Abel: Faith Filled Worship, Part 1 (Hebrews 11:4)

Kootenai Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

Abel: Faith Filled Worship, Part 2 (Hebrews 11:4)

00:00

Hebrews chapter 11. We're gonna read together beginning one verse prior in chapter 10, verse 39, and we'll read through the end of verse seven.

00:08

Hebrews 11. Now faith is the assurance of things, oh sorry, verse 39. I called that out and then

00:14

I don't know what I was thinking. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

00:21

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval.

00:28

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

00:34

By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous,

00:41

God testifying about his gifts. And through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. By faith

00:47

Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death, and he was not found because God took him up. For he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God.

00:58

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

01:06

By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

01:18

Let's pray together. Our Father, it is our desire that you would speak to us through your word as we have just sung.

01:25

It is our expectation because you have promised that your word, when it is accurately and rightly proclaimed that your voice is truly and powerfully heard, we pray that that may be the case today, that you would use your word to soften our hearts, to encourage us in the truth, to comfort us, to convict us, to encourage us and equip us, and to reprove us and rebuke us as necessary.

01:47

We pray that in the course of our study here that we may see clearly the provision that you have made in the sacrifice of your

01:53

Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all that that means for us and for our worship. We ask your blessing upon this time in Christ's name.

02:00

Amen. Hebrews 11 has for us numerous examples of men and women who with faith and through faith accomplished great things and saw the blessing and approval of God in their lives.

02:12

And what is remarkable about Hebrews 11 is not only the numerous people that are there, but the variety of people, the variety of kinds of people, the variety of their experiences and their cultures and the things that actually they accomplished for the

02:25

Lord. And what we see in Hebrews 11 is that faith in the life of a believer is seen in a number of different ways.

02:31

Here just in this chapter, we see that faith pleases God, it does good works, it obeys

02:36

God's word, it looks forward and anticipates heavenly promises, it trusts God, it conquers obstacles, it turns its back on the wealth of the world and the approbation of the world and actually endures hostility.

02:48

It does all of those things. Faith is so ubiquitous in the life of a true believer that it is applied in so many ways.

02:56

It is seen in every corner of their life and in every element and aspect of their life. That is what we should expect, that just as we have received

03:03

Christ Jesus, we would walk in Him and that in every area of our walk, we might see our faith demonstrated and we would see our faith rewarded.

03:11

It's easy to apprehend that or get that with the mind. What is more difficult is to apply that in the heart so that we're actually living according to faith in our day -to -day walk.

03:22

And this journey through Hebrews chapter 11, I think is going to help us to see what that looks like in various areas of our life.

03:29

In the example of Abel, we see a man who was worshiping in faith, whose faith was informed, whose worship was informed by his faith.

03:37

We see a man who applied faith and trusted God even in the midst of his worship and his sacrifice and that is in fact what pleased the

03:44

Lord with Abel's sacrifice as opposed to Cain's sacrifice. The very first example in this series of men that is presented to us in Hebrews 11 is

03:52

Abel. And the author goes all the way back to the very beginning, Genesis chapter four, and gives us him as an example.

03:58

And you'll notice what the author says at the end of verse four, that Abel through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.

04:05

That is something that can be said actually of everybody in Hebrews 11. All of these men and women are dead and yet their example still speaks to us.

04:12

The lessons from their life still speak to us. But there is something about Abel, there is a way in which

04:17

Abel speaks to us that is unique in ways that the other people mentioned in Hebrews 11 do not speak to us.

04:24

And we're gonna get to that not this week, but we're gonna get to that next week and it has to do with Abel's death and his prophecy and his role as a prophet because Jesus called him a prophet.

04:32

But that will be next week. Today we're looking here in Hebrews 11, we're gonna be turning back in a moment to Genesis chapter four, but I just want you to recognize that what the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 11 verse four that Abel, though he is dead, still speaks.

04:45

This is a lesson for us and there are a number of lessons from the life of Abel. You've heard the old adage that dead men tell no tales.

04:52

Well, all the dead men in Hebrews 11 still speak. They have plenty of tales to tell us and they have plenty of lessons to learn and may

04:57

God grant us ears to hear the lessons from Hebrews chapter 11. So Abel is the very first, what the author calls in verse two, the man of old.

05:06

He's the very first man of old that the author presents to us. And by going back to creation in verse three, by faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God.

05:14

The author is already indicating that he's going back to the beginning and he's going to now give us a chronological approach to the

05:19

Old Testament where he cites various men and even women throughout the Old Testament and the examples in their lives of faith.

05:27

And he wants to show us that living by faith is not a uniquely New Testament reality. We tend to think that, that we tend to make the mistake or Christians tend to make the mistake that you look at the

05:37

Old Testament saints and it was their works, their deeds, their mighty heroicism that was the basis upon which

05:42

God accepted them and that is not the case. It is faith, it has always been faith. No man ever is accepted by God on his own terms or the merits of his own life, never.

