New Testament reading to Matthew chapter 23, you find in your pew Bibles on page 1052. We won't read the whole chapter, we'll just read the first three verses and then verses 27 to 36. This whole chapter is a pronouncement of judgment upon the Pharisees from Christ himself. Matthew 23, beginning of verse 1, then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses's seat. And so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works that they do for they preach, but they do not practice. Now down to verse 27, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs. which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. What do you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for? You build the tombs of the prophets and you decorate the monuments of the righteous saying, if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them and shedding the blood of the prophets. Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your fathers, you serpents, you brood of vipers. How are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore, I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth. from the blood of the righteous, Abel, to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." Now turning with me one last time to the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, Didn't think I'd be a one-verse preacher guy, but here we are. We're just going to focus on one verse today, but we'll read verses 1 to 6 for context. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their testimony or their commendation. By faith we understand that the Universe was created or shaped by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending or testifying him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him diligently. Well, this is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Gracious God and Father, as we Take the time now to consider your word. We ask that you would give us a hearing hearts, hearts that would not only understand what your word is testifying to us, but hearts empowered and enabled by your spirit to believe all that you have commanded and all that you've promised for the sake of Christ our savior. We pray. Amen. I remember about a decade ago, I was watching TV. I'd been out of my folks' home finally for about a year or two, living in the next town over. But to my surprise, I turned on the television, on the news, I find not just the evening news but the national news, news reporters scattered in my very neighborhood. It turns out what had happened was there's a little girl in our neighborhood on her way home from school one day, seven-year-old girl by the name of Summer Thompson, who had been abducted, assaulted, and then murdered in an abandoned house about four homes down from my parents. of a national tragedy and one that was very surreal talking with my parents on the phone. Talking to my dad is how he and my mom had to meet with the FBI as the FBI was going from door to door to door trying to find who the killer was and investigating everybody in the community. The local church, First Baptist Church of Orange Park, had a massive vigil. The family remembers there. They had these big signs that they had all up throughout the neighborhood that said, Justice for Summer. And we hear stories like this, and particularly stories on how the guy never gets caught. And I think the good news here, we find that within a matter of weeks, the bad guy was caught. He confessed and is serving a life sentence. We find even the home itself in which the girl was murdered was, if I recall correctly, raised to the ground, and they erected a park in her name and in her honor. Everybody in the community gathered around and established a network, watching groups to ensure that things like this would not happen again. You think at the end of the day, given the circumstances, this was the best possible outcome. Apart from the fact that at the end of the day, somebody's daughter is still lying dead in the ground You think of the story in Exodus of all the mothers whose sons had been murdered by Pharaoh, or even in the New Testament, all the mothers who weep and wail because their sons, all under the age of two, had been murdered by Herod. And you think, where's the justice in this, even if the bad guy gets caught? It's a happy-ish ending, but doesn't seem to be the happiest ending. We find this story that's the same as to be said with respect to Abel here in Genesis 4. Here's a man who's murdered. Justice is served in one sense, but in another sense we wonder where is the justice if we were to ask ourselves this. One of the things that we've seen throughout the past few weeks as we've been working our way through Hebrews chapter 11 is this very thing that faith testifies of the world to come. That's what we've seen in Verses one and two. Faith testifies to the unseen realities that Christ has ushered in by his death and resurrection from the dead. Those unseen realities that will be made visible on the day in which he is to return. And one of the things we begin to see taking shape, particularly in verses four to seven, is this particular idea. that if ever there is to be a new world where righteousness reigns, there must be a reckoning of old injustices, such as the testimony of Abel, of Enoch, and of Noah, as these three particular individuals and their lives anticipate the punishment of the wicked and the exaltation of the righteous. This morning, we'll just consider that of Abel. We'll consider Enoch again in two weeks. But I'd like us to consider three parts here in verse four in rapid succession, somewhat rapid succession. First, we'll consider Abel's sacrifice. Secondly, Abel's commendation. And then finally, Abel's testimony. And with that, consider the implications that the author of Hebrews has as he even reflects on the opening chapters of Genesis itself. Here we begin with a story that I think so many of us are familiar