Dr MJ du Plessis Reformed Church Bellville 20 March 2005 (morning) Scripture NIV

REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 20 MARCH 2005: MORNING SERVICE

Sing before service: Psalm 9:1+8; 59:1; 119:17

Let us commence this meeting with God by declaring openly to one another and to God:

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Beloved grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of god the Holy Spirit. Amen

Hymn: 1-1:3
Confession of faith: Apostolic Creed

Ibelieve in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into Hell, the third day He rose again from the dead, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, a holy catholic* Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.
Amen

After the Law we thank god for the forgiveness of our sins with Hymn 5-3:2.
Law
Hymn: 5-3:2
Prayer:

Doxology
Worship
Confession of sins
- Forgiveness
Thank
Prayer for the need of the congregation for the church, the authorities and the sinful world and appeal to God's promises.
General prayer
Enlightenment from the Holy Spirit for the sake of the ministry of the Word.

Psalm: 2:2

Scripture: Genesis 4
Text: Genesis 4:10

The Lord said: "What have you done? Listen! Your brothers' blood cries out to me from the ground."

Here we read of the first deed of one man to another where blood flowed and somebody dies.

This deed is not only history, the deed was also prophetic of the terrible manner in which mankind would now show its depravity.
The deed shows how man changed after the fall into sin because this taint of cruelty and ungovernableness still runs in mankind today.
Look only at the murder and violence we suffer in our own country.

We consider God's revelation in the two pools of blood that cry out from the earth:

1.         The blood of vengeance.
2.         The blood of forgiveness.

1.         The blood of vengeance
In this event Cain did something repugnant to the Lord.

Something with his sacrifice was unrighteous.
Some interpreters of the Scripture say that Cain did not sacrifice out of piety.
He sacrificed out of habit and not out of faith. That is why it is said in Hebrews 11:4 that Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.

What is clear is that Cain was angered by the Lord not accepting his offering.

His anger did not come and go.
He remained angry for a long time for we read that the Lord spoke to him about it.

We may think that after the Fall into sin the Lord withdrew Himself from man, but that is not the case. God continued to have a personal communion with all the people.

The Lord came to Cain and asked him "Why is your face downcast?"
This led to Cain speaking to Abel about the matter.
This discussion ended in an argument and Cain murdering his brother Abel.

Again the Lord spoke to Cain. We see now how sin caused man to degenerate in a short time.

Cain tries to circumvent the Lord with lying words as if he has no knowledge of the matter the Lord speaks of. It is as if he is defying the heavenly Judge.
The Lord then confronts him with his deed: "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground!"

With these words: "What have you done?" the Lord reveals that He knows everything that happened.

The question implies plainly the murder of Abel.
The Lord then explains the implication of the murder - the blood of Abel cries to the Lord to judge this crime.

It is remarkable that the blood cries out from the ground - the ground that was cursed because of mankind.

The ground is witness to the sin committed by Cain.
The Lord's second visit to Cain was not like the first one visit in love to comfort him.
It was a visit of judgment. God comes to pronounce His punishment of the sin and to execute the punishment. We may call it a visit of vengeance.
Hence the charge that God lays on Cain is followed by the words: "Now you are under a curse …!"

The Lord reveals here that nobody can escape His Counsel of punishment, because He is all-knowing and nothing escapes His eye. And nothing escapes His maintenance of the law with which He avenges unrighteousness.

2. The blood of forgiveness

Where do we fit in this revelation by God?

It should be clear that the Lord reveals here that some day He will call every person to account for his sins.
The unrighteousness we do each day cries out, like Abel's blood, to God that He must avenge the unrighteousness.
The issue is rather acute, especially when one reads Hebrews 12 with it where it is written that Abel's blood was innocently spilt for his brother.
In fact, God's holiness demands that He must punish it.

We find the solution of this tension in Hebrews 12:22-24 where the following is written:

"But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel".

The purpose of God has moved on.

We are no longer with the first sins.
Actually, we are not even with today's sins, the Lord lets us move on to the throne of judgment of God where Cain stood that day.
What is God going to say to us? How will the curse sound that He is to pronounce over us?

But we hear something different, God says:

"You have come to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant and the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel".

See the great contrast - the difference the Lord tells us is:

You are standing before Me in the blood of My Son. The blood of My Son cries out to me your names in salvation.
Abel's blood cried out to Me for vengeance.
I have no curse to pronounce over you as I did with Cain because the blood of My Son cries out to Me to absolve you from the punishment of your sins.
As Abel's blood was on Cain so the blood of My Son is on you - but the effect is radically different.

The difference is that the death of God's Son was in substitution. That is what Mediator means - Jesus Christ in our place.

Abel's death was not in substitution - although it was innocent.
But Jesus' death was different - he substituted for us.
The multitude of people who crucified Him called out that day that Jesus' blood should be on their heads and the heads of their children. With that they meant that they accepted responsibility for crucifying Jesus. When called to account by God they would be able to justify their conduct.

What they did not know then was that the Lord used them as prophets.

The blood of Jesus was on them, because the blood of Jesus cries out for forgiveness for sinners - as they are.
That is why the blood of Jesus is our guarantee of the forgiveness of our guilt and of life eternal.

We can truly say that the blood of Jesus comes over us truly personally, because before His death Jesus prays and says that not one of those the Father has given Him was lost.

His blood therefore calls out forgiveness of sins over each one of us by name.
Abel's blood cried out to heaven.
Jesus' blood cries out not only to heaven but it resounds also through the hall of justice of God and over the entire new earth.
It cries out that He died for us. It confirms that we share in His resurrection because He conquered death for us.
This is also the meaning of the Holy Communion we often celebrate. At those occasions the Lord confirms all this to us with tangible signs.

There is something that the blood of Abel that cried out from the ground cries out to us also:

That is: repent!
Note that each time the Lord visited Cain He called on Cain to repent. This applies to us too.
We must know what we did wrong and truly confess it to God. We must not persist in our sin as Cain did.

Listen to the words of the blood of our Redeemer who assures us that his blood was spilt so that we in the moment of our judgment will be absolved by God and be justified.

We must now already live like people over whom the blood of Jesus Christ cries out the peace of salvation.
Amen

Closing Prayer
Hymn: 2-2:3

The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you;
The Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.
Amen

Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
20 March 2005 (morning)
Scripture NIV