We're going to read in Genesis
4, the first 8 verses, and then I'm going to read to you one
verse in Hebrews. Genesis chapter 4, the first
8 verses. And verse 1, And Adam knew Eve
his wife, and she conceived, and Bear came. 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 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
God 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. Now, Hebrews chapter 11, and
I'll read this verse 4, Hebrews 11 verse 4, By faith Abel offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which Abel obtained
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts and
by it he, being dead, yet speaketh." Now, as a shepherd, Abel performed
his work to the glory of God. He offered a sacrifice of blood
upon his altar, and God had respect unto Abel and his offering. Now, we've noted in times past,
years ago, the beautiful picture of Abel's sacrifice as a clear
and distinct type of our Lord Jesus Christ, Abel's sacrifice. Today, I would like us to look
at Abel, look at Abel as a wonderful type of the Lord Jesus Christ
as well. And as with these types, it's
like the sun rising in a new day. It just shows Christ, but
as Christ has come, the sun is fully up and we see Him in the
Gospel most clearly. But these types are just like
the rising of the sun. It does show forth light. It
sheds light on the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's
look at this back in Genesis, this one called Abel. First thing
we notice in verse 2 is that he was a keeper of sheep. He
was a shepherd. He was a shepherd. He was a shepherd
and he presented his offering to Jehovah God is what it says.
He brought the firstlings of the flock unto
God and God had respect, or the word is accepted. He accepted
this sacrifice and he accepted Abel. Our blessed Lord Jesus
Christ is termed the Great Shepherd. He's the Great Shepherd. He is
the the caring shepherd, the tender shepherd, the true keeper
of his sheep. It says Abel was a keeper of
sheep. There's none, there's none who
can keep and does keep like our Lord Jesus Christ. And as such,
he was the shepherd that presented himself in offering to God as
a shepherd. Look at this in John chapter
10, John chapter 10. John chapter 10 and verse 11, Christ says, I
am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives His life
for the sheep. So it was as a shepherd that
He presented Himself and offered Him before God. He is not a hireling,
He is not a cowardly keeper, but a supreme, sovereign, compassionate
Shepherd. He says in that passage in John
10, he giveth his life for the sheep. What an act of voluntary
love, what an act of selfless condescension, what humble compassion
our near kinsman has for the sheep of his fold. The sheep of his fold. Sheep. Dumb, wayward, lost, non-seeking sheep. That's us. We had to be fetched. You know, Maurice had a message
years ago called Fetching Grace. Fetching Grace. And that's what
God had to do. Or we would never, never come
to Him. We had to be found by Him, because
we're lost, we're undone, we're vile, we're corrupt. We sing
a song. I think it's in the chorus booklet. I was by, was it Horatius
Bonar, Nathan? Anyway, it's a grand old rite. I was a wandering sheep. I did
not love the fold. I preferred to roam away from
home. And then one day, the shepherd
sought his sheep. I'm found. I'm found, the wandering
one. Firstly, Abel was a shepherd. Our Lord is the great shepherd.
Secondly, Abel was a priest. He didn't have Adam. I'm sure
Adam and Eve, I'm sure they obviously discussed how to sacrifice before
God and what to sacrifice before God. But Abel, in the process
of time, and see, it's interesting, I gloss over this, but some of
the writers really specifically mention this. In the process
of time, there was a time to worship God and a place. That's
what we're doing here. Now, we can worship Him anywhere.
We can go boldly to the throne of grace through Christ. but
there's just something precious, special, biblical about gathering
together. So in the process of time, it
came to pass, they knew where to go, they knew how to go, they
knew by what actions to go, but Abel brought the first thing
of his flock, the fad of the Lord, he brought it and he offered
it. So Abel, secondly, as the priest,
The father will ever have respect to his shepherd priest. Not only did Abel keep sheep,
but he came before God to offer it up. Christ is the great shepherd
and the great high priest unto God. And as such, Christ, our
high priest, makes intercession for us by his own blood. Oh, my dear brethren, how terrible
must sin be. for Christ to offer up himself.
How it separates us from God. How hard it is, says Hebrews,
to put it away. How offensive to the Holy Sovereign
must sin be. To put it away and satisfy God,
it must take, and it would take, one who is separate from sin
himself, one who has such shepherdly love for his sheep, and a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. One simply, in the Old Testament,
this is before the law, but as the law, you couldn't simply
just say, I'm going to be a high priest. Like we say in this country,
the kids can be anything they want to be. Not in the Jewish
order. You just simply couldn't say,
I'm going to be a high priest today. No. Selection. Election. And God, Christ is
God's primary, however you want to say it. He's the elect. And
we're elected in Him. Thirdly, Abel, according to our
text in Genesis, was hated by Cain without a cause. What did Abel do without a cause? Turn to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew
chapter 27 and verse 18. Therefore, in verse 17, when
they were to gather together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will
ye that I release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus, which is called Christ?
