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Sunday 12/07/25
Title: By FAITH… Abel
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By FAITH… Abel
Last week we read through Hebrews 11 with the specific intention of addressing both questions I both know and suspect you have regarding faith. Many of these questions are remnants from old teachings before we reformed as a church. In those days we re-evaluated many things we had previously believed and I know that in the whirlwind of all the change it left many with questions of “well what do we do now?” and “does that mean everything we used to believe is just wrong?” and “Well if we had it wrong all those years, what confidence can I have that we are getting it right now?”
All perfectly normal and expected questions.
FOUNDATIONAL THINGS
You know, in life, it is the foundational things which we most value and try to protect.
It’s truly an overwhelming prospect to consider that something you have built your whole life upon might be wrong.
Not only does it suggest uncertainty and a lack of safety, it also presents us with the very real possibility that if you remove this foundation or alter it in any way, much that was built upon it will come tumbling down. And this is the insane bit. As crazy as it sounds to our rational minds, human beings tend towards protecting what we have rather than doing the hard work of examining our beliefs in the cold light of objective truth.
Shearing up a foundation is hard work and when that foundation is our faith, even minute changes are experienced as an earthquake.
The default human reaction is to protect what we believe and that is precisely what we cannot – must not do. It was when I saw this tendency in our church back then, that I coined the phrase, “Faith does not need a shield, it is one”. If you find yourself in the position of defending your faith, your foundation is less secure than you think. For even if your beliefs ARE correct – biblically, your defensiveness reveals that you believe it for the wrong reasons.
As we learned last week, motives are everything in life and faith. It isn’t just what you say, do and believe – it’s WHY that matters as well.
So as we start re-examining “faith” in relation to God we HAVE to begin with a deep respect for Him. We value truth, because God IS truth. There is NO advantage to believing a lie.
So are you ready to dive into God this week? To know Him better, not simply what He has said? To know the person of the word, rather than just academic knowledge of the words themselves?
INTRO OF FAITH EXAMPLE: ABEL
Looking at Abel from last week is a good launch site for today’s teaching. So today that’s what we are doing. We are going BACK into Hebrews 11 and looking at Abel and Cain. Abel being set forth in Hebrews 11 as a good example of faith and Cain as a bad one – or rather as an example of unbelief.
Abel is not a spectacular example of faith – which for our purposes makes him a spectacular example of faith!
What I mean by that is that the faith displayed by Abel was simple. There was nothing eye-catchy, or show stopping about it.
In fact you could read the entire original account in Genesis and literally miss the expression of his faith altogether, which makes it PERFECT for us!
You see, faith has been shrouded in some silly form of mystery for more years than I can recall. In fact, much of the teaching I have received about it, didn’t help much. For every point it clarified, it seemed to obscure another.
Here are some truly basic yet indispensable truths regarding faith. Some we covered last week, some this week but nearly all of them we’ve covered at some point…
- Reverence for God is foundational to faith.
- Faith is NOT hard.
- Faith is automatic if your heart is open and unprotected.
- Faith’s motive is always pure.
- Faith is God focused not ME focused.
- Faith ALWAYS bears fruit – has correlating action.
- Faith is always IN God as a person, not in what we know ABOUT His will.
- Faith is always IN God and not FOR a thing or outcome.
- Faith doesn’t need a shield, it IS one.
- Faith isn’t conjured, it comes!
Now I want to approach Abel as our token example of faith and as I often do I want to not only read what the author of Hebrews says, but I want to go back to the source of that information and read the passage he is referencing.
When the New Testament references the Old as an example (as it nearly always does) we stand to learn as least TWO lessons.
- A very real New Covenant application of that truth AND
- How to extract from God’s word things which we might just as easily have read past or over!
So we are going to read Hebrews 11:4 (probably 1-4) and then we will go to Genesis 4 and read the actual account being referenced.
I think you may be shocked at how much is extracted from such a brief account. But we are going to go one step further and look at the unbelief of Cain, for that too is instructional!
JEWISH BELIEVERS
You know it is part of Jewish culture, or at least that part of Jewish culture that takes their faith seriously, to spend copious amounts of time pouring over the scriptures, talking it over amongst themselves and seeing it from various perspectives.
In doing this their goal is to glean every last once they can from what God inspired to be written.
