The First Martyr's Megaphone Text: Hebrews 11:4
Introduction: The Grammar of Worship
The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is God's great hall of faith. It is a muster roll of the saints, a recounting of those who lived and died by a faith that was not content with the seen and the perishable. And it is fitting, it is right, that this great parade begins just outside the gates of a ruined Eden, with the smoke of two altars ascending to Heaven. It begins with two brothers, two ways of worship, and the first martyr's blood crying out from the ground.
We live in an age that despises definitions and detests distinctions. Our culture wants worship to be a matter of personal taste, sincere intention, and authentic self expression. The prevailing sentiment is that as long as you are sincere, God will be pleased. Cain would have been very much at home in a modern evangelical worship service. He was sincere. He was authentic. He was expressive. And God rejected his worship utterly.
This verse, Hebrews 11:4, is a foundational lesson in the grammar of true worship. It teaches us that faith is not a vague, internal feeling. Faith is objective. It has content. It responds to God's revealed Word. It is not about what we think is best, but about what God has commanded. The difference between Abel and Cain was not the sincerity of their hearts, but the substance of their faith. One came to God on God's terms, and the other tried to come on his own. This is the primordial division between true religion and all false religion. It is the difference between the city of God and the city of man. And it is a division that is sealed in blood.
This verse is not just a history lesson. It is a living word. Abel, though murdered thousands of years ago, is still speaking. His testimony echoes down through the corridors of history, and it poses a question to every generation, and to every one of us here today: By what standard do you approach the holy God? By your own, or by His?
The Text
By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he was approved as being righteous, God approving his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.
(Hebrews 11:4 LSB)
The Obedience of Faith (v. 4a)
The verse begins with the engine that drives every action pleasing to God:
"By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain..." (Hebrews 11:4a)
The first thing we must nail down is the nature of this faith. In our sentimental age, faith is often treated as a leap in the dark, a sheer act of will against the evidence. But biblical faith is not like that at all. Faith is trust, but it is a trust that rests upon a prior revelation. As the apostle Paul tells us, "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). Abel's faith was not a wild guess. He had heard the word of God. He knew what God required.
Where did he hear this? We go back to Genesis. After Adam and Eve sinned, God Himself made the first sacrifice. He killed animals to make garments of skin to cover their nakedness (Gen. 3:21). In that act, God taught our first parents the fundamental lesson of redemption: without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Life must be given for life. This was the gospel in its seed form. This was the word that God spoke, and which Abel heard and believed, and which Cain heard and rejected.
So when the two brothers came to worship, Abel brought "of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions" (Gen. 4:4). He brought the best of what he had, and he brought a blood sacrifice, in obedient faith to what God had revealed. Cain, on the other hand, brought "an offering of the fruit of the ground" (Gen. 4:3). The issue was not that a grain offering was inherently wicked; the Mosaic law would later include such offerings. The issue was that Cain's offering was an act of disobedience. He was attempting to approach God on the basis of his own works, the fruit of his own labor on the cursed ground. Cain's worship was man centered. He was saying, in effect, "Here is what I have produced. Accept me on the basis of my achievement." Abel's worship was God centered. He was saying, "I am a sinner and deserve to die. I come on the basis of a substitute, as You have commanded."
Abel's sacrifice was "better" not because of the quality of the lamb, but because it was offered in faith. And faith here is not just mental assent. It is active, obedient trust. It is a faith that does what God says. This is why we must distinguish between the dead faith of demons, who believe and tremble, and the living faith of the saints, which believes and obeys. Cain believed in God, certainly. But he did not believe God. Abel's faith was a living, working, obedient faith. It was not faith plus works; it was a faith that works.
The Divine Verdict (v. 4b)
The result of this faith-fueled worship was a divine declaration of Abel's legal standing before God.
