Genesis chapter 4. Let's look
at verse 8. 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, this was the very first
murder that ever took place in the earth. And you have to think
at this time, there's no police officers, there's no judges,
Nothing of that sort, never even been murdered before. And Cain
kills his brother. He raises up in anger and kills
him. He kills him. He killed his brother
because Abel worshipped God according to the way of grace. He worshipped
God as God ordered that he would be worshipped. And Cain was a
worshipper who worshipped in the way of works. Kane wanted
to be accepted by what he had done. Without blood, without
a confession of his sin, without a plea for mercy, he wanted to
come in this work of his own hand. Now that way of Cain is
the way of the natural heart. That's the way every man's born
into this world. The scripture says that the natural
heart, the carnal heart is enmity against God. That means hatred
against God. That means a murderer against
God. Cain did what he did to Abel
because he couldn't get to God. Cain did what he did to Abel
because he could not get to God. That's what the natural heart
is. It's not subject to the law of God. The law of God says you've
got to come with a lamb. The law of God says you've got
to come confessing you're absolutely worthless to be accepted of God
except through the blood of Christ Jesus, his lamb. And a carnal
man can't subject himself to that. He cannot do it, and he
hates that law of God. And likewise, we're naturally
full of envy, we're hateful, and we're hateful towards one
another. You know this is so, you know,
as soon as somebody gets something that you weren't up for promotion
or if somebody gets the something in school that you wanted or
that somebody pulls out front of you or somebody takes your
parking spot or just any some little simple something, you
know, real quick, what a ball up in your heart. It's there.
It's there. Now, The Lord said that murder
is in the heart. He said murder proceeds from
the heart. That's where a man is defiled,
is from his heart. And that's where it proceeds
from. Now let me show you something here about Abel. Christ is pictured
here in many ways with Abel. Cain was the elder brother, he
was the older brother, and he slew his younger brother. Christ
Jesus is the elder brother of his father's house. He's called
the firstborn among many brethren. He's the eldest born among many
brethren. And Christ was willingly slain
in place of his brethren that they might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Here you have the elder brother
slaying his brother because he wouldn't submit to God's righteousness.
And then you have Christ who's the elder brother who laid down
his life for all the younger brethren of his house that they
might be made the righteousness of God in him. Abel was a shepherd. Our Lord is the good shepherd.
Abel, as a shepherd, presented his offering to God. Christ said,
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. You see a picture of Christ and
Abel. Abel was hated by his brother
without a cause. Abel had done nothing whatsoever
to make Cain hate him. Scripture says of Christ, it's
written in their law, they hated me without a cause. Abel was
killed because Cain envied him. He envied his brother Abel. The
scripture says, for he knew that for envy they had delivered him,
Christ speaking. He knew that for envy they had
delivered him. Abel was slain by wicked hands.
It was wicked hands, Cain's own wicked hands that slew Abel.
The scripture says of Christ, him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, what God had determined
in his counsel before the world began, and by God's own foreordination,
he was slain. But it was wicked hands that
crucified and slew him. Abel presented a lamb. Christ
is himself the lamb of God. We're redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ as a lamb without spot and without blemish. Abel
honored God in his offering. When he came, he honored God,
he magnified the will of God in bringing that offering. The
Scripture says of Christ, He said, Lo, I come. In the volume
of the book, it's written to me. Lo, I come to do thy will,
O God. Sacrifice and offering and burnt
offering, thou wouldst not neither hadst pleasure therein which
are offered by the law. Then said He, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He takes away that first covenant
that He may establish the second. He's pictured here in Abel. God
accepted Abel's offering, the Hebrew writer says, and he testified
that Abel was righteous and he testified of Abel's gifts. Whenever
Christ was raised from the dead by God the Father, God the Father
testified that he accepted Christ's offering and he was well pleased
with him. He testified before the whole
world. Now look at verse 9. And the Lord said unto Cain,
Where is Abel thy brother? The voice of thy brother's blood
crieth unto me from the ground. Now you sitting there in your
natural born state, you may have never thought yourselves to be
a murderer. You may have think, well this
