Now Genesis chapter number four. This is the familiar story of Cain and Abel and I'm going to read. Stay in Genesis four but I want to read to you from Jude verse 11 in the New Testament where the bible speaking of false prophets says woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Core. Cain is someone who's held up in the New Testament as being a bad example of someone who we should not be like. Later in First John chapter three, God says that we should love one another and not be as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his brother, so Cain is one who is held up as a bad example throughout the bible. Tonight I want to preach a sermon called The Way Of Cain.
What was wrong with Cain? Where did he go wrong? First of all I want to show you that 1. He disobeyed God. Now it says in Genesis 4:1, and Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bare Cain and said I've gotten a man from the Lord. She did bare his brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of the sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground and in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. Now when you read this in verse three it seems like Cain is doing something good here. I mean, he's bringing an offering unto the Lord and usually we would think of that as being a good thing. He's worshiping the Lord. He's giving something unto the Lord.
It says in verse number four; and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof; and the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his offering, but to Cain and to his offering he had not respect and Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell. Wroth means angry. Wrath is where that comes from.
Now, go to Hebrews chapter number 11. Toward the very end of the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 11. Because when you're reading this story you don't really get the fact that there was any commandment given from the Lord. It just sounds like okay, Cain brought one offering, Abel brought another. God respected the one and he did not respect the other, but if we let the New Testament interpret the story of what was happening, it says in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4, by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. The significance of that statement is that the bible tells us that Abel offered that sacrifice of the firstlings of his flock by faith.
The bible tells us that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It wouldn't really make any sense to say that Abel offered that sacrifice by faith if it was just something that he came up with on his own. I mean, if we just come up with something on our own and do it, we're not doing that by faith. When we get something from God's word, when God tells us to do something, and we say, "You know what? I'm going to do what God told me to do because I believe that God's word is right here and I believe that what God has said is the right thing for me. I'm going to trust his word." That's what Abel did. He was obviously responding to a directive from God in order for it to be said that by faith he offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
Because if you look at all the other people there in the list of Hebrews 11 who did things by faith, they were doing things that God told them to do, and so God had told Abel, and he had obviously told both of them, what the offering should be. If you remember when Adam and Eve first sinned in chapter number three, they prepared for themselves aprons of fig leaves; in order to be a covering for them because they realized they were naked and they were ashamed; so they sewed themselves aprons out of fig leaves and God replaced those fig leaf aprons with coats of skins and he gave them something else to wear that was from an animal skin. Now, in order to make a coat of skins what do you have to do to an animal? You have to kill it. Okay, so blood had to be shed. An animal had to die.
That was a picture of course, of Jesus Christ dying for our sins, to provide a covering for our sins, so that we could be clothed in that robe of righteousness that is not our own righteousness. Paul said not having mine own righteousness. We think of the apostle Paul as a pretty righteous individual. He's a pretty good guy. He did a lot of great works for God and he even said that we don't trust in the flesh. He said we have no confidence in the flesh but he said if any man hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. He said I'm circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. He says later in the chapter not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
When Adam and Eve put on those coats of skin, that pictured it was a covering of the lamb. You know, it was a covering of the righteousness of Jesus Christ who had made an atonement for their sin, and just as that animal died for their sin, that was a picture that one day the Lord Jesus Christ would die for our sins. Every animal sacrificed in the Old Testament was pointing the children of Israel unto that future messiah that would come and be sacrificed and be offered for their sins.
You know the great scripture in Isaiah 53 that predicts the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ says when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. You know that great scripture that talks about him being wounded for our inequities, bruised for our transgressions. It says his soul will be made an offering for sin and that's what happened. This idea of animal sacrifice is something that's all throughout the Old Testament. It started long before Moses and Mount Sinai. We see Adam and Eve. We see Abel. Later we're going to see Noah offering animal sacrifices. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. All the way through the Old Testament. All the way up until the Lord Jesus Christ these animal sacrifices were offered. Man's cheap substitute is the fig leaf apron.
That pictures our works. That when we're trying to cover for our own sins by doing good works. You know, what we can make, what we can produce, to try to cover our own sins and it looks silly. That fig leaf doesn't cover much. You know, a fig leaf apron. An apron doesn't cover much in general. I don't think anybody would leave the house is nothing but an apron. Okay. We see here in chapter four the same type of thing here with Cain and Abel. Because Abel is offering a blood sacrifice, you know, an animal sacrifice, of an animal, and Cain is just too vegan. He's vegetarian. He just wants to offer only fruits and vegetables. I don't know if he just has an aversion to meat and butchery, but he offers fruits and vegetables.
Now, all throughout the bible there's all these examples of people who are doing things where you'd look at them and say well, you know what? I think his heart's in the right place, but they're not doing what God told them to do and all kinds of people throughout the bible are constantly suffering and constantly being punished for doing things their way instead of doing things God's way. God will give them a really clear directive, really clear instructions, and then they have a better idea.
You know, God tells them now look, when you carry the ark of the covenant you're going to put two staves through it. What's a stave? A pole, okay? He puts two poles through the ark of the covenant and he said the Levites, the priests in fact, are going to carry the ark upon their shoulders and that's how I want you to carry it but they decided hey, let's just put it on a cart with wheels. Why would we sit here and carry this thing on our shoulders? Let's put it on a cart with wheels, let's pull it by animals, but what happened when they did that, they were riding along and the oxen that were pulling the cart stumbled. The ark began to shake off the cart that they had made.
