Good to see y'all out today.
As you can see, my text is Hebrew, so if you want to follow with
me in your Bible, you can turn to both Hebrews and Genesis 4. Hebrews 11 and Genesis 4. It's going to be looking at one
verse in Hebrews today, but I think you'll see that it's a verse
that's packed with the scripture, packed with the gospel. So let's
look at Hebrews chapter 11 and verse four. It says, 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 he being dead yet speaketh. Now, we know
that Hebrews chapter 11 is the hall of fame of faith. I mean,
it talks about a lot of different Old Testament saints in here
who, by faith, did various things. By faith, Noah built an ark.
By faith, Abraham offered up Isaac, his son. And this one
right here, by faith, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain. So I can tell you what we'll
be talking about today. We're going to be talking a lot
about Cain and Abel. So let's go back to Genesis chapter
4 and look at verses 1 through 5 to review this story just a
little bit. This is not something we've never
heard about, of course. We know all about the story of
Cain and Abel. Look at Genesis 4 and verse 1.
And Adam knew his wife, Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare
Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Now, you
know, they were looking for the woman's seed here, so they probably
thought, hey, maybe this is that man. But I've gotten a man from
the Lord. Go on to verse two. And she again
bare his brother Abel, and 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. Well, you can see the
title is A More Excellent Sacrifice. So what we're going to look at
here today is four reasons why Abel's sacrifice was more excellent
than Cain's sacrifice. As you can see in the context
here of Genesis, Abel was a keeper of sheep. So his offering was
a lamb from his flock. Abel's sacrifice was more excellent,
first of all, this is the first of four reasons, because it pictured
and typified the substitutionary sacrificial death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Abel knew that Christ as the
woman seed. He was the promised Savior. He
was the one whose one sacrifice, One obedience unto death would
end all sacrifices. In other words, from Abel offering
this, well actually God had already offered the first sacrifice and
we'll look at that in a minute, but from the beginning on all
the way up till Christ came and went to the cross and laid down
his life, that sacrifice that ended all sacrifices, they approached
God by a blood sacrifice. Now you might ask, how did Abel
know about this promised seed? How did he know this is who he
was representing in his sacrifice? Well, he heard about him from
the first declaration of the gospel in the Bible, which is
all the way back in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. So let's look
at that. This is the first declaration
of the gospel in the scriptures. Verse 14, Genesis 3, and the
Lord said unto the serpent, Lord God said unto the serpent, because
thou hast done this, because thou hast deceived the woman
and led Adam into rebellion, because thou hast done this,
thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the
field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all
the days of thy life. And I will put enmity, that's
hatred, enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed. It shall bruise thy head and
thou shalt bruise his heel. Now, like I said, God pronounced
this curse upon Satan because he had caused Eve, he had deceived
Eve and he had led or caused Adam to rebel against God's revealed
will. He pronounced hatred between
Satan and the woman, between Satan's seed and her seed. You see, I underlined her seed,
the woman's seed. Well, that right there tells
us this is going to be an unusual person because the woman don't
have a seed. The man has the seed. So this
is going to be one born without the aid of man. This is the first
declaration of Christ and his victory over sin and Satan in
the scriptures. Christ would be born without
the aid of Adam, without any connection to Adam in a physical
sense. The scripture says, Behold a
virgin, a woman who has known no man, shall conceive and bear
a son. And it, it says, shall bruise
thy head. It is the woman's seed. It is
Christ. He'll bruise thy head. Christ
would render a death blow to Satan, which he did at the cross. And Satan would bruise Christ's
heel. He will bruise thy heel, that's
Satan, bruise Christ's heel, which he did by tempting him
in the wilderness and by tormenting him throughout his life and by
influencing those who actually put him on the cross and put
him to death. So that's how Abel knew about this woman's seed,
this promised seed. And something else you might
be wondering here, how did Abel know to bring a blood sacrifice? Because there's no mention there
of a blood sacrifice. How did he know about it? He
learned it from Adam and Eve's experience after the fall. Look
at Genesis chapter three and verse 21. This is after Adam and Eve had
sinned against God. And he had pronounced the curses
on all of humanity there. And it said unto Adam, also and
to his wife did the Lord make coats of skins and clothe them."
