In this message, a parenthesis in our study of Genesis 4, we need to see more about Cain and Abel. During this life-study of Genesis we have pointed out several times that nearly every item found in the first three chapters of Genesis is a seed that is developed in the following books of the Bible, especially in the New Testament. This is also true in the case of Cain and Abel. According to the revelation of the divine Word, these two brothers should be considered as two important seeds sown in Genesis 4. This is proved by the fact that the New Testament speaks of both Cain and Abel (Jude 1:11; 1 John 3:12; Matt. 23:35; Heb. 11:4; 12:24). The Lord Jesus was alluding to Cain in John 8:44 when He said that the Devil "was a murderer from the beginning." As we saw in the previous message, Cain became one with the Devil and, thus, both Cain and the Devil were the murderer of Abel. In John 8:44 the Lord Jesus also said that the Devil was a liar: "When he speaks a lie, he speaks out of his own self; for he is a liar and the father of it." I believe that this also was an allusion to Cain, referring to the lie that he told God when He asked him about his brother (Gen. 4:9). Cain lied to God in His presence. Thus, Cain was not only a murderer, but also a liar. Therefore, the Lord's word in John 8:44 is evidence that the story of Cain in Genesis 4 is a seed.
We have seen that in the beginning man was placed in front of two trees, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge (Gen. 2:8-9). These two trees represent two sources out of which two lines continue throughout the whole Bible: the line of the tree of life and the line of the tree of knowledge. Undoubtedly, Cain was on the line of the tree of knowledge, and Abel was on the line of the tree of life.
Adam and Eve certainly must have produced more children than the two mentioned here. However, the Bible here only mentions Cain and Abel. Why does the Bible only mention these two here? Because the intention of the Holy Word is to show us the two categories of people which existed from the beginning of the second human generation: Cain, who represents the line of the tree of knowledge, and Abel, who represents the line of the tree of life.
The Bible ends as it begins. It begins with two trees denoting two sources and it concludes with two cities — the great Babylon and the New Jerusalem — denoting two consummations. One of these cities is great and the other is holy. The great Babylon will be the ultimate consummation both of the line of the tree of knowledge and of the seed of Cain. The seed of Cain is sown in Genesis 4, developed throughout the Old and New Testament, and will be consummated in the great Babylon revealed in Revelation 17 and 18. Likewise, the New Jerusalem will not only be the ultimate consummation of the line of the tree of life, but also of the seed of Abel. Everyone who will be a part of the New Jerusalem will be an Abel. Every piece of precious stone in that city will be an Abel for eternity. On the contrary, the majority of those in the great Babylon will be Cains. Hence, the great Babylon is the ultimate consummation of so many Cains, and the New Jerusalem is the totality of all the Abels. What are you — an Abel or a Cain? I hope that no one reading this message is a Cain.
Let us now consider these two brothers more thoroughly, examining them in the light of the subsequent books of the Bible. We begin with Cain.
In the last message we pointed out that Cain was one who served the ground to make a living. He is called here "a server of the ground" (v. 2, Heb.). This means that he was working and living for himself. He not only worked and lived for himself, but also by himself. Please remember that after the fall of man, man's self became the incarnation of Satan. Thus, to live by man's self actually means to live by Satan. Cain lived as such a person.
What was wrong with Cain? Humanly speaking, he was not wrong originally. When I was a young Christian, I acted as Cain's attorney, arguing on his behalf in the heavenly law court. I felt that there was nothing wrong with Cain. He was the first to present an offering to God. Abel was second. He might have learned this from Cain. It seemed to me that it was not wrong for Cain to present an offering to God; it was not like gambling, lying, or murdering. Thus, I argued with God, saying, "God, You were not fair with Cain. Your unfairness provoked him to kill his brother. If You had been fair, Cain probably would have loved his brother very much." I spoke as an unlearned attorney, as a country boy in a law court. However, God was kind toward Cain, not executing his judgment upon him. God was also merciful to me, not putting me to death. Eventually, through the passing of years I came to understand the reason that God refused to accept or to look upon Cain and his offering.