"...through which he was approved as being righteous, God approving his gifts..." (Hebrews 11:4b LSB)
This is the doctrine of justification by faith in its earliest exhibition. Abel was "approved as being righteous." The Greek word here is the verb form of righteousness, dikaios. He was declared righteous. This was not a statement about his internal moral character, as though he had achieved sinless perfection. He was a son of Adam, a sinner like the rest of us. Rather, this was a legal verdict. God looked at Abel, trusting in the promised substitutionary sacrifice, and declared him to be in right standing. God credited righteousness to his account.
How did God show this? The text says, "God approving his gifts." The Old Testament account says, "the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering" (Gen. 4:4). Many commentators, going back centuries, have inferred that this approval was likely demonstrated in a visible way, perhaps by fire from heaven consuming the sacrifice, as it later did with Elijah on Mount Carmel. Whatever the means, the approval was objective and external. God testified that Abel was righteous.
This is crucial. Righteousness is not something we achieve; it is something we receive. It is a gift, apprehended by faith alone. Cain was trying to establish his own righteousness through his works. Abel received a righteousness from God through faith. Cain's approach leads to pride, envy, and murder. Abel's approach leads to true worship and fellowship with God. This is the great divide. Are you trying to build a resume to present to God, or are you pleading the blood of the Lamb? God does not grade on a curve. He only accepts the perfect righteousness of another, which is credited to us by faith. Abel's sacrifice looked forward to the cross, and it was on the basis of that future, perfect sacrifice that God declared him righteous.
The Enduring Testimony (v. 4c)
The final clause of the verse reveals the lasting impact of Abel's faith. Cain may have silenced his brother's voice, but he could not silence his testimony.
"...and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks." (Hebrews 11:4c LSB)
Cain's self righteous worship led directly to hatred and murder. When his offering was rejected, he became angry, and his face fell. He would not repent. Instead, he rose up and killed his righteous brother. This is the first act of religious persecution. The city of man has always hated the city of God, and the seed of the serpent has always been at war with the seed of the woman. Cain is the father of all who persecute the church, those who hate the righteous because their own deeds are evil (1 John 3:12).
But death does not have the last word. Abel, though dead, still speaks. How does he speak? First, his blood cried out from the ground, demanding justice (Gen. 4:10). It spoke of sin, judgment, and the curse. But the author of Hebrews tells us that we have come to something far greater: "to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel" (Hebrews 12:24). Abel's blood cried out for vengeance; Christ's blood cries out for pardon. Abel's blood testified to the guilt of man; Christ's blood testifies to the grace of God.
Second, Abel speaks through his example. His testimony is recorded here in God's permanent, inerrant Word. He is the first in a long line of witnesses. He speaks to us about the nature of true faith, the necessity of the blood, the reality of justification, and the cost of discipleship. He stands at the head of the chapter as a permanent rebuke to all who would invent their own religion, who would try to climb up to heaven some other way. He tells us that the way to God is narrow, and it is marked by the blood of a substitute.
Conclusion: Whose Altar?
The story of Cain and Abel is the story of humanity in miniature. Every person on earth is building one of two altars. There is the altar of Cain, built with the bricks of human achievement, self righteousness, and religious performance. It is a monument to the self. The smoke from this altar is the smoke of strange fire, and God will not accept it.
Then there is the altar of Abel. It is an altar built not on what we do for God, but on what God has done for us. It is an altar that acknowledges our sin and our desperate need for a substitute. It is an altar of faith, looking away from ourselves to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Abel's faith was counted to him as righteousness because he was looking forward to the reality that we now look back upon. He saw the promise from afar. We have seen its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the better sacrifice. He is the perfect High Priest. His blood speaks a better word.
The voice of Abel still speaks today, and it asks a simple question. At which altar are you kneeling? Are you, like Cain, bringing the works of your own hands, hoping they will be good enough? Or are you, like Abel, abandoning all trust in yourself and clinging only to the bloody sacrifice that God Himself has provided? That is the choice that stands before every one of us. And it is a choice with eternal consequences.