All right, brethren, let's turn
to Genesis chapter 4. We'll ask the Lord's blessing
before we begin. Our God and our Father, we thank
you for this day. Thank you, Lord, for bringing
us here, giving us the privilege to hear
your gospel preached another time. Lord, this day may you
be exalted, may your Son be glorified, high and lifted up. May the Spirit
of God get the glory for working in the hearts of your people,
and may we be humbled at your feet, thankful for your grace
and your mercy. Lord, come teach us, we ask you.
In Christ's name, amen. Genesis 4 verse 1 says, And Adam
knew Eve his wife, and she conceived, and bared Cain, and said, I have
gotten a man from the Lord. I don't have any doubt that Eve
thought she had borne the seed of woman, that she had borne
the promised seed. But you know in scripture there
is a pattern of the firstborn son forfeiting the birthright
and another son being the one God used. We see that with Jacob
and Esau. We see it with David and his
son Solomon. And that's a picture of the first
Adam being first, and he forfeited the birthright. And so Christ,
the last Adam, came in, and he's the firstborn, saves his people. But let's read on now. So she
bore Cain, and she again bore his brother Abel. And Abel was
a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in
process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit
of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought
of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the
Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain
and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth,
and his countenance fell. And the Lord said to Cain, Why
art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou do us well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou
do us not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall
be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked
with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass, when they were
in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother,
and slew him. Now, Cain and Abel, we've looked
at this, and you know this, and it's good to see it. Cain and
Abel represent the only two religions that exist. The way of Cain was
the way of works. The way of works, and that's
false religion. The way of Abel is the way of
grace. That's God's true religion, God
saved by grace. Now I realize that from then
till now, there have been thousands of religions, there's been thousands
of sects and cults and denominations in the world, but the only true
religion It's the religion that declares salvation is entirely
of the Lord. Salvation is entirely of God's
grace. Every other religion gives you
something to do, some part that you have to do in order to be
saved, and it ceases to be grace. It becomes works at that point.
There's no middle ground here, either we're a sinner saved by
the grace of God beginning to end, or if there's just one work
involved, then he's required to do all the works. This is
what Paul was telling us, grace and works are mutually exclusive.
He said in Romans 11, 6, if by grace, then it is no more of
works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise,
work is no more work. True salvation is by God's grace,
through faith in Christ, and God gets all the glory. God the
Father chose a people. He gets the glory for purposing
all and choosing His Son to save His people. And the Son of God,
Christ Jesus, gets the glory for redeeming us, making us righteous
and holy. And the Spirit of God gets the
glory for quickening us, Christ being formed in our new man,
and keeping us hearing the gospel and following Christ. Now, we'll
look at three contrasts here. We'll contrast the men themselves,
and then we'll contrast their sacrifice, and then we'll contrast
the reception. First of all, let's contrast
the men. It says there in verse 4, it says, the Lord had respect unto Abel.
