Cain's story illustrates that true righteousness comes not from good intentions or personal effort, but from obedience to God's prescribed way of worship. While Cain offered the fruit of the ground, a seemingly good act, God had no respect for his offering because it lacked faith and was done in pride, unlike Abel's sacrifice of a lamb, which demonstrated faith and acknowledged sin. The sermon emphasizes that our own efforts, like Cain's, are insufficient for acceptance with God; salvation and blessing are found only through God's provision, symbolized by the blood of Christ, which is the ultimate sacrifice that speaks better than Abel's. Therefore, true worship and acceptance with God require humility, faith, and reliance on Christ's atoning sacrifice, not self-will or personal merit.
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Turn, if you would, first of all, to Hebrews chapter eleven, the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews. I heard brother Tom Taylor once say that one of the advantages of having to be away from your family so often in different places is you get to brag about it when you're up on the platform. Some of you have been asking where my wife was, so I'll just mention that we were in Bahamas last week, didn't get home till four thirty yesterday afternoon, so She was a little tired, thought she'd stay home. I was born in the Bahamas, but that was her first trip ever. And she told me that she, I asked her what she thought about it. She said she had good news and bad news.
The good news was she enjoyed it. The bad news, she felt she was going to be bugging me to go back. So, anyway, that's why she isn't here, for those that had asked. Hebrews chapter eleven and verse four, by faith Abel, offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead, yet speaketh. And then over in I John three twelve for just one verse, I John chapter three and verse twelve, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him?
because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous. And then in Genesis chapter four, the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis, we'll begin reading with the first verse of the fourth of Genesis. And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was the keeper of the sheep, but Cain was the tiller of the ground. and in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.
And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted. And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What has thou done? The voice of thy brother's bloodcrieth unto me from the ground.
And now art thou cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou has driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid. and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east side of Eden. I'd like to speak about Cain today from the passages that we read. We'll have to mention Abel, of course, as well. But I want to speak particularly about Cain. I read the passage in First John because I believe that many people in thinking about Cain think that Cain was an evil man. And I believe the passage in John very pointedly points out that Cain was not evil. Cain was a good man. Cain's works were evil. But Cain himself... was not an evil man. He was badly advised by his conscience or whoever, but nevertheless he himself was a good man.
Our passage does not say so, but it would seem that Cain must have said to God, I did my best. When God came to him, why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance followed? The Lord said, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? I would imagine that Cain said to the Lord, I did my best when the Lord questioned him concerning his sacrifice. I did my best. What more can a man do? If a man does his best, is there anything else that he can do? But you know, you and I that have accepted Christ as our personal Savior here in this room this morning, we learned that our best is not enough.
Isn't that correct? Our very best is not good enough for blessing with God. We have to take God's way. God tells us how we can be blessed, and when we lay hold on that, we are blessed. We try and do it in our own way, then we're not blessed. I like the story of the little boy who was helping his father in the garden. And his job was to pick up the rocks and put them out to the side of the garden. And they were digging around and getting these rocks, and finally the little boy came to a rock that was so big he couldn't pick it up. And his father watched him a little bit tugging at the rock. And finally he said to him, can't you get that rock up? And he said, no. And his father said, well, try harder.
And he tried harder and he still couldn't get it up. And his father said, have you done your best to get it up? And the little boy said, yes. And his father said, no, you haven't. And the little boy said, what do you mean? He said, you didn't ask me for my help. And you see, you and I, if we want to get to glory, we can do our very best But the way, the best way is to come to God and to come to God and accept His way of blessing. You see, we learned from our lesson that God had provided both Cain and Abel with a way of approach, but Cain preferred to do it in his own way. He preferred to do it in his own strength. The Bible speaks of that as iniquities, self-will, doing it our own way.
You remember we read to you from Hebrews, verse four, and it says, by faith, By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. The indication is that both Cain and Abel knew how to offer the sacrifice, but Cain chose to do it in his own way, rather than to do it in the way in which he had been taught. I believe that they learned from their parents the correct way in which they should worship God. You see, if we look back in the twenty-first verse of the previous chapter, it says, unto Adam, also and his wife, did the Lord make, God, make coats of skins and clothe them.
