Good morning, everyone. Good
to see you here on this beautiful September morning. As many of
you know, today is the 10th anniversary of that tragic terrorist attack
on American soil. Back 10 years ago on September
11th, 2001, hijacked commercial airliners were used to attack
our country, including bringing down the twin towers of the World
Trade Center in New York City, And I noticed today's paper was
full of articles pertaining to 9-11. In fact, in the weeks leading
up to today's anniversary, our local newspaper had ran a series
of articles that commemorated the 9-11 tragedy and the profound
impact it had on our nation. And one article that I found
particularly interesting pointed out how in the months following
9-11 that there was a noticeable uptick in people's interest and
involvement in religion, organized religion. And as is often the
case, as a crisis ends and things begin to settle down following
a traumatic event such as that, much of that reactionary surge
in religious interest has since subsided. But by the tenor of
the article, you could sense a common reaction, as you might
expect, that this newfound surge in religious interest was a good
thing. And there's a sense in which
we might understand it that way, but it seems to also, that reaction
seems to ignore the Bible's clear assertion that not all religion
is good. I think, like me, I'm sure many
of you have heard comments that were intended to be complimentary
directed toward folks that go something like this. At least
they're going to church somewhere. Those folks are just good salt-of-the-earth
people. They're good church-going folks. And while such sentiments, I'm
sure, are given in a sincere fashion, they do not reflect
the tenor of Scripture in this sense. When you think about how
we're warned over and over and over again throughout God's Word
to be on guard against false religion. And then in the epistles,
particularly, the deception of religion that even comes in the
name of Christ, calling itself Christianity, yet denying the
doctrine of Christ. Well, with that, this morning
we're going to examine the first seven verses of Ecclesiastes
chapter 5, where God, through the wise King Solomon, he spoke
of those who approach God to worship, entering the house of
God, but bringing what he calls there the sacrifice of fools,
whereby they, though unknowingly now, but nonetheless, they attempt
to worship in a way that is actually evil in God's sight. And so,
today I'm going to address this subject, when worship is evil. There are really just two types
of worship, and it's real simple. There's evil worship, and there's
good worship. When I say good, I'm speaking
of the worship of the true and living God in spirit and in truth. And these two types, good and
evil worship, they're mutually exclusive. Right now, you and
I, our attempts to worship God, they're either evil in his sight
or else our worship is viewed as an acceptable act of obedience
that redounds to God's glory. So this morning, let us all examine
our own hearts see whether our attempts at worship are good,
acceptable, and pleasing to God, or evil. So first what I want
to do is just read through this passage in Ecclesiastes 5, verses
1 through 7, and then I'll come back and make a few comments.
Beginning in verse 1, 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 a 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 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? For in the
multitude of dreams and many words, there are also diverse
vanities. But fear thou God." After I studied
this some, I decided it might be helpful if we consider how
these distinctions set forth in these verses fall in what
I consider to be one of, one or more, of three very telling
categories. as it relates to this subject
of when worship is evil. And again, we only consider when
worship is evil in contrast to when or how it is good. So I
want you to consider with me these three things. First, the
perspective from which we worship. In other words, I'm speaking
of 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 our own natural point of view? In other words, is it a Godward
focus or a manward focus? Secondly, I want us to consider
the source of truth or doctrine that forms the foundation of
our worship. Is it God's word, God's gospel? Or is it man's word, man's version
of a gospel, or man's perversion of God's gospel? And then lastly,
but not least, the offering or sacrifice that we bring. Now,
we know today we don't bring animals, literally, to be sacrificed
on an altar as God had commanded the nation Israel, for example,
under the Old Covenant. practice, that covenant, it was
abolished by Christ's fulfillment of what was being typified there
by the shedding of His blood. But there is still a sense in
which we make an offering or a sacrifice. And what I'm referring
to is the ground or the basis upon which we believe that we're
accepted before Almighty God because, you see, that's what
those sacrifices picture. And so it speaks to our ground
of salvation. And so that, our ground of salvation,
I believe can be described in one of two ways, not both. It
