Alright brethren, let's open
our Bibles to Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4. Let's begin reading in verse
1. It says, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived,
and bared Cain. and said, I have gotten a man
from the Lord. And she again bare his brother
Abel. Now, Adam and Eve had many, many
more children than just Cain and Abel at this time. But the Spirit of God singles
out Cain and Abel to teach us a contrast in the ways that sinners
attempt to come to God. Now verse 2, he says there, And
Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. That's important because it tells
us that Cain and Abel were not young boys. They were not living
at home. These were grown men, they had
occupations, they had wives, children, or else they wouldn't
have been offering a sacrifice. That fell on the head of the
house. If they were still under Adam's roof, Adam would have
been the one offering the sacrifice for his household, not Cain and
Abel. They were grown men. with occupations,
had families, children. Verse 3, it says that in the
process of time, if you look at your margin there, it says
at the end of days. That is significant because God's
always had a set time to worship Him. This was a set time for
worship. God appoints the time and He
appoints the place where He will be worshipped, where he will
meet with his people. Look back there at Genesis 3,
look at verse 24. It says, so he drove out the
man, drove him out of the garden, and he placed, that word placed
means dwell or tabernacle, he placed at the east of the Garden
of Eden cherubims. You remember the cherubims overlooking
the mercy seat and God said there above the mercy seat between
the cherubims I'll meet with you that mercy seat being a picture
of Christ this was a place that he set where he would meet with
them where they could come and dwell and meet with him and it
pictured Christ and they put there a flaming sword that is
the Shekinah glory that's God's presence God's presence a visible shining of God's presence was
there. And it says it turned every way
to keep the way of the tree of life. Christ is the glory of
God, He is the way, He's the keeper of the way, and He's the
life. Everything about this set place
was picturing Christ, where they would come to, to worship God,
where God said, I'll meet with the sinner. Verse 3, Genesis
4-3, 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 unto Cain,
Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? It's
like he said at Isaiah when he said, Come, let us reason together. He came to Cain, he said, he's
saying to him, let's reason together. If thou doest well, shalt thou
not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, whose
fault is it? That's what he's saying. If you
do not well, whose fault is that? Sin lieth at the door. It's not
your brother's fault, it's your own fault, he's saying. But it
came, heed the word of the Lord, 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." This is
the first murder. It was a will worshiper who slew
a sinner who trusted in God's sovereign grace, trusted in Salvation
through faith in Christ. Remember John said this is the
message that you've heard from the beginning that we should
love one another. Not as Cain who was of that wicked
one and slew his brother and wherefore slew he him because
his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. Marvel not
my brethren if the world hates you. It's the same thing's been
going on since the beginning. A well-worshipper, angry at someone
who believed and rested in the sovereign grace of God. That's
nothing new. Nothing new. First murder was
because of it. Verse 9, And the Lord said unto
Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I
my brother's keeper? And he said, what hast thou done?
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from
the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's
blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground,
it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive
and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. All religion is summed up right
here. This is all religion in a nutshell. Every sinner comes to God one
of these two ways. You know, I've said this to you
before, you go off to school and sometimes in high school,
usually in college, you get there and that's when young folks really
start wanting to look into religion. And they get discovering all
these different new religions and talking about them and boy,
it's really deep. You sit around and there's probably
not enough wisdom in the room to fill up a thimble. And you're
trying to talk about things way over your head. This right here
sums it all up. There's just two religions. Just two. There's the way of
works. This is the way of Cain. Cain
brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. There
was no blood, just an offering from produce that he produced. And then you have the way of
grace, the way of faith. This is the way of Abel. Abel
brought the firstling of his flock. and of the fat thereof. He brought the blood of a lamb.
He came in the blood of a lamb. All religion, all religion is
either the religion of works or it's the religion of grace
through faith in Christ. It's all summed up right there.
There's no middle ground. There's grace and there's works.
And these two can't be mixed. They just can't be mixed. If
it's Romans 11, 6, Paul said, If by grace, then it is no more
of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. You get that? It can't be mixed. It's grace, and if it is, it's
no more of works. And He said, but if it be of
works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
They just can't... It's like light and dark. If
it's light, it's not dark. If it's dark, it's not light.