If we go back into that chapter, the third chapter, we see how that Adam and Eve came into sin. We see how that Eve was tempted of Satan. We see how she ate the fruit. And we see how that they then realized that they were naked. And the Scripture tells us that they made leaves to coat themselves. But then when they heard the Lord walking in the garden, it says they went and hid themselves from the Lord. Now they had made these clothes of leaves, but then they were afraid to be seen in those clothes before God, and they went and hid themselves. And I believe that that's a beautiful picture of the truth of salvation.
It has been suggested that Adam and Eve learned four things from that lesson in the third chapter. They learned They had, I should say, the first gospel sermon that was ever preached. And they learned four things. They didn't learn them in word, but they learned them in symbol. First of all, they learned that in order for a guilty sinner, and of course everyone is a guilty sinner, if you're here and you've never put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you know that you're a sinner. Conscience tells you that you're a sinner. God has given all of us a conscience. Now it's true, like they asked the Chinese man what a conscience was, and he said the conscience is a wheel that's in your mind, and it's got sharp points on it.
And it says, when you do something you shouldn't, it goes around and it pricks you with all those points. But he says, if you keep doing that same thing over and over, it gets to spin in so fast that after a while it wears the points off, and you don't feel it anymore. And the Bible, I think, indicates that sometimes it says that a man so hardens his heart. He no longer listens to his conscience. But everyone relies as their sinner. They have a conscience. And you and I know that before we can come to God, we have to come suitably clothed. And you and I come to God in the robe of righteousness which Christ has prepared for us. Where it says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
I understand that should read. Believe into the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Just like Noah and his family got into the ark. I know you know this, but it never says that Noah's family were righteous. It only says Noah was righteous. Now maybe they all believed in God, but the Bible doesn't ever say that they all believed in God. But they were all saved. Why? Because they got into the ark. And you and I, when we get into the Lord Jesus Christ, and how do we do that by faith? by taking His Word. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And when we do that, we get into the Lord Jesus Christ and we're saved. And so they realized that they had to be properly clothed to come into His presence.
And then secondly, they realized that the fig leaves that they had made were not acceptable. They had made them with their own hands, but they were not acceptable. The Scripture tells us that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We're told not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. It's not because of any worth in myself, not because of any thing that I have done, that I am blessed by God. And so the gospel message was preached to Adam and Eve, and they realized that, and no doubt they shared that with their children. And thirdly, they realized that God Himself must provide the covering. We saw that in the twenty-first verse. Unto Adam also and his wife did the Lord God.
make coats of skins and clothes them. In John chapter one, verses eleven to thirteen, it says, He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name, which were born, not of blood. You and I are not blessed because of the family we come from, nor of the will of flesh, not because I do anything to be blessed. nor of the will of man, not because my parents can save me or the preacher can save me, but it says of God. And they realized that to have the blessing God had to provide the way.
We're told to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He provides the covering. And fourthly, they learned that the necessary covering could only be obtained through blood. You see, the animal must die if we were to have his skin. If you want to have an animal's skin, you have to die. I heard a story once of a man who went out hunting, and he had his gun all ready to shoot the bear. And suddenly the bear turned around and saw him with a gun aimed at him. And the bear said, Sir, do you intend to shoot me? And the man said, That's my intention. He said, Why would you want to shoot me? He said, Because I want a bear skin. And the bear said, Well, I was just out in the woods looking for something to eat.
You want a bear skin? I want something to eat. Maybe we could discuss this. And they sat down together and discussed it. And after a while, the bear came out of the woods, and he'd had something to eat, and the man had a bear skin. You see, if he was to have that skin, the bear was going to have to shed his blood. He got a bear skin, but not in the way in which he intended to. But the Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there's no remission for sins. You and I cannot come into blessing with God apart from the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans five, eight through ten says, But God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more than being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Then the twenty-first verse says that as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto life eternal by Jesus Christ our Lord. So it would seem that Cain, as well as Abel, came bringing a sacrifice. They both knew that the thing to do was to come and to offer a sacrifice. They knew how it should be done. The problem was that Cain preferred to do it in his own way.