Let me tell you the reason. Cain and Abel were born of fallen parents. Adam and Eve were not merely wrong with God, but had been injected with the evil nature of Satan. Satan's nature had penetrated their nature, mind, and concept. Adam and Eve realized their condition, recognizing that they were wrong in the presence of God. In fact, they were also filled with the evil element of Satan. They realized that God was merciful and gracious to them, promising them salvation and providing them robes made of skins to cover their nakedness, which typified Christ as the genuine righteousness to come. As we pointed out in the last message, Adam and Eve told their children about this, declaring God's way of salvation. Thus, Cain and Abel were not born of pure parents; they were the descendants of polluted, corrupted, contaminated, and ruined parents.
Suppose we have one glass of pure water and another glass of polluted water. If you offer me the pure water, I would appreciate it very much, drinking it to assuage my thirst. However, if you offer me the glass of polluted water, I would be insulted. Although I may be thirsty, I would refuse the offer of a glass of polluted water. If you understand this example, you will not say that God was unfair in rejecting Cain's offering. God simply cannot accept polluted water, that is, a polluted offering. Cain was born of polluted parents and, by birth, was unclean and contaminated. God, on the contrary, is holy, righteous, and pure. Not only were Cain and Abel corrupted and sinful, but within them was the enemy of God. Since Satan, God's enemy, lived and acted in them, and motivated them to do things, everything they did out of themselves would have been an action of God's enemy. If you were God and realized that within Cain was the Devil, your enemy, would you accept his act of worship? Such worship is an insult to God.
Apparently we do not see the Devil in Genesis 4; we see Cain murdering and lying. However, in John 8:44 the Lord Jesus said that that was the Devil murdering and lying. In the eyes of God, it was not merely Cain, but the Devil. Moreover, in 1 John 3:12 we are told that Cain was "of the evil one." The Greek word translated "of" actually means "out of." Hence, Cain was out of the evil one, the Devil. Cain's source was Satan. These two verses show us clearly and thoroughly that Cain and the Devil, the Devil and Cain, were one.
Perhaps you will argue, wondering how the devil can motivate people to worship God. Consider the illustration of Peter in Matthew 16:21-23. After Peter had received the heavenly vision regarding Christ, he was motivated by Satan to tell the Lord Jesus, who had just spoken of His coming suffering and death, to pity Himself. The Lord turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan." Notice that the Lord did not say, "Get behind Me, Peter." Thus, the one who had just received a revelation from the Father became Satan. He did not become Satan with respect to something evil, but in the matter of caring for the Lord.
When we are told to worship God, or when we are close to the Lord, trying to care for Him, Satan, the subtle one, often will not tell us not to do it, but will propose a way different from God's revelation in his attempt to keep us from God's economy. As long as he can keep us from God's way and frustrate us in fulfilling God's purpose, Satan will even motivate us to do things for God. This was how he worked in Cain.
We should be careful. The same thing may happen to us. We must realize that it is not a matter of what we do, but of what we are. The real issue is not whether or not we worship God; it is whether or not we are one with the Devil in whatever we do. Even if you love others by being one with the Devil, that kind of love is an insult to God, because Satan, God's enemy, is active in it. Thus, Cain was the one who presented the offering, but the Devil was the motivator, the one who initiated Cain's act of worship. Suppose you have an enemy who refuses to be reconciled with you, yet he sends someone to worship you. Would you not consider that worship as an insult? Now we can see what was wrong with Cain.
Cain offered the fruit of his own labor to God (Gen. 4:3). He brought the fruit of the ground with no blood for shedding. This means that he had rejected God's way of redemption which he had heard from his parents. God's way of redemption as revealed to Cain's parents was that of a sacrifice in which the blood was shed, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Heb. 9:22). Man was fallen, ruined, sinful, and polluted in the eyes of God. He needed the shedding of blood for the remission of sins. Although Cain's parents surely spoke to him of God's way of redemption, he rejected it, casting it aside. Cain did not care for God's way; he invented his own way according to his concept.