Then Uzzah, again, heart in the right place, trying to do a good thing, wants to stop the thing from falling off the cart. Uzzah puts forth his hand just to steady the ark and when he touches the ark he dies. Why? Because no one is allowed to touch the ark. He touches the ark, he dies. Really, it wasn't Uzzah's fault. It was the fault of the people, really, who had the stupid idea of putting it on the cart in the first place when God made it really clear how he wanted the thing to be carried.
Then the next time David brought the ark he said you know what? This time we actually read the bible and we're going to do it God's way and the Levites are going to carry it on their shoulders on the staves the way God told us to do it in the first place. At first David was upset. Why'd you do this to Uzzah? He's a great man. He was doing a good thing. He wanted to steady the ark. Then he thought about it and said you know what? We disobeyed God. We should've done it God's way and that's why somebody died. Because we're not obeying the law.
Now a lot of people today have a different image of God than what the bible presents. Because the bible presents an image of God from cover to cover that says do it my way. He's not playing games. He gives clear instructions and he wants people to obey him. We constantly see throughout the bible, people with their heart in the right place just kind of worshiping the Lord however they think is the best way and you know what? All that matters is just my intent and just my heart. God knows my heart and all this. You know what? We constantly see that as being something that God doesn't accept. Starting with this story. God doesn't respect that. The saying goes is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. All throughout the bible we see a lot of people who seem like their heart's in the right place, but honestly, in my opinion, if they're not doing what God said their heart's not in the right place.
We're about to see in Cain the fact that his heart's not in the right place at all. When we see the way he reacts to correction. The first thing he did, number one was he disobeyed God. We need to be careful. When God tells us something, that we do it. Now you say well isn't God a merciful God though? Yes, he is and that's why when people make mistakes through ignorance and when people sin through ignorance, he'll often give them a another chance. He'll often be merciful and let things go. Also, when we as believers intercede for other believers God will often hear that prayer of intercession and be merciful unto others. That's why we should pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ when we see them commit sins and when we know that their heart's in the right place but that they're going into sin. We need to pray that God will be merciful to them.
Sort of like Hezekiah did. In the story where the children of Israel, they did not celebrate the Passover exactly as it was written in the bible, but it was because they hadn't done the Passover in so long they didn't really know how to do it, and they weren't really prepared to do it, but their heart was in the right place. They tried their best and then Hezekiah bravely interceded and said the good Lord pardon every one of them. God heard that prayer and pardoned them.
God does show us mercy and God is patient with us but let me tell you something, when you know to do good and you do it not, it's sin. The bible says them that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to them it is sin. When God sits there and gives you clear instruction and says this is the offering you're supposed to bring, he's not going to be merciful when you just turn around and just bring something completely different.
God expects us to when we know the truth to act upon it and obey it. God expects us to look in the bible and find the truth too. I mean, if we have a bible sitting on our shelf for 20 years, we don't know how to live our lives because we never open it and read it, it's not going to work to say well God, I didn't know. He knows you have that bible that was sitting there and you didn't read it. That's your problem. God does expect obedience and he expects us to follow his commandments and not to just loosely "Oh, you want an offering? Okay, I'll bring you fruits and vegetables." God's like "I don't want a salad", you know? That'd be like what if my wife served me fruits and vegetables for lunch or dinner? I would not have respect unto that offering. You need to slay an animal and serve it unto me, okay? For breakfast, lunch and dinner because I don't want to be like Cain. I want to be a little more like Abel and eat a lot of meat.
Anyway, number one he disobeyed but number two, here was the big mistake of Cain. Because honestly, disobeying is something that we've all done. Every single person here has disobeyed the Lord and every single person's going to disobey God again in the future. Here's the difference between who is going to be blessed by God and who is going to be cursed by God. Is that number two, not only did he disobey, he refused to be corrected. This is the big downfall of Cain.
Look at verse six. Because it says of course ... Well, look at verse five. It says but unto Cain and his offering he had no respect and Cain was very wroth; now, Cain doesn't have the right to become extremely angry at God, which is what very wroth means; and his countenance fell. Now, here God in his grace and in his mercy wants to give Cain another chance so here's what he says in verse six: And the Lord said unto Cain, "Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 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. 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.
Here's the major downfall of Cain: He refused to receive correction. God gives him a chance. God says don't get angry, Cain. If you do what's right I'll accept you. It's not too late to repent. To go back and do it right. He gives him that second chance. Now, this is something that we can see all throughout the bible. Go to 2 Chronicles 25. Let me give you a great example of this from 2 Chronicles 25.
While you're turning there let me mention to you a few other examples of this throughout the bible. I think the greatest example is King Saul versus King David. Now King Saul, we think of him as a bad king. Even though he started out as a godly man, a humble man, and he did a lot of great things for the nation of Israel. He delivered them from their enemies. He was filled with the spirit of God. We think of Saul as a bad king because he went down a bad path after he became king. You'll notice that when Saul makes mistakes and he's corrected by a prophet Samuel, he bristles at that and he reacts by just making excuses for himself and not having real remorse or any real repentance when he's confronted with his sins.