05:52

It has never been that way at no time since Christ died and at no time prior to the death of Christ. All the way back to the very beginning, men were accepted by God on one term and one term only and that is faith.

06:04

And by taking us back to Abel, he's giving us that example, he's demonstrating that. Now, Abel is notable and remarkable for a number of reasons.

06:11

I'll give you three of them. First, Abel is the first person in Scripture whose faith is explicitly demonstrated in his actions and whose faith was explicitly commended by God.

06:23

Now, we may say that there are some things that Adam and Eve did earlier which implicitly showed a faith or a belief but Abel is the first person in Scripture whose faith is explicitly demonstrated in his actions and whose actions in faith is explicitly commended by God, the very first one.

06:39

Others may have had faith prior to him but he's the first example offered chronologically in Scripture and he is an example of a worship that informed, of a faith that informed his worship.

06:50

Now, this is significant, remember, for the original audience of the book of Hebrews. What was the issue for the original audience of the book of Hebrews?

06:58

They had come out of the temple worship and now they were worshiping God under the parameters of the new covenant in keeping with the demands of the new covenant having abandoned the sacrifices and the priesthood and all of the forms and the rituals of the old covenant and now their worship has entirely changed.

07:14

It is an entirely different kind of worship than what they had grown up with. Having been used to hearing the bells and smelling the smells of all of the temple worship, now they come together and they gather together as a

07:25

New Testament, New Covenant community and there's no smells, there's no bells, there's no lowing of the animals and the sheep and all of the stuff that they were used to hearing when they went up to the temple.

07:36

So now their worship is radically different in so many ways that it affects all of the senses, actually, of their worship are affected.

07:43

And so now the question for this New Covenant community is what does it mean to move forward and worship in faith in the new covenant having abandoned all of the forms and features of the old covenant?

07:55

How am I to worship in faith? How am I to approach God in faith if I can't go to a physical priest that I can see and hear the words of that physical priest and see the animal offered on my behalf?

08:06

How does faith now inform my worship? That is an issue that's all the way through the book of Hebrews. And so the question that they had to face was would they go back to that or would they press on in faith to the preserving of the soul?

08:18

So Abel is the very first one whose faith is explicitly demonstrated by his words. Second, Abel is the very first one to suffer as a result of his faith.

08:27

Now having just come out of the chapter 10 where these to whom the author is writing had endured a great conflict of sufferings and been made a reproach and had endured tribulations and affliction and where even though they had not suffered to the point of shedding blood and resisted to the point of shedding blood, if the trajectory continued, we could expect that they were going to eventually shed their own blood for their faith.

08:51

So the example of Abel is an example of one, he's the very first one who suffered for his faith. In fact, he suffered the very worst thing that he could have suffered and that is death.

08:59

And he suffered death, not at the hands of a complete stranger, not at the hands of somebody out in the world, but somebody that he had had

09:09

Thanksgiving, well, they didn't have Thanksgiving dinner, somebody he had had dinner with, had sat around and had been raised together in the same home, they had enjoyed the same benefits and the blessings, had conversation with the same parents, sat around the same dinner table and enjoyed conversation together.

09:24

And these early Christians that to whom the author of Hebrews is writing and speaking, these were people who had been ostracized from their believing community, sorry, from the

09:33

Judaistic community and having embraced the believing community under the new covenant, they were now experiencing this type of hostility and opposition, not just from their own countrymen, but sometimes, in some cases, from their very own family members.

09:46

Abel is the perfect example of one who suffered, who suffered the worst suffering possible, death, and he did so at the hands of his own family member.

09:54

This would just ring, this would just ring in the ears of this believing community. Third, Abel is the first person to ever die.

10:03

Though other blood had been shed prior to this, it was animal blood, Abel is the first person to ever die, he is the first person to be murdered, he is the first person to be martyred, he is the first human to shed his blood, and that makes him also the first person to step into heaven in the presence of God.

10:20

Now you and I get to step into heaven, there's gonna be a lot of people there. But when Abel died, and he stepped into the presence of God, it was just him, and the

10:30

Lord, and the multitude of angels. That's lonely, and if we are to read the record of Genesis, we might expect that it was a lot of years before somebody else stepped in to join him in heaven.

10:41

He's the first person to die, not the first blood to be shed, but this is important, the first human blood to be shed, and since his is the first human blood to be shed, it becomes something of a type of foreshadowing, a picture of ultimately a blood of a righteous man who would be shed in terms of a sacrifice, namely the

10:56

Lord Jesus Christ, and we'll get to that more again next week. So there are three notable features, if you're looking at verse four, three notable features of Abel's example.

11:03

Abel is an example to us in his sacrifice, that we would say his worship, in his righteousness, and in his testimony.

11:10

His sacrifice, his righteousness, and his testimony. You see them in verse four. By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, so sacrifice, his righteousness,

11:22

God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks, that is his testimony. So we're gonna look today at Abel's sacrifice, and then next week, we'll be back here in Hebrews chapter 11, looking at his righteousness and his testimony.

