Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibert. If you were listening last week,
we considered the fall out of Genesis chapter three. And this
morning, I would like us to consider the first story that took place
after the fall. This is the story of Cain and
Abel. And let me remind you, 2 Timothy
3, verse 16 says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Every word of this book is God-breathed. God-inspired, said exactly as
God would have it said. This is the religion of this
book. Old Testament, New Testament,
same message. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. And there is nothing in this
book that is unnecessary or even of secondary importance. That being said, there is no
scripture more important than the one before us, the story
of Cain and Abel. Now, in giving this story, I'm
going to be describing you. I'm going to be describing me. Cain and Abel are the two representative
men. You and I are either a Cain or
an Abel. Now the timing of this story
is important. This is the first story after
the fall. And the teaching of this story
is how God is to be worshipped and how God can be approached
by a fallen sinner and be accepted. We find out who God accepts and
respects and who God rejects and has no respect for at all. And that gives us some idea of
the importance of this story. Two representative men that represent
the two religions, the religion of Cain and the religion of Abel. Every religion can be deduced
to this, either the religion of Cain or the religion of Abel. Salvation by grace, and salvation
by works. And these two men represent the
two types of men there are in God's sight, the righteous and
the wicked. Now remember, we're talking about
how God sees things. How God sees things is how they
really are. Somebody once said, we're all
three different people. We're the people we think we
are, We're the people others see us to be, and we're the people
God knows we are. God sees perfectly. And all men are divided into
two groups, the righteous and the wicked. Abel was viewed by
God as righteous. We read in Hebrews 11, verse
four, by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice
than Cain, by the which he obtained witness that he was righteous. This is God's testimony. God
testifying of his gifts and he, by it being dead, yet speaketh. When the Lord spoke of Abel,
he spoke of righteous Abel. Abel is a Righteous man, Cain
was a wicked man. John tells us he was of that
wicked one. And when Jude speaks of Cain,
he speaks of the way of Cain, that the false prophet follows,
the way of salvation by works. The righteous and the wicked
are seen in Cain and Abel. Now listen to this statement
very carefully. I can't take this too far. All of the wicked believe themselves
to be righteous. We're going to see that so clearly
in Cain. All of the wicked, no exceptions. believe themselves to be righteous. You take the most immoral man
alive, and he'll still think he has a good heart. He'll still
think if he's given the right opportunities, he'll do well.
He still thinks he has certain abilities. He believes himself
to be righteous. And all of the righteous, without
exception, believe themselves to be wicked. Abel exemplifies
that, as we shall see. Cain and Abel, now let me say
once again, by way of introduction, I could not be speaking on anything
more important than this subject. I hope you'll give me your careful
attention. In Genesis chapter four, verse
one, And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain
and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Now what she meant
by that, she was referring to the gospel promise in the previous
chapter, when God promised that the seed of woman would crush
the serpent's head. And she thought, this is him.
and she named him Cain. That name means purchased or
acquired. Verse two, and she again bare
his brother, Abel. Abel means vanity. I guess Abel was just an afterthought. She was much more concerned about
Cain being the man and Abel was just vanity. And Abel, the scripture
says, was a keeper of sheep, but Cain a tiller or a worker
of the ground. He worked upon that which God
had already cursed. You remember God said to Adam,
curse would be the ground for thy sake. So his air of sphere
of operation was where God had already cursed. Adam or Abel,
a shepherd, Cain, a farmer. Verse three, 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 first things of his flock and the fat thereof. Now the process of time means
the end of days. Even then, there was a time for
public worship. This was the time when they brought
their offerings. Now, public worship is important. Somebody says, well, I don't
need public worship. I can worship privately. Well, I know you say
that, but somebody that says that doesn't really worship privately.
