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Damaged Dust
What Is Possible for Fallen Man?
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church, California, USA
Delivery: 2006-05-14 06:07Z
Publication: LastGenerationTheology.org 2006-05-14 06:07Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.lastgenerationtheology.org/lgt/doc/1ant/kir-dust.php
The first book of the Bible starts with four stories. You have the creation account in Genesis one and two, but then come stories of the Fall, Cain and Abel, The Flood, and the Tower of Babel. Afterwards, stories of Abraham and his progeny.
These first four stories are fascinating and pivotal material. They offer universal truth. No Jews yet; just humans. What’s more, all four of these stories have to do with human responsibility.
At the Fall, Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent; both were actually evading responsibility and blaming God for their poor choices. The story of the flood involves Noah and the responsibility to build the ark and save as many as were willing. The tower of Babel shows that as soon as men had the technology to build tall structures they chose to rebel against God. They used their ingenuity irresponsibly. But we turn our attention for this hour to the history of Cain and Abel
The Story
Genesis 4:1-15:
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of 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. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. 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. And 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. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? And He said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from Thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
The story is sad, because Eve thought that her first child, the first human child, might be the Deliverer, but he chose instead to become the first murderer. Notice the descriptions. The first son was Cain, a tiller of the ground. Working with the soil is very good for your character. So Cain had good advantages. The second son was Abel, a keeper of sheep. He worked more closely with animals, living creatures. Abel knew the lessons of the shepherd.
Both came to worship God, surely on a regular basis. Cain in these earlier occasions must also have brought animal sacrifices just as God had prescribed. But there was a difference in attitude between the two sons. Abel thought God merciful and just, but Cain chafed at His requirements. When his crops came in he determined that instead of bringing the sacrifices with blood, to offer the bloodless produce of the field. He determined to bring the offering, not that God had outlined, but that he, Cain, had chosen.
The divine response was predictable. God accepted Abel’s offering as on previous occasions; fire fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. But on the altar Cain had built, where lay his bananas, kiwis, and pomegranates, there silently they remained; no token of acceptance flashed from heaven.
Christ’s Blood or Human Merit?
Cain’s offering had lacked the essential component that the blood of Abel’s offering had illustrated: trust in the promised sacrifice of the future Redeemer. Cain’s offering, in contrast, pointed to his own labors, his own works, his own merits.
And yet, what merits could Cain bring? What merits did he have to bring?
Those who feel no need of the blood of Christ, who feel that without divine grace they can by their own works secure the approval of God, are making the same mistake as did Cain. If they do not accept the cleansing blood, they are under condemnation (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 73).
When Cain insisted upon presenting to God a bloodless offering, he was denying the need of the blood, the life, of Christ. Without that, what then was he presenting? His own works. Without Christ’s blood, there was no cleansing to be had. Bananas are nice; but they can’t cleanse from sin.
The truth is that Cain had in his nature nothing meritorious to present to God. After all, his nature (and ours) is fallen. We are damaged dust. What can we become apart from Christ? We have no power to regenerate ourselves. We do not tend upward toward the divine, but downward, toward the satanic. Without Christ Cain could only tend downward; he could only live down to the most destructive elements in his nature.
In verses five to seven, God takes the initiative with the unreasonable man. He appeals to Cain. Rather than condemning him for his disobedience, his rebellious, bloodless, offensive offering, God urges Cain to come in the specified way. But Cain is angry, the plea goes unheeded. Listen closely:
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.
Here is a remarkable text. We actually have here the first appearance of the chief word for sin (“hattaat”) in the Bible.
Cain had nothing to be depressed or angry about. He knew God’s requirements. He knew, we may be sure, the symbolism built into the sacrificial system. God reiterates His readiness to accept Cain’s offering when he makes it with blood. But to expect, knowing His requirements, to function independently and apart from God—to deny one’s need of Christ—would be sin.
Sin here, as in some places in the Greek Scriptures (Romans 7:17, 20), is represented almost as a living creature. What is sin’s location here? At the doorway. Sin is like a predatory cat, crouching at the doorway, ready to pounce.
But notice the expectation of God. Knowing precisely the nature Cain had, the tendency toward the satanic, the inevitable—apart from divine power—downward race to self-destruction, God urges Cain. “And thou shalt rule over him.” No matter how apparently severe the pull of sin, it is not irresistible. The divine expectation for fallen man, is that he should master his tendencies to evil in spite of their relentless clamor for fulfillment. His disordered human organism, result of the disobedience of the first human parents, not only need not rule him, but in God’s expert analysis, should be overcome. He stands ready as instantly to empower us as He was ready instantly to empower Cain.
