My joy and pleasure. Would you
turn to Genesis chapter four? Genesis chapter four. And Adam knew Eve, his wife,
and she conceived and bear Cain and said, I have gotten a man
from the Lord. And she again bare his brother,
Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller or a worker of the ground. And in process
of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of
the ground. and 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
had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and
his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain,
Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou
not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin
lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire,
and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel, his
brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that
Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain,
Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know. Where is
Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I
my brother's keeper? And he said, what hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood
crieth to me from the ground. Now, let me remind you, 2 Timothy
3.16 lets us know that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. There's nothing in this book
that is unnecessary. There's nothing in this book
of secondary importance. I become so irritated when I
hear a preacher announce something in the word of God as being of
secondary importance. You can make that call? I don't
think so. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. Now, there is no scripture that
is more important than the story of Cain and Abel. This is the
first story given after the fall, as we considered last week. And
the teaching in this story is how God is to be worshiped. I wanna know that, don't you?
And have God is to be approached. What could be more important
than that? Have God is to be worshiped and have God is to
be approached. Now, Cain and Abel are the two
representative men. Me and you are either a Cain
or an Abel right now. Every man, every woman, every
boy, every girl falls into one of these two men. I am right
now either Cain or I am right now an Abel. Now Cain and Abel
represent the righteous and the wicked. Now listen to these scriptures
with regard to Abel. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. God testified of his gifts. This was God's testimony concerning
Abel. God said this with regard to
this man, he's righteous. When The Lord Jesus Christ describes
Abel. He spoke of the blood of righteous
Abel. Now, what is said with regard
to Cain? Cain represents the wicked. When
Jude warns of false prophets, he speaks of them that have gone
the way of Cain. When John speaks of Cain, he
says he was of that wicked one. You know the way the Lord said
to the Pharisees, you're of your father the devil, well that is
Cain. He was of that wicked one. Now here we have the righteous,
Abel. We have the wicked, Cain. And I've said this before and
I love saying this. All the righteous, believe themselves
to be wicked and all the wicked believe themselves to be righteous
and Cain and Abel exemplify that now somebody says now I know
somebody that doesn't believe he's righteous he glories in
his wickedness and you've been around people like that they're
almost proud of how sinful they are and how corrupt they are
and almost glory in it. Well, those very same people
believe they could be righteous if they wanted to be. So that's
the difference. All the righteous, like Abel,
believe themselves to be wicked. And all of the wicked, like Cain,
believe themselves to be righteous. Now in chapter four, verse one,
And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived. And Bear came. His name means acquired, purchased. That gives us some insight into
his character. I've acquired something. When
you acquire something, you earned it. You purchased it. It's what
you have coming to you. And she said, I've gotten a man
from the Lord. And I don't have any doubt what
she meant by that. She thought of the promise made
in Genesis 3 15. The seed of woman shall bruise
the serpent's head. And she thought, I've got him.
I've got him. I've acquired this man from the
Lord. She was excited about that. Verse two, and she bare again
his brother, Abel. Now, Abel, I guess, was an afterthought.
He wasn't as important, but you know what Abel means? Vanity. Now, why would she name her son
Vanity? I don't know, but she named him Vanity, and I have
no doubt that Abel thought that name went well with him. He thought
he was a vain person in need of the grace of God, in need
of God doing something for him. And then we're given this information
about Abel and Cain. And Abel was a keeper of sheep. He was a shepherd, but Cain was
a tiller of the ground. He was a worker of the ground.
He worked in that which God had already cursed. Remember how
God said in Genesis chapter three, curse would be the ground for
thy sake. What he brought to God by his works and his efforts
was really only that which God had already cursed and could
not possibly be accepted by the living God. Verse three, and
in process of time, in the end of days. Now what this lets us
know is there's always been a set time for public worship. That's what he's talking about,
is the end of the days was the set time when these offerings
were supposed to be brought. In the end, in the process of
time, it came to pass. That's one of my favorite statements
in scripture, it came to pass. God purposed it, it came to pass. That's true with regard to everything
that takes place. God purposed it. It came to pass. He is the first cause of everything. God purposed it. It came to pass. That 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. Now here we have the offerings
these two boys brought. And in reality, you can tell
everything about somebody by the offering they bring. brought of the fruit of the ground. This represents his best, his
best efforts, his best works. He thought God can accept this.
