Good morning. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 11. We're going to be reading from verse 1 through 4. And main text today is going to be on one verse, verse 4. Again, I promise we are going to be going faster than just one verse a week.

It's just that we want to make sure that we cover this and set the right foundation before we get to the other heroes of the faith. So Hebrews chapter 11, verses 1 through 4. I want to read all four verses before we get started this morning. Reading out of the NASV.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are invisible.

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 gifts and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for your anointing over this time. May your word have its effect on us.

Help us, Lord God, to hear from you and to glean from this verse, this passage, what it is that you have desired. I pray that you would give us eagerness, Lord God, to hear from you, that we may apply all that you have to say. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. All right, again, I want to apologize if you are not a Lakers fan. I'm going to mention this just for today, okay, just for today and then next week maybe consider it again. Okay, but again, as you guys know, Lakers won their 17th championship, tying the record for the Celtics.

So now they're tied, so next year they'll break it, I'm assuming. Okay, but after every game that happens, and obviously, like, they'll put up the banner up there, it's the 17th championship banner, and then they'll have the Hall of Famers, who, jerseys have been retired, and obviously, Kobe's was retired, and then, you know, eventually other people will get retired.

And the reason why they do that is obviously to venerate, you know, just to kind of honor that these are the teams that win, won the championship team, and the new people that have come and that they put, retired their jersey and put it up there to inspire people, right?

When they look up, this is what Lakers is about, this is what you should aspire for. But obviously, you can look at that and the new players coming in, maybe get intimidated and think, "I will never be able to live up to that." Now, obviously, these guys are Hall of Fame basketball players, so it's not assumed that every basketball player, in fact, more than 99% of the players that come in and play for Lakers are not going to have their jerseys retired like that.

But the reason why they do that is not simply to intimidate, but to inspire. So they're kind of like the Hall of Fame, or, you know, the heroes, basically, of Lakers, if you're a Lakers fan. I say all of this because Chapter 11 is a Hall of Fame for people of faith.

And so everything that the author has been saying has been leading up to Chapter 11, saying that not to drift, but here's some examples of people who live by faith and what does this faith look like. And then after he does that, starting from Chapter 12, he's going to point back to them saying, "Considering the cloud of witnesses, this Hall of Fame people who live by faith, that we ought to follow that example and continue to persevere in our faith." So today is the first person in the Hall of Fame, so he's like the first, you know, first retired jersey that we're looking at today, right?

So we're looking at verse 4, and it starts out of the story between Abel and Kane, how Abel's offering was acceptable and Kane's offering was not. Just to kind of, before we even jump into it, that we understand what's going on. The story of Kane and Abel is the first generation of people who were born into sin.

Now Adam and Eve were not born into sin. They fell because they chose to sin. So the first generation of people, the first fruits of Adam and Eve after they fell was a murderer. And it is not by accident. The stories that we see in the Old Testament and New Testament are not a collection of random things that happen, and just kind of telling us this is what happened.

So whenever we study the Bible, you know, we're doing inductive study of 1 Thessalonians, one of the key things that we have to constantly ask is, how does this fit into the context? Not only the context of the immediate text of the letter of the Old Covenant and New Covenant, but in his redemptive, in the meta-narrative of the Bible, in the redemptive history, where does this fit?

Why is this story here? Other than to just tell us that Adam and Eve had children and they ended up, you know, the first one ended up murdering. Well, we're going to see here what he says here is really foundational to our faith. What he says in this one verse really sets the table of how we understand the rest of redemptive history.

And so hopefully we will be able to unpack that together this morning. So I want to look at verse 4 again, just verse 4, and then we're going to deal with two things that he says here this morning. Verse 4, "By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain." So that's the first point we're going to look at.

It was a better sacrifice. What made this a better sacrifice? And then 2, "Through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous." Through the better sacrifice, Abel became righteous. God testifying about his gift and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. What is it about his testimony?

What is it about him becoming righteous that is still speaking to us today? So that's the second part we're going to be looking at. Okay, so let's look at the first part. He says, "Abel offered a better sacrifice." So in order for us to better understand what is going on here, it's good for us to understand what is a sacrifice.

Another way of saying a sacrifice is an offering, right? Now, in our modern-day worship, we don't use the word sacrifice. Typically, when we say sacrifice, we're talking about giving up something that is valuable to us. But here, in the context of sacrifice, it's talking about offering. An offering is what is given in the context of worship.