can be likened to either one, the vain sacrifice of fools,
or two, to that which is an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing in God's
sight. So as we consider this passage
now in more detail, I want you to keep those three things in
mind. I think they're helpful. in discerning
what constitutes the proper, acceptable worship of God in
contrast to the vain, foolish worship. Worship that God, He
calls here not only foolish, but He calls it evil. So let's
go back through these verses in a little more detail, beginning
in verse 1. There we read, keep thy foot. That means watch your
step, guard your step, take care. when thou goest to the house
of God, when you approach God to worship, and be more ready
to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. Now, I'm going to come
back in a few moments and discuss in greater detail the sacrifice
of fools, because it's very key to our understanding. But for
now, I want you to simply notice that here we're told to be ready
to hear, rather than the other choice being offering a foolish
sacrifice. I think this is an admonition
for us to shut up and listen, to kind of be blunt. And it's
given, it says, because he says here, of those that offer the
vain sacrifice of fools that they consider not that they do
evil. They don't realize that their
sacrifice is vain, foolish, unacceptable. If they did, they wouldn't bring
it. You see, they don't realize it because they don't consider. They do not even bother, they're
not bothering to evaluate whether their approach to God in worship
might be evil. And so they do not know that
it is evil, which tells us this, at some point, listen, all of
us need to be stopped in our tracks and hear from God. And to do so, we've got to hush
with our own opinions We had to set aside our preconceived
notions in order that God might speak unto us, that we might
hear a word from Him. As we continue in verse two,
we read, so 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. When I read that, I thought of
Moses as he led those Israelites out of captivity in Egypt. Here
they were, and Pharaoh decided to go after them with his mighty
army. Here they were, unarmed and backed up against the Red
Sea, and they began to murmur in distress as they saw Pharaoh's
mighty army approaching, saying, it would be better for us if
we had just stayed in slavery back in Egypt. And Moses said
to them, stand still, as in hush. and see the salvation of the
Lord. They saw no hope, see, no way
that they could get themselves out of it. He said, see the salvation
of the Lord. I'm reminded of Paul's words
in Romans 3, 19 when he wrote, now we know that whatsoever things,
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped. That's what the law
was designed to do, to show them the impossibility of fulfilling
that law, and that all the world may become guilty before God.
So until God shuts us up under the gospel, this gospel of grace,
we consider not, and therefore we don't know, that our mutual,
our natural, mutual and natural, inclination as to how we are
to worship and approach God initially is actually evil in his sight. That's why God calls on all men
everywhere to repent. So we need to not be so rash
also to speak in the sense that so many urge us to, as in repeating
the prescribed sinner's prayer, or making our so-called public
profession, or decision for Jesus, or doing our part, whatever that
is. It's so often is suggested in this easy believism culture
of religion, something that we can do to get ourselves saved.
You know, it's almost like preachers are offering up eternal salvation
like that comedian Larry the Cable Guy, urging their listeners
to just get her done, as he says. In other words, it's all you
got to do is the message. It's just this one little simple
thing. Say this prayer, invite Jesus into your heart, walk this
aisle, Make this profession to go get baptized, go through a
confirmation process, or adhere to a catechism of sorts, whatever,
something you've got to do. Now, we have to be shut up in
offering or heeding the natural opinions of fallen sinners, and
be brought in guilty before God, because you see, until then,
we do not even consider that our worship itself is evil. And
that in spite of the fact that the scripture is very clear about
that. We often quote from this pulpit from Proverbs 16. It tells us that our natural
way of salvation, the way that seemeth right unto a man, is
among those ways whose end is death. And I think here in our
passage, in essence, God's word is telling us this. He's saying,
think of who you're doing business with. It's God who is in heaven. You're upon earth. So let's get
this thing in the right perspective. You know that phrase, God in
heaven, it expresses his majesty, his sovereignty, his supremacy,
his creators, in contrast to us, the creature, far above us. It expresses his omniscience
and his omnipotence. He's all-knowing. He's all-powerful. And that's what we should have
in mind, you know, when we pray as Christ taught us to pray in
the Sermon on the Mount, when he said, our Father who art in
heaven. We should be thinking about who
he is, what he's like, and it's him that we need to hear from.