I accept it, I see it's beautiful. Surely God can. You see, you
can't separate this man from his offering because if you bring
your works, what you say by that is God is not as holy as the
Bible presents him to be. I can come into his presence,
he can accept me. and you demonstrate such a high
opinion of yourself that you can come into God's presence
and bring something that has your fingerprint on it, that
has your stamp on it, that you did. That's what Cain did. He brought his works and Abel
brought nothing but the blood of a sacrifice. Now these are
the two religions. It's that simple. Works and grace. They're only two religions. Works
make salvation in some way ultimately dependent upon me doing something. It won't happen unless I am able
to do something. Grace makes salvation completely
dependent upon what Christ has done. Works, what I do. Grace, what Christ has done. Now, I have no doubt that Adam
had taught his sons about what took place in the garden. He
told them of the fall. He told them of God slaying the
beast and clothing them to cover their nakedness And he knew that
this represented the seed of woman who would come and crush
the serpent's head. He understood the gospel. They
weren't going just through meaningless religious exercises. They knew
exactly what they were doing. Adam knew the only way God could
be approached is the blood of the one who was promised to come.
The whole Old Testament says somebody's coming. Somebody's
coming. He's the one we're looking for.
And they had some understanding that this is the promisee. And
he had taught those boys that God could not be approached any
other way than in what this sacrifice of this lamb pointed to. The coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ and his sacrifice. Now, we all love this hymn. I don't know if there's a better
hymn. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see. Nothing,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone. Nothing
but the blood of Jesus, not of good that I have done. Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Can you say amen to that? I'm
not asking you to say amen. I'm not trying to get a verbal
response, but in your heart, do you say that's my experience?
Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other
fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This was the religion of Abel. He believed God was holy. He believed he was a sinner.
And let me remind you what that means. If you're a sinner according
to the scriptural sense, that means, see where you fit in here,
that means all you do is sin. If you did it, it's sin. That means you cannot not sin. If you're a sinner, you cannot
not sin. not sin. And if you're a sinner, this
is all your fault. You can't blame Adam. You can't blame God's
sovereignty. You can't do like Adam did and
say, the woman you gave me, she gave me the fruit and I did eat.
You can't blame your mom and dad. You can't blame your circumstances.
You can't blame anything but yourself. It's all your fault. And if you're a real sinner,
you don't have the ability to look down and set in judgment
on anybody for anything. You really believe that you do
it all the time because you're a sinner, but you don't have
the right to. It's wrong for you to do it.
For me to look down and judgment on anybody is pure hypocrisy. I love what Paul said in Romans
chapter 2 verse 1, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man,
whosoever thou art that judges, for thou that judges doest, present
tense, doest the same things. And because of your sinfulness,
you have no claim on God. You can't say God's got to do
this for me because I did this. Now anybody like Abel, they believe
they're a sinner and they wouldn't dare approach a holy God apart
from the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only
way God can be approached. By the blood of the coming seed
of woman, the virgin born sinless Lord Jesus Christ and what he
accomplished. Abel knew exactly what he was
doing. when he brought the blood of that lamb. Cain saw no need
for this. After all, as long as my heart's
right, what difference does it make what kind of sacrifice I
bring? I'm sincere. I'm doing my best. I'm giving
my best. Does it really make any difference? My heart's right. I'm sincere. Isn't that what
counts? I think he was like Nadab in
a bayou. You remember Leviticus chapter 10 when Nadab in a bayou,
the scripture says they offered strange fire to the Lord and
fire came down from heaven and consumed them and there was nothing
left. There was nothing but ashes. Now, in order to burn incense,
you had to have fire and had to be fire from off the altar
of sacrifice. That incense could not be brought into God's presence.
It could not be accepted apart from the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It was the sacrifice of Christ,
the fire from the altar that made that incense acceptable.
It's only the sacrifice of Christ that can make my prayers heard. It's only the intercession of
Christ that makes me presented before God because of the sacrifice.
