BLESSED is the man that is in the way of Abel. “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain,” says Scripture (Jude 1111Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. (Jude 11)). And what was Cain’s way? It was the way of nature, mere natural religion apart from faith in the revelation God had given.
Cain was by occupation a tiller of the ground. Abel was a shepherd. Cain was a husbandman, and his heart was much engrossed with the ground that he was busy tilling. “In process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord” (Gen. 4:33And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. (Genesis 4:3)). He began to think he must draw near to God. It was a good thought. What man would dare to say that it was not a good thing to draw near to God?
Cain was right in his thought, wrong in the way of carrying out his attempt to draw near to God. Recollect you too will have to meet God. You must meet God. Every one, sooner or later, must meet Him, if not in time then in eternity. Every reader of these lines must meet God. Whatever your age, whatever your class, whatever your rank in society, or level in this world, you must have to say to God, you must meet God, and have to do with God. The point is, What road will you take to Him in order to be accepted?
Now observe, Cain draws near to God with an offering of the fruit of the ground—the product of his own labor; and, on the other hand, we find that “Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect” (vers. 4:5). There could be nothing more distinct and contrasted than this action of God with regard to these offerings, and the offerers who brought them. The one He accepts, the other He rejects. Cain is the rejected man, while Abel is the accepted man. Wherein lay the difference? They were both sons of the same parents. They were both the offspring of the same father and mother. They were both sinners. Their parents had sinned, and they too were sinners. God has declared in His Word that “all have sinned,” and we too have sinned. Cain and Abel felt they were at a distance from God, but they would draw near to God—in plain language, they would be worshippers.
Most probably you, too, have taken the ground of being a worshipper. Is it in Cain’s way or Abel’s? That is a serious, a most important question. I do not know any question more important. Observe that Cain draws near, but upon what ground? He brings to God the outcome of his own diligence—the fruit of the earth. And you may say, Was he not doing right? No. Was he wrong in giving to God the fruit of the diligence of his life? Clearly. Do you know what Cain really did? If you understand that, — and I think we have all gone in the “way of Cain” to begin with, — you will see he entirely overlooked the fact of the fall. It is the fashion now-a-days to overlook the fall. He overlooked the fact that he was outside God’s presence, as a sinner, and because of sin. It pleased him to forget the fact that sin had come in between God and man, and that man was a sinner, away from God. It is sin that shuts man out from the presence of God, and Cain was outside God’s presence. How then is he to draw near to God? He must draw near in the way that suits God, and that is in keeping with the character of God.
Abel, knowing that he is guilty, and unable to draw near to God as he is, sets the death of another between himself and God. He recognizes God’s judgment of sin, and has faith in a sacrifice by which expiation of sin is effected. Cain has not the conscience of sin, for he brings as his offering those fruits which are a witness of earth’s curse. His heart is blinded, and his conscience hardened. He takes for granted that all is well between him and God and that he will be received. Why should he not be? The just sense of sin and ruin is completely wanting, as also any knowledge of the right way to draw near to God.
You may turn to me and say, But how could Cain know the way that suited God? I reply, How did Abel learn it? That he learned it is certain. Two men, sitting side by side, may read this paper. One has learned the way to God, and the other has not. Wherein lies the difference? Are not both sinners? Yes! Were not Cain and Abel equally sinners in the sight of God? They were. The Spirit of God reveals the secret of the difference in each case. The existence or absence of faith. “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh” (Heb. 11:44By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. (Hebrews 11:4)). I wonder if you ever heard a dead man speak? You say, A dead man speak? That would be the last man I would expect to listen to. A dead man speaks to you today, and he plainly says, You will never get to God if you don’t go in the way I went. What does Abel say? He tells you the truth in the simplest language possible: I put between my sinful soul and God the dead body of a sinless victim offered in sacrifice, and He accepted me.
Abel teaches us the way to God most clearly, as he puts between his guilty soul and God the body of the victim offered in sacrifice. He had the knowledge that death was upon him, and that he was a sinner out of God’s presence. Death was ahead of him, as well as judgment. You may say, But how did he learn it? I take it that he had heard how God had dealt in righteous judgment with his parents in the moment of the fall. His parents had doubtless told him the sad tale of sin, and its judgment, which Genesis 3 records. You too most likely have learned the truth from your parents. Whether it has yet brought forth fruit in your life is another question. God knows that, and you know too. Clearly the parents of these two young men had told them of how they had been driven out of the garden of Eden, and of the way in which God had clothed them with the skins of beasts. Abel had believed and deeply profited by this lesson, while Cain ignored it.
Abel, so to speak, is heard saying—I am a sinner, I am under sentence of death, and I know the wages of sin is death; and the only way I can draw near to God is by putting between Him and me the dead body of a sinless victim; that sacrifice I will offer, and upon that ground I will draw near to Him. BY FAITH he offered unto God “a more excellent sacrifice.” And he found he was accepted. You have the very kernel of Christianity foreshadowed in Abel’s action. You have the truth of the cross, and of the death of the Lord Jesus for poor sinners like you and me. Abel’s action most simply points to the cross, and to the death of the Saviour in the room and stead of the guilty sinner. That is the lesson I learn from his action.
