God has made a difference between
that which is holy and that which is profane. We see this first
mentioned when the Lord would bring Israel out of Egypt. But
against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his
tongue, against man or beast, that ye may know how the Lord
doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. We
see it again mentioned when the Lord set apart a priesthood of
the house of Aaron and established a pattern for them to follow,
that ye may put a difference between holy and unholy, between
unclean and clean. The dietary laws which the Lord
gave to Israel demonstrate the same. It is clear from what we
read in the New Testament about the vision which the Lord gave
to Peter that he in the giving of these laws to Israel did not
have a particular regard to steak or ham, chickens or crows, but
rather to the setting apart of a people in the earth to manifest
the glory of His grace in their redemption. We further see in
Peter's vision that this setting apart of this particular people
was not because of their human bloodlines, but rather according
to his purpose when he loved the people in Jesus Christ and
chose them that they might be holy and without blame before
him. According as he had chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. This
separation or sanctification of his people from the population
of the world in general is manifested in the form and object of their
worship. The Lord plainly declared this truth to the woman at the
well in Samaria, when he said, But the hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. Cain is a type of the
natural man who has neither part nor lot in the kingdom of heaven.
He sought to worship God on his own terms and became angry when
it was revealed to him that God had no regard unto him or that
which he offered. Cain's religion was of the earth,
or fleshly, and he sought to gain favor with God by presenting
to Him the fruits of his own labor, which he had produced
with the sweat of his own brow. Yet the Lord had no respect unto
the offering which Cain brought, primarily because he had no respect
unto Cain, an heir of destruction, but just as importantly because
Cain in his offering had no respect unto the blood sacrifice that
was necessary for a sinner to come into the presence of God.
The Lord had respect unto Abel's offering primarily because he
had respect unto Abel as an heir of the promise, as Abel was a
typal figure of the true heir of the promise, his beloved son
in whom he is well pleased, who gave himself as an atonement
for sin. The purpose of the religion of Cain is to satisfy the needs
of the flesh. Man has a natural distrust of
the Lord because of his innate sin. Since the Lord has hidden
many things from men, according to his own purpose, this natural
distrust and spiritual blindness causes him to disregard the Word
of God and to seek his own explanation of things not seen by the natural
light. Thus man has developed his many theories to explain
creation, from the Big Bang to various forms of evolution and
alien visitations of the planet. Arising out of this same distrust
and spiritual blindness to truth comes all forms of fleshly religion
and resultant theories of an afterlife. That form of religion
which lays claim to believing the scriptures while continuing
to promote a purely carnal understanding of them is that which is a most
insidious evil, which the powers of darkness would use to destroy
the children of God if it were possible. The religion of Cain
is easily received and believed because it is not contrary to
the natural reasoning of men. This religion worships man's
free will and demands that the glory of God can never take precedence
over man's right and ability to determine his own fate. The
religion of Cain has respect unto the good works of men to
some degree, if not to purchase his redemption, at least to secure
his present blessing in this world and the level of reward
or status which he might attain in the world to come. The religion
of Abel, on the other hand, is no religion at all, insofar as
men would define the term. Rather, it is a place of complete
rest and reliance in that which is performed by Christ. The glory
of God is the primary goal of it. Those who are awakened to
enter into his rest confess with one accord that his grace alone
is sufficient for life and blessing. Its only creed is that of the
Apostle Paul, but God forbid that I should glory, save in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I unto the world. What type of religion do you
have?