He had respect unto Abel, the man. But then verse 5 says, but
unto Cain, unto that man, he had no respect. He had not respect. Now, these men were not different
as they came from their father Adam. There was no difference
in them whatsoever. They had the same father, they
had the same mother. Adam was the head of both these men, just
like he's the head of all the human race. And every person
that's born into this world was in Adam's loins in the garden. We were all in Adam in the garden. We all came from him. All came
from him. Just like Cain and Abel came
from Adam. Just as real as they came, you
know, right there from him. We came from him too. Levi, you
remember, he paid tithes in Abraham. And the scripture says, for he
was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. So
before God, God said Levi paid tithes when Abraham paid tithes
all those years before. Well, we were in Adam. And when
Adam sinned, we sinned. And so as by one man sin entered
the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men
because In Adam, all have sinned. All have sinned. It was a real
transgression. You could put yourself there
in that garden. Remember how Paul, it's true of our Lord Jesus
for God's elect, remember Paul said, I am crucified with Christ
because he was in Christ. Well, you can say, I did transgress
in the garden because you were in Adam. You were in Adam. And
we broke God's law and became guilty. Now, both Cain and Abel
were the same by their first birth as well. Verse 1, Adam
knew Eve his wife, and she conceived of bear Cain, and she and bear's
brother Abel. Both were conceived in sin, in
their mother's womb, by Adam's corrupt seed. That means the
moment life started in the womb, they were a mass of iniquity
and a mass of sin. the same as every other person
born into this world, just like you, just like me. Cain and Abel
came forth from the womb dead in trespasses and in sin. That
means they not only came forth guilty before God, they came
forth hating God, just like every man does. Behold, David said,
I was shaken in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me. Our Lord said that which is born
of the flesh is flesh. It never changes. It will always
be sin. That which is born of the flesh
will always be flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
of God is spirit. New spirit, something we didn't
have. Now, it was that new birth by the Holy Spirit that made
the difference in these two men. It was God's grace choosing one
in eternity And it was Christ being their surety from eternity.
And it was the spirit of God giving one the new birth through
the word of the gospel. God's always saved the same way.
He's always saved the same way. Pleased him to save through the
preaching of the gospel. He's always, the first preacher
was our Lord Jesus. He's the prophet, priest, and
king. The difference was made by God alone by his grace. Abel
was born again by the Holy Spirit. We have a little trouble, I think,
sometimes thinking because we know the Holy Spirit was poured
out on Pentecost. And yes, a greater work began
at that point because Christ had finished the work. But everybody
that ever had any spiritual understanding, the only way we have it is because
the Spirit of God gave us life. and taught us, and taught us.
And so that was so with Abel. God gave Abel faith in Christ.
Listen to Hebrews 11.4. This is how you know he's born
again, because he believed God. Hebrews 11.4 says, By faith Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. By faith. by faith. Sinners believe on
Christ only one way. There's only one way we believe
on Christ. There's only one way we keep believing on Christ until
the end. By God's grace. That's the only way. Ephesians
2, 4 said we were dead but God. But God, who's rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sin. He loved us when we didn't even
know him, when we hated him. Even when we were dead in sins,
he quickened us together with Christ. By grace are ye saved. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, lest any
man should boast. We are entirely his workmanship. Our flesh, our bodies, everything
that's gonna die, that is dying and will die, is the workmanship
of Adam. Everything that's new in you,
By the Spirit of God, by Christ being formed in you, it's the
workmanship of God. He did it. And He's growing you
and He did it. We were created in Christ Jesus. We're going to look at that new
creation later in the next message. But we were created in Christ
Jesus. He got foreordained. We saw this Thursday. Whom He
did foreknew. He foreordained. He foreordained. He predestinated us to be conformed
to the image of Christ, and God foreordained the good works we
would walk in, beginning with what we're going to see with
April, believing God and coming to Him in the blood of His Son.
And this new birth, this faith is given through the preaching
of the gospel of Christ. We have to hear the word. Paul
said in Romans 10, 13, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. Please hear that this morning.
You sitting here that have never believed on Christ, it says whosoever,
no age limit, no class, no education, no gender, whosoever shall believe
on the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed. You can't call on somebody you
don't believe. And how shall they believe in him of whom they
have not heard? You can't believe him if you
haven't heard him. You've got to hear about him. You've got
to know who he is. And how shall they hear without a preacher?
