Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.
This week we're continuing our series Heroes of Faith, where we take a deep dive into the
lives of those who are listed in Hebrews chapter 11.
And today we come to the first name in that list, a guy that we actually don't know a
whole lot about, and his name is Abel.
Even though the Bible never actually records a single word that Abel says, the author of
Hebrews tells us that by faith, Abel still speaks to us today.
So what is Abel saying, and why does it matter to us here and now?
Those are some of the questions that Rob tackles in today's teaching.
So let's tune in to find out more.
Today's first reading is from Genesis chapter 4 verses 1 to 10.
Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.
She said, With the help of the Lord, I have brought forth a man.
Later, she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil.
In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the
Lord.
And Abel also brought an offering, fat portions from some of the first born of his flock.
The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering, he
did not look with favor.
So Cain was very angry and his face was downcast.
Then the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry?
Why is your face downcast?
If you do what is right, you will not be accepted.
Will you not be accepted?
But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door.
It desires to have you, but you must rule over it.
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, Let's go out to the field.
While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel?
I don't know, he replied.
Am I my brother's keeper?
The Lord said, What have you done?
Listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.
Our second reading is from Hebrews chapter 11, verse four, by faith Abel brought God
a better offering than Cain did.
By faith he was commended as righteous when God spoke well of his offerings.
And by faith Abel still speaks even though he is dead.
The word of the Lord.
Well if you are ever in London, England, you must visit Westminster Abbey.
Not only is Westminster Abbey just a beautiful sanctuary and amazing church, but you may
know this, it is also a mausoleum, which means that all throughout Westminster Abbey, under
the floor are buried some of the amazing heroes of England's history.
Which means you could be walking around Westminster Abbey and just taking in the sights and you
look down and you realize, oh my goodness, I am standing on the grave of Sir Isaac Newton,
or I am standing on Edgar Allan Poe, or I am standing on Charles Dickens, or I am standing
on William Wilberforce, or Queen Elizabeth the first, right?
These are all heroes.
They were heroes of the arts.
They were heroes of leadership.
They were royalty.
They were scientists.
Now in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews, some people call that chapter the Westminster
Abbey of the Bible, because as you walk through Hebrews chapter 11, you step again and again
on the names of great heroes of faith.
Now unlike the heroes in Westminster Abbey, many of which were powerful and rich and like
had incredible influence, the heroes that we find in Hebrews chapter 11 were just ordinary
people who lived by faith and that is what made them heroes.
And so today we are continuing our teaching series, which we are calling Heroes of Faith,
where we are going through Hebrews chapter 11.
And last week we got started by looking at just the very beginning of Hebrews chapter
11, verses 1 to 3, where we were able to hopefully answer the question, what is faith, that overused
word faith, what does it actually mean anyways?
But today we step foot on the very first tomb, the very first name in this hall of faith
and the person's name is Abel.
Why is Abel in the Abbey?
What is so great about Abel that he's recognized as a hero of faith?
The Bible actually doesn't record one single word that Abel ever spoke and yet today we're
going to see he is still speaking.
And this is what we read, just read, by faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain
did.
By faith he was commended as righteous when God spoke well of his offering.
And by faith Abel still speaks even though he is dead.
Three times Abel's faith is commended, but the question still remains is why?
How do I understand this?
Well that's why we had to have two readings this morning.
And if you kind of leave your finger in Hebrews chapter 11 and you flip all the way back to
the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 4, that's where we find Abel's story in its entirety.
Now just to remind you a little bit about the book of Genesis.
The book of Genesis is a book of origins.
It tells us the beginning of the universe in chapter 1.
In chapter 2 it tells us the beginning of humankind.
In chapter 3 it tells us the beginning of sin, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God
and were kicked out of the garden.
And then in chapter 4 it tells us the beginning of the fallout from sin.
And that is where we pick up the story of Cain and Abel, Genesis chapter 4.
And I feel like even before we dive into this I want to just acknowledge many times when
we come to a story like this we're like how are we even supposed to read a story like
this?
Are we expected to believe this is true?
Like is that what I'm supposed to believe that this is literal truth?
Or is this just a myth that means absolutely nothing?
And I would say again we talked about this a while ago in a different series.
On the one hand we know the Bible is inspired by God and it is filled with timeless truths.
But on the other hand we also know the Bible is filled with different kinds of writing
and literature, different genres.