If it's grace, it's not of works. If it's works, it's not of grace.
Now, which one of these ways are you and I attempting to come
to God in? Which way are we in? Which way
are we coming to God in? Everybody here. Everybody right
here, right now, is in one of these two ways. That's a sobering thought, isn't
it? The whole world is, this is the category everybody in
this world is in. You either trust it in yourself
or you trust God. No middle ground. Now here's
what I want you to get tonight. A sinner can only worship God
and only be accepted of God by God's grace through faith in
the blood of Christ Jesus his Son. That's the only way you
can worship God. It's the only way God will accept
us. by the grace of God through faith
in Christ Jesus the Lord. And when you say through faith
in Christ, that automatically means not of our works. It's not of our works. Now I
want to show you three things here. I want to show you the
contrast in these men themselves. And I want to show you the contrast
in their sacrifices. And then I want us to hear what
God said First of all, there was a contrast here in the men
themselves. Now catch this key point right
down here in verse 4, Genesis 4.4. It says, the second part
there, it says, the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his
offering. You see that? Not just to his
offering, to Abel and his offering. And then it says, but unto Cain
and to his offering the Lord did not have respect. Now turn,
hold your place here and turn over to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. Now some folks think that the
difference was entirely in the offering. And there was a difference
in the offering. We're going to see that. But
that was due to a difference that was within these men themselves. There was a difference in these
men that resulted in their offerings, their sacrifices being different.
What was it? Here it is. Well, Hebrews 11. Verse four, by faith, that's
it right there. That's the difference. By faith,
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. By which he obtained witness
that he was righteous, and understand what that means. He wasn't made
righteous by his faith. He wasn't made righteous by bringing
the sacrifice. He was given faith and he bought
the sacrifice he did because he was already righteous in his
surety in Christ. That's why he was given the faith.
He brought the sacrifice He did. And God bore witness here that
He was righteous. God testifying of His gifts,
that is, of His sacrifices. And by it, by this whole thing that took place here,
by Him coming by grace through faith, by this, He being dead
yet speaketh. He's still preaching to us right
here tonight because of coming by faith, by grace, trusting
the Lord. He's still preaching to us now.
So the fundamental difference in these two men was that Abel
had faith in God and Cain did not. You get that? It was not a difference by birth. They were both born of Adam.
They were both dead in trespasses and sins by birth. This was a
difference the grace of God made. This was a difference grace made.
Abel had faith, believed the Lord, but Cain did not. Now where
does faith come from? Go with me to Romans 10. Romans chapter 10. You thought
I was going to go to Ephesians 2. Romans 10. Look here. I want you to see
this. Romans chapter 10. Verse 13. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Look at verse 17. So then, faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Now brethren, Wouldn't you have
liked, this thought occurred to me, wouldn't you have liked
to have heard the sermons that Adam preached to all his children? Can you imagine? You talk about
preaching from experience? I was thinking about it today.
I was trying to just think, how would he preach to them? God
told me of every tree in the garden, I could freely eat. He provided every tree in that
garden and told me I could have any one of them I wanted, except
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said, Thou
shalt not eat of it. And he told me, The day you eat
of that fruit, you shall surely die. And can you imagine Adam
looking to his children? I mean, we're talking lots of
children. his family, and he's responsible
to teach his children the Word of God, and he's the first preacher
there was. That's how Abel heard the Gospel. And he tells him, God told me
I could not eat of that one tree in that garden. And the day I
ate of that one tree, I would die. And I did it. I ate of that one tree. When
I ate of that one tree, because of me, your mother died. Oh, she had eaten of it before,
but she didn't die. Nothing happened to her, because
she's not the head. I'm the head. And when I ate
of that tree, I died. Spiritually, I died. I lost communion
with God. I died spiritually. And because
of me, she died. And you, all my children, you
died. And your children will come into
this world dead in trespasses and sins because of me. Can you
imagine hearing that message? And he's sitting there preaching
that message, and he's the one. He's the one that did it. And
I can hear him say, there I was, I was dead. By my one transgression,
sin entered in, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men. Because in me, all men have sinned.