For even Pilate knew that for envy they had delivered Christ. For envy they had delivered Christ.
And John chapter 15. John chapter 15 and verse 25. But this cometh to pass, that
the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they
hated me, without a cause, and that's out of Psalms. So this
was predestinated, this was purposed by God from before eternity and
spoken of by his prophet David. I imagine Abel did not know the reason why he
was slain. Right before, however it happened
in that field, right when he turned, if Cain, that coward
snuck up on him. We don't know, but however it
happened, the moment before he knew he was going to die, he
probably did not know the reason why he was being slain. Yet I
tell you this, Christ not only endured such ridicule and suffering,
He predestinated such events all to glorify His Father and
redeem His sheep. What I'm saying is that the death
of Christ, and we know this was no accident, the death of Christ
God was not caught off guard. It cannot be. When we look at
Proverbs chapter 8, I was reading it the other night and I just
love, I enjoy that passage where the son and the father are talking
and he's daily his delight. And he says, his delights were
with the sons of men. He knew he was to be the great
martyr lamb from before the foundation of the world. So, I say, Abel
was hated by Cain without a cause. Our Lord, mock trial, cruelly,
spat upon, spit upon, all the things that he'd done, he was
innocent. Fourthly, Abel did not die a natural death. We know
that. He was murdered. His end came
as a violent end at the hands of his own. As Bruce read, Christ
came unto his own. And they not only didn't receive
Him, but they slew Him and hung Him upon the cursed tree. Acts
chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. Oh, we like to,
you know, think that we're going to go out nice and easy, we're
going to be sleeping and then go to bed and then not wake up.
That's what we want to do. But it was not so with the Lord
Jesus Christ. He put His face to the flint. It was a flint.
He put His face because He had a baptism wherewith He was to
be baptized with. He understood this. Not only does He know all
things, but He predestinated all things. Acts chapter 2 and
verse 23, Him, Christ, being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain." I was reading a book and I was
reading it and I got to the end of the book and it was pretty
good. And he said, reader, he said, you, you killed Christ. And I took that book and I threw
it across the room. I'm like, no I didn't, I wasn't
there. Oh, but that was the beginning
of the Lord starting to show me how vile and corrupt I was. This could be applied to us.
God determined the whole thing to be determined to counsel and
foreknowledge. But I took and I enjoyed it. My wicked hands have crucified
and slain. And again in verse 36, therefore
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
the same Jesus, that same Jesus whom you crucified, whom you
crucified, both Lord and Christ. He was to die a beggar's death,
a criminal's death, and yet he did absolutely no wrong. But
therein lies our salvation. He must go to the cross. He must
do so. Fifthly, Abel, he fell and he
sprinkled his altar and blood and sacrifice with his own blood. And in verse 10 and back in our
text in Genesis chapter 4, and the Lord, verse 9, said unto
Cain, where is Abel your brother? And he said, I know not. Am I
my brother's keeper? And God said, what have you done?
The voice. of your brother's blood cries
unto me." Now that's important, that's like the Paschal Lamb.
God says, when I see the blood, not when you see, and it's good
to know that when we see the blood, it's good to know that
the blood's out there. And by faith, he'll give us sight
to lay hold on the crucified Christ. But in the scheme of
redemption, it is God's view of the blood that gives us full
and free pardon. And this is what I'm trying to
say here. He says, oh my brethren, my soul, does not the Immaculate
Son of God's own blood cry up to the Father on our behalf?
Not only did Cain not know that he was showing forth God's everlasting
gospel by killing his brother in Typir, But when you look at
Pilate or Herod or the hateful Jews, they didn't understand
that this must all be done to honor and exalt the precious
Lord Jesus Christ. I've mentioned this numerous
times. Tim James, I don't know if it's on sermon audio or not,
20-something years ago preached a message, the gospel according
to our enemies. And he showed in the New Testament
the phrase of Pilate here and the phrase of Herod here and
the phrase of the Jews, it was the gospel. It was as clear the
gospel, we must have someone die, You know, Barabbas and these
different people, and he showed it very clearly, and they didn't
understand what they were doing. The Gospel according to our enemies.
They all were fulfilling every job and title of God's purpose
and redemptive thing throughout Scriptures. Ultimately, Christ
sacrificed His own blood, and it speaks to God. Sixthly, back
to our text in Genesis chapter 4, Genesis 4 and 4. And Abel, he also brought of
the firstlings of the flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord
had respect, respect unto Abel and to his offering respect.
