All right, let's open our Bibles
again now to Genesis 4. A man in another state was reading
this scripture a couple of weeks ago, or three weeks ago. And he read here in Genesis 4,
verse 1, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived, And he kept reading, he got down
to verse 17, and Cain knew his wife, and she conceived Marina. And he got bogged down on a question,
where'd she come from? Well, there's no mystery there.
I want to show you something that I see that'll help you. We've been all influenced by
storybooks. and Bible children's storybooks
and pictures of the first family, Adam and Eve. Totally unrealistic. Adam and Eve are pictured with
two sons, Cain and Abel. And usually in the pictures they're
little fellas, about like this, you know. And then they got a little bit
bigger and one of them killed the other one. And then it was
just Adam and Eve and Cain. And over here if you'll look
at verse 25, Genesis 4, same chapter now, verse 25. Adam knew
his wife again, and she by her son called his name Saith. For God said she, said her, Eve,
that was his wife Eve. he hath appointed me another
in seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." Now, how long was
that, between the birth of Abel and the birth of Seth? Well,
look down at verse 5, verse 3. Adam lived a hundred and thirty
years, and begat a son in his likeness, named him Seth. That's
the sense of civil war to this present day. That was a long
argument Adam and Eve had, wasn't it? Had a son, and 130 years
later had another one. But I remember this. Adam's 130
years old and Eve's 130 years old. She's still bearing children. She wasn't the frail person that
we are in this day of the ravages of sin. She was a powerful woman.
Let me read you some of that 5th chapter. This is the book
of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man
in his likeness, made him male and female, created he them,
male and female, that's the only kind of marriage God recognizes,
and blessed them and called their name Adam. in the day when they
were created. Adam lived 130 years and began
a son in his likeness after his image and called his name Seth.
It doesn't mention Cain and Abel there at all, but they've already
been mentioned. There's a time frame in this
thing. It doesn't just happen. God doesn't give us the history
of the human race in the first three chapters of Genesis and
name everybody born. It's impossible. This pulpit
wouldn't hold the books with just the names in them. Do you
see what I'm saying? Eve had lots of children, lots
of children in that 130 years. Susanna Wesley, the mother of
John and Charles Wesley, had 19 children in 30 years, and
she was a frail woman, she wasn't Eve, a frail woman, 19 children. We have a pastor friend in Mexico,
he's about 60 years old now, he's got 20 children. And you
imagine how many children Adam and Eve had. Listen as I read
on here. Verse 3, Adam lived 130 years, begat a son after
his image, called his name Seth. And the days of Adam after he
had begotten Seth were 800 years, and he begat sons and daughters,
sons and daughters. And you know it says back here,
look back at verse 25, chapter 4. Adam knew Eve, his wife, and
she begat a son, and then verse 26. And to Seth, To him also was born a son, called
his name Enos. Well, how old was Seth when Enos
was born? Well, let's look down at verse
6 in chapter 5. And Seth lived a hundred and
five years before he begat Enos. He's named these particular men
who served a particular purpose. You see what I'm saying? But
now you don't know that Cain was Eve's first child. Nowhere
in the scripture that tells us that Cain was Eve's first child. He was her first man-child. You know why she's looking for
a man-child? Well, girl babies, they didn't even name them in
the scripture. That's right there. You don't see it. You don't hear
all these names of men's names. The girls aren't even listed.
She was looking for a man because when they fell, God made a promise. The seed of woman will bruise
the serpent's head. She knew that would be a man. She might have had a daughter,
or two daughters, or three daughters, or twin daughters, or triplet
daughters. You never know how many daughters she had. And along
came Cain. She said, Now I've got the man.
I've got the Redeemer. I've got the Savior. That's what
she thought. But he turned out to be a murderer. So what I'm
saying to you is how much time elapsed. It elapsed between verses. Adam had a son named Seth, and
that was 130 years since Abel. And then Seth had a son, his
name was Enos. That's 105 years right there,
and they had all sorts of children. And they intermarried. They had
two. God only made one man, and that's Adam. Even Eve came out
of Adam, came out of a rib. And they were strong people. You see, God made them in his
own image. And when they sinned, they died spiritually, but they
weren't crippled physically. These people lived 800 years,
900 years, 700 years. Seth lived 912 years. And the thing about it, this
first 200 years, nobody died but Abel. It'd be like from the
silver water right now, nobody dying. Oh, people everywhere. And Cain, let's put the rest
to mystery. Cain married his sister. Might
have been his twin sister. We never know about that. But
God ordered that. And the thing about it, you mean
he married his kinfolks? We're all kin. We all came from
Adam. He's just further down the line.
