Thou 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. The Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? He said, What hath thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood cryeth unto me from the ground. Now thou art cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tellest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. came said unto the Lord my punishment is greater than I can bear behold thou driven me out this day from thy face the face of the earth and from thy face shall I be him and I shall be a fugitive in the back of bond in the earth that it shall come to pass that everyone that findeth me shall slay me 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 of Eden. Cain did not die immediately. He was the founder of the Key Knights, which became a great nation. Now this morning we have the first child who was ever born into the world naturally. That is, Adam and Eve were not born naturally. God created Adam, and then he took rib out of Adam, and out of that he formed Eve. So Cain was the first child ever born into the world naturally. And that is something, isn't it, because he became the first murderer. And I was thinking this week, I'd never thought of it before, that We read about Satan and the Lord Jesus said in the eighth of John, he said he's a murderer from the beginning. Satan is a murderer from the beginning. And it goes back to that time when Satan challenged the throne of God. He challenged God's supreme authority. And he says, I will ascend into the hill of the Lord. I will be like the most high, filled with pride and God hurled him up. He was a murderer. And very strange, your Bible says that Cain was of that wicked one and slew his brother, meaning that Cain was a child of the devil. Cain was of that wicked one and slew his brother. And there's a warning in the Bible about woe be unto them who go in the way of Cain. And Cain was a very religious man. Yet God warned any who will go in the way of pain. It's a strange thing, too, that the first family that ever lived on this earth was a divided family. Three were saved and one was lost. Adam and Eve were saved and Abel were saved. Pain was lost. It's very strange to go through the Bible and sad to think of many divided families. You think of Aaron, the high priest of Israel, two of his sons, came under the judging hand of God. Eli, also in the beginning of the Samuel, they too came under the judging hand of God. Because they approached God with strange fire, and they were wicked. That is, Aaron's sons and Eli's sons, they were wicked. That's around the temple of the Lord. They did things that were terrible, and God smoothed them. And, dear David, the man after God's own heart, had two sons lost. Isn't strange to see divided families. Some go to heaven, some go to heaven. And when the Lord Jesus comes, there's going to be a lot of them. Well, the Bible says when Christ comes, those who are saved are going to be caught up. He says two shall be in a field. One shall be taken, the other left. Two farmers working side by side. All of a sudden one disappears, the others left. Christ has come and caught away one. Two shall be working in the mill or in the factory. One shall be taken, the other left. And he not only comes a little closer, the farmer to the factory, but to the family. Two shall be in a bed. One shall be taken, the other left. Saddened. When the Lord comes, the saved will go, the unsaved, left behind for judgment. But that's not God's will. God wants household saved. You find that over in Acts chapter sixteen. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. God wants to see a whole household saved. And it's not his will that any family is divided in eternity. If they were united in time in Christ, they'll never be divided in eternity. These are solemn things. Another thing I was thinking about this week, there are four literal rivers that flowed out of Eden's garden. You can read them. You've got an old map of what Eden was like, of that land was like many years ago. You'll find there were four rivers. There was the Paisal River, the Euphrates River, the Gaihan, and the Hiddichel. These four literal rivers went out from Eden. But there were two rivers, came out of Eden, unseen. You can't touch them. Because these two rivers run through the thoughts, the minds, and hearts of men. And they had their heads in pain and in able. Yes, it's wonderful to think of pain. or rather Abel, and the river that flowed from his altar, the faith he had in God when he brought a lamb, and it was offered. But here is Cain, and there's a river that flowed from Cain, who was of that wicked one, and he represents religion without Christ. There's a big difference between Christianity and religion. Religion began in this world. Religion began in time. It began with Cain. But Christianity began in eternity past. For it says in the Bible, Christ was the land slain before the foundation of the world. And this river that began from Cain, it's a wide river. It's a deep river. It has many tributaries, all kinds of false doctrines