Word of Salvation – Vol. 18 No.30 – July 1972

 

Sacrificial Service

 

Sermon by Rev. P. H. Pellicaan B.D. on Hebr.11:4

SCRIPTURE READING: Gen. 4:1-16

PSALTER HYMNAL: 28:1,2,3; 430:1,2; 408:3; 387:1; 36; 462:1,2,3; 462:6.

 

At the very beginning of the history of salvation we find Abel’s sacrifice.  Scripture tells us how, after the first sin, God established the covenant of grace in giving the promise that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head.

Everything that follows this gracious promise is called: the history of salvation.  The decisive battle between the woman’s seed and the serpent’s seed begins immediately after man’s first sin.  God stopped Satan’s demolition work.  The Lord cursed THE GROUND, but He did not curse MAN.  He appealed to man, calling him to repentance, giving him faith.  Despite man’s rebellion God still gave him many gifts.

The first act of worship in which God was honoured – acknowledged as LORD, the gracious Giver of every perfect gift, was this action of Abel.  Here was a man who knelt down before God, and brought a sacrifice – offered a gift.

And now in our text the Holy Spirit instructs us about faith, what it is and what it can achieve and the first example of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11 is Abel’s sacrifice.  This is more than a coincidence.  There is organic unity between the Old and the New Testament.  Faith and salvation are the same throughout human history.

Abel, a man from the dawn of history, is set up as an example for New Testament Christians.  The message in Abel’s action is that sacrifice is the very first act of worship.  It was and is the first response to God’s covenant promises.

This is a most important truth but it is not always understood.  Let us find the answer to a very simple and basic question: why do you think God created man?

To spoil him, pamper him, to prepare a wonderful future for him?  This may be a popular misconception and many people may believe, or at least act, as though God only exists to jump to our help when we need Him.  He is bound to do that because He is love, and what a wonderful – and cheap! – assurance that is.

The Bible tells us a different story though.  We don’t have to argue that point.  We all know it.

Well then, why did God create man?

God made man in His own image in order that man would entirely be dedicated to God, that he would offer himself to God in loving service.  MAN WAS CREATED TO SACRIFICE!  Love always is a sacrifice!  What was the first sin which broke the relationship with God, which ruined the whole creation?  It was that man did the opposite from what he was meant to do: instead of GIVING he TOOK!  Instead of being God-centred, man became self-centred.  And as long as we are self-centred we are in rebellion against God.  And if the Lord had not acted promptly after Adam’s sin, this whole world would have become a ruin, a failure.  That action of God we call: GRACE.  And again we have to see clearly what “grace” means.  This word also is often misunderstood, God’s grace is NOT that He gives beautiful presents, that He is only too pleased to overlook our shortcomings in forgiving them as soon as they are committed, but grace means that God enables us by His wonderful gifts to serve Him again, to glorify Him, to offer ourselves again in loving service.  He regenerates us in such a way that He once more is in the centre of our lives.  And if there is that longing in our hearts to love Him, to give to Him, then we know that this is the work of God’s Spirit.  The Lord Jesus said that very clearly: it is more blessed to give than to receive!  To give means: to sacrifice.  It is the first response to God’s grace and the first sign of His grace working in us.

It is of course not a matter of WHAT you give, but HOW you give.  A loving gift is a gift when you also give YOURSELF!

And this is why Genesis and Hebrews 11 begin with Abel’s sacrifice.  As soon as God’s covenant-promises were given AN ALTAR WAS BUILT.  Throughout the history of salvation this has been and still is the main characteristic of God’s covenant-people: they build altars, they sacrifice!  It is the centre of our worship.  Whenever people were born anew and consequently offered themselves to God then all God’s promises came true.

