God & Man
Pastor Matt Bell
Sermon Summary
Pastor Matt’s sermon examines the early chapters of Genesis to reveal a consistent, four-part biblical pattern that defines God’s relationship with humanity: God establishes a plan and purpose, mankind universally rebels against it, God relentlessly pursues humanity with grace, and ultimately, God provides redemption. Tracing this cycle through the narratives of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah's generation, the message illustrates how the human inclination to hide sin and rely on self-righteousness is fundamentally flawed. The sermon culminates in the gospel truth found in Romans 8, encouraging believers to stop hiding from God in fear and instead confidently bring their sins to the light, trusting entirely in the finished, redemptive work of Jesus Christ and the promise that there is no condemnation for those in Him.
Sermon Transcript
Introduction and Scripture Reading
Today, for our text this morning, we're going to look at Genesis chapter 4. So if you have your Bibles, open with me to Genesis chapter 4. I'm really glad that we have the kids in here with us this morning. On the first Sunday of the month, we have the children in with us for worship, and it's just wonderful to worship the Lord as a family and to hear His word as a family. I'm very blessed by everyone who's here this morning, and especially the children.
Genesis chapter 4, we're going to look at verses 1 through 12, and then we're going to skip to the end of the chapter and look at verses 25 and 26. I invite you to stand with me as we read the word of God this morning. We stand when we read God's word like this because we want to make sure that it's set apart in our hearts. On the front of your Bible, it doesn't just say "Bible." It says "Holy Bible." The word holy means set apart. As we stand for the reading of God's word, it's just one way that we are acknowledging that these are not the words of men, but these are the words of God. Genesis chapter 4, starting in verse 1:
Now Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD." And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it."
Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know; am I mybrother's keeper?" And the LORD said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth."
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, "God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him." To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.
Let's pray.
Father, we do thank you for your word. Lord, I thank you for this new year and this effort that we are making in this year to be people of your word, to be people of the book, to have this year be marked off in our lives particularly as a year in which we read the Bible together as a church and a church family. Lord, I pray for your blessing to be upon us. Lord, your hand to guide us. Your Spirit to give us strength and encouragement. Lord, I pray not only this morning, but each time that we open your word this year, that you would give us eyes to see what you want us to see and ears to hear what you are speaking to us. Lord, we believe that this Bible, this word, is not the words of men, but as your word says, God-breathed, God-inspired. And Lord, as you have breathed out your word, that you would breathe on your word and breathe on our hearts and help us, God, to hear your voice so clearly as we spend time in your word. Lord, that we would live for you faithfully as salt and light in this world and that you would use us for your kingdom and your glory. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
You may be seated this morning.
Four Stories, One Consistent Pattern
In the first nine chapters of Genesis, which we have gone through in our Bible plan, there are really four distinct stories. The first one is in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the story of creation. The second story is the lens shifts from that big picture of creation and begins to focus in on humanity. The second story is the story of God creating our first parents, the first man and the first woman, Adam and Eve. And their story of how God instructed them, how God had a purpose for them, how God had a plan for them, how God had given them His word and instructions, but they chose not to obey God, and how they rebelled against God.
The third story is the story we just read, that first generation after Adam and Eve, the sons of Adam: Cain and Abel. It shows how sin did not stop with Adam, but that Adam and all of Adam's children are born into and under sin. Within the first generation, sin has so taken root in the heart of humanity that the first brothers, one of them rises up and kills the other.
The fourth story, in Genesis 6 through 9, is the story of Noah and Noah's generation, and how humanity had become so corrupt in Noah's generation that God ended up bringing judgment on his generation and sparing Noah and his family.
These are the four stories that we see in these nine chapters, but all four of these stories have a consistent thread that runs all the way through them. There's a consistent pattern that happens in all of these stories. Using the story of Cain and Abel, which is one that might not be as familiar to you as Adam and Eve and Noah, I want to use Cain and Abel to show you this pattern. This pattern of how God deals with mankind, how God works with humanity, how God interacts with man and woman as His image-bearers. Because this story, this pattern, is not just the pattern of the first four stories of the Bible. This pattern we see in these stories is the pattern that continues throughout the whole Bible. And it's not just the pattern of the Bible; it's the pattern of our lives as well. As we see these things about God and mankind in these stories, it will help us to see the story that God is writing in each one of our lives, and how we can yield ourselves to the work of God in our life, and walk in the purpose and the plan that God has for each one of us to fulfill the reason for which God has made us.