flowing into it like tributaries. and is widened and deepened as the centuries have passed. It embraces everything outside the Lord Jesus Christ. But Abel's river, it's not a wide one, but it's the safe one. It's crimson by the blood of Christ. It's the river of faith and of sacrifice. All the Jewish offerings pointed forward to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And so this river of faith, this river of grace, ah, yes, it's a wonderful river, and it's been winding its way through the generations of men right from the day that Abel offered up that offer. And it's crimson made rich by the blood of Christ, but it flowed because it flowed by way of Calvary. And when a man's thoughts rest upon what Jesus did, and he's trusting what the Lord Jesus Christ did, that pleases God, and he's in that river that will empty into heaven's glory, washed in the precious blood of Christ. The Lord Jesus brings us over in Matthew chapter seven. He says, wide is the gate, broad is the way that lead us unto death and darkness unto death. That's wise. It's wrong. But it's as narrow as the way that leadeth unto life. And so you have the two ways the Lord brings it out. Here you have two rivers. I wonder if you know what it is, the drink of the little river that flows from the truth of Abel's order. Approach to God by sacrifice. That's it. So you have the one river, the river of faith, the other is the river of unbelief. You have the river of grace, the river of works, the river of redemption, the other is the river of ritual. You know, when you stop to think of these two young men, both of them had thoughts of their standing before God. They must have. Before the day came, we don't know how old they were, when all of a sudden it could have been a decided to keep between themselves. We're going to approach the Lord. So Cain went to the farm. He was a farmer, agriculturalist, and he got the fruits of the ground, the very best he could get, and the very best grains of wheat, and other things that came from the garden, likely a few flowers, but, oh, he built a wonderful altar. He went to Great Pains, and he laid everything in order, and he made it as attractive as he could. And he thought, now I couldn't do better than this. I've got the best of my land. I've watched over these fruits, these vegetables. And I've gathered the choices of them. And I put them upon this altar. And I'm going to approach God with my offering to him. Well, he did. God says, Cain, I don't want a thing to do, Your Honor. I won't accept it, because I won't accept your offering, I won't accept you. For there's one thing I've often said from this pulpit, the offering and the offerer stand or fall together. If God accepts your offering, He'll accept you. If God rejects your offering, He'll reject you. My tins alter and offering works. the works of his own hand, the best he could do, but God wouldn't accept it. What about Abel? Abel built his little altar, and he went to the flock, and he got a little lamb. And he brought the little lamb. He laid it on that little altar, and he drove the knife into it, staining its little wool with blood. And he said, Oh God, this is my offering. And God had respect unto Abel and his offering. But he didn't have respect unto David. Why did God accept the one and reject the other? Abel didn't bring anything with the works of his own hands. He brought a live land, something God had delivered. God gives light. And when Abel came, He came as a sinner. He came as a man lost, knowing the holiness of God. And he brought his lamb, and God accepted it. And he accepted Abel. But he rejected Cain. Now why do you find these two sons so different? You can't conceive of Adam and Eve talking to these two boys. and telling Cain one story and telling Abel another story. No question about it. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God and Cain or Abel over in Hebrews eleven. By faith, Abel offered unto God a more acceptable sacrifice than gain. His faith came from healing. Where did he hear this? Heard it from his parents. and you can see Adam and Eve sitting down and going over the story how God had made Adam perfect and how he had taken a rib from Adam while he was asleep and out of it he formed Eve and he blocked them together and he said, now Adam, he's your wife and how happy they were in that garden until Dave sinned. God drove them out of the garden. And it was when they went outside the garden that these two boys were born. They were born with a fallen nature in them. They were born with a sinful nature. But they tell the story. Well, boys, we sinned. We disobeyed God. We partook of the tree we shouldn't have partaken of. And we thought, now we've got to try and remedy this situation. And they went to the fig tree, and they took off all these lovely fig leaves, and they made themselves aprons. They thought, well, where we are, the way we are, we're not acceptable to God. We're naked. And so they made aprons of fig leaves. But they heard God approaching the garden, and they fled. Amen. a sense of guilt seized them, that they