But they saw no need for that. They thought, well, this fire
will do. It's a strange fire. It's a fire
that God didn't command, but they said this fire would do.
And they offered up that strange fire on the altar, and God turned
them into ashes. And you know what? Moses said
they've got it coming. They failed to glorify me. He
told Aaron, don't cry, don't cry. Now I don't understand all
that, but it's a very awesome thing to think about, isn't it?
Well, that's the way Cain came into God's presence. He brought
the fruit of the ground and by that he demonstrated that he
had a very high opinion of himself and a very low opinion of God. He was a self-righteous man and
he brought God down to his level thinking God could accept his
works, denying God's character He didn't really believe that
he was a sinner. That's the bottom line. He didn't
believe he was a sinner. He thought he could come to God
in his works. Now, this once again exemplifies
that thought. All the righteous believe themselves
to be wicked. Abel demonstrated that. All the
wicked believe themselves to be righteous. Cain demonstrated
that. Now, let's look at the Lord's
response. The end of verse four, and the
Lord had, now don't miss this word, respect. Respect, now something must be
awfully glorious for the God of glory to have respect for
it. The Lord had respect. unto Abel and to his offering. Notice the person can't be separated
from the offering. He had respect to Abel and he
had respect to his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering,
he had not respect. Now, respect. What irritates you probably more
than a person, to me, what irritates me most is if someone treats
me disrespectfully. That irritates me. I'm offended
by it. Somebody says, well, maybe you
don't deserve respect. Well, maybe I don't, but it still
irritates me. I don't like it when people treat me that way.
And I realize respect is earned. It's not an entitlement. You've
got to earn it. But when someone Is worthy of
respect and someone treats them disrespectfully? It's irritating,
isn't it? If you are treated disrespectfully. I mean, respect is the foundation
of every good relationship. In a marriage, what's the foundation
of a good marriage? Respect. What's the foundation
of a good relationship at work between employees and employers?
Respect. Respect. So important. It's never
right to treat someone disrespectfully. Respect. And you know, the best
thing that you can do for your kids is to teach them to respect
authority, teach them to be respectful persons. As a matter of fact,
when it's the first commandment talking about honoring your mother
and father, respecting them, it's the first commandment with
promise. What that means is if your kids are taught to respect
authority, they're gonna have a better life. They're gonna
do better in school. They're gonna do better in their
relationships. They're gonna do better on the job. Respect. What an awesome thing to think.
Now, it says God respected Abel. He looked upon Abel and he was
pleased with everything about him. Now, Abel can't be looked
upon apart from that offering. But I couldn't help but think
of when Noah got off the ark. He first thing he did, he offered
a bunch of clean beasts. I don't know how many sacrifices
that were involved, but it made a sweet savor, a sweet aroma
to God. God smelled it and it smelled
good. What that speaks of is the satisfaction
of Christ. God is so satisfied with what
Christ did. And he looked at Abel and he
was completely satisfied with Abel. He had respect to Abel. And my dear friend, if you're
in Christ, God, the infinite God respects you. He sees you in his son. Oh, the
power of the blood of Christ that could make God respect somebody
like me or you. It says God had respect to Abel.
It doesn't just say he had respect to the offering. He had respect
to Abel and to his offering. What? What power there is in
that sacrifice that Abel brought. Now, it wasn't the animal blood.
You and I both know that. It's what the animal blood pointed
to, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It made God respect him. Now, I wish I could, most of
the time when we think about how God thinks about us, we think,
well, he's mad at me. It's not true at all. In Christ,
he has respect for you through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what about Cain? Verse five. But unto Cain and to his offering,
he had not respect. Now, once again, all you got
to know about Cain is the offering he brought. He demonstrated by
the offering he brought that he did not respect God. If he would have brought that
offering, he shows, I don't believe God's holy. He wouldn't have
said that, but he thought God can accept something of mine.
He had absolutely no respect for the living God. He brought
him down to human terms. He brought him down to, I'd accept
this, surely God would. He was happy with what he did.