1. God Has a Plan and a Purpose
The first thing I want to show you this morning—I have four points of this pattern, this cycle that continues to repeat—the first is that God has a plan and a purpose. And God's plan and purpose is revealed by God to mankind. We see this with Cain and Abel. In this story, God's purpose for them that He had revealed to them was the right way to worship Him. God had showed them somehow—it doesn't say how—but God had spoken, shown them, revealed to them in one way or another the right way to worship, the right way to bring an offering to the Lord.
We know this because Abel brings an offering that is acceptable to God, that God receives. But Cain brings an offering that is unacceptable, that God rejects. And God speaks to Cain and says, "If you do well, your offering will be accepted." In other words, if you follow my plan and purpose, if you live out what I have showed you, it will be accepted. It will go well with you. So this plan and purpose in this story of Cain and Abel was for there to be right worship, for the children of man to worship God in the way that He had prescribed. That was God's plan and purpose.
If we look in the story of Adam and Eve, God's plan and purpose for them was that they would have dominion over the earth. We see that in Genesis 1:28, that they would reproduce and with their offspring fill the earth with the image-bearers of God to bring God glory. And then in Genesis chapter 2, God places Adam in the Garden of Eden, and it's Adam's job to work there. Before sin enters the world, before Adam and Eve fell into sin, we see that purpose and plan that God has for humanity: for Adam and Eve to work, and to cultivate the earth, and to have dominion, and to expand the knowledge of God and the glory of God into the whole earth.
In Noah's generation, we see that God continued to have a plan and a purpose, and it was specifically with marriage—how man and woman were to be married. We see that at the beginning of Genesis chapter 6.
God always has a plan and a purpose. God is the author of this story. God is the one who is even in creation entering in and imposing His will on creation, speaking it into existence, setting it in order, determining how it will function, how it will go. God has a plan and a purpose, and His plan and purpose is to reveal Himself and His glory to His creation.
And so it is for each one of us and for our lives. For you as an individual, God has a plan and a purpose for you. None of us is an accident. We know that we live in a day and age, in a culture, where most people are taught from the very earliest of age that there is no plan and purpose to the universe, that there is no rhyme and reason, that it's all random, it's all chaotic, it's just time and chance acting on matter. They are taught that there isn't a creator, that there isn't a God, that there isn't a plan and purpose in the events of our lives, that everything is random, everything is ultimately meaningless. That is the view that is taught in our schools and that most people today who are not Christians believe and ascribe to. A meaningless, purposeless existence.
But that's not the story of the Bible. The story of the Bible is: no, there is meaning and purpose to this life. Very smart people wonder today, why is everyone so depressed? Why is everyone so anxious? Why is everyone so overrun with all of these negative emotions? Well, when you tell people from the very earliest of age that your life has no meaning, your life has no purpose, what do you expect? If there's no meaning and purpose and rhyme or reason behind life and the universe, I might have a hard time getting out of bed too. What's the point? We have a whole generation, and even multiple generations now, having grown up under this delusion, having these existential crises of reality, living out their lives with no meaning and with no purpose.
But that's not the God of the Bible. God has a plan and a purpose, even for every individual. Not just at a cosmic level—sun, moon, stars hung in the sky—down to the individual level for every single person. The Psalmist David will say that God is the one who knits us together in our mother's womb, that He put us together the way that we are. He gave you your personality. He gave you the family you were born into. He made you look the way you look and think the way you think and laugh at the things you laugh at and just all of the interesting things that there is about all of us. God has a plan and a purpose in it. That's for us to bring Him glory with who He made us to be.
