Amen. If you turn in your Bibles to the Book of Genesis chapter 4, we're going to be looking at verses 8 through 16 this morning, Genesis 4, verses 8 through 16. Last time we saw in Cain and Abel two ways to come before God, one by works and one by faith. Cain and Abel think of it, both brought offerings to God, both sought therefore to worship God. That means both of them were in the church, both of them were part of the God believing, God worshiping, God serving, community. That brings offerings to God, but only Abel was accepted because as Hebrews 11 tells us he came to God by faith, faith in God's promise to save man by the seed of the woman. Cain got angry that God did not accept his worship, we know for certain by that back that he could not have, that he did not come to God by faith. As sinners were only accepted by God, when we realize that in and of ourselves, in our best efforts and intentions, we are unacceptable to him. And that's what faith does, faith looks away from self and it looks to others, it looks to what God says to look to, God's made a promise. If we believe in him, we look to that promise. And God promised Adam and even all of their posterity, even down to us to save mankind through the seed of the woman. We know who that seed is now, we know how he saved mankind. But even then they were to live by faith in that promise. Trusting in God, God accepts us, God accepts us when we come to him by faith and therefore because he accepts us, he can accept our worship and our works. It's because we believe in him, we are washed in the blood of Christ, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, it's by faith that we are justified by faith alone. And when you believe, and when God has justified you, you are his child, he adopts you and do his family, he has accepted you and that's why he can accept your worship and your works. Not because you really mean it but because you are saved in Christ. And that's why last week our text said, I didn't touch on it too much, but look at for verse 4 of last week's text, the second half, and the Lord respected, noticed it, able and his offering. And then in verse 5, but he did not respect Cain as it and his offering. When I come to God by faith, I am accepted, therefore my offerings are accepted. But when I don't come to God by faith, I am not accepted, I am in my sins. Therefore anything I do can't be accepted. And that's what we saw happen last week. And Adam, we die and we're dead in Christ, we are made alive. And that's the gospel message, really, that God himself preached to Cain last week when he came to Cain, when Cain was sinfully angry, and he worn Cain against that sin. He said to him in effect, sin is like a roaring lion, croftsing at the door as the Old Testament image, prowling around, looking for someone to devour as the New Testament image. And it's the same thing, it's this animal ready to pounce upon us. That's the way sin is, and God warned Cain of that. Sin is crouching at the door, Cain. Its desire is for you, it's wants to take you over, but we must master it. The only way we can master it is by crushing it under the seed of the woman's foot. That's how we crushed it, and that's how we master it. Or as again Paul says, and Peter says in the New Testament, being steadfast in the face, we resist the devil any flees from us. That's how we master sin through Christ. That's what God said to Cain, but Cain did not believe. And so this morning's text, we're going to look at the very first example of the children of the devil, the children of the flesh, persecuting, the children of the spirit, the children of faith, the children of God. Let's pray as we turn to God's Word. Father, again, we thank you for this word, we thank you that you indeed have saved us. We are saved if we believe, but we have something to do now. We have a life to live, and we're in a world that is hostile to you. You have promised us persecution and suffering, but that should not cause us to fear. That should cause us to be bold as lions, to rejoice, to count and all joy that we get to be like Jesus in just a little way, that we too, even as he suffered the hatred and persecution of the world, so will we, if we love him, if we believe in him, help us to be strong, help us to be encouraged to do that, to see that this is how we bring you glory, and we pray that you would enable us to do so in Jesus' name, amen. Here now the Word of the Lord from Genesis chapter 4, beginning in verse 8, this is God's Holy Word. Now Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. And the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know, am I my brother's keeper? And he said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand when you kill the ground which shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you will be on the earth. And Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Surely you have given me out this day from the face of the ground, I shall be hidden from your face, I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me. And the Lord said to Cain, therefore, whoever kills Cain vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark on Cain, last anyone finding him should kill him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and he drew all to the land of nod on the east of