What is a concept? The human concept is of the tree of knowledge. By taking the way of the tree of knowledge Cain opened his being to the Devil. By doing this he was completely caught by the evil one. Cain was the first to invent religion. You may argue, "Cain invented religion to worship God. He did not invent gambling casinos." However, God does not care for what you invent; He cares for the origin. Anything invented by man is not originated by God and is not by man's spirit, but by his mind. If your invention originates with yourself in your mind, that invention, regardless of how good it is, has its source in Satan, for Satan, the subtle one, is in your mind. When Cain devised his own way of worshipping God, he was absolutely one with Satan. He was filled, saturated, and permeated with the devil. Therefore, the Lord Jesus in John 8:44 alluded to him as Satan. How dare such a person present an offering to God without the shedding of blood!
Now we can understand the reason that God did not accept Cain's offering. Although Cain should have realized that what God wanted was a sacrifice with the shedding of blood, he did not offer it accordingly. He worshipped God according to his own concept, without the shedding of blood, and without the covering skins of the sacrifice. This means that he rejected God's way of taking Christ as God's righteousness to cover him as revealed in Philippians 3:9 and 1 Corinthians 1:30. He, like the religious Jews, sought to establish his own righteousness, ignoring God's righteousness and not submitting to it as revealed in Romans 10:3. Thus, his offering was an insult to God; it was an abomination in His eyes, and He rejected it.
Jude 11 speaks of those who "have gone in the way of Cain." What is the way of Cain? It is to do good to please God and to worship God presumptuously by man's own effort and according to man's own invention under the Devil's motivation. The way of Cain is to worship God religiously without Christ. In a human sense the way of Cain is not bad, for religion is the best invention of human culture. In fact, according to the Bible, religion was the first and foremost invention of human culture. However, we must ask the question: Who invented religion? It was not Cain himself, but Satan the motivator within him. Satan usurped the first human generation by tempting them to take the tree of knowledge. Nevertheless, God intervened to rescue them and to recover them by His way of redemption. Although, in a sense, both Adam and Eve were lost, God came in to bring them back to Himself, opening His redeeming way, the blood-shedding way. That was God's way of rescue, of salvation. We have seen that Adam and Eve passed on this way to their children and that Cain, their firstborn, rejected it and took his own, becoming one with the Devil. That rejection, that following of his own way, was the rejecting of God and the following of Satan. This is the evil way of Cain.
God has given us a full revelation of His way. Regardless of how much Adam and Eve preached to their children, they did not have the Bible as we do. We have a Bible of sixty-six books telling us in full of the way of salvation, the way of life, the way of shedding blood, and the way of Christ. We have the way. However, many people have heard of this way, that is, have heard the preaching of the gospel, but have turned aside and have taken their own way, attempting to worship God according to their own concept and trying to do good to please God according to their own desire. A great many people are taking the way of Cain. The way of Cain is not to gamble in the casinos; it is to devise a human religion, a way of worshipping God, that is not according to God's revelation, but according to man's invention. Apparently this is good; actually it is dreadful, for by inventing religion the second human generation was completely captured by Satan. Satan gained the first generation by tempting man to eat of the tree of knowledge and he captured the second by turning man from God's way to the way of human invention.
God's way is in contrast to both good and bad. Many people think that as long as they do not do something bad they are all right. However, whether you are on the bad side or on the good side, you are still outside of God's way. God does not care whether or not you are on the good side or on the bad; He only cares whether or not you are on His way of redemption. You may think that you are high and that your way is higher than God's. Many religious people, people who have invented their own religion, think of themselves as higher than those who follow God's way of salvation. Perhaps they are higher than we are, but we are in God's way. Cain's way is not the way of apparent evil; it is the way of good. Nevertheless, it distracts man from God. Satan is on the side of both good and evil. Remember that the tree of life is of one factor — life. However, the tree of knowledge has two factors — good and evil. Hence, as long as you are not in God's way you are following Satan's way, regardless of whether you are doing good or evil.
