All right, let's go back to Hebrews
11. Hebrews chapter 11. Let's read verses 1 and 2 again.
Hebrews 11, verses 1 and 2. Now, faith is substance. That is the ground, the confidence
of things hopeful, things that those who believe, hope for. Faith is the ground of that. And it's the evidence of things
not seen. Faith itself is evidence of the
unseen God, the unseen Christ, of eternal things. For by faith,
by it, the elders, that is those before us, obtained a good report. They obtained a good report.
Now, we believe Paul wrote this, but
what the scriptures are saying is that these who believe, those
who believe that we read some of those names, sixteen names
are given in this chapter, they all obtained a good report by
faith. evidence, it was evident that
they believed because of faith. It was evident that they were
believers, that they were God's people. They obtained a good
report. We're going to read about the
report. We're going to read the reports of these various ones
by faith. What is faith? Very simply, the definition of
faith means to believe. Faith is belief or confidence
or trust in someone or something. Now, Bible faith, saving faith,
is belief, confidence, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Very simply. That's what faith
is. Faith is not faith in yourself.
Faith is not faith in your faith. Faith is not faith in an experience. Faith in a feeling. Faith is
in a person. Faith and belief, trust, confidence
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is and what He did, where
He is now. Very simply. Now, you just heard
the gospel. by faith. What is faith? Faith believes God is God. Look
at verse 6. It says, without faith it's impossible
to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. Must believe he is God. That's
very simple, isn't it? You know, most people really
don't believe he's God. They really don't. Most people
say things like this, let God be God. Someone who says that doesn't
know the God of the Bible. If he's God, you don't let him
do anything. Right? You come to God, anybody who
comes to worship to know, to be saved by, to understand the
living God must believe he is. Not that he exists. Everybody
says, I believe in God. No, you believe He is God. You
believe God is God, what the Scripture says about Him, holy,
just, sovereign, merciful, gracious, loving, in whose hands your breath is,
who does according to His will, not yours, not mine. He does
according to His will. If you believe God is God, you
say that thy will be done. You don't argue. You don't say,
I don't like that. You believe. He that cometh to
God believes He is. He that cometh to God believes
God's Word. What must a person believe in
God's Word to be a believer? Everything. But I don't like
Romans 9. Then you're not a believer. Those who come to God believe
His Word. They believe it's God's Word, and therefore it's not
up for debate. It's not up for argument. And
everything in it is true. Those who believe God believe
God's Son. God said it. This is my Son. Hear Him. Salvation is in my
Son. Those who believe, faith is in
Christ. Christ alone. That's what it
means to believe. That's what faith is in a nutshell. Believe God and bow to Him. Believe God's
Word and believe God's Son as your only hope of salvation.
That's faith. By faith, by faith. Now, every
one of these Old Testament persons, every one of them believed. They
believed God was God. They had no doubt in their mind.
You'll not hear any of them using these flippant terms about God.
They knew He was God. They were in His hands. They
all believed God's Word, whatever God said, they believed. Not
understanding, not knowing completely what He was doing, but they believed. And they believed God's Son. Though they didn't know His name
was Jesus, they believed He was coming. and that he was their
salvation. Yes, sir. Every one of them.
We're going to see that from the very first man, Abel. They believed. Believed God. All right? By faith,
it says, verse 4, Abel. There's the first person mentioned.
By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain, his brother. By which, by faith, he obtained
witness. By the sacrifice he brought,
he obtained witness. A good report. that he was righteous
by faith. He was righteous. God testified
of what he brought. And by it, he being dead, yet
speaking. Here it is six thousand some
odd years later, we're talking about him. His story is going
to speak to us this morning. This is the story of Abel. Turn
with me to Genesis chapter 4. The book of Genesis is the story
of Cain and his brother Abel, of which nearly everyone has
heard or read, but very few understand. Very few. Now, I hope you are
listening carefully. I hope God will give you an attentive
mind, but more importantly, a receptive heart, because in this story
In this story, you'll find the key to all religions. Are you
with me? It's fitting that we begin here.
It's fitting that God's Word begins with Abel. Abel was the
first human being to die. Abel was the first human being
to die, and he died in faith. God accepted him. He's with God
now. How? It's fitting, isn't it? And you'll
find, we're going to find in this story, from the very beginning,
that's what Genesis means, beginning. We're going to find all the religions
of the world in two boys, two young men, Canaanite. It's the
key to it all. That's why God wrote this book,
Genesis, in the beginning. They were two sons. And all the
wordle comes from these two. All right? Vital. This is important. All right,
Abel died in faith and because of his faith. He was the first
martyr. The first person who died was
killed because of what he believed. That's interesting, isn't it?
