Introduction

Hello, everyone. Today, we begin a new series—Imitating the Giants of Faith. Why this series? The reason is simple: it follows our previous series, Grace and Truth. Grace must be received through faith. If a man relies on works, what he receives is wages, not grace.

Grace is freely given, yet it is a treasure beyond price. We can draw upon God’s grace only by faith, and we can please God only by faith. This is the core of the Christian faith. Do not get this wrong. If you do, you will be in serious trouble. So where does faith come from? It comes through imitation. Faith is learned by imitation.

Therefore, the Bible tells us to imitate Jesus Christ, to imitate the Apostle Paul, and to learn from the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. How? By imitation. There are many giants of faith. We must look at these great men. They did not prevail by brute force. They prevailed by faith. In this first message, we shall speak of Abel, a giant of faith.

Let us first consider the word “imitation.” The best and fastest way to learn is to imitate. What others do, we do. How does a person become foolish? He keeps pursuing his own ideas. He refuses to imitate, but insists on inventing his own system.

Children learn languages faster than adults. A newborn child knows nothing. He cannot recognise a single word. Yet a child’s ability to imitate is exceedingly strong. He soon learns the language of his parents because he imitates. Have you ever seen a child begin by learning phonetics at birth? No. Have you ever seen a child begin by learning grammar at birth? No. But adults begin language learning by recognising words, and end up learning mute English.

We start with phonetics, grammar, and pronunciation, and only then move on to recognising words. When a child is born into your family, when do you teach him phonetics? You wait until he goes to primary school. Before primary school, he is already speaking fluently. If you start by teaching a child phonetics and grammar, he will be completely confused. Adults quickly lose the ability to imitate in the course of learning.

The ability to imitate is vital. I have learned many things through imitation. Very quickly, I came to one conclusion: the best way to learn is to find a good master, then imitate him. What he does, you do. How he handles things, you handle them. There has been one great pain in my life: I could never find a good master. Thankfully, I encountered Jesus.

I knew that Jesus was the One I was to imitate. How Jesus did things, that is how we should do them. Is this not how we have come this far? If you refuse to imitate and say, “How many Jesuses are there? Jesus did things that way, but I am not Jesus. I will not do things that way. I will create my own system,” then tell me: is that believing in Jesus? I tell you, there is a common phenomenon today: people do not do what Jesus did, but they do a great many things Jesus never did.

They make a joke of it all, do they not? Then they find countless reasons to justify themselves. Brothers and sisters, you must be careful. Compare what you are doing with what Jesus did. If Jesus encountered this matter, what would He do? What would He say? What would He think? This is important.

I was once greatly discouraged by a professor at a theological seminary. After that, I said, “Forget it. Why should I learn that stuff from him?” What was he teaching? It was all his own invention. Seminary professors do not earn low salaries either. I had paid my tuition to people like them. I thought, “Forget it. Enough is enough.”

One day, after a class, I raised my hand and said, “Professor, I have a question.”

He said, “Go ahead.”

I said, “What does Jesus think of the things we are doing?” I genuinely wanted to know what Jesus thought. Were we not studying Jesus? Was He not the One I believed in?

The seminary professor replied, “I am not Jesus. How would I know?”

My goodness. Then what had I come to learn from you? I said, “Forget it.” In the end, either he gave up on me or I gave up on him. In any case, I had nothing to do with him anymore.

I came to learn how Jesus Christ thinks. What does Jesus Christ think about these matters? If all I am learning is human ideas, why should I learn them? Learning means learning what others have already discovered. Do not invent your own system. Which law of science did you invent? We send children to school, and they begin with addition, subtraction, and the multiplication table. Did you invent the multiplication table? No. Someone else did.

When you reach secondary school, did you invent Newton’s three laws? No. Newton did. When you study calculus, did you invent calculus from scratch? No. Someone else did. That is what learning is: learning what others have discovered.

Look carefully. If a child makes up his own system, he is finished. He says, “Teacher, I invented a character.”

