Yuba-Sutter Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. The title of
our sermon today is, A More Excellent Sacrifice. The text of our sermon
is taken from Genesis chapter 4. In Genesis, Adam and Eve sinned
against God by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil. God banished them from the Garden
of Eden, and God cursed the ground for man's sake because of Adam's
sin. But God also made a promise.
He promised Eve that there would be enmity between the seed of
the woman and the seed of the serpent. God promised Eve that
the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. The
seed of the woman is the Lord Jesus Christ. In His human nature,
Christ was born of a woman. Galatians 4 verse 4. Christ was
not born through the seed of Adam. The Spirit of God came
upon Mary, and she was with child by the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ
is that Holy One conceived by the Spirit of God in the womb
of Mary, a virgin who had never known man. Christ is therefore
the seed of the woman, because after the flesh He was born of
a woman. Though after the flesh the Lord
Jesus Christ was born of a woman, He did not begin to be when He
was born. He existed in heaven as the Son
of God before He was born as Son of Man on earth. When He
came into the world He said, A body hast thou prepared Me. Hebrews 10 verse 5. God prepared
Christ a body, a real human nature, so that he might offer himself
to God in that nature for the sins of his people. Hebrews chapter
10. Christ came from heaven. John
the Baptist, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, said, He that
cometh from above is above all. John 3, verse 31. Christ came
into the world when the Holy Spirit of God conceived him in
his human nature in the womb of Mary. He came to destroy the
works of the devil. First John 3, verse 8. That was
God's promise. That was his purpose in coming.
And that is what he did. He bruised the head of the serpent. He destroyed his work and defeated
him. Christ took away all of the devil's
armor that he trusted in. Christ plundered his goods by
taking back those souls given to him by God, whom Satan brought
under sin and the judgment of death by his deceit in the temptation
of Adam in the garden, and in the deception of all mankind. Thus, Adam and Eve, now banished
from the garden by God for their sin, looked forward to the fulfillment
of God's promise that Christ would come. The Lord Jesus Christ
took the human nature, the body and soul of a man when he was
conceived by the Spirit of God in the womb of Mary. He was born
of a woman. He is therefore called the seed
of a woman. Adam and Eve believed God's promise
concerning Christ. Christ's triumph over Satan in
his death was all their expectation of salvation for their sins and
from the curse of God. Now God cursed the ground for
man's sake. He banished Adam and Eve and
all men from the Garden of Eden. And God clothed Adam and Eve
with skins. God provided and killed a sin
substitute and with its skins clothed Adam and Eve. Those skins
pointed to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life
and especially in his death. The covering of those skins represented
the righteousness of Christ in which all of God's elect are
clothed. God cannot be at peace and look
with favor upon sinners outside of Christ. We are only righteous
in Christ. We must be clothed with Christ. Now with this summary of Genesis
chapter 3 as the background, let's now read Genesis chapter
4. It says in verse 1, And Adam
knew 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. Adam knew his wife Eve. He knew her in the intimacy of
marriage. He knew her and he loved her.
And God blessed this intercourse of love between them. Eve bare
Cain, her firstborn son. Eve understood that a child is
a gift from God. But she had a special regard
to God's promise that the seed of the woman would bruise the
head of the serpent. She therefore named her firstborn
son Cain. The name Cain means gotten. Eve named her son Cain because
she knew she had gotten a man from the Lord. God gave her a
son. She also believed God's promise.
She therefore looked at Cain in anticipation as the man through
whom God would fulfill his promise to bruise the head of the serpent.
Thus Cain means gotten or acquired from the Lord. All that we have
is from the Lord. We must never take it for granted
that God gives us life and breath and all things. The water we
drink, the food we eat, the children we bear are all from the Lord. And we must honor God in faith
and thankfulness, asking Him to do His will and to use all
that He has given us to bring honor and glory to His name.
It was right that Eve looked to God her maker as the giver
of all things, even of her own life and breath. Cain was Adam
and Eve's firstborn son, but he was not the one through whom
God would fulfill his promise to destroy the works of the devil.
Eve conceived again and bear another son, Abel, Cain's brother. Eve named him Abel, which means
breath. When you think of breath, knowing
that Abel lived a short life, you can see that Abel's name
was prophetic. His life would be short. It would
seem, from a human standpoint, that he would be born in vain.
