Good morning to everyone. Good to see you all this morning. I feel like we're kind of settling into the fall and winter now hoping for some warm sunny weather yet though. We're continuing our study in Hebrews 11 and it's going to be kind of a slowdown here looking at some of these great examples of faith in the Old Testament. We're going to start and look at just verse 4 this morning and this example of Abel's faith.

It's kind of hard to know what to do with a chapter like this but that's what I've chosen to do so we'll spend a lot of time probably working through it. Maybe we'll pick up a couple at a time later but maybe one at a time we'll see. I was thinking this week that at any given time I find myself studying several different passages of God's Word. I'm involved in many Bible studies and working on different books of the Bible continually and it's certainly a privilege, it's a blessing. 

The pastor and I sometimes have talked about I wonder how much we'd study if we didn't have to, you know, if we didn't and so it is a privilege. The past couple weeks I've been impressed that the central point of all the passages I've been studying is the gospel of Christ and particularly our response of faith to that message. On Thursday we are in 1st Corinthians and in chapter 1 Paul said we preach Christ crucified. In chapter 2 he wrote, I desire to know nothing among you but Christ crucified. 

Paul had a singular focus in his life and ministry. He was fixed on one thing. We see that in his testimony in Philippians 3 where he says one thing I do. What a statement. One thing I do and that one thing he said is to press toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I was thinking about the book of Romans, the great doctrinal treatise. What's it really about? What is it? It's an expansion of the gospel, an explanation of the gospel, the condemnation, the sin of man, justification by faith, sanctification by faith, the surety of God's promises, the application of the gospel to our everyday life by faith. 

My brothers and sisters, we never get past the gospel. It's where we start. It's what we preach. It's how we live. It encompasses our hope. This week I had a couple of opportunities to preach the gospel clearly. One was particularly interesting. A man that I've known off and on for a couple years that sets up by me at the farmers market, he said to me, I want to ask you a question but I don't know how to ask it. I said okay, that's all right, go ahead. He said how did you find God? 

Well, you can't just leave a big softball like that hanging out there forever, right? So I gave him my testimony, I quoted the scriptures, I told him the truth about Jesus and God's grace and faith. What an opportunity it is for us as we go through the normal course of our lives to bring this good news to people who need to hear and believe and be saved. God's Word is all about the gospel. It's all about the opportunity to respond to God in faith and receive His life and righteousness and promises. 

And this 11th chapter of Hebrews hones in on that response on the need of faith to enter the new covenant and to have approval from God and then to live a life of faith trusting in and depending on Him. We have a most interesting verse before us this morning set in this context that says that Abel, being dead, still speaks. Well these words greatly intrigue me. It seems like such a monumental statement. What does it mean that he still speaks and what is it that he's saying? 

And made me ask myself this question, what will I say when I'm dead? And that's the question I want to ask you this morning as well. What will you say when you are dead? What will your life and testimony speak? And in my heart and mind it really brings me back to this truth. My life, my witness, my eternity is wrapped up in the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. My faith is in God and His Son Jesus Christ and this I hope and pray is the testimony of my life, the message that I, along with Abel, will speak when I am dead. 

Let's look at verse four of our text. It says, "...by faith Abel 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." I've got three points for you this morning. First, a more excellent sacrifice. Second, approval from God. And third, a testimony that still speaks. 

Well first we see that by faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. And here is really the crux of the verse, the explanation of righteousness by faith. Abel's sacrifice was more excellent for one reason. It was a response of faith to the revelation of God. Cain's sacrifice was a presentation of his own righteousness, of the works of his hands, but most importantly it was a rejection of God's instruction, of God's revelation, God's prescribed way. 

And this speaks directly to the decision that the Hebrews, the authors writing to, had to make. Would they respond in faith and receive the righteousness of God through faith, or would they persist in religion, in their own works, attempting to establish their own righteousness by the works of their hands? The author here goes all the way back to the beginning, really to the first man of faith. You see, Adam and Eve really were not examples of faith because they operated by sight. They did not hope for what they had not seen, but in the garden they walked and talked with God. 

They had the very presence of God with them before the fall. But Abel was conceived and born after the fall, outside the garden. He, as his brother Cain, was born a sinner, a son of Adam. And what we see in this chapter, beginning with the first man of faith, Abel, and stretching down through history from Enoch to Noah to Abraham to Moses, all the way to all the saints and the prophets, right up to today, every man who is approved by God, who is declared righteous, is made right with God by faith. 

Everyone who accomplishes the will of God, the great works that we see manifest here in this 11th chapter, from the sacrifice of Abel to the patience of Abraham, every good work is accomplished by God through the life of the man that lives by faith, that receives the revelation of God, chooses to trust him and acts in the obedience of faith by His grace and power. This is the message. This is the context of this great chapter of faith, and we see that Abel was the first to exercise that faith by his more excellent sacrifice.

