I John, 3:11-12

We're in chapter 3, down to verses 11 and 12. I want to go back to a couple of the previous verses. If we could start back at verse 7. Read verse 7, then 10 through 12. Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

In verse 10, And this, the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that we heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore, still be he him, because his own works were evil, and his brethren treacherous.

Thanks, Doris. OK, so it would seem like in the context of Chapter 3 here that this is sort of an example of practicing, not practicing righteousness. And he's going to point out Cain as being an example of a person who doesn't practice righteousness.

So basically it starts off in verse 11 and it talks about, it uses this phraseology which we've seen a quite a bit before, you know, for this is a message which you have heard from the beginning. Actually, I'm going to look at that a little bit. We're going to look at a bunch of verses about that. But basically, this is a similar phraseology. He refers back to something they heard before, and he talks about, in contrast to what he's going to talk about Cain, that the believer in Christ should be allowing Christ's life to live through him, and he would love his brother, love one another. OK, so let's just go on to the next chart.

The first part of that, the A part of that, for this is a message. In this case, the construction is such that we have our favorite verb here, which occurs according to about 99 times or so, Amy. And it basically is saying it's identifying this, where this is a message, pretty simple construction. The message identifies the subject, which is this. And the message is going to be the last part of the verse, that we should love one another. And it's a present. That message is before them, and they're aware of that message. And the message in the Greek is this word, engelia. It means a message or a proclamation.

And back in verse 5, I can just read that for you. We had that back earlier in the book here. It says, and this is a message which we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. And then actually, it also occurs in another context in the Gospel of John. I'd like to look at that one just briefly in terms of an announcement.

If someone could read John chapter 20 and verse 18. Mary Magdalene came. announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord and that he has said these things to her. So this could be, it's a message or a proclamation or an announcement. So here she announces to the disciples that she has seen the Lord. So the B part of the verse is, which you have heard from the beginning.

And we've seen this phraseology, and this is actually the seventh time we've seen it. And I want to look at the seven occurrences. And we've talked about, you know, quite a few times. And this is this word in the Greek, akuo. It's a normal word for hearing. And basically, and with the eris there, it says it's a past, something occurred, a past point fact. It occurred in the past. You've heard from the beginning.

So the question comes up many times, what is the beginning? And actually, there seems to be some groups here that I noticed. If you look at this verse plus the other six cases, there's sort of a pattern that looked like to me. In these three verses, starting back in verse one, we see it referring to the Lord Jesus. What was from the beginning? So, and then in verse 13, because you know him who has been from the beginning. And then again in 14, who has been from the beginning. So, it's talking about the Lord Jesus knowing him from the beginning.

And it seems like in this context, from the beginning, I mean, there's a couple of possibilities here. And we've talked about this before. You know, you look in the Gospel of John, it says, in the beginning was the word, Jesus Christ was in the beginning with the Father. So one possibility, you could translate this as being what was from the beginning, from all eternity, if you would be. And it seems like it's conceivable these could be grouped in there too. Speaking about the Lord Jesus, identifying that He's from all eternity past.

And then there seems to be a group that talk about that you either had something from the beginning or you heard something from the beginning, the top two. And this one said, this commandment, a new commandment, you had from the beginning, and then it says you heard, let that abide in which you heard from the beginning. So these two seem to kind of fall in the group about John's writing, you heard something from the beginning in the sense that when you had an encounter with the Lord Jesus, you heard that, and either had something, a commandment from the beginning, or you heard something. And then Josiah last week kind of covered the one where the devil had sin from the beginning, and that one seems to be referring back to creation. back from the beginning of Satan.

And Satan, as I was trying to point out last week, is if you look, Satan is an angel, right? He's a fallen angel. So if you look in the context in Genesis there, it seems like when it talks about creating all the heavenly hosts, that he's lumped into that. And I'm not going to be dogmatic about that, but that's an interpretation you could. And then, so it seems like he's talking about Satan sinning from after he was created. Okay, so that's the seven occurrences from the beginning in 1 John there.

And the last part of this, for this is a message which you have heard from the beginning, and so here's the message, that we should love one another. Pretty simple construction again, that we love one another, and it's in the tense that is subjunctive and it's probability.

You may not do this. The Lord is saying we should, but you may not. There's a mode of probability. And one another is this word that's in it. I hadn't quite thought this before. It's called a reciprocal pronoun. And actually, when I cut pieces out of vines, our case is really not genitive plural. It's actually another Greek tense. I can tell you what it is. It's accusative. I mean, what's accusative, Roger? In this case, it's a direct object. So it's an accusative case. My abilities are limited there.