doesn't apply to me because we're looking at Cain who killed his
brother and that doesn't apply to me because I've never murdered
anybody. The Lord said murder proceeds out of the heart. The
Lord said if we're angry with our brother without a cause,
we're in danger of the judgment of God. angry with our brother
without a cause. That's what the law really states. It's a spiritual thing. It's
in the heart. It's in the heart. And I pointed
out all these similarities to you between Abel and Christ because
preeminently, preeminently, the one who we murder and who we
reject and who we hate from the heart and who we're angry with
without a cause is Christ Jesus, the God-man mediator. There's
two tables of the law. There's a table that's against
God and there's a table that's against man. And in all the breaking
of the law, we transgress against Christ Jesus, who is the God-man. Everything's against Him. Everything's
against Him. Those Christ sent to declare
His gospel to us are His brethren. And every time that we've ever
heard the gospel, and we've rejected the gospel, and left with enmity
in our hearts, or even if we don't know the enmity's there,
the fact the enmity is there is the fact that we cannot subject
ourselves to the word of God and say, that's the truth, I
believe God. If we could, if that enmity's
been removed, and there'd been a new man put in there, we'll
bow to him. But until then, that fact that
we will not bow to God and subject ourselves to the truth of God
is proof that enmity is what's reigning in our heart. Well,
have you heard the Spirit of God bring this question home
to you? He says, where is your brother? Where is your brother? What hast thou done? One of the
first things that God's gonna reveal in the heart is gonna
make us to know that my rejection of Christ, my rejection of his
gospel, my rejection of those that he sent to declare his gospel
is the same as the murder of Christ Jesus, the firstborn of
many brethren. Why? Why is it? Why did Cain
do this? John said he did it because his
own works were evil and his brothers were righteous. You know why
Christ said men won't come to Him? He said, I'm the light.
You know why He said men will not come to Him and bow to Him
and trust Him and confess that all their works are wrought in
God, in Christ, by Him. You know why? Because their deeds
are evil. and they won't come into the
light lest they be reproved as their deeds being evil. And he's
not talking about just those lewd, back alley, dark sins. He's talking about the sins whereby
we think God will receive us. And we know that if we come to
Christ, we're gonna have to confess all those deeds whereby I thought
God would receive me are sinful and wicked, and they don't measure
up. Think of all your sins from the
earliest days of your earliest days right up to this moment
right now. Think of all of them. Was it your sin for which Christ
died on the cross? Was Christ willingly subjected
to death because your sins put Him there? Can you look on him
whom thou hast pierced and mourn for him as one mourneth for his
only son and be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness
for his firstborn? Can you? Can you look at that
with that kind of compassion and that kind of sorrow in your
heart and say, it's my sins that put him there. Perhaps your heart's
like Cain's was. His heart was hard. Hard. Look at verse 9. He said, I know
not. Am I my brother's keeper? You
know what happens when we talk back to our parents like that? It doesn't usually end up very
good, does it? I don't know where he is. Am I my brother's keeper? Cain was trying his best to silence
the truth. He was trying his best to silence
the truth in his own conscience. He was trying his best to defend
himself. And that may be what some are doing now, right here.
But don't dare talk to God and answer God the way Cain answered
Him. Because whether you know it or not, you are your brother's
keeper. You are your brother's keeper.
You and I will either abide in Christ the firstborn and keep
His words, be an instrument used of God in His hand to be used
for the good of His brethren and those that He's going to
call out by His grace, or we will be rebellious, hard-hearted
murderers against God. That's where we're going to be,
one of the two. And committing of one sin against
God is the breaking of the whole law of God. It's what the heart
is. You understand that? Well, the
only thing that's gonna melt that heart of stone, the only
thing that's gonna bring that heart and break it and bust it
is to know that that very son whom you've despised, that prince
of life whom you have hated in your heart of hearts, that very
one whom you've rejected, Christ Jesus, son of God, is really
your elder brother who's been keeping you. That's when we're
going to come to realize and shut our smart mouth before God
Almighty when He makes us to see, if He makes us to see, that
Christ is indeed our elder brother and He's been keeping us this
whole time that we've been running around like a bunch of smart
alecks. Let's look at this verse 9 here at the end of it.
