Abel Still Speaks

[00:00:02] Lord, we pray that as we continue reading in your word, now, hearing your word, that we would hear your voice in it and that we would follow after you. We thank you, Lord, for your holy spirit, who was at work in inspiring these texts and is still at work illuminating our hearts us that we might see and understand and believe and follow and live after the image of the one whom has saved us. Lord, we ask that you would bless your word to us tonight. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:00:45] Please remain standing as we turn to Hebrews, chapter eleven. [00:00:51] We'll read one verse there. And then we're going to turn back to Genesis and read a few verses in chapter four. [00:01:06] So first, Hebrews eleven, verse four. [00:01:17] By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous God, commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. [00:01:34] And then let's turn to Genesis, chapter four. [00:01:56] Genesis, chapter four, verses one through twelve. [00:02:05] Now, Adam knew eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And again she bore his brother Abel. Now, Abel was a keeper of sheep, and cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of the firstborn, of his flock and of their fat portions. And the lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. [00:02:40] So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. [00:03:01] Cain spoke to Abel, his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. [00:03:09] Then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother? He said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? And the Lord said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and wanderer on the earth. [00:03:39] May God bless his word to us. Please be seated. [00:04:01] So, as we turn to this first account of faith in Hebrews, chapter eleven and verse four. We begin with Abel, and it's a good place to begin. Because he is the first of this generation after the fall. The first of those who were living who had to put their faith in God. Faith after the fall, faith. And looking forward to a savior. [00:04:36] Cain as well, had an opportunity and a call to place his faith in the God who made him the God who made his parents, the God who had saved them from their own sin. [00:04:51] And what we read in Hebrews, chapter four. And in the story found the story behind this found in Genesis four, hebrews eleven, verse four is first, this. [00:05:06] The author describes Abel in this way. He says, by faith, abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. [00:05:17] This is the first thing he did by faith. [00:05:21] The second thing we read about his faith is at the end of that verse when we say, and through his faith, though he died, he still speaks something about the way in which Abel trusted the Lord brought about these results. The first of it was a sacrifice that was more acceptable than Cain's and for which Abel was commended. And the second was this still speaking that happens after he died. [00:05:54] So, to understand this, we do consider Genesis four and what happens here. But we could start even just a little bit further back. In Genesis, chapter three, verse 15, this is where we read this, a curse. As the Lord speaks to the serpent, he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between her offspring and your offspring. And her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. [00:06:29] So we have two offspring mentioned, right? [00:06:34] But it's not snakes. And humans, as much as some of you may not like snakes, this is a different offspring that is mentioned here. [00:06:45] There is the seed of the woman, and there is the seed of the serpent. [00:06:53] There is those who we could call children of Satan and those who we can call children of Eve. [00:07:03] What is the difference between these two? It's a spiritual difference. It's a spiritual offspring that will happen. This is not angels against men or demons against mankind. [00:07:19] What we see here is that the Lord says, is that there will be these two houses, two kingdoms, two cities, one opposed to the Lord, one fighting against the Lord, one that is fighting against him and his beloved. And the other the ultimate victor. [00:07:45] The other offspring ultimately centered. First generalized offspring, but then centered in one person. A he. [00:07:54] He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. [00:08:00] In this verse, we have essentially the whole history of the rest of the world projected forward. [00:08:09] A battle has begun. [00:08:11] Two offsprings, two families, two kingdoms will be at war against one another. And we know the ending right from the beginning. [00:08:21] The ending is that the offspring of Eve, a chosen, special anointed child will bruise the head of the serpent, ultimately bringing a mortal wound, a downfall, a crushing blow to Satan and all of his kingdom and all of his children, all who belong to him. [00:08:43] However, it will not be without suffering. Satan will bruise the heel of the one who ultimately has victory. [00:08:54] The victory that will be had over Satan will not be an easy one. It will be one that will involve