I know every one of my kinfolk does. He's the daughter of Adam.
Y'all believe me, she is. I just couldn't resist that.
But we're all from Adam. We're all from Adam. And we're
kinfolks in sin. And these folks here, there's
no mystery. where Cain got his wife, but
it's so easy for us to get on something like that and miss
what he's teaching us here. What the Lord is teaching us
here is how people are sanctified and how they're justified. That's
what he's teaching us in both these chapters, how sinners are
sanctified. Let's turn back here, first of
all, to chapter 3. Now here's how people try to
be sanctified. You know, Adam and Eve sinned,
and they were standing there naked, and they realized they
were naked. They realized that they had no
covering before God. They were standing there sinful,
naked, and they were convicted. And so they're going to cover
themselves in verse 7. And the eyes of them both were
open. They knew they were naked. And so they began to sew fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons, made themselves coverings.
Now that's how you're not sanctified. It didn't help them a bit, did
it? Because it says in the next verse, they heard the voice of
God walking in the cool of the day, in the garden in the cool
of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord. Their fig leaf aprons did not
cover their sin, did not give them peace, did not take away
the fear, and did not keep them in communion with God, they're
in here. In that same chapter, the Lord demonstrates how men
are sanctified. Notice it said this, they sewed
fig leaves together and they made them aprons. Now watch verse
21. It says here, unto Adam and also
to his wife did the Lord make coats of skin. He made this covering,
not without blood. not without death, not without
a substitution. He made this covering through
the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. He made it, but
he didn't offer it to them, look at the next line, and he clothed
them himself. Is that right? So that's what
this is about. This is about how God sanctifies
sinners and how they're not sanctified.
They're not sanctified by their works of righteousness, which
they've done, but by his mercy. Now it's also how God justifies
sinners. Look at chapter 4, verse 3 and
verse 5. Now here's how you're not justified.
Now to be sanctified is to be holy, perfectly, immaculately,
immutably, unchangeably holy. And the only way to be immaculately
holy is to be clothed in the righteousness which God puts
on you in Christ. That's right. God's Son died,
shed his blood, and you're covered with his righteousness. And the
only way to be justified is the same way by his death. Now, what's
man trying to justify himself? To be justified now is to be
not guilty. Our sin is paid for, forgiven. All right, chapter
4, verse 3. In the process of time, it came
to pass that Cain brought to the fruit of the ground an offering
unto the Lord. And verse 5 says, unto Cain and his offering the
Lord had not respect. He had not respect, and Cain
was wroth and his countenance fell. He's trying to justify
himself before God without the blood, by his own works. You see, he was a farmer. Now,
we don't know how old these men were, but I'll tell you this,
they were full grown, probably Cain already had a family. You
see, Adam, the father, is not offering his sacrifice. These
young men are. And Abel is a keeper of the sheep. He has a herd, a farm with sheep. And Cain is a farmer who has
a big spread, grows fruits and vegetables. So he comes before
God and built him an altar. Now, you say, well, this is not
their first offering. We don't hear that. There's a
possibility that, see, Adam taught them just like Abraham taught
Isaac. Isaac was a pretty good-sized young man, and they were walking
up that mountain. Isaac had the wood and the fire,
and he said to his father, he said, The father said, we're
going up to worship the Lord, sacrifice. He said, here's the
wood, here's the fire, where's the lamb? So he'd been taught. And it may be that Cain had been
taught. I don't know that this is his
first attempt at worshiping God. He's raised by Adam. And no telling
how old he is here, 30, 40, 50, 60. I don't know how old he is
at all. There may be a time when he brought
blood and he decided, I'm going to try another way. People do
that today, you know. They're raised in homes where
the gospel is preached and they depart from it. Demas dead, Demas
walked with Paul and then departed. Maybe Cain walked a while in
the light and departed from it. I do not know, but here he comes
with his own works produced by his own efforts. And he said,
this is my sacrifice, and God had no respect to it. And the
word God had respect to it means well pleased, or satisfied, or
accepted. He would not accept it. He wasn't
satisfied. But now look at Abel. Cain, he
wouldn't accept his offering. But Abel, verse 4, here's how
we are justified. Abel, he also brought the first
thing of the flock. And with the fact thereof, And
the Lord had respect to Abel and his offering. Did you notice
in this a phrase, I don't know whether I've ever seen this just
like this before, where it said, God had no respect to Cain and
his offering. He had respect to Abel and his
offering. But the man and his offering
were one. Abel and his offering, you and
your offering are one. If God doesn't accept your offering,
he's not going to accept you. And if God accepts you, it's
because of your offering. God rejected Cain. Rejected him
and his offering. And him because of his offering.