That is what Abel means. Vanity. Breath. The Apostle James
said, what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth
for a little time and then vanisheth away. James 4 verse 14. Every
man's life is short. Every man's life is compared
to a vapor, a brief appearing in history. Abel's name reflected
the brevity of life, but his name also reflected what God
says of all those that he saves. In ourselves and in the eyes
of the world, we are foolish, weak, poor, and our life is insignificant
and unimportant. But it pleases God to silence
proud men by demonstrating His wisdom and power and the riches
of His grace in choosing and saving those who in themselves
are foolish, weak, poor, and unprofitable. The Apostle Paul
in 1 Corinthians 1 said, You see your calling, brethren, how
that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nothing
things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence.
But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,
that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26 through 31. Thus, Abel represents
those the Lord chooses and saves to His honor and to the praise
of His grace. In Cain and Abel, we see all
men. In the offerings of Cain and
Abel, we see all religions. There are only two types of men
in this world, the godly and the ungodly, the righteous and
the wicked. And there are only two religions,
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and all the false gospels
of man's free will and supposed goodness. Cain was the first
born. He was the first of all those
born to Adam and Eve. He was the best that they could
produce. But remember what Jesus said,
the flesh profits nothing, John 6, 63. And in John 3, he said,
that which is born of the flesh is flesh. The best that men are
in themselves and the best that men can do is an abomination
in the eyes of the Lord. In Luke 16 verse 15 it says,
that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in
the sight of God. The Lord said through the prophet
Isaiah, we are all as an unclean thing and all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. Isaiah 64 verse 6. Our best is
very sinful in God's eyes. The Lord seeth not as man seeth,
1 Samuel 16 verse 7. How does man look at things?
How do men see things? Man looks at the outward appearance. Man looks for the best in man. And man looks to man to find
something praiseworthy. But God looks at the heart. And God looks at His Son. God
looks at His own work. Genesis 1 verse 31. Scripture
says that God searched all men and found there is none that
doeth good, no, not one. Psalm 14 verse 2 through 3. But
God does not stop with man. Men consider man only. But God considers his purpose
in Christ. God considers his son only. Cain's name means gotten. Abel's
name means vanity or breath. Adam and Eve thought Cain was
the promised Messiah, but God rejected Cain. The best of men
was made to appear by God in the true light of what he was
by what he believed. But the one whose name is vanity
or breath was chosen of God to make known his grace to sinners
in Christ. Cain was a tiller of the ground. Genesis 4 verse 2. Cain worked
the cursed ground, the ground God cursed because of man's sin.
Cain labored in that cursed ground to bring forth fruit from that
cursed ground. But Abel was a keeper of sheep. Abel took care of what belonged
to God. They were God's sheep. Abel did
not plant them. But he led them, and watered
them, and fed them, and watched over them. They were God's sheep. God gave them to Abel to care
for them. Men did not eat sheep in those
days, but they offered them as an offering. Therefore, Abel
lived his life, his brief life, concerned only with the offering
of God. Now it also says in verse 3 that
in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought forth
of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord. Cain brought
the produce from the cursed ground, produce that his labors helped
to produce. Cain planted, Cain watered, God
gave the increase, and Cain brought to God what he helped to produce. It was an offering that was a
mixture of God's work and his own work. But God cannot accept
anything from a sinner. The prophet Micah said it this
way, Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression the fruit
of my body for the sin of my soul? Micah 6 verse 7. Even the offering of my firstborn
son would be rejected by God because anything I produce is
full of sin. In Exodus chapter 20, verse 24
through 26, God told Moses to make an altar. He specifically
commanded Moses not to use a tool to modify the stones when making
the altar. He told Moses, pile up some dirt
or pile up some unmodified stones. Don't modify the stones with
a tool to make them fit better or to make them look better.
And don't make steps to go up to the altar of God. God commanded
these things to Moses in the law to teach us that we must
not attempt to add to God's offering. We cannot contribute one thing. God must provide all and Christ
must offer himself. Christ is our offering. He is
our altar. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 10 through
12. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ alone makes satisfaction
to God for the sins of His people. But Cain refused the truth God
revealed to him through his father Adam. Adam understood that the
skins from the sin substitute that God killed were the covering
of his sins, a covering of Adam's sins and Eve's sins by the shed
blood of Christ, whose obedience in his death is the very righteousness
in which we must be clothed to be accepted of God. Cain refused
the gospel of God's offering and God's covering for sinners.
Instead, he labored in the cursed ground and brought something
he helped to produce with God's help. Cain contributed to the
offering he brought. God had no respect to Cain or
to his offering. Why? Why did God reject Cain's
offering and paid no respect to Cain? Because Cain attempted
to come to God without the one offering God required, the one
offering God would accept. Cain's offering included his
own labor, his contribution. It came from the cursed ground.
