Abel's Faith

Hebrews 11, verse number four is where we are today. We've looked at the essence of faith, and now we're gonna look at all the examples of faith as the heroes of faith are opened up to us in the book of Hebrews, the 11th chapter, verses four and following.

In the first three examples, all come before the flood. Abel, as well as Enoch, and Noah. Why? Simply because these people that the writer of Hebrews is addressing need to know that faith is something that happened from the very beginning. And it's lasted all throughout the men of old until the present. So we're able to learn about these men of faith, these women of faith, as they live for the glory and honor of God. And it's remarkable because with Abel, it says that though he's dead, yet he speaks.

And that would be true of all the examples in the 11th chapter of Hebrews because they're all dead. And they all speak. You've heard the phrase, dead men tell no tales. That's true in pirate movies, but it's not true in the scriptures. Because dead men do tell tales. Dead men do tell the truth about life and death. And all these people in Hebrews who have died all speak to you and me today. And today we look at Abel.

A man who lived 6,000 years ago speaks to you and me today. What happened in Abel's life speaks to you and me on how we are to live a life of faith every single day. That's because God's word is living. It's powerful. It's relevant. It goes across all cultures, all time zones, because God's word applies to every period of time across all of life. That's the way God's word is. And so we're able to learn about genuine faith. And it begins, Hebrews 11, with the fourth person of the human race. His name is Abel.

Which begs the question, why not use Adam? Why not use Eve? Why move to Abel? Didn't Adam and Eve have faith? Well, the question for that resides in the fact that if faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, that would not apply to Adam and Eve, because they saw the living God. They walked with the living God. They were created by God in paradise. God walked with them in the cool of the day. They weren't trusting in what they did not see. They saw the shekinah glory of God.

They walked with him. They talked with him every single day. But Abel, Cain, they were the offspring of Adam and Eve, and they were born outside of paradise, outside of Eden. So they become the illustration of what it means to have genuine faith, to believe in that which you do not see, but trust that God will accomplish all that he says. That's why it begins with Abel. And for us to understand verse number four, we'll have to understand Genesis chapter four. So we're gonna read both of those today.

Hebrews 11 verse four says, "'By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous. God, testifying about his gifts and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.'" To understand Hebrews 11 four, we must journey back to the book of beginnings, Genesis chapter four. So if you got your Bible, turn back with me to Genesis chapter four, and hopefully we'll be able to unveil for you this morning some things that maybe you do not know, but things you do need to know.

It's the story of Cain and Abel. You pretty much probably know the story. But do you know the meaning of Cain's name? And do you know the meaning of Abel's name? Probably not. Cain's name means to get or to acquire. And there could have been something in the mind of Eve that thought, now that I've acquired a son, now that I've gotten a son, maybe this son, which I have received, which I have acquired, is the seed of Genesis 3.15. We don't know that. Maybe she thought that. Why? Because she named him Cain, which means to get.

What she received, she received from God. Psalm 127 tells us that children are a gift from the Lord. You have children, they've been given to you by God. God gave you your child or your children. However many you might have or don't have, they are gifts from the Lord, right? And so Cain's name means to get, to acquire. Abel's name means breath. It's translated over 30 times in the book of Ecclesiastes by the term vanity, empty. In other words, the children you get live but a very brief breath of time.

Nobody lives forever. God was sending a message to Adam and Eve. He was sending a message to the entire world that if you have a child, you get him from me. But you possess them for a very brief time, not forever. And of course, if you read through the book of Genesis, you begin to realize that people's life expectancy became less and less and less with the succeeding generations of the depravity of man. That's what the beautiful chapter five of Genesis is all about, that he was born and he begot so-and-so and he died, he died, he died.

Kept going off, people just kept dying. Why? Because life is for a very brief moment. Never lasts forever. And so Cain and Abel set the tone for society. You have a child, he's from the Lord. He gives you a child. That child will live for a very brief time in comparison to all of eternity. So you must prepare them to live in light of that. It's best that my understanding would be that Adam and Eve would do that with Cain and Abel. So let's pick up the narrative in Genesis chapter four, verse number one, now the man had relations with his wife Eve and she conceived and gave birth to Cain.

And she said, I have gotten a man child with the help of the Lord. Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and for his offering, he had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.

Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it. Cain told Abel, his brother, and it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? He said, what have you done?

