Hebrews 11:4

The legacy of Abel’s faith

Hebrews 11:4 ESV

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

Abel’s offering was the outflow of an obedient heart

Let’s go to Genesis 4.

Genesis 4:1–5 ESV

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

Adam and Eve had two children up to this point and raised them the best they were able. The boys were discovering who they were and what they enjoyed doing. I’m always intrigued ~ what was life like for Adam and Eve after the Garden? They didn’t need faith like you and me, because they knew God existed. They strolled through the garden with him daily. They knew the regret and shame of not listening to God. They also knew the cost for their relationship with God to be restored. I think in all the lessons they learned, in however many years had past, they wanted to pass on to their boys the importance of a right relationship with God.

The Bible doesn’t pointedly tell us what they taught Cain and Abel, until we slowly read Genesis 4. Look at verse 3. I will not pretend to be a Hebrew scholar; but “in the course of time” is 3 words in Hebrew. It appears the phrase could mean at the end of the day or it could mean at the end of a season. I don’t want us to get caught up on which meaning might be correct because it doesn’t matter for our purposes this morning. I would like us to consider that Cain and Abel had been taught by their parents that sacrifices to the Lord were a normal, essential part of life.

We know of only one sacrifice prior to Genesis 4. In the previous chapter, Satan enticed Eve with “Did God really say?” Eve saw the fruit was a delight to her eyes and that it would fulfill her desires to be wise. She ate it and shared with her husband.

Before we move on, if we possess something that looks good and promises to fulfill our desires, we should take a step back and consider what might be happening.

Adam and Eve ate the fruit and immediately had shame, guilt and realized they were naked. Genesis 3:21 says, “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”

Adam and Eve learned that day something had to die so they could be redeemed from their sin. I bet you they taught that to their boys.

On this particular day, Cain and Abel brought their offerings at the appointed time. I think it was family worship. Abel obediently brought something that could die to redeem sin. Cain did not. It appears Cain brought a gift to the Lord on his own terms rather than on God’s terms. For Cain and Abel, this was a heart issue. Conviction often brings anger, guilt, isolation and actions that we didn’t know were inside of us.

As far as we know, Abel brought the offering that he had been taught to bring when he came before the Lord. Abel was the first man in recorded Scripture that had to choose an active faith in the Lord. It was an outflow of his obedient heart.

Abel’s actions were counted as righteousness

Hebrews 11:4 ESV

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

God accepted Abel’s gift and counted him as righteous. The first person I think of when I hear “and it counted to him as righteousness” is not Abel. It’s Abraham. We’ll get to him later, but let’s consider the company that we keep when our actions our counted as righteousness. Maybe you don’t feel like a whole lot in your life is counted as righteousness right now, so let’s consider the group we belong to when we are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ as born-again believers.

We have this whole cheerleading section that is rooting for our actions to be counted as righteousness.

Before we move on, we need to be exhorted. It is possible to bring gifts to the Lord that he does not accept because we bring them on our own terms. If that creeps into our life, we need to be careful that self-righteousness does not follow. It should always be our aim for the Lord to get the glory for our life and for him to count our actions as righteous.

Abel’s legacy lives on

Genesis 4:6–10 ESV

6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” 8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.

We know that Abel’s legacy lives on for two primary reasons.

First, it is recorded for us in Hebrews 11. We don’t have to work hard to find it.

Second, Revelation 6:9–10 reminds us about those who have been killed for their faith. “When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?””

Application:

Maybe your family has tension because of opposing views. Maybe your marriage isn’t great. Maybe you argues a lot with people in your house. Maybe misunderstandings become something bigger. Genesis 4:7 says, “If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

When Genesis 3-4 uses contrary it wants us to understand that something is competing for the intended purposes of our life. When our words or actions shine more than our obedient heart to the Lord, there are visible contrary desires. Sometimes not responding is the appropriate response. Sometimes responding with grace-filled truth is the appropriate response. Self-righteousness is never helpful and never appropriate, especially when there is tension in your relationships.

Maybe at work, you are tempted to compromise values. Maybe it would be easy to give into a certain temptation because everybody else is doing it. For you, I want to remind you that your legacy in life is greater than your net worth. It’s greater than a promotion. It’s greater than making a sale. It’s greater than impressing a co-worker. Our legacy is how gracefully and lovingly we took Jesus to work with us. I read a quote once that said something like this, “Christians give out the same amount of grace they think they need from the Lord.”

Maybe you’re worried about the upcoming school year and how to be witness for Jesus Christ. Do the right thing even when it hurts. Don’t cheat. Don’t talk about people. Let your integrity speak through uncomfortable situations.