Cain and Abel - Works vs Faith

Cain and Able

Works vs. Faith

Highs and Lows

What did we learn last week? Creation, Adam and Eve, the Fall, the leaves, the skins provided by God

How were Adam and Eve representative of us today?

Genesis 4:1–16 NLT

1 Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel. When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground. 3 When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, 5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected. 6 “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? 7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” 8 One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him. 9 Afterward the Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother? Where is Abel?” “I don’t know,” Cain responded. “Am I my brother’s guardian?” 10 But the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! 11 Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother’s blood. 12 No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work! From now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain replied to the Lord, “My punishment is too great for me to bear! 14 You have banished me from the land and from your presence; you have made me a homeless wanderer. Anyone who finds me will kill me!” 15 The Lord replied, “No, for I will give a sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills you.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who might try to kill him. 16 So Cain left the Lord’s presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

What did Cain do as an occupation?

What did Abel do as an occupation?

What did each of them bring to God?

After God rejected Cain’s offerings, what did He tell Cain to do?

What do the sheep/living animals continue to represent? Think back to when Adam and Eve ate from the apple.

If Abel’s offering represented the true covering and sacrifice, what did Cain’s offering represent? (relying on his own work to earn his approval. Abel, on the other hand relied simply on the growth of the sheep.)

Cain put forth an effort, and brought forth some of his crops. Cain toiled the ground and still didn’t gain the approval.

He wanted to see Abel fall.

What does Cain’s murdering of Abel tell us of Cain’s true nature? He was focused on himself, rather than doing what was right. He was never focused on faithfully giving to God, he was focused on his own works.

*Illustration- One person running away from the finish line, and another person running towards it.

Cain wasn’t focused on the finish line. Abel was. Cain missed the mark. Abel got it right.

1 Corinthians 13:1–7 NASB95

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7

From this passage, how do we see Cain vs. Abel?