The teacher asks, “What character did you invent?”

“I invented a character that nobody can recognise. Only I can recognise it.”

That is a wrongly written character.

If you write an essay for the university entrance examination and every character in it is wrongly written, it may as well be Sanskrit. No one can read it. Can you score marks? Certainly not. You should be grateful if they do not give you negative marks.

This is very interesting. Is learning to believe in Jesus important or not? Many people say, “Pastor, I do not know how to believe.”

You do not know how to believe? Then do you know how not to believe?

You say, “I am very skilled at that.”

Then you are ruined.

I tell you, faith means imitation. Imitate the giants of faith in the Bible. Imitation and inheritance do not merely shape our learning. They are also the core concepts of Chinese Mingding Doctrine. We imitate and inherit what Jesus did. How Jesus did things, that is how we do them. What Jesus did, we do well. What Jesus did not do, we leave aside. There are many distorted arguments in this world.

Yet people think their arguments are perfectly sound. I encountered this in church. I said that I wanted to imitate Jesus Christ, and they stared at me with wide eyes. I said, “What are you staring at? Do you want to imitate Jesus? How many Jesuses are there? Look at yourself in the mirror! You are like a toad wanting to eat swan meat.”

I said I wanted to imitate Jesus, and somehow I became the toad. They even told me to look at myself in a mirror.

I found this astonishing. What was their logic? “How many Jesuses are there? Only one.” But was Jesus not given to us as an example to imitate? Is there anything wrong with my wanting to imitate Jesus? I want to walk the path Jesus walked. He is my way, my truth, and my life. Is that not what Mingding is all about?

When I said I wanted to imitate Paul, they stared at me again. “How many Pauls are there?” Again, they told me to look at myself in the mirror. So I did, and I thought I could see a shadow of Paul in there. I want to be a person like the Apostle Paul. I want to imitate his faith. That is why we study the epistles of the Apostle Paul thoroughly: to understand how to imitate him.

There was only one Jesus, but would it not be good to have many people like Jesus? There was only one Paul, but would it not be good to have many people like Paul? I tell you, there is a great dream within me: that all the brothers and sisters among us will imitate Jesus Christ and imitate the Apostle Paul. If we were all people like Paul, great and small, that would be extraordinary. Chinese Mingding Doctrine would be extraordinary. The people it trains would all be people of faith.

There is a principle within me. Let us not debate for now whether it is right or wrong. The principle is this: everything is learned. This is not difficult to understand. I do not believe much in this idea of being “born with it.” People say, “Look at Pastor Liu. You were naturally good at studying. You were born to be a top student.”

What people do not know is that I found a key. What I have, I learned. When I was born, I was like a complete fool. Ask a newborn how many words he knows. Not one. Was that not all learned later? You were the same when you were born: like a complete fool, unable to recognise a single word. Perhaps you do not remember it; neither do I. When we were born, we knew nothing.

Everything is learned. What is not learned? Is believing in Jesus not learned? Is fearing God not learned? Does faith not come through imitation? None of this is inborn. What is truly inborn? There was one person said to be born gifted: Fang Zhongyong. You have heard the story, have you not? In Wang Anshi’s time, there was a child whom Wang Anshi went to see. At five years old, he could compose poems and essays fluently, and he did it very well.

Of course, he was good compared with other five-year-olds. He could not be compared with Wang Anshi. But this five-year-old was very capable in composing poetry and prose. His father then took Fang Zhongyong everywhere to earn money. Everyone wanted to see this child prodigy. When the child was twelve, Wang Anshi went to see him again. He was far inferior to what he should have become. It was not that he was worse than at five. It was that he had made no progress since he was five. He was still the same.

Think about it. If, at five, you could recite a nursery rhyme, that is fine. But if, at twelve, you could still only recite that same nursery rhyme, would that not be disastrous? Some children are very adorable at three, four, or five. They run up, throw their arms around my neck, and hug me. Very cute, is it not?

