Study in the Epistle of Jude # 47: Verse 11

by Chris McCann

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

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are going through the book of Jude, and we are currently in verse 11. We have been looking at the “way of Cain” as God describes it in the Epistle of Jude, and we have seen that his way has to do with works. Cain was trying to get right with God by his own effort—that is the way of Cain. Whenever someone is endeavoring to become justified in God’s sight by some kind of their own merit, by something that they have done, then they are going, spiritually speaking, in the way or the gospel of Cain. This was how Cain came to God as he brought the fruit of the ground as an offering unto Him.

The Lord did not have respect unto Cain and his offering, but He did have respect unto Abel and his offering. The offering that justified Abel was not his offering of the firstlings of his flock. The offering that justified him was not the act that he performed in slaying an animal and offering it up to God as a sacrifice. That did not justify Abel in God’s sight at all; that was not the reason that God had respect unto his offering. Rather, it was because Abel was trusting in the coming Messiah.

Abel believed God’s promise that the Messiah would come. In actuality, God had respect to Abel’s offering because Christ had saved Abel; he was included among the elect of God. Jesus had taken Abel’s sins upon Himself and had paid the penalty for those sins. Christ had performed the works necessary to back up Abel’s profession of faith. Therefore, the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.

We are now going to look a little more closely at what we find in Genesis 4:3-4. We read in the King James Version of the Bible:

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…

What we are learning here is that both Cain and Abel came at the same time. There is no indication that Cain came first and then Abel came some time later; these offerings are being presented to the Lord simultaneously, at the same time. Cain is bringing his particular offering and Abel is bringing his.

However, God shows a difference between Cain and Abel; He separates them. All the time that Cain and Abel were children of Adam and Eve, there was no way that you could tell them apart. There was no real indication that Cain was not a true child of God. They both were working diligently to present their offering to the Lord, and during this process, you would not be able to tell them apart. Two sons of the same parents, they were very much alike. They both realized that because of their sin, an offering was required by God, and they both were about the business of preparing this offering to bring before the Lord. Up until the time that the offering was actually presented, you could not distinguish between Cain and Abel as far as which one was a true child of God and which one was not. It was not until after the two brothers brought their offering before the Lord that God makes known and reveals that He has respect unto one but not unto the other.

A very sharp difference has been made between the brothers, between Cain and Abel, and Cain’s countenance falls. God is letting us know by this language that Cain was never truly a child of God. However, it is made known that Abel was a dear child of God since his offering was received and since we read elsewhere that his works were righteous because he was trusting in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross (Hebrews 11:4). Able was made known to be someone whom Christ had saved and whose sins were taken upon Christ.

These things were not so clearly evident prior to this offering, but once the offering was made, everything becomes apparent. God is making known the hearts of these men. He is, through Cain’s offering unto Him and through His refusal of it, making known that there is a problem that lies within Cain’s heart. By the acceptance of Abel’s offering, God is showing that Abel is one of His elect. Yet, these things were not previously known, at least not to the degree that they are known following the offering.

What is so interesting about this? The reason that this is particularly interesting is because of what we read in verse 3. In the English, we do not see it, but if we look at the Hebrew, it is very clear. It stands right out as we look at the original language that the book of Genesis in the Old Testament was written in. It says in verse 3, if we were to read this in a more proper translation of the Hebrew:

And in the end of days it came to pass…

“In the end of days it came to pass” that Cain brought his offering and Abel brought his offering. These offerings were presented, as God says, “in the end of days.” Historically, this could certainly be a reference to the growing season, to harvest time—they are bringing their offerings at the time of harvest. This would be in view most definitely with Cain as he brought of the fruit of the ground. Yet Abel is bringing his offering at the same time, “in the end of days.”

Historically, there was a reason why God wrote this. It could have been the end of the harvest, it could have been the end of the year—we do not know exactly. However, spiritually, we know that God does have a program of salvation and He lets us know that following the New Testament era when God would evangelize the world through the churches and congregations of the world, there will come an end-time season called the “latter rain” (Joel 2:23). There will come a period right next to the end of the world, right up against it, known as the Great Tribulation.