The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you. You will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is too great to bear. Behold, you have driven me this day from the face of the ground and from your face, I will be hidden and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.

And whoever finds me will kill me. So the Lord said to him, therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, said no one finding him would slay him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Now there is a wealth of information in that story. There is so much for us to learn about life and death. So much to learn about our Lord and worship. And Abel is the one listed first because worship is the priority of mankind.

God created man so that man would worship him. God is seeking true worshipers. John 4, 23 and 24. Those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. Philippians 3, 3 says that the mark of a true believer is one who worships God in spirit and lives not according to the flesh, but glories in Christ Jesus himself. And so therefore, God is seeking true worshipers. Abel becomes the first example of genuine faith because he was a true worshiper of the living God.

He was the one who had to trust God. So let's look, first of all, at the premise of Abel's faith. The premise of Abel's faith. What was his faith based on? Well, his faith was based on what all faith is based on. What God has already said. Faith is based on what God says.

It's trusting obedience. We talked about this last week and the week before. Faith's inauguration, it commences with the Christ. But faith's reception comes because it's received through the revelation of Christ. In other words, God reveals to us what his word is, and we either trust it or we don't. We either believe it or we don't. And so the premise of Abel's faith was based on what God had already said. In other words, God had passed down from Adam and Eve that which was known so they could instruct their children on two primary areas of life.

One, work. The other, worship. Abel was a shepherd. He was the first shepherd. First in a long line of many shepherds all throughout the Old Testament, right?

And Cain was a tiller of the ground. So Adam and Eve would teach their children to work because that's a part of everyday life, right? Teach them the discipline of hard work and labor. Adam would go to work each day in the garden, but never sweat. He never smelled until sin. Then once sin entered the world, because of his disobedience, he went to work and began to sweat. Subsequently began to smell. That's the result of the curse. So every time you smell yourself, realize that's the result of the curse.

Every time you sweat, it's the result of the curse. Work is not a result of the curse. Work is what God made man to do. And so work is a great thing, not a bad thing. It's a good thing. And so Adam and Eve would teach their children to work, but teach them also to worship. That's very important. They would teach them what it means to worship God, to trust God, to believe in God. Abel and Cain did not show up to worship one day just because they thought it was a good idea. No, the phrase in Genesis chapter four, which talks about, so it came about, verse three, in the course of time that Cain brought an offering, verse four, Abel and his part brought an offering.

Evidently, there was a prescribed place, a prescribed time, and a prescribed way in which they were to worship. God is a God of order. God doesn't just say, hey, do whatever you wanna do, do it how you wanna do it, it's okay. No, God has set in motion everything that needed to happen for Abel and Cain to know exactly what they needed to do when they came to worship the true and living God. That's very important. Now, remember, these are not high school boys. These are not junior high boys. These are not even college age boys.

Cain and Abel are probably over 100 years of age in Genesis chapter four when you come to their worship. You say, well, how do you know that? Well, that's why you gotta go to the end of Genesis chapter four. And it says these words, verse 25. Adam had relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, for she said, God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel and Cain, for Cain killed him. So evidently, Adam and Eve had relations, right? And she had another son, the son was Seth.

Now, how long was it between the death of Abel and them coming together and having another son? Now, note this, Genesis five, verse number three.

When Adam lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. So Adam was 130 years of age when he had Seth. How long was it after Cain slew Abel did Adam and Eve have relations so that Seth would be born? Was it a year, 10 years, two decades? Let's say it was three decades. That would make Cain and Abel somewhere around 99 years of age. They just weren't young kids. These guys had been taught from their early childhood. Remember, Adam and Eve were created full grown, fully mature, they weren't created as kids, they were created perfectly as adults.

But Cain and Abel, they were born, they had to grow up in the household of Adam and Eve. So they would teach them for years about what it means to trust, what it means to obey, what it means to worship God, what it means to honor God. So they would know because God would tell them what to pass down to their children. So like every godly parent, they're gonna pass down to their children biblical truth. Nothing's been written down in stone. Moses writes the book of Genesis, but God had communicated to Adam and Eve so they then could communicate to their children so their children would hear, right?