But anyway, whatever. The reciprocal pronoun part, I kind of said, what in the world is that? And what it means is I looked it up in one of my Greek books. And it says it talks about the fact that it's a pronoun that Describes almost a relationship between groups of people. Let me see if I can. OK. Is used to indicate an interchange between two or more groups. And it seems like it implies the groups. are on the same plane, if you will.

So when it says, love one another, it seems like that's obviously applying believers, basically. We're to love one another, and that's something the Lord desires us to do. And I was thinking also is that If you think about your Christian life, that you trust Christ as your Savior, you exercise faith toward Him, and we're going to see faith involved in here with Cain and Abel shortly, but that we should love one another is a characteristic of the Christian life. characterizes the life of a Christian. And it's not something that we produce, it's something that Christ, it's His life living in us that we love one another.

So, there's some other verses I want to look at here in that vein. Let's look at, and we'll see that that this is part of what we talked about before as being my commandments, that the Lord Jesus talked about in the Gospel of John. So let's look here at John 13, the Gospel of John. 34 and 35 in John 13. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

I think particularly in this passage here, it kind of talks about, you know, this is a characteristic. People will know you by the fact that you love one another. That's a characteristic of a Christian, that they love one another. And that's Christ's very life being lived out in us. And then there's another one here, just turn over to chapter 15, and someone could read verse 12.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. So basically, here's this phraseology that we studied a little bit before. This is my commandment, in contrast to the... This is not part of the mosaic system. This is Christ's commandment. This is my commandment, as a result of who you are in Christ. This is my commandment that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

I'm just thinking, I don't know if I hear unbelievers saying that, though. Do they see Christians loving one another? Yeah. I'm just trying to think of... I'm not sure of that, but maybe, I don't know if it's anybody else, but they will hear that they love one, you know, we don't like them, but at least they love one another, something like that. I just don't, maybe they think it, but... Well, and this is a little off the top, just kind of thinking about Katrina, for example.

And I have I have some believers in my office and one of the guys decided, hey, I want to go down. He's an elder in another church. He said, hey, I want to go down and help out the people. So he just signed up and went down to Louisiana and worked for a week down there. I mean, just. I mean, he didn't have to do that. I mean, he just felt that the Lord, you know, so I don't know.

I don't know how much we can trust what unbelievers say about it, what Christians, how much you can address them. I mean, well, and they might despise it. They might, they kind of, you know, it's interesting how this is where this is way off the subway. Katrina is being reported as, you know, this terrible, the federal government messed up. He blew it with all this stuff. But how about the, how about the outpouring? to the people of Louisiana and Texas and Mississippi by just believers.

I think it's incredible. I mean, you look at that, and it's incredible. And that's, to my mind, that's loving one another. Are you saying that Christians should love one another? That's what Christ said, yeah. I'm not saying Christians should love others.

Well, Katrina, and that's a good point, and that's an excellent point, Doug, and I probably got carried away there. Thank you. You kept me on the track. That's really, really good. Excellent point. Excellent point. And Doug makes an excellent point, and I actually thank you for doing that.

I think, actually, you need to go through and look at Scripture. The primary commandment, I believe, as in here, is to love the body of believers. But there also is, I think, to love unbelievers as well. We have love for all mankind, but that's a good point.

My example had a few holes in it there. Thank you. But there's two aspects. There's loving within the body of Christ, which I think this is addressing, like you say. And then there's an issue of loving outside the body of Christ. And that's a good point, Doug. Thank you. OK.

So let's just look at, I'm not sure this is the inclusive list, but this may be. This may be the inclusive. The rest of the loved one and others in first John, I'm not sure. I need Josiah's list. Anyway, that's OK. Don't worry about it, Josiah. Anyway, okay, so this is coming up here shortly.

This is His commandment that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. And then in 4.7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. This is the one that just really, and we'll be studying this down the road here, but this is the one that just really said, boy, this is a characteristic of the Christian life. I mean, just from that verse, looking at that, boy, this is something that demonstrates the Christian life, Christ in us. And then down in 4.11 and 12, Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. So we have some really neat verses that are coming along here.

Well, that's a good... Can an unsaved person have Christian love? I don't think so. He can have love... We're talking here about agape love. Exactly, right. Not necessarily phileo love. You're right. That's a good point. Phileo love is a different kind of... This is agape love almost always in scripture. And that's a love that only comes from God and only people that know God can demonstrate that love.

