Abel Able, or Making a Good First And Lasting Impression On God
Hebrews 11:4
Soul Structuring Arts—Hebrews 11 Series #4
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Hebrews 11 delineates the soul Structuring Lifestyle Arts that we use to craft a life that pleases the Creator, Designer, God of the Universe. He has not left us in the dark about how He intends for us to live.
In Hebrews 11:4 we start at the beginning of the spiritual quest.
Read Hebrews 11:4.
Read Genesis 4:1-8.
Cain versus Abel: The Right Way and Wrong Way to God: Man’s Way versus God’s Way; Manianity vs Christianity
Verses 4-5 hold the key. The question is, What have you put on the altar before God?” The fruit of our labor? Or the Lamb of God?
Tread gently, this is life or death. There is a murder here. This is man’s religion gone sour.
Nothing in the world is religion designed by God.
Nothing in the world is as cruel as religion designed by man.
Jesus VIDEO of temptations and what man’s religion will do on earth.
Religion murdered Abel, killed prophets, crucified Christ, crusades, inquisition,
Religion has shed more blood, produced more crying and sorrow than all the wars and desolations caused by all the world’s dynasties and politics put together.
Right at the beginning of recorded human life we see the most grotesque evil in our world. And it has continued unabated ever since. This is such a wicked world. This is not how God created it to be. Man is far away from what God intended.
Been talking about creation recently and the possibility of life on other planets both scientifically and Biblically. Someone asked, “Why no communication?”
Worm holes: “Beam me down, Scottie.” Can transport, but the laws of physics make it impossible to put all the information back together and working again.
C.S. Lewis has a fascinating answer.
SLIDE #: Mere Christianity, Screwtape Letters
SLIDE #: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra That Hideous Strength
“God isolates the fallen planets.” Oyarsas: “They are bent.”
I don’t care what you believe about life on other planets, that is rather immaterial. But we all agree that life on this one is Bent.
SLIDE #: Romans 3:23: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
SLIDE #: Romans 6:23: “The Wages of Sin is Death;”
(Death here talks about spiritual death. Separation from God. An inability to approach a holy God who is tremendously disturbed by our sin.
To many this seems absurd, but it is only because we have so little concept of the holiness of God.
Jesus on earth helps us discover the infinite distance between God and us.
Jesus on earth gives a good picture of what Adam looked like before the fall. Controls the weather, talks to the animals, ability to heal transcends natural world.
Man uses only 10 to 12% of available brainpower. What happened to it? Lost it in the Fall.
SLIDE #: Romans 6:23: “The Wages of Sin is Death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ His Son.”
SLIDE #: At the very beginning of the Bible, God announces that The Right Way back to God is by the blood sacrifice.
READ GENESIS 4:1
Named him Cain – “To get something”.
They were thrown out of the Garden. But, before God threw them out, He used His grace to say that He would provide a way that they could come back to Him.
READ GENESIS 3:14-15.
God said to Satan that some day a woman would produce a child who will be the victor over Satan. The child will have his heel bruised, but the child will crush Satan’s head.
By woman came sin. By woman will come the Savior.
Eve lived under the intense guilt of what she had done. She probably said every day, “God, how can I ever undo what I have done?”
Then Cain was born. “Here is the answer! I have gotten a man from the Lord! “ Cain was the important one. So she calls the boy, “To get.” Really means, “He is here.” He was the one to lead them back to God. But, he was her idea—not God’s. Cain turned out to be a murderer.
READ GENESIS 4:2-4a
READ GENESIS 4:4b-5a.
God accepted his gift. Fire from Heaven? Leviticus 9:4, 1 Kings 18:38.
You say, “How unfair of God? How unjust!” On the surface this decision seems to be quite arbitrary. It seems to be a clear-cut case of divine discrimination.
You say, “Didn’t Cain do the best that he could? He brought the best of his crop. Why if Abel was a shepherd and brought a sheep and Cain was a farmer and brought grain, why wouldn’t God accept it?”