weren't quite ready to meet the Lord. And they fled. And God says, Where art thou, Adam? He says, We're here behind the tree, and we heard your voice, and we were afraid. Why were you afraid? Why they weren't afraid before they sinned. They weren't afraid of God's approach. They rejoiced them. Now sin brings fear. And how they went over this story to their children. You know, what we put on, those big leaf aprons were like works of our own hands, and God wouldn't accept that. He killed little animals, and he shed their blood, and he clothed us. He clothed us. And then God could have fellowship with us. Because when God looked at us, he saw death. He saw bloodshed. And he accepted us and he communed with us. So there's the story of the gospel. It all began there. But here is Cain. He's listening to the same story about how God saved his parents and accepted them, clothed them on the basis of shed blood. Cain thinks, well, I don't think that's a good thing to do. Look at that little animal, innocent little animal. Why? I kill it. I'm going to bring an offering that I think will be just as acceptable to God, and I don't have to take any life, and therefore he brought this offering. The Bible says in the New Testament, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin. Cain approached God on the basis of his works. He approached God on the basis of what he thought. was a way to approach God. And here was his first step in his downward path, self-will. Self-will. He didn't do what his parents had said. He didn't follow what they told him about how God could be approached. And so his first step was one of self-will. Then they came when the three boys were out on the farm. Evidently, no one else was there. The only ones then living with their parents. They must have been in a quiet place. And the few boys began talking. And Cain thought, this is my chance. And he killed his brother Abel. Why did he do that? The Bible tells us. Because if brothers' works were righteous and his own works were evil, he was jealous of Abel. Abel evidently was a happy young fellow. Why shouldn't he be? He approached God in God's way. He was saved. He knew the living God and he was happy. Was Cain going around with a crowded face angry? He was. It tells you in our passage. Cain was angry because God rejected his offering. And Cain thought, well, I see my brother run around here happy and Evernly, the Lord thinks his life's better than mine. His works are better than mine. He's more righteous than I am. Cain couldn't take it. And he killed, able, and likely buried him. There's silence. Then God comes to Cain. He said, Where's your brother? I know not. He lied. Not only did he approach God in the wrong way, on the basis of his works, He lied, and the devil is the liar from the beginning. How like the devil, Cain, walked. He lied. He says, I don't know where Abel is. I'm my brother's keeper. God says, I saw what you did, and your brother's blood is crying unto me from the ground. And now you're cursed, Dave. You're a cursed man. And he was thrown out. God says hard labor from now on, hard labor. And you're driven out from the presence of the Lord. That's an awful expulsion. But friend, that's going to be repeated in the coming judgment. There are going to be millions upon millions of men and women who are going to be driven out from the presence of the Lord. Why? Because they didn't approach God by way of Calvary and precious blood. that's why and they didn't like those people who go around talking about I'm saved by grace I know I'm saved I know my sins are forgiven I know the Savior they don't like that they don't like that and so trained in life and he killed his brother or he was it was too bad to shed blood of a little lamb that was an awful kind of religion But he wasn't slack in slaying his own brother and killing human blood. And he was a liar. And God pronounced the sentence of judgment upon Cain. And Cain went to hell. But he was of that wicked one. And God cursed him. And woe be unto them, says God, who go in the way of Cain. Now Cain was a smart man. He was the founder of the Kenites, and they were powerful people. Likely came rest of his life. He lived for this world and material things only. What a scar to have upon his conscience. I murdered my own brother. I was the first child ever born into this world normally and naturally. I became the first murderer and my brother was the first martyr. And the Cays have been killing the Ables ever since. Martyrs, yes, missionaries, have died by the thousands. Those who preach the blood of Christ, those who preach the old-fashioned gospel have paid with their lives by those who don't like the old-fashioned gospel. They like to think of their good life, their good works, their literature. This is the way. And they don't like that old gospel. It comes too close because man has got to acknowledge he's a sinner and he needs to repent of what he can be saved. All the people who are following Cain, clean, moral, respectable, upright, intelligent, they haven't come to the precious blood of Christ yet. which cleanseth from all skin. And that wide road the Lord speaks on, and that wide river, it goes all the way from the vilest of the vile, the most wicked of men and women, all the way across to the other side where you have those who are clean, religious, extremely religious, and honest. And there's no middle road, then. There's no middle path. It's either the narrow way or it's the broad way. That's what your Bible teaches. The Lord said that. I didn't. Are you on the narrow way that lead us unto life? I drove down last night from Atlanta, a young fellow from out near Moultrie was driving, and we got talking, and I said, Bobby, Bobby, can you say that you're saved? Well, he said, Mr. Wilson, I couldn't say that. He said, I think maybe down in my heart, I believe. Well, I said, there are three classes of people in the world. Those who are lost and they know it. Those who are saved and know it. And those who are seeking, they don't know either one, seems. But down the middle. Well, that's where he went. Friend, it's a nice thing to know you are saved. It's a sad thing to know you're lost and not doing anything about it. Oh, how wonderful to know I'm saved. And I know this. I know I'm saved. You'll notice what God did in his grace. He said to Cain, and he gave him a chance. He says, Cain, if do, I'll do as well. I've rejected you because I've rejected your altar. You came the wrong way. Why didn't you come the way of your brother Abel? And I don't want your altar. There's no blood in it. It's all your works. If thou doest well, will thou not be accepted? If you do what Abel did, art accepted. Do you know what God did? God caused a little lamb to leave the flock at the right over and crouch at Cain's tent door. Unto thee, says God. shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over that little animal the desire of that little lamb and that word sin lie that thy door and thy door in the Hebrew means the same thing as a sin offering a sin offering is at your door came and that little lamb came right over there came right over there and he's right at your door and the desire of that little lamb is toward you he wants to be slain in your place for your sins But he says, thou shalt rule over. You've got the authority to even take that lamb and offer it up or drive it away. What did Cain do? He drove it away. He didn't want to approach God by way of blood. And the same friend that God has made for this. His Son came all the way from heaven. And he stands at your heart's door this morning. He says, then in Revelation three-twenty, Behold, I stand at the door knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I'll come into him and sit with him and he with me. God's son is at your heart's door. He's on the doorstep. And unto you is his desire. He has a desire towards you. That's why he went to the cross that he wants to save. He wants to put away your sins. But he's not going to break that door down. thou shalt rule over you have the authority to accept or reject Jesus Christ let him in or drive him away man's deceit how often sinners have heard the approaching footsteps of the Son of God as conviction grew and they heard that voice coming louder and louder and those footsteps getting louder and louder and the Lord stepped on the step of your door And you were almost ready to give in. You were almost ready to accept Christ. And a struggle ensued. Christ came so close to you. Maybe through the death of a loved one. He's coming very close. He's on the doorstep. He's faced with about a thousand people in Atlanta yesterday. Loved them one day. We mentioned the fact how close people can come being a Christian and not. And so the Lord Jesus is crouching at your heart door this morning, but he's not going to break the door down. The handle is on the inside of that door, and you're the one that's got to open it. If Christ broke in every door, he'd have to do that with everybody in order to be righteous. But he's leaving it up to the individual's decision. Do you want me or don't you? He's not going to come into a door that doesn't want him. He's not going to come into a heart of a life that doesn't want him. He'll come into the heart that wants him. And that's where he stands this morning. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and sup with him and he with me. Isn't that nice? one bowl and two spoons, that's communion. He said, I'll come in and I'll sup with you and you with me. That was a happy day when I got saved at the age of nineteen when I found myself enjoying communion with the Lord Jesus. And that's the way the Jews used to do it even today in the Middle East often going back to their old rituals they ate out of one dish. I was in Newport News a number of years ago having meetings. And there were two Arab families there. And they invited me up. I never saw such a big bowl in my life. Food. Why, there was everything in it. There were no plates around there. You just reached in and took what you wanted. They wanted to express fellowship. Fellowship. We're on one level. Let's enjoy this thing