But if a twenty-year-old runs up and throws his arms around my neck, I would be thoroughly disgusted. You cannot do that. It is not that he has become worse than before. He simply stopped learning. He had no time to learn, because his father took him everywhere. So he remained at the level of a five-year-old. Even if you were highly capable at five, by twelve you would be poor by comparison. Everyone else has progressed. At twelve, children can write essays. That is what it means to be far inferior to what one should have become.

By the time this child reached twenty, he was an ordinary man. Wang Anshi went to see him again when he was twenty. What was Wang Anshi writing at that age? A man must learn throughout his life. There are many things you do not know, and much knowledge you do not have. In our time, there were many special classes for gifted young students. When I was working in the past, I had an employee who came from one of these classes.

These young students entered university at ten and graduated at fifteen. In truth, they were quite ordinary. It was not such a great thing. They simply awakened a little earlier. Do you understand now? A person may do very well in the university entrance examination. But from that year onward, he stops learning and begins drifting through life. Then I say to him: the time your intelligence was at its highest was when you took your university entrance examination. Why? Because you stopped learning afterwards.

Everything is learned. Can you let this be imprinted on your mind? If you rely on the little ability you were born with, you will end up like Fang Zhongyong. If your surname is Li, you become Li Zhongyong. If your surname is Zhang, you become Zhang Zhongyong. You become just another Zhongyong. Faith is the same. Faith is learned. Faith must be learned.

You say, “I do not want to learn. Whenever I study, nothing hurts except my hair; everything else hurts.”

Then you are in trouble. You will remain at the period when your intelligence was at its highest. Fang Zhongyong remained at the peak of his intelligence at five years old. That was all he had. Some people remain at the peak of their intelligence at the time of their university entrance examination. Afterwards, they are finished. Therefore, brothers and sisters, you must know that faith must be learned.

From whom do we learn faith? We learn faith from the giants of faith. Let us learn from Abel and see how we may imitate him. Those of us who believe in Jesus must imitate Jesus. Read the Bible. Does it speak of imitating Jesus? Certainly it does. We imitate Jesus Christ. He healed the sick, and we imitate Him. That is how it works.

Today, many churches say, “You practise healing and deliverance. Is that not heresy?” I find this astonishing. If you do not practise healing and deliverance, do you not think you are rather unlike Jesus? If you are not like Jesus, then whom are you imitating?

If we are going to imitate Martin Luther in reform, let us not go back merely to Martin Luther. Can we return to Jesus? Jesus is the original. Can Martin Luther be called the original? Jesus alone is the original. It is said that Martin Luther cast out demons from Catholic monks.

When we first began, we set our sights on this: “I must become like Jesus.” Does that not sound inspiring? Some brothers and sisters come to me and say, “Pastor, I think I believe quite well. I want you to take a good look at me too.” Like Jesus? What is so good about it? Which part of you resembles Jesus? Whom have you delivered? What Jesus did, they do not do. What Jesus did not do, they do in abundance.

When we first searched for the path of healing and deliverance, it was exceedingly difficult. At the beginning, we did not resemble Jesus. No matter how we looked at it, we did not resemble Him. Even looking in a mirror, we did not resemble Him. This is a hard road. But I have faith. I will become increasingly like Jesus Christ. I will imitate Him.

Suppose you become a disciple and go to Mount Wudang to find a master to learn martial arts. Whether it is Mount Wudang or Mount Wutai, can you resemble your master the moment you arrive? You would be knocked flat the moment you tried. You may not even qualify to exchange moves with him. The road of imitation is like that. That is how I am: once I choose to imitate, I stay on the path.

In healing and deliverance, we have done reasonably well. Yet we remain far from imitating Jesus and far from the likeness of Jesus Christ. It is a difficult road, a road of becoming increasingly like Him. Not only have we practised healing and deliverance, but we have also drawn out and summarised its principles from the teachings of Jesus and the Apostle Paul, and carefully summarised them from our own practice.

