but I'm thankful you aren't missing. And it is a blessed time whenever
we get together for worship. We welcome those who are joining
us by way of the internet. And before we go into the message
this evening and try to deal with those verses that Joe just
read to us, let's ask God's blessing upon the service this evening. Lord, we do consider it a blessed
privilege to meet together in the name of our Savior. Oh, how blessed we are in the
Lord Jesus. In fact, we're blessed with every
spiritual blessing in our Savior. And we thank you for our standing
in Him. We're thankful for the grace
that you gave us in our great surety, even before you made
the world. Lord, You've been so good to
us. You made us the objects of Your
choice. You ordained us unto everlasting
life. You sent Your Son to redeem us. And indeed, he settled the issue
of our redemption and reconciliation by his substitutionary sacrifice
upon the cross of Calvary. And he who laid down his life
for us, he took it up again, and he ever lives to represent
us and to intercede for us. We're so blessed to have a great
High Priest, one who is our mediator, Lord, between us and Thyself. We thank You for the work of
the Spirit of Grace, who has been pleased to cross our paths
with the Gospel, and then to give us life that we might be
repentant of our awful condition of unrighteousness. And Lord,
the Spirit of God has taught us to turn from our empty religious
dead works and to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, by
your grace we rest in the Savior for our acceptance, for our righteousness
before you. And we're so grateful that we're
justified by your grace. We're justified by the bloody
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we ask for those who were
mentioned before that you would minister to them physically,
Lord, if they would be pleasing to you. Indeed, bless them spiritually. Bless them with encouragement
in the gospel. And Lord, may we remember that
though the body may be sick and even grow feeble, Yet in the
Lord Jesus we are made totally whole. We have a great Physician
who has saved us, and in Him we are made the righteousness
of God through His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. Bless
those who are watching this evening, and Lord, minister to each of
them. even as we ask that you administer
to each of us, especially from the Scripture that we're going
to look at this evening. And Lord, may you take away from
us any thought that would distract us from worship, that would interfere
with our study of the Word of God, be it a thought of happiness
and joy or even sorrow and grief, whatever it might be, Lord, would
you prevent those things from creeping into our minds as we
all know that they can do and keep us focused upon our Redeemer
upon the grace of God, upon the reason that we meet together
tonight, which is public worship, the most vital aspect of a believer's
life. Bless those of our congregation
who still feel uneasy about coming out in this unusual climate in
which we find ourselves in this COVID-19 and we miss those who
haven't been who haven't felt comfortable in coming back. We
ask that you would bless them and speak to them and we're so
thankful that for those of us who have been coming Lo, these
several months, Lord, you've been pleased to keep us safe,
and you've kept us all well, and we thank you. We do believe
that you govern all things, and all the germs and the viruses
of this world are directed, Lord, by you and under your sovereign
dominion. And for purposes known to you,
you've been pleased to keep our congregation well. And so we're
very grateful. We don't take for granted the
good health that we enjoy. And we pray that you'll continue
to provide for us and do for us according to your will. And
we bow to you in all things. We recognize that thou art the
God of predestination, and you're the God of providence. And indeed,
you're the God of grace. And so as such, we bow before
you, we humble ourselves, O God, before your mighty throne, and
we worship you through the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. We
ask all of these things in His name and for His sake. Amen. Well, we're getting into the
fourth chapter of the book of Genesis. I must say that last
week at the end of the message I felt like I kind of pushed
in. Something that I should have
dealt with more extensively there in the third chapter, and I want
to give it Do a little more justice to it here even at the beginning
of this message And and that is and you'll remember those
of you who were here last Wednesday evening we dealt with right at
the end I mentioned to you that the Savior and Genesis, the third
chapter, he's shown to be the prophet and the priest and the
king. And I'd like to kind of enlarge
upon that, if I may, because I dealt with that in too hasty
a way, and I ask your forgiveness for that, and the Lord's forgiveness,
because we must never be so brief in remembering that our Lord
Jesus is indeed the prophet of whom Moses spoke in Deuteronomy
chapter 15. And he said, God's going to raise
up a prophet for you according to me, one like unto me. And he says, in him ye shall
hear. You'll remember when our Lord
