You want to turn in your Bibles
to Genesis chapter 4. We're going to start back in
Genesis today, picking up in chapter 4 with Cain and Abel. The bulletin says the title of
the message is A More Excellent Sacrifice. That's an excellent
title. By the time I finish writing it, I just entitled it Cain and
Abel. Anyway, you'll see the reason
for that as we go through this. Before we begin, though, let's
pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for the Lord Jesus
Christ. We pray, Lord, that today, even
today, this time, We would be given this faith that enables
us to see what you have done for us in Christ and love you
truly in our heart. By your spirit, Lord, give us
life and create in us what we cannot produce, this sight and
this confidence in Christ and this love for him. We come to
you now, even as sinners, trusting Christ alone and coming to you
because your word tells us to come by the blood of Jesus. And
so we pray, Lord, accept us for His sake. Receive us in Him,
by Him, and as Him. According to Your Word, we would
never presume to think these things had You not revealed it.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Genesis chapter 4. I want to read these first eight
verses here with you. about Cain and Abel. Let's just
begin with verse 1. It says, And Adam knew his wife
Eve, I'm sorry, 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." He was very angry at God, and his face
showed it. 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." He
killed his brother, Abel. That's a sad story, isn't it?
How could it be that the firstborn son of Adam and Eve would kill
his own brother? There's many things in this text
of scripture that we can learn from, and it's interesting that
God has put this right in the beginning of scripture. This account of Cain and Abel,
I see, teaches us, we can see the outline here teaching us
three things. First, there were two men. Second, there were two offerings.
And third, there was one murderer and there was one martyr. Now,
as we go through this, we'll see several things about this,
but I want you to remember those things as the outline is pretty
clear from the text. Two men, two offerings. One,
a murderer. The other, the martyr. And when
you look at it in that light, you'll see here the significance
of much of what is said here. But first I want you to consider
here the first part where it says in verse 1, Adam knew his
wife and she conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten
a man from the Lord. The word Cain, the name Cain
means gotten. That's why Eve said this, I have
gotten a man from the Lord. It means I have acquired a possession. God gave this to me. This man
from the Lord. But notice, it was a man to whom
she gave birth as a baby. But it was from Adam. Adam knew
his wife, and then she conceived and bare Cain and said, I've
gotten a man from the Lord. This boy was not the seed of
the woman. The seed of the woman is the
one who would be born to the woman, apart from the seed of
the man. It was just the seed of the woman.
The seed in that case was the Spirit of God, who, through Mary,
conceived the Lord Jesus Christ in his human nature. But here
we see Adam and Eve together conceive this son named Cain. And Cain, as I said, means acquired
or gotten from the Lord. And then in verse 2 it says,
And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of
sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. The name Abel
means breath. And it has reference to the brevity
of the life of Abel. And you see that in the account,
don't you? Even in the name that Eve chose for Abel, God was prophesying
of the shortness of Abel's life. His name is used in other scriptures. When Job says in Job 7, chapter
7, verse 16, he says, My life is but vanity. It's just a breath. And remember what James said
in James 4, chapter 4. He says, what is your life? It
is a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. That's what Abel's name meant.
Vanity, vapor, a short breath that just comes for a moment.
But Cain was someone that Eve looked upon when he was born
and thought, this is the one. This has to be the one that God
promised in Genesis 3, verse 15, when the Lord said, the seed
of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. The enmity
between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. All
those things that God promised there. That's what she looked
forward to. That's what Adam looked forward to. But Cain was
not that man, as we clearly see here. What if you were named
Vanity, or just a short life? That says something about Abel,
doesn't it? He came into this world... And
he lived a short life, but oh, the volumes that his life speaks
to us. How much we learn from him. So
in these two boys, we see two people, two men. And in these
two men, we really see all men. And this is significant because
scripture often does this throughout. If you remember the parable in
Luke chapter 18 of the Pharisee and the Publican that Jesus gave,
he said there were two men that went to the temple to pray, one
a Pharisee and the other a Publican. And the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God I thank thee that I'm not like other
men. He trusted, Jesus said, he trusted
in himself that he was righteous and he despised others. Those
two always go hand in hand. When we trust in our own righteousness,
we look down and despise others. Cain was like the Pharisee. Abel
was like the publican. So we see these two men here,
Cain and Abel. Two men representing all men. In 1 John chapter 3, if you want
to look there with me, 1 John chapter 3, the Lord says this
about Cain and Abel. He speaks this way in 1 John
chapter 3, starting at verse 10. He says this, "...in this
the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil."