That's just God's way of doing it. That's how God chose to do
it. He's gonna manifest those that he's brought into submission
to Christ, they'll be in submission to the weak, worthless vessel
that God uses to preach gospel to them, to have the rule over
them. He won't lord over them, but he'll rule through preaching
the gospel to them, and God'll make them, they'll submit to
him, because they know Christ is controlling him, and Christ
is ruling everything. And how shall they preach except
they be sent? That's not a way you can preach
the gospel, is to be sent by God. So then, faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Hearing by the word of
God. The Lord taught Adam the gospel
in the garden. He taught Adam the gospel in
the garden. And you know, we said the voice of the Lord God
was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Now, who's
the mediator between God and men? Who do you think that was
that came and taught Adam the gospel? If one mediator between
God and men, and Adam has sinned, who's going to be the go-between
and come and teach him the truth of the gospel? It had to be the
pre-incarnate mediator. Now, I can hear Adam preaching
the gospel to Cain and Abel. Don't you know Adam could have
preached a good message? Don't you know that man could
preach the gospel? I can hear him say, my sons,
God gave me one law. He gave me one law in a perfect
world. He created me upright, full grown,
with perfect knowledge of him. I would walk with God, I would
talk with him, I knew God, I named all the animals, everything was
perfect. And he gave me one law. And he
said, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it. For in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die. God gave me all the trees in the garden, but that
one tree you cannot eat. Can you imagine living in the
world, the same world we live in right now, and being the only
man in the world? Everything belonged to you. It
was all yours. Every tree, every rock, Wasn't
nobody fighting over those shiny minerals. They all belonged to
one man. And I could hear him say, I was
without sin. And with just that one law, I
broke it. I sinned against God. I sinned
against God. And God imputed my sin to your
mother because I represented her. And God imputed my sin to
you two boys because I represented you. And God imputed my sin to
everybody that'll ever be born into this world because I represented
them. I died, she died, you died, and death passed upon all men
because all died in me. Men, it's a very humbling thing,
isn't it, when children are not obeying At some point, you sit
down and you tell your children the reason they were born in
sin and the reason they sin is you made them what they are.
You made them what they are. We can't very much complain and
say, well, why are they acting the way they're acting? We made
them. We made them. Can you imagine
Adam telling his children this? My sons, I made fig leaves to
cover my neck in this. I immediately knew I was naked.
I immediately knew I had sinned against God, and I made some
fig leaves. I thought, I can fix this. Never, never had tore
a fig leaf off a tree, and I tore it off and used it for a different
purpose, try to cover my neck in this. Your mama did too. Oh,
children, don't make yourself fig leaves. Don't try to come
to God in fig leaves. I can hear Adam telling them
that. And I had these fig leaves and I had a pretty nice covering.
I'm pretty comfortable. But then I heard the voice of
the Lord God walking in the cool of the day. And all of a sudden
my fig leaves wasn't enough. And I went and hid in the trees.
I was walking with God and going to meet him when I heard his
voice. And when I realized what I'd done, I ran from him and
I hid in the trees. That right there is the enmity
we are by nature, trying to make our own fig leaves and hiding
from God. Oh, but I can hear him tell his
sons, but God who's rich in mercy, for his great love where he loves
his people, God drew me. He came to me and he drew me
and he drew me to confess my sin to God. That's what God will do to all
His people in the time He's appointed. He'll bring us to confess our
sin, and it's not a one-time thing either. The rest of our
day, our Lord told us to pray to God and ask Him to forgive
us our sin. And He's faithful and just to forgive us, to cleanse
us, and He'll continue to cleanse His people. He said, then God,
when He drew me out and He began to make me confess my sin, God
taught me the gospel. He taught me the gospel of substitution.
There was a lamb. There was a lamb. We don't know
what kind of animal it was, it doesn't say, but it probably
was a lamb. There was a lamb, innocent lamb,
and the Lord marked him as being the one to bear my sin, and God
slew that animal in my place. Slew that animal in your mama's
place. And he made a covering for us from that animal. And
not only that, he stripped us of our fig leaves and he put
the covering on us. The only thing we did, son, the
only thing I did was sin. God found me. God called me. God drew the confession out of
me. God provided the lamb. God slew the lamb. God covered
me with the covering of the lamb. God did it all. God did it all. And God taught me that day, my
sons, that that animal typified the seed of woman. He said to
me, he told me, I heard him say it to the serpent, he said, there's
going to be enmity between you and the woman, between your children
and her seed. You're going to bruise his heel,
but he's going to crush your head. And I could hear Adam telling
them, sons, that right there is Christ Jesus, the substitute.