All right, we're going to find two religions, the religion of
Cain and the religion of Abel. That's what we're going to find
here, Cain and Abel. All right, let's read verses
1 and 2 of Genesis 4. 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. Now, for those who are
listening very carefully, for those who understand, here is
a little sermon within a sermon. From the beginning here, God
Almighty establishes the elder is going to serve the younger.
From the beginning here, God Almighty establishes that the
firstborn is really going to serve the second. The firstborn
is a tiller of the ground. of the earth, earthy. The second,
a keeper of sheep. For those of you who know and
understand this, Christ is called the second Adam, Adam the firstborn
man, Christ the second Adam from above. The first is of the earth,
earthy, tiller of the ground. The second is a keeper of sheep. The second died at the hands
of the first, but the first is going to serve the second. Here's
your little message, Stan. That one's free. In Adam all
died, but in Christ all made alive. Everybody who has the
faith of Abel is going to be made alive. Everybody who dies
with Cain's religion is going to die with him. Now, there's
nothing wrong with being a tiller of the ground, a farmer. That's
an honorable vocation. It's not by faith in Christ,
in God. Is that right? Whatsoever is
not of faith is sin. The Scripture says even the plowing
of the wicked is evil in the sight of the Lord. There's somebody
out there right now putting up hay. That's a good thing. It's
an honorable thing, isn't it? They're not worshiping God. So,
there's a difference. Right? Right there is a difference. Cain brought the fruit of the
ground. Verse 3, in the process of time, it says, it came to
pass, Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto
the Lord. But Abel, verse 4, Abel, he also
brought of the firstling of his flock, that is sheep, and of
the fat thereof. That is, he killed one of them.
He killed this firstborn of the sheep. It was a first-born lamb
he killed and brought the blood. That's why it says fat there. It means he shed the blood of
this animal and burnt the carcass of it on an altar. And the Lord had respect unto
Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and his offering,
verse 5, he had not respect. All right, Cain brought of the
fruit of the ground. Abel brought a lamb. Here's two
sons of Adam. All right, both of these are
the sons of Adam. Stay with me. I hope you're listening. If you've
never heard this before, this will be very enlightening. All
religions are found in Cain or Abel. Two sons of Adam, now probably
both of these young men are in their twenties, maybe their thirties.
They may be married. There's nothing to tell us that
they're not married with families. They may be older than that.
Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years. These young men could
be a hundred, two hundred years old. It doesn't say. They could
have had many brothers and sisters by this time. Probably did. I'm
sure they did. All right? Cain and Abel were
taught by their father. Both of these young men were
taught by their father to worship God. Right? Because they came. This is a time they both came
to worship God. Did they not? Adam told both
of these boys, it's a good thing to worship the Lord. We're made
by Him. He's our Creator. We're to worship
Him. Both of these sons, I am certain,
From small children were taught by Adam and Eve. From small children
they were taught the story of the fall. Both of them were taught
by Adam and Eve what happened in the garden. You know they
did. Adam and Eve told those two boys,
we were innocent. We were holy. But we rebelled
against God. We exerted our own free will
against God. We rebelled against God. And
we became sinful. We weren't before until we lifted
ourselves up against God. Unbelief. We didn't believe God.
We went our own way. And God cast us out of His holy
presence, and we became full of sin. And you boys are born
sinners. You come forth from the womb
speaking lies, just like your daddy and your mama. And we're
trying our best to keep you from lying, trying our best to keep
you from stealing, trying our best to keep you from killing. But it's in you. It's sin in
you because of us, because of this fall. You know they're telling
that. And Adam and Eve taught these
two boys God's promise, God's Word. But, Cain, son, Adam said,
God told us, though we sinned against Him, and God should have
killed us. God told us about His angels
that rebelled against Him, and God cast them out and put them
in chains. God told us that. And they're
right now reserved in the everlasting chains of darkness until the
day of judgment. That's what God told us. And
we did the same thing that they did. But God, King, but God is
merciful. And God, God determined to save
us. God determined to save a people.
