Good morning. If you would, turn
to Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Our scripture reading and our
text for the message will be taken from there, from the first
seven verses. And as you turn, let me convey
to you, Bill asked me to be sure and tell you all that he was
truly sorry he couldn't be here, but this little bug he's got,
apparently he lost his voice and you can't do much preaching
without a voice. So y'all pray for him and pray
for me as I try to stand in for him this morning. In Ecclesiastes
5, God speaks to us in these first seven verses through his
penman, King Solomon, saying this, Keep thy foot when thou
goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to
give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they
do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and
let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God,
for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy
words be few. For a dream cometh through the
multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by multitude of
words. When thou vowest a vow unto God,
defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools. Pay that
which thou hast vowed. Better it is that thou shouldest
not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy
mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, neither say thou before the angel
that it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry
at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands? For in the
multitude of dreams and many words, there are also diverse
vanities, but fear thou God. The title of today's message
is, When Worship is Evil. You know, contrary to the popular
thinking of many and the trend toward pluralism in our society
and in religion today, the Bible really clearly asserts that not
all religion is good. As we see here from Ecclesiastes
5, some worship is evil. This is talking about folks who
are going into the house of God to worship. You know, like me,
you may have heard comments that were intended to be complimentary
towards someone. It goes something like this,
well, at least they're going to church somewhere. Or you've
heard people describe others as they're good church-going
folks, you know. But actually, if you'll think
in particular about the epistles and the message there, those
sentiments really do not reflect the tenor of Scripture. We're
warned, think of it, over and over again through God's words
to be on guard against false religion. And in particular,
in the epistles, the deception of religion that comes in the
name of Christ. By that, I'm referring to those
who would call themselves Christians, as many of us do, but of those
who adhere to doctrine, embrace doctrine that is actually a denial
of the Christ of the Bible. Well, this morning, as we examine
in more detail now these first seven verses of Ecclesiastes
5, we're going to see that God, through King Solomon, we'll see
him refer to some who are entering the house of God to worship,
but bringing with them what he calls there in verse 1, the sacrifice
of fools. whereby they, and he indicates
unknowingly, but nonetheless, they attempt to worship in a
way that is actually evil in God's sight. You know, it's just
not natural to us to normally associate worshiping with anything
that's evil. But according to the scripture
and according to this passage, there is worship which God sees
as evil. So worship can be described in
simply two ways. It's either one, it's evil, or
two, it's good. It's the true worship of God
in spirit and in truth. And those are mutually exclusive.
So that means right now, me and you, our attempts to worship
God, they're either evil in God's sight or they're good. They're
viewed as acceptable acts of obedience that redounds to God's
glory. So this morning the challenge
is that we all, and all who hear this message, would examine their
hearts as to whether our attempts at worship, are they good, acceptable,
and honoring to God? Are they evil? Not how we might
just presume them to be, but according to God's Word. When
I was studying this, I identified what I think are three telling
categories by which these descriptions of worshipers here could be characterized,
at least as it relates to this subject of when worship is evil.
And that in contrast to when it's good and acceptable. So
I want us to consider worship in these three ways. First, the
perspective from which we worship. In other words, from whose viewpoint
do we approach God to worship? Are we striving to understand
and view things from God's perspective? Or do we remain consumed with
what's natural to us, our own natural point of view? the perspective. Secondly, the source of our presumed
truth or doctrine, our body of truth that forms the very foundation
of our worship. Is it based on God's word or
is it merely the word of men? And then thirdly, and perhaps
most importantly, let us consider the offering or sacrifice we
bring. Now, obviously today we don't
bring animals to be sacrificed on an altar as God had commanded
Israel under the Old Covenant. That covenant was abolished by
Christ, see, fulfilling all that was being typified there. He,
the Lamb of God, offering His sacrifice on Calvary's tree. But you see, there's still a
sense in which we approach God with an offering or a sacrifice.
