I told you that I was going to
try to bring Christ out of this and I don't think I'll have any
problem. But the first thing we notice
is sin. Sin is never an isolated act. It's never an isolated act. It
has fruit. Sin is the cause and then there's
an effect. In Genesis 3, sin came into this
world by one man. That one man's sin. Just one
man. And then here in Genesis 4, we
see sin in the whole family. Involved in everybody. Adam's
sin has affected his whole family. Affected his wife, affected his
children. Affected Cain and affected Abel.
And wherever sin is, it contaminates. And it spreads and it brings
forth fruit. It brings forth death. And all
you see when they disobeyed God, in Genesis 3, God cast them out. In Genesis 4, we have sin because
it brings forth fruit to death. We see one brother killing another
brother. The effects of sin. And where
there's no fear of God before man's eyes, there's no telling
what he'll do. There really isn't. But, you
know, our Lord Jesus Christ, and this says in verse 1, in
Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bear Cain.
And she thought this was going to be that promised seed of the
woman. She thought this was going to be the Messiah, the Savior. She said, I've gotten a man from
the Lord. And so she thought, well, this
is the promised Messiah. I've gotten the man from the
Lord. But that's not what it was. And our Lord singled out
these two sons. Now they had no children. It's
just the first child, first man child born. No telling how many
children they already have. I mean, you know, I've seen genealogy
and you can start out with two people and in about 30 years
you can be up to 64, 68 in one family. So you multiply it by
every family and you know, so you take a man and a woman that
lives all these years, they can have a multitude of children
and just go on and on and get all over the world real quick.
But this is the first man child. These are the first two men.
And Adam singled out these two sons to teach us redemption by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We teach us that salvation without
the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Now look
over here with me in Leviticus 17 and verse 11. Look in Leviticus
17 and verse 11. And this is what we're talking
about. Our Lord singled out these sons of Adam to teach us all
that redemption is by blood. and also to condemn salvation
by works. Salvation by man's efforts, by
man's own doing. Look what it said in verse 11.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given
it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.
It is the blood that make an atonement for the soul. And that's
what our Lord singled these people out for. And that's why then
to condemn salvation by works, that's why Peter says this, we
were not redeemed, we were not bought with such things as silver,
such things as gold. but with the precious blood of
Christ as a lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
And the scriptures plainly teaches us that salvation is by grace
through faith. And neither one of those of ourselves,
they're both the gift of God. Grace is, faith is, and everything
we got, God gave to us. And we wouldn't have it. And
when we look at these two men, now these men are grown men. They no doubt have families.
They're not little boys. You know, forget these stories
you read, these books, pictures you've seen and that. These two
boys with their mother and daddy, these are grown men. No doubt
they're grown men. They probably got their own families.
And they're not just boys, they're grown men here. But the way of
Abel, When Abel bought that lamb, that's the way of grace. That's
the way of grace. And the way of Cain is the way
of works. And I tell you, there's a crossroads.
There's a crossroads that most people will cross someday in
their life, if God has mercy on them. He'll bring them to
the place where He'll confront them with grace. He'll confront
them with grace. And they will have to, by God's
grace, they'll either believe grace and trust Christ or else
they'll continue on in their works. Continue on in their works. And I'll tell you what, there's
only two religions in this world, no matter what name they go under.
There's only two religions in this world. Grace and works. And there is no middle ground.
There ain't no middle ground. There's no gray area between
grace and works. You can't mix them. Either you're
all of grace or you're all of works. That's what Paul said.
If salvation's of grace, then it's not works. If it's of works,
it's not of grace. That's what he said in Romans
11, 6. So you see, one is one way and one's the other way.
And I tell you, beloved, One thing God taught me is that salvation
is by grace. I was like Jonah. And I know
some of you is like Jonah. You felt like you was in the
belly of hell. And God said salvation to the
Lord. He said, Lord, I believe that.
And He brought you up. And He done it just like He did
Jonah. He didn't set you out at the edge of the water and
say, now swim the rest of the way in. He brought you up and
set you over on dry ground. Didn't he? And you know when
he done it? After somebody else has stood
over him. And I tell you this teaches us
this. When these two men come to worship. God is to be worshipped
and can only be worshipped by bloody sacrifice, by the death
of another. That's what this teaches us.