What then was the primary sin of Cain? What was his sin? The sin was the same sin that Satan had. The sin was the sin of pride. Cain said, I'm going to do it my own way. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to do it in my own way. And pride, of course, is everyone's problem. We all have that problem. I like to tell about my little grandson. He was at the house and they used to live near to us. And I used to take him home. He'd stay over sometimes for a little bit after his mother went home and then I'd take him home later. And then they moved back to Hollywood and it was a hundred and eighty-five miles to take him home. And one day it was time for him to go.
And he didn't want to go. And his mother and dad said, you'll have to come. And he looked at Grandpa and Grandpa said, I'm sorry, Jared, but you'll have to go. He said, But Grandpa, I want to do what I want to do. Well, that's the way it is, isn't it? We all want to do what we want to do. And how often in life we're tested as to pride. You remember that the Lord said to Peter and the other disciples that they were going to be offended because of him. And Peter said, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I. Though all are going to be offended. And the Lord tested Peter, and you remember that The Lord said before the cock crow, you'll deny me thrice.
And he did. He was tempted. And Eve, Cain's mother, she was tempted. You remember the Lord had given this beautiful garden in which to live. And he said, but of that tree you can't eat. The tree of life, you can't eat. Anything else? All for you. But you can't eat of that tree. And you remember Satan said to her, do you think that you'll really die if you eat that tree? So, you know why God doesn't want you to eat that tree? Because if you eat that tree, you'll be just like God. And Eve thought about that. She'd be just like God. And so she ate of the tree. And she did die. She didn't die physically, we know.
But she died spiritually, and you and I are born dead in our sins, the Bible says, because of what she did. She was tempted, and she disobeyed God in pride. Let me remind you again that Cain's works were good works. He came to offer sacrifice and worship to God and that's good. And yet they were evil. He left the spiritual realities out. And it's something that you and I have to be careful of while we're in this world. Whether we're a sinner or whether we're a saint, we have to be careful of leaving out the spiritual reality. You know, if you're here today and you've never put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, Remember that the only way that you can come into blessing with God is God's way.
There's only one way. There's only one way to come to God, and that's through the Lord Jesus Christ. Lots of ways to come to Christ, but there's only one way to come to God, and that's through the Lord Jesus. It's not enough that you come and give your money. It's not enough that you come and worship. It's not enough that you come and do service for God. You have to come in the way in which He has provided. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. Nothing that you and I can do is going to bless us. It has to be through God's way. You remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in Matthew seven.
He said, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy day have done many wonderful works. And he said, And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. You weren't saved and lost. I never knew you. Depart from me. Ye that work what? Iniquity. Ye that work? Iniquity. That's self-will. That's doing it our own way rather than God's way. Not following the will of God. That was Cain's problem.
Cain knew how to do it right. And Cain came with good intentions. And I've had lots of friends. I had one fellow not so long ago who said to me, he said, Carol, if you're going to heaven, I'm going to heaven. And I said, why do you say that? He said, well, I'm just as good a fellow as you are. And I know some of the other fellows in your church. And I'm just as good as they are. And I said, you're absolutely right. He's one of the finest men I know in our area. But I said, you're looking at the wrong measuring stick. The Bible said, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. How do you measure up to God? It isn't important how you measure up to Carol Van Ryn. What is important is how you measure up to God. And as a great many people are going to be lost because they did not take into consideration the spiritual realities of what God says.
They look at the natural and they forget the spiritual. And you and I that know Him as our personal Savior, how often we go our own way. Today you hear a great deal. I preach in a lot of assemblies today. Here, most of you are a little older and you've grown in grace and you love to come, but I speak in a lot of assemblies where there's a lot of young couples. I speak in assemblies where there's a hundred and forty in the morning and there's twenty-two in the evening or less. And where are all those people? Oh, if you talk to them, they'll say, well, you know, I can worship just as well at home or I can worship out on my boat or I can worship at the beach or I can worship in the mountains and that may be true. But you know, God says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
You can't justify from the word of God not being at the meeting. You may justify it. My mother said, it's all right to miss the meeting. Two things. If you're so sick, you can't get out of bed and if you're dead. Those two reasons were ample reasons to miss the meeting. Nothing else as far as she was concerned. And you know, that's the way it is. You know, you and I should... be aware of what God said. We were just studying in First Thessalonians chapter five, and it says that we're to prove all things. You know, many times today, I had a young person the other day question me about something in their assembly, a young couple, about something that the elders requested and they didn't want to do.
