A True Prophet and a False Prophet
Genesis 4:8; 1 John 3:1-12
As we return to Moses’ narrative
of the history of man’s redemption, let us keep in remembrance that for mankind
and his creation and his life and his redemption, all is purposed in His
Creator-Redeemer, Jehovah Elohim. In eternity past God said, “Let Us make
man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Gen.1:26a).
First God put His mankind in a
natural body of human flesh. The life of the natural body is in the blood,
which requires oxygen from the air of the atmosphere created by God. God
purposed that man should reproduce after his own kind, that man might fill the
earth with persons in bodies of flesh and blood of human kind.
God made them male and female and
He gave man seed to bring forth after his kind, a body of human flesh with the
life in the blood dependent upon breath. The body of human flesh is mortal. It
will die. Therefore it is perishable, it can return to the dust of the ground
from which it came. God purposed it to be so.
In God’s plan to have man in His
image, God purposed that natural man born of the flesh of humanity might be
given the freedom to choose to share the image of God. Eternal life - real life
- the life God is - received as a gift from God would bring forth a body of
eternal life and the body would be deathless and therefore immortal and
imperishable, everlasting.
As we have seen, eternal life
would be shared with God’s creation of man in His own Son, begotten out from
the dead. Each person born into the world through the seed of man, born in a
body of human flesh, is given the choice of receiving the Gift of eternal life
to raise up a forever living body out from the lifeless body of human flesh.
The fact that God gives mankind a choice to receive the eternal life to be born
a son of God presupposes that some will not choose to receive the Gift of God’s
begotten Son. Some will hear and not believe.
What would it take for one to
receive the Gift of the Son? One must hear word of Him and of His part in the
Covenant purpose of God and of the love of the Father and the Son in the great
favor They have done man.
All is of the grace of God, an
undeserved favor of the Father and the Son Jesus, who purposed to bring mankind
into being, knowing all would sin and defile the body of human flesh with
death. Therefore, sin must be put away once for all and death must be overcome
with eternal life. Man is impotent to do either of those works. Therefore man
is powerless to help himself (see
Heb.2:9-17).
God’s Son, Jesus, the only Son of
Man in the likeness of human flesh in whom is no sin, must be sin for mankind
that mankind might become the righteousness of God in union with Him. Through
faith in the finished work of God’s Son sent from heaven and, in uniting
through faith with the Son, one dies to the sin and is born again a new
creation, a son of God. The new born son of God is acquitted of all charges of
sin and guilt of wrong thinking of his former manner of life “in Adam,” and the
person born in Adam died to the sin (see
Rom.4:25-5:11; 6:6-13; 2 Cor.5:14-21). Having been freely justified through
faith in God’s grace and mercy, the earthly body can be freed from death and
raised up alive forevermore.
So first man must hear the word
of the good news of the Son and His redemption, that man might be reconciled to
God and fulfill the purpose of his having been brought into being in a mortal
body of human flesh. Then what?
Man must believe God and pass
from death to eternal life (Jn.5:24). One must be willing to believe what he
has heard is the truth. He must be willing to agree with God and to recognize
that the life of the natural man is totally dependent upon the God who created
man. He is dependent upon God for the food God provides from seed, and the
ground in which the food is planted is Jehovah Elohim’s and the water
and the sunshine, which produces fruit and grain from the seed, is His. Man’s
very breath is dependent upon the atmosphere which God created and shares with
man (see Ps.104:29; Ac.17:28).
One must agree with God that
design and purpose for man are of God. He has the say. Therefore, man is not
only dependent upon His Creator-Redeemer to deliver him from sin and death, he
is responsible to co-operate with God and obey the truth to be born of the
incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, and become a son of God and fulfill the
purpose of his being (1 Pet.1:17-25). Unless one is born from above, he cannot
enter the Kingdom of God as a born son of God (see Jn.3:3-8).
One hears of the wisdom of God in
the Covenant plan of His Son through someone who has heard and believed and
will share the word of the Anointed Covenant Son with another who will believe.
