The Acceptable Sacrifice

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 4:1-7

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Well, as we begin together to look at chapter 4 this morning, we want to keep in mind where we've been with chapter 3.
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As we turn the page from Genesis 3, we are entering into the exile from Eden.
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Adam and Eve were driven out of that paradise, out of the presence of God in the garden.
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You remember how the access was blocked by a flaming sword?
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And now they're entering into a world that is fallen. Life will now exist as a fallen reality.
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They will exist as perishing creatures. We're going to see the echoes of Genesis 3 in this chapter over the next few weeks.
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The outworking of creation now droning because of sin. The outworking of the serpent's seed.
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But most importantly, we're going to see in chapter 4 the earliest dawning of God's redemption.
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We're going to see the ushering forth, especially next week, of God's promised salvation.
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This morning we want to look at chapter 4, the first seven verses, and we want to consider the theme of worship.
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We'll do that in three parts. First, we'll consider worship and routine. Secondly, worship and regard.
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Lastly, worship and repentance. I'm sure that makes absolutely no sense right now, but hopefully it will.
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First, worship and routine. On the way to that, let's begin with verse 1.
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Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and wore Cain and said, I've acquired a man from the
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Lord. The most stunning thing about verse 1 is the fact that it begins with life.
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We quite literally just saw the curse of death, of the fallen order, collapsing down upon Adam and Eve in chapter 3.
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And chapter 4 begins with birth, with a new life. We've just come out of the fall, out of the frustration of man's calling to exercise dominion over the earth.
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Now the earth is going to bear thistles and thorns, droughts and famines, earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires.
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Not only that, but we've also seen mankind driven away from the tree of life. Now mankind is living in the condition of mortality, with the specter of death all around them, inevitable death.
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In the day you shall eat of it, you shall surely die. And yet God had intimated to Eve that she could continue, even after her rebellion and fall, to be fruitful and multiply, something she had not done prior to the fall, through the pain of increased, through the increased pain of her childbearing.
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And that's what takes place in chapter 4. Adam knew his wife, that's a biblical idiom for intimacy, and she conceived, and she bore
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Cain. You know, you can read between the lines how painful that would have been, and what a shocking experience that would have been.
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We read past this too quickly. We read past this because 385 ,000 babies are born every day in the world.
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This is the first human baby ever to be born. This is the first baby in human history.
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Even with our utter familiarity and expectation of a baby, we know what a baby looks like. We know what a baby is going to be like.
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We know what to expect. We go on the blog and read the bunk or the nest, and we kind of know how to prepare. How much more for us, who expect to know what to anticipate, when we see that little baby, it's miraculous, right?
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Every time, you know, every time I've welcomed a little one into the world, tears are streaming down my cheeks.
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That feeling, that awe, never gets that familiar. It's always this incredible, near miraculous experience, even though it's so normal, so utterly natural, so pointed in our design.
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How much more so would Eve have marveled at the birth of this little baby boy? She had never held a baby.
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She didn't know what to expect. Adam and Eve had never seen an infant. They had never been infants.
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We can almost see the joy of her receiving this little miracle, receiving God's goodness, seeing
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Cain as God's mercy to her. Notice how she exclaims, I've acquired a man from the Lord.
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She ascribes praise to God. She realizes that God has shown her mercy in giving the gift of this child.
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She had held something now in her arms that neither she nor Adam had ever even seen. Something they never were as they were created by God apart from physical birth and infancy.
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And we can also see Eve's wonder in God's mercy in the name. The name is
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Cain. Roughly in Hebrew, that means possession or formed.
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And it reflects the sheer awe of having produced another human being, formed.
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This was formed. Out of my body, this was formed. It's an amazing thing still for us where it's so familiar.
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We say, I can't believe this baby, we made this baby. It was formed from us.
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It's our possession. Cain's name is this, it's kind of this exclamation of just wonder.
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This is mine. This is my flesh. It's the marble behind the name.
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And it's also pressing a hope that God is going to fulfill his promise. And that's very interesting as we head to verse 2.
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We consider the awe and the hope that's contained within Cain. Remember in chapter 3 how
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God had promised a seed. Perhaps Adam and Eve were thinking this is the promised seed. This is our possession who will lead us back to the possession we lost,
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Eden itself. We read in chapter 4, verse 2, she bore again, this time, his brother,
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Abel. Humanity's first family experience. Now, Abel, Cain's brother, is born.
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And it seems all of a sudden that the wonder of new life in a broken world outside of Eden has been captured in the name of this baby boy,
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Abel. And I say that because it means, literally, vanity. Vanity.