2. Man Ultimately Rebels Against God
The second thing that we see in all of these stories is that man ultimately rebels against God. We say, "Okay, God, here's your revealed will. Here's your plan, here's your purpose. You've given it to us. We know what it is, and we're going to do something else. We're going to go our own way. We're going to do our own thing. We're not going to submit ourselves to your plan and purpose, your will, your ways, as revealed in your word." This is the consistent pattern that we see in these four stories where God has a plan and a purpose, He reveals His plan and purpose, and man ultimately rebels against God.
In our story that we read this morning, Cain ends up bringing worship that is unacceptable to God. God had shown them, "This is how I want to be worshiped. These are the offerings that I will accept." And Cain decides, "I'm going to give God an offering that I want to bring Him. I know God has revealed this. I know God has spoken. I know God has shown us His way, but I'm going to do it my way."
It's not just Cain that thinks that. Adam and Eve did too. God had told them, "You can eat of any tree in the garden, but of this one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you must not eat of this tree." And so what do they do? They eat of the tree. They decide, "We're not going to obey God. We're not going to listen to God. We're not going to listen to the creator. We're going to listen to the snake. We're going to get our theology from the snake instead of listening to God."
In Noah's generation, in chapter 6, it tells us that they were perverting marriage. We don't know exactly what they were doing. It's a little bit veiled in the language, but it says that the sons of God were marrying the daughters of men. We don't know exactly what all that entails, and there's lots of debate about that. I'm not going to go into all of that this morning, but what we do know is that it displeased God. What we do know is that this was in rebellion against God's pattern for marriage, God's design for marriage.
Cain goes his own way. Adam goes his own way. Noah's generation goes his way. That has continued in humanity from the very beginning all the way down to us today, where we all now have sinned against God. Though we know God's word, we know His righteous decrees, we know His ways revealed on the pages of scripture, and not only the pages of scripture but even written in our consciences—the law of God as image-bearers of God—all of humanity has chosen not to follow God but to go our own way, to do it our way.
This attitude of rebellion against God is steeped deep in the heart of mankind. It's something we inherit. It's the sin nature we inherited from Adam. As you read through the Bible, you'll find the word iniquity. The word iniquity means a bent, a bent towards sin, that the heart of man is predisposed to sin, to rebellion against God. Not predisposed to serving God, following God, walking with God, but to going our own way. That's iniquity. This iniquity, this sin nature, has touched every single one of us. We're sinners by nature.
But in addition to that, we would also all have to confess that we are not only sinners by nature inheriting a sin nature from Adam, but that we are also sinners by choice. All of us in here have chosen sin. All of us in here have known what God's word says, known the law of God, known the Ten Commandments, and yet chosen to disobey God. Chosen to lie, chosen to steal, chosen to covet. Not a one of us in here can say that we are without sin, can say that we are perfect.
Jesus comes later and He doesn't diminish the law of God. He elevates the law of God so that none of us is without excuse. Jesus will say, "Well, you think you're pretty good because you haven't murdered or you haven't committed adultery." Jesus says, "If you have anger in your heart towards your brother, you've committed murder in your heart." Jesus will say, "If you've looked at somebody else with lustful intent, you've committed adultery in your heart." Though you may not have acted it out, the sin is still there inside of us. It's not only sins of the body, but sins of the heart and of the mind. We all have rebelled against God. We all have chosen to go our own way.
I've said it many times, and I think it's worth saying again: we've all chosen to follow our heart. We're taught that. Our culture says that's a good thing, follow your heart. But the Bible says that's a bad thing, because the heart of man is not good but is evil. If we follow our heart, we will not be led into a right relationship with God. We will be led into rebellion against God. Do not follow your heart. That's bad advice. If you have a shirt that says "follow your heart," you need to go home and give that to Goodwill or burn it or something. That's a bad idea. Really bad idea. In fact, it's a satanic idea. Now, if you have a shirt that says that, I'm not trying to condemn you or anything like that. I'm just trying to expose to you the pernicious nature of the culture that we live in that is constantly preaching to us a different message than the Word of God preaches to us. It leads us, this system of darkness in the world we live in, leads us naturally into rebellion against God. We just go with the flow, and we just look around and say, "Well, how are these people living? I guess I'm doing all right because I'm just living like them." We think we'll be okay, thinking somehow that when we get to heaven, God will just grade on a curve. That's not who God is. God is holy. For God to grade on a curve would be to compromise His holiness. He would cease to be God. That's not going to happen.
