Evening. Turn, if you would,
to Genesis chapter 4. Genesis 4, and we're just going
to look at the first five verses of Genesis chapter 4 tonight. And while you're turning there,
just an observation I had made recently. You know, I've kind
of noticed over the years that all men, all of us generally,
we all have the same favorite topic of conversation, don't
we? That's ourselves. It's true. It's absolutely true.
It's true of me. We love to talk about ourselves. I'm absolutely
no exception. I love to talk about myself. I was thinking,
have you ever been at a party or some sort of gathering and
you're talking to somebody and then off to the side, you hear
a side conversation and you start listening and you hear that they're
talking about you and your ears perk up, don't they? You start
listening very intently. You want to hear what those people
are saying about you. Well, tonight, that's what I
hope I can do tonight. I want to talk about you and
me. I hope to describe you, and I hope to do it through the person,
through the character of one of the two individuals we're
encountering in this story in Genesis chapter 4, either Cain or Abel. I think we will see that all
men, all men, can be categorized by one of these two men, either
a Cain or an Abel. Now this is a very familiar story.
Everybody knows the story of Cain and Abel. These two brothers,
two men, they sought to approach unto the Lord. They sought to
seek acceptance. They approached by way of sacrifice. The first
man, Cain, he brought a sacrifice of his own works. He sought to
be judged on his own merits. And Cain and his offering were
rejected. Second man, Abel. Abel came with a blood offering,
a slain lamb, the picture of Christ and him crucified alone.
And Abel and his offering were accepted. Now something to keep
in mind, something I thought of as we're going through this
chapter is this, is that it is absolutely true the Lord will
meet us on the grounds we come to him on. If we come the way
of Cain, if we come seeking salvation based on our own merits, seeking
to be judged by our own merits, then the Lord will meet us on
those grounds and he will judge us accordingly and that judgment
is always the same, guilty. If we come the way of Abel, If
we come seeking acceptance based on the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him alone, then He will also meet us on those
grounds. And that judgment is always the same, it's justified,
not guilty. So keep that in mind while we're
looking at this, and let's just get right into it. Genesis 4
verse 1, it says, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived,
and bare Cain, and said, I've gotten a man from the Lord. Now
Cain was the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, and understand
that Adam and Eve may have had many daughters up to this point. Scripture
says that Adam and Eve had sons and daughters, sons and daughters.
They may have had many daughters up to this point, but Cain was
the firstborn son. And interestingly enough, Cain's
name means to acquire or to get. And we see a glimpse as to why
Cain was named this in the first verse here. Upon bearing Cain,
Eve said, I've gotten, or I've acquired, a man from the Lord. Now what did Eve mean when she
made this statement? Well, back in Genesis 3, we're given an
account of Adam's fall in the garden. And as the Lord is issuing
the various curses to every party that's involved in Adam's disobedience,
He also declares this great promise. He makes a great promise, and
I'll paraphrase it. He says, the seed of woman will
bruise the serpent's head. Now, this is the promise of the
Savior, the promise of the Messiah. One who would come, He would
work out a perfect righteousness for a chosen people. He would
come and He would bleed and die for them and He would redeem
them. Now you can imagine the hope Adam felt after hearing
this great declaration. And I can imagine the anticipation
he and Eve must have felt. I'm sure that constantly they
were thinking, when will He come? When will the man come? When
will the Savior be here? And then Cain is born and they think,
we've got Him. We've gotten the man. We've gotten the Savior.
But Cain was not that Savior. He was not that Christ. He was
just a sinful, evil man, just like me, and just like them,
and just like you. And so we go down and look in
verse 2. It says, and she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel
was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So
in the process of time, we don't know how much time spanned between
the birth of Cain and the birth of Abel. But in the process of
time, another son is born, and they name him Abel. And interestingly
enough, Abel's name means vanity. or emptiness, or lacking value,
or simply nothing. And quite the difference in the
names they give these two boys, right? We have Cain, the acquired,
and we have Abel, the nothing. And if you look at Genesis 4,
3 through 5, and this is where we'll spend the majority of our
time, it says, And in the 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 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. Hence,
countenance fell. So in the process of time, these
boys grew, and they grew to be men. And that's exactly what
they were when they offered these sacrifices. And we know this
because in these times, a man offered a sacrifice for himself
and for his house, for his wife and his children. And Adam wasn't
offering sacrifice for his boys at this time. They were offering
their own. These men were full grown men. They were heads of
households. They likely had wives of their own. They likely had children
of their own. They had occupations. They had land. And so when I
first look at this story, the first question that came to my
mind was, had these men received instruction in this thing of
worshiping God? Had they been instructed on how
to seek acceptance from the Lord? And the answer is absolutely.