So another way to say this is God looked at the offering that Abel gave and he says, "Abel's offering was a better offering." "Abel's offering was a better offering." So what is laid here basically is telling us, through the story of Cain and Abel, what worship is acceptable and what worship is not acceptable.

And the reason why this is so foundational, the Bible says that we are created for the purpose of worship. So if our central identity, central identity, is not what nationality, what language you speak or your economic status, right? Our first identity was as a worshiper. God says he created us in his image, to bear his image.

In other words, we were to reflect his glory. And so when he says to Adam and Eve that this is acceptable worship, this is not acceptable worship, he's laying the foundation for sinners to be able to come to him. Again, this is why this is so important. Worship is at the core of who we are.

Now in order to better understand what worship is, again I'm going to use the analogy of sports, right? If you are a casual fan, let's say if you're, I would say I'm not a fanatic, I would say I'm a fan. You know, I enjoy watching Lakers, but I don't, my car is not purple and gold, I don't have purple and gold underwear, I don't have purple and gold socks, you know, and you see some fanatics when you go to the arena, I mean they are fanatics, they'll paint their face, you know, they'll take off their shirt, they'll have their favorite, you know, favorite player's number printed on their chest, there's no shame, right?

And we would say they're not just fans, they're not just casual fans, they are fanatics. If you go into their room, their room is painted purple and gold, right? And they know the shoe sizes of every player, they know when they got married, how many children they have and their stats, and they know everything, right?

So a fan is somebody who just casually enjoys it from a distance, and if they happen to be in championship, we get kind of get on board and we find excitement in that, but a fanatic is day and night, 24/7, that's what he does. So the difference between a fan and a fanatic, a fanatic, that's his primary thing that brings him the greatest joy.

That's it, that's what brings him the greatest joy. He's willing to become a fool, he's willing to spend a lot of money. In fact, most fanatics, their friends will actually tell them to calm down, right? Most fans are like, yeah, you know, we're going to get together and watch, you know, watch basketball together, but if you're a fanatic, you probably have some friends that are concerned about you, you know, you're spending too much money, you're, too much time, too much energy in that.

See, in the context of worship, God did not call us to be fans. He called us to be fanatics, because the Bible says, what is the greatest commandment? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He says what God is looking for, people are going to worship him in spirit and in truth.

He said, you will seek me and find me if you seek for me with what? With all your heart. God is commanding us to be fanatics of who he is. Now when we look at that, because typically when we think of a fanatic, we think about somebody who went too far.

But the reason why he commands and desires fanatics of who he is, is because he is the author of life. And the moment that we are separated from him, there we find death. So the only way that we can truly experience true life is to reconnect with the author of life.

So his commandment, to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, is really for our benefit, because that's what he created us for. In the church, it doesn't take much to make fans. If we have enough people your age, with similar interests, if there's nice people on our welcome team, if the leaders aren't too boring, and they have an embezzled money, and it's like, "Ah, we can follow that," and they're somewhat interesting, it doesn't take a lot to make fans of people.

But a fanatic is not something that you can create, unless that person really finds the greatest joy in this. Only an individual who has genuinely encountered this God will become a fanatic. And that's the struggle that we have in our generation, because there seems to be no distinction between a fan and a fanatic.

In fact, every once in a while, there is somebody maybe who takes it too far and says, "You should go into ministry. You should become a missionary, because you're not like the rest of us." Without realizing that that person may be doing exactly what God has called all of us to do.

You can become a fanatic of pretty much anything. If you are a fanatic of making money, you are willing to do whatever it takes to make money. If you're a fanatic of friendship, if you're a fanatic of prestige, if that's where you find your greatest joy and greatest life, you're willing to sacrifice anything.

You're willing to become a fool. Years ago, when we first started going out to India, and I remember the very first year we went, even our missionary friends were telling us, "Don't go there, because there's not a lot of support out there." And there's a few of us that went there that first year, and we literally went into the boonies.

We got off in Bangalore, and we took five hours to drive out to Bellary, and then from Bellary, we had at least about two hours to drive to the village, and it really felt like the boonies. I would say about a third of the road was paved, and the other two thirds was like dirt road.

And we were going hours and hours into the countryside, and we were thinking, "Man, if anything happens here, we would be completely lost." Well, once we got there, obviously, we're the only foreigners. You don't see anything familiar there, and typically, whenever you travel, the first thing that you look for is either McDonald's or Starbucks, because there's some familiarity, or at least some English, something that you're familiar with.