It is obvious that God very clearly told both boys what to do to be right with Him.
READ GENESIS 4:6-7.
The implication of verse 7 makes it clear that God had instructed them exactly what to do. He wanted a lamb to be sacrificed on an altar to forgive their sin.
We know this is what God told the boys because this is what Abel did and God approved it. This is not what Cain did and God rejected his.
SLIDE #: One thing is clear. There is no doubt about this. God wanted a blood sacrifice.
WHY BLOOD?
READ LEVITICUS 17:11,14: “The life is in the blood.”
In the human body there are many different kinds of tissues. We define them as muscle, nerve, fat, gland, bone, connective tissues, etc. All these tissues have one thing in common: they are fixed cells, microscopically small and having a specific and limited function.
Unlike these fixed tissues, the blood is fluid and mobile, that is, it is not limited to one part of the body but is free to move throughout the entire body and supply the fixed cells with nourishment and carry off the waste products and the “ashes” of cell activity.
In the normal human body there are about five quarts of this fluid, and this blood pumped by the heart circulates through the system about every twenty-three seconds, so that every cell in the body is constantly supplied and cleansed.
He’s telling us here there’s life inside that blood. Now you and I know that. There are forces of death in our bodies at this moment which are only being held back because there’s still blood flowing through our bodies.
Why, you just let the blood stop, and in ten minutes and less in many instances, those forces are set free and the process of irreversible decay begins to destroy that flesh. The only thing that holds those forces back is that blood which brings life.
READ HEBREWS 9:22. “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.”
DID YOU EVER WONDER WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS BLOOD?
4 suggestions:
BUILD SLIDE #: 1.) Crusades – “authentic” blood of X brought back on rags and sold throughout Europe.
BUILD SLIDE #: 2.) Tradition in Church of Holy Sepulchre – cross stood over grave of Adam – blood dripped on grave and covered all sin of Adam’s race.
BUILD SLIDE #: 3.) Some say it just returned to dust.
BUILD SLIDE #: 4.) Hebrews 9:12 – “But when X appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come…He entered once for all into the holy place (in heaven), taking not the blood of goats and calves, but His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”
If we omit the blood, we silence God. If we oppose the blood, we rob God of the glory due His name. In Hebrews 12:22-24 the blood is at the top of the list.
Because of Adam, the whole human race has sinned. We all are guilty.
SLIDE #: READ AND EXPLAIN ROMANS 5:12.
SLIDE #: READ and EXPLAIN ROMANS 5:18-19.
One man brought sin into the world—God designed for one God-Man to take it away.
Saving faith, in its simplest form, is the placing of a Substitute between my guilty self and a sin-judging God.
READ GENESIS 3:7, 21.
God was here teaching by picture four things:
BUILD SLIDE #: First, in order for a sinner to stand before a holy God, he needs a covering.
BUILD SLIDE #: Second, that which is of human manufacture is worthless (3:7).
BUILD SLIDE #: Third, God Himself must provide the required covering.
BUILD SLIDE #: Fourth, the necessary covering could only be provided by blood-shedding.
The precious blood of salvation is woven throughout the Bible like the central motif of a priceless piece of tapestry. The scarlet thread runs through every page.
SLIDE #: When God demanded a proper sacrifice for Cain & Abel He demanded? The Blood of lamb! The first lamb was Abel’s lamb – one lamb for one man.
SLIDE #: At the Passover when Death Angel passed through Egypt what was placed on door posts? The Blood of lamb! – One lamb for one family.
SLIDE #: When high priest entered Holy Place in Jerusalem on Day of Atonement to ask forgiveness for sins of Israel what did he take in with him? The blood of an unblemished lamb—one lamb for one nation.
SLIDE #: When God demanded one final sacrifice to pay for the sins of all the world for all time, He took the blood Jesus Christ at Calvary – one lamb for one world.
GOD’S GLOSSARY
SLIDE #[s-1360 #11: Ransom: Christ used His own blood as the purchase price necessary to buy us out of our slavery to sin.