11:36

To look at his sacrifice, let's go back now to Genesis chapter four, back to Genesis chapter four. We're gonna look at the account that we read at the beginning of the service,

11:45

Genesis chapter four, though we're not gonna go through the entire chapter, we are gonna go through the first five verses of that, to just look at the sacrifice and why it was significant.

11:56

And before we jump into the text, I want you to understand that what you're about to read is real history, real history.

12:01

This is not an allegory, it's not a myth, it's not an Aesop's fable, it's not some story that's told to communicate some higher point or some symbolic reference, it's not an allegory telling the events through the course of millions of years that bear no resemblance to the text.

12:17

This is literal history, not the kind of history that is invented in the minds of atheists and evolutionists who rewrite their tales weakly and invent scientific fact out of whole cloth by the dozens, whose story is constantly changing.

12:29

This is actual real history. There was a literal creation out of literally nothing by a

12:35

God, and there was a literal garden, a paradise, with a literal Adam, a literal Eve, a literal temptation, a literal snake, a literal tree, a literal fall, a literal curse, a literal exile from that garden, literally cherubim at the entrance of the garden, this is all real history.

12:51

This is human history taking place roughly about 6 ,000 years ago. So this is not an allegory or a myth.

12:57

We're gonna treat this as history because it is, in fact, history. Now I say that not so that you might wonder how it is, why it is that I didn't make the word literal the word of the day for the kids today, but just so that you understand how we're going to be approaching this and what our position is on the book of Genesis and the early chapters of Genesis.

13:15

Genesis four, verses one through two, let's read it together. Now the man had relations with his wife, the man being Adam, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said,

13:24

I have gotten a man -child with the help of the Lord. And again, she gave birth to his brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

13:31

Now this takes place after the curse. The fall is in Genesis chapter three. Genesis one and two is the creation of the world is perfect.

13:37

God pronounces it very good. The fall happens in Genesis chapter three, and after that, the Lord curses the man, curses the woman, curses the serpent.

13:44

And there is a curse upon all of creation in Genesis chapter three. Adam and Eve are exiled from the garden.

13:50

They're kicked out, and two cherubim were stationed at the entrance of the Garden of Eden so that they could not come back in. They would not go back into that paradise.

13:56

They were completely exiled from that garden paradise. That all takes place in Genesis chapter three.

14:02

Now we get to Genesis chapter four, and Adam and Eve begin to do what God had commanded them to do at the very beginning, which is to be fruitful and multiply.

14:09

So now they start having children, and it would become very apparent very quickly that their children were just as ravaged by the fall and just as cursed and just as wicked and corrupt and broken as Adam and Eve ever hoped that they would not be.

14:22

They're just as corrupt as it was possible to be. Their children are gonna end up being just like them. And the fact that this fall happened before Cain and Abel were ever born or Adam and Eve had conceived children indicates that it was likely something that happened very quickly after creation.

14:38

So we don't have the creation week unfolding and then millions of years before Adam and Eve fall. We have the creation week unfolding and then very quickly

14:47

Satan sweeps in with his plan to destroy humanity and to destroy what God has created. And he tempts the man and the woman and they fell into sin.

14:55

So this happens very early on. We're not talking about a long period of time. Then they began to have children.

15:00

And I want you to think of something. This occurred to me this last week, and I don't know that I've ever thought of this or heard this presented in this way.

15:07

But Adam and Eve would have been uniquely able to remember what it was like to walk with God face to face.

15:14

This is something that Cain and Abel, because they were born after the fall and conceived after the fall, this is something that Cain and Abel would have known nothing about.

15:22

But Adam and Eve alone out of everybody who has ever existed would have known what it was like to stand in the presence of God and to see him face to face and to walk with him in innocence, in purity, in holiness, and in righteousness.

15:38

They would have known that. They could only have described that to Cain and Abel. And I would expect that words would be a little inadequate to describe what that is like when you're trying to express to Cain and Abel, your children, what it was once like before you ruined everything.

15:53

What it was once like, it would have been almost impossible to put that to words, would it not? But they would have had that memory.

16:00

This is something that Cain and Abel would have never known anything about. So she names the firstborn

16:06

Cain. His name seems to be quite intentional, as is obvious from the words that she says when she says in verse one,

16:12

I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord. Those words are a description of why she named him Cain.

16:18

The name Cain means gotten, received, or acquired. So you'll notice in verse one she says, she's explaining, giving commentary on his name.

16:26

I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord. That's her explanation. Now if you have a translation that does this, you might notice that there are some italics in that verse where she says with the help of, with the help of, those words are in italics.

16:39

So when she says I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord, with the help of is in italics, meaning that it's not in the original manuscripts.

16:48

It just literally reads, I have gotten a manchild, Yahweh. The Lord is the name for God.

16:55

I have gotten a manchild, Yahweh. Now that is most likely an expression of Eve's own faith in believing what

17:01

God had promised back in chapter three, verse 15, when he says to the woman, or to the serpent, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.