First year we went there, we saw nothing. But as the years went by, we started seeing the roads being paved. In fact, now, I would say more than two thirds, maybe about 90% of the road has been paved. And now, the same hotel that we go to, we will see foreigners hanging out there.

So the first time I saw a foreigner like us, my initial thought was, "The only reason why anybody would be out here is the same reason we're here, is to share the gospel." But we realized that through the years that India is starting to rise in their economy, so the more and more business people are coming into that area.

It's a mining town. Hyundai came in and set up a huge factory out there, and that's part of the reason why the roads got paved. But I can imagine the first group of people who came out there to make money, they had to do the same thing we did.

They had to come to a foreign place that they weren't familiar with, eat foods that they weren't familiar with, leave their family behind for a period to establish all that. Now it's becoming more and more foreigner-friendly, but there were people who came out there and did the same thing that we did, all for the purpose of making money.

People all over the world will sacrifice, leave their families behind, sometimes even ruin their marriages because they are fanatics of money. And in a place like that, I can only say, either you are a fan of money or you're a fanatic of God. That would bring somebody out to a place like that permanently, although we're only there for a short period of time.

See, God knows that if we are not a fanatic of God, most likely we are a fanatic of something else. Because God created us for the purpose of worship. You and I gain the greatest satisfaction in life when we live according to the way He created us. So when we are not finding the satisfaction in life in Christ, and we are just casual fans, we are most likely fanatics of something else.

You either watching Korean drama, K-pop, I don't know what it is, maybe going to new places or finding friends or community, whatever it might be, buying new things, whatever it might be. If we are not, if we don't find life in being a fanatic of Christ, whether you are aware or not aware of it, most likely you are a fanatic of something else.

Fanatic of security, fanatic of success, fanatic of money, fanatic of reputation, whatever that may be. That you are willing to sacrifice, possibly cheat and lie in order to either hold on to it or to attain it. See what God is saying here about Abel's offering is really a statement not only about Abel, but He is distinguishing between a worship that will lead to life and a worship that will lead to death.

See the background behind this, just so that we better understand what's going on here, in Genesis 4, 4-5 it describes Abel's offering. It says, "Abel on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions." Let me stop right there. That's verse 4. And then verse 3, it describes Cain's offering.

So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of fruit of the ground. I don't know if we can put the two verses together simultaneously, but if you notice the difference between the sacrifice that is given by Abel, he says on his part he brought a firstling.

Firstling, meaning the very first, right, of whatever it is that he had, of the flock. And then it is the fat portion. So in those three descriptions, it's describing Abel's offering as the best of the flock and even of that, the most precious part of that animal. But of Cain's, look what it says, "It came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering." Not a first offering, not the best offering, it just says, "An offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground." When you read that casually, just kind of reading through the Bible, you may not catch that.

But when we slow down and ask the question, "What made Abel's offering acceptable and what made Cain's offering unacceptable?" is the distinction between giving the best versus just giving. A fan versus a fanatic. Giving gave out of convenience. This is what he did for a living. So God required it, so I'm just going to give it to him.

Where Abel also gave of the flock, and he was a herder, but he gave what was best. And even of the portion, he didn't keep the best portion to himself, but the fattest portion he offered it to God. And it is in that, that by at least the initial distinction is between their attitude and the way that they gave.

It says in Isaiah 29 verse 13, "God has been saying this to the nation of Israel over and over and over again." It is the reason why they're going into captivity, it was because they kept on giving God defective worship. Isaiah 29 verse 13, "Then the Lord said, 'Because this people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me, and their reverence for me consists of traditions learned by rote.'" Meaning habit.

You just did it because it's Sunday. How often times do we come to worship simply because it's Sunday? How often do we come saying, "I'm going to worship God," or "I'm going to attend the worship." There is a difference between the two. See, we can attend worship by just getting up, being clothed, and coming and sitting, and then when the worship starts, you sit, and when the worship ends, you go home, and you say, "You attended worship." But there's a difference between attending worship and actually worshiping God.

There's a huge difference between a fan and a fanatic. A fan may come on board when it's exciting, but when it's not exciting, you can't tell. Jesus says the same thing in the book of Matthew chapter 15, 8 through 9, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me.

But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. All they're doing is following rules." Rules that men made up. So, you know, our order of worship, we made it up. I made it up. Right? What do I think is the best way? You know, should we start first?