Jesus was baptized that the father said, this is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased. And then he said, hear ye him. God speaks to us through his
son. He is God's spokesman. And of
course, that's what in the Old Testament a prophet was. He was
a spokesman for God. And God has spoken. God has made
himself. known to us, and He's done that
through His Son, the Lord Jesus. And we see that in Genesis chapter
3, because every expression of God, every word that God spoke
in Genesis chapter 3, and really throughout all the Bible, it's
the Son of God who's speaking, because as we've said so many
times, God deals with us, And he speaks to us, and we deal
with God, and we speak with God through the mediator. And there
is but one mediator, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. So
we see him as the prophet when he speaks to Adam. And he says to the man, he said,
where are you? It's the Lord Jesus speaking
and He speaks to Adam to bring Adam to the realization that
he's lost, he's in a mess. And it's the Word of God, it's
that one who is the very prophet of God to Adam who speaks to
him and stirs him and makes him know and realize the awful situation
in which he found himself. He was in a situation of lostness. He was in a situation of being
without grace. He was in a situation of being
without the righteousness that God created in him and therefore
he had no righteousness at all. It is our Lord Jesus as that
prophet of God who speaks there in Genesis chapter 3 and verse
15. And he refers to himself as being that seed of the woman.
And he foretells that, and he foretells that, because we know
in the Old Testament, a prophet was one who foretold things that
would come to pass. And then a prophet also, he foretold
the things that would come to pass. That is, he preached the
Word of God. And our Lord Jesus in Genesis
chapter three, he is seen as a preacher. and all the grace
that fell from his lips. And as our father Adam and as
our mother, the woman later to be named Eve, the mother of all
living, the name that Adam would give her, as they stood there
trembling before the presence of God, Our Lord Jesus had words
of mercy for them. He spoke to them of grace. He spoke to them of substitution. He spoke to them of forgiveness,
that is, through His sacrifice. So He is Himself, in chapter
3, the Prophet of God. And then, of course, he is the
priest of God, because we see him right toward the end of the
chapter. In fact, in verse 21 of chapter
3, we see him as the priest of God. He is offering to God the
offering that God demanded for sin. The Lord had already said
that to Adam in the day ether of, you'll surely die. And now
here's the priest of God. Here's our Lord Jesus ministering
to God on the behalf of Adam and Eve and offering a sacrifice,
offering and offering unto God. He is the true high priest who
deals with God on their behalf. even as he did for us at the
cross of Calvary. He was our high priest who offered
to God the sacrifice that put away our sins, and he himself
was the sacrifice. He is the priest. And then we
see him in the third chapter of Genesis also as the king.
He is the king who has dominion over all things. Therefore, he
speaks a curse to the serpent. All the animals belong to him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion. Everything was under
his rule, even as everything's under his rule now. All things
were under his government then, all things are under his government
now. And so he pronounces a curse
upon the serpent, and then he pronounces a curse upon the earth. And as we have seen, as Joe read
this passage of Scripture and did a very good job reading,
as he always does, and I appreciate it, we see here that he pronounces
a curse upon Cain. And I noted to you that there
was no curse pronounced upon Adam, no curse pronounced upon
the woman, but there is a curse pronounced upon this man, Cain. Here's the king. Who can curse
but the king? It is in his, up to him, I should
say, it is up to him whether he blesses or whether he curses. And he pronounces a curse upon
Cain and he pronounces blessings upon Abel. This is our Lord Jesus
who is the king. who deals in vengeance with the
serpent, with Satan, and who with great authority, he states
to the serpent, your head's gonna be crushed. There's gonna be
a gaping hole in your head. The king says that. So we behold
our savior in his threefold offices, a prophet and priest and king. And then we get into chapter
four. Now, as we get into chapter four, we need to remember that
when Adam and Eve were in the garden, there were no children
born to them. Had there been children born
to them before Adam fell, then those children would have been
without sin. So that couldn't be, and so God,
prohibited them, God prevented them from having any children
while they were in the state of innocence. And now that they're
outside of the garden, outside of paradise, the scripture says,
and Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived. And she bare
Cain. His name means possession. She is saying, I have possessed
a man. I have gotten a man. I have gotten
a man from the Lord. Now, understand this. We don't
know that this man Cain, we don't know that he was the first child
born to Adam and Eve. They could have had daughters.