Okay? He just wants to ... For example, when he was supposed to kill all the Amalekites, King Saul. Then he makes excuses like "Well you know, I saved of the best of the animals to offer a sacrifice unto the Lord." Well, that's not what God asked for. God wanted the animals to be killed. He said no, no, no, we saved some of them to make an offering unto the Lord. Then he tried to blame the people. Well, the people wanted to save all this stuff. Then he's like, "Well, why didn't you kill all of the Amalekites?" "Well, I only left one alive, King Agag." "Still, you left one alive. They were supposed to all be killed." Okay, and then later on when he's chasing after David. Out of his jealousy and out of a wicked heart, he's chasing David and he says he's sorry and he realizes wait a minute, I'm doing wrong here by hunting down this innocent man, David. Then what does he do? He turns right back around and goes out and does it again. He says he's sorry but he does it again.
Constantly we see Saul making mistake after mistake after mistake and instead of receiving correction he gets upset, he argues, he makes excuses, and that was his downfall. Now David on the other hand; the man after God's own heart; he also made mistakes. He also committed actually some major sins. We think of the big sin that he committed with Bathsheba, but if you actually read the whole story of David like when I was preaching through 1 Samuel chapter by chapter, there were a lot of sins that David committed in that story. There were a lot of mistakes he made.
Because long before he even committed adultery with Bathsheba, first of all he began to multiply wives. He took on a second wife. Taking on a second wife is something that God has never allowed or told man to do. There were lots of other things he did where he showed a lack of faith and committed sin but the difference was that when someone came to him and corrected him he got it right. That was the big difference between David and Saul. That's why David's kingdom lasted forever and that's why Saul's kingdom was cut short and it did not go on to his son Jonathon. Because of the fact that he couldn't receive correction. This is an important facet of our lives.
Look if you would at 2 Chronicles. This is a King Amaziah, the king of Judah. Look what it says in verse number 14. It says now it came to pass, after then Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites and up to this point he'd been doing what was right in the sight of the Lord, but when he came back from the slaughter of Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir and set them up to be his gods and bowed down himself before them and burned incense unto them. Wherefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Amaziah and he sent unto him a prophet which said unto him, "Wyeth thou sought after the gods of the people which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand? He's saying this doesn't even make sense. You wipe these people out in the name of the Lord, now you're worshiping the gods of the loser? That doesn't even make sense. They lost. If their gods were real why did they get destroyed? and why did you win? He's saying you know, why did you even worship these gods? I don't know if you just thought they looked cool. You know, these graven images, or molten images. These statues of these weird looking half animal, half human gods. Whatever the reason he worshiped these other gods.
It says that it came to pass, verse 16, as he talked with them, that the king said unto him, "Art thou made of the king's counsel? Forbear; why shouldest thou be smitten? He's threatening him. He's saying, "Stop preaching against me or I'm going to hit you. I'm going to smite you." When he says that, that he should forbear or stop preaching, halfway through verse 16 it says then the prophet forbare and said I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou hast done this and has not hearkened under my counsel. See, there's hope up to that point that Amaziah would get right with God. That he would turn away from these false gods. That he would destroy the idolatry that had crept into his home and that he would serve the Lord only. When the prophet comes to him and tells him, "Amaziah, you've done wrong. Here's what God has said. Here's what you need to fix." When he did not accept that correction that's when he knew you're done. You're going to be destroyed. It's over for you. Lets keep reading.
Its says in verse 17 then Amaziah, king of Judah, took advice and said to Joash, the son of Jahoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying come, let us see one another in the face. Now let's jump down. It says in verse 20 but Amaziah would not hear, for it came of God. That he might deliver them into the hands of their enemies because they sought after the gods of Edom. Joash the king of Israel went up and they saw one another in the face, both he and Amaziah king of Judah, at Bethshemesh, which belongeth to Judah. Judah was put to the worse before Israel and they fled every man to his tent. On and on it talks about how in verse 27, now after that time that Amaziah did turn away from following the Lord, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem. He fled to Lachish but they sent to Lachish after him and they slew him there and they brought him upon horses and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah.
He meets a pretty bad end. First, he gets involved in a war that he shouldn't have been involved in and because he goes out and just goes to war for no reason he ends up getting the whole city of Jerusalem, his capital city, destroyed. The walls get knocked down and all these bad things happen. Then his servants conspire against him and try to murder him. He flees out of Jerusalem and then they go follow him there and murder him. Okay. Why? Because he would not listen when somebody tried to correct him. Now that prophet, he thought that prophet just had it in for him. You know, just being mean to him. Really, that prophet could've saved his life and could've saved the wall of Jerusalem from being destroyed and could've saved him a lot of trouble if he would've listened to the rebuke. Because he didn't listen it just got worse, it got worse. You know, when he lost that big battle to Israel and had the wall knocked down? That should've been a sign to him. Hey, maybe I'm being punished by God like that prophet said, but then he still didn't listen. Then he ended up being murdered. You know, because of his insolence.