Because of our rebellion against God, we are in trouble. And in our rebellion against God, as Adam and Eve did, as Cain did, we try to hide our sin. Adam and Eve, when they sinned, they tried to cover themselves. They tried to cover their sin and their shame. They tried to sew together garments that would make them feel better for the sin, the weight of sin, the guilt that was on their shoulders. When Cain killed his brother, he didn't just leave him lying there. He went and buried him. Why? He was trying to cover his sin, to cover his tracks, to hide what he had done. Adam and Eve, likewise, were hiding from God.
Humanity continues to do this. When we sin, we try to hide from God. When we have sin in our life, oftentimes we don't want to come to church because we'll feel convicted. We don't want to be around other believers because we know what's right and we just want to hide it. We're like Adam and Eve thinking that we can sew fig leaves together to cover our sin, to hide behind a bush, and that God won't see us and won't know where we are. It's silly. We see Adam and Eve doing it, and we're like, "What are y'all doing? God has super x-ray vision. He can see everywhere. You think your little fig leaves are going to hide you from God? How dumb are you, Adam and Eve?" And then we sin and do the exact same thing. We don't sew fig leaves together, but we try to keep our sin in darkness. We hide it. It's the same pattern. We rebel against God.
3. God Pursues Mankind with Grace
Our third point here this morning is where the good news begins to enter in. Yes, God has a plan and a purpose. Yes, man has rebelled against that plan and purpose. But God in His grace and mercy pursues mankind. This is good news. God pursues man.
After the sacrifice is not accepted of Cain, it says his countenance fell. He was depressed. He was angry. In Genesis 4:6, God came to Cain and says, "Why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? If you do well, you will be accepted." Though God didn't receive Cain's offering, though God didn't receive Cain's sin, He still pursued Cain with His word, with His instruction, with His grace, and with His mercy.
We see the same with Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve sinned and God comes looking for them, calling out to them, "Adam, where are you?" It's not because He didn't know where Adam and Eve were. It's because He wanted Adam to know that he was lost. He wanted Adam to know that he had fallen from his place that God had placed him in of dominion.
It's also the same in Noah's generation. Though all of humanity had been corrupted, it says Noah found favor in the eyes of God. That word favor is the same word for grace. Grace is unmerited favor. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Though humanity has fallen, though humanity rebels against God, God pursues mankind with pure grace, pure mercy, pure love.
4. God Redeems Man
Attached to this pursuit of man, is number four: when God pursues man, God redeems man. There's the pursuit with love and grace and mercy, and then there is redemption. We see this in the story of Cain and Abel. After Cain had murdered his brother and disqualified himself, God gave a new son to Adam and his wife, Eve. A new son which would be godly, that would live for God, that would produce godly offspring. Even in this day and age of this third and fourth generation, it says that people began to call upon the name of the Lord. So while it looked dark and grim—these two sons, Cain and Abel; Abel, the righteous one who offered up an offering to God in faith, worshiped God rightly and was killed for it, persecuted for it by the one who was angry, by the one who wanted to go his own way and disqualified himself and suffered the judgment of God—God redeemed the situation by giving a new son to replace Abel.
It is the same in the story of Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve sinned and fell into sin, God promises redemption. In Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, we have the first good news in the Bible, the first promise in the Bible: that there will be strife between the serpent and the woman, between the offspring of the serpent, those who live in rebellion against God, and her offspring. That He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. This is what's known as the first gospel proclamation. In this, there is the promise of the redeemer, that there will be one who comes who will be wounded, but who will crush the head of the serpent. This promise of redemption. Even though they had sinned, even though they had rebelled, even though they had hidden themselves and blamed each other, God in His grace and mercy says, "There is coming a redeemer. This situation will be redeemed."