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing concerning the word about the Christ, the Messiah, who in Genesis 3.15 is the promised seed, right? There's going to come a seed, the seed of a woman, not the seed of a man, the seed of a woman, and he will crush the serpent's head. There was a promise given as a result of the fall about a promised deliverer, a promised savior. So Eve has a child, she thinks that this might be the deliverer, instead, he comes out to be a murderer instead of a deliverer, not knowing that it would be a long time before the Messiah would be born.

But all that's in the background, all that's a part of the story. So when Cain and Abel come together, they've heard about the coming Messiah. They've heard about what it means to worship. How would they know to offer the right kind of sacrifice? How would they know that? Well, Adam and Eve would have to tell them. That's how they knew. They'd have to explain it to them and more about that in a moment. But Abel, it says in Hebrews 11, verse number four, offered his gift, offered his sacrifice unto the Lord.

He came to worship, he came to honor the true and living God and true faith will worship God regularly but also worship God correctly. Cain did not, but Abel did. Very, very important. And so Abel's worship, listen carefully, would foreshadow the cross where Cain's worship did not. One would live in anticipation of the promise. The other did not because it would have been passed down to them from Adam and Eve. So the premise of faith is based on what God has already said. It's trusting obedience.

It's trusting what God is saying and then obeying what he has said in my worship as well as in my work. And that's what Abel did. Number two, the price of faith.

Having looked at the premise of faith, look at the price of faith. It says, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice. Worship is characterized by sacrifice. He gave the best. Genesis chapter four, verse number four. Abel gave what was the best of his offering and therefore his first leans or his fat portions were the best.

He didn't give leftovers. He didn't give that which was secondary. He gave the best of what he had. Why? Because when you worship God, you always give him the best. You never give him leftovers. Remember Malachi chapter one? God condemned the priests because they gave leftover sacrifices. They gave lame sacrifices. It says in verse six of Malachi one, O son, a son honors his father and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my respect? Says the Lord of hosts.

O priest, who despise my name? But you say, how have we despised your name? You are presenting defiled food upon my altar. But you say, how have we defiled you? In that you say, the table of the Lord is to be despised. But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly, says the Lord of hosts? But now will you not entreat God's favor that he may be gracious to us?

With such an offering on your part, will he receive any of you kindly, says the Lord of hosts? Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on my altar. I am not pleased with you. In other words, God goes on and says, you're profaning my name. You're blaspheming my name because you wanna give me leftovers. You wanna give me second rate sacrifices.

Listen, if I am your master, if I am your king, you give me the best. If you recognize me as your God, you give me top-notch sacrifices. But they weren't. When Abel comes, he gives of the firstlings, the first fruits.

He gives of the fat portions. In other words, he gives the best of what he has as a sacrifice unto God. You know, the Bible speaks of the sacrifice of praise, Hebrews 13, 15, and 16. It talks about the sacrifice of person, Romans 12, one and two, that we're to present our bodies a living sacrifice unto God because this is your only logical form of worship, Paul says. So we're to give a sacrifice of praise. We're to give the sacrifice of our person, and we're to give a sacrifice of our possessions.

Proverbs 3, nine and 10. We are to honor the Lord with the firstfruits of our increase in order that our vats might be overflowing with good things. But you know what? It's easy for us today to come to worship in order to get and not to give. Problem with that is that those who come to worship because they wanna get something are never satisfied. It's like in a marriage. If you marry someone to get something, you're never satisfied. You'll never be satisfied because you never get enough. But if you marry someone to give of yourself, to give yourself away, guess what?

You'll always be satisfied because you're just giving and giving and giving. That's what marriage is. Marriage is about giving, not getting. But we marry in order to get love, in order to get comfort, in order to get security. You never get enough of that if you have a mindset of getting. Take that over into our worship. We come to church to get. Get good music, get good vibes, get a good sermon. Meet good friends and make new friends and get all this good stuff. We don't come to give of ourselves.

To give ourselves away, to give the first fruits of our increase, to give the best of what we have to our Lord.

We might give Him some leftovers. We might give Him what's left at the end of the month. We might give Him a little bit of our time. Not all of our time, but just a little bit. But yet, in Scripture, worship is all about sacrifice. If you're not sacrificing, you're not worshiping. If you're not giving the best of what you have, of your time, your energy, your strength, your possessions, your life, you're not worshiping Lord. You're holding back from the Lord. When Abel came to worship, he came to sacrifice.

