Fact-Checking Your Worship - Part B

Real faith is obedient, right? Abel believed, but he showed that he believed by bringing the sacrifice. It was faith, but it was obedient faith. He brought the animal. James says faith without works is dead.

Today on Connect with Skip Heiteggen. Skip concludes his message, Fact Check Your Worship, and examines what real faith looks like. But first, we want to tell you about a special resource designed to help you understand the path to true freedom. Freedom is precious and in human history not common in governance. America was built on the cornerstone that man is endowed by his creator with rights that cannot be taken away. Our government was formed to secure existing rights, not provide them. But there is a higher permanent liberty, the freedom from sin. If you want to fix a society, they need truth.

If you want to fix a broken political system, you need to infuse it with truth and expose ourselves to the truth of the word of God. True freedom is ours, but we need to understand the terms. That's what you'll find in our freedom package of resources by Skip Heiteggen. The package features Skip's 10 full-length message set of your path to freedom messages, including Securing the Foundations and Jesus in the Age of Confusion. The freedom package is our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heiteggen.

So request your freedom package today when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Now let's turn to Hebrews 11 as we join Skip for today's lesson. If Cain would have come and would have first presented an animal sacrifice like his brother did, in effect confessing that he is a sinner and has need of a blood substitute, an animal substitute, a living substitute, and then after that offering would have presented the fruit, no problem, like a thank offering. You know, it's not that it's wrong to bring grains and and plants to the Lord. There were, in the book of Leviticus chapter 19, there were grain offerings and there were plant offerings that were given to the Lord as part of the produce of the land. But first and foremost must come a blood substitute.

You can add things to it. You can bring thank offerings and praise offerings on top of that. If Cain would have done that, no problem. So the first mistake he made and what he omitted was having the right kind of offering.

Secondly, the quality of offering, as I mentioned. In verse 4 of Genesis chapter 4, it says, Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat and the Lord respected Abel and his offering. In other words, Abel gave the very best.

There was a quality. It's not like, you know, I sort of feel like I want to give and this is what I think. He said, I'm going to give what God requires. That's what he wants.

I believe that, but I'm going to give the very best that I have. I'm not going to give the sickest lamb or the scrawniest goat or some little reject animal. I want it, nothing's too good for God. It's sort of like David and Arana, aka Ornan in the Old Testament when David wanted to find a special site for the temple and he found one.

It happens to be the temple mount today, but at first it was just a threshing floor and Ornan said, oh, if you're going to give this to God, I'll give it to you. You can have it. It's free.

If you're using this for worship, man, take it. I'm not going to charge you for it. David said, no, no, no. I'll give you the fair market value. Ornan said, no, no, no, no. This is for God.

Let me just give it to you as a gift. David said, I refuse to give God something unless it costs me. It's got to cost you and it cost Abel. It was the very best that he had to offer. So Cain admitted the right kind of offering and the right quality of offering. So you can immediately see just from this few verses in Genesis 4 the difference between these two worshippers. One was religious. One was righteous. One offered a sacrifice. One offered a better sacrifice. One lived by feeling. One lived by faith.

In short, to sum it all up, sort of the irreducible minimum of all this is simply this. Abel brought to God what God wanted. Cain brought to God what Cain wanted. It was all about Cain. In effect, what Cain was doing in bringing this was denying his own sin and the need for the shedding of blood. Abel obviously believed that he was a sinner who needed forgiveness.

Now, I'll tell you why this is so important because the New Testament makes a big deal out of this. Not only here in Hebrews 11 contrasting Cain and Abel, Abel the hero of faith, the man of faith, but twice in the New Testament Cain is seen as a real bad example. The book of Jude talks about the way of Cain.

Woe unto them, it says, for they have gone the way of Cain. Then in 1 John 3 verse 12, it says, Cain who was of the wicked one. Cain was of the devil. He followed the devil's suggestions. It was worship, but it was not God's worship.

He was of the wicked one. The way of Cain. What is the way of Cain? The way of Cain is self-styled worship. The way of Cain is self-styled worship. The way of Cain is self-styled worship. The way of Cain is self-styled worship. It's the way of personal righteousness.

It's the way of false religion. Cain believed in God, obviously. It's not like he disputed the existence of God. He was not an atheist. He believed in God.

Obviously, he brought a sacrifice, an offering to God. He acknowledged God, but you can look at it this way. Cain believed in God, but Cain did not believe God.

There's a big difference. He believed in God. Oh, I believe in the power greater than I am. There's a God who rules over everything. But he didn't believe God.

He didn't believe the revelation God had given of the need for a blood sacrifice. Now, whenever the blood of Jesus Christ is pushed aside and replaced with anything else, you have the way of Cain. You have the way of Cain.

The way of Cain takes the narrow road of the cross and broadens it into a 12-lane freeway that says, anybody can believe anything because all roads lead to God. You've heard that before. A lot of people complain about Christianity.

I've heard these complaints. I've had this told right to my face. You Christians, you're so narrow-minded. Drew, have you ever had somebody tell you you're narrow-minded?