with, the story and the tale of the farmer and the shepherd. As you recall in Genesis chapter 3, Adam who himself was a farmer and his wife had sinned against God by eating a piece of forbidden fruit and they now had been exiled from the garden, cast out of God's very presence. I think we're so used to reading some of these stories that we've forgotten how subversive the text can really be and how often the Bible reverses our own expectations. As we even looked at Genesis chapter 4, I think some of y'all would notice the elation that was found in Eve's voice, even as you compare and contrast the way in which Eve talks about Cain versus the way in which she talks about Abel. If you notice in those opening verses, it says that Eve, she names her oldest son Cain. Why? The word Cain means to acquire, to get, to obtain. She says, I have finally gotten a man from the Lord. I've gotten, kana is the word. And so she names him Cain. Not simply that she's given birth to a boy, but she says that she has acquired a man. You recall the promise in Genesis chapter 13, where it will be the seed of the woman. It'll be a man who will trample the serpent underfoot. It seems as though Eve has set her hopes on her oldest son, that perhaps it'll be through Cain that the serpent will be crushed underfoot finally. Again, notice in Genesis 4, those opening verses, how she describes why it is that she names her oldest son Cain. And then it comes to her second kid and there's not even a mention, not even a birth announcement as it were by the mom. It's kind of interesting because if you know the meaning of Abel, it kind of puts a more pointed tip on the knife. Abel, Havel, vanity. Futility, fleetingness, a breath, a wind, a vapor. It's translated so many ways. It's really the theme word of the book of Ecclesiastes, if you recall, Pastor Troxell, when he preached this past year. So think about this. You have a set of parents, and the oldest kid is named begotten, acquired. I've acquired a man. Hey, everybody, here, world, listen to the announcement. And then Abel's born and nothing. And Abel, in fact, is named futility, vanity. Fleetingness, not trying to over-psychologize the event, but if names mean anything, this tells us something of the disposition of the parents towards their own children. Here you have the one who seems to be the heir of the promise and the other is just a fleeting vapor. We even notice even in the business that Cain carries. If Adam is a farmer, so too is Cain. Cain's carrying on the family line, the family business. And yet we also have Abel who becomes not a farmer but a shepherd. Cain seems to be the, well, he is the firstborn. He doesn't seem to be. He is the firstborn. But he seems to be the first love by all accounts, by even the indications, simple and subtle as they are in the passage. It seems that humanity's hopes are set upon Cain. as opposed to Abel. And yet we see with the two sons that they're both raised into the same family, both taught to worship the same God. They're both presented as priests to the most high God. You see that here as both the men bring offerings to Yahweh, to offer sacrifices to the creator of heaven and earth. And Genesis chapter four focuses on one particular day in the life of these two brothers, that of the farmer and that of the shepherd. I think for many of us who know the story go, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cain brought fruit. Abel brought a blood sacrifice. The point of the story is the importance of blood sacrifice. Well, I don't actually think that's what's going on here because the text doesn't really indicate anything of that regard. One of the things we have to remember, if we are to use the Law of Moses as a litmus test to judge the quality of these offerings, and I'm not saying we necessarily should, but even if we did, under the Law of Moses, both grain offerings and blood offerings were required. Both are legitimate offerings, so I don't think that's what's going on here. That can't be the deciding factor. So the question we have to ask is, what distinguishes these two offerings from one another as we know the story so well? We know that the Lord accepts the sacrifice of the younger brother and not that of the older brother. Well, I think that's why we should consider what the text itself says. Where does the accent in the text fall? And I think Genesis 4 is subtle, subtle enough that we might miss the clarity within which it presents the reasons why, right? Cain brings an offering. And yet Abel brings the choicest offering, right? Cain brings some fruit, Abel brings the first fruits. It's simple, but it's there. Abel brings the choicest offerings, but Cain, he just brings something. And this is exactly how I think Hebrews 11.4 understands it. Literally, the text reads something like this, by faith, a better sacrifice Abel offered than Cain. The quality of the gift becomes reflective of the sincerity of the heart because Abel offers it by faith. Hebrews 11.6, faith entails what? The diligent pursuit of the living God. Here is Abel, here is one who is presenting his offering, recognizing who it is that he serves, and so he brings the choices offerings that he has from his own possessions. As a shepherd, he brings the choices of the flock. And Cain, being a farmer, doesn't bring the choices of anything. He just brings some fruit. Here's Cain, he offers a sacrifice, but it seems as though Cain is simply going through the motions, and yet we find that for Abel it is so much more. For Abel, this entails part of communion with the living God. We'll consider this more deeply when we look at Enoch in a couple weeks, but Cain, as it were, in contrast, is a man who, we put it like this, he's a man who comes to church and he throws his money in the plate and he clocks out. And yet for Abel, the sacrifice seems to be an expression of his deepest longings that the Lord himself deserves