Even though there is a troubling verse that I don't, do you want to go into, well, let's see, we want to do it toward the end if we have time. There's one that actually uses agape and uses of the world. It's one of those cases where it's studied out, but it actually uses agape in a negative sense. Men agape the darkness. I don't know. That's for another day. Another day. Okay. Too many rabbit trails here. Okay. So now we're going to transition. We're going to transition.

It says, not as Cain or not according to Cain. Not as Cain. So the first part was, for this is a message we have heard from him that we should love one another. And then in contrast to that, not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother."

So this is really interesting. The Cain and Abel thing in Scripture, we're going to go through that a little bit, is really interesting because it sets up two kinds of men. The men that have trusted in what God has done and those who have not trusted. And the ones who have not trusted, by Scripture's declaration, are of the evil one. That's a hard pill to swallow for some people. They're of the evil one.

Cain, not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. So if you look here, it's a compound verb. Actually, there's actually three compounds here. It says, who was of the evil one and slew his brother, and for what reason. And I only showed the first of the two, so the subject is Cain.

Cain was, and this is actually, the imperfect tense here is continuous action and pastime. So Cain, while he was here on this earth, was continuous action and pastime, with the preposition of the evil one. And of there is ek, which is out of, out of the evil one. So out of the evil one.

And he slew his brother. And that's in the eris. So it's a past point fact. And we're going to look at slew here in just a second. And then the object here is he slew his brother. So now, evil is panaras. Labor toil denotes evil that causes labor, pain, or sorrow. And there's a few verses I want to look at in that context. Okay, so let's just look here at chapter 5. Put a 1 in front of the John there, I'm sorry. That's 1 John.

He who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. So verse 19 is the one that just really kind of points out what is being said here, that the whole world is in the power of the evil one. So until a person becomes a believer, they're not in a good situation. And that's a hard thing for people to swallow because they...

I know myself, before I was a believer, I said, I'm a pretty good person. I do good things. And, you know, I do good things in human terms, that's for sure. All right. And then in 1 John 2, 13 and 14. I am writing to you fathers because you know him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you children because you know the father. I have written to you fathers because you know him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one. So Christians by their very nature They have overcome the evil one.

They are no longer... Just like it says that in terms of the sin nature, it's been rendered inoperative. Same terminology is used of Satan. In terms of the believer, he's been rendered inoperative. Not that we can't be tempted. Temptation is there, but we're no longer under his power and control. OK, now, the next word here I want to look at, we looked at evil one, is slew.

And that's spadazzo, something like that, to slay, to slaughter, especially victims for sacrifice. And actually, it's interesting, this word, I looked at a couple different people, but The idea was used of sacrificing animals, and it literally meant actually cutting their necks. And I guess the concept was that they would bleed. I guess if you're killing an animal or slaughtering an animal, you want to have the blood drain out of them. So the best way to do that is to cut their necks.

So this is a very graphic term that scripture is using here of what happened between Cain and Abel. And it's interesting, based upon that, there are people that have rendered this that Cain cut Abel's jugular, cut his neck. So actually, Weiss translates this, killed his brother by severing his jugular vein. We're going to get there. We're going to do all that. I mean, this is an interesting study. It really is. Cain and Abel are really, but it is kind of just incredible.

You know, with this word is so, you know, I guess it was now so carefully that you could, you can render it. you know, it's that kind of sacrifice, that kind of death where you cut their neck or cut their jugular vein. So it's, I don't know, it's pretty, apparently in the ancient Greek, it was used that way too. This spazazzo was used to, of sacrificing animals and cutting their necks.

So it's a pretty graphic picture of what, what came to the able. My grandfather used to butcher, and I remember watching him, and that's what he would do, make sure that the blood was drained. Exactly. You know, he cut that, and the blood would just come gushing out, and I've seen that. Yeah, and apparently that's what this word in classical Greek described, that very thing, cutting their neck and letting the blood come out. So when Cain slew his brother, scripture tells us it's that kind of death, and it's ironic that it would kill him in that way, I don't know. It's a very graphic picture of what transpired.

Here's a verse that uses it in Revelation. I actually have several verses in Revelation, but this one talks about, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and the men would slay one another, and a great sword was given to him." So the same word here. And then also what's really interesting, and let's just look, let's turn to Revelation chapter 5. This is used of the Lord Jesus and his death, which is really interesting. The same word, Revelation chapter 5. And I need another volunteer. Sorry guys, there's a few of us. Revelation chapter 5, let's just read May 6-12.

I beheld a low in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth unto all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for Thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, has made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.

And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength Great.