And it very well may be that she's saying this, she barricades,
she said, I have finally gotten a man. Maybe that's what she's
saying. I've had daughters born to me.
And no offense to you ladies, but in the Bible, very few times
is there any mention of females being born. Because the emphasis
is on the males. But we do know the very first
man-child born to Adam and Eve was this man Cain. His name means, as of all R-A-D-N-K,
possessed or he acquired, I've acquired a man. And maybe she's
even saying more than that, I have gotten a man, the God-man. It may be that she's saying,
I got the Messiah. The Messiah is here. She's still
thinking about the word of promise given to her and to Adam in the
garden concerning the seed of the woman. And I'll tell you
this, Eve, like Adam, Eve was a woman of faith. She believed
God. She believed God. The seed of
the woman was coming, and so she finally has a boy. And she
says in her mind and in her heart, I've gotten a man, the God-man. I've gotten Messiah. And she's
so excited about it. Now, we don't know that the next
one born into the family was Abel. We have no way of knowing. There may have been other daughters
that were born. But then in time, then she had
another boy and his name was Abel. And Abel's name really
means breath or vanity, which is a good name for all mankind. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,
said the preacher. And it may be, it may be that
Eve, thinking that she has given birth to the Messiah. It may be that she's so focused
on him thinking there is that promised one right there. Then
the next son born to her, she said, he's just vanity. He's
nothing like this first one. I have acquired the God man. And then Abel is just, he's called
breath or vanity. Vanity. because she is focused
so much upon the God-man. And it would be wonderful for
each of us if we were so focused on the Lord Jesus that everything
and everybody else was really in comparison just vanity. That's all. And there will come a day when
that will be so. And the Lord takes us to glory. and we shall find in our Savior
everything that thrills our souls, and we'll leave all of vanity
back here on the earth. Now, that which I want to stress
to you in this message tonight, and here's the title of the message,
Two Men, Two Offerings. Because as we read through this,
as Joe read through this a bit ago, did you notice how you cannot
separate the man from the offering? It's like they're fused together. There is no separation. There's
no separation of Cain and his offering, and there's no separation
between Abel and his offering. But what was Cain's offering?
He offered the fruit of the ground. Now we know Cain was a farmer. He was a farmer. Whereas Abel,
he was a shepherd. Well, the farmer is going to
bring that which he has produced. We don't know what Cain brought.
We don't know what his offering was. Tomatoes, watermelon, maybe
it was olives, because there would olive trees be plentiful
in that part of the world. We don't know exactly what he
brought, but he brought of the labors of his own hands. And I read one man today and
he said, most likely Cain brought vegetables that were rotted and
bruised and cut and things of that nature. And that's why God
rejected him. And of course, that's far-fetched. That isn't the idea at all. I'm persuaded Cain brought the
best he grew. But his offering to God had no
blood. There was no death. There was
no remembrance of the justice of God and no satisfaction to
the justice of God. Whereas Abel's offering was a
reminder of death. That's what God said in the day,
ye thereof, you'll surely die. And Abel brings, he brings the
firstling of his flock. And he kills him and puts him
on the altar. Now, you need to be careful if you
buy Bible storybooks for your children. You need to be very
careful for your grandchildren. With this congregation here tonight,
most of it is for our grandchildren, for your children. But you look,
those Bible storybooks, first of all, they have pictures of
Jesus. Most all of them. That's a violation of Exodus
chapter 20. Thou shalt not make an image
of anything in heaven or on earth. Where is the Lord Jesus? He's
in heaven. Don't make an image of Him. Nobody
knows what He looks like. And you know, we have been so
affected by that, that when we talk about the Lord Jesus, there
are lots of times when those pictures that are fictitious
and really which are idolatrous, they come to our minds. That's how powerful those images
are. And yet the Bible says, stay
away from those things. My... The secretary I had up
in Michigan, she gave me one time a picture and it just, there's
another, I should say a picture, and then a blank piece of paper.