two men, two types of children, the children of God and the children
of the devil. And this is the way they are
known. He says, Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God,
neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message
that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
not as Cain who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because
his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." So
here are the two men. The children of the devil, the
children of God. The children of the devil are
made manifest because they hate the children of God. The children
of God are made manifest because they love one another. And Cain
was a man whose works were wicked. Abel was a man whose works were
righteous. And remember what it says in
Psalm 146, verse 8? The Lord loveth the righteous. In Psalm 5, verse 5, he says
God hates all workers of iniquity. He loves the righteous. He hates
all workers of iniquity. And here's a man, Abel. God says
his deeds were righteous. His works were righteous. And
look also at Matthew, chapter 23. where it speaks also of Abel. He says this in Matthew 23. These
are remarkable things that God says about Abel. And when I was
a young person, even now, when I read the Bible, and I read
about these men, especially when two are held up in contrast,
I always think, I want to be Abel. Don't you? How many do
you think read this text of Scripture and think, I want to be just
like Cain? We have a natural admiration,
don't we, of the one that God loves? Here he says, at least
in this scripture, when the Lord has taught us, he says, Matthew
chapter 23, verse 34, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees. really
coming down hard on them. He says, that upon you may come all the
righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous
Abel unto the blood of Zechariah, son of Barakias, whom you slew
between the temple and the altar." Christ attributes to the Pharisees,
to the children of the devil, to that generation, that seed
of the serpent, all of the righteous blood that was shed upon the
earth. And he includes in there the
righteous blood of Abel. The blood of righteous Abel.
God saw Abel as righteous. But we have to ask this question.
How was it that Abel became righteous? How did God see him as righteous? Was he better than Cain? Here's
the thing. These two men represent all men
because they represent the righteous and the wicked. All men are either,
in God's sight, righteous, or they are wicked in His sight.
And so I want to be one of the righteous, don't you? Abel, again,
these two men are described for us throughout scripture. You
can take these two men and you look forward in time, throughout
history, and you'll see everyone in this world. You'll see how,
through Cain persecuting Abel and murdering him, you'll see
all of the animosity and the hatred that the seed of the serpent
have for God's children. And in these two men you also
see the contrast between the righteous and the wicked. Remember
the parable of the four grounds and the one seed? The first ground
was the wayside ground, the second was the rocky ground, the third
ground was that thorn-choked ground? That's Abel. I mean,
sorry, that's Cain. His heart was hard. He couldn't
receive the seed of the Word of God. But Abel's heart was
the was the good ground in which the seed penetrated deep. What
was the difference in that parable between those first three grounds
and the fourth ground? I always want to be that fourth
ground, but what made the difference? What does it mean? It's the description
God gives of those who hear the word of God. But what makes them
hear? What is it that distinguishes
them? And I really like what someone once observed, and it's
true, Scripture is what testifies to this, is that the righteous,
this is what characterizes the righteous from the wicked. And
if you understand this, you'll understand so much of Scripture. And I'm pausing right now and
thinking about the people that have come and talked to me recently. A young man came into the service
when we were having our conference and I was talking to him about,
if I could just distill the whole message of scripture, how would
I do it? And this is what I told him. I said, there was once a
homeless man. And he heard someone singing
a little song. And the song went like this,
I am a great sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my
all in all. And I told him, that's the message
of scripture. But he came back with me and
said, I just need to clean up my life. I need to do these things.
I need to set things in order. I need to get things right. I
need to stop this. I need to start that. Because
we naturally have in us this expectation of a potential. If
things were just right, I could order my life right. But the
characteristic of the righteous is this. The righteous all believe
that they are wicked. And the wicked all believe that
they are righteous. That they have some potential
to do what God ultimately requires of them. And it is God alone
who brings us to that state of the good ground. All of us, naturally,
are those first three grounds. None of us, by nature, is that
fourth ground. All of us, by nature, are Pharisees. All of us, by nature, are the
rocky ground, the wayside ground, the ground that is thorn-choked.