Again, in Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 73 Heaven offers this extraordinary line affirming the possibility that is in man: “The holy life of Abel testified against Satan’s claim that it is impossible for man to keep God’s law.” Just as Satan seeks to remove all evidence in favor of God’s goodness, Cain wants to remove it from his presence. His anger begins to center on Abel precisely because of Abel’s character.
Cain wants to evade responsibility. He disagrees with God. But he cannot change God’s attitude. Instead, he strikes out and kills Abel.
God comes, even after this heinous act, offering opportunity and space for repentance. “And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?” God knew where he was. But Cain is offered opportunity to take responsibility for his actions.
Whereas Adam and Eve had denied responsibility, claiming that they sinned because of factors outside of their control, Cain does not deny personal responsibility. He denies moral responsibility. He acted as a free agent, but he does not see why he should be held accountable for his actions. He as much as says to God, “Abel’s whereabouts are none of Your business.” God had come to him very gently, with a question. Now, dripping with disdain and disrespect, he throws a question back at God: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain denies accountability to God and to his own fellow humans.
Cain here is echoing the character of Satan. He will be his own law; he has no need of God’s law. Hence God’s warning in 4:7: “Sin is at your door.” God was telling Cain, as He tells all of us, ultimately, we have to make a choice. He may choose selfishness or unselfishness; there is no fence to sit on. The following verses offer God’s sentencing of Cain.
Anthropology
Little is more important to our vision of the relationship between God and man than our understanding of what is possible for fallen humanity. What does deity expect of damaged dust?
Inspiration makes strong statements about the possibility of truth. Truth matters. For example,
Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth (John 17:17).
And again,
We cannot be sanctified by error (In Heavenly Places, p. 145).
Truth sanctifies; error is incapable of sanctifying. Does what we believe really make a difference? This is a crucial question. If what we believe does not matter, then most of us need to replan our lives and careers. Let’s put it another way: Does one’s personal understanding of how things work affect one’s behavior?
It does. Whether it is a mundane matter, or a deep, metaphysical matter. You are trying to take apart a box at home. You have a Phillips head screwdriver and a slotted screw. What should you do? Most of us understand that in order to extract the screw we will need to replace the Phillips screwdriver with a slotted or flat screwdriver.
The radical Muslims who engage in suicide/homicide bombing, like the hijackers who flew the aircraft into the towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, do so because of a belief system. They may view themselves as acting heroically for Allah, expecting that after their suicide they will be rewarded in paradise. Or, they may have come to feel themselves pressed down in life by factors outside of their power, and attain a sense at last of being in control only in the fleeting hours in which they act toward their choice to carry out the suicide/homicide attack. Either way, the feature that makes the difference in their behavior is precisely their personally held beliefs. There are Palestinian Christians, but there is no record yet of a Palestinian Christian suicide/homicide bomber. Yes indeed, what you believe very largely determines what you do or don’t do.
Let us make the case even stronger. Consider drug addiction, in particular, alcoholism. The major paradigm by which it is viewed in the Western world is as a disease. However, to view alcoholism as akin to a disease has the effect of denying the essential moral responsibility of the person who uses liquor. If such use is a matter of one being victim to a disease, personal accountability is lessoned.
But what if such behaviors are actually mostly influenced by people’s pre-existing values? Do some groups encourage almost group-wide moderation and self-control? One researcher found that Irish Americans were seven times more likely to be alcoholic as were those of a Mediterranean decent—Italians, Greeks, and some Jews. (I can get away with pointing this out, since my genetics are a motley combination of Scots-Irish and German.)
In fact, Jews are sharply underrepresented among problem drinkers. Researchers found that among 88 respondents, both practicing and non-practicing Jews, none were problem drinkers. Compiling their data, these researchers determined that the actual rate of alcoholism among American Jews was probably much lower than even 1%, perhaps close to only a tenth of a percent.
Native American populations tend to have extraordinary problems with alcoholism. I have been on reservations in Nevada where it was not possible, along the roadway, to find a space where discarded liquor containers were not visible. And yet, Chinese and Japanese Americans, who have the same physical reactions to alcohol as Native Americans, based on alcohol related crimes, display the very least alcohol abuse among all American groups.
In New York City, the Cantonese Chinese have the same minimal alcohol use. One researcher examined the police blotters for Chinatown for all years from 1933 to 1949, more than 17,500 arrests. During that period, not one report of drunkenness was found in any arrest charges.