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Very different from formed, possession, now it's vanity. Same exact word when the preacher of Ecclesiastes says, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
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That's Abel. What could account for Abel's name? Why would this be the name they give to this boy?
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Now, I know we all have some experience in this department. Maybe it was just a pretty rough stretch of sleepless nights.
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Maybe Adam came home and the Fisher -Price toys were all over the living room and he said, that's it. These kids, you know, what vanity?
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If there was any thought that Cain would be the serpent -crushing child, perhaps that is why they named
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Abel. Vanity. They had watched that hope smashed into pieces after the first tantrum, after the first lie, after the first manipulation.
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With Cain, perhaps they had hoped that he would bring them right back into Eden. And as Cain grew and they saw that sinful condition now manifest in his life, they realized that hope was in vain.
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Adam and Eve must have been haunted by the fact that they had lost paradise and what they hoped could be overturned through an immediate child, the child after became a passing favor, a vanity.
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That's reflected in Abel's name. Now they've seen the incursion and the distortion and the perversion of sin upon God's creation.
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They've seen it in their relationship as a husband and as a wife. They've seen it in their flesh -and -blood children.
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We see it in our flesh -and -blood children as well, don't we? We're thankful sometimes that our children aren't six feet tall, 200 pounds.
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It'd be a rough world without us. It's the effect of sinful nature. Though it's restrained by little limbs and little minds, it's there.
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They would have seen this. This was nothing that they had known before. They had known humanity in its pristine state.
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They had walked with God in utter perfection. They knew a relationship with God that was now lost and something that Cain would never know, something that Abel would never know to the degree that they knew it.
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They must have been haunted by that. Psalm 144, for a man is like a breath. Same word there.
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Man is like an Abel. Man is like a favor. Man is like a vanity. His days pass like a shadow.
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Life is fleeting now. Life is perishing. Now, there's much that Moses does not record about Adam and Eve's family, which we'll see later on must have expanded as other brothers and sisters, other siblings were born to it.
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The narrative itself is not interested in those details. It's entirely focused on the relationship of these two brothers.
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Cain is the central focus of Chapter 4, as we'll see. But always, he's the central focus in reference to Abel.
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In fact, the word brother is dotted throughout these verses seven times. The first family we know, as we look again at verse 2, despite the fall, continues the creation mandate.
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Despite the fall, they continue the creation mandate to exercise dominion over the earth, to be fruitful, to multiply.
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Verse 2, Abel was a keeper of sheep. Cain was a tiller of the ground. He was a worker of the ground.
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This is what Adam was called to do originally. They're continuing out of God's original design and intention for humanity, despite the fall, in spite of the fall.
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But things are different now. Because of God's curse upon the soil, things are different.
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Because of God's curse upon humanity, that relationship is different.
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We get a general glimpse of their primeval division of labor here. Abel keeps sheep.
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That's significant as we'll see. Cain was a worker of the ground, a tiller of the ground. So they don't do the same things.
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They specialize. Being part of the same family, they must have traded. They must have gleaned off each other's labors.
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It's noteworthy, perhaps, that Cain takes up the work, which was directly cursed by God. Remember, God cursed the ground.
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May it bring up not fruit for you. May it not cooperate with you. May it frustrate you. May it bring up thorns for you.
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And Cain says, I'm going to till the ground. May it signify something?
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May it signify that Cain is identifying with the curse more than Abel, who devotes his time, his efforts, his labor to cattle, to animals, some of which will be sacrificed.
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Perhaps that's significant. It is significant theologically that Abel keeps sheep.
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We'll talk about that more next week. But note here his position as a shepherd of a flock.
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It's very important theologically. Abel is a shepherd of the sheep. Moving to verses 3 and 4.
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In the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.
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So notice, Cain and Abel are coming to worship the Lord. The question is, where did they learn to do this?
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Where did they learn to come give worship to the Lord, to give offerings to the Lord? The text indicates that some time has passed.
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It doesn't say how much. But this is different. This is not in their childhood. This is in their manhood.
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We can infer that they had often performed offerings to the Lord. We're reading between the lines here, but how else would they have known?
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How to worship and what to worship with? Why an offering is necessary in their worship of God? And what's a worthy offering to bring?
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They had been taught by Adam and Eve, the first family, at family worship. Indeed, that's the only worship there was.
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Adam and Eve, as you remember from chapter 3, after their fall, they tried to cover themselves up in a garment of their own making.
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They sewed together fig leaves and tried to cover their shame. Of course, it was ridiculous on its face, but they had never felt shame before.
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They never felt the guilt of being present before a holy God and they wanted the earth to consume them. They covered themselves in leaves, this sort of primitive ghillie suit.