I have a word to say to any readers of this message who may not be saved. You need God's redeeming way. Regardless of the good you have done or can do, you must realize that you were born sinful, that the devilish nature is in your flesh, and that the satanic element is in your mind. You need the shedding of Jesus' blood, for without it there is no remission of sins.
Thank God for the shedding of the blood of Jesus! By it we have the remission of our sins. My wife can testify that almost every time we pray together the first word I say is, "Lord, we come to You by Your blood. Lord, cleanse us with Your blood. How we need the covering of Your blood!" While we are in the old creation, we still have a dirty, defiled element within us. Therefore, we need the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. Many times I have said to the Lord in my prayers, "Lord, we must pass through the altar. We need You to be our offerings. Lord, we take You as our sin offering and we offer You the fat." Cain missed the mark. He rejected the way of shedding of blood and took the way of Satan.
When the Apostle Paul was in the Jewish religion, he surpassed many of his equals (Gal. 1:14). However, he did not at that time obtain God's righteousness. In Philippians 3:9 he spoke a deep and excellent word: "And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God based on faith." Paul did not want to be found in himself, having his own righteousness; he wanted to be found in Christ, having the righteousness which is of God. We, like Paul, need to be found in Christ. That He is our righteousness is expressed by the words of a well-known hymn: "God's Christ, who is my righteousness, My beauty is, my glorious dress." Christ, as God's righteousness, is our covering under whom we stand. God has put us into Christ and made Him our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). We stand under His covering. We are one with Him. He, Himself, His very person, not one of His attributes, is our righteousness.
In Romans 10:3 Paul spoke of the unbelieving Jews, saying, "For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, did not submit to the righteousness of God." Those Jews were the true followers of Cain. Cain was their forerunner, setting an example of attempting to establish his own righteousness and of not submitting himself to God's way of taking Christ as his righteousness. I say again that this is the way of Cain. Whenever we, outside of Christ, try to do good to please God, in the eyes of God we are following the footsteps of Cain. Never do that. According to God's revelation, we must recognize that worshipping God in our own way is an insult to Him.
Although God was merciful to Cain, he did not repent. God had the legal ground to sentence Cain to death, but He did not do it. Instead, He warned him that sin was crouching at the door, waiting for the opportunity to seize and devour him (Gen. 4:7). In that word of warning God indicated that sin was a person, Satan, that his desire was for Cain, and that Cain had to overcome him. Cain neglected God's warning, only caring for his own way. He did not repent, return, or change. He insisted on his own way unto the end, even unto death. So, he was absolutely gained by Satan and became one with the Devil (John 8:44). Hence, 1 John 3:12 says that he was out "of the evil one."
When Cain saw how pleased God was with Abel, His true worshipper, he was jealous. Why did Cain slay his brother? For years I tried to find the answer to this question. I believe that Cain murdered Abel because Abel's countenance was uplifted while Cain's was fallen. The King James Version renders Genesis 4:7 as, "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?" However, the Hebrew here may be rendered. "If you do well, will you not be lifted up?" Cain fought against Abel because Abel's face was smiling and shining. Abel's uplifted countenance provoked Cain to jealousy. The same is true today. If you are happy and are enjoying the Lord, you will provoke the religious jealousy in others. People will say, "Why are you so joyful? Is God only with you? Is not He also with us?" The result is that they will persecute you. This, I believe, was the reason that Cain attacked Abel. He was offended by Abel's shining face, uplifted countenance, and joyful voice. In some places people warned us, "Don't do this anymore. If you continue, we will cast you out." Religious jealousy is terrible. No jealousy is as awful as the jealousy in religion. This accounts for the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has killed more genuine Christians than the Roman Empire.