There's another comparison between Abel and Christ that I want to
point out to you, and this is going to be the heart of our
message. Verse 9 there at the end, it says, it says, I'm sorry, at the end of verse
10, he said, the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me
from the ground. the voice of thy brother's blood
crieth unto me from the ground." You're looking at Hebrews chapter
12. Anytime you and I... There have been a lot of saints
that have been martyred. That's what the word witness
means. They've been martyred for bearing witness to Christ. Hebrews 12, 24. And their blood cries unto God.
We saw that in Psalm 9, I believe it was verse 10. When he makes
Inquisition for blood, he remembers the cry of the afflicted, the
cry of the oppressed. He remembers them, the cry of
the humble. But look, the voice of thy brother's blood crieth
unto me from the ground. Abel's blood had a voice and
it was crying something to God. But then this first verse 24
here speaks of another voice, another blood and another voice.
It says, it speaks of Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant
and the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that
of Abel. Now the Lord told Cain, the voice
of Abel's blood cries unto me from the ground. And here he
tells us Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, the blood
of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Now,
I want to compare and contrast the blood of Abel with the blood
of Christ so that we can see that the blood of Christ speaks
better things than the blood of Abel. All right, here's the
first thing. The blood speaks before the sinner
speaks. The blood speaks before the sinner
speaks. Look at verse 8. Cain rose up against Abel his
brother and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain,
Where is Abel thy brother? Verse 10. The voice of thy brother's
blood crieth unto me from the ground. The blood of Abel spoke
to God before Cain ever spoke to God. The blood of Abel spoke
to God before Cain ever spoke to it. It's the same way with
Christ's blood. Long before God's elect ever
call on God, the blood of Christ speaks for each one of his blood-bought
children. His blood speaks. And it speaks
from eternity past. That means, I want you to look
at Revelation 13.8. Hold your place in Revelation. We may come back here, I'm not
sure. Revelation 13.8. Christ's blood spoke and eternity
passed. Look at Revelation 13, 8. This
is speaking in a negative form and it's showing us here about
those whose names are not written in the Book of Life. But look
at what this Book of Life is called in verse 8. It says, speaking
of those whose names are not written in the Book of Life,
of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Do you see that?
This is where God's elect children have their names written, in
the Lamb's book of life. And that Lamb is the Lamb who
was slain from the foundation of the world. Ephesians chapter
1, I read this to you quite often, but Ephesians chapter 1 tells
us, and I want you to see this. Turn with me to Ephesians 1 and
look at verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. Now, you might read
that and say, well, that's saying us, so that means all men without
exception. The first verse tells us that
Paul is writing to the saints which are at Ephesus, the faithful
in Christ Jesus. He's writing to those that have
been called by God, and he's saying to them, us. He is one of them. He says we
were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Before God ever made the world, He did that, that we should be
holy without blame before Him in love. And when He did that,
He blessed us with all spiritual blessings. And it was at that
time that He said, I'll be gracious unto that particular one. You put your name there, if you're
a believer. He said, I'll be gracious to
him. Deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom.
