Sanctification without justification, an abomination

Why all the troubles on earth?

 

“And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” (Rev. 11:18).

 

We see a lot of trouble coming on the world. Peaceful societies are being overthrown and ravaged militarily, economically, morally, et cetera. Where does it all come from? The Bible has but one answer: Babylon.

 

“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rev. 17:1-6).

 

This Babylon was not born yesterday. It has had a very long history. Technically it began right after the flood under rebels Nimrod, Cush, and Ham. But, spiritually, “Babylon” began shortly after Adam and Eve left the garden.

 

“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.” (Gen. 4:1-5).

 

This is essentially the start of Babylon. And it has everything to do with the problem we covered in the preceding post—sanctification before justification, or rather, sanctification without justification.

 

Cain didn’t want to slay a lamb for his shortcomings and mistakes. He didn’t see the need for such a terrible sacrifice in his behalf. He “was alive without the law” (Rom. 7:9); according to his self-assessment, he wasn’t real bad. But, unlike Paul, Cain never allowed the commandment’s conviction to come into his conscience. And therefore sin never revived in him and rose above his internal radar screen that would have alerted Cain of his sinfulness and could have enabled him to begin the process of dying to self as Paul had.

 

Cain killed his own conscience—“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). It seems that all too often, the more massive the fallen intellect, the more discerning the fallen heart is to prevent the avenues which the Lord God uses to redeem us. The grace of Christ could have no effect on Cain because he would not acknowledge his sin and look upon a dying lamb, slain at his hands. Cain didn’t want justification with the Lord God who had evicted him and his family from paradise. He had a grudge against the Lord, and refused to let the Lord live it down. But, he did want to appraise himself better than how the Lord God thought of him, stronger in conscience than the Lord God had judged him. He wanted to be impervious to any arrow of shame and guilt. So, by downward step after downward step Cain made his bed in hell; nail by nail he nailed his own coffin shut.

 

Cain wanted to be perfected without the Lord God. He didn’t want any of the Lord’s assistance in anything. As far as Cain was concerned, the Lord God could be an agnostic God, who would do His creative deeds and leave His creation to itself. And, coming from a religious family (because that is all there was then), he wanted to be sanctified without being justified. He wanted peace with God without the Lord God’s requirement of repentance. Cain desired sanctification without justification.

 

In the Hebrew types, the sin offering involved a year old lamb. Once made guilty by the Law, that lamb justified the sinner as he, by faith, saw the Son of God laying down His life for the guilty one. As his knife robbed the life of the precious little animal, the heart of the sinner broke. Then repentance was forthcoming and the Spirit of the Lord entered in and redeemed his nature from sin. Then his name could be restored to the book of life.

 

Satan has mastered the science of keeping sinners from the sacrificed Lamb, from the brokenness, guilt, and shame that are so painful to the cold conscience, from the repentance that is so feared by the hardened heart that has no sympathy. Satan has perfected the art of removing men far from the redemption that comes through the everlasting covenant; and Cain was the devil’s first big prize. Evading his “returning” (repentance and justification with the Lord God), Cain could have no “rest”, “quietness”, “confidence”, “strength”. He could not “be saved” (Isa. 30:15). Rather, a horrible “root of bitterness springing up” (Heb. 12:15) troubled him, working emptiness and death not only into his conscience and heart, but also upon a whole future world.

 

From the time that he omitted the sacrificial lamb, Cain had no mercy and compassion for others. We were created to be dependent on God, who would be the great source of every good and perfect gift. Like the elder brother of the prodigal son in Christ’s parable, Cain had no love for his subordinate sibling who received the blessing of the Lord God and reflected His character.

 

In his massive pride and stubbornness, Cain conceived himself to be holy enough to act aright without being right, acting good without being good. His righteousness was a pretence because it didn’t come naturally from a heart that loved the Law of God. If he had loved the Law, then he would have obeyed the second great commandment. He would have sought reconciliation with Abel. And he never would have offered the fruit of the ground in place of an animal sacrifice, contrary to the command of the Lord God.

 

Not realizing his open rebellion, he was claiming to have the spiritual blessings of the Lord without self having died before receiving them. He claimed to have life without first having lost his old body of death. We see this in that he offered a peace offering without its preliminary sin offering.

 

In the Mosaic Law, there were two offerings related to the redemption of the sinner. But, one always preceded the other. The sin offering must be made before the peace offering was made, and the sin offering must be an animal sacrifice. This is because, as we noted earlier, it was the death of the baby lamb that broke the proud heart, the rebellious nature, the self-will, all of which had been created by the choice to sin. The ceremonial laws possessed a divine science for redeeming the hearts from rebellion. These laws alone could make the Israelites a kingdom of priests and a holy nation before the Lord. And if obeyed, those ceremonial laws would have accomplished this mighty endeavor. Whenever Israel became world renowned, it was due to the laws of the Lord.

 

The meal, or “meat” offering (see Leviticus 2:4), or minchah, was to be a thank offering for having received the forgiveness and blessing from heaven. No greater blessing can a human ever receive than acceptance again with God through His Spirit. The minchah was about thanksgiving instead of repentance, thankfulness that God gave repentance, saved and restored to the worshipper freedom and personal power, enabling him again to face friends and reconcile with foes, and with a new, clean, strong conscience, reassume his place in life.