nothing less than my first and my best. Whereas Cain gives half his heart, Abel gives his all as he comes to worship the Lord with reverence and awe. It's a phrase that we're going to see pop up at the end of chapter 12 that really brings into focus the point of what we're seeing as it applies to us. What does it mean to approach the Lord with reverence and awe? Part of that entails, so much of it entails, approaching the Lord in sincerity and simplicity of faith. That's what Hebrews tells us. Abel, his faith, verse 6, it pleased God. And through it, God reckoned Abel as righteous. Verse four. See, the very same thing that we read of in Romans chapter four where Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness is now said as being true of Abel as well. God testifies to Abel's faith and his gifts as an evidence of his faith. Not that Abel is righteous in himself, but that through faith he is accounted as righteous. Think of Jesus' own words when we heard Matthew chapter 23 read a few moments ago. That righteous man able. What a commendation to come from the lips of our Savior. That righteous man. See, it is faith that pleases God. It is faith that trusts God despite the circumstances, even as one suffers gravely for it. And Abel really does suffer gravely, as he is murdered for what he does. And we see here in Genesis chapter 4, Cain, on the other hand, gives little regard to God, and so it says that God has no regard for Cain. No regard for Cain or for his offering. Think about this. If you're the guy, the firstborn, the first love growing up, getting all the love and care and affection that it seems that Cain has gotten. And now where it really counts, when he appears before the Lord, and the Lord doesn't show favor to him, he shows favor to the younger brother. We begin to see why it infuriates Cain. If Eve gushes over Cain, and the way she gushes over Cain, and gives so little regard to Abel, if that's any indication of their upbringing, then it sounds like Cain is the favored one. And here's the chance where, or here's the time where he's not the favored individual. In that light, I think it's rather jaw-dropping to consider the tenderness with which the Lord approaches Cain. Cain, why are you so angry? You know, for those of you who are parents of young kids, you always have those teaching moments with your kids where they have the giant meltdown. You take them aside. It's like, okay, why is that toy so important to you? It really seems to be what's going on here. This doesn't seem to be a final repudiation of Cain by the Lord, just that Cain had no regard for this offering. And so the Lord comes to Cain and says, why are you so angry? If you do well, would you not be accepted? Let this be a teaching moment for you. Cain has not done well. By implication, Abel has. Abel has come in faith and yet Cain has only made a pretense of faith. So what we see going on is a worship war, as it were, where the war does not consist in the style of music, but in the quality and character of one's heart as they approach the living God. And the Lord says to Cain, you need to do well, but beware. Sin is now coiled like a serpent. It's now seen to be crouching at the doorpost of your heart. Just as the serpent had hissed in the ear of his mother, so now sin is personified as a serpent itself, residing deep in the recesses of Cain's heart, hissing to him and telling him the way that it wants him to go. You think of the irony of the situation that's going on here where the Lord brings this out to Cain. Cain, your name means to acquire, to master. Will you master sin? Or will sin have mastery over you? That's the question. Genesis 4, 7. Will there be an inversion of the meaning of your name as it were? Will sin master you? Remember John Owen's own warning, to be killing sin, or sin will be killing you. Sin is sitting there coiled at the doorposts of Cain's heart. And the Lord says, you are standing on the precipice. Watch out. Be careful how you are about to act. In a tragic turn of events, the one who Eve had thought was acquired, kanah, by the Lord is now one who has been kanahed. acquired, mastered by sin. And it's fitting that the Arabic word for slave today is Cain. Even as Cain now, as we see in Genesis 4, has been shackled to sin. Sin now reigns over Cain's own heart. This is the point that Paul makes in Romans chapter 5, as through one, the sin of one man, sin has now enslaved the human race. We see the example of this with Cain. Sin has exercised its mastery in the heart of humanity. And now Cain, shackled by sin, slaughters his own sibling. The worship war of the ages claims its first fatality and Abel dies as the very first martyr of the faith. So what we see in the context of Genesis 4 is that it highlights the escalation and the triumph of sin even within a single generation, right? It goes from mommy and daddy eating a piece of forbidden fruit to their oldest son slaughtering his brother in the field. Now God appears a second time. Just as he appeared in Eden to investigate and to render judgment at the first sin, now the Lord descends to investigate another sin as he hears blood crying out from the ground for justice. The Lord, again, you've got to note these parallels between Genesis 3 and 4. The Lord in Eden asks Adam, where are you? And now the Lord asks Cain, where is your brother? Cain doesn't simply blame shift like his parents had. Now Cain flat out lies, I don't know where he is. Am I the shepherd of the shepherds? Am I my brother's keeper? So the Lord says, what have you done? It's not simply that I heard Abel crying out right before he was murdered. Rather, it's that the blood of the innocent still cries out from the ground. It still testifies against you for what you have done. And yet when the punishment comes, we find that the Lord does not put Cain to death. Rather, there seems to be more exercise of mercy. The Lord says, now