That's just words. You worship publicly. Yes, your
most peaceful, blessed times of private
worship is during public worship, when God is speaking to you through
the preaching of the word. But there is a place for public
worship. And he says, at the end of the
days, and the process of time, 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 these two offerings represent
the two different religions, the religion of works, and the
religion of grace. The religion of works. What does
that mean? That means some part of your
salvation is dependent upon, contingent upon what you do. You may think Christ did most
of it, but there's some little part you need to do to make it
work. If you believe there's some little
part you need to do to make it work, you believe in salvation
by works. Salvation by human merit. The religion of grace. This is
the only true religion. This is the only religion that
saves. It makes salvation dependent upon what Christ has done. not what you do, but what Christ
has done. Your salvation is 100% dependent
upon what Jesus Christ has done. If any aspect of salvation is
left up to you, you will not be saved. You know that. Your
salvation is dependent upon what Christ has done. Now, I have
no doubt that Adam had taught his sons about what took place
in the garden. He talked about them eating the forbidden fruit
and what took place as a result. He told them about how they tried
to sow fig leaves together to make themselves acceptable before
God, but God in his mercy flew an animal and clothed them. And I have no doubt it was a
lamb that they were clothed with. He told about the seed of woman
that was gonna come and crush the serpent's head. He said the
only way God can be approached is through a sacrifice, like
the Lord slew that animal. It's not that animal that saves,
it's not that animal's blood that saves, it's that coming
one who will save. He was looking to Christ alone
even then. There's always only been one
gospel. People talk about different dispensations. There's one dispensation,
the dispensation of God's decree, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Abel was saved the same way any
New Testament believer saved, by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, Abel's religion, I think can
be summarized by A song we sing, 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
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. Oh, precious is that flow that
makes me white as snow. No other found I know nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This was the religion of Abel.
He believed God was holy. He believed he was sinful and
he would not dare approach God in any way but through the blood. He brought that blood that pointed
to the coming one. He knew that God was going to
send his son to put away sin. Scripture says by faith. Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. He knew
exactly what he was doing. He was coming only in the blood. He's saying, I'm so sinful, I
deserve to be cast off. And the only way a holy God can
accept me is through the blood atonement of the glorious Lamb
of God. He came through the blood. God can only be approached by
the promised seed of woman and his precious blood, and there
is no worship of God without that. Now, Cain saw no need of
that. As long as his heart was right,
any kind of sacrifice will do. You see, in reality, he had no
respect for God. He had no fear of God. He thought he could come into
God on his own. He thought his works, that's what the vegetables
he presented represented, My works. He took the best vegetables
and presented them to the Lord, thinking the Lord could accept
them. What he demonstrated by that
is he had no respect, no fear of God, no regard for his holiness,
and he really believed himself to be a good man, a righteous
man. Surely God will accept these.
I accept them. I see their beauty. Surely God
sees their beauty. Surely God will be pleased with
this. And so here we have the two men. Abel believed himself to be a
sinner and wouldn't dare approach God apart from the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He had no other plea. Cain felt
like he could come into God's presence in his own works. Now, once again, this is an example
of the wicked who believe themselves to be righteous, Cain, and the
righteous who believe themselves to be wicked. Now, let's look
at God's response to these two offerings. We read, and the Lord,
this is just Genesis chapter four, verse four, and the Lord
had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and
to his offering He had not respect. Now, one thing that I notice
in these two verses I just read, the person and the offering cannot
be separated. Let me repeat that, and I want
you to think about that. The person and the offering cannot
be separated. If I bring my works, What I reveal
by that is I'm a blinded, self-righteous person who thinks God can accept
something that I do. It demonstrates that I have no
regard for God, no respect for God. I come on my own. Able cannot be separated from
his offering. He demonstrated by bringing the
blood that he believed himself to be a sinner. And he believed
that God was holy and he could never be saved by his works.
The only way he could come is by Christ. And the scripture
says that God had respect to Abel and his offering. Now respect. That is so foundational
to any kind of relationship. You can't have a good marriage
if you don't respect your spouse. The children need to respect
their parents, honor your father and mother. In an employee-employer
relationship, the employer needs to respect his employee, and
the employee needs to respect his employer. That is foundational
to a good relationship. Without respect, you don't have
a good relationship. You do your children, and I would
do my children a disservice if I don't teach them to respect
authority. Now, God had respect to Abel. Now, something must be infinitely
glorious for God to have respect for, but God had respect to Abel
and to his offering. You see, the offering of Abel
made him somebody God, the infinite holy God could actually respect
and gaze on with approval. That's the power of the blood
of Christ. It makes me capable of God respecting me. You see,
I'm made just like Christ. I'm given his righteousness.
I have no sin because of his blood. And God had respect unto
Abel and his offering. If you're somebody who pleads
only the blood, God respects you. But to Cain and his offering,
he had no respect. Now, Cain didn't respect God.
He demonstrated that when he brought his works. He had no
fear of God. He brought whatever he wanted. I don't have any doubt
that Adam told him to only bring the blood offering, but he thought,
well, as long as my heart's right, it doesn't matter what offering
there is. He had no respect for God. He had no regard for his
holiness. He thought he could come waltzing
into his presence without the blood, and God had no respect
for him. He was offensive to God. God
had no respect unto Cain or to his offering. Now, what was Cain's response
to that? We don't have to guess. Verse
5, And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is
thy countenance fallen. Cain was very angry that God
did not respect his offering. He said in his heart, this is
not fair. How could it be that God could accept my brothers
and not accept me? That's not fair. I'm bringing
my best. God is treating me wrong. All
of a sudden, Cain becomes a victim. He is a victim of God treating
him wrong. So he thinks. He charges God
with injustice. It's the way Adam did. The woman
you gave me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I did eat.
