I am. Good morning, everybody. Some
of you have asked where my father is, because most of you are used
to seeing him sitting next to me. I don't even think about
him, but I left him at home on Father's Day. I guess that's
my gift to him. Anyway, happy Father's Day to
you men who weren't here the first hour. For our Scripture reading this
morning, I ask that you open your Bibles with me to Ezekiel
chapter 37. Ezekiel chapter 37. And we're just going to read
the first 14 verses. And I find it amazing. I had
wanted to read from this passage for my Scripture reading this
morning. I didn't know the songs you were
gonna sing and that last song that we just sang breathe on
me Oh breath of God is perfect for this passage and We need
the Lord to speak to us to breathe upon us to breathe life into
us And give us faith in Christ, and that's what this passage
is about Ezekiel chapter 37 verse 1 The hand of the Lord was upon
me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me
down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and
caused me to pass by them round about. And behold, there were
very many in the open valley, and low They were very dry. And that's me and you by nature.
Very dry, very dead, dead before God. Our bones are dry and lifeless. He has to breathe upon us. And
they were very dry. Verse three. And he said unto
me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answer, O Lord God,
thou knowest. Again, he said unto me, prophesy
upon these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to
enter into you and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you
and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and
put breath in you and ye shall live and ye shall know that I
am Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded,
and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking,
and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I
beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and
the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them.
Then said he unto me, prophesy unto the wind, prophesy son of
man and say to the wind thus saith the Lord God come from
the four winds Oh breath and breathe upon these slain that
they may live so I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath
came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet
and exceeding great army Then he said unto me, Son of man,
these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say our
bones are dried and our hope is lost. We are cut off for our
parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the
Lord God, behold, oh my people, I will open your graves and cause
you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the land of
Israel. And ye shall know that I am the
Lord. When I have opened your graves,
oh my people and brought you up. out of your graves. And shall
put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live. And I shall place
you in your own land, and then shall you know that I, the Lord,
have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord." That's such
a beautiful picture of salvation. It's so simple. There's this
valley of exceedingly dry bones. That's all of us by nature. And
the Lord tells Ezekiel to preach unto them, prophesy, son of man.
And he did his best preaching, just like I'm going to try to
do. But apart from the Spirit of God, which is pictured by
the wind, there's just going to be a noise, and that's it. It'll just be my voice. There might be a shaking. But
there'll be no life, not unless He moves upon the slain and breathes
life into them. And that's our prayer this morning,
that God will speak. that God would speak. Let's go to our Lord in prayer
one more time, and then I'll try to preach to you. Our gracious, merciful, long-suffering,
and patient Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that You are
gracious and merciful and long-suffering and patient with sinners, with
Your people, Lord. We have sinned against You all
the day long, Lord. Our bones are very dry. We pray
this hour, Lord, that You would send Your Holy Spirit, as we
just read, Lord, and breathe upon us. Breathe upon these dry
bones, Lord. If these bones can live, Thou
knowest, Lord. Thou knowest. Lord, I pray that
You would give me the words to speak, that You would open our
ears this morning Unstop our ears and give us new hearts,
Lord. Give us faith to receive the Word of God with joy, Lord. Don't let these words, don't
let your words fall upon deaf ears, Lord. If it's just my voice, they will
fall upon deaf ears, Lord. But if you speak through your
word, by your Holy Spirit, by that effectual voice that no
sinner can resist, Lord, we shall live, and we shall know that
it is you who hath done it. Lord, we pray that you would
show us our Savior once again, that you would make the message
simple and clear and plain. that you would make us like unto
little children, Lord, wanting and desiring even the small crumbs
of bread that do fall off the master's table. Lord, make us
poor in spirit. Lord, make us meek. Lord, make
us desire your word. Lord, give us a desire to seek
you more, to learn more of your salvation, to seek more earnestly
your face. Oh, Lord, block out all distractions
once again this hour, Lord, and speak to our hearts as only you
can, Father. We pray all this in Christ Jesus' precious name.
