All right, well, we've seen in
the first three chapters of Genesis, we've seen how the Lord in his
sovereign majesty and power and wisdom has created the world,
how he put man on earth, gave him woman to be a helpmate, We've
seen how Adam disobeyed God. He fell and brought the whole
human race into a state of sin and death. For by one man's sin
entered into the world. We've seen that. And then we've
seen gloriously and to our joy and our comfort how the Lord
God reveals that his plan from the very beginning before the
foundation of the world was to save a people from our sins according
to His grace and His glory, according to His purpose, and that He would
do it through a person that is identified in Genesis 3 and verse
15 as the woman's seed, the seed of woman. And of course, we know
that is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is both God and man and one
person without sin. that our salvation is by God's
grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the Lord revealed
in Genesis 321 exactly how he was going to accomplish this
so that he would be both glorified in every attribute, every characteristic
of his nature, his person, and that he would do it in a just
way, a way of mercy. a way of grace and a way of love
to his people, but also in a just way. In verse 21 of chapter three,
he says, unto Adam also and his wife did the Lord God make coats
of skin and clothe them. He slew an animal, and I believe
it was a lamb, because this is a picture of Christ. This is
a picture of how Christ, who would become flesh, God in human
flesh, God manifest in the flesh, how he would accomplish the salvation
of God's people, God's elect, by his death on the cross. That
he would satisfy the justice of God, mercy and justice coming
together, righteousness and peace coming together. And he would
do it through his death, and that's the penalty. Remember,
God told Adam, in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely
die. The penalty of sin is death.
Now that's the bottom line. Sin equals death. Righteousness
equals life. And in order to bring forth an
everlasting righteousness by which God would be just and justifier,
the seed of woman, Jesus Christ, would have to die and establish
righteousness for his people. And now we come to Genesis 4,
where we see the story of Cain and Abel. And boy, I'll tell
you, I've preached on this a lot, this Genesis 4 passage on Cain
and Abel. And each time I go back and I
study it, I'm continually amazed at how the Lord graciously has
revealed the reality of what this is about rather than what
I mostly heard coming up. You know, what I mostly heard
is that Abel was a sincere, dedicated person, and Cain was an insincere,
undedicated person, and that's why God received him, but that's
not what it's about. What this passage of scripture
shows us is what I entitled this lesson, The Blood Makes All the
Difference. And that's just another way,
again, of saying Christ makes all the difference. God's grace
makes all the difference. Righteousness makes all the difference.
So let's look at these passages. Verse one of Genesis four, it
says, Adam knew Eve, his wife. Adam and Eve, she conceived and
bear Cain. Now, we know that Adam and Eve
had a lot more children than just Cain and Abel. But he's
using Cain and Abel here. Probably Cain was the first,
Abel the second. We know later on Seth came about
and then there were others. Adam lived to be, what, 930 years
old. And so there were a lot of children.
And then by the time that we come to this passage, Cain and
Abel both, you know, a lot of times when preachers will, or
teachers will, when they tell this story, they look at Cain
and Abel as they were like young boys, like teenagers, but they
were men. They were grown men who had families. Now, how do
I know that? Well, they were coming to offer
unto God an offering, to bring to God an offering. And that
was the way God set it up in the age of the patriarchs. It
was really established in Abraham, but even before Abraham, the
head of the household, the male head of the household, was really
the high priest of the family. And he brought the offering of
God for the family. So here Cain's bringing an offering.
If he was a young boy without his own family, it would have
been Adam bringing it for him and for the rest of the family,
and Abel bringing an offering. So these were young men with
families. And it says she bare Cain. She
conceived and bare Cain, and she said, I have gotten a man
from the Lord. Now there's a couple of things
about that statement that Eve made. And a lot of scholars agree
on this, that what Eve was actually saying there when Cain came,
he being the first child, She actually may have thought that
he was the Messiah that God had promised back in Genesis 3.15. Some of the translations go like
this, I have gotten the man from the Lord. That is the promised
man. And then another possible translation
says I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah. That word
Lord, the name Lord there for God is God of salvation. It's the Lord who saves. So they're
thinking that Eve was expecting salvation, and of course we know
there were a lot of things that Adam and Eve didn't know, and
Cain and Abel didn't know, but they did know the gospel. They knew that salvation was
to come by the grace of God through this particular man, the woman
seed. But she says, I've gotten a man
from the Lord. So she may have been expecting
that, but of course we know that Cain certainly was not the Messiah,
wasn't even one of God's elect. And then in verse two it says,
and she again bare his brother Abel, the second, and Abel was
a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. Now
these two boys represent what I say and what many say, not
just me, but The fact that there's only really, you know, we look
around our world, there's different religions, different denominations,
different ways. In reality, there's only two
religions in this world. There's the religion of grace,
salvation by grace, conditioned on Christ, and then there's the
religion of works, and there's a bunch of them. Salvation conditioned
on sinners. And of course what we're going
to see is that Cain represents the religion of works. Salvation
conditioned on sinners. Abel represents salvation by
the grace of God in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
the lesson here. God is emphasizing here that
the only way of salvation, the only way of acceptance with Him
is the redemption and the salvation by His free and sovereign grace
in Christ Jesus, and that's a redemption by blood. And in that redemption
by blood, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission
of sins, no forgiveness. There's no salvation. And of
course, this is a picture of the blood of Christ. that Abel
brought in the sheep, Christ being the Lamb of God. So here
we have it. And God reveals that by nature,
we are all like Cain, aren't we? That we fell into a state
of sin and death, ruined by the fall, and that if any of us come
like Abel, we'll do it like Abel did. Abel was a sinner saved
by grace. This is another thing that we
need to understand. God did not accept Abel's offering
because Abel was a better person than Cain. The Bible doesn't
teach anything like that. God did not accept Abel's offering
because he was more sincere than Cain. God accepted Abel's offering
because it was God's prescribed way by the blood of the Lamb.