And the first thing is that the sacrifice has to be offered in
faith. Look what it says there in verse
4. And Abel, he also brought of
the firstlings of his flock of the fat thereof, and listen to
this, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
Over in Hebrews 11.4 it says that God testified of Abel's
sacrifice, testified of Abel and his sacrifice because it
declared him righteous and he offered it by faith. And beloved,
let me give you three things about the worship of Cain and
Abel. First of all, there was a place
where God was to be worshipped. Look what it said in verse 3. And in the process of time it
came to pass, in the end of days, and all that came brought the
fruit of the ground and offering unto the Lord. So there was a
place where God was to be worshipped. There was a time, there was a
place. So they come to the place where they were supposed to go.
Came to pass it, Cain brought. They had a place that was set
apart for the worship of God. And Cain brought an offering
unto the Lord. And when he brought his offering
to some particular place, I don't know where it was, but I do know
this, that after that, God would never let him in his presence
ever again after this offering. And if you ever try to come to
God on the basis of your works, God will send you away too and
won't be lying back in His presence unless you, like Abel, you bring
a bloody sacrifice. Here's the second thing. There
was a place that came to pass in the process of time. And no
doubt there was an altar there. Because Abel offered unto the
firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof. And that fat was
burned upon that altar. And not only did they have a
place, but they had appointed time for worship. Like it said
there, I done told you there, in the margin of chapter, verse
3, it says, At the end of days, There was an end of days, and
when those end of days was, 6 days, 5 days, 3 days, 2 days, I don't
know how many days it was, but the end of days, it was time
for them to go up and worship. There was an appointed time for
worship. There's an appointed time. And God's got an appointed
time. And one of these days we're going
to worship in true, true, true faith. And one of these days,
faith won't even need to be, won't even need to have it. Won't
even need to have it. Faith will be signed face to
face with Christ my Lord. So there was an appointed time,
appointed place. And then there was a prescribed
means of worship. And oh, look what happens now.
Cain was a tiller of the ground, and Abel was a shepherd. And
this tells us this, that God could be approached and worshipped
only by the means of a sacrifice. Abel brought a sacrifice. What does it say? The firstlings
of his flock, and the fat thereof. See God, he said, God could only
be approached by means of a sacrifice. Now where did they learn, where
did Abel learned this. Where do you reckon he learned
it at? I tell you where he learned it at. From his daddy. Where
did his daddy learn it at? From God. God revealed himself
to Adam. God come to where Adam was. God
found Adam where he was. God found him in his nakedness.
God found him in his fig leaves. And God slew the animals and
took the animal skins and clothed Adam and Eve's nakedness and
then he drove them out of the garden. And they saw that bloody
sacrifice and I'll tell you who offered it. The Lord Jesus Christ.
God has always dealt With men and women, no place in the Bible
where He does not deal with men through the Lord Jesus Christ.
He spoke by Him, He created by Him, He opposed everything by
Him. And He will not do anything for anybody, me or nobody else,
apart from His blessed Son. And oh my, Father Adam instructed. It's like Abraham. You know what
God said to Abraham? He said, I know Abraham that
you will teach your children. You're going to teach your children
of how I came to you. How I sought you out. And I sent you out. And you're
going to teach your children that I told you to offer your
only son, your only beloved son, your begotten son. And you took
him up to a mountain. And there a ram was caught in
the thicket and put in Isaac's place. And he said, you're going
to teach your children that. You're going to teach them salvation
by substitute. And I tell you, by faith offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. God being witnesses. He had heard from his father. And he had heard and seen what
had happened. He had heard that God required a sacrifice. a sacrifice. And he believed
it. And how do we know he believed
it? Because he brought a lamb. Because he brought a lamb. Do you know faith? Do you know
how it comes? It comes by hearing. It comes
by hearing. And so there was three things.
A place, an appointed time, and a prescribed means. Now look
at the difference between these. Remember last week I talked about
Christ reversing the effects of the fall. The offerings of
Cain and Abel. God accepted one and rejected
the other. God rejected one. He said in
verse 4 that he had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But
unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. to his offering. Now let me tell you, the difference
in these is not in the men. The difference wasn't in the
men. They were brothers. Come from the same mother, came
from the same father. You couldn't turn your hands
in the difference for them. The problem wasn't between those
two men. The difference between the two
men was the offerings that they brought. That's the difference
in the offerings that they brought. Cain wasn't worse than Abel.