And then the verse out of 1 Peter 1, whom having not seen, we love. We haven't seen him, we don't
know what he looks like. But we love him because we've
seen him in the scriptures. But to go take that to this passage
of scripture, if you look in the children's storybook Bibles,
it starts off with Adam and Eve hiding. They're kind of partially
hidden behind some bushes and then you see a snake. going up
an apple tree or something, then he's holding out an apple to
Eve. We don't know it was an apple,
whatever it was. And then a little bit later,
you get over into chapter four of Genesis, and you see Adam
and Eve, and you see two little boys, Cain and Abel, and you
see them bringing their offerings to God. Little boys didn't bring
offerings to God. What's a little boy doing with
an offering? No, Adam offered offerings for
those boys when they were small, even as he offered for his daughters.
You know who offered offerings? The head of the household. So
what we have here, we have Cain and Abel grown up. Say, well,
where'd Cain get his wife? Well, he had to marry his sister.
That's not hard to answer. and Abel had to marry his sister.
The Jews say that Cain had a twin sister. He married her and Abel
had a twin sister and he married her. But I remind you back then
the gene pool was not so distorted and infected and weakened as
it has been through 6,000 years now. But these are not little boys.
These are not little boys. These are men. And we must not
think that the only people who were alive then were Adam and
Eve and Cain and Abel. There are many more people alive.
Did you notice this? Look at verse 15. Chapter four, and the Lord said
unto Cain, therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall
be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon
Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. Who's the any? Who's
the any? If there's only Adam and Eve
and Cain and Abel, who's the any? You know, there are writers
who say by the time we get to the end of chapter 4, Adam and Eve had at least 32,000
descendants. You see, back then, unless there
was some kind of protection taken, which there wasn't, Adam and
Eve would have had a child every year. Every year. And you can do the math on this,
it'd multiply really quick. So they were pretty much surrounded
by sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters and great-grandsons
and great-granddaughters and on and on it goes. So there are,
especially by the time we get to the end of chapter four, where
at 130 years of age, Adam has Seth. Well, they got a whole
lot more kids besides just Seth. So here's Adam and Eve, and here's
Cain and Abel, Cain with his family, his wife, Abel with his
wife. And they go to a specific location
to worship. If you'll back up to verse 24
of chapter three, so God drove out the man and he, I dealt with
this last week, he placed or he dwelt He tabernacled at the
east of the Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned
every way to keep the way of the tree of life. This was where
men met gods, where they went to worship God. Right there between
the cherubim. And it's just like if you go
over to the book of Exodus. God said, I'll meet with you
between the cherubim. After all, between the cherubim
and the holy of holies of the tabernacle, that's where the
shekinah glory came out, or literally a tongue of fire. And here's
a tongue of fire, it's set forth as being a flaming sword between
the cherubim. And most likely that's where
they went to worship. They had a specific location
to worship and also they had a specific day to go and worship. Notice in verse 3, in the process
of time. In my Bible, if you go over in
the middle of it, it says Hebrew, at the end of days. Does your
Bible have that? At the end of days. Which most
people think that means at the end of the week. They had a specific
location where they can meet God and worship God, and they
met on a specific day. Now, the Sabbath had not been
instituted yet. But there was a day when people
went to worship God. And Adam and Eve would have instructed
both Cain and Abel and all the rest of their kids, all the daughters,
and then all the sons born after Abel. they would have instructed
them, this is where you come to meet with God, this is how
you worship God, by means of an animal that is innocent of
all transgressions against God, and you kill it, and you shed
the blood, and you put the carcass up on the altar, and then God
will indicate His satisfaction with that animal by that flaming
flaming sword of fire, coming down and devouring the sacrifice. So they came to worship God. It comes Cain with his wife,
maybe kids, and Abel with his wife and maybe kids too. So we see in verse 3, in the
