So iniquity is an internal corruption inside us. We’ll see where it is in a moment, and how to deal with it. Not only that, it’s a painful lasting influence. I want you to have a look in Genesis, Chapter 4. It is something that lasts. It’s something that goes on. This is why you’ve got to deal with this. This is the spider. The rest is all the webbing. You don’t get the spider, you still keep having the webs turn up. So notice in Verse 6 – Genesis, Chapter 4, Verse 6, and God is speaking to Cain and He said “Why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen?” You notice what He’s speaking there and He goes down, then you know that Cain went out and he committed sin. He murdered his brother. We’re going to look why he did that shortly.
He said now notice there in Verse 11, now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. And He said you’ll be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth. Now notice this, Verse 13; Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!” The word punishment there is the word iniquity. It’s exactly the same original word iniquity. So in the Bible when they use the word iniquity, it has several meanings. That’s why language, it helps you understand what it means, because if I say use the word ‘love’ you’ve all got different kinds of understandings of what that could mean. So if I use the word iniquity, probably you don’t even know what it is. I use ‘sin’ you’ve got all kinds of ideas what that might be, so I’ll just pull iniquity apart and give you it, so you actually understand what we’re dealing with here. Then you’ll see why the blood is so important to deal with it.
The word iniquity in the Old Testament’s translated two ways. It’s translated, number one, it’s the same word as the word avon. Avon, a-v-o-n is the original Hebrew word. Now what it means is this; it means to be twisted, to be crooked, to be perverse, to be twisted out of shape. That’s one meaning of it. The second meaning it has is the meaning ‘punishment’ or something painful that goes on for a long time, because of something you’ve done, so now you’re getting the idea. Iniquity is something painful that continues in your life as a result of things you’ve done, and you end up twisted and corrupted on the inside with a tendency to certain kinds of bad behaviour. That is iniquity.
In the New Testament they use a different word. The use to be without law, or in other words, no one tells me what to do, or another way of saying it is, I’m the exception, the laws don’t apply to me. Now have you ever had that thing where you know you see the speeding signs, and you think well it doesn’t apply to me. It applies to everyone else, not to me. How many cases have you, situations you've been in, where you think well yeah, it may apply to everyone else. It doesn’t apply to me. That is iniquity. It’s saying I am not subject to law like everyone else. I actually can do my own thing, go my own way – or putting it another way, it’s just I want to do my own thing. Doing your own thing, acting independently of God, is iniquity. That is the core of it see? So that is iniquity, a bit of a bad word isn’t it aye?
When you look it up in the dictionary, the word iniquity is the word translated ‘wickedness,’ wickedness. It’s roots find itself in a ‘wicker,’ you know, the wick in a candle, it’s all twisted, twisted cord or ‘wicker,’ the twisting that causes people to get involved in spiritualism. All of this gives you a picture of what iniquity is like. It is a crookedness, a perverseness, a twistedness that is painful. It stays in our life. It continues to operate in our life, causing us lots of suffering, and it’s something that causes us to want to live without any restraint, doing our own thing. In the last days the world will be full of iniquity. That’s what the Bible says. It’ll be full of iniquity, people doing their own thing, so that is iniquity. So where’s the Verse reference of it? Well here it is up here, in Verse 6. The Lord said to Cain “Why are you angry?” And he was angry, Cain was angry at the Lord, for He rejected his offering, because he didn’t go along with what God said was the right way to do it. I’m the exception remember? God had explained what He wanted, He explained how to get the right offering that would have pleased Him, and he didn’t give the right offering. He said well I’ll just do what I think will please God, and it wasn’t accepted. He got angry. He got angry with God, and angry with his brother. Now what did he do as a result of being angry? He went out and killed his brother. Now get it here; anger is the iniquity. Murder is the transgression. The murder flows out of the iniquity. One is the action that’s seen, the other flows out of what lies in the heart, the unresolved issue, and that is called iniquity. Whoa! You notice someone who’s angry, there’s murder waiting to happen. It’s true.