And I'm referring by that to the ground, the basis upon which
we believe we are accepted before Almighty God. Because you see,
that's what those sacrifices picture. So it speaks to our
ground of salvation. And that, our ground of salvation,
it can be described in one of two ways, but not both. It can
be likened to, in our passage, the vain sacrifice of fools,
as described there in verse 1. Or else, it can be likened to
that which God tells us is an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing
in His sight. So, as we consider the passage
there in more detail, just keep those three things in mind. Our
perspective, the source of our doctrine, and what is our sacrifice,
our offering. And I hope that'll be helpful
to us in discerning what constitutes proper and acceptable worship
of God in contrast to the vain, foolish worship described in
our passage. Worship that God, he not only
calls foolish here, but he calls it evil. So let's look at these
verses in more detail, starting with verse one. It reads, keep
thy foot or watch your step when thou goest to the house of God
and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. Now I'm going to come back in
a moment and discuss this sacrifice of fools in more detail, but
for now I want you to notice he's telling us to be more ready
to hear rather than being so rushing to offer a sacrifice
of fools. There's an admonition for us
here to, if you want to put it bluntly, it's like he's, shut
up and listen, you know? And it's given because, he says,
of those that offer the vain sacrifice of fools that they
consider not that they do evil. You know, they do not recognize,
as none of us will by nature, that our sacrifice that we might
have brought at one time was vain, foolish, unacceptable.
And it's because we don't consider it. We don't bother to evaluate
whether our approach to God and worship might be evil. And so
we don't know that it's evil. But at some point, the Bible
teaches that we all have to be stopped in our tracks and hear
from God. And to do this, the admonition
here is to hush with our own opinions. And I'm not talking
about just the verbal expression of our opinions, but those preconceived
notions in our minds, those that we hold dear, we need to be able
to set those aside in order that God might speak to us. And we
pray that God will grant us all the grace to always do that,
that we might hear a word from Him. Well, as we continue in
verse 2 of Ecclesiastes 5, it says, You know, I was reminded there
that he was speaking to them kind of like Moses did to the
Israelites at the Red Sea. Here they were unarmed and trapped
against the sea and Pharaoh's armies in hot pursuit with all
their weapons. They started murmuring in their
distress and remember Moses said this, he said, stand still. In other words, hush. Stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. I was also reminded of
Paul's words in Romans 3, 19 when he wrote, Now we know that
what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law. And that would be akin to those
who would be trying to keep the law, trying to meet a condition
or a requirement for their salvation. He says, It says this to them
that every mouth may be stopped. Do you hear the extent of the
law? You can't meet the law's demands. You can't measure up
to the perfection that Jesus Christ He says, let every mouth
be stopped that all the world would become guilty before God.
So until God shuts us up under the gospel, we consider not and
therefore we don't know that our natural inclination as to
how we are to worship and how we're to approach God is one
that's actually evil in God's sight. We need to not be so rash
to speak in this sense. So that the sense that so many
urge us to, and when they say, well, you can be saved if you'll
repeat this sinner's prayer, or make your so-called public
profession, your decision for Jesus, you're doing some part
that you play, as really is often suggested in the easy kind of
believism of our culture. And listen, all that, and some
of those things are not necessarily all bad, but they're bad when
they are presented to you. Is that what you should do in
order to get yourself saved? It's the real difference maker
in your salvation. It's almost like preachers are
offering up eternal salvation like Larry the cable guy, you
know, let's just get her done. All you got to do is just say
this prayer, invite Jesus into your heart, walk this aisle,
make this profession, whatever it is, get yourself baptized,
go through this confirmation process or adhere to this catechism,
whatever it is, they're just saying just check that off. Now
we have to be shut up and brought in guilty before God because
until then we just won't think of our worship as possibly, we
won't entertain the idea we may have been mistaken or that it
was evil. But as Mark said during the 10 o'clock hour, the scripture
makes it clear that our natural way of salvation, when I say
natural and what's natural to us, I'm speaking of that which
is natural to us in the in nature, in the way we come into this
world. You know, all who are saved, the Bible says, you must
be born again. In Ephesians, it describes them,
it says, you hath he quickened, that means given spiritual life,
who were dead in trespasses and sins. So that means we come in
without the faculties of spiritual life. And so, in Proverbs, we're
told, there's a way that seemeth right to a man. That's the way
that seems right to all of us by nature. But those are among
the ways, it says, that ends in death. So in essence, God
in his word, he's telling us here in Ecclesiastes, think of
who you're doing business with. He said it's God that's in heaven
and you're upon the earth. So let's get the right perspective.
