Hebrews 11, Genesis 4, Matthew 7, 1 John 3, Romans 3

Well, hey! Good morning, Saylorville church! How’re we doing this morning? Great to see you! Thanks for choosing to be with us today, whether you’re here in the room or watching online right now or a little bit later.

It is Father’s Day! — and so I want to wish a very special, happy Father’s Day to those of you that are dads, or have dads, or want to be dads, or are spiritual fathers to others who look up to you, and there are a lot of those types of dads here in this room.

My dad’s here this morning too, and there’s no other man in my life who’s been more intentional about helping me be more like Jesus. I was thinking this last week, some of my earliest memories are of me desperately holding on to your belt, Dad, as I was on the back of your dirt bike up in the mountains of South Africa with a Bible in one hand and a soccer ball in the other, and we’d buzz up the trails into the mountains. We’d get to a village, I’d jump off the back of the bike and play soccer, (Greatest sport in the whole world!) (audience laughing) — (Pastor Pat’s in Spain, so we can say that while he’s gone!) (audience laughing) and my dad would go from hut to hut and sit down in the dirt and talk to these tribal people in the middle of Africa about how to put their faith in God who created the universe. And my parents are still telling people about Jesus! — only now it’s in the middle of the deep dark jungles of Indianola, Iowa (audience laughing) about 30 minutes from here. So I’m grateful to my dad and to my late father-in-law, Brian, two heroes in my life, and to guys in this room even, who have lived as pictures of faith in a world that desperately needs men and women to stand tall as imperfect but humble heroes of the Christian faith. And that is really what we’re trying to do here in the Sunday morning preaching series this summer at Saylorville.

So if you were here last week, you know the Pastor Pat kicked off this series in Hebrews chapter 11. We’re calling it God’s Hall of Faith because every character mentioned in this great chapter is an example of genuine faith. And now we learned last week that you might define faith this way; to be persuaded, or to believe or to be convinced. So faith is this; to be persuaded, to believe or to be convinced. So that definition assumes that faith has an object for you English majors, right? — that you have faith in something or someone.

But you might say here this morning, ‘I don’t really have a strong faith.’ Or you might even say, ‘I’m not a person of faith at all.’ Well, I would disagree with you, and I don’t even know many of you, but I would submit to you that every person in this room or watching this online is, in fact, a man or woman of faith. We’re all people of faith. Can I prove it to you? Is that a no or yes? – I heard a bunch of people online say, ‘Yes,’ so we’re doing this. Hey, why don’t you stand up? Just go ahead and stand up right where you are. Stand up. You can do this at home too. If you’re in the car, probably don’t do this. Just listen for now. But everybody turn to somebody next to you. Just shake their hand, give them a high five nod. Don’t make it weird. Just say something to them. Okay? There you go. Okay? (This is fun! When you have the mic, you have the power! This is the other way it works.) Okay, now sit down. Just go ahead and sit down. Okay, everybody, sitting down? Good! Okay, now turn to a person next to you and just say the short phrase, “You’ve got faith.” Tell them. Yeah. Now, why? Because you sat down. That’s why —because every single one of you sat down on that chair, and I’m guessing that nobody had a second thought about whether or not that chair was going to hold you. If you did have a second thought, don’t raise your hand. Okay? Nobody got down on their hands and knees and tested the structural integrity of the chair. Nobody picked up the chair and was inspecting it all over the place from every angle. Not one person took a glance at the label to figure out the weight limit of the chair. Right? Why? Most of you just plopped down onto it. In fact, some of you just dropped onto that chair because we’re interrupting your nap time already in the 11 o’clock service. Right? ‘Well, just let me sit down.’ You had faith in that chair! You had faith that it was going to do what chairs are supposed to do, to hold you up off the floor, and it did. So whether you admit it or not, you’re a person of faith, even of great faith.

But the question is, what is the object of your faith? Who or what are you putting your faith in this morning? And since we’re in a church building Sunday morning, let’s put it this way. You trusted your physical life to a chair. How much more important is the object of your faith when it comes to your spiritual life? Okay, so the Bible tells us that human souls last forever in one of two places; either in heaven — this is with the presence of God, a very real place for eternity, — or hell, another very real place without God, an eternal pain and torment. Those are the two options. So who are you trusting into carrying the weight of your soul for eternity? Okay, let’s pause and just think about that question for a second, because it’s one of the most important questions that you’ll ever ask. Who or what am I putting my faith in for my soul’s salvation? — For my soul’s salvation, or maybe another way to put it (and this comes right out of our text for today) is this, How can a sinner like me be made righteous before a perfect and holy God?