This thing's going to go on. Mankind's going to go on. But
there's only, the only way, the only way he can do it is, is
justice be satisfied. He's got to punish us like he
did those, those angels. We sin, we come short of the
glory of God. We sin, we rebel. The soul that
sinneth must surely die. And God told us about somebody's
coming. In Genesis 3, verse 15, it's
written, somebody's coming. He said something about the woman's
seed. A woman is going to have a son. A woman, at some point, sometime,
is going to have a son. He's going to come from God and
he's going to put our sins away. We're not completely, we don't
completely understand. It's all a mystery way in the
future, but God told us that this woman's seed, whoever he
is, is coming from God to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself forever, once and for all. And God told us to bring
a lamb because this son, this seed, is going to be like a lamb. We don't understand it, but this
is what God said. He's going to be like a lamb.
He's going to be the firstborn. He's going to be without spot
or blemish. Now Cain, Abel, you bring a lamb without spot, without
blemish, the firstling, a male, firstborn. You bring a lamb without
spot and slit his throat. Somehow this lamb of God, this
seed of God, this Christ of God is coming and God's going to
kill him. pour out his blood, and this
is going to put away our sin. He's going to suffer the innocent
for the guilty, because that's what God did in the garden. Listen
to me, Cain. Listen to me, Abel. This is what
Adam is saying to his sons. This is what Eve is saying to
the boys. When we were in that garden,
before God kicked us out of His prison, we saw Him kill a lamb.
We didn't know what He was doing. We were naked. We were standing
there trying to hide our nakedness with the fig leaves we'd made,
and it didn't work. We were still guilty and ashamed.
But God, but God, we saw Him kill a lamb. We'd never seen
blood before. We'd never seen death before. We saw God kill
this innocent, lovely, altogether lovely, spotless, beautiful lamb
right in front of our eyes. We were horrified by it. It was
a terrible sight. But God slit His throat, skinned
Him, and put that skin around us. And we felt covered! Listen
to me, Cain. Listen to me, Abel. Somehow this represents God's
Lamb, the seed of woman who's coming and going to cover us.
Going to cover us somehow, our nakedness, before this holy,
just, and righteous God so that He won't kill us. Now listen,
boys. You bring a light. You bring
blood. Don't bring anything else. That's
the only thing God will accept. What God has provided. What God
has done. It's your only hope for God to
accept you. You can't come into His holy
presence without blood. They both heard this. You hear
that? They both heard it, Cain and
Abel. How do you think that Abel knew to bring blood? And Cain
heard it. But what did Cain do? What did
Cain do? Well, here's what he did. Cain,
it says, bought of the fruit of the ground. He bought of the
fruit of the ground. Cain was proud of his garden.
Cain had a little garden. Any of you gardeners out there?
I have a little garden. Kind of proud of it. Except when
the weeds take it over and then I turn it over to Mindy. I call
it her garden. I have a little garden. I'm proud of it. You are too. We're proud of things we do,
aren't we? He was proud of his garden. He
was proud of all the labor he put into it. With the sweat of
his brow, he worked hard. He produced a beautiful garden.
He produced. He was proud of what he had produced.
Cain thought, now that blood that God told us about, that
may be so, but it's just such a messy. That's awful. I don't
think an innocent lamb should be. That's just a horrible thing. There Abel is over there slaying
that. That's too messy. That's too
bloody. That's too old-fashioned. I think God will be pleased with
this. So he, I'm sure, I'm quite sure that Cain set up an elaborate
table. He made him a table. He made
him an altar and a display on that altar. He brought the best
fruit out of his trees, the best vegetables out of his garden,
the best that he had to offer. He brought to God the best thing
he grew in his garden. And he thought, God's going to
be pleased with this. He brought the first fruit. Yeah,
he did. Look what I brought. And I'm
quite sure he thought, God is going to be pleased with this.
Look what I brought. I've sacrificed the very best
out of my garden, the biggest tomatoes, the biggest watermelons.
God's going to be pleased with my sacrifice. But it says in verse 5, unto
Cain and his offering, God had not respect. God turned. Now people, here's a little interesting
thing to consider. If you read this for yourself
throughout this story, you'll see the Lord talking to these
young men, the Lord talking to them. And in Proverbs 8, it talks about
Christ being the wisdom of God whose, it says, his delight was to dwell in the habitable parts
of the earth with the sons of men. I believe, now I don't want to
sidetrack you here, but this is a good thought. I believe
Jesus Christ was in that garden walking around talking to his
people. I do. When the voice of God came
walking in the garden, God's Spirit, God came walking. The voice of God, the Word of
God came walking. I believe that was Jesus Christ.