And I showed them in the Word of God at their request what I felt the Scripture said about it. It's very plain to me what the Scripture says. They didn't agree. with what the Scripture said. And I said, well, let me ask you, have you talked it over with the elders? You've told me what they believe? Have you talked over? Yes, I have. Would they like you to do that? Yes. I said, then that's what the Scripture tells you you should do. So what do you mean? I said, you're to be subject to the elders. The Scripture is very plain about that. Whether you understand the particular thing they're asking you to do is not important. If you have a problem, prove it with the Word of God. You and I in the day in which we live, we want to be very careful about going our own way. We want to go God's way.
And if you have doubt, look into the Word of God and see what God says. You question your elders and they can't show you from the Word of God, go find in the Word of God. And if it's something that's not plain in the Word of God, do what they say. Do what the elders say. They may be wrong, but that's not your problem. That's their problem. God will judge them for that. God is going to judge you. for what you do with his word. And the word is very plain about following the elders and many other things in the day in which we live. You see, we unfortunately live in one of those days just like it speaks of judges. Everybody did that which was right in his own eyes. But that's not the way it should be. That's what got Cain into trouble.
Cain did that which was right in his own eyes. And then remember we read to you from that portion in Hebrews and it says that Abel, he, meaning Abel, being dead yet speaketh. My father used to speak of him as an able speaker, being dead yet speaking. And, you know, many times we see that expression on the tombstones, don't we, where it says that he being dead yet speaketh. People leave that on, and it's a lot of truth in there. You know, I feel that a great deal of my love for the Lord came from my mother, and she's been gone for a number of years, but I believe that a great deal of my of the way in which I present a message is because of the way she presented the message of God to me.
So in a very real way, she being dead yet speaks. What does he say? Well, he doesn't speak of himself, but he points out to us the value of Christ's death. For it says, by it he was proved righteous. And so it is with you and I. When we take the blood as our offering, we find salvation. and we find that we're blessed and we find that we're made the children of God, as our brother mentioned. Not only are we the children of God, but he quoted that verse that says that he calls us the children of God. You know, I was always my father's child, but I'm not sure he was always proud to announce that to everybody. There were times when he just assumed not of anybody known that I was one of his children.
Not so with God. It says, you and I are called the children of God. And so we, like Abel, we show the value of Christ's death. And it makes us an Abel speaker as well. As we said, both of these men brought good products with good purpose, but Cain's effort was of pride and not of faith. And you know, God loves us to simply take him at his word, to take him by faith. In Genesis four, four we read, it says, Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof, And the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering. You see, in reality, Abel was owning the fact that he was a sinner.
He was owning the fact that God had a right to pronounce upon him divine justice. You see, that's a problem that some people have, too. They don't own that God is the God of the world, and so they don't believe that God has a right to pronounce divine justice. I always loved the story of Joseph. You remember when Joseph was tempted by Potiphar's wife, when he was a ruler. Joseph told her all of the things that Potiphar had done for him. He said, he's given me a good job. He's put me in charge. He never asks anything. Whatever accounting I give him, he accepts that. And then he said, how can I do this great sin and sin against Potiphar? No. He said, and sin against God, because he relies what's true, and that is that all sin...
is against God. Every sin is against God. And Cain, or Abel, I should say, in his offering, was acknowledging the fact that he was under the sentence of condemnation because he had sinned. And so he was bringing a substitute. He was bringing a sacrifice. And he brought a lamb to be that substitute. You see, Cain came to worship. But Cain felt no need of a substitute for himself. Cain just came to bring something to God. He came to worship. And many people do that today. All around this country today, there are church services going on and the people are coming to the worship service.