Eden. May the Lord establish this word in her heart this morning and pray. I want you to notice the way of the wicked, I want you to notice the way of the wicked. The New Testament says Cain was of the evil one. We don't have to guess where he ended up. And the way of the wicked is illustrated here in Cain. Notice in Versailles, now Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and he killed him. God warned Cain, don't let that sinful anger lodge into your heart, admit your wrongful worship, and look by faith to the promised seed for your hope, and you'll be accepted. That's how your brother was accepted, it wasn't like he was any better than you. He came by faith, you come by faith, and you'll be accepted too. But Cain did not trust in God's gospel, he trusted in his thoughts, in his desires, and he was taken away and devoured by that. That sin that was crossing at the door, it did have Cain. In fact, Cain is the first one that we see the process described in James 114, come to pass. James wrote, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and entice, then when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin. And when sin is full grown it brings forth death. Cain is the first person who let that happen. The first person who lets sin just bear fruit in his heart and brought forth death. You know, even unbelievers can bridle sin to a certain extent, not for godly reasons, but for external reasons, right? All sorts of times we know every person that we know who's an unbeliever, they hinder the motion of sin in themselves for different reasons. You can think of perhaps a man who won't go into an adult bookstore, not because he loves the Lord, or he wants to be chased, but because he doesn't want to be embarrassed, he doesn't want anyone to see him. That's a prideful reason, but still a hindering of what he'd like to do if he could get away with it. And so also women have sins, again, that they would do, that if they could get away with, but they don't do again for love of self and pride and so forth, wicked people and believers do that all the time. It can become the first man who allows sin to actually take root, to take possession of his heart, even though he began with that same sort of outward bridal aim that all unbelievers do. You see that in verse 8, now Kane talked with Abel, his brother, he talks with him, he acts like he's at peace with him. Some of the translations actually from some of the manuscripts, the Syriac and some of the Targans, say that Kane said to his brother, let's go in the field, you know, we're buddies, it's okay now. No doubt Kane would have been angry at first. In fact, the Bible says he was very angry and his counsel and spell, and again, in some traditions, Kane and Abel actually get in a big argument over this, and some commentators believe that's the case because with this counsel and spalling, we don't use that kind of language, that just means you could tell by looking at him that he was mad, right? You know, when you're looking at somebody and they're furious, Abel would have known that Kane was furious, but Kane takes control of himself, acts like it's okay, and puts on this fake, peaceable notion, it wasn't because he was repentant, it was because he was going to put his sin on the back burner until he could get away with fully satisfying it, it's that process, again, that James tells us about, and we know why Kane killed Abel. First John 312 from your scripture reading, the past Rappleton read a little bit to you, looking at that last paragraph, why did Kane murder him? Because his works were evil and his brothers were righteous. That's why we don't have to guess. He murdered him because his works were evil and his brothers were righteous. In other words, Abel made Kane look bad, Abel made Kane look like Kane really was. The way he really was, he wanted to hide the way he really was, and he couldn't do that with the light of Abel's good work coming to God the right way, showing that Kane didn't come to God the right way, but ultimately beloved, I want you to think of it, it wasn't ultimately, Kane's hatred for Abel, Kane only hates Abel because God accepted Abel. It was ultimately a hatred of God. The New Testament says that in Romans 1, that unbelievers are our haters of God. That's what they are. Matthew Henry commenting on this verse says, in killing his brother, Kane directly struck at God himself. For God's accepting, God's accepting Abel was the pretended provocation. And for this reason, he hated Abel because God loved him. Beloved, that's the same way that it is today. We are promise persecution, we are promise tribulation in this world that hates God, and the reason is because God loves us. That's why we face it. Listen to John chapter 15 verses 18 and 19. If the world hates you, Jesus said, know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but because I chose you, because I loved you out of the world, therefore the world hates you, Jesus said. He doesn't say most of the world, some of the world, sometimes the world, all the world hates you. Hates, ongoing, present tense. This is the reality of the Christian Beloved. There is no unconverted person alive who does not do a greater or lesser degree, hate God. And therefore hate the person who takes God's side and makes them look bad. We