Cain and Abel had the same parents, Adam and Eve. They were raised in
the same home. They had the same influences. They were called to the same God to offer sacrifice.
They both brought sacrifices to God. Cain is never presented as an atheist. He is presented as a
religious man. He is actually a worshiper and a worshiper of God, the only God they knew about was
the Creator God, and they knew the God who was Creator. Their parents, after all, had walked and
talked with Him in the cool of the day and their parents had certainly told them all they knew about
God. They weren't very far removed from personal testimony. They knew the true God who was
Creator. They knew the God who had acted in judgment against their parents because of their sin.
They knew the God who had cursed the earth and had put the curse upon the serpent. They knew
the God who had pronounced not only the curse but blessing on Adam and blessing on Eve. They
knew the God who had promised that there would be a seed of the woman who would eventually
bruise the serpent's head. They knew the one true God, they both did.
Cain was not an atheist, he was a religious person. And he came as a worshiper of God. And you
want to understand this, folks, some of the most murderous people who exist, some of the greatest
haters of those who were truly God's are those who are religious. In fact, you can make a case that
they're the worst. It wasn't atheists who murdered Jesus. It wasn't atheists who screamed for His
blood and demanded that the Romans crucify Him. It was religionists who were in their own twisted
way worshiping the God of Israel, the God who was the very God and Father of the one they sought
to kill. Outward ritual, outward religiosity is no proof that a person is born of God. Cain was a very
religious man. He didn't bring the right sacrifice because he had a self-styled religion. There's no
question in my mind that he had been commanded to bring an animal sacrifice as his brother did,
and that's why God accepted Abel's sacrifice and didn't accept Cain's because Cain didn't bring what
God asked. Rather than bring a sacrifice which God asked, he brought the fruit of the land which he
himself had toiled to produce and so for him he was going to make his relationship with God based
upon what he accomplished, and that never gets you to God. But he was a religious man.
But he failed the test of love. It's clear that even though he was not an atheist, even though he was
worshiping the true God, he was worshiping Him in a wrong way and he was worshiping him from a
wicked heart. And so, you know the story, the real test of Cain's true religion wasn't even his
sacrifice, that was one test, that wasn't the full test. We could say, "Well, he was trying to get there
by works and that's bad." It was worse than that, he despised the man who was obedient to God.
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