Accepted Cain, not in his person, but in the person of Christ.
Let me give you several things about Abel's offering. Here's
that first one. Abel and his offering are inseparable. That's what we're remembering
here tonight. My offering and me, we're inseparable. I don't
come to God without Christ. I only hope without Christ, without
the blood. So they're inseparable. Secondly, God had respect when
he saw Christ. He had respect because of the
blood. He had respect because of the
death of the substitute. He was satisfied. And he wasn't
satisfied in that blood of that animal, he was satisfied in the
blood that animal's blood represented. Because Christ said in Hebrews,
he said, a body hast thou prepared me. Lo, I come, it's in the volume
of the book written of me to do thy will. God had no satisfaction
in the Old Testament sacrifices, but this is my Son in whom I'm
well placed. So when Abel came with the blood,
God had respect to him. and to his offering, which is
the offering of his Son on Calvary. Then his sacrifice was offered
in faith. He believed God. Without faith
it is impossible to please God. He believed God. Turn over to
Hebrews 11 and see what Paul says about his faith here. In Hebrews 11 verse 4, By faith
Abel By faith, Abel offered unto God. He believed God, believed his
word. He believed this was the only
way. A more excellent sacrifice. Who is the more excellent one?
Christ. He's more excellent than angels,
more excellent than Moses, more excellent than the priest, more
excellent than Abel, and he has a better sacrifice. He offered
a more excellent sacrifice. Now watch it. He offered it where? Unto God. Unto God. He brought that sacrifice and
you know how they offered a burnt offering? They quartered it. It was quartered like this into
four parts and they set the thing on fire and stood there while
the fire literally consumed the body of that ram or lamb, a burnt
offering. It was unto God. The blood was
unto the Lord, and the sacrifice was unto the Lord. And you hear
that cry on Calvary, Eli, Eli, lama, sabachthani, my God, why
have you forsaken me? Christ under the wrath of God,
under the fire of God's wrath. That's our offering. That's it.
Chained by faith, believe in God. Offered unto God. A more excellent sacrifice. A what? A sacrifice, a substitute,
an atonement. And then the next thing about
Abel's sacrifice is this. When he brought that lamb and
slew it, the lamb died. His blood was shed and he sat
on fire. Abel was saying, this is what
my sins deserve. The soul that sinneth shall die.
Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. And this is what
I deserve. God, this is what I deserve. All my sins deserve death. That's right. And this is my
substitute. And he's looking to Christ. Now,
that's what Abel... Now, what did Cain's sacrifice
say? Well, first thing about Cain's
sacrifice, it was a bloodless sacrifice. Totally bloodless. The scripture says without the
shedding of blood, there's no remission. God said this to Moses. He said, I've given you the blood
on the altar to make an atonement for your soul. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission, no atonement. It was a bloodless
sacrifice. Secondly, it was without faith. He didn't believe God's word.