together. That's what happens when a person opens his or her heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's fellowship. I'll come in and suffer with him and he with me. How wonderful to have this fellowship. You know when God accepts a sinner on the basis of the blood of Christ, He accepts that sinner into the same place for the same length of time as he accepted his son. Nineteen hundred years ago, the Lord Jesus Christ was a sacrifice on Calvary's cross. God was so pleased with the sacrifice of his son, on the third day he raised him from the dead. And he took him up and seated him in his own right hand in the heavens. And those of us who are saved born again, we're seated with Christ in the heavenly places. God looks upon Christ and He sees me because I'm in Christ. I'm in Christ. And I'm in Christ. How long? I'm in Christ as long as Jesus Christ sits at God's right hand. He is my offering. He is my representation. And as long as Jesus Christ sits there, I am accepted in Christ. The Bible says that. We are accepted in the beloved one. And if I'm accepted in Christ, I'm accepted into the same place, the presence of God, for the same duration of time. And Jesus Christ has been accepted by God forever. And I'm saved forever. Isn't that a wonderful thing? Well, that's what God has given to all those who put their faith and trust in His Son. God will accept you entirely on the basis of what you offer Him. You're offering him your clean light. If you're offering him all the good things, this young fellow I was talking to last night, thirty-two years of age, you may be able to hear some Sunday morning, you live down between Sylvester and Mulder. And he started saying, well, I don't do this. And I don't do that. I don't take people. And I said, I don't see anyone. I said, that's a lot of negatives. You're going to heaven on the basis of what you don't do. He said, that's right. Well, I said, God's not going to save you on the basis of what you told you. He will only save you and accept you on the basis of your accepting his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as your personal Savior. That's the only way I'll accept you. You've got to come by way of the cross. There's no other way to come, but through Christ. And if I come to God and say, oh, God, I have a preacher. I've been preaching for fifty years. And I've seen quite a few people saved, and I've lived a clean life. I haven't stolen. I haven't told a lie to my knowledge. And God says, oh, for that. Enough of that. God won't accept anybody on that basis. But, Lord, I give you a million dollars. Enough of that. But, Lord, I've been baptized. I remember the church. Enough of that. Well, Lord, I've been Christian. I've been confirmed. That's enough of that. God says, if you come to me offering Jesus Christ as your substitute, as the one who took your place and suffered for you on the cross, and your sins were laid upon him and he bore them, and I punished him for you, if you approach me as a guilty repentant sinner and offer to me Jesus Christ as your substitute and Savior your offering, God says, I'll accept you. And that's the only way I'll accept you. You think of Muhammadism, and all the other religions, Hinduism, modernism, all those who do not believe in the precious blood of Christ as a sole way of salvation, they are on that broad way or on that broad, swift river, they are sweeping millions down to the gulf of the lost determinants. But all those religious religions that believe in ritual and good works, there they are. That's what Cain, that's what Cain did. woe be unto them who have gone in the way of Cain. The only way God will accept you if you come by the way of Abel. By faith, you read this in Hebrews chapter eleven, by faith Abel offered unto God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. God wouldn't accept Cain's offer. By it, God said he was righteous. Yes, friend, and you can only be righteous. Do right when you accept Jesus Christ as the one who suffered dead and died. And it's now at God's right hand. And only through Jesus Christ can you ever get to heaven. John, fourteen, six, I am the way, the truth, and the light. No man, no woman, no boy, no girl, no king, no cargo, no man. come with unto the Father, but thy means. There's another way. If you try any other way, you're going to go in the way of Cain. God will not accept you. He'll reject you. And Cain was given out from the presence of the Lord. That's what's going to happen to everyone that doesn't come to Jesus Christ. He'll give it out eternally. from the presence of the Lord. If salvation were by good works, how would you know when you've done enough? You don't know when you've done enough to save you. And if you're going to depend upon doing the best you can, how do you know when you've done your best? Many a person has told me that in my life. Well, I'm doing the best I can. I said, analyze that. Have you really done the best you can? then they start backing up. Well, I guess they haven't. But, friend, when you come by way of the cross, Jesus Christ, is not what