Understanding False Worship Through Cain and Abel

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Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, November 11th. You’ve probably heard the phrase, attitude is everything. And that’s especially true when it comes to worshiping God. Our series continues as we learn how to recognize and correct false worship.

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If you’ll turn to chapter 4 of Genesis and read the first few verses here. Verse 1. Verse 1. And Abel on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering, but for Cain and for his offering, he had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? And you think about this. You can’t be angry with a delightful, cheerful countenance. He said, why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, now watch this. If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? When you look in the mirror tomorrow morning, if you don’t like it, then you have to ask yourself the question, what am I doing? What am I thinking? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it. And Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Now, I want us to look at this passage in the light of what false worship is. Now, you may think for a moment, well, you’re going to talk about worshiping money and worshiping business. No, I’m not going to talk about that because there are three ideas I want you to notice in this passage that identifies what false worship is. Now let’s go back to define what we said worship is. We said that worship is an outpouring of a person’s heart. It is an overflowing of our spirit. And it is an occupation with something in particular which ought to be of Jehovah God. So that a person who’s worshiping is expressing that worship by doing what? By overflowing in their spirit toward a given object. pouring themselves out upon that object or and occupied with that particular thing. So when somebody says, do you worship God? You have to ask yourself the question, does my spirit just pour out to him? Does my spirit overflow to him? Am I occupied with the Lord God above everything else? Because whatever holds preeminence in my life is what I’m worshiping. And no doubt people do worship business. That is, they’re occupied with it above everything else. Their life overflows to it. They pour themselves, their energy and all that they have into that. The same thing may be with pleasure. Whatever the object of our worship, those three things are going to be true. I’m going to be pouring myself out upon it. I’m going to be overflowing toward it. And I’m going to be occupied with that thing above everything else. Now somebody says, well… But you’ve got to make a living, so you’ve got to have a business. Right. And somebody says, well, you’ve got to be, if you’ve got a family, you’ve got to be concerned about them. True. And there are some pleasures in life. Exactly right. And of all the people who ought to know how to enjoy themselves and have fun ought to be Christians. So let me ask you a question. Will you be honest about this? And it may be a little difficult. Now, you see, here’s what we do. Immediately, we go into action. Our mind flicks on rationalization and we just start rationalizing all over ourselves. And let’s just wait a minute. Now, just think about this and don’t say, well, but you got to make a living. You got to do this. You see, when you put the but in there, what you’re saying is God hold it. Now, listen. What is it that you are occupied with above everything else? What occupies your thinking? Whatever is occupying my mind and I have given, I have surrendered, I have yielded to that area of my life to say that is important above everything else by time, by thought, and by desire, that is God in your life. Now, With that in mind, let’s go to Cain and Abel, because here are two fellows, the first two brothers we find in the Scriptures, and both of them came to worship God. But one of them made three mistakes, and it’s the three mistakes we certainly do not want to make in our life. So you know the story of… Cain coming with his crops and Abel coming with a living sacrifice, an animal. Somebody says, well, that’s not fair because he was the farmer and he was the shepherd. And if God said bring a sacrifice, they ought to bring what they have. You see, you and I can’t tell God what’s fair. It’s very evident that God gave them a command about their worship. And you see, Cain made three mistakes. The same three mistakes thousands of years later that people are making today. And you can’t blame any of it on God. You just have to face the hard cold facts. What were the mistakes that he made? You see, his worship wasn’t true. And very evidently it wasn’t true was the fact of his attitude. When the Lord said to him, Cain, you know, that sacrifice is not in keeping with what I’ve taught your parents and what they’ve taught you. You know better than that. Instead of saying, well, Lord, I want you to forgive me for that. I forgot that. Or I’ll swap off my crops to my brother Abel and I’ll bring a sacrifice. The Bible says he got upset. He got angry with God and his countenance failed. Because he couldn’t take correction. He wanted to do it his way. It was a reflection upon him. He felt rejected. And the many, many emotional feelings that come out of this fourth chapter of Genesis. But there are three things I want you to get in your own heart and examine for your own life. The first one is this. False worship always assumes that God is different than what he really is. False worship always assumes that God is different from what he really is. That’s why people can come to church and live like the devil all week long and they can come in on Sunday morning or Sunday night and either bring a Bible with them or come without one and they can sit down and they can stand up and sing when we sing and pray when we pray or at least bow their heads and be nice and reverent and religious and go out and worship God. There is no way to worship God whom we do not know. And to assume that God is something he is not results in false worship. Now I want you to turn, if you will, for a moment to Deuteronomy chapter 4. And I want to read a pretty good portion of this because I think it says something to us that we do well to take note of. And let me tell you what’s happening in Deuteronomy chapter 4. Moses, before he dies, before the Lord takes him, is giving the last commands before they cross Jordan into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua. Now, this is unproven leadership, and so he’s giving them some commands. But there’s some things in this fourth chapter that I think you and I need to reexamine because many of God’s people today drift away. Now, we have the idea because God doesn’t send bolts of lightning down every time we have a thunderstorm and kill off all the lost folks that God couldn’t be very displeased. I want you to read this passage, and he hasn’t changed his mind. You know why he hasn’t changed his mind from Deuteronomy 4? Because the whole of Deuteronomy talks about the character of God. Now listen, if he is who he says he is, he is immutable. That is, he is absolutely unchanging in every facet. Now, he works in different generations a different way, but that doesn’t change his character. Now listen to what he says. And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform in order that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. He says, now what I’m getting ready to tell you is to help you do well and enjoy what God’s provided. And he says, you shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal Peor. For all the men who followed Baal Peor, the Lord your God has destroyed them from among you. Now go back, if you will, to Numbers chapter 25 for a moment. Because this is what he’s referring to. In chapter 25 of Numbers, at a place called Peor, listen, while Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot. with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. That is, these Moabite women invited these Israelite men over to the sacrifice of their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry against Israel. And the reason is because their worship involved prostitution. And the Lord said to Moses, take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the Lord so that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel. Now I won’t go into all the details except read verse 9. And those who died by the plague were 24,000 leaders. Somebody says that doesn’t seem very fair. You know why it doesn’t seem very fair? Because we assume that God is like he is not. Now you see, we don’t like to face the facts. God said he hates idolatry and he was willing to wipe out 24,000 men. He said, and listen, they weren’t enemies, they were their own people. And when people said, you know what, don’t give me this bit about God. He wiped out 24,000 people at his own command. How do you say that’s a God of love? Because God was looking out for their children, their children’s children, the testimony, the witness of the nation of Israel because they’re a chosen people. So that we’re the ones who’ve undermined the law of God. He didn’t mean that. He meant exactly what he said. Let’s go back with that in mind to say, are we idolatrous? Are we pouring our life into things that are more preeminent than God? Are we overflowing and giving of ourselves to something other than God? Is He first or is He not? Are we occupied with anything more than we are occupied with a holy, righteous, loving, gentle, kind, sweet, everlasting Father? And if we are… We are guilty of idolatry in the eyes of God. And you can reason all you want to reason. It won’t change God’s mind one bit. You know what God’s doing in the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy? Protecting the nation of Israel lest they destroy themselves. And their future. And you see, one of the reasons we perform false worship is because we assume that God is what He is not. We assume that God is a sweet, loving Heavenly Father up in heaven who is looking at all the wonderful ways that He can help us out. And we get in trouble, we pull the emergency cord, or we push a button or pick up the phone and say, Dear God, I’m in trouble. Oh, help me. And then we turn our back on Him for the rest of the week. He’s just somebody sitting on the emergency button. And when you need him, you push the button. If you don’t need him, don’t call him. Assuming that God is like he is not. That’s what Cain did. His idea about God was totally removed, that he’s righteous and holy. And God said, I require a blood sacrifice for sin. Cain said, well, I don’t know that it’s that