The righteousness of God is from faith to faith (Rom.1:17). The Holy Spirit,
who is God, testifies to the witness of the Covenant Son for conviction of the
truth for a new birth of a son of God (see
Jn.16:7-15; Heb.3:7-8; Gal.3:26).
Each brother, Cain and Abel, had
been taught by their righteous parents the truth of the Covenant Son which must
be obeyed to be born from above and enter into the Kingdom of God. In the
bringing of their first offering to Jehovah, the obedience to the truth,
which had been made clear to each son, was tested.
Abel obeyed the truth to become
the righteousness of God through faith in the coming Covenant Son of God (see Heb.11:4). He was born of the
incorruptible Seed of the Word of God, who lives forever. Abel was born again,
born from above a son of God to inherit the future Kingdom of God with God’s
Covenant Son (see Rom.8:14-18; 1
Cor.15:50; Gal.3:29).
Cain did not obey the truth and
he was not accepted into the Kingdom of God. He had not been born again. He
knew to obey the truth and to make all well with his soul, but he chose not to.
Jehovah knew it was not for lack of the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God that Cain did not bring the gift representing His Son (see Gen.4:5).
The light had been shined into
Cain’s heart. He had heard the gospel of the righteousness of God through faith
in the coming Anointed Covenant Son (see
Tit.2:11; Is.42:5-9; 49; 48:3-49:13). Cain could not plead ignorance. He
had made a deliberate choice. Cain had heard the truth and had chosen not to
believe the truth of Jehovah Elohim.
Jehovah confronted Cain
concerning his choice (Gen.4:6-7). Jehovah did not reject Cain. He
offered Cain a change of mind. Cain must recognize the mastery of his own
self-will and choose to rule over making choices for himself through having
been delivered from sin with its mastery. Deliverance from sin and death is
through union with the Redeemer-Deliverer, God’s begotten Son.
Cain also must become the
righteousness of God through faith in the coming Covenant Son of God. Righteousness
is power over the sin which would rule our choices in life. The wages of
serving sin is death (Rom.6:23a).
Cain was burned up at what he
considered to be a rejection of God. Jehovah Elohim did not receive Cain
into His Kingdom because one must be a born son of God to enter God’s Kingdom.
That had been made clear to Cain. God must be just. Righteousness and eternal
life are freely offered in the Son, but they must be freely received for a new
birth (see Jn.1:9-13). Being
justified freely is through faith in God’s Son. It is Cain’s choice. Jehovah
is open to reconciliation (see
Ezek.18:21-23, 32; 33:11; Ac.10:34-35; 2 Pet.3:9).
Moses gives no record of any
response of Cain to the wisdom of Jehovah. The narrative continues with
a brief, simple statement: “And Cain talked with Abel, his brother” (Gen.4:8a).
No details are given. In the context of the narrative, what did Cain want to
talk about?
Together each one had come to the
appointed time with their very first “gift” to Jehovah. Each one knowing
that he is identified with his gift. If the gift is accepted, he will be
accepted. Abel understood that Jehovah Himself had provided the only
acceptable Gift, the One Propitiation which He could accept and he believed
that Jehovah could only accept one who had believed into His begotten
Son to be born a son of God (Rom.3:22-26; see
1 Jn.2:1-2; 4:7-10). Each one, Cain and Abel, had their expectation of
acceptance. Cain brought a gift of his own doing. Jehovah not having
accepted his offering, he is very angry at Jehovah. What would Abel have
to say to Cain?
To keep the narrative brief,
Moses continues with the next series of events. “And it came to pass, when they
were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him,”
killed him (Gen.4:8:b). Moses makes a connection of the brothers’ talk with the
slaying, but the language makes the slaying at a different time than the talk,
and a different place.
The brothers are in the field. Who
has a field? Who tilled the soil to reap a harvest? Who had farm instruments,
honed and kept sharp?
The King James uses the word
“slew.” The Hebrew is a word for “slaughter,” but is seldom used for the
killing of animals. It is a word used for killing men in a brutal, bloody way.
It is a word used for murder. The other clue is in the Hebrew word translated
“rose up.” The Hebrew word is essentially a physical action and basically
denotes “rising from a prostrate position to a standing position.” The Hebrew
word is distinguished from a more narrow word “to rise from bed.”