suffering. It will involve hurt. And as we will see in our story, the events that soon follow after this, it involves even death sometimes. [00:09:14] So then that brings us to Genesis four, and we see the development here among the children of Adam and Eve, the development of these two offspring. [00:09:29] First, there is Cain and there is Abel. [00:09:34] We see Eve's praise, or maybe it's a confession of faith, when she says, I've gotten a man with the help of the Lord. [00:09:44] She is a believer in the promise that she has been given. She's a believer in the one who has told her, you will not die, but you will cause life will come from you, and you will be saved from that. [00:10:04] And so the Lord delivers, so to speak. The Lord fulfills his promise, and she gives birth to man, a man with the help of the Lord. [00:10:19] Is this the offspring? Right? Is this the one who will crush the head of the serpent, their enemy, who tricked them and deceived them and brought them away from the Lord? [00:10:33] And then a second child is born, a second born Abel. [00:10:39] And we have now two sons. [00:10:41] We read that Abel was a keeper of the sheep and cain a worker of the ground. [00:10:47] The next words are interesting in verse three, in the course of time. [00:10:52] One way to translate that is to say, in the end of time or at the end of time. [00:11:00] It's an interesting phrase. Perhaps it just means at the end of some time, sometimes that word sum is added to indicate at the end of a certain number of days, such and such things happened. [00:11:14] One commentator suggested that maybe this is the end of a week, a Sabbath day, at which the brothers are coming to worship together before the Lord. But perhaps there is a kind of eschatological note here, a sense that here at the beginning of the Bible, we're already at the end. [00:11:36] At the end of time, Cain brought to the Lord an and of course, this isn't the end of time, but what we see here is very similar to what will come. There will be this judgment between two houses, a judgment between the faithful and the unfaithful. One will be commended. One will be judged as unfaithful and not commendable this kind of judgment is what happens here. First, before that judgment, we read that Cain brings to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. [00:12:18] So far. Perhaps we'll come back to thinking about this in a moment. So good. [00:12:24] He comes to the Lord. He does not come to an idol. He comes to the one who made him, to the one who is sustaining and preserving him. And he brings him a gift, an offering, an act of worship. [00:12:40] Abel also brings of the firstborn of his brings something. He brings the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. [00:12:50] What do we come to see about these two offerings? Well, it's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. In verse five, we read that for Cain and his offering, the Lord had no regard. And then at the end of verse four, the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. [00:13:12] So, of course, we all wonder, I wonder why one and not the other, and all kinds of explanations have been offered for this. [00:13:22] Let me suggest one possibility and then another, which I think are the best. [00:13:30] One possibility is that Abel knew what appropriate sacrifices were, that they both knew in advance what appropriate sacrifices were. The Bible, of course, does not recount every single moment of history. It's certainly possible that the Lord had given, had told them, had taught them about proper sacrifices before this moment, even though we don't read it, even though it's not recorded. [00:14:01] One reason to think that that's possible is that we see Noah making distinctions between clean and unclean animals even before the law is given, which identifies clean and unclean animals. So how does he know that? It's a good question. [00:14:19] Perhaps, like Cain and Abel, all of these people were taught of the Lord. They were taught what proper sacrifices were and were expected to fulfill those. [00:14:30] Another possible reason to think that these two brothers knew what the right thing to do was, and one did it and the other failed, is that at the end of the giving of the curses, in chapter three, in verse 21, we read about a death that happens. [00:14:55] You remember this? In Genesis 321, it says, and the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them. [00:15:05] Where did these skins come from? Well, likely animal skins. Right. These are animals were cut and sacrificed for a particular purpose that we read about here. What is it? The clothing of the Lord. The Lord clothes Adam and Eve, where before they were experiencing what? Shame, nakedness, guilt, the effect of sin. The effect of the curse was a problem. And the Lord solves this problem for them. He solves the effects or answers the effects of the curse by doing what? [00:15:44] Shedding blood and providing, covering a theme that comes up in the sacrifices and ultimately in Christ, whose blood covers us. We read in Colossians three, I believe we read it last week in the morning service, that we are to put on Christ as God's chosen and beloved ones. The sense of he is