 |
| If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE! |
The
Tenth Sunday after Trinity.
The
Collect.
L
|
ET thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open
to the prayers of thy humble servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions,
make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.
Matthew 23
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and
wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of
them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city
to city: 35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood
shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of
Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this
generation. 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me
henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name
of the Lord.
Read also, Genesis 4: 1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she
conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. 2 And she
again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a
tiller of the ground. 3 And in
process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground
an offering unto the LORD. 4 And Abel, he also brought of the
firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto
Abel and to his offering: 5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had
not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell 6 And the
LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7 If thou
doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth
at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. 8 And 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 slew him. 9 And the
LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I
my brother's keeper? 10 And he said, What hast thou done? the
voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. 11 And now
art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy
brother's blood from thy hand; 12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall
not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt
thou be in the earth. 13 And
Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold,
thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face
shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it
shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. 15 And the
LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken
on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him
should kill him. 16 And
Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on
the east of Eden.
This latter, from Genesis, is an account which hails back to the
dawn of time and the beginning of the generations of the human race. It is
taken from a Book of the Bible called ‘Genesis’, and appropriately so for genesis
is a word meaning origin or beginning.
When
the name of Cain is uttered – the
first child born on earth, and seldom is it uttered, what thoughts
are evoked by its mention?
Not
thoughts of virtue or loveliness, but thoughts of murderous treachery. Cain was
a treacherous murderer of the worst kind. He murdered his own brother and he
did so over jealousy of a political, economic and religious nature.
Some
of our most destructive wars have had false religion as their cause (or rather,
more truly, the excuse).
When Eve conceived her first son, Cain (possession), she
considered this to be the man who would redeem the sins of his parents as
promised in Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise His heel."
The seed of Satan, whose head would be crushed by her seed seemed
to be fulfilled to Eve in her firstborn. “I have gotten a man from the LORD”
When Abel was born a few minutes later, there was no particular
response from Eve other than to call him Abel (or breath). Just a breath,
whereas Cain was a POSSESSION!
Abel was a Godly son and a prophet of the Lord. Christ makes
reference to this fact in Matthew 23: 34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes:
and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge
in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35 That upon
you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of
righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew
between the temple and the altar.
2……And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but
Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in
process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground
an offering unto the LORD. 4 And Abel, he also brought of the
firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto
Abel and to his offering: 5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had
not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Why would Cain’s offering
not be accepted. He did offer it with a good heart….didn’t he? No! He did
not! He knew that a Lamb had to die to make a covering of his parents’
nakedness – Gen 3: 21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the
LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
A sacrifice represents an offering to cover our sins and
weaknesses, but Cain’s was totally unacceptable and he knew it.
We read in Hebrews, Chapter 9: 19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people
according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and
scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 20 Saying,
This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. 21 Moreover
he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the
ministry. 22 And almost all things are by the law
purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Furthermore, the source of Cain’s offering was a
cursed source: Gen 3: 17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy
sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns
also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
So, please, do not mimic modern preachers and excuse Cain for his
goodwill. He had none. His self-righteousness was evidenced by his not feeling
a need to make a worthy sacrifice for sin. He is much like most modern
Christians of today.
So out of jealousy, Cain murdered his brother – his only brother.
I witnessed a few years ago a famous evangelist and false prophet,
Benny Hinn, saying that he would kill all those who objected to his brand of
false preaching by mowing them down with a machine gun. See how false religion
and false motives can incite us to evil?
The blood of Abel cried to the Lord from the ground. When our
bodies die, we still exist…the part that makes us who we are … our souls, our
spirits. This part is indestructible for it is the essence of US. And this part
of us will live forever, either in
the bliss of Heaven, or in the eternal fires of Hell.
What makes you different from Cain?
Do you offer to God a proper sacrifice of mere possessions?
Or do you claim the blood of His Son, Jesus, as your offering. The
blood of goats or lambs will not avail. They were mere foreshadows of the
guiltless sacrifice to come.
Heb 9:11 ¶ But Christ, having come a High Priest of
good things to come, by a greater and
more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands (that is to say, not of this
building), 12 neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own
blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us.13 For if sprinkling the unclean with the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of a heifer sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, 13
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who 14 through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God?
Our pitiful claims to live for God are revealed as wretched rags
and odorous garments by the evidence of the fruit of our works. If we love God
and His Creation, we will obey Him and listen to His Voice.
And when we fail and sin, we must confess and repent. We must
claim the blood of the innocent Lamb shed from before the foundations of the
world as our sacrifice, not the mere works of our hands. Regardless the good we
do for others, without the Love of Christ, it is a perishable and stinking
ointment. Only His righteousness will avail in the dark and cloudy day. Here is
hope in the words of the prophet:
Ezekiel 34: 11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both
search my sheep, and seek them out. 12 As a
shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are
scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places
where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
If you know not the voice of the Shepherd when He calls, how will
He find you?
Study to
make your salvation sure. Amen!
