They killed him. They destroyed his bones. They got rid of his young tender flesh, his skin. Nothing was ever found of him. The ground opened up its mouth and received his blood. They killed him and God didn’t stop it. They hid his body and God didn’t stop it. The ground opened up its mouth to receive the blood of the person who had God’s favor and God didn’t stop it. And when God came down there, he asked Cain a question. Be careful when God asks you a question. Don’t be too quick to put your hands on your hips, let your backbone slip, and tell God what’s going on ’cause God already knows what’s going on. He is omnipotent, he is omnipresent, and he is omniscient. He is all-knowing. He knows the end from the beginning. So when God walks up on you and says, “What’s up”? – start praying.
Where is your brother? Where is your brother is companion to what he asked his father: where art thou? And the curse continues, and the questions are almost the same. Where is thy brother? “Mm-mm. Mm-mm, I plead the fifth. I will not answer up under the grounds that it may incriminate me. Let me see if that works”. And then God says: Listen!
Somebody shout, “Listen”. God says to Cain, “Listen. Listen, listen. Don’t you hear that? I hear the sound of thy brother’s blood crying up to me out of the ground. Even the ground can’t stop me from hearing it. I hear the sound of thy brother’s blood. I hear a sound of injustice”. It is nice to know that God hears the sound of injustice ’cause sometimes our courtrooms do not hear the sound of injustice. But God said, “I’ve got a ear that can hear the sound of injustice. Plead the fifth all you want, I hear the sound of injustice”.
Whether it’s on a sidewalk or whether it’s crying up out of the ground, God says, “I hear the sound of injustice. I hear the sound of thy brother’s blood crying up out of the ground”. Somebody must be praying for me ’cause the more I preach, the more strength I feel.
Touch three people and say, “God can hear it. God can hear it. It won’t get away clean. God can hear it. It won’t get away clean. God can hear it. You can cover it up, but God can hear it. You can lie about it, but God can hear it. You can hire a fancy attorney, but God can hear it”. God said, “I hear the sound… I hear the sound of Trayvon Martin’s blood crying up on out of the ground. I hear the sound of it. I hear the sound of injustice. I hear it! And because thou has done this thing, thou art cursed with a curse. Abel is dead, and you are cursed”.
You succeeded, but you lost. You won, but you’re going to pay for it. To every person who’s ever been victimized in any kind of way, do not ever think that the perpetrator will get away clean. Because God says the rapist may have got away with the rape, but God said, “I hear. I hear”. The abuser may have gotten away with the abuse, but God said, “I hear, I hear it. They’ll never get away clean”. They took you in the backroom of the office and molested you, but God said, “I hear the sound of injustice”. You lost your job ’cause you wouldn’t play with the boss. God said, “I hear the sound”.
Where are my sisters at? Make some noise. God said, “I hear. I hear it. I can hear”. They’ll never get away clean. They’re cursed with a curse. They’ll never be totally free. They’re cursed with a curse. There’s no need in you being bitter and angry and upset and trying to get even on your own. God said, “No, vengeance is mine”, saith the Lord. “I will repay. I’ll fix it for you. I hear the sound of injustice”.
That’s why when you do people wrong, you ought to run to them and say, “I’m sorry. I’m not scared of you, but I’m scared of God. I’m sorry. I’m sorry”. ‘Cause the Bible said if you judge yourself, you have no need to be judged. All you stubborn people that will never apologize, you’re a fool. A wise man will apologize. A wise man will say, “I was wrong. I was foolish. I was silly. I was drunk. I was beside myself. I was childish. I’m sorry. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with a curse”.
So what I’m doing is I’m giving you a three-dimensional look in this text because I’m showing you the text from Abel’s perspective and from Cain’s perspective and from Eve’s perspective. Oh my God, from Eve’s perspective. Eve has lost her son. He has killed her son. He has killed her hope of resolving herself from guilt. Because not only did he kill her son, he killed what she thought my been her Savior.