You remember those first two points that I gave you to consider
earlier. First one was from whose perspective
are we seeing things? Is it from Almighty God, the
creator who is in heaven? Or is it from our perspective
of things, from the perspective of the mere fallen sinful creature? I think our tendency is to assume,
look, I know how God is to be worshipped, but many of us can
say, well, I was brought up in a church, so we kind of set that
aside. Like, we've got that figured
out. The only thing that seems to be the issue which the preachers
are suggesting I need to deal with is I better get serious
about God and religion. And so at some point we are moved
perhaps to do that. A preacher comes along and he
tells us if you do this or you do that, you too can be sure
for heaven. You can get yourself saved if
you'll do your part. Some will say Jesus is knocking
at your heart's door. Won't you let him come in? And
so Many of us jumped on that bandwagon, and we got that presumed
requirement, see, checked off. And thereby we gained a false
sense of security in thinking, I've accepted Jesus, and now
I'm just fine. And we never even stopped to
consider it from God's perspective, to ask, how can a holy God save
me, a sinner, a God that can't commune with sin? what would
truly reconcile a sinner before a holy God. And if and when we're
blessed to start seeing things from God's point of view, we'll
quickly discover what fools we were to imagine that a holy God
in heaven could accept me, a fallen, depraved sinner, here on earth
on the basis of my having accepted Him. as my personal Savior, allowing
Him to save me. My agreement, that's basically
what is promoted, my agreement to let Almighty God save me. How proud to imagine that my
feeble responses to Almighty Holy God would be the vital,
determining, crowning event, see, upon which God forgives
me of my sins and accepts me into the presence of Him, a holy
God, that's to treat the precious shed blood of Christ as if it
is inferior and subordinate to whatever I presume really makes
the difference. Because I believed, because of
my act of faith, my acceptance of the deal that's offered. And
that is evil worship. And then remember that second
category I suggested we consider, how the source of truth distinguishes
our worship. There in verse 2, when he writes,
let thy words be few. Now some think that's addressing
those who would pray long and extensive prayers in public worship
in order to impress others, and that understanding may apply.
But I believe this is also a reference to the source of truth. upon
which we enter and approach God to worship. So instead of being
ready to express our opinions, as we read in verse 1, we need
to be ready to hear. And the implied message is being
ready to hear from God, not from you, the creature, or from the
wisdom and opinion of mere sinful creatures such as you and me.
Pay no attention to what I have to say to you except to the extent
it's what God says. That's the issue. What does God
say? What is His gospel that is to
be believed? Not the natural man's perversion
of the gospel. And so in verse three, he likens
it to a confused dream as he says, for a dream coming through
the multitude of business and a fool's voice is known by a
multitude of words. I know, I expect many of you
have experienced as I have, restless nights before when you had so
many things, major problems or just busyness, things at work
that caused your mind to race at night as you tried to sleep.
Maybe just the worries that we all face in this hectic pace
of life we live. And I think that's what's being
referenced here when it says that a dream cometh through the
multitude of business. This verse is a simile. It's
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 or busyness, likewise, a fool's voice is known by the
multitude of words. In the context of this passage,
we know clearly we don't want to be among the foolish. We do
not want to be one here described as a fool, because it's speaking
of those who are fooled, who know not that what they think
is good, coming to God to worship, is actually evil in God's sight. Listen, that's in keeping with
the entire book of Ecclesiastes that began with vanity of vanities,
all is vanity. Solomon teaching that everything
under the sun, apart from eternal salvation of Christ, is really
vanity, worthless, emptiness. And so here, this is speaking
of fools, is speaking of fools who, with their much speaking,
to the exclusion of hearing God, are so made known, they're worshipping
God in vain, foolishly. You know, if a believer talks
with someone long enough about religion, and they start to sense
that their approach is not from God's perspective, but man's,
they show, any time anyone shows an absence of a regard for God's
character in their gospel doctrine, in how they presume to be saved,
they don't realize it, but they are exposing that they are a
fool It's a reality whether men around them understand it that
way or not. And the sense of this passage seems to be saying
to us, to all of us naturally foolish sinners, that's how we
all begin, to set our own natural thoughts and many words aside
that we may hear from God. Now, look with me in verses four
through six. There it reads, when thou vowest
a vow again 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 shouldst not vow than that thou shouldst
vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause
the 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? When I read
that, I was reminded of all the stories that I'm sure you've
heard as I have over the years of folks who were in a crisis
of sorts. And in the middle of a predicament,
they'll pray to God, God, if you'll just get me out of this
one, I promise something. And it's usually something exceptional
in the way of reformation or perhaps in the way of just extraordinary
duty. And more often than not, as things
calm down, these are not followed through with. And men later explained
to God, well, that was kind of in error. You know, Lord, in
the panic of the situation, I was confused, and I meant well. And
I'm really going to do better, but I didn't. You know I can't
really do what I promised, because we'll promise anything when we're
desperate enough, if we think it'll do some good. Well, in verse six, when it says,
neither say thou before the angel that it was an error, I believe
he's referring to making excuses before the Lord, to the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, he's referred in Malachi
