That was written by a woman named
Eden. Eden, like the Garden of Eden. Genesis chapter 4. Go to Genesis chapter 4. The
book of Genesis means generation. It means when life began. It tells us how God created light
first and life. Light and life. It begins with
God creating light and life. It ends. You know how the book
of Genesis ends? You know what the last words
in the book of Genesis are? A coffin in Egypt. That's significant. It begins
with light and life. It ends in death. Joseph's death. It began God creating man upright
and holy. in man-fall, sinful. It begins with man alive unto
God, dwelling with God, happy, holy, righteous like God. He's
dead in sin, dead and trespassing in sin, captive to the God of
this world. But God, in the volume of the book, It
is written of him, Lo, I come to do thy will. This is the will
of the Father. Everyone that seeth the Son and
believeth on him, he says, I'll raise him up out of the miry
club, out of darkness into his marvelous light, out of this
present evil world. God said, I have come down to
bring them out, to bring them up. How? One way. One person. It's all about one
who is to come. Well, the woman seed ables lamb. That's who he is. John came by the study. He comes
by often. We have a good time. We preach
to one another, don't we, John? It's always good. Iron sharpens
iron. Face answers face. It's just
a good thing. And I was talking to him about
what I'm going to preach next. And the woman's seed. This was,
when was this? Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
He said, well, how are you going to get by Abel? I said, I'm not. That's what
I preached. Abel. Our Lord mentioned Abel,
didn't He? About the blood of Abel in Matthew
23. And then the first person mentioned
in Hebrews 11, the first faith is Abel. So I'm just certain
our Lord dealt with Abel on that road. So here we are. Again, and this is the foundation,
you know. This is where you begin. This
is the foundation. These are foundation fundamental
truths from God's Word. If you don't know these things,
you don't know God. You don't know salvation. You
don't know God's Word. I don't care what you know. If
you don't know what happened in the garden, if you don't know
what happened on the cross, if you don't know why Christ came,
who he is, why he came, who he came for, what he did. If you
don't know those things, you don't know God. That's it. All
right? Adam and Eve fell, fallen man
and woman, right? Sinful, full of sin. They conceived, chapter 4, verse
1, Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived, and bear came.
It means gotten. And she said, I've gotten a man
from the Lord. Adam and Eve conceived a son. Now how long was it after
they were banished from the garden when they had this child? I don't
know. We don't know. He doesn't tell us. Could have
been a year. Could have been nine months. Could have been two years.
Could have been ten years. But try to imagine now them banished
from the garden. They came out of paradise. And
now they're in the world. There's pain, suffering, sickness,
thorns, thistles, things they've never experienced before. Try
to imagine. They've never had these things before. Pain. They've never experienced pain. Okay? Thorns. And you know that
Adam and Eve were both, what have we done? And they were suffering, you
know, in this world. Alright? Adam knew Eve. Now, this is the first childbirth. She'd never experienced pain
before. And our Lord said, you're going
to greatly suffer. And she, oh, and there's no modern
techniques to remove this pain. Just try to imagine, ladies,
the first woman to ever give birth. Oh, man. All right, but then she got a
son. God gave her a son. And that's
what she said. She gave him the glory. Gotten.