I have a friend who, for a time, attended a synagogue of completed Jews and the way he described it made me LONG for something similar in my life.
These Jewish believers would go to synagogue and hear a passage read and a teacher expound on the passage – just like we see Jesus and Paul doing.
Many times, other men would interject during the teaching and even contradict if they feel the teacher was straying from the intended meaning of the passage.
After service, they would all retire to one of their homesteads.
The women and girls would busy themselves in the kitchen singing praises and talking about the word they’d heard.
The men and boys would assemble on a porch and take deep dives into the subject addressed in synagogue – the men often with a pipe in their mouths and a beer in their hands.
Since meals were nearly always from scratch these times of fellowship could take a couple of hours and they truly and deeply loved discussion around God’s word. It was an environment of such simple sincerity that it makes most “Gentile churches” (if you don’t mind me using the phrase) seem embarrassingly superficial on their best days.
They would find hidden gems in passages which the common man would read past in their haste and it was often in these gems that the most profound relational truths for living were discovered.
Oh, if the greater Christian community loved and tarried over God’s word in such a manner!
By FAITH… Abel
Now I will begin by explaining what we are going to find out about faith this morning. Then I will repeat that list of truths again shortly.
As I am teaching, I will point them out to you. Then as we finish, I will summarize them one more time.
You ready? Here they are…
- Abel had a heart to hear, receive, admit into his heart and follow the revelation he received of and from God regarding righteousness. Cain did not!
- Abel’s faith was seen in what he did (Abel offered…)
- What he offered was “excellent” in that it was offered in the obedience of faith.
- His “faith born actions” were what created his good testimony or witness.
- WHAT was witnessed was that his faith and obedience placed him in right standing with God.
- God Himself, testified regarding the quality and nature of Abel’s faith based offering.
- Through which Abel’s blood still spoke even after his death.
- Through what? Well that is less obvious, but it is either by Abel’s offering, by Abel’s faith or by God’s testimony about Abel’s faith and obedience.
I wanted to read this from the NET, the Holman or the ESV but they take one Greek word in a direction which I believe muddies the waters rather than bringing clarity.
That word is martureō (mar-too-reh’-o).
They render it as “commendation”, and while in effect this is correct, I think it redirects the mind away from the point rather than towards it.
This word can also be translated as “approved or good testimony or witness”. I think this is more appropriate and in step with the direction and overall point of the chapter.
Hebrews 11:1-4,
“(1) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
(2) For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
(3) By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
(4) By faithAbel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he OBTAINED witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.”
So that word martureō (mar-too-reh’-o) as used in these verses means to emphatically testify. To strongly bear honorable testimony. To be well-testified about and to possess a good witness.
So, verse 2 is sort of the pace setting verse for this chapter. It says,
“For by it [faith] the elders obtained a good testimony.”
THEME: FAITH & GOOD TESTIMONY
So faith and a good testimony are the themes of this chapter.
That being true, the Holy Spirit inspired the writer of Hebrews to use Abel as a solid 1st human example of such.
So what do we learn about Abel here in relation to faith and a good testimony?
- Abel had a heart to hear, receive, admit into his heart and follow the revelation he received of and from God regarding righteousness. Cain did not!
- Abel heard, received, His faith was seen in what he did (Abel offered…)
- What he offered was “excellent” in that it was offered in obedience and faith.
- His faith born actions are what created the good testimony or witness.
- WHAT was witnessed was that his faith and obedience placed him in right standing with God.
- God Himself, testified regarding the quality and nature of Abel’s faith based offering.
- Through which Abel’s blood still spoke even after his death.
- Through what? Well that is less obvious, but it is either by Abel’s offering, by Abel’s faith or by God’s testimony about Abel’s faith and obedience.
We read later in Hebrews 12, that Jesus’ blood speaks better things than the blood of Abel.
Now traditionally I have always run with the “party line”, that this meant that Jesus’ blood speaks forgiveness and restoration while Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance.
Now while I don’t doubt for a second that this is true, I DO question if that is what Hebrews 11 is pointing out.
In context Hebrews 11 seems to be more interested in the fact of Abel’s crying out, than it is in WHAT was BEING cried OUT!
