The Blood Makes a Difference | Part 2

Our only hope of salvation is by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Tell me, why did Jesus die? While Cain offered a half-hearted sacrifice of fruit of the ground, Abel offered the first of his flock, a spotless lamb, which was a prophecy of Jesus who was to come and redeem. If you have your Bible, turn now to Hebrews 11, verse 4, as Adrian Rogers shares part 2 of this message, the blood makes a difference. Two offerings. Cain offered the fruit of the ground. He offered vegetables to the Lord. Abel offered to the Lord a slain lamb of the firstlings of the flock. The Bible says that God accepted the offering of Abel, but he did not accept the offering of Cain. Now, we're going to see in this chapter, Hebrews chapter 11 and Genesis chapter 4, some contrast.

Are you ready? First of all, here was a contrast in their worship. Two boys, they're worshiping God. One is worshiping in spirit and in truth, and the other is worshiping by his own ingenuity. Now, remember Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 4, by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice. Now, what was the difference?

Well, may I say this, and listen to me very carefully, all religions are not of the same value. God had respect unto Abel's offering. To Cain's offering, he did not. Now, when he came to God with this offering of vegetables and fruits, it must have been beautiful.

I mean, it must have looked like a county fair. There's the most fragrant fruit, the most beautiful flowers, the most succulent vegetation, and he offers this to God because he's been out there plowing the ground. But the Bible says, cursed is the ground of the sweat of your brow where you till the ground.

And what he has done is he is offering his own works. Put in your margin Jude verse 11. Woe unto them, for they have gone the way of Cain. What is the way of Cain? It is to try to save yourself by your own good works rather than by the grace of God.

It represents culture rather than Calvary. Now, you're in Hebrews chapter 11. In Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22, the Bible says, without shedding of blood is no remission. There is no salvation apart from the shedding of blood. What did Cain offer?

Vegetables. Now, what did Abel offer? Well, the Bible says Abel offered of the firstling of his flock. Go back again, if you will, in Genesis chapter 4 and verse 4. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock. Abel's offering was based on a blood atonement.

Now, let me tell you the difference between these two. I said people need to turn from religion to Jesus Christ. Religion is what sinful people do for a holy God.

The Gospel is the good news of what a holy God has already done for sinful man. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 4, by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice. Now, where did Abel get the idea of bringing a blood offering to Almighty God?

Now, remember, it was just a shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where did he get that idea? When Adam and Eve sinned against God, they tried to clothe themselves with fig leaves.

What is that? The fruit of the ground. What did God do? God came into the Garden of Eden and God made them coats of skin, animal skin.

How do you get coats of skin? Blood had to be shed. Where did Abel learn the idea that it takes blood without shedding of blood?

There's no remission. He learned it from his parents. Abel is called a prophet of God. Abel was a martyr who died for his faith. Adam and Eve had two sons. One a martyr, one a murderer. Abel was a prophet. He understood the word of God.

Now, don't get the idea that these people out there were just plowing with sticks and didn't know anything. No. And let me say something else. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was not an afterthought.

It was not an emergency action. Before he swung this world into space, God had redemption by blood in his mind. There is a red river of life. It begins to flow in the book of Genesis and it flows all the way through. That river began to flow when God made coats of skin for Adam and Eve. And then that river passed on down when Abel took of the firstlings of the flock and offered a blood sacrifice to the Lord. The first act that Noah did when he came out of the ark after Genesis 6 and the flood came was to offer a blood sacrifice.

God called Moses and God said to Moses, Moses, take my people from the land of Egypt, the land of sin and darkness and slavery and bring them into the Promised Land. And God said, Moses, when you do this, in order to let the people go out, tell every family take a lamb and sacrifice that lamb and put the blood of that lamb on the doorpost of that house because my death angel is going to come through the land of Egypt. And God says, my death angel is going to be looking for something. He's going to be looking for the blood. And if the blood is there upon the doorpost, watch it. God says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Without shedding of blood is no remission of sins. And then after Moses, they got in the land, God gave them the Levitical law and they were told how to make those sacrifices. And every smoking altar of every Jewish temple, it all points to the coming of Jesus. And thousands and thousands of lambs and rams and turtle doves are offered and blood is shed.