He wasn't any worse than Abel was. He wasn't an atheist. He
wasn't an infidel. He acknowledged the existence
of God. He knew that God had to have
a sacrifice and he knew that he was going to have to bring
something. And since he was a tiller of the ground, and he said, well,
I'll tell you what, you wouldn't believe what a garden I've raised
this year. You just wouldn't believe it. And he said, I'll
tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to take some of my
garden up there, and I'm going to set it before the Lord. And
he's going to look at that, and he's going to say, oh my goodness,
what a wonderful sacrifice. But he brought that thing up
there, and God never even looked at it. God said, no, no, I ain't
going to worship that. See, he was going to worship
his way, the way of Cain. He brought the fruit of the ground,
something that was already cursed. What that's called is will worship.
And you know what will worship is? Is that I'm going to worship
the way I want to, whether God likes it or not. That's what
it amounts to. Will worship says that I'm going
to worship the way I want to worship. I'll go worship who
I want to worship, when I want to worship, and how I want to
worship. And if God don't like the way I worship, then he'll
find him a God that will accept the way he worships. But he was
a will worshiper. He said, this is my will, this
is the way I want to do it. And I tell you most preachers
they teach people how to will worship. They teach them how
to do that. They teach them how to feel good
about themselves and feel good about the things that they do.
Feel good about all the things that they say and all the things
that they do. Make them feel like they've really done God
a service because they come to a service. Oh, we're just so
glad to have you all here today. Oh, I tell you what, we can't
spell church without you. And that's just the fruit of
the ground. That's just real worship. Real
worship. And let me tell you something
else about these two men. The difference was in their offerings,
not the two men. The difference was in their offerings.
First of all, his offering was a bloodless offering. And without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. And when
he brought a bloodless offering, an offering that Old Scott said,
you know, if turnips could squeeze blood out of a turnip, don't
you think that Cain would have done it? I heard him say that. He said, if salvation
would have been by works, Cain would have squeezed some blood
out of them turnips. But that's not right. But oh my, his offering
was a bloodless one. He had no blood. And what he
was saying was, I do not need a Savior. I don't need a Redeemer. Huh? I don't need saving. I'm not
a sinner. Huh? That's what he's saying. I'm not a sinner. I may not be
the best fellow in the family. I may even be the black sheep
of the family. But still yet, I'm not that bad.
But oh, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you know what Cain would
do, was he would put himself in the place of being his own
priest. I'll make my own offering. I'll be my own mediator. My states
will mediate between me and God. I'll be my own intercessor. And
here's the second thing about his offering. It was the fruit
of his own labor. the fruit of his own labors,
the works of his own hands and bold top lady had it right in
my hands no price I bring. In my hands no price I bring.
And when he done this he is denied that he was a sinner before God.
He denied that he deserved death. He said, I don't deserve to die.
I don't need something put in my place with blood offering.
I don't need something to die in my place. I don't actually
need the blood. I've got the works of my hands.
I've got the sweat of my brow. and he brought the fruit of the
cursed ground and he refused God's revealed way of worship
and acceptance and I tell you that's why Paul said when we
are accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through
his blood even the forgiveness of sin so I tell you his offering
and let me show you something in Titus Titus is that little
bitty book right before the book of Hebrews let me show you something
in there There's a little three chapters
here, and I want you to look in verse 5. Verse 5. You know, I remember what it was like to
try to come to God on your own terms. Try to get God on your
side. Trying to do something to pacify
him and make yourself acceptable to him. And you never could do
it. You could never do it. You always
was miserable. You never had any peace. You
could never do enough. You could never pray enough.
You could never give enough. You could never preach enough.
