Genesis chapter 4. Let's remember Paul. He fell
in the shower yesterday and they cut his head and he's got to
have staples in it. Lawrence sent me a text. He's
telling me they probably wouldn't be able to make it this morning.
He's having a tough time, which is tough. I'm going to read the
first 16 verses of Genesis 4, and after I read these verses,
Doug, you lead us in prayer, and then we'll look at this message. And Adam knew Eve, his wife,
and she conceived. And Bear came and said, I have
gotten a man from the Lord. Or she believed she had gotten
the man that was promised when the Lord said, the seed of the
woman will bruise his head. She believed she had gotten the
man, that he was the deliverer, the seed. And she again bare
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, angry
with God. and his countenance fail. And
the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy
countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou
not be accepted? You know, there's just to make
a statement here. How merciful is God? He's given
him space to repent right there. If you do well, will you not
be accepted? If you offer the sacrifice I
said to offer, you'll be accepted. I looked at that and I thought,
what mercy? How gracious is God? How kind to give that rebel a
space to repent. And if thou doest not well, sin
lies 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 and his brother, and slew him.
I'm sure their conversation was over the gospel. 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 tellest the ground,
it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive
and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto
the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou
hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from
thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond
in the earth. And it shall come to pass that
every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto
him, therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken
on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon
Cain, lest any find him should kill him. And Cain went out from
the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the
east of Eden. Okay, Doug. Mm-hmm. And Lord, we thank you. These are together in this place
this morning. Lord, for no other purpose than
to worship you. Lord, we bow before you as the
almighty God, the creators, heaven and earth. And Lord, we thank
you for all the many blessings We pray for all of his name.
We pray for him. Lord, we acknowledge that you
supply all our needs. Lord bless us this morning. Thank you, Lord. He came into
this world. He had his precious blood. Sinners
such as ourselves have been made righteous. Lord, forgive us when
we fail. Help us to look to you daily.
Lord, I want to worship you. Amen. Now I titled this lesson, Tarnips
or Blood, Which? Tarnips or Blood, Which? It's
either works or grace. It's one or the other. And we
know which one it is by God's grace. It's all grace. But we
come to another picture of Christ here and his sacrifice and the
acceptable sacrifice in this Old Testament picture. We also
have a picture of the only two religions in the world. Some
believe that there are many religions in the world. No, there's not.
There's two. One is all of works, and the
other is all of grace. One is all of God, and the other
is all of Satan and man. And that's a religion of works.
We have a picture of the accepted offering and the rejected offering.
something to be learned here, what God is pleased with and
what He's not pleased with. And we also have here true worship
and false worship. We have one is by blood and one
by no blood. There's no blood in it. Now Cain
and Abel here were brothers. Now how many There were between
them, I don't know. You know, it's always seems to
be supposed that Cain was born, then Abel was born. It could
be that Cain's the first one mentioned, the first male mentioned,
so he's probably the first, because usually it just mentions the
male. And we don't know how many years went by, and it could,
and Abel born, we don't know. But we do know this, they were
brothers. They were brothers. They both had the same parents. THEY BOTH HAD THE SAME NATURE,
THEY WERE BOTH BORN WITH THE SAME NATURE. YOU KNOW IT SAYS
IN EPHESIANS 2 THAT IT SAYS THIS, EPHESIANS 2-3 AMONG WHOM ALSO
WE ALL HAD OUR CONVERSATION IN TIMES PAST, AND THE LUST OF OUR
FLESH OUT THERE IN THE WORLD, SPEAKING OF, FULFILLING THE DESIRES
OF THE FLESH AND OF THE MIND, AND WERE BY NATURE. We're by
nature children of wrath, even as others. And the proof of that
is the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on Calvary's tree. He's the proof
of what we were by nature, just like Cain by nature. Both were raised in the same
home. And this is astounding if you really stop and think
about it. They were raised in the same home, taught the same
gospel. I have no doubt that Adam taught
them about the sacrifice. God slew an animal, shed its
blood, took the skin, and made coats of skin for Adam and Eve.
Adam taught, I believe, his son, his family about the sacrifice
and how God is to be approached through the blood and through
the sacrifice. I have no doubt about that. So they were raised
in the same home, taught the same gospel, same truth about
God and how he's to be approached and how he's to be worshipped.