 

The sin offering need not continuely call to repent over the sin that had been atoned for. Christ died once. Moses was to strike the Rock once. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” (Heb. 9:28). The sinner need not sacrifice an animal over and over again and repeatedly repent for the same sin. Later, he would return for another animal sacrifice, but not for the same sin. That sin was atoned for by the first animal’s death.

 

“Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire… burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required.” (Ps. 40:6).

 

A multitude of Lamb sacrifices and repentances for even the most heinous sin makes it appear to the world that Christ’s offering is insufficient to forgive anyone of his greatest failures. So, Satan works to remove faith in Christ’s merciful death in order to make His people multiply their repentance. This prevents all the redemption of Christ’s cross, and all the victories through Christ’s Spirit. Here many follow the inner voice of unbelief and remain disabled by their sinful past, their evil unbelief tormenting them by an unrelenting conscience, making them unwitting preachers of unbelief, and bringing dishonor instead of powerful honor to their Redeemer. And Satan exults. This is what Daniel 8:11 shows.

 

Simple faith will come out of simple heeding the Spirit and the Law of God, and being brought to conviction of sin. That simple faith, built upon the promises of God, will be able to believe God when He forgives sin. Faith in God’s mercy will be built upon a life of dependence and communion with Him. Upon forgiveness, trusting hearts will be filled with thankfulness and the desire to offer praise to God for His goodness. This was the purpose and effect of the minchah.

 

But, the minchah assumes that the animal sin offering was made, which brought the guilty sinner to repentance. The minchah cannot atone for sin and bring any sinner to repentance; only the sacrificed sin offering can cause repentance. Cain did not conform to the will of God because he did not offer a lamb sin sacrifice. He went straight to the minchah and pretended to praise God for salvation without humbling and repentance for sin, a salvation that can never happen without repentance. Christ’s salvation causes the exaltation of His people among men. We reign as kings and pastors. But without the first work of the humiliation of our heart through the offering of the Lamb, any exaltation becomes dangerous indeed. God’s humiliation of the heart through repentance is the only preventive for self-exaltation. Not a single soul among us is safe to be exalted in the world who has not first been humbled by the Spirit of truth. This has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout history, sacred history and secular. Every abomination in the world has resulted from exaltation without humiliation, a supposed justification which led to a supposed sanctification, Satan promoting these self-righteous ones to high places among the moral elite.

 

Because the Spirit of God cannot bless the heart that is not broken by the Lamb, that heart suffers under the wrath of God. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36). That wrath is caused by the departure of the Spirit of God and by the entrance of the spirit of Satan. And, over time, the chastisement of peace grows more and more within the servant of Satan. That root of bitterness, that gall and wormwood, slowly kills all life in the heart and mind of the godless worshipper.

 

Eventually, the misery is so great and the soul is so dead, that seeing others more miserable and more tortured is all that can satisfy and bring some stimulation to the dead heart and mind. Degrading others, abusing them for their mistakes and shortcomings, corrupting them, hurting them, heapinf calumny upon their reputations, et cetera, are all that give pleasure to the deadened souls of those who have turned away from the Law of God, which brings us to need a Saviour from sin.

 

“Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

Their feet are swift to shed blood:

Destruction and misery are in their ways:

And the way of peace have they not known.” (Rom. 3:13-17).

 

Without peace with God, without humiliation and vulnerability and trusting in God’s loving care, the children of men are doomed to a world of havoc. No sensual substitute will satisfy the loss of God’s Spirit that abides in a converted heart.

 

Sanctification that disregards humiliation and justification is a false sanctification that ends in spiritual fornication and abomination. “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” (Rev. 17:5). Satan has the heart because God doesn’t. Repentance would have opened the soul for the entrance of God’s Spirit. But, the peace offering without its prerequisite sin offering closes the heart to God. Therefore Satan enters the heart and fights to ensure that he retains his new victim.

 

So Cain exalted himself by the disregard of the sin offering, and he offered peace offerings only. Cain’s became a religion of peace offerings only. Once he had set aside the sin offering, it never returned to his worship. He had broken the everlasting covenant. He became the first high priest of false worship. He is the father of all occult worship. And, a worship void of the sacrifice by a substitutionary sin offering led to another kind of sacrifice to satisfy the suffocating soul—human sacrifices.

 

“Cain…was of that wicked one, and slew his brother.” (1Jn. 3:12). His brother became the first human sacrifice—pleasing to Satan because it destroyed the substitutionary sacrifice and redemption through Christ. It damned the one who conducted the human sacrifice, and it needlessly silenced the voice and influence of the innocent one being sacrificed. The destruction of God’s creation is just as Satan would have it.

 

This is why Cain slew Abel. It is also why the woman who rides the beast drinks from a cup full of martyrs’ blood. And it all has resulted from avoiding the Law, its conviction of sin, and repentance. “For she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” (Rev. 18:7).

 

Avoiding sorrow for sin by evading the Law and the Lamb, and then going on to sanctification, leads to murder. A dead, unrepentant heart leads to desolation and destruction, conquest of multitudes and their captivity; it leads to the enslavement of self and then of others.