17:12

He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel. That's what we call the Proto -Eungelian, the very first proclamation of the gospel.

17:19

This is a gospel prophecy. Even in the garden right after the fall, in the curse upon the serpent, which

17:24

Adam and Eve would have heard these words, God promised that one would come through the woman who would end up reversing the curse and destroying the serpent and undoing everything that they had done in the fall.

17:34

That was the promise, that was the prediction. And so Eve, as she gives birth to that first child, she may have been thinking back to that time in the garden when the

17:41

Lord said that one would come from a woman who would undo this and destroy the serpent. And so she finally says,

17:47

I have gotten a manchild, Yahweh, the Lord, meaning that Eve probably would have understood that whoever it was who was going to come through the woman, and because it's the seed of the woman, that's a very odd construction.

18:00

It's a prophecy also of the virgin birth. Whoever this one who was coming from the woman would need to have been

18:05

God in human flesh. He would need to be the God -man in order to destroy the serpent. Eve would have understood that.

18:11

Eve would have been looking to that. And so she names Cain, gotten, maybe thinking, and this is speculation, but maybe thinking that this child that she was bearing was the one that the

18:22

Lord had promised back in chapter three, verse 15. Eve was correct in thinking and believing that it would need to be the

18:29

God -man who would come to conquer, to destroy the serpent. But if she thought Cain was that Messiah, she was woefully mistaken, because Cain ended up not being the

18:40

Messiah, but a murderer instead. It probably wouldn't have taken her more than a couple weeks to figure out that Cain wasn't the fulfillment of this promise, right?

18:52

How long does it take parents to realize that their newborn child is a wretched, vile sinner?

18:58

Not very long at all, not very long, which may explain why it is that she says, and when she names

19:04

Abel, she gives Abel the name that she does. She names him Abel, the secondborn, and that word is translated as breath, or empty, or vapor.

19:14

It kind of carries the idea of something being short and brief. In fact, it is the same word that is translated as vanity in Ecclesiastes.

19:25

Vanity, vanity, all is vanity, and I don't need to give you PTSD by going back to Ecclesiastes, but that's the very word that is used.

19:32

Breath, vapor, pointlessness, emptiness, brevity, shortness, what a name.

19:39

To be named vanity? And not vanity, I mean, there's no good, there's no good take on that name.

19:47

Name's in breath. Now, Abel's name ends up being probably a more apt name for Abel than Cain's name was for him.

19:56

If Cain means gotten, I've received the fulfillment of the promise, swing and a miss, just a bit outside on that one.

20:03

So probably realizing that Cain was not going to be that, the second child's name is vanity or brevity, his name ends up actually becoming a very good description of his life.

20:12

It was short, it was very short, especially considering the length of days in that era. The additional detail in verse two, and Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

20:22

There's obviously a gap between those two sentences. They didn't come out of the womb, a keeper of the dirt, and a tiller of the ground, a keeper of flocks.

20:30

So there's a gap there in between those two sentences. We're obviously fast -forwarding in the text. Abel found an occupation as being a keeper of flocks, and Cain acquired the skill and discipline of tilling the ground.

20:40

One raised animals and one raised vegetables. Now, this is going to come into play in terms of the sacrifice that they give, but not in terms of the morality of each man's occupation.

20:50

This is something to keep in mind. There's nothing inherently sinful or wrong about tilling the ground and raising produce.

20:55

That's hard work and it's noble work. In fact, one may even say it was necessary work since everybody back then was vegetarians.

21:02

None of them were meat eaters yet. So what Cain ended up doing was for the very sustenance of humanity at the time, tilling the ground and working that cursed ground as it was to provide food for people, probably his family as well as others involved in some sort of commerce,

21:16

I would imagine, that that ends up being a very noble occupation, and it is good, and it is also noble to keep flocks and to be involved with that.

21:24

God's rejection of Cain's offering, his sacrifice, is not a commentary on the nobility or the holiness or the righteousness of Cain's occupation at all, because God's rejection of that has nothing to do with the occupation.

21:37

It is all entirely based upon the sacrifice and what was expected by that sacrifice.

21:44

So Abel was not raising flocks for the sake of eating them. Keep that in mind as well. How do we know that?

21:50

Because men didn't eat animals back then. It's not till after the flood. All men were vegetarians. In the garden, they were naked vegetarians.

21:58

After the garden, they were clothed vegetarians, but they were still vegetarians nonetheless. So why was

22:04

Cain, why was Abel then raising flocks? The precedent is set back in Genesis chapter three, verse 21, the

22:09

Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. God killed an animal and he took the skins and he clothed them so that every day,

22:17

Adam and Eve woke up and they put on themselves a reminder of the curse, of the fall, of their sinfulness, of what they had lost in innocence.