That was the price of his faith, because faith always costs. When you trust what God says, in spite of what everybody else says, it will cost you.

It just happened to cost Abel his life. He was willing to give his life away in his worship, because he was so committed to his God. So you move from the premise of faith, to the price of faith, to the premium of faith. It says in Hebrews 11, that Abel offered to God a better sacrifice, a more excellent sacrifice. Wow, why was it better? Why was it more excellent? What was it about Abel's sacrifice that was more satisfying to God than Cain's sacrifice? Cain came to the place of worship, right? Cain came with something to sacrifice at the place of worship.

He came at the right time, same time Abel came. They both came, and yet one was a more excellent sacrifice. One was a better sacrifice than the other one. Why? Because one pleased God, and the other one didn't. Why? Because one was a blood sacrifice, and the other one wasn't. You see, you can't gain access to the presence of God without a blood sacrifice. Cain came to worship his way. Abel came to worship God's way. There's a big difference there. There's a lot of people who go to church to worship God their way, not his way.

Abel came to worship God God's way. Cain came to worship God his way. That's why he was so angry. That's why he was so mad, because God accepted Abel's sacrifice and not his own. But it's important to understand that in this coming together and offering a sacrifice, Cain's offering did not foreshadow the coming of the Messiah, where Abel's offering did foreshadow the coming of the Messiah. How would they know about blood sacrifices? Adam and Eve. They would know that there had to be a sacrifice. They knew there had to be a sacrifice on their behalf.

They know they needed to be covered, right? That's why when they sinned, their eyes were open and they were naked, so what did they do? They covered themselves with leaves, okay? You can't cover yourself with a human mechanism when you sin. You can only cover yourself with God's mechanism, which is his blood, his sacrifice. So God sacrificed animals. God covered them with the animal's skin, right? So they would know that their covering could not come from something that they had ordained or something that they desired, but something that was God-given to them.

And they would know from the very beginning that without the shedding of blood, there's no remission for sins. So at the very beginning of this whole thing about faith, the writer of Hebrews chooses Abel. Why? Because everything about Hebrews is about the sacrificial system and the new covenant versus the old covenant. What the old sacrifices did and couldn't do and what the new sacrifice did, the old couldn't accomplish. And so therefore is that constant referring back to the old covenant, to the new covenant, to the washing of blood, to the coming of Messiah, who would shed his blood to cleanse you from your sin because you were covered, but you weren't cleansed.

You were covered because that's how Adam and Eve were covered because of their sin, because of the sacrifice that God did on their behalf. But now you need to be cleansed from your sin. A covering is not good enough. You must be cleansed. So the writer of Hebrews would use Abel as that first example because it kind of reiterates everything he's talked about up to this point about the sacrificial system that was known from the very beginning, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Abel would trust in what God had said and believe that although he had not near the information that they would have, he didn't have near the knowledge that the people listening to the writer of Hebrews had, but he trusted, he obeyed, he lived by faith.

And therefore he becomes that premium example because his sacrifice was at a premium. It was the more excellent sacrifice. Now listen, Cain wasn't an irreligious man. Cain was a religious man. He came to worship, but he came to worship God his way, not God's way. The Bible tells us that there is a way which seamed with writing to a man, but the ends are over the ways of death, not life, right? Cain becomes, listen carefully, the Scripture's first apostate.

How do we know that? Book of Jude, verse 11. As he talks about apostasy in Jude, Jude is talking about how people have crept in unawares. And these are false teachers. These are false prophets. And they have gone, verse 11, the way of Cain. See that? Cain was a very religious person. He knew about the seed, the promised seed. How did he know? Adam and Eve. He knew about animal sacrifice. Mom and dad, they told him. He knew about shedding the blood for remission of sins. He knew that, but he didn't wanna do that.

See, he wanted to worship God his way. Didn't wanna worship God, God's prescribed way. He never denied the existence of God. He never denied the worship of God. He was a very religious man, But he refused to come to God on God's terms. And therefore, when you realize what he did, as a result of being angry, you realize that he had an unrepentant heart. He lied. God said, where's your brother? I don't know. He knew where he was, he killed him, right? He lied to God. That's an unrepentant spirit. He refused to acknowledge the accountability for his brother.