Should we do the offering in the middle? Should we do it at the end? You know, should we have membership at church? How should we organize our Bible study? All of these things are obviously ways for us to get to God, but these are just rules created by men.

So if you go to another church, there's another set of rules. If you go to another church, they have another set of rules. And so he says, "All these people are doing is just following rules and attending worship, but they're not worshiping me." And that's a distinction that he's making.

An offering that we give, let's say if you're giving a gift to a friend, right, and you're giving it to that person and you put some thought into it. You know, you sacrifice, you save that money, and the offering that you give to that person or the gift that you give to that person has a lot of meaning behind it because you pour your heart into it.

I had a friend, and I mentioned this before, who would always carry around precious moment dolls in his car. He would always have three or four in his car because he would constantly forget anniversaries and birthdays, or maybe he said something dumb, you know, to his wife and his wife would be ticked off.

And so he had an immediate way out. He would go to the back of his car, take out one of those precious moment dolls, and he would give it to her, right? So he figured out a way to appease her wrath. And that's all he's doing. He's not loving her, he's not taking care of her, that's self-centered.

I want to eat breakfast tomorrow, and the only way that I'm going to do that is appease this wrath. And so he figured out a way, and she's okay, she's not happy with it, and she knew he was doing that, but he said, "Okay," you know, because she loved the doll so much, right?

But that's not God. God is not in love with dead animals. He's not in love with singing. And he's actually looking for the offering that we bring in our hearts. And that's why he was constantly telling the nation of Israel that what you are doing is not worship. In fact, he actually says that assembly of God's people at the temple was a burden to him.

He actually says, calls it an evil assembly. What he's, the distinction that he's making between Abel and Cain's offering is a distinction between life and death. You look, you can see what was going on in Cain's heart by the way he responded when God points that out to him.

In fact, if you look at it carefully, God is actually very gracious to him. Look what he says. "Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?'" If you do well, basically meaning if you follow what I told you to do, if you did what Abel did, God is giving him an opportunity to repent.

He's not saying you did it wrong so you're going to die tomorrow. He says no. He said your whole situation would change if you would just repent. Instead of being angry and jealous and having a serious countenance, if you do well, wouldn't your situation change? And if you do not do well, if you choose to remain on this path, he says sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it.

If your pride and anger and jealousy, if you embrace that and allow that to percolate and bear fruit, he says sin basically is going to master you. Either you repent and get it right and master it, or you allow it to percolate and bear fruit. And we know exactly what happens.

Cain chooses to embrace this sin, and in his anger, he becomes the first murderer in human history. In fact, in the book of Jude, verse 10 and 11, it describes, God describes Cain's sin this way, "But these men revile the things which they do not understand, and the things which they know by instinct.

Like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. Woe to them, for they have gone the way of Cain." What is the way of Cain? Like an animal. He just does whatever he feels. And that's the difference between an animal and a human being. He says he just does whatever.

An unreasoning animal who knows by instinct, he just does whatever he feels like. Whatever comes easiest. I mean, animals don't have priorities. They don't sit down and make a list of these are important things that I need to get to today and these are not important things that I don't need to get to.

These are things that I prioritize, these are things I don't need. They don't live like that. So something that they like, they want it. You know, they get excited about something, they run. They get scared, they stop. They get tired, they sleep. If they're tired of sleeping, they get up and they run.

That's what he's describing the sin of Cain. He's living by his flesh, whatever satisfies him. The Bible describes the sin of Israel repeatedly over and over again in the same way. He says in the book of Judges, their primary sin, every time God would be gracious and bring revival, they would fall right back into that sin because everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

Instead of following Christ or following God's precepts, everyone did what was right in their own eyes over and over and over again. The Bible describes man's rebellion as simply doing and following and chasing what we want. And most of the greatest temptations in life are not obviously sinful. It's just, that's what I want.

That's what I desire. I'm going to give to God whatever is convenient to me. And beyond that, that's for the fanatics. So I'm satisfied with just being a fan of who he is. I'm going to give you another outdated song, Frank Sinatra. Right? Some of you guys, most of you guys probably know who he is.

You guys know who Frank Sinatra is? Okay. So this guy is big enough that you guys would know. He has a song called "I Did It My Way." I'm not going to read the whole thing, but just the first verse. "And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain.