Cain was lying in wait for his
brother Abel. He ambushed Abel and killed him in a very bloody, brutal way. The
killing was premeditated. Abel was lured to the field and Cain was lying in
wait. Why did Cain kill his brother?
Moses does not bring that subject
into the narrative. It would not have been necessary for “The Book of the Law”
written for Israel. The sons of Israel would already have known the answer. We
have the answer in the New Testament book of 1 John. As a disciple of Jesus,
who was with Him throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, John learned the truth of
the Old Testament Scriptures from Jesus Himself.
This first epistle of John was
written with a contrast between the righteous, those who have the Son and have
life, true prophets of God, with false prophets, who have rejected the Lord and
His Son, and being of the Devil, are anti-God and anti-Christ (see 1 Jn.2:21-22).
In his first epistle, the apostle
John has much to say concerning false prophets and discerning false prophets.
In chapter 3 he comes to the crux of the matter. “Behold, what manner of love
the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children [born
ones] of God. Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know
Him. Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for
we shall see Him as He is. And every man that has this hope in Him purifies
himself even as He is pure” (1 Jn.3:1-3).
What manner of love the Father
has bestowed upon us, His creation of mankind, to give us the authority to be
called His born children, His beloved. And to give us the hope of being in His presence
and seeing His face and of being like Him - bearing the image of God. Since the
hope of eternal life is given in God’s Eternal Covenant, the hope was given in
Christ, God’s Anointed Son, before the eternal ages (Col.1:12-22; 1 Tim.2:4-6;
2 Tim.1:9-10; Tit.1:2). It is good for all men of all time. Every person who
has this hope, this conviction, each one fully persuaded of the manifestation
based upon the truth of what is being hoped for, purifies himself even as that
One is pure.
In inspiring John’s epistle, the
Holy Spirit uses a demonstrative pronoun, “that One.” A demonstrative pronoun
is used for persons well-known. Each one convicted of the hope knows the One in
whose presence he will be. He is persuaded of one day seeing Him as He is. He
has purified himself in the union of death with Christ to have his sins put
away and, having died to the sin, is assured of being of resurrection (see Jn.11:25-27). He is a new creation
- a born son of God. He is clean, freed from all defilement. He is holy unto
God, set apart in Jesus Christ (see 2
Cor.5:17-21).
“Whosoever commits sin
transgresses also the Law; for sin is the transgression of the Law.” Sin is
lawlessness. “And you know that He was manifested [revealed] to take away our
sins, and in Him is no sin” (1 Jn.3:4-5). He is pure, holy and clean of any
defilement (Heb.7:24-27). He Himself bore our sins on His own body on the tree,
that we, having died to sins, might live unto righteousness (see 1 Pet.2:22-24; Heb.10:10-14).
The Greek word for “sin” has the
meaning of “missing the goal.” What is the purpose of a creation of man? To
bear God’s image. To fulfill the goal one must be born from above - a son of
God. For this, one must receive the Gift of God’s Son, the righteous One who
became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him and be
acquitted of all charges of the sin and guilt, which He has put away
once for all. One must have received the eternal life of the begotten Son of
God, which He brought down to us from heaven. If one does not have eternal
life, there will be no body in His image to be raised up out from the lifeless
earthly image of man.
The apostle Paul speaks of “all
having sinned and coming short of the glory of God” (Rom.3:23). What is the
glory? The body raised up in resurrection like unto the image of the heavenly
Lord from heaven (Rom.8:5-30; Phil.3:21; 1 Cor.15:44).
Sin therefore is a transgression
of the “Royal Law of Love.” What kind, what sort, what character of love did
the Father bestow upon us that we should be called His children, born of Him?
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believes into Him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).
It was for His so great love of
His creation of man that God gave His Son, that man might not perish but live
forever. But it is a choice (Jn.3:17-21). To not choose the righteousness and
eternal life as a Gift in the Son is to step over the line drawn by God (see Rom.5).