He's the son of God, the righteous substitute, the woman's seed
who's going to save his people from our sins. That's what was
pictured in that animal. Now, sons, listen to me. We can't
come to God any other way except through the blood of a lamb.
We have to come with the blood of the lamb. No other way we
can come but through the blood of the lamb. Now look here, son,
right here at the edge of this garden, right here, see these
cherubims? See these cherubims? See where
they're facing? See that glimmering sword? That's the mercy seat
right there. That sword's gonna be plunged
into the heart of Christ Jesus for propitiation. And that's
the mercy seat where God promises he'll meet. That's Christ Jesus
who is the propitiation for the sins of his people. God said,
I'll meet you one place. I'll meet you right there. We're
going to have to come to God, not without blood, on the mercy
seat. That's where God will receive
us. That's where God will receive us. Life is in the blood. and
we deserve death. And without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of our sins. God will ever receive us
through faith in the promised seed. We must come with the blood
of a lamb, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ." I just think Adam
probably was one good preacher. And when that message came forth,
by God's grace, just by pure grace alone, here you got two
sin-dead boys hearing this word preached, and God's grace quickened
Abel and gave him faith, and Abel believed every word he heard.
He believed on the Lord God. He believed the Lord Jesus. By
faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice, because
he believed the gospel of God. He believed the gospel of God.
And God let the other boy, he let Cain be Cain. He just let
Cain be Cain. Cain heard the same good news
as Abel, but Cain did what he decided he would do with that
message. And that's what we all did until God quickened us by
his grace. Now secondly, I want you to contrast the offerings.
Abel was at verse four, or where is it here, verse, Verse 2, Abel
was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. It
says there in verse 3, a process of time, it came to pass Cain
brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord, and
Abel he also brought of the firstling of his flock of the fat thereof.
Cain was a tiller of the ground. So Cain brought the fruit of
the ground. He brought the fruit of the ground.
Some fruit he had cultivated, he brought that as an offering
to God. Now we don't read thus far, we
read of a lamb being slain, we read of the seed of woman, but
we don't read anything yet about the first fruits being offered.
God didn't do that two years later. God made man out of the dust.
out of the ground, and we sinned, and we became cursed. We became
sinful after the fall. Luke Genesis 3, look at verse
17. And unto Adam God said, because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife. He stopped
listening to God. Anytime we stop listening to
the Lord and start listening to somebody else's voice, we
have made a terrible mistake. And you've eaten of the tree
of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed
is the ground for thy sake. That's a picture of our sin nature.
Our sin nature is the cursed ground. In sorrow shalt thou
eat of it all the days of your life. And you're going to eat
of sorrow from this sinful flesh until you die and put it off. Thorns, also, and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
Our Lord said, all flesh is grass. It's a picture of what we are
by nature. All flesh is grass. All you're going to have a taste
for is grass. Thorns and thistles, that's all
that's going to come forth. Sin is all our sin nature brings
forth. It's all our sin nature is. We
eat the grass of our sin nature. We drink iniquity like water. In the new man, we eat the bread
of heaven. He said, in the sweat of thy face, thou shalt eat bread.
We have a believer as an old man and a new man. We still have
the sweat of our faith with that sinful nature, but in the new
man, we eat the bread of heaven. We eat the bread of heaven. and
you'll do so till you return unto the ground. For out of it
was thou taken, for thus thou art. You see who the ground,
by thus thou art, and unto thus shalt thou return. Curse it thus.
Every sinner by nature is a tiller of this cursed ground. That's
what we are. You don't have to teach a man to be religious.
