Text: Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.” (Genesis 3:17)
Intro:
I. Eve’s expectation: Genesis 4:1
Three possible translations:
Genesis 3:15
II. Cain’s offering: Genesis 4:3
How?
Why?
Manner?
Quality?
Disposition?
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness in respect of his gifts: and through it he being dead yet speaks. (Hebrews 11:4)
III. Two Options: Genesis 4:7
The two seeds
How to know the difference?
Application 1: Sin
“Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” --Owen
Application 2: Our offerings
“By faith, Abel…”
Question: But what are good works?
Answer: Only those which are done out of true faith, conform to God’s law, and are done for His glory; and not those based on our own opinion or human tradition.
Application 3: Romans 12:1
Calvin’s own attitude of mind with reference to his return is summed up in a letter to Farel of 24 October, 1540, which contains the memorable sentences: “Know, then, the disposition in which I find myself. If I were free I would not yield to your desire. But, recognizing that I do not belong to myself, I offer my heart in sacrifice to the Lord and, stripping myself of my own inclination, deliver myself up as a captive into the hands of God.”