Genesis chapter 4 is a very unique genre.
It is deeply theological but also highly, highly symbolic.
And so on the one hand we definitely say that it is true, but on the other hand we may not
have to read it as literal truth.
Listen, you can read it however you want to read it.
And in some ways it doesn't really matter because in the end the same lesson comes out
and the lesson is this, is that Abel's life shows us what it means to live by faith.
So flipping back to Genesis chapter 4 we read this that Adam made love to his wife Eve.
She became pregnant.
She gave birth to Cain.
She said, hey with the help of the Lord I brought forth a man.
And later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Abel kept flocks.
Cain worked the soil.
That makes Abel human number four.
He's human number four.
There was Adam.
There was Eve.
There was Cain.
And there was Abel.
Abel's job was to care for the flocks.
Cain looked after the produce, the work of the land I guess you could say.
Abel's name by the way, do you know what the word Abel means?
It means vapor.
It means mist as in poof here today and gone tomorrow.
Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I mean I don't know what parent would name their kid vapor but it's true.
He didn't last very long at all.
Genesis chapter 4 is full of firsts.
It's got the first mother, the first pregnancy.
It's got the first family we ever see.
It's got the first dysfunctional family we ever see.
It's got the first murder that ever happens, the first martyr as well.
But also in Genesis chapter 4 we have the first person who ever lived by faith.
Now you might say, whoa, whoa, Rob, you said that Abel was person number four.
What about Adam and Eve?
Didn't they live by faith?
Well, this is the interesting thing.
You see it was a little different for Adam and Eve.
Adam and Eve were told lived in the garden with God.
The Bible tells us they walked with God and they talked with God.
So there was this sense in which they had this, there was this manifestation of God
that they interacted with in the garden of Eden in such a way that I would say Adam and
Eve didn't have to live by faith.
They could actually in some ways live by sight.
God was there.
He was manifest.
His presence was there.
But not true for Cain and Abel.
By the time Cain and Abel come on the scene, they've been kicked out of the garden.
And now they can't see and interact with God in the same way that Adam and Eve did.
And so now the only way they know about God is what Adam and Eve told them about the stories.
And so they have to live not by sight, but by faith.
And I think they're the very first ones to do this.
There is this, this branch of biblical studies.
It's called hermeneutics.
It sounds like a disease.
Really, what it means is hermeneutics is the study of how we interpret the Bible.
And there's this one principle in the study of hermeneutics called the law of first mention.
And the law of first mention means that the first time in the Bible that you come across
a certain concept, then that kind of sets the meaning for that concept for the rest
of the Bible.
And so here we have the very first instance of someone living by faith.
And that of course then sets the tone for how faith is used from here on out.
So what does Hebrews 11 and Genesis 4 teach us about Abel's faith?
Well, first of all, it tells us about Abel's faithful sacrifice.
By the way, you've got sermon notes as always, if you want to follow along, if that helps
you remember.
So it says, by faith, Abel brought a better offering than Cain did.
Or in Genesis 4, we read, in the course of time, Cain brought some fruits to the soils
and offerings to the Lord.
And Abel brought an offering, fat portions from some of the first born of the flock.
So this again, first, speaking of first, this looks to be the very first service of worship
that ever took place.
And you'll notice that it happens at a specific time and in a specific place with a specific
offering.
It's a specific time because we're told that in the course of time, at an appointed time,
Cain and Abel knew it was time to go to church and it was a specific place.
They brought their offerings to a specific place.
And then of course, they brought a specific offering with them.
Now this is the first time, but again, the pattern repeats over and over again throughout
Bible, even to our day today.
You know, Israel worship at specific times at certain festivals.
And they came to a specific place like the temple on pilgrimage to the temple.
And they brought with them specific offerings that were appropriate for that festival.
Even today, we have this rhythm.
You come on a specific time, a Sunday morning, to a specific place here at Trinity Streetsville
and you bring something with you too.
And that is your offering, your sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God.
So Cain and Abel, they both came to the same spot.
They both came at the same time, but they brought different offerings.
Cain brought some of the fruit of the soil.
Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.
Guys, I've struggled with this reading all week, but I think this whole thing hinges
on these sacrifices, right?
What is the difference between these two sacrifices?
Israel's were told that the Lord looked with favor on Abel in his offering, but on Cain
and his offering, he did not look with favor.
But why?
Why?