3.1 as the angel of the covenant. And so we're making excuses as
to why we can't keep that which we've promised. Listen, we're
under no obligation to make any such vow. We're told here it
would be better if we had not. And in essence, look, God never
God doesn't bless us based on anything we do anyway. And to
do that, as I suggest, is really, in a sense, a denial of the basis
of how God shows his favor upon a people. It may seem that now
these verses we just looked at, that they've kind of moved on
to a different subject. But in the context, I think he's
just again reminding us of who we're dealing with, God Almighty
in heaven. And he's not to be trifled with. He's not to be taken for granted
by our casually making commitments beyond our natural abilities
to keep. Instead, we need to hush. We
need to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Hear from
him so that we might learn of him. As we heard in the 10 o'clock
hour, we must be taught of his ways. So that our approach to
him in worship, our sacrifice before him, so to speak, might
be acceptable. That it might be a sacrifice,
you see, that's in sharp contrast to our being busy offering up
something that proceeds from us. Our promises, our determinations
to do better, anything that falls in the category of the works
of our hands, something that proceeds from us. And that brings
us then to the concluding verse 7, which I think ties these verses
back into the context when it reads, for in the multitude of
dreams and many words there are also diverse vanities, as the
whole book has been setting forth. But fear thou God. So he's saying, look, just as
there are various or diverse vanities, empty, worthless, incoherent,
confused thoughts in the multitude of dreams that come from a cluttered,
racing mind. Likewise, there are many vain,
empty, worthless, incoherent, confused notions found in our
natural busyness in religion and our going about to offer
what he calls the sacrifice of fools. Again, I'm speaking of
the natural religion of man from which all of us needed deliverance. The scripture says of that, doesn't
it say, we've all gone out of the way, that there is 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 offer the sacrifice of fools, whose very worship
is seen as evil in the sight of God. And in the conclusion
of verse seven, he says, instead of worshiping in vain, fear thou
God. Now that's setting forth what
is necessary for one to come before God with a sacrifice that
is acceptable, not the evil sacrifice of fools. So what does it mean
to fear God? Well, it does not mean to be
afraid of Him in the sense of being frightened or scared of
God. Rather, in the Bible, the fear
of God speaks to having a regard for His glory, a reverential
regard and respect for who God is, the honor of his character,
so that we might worship him not as we imagine him to be,
not as an idol of our imagination, but rather as he is uniquely
revealed in the person and work of Christ as both a just and
holy God and a merciful, gracious, loving Savior. And so, to fear
God is the opposite of remaining oblivious to, or failing to consider,
as we read in verse 1, our approach, that our approach to God might
be one that is evil. In other words, it's not to gloss
over it. It's not to the excuse the implications
of our flawed doctrine when we're confronted with it, as I initially
did, say, well, I can't be held accountable for that because
I just didn't think of it like that. None of us think of it
like that. That's what it is to have no
fear of God before our eyes. In the fear of God, you see,
we'll seek him as he is. We'll see the wonder of how God
could accept me, a sinner, We won't be focusing on whether
I've accepted Jesus. We'll start dealing with how
God could accept me and still be God. That's what it is to
see things from God's perspective rather than ours. How can God,
who is holy and just, accept a sinner such as you and I? He's
holy. He can't commune with sin. It's only through the blood of
Christ. the sinner's substitute, who
put away those sins by paying the debt for them in full that
was due unto them before the very 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, the
majority of so-called Christians, they'll say, as I once did, that
Christ died for everyone who ever lived. And so, by their
way of thinking, you see, in his sacrificial bloody death
on the cross, he really did no more for those who go on to hell
than he did for those who are saved. Now, the implications
of such thoughts are profound. They're evil. Such teaching,
and here's how they're evil, they have us imagining something
else, not Christ's blood, not Christ and His righteousness
made the real difference in our salvation. It shows no fear of
God before their eyes. It reveals that at that point
in time, they're not even considering how God could be holy and just
to punish Christ for the sins of any sinner and still send
that sinner, any of them, on to hell anyway. You see, that
makes God an unjust monster. Clearly, that Christ, he didn't
get the job done. He lied when he said it was finished
there on the cross. That would mean he actually redeemed
no one, because you see, a redemption is a payment in full. And so
there would remain then some busyness for the sinner to do
to make the real difference in their salvation, or so they tragically
imagine. Well, before we close, I said
I would come back to verse 1, and I want to consider there
again when worship is evil. As that verse reads, Keep thy
foot, watch your step, guard your ways. Consider this, take
care when thou goest to the house of God, when you approach God
to worship and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice
of fools for they consider not that they do evil. And remember
that brings us now to that third consideration that I ask you
to keep in mind. Let's consider the offering or
the sacrifice that we bring. Again, I'm speaking of the basis
upon which we approach God and consider ourselves to be accepted
before Almighty God so that we might worship Him. It's speaking
of our ground of salvation. And verse 1 is warning us, don't
bring the sacrifice of fools. That's evil. And yet, when we
all initially approach God, as we all did in our lost and blind
spiritual state of darkness, we had no idea at that time that
our worship was akin to offering the sacrifice of fools. As the
scripture bears out, we didn't even think about it that way.
