Study in the Epistle of Jude # 46: Verse 11

by Chris McCann

EBible Fellowship (http://www.ebiblefellowship.com)

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are currently going through the book of Jude and we have been looking at verse 10. We have seen that the ungodly within the churches do not understand how God wrote the Bible and that the Bible is a spiritual book. They may understand this intellectually; but in practice, they do not comprehend this fact because they fail to search for the deeper spiritual meanings that God has hidden within His Word in parables and historical parables.

In continuing with this line of thought, God in verse 11 is addressing those who are in the church. We are not talking about someone who is of another religion—a Muslim or a Hindi or a Buddhist. God is addressing those who profess to be Christians. He says in verse 11:

Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Here God identifies three Old Testament figures. Each one is a very interesting character, and God has much to say about each of these men. In the Old Testament, as we see them appear on the pages of the Bible in their place in history, each one of these men was identified with the Gospel.

Cain was Abel’s brother. They were both the sons of Adam and Eve, and they were the first children born upon earth after the fall of man into sin. Abel is a representative of those who are saved, and those who are unsaved are typified by Cain. These two groups dwell together in the churches and congregations.

Balaam, as we read his historical account in the book of Numbers, is a person whose language might cause us to believe that he is a child of God. He sounds very faithful as he says, “Whatsoever the Lord says, I can do—no more and no less. I can only do what the Lord tells me to do” (Numbers 22:18). How faithful he sounds as he makes statements like that, yet as we consider everything that the Bible has to say about Balaam, we know that Balaam is likewise a false prophet who brought about great trouble for the Israelites.

Then finally we have Korah as God says, “They perished in the gainsaying of Core.” Korah was one of the chief men of Israel who rose up in rebellion against Moses and Aaron and against their spiritual rule over the congregation. He said, “Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy” (Numbers 16:3), indicating that Moses and Aaron had taken too much upon themselves. God made His judgment, His choice, as to whom He would consider holy and whom He desired to speak with, and it was not Korah. He perished with two hundred and fifty others in a very terrible way.

Therefore, we see that each one of these three men is a figure in the history of God’s people. Each one is a false prophet, someone standing for and representing another gospel. We are going to try to go back into the Old Testament to look as carefully as we can at each one of these men. We will try to learn what God would have us learn. As God mentions people like this, we are not to read it casually and move on. We have to find out why God brought these people up and what He wants us to learn about them.

Let us first go to the Old Testament book of Genesis where we read about Cain and Able. In Genesis 4:1-8, we read:

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. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

This is the first recorded murder as Cain kills his own brother Abel. What a horrible thing this was! If ever there was an evidence that man had fallen from his glorious position, his glorious standing as he was created in the image of God, it was in this slaying of Abel. What a clear evidence that man had greatly fallen from grace and from the glory of God! Yet God tells us that there are some who go in the way of Cain. “Woe unto them,” He says, “who go in the way of Cain.” God is speaking to those who are in the churches—they have gone in the way of Cain.

When God speaks of “the way” in the Bible, it has to do with the Gospel that someone is following. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Christ is the true way that leads to eternal life; there is no other way to get to the Father except through Christ. His is the only name given among men whereby an individual can become saved (Acts 4:12).

However, there are other ways that men develop; there are other kinds of gospels. Cain had his way, and that is why God speaks of those who go in the way of Cain. Let us take a closer look at Genesis 4 to see if we can find out what way it was that Cain was going in and how it relates to another gospel.

We see that both Cain and Abel were bringing an offering unto the Lord. Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground. We see that early on, right after the fall of man, man knew that they had to bring an offering to God because of their sin. (In all probability, God had given them some direction in this.) They knew that their sinfulness and their rebellion against God required an atonement. An offering must be presented to the Lord and it must be accepted by Him.

Both Cain and Abel brought offerings to the Lord. We read that God had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but to Cain and his offering He did not have respect. This was what brought about Cain’s anger and wrath, so that he became jealous of his brother Abel to the point of murder.