Amen. The title of my message this
morning is very simple. Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel. So I'd ask you to turn your Bibles
with me to Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4. Now the story
of Cain and Abel is the first story in all of God's Word where
the distinction of two people by God's sovereign grace is clearly
made. And my prayer this morning, my
prayer and desire this morning, the desire of my heart, is that
the Lord would show us, show me and show you, which man we
are. Which man pictures us. Cain or
Abel. that God would make it clear
to you and me which way we worship God by the way of Cain or by
the way of Abel. And this passage that we're going
to read here in Genesis chapter 4, it's a glorious passage and
it's so very clear. It marks the distinctions between
the way Cain worshipped God or tried to and the way Abel worshipped
God. And I pray the Lord would make
it clear to us this morning and show us which one we are, which
one we can identify with. Because the truth is, these first
two sons of Adam, just like every son of Adam up to this point,
we worship God one of these two ways. Either by the way of Cain
or the way of Abel. There's no middle ground. You're
either a Cain or you're an Abel. You're either a Jacob or you
are an Esau. You're either blessed of God
or you are cursed of God. And I pray the Lord would show
us which one we are this morning. So let's read our text here together.
Genesis chapter 4, verse 1. And Adam knew Eve, his wife,
and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man
from the Lord. 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 and his
countenance fell. 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? And if thou doest 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. The first point I want to bring
out in our text is so very needful and it's the truth that there's
absolutely no difference between Cain and Abel by nature. There's absolutely no difference.
Cain and Abel you see as we just read were born from the same
sinful parents. They inherited that same sinful
and totally depraved nature from their parents. Romans 5 verse 19 says, For as
by one man's disobedience, sin came into the world, and many
were made sinners. All of us are sinners by nature.
We're just like Cain and Abel by nature, just sinners. And
there's no difference between them. There's no difference between
them by nature. We must understand that there
was no inherent difference between Cain and Abel. Abel wasn't born
more special than Cain. Cain wasn't somehow more sinful
than Abel, and therefore God rejected him as we saw. That's
not true. They were exactly the same by nature. In Ephesians 2, verse 1, Paul
says, And you, child of God, and you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and in sins." Cain and Abel, by nature,
as they were formed in the womb, were dead in sins and in trespasses. They were dead by nature and
there was no difference between them. Abel wasn't special. Cain
wasn't special. They were exactly the same. I so often seem to forget that
I am no better than most rebellious unbelievers by nature. And this
is why I want to make such a distinction on such an effort to prove this
point. Of all the sinful pride that's
in my heart, of all the pride that's in my heart, there is
no pride more repulsive, more ungodly, than to be proud of
grace. To be proud of grace? Yep, I'm
guilty of it. You know, I sometimes look at
unbelievers and their unbelief and mock them or laugh at them.
I'm not better than them. I'm not special. Not in and of
myself. God didn't save me because he
saw something in me. We saw that. He saved us and
called us, not according to our own works. but according to his
own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the foundation of the world. There was no difference
between Cain and Abel by nature. How often I need to be reminded
by that sweet passage of scripture, for who maketh thee to differ
from another? Who, not what. Who? It's all about Him. Who makes
you to differ? If you are different, why? Who
made you different? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? You see, everything we have,
everything we have, we received from the hands of God. Everything. Now, if thou didst receive it,
Paul says, why dost thou glory in it as if thou hast not received
it? Why are you boasting in it? And I'm speaking to myself first.
I can't understand why. If I'm saved, the only reason
is because of the free, sovereign, distinguishing grace of God.
And the only reason I'm saved, like we saw a couple weeks ago,
when there were many lepers, or many widows in Israel, but
unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Zarephath in
the city of Zidon. And there were many lepers in
Israel, but none of them were cleansed, except for Naaman the
Syrian. So why would God save that person
or this person? Why would God save me apart from someone else?
It's not because there's something good in me. It's not because,
as some lost man tried to explain election, well, God looked through
the portals of time to see who would accept him or reject him,
or who would be less sinful. or more inclined to godliness,
and then he based his decision off that. That's just nonsense.
We're all the children of wrath, even as others. There's no difference
between us. There's no difference. We've
concluded, Paul said, that all are under sin, and that all have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, so that there is
no difference between the Jew and the Gentile. All have sinned,
you and me, Cain and Abel. There was no difference between
them. For who maketh thee to differ? There was nothing in
Abel that attracted or caused God, as some men say, to be merciful
upon him. And there was nothing in Cain
that caused God to just reject him, just to leave him to himself.
The children, that passage of scripture in Romans 9 is talking
about Jacob and Esau. But it can be just as easily
applied to Cain and Abel, these brothers. The children not being
yet born, neither having done any good or evil. God loved Jacob
and hated Esau. Why? And God loved Abel and hated
Cain. Why? That the purpose of God
according to election might stand, not of works. Men hate that. Not of works. Why? So that you
can't boast about it. So you can't tell everybody what
a good Christian you are. So you can't tell everybody about
your decision to get saved. And I was blessed when I learned
this. The name Abel. Abel means vanity. The name Abel just means nothing. It's nothing. It's just a breath
of air. That's what Abel's name means.