Listen to what the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees: "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar" (Matt. 23:35). Where did the religious people kill Zechariah? It was not in a theater; it was between the temple and the altar, in the place where the religious people worshipped God. The religious people murdered those who worshipped God in His way and not in theirs, killing them in the very place where they rendered, in their own way, their worship to God. On the one hand they worshipped; on the other hand they committed murder. This is the jealousy of religion. How terrible it is!
Now we come to Abel, the seed that consummates in the New Jerusalem. Abel worked and lived for God. He also lived by God. Day by day Abel lived for God and by God; he was "a feeder of sheep" for God. As we pointed out in the last message, during Abel's time sheep were primarily for God. He did not work and live for himself as Cain did, but for God's satisfaction as God desired. It seems that the purpose and interest of his life was to satisfy God in God's way.
Abel did not present his sacrifice according to his concept, thought, or way, but according to God's way of salvation. He worshipped God according to His revelation (Heb. 11:4). Unlike Cain, Abel presented the firstlings of his flock, which probably were lambs. The Bible says that he "brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof" (Gen. 4:4). When he offered the fat, the sacrifice was killed and the blood was shed, for without killing it would have been impossible to have the fat to present to God. Abel realized that he needed an offering with the shedding of blood. He knew that he had been born of fallen parents and that he was evil, sinful, and polluted in the eyes of God. Thus, he offered some firstlings of his flock, shedding the blood for his redemption and burning the fat for God's satisfaction. Who told him to offer the firstlings of the sheep? He undoubtedly did this according to the instruction of his parents. What Abel did corresponded exactly to the requirements of the Mosaic law which was given later. This proves that his way of worshipping God was according to God's divine revelation, and not according to his concept.
As fallen persons, everything we think is sinful. Even if we think the best thoughts, our thinking is still sinful. Furthermore, whatever we see and say is sinful. St. Augustine said that even our tears of repentance need the cleansing of the blood. We are so sinful that we even need to repent of our repentance. We are the embodiment of sin. Therefore, whatever originates with us, with our thinking, speaking, hearing, and feeling, is sinful. We must put ourselves aside. To put ourselves aside actually means to put the Devil aside, because the Devil is in our self. If we cast ourselves aside, we simultaneously reject Satan in an absolute way. Do not say, "My way is good. My thoughts are excellent." Regardless of the excellence of your thoughts, Satan is in them, and you must reject them and take God's way according to His revelation.
Abel's offering was a type of Christ. According to Numbers 18:17, the firstling of a cow or sheep, a type Christ, could not be eaten by the Israelites; it had to offered to God. Hence, in typology, Abel offered Christ to God. The offering of the firstling of a cow or sheep had two factors: the blood, which was sprinkled on the altar for redemption, and the fat, which was burned on the altar as an offering, as a sweet savor unto the Lord, for His satisfaction. The Lord Jesus Christ had these two factors. He had the blood which was shed for us and the fat which satisfied God's desire. Abel, following the word of his parents regarding God's way of salvation, presented such an offering to God. Thus, Abel took Christ as his covering and was justified by God (Heb. 11:4; Matt. 23:35). We need the blood of Christ to cleanse us and we need Christ Himself to cover us that we may be accepted by God and that we may satisfy Him.