GENESIS 4
Interestingly in Genesis 4, which is where I want you to turn now, the account says that it was Abel’s blood that cried out from the ground rather than “Abel” still speaking after death.
More than likely the passage in Genesis is using blood as the personification of Abel or Abel’s soul.
That his blood being “drunk in by the ground” was a testimony to Abel’s righteousness by faith!
That testimony in turn BECAME the testimony against Cain, Abel’s assailant.
Genesis 4:1-16,
“(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.”
I like the NET version of this which has,
“Abel took care of the flocks, while Cain cultivated the ground.”
It is an interesting yet unrelated fact that Cain being their firstborn followed in his father’s footsteps in being a cultivator of the land. He tended and kept it, just as God taught and commissioned Adam to do.
“(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.”
This is pivotal and we have to be careful not to superimpose upon God our personal misunderstandings.
GOD DOES NOT CHANGE!!!
There is NOTHING in this passage which is rooted in the Old Covenant, since that covenant did not even exist yet.
- The Lord had regard for Abel AND his offering.
- The Lord had NO regard for Cain AND his offering.
FAITH IS ACTIVE – AND IT IS PRODUCTIVE
Why? Because faith is only faith, when it is active.
As our brother James makes clear in his letter,
FAITH… REAL FAITH PRODUCES WORKS!
Works DO NOT and NEVER HAVE saved anyone under ANY covenant. God does not change and so if works cannot save today, they never could!
What DOES save?
The heart response of trust in the revealing of the person, character and power of God.
The power to save is God’s, but the reception of it is only open to those who believe. Who will exhibit relational trust.
WHY? Because belief or reliance is both a heart issue and is relational. It strikes right to the root of all relationships and the most pre-eminent relationship of all, is that which we have with God our Creator.
When God reveals Himself – do you… WILL YOU trust Him?
GOD REVEALED TO CAIN & ABEL
Now, even though we do not have a specific record of it, Abel & Cain both had been given a revelation of God. Specifically, that they would be accepted and accredited with righteousness if they offered a blood sacrifice (with the fat) in faith.
How do we know this was the condition? Because God had regard for one and his gift and not the other AND because later, God told Cain that if he were to do what is right, he would be accepted.
How could either Cain or Abel have known what was right, if they had not been told?
Now I digress momentarily from a razor focus on our passage but it applies!
It is a powerful and undoing thing to be in the presence of God and Abel, in one fashion or another, was in that presence and knew it in the form of acceptance.
Knowing God, and living aware of your naked and vulnerable position relative to Him is often unnerving to the core.
Those who claim otherwise, have only experienced a very shallow and superficial exchange with Him.
The experience of this is very much like the description of honest prayer given by Theophan the recluse (a Bishop of the Russian Orthodox church in the 1800’s) who said,
“To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there stand before the face of the Lord, ever present, all-seeing, within you.”
However, it is also equally true that standing in the powerful presence of God in trusting reliance upon His character and goodness is simultaneously the highest possible experience of unwavering belonging and acceptance we as created beings can ever experience.
TREE & FRUIT
What is important here, is something which is seen all the way through scripture from Genesis, on past the flood, on to the time of Abraham, on the the time of the giving of the Law to Moses, all the way to Jesus and finally under the New Covenant.
In EVERYONE of these locations in scripture you can readily find passages which illustrate that there is ZERO difference between WHO a person IS and WHAT they habitually DO.
Jesus said regarding those who would be the church – those clothed in righteousness through faith in Him – that the world would know us by our Fruit! The primary fruit being our love for the brethren.
Paul reaffirmed this in 2 Corinthians 13:4-5,
“(4) For indeed he was crucified by reason of weakness, but He lives because of God’s power. For we also are weak in Him, but we will live together with Him, because of God’s power toward you. (5) Put yourselves to the test to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize regarding yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you – unless, indeed, you fail the test!”
And
1 John 2:3-5,
“(3) And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. (4) Whoever says “I know Him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, (5) but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him:”
GOD TRIES TO REDEEM CAIN
So back to our passage in Genesis 4:7.
God is now talking to Cain whom he does NOT regard with favor and whose sacrifice was rejected.
“(7) If you do right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
(8) Cain said to his brother Abel,
“Let’s go out to the field.”