That's what I am. That's what I am. Just vanity.
Man in altogether in his best state, David said. Man is altogether
vanity. And less than vanity. God says,
God calls the nations of the world, the greatest nations that
this world has ever seen, the greatest nations that still exist
on this planet, God calls the nations of the world the dust
on the balances. What does he do with that? Just
blows it off. Just like that. The nations.
So if the nations are the dust, what am I? I'm less than vanity. I'm an Abel. I'm an Abel. God
couldn't have loved or chose Abel over Cain because of something
in him. Abel's name even means vanity.
There was nothing in Abel. Psalm 39 verse 5, like I just
read, Verily every man at his best state, at his best state,
is altogether vanity. And as we will see later in our
text, God loved Abel and hated Cain. But again, it wasn't because
there was something special in Cain. It wasn't because he was
more inclined to godliness or he had a little more of something
that Cain had. What did Moses tell the children
of Israel? Which is a picture of us, of God's elect. Of God's
spiritual Israel. What did he say? The Lord did
not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were
more in number than any people. Not because you were greater.
For ye were the fewest of all people. The fewest. You were
nobodies. You were a bunch of ables. You
were a bunch of vanities. Nothing. But God chose you. God
chose you. And the truth is that God's people
love to be told that they are absolutely no different than
anybody else by nature. Why? Because it gives God the
glory. Like we just read, if God breathes
upon the slain those dry bones and gives them life, the Lord
said, they shall know that I have done it. If God saves you, you're
going to know that it was all of grace. It was not of your
works. It was not of your will. It was
not of your willing or running, but it was of God that showeth
mercy. And I just need to be reminded
of that because my stinking pride always just comes up. I'm nothing. I'm nothing. Remember when in Isaiah chapter
40, the Lord was speaking to Isaiah and he said, comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Tell
her that her warfare is accomplished, that she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. And later on, he said,
cry unto her, preach unto her, cry unto her. And Isaiah said,
what shall I cry? Lord, what am I gonna say to
them? What am I gonna say to Jerusalem to comfort them? And what did
the Lord say? Tell them their grass. Tell them
that all flesh is grass and that the best of man is as the flower
of the field. The wind bloweth and it passeth
away. The sun comes up and it burns that flower up and it decays
and passes away. That's me. That's all of God. And if you're a child of God,
if you're one of His people, He's going to make you know that
you're nothing. You're vanity by nature. That
there's nothing in you that would cause God to love you more than
somebody else. If God loves you, it's simply
because it pleased the Lord to make you His people. That's the
only answer the Scriptures give. Why does God love me? Because
He would. Because it was His purpose in
Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. So we see that
by nature Cain and Abel were no different. They were no different. And Adam knew Eve his wife, and
she conceived and bare Cain. And said, I have gotten a man
from the Lord. 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 forth the fruit of the ground in offering
unto the Lord. And Abel also brought his offering.
Now the second point I want to bring out is that Cain and Abel
both heard the gospel. preached by their father. Otherwise,
they could not have known to bring a sacrifice. How do I know
that? How do I know that Adam preached
the gospel to Cain and Abel? Because as we will see later
in our text, Abel had faith. And how does faith come? You
know, faith cometh by hearing. Abel heard something. And I'm
sure Adam told his sons, Cain and Abel, he told them all about
what God did for him. when God slew those animals.
and use the skins, the coats of those animals to cover Adam
and Eve's nakedness, which is our picture, which is a picture
of us by nature. Guilty before God that He must
cover us in the righteousness of the slain Lamb of God. And
that's the only way you'll be accepted before God, if you're
covered in His righteousness. And we know just from the fact
that Cain and Abel knew to bring sacrifices to God, we know that
Adam had to preach the Gospel to them. Adam had to preach the
gospel to them. And I'm sure Adam had spoken
to his sons all about his glory days, what glorious days those
were before the fall. When Adam walked with God in
perfect harmony in the cool of the day, having fellowship, talking
with God. Could you imagine? But we know that Adam had certainly
told them about how God was to be worshipped by sinners, as
he had seen with his own eyes in Genesis chapter 3. Look at
it, just a few verses back. Genesis chapter 3, verse 17. And unto Adam he said, This is
the Lord speaking. 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, and 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.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return
unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou
art. You're nothing, Adam. For dust
thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. And Adam called
his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
And here's what I want you to see. Unto Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. Adam taught both Cain and Abel
that without the shedding of blood, as Hebrews chapter 9 says,
without the shedding of blood, There is no remission for sins.