process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought her the fruit
of the ground and offering. Now remember, don't separate
Cain from his offering. You can't separate them because
he thinks, this is how I'm going to be accepted. And in the next
verse, verse four, in Abel, he also brought with the firstlings
of his flock and of the fat thereof. One writer said the fattest of
his flock. And the Lord had respect unto
Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and his offering, he
had not respect. God showed that he accepted Abel's
offering and God indicated he did not accept Cain's offering. Well, how did he show that he
did not accept Cain's offering? No fire devoured the vegetables
that he brought or whatever it was that he brought. Whereas fire came and devoured
that which Abel brought. There are a multitude of other
passages of scripture. That's how God showed that he
had respect to an offering. When the tabernacle was dedicated,
fire came down, that was the Shekinah glory and devoured the
sacrifice. When the temple was dedicated,
with David, with his sacrifice, with Solomon in his sacrifice,
Throughout the Bible it's indicated, fire, fire came down from God
and devoured the sacrifice. And this is Abel, he takes his
firstling of his flock, and every time he went to worship, this
is what he did, and God accepted it because his sacrifice pointed
to Christ. His sacrifice indicated that
Abel knew he was a sinful man, It indicated that Abel believed
he deserved to die. And it indicated that Abel believed
the way to approach God was that way that God himself illustrated
to his father and to his mother, as recorded back in chapter 3. And Abel and his wife, and if
they had children, that's how they worshiped God. And Abel
told his family, now listen, let me tell you why I'm bringing
this lamb. It's because we're sinners. And sin deserves death,
and God said the wages of sin is death. So we're bringing this
animal. Oh God, forgive us. Forgive us. And we offer this lamb to you,
the firstling of the flock, best I got. We offer it to you. and we do so believing one of
these days, your lamb's coming, your son's coming, and he's gonna
give his life a ransom for us. Lord, receive the offering and
forgive us. And they were accepted. And Cain
brings his offering. You can't separate him and his
offering either. what he brought the works of
his hands. And here's the thing of it, God
wouldn't have anything to do with it. Now, I suppose that Cain was
very sincere and he was very serious. And I think he brought
the best, but he brought it from an earth that God himself had
cursed. and God wouldn't have anything
to do with it. Now, what do we see in this?
We see that God is illustrating even more emphatically that which
is kind of typified in the third chapter. Because Cain's offering
pictures salvation by works. And that was indicated in the
third chapter when Adam and Eve realized their souls were naked
and they made fig leaf aprons. They had to do something to make
themselves right with God. And this is what they did. And
God said, no, that's not going to do. And then God illustrated
what needed to be done. An animal had to be killed, innocent
of any violation against God. And blood had to be shed. There
had to be death. And then as a result of death,
Adam and Eve, they were clothed. And now it's broadened. So that
here in Genesis chapter four, this is of great importance. Because here we see the very
basics of the two ideas of salvation. And make no mistake about it,
there are only two. Grace and works. That's the only two. You say,
well, there are a lot of different beliefs out here among churches,
but boil them all down. It's grace and works. Grace and works. Abel, he pictures salvation by
grace with his offering. Salvation by substitution. Salvation by a sin offering. And, of course, his brother Cain. His picture's salvation by works. God wouldn't have anything to
do with that. And, verse 5, Cain got mad. See, they all went to church
that day, as it were. And Abel and his family, they're
accepted. Cain and his family, they're
rejected. And he's mad. His countenance
fell. Because God wouldn't regard his
offering. God wouldn't look at it. Now
who's he mad at? We say he's mad at Abel. He's
really mad at God. That's who he's mad at. But he
can't get to God, but he can get to Abel. And so in verse six, the Lord
said to Cain, why are you wrong? Why are you upset? Why is your
countenance fallen? Why are you so mad? If you do
well, shalt thou not be accepted? If you bring me, like Abel did,
if you bring me a lamb and you do it by faith, that's what Hebrews
11 says, by faith. by faith looking ahead to THE
Lamb who's going to come. You'll be accepted. Because your acceptance is so
