Genesis chapter 4, and I want
to begin reading in verse 1, down through verse 17. Genesis
chapter 4, and begin reading in verse 1. And Adam knew Eve
his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten
a man from the Lord. And she again bore 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
firstlands 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, 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 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. And now art thou cursed from
the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's
blood from thy hand. When thou tellest the ground,
it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive
and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto
the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou
hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from
thy face shall I be hid. And I shall be a fugitive and
a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that every
one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him,
Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him
sevenfold. 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, wandering
on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she
conceived, and bore Enoch. And he built it a city, and called
the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch." I want
us to look at a few of these verses this morning and consider
them. What makes this so interesting?
This is the first two brothers. that were ever born in this world
of a fallen mom and dad. And I noticed there in verse
1 and 2 how Eve named her children. It's very interesting to consider
this. The first one there, she named Cain, which means I have
acquired a man from the Lord. And you can almost feel the happiness. You can almost feel the pride.
in that name. I have acquired a man. I've gotten
a man. And some think it is probably
so that she thought this may be the man that will overthrow
what we've done. This may be the man that will
bruise the serpent's head. And she was so happy and so cheerful
when he was born. But she had another son. And she named him Abel. And your
margin may tell you there the meaning of that word. It means
breath or nothing. Breath or nothing. David used
this same word. He said, man in his best state
is altogether vanity. He's not Abel. He's nothing.
I wonder if Eve didn't live long enough with her firstborn son
to realize This is not the Deliverer. I wonder maybe if He hadn't so
disappointed her with His sin that she realized, nobody that
comes from me, nobody that comes from my womb is going to be this
Deliverer to bruise the serpent's head. So when her second son
was born, she said, He's nothing. He's nothing. He's just a brat. You know, it's amazing how parents
want to name their children, isn't it? They give them Bible names. We
have our Jacobs, and we have our Isaacs, and our Ezekiels,
and our Jeremiahs, and our James, and our Johns. And a lot of them
are serving time in prison for the crimes that they've done. Some kids are named Jude. I named
my baby Jude, and he turned out to have the heart of a Judas. We don't know, do we? We don't
know how our children are going to turn out. Here was a man that
she said he's nothing. He's just a breath. And yet he
was a man who humbly and faithfully worshipped God. And now he's
in heaven with the Lord. Here is a child that she esteemed
and gave him a name and was so happy when he was born, and he
was a devil and hated God in his gospel, and he is in hell.
We don't know, do we? We just don't know. But we know
this, every little baby that comes from his mother's womb,
he is a little sinner. He is a little sinner. And we
know who is going to make the distinction We know who's going
to make the difference if one worships the Lord and believes
in Him and the other doesn't. We know who's going to make that
distinction. Who maketh you to differ? Who made the difference
between these two babies? Ain't it amazing that they were
born to the same woman? They were raised of the same
parent. They were taught the same things. And look what a
distinction. And God made that distinction.
Not the name, but God made the distinction. I want you to notice
here also in this text, and especially in chapter 3, how early in the
history of humanity did God reveal the way of salvation. We often say that salvation is
older than the world. The purpose of salvation, the
plan of salvation goes back into eternity. And no sooner had man
failed than God revealed the way He was going to save man. It wasn't going to be by man
sewing fig leaves together and covering his own neckiness. I imagine Adam and Eve, when
they sewed those fig leaves together, they began to look at each other
and thought, man, you look really good. Your nakedness is not showing
anymore. Oh, they commended one another
and probably thought God's going to be impressed when He sees
this. But you know something? That was before God revealed
the way. He was going to save sinners.
It wasn't going to be by man doing something or abstaining
from doing something. It was going to be by God providing
Himself. Look what He said in chapter. And look here in verse 21. Unto Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothed them. That's the way God saves sinners.
He purposed it. He revealed it all along. that it wasn't going to be by
a man sewing fig leaves together and making himself a covering
to clothe his shame. God said, I see through that.
