Genesis chapter 4. I read a number of years ago of
a pastor by the name of Richard Baxter. And he made this statement. He said, I preach every time
as though it would be the last time. And I want you to pray
for me as I preach the opportunities God gives me, that's the way
I want to preach. Every time as though it might
be the last time. And we know one of these days
it will be the last time. But I want to preach every message
as though it was the last time that I will ever be able to preach
his gospel. Genesis chapter 4. And Adam knew
Eve, his wife, and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I've
gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare 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 firstlings 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. Now,
in this passage of scripture, I want us to consider the fact
that we have two ways, two ways. But before we do that, I want
to make these three observations. First of all, the first man,
Adam, knew, he knew from the beginning, that is the beginning
of his creation, he knew from the beginning that God is. He did not learn the truth that
there is a God over a process of time. He knew from his creation
that God is. It wasn't a matter of evolution.
It wasn't something that developed over days or weeks or months. Adam knew immediately that God
is. He knew this by experience. I
want you to notice these three things. If you look back to Genesis
chapter 2, Adam knew from his very beginning
that God is, that there is a God. In verses 15 and 16 of chapter
2 we see, And the Lord took the man, that is Adam, and put him
into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord
God commanded the man, saying, Now Adam knew from the beginning
that God is, because God spoke to him. God commanded him. You might ask, well, how did
God speak to him? It's not necessary that we know.
Maybe he spoke in an audible voice. I don't know. But I do
know this, that God spoke to him and what God said to him
revealed to Adam that God is sovereign. God commanded him
as his creator. He had the sovereign right of
command over his creature, that is Adam. And the Lord God commanded
him, of every tree of the garden thou mayest eat freely. The point
I want to stress is Adam knew immediately that God is, that
there is a God. his creator. God spoke to him. And then second, if you notice
also in chapter 2 down in verse 21 the scripture says, and the
Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept
and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof
and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a
woman and brought her unto the man. The second thing that lets
us know that God revealed Himself to Adam, that Adam knew that
God is as God spoke to him, and then God created his wife Eve. Before the verse that I read,
we are told that God saw that it was not good that the man
should be alone. And so He took one of his ribs. You say, do you believe that?
Absolutely. Absolutely. He took one of Adam's
ribs And from that rib, he made him and helped me, that is, Eve. And from this, Adam knew that
God is good. Not only God is great, that God
is sovereign, his creator, but God Almighty is good. He saw it was not good that man
should be alone, so he created him and helped me. And the third
thing we know that he did before the passage we're looking at
today, God made coats of skins and clothed him. If you look
in chapter 3 and verse 21, the scripture says, unto Adam also
and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed
them. Do you follow what I'm saying? is great. God is sovereign. God is good. God is merciful
and gracious. He made them coats of skins and
clothed them. The first man Adam knew from
the beginning that God is. A man that I knew some years
ago, he was a preacher. He says he passed away many years
ago, but a man who was saved under his ministry was very close
to him, and he told him this story. The man who's passed away,
his mother prayed for him. I mean, from the time he was
born, probably before he was born. Most mothers do. Most Christian
mothers pray, and fathers, for their children before they're
ever born. And she prayed, his mother prayed,
that God would make him a preacher. That was her desire. She loved the Lord and she just
wanted her son. She wanted to have a son who
was a preacher. Well, when he graduated high school, they sent
him off to Hardin-Simmons College here in Texas. And lo and behold,
at a Baptist University, way back even then, there was an
infidel society. And guess who became the president
of the infidel society? This man. And he told this other
preacher, a friend of mine, he said, you know, when all of that
was going on, he said, all day long I was trying to tell others
and convince others there's no God. But when I went to bed at
night, before I fell asleep, I prayed God would let me live
to the next day, that I might tell others there's no God. What I'm saying is men know,