And so this morning, and throughout the summer, we’re gonna see one truth. It keeps coming up over and over and over again throughout this whole series. And so I want you to write it down, make a note of it, and then we’ll let it soak in today, and then during the weeks to come, we’ll say it several times, and here it is for the first time. Genuine faith believes and obeys God. Genuine faith believes and obeys God. Let’s say it together, ready? Genuine faith believes and obeys God. You’ll hear that several times this morning. Why? Because real faith always expresses itself in the practice of personal obedience. Every time you see faith, you find action right there with it. Faith isn’t faith without the follow through, you might say.

And so, let’s look at our first hero in God’s Hall of Faith right here in Hebrews chapter 11. And to tell you the truth, this one might surprise some of you. He didn’t even make it to our intro video, right? He’s not one of those that you tend to talk about. But let’s meet him in Hebrews chapter 11, verse four. Here he is:

Hebrews 11:4, “By faith Abel (There’s our guy, Abel) offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than (his brother) Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. (or as sacrifice) And through his faith, though he died, he (Abel) still speaks.”

And we’ll stop there because that’s it. That’s all we get on Abel in Hebrews chapter 11. In fact, that’s pretty much all the press that Abel gets in the whole Bible. He’s mentioned once more in the next chapter and then Jesus talks about him two times in the Gospels. And other than that, we have to go all the way back to the very first book of the Bible to find out more about him. So let’s do that. Let’s read the story. Keep your bookmark in Hebrews chapter 11, but flip or scroll back to Genesis chapter four, and we’re gonna catch up with the story that shows us why Abel is in God’s hall of faith here in Hebrews chapter 11, and how it is that even though he’s dead, the voice of Abel still speaks to us today. Okay, so you’re ready? Genesis chapter four, this is right at the beginning, and this is what Moses, the writer of Genesis, says;

Genesis 4:1-2, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and she bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And (then) again, she bore his brother (younger) Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.”

Okay, let’s just stop for a second for a little theology 101, all right? So at this church (and this will need some response) we believe that the Bible is true. Right? Okay, we believe that the Bible is without error. Right? And we believe that it’s accurate and it’s a historical narrative in every other way. Correct? Okay, so when the Bible says “In the beginning God created” it, we believe that. Right?

Okay, so God created Adam and he realized pretty quickly that it was not good for Adam to be alone. That Adam needed human connection, that he needed community. And more specifically, what this man was missing was someone to help him. And how smart, by the way, is God to know that every man in the universe would need women to help him get around. This is even before driving was invented. And I’m telling you, this is a true story. If it weren’t for my wife’s help in the car from the passenger seat, I would sometimes drive right past our house. She’s like, “We live there.” I’m like, “Babe, I’m just circling to get the mail.” Okay? Look, whether we want to admit it or not, guys, we need help. And so God knows this, it’s true. And so he makes Adam fall asleep, and when Adam wakes up, there’s this beautiful, naked woman right there next to him! —and that’s not typically how it works today. Right? In fact, guys, if that’s how you met your wife, then we probably need to have a conversation after this! All right? — because that’s not how it works, but that’s how God did it for Adam.

And so Adam and Eve are hanging out in the garden of Eden. And it’s perfect. It’s amazing! There’s no sin, and there’s no shame, and there’s no pain. There’s no bug bites or taxes, there’s no political ads or spam emails. I mean, this was the Garden of Eden! It’s the way life was meant to be. And then, they… mess it up. Satan, in the form of a serpent, he lies to Adam and Eve, and they believe the lie. And they commit the world’s first sin. They do the one thing that God told them not to do, and they eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and all of a sudden, they realize there’s a problem. There’s a disconnect between them and the Creator God. The relationship that was once intimate is now strained, and God comes to talk to them like He would in the Garden of Eden, and when He does this, they try to hide from Him. And God’s heart is broken, and for the first time in all of history, there’s death. There’s death. God kills an animal so that Adam and Eve’s nakedness would be covered up, not just with the temporary fig leaves that Adam and Eve had sowed together for themselves, but with the more permanent covering of an animal skin designed by God, Himself, for them. See, something had to die for the sin of Adam to be covered, and there in the garden. For the very first time in human history, one life was sacrificed so another might survive. And God curses the serpent. He tells the serpent that one day he’ll be crushed by a fatal blow from the offspring of Eve and Adam. And the first sign of the Savior who would rescue humans from the clutches of sin and darkness is found right there in Genesis, and the scholars, the smart Bible people, call the “proto-euangelion,” the first “Good News,” the seed of the gospel, planted by God in the first few pages of Scripture right away in the story, and then God banishes Adam and Eve from The Garden.