And they're coming, they say, to worship. But they're not bringing a sacrifice to God, as it were. They're not coming, owning that Christ died for them and accepting Him and presenting God with this sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ, as their right to be there. to worship. And you and I, when we own that the Lord Jesus died for our sins, since sin is against God, he has a right to demand that the sin be paid for. And we come in and we say, you have a right to demand the sin be paid for, and yet I have a right to be here because Christ paid. It's Scripture says that you and I come presenting the Lamb of God.
And what does the Scripture say? We come presenting Jesus Christ the righteous. I like that. passage, I mean that statement. Jesus Christ the righteous. He's my defense attorney. He's my advocate. I don't know if you've ever had to go to court. I thankfully have never had to go to court for myself, but I've been to court a number of times when I was in the insurance business. I used to like to go down and sit in some of the trials. And sometimes our people that we had insured would get a notice through the mail. They were being sued for half a million dollars. And that shakes you pretty good when you got about fifty dollars in the bank and somebody's suing you for half a million and you've never been to court and you know it's kind of nice to have an attorney go to court for you to have an advocate in court but you know the court doesn't care whether that attorney is the biggest crook in town or not they don't care about that he's not on trial you're on trial and they never say this is john smith the righteous they'd find hard to to get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of righteous attorneys a righteous anything in this world.
But nevertheless, they don't say this is John Smith the righteous. They say this is John Smith. He introduced himself, representing so and so. But you see, we have Jesus Christ the righteous because when we go to court, the judge may not know whether the person is guilty or not. Even with all the facts, it may be so confused. But when we appear, God knows we're guilty. God knows we sin. When we appear before God, there's no doubt. And so our attorney steps up and he's Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he says, yes, they did that. But I paid the price. They're here on my righteousness. They're not here on their righteousness. And God can let us go free because we have an attorney who's Jesus Christ, the righteous.
And Abel came by faith. And he believed that God would accept the slain lamb and its blood as a requirement. He no doubt had heard his parents talk about it in a very real way. That's what's true of you and I. We can come into God's presence and we know that He accepts it. How? By faith. We believe God's word and we act upon it. You know, I like that illustration that you find in Luke in the fifth chapter. You remember the Lord had finished preaching from Peter's boat and he suggested to Peter, he said, why don't you launch out here and throw the net over and catch some fish? And Peter respectfully said to the Lord and said, Lord, Now Peter felt like here, I've been a fisherman all my life and you're telling me, he said, we've been fishing all night and we haven't caught anything.
But then he said, nevertheless, if I will, I'll let down the net. And he let down the net. And you remember what happened, he had to have another boat come to help him to pull him in. Nevertheless, if I were, I will let down the net. You see, faith is more than an intellectual assent. Faith is a committal of ourselves to God's Word. Faith involves of necessity, freely acting upon His Word. He said, I will let down the net. God, Abel took God at His Word. And as a result, He offered the correct sacrifice by faith, and He was pronounced righteous. Thus Cain represents the natural man, an Abel the spiritual man, the man born from above, the man who's created anew in Christ Jesus, Jesus I should say, Able represents those who take God's side against two, against themselves.
They say, with God, that man's a sinner. One day I said with God, Carol Van Rine is a sinner. And that was the day that I put myself in a position to be blessed by God. We realize that we're helpless and hopeless, and there's nothing that we can do. Don't forget that both Cain and Abel recognize that they should approach and worship God. That's important. In the little town that I live in, about twenty-eight hundred people, if you talk to a hundred of the natives on the street, they're the people who live there regularly, ninety-nine of them will tell you they're Christians and probably ninety-eight of them go to church on a regular basis, but probably less than twenty percent of them really know how to be saved.
You see? And they both recognized that they had a responsibility to God, too. Both Cain and Abel. They both had the same parents. They both came from Adam and Eve. They both had learned the same things, the same truths, no doubt. But Abel offered by faith, showing that he brought what he'd been told to bring. And Cain would have known that. Cain did not bring fruit instead of sheep because he couldn't get sheep. He brought fruit. instead of sheep because that's what he wanted to do. And I would remind you here, both saved and unsaved today, if you don't take God's will for your life, it will not be because you could not, it will be because you would not.