Every man's religious by nature. We're tillers of this cursed
ground by nature. Cain brought his very best fruits
to offer God, but whatever you bring to God, expecting God to
receive you by the works of our flesh, without faith in the blood
of the Lamb, we're offering the fruit of this cursed ground called
our sinful flesh. That's all we're offering. Paul
said, when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin which were
by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
Cain heard Adam say, you're going to have to come worship God. You're going to come here to
worship God. And we heard the law. But we brought, and so we
brought forth some fruit. And our sin nature made us bring
forth this fruit. Paul declared what that damn
fruit was when he was solitarsis. He said, I was circumcised the
eighth day. I was of the stock of Israel. I was of the tribe
of Benjamin. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I had a family, everybody
in my family believed God. I was as sure for heaven as if
I was already there. Touching the law, I was a Pharisee.
Oh, I was zealous for the law. You would have found no fault
in me. I guarantee you Cain was a much more outwardly moral man
than Abel was. I guarantee you was. I guarantee
you that's what offended Cain the most was he looked at Abel
and he thought, how could you not accept me and you accept
him? Because that's the heart in every
one of us. That is the heart in every one of us till God teaches
us what we are. Concerning zeal, I persecuted
the church. That's what Cain did to Abel.
Touching the righteousness was in the law, I was blameless,
as far as you could see, but not as far as God could see.
The spirit, the heart, is different in the offering of those saved
by grace and those trusted in their works. This is the difference.
It's the heart. This is the difference. Grace
glorifies God for giving us life and giving us faith and drawing
us to Christ. Works glories in their believing,
in their trust, and in their will. That's the difference.
Grace glorifies God for Powerfully making us willing
to renounce ourselves and trust Christ, works glories in the
fact I came to Christ. Grace glorifies God for making
us put off the old man and put on the new man. Gives him all
the glory. Works says I had to do it. In the end, grace will glorify
God saying, Christ said they'll stand there and they'll say,
when did we ever do these good works? Works will stand there
and say, when did we not do these good works? The difference is
the heart. Abel offered the Lord of the
firstling of his flock. Christ is the firstborn. He's
without spot. He's without blemish. He's God
providing himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Abel gave Christ
the preeminence. He gave God the preeminence.
That's what he did. He glorified God. Abel came with blood. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. The blood
of the lamb represents faith in Christ. That's what it represented.
The confession that I am the sinner is the confession that
from the top of my head to the sole of my foot, I'm a leper.
I'm a sinner. I can't do a thing to save myself.
I can't bring forth anything pleasing to God. That's what
coming to Christ through faith is confessing. The blood represents the confession
that I need mercy. God be merciful to me, the sinner. I gotta be saved by grace. The
blood represents confession of a humble heart. Lord, if thou
will, you can make me clean. The blood confesses my only hope
is the righteousness of God that he's provided, that he slew on
the cross, that he stripped me of my fig leaf and clothed me
in that righteousness through faith. That's who grace glory
is in. Abel also burnt the fat. He burnt
the fat. You know when you drop the fat
on the coals and that sweet smell comes up? That picture's the
excellency of our Lord Jesus Christ that pleased God our Father.
Paul said in Ephesians 5, 2, walk in love as Christ also hath
loved us and gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet smell and savor. And the moment you think
you're walking in love, makes you accept with God you're not
walking in love. walking in love, is loving your
brethren when they're just like you were when Christ loved you
ungodly. That's when he gave himself to
God for a sacrifice for a sweet smelling savor. Now lastly, let's
see the contrast in the reception, and I'll hurry. Verse 4, it says, And the Lord had respect unto
Abel and to his offering, to the man and to his offering.