important. As if God condescended to meet whatever is necessary to meet my particular desires or wants or whatever is convenient for me. God doesn’t operate on the basis of convenience, but on the basis of His law. If He operated any other way but on the basis of His law, we’d never be able to tell what He’s going to do next. The second mistake, the second error in false worship is this. We don’t realize how important worship is to God. Let me ask you something. As a father, what do you really want from your children above everything else? When you sift through all the junk, don’t you really just want their love and their respect and you want them to honor you as their parents and know that you have their love and respect too? isn’t that really sufficient for a father? You don’t want their money. You don’t want their possessions. You may want them to succeed in life, and that’s natural, but what do you want personally from them? Wouldn’t you be satisfied just to know that your kids love you, think you’re number one, the greatest dad, the greatest mom in the world? As long as my kids think that about me, I don’t want anything else they’ve got. What does God want from us? Well, what does he need from us? He doesn’t need anything from us. Because you see, God not only is self-sufficient, He is absolutely and totally so sufficient that He provides all the needs of all the people who live in all the places in all the world. So He doesn’t need anything from us. But what does He want? I can tell you what we think He wants. We think He wants our service because we give Him that rather than worship Him. We think He needs our money so we give Him that rather than worship Him. It is amazing. What we pawn off on God. Rather than give him the one thing he wants. What does he want from us? He just wants us to love him. And praise him. And worship him. And make him number one. And acknowledge him. And obey him. Because we respect him so much. Believe him so completely. Honor him so totally. That we never question whatever he says to be right. But you see, you can’t have that kind of relationship as long as you rationalize and tolerate sin. If worship is an outpouring, now watch this, if worship is an overflowing, if worship is an occupation with him, I cannot be occupied with anything when I have a conflict within me And I am diverted by a divided mind. How can I be occupied with a holy God when while I’m trying to be occupied with him, the Holy Spirit keeps popping this thing up in my life over here and say, before you can do that, you’ve got to get that straightened out. You see? It’s not right. And the third evidence I think here of false worship is this. We assume sin to be less serious than it is. Now, Cain came to God, but you see, his whole attitude was wrong. First of all, he wasn’t going to do it the way God said do it. And second, he was full of himself because as soon as God tried to correct him, what does he do? But he becomes angry toward God, his countless faults. He just has himself a big self-pity party. That’s what he does. And the Lord said… Cain, your countenance is showing your angry heart. And then he gives them a warning, and you need to mark this one down. Verse 7, watch this. If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? That is, if you’re doing what’s right, you’re going to be happy. You’re going to be joyous. And if you do not do well, sin, listen, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you. Your rebellious, angry spirit is going to get you if you don’t shape up. He says, but you must master your attitude. Now you see, now watch this. God said, Cain, you better straighten that out. Because sin is crouching at your door. And if you don’t bring it under control, you’re going to do something that you’re going to regret. And God was right. He didn’t just get angry with Abel. He murdered him. He didn’t kill him by accident. He murdered him. It wasn’t third degree. It was first degree murder. Because you see, he assumes sin to be less serious than it is. Now listen, isn’t this the whole basis of our problem? We assume sin to be less serious than it is because we do something, we look and say, don’t see any evidence of any consequences. God isn’t punishing me. God isn’t striking me dead. So we say, well, I think I’ll try it again. And what happens? After a while, we rationalize our sin. We just assume. After all, you know as well as I do what we say. Everybody’s doing it. Everybody’s got their problem. We just go right down the line. But the problem is we can’t worship God. Until we recognize that in His eyes, God absolutely, divinely hates, despises sin to the point that He’s promised to destroy every single evidence of it on the face of this earth. You want to know what God thinks about sin? Read the 20th chapter of Revelation. You want to know what God thinks about sin, how serious it is? Read Revelation chapter 6 through 19. You see… Worship is false until I’m able to recognize who God really is. And until I’m willing to get in a relationship with Him that is right. And until I’m willing to see sin as it is and before a holy God offer Him a clean, yielded spirit. Then I can learn how to worship God.

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Thank you for listening to today’s podcast titled False Worship. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.