Good morning.  Today we are going to begin a new series titled, CSI, which stands for Crime Scene Investigation.  What we will be doing for the next 6 weeks is looking at different crimes from the Bible, and investigating them to see what it is that we can learn from each of these stories.

As you read the Bible, you find that there are many stories that are criminal in nature, and we are going to take a look at 6 of those, and see what we can learn.  Before we get started this morning, allow me to open our time with a word of prayer.  Let’s Pray!

Well, it should have brought them together but instead it tore them apart.  They both worshipped the same God, they had both offered their God a sacrifice, and that is where it seemed to fall apart.  Cain was a farmer, he toiled in the dirt and raised crops.  His younger brother Abel was a shepherd, and he raised sheep.  And by all indications they were good at what they did.  They were also the first children of Adam and Eve.

So, we have 2 brothers, and they both offered a sacrifice to their God, we don’t know exactly what all their sacrifices involved or didn’t involve.  But the writer of Hebrews makes this statement in Hebrews 11:4.  He writes, “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.”  In other words, Abel’s offering was more acceptable than his brother’s offering.

But what is it that makes one offering more acceptable then another one?  We can make a couple of assumptions from the 2 verses that we do have in Genesis.

Genesis 4:3-4 says that, “At harvest time Cain brought to the LORD a gift of his farm produce, while Abel brought several choice lambs from the best of his flock.”  Now did you catch that?  Cain brought a gift, don’t know what it was, maybe it was brussel spouts, or carrots, or some other vegetable, which would explain a lot.  Able on the other hand brought several choice lambs from the best of his flock.

A gift versus a sacrifice.  Abel brought as a sacrifice not just any lambs but the choice lambs.  And not just choice lambs but choice lambs from the best of his flock.  These lambs were the best of the best.  And Cain simply brought a gift from his garden.

Well the story continues, and the scriptures tell us that God found Abel’s offering acceptable but didn’t accept Cain’s.  And that ticked Cain off, and he reacted by killing his brother.  He took him out in the field and attacked him and took his life.

Now we don’t know if that was the intent all along or if things just got out of hand.  Maybe he just planned on laying a good whoppin’ on his little brother but hit him a little too hard.  “I didn’t mean to hit you that hard bro, come on get up.  Come on Able this isn’t funny anymore, no more fooling around, Get Up!”

In thinking about it I kind of lean toward that theory.  I think it was an accident, Cain wanted to hurt Abel but I’m not convinced that he wanted to kill him.

After all, Cain’s punishment was banishment and I’m thinking that had his actions been pre-meditated with malicious forethought and planning that God being a just and righteous God would have demanded a greater punishment.

So, here we are on the scene of the first murder recorded in the Bible.  This is the first time that one human being would take the life of another human being.  So what can we learn from this crime as we investigate it?

The first thing we learn is that we never know the whole story:

All we know about Cain and Abel is summed up in a dozen verses spread out over the Old and New Testament.  And at first reading it hardly makes sense.  So what if God didn’t approve of Cain’s offering, it wasn’t the end of the world.  God even told Cain in Genesis 4:7, “You will be accepted if you respond in the right way.”  In other words, God is saying, “Come on Cain, straighten up and everything will be fine.  All you have to do is stop doing what is wrong and start doing what is right.”

But what was the right way?  I assume that God was asking Cain to change his behavior.  Now I wander, was it just the offering or was there more then that?  Maybe Cain only offering a token to God was simply the sign of deeper problems.  It was the John who wrote in I John 3:12, “We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother.  And why did he kill him?  Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was right.”  Now that’s interesting, Cain belonged to the evil one and had been doing evil.

I wonder how John knew that?  Do you think that during a campfire conversation with Jesus at some point the conversation turned to the first murder and Jesus gave John the inside scoop.  Well, we don’t really know, but hat doesn’t really matter.

So what does that mean that he belonged to the Devil?  Does it mean he had no choice in the matter, perhaps he was possessed?  Well to answer the first question what does it mean to belong to the evil one listen up because John answers that very simply and clearly, this isn’t difficult to understand.  You don’t have to be a rocket scientist.  I John 3:10 says, “So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the Devil.  Anyone who does not obey God’s commands and does not love other Christians does not belong to God.”

Two verses before that John had written in I John 3:8, “But when people keep on sinning, it shows they belong to the Devil, who has been sinning since the beginning.”  So the simple answer here is that if a person doesn’t obey God’s commandments and keeps on sinning, then they belong to the Devil.

And the answer to the second question is here as well because the verse doesn’t end there, instead the Bible, the word of God gives us this promise, “But the Son of God came to destroy these works of the Devil.”  Destroy what?  Did Jesus come to destroy those who belong to the devil?  No, He came to destroy the bondage, to break the bonds that hold us to the evil one.

It’s bizarre, you see when we belong to the devil we are in bondage, we are a slave to sin and there is only one person who holds the key to our chains.  The secret for you and for me are the words that God confronted Cain with and here they are for you today.  Genesis 4:7, “You will be accepted if you respond in the right way.”

