False Worship vs. True Worship – Genesis 4:1-16

False Worship vs. True Worship

“Worship matters to God.” This chapter has a lot of firsts: the first pregnancy, the first birth, the first family, the first offering, the first murder, and the first martyr. It is also the first conflict between the two seeds foretold in Genesis 3:15. Many people think it is simply about Cain and Abel, but it is more about Cain than Abel, and at a higher level it is about how God responds to those who do not worship him as they ought. It shows that sin goes further than we imagine. Heartache came to Adam and Eve, and it reminds us that our sin does not stop with us. I used to hear stories about people who climb into a feed bin of corn for fun and are crushed by it. “We don’t play around sin. Sin will destroy you.”

The Setting

Eve said when Cain was born, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord,” literally, the Jehovah man. She had heard that a redeemer would come from her seed and thought this was him. My heart goes out to Eve, wondering how long it took her to realize it was not Cain. Abel kept sheep and Cain worked the ground, and both were respectable occupations. Both knew there was a God to approach with a sacrifice. By the way, parents, teach your children and grandchildren about worship, because Cain and Abel knew about it.

God Is Concerned with Your Worship

Worship includes the songs we sing, our service, and our giving, and the first example in the Bible is an offering. First, what we offer matters. We do not decide how to worship by our own reasoning. Some churches knock on doors and survey what people want in a church, and they build a church on what everyone else wants. We worship as God says. Cain brought some fruit, and it does not say it was his best. Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and the fat portions, a blood sacrifice like the one God made for Adam and Eve’s clothing. On our little farm, if I am getting up early and feeding late, “I’m going to find the one that’s the fattest, the one that has the best marbling.” Cain did not ask which animal was the best. In Malachi 1, God asks whether offering blind and lame animals is evil, and tells them to try it on their governor. They were going through the motions because they had a low view of God. “God deserves our very best.” “Your view of God impacts the way that you worship.”

Second, who we are matters. “God is able to discern the heart of the worshipper.” The gift and the giver cannot be separated. Verse 4 says the Lord had regard for Abel and then for his offering. “Who we are is more important than what we do.” Both brothers had the same parents, the same place, and the same time. But the problem was the heart. First Samuel 15 says to obey is better than sacrifice. Hebrews 11:4 says by faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice, and 1 John 3:12 says Cain was of the evil one. “Folks, this message is not about guilt. It’s about grace.”

Third, we must be right with others. “A wrong relationship with God expresses itself in a wrong relationship with other people.” I believe “Cain had murdered his brother in his heart long before he murdered him in the field.” We have not taken anyone to a field, but how do we feel when someone else is elevated and we are overlooked? Matthew 5 says if you remember at the altar that your brother has something against you, leave your gift, be reconciled, and then come offer it. We also need a right view of ourselves. The Pharisee prayed, “I thank you that I am not like other men,” while the tax collector beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” And we need the right motives. We can pray, give, and fast to be seen by men.

God Responds to Your Worship

Not all worship is accepted. God accepts worship that pleases him, like Abel’s offering of faith and a broken heart (Psalm 51:17). He rejects worship that is idolatrous, like the golden calf. He rejects worship that is insincere: “We can sing the right songs. We can say the right things.” and the Lord says it is in vain. And he rejects worship that is improper, like Nadab and Abihu’s strange fire. Barnhouse described the way of Cain: “It’s a human willfulness as opposed to the divine will. It’s human pride as opposed to the divine humility.” But God is gracious. He pleaded with Cain, telling him that if he did well he would be accepted. When we don’t get worship right, we repent and ask God to search our hearts.