All this came to a head in the great sacrifice on Calvary when the Son of God sacrificed Himself.  He gave all He had.  He took nothing.  When He made Himself an offering for sin He saw His offspring, prolonged His days; the will of the Lord prospered in His hand; He saw the fruit of the travail of His soul and was satisfied.  He did what Adam had been supposed to do but failed.  Here is the beginning of God’s new creation.  We have the glorious calling to be like Him till finally all God’s children will throw their crowns at His feet and serve Him in perfect, loving service.

It is a humiliating thought though, isn’t it?  God made Himself a people that they should sacrifice themselves!  That is why He created them and why He regenerates them by His Holy Spirit.  He did not make Himself a people to bring them to heaven and make them happy forever.  God is not there to help us, to take care of us, to see to it that we are well-off and well cared for.  The purpose of His work of salvation is that we would be a people who would worship Him, a royal PRIESTHOOD, continually bringing sacrifices of love, of thankfulness, of praise.

It is a humiliating experience when God teaches us to sacrifice.  In order to do that He may take away something or someone we love.  He may destroy our ideals and plans.  He may take from us our health, or prosperity, our most treasured possessions.  Remember Job!  And when He does something like that, what then is our reaction?  We often feel cheated.  We reckon it is not fair.  We are convinced that we did not deserve it and feel deeply hurt.  Our faith is severely shaken.  Doubts assail us: is it for nothing that man fears God?  The fact is that God may put a heavy burden on your shoulder because He wants to be glorified in your willing sacrifice.  If you accept that burden in faith, then Jesus’ word will come true: My burden is light and My yoke is easy.  On the other hand, if you are unwilling to accept that burden and start to moan and to lament, then God is not glorified, He will withhold His strength and blessing, and the burden will crush you.

He created us that we should sacrifice, and that we should do it willingly and lovingly.  When the apostles were arrested and put in prison and afterward threatened by the Jewish council it says in the book of Acts that they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name.  James said, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials.”

Now all this may seem to you to be very unnatural.  Well, IT IS!  It is definitely unnatural – it is super-natural!

It is no longer in our nature to regard giving better than receiving.  It is very natural for sinful people to be self-centred.  The centre of man’s life is cold, hard, lifeless.  Our heart is like stone.  But by a super-natural miracle all that may be changed.  A wonderful heart-transplantation may take place, an operation no doctor can perform.  We may receive a new heart to replace that heart of stone.  And then everything changes.  Dishonour for the Name becomes an honour.  The heavy load on our shoulders becomes a light burden.  Sorrow changes into peace, anxiety into assurance.

This was the kind of miracle that had happened to Abel.  We are told in our text that he sacrificed BY FAITH.  He had become a new creature and so was able to act in faith.  And that was the difference between Abel’s sacrifice and that of Cain.  By all appearances the sacrifices of the two brothers were the same.  They performed the same actions.  There is an empty form of godliness which is very hard to distinguish from the real thing.  In most cases it is even impossible to us to see any difference.  The gifts they brought were different, but that is immaterial.  The real difference was in the PERSONS.  Abel sacrificed IN FAITH and so it was also a SELF-sacrifice.  Therefore it was acceptable to God.  Cain sacrificed in unbelief, his heart had nothing to do with it – it could not have anything to do with it: it was dead!  The greatest sacrifice without our heart being in it is unacceptable to God.  Calvin’s motto: ‘My heart I offer to Thee, promptly and sincerely,’ is evidence of regeneration.  That is God’s work and He rejoices in it.  To sacrifice by faith means that you let go your pride, your selfishness, your sin, your possessions, yourself!  That was Abel’s sacrifice.  The quantity is not decisive, but the quality is.  On Abel’s altar was not only a sacrificial lamb, but also Abel’s heart.  That is what was lacking in Cain’s sacrifice. Consequently it was no sacrifice at all.  It was a heartless, meaningless gesture.

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.  This word still stands in the New Testament church, in OUR church, as a promise and a warning.  We have here a picture of Abel, standing in the blessed light of God’s love and grace.  And it is a wonderful promise.  We also see Cain, standing in the dark, under the cloud of God’s rejection, as an alarming warning.  It is a word which leads us to self-examination.  And what exactly do we have to examine?

