Well, we'll talk about these
two brothers, Cain and Abel. Tell you something about sin.
Sin is never an isolated act. Never an isolated act. Sin has
fruit. There's a cause. Adam sinned.
First man that sinned. The cause was he disobeyed God.
The effect of it, the fruit of it, that every man that was born
from that day forward was born a sinner. born, shaped in iniquity,
and conceived in sin. And then not only is there fruit
in the sin of man, in the individual, but fruit and sin always has
fruit to it. And then there's sin in the family.
And sin, what it does, it contaminates, it spreads, and when it does,
it brings forth death. James said it like this, Lust,
when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin. Sin, when it's finished,
bringeth forth death. And in Genesis 3, the sin when
Adam sinned, it was against God. In Genesis 4, here when Abel
attained sin, it was against man, his fellow man. Sin against
God, and it won't be long before you'll be sinning against man.
You dishonor God, and you'll not have no respect for man.
And where there's no fear of God, there's no genuine respect
for the rights of his neighbor. Now here's what happened. Eve,
and Adam knew Eve, it says in verse 1, and she conceived him
Barak Cain said I've gotten a man from the Lord but our Lord has
singled out these two men these two men here and Eve thought
that Cain was the promised Messiah remember when God told the serpent
he says you know said I'm going to put enmity between thy seed
and the seed of the woman you'll bruise his He'll but he'll crush
your head. She thought this was the Messiah,
the promised seed. She said that's who she thought
it was. But our Lord has singled out these two sons of Adam to
teach all of us, every man, redemption is by blood. Redemption is by
blood. You know, it's the blood that
maketh atonement for the soul. It's the blood that God hath
given to make an atonement for the soul. Without the shedding
of blood, there is no redemption. And secondly, it's not only to
show us that redemption is by blood, but to condemn and show
the futility of salvation by works, by salvation, by what
man brings to God by his own hand. And that's why Simon Peter
says this, we weren't redeemed with such corruptible things
as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ
as a lamb slain without spot and without belly. And for by
grace are you saved through faith, And that not of yourselves, because
if it lest it be of works, any man did a man can boast about
it. And what we have here, and we see Abel. We see Abel here. That's the way of grace. That's
the way that God teaches his people. That's the way of grace.
And the way of Cain is the way of works. And that way is always
rejected. Always rejected. And here's the
crossroads that man has come to. This is the place that men
God brings man to. And he comes to this crossroad
here. It's either grace or works. By blood or by your own offering. And this is where God brings
men to. There's only two religions in
this world. Only two religions when it's
all said and done. There's salvation all together
of the grace of God. That God does it all from start
to finish or else salvation all of works and has nothing to do
with grace. And that's why Romans 11, 6 says,
if it's of grace, then it's not of works. And if it's of works,
then it's not of grace. Because you can't mix the two
when it comes to standing before God. And here's these two religions
in the world, and they both are manifested in these two young
men here. These men that are brought before
us. There's two religions. One's
of armor. That's Cain. One's a shepherd
and that's Abel. And this is the first thing we
understand. That God is to be worshipped
and can only be worshipped by sacrifice. By sacrifice. And look what it says now. That
she conceived and brought Cain. And verse 2 again it says she
buried his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of the
sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. One of them had
sheep, the other was a farmer. 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 the flock, and the fat thereof, and the
Lord had respect unto his offering, unto Abel's offering. And this
sacrifice is not only to be offered, and it has to be a blood sacrifice,
it's offered by faith. I want you to hold Genesis and
look over at Hebrews 11. I should have read this in the
beginning, but look here at Hebrews 11. God's to be worshipped and can
only be worshipped by sacrifice. That's why people always want
to bring sacrifices. That's why people want to come
to God with something. Look what it says in Hebrews
11.4. By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. by which he offered witness,
that says they both offered sacrifices, but Abel's was more excellent
than Cain's, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous.
Who witnessed that he was righteous? God witnessed that he was righteous.
The Holy Ghost witnessed that he was righteous. God testifying
of his gifts. What gifts? The blood, the sacrifice,
the lamb that he offered that day. And by it, by that sacrifice,
though he's dead, he's still preaching by that sacrifice to
the Lord. Now I want to notice three things,
three things about the worship of Cain and Abel. First of all,
there was a place where God was to be worshipped. And it says
there in verse 3, there was a place, and it says in the beginning
that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto
the Lord. So there was a place, and Abel brought his sacrifice.