They were taught about the sacrifice and both these boys were religious, for lack of a better way to put
it. One was of God. and the other was a satan here's
what's um sobering here's a sobering thought and listen to this as
i said they were both raised in the same home same parents
both were religious first john 3 12 not as cain who was of that
wicked one and slew his brother Two brothers, same home, sat
on the same gospel. One was of God. The other one
was a Satan. He was of that wicked one. And
he slew his brother and slew him because his own works were
evil. Cain's works were evil, and he proved it by his actions.
And his brother's righteous, and he proved it by his actions.
Now, let's look at Cain, the man. First of all, Cain was the
eldest son of these two. I know that. We know that. It
says he was a tiller of the ground. That's a good occupation. There's
nothing wrong with that. Not a thing wrong with that.
He believed there was one God. Cain believed there was one God.
He was the head of his family and he led them in worship. You
see, he's not going down this road by himself. He's leading
his family down this road. Whenever he gets married, you
know, he marries and whenever he marries, he's the head of
that family and he's going to lead them down this path of works
and not grace. His family's not going to hear
anything of grace. It'll be of works. But here's the problem
with Cain. When he came to worship God,
he brought the works of his hands. is written in Acts 17, 24 and
25, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that
he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands as though he
needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all
things. He's not worshipped with men's
hands. He's not worshipped with the things we make. at all. God is worshipped what? With
the heart. God is worshipped, the scripture says, in spirit
and in truth. You can't mix a lie with it and
then call it worship. You know, if you take the gospel
and you twist it, it's not the gospel anymore. It's not the
gospel anymore. We worship Him in spirit and
in truth, in the truth of the gospel and in true sincerity.
That's how we worship Him. We do not worship God with our
hands. Men's hands. These natural hands. We worship God in the heart.
The offering Cain brought was not commanded of God. This is
another problem. God didn't tell him to bring
the fruit of the ground. And the reason God didn't tell
him to do that is because, number one, the ground's cursed. Cain
brought of the cursed thing. He brought that which was cursed.
And then there was no blood in his offering. God made it clear
right from the beginning, right when the fall happened, God made
it clear that to have remission of sins, there's got to be the
shedding of blood. There's got to be. It says in
Hebrews 9.22, And almost all things are by the law urged with
blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission. There's no forgiveness without
that. Leviticus 17.11, For the life of the flesh is in the blood,
and I, God speaking, and I have given it to you upon the altar
to make an atonement for your souls. for it is the blood that
makes atonement for your souls, and nothing else, nothing else. God set this forth in the garden
when he sent our parents, our parents, Adam and Eve are our
parents. Every one of us are cousins,
that's right. Every one of us related in Adam
and Eve, we go all the way back to there, don't we? We didn't
evolve from some monkey. God created Adam and Eve, and
we came from them. That's our parents. And then God, listen, God appointed
the sacrifice, the blood, which typified Christ, and Cain ignored
God's way. God made it plain how he's to
be approached. He made it plain the way in which
we are to come to him, and Cain ignored God's way. He ignored it, and he tried to
establish a new way, his own way. I was trying to think that
scripture said they've gone their own way. He went his own way. Jesus Christ
is the only way to God. He's the only way. I know Billy
Graham made a statement when he was older that he no longer
believed that Christ was the only way, that all these other
religions, you know, if they're sincere in their heart, they'll
be there also. Now I went on, I went on YouTube and I Googled
it and I listened to him. I didn't want to make it off
the wall statement, but I listened to him. There is no other way. Jesus Christ is the only way.
And any other way, that anyone attempts to come to God, they're
gonna perish. Now it's just so. Christ said,
I'm the only way. And then Cain's offering was
not of faith. There was no faith in his offering.
I'll tell you what there was in his offering, a lot of boasting.
Ooh, look how good these, I mean, he brought the best fruit. He
brought the best fruit. It was not of faith. If it was a faith, he would have
offered what God said to offer. That's what he would have done.