He offered without blood. But God has said that the blood
alone makes atonement for sin. God has said without shedding
the blood there is no remission of sins. Hebrews chapter 9 verse
22. Cain refused God's gospel. He rejected God's offering. He valued his own labors to be
equal to God's holy offering. He even valued his labors to
be worth more than the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cain
had a very low opinion of God's holiness. and he had a high opinion
of himself. He thought God would accept something
from him, a sinner. Cain believed himself to be righteous. He thought God could find him
and his offering acceptable. Cain presented his offering and
himself to the Lord, and he expected God to accept him on those grounds. But the Lord had no respect to
Cain or to his offering. God will deal with us on the
grounds by which we come to Him. If we come trusting something
about ourselves, trusting some action that we took, some labor
that we performed, an experience that we had, our own understanding,
our sorrows, our tears, our position compared to other men, our thoughts,
or anything that has anything to do with us, God will have
no respect to us. He will reject us because we
reject Him. Now hear me, dear friend. I have
heard so many in my life do what Cain did here. I have heard many
live their lives trusting what they did as Cain did here. When you ask someone, are you
saved? What is the basis for your hope
of heaven? What answer will you give to God in the day of judgment?
How many will answer you by referring to a decision they made or a
religious experience they had, that time in their life when
things seemed hopeless and they turned to God? How many will
say, well, I accepted Jesus, or I have an earnest, ongoing
desire to do the will of God? Whenever someone answers these
questions about how God can accept them with an answer of what they
did in their decision, or when they prayed, when they felt sorry
for their sins when they responded to God, or when they dedicated
their lives to serve the Lord, when they did the work of a missionary,
or gave their time and their money, attended church faithfully
for years, or any number of things that men do, when anyone answers
in this way, it is nothing more and nothing less than the offering
that Cain brought to the Lord. Never forget, the Lord had no
respect to Cain and to his offering. The Lord had no respect to Cain
or to his offering. Now Cain represents all who fail
to believe Christ. Cain represents all who reject
salvation by the free grace of God on the just grounds of the
obedience of Christ in his life and death. Cain believed himself
to be righteous. That's why he thought God would
accept him and his offering. Like the Pharisee in Luke chapter
18, Cain presented himself to the Lord with the produce of
his own labors. He trusted in what he did with
God's help. This is the definition of all
false religion. All of the wicked believe themselves
to be righteous, but all of the righteous believe themselves
to be wicked. When people trust something about
themselves, they fail to see that there is nothing good in
them, nothing about them that God will accept. But when a person
believes himself to be wicked, on hearing the gospel, he will
look to God to save him without any help from Him, because he
knows that he has nothing but sin, that he has nothing that
God can accept. Such a man will own his sin,
and he will own God's holiness. He will honor Christ's offering
of himself, that holy sacrifice, which alone satisfies God's justice
and fulfills God's righteous law. He will come to God by Christ
alone, and he will look no further than Christ. But the religion
of men is the religion of self-righteous idolatry. The religion of men
is the religion of man's free will. The religion of men obligates
God to accept man, because man accepted God. The religion of
men is offended when God refuses to acknowledge man's offering,
or man's will, or man's works, or man's decision, or man's experience. God will accept only one thing,
the offering of his own dear son. How can you tell if you
are like Cain? The ungodly all believe themselves
to be righteous. They refuse to come to God by
Christ alone. If they come, they come to be
honored for what they are, or rewarded for what they do. but
the righteous all believe themselves to be wicked. Job cried out,
Behold, I am vile. And King David prayed to God
this way, Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done
that which is evil in thy sight. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. And when the prophet Isaiah
saw the Lord Jesus Christ as Jehovah God reigning on the throne
of glory, he cried out, woe is me, for I am undone, because
I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts. When Peter saw the Lord Jesus
Christ as God's Christ, he cried out, Depart from me, I am a sinful
man, O Lord. And the centurion, whose servant
was sick, sent to Jesus and said, Lord, trouble not thyself, for
I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. In Matthew
chapter 15, when Jesus told the Syrophoenician woman who sought
mercy from Christ for her daughter, who was troubled by a devil,
he told her that it was not right to give the children's bread
to dogs. She said, truth, Lord, but dogs
eat the crumbs from their master's table. And the publican, in Luke
chapter 18, would not so much as lift up his head, but smote
upon his breast, and stood afar off, and cried, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. The apostle Paul said, O wretched
man that I am. Romans 7 verse 24. And Paul also
said, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of
whom I am chief. 1 Timothy 1.15. You see, all
of the righteous believe themselves to be wicked. Scripture says
in the fourth chapter of the book of Romans that, to him that
worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness." Romans 4 verse 4 through 5. In all of these
texts of scripture, we see the difference between the wicked
and the righteous. The wicked, like Cain, all believe
themselves to be righteous. But the righteous, like Abel,
all believe themselves to be wicked. And because the righteous
believe themselves to be wicked, they come to God by Christ crucified,
and they come to God by Him alone. They bring nothing. They do not
bring their decision. They do not bring their commitment.