He came another way. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the Father but by me. But
that's where I'm coming. He that believeth on the Son
hath life everlasting. That's where I'm coming. I believe
God. Cain didn't believe God. By faith,
Abel believed God and offered sacrifice. Cain didn't believe
God, and he didn't bring a blood sacrifice, and thirdly, he denied
he was a sinner. He denied that his sin deserved
death. There was no death involved in
Cain's sacrifice. It was just beautiful vegetables
and fruit and things that his hand had brought forth. And I'll tell you this, it wasn't
offered in humility. It was offered in pride. The beauty about a death is about
an animal being killed and its blood shed and its body roasted. There's not too much beauty about
that. That's an awful scene. Character
is an awful scene. I see these pictures of Christ
hanging on the cross and it's all so gentle. His head to one
side and his eyes closed and the crown of thorns and a trickle
of blood here and there. got a loincloth on, and got these
women hanging on down at the bottom of it, and people looking
up, and it's just kind of a beautiful scene. But let me tell you something. The Bible doesn't describe it
that way. The Bible talks about how they plucked out his beard,
and how they hit him in the face with their fist, and how they
spit in his face, and how they jammed a crown of thorns down
on his head, and how they stripped his clothes and gave him forty
lashes with a whip, cat of nine tails, thirty-nine save one. And when he was nailed to that
cross, he was nailed there naked, and his very bones were pulling
out a socket. And the scripture says he didn't
look like a human being, his vision so marred more than any
other man. You want a picture of that? Awful,
awful in the fires of God's wrath. I thirst. What happened at that
cross? You'd never put one of those
in your living room. If you did, you'd be a fool,
sadistic, and name whatever you want to. But Cain, don't you
know that altar was something? He was a neat fellow. He had all these things put around
there, just real proud of it. They're lifting up with pride.
I'll tell you another thing Cain denied. He denied the need of
a high priest with a blood atonement. Totally denied. Everything that
God gave to Moses on that mountain having to do with the atonement,
he denied it. Look at verse 5. Let's see some
things here. Let's show you this. Under Cain
and his offering, God had not respect. And Cain was angry. He was angry. Well, he wasn't
angry with himself, he should have been. It was all his fault. That's what God said to him,
why are you angry? If you do well, you'd be accepted,
wouldn't you? He wasn't angry with himself, he should have
been. He wasn't angry with himself, he was angry with God. And he
was angry with his brother. That's who his anger was against,
against God and against his brother. And his countenance fell. You
notice that in verse 5, his countenance fell. And God says, why is your
countenance... Do you know what that is? He
was depressed. He was angry. And he's upset and he's depressed.
Because the religion of merit and works won't give you happiness. The religion of merit and works
won't give you peace. The religion of your duties and
deeds and offerings to God won't give you any comfort. You may
go to your ceremonies and works, people may again and again and
again and come away still depressed. But our Lord Jesus Christ gives
peace. Take a look at Calvary. It's
an awful scene. But when you come away, you thank
God. You have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. He made peace with God by the
blood of his cross. And you can't do it with the
duties and deeds and works of the law. Your countenance won't
change. I'll tell you this, when a person
comes to know the Savior, his countenance changes. Because
I tell you, if you're happy in here, you're going to be happy
out here. That's right now. If you've got peace in here,
you're going to have peace out here. and with everybody else. Old
King was mad at God, he was mad at his brother, his countenance
was fallen, he was depressed, and so down here in verse 8,
he talked with his brother in the field and he picked up a
rock and hit him in the head and killed him. I guess that's
what he hit him with, something, he killed his brother. That's
the first human blood shed on this earth. There have been blood
of animals shed as a type of Christ, but that's the first
human blood shed on this earth. What was it over? How men are
sanctified, how men are justified. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to His mercy. Not by silver and
gold from your vain conversation, but with the precious blood of
Christ, without a spot or blemish. Not by your church membership
and religion and your giving and doing all these things. God
will not accept you or your offering if you come that way. By the
blood of the cross. That's what it's all about. And
that's what it's all about right now. That's the division. between
grace and works, between religious people and those who believe
the gospel. And I don't hate them, because if it wasn't for
God's grace, I'd believe what they believe. If it weren't for
the grace of God, I'd be doing what Cain did. You would too. But by the grace of God, I've
come with the blood. I bring the blood, broken body
and shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. God revealed it, but
they're angry with us. They're not angry with him because
he wasn't mad at himself. He's the one that messed up.