I see through that. You can't see through it, but
I see through it. So God Himself has to make the
covering to cover the shame of our sinful nakedness. Listen to Revelation 3.18, what
the Lord Jesus said about this covering. I counsel you to buy
me white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of
your nakedness doth not appear. There is a garment that will
clothe a person's shame, and that's the garment that Christ
has. Listen to this one. Revelation 19a. To her was granted
that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness
of saints. What is that righteousness? That
is Jesus Christ. That is the righteousness He
brought in and worked out and established. Listen to these
passages of Scripture. God hath made Christ to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
whom of God is made unto us righteousness. I love how the old prophet said
this. He said, I'll rejoice in the Lord. My soul is joyful in
my God. And then he says why. He hath
clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered
me with the robe of righteousness. How do we become righteous? Righteousness
is given to us. It's imputed to us. We don't
become righteous as a result of the works of our hands or
of the good frames of our mind or by human reasoning or by personal
convictions. The creature cannot provide the
righteousness which the Creator requires of him to have. He can't do it. These were the
smartest two people that ever lived. Maybe the smartest two
people in the history of humanity. They had just fallen, but their
minds were still young and fresh. They were brilliant. They said,
this is what we'll do. We'll sew ourselves aprons and
cover our neck in this. But when God came on the scene,
those things just were wibbled up. And God said, what I require,
I'm going to have to provide for you. You have forfeited your
life by your sin. And now I am going to forfeit
the life of this animal. I'm going to slay him and take
his coat, his covering, and put on you to cover the shame of
your nakedness. Brothers and sisters, if that's
not the gospel, I've missed it. If that's not Christ being pictured
here in the dying of this animal, and the coat covering their neck,
and they said, that's not Christ, and Him crucified. I missed it. The Lord God, the Creator, made
coats for the fallen creature. Sometimes at your leisure, read
Colossians chapter 1 He is speaking of Jesus Christ and tells us
that He is the Creator. That He created all things in
heaven, in earth, things that are visible, things that are
invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities of power. All
things were created by Him and for Him. And then the very next
sentence He says this, He hath reconciled us unto Himself by
the blood of His cross. Who is our Savior? He's our Creator,
isn't He? Our Creator is our Savior. That He might, by His own death,
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Oh, how commendable it seemed
in our first parents to put their hands to work to sew themselves
a cover so that holy God could not see the shame of their nakedness. And they loved what they done
until God revealed, that's not my way to save. Here's the way
I save. I forfeit this life of this animal
and I take its clothes. I take its wool and I cover the
shame of your nakedness." Brothers and sisters, that's the way God
revealed right from the very beginning how He would save. In spite of all their sowing,
in spite of all their anxious thought in it and work at it,
they were naked still. And that clothing that was required,
they could not provide. They could not provide. Old Scott
Richardson used to say, what God requires, God has to provide. But thank God what He provides,
He will accept. He saw their nakedness until
He slew that animal and put His coat on him. And then He saw
no nakedness. What He provides, He will accept. And I look in chapter 4 as just
an application by faith of what God had already revealed in Genesis
chapter 3 concerning the way of salvation. How will God save
a sinner? How can a sinner approach unto
God and be accepted of Him and worship Him? Well, He just revealed it in
chapter 3 through a sacrifice. Through a sacrifice. You and
I aren't saved by reaching some conclusion in our mind of how
good we need to be. How much good we must do or how
much evil we must abstain from. But we will be saved by believing
what God has already revealed concerning salvation. This is
the way Abel was saved, by believing what God had already revealed
concerning salvation. That the work has already been
done. How are we saved? Is it by reaching these conclusions
in our mind, I've got to do this? I've got to abstain from that?
No, it's not that at all. It has nothing to do with what
we do or what we don't do. How is a man saved? One way,
brothers and sisters, by believing what God has already revealed
in this book. By believing what has already
been done. When the Lord Jesus says it's
finished, if you'll ever be saved, you'll be saved by believing
what He said. You'll be saved by believing Him. That's the
only way to be saved. The work is done. The work is
done. When Abel brought that lamb with
its blood dripping between his fingers, he was saying this,
this is the way of salvation. that God has already revealed. This is nothing new. This is
not something I've conjured up in my own heart. This is what
God has already revealed without the shedding of blood. There
is no remission. God has already killed the sacrifice. He clothed my parents. That's
the way He saves sinners, I believe Him. And he brought this lamb
and he placed it between his guilt and the Holy God. And God smiled at him and said,
I accept you. You are a righteous man. You
are a righteous man. And all he did was believe what
God had already revealed. That's it. That's it. Why do
you guys stay on that same old way all the time? Because that's
the way God's revealed. And all this modern thought and
modern ways means nothing. You'll never be saved by them.