men know, all men know there is a God. I don't believe there's
any real atheist. I hope there's not. God has created
man in such a way that all men have a conscience. No matter
how dark the society and civilization is that men have discovered,
no civilization has ever been found or group of people, society,
who do not have a conscience. That there are some things in
there their society which are right and some things which are
wrong. That there's a conscience that
man has that he was created with. Now conscience, don't fall for
that old saying, let your conscience be your guide, because your conscience
can be trained, and it can be trained wrong. And it might guide
you into something that's not right, something that's not according
to the Word of God. But that's my first observation
here. The first man, Adam, knew from
the beginning that there is a God. And my second observation is
the first man, Adam, was taught that sin And he had sinned because
he disobeyed God. What is sin? Sin is the transgression
of the law of God. God gave him his law. Of every
tree in the garden thou mayest eat except one. He disobeyed
God. He transgressed God's law. He
sinned. But yet Adam knew he was taught
that the only way that sin may be atoned is by blood. It is by blood. When God clothed
him with those coats of skin, God taught him that an animal,
an innocent victim, a substitute had to die, that those fig leaf
clothes that he had made for himself were not sufficient,
did not hide his nakedness, his depravity, his sin from Almighty
God. Oh no! The only way sin may be
atoned is by blood. Now that's just so, whether men
like it or not. Substitution. And number three,
my observation is, this first man, Adam, taught. He taught
his children how God must be worshipped. How God must be approached. Now our text this morning, chapter
4 and verse 1, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived
and bare Cain. Now don't read into that that
this was their first child. It doesn't say that. It doesn't
say that at all. Adam and Eve may have had hundreds
of children when Cain was born. We're not told that, because
that's not necessary for us to know. The Bible is written, first
of all, to glorify God, and that you and I might know our relationship
to God, our need of Him, and the remedy that God has provided
for our sins. We're not told that Cain was
her firstborn. We do believe that when Cain
was born, for whatever reason, Eve, she said, I've gotten a
man from the Lord. As though this was that man,
that man, the seed of the woman that God had promised, who would
come and bruise the head of the serpent. We don't know, but we
are told that these two sons, Cain and Abel, would worship
God. made an attempt to approach unto
God. And so we have the two ways.
And really today, if you think about it, all over this world
there are men and women who are going through some mode and they
are saying, I'm worshiping God. I'm going to worship today. I'm
going to worship God. But remember this. In all of
the world, and all of the people who are supposedly worshipping
God today, there are only two ways. There are only two ways
that all men would approach, would attempt, I should say,
to approach unto God. One way is the way of Cain. Now that's what it's called in
Jude, in the New Testament, the way of Cain. And then there's
another way which I'm going to call the way of life. The way of Cain and the way of
life. Everyone in this building here
today, we've come and we have prayed and we've read the scripture
and we've sang and we're here to worship God. But I know this
about every one of us. We're either in the way of Cain
Or we are in the way of life. There are no other ways. Now
first of all, let us consider some things about these two ways. First, the way of Cain. The way
of Cain, verse 3 and verse 5. And in process of time it came
to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering
unto the Lord. Now notice verse 5. But unto
Cain and to his offering he had no respect, and Cain was very
wroth, and his countenance fell. Here are five things we may see
about the way of Cain. Number one, in the way of Cain,
now listen, in the way of Cain, men may believe that there is
a God, for we see that Cain did. Let me say that again. In the
way of Cain, men may believe that there is a God, for we see
that Cain did. I'm sure that all in this way
do believe that there is a God. But listen, is it enough? Is
it enough to simply believe that there is a God? Cain did. Cain did. You know, in the New
Testament, the Apostle James declares, Thou believest that
there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils believe
and tremble. Is it enough? A man in the way
of Cain, a woman in the way of Cain, may believe that there
is a God, but is that enough? Just to believe that there is
a God. As I said at the beginning, all
men know there is a God. The Apostle Paul tells us in
the book of Romans chapter 1 that even though men have this knowledge