Now here’s the point. Neither of these groups (Jews or Chinese) define alcoholism according to the disease model. Both of these groups have strong beliefs that define how they view the world. The Chinese’ strong drive for achievement, and the Jews’ strong view of the potential of man decidedly impact the way they behave. Both groups refuse to offer any public sanction or acceptance of alcohol abuse. Such behavior is strongly proscribed. They simply refuse to accept loss-of-control drinking. In contrast, the dominant religion in Ireland is Roman Catholicism, which does little to forbid alcohol use. And so we understand the seven-times more likely figure mentioned before. (For the 36 page long article listing these studies, see Stanton Peele, A Moral Vision of Addiction. How People’s Values Determine Whether They Become and Remain Addicts, accessed 2006-05-14 17:29Z.)
What you believe, both, at the level of the mundane as well as worldview level, impacts your behavior. If you grow up thinking that it is normal and accepted behavior for humans to spend their lives being drunk and killing brain cells, your expectations about the world point you in a certain direction. But this does not guarantee your arrival. Heaven is ready to intervene. Heaven is ready to change what may be some of our most basic ideas about God and sin and righteousness, and possibility—where divinity is combined with our humanity.
These points aare not brought up to give excuses for evil behavior, but to remove them. Whatever background you were raised in, whatever situation you find yourself in now, Heaven is ready to move the universe if that is what it takes to move your understanding to life-changing clarity. Knowledge is not our savior, Jesus is. But He intends that His gospel shall change His people. The nail prints in His hands are a call appealing not only to our commitment but to our willingness to study.
Right Thinking
We are no mere immutable products of our environment or heredity. We are not creatures who cannot change. If we are made in God’s image, and are truly only shadows of His image, it is also true that we are not less than shadows of the divine image. If God is free and we are made in His image, then we are free. And even in our fallen nature Heaven has ordained that the right exercise of free choice can change us.
The Bible tells a great truth. Speaking of man in general, God says:
As he [man] thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7).
You can see this over and over again. One example is found in the 12 spies. Returning from the land of Canaan, they reported that the cities were walled to the heavens, that they, God’s scouts, were like grasshoppers in comparison to the large, practically giant warriors already in the land ( Numbers 14). But fortunately for God and His plans, not everyone thought that way. Caleb and Joshua thought very differently.
Consider these extraordinary ideas about how what we think matters:
Always act from principle, never from impulse. Temper the natural impetuosity of your nature with meekness and gentleness. Indulge in no lightness or trifling. Let no low witticism escape your lips. Even the thoughts are not to be allowed to run riot. They must be restrained, brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Let them be placed upon holy things. Then, through the grace of Christ, they will be pure and true.
We need a constant sense of the ennobling power of pure thoughts. The only security for any soul is right thinking. As a man ‘thinketh in his heart, so is he.’ Proverbs 23:7. The power of self-restraint strengthens by exercise. That which at first seems difficult, by constant repetition grows easy, until right thoughts and actions become habitual. If we will we may turn away from all that is cheap and inferior, and rise to a high standard; we may be respected by men and beloved of God (Ministry of Healing, p. 491).
We are accountable for our thoughts, and they will shape us. A constant sense of the ennobling power of pure thoughts should be in us. Right thinking is our only security. Self-restraint strengthens as we exercise it. We may so shape our thought life that right thoughts become our habitual privilege. Needless to say, if our thoughts and feelings are right, our character will manifest in the world in a way that truly honors the name of our God.
People will know not only that we’ve been with Jesus, but that we are with Jesus even in this very moment. Such recognition is a powerful agency to testify to the power of the gospel and to appeal to the imagination of the seeker to give his heart over to Christ. But some of us have thought the cost too high. We value sin and its cheapness and we sell powerful privileges, paid for at the cross, for a pot of nasty-tasting porridge. We sell out to sin and give demons opportunity to do creepy things in the citadel of our mind.
Another powerful reference:
As a man ‘thinketh in his heart, so is he.’ Prov. 23:7. Many thoughts make up the unwritten history of a single day; and these thoughts have much to do with the formation of character. Our thoughts are to be strictly guarded; for one impure thought makes a deep impression on the soul. An evil thought leaves an evil impress on the mind. If the thoughts are pure and holy, the man is better for having cherished them. By them the spiritual pulse is quickened, and the power for doing good is increased. And as one drop of rain prepares the way for another in moistening the earth, so one good thought prepares the way for another.
Wrong habits of thought, when once accepted, become a despotic power that fastens the mind as in a grasp of steel.
The thoughts are not to be allowed to run riot. They must be restrained, brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Let them be placed upon holy things. Then, through the grace of Christ, they will be pure and true. (The Faith I Live By, p. 222).