You see, the person who holds the keys to the chains that bind you to your sinful behavior is you, and you will only be freed when you are willing to give God the key.  The first murder didn’t happen in isolation, it happened because Cain had chosen evil over good, when it happened and why it happened we will never know but it happened.

The second thing we learn is that there is a reason envy is wrong:

Why did Cain kill his brother?  Because Abel had what Cain didn’t have, God’s approval, and Cain envied his little brother for that.

He wanted what someone else had and he didn’t have.  You see, envy isn’t wanting something that is like someone else’s.  Envy is wanting the very thing that someone else has.  And if it can’t have that then second best would be if they didn’t have it either.  The best example of that is recorded in Matthew 27:18 when it says that, “ . . . the Jewish leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy.”  Jesus had what the religious leaders of the day didn’t have.  He had the respect of the people.  He had an insight into God.  He knew the truth and they didn’t.  And these Jewish leaders decided that if they couldn’t have what He had then they didn’t want Him to have it either.  You see that is the reality of envy.  It’s not enough for you to succeed, others must fail at the same time.

You ever think about the Ten Commandments?  They got some big ticket items in there, don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t give false testimony against other people.  Now you can kind of understand those things, they attack the very things that hold society together, and then they end by saying in Exodus 20:17 “Do not covet your neighbor’s house.  Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else your neighbor owns.”

But that isn’t the only warning about envy in the scriptures, David warns us about it in Psalm 37:8 when he says, “Stop your anger!  Turn from your rage!  Do not envy others— it only leads to harm.”  Then Jesus warns us in Mark 7:21-23, “For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, eagerness for lustful pleasure, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.  All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you and make you unacceptable to God.”  And Paul warns us in Romans 1:29 that, “Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.”  Did you catch what envy was lumped in with?  Murder, sexual immorality, theft, malicious behavior.  And then Jesus tells us that it makes you unacceptable to God.

Envy is not a game, it is a sin and it is dangerous.  It’s dangerous for you and it’s dangerous for your relationships.

And finally, the third thing that we can learn is that you will get caught:

If you don’t get anything else from this CSI series, please understand and believe this point, you will get caught.  By show of hands, how many of you want one of the many different CSI shows on TV?

Now, do the crime scene investigators ever not catch the criminals?  No!  No matter what the people do to cover up their crime, they always get caught.

I don’t know what it is that you’d prefer that others not know about in your life, but you will get caught.  Cain was sure that he had gotten away with it, but he hadn’t.  He tried to bury his sin in a field.  How do you try to bury your sin?  Cain was convinced that he hadn’t been seen and yet he was seen and he did get caught.  And you will get caught too.  Sooner or later, you will get caught.

Everyone who sins knows they are too smart, too clever, or too lucky to pay the price but listen up, you will get caught, I can’t guarantee how or when but I can guarantee this, you will get caught.  It’s gonna come back to bite you.

Numbers 32:23 says, “. . .you may be sure that your sin will find you out.”  Some one will see or hear you do it or they will be a participant and they will tell.  Or you will feel so miserable about what you have done that you will confess.  Or you will mess up either intentionally or unintentionally and leave proof, but be sure of this, you will be caught.  Maybe you will be like the man who on his death bed told his wife, “Honey I have to confess before I die, I cheated on you.”  To which his wife replied, “I know and I poisoned your soup.”

Anyway, maybe you will make it through to the end and as you lie on your death bed you will think, “Josh was wrong, I didn’t get caught.”  And as you step though into eternity and into the presence of God you will realize that Josh was right and you did get caught.  Because the Word of God says in Psalm 11:4, “The Lord is in His holy Temple; the Lord still rules from Heaven.  He watches everything closely, examining everyone on earth.”

That day in the field when Cain decided to end his brother’s life, whether it was intentional or unintentional, that day was the beginning of the path that mankind still walks.  And understand that it is a matter of degrees.  The person who takes one life, is the same as any other person who is guilty of taking many, or the 9/11 terrorists who took thousands or Hitler and Stalin who took millions.  And in most cases they begin with something much smaller then murderous rage, the seed is resentment, envy, jealousy, or just plain hatred.

You may not be able to control how others feel about you, but you are in complete control about how you feel about others.  Confucius said, “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”

And Jesus said Matthew 5:21-22 “You have heard that the law of Moses says, “Do not murder.  If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.”  But I say, if you are angry with someone, you are subject to judgment!”

So, where are you at?  Maybe you aren’t ready to use the rock, and kill someone just yet, but is there envy in your heart for someone in your life?  The time to clear that up is right now, not later, but now.

First you need to confess it to God because it’s a sin and then you need to let it go.  The Bible tells us that when we ask God to forgive us that He casts our sin as far as the East is from the West.  So, if you are dealing with something this morning, I want you to listen to a song by Casting Crows titled, East To West.  And while you are listening to that, spend some time in prayer about what it is that you are dealing with.

Listen to this song: (PLAY EAST TO WEST SONG)

In closing, as we investigate the crime scene of Cain killing Abel, we find that we never know the whole story, we learn that there is a reason that envy is wrong, and we hopefully understand that you will get caught.

Let’s Pray!