Blood has to be shed. Someone has to die. Someone has
to satisfy God's judgment. Someone has to put away sin.
God's not going to compromise His holiness to save me. God's
not going to compromise His holy law to save you. Your sin must
be put away, and you must be given this perfect robe of righteousness
to stand before God. And this is what Adam told Cain
and Abel. He preached the Gospel to them.
He had taught them that no sinful man can be accepted in the sight
of God without the putting away of sin and without the covering
of a robe. So through this story in our
text, we see again how important the preaching and the hearing
of the Gospel is. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. My third point. Abel came by faith, and Cain
came by works. There's a way of Cain and a way
of Abel, the way of Cain and the way of Abel, and it's still
being practiced today. All of us here this morning are
either trying to worship God right now by the way of Cain
or by the way of Abel. And here again we see clearly
distinguished in the scriptures that there are only two religions
in the world. There's only really two religions
in the world. The religion of works and the religion of grace. Law and grace. The religion that
says do this and God will save you. The religion that says do,
do and you can never do enough. And then there's the gospel,
true religion, the religion that's in Christ that says, done. Christ
has done it all. It is finished. And we're going
to see this in a second. Cain and Abel outline the two
type of men that there are in this world. You either try to
worship God by the way of Cain or by the way of Abel. So what
was the way of Cain? What was the way of Cain? The way of Cain is the same way
that every natural man tries to approach God and worship God.
By the works of their hands. You talk to people. Oh, I know
I'm saved because... because... add whatever you want,
fill in the blank. Oh, I know I'm saved because
I... You've already messed up, stop right there. That's the
way of Cain. And God is not going to accept
it. He will not have respect unto your sacrifice. Why? Because nothing you do is righteous. Nothing you do can be pleasing
in the sight of God. The best of our righteousness,
Isaiah said, is of filthy rags. And if the best of our righteousness
is filthy rags, what's our worst? What is the way of Cain? It's
the way that people try to worship God by the works of their hands.
It's the way that, it's the broad way as Christ said in Matthew
7, you remember? Broad is the way and wide is
the gate which leadeth unto destruction. That's the way of Cain. Turn
there with me to that passage, Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter
7. Look at verse 13. Matthew 7, verse 13. Why? Because wide is the gate and
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. And many there
be which go in thereat. Many. Many. How many people we
know try to worship God by coming the way of Cain. There's no salvation
in that way. There's no salvation in the best
works of your righteousness. There's no salvation in what
you can offer God. There's no salvation in your
best law-keeping, in your sincere efforts, in your good intentions.
You may have heard that quote, that the road to hell is paved
with good intentions. And that's exactly right. that
leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat."
Verse 14, "'Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the
way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.'"
Let's skip down to verse 20. "'Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.' Many will
say unto me in that day." Here's that many on that broad way,
that way of Cain that leads to destruction. What are they saying?
Many there will be in that day saying, have we not prophesied
in thy name? Lord, we've been preachers all
our life. And in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name
done many wonderful works. They had works, they were many,
and they were wonderful. And what did God say? Depart
from me, I never knew you. That's one of the most sobering
passages of scripture. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. It's iniquity in His sight, the
best of our righteousness. Depart from me. If you try to
approach God like Cain, with the best fruit of your, the labors
of your hands, the best fruit you can find, whatever that is,
God will not have respect unto your sacrifice. It's iniquity
in His sight. Turn back with me in our text
of Genesis chapter 4. What is the way of Cain? It's
the way of which Solomon spoke of in Proverbs chapter 14, when
he said, There is a way which seemeth right unto a man. We
know that Cain must have thought, Abel's going to try to approach
God the way Adam told us to by sacrifice, but I'm going to outdo
my brother. I'll bring God the best fruits of my hands, the
best labors of my hands, the best that I can produce, my righteousness,
and God will accept it. It only seems right that God
would accept me based on my good intentions. Isn't that what people
say? Well, I believe God will save him if he had good intentions.