All of these new denominations that come up in our lifetime
and before us, all the isms, the Jehovah Witness isms and
the Mormon isms and all of this other stuff, this is things that's
just come up and they've come up out of hell. The way will
be saved. is by believing what God has
already revealed. That has already been done. It's
finished. It's finished. I spent most of
my teenage years trying to figure out some way to save myself. And I worked pretty hard at it.
Worked pretty hard at it. Got in my early twenties and
I got pretty serious trying to do it. Man, I got so burdened, I got
so convicted. And you talk about good news,
when I found out that salvation wasn't me doing anything. Salvation
had already been accomplished. Two thousand years ago, Jesus
Christ in the days of His flesh accomplished redemption. Verse 3, he says here, in the
process of time it came to pass. Cain brought of the fruit of
the ground an offering unto the Lord. I want to consider Cain's
offering here. I want to consider it in the
best possible light that I can because I think in a way it was
rather commendable. It was said that Abel brought
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. But what was Cain acknowledging
here by his sacrifice? Think about this with me just
for a second. I think there's a good lesson
here. What was he saying by bringing the fruit of the ground? He had
fixed up all this basket of carrots and cabbage and apples and oranges. And it was beautiful. And he
brought it to the Lord and laid it at the Lord's feet. And here's
what he was acknowledging. That the fruit of the ground
and probably all the means of life and living in this world
is due to God's goodness and due to God's providence. He was
simply saying, I thank you for this because all of this comes
from you and I thank you for giving. The last few weeks You
and I have seen a lot of this, haven't we? We've seen politicians,
we've seen people in our capital and throughout this country acknowledge
some things that we're happy to see them acknowledge. That
truly life comes from God. And it's sacred. And that this
country is upheld by the providence of God over it. I tell you, that's better than
the other side, is it not, that wants anarchy? And that wants
the knowledge of God and the name of God to be stripped from
everything in our society? Don't mention His name in school.
Don't mention it at the courthouse. Pretty soon they'll be saying,
don't mention it in the church house. But we've seen some people, and
brothers and sisters, I've rejoiced in I feel like God has given
us a little bit of reproof to see somebody stand up in front
of a big crowd and say the providence of God is over this nation. And
that is why we are a nation. And we are returning blessings
to Him. We are thanking Him for it. I tell you, I like that. I like that. As far as it went, Cain's offering
and his faith in which He brought it was commendable at least to
the eyes of man. Cain had to have some kind of
faith, didn't he? He believed in the existence
of God. He believed that what he was
acknowledging about this offering was owing to the Creator and
Sustainer of all things. I'm bringing this offering to
you because I believe in you. I believe it's you that has given
me this. And all things that pertain to
life, you've given me this." That's what Cain was saying. In whatever sense Cain's offering
may be commendable, here's the problem with Cain's offering.
