“but you must master it”
“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:7)
At the beginning of the New Year, the whole family gathered at my brother's house to worship God first. Three generations of family members, my fathers’ generations, my generations and my children’s generation, gathered together to sing praises to God in Korean and English, and then my cousin pastor first spoke the Word of God from the Old Testament Joshua 1:9 and then my father pastor proclaimed the Word of God from the New Testament 2 Corinthians 5:14-17. As I meditate on these two sermons again, I think that there is a common message that God speaks to our whole family on January 1, 2020. Although two pastors proclaimed the Word of God from two different texts, I believe that in God’s sovereignty God used both of them and their two different sermons to give God's message to our whole family. I personally summarized that God's message as follow: 'As we are new creations in Christ, we must not commit sin against God by living according to the flesh. In order to do that, we must fight sin. We are to be strong, courageous, and not be terrified and discouraged as God commands. The reason is because the Lord our God has promised to be with us wherever we go.'
In today's passage Genesis 4:7, the Bible says: “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Cain, son of Adam and his wife Eve (v. 1), was very angry (v. 5). The reason is because God did not regard for Cain and his offering (v. 5). More precisely, Cain was very angry because the Lord had regard for his younger brother Abel and for his Abel’s offering but not for him and for his offering (vv. 4-5). At that time, God said to Cain, “What are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?” (v. 6) As I meditated on this, I remembered what God said to Prophet Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” (Jon. 4:4), “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” (v. 9) Why was Jonah angry twice? The first reason is because God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon the people of Nineveh (3:10). Why then did God relent? It was because God saw the deeds of the people of Nineveh that they turned from their wicked way (v. 10). That was why God relented concerning the calamity but His servant Jonah didn’t turn his will toward the people of Nineveh. That was why Jonah was angry. Here, I thought about why we are angry with God. I think it is because we refuse to humbly accept the sovereign will of God in faith and try to accomplish our will (“my will”) to God. For example, I think we can get angry with God when God does not deliver us in our adversity and suffering even though we earnestly pray to Heavenly Father and expect Him to do so. But God asks us, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” (Jon. 4:4) At this God's question we may say, ‘Yes. I have a good reason to be angry, even to death’ (v. 9). In other words, we think there is a good reason for us to be angry with God. But in God's eyes, there is no reason for us to be angry with Him. In God's eyes, Prophet Jonah had no reason to be angry with God. Although God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon the people of Nineveh because they repented, God’s servant Prophet Jonah refused to turn his own will and wanted God to bring the calamity upon the people of Nineveh. That was why Jonah went out from the city, made a shelter from himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the Nineveh city (4:5). How could Jonah, the instrument of God, refuse to turn his will when God turned his will? This reminds me Romans 9:20: “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?’” Who are we to dare not to humbly accept God's sovereign will in faith and to carry our will to God? “Does not the potter have the right to make out the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” (v. 21) I think a reason is because we didn’t learn the Jesus’ prayer on Gethsemane: “… My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Mt. 26:39). In other words, we have not learned the prayer of Jesus, “Yet not as I will, but as you will” (v. 39). That’s why we want to accomplish our own will even to God. In the meantime, I think we are busy offering our prayers to God like this, “may this cup be taken from me” (v. 39). That is why we resent God and even get angry at Him when God does not answer our earnest prayers. Like Jonah who was extremely happy because God provided a plant, made it grow up over him to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort (Jon. 4:6) but was angry enough to die (v. 9) because God provided a worm to chew the plant so that it withered (v. 7), I think we are extremely happy when God answers our earnestly prayers and ease our discomfort but we get very angry when we suffer again.
After God said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?” (Gen. 4:6), this is what He said to Cain: “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it” (v. 7). As I meditate on this verse, I came to think of three things:
First, Cain did not do right in God’s eyes.
Look at Genesis 4:7a – “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? …” Cain did not do what was right in God's eyes, and God did not accept his offering. If we apply this to us, I think that God does not accept worship that is given to God without doing what is right in God's eyes. In other words, the worship that God receives must have a life of worship that is doing what is right in God's eyes. And in that life of worship, there must be doing good and doing right in God's eyes. I think of Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The purpose why the Creator God created us new in Christ Jesus is for us to do good works. That is, we are new creations in Christ for good works (2 Cor. 5:17). Therefore, we must worship God as we do good works as new creations in Christ. And in doing that good work we must offer our lives. I also learned this lesson from the movie “A Hidden Life” I saw with my wife this Tuesday. An Austrian soldier Franz Jägerstätter, who confronted Nazi Germany for his convictions during World War II, met his wife before he was executed by the German Nazis, who told him: 'Do the right thing.’ For Franz Jägerstätter, what was right was that even though a Catholic bishop quoted Romans 13:1, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established …”, he did not (can't) obey his wicked leader, Hitler. As a result, he was executed. After watching this movie, I came home with my wife and we talked about two things. The first one was my father-in-law. I told my wife that my father-in-law, her father, was like the main character Franz Jägerstätter in the movie, died for doing the Lord's work silently in the midst of adversity and suffering for his conviction. The second One is Jesus. I told my wife that after watching the movie, I was reminded of the death of Jesus on the cross as I watched the hero eventually die. I was instructed that we Christians, the disciples of Jesus Christ, are not to spare even our lives for doing good and doing the right thing. That was what Apostle Paul did. Look at Acts 20:24 – “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.” Like Apostle Paul, we should consider our lives worth nothing to us in fulfilling our mission that the Lord gave to us.
Second, sin was crouching at the door of Cain's heart.