None of us hear the word of God as sinners until God himself
teaches us. until the Lord Jesus Christ sends
His Spirit to open our hearts like Lydia. And the truth of
this gospel becomes the truth of all the truth about the way
things are between us and God. And so Abel's heart was a good
heart because God had given him a heart of flesh. As he says
in Ezekiel chapter 36, I will take away the stony heart and
I will give you a heart of flesh. We just read in John 3 the last
two or three weeks about how Jesus told Nicodemus that which
is born of the flesh is flesh. Cain was born of Adam and Eve. Even though they looked upon
him, they thought, this must be the one. No, he was born of flesh. He could rise no higher than
flesh. He could not produce one thing to make himself acceptable
to God. Nor could he see the kingdom
of God. He couldn't see it because he
thought himself to be righteous. How do we know that Cain thought
himself to be righteous? because of the offering that
he brought. And that's the difference between these two, the righteous
and the wicked. The righteous are those who think
themselves, who believe themselves to be wicked. And because they
see themselves to be wicked, and they believe God to be holy,
they know that they are not acceptable before God. They have reached
the conclusion by the grace of God, which is reached in Romans
3.19. Whatever the law says, it says to those who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped. And all the world
may become guilty before God. You know what Adam must have
told Cain and Abel? He told him about what happened.
God created me upright. He put me in a garden. Everything
was perfect. He gave me a woman and things
were fine. And then I sinned against God. He told his sons about how he
and Eve had tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. And then he
told them about how God judged them. He found no covering in
those fig leaves. He judged them as sinners. But
then God promised. He made a promise about Christ
and Him crucified. And then the Lord clothed them.
It was only by the sacrifice of the innocent lamb or the animal
that was slain in order to put the skins of their clothing on
them that God could receive them. He looked at that sacrifice that
He provided, that He made, and that He clothed them with and
received for them. That's how He received them.
And so Adam taught this and would have preached it to Cain and
Abel. But Cain, like the hard ground,
the Word of God didn't penetrate his heart. So what did he do?
He was a tiller of the ground. There's nothing wrong with being
a farmer. But there is something wrong with expecting to bring
from the labor of my own hands fruit from a cursed ground. And that's what we do. God has
said, that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born
of the Spirit is Spirit. There's nothing that we can bring
from our flesh that God can accept. Nothing. By the deeds of the
law, by our own personal obedience. no flesh shall be justified before
God." And so, though the gospel was preached to these men, only
Abel was given a heart to hear it. And he heard it as a sinner,
and Cain hardened his heart." We know this because this is
the story that unfolds throughout all scripture about these two
kinds of men. These two men are every kind
of men. And there's only two, the righteous
and the wicked, those who hear the gospel by the grace of God
and see Christ crucified as all of their salvation. Because they're
sinners, they come to God through Christ alone. And that's the
message here about these two men. There's nothing wrong with being
a farmer, and there's nothing honorable about being a sheep
keeper. But notice that in these two
vocations that they had by providence, God foreshadows and teaches us
the way that lent itself to Cain's propensity, which is the propensity
of every natural man, to bring something, the fruit from the
cursed ground by the sweat of his brow, to God as an offering. That God would accept him. The
propensity was enhanced by his own vocation as a farmer. He
thought, I'm out here laboring, I'm toiling against the curse
God put on the earth. I'm bringing forth by the sweat
of my brow, look at this fine looking vegetables and fruit
that he labored so hard to have and eat and live upon. And God
himself had to give the increase. Cain toiled, Cain labored and
watered. God must have given the increase.
Cain could have justified it, therefore, saying, God blessed
me with this. I'm bringing only what God blessed
me with. But he had contributed to it.