of God, they attempt to suppress the knowledge, to hold it down. To hold this down, this knowledge
of God. But in the way of Cain, men may
believe that there is a God. Cain's offering, we notice, is
of the fruit of the ground, and that seems to suggest to us that
he acknowledged that God's the Creator. God is the Creator. We hear a
lot, or we hear some, about intelligent design. Is that enough? That we just believe that there
is some great power some first cause, is that enough that man
just believe that there is a God? Is that all that's required to
worship God, the true God? Absolutely not. Now we must believe
that, but that's not all that's necessary. Number two, In the way of Cain,
men may believe that they are free to replace God's revelation. Cain did. And I say that because
there's no doubt, there's no question that Adam taught his
children, both by his example and by his words, the way to
approach God. All parents teach their children
by example and by their words. It's so important, such a responsibility
to have children, isn't it? Scripture says, train up a child
in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not
depart from it. What a responsibility for parents,
both by example and by word. We teach our children. Adam taught
his children. And he taught them. But Cain
rejected the revelation. Now how did Adam know what to
teach them? He learned from God. He learned
from God. Yes, there must be a sacrifice. He learned from God. But Cain,
he felt that he could just disregard Just throw out the window. What
God had revealed, he knew better. He knew better. That's an old-fashioned
way. That's the way the old fogies
worship God. I know better. I know better. A young man spoke to me recently
about what those in his church, in his particular denomination,
were calling The Slippery Slope. The Slippery Slope. In his case,
the Slippery Slope was whether they should have women teaching
men, usurping authority over men. Well, my opinion is that
when men begin to debate such subjects as that, they're already
on the Slippery Slope. And I say that because when any
group no longer recognizes God's Word as the rule of faith and
practice, they're already on a slippery slope. When you neglect
God's revelation, when you turn away from God's Word, you're
already on the slippery slope. Cain rejected the revelation
that God had given him through his father, Adam. Whatever society or the culture
decides is right. That's what we'll go by. Now
we live in the 21st century. Things have changed. All things
have changed so much. There's no doubt about that.
But my friends, don't we realize who wrote this Bible? Who inspired
this Bible? God the Holy Spirit. Do you think
He's learned anything? You think he's learned anything
in the progress of time? Of course not. When he inspired
the writing of the scriptures, he knew what was going to take
place. God hasn't changed. Sin hasn't
changed. Man hasn't changed. And God's
Word hasn't changed. It's settled forever in heaven. Number three, in the way of Cain,
men may be sincere and zealous. Cain was. He was sincere. I remember what the Apostle Paul
tells us in Romans 10 about his countrymen, that is, of the nation
of Israel, Jews, like Paul was. He said, I bear them record.
They have a zeal of God. but not according to knowledge. Rejecting the righteousness of
God, they go about to establish their own righteousness. Men may be in the way of Cain
and be very zealous and very sincere. Did you know when the Lord Jesus
Christ was here in the flesh, who is love in person. God is love. Christ is love. The severest
rebukes that he spoke were to religious men. Never to a poor
sinner. Never to a bankrupt sinner seeking
mercy. but to a self-righteous Pharisee,
someone who believes by their works, by their doing, that they
are righteous before God. The Lord Jesus pronounced several
woes upon them. I've copied down one of them.
Woe! Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and
anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the
law, judgment, mercy, and faith. Yes, Paul, he bare record to
his countrymen. They're zealous, they're sincere,
but he said, my prayer for them is that they might be saved. What am I saying? I'm saying
that a man may be in the way of Cain and be ever so sincere.
Is that all that's necessary? Is that all that's needful? That
a person just be sincere? That a person just be religious? If it is, well, the whole world
is religious and sincere for the most part in something or
the other. Is that enough? Well, that's enough to be in
the way of Cain. That's for sure. And number four, in the way of
Cain, it's not necessary that men recognize and confess their
sin. It's not necessary. I say that
because his offering was a bloodless sacrifice, a bloodless offering. He brought of the fruit of the
ground. I'm sure it was beautiful. Maybe
he had a beautiful flower garden, beautiful vegetable garden, and
brought the best. And it was beautiful, no doubt.