Given. The Lord has given me a son,
gotten of the Lord. You know, some think, some, Matthew,
Henry, some of them think that it, they say it reads this way,
that she said, I've gotten the man, the man from the Lord. That she was so, they were so
downcast and so troubled and so in sin now and so suffering
and all that. And they remember the woman's
seed is coming. And now she had, look! This baby
came out of this woman. She's like, this is Him! That's
what many think she said. I've gotten the man! Oh no. Far from it. Far from it. This one, in fact, is the seed
of Satan. You see, everything that comes
from man is sinful. Every son of Adam is a sinner
and the only thing that's going to differentiate Him and make
Him worth anything is the grace of God, the blood of Christ. So this first Son, they thought,
oh, this Son is going to bring us joy and happiness. Brothers and sisters, if we think
to find any peace and joy and consolation from our children
or anything or anyone in this earth, We are sadly mistaken. And this son turned out to be
a devil. It's the Lord. Isn't it? The
first son of the first parents was a devil. That's what 1 John
3 says. He was of that wicked one. Isn't
it? What a lesson this is. the elder,
the first, like Esau, like Ishmael. And this holds true with the
titan, Cain. But if we think to find any peace,
joy, consolation, happiness, any lasting happiness in this
world and things and people, our precious children, you know,
they may end up giving us great grief. He that joys must joy in the
Lord. Well, they had another one. Verse
2. She again bared his brother Abel. And what's Abel mean? Vanity. Now they realize we're not going
to get any lasting joy and happiness in our children. No son of Adam
is going to redeem us. Get us out of this mess. So they
named their second-born son Vanity. That's a fitting name. Fitting
name. Did they now realize that? You
know, Ecclesiastes is the book of the preacher, isn't it? Ecclesiastes
means preacher. How does it begin? Vanity of
vanities. And it goes all through everything
and everyone in this world and everything you ever have and
do. It's vanity of vanity. And it ends up vanity. Vanity of vanities. And it concludes
by saying, fear God. Fear God. Well, maybe, maybe,
maybe they thought this one will bring us great joy. He did for
a while. Apparently he was an obedient
son, a fine young son. How old was he when he died?
We don't know. As great as their joy was over
that boy, he died a horrible death. My parents' firstborn son was
a model son, a role model, an example of it. I had him for
21 years, that's it. That's not long either, not long. Well, these two sons, and we
need to remember that, not try to find our happiness and not,
you know, he that joyeth and he that glorieth and he that,
we're not going to find any consolation, it better be in Christ. It's
going to be in Christ. Nothing and no one else. Not relationships,
not people, not things, but Jesus Christ. In the process of time,
look at verse 2, she bare Abel, and he was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground. In the process of time,
these two sons came. They came to worship God, it
seems. Now their occupations are significant. Abel was a shepherd. He was tending
sheep. Where did he get the sheep? Which
came first? The sheep or the lamb? Well,
God made everything exactly like it was, perfect and complete
and whole. And everything came from that,
born from that. Like Christ never had a beginning.
He was first, and He's the last, and everything in between. But
He was a shepherd, and He was tending sheep that God provided
Him. Cain was a farmer, a tiller of
the grain. Tilling the grain. What did God
say about the ground? Four or five times. Cursed. Cursed. Cursed. Cursed. How did God cover
the first sinners? A lamb. A lamb. A lamb. Cursed is the ground. Everything
you do. Everything you produce. Everything you work hard for. It's going to go back to the
ground. That's where it came from. That's where it's going
to go back. Turn to dung. In fact, it'll be blown up dust.
You'll never remember it anymore. No one, no one, anyone else.
But Cain, Brother Scott Richardson is a country preacher, man had
wisdom. He said Cain was a turnip farmer. And he said, yeah, because you
can't get blood out of a turnip. Now that's wisdom, isn't it? Flowers. You know, religion is
so full of these things. But anyway, you know, farming
is good, isn't it? It is. Farming is good. Noah
was a husband. He began to be a husband. Elisha
was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. I'm thankful for farmers, but
you know, no one should be, I thought about this, no one should be
more conscious of God, our dependence on God, more thankful to God
than a farmer. Our Lord said in Jeremiah, won't
you fear me that withholdeth and giveth the ranch? You can't grow anything. Not
one seed will come up if God doesn't give the increase. This congregation ought to be
full of farmers and fishermen. Anybody, fishermen. That's why
I chose fishermen, Ron. They thought I'm a good fisherman.
Yeah. You'll see about that. It's all night. been fishing
all our lives, can't catch one thing? No, not unless God provides it. This place ought to be full
of farmers and fishermen. Thanking God who gives the rain,
God who gives the inquiry, God who provides all things. And
this is why the Lord said the plowing of the wicked is evil
in the sight of the Lord. You know that? He said plowing.
Though it's an honest job that needs to be done, if that man
plowing his field is not thanking God for that field, if that man
plowing his field is not asking God to give the increase, it's
wicked in God's eyes. I can't tell you how many times,
especially in hay season, when I'm driving to worship the Lord
and hear people out there cutting their hay. If there ever was
a time to not do that, it's them. Because God gave them. What could
happen is next year you'd not have a bale in your barn. And God would be just if He did
that. Isn't that right? Well, both sons came to God. They came to worship. Now you
know man's religious. Man has a conscience, Scripture
says. Man has a conscience, a law of
God written on his heart, Jew and Gentile, Gentiles even know.