There was a place that they had to worship. Because they both
went to the same place, and they had a time, they had a place,
and beloved, there's a place. And the only place where an offering
is acceptable now is in the sight of God himself. And that's what
they are, they're in God's presence. They had a place together to
worship. We have a place here together to worship. And I was
telling Ms. Shurgis, talking about on the
way to meeting this morning, if it wasn't for Christ, we would
have no reason to meet whatsoever. If it wasn't for Christ, and
who He is, and what He did, and who He did it for, there'd be
no reason for us to meet. And people say, well, and preachers
say, you need to make Christ your first priority. Christ is
not a priority, He's life. He is our life. There's no priorities
in anything. I mean either you're worshipping
God in Christ or you're not worshipping God in Christ. And so they had
a place and we have a place. God blessed us with a place.
And we all gather here on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday
night, special meetings. Why? Because we have a place.
God appointed us a place. And He appointed these men a
place. And no doubt in this place there was an altar. There was
an altar there because it says in verse 4 that Abel also brought
the firstlings of the flock and the fat thereof. And he brought not only did he
bring a lamb, but he brought the fat with him. You know why
they bring that lamb and the fat with it? It's because they
burned the fat. They offered on the fire. They
offered on the altar. They shed the blood and they
put the blood on the altar. And then they burn that fat and
that's a sweet smelling savor unto the Lord. So I tell you
what, they had an altar, they had a place to burn this fat.
And here's the second thing, not only did they have a place
where there was worship, there was an appointed time of worship. Look back up in verse 3, and
it says in process of time. Now you look in the Mark and
then it says at the end of days. There was a time, not only a
place, but there was a time appointed for those men to gather to worship.
There was a time for it. At the end of days, there was
a day when it says at the end of the days, it's time for us
to go worship the Lord. It's time for us to go. We got
this place, and so we're going to go at the end of days. And
then there was the prescribed means of worship. God can only
be approached and worshiped by means of a sacrifice. How did these two men learn this? Where did they get this from?
Well, look over in Genesis 3.21. unto Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. Now there's a gospel in that
verse of scripture. The Lord God, that's the first
thing that you deal with. The Lord God, He's the first. They come to the Lord God came
to them. And look what it says. And He
made coats of skins. Well, if you're going to have
coats of skins, somebody's going to die to make those coats of
skins. There's going to be a death. There's going to be blood shedding.
There's going to be an offering made. And then, beloved, then
they have to be clothed. Then God made the offering, God
clothed them. So how did they find out about
this way of worship in the place, the time, and the means? By no
doubt, their father Adam told them this. Their father Adam
from that day probably went to worship Just that he said, this
is the place that God told us to meet. This is the time God
told us to meet. And this is the way God told
us to meet. This is what's got to be done.
You got to bring a blood on them. God shed blood to cover my nakedness. God shed blood to cover your
mother's nakedness. God, he could put clothes on
us and he clothed us. So that's what's got to happen
to you. If you're going to come to God, you're going to have
to come this way. He came to us. You're going to have to come
in blood. You're going to have to come with a sacrifice. And
by faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice. Why did
he do that? He had heard what God required
and he required a sacrifice and he believed that and he evidenced
it by faith by submitting to what God said. Faith didn't save
him, it was the sacrifice. God had respect unto his sacrifice. And oh, that's why faith cometh
by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Everybody wants to come
to God. And they want to come on their
own terms. But God will not be approached on man's terms. He's
going to be approached on His terms. And look at the offerings
now, the offerings of these two men. And look what it was. Oh, the
difference is not in the men, but in the offerings. Abel's
sacrifice was accepted. The other was rejected. And oh,
listen. In verse 3, it said that came
brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. Abel,
he brought the first things of his flock and the fat thereof.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel's offering. Unto Abel's
offering. You see, the difference is not
in the two men. There's no difference in these
two men. Same mother, same father, same home. These are grown men. They probably got families of
their own and everything by now. But the difference is not in
the two men, but in their two offerings. Cain wasn't worse
than Abel. You know, he wasn't any worse
than Abel was. He wasn't an atheist. He wasn't
an infidel. He was a hard-working man. He
was a man who understood that you had to work by the sweat
of your brows to make something. And he was a hard worker. He
acknowledged the existence of God. In fact, he was going up
to worship God. And he was going to worship God,
but there's a difference in the way him and Abel worshiped. He
worshiped God in his way instead of God's way. He come by His
own way, by His own will. That's what's called will-worship.