Can you imagine how Eve felt when they came and told her that Abel was dead? It’s not just that she lost her son. She lost her redemption. She was trying to fix it. Her son was dead, and the other one might as well be dead ’cause he’s cursed. She didn’t just lose one, she lost two. And worst of all, he killed what she had in mind. Have you ever had something killed, what you had in mind? That might be the most painful death of all.
There’s not a person in this room who has not been to the cemetery with an idea, who hasn’t stood over the graveyard of what you hoped for, who hasn’t committed to the ground what you imagine would have happened in your life, and they killed what I had in mind. They killed, they killed… how do you fix killing what I had in mind? Kill my dream. Kill my plan. Kill my hope. Kill my strategy. It’s bad enough to lose a child, to lose one to death and another one to, might as well be jailed. That’s bad enough, but to kill what I had in mind?
“I needed them to live to fix me. It would have fixed me if it would have turned out the way I thought it would’ve fix me”. It is only when we get over in the Book of Hebrews that we learn that Satan has not triumphed in this story. It is when we get to the Book of Hebrews that we begin to realize that Abel had to die, that Abel had to die because he is a type of Christ; that Abel’s death catapults us from the shadow into the reality. It starts with Abel offering up lambs and it ends with Abel being offered up himself, and that, my sister, is the Gospel.
In one short paragraph, God reveals to us everything that would happen over the next several thousand years; that the lamb, that the blood of bullocks and goats would only be a shadow of what God was going to do with the man, that the blood that was painted on the doorpost of the believer was a shadow of the redemptive power of the blood of Jesus. It is here that God reveals that the lamb is only a substitute for the man. It is here that God reveals that the lamb is just standing in the stead of a man, that the lamb is a man and that the man is a lamb.
I’m going to say that again ’cause I don’t think they heard it. That the lamb is a man, and that the man is a lamb. It started in the Book of Genesis. This isn’t an accident. This isn’t a mistake. The lamb is a man and the man is a lamb. Oh, if I could sing, I would sing “Worthy is the Lamb” or “Now Behold the Lamb”. The precious Lamb of God, now behold it, now behold it, now behold it.
Listen. Listen. Listen. The death of what you had in mind is not the death of your destiny. It is the death of your strategy, but it is not the death of your destiny. Your strategy is not God’s strategy. God never lost control of the situation. He knew what he was doing before the foundations of the world. He said the seed of the woman. He didn’t say the seed of Eve. Eve was never meant to be the woman. She’s a shadow of the woman. Oh, but later in the Word of God, God found a virgin and said, “Hail Mary, you’re the woman. You shall bring forth a son, and his name shall be called Jesus and he shall save his people from the sins”.
How many people I got in this room that got faith? Touch somebody and tell them, “It happened the way it was supposed to happen”. I lost whatever I was supposed to lose. I lost whatever I was supposed to lose. I gave up whatever I was supposed to give up. It happened the way it was supposed to happen. It happened the way it was supposed to happen. I will not stand around and cry over what I had in mind because I’ll never be saved by what I had in mind. I’ll only be saved by what God had in mind for my life. Somebody help me shout. Somebody help me shout. Somebody help me shout. I’m too old to shout it like I feel it. Somebody jump out there and help me shout.
Touch seven people and say, “Listen, listen, listen, listen. You’re right on track. Listen, you’re right on course. Listen, listen, listen, listen, God is still God. Listen, God is still in charge. Listen, God’s got your back. Listen, your life is not out of control. Listen, all hope is not lost. Listen, the devil has not won this fight. Listen, it shall still come to pass. Listen, out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. Listen, God’s going to get the victory. Listen, greater is he that’s in you than he that’s in the world. Listen, listen, listen, listen”!
I need 100 radical people who don’t care what nobody thinks, who had God break a yoke in your life to jump out in this aisle and praise God like you lost your mind! Where are you? Like you lost your mind. Like you lost your mind.