This phrase, see, God in heaven isn't speaking of geography,
but that phrase expresses the majesty of God, His superiority,
His sovereignty, His supremacy, His creator. He's far above us,
the creature. It's all of His character attributes,
His omniscience, His omnipotence. He's all-knowing. He's all-powerful.
And we should have those things in mind when we pray after the
manner of the model of prayers Christ taught, saying, our Father
who art in heaven. Well, let's hear from Him. Now,
going back to the first two points I asked you to keep in mind earlier. First, from whose perspective
are we seeing things? Is it from Almighty God, the
Creator who's in heaven? Or is it from our perspective
of things? That of mere sinful, fallen,
creatures. You know, I think our tendency,
I know my tendency was to assume, well, I know how God's to be
worshipped. Man, I grew up in church, you know? I've seen worship
all my life. So the issue to me wasn't possibly
that I might have been worshiping in a manner displeasing to God,
but rather it was just a matter of me deciding to get serious
about God and serious about religion. So some preacher here comes along
and he tells us, if you'll just do this or if you just do that,
you too can be sure for heaven. You can get yourself saved if
you'll do your part. Won't you let Jesus, you remember
that song we used to sing? The Savior is waiting to enter
your heart. Oh, won't you let him come in? If you'll just let him, he'll
save you. And so many of us will jump on that bandwagon, as I
once did, and we'll check off that presumed requirement, and
we get a false sense of security and go our merry way, thinking,
well, I've accepted Jesus, and so I'm just fine. And we never
stop to consider it from God's perspective to say, the issue
isn't have you, will you accept Jesus? How can a holy God accept
you, a sinner? Now that's the perspective we
should be thinking about. What would truly reconcile a
sinner before a holy God? And if and when we're blessed
to start seeing things, when God starts to do a work from
his point of view, we'll end up discovering what fools we
were to have imagined that a holy God in heaven, he could accept
me, a fallen, depraved sinner here on this earth, on the basis
of my having responded in some way to him. My having accepted
him as my personal savior, my agreement to allow God to save
me, think of how dishonoring. How proud to imagine that my
feeble responses to almighty holy God would be the vital,
really the determining factor, the crowning event upon which
I'm forgiven of my sins and accepted in the presence of a holy God.
Can you see that's to treat what it actually takes, the precious
blood of Christ, as if it's inferior, subordinate to what I presume
Cedar really make the difference, my act of faith or my acceptance
of the deal, my response. Well, that's when worship is
evil. Then remember that second category I asked you to keep
in mind, how the source of the body of truth distinguishes our
worship. Here in verse 2 of Ecclesiastes
5, he writes, let thy words be few. Now, some commentators I
read, they think this may be addressing those who would pray
lengthy public prayers to impress others in their worship. And
that understanding certainly may apply, but I believe it's
also a reference here to the source of presumed truth upon
which we enter into worship. The sense is instead of being
ready to express our opinions or to harbor our thoughts as
they are preconceived by nature, as we read in verse 1, we're
to be ready to hear. And the implied meaning there
is hear from God, not from a preacher. You should only hear from me.
You should be testing whether what I'm telling you is what
this book tells you, what God has to say in his word, not the
wisdom and opinion of other sinful creatures like you and me. The
issue is what does God say? What is God's gospel? His way of salvation is set forth
in this book, the gospel that is to be believed, that is believed
unto salvation, not all the many perversions of the gospel that
natural men and women promote. So in verse 3, he likens it to
a confused dream. He says, for a dream cometh through
the multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by multitude
of words. I'm sure some of y'all have had
restless nights as I have before where your mind's racing especially
if you had a lot of things happening at work the next day, or perhaps
just because of the worries and the travails of this hectic life
we live. Well, I think that's what's being
referenced when it says a dream cometh through the multitude
of business. There's a simile here showing that just as a lack
of sleep or a confused, incoherent dream may result from our being
too busy, from a multitude of business. Likewise, a fool's
voice is known by the multitude of words." In the context of this passage,
we don't want to be among the foolish or described here, one
like one described here as a fool, because that speaks of those
who are deceived, who know not that what they deem to be good
is actually evil in God's sight. Look, in keeping with the whole
theme of the entire book of Ecclesiastes, where we read over and again,
vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Well, they're worshiping in vain,
or foolishly. And they're much speaking, and
I say that to the exclusion of hearing God, I think is what's
intended here. It makes them known as such,
as fools. It exposes that. And if we're
blessed in time, God will expose it to each and every one of us.
