would redeem the sins of his parents as promised in Genesis
3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her Seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His
heel."
The seed of Satan, whose head would be crushed by her seed seemed to be
fulfilled to Eve in her firstborn. “I have gotten a man from the LORD”
When Abel was born a few minutes later, there was no particular or
gratified response from Eve other than to call him Abel (or breath). Just a
breath, whereas Cain was a POSSESSION! But Abel had received the ‘breath of
life’ and Cain was of a different nature.
Abel was a Godly son and a prophet of the Lord. Christ makes reference to
this fact in Matthew 23: 34 Wherefore, behold, I
send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall
kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and
persecute them from city to city: 35 That upon you may
come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous
Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the
temple and the altar.
2……And
Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 And
in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the
ground an offering unto the LORD. 4 And Abel, he also
brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had
respect unto Abel and to his offering: 5 But unto Cain and
to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his
countenance fell.
Why would Cain’s offering not be accepted. He did offer it with a good
heart….didn’t he? No! He did not! He knew that a Lamb had to die to make a
covering of his parents’ nakedness – Gen 3: 21 Unto
Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed
them.
A sacrifice represents an offering to cover our sins and weaknesses, but
Cain’s was totally unacceptable and he knew it.
We read in Hebrews, Chapter 9: 19 For when
Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took
the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and
sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 20 Saying,
This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. 21 Moreover
he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the
ministry. 22 And almost all things are by the law purged
with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Furthermore, the source of Cain’s offering was a cursed source: Gen 3:
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened
unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded
thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: CURSED IS THE GROUND for thy sake; in
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns
also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
So, please, do not mimic modern preachers and excuse Cain for his
goodwill. He had none. His self-righteousness was evidenced by his not feeling
a need to make a worthy sacrifice for sin. He is much like most modern
Christians of today.
So out of jealousy, Cain murdered his brother – his only brother.
I witnessed a few years ago a famous evangelist and false prophet, saying
that he would kill all those who objected to his brand of false preaching by
mowing them down with a machine gun. See how false religion and false motives
can incite us to evil? After being called on the subject, he claimed that he
meant a Holy Ghost machine gun; but biblical evidence does not suggest that
there is any such weapon of the Holy Ghost!
The blood of Abel cried to the Lord from the ground. When our bodies die,
we still exist…the part that makes us who we are … our souls, our spirits. This
part is indestructible for it is the essence of US. And this part of us will
live forever, either in the bliss of Heaven, or in the eternal fires of Hell. “Then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto
God who gave it.” Eccl 12:7 (KJV)
What makes you different from Cain?
Do you offer to God a proper sacrifice of mere possessions? Or do you
claim the blood of His Son, Jesus, as HIS redeeming offering. The blood of
goats or lambs will not avail. They were mere foreshadows of the guiltless
sacrifice to come.
Heb 9:11 ¶ But Christ, having come a High Priest of
good things to come, by a greater and
more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands (that is to say, not of this
building), 12 neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if
sprinkling the unclean with the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a
heifer sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who 14through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to
God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Our pitiful claims to live for God are revealed as wretched rags and
odorous garments by the evidence of the fruit of our works. If we love God and
His Creation, we will obey Him and listen to His Voice. And when we fail and
sin, we must confess and repent. We must claim the blood of the innocent Lamb
shed from before the foundations of the world as our sacrifice, not the mere
works of our hands. Regardless the good we do for others, without the Love of
Christ, it is a perishable and stinking ointment. Only His righteousness will
avail in the dark and cloudy day. Here is hope from the words of the prophet: “For
thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek
them out. 12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the
day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep,
and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the
cloudy and dark day.” Ezekiel 34:11-12
If you know not the voice of the Shepherd when He calls, how will He find
you? Will he, too, recognize your prayer of bleating?
Study to make your salvation sure. Amen!