Look at Genesis 4:7ab – “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door ….” When I think of the word “crouching”, it reminds me the Chinese movie called “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” The word "crouching" reminds me an image in which a tiger or a lion is quietly crouching down in order to catch and kill a prey. Likewise, if we do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door of our hearts. As long as we do not live in Christ Jesus, doing good works and the right thing for the Lord as His new creation, sin is crouching at the door of our hearts and will swallow us to sin against God. And now, not only Jesus is knocking at the door of our hearts (Rev. 3:20), but Satan also at the door of our hearts like a tiger or a lion crouching at the door of our hearts to provoke our old nature and commit sins against God. A good example of this is in Genesis 3. The serpent, who was more crafty than any of the wild animals (v. 1) asked the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (v. 1) “The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die'” (vv. 2-3). As I meditated on these verses, I compared it with what God said to Adam in Genesis 2:16-17: “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” God clearly commanded this to only “the man,” Adam. But when we look at Genesis 3:2-3, Adam’s wife Eve knew the command of God as well. Adam must have taught Eve God's commands. But what is interesting is that even though God told Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (2:16-17), Eve told the serpent “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die'” (3:2-3). What are the differences? First, even though God commanded Adam, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (2:17) Eve told the serpent “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it” (3:3). In other words, God commanded Adam to “you must not eat,” but Eve told the serpent not only “You must not eat” but also “you must not touch it”. Second, God told Adam “you will ‘surely’ die” (2:17), but Eve said to the serpent, “you will die” (3:3). But the serpent told Eve that “You will not surely die” (3:4). This shows that the serpent knew more about the God's command to Adam (2:17) than Eve. This cunning Satan knows God's Word better than we do. And Satan is deceiving us and make us to sin by either adding to (Rev. 22:18) or subtracting from (Deut. 4:2) the Word of God that he knows better. So sin desires to have us (Gen. 4:7). Sin wants to rule over us. The big problem, though, is that we have lost the ability to rule over sin. In other words, our big problem is that we are not overcoming sin (v. 7). So Cain killed his younger brother Abel even after he heard the Word of God (vv. 6-8).
Why are we not overcoming sin? Why do we not rule over sin but allow sin to rule over us? In particular, why do we let sins invade our homes so that we sin against each other and sin against God? How can we fight sin and win? I would like to think about three things based on my father pastor’s sermon and my cousin pastor’s sermon that I heard yesterday and want to try to apply to myself and our families.
First, we must keep in mind that we are new creations in Christ.
Look at 2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Our old man died on the cross with Jesus. The “one (Jesus) died for all and therefore all died” (v. 14). “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24). Therefore, we should clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and should not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature (Rom. 13:14). We must put to death whatever belongs to our earthly nature: “sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5). We should not recognize anyone according to the flesh (2 Cor. 5:16). The reason is because the Holy Spirit dwells in us and we are no longer under the control of the sinful nature, but under the control of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9). Therefore, we should no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who died and rose again on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:15).
Second, we must believe that our God is with us wherever we go.
Look at Joshua 1:9 – “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” We believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for us and rose again. We believe that Jesus already triumphed over Satan and death on the cross. Therefore, we are fighting with ourselves, the world, sin, Satan, and death with assurance of victory. We fight with Immanuel faith. In other words, we are fighting spiritual warfare by believing that God is with us. Clearly God said, “for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (Jos. 1:9). Therefore, we are strong, courageous, fearless, and not discouraged as God's commands us (v. 9). And we have always dedicated ourselves to reading the Word of God, the Bible, and meditating on it day and night, and keeping all that is written in it (v. 8). Although we may not live up to our devotion many times, we should be strong and bold in keeping with all of God's commandments, not turn from it to the right or to the left, believing that God is with us (v. 7).
Third, we must master sin by doing what is right.
Look at Genesis 4:7 – “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” If we do not do what is right, sin will crouch at our door like a crouched lion. The reason is because sin wants to rule over us. But as new creation in Jesus Christ, we are those who are not ruled by sin but by the Lord. And when we are ruled by the Lord, we hear the voice of the Lord knocking at the door. We open the door for Him so that He can come in and eats with us, and we eat with the Lord (Rev. 3:20). And we only hear the voice of the Shepherd and follow Him (Jn. 10:3-5). Therefore, we do not listen to the cunning of Satan (Gen. 3:1-5). We do not fall for Satan's deception (v. 13). We resist Satan's temptations and deceptions with the Word of God and obey His truth. We enjoy freedom of heart because our conscience is healthy every day by obeying the truth and doing what is right in the midst of adversity, suffering, and persecution.
The New Year 2020 is here. During the New Year's Day whole family worship, I received the word of God centered on Joshua 1:9 and 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17 through two pastors whom God loved. Although two pastors preached two sermons from two different Bible texts, I think there is a common message from God to all of us. I think the message is this: ‘As we are new creations in Christ, we must not live like the old man, following the flesh and our sinful nature, and commit sins against God. In order to do that, we must fight sin. We are to be strong, courageous, fearless, and not discourage as God commands. This is because our God has promised to be with us wherever we go. Since Christ’s love compels us (2 Cor. 5:14), we should not be strong, courageous, fearless, and not discouraged as God commands. And wherever you go, we believe that God is with us, and we pray that we all be victorious over our sins by faith.
“Encamped along the hills of light, Ye Christian soldiers, rise, And press the battle ere the night Shall veil the glowing skies. Against the foe in vales below Let all our strength be hurled; Faith is the victory, we know, That overcomes the world. Faith is the victory! Faith is the victory! Oh, glorious victory, That overcomes the world” (Korean Hymn 397, “Encamped Along the Hills of Light”, verse 1 and chorus),
Pastor James Kim