And that the things clearly seen, it says that God is, they're
without excuse. And so man is religious by nature
and has this conscience within. Some people, though, the conscience
bothers them so much that they try to get rid of it and they
ignore it. Or they try to drink it away with drugs and get rid
of it until finally they have become without feeling. No more conscience. And then
some try to just cover it. Their conscience bothers them
and all that, and they realize, I need to do something. So they
try to cover it. They turn over a new leaf. They
change their life. And so they get something. What about your past sin? What
about all this? Well, I don't do that anymore.
I've got that covered. I'm a new man. I'm a different
person. That's fig leaves is just what
that is. That's what Adam and Eve tried
to do. That won't cover you. That sin's got to be paid for.
I tell them. And then some, if not most, try
to appease God. They come to a place of so-called
worship, house of God, and they come try to appease God with
their gifts. With things that they have done. Trying to undo what they've done
with things that they have done, or no longer do. Like the Pharisee
and the Publican, remember? Two men came into the temple,
one was a Pharisee, and he brought to God what he had not done and
what he had done. I fast, I give alms, I do all
that, and I have not, I'm not an extortioner or unjust like
this publican down here. This is what I do. God, look
what I've done for you. That's an abomination to God. What do you mean what you've
done for me? What do we have we have not received?
Why would we glory? You know, there are only two
religions in the world. Two religions. One's true and the other's false.
There's one true religion and there are 199,999 false. It's the religion of God. Religion
means truth, devotion. It's the religion of God and
the others of man. It's salvation by grace, given,
provided, bestowed, something done to you. Grace is not an
offer, it's an act of God upon you, for you, by someone else. Something someone else did and
gave to you. Something done for you, by someone
else, to you, in you. Not for your glory, but for His
that gave it. And the other is works. Grace
and works. There's a religion, a truth,
that gives God all the glory. All of it. For repentance, for
faith, For works, yes, God's people do work. But it's God
that worketh in them. You see, it's not us at all. No flesh is going to glow. Or
man's going to glow. Salvation, the truth is God saves
us and we save ourselves. Here it is, two religions. It's
the truth according to God's Word or just what man thinks. Right? This is the way I think
it is. Someone once said, what, demented? Someone says, well,
this is the way I think it is. Wrong! It's the truth. It's according
to God's will. It's God's will. It's all up
to God's will or man's. There are only two religions.
Whose will is it? God's will, 100%, or man must
be willing. It can't be both, can it? It's God's choice. Who chose
who? Huh? It's religion, it's truth. It's either God's choice or man's
choice. Who chose who? Come on. It's God accepting us. or us accepting God. Is there
greater blasphemy than to say that God wants us to accept Him? Here's only two religions. One
is the Lord God finding us, or us finding Him. Someone once
said, I didn't know He was lost. Who's lost? Oh, it's the truth
of how the Lord Jesus Christ, here's the two religions, it's
how that Christ came, and this is the truth, I'm going to start
with the truth, how the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world
to fulfill God's will. The will of God was to have a
people, to save a people, a purpose, a covenant, the will of God to
save some of these worthless human beings. That's how Christ
came to do His will, and how Christ fulfilled the law, and
how Christ pleased God, and how God accepted Christ. God was
pleased with His righteousness, and how that Christ died under
the penalty of the law and made a curse for us. How that Christ
shed His precious blood, the precious blood of the Lamb, without
spot, without blemish. How that God saw the sacrifice
of Christ and was pleased with that and nothing else! And how that Christ came and
then sent the Spirit of God to preach Him, to raise dead sinners
from life to life and to give them repentance and faith in
Him and Him alone. He does it all. He said, My sheep
are going to hear My voice. You see, they're captive to Satan
like Eve and Adam. They're captive. They've been
deceived. I'm the truth. They're going
to hear from Me. They're going to hear the truth. They're going