If someone talks about their religious beliefs in a way that's
not from God's perspective, but rather from man's, in other words,
if they show an absence for regard for God's honor and character
in their doctrine, when I say that, their gospel doctrine,
and how they presume to be saved, they're thereby exposed as a
fool. Now, hopefully they see that
themselves, that they might repent. But those of us who've been delivered
from our own former deception and foolishness, we certainly
see that and marvel how we had not been able to see it before.
So the sense of this passage seems to be saying to us as naturally
foolish sinners, set your own many words, your own many natural
thoughts aside and seek to hear from God. Now look again with
me at verses four through six. There it says, when thou vowest
a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure
in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed.
Better is it that thou shouldst not vow than that thou shouldst
vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause
thy flesh to sin, neither say thou before the angel that it
was an error. Wherefore should God be angry
at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands? I don't know about y'all, but
when I read this, it reminded me of myself and maybe my teenage
years when I acted like a teenager acts and doing things that I
perhaps shouldn't have been doing, getting in some sort of predicament,
and then praying to God, and God, if you'll get me out of
this one, I'll do this, or I'll never do this again. Something
exceptional in the way of reforming or maybe some duties or promises
of service. And more often than not, you
know, When the crisis subsides, those things aren't typically
followed through with. As men later explained to God,
you know, Lord, in the panic of that situation, I was a little
confused. I'm gonna do better, but I didn't really mean to promise
all that. When you think about the silliness
of that, I mean, I'm guilty. Think of the evil of presuming
that we could promise anything to almighty God in heaven that
would indebt him to us. Well, there in verse 6 when it
says, neither say thou before the angel that it was an error,
I believe he's talking about praying, making excuses before
Jesus Christ. You know, Christ is referred
to in Malachi 3.1 as the angel of the covenant. In other words,
speaking here of excusing why we can't keep something we promised,
or perhaps why we fall short of living the way we should.
This isn't what it's about. We're not under any obligation,
first of all, to make such a vow, and it says here we'd be better
off if we hadn't. Now, you may get the sense that
these verses right here before verse seven are moving on to
a different subject, but I don't think so. I think it's again
reminding us of who we're dealing with. God Almighty in heaven,
he's not to be trifled with, he's not to be taken for granted
by our casually making such commitments that we're prone not to keep.
Again, he's telling us we need to hush, we need to stand still,
we need to hear from him so that we might learn of him, so that
our approach to him, our sacrifice, what we bring, what we plead
for salvation might be more acceptable. sacrifices in sharp contrast
to our busyness, our being busy offering up something that proceeds
from us, our promises, our determinations to do better, or as some would
say, our acceptance, our act of faith. And that brings us
to the concluding verse that I think does tie this all back
together, verse 7. For in the multitude of dreams
and many words, there are also diverse vanities, but fear thou
God. He's saying here, look, just
like there's various diverse vanities, empty, worthless, incoherent,
confused thoughts in the multitude of dreams that come from cluttered
and racing minds. Likewise, there are many vain
and empty and worthless incoherent, confused notions found in our
natural busyness of religion, and are going about to offer
what he called in verse one, the sacrifice of fools. Speaking
of the natural religion of man, that from which we all need deliverance. The scripture says of us all,
we all fall short, all sin and come short of the glory of God.