That's the issue. And that shows us that God has
determined to show mercy to some people. And he said, I'll have
mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I'll be gracious to whom
I will. And he says, so then it's not of him that runneth,
nor of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy. So
what we have here is sovereign grace, sovereign mercy. that comes from the mind and
heart of God alone without any consideration of the works or
the will of the sinner who receives this blessing. This is God's
way. And so here we see Abel, a keeper
of the sheep, he was a shepherd, Cain was a tiller of the ground,
he was a farmer. In verse three it says, and in
process of time, any time you see that, Some translations say
at the end of days. What that means is that in God's
appointed time, there is a time for everything, a time for every
purpose. Everything, the scripture says.
Why? Because God sets the time, so in the process of time, it
came to pass. In other words, this is not a
way of saying, well this just happened on this day by chance,
by fate, by kismet, by luck, no. This is God's prescribed
time. that he set forth before the
foundation of the world, and here's what happened. Cain brought
of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. He was
a farmer. He worked hard. He probably sweated. You remember God told Adam, you're
gonna earn your living by the sweat of your brow. He worked
hard. And you know what happens to us Cains in that sense. We become very proud. We expect
to be rewarded, you see, based upon our sweat. based upon our
works, based upon our efforts. But here's what he did, he brought
the fruit of the ground. Well, the Bible tells us that
Cain bringing that fruit did wrong, but look at verse four,
he says, and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock
and the fat thereof. Now, bringing a lamb, it's what
he's talking about there, a sheep, And the fact thereof tells you
what? He slew that lamb. He shed the blood of that lamb.
And it says, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his
offering. Now, the reason God accepted
both Abel and his offering is you can't separate Abel from
the offering. He accepted Abel's person, and
he accepted Abel's offering. And what was Abel's offering?
It was the blood of the Lamb. It was the blood that God had
commanded back in Genesis 3.21 when he killed an animal and
made coats of skin. In other words, Abel was coming
as a sinner seeking mercy based upon the blood of the Lamb which
typified the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
reason he says Abel and his offspring, you cannot separate the believer,
the sinner saved by grace, from Christ. We're one in the eyes
of God's law and justice. There's a union there that cannot
be broken. It was set up before the foundation
of the world when God chose a people and gave them to Christ. Christ
agreed to be our surety, our representative. He agreed to
come in time to be our substitute, the seed of woman, to be our
redeemer. And you can't separate the two.
God did not accept Abel because of Abel's works or Abel's innate
goodness, for he had not, listen, if God accepted Abel based on
Abel's works and Abel's goodness, Abel wouldn't need the blood.
You know, if God accepts a sinner based on anything in that sinner,
his goodness, his desire, his will, or anything like that,
then it's not grace, it's not mercy. We don't, you don't need
Christ if God can accept you based on, but he can't. Because
he's a just God. He's a righteous God. He's a
holy God. Yes, he's merciful. Yes, he's
gracious. Yes, he's loving. But never at
the expense of his justice. How do you know that? Without
the shedding of blood. There's no remission of sins. And so here's Abel. Christ's
blood represented in Abel's offering, the full payment of the sin debt
of every one of God's elect. His righteousness has been imputed
to every one of his elect. And like Abel, God is pleased
to reveal himself to them, and they all come before God, pleading
the merits of Christ like Abel. I've got in your lesson here,
why did God have respect under Abel's offering? Well, listen
to this. Number one, it was an offering of blood. which meant
satisfaction to God's justice, which meant righteousness established.