My friends, I'll say it clear, I'll state my case of which I'm certain. I've lived a life that's full. I traveled each and every highway. But more, much more than this, I did it my way." What he describes here in this song, the Bible describes as a way of destruction.

It is broad, it is easy, it is convenient, and you just make decisions and you just do whatever comes natural to you. And what our flesh naturally desires is a road to destruction. In Proverbs 12-14 it says, "There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

Even in laughter, the heart may be in pain." You ever experience that, even as a Christian, where you know you're not walking right with God? And maybe you made some money, maybe your business did well, maybe your children were sick and then they became healthy, but even in the midst of that, you know that you are not walking the way God wants you to walk, and even in the midst of success, you experience emptiness and pain.

That's what he's describing here. Because true life is only when we are connected to the author of life. So if you experience, if you're chasing after life outside of Christ, that's what he's describing here. And in the end, joy may be grief. That all your life, you experience one success after another success, after another success, and all your life, you can tell other people, "If you do what I do, you can be successful.

You can make all the money." And your life may be written in a book, saying that, "If you really want to be successful, do this, because this is what I did." And at the end of that, he says, "It's grief." Because the only true life is found when we are connected to the author of life.

The backslider in heart will have his fill of his own ways. A backslider in heart will have his fill of his own way. He will continue to make decisions and go after things according to what he desires, but a good man will be established or be satisfied with his.

The distinction between Abel's offering and Cain's offering is a distinction between life and death. God warns Cain that sin is crouching at your door, that this temptation is going to overpower you and lead you to destruction. See, what we need to pay attention to here is faulty worship was what led to the first murder.

Let me say that again. Faulty worship is what led to the first murder. Now you may say, "You know, that's kind of hyperbole. You're exaggerating." It's not directly connected. But I think that's exactly the point that he's trying to make. Because God created us for the purpose of worship, when we're not satisfied with the Creator, we end up chasing after the creation.

And when we chase after the creation, there comes covening, there comes slander, there comes murder. All the other sins come as a result of forsaking the ultimate object of our worship. Whatever causes us to give defective worship is an open door to all kinds of temptations. We cannot give true worship on our terms.

We do not come and reconcile by our terms and by whatever is the most convenient for us. But here's the second part. Abel's sacrifice left a testimony and speaks to us even to this day. It made him righteous. So we may look at that and say, "Well, maybe because Abel was smart and Abel gave what was best and he worked harder than Cain." That's not what he's pointing to.

He says it made him righteous and it gave him a testimony which still speaks to us today. So what is it about that that points to speaking to us today and furthermore? It's pretty clear. Now we know that animal sacrifice, like there is no mention of that in Genesis chapter 3, saying like this is the only way of atonement.

But in Genesis chapter 3, we have what's called the proto-evangelium, which translation means first gospel. As soon as they fall, God has a plan that the serpent is going to bruise the heel of the woman's seed and the seed is going to crush the head of the serpent. And that's the description of how Jesus is going to come and he's going to overpower the accuser.

Now that's not explained, but when we know what's going on in the New Testament, we look back at that and say clearly he left evidence of that. And so when we get to chapter 4, he says Abel gives blood sacrifice, which is acceptable to him. It doesn't describe for us how much they understood what was going on.

Even though we started through the book of Leviticus, Leviticus, all the offerings that were given in the book of Leviticus was not the first time they did that. You see it in Deuteronomy, you see it in Exodus, you see it all over Genesis, and you see it as early as Genesis chapter 4, that there was an understanding that is not explained to us.

There was an understanding that blood sacrifice was necessary. And so when Abel gave his offering, not only was it the best, not only did he follow the prescription, his blood sacrifice pointed to something that was coming. And clearly we, you and I know what that is. In Hebrews chapter 9, 22, in Leviticus 17, 11 it says, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins." The only way that even with our best effort that we can reconcile with this God is through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews chapter 12, verse 24, "And to Jesus, the medium of our new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel." Abel was just a precursor, a foreshadow of what he was going to do to reconcile people to himself. So right off the bat, in Genesis chapter 3 and chapter 4, God is foreshadowing a way for sinners to be reconciled to him from the get-go.

So the gospel is not introduced to us in John 3, 16. The good news was embedded according to Ephesians when? Before even the creation of the world, before you and I could even understand. Even before this event, God had plans to reconcile sinners to himself. So chapter 4 is describing to us, or verse 4 in this passage is describing to us, a way for mankind to reestablish the worship.