Are you? I don't want to put you on the spot. So, I've had people say, Skip, you are so narrow-minded. You Christians are narrow-minded. My response is, you're wrong. I'm not narrow-minded.

I'm worse than that. I'm close-minded. There's only one way to heaven, and that is through Jesus Christ and belief in what he has done for you. It's not Jesus plus anything or anyone else. Jesus called it a narrow way. He said, I am the way, the truth, the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. So, I have a closed mind. And you've been brainwashed. You're right. Jesus washed my brain, and then he closed it up because I don't need to be open to anything or anyone else. You know, it's funny. This whole notion about all roads lead to God doesn't matter what you believe.

Any way is okay. It only seems to work with religion in most people's minds. You can't take that principle and have it work well in other aspects of life. For example, if you went to the doctor, you'd want the right cure, not just any cure. What if the doctor said to you, and you said, Okay, doctor, what should I do?

What should I take? What if he said to you, Well, do whatever you think is best. Now, follow your own heart. Go home and find your own path for wellness. All roads lead to health as long as you're sincere and happy. Well, he would be out of practice, and he should be out of practice because that's called a quack, and you'd be called dead probably.

You wouldn't survive that. There has to be a set of absolutes that get you through to health. So all roads don't lead to God any more than all roads lead to perfect health. So that's the first thing that Abel's faith produced, a right sacrifice. Second, it produced a right standing. Back to our text in Genesis 11, verse 4, by faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which, here's the second part, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. Now, what does that mean? What does it mean that God testified or witnessed about him? Well, it could mean that it was a verbal affirmation. When Abel brought the sacrifice of the animal and killed it, God could have simply said, Well done, Cain or Abel. Well done.

Good job. Or it could have been a physical manifestation. If I were to look at other portions of Scripture, and we should always do that, by comparing Scripture with Scripture, it could simply mean when God testified that God brought fire down from heaven to consume his sacrifice.

You know why I say that? Because five times the Bible shows that when God approved of animal sacrifices, he brought fire down from heaven like lightning and consumed it. Happened with King David when he offered a sacrifice. Happened with Solomon at the dedication of the temple.

And it also happened with Elijah in the contest with the prophets of Baal, 1 Kings chapter 18 on Mount Carmel. So God could have just said, Good job, verbally speaking, or fire comes from heaven, consumes it, showing that God is saying right on. But the heart of the passage here, the heart, the real idea, is that God declared Abel to be righteous because of his faith.

That's the idea. When it says, He obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. In other words, God made a declaration that Abel was righteous because Abel believed. Now, nothing is said of Cain and Abel in terms of their other activities or their character back in Genesis 4. You know, it doesn't say, well, you know, Abel really was a nicer guy. Cain was sort of a bad egg all the time. Didn't say that.

Didn't talk about his character. Indeed, Abel may have been a nicer guy, sweeter guy, happier guy, more blessed guy than Cain. But we're not told that. In fact, it doesn't matter. What really matters is the sacrifice. Because at the end of the day, no matter how good you are, you still need a blood sacrifice.

That's the point. You're saved by faith, not by your good works. So Abel's righteousness is a declared righteousness. God declares it, testifies, because Abel is still a sinner.

A little bit of a background. The book of Hebrews is being written to, guess who? Hebrews. Right, Hebrews, Jewish people, probably a church congregation somewhere in Israel. That's what we believe. They came to faith in Christ, but they're struggling with their faith in Christ, and they're tempted to go back into the old covenant and leave that simple faith in Christ. So he goes, don't do that. The just are made just by their faith.

Right? So, and here's an example. It goes all the way back to Abel. Abel was the first guy who didn't follow a law. Before the law, he believed in God, and God imputed to Abel a righteousness aid, a declaration. So he's kind of unpacking that for them. What he's saying is that righteousness is something imputed by God, not earned by us.

Right? Romans chapter three, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Then it says this right afterwards, being justified freely, that means without a cause, without earning anything, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

So a right standing with God, whether you're Abel or you're you in this day and age, a right standing with God comes through faith in God's revelation. Number one, that we are all sinners. Number two, that we need a blood sacrifice in our place.

Number three, when we believe in that substitute, we are declared righteous by God. It's a verdict. It is a declaration.

It is a proclamation. So righteousness is never earned by the sinner. It is accomplished by the savior. It's never earned by the sinner.

It's always accomplished by the savior. And that's why people hate it. They hate it because they want to work for it. And because you're told, no, you can't earn it. They take umbrage to it. That's human pride.

Human pride wants to earn it. Man is incurably addicted to working for his own salvation. Salvation is not a process.

It is a position. It is a proclamation. It is as instant as turning on a light switch. So when you say, I believe in you, Jesus. I believe what you did for me on the cross is enough. God turns on the switch, righteous, justified, set free, forgiven. The cross then becomes the spiritual sponge that absorbs all of our sins instantly.

It's a declaration. You believe, boom, you're saved. It's that quick.

It's that instantaneous. But that's not all. Real faith is obedient.

Right? Abel believed, but he showed that he believed by bringing the sacrifice. It was faith, but it was obedient faith.