And I heard God's voice in the cool of the day, and before I
had sweet communion with Him, and this time when I heard His
voice, it scared me to death. Because I knew I was naked. I had tried to cover myself,
I had taken The fig leaves, and I tried to cover myself, but
when I heard His voice, those little flimsy fig leaves weren't
enough. And I ran and hid from God. But
God, because He's sovereign, God, because He's unchangeable,
and His everlasting love toward me, He wouldn't take me running
away for an answer. He came to where I am and He
sought me out and He found me and He brought me out from those
trees and He revealed my sin to me. He revealed to me and
brought me to confess that I'm the sinner. And He made me to
see I'm cursed. He made me to see there's no
good in me. There's nothing good that I can
bring forth. But then He told me the good
news. He told me about the seed of woman. He told me that there's
coming the Christ. The seed of woman. The serpent
that came in here and deceived your mother, that same serpent
is going to bruise Christ's heel. But Christ is going to crush
his head in the process. And no sooner had He revealed
this to me, no sooner had God taught me the gospel of Christ
Jesus, the seed of woman, And He stripped me of my fig leaves.
He stripped your mother of her fig leaves. And He took a lamb,
an innocent lamb. Never been any bloodshed in the
garden. Never been any bloodshed in the world. And He took a lamb,
an innocent spotless lamb. And He killed that lamb instead
of killing me. And He made skins. Christ Jesus made atonement.
That's what he's coming to do. He's coming to make atonement
for the sin of his people. And the skins that he made picture
Christ's righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, the last Adam. I messed up. I sinned in the
garden. I plunged you and all my family into sin and death.
Christ won't do it. He's going to withstand and He's
going to bring in an everlasting righteousness for all His posterity.
And that's what God showed me in slaying this spotless lamb
and making coats of skin, coats out of the skin. But not only
did He do that, He covered me and covered your mother in the
skins of that spotless lamb. That's what He's going to do.
That's what He did for me in my heart. He already come in
my heart and He'd already covered me, robed me in the righteousness
of Christ through faith in Him. And He showed me a picture of
it when He slew that lamb and covered me, my physical body,
in the skins of that lamb. Now son, I just see that. Now
son, listen. This is where He brought me,
right here. He took me and your mother and He brought us and
He cast us out of this garden and right here, between these
cherubims, you behold the Shekinah glory of God, right here. You
behold the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus the Lord
and God says, right here, this is where I'll meet you, right
here. And I'll commune with you, right here. But if you're going
to come here and you're going to meet me, Until He comes, and
until He lays down His life and sheds His blood, until He's accomplished
that, every time you come here, you come with the blood of a
lamb. You take your best firstling,
you take your best choice lamb, without spot, without blemish,
so that it pictures the Lord Jesus Christ, and you slay that
lamb. And when you do, you know that
that's what you deserve. And yet God's provided His Son
to lay down His life for His people. And you come to God with
that blood, confessing your sin, confessing your guilt, confessing
your need of mercy, and God says He'll meet with you right here.
And He preached that to His family. He preached that to His family.
Right there probably where they were to come to is where He preached
it to them. And at home He preached it to
them. And Abel sat there and listened and Cain sat there and
listened. And Abel believed God and Cain
didn't. Abel believed God and Cain didn't. And that's why we read, by faith
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. See, what Adam did, I'm doing.
What Adam did, I've been doing since the day I came here. I've
been telling you the good news of how God will receive guilty
sinners like you and me. Some of you have been like Abel.
Some of you have said and listened and you believe God. Some have
heard and been like Cain and don't believe God. Those that believe, you're coming
in the more excellent sacrifice. Christ Himself. Those that don't
believe, you're trying to do what Cain did. Let's see what
he did. Let's see the contrast in the
offerings. Verse 3. Genesis 4-3. It says here, Cain brought of
the fruit of the ground and offering unto the Lord. Cain was a tiller
of the ground. Now think of the picture in that.