We didn't consider that possibility and none of us do and none will
until God, in the day of His power, He brings us to hear from
Him under the sound of this gospel of God's grace. God's gospel. wherein His righteousness is
revealed, wherein we behold His glory in the person and the work
of Christ. So, as we seek to apply what
this passage teaches us concerning our own worship, think of your
offering or your sacrifice in the same way, that those literal
sacrifices were to be offered as recorded in the Old Testament.
Now today, as I've said, we know we don't offer the blood of animals
upon an altar. But how we approach God in worship,
the equivalent of our sacrifice or offering, so to speak, it
certainly should have in mind that which God intended to be
typified by those old animal sacrifices if it's to be accepted
before God. You know, this whole consideration
of what we're looking at today, distinguishing between an approach
to God that's evil, the sacrifice of fools, from an approach to
God that is acceptable in His sight, it's an old, old issue. And it's very simple to understand.
It's the same issue we have recorded for us back in the beginning
in the story of the first family and the two sons of Adam and
Eve. Cain and Abel. Look with me at that in Genesis
chapter 4. Beginning in verse 1 we read,
And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain,
and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again
bares 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. And Cain was very wroth, angry,
and his countenance fell." As the story goes on, those of you
familiar with it know that Cain, in his anger, actually killed
his brother Abel. It's kind of a side note, I was
discussing Cain and Abel with my, I have two brothers, but
my younger brother was visiting with us last weekend and I began
to. I was preparing for this message,
and I began to talk about Cain and Abel. We got to the issue
of why Cain killed his brother Abel, and as I'm prone to do,
I was rattling off rather lengthy in my one-sided discussion, and
finally my brother got a word in edgewise just long enough
to suggest that he thought the reason Cain killed Abel might
have had something to do with Abel talking too much. That's
not the reason he killed him, and I know I need to let my words
be few. I'm working on that. More seriously,
at the time that this took place, Cain and Abel were not young
boys, but rather they were the heads of households with wives
and children and occupations. They were performing the duties
of a priest and bringing their offerings. During this time,
the fathers, the heads of the household, were in essence the
priest of their families. And we know that practice from
the biblical history. We know it carried on into the
time of Abraham, and it continued up until the Old Covenant. Levitical
priesthood was established as God commanded Moses. And Cain
and Abel's offerings here were not the first sacrifices offered
to God for sin. It's clear that God had instructed
Adam as to how and where he was to seek atonement for sin and
worship, and how to approach the living God as he slew that
animal. As Adam and Eve, remember, tried
to sow fig leaves together to cover their shame after the fall. And he said, no, that won't do. And he showed them blood had
to be shed. He killed an animal and clothed
them there with the skins of the animal. You can read about
that in Genesis 3. And it's apparent that Adam,
in turn, had taught his sons and daughters. That tradition
we know carried on. We read in Genesis 22 how Abraham
likewise taught his son Isaac. So as their father Adam had done
before them, Cain and Abel, as heads of families brought their
sacrifices and offerings to God. Cain, he brought the fruit of
the ground that he worked hard to raise, and Abel brought a
lamb. Now notice there in Genesis 4
verses 4 and 5 that the Lord's respect and acceptance, or in
the case of Cain, his disrespect and rejection of the person and
the sacrifice are one in the same. We know from Scripture
that God is not a respecter of persons, so it's key for us to
understand what's the difference between these two sacrifices.