That's the way of Cain. God won't save you based on good
intentions. Be holy, for I am holy. He doesn't
say try to be holy. Be holy. There is a way which seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The way of Cain is the way that
leads men to self-righteousness and pride. And if there's anything
that God hates, it's pride. Pride. And worst of all, the way of
Cain, or as we can call it, the religion of Cain. The way of
Cain, the religion of Cain, is that religion which robs Christ
of His glory and the salvation of His people. And how do they do it? Well,
they give some glory, some part of salvation, They attribute
some part of salvation to them. They'll say, well, God started
a work, but you've got to do your part now. You've got to
do your part. You've got to show God that you're
worthy. You've got to do your part. What
they're saying is God can't finish what he started. That's the way of Cain. It robs
Christ of his glory by making man his own savior. It's the
way that makes man's will more powerful than God's will. And
obviously they won't say that. They won't flat out say our will
is more powerful than God's will. Satan's not a fool. He's going
to deceive the world. How do they say it? Well, God
wants you to be saved, but he can't save you unless you give
him your permission. Paul didn't give God his permission
to save him. God saved him. And it really does not matter
how a man robs Christ of His glory. All that matters is the
fact that he robs, he dares, he dares to attempt to rob Christ
of His glory. Men may rob Christ of His glory
by a choice or a decision to be saved. They may rob God's
Son of His glory by boasting in some great selfless act that
they performed in religion. They often may do it by trusting
in an experience. That's the way of Cain. Trusting
in an experience or a feeling that you once had. Well, I remember
I felt something real good back then, and I'm looking to that
as the hope of my salvation. Well, if you're looking to that,
then you're not looking to Christ. And if you're not looking to
Christ, you're robbing Him of His glory. Remember last week. I was I was
in California and after I got preached after I got done preaching
one of the messages there was a Lord bless her soul, and I
think she's a believer, but anyway after after I had finished preaching
my first message she came up to me and She was like well. I know that's the gospel, but
I know what you preach is the gospel, but I don't feel anything
I I don't feel anything. She said, I couldn't even make
myself cry. We're the same way. We think
that people who, who, who cry are somehow more spiritual or
religious. And by nature, we're going to look to those feelings
as the whole. And that's what she was doing.
And I pray God would correct her, but she was, she, she, she
based her salvation off the fact that she didn't feel anything.
Well, I know I'm not saved because I didn't feel anything. My friends,
feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving. My
warrant is the Word of God. None else is worth believing.
Does God say you're justified in His book? You're justified. If you believe on the Son of
God, well, I don't feel justified. I know you don't. Neither do
I. But God says it. Don't rob Christ of His glory
by looking to or trusting in some experience or feeling that
you once had. Our hope of salvation is only
in Jesus Christ. Like Paul said, I know whom I
have believed, and I'm persuaded that He is able to keep that
which I have committed unto Him against that day. And one more
thing about the way of Cain. Notice where he got the fruit.
That fruit that he offered God as his sacrifice to try to be
accepted before God, where did he get it from? Well, read it
with me again. Genesis chapter 4, verse 3. And in process of time it came
to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground. What did God say about the ground?
Look at Genesis chapter 3. Verse 17, and unto Adam he said,
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. The way of Cain offers God those
things which are cursed. Cursed! What foolishness, how
foolish Cain must have been. I'm sure Adam told him when preaching
him the gospel that what God did in the garden after he fell.
God cursed the ground. And yet Cain thought that he
could bring fruit from the ground and God would accept it. That
fruit is cursed. And men do the same thing today.
They bring the best works of their righteousness. Don't you
know that your flesh and my flesh is cursed with sin? God won't
accept it. And that's how depraved the natural
man is. He can't see the Kingdom of God. Natural men can't see the difference
between free will and free grace. Don't you dare bring God that
which he has cursed. We're cursed with sin. Nothing
you or I can do can be pleasing in his sight. He won't accept
it. He will reject the sacrifice of your righteousness and best
works every time. Every time. But now look how Abel came. What
was Abel's religion? What was the way of Abel? How
did he come to God? Look at verse 4 of Genesis chapter
4. 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. You see, Abel's
way was the way of a blood sacrifice. Abel's way was the way of faith. It was the way of faith. Abel
was taught of God through the preaching of the gospel by his
father Adam, that the best of his righteousness was nothing
but filthy rags. Abel knew, as Isaac knew, that
you cannot serve God. You cannot worship God without
a lamb. You remember when Abraham took
his son Isaac up to the mountain? I think it was Mount Moriah to
sacrifice him. And obviously Isaac, just like
Cain and Abel, they were taught of their father, that you can't
worship God without a lamb. And so here's Isaac with wood,
and he says to his father, Abraham, here's the wood for the sacrifice
and the fire. But where's the Lamb? You hear people talk of their
religion and you ask the same question. Where is the Lamb?