Look, if you would, at Proverbs 29. Book of Proverbs, 29. Another great example. I mean, we can go through the whole bible, but another great example is King Ahab. King Ahab was the most wicked king of Israel up to that point. There had been a whole bunch of kings of Israel. Many of them had been wicked but it's said that King Ahab was more wicked than all the kings that were before him. Elijah came to King Ahab and rebuked King Ahab. When Elijah preached right to the face of King Ahab and King Ahab said to Elijah, "You're my enemy." When Elijah preached the word of God to him he actually was sorry and he actually realized that he was wrong and he received that correction and God spared King Ahab. Because he cried. He had tears and he wept unto the Lord. He was truly sorry from his heart that he had done wrong and so God said unto him that he would be spared.
Okay, let me tell you something. Remorse and repentance when you're confronted with something that you've done wrong goes a long way but when you resist correction you're going to fail. Both in this life with the people of this world and in God's sight. Look what the bible says in Proverbs 29. It says ... I'm not turned there but I think I have it memorized. He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. Do you see that? He that being often reproved. Verse one, sorry. Proverbs 29, verse one. He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. You know, when you get that reproof and you harden your neck instead of basically bowing your head would be the opposite of hardening your neck. Obviously, that's figurative of the fact that you're sorry. That you're humble. You know, look down. That's a symbol of humility and being sorry.
Now this isn't just before the Lord. Obviously, when the Lord rebukes us, we need to be sorry. We need to admit to the Lord that we've sinned and confess unto him and repent of our sins. Now look, this isn't salvation. Repenting of your sins is a daily thing for christians, or it ought to be. It's a weekly thing. It's a monthly thing. It's happening constantly in our life.
A lot of people will try to attach this to salvation. In reality, salvation is believe I'm the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. In order to be saved we just have to believe in Jesus Christ our savior. Confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus. Believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead then we shall be saved.
Repentance and remorse and being sorry for our sins is a way of life unto the christian. When we do wrong and when we realize we've done wrong we admit it, we confess it, we forsake it, we're sorry. This is something that we need to continually do in our lives. It's not a one-time deal. It's something that needs to be constantly happening. You say well how does God rebuke us? You know, God's not going to send a prophet to me like he sent to David that says thou art the man and I'm going to say to him I've sinned, I'm sorry, the way David did.
Wait a minute. When you come to church sometimes you'll hear preaching that even though I didn't write the sermon for you; though sometimes I did write it for you, buddy. I know what you're into. No, just kidding. Anyway, I don't write the sermons with any person in mind. You know, I've got my spies kind of figuring out what sins people are into so I can preach. No, I have no idea.
I remember in the first year that I was pastor back in 2006 I preached a sermon. I was preaching against smoking and four people came up to my wife separately and said, "I know Pastor Anderson was preaching against me. How did he find out that I smoke? He had it in for me." It's like there's four people smoking, you know what I mean? They're all, I didn't even know any ... I thought no one smoked in the church. I had no idea, but yet all four people thought "he was directing that at me"; "he's mad at me"; "he's got it in for me". No, it's just the Holy Spirit's got it in for you. Okay? I get up and preach. I'm not directing this at any certain person. There's too many people. It's just preaching the bible and if the shoe fits, wear it.
When you come to church and hear preaching you should apply it to yourself. Now there are some people who are constantly applying it to everyone around them and not ... They're thinking like oh man, I wish so and so was here to hear this. They really need this. Oh man, the person who needs this isn't here. You need it! Constantly just you know ...
I remember one time. In all the years that I've been pastor funny things have happened. I remember I'm getting up and preaching on something one time. I'm preaching about being lazy or something and this guy literally is pointing to his girlfriend or something and he's just like ... I mean literally. I'm up there preaching about like sleeping in too much and being lazy and he's just like ... I mean literally. You know what? A lot of people are doing that in their heart. That guy was doing it physically but a lot of people are doing that in their heart during the preaching.
Honestly, we should be much more worried about ourselves and our life. When we hear bible preaching we should be asking ourselves okay, how can I improve in that area? Where are some areas where I can put this into practice? where I can do better? What are some areas where I'm corrected and I maybe don't handle it as well as I should. When we come to church and hear preaching that hits on our sins. Which, come on, we all have sins and when we come to church sometimes it's going to hit us where it hurts and when that happens how do we react to it? Do we get mad and say I'm never coming back to this church?
That's how some people are and that's why they go to these big fun centers where there's never any preaching against sin. They go to the liberal ... It's like a McDonald's. Basically, church is like a restaurant where you're served spiritual meat and drink, right? The word of God is like food. The sermon is like the preparation of a cook that's serving you spiritual food. Okay, basically those churches are like a spiritual McDonald's. That's the quality of the food that they're serving, but they have a playland. Ooh, they have a slide. They have all these little plastic balls to swim around in. You know, they're probably filled with a lot of germs and a lot of kids climbing in there. All the saliva and snot.
Anyway, I'm saying oh, let's go to Chuck-E-Cheese. You know, Baptist church. Because they have a playland and they have a big guy in a mouse costume that's going to come. Here's the thing, when you get a little bit older, you get a little more maturer, you actually go to pizza that tastes good. Right? You actually go to a restaurant where you're getting high quality food and you're not just picking a restaurant based on aaah, the slide! That's what a toddler would do. That's fine for toddlers. You know, to say hey, let's go to McDonald's because there's a toy in a happy meal.