So during this time period, there is no written word. There is
no Bible. The Levitical law had not yet been given, but the gospel
was passed down from generation to generation the same way it
is today, through the foolishness of preaching. Men preaching to
their children, telling them how God is to be worshipped,
how he is to be approached unto. And I'll give you an example
of this. Keep your bookmark there in Genesis 4 and turn to Genesis
22. Genesis 22 in verse 7. And this
is a familiar story as well. This is a story of Abraham and
Isaac. If you all remember, the Lord commands Abraham, he says,
you take your son, your only son Isaac, and you offer him
as a burnt offering unto the Lord. And as Abraham and Isaac
are climbing Mount Moriah, Isaac makes this observation in verse
7. It says, and Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said,
my father. And he said, here am I, my son. He said, behold
the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? So very interesting, Isaac knew
how God was to be worshiped. He recognized that all the necessary
elements to offer a burnt offering unto the Lord were present, except
for the most important element, the lamb. Well, how did Isaac
know this? It's simple, Abraham taught Isaac.
He told him the only way he could come in the presence of the Holy
God was through the slain lamb, the picture of the Savior which
was to come, and the death that he would accomplish. And no doubt,
Adam had the same conversations with his boys. And I can imagine
Adam oftentimes sitting with his sons and telling them stories.
And I bet he oftentimes told them stories from the garden.
And it seems to be the natural course of things is that the
elder generation often likes to tell stories of their youth to
the younger generation. Men like to talk about their
glory days, so to speak. And oh, what glorious days Adam
had known before the fall. But wise fathers also instruct
their children in their mistakes, or more accurately, their disobediences,
in hopes that the younger generation will take heed and not commit
the same offenses as the fathers. And with that in mind, I have
no doubt that Adam told his boys the story of his fall, as is
depicted in Genesis 3. And I spent some time thinking
about this, what this might have sounded like, what it might have
looked like. And I think it probably went
something like this. I think he said something like, boys, your
mother and I We had it so good. We enjoyed full communion with
God. We enjoyed his friendship. We enjoyed his presence. We enjoyed
his favor. Then I went and I made a mess
of things. I had one commandment. One commandment.
Do not eat that forbidden fruit. And when I did, I disobeyed God,
and when I did, we lost our innocent nature. We lost that nature,
and we took on this sinful, evil nature that you, too, are partakers
of. I've passed it on to you. And when we fell, when I ate,
we saw. We saw that we were naked. And
not just naked as nude, not just physically naked. We saw that
we were shameful, that we were guilty. We were sinful, that
we were polluted in spirit. We had no righteousness. We had
no covering. And foolishly, we took fig leaves.
took fig leaves, we sewed them together, we made aprons, and
we covered ourselves with those fig leaf aprons. And while those
fig leaves could cover our physical nudity, it could never cover
our shame. It could never cover our guilt.
It could never cover our sin. We were exposed. There was no
righteousness. And when we heard his voice,
the voice of the Lord, as he walked through the garden, we
hid. We hid because we knew we were exposed. We knew we had
no covering. And then he came to me, and he
called me out, and he declared his great displeasure over my
sin, and I was terrified. And the next thing that happened,
something I had never seen before, I saw death. The Lord took an innocent
lamb from that garden, and he took a knife, and he plunged
that knife into that lamb's neck, and, boys, the blood, the blood
sprayed everywhere. It was a bloody mess. And I knew
in that moment, that's exactly what I deserve. Death. To be cut off. To be separated
from God himself. And I fully expected that knife,
that knife of his righteous indignation, I fully expected it was going
to fall next on my neck. But it didn't. Something amazing
happened. Something gracious happened.
