Book of Dano, Murder 1. Remember that line from Hawaii 5.0? Somehow every single episode of that program ended where these men from the police force would catch the bad guy in the last three or four minutes of the show. And somehow they would always get him. And one would turn to the other and say, Book of Dano, Murder 1. Because obviously the man had just committed murder and was apprehended. And you had the sense that justice was now going to prevail. And because Hawaii 5.0 was on the job that injustice would not ring, but rather justice would. And so Murder 1 was murdering the first degree, cold, bloodthirsty, premeditated, and brutal murder. And folks, that is exactly what we find in today's passages. We continue through our examination of the book of Genesis. We have here not only the first death of a human being, but that death comes as a martyr, as one who died in the faith and for the faith. But that death came as the result of Murder 1. Because in fact, it was Cain who rose up, who slew his brother out of the fierce anger and jealousy in a cold, premeditated murder resulted. So turn with me, if you would, to Genesis chapter 4, as we look at this passage and examine what God would have us to know from it. The first thing that I would like for you to see this morning is the presence of faith enables offering. This is going to be central to the whole of the understanding of what occurs in the passage. The presence of faith enables offering. Say after the initial sin, the original sin, by Adam and Eve, after they had been cast out of the garden, having been judged by God, God had informed them of a sacrificial system that now must prevail. They would learn how to come before God and rightly worship Him now that they had lost their standing as originally righteous and had become the brave and fallen sinners. And so God had instituted ceremonies and religious worship that Adam and Eve and now their children are to follow. Cain enabled offer this sacrifice, and it is not one that they have invented on their own. It's not one that they have devised of their own making, but rather comes as a result of this continued communication and revelation from God Himself. And so it was appropriate on this occasion that offerings would be presented. Adam and Eve Cain enabled and whatever other children there were would have participated in such offerings. Now sometimes when we come to this particular text, we look at it and we take a very simple and actually quite evangelical answer to the problem of what went on here. We say, oh, it's very apparent. What happened that provoked Cain's jealousy and wrath against Abel is that Cain brought a grain offering. Abel brought a blood offering. And we know from the rest of scripture that a blood offering was one that was required by God as an atoning sacrifice. That that blood offering would speak eventually of the coming Messiah and the Lord Jesus Christ. We might actually be jumping ahead a bit in the revelation and the progress of that at least in this case. It may not be that the problem here that resulted in one offering being accepted and the other not being accepted was over blood or not. The text itself tells us that the offering that was presented was an allegiance or a loyalty offering. It wasn't one that necessarily called for blood offerings to be made. And so it could well have been that either offering, it wouldn't have been just fine, whether Cain who offered her grain offering or Abel who offered from the firstlings of his flock, either was probably acceptable to God in this instance because it was a loyalty offering that was being given. And so if it wasn't that, if it wasn't that Cain brought the wrong type of offering, what was it that caused God to indicate to Cain that this offering is not acceptable? I think the text itself gives us an indicator as to what that is. Before if you would look at that, it says Abel also brought of the firstling, the first Abel born of this flock and of their fat and the Lord respected Abel and his offering. The key to this text may well be the fact that Abel had a relationship with God by faith. You see Abel's name, his person, his being, is first introduced before the nature of the offering. It was Abel in and of himself as a man of faith who enjoyed a relationship with God. Therefore, the worship that he gave, and in this case the sacrifice in particular, was acceptable because it came from a man who was in a faith relationship with God. For you say God will regard no works, no worship, no sacrifices, no offerings from one who is outside of a relationship with him. And we get that indicator from the text as well. In verse five we see that it says, but he did not respect Cain nor his offering. Cain at this point in his life is apparently outside of a saving relationship with God. Cain is not coming to God by faith, by faith in even those very early promises that had been given to his mother and to his father. And so Cain who came not by faith but by his own works into the presence of the Lord, no matter what offering he would have given on that day, it would not have been acceptable because a person must first be acceptable