Why was it that Cain’s offering was not accepted, but Abel’s was? As far as the character of the offerings themselves, once God gave the law to Moses and it was written down, both of these offerings would have been acceptable. There is nothing wrong with bringing an offering of the fruit of the ground, for there are laws that allow for these types of offerings to the Lord, and certainly there was nothing wrong with the offering of firstling of the flock. Both offerings were permissible by God. They were allowable; there was nothing wrong with the offerings themselves.

Why then did God not have respect to Cain’s offering but did have respect to Abel’s? Let us turn to Hebrews 11, where God speaks about Abel and his offering. We read in Hebrews 11:4:

By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

Hebrews 11 is known as the “faith chapter.” Again and again we read about the people of God and the mighty things that they were able to do through faith. Abel, through faith, offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. This is why his sacrifice was acceptable; this is why God had respect unto Abel’s sacrifice.

“By faith”—that language indicates that it is by Christ. We can always substitute the name of Jesus for the word “faith” in Hebrews 11 because Christ is always in view in the Bible when we are discussing saving faith. What God is indicating here is that Abel brought his offering, the “firstlings of his flock,” but he was not trusting in that offering itself. Abel did not think that the work of bringing that lamb, that sacrificial animal, and taking the action of slaying the firstling of his flock and offering it up to God would justify him in God’s sight. He knew that there must be an acceptable sacrifice, a more excellent sacrifice that God would be pleased with.

The only acceptable sacrifice is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Therefore, Abel by faith, by Christ, was looking to the day when the Lord Jesus Christ would come. He was looking to the day when the Messiah would take upon Himself the sins of His people and pay the penalty for those sins. Abel was beholding the Lamb of God with the eyes of faith, who was the Lord Jesus Christ. His offering unto God was pointing to Christ’s death on the Cross. It was only a sign, only an action that Abel was taking by which he was indicating that he had faith in the coming Messiah. His faith was not in himself, not in anything that he did or ever could do, but in what Jesus would accomplish on the Cross.

On the other hand, Cain brought his offering, and he thought that the act of bringing the first fruit of the ground and presenting it unto God would justify him. He thought, since God had obviously directed man in some way to bring this offering unto Him, that the very act itself of bringing the offering to God would be justification enough. He thought that his own works could justify him in the sight of God.

That is what we have been seeing with false prophets, with those who profess the name of Christ yet who have never been born again. They always think that there is something that they can do, and they thereby pervert the Gospel of grace. They change it into lasciviousness, and lasciviousness is a work of the flesh; they change it into a gospel of works. This is the way of Cain. The way of Cain is to think that you can somehow get right with God and become a child of God, become saved, by taking some action.

People do not do that today, though, do they? They do not bring offerings to God. It is true that we do not bring offerings to God, but people do works that they think make them right in God’s sight, such as accepting Christ or walking the aisle or saying the sinner’s prayer. They think, “If I take this action and say these words and offer up a prayer to God, then I am forgiven.” Even in our very language as we speak about offering up a prayer, we see that it is an offering to God. “Let me offer up to God a prayer,” they say, “where I admit my sinfulness and I say that I am guilty and then ask God to forgive me. Then I am forgiven; I am right with God.”

Unfortunately, that is going in the way of Cain. That is thinking that some action on my part—however small or seemingly insignificant—can justify me, can save me, and can cause me to stand in the presence of Christ. However, God does not have respect unto those types of offerings. He did not have respect unto Cain’s offering and neither will He have respect unto the multitudes in the churches of our day who have taken salvation to themselves through this free-will gospel, who think that they can save themselves by mouthing a few words and saying a sinner’s prayer. God likewise will reject all individuals who try to get right with Him and who try to become justified on their own terms by doing the works of the law.

