I invite you to look with me
to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. And while
you're turning, let me ask you a question. I have pretty good confidence in
most of you here tonight know the answer to this question,
but I won't assume that all do. What is your hope of being perfectly
holy and righteous before God when you stand before Him in
judgment. Well, that's an urgent question.
For in order to be reconciled to God, men and women must be
perfectly holy and perfectly righteous. So, will it be by works of righteousness
that we've done? Well, not if we're going to be
perfectly holy and perfectly righteous. It can't be, because
Scripture's clear that there's none that doeth good. There's
none righteous, no but one. And if you think that your works
of righteousness will get the job done, then you remain ignorant
of God's righteousness. by endearing to establish your
own. Perfect righteousness comes only
one way. That's our one message. Those who think that they can
by the works of their hands be righteous need to read again
Romans chapter 10 verses 3 and 4. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. You see that in verse 4? For
Christ is what? The end of the law for righteousness
to every one that believeth. Righteousness comes only by submission. You must submit yourself unto
the righteousness of God. Christ is the righteousness of
God. So we must submit unto Him. Verse 4 is clear. Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
The Apostle Paul in Galatians 2, he said, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, If righteousness can be achieved by keeping God's
law, he makes this amazing statement. He says, then Christ is dead
in vain. That's how serious this thing
is. If righteousness comes by the
law, keeping, doing, not doing, observing, not observing, then
Christ died for no reason. If righteousness come by the
law, then Christ died in vain. If salvation can come in any
other way but believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and trusting
Him and Him alone and satisfying God's justice in the sacrifice
of Himself, then there was no need for Him to die. But He died. And He didn't die unjustly. He
died in my place, your place, those of you that trust Him.
And if a man preaches that the righteousness that God requires
can come by works or the keeping of the law, then God's grace
is frustrated. But the grace of God cannot be
frustrated. For it is the shedding of Christ's
precious blood that covers all sin. Those sins which were scarlet,
as we just sang, are now white as snow. Crimson, now white as
snow. Now, in Hebrews 12, 14, it says,
follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord. In order to be reconciled to
God, I must be as holy as God Himself is. So we follow peace
with all men and holiness. Well, who is the holiness of
God? The answer is the same as who is the righteousness of God.
Christ is. And without following Him, no
man shall see the Lord. We must follow Christ. He's God's
holiness. And in doing so, we shall see
Him and be with Him forever." That's our message. Now, if you would turn with me
to 1 Peter 1. We'll get to Genesis here in
a moment. 1 Peter 1. I want you to look at verse 13
with me. 1 Peter 1. Peter says, wherefore gird up
the loins of your mind, be sober, and notice these words, and hope
to the end for the grace that is brought unto you at the revelation
of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance, But as
he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. Now how are we going to be holy?
How are we going to be holy? There's only one way to be holy.
It is the grace of God that brings to us the revelation of Jesus
Christ. When Christ is revealed to the
sinner, we see that we are made the righteousness of God in Him. It's the only way. It's the only
way. God reveals to chosen sinners
that Christ is their holiness and their righteousness. And what a good hope that is.
I am so thankful that it's not dependent upon me in any way.