He would have brought what God said to bring. And the scripture
says, Whatsoever is not a faith is sin. It's sin. Then Cain brought the fruit of
his own labor, thinking to impress God. That's exactly what he came
with. That is the attitude in which
he came. He was impressed with it, and he said, you know, God's
gonna be impressed with this. I mean, he came with pride. There
was so much pride. He was beaming with, look what
I have grown, look at this. And he brought it to God to impress
God. God said, listen, God is impressed with one person. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. That is the one God is impressed
with, nothing else, nothing else. God is impressed with His Son
and all boasting, all boasting is excluded, excluded. You know, when salvation is all
of grace, if it's all of grace, it's all of Christ, we have nothing
to glory in but Him. Jesus Christ is my glory. Romans 3, 27, where is boasting
then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, not by the law
of works. No, he says, but by the law of
faith. We just believe God. We believe
God. We believe what he said concerning
his son. He said, come to me and I'll give you life. We believe
him. We believe God. You know, and whenever it was
counted to Abraham for righteousness, it had zero to do with anything
Abraham did. It wasn't counted to him for
righteousness for leaving his home and his family, you know,
his uncles and sisters and all them. It wasn't accounted to
him for righteousness for doing that. It was accounted to him
for righteousness When he believed God concerning his seed, he said,
through your seed, all nations of the earth will be blessed.
Abraham believed him. Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him for righteousness. He didn't believe in God or a
God, he believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
So all boasting is excluded by faith, and it's excluded also
by grace. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, For by
grace are you saved through faith. That's not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any should boast. I have
nothing to boast about. I have much to be ashamed of.
I have much to repent of, but nothing to boast of except Christ.
Paul said, If I glory, I'm going to glory in the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's my glory. And then Cain's
offering was an offering of disobedience. God did not tell him to bring
that. Then it was an offering without
repentance. And I know this because where there's no faith, there's
no repentance. He wasn't sorry for anything. He was proud as
can be. And then his offering was a self-will
offering. This is what he wanted to offer.
He didn't offer what God said to offer. He wanted to offer
what Cain wanted to offer. Cain is the embodiment of all
false religion. He's the embodiment of every
person that does not believe God. He's the embodiment of right
there. Okay. Now we come to Abel. His name means vanity. That's what his name means. And
he knew it. He knew it. He knew it. He knew
he was nothing. He knew it. I thought when I
read that, I thought this also shows what Eve thought of him.
She said, I've gotten a man from the Lord. And I'm sure over time
she realized that not so. Then when, by the time that Abel
came along, she goes, he's nothing. Isn't that something your mother
named you Vanity? They used names that had meaning
to it. He's Vanity, he's nothing. God saves a bunch of nothings.
Everyone whom God saves is a nothing. Everyone whom He saves is a nothing.
Abel believed God. He believed the Gospel. You know
that Abel is the first one mentioned in Hebrews 11, that great hall
of fame of faith. Abel is the first one mentioned.
He's the first one mentioned. And it says that he offered unto
God a more excellent sacrifice. He offered unto God a more excellent
sacrifice. First of all, He offered what
God required. This is what God said to offer and He did it.
In Hebrews 11 verse 4 it says this, By faith Abel offered unto
God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained
witness that he was righteous. God testifying, owning, testifying
of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh." This is what
the argument, I have no doubt, this is what the argument, the
conversation was between Cain and Abel. Abel is standing up
for the gospel. And Cain is angry. He's still
angry. He's angry at God, but he can't get at God. This world
can't get at God. False religion can't get at God,
so they try to get at you. They come at you. And that's
what Abel did. He couldn't get at God, and he
took his anger, his hatred out on his brother Abel, who believed. I have no doubt that conversation
was over the gospel. But Abel's offering, it says,
was more excellent. It was more excellent, not just
in its... Now listen, not just in its benefit. but in its moral
character, it was more excellent. You know, our Lord, when he offered
up himself for us, he knew no sin. He knew no sin. There was no sin in Christ. His offerings of more excellent
offering than all that went before him. Able sacrifice pointed to
the lamb of God's providing. God provided this. That's why
John the Baptist said in, in the gospel of john chapter 1
verse 29 behold the lamb of god is taketh away the sin of the
world this is god's lamb this is the lamb of god providing
this is god who is the lamb that's why it's more excellent it's
excellent because the blood of god's lamb truly puts away sin
all others did not do that no other blood put away sin but
his blood Verse John 1, 9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I tell you what, to be cleansed
from all unrighteousness, only God can do that. Nothing else
can do it, and no one else can do it. No priest, got to watch
my language here, no priest can absolve me of my sins. No priest
can come around and wave some kind of incense going on and
say some Hail Marys or whatever and just absolve me of my, only
Christ can put away my sins. Only Christ. And then it's more excellent
because it's the only way God can be a just God and a savior.