You couldn't be hard enough. You couldn't be fundamentalist
enough. You couldn't be legalist enough. You couldn't do enough
work. You just couldn't do it. Thank God He taught me about
Christ. But look here in Titus chapter 3 and verse 5. This is
what we're talking about. This is where salvation is. Not
by works of righteousness which we have done. All our righteousnesses
are as a filthy rag. But according to His mercy, He
saved us. By His mercy, He saved us. And not only by, how did He save
us? By the washing of regeneration. washed us, cleansed us by the
Holy Ghost and renewed the Holy Ghost and sent the Holy Ghost
into our hearts which He has shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior that being justified, listen to it,
not by works but by grace we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. So oh my, now why did God have
respect to Abel's offering? Why did God have respect to Abel's
offering? Well, it was an offering of faith.
He brought it because he believed God. He believed God. He believed what God had taught
him. He believed God. He believed that God required
a sacrifice, a sin offering, something to an innocent victim,
an innocent lamb, a lamb that had done nothing. a lamb that
had no sin, a lamb that did nothing wrong, a lamb that was spotless
and without blemish, the firstling of the flock. He said that the
only way in the world that God can accept me is for him to take
this spotless lamb and take his blood and take his fat and take
his offering and accept me on the basis of his blood and his
death and that burning on that altar. And I know that my sins
deserve death, but this animal here, this lamb is going to take
my death for me. And that's exactly what happened
with the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the Lamb of God. That
God scepted Him and sent Him and accepted Him and He Himself
bore our sins and God slew Him on our behalf and made us acceptable. That's why there's a more excellent
way. There was an offering typifying
the Lord Jesus Christ. A lamb, the innocent for the
guilty. The firstling without spot, without blemish. And I
tell you, beloved, everybody that comes to Christ, everybody
that comes, needed an offering. In Leviticus 1, let me see if
I can find that in Leviticus 1, read it to you. Let me see
if I can find that real quick. Let me find something here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look in verse
4 of Leviticus 1. Here we go. Look what it says. This is exactly what Abel did. And he shall put his hand upon
the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for
him to make an atonement for him. And that's what Abel did. He put his hands on the head
of that lamb. and that lamb was put in his place. It was an offering,
confessing his sins, and owning that I deserve death, but this
lamb is dying in my stead. All right, let's go down through
verse five and go down through here and just make a few comments.
But unto Cain, and to his offering he had not respect. But what
happened to Cain? He got mad. He got mad. And his countenance fell. He
went up there smiling and happy. He went up there thinking so
well of himself and thinking so good of his sacrifice. But
no fire fell. And he got mad. Got mad. Got mad. And oh beloved, God
was angry. He was angry at God because he
refused to receive his offering. See he had a form of godliness
but denying the power there. No genuineness to it, no reality
to it. And God says to him, and the
Lord said unto Cain, why are you angry? Why is your countenance
falling? Now look what he tells him. In
verse 7, if you do us well, shall not be accepted, bring an acceptable
sacrifice. And don't you think you'll be
accepted? You bring the right sacrifice and you'll be accepted. And then he also told him last
part of the verse that you'll bring the right sacrifice and
you'll be the firstborn and you'll have rule over Abel because you're
the firstborn. but he said if you don't do this
if you don't bring the right sacrifice and you don't come
the way that you know to come and he says sin lies at your
door and if you don't sin lies ready to spring upon you like
a wild beast and it will devour you and destroy you that's what
James said you know sin when it's finished it brings
forth death And Cain had believed he had lost the rights of the
firstborn and would rather kill Abel. And look what happens here
in verse 8. And Cain talked with Abel, his
brother. They went out and talked. John called him, Cain, that wicked
one. And the Lord said, 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 killed him. Cain had believed he had lost
the rights of the firstborn and would rather kill Abel than to
submit to Abel and rather than to submit to God. He desired
it at all costs and he desired it at the cost of his own soul.
Now look what the Lord said to him. The Lord said to Cain, Where's
Abel thy brother? Now I'm going to tell you something. God never asked questions for
information. Never asked one question for
information. He asked questions for our good. To make us admit something. He
asked Adam, where art thou? He knew where Adam was. Adam
had to tell, admit, well I'm here and I'm naked and I'm ashamed
and I'm afraid. Where's your brother Abel? God
knew where Abel was. God knew where Cain was. And
look what he says. Where is Abel thy brother? Now
listen, the first thing he says, he lied. Lied to God Almighty. You talking about sin, just keep
on growing and keep on reaching out with awful. Sin becomes exceeding
sinful. And this man started out thinking,
boy, I'm going to go up there to the Lord. The Lord's going
to send the fire down and consume my sacrifice. And next thing
you know, he's killed his brother. And oh my. And he said, I don't
know. I don't know. That's the first
lie told to God here. He said, am I my brother's keeper?