What is all this? Where's Christ? You can't worship
God without the Lamb. And Abel did it by faith. These Old Testament sacrifices,
these Old Testament pictures were types of Christ. They were
shadows of things to come. Abel knew as Isaac that he could
not, he could not be accepted by God without the lamb. Now
Abel knew that his animal sacrifice of a lamb didn't actually, that
actual lamb that he offered, it didn't actually put away any
of his sins. It didn't put away a single one
of his sins. But he came to God with a sacrificed
lamb by faith, looking unto the promised seed of the woman in
Genesis chapter 3 that would crush the serpent's head and
establish perfect righteousness. He believed the gospel. And what was God's response to
these two ways, these two religions? He hated and rejected Cain. He
hated his sacrifice. He hated his works. but God had
respect unto Abel and his offering. So we see again that all of us
come to God right now. You and me, right where you sit
right now, you're either worshiping God by the way of Cain or the
way of Abel. All right, little recap here.
So far we have these three lessons. Number one, Cain and Abel were
no different by nature. Number two, Cain and Abel both
heard the same gospel priest from their father, Adam. And
number three, Cain and Abel both came to God, but in different
ways. Cain came by the way of works. He was rejected. Abel
came by the way of faith and a blood sacrifice, and he was
accepted. And now my fourth point. I have
five points total, but this is the most important point of my
text, of my message. And here's the point. God help
us to learn it. The ways that Cain and Abel came
to God proved or made manifest whether or not they were righteous. Abel's sacrifice, Abel's offering
of his lamb didn't make him righteous. It proved that he was already
righteous in God's sight. How do I know that? Turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. When I saw this,
it hit me like a semi-truck. I mean, it stood out to me, and
I was like, I gotta bring this message. Hebrews chapter 11,
verse 4. Hebrews 11, verse 4. Abel offered unto God a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous." Notice, it does not say, by faith Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which
he was made righteous. Abel offered unto God a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain, of which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. What's the lesson? Faith is not
the cause of your salvation. It is the evidence of it. It is the evidence of it. Faith
in Christ is not the cause of your salvation. It's the result.
If you believe this gospel, you believe because you're saved.
Because you've been saved before all eternity. Because God saved
you and then called you, like Paul wrote to Timothy. You remember when I said that
the way of Cain is the way that robs Christ of His glory? And
that it doesn't matter how a man robs Christ? Well, I'm convinced
that Satan has deceived this generation more than any other
generation. I've talked to a lot of people.
I've heard what people say. I'm convinced that Satan has deceived
this generation more than any other. That their faith in Christ
is the cause of their salvation. It's not. It's not. If you believe God, it's because
you are saved. You don't believe God to get
saved. You see, Satan is so subtle that he'll deceive men into making
faith a work. How do men make faith a work? How do they do it? By putting
faith in faith. Oh, God's going to save me because
I believe. We're not justified by our faith
in Christ. We are justified by the faith
of Christ. His faith saves us. Too many
people have faith in faith. You don't have faith. You don't,
you don't have faith to get saved if you have God given faith.
And that's where it comes from. Only God can give it for by grace.
Are you saved through faith? And that faith is not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works list. Any man should boast.
If you have God given faith, it is the evidence, the result
that God has saved you from eternity. How do I know that? Look at Hebrews
11.1. What is faith? Now, faith is the substance of
things hoped for. What does it say? Read it. The evidence. It is the singular
definite article, the evidence of things not seen. I've never
seen my sin covered by the blood of Christ. I've never seen that
I'm actually righteous before God. But faith is the evidence
of that. And just like in our story, Abel,
he had faith. He had faith and he obtained
witness. His faith proved that he was
righteous. It did not make him righteous. I know Abraham had greater faith
than me. I know that. He's the father of the faithful.
I know he had a greater measure of faith than me. But does that
mean that just because God gave him a greater measure of faith
that somehow Abraham is more justified than me or more justified
than you because he had greater faith than you? No, not at all. Why? Because it is not the strength
and measure of your faith. It is the object of your faith.
I try to use this example, as poor as it is, but if there's
a young girl stuck in a three-story building and it's burning to
the ground, and the only way she can try to survive through
that fire is to jump through the window. And she looks down
before jumping and she sees a fireman standing there, yelling at her,
jump down, I'll catch you. Now, whether she has very little
faith or very great faith in that fireman, her measure of
faith doesn't save her. What saves her? The strength
of the fireman. If she jumps, it's the strength
of the fireman that saves her life, whether she has very little
faith or very great faith. It is not the measure of your
faith, children of God, that saves you. It is not the measure
of your faith which justifies you. It is the object of your
faith. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
2. Galatians chapter 2. People say, well, you're splitting
hairs. I hope everyone in here has a
King James Bible. And this is not the only time,
this is not the only verse where every other translation other
than the King James version gets it wrong, but just look at it
with me. Galatians chapter 2, verse 16.
