Gen.004:001-- And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

004:002-- And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

004:003-- And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.

OK to see what the fruits of the ground was that Cain brought unto the Lord as an offering, let’s go to Genesis 3:17-18

003:017-- And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

003:018 --Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

So we see from this that the offering that Cain brought to the Lord was already cursed. That is what the Old Testament law was, it was a curse to God. The people that are trying to live and go by the Old Testament covenant, you are offering God thorns and thistles.

Cain was of the first man Adam, because in Genesis 4:1 we can say that he was the firstborn.

1 Cor.-15:45-47-- “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”

015:046-- “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.”

015:047-- “The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.” ( That is the way that it had been all down through the Scripture. As in the case of Esau and Jacob. Cain and Able. Esau and Cain, also was showing the earthly, or natural, the first man Adam. Able and Jacob were symbolizing the spiritual on the second man Jesus.)

OK, now that we have seen this let me show you something here. We know from Scripture that the first man Adam was not spiritual by that which is natural.

1 Cor-15:46 - Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

1 Cor-2:14-- But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Rom. 8:7--- Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

So after saying all of this we can see the reason that God did not accept Cain’s offering. He was trying to enter in by the briers and thorns, that Old Testament covenant. He was trying to enter in by the blood of Bulls, sheep, goats, tithing, Sabbath keeping, priest, prophets and all these other things that you had to do according to the Old Testament covenant.

What happened to Cain he became entangled in these briers and thorns and they choked him to death.

Mat. 13:22-- He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.( See the word thorns here represent that Old Testament covenant. Also while I am here let me show you something else.)

Mat.13:19 --- When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. ( Who was the wicked one that he was talking about here? Well let me try to show you.)

1John 3:12--- 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.

(So what I see from here is that is that the first man Adam was the wicked one which was the carnal mind that was in man. So can’t you see what we just read, that the carnal mind is enmity against God.

Math.13:20-21 -- But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; (These stony places are the same thing as the briers and thorns. We know from Scripture that the ten Commandments were written on stone.)

Mat.-13:21--- Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

So we see that these briers and thorns( Old Testament covenant) will try to choke out the true word of God.

It is just like a man that has got stuck in quicksand ( miry clay) the more he tried to free himself the deeper he sunk. So if you’re trying to build your house on sand or miry clay it is going to sink deeper and deeper. You’re building it on briers and thorns.)

Ps.40:2-- He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. ( The miry clay here represents the Old Testament covenant because it was earthly.)

OK, now that we have seen that these briers and thorns were things of the Old Testament covenant. Let me try to show you something here again with Cain.

In Genesis 4:7- 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. ( In other words he gave Cain the chance to repent and bring the same offering to him as did Able, and we will see what that offering was.)

Act 3:19 -- Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. ( We can see from this if Cain had repented God would have forgiven him and blotted out his sins.)

OK, to see the offering that Abel brought to God let us go back to chapter 4 of Genesis versus 4.