“God’s Merciful Protection Overrides Our Sinful Digression”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord. [Amen.]
“Glory be to Jesus, Who in bitter pains
Poured for me the lifeblood From His sacred veins!
“Grace and life eternal In that blood I find;
Blest be His compassion, Infinitely kind!
“Abel’s blood for vengeance Pleaded to the skies;
But the blood of Jesus For our pardon cries.
“Lift we, then, our voices, Swell the mighty flood;
Louder still and louder Praise the precious blood!”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
433:1, 2, 4, 6)
Old
Testament..........................................................................
Genesis 4:1-15 (esp. 13-15)
13Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.
14Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face
I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and
whoever finds me will kill me.” 15Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If
anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord
put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
Prologue: Today’s sermon text begs us to review The Fifth
Commandment according to our Lutheran way of numbering the Commandments.
So, please turn to page 321 in the Lutheran Service Book hymnal, … page 321.
There you’ll find The Fifth Commandment at the top of the right column. Let’s
read it and the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther’s explanation of it together.
“The Fifth Commandment: You shall not murder. What does this
mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our
neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need.”
(Lutheran Service Book. Page 321.) Now we older people who grew up with
the 1943 version of our Synod Catechism learned that commandment as “Thou
shalt not kill.” (A Short Explanation of Dr. Martin Luther’s Small
Catechism: A Handbook of Christian Doctrine. Copyright © 1943 Concordia
Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Pages 6 & 67.) No matter which way we
know it, its topic is “God’s Gift of Life.” (Luther’s Small Catechism with
Explanation. Copyright © 1986 & 1991, Concordia Publishing House, St.
Louis, MO. Page 77.)
The instruction that it gives us is that “A. God forbids us to
take the life of another person (murder, abortion, euthanasia) or our own
life (suicide). B. God forbids us to hurt or harm our neighbor physically,
that is, to do or say anything that may destroy, shorten, or make his or her
life bitter. [And] C. God forbids us to keep anger and hatred in our hearts
against our neighbor.”
However, “… lawful government, as God’s servant, may execute
criminals and fight just wars.” In addition, “A. We should help and support
our neighbor in every bodily need. B. We should be merciful, kind, and
forgiving towards our neighbor. [And] C. We should avoid and assist our
neighbor in avoiding the abuse of drugs [and alcohol] and the use of any
substance that harms the body and the mind.” (Ibid. Pages 77-81.)
A couple side comments are in order at this point. First,
remember that our neighbor is anyone and everyone with whom we come into
contact. And, second, this commandment prohibits the contemporary social
problem of “bullying.”
Okay, let’s get into today’s sermon text. The incident between
the brothers Cain and Abel did not happen instantly. It evolved over a
period of time during which they offered sacrifices to God; God accepted
Abel’s sacrifice because he offered the best of what God had given him; God
rejected Cain’s sacrifice because he did not offer the best of what God had
given him (need I say anything about that “firstfruits principle” for us
today?); Cain became envious and jealous that God rejected his sacrifice and
accepted Abel’s; and that envy and jealousy led to hatred that motivated
Cain to murder his brother Abel.
When God confronted him Cain denied responsibility for his brother’s
welfare; God imposed a very harsh punishment upon him; Cain complained about
his personal safety; and God promised him divine security. That divine
security was a visible mark of some kind (perhaps a cross?) that identified
him as God’s possession and thereby sheltered him from being assaulted by
someone who might have wanted to seek revenge for him having murdered his
brother. While that may not seem fair to our human way of thinking,
nevertheless, it serves to assure us that …
“God’s Merciful Protection Overrides Our Sinful Digression.”
Now, before we self-righteously presume that we would never do
such a hideous thing, let’s realize that …
I. Sin Is Always Crouching At Our Door . (1-7)
1Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I
have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” 2And again, she bore his
brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the
ground. 3In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the
fruit of the ground, 4and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock
and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his
offering, 5but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very
angry, and his face fell. 6The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and
why has your face fallen? 7If you do well, will you not be accepted? And
if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you,
but you must rule over it.”
In the course of praying The Lord’s Prayer we say, “And lead us
not into temptation. But deliver us from evil.” With those words “We
pray … that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and
our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief,
despair, and other great shame and vice. [And] Although we are attacked by
these things, we pray that we may finally overcome them and win the
victory.” In addition, “We pray … that our Father in heaven would rescue
us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and
finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously
take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.” (Ibid. Pages
21f., 195f., & 198.)
Sin certainly crouches at our door with a seemingly overwhelming
desire for us … a never-ending effort to seduce us into disobeying God
either by doing what He has told us don’t do or by neglecting to do what He
has told us to do. Today’s world in which we live makes it increasingly
difficult to know the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong, and
even more difficult to resist the infinite number of temptations to do what’s
wrong. Our American culture and society have become so desensitized to sin
that not only do most wrong things no longer embarrass us but we find
ourselves approving and encouraging them either implicitly or explicitly.