No other way, no other way. Christ crucified. magnifies every
attribute of God. Nothing else does that. Nothing
else can do that. Nothing. And then it's excellent
because it was accepted of God. God accepted his offering. God
accepted Jesus Christ and us in Christ. It says in Ephesians
chapter one, he has made us accepted in the beloved. he has received
us in Christ because his sacrifice is a more excellent sacrifice
and his acceptance is proven by his resurrection he raised
him from the dead Abel and I'm gonna close here
Abel represents he represents all true believers of them who
look to Christ alone who come to God through Jesus Christ alone
the appointed way they believe God and approach him by the way
that God has appointed Christ said I am the way the truth and
the life no man comes to the father but by me now how can
you unless you're just you're just you're just lost I don't
care if it's a preacher Our Lord said, no man comes to the Father,
but by me. Well, but you know, I don't,
I believe if they're really sincere, you know, these other people
out here, they're really sincere. These other religious people,
these other congregations where the gospel of God's sovereign
grace is not preached. If they're really sincere, they'll
be all right. They'll be there. No, they won't. No, they will
not be there. The gospel is dogmatic. God is
dogmatic. This is one of the reasons truth
is so hated. Because God Almighty and truth
is dogmatic. Truth is not this one day and
that another. Truth is not partly this and
partly that. Truth is truth and as dogmatic
as can be. And that just makes unregenerate
men and women mad. It makes them mad. And I'm telling
you the truth. If you and I really stand for
the truth, they don't want our company. They don't want our
company. When you really stand for the
truth, they don't want you around. Birds of a feather flock together.
And that holds true. I'm telling you, it holds true.
That holds true. Cain's religion was characterized
by works. It starts with hatred. When God
rejected his offering, his approach and offering, he was angry. He said he was very wrong. He
was angry with God. There's that enmity, that natural
enmity coming out. All that God has to do to prove
who we are is bring certain things along or let certain things happen. It comes out of us whether we
believe God or not. It does. It comes out whether we believe
God or not. His was characterized by hatred. He hated God. He hated Abel. He killed him. He didn't want him around. It's
characterized by hypocrisy. It's not sincere. He wasn't sincere
in worshiping God. He just, it was something he
was supposed to do. I'm sure he'd looked at it as
something he was supposed to do. And he brought that, the offering
of his own hands. It's characterized by envy. He
envied Abel because his sacrifice was accepted and his wasn't.
He envied him. Don't we read that in the gospel
where they envy Christ? Because he had such a following.
So many people followed him and they envied him. is characterized
by malice, characterized by no faith, no
repentance, no salvation. Abel's characterized, listen,
he's characterized by faith. He believed God. Hope. You know,
if you truly believe God, you have hope. I mean, you have real
hope. Love, there's a genuine love.
I can just imagine Abel speaking to his brother Cain, he's speaking
to him out of love. Paul said, preach the gospel
out of love. Paul said, the more I love, the less I am loved.
And what does it mean? The more I love and I tell you
the truth, I want you to hear what I'm saying. Like he said
to that king, I would to God you were as I am, except for
these bonds or these shackles here. Abel, when he spoke to Cain,
when they were out there in the field and he's speaking, he's
speaking to him from his heart, from love, oh, I would to God
you would listen. And Cain said, I ain't gonna
listen, I hate you. He rose up and killed him, first
murder. Unless we charge the first one
to Satan. But it's characterized by faith,
hope, love, repentance, obedience, gentleness, kindness, peace,
salvation. That characterizes the religion
of Cain, or I mean Abel, the religion of Abel. The Word of God, I tell you this,
the Word of God is so clear to him that believes. To others,
it's not. To others, it's always putting
a question. Well, what about this? Well,
what about that? Why this? Why did God let this happen?
You who believe, we who believe, we see the wisdom of God in this,
don't we? That man or whoever, it might have been a woman who
sent me that that comment on sermon audio said God abandoned
man in the garden. It was just full of barbs. Cain,
Cain wrote to me. Cain rose up and wrote to me. The gospel won't leave you indifference
or indifferent. Gospel won't leave you that way.
You're either going to love it or you're going to hate it. It's not going to leave you indifferent. I thank God, I thank God that
he has got some ables in here. I believe he does. Christ is
our only hope, isn't he? Jesus Christ is our only hope.
And when we come this morning to worship, we worship how? In
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we pray. in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And through Him, our worship
this morning is accepted. Isn't that something?