Let's go back to Genesis 4 and look at this historical account of Cain and Abel. Genesis 4:1, it says, Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. 

And the Lord respected Abel and his offering. But he did not respect Cain and his offering, and Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. Now Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. 

Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth. 

Well here we have the sons of Adam and Eve, the second men to live on this earth, and notice it says in the process of time it came to pass. A good deal of time has passed, and it says that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground. He was a farmer, a tiller of the land. Just an interesting note here, the word translated tiller is a word that's used 288 times in the Old Testament, and the vast majority of the times it's translated to serve or served. 

It literally means to work or to tend to. It's the same word used of Adam in the garden when God told him to tend or to keep the garden. Cain was a farmer producing the fruits of the earth, but Abel was a keeper of sheep, and notice that he brought a blood sacrifice, the fat of the lamb with it. Clearly he had slaughtered the lamb and brought the fat with his sacrifice. 

All these details are very interesting because they teach us some fascinating things about the second generation that lived on this earth. First of all, we can discern that they'd been taught about sacrifice, had been given instruction concerning sacrifice. The very first sacrifice of an animal because of sin was made by God concerning Cain and Abel's parents. Remember that when they sinned, they made coverings for themselves from leaves. We see that sin must be covered, but God said this was not sufficient, that He must provide a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice to cover sin, and this is pictured in the fact that He made them coverings of animal skins. 

Clearly there was given to Adam and Eve revelation, and this instruction concerning sacrifice must have been passed on to Cain and Abel, and I think this is something that they did regularly. There was a time. It tells us they brought the sacrifice. There was a time, a time prescribed, a way, a method, and there was also a place. They brought their sacrifices, apparently together, to the same place, and they offered them to God. So it's important to see that God had given away a type, a prescription for sacrifice for the covering of sin, otherwise they would have had no way to know what to do, that God even wanted a sacrifice. 

There was a revelation given, and the central point to this is that there must be the shedding of blood. There must be death for sin. There's an interesting verse in Hebrews 12, 24. Just turn over to Hebrews 12 with me, please. Let's look at that, beginning in verse 22. This is the great contrast between the Old and the New Covenant coming to Mount Sinai or to Mount Zion. In verse 22 He says, But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. 

The literal meaning here is that Jesus' blood speaks better things than the blood of Abel. Now this refers, I believe, not to Abel's blood particularly, as in his murder, but to the blood of the sacrifice which he offered. And this fits into the entire context and intent of the book because Jesus' blood in the New Covenant is better than all those sacrifices of the Old Testament, even back to the beginning with the sacrifice of Abel. Abel's offering of the Lamb of the blood was according to God's prescription, to the revelation given by God as to how the sacrifice should be offered. 

It was only a picture, a shadow of the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world, but it was given, it was offered in faith according to God's requirements, and this is the salient point. It's not that Cain's offering was not a wonderful offering of beautiful fruits and vegetables produced by the sweat of his brow. The issue was that Cain's offering was not according to the revelation of God. It was not exercised in faith, believing and trusting, obeying what God said to do, and thus it was a rejection of God and his righteousness, which can only come by grace through faith. 

Abel's offering was a more excellent sacrifice, and it obtained for him approval, righteousness from God. Verse 4 again, by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness, approval, testimony from God that he was righteous. Well this is such an important truth for these Hebrews, and really for us to understand. 

Look with me at Paul's words at the end of Romans 9, and this is speaking of the very nation of Israel, to the Hebrews, to which the author here in our text writes. Romans 9 at verse 30. Such a clear passage, please pay attention to the words. It says, "...what shall we say then, that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith? But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at the stumbling stone, as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness." 

And seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." What was the problem for Israel? What was the danger for these Hebrews, to which the author writes? They were seeking through religion, through works and rites and rituals, to establish their own righteousness. And they were not willing to receive, to submit to the righteousness of God through faith. And this is the reality for every man. 

This is the dividing point, the very point of salvation or condemnation. Jesus explained this to Nicodemus in John 3, listen to his words, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Listen to verse 18, He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already. Why? Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

Have clearer words ever been spoken? It was true for Cain and Abel. Abel obtained, was given the righteousness of God because of his faith, because the reality of his faith was manifest in the sacrifice that he offered. Cain was condemned because he would not believe the revelation of God, but sought rather to establish his own righteousness through the works of his hands, to go his own way. It was true for Israel in the days of Jesus and of Paul, and this is the warning, really, in the book of Hebrews, the call of chapter 11, to come to God through faith, to come to Jesus through faith, because faith has always been the way to righteousness, even in the beginning with Abel. 