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They didn't want to be seen by God. And what does God do? He comes and He clothes them with the skins of animals.
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In other words, God's blood is shed and He is covered
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Adam and Eve. And from this, they learned that they must always be covered by sacrifice if they're to worship and commune with a holy
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God. God Himself taught them the way of sacrifice for true worship.
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And this was the biggest picture that would have been given to Cain and Abel as these boys grew up and they heard
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Adam and Eve tell of the stories. Maybe they still had the garments that God had provided for them and they would show them and bring them out into the woods.
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They would try to put into words what Eden had been like and what their relationship with God had been like, but they just can't convey it.
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It's like trying to explain music to a deaf man or color to a blind man. They couldn't get across what had been lost.
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As a family, sacrificial offering had been a routine of worship. I think we can infer that.
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It had been a routine of worship that these boys would have grown up knowing that God is to be worshipped and He is to be worshipped sacrificially.
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That of what they yield, of what they labor in, He is to receive. But He can only be approached through a sacrifice, through bloodshed.
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We have no reason to think that this was the first occasion Cain and Abel brought offerings to God. This is the routine of their worship that had been laid down to them by their parents.
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Perhaps the text now here in verses 3 and 4 is taking place at the end of a harvest cycle.
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It could be. Perhaps that's why Cain brings the offering he does. It might be the end of the agricultural year, we cannot be sure.
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Some rabbinical interpreters link this to Nisan, the Jewish month of the Passover. Fascinating if that was the case.
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It's sheer speculation. Something that rabbinical interpreters do a lot. Scripture doesn't say.
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The Scripture says this much. Cain and Abel, these two brothers, out of the routine of a family that raised them to worship the
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Lord by bringing offerings, Cain with two different offerings. Cain, we read, brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the
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Lord. Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. So we move from worship and the routine, now to worship and regard.
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Verses 4 and 5. The Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect
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Cain and his offering. Now, you'll notice I titled this worship and regard. I didn't choose the word respect here.
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And it's a fine translation, but it doesn't get the best sense across to English ears. I think other translations do it better.
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The Hebrew here literally is to look. To look upon. To gaze. So you get the idea that you're looking upon it favorably.
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You're looking upon it admirably. And that's where you get the translation respect. God did not respect the offering of Cain.
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Other translations I think render it better for our ears. The ESV, for instance. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering.
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Or the NET, the New English Translation. Great translation. The Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering.
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A pleasing sacrifice. So He had regard for Abel. He did not have regard.
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He was not pleased by Cain's offering. As Jeff Thomas says, we don't know how this was communicated.
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It does not say that God explained this to them or God said it to them. But somehow they both knew.
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Abel knew that his sacrifice had been accepted. Cain knew that his sacrifice had been rejected.
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We don't know in what way God showed that He accepted Abel and his offering. We know, for instance, on Mount Carmel. This is from Jeff Thomas.
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Fire fell from heaven on Elijah's sacrifice. God was saying, I accept your sacrifice. It didn't fall on the sacrifices for Baal.
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We'll be met in the last day. Lord, Lord, did we bring out our offerings and our sacrifices to you? The Lord will say, depart from me.
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I never knew you. In some way, whether by fire or rushing wind, a pronouncement from heaven or a divine voice, well done, good and faithful servant.
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In some way, they knew whose sacrifice had been accepted. Perhaps it was
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Cain in that awful silence that he knew God did not accept his. What's going on here?
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Remember their professions. Cain was a worker of the ground and he brought fruit from the ground in offering.
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Abel was a keeper of the sheep. He brought the firstborn of his flock and their fat in his offering.
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They each bring offerings from their own vocation, from their own labors. They each come according to their own means.
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Isn't that a good thing? According to your labor, according to your energy, according to what you produced, you've given offerings to the
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Lord. Isn't that what we would commend? So why does God have regard for Abel's offering and not
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Cain? Well, believe it or not, there's different takes on this, even within the
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Reformers. There's different takes on this. And as I read around a bit over this week,
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I saw, I think, two main positions and maybe a squeak of a third, which
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I happened to hold to. So the first take is this. And this is the question.
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Why does God have regard for Abel's offering? The first take would be this.
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It is Abel's sacrifice, what he offers, regardless of his faith, which is acceptable over Cain.
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It's a better sacrifice. It's a blood sacrifice. That's what's better.
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That's what's significant. They both came in the same way. It doesn't matter that Abel has faith. They both offer.
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His was better. It was a blood sacrifice. So that's the first view. Abel's sacrifice regardless of his faith.
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The second view is it's Abel's faith, regardless of his sacrifice. Both sacrifices are acceptable.