to believe Me. They're going to look to Me and
Me alone. See, this is the Savior. This is the covenant hand. This
is the one that God sent. The woman's seed. Abel's lamb. This is the only one that can
save anybody. By Himself. Now that's the Bible
and that's the truth and that's the gospel. Salvation by one
or else. He did all this hoping that somebody
would make what he did count for something. That he shed his
precious blood, that God shed the blood of his Son, and just
threw it after everybody, hoping somebody would accept it. That's
why that's the most blasphemous thing on earth. Isn't it? It's another gospel. It's not doctrine, it's blasphemy. I'm here to tell you, that's
why I'm here, to tell you the first is the truth. Christ is the first. And these
two men came, Cain and Abel. They both heard, why did Abel
bring blood? Because he heard it from Adam
and Eve, who heard it from God. Right? They told both of their
sons. Adam and Eve told both of their
sons, look what we've done. This is why all this pain and
suffering and sorrow. This is why. And there's only
one hope for us. It's the blood that maketh the
tumult of this hell. Without the shade of blood, there's
no remission of sins. Oh yes, long before Exodus, God
told them that. And they told their sons. And
you know, every son of Adam has heard that. Yes, Paul said that. Have they not all heard? Yea,
verily. Romans 10 is where that says that. Paul said, they have
a zeal for God, but they're going about to establish their own
righteousness. That's what Eve and Adam did. Fig leaf. That won't cover. Christ came.
What did He do to that fig tree? Cursed it. Christ was redeemed one way by
the precious blood of the Lamb. Now He either did or He didn't.
So these two came, and they both heard, they both heard from their
parents who heard from God that there's one way to approach God,
but came. He thought that was a little
barbaric. It's kind of ugly, you know, blood. Why do we have
to talk about sin and death? Why do we have to talk about
these things? I don't like that. He bought
flowers. He bought fruit. Why at death everybody sends
flowers? Why do we do that? Start with
cane. Try to mask death. Don't we? You know one thing
about most of the flowers? They're all dead. They're going
to wither. And that body of that person
in that grave is going to go down in the ground. It's going
to waste away. Now that's what sin brought. What's going to
do away with it? What's the answer to all this?
No cover it. You've got a tomb for it. Death
for death. Death for life. Cain brought
works of the ground. And Galatians, I was going to
have you turn there. We don't have time, but Galatians talks
about the curse, the curse, the curse. As many as are of the
works of the law are under the curse. The curse is, he that
continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. All things. He must be perfectly acceptable. He goes
on to say, if righteousness come by the law, Christ died in vain. He didn't
need to come. He didn't need to die. We can
get to God without Him. We can atone for our sins, we
can make amends, we can cover, we can pay for our sins by doing
the best we can, by turning over a new leaf, by promising, promising,
promising. Salvation is not by our promises,
it's by God's. Because we can't fulfill any
of it. We can't do it. You came, brought all this, thanking
God, surely God will love this, God will be pleased with what
all I've done for Him. And Abel, verse 4, Abel brought
of the firstlings of his flock, and the margin says sheep or
goats. And we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, because our God,
there's no shadow of turning with him. The first sinners were
covered with a lamb, toned by blood, and so is this man, and
so is every 1. God chose. And he brought this
first thing of the flock and the fat thereof that plainly
tells us he killed this lamb that he shed his blood. And look
at it. It says in verse 4, God the Lord
had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and
to his offering he had not respect. Cain was wroth. At who? Who was Cain mad at? God. See, that's who men and women
are rejecting. That's who men, if they can't
get to God, so they get at you. And Cain did Abel. Well, Abel brought the firstborn
lamb with the fat, the blood, that is. Both of them heard.
One rejected it. Cain rejected it. I don't like
that. I think my way is better. And Abel believed God. And you know what the Scripture
says about Abel? He was righteous. For what? Believing God. What did he do, John? You say
he brought the lamp. Well, where did he get it? Who
gave it? Who taught him? Who brought him?