22:26

God killed the animal and shed the animal's blood. This was the first blood that was shed. But Adam and Eve would have seen that and saw that God was killing an innocent victim to cover them and this sacrifice in Genesis 3, 21 ends up becoming a foreshadowing of a later sacrifice where one would die in order to cover the sins of his people and to take them away.

22:45

So they would have seen the sacrifice and they would have then repeated that sacrifice because we can expect that Adam and Eve would have known very well that God cannot be approached except through a blood sacrifice.

22:55

An innocent victim has to die so that they can approach God because of their sin. They would have learned that in Genesis chapter three and that would have been carried on further.

23:03

So we can conclude that Abel would have been a keeper of the flocks for the sake of providing two things.

23:09

Number one, animals for sacrifice by which they could worship and number two, clothing for humanity. Those were the two things that Abel's occupation would have provided.

23:17

Cain's would have provided food. So he had food, clothing, and an approach to God, a sacrifice for their sin.

23:23

All of that right here in the beginning portion of Genesis. Now, let's look at the sacrifice, verse three. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the

23:33

Lord. Sorry, let me try that again. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.

23:39

Abel on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the reference to fat portions there indicates that he's not bringing live animals.

23:48

He is bringing sacrificed animals or he is sacrificing an animal at this place of worship. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering, but for Cain and for his offering, he had no regard.

23:57

So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Now, we can discern from the record of Genesis that there was some structure and regularity to their worship.

24:05

You can see the phrase there in verse three. So it came about in the course of time. That phrase is translated in other places as at the end of days or at the end of an appointed time or the fulfillment of days.

24:18

And it indicates that there was a course set, a number of days. And when it came to the end of those appointed days, then they came to offer a sacrifice.

24:25

There was some sort of structure, some sort of schedule or calendar that they had that meant that at the end of the days, they would both bring their sacrifice.

24:33

The fact that they both brought the sacrifice on the same day and at the same time and to the same place tells us that this was something that was done with regularity.

24:42

And if we can assume that Adam and Eve, and I think this is a safe assumption, if we can assume that Adam and Eve understood that approaching

24:48

God required a sacrifice and that this was something that their family regularly did because of their sin, that there was some sort of a calendar, some sort of a schedule, some sort of a pattern that had been revealed to this family so that at the end of this time, at the appointed time, they would come to present their sacrifices.

25:05

Abel and Cain both had an appointed schedule for these sacrifices. And the fact that they came at the same time indicates that they both recognized the days had come to a conclusion and now it was time to offer the sacrifice.

25:16

I can only presume, and I think this is sanctified speculation, that God himself would have revealed not only the schedule for the sacrifices but also the place in which these sacrifices were to be made because later on in the book of Genesis and later on the

25:30

Pentateuch actually, Exodus, et cetera, we see that God appointed not only the days of sacrifices but also the places and of course, what type of sacrifices were to be made.

25:39

I have no reason to believe, we have no reason whatsoever to believe that these men had no idea what they were supposed to be doing.

25:46

They knew exactly what they were supposed to be doing. And as you're gonna see, that is the point why Abel's sacrifice was accepted and Cain's was rejected.

25:55

Not only was there an appointed time but probably also an appointed place. The fact that they arrived at the same place to offer the sacrifice indicates that there was something that they did together.

26:03

They both showed up. The intention was that each of them would offer their sacrifice. Of course, they offered different sacrifices but the fact that they arrived on the same day at the same place tells us something was appointed, the time as well as the place.

26:14

It has been speculated. Now this is, I'm gonna say right now, this is sanctified speculation. It has been speculated that the place that they went to offer the sacrifice was back at the entrance of the

26:23

Garden of Eden. And here's why. Back in Genesis chapter three, look at verse 24.

26:30

So he, that is God, drove the man out and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

26:40

So they were exiled from paradise and two cherubim were positioned there, cherubim were placed there with swords to guard the entrance so that man could never go back in to the scene of his crime.

26:51

Now man had known, Adam and Eve had known that it was in the garden that they walked with God. There they enjoyed fellowship with him and those angels were reminders that they could never go back to that, they could never have that again.

27:01

They were now separated from God because of their sin. Remember later on in the book of Exodus when

27:06

God gave commandment to Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant, you had the Ark itself which contained the tablets and the manna and the stick.

27:14

What was over top of the Ark? The mercy seat. What was on top of the mercy seat? In the middle of the mercy seat was the visible glory of God and over that mercy seat the blood was sprinkled from on Yom Kippur on the day of atonement.

27:26

But where was that blood applied? It was between what? The wings of the cherubim. So here in Genesis we have the cherubim stationed at the entrance of the

27:35

Garden of Eden and I think that this is intentional. It seems to me, this is sanctified speculation because there's nothing in the text but just allow me to indulge your imagination for a little bit.

27:44

They had to go up right in front of the angels, the cherubim, knowing that God was back there and that's as far as they could come to approach

27:50

God and right there between the angels they offered their sacrifices. That seems to me that that was the appointed place.

27:58

And I won't dwell on that too much more since I'm just inventing that. Well, no, I didn't invent that actually.