The character of the Great Tribulation, if we go right to its basics, is one of a time when brother rises up against brother. It is a time when the brother in the church, the unsaved brother, rises up and slays his saved brother as he drives him out of the churches and congregations. Therefore, it is very interesting for us to read about Cain rising up and slaying Abel his brother “in the end of days.”

Why does he slay Abel his brother? Because God has made it abundantly clear to Cain that his offering was not acceptable. What Cain ought to have done, if God was working in him and drawing him in the right direction, was to say, “Oh, I have sinned. I have sinned even more in trying to get right with God by my own works. I have erred greatly in doing so. Oh God, have mercy on me, have mercy.” He ought to cry out for mercy, and certainly if he had responded this way, God might have had mercy upon him.

However, Cain does not react that way. He is furious and he is angry. He is angry with God, but he is also angry with his brother because his brother’s offering has been accepted. This is confusing to Cain because he does not understand spiritual things. He does not understand the fact that God saves not on the basis of works. Cain does not understand that God makes His choice before anyone has done good or evil in their lives (Romans 9:11-13). Cain does not understand that God has selected some to eternal life before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).

Cain does not understand these things. He rails against them and this brings about his fury and his anger. His countenance falls; he seeks to comfort himself by slaying his brother Abel, and so he does. He kills a child of God. Cain, the unsaved man who professes to be a child of God, kills his brother, the saved man, “in the end of days.”

We can see how this relates to the time of the Great Tribulation and to our present day. Today, God is also calling forth all who are in the churches to show their offering the way Cain and Abel presented themselves before the Lord. God likewise is examining each person who professes to be a Christian. He is examining the character and the nature of their offering. He is examining them to see what they are trusting in. Are they trusting in their own works? Are they trusting in their church? Are they trusting in anything besides the Lord Jesus Christ, or are they like Abel, trusting in the work that Christ has done? God is making this distinction. He is making it very clear to everyone who is living in the time of the Great Tribulation.

God has developed an end time-test that will reveal the character of one’s works, and this test has to do with the end of the Church Age. It has to do with the Scriptures that were sealed up until the time of the end, until the end of days (Daniel 12:4). At that time, God is going to test every single person. He will find out what is in the heart of those who are so quick to praise His name and so quick to say that they are a child of God.

God will and is performing this test, and He is seeing that there are great multitudes who have gone in the way of Cain. There are countless millions who populate the churches during this time of Great Tribulation who have gone in the way of Cain. They have sought to become right with God based upon their own works. They are not trusting God, but they are trusting their church. They are not leaning upon the Word of God—that is not their authority—but their authorities are the confessions and creeds of men and what the church teaches.

This is being shown to be their authority, and those who are hearing that the Church Age is over are responding in anger. They are responding in fury, much like Cain did. “How dare these ones who claim to be true children of God say that the Church Age is over,” they protest. “How dare they suggest that we are not saved because we remain in the church.” This brings about their fury because it means their work has been rejected by God, that God has not accepted their offering. They are rising up, even as this has been happening for several years now, and casting their brother out of the church. They are slaying their brother with cries of heresy and cries of reviling.

I have made reference a few times to the fact that, spiritually, to kill someone is to drive them away from the church. I say this because in John 16:1-2, it says:

These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

In this verse, God equates being put out of the synagogue, the Old Testament church, with being killed. Therefore, if the New Testament churches drive out true believers, they are spiritually, in a way, killing them.

Going back to Genesis 4, we read in verses 8-10:

…Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.

The voice of Abel’s blood crieth unto God—that is very important language because it is also what we read in Revelation 6. In Revelation 6:9, we read about “the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” This is a reference to all those who were saved during the New Testament Church Age. These are, in other places, identified as the first fruits unto God. They were slain because they were the two witnesses during the Church Age (Revelation 11:3,7). As Satan came up out of the bottomless pit, he overcame the two witnesses and killed them, just as Cain rose up and killed Abel.