We've all gone out of the way. There's none righteous, no, not
one. And I believe that the abundance of words and the making of unfulfilled
vows are set forth here as descriptions of those who are offering the
sacrifice of fools. They're concentrating on what
they might do to find favor with God. And that worship is seen,
as we can tell from the passage, as evil in God's sight. But in
the conclusion of verse 7, he says, instead of worshiping in
vain, fear thou God. That's setting forth what's necessary
for one to come before God with a sacrifice that's acceptable,
not the evil sacrifice of fools. So what does it mean to fear
God? You know, in the Bible, it typically
does not mean to be afraid of God, like you're being scared
or frightened. but rather it refers to a reverential
respect and regard for God's glory, for the honor of his character. In other words, let's look at
this thing from his perspective, that he can still be God, just
and holy, and somehow he can save me, a sinner, who's anything
but. How can that be? And so this
fear of God, would have us regard who he is and find the gospel
he sets forth that answers that question. that we might worship
God as He's uniquely revealed, see, in the person and work of
Jesus Christ. We see something of God in nature. We see, when the sun rises every
day, we see He's a faithful God. But we see something in the person
and work of Christ, in His redemptive glory we see nowhere else. And
that's how He can be just and holy, and still a loving and
merciful Savior of sinners. And so, to fear God, see, is
the opposite of what was described earlier there, remaining oblivious
to or failing to even consider that our approach or our offering
might be evil. It's the opposite of failing
to think of things from God's perspective with His glory in
mind rather than my own. No, it's to have His glory in
mind. And he's telling us, I believe in this passage, we're not to
gloss over that. We're not to excuse the implications of adhering
and embracing false doctrine as I once did when confronted
with God's gospel and with the evil. That's when it gets to
you. When you say, well, I know I've been mistaken. I had come
to that point, I remember. But when I was confronted with
the evil of my former beliefs, I excused it this way. I said,
well, I just didn't think of it that way, and I hadn't. And
our pastor gently told me at that time, he said, well, that's
the point. That's what it is to have no
fear of God before your eyes. In fearing God, we seek him as
he is, and we come to this awesome wonder of how God can accept
me, a sinner, not dwelling on what I'm gonna do to find my
acceptance with God, but what he's done for me in Jesus Christ.
And that's what it is to see things from God's perspective
rather than our own. How can God, who's holy, just
accept a sinner like you and me? He's holy. Holiness cannot
commune with sin. Well, it's only through the blood
of Christ. the sinner's substitute, who
put away those sins by paying the debt in full for each and
every sin for which he died that was due unto those sinners for
those sins before the justice of God. It took the shedding
of the infinitely valuable blood of the God-man, God in the flesh,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, in our day, Many of
so-called Christians will insist, as I once did, that Jesus Christ
died for everyone who ever lived. And listen now, the implications
of that. By their way of thinking, see,
in his sacrificial bloody death on the cross, that would mean
he really did no more for those who go to hell than for those
he saves. Now the implications of such
thoughts are really profound. They're evil. They were evil
when I believed them, even though I didn't recognize them as evil.
See, for such teaching would have us imagining that something
else, not Christ and His finished work alone, makes the real difference
in our salvation. It shows no fear of God before
our eyes. It reveals at that point in time
that we weren't considering how God could be holy and just in
punishing Christ. Listen, How could he be holy
and just and punish Christ for the sins of any sinner? He paid
the debt in full for some sinners who he then laughs at and says,
but I'm going to send them on to hell anyway. That's not just,
that would be an unjust monster. He poured his wrath out on his
son for imputed sins, sins that were put to his account. And
every sinner for whose sins he died, they have his righteousness
put to their account. You see, we don't see how such
thoughts actually accuse God of being that unjust monster.
But clearly, that Christ, that'd be like in the New Testament,
it says they'll come preaching another Jesus, that Christ with
a little C, he didn't get the job done. That would mean, see,
he actually, I don't know why so many call him Redeemer, because
that would mean he didn't redeem, he didn't purchase his church,
he didn't redeem anyone. And so there does, under that
way of thinking, there remains some busyness for the sinner
to do, to make the real difference in their salvation, or so they
tragically imagine, again, as I once did. Well, before we close,
I want to go back to verse one again and consider this, when
worship is evil, in light of that phrase, the sacrifice of
fools. I asked you to keep that third
consideration in mind. Specifically, what is the offering
or sacrifice we bring? I'm speaking on the basis upon
which we consider ourselves to be accepted before Almighty God,
so as to worship Him. In other words, this is getting
to the ground of our salvation. Verse one, they're warned us
not to bring the sacrifice of fools, which obviously is evil,
though we consider it not to be so. When we all initially
approach God, when you first get serious about religion, unless
you've been taught under the gospel, you come to God in that
blind, lost, spiritual state. He has to give us life. So in
that state, we have no idea that our religion Any religious interest
we had at that time was akin to offering the sacrifice of
fools. As the scripture bears out here,
we just didn't even consider that to be a possibility. And
none of us do until God, in the day of his power, he brings us
to hear from him under the sound of his gospel of grace. God's
gospel where we behold the glory in the person and work of Christ.