28:03

I got that out of other writings just so you know that I'm not the wing nut. If you wanna chase the wing nuttery back you gotta go to the guys that I was reading.

28:13

Now when the sacrifices were made and where the sacrifices were made all we can discern is that there was an appointed time and appointed place.

28:22

But we also know that what the sacrifices were to be was also appointed. Again, the precedent was set back in Genesis chapter three when

28:28

God killed the innocent animal to cover Adam and Eve. Covering for their sin, covering for their nakedness and both

28:36

Abel and Cain would have known that God expected and God demanded an animal sacrifice.

28:42

Why would I say that? Because Cain's sacrifice was accepted and Hebrews tells us that this was an evidence of his faith.

28:52

What is faith? Faith is hearing what God has said and believing what

28:57

God has said. If Cain, if Abel went and offered an animal sacrifice and that animal sacrifice was an expression of his belief that what

29:06

God said was true then Abel would have known what God expected and Cain would have known what

29:11

God expected. God expected an animal sacrifice and both of these men knew it. If Cain, if they didn't, if they had no idea what they were to offer, imagine this for a second, then

29:21

God's choice of the animal sacrifice over the vegetable sacrifice was nothing more than a capricious and arbitrary choice.

29:29

As if God got up that morning and said, I prefer meat today over vegetables. Both men had to have known exactly what it was that God had expected them to offer.

29:39

This is why Abel in offering it is expressing his faith, his belief in God that if he offered this animal sacrifice,

29:45

God would accept him on the terms of the animal sacrifice. Cain knew exactly what it was that God expected because Cain had grown up in the same home, seen the same sacrifices and learned the same things that Abel did.

29:57

Both of these men knew what God demanded of them. So therefore Abel's obedience becomes an evidence of his faith and Cain's disobedience becomes an evidence of his lack of faith.

30:06

You see, the presence of their faith is made manifest in what it was that they offered. And the fact that Abel offered an animal sacrifice demonstrates that he was believing what

30:15

God had revealed regarding animal sacrifices. The fact that Cain did not offer an animal sacrifice, but instead offered a vegetable sacrifice from the fruit of the ground is evidence that he did not believe what

30:26

God said regarding animal sacrifices. He was not trusting in it. Therefore, he was not expressing his faith.

30:33

Both of these men knew that without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. They had been told that. They had been told without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.

30:41

Adam and Eve knew that without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. They had been raised to understand that without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.

30:48

They both knew what God expected and they knew what God had demanded. So now look at the sacrifice. Cain, verse three, brought an offering to the

30:54

Lord of the fruit of the ground and Abel on his part, brought the firstlings of his flock and of the fat portions. Now, there's obviously a difference in the sacrifices that are offered and you might think that the sole reason for the difference in the sacrifice is the fact that each of them were just bringing what they had an abundance of.

31:08

That because Abel was a keeper of the flocks, he had an abundance of flocks. He looked out over his flock one day and said, you know,

31:13

I got a lot of lambs, not so many oxen. I guess I'll take a lamb and go offer that to the Lord. And that Abel looked out over his field and said,

31:19

I got a lot of kumquats and corn and carrots. I don't know why all those started with the same sound, but I'll offer all of those up to the

31:25

Lord as well. And that the substance of their sacrifice was just an expression of what they had an abundance of.

31:31

That's not it. You might be tempted to think that both of these men were pious and righteous and their hearts were filled with love and affection and faith.

31:39

And that Abel came and offered his sacrifice, the best that he had, and it was all done in faith. And that Cain came and offered the best of his flock and what he offered was in faith and he was pious and righteous.

31:49

But that's not how scripture describes these two men. Cain is described as a murderer. Abel is described as righteous.

31:56

The sacrifice ends up becoming an expression of their heart. In many ways,

32:02

Cain's sacrifice would have been far better than Abel's sacrifice, just judging at it from a human vantage point.

32:10

See, there's nothing inherently sinful or wrong in offering to God the fruit of the ground. The Mosaic covenant made provision for those kinds of offerings.

32:18

There's nothing inherently sinful in giving to God a vegetable offering unless God demands an animal offering.

32:24

If God demands an animal offering and you give to him a vegetable offering, then it is inherently sinful. But the

32:30

Mosaic covenant provided for offerings just like Cain brought that day. Further, Cain's offering would have been far more pleasing to the senses than Abel's offering.

32:41

I mean, if you had walked up there that day and saw the abundance of this polished, beautiful, glorious fruit that's almost unaffected by the fall in terms of what we eat today.

32:50

I mean, imagine the best of the vegetables, the best of the crop, the juiciest fruit. You have that and then next to it, this bloody animal carcass.

32:58

Which is more appealing to your sight? Now you might say, look, I would rather have a piece of raw meat in front of me than a vegetable tray.

33:05

Because I would be thinking to myself, I'll see if Cain will sell me some of his herbs and spices and I'll make a nice rub for this and we'll cut down an apple tree and we'll smoke this over some apple meat and roast it over the fire.