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Both sacrifices are arguably commendable. The difference is faith. Abel's faith is what makes him acceptable before the
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Lord. It's what makes his offering acceptable, and not Cain, who lacks faith.
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The third view, it is Abel's faith, which leads him to give the best sacrifice.
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Which is acceptable over Cain. So, again, first view, sacrifice, faith doesn't matter.
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Second view, faith, sacrifice doesn't matter. Third view, yes both. Faith unto the excellent sacrifice.
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And I'm leaning to that last view. The inner disposition, the heart, is utterly central to right worship.
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I think we can all agree. We cannot worship God rightly if we do not do so with a pure heart, with pure motives.
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We don't do so with an inner disposition that's toward him, and desiring of him, and seeking toward him.
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This is relentlessly demanded in every detail by God's revelation to the Israelites. There must be a
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God -fearing, God -desiring heart in the worshiper. Which is a heart of faith, in other words.
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That will bring about the acceptable sacrifice, the best of what can be offered. For example, with Cain's sacrifice, we notice he simply brought the fruit of the ground.
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That's all the text says. He brought of the fruit of the ground. There's not the word here, the firstfruits.
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There's not any additional adjectives or descriptors. The choicest of the fruits, the best of his fruits.
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It's simply he brought fruit from the ground. We find in later sacrificial language, as we head into Exodus 34, the very best and choicest of the produce offered to God.
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We don't see that here. What Cain brings is simply fruit from the ground. It seems to be that not much attention is paid to the quality of that.
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And that's in contrast, textually, that's in contrast to the offering of Abel. Notice, Abel brought of the firstborn, of his flock, and of their fat.
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Literally, in Hebrew, the fattest of the first of the flock. In other words, do you see how carefully this offering is being described?
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It's emphasizing that Abel went out of his way to find the best, the very best from his flock, and to bring that to the
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Lord in offering. Now that said, that said, we also have to recognize not only the offering, but the offerer.
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Not only the gift that's given at the altar, but the giver of the gift. And so,
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I would disagree with A .W. Pink. This is a risky thing to do, to disagree. I would disagree with him when he says,
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Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Not that Abel was more excellent, but that the offering which he presented was more pleasing and acceptable to his maker.
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Do you see where A .W. Pink is falling into that first view? The sacrifice is what matters.
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Abel is indifferent. Abel is the same. No doubt, and I disagree with this, no doubt
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Abel's offering was better, was more pleasing, was more excellent. No doubt. But I disagree.
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It's not just about the offering, it's about the heart that lies behind the offering. This was not a mere competition of offerings.
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God was not saying, okay boys, like some Food Network baking competition, who's going to bring the best to the altar?
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Looking to the outward, looking to the impressive. No, he's looking inward. And so we see here, already in Chapter 4, a sword running between siblings, a sword dividing between even the first family.
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As Jesus said, he would cause division in the family. We see, through this act of worship, a pulling of Cain away from the
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Lord toward the lineage of the serpent. And we see the preservation, the grace toward Abel and toward his lineage as the righteous seed promised to Eve.
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How can I say this? Let's scripture and talk of scripture. 1 John Chapter 3, beginning in verse 11.
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1 John 3. This is the message you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Listen. Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one, and murdered his brother.
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And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil, and his brothers righteous. Do you see?
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Do you see motive there? So first we see now the unfolding lineage. There's this division in the first family.
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There's those who will be of the promised lineage of the seed that was promised to Eve. And there's those who will be of the lineage of the serpent.
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Cain and Abel are being pulled apart from each other. God is pressing that division according to his worship.
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Cain is of the wicked one. Cain's works are evil. That is why it's not merely about the offering itself at this level.
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In a very real sense, as is true of all worship, Cain's sacrifice was unacceptable on account of his heart.
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Which led him to offer something unacceptable. Do you see? It matters. But it doesn't matter irrespective of the heart.
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It matters because of the heart. Whether or not it was unacceptable in form, it was unacceptable in manner.
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Do you remember David? At the threshing floor of Orana, the Jebusite? When he said, you can have it, you can take it.
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In reference to David wanting to give an offer to the Lord. And he says, no, surely I will buy it from you. I will not offer to the
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Lord that which costs me nothing. Do you see the heart behind that? I'm looking to give something sacrificially to the
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Lord. I'm looking to be at a loss for the sake of my giving to the Lord. How different Cain is to just gather up some fruit from the ground and say,
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I'm done with blood sacrifice. This is what I'm offering today. Now perhaps, and this is a big perhaps.
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Perhaps there's a further issue here. Perhaps Cain is aware, even in the custom of trading his labors in the soil for Abel's labors among the flock.
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They would exchange according to their work. And perhaps over time he had bought these sacrificial animals, traded these sacrificial animals between his brother.