The Lord came walking, talking. Adam, where are you? What have
you done? I believe the Lord was talking
and He made appearances. I believe that. Nothing to say
that it's not so. But it's said that the Lord had
no respect. If he was there, somehow or another,
the Lord, the Lord God, didn't even look at that altar. Somehow
or another, the Lord God, Cain knew that the Lord God didn't
even notice his altar. Didn't even look at it. Turned
his back on it. wouldn't pay any attention to
it. Didn't say anything to Cain about it. Snubbed it. Ignored it. Refused it. He says, Cain got wroth. At who? Whose Cain mad at? God. Look at it. Verse 5. Cain was
very wroth and his countenance fell. I've seen that on the faces
of people I've preached to and people I've talked to, and you
too, people you speak to. When you declare the truth and
how that man's righteousness, like Isaiah said, are filthy
rags, that the best we can do, God won't accept it. When you
say that, when you tell people that you can go to church all
your life and quit this and quit that and be the best you can
be, God's not going to accept that. And you can see their countenance
fall. And they're wroth. At who? At
God. At God. Cain was mad at God.
He's going to take it out on somebody, though. He's going to take it out on
somebody. He's going to take it out on the fellow who believes
like God. Well, Cain bought his produce,
and God rejected it. And God, look at what God said
to Cain, verse 6 and 7. The Lord said to Cain, Why art
thou wroth? Why has thou countenance fallen? Verse 7, If thou doest well,
shalt thou not be accepted? What does he mean, do well? If
you're a good boy, you'll be accepted. Is that what? If you'll
do what Abel did, if you'll bring what Abel brought, if you'll
believe what I told you to believe, what your mother and father taught
you, if you'll believe the truth, if you'll bring what I told you
to bring, you'll be accepted. One time the Pharisees said,
what may we do to do the works of God? Remember that? They came
to Christ and they said, what may we do? We want to do the
works of God. We want to serve the Lord. What
did Christ say? If thou do us well. Cain, you'll
be accepted. And men asked that question,
what may we do? This is what Jesus Christ said
to those people. He said, this is the work of
God, that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. Cain, if you
do well, if you bring blood, you'll be accepted. If you come
by faith, without faith it's impossible to please God. But
he that cometh to God must believe He is, must believe His Word. Must believe his son. Must bring
blood. If you do well, you'll be accepted.
Bring blood, you'll be accepted. No matter how sinful you are,
you'll be accepted. And if not, look at this. This
is so revealing, folks. This explains it all. Why does
everybody believe like they believe? Why is this world full of all
these religions? Why do people believe about anything?
They do, don't they? People will believe anything.
They'll fall for any fellow or any woman, no matter how ridiculous,
no matter how obviously fraudulent and perverse these leaders are. People will fall for them. Why?
Genesis 4, verse 7. Look at it. If not, sin lies
at your door. Sin's lying in wait for you.
It's outside the door waiting on you. You're a prey to it. You're going to succumb to it.
You're going to fall for it. If you don't trust Christ, you'll
trust anything. If you don't believe the truth,
you'll believe anything. If you don't believe God, you'll
believe anybody. That's what that says. Sin lies
at your door. I read on, it says, If ye do
well, unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over
him. I believe that's talking about Abel. Because Cain is the
eldest son and Abel is the younger, Abel would be under Cain and
Cain would be an heir. But he didn't. Well, all right. It says in verse 8, verse 8,
look at it. Cain talked with Abel, his brother.
What are they talking about? What do you think Cain and Abel
were talking about? You know what they're talking about. They're
talking about their religion. They're talking about their sacrifices,
what they bought. It says that God had respect
unto Abel. God had respect unto Abel in
his offering, verse 4, but Cain, no respect. And so Cain and Abel
were talking. And I believe it probably went
something like this. I know it did. I know it did.
I've had this discussion with my brother. Cain, why are you mad? You heard the story. You heard
Dad and Mom tell us. You've heard it all our lives.
We heard the truth from boys. God's holy. God's just. And we're full of sin. And our
best deeds are no good to God. God looks on the heart. And we're
full of sin with Him. We know that. We know that from
experience, King. God's angry with the wicked every
day. God was angry with our parents. He didn't kill them. Why? Have
you heard the story about the lamb that was slain and the lamb
covered? You heard Dad tell us and God tell us. I heard it. The only reason,
well, we've got to do what God told us. We've got to bring blood.