see this a little bit in verse 9, this hatred of God and Cain. Then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? He said, I don't know. I don't know. That's alive. You know, it was exactly where he was. He left him dead. Again, some of the tradition is that Cain would have buried his brother. New exactly where he was. It was an outright lie. But then the second part, he actually rebuked God as it were. Am I my brother's keeper? Is that my job? Have I been given some official authority to look out for my brother? How dare you ask me that question? I have not that responsibility to fulfill, and you are infringing on my rights by asking that. I mean, do you see the arrogance of Cain? To say that's a God. Am I my brother's keeper? I mean, I would have said that to my mom and my dad would have been there. He would have slapped me across the face. You don't talk to your mother that way. He talked to God that way. Again, seizing on this fine point that he has no official duty to keep his brother as it were, it's true in scripture there's not a single verse that ever says a person is to keep another person under ordinary circumstances, all right? No where as a man commanded to do that ordinarily so. We have zookeepers, right, prison keepers. Somebody who has been given a specific authority over another person able in fact was a keeper of sheep. He uses the same word. He was a keeper of sheep, you keep animals. I think the Cain is playing on that idea that his brother was a keeper of sheep. He said, I'm not a keeper of animals. Why should I know where he is? You know, at least a dozen times the Old Testament talks about how God keeps Israel. That he is the one who never slumbers nor sleeps. The keeper of Israel never slumbers nor sleeps scripture says. And you think of the monumental hypocrisy and arrogance of Cain here who knows where his brother is and acts all indignant because God may be asking him something that he feels is not his job. He's so concerned for his own rights and freedoms and yet his brother's blood is not yet cold on the ground. And when God pronounces sentence in verses 11 and 12, which I'm not going to read now but we'll come back to that, you would think Cain would fall on his face. I am not going to die for what I did, which is the just punishment. But what does he do? Verse 13, this again, the way of the wicked, my punishment is greater than I can bear. You're not going to die, you're not going to go to prison, you're not going to be tortured, you're going to live, you're going to build a city, you're going to have children, you're going to have a wife, probably already has her, I believe. And what does he say? My punishment is greater than I can bear. Cain the first victim, the first victim, he's a victim, he murdered his brother in cold blood, he's not given anything near justice and he's all upset that God is being too hard on him. But this is the way of sinful man and the way of wickedness. No remorse, no confession, no concern for his brother. Matthew Henry says this quote, he thinks himself rigorously dealt with when really he is favorably treated and he cries out wrong, listen to this, when he has more reason to wonder that he is not in hell. He should be in wonder that after God speaks to him, he's not in flames. He should be falling down on his face. Thank you, O God. Thank you, thank you for this punishment. But he doesn't because he's wicked and this is the way of the wicked. The wicked only want more pleasure. They only want to get away with their sin. They only want to look good and that's all we see in Cain, nothing of repentance, nothing of the fear of God. Yes, in verse 14, he fears for himself, he fears for his social reputation, he fears for losing God's blessings, that's what it means about being away from God's presence. He knows life is going to be harder for him now, but he has no actual fear whatsoever, or no actual remorse whatsoever that he did wrong. This is the way of the wicked. Secondly, I want you to notice the way of the righteous, I want you to notice the way of the righteous, able becomes the first victim of the world's hatred of God. As Jesus said, if you were of the world, the world would love its own, yet because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you and able experiences that hatred when his brother murders him. The world hates God again because God condemns sin, and therefore the world's going to hate anybody but sides with God that condemns the sin that the world loves. And again, able would have known that his brother was upset with him, look again in verse five, he did not respect Cain and his offering, and Cain was very angry and his countenance fell, you could see it, and able seasoned, and able no sense. And yet I want you to think about something, able never compromises his faith to make Cain feel better. He never says, oh, my brother Cain, I'm so sorry that you're all upset over what I did. Let me not worship God the right way anymore so that you can feel better. You know, oh, able, this is so upsetting to you, I'm such an offense to you. I know the number one sin in the world is to offend people, so I will never offend you again. I will hide my worship in secret so that you don't feel bad anymore. Able doesn't power before Cain. Oh, I'm afraid Cain's going to