1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word, as we continue our sermon series on Hebrews 11: "What Can Faith Do?" is focusing specifically on Hebrews 11:1 & 4: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. . . . By [such] faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.” It’s entitled, “By Faith Cain & Abel.” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Ever wonder: Why wasn’t Cain’s offering as good as Abel’s? Genesis chapter 4 tells us that Cain was a farmer, and Abel raised sheep, and in time, each brought a sacrifice to the Lord from what he produced. Of course, for a farmer, some of Cain’s crops were a meaningful offering. So also a lamb from a shepherd’s flock. So why wasn’t Cain’s offering as good as Abel’s?
3. Hebrews helps us see that Cain’s offering wasn’t accepted because it was made without assured and convinced faith. That means that Cain wasn’t convinced that God would accept him because of Christ’s mercy. Instead, he thought he had to merit God’s favor himself. Cain had the first Messiah complex. And, his parents gave it to him.
4. When Eve discovered the full meaning of God’s curse of pain in childbearing after Cain’s birth, she was sure that he was the promised seed God said would crush the head of the serpent and so bring justice and reconciliation back to sinful man. So she named her newborn bundle of joy Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man: the Lord” (cf Gen 4:1). That is, “I now hold in my arms the Lord, the Savior, the Messiah.”
5. Can you imagine growing up in the first generation after expulsion from Eden with all the hopes of your mother and father, your whole family, being put on your shoulders? The hope that God would use you to restore all things! Wouldn’t it be hard for you to have faith in God’s mercy in Christ when you knew you weren’t good enough, not strong enough, not God enough to live up to those expectations? I mean, Cain couldn’t even offer up a sacrifice for himself—much less the whole world—until he repented of his own sin and sought God’s mercy for the sake of the real, promised Savior. So his parents’ hopes for this “man, the Lord,” Cain, would shortly lie dead as Adam and Eve learned the hard way that God had other plans—much, much more patient plans.
6. Let’s not pass over what God does to Cain in all this. Cain, murdered Abel. He thinks the other sons and daughters of Adam and Eve will hunt him down for revenge, for justice, as Abel’s blood cries out. But in mercy, God shows Cain God’s true nature; he marks Cain to save him. He gives Cain a reason to have faith, showing him how much God loves and seeks the good of even murderers like him. The mark protects him. Even though Cain must face the consequences of his actions, God assures Cain with a promise and convinces Cain with a sign. So that Cain’s story, which began with false hope, might end with real and saving faith. That’s Cain.
7. Now let’s look at Abel. Abel’s sacrifice was more acceptable than Cain’s because it was offered with assured and convicted faith. Abel must have trusted the promises of God to save him rather than relying on his own works. The sacrifices that he made of his flocks must have been offered in humility and thanksgiving rather than in an effort to earn God’s favor by his works. Because his sacrifices came from a heart of sure and convinced faith, his offerings were accepted, so that even now Abel gives us an example of the kind of sacrifices the Lord accepts.
8. So, you have a farmer and a shepherd. Every single day, both of them rise early and tend his field or flock. Remember, before the flood, man didn’t eat animals but only fruits and vegetables—the way God made them in the Garden (Gen 1:29–30). But even if they didn’t butcher the sheep, there’s still a lot of work for the shepherd to do. So both the farmer and the shepherd are raising precious possessions. Both put in the same amount of work. One yields food to eat, the other wool, milk, offspring, equally of value. Both even come with their families to call on the name of the Lord in worship for at least an hour every week. Let me ask you, which one has faith? Which one was a Christian? Which one will be saved? They’re exactly the same, outwardly. We, you and I, can’t judge that—when the outward appearance is the same. God does see a difference, because he doesn’t judge on outward appearances. God judges the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). And inwardly, one of these two has faith and one is only going through the motions. God knows.
9. Cain and Abel both made sacrifices. They did the same thing. And it’s not that God prefers lambs to plants. What they sacrificed wasn’t the issue. The issue was the heart. Cain let sin have a place of ambush in his heart. He offered his sacrifices without faith, just going through the motions. Abel did the same thing in offering his sacrifice, but he was assured and convinced of the mercy of God in Christ.
10. Which sacrifice are you bringing to God? The sacrifice of Cain—repetitive, dull, born of the impossible desire to win God over? Or the sacrifice of Abel—freely given, joyful, born of a faith? The sacrifice of Cain—daily attempts to “do good” so that God and the world see you as someone special? Or the sacrifice of Abel—a life lived knowing that God has already commended you as righteous, not by anything you’ve done, but entirely because of his mercy and grace in Jesus? Truly, Gifts Acceptable to God Are Those That Flow from Assured and Convinced Faith in His Offering to Us in Jesus.
11. If today you’re worn out and tired from trying to be a Christian, it’s probably from your attempts to earn God’s favor rather than rejoicing in faith that his favor is already freely given you in Jesus. If you’re looking at your fellow Christians in resentment because of the blessings they have, sin is crouching at your door waiting to strike. If you’re just going through the motions, today’s the day to hear the word of the faith of Abel that God has already made the perfect and only Sacrifice that can save you. God made it once and for all at the cross of Jesus, so that all who will believe, who will be assured and convicted by Jesus’ death and resurrection as being God’s promise to you, will be saved from just going through the motions. Saved from striving to please God and everyone else. Saved from the bondage of works. Saved from the guilt of blood. Your Savior, Jesus, put his Spirit in you to give you joy, faith, and purpose so that your sacrifices can now be offerings of thanksgiving rather than burdens of work. Hebrews says that “through his faith, though he died, [Abel] still speaks” to us today, as one among that great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us as part of the church.
12. Remember from Hebrews 12 that great cloud of witnesses is encouragement to us as we “run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Track events don’t always get much attention outside of Olympic years, but you probably watched some of the running competitions in the past. Have you noticed, especially in the long distance events, that the runners bunch up, run in a pack up front until the end? That cloud of runners sets the tempo. It encourages the group to push themselves—especially if the one leading the pack pushes a little harder. So runs the bunch. Together.
13. We are running a race—the endurance race of faith. And when we’re tempted to fall behind, to give up, to just go through the motions, the cloud of witnesses is there. The pack of the saints past and present running the race with us is to give us the encouragement and the example to keep following the leader and to keep running the race. That together we may all reach the finish line and so receive the crown of life that waits for all who complete the race in faith. As Hebrews puts it, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1–2).
14. That’s what it’s all about. And Abel’s acceptable sacrifice and commended righteousness, his faith, helps point us to Jesus so that we, too, one day join Abel and all those who’ve gone before in the life of the world to come. For which we wait and pray, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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