This is a hard road. We practise. At first, praying for and ministering to one person was difficult. Now it has become quicker and easier. To imitate Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul is not mysticism. Some say faith is given by God. “If God has not given me faith, where can I find it?”

When we had just started building the church, I had a small co-worker who possessed a strange gift. Whenever the Holy Spirit came, his hair stood on end, and he knew the Holy Spirit had come. Once his hair stood on end, his prayers for others worked. The problem was that his hair did not stand on end very often. When it stood on end, he could preach the gospel effectively. But it did not stand on end often.

I asked him, “Have you spoken to your wife about Jesus Christ?”

He said, “Not yet, because my hair has not stood on end.”

Tell me, is that not mysticism? You do not know when the hair will stand on end. But you certainly know when it does not. I thought, “I cannot learn this. There is no way to learn it.”

What I learn from are the giants of faith in the Bible. Many brothers and sisters among us must move from being unable to imitate to learning how to imitate. There is a sister among us. It is not that she has never experienced God. But after experiencing God, her mind is still filled with questions: “Why have these things happened to me? Why am I like this?”

I tell you: because you do not know how to walk the path of faith. This sister’s depression and insomnia have largely improved. Yet sometimes demons still disturb her at night. Then she asks, “Why do demons still come to disturb me? I want to understand it clearly.”

I tell her plainly: once a person insists on figuring everything out, he has entered the path of unbelief. A person of faith does not speak that way. If she insists on figuring it out, she will never figure it out. Only by faith can she truly understand.

A person who does not know God and does not believe in God’s power walks according to his feelings. Human feelings are unreliable. God’s word alone is established in heaven. Faith comes through imitation. The Bible speaks of this throughout. It teaches us to walk the path of faith.

That is why Jesus Christ often rebuked His disciples: “Unbelieving!” “O you of little faith!” If Jesus came today, He would still say, “O faithless and perverse generation! You people of little faith!” Human faith is of supreme importance. You must learn to imitate the giants of faith.

The Old Testament is a history of faith and unbelief. The New Testament is a history of faith and unbelief. The two thousand years of church history are likewise a history of faith and unbelief. The Israelites watched God’s works in the wilderness for forty years, yet they did not learn the lesson of faith. So they fell in the wilderness and became people with whom God was displeased, because they did not know the power of God.

After Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He faced His disciples and sighed, in effect, “You are so slow to believe!” Why? Because they did not know the power of God. If you do not know the power of God, what exactly do you believe in? Brothers and sisters, your faith must be built upon the foundation of God’s power. God governs my life. God provides for me. What then do I have to fear?

Every day you have endless worries, endless anxieties, endless concerns, and endless fears. Before long, you become a person with “too many, too many” troubles. You must know that unbelief is the root of all problems. Unbelief requires no learning. It is natural to the flesh and to the knowledge of good and evil. Faith, however, must be learned.

Unbelief is natural. Spiritual knowledge must be learned. Faith must be learned. God’s word must be learned. God’s word was written with the blood of Jesus Christ, so that we may learn it. Our perspective is learned. How others see things, we learn to see them. We do not follow our natural way of thinking. If we follow that natural way, we will be ruined. Much of the suffering we endure today, even the needless suffering we suffer, is not the suffering Jesus endured. Much of it comes because people do not believe.

Scripture

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. (Hebrews 11:1–4)

Prayer

God, teach us. Open the eyes of our hearts. Bring us out of unbelief, and let us know and understand Your power. Lord Jesus, lead us onto Your path. You are our way, our truth, and our life. We will now walk this path of faith, imitating Jesus Christ and imitating the Apostle Paul.

Let us shine as lights in this world. Let us run forward with hope in eternity, until we see Your face. God, what do our hearts long for? We long to receive Your commendation when we come before You, and to become good and faithful servants.