beat me up. I better stop worshiping God. I better say that Cain's right, I'll come to God by works like Cain did, so he'll feel better. I'll join with him. He'll think I'm more relevant that way, won't he? Able doesn't do anything. He remains a believer in God, which is why Cain has to kill him. If he's going to hold on to his sin and hold on to the fact that he thinks he's a good person, the presence of Able in his life declares that he's wrong. He declares he's unacceptable to God and Cain can't abide that. He has to kill Able. This is what Cain did. And I think this is the great challenge of every age. There's only two people in the world. There is Able, the true church, the invisible church. There is Cain who's still a member of the visible church at this point. He's claiming to be a worshiper of God, but Cain hates Able. Able's temptation is, do I do something to get him to like me? Do I compromise? Do you see what I'm saying? This is what we face. The church in the world, and the world according to scripture, is going to hate God and hate the church. So what do we do? Do we compromise? Do we water it down the gospel? Do we change the faith? Do we do something to get the world to like us? We don't want them to be mad at us, do we? I mean, how can we be relevant? How are they going to respect us if we're doing things they don't like? Should we change it? Do we compromise a little? I think we'll get more of the world in if we can just get them to like what we're doing more. 1 John 2, 15, do not love the world or the things in the world. Listen, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Able had a choice to make. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. The love that we live in a day and age, where so many Christians, so many churches, so many Christian organizations, paraturched ministry schools, whatever, are compromising so that the world is not mad at them, so that the world would like them, so that the world will respect them, so that they can have more influence in the world, all the lies that we tell ourselves. And so many are doing that. Robin and I just drove by a church the other day. They had this big rainbow flag out in their church yard saying, tomorrow, inclusion day, come celebrate with us. You know what that means? Oh, how the world must love that church, but I bet you they are being really effective for the gospel, right? The gospel of sexual sin, that's what they are proclaiming. James has a word for this when we compromise with the world. James chapter 4, adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know, he says, that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Not it might be, not it approaches it, sometimes it is, depends on your situation, friendship with the world is enmity with God. Therefore he says, whoever wants to be a friend of the world, this is still James chapter 4 verse 4, whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. You've got a choice, Christian. You can be friends with that unbeliever, you can be friends with that unbelieving organization or you can be the friend of God, but you cannot be both. Jesus said, a man cannot serve two masters. You will either serve God or self in some way, shape or form, God or the enemy, and that's what scripture teaches. Beloved, we are not to be conformed to this world. Romans chapter 12 verse 2, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. If we're not to be conformed, then we are not to compromise. If we are not to be conformed, then we are not to coward. And if we're not to be conformed, then we're not to go out there and conquer them by our works or by our force or violence as sometimes happens, even among Christians who buy into the other side of things, your works is going to defeat the wicked, and it's really the people that are the enemy. Remember, the Bible doesn't say that. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. That's the true enemy. You can't look at the unbeliever and look at the unbelieving world and say, oh, yes, they're the ones who are making a suffer. Let's go get them. It's the spiritual forces of wickedness. That's why we don't fight with weapons of our car, or our weapons are not carnal, but mighty for carrying down strongholds. We carry it on every argument. We use words. We use the scripture, but we are not to be conformed. We are to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. How do you do that? You've got to get this word into your head every day because the world is bombarding you with other words every day, words that ultimately hate God. And we've got to get the word of God into our minds, into our hearts, because we have a choice. Will we please men or God? Will we fear men or God? Will we hide our faith? Will we water down scripture? Will we change it again? Or will we boldly declare the truth? No, I'm not saying, and I tell my kids this, you know, don't go out of your way to make yourself a target, right? You don't have to be as obnoxious as possible. There's a time to keep your head down, as it were, but you can't compromise your faith. You can't change what you do. Daniel prayed at that window after the eat it went forth. Anyone who prays to anyone other than the emperor will be killed. He didn't change. We don't change. Again, we're not looking to offend people. We