He brought the animal. James says faith without works is dead. Faith without works is dead. True faith then produces an obedient follow through. You know, in sports, they talk about the follow through. If you're at bat and you swing and you hit the ball, it's all about the follow through with the bat. When you play golf, I remember my golf coach and my dad saying, you've got to follow through. You don't stop with the ball. You follow through. And that follow through is a large determination of the accuracy of where that ball goes. In so many sports, it's about the follow through.

The shot can't be executed properly without the follow through. Works are the follow through of faith. If it's real faith, it will work.

It will produce. It will be seen in obedience. So Abel's faith produced three things. A right sacrifice, a righteous standing, because he, by faith, brought that offering, believing in God. God saw his faith, declared him righteous, testified to that.

And it brought a third thing. A repeating sermon. A repeating sermon. Back to our text in chapter 11, verse 4. By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. That's the right sacrifice. Through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts.

That's righteous standing. God accomplished righteousness, giving it to him because of the faith of Abel. And finally, a repeating sermon is the rest of that text that says, and through it, he, Abel, being dead, still speaks. Now he was killed.

His name means vapor. He lived for a while as an adult. He brought a sacrifice.

His brother killed him. We go back to Genesis chapter 4, since hopefully it's still marked. Back to Genesis chapter 4. In verse 4, Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock and their fat. 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. He brought what he thought he wanted, and God should want that too. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your countenance fallen? You could see it in his face already. He wore his heart on a sleeve, we like to say. That's an expression.

In other words, you can see by a person's facial expressions, body language, what they're thinking. And if a dude does this, it's different than that. So Abel brings his offering. God respects it.

It's like, oh, I'd be smiling. Did not respect Cain's. His countenance fell. He became angry. So God said, why aren't thou bummed out?

Why are you so angry? Why is your countenance fallen? Verse 7, if you do well, if you lived right, if you did what is right, if you did what I required that you do, will you not be accepted? Your brother did right. He brought the right sacrifice.

You did not. If you were to bring the right sacrifice, and you were to obey me and believe the requirement, you'd be accepted. And if you do not do well, sin is lying or crouching literally at the door, like an animal ready to pounce.

And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. This is God appealing to him. This is God giving him another chance. This is God coming to him and not just saying, I'm going to banish you, but saying, hey, you could do right. Why didn't you do right? Now, why didn't Cain at that point say, Lord, you're right.

I'm sorry. There's no hint at all of any penitence, any repentance, any turning at all, any reconsideration at all. He just stays bummed out. God calls him on it. God invites him to change. But notice what he says, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you, and you should rule over it. You know, if you don't rule over your sin, your sin is going to rule over you. Your sin will dominate you.

If you don't wrestle it to the ground, it is going to eat your lunch, dude. So what did he do after this appeal? Says, well, Cain was talking with his brother, sort of saying, come out here.

I want to talk to you about something. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. And the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother?

And he said, I don't know. So now he compounds his sin by what? A lie. Murder. Now he's lying to God.

Like, how stupid is that? He said, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? And he, the Lord said, what have you done? Now God isn't looking for information. He's looking for an account from this guy. He wants him to fess up.

What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. He's dead, but he is still talking. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. Cain knew exactly what he was doing in killing his brother. Some people try to excuse Cain.

They say, well, Cain can't really be held responsible. He didn't know what he was doing. He had never seen death before.

What do you mean he never seen? He had just seen death. His brother bought an animal and killed the animal. He knew what happens when you deliver a certain kind of wound to a living being. He had watched it in that offering of his brother. So in delivering that wound to an animal, his brother now Cain delivers that wound to him and kills him. Snuffs out his life. Back to Hebrews 11, when it says, through it being dead, he still speaks.

The primary meaning is this. Abel, though he died at an early age, he preaches a message to every generation. He is still speaking today. So this is, you could call this the sermon of a dead guy. And what sermon is he preaching? What is the continual lesson he is saying to the Hebrews in Judea who are struggling with their faith in Christ or to us today?

Simple. It's the same message throughout. The just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith.

He is a preacher, Abel is, of the value of faith, of the excellence of faith, and of the need for faith. There's an old pirate saying, in fact, at least I think it is, I saw it at Disneyland and Pirates of the Caribbean. When you're going down that first little waterfall and it has that little skull talking on the wall. Dead men tell no tales. Dead men tell no tales. Actually, dead men do tell some tales. This one does, and that is faith has value.

And here's the truth. Every life makes a mark and every life becomes a testimony for better or for worse. James Moffat said this, death is never the last word. When a man leaves this world, be he righteous or unrighteous, he leaves something in the world.

He may leave something that will grow and spread like a cancer or a poison, or he may leave something like the fragrance or perfume or a blossom of beauty that permeates the atmosphere with beauty. Whatever you do, you are leaving your mark, you are leaving your legacy. Abel left his, Cain left his, and the message he still preaches to every generation picked up in this list, going back to Habakkuk chapter two, is the just shall live by faith.

That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series Fact Check. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Right now, listen as Skip shares how you can share life-changing teaching from God's unchanging word with more people around the world.

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