It's a small two-letter word, and it makes the world of difference.
Galatians 2, verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified,
he's not made right with God, by the works of the law. Now,
if you don't have a King James Version Bible, it says, but by
your faith in Christ, or by faith in Christ. That's not what it
says. It says, but by the faith of
Christ. I'm justified by His faith, not
my faith. God's people have faith in Christ.
But it's not the cause of their salvation. Otherwise, we'll be
saved just like Cain by works. We'll make a work out of believing.
We'll make a work out of faith. We'll make faith the cause of
our salvation. Well, God's obligated to save
me because I have faith. That's just the way of Cain.
That's the way of Cain. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ, by His
faithfulness, His obedience, His righteousness. Aren't you thankful, child of
God, that your standing before God is not based on your faith?
My standing before God is not based on my faith? My faith is
so weak. What did the Lord say to His
disciples so often? Oh, ye of little faith. My faith is so
filled with, so mixed with unbelief and doubt and and weakness. My faith at best is just unbelief. Do you want your faith to be
your justification before God? I don't. I don't. But I want
His faith to be. I want His faith to be. In Romans chapter 14 verse 23
Paul said, Whatsoever is not of faith, anything, anything
and everything, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. So if Christ never sinned, if
Christ knew no sin and could not sin, what does that say?
It means he had perfect faith. He always believed God from the
cradle to the cross. He believed God perfectly. I
want that to be the ground of my justification before God,
not my faith in Christ. My faith in Christ is so weak.
Sometimes I doubt whether I'm even saved. Lord, how can I do the things
I do and think the things I think and be a child of God? And that
right there proves that we have so much unbelief. My faith is,
I'm not saved, I'm not made righteous, I'm not justified. Abel was not
justified by his faith, looking to the Lamb of God that would
come in time and put away sin. He wasn't justified by his faith.
His faith in Christ proved that he was already justified. Don't
get the cause and effect mixed up. Faith in Christ is not the
cause of anyone's salvation. It's the evidence. It's the evidence
of your salvation. And if you have time, when you
go home, in the King James Bible, you can ask me after the message
for these references. I don't have time to read them all right
now, but there's so many passages that use this phrase, the faith
of Christ. Romans 3.22, Galatians 2.16 like
we saw, Galatians 3.22, Ephesians 3.12, Philippians 3.9. It's taught all throughout the
Scriptures. We're justified by the faith of Christ, not your
faith in Christ. And that small, seemingly insignificant
two-letter word makes an eternity of difference. Changing that
word of to in changes the way that you come to God, but by
the way of Cain. It's the difference between Cain's
way and Abel's way. Don't be deceived. Don't have
faith in faith. Don't make faith a work. Your faith is the evidence
that you're saved. It's the clue, so to speak. It
proves that you've already been justified before God. Because
if you are righteous with God, you've always been righteous
with God, as we saw in the last message. Christ is the lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. I don't want to be justified
by my faith. I want to be justified by Christ's faith. And this is
why Abel was righteous before God. because of the faith of
Christ. The faith of Christ. Or even
our love for Him. Oh, God will save me because
I loved His Son Jesus. It's not your love for Christ
that saves you. It's the love of Christ that
saves you. Don't get it confused. My love for Christ is not worthy
to be mentioned. Like I said, I'm not saying that
God's people don't have faith in Christ. They most certainly do.
God's people believe the gospel. I believe the gospel by faith.
But it's not the cause of my justification. It's the result. Now, last but not least, number
five, God will always meet you on the grounds that you come
to him by. Now, if someone says, well, I'm going to try to get
saved by the law. You know what God's going to say? Have at it. How
about it? And you won't be able to keep
it. You remember in Exodus when Moses
gave the Ten Commandments after coming down from the mountain
to the children of Israel? And the children of Israel said,
we'll keep them. All that the Lord hath said,
we will do. And the first commandment in the list of commandments is,
thou shalt have no other gods before me. And then Moses went
back up to the mount to get the rest of the instructions for
the building of the tabernacle and the ark and the mercy seat
and the table of incense and all these things. And Moses comes
down and finds the children of Israel doing what? Worshipping
a golden calf. The first law, the very first
commandment that Moses gave the children of Israel, thou shalt
have no other God before me, is the very first law that they
broke. The law that they said, we'll
keep. That's meaning by nature. We can't keep God's law. Don't
come by the way of Cain. Come by faith. God will always meet you on the
grounds that you come to him by. If you come to him by the
way of Cain, he'll reject you because you can't produce any
righteousness. You're cursed. You offer cursed fruit to God.