you will be a fugitive and a wanderer from the earth. Surely we know, as you would read in Genesis chapter 9, anybody who murders another person is subject to death. But the Lord doesn't put him to death right away. He says, you will be a fugitive and vagrant upon the earth. And what's Cain's response? This punishment is simply not fair. Even as the Lord is showing leniency to Cain, Cain protests. He doesn't mourn the fact that he's murdered his own brother. He mourns the fact that he now has to suffer the consequences limited as they are for his own actions. Keynes even recognizes that he's been exiled from God's presence. He says, I'll flee your presence. But his bigger concern is what will other people think? What if somebody murders me? Who will be my keeper? Who will be my defender? I think there's much more we could say about Keynes, but the focus here in Hebrews 11.4 is on Abel. But we have to understand what it is that's going on here as it is the blood of Abel that is testifying of the radical injustice that has befallen him. And here we find in Hebrews 11.4 that even after death, Abel still speaks. Abel's blood continues to cry out. It testifies against you. That's the very thing that Jesus says to the Pharisees, to the false pretenders, to the phony worshippers. He says, what, you serpents. Keeping in mind that language of Genesis 3 and 4, sin has crouched at your heart. Now Abel's blood shall be on your head, the blood of the righteous being slaughtered by that of the wicked. We see this pop up over and over again in the New Testament, 1 John 3, 12, Jude 11, and so on and so forth. The story of Cain and Abel has a central piece in the the mental psychology of the people of God, even in the New Testament, that the testimony of blood cries out presently from the ground. It's the same cry that we see in Deuteronomy 22 of the woman who had been raped, where nobody has been able to come to her rescue. Where is the justice? It's the cry and the shrieks of the mothers whose children had been slaughtered by Pharaoh prior to the Exodus, and then later, under Herod, In the opening chapters of Matthew, it's the cry of the psalmist who begs over and over for justice to be done. How long, O Lord, is the cry of the martyrs and the saints in Revelation chapter 6. And even the cry of the saints here on earth, as we plead week in and week out, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What is it that we are praying for when we pray that petition? It's for righteousness to be established in the earth. And if faith testifies of a world to come where righteousness reigns, then Abel's faith, even in death, testifies of a day still to come when the judge of the earth will finally reckon with sin once and for all. To deal with the serpent that's coiled in the hearts of each and every individual and for every infraction that has ever been rendered against another. If Abel's blood still cries out, and that's what the Lord says in Genesis 4, then the implication is this, that justice has not yet been fully served. I'm not saying that justice will never be fully served, but the idea is that justice has not yet been fully served. In other words, Genesis chapter 4 points to a day when justice will finally and fully be served. I'm not trying to read too deeply into this. Think of Jesus' own words when he speaks to the Pharisees, I'm sorry, to the Sadducees. When the Sadducees deny the resurrection of the dead and they basically say, prove it. Jesus says, okay, let's look at the Pentateuch. Let's look at the first five books of the Bible. Let's look at the life of Abraham. where Abraham is said not to be the God of the dead, but the God of the living. Therefore, there must be a resurrection from the dead. The point we see here in Genesis 11.4 is that the death of Abel testifies to the righteousness of God, of this God who will call to account the living and the dead for all that we have done. We'll see the flip side of this when we get to Enoch where we talk about the future and fate of the righteous, and then of Noah. where the flood of the earth anticipates the fiery judgment to come on the last day. Think of the opening story I began with, Justice for Summer. We can ask the same question here, where's the justice for Abel? Where though still dead, Abel still nevertheless speaks. Again, situating this in the broader context of Hebrews 11, the faith of the Old Testament saints testifies of the world to come. Why would the author of Hebrews put Abel here if not for this reason? It's the death of Abel and the grisly way in which Abel dies testifies that there is a better world to come and that the judge of the earth will in fact do what is right. I think it's easy for us to forget in a in a first world nation or at least in kind of, you know, white middle class suburbia, what good news it is for the hope of final judgment to have, you know, law enforcement and a judge in place who can't be bought or swindled or deceived or hoodwinked but a judge who acts with full force and full justice. You think of the victims of Hitler, of Stalin or of Pol Pot, the families of those victims. To know that there remains a world where justice will finally be meted out in full. Looking back on your own childhood, the bully who gave you the swirly in junior high, to know that's going to be reckoned with. More seriously, the father or family member who molested you and got away with it. To know that there is a day to come where righteousness will be reckoned with once and for all. This is good news. Justice is good news. That's why we see it replete so often throughout the Psalms. The Bible does not downplay it, neither should we. And yet at the same time, we need to consider how thorough this day of reckoning is going to be. Because you can look at the sixth commandment and you go, well, I haven't murdered anybody today. I guess I'm going to be just hunky-dory. That's why we had