Because the moment Christ said, I will die for them, and he struck
hands with God the Father as the surety for those children,
before as yet the earth was made, before as yet sin entered in,
before as yet there was a need for a savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ became that surety that would die for them. And right
then, He became the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In fact, that's what the world
was founded upon, was His Word. All right? Secondly, Christ's
blood spoke for all the saints that were called to faith in
Him, even before He ever even came and shed His blood. Abraham,
Abel was one of them, and Abraham, and Noah, and Moses, and Isaac,
and Jacob, and all down through the ages. You'd think, well,
Christ had never even shed his blood then. How was it that those
sinners had the righteousness of Christ? How did Abraham have
the righteousness of Christ imputed to him when as yet Christ hadn't
even shed his blood? The Scripture says, God set forth
Christ to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare
His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. All those sinners were justified
and made righteous through faith when as yet Christ hadn't even
been born yet because in the will and purpose of God they
were already righteous in Christ. His blood spoke for them. And
then Christ's blood, just like now, just like it did then, it's
speaking from heaven. Well, I showed you this on Sunday,
so I won't have you turn there, but Christ has not entered into
the holy place made with hands. He's entered into the presence
of God for us, having obtained eternal redemption for us. And
He didn't enter there with the blood of bulls and goats. He
entered there with His own blood. And His blood speaks from heaven
right now for all of His children, for all of His elect, those who
have not yet been called and those who have been called. His
blood speaks there. That's better things than what
Abel's blood speaks. And you notice here, too, it
says that that it speaks constantly. In our text it said, Abel's blood
crieth. That E-T-H means it's continual. It continually cries. And the
blood of Christ speaketh. It continually speaks. I want
you to come to God seeking mercy. I encourage all of you that if
God's given you a heart to do that, you come to Him seeking
mercy. You come to Him begging mercy. You come to Him confessing
your sins. Because of His blood, if any
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, and He's the propitiation for our sin. But know of a certainty,
know this for sure, that the mercy of God and forgiveness
of your sin is not due to your prayer and your tears. It's not
the result of your praying and your tears and your begging mercy.
It's not the cry of the sinner seeking mercy that's the cause
of mercy. It's the cry of the blood of Jesus Christ that's
the cause of mercy. Because He entered into covenant
agreement before the world began and His blood's been crying for
mercy ever since then. And so when God hears the blood
of His Son, just as vengeance found Cain before Cain sought
God, Mercy finds a child of God before we seek it. And that mercy
is due because God hears the blood of his dear son. Christ's
blood speaks better things than that of Abel's. And secondly,
Abel's blood called only for justice and vengeance. It called
for a curse. Look at verse 11. God said, this is what Abel's
blood called for, for Cain. Now art thou cursed from the
earth, which has opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood
from thy hand. But Christ's blood speaks better
things than that. The only reason we're not cursed
from the earth God's elect children is because Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For
it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That's
what Christ did. God said to Cain, the earth's
opened her mouth, and it's received your brother's blood from your
hand. And the earth opened her mouth and received Christ's blood.
And truly it was the blood that we shed. It was the blood of
our hand that earth received. It was the sin of all God's chosen
children. But Christ willingly was made
sin for them in their room instead. He said, I'm going to lay down
my life for the sheep. He hath made him sin who knew
no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
This is what he was doing. Do you understand what that means
that Christ was made a curse? The very penalty, the very judgment
that God's children demanded of them, Christ bore that. He
took that and he put it away. He bore it away so that his children
do not have to bear that judgment from God anymore, that curse.
And Abel's blood cried so that God brought vengeance upon Cain.
Look at verse 12. It says, When thou tillest the
ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.
You are a fugitive and a vagabond, shalt thou be in the earth. That's
what our unregenerate heart was. Our unregenerate heart was ground
that could bring forth nothing. It was cursed and all it brought
forth was briars and thorns and rebellion and no, no, no, no,
no. That's all our heart brought
forth. But when the Spirit of God comes, the Spirit of God
teels that heart. You get out there with a tiller
in your garden and you till that garden and you break up all that
ground and you keep breaking it up and get those big clods
just broken up till they're just soil now. And you can take them
then and you can work them and you can move that around and
you can plant seed in it and it'll grow. And that's what Spirit
of God does when He comes into the heart is He breaks up the
fallow ground. He breaks up that ground that
wouldn't produce anything. And He creates a new man. Christ