You know why? The same reason you're glad that
it's not dependent upon you in any way. We'd mess it up, wouldn't
we? Now you can turn with me to Genesis
4. This all ties in because we've been talking about Cain
and Abel's offering unto the Lord. Verse 1 again says, And Adam
knew Eve his wife, and she conceived, and bare Cain. and said I have
gotten a man from the Lord now some commentators believe that
it would that this would be better translated that Eve said I have
gotten the man from the Lord and I don't have a problem with
that at all because I honestly believe that she thought she
had received the Redeemer that God had promised when God said
Your seed shall bruise the serpent's head." I think it was just natural
for her to think that the first child that she had would be that
one that God had promised. And she named him Cain. Now,
names in the Bible mean something. They mean something. And she named him Cain, which
means to strike suddenly. She had hoped that he would be
the one to crush the serpent's head suddenly. It also means
to acquire, purchase, and to redeem. Now, in verse 2 it says, and
then she again bare his brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of
sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. Now, there are
some that think that Cain and Abel were twins, but we don't
have any proof of that. It could be. So really it doesn't
matter. It's one of those issues, it just doesn't matter. As I said, if names mean anything
in the Scriptures, and they do, Abel seemed to be totally insignificant
to Eve. The name Abel means emptiness. It means vanity. It means unnecessary. If you do a pretty extensive
word search on the original words and the root words of those words. It means unnecessary. I'd venture
to say, without stretching the matter any at all, that Cain
got the most attention between the two. I just bet it. Why? Because she thought he was the
Redeemer. But God had his eye and his heart
on Abel. God would set a precedence, a
priority here that he would confirm over and over again throughout
the scriptures. He would make the elder to serve
the younger. Why? That the purpose of God
according to election might stand. That's what it says in Romans
9. Here's Jacob and Esau. Neither one of them yet born.
Neither one of them yet having done any good or evil. Both of them having the same
mother and father. And God said to their mother,
the elder shall serve the younger. That's the way it's going to
be. God said. That's the way it's going to
be. And he said, I'm telling you
this so that you may know that my purpose according to election
will stand. Now this is how it was with Cain
and Abel. What about Samuel the prophet?
You remember that story well. He came down to Jesse's house
to anoint God's appointed king. And they went through all the
sons of Jesse, tall, strapping, good-looking boys, from the eldest
down to the youngest that was present. And David wasn't there
and he wasn't even considered. He was out tending his father's
sheep. Nathan said, is this all your sons? Because God told me
to come down to your house and that He would let me know. Which
one of your boys that he would have to be king? And he said,
well, I got this little old ruddy, fair-skinned boy out tending
sheep. And they sent for him and he
came. Not even the prophet of God considered David. You know
why? Because the Lord seeth not as
man seeth. Man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart. Now notice verse 3. And in the
process of time, let's just stop right there for a moment. In
the process of time, I thought about this quite a bit. This
natural world and those that are in it are bound by time. We're really a time-conscious
people, aren't we? What time is it? What time is
it? Is it time to get off work yet? Everything men do is based on
time. Men, I hear young men say, middle-aged
men say, old men say, I hear young men say, by this time in
my life, I hope to be married. By this age, I hope to have children. By this age in time, I hope to
be retired. But the only time that the Scriptures
declare of any importance is God's appointed time. You see,
time is for a purpose. Time is nothing more than a tool
that God uses to accomplish His purpose. We know Galatians 4 verses 4
and 5, My heart, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
His Son made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law. that we might receive the adoption
of children. When did this happen? In the
fullness of time. When God's appointed time was
come. Remember the time our Lord went
into the synagogue and preached out about Isaiah? And He stood
up and He took the book and He said, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and he
gave it back to the minister. And the Jews got mad. Who does he think he is? We know
his father Joseph, the carpenter down the street, he made a table
for me last week. Who does he think he is? And
they got so mad they took hold of him and they headed to the
nearest cliff and they were fixing to throw him off of it and they
were going to get rid of him right then and there. They'd
had enough of that. They'd had enough of that kind
of talk. Who does he think he is? His mother and father we
know. We know his brothers and his
sisters. Who does he think he is? And the scripture says our
Lord just turned and walked right through the middle of them. Do
you remember why? Because his time had not yet
come. Time belongs to God. Time belongs to God. And in the
process of time, it says, and notice the next words, it came
to pass. It came to pass. Everything comes
to pass just as God intends and purposes. That's a great comfort to me.
We were talking right before service, you know, we're always
asking Sam, Do you think you'll make it to your due date? Do
you think the baby will be early? Do you think the baby will be
late? That baby isn't going to be right on time. Whether he
comes tonight or if he came two months ago or whether he comes...
He's right on time. That's God's appointed time.
God appoints the time that we come into this world and He appoints
the time that we leave it. So you're right on time, Sam.