want to make Christ the offense. We want to make the word the offense. So we never compromise the word. We never compromise what scripture says. We try to be respectful and polite and love people, but we must live by faith and able does that. Able lived by faith. And let me say it. He died by faith. Hebrews chapter 11 and 4 that we read last week by faith able offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than came. That's the part we noticed. But I want you to listen to the rest of the verse through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. Okay. We looked at that too. Here's the last part. God testifying of his gifts and listen to this. And through it, he being dead still speaks. Able is still alive. He's still alive. God in heaven. But his good works are still alive. We're talking about him this morning about his example, about his courage, about his faith. His works are still producing good fruit for God. His works still speak Scripture says. You know, beloved, there is nothing more noble, more honorable, more heroic than to suffer for Jesus. Able to put a New Testament language fought the good fight. Able kept the faith. Able finished the race. He will receive. Think of it. The first. Mark is strong. Hebrews chapter 11 says this of people like Able. The time would fail to tell of Gideon and Barack and Samson and Jetha and of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became dalliance in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, women received their dead race to life again, all glorious, but also others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had a trial of mockings and of scourging, yes and of chains and imprisonment, verse 37. I'm just reading Hebrews 11, they were stone, they were saw and two, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins being destitute, afflicted, they wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And then it says this, of whom the world was not worthy, beloved when we suffer for Christ. The world is not worthy, we're saying it's better to have Jesus and pain and death than to have all of the pleasures of this world, but not Jesus. We're saying Jesus is worth everything, and that's what Abel did by standing fast, by worshiping God in the face of persecution. This is again the way of the righteous. Third day, I want you to notice the end of the wicked. I want you to notice the end of the wicked. You see this a little bit in verse 10, verse 9, the first part, then the Lord said to Kane where it's Abel, your brother, God knows where Abel is. We know that. He puts the question to Kane here in order that one more time Kane would have a chance to confess his sins. I just, I'm astounded with God's grace, God's gospel grace to Kane at this point. God isn't making Kane the keeper of his brother, Kane said that. God's asking him a question that God already knows the answer to, because again God is giving Kane the chance to say, you know, oh Lord God, I have to say this in a fit of rage, and I know you warned me, but I held onto that anger, and I let it stew, and I even fooled my brother and acted like I was his friend, but I just killed him. He's lying there in the field. I killed him. Oh God, I'm sorry. He has the opportunity because God doesn't come accusing him as a judge. He comes asking him where is Abel, your brother. Kane gets another preaching of the gospel, another chance to confess his sin, and he knows it's sin. God already knows what Kane has done. God's justice is already crying out to punish Kane, verse 10. The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. God hates sin and wickedness, and God hears and God knows the same thing by the wayble of it as a set of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was the cry of the wickedness that came to God from the earth, of the Hebrews and Egypt. It was their cry that came to God of Nabah, who just one man, when Jezebel has murdered and his blood is on the ground, and God says the cry of Nabah's blood comes before me, and they have was judged because of that. Of Ninefah, that wicked city, the cry comes before me, and God was even concerned for their cattle. He says, beloved God doesn't delight in the death of the wicked. He is gracious and merciful, but God is just. He hears that cry. Abel was made in his image, were all made in his image, equally, no human life is more valuable than another. All are equally valuable, and our lives matter, and our pain and our suffering matters, and God hears, and God knows, and God says, I will repay. Beloved, this is the only way I think a Christian who has suffered great injustice cannot take vengeance into his own hands, or can continue to trust God. You know, we don't live in that world, but I read, and I'm sure you do, of Christians who have lost jobs, who have lost homes, wickedly unjustly, who suffered persecution, who have had children taken away from them, who have murdered in front of them, how can they continue to believe in God and live for him, and not take matters into their own hands, and not turn it to bloodshed and bloodshed? The only way they can do it, it seems to me, is to remember what God says in Romans 12. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, vengeance is mine, say, at the Lord, I will repay. That's what God promises, Abel's blood is crying out for justice, crying out for God to avenge, and God will bring perfect justice, but in the meantime he offers came mercy, and if came would have accepted that mercy, if he would have admitted a sin and come to Christ, he would have been saved, and there still would have been justice, because Jesus would have died on the cross to pay for that sin, as he pays for all sin, and God's wrath would have been satisfied for the violence done to Abel, but the cry of Abel's blood is the cry of the law. It's a good cry, it's the cry of righteousness, it's the cry of justice, God is righteous, God is just, he will perfectly satisfy that cry, perfectly, either in the punishment of the wicked himself, or in the punishment of the substitute that God offers to all the wicked. Lord Jesus Christ who dies on the cross for our sins. I want you to contrast Cain's response of, oh it's too hard with David's response in Psalm 51, think of David, when he sins, think of God's judgment on David, all right, Cain, you're not going to be able to be a tiller of the ground anymore, it's not going to bring forth its fruit for you, you're going to be a fugitive in a bag of bond, which in a sense is a natural consequence of what he's done. He has befriended falsely his brother in order to kill him, no one's going to trust Cain again, no one's going to trust him again because of what he did. Of course he's going to always be looking over his shoulder, he's a murderer, it's amazing that he asked God to protect him from murders, and it's even more amazing in the sense that God does, God puts that mark on him, God's going to put a stop to the chain of murders, God doesn't delight in murder. Even though those who would kill Cain would have much more justification for it, God has been merciful to him, so no one has allowed to kill him. God could have killed him, but God didn't, so no one will. So God puts that mark on him that both would protect him, but also would make him an object of horror. You see that mark? And you're like, oh my goodness, that's Cain. And you would run from him, and you're Cain, who is out from the presence of the Lord and is satisfied, is it work? David, when he is judged, David is told by God, your child will die. David is told by God, the sword will never leave your house, because you use the sword. David is told by God that one from your own house, I am raising up against you, and he's going to take your wives, you slept with this man's wife secretly, he's going to sleep with your wives in public. And remember Absalom, his son, fulfills that by setting up a tent on the roof, and has all David's wives come in so that everybody knows they'll never be peace between Absalom, and David to strengthen his army as it were. This is what God said to David, violence in your house for the rest of your days. What does David say? My punishment is too great? No. Psalm 51 verse 4, against you, and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight so that you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge. David in effect is saying, you did right in this judgment, I deserve even more. You're right to bring these judgments in my life. I accept them, I humble myself before you. The end of the wicked, however, is to go out from the presence of the God of God and to be lost because pain does not accept the gospel offer of forgiveness. Fourthly, I want you to notice the end of the righteous, I want you to notice the end of the righteous. You know, Abel's blood cries out for justice, but Jesus blood, according to scripture, cries out for mercy. Hebrews chapter 12, 24, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, listen to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Hebrews is contrasting to bloods, Abel's innocent blood poured out on the ground, crying out for justice. Jesus innocent and righteous blood poured out on the ground, not crying for justice as the choir sang in the anthem, five bleeding wounds he bears, and what do they cry, forgive, forgive. Jesus bore those wounds, Jesus blood on the ground, yet crying, forgive. Cain was cursed from the ground, the ground would no longer yield its fruit for Cain because the ground was more humane than Cain. Cain put human blood on the ground and the ground had the decency to cover it up, and that's what God is saying. Cursor, are you from the ground, the ground, it doesn't even want you anymore. But the end of the righteous beloved is what I want you to notice in this final point. We see all this mercy to Cain, God allowing him to live, God protecting him as it were, assuring him that no one's going to kill him. Yes, he's going to be judged, he's going to be a stranger of vagabond. The word in Hebrew sounds like nod, which is why he goes to live in nod, the place of the rumour, the stranger, the vagabond, what about evil? You ever think about that? Where was God when he was able to die? I could imagine, you know, heard people say this before when some tragedy falls, then where was God? How could God let this happen? What did he do? He approached God rightly. He believed in God. He was a great example. He continued to believe in God when his brother showed how hostile he was towards it. He did nothing, but right, Abel's one of the few people in Scripture who is never said to have