You know, Paul talked about it in Colossians 3. He says there's
will-worship. And you know what will-worship
is? That I'll worship the way I will. If I, you know, somebody
says, well, we ain't, you know, I'm gonna worship this way. You
worship your way and I'll worship my way. There ain't but one way
to worship according to the Scriptures. And if your way is not God's
way, then there's no worship involved. And I'll say something
else about worship. I'll tell you something. Unbelievers
cannot worship. If you ever invite anybody to
come to a service, don't say, come worship with us. Just say,
come hear the gospel. Come attend the services with
us. Unbelievers cannot worship. You've got to know Christ before
you can ever worship God. You've got to have a relationship
with Christ before you can ever worship God. But here's what
he gave God. He had his will worshiped. I'm
going to worship by my will, the way I think it ought to be.
And in a sense he brought of the fruit of the grain. What in the world was wrong with
that? Well, first of all, his offering was a bloodless one.
It was good. I no doubt what he brought was
something. I no doubt he brought the oil.
But can you imagine what kind of garden he raised back in them
days? We raise an awful good garden now. And that's after
the earth has been under the curse for 6,000 years. He hadn't
been under the curse very long. So, I mean, they was raising
stuff that you just wouldn't believe. I'm serious. I mean,
I'm not trying to make light of it. But I'll tell you, you
talk about raising some fine garden stuff. He did. But his
offering was a bloodless offering. And without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. And when he brought the offerings
of the fruit of the ground, what he was saying was, I don't need
a Redeemer. I'm not a sinner. I'm not a bad
person. I'm not a bad person. I don't
need a Redeemer. I don't need the Lord Jesus Christ.
King, what he said was, I'll be my own priest. I'll be my
own intercessor. I'll be my own mediator. I don't
need nobody to go between me and God. I don't need no blood
to go from me and God. I'm not guilty of anything. I'm
not guilty of sin. I'm not guilty of unrighteousness.
I'm a hardworking fellow. I'm doing the best I can. I'm
doing a wonderful job. But here's the second thing about
his offering. His offering was the fruit of
his own labor. The fruit of his own labor. The
works of his own hands. The works of his own hands. And
you know what that is? He was denied that he was a sinner
before God. He denied that he deserved death. And he brought fruit of the ground
that had already been cursed by God. That's right. I want
you to keep Genesis and look over in Titus 3. Look in Titus
3. Titus is that little three book, three chapters, that's
before the book of Hebrews. Oh, his offering was a bloodless
one. You know, we sang that song tonight. Jesus, lover of my soul. Oh,
my. Vile and helpless. Oh, cover my defenseless head.
Oh Lord Jesus, and I tell you what, everything about this,
everything about what Abel brought was saying, I do not need a Savior. I do not need a Redeemer. I am
not a sinner. I don't deserve death. That's
what he said. But look what it says here, he
brought the works of his own hands, the works of his own doing. But this is what the Apostle
says, 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. That being justified by grace,
we should be made heirs of eternal life. And so here he comes, waltzing
into God's presence, Oh, look what I brought you.
Look what I brought you. Ain't this impressive? Ain't
this good? Ain't this wonderful? But oh,
he refused God's revealed way of worship and acceptance. He
refused. And the Scripture says we're
made accepted in the Beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in
whom we have redemption through His blood. So why did God have
no respect to his act? There's no difference in the
meaning. It was in their offerings. Why did God have respect unto
Abel's offering? First of all, it was an offering
of faith. Abel, by faith, offered a more
excellent sacrifice. Abel, by faith. He came believing. Well, what did he believe? Why
did he believe? Abel, it doesn't say Abel was
more excellent, but his sacrifice was more excellent. And why did
he believe? First of all, he believed he
needed a Savior. That's the first thing. He needed
a Savior. He knew he was a sinner. And
this is the way that God would accept him. I've got to come
with the blood of somebody else. And here's the second thing about
it, not only that, He was told a way to come and he came the
way God told him to come. But it was an offering typifying
our Lord Jesus Christ. This blood, this lamb he brought, it was a lamb
typifying the Lord Jesus Christ. And what it is, it shows the
innocent dying for the guilty. That lamb had no sin of its own.