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And now the time has come where Cain, in essence, is deciding to approach God according to his wish.
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Through what he felt should be enough for God. Through what he felt was acceptable. Why should my brother's work be what's offered?
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I'm working too. Why can't I offer what I'm producing? Why do we always have to slay a lamb? Why do I have to trade with my younger brother?
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I'm clearing the ground. Surely that's enough for God. Even if we assume God received offerings of grain at this time, we don't know that.
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It's clear he does later in Israel's history. We know that Cain is not at peace with God.
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Even if this was an acceptable sacrifice, God does not receive it as such because Cain is not right with God.
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Again it underscores that the heart of the worshiper is the difference that right, acceptable worship makes.
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Perhaps as an older brother he refused to rely on his younger brother's provisions. His pride, in other words, was blinding him.
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He was outraged at the thought that time after time he had to be more like Abel. And as Abel grew in faith, as Abel grew in his relationship with God, that contrast became more stark and more clear and the bitterness and the jealousy was brooding.
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We used to be so similar, but now he's so awash. And he has this joy and this delight and he makes these sacrifices that made me look really bad.
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And I hate that. Well, if he's going to offer something like that, I'll offer some of the fruit of my ground. I'm done using blood sacrifice.
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Perhaps there's this sibling rivalry, this pride of the older brotherhood. If God is only accepting what
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Abel is sacrificing, what Abel is producing, that pride and that jealousy could explode into a murderous hatred.
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No wonder that Cain is of the wicked one, that Cain does not have faith because pride is at odds.
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As Spurgeon put it this way, faith is a stooping grace. You understand the idea of stooping?
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Having to lower yourself. Faith is a stooping grace. In other words, when you have faith, you stoop, you're humbled.
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Pride is rooted out. Nothing can make a man stoop without faith. Unless man does stoop, his sacrifice cannot be accepted.
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The angels know this. When they praise God, they do it veiling their faces with their wings. The redeemed know it.
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When they praise God, they cast their crowns before his feet. Now a man who has not faith proves he cannot stoop.
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He has not faith for this reason, because he's too proud to believe. He's too proud and he cannot enter heaven because the door of heaven is so low that no one can enter it unless they bow their heads.
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We must go to Christ on our bended knees for though he is a door big enough for the greatest sinner to come in, he's a door so low that men must stoop in faith if they would be saved.
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So again, to review what we're looking at now that we're going to move into some nuance. One view is
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Abel's sacrifice is what's acceptable. His faith doesn't matter. Another view is
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Abel's faith. It doesn't matter what he brought. It's his faith. It's his heart. That's what matters.
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That's what makes him acceptable. And the third view. Abel's faith matters and what he brings matters.
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They both matter. Abel's faith is why he brings what he brings. Abel's faith leads him to give an acceptable sacrifice.
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And that together is what is accepted over and against Cain. If that's not clear this morning, it'll become very clear.
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In other words, I'm saying this. Cain could not worship like Abel. Of course he's jealous.
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Of course he's bitter because he cannot worship like Abel. And as it becomes more clear year by year that God is looking for worship like unto
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Abel, Cain sees more and more jealousy and hatred toward his brother because Abel's worship.
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Hebrews 11, verse 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice.
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Cain cannot do this. By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain through which he obtained witness that he was righteous.
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God testifying of his gifts and through it he, being dead, still speaks.
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In other words, even many thousand years later, Abel is still brought up as an example of righteousness and faithfulness.
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And this is the beginning of the great gallery of faith in Hebrews 11. Very important. As we move on to Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham.
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God doesn't just, as we said, plant at the altars as we might. He doesn't look outwardly as we might. He looks to our hearts as people worship him with their lips.
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So why did Cain's offering not please the Lord? Hebrews 11, 6, a few verses later.
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Without faith, it is impossible to please God. You see, by faith, Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice.
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Hebrews 11, 6. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. That's the difference between Cain and Abel.
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One comes to God without faith. One comes to God by faith. One is accepted according to faith.
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One is rejected for lack of faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. He who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
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Abel had a faith that diligently sought after God. So what we've been saying is this. It's not merely the gift that was on the altar on one level.
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Big footnote. Big asterisk. It's not merely what was on the altar on one level.
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It's also about the faith. So if we go back to our distant brother who's up in glory now,
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A .W. Pink, Arthur W. Pink. The way that he made his case to take
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Hebrews 11, 4 would be to read it like this. By faith, maybe have a comma there, by faith,
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Abel came forward and he brought a sacrifice and that sacrifice was much more acceptable. You see what he's done there?
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Here's his faith over here, by faith, Abel's coming to worship God and thankfully he brings a really good sacrifice.
