Cain and Abel, pt. 1
Cain, in the perfection of second generation from Adam, possessed a strong body and mind. He could likewise have attained strength of soul and character had he not chosen to harbor resentment for a difficult life of expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Past the cherubim at its gate, he could see the perfection of beauty and a heavenly atmosphere and environ within. But they were forever thrust out.
Little by little, Cain allowed the spirit of antichrist to steal a path into him, and that resentment grew into a smoldering animosity toward God’s wise discipline. He became blinded to any mercy in God’s justice. Satan, subtle and insinuating, came to possess Cain and mold his emotions and passions like a polished puppeteer.
As second from Adam, he had his father’s nobility and grandeur of appearance. He was heir to the throne of elder and high priest of Earth. At Adam’s passing, Cain would become king of humanity and of all that this world contained and produced. In his strength of intellect, he had a powerful discernment. His intuition far exceeded ours today. But that strong mind unbalanced without a strong soul and character impelled him into the strongest apostate against God.
This first and greatest human rebel saw in the sacrifice of the lamb, much clearer than we can see it, an implied rebuke to his fallen nature. Deep in his subconscience Cain set up a barrier as the master deceiver worked his hints into the chemistry of Cain’s conceptions. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).
Without recognizing the mechanism of temptation, though he had been trained up in his parents’ first failure, Cain subconsciously acted on the insinuations of the deceiver by rejecting the divine appeals built into the offer of grace through the burnt sacrifice. The pull on the heart, the laying of self into the dust, the final surrender to God—this heir of Adam saw it all afar off. He knew where the burnt offering would take him to conversion and humility. But inwardly, long before the redemption of his soul could take place, he cut off the holy process before he could be caught up in its constraints.
Satan had perverted Cain’s thinking and he viewed humility and conversion as a thing not to be desired. The evil one distorted the image in Cain’s thoughts, obscuring the joy in submitting to the love and Law of God. His mind was incapable of imagining any beauty in holiness. The devil did to Cain as he has done to all of Cain’s spiritual children ever since. “In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” (Matt. 13:14,15). “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2Cor. 4:3,4).
Cain’s spiritual children are Satan’s, “Cain, who was of that wicked one.” (1Jn. 3:12). The devil “beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.” (Job 41:34).
They are all doomed to eternal death. Why? Because they do the works of their father, Cain. Knowing the end of grace, that it contains obligations toward repentance and humiliation and perpetual servitude to their Redeemer, they dodge it altogether by avoiding the pure, dying Sacrifice on the altar. Perhaps, being the more alert, smarter, brighter, and quicker to perceive than some of us, they can evade the traps and the stumbling stones God lays before them to lead them to repentance.
So, they remain whole, never broken; therefore they can never be called by the Son of God. The appeal of God’s offering of His Son is invisible to them; they sense it not by any inner detection system. Assisted by Satan they have made themselves impregnable to the assaults of the Holy Spirit. Their system of spiritualism makes Christ the great enemy. What delusion! They have deceived themselves! If they are lost in the end it is because they sought to be lost. If they receive eternal damnation, it is only that they desired eternal separation from God. They purposefully avoided God’s greatest gift in a change of heart—and oh, what a mighty gift to begin a life of goodness, happiness, and prosperity! They turn down the gift of the Holy Spirit; thus, they are fully unworthy of all else that God wants to give them.
The mystery of iniquity contradicts all true intelligence, all the while keeping its slaves in the safekeeping of man’s wisdom! Like an adulterous woman boundedly determined to lose her family and home and society because she wants to destroy her husband who loves her and them, and to play around with life; so is the irrationale of God’s rebels. Satan has them in his grip, whom God has cut off from grace and peace.
All who will harbor persistent resistance to the voice of the Holy Spirit built into the word of God and in His epoch act of sacrifice for us, are too smart for their own good!
The arch enemy of God is infuriated at Him and sealed in a blind rampage against Him, and against everything and everyone associated with Him, which is the whole human race. Through Christ’s infinite sacrifice for the human race, no other creation can better appreciate God’s love and respond in kind. Therefore, they are the special object of Satan’s cunning and revenge. No one is safe, especially those who let Him make them the most closely into His image.