And when he comes to verse 1 of chapter 4, Eve gives birth to Cain, the very first human child — a lot of firsts here. And then she has another son, Abel, his younger brother. We’re told that Abel was a shepherd, probably of sheep and goats, and that Cain was more of an agricultural guy. And here’s where the story gets really interesting. In verse 3 of Genesis chapter 4, check this out with me. Verse 3,

Genesis 4:3-4a, “In the course of time” (some of your Bibles say, “when the correct time had come”) “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.”

Okay, let’s stop there. Before we rush past this, because we might know a little bit of the story here, let’s just take a quick second to make some observations here. You can do this at home too when you’re reading the Bible, not just Sunday in church but on your own. When you’re on your couch, up at your counter or on your bed when you’re reading the Bible, just stop every once in a while and say to yourself, ‘Okay, self, what do I see here?’ You’re making observations. You’re just noting what you see. You’re asking questions of the text. It’s a great first step in Bible study. So let’s do that.

First, both of these guys, Cain and Abel, they both bring an offering to the Lord. Both of them are prepared to give something to God, and watch this, they both come to the same location to make this offering, so somehow they knew that they were supposed to do this. And then there’s this little phrase “over the course of time” or “when the time had come.” So that phrase says to me that there was a specific time that they were supposed to bring their offerings. We’ve got a location and we’ve got a time. Again, we’re not sure how they knew this, but it’s obvious that they knew that there was a time designated to give their gifts to God. And then there’s this little note about how Abel sacrificed the best of his animals, the first fruits, and then he separated the fat from the rest of the meat before he offered it to God. Now how did Abel know to do that? So there’s a place, a time, a specific way that they were required to make this offering, but how did Cain and Abel know these details?

Now this is really important because it’s foundational to the rest of the story. In fact, I think it’s foundational to the rest of the story of the Bible. This is what I believe. I believe God told both Cain and Abel exactly what He expected. I believe God told them exactly how to worship, where to meet, what to offer as an acceptable sacrifice and then when to make the offering and even how to prepare the sacrifice in a way that would be acceptable to God. I think both men knew exactly what was expected and yet only one provided the right kind of offering. They both had the words of God but only one obeyed the words of God.

Okay, think about this. What do you imagine Adam’s family talked about while they were sitting around the campfire at night? How many times did he and Eve look overat the distant light of the cherubim and the flaming sword that God had posted at the entrance of Eden. How many times did they look at that light and long for the days before they chose sin over obedience? Don’t you think maybe Cain and Abel asked their parents from time to time, ‘Why did you do it?’ ‘Why did you do it? The one thing that Creator God told you not to do and you did it!’ ‘Dad, why?’ ‘Mom, why?’ And Adam and Eve would have recounted the terrible scene with the serpent and the fig leaves, and then the first time that they saw blood, an animal killed so God could cover their sin. Cain and Abel knew the story. They had to have, after all, there weren’t all that many stories to tell yet, so they knew this one pretty good. Look again back at Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11:4, “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain…”

Remember, faith always has an object. So what’s the object of Abel’s faith in this story? Well, it’s God. Abel is persuaded. He trusts in what God has told his family to do, and he simply responds by obeying it. He offers a sacrifice exactly the way God required. He heard what God said, believed what God said and obeyed what God said. And that friends is faith, because genuine faith believes and obeys God. Genuine faith believes and obeys God. And then, on the other hand, there’s older brother, Cain. He didn’t believe that he needed to bring the kind of sacrifice God required. He thought he could approach God on his own terms, making his own path. A path that didn’t involve sacrifice, but involves self-sufficiency instead. Maybe a classic older brother here. He had the word of God. He had the same information Abel had, and yet he chose to disobey God and, instead, do things his own way. See, Cain thought he could cut corners and still be accepted, inventing a more convenient way of satisfying God’s expectations without the obedience that God required. And instead of showing genuine faith in God, Cain put his faith in his own scheme. He did it his way, and it failed. Faith that’s genuine faith is faith that believes God and obeys God. That’s why Abel’s offering was accepted by God and Cain’s wasn’t. That’s exactly what the writer of Genesis tells us in chapter 4 at the end of verse 4.