Cain's occupation, all he was taken up with, his life, this
is how he made his living. His life was to till the ground
and try to produce fruit out of the ground. Go back over to
Genesis 3 and look at verse 17. Look at what God said of the
ground. He said unto Adam, Because thou hast hearkened unto the
voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded
thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground
for thy sake. Cain was a tiller of the cursed
ground. His occupation, his livelihood,
he was consumed with it every day, was tilling in the cursed
ground. Look at this. In sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field. And in the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out
of it was thou taken, for thus thou art, and unto thus shalt
thou return. You know what that cursed ground
is a picture of? Our flesh. Our flesh. That cursed ground is a picture
of our flesh. That's what it is. It's a picture
of the flesh and every sinner by nature is a tiller of the
ground. We come into this world just
like Cain would get up and physically go out day by day and till in
the ground and try to produce fruit. You and I by nature till
in this flesh trying to produce righteousness, fruit, that God
will be pleased with. That's what we do until God comes
to us in saving grace. We try to till this flesh, this
cursed ground and produce some fruit that will please God. And
all this cursed ground produces, and I'm talking about our flesh,
all it produces is sorrow all the days of our life. That's
all. and it brings forth briars and
thorns, and that's the only kind of fruit we produce. Listen to
this. Romans 7.5 says, When we were
in the flesh, just nothing but cursed ground, the motions of
sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring
forth fruit. We brought forth some produce,
but it was fruit unto death. That was the fruit we produced.
What did Cain bring? When He came with that fruit,
here He is, He grew some vegetables. He went out there and tilled
that ground. He sweat over it. He planted
the seed. He watched it grow. He really didn't even produce
what He claimed He produced. If it wasn't for God, He wouldn't
even have produced that. And isn't that a picture of our
flesh? If it wasn't for God, you and I wouldn't even have
life to even produce the dead fruit we produce in our flesh.
All the days of our rebellion. We can't even boast in our dead
fruit. Because if God took away our
breath, we would have died like that. We wouldn't even have had
flesh. Cain comes with some fruit that he produced out of the cursed
ground, but he didn't even really produce it. God had to give rain
and everything else for it to even grow. But that's a picture
of us. And here's what he was really
offering to God. He was offering to God the fruit of his self-will. That's what he was offering to
God. He heard what Abel heard. He heard the same gospel. He
heard that there was no coming to God except in the blood of
a lamb. But he thought he would bring
something a little more dignified than blood. He would bring something,
surely God's going to be pleased with this produce that I've produced. After all, I'm Cain. I'm the elder son. Cain offered God his sinful pride. That's what he brought. Blood
signifies that I'm a sinner. Blood signifies that I need someone
to die in my place. Blood signifies that except I
have a substitute, I can't come to God. But pride wouldn't let
Cain come that way. Pride made Cain come with a bloodless
offering of some bloodless fruit because he wasn't going to confess
his sin. Cain offered God a blind eye,
a fist of rebellion, a deaf ear, a lying tongue, a hard heart,
putrefying flesh. That's what he offered to God.
The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint. From the sole of
the foot even to the head there's no soundness in it, but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores. They've not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Senator, if you're
trying to come to God by your works or by some goodness in
you, that's what you're bringing to God. Think about it. That's what a
man's bringing to God is his putrefying loathsome flesh and
God will not have it. He will not have it. He is of
two pure eyes to look upon sin. The heavens are not clean in
His sight. What about a sinner who drinks
iniquity like water? God won't receive anything we
bring Him. And here's Cain, marching up
to God, having heard the gospel, having heard the good news, having
heard where God will meet with the sinner. And he decides, I'm
going to come the way I want to come. I'm going to bring my
works. See the pride in that? See the
sinful rebellion in that? But by faith in Christ, look
now Genesis 4.4, Abel offered the Lord a firstling of the flock.
Christ is the firstborn of every creature. All things were created
by Him and for Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. He is the firstborn of every
creature. And He brings a firstling, a
firstborn. That firstborn signified the
beginning. What that firstborn was, the
rest were. He took the firstborn, He took
the firstling, without spot, without blemish, picturing Christ
the sinless, harmless, undefiled, God-man mediator. That's what
He brought. God providing Himself a Lamb.