They go to church and they want to get a happy meal. Pastor Ronald McDonald is going to give us a toy if we come on Sunday morning. You know, you get a little older and you're like forget McDonald's. Forget Chuck-E-Cheese. That's nasty. You're thinking about the quality of the food. You're thinking about what it tastes like. Well, it's the same thing. A baby christian is sucked in by all the gimmicks. Those who want spiritual meat. They want something they can sink their teeth into. They like hard preaching because it will help them to grow and help them to get the sin out of their life and help them to learn something. I mean, what's the point of going to church if you just want to just stay the same, not learn anything, not grow, not get any of the sin out of your life.
I mean look, if somebody's going to tell you. Think about this. You know, I used to enjoy training in martial arts. I went to some classes last week that were like that. What if I went to a martial arts jam and they just said all right, go ahead and just punch the punching bag. Go ahead and kick it. Go ahead and knee it. Go ahead and elbow it. They just told me, man, you're doing great. They never told me I'm doing it wrong. They never gave me any critique and said well actually no, that's not how you do it. What if they just said man, you're doing awesome! You look great! Yeah! Keep going! Yeah, hit it again! Yeah! You're just like wow, I just love this gym because I just get so encouraged. It just feels so good to just go and I get encouraged. I'm punching the bag. I'm kicking it.
In reality, you're all sloppy. You're like a little kid. It's all hammer fist. You know? You're just yeah, yeah! Yeah, I'm doing great! Yeah, this is great! You want to go somewhere where somebody's going to tell you no, you're doing it wrong. Let me show you how to fix it. That's what you need. That's what training is. That's the whole point. If nobody's going to correct you then it's not even worth paying the money for. What, to get the motivation? Just to get some yes, man? To just tell you everything that you want to hear?
A lot of people, they just hate to be told that they're wrong about anything. They just hate to be told hey, you have sin in your life. How are you! Of course, everybody has sin in their life but how dare you say that I do? I mean, I know everybody does. I know that the bible says that everybody's told a lie in their life but how dare you say that I've ever lied? There are people who just hate being corrected. They'll never make it in a church like this. Just because whenever they hear the preaching they're like oh, he's talking about me. If I am that means I love you. I'm helping but I'm not anyway because it's just generalized for the whole crowd. You feel like it's directed at you because of the fact that's the issue that you have in your life.
I remember I took this guy to church one time. This guy had grown up in a christian home his whole life. The pastor was getting up and he was preaching against a lot of the sitcoms that were on. He was preaching against Seinfeld, Friends, Ellen, you know? This was the stuff that was on back in the 90's. He's just preaching about what's wrong with all these shows and how you need to stop watching all these worldly T.V. shows and everything and that they're being a bad influence on your mind and this and that. I remember we get in the car afterward and he was like man. You know, he wasn't used to the hard preaching. He was like man, why was the pastor ripping on Frazier? I told him, I said, you know what? The pastor didn't mention Frazier. That was the Holy Spirit.
He just filled in the blank of his favorite show that wasn't even mentioned. Okay? I said that must've been the Holy spirit and then that just kind of shut him up. Then he just like oh okay. He didn't mention that because I knew. Because I knew this pastor and he was one that brought up the same shows over and over again so I knew the list pretty well. I knew what was on it and what was not on it.
Anyway, that's why a lot of people won't come to a fundamental Baptist church. You say why don't people come to Faithful Word? They could learn so much bible. They don't come because they don't like anything that makes them feel convicted in their heart like they have something wrong. They want to go somewhere that just makes them feel good. That's going to be their downfall, when they just want to just ... But look, it's not just church. Also, just When you read the bible. Sometimes you'll come across things that correct you and you need to respond to that.
Let's forget the bible for a moment and think about other areas of life. You want to succeed at work? Learn how to take correction. How many people have you seen at work that cannot take correction? We've all seen it. Right? I mean, the boss just comes to them. Sometimes today we have such a weird culture in some work environments. You'll see sometimes the manager will just be using like kid gloves and just now, you're doing really good but you know, I think you could do just a little bit better. It's like wow, what are you doing? What? Why? How dare you!
See, I've never had ... it's funny. I've talked to a lot of people in their job. I've never had one of these jobs where the boss treats you well. Never. Every job I ever had the boss just cusses you out daily. You know what I mean? Just pretty much every job I've ever had. Just totally unreasonable, totally unfair. That's every job I've ever had. You know what though? The one who takes it. You say well, why should I take that? Because he's the boss. Because you want to bring home that paycheck to mama. That's why. The reason why you take it is because it's about making money and it's about being a good employee. Even if your boss is not being a good boss you can still be a good employee, and you're still going to succeed and you're still going to make money.
There are people there, maybe they're doing some kind of a physical task of a trade and somebody comes up to them and tells them hey, actually you do it this way. They're just like I know what I'm doing. I know how to do it. Then they don't learn. Why? I know how to do it. Oh yeah, I know, I know., I know. Heres the thing, this is something you should never say to your supervisor at work: I know. I know. I know. Don't say that to your supervisor.