That one may see God and know Him
and be with Him where He is forever, it is absolutely imperative to be born
again. It is the only way to be cleansed from all unrighteousness and to be
acquitted of all charges of sin and guilt, and therefore justified freely
through faith in God’s Anointed Son. If one has not been justified, cleansed
and acquitted, he cannot be glorified in the image of God. It is the Way of
love provided by the One who bestowed such love on us, His creation of mankind,
that we might be His born sons.
“Whosoever abides in Him sins
not. Whosoever sins has not seen Him, neither known Him. Little children [born
ones], let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as
He is righteous. He that commits sin is of the Devil, for the Devil sinned from
the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might
destroy the works of the Devil. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin
for His Seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1
Jn.3:6-9).
Whosoever commits - does - sin is
the transgressor of the Royal Law of Love. The Greek word translated “commits”
or some Bible translations say “practices” is the word “to do,” “to bring
about.” Whosoever does - on a continual basis - does sin, does lawlessness.
The one continually missing the
goal of his high calling to become a son of God, continuously steps over the
line drawn by God, transgresses the Royal Law: You must be born again.
You must unite in the death of God’s Son to be made clean. You must
receive eternal life in the Son for a new birth in a new body - to bear the
image of God. To keep refusing to obey the truth to be born of the
incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, is to continuously miss the true end of
one’s having been brought into being. That is sin.
Whosoever having believed into
God’s begotten Son sins not. Whosoever abides in the Son does not miss the true
end of being. He is a born son of God. Whosoever sins - continuously misses the
goal of his high calling - has not seen God, neither known Him. That one has
not seen God as He is, nor known Him as love and light and life.
John’s point yet being false
prophets, he makes righteousness the issue. Righteousness is just judgment.
That which is just is right. In verse 7 John pleads with the little born ones
to not let anyone lead them astray through deception.
The one doing righteousness is
righteous, even as that One is righteous. The one believing in the
righteousness of God through faith in God’s Son is righteous. He has become the
righteousness of God through faith in the begotten Son of God. He believed into
the One who became sin for him, that he might become the righteousness of God
in the Son (2 Cor.5:21). He has been born from above.
He that does sin is out of the
Devil (1 Jn.3:8a). He that continuously misses the goal of his high calling and
continuously steps over the line drawn by God continuously transgresses the
Royal Law of Love in his refusal to obey the truth: You must be born again.
That one has bought a lie. His doing is “out of” or “sourced” in the evil one.
The Devil sinned from the
beginning (1 Jn.3:8b). The angelic creation is the only creation other than man
that has a choice of freedom to use their God-given will to serve self rather
than to do God’s will. The Devil refused the love of God in the high purpose of
His creation as a minister in God’s government. He coveted for himself that
which could not justly be his (see
Is.14:12-17; Ezek.28:12b-18).
The Devil does not have a body.
He is a spirit being. To gain his purpose he would need men in physical bodies
to speak for him and do for him. What the Devil did have is wisdom and beauty,
which he would use for his own gain.
In the beginning Lucifer made
himself an adversary of God and came to be known as Satan [Adversary]. As the
deceiver he came to be called the Devil [Deceiver]. In both prophetic passages
of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 we see him in reference to the king which he is
mentoring in his world city.
From Isaiah’s prophecy in verse 1
of chapter 27, “in that day Jehovah with His hard and great and strong
sword shall punish leviathan, the piercing serpent, even leviathan, that
crooked serpent,” Lucifer also came to be known as “the serpent of old.” This is
also seen in “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Covenant” in the
luminaries place in the heavens on the fourth day of creation (Gen.1:14-19).
In the luminaries is Draco,
the Dragon. So in the written record of “The Revelation of Jesus Christ,”
written by the apostle John, we have the Dragon, that serpent of old, called
the Devil and Satan, who entered into a contest for the kingdom of this world.
(Rev.12:3-17).
For the purpose of undoing the
“works” of the Devil, the Son of God was revealed (1 Jn.3:8c). The Devil sinned
from the beginning and the Son of God was revealed from the beginning to undo
the wicked works of the Devil’s sins. The Devil would do his works through the
sons of men who would buy his lies and have their works out of the one who is
their mentor (see Jn.8:38-47; Mt.23:31-35).