“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
That no flesh should glory in his presence.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (1Cor. 1:17-31).
Little by little, Cain allowed the spirit of antichrist to steal a path into him, and that resentment grew into a smoldering animosity toward God’s wise discipline. He became blinded to any mercy in God’s justice. Satan, subtle and insinuating, came to possess Cain and mold his emotions and passions like a polished puppeteer.
As second from Adam, he had his father’s nobility and grandeur of appearance. He was heir to the throne of elder and high priest of Earth. At Adam’s passing, Cain would become king of humanity and of all that this world contained and produced. In his strength of intellect, he had a powerful discernment. His intuition far exceeded ours today. But that strong mind unbalanced without a strong soul and character impelled him into the strongest apostate against God.
This first and greatest human rebel saw in the sacrifice of the lamb, much clearer than we can see it, an implied rebuke to his fallen nature. Deep in his subconscience Cain set up a barrier as the master deceiver worked his hints into the chemistry of Cain’s conceptions. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).
Without recognizing the mechanism of temptation, though he had been trained up in his parents’ first failure, Cain subconsciously acted on the insinuations of the deceiver by rejecting the divine appeals built into the offer of grace through the burnt sacrifice. The pull on the heart, the laying of self into the dust, the final surrender to God—this heir of Adam saw it all afar off. He knew where the burnt offering would take him to conversion and humility. But inwardly, long before the redemption of his soul could take place, he cut off the holy process before he could be caught up in its constraints.
Satan had perverted Cain’s thinking and he viewed humility and conversion as a thing not to be desired. The evil one distorted the image in Cain’s thoughts, obscuring the joy in submitting to the love and Law of God. His mind was incapable of imagining any beauty in holiness. The devil did to Cain as he has done to all of Cain’s spiritual children ever since. “In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” (Matt. 13:14,15). “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2Cor. 4:3,4).
Cain’s spiritual children are Satan’s, “Cain, who was of that wicked one.” (1Jn. 3:12). The devil “beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.” (Job 41:34).
They are all doomed to eternal death. Why? Because they do the works of their father, Cain. Knowing the end of grace, that it contains obligations toward repentance and humiliation and perpetual servitude to their Redeemer, they dodge it altogether by avoiding the pure, dying Sacrifice on the altar. Perhaps, being the more alert, smarter, brighter, and quicker to perceive than some of us, they can evade the traps and the stumbling stones God lays before them to lead them to repentance.
So, they remain whole, never broken; therefore they can never be called by the Son of God. The appeal of God’s offering of His Son is invisible to them; they sense it not by any inner detection system. Assisted by Satan they have made themselves impregnable to the assaults of the Holy Spirit. Their system of spiritualism makes Christ the great enemy. What delusion! They have deceived themselves! If they are lost in the end it is because they sought to be lost. If they receive eternal damnation, it is only that they desired eternal separation from God. They purposefully avoided God’s greatest gift in a change of heart—and oh, what a mighty gift to begin a life of goodness, happiness, and prosperity! They turn down the gift of the Holy Spirit; thus, they are fully unworthy of all else that God wants to give them.
The mystery of iniquity contradicts all true intelligence, all the while keeping its slaves in the safekeeping of man’s wisdom! Like an adulterous woman boundedly determined to lose her family and home and society because she wants to destroy her husband who loves her and them, and to play around with life; so is the irrationale of God’s rebels. Satan has them in his grip, whom God has cut off from grace and peace.
All who will harbor persistent resistance to the voice of the Holy Spirit built into the word of God and in His epoch act of sacrifice for us, are too smart for their own good!
The arch enemy of God is infuriated at Him and sealed in a blind rampage against Him, and against everything and everyone associated with Him, which is the whole human race. Through Christ’s infinite sacrifice for the human race, no other creation can better appreciate God’s love and respond in kind. Therefore, they are the special object of Satan’s cunning and revenge. No one is safe, especially those who let Him make them the most closely into His image.
“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
That no flesh should glory in his presence.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (1Cor. 1:17-31).
posted by David | 11:28 AM
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