But unto Cain and to his offering, he had no respect. The Lord had
respect to Abel and his offering. Hebrews 11, 4 says, by faith,
by faith. Abel offered unto God a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain. He knew the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus, and he counted everything else lost
for him, by which he obtained witness. He obtained witness
from God. God bore witness that he was
righteous. What did he do? Nothing. He came
confessing, I didn't do anything to make myself righteous. The
Lamb did. The Lamb did it all. And God
testified of His gifts, that is, of His offerings that He
brought. It wasn't the only time He brought this Lamb. He came,
kept coming, kept coming. We keep coming to Christ, keep
coming to God through Christ. And by it, He being dead yet
speaks. Who's speaking? The Lamb's yet
speaking. Jesus, the mediator, the new
covenant, the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than
that of Abel. He's the one speaking right now. God accepted Abel
in Christ the beloved. This man went down to his house
justified, complete, washed in the blood of the Lamb. But verse
5 says, but unto Cain and to his offering, unto Cain and to
his offering, he was corrupt, the man was corrupt, the man
was guilty, and his offering was nothing but the offering
of thorns and thistles. And Cain was very wroth, Cain
was very wroth, he got angry, and his countenance fell. God
didn't receive him, didn't receive his offering, and he hated God
for that. And God came to him. Look how
merciful God is to us. Look how long-suffering he is
with us. God came to him and he said, if you do well, shalt
thou not be accepted. What's he saying? If you come
with the more excellent sacrifice, if you come believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, you'll be accepted. You'll be accepted. That's the
only thing brethren need to know from one another. You believe
the Lord, God accepts you. We accept one another. You're
righteous in Christ, perfect in Christ, no matter what. And
if thou do us not well, sin lieth at the door. What's the sin?
The sin of what I am, sin of what you are, sin of unbelief. That's all he could produce was
unbelief. Christ said the spirit will convince of sin because
they believe not on me. And unto thee, and here's I think
what'll help us, unto thee shall be Abel's desire and thou shalt
rule over him. You see, Cain's problem was our
problem. Cain was the oldest of the two.
And he was too proud to bow. He was too proud to submit to
Christ because he felt like if I submit to Christ, I'm gonna
be too weak and I won't be submitting, my brother won't submit to me.
And so he probably hated his brother and was in the field
talking and he said, you're not righteous as I am. I don't know
why God received you and he didn't receive me. I'll take care of
that. And he killed him. He just killed
him. What is it to do well? He hath
sold thee, O man. Micah 6a. He showed thee, O man,
what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee. Now this
verse ends with, with thy God. And you need to apply with thy
God to everything that's said here. Here it is. Here's what
God requires. To do justly with thy God. That
is to come to God and say against thee and thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in your sight that you might be justified when
you speak and be cleared when you judge. Don't go to a priest.
Don't go to a preacher. Don't walk an aisle. Don't do
all the vain things that the dead fruit that carnal religion
is teaching you to do. You go to God through Christ
and confess. And your confession is not what's
saving you. Because there's a lot of sin
you don't know that you've ever even committed. What's saving
you is going there and confessing, I can't save myself. I can't
do a thing. All I am is sin. That's all I am. And he said, and love mercy with
thy God. What's that? The publican standing
afar off, wouldn't lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,
but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's love and mercy with God.
That's confessing to God, only way I can be saved, Lord, is
if you give me what I don't deserve and withhold from me what I do
deserve. Christ said, they that behold
don't need a physician. They that are sick, go learn
what that meaneth. I will have mercy. I sacrifice
Cain was bringing a sacrifice. You see, the things in our heart
is if we thank God, this is going to please God right here. We're
sacrificing. We're bringing a sacrifice God
will be pleased with. When God breaks your heart, you're
not thinking that. You're thinking, Lord, please
have mercy. I can't. I need to be healed. And it's to walk humbly with
thy God. What is that? The Lord looked at the Pharisees,
and he told them. They worried about things they
were doing outwardly, and they were condemning God's people
because they didn't do something outwardly right that they thought
they should have been doing. And the Lord said, Your heart
is a mass of sin. Your heart is adultery. Your
heart is fornication. Your heart is murder. Your heart
is thievery. Your heart, that's what your heart is, and that's
all it comes out of. And that offended them. He spoke too direct
to them. And Peter came and said, You
know that offended them? Surely he wasn't talking to us,
they said. And Peter sort of wanted to not offend them. And
then Lord looked directly at Peter, and he said, do you not
yet understand the gospel? That's pretty direct. It's not
what comes out of your mouth that defiles you. It's what you
are. I mean, it's not what goes in. It's what you are. It's what's
coming out. And then it got even more direct.