Why is this? What is God doing with all of that? God is conditioning His people. There's a conditioned response. When they see the blood, they know that sin means death, sin means death, sin means death, sin means death. Therefore, people are ready for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ when He died upon the cross, for without shedding of blood is no remission.

Don't think this was incidental, friend. This is fundamental. There was a contrast in their worship. Now, secondly, the consequences of the worship. Look, if you will, in Genesis 4, verses 5 and 6. But unto Cain and his offering, God had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, plain English. He was ticked off.

He's angry. And his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth?

And why is thy countenance fallen? Now, God did not have any respect for Cain and all of his good intentions and all of his good works. The difference between Cain and Abel is the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness. Now, you would say, Well, God would just say to Cain, Well, you tried, and you didn't get 100% on the test, but I'm going to grade on the curve. No, God doesn't grade on the curve. God doesn't just give A for effort. And God will not overlook sin.

Put it down big, plain, and straight. God will not overlook sin. You know that people say, Well, God's too good to punish sin.

You've got it backward. God is too good not to punish sin. If you had to go through all the lectionaries and dictionaries of the world to get a word that would describe God and put it into one word, of course, that would be impossible. But if you had to choose one word above all other words, it would be the word holy.

Holy means that God never has God, never can. God never will overlook sin. All sin must be punished. If God overlooks sin, God would topple from his throne of holiness.

God would cease to be a righteous God. Put in your margin Romans chapter 3 and verse 23, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. By the way, you want to know what definition of sin is? Coming short of the glory of God. Don't lie down in the gutter alongside some old hypocrite and say, I'm longer than he is. Don't measure yourself that way. Here's the glory of God.

Here you are. The gap between the glory of God and you, that's sin. All of sin becomes short of the glory of God, all of us. Now, notice verse 24, Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past. What does the word propitiation mean? It's a big word.

It means satisfaction. Nothing can satisfy the righteousness of God, the wholeness of God, except the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God cannot, God never has, God never will, let any sin go unpunished. Your sin will be pardoned in Christ or punished in hell, but it will never be overlooked. I frequently said when a guilty man is acquitted, the judge is condemned. If God would let sin go unpunished, God himself would become a sinner.

All Christianity is described in three sentences. I deserve hell. Jesus took my hell. There's nothing left for me but his heaven.

That's what it's all about. It is salvation by grace, and the consequences of that worship is lasting not only in time, but in eternity. Now, Abel was killed by Cain, but he didn't cease to exist. He being dead yet speaks. For the child of God, death is not a period, but a comma.

He still lives on. Now, here's the third and final thing. I want you to see not only the contrast in the worship and the consequences of the worship, but I want you to see the conflict of their worship. Look, if you will, now in Genesis 4, verses 5 and 8. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect, and Cain was very angry, wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth?

Why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. Sin is like an animal crouching at the door.

That's what that literally means. God says, If you do what I tell you to do, you'll do well. God is no respecter of persons, and sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire. That is, sin is ready to devour you, and thou shalt rule over him. That is, if you do right, and Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass that while they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.

Now, I want you to listen very carefully. The first murder was over religion. The first murder was over religion, and it was a religious crowd that crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. As I say, Adam and Eve had two sons. One was a murderer. The other was a martyr. Why did Cain kill Abel?

Because his heart was not right with God. No man can be wrong with God and right with his fellow brother. False religion is characterized by force. Our faith is characterized by love. Now, you think of what is happening in the world today. You think of the people who are being murdered in the name of religion.

They're showing the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps Cain was too refined to offer a blood sacrifice, but he was not too refined to plunge a knife or whatever into his brother's bosom. Now, listen to John 16, verses 1 through 4. Jesus said, These things have I spoken on you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think ye doeth God's service.

Does that sound contemporary? The time will come that whosoever killeth you will think ye doeth God's service. And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things have I told you that when the time shall come that ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said unto you at the beginning because I was with you.

Jesus said, No fine print in the contract. I'm going to tell you ahead of time that time will come when they who kill you will think they do God a service. Now, friend, the word martyr and the word witness are the same word in the Greek language. Death doesn't make martyrs.

It just simply reveals them. What is our true faith? True faith is never based upon force. One of the greatest mistakes the so-called Christian church ever made was the Crusades when we tried by force to spread our faith.