the one who clothes us in his righteousness. And how that happens is, of course, through the shedding of his blood on the cross. [00:16:16] All that to say that perhaps this verse in chapter 321 is maybe additional proof that Cain and Abel knew about sacrifices. There was a sense that after the curse, after they had come under the curse of death, there needed to be a substitute. There needed to be the shedding of blood. Sin had to be atoned for, and so Cain acts appropriately. [00:16:48] Now, let's say for a moment that you find that unconvincing or maybe only slightly certain. [00:16:57] That's fine. I think time will tell. But consider this. [00:17:03] Let's imagine another scenario in which Cain and Abel had no idea, right? Let's imagine a scenario where they both are just doing what they know to do, right? One's a sheep, a shepherd. The other is a worker of the ground. One brings his things. The other brings his things. Okay? They both come before the Lord. [00:17:27] Let's say there's innocence, perhaps in knowledge, or we could say ignorance in what the Lord wants. [00:17:35] What happens next? [00:17:37] It's very clear. The Lord had regard for Abel in his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. [00:17:48] At this point, the game totally changes. If it was different beforehand, if Cain had brought the sacrifices before this moment in ignorance, there's no ignorance now. [00:18:02] The Lord has made it clear that he has regard for one and not for the other, and they both knew it. We know this because of Cain's reaction. Cain was very angry, and his face fell. [00:18:20] Let me ask you, is that the proper reaction when the Lord says, this is how I want you to worship me, to get really angry, very angry, and have your face fall and turn away from the Lord? [00:18:38] That is not the heart of someone who has faith. That is not the heart of someone who loves the Lord. When the Lord says, here's how I want you to worship me, we say, yes, lord. Happy to do so, lord. Pleased to serve. Thank you, Lord, because our hearts are filled with praise for him. We don't want to hurt him, malign him, dishonor him. We want to love him and express that love. [00:19:08] We do this on a human level. Right? If someone says to you, I don't really like hugs. You don't just keep hugging them over and over and over you say, oh, no problem. [00:19:20] How can I show you my love? How can I show you my affection? That's the heart of love, isn't it? And where does love come? It comes from faith. It comes from trusting in the Lord and who he is and what he wants. Cain does not have faith. [00:19:36] That's made evident in his reaction. [00:19:40] Instead, he does what Satan does. He does what the offspring of Satan do. He seeks to destroy the true worship of God, to fight against those who would seek to love and to worship the Lord. He seeks to set up his own kingdom, his own plans, his own ideas, over and against the one true God. [00:20:09] And that's what he does. [00:20:11] He goes so far as to go and speak to his brother Abel, and then to kill him. [00:20:19] In this way, Abel is rightly thought of as the first christian martyr. [00:20:25] He's rightly thought of for he exercises faith. He puts his faith in the Lord, and as a result of it, he dies. [00:20:35] He dies not because he was being Honri and antagonistic, not because he was trying to stir up a fight. Interestingly, Cain's the one who has the prominent spot in the history or the accounting here, right? [00:20:51] Abel's hardly here, and yet it's Abel's voice that ultimately will speak the loudest. [00:21:01] Abel's blood crying from the ground. [00:21:07] And now you are cursed from the ground, verse eleven says, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. [00:21:19] So when we think about all of these things, what do we conclude about the nature of faith? [00:21:26] I'm turning back to Hebrews now. Hebrews eleven four. [00:21:30] Well, first we read that it was by faith that Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. [00:21:38] That's why it happened. That's what happened. That's where his heart was at. And through that faith he was commended, as righteous. As the scriptures say, the righteous shall live by faith. [00:21:53] This reminds us of a very important thing that the children of the evil one often forget. John Owen makes this point in his commentary, in reminding us that God's commendation is better than any kind of worldly life you can have. [00:22:12] We don't often think of it, or at least I'll talk about myself. I don't think of this enough to truly value the commendation of the Lord above everything, to love him and serve him and worship him, to be close to him, to be in his presence as being more important than even our lives in this world. [00:22:37] Abel understood that sometimes we think about God's commendation, his approval of us, his love for us, as kind of a bonus, like a plus. There's my life, which I go, and that's either up or down, good or bad. And then on top of it, I'm loved by the Lord. [00:22:55] That's not how we should think about things. [00:22:59] To be loved by the Lord, to receive the commendation of God, to be declared righteous through faith, to be worked in by the