But he did not recognize, he did not confess, he was a sinner. What about my sin? Yes, this
is all beautiful. But will this please God? Will
God accept this for my sin? Can this make an atonement for
my sin? Remember later in the history
of the nation of Israel, along with other pagan nations, they
even began to burn their babies. To present their newborn babies,
infinites, in the arms of that iron idol that was heated so
hot that those babies burned. Why would they do that? Because
they knew they had sinned. God made it clear that those
things, that's a great sacrifice. Did those people love their children?
Sure they did. Sure they did. As much as you
love yours, as much as I love mine. But they acknowledged they
had a sin, a sin problem that had to be dealt with. Cain, he
didn't acknowledge that. Oh no. Never being convicted
of sin and finding God's refuge, he brings some vegetables and
flowers and things of that nature. And number five, in the way of Cain, men will
come to destruction. Cain did. In the way of Cain,
men will come to destruction. And I did not say may when I
made that statement, because there's no doubt, there's no
question. The way of Cain always will end in destruction. Eternal
separation from God. You know, in the Proverbs, the
book of Proverbs, there are two texts of Scripture. I believe
they're exactly the same, but it says this, there's a way.
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man. Sure it seems right
to him. That's the reason he's in it.
Sure it seems right. He's sincere. He's zealous. He's religious. He acknowledges
that there is a God. All of those things. There is
a way that seemeth right unto man. But the end thereof are
the ways of death. That's an awful way, isn't it?
And you know the truth of the matter is that when we come into
this world, we are all in that way. We are all on that way. And let me tell you something
else. If God doesn't do something for us, we'll stay on that way until we are in eternity. without God. Let's look at the way of Abel
for a few minutes. The way of life. We see this
in verse 4, and also I'm going to quote a verse from Hebrews
11, which speaks of this. But in verse 4, And Abel, he
also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat
thereof. And the Lord had respect unto
Abel and to his offering, And in Hebrews 11.4, by faith Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which
he obtained witness that he was righteous. Here's some things
about the way of life. First of all, the way of life
is a way revealed by God. Abel had heard from his father
He not only heard, but I'm sure he'd witnessed that the way to
worship God is the way that God reveals. Man's not free just
to decide how he would like to worship God, or how he thinks
he should worship God, or what would be pleasing to God. Abel,
he didn't feel free just to throw out the window the way that God
had given to him from his father Adam. Our Lord said this about the
Scripture. He said the Scripture cannot
be broken. The Scripture cannot be broken. This was the Scripture, this
was the Word of God to Abel what he had received from his father. You know, I read this past week something
I thought was interesting about science and the Bible. You know,
people like to believe that the that science has disproved the
Bible, that there's things in the Bible that are not true.
That's a lie. Now there may be things that
scientists believe, which they cannot prove, that are in opposition
to the Word of God. But I read this, the French Academy
of Science in 1861. Now that's been a hundred and
fifty-five years ago. Sounds like a long time. But
really not that long, 155 years. But they printed a paper in which
they listed 51 facts of science which proved the Bible to be
an error. These were men of science. 51 facts they called them. 51
facts of science that proved the Bible to be an error. Did
you know that today not one of those so-called 51 facts would
be believed by any scientist? And yet the Bible is still here. The Bible, and I'm so glad it
is, aren't you? I'm so thankful it is. Oh, I'd
hate to be in this world without the Bible. Without the Word of
God. Be in darkness. The scriptures declare that there
must be a mediator between God and man. That's not an option. God will not be spoken to nor
will he speak to any man apart from the mediator, Jesus Christ. Abel, the way of life, is a way
that is revealed by God. Number two, the way of life is
a way of substitution. God's justice must be satisfied. And saying we could never satisfy
God's justice, you say, well how do you know you can never
satisfy God's justice? I'll tell you how I know. Because
hell is eternal as is heaven. And if man's suffering in hell
throughout eternity, if there would ever come a point when
God's justice would be satisfied, then that person would be freed. No, that's never going to happen. You say, I don't believe in everlasting
punishment. Well, then don't believe in everlasting
happiness. Because the same Bible, the same