You say, Don't you believe in self-defense? I believe in it with all of my heart. I believe there are times when we need to go to war but not to spread the Christian faith. We spread the Christian faith with love. That's the difference, friend, between true religion and false religion. The salvation of Jesus Christ is by grace through faith based on the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it is never coerced, never. Cain slew Abel. Cain was the loser, not Abel. He won the martyr's crown. There are two religions in the world, only two, the true and the false. The difference between these two religions is the difference between heaven and hell. You say, Well, Pastor Rogers, I believe there's another way other than the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You do? Well, let me ask you a question. If there's another way other than the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, tell me, why did Jesus die? The Bible says if righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead in vain. If a man, a woman, a boy, a girl could be saved any other way, then Calvary was a blunder. Why did God let Jesus die on that cross if there's another way?

Why not take the other way? Why did He allow His darling Son to die in agony and blood if there's another way? There is no other way. Hebrews 9, 22, without shedding of blood is no remission. There is a red river of blood that flows through all the Bible. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. A preacher, a good man as the world goes, a compassionate man as the world goes, had the religion of Cain. There are a lot of preachers with the religion of Cain. He had the religion of Cain.

He was from a very liberal denomination. He was in a study. There was a knock on the door. He opened the door and there was a little girl just poorly dressed.

And he said, little lady, what can I do for you? She said, can you help me get Mother in? She's at home. She's dying. She sent me out to find a preacher to help get her into heaven. She said, can you help get my Mother in?

My Mama is dying. Preacher said, yes, sweetheart, I'll go. And he put on his coat and got his hat and went with the little girl down to the poor section of town there and that little tenement.

There was a woman on her deathbed dying, not even with the doctors and the nurses to take care of her. He began to tell her about the Sermon on the Mount and living right and doing good and kindness and all of these things, all of my wonderful platitudinous ideas. Now remember, he didn't preach the blood atonement.

His was a religion of culture and good works, the religion of Cain. The woman had a distraught look on her face. She said, you don't understand. I have lived a sinful and a wicked life. And now I'm dying. And all that you say sounds very good and very wonderful, but I'm dying.

I can't do any of that. Don't you have a message for a woman like me? And that preacher began to think and he realized, I don't have a message for a woman like that. And then he remembered the story that his mother told him before he'd gone off to the seminary and gotten educated about a Savior who took our sins and carried them to the cross and in agony and blood died and said, it is finished and paid in full. And he went back and told her that old story, though he himself didn't really believe it. Told her about Jesus, told her about the cross, told her about grace, told her about forgiveness and led her in a prayer. And she prayed and asked Christ into her heart and was gloriously saved. Later on, that liberal preacher stood up in another preacher's meeting and gave a testimony. And here's what he said. He said, sirs, that night that woman came in and I came in too.

I came in too. I gave my heart to Jesus and I got saved. What can wash away my sin? Nothing, nothing, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Two religions, two ways, Cain and Abel, vegetables and a lamb. Will you lay your pride and your good works in the dust and will you today say just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, O Lamb of God, I come to thee, I come. Will you for your sake, for his sake, will you trust him? If you're not certain that you're saved, I want to lead you in a prayer. Dear God, I'm a sinner and I'm lost and my good works cannot save me. Thank you that you sent Jesus, a spotless lamb who paid with his own blood my sin debt and I receive you, Lord Jesus, into my heart now as my Lord and Savior. Forgive my sin.

Save me, Jesus. In your name I pray, amen. And if you prayed to receive Jesus Christ just now, we would love to celebrate with you and invite you to our Find God's Love page on our website. There you'll find answers you may need about your newfound faith. Simply go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab that says Find God's Love.

Welcome to his forever family. We can't wait to hear from you today. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of this message in its entirety, the title is The Blood Makes a Difference. Call our number 1-877-LOVEGOD to order. This message is also part of the insightful series Champions of Faith. For that complete collection, all 18 powerful messages, call that number 1-877-LOVEGOD or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio or write us to order at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. You can also purchase our new Bible studies much like this message in our online store.

To find out more, simply go to lwf.org slash radio. There is a red river of blood that flows throughout the Bible. Do you have true faith in Jesus Christ whose blood makes a difference? We're so glad you joined us to study God's Word. Tune in next time for more profound truth simply stated by Adrian Rogers right here on Love Worth Finding.

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