They both brought the very best products of their respective
professions, so Cain's Sacrifice being inferior could not be owing
to it being anything less than his best in comparison to Abel's
best. That's not the issue. While 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. So what was wrong with Cain's
offering? It was a bloodless sacrifice. And as such, a denial,
a failure to recognize, see, the necessity that God's law
and justice be perfectly fulfilled. It denied the need for a righteousness,
a satisfaction to justice for his sins that he couldn't provide
for himself. Just as we read in Ecclesiastes
5, Cain didn't consider this offering or sacrifice of fools
to be evil. He wouldn't have brought it as
an offering to worship if he did. And yet, this offering exposed
he had no fear of God. He was just not considering it
from God's perspective. He had no regard for God as he
is because it's apparent. that it didn't dawn on him how
insufficient the product of his own works were. Cain probably
saw no difference in their offerings. He probably viewed it like many
in our day, thinking that Abel was bringing a lamb because Abel
was a shepherd, just as he was bringing the fruit of the field
because he was a farmer. And yet, Cain's lack of understanding
of what was required unlike that which was reflected in Abel's
sacrifice, showed a lack of recognition, see, of his own sinfulness, of
his own depravity, his own guilt, his own defilement. His offering,
see, denied his need of 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 would be his own mediator,
his own intercessor, and so his offering exalted himself. I hope
this description of Cain is helping us to understand how that sacrifice
of fools is evil. It exalted himself, his own works
and efforts, and denied that he deserved condemnation and
death if he was judged on his very best efforts to serve God. He approached God on the ground
of his own merit and works. He worked hard. He was proud
of the fruit of his fields. And so his offering was not an
evidence of God-given faith, but rather was an evidence of
unbelief and disobedience, as he refused God's way of atonement
as had been taught to Adam, God's way of acceptance and worship.
And he brought instead what he thought was best, what seemeth
right to him. And so do many today when they
approach God expecting to be accepted because I believed,
because of my act of faith. Why did God have respect unto
Abel's offering? It was an offering of blood,
and it was in recognition of the necessity that a perfect
satisfaction to God's holy law and inflexible justice had to
be rendered by Christ's bloody death in order for God to save
any sinner. So unlike Cain, you see the significance
of his offering, it had nothing to do with being a product of
his profession as a shepherd. It was because he offered blood,
typifying the necessity of the shed blood of the promised Messiah,
the blood of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
And so his was a confession in recognition of his own sin, depravity,
guilt, defilement. He came humbly before God realizing
he needed a substitute. He needed a righteousness, a
satisfaction made to justice before God that he knew he had
no hope of producing for himself. And all of that was typified
by the blood of the animal he offered. His was a confession
of the inadequacy of his best efforts to keep the law, to perfectly
obey God so as to establish the perfect righteousness by which
God can and does become reconciled to a sinner where he can commune
with them, where they might be accepted into his very presence
in heaven. Abel's was an offering of true
faith and we're told explicitly that in Hebrews 11 For, there
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 sacrifice, he being dead, yet speaketh. And we better listen. Notice,
Abel did not become righteous by offering the blood sacrifice.
it gave evidence that he was. God having accounted unto him,
imputed to him, the very righteousness that Christ would in time later
on accomplish for him on Calvary's cross. So Abel believed and obeyed
God. He came to God the way God told
him to come, the way God tells all of us to come. So here's
the long and the short of it. If you want to know if your faith
is genuine, Consider your sacrifice. Consider your offering. In other
words, consider the basis upon which you approach God for acceptance,
for salvation. If it's by genuine God-given
faith, you'll bring the sacrifice of Abel. You know, to do that
is to be able to sing that old hymn, Nothing But the Blood,
because now, unlike before, you get it. You mean it. What can
wash away my sins? Nothing, nothing but the blood
of Jesus. By contrast, if your salvation
is based upon anything else, anything other than that or in
addition to it, to that satisfaction Christ rendered in His obedience
unto death, you're bringing the sacrifice of Cain, the sacrifice
of fools brought by those who've yet to see by the eye of faith
that it's evil. That pretty much summarizes when
well-intentioned, sincere religious worship is 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 wilt not despise. All who are
saved must and will be broken. They 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 those He saves. So in
keeping with the words there of Ecclesiastes 5, may your words
be few. May God grant someone new who
hears this message saving grace so as to have no other plea before
God in heaven than that of that justified, saved publican, as
recorded for us in Luke 18. You remember in that parable,
his justification before God, his very salvation, was evidenced
by his few words, his simple cry, God be merciful to me, a
sinner. May we truly approach God as
mercy beggars, seeking salvation based upon nothing but the blood.