Sin Lieth at the Door Gen. 4:7 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
In this passage, sin is personified. Sin lieth at the door. Sin is like a booger man lying in wait outside of your door to pounce on you when you come out. He is your living enemy. He showed up as a result of the fall. And he has one desire and that’s you. Once he has his way with you he kills you, Rom 5:12, Jas 1:14-15. So how are you to deal with this enemy?
You get inside the door. This is like being inside of a house with the door shut and bolted. Jn 10:7-10, Jesus is the door. When you enter in you are protected from sin because he has already dealt with this enemy and defeated it. Jesus is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, Jn 1:29. Jesus became sin for us, 2 Cor 5:21. And Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the tree, 1 Pet 2:24. Gen 4:7 says that we are supposed to rule over sin and the only way to do that is through Jesus Christ, Rom 6:11-12. You are helpless against sin without the Lord, Jn 15:3-5; Jn 8:36.
You keep sin outside the door. This is like keeping the burglar out who is trying to get in, Gen 4:7. It’s okay if sin lieth at the door as long as you are inside the door and sin is on the outside. You want to make sure that sin doesn’t get on the inside. Now I know that sin is “in” us, Rom 7:17-18. But Jesus is also in us, Col 1:27. And so when I say that we don’t want to get sin on the inside, I’m speaking figuratively. We’re talking about yielding to righteousness rather than to sin, Rom 6:13-14. For instance, if you thought a burglar was outside of your house, would you open the door and let him in? You wouldn’t if you didn’t want him to ransack your house. You’d make him stay out there. And you’d call the police and have him arrested. Yet people open the door to sin all the time. They let sin in through their eyes, and through their thoughts and through their ears and through their mouths. You just invite him right and you make him feel right at home. Sin doesn’t belong in you or in your home. Kick him back outside where he belongs.
You expose sin to the light. This is like having security lights around the perimeter of your house, Eph 5:13; Jn 3:19-21. In other words, sin is a clever foe. It has ways of camouflaging itself so that you don’t recognize it. It can be like a chameleon. And with the help of sinners who love sin, sin can be made to look like a friend instead of an enemy. So you invite in a “friend” and don’t realize that you have just invited in a killer. None of the disciples knew that Judas Iscariot was a devil. The only person who could identify him was Jesus. So you must look to Jesus and the Bible to properly identify sin. That way you won’t unintentionally let him in. Keep plenty of light from God’s word shining on sin. If you look to the world, or school, or the media, or religion or your friends to identify sin you will never spot him. He’ll be running the show in your house and you will be severely entangled before you will ever figure it out.
You must drive out sin if it gets inside. 2 Cor 7:1; 1 Jn 1:9; Prov 28:13. Put on the gospel boot and kick that sin out of your house. It doesn’t belong there. It just came to steal and to kill and to destroy just like the father of that wickedness, the devil. Take up arms against it, Eph 6:10-18, and kill it like you would an intruder. Defend yourself and your family. Find the way that sin is getting in and seal up the entrance. Be vigilant against this wicked enemy. You must hunt him down and put him down. You are to rule over him; he is not to rule over you.
Conclusion: imagine your life like your house. First and foremost, get the security door, Jesus. Then remember to keep sin outside. Turn on the lights so you can spot him. And if he gets inside kick him out.