So this is the first sacrifice right here, made by God. He slew
an animal and he put coats of skins on Adam and Eve. When Adam
and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and their eyes were opened,
that means they knew they were exposed to the wrath of God.
They were naked and they knew they were exposed to God's wrath.
But they didn't come to God and admit their mistake. Instead,
they sowed fig leaves together. They sowed fig leaves to cover
their nakedness. And they hid themselves among
the trees of the garden. They tried to cover their sin,
and then they tried to hide from God. But God came to them. He didn't leave them in that
state. He came to them. And he restored them to the fellowship
that their sin had broken. He killed an animal. Probably
that animal was a lamb, because Abel was a keeper of sheep, and
he killed that lamb to show that sin must be punished. It can't go unpunished. It can't
just be covered over. It's got to be punished. And
he killed that animal to show that sin would be punished in
a God-appointed, God-approved substitute, a lamb without spot
or blemish, that lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And then God took the skin of that slain animal and he made
Adam and Eve coats of skin. This is a picture of that robe
of righteousness which Christ wove by his obedience unto death. and that's what God clothed Adam
and Eve with. The blood sacrifice that Abel
brought in his sacrifice declared that he had nothing of himself
to offer, nothing of any worth, nothing that made him fit to
come and worship God. That's what that blood sacrifice
declared. It spoke of Abel's unworthiness. It declared that he was totally
dependent upon the innocence, upon the righteousness of another.
He was looking to the one pictured in his sacrifice. He wasn't looking
to the sacrifice or to the blood, but the one pictured in that
sacrifice. He was not looking within himself.
That writer of this song probably had Abel or someone else in mind
when he penned this verse, in my hand no price I bring, simply
to thy cross I cling. Abel came not looking within,
but looking at the one pictured in his sacrifice. Cain, on the
other hand, was a tiller of the ground. He brought of the fruit
of the ground. He brought the best that his
hands had produced. Cain's sacrifice, his offering,
the one he came before God expecting to be accepted by, expecting
to worship God by, his offering reeked of self-righteousness.
It declared, I've done something worthy of your acceptance. I've produced something that
qualifies me, it makes me fit to come into your presence. Cain's
sacrifice declared nothing of his need of a substitute. That's
what every sinner declares who comes to God pleading anything,
anything you bring by your hands, anything you bring in your person,
anything but the blood and imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ for all salvation, for all acceptance. Cain was like
the Pharisees in Luke 18 who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous. The Pharisees in that parable,
you remember that's a parable between the Pharisee and the
publican, the publican went down to his house justified, but the
Pharisees went away unjustified. And likewise, Cain and his offering
were rejected by God. The first reason that Abel offered
a more sacrifice, that sacrifice that he offered was more excellent
than Cain, was because it pictured and typified the obedience unto
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw that in picture and in
time. Look back at Hebrews chapter
4. We'll go to the next reason. It says, By faith 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 he being dead yet speaketh. The second reason Abel's sacrifice
was more excellent than Cain's is because it was offered by
faith. Now, that means two things. First, it means that it was offered
in obedience to the revealed will of God. He came the way
God said sinners could come and worship him, in other words.
And second, it means that it was offered by the confidence
of one who's been given faith, one who's righteous, one who's
born of God, one who has the gift of faith. So it means that
sacrifice was offered by one with the confidence of one who
has true God-given faith. Now, first, Abel's sacrifice
was offered in obedience to the revealed will of God. Abel knew
how to worship God. He knew what God required. He knew what God commanded of
those who sought to worship him in public worship. He knew the mind of God on this
matter, and he knew this because he'd been taught. God taught
Adam the right way to approach him in worship, that sacrifice
lamb that he did, that coat of skin that he clothed Adam and
Eve with. He taught Adam, and Adam taught
his sons. He taught Cain and Abel what
they had to do if they came to worship God and expected to be
accepted. We know he taught them because
Abel came the way God commanded a sinner to come. He brought
the right sacrifice. He brought the one that God approved
and by which God accepted him and his sacrifice. It's not reasonable
that Adam taught Abel, who was the younger son, and didn't teach
Cain, who was the elder son. He taught them both. They both
knew how to come to God. Both sons were taught. Abel believed
God. He followed the instructions
of God. He came by faith. He came in obedience to God's
revealed way of worship. Cain, on the other hand, rejected
God's instructions. He rejected his father's teaching
on this matter. He rejected the way that he was
taught, and he came his own way. He said, I got a better way.