is formed in there. And He makes you to truly open
up your mouth and receive the blood of Christ. He makes Christ
to enter into our hearts. so that there might be life there
where there was no life and so that we might have fruit come
forth and that fruit's gonna begin with a crying out for mercy
and a begging God for mercy and a believing on God and repenting
from all our hopes and those things that we put our confidence
in. Abel's blood cried for justice and vengeance. Christ's blood
cries for justice and mercy. Abel's blood spoke for punishment,
Christ's blood speaks 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. Do you understand
what God has said when He says, if Christ died for you, you died. Do you understand how good that
news is? If you knew that you were going
to die today, if you knew this afternoon you're going to die,
we sit and we hear this and we have no urgency about it. No
urgency about it because we think that's not going to happen. We
don't have any urgency about it. It might. But if Christ died for you, you
died. And when Christ rose, you arose
so that there is no more death for you who believe on Him. And
it's the believers simply through faith. Faith is the most simple
thing. I believe God. I believe Him
when He says He put away my sin. I believe Him when He says I'm
righteous in Christ. I believe Him when He says everything
that I need to be accepted of God, Christ is. And I am in Christ. I believe Him. It's so simple. And He says, in you who believe,
you have eternal life. No death can come to you. No
rejection can come to you. I do pray God will make that
blood speak to you. I pray He'll make it speak in
our hearts. Don't think that your sin is
keeping you from God. Don't think your sin will keep
God from receiving you. Your righteousness will keep
God from receiving you, but your sin won't keep God from receiving
you. He didn't come to call the righteous. He came to call sinners
to repentance. But everyone that He does call
to repentance, it's because He's already washed them white as
snow. It's because He's just to receive you and show you mercy. If you can come, it's because
He's done this for you already. So that when you come into His
presence, Presence in your heart through faith what you'll find
out is the works done. It's finished. I'm washed I'm
robed. I'm ready. It's done That's what
I hope you'll speak in your heart because it speaks better things
than that Abel's blood calls for vengeance Abel's blood He
calls and says you're guilty and you deserve to die Look at
what else Abel's blood cried out it cried out against Cain
in his conscience. I Verse 13, Cain said unto the
Lord, My punishment's greater than I can bear. It's greater
than I can bear. This was in his conscience. His
conscience is made alive to where he sees, I can't bear this. But
Christ's blood speaks for us in our conscience. It doesn't
speak against us, it speaks for us when He speaks. When the Spirit
of God applies His blood, He's going to make you see, you're
like a sheep that's gone astray. You've turned your own way and
been going your own way. And then He speaks in your heart
and He says, and the Lord has laid on Him all your iniquity. He bore it. He bore it. And when
our conscience is sprinkled by the blood of Christ, that blood
speaks better things. Instead of saying, oh, my punishment
is greater than I can bear, he says to the conscience, in the
inner man, he says, your sins and your iniquities, I remember
no more. I remember no more. Cain cried
out, verse 14, from his conscience, he said, this is what the blood
of Abel cries out against the conscience of a man. He said,
Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the
earth. But the blood of Christ sprinkled on the inner man, it
speaks something better than that. It speaks to the child
of grace and it says instead of driving you out this day,
it says now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. You see how one of these
is blood that we've shed. This blood of Abel is blood that
you've shed. The blood of rejecting God, the
blood of hatred and enmity, the blood of hating and hating one
another. It's that murder that the heart
is. And this is what that blood cries
out in your conscience. Does it cry in your conscience?
Does anybody have Does anybody know that they're guilty before
God? Guilty before God. If I met God
right now and met Him and looked God in the face, and had to deal
with Jesus Christ, who is the judge of all, who I've been rejecting,
who is the only one who could be my advocate, the only one
who could be my propitiation, the only one who could make atonement
for me, and I've rejected him. And now I've got to face the
one I've rejected, who is my judge, to have him say, You're
banished forever into outer darkness where there's wailing and gnashing
of teeth. What's the worst possible thing
that you hate? What's the worst thing that makes
you so uncomfortable and brings you just sorrow and just your
greatest worst fear that you could ever possibly imagine?
Hell's worse than that. Whatever it is, whatever wailing
and gnashing of teeth is, whatever outer darkness is, whatever having
the restraining hand of God taken off of you and everybody around
you is so that the wrath of your heart can be unleashed in all
its unadulterated lust. So you can do whatever comes
in your heart. All the anger and the malice
and the envy and the hatred and a worm that never dies and a
fire that never is quenched. I don't know what that is, but
it's bad to know that. And Cain said this, he said,
behold, you've driven me out this day from the face of the
earth, but the blood of Christ says I've brought you nigh. I
brought you, you've been brought nigh by the blood of Christ.