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Faith over here, the excellent sacrifice over here. And we're saying, eh, it's not quite that simple.
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What if it's Abel's faith that makes the sacrifice? You see the difference?
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Not faith over here and what happens to be an excellent sacrifice here. But faith which makes the sacrifice.
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That's how John Bunyan takes this, Hebrews 11, 4. This is what Bunyan says. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, wheat, oil, honey, or the like, which were all things clean and good.
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Hence, it is intimated that his offering was excellent, and I conceive not at all inferior to that of Abel's.
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Now, might take a different view on that. Seems a little haphazard and we'll get into some other issues, but just notice where he's going with this.
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Why? Why? For, in that it is said that Abel's was more excellent, it is not with respect to the excellency of the matter, or the things which they sacrificed, but with respect to Abel's faith, which gave glory and acceptableness to his offering with God.
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Now, he quotes, and listen to how he quotes it. By faith, he offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice.
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By faith, he offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice. You see? No comma, no separation.
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By faith, he offered more excellent. You see? By faith, he offered something excellent. That's the point that Ben was making.
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All that Adam and Eve had told Abel about how God had delivered them from the fall by slaying animals to cover them, and their guilt and their shame, when they were hiding and wishing to die and be banished from his presence, he came, mercifully, he called them out, and he clothed them, and these blood -drenched garments covered them, and somehow they could now be in the presence of their
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Creator, now their Redeemer. And Abel grew up in hearing this time after time.
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He believed, and he understood that I must also have a covering if I am to experience the mercy of God.
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If I am to know God, not just as my Creator, but as my Redeemer, I must have a covering. And so I'm not going to till the ground,
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I'm going to raise these animals, and from the best of them, I'm going to bring them to God, that he can cover me and cleanse me and redeem me.
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And so he tended these animals, so that he could offer the best to God as an atonement for his sin, according to the bloodshed that Adam and Eve had pointed him to.
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This is all by faith. So Abel's faith is the reason that his sacrifice is acceptable before God.
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Cain was going through the motions. Abel's faith is recorded for us as a distinguishing mark of God's grace upon him.
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And so that's God's favor to him. The grace that Abel has received, the lineage in which he stands, that is
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God's favor. And in light of that faith, of course, his sacrifices are acceptable.
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And why are they acceptable? Because that very faith is leading him, compelling him, filling him with desires to offer the very best things to the
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Lord. Do you see? These are not at odds. Think of how pitiful it was for Abel, this young man, who has a heart, who has a longing to know the
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God that created his parents, to know an
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Eden that, within a generation, had been lost. And all he can do to enter into the presence of God is to bring the best of his land, the fattest and the first of his flock, and to slay it, and to bleed it.
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And it's this pitiful little animal on an altar. Think of how pitiful that is, and yet it's pleasing to them.
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Abel is pronounced righteous. God delights in him. It's not as though God was so pleased to have a slain animal.
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As he says in the Prophets, it comes to me as though I drink the blood of bulls and goats. I don't need these animals.
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I don't desire them. I don't have a stomach. I don't eat like a human being. The sacrifices are not for me, they're for you.
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We cannot forget what was already laid down by the writer of Hebrews a few verses earlier. What is faith? What's the faith that Abel has?
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What is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Don't forget that when you're reading by faith,
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Abel made an excellent offering unto God. The substance of something hoped for.
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That's the faith that Abel has. The substance, the concreteness of something hoped for, yearned for, desired.
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Abel offered the sacrifice according to this faith, according to this desire, according to this hope, in the serpent -crushing seed that his parents constantly preached to him.
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Every time they gathered on the sofa and had family worship and they pulled out their crinkled applesauce -stained
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Trinity hymnals, Natalie again would say, a seed would crush it.
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And so his faith was fixed. His faith had a substance to it. There was a concrete hope to it.
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However dimly he could grasp it, whenever Abel slit the throat of a blemishless little lamb and it cried out as it bled out and he laid its limp carcass across a burning altar, he was pointing millennia, millennia ahead to the coming of the
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Lamb. And so as we said, this is why it's a qualified statement.
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It's not merely the sacrifice on the altar that Abel renders acceptably.
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It's his heart, it's his faith. But that's only on one level. That's only on one level.
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Typologically, once you get past the shadows, once you get past that type of the sacrificial offering of Abel himself, and you go to the reality, it's all about the sacrifice.
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Do you see? We're making a distinction here between Abel as a worshipper, just as any
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Israelite was called to be, just as any Christian here is called to be, to come to God according to the spirit and truth where the
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Father is now seeking such to worship him. With a pure heart, with a desire to God, with a faith that has a substance of something hoped for.
