"The Enemy I Invited In" (MP3 Audio)

"The Enemy I Invited In" (Genesis 4:7)

Some of us are engaging in spiritual suicide. We keep the enemy, a foreign invader if you will, tucked closely to our bosoms. We feed it. We provide it shelter. We nourish it from our own resources.

In return, it gains more of our trust and confidence. What we don’t realize is that its ultimate goal is to consume us and, in the end, kill us. The enemy is sin or disobedience to the Lord, and it is of our own creation. Here, in its first explicit mention in Scripture, it is personified. Consider the following four points.

1. Sin (or rebellion against God) is an impersonal force that takes on its own personality and has its own goals and ends. a. Adam, the first man, was given a command by God (Genesis 2:16-17), which he disobeyed (Genesis 3:6). b. Cain, one of Adam’s sons, was also given a commandment by God (Genesis 4:7), which he also disobeyed (Genesis 4:8).
2. The heart is where we cultivate sin. a. Sin begins in the heart (Proverbs 4:23; Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 5:28, 15:19; Mark 7:21-23; James 1:14-15). b. From the heart sin deceives us (Hebrews 3:13). c. The Lord saw what was in Cain’s heart. Lord saw what was in Cain’s heart (Genesis 4:6). d. In Genesis 4:7, when the Lord told Cain that sin “lieth at the door.” The word “lieth” in Old Testament Hebrew is “rabats” (raw-bats). This word means “to crouch” like a lion or some other wild animal preparing to pounce on its prey.
3. The soul that is cut off from God because of sin is considered dead. a. Spiritual death occurs while the body is still living (Colossians 2:13; Ephesians 2:1). b. Cain stated in Genesis 4:14 that he had been cut-off from the very presence of God. i. God called Cain a “fugitive” and “vagabond” in Genesis 4:12. ii. God put it this way in Ezekiel 18:4, “the soul that sinneth shall die.” iii. In New Testament terms, Romans 6:23 reads in part: “the wages of sin is death.”
4. God has made a way for sin to be dealt with. a. The Bible reads in 1st John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The very next verse reads: “If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that His Word has no place in our hearts.” b. God can deliver from sin and bring new life because He is stronger than sin and the sinner (Luke 11:21-23).

“Christ First, Christ Only, Christ Always”