Here comes a Gentile Syrophoenician woman. She loved judgment with
God. She loved mercy with God, and
she walked humbly before God. Her daughter was previously vexed
with the devil. That's like your brother being
fallen in sin and can't do anything to save himself. And she came
to God. She came to Christ, our God.
And he looked directly at her. This all happened right there
together. He looked directly at her and was even more direct
with her. He said, it's not meet for me
to give the children's bread to somebody who is an abomination. That's what they knew dog meant. And here's what it is to walk
humbly with thy God. And Peter and the other apostles,
here's how proud we can be. They said, Lord, the Pharisees
were offended. You don't want to offend them.
And yet, here's this woman begging God, and they said, send her
away. She keeps nagging us. And here's walking humbly with
God. He said, it's not me to give the children's bread to
an abomination. And she said, truth, Lord. That's what I am. But even the dogs get a crumb
from the master's table. You know what she was saying?
Lord, if you will, you don't have to. But if you will, you
can make me clean. That's what the Lord talks about,
walking humbly with God. But the first murder was a works
religionist murdering one who believed salvation by grace alone.
And the murder of our Lord Jesus Christ was done with men thinking
they were doing it in the service of God. And Christ said, men
will cast you out of the synagogue thinking they do God's service.
They'll think they are serving God and pleasing God. Bring these
offerings. All the work you bring, we're
going to do what either of these two did. Whatever you do, they
will believe God. They believe Christ. He loved
his brother. He loved his brother in the fact
that he would not turn from the lamb. He would not turn to any
other way but the Lord Jesus. And for this, this is the message
you've heard, John said, from the beginning, that we should
love one another, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one and
slew his brother, wherefore slewing him, because his own works were
evil and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the
world hates you. Do you know It says his own works
were evil and his brothers righteous. What we just read, they did.
That's the only works we're told they did. Because by coming in
the blood of the lamb, by faith in Christ, everything Abel did
was righteous. Because everything Christ did
was righteous. And Christ put away all his sin. But by not
trusting Christ, nothing Cain did was righteous. It was all
evil, no matter how good it was. Oh, brethren, I pray the Lord
give us grace to just bow to Christ and trust him. There's
no other way to come to God. And you don't stop walking in
this way. You just keep loving justice with God, taking sides
with God against yourself. You keep begging mercy from God
all your days, and you keep walking humbly, knowing whatever God
gives me. It's better than I deserve, and
it's less than I deserve. I deserve total wrath, and he
gives me less than I deserve. I deserve not even a crumb, and
he's just loaded me up. So we praise him. Amen. Brethren,
thank you for this work. Lord, thank you for this work.
Thank you for these brethren. Pray you it blesses to our hearts
and And Lord, keep us doing well. Keep us coming through faith
in Christ alone. That's the only way we'll do
justly. The only way we'll love mercy and the only way we'll
walk humbly with you. Lord, you began the work. We
depend on you to continue the work. Lord, help us to put off
our cane nature and make us put on Christ Jesus our Lord. Make us know we're robed in Him,
complete in Him. And help us, Lord, to help one
another keep looking to Him alone. Forgive us when we don't. Forgive
us all the times we look and think we've done something and
become proud. Oh, Lord, we need mercy. We need grace. We need You to
forgive us our sin continually. We are sin and we have sin. Pray,
Lord, you'd be merciful. Hear our advocate, we ask you. Hear our advocate, hear our propitiation. And for his sake, Lord, be merciful
to us. In Christ's name, amen.