Matthew 5 read earlier for the reading of the law, where Jesus, our Savior Himself, expounds the law, where the king says he's going to return to reckon with the infractions of the law. You have heard it was said you should not murder, but let me tell you this. Anybody who harbors anger in his heart against his brother, will be liable to the same judgment. Anybody who calls his brother a fool is subject to the fires of hell itself. See, it's not just the Mansons and the Dahmers of the world who are going to be judged on the last day. It's really easy for us to adopt that self-righteous attitude, isn't it? Where you look at the serial killer or the murderer or the child molester on the news, you go, I hope he gets his just desserts. But we have to recognize that God is not simply a very righteous God or even a mostly righteous God. Even as we heard in the Sunday school class last Sunday itself, God is righteousness itself. And he holds and is a righteousness that will judge and extend not just to the actions, every action that we've committed, but even down to the thoughts and intentions of the very heart. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12. It's not just murder, but anger. You've heard it was said you should not commit adultery, but ah, Jesus, I say to you, anyone who harbors lust in his heart. It's not just theft, but it's the coveting of other people's possessions. I'm sure there'll be degrees of judgment. We have to remember Jesus's words in Matthew 5. Whoever calls his brother a fool is liable to hell itself. See, the problem is that we've set the bar too low. I think so many of us, we set the bar low enough for us to be able to get by, but not for everybody else. But we have to recognize how righteous God truly is. And when we consider that, I think we all go, well, of course, this makes sense. This God cannot allow any vestiges of sin to abide the new world which he has created. Do not be deceived, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6, neither the unrighteous, the immoral, thieves, the murderers, the verbally abusive, none of these will enter the kingdom of God. But then when we begin to think about it, our words reflect that of the psalmist, Lord, if you should mark but one of our iniquities, who could stand? Who here among us are competent and able to enter in to this new world on our own merits? In painful realities, we have all sinned. That good news that is good news for the oppressed now becomes bad news for the perpetrator. The reality is that we're all perpetrators. And then one of the things that we've seen in the theme of Hebrews itself has been this, that Christ is better. And if you flip over to the next page, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 24, it tells us this, that the blood of Christ speaks a better word than what? The blood of Abel. Christ's death is similar in so many ways. Christ also had done no wrong. He is one who had been commended for his faith. Remember what the Lord, the Father himself says at Jesus's baptism, this is my beloved son with whom I am what? Well pleased. It's faith that pleases God. Here is the son who fully has entrusted himself to the Father, has been testified by the Father that he is sinless and he is the faith filled son of God. And yet he is also like Abel unjustly murdered by the wicked because he was righteous. In fact, if we were to compare the two, that of Abel and that of Christ, if anybody's blood should cry out for justice, it should be the blood of Christ. Yet the good news that we find in the gospel, in the New Testament, is this, that though Christ died unjustly, He died purposefully in our place. So the punishment that we would deserve would fall upon himself that we might find the pardon from sin and deliverance from the wrath to come that will befall the rest of the world on the final day. So God sent his son to die in our place that we might have a home in his. in this new world that he has created by his resurrection and ascension on high. See, Abel's testimony is clear that the righteous God will come with a day of reckoning to call every sin of every man, woman, and child to account. But here in Hebrews 12, 24, we also find Christ's own testimony that there is a way of salvation that has been opened up to sinners. The question that sits before each and every one of us is, will you survive the trial? Well, if you want to try to survive the judgment ordeal on the last day by your own works, my response is this, good luck with that. See, it's not by works that man can be justified, but there is another way. It's the same phrase we see over and over throughout Hebrews 11. It is by faith, a faith that pleases God. the wholehearted diligence in pursuing a holy God, a holy God who loves sinners. Let that baffle the imagination, to know that the holy God has opened up a way for sinners to draw near and to enter into his kingdom where peace and righteousness will dwell forever, but that sin has to be reckoned with one way or another. Where you will either reckon with it on your own head, or you will allow Christ to pay the penalty in full for you by His death at the cross. So the question is, will you trust in Christ to know that this offer of the gospel is open to anyone who would turn and confess their sins to their Savior, that Christ is abundantly willing and able to pardon and to save? Let us pray. Gracious God and Father, we do thank you for the mercy that is found in Christ, that it is the blood of Christ that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Even as we know that there is a day of judgment coming, we know that there is a day of deliverance for the people of God, for all who turn to Christ. And so we ask that you would use this verse this morning to strengthen our faith, that we would put our hope more secure in the Savior of mankind. Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray these things. Amen.