Faith from the Very Beginning

Hebrews 11:4-6

I think one of the most damaging doctrines that has crept into the church is the idea that God has changed the way he operates. As if at one point God had a program for salvation, but eventually after realizing it wasn’t quite accomplishing what he wanted it to, he changed things and is now doing things in a more efficient and effective manner.

But how can this be? How can the unchanging God change the way he operates? For God to save one people by one means and save another people by another means would spell certain doom for us. We would have a God who can decide he doesn’t want to stick with his program anymore. What’s to say his decision to love and save us couldn’t change as well?

That is the point of our passage this morning. And the way the the author is going to go about demonstrating that to us is by going back all the way to the first born generation of people. What do we expect to see? Mankind having a different heart? God operating in a different way?

No in fact we find the same faith in the same Christ, and we see the same faith acting in worship with the same love. What comfort there is in knowing we have a reliable God in a world that is unreliable!

So this morning we are going to look at two cases. One of a man named Abel and one of a man named Enoch. Both of these men had the same faith in the same Christ. And yet their physical lives ended in two drastically different ways, one ended in suffering… murder, and the other in being taken to heaven directly without experiencing death. Well lets look at these.

First Abel. Now you probably know the story of Cain and Abel. Genesis 4 tells us that both men, brothers, offered sacrifices to God. Abel from the best of his livestock, and the best part of the best of his livestock, and Cain brought some fruit.

God was pleased with Abel and displeased with Cain, so Cain murders Abel.

Some observations. I’ve always found it interesting that this story, true by the way, happens so soon after creation. In my fairy tale mind I’d like to think that it would take many 1000’s of years for the hard evidence of God’s loving existence to pass on to myth. Like in Lord of the Rings after the ring is lost. History became legend. Legend became myth.

But that’s the reality of what we learn from this text. It isn’t the amount of time removed from the events of the Bible that is our problem. It is the fallenness of our hearts and the insatiable need to reject God.

Verse 6 explains something interesting. Drawing near to God—something we’ve seen numerous times in Hebrews… We’re told to draw near—he’s explaining how this is connected to faith. We believe that he exists… I AM, the name he gave Moses really can be translated as the One Who Is, the One Who Exists.

Do you believe God is who he says he is? YHWH of the Bible? He rewards those who believe him and trust him by faith.

Well the author uses the word commended in this text a few times to explain what he means up in verse 2 by God commending the people of old. They were counted righteous, God was pleased. He accepted them.

Abel was counted righteous in Christ. Paul explains this in Romans 3. God passed over the former sins so that he could lay them on Christ. And the faith of saints before Christ was in Christ the coming one.

So see that Abel’s offering was by faith. His faith expressed itself in worship. Proper worship. He gave his best to God. Not as a way to earn his favor, but because in Christ Abel had God’s favor, he responded in worship.

How do we know it was an in Christ faith? Because he offered a bloody sacrifice. Abel’s sacrifice said that he understood one would have to die in his place. Hebrews has already told us that the sacrifices of the Old Covenant testified about the coming substitutionary death of Christ. Abel understood this. Maybe not the incarnation, maybe not how it would all work. But he understood that one would have to die in his place, and that God deserved all praise for his life.

Well what happened to Abel? He was murdered. Some say that Stephen is the first martyr, he’s not. Abel is. Abel died for his faith.

What does this teach us? Christian, suffering is often part of our life in God. It always has been. Trying to skirt some middle line between not suffering but still serving God… It’s not true faith. True faith accepts the worldly consequences knowing that we have a better inheritance in the Son.

Verse 6 explains this. This is how the author explains that it was true faith that was expressing itself in Abel. God was pleased. You cannot please God without faith. Abel pleased God.

Why was Cain’s sacrifice not accepted? Many throughout history have wanted to say that it was simply because he didn’t give his best.

I planted a garden a month of so ago. Fruit and Vegetables grow like crazy. I could throw squash and cucumbers and you and I would still have plenty to eat tonight.

That wasn’t the issue though. The text tells us. In fact the word of God tells us in many places about the issue of sacrifice and worship. Isaiah 1 tells us that God is sick of Israel’s sacrifices. They are making him nauseous. It wasn’t even the case that they were giving the wrong sacrifices.

Micah 6, famous passage. The people sarcastically say to God.. What do you want from us? You want a whole river of oil? Do you want a whole flock of cattle?

No over and over again scripture tells us what Paul says in Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

It’s your heart that is to be given in sacrifice. That requires faith. That requires a changed nature. You have to be radically changed from God hater to God lover. The issue with Cain was not that he simply gave some ugly Vegetables in sacrifice. Cain did not trust Christ as savior. Cain did not believe God and have his faith accounted to him as righteousness.

Believer this has been the issue from the very beginning. Are you here this morning because it is what you are supposed to do, or has your heart been changed so that you desire to give God yourself in worship?

And lest you think that this is some funeral dirge type of message, see what the text says. God accepted him.

Notice Enoch in the next verse. I realize I spent most of our time on Abel, and Enoch is probably the more interesting one because he seems to mysterious to us.

Jude tells us that Enoch was known for preaching against the wickedness of the people in his time. His was a faith that acted, just as Abel’s. And the text explains that God was pleased with him and took him. There are two things here that I would like to help us apply.

1. God took him. I realize that seems strange, and it is strange. He and Elijah are the only two people in history not to die. But see why God put Abel and Enoch next to each other as he he teaches us about faith.

Faith does not mean suffering wont come in life, but it does mean that suffering isn’t the end. Just as Enoch escaped from death altogether, we will finally triumph over death when we are raised from the dead. Enoch is a type of Christ in that we see God pleased and lifting him up.

This is my Son in whom I am well pleased, the Father said of Christ. And believer your life, beyond this earthly life, is secure forever in Him.

2. Some of us perhaps have grown up without understanding the smile of God upon us in Christ in this gospel.

The gospel says that the Father is pleased. The Father rejoices in the giving of our hearts in faith. And the reason for that is because his Son the Lord Jesus Christ is magnified, exalted at the giving of ourselves in faith and in worship. This is not law, this is not burdensome, this is not a funeral dirge. This is entry and enjoyment of glory.

The Westminster catechism question 1 asks “what is the chief end of man?” That is, what is the main purpose for people.

Have you ever heard someone ask what is the meaning of life? Some people talk as if it is the deepest and most unknown question imaginable. I love that our confessions and catechisms start by asking it and answering it. It is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

And those two things are inseparable! Glory and enjoyment. That’s how faith works. We glorify God and it is our most profound joy.

Christ for the joys set before him endured the cross. That’s what Abel pictures for us in this sacrifice and murder. What is our life compared with the hope of glory?

The same God of Abel and Enoch is the same God we worship here today. He is the same God who gave himself for us, and the same God that is due all of our praise.