From the beginning, the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God was declared by the heavens. The stellar
heavens shined forth the glory of the Covenant Son in the figures of the true,
the good news of the One coming to put away sin and share life eternal and
light of understanding with man (see Job 9:6-9; 38:31-33; Ps.19:1-6; 97:6; 147:4;
Is.40:26).
Whosoever is born of God does not
do sin. One born of God has united himself in the death of God’s Son and His
Seed of eternal life remains in the one born of God so he cannot miss the goal
and purpose of his having been brought into being, because he is born of God
and he will have a body of eternal life in the image of God raised up out from
His mortal body (1 Cor.15:47-49).
“In this the children of God are
manifest, and the children of the Devil: whosoever does not righteousness is
not of God, neither he that does not love his brother. For this is the message
that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as
Cain, who was of that wicked one, and killed his brother. And why did he
kill him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous” (1
Jn.3:10-12).
In this the children of God are
revealed, made known, and the children of the Devil are made known. The
children of God do righteousness. They believe in the righteousness of God
through faith in God’s Anointed Son and they unite with the Righteous One to be
born of God.
The children out of the Devil do
not do righteousness and they are not of God. They do not receive the
righteousness and life eternal shared with them in the Covenant Son. They have
transgressed the Royal Law of Love, so neither do they love their brother. They
do lawlessness.
This is the message that “you,”
collectively, all of you born children, heard from the beginning, the message
that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believes into Him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).
The children of God heard the
message of God’s love that they might receive the Gift of His love and come
under the Royal Law of Love and love Him with all their heart and love one
another (see Jn.15:9-17). That they should not be as Cain who was out of the
evil one and killed his brother. And for what did he kill his brother? Because
his works were out of the evil one and were wicked, but the things of his
brother were righteous, right, just. The things of the righteousness of the
right judgment and justice of Jehovah Elohim. Things in His Eternal
Covenant. Things of hope of eternal life.
The “works” of Cain, the doing of
sin, missing the goal of the purpose of his being, the transgression of the
Royal Law of Love, culminating in slaying his brother, were out of the evil
one. The Greek word for “works” has the meaning of “performance, the result of
employment.” The Devil employed Cain to kill off a righteous son of God - a
prophet of righteousness.
In Cain the Devil has his first false
prophet. The contest between light and darkness is on. The Devil has had
his first prophet of righteousness killed. The light of the knowledge of the
glory of God must be kept from being shined into the hearts of mankind, lest
the light of the glory of the gospel, the good news of the Anointed Son, who is
the image of God, should shine unto them and they take it into their very being
for understanding to be born a son of God and have the treasure of
righteousness and life eternal in their earthen vessel, to be raised up, a body
in the image of God out from the mortal body in the image of the earthy. The
main work of the Devil is to keep the minds of mankind blinded so they do not
believe and obey the truth (see 2
Cor.4:3-7).
Each one born of God has the
treasure of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God as seen in the face
of the Anointed Covenant Son. They will share the righteousness through faith
in the Son with others. That would defeat the Devil’s purpose. He must begin to
build his world city with his principalities and powers and world rulers of
darkness. He has found his man in Cain.
The brief epistle of Jude, a
brother of Jesus, a son of Mary (Mt.13:55; Mk.6:3), confirms Cain to be a false
prophet. Jude wrote, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were
before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of
our God into lasciviousness [unbridled lust], and denying the only Lord
[Master] God, even our Lord Jesus Christ” (v4). “Woe unto them! For they have
gone in the way of Cain” (v11a).
Paul wrote to the assembly in
Rome, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it unto
them” (Rom.1:18-19).
They will be without excuse as
they stand before Him at the Great White Throne Judgment. Having rejected His
offer of eternal life in the Son of the Covenant, they will spend eternity with
their mentor, the Devil and his angels, in the lake of fire (see Rev.20:10-15; Mt.25:41). All evil
and unrighteousness will be removed from God’s Kingdom of righteousness and
peace as it is filled with sons of God to spend eternity with Him in bodies of
glory in His image, after His likeness.
This concludes our lesson.
No comments:
Post a Comment