Something merciful happened. took that knife, he took that
animal, he skinned that animal, he ripped the fig leaf aprons
off our bodies, and he clothed us with the skins of that animal. And I knew in that moment that
is the only way that I could be just before the Holy God was
through a death, the death of another, the death of the Savior. My only hope is that he would
die in my stay, that his righteousness, his righteousness would be my
covering, my righteousness before the Holy God. Now, boys, God
is to be worshiped, and he is to be worshiped through the picture,
the type, of the Savior that is to come and the death he will
accomplish, the slain lamb alone. Now, I'd say that's probably
pretty close to a conversation Adam would have had with his
boys. And so we see this. We see that these men had received
instruction in this thing of approaching unto the Lord. Now
let's look at how they chose to approach. We'll begin with Abel. Now, Abel
was a shepherd. He was a keeper of sheep. He
watched over that which he had no hand in creating. And it says,
Abel brought an offering unto the Lord. This word offering,
it's just another word for sacrifice. And no doubt, Abel stacked stones
and he built an altar. An altar is a place of sacrifice.
It's a place where God meets man. And between his sin and
a holy God, Abel took a slain lamb, a bloody lamb, and he placed
it on that altar. And by placing the slain lamb
on that altar, the slain lamb alone, Abel made this appeal
unto the Lord. Abel said, Lord, accept me. Look
favorably upon me. Save me because of what Christ,
Savior, Messiah has done. Now what was the Lord's response
to Abel and his offering? Respect. Respect. That word should stop us dead
in our tracks. Someone must be of infinite value for the Lord
to have respect unto them. And so somebody says, well, who
did the Lord have respect unto? Was it unto Abel or unto his
offering? What does the scripture say?
It says the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. You see, Abel and his offering
could not be separated. And this speaks of how real,
how true union with Christ actually is. And this was Abel's confession
at the altar. This was his hope. This is my
hope. This is the hope of every believer. This is your hope.
It's that when Jesus Christ lived, when he came to this world, and
he kept the law perfectly, and he obeyed his father in all things
perfectly, that's when I lived. That righteousness he worked
out, that is my righteousness. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
to this earth and He died, when He was punished, punished for
sin, and He died, that's when I was punished, and that's when
I died. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
was resurrected from the dead, signifying that full satisfaction
had been made with God the Father, truly, it is finished. That's when I was resurrected
from the dead. Holy, blameless, unreprovable. What a glorious
hope that is. Union with Christ. It's beautiful.
Now, for a second, let's look at Cain. It says in verse 2 that
Cain was a tiller of the ground. He was a farmer. Cain was a farmer.
He had adopted his father's occupation. And Cain also brought an offering
unto the Lord. In fact, it says that Cain offered first. And
no doubt, Cain built an altar. He stacked stones. He built an
altar. And on that altar, Cain laid the very best that he, that
he, Cain, could provide. the ripest fruits, the finest
vegetables, the most beautiful flowers, the very best that He
could provide. And by offering the fruits of
the ground, Cain was making this appeal to the Lord. Cain said,
Lord, accept me. Look favorably upon me. Save
me because of all the work I have done. Look at all I've done. Judge me on my own merits. Now,
what was the Lord's response to Cain and his offering? It
says, the Lord had not respect. Canaan and his offering were
rejected. Now this is the age-old controversy. It's always been
the controversy. Salvation by works, salvation conditioned
ultimately upon what a man does, or salvation by grace through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation conditioned ultimately
upon what Christ has done. Now, in offering these different
sacrifices, Cain and Abel made a confession about what, and
more importantly, in whom they believed. And I've boiled it
down to three major issues I want to deal with tonight. Just three
issues. First, the issue of sin. Second, the issue of blood. And
third, the issue of righteousness and faith. Three issues. We'll
begin with the issue of sin. Turn, if you would, to Genesis
6, verse 5. Before we read, the first thing
I noticed about these men is that they both came, they both
approached the Lord by way of sacrifice. And this is significant
because it shows that both these men had some understanding of
their sin. If there was no sin, there would be no need of sacrifice.
But what we must understand is their individual understanding
of their sin was radically different. So Genesis 6 verse 5 says, and
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually. Now, that's what the scripture
says about the sinfulness of man. Now, when the scripture is referring
to the heart, what is it referring to? You all know very well, it
refers to the whole man. It speaks of the works, the actions.