Secondly, it was a confession of sin and depravity, guilt and
defilement. You see, this is what humility
is all about. When God the Holy Spirit reveals
to us our state of sin and depravity, that's what humbles us. That's
what brings us down from thinking that we could ever be saved or
accepted with God based on anything we do or anything we are. That's the humility, that's the
fruit of the spirit. And that's how Abel was coming.
He was coming humbly before God, pleading the merits of Christ.
And then thirdly, it says, it was a confession of the inadequacy
of his best efforts to keep the law. I always think about Psalm
130 in verse three where it says, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, who would stand? That's how Abel was coming. And
that's how we come to God. And I think about that all the
time because no matter what kind of person we are, the best that
we can be, God cannot and will not accept us based upon anything
but the blood of his son, the righteousness of his son. And
then fourthly, Abel's offering was an offering of God-given
faith. He believed God. Do you know the worst thing you
can do is to disbelieve God? That's why unbelief is the mother
of all sins. Remember when Adam and Eve, when
Satan came to Eve and said, hath God said? God said in the day
that ye eat thereof ye shall surely die. What'd Satan say?
You shall not surely die. Don't believe God, believe me. And when Eve disbelieved God
and when Adam disbelieved him and took sides with Satan and
Eve against God, he dishonored every attribute of God's character
and glory. That's what he did. And so what
happens? Well, God gives his children
the gift of faith. We believe God. And that's a
miracle. I'm gonna talk about that today
in the new birth. The first evidence of the new
birth is a revealed knowledge of and belief in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that's a miracle. A sinner, dead in trespasses
and sins, being brought to believe God. And so Abel believed God,
and he obeyed God, and he came to God the way God told him to
come. And that was the way of grace, the way of the blood.
And then fifthly, it was an offering that typified the Lord Jesus
Christ, the woman's seed, and salvation based upon his righteousness
alone. You see, this is all about Christ. This is Christ in the Old Testament,
Abel's lamb. Abel knew, and the reason I know
this, if you go back and you look at, for example, Hebrews
11, where it talks about Abel. He's in the hall of faith there
in Hebrews 11. Abel knew that the blood of animals,
a literal animal, could not take away sin. Because he'd been taught
that by his mama and his daddy, I believe. and ultimately taught
by God, because that's who we have to be taught by, isn't it?
I mean, I may teach something here, or one of the men here
may teach something, but for you to know it and believe it,
God's gonna have to intervene and teach, isn't he? Ultimately. And that's how Abel learned the
truth. And this is Christ. You remember
the lamb, later on we find under the law of God given to Abraham
and to Moses, the lamb had to be a male of the first year in
the prime of life without spot, without sin. Christ died as a
lamb without spot and without blemish. He suffered and shed
his blood for our sins that were charged to him, imputed to him,
and that we become righteous in him. So that's Abel's lamb.
And that's Abel's offering. Then look at verse five. It says,
but unto Cain and to his offering God had not respect, no regard. Well, what happened? What was
wrong with Cain's sacrifice? Well, the opposite of Abel's. Number one, it was a bloodless
sacrifice. Denied the law and justice of
God. Secondly, it denied Cain's own sinfulness and depravity
and guilt and defilement. Cain was coming self-righteously.
I can come my way. You know, that's what happens.
When sinners come any other way, seeking salvation or acceptance
or blessings from God, when they come any other way, but by the
blood of the Lamb, they're coming self-righteously. That's what
self-righteousness, and so he was denying that he was a sinner
in need of the blood, of the righteousness he couldn't produce.
And then thirdly, it denied his need of a redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ, God's revealed way. Cain said, I'm gonna be
my own determiner here, my own intercessor. And then fourthly,
it exalted himself, his works, his efforts, and denied that
he, based on his best, deserve condemnation and death. That's
what we say when we come to God pleading the blood of Christ,
pleading his righteousness alone. We're saying, God, based on anything
else, I deserve, no matter how it appears, no matter how sincere
Cain came, I'm telling you, I deserve nothing but death and hell based
upon anything but the blood of the Lamb. And then fifthly, it
was an evidence of unbelief. disobedience. He refused God's
way of atonement. He refused to come God's way.
Well, look at verse six. Now it said in verse five that
God had no respect under Cain and his offering and Cain was
very wroth. He was very angry and his countenance
fell. He was angry and he was depressed. And he wasn't angry at himself. which he should have been. He
was angry at God and then angry at his brother Abel. And verse
six says, the Lord said unto Cain, why are you angry? Why
art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen?
Now listen to what this says. Verse seven, if thou doest well,
shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou do us not well, sin
lieth at the door, and unto thee shall his desire, and thou shalt
rule over him. Now, I don't know about you,
but growing up, I used to hear that verse right there, preachers
worked on that verse, if you do well. And basically, even
though they may not have used these terms, I came away thinking,
well, if I just be good enough, sincere enough, I'll be okay
if you do well. Well, what does it mean to do
well? Well, the number one rule of scripture interpretation here,
other than, well, I say the number one is Christ crucified and risen
from the dead. But look at the rule of context.