in the sight of God. And only then do we ask the question about the nature of the worship and the service and the praise that is offered. And so in parallel fashion, we see that God first commends Abel in his person who he is and then the nature of the sacrifice is accepted. Cain on the other hand is not approved by God. And as a result, no offering that he would make on that day would have been acceptable. Now if that is not readily apparent from this particular text, it is found elsewhere in scripture and indicated to us exactly what this is all about. In Matthew 23, verse 35, it is Jesus himself who says that it is the blood of the righteous one Abel whose blood was spilled that day. Jesus himself in Matthew 23 tells us that the nature of Abel's relationship with God was one of righteousness. As Jesus is speaking to the hypocrites, to the scribes and to the Pharisees on this occasion, listing a long litany of woes to these people who are themselves hypocrites. Jesus contrasts them with Cain and himself with Abel. And Abel, the righteous one, is the one who finds standing in favor and approval from God. But you woe unto you, you hypocrites, you scribes and Pharisees, you, you are like Cain. You do not come to God by faith, but rather in your own standing and works. The author of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 4, also tells us that it was by faith that Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain. Very clearly delineating that the presence of the Lord is safeguarded by faith. Abel Cain in faith, but Cain did not. First, John, chapter 3, verse 12 says, not as Cain, who was of the evil one, who slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. Consistently in the New Testament, the authors as they reflect back on Genesis, chapter 4, very clearly distinguish. Abel is righteous, therefore his sacrifice is accepted. Cain is not righteous, he is a hypocrite, he is not in a relationship by faith to God, and therefore the worship that he offers is unacceptable. Jude 11, again, we read woe to them for they have gone the way of Cain. And so at the very beginning of biblical history, we see at this incident soon after Eden that there now is a distinction. There are two humanities that are beginning to form. There is the humanity that will flow from Cain. Those men and women who down through biblical history and through today and unto the end of the world will be of Cain. There are those who reject, they, there are those whose offering is not acceptable to God. There are those whose sins will not be forgiven, who stand under judgment and condemnation. Then there is the line of Abel. Those who would call him a spiritual father. He stands as the head of that righteous line of people who by faith look to the coming Messiah, who by faith are able to offer acceptable worship unto God. And so the Bible is absolutely replete with what I call binary language, either or, where either children of Cain or children of Abel, where either children of light or children of darkness, where either righteous or unrighteous, there is the save and there is the loss, there is the sheep and there are the goats. The biblical language from this point on conforms to the two humanities which will flow forth and the book of Genesis opens up to us, the difference between these two humanities this morning. If you come and offer acceptable worship to God, you come in the lineage of Abel. The one who that day offered to God, a sacrifice that was pleasing, not because of the particular type of sacrifice, but because of his relationship with God. And while Adam may be the father of the human race, Cain becomes the spiritual father of a race that continues today, those who are perishing outside of faith.
As Mike has brought to our attention nearly every week, as we have studied Genesis, we have to ask the question, why is this important? Why did Moses include this, the first murder? And why did Moses when he was writing this? Include the particular stories that make up the composition of Genesis. As Mike has rightly said, the people of Israel are coming up out of bondage in Egypt. They have been there oppressed for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. They are experiencing the very first taste of freedom. But they're still wandering in the wilderness and they're getting ready to cross over into the promised land. They're a pilgrim people. God is beginning to bring shape and definition and organization to them as a nation. He is raising up leaders. He is reinstituting his law and proper worship. And as the people of God are being formed into a covenant community, that which they need to know is that right standing with God is predicated by faith. And if this entire sacrificial system that Moses and Aaron are now implementing among them will avail them nothing if there is not faith that precedes the worship and the service. And so consistently in these early chapters of Genesis, to make the point repeatedly that as God was working with a first family of people and now Moses is saying as he is working with us as a first nation of people, faith must be resident in the hearts of those who approach God.