And it's true of men today, my brothers and sisters, religious men or irreligious men all around us. Why are they not saved? One reason, they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. They've gone in the way of Cain, seeking to stand on their own works, their religion, their goodness, and they seek to establish their own righteousness by the works of their hands, not willing to submit themselves to the righteousness of God by faith. 

This has always been the case from the beginning, since the fall, and the promise of God of a deliverer, a savior from sin and death and hell. Abel obtained a good testimony. He attained approval from God for one reason and one reason only, faith. He believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. I'm amazed as I study this chapter at the lack of tension in the mind of God, in the pages of Scripture between faith and works. 

We see in every example of this chapter, every hero of faith, that their faith was exhibited, was made manifest by their works, their life, their choice to believe God and do what He says. Abel believed God. God said, here's what I want you to do. I want you to bring an animal sacrifice. I want you to bring it at this time. I want you to prepare it this way. I want you to bring the fat with it. And Cain said, no, I've got a better way, God. I'm not going to believe you. I'm not going to trust you. Abel did exactly what he said. 

If we believe God, we're going to come to Him the way that He prescribes. We're going to trust Him. We're going to believe Him. And we're going to depend on that promise, that truth, by faith. The problem comes when men attempt to mix faith and works as a means to justification, to salvation. Rather than understanding that works are an outflow of a life of faith and dependence on the grace and power and life of Christ in us through an abiding relationship with Him. 

The Hebrews of this day, like the Gentiles in Galatia, were in danger of succumbing to this fatal error, of mixing faith and works for salvation. And this is the prevalent error of our day as well, in so many denominations that claim the name of Christ. Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice. But we must see that this was the result of his faith. It was by faith, it says, that he offered the Lamb. His faith was the cause of his approval by God, and faith alone. 

The sacrifice was a result of his faith, obedience to the Word of God, and expression of his faith. So we see a more excellent sacrifice. We see approval by God because of faith. And last, we see a testimony that still speaks. Let's look at verse 4 again. By faith, Abel 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. 

Well, this is the most fascinating phrase at the end of our verse, he being dead, still speaks. It's said that dead men tell no tales. Benjamin Franklin made the expression famous when he said, three men can keep a secret if two of them are dead. The recent movie, The Pirates of the Caribbean, really popularized the phrase, dead men tell no tales. But the truth is, my friends, dead men do speak. 

And Abel is speaking to us this morning, and to all men, he being dead, still speaks. But what is he saying? He's thinking about the dead men who speak in our culture, in our world. There are many examples of the futility of wealth and fame in this world. I think Robin Williams still speaks to us, and Michael Jackson still speaks to us, and Whitney Houston, and the list goes on and on and on. When asked how much money it takes to make a man happy, J.D. Rockefeller said, just a little more. 

The wonderful rich men who have had great influence in this world, though dead, still speak in many ways, some for the good, some for the bad. But their life, their end, if they did not know Christ, is reminiscent of Jesus' words. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? But then there are those like Peter and Paul, Timothy, Titus, whose lives and words continue to be a testimony today to us and to the world, a different kind of testimony, a life lived in faith and obedience and trust in Jesus Christ. 

And we see that in missionaries around the world. We see it in people in this church, in our brothers and sisters, people who live by faith, and this speaks even after they're gone. I love the passage in Acts 17 where the legalistic Jews were searching for Paul and Silas, and it says in verse 6, But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, these who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 

Paul and Silas were no Rockefellers. They were no great rulers or politicians or movie stars. Paul was not impressive, they say, in person. 1 Corinthians 2:1, Paul wrote, And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 

Paul was no powerful, eloquent speaker, but he carried the most powerful message there ever was. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the Dunamis, the very power of God, unto salvation for every man who will believe. And his impact on the world through his faithful life and preaching and his letters recorded in Scripture are unmatched by any man other than Jesus. 

And still he speaks to us today, encouraging us, teaching us, bringing men to faith in Christ. Our text, our single verse in Hebrews 11 this morning says that Abel, being dead, still speaks. What does the life and testimony of Abel say to these Hebrews, to us, to the world? The answer is simple. It's one word. Faith. 

The message is faith. Righteousness, approval by God through faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone. The message that Abel still speaks is the message of faith in the sacrifice, in the blood, the atonement of his personal sins through the death of a substitute. It says, God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead, still speaks. It's the sacrifice. The word it refers to the sacrifice. He being dead, still speaks. 