You're cursed with sin. But if you come to God and worship
him by faith like Abel, it's only because he's given you that
faith. That's the only reason why. Even
our faith is the gift of God. Every good and perfect gift cometh
down from above from the Father of lights, with whom is no variable
in this, neither shadow of turning." And as we saw, I think it was
two weeks ago, the natural man hates this message. Christ preached,
remember in Luke chapter 4, Christ preached that God's grace was
sovereign. He didn't have to save, there
were many lepers in Israel, many widows, but He didn't save any
of them except for one. And they were, when they heard these things,
those Nazarenes, when they heard Christ preach these things, they
were filled with wrath and took Him out to the brow of the hill
and wanted to plunge Him forth headlong. They wanted to kill
Him in cold blood. Nothing's changed. Look back
in our text, Genesis chapter 4. Nothing's changed. The people
who follow the way of Cain hate everyone who follows the way
of Abel. Look at verse 5 of Genesis 4. But unto Cain and his offering
he had not respect, and Cain was very wroth. What do you mean
I'm not good enough? What do you mean everything I've
done is nothing but filthy rags before God? What do you mean
that my selfless giving and my baptism and my experience means
nothing before God? What do you mean that everything
I've ever been told was wrong about God? You're saying I worship
God wrong? And the Lord said unto Cain,
Why art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest
well, shalt thou not be accepted? What are you saying? If you come
to me by the way of your brother Abel, won't you be accepted?
Won't I accept Christ's blood and righteousness on your behalf?
If you come by the way of faith, by the way of Abel? He will. But Cain would not. He would
not. Why? Because he would not have
this man to reign over him. And this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world, and men love darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. They accused
Christ when He cast out devils. They said, He casts out devils
by the prince of devils. I've been accused of it. What
do you mean God doesn't love everybody? That's satanic. Woe unto you when all men shall
speak well of you. Like we saw in the last message
this you preach the gospel people are gonna persecute you you're
gonna be hated Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness
sake? Don't be alarmed if the world
hates you Don't be alarmed if the world hates you so in conclusion
I ask you Which one are you? Which one are you are you Cain
or are you able? How are you coming to God right
now? By works or by faith? The way you come proves whether
or not you're righteous. The way you come to God proves
whether or not you're righteous. If you attempt to come to God
by the way of Cain, you will be condemned forever. You see,
Cain didn't go to hell because he was not elect. People say,
well, in judgment, I'll tell God that, oh, you can't send
me to hell. I was an elect. That's not going
to fly. You know, people don't go to hell because they're not
elect. They go to hell because of their unbelief. And only because
of their unbelief. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how
often I would have gathered you as a hen doth gather her hens
under her wings. But you would not. You killed
all the Old Testament prophets from righteous Abel to Zechariah.
You killed them all. You stoned them all. Why? Because
your deeds are evil. You are of your father, the devil.
Cain didn't go to hell because he was an elect. He went to hell
because of his unbelief. And Abel didn't go to heaven
because of his faith, but because of the faith of Christ. The faith
of Christ. So in conclusion, if you're saved,
if you're saved, It will be all of God's work, and God will make
you know it. God, like we saw in Ezekiel 37, they shall know
that I, the Lord, have performed it, that I, the Lord, have purposed
it, that I, the Lord, have done it. If God saves you, it will
be all to God's credit. But if you are lost and damned
forever, it will be all your fault. You're not going to be
able to justly condemn God for not saving you. If you will hear
his this day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart
or not your heart. Let's pray together. Our gracious God and heavenly
father, we're so thankful that you sent that lamb, your lamb,
that son of God who came to this earth and assumed our flesh. and was born under the law, born
from a woman, and that you made him sin for us, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Lord, I pray that
you would enable us to come to you now as your servant Abel
did, Lord, by faith. Lord, help us renounce all our
righteousness, all our works, all our goodness. Help us to
be poor in spirit, Lord, to know that we have nothing to offer
you. Lord, teach us that it's not
our faith in Christ that saves us. It's not our love for Christ
that saves us. It's the faith of Christ and
the love of Christ that saved us and has saved us. Lord, we're
so thankful for him, for that unspeakable gift, Lord. We pray
that you would give us faith to look to him, Lord. Christ,
precious name we pray. Amen.