Who's speaking here? God is, the Lord God came if
you do well. And who's he talking to? He's
talking to Cain. And what did Cain do wrong? He brought the wrong offering.
So what is it to do well here? It's to do what Abel did. He's
not saying, Cain, you need to be a better person. Now, did
Cain need to be a better person, I suppose? Don't we all? I need
to be a better person. You need to be a better person.
Some of you may think you've reached the pinnacle. I don't
know, but whatever. But if you've reached the pinnacle,
what does God say? You remember, what is it, Luke
17, I think? He talks about the unprofitable
servant. You know what he said about that? He said, if you've
done everything that you should have done, you're still an unprofitable
servant. In other words, God still doesn't
owe you a thing. But how many of us could say
we've done everything well? We've reached the, none of us
can. But here's my point. He's not
just saying, Cain, you need to be a better person. Or, Cain,
you need to reform your life. You need to be more sincere.
That's not the case. As I've heard preachers say that
Cain was not sincere, first of all, how do you know Cain was
not sincere? It doesn't say that here. I do
believe he was sincere. I believe a lot of religionists
who don't know Christ are sincere people. But my friends, sincerity
without truth, without Christ, is deadly. I've known people, I've known
Muslims that are sincere, Hindus that are sincere, Jews that are
sincere. Yes, there are people who are
not sincere, I agree with you there. That's not the problem
here. The problem here is the wrong
offering. The problem here is religion
without Christ. Religion without the blood. Religion
without His righteousness. That's what it's all about. And
so when he says, Cain, you know, look what he says. Whatever he's
talking about doing well, it's the cure for sin. Because look
what he says. He says, verse seven, if thou
doest well, shalt thou not be accepted, and if thou doest not
well, sin lieth at the door. Now there's a little picture
here in the language, and it's kind of like this. It's kind
of like here you are inside the house, and on the other side
of the door is a wild, voracious, ravenous beast, just ready to
pounce on you and devour you, lies at the door. That's how
powerful sin is. And he says, and unto thee shall
be his desire. He wants you. His eyes are focused
on you. And thou shalt rule over him. Literally what that means is
you have a task that you have to conquer him, you have to rule
over him. In other words, if you don't
have the blood, if you don't have Christ, if you don't have
his righteousness, then you're on your own against this wild
animal called sin and you have the task of conquering him and
ruling over him. Now, where does that leave us?
That leaves us without any hope. Because the Bible says that without
God's grace, without Christ, without the blood, sin will finish
us. So what do we need? We need a
substitute. We need a conqueror who can finish
sin. And now what Daniel spoke of
in Daniel 9, 24, he will make an end of sin, he will finish
the transgression, he will bring in every, that's who we need.
You see, that's what God's telling Cain here. If you do well, do
what Abel did, bring the blood, plead Christ, that's the answer. And there's no other answer.
So he says in verse eight, and Cain talked with Abel, his brother,
and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose
up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. The first murder. And what was it over? Wasn't
over money. Wasn't because of drugs. It was
over grace versus works. You say, how could Cain hate
his brother? Well, what does the Bible tell us? What did Christ
tell his disciples? Marvel not, if the world hate
you, it hated me before it hated you. That's the hatred. And we thank God in his good
providence that we are, in our day and age, somewhat kept safe
from the hatred of those who would stand against us. We do
have laws. They didn't have them back then.
I mean, it was wrong to murder back then. But Cain had a free
hand. It's kind of like God removed
his restraint. and Abel was killed because of
what he believed. Thank God that we do have freedoms
in this country that we can preach and witness and worship as God
leads us. One of the things I fear, and
I say I fear it, but again, I know God's in control, but I could
see a day in our country, if things go somewhat the way that
they look like they're going, I can see a day when there might
be a law passed that would consider what we preach and believe as
being hate speech. And it is hate speech in a sense.
Not our hatred for others, but we preach, if you come like Cain,
you're not under the love of God. You're not under the grace
of God. That's an evidence that you're
under the hatred of God, the just law against you. God rejected Cain. And of course
we know, I know we see it, that this is God's purpose from the
very beginning. He chose Abel, he didn't choose
Cain. That's what the Bible tells us.
The only way we know that he chose Abel is because Abel brought
the blood, isn't that right? The only way we know that he
didn't choose Cain is because Cain brought his works. So what
does the gospel command us to do? Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Plead the blood. Plead his righteousness
alone. And deny yourself. That's the
whole issue. All right, we'll stop there.