They do not trust their free will. They do not even bring
their faith. They come to God through Christ
as their only hope of salvation. They come to Him for all. They
come to Him for a change of mind, that repentance which only God
can give. They come for faith, that faith
that looks only to Christ and which only God can give. They
look to Christ only and come to God for all that God requires
and find their all in Christ from God's testimony in scripture. All of the righteous give evidence
that God has saved them by coming to God by the blood and righteousness
of Christ alone. Hebrews 10 verse 19 through 23. When any sinner so comes, God
accepts that sinner because God accepted the sacrifice that He
provided for that sinner. In Genesis 4, verse 4, it says
that God had respect to Abel and to his offering. God had
regard, showed respect for Abel's offering. God accepted Abel's
offering, and in so doing, he accepted Abel. Why? Why did God respect a sinful
man? Because he respected the offering. In the book of Hebrews, God said,
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying
of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. When Abel
offered to God the lamb from his flock, he held in his heart,
he believed in the full persuasion of his conscience, that God accepted
Christ crucified, and in accepting Christ, accepted sinners in Christ. And Abel came to God the only
way God said he would accept sinners, in Christ, by Christ,
and for Christ's sake alone. Faith is looking away from all
that I am to all that Christ is. Faith agrees with God about
myself, and faith agrees with God about Himself. Faith agrees
with God about Christ and His sacrifice of Himself. Faith honors
God's Word. Faith honors God's holiness. Faith confesses his own sin and
utter unworthiness and dependence upon Christ for everything. Faith
seeks mercy from God in Christ and Him crucified alone. And
faith will not refer to anything from itself, but abandons all
hope but the testimony of God, that for Christ's sake he will
receive sinners. God said that the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanses us from all sin." 1 John 1, 7. God said there is
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8,
verse 1. And God said that none can condemn
the one for whom Christ died. Romans 8 verse 34. Therefore,
if Christ died for a man, none can condemn that man. God said
that Christ is able to save to the uttermost all who come to
God by Him. Hebrews 7, verse 25. Faith believes
God. Faith owns its own unworthiness. And faith looks to Christ and
finds perfect fulfillment of all that God requires of me.
Faith sees that in Christ, God has answered his own justice,
and has answered every claim of his righteousness, and that
God has justified his people by his grace for Christ's sake
alone. Listen to this testimony of God
from Romans chapter 3. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God
justifies the ungodly because of His sovereign grace on the
merit and worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ by His one offering
of Himself to God for the sins of His people. Romans chapter
5 verse 9. Faith rejoices and finds comfort
in Christ in believing God's word. Romans 15, verse 13. If I asked you, why do you think
you will go to heaven? Would you say, because I accepted
Jesus? Or if I asked you, how do you
worship God? Would you say, I pray, I go to
church, I give my money, I serve the Lord in so many ways. If
you answer these questions in this way, then understand this,
you hold the same religion as Cain held. But if you say, my
only acceptance before God is what God thinks of Christ and
what He received from Christ in His life and death, and if
you say, I worship God by the Spirit of Christ, believing what
God has said in the Gospel, that Christ is all, and so believing,
I call on Him to save me and receive me for Christ's sake
alone, according to His Word, then you believe Christ as Abel
believed. God said Abel was righteous because
of his sacrifice. All who believe as Abel believed
trust God to look upon Christ for them and to receive them
only for Christ's sake. They agree with God about themselves
and they admire and agree with God about Christ. They worship
God because of Christ with God-given faith to see that Christ is their
all before God. All who come to God by Christ's
shed blood come to God through Christ for all things. They are
poor, ignorant, and weak in themselves, and they have nothing to pay.
They have nothing to bring. They come for all, and they find
they're all in Christ, from God's Word. They rest in God's Word,
and they are at peace in their own conscience, because God has
done all by Himself to save them by Jesus Christ, in spite of
their sin, without any contribution from them. All who thus come
to God do not expect recognition or reward for anything, but want
Christ to receive all the glory in their salvation. They are
content to have nothing, but to be found only in Christ, as
God has revealed Him in the Gospel, to have died for our sins, to
have been buried, and to have risen again for our justification
according to the Scriptures. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our website
at YSGraceChurch.com