Let us practise faith continually throughout our lives on earth. Let us trust in You without ceasing. Let us live by You, and live by every word from Your mouth. God, lead us to draw continually upon Your grace by faith, and to overcome continually through the God who loves us. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Background of the Scripture

The background of this passage comes from Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4 speaks of Abel in only a few sentences, but it speaks of Cain in dozens of sentences. There is not much about Abel’s story, yet Hebrews places him first.

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. (Hebrews 11:4)

Yet the Bible records very little about Abel. Who first wrote Abel’s story? In Abraham’s time, we do not know whether the story of Abel was already known. Even the story of Abraham was written by Moses. We know that Genesis chapter 12 onwards concerns Abraham. But Genesis chapter 4—was it passed down orally among the Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham?

My own guess is that Moses received it from God when he was on the mountain with God face to face for forty days and forty nights. God told him what happened, and Moses recorded and organised the account, writing Genesis chapters 1 through 11. Genesis chapters 1 through 11 were spoken directly by God to Moses. I believe this is a reasonable inference, because the Israelites could probably only pass down their history orally as far back as Abraham.

Abraham’s father may have known a little. Beyond that, I do not think so. Moses received it afresh on the mountain. What did God want to say by telling Moses this? One day, Adam knew Eve his wife. Eve conceived and bore Cain, and then conceived again and bore Abel. Cain grew up to till the ground, while Abel grew up to keep sheep. Cain brought an offering from the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.

The LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. So when Abel is mentioned, Cain must also be mentioned, because they were brothers. What happened later? Cain became very angry. The Bible tells the story too simply. Fortunately, there is little written about Cain and Abel, because I have to fill in the rest. I am making reasonable inferences. The account of Cain and Abel is short, but its content is rich.

Why was Cain very angry? Because Cain’s farming was not blessed, while Abel’s sheep were blessed. Cain worked hard and toiled greatly, but received little return. Abel kept sheep, and his sheep grew well. Their wool was smooth. The sheep not only grew well, but multiplied greatly. Abel’s possessions became far greater than Cain’s.

When Cain saw Abel becoming more prosperous and more successful, how do you think he felt? Then he looked at his own fields, producing miserable and stunted crops. He was deeply frustrated, and so he became very angry. He knew that God did not accept him, and his countenance fell. Every time he saw his brother Abel, his face was filled with anger. Can you imagine that?

So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” (Genesis 4:6–7)

Cain wore an ugly expression every day. The moment he thought of Abel, his face twisted like bitter melon skin. The Bible says, Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose against Abel his brother and killed him. (Genesis 4:8)

This whole event is described in only one sentence. One brother was a farmer, was he not? Let me ask you: would Abel drive his sheep into Cain’s field to eat Cain’s crops? Probably not. That would be unreasonable. So where was Cain? I will tell you.

Cain was angry every day. He was angry whenever he saw someone else being blessed. He looked and saw Abel’s sheep had almost finished eating the grass in one area. The next time Abel took the sheep out, he would have to go farther, where there was fresh grass. Cain waited there.

What could Cain have said to his brother? We can imagine: “Why are you blessed? Why am I not blessed? It is because of you that I am not blessed!” Is that not twisted reasoning? Abel probably wanted to tell his brother Cain, “Brother, it is not like that. This is how it should be...” But could Cain listen? No, he could not.

“If there were no Abel, then my offering would be accepted. If God had no offering from you, only mine, then whether He liked it or not, He would have to accept what I gave Him.” That was Cain. As the brothers talked, Cain could not persuade Abel, nor could Abel persuade Cain. Abel hoped that Cain would be blessed. Cain hoped that Abel would no longer be accepted.

Cain told his brother, “From now on, you should not offer sacrifices that way. This time, offer something a little worse than mine. Next time, if yours is better, that is fine. We can take turns being accepted. Is that not fair?”

That was the matter. Abel told Cain, “I live by blessing. You live by the sword of your hands. You live by your own effort. Brother, you are on the wrong path.” How could Cain accept that? He rose up and killed his brother Abel.