It speaks of the thoughts. It speaks of the affections,
what we love. It speaks of the intentions, the motives, the
will. It speaks of the whole man. When the scripture says that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually,
what it is simply saying is that every action, every thought,
every affection, every intention, every motive, and man's natural
will is only evil, and that continually, because of its originating source,
the heart of man. Now, question. Do you believe that about yourself?
Do I believe that about myself? Everything I do is sin, and it's
sin because I do it, because it originates from my natural
heart, from me. It's true. Abel believed that.
Consider Abel for a moment. Abel approached from the altar,
and he placed nothing that his hands could provide. He had no
hand in creating those lambs. He simply watched over them.
In offering the slain lamb alone, he took his rightful place as
a sinner before the Lord. Abel said, I can have no hand.
in this thing of salvation. Christ must do it all. If you
think of it from just a visual standpoint, you can imagine an
altar. You can imagine Abel walking up with that slain lamb and placing
it on the altar and stepping back and saying, my hands are
off. I've got nothing to do with this
work. Look at the slain lamb alone. That's my grounds of acceptance. And I'll tell you this. I told
you earlier that Abel's name means vanity or ultimately nothing. And that's exactly what Abel
knew himself to be. He was a nothing, and he could
produce no good thing. So now consider Cain for a moment.
Cain approached him on the altar, and he laid the very best that
he, that he, Cain, could provide. And by doing this, he made this
acknowledgment of his sin. This is what he was saying. I've
obviously done wrong. I'm not perfect, but who is?
I've made mistakes, but I can make up for all my shortcomings
with all the good I've done. Now remember I told you earlier
that Cain's name means to acquire or to get. But when it's used
here in the text there's a particular stress on the word which means
to acquire or to get by way of purchase. Purchase. I give unto you and you give
unto me what I rightfully deserve in return. Not grace. Not grace. Not the Lord giving you what
you do not deserve freely and what you have not earned. But
a purchase. And that's exactly what Cain
sought at the altar that day, a purchase. He brought unto the
Lord his best works, which he thought were good, and he attempted
to purchase acceptance with God. And by doing this, we see that
Cain did not believe himself to be a sinner, not as the scripture
teaches. So, allow me to ask the question,
which man are you? Which man am I? Are you Cain? Are your sins simply mistakes
that can be atoned for with all your seemingly good works? Do
you believe that you can produce something by nature that God
can be pleased with, that He can find acceptable? Or are you
able? Am I able? Do you take sides
with God and confess that all your works are evil, that there's
nothing you can produce by nature that would be acceptable to the
Holy God, that your only hope of acceptance is grace, free
grace, the Lord freely giving you what you do not deserve,
and what you have not earned. Which man are you? Which man
am I? So that's our first point is
the issue of sin. Second point is the issue of blood. Turn,
if you would, to 1 Peter 1, 18. Now Abel brought a blood-soaked
sacrifice before the Lord. Cain's offering, Cain's sacrifice,
was completely void of blood, not a drop of blood. In understanding
this, in understanding that Abel's offering is a type, it's a picture
of Christ and Him crucified, what is the significance of the
blood of Christ? 1 Peter 1.18, we'll read 18 and
19, Peter says, for as much as you know, that you were not redeemed
with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot. Now this word redeemed means
to be purchased or to be bought back. It speaks of the means
by which a sinner is saved. And when Peter says, we are not
redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your
vain conversation received by tradition of your fathers, What
does that mean? Well, in this particular verse
of scripture, Peter is addressing the religion of Judaism, the
religion of the Jews particularly, and all the customs and the traditions
and the self-righteousness that's associated with that religion.
And he touched on this earlier today. The religion of the Jews
is this, it's do and live. Get circumcised, keep the law,
keep the customs, keep the feasts, honor the Sabbath, do these things,
and in return, you'll be given eternal life. And understand
this, is that the religion of Judaism, the religion of the
Jews, this is simply a picture, it's a type of all false religion.
There are only two religions in the world, only two true religions.
There's the religion of grace, the religion of Abel, salvation
being ultimately conditioned by what Christ has done, and
there's the religion of Cain, the religion of works, salvation
being ultimately conditioned by what men do. Now, what Peter
was saying in the statement was this. He was saying that a sinner
is not saved in response to anything he does. It is not a response.