Another truth that derives from this must also be mentioned this morning and that is to be aware of hypocrisy and insincere worship. For you see, Jesus uses Cain as a model of hypocrisy. External participation easily counterfeits. What others do from sincere acts of faith. This morning you may be here this morning as a genuine hypocrite. You could come and you could conform your worship to that of those who come by faith. Externally, you could go through all of the same motions that everyone else in the sanctuary goes through. You could easily be mistaken as one who is righteous. But this morning, if you were a hypocrite, external conformity will not gain you merit before the Lord Jesus Christ and before God. Your worship this morning must be offered from a sincere heart and from a life of faith. This passage would commend us to test our hearts and our motives to examine the nature and the content and the object of our faith, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we come this morning by sincere trusting Him? Do we know Jesus Christ and is our service given over in honor of Him? For you see, God looks on the inner man. God is not impressed with external conformity that would impress any of us. But rather because he looks in the inner heart, God who is the searcher of hearts knows the type of worship that we offer and he knows whether there is faith or not resident in your life. The story of the public and the sinner is a wonderful New Testament illustration of that very dynamic at work. In the city of Pittsburgh, there's a rather large and enormously impressive Gothic cathedral. It's called East Liberty Presbyterian Church. But it has another name. It was just about a mile or so down the road from the seminary that I attended and we never called it East Liberty Presbyterian Church to the church that seats several thousand people built at the turn of the century by Andrew Mellon. What it is known is Mellon's Fire Escape. Mellon's Fire Escape. Now I don't know the Mr. Mellon or his family he has long since perished. But apparently even at the time, there was a question as to the sincerity of Mr. Mellon's faith when he gave one of the largest Gothic cathedral churches in the land to this particular congregation. And even the people in his day thought was rather suspicious and so the moniker has been attached to it for a hundred years. This is Mellon's Fire Escape. It's really not known as East Liberty Presbyterian Church. You see people can go to great lengths. They can do wonderful things. They can do impressive service. But unless the heart is engaged by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, even the building of one of the most magnificent cathedrals you would ever enter would be in vain. And so this morning I would encourage you to look on the inside this morning to ask the discerning questions about the sincerity of the worship that you will offer even this day, the worship that you offer through your music, through your prayers, through your confessions of faith, through your offerings, and this week through the service that you will render through acts of charity and mercy. But there is another and more startling truth contained in this passage. It is that Cain showed a hatred and a contempt for God. Cain was provoked from anger to jealousy and to murder. But Abel was not his only target. God was the target in the death of Abel. As Calvin comments, people like Cain, betray the venom that is in their minds. For they not only complain against God, but break forth in manifest fury, so that if they were Abel, they would gladly tear God down from heaven and kill him. Not readily apparent in this passage that Cain's anger was expressed primarily against God. But I do believe that is the case. Yes, he was jealous of his brother. Yes, his brother's sacrifice was accepted. Yes, it was apparent to him. But what is apparent is that the anger and the fury that Cain felt that day was only in a secondary sense measured against his brother. His real fury, his contempt and his anger was projected against the Lord God Almighty. And because God had not made himself vulnerable to Cain on that day, Cain turned to the one who bore the image of God and slew him. Well, that may sound harsh, but in fact, that is the sentiment of the unregenerate heart. If Cain could have gotten his hands on God, if God had come down and made himself vulnerable that day, someplace east of Eden in a field, Cain would have gone after him with the same fury that he attacked his own brother. Yes, he was jealous of his brother, but he had a contempt for God. And so the thought went through his mind. Kill Abel, and there may be no other godly people to issue forth from that line. If I kill Abel, that will stop the godly line. Kill Abel, and I will eradicate the image of God in man. Kill Abel, and I will never again be provoked to jealousy and wrath because of the acceptance of his sacrifice over mine. Kill Abel, and silence the earthly reminder to live a life of godliness and faithfulness. You may resist this point, but I am fully convinced that if God had made himself vulnerable to Cain on that day, Cain's initial wrath would have been poured out against