He had made that his confidence. He came to God presuming that
God would accept him by his own offering, by the offering of
his labors. But Abel didn't do that. It says here, in the process
of time, verse 3, It came to pass that Cain brought of the
fruit of the ground an offering to 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." God had respect. He had respect unto
Abel and to his offering. That's amazing, isn't it? The
God of heaven had respect? to the man and his offering. Remember what Jesus said about
the publican when he cried, God, be merciful. Look upon the sacrifice
and be propitious to me. Receive me for the sake of that
satisfaction to your justice, which you've provided in that
sacrifice. Be propitious to me, the sinner. And Jesus said, he
went down to his house righteous, justified, not like the other. And here God has respect unto
Abel and to his offering. What does it take for God to
take regard and have respect unto an offering and a man? It takes an infinite thing of
infinite value, doesn't it? to make God take notice and have
respect unto Abel and to his offering? Why would God have
respect unto this? It was an offering in blood.
An offering in blood. Remember, God is the one who
required it. And God is the one who provided
it. Abel was a keeper of the sheep. Yes, he led them to the
grass, the pastures, and the water, and so forth. But all
he could do was observe what God did with the sheep. And then
he took of the firstlings, the best of his flock, the innocent
lamb. And he took that lamb and offered
it, shed its blood. But why did Abel do this? What
moved him? Well, he had heard the gospel,
undoubtedly, from Adam. But look at Hebrews chapter 11.
Hebrews chapter 11 teaches us, by the inspiration of the Spirit
of God, exactly what happened here. It says in Hebrews chapter
11 verse 4, By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice
than Cain, by the which he obtained witness that he was righteous,
God testifying of his gifts, and by it he, being dead, yet
speaketh." That's amazing, isn't it? Why did God, why did Abel
offer to God a sacrifice? By faith. He heard the word of
God, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
And hearing about Christ, hearing about his sin-atoning blood,
and his justifying obedience, his righteousness for sinners
through his father Adam, who had received that message from
God in the skins God clothed them with to hide their sin and
their shame and to give them a standing before God that God
could accept. He heard that gospel and he believed
it and therefore he offered unto God a Lamb which foreshadowed
and declared his trust in Christ, the Lamb of God. And God says
here, by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice
than Cain. A more excellent sacrifice. What
was it that caused God to take respect to Abel and to his sacrifice? Because it was a more excellent
sacrifice. But how was his sacrifice more
excellent? Well, it was a sacrifice in blood.
It was a sacrifice of a substitution. A sacrifice of sin charged to
the Lamb that was Abel's sin, and the sacrifice accepted, credited
to Abel who offered it. And in this we see the gospel
so clearly revealed. These two men, one righteous,
one wicked, and it teaches us how Abel became righteous before
God. It was through the sacrifice. Through the sacrifice. Look at
2 Corinthians, chapter 5. This is the explanation of it
all, right here, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Sometimes I wonder,
does the Word of God actually teach that I, a sinner, can come
before God and be accepted by Him as righteous as his son,
without sin, by the blood of Christ? Does it actually teach
that? I want to know, is it true that God receives me for what
he thinks of his son? Or does he also look for something
in me? In verse 21, 2 Corinthians chapter
5, But God hath made him, Christ, to be sin for us, he who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. This is the great exchange. This
is the great substitution. Christ stood before God like
Judah stood before Joseph in that Old Testament account on
behalf of Benjamin. And Joseph charged Benjamin with
all the accusations of stealing his cup and so on. And Judah
stood before Joseph and answered for Benjamin with himself. I
was surety for him. And he substituted himself to
Joseph, the governor, to receive from him all that the governor
charged Benjamin with. And here the Lord Jesus Christ
was made sin for us. It wasn't like God pretended
he was a sinner and then killed his son. God actually really
made him to be sin for his people. All of their sin and their sins
were charged to Him. They were taken from them like
the high priest in Leviticus 16. He laid his hands on the
head of that substitutionary goat and he confessed over the
head of that goat all the sins of Israel. And so God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, confessed on himself. He confessed in Psalm 31 and
Psalm 38 and Psalm 40, throughout Scripture, the sins of his people.
And he called them, mine iniquities. Mine iniquities have gone over
my head like a heavy burden. Too many innumerable iniquities. It's all because he was made
sin. He was really and actually made
sin. God would not have killed his
son if he were not really a sinner. If he had not been charged with
sin so that it became his. The wages of sin is death. There's no death where there's
no sin. And so Christ died because he was really made a sinner.