Have you ever, you must have asked that question.
What's the difference between these two sacrifices?
Why is bringing a lamb better than bringing crops from the field?
And even if that was better than the crops from the field, then how on earth were Cain
and Abel supposed to know which one was better?
This is a complicated thing.
And I've got a theory that I think I'm going to share with you today.
I think there's other ways of understanding this, but this is where I landed this week.
And to figure it out again, you need to actually turn back one chapter from Genesis chapter
four to Genesis chapter three.
After their fall into sin, Adam and Eve realized that they were naked and they realized they
need to cover themselves up.
And so what was their idea to cover themselves up?
They used fig leaves, right?
So they went and they took some crops from the field, leaves from the tree and they sewed
them together and they used them.
They made them themselves, fashioned them to cover up their nakedness, right?
I mean, it was a creative solution.
Looks pretty stylish, you know?
But it wasn't enough to cover their sins because we then go on to read, God says, no, no, no,
you can't do it that way.
You can't cover your sin that way.
You need something costlier than that.
So God provides them with a different covering.
We're told that he gave them garments of skin, which meant that some poor animal had to die
in order to cover up their sinfulness, meaning that that animal was the first blood sacrifice
of the Bible.
I know there's language of blood and sacrifice and all that might be a little much for some
of us, but I think it's actually critical to establish what's going on here.
And that is we learned three lessons about sin from this.
The first is that sin requires a covering, right?
After all humanity became aware of their, after sin, they realized they were vulnerable,
that they were guilty, they needed to be covered up.
Secondly, they learned that you cannot cover your own sin, your own self in your own ways,
right?
Fig leaves stitched together the work of human hands.
That is not enough to cover our sin.
And thirdly, it shows that the covering for sin, yes, requires, I know, kind of gross,
but it requires the shedding of blood, some innocent blood.
And this theme again is going to repeat over and over and over again throughout the whole
Bible, but it begins here in Genesis chapter three.
So now that we've looked back at Genesis three, we can go forward again to Genesis four and
we can see that there were different kinds of offerings that had different meanings to
them.
So Abel brought the right kind of sacrifice, right?
It was a blood offering.
Cain brought a fruit offering, which was not what God required.
Now listen, if you read Leviticus 19, you will see there's many times and places later
on in Israel where grains and crops and fruit were very appropriate and wonderful offerings
to bring to God at certain times and for certain purposes.
But apparently, for whatever reason, apparently this was not one of those times, right?
The offering that was meant for this time was meant to be a sin offering and so it required
a blood sacrifice.
But that wasn't the only issue.
The other issue was also the quality of the sacrifice that was being brought.
Abel brought the best of his flock, the firstborn of his flock, we are told, and Cain just brought,
quote, some of the crops from the field.
So Abel's offering cost him something, cost him dearly.
Cain's not so much.
So again, everybody, I apologize if this makes you squeamish.
I don't usually preach so much on blood and guts, but I really think this is where this
goes.
And in a nutshell, this is what we've got.
Abel offered what God wanted and Cain offered God what Cain wanted.
Or another way to put it this way is Abel approached God on God's terms and Cain approached
God on his own terms.
And ever since that moment, there have been two different ways people can approach God.
The first is the way of Abel, right?
It's coming to God by faith, not trusting in anything that you've done, but trusting
in the blood that was shed to cover your sin, whether that blood referred to the Old Testament
system of sacrificial offerings, where the high priest on the day of atonement would
slaughter a lamb for the sins of all the people, or ultimately whether that points forward
to Jesus Christ, who gets called, again, by John the Baptist, the lamb of God, who takes
away the sin of the world.
That is one way to approach God.
It's the way of Abel.
It's the way of sacrifice.
It's the way of faith in the blood of Jesus.
The other way to come to God is the way of Cain, and that's coming to God on your own
terms, bringing what you want to bring, right?
Doing what you want to do, believing what you want to believe, but relying on your own
efforts.
The way of Cain kind of says, oh, there's lots of different ways to come to God.
All roads lead to God.
So just do what you want and bring what you want.
But Jesus would even say, wide is the gate, and broad is the road that leads to destruction,
and many enter through it, but small is the gate.
And narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
The way of Cain is wide, but it leads nowhere.
The way of Abel is narrow, but it leads to life.
And of course, these are still the only two ways that people come to God today.