Am I my brother's keeper? Of course you are. He's your brother. You killed him. I don't know where he is. I'm not my brother's keeper. And then he became so angry with God, back to Genesis chapter four, he became furious. My punishment is too difficult for me. An unrepentant person always complains about the consequences of a sin. They're always too difficult. But Cain was a very religious man. He knew about the worship of God. He knew about the existence of God. He learned it from his parents. But he began to live apart from God.

Because the Bible tells us he went out from the presence of God. And he went where? To the land of Nod. Know what Nod means? It means wandering. Whenever you don't worship God His way, you will always wander around and never settle in because you are never settled away from God. You can only be settled in the presence of God. He went to the land of Nod. False religion always attempts to come to God man's way, not God's way. Cain thought he could come on his own terms in a way that he himself invented.

Well, didn't God prescribe in the book of Leviticus fruit offerings? Yes, He did. But not before a blood sacrifice. I mean, you have to gain access into God's presence first.

And that's only as a result of the forgiveness of sins. And then you offer other sacrifices. But you can't reverse them because God has prescribed how it is you are to come into His presence. Cain was not ignorant of God's ways. John tells us, 1 John 3, for this is the message which you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of the evil one. Who's that? That's Satan of the evil one. And slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous.

Cain was a very religious man, but he wasn't a repentant man. He wasn't a regenerated man. He was a rebellious man. So he slew his brother because God accepted his brother's sacrifice and not his own. So you move from the premise of faith to the price of faith, to the premium of faith, to number four, the prophet of faith. What's the prophet? Well, it tells us. Hebrews 11, by faith, by trusting and obeying, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous.

In other words, he obtained a testimony from who? From God. He didn't obtain a testimony from Cain. He didn't obtain a testimony from his parents. It wasn't a testimony given to him by those around him. It was God's testimony about Abel, that Abel was a righteous man. Not because of anything that Abel himself did, but because by faith, by trusting and obeying what God said about worship, he came that way. He trusted that a sacrifice would make atonement for his sins. And so he obeyed that. He followed through on God's prescribed way of worship.

Cain chose not to do that. He chose to live his own way and worship God in his own style, his own manner. He worshiped God the way he felt like worshiping God, not because of what God said concerning how he was to be worshiped. That's why the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, that the one who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

There was none righteous, no, not one. Abel wasn't righteous, Cain wasn't righteous, but God declared Abel righteous. Why? Because by faith, he came and trusted all that God said. A faith granted to him, of course, by God, because all faith commences with the Christ. And all faith is received through the revelation of Christ. So he'd heard what his parents said about the revealed word of God, because God had spoken to them. He believed that, he trusted that, he obeyed that. And God was well pleased, and God honored him.

Now, how did they know that God was pleased with their offering? How did they know that when Cain came to offer the first fruits of his offering, his fruit offering, and Abel came to offer his blood sacrifice, how did they know that God was pleased with one and not the other?

That's a good question. The only answer we have is through the testimony of Scripture. That somehow God consumed one with fire and not the other. How do we know that? Well, we know from Leviticus 9 that at the first offering made by Aaron in the tabernacle, it was consumed by fire.

2 Chronicles 7, at the dedication of Solomon's temple, the sacrifice was consumed by fire. In Judges 13, Manoah and his wife, they sacrificed and it was consumed by fire. And of course, the most famous of all, first Kings, Elijah, the prophets of Baal, if Baal is true, you call out to your God, he'll send fire down and consume your offering.

If not, I'll call on my God, who will consume it with fire. And so, we know the story. He told him to wet down the altar and throw more water on it, get all the water you want on it. He called fire down from heaven and God consumed it. To prove that God was well-pleased with the sacrifice that Elijah had offered. And he was a true God of Israel. So, the only way we surmise that Cain knew immediately, and Abel knew immediately, that God was well-pleased with one and not the other, is that God came down and consumed it with fire.

For Cain knew immediately that something was wrong, that God was not pleased, which leads to the persecution of faith. The persecution of faith, it says, and through faith, though he is dead. The persecution of faith came from the one closest to him, came from a member of his family, came from a person who claimed to be religious. God sets the tone. All those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, right? If you read the book of Luke, when Christ talks about the end times, parents will turn against their children and children will turn against their parents.