Never was there a death in history that was more deserved than the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was made sin. But the design
of that was that by design, because God laid the sins of his people
on Christ, and it pleased God to do that, it pleased God to
bruise him because he received full satisfaction, from Him,
therefore they are made the righteousness of God in Him." His obedience
was an obedience of submission in death. Look at Philippians
chapter 2. I want you to see this. This
Philippians chapter 2 describes the obedience that Christ rendered
to God. He says in chapter 2 verse 6,
Philippians 2, verse 6, the Lord Jesus Christ, who being in the
form of God, all that God is, Christ, is as God, he thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, because he was God, it wasn't
robbery, but he made himself of no reputation. It was a willing
submission, a willing humiliation. And he took upon him the form
of a servant. Everything that a servant is,
Christ became. He served His people. He says,
He came to give His life a ransom for many. And He was made in
the likeness of men. Everything that a man is, Christ
was made, except sin. And being found in fashion as
a man, He humbled Himself. Now that's a big statement, isn't
it? There's nothing a sinner will do like that. Christ humbled
himself. He who is the Lord of glory stepped
out of heaven, laid aside his reputation as God, and took upon
him the form of a servant as man. And, listen to this, and
he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
That's the obedience 2 Corinthians 5 is talking about. He was made
sin. It was an obedience on his part
to be made sin. It was obedience on his part
to suffer and to die. And that obedience not only brought
satisfaction to God's justice, but fulfilled all of God's law
so that we who were in Christ were made the righteousness of
God in Him. Just as Christ was really made
sin, just as He was really punished with death for the sins made
His, so we are really made righteous by the obedience that He fulfilled. And this is amazing when God
says that in Hebrews chapter 11, Where it says, That's amazing. By the sacrifice
he offered, God said Abel is righteous. What virtue did Abel
have in the sacrifice? Nothing. God provided it. God required it. God accepted
it. It was all God's doing. He just
simply took that lamb from the flock, looked to Christ, plunged
the knife into that lamb, the blood was shed, and he burnt
that lamb. Because that's what happened
to Christ. God took his son, that son whom he loved, just
like Abraham took Isaac, the son that he loved. And he plunged
the sword of his justice into his son. And he received the
satisfaction in doing so. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. His law was magnified, His justice satisfied, and His people
justified. That's what the Lord did. He
was made righteous by the sacrifice, the obedience of Christ. God
testifying of His gifts. God didn't say, look, look. Abel
made a decision. Abel made a commitment. Abel
did this, Abel did that. God testified of his gifts, it
says here in Hebrews 11, 4. And by it, by his gift, by his
sacrifice, he being dead, by God's testimony of his sacrifice,
he being dead, yet speaketh. That's amazing, isn't it? A real
righteousness because a real substitute bore our sins really. You see, Abel... knew that he
was a sinner. He knew that he could not come
to God because God is holy. And he knew the only way he could
come is if God provided the way, the truth, and the life. If God
made satisfaction, if God found a way to be righteous and forgive
his sins. He knew that he had to be saved
by a satisfaction made by another. And that's what faith does. Faith
looks to Christ. We don't offer a sacrifice, do
we? We don't offer the Lord Jesus Christ. I know the Catholics
do that. The little wafer and stuff, they
say, this is the body of Jesus, and this cup, this is the blood
of Jesus, and it really is His body, and I'm going to offer
Him again. That's blasphemy. God offered His Son. And it happened
once. He offered Himself to God. Turn
with me to Hebrews chapter 7. And then chapter 9 as well. Hebrews chapter 7. I want you
to see these words here. Hebrews chapter 7. He says in
verse 22, By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. And I mentioned what a surety
is. Just like Judah stood before Joseph. But look at verse 27.