vitally tied to the offering. I'm telling you, you can't separate
the men from the offering. And He says, if thou doest not
well, Well, sin's imputed to you. Sin lies at your door. You're to blame. It's your fault. And unto you shall Abel's desire
still be, because you're the older son, and thou shalt rule
over him. And that's the way it was, because
Cain was the firstborn son. And God says, listen, nothing's
going to change about those things, the status and the family. And so in verse 8, Cain talked
with Abel, his brother. It came to pass. He said, let's
go out in the field and talk. And when they were in the field,
Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and he killed him. Here's Abel, the very first martyr. And here's Cain, the very first
persecutor of God's people. Now, what we have back in the
third chapter is the origin of sin. Right? That's what we got
in the third chapter, is the origin of sin. Now here in the
fourth chapter, we see the result of sin. We see what sin leads
to. A horrible, horrible sin. You say, well yeah, murder. No! That's not the most horrible
sin. The most horrible sin that's
obvious in the fourth chapter is not Cain murdering Abel. The most horrible sin seen in
chapter 4 is that Cain believed salvation by works. That's just defying God. That's utter unbelief. That's
what that is. That's worse than murder. Man can be a murderer and be
saved. David was a murderer. But you
can't be an unbeliever and be saved. This is the greater of
Cain's sins. The blood of Abel was shed. Read on verse nine. And the Lord
said unto Cain, Let me tell you this, between verse eight and
verse number nine, there's an interval. In fact, the Jews in
the Hebrew, it says there is some kind of interval or a pause
in time. Well, what is that interval?
Well, it goes to the next day, the next time of worship. So,
if he killed him on the day that they worshipped, then a week
goes by. Because what you need to understand
is in verse number 9, and the Lord said unto Cain, you know
where Cain is? He's right back at the altar.
He's right back in church, so to speak. And the reason I know
that is because if you look ahead at chapter 4 verse 16, and Cain
went out from the presence of the Lord. You see, here's Cain. This is how dedicated he was. The next time that he has an
opportunity to go and worship, he's right back at it. He's doing
the same thing. Well, you say, didn't he learn
anything? No. Because the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither indeed can he,
because they're foreign to him. They're a stranger. He can't
discern it. And he's right back, in his sincerity,
with his vegetables, with his grapes, with his olives, with
his honey, or whatever it was that he brought, he's right back
at it again. And when he comes to worship,
the Lord says, where is Abel, your brother? He was with you
last Sunday. And we know the Lord doesn't
ask a question because he needs an answer. This is to bring something out
of Cain. And he said, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? Yes,
you are. And the Lord said, what have
you done? The voice of that brother's blood
crieth unto me from the ground. We read in the New Testament,
the blood of Christ Jesus speaks better things than the blood
of Abel. You want Abel's blood spoke? Vengeance! That's what Abel's
blood cried out for. Vengeance! Don't you remember
reading in Revelation chapter 6, those who are under the altar,
who had been martyred for the cause of Christ Jesus for the
Word of God, whose blood had been shed. They said, how long,
oh Lord, how long before you bring these people to judgment? Abel's blood cried out for vengeance. But I'll tell you, Christ's blood
cried out Forgiveness. Forgive them, Father! Forgive
them! Accept them! Receive them! Cries
out, better things in the blood of Abel. In verse 11, now thou art cursed. You're cursed from the earth,
which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from
thy hand. And when you till the ground,
It's not going to yield unto thee her strength. I'm going
to ruin your farm. That's what God says. You're a fugitive and a vagabond
for the rest of your days. A fugitive from justice. And a vagabond, a wanderer. Verse 13, Cain said to the Lord,
My punishment is greater than I can bear. He's miserable, but
He doesn't ask for forgiveness. He doesn't ask for mercy. He's still there where the fire
is, between the cherubim, presenting to God the best that His hands
can produce. He's still up the false religion. And he doesn't say, oh God, forgive
me, let me go get a lamb. No, he doesn't do that. Because he's hard-hearted. He's
a rebel. He despises God's way of salvation. He says in verse 14, behold,
thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth.