Read 1 Peter 1:18-19.
Man is in bondage to sin—not to Satan. Read Romans 7:14.
Romans 7 – “It’s sin in me that causes me to act like I do.”
My sins bring great bondage…gluttony…bitterness…gossip…just can’t get ultimate control. Still do it and can’t get victory.
Illustrate bondage of sin with nightmare – can’t wake up and can’t move and can’t holler for help. Sin is just like that.
An African woman was terrified when she discovered a poisonous six-foot Mamba snake slithering down the hallway of her home. She called an exterminator to remove the snake. When he arrived it took him several hours to locate the snake. It was nesting in the mattress of the woman’s bed.
Sin is like that deadly snake. It entered our blood stream when Adam chose to turn from God. The anti-venom is the blood of Christ.
SLIDE #: SACRIFICE OF ATONEMENT: Jesus sacrificed himself so that we could live.
The judgment of death is upon us. He died in our place.
1 John 2:2 and 4:10
Romans 3:25
Barbara Brigham: Mom had breast cancer; was pregnant. Estrogen production for baby was fueling the cancer’s growth. Wanted to abort the baby to stop her production of estrogen and to begin massive chemotherapy.
She delayed and the baby is alive and well today—about to graduate from high school. She died less than two years after he was born.
Back in the days of the great depression, a Missouri man named John Griffith was the controller of a great railroad drawbridge across the Mississippi River. One day in the summer of 1937 he decided to take his eight year old son, Greg, with him to work. At noon, John Griffith put up the drawbridge to allow ships to pass and sat on the observation deck to eat lunch with his son. Time passed quickly.
Suddenly he was startled by the shrieking of a train whistle in the distance. He looked at his watch; it was the 1:07 train from Memphis, with 400 passengers on board, roaring toward the raised bridge!
He leaped leaped up and ran back to the control tower. Just before throing the master lever, he glanced down for any shops below. Ther a sight caought his eye that caused his heart to leap into his throat. Grge had slipped from the observation deck and fallen into the massive gears that operated the bridge. His left leg was caught in the cogs of two main gears. Desperately John’s mind whilred to devise a rescue plan. But he knew it was too late.
The train whistle shrieked in the air. He heard the clicking of the locomotive wheels over the tracks. That was his son down below—yet there were 400 passengers on the train. John knew what he had to do. So, he buried his head in his left arm and pushed the master switch forward.
The massive bridge lowered into place just as the Memphis Express roared across the river. When John Griffith lifted his head with his face smeared with tears, he looked into the passing windows of the train. There were business men casually reading their afternoon papers, finely dressed ladies in the dining car sipping coffee, and children pushing long spoons into their dishes of ice cream.
No one looked at the control house and no one looked down into the gear box. With wrenching agony, john Griffith cried, “I sacrificed my son for those people and nobody cares.”
SLIDE #: SUBSTITUTE: Jesus was punished for our sin in our place.
Romans 5:6-11
When I was a boy I often heard preachers talk about the Christian doctrine of Salvation. And the Biblical picture of salvation was often portrayed like this.
The preacher would hold up a dirty water glass. (Hold up dirty glass.)
“See this glass?” he says. “That’s you. Filthy, stained with sin, inside and outside.”
And that is really true. We all are filthy and dirtied by sin.The bible teaches this clearly.
ROMANS 3:23 sums up the Biblical teaching: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
It begins when we are children. 1st sin I remember was stealing a toy covered wagon from the boy next door. I was apprehended by nightfall and duly punished. None of us can say, I have not sinned.”
And there is a severe penalty for sin. ROMANS 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death.”
The preacher then picked up a hammer.
“This hammer is the judgment of God. Justice can be satisfied only by punishing and destroying sinners whose lives are filled with sin and corruption.”
He put the glass on the pulpit, and slowly, deliberately drew back the hammer clenched in his fist, took deadly aim, and prepared to let the blow fall to shatter the dirty glass.