In verse 26 he says, "...for such a high priest became us
who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those high
priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then
for the people's. For this he did once, when he
offered up himself." Christ answered God with Himself for His people. Look at chapter 9, verse 24,
Hebrews 9, 24. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with blood of others. For then he must often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now, once in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself." We don't offer Christ. Christ offered Himself. God received
the offering of Christ and in that offering declared His people
to be righteous. Faith sees that. Faith is the
persuasion of it, and faith comes to God by that alone. Abel was
convinced he was a sinner. Abel was convinced he could come
to God by no other way than the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the
offering he gave. Faith looked away from the offering
to Christ, and that was the more excellent sacrifice. It was the
sacrifice that God looked upon and testified of Abel. He's righteous. Notice how God put it here in
Genesis 4, verse 4. The Lord had respect unto Abel
and to his offering. There's no separation between
the offering and the offerer. The one who offers and the offering
are considered as one. Abel offered, God received the
sacrifice, and He received Abel. He had respect unto Abel. He
said Abel was righteous. It was the offering that God
had respect unto. But in respecting the offering,
He respected Abel also. Just like when Cain offered the
works of his own hands, God had no respect to that. And therefore,
He had no respect to Cain. Remember in Matthew chapter 7,
at the last day, how God speaks about, the Lord Jesus speaks
about how all the people will be gathered before him. And many
will say in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy
name? Haven't we done many wonderful works? And we cast out devils in your
name. And the Lord Jesus will say to them, Depart from me,
I never knew you." Because they trusted in all the things that
they did, even though those things were done by the help of God. They trusted in it. Instead of
looking to Christ, Cain trusted in his work. He brought forth
fruit from the ground. He labored to bring forth that
fruit. God never required the fruit.
There was no blood in it. God is holy. He must have blood. It says in Hebrews 9.22, by the
shedding of blood, and without the shedding of blood there is
no remission of sins. God must be compensated. Justice
must be satisfied. It must receive its due. And
so God required the Lord Jesus to die. He required it. Would
God have killed his son if there was another way? No, God required
it, and God did it, and therefore it pleased God. It was the right
thing to do, the only way, the only truth by which God could
save His people. But look at Genesis chapter 4.
In verse 5, But unto Cain and to his offering he had no respect. Have you ever been shown no respect
by somebody? You feel insulted, don't you?
That's exactly what happened here with Cain. I don't know
what it was that God didn't do to show respect to Cain. I don't
know how he knew that, but he knew it. He had no respect to
Cain and no respect to his offering. I'm sure it was the most beautiful
thing compared to that bloody mess that Abel offered. But God
had no respect to it. How often have you heard men
say, how could God judge those who come with such sincerity? I mean, these people out here
who don't know Christ, who do what they do, they do it with
sincerity. Can't God accept that? If He
could have, He would never have offered His Son. He had no respect to Cain. God
is holy. We can't understand that, can
we? How holy God is. God will not accept sinners. He will not accept sinners. He only accepts His Son. That's the message here. Two
men, the righteous and the wicked. The righteous believe they're
wicked. The wicked believe they're righteous.
Because the righteous believe they're wicked, they come to
God through Christ alone. Because the wicked believe they're
righteous, they don't come to God. Or they come through their
own works. And God has no respect for it.
God cannot accept the very best that man can do because it's
full of sin. Out of the heart of man comes
wickedness. That's what Jesus said in Mark
7. And so God could not respect. If God could have accepted Cain's
offering, what would that say about all that God, before the
foundation of the world, the Lamb of God was slain? What would
it say about God and His justice, if God could have accepted Cain?
God can't lower the standard. He's not a respecter of persons,
and He will not accept the best that we can do. And yet this
is the very teaching of false religion. You see these two boys?
Those two men and their offerings represent all of false religion
and the true gospel. The work of God versus the work
of man. The grace of God versus the works
of men. It's all about this. This is
what it's teaching here. In the very outset of scripture, God
sets in contrast works and grace. Works is how I come to God by
something I do, no matter how small or insignificant it may
seem. Just something I do. Just give me a prayer. Just say
this prayer and everything will be okay. Make a decision. Take
a card. Raise your hand. Come forward.
Have an experience. Feel something. Come on. Bring up some sincerity. Show
some sorrow and tears. Bring your repentance. Bring
your faith. Bring something. No, I don't have anything. That's
the point. That's the whole message of scripture.
You are a sinner. You're damned. And God must step
in and save you by condemning his son. And so Cain couldn't
accept that. He thought he had, he presumed,
God must accept me. Man, I've been laboring. Who
knows how long he labored for what he brought to the Lord.