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This is all true of Abel as a worshipper in that sense. It's not about what Abel lays on the altar exclusively or merely.
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It's also about his heart, his faith, his inner disposition. That's what God's looking at. And you take it to the level of what
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Abel's actually a picture of. Of what that sacrifice of the Lamb is a picture of. It's all about the sacrifice.
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It's only about the sacrifice. Neither is there salvation in any other.
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There's no other name under heaven given by men by which we must be saved. And according to the law, one may say, all things are cleansed with blood for without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness, no remission.
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But you were redeemed, not with silver, not with gold. You were redeemed with precious blood as of a
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Lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. Christ alone is the more excellent offering.
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Christ alone is the acceptable sacrifice. Every sacrifice finds its fulfillment in him.
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Salvation is by the blood of Jesus alone. Not by the integrity of the worshipper.
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Not by the waning or waxing of his hope. But by the objective value of the salvation that Jesus Christ brought.
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We come lastly to verses 5 -7. Worship and repentance. We read,
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Cain was very angry. Now that his worship was rejected, he was angry. His countenance fell.
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And the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? If you don't do well, sin plies its desires for you, but you should rule over it.
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Cain stands at the head of all man -made religion. Cain stands at the head of every man -made effort to devise a way of gaining
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God's favor. Isn't this enough? Can I just scoop up some of my labor and give you a few hours on a
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Sunday? Isn't this enough? Does this count? Even though my heart is a galaxy away from you?
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Cain stands at the head of those who think God can be bought by empty routines, or that his holy worship can be the inconsistent ornamentation on a given week.
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Cain is the father of such. What a warning we have, brothers and sisters in the field.
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What a warning we have, that there is no way to approach God except through the
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Son. No way to worship God except by faith, and by faith in that sacrifice alone which is acceptable.
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By faith in the sacrifice which renders us acceptable. Having a love for the
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Lamb of God because of that, depending upon the Spirit of God which was sent by the Son. So the question as we come to the end of these verses is, what should
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Cain have done at this moment? What should Cain have done? Repented.
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He should have repented. Immediately. He should have fallen to the ground and said,
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I'm a sinner. I see now in light of my brother's sacrifice, my heart has been far from you.
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I have not worshipped you as I ought. I have not thought of you as I ought. I have not thanked you for what you've given me.
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You have given me success over the ground. Fruit from what you promised to be thorns and dust.
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You've blessed me. I've given you the least of it instead of the best of it. I see in contrast to my brother that I need your mercy and I need your help.
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And forgive me, I need a covering too. And look now, like Zacchaeus, look now. Look, I trade all my grain.
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I buy all the best of the flocks. Save me and cleanse me that I might give up a thankful offering under the blood of the
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Lamb. He should have repented and worshipped.
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And he couldn't do one without the other. He couldn't have the
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Lamb without the faith. He couldn't have repentance without faith.
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Frankly, he couldn't have faith without repentance. This doesn't always happen profidentially in our bulletin.
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The catechism, I usually print the catechism each week. And the question here fits exactly with this verse.
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What Cain should do is repent unto life. Question 94.
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What is repentance unto life? Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and an apprehension, a grasping of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto
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God with a full purpose and endeavor after new obedience. I see my coldness.
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I see my distance from you. I see others coming acceptably with the joy and the power and the strength of knowing you.
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Of walking according to your way. Of finding your light and your favor. Sensing your smile and your presence.
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I see that. And I see my life as pivotally contrasted against that. And I don't cover myself up, and I'm not filled with jealousy, and I don't make excuses.
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I just repent. That I haven't worshipped you as I ought. That I haven't come to you pleading for mercy.
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That I might let hold of that joy. It's repentance unto life. It's a saving grace in that way.
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A real sense of the affluence of not coming to God in an acceptable way, which is under...
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And notice that God is almost coaxing this out of Cain. Do you not see how personal God is?
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Not only does he know what's in our hearts, he knows that in Abel's heart is this yearning, this hope in the mercy of God.
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He also knows that brooding in Cain's heart is this jealousy, this bitterness, the seeds of the murder.
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And yet how does God approach Cain? Does he say, I see what's in your heart, and now the ground is going to open up like O -Nim, it's going to swallow you up into the earth?
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What does he do? He comes to reason with him. He comes to plead with him.
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The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Cain, I know where you're at.
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I know what's going on in your heart. I know you're not willing to forgive. I know exactly where you are as you've come to worship me.
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Why are you this way? Why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen then? If you do well, will you not be accepted?
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If you cry out, if you repent, if you do what you know you must do, will you not find favor?