That is, we approve them by refusing to confront them on the one hand and,
on the other hand, by condoning them and even participating in them
ourselves.
As we do so, even as happened with Cain, we often discover the
stark reality that …
II. Sin Results In Unpleasant
Consequences. (8-12)
8Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose
up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9Then the Lord said to Cain,
“Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s
keeper?” 10And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your
brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. 11And now you are cursed
from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood
from your hand. 12When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you
its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
Adam and Eve, Cain, Isaac, Jacob, King David, and untold others in
the pages of Biblical history suffered that reality that touches the lives
of both guilty and innocent persons. Consider this statistic revealed in a
story in the July 25, 2013 edition of the New York Times, “The number of
inmates in state and federal prisons decreased … to an estimated 1,571,013
in 2012 from 1,598,783 in 2011, according to figures released by the Bureau
of Justice Statistics, an arm of the Justice Department. Imprisonment rates
in the United States have been on an upward march since the early 1970s.
From 1978, when there were 307,276 inmates in state and federal prisons, the
population increased annually, reaching a peak of 1,615,487 inmates in
2009.”
That prison population is only one example of the consequences of
ungodly, immoral, sinful behavior. Physical, mental, and emotional diseases
and illnesses along with other related health issues; breakdown of family
relationships that once provided the foundation and strength for our
society; damage and destruction of property; reduction or loss of financial
income; low approval ratings of government in general and elected leaders in
particular; distrust of religious or spiritual leaders; and a host of other
unpleasant consequences of sin abound in our community, state, nation, and
the world today. It’s no wonder or surprise that rebellion, chaos, and
lawlessness are on the rise almost everywhere we look.
So, what, if there is any, is the solution to this definitely
dismal dilemma? Well, the good news is that there is a solution! That
solution is none other than Jesus Christ, God’s holy humble Son and mankind’s
majestic Savior. Yahweh, the covenant God, who revealed Himself in the
person and work of Jesus, personally visited and conversed with Cain in the
aftermath of his grievous sin of fratricide. Not only did God condemn Cain’s
sin and impose a painful consequence on him for it, but He also gave him the
merciful and gracious promise of protection.
God ultimately fulfilled His promise when He sent His dear Son
into this sin-ravaged world to bear all sins and be our sin-laden Redeemer.
He who had no sin of His own took upon His holy self the sins of all people
of all time (that includes your sins and my sins) and atoned for them on
Calvary’s cross. There He defeated sin, Satan, and death itself with His
crucifixion-sacrifice as the unblemished Lamb of God.
In and through Immanuel alone we are now fully forgiven, we have
complete spiritual healing and the promise of future physical healing, and
we possess the certain assurance of eternal life with Him in heaven. In and
through Him alone the unpleasant consequences of our sin are only temporary
and not eternal. After all, in Holy Baptism He marked us with the cross on
our forehead and our heart; in His Holy Word He reminds us of His
ever-abiding love for us; in the words of Holy Absolution He declares that
we are forgiven; and, in the sacramental elements of Holy Communion He gives
us tangible evidence of His commitment to be with us always and liberate us
from the bondage of the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh. Now we
can roam about freely without fear of being overcome by that unholy trio.
Now we can live lives of praise and thanksgiving to almighty God by obeying
Him and serving our neighbors.
In conclusion, therefore, as we wander through this wilderness of
life, we do so in the comforting assurance that, as today’s Gradual stated,
“He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”
(Ps 91:11 ESV) We do so confidently knowing that …
“God’s Merciful Protection Overrides Our Sinful Digression.”
In light of such, there’s great meaning in the following portion
of today’s Introit, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose
word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not
be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Ps 56:3, 10-11 ESV)
After all, Saint Paul himself testified to that when in today’s
Epistle Reading he stated, “But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so
that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles
might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will
rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly
kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (2 Tim 4:17-18 ESV)
So, let’s be ever-vigilantly aware that …
I. Sin Is Always Crouching At Our Door. (1-7) Because of that reality
let’s also be constantly praying the thoughts of today’s Collect, “Pour down
on us the abundance of Your mercy; forgive us those things of which our
conscience is afraid; and give us those good things for which we are not
worthy to ask except by the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, Your Son,
our Lord.”
At the same time, we realize that …
II. Sin Results In Unpleasant Consequences. (8-12) And although they’re
painful, burdensome, and sorrowful, nevertheless they serve the good purpose
referred to in today’s Gospel Reading, “For everyone who exalts himself will
be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Truly, I say
to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not
enter it.” (St Luke 18:14b, 17 ESV)
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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