And He came with blood. Because scripture says without
the shedding of blood there is no remission for sin. Life is
in the blood. Life is in the blood. A life
has to die for a life to put away the sin of the sinner. And
so he came with blood. And when he came with blood,
he confessed that he was nothing but a worthless, hell-deserving
sinner, guilty before God. That's what he was confessing
by coming with the blood in himself. That's all he was. He was confessing
his need of that substitute, that need of Christ coming and
working out a righteousness for him and justifying him from all
his sin. He was confessing that he needed
to be redeemed from the curse of the law Christ being made
a curse for him, that's what he was confessing by coming with
that lamb. And he offered the fat of the
lamb. The fat of the lamb. You ever cook a steak and get
the fat and that fat fall on the coals or fall on the fire
and it just burns it up and it smells so good. That's the picture. When God said offer the fat,
it's to picture this, how Christ loved us and gave himself for
us and offering a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. It's the excellency of Christ.
The excellency of Christ. Because he believed God, Abel
brought the sacrifice God demanded. Because he believed God. He believed
God. Isn't faith really simple? When
you really believe God, you're going to come to God the way
God says, come to me. He came to God the way he did
because he believed God. He came in the way that typified
Christ who he trusted to be his righteousness and his redemption
and all his acceptance with God. That's what he was confessing.
This lamb is not... If Abel could speak to us today,
he would say, that actual lamb, that lamb I brought was not my
Savior. It pictured my Savior in the
best way I could picture it. And my bringing that lamb was
not my salvation. I brought it because that one
typified in that lamb is my salvation. And I was showing that the only
way I can come to God is by Him. That's what I was trying to show
by that sacrifice. That's why I brought it. Because
I believed God. I saw what God was showing me
in that sacrifice. I saw what God was declaring
by that sacrifice. That's why I brought it. And
if Cain could speak, Cain would say, I didn't believe God. I
didn't believe God. I still don't understand why
I couldn't come with the sacrifice I wanted to bring. Why didn't God receive what I
brought? Why didn't He accept me? Look
how much better I am than Abel. And he probably was better than
Abel. You know his mama named him Possession. Cain. Possession. You know what she
named Abel? Vanity. That's what it means. Vanity.
If there's any affection there being shown by those names, one
over the other, it shows that our choice is not God's choice.
Was it ever? Look at Jacob and Esau. Who did
Isaac love? He loved Esau. God said, I love
Jacob and I hate Esau. Look at Ishmael and Isaac. Abraham
wanted to hang on to Ishmael. God said, I love Isaac, you got
to send Ishmael Packin. David, look at David, all those
other brothers. Jesse said, look at all these
boys I got, how strong and big and tall and handsome they are,
and you want that little skinny, white, fair-complected, red-headed,
freckle-faced boy out there in the back, 40? God said, yeah,
that's the one I want. I don't look at things the way
man looks at them. I look on the heart. What a contrast in the Lord's
response. Look here at Genesis 4-4. Genesis
4-4. And the Lord had respect unto
Abel and to his offering, excepted in the beloved. justified, complete
in Christ. That's how He received Him. That's
the only way God will receive you. Either He'll receive you
as perfectly, totally, completely righteous and holy or He won't
receive you. That's the only way He receives
people. He don't receive people halfway holy or halfway righteous. With God, it's either all the
way or no way. And in Christ, it's all the way.
And look here at verse 5, but unto Cain and to his offering
he had not respect. Sinner, now listen. God gets
the glory for doing the choosing. God the Father chose whom He
would, not based on any good or evil in us, that God's purpose
according to election might stand. That is, that God might get all
the glory for doing the choosing. Christ redeemed His people, fulfilled
the righteousness of the law and it's the end of the law for
righteousness so that He gets all the glory for being the righteousness
and the sanctification and the redemption and the revelation
of God toward His people. And the Spirit of God regenerates
us, gives us life, gives us faith, brings us to faith in Christ,
keeps us and so that God gets all the glory for that. Now,
If that offends me, that salvation is not by works of righteousness
which I've done, that it's by the washing of regeneration,
renewing of the Holy Ghost which God has shed on His people abundantly
through Jesus Christ, if that offends me, if it offends me
that I'm saved by grace through faith and that faith is not even
of myself, It's the gift of God lest any man should boast. If
that offends a sinner and he's like Cain and he's brought to
a place where his countenance is falling and he's angry because
God's going to save the way, God's going to say, God said
I'm going to do it for my own sake because how should my name
be polluted? Why would I trust it into the
hands of a sinner and let my name be polluted and I will not
give my glory to another? So this is how God's going to
say. Now, if you're where Cain is, and your countenance is fallen,
and you get angry over that, listen to this. Genesis 4, 5. Cain was very wroth, and his
countenance fell, and the Lord said to Cain, Why are you wroth?