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Will you not find strength to strength? Have I not attached promises? Have you not experienced this to some degree?
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You see, God is so personal. He's pleading with Cain. He's giving Cain a chance to repent. He's calling out the seeds of hatred that will lead to murder, that will lead to more misery and more of the curse.
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And he's giving him a chance to repent. Brothers and sisters, that's always how it is when we come into his presence.
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Does he not know where we are? Does he not be saying to us, why has your countenance fallen?
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Why are you so exhausted? Why can you no longer find the streams that once nourished you?
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Why have you not walking according to my right and my refuge? Why do you run from the comfort of a green table?
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The Lord is calling us out. If you do well, will you not be accepted? But if you do not, sin lies at the door.
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Its desire for you is for you, but you should rule over it. Here's the temptation.
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Here's the sin. It's waiting to ambush you. It's going to assault you. It's going to kill your conscience.
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It's going to deaden your instincts. You're going to be hardened unto that hatred, and it's going to lead to murder. You'll kill your own brother.
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You must rule over this. You must resist it. You must repent. So how do we rule over sin crouching at our doors?
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Sin, whose desire is for us, for our place, for our joy, for our standing, for our strength, for our growth, for our sanctification, for our preservation.
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How are we going to rule over that? The answer is within the context, isn't it? It's by repentant worship.
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It's by owning what God charges us with, what the Spirit convicts us of, and in repentance then turning to worship.
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That's the whole point. Repent, that you might be in my presence and find the joy of my worship.
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Why do you turn away in misery and in sadness and in discouragement when I'm beckoning you to talk, to stop, turn back, come to me.
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Is that not the constant refrain throughout the prophets? Come to me. Come to me. Every prophet, the lawmen, why are my people like a camel sniffing after the winds?
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Why have they abandoned their first love? Jesus comes to the mountaintop in the Passover Jerusalem. You were not willing to come.
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Your house is left desolate to you. Your faith is left desolate to you. God is a personal
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God. We're reminded that sin lies in ambush, waging warfare within our members.
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We live in bodies of death as a result of the fall, but God says we must rule over it. And we lament, who's going to deliver us from this body of death?
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And the answer is we thank God. Through Jesus Christ our Lord we look to the Lamb of God. Even in this very passage we see a
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Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That's the acceptable sacrifice we bring. It's a contrite and a broken heart, but that's not what makes it acceptable.
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It's not my brokenness. It's not my contrition. It's not my repentance. It's not that I turn around.
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It's what I turn around to. It's not that I know I need a plea. It's what my plea is.
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It's the objective merit of Christ's body broken upon the Lamb.
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That's the sacrifice that's pleasing to God. It's not that my faith makes
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Christ's sacrifice pleasing. May it never be. Christ's sacrifice makes my faith pleasing.
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Makes my faith acceptable. Makes my feeble efforts and my failures somehow acceptable.
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Christ's sacrifice draws us near to God and Christ's sacrifice calls to us. Arise, my soul, arise.
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Shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf. Before the throne my surety stands.
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My name is written on his hands. Abel, he had the substance of something hopeful.
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Cain had no faith, and without faith it's impossible. Brothers and sisters, we're invited to understand the spirit of true worship in these first seven verses of chapter four.
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It's a worship that's filled with repentance, but that repentance turns into the celebration of joy of being accepted in the beloved because of his sacrifice upon the cross.
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Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word,
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Lord. We thank you for the glory of Abel. Not only as an example of a worshiper, an example of a
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Christian, but even deeper than that, Lord, as a shadow of him who was to come, of him who has come, of him who is coming.
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Lord, we thank you that it's not by our efforts to be here this morning. It's not according to our mixed motives.
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It's not according to our inconsistency. It's not according to the warfare that so often trembles within us.
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It's not according to the failures that mount over us, loom in our conscience and discourage us.
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It's only according to the mercy you've shown us through Christ and his body broken upon the tree, his blood, which speaks better things than that of Abel.
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Father, we are humbled. We stoop as we by faith lay hold of that sacrifice, as we claim his covering as our own, as we enrobe ourselves in his righteousness, knowing that that bloody garment is what draws us near to you, knowing that we are freely and fully justified in your sight, that now we enter boldly into your throne room, into your very presence.
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Lord, what a marvel you've called us out of such darkness, out of the dominion and domain of the serpent, into the kingdom of life, into the domain and dominion of your son, the lion who looked as though it was a lamb in a lamb's womb.
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Father, fill our hearts with encouragement this morning. Help us remember that we do not worship according to our own efforts, even though we do worship according to our hearts and our faith, and strengthen our hearts and our faith, and strengthen them according to the gospel, the assurance and the hope and the power that comes from your salvation.