So as we seek to apply what this passage teaches concerning our
own worship, think of our offering or our sacrifice in the same
way that those literal sacrifices were to be offered as recorded
in the Old Testament. We don't offer the blood of animals
upon an altar, that's been done away with, but how we approach
God in worship, in other words, the equivalent of our sacrifice
or offering, so to speak. certainly should have in mind
the same thing that God was teaching and typifying in those old animal
sacrifices, if it's to be acceptable before God. The considerations
see of what distinguishes approaching God with evil sacrifice of fools
or approaching God in a way that's acceptable in His sight. And
listen, that distinction is as old and simple to understand
is that which we have recorded in the story of our first family,
two of Adam's and Eve's sons, Cain and Abel. In Genesis 4,
verse 2, we're told, Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was
a tiller of the ground. 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 his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord
had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and
to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth and his
countenance fell. Now here's two brothers. They
were both engaged in worship. One's worship was acceptable.
That was an act of worship, bringing the offering unto the Lord. The
other one was evil. Cain brought the fruit of the
ground, which he had worked to raise. And Abel, he brought what
many think to be a lamb, an animal. Now notice from verses 4 and
5 there that I read that the Lord's respect, and this is important,
his respect and acceptance for these two boys, or two men by
this time, or his disrespect and rejection of the person and
the sacrifice are one and the same. He had respect to the person
and to their sacrifice. He had disrespect for Cain's
person and Cain's sacrifice. So that means this, what we're
pleading as our ground of salvation, our offering, so to speak, is
of paramount importance. It's key we understand the difference
between these two sacrifices. They brought the best products
of their respective professions. So Cain's inferior sacrifice
could not be owing to it being anything less than his best in
comparison to Abel's best. See, that's not the issue. Cain
brought the very best that he could offer, the fruits of his
own work. What distinguished Abel's offering
is that it was a blood offering. What was wrong with Cain's sacrifice?
It was a bloodless sacrifice. Now, remember, as Mark mentioned
in the 10 o'clock hour, God had taught Adam, when he killed that
animal, to give them coats of skin to replace their hand-sewn
fig leaf aprons to cover themselves, a metaphor for hiding themselves
from the wrath of God. So they had been taught to sacrifice. and to sacrifice blood. But Cain's
sacrifice, his bloodlessness, bloodless, I guess is the right
way to say it, is a denial, see, of the necessity that God's law
and justice must be perfectly satisfied. It did not see the
need for a suitable sacrifice that those animal sacrifices
represented. The unblemished lamb that they
brought to the altars. You see, it had to be one who
was suitable and capable. It typified, as John the Baptist
called him, the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. As we read in Ecclesiastes 5,
Cain didn't think of his offering as a sacrifice of fools. Who
would bring an offering that they know to be foolish and vain? He didn't think it to be evil.
Surely not. I mean, this was an act of worship. Yet his offering exposed he had
no fear of God. He didn't see the difference.
As far as he knew, his offering was probably just as good as
Abel's. It's apparent that it didn't dawn on him how insufficient
the product of his own works were. He likely saw no difference. It seems reasonable that he viewed
this like many others do in our day. They think Abel, he brought
a lamb because he was a shepherd and that Cain presented the fruit
of the field because he was a farmer. And yet that doesn't explain
the acceptance by God and the rejection by God of the two sacrifices. Cain's lack of understanding
of what was required is reflected here, unlike that which is reflected
in Abel's sacrifice. See, it shows a lack of recognition
of the depth of our own sinfulness, our depravity, our guilt, and
our defilement. The idea that anything that proceeds from us
could gain our favor with God or remove his disfavor from us
is akin to bringing the sacrifice of Cain. He denied his sacrifice,
denied the need for a Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, to pay
by the shedding of his blood the debt before God's justice
that was owed due unto Cain's sins. Cain instead would be his
own mediator. He'd be his own intercessor.