He didn't come by faith. He rebelled against God's revealed
way of worship for those in that day. Coming by faith first means
coming in obedience to the revealed will of God, but it also means
coming in the confidence of one who has God-given faith. If you
look back at our text there, You see, this phrase I underlined,
by which he obtained, by which Abel obtained witness, by which
refers back to the more excellent sacrifice that Abel brought.
Obtained witness means he received a testimony. The sacrifice Abel
brought was being a witness for him. In other words, it was bearing
a testimony for him. His sacrifice was testifying
on his behalf. That lamb that he brought, it
was testifying for him. Now this is the language of a
courtroom right here. When a defense lawyer needs to
strengthen his case, he brings in an expert witness. He brings in a renowned doctor
of criminology or child psychology, an expert, one understood by
the community to be a well-known person on the subject he's needing
an expert on here. This expert has probably written
a book or two, and the testimony this expert will give will carry
a lot of weight in the courtroom. And this witness is brought in
to convince the jury. This is a defense attorney. It's
to convince the jury that his client is innocent, that he's
not guilty. The sacrifice Abel brought was
his expert witness. His sacrifice gave convincing,
it gave undeniable testimony that Abel's worship would be
not might be, but would be accepted by God. And it would be accepted
not because of the sacrifice, nor because of Abel's diligence
in bringing what commanded. Abel looked beyond the blood
and the sacrifice he offered. He looked to the one his sacrifice
pictured and typified. His worship would be accepted
because his sacrifice pictured the one whose righteousness enabled
God to be just and justify sinners like himself or like you and
me. Unworthy sinners. Abel's sacrifice gave evidence
that his hope was in the righteousness of the woman's seed. According
to God, he'll save any sinner who comes the way Abel came,
with the sacrifice of the Son, whose righteousness alone enables
God to justify ungodly sinners. Look at Hebrews 7 and verse 25.
It says, God is able also to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by him, by Christ, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. All who come by Christ
will be saved to the uttermost. Abel came by Christ. He came
pleading the blood of his surety. That's why he came with confidence.
Confidence that he would be accepted, not might be. He was confident.
that God would accept him. The testimony of his sacrifice
gave him this confidence. Cain, on the other hand, was
not a man of faith. He didn't believe God's testimony.
He rejected God's way and came his own way. He didn't see his
nakedness. He didn't see that he was totally
unworthy to come to God based on anything found in him. Therefore,
he saw no need for blood. He saw no need for a substitute.
Cain couldn't see beyond the blood like Abel could. He couldn't
see what that blood pictured and typified. He didn't have
the mind to see that. He couldn't see. All he saw was
a bloody mess. So he brought what he thought
was better. But Cain was rejected. Under
Cain and his offering, God had not respect. Rejection is all
any sinner will find who attempts to worship God like Cain, by
the works of their hands. Any sinner who attempts to worship
God based on anything but the shed blood and imputed righteousness
of Christ. Now, that's the second reason
that Abel's sacrifice was more excellent than Cain's, because
it was offered by faith. Now, how could Abel? How can
any regenerate sinner come with the confidence with which Abel
came? How can we do that? How is that
possible? Well, it's because of what our
sacrifice testifies. The third reason Abel's sacrifice
was more excellent than Cain's is because it testified. It gave
convincing evidence that Abel was righteous. If you look back
I've underlined another phrase here. Well, it's probably the
same phrase we already looked at, but look back at Hebrews
4.11. It says, By which Abel obtained witness that he was
righteous. It testified something of Abel.
His sacrifice did. Abel brought the blood of a lamb.