I mean, if you could think about all of the things that we might offer to God, wonderful,
beautiful things, beautiful buildings, moving liturgies, wonderful songs of worship like
David just led, incredible acts of service.
We can bring all these things to God.
All of them are valuable.
All of these things are beautiful.
I'm actually sure that when Cain brought his fruit to God, it was beautiful.
It was probably this big spray, like amazingly displayed.
And if we leave out the sacrifice, the sacrifice of Jesus, then we missed it.
We've missed the heart of the gospel and our faith has no power to heal us, has no power
to help us, no power to save us.
Hebrews 9 22 says, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
All the religious talk over the past 10,000 years and all the kind of differences I think
between Christianity and other world religions, they really boil down to these two things.
There is the way of Abel and there is the way of Cain.
And when we push aside the sacrifice of Jesus and rely on our own efforts, then we're walking
in the way of Cain.
So that's why Abel is the first hero of faith and the model for all faith that follows because
he shows us that in order to come to God, we have to come with faith, not faith in ourselves,
but faith in the lamb that has been provided.
So there you go.
That's the first big thing that we learn about Abel's faith, that Abel had this faithful
sacrifice.
We're also going to learn about Abel's righteous standing, righteous standing.
What does that even mean?
Right?
Well, here's what the text says.
It says by faith, Abel was commended as righteous when God spoke well of his offerings.
Now what does it mean to be righteous?
You're so righteous.
Righteous means that you are in right standing with God.
It means that you've been accepted by God, that you're living in harmony with God, that
you have met God's standard and his perfect standard even.
And then we would say, well, how can anyone meet God's righteous standing, his perfect
standards?
It's a good question.
None of us do.
The Bible even says in Romans 3, 23, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory
of God.
In other words, no matter how hard we try, we're all going to miss this mark.
But that's actually the point.
Right?
Abel teaches us that we don't have to earn this righteousness.
Right?
It's actually given to us as a gift when we come to God in faith.
I'm trying to think of a way to explain this.
This is kind of an analogy I think might work.
Imagine, if you will, a very prestigious university, right?
They're hosting their graduation ceremony.
And the president of the university steps to the podium and he says something that's
actually quite shocking to everyone in attendance.
He says, today we are granting degrees to all students in attendance.
Right?
Not based on their performance, but purely as a gift.
Even if you failed every class, even if you never completed any of your assignments, you're
still receiving a diploma today, completely free.
Because why?
Because I, as the president of the university, I have the authority to give it to you.
I don't think that's going to bode well for the university's accreditation process the
next time it rolls around.
But anyways, imagine this happened.
Right?
The crowd is stunned.
Some students, as you can see, they're absolutely overjoyed.
They can't believe it.
Right?
They don't deserve the gift.
They're grateful to receive the gift.
They come up and they hug the president.
They're so glad.
But others, the ones who worked tirelessly for four years or five years, they're outraged.
They say, this is not fair.
Right?
We earned our diplomas.
Why?
Why should someone who failed not get one?
And that is the difference between what theologians call earned righteousness and imputed righteousness.
You ever say the word imputed with me?
Imputed.
It's just a neat word to say.
I like that word.
Earned righteousness is like the students who studied hard.
They passed every test and they feel they've earned this diploma, this award, by their
own efforts.
But imputed righteousness is like the undeserving students who failed.
But because of the president's love and grace and authority, they were given a diploma anyway.
They didn't earn it.
They received it as a gift.
This is why Abel's story is so, so powerful.
God didn't declare Abel righteous because of his performance, because he earned it.
It wasn't because Abel was a nice guy and Cain was miserable.
We don't even know that's true.
We know nothing about their personalities.
We have nothing to go on.
Abel wasn't necessarily kinder.
Cain didn't necessarily have a bad attitude.
In fact, all we know, all we know is that Abel's faith alone led God to declare him
as righteous.
And again, this is crazy, but that's the same for you.
And it's the same for me.
We get declared righteous, not because of what we do, but because of what Jesus has
done.
You see, in God's kingdom, in God's kingdom, no one can pass the test.
No one graduates on their own.
We have all failed the assignments of life.
We've lied, we've cheated, we've hurt others, we've rebelled against God.
No matter how hard we try, we can't meet God's perfect standard.
But here is the good news.
Jesus took the test for us.
Jesus aced every subject and He hands us His perfect record.
He even died for us as a way of saying, there, I have done absolutely everything now on your
behalf.