You know when my boss, or my supervisor at work would tell me something that I already knew, I would just say oh, okay. All right, yeah. I act like I'm hearing it for the first time. That's the way to succeed at work. Somebody tells you to do something you say okay. Yeah, I will do it that way. Hey, thanks. Thanks for showing me how to do that. Instead of just well, I know what I'm doing. The way I'm doing it is fine. Or well this is how I did it at my other job so I'm just going to keep doing it that way. It's like no, this is how we do it here. This is how you're going to do it.
This is a good way to succeed at your job. When the boss corrects you, and you know what? I don't know about you. Maybe you've had one of these bosses that sits there and does yoga with you and has a chiropractor come in and adjust you at lunchtime and you get to take a nap on a beanbag every afternoon at your job and they have all kinds of company picnics and company sporting events and everything is there ... You know, they come and measure you and measure your chair and your desk to make sure it's ergonomically correct so you can be at maximum comfort. I've never had a job like that. I mean every job I had was like you blankity blank. That's the jobs that I've had, but sometimes that's where you make the money you know, so you just got to do it.
What I'm saying is that in all areas of life we need to become a person that does not bristle when we hear correction. What's your knee-jerk reaction when somebody comes to you and tells you you're wrong and corrects you? Is it to ask yourself am I wrong? That would be a good reaction right there. Am I wrong here? Do I need to fix something? No, maybe I need to fix this. Not to have an attitude that just bristles like ugh!
You can literally just see it in people's faces sometimes. Someone will try to correct them and it's like you can just see. It's like their heart starts pounding faster. Doot doot, doot doot. Doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot. It's like their blood pressure goes up and their heart's pounding and they start breathing a little quicker. Ah, somebody's telling me that I'm wrong. They have like a physical reaction to being told no. To being told you need to stop doing that. You need to fix that. You know, hey, stop being late to work. Tuck in your shirt. What's your reaction? Sorry sir. Let me tuck that in. Never have it untucked again? Or just bph, bpph, bpph.
Okay, but what about other? Just all authorities in your life. What about children to parents? Children need to react well to being told no. Now here's the thing, a really small child. You tell them no. (crying sound) You haven't even spanked them. You just say to them no. (cry sound) It's like oh, I'm sorry. That's immaturity and that's bad. You know what? I love it when I can tell my children no, you need to stop doing that and they just receive that correction. To me that's a great sign of maturity and when I see that I think to myself thank God that my child is being good and doing well.
Or sometimes you'll give a child a slap on the hand. A little tiny child. Give them a slap on the hand. (crying sound) Or, sometimes you give them a slap on the hand and they just take it and they realize I was wrong. I got my hand slapped. I'm not going to do that again. That's a lot of maturity there. Are you like that little kid? Where somebody tells you that you're wrong and you just freak out? That's how a lot of people are with their jobs. That's how a lot of people are with the pastor's preaching. Even if it's not even ... It's not even personal to them. They're just getting angry. Arrgh! Just getting angry.
Also, you know what? Wives with their husbands. Here's the thing. We live in a society where husbands don't have any authority over their wives. For some people, but you know what? The bible teaches that the husband's the head of the wife and that the wife should obey their husband. Whether that's popular or not, that's what the bible says and you know what? It's not an anti-woman thing. Look, I can show you my phone after the service. I get an email every day calling me misogynistic. What a stupid word. It's like a new word. I never heard that when I was a kid. I didn't hear that. Did you hear that growing up? It's this new cool. Oh, Pastor Anderson, you're so misogynistic.
See, I don't go with all your little trendy words and all your little trendy concepts. You know, people have been doing it my way for the last 6,000 years in all cultures pretty much, in all nations of the world, and it's worked out great for a lot of people. All of a sudden we're supposed to get on this trendy, little faggoty type of a relationship where my wife and I are supposed to dress the same, act the same, look the same, talk the same, live the same lifestyle, have the same authority.
You know, frankly, that just doesn't appeal to me. Being a hetero kind of a guy. Hetero means different. I want to be different from my wife. I want her to dress different. I want us to act different, talk different, have our hair different. Honestly, we as Christians should follow a lifestyle in our marriage that's a biblical lifestyle. Honestly, women are just as happy in this lifestyle as men.
When there's a proper lifestyle where the husband is the leader because here's the thing: Women are not wired to want to be in charge and rule over a man. It goes against the grain to them to be the boss and to make all the decisions. They love to be married to a strong man. Women don't want to be married to a weakling and when your wife walks all over you and you're henpecked and you're scared of your wife, she looks at you and thinks oh, you're pathetic. You loser. You weakling. You wimp. Women don't like a weak man. You know what women are looking for in men? Strength. I mean, what woman says I want to grow up and marry. A little girl says I want to grow up and marry a weakling. A really weak man. A really soft, effeminate weak man that I can tell what to do and lead them around by the nose.
That's not what women want. Even the feminist women, deep down they're like please rule over me. Please be my leader. Okay, what I'm saying is that's what the bible teaches but here's the thing. Wives, ask yourself. What about when your husband tries to actually, God forbid, exercise some of his authority in the home? (screech sound) Pastor Anderson, don't you understand? We're just, we just say that the men are in charge in church. That's just what we say but it doesn't really work that way. Are you kidding? I thought that's just something that we say but it's kind of like hint, hint, wink, wink, nod, nod, we all know who's really in charge type of thing.