What he brought was an act of disobedience. I guarantee you,
Adam taught those boys, you only bring a blood sacrifice. He thought
there's no need for that. He didn't bring what God commanded.
There was no regard to God's holiness. There was no confession
of his sin or his deservedness of death. It kind of reminds
me of Adam and Eve. Remember last week? They didn't confess
their sin. They didn't ask for mercy. They
didn't say, I'm sorry. Nothing like that. It was God
that approached them. All they did was get away from
God's presence. Cain chose himself to be the same type of person. He was disrespectful. He was
irreverent toward God. He had no respect for God and
God had no respect for him. As a matter of fact, Cain was
an offense to God. Now look in verse 5, the last
line. And Cain was very rough. He was mad. His countenance fell. He disagreed with this. Now this
lets you know Cain's character. He was mad
at God. He was saying this is not fair.
This is not fair. This is not fair that you would
accept Abel's offering and not accept man. All of a sudden,
he's able to become God's judge. He sits in judgment on God and
determines what he thinks is right and what he thinks is wrong.
This is not fair. He's very much like that man
in Romans 9 that says, This is not fair. Is there unrighteousness
with God? This man said, how can it be
fair for God to love Jacob and hate Esau? How can it be fair
for God to elect Jacob and to pass by Esau? This is not fair. How can it be fair for him to
hold me responsible for what I do if he's the one who hardens
my heart? God's not fair. I love the way
Paul answered him, nay, but old man, who are you to reply against
God? Since when do you think you're
able to sit in judgment on God and say, I think this is right
and this is wrong. He demonstrated what a high opinion he had of
himself. How blinded he was by his own self-righteousness. He
was very angry. This was his response to the
gospel. His countenance fell. Now, look
at the mercy of the Lord. Verse six. And the Lord said
unto Cain, he saw this fallen countenance, and he knew why
it was. But look what he says. And the
Lord said unto Cain, why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance
fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou
not be accepted? If you bring the same sacrifice
your brother brought, looking to the same coming one who would
put away sin. If you do well, you'll be accepted. Now he's not talking about if
your life is good enough and if you don't have sin in your
life. That's not what he's saying at
all. He's talking about the sacrifice Abel brought. If you do well,
you will be accepted. Now listen to me. There isn't
anybody that can say, I wanted to be saved and God wouldn't
save me. Anybody who comes pleading Christ will be received. Anyone who asks for mercy shall
have it. There's never been anybody that
asked for mercy that God said, nope, you're not elect, Christ
didn't die for you, forget it. Doesn't work that way at all.
If you come seeking mercy, listen, when you come to Christ, you
don't come as an elect sinner, you come as a sinner needing
mercy. And that's the way you always come, pleading only the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, if you do well,
you will be accepted. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. You come, you'll be received.
If you do well, you'll be accepted. He didn't say, sorry, Cain, you're
not one of the elect. Didn't work that way at all.
He said, if you do well, you'll be accepted. We have a gospel
we can preach to all men. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. If you do well, you'll be accepted. And if thou do us not well, sin
lieth at the door. Now, I don't know if you can
always use the law first mentioned as being what something means,
but this is the first time sin is mentioned in the scriptures,
and it has to do with bringing the wrong sacrifice. I know sin
is the transgression of the law, but the first time sin is mentioned
is here where he brought the wrong sacrifice. If you Do not
will. Sin is behind it. Sin is the
cause of it. And it says, unto thee shall
be his desire. And that's not talking about
Abel's desire. That's talking about sin's desire.
Sin wants to rule over you. And you bring the right sacrifice
and it will rule over you. That's what that's a reference
to. Somebody says, well, sin feels very powerful in me. Listen,
if you bring the wrong sacrifice, sin doesn't have dominion over
you. It did when you thought you were good. That's when it
had dominion over you. It did when you thought there's
things, good things you could do. It had complete dominion
over you. But when you bring the sacrifice,
you show the proper understanding of sin that God's given you.