God said if you do right, you'll be accepted. If you do wrong,
you've got sin at the door. Your sin's at the door. It's
not at the cross. It's not put away. It's not far
as east is from the west. It's not in the depths of the
sea. It's at your door! It's at your door. You can't
get rid of it. Sin's hard to put away. It's
hard to put away. There's just one way for sin
to be put away, and that's by blood of the cross. It's hard
to put it at the door. If you do right, you're accepted.
If you do wrong, your sin's at the door. But now you're mad
at King and mad at Abel, I mean. You're mad at God and mad at
Abel. My God's not that God. Yes, He
is, too. You recognize it or not, but
that's God, that's crosses, that's Christ, that's the way men, that's
why people are sanctified, that's how they're justified, by blood,
by grace. All right, chapter 4, verse 10. He says, King, what have you
done? Your brother's blood cries out,
your brother's blood cries unto me from the ground. Let me show
you a verse, you hold that one, stay right there, just put your
finger there and turn to Hebrews 12. Let me show you another verse.
Somebody else's blood speaks. Your brother's blood, Hebrews
12, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Hebrews 12 verse 22. But we have not come to Mt. Zion,
Mt. Zion works, ceremonies and rituals. We have come to the City of the
Living God, to heaven and Jerusalem, the innumerable company of angels,
to the General Assembly of the Church of the Firstborn, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who were written in heaven, and to God, the Judge
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to
Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, the High Priest. the
atonement to the blood of sprinkling, his blood that speaks better
things than that of Abel. Abel's blood was crying from
the ground. What was he crying for? He was
crying guilt, guilt, guilt, hatred, murder, rejection of God's purpose. works, flesh, that's what his
blood, that's reading his blood's in the ground right there, his
brother, depending on his works, hated him and killed him. Christ's
blood speaks from heaven, not of our guilt, not of our hatred,
we're full of it, not of our unbelief, but it speaks of grace
to the guilty. He came to die for the ungodly. He came to put away their transgressions. He came that they may be accepted
in the beloved. That's what his blood says. It's
all right. Your brother's blood cries from
the ground. What does it cry for? Vengeance.
Vengeance. Man shed my blood, shed his blood. Cries for vengeance. Our Lord's
blood doesn't speak from the ground, it speaks from heaven.
What does it say? Forgive him, Father. He doesn't know what
he's doing. That's all he said. Forgive him. Accept him in my place. Abel's blood cries from the ground
because he's dead. He's dead. He can't bring him
back. He's dead and his blood is spilled on the ground. Our
Lord's blood speaks from heaven. He lives. He said, I was dead,
but I'm alive forevermore. All right, you just pick whose
blood you want to speak for you and me. That's right. Your brother's
blood is crying on the ground, but his blood, the blood of Sprinkler,
speaks a whole lot better things. It speaks of grace and mercy
and forgiveness and eternal life, because I live and you live too. And that's what I'm trying to
point out. This requires a whole lot of
looking into all these births and deaths and so forth. But
this is the message here. It's how men are sanctified,
how men are justified. Don't get sidetracked on the
other, because God raises up certain men to teach us certain
things. Cain teaches us a lesson. Abel
teaches us a lesson. We don't need to know the rest
of the family if we learn this lesson. You understand what I'm
saying? If we learn that lesson. All right, let's read a scripture
in 1 Corinthians 11, and we'll ask the men to let us remember
our Lord's death and his precious blood. And we're coming tonight
a whole lot like Abel did. Symbolism. The Lord ordained
it. He gave them the Passover lamb
and told them to remember it every year. And before he went
to the cross and back to glory, he told his disciples, he said,
took the bread, he'd break it and said, this is my body. Take
it and eat it. This doing remembers of me. And
then he poured the wine and he gave them the cup and he said,
drink ye all of it. This is the blood of my, of the
new covenant which is shed for the remission of your sin. This
doing remembers of me. So that's, we're coming. with
our hope and our sacrifice and our blood. So Paul says here
in 1 Corinthians 11, I have received of the Lord that which I delivered
unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was
betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks,
he broke it and said, Take eat, this is my body, which is broken
for you, this doing remembrance of me. After the same manner
also he took the cup, and when he had stopped saying, This cup
is a new covenant in my blood, this do ye as often as you drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord's death, your lamb,
your atonement, your sacrifice, till he comes. And let me tell
you something. Just as God accepted Abel and
his offerings.