The way of cain and the way of able is by faith

“THE WAY OF CAIN”

  “THE WAY OF ABLE IS BY FAITH”

Genesis 4 and 5

Taught by:  Carolyn Sissom

July 29, 2007

Excerpts from Principles of Present Truth by: K.V.  and the King James Bible

In Genesis 3, the sin of Adam and Eve was against God.  In Genesis 4, the sin was against a fellow-man. 

CAIN (“maker, fabricator, smith, acquisition, possession; centralization; to its own center; selfishness”).  His DNA is a type of the natural man of the earth.  His religion was of works,   destitute of saving faith, a sense of sin, and a need of atonement.”

THE WAY OF CAIN

Jude 7-11

“Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.  Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.  Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, dare not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, “ The Lord rebuke thee.” But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.  WOE UNTO THEM! FOR THEY HAVE GONE IN THE WAY OF CAIN, AND RAN GREEDILY AFTER THE ERROR OF BALAAM FOR REWARD, AND PERISHED IN THE GAINSAYING OF CORE.”

THE Way of Cain includes:

1. Offering God that which was cursed. (Gen. 4: 3-4)
2. Anger and depression (no joy) (Gen. 4: 5-6)
3. An opportunity to repent (Gen. 4:7)
4. Impending judgment (about to be devoured by sin). (Gen. 4:7)
5. Murder. (Gen. 4:8)
6. Being cursed from the earth. (Gen. 4:11)
7. Being a fugitive (“to waver”) and a vagabond (“to wander”). (4:12)
8. Torment (Gen. 4: 13-14)
9. He was marked by God. (Gen. 4:15) “And the Lord said unto him, therefore whosoever slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold, and the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
10. Dwelling in the land of Nod (“wandering, flight, unrest”). (Gen. 4:16)
11. Building a city. (Gen. 4:17)
12. Endeavoring to institute God’s program his own way. (Gen. 4:17)

There is a connection between the offering and the offerer.  There is a divine order to be followed in approaching God:  It is the way of sacrifice, exampled by blood or worship. (Gen. 3:21; Heb. 9:22; Jn. 4:23-24; 11 Tim. 3:5).  THE WAY OF ABLE IS BY FAITH.  THE WAY OF CAIN IS MAN’S WAY, which results in life without the Presence of God.  The way of Abel was a pilgrim life.  The way of Cain was one of settled possessions.  God had respect unto Abel’s offering because:

1. It was a Blood offering.
2. It was a first fruits offering.

Cain brought a bloodless offering based on mere self-effort and implying a rejection of the need of atonement for sin.  Abel brought a blood offering based upon revelation and the recognition of the need of atonement for sin.  Cain was resentful against God for rejecting his offering.  He was resentful against Abel for God’s acceptance of his offering.

Abel believed God’s Word and acted upon it.  He knew that the only way back to God was through sacrifice, so he offered by faith in God’s program.

Genesis 4:7:  ‘If you do well, shall you not be accepted? And if you do not well, sin lies at the door.  And unto you shall be his desire, and you shall rule over him.”

1. Cain knew about God’s requirements of blood sacrifice, a revelation given to his parents when God clothed them with animal skins.
2. Cain, too, would be accepted with a right offering brought in a right spirit.
3. There was still time and opportunity to bring an acceptable offering.
4. If Cain chose not to avail himself of this opportunity, then sin will be aroused like a crouching beast to lay hold of him.
5. If Cain does choose to bring an acceptable offering, then he shall be the mast of sin and not come under its dominion.

Abel was killed because Cain’s works were evil while his were righteous.  John 15:25”But this comes to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause.”

1 John 3:12:  “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother, And wherefore slew he him?  Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

The sinful efforts of Can to hid his sin only added to his guilt (4L).  It was futile for Cain to hide his guilt from an All-Knowing God (4:10) “And the Lord said, what have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries unto me from the ground.” THE BLOOD HAS A VOICE.  Hebrews 12:14:  “And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.”