No. I'm actually serious up here. I actually mean it. I really am that misogynistic. Whatever that stupid word means. I'm trying to figure out what that word means. Misogyn. Miso is a prefix that would mean, I mean bad. I've a bad attitude toward women. I know the gyno is a woman part. You know? I'm trying to figure out the word misogynistic. Istic, that has to do with my belief. I know the ist. I'm just breaking this word down for you, folks. I'm doing the etymology here. Istic is what I believe, so I guess I believe wrongly toward women because I think that they're weaker than men.
I challenge any woman right now to come up and arm wrestle me right now. I'm going to make the challenge that I've made over and over again. I'm not the strongest man in the world. Any woman can come up and arm wrestle me right now. If you can come up and defeat me in an arm wrestling match I will admit that women are as strong as men. Anyone? I've had about five women take me up on that over the years and they went down, and they went down hard. All right? I even made my wife arm wrestle me. She didn't want to do it but I said no, you're going to arm wrestle me, honey. You're going to try your hardest because I'm going to show you baby. You know? Anyway, I was gentle.
Let me say this. When your husband actually tries to exert a little authority in the home and says no, you need to stop doing that. What's your reaction to that? What's your knee-jerk reaction when your husband says honey, you need to stop doing that? Honey, from now on you need to do X. From now on you need to obey this and that. What's the reaction? Aw, how dare? You don't understand. It's easy for you to say. Men! You have it so easy. Blah, blah.
What's the reaction? Is it to harden your neck? Is it to be stubborn? Is it to be one who can't be corrected? Because that's the way of Cain. What's the way of Cain? Number one, it's disobedience to God. What's the way of Cain? Number two, it's refusing to be corrected. Whether it's as a wife, a child, an employee. Whether it's just a christian unto the Lord. Whatever the case may be. Or even just from one man to another. If somebody comes to you and just gives you correction and tells you you've done wrong. Learn to be a person. Listen to me. I want you to very carefully get this point. Learn to be a person that accepts correction. That can be humble and accept correction and you will succeed. In life. You'll succeed with the Lord. You'll succeed at your job. You'll succeed in marriage. As a woman, you'll succeed all the way across the board if you just learn to be corrected.
Because let me tell you something, taking correction well goes a long way. Sometimes your boss will just be infuriated like what are you doing? You idiot! You're just like you know what? You're right, I'm sorry. I'm going to do it your way. Then it's like yeah, okay. All right. It just diffuses the whole situation. You know children who just admit that they're wrong and just say that they're sorry to their parents, they get less discipline. They end up being shown more mercy. It always works that way. With God it works that way. If you just say you're sorry everything will be fine. If you'll just take the correction. Taking the correction can cover a multitude of sins, my friend. It will really. We all make mistakes. We all mess up. You know what? If anyone, whether it was my wife, my children, my employees, if any of them, if I had to get on them and correct them about something and they just said you know what? You're right. I'm totally sorry. It's my fault. You're not going to be mad at them. That's going to just hey, it's over. Fixed. Problem solved. We exacerbate problems in our life by just resisting correction.
Then lastly this, let me quickly say this. First John chapter three. What was the way of Cain? Number one, he disobeyed the Lord. What was the way of Cain? Number two, he didn't like being corrected. He couldn't handle it when somebody told him he was wrong. He didn't respond well to correction. He got mad when people corrected him. He hardened his neck. He got upset. His countenance fell, but thirdly this, he despised those who were more righteous than himself. He despised those who were more righteous than himself.
Look what the bible says in 1 John 3:11. It says for this is the message that ye heard from the beginning. That we should love one another. Not as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his brother. Slew means kill. Wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. Marvel not my brethren if the world hates you. Right there we see the motive for killing Abel because this tragic story ends in Cain murdering Abel and not only ending Abel's life but ruining his own life because he spent the rest of his life being a fugitive and a vagabond and his descendants went to the devil because he ruined his life by killing Abel. Why did he kill Abel? Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous.
You see, people that go in the way of Cain, they have a tendency to be angry at those who are better than themselves and to get upset. Now here's the problem with this. If you're that type, then what you're going to do is you're going to always surround yourself with people that are more ungodly than you. Because you hate being around those that are better than you. In reality it'd be great to get around people that are better than you so that you can learn from them. So that you can grow. You know, you go to them to learn how to do better.
Again, going back to the illustration that I used about martial arts. What if you just man, I found this great martial arts gym. Everybody there is just awful. Nobody can fight. Everybody there is weak. I just go there and we do sparring and I just kick everybody's butt every time. I just love it. Nobody knows how to fight. I just go down there and I just beat up one person after another. It just feels great. Now, are you really learning anything? No, because you just all these easy little victories. Obviously, if you wanted to learn something you'd want to basically go up against somebody who's maybe a little better than you. It might involve you getting kicked around a little bit but you're going to learn something. You're going to grow more.
It'd be like, there's so many different illustrations that we could use but it'd be like if I wanted to find a buddy that I'm going to lift weights with. You know, I'm just going to find the weakest person that I can because then I can just look stronger. You know, just really show them up every time. It's going to feel great. No. What would make more sense is find the guy who's a lot stronger than you, right? Go lift with him and have him show you some tips and train you and teach you, but you know what that would take? Humility. Humility because he's going to be ahead of you and you're going to feel like okay, I'm the one learning, not the one teaching, but you're going to get more out of it. You're going to grow more.