And there's no approach of God apart from the blood. Verse eight,
and Cain talked. Now, that word talked is kind
of not a good word as it could be. He argued with Abel. They
had a disagreement, to say the least. They were arguing. And I know what they were arguing
over. They were arguing over the sacrifice. I can hear this. Cain says, this is not fair.
that God accepted your sacrifice. He didn't accept mine. He's showing
respect to persons. I mean, this is, he's showing
partiality. This is not fair. It's not right. Abel says, it is fair. God cannot be approached apart
from the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He can't be approached
any other way. You've just totally disregarded
what God said. Cain said, you think your way's
the only way? You self-righteous jerk. You
think you have all the truth and nobody else has any? You
think your way's the only way. I don't like this. Abel says,
we're not talking about my way. We're talking about God's way.
Christ said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh through the Father,
but by me. There is no other way. I remember
at this time there were no police officers. There was no law. You didn't have to have the fear
of going before a judge. and a jury. You didn't have to
fear being thrown into jail. You didn't have to fear punishment.
This hadn't taken place yet. We didn't have that stuff in
effect just yet. So Cain did what he wanted to
do. Abel said, you can't approach
the Lord apart from blood. He said, I'll show you blood.
And he bashed his brains in. And he killed him. No restraints. And people would do the same
now. They didn't have the restraints. I don't have any question about
that. He bashed his brother's brain to him and he killed him. Thus Abel became the first martyr. And we know what the issue was.
The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's always been the issue.
It was the issue then. It's the issue now. Cain talked
with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in
the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and flew him. And the Lord said unto Cain,
where is Abel, thy brother? He knew, didn't he? He knew exactly
where he was. And look at this smart, elegant
answer Cain gives. And this is what most people
know about this story. Everybody's heard this. I don't
know, am I my brother's keeper? Verse 10, and he said, what hast
thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood
that is seeped down into the ground, seemingly covered, crieth
to me from the ground. What a cry. Vengeance. Put him to death. Punish him. Do you know that every sin. You and I have ever committed.
99.99% of which we don't remember. And
most of which we didn't even know was a sin in the first place.
Every sin cries to God. Every sin, every thought that
was sinful, every wrong motive, every way we've abused somebody
else, everything. cries to God from the ground. You know, I love this aspect
of God's person. No sin will ever go unpunished. It's either gonna be punished
in you or the substitute. Your brother's blood cries to
me from the ground. Turn with me, hold your finger
there, and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Verse 22, but you are coming
to Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, and to the
general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written
in heaven. Hey, that's the church role I want to be on. The general
assembly of church of the firstborn that are written in heaven. And
to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect, And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling, that blood he shed on Calvary's tree. And
look at this next line, that speaketh better things than that
of Abel. Abel's blood says, put him to
death. Christ's blood says, forgive
him. Abel's blood says condemn him. Christ's blood says justify
him. Abel's blood says punish him.
Christ's blood demands save him. Oh, what better things the blood
of Christ speaks than that of Abel? It's, it calls upon my
salvation. It demands the salvation of everybody
that Jesus Christ died for. It speaks better things than
that of April. Now turn back to Genesis four, verse 11. And now thou art cursed
from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive thy brother's
blood from my hand. When thou tillest the ground,
it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive
and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. You're going to
have no certain dwelling place. And Cain said unto the Lord,
my punishment is greater than I can bear. Notice he didn't
say my sin is greater than I can bear. My punishment is greater
than I can bear. Let me give you Charles Spurgeon's
comment on this statement. He said, some preachers, if they
were sentenced to an eternity of listening to their own preaching,
would cry with cane of old, my punishment is greater than I
can bear. I believe that. But He says in
verse 14, behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face
of the earth and from thy face shall I be hid. I shall be a
fugitive, a vagabond in the earth. And it shall come to pass that
everyone that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto
him, therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken
of him sevenfold. He was going to protect Cain.
And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should
kill him. And Cain went out from the presence
of the Lord. and dwelt in the land of Nod
in the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she
conceived and bare Enoch. And he built a city and called
the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch." Now,
this is the first time we read of a civilization. Cain went
out and made the world a better place. That's what Scott Richardson
said about this. I always like that statement. He went out from
the presence of the Lord and made the world a better place.
He made a city. Question to me and to you, am
I a king or am I unable? Let's pray.