Thanks, Doris. That's great. So, you know, this phrase, this this word appears three times, six in verses six, nine and twelve. And I was once I kind of got the idea of this definition or this of this word of thinking about the fact that The Lord being a lamb, a lamb would be slain in this very way. So it kind of all hung together. Wow, look at this.

The Lord was slain as a sacrifice, as a lamb. A lamb would have his neck cut. Now the Lord, we know it didn't happen. His death is described very... But as a lamb, he would have been slain that way. But it's interesting, this word is used of Christ and talking, referring to him as a lamb. And I just thought maybe, you know, that word picture that's being painted of a lamb, a lamb would have been killed in that fashion, and the Lord referred to the Lord.

So I don't know, but it is interesting. So when it says in Revelation, slay one another, will it be by the neck? Well, it would be this Greek word, I'm having a tough time pronouncing this word, but anyway, that word, to slaughter, or actually butcher. So it would be a lamb as if, so I guess the picture is, You could think about this, a lamb that was butchered would be a pretty bloody sight.

Christ dying on the cross was a very bloody sight. So a lamb as if slain, that's kind of one thought I had, that the picture of a lamb being slain was representing the picture that we have of Christ being slain. Now, it wasn't the same cutting of their neck, but they both were slain. I mean, the idea of their death.

Oh, and another thing. One more thing. I have all these little things. What's kind of interesting is in the Septuagint, that's a Greek translation of the Old Testament. This word is used. Anyway, in Leviticus chapter 1, and if someone could read verse 5. Actually, I can just read it this time. It's okay.

It says, and so it's just talking about just a normal course of sacrifice, it seems like. And he shall slay the young bull before the Lord, and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall offer up the blood and sprinkle the blood around on the altar. That is, at the doorway of the tent of the meeting. So in the Greek Old Testament, the translation of the Old Testament, the word slay there is this butchering. And it makes sense. They butchered the animals to put them on the altar. And so our Savior was butchered, in a sense, on the altar of the cross. When you slaughter an animal or butcher an animal, He's not living anymore. All right. OK. OK.

Now, I wanted to spend a little time looking at Cain and Abel because the contrast here is that not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. So I just want to kind of look through and look through this account. The account of Cain and Abel is in Genesis 4. So there's 15 verses. How about we just do A5 and do 5-5-5? Would that be okay? We have to start with the first five, Lonnie? Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. And she said, I have gotten a man-child with the help of the Lord.

And again she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. And Abel on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering. But for Cain and for his offering he had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.

So Doug, could you read that? Yeah. It was six through ten. And the Lord said unto the king, Why art thou worthy, and why is thy content flawed? Thou doest well, so cannot be accepted. Thou doest not well, sin alighteth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

And Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and came to pass with him in the field, and Cain rode up against Abel, his brother, and blew him. And the Lord said unto him, I'm afraid, what of Abel, our brother? And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? He said, what hast thou done?

The voice of my brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground, and now art thy curse from the earth. which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand." That's fine. Doris, may you read 12 through 15? When thou chose the ground, it shall not henceforth hold as to thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

For Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, And from thy face shall I behead, I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that every one that bindeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him, saith it told. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, thus any binding him should kill him.

There's really a lot. I didn't really get into all the Cain's family line, and there's a lot you could do with that. I just kind of focused on the first part. Well, something that occurred as I looked through here, the first five verses, this little phrase in verse four and five, it's interesting that the Lord had regard, he had regard for Abel and for his offering.

But he didn't have regard for Cain and for his offering. So it's like that, And we're going to see that Abel acted out of a faith response. He responded to God in faith when he offered his sacrifice. Cain apparently did not do that. He does not say that, but we have other verses we're going to read that talk about Abel and how it was by faith he offered the sacrifice. So God had regard for Abel, and I assume that's kind of applying for the fact that he did offer it by faith. And Cain did not offer it by faith.

So that was just one observation that kind of came out of this. And before I look at this, and this is what I want to go into next, but it kind of goes on there and talks about, I'll ask you guys, I've always kind of pondered this. It says, God's talking to Cain. He says, why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will your countenance not be lifted up? If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.

And I've always kind of, that's one of those little phrases that you always, I never have, I still am kind of thinking about it, but I'd like to look what it says in the Greek Old Testament. So it'll be kind of fun. But the phrase that I was, sin is crouching at the door. I was, he was telling, telling Cain that, hey, you know, sin, you know, It's kind of a contrast between letting sin drive your life and letting me be in control of your life. So I don't know. I don't have a lot of things to say about that. It was just kind of interesting. There's some interesting things there about Cain's response.

