EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/16/2025 8:28 PM
My Worship Time Focus: “Satan’s
Children Murder God’s Children”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
1 John 3:12, 14
Message of the verses: “12 not as Cain, who
was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him?
Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous…14 We know that
we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who
does not love abides in death.”
While I was listening to the sermon from John
MacArthur that goes along with this section of verses he mentioned that this is
the only Old Testament Reference that is found in 1 John. I guess I think that is kind of unusual.
It
is true that murder is the ultimate act of hate and there are some verses that
and the first one is from the book of Numbers 35:20-21 “20 ‘If he pushed him of
hatred, or threw something at him lying in wait and as a result he died,
21 or if he struck him down with his hand in enmity, and as a result he
died, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death, he is a murderer; the blood avenger shall put the
murderer to death when he meets him.
Next we will look at Matthew 5:21-22, and remember that these verses
come from the Sermon on the Mount. “21 "You
have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever
commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ 22 "But I say to you that
everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and
whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the
supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go
into the fiery hell.”
I want to continue with the thought that I began
with in front of these verses that I quoted.
Murder demonstrates the absence of love in the most extreme way. To illustrate that point, John inserted as
mentioned the only Old Testament reference in the entire letter: to Cain, who was the first murderer. I don’t know how old these brothers of Adam
and Eve were when this happened, but perhaps they were in their 20’s, so that
means if that were true that this happened some 20+ years after the original
sin of Adam and Eve. Now the Bible is
silent as to when these brothers were born and if there were any other brothers
and sisters who were also born to Adam and Eve.
Let me just say that although the Bible is silent as to how the
population grew after the earth began and after sin had come into the world,
but it is my belief that because the gene pool of the offspring of Adam and Eve
that brothers would marry their sisters and there would be no physical or
mental problems because of that. Look at
Abram and Sara as they were brother and sister, but they had different fathers
so that means half brother and sister.
When you get further along we learn that it was told by the Lord not to
marry brothers and sisters but cousins could be married, and the reason is that
the gene pool continues to grow weaker. This
kind of thing, marrying brother and sister would not work out well today as
their children would have some very bad problems.
John
MacArthur writes “Cain, as a worshiper of God, offered Him a sacrifice (Gen. 4:3-5).” Let us look at those verses now “3 So it came
about in the course of
time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the
ground. 4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of
their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; 5 but for Cain and for his
offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.” “Unlike his brother Abel, however, Cain did
not bring an acceptable sacrifice to God (Heb. 11:4).” “4 By faith Abel offered to God a better
sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was
righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.” “Able brought an animal sacrifice, which the
narrative implies was in obedience to God’s command. On the other hand Cain, in his self-styled
religion, ignored the divine requirement and brought the fruit of the ground
for his offering.” Now I realize that
the Bible is silent as to how Able knew what to bring as an offering, but it
seems to me that the Lord had told theses two brothers what they needed to
bring for their offerings, and Able just refused to do so. Now let us look at this in light of what the
Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross, which through that sacrifice that was His
body that it paid for all the sins of the world, but a person has to accept
that sacrifice on their behalf in order to become a child of God. This has to be done in a personal way where a
person realizes that he is a sinner, and then realizes that he on his own
cannot do anything to become right with the Lord but can accept what Christ did
for him or her in order to be saved.
That is the only way a person can become right with the Lord to accept
what Christ did for them. You cannot add
anything to what Christ did for you, you just have to accept it.
I
believe that I will now end this SD for this evening and pick up the rest
tomorrow, Lord willing.
1/16/2025 9:02 PM
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