From thy face I shall be hid. Oh my. hidden from God's face. Man's got no hope if he's hidden
from the face of God. I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond
in the earth, and it shall come to pass that everyone who finds
me is going to try to kill me. The Lord said to him, Whoever
kills you or tries to kill you, vengeance is going to be taken
on him sevenfold. And God put a mark on him. God
said, I'll get him. I'll get him. Maybe they had
some policemen or lawmen in those days. I don't know. But God told
him, He said, you leave him alone. I'll get him. I'll get him. Let me tell you
something. God will get and exercise judgment
on every man who dares, dares to bring to God the best that
he can do, thinking that God will accept him. That God's going,
it's going to be bad for you. I'm telling you, it's going to
be bad for you. There's just no way you're going
to get by with that. And so Cain left. Verse 16, Cain
went out from the presence of the Lord, he left the place of
worship, and he dwelt in the land of Nod, the land of wandering,
no rest for the wicked. And then his wife had a child,
She conceived and maybe she had already conceived and had daughters,
don't know, but now she has Enoch, not Enoch who walked with God. This is another Enoch. And then
they had more children and those children had children. It goes
on down until we get down to verse 25, and Adam knew his wife
again, and she bared her son and called his name Seth. Now,
at this time, Adam's 130 years old. You surely don't think that
Adam only knew his wife three times, with Cain, with Abel,
and with Seth. No. You see, the Bible does not record
all the things that happen in the history of the world. That's
not the purpose of the Bible. The Bible records those things
pertinent to redemption. That's what the Bible is interested
in. Those things that have to do with the Savior. Those things
that have to do with vital, critical issues like salvation. Therefore, we have half a chapter
devoted to two men and their two offerings. Which, this is
the basic right here. One believes salvation by substitution,
satisfaction, and grace. And the other one believes salvation
by works. Well, in verse 25, Adam knew
his wife again. She bare a son, called his name
Seth, for God said, she hath appointed me another seed instead
of Abel, whom Cain slew. and to saith to him also there
was born a son, and he called his name Enos. And then men began
to call upon the name of the Lord." That is, men began to
meet together in unity of worship. They began to call upon the name
of the Lord. Such a vital chapter. Two men,
two offerings. And here we are this evening. And there you are, those of you
who are watching by way of the internet. And what is your offering? What is it you're looking to? The blood of the Lamb of God? Or the best that your hands can
produce? That's a really good question.
Really good question. Well, let's close in prayer. Our Lord, we thank you for the
very, very clear instruction of this chapter. And I hope I've
made it clear that, uh, All men who seek to draw near to God,
who seek to worship God, will do so by one of two ways. One way is successful. The other
way is an insult to God and therefore unsuccessful always. The way
of success is a way of grace. The way of success is the way
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The way of success is by blood
redemption. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
But the way of the unbeliever, the way of the fugitive, the
way of the vagabond, the way of rejection is a way of works. It is the foolishness of thinking
that there is something we can do by our own efforts to appease
the justice of God. What an insult to the Christ
of Calvary. Lord, bring all of us, me, Everybody
here, everybody who's watching, everybody who will ever listen
to this CD or watch this DVD, bring us all to Christ Jesus
to see that Him and His sacrifice only, that's the way of acceptance. May it be so, Lord, for Your
glory and for our everlasting good, for Jesus' sake,