That lamb never done anything wrong. But Abel had. Abel had sin. And Abel know that
if I'm going to be saved, somebody's got to die in my place. Somebody's
got to bear my sin. There's got to be some blood
shedding. There's got to be some punishment. There's got to be
death for my sin. The wages of sin is death. And
somebody's got to, you know, and I can't pay for it. I can't
do nothing for it. I don't have nothing to pay for
it with. But he said, I'll tell you what I'll do. God said, bring
a blood offering. And what did he do? He brought
a lamb. And it was the innocent dying for the guilty. And it
says the firstlings of the flock. That means that that was the
best he had. He took those lambs without spot. He took them without blemish.
He brought that very, just exactly like God said that he did. And
when he brought that offering, he was confessing, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner before God. And I deserve to die. But bless His holy name, He's
gonna take this lamb and His blood to pay for my sin. And that's what Christ did for
us. That's what Christ did for us. There was a place and it's called Calvary. There
was a time when the Lord Jesus Christ says, My hour has now
come. And there was an offering. And
what was it? It was Himself. Jesus by the
sacrifice of Himself put away sin once and for all by Himself
in the end of the world. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
says, They, Father, they deserve death. Have you ever felt you deserve
death for your sin? Have you ever felt how in the
world could God save me as vile as I am, as sinful as I am, as
awful as I am, as loathsome as I am? Have you ever felt like
how in the world could God have anything to do with me? Well, the only way He can is for somebody
to bear your sin. Somebody to bear your judgment.
Somebody to endure the wrath of God to justly do us for our
sin. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
Father, take me and let these go their
way. Let these go their way. Oh, I'll never forget today.
I'll tell you what I remember. You know, I know I talk about
no time no places, but I remember the first time I actually saw
for myself, by faith, the Lord Jesus Christ dying for my sin. Me. Dying for me. I remember it was early, early
in the morning and God opened my heart. God opened my eyes. And I saw the Lord Jesus Christ
by faith dying just for me. Bearing my sin. And you know
what it did to me? It broke my heart. It actually
broke my heart to think that as wretched as I am, that Christ,
the lovely Son of God, that holy, harmless Son of God, that sinless
man, that blessed, blessed person would go under into the presence
of God and take His blood and pay for my sins, the sins from
the day I was born and conceived in my mother's womb and pay for
my sins till I draw my last breath. And I'm telling you something,
I ain't got over that yet. I ain't got over yet. Have you? Have you? No, I ain't got over that. Yes, they deserve death. So I'll die. They deserve punishment,
punish me. They deserve to be forsaken of
God. Father, forsake me. And then he turns around and
says, Father, take all of my obedience, take
all of my righteousness, take all of my sinlessness, and give
it to them. Well, that's the difference. Cain brought the fruit of his
ground. I'm a good man. I'm not a sinner. Abel brought
in blood sacrifice. Put his hands on it and said,
Lord, I deserve to die. Take this blood in my place. Still it's requiring my blood.
Take his. Take his. Then look what happens
in verse 5. Look what happens in verse 5. And Cain was very wroth, but
unto his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth,
got very, very angry. And his countenance fell. Oh
my. He went up there smiling, happy.
Oh boy, I'm going to go worship the Lord. And I'll tell you what,
I'm going to walk away from here feeling so good about myself
and what I gave the Lord. I'm going to feel so good about
it. But oh my, God said, no, you're not going to have it.
And oh, and the Lord said undecayed. Why are you angry? Why is thy
countenance fallen? You think God don't see what's
going on? You think God don't know what's going on in our hearts
and in our minds? He's seen what... He said, oh,
He's always angry. He said, if thou do us well,
shalt thou not be accepted? If you bring the right sacrifice,
shall you not be accepted? If you bring a blood offering
like your brother Abel, would you not be accepted? And if thou
do us not well, if you don't bring the right offering, sin
lies at the door. Sin's right at your door. And
sin's ready to spring on you, and like a beast, devour you
and destroy you. That's what he's saying here.
And then he goes on to say, And unto thee, now talking about
your brother Abel, Cain's the oldest one. He has the firstborn,
he has the right of the firstborn. And unto thee shall be his desire.
Abel will be unto you, and you'll rule over him. You'll rule over
him. But oh, not with the sacrifices.