Many thoughts each day modify who and what we are. But we choose them! Even one impure thought—only one—makes a deep impression on the soul. Wrong ways of thinking, once accepted, lead downward to destruction.
Paul also warned of the importance of how we think: “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). The Christian is called to manage his thoughts, to double-check his thinking, to verify the basis for his view of life. We will behave based on what we think is possible.
You Should Rule Over It
Which returns us to the main idea of this message: “You should rule over it.” God, knowing definitely what hereditary and cultivated tendencies were present in Cain, told him that he was a privileged being, that the beautiful possibility before him was victory over sin. Cain could have chosen the path of repentance. But he allowed himself to indulge thoughts that he had been treated unfairly, “I’m a victim” thoughts. He would not exchange these for truth. He wanted to retain the immediate sense of power his thoughts of sin offered him.
What we each face is the exchange option. Satan comes to us, knowing right where we’ve fallen in the past, and he is banking on his deceptive package. He offers us the exchange of immediate gratification of sin for future punishment. The pattern of the unconverted heart is to take the immediate gratification while hoping to escape future consequences.
When one sins there is immediate fear. Like Adam we run away to hide behind the thistle. Fear and shame castrate hope. Sin is the great disempowerer. When God would come searching for us, aiming to recover us, we are found trembling in the darkness, hiding from His goodness and His mercy. Satan tells us that we have gone too far, that God can never take us back. But God is close by, ready to restore us. Cain marinated himself in his feelings of resentment toward God. But we don’t need to do that.
The gap in Satan’s “immediate gratification of sin and pleasure” trap is found once we see his deception. Sin is pleasurable to our sensory-upended nature, but not only sin. In every heart there remains an appreciation for right. Even the evil desire good gifts for their children (Luke 11:13). In every human heart there remains the tracing of the divine image. An Adolph Hitler, a Jeffrey Dahmer, a Bin Laden, can be appealed to as long as his conscience is not yet wholly seared. “Not only intellectual but spiritual power, a perception of right, a desire for goodness, exists in every heart... to attain that ideal which in his inmost soul he accepts as alone worthy, he can find help in but one power. That power is Christ” (Education, p. 29).
Immediate gratification works, you see, not only with sin, but with righteousness. Instead of the momentary pleasure of sin, and its accessories of fear, self-loathing, despair, and hopelessness that follow inevitably in its train, we may experience a sense of God’s immediate approval and blessing. Through right thinking, through the Holy Spirit, we can exchange condemnation and darkness for faith, victory, and joy in God.
When Satan comes up behind you and urges you to JUMP to your doom, as you have at his urging so many times before, and he wields his puppet string controls that have always worked on you before, and instead you turn around, look him straight in the eye, and walk away from the edge, he is powerless.
I want you to realize that Christ is a personal Saviour. Show to the world what He can do even through the weakest of human beings. Work out before the world the principles of righteousness. Obey the commandments. Demonstrate the power of truth. This is the most powerful witness you can bear in favor of the truth. But you are not to do this in your own strength. You are to work in the strength and grace that God gives. Thus you can walk in His footsteps. Cling to the mighty Redeemer, who is also your Elder Brother (Gospel Herald, March 1, 1901).
Yes, be even quicker to trade the momentary pleasures of sin for the immediate gratification of righteousness. Why embark, as you have so many times before, on the train of self-destructive acts? Why give Satan his only pleasure? Resist him and watch him flee.
One of the strongholds of his deceptions is a false conception of what sin is and of what man may do. The view that man is permanently under condemnation and must live under a cloud of guilt all his earthly days is false. It focuses on certain aspects of the human condition, even as it ignores others. Free will, free choice, is ignored. But the will “is the governing power in the nature of man, the power of decision, or of choice. Everything depends on the right action of the will. The power of choice God has given to men; it is theirs to exercise” (Steps to Christ, p. 47). Heaven intervened through Christ to make victory possible so that we should be enabled to rule over sin and the inclination to sin.
It is also dangerous merely to think that men are born neutrally, with dual inclinations, one to evil and one to good. Such is an unrealistic, but most importantly, unbiblical view of man’s nature. The Bible says that although man was created with an original inclination to right, he has “sought out many inventions” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 7:29). That is our heritage. The image of God in us is marred. We are born with weaknesses and tendencies to evil. But through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God desires even this day, even this hour, to retrace His image in us.
Damaged Dust
Cain was wrong to deny moral accountability, and so are we if we imagine that God set up this world and then let Satan break it beyond redeemability. Jesus came here to change me and to change you. When sin comes knocking, even on the door of damaged dust, our Maker tells us, “You should rule over it.” This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. LGT
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