And he was acting, you know, he didn't act in faith, where Abel did. And this is a verse that really gives you insight into Abel's heart. Without this verse in Scripture, you know, this is in the faith chapter. And just think about Abel is the first one in there.

And this is another thing that kind of hit me on, I think about this. You look at Scripture and you have Adam and Eve. And they, you know, they're tempted by Satan, and they say, okay, and they go down that path, right? And they, you know, and God basically, you know, they sin.

Abel is the first one I can find that demonstrates faith. And essentially he's the first one in the faith chapter. Now, it seems like, and I haven't done a good study of this, you look at Adam and Eve, they also at some point, exercise faith. I can't easily find that. But Abel kind of stands out like a beacon. Scripture kind of points out that Abel was righteous.

He acted by faith. And I'll just read it. By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gift. Through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. So Abel's faith is pointed out as being You know, this is the response that man is to have, exercising faith. And basically, Abel offered, by faith to God, a more excellent sacrifice. Actually, the word excellent might be a little bit better. I wasn't too sure, but excellent might be a little bit better. Weiss had better.

And then, Weiss also had through which sacrifice. that he offered in faith testified to his acting that way. And we know Abraham, another example of an Old Testament saint who exercised faith. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. So we know that was the picture that is kind of in the Old Testament, that they exercised faith and that was counted to them as righteousness, looking forward to the one, to the Lord Jesus and his righteousness. All right.

And for what reason did he slay him? Same word for slay. Subject, he, slay, able, him. And for what reason? And the word reason is this word keren. For this cause, or actually it's for this cause, or for what cause? And there are a couple of places, let me just look here, I've just kind of forgotten what... I think actually what it is, I remember now, the translations. If you look at Titus, Titus chapter 1 verse 5, for this reason or for this cause, That's what I was keying on. For this reason, I left you in Crete that you might set in order. So it was another place that this phrase, for this cause, for that cause.

And basically, we're pointing to the last part of the verse, because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. For this reason, for this cause, we point to the last part of the verse. So let's go on to the last part of the verse. Because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. So this is kind of a neat construction here.

We have two statements. The deeds of Cain, his deeds, were, Aimee, evil. So evil here is an adjective that's identifying Cain's deeds. Cain's deeds were evil. And it's in perfect tense, so it's a continuous action in pastime. So Cain's actions in pastime were continuously evil.

And that's pretty obvious, what happened after the Lord, you know. Whereas the Abel's actions were continuously righteous, the same kind of instruction, his brother's deeds were, A.M.E., same tense, it's the same tense of the verb, actually it's kind of implied here, were righteous. So what we have here, and let's go on to the last part here. Oops. Okay. Actually, I went through and did deeds.

Deeds is this word, A worker act, and then here's this verse basically in John 3.19.

This is a judgment that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil. And then righteousness, we've covered quite a few times, diakaios, just, righteous, that which is in accordance with what is right. And we had from last time, the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. The bottom line here, I think in this last verse 12 here, we have Cain's deeds were evil, continuously evil in past time. Abel's deeds were continuously righteous in past time.

If you look at that verse, and we don't have to turn to him, Jude talks about the fact that going the way of Satan. Actually, he's of Satan. Cain is a person who went the way, his deeds were evil. And he's kind of pictured in scripture as being a source of evil ways, if you will. Whereas Abel is pictured in scripture as a source of righteous ways. And it's talked about in the Matthew passage about the righteous blood of Abel. And then what's kind of cool is in Hebrews, it talks about...

In fact, let's just read that, and we'll stop there. Hebrews chapter 12. Comparing Abel's blood with Christ's blood, which I think is really important because, you know, even Abel's blood was righteous in the fact that it was offered by faith, but Christ's blood is far more significant, as we know, because it... Okay, Hebrews chapter 12, and verse 23 and 24.

OK. To the General Assembly and the Church of the Firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven. To God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect. To Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. To the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. So Christ's blood. is superior to Abel's blood, obviously. Even though in scripture, Abel's blood is spoken of as being righteous, Christ's blood is the perfect blood, the perfect lamb. Abel was a man. He was from Adam's line. He exercised faith, but he still was a man. Christ's blood is a is the God-man who's perfect.

So I thought it was a really neat contrast. And you'll see in Scripture that I didn't trace out all of Cain's line. That's kind of a mess. Abel's line is over and over again referred to as being righteous and a really kind of neat thing. All right. Abel's the type of the man who...

And actually, like I said, he was the first one that where Scripture talks about exercising faith. And he's the first one in the faith chapter. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this time, Lord, for the blessings we have. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.