Why are you mad, Cain? There's only one way to come
to God. By blood, by faith in the coming
seed of God, by blood. Why are you mad? And Cain said,
don't you talk to me about that. Cain was saved by grace. You see, Abel didn't grow that
lamb. Abel didn't grow that lamb. God
provided that lamb. It was already there. And Abel just brought to God
what God provided for him. What God had done for him. And that's a picture of Christ.
Do you understand? Are you with me? Abel told Cain,
Cain, we're not saved by our works. We're not saved by what
we do for God, trying to please God. It's not good enough. We're
only saved by God's Lamb. by faith in Him. And He has to
give us that faith. The only reason, Cain, that I
brought this lamb is because God, by His grace, brought me
to bring the lamb. Or else I'd be making the same
mistake you're making, Cain. I'd be doing the same thing,
thinking that God's pleased with what I've done and what I am.
But no, He's not. Cain, just bring the blood. Just
like you've got right now. You bring the blood and they'll
accept you. Cain said, don't talk to me about that grace.
I don't want to hear it anymore. And he went back to Owen his
God. Cain, don't get mad at me, buddy.
I'm trying to tell you the truth. I'm just telling you what God
said. I want you to be accepted too,
Cain. Get out of here! I don't like that gospel. Abel died. His blood poured all over the
ground. Why? For believing God. Christ. What a picture of Christ
Abel is, huh? Christ came. Behold, the Son
of God has come unto me, all you that labor and ebullient.
I'll give you rest. I am the way, I am the truth,
I am the life, I am the door, I am the bread, I am the water,
I am the way, I am the righteousness, I am salvation, I am the only
way, not your works of righteousness, but my works that are coming
to me." We don't like that. We like our way. Kill it. Kill it. And his blood poured
all over the ground. He being dead yet speaketh. See, the first man, and Abel,
and you just come believing Christ, looking to Christ and telling
people. Steve, you just tell people. Even your flesh and blood. Even your flesh and blood. You
just tell them. Your brother, your sister. Your mom, your dad. Who's very proud of themselves
and their religion, all their lives. You tell them. That doesn't
count for one thing. That the Muslims are more zealous
than the most zealous Christians. It doesn't account for a thing.
The only reason God accepts one human being is because of the
blood of Jesus Christ. And we're saved by sovereign
grace and grace alone. Tell them. See what happened. Well, so be it. But Abel died
in faith. Now listen to me. You want to
listen to this? This will bless you. Abel died
in faith. Go back to the text real quick,
Hebrews 11. Abel died in faith. Stay with me. By faith, Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. What was
the excellent sacrifice? It's what God provided. By which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. That is, by faith he was righteous.
He didn't do a thing. believe God, and it was counted
unto him for what? Righteousness. God called him
a righteous man. Why? Because of my blood. That's good news. God testifying
of his gifts. There's Abel, my son, in whom
I'm well pleased. How could you? He's a sinner.
He's covered in blood. And he being dead, yet speaketh.
He's dead, his body's dead. His body is completely gone. Dust to the wind now. Six thousand
some years ago. But there's, at this time, listen
to me, this is the first human being that ever died. Listen
to me. Prepare to jump a ditch. There's
one human being in heaven at this point. One human being in
heaven, singing to the top of His lungs. There's nobody else
there but Him. What's He singing? Under Him
that loved me and washed me in His own blood. Oh, how merciful. There's nobody else singing but
Him. Saved by grace alone. One human being. Why is he there? Blood. He's looking at a lamb. There's a lamb on the throne
right there, slain before the foundation of the world. He now
knows, Kelly, he now knows who that Christ is, who that seed
is. He's looking at it. There he
is. I didn't understand it completely. I believed, but I didn't understand.
But there he is now. I understand. I know. I see him. I know now. Oh, I'm saved by
the blood of the crucified one. One human being singing it at
the top of his lungs. To whom? To God. To God be the
glory. Great things he hath done. So
loved he me. He gave his son to purchase by
the blood. Redeemed by one human being.
One man. And when this thing's all over,
everyone that believes like Abel did, everyone that comes like
Abel did, will be with him, singing, at the top of their lungs, unto
him that loved us and washed us from our sins. Well, all the
Cain, the religion of Cain's, you see, every other religion
is its works. It doesn't matter what it's called,
doesn't matter what denomination it is, doesn't matter if it's
called Christian or Muslim, it's man's works, and God won't accept
it. with everybody who comes by faith
into Christ, like Abel, etc. In that fitting that this book
begins that way. All right, let's sing in closing,
number 228, My Faith Has Found a Resting Place. Number 228,
come for the game and let's stand as we sing. And second verses, first two
verses only, 228.