He killed him in the place where the sheep were grazing. In fact, Cain may not initially have intended to kill Abel. They were in the field, watching the sheep eat grass and talking. Cain wanted to persuade Abel not to seek God’s acceptance anymore: “You and I should be the same.” Abel tried to persuade his brother: “Come and be accepted with me.” In the end, Cain killed Abel. This passage tells us that, in those days, these two brothers could still often see God’s face.

There are two ways to live. One is to live by God’s blessing. The other is to live by one’s own effort. This is the revelation the Bible gives us at the very beginning. Cain lived by striving hard. Is that not a portrait of our lives? We strive very hard, and so resentment fills our hearts. “I worked very hard, but the results were poor. The teacher does not think much of me, and even says I am wasting my days.” So I become angry.

In truth, man cannot live by his own effort. To live by one’s own effort is a curse. This does not mean we should not work hard. It means that living without blessing, desperately expending time and effort, is not a sound way of thinking. Do you live by God’s blessing, or by the sword of your own hands?

This is the choice within us. Abel’s story is so brief. What then can we learn from Abel? We can, at the very least, learn about offering sacrifices.

Abel Offered Sacrifices to God by Faith

This account is far too short. Abel’s story is too brief. Why was Abel’s sacrifice accepted? Because he believed. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. What then should we do? When we offer sacrifices, we must offer them by faith. Cain did not believe. He merely completed the act of offering a sacrifice.

Did he offer a sacrifice? Did he give an offering? Yes, he did. As for how he offered it, we really cannot know. Did he casually grab a handful of produce, or did he carefully and seriously prepare a bundle? We do not know.

But we know this: Abel was accepted not because he offered sheep, but because he believed within himself. The question was this: do I live by God’s blessing, or do I live by my own effort? That is the key. It was not only Cain and Abel. Later, Esau and Jacob were the same. Esau lived by the sword of his hands; Jacob lived by God’s blessing. The difference is immense.

What kind of faith did Abel have? First, he believed, “I live by God’s blessing. I will offer to God because I live by God’s blessing.” That is the key. Second, he believed, “Everything I possess comes from God.” Look at the logic. Everything I have comes from God. I offer back to God what has come from God. That was Abel’s thinking.

Everyone who thinks this way offers sacrifices by faith. Offering is by faith. Abel, by faith, initiated this pattern of offering. I tell you, many people today give offerings and are blessed, but some give offerings and are not blessed. Therefore, I often urge people: if you do not understand the meaning of giving, please do not give. After giving, some people act as if they have become masters in the church, and the small group leaders must serve them well. That is trouble. This way of thinking is wrong.

So Abel offered by faith and God accepted him. It is that simple. Cain did not offer by faith, so he was not accepted. I tell you, Abel believed in God’s power. If you do not know God’s power, then what is your faith?

Abel Obtained Witness That He Was Righteous

Think about it. Cain was not accepted, while Abel was accepted. Abel’s problems would certainly have been fewer. Cain had just planted his fields, and hail came. Abel had offered his sacrifice, and his sheep continued to multiply well. What does it mean to obtain witness that one is righteous? Such a witness must be visible. If a witness that one is righteous cannot be seen, it is not called a witness.

Recently, we have turned our testimonies into storytelling testimonies. Though they are told like stories, they are not fabricated. They are accounts of God’s works personally experienced by our brothers and sisters. Abel obtained witness that he was righteous. He was accepted. This means that what he did was blessed. If you carefully observe and obey the statutes, judgments, and commandments of the LORD your God:

Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. (Deuteronomy 28:4)

Your bank account will be blessed. This is remarkable. The work of your hands will be blessed. That is the key. If you live by faith, you will surely obtain witness that you are righteous.

What does it mean to be justified? It means that demons cannot come and trouble the work you do. God is with you, and demons are not. But in Cain’s work, God was not present. God was not pleased, but demons were present. If demons are with a person in his work, do you think it can go well?