You've been accepted of God by the blood of Christ. It speaks
so much better things than that other blood. Look over at Isaiah
54. Abel's blood cried out and it
spoke to Cain's conscience. And Cain said to God, he said,
from thy face shall I be hid. He didn't want to come before
God's face before. He didn't want to have anything
to do with God's face before. From your face I'll be hid, he
said. And he would, because Cain turned
his back on God. Now God said, I'm turning my
back on you. You'll see my back parts and not my face. But look
at what the blood of Christ speaks. It speaks in the conscience of
the child of God through the Spirit of grace and it says this,
verse 8, in a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith
the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of
Noah unto me, for as I've sworn that the waters of Noah should
no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not
be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall
depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed.
Sayeth the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Isn't that such a better
thing? The Lord said, I'll never. He
removed his face from us when he turned his face from Christ
Jesus the Lord on the cross and forsook him in the place of his
people. And because he forsook him and
Christ bore that hell for his people, God says, I'll never
again forsake you. I won't turn my face from you.
Well, let's go back at Genesis 4, 14. This is still dealing
with the conscience. Abel's blood spoke to Cain's
conscience, and it made Cain cry this, verse 14. He said,
I'll be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. I watch this show sometimes.
I almost got away with it. It's all about a fugitive, you
know, somebody who broke out of jail or something, and they
almost got away with it, but they always get caught. And they're
always running. And what they describe, what
interests me about it, is what they describe is the second that
crime is committed, the second that they commit that crime,
they describe this huge weight, and they describe this huge guilt,
and they describe this like eyes are watching them. And they say
that constantly, constantly, from that moment forward, looking
behind their back and watching, and watching, and watching, because
they're scared to death. At every turn, they're going
to get caught. Justice is going to get them,
and it's going to grab them. That's what it is to be a fugitive,
running from God, hiding from God, always trying to cover your
tracks, and always trying to get a new identity, and always
trying to trying to get a new, some way, some new way to make
a living for yourself and a way for yourself because you're having
to constantly run and run and run and do something different
or something new and constantly looking and looking and looking.
But this is what the blood of Christ speaks. He says in Revelation
5-9, He says that when Christ was slain, He redeemed us to
God by His blood out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation. And He didn't make us fugitives and vagabonds in
the earth, but He's made us unto our God kings and priests, and
we'll reign on the earth. You know what peace that is?
Peace that you'd not have to run anymore. You know the big saying, big
brother's watching? God sees all. He sees the heart. But to know you have peace with
God through the blood of Christ, to know that you're accepted
of Him, this is what makes us not want to sin. This is what
makes us not want to go out and commit fornication and lie and
steal and murder and drunkenness and everything else. This is
what hurts us when we do those things that are against God.
It's because of what He's done for us. Look at this next thing,
Abel's blood made Cain cry out from his tormented conscience
in verse 14. And he said, it shall come to
pass that everyone that findeth me shall slay me. Look at John
10. Look at John 10. I can read this
to you if you'd like. John 10, this is what the blood
of Christ speaks on the conscience. This is what the blood of Christ
speaks. This is real. This is real. This is more real
than the blood pumping in your heart right now. This is the
blood of Christ speaking into the inner heart of those He's
made new by His Spirit. This is what He said. Verse 28,
I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which
gave them Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of My Father's hand. Isn't that better than, it shall
come to pass that everyone that findeth me shall slay me? They'll
never be able to pluck him out of my hand. Just as Abel's blood
brought this indescribable horror to Cain's conscience, the blood
of Christ brings indescribable peace to the inner man of the
believer. Just peace. You've got peace
with God. You've got peace with the one who matters. You've got
peace with the one who's able not only to destroy your life
but to destroy your soul. You've got peace with Him. Don't
ever wink at sin. Don't ever do that. Sin is against
God and it's bad and God hates it. And don't ever wink at it.
But when your sins cause you to doubt, believer, get out the
book and look in there and read a scripture like, Your sins and
iniquities I'll remember no more. And hear the blood of Christ
speak. Hear that word spoken, sealed and written in the blood
of Christ Jesus, and you'll find peace for your heart, you'll
find peace for your soul, and having access then, let us come
boldly to the throne of grace that we may find grace to help
in time of need. Hear the blood of Christ speak.