Right on time. When the Apostle Paul spoke to
those arrogant philosophers in Athens, I believe it was in Acts
17, he went through their city and he said, my goodness, I've
never seen such superstitious people in my life. They had monuments
to every God imaginable. They had sun gods, they had moon
gods, you name it, and they had erected a god for it. And just in case they had left
one out, they placed a little statue over here, probably in
the corner somewhere, because all the gods that they had erected
monuments to, probably just in case we missed one, no big deal,
we'll put this one over here, it said to the unknown God. And
what did Paul say? He said, that's the one I'm going
to preach to you. That's the one I'm going to tell
you about. Because he's unknown to you, but he's my God. And he hath made one blood all
nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth." And listen
to this, "...and hath determined the times before appointed, and
the bounds of their habitation." Time belongs to God. And in the
process of time, it came to pass. And it always does. It always
does. There's an appointed time for
man to die and then the judgment. It's appointed unto man once
to die and then the judgment. Scripture's clear. There's a
process of time. We're born into this world, friends,
and there is a time and a period of space in mine and your life. And one day before God judges
us, we're going to stand and give an account for this time. And during this time, God does
give you light. He gives you the light of your
conscience. He gives you the light of creation. And in some
cases, He gives men and women the light of His grace and His
gospel. You're going to give an account
for your time. We stand accountable for it. What we did when we heard the gospel. What do you
think of Christ? Are you going to be accountable
for that? How do you answer that? How you've lived? And I forget who it was. I believe
it was Darwin Pruitt said one time, we're not just checker
pieces on a game board. God doesn't just move us around. We're accountable and responsible. I know God's in control of everything.
But if a man leaves this world without Christ, he has nobody
to blame but himself. And he's accountable, and he's
responsible. But brother, you teach in election,
and you teach predestination, and if God is these things, and
everyone is what He makes them, why does He yet find fault? Who
art thou to reply against God? Doesn't the one who formed the
thing have a right? Doesn't the potter have power
over the clay to make one vessel into honor and another into dishonor? Yet you're responsible. You're
responsible. wrong with Cain's sacrifice unto
God. We discussed this briefly a couple
weeks ago, but it's worthy of our consideration again. I need
to hear it again. I'll be honest with you, I do.
I need to hear it over and over, because faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. As most of you know, and you've
heard me say before, Shirley Shanks usually calls me every
Wednesday and asks me what scriptures we're covering. Lots of times,
it's the same ones. And today, that was the case.
I said, I'm not going to get as far tonight as I did last
time. And she said, well, that's okay.
She said, I was a teacher. And she said, you've got to go
over it over and over sometimes for people to get it. And I said,
well, now you're talking about me. I need to hear it again and
again, don't you? Tell me again. I never get tired
of hearing it. What was wrong with Cain's sacrifice
before God? Well, first of all, it was a
bloodless sacrifice. In bringing his sacrifice from
the cursed ground, he denied, now listen, he denied that he
needed a Redeemer. There's more to this than meets
the eye. It was a denial of sin. Cain
denied his need of Christ the Redeemer. Cain thought he could
approach God in his own merit by the works of his own hands.
He determined to be his own priest and his own mediator. He refused
to believe God and I'm sure that Cain and Abel both had been instructed
concerning the worship of God. Don't you think so? I do. I don't think that they'd be
bringing forth an offering to the Lord if they hadn't been
taught some things. Do you? I'm sure that their father
Adam had told them what he had done. I know this from experience, you
know, that fathers and mothers, parents, We try to teach our
children not to make the same mistakes we did, because we know
how they hurt and the pain they cause. We try to warn our children
of things. And most of the time, it don't
much matter. They have to find out for themselves, just like
I did. How many times has my dad told me over and over, and
I just went right on and did them anyway, because I had to
find out for myself. And that's just a perpetual thing. That's
just life. That's just the way it is. And
that's how we learn, I suppose. But I'm sure Adam had told them
what he had done. He had sinned. He had disobeyed God. God gave
him everything he needed. He was set up for life. And the
very one thing that God told him he couldn't have, he took.