him. It was only God's inaccessibility that prevented it. Now, to make matters worse, the young righteous still hate God and have a continuing contempt of him. As we move through the Old Testament, we come to Psalm 2, God in His own words tells us what it is that occupies the minds of the unregenerate on earth in that Psalm God looks down from heaven. And he says, as he peers over the precipice of heaven, he looks down and he sees the nations all the men and women conspiring. What are they conspiring about? They are conspiring as to how they might drag God down from heaven, bring him to earth and they're deal with them in their contempt. They have pointed every arrow, every bow, every spear they have at heaven, all in vain, but all in an effort to pull God down from his seat of heavenly power. And God asks the question, why are all these people conspiring against me? Why are the men and women the unrighteous, why are the nations doing this collectively? It is because the unregenerate hate God. They will not have God in their thinking. They will not have God ruling over them. They will not have God as a constant reminder of their unrighteousness. They are the continuation of the line of pain. And by the time of David, that hostility has been so expressed that in that Psalm God looks at all of humanity and says, what are the nations doing? The Psalm goes on to tell us that he mocked them, that he laps in derision at the prospect that they could actually pull him down, that he would ever make himself vulnerable to them. And so he has a mocking derision of the unregenerate. We continue on in biblical history. Jesus going about healing, going about teaching, going about proclaiming the kingdom of God, going about revealing himself as the promised Messiah. And what does Jesus get in return for that? Conspiracy theories. All the hypocrites, the continuing line of came, those whose contempt has been bottled up. They now have the opportunity to express that hatred unto the Lord Jesus Christ. For you see, at first they think that he's nearly a blasphemer, that he is merely someone claiming to be God, not God himself, but claiming to be God. That would warrant death. And biblically it should have. If one was not God, but claimed to be so. That's what they thought Jesus was doing. Little did they know until perhaps at the end, that this in fact was God and that it was not a blasphemous comment for Jesus to announce that he was the Messiah. It was truth. Throughout the three year public ministry of Jesus describes in the Pharisees and the hypocrites the line of came at everything they could to conspire to kill him.
You know the only reason Jesus lasted three years was because of the overarching protecting grace of God. God protected Jesus is from those who very early on would tear him from heaven. Those who would require his life because his righteousness so showed up their hypocrisy that they could not stand to be in his presence. And so just change the names and it's the same story. The canites looking at Jesus able, the righteous one out of sheer jealousy seeking to kill one of their own in order to face the image of God. The Lord Jesus Christ in the end was killed by these people. He was murdered. Finally God took away his protecting grace. And those who for three years had sought to kill him finally had their opportunity and did so. And I would contend to you today that there is a continuing sense in which violence against God and his people continues. The unrighteous will not have God in their thinking. The unrighteous will not have God underlifts. They will not have God in their writing and in their creations and in their actions. And Christians continue to be the ones who because of next of kin are the object of wrath and fury from the un would generate. And I would say to you this morning that it is only because of the common grace of God that the situation is not any worse than it is. My friends never, never underestimate the common grace of God in preventing now and every day what came did on that occasion and what the people in Israel did to the Lord Jesus Christ. Without common grace and the protecting and loving care of God for his people and his world without the institutions and authorities that he has assembled to safeguard the continuance of humanity. This world would be a very ugly and brutal place. The whole rest of Genesis will tell us what the world looked like. God has common and protecting grace. It was not as strong and as applied as it is now. Barely a few chapters later and God has arrived at the place where he is so fed up and disgusted with the rise of evil that he eliminates mankind through universal blood. Barely a short period of time later, mankind has come back and the tower of babble is yet one more expression of how mankind wants to get to heaven there to unseat God from his rightful throne. And the story continues, we have Sodom and Gomorrah where God is prepared to absolutely decimate entire cultures and nations because of the rise of ungodliness and sin. We are very fortunate today that common grace seems to prevail more than it did in those early periods in the book of Genesis. Thank God for the common grace that