Our contribution to the church, the College, our Christian schools, mission and things like that?

All of that is involved here, sure.  But there is more.  Much more is involved here, it goes much deeper.  It is a matter of your whole life, a matter of your heart, of regeneration, of faith.

Take the matter of your contribution to the church.  What does it mean to you?  Is it just an obligation?  Do you give it because you feel the responsibility to share the burden for making the church function?  If there is an offering for another purpose do you then contribute something toward that purpose?

If you have that attitude then you have it all wrong.  You are offering TO THE LORD!  And your offering becomes His property.  It is a sacrifice!  It is not a matter of financial necessity that in worship-services offerings have a place, but these offerings are an important part of your worship.  You come very close to Him when you bring your offering to Him.

The church is not begging for money.  If it is, then something could be very wrong with your heart. . . !

But then – much more than money only is involved in your sacrifice.  The Lord says: Give me your heart!  In Ps.116 the poet promises: I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving.  Praise and adoration are sacrifices!  Wasn’t it a wonderful sacrifice when Job who had lost everything, his children and his possessions, could say: Blessed be the name of the Lord?”  To praise God in circumstances like that is a real sacrifice.

Psalm 51 says: “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.”  Whenever you offer your heart, your confession of sin, your praise and adoration you are very close to God.  You look into the eyes of Him who spared not His own Son.  You bring your sacrifices to that Son who gave everything He had, His blood.  His life for the church He loved.  It is evidence of your faith.  It is the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart.  He whom much is forgiven will love much.  And he will SHOW that love!

Faith in God’s grace begins in Genesis with a sacrifice.  In Hebr.11 it is still the same: sacrifice is the first action of faith.  In between Genesis and Hebrews stands the Cross of Calvary.  God’s sacrifice.  And because of that cross, our sacrifice becomes a blessed experience.  When we sacrifice, we also receive a gift!  Abel received approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts, it says in our text.

And HOW did Abel receive that approval?  What happened to him?  How did God give witness to him?  Did he receive a special revelation about that?  No, there is nothing said about that.

Do you really wonder how Abel received that witness, that approval?  That would be a sad reflection on your sacrificial service.  You see, God is still the same, yesterday, today and forever.  His covenant is an ETERNAL covenant, so it is still there.  It has become richer and clearer, but the promises are still here, and the fulfilment of them.  God still gives that approval, that witness!  If you sacrifice, then you receive these wonderful gifts: the joy which results from our service, the peace in our hearts that we are reconciled, the praise and adoration that grows in your heart, and that HAS to be expressed.  All these things, and many more.

Remember Paul and Silas when they were in jail.  That was a sacrifice.  And in the night, unable to sleep with their backs hurting from the many blows they had received, with their feet in the stocks, they sang hymns to God at midnight, praising God.  That was God’s work, it was His approval, His witness, and all the prisoners were listening to them.  For this purpose God created man.

By faith Abel sacrificed… shortly afterward he had to sacrifice his blood as the first martyr.  It was sacrificial blood which flowed.  And it still speaks.  And what does it speak?  Does it speak of revenge, of man’s cruelty, of undeserved punishment?  Oh, no, it speaks of sacrificial service; it proclaims God’s grace, God’s approval.  And when we listen we can still hear that voice from the dawn of history.

But then we also hear another voice.  Other blood is speaking too.  Innocent blood… which was shed freely on Calvary.  It speaks of even better things than Abel’s blood.  It speaks of eternal salvation, of perfect obedience, of eternal love.

God did not want a silent people.  He created us that we should praise Him.  As He spoke through Isaiah: My chosen people whom I formed for Myself that they might declare my praise!

In Psalm 50 God says: your offerings are continually before Me.  He delights in them.  He loves the sacrifices of His people.  He created you for that!

Amen.