His sacrifice pictured the substitutionary death of Christ. His sacrifice
declared that his hope of salvation was in the imputed righteousness
of his substitute. Abel's sacrifice was his expert
witness, and his expert witness testified that Abel was righteous,
you see. He obtained witness by the sacrifice
he offered that he was righteous. Further proof, further convincing
here. God, the judge, confirmed the
testimony of Abel's witness. God himself testified of Abel's
gifts. God testifying of his gifts,
it says. And how did God do that? How
did God testify of Abel's gifts? Look back at Genesis 4 and verse
4. It says in Abel, he also brought
of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof, and the
Lord had respect unto Abel, and unto his offering. God had respect
unto Abel, and he had respect unto Abel's offering. God first
accepted Abel's person. Therefore, because he accepted
his person, then he accepted his offering. Now he wouldn't
have accepted Abel's offering if Abel had not already been
accepted before God. So how could Abel's person already
be accepted before he brought an offering? How is that possible?
Well, it's because Abel's acceptance didn't depend on his offering.
God has to overcome our natural way of thinking right here. All
of us by nature think the way Cain thought. We think this way. We think we bring the offering.
We come to God hoping. and then God accepts us. That's
the way we think. But it's just the opposite of
that. Look at Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 6. Abel's acceptance was in the
Beloved. Abel, like each of God's elect,
was already accepted in Christ. Well, he was accepted in Christ
before the world began. I started to say already accepted
in Christ before the world began, and I guess that's okay, too.
Look at Ephesians 1, 3 through 6 here. It says, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him. in love having
predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself,
according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of
the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved, before the foundation of the world. Every sinner God
chose, every sinner represented by Christ was already accepted
in the beloved, accepted in Christ. And those whom God has accepted
in the beloved, before the world began, those will, in time, plead
the merits of Christ's blood and righteousness. All that the
Father has given to Christ will, in time, come to Christ. Christ
will be their sacrifice. Christ will be their offering
to God. They will come to God, a just God and Savior, and God,
having accepted them in Christ before the foundation of the
world, will have respect unto. He will accept them and their
offering just like he did Abel's. Because Abel was already accepted,
he brought the sacrifice that pictured Christ. The one in whom
he found his acceptance. And the sacrifice he brought
testified on his behalf. It was his expert witness that
he was righteous. Now there's something we need
to be clear on here. Abel's sacrifice didn't make
him righteous. His bringing what God commanded
didn't make him righteous. It didn't form any part of his
righteousness. His sacrifice made up no part
of his righteousness. Abel's sacrifice only pictured
the one by which God declared him righteous. God accepted Abel
because he was already righteous. He was righteous based on the
imputed righteousness of Christ. He was righteous because God
had made him righteous, legally constituted, legally accounted
him righteous. Romans 5.19 says, by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. Made. Second Corinthians 5.21,
which I'm sure you can quote or God made him to be sin, who
knew no sin, that we should be made the righteousness of God
in him, legally accounted. There's only one way, one way
for a sinner to be declared righteous by God. It's not by anything
from his hand, it's not by anything found in him, but it's by the
imputed righteousness of Christ. Now, there's a good article in
your bulletin today by John Gill on imputed righteousness. I hope
you'll read that. That's good. I read it just a
few minutes ago. God accepted Abel's offering
because his offering declared that his hope was in the blood,
the imputed righteousness of Christ alone. And by his offering,
by that, his offering declared, it testified for Abel that he
was righteous. Cain, on the other hand, was
far from righteousness. rebelled against God's way of
salvation. God rejected Cain. God rejected
Cain's person, and he rejected Cain's offering. That rejection
angered Cain. He got mad at God, and he killed
his brother. He couldn't kill God, so he killed
Abel. And according to the scriptures, he did so because his works were
evil. That's what God declares of Cain.