He's saying a sinner is only saved, a man is only saved, if
the Lord Jesus Christ bore that man's sins in his body on the
tree and he bled and he died for that man and he suffered
all that man's punishment. in his body on the tree. He bled
and died for that man. He is declaring this great truth
that salvation begins, it begins with the free forgiveness of
sins. And this is contrary to the religion
of this world. It's contrary to the religion
of Cain. The religion of Cain will tell you this, that you
must do something, fill in the blank. You must do something
and in response to that something, you'll be saved. I'm telling
you this, you and I can't do anything by nature that the Lord
would be pleased with. So now let's view the scriptures
through the eyes of our examples. First consider Abel. Abel offered
a blood-soaked sacrifice before the Lord, and by offering blood
he signified his great need of a Redeemer. He signified his
great need of a substitute, one who would come and take his place.
He confessed that his only hope of salvation was that the blood
of Christ had put away his sins and made him acceptable before
God, the blood alone. And I find interesting, Abel
didn't add anything to the sacrifice. Abel didn't approach the altar
and put the slain lamb and then lay some fruit on the altar.
He didn't approach, he didn't put the slain lamb and then put
some pretty flowers all over it. He didn't approach the altar,
lay the slain lamb and offer his sorrow over his sin. Although,
no doubt, Abel did mourn over his sin. He didn't offer the
slain lamb blood and his best intentions to do better. He didn't
offer the slain lamb and anything. He offered the slain lamb alone,
blood alone, because it was the only thing that God could find
acceptable, that he would be pleased with. Now, I'll tell
you this. This gives me a lot of confidence.
It gives me all confidence, really. It makes me kind of bold, is
that everything God requires, everything the Lord requires,
He freely provides. Because if salvation was a mingling,
if it was you need the sacrifice, you need the blood of Christ,
and you have to muster something by nature, then I would be lost.
All the imaginations of the thoughts of my heart are only evil and
that continually. So what could I possibly muster?
What if I had to muster my own faith? What if I had to muster
my own belief? I don't have that ability. It's a God-given ability. It
comes with regeneration. Now, everything the Lord requires,
he freely provides. And you see, what does he require?
He requires a perfect righteousness. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
to this earth and he worked out a perfect righteousness, absolutely
perfect. He honored his Father in all
things. And for every believer, that truly is your righteousness. You cannot be separated from
your sacrifice. That righteousness really is
yours. It really is mine. The Lord requires perfect justice. He will not let sin go unpunished.
You know, the religion of this world, you listen to them on
TV, they say, well, you just have the best intentions, just
have the best motives. You know, the Lord's just looking for you
to do the best you can and he'll sweep those sins under the carpet.
It's not true. It's absolutely not true. He demands a perfect
justice. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
to this earth and he bore the sins of his chosen people in
his body on that tree. And he bled and he died and he
put them away. The Lord requires that a man
be born again. Once again, Andy this morning, great point. He
said, what did I have to do with my physical birth? How much did
I have to do with that? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
I was born. I didn't have anything to do with it. So much more than,
how could I have anything to do with my spiritual birth? The
Lord requires a man be born again, but when he saves a man, he sends
the Holy Spirit to move on that man. He regenerates that man.
He gives him a new heart. A heart that believes the gospel.
A heart that loves Christ. A heart that loves his people.
It's a blessing. Now consider Cain for a moment.
Cain offered an absolutely bloodless sacrifice. It was absolutely
void of blood. And I was thinking not too long
ago, I brought an abbreviated version of this message to the
middle schoolers in Brian's Sunday school class. And I asked this
question when we were going through the story. I said, when Cain
refused to offer blood, what was he saying? And Mabel Lynn,
she answered up. Loud and proud, she said, he's
saying no one needs to die for me. I can't think of a better
answer. That's exactly what Cain was
saying. Cain was saying, I don't need a redeemer. I can be my
own redeemer. Cain was saying, I don't need
a great high priest. I can be my own great high priest. He's
saying, I don't need a mediator. I can come to the very presence
of the holy God himself on my own, be judged on my own merits,
and find acceptance. I'll tell you what, it's been
said hundreds of times, especially from this pulpit, and I'm going
to say it again. Here's Cain's chief problem, summed up in this
one statement. Cain had a low view of Christ, and he had a
high view of himself. So, let's ask again, where do
you and I stand on this? Are you able? Is your only hope
of redemption found in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? You're
not looking anywhere else. You're not trusting anything
else, the blood alone? Or are you king? Are you attempting
to be your own redeemer? Are you attempting to bypass
the blood of Christ and provide your own acceptance before God?