33:16

But back then they were all vegetarians. Again, first naked vegetarians, then clothed vegetarians, but they were vegetarians.

33:23

So there is nothing appealing in able sacrifice, nothing at all. It doesn't look good, it wouldn't smell good, it wouldn't even be appealing to the sense of taste.

33:34

There's nothing about it that would have been in any way appealing. Cain's would have been far better. In fact, Cain's offering was the product of his labor, his sweat, his toil.

33:42

In many ways, it could have been the very best that he had to offer to God. Here's the fruit of his labor and sleepless nights and all the work that goes into tilling the ground and producing a crop like that and then he brings it to the

33:52

Lord. In many ways, it would have seemed as if there was more effort and sweat put into doing that than what Abel had offered.

33:59

And food, to offer food, that was the very essence of sustenance, wasn't it? I mean, really, when you think about it,

34:06

Cain's offering was a symbol of the very thing that sustains us. We have no idea what kind of abundance or lack of abundance

34:13

Cain brought his offering out of, but he was bringing the very thing that they needed to exist. The fruit of his labor and all of these things, rather than being fine points that might demonstrate the reliability of Cain's faith or the glory of his sacrifice, ends up doing just the opposite.

34:29

Cain's sacrifice and his offering, as pleasing as it might be to us, was offensive to the Lord because it was not offered in faith.

34:36

How do we know it was not offered in faith? Because he did not offer an animal sacrifice. That was the evidence that he was not offering what he offered in faith.

34:44

And Romans 14, 23 says that whatever is not from faith is sin. Therefore, Cain's offering, as pleasing, as gracious, as abundant as it might have been, as good as it might have been, pleasing to us as it might have been, it was actually a sinful offering because the vegetable offering represented

35:01

Cain's efforts, his own works. It represented Cain approaching God on his own terms, not believing what

35:06

Abel had believed. You see, Abel had believed that because of his sin, an innocent victim had to die in his place before he could be acceptable to God.

35:16

He believed that the way to approach God was through the basis of a blood sacrifice, and that if a blood sacrifice was offered to God, as hideous as that might be to his natural senses, as crazy as that might be to his mind and his culture and anybody else around him, if he offered that animal sacrifice,

35:34

God would be pleased with that, and God would accept him and his worship on the basis of that sacrifice of an innocent victim in his stead.

35:41

That is what Abel had to believe. And so in offering that sacrifice, Abel's confessing that he is a sinner and that the only way that he can approach

35:48

God is on God's terms, and he must accept what God has revealed regarding approaching God on God's terms.

35:54

And Abel had to confess all of that just in offering that sacrifice. Cain thought he could come and offer to God something that pleased him, something that he wanted on his terms, not on God's terms, and that God would be pleased with that.

36:07

But the text doesn't, the text immediately says in verse five, Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. When we read in verse four, and the

36:14

Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering, but for Cain and for his offering, he had no regard. Is it because God got up that day and decided he liked meat rather than vegetables?

36:25

See, that's not it. It was not an arbitrary and capricious action of God to reject one sacrifice and have regard for or accept the other.

36:34

It was because Abel did exactly what God had told them to do, and Cain did the exact opposite of what

36:39

God had told them to do. Cain's face demonstrated his anger and his disappointment because he honestly thought that he had a shot at pleasing

36:47

God on his own terms. There are gonna be a lot of people on judgment day, standing in the presence of God, who are going to be shocked to find out that their good deeds do not please

36:56

God. They're gonna be angry, disappointed, and their countenance is gonna fall when they realize suddenly that all of the things that they think should be pleasing to the

37:06

Lord, he regards as filthy rags. When they stand before God in their own way, in their own tattered robes of their own self -righteousness, thinking that their good deeds, their good works, their self -improvement give them a standing before God, there's a lot of people whose countenance is going to fall.

37:20

Because they're gonna find out that God does not regard their works like he regards the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

37:26

There is righteousness and there is merit in what Christ has done, and there is no righteousness and no merit in all of the good works of all of humanity over all of time.

37:37

It all pales in comparison. It is nothing, it's not righteous or good in any way in terms of how

37:42

God counts righteousness or goodness. A lot of people are gonna be just like Cain. In fact, this episode demonstrates the heart of apostasy.

37:51

Cain is the very first apostate. He knew what God expected and demanded, and he turned from that and said,

37:58

I'm going to approach God on my own terms in my own way. That is the heart of apostasy, thinking that your own righteousness can make you pleasing in the sight of God.

38:06

Cain had no time for the foolishness of the animal sacrifices or the bloody religion of his parents and his brother.

38:12

Instead, he thought that if he gave to God something that pleased him, that God was just like Cain, and that God would accept Cain's offering as long as Cain thought that his offering was good.

38:21

Maybe even Cain thought, you know, if I just come to the Lord and I'm just sincere and I give to God what

38:26

I have in my own way, on my own terms, and I just make sure that I just check my own heart, God will accept that, he'll embrace that.