And here's the problem with Cain's faith. His offering and the faith
with which he brought it, denied the fall of man, and it denied
the absolute necessity of a blood sacrifice. What was wrong with
Cain's offering? It was a bloodless sacrifice. And God had already revealed
in chapter 3 the way in which He would be approached into and
accepted. A way in which He would show
mercy and save. How was it? By sacrifice. And Cain didn't bring one. He brought an offering unto the
Lord. He brought an offering. But it
was an offering that denied the holiness of God and the justice
of God. And it denied that he was an
unworthy sinner and not fit to approach unto God. He denied
all of that. A bloodless sacrifice. And God
would not accept it. And while I commend and appreciate
Those today who are acknowledging God, and they believe there is
a God, they praise Him and they thank Him for life and all the
things that sustain this life. True faith goes deeper than that. True faith must acknowledge what
we are, that we're guilty and fallen. and acknowledge the only
way that God would look upon us with any favor, and that's
through the blood and righteousness of His dear Son. Abel's faith was of a different
kind, wasn't it? It went right to the heart of
the matter. He believed that God had already
revealed and that His parents had already found out. that their
life and his had been forfeited by their sin. And his life could
only be restored by the forfeiter of another life. So what does
he do? He goes into his flock and he
finds a lamb that he has raised and fed. It was his own lamb. And he checked it to make sure
it had no spot or blemish or wrinkle in it. And he took it
back and he cut its throat. And he took the fad and laid
it on top of the lamb. And he brought all of this to
God and said, here is my salvation. Here is my righteousness. Here
is my acceptance. Here is the ground upon which
I hope to have a peaceful and happy communion with You, my
Creator and my Redeemer. And He threw it down at His feet
and He bowed before His Creator and He was accepted. In verses 3 and 4 of our text
it says that they brought of their offerings unto the Lord. And the Lord responded to both
men. Did you notice that? Unto Abel
he had respect, but unto Cain he had not respect. Now, I don't
know how he manifested this. We weren't there, so we don't
know. This word respect, it means to look upon narrowly, keenly,
to take a solemn glance. And one man said it should be
rendered that he kenneled his eyes unto a fire. When he looked
upon Abel's lamb, fire came out and consumed it. That's what
some think happened. And by that he bore witness.
to Abel. Some think, and this may be so
an awesome thing to think about, that they not only had a time
to worship, but they had a place. They brought. That indicates
there's a place, doesn't it? And some think that they went
there to the gate of the garden. That's where they brought their
sacrifices and that's where they worshipped. If that's where they
worshipped, what a solemn place that was. Because look what's
said of that in the last verse of chapter 3, verse 24. The Lord
drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of
Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way
to keep the way of the tree of life. Can you imagine what a
solemn place that was? And here they stood with their
sacrifices. And somehow or another, God revealed
to Abel, I have respect to you and to your sacrifice. It could
have been fire come down from heaven. How often do we read
this in the Scriptures? That when they brought sacrifices,
fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifices. That
may have happened here. And when Cain brought his sacrifice,
nothing happened. And it seems like in some way
or another, God could be seen in that day. Because Abel Cain
said, I'm hid from your face. I'll never see your face again.
I don't know how he revealed what he did to these two men.
But he revealed to one, I have respect to your offer. And he
revealed to the other, I have no respect for your offer. But
you know what's more important than knowing how he witnessed? What did he witness? He had respect. And the Scripture says, He witnessed. We don't know how He witnessed.
But I want you to hold Genesis. Put you a little piece of paper,
hold it with your finger or something. Look over in Hebrews chapter
11. And look in verse 4. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse
4. Here's what's said about this
very text of Scripture that you and I are reading about this
morning. In Hebrews chapter 11, it's on page 1113 in your pew
Bible. Look in verse 4. By faith Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which
he obtained witness, by which He obtained witness that he was
righteous, God testifying of his guilt, and by it he being
dead yet speaking." God bore witness to this man. Maybe He
did it before. Maybe He saw the countenance
of his face somewhere or another. I don't know, but the thing is,
He bore witness. He bore witness. Wouldn't it
be amazing if some way or another God could bear witness to me
and you that He's received us? Wouldn't it be amazing if He
bore witness to us that you were a child of God? How in the world
would He do that? He does it by His Spirit. And
He does it through His Son. By which? He that believeth on
the Son. Now listen to this. You say,
Bruce, I need assurance so bad. I want to live in this assurance.
Right here is the way you have assurance. You want to know that
you're a child of God? Right here is the way the Spirit
witnesses to that fact. He that believeth in the Son
hath a witness in himself. That's the witness. The Spirit never witnesses to
any lost person. You're a child of God. It's through Christ the Mediator. It's through our believing in
Him that we have this witness that we are righteous. I love
this way the Holy Spirit puts this here. By which? That excellent sacrifice, by
which? God wasn't looking at Abel. He
was looking at his sacrifice. He looked at the sacrifice and
said, by which? You're righteous. And God looks
upon Christ. Then He looks at the believer
in Christ. And He says, by which you are righteous. I used to wonder how in the world
can I know that the Spirit is bearing witness to my spirit?