Why is thy countenance fallen? Now watch this. If thou doest
well, shalt thou not be accepted? If you do well, I'll accept you
just like I did Abel. And if you do not well, sin lies
at the door. If you do not well, sin is at
the door. What sin? What sin is he talking
about? Oh, so you're saying if I just
clean up my act and everything, and try to work up a little more
righteousness, then he'll receive me? That's not what he's saying.
The sin that lies at the door is this. Christ said when the
comforter is come, he will reprove, he will convince of sin. You
know what the next line is? because you believe not on Me.
That's it. That's when He says, if you do
not well, if you don't do what I call doing well, sin lies at
the door. And you know what the sin is?
Not believing on Christ. That's it. That's it. That is it. Now, listen to this. If you do well, shall you not
be accepted? What is it to do well? Go to
Micah 6. I'm going to end with this. Here's what it is to do
well. I could just say it like this.
Believe on Christ. That's what he's talking about.
If you do well, what was the difference between Abel and Cain? What did Abel do well? He believed
God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. He believed God. That's why he
came the way he did. By not doing well. What did Cain
do that he did not do well? He didn't believe God. Here's
what it is to believe God, right here. Micah 6, 8. He hath showed
thee, O man, what is good. Here it is. And what doth the
Lord require of thee? Now, I'm going to add a word
here as I read this because this is how it should be read. Listen.
To do justly with thy God, to love mercy with thy God, and
to walk humbly with thy God. That's what faith is. To do justly
with thy God, you come to God and you say against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou
mightest be justified when thou speakest, to be clear when thou
judgest. Do justly with God. Come to God and say, Lord, you're
just. I am a sinner. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned. The Lord requires you to love mercy with thy God. The
publican stood afar off and 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 what it is to do mercy
with God. To love His mercy. Delighting
in salvation by grace in Christ apart from our sacrifice. Christ
said, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick, go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy
and not sacrifice. I'm not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. To love mercy with God. is to
love that salvation is entirely by God's grace, apart from anything
in me or anything done by me. And the Lord requires you to
walk humbly with thy God. And that begins with faith coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ with this attitude, Lord, if thou
wilt, thou can make me clean. It's not come and making demands
based on what I've done for Jesus and all that. It's coming to
Him, being just with God. I've sinned against You, Lord.
You're just when You condemn me. It's to love mercy with God. God, have mercy on me, the sinner. And it's to walk humbly with
our God. It's to come saying, Lord, I'm at Your will. It's not my will. If You will,
You can make me whole. And I guarantee if you take that
step right there, that first step is humbled, bowed down at
Christ's feet, and you've experienced the power of His grace, the rest
of your steps will be that way too. From then on, you'll walk
that same way. Cain was angry because he wouldn't
come down off his high horse. He wouldn't confess he was a
sinner. He wouldn't confess he needed to be saved by grace.
And he wouldn't bow down before Christ. That's what faith does. That's what Abel did. And God
was pleased with him. God was pleased with him. Come
to Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, to the blood of
sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Abel's
blood cried out from the ground. Cried for justice and vengeance.
Christ's blood cries for justice and mercy. Abel's blood spoke
for punishment. Christ's for pardon. Abel's blood
spoke against his brother. Christ's blood speaks for his
brethren. Abel's blood demanded death. Christ's blood demands
life. Abel's blood cried out against
Cain and his conscience. Christ's blood speaks for us
in our conscience. And Abel's blood cried from the
ground up to God. Christ's blood speaks in heaven
right in God's presence. See that you refuse not him that
speaketh. For if they escape not or refuse
him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. I pray God give
you faith. Amen.