38:33

Cain is not only the first apostate, he is also a perfect representative of everyone who thinks that they can determine how

38:38

God is to be worshipped. There is a sin that plagues modern evangelicalism, and it is the notion that we can approach

38:46

God in our own way, on our own terms, and that God is not concerned with how he is worshipped, what we sing, how we come before him, what we do for him.

38:54

God's just concerned that whatever we do, we just come to him on our own terms and our own way. Cain would have been a perfect mega -church, seeker -sensitive pastor.

39:03

Because you can see him almost, can't you, in your mind's eye, standing up in front of people with a little soul patch and the skinny jeans, the

39:09

Hawaiian shirt with the tattoos, the nipple -piercing, the earring, saying to everybody, hey, it doesn't matter how you come to God, just come to God on any way you feel pleasing, to come to God.

39:18

We're just gonna embrace you all in here, just come in, in fact, we're gonna take our worship and we're gonna take our service and we're just gonna make it contemporary and culturally relevant and we don't wanna offend anybody and we just wanna make it exactly what, draw in the most number of people and the biggest crowd we can get.

39:32

That's Cain's approach to worship. My terms, my way, whatever makes me comfortable. This is the heart of apostasy.

39:41

And Cain is the perfect apostate. God has provided a means by which we are to approach him and it is in and through only the

39:48

Lord Jesus Christ, who offered a perfect sacrifice on our behalf to pay the price for our sin, every last sin you have committed.

39:54

And if you will not come to God on his terms, you will not come to God on any terms because he will not accept you on your terms.

40:01

He is the offended party, you are the guilty one. So he is the one who determines the terms of peace.

40:08

And if you will come to him, it can only be through the sacrifice of Christ. And if you try and approach him in any other way, it is just as acceptable as Cain's produce.

40:19

In fact, any other approach to God has no more power to cleanse you of sin and to bring you into his presence and to make you acceptable in his sight than a vegetable offering.

40:27

There's no power at all. He's provided a way and that way is in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But you, like Abel, have to recognize that you have no righteousness and that an innocent victim had to die for your sin before you could be made acceptable before a holy

40:41

God. But there is a reason that we don't offer animal sacrifices and that we're not into bloodletting and that we're not involved in any of those kind of offerings or sacrifices of the old covenant.

40:52

There's a reason we don't do that. It is because God instead has provided the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

40:57

And in that one sacrifice, he has done away with the need for all sacrifices so that everything that came before him was a picture of what was to come.

41:05

It was an anticipation, a prophecy, a type, a foreshadowing of that ultimate sacrifice which would not just cover sin for a period of time, but would take sin out of the way and not just remove all sin for all who will believe, but actually give to them righteousness that God demands.

41:21

So that in the sacrifice of Christ, he has not just undone our sinfulness, he has clothed us with the righteousness that we need to stand before his presence.

41:30

No animal sacrifice can do that and nothing you can ever do can make you righteous. This lesson of Cain and Abel would have been especially applicable to these early

41:39

Hebrew Christians because remember, having come out of that old covenant and having come out of their dependence upon all of those sacrifices and the priest and that priesthood and all of the forms and features of that old covenant, having come out of that, now some of them were thinking about turning back, going back to that, why?

41:57

Because they were enduring a great conflict of sufferings, affliction and persecution for their faith. And going back to that seemed like a way to just make all of that easier.

42:08

And some of them would have been reasoning, if we go back to that, if we just go back to the temple and adopt what we grew up with and worship

42:15

God in that way, surely it will be acceptable. Abel is the perfect person to start off this list of faith because he is saying to them, you do not worship

42:24

God on your terms and if God has abandoned that system, it is defunct, it is over, it is gone.

42:31

You come to him now through Jesus Christ and the one who has faith will have faith to the persevering of the soul. Do not shrink back to destruction.

42:38

Don't go back to that. There is no other acceptable worship other than in and through and by the

42:44

Lord Jesus Christ. You approach God through his sacrifice or no sacrifice at all. Those are his terms.

42:50

And if you will go back to that system and trust in yourself, then like Cain, you're just simply giving evidence that you have no true faith and you do not believe.

43:00

We are not of those who shrink back to destruction but those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. And to turn away from that, that is the essence of apostasy.

43:08

That is to commit the error of Cain. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for the lessons in your word and for the reminder today of how important it is to worship you rightly, to approach you rightly.

43:20

We learn this from Cain and Abel. We thank you for the list of godly men and women in Hebrews 11 that reminds us that the way to approach you has been and always is by faith.

43:31

And we ask that you would help us to apply this faith and approaching you rightly to every area of our life, that we may honor you as you expect to be honored, to worship you as you should be worshiped and to glorify you in the way that you have ordained.

43:44

That you would be glorified in and through us and in our lives as we walk in obedience to you. That is our heart's desire and our cry and we pray that you would strengthen us to that end, in Jesus' name.