So Cain's offering exalted himself. It exalted his own works and
efforts, and it denied that he deserved condemnation and death,
not if judged by his very best, which he brought. to serve what
he thought was his God. He approached God on the grounds
of his own merit and works. He'd worked hard. He was proud
of the fruit of the field. So Cain's offering, you know,
Cain would have said he's a man of faith. He's busy about worshiping. And yet his offering was not
an evidence of God-given faith, genuine true faith given by God,
but rather of unbelief and disobedience in refusing God's way of atonement,
acceptance, and worship. And he brought instead what he
thought best. What seemed right to him, but
the end thereof are the ways of death. And many do that today. when they approach God expecting
to be accepted because of anything that proceeds from them, because
of their act of faith, or their exercise of faith, as if that's
the real determining factor. Why did God have respect unto
Abel's offering? It was an offering of blood in
recognition of the necessity, perfect satisfaction to God's
holy law and inflexible justice must be rendered in order for
God to save any sinner. See, unlike Cain, the significance
of his offering, it had nothing to do with being a byproduct
of his profession as a shepherd. No, it's what that blood represented,
typifying the necessity of the shed blood of the promised Messiah,
the blood of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
His confession here was in recognition, see, of sin, depravity, guilt,
and defilement. He had a need that wasn't reflected
in Cain's sacrifice. He had been humbled before God. He had been brought in guilty,
and he realized his need for a substitute, a righteousness,
a satisfaction made to justice that he couldn't produce for
himself. All of this is being typified by the blood of the
animal he offered. As Mark mentioned at 10 o'clock,
Christ said, Moses wrote of me. All of that old covenant economy
pointed to Christ. The scripture says the law was
a schoolmaster to point us to Christ. So Abel's offering confessed
the inadequacy of his best efforts to keep the law. his inability
to provide the perfect obedience that a holy God requires to establish
his inability to establish righteousness of his own. Now, we know that
Abel's was an offering of true God-given faith. Now, you might
say, how do you know that? Well, we're explicitly told that
in Hebrews 11, 4, where it reads, By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous." God testifying of his gifts and by it, by his
offering, he being dead yet speaketh. And we better listen. Notice
that Abel, he did not become righteous by offering this blood
sacrifice. It gave evidence that he was.
It says, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous.
That's a mind-boggling thing to me. God having accounted unto
Abel the very merits of what Christ would in time later establish
on Calvary's cross. See, faith is a gift of God purchased
by the cross work that hadn't happened yet. But by faith, Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice. Abel believed and
obeyed God. He came to God the way God says
to come to him, the way his word tells us to all come. So here's
the long and the short of it. If you want to know if your faith's
genuine, then you think about your sacrifice, your offering.
The basis, I mean by that, upon which you approach God for acceptance. If it's by genuine, God-given
faith, you'll bring the sacrifice of Abel. And to do that, you
know, is to be able, I never will forget when I first came
under the sound of the gospel and God delivered me from that
darkness. Hymns that I had, I grew up in
church, I've been singing all these old hymns all my life,
and they all of a sudden all took on different meanings. As
our pastor so often says, as he brings up that grand old hymn,
nothing but the blood. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. You'll say, that's to bring the
sacrifice of Abel, when you can sing that and really mean it.
Well, in contrast to that, if your salvation is based upon
anything other than that, or anything in addition to that
which Christ rendered for all He saved in His obedience unto
death, to bring anything else is to bring the sacrifice of
Cain. That's called the sacrifice of fools in our text. It's brought
by those, brought by many of us, before we had been yet to
see by the eye of faith that it's evil. Now that's when, for
many, well-intentioned, sincere religious worship, that's when
it's actually evil in God's sight. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 51,
17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and
a contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise. See, all who
are saved, they must and they will be broken, will be brought
to bow in the fear of God so as to plead Christ's blood and
righteousness alone, the offering that He made for all whom He
saved. Well, I pray for all who may
hear this message that in keeping with the teaching of Ecclesiastes
5, that your words may be few in this sense, that God might
grant you someone you save in grace, so as to have no other
plea before God in heaven than that of the justified, saved
publican that we read about in that parable in Luke 18. You
remember the Pharisee? He said, I thank God I'm not
like other men. I fast so many times a day and
all this. And here were the few words of
the publican that evidenced his justification according to that
passage. His simple cry was, God be merciful. That's propitious. God satisfy
justice for me. God be merciful to me a sinner.
May we all truly approach God as mercy beggars seeking salvation
based on nothing but the blood. Thank you.