God, the same Christ speaks of both using the same words. The way of life is a way of substitution. God's justice must be satisfied. And saying that we can never
satisfy it, God gave His Son. God's justice must be satisfied
for a sinner to be forgiven, for a sinner to approach unto
God and worship Him. The scripture says, for He hath
made Him, that is, God hath made Him, Christ, to be sin for us
who knew no sin. Christ knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. The law which God
would later give to the nation of Israel through Moses declared,
although it was nothing new, we see it in the very beginning,
without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Now the blood of Abel's lamb,
we know could not take away his sin. It is not possible that
the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin, we know
that. But the blood of Abel's Lamb pictured the blood of God's
Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sins of the world. He looked forward to that promised
one. The way of life is a way of substitution. Number three, the way of life
is a way of peace. Peace. Peace with God. The Lord had respect unto Abel
and unto his offering. That is, God was pleased. God
accepted his offering. And it may well be that God showed
his pleasure with Abel's offering by fire coming down from heaven
and consuming the fat. And that fat, as it was consumed,
Just like the sacrifice of Christ before God is called a sweet-smelling
savor, God was pleased with the sacrifice. The way of life is
a way of peace. Oh, if you're in this way today,
aren't you thankful for peace? Peace with God. Therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God. He's not mad. Not at
His children. Not at those that are in Christ. There's therefore now, today,
this morning, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Number five, the way of life
is a way of faith. And we know this from that verse
in Hebrews, by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice
than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. Abel, by faith, looked forward
to the coming of the promised seed of the woman who would bruise,
who would destroy the works of Satan. Look with me, if you will,
in Romans chapter 4. The way of life is a way of faith. You say, what's so special about
faith? Let me try to tell you what's
so special about faith. Faith in Christ is special because it is not
something that man does of his own self. Faith is a gift of
God. And here in Romans chapter 4,
now I'm not saying man doesn't believe. I'm not saying that.
That's not true. Man does believe. But the faith
with which he believes, she believes, is a gift of God. Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. You say, well how
do you know that? When you hear the gospel, when
you hear the Word of God, if God grants you faith, you know
that's God's Word. That's God's Word. If you're
here this morning and you say, well, I'll be glad when that
preacher shuts up and sets down and I get out of here. I don't
believe any of that. I don't believe it. You don't
have faith. I'll tell you right now, you don't have faith. Not
faith in Christ. Not saving faith. Because I brought
unto us this morning the Word of God. And when men have faith,
women have faith, they recognize that's God's Word. That's God
speaking to me. Oh yes, He's speaking through
that man. God spoke through an ass, a dumb ass one time. But
God spoke. And God speaks through men. But He uses this Word. And men,
when they are given faith, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God, they recognize that's God's Word. That's the
truth. Here in Romans 4, if you will,
in verse 16, here's the reason it is of faith. This is the reason
that faith is so important. Therefore, it is of faith that
it might be by grace, to the end that the promise might be
sure to all the seed, all the seed, all the promised seed,
all the elect of God. It is of faith that it might
be by grace. Hall of Heaven. If we could somehow
just open up the curtains today and look into heaven, I guarantee
you the thousands and millions of people would all be there
singing, worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. Oh, don't
you deserve to be here? Not in myself. No, not in myself. My confession is, I'm talking
about those in heaven, and thank God this is my confession today,
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Here's the last thing, the way
of life is the way of enjoying eternity in the presence of God. Oh, don't you know Abel's there
today? He's there, still praising. He's singing that new song. That
new song never grows old, does it? And throughout the ages of
eternity, we'll still be singing that same song. It'll still be
a new song. It'll never grow old. Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain and hath redeemed us unto God with
His blood. out of every nation and kindred
and tribe and people. I trust the Lord would bless
this word to us today.