Months, perhaps years, and here it is, all propped up and prettied
up and maimed up to look nice. And God had no respect to it. The very best we do is filthy
rags in God's sight. You come dressed in your filthy
rags to the Lord when God's Son stands with the only righteousness
God accepts. And so God had no respect to
Cain and to his offering, and God will have no respect to you
on the Day of Judgment when He asks you for an answer, and you
come with something that you did, even if you did it by the
grace of God. He will have no respect. God
only receives Christ. We need to understand that, and
we need to be convinced of it in our heart, and come to Him. In verse 6, Because Cain was angry at God
and at everybody. He was angry at Abel. And his
countenance fell. He showed it on his face. He
couldn't hide it. The Lord said to Cain, Why are
you angry? Why are you wroth? Why are you
wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen? But look how gracious God is
here. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? If you
bring the sacrifice, if you come by Christ alone, won't you be
accepted? And yet you have despised the
blood of Christ by bringing your own offering. He says, won't you be accepted?
And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. What is sin?
It's the rejecting of God's Son. What is righteousness? It's looking
to Christ. God doesn't look to the looking.
He looks to the one to whom we look. This is so fundamental. We saw it in John chapter 3.
Men take John chapter 3 and all of the scripture and they say,
let's turn it into a recipe and a process. And when we're done,
we'll ask you to look back at what you did in order to trust
in something of your own. Introspect, look a little inside,
look at that moment in time when you felt something, had an experience. That will be the ground of your
future confidence. It's all just empty. It's vain. Only what Christ did
will stand. That's the only rock on which
we can stand. God says, why are you wroth? Why are you wroth? If God is holy, you know what
Cain thought? He thought that he was righteous
enough to sit in judgment on God. God is unfair to me. He didn't accept me. He didn't
accept my sacrifice. Isn't that what we do as sinners?
We become angry because we feel the guilt of our sin and we can't
find a way out. And we think, we trust in ourselves,
we think of something and then we find that God can't accept
it and it makes us angry. And we get dejected and depressed.
Why are you off? God's the one who's offended
here. You have no interest in God's holiness. We need to be
humbled, don't we? We need to come and say, Lord,
have mercy upon me, the sinner. Why are you wroth? Why has your
countenance fallen? If you do well, shall you not
be accepted? And if you don't do well, sin
lies at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire,
and thou shalt rule over him." I think this has reference to
the fact that Cain was the firstborn, wasn't he? He was the firstborn. Therefore, like all the Jews,
and like Esau, and Ishmael, and all these others, they thought,
well, I have the right of the firstborn. God obviously must
favor me. No, Jesus said, that which is
born of the flesh is flesh. It's not the children of the
flesh that are the children of promise. It's not the children
of the flesh that are the children of God. It's the children of
promise. Those God has given grace to. Not Esau, but Jacob. Not Ishmael, but Isaac. Not Adam, but Christ. Not the
self-righteous, but the harlots and the publicans. The first
are made last, and the last are made first. This is the whole
explanation of scripture. Those who work at the end of
the day for only one hour are given the same thing that those
who work the whole day and those who work the whole day complain.
We work the whole day. Why are you given these the same
that we have? Is your eye evil because I'm
good? Men hate free grace. Because free grace says their
works are worth nothing. And they must receive everything
from God. That's what grace is. How we
need to fall on our face and say, Lord help me, a sinner.
Never come to you by anything but what you find in your Son.
And so coming, know that in Him alone I'm accepted. And so Cain
would have thought that he had the right of the firstborn and
therefore he had the privileges. He should be having the favor
of God, the blessings of God. He brings this stuff. He presumes
upon everything that he is and what he brought. And on his relationship
to his brother in terms of when he was born, he had all the blessings
of the firstborn. His mom even gave him this fine
name, Cain. Possession. Gotten of the Lord. Acquired of God. Compared to
this man whose name means vanity and just a short life. And so
Cain trusted in himself that he was righteous, trusted in
his birth. But all these things the Lord says, if you do well,
won't you be accepted? Look at Romans chapter 11. Romans
chapter 11. The Lord says this in Romans
11 about the Jews. He compares the Jews, the national
Jews, to the olive branches. Naturally, they were part of
the olive tree. Outwardly, they were part of
the nation of Israel. And it looked like they were
the ones God favored. But here he says in verse 23.