If you and I do not walk in faith following God as Christians, it's because that's a choice that we make. We make a constant choice to do what we prefer rather than what God asks us to do. And then finally in Hebrews chapter twelve and verse twenty four it says, And to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel, the ultimate difference the scripture teaches us between Cain and Abel was in their character, was not in their characters I meant to say, but in their offerings. It was not in their characters. but it was in their offerings.
You see, Abel was accepted because he offered a bleeding lamb, and Cain was rejected because he refused to offer such. And you and I, as we go through this life as Christians, we're blessed because we're willing to, by faith, offer unto God that which is acceptable unto God from the Word. You know, the Apostle says in Hebrews chapter twelve, let us run with patience the race, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finish of our faith. And what does he tell us It's going to help us in running the race. He says, let us lay aside every sin. He doesn't say that first. He says, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which easily beset us.
You know, there are many things in life that are not evil. Many things in life that are not wrong. But you know, we don't want to lay aside those things. We want to do what we want to do. And so often in our lives, it's not our character. We may have a lovely character. But you see, what we're willing to give to God, we give to God what's left rather than off the top. You see, we should keep what's left, but we give to God what's left. Well, one man told me years ago, he said, I saved, we tried to encourage him to come to a meeting we were having on Friday evenings. He said, nope. Friday evenings is for my children. Thursday evenings is for my bowling.
Tuesday evenings is for my softball. Monday evenings, I forget what club he went to. Wednesday evening he gave to the Bible study and Sunday he gave to the Lord. That was the Lord's share. And he didn't want the Lord getting out of line and wanting more than he was entitled to. That's really, in reality, what he says. And you know, he was a man of lovely character. And you know, many of us are like that. But you know, in the Scripture, we should be willing, the Scripture teaches we should be willing to offer to the Lord the best. And Abel brought the best. He brought what God requested. And you and I look in the Word of God and we see what God asks of us for that day.
We should seek to do it. The difference between those who will go to heaven and those who will go to a lost eternity in a place called hell is a dividing line. And it's right pictured in our story. It's the line of blood. You either accept God's work for you that was done at Calvary's cross. If you're here outside of Christ, the scripture says, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission for sin. If you won't come, not bringing a literal sacrifice, but bringing the work that Christ has done to God, you will not be saved. You remember the night of the Passover in Egypt. You remember that they were to kill the lamb and they eat the lamb and they were to take the blood and they were to put it on the lintel and the two doorposts and the lintel and the two doorposts.
And then it says when the destroying angel came through Egypt, that if the elder son was in the house where the blood was on the door, he'd be saved. Now you could put the blood on the door and if the son went out, he would have been destroyed. His life would have been taken. He had to be in the house. And you see the blessing is, As it said in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews in the twenty-fourth verse, it is the blood of sprinkling that leads us to our ultimate blessing and ultimate salvation. May you and I remember here today that it's not on our works, either as saved or unsaved.
It's not on our character. It's not on our position or our money that we're blessed. Either as a saint or a sinner. It's upon the offering. It's when we put Christ as the object of our heart and present him as our means of blessing. then you and I are going to be made right with God. We pray that this little story again about change, so well known, might remind you of the fact that you and I have the opportunity, day by day, every day. We only live life a day at a time. We don't have tomorrow or yesterday. We only live today. The Apostle Paul said, forgetting those things which are behind, and looking forward to those things that are before, I press toward the mark. That's what he does today. And you and I have today, and may we remember, to seek to live it, offering unto God that which is best, for His namesake.
Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank thee for the privilege of again looking into thy word. We thank thee for thy son and our Savior. We thank thee that he so loved us, that he came in this world to be our Savior. We thank thee, our God and Father, that he died at Calvary's cross and his blood was shed, as pictured in the lamb which Abel offered. So thou didst give him. We read that He's the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. Abel's offering atoned for the sins of that moment, but it didn't take the sins away. But the blood of our Lamb forever takes away the sins of each one of us that have put our trust in Him.
We're so thankful for that great truth. We're thankful our God and Father for the opportunity we have in our hearts to offer unto thee the worship and praise of our hearts, not because