Take my righteousness.
I give it to you as a gift.
That is imputed righteousness.
Actually very important to know that the book of Hebrews was actually written to a group
of Jewish Christians.
They were Jewish, they became Christians, but they were getting persecuted.
And they were like, ah, no, no, no, maybe we should just go back to the old ways, to
the old rituals, to the old rules, to the old schemes and all the, and the author of
Hebrews is like, no, no, no, no, don't go back to that because Abel shows us that righteousness
has never been about your human effort.
It's always been about faith.
Faith.
The problem is, is that as human beings, we are addicted to wanting to earn it ourselves.
We don't want the diploma unless we've earned it, unless we feel like we've earned God's
love and God's favor.
We don't want it.
In fact, for some of you, the idea of being completely dependent on God's grace and goodness
towards us is actually offensive.
It goes against our instincts, but God's approval is not something you can achieve with effort.
It's something that we receive by faith.
And this was the greatest learning in the life of the apostle Paul, the guy who wrote
most of the new Testament.
This was what he said.
It's by grace that you have been saved.
It's through faith.
And this is not from yourselves.
It is a gift of God is not by works so that no one can boast.
That is the beauty of the gospel.
That's also why it's so hard for some people to accept the gospel.
So I just got to say, how about you when you came to God or maybe right now you're just
seeking you're seeking God.
What are you bringing with you?
Are you trusting in your own efforts, your own good works?
Are you trying to earn it like Cain or like Abel?
Are you willing to humble yourself and admit your need and trust in the sacrifice that's
been provided for you instead?
The last thing we learned about Abel's faith is that it is a lasting story.
Again the writer of Hebrews tells us by faith Abel still speaks even though he is dead.
There's an old saying that dead men tell no tales but Abel's story proved that's not true.
The story has echoed throughout thousands of years across generations and into our hearts
this morning.
Abel's life was cut short.
No doubt.
Cain's jealousy attacked him, killed him.
Some people try to excuse Cain by saying, oh, it was the firsts.
He didn't know that when you hit somebody in the head with a rock that it will kill
them.
Let's give him a break.
But no, he had just seen what happens when you inflict such a wound on an animal on this
lamb.
He had just seen his brother's sacrifice.
He knew very well what was going to happen when he delivered the same wound to his brother.
So he knew what he was doing.
God even tried to help Cain out and kind of give him another chance.
He basically says, Cain, you know, if you do well, you'll be accepted.
You can learn.
You can try again.
But Cain refuses.
He's full of bitterness and rage.
And pretty soon this guy whose name was Vapor is vaporized.
Do you remember how God asked Adam and Eve, where are you?
Well, now he asks Cain, where is your brother?
But God already knew.
He could hear Abel still.
Listen, your brother.
Listen, do you hear that?
Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.
Your brother's still speaking.
He is still speaking today.
This guy who doesn't have one single recorded word in all the Bible is still speaking.
He's still telling his story.
And what is he saying?
Listen, what is he saying?
A righteous will live by faith, not by works, not by effort, but by trusting in the sacrifice
God provided.
Abel's not the only one still speaking.
Cain is still speaking too.
Abel's story speaks to us of the beauty of faith, but Cain's story speaks to us about
the destructiveness of jealousy, about the futility of trying to earn your own way to
God.
What about your story though?
Let's end with this.
What story is your life speaking to your friends, to your family members, to your children,
your grandchildren, to your coworkers, your classmates, right?
Even after you're gone, what story are you speaking?
I found this quote.
You're writing a gospel, a chapter each day by deeds that you do, by words that you say.
And read what you write, whether faithless or true, say, what is the gospel according
to you?
Is your life telling Abel's story of sacrifice, righteousness and trust in God's grace?
Or is your life telling Cain's story of pride, rebellion and self-reliance?
What is the gospel according to you?
Today you've got a chance to write a brand new chapter in your life.
Right, you have the chance to walk a path of faith, the way of Abel, not by trusting
in your own efforts and your own achievements, but by trusting in the sacrifice that was
made for you.
Hey, it could be like Cain, you've gone the wrong way, but God is calling you back just
like he called Cain back to get right with him.
Don't harden your hearts like he did.
Don't cling to your own pride.
Instead, by faith, trust in Jesus, choose the narrow way and receive the righteousness
that only God can give.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.
This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church, streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario on January
12th, 2025.