And so it is in Noah's generation. Though there was judgment that was brought upon the earth, God provided a way of salvation for Noah and his family. God preserved them in the ark. The ark, of course, is a picture of Christ. The Bible says that God shut them in, a picture of God sealing us with His Holy Spirit. God preserved them from the judgment that was coming, and so it is for those of us who are in Christ. We are safe in Christ. God has shut us in. God has sealed us with His Holy Spirit. He is keeping us for the day of the Lord, which for us will be a day of ultimate and total redemption.
This pattern plays out: God has a plan and a purpose, He creates each man and woman in His image to bring Him glory, but all of us rebel against that. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And yet, God, who is rich in mercy, is pursuing us. He has pursued us in Christ, has sent His son, the offspring of the woman, the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ. Born of the virgin, lived without sin, died on the cross for sinners, shedding His own blood to cover our sin, and rising again to give us new life, to give us hope. As we sang this morning, ascended on high, ruling and reigning as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Our God reigns.
This is the story of the Bible. God pursuing sinners with redemption. It's the story of God and His love and His grace and His mercy. Now for us on the other side of the cross, God has pursued us in Christ. We just celebrated Christmas, that season of celebrating the birth of Christ, the birth of Emmanuel, God with us. The birth of the Word, which was made flesh and dwelt among us. Though we were sinful, God chose not to stand afar off, but to enter into our sin, to enter into our mess, to enter into our chaos, and to bring redemption.
This is the story of Genesis. This is the story of the Bible. This is the story of humanity, and this is our story as believers in Christ. God has pursued us in Christ. He has made a way for us to be saved, to be set free, to walk in relationship with Him. But so often mankind wants to hide. We want to hide from God. The temptation to hide from God is in some ways right, and in some ways wrong. It's a right temptation in that we recognize God is holy and we are sinful. It's right that we recognize that we stand condemned before a holy God. But the temptation to hide from God shows us that we might understand His nature, His holiness, but that we don't understand His character: His love, His grace, His mercy.
In all of these stories, God brings redemption, and so it is in our lives too. Yes, we need to understand God's holiness. Yes, we need to understand our sinful condition before a holy God. But we also need to understand God's character, revealed in His son Jesus, who died for sinners. Jesus didn't die for the righteous, but for the unrighteous. Jesus didn't die for the good. He died for the bad, to make us good, to make us holy, to redeem us.
Therefore, we have no need to hide from God. In 1 John, it says that perfect love casts out all fear, that fear has to do with punishment. But because Jesus took our punishment, we have no reason to be afraid of God anymore. We have no reason to hide from God. We have no reason to try and cover our sin on our own, either through our own good works or by keeping it in the darkness, because perfect love casts out fear. God in Christ has loved us perfectly, so that we can come to Christ. We can come to God without fear. We can come to God unafraid, confessing our sins to God, and receiving forgiveness and grace and mercy every single time.
In the book of Proverbs, verse 16 of Proverbs 24, there's this interesting verse. It says, "The righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity." If we're honest, to the natural mind, to those who don't know the gospel or understand the gospel, we would expect this to say the righteous man never falls. The righteous man never does anything wrong. The godly man never sins. But that's not what it says. It says the righteous man falls seven times. But what separates him from the wicked is that the righteous man continues to get up. He continues to take his sin to God. He doesn't ignore his sin, doesn't hide his sin, doesn't make excuses for his sin. What makes the man righteous is he takes his sin to God. He rises again.
It's God who lifts us up when we take our sin to Him. It's surprising. It's counterintuitive. We would think it would say the righteous man is perfect and never does anything wrong. No, the righteous is the man who is imperfect, yet takes his sin to God and receives from God grace and mercy and Christ's righteousness clothing us. It's not his own righteousness that we boast in, but it is the righteousness of Christ. So we need to not fall into this trap of trying to cover our own sin either through our own good works, or our own righteousness, or of going our own way, or of trying to hide our sin. We need to approach God through the sacrifice He has provided, through the means He has provided in His son. God has provided the perfect sacrifice, the perfect lamb, to cover our sin, to take away our sin, to forgive us of our sin. He's provided His son's perfect righteousness to clothe us, to empower us, to enable us.
But if we reject Christ, there is no other sacrifice that we can turn to for sin. There is no other way to be made righteous. There's no other way to be made right with God apart from Christ. Christ is how we approach God. Christ is all that we need. Christ and His work is all-sufficient.