We read that Cain’s countenance fell, and then he became very angry with Abel. While we are looking at Cain, we might as well look at this first murder. We might as well look at the situation in which Cain rises up and slays Abel his brother. Why did Cain slay Abel? He was jealous, it is true. In 1 John 3, God very pointedly tells us exactly why Cain slew his brother. We read in verses 11-12:

For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

We see the answer, do we not? God is definitely saying that Cain sought to become right in God’s sight through his own works, but his own works were evil. That is true of any man. A man can think that he is doing good works—he can give his money to the poor, he can carry the Gospel message, he can prophesy and declare the Word of God, and he can faithfully gather together with the people of God. He can do all these things, but if he in any way thinks that these things will justify him in the sight of God then this same statement holds true for him: his own works are evil.

Everything that we do is tainted by sin. “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,” as Isaiah 64:6 says. Nothing that we do with our hands can ever cause us to enter into the presence of God. Therefore, we will end up under the condemnation of God, under the judgment of God. We will end up exactly as Cain.

Someone might say, “Alright, I understand that. I understand that our works cannot justify us in the sight of God, but why then does it say that Abel’s works were righteous?” Let us read the second half of 1 John 3:12 again. It says

…Because his [Cain’s] own works were evil, and his brother’s [Abel’s] righteous.

Is this not saying that it was Abel’s offering, the firstling of the flock, the manner in which he presented it before the Lord that was considered righteous in God’s sight? Is this what justified Abel? No, that is not it at all. The question we have to ask is, “What were Abel’s works?” They were not his own works, but they were the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was Christ’s work on the Cross that justified Abel. This work of Christ was counted, credited, towards Abel’s salvation; therefore, it became his work as God was looking at what Jesus did on the Cross. He then justifies the people of God, Able being one of them. It is the same thing that we read in Romans 4 regarding Abraham. In Romans 4:1-2, we read:

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God

God is letting us know right at the start that Abraham was not justified by his own works. Then look at verse 3, which says:

For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

Someone could get confused and say, “Well, believing on God is not a work; Abraham’s belief was counted for righteousness.” However, that is incorrect. The definition of a work is simply when God gives a commandment and someone tries to carry it through or obey it—that is a work. When God commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac and he went to do so, that was a work. When God commands someone to repent of their sins and they repent, that is a work (if they are able to do so). As God commands someone to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the law of God and a response of belief would be a work (1 John 3:23). Therefore, if it was Abraham’s belief that was counted to Abraham for righteousness then he would have been justified by the works of the law. That is impossible, though, because in the previous verse, God indicates that Abraham was not justified by the works of the law, else he would have been able to glory, but not before God.

Therefore, what we must understand from verse 3 (where it says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness”) is that the “it” is referring to the faith and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 6:29). It was His redeeming work in paying the penalty for the sins of His people and it was His atonement as He shed His blood and gave His life for those whom He came to save that was counted unto him (Abraham) for righteousness. There is no other way for us to understand this. There is no other way that these things can harmonize with the Bible, except when we realize that Christ’s work was counted for Abraham’s righteousness.

Christ’s work was also counted for Abel’s righteousness—that is what justified both of these men as well as each one of the saints of God, each one of His elect. This is also what Cain lacked. He lacked the justifying work of the Lord Jesus Christ in paying for his sins. Cain had to come before God on his own merit and try to become just in God’s sight by his own works. Therefore, Cain was clearly rejected by God because his own works were evil.

However, his brother’s works were righteous since Abel was someone who was predestinated to salvation from before the foundation of the world, someone whom the Lord Jesus Christ had saved. That is the difference between Cain and Abel, and it is the difference between those who profess to be Christians and truly are and those who profess to be Christians but are not. Some are the people of God—they have the blood of Christ applied to their sins and their sins are covered over by God. While the rest of the professing Christians—those in the church (which is a vast multitude)—do not have that work of Christ; they are still in their sins and they are still under the wrath of God.

In our next study, Lord willing, we are going to look a little more closely at Genesis 4. We will begin with verse 3, where we read that in the process of time it came to pass that these offerings were made. After that, Cain rises up against Abel. That is a very interesting statement of God when we look at the original Hebrew that underlies this English translation. Once we do so, this whole passage falls into place.