Now Cain’s road, on the other hand, only ends in rejection, death, and judgment. It never leads to God. Abel’s path leads certainly to the knowledge of acceptance with God, “By FAITH Abel offered unto God a MORE EXCELLENT sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was RIGHTEOUS, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh.” He is one of the wonderful cloud of witnesses to the value of faith, found in Hebrews 11, and if I put him in the witness-box, and inquire, Abel, what have you to say? he replies, I am accepted. By whom? By God. How were you accepted—on the ground of your works? I have none; I bring forth nothing but sin. I am accepted on the ground, that by faith I put between my guilty soul and God the dead body of a spotless victim. I offered the firstling of the flock, and the fat, — the excellence thereof, — and God accounted me righteous. He accepted me in the value and excellence of my offering. That is a good testimony from a dead man.
Cain is dead also, but he does not speak. Ah! no, Cain has no helpful, cheery voice from the dead. God gives you His commentary about him. The Holy Ghost says “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain.” And yet Cain’s way is the popular way, mark that! It is the way ninety-nine men out of every hundred go today. Go down the street and ask the first man you meet if he is sure that he is on his road to heaven. With complacent self-satisfaction his answer will be: “Nobody can know that with certainty, but I am doing my best. I am religious, and take the sacrament, and give of my substance for God’s work. What more can I do?” Take the second man, he will say: “I don’t like that sort of question put to Inc. Of course I am not what I should be, but I am not so bad as many. God is merciful, and I am doing the best I can.” A third man will reject you and your query with scorn, and if you put the gospel before him, will put it aside. It is a solemn day we live in.
Cain’s way has great attractions for multitudes, for, mark you, he was religious I don’t think he was a skeptic—an infidel. I do not think he was a hypocrite. He was the man who inaugurated mere human religion, and became the leader of countless thousands of men, who start and continue their course in life by ignoring the fact of the gravity of sin, and of the reality of the breach that sin has brought in between God in His holiness, and man in his guilt. Cain ignored the truth of the fall. I can draw near to God—he practically said—on the ground of that which I can myself do, on the ground of that which I have produced, — and he digs and delves, labors and tills, toils and sweats; he reaps his corn, and presses his wine, and with a well-dressed sheaf, and a flagon of well-pressed wine, he draws near to God. And then what is the result? God neither accepts his sacrifice nor him. Why? He was bringing the fruit of the ground, already cursed. The curse of God had fallen upon the earth previous to this, and that Cain quite ignored. The ground came in for the curse by Adam’s sin. Creation has shared in the fall of Adam. He was creation’s lord—but he fell, and as a result vanity has come into the scene, and now the earth shares in the fortunes of her fallen lord.
All this Cain forgot, as well as that he was a lost man, a ruined sinner, and at a distance from God. And, my friend, it is a very easy thing to forget that; it is very easy for you and me to ignore it. Man needs to wake up to the fact that he is a sinner. You say, Who do you mean? I mean you, myself, and every man. God has left no man out. Man as man has sinned, and between your soul and God there is at this moment—if you have not yet been born of God, and brought to Him through the blood of Jesus—a distance, a terrible distance, and it is a good thing when a man feels it. Cain ignored the distance. In calm indifference of soul he chose to draw near to God. And people today walk in “the way of Cain,” and think that by their own doings, their prayers, their religious exercises, and by a meritorious life, they may draw near to God.
Such cases abound. I once saw a lady, who said, “I wish I could die.” “I hope you will not,” I replied, “for I don’t think you are ready.” “But I think I am ready,” she rejoined, “for I say my prayers regularly. Will not my prayers avail?” “No, your prayers will not avail Man does not get to God and receive forgiveness of sins by his prayers. Scripture says, that ‘without shedding of blood is no remission’ (Heb. 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)). And again it says, ‘To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness’” (Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)).
The man who verily thinks that by his prayers his sins can be washed away, is truly in “the way of Cain.” He thought that the activity of his life, and the fruits gathered from it, could fit him—a sinner—to stand before God What folly! If you are in “the way of Cain,” may God arrest you. That road ends in eternal ruin, depend upon it. “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain,” cribs the Holy Ghost. You had better get into the way of Abel. What did Abel do? He presented the firstling of his flock. He learned by faith that there must be between him and God the spotless victim, that tells of death undergone. That victim he offered, and God accepted him.
Now, how can you and I get salvation? Only by faith in God’s blessed Son. The lamb offered by Abel was a striking type of the Lamb of God. “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world,” said the Baptist (John 1:2929The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)). As I look back at the cross, I see the wonderful truth that between two malefactors there died the sinless, spotless Man—the Lamb of God—for hell-deserving sinners. What then shall I do? Shall I endeavor to put myself right with God by my own endeavors, or shall I put between my soul and the holiness of God the wonderful truth that Jesus died, and died for me? I will follow Abel. I was in “the way of Cain” for a good many years, until I found that the way of Abel was the better, — that it was the way of salvation, — for it is God’s way, being of faith.
What is faith? Faith is the principle that links the soul with God. Cain is the leader and first exponent of what I may term natural religion, which is nothing but flesh turned pious outwardly, and leaves the soul where it found it, afar off from God. Faith, on the other hand, brings the soul to God, for “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:1717So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)).
W. T. P. W.