No Condemnation in Christ
This reminds me of Romans chapter 8. If you have that, you could turn with me there quickly. Romans chapter 8. I'm not going to spend a lot of time here, but there's just something so powerful in this that I hope that you can grab a hold of here this morning. I know that we all sin, and when we sin, we feel like God is angry with us. We feel like we need to hide from God. But if we truly understand the gospel, we won't run from God. We will run to God. We won't hide our sin, we'll bring it into the light and walk in the light as He is in the light. We'll confess our sin and receive forgiveness. It's a shame to me so many times that we who have professed to believe the gospel still live like we're righteous by our own works.
Romans chapter 8, it's this incredible chapter. I won't take time to preach it or expound it or even read the whole thing, but I just want to remind you of these truths. Romans 8, verse 1: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Are you in Christ today? Have you put your faith and trust in Christ? There's no condemnation for you. There's only acceptance of you. Of course, not acceptance of your sin, but acceptance of you on the basis of the work of Christ. No condemnation. That means when we sin, we run to God, not from God. When we sin, we don't hide, but we bring it to the light. We confess our sin, and we receive grace and mercy.
If we're hiding from God, it just shows we don't understand who God is. We don't know God. We haven't received the gospel. God sent Jesus to a very dark place to die for sinners. And if God sent His son to die for sinners, how much more will He apply the work of His son to those whom He has called His sons and daughters? How much more will God apply His work of grace to His own children? Yet, for some reason, we think, "Okay, when I was a sinner, Jesus loved me and died for me. Now I'm a believer in Christ. I'm a child of God, part of His family. And if I fall into sin, now God doesn't love me anymore." If God loved you when you were a sinner, how much more will He love you now that you're in Christ and part of His family? It's a lie of the enemy to keep us from Christ, to keep us from the medicine that we need, to keep us from running to Jesus.
As this chapter continues in verse 31, it says: "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised."
Listen, if you are in Christ, you are a new creation. If you are in Christ, you are forgiven. If you are in Christ, there is mercy, there is grace. God is the one who has justified you. The devil wants to come and condemn us, but God has justified us. The devil wants to come and lie to us, but Jesus is the one who died for our sin. So we must stop putting faith in our own works, and we must fully accept the work of His grace, the work of the cross. Every single day for the believer is one in which we are relying upon grace, relying upon mercy, going before God, confessing our sins. Who was the one to accuse? God has already given the verdict. We are justified in Christ. Who will bring a charge, he says, against God's elect? And it goes on to say that Christ is at the right hand of God interceding for us. Do we not think that God will answer the prayers of His son, the prayers that His son is praying for you? Are we not confident that we will be kept by the power of God for the day of redemption?
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?" Verse 37: "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." For I am sure—and we need to all have this as our confession—I am sure, we are sure, "that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
This is the story. God has a plan and purpose. We've gone our own way, but Jesus has chased us down. And He is saving us, redeeming us, showing us the love of God, showing us the mercy of God, bringing order to our chaos and teaching us how to walk and have fellowship with God. It's not our own doing. It's not our own efforts. We're not saved by our efforts. We're not kept saved by our efforts. It is all by the grace and the mercy of Christ. And because of this, we can go to Him at any time.
I'm reminded of that very famous story where there was a woman caught in adultery, and she is brought before Jesus. She is guilty. Jesus asks the crowd, who is rabid, a question: "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone." And one by one, they go away until they are all gone. Jesus asks the woman this very powerful question: "Woman, where are your accusers?" Why would we let the devil condemn us and accuse us when Christ does not? When Christ died and rose again for us. "Woman, where are your accusers?" He says, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more."
If we have fallen into sin, if we stumble, if we're rebelling against God in His word, we must take our sin to Christ. You may feel like you've failed so many times. Will God still accept me? Listen, God didn't throw humanity away when Adam and Eve sinned. God didn't throw humanity away when Cain sinned. God did not throw humanity away in the generation of Noah. And God is not going to throw you away either. God will receive you for the sake of His son who died for you, who shed His blood for you. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.