I'm sure that he told these boys what God had done for him while
he provided them with covering. Therefore, he had told them what
God had promised. God had promised redemption.
There's one coming who's going to bruise the serpent's head.
He's going to bring sinners, fallen, depraved sinners back
into fellowship with God Almighty. And I'm sure he told them what
God required. Blood atonement. Blood had to
be shed. There was no blood in fig leaves.
No blood in fig leaves. And I'm sure he told them how
God must be worshipped and that was by faith. And it's the same
with Cain and Abel as it is with men and women today, friends.
Some believe and some don't. Abel believed God and Cain didn't. Cain simply did not believe the
gospel that he heard from Adam. He refused to believe that God
had revealed as a way to worship and acceptance was through a
blood atoning sacrifice. And what did he do? He brought
forth the fruit of the ground as an offering unto the Lord.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 1, he said, To the praise of the glory
of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved,
in whom we have redemption through His blood. That's where redemption
is. Through His blood. The forgiveness of sins. According to the riches of His
grace. Blood has to be shed. Now, it's
important to understand that Cain was not an atheist. He wasn't an infidel. I don't
believe there's such a thing as an atheist, if you ask me.
People claim to be an atheist. Men may profess to be, but as
I said a moment ago, they see God's creation. They have the
light of their conscience or something, I think, within every
man and woman. deep within that tells us that
there's no way that this just big bang, boom, bam, you know,
anybody in their right mind. I just read this past week a
little bit of a biography concerning Rob Barnard. Rob Barnard was
a head of an organization that tried to disprove the existence
of God. And he said that every day during
the day he would preach everything he could to disprove there was
a God. And then when he laid his head
on his pillow at night, he prayed to the very God that he disputed
and begged him not to kill him. Men are rebels, but deep down
they know there's a God. And that's what Romans 1.20 tells
us. without excuse. See the things of God's Creator
without excuse. You know what Cain was? Really? He was more or less just a proud
religionist. Before there was such a thing,
he was a self-righteous Pharisee. He was an unbeliever. His offering
was the work of his own hands and the fruit of his own labor.
And that's what religious people who believe in works do. They
depend on their self-righteous works. I did this. I did that. I've done this for
you. I've done that for God. God won't accept it. He won't
accept it. Why did God accept Abel and his
offering? Well, you know the answer. It
was an offering of faith, first of all. Hebrews 11 verse 4 says,
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain. And it says, By which he obtained
witness that he was righteous. Abel believed God. He came to
God through faith in a substitute. In his offering, he was confessing
his sin, his guilt, and his just condemnation. How did he do all
of that? By bringing forth blood sacrifice. That pictures the Lord Jesus
Christ. He knew that the only way a holy
God would justify a guilty sinner was by the satisfaction of divine
justice through blood atonement. He'd heard Adam talk about God
slaying those animals and covering them with skins. And he knew
that was the way to approach God. I found this interesting.
The first human blood to be shed upon the earth was shed by a
religious legalist. And the blood he shed was the
blood of a true worshipper of a sovereign God. Is it any wonder
today that people who believe and trust in their works hate
those who believe and trust in grace? Is there any reason why?
It's been that way since the beginning of time. The battle
still continues. The issue is still the same.
The way of Cain works religion, persecutes the way of faith.
I close with this, and I want you to think about this. The
way of Abel is the way of life everlasting. It's the way of
grace. It's the way of blood redemption.
It's the way of faith. It's the way of life. It's the
way of acceptance with God. But there are two ways. There's
also the way of Cain, the way of works. Proverbs 14, 12 says,
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end
thereof are the ways of death. That's the way of Cain. The way
of Abel, the way of grace. Jesus said, I am the way. I am the truth and the life,
and no man cometh unto the Father, but by But by my sin atoning blood sacrifice,
blood was shed. And it covered all the sins of
all the elect throughout all time. And I'm perfect and righteous
and holy in the eyes of God because of that. I'm going the way of
Abel. God enable me. Which way will
you go?