He says... Verse 22 says... Back up, sorry. Verse 20, well, because of unbelief
they were broken off. Why were the people who were
in the natural part of Jews rejected? Because of unbelief. And thou
standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear.
For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he
also spare not thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness
and severity of God on them which fell severity, but toward thee
goodness, if thou continue in his goodness." In other words,
if you look to Christ, and if he's your only hope, then you'll
continue looking to him. It's not a matter of if a believer
continues to believe, but it is a matter of his faith is the
evidence that he has been given grace by God, and he will continue
in it. Otherwise thou also shall be
cut off, and they also, if they abide not still in unbelief..."
This is the verse I wanted to get to. "...if they abide not
still in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able to graft
them in again." Cain, if you do well, won't you be accepted?
And so the gospel was preached to the Jews as well as to the
Gentiles. And the Jews, for the most part,
were like those who stumbled on the stumbling stone. And Jesus
said in Matthew 21, He says, "...the stumbling stone was set
up as a rock of offense, all who fall on it who are humbled
by the preaching of the gospel." They'll be broken, but those
on whom that stone falls, they'll be ground to powder. And so Cain
was like them. He says, if you do well, you'll
be accepted. If not, sin lies at the door. Sin is the rejection
of Christ and holding to my own wicked works as the basis of
coming to God, something that I am. And unto thee shall be
his desire. If he looks to Christ, then what
he received in blessing as the firstborn, that blessing would
be given to him. And Abel would actually be his
younger brother. And Cain would rule over him. But not if he tries to come to
God in some other way. And so it happened in verse 8.
Cain rejected all that God said. He was angry. He envied his brother. And envy is a bad thing, isn't
it? Envy. It's like the bitter root
of envy. It rises up in us. It's so dominating
that we can't control it. It rises up and this is what
happened to Cain. He saw his brother Abel was accepted
by God. He assumed that he was accepted
because his works were better. But it wasn't that. It's what
God thought of Christ. Abel just simply looked to Christ
as a sinner. The Pharisees looked at the harlots
and publicans and they were offended that Christ should receive them.
And so 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 he killed him. And that's the story of history.
The wicked, who trust in their righteousness, rise up in false
religion and they murder They murder those they see are the
Lord's people. They hate them. They killed the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look at John chapter 15. This
is the last verse I'll take you to. John chapter 15. Listen to
these words of the Lord Jesus. Beginning at verse 17 of John
chapter 15. He says this. These things, Jesus tells his
disciples, John 15-17, these things I command you that you
love one another. If the world hate you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. Abel was hated by Cain. The Lord Jesus Christ was actually
hated before that. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hates you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have
kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things
they will do unto you for my name's sake, because they know
not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken
unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for
their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my
father also. If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, they had not had sin, but
now they have both seen and hated, both me and my father. But this
cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written
in their law, they hated me without a cause. And now look at Titus
chapter 3. I want you to see one more verse.
Titus chapter 3. I know, I said that would be
the last one. I lied. It's a terrible thing. Titus
chapter 3, verse 3. For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish. Disobedient, deceived, serving
divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and
hating one another. This is Abel before the Lord
saved him. Listen, but after that, the kindness
and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy
He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost. Which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ, our Savior. The Spirit of God is given to
us because Christ redeemed us by His blood. Verse 7. That being
justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. That's the story. You see it,
two men. Two offerings. In those two men
we see every man. And in those two offerings we
see every religion. We see the gospel in Christ crucified. And we see all the works of man. The murderer and the martyr.
And here we see the kingdom of Satan and the children of that
kingdom. Always trying to kill Christ and His people. And this
is the story of history. And this is the story that God
will unfold at the end of time, which he foretold here in these
two men, Cain and Abel. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we pray
that you would apply to our hearts this mercy, that you would convert
us, cause us to see our sin, and see the Lord Jesus Christ.
As you told Nicodemus, dear Savior, we pray that you would cause
us to look away to you, who were lifted up on the pole, God that
cross, God receiving from you full satisfaction and fulfillment
of his law in your death, because only you were worthy, only you
could bear that sin, only you could fulfill that law, only
you could save us from our sins. Lord, we look to you and we ask,
like the publican, God, receive us for Christ's sake alone. In
Jesus' name we pray, amen.