You're not this devil except you sacrifice. Bring the right
one and I'll accept it. And look what it says in verse
8. And Cain talked with Abel his brother. And it came to pass while they
were in the field that Cain rose up against his brother Abel and
slew him. Cain was angry because God refused
to receive his offering. Here was a man who had a form
of godliness but denied the power thereof. No genuineness, no reality. And oh, Cain believed he had
lost the birthright and didn't look what he comes to see. They
were out walking and talking in the field. And Cain rose up against Abel,
his brother. Killed him. Killed him. Huh? Oh, kill him. Instead of Cain going to the
Lord when the Lord said, Shalt thou not be accepted? Instead
of going there with a heart broken and his contrite spirit and confessing,
Oh Lord, please have mercy on me. I'll go back and get, I'll
go get a lamb from Abel and I'll bring a lamb. But there was no
contrition, no heartbrokenness, no confessing of his sin. And
oh my, then he slew his brother. Look what the Lord said unto
him. And the Lord said unto Cain, and you know when God asks a
question, he don't ask for information. He's wanting to expose something.
Adam where art thou? He knows where Adam was. He wanted
Adam to know where he was. And Cain, where is your brother
Abel? God knew where his brother Abel
was. He wanted Cain to understand what in the world he's done.
The Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother? And listen
to what he said. The first thing out of his mouth
is he lied. He lied to God. I don't know. I don't care. I don't know nothing
about Abel. I don't know. I don't know where
he's at. I don't know what's up with him.
Am I my brother's keeper? Am I supposed to walk around,
follow him around and try to keep him out of trouble and do
things for him? Oh my. You know, sin was healed from
his mother and his father and everybody else. But God was watching
him when he slew Abel. God saw him. God saw him. Where's your brother Abel at?
I don't know. He lied to God. I don't know. Lied, no contrition here. And oh my. And he said, what have you done?
What have you done? The voice of thy brother's blood
The voice of thy brother's blood cries unto me from the ground.
I can hear that voice of Abel's blood speaking to me. Speaking to me. Talking to me. I can hear it crying out. I can
hear it crying. It's going to cry out for vengeance.
It's going to cry out for justice. And look what happens. God cursed
him. And now you're cursed from the
earth. and all which has opened her
mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand." You're
cursed now? You think you've been cursed and the ground's
been cursed? You wait till I get through with you. And when you
till the ground from now on, it ain't gonna yield her strength
unto thee like it did once. He said, you're gonna be a fugitive.
Everybody knows what a fugitive is. That means that somebody's
on the hunt of you all the time. And you're gonna be a vagabond.
You can't stay one place at one time. You're gonna have to be
going all the time. You can't stay in one place. And oh, what
did Cain say? Now, now he's upset. Now he's really think God's done
too much. And Cain said unto the Lord,
my punishment is greater than I can bear. Greater than I can
bear. And that's what folks are going
to think. That's what people think. Oh, God wouldn't do this.
God wouldn't do that. Well, that's what he done to
this man. He said, my punishments more than I can bear. And oh, my. And he said, not
only that, but you've driven me out this day from the face
of the earth. The face of the earth won't even
do right by me. And from thy face. And this is
the awfulest thing at all. From thy face shall I be hid.
God you are going to hide your face from me. And I'll never
be able to look at it again. I'll be a fugitive and a vagabond
in the earth that it come to pass that everyone that is fond
of me, he's going to try to kill me. And the Lord said no, no
that's not going to happen. And he said, he put a mark on
Cain. And he said, whoever slays Cain,
I'm going to avenge him sevenfold. And I don't know what kind of
mark it was that he put upon Cain, but he put a mark on him. And he said, this is the man. And he's going to live all the
days of his life knowing, knowing that the earth ain't going to
treat him right, man ain't going to treat him right, and I ain't
never going to look at him again. And look what it says. Now, here's
exactly what happened. And this is what people do. It
says, and Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. Went
from offering a sacrifice and an offering to going out from
the presence of God, a fugitive and a vagabond. And I tell you
what, how many people, how many people go out from the presence
of the Lord? Just walk away. Walk away. Don't be in God's presence. Don't
be. Come worship God's way. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, thank you for allowing us to deal with
the truth again tonight. Salvation by grace or salvation
by works. Salvation through the innocent
for the guilty, or salvation by works, no middle ground. And oh Lord, please, for Christ's
sake, may everyone in the sound of my voice, and everyone who
comes here to hear the gospel, and we're our brethren preach
the gospel of the free grace of God in Christ. God bless them,
and Lord use them. that people will hear about what
it takes to approach God, how a man can approach God, be accepted
of God, be received of God. Lord, help us to always preach
that and let no one in these services go out from the presence
of the Lord and never come back. Oh God, don't let them go out
from the presence of the Lord. Keep them cleaving, keep them
believing in open hearts and understandings for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, my Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. See you Wednesday. God willing.