Genesis 4:4b-5, “And the LORD had regard (or accepted) for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.”

Now the Bible doesn’t tell us how God showed that he accepted Abel’s offering. Maybe he said something audibly so both of the men could hear him. Maybe there was some kind of sign that isn’t recorded here in the Bible. But I think there’s clues in the rest of the Old Testament. See, several times when people offered genuine, faith-filled sacrifices to God, He shows them His approval by sending fire down from heaven and completely consuming, burning up those sacrifices. I think there’s like five times we see this in the Old Testament. Probably the most famous is in 1 Kings chapter 18, where we see Elijah going to battle with the 450 phony prophets of Baal. And God shoots down this blast of fire that just disintegrates everything: the sacrifice, the altar, the stones, even licks up the water that Elijah had poured all around that altar, right in front of Elijah and the false prophets and everybody else watching, leaving no doubt that Yahweh is the one true God! Imagine being there. You’d have no doubt either!

And I think that might be how God responded to Abel’s offering. I think maybe God showed Abel that his sacrifice was acceptable by sending down this burst of fire and burning it up like He did throughout the rest of the Old Testament. And so, in my mind, I’ve got this picture of two brothers, each standing in front of their respective altars. One completely consumed, purified, you might say, by fire! And the other… cold and untouched, just like you see with the prophets of Baal. God’s approval of Abel’s more acceptable sacrifice was obvious. His approval clearly rested on the man whose faith expressed itself in obedience. Why? Because genuine faith believes and obeys God. Anything else is man-made religion.

Well, as you might imagine, Cain’s response to God’s disapproval is immediate. In Genesis 4, Cain was very angry and his face fell.

Genesis 4:5b-7a, “… So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.” (You can picture it, can’t you? Really descriptive.) “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, (Cain) sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you,” (Sin has a desire. Did you know that? It’s for you!) “but you must rule over it.”

So here’s the Lord in His mercy. He comes to Cain kindly, lovingly, maybe like a good father would do, and He gives Cain another chance. ‘Cain, you know what I expect. You know the right thing to do. Why don’t you go get a lamb from your brother and let’s try this again. Obey me, Cain! Show me. Show me that you have faith! If you do, I’ll accept you. You’ll be accepted, but if you don’t, then sin will be right there on your doorstep, ready to pounce!’ And God, just like He did with Adam and Eve, He comes close to Cain in spite of Cain’s rebellion, and God gives him another chance to prove his faith through obedience. But Cain won’t hear it, and in the very next verse, Cain meets Abel in the field. And the writer of Genesis simply says this;

Genesis 4:8b, “Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.“

And yet, Hebrews tells us that Abel, even though he’s dead, still has something to say today through his faith.

Hebrews 11:4b, “… though he died, he (Abel) still speaks.“

And so this morning, the first human martyr in history has some words for us from the grave. Let’s just look at three life lessons from a dead man talking, three life lessons from Abel from the grave.

First, faith is the obedient response to God’s revealed word. Faith is the obedient response to God’s revealed word.

When Meredith and I got married, we started trying to have children pretty much right away, and after a few years and several miscarriages, it was pretty clear that God had other plans and that our human timing was different from what He had divinely ordained for our lives. Now many of you have and even are in that same place, so you know this. It’s hard to describe the level of heartache that you feel when you walk out of another ultrasound appointment and the heartbeat that was pulsating quickly there on the screen just a few weeks ago is gone today. It’s helpless! Right? There’s a sickness, a pain. There’s a pit in your soul that never seems to go away even years later, even when God does give you a son.

I was a youth pastor and we lived in Pennsylvania at the time and one summer while we were in some of the deepest and darkest times of our discouragement, we took our students to a conference in Philadelphia. And I’m sure the speaker for the week was great, our students learned a lot, they loved it, but the moment from that week that was seared into our minds, both Meredith and my minds, is this vivid memory that we have of crying out to God next to each other. Tears streaming down our faces completely undone by the lyrics of a song that was new to us at the time called “Give Me Faith.” Here’s a couple of the lines.

God, I need you to soften my heart and break me apart.

I need You to pierce through the dark and cleanse every part of me,

Purify me.