It'll draw you to it. It won't run you off from it.
All right, I got one more thing to show you. Here's the fourth
thing. Abel's blood called for Cain
to be reserved unto God's judgment. It called for Cain to be reserved
unto God's judgment. Verse 15, the Lord said unto
him, Cain's afraid everybody's going to kill him now, everybody
he comes in contact with. And so the Lord says, Therefore,
whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.
And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should
kill him. God reserved His vengeance. What God is saying there is,
I've reserved Him for my judgment. I've reserved Him for my vengeance.
Nobody else can touch Him. Nobody else can touch Him. Now,
I don't know exactly what all is contained in that verse, but
I do know this, Christ's blood speaks better for us. It marks
us, and it reserves us, not for judgment of God, but for eternal
life. eternal life. And it's not a
mark this world recognizes. It's the mark of being robed
in Christ's righteousness. It's the mark of having holiness
by the indwelling of Christ Jesus who is made unto us our sanctifier
and our sanctification. It's walking by faith and not
by sight. It's walking and delighting in
the grace and love of God freely bestowed upon us rather than
walking as living by the sword and walking by the sword. those
who killed Cain, it was going to be a sevenfold vengeance that
came on them. We have a mark that's described
as sevenfold too. And it's this, in Isaiah 30,
26, it says, the light of the moon shall be as the light of
the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold as the
light of seven days in the day that the Lord bindeth up the
breach of his people and healeth the stroke of their wound. You
know what that sevenfold light is? It's the gospel we have.
It's the gospel of Christ Jesus, our light. You know what separates
God's people from the rest of the world? We walk in the light.
We walk in the gospel of Christ and the rest of the world don't
walk in it. That's a mark that separates
God's people from the rest of this world. Abel's blood called
for eternal separation from God. Look at verse 16. Cain went out
from the presence of the Lord and he dwelt in the land of Nod.
That means the land of exile, no rest. on the east of Eden. Eden means delight. He wasn't
in delight. He was outside of delight. He
was out from the presence of the Lord in the land of no rest,
east of delight. Now, where is your brother? I'll
end with this. Where is your brother? Can you
say that Christ is God, your Savior, that He is a friend that
sticks closer than a brother? Can you say that He is all your
hope and all your salvation? What hast thou done? That's what
God, what hast thou done? Can you say with unreservedly,
unashamed, can you say, I have done nothing but sin? God has
done all the saving. Christ has done all the saving
and shall continue to do all. I have contributed nothing but
rebellion against my God and Christ my Lord has done all. He is all my salvation. If you
don't come to Christ and kiss the son, lest he be angry, the
blood will be on your hands. and you'll come into God's presence
and you'll meet Christ Jesus, who you will have to do business
with. You will meet him. And he will say, depart from
me. Every work you've ever worked has been iniquity, and I never
have known you. Get out of my sight. But if you believe Christ, if
you trust Christ, if you plunge into this fountain
of blood, and are washed in His blood through faith in Him, then
that blood speaks better things than Abel's blood. It doesn't
take you out of His presence, it brings you into His presence.
And it doesn't make you go out into a land of no rest, but it
promises you eternal rest. And it doesn't put you out east
of Eden, but it puts you right in the arms of His inseparable,
everlasting delight. I'll tell you, you look around
this earth and you look at this world and it's beautiful. There's
scenery and things that I just look at and I just am amazed
at what God's done, what God's created. I can't imagine what
a perfect, thoroughly perfect environment of heaven and earth
that's been created by the righteousness of Christ Jesus. I can't imagine
how beautiful and glorious it'll be. I just can't imagine it. But the thing that's going to
make it more glorious and amazing and beautiful than anything else
is the very one who loved me and came to where I am and lived
and died for me and saved me and guided me and protected me
and made me righteous to enter his presence. He'll be there
and I'll see him and I'll know him just like he knows me now. Oh, that blood speaks better
things than able blood, doesn't it? I hope it speaks to you. Amen.