2. The doomed offer unacceptable worship.
Everybody is a worshipper. We pointed that out. Even the damned and the lost and those people who reject God and are apostate and refuse to believe, they are worshippers. They — you either worship the true God in the true way, or you worship the true God in a false way, or you worship some other gods who are demons, or you worship yourself. Everybody worships at some shrine. Everybody has some god. It may be the true God, truly worshipped, the true God falsely worshipped, or a false god worshipped, or self. But really, in the end there are only two possibilities. You either worship the true God in the true way, or you have a damning worship, a worship that is rejected by God.
Cain was a worshipper. And he even worshipped the true God; the God he knew to be the creator God. But he worshipped him in a false and wrong way. And so Verse 3, it says that: “It came about in the course of time” — that is an undetermined length of time — “Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.” No doubt there was a command of God to worship Him by bringing an offering. The standard was established by God at some point. Though it’s not recorded in the book of Genesis, we can certainly assume that it happened; that Cain is responding to some command and some direction to worship God. However, he brought the fruit of the ground which apparently, as the text indicates, is unacceptable to God. It must have been that God revealed that what he wanted was a sacrifice of an animal; that there needed to be a death.
Here is demonstration that the sinner deserves to die. Here is demonstration that somebody innocent has to die in the sinner’s place. And that’s what substitutionary death is all about. And you remember that God had already instituted that back in Chapter 3 Verse 21, when God killed the first animal to make coverings to cover Adam and Eve in their sinful shame. God Himself then slays the first animal to make the first covering to cover the sinner. God takes an innocent animal, and slays that animal as a substitute to provide a covering for sinners. That is the first illustration of the ultimate and only real sacrifice: Jesus Christ, God taking the innocent Son of God, the innocent Jesus Christ, putting him on the cross, making Him a sacrifice for sinners, and then taking His righteousness to cover the guilty. So the picture of substitutionary death, the substitutionary death of an innocent, has already been established by God, and apparently was what God required in sacrifice.
So here what you have is the first example of false worship of the true God. Here is the first example of self-righteousness. Apparently, Cain doesn’t feel he needs a substitute. He doesn’t feel that death needs to occur on his behalf. He can bring God something of his own achievement. He is, himself, able to approach God without a sacrifice. He comes in an attitude of self-righteousness based upon human achievement. And he worships God in a false way, offering hypocritical worship. It doesn’t tell us anything about the quality of what he brought. It just says he brought something of the “fruit of the ground,” something of the fruit of his own labor.
Abel, on the other hand, brought, Verse 4 says: “…The firstlings of his flock and their fat portions.” He brought animals. Not just that he raised animals and that’s why he brought them, but he brought animals who were the best of the best. That’s what that means in the Hebrew, “the firstlings of the flock and their fat portions.” He brought the very best of the very best, which is obviously what God required. He required a sacrifice of the very best. And that, too, pictures the ultimate sacrifice for sin, Jesus Christ, the very best of the very best; the perfect spotless lamb that was offered for sinners in order that they might be covered by His righteousness.
And we saw last time, importantly so, Verse 4: “The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and for his offering, He had no regard.” There are two elements there; very, very important. God “…had regard for Abel and his offering.”
First, for Abel. And when it says He “had regard for Abel,” it meant that God saw the heart of Abel was in exercising pure worship. He sees into the heart of Abel and recognizes that Abel’s heart is right toward God. And he comes as a penitent, humble sinner. And not only is his heart right but, therefore, his sacrifice is right. He brings what God wants. He comes in obedience. He offers God the sacrifice, which is a way the sinner can say: I’m not good; I know I’m a sinner; I need a covering; I need to die; I deserve to die; I thank you that you will provide someone to die in my place, even as you slew an animal to cover my parents. So his attitude was right and his act was right. He had a right heart attitude of the sinner who knew he needed and deserved death, and needed a substitute to die in his place. That was Abel.
In the case of Cain, God had no regard for Cain or his offering. The heart of Cain wasn’t right. It was self-righteous. And the offering, therefore, was not right either. It spoke nothing of his need for a sacrifice. It spoke nothing of his sin, nothing of his deserving death. So here is false, self-righteous, hypocritical worship. Cain did not please God. And he is cataloged, therefore, with those who don’t please God.
Remember the book of Jude? Verse 11: “Woe to them,” meaning false teachers, who “…have gone the way of Cain,” who have “…rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.” They are “…hidden reefs in your love feasts.” They are “…clouds without water.” They are “…carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam.” They are “…wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.” Those are the people in the way of Cain. They may be religious, but they’re false. They’re like those who rebelled in the rebellion of Korah. They’re like that false prophet Balaam, who could be bought and would prophesy for hire to the highest bidder. Cain is classified with those who are doomed. His religion was hypocritical, self-righteous and false. So the doomed have hopeful beginnings, but offer to God unacceptable worship.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