He offered the sacrifice by faith, receiving, believing, obeying the command of God to bring a blood sacrifice as a symbol or a picture of the sacrifice of Christ that God would provide. There had to be death to pay for his sins, and my friends, Abel believed that. He trusted God to save him, and in this way, he is the first man of faith, still speaks about the salvation that God offers only in the blood of Christ, only by faith. 

And this truth, this example from the very beginning, leaves these Hebrews again with a choice. It leaves us with a choice. It leaves every man with a choice. Will we follow in the way of Cain? Will we stubbornly, willfully persist in our sin, our unbelief, and reject the grace of God, his substitute, his provision and sacrifice in Christ? Will we seek to establish our own righteousness through religion, or to stand on our own two feet? Or will we follow in the way of Abel, the way of faith? 

Turn over to Jude with me, please. I want you to look at a passage in Jude at verse 5. Jude 1:5, but I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. 

As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these dreamers," he's talking about false teachers in the church, these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you. But these speak evil of whatever they do not know, and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, and these things they corrupt themselves. 

Woe to them," look what he says, for they have gone in the way of Cain. They have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. I love that story of Korah where he challenged Moses, and God got them all together, and the earth opened up and swallowed them all. God said, Moses is my man. The rebellion of Korah. 

They've gone in the way of Cain, unbelief, rebellion against him, rejection of God's grace, God's son, and so many have followed their steps, walking in the broad way that leads to destruction. Balaam for greed, Korah in rebellion, Judas Iscariot, so many of the Jews of Paul's day, some of the Hebrews in this church to which the author writes, the liberal theologian, the world's philosophers, the mighty men, the noble men, my neighbor, my co-worker, and my loved one. 

They choose to go their own way, to seek to establish their own righteousness. It reminds me of John 10 where Jesus so clearly claimed to be God, and the Jews picked up stones to stone Him, but you know what the last verse of that chapter says? Many believed on Him there. Many reject, but many believe. 

Those listed here in Hebrews 11 beginning with Abel, they followed the way of faith. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, verse 13 says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on this earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 

And truly, if they had called to mind the country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return, but now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, and He has prepared a city for them. Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, look at verse 32, Hebrews 11:32, as the author says, And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 

Women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mocking and scourging, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth and all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive," I'm missing some words here, God having... let me look at my Bible, verse 39, "...all these having obtained a good testimony through faith did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us." 

That's speaking of Christ and His coming and the completion. The question is, this is the question for you, it's a question for me, it's a question for every man, it's a question we must ask people that we witness to, what will you say when you are dead? What will your testimony be? What will the sum of your life be? For Abel it was this, he believed God. 

He, through faith, offered a more excellent sacrifice, obtained a good testimony, and through it still speaks. What will they say of John News? Will they say he was a good guy, he had a nice house, a nice family, he was a good man? What will my life and testimony be to this world after I'm gone? My prayer is that I will share the testimony of Abel, that of faith, faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for my sins. 

That should be the explanation of my life. This is what I want to say when I'm dead. My life was all about faith in Jesus Christ. As I prepared this message, I couldn't help but think of Ralph and Harriet. I went down to see them last week and Ralph was, he was up and around in his wheelchair giving me a hard time as usual. He seemed to be doing pretty well. Harriet was lying in her bed, she wanted me to tell you all how thankful she is for our church family, how dear you are to her, and then she started telling me of her plans for her funeral. 

She wanted to assure me that I would have a part. It made me think about what Ralph and Harriet's testimony is. They encourage us, they make us smile because of one thing, their faith in Jesus Christ. I don't know that I have ever heard either of them complain about anything. I wish I could say that for myself, but they're always rejoicing in Jesus, in the gospel, in fellowship. 

There's our lives of faith in the way of Abel and they have a good testimony before God and men and if the Lord wills and we get our way, it'll be a long time before that funeral, but when it comes, you can know that their testimony will speak loudly concerning their faith in Jesus Christ. This is what our text is all about this morning. Abel was the first man of faith and he obtained personal salvation by faith in the sacrifice that God would provide and he showed his faith by bringing a sacrifice of a lamb as a picture, a foreshadowing, and he received a good testimony before God. 

And my brothers and sisters, because of his faith, because he believed God, he being dead still speaks today. That's what we want for our lives. When at the end of a day or at the end of our lives, we can't say, I did this and I did that. What can we say? Thank you, Jesus. I believe you. I trust you. That's all we have. That's all we need. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful for this 11th chapter of Hebrews and these great examples of faith and understanding of faith and we're so thankful for your grace, for this new covenant in the blood of Christ, your only begotten Son, and that we can enter in, that we can obtain your righteousness through faith. Thank you for that gift. Help us to live in thankfulness and be a witness and a testimony for you in our lives and in our death. It's in Jesus' name we pray.