Lord, that's everything. [00:23:10] It's not a sidebar benefit that we get if x, y, and z happened. It is the thing. It's the everything. [00:23:20] And Abel received that through faith. That's one of the reasons Abel's story is really exciting, not because he died, but because he received the commendation of God. [00:23:35] He received the Lord's commendation. [00:23:39] And on top of that, we can add this second point that the author of Hebrews makes, that even in death, the Lord uses his servant by faith or through his faith. Though he died, he still speaks. [00:23:58] Some people think about this as referring to his fame. The fame of Abel continues to go out into the world, and that's certainly true. The Lord has used his servant in this way, another kind of commendation as well. [00:24:18] But the way that the Dwayne Genesis four talks about it is the way the author will talk about it later in Hebrews chapter twelve. [00:24:28] It seems that the blood crying out is more the focus, that even after his death, Abel still spoke. In some sense, the shedding of his blood was a kind of crying out for justice. [00:24:46] Now, we're not saying here that blood has a soul or something like that, but the same sense in which we normally mean it, that when bad things happen, when blood is shed, there is a kind of cry from it. In a sense, it becomes a symbol of the injustice, a symbol of the things that need to be made right, and sometimes a testimony to both the evil that was done and the thing that needs to be made right. You hear it in phrases like, I have blood on my hands. Right? It's not just a statement about, well, they're a little dirty, or I just want you to notice the color difference. Right. It's a statement about justice. It's a statement about guilt. It's a statement about the need for things to change. [00:25:40] We have stories like this in a sense as well. And the way that the telltale heart or the various murders that happen, right, where there's this sense in which it affects us. [00:25:55] When murder happens, when injustice happens, when the Lord's people are persecuted, there is this heartache that happens and a sense of guilt and a sense of urgency about things needing to be made right. [00:26:17] That urgency looks to the Lord in faith. [00:26:22] The shedding of the blood looks to the Lord for the justice he promises to bring for victory over the evil one, for setting things right. [00:26:34] We read this in revelation. [00:26:38] When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God. And for the witness they had borne, they cried out with a loud voice, o sovereign lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? [00:26:59] Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. [00:27:16] When we think about the blood of Abel and the beginning of this history of antagonism, of war between the children of God and the children of Satan, as we think about that and as we think about Abel's blood and his example and his life and the Lord's using it, it points us in a direction, doesn't it? It encourages us and calls us to a certain kind of life, a life that values the commendation of God more than anything else, a life that values the worship of the Lord and puts our hope in his promise more than anything else. [00:27:59] Cain obviously wasn't that offspring, and neither was Abel. But Abel does point the way forward to the one who would come, who would shed his blood, our lord and savior, for the ultimate salvation and head crushing victory over the evil one that ultimately comes. [00:28:21] And the Lord brings that. And the Lord is victorious, and he rises again from the dead, and he sits down at the right hand of God, the father almighty. [00:28:32] And he will come again to judge the living and the dead. [00:28:38] Our faith, our hope, is in him. [00:28:43] And it is in him to such a degree that we too can shed our blood if necessary for his sake. And know that we will receive the commendation of God and eternal life. [00:28:57] Let's put our faith in him. Let's pray. [00:29:03] Our heavenly Father, we thank you for brother Abel, for Father Abel, and for the many others who have come before us to show us the way. Witnesses testifying signposts all along the way of the timeline of human history, saying, this way to the Lord. This way to the Lord. [00:29:25] Let us learn to trust you as you have revealed yourself in the world, as your promises have been unfolded from age to age. [00:29:38] Lord, we ask that you would help us to look to the offspring who did come and who did crush the head of the serpent and who will one day cast him into a lake of sulfur and fire. Forever and ever that he may no more torment you and your children. [00:29:57] Lord, we ask that as you reign supreme above him, untouched, unchangeable, infinitely powerful, unthreatened. That you would watch over us. And that though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, that you would protect us and keep us. Watch over us. And even in our deaths, Lord, when necessary, we ask that your word would be heard. [00:30:26] Keep us strong, Lord. Keep us faithful. Help us to see more and more of the strength and salvation and victory of our savior. Her. We pray this in his name. Amen.