I've done at all. I told this to a young fellow last night, I said, Bobby, I'm not saved because I've been preaching all these years. I'm saved because of what Jesus Christ did for me, not because of what I did for him. I'm saved by the grace of God, and I'm no more saved today than I was when I was saved at the age of nineteen. I know a little more. But I said, I was saved that night. Christ was mine. I had eternal life. I knew it never perished. But I'm still rejoicing in the same thing. That's it. Cain's religion was due. His work, religion was due. Do, do, do, do this, do that, do the other thing. Abel's religion was done. P-O-N-E. done Christ on the cross says it is finished and you can't add to that Jesus says it is finished finished every job sinner this is all you need tell me is it not how wonderful to come by way of the altar by way of the cross by the way of bloodshed why does God demand blood because God says In the day that we just let off, thou shalt truly die. And sin has got to be punished, and there's one punishment for sin, and that's death. Therefore, God says your sins got to be punished, and the only way I can punish it is by death. Either you die for your own sin and go to the second death, which is the lake of fire, or you believe that I laid your sins on my son and punished him in your place. And his blood was shed for you. And therefore your sin was punished by death. The death of your substitute, the death of my son. You come that way. And it won't cost you a dime. It won't cost you a nickel. It'll cost you your pride. They'll come just as a lost sinner. Saying, Lord, here I am, I'm just a sinner. I tried to do the best that I failed. And life really doesn't have real meaning. I would like to know my sins forgiven. I would like to know I'm saved. I would like to know my name's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I would like to know I have eternal life now. And all that salvation is essential for me to go to heaven. The work's been done. I don't have to do it. I've done it. Jesus did it. Did it all long, long ago. He did it at the cross. And if you believe the story in this book that God tells us, of what happened at Calvary, how Jesus Christ took your place, and God put your sins in him, and punished him in your stead. Christ died for me. He suffered in his own body on the tree. He was wounded for my transgressors. He was bruised for my iniquities. The chastisement of my sin was laid upon him, and with his stripes I am healed. That's God's salvation. Christ also at once suffered for sin. He the just, for me the unjust, that I'm under God for God. Jesus Christ only suffered once, nineteen hundred years ago, and he'll never suffer again. If Jesus Christ ever suffered for my sins, it was a calibrate. And that's exactly what he did. And when I believed the Bible account of that, that Jesus died for me then, and my sins were laid upon him then, God says he the belief of half an everlasting life. Christ also of the ones suffered. He won't suffer a second time. He suffered once. God says you need to believe that and be saved or disbelieve it and be lost. Will you accept Jesus Christ this morning as your substitute, as your savior, the one who suffered in your stead and paid your debt? And God says he'll take faith to believe it, but without faith It's impossible to believe God. Never mind your feelings. Will you, by faith, believe God's word? What he's telling you about what happened at Calvary, you'll be saved. Will you accept Jesus Christ? Will you accept him today? Will you accept him this morning? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to thy presence. We thank thee for thy holy word. We thank thee for the simplicity of the gospel, given to us at the very dawn of the human race. Father, we thank thee. Thou didst inform those who send at the beginning what salvation was and how men might approach to thee. And we're grateful for those who approach thee by way of the cross, for the way of the cross leads home. We pray for those who have not come this way. For it is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the way that ought to the way of death. Thy way is perfect. May many women this morning come thy way, the way of the cross, the way of thy son, and the sacrifice of Calvary, and be saved. Be saved for time and saved for eternity. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's tell me, sing in closing, three hundred and seventy-six. Three hundred and seventy-six. Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night. Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come into thy freedom, gladness, and light. Jesus, I come to thee. What wonderful words. Will you come to Christ this morning? as we stand in the same this lovely hymn. Thank you for my love. Verse two of their last unless someone comes to Christ. What have you against the Lord Jesus if you don't want it? What is it so terrible of being about being a Christian? What is there so awful about being saved and going to heaven? You'd think you'd want these things. They're the only thing