Does He speak to me? Has the Spirit ever spoke to
you audibly? You better hope He don't. Because
He done sealed that testimony. I tell you, when you'll know
the witness of the Spirit, when you look to Christ, when you
believe in Christ, that's the way He bears witness. He that
believeth in the Son hath a witness in Himself. Look back over at
our text and I'll hurry and quit. Looking back over in chapter
4 and look in verses 4, 5 and 7. Abel brought the first one to
the flocks, and the Lord had respect unto Abel to his offering.
But unto Cain, and to his offering, he had no respect. And Cain was
very angry, and his countenance failed. And the Lord said unto
Cain, Why are you wrought? And why is your countenance fallen? And here's my next thing. I want
you to notice the instructions in verse 7. The Lord gives to
Cain. I want you to know the Lord's
long-suffering, says Cain. His mercy towards Cain. Look
what he says in verse 7. If you do well, shall you not
be accepted? What does he mean by that? I
used to think he meant by that, if you do good enough, then you'll
be accepted. That would have been false information.
That would have been false instruction. If you can do good enough, Cain,
I'll accept you. That would be almost deceiving
a man, because a man can't do good enough. Salvation is not
but works. What he's saying is here, if
you'll do like Abel did, if you'll come by faith like Abel did,
and you bring what I require, then I'll accept you just like
I accepted Abel. If you do well, boy, that's good
instruction, isn't it? You bring a blood sacrifice.
You acknowledge to me that you forfeited your life by sin, and
now your life is going to be restored through a sacrifice.
You come like Abel came, and I'll accept you. If sinners want
to know how to be saved from sin, and accepted of God, and
love God, and let them approach as God has taught us in His Word
to approach. You come as He tells you to come,
and here's the encouragement that you'll have. Notice it.
You shall be accepted. There's the instruction. If you
do well, here's the encouragement. You shall be accepted. You shall be accepted. We've been accused as Calvinists
of shutting the door against sinners. I don't know a single
preacher, personally, that has ever shut the door against any
sinner. Every preacher that I know throws
the door wide open. The door of mercy is wide open. Sinners shut the door, don't
they? sinners slam the door, even in God's face, just as this
man did. Let a man come God's way, according
to God's Word, and Jesus Christ will never cast him out. He'll
never do it. He'll never do it. Here's what
he says, Turn you at my reproof. And here's the promise. I will
pour out My Spirit unto you. I will make known My words unto
you. If any man thirst, let him come
to Me and drink. Whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely." Here's the whole problem. It's not in
our Lord. It's in the sinner. I don't want
instruction. I don't thirst. And I don't have
a will to be saved your way. That's the problem, isn't it?
That's the problem. And His utter refusal paves the
way to a hell on earth and to a hell hereafter. We have instructions from the
Lord. We have encouragement from the Lord. And in verse 7, now
He gives the warning. If thou do us not well, then
sin lie at the door. Here's what you need to do. You
need to come as Abel your brother's come. If you come as he's come,
I'll promise you this, I'll accept you. But if you don't, you despise
my instructions, you shun my encouragement, I tell you this,
Cain, sin lies at your door. Man, what a solemn thought that
is. Your past sins. The sins that you've committed
in the past. Look how angry you've been with
me. Look how angry you've been with your brother. Look how angry
you are at the way of my salvation. All of that sin, all of it, is
going to come right up and lay down at your door. Past sins. Your present sins are laying
at the door. Cain was sinning right while
the Lord was talking to him, wasn't he? Why are you wrought? Why are you now wrought? While
I'm speaking to you, why are you so mad? Why is your countenance
fallen? God doesn't have to search a
man's past to find sin. Just go to His heart right now
and it's full of sin right now. The imagination. of the thoughts
of the heart are only evil continually. There is enough sin in my heart
right now to damn me. And all God would have to do
is just come and open my heart up and say, there it is, and
there it is, and there it is. Your presence sins. Men sometimes
take comfort. Yeah, I used to be, I used to
be real bad. I used to, boy, you're my sin.