sinned. Now we know he did, because everyone sins, but we're not told what he did. Where was God when he was able to die? Is this what you get for coming to God the right way, for worshipping God in a way that pleases him? God just throws you to the wolves. Let's you get murdered? This is the reward, is this what can happen? You know, I mentioned above Abel's example still speaks before us. His works, in other words, still speak, as Scripture says, and what do they say? What is Abel saying in his work? He said, God is worth it. God is worth the hatred of my brother, maybe even the violence of my brother. God is worth it. Remember the gospel promise we got in Genesis 3, 15. The seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent, but his heal will be crushed. Jesus is wounded and bringing salvation to us. Jesus knowingly takes this wound, this wound that causes him to die in order to save us. And beloved, there is no greater honor in this life than to imitate that, than to also be wounded by this world's hatred of God, to walk in the steps of your Savior. There is no more noble, no more honorable, no more glorious thing to do. That's what Abel's calling was, to be the first martyr. When the crowns are handed out, Abel's going to get his crown first. He is the one who was first to take up his cross and follow Jesus, no matter what the world says. You know, if we got rewards from the world for following Jesus, every scandal would be his Christian, but because we're promised persecution. He proves our faith. Abel's witness is amazing to us. He is the first martyr and Jesus himself, 4,000 years later, when he was on the earth, said this. He remembered Abel. This one man who died so long ago, Jesus, Matthew 2335, says to the Pharisees, that on you may come, all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood, listen to this of righteous Abel. How would you like to have Jesus say that about you when he was on the earth? I know, some people say, you know, they live hundreds of years, Cain still gets to live hundreds of years, has a wife, has kids, pleasures of the world, never without anxiety and fear, let me tell you. You know, do you still think that Cain had it better than Abel? Hey, what doesn't get to marry? Maybe he was married, but we're not told that. Doesn't get to have children. Since they lived so much longer, no one by the way in the genealogies before the flood. This is just a little side note, but nobody has ever said no man has ever said to father children younger than the age of 65. That's the youngest father before the Noah's flood. And I think because they lived 100 years, everything is longer. So childhood would have been longer. So probably 65 would have been like 16 for us. So Cain and Abel here bringing their offerings are now adults, as it were. They are worshiping God on their own as it were. They're the first two that are said to do this. They're not coming under mom and dads offerings. They're offering their own. So they're probably 16 or so, they're adults, you know. We know in the time of Jesus, the bar mitzvah was 12, the son of the law, the Jewish boys now responsible for his own worship. So Cain and Abel were probably 65, 70, if they're married as I think they were somewhere around there. Cain lives that long and then he lives hundreds of years later. What happens to Abel? He dies. He's killed. Yeah, what happens to Abel? Paul said to go and to be with the Lord is far better than to be on earth. Abel is the very first person in heaven. Just think of it. Abel goes to heaven. There's God, Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, angels, cherubim, seraphim and Abel. For maybe dozens of years, maybe hundreds of years before another saint dies. I don't think God short-changed Abel. He brought home one of his early servants at a very young age, so that he could live and have him longer. Abel has lived in heaven longer than any other person. If you still think Cain had it better than Abel, who would you rather be now, six thousand years later? Who would you rather be ten million years, beloved God, glorified, Abel, and he will be one of the shining martyrs. When Jesus returns, just remember the least saints worst day in heaven is incomparably greater than the greatest man's best day on earth. First John 2, 17 says this world is passing away in the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever. This is the end of the righteous eternal life, glory from God, no matter what the world does to us. It's worth it. It's worth it. Let's pray. Father, we thank You. For Your goodness, we thank You for the inheritance we have. It is a goodly inheritance. It's more than a plot of land and our own vines and gardens and houses. It's more than the whole world. We get Your presence. The pleasures of heaven in mind has not conceived and I has not seen what You have prepared for those who love You. Our first glance at the glories of heaven will cause us to see everything we've ever seen on the earth as bad dust in comparison. Help us to believe that. Help us to live that way, especially in order for any among us who really are suffering persecution. Let them know You have not forgotten them, but You are giving them a glorious mission and they will be recompensed. We thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.