Which man are you? Which man am I? So those are
the first two issues, the issue of sin, the issue of blood. The
third issue is the issue of righteousness and faith. And if you would turn
to Hebrews 11 for Hebrews 11 verse 4 says, 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 he being dead yet speaketh. Now Abel was
a righteous man. Was he righteous from birth?
No. You don't know that. Abel was born into this world
with the same evil, fallen, sinful nature that you and I are born
into this world with. Same one that Cain was born in this world
with. But Abel was made. He was made righteous. He was
made to be what he was not before. So someone asks, how did that
happen? How was Abel made righteous?
When I set out to answer that question, my first inclination
was to say that Abel was made righteous through imputation.
The righteousness of Christ being imputed to him. And that is absolutely
the truth. That is the teaching of scripture. But that's not
how the scripture words it here, does it? Speaking of Abel, it
says, he was righteous. This goes back to how real union
with Christ actually is. Today, if you trust the shed
blood of Christ alone as your only hope of acceptance before
the Father, then you have the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. When God the Father looks at
you, there is no shame. There is no sin. There is no guilt. You are perfectly righteous."
And so, looking at it, could Abel tell, could he look inside
himself and tell that he was righteous? You look inside and,
well, I'm clearly righteous. I see that about myself. No.
No, no more than any other believer can look inside yourself and
see that you're righteous. And you all know what I'm talking
about. You look inside your heart, you sit by yourself, and you
think about your motives, and you think about your intentions,
and you think about what you love and what you want. And it's
all self-based. You really look at it, it's all
self after self after self. Everything's self-based. No,
he couldn't look inside himself and tell that he was righteous.
But what was the evidence of Abel's righteousness? Faith. Faith. Scripture says that by
faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain. Abel heard the gospel of God's
free grace preached by Adam, and Abel believed God. And Abel's
belief was evidence that he was righteous. Now, someone asks,
when was Abel made righteous? He wasn't born that way. When
did that happen? Was it when he offered the sacrifice? No. No, absolutely not. No, Abel
offered the sacrifice in response, in obedience to being righteous. You say, well, when was he made
righteous? I'll tell you when he was first made righteous.
The very instant that the Lord Jesus Christ stood as his surety
before God the Father, Abel was absolutely righteous. But you
know when else he was made righteous? The very moment he believed.
The very instant that Abel trusted Jesus Christ alone, the slain
lamb alone, as his only grounds of acceptance before God the
Father. He was absolutely righteous. Now, in closing, I want to look
at the last statement that's made in Hebrews 11.4. It says,
speaking of Abel, he being dead, yet speaketh. Now, we all know
the story. We all know how it goes. Cain
and Abel quarreled. They fought. They fought over
the gospel. They fought over the necessity
of the slain lamb, the sacrifice, the blood. And Cain killed Abel. I don't know how he killed him.
Maybe bashed him with a rock, but in some way he shed his blood.
And that blood that was shed, it speaks to this very day. It
said it speaks. What does it say? It says many
things. Tonight it says, believe the
gospel. This is what Abel was martyred
over. This is what it says, believe the gospel. Believe. Believe
that you're a sinner. And understand this, I'm speaking
first to me and second to you. Believe that you're a sinner.
Believe that you're a murderer, you're an adulterer, you're a liar,
you're an idolater, a covetous. Go down the list. Believe what
God says about you and about me. It says believe. It says
believe that the shed blood of Christ alone is enough and is
all that makes you holy and blameless. and unapprovable in the sight
of God the Father, He who sees things as they really are." It
says, believe. It says, believe that the perfect
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is your only righteousness
before God the Father. Now, the commandment of the Gospel
is this, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. And someone might ask, now, do
I have a right to believe this? Do I have a right to trust Christ
alone? You ever ask that? Let me ask
you this, is He all you've got? If all you have is Christ, if
your only grounds of acceptance is His shed blood alone, then
you have every right to trust Christ. You have every right. And I'll tell you this, this
right also comes because it's a commandment. Everyone in this
room is commanded to trust the Lord Jesus Christ and His shed
blood alone as your only grounds of acceptance before God the
Father. I'm going to stop there.