Look at 1 John 3, verses 11 and 12. John writes, for this is the
message that you heard from the beginning that we should love
one another, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one and slew
his brother. And wherefore, or why, slew he him? Why did he
slay Abel? Because his own works were evil,
and his brothers righteous. The only works recorded about
Cain are religious works. We don't know anything else about
Cain. He brought an offering to the Lord. He brought of the
fruit of the ground. He brought of the works of his
hands. He came to worship God. Contrary to our thinking by nature,
all of us, every one of us, grew up under the message of Cain. We all walked in the evil of
Cain. We were all taught the ways of
Cain. Look at Jeremiah 13 in verse
23. It says, can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard
his spots? The answer to both of those is
emphatically no, no way. Then may you also do good that
are accustomed to do evil. That word accustomed means taught. You're taught to do evil. We've
all been taught to do evil. Our minds taught us, our religion
taught us, our parents taught us. We've been taught the way
of Cain. By nature, we don't like to hear we're like Cain.
We like to hear we're like Abel. We don't want to be associated
with Cain. He was a murderer. We don't want to be in any kind
of relationship with him. But in reality, we were taught
to bring the works of our hands. That's what we were all taught
by nature. There's none righteous. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's no fear of God before our eyes. This is a summary of
Romans 3, verses 10 through 18, and these things are spoken of
all without exception. None of us was looking for a
just God and Savior when we came to the gospel. We had a different
God in our mind. We had an idol of our imaginations.
God has to teach sinners His way of salvation, and until He
does, all walk in the ways of Cain. That's why we can be thankful
for the last point in this lesson. Here's the third reason though
why Cain's sacrifice was more excellent, Abel's sacrifice was
more excellent than Cain, because his sacrifice testified, it gave
convincing evidence that Abel was righteous. Cain's sacrifice
testified that he was evil. Now, the last reason why Abel's
sacrifice was more excellent, because by his sacrifice, Abel
Still speaks. He's still speaking. That message
is still being heralded. You see that last phrase I underlined
in Hebrews 11 and verse 4? And by it Abel, being dead, yet
speaketh. That by it is by his sacrifice.
Although Abel's dead and gone, yet his message still rings loud
and clear. It's still being heard. It's
still going out. It's still being proclaimed. Abel still speaks
through the message that he rang out, because the message he rang
out, it's the gospel. It's the gospel message. It's
the gospel, it's the good news of how God is just to justify
ungodly sinners like Abel, like you and me. And yet be righteous,
just in the process, because he doesn't look within us. He
doesn't look at the work of our hands. He looks at the work,
the obedience unto death of Christ alone. Abel is still, even to
this day, proclaiming Because according to God's testimony,
Abel's way is the only way a sinner can worship God. There is no
other way, but the way Abel came. Look at Hebrews chapter 11 and
verse 6. It says, but without faith it's
impossible to please him, please God. For he that cometh to God
must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. Now, the last verse in chapter
11 and verse 5 is talking about Enoch. Enoch was translated. He was taken up without death,
in other words. And he was gone, but before God
took him, before God translated him, he had this testimony that
he pleased God. And that's what leads into this,
but without faith, it's impossible to please God. Because he that
cometh to God must believe that God is. He must believe that
God is who he declares himself to be. You cannot come to God
until you come to him by faith. You can't come to God until you
know, until you are persuaded that he justifies the ungodly
based on the imputed righteousness of Christ alone. You can't come
to God until he has excluded anything from your hands as forming
any part of your acceptance with God. A just God and a savior
is what distinguishes God from the idols of men's imagination. He said, look unto me, and Isaiah,
and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. I am God, there's
none else, a just God and a savior. Abel's sacrifice pictured the
one by whose righteousness imputed God declares otherwise ungodly
sinners righteous in his sight. Abel came by faith. He came in
obedience to God's revealed way of worship. And he came confident
that God would accept his worship. Not because of the sacrifice
he brought, but what that sacrifice pictured and typified. And he
was confident because his sacrifice testified that he was righteous. Abel still speaks to this sacrifice
every time a gospel message is delivered in this world. Look
back at Hebrews one last time and I'll close. 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 that sacrifice he being dead yet speaketh. I
would encourage all listening to learn Abel's way of worship. Learn of the Christ Abel looked
to. Learn of the righteousness Abel rested in. Learn all you
can about Abel's more excellent sacrifice.