Here they are, slain, and then in Revelation 6:10, we read:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

They are crying unto the Lord. Their blood, just like Abel’s blood, is crying unto the Lord from the ground for vengeance. They are crying out to God that He will have vengeance upon those who have slain them, just like Abel’s blood was crying unto the Lord for vengeance upon Cain. Cain had risen up and slain his brother, and the blood of Abel was crying unto God that this terrible wicked deed of Cain might be avenged.

Let us also look at Psalm 79:1-3. We read:

O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.

Then verse 5 says:

How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever?…

This is just as the souls of the saints in Revelation 6 are crying unto God, “How long for vengeance?” Then if we go to Psalm 79:10, we read:

Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed.

Psalm 79 is picturing the destruction of Jerusalem. It is picturing the time of Great Tribulation. The saints are overcome and there is none to bury them, exactly as we read of the two witnesses. The two witnesses were slain during the Great Tribulation and lay dead in the street for three and a half days, and none would suffer them to be put in graves (Revelation 11:8-9). That is the spiritual picture when Cain rises up in the end of days and slays Abel his brother. The cry goes up from the saints of God for vengeance to be taken upon Cain; the blood of Abel is crying out to God for vengeance.

This is the time of vengeance. The time of the Great Tribulation is, at least, when the vengeance begins. It will have its culmination, its ending point, its completion, on the Last Day as God says, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay” (Romans 12:19). He will recompense on that day. The vengeance will be the casting away of all those who have gone in the way of Cain into the pit of Hell for eternal damnation. Yet this vengeance begins in the time of Great Tribulation. That is why Luke 21, which is a parallel chapter to Matthew 24 where we also read about the Great Tribulation, says in verse 22:

For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

God is taking vengeance during the second half of the Great Tribulation upon those who have gone in the way of Cain. The light is shining upon the darkness that has overcome the churches and God is revealing that Satan is the one who is seated as the man of sin (2 Thessalonians 2:3). The light of the Gospel is shining on his deceitful efforts in the church as he sought to be worshipped as God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). He desired that he could be hidden there so that none would know, yet God has revealed him. The mystery of the man of sin has been revealed. He is there in the church, where God’s Spirit has removed and gone out (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

This is the vengeance of Cain. This is the terrible judgment that God pronounced upon Cain back in Genesis 4. Let us notice verses 11-12 of Genesis 4, which say:

And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

Cain brought of the fruit of the ground. He was operating in the vineyard of the Lord of hosts. The picture is one in which he is in the church dealing with fruit. He is trying to bring forth fruit unto God and he is working hard to show his fruitfulness, but his offering was rejected, and he then slew Abel his brother.

This is picturing the time of the Great Tribulation. God’s judgment was that Cain be cursed. The church is cursed, and it is cursed with a severe curse. All blessing has been removed and nothing remains but the curse of God as the churches and congregations are being plagued in terrible ways. There is no possibility of salvation any longer within the boundaries of the churches of the world. Therefore, there will be no fruit. There will be no fruit that will be found any longer in the church.

This was the curse pronounced upon Cain. “When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.” You can work all you want, Cain. You can till the ground. You were a man of the field, a tiller of the ground. This was your field of expertise; this was where you excelled. You knew how to plant and bring forth fruit, but now, the ground will no longer yield her fruit.

God is indicating that the church can sow its seed all it wants as it preaches its gospel and sends forth its missionaries and brings the Word of God in any form, but as long as it is the church that is bringing the Word, there will be no fruit or blessing of God. There is a curse due to the blood of Abel, due to the blood of the saints of God whom those who have gone in the way of Cain have slain.

This is the terrible situation of our present day. Every church and every congregation—regardless of whether it is in America or Africa or India or China—is tilling the ground, yet it is bringing forth no fruit. They are as a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth.

In our next study, Lord willing, we will continue to look at Genesis 4.