Boy, there's a question for us. Are we our brother's keeper? Are we our brother's keeper?
Are we to keep one another, pray for one another, love one another,
encourage one another, be a blessing to one another? And he asked
the king, what hast thou done? Another question asked, what
have you done? And then he told him, he said,
the voice of thy brother's blood cries unto me from the ground.
You know Hebrews talks about the voice of the blood of Abel.
The voice of the blood of Abel, the blood that speaketh. Speaking,
the speaking blood. Why does it speak? Well, the
first thing it speaks is vengeance, justice, blood crying unto God, the blood
of a murdered man. And oh my, and you know when
he said, your brother's blood cries unto me. You know, Cain
didn't think the Lord had seen it, but God sees everything. Numbers 32.23 says, Be sure,
be sure your sin will find you out. It will find you out. I'm telling you why. Cain said,
I don't know. I lied. There was no contrition
here. He didn't say, Lord, I'm sorry.
I just got angry. Please forgive me. Please have
mercy on me. He showed no contrition. He showed
no sorriness. He showed no remorse. He showed
no feelings whatsoever of killing his own brother. He showed none
of it. None of it. No confessing of
his sins. Oh Lord, I'm so sorry. No, he
said, oh God forgive me. I'm gonna go get a sacrifice
and come up. Would you have mercy on me? But
none of that, none of that. And now look what God does says
to him. He said, now you are cursed from the earth, which
hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy
hand. Now he said, you know, it says
here was a tiller of the ground. But now look what God says is
going to happen to him now. When you till the ground like
you've done and brought all your sacrifices and brought all your
good works. He said you're going to till
the ground and it ain't going to bring nothing to you. You're
not going to get anything out of it. It's going to not have
any strength for you at all. A fugitive and a vagabond should
thou be in the earth. You're going to be a fugitive.
You're just going to wander around on the earth. And Cain said unto
the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Oh my. And he said, oh yes, look what
he says, my punishment, my iniquity is greater than it may be forgiven. And he said, behold, you've driven
me out from this day from the face of the earth. The earth
won't bring me any more. And from the face, from thy face,
this is what's awful. And from thy faith shall I be
hid. Oh, to be hid from the face of God. David and all God's people
said, Lord, cause your face to shine upon us. Look upon us,
O God, in mercy. And I'll be a fugitive and a
vagabond in the earth. And it'll come to pass that everyone
that findeth me shall slay me. He said, boy, that's just more
than I can bear. And the Lord hath said unto him, Whosoever
slayeth Cain, He said, I'll take vengeance on him sevenfold. And
the Lord set a mark upon Cain. I don't know what that mark was.
I don't know what that mark was. I don't have any idea what it
was. But God put a mark upon Cain. Where Cain was marked in
such a way. I think this is the first reprobate
man on the earth. God marked him as a reprobate.
This is the first reprobate man right here. Said a mark upon
him said lest any man find him should kill him said I see that
mark on him And this is what's awful He went out in the process
of time brought the fruit of the ground as an offering unto
the Lord and the next time you find him He went out from the
presence of the Lord Went out from the presence of the Lord
Wondering a wanderer and a vagabond all the days of his life And Abel brought what God required. And beloved, God gave us a blessed
sacrifice, His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's all
we can ever bring to God. It's His merit, His blood, His
righteousness, His work, His worth, His merit. We can't bring
anything else. Can we? Can't. Can't do it. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, we thank you for your word. Thank you
for your mercies and grace given us in Christ. God bless these
dear saints as they go out the doors, go to their homes, get
up tomorrow to start their day. Lord, protect them and preserve
them. Protect our dear brethren that's not with us. who are not
here because of sickness or weariness, because of body affliction, because
your providence, you and your providence keep them from here.
And so Lord, we ask your blessings to be upon them. We praise you
and bless you in Christ our Lord's name. Amen. Amen. Every hour of every day Every
moment and in every way I'm leaning on Jesus He's the rock of my
soul. I'm singing his praises wherever
I go.