It's not really my fault. It's your fault. He was angry. And that's the natural man's
response to the gospel. All of a sudden, a man as sinful
as Cain thinks he can sit in judgment on God and decide what
he thinks is right and what he thinks is wrong. Oh, we're in
dangerous waters there when we're like that. God's always right
and we're always wrong. Let God be true and every man
be a liar. Well, Cain is very wroth, he's
very angry, and God says, Why is your countenance fallen? And
then he says in verse seven, if you do 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. Now here we have the first mention
of sin. Now God says to Cain, if you
do well, you will be accepted. If you bring the same offering
your brother Abel did, looking only to the blood of the coming
one, my son, who would accomplish salvation, you will be accepted
just like Abel was. You will be respected just like
Abel was. Now understand this. If you come
to God for mercy, pleading only the blood of Christ, You will
be saved. Now it's true, God elected a
people. That's not everybody. It's true,
Christ died only for the elect. That's not everybody. But it's
also true that everybody who comes to him for mercy, he receives. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. And the first time the word sin
is used is with regard to bringing the wrong sacrifice. He says in verse seven, if thou
doest not well, sin lieth at the door. It's the cause behind
of it. And unto thee shall be his desire. That's talking about sin's desire.
He desires to rule over you and thou shalt rule over him if you
do well. Verse eight, and Cain talked
with Abel his brother. Now this wasn't a congenial talk. This was an argument. He was
upset over the fact that God had respect to Abel and had no
respect to him. He was upset. He was indignant. And Cain talked with Abel, his
brother. And I can imagine how the conversation
went. Cain said, this is not fair,
how God would accept your sacrifice and not accept mine. And Abel
replied, Cain, this is the only way God can be approached. We've
been taught this, and we believe this. We're sinful, and the only
way we can be accepted is through the coming one, the Lord Jesus
Christ. We plead only His blood. You
can't come any other way. Cain says, why, you narrow-minded
bigot, you think your way is the only way. You self-righteous
jerk, you just put out everybody that doesn't believe just like
you do. You think your way is the only way. Abel says, this
is not my way, this is God's way. This is the only way of
approach. We are evil, God is holy. There
can be no other way but the way of blood. Cain's boiling by now. And he says, blood, I'll show
you blood. And he bashes his brother's brains out. And the
blood flows to the ground. Now remember, you say, how could
somebody do that? Remember, they didn't have human judges then
and human juries in prison. He had no fear of the consequence
of the actions. He just knew he totally resented
what his brother stood for and he killed him for it. Now, what took place? This is
the first murder, Abel's the first martyr. And I know what
the Issue was, the same issue that was then is the issue now,
the blood. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whose blood was shed? God's blood. The blood of the
God-man. Why did He shed it? Because of
sin. The sins of the elect became
His, and He became guilty before God, and it was God who killed
Him. What did he accomplish by his
blood? The complete salvation of everybody he died for. Oh,
what a glorious accomplishment. Who did he die for? Everybody
he died for, the elect, those the father gave him. He's a successful
savior. The issue has always been the
blood. Now, he's killed his brother. And the Lord said unto Cain,
where is Abel thy brother? He knew. And he said, I know
not, he lies to the Lord. I know not, am I my brother's
keeper? And he said, what hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's
blood crieth unto me from the ground. Now, what did the blood
of Abel cry? Justice, vengeance, Condemnation. That man should be destroyed. And understand this, every sin
we've ever committed cries to God from the ground. Every injustice,
things we don't even know we've been guilty of, it all cries
to God from the ground. But listen to this. In Hebrews
12, verse 24, we read of the blood of Christ, the blood of
sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of April. Now,
Abel's blood cried to the ground and it cried out for justice
and vengeance. Christ's blood came to the ground,
soaked up in the dirt, the soil, just like Abel's, but it cries
something else. It cries, forgive him, save him,
make his sins to be no more. make him to be justified. The
blood of Christ demands the salvation, the complete forgiveness of sins
of everybody he represented. Oh, indeed, the blood of Christ
has greater things to say than the blood of Abel. Cain and Abel, works and grace,
which man are you? Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD. If you write the church or email,
we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg, praying
that God will reveal himself to you. For Christ's sake, amen. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to todd.nyberg at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.