Now, it's the same thing with church. A lot of people want to be a big fish in a little pond. They'll go to a church where there's no soul winning. They'll go to a church that's really lame because then they can go there and feel like man, I'm the most spiritual person in this church. I can really show these people something. In fact, I can even take the pastor and show him some things. He doesn't even know the bible. Nobody in this church knows the bible. Nobody does any soul winning. I'm the most righteous, spiritual person in this church. Now look, that's just pride that wants to be that big fish in a little pond. The wise person would say you know what? I want to go to a church that's filled with some really zealous Christians that are a lot more spiritually mature than me. Because if I can get around those people, man, I can learn from them. I can grow and I can be like them. Maybe some of what they have will rub off on me.
See the two different philosophies there? The one that says I want to learn. I want to grow. I want to be around people that can lift me up. Not around people that are going to drag me down. Being around people that are below you spiritually makes you feel good about yourself. When you hang around with total losers and drunks and failures, then you start feeling pretty good about yourself. You go to a church where nobody's reading the bible. Nobody's doing any soul winning. You can start feeling great about yourself. What you ought to be doing is going to a church that challenges you spiritually. A lot of people won't go to the best church because they'll basically ... Whatever the best church is in their area. Because most people live in an area where there are a lot of churches to choose from. They won't always go to the soul winning, fired up church because they're afraid that they're going to feel pressured to get involved and do more for the Lord.
Now here's the thing. Our church doesn't pressure people and say hey, you need to be out soul winning. What's wrong with you? How long have you been coming here and you're not out soul winning? What's wrong with you? That's not going to happen if anybody comes to our church. Nothing like that happens. If somebody acted that way i would rebuke that person and say hey, you know, you need to lay off of people. Nobody's like that here. That's not the atmosphere here.
You know what it is though? It's that person's own conscience. When they get around a bunch of people who are doing great things for the Lord, it's their conscience that's telling them you need to get out soul winning. It's not anybody coming up to them and saying what are you doing? When are you going to grow up in the Lord? You're like a baby in Christ. You've been here for years. You're still sucking your spiritual thumb. Get out there and go soul winning. Read that bible cover to cover and then read it again and again and again. What it really is, is the conscience. It's going to tell them oh wow, I need to be tithing. I need to be praying. I need to be out soul winning. I need to get the sin out of my life. I need to start acting right.
That's what it really is and people, they just don't like to get around people that are more spiritual than them because their conscience. They get around people that are more spiritual and it makes them feel unspiritual. You know what though? It's what we need to help us grow. To get around role models. You know, Jeremiah said I'll get me unto the great men, that have known the way of the Lord. We should want to go to the wise and learn from them. Go to those that are more advanced than us and get around them and be taught by them, but that takes humility, and that's what Cain lacked.
Number one, what was the way of Cain? Disobedience to God. Number two, what was the way of Cain? Refusing to receive correction. He's given an opportunity to get it right. He's given correction. He was even given a very gentle correction from God. Where God even told him look, if you do it right I will accept you. I'm giving you a second chance. He bristled. Number three, what was the way of Cain? He just hated people that were better than him. He just hated the fact that his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. It wasn't so much that God didn't accept his offering that made him so mad. It was that Abel did it right.
I mean, why kill Abel? I mean, who was Cain's problem really with? God or Abel? His problem's with God. God told him to do something. He didn't do it. God corrected him. He got mad at God so he killed Abel. Why? Because people have a tendency to take out their problem with God on somebody who's doing it right. Ah, you think you're so good, don't you? You think you're so righteous, Abel. Mr. Abel goody two shoes. You and your fatling. Dripping with fat offering of the flock. You know, you think you're so spiritual. Argh! He killed him. The bible doesn't tell us how he killed him. You know, what did he do? Kill him with his bare hands? Use a rock? What did he do? It must've been violent whatever it was. Strangle him? Knock his head? It was something bad. It was something violent. Why? Because he just hated his brother.
That's why God said, you know what? Don't be shocked. Marvel not if the world hates you. Why? Because the world hates a righteous person. Why does the world hate a righteous person? Because it hits their conscience. Because it makes them feel like trash. They love to watch T.V. and watch all the filthy reprobates because then it makes them feel good about themselves. They love reality T.V. and watch people in dysfunctional homes. They're like oh man, my house, I know my house has problems but it's not that messed up. Makes them feel good.
Let's compare ourselves to a higher standard. Let's love the righteous and love people that are more spiritual than us and try to learn from them. Instead of just getting angry at them. Argh! You always beat me at everything. If I go soul winning for three hours, you go for four. I read the bible two times, you read it three times. Argh! What's wrong with you? Who cares? Learn from them. Grow.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word Lord, and we thank you for just your long suffering and patience with us, Lord. That you do give us correction in our life. First of all, you put human beings in our life to correct us. Then aside from that you've also given us your word that you'll correct us, Lord. Help us to receive those corrections. Help us not to go in the way of Cain, Lord, but help us to obey you. When we mess up to be corrected and to surround ourselves by godly people. In Jesus's name we pray, Amen.