That's accepted. He accepted it. God accepted
this sacrifice and Abel as well. of a truth. God cannot accept
anything less than perfect righteousness. Turn back to Hebrews 11. I hadn't really seen this before,
but this is so beautiful. Hebrews 11, verse 4, By faith
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
by which he, now he's a type of Christ, obtained witness that
he, Abel, was righteous. of a truth, God cannot accept
anything less than perfect righteousness. He obtained witness that He was
righteous. Oh, but we have a greater than
able with whom we're speaking of this morning, Christ our righteousness,
says Isaiah. And if you don't believe me,
turn to Luke chapter 23. If you don't believe this poor
preacher, He believed someone who was on sight and saw the
whole thing happen. Luke chapter 23 and verse 46, And when Jesus had cried with
a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit. And having said thus, He gave
up the ghost. Now when the centurion saw what was done, when this
bystander saw, He said, certainly, this was a righteous man. This was a righteous man. He
obtained witness that he was righteous. Wow! If you don't believe me, then
believe a witness that was there at the awful scene before him. And look at what it says. Where
was that at? That was Luke. I stopped. I needed
to read a little bit further. Oh, in verse 47, the Syrian was
done. He glorified God. Now was He
a Savior? I don't know. I'm not going to get into that.
It's not for me to know. But He glorified God. And you glorify
God when you look at the Son and say, He's my righteousness. He is my righteousness because
I have none. Matter of fact, I put Him on
the cross. I'm guilty. Guilty. Guilty. I ask myself this, do we see
ourselves vile and undone? Do we see Christ who bore our
sins away as the only righteous one? Confess Him, repent, believe
upon the Son of God, and it will be well with you, be well with
me. Lastly, lastly, Abel's death still, still speaks to God. He says back in our text in Genesis
4, and I re-read it again, the voice of thy brother's blood
cries unto me from the ground. And Hebrews 11 verse 4, and by
it he being dead yet speaketh. Yet speaketh. We're talking about
him this morning. First of all, we know that it
speaks before God because where is Christ now? He accomplished,
He accepted, it was accepted by God and He rose Him from the
dead and He's seated at God's right hand. So we know He accepted
it. But secondly, I say Christ now still speaks or intercedes
on our behalf, on our behalf. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
24 in closing, verse 23 of Hebrews 12, "...to
the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which 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 speaks better
things than that of Abel." Christ's death speaks a better
thing. Like I said, this is just the morning. It's the new morning
when we look at Abel and the picture and the type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ has come, satisfied everything written
against us, has broken down the middle wall partition, We can
boldly go to him by the throne of grace, by the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So therefore I tell myself and
I tell you, we should not fear. Christ is still speaking for
us. And it's so much better than
this type of Abel. We just look at Abel, but we
see Christ and we preach Christ from Abel. And we can look at
Abel's offering and we could preach Christ there. And we could
go back even further than that. When God separated the morning
from the night, there's the gospel. Christ is light. I think it's
interesting, we've talked about this, He separated the day from
the night, and He called the first 24 hours day. Isn't that great? There's a lot of darkness in
our life, but with God, it's still called day. No matter what
we go through, it's still going to be called day. Like Donny
Bell says, since I've heard the good news, I've never had heard
the bad news. And he's been through a lot. But that's the truth of
the matter. Faith. We have faith in what
he has said. But the truth of the matter is,
is that the Lord Jesus Christ The blood of sprinkling speaks
better things than that of Abel. So much better than that of Abel.
Jesus Christ representing us, loving us, shepherding us, and
sacrificed for us. And right now, He's talking to God on our side. He's on our side.
He's on our side. on our behalf. But I like this.
He's just, you know, when you're kids, you know, you pick. You're picking for basketball
games. You get the first pick, you pick the best person. I want
Him on my side. Right now, He is interceding.
He's daily interceding for us, on our behalf. He's on our side. And you know what Romans says, if He be for us, Nobody can be against us. Take that and unsheathe your
sword. Take that when you're putting
on your helmet and the breastplate and you have your feet shod.
Take that as you go into work. He is for me and no one can be
against me. Well, I lost my job. God must
have thought it was the best thing for you to happen. I'm
being serious. God does all things well. And God puts this picture in
here for the express purpose of showing forth and glorifying
His Son. As we say it over and over again,
Christ will have the preeminence. And as I said, if He's for us,
He cannot be against us. That's a great, great thing to
be aware of. By faith lay hold on that. Bruce,
would you close us please?