Because it is only when we become true worshipers of God, we truly live. So many people interpret John chapter 10, verse 10, when Jesus says, "I have come to give life and to give this life abundantly." And they wonder why, "If God came to give me life abundantly, how come I'm having such a hard time paying bills?

How come I have such a hard time with my family? How come I have such a hard time to getting promoted at work because he said he's going to make my life abundant?" But the abundant life that he's referring to is not an abundant life here. It's only life that you can have when you are reconnected with the author of life.

And only when you're reconnected with the author of life. So the greater of a fan, greater of a worship that we are of him, the more we experience this life. I don't know about you, but the happiest people that I know in this world are people who are crazy about Jesus.

Most to the point like, "Hey, calm down. Calm down. Our worship's at 11. You don't need to show up at 10 o'clock. Calm down." Every new Bible comes out, they got to get the new one. They got to get to every conference. They're at every single conference. They're always at the front.

They're always singing the loudest. Calm down. And there's a joy that exuberates that comes from them that is not fake. You can't fake that. You can get fans to show up on time if you are A students. You can get fans to open up the Bible, attend Bible study, and be responsible and become good citizens and attend, do this, and do everything that's expected.

But a fanatic, fanatic of Christ is not something that you and I create. That's something that happens because we encounter this God. See, the Apostle Paul was a fanatic. He didn't become who he was because Jesus spent a lot of time with him, telling him right and wrong and telling him the good word.

No, he encountered the glory of Christ. And it became rubbish. He wasn't discipled to think rubbish. It became rubbish. And from that point on, he was willing even to give his life to tell other people about this, because whatever comes after this, meeting Christ, is way better than whatever it was that he was pursuing.

See, he's calling us to be fanatics, to come deeper. And that's why he says the door has opened. He says, "Come to the throne of grace with confidence," because the whole purpose of salvation is in that statement. The whole purpose of salvation is in, "Now you're no longer condemned.

Do whatever you want." That's not the gospel. The gospel is because of what he has done. The door has been opened. "Now come. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, so I can give you rest. Come to the throne of grace with confidence." That's the good news of the gospel, that the door to life has been opened.

"Now come." Not to simply admire it, not to simply write about it, not to simply take pictures and put it on the wall, but to come. Because true life is found in Christ, in Christ alone. That's what Cain and Abel's offering was pointed to, that speaks to us to this day.

Hebrews 9, 13-14, "For if the blood of goats and bulls and ashes of hypher, sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" How much more?

And then finally, 1 Peter 1, 18-20, "Knowing that you are not redeemed with the perishable things like silver or gold from your feudal way of life, inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." You know, it almost seems like a contradiction or an oxymoron to say that the way of life is Abel's offering, because Abel died.

Cain was the one who murdered, and he lived. He got to live long life. Abel gave the right offering, and he died. So how can you say that this leads to life? From a worldly perspective, if all we know is here, then what a tragedy. The guy who was right before God, the guy who gave his best, the guy who gave the blood sacrifice, he's the one who ended his life early.

When we see it from a man's perspective. But from God's perspective, from an eternal perspective, we can say that Abel died with life. Cain lived in death. Living a long life. There's a lot of people who don't want to be here, because that's their personal testimony. Living a long life is not a blessing in and of itself.

Existing in this fallen world with all the depravity, with all the chaos, with all the hurts, with all the families that are broken up, with all the past pains that they have to live with, living a long life is not a blessing in and of itself. God did not call us so that we can live long.

God called us so that we can live, truly live. Zoe in him. And the only path that causes us to do that is the path of Abel. By faith, he offered up a better sacrifice, which caused him to be righteous. And this righteousness and the blood sacrifice and right worship of Abel speaks to us even to this day, even when we die.

That's the gospel message. So as we look at the other people in Hebrews chapter 11, if we miss this point, you may study the book of Hebrews and say, "Oh, if I just believed, if I had more faith, I can conquer enemies and I can do all this." And you will miss the whole point.

Because the point of this, there's the first part of it, what will teach us that God used them and delivered them and did all of this stuff. And then the second part will come out, but some of these people died early, were tortured, were beaten, but all of it did it because they believed.

They believed that life was in God, that promised land was not a physical land, but a land that he will bring. So I pray that as we look at this foundation, that that would embed into our hearts. And again, and I'm going to say this over and over again, as I've always been saying, and his point is the same, fix your eyes upon Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.