And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
(9) Then the LORD said to Cain,
“Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”
(10) Then He said,
“What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground! (11) So now you are cursed with alienation from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood you have shed.
(12) If you work the land, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
(13) But Cain answered the LORD,
“My punishment is too great to bear! (14) Since You are banishing me today from the soil, and I must hide myself from Your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, whoever finds me will kill me.”
(15) Then the LORD replied to him,
“In that case, whoever kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” And He placed a mark on Cain so that whoever found him would not kill him.
(16) Then Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.”
So what have we learned?
HEART RESPONSE IS EVERYTHING
Abel heard, received, admitted into his heart and followed the revelation he received from God regarding righteousness. Cain did not!
Just like Romans 10:17 says,
“faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word (rhema – direct revelation of) God.”
The word rhemaitself does not always mean this, but in the context of Romans 10, the word rhema is significant. Here, rhema refers to the spoken or uttered word of God, usually indicating a specific message or revelation.
Unlike logos, which often signifies the written or general Word of God, rhemaemphasizes a specific, dynamic communication. It highlights how God speaks directly to individuals or situations.
In the context of Romans 10:17, rhema is tied to the idea that faith is birthed through actively hearing God’s word and believing it. It’s about receiving insight or directives from God.
Now in Romans 10:17 that revelation was through an anointed and called preacher – one God sent. But ultimately God can only be revealed by the Holy Spirit.
THE FLESH IS A WALL
According to 1 Corinthians 2:14, the one who lives dominated by their flesh does not receive, admit with the mind and heart, approve of, embrace or follow the revelations offered by God’s Spirit.
So Cain was dominated by his flesh while Abel was dominated by God’s Spirit. Meaning, Abel was open to and even seeking revelation of God. Whereas Cain was not!
Abel therefore possessed ears to hear and eyes to see. Or as Jesus put it, Abel was on the “inside” whereas Cain was on the “outside”. And this was by personal choice!
Cain didn’t HAVE to be “outside”.
God came to Cain, one-on-one and told him
“If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted?”
But Cain’s response to this further revelation of God, was to reject it which was to reject God Himself!
FAITH & OBEDIENCE
Now, let’s take this into the New Testament to see this correlation between hearing the Spirit’s revelation of God, the potential for faith as a result and that obedience is the expression of faith.
Turn with me to Hebrews 3:1-19,
“(1) Therefore, holy brothers and companions in a heavenly calling, CONSIDER JESUS, the apostle and high priest of our confession;”
This is VERY similar to what we read last week in Hebrew 12:2 which tells us to “look away from other things and SET an expectant gaze upon Jesus Who Himself IS the author and developer (maturer) of our faith.”
“(2) He was faithful to the One Who appointed Him, just as Moses was in all God’s household.
(3) For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house.
(4) Now every house is built by someone, but the One Who built everything is God. (5) Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future. (6) But Christ was faithful as a Son over His household, whose household we are IF we hold on to the courage and the confidence of our hope.
(7) Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear His voice, (8) do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the desert, (9) where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works (10) for 40 years. Therefore I was provoked with this generation and said,
“They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known My ways.”
(11) So I swore in My anger,
“They will not enter My rest.”
(12) Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an EVIL, UNBELIEVING HEART that departs from the living God. (13) But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.
(14) For we have become companions of the Messiah IF WE HOLD FIRMLY UNTIL THE END the reality that we had at the start. (15) As it is said:
Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
(16) For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it really all who came out of Egypt under Moses?
(17) And with whom was He “provoked for 40 years”? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert?
(18) And to whom did He “swear that they would not enter His rest,” if not those who disobeyed?
(19) So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”
Summary:
- Abel had a heart to hear, receive, admit into his heart and follow the revelation he received of and from God regarding righteousness. Cain did not!
- Abel heard, received, His faith was seen in what he did (Abel offered…)
- What he offered was “excellent” in that it was offered in obedience and faith.
- His faith born actions are what created the good testimony or witness.
- WHAT was witnessed was that his faith and obedience placed him in right standing with God.
- God Himself, testified regarding the quality and nature of Abel’s faith based offering.
- Through which Abel’s blood still spoke even after his death.
- Through what? Well that is less obvious, but it is either by Abel’s offering, by Abel’s faith or by God’s testimony about Abel’s faith and obedience.
Blessings!
Tri