All I am I surrender. (That’s obedience right there, isn’t it? All I am, I surrender. And here’s the chorus)

Give me faith to trust what you say,

that You are good and that Your love is great

In spite of what it seems humanly at that moment

I’m broken inside

I give you my life

And that’s really the kind of sacrifice that God wants, isn’t it? — our very lives. And what God began to show us in that moment was that faith is only faith when it’s in response to what God has actually promised. God never promised us children. He never promised us the kind of family that at one time we’d hoped for. His word never guarantees a comfortable, convenient life for people who say they believe in God. In fact, watch this, there’s a huge difference between believing in God and believing God. Believing in God puts you on the same level as the demons. They believe that God exists for sure, but believing in God doesn’t require faith. You can believe that God exists and still be just as evil as Cain! But believing God, that’s different. Believing God makes you a Christian. Believing God means that you take Him at His word. Believing God means that you put your full trust in him. Your faith is backed up by your actions. So friends, please don’t ever say, I believe in God and that’s what makes me a Christian! That’s what the demons do. In Matthew 7, Jesus meets with a group of people who believe in God. In fact, they even call him Lord to His face, but Jesus says,

(Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”)

‘Just because you believe in Me, that doesn’t prove anything! I’m looking for people who obey Me, who respond in action, who believe Me! Those are the kinds of people who have genuine faith.’

And so friends, here’s a question for you this morning. Do you believe in God like Cain? —or do you believe God like Abel? There is a huge difference, not just for this life, but for the next.

So what else might Abel say to us if we could hear him speak from the grave this morning? I think secondly, he may tell us that faith is often met with persecution. Faith is often met with persecution.

I was talking to Pastor Jerrod Leonard about this message just a few days ago. We were just sort of riffing about the obedient life of faith, and how when you put your trust in God it’s the best way to live, and how Abel really enjoyed God’s acceptance, and how that’s worth pretty much more than anything else on earth, and we should all live like Abel. Right? And I was really excited about this and Jerrod responds something like this, ‘Yeah, but Abel was killed. Right?’ Yeah! Abel was killed. That’s true — and like we heard a few weeks ago in our closing message on the Beatitudes, faithful followers of Jesus will be persecuted in one way or another, and Pastor Jerrod and his family would know more than most about that. His dad, John Leonard, was shot several times several years ago in Brazil while serving the Lord. He’s still surviving and still serving today.

But look at how the disciple John, connects these two things; faith and persecution. In 1 John 3.

[1 John 3:12,] “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him?” (The Bible gives us the answer right here) “Because his own deeds were evil and his brother (Abel’s) deeds righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers” (and sisters, Christians) “that the world hates you.”

And so here’s our story again from Genesis. Cain is actually called a descendant of the devil here! The evil one! His actions were actually evil, devoid of faith, completely disobedient to what God had told him, believing in God, not believing God! Remember? And Abel, on the other hand, his younger brother, is commended here again for his obedience to the revealed word of God, faithful as he obeyed.

But then John bridges the gap between this ancient story in Genesis and his contemporary readers in the New Testament, and now to us, today, in the year 2024, and in verse 13 he reminds us, he says, ‘Hey, it shouldn’t be a surprise when people don’t like you for living a life of faithful obedience! In fact, he says in verse 13, ‘You will be persecuted.’ Watch how Hebrews 11 talks about the kind of people that live faithful lives.

Hebrews 11:35b-38 (NLT ) “But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at. (This is the New Living Translation) Their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning. Some were sawed in half. Others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.”

See, friend, the life of a faithful, genuine Jesus follower is bound to be a life of persecution. And for some of you here this morning, you have felt that. In fact, you probably haven’t been sawed in half, but you might have been passed over for the job. Or you’ve had nasty looks from your neighbors, or you’ve had family members talk about you behind your back or even in front of your face. But I’m here to tell you, Christian, that the Bible says there’s a blessing in all of that! — because, like these heroes of the faith in Hebrews chapter 11 and all through scripture and all through history, your hope, your faith, is not in what happens to you in this life but in the guarantee of eternal glory after your resurrection! Listen! The best life for the Christian is yet to come! Oh, that’s good!

Maybe you’re listening to this this morning and you say, ‘But Jason, I don’t want my best life later. I want it now! I don’t want to be persecuted. I don’t want to be that guy at work or in my neighborhood. I don’t want to be hated by the world. I just want to visit Jesus on Sundays and then forget about Him and blend in with everybody else for the rest of the week.’ And well, if that’s you, I’ll just say this. You’re missing out on so much of what God wants for you. And we sometimes say it this way at Saylorville. “Jesus rescued me from eternal death, so I get to live my life on earth for Him.” I get to! That’s our sacrificial response of obedient faithfulness. The life of faith is the best life ever! —even though it may be a short life on earth.

