Let us remember that God has a way, and man has a way. We need to be absolutely sure that we are going God’s way. To understand this, we need to look at the way of Cain, the error of Balaam, and the gainsaying of Core.
The Way of Cain
Notice the way of Cain in Genesis chapter 4. We know the story of creation. We know that God created man and woman and placed them in the Garden of Eden. From the dust of the earth, God made Adam. God then caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam, took out a rib, and made a woman.
It appears that they were not in the garden long before they sinned. After they sinned against God, they hid themselves. They were clothed with the glory of God before their sin. There was a garment of glory about them. When they sinned, the innocence was gone, and sin entered into the bloodstream of all humanity through our first parents.
The Bible says in Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” They looked at themselves and saw that they were naked. They hid themselves and made garments of fig leaves to hide their nakedness. God came to them in the cool of the day, walking in the garden crying out, “Adam, where art thou?”
God made for them coats of skin. The Bible says in Genesis 3:21, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” An innocent animal was slain for the guilty Adam and Eve. The blood was shed, making the way to God, the blood way. The natural brute beast does not understand this. It is offensive to the natural mind. But the only way to God is through the Lord Jesus Christ and His shed blood on the cross.
God blessed Adam and Eve with sons. the Bible says in Genesis 4:1-5, “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.”
When these men came before the Lord, God had already revealed that the way to God was the blood way. Abel was willing to acknowledge that there was sin and the there needed to be a sacrifice for atonement. Abel was willing to submit himself to God and confess the need he had in his life. What God had revealed was that man was a sinner. He needed a Saviour, a substitute, the innocent to die for the guilty.
Cain gathered the best of his crop, and it seemed to him like a good thing. The Bible says in Genesis 4:3, “And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.” To the natural man, it seemed like a very good thing. This is religion without Christ. A bloodless, Christ-less religion still leaves man a lost sinner.
The way of Cain is a refusal to submit to the way of God. The way of Cain is a proud way that says, “It is my way, not God’s way.” It is heartbreaking that so many people in churches are not hearing the simple truth of salvation. The only way to God is through what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross of Calvary with His death, burial, and resurrection for the dead.
The Bible says that these religious brute beasts have gone the way of Cain. May God help us to get the gospel to people. It is not enough to sit in a church, and say “amen” to the preaching of the truth, if we do not tell people how to be saved. We should preach it in the church, but people also need to hear it where they are. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” — Acts 4:12