Who showed him? Who provided it? Abel knew that. Oh, and he's the younger, isn't
he? Cain's the elder. He's not by blood, not by the
will of man, will of the flesh, but some God. And when Abel brought
that blood, and he's the first one in Hebrews mentioned, faith,
saving faith. When he brought that blood, what
he's saying is what we say about our Lord Jesus Christ. He's coming
with blood, death, a sacrifice of an innocent lamb, a lamb that
had not sinned like he had. And he's confessing his sins,
he's confessing his guilt, he's confessing his need of someone,
the Christ, the woman seed of whom he heard about, the Christ
who was to come, a substitute to come and die the death that
he deserved. That's what he's confessing.
to pay for, to atone for his sin. The soul that sinned must
surely die. He knew that. And he's confessing,
he's showing his need, his belief, his trust in the Christ who is
to come to put away my sin by the sacrifice of himself. Yes.
Yes. That's what he's saying. So it
is with every single person who has true saving faith. They know
that. Well, look at verse 5 and Iíll
quit. It says, ìUnder Cain, God had no respect, and Cain was
wroth, and his countenance failed.î And the Lord said unto Cain,
ìWhy art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen?
Who are you mad at?î Huh? Why would man Where is it, Kelly,
that says, why should a living man complain for the punishment
of his sins? Who we should be mad at is ourselves,
not God. God is rich in mercy and grace
and sent Christ to salvation. We don't have to do anything.
We don't have to labor. We don't have to toil. We don't
have to dig. We don't have to just believe. How merciful is
that? How gracious is that? Why won't
people bow to that? How hard is that? Do nothing. Look to Christ. Believe the Son. Don't do anything. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Isn't that wonderful? McCain must have not thought
he was that bad. And he was wroth, he was angry
at God. And you know, I had a neighbor that, she's a philanthropist
and she's done many things for tax breaks. That's the whole
reason. And I was talking to this person
one time and I said, in all honesty, concern for her soul. I said,
there's nothing you have ever done or ever will do that counts
for anything with God. Nothing. Not one thing. And she got so
angry at me. And to this day, she wishes we
were dead. Why? Is that the truth? There's nothing any human being
can't do, has done, doesn't do, ever will do, that can atone
for sin. One thing. One thing. The blood of Christ. Isn't that
mercy? That's great mercy and great
grace. And God accepted had respect
under Abel because of his offering. And Cain talked with Abel, his
brother, and he came to pass. What were they talking about?
They were talking about this. Abel, you know, Abel was telling
him, Cain, why are you mad? It's the truth. It's what God
told Dad and Mom, what they told us. It's the truth. It's one
way to approach our holy God. God's a consuming fire. They
told us so. He barred the way. And before
he did, he covered them with the blood, the robe of a lamb,
and shed his blood. And they didn't die. They died spiritually, but they
lived a long time. But now God's had mercy on them
one way, through a substitute. They told us that, Cain. And
that's what God's told us, too. There's one way. Who you mad
at, Cain? Cain said, you think you're right
and everybody's wrong. You think your way is the only
way? You think you're saved and I'm lost? Cain said, Dave, you
think you're better than me? No, no, Brother Cain. We both
came out of the same parent. I'm just as sinful as you, Cain.
You think I'm not sincere? Oh, you're sincere. You're zealous. You think you're better than
me? No! No, Cain! We're both sons of Adam, fallen
sons of Adam, Cain, but there's one way a holy God's going to
save either one of us. It's by a substitute, Cain. Not anything we do. In my hands,
no price. Abel said this. Yeah, he did.
Abel said, in our hands, no price can we bring simply to the woman's
seed we cling. The blood of the Lamb. Cain said,
I don't believe that. I don't believe that. And Abel turned his back, and the first blood of a man
shed was shed by man. The first blood shed was by God,
and it was a lamb to atone for and cover the sins of men. And
the first blood of a man shed was by man. And God held Cain
accountable for the blood of his son. And he went on to say,
everybody kills a man, I'll hold him. And here's what God holds
every single son accountable for for the rest of time and
eternity, the blood of his son. Now either we're guilty of that
or Christ's blood was shed to absolve us. Some at the cross
that killed Christ, Christ said, forgive them. And they just killed
the son, Ron, but now they believe on him with all their hearts. That the one that we just killed
is the one that died that we might live. The blood of Abel. The blood
of Christ speaks better than that. Okay, let's sing a closing
hymn, number 228.