Boy, what about right now? You think because you can't see
sin in yourself, God can't? Sin lies at the door and sins
of future. What's going to happen if Cain
doesn't do well right now? Is he going to stay the same
or is he going to get worse? If his past sins are not acknowledged,
if his present sins are not forsaken and washed, what's going to happen
in the future? He's going to get worse. He's
going to get worse. There's young people who are
raised unto the gospel, and they get gospel-hardened. They get
gospel-hardened. They sit unread, and they're
instructed by their Sunday school teachers. They're instructed
by the parents. They're instructed by the pastor. But they don't listen to those
instructions. They hear it so much. Two or three times a week
they hear it at home. And they get hardened to it.
And then when you try to encourage them to seek the Lord, seek the
Lord for mercy, they don't want you to encourage them. They get
hard against that too. And they secretly think that
even though they despise instruction, and won't listen to encouragement. They think nothing's going to
change in the future. I can just go on as I'm going
and nothing's going to change from the way it is right now.
There are adults right now that I know who have sat under the
gospel and they're gospel hardened. And right now they are miserable
in their conscience. Because sin lies at their door. I've often wondered what this
means. I think I know what it means. Here in verse 7, where
he said, And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt
rule over him. His is sin, isn't it? Him is
sin. Unto thee shall be his desire,
and thou shalt rule over him. And I think what the interpretation
of this is this. You shall desire your sin, and
you will make yourself the master of all kinds of sin. I think that's the interpretation
of that verse. And I found one man who's very
good on the Hebrew language, and this is what he said about
this verse. Listen to this. Quote, the desire, the entire
submission and service of sin will be yielded to you. And you
will, in fact, make yourself master of it. Thy case will be
no longer a heedless ignorance and consequent dereliction of
duty, but a willful over-mastering of all that comes by sin. and an unavoidable going on from
sin to sin, from inward sin to outward sin, or in specific terms,
from wrath to murder, from being disappointed to being defiant,
from unrighteousness to ungodliness. In other words, he's saying,
Cain, you don't receive my instructions. If you don't take heed to my
encouragement and you come and do well as your brother did,
you're going to get worse. And you're going to give yourself
over to more wickedness and ungodliness than you ever dreamed. You're
going to be the master of all kinds of sin. And that proved
to be so, didn't it? The hatred that he felt in his
heart turned to outright murder. He murdered his brother. The
disappointment towards God turned into defiance. Am I my brother's
keeper? Don't talk to me about being
my brother's keeper. I don't even like you. I hate
you. Don't talk to me. Men and women and children who
sit under the gospel and have any inkling that that's the only
way of salvation, and they reject that truth, they reject the gospel,
I tell you it has an effect upon them. It has an effect upon them. The gospel is such a nature that
nobody can sit under it and reject it and remain the same. It is
either a savior of life or a savior of death. It will either justify you upon
believing it or it will leave you in greater condemnation.
It'll save you from hell or justify you going there. You sit on the
gospel and you'll never be the same. It's impossible. It's impossible. I have seen so many young people,
some of us here have seen so many young people come up in
this little congregation and they go their way. They go their
way and they're hardened to the gospel. And preach to them as
you would. And instruct them and encourage
them as you will. They will not come to the Lord.
They will not bow to Him and seek His mercy. And I've kept
up with a few of them. And they're all miserable. Their
life is in so much chaos and confusion. They are miserable
in their conscience. Sin lies at the door. And it don't get any better.
Some have rethought themselves, and thank God they've come and
bowed. They've come and bowed. They've rethought the situation.
And they're lived to thank God for the day that He had mercy
and saved them from their rebellion. They thank God for it. Aren't you glad there's one's
blood who speaks better than that of Abel? Abel's blood called
for revenge. Christ's blood calls for mercy,
for forgiveness. Come to this fountain so rich
and sweet. Cast thy poor soul at the Savior's
feet. Plunge in today and be made complete. Glory, glory to His name. The Lord bless His Word. Let's
pray.