Your persecution will come from those who are closest to you. The ones that you think you can trust in, but really can't because they don't have the same faith that you have. You have a faith that was ordained by God and given to you by God. And so here is Abel being persecuted for his faith because he came to worship God at the same place his brother did, at the same time his brother did, but he came with a sacrifice that would be pleasing to God and was demonstrated by it being consumed with fire versus Abel who came his own way, doing his own thing.

And it cost him, it cost him greatly. For Cain became so angry. Proverbs 29, 27 says, he who is upright is abominable to the wicked. That's a good verse to keep in mind. He who is upright, he was right before God will always be an abomination to the person who was wicked. And Cain was furious with his brother. But isn't it interesting that even in his fury, God kept calling Cain. If you go back to Genesis chapter four, it says these words, Cain became very angry and his countenance fell, verse five, verse six.

Then the Lord said to Cain, Cain, why are you so angry? And why has your countenance fallen? Of course, the Lord knows that, right? He says, if you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? If you come and you offer the right sacrifice, there's still time. You can still come to me the right way, Cain. You can still offer a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice, and I will forgive you, Cain. I will do that. And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it.

Cain, listen, if you don't repent, don't repent. This is why this is, again, the first illustration given.

Why? Because all throughout Hebrews, not only is there talk about the new covenant versus the old covenant, but there's always those warnings about apostasy and falling away, right? And Cain's the very first apostate.

So he's gonna give them illustration about the very first guy who apostatized the faith, who turned his back on that which he knew to be true for many, many years and followed away or fell away from the true living God.

So it becomes the primary first illustration for the writer of Hebrews to get their attention about apostasy and about true worship and blood sacrifice and the new covenant.

It's all rooted in the story of Cain and Abel. But God says, Cain, you can still come. This is the grace of God, the mercy of God. He says, sin, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you. Now, that's a very important term. Why? Because that's the exact same term used in Genesis 3.16, which says, to the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children, yet your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. The same words used.

In other words, you will desire to control your husband as sin desires to control Cain. But Cain, you must master it. And for the woman, he will rule over you. That's the battle of the sexes, Genesis 3.16. She's gonna try to control you and by George, you're not gonna let her. And therefore, the fight begin, right? Ding, ding, ding, there it goes. In Genesis 3.16, same word is used in Genesis 4. Sin is crouching at the door, it desires to master you. Sin wants to control you. Sin wants to dominate your life, but you must master it, Cain.

You must come against it, Cain. Don't let it happen. But Cain didn't listen. Cain wouldn't follow. And Cain told Abel's brother and was so angry, he slew his brother. He murdered his brother. Ended up leaving the presence of the Lord, traveling east of Eden to a place called Nod, the place of wandering, the place of nomads. That's where he went. And then he built a city. You read on, it says, Cain had relations with his wife and she conceded and gave birth to Enoch. That's not the Enoch of Hebrews 11.5.

We'll talk about that next week. And he built a city and called the name of the city Enoch after the name of his son. Cain was so upset that he killed his brother. He left the presence of God. He went to build a city based on the foundation of his premise of worshiping God his own way. That's what he did. He's the classic apostate. But Abel, Abel lost his life. And yet, we come to the last point. That's a proclamation of faith. He still speaks. Though dead, yet he speaks. What does he say? What does Abel say?

He talks about regeneration. Talks about reproach and retribution. He still speaks to us today about what true regeneration is about. How to get right with the true living God is coming and worshiping him his way, offering the blood sacrifice because it's through the shedding of blood that man finds the forgiveness of sins. He speaks to us about the reproach of what it means to walk by faith and live a life of faith because there's great persecution. He speaks to us about retribution because God would bring his retribution down upon Cain.

Cain was afraid he'd die. God set a sign on Cain. Can't kill him. Why? Because he's mine to kill, not yours to kill. He put a sign on Cain for this reason. So everybody will know the effects of false worship. That all will know that when you don't come to me properly, don't come to me correctly, don't come to me biblically, don't come to me on my terms, there are great consequences and you will wander and you will be like a man who never has a home because the wages of sin is always death. And while you might not die physically, you'll live a death-like existence because you will be miserable and restless because you did not worship me my way, but Abel did.

That's why he's in the hall of faith. That's why he's listed first. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today, the opportunity you give us to worship you. May we be true worshipers, those who worship you in spirit and in truth for the glory of your kingdom, we pray in your name. Amen.