So here’s another question for you this morning. What will you do this week when you’re tempted to deny Jesus? — when you’re tempted to put your faith in Jesus in the backseat? What will you do in your words, your response, your actions when you’re tempted to deny your faith in Jesus?

Well, what else might Abel say to us if we could hear him from the grave this morning? Lastly, as we wrap up, I think Abel would tell us that faith in Jesus is the only way to save your soul. Faith in Jesus is the only way to save your soul. Whether you admit it or not, you’re a person of faith. Right? So the question isn’t whether you have faith. The question is what are you putting your faith in? We started this conversation this morning by suggesting that one of the most important questions you’ll ever ask yourself is this. Who or what am I putting my faith in for my soul’s salvation? — and the truth is, friends, some of you hearing this today are more like Cain than you know! You’re trusting in your own way of coming to God, your own works, the way that you want to do it. Maybe you’re trusting in your upbringing. You’ve been raised in a family that loves Jesus and you’re believing that that’s good enough for you. You don’t have a personal faith, you’re just relying on the faith of your parents or maybe even your siblings or your extended family. Or maybe you’re trusting in the fact that you’re nicer than the guy or the girl next to you, that someday Jesus is going to look at you and the masses from the pearly gates and say, ‘Well, this guy’s a little bit better than everybody else, so we’ll let him in.’ Or maybe you were baptized or confirmed or you prayed a certain set of words when you were younger. It doesn’t change the way you live at all. You still do pretty much whatever you want for the most part, but your faith is in some kind of ritual that you did, some kind of good deed or thing that you were responsible for, or that someone else did to you. But the Bible says that’s not the way it works! The Apostle Paul lays it out clearly in Romans chapter three again, New Living Translation, verse 23. Here’s the problem.

Romans 3:23-25, “23 For everyone has sinned. We all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (And here’s the solution.) 24 Yet God in His grace freely makes us right in His sight. (And how did He do this?) He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty of our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sins.” (Ring a bell?) “People are made right with God,” (Paul says) “when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood.” (And then in verse 26, why did God do this? He) “God did it demonstrate His righteousness. For He Himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus.”

And this is what Abel teaches us through his life and his death all those years ago. Ever since Adam and Eve, we’re all born sinners. Nothing we can do will ever help us earn righteousness, a reconnected relationship with God. We can’t do it because no matter how hard we try, we’ll always come up short of God’s perfect standard of holiness. And so God, beginning in Genesis, provided a substitute pictured by a lamb, first with Adam and Eve, and then with Abel. Something had to die so that their sin might be covered. Blood had to be shed in order to pay the awful penalty for sin, a penalty that every single human deserved to pay but that no human could ever afford to pay. And so God, in His love and His justice, provides Jesus as the substitution, the sacrificial lamb so that we can be declared righteous! And how do we get this incredible gift according to scripture? How is it possible that we exchange our death sentence for eternal life? It’s through faith, genuine faith, the obedient response to God.

Now, friend, your eternal soul is hanging in the balance. Put your faith in the God of Abel today! He is inviting you to come and see who He truly is and what it truly looks like to live a life of faith.

And maybe you’re here this morning, and like Cain, you have tried everything else and it’s all come up short. Why not today place your faith in Jesus? Jesus rescued you from eternal death. Live your life on earth for Him.

God, thank you for sending Jesus to pay the penalty that we could never pay. Our sin deserved death, and yet you shed the blood of your perfect Son, pictured so many times throughout the Old Testament in this perfect spotless Lamb. And Jesus, Your Son, was that Lamb on the cross, who shed His blood so that our sins may be covered. God, I pray, that we would admit that we’re sinners. How can we deny that we’re sinners? — and that we desperately need Someone to rescue us from our sin? And that you’ve told us how to do that by placing our faith, our belief, our trust to be persuaded, convinced that Jesus took our place on the cross, that He bled and died, and then He was resurrected from the dead, conquering sin in the grave. Death is now in heaven, preparing a place for those who believe God and who love Him. God, give us faith. We need that. Sometimes our faith is weak. Give us faith, I pray. It’s in Jesus name. Amen.

This may be a newer song to you. If you need to stay seated while we sing it to respond, that’s fine. Or you can stand up. We’re going to sing together. “Give me faith.” [Music]