The consequences of Cain’s sin were grave.  He came under the curse with the earth and the serpent (4:11).  He was sentenced to moving and wandering by being banished and homeless, driven by the torture of conscience and retribution (4:12).  He was banished from the abiding Presence and favor of God. (4:14) His life was to be lived, not in the serenity and confidence of an unbroken fellowship with God, but in fearful apprehension and haunting insecurity (4:14-15).  Alienation from the Presence of God is the ultimate consequence of unexpiated sin. (4:16)

Cain’s wife (4:17) must have been his sister, for Eve was the mother of all living. (3:20). Adam had unnamed sons and daughters (5:4).  And who was it that Cain feared? (4:14) in the 130 years from Adam’s creation to the murder of Abel, many generations could have arisen.  The only other explanation for these points is a pre-Adamite race.

THE WAY OF ABLE IS BY FAITH

Abel (“breath or vapor, vanity, transitory” – so called because of the shortness of his life) is a type of the spiritual man, and a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

1. He was a shepherd. (4:2; Jn. 10:7)
2. It was as a shepherd that he presented his offering to God. (Jn. 10:7)
3. Though giving no cause for it, he was hated by his brother. (Jn. 15:25)
4. He was slain by Cain out of envy. (Matt. 27:18)
5. Abel then did not died a natural death. (Acts. 2:23)
6. He met with a violent end at the hand of his own brother. (Acts. 3:36)
7. After his death God declared that Abel’s blood cried unto him and severe punishment was meted out upon his murderer. (Mk. 12:9)

Abel’s offering pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ:

1. Abel presented an offering “unto God”.  Eph. 5:2: “And walk in love, “as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God “for a sweet-smelling savor.”
2. The offering was the firstlings of the flock, a lamb. (1 Pet. 1:19) “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
3. In bringing his offering by faith, he magnified and honored the Will and Word of the Lord. (Heb. 10: 7-9 “Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God.  Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin you would not, neither had pleasure therein, which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy Will, O God.”
4. The offering was an excellent one. (Heb. 11:4; Eph. 5:2)
5. God had respect to Abel’s offering and accepted it. (Heb. 11:4; 10:12)
6. Abel obtained witness that he was righteous. (Lk. 23:47)
7. God publicly testified His acceptance of it. (Acts. 2:32)
8. Abel’s offering still speaks to God. (Gen. 4:10; Heb. 11:4; 12:24)

Cain built a city and called it Enoch.  He tried to initiate and found and inaugurate the program of God in a City by his own strength.

Enoch was the Seventh from Adam.  His name means dedicated, teacher, disciplined, initiated, founder. 

In Genesis 4:25:  “Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Set:  For God, said she, has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”

From the Godly Line of Seth we have the development of Godly Seed.

1. Adam
2. Seth
3. Enos
4. Cainan
5. Mahaleel
6. Jared
7. Enoch

In the days of Enos men began to call upon the Name of the Lord. (4:26)

From the line of Cain came Enoch.   Enoch begat Methuselah, Methuselah begat

Lamech who begat Noah. 

Methuselah lived 969 years.  His life overlapped that of Adam by 243 years and that of Shem by 98 years.  Methuselah died the year of the flood.  He was the end of an age and Noah ushered in a new age.  He found Grace.

Enoch means dedicated, teacher, initiated, disciplined, founder.  He was the 7^th from Adam, thus linking him with the Sabbath principle.  He speaks of the maturity of the wheat (Matt. 13: 24-30, 36-43) and the Son of God in his full corporate strength. (Eph. 4:13).

ENOCH:

1. He walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years.
2. He begat sons and daughters (reproduced himself).
3. He was not, for God took him.
4. He was in the genealogy of the Son of Man. (Lk. 3:37)
5. He walked by Faith (Heb. 11:5):  “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.”
6. He was translated.
7. He did not see (experience or regard) death.
8. He was not found. (Col. 3: 1-3; Jas. 4:7)
9. He had this testimony before he was translated, that he pleased God.
10. “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Carolyn Sissom, Pastor

Eastgate Ministries, Inc.

Notes from P.P.T.K.V. and the King James Bible.