prevails today. And finally, I would say this, I'd like you to see in this passage that Abel's blood calls for vengeance and for justice. Cain had been warned by God not to give in to sin when Abel in his fury was contemplating what he would do to retaliate. God addresses him in our passage today and says, Cain, don't do it. I know what is in your mind. Sin crouches like a predator at your door. If you open that door, a crack, sin will pounce on you and you will do those thoughts that you're even now contemplating. Cain, don't do it. Yet in a premeditated fashion, Cain does kill his brother. God confronts Cain. God says, where is Abel? There are many reminiscent passages in this as we found in Genesis 3 where God comes to Adam and Eve and says, where are you? Many of the same questions. Many of the same responses. The patterns are duplicated, like Father, like Son. And God comes to Cain and says, you know, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. This passage should afford us a great consolation for it tells us that God cares about injustice, that God cares about how we are treated. God cares for us in such a way that spilled blood cries out to him and his ears which are attentive in heaven here. In fact, the scriptures tell us that, God hears every injustice, every injustice that occurs. That God's ear is attentive to the poor and to the oppressed, to all those who have injustice perpetrated against them. My friends, make no mistake. God, the righteous judge, the holy judge, the judge of all the earth, the judge who will do what is right, hears every cry of injustice that is offered. Even if it comes from spilled blood and God will. Make a recompense. There will be a day of reckoning when all the injustice of the world, beginning with able and continuing through today, will be accounted for. Now, justice, you see, is something that is for Christians a double-edged sword. For on the one hand, we very often feel the injustice of the unrighteous world. We often feel injustice and we cry out to God for justice, but you see, if justice is all that we cry for,
then on that day of reckoning, God is going to require of us to account for all the injustices that we have perpetrated. For you see, it is not just that we have had injustices that against us, we have actively perpetrated injustice. And so if on that last day, that day of reckoning, it is a day only of justice, then it is a double-edged sword. Because yes, God will make right all those things that have been done unfairly against you. But he will also call you on that day to account for each and every time that you unfairly and unrighteously and unjustly did something to another. The Bible tells us on that day that the people who stand before the bar of God would wish that mountains would fall on, that they could hide in such a fashion so as to escape being called before the bar of God. Because if justice alone is what occurs there, it is a double-edged sword. The New Testament's lesson this morning, from Hebrews which was not read in the service, from Hebrews chapter 12 verses 22 and 24. We hear these words from the writer to Hebrews. That not only will Abel's blood cry out, but that Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, his sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel, the blood speaks of grace. Isn't this a wonderful conclusion to the story of Cain and Abel? That the New Testament writer in Hebrews very mindful of the spilled blood of Abel, very mindful of the cries for justice, goes on to tell the covenant community that there is another spilled blood and that spilled blood is a better blood because it is the blood of Jesus Christ, the covenant mediator. And that spilled blood does not call out for justice the rhetoric cries out for grace. My friends, the hope of the gospel, that which I want you to grab hold of today, by faith to apprehend Jesus, by faith, to hear the cry of the Lord Jesus Christ's blood that by grace through faith you may be saved, that you might be spared that bar of justice where all of your acts will be called into account. But that Jesus whose blood is better than the blood of Abel because a cries for a better thing mercy would be applied to your life. Moses is well aware that the children of Israel need to come by faith. The New Testament is well aware that we need to come by faith. And yes, it is a good thing to know that God is attentive to the cries of Abel's blood. But my friends, it is a glorious thing to know that the blood of Jesus Christ is a better blood that it cries out a more gracious response. And I would encourage you by faith today to continue in your worship as we come now to this, the table of the Lord. Let us pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning and we would pray the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that it would be shed and shed for us. We pray that we would be cloaked not with mountains so as to hide us, but that we might be cloaked with a very robe of righteousness which is yours to give. And so, Father, we ask that we would come by faith this day and that the worship which we offer would be pleasing and acceptable in your sight through Christ our Lord, Amen.