Let me share with you some of my own experience. When I was an active young man, I thought that I could and should do many things for God. I believed that I was quite intelligent, that I had considerable initiative, and that I was very capable. So, I dreamed of the many things I would do for God and for the church. Not long afterward, the heavenly light began to shine upon me. Although I did not see very much at first, the light continued to shine day and night, even while I slept. Eventually I was enlightened to such an extent that I bowed before the Lord and said, "Lord, I dare not see myself or think about myself. All that I am is a shame. Every part of my being is ugly." I truly saw myself in such a way. That was the time I began to realize the preciousness of the Lord's blood. I prayed, "Lord, I have nothing to say. Cleanse me. Cleanse me with Your blood. Cleanse my eyes, cleanse my thoughts, cleanse every part of my being. Lord, cleanse everything." One day I made a confession to the Lord that lasted for half a day. Although I confessed continuously without letup, I felt, at the end of that time, that my confession had not been thorough. Within me came the deep conviction that I did not dare to do anything. I could only say, "Lord, I should not initiate anything. My whole being needs Your cleansing, not my doing. Lord, I just apply Your blood. Lord, You take the initiative. If You do not do anything, neither will I." I had been caught by the heavenly vision. I had seen that my entire being was altogether sinful, that I should not invent anything or initiate anything, that everything that proceeded out of me was defiled in the eyes of God, that even my tears of repentance needed to be washed with the blood, and that in my repentance was an element of the self that made my repentance impure. Thus, I had to repent of that repentance. This is what it means to apply the blood of Jesus and to put on Christ as your righteousness, as your covering. I had come to know my need for the blood of Christ. I had come to realize that everything I do should simply be the living of Christ as my covering. "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." This is what it means to offer the firstlings and the fat to the Lord. I can testify that never have I been as joyful as at that time. I was filled with the sweetness of the Lord. I was in the heavens. This is the experience of Abel. I know that many of you reading this message have had this kind of experience.
What Abel did corresponds exactly to the gospel in the New Testament, which tells us to receive the cleansing of the blood, to deny ourselves, to put ourselves aside, and to take Christ as our covering. We need to confess our sins and deny ourself. We need to offer Christ as the firstling of God's sheep and to present His fat as the sweetness which satisfies God, forgetting ourselves, rejecting ourselves, renouncing ourselves, putting ourselves aside, and taking Him as our covering. If we do this, we shall not only live for Him, but by Him. Christ is not only the sacrifice to God, but also the way of God, the way of redemption and of life. Hebrews 11:4 says that by the sacrifice which he offered in faith as a type of Christ Abel obtained the witness that he was righteous. By this kind of faith he still speaks today.
Abel was the first priest. He did not hire a priest to offer his sacrifice for him; he did it himself. Every Abel is a priest. Do not ask others to offer your sacrifice. Do not go to a father in the Catholic Church, to a priest in the Anglican Church, or to a minister or pastor. You must be the priest, presenting the sacrificial offering. Everyone in the church life is a priest. We offer Christ to God continually.
Abel was persecuted and killed by Cain because he worshipped God in God's way, not like Cain who worshipped God in his own way. Cain was in the flesh, trusting in the fruit of his labor, but Abel had no trust in himself. He put his trust in his offering. Typically speaking, Abel trusted and boasted in Christ, having no confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3:3). The worshippers in the flesh always oppose and persecute those who worship by the Spirit (Gal. 4:29).
Abel was a type of Christ (Heb. 12:24). What is a type? A type is a shadow or a picture. Although Abel was not Christ, he was a picture of Christ showing some of the aspects of Christ. For instance, Abel was a feeder of sheep. The Lord Jesus was the real feeder, the true shepherd of God's people (John 10:11, 14; Heb. 13:20). Although not many people in the Bible are called righteous, both the Lord Jesus and Abel are called righteous. In Matthew 23:35 Abel was called "righteous Abel"; in Acts 7:52 and 22:14 the Lord Jesus is called the Righteous One. Abel was killed by his brother in the flesh. Jesus also was killed by His Jewish brothers. Furthermore, both the blood of Abel and the blood of Jesus are speaking bloods. Genesis 4:10 says that the voice of Abel's blood cries unto God from the ground. The speaking of Abel's blood, however, was only a type of the speaking of the blood of Christ. In Hebrews 12:24, the fulfillment of the type in Genesis 4:10, we are told that the blood of Jesus is the "blood of sprinkling, which speaks better than that of Abel." Thank the Lord. We have the speaking blood. We not only have the redeeming blood, the cleansing blood, and the covering blood, but also the speaking blood. Abel's blood spoke from the earth; Jesus' blood speaks from heaven. It speaks better things than the blood of Abel. Praise the Lord!