But, at the last moment the preacher covered the glass with a metal pan. [Hit the pan with the hammer hard]. [Hold up the undamaged dirty glass.]
The preacher would say, “Jesus Christ died for our sins. He took the punishment which ought to have fallen on us.”
SLIDE #: [s-1360 #20] MERCY SEAT: If you don’t get anything else, get this picture. God sits on the “mercy seat” and flat out forgives us.”
Hebrews 9:5
After all of this, Cain is not interested. He wants to do it his way.
SLIDE #: [fruit on the altar] The WRONG Way back to God
Genesis 4:3: “Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.”
Can was no infidel. He came to God as a worshipper.
Many worship God today – but refuse to do it God’s way.
The way of Cain is a popular way because it appeals to the ego of the sinner. “You don’t need a substitute.” Cain proudly announces. “You can make it by yourself. To accept the sacrifice of Christ is to admit that you are not good enough like you are, and that really isn’t necessary. Your character and good works will get you into Heaven.”
Cain stands for all time as the Father of Man’s Religion. Man’s Religion is any religion that tries to come to God in any other way than the one that God has prescribed.
That is why, ultimately in comparative religions, there are only two religions in the world. Man saves, or God saves. And every world religion comes down to Man saves.
I don’t care what it is, man either does good things or meditates, or reincarnates up by good built up karma, It is more than good works and earning it, it is a manianity.
Man must do something. HE must feel something, experienced something, pay something, produce something, produce something.
What they differ in is only in what the something is to be. This accounts for the vast number of religious systems that have evolved in world history. They are called religions.
Mormon fruit on the altar
JW’s
Bahai
Buddhists
Hindu
Muslims
Do versus Done
The one rests on what God says, the other rests on what man thinks.
The one rests on what Christ has done, the other rests on what man can do.
These two words sum up and embody the two: Do and Done.
“Are you going to Heaven?” “I hope so.” There is a person on his way to Hell. Trying to arrive by his own goodness and abilities.
You must respond. The Biblical requisite is faith—trust. Transferring your faith from you to what Jesus did on the cross.
If you were to die right now, do you know for a fact that you would go to heaven?
If you did die and God were to examine you and ask you, “Why should I let you in?”
Would your response be? A resume? A list of all the good things you have done?
You are not a Christian, you are a Billian, or a Susian, or Jimina. All of your faith is in you. God saves those whose faith is in Christ. He can forgive you, save you, seal you, and take you to glory.
James Dobson tells of a lady, a beautiful lady, and because of some sort of accident a nerve was severed in her face—and her face sagged down on one side—and she was disfigured. She was in the recovery room after the operation and she was deathly afraid, after so much of her self esteem being built on so much of her beauty, so much of her self concept being built on her loveliness, and here she was disfigured.
Her husband came in and sat on the edge of the bed, and she thought all of the worst, and he sat and just looked at her, and he smiled. He looked at her mouth and he kind of mirrored her mouth on his, and he kind of crooked it a bit like hers, and he said, “Looks kind of cute.” And he took his crooked lips and pressed them down to her crooked lips.
Now that is divine love. He loves people with imperfect lips.
Substitution
A particular church received the personal greeting from the Kejave Medical Center Staff in Kenya containing the following amazing story.
Eight year old Monica broke her leg as she fell into a pit. An older woman, Mama Njeri, happened along and climbed into the pit to help Monica out. IN the process, a dangerous black Mamba snake bit both Mama Njeri and Monica. Monica was taken to Kejave Medical Center and admitted. Mama Njeri went home, but never awoke from her sleep. The next day a perceptive missionary nurse explained Mama njeri’s death to Monica, tellingher that the snake had bitten both of them, but all of the snakes’s poisin was expended on Mama Njeri; none was given to Monica.;
The nurse then explained that Jesus had taken the poison out of Monica’s sin so that she could have a new life. It was an easy choice for Monica. She received Jesus as her Lord and Savior on the spot.