Cain’s Great Anger Could Not Affect Abel’s Faith

Abel saw his brother’s unpleasant face every day. His eyebrows did not look like eyebrows, and his eyes did not look like eyes. From time to time, Cain glared at him or rolled his eyes at him. Yet Abel continued doing what he had to do. “I do not live by your facial expressions, nor do I seek to please you. I live by God’s blessing.”

Abel obtained witness that he was righteous. We must imitate this. What is the witness of justification? It is this: no matter what environment surrounds us, it cannot change our trust in God. When we imitate correctly, you will surely obtain testimony. It is not reasonable to ask you to believe without ever experiencing God.

When the Israelites did not believe God very much, God brought them out of Egypt and let them experience the crossing of the Red Sea and the eating of manna. Yet no matter how much a person experiences, it cannot resolve the choice of faith within him. Abel obtained witness that he was righteous. Even when someone was angry with him, it could not affect his faith. Moses suffered greatly. The Israelites even wanted to stone him to death. Yet he continued to believe in God. Do not begin to disbelieve because others are angry, or because you experience a little misfortune. That is deeply tragic.

Cain’s Prosperous Descendants Could Not Affect Abel’s Faith

When we see Cain’s anger, we still hold fast to faith. That is what we must imitate. Abel’s faith was built upon God. What he cared about was not the things of this world. In the spiritual realm, what you see is entirely different from what you see in this world. Even if you see Cain’s descendants prospering and becoming founders of various trades, you will not be shaken.

How easily we are disturbed by the things of this world. We see others prosper in their work. We see that what we do is blessed, yet it seems inferior to the founders of some trade. But our hope is not in this world at all. When Adam and Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel, did they tell them the story of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Yes, they did.

Cain heard the story of eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but he merely heard it. He thought it was simply a matter of distinguishing good from evil. Abel heard it and thought, “I must live by God.” Whether man lives by God or lives by earthly things makes an enormous difference. I am trying very hard to make this clear to you, but I often feel I have not made it clear enough. That is why I sometimes take a little longer.

What was Abel thinking? He was thinking, “My future is not on this earth. My future is to return to God. I cannot be separated from God. I cannot be like my parents, who ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then laboured and toiled merely to fill their stomachs. I will begin to live by God.”

Therefore, brothers and sisters, you must begin to make choices in these matters.

Many people find satisfaction in the things of this world. Abel’s satisfaction, however, came from God. He had a very clear logic for living: “I do not want to live by my own effort. I live by God’s blessing.” Cain worked hard and was highly diligent, but Abel chose to live by God’s blessing.

Though Abel Died, He Still Speaks

Though Abel died, he still speaks. Can you understand that? Does Cain speak after he died? Whatever he says is useless. Abel died, but while he lived, he carried the hope of eternal life. That is what it means to trust God. Why did he offer sacrifices to God? Why did he trust God? Why did he fix his eyes on God? Because within him was a hope in eternity.

How could one who was blessed be killed? Was Abel cursed? No. Jesus was also killed. Which prophet was not killed? Many prophets were killed. That is not a curse. It is because man’s hope is not in this world at all.

Therefore, Cain’s prosperity had nothing to do with Abel. Cain’s hard work, diligence, and wealth had nothing to do with Abel. Abel died, and suddenly we discover that although he died, he still speaks words of faith. When did you ever see Joseph complain after he was sold into Egypt? Never. When did you ever see Jesus Christ complain as He was crucified for us? Never. For He was born for this, and He came into this world for this.

If our hope is in this world, you will think Abel’s death was a great pity. But if your hope is in eternity, you are a spiritual person. Though you die, you still speak. I tell you, the human spirit lives forever. Either a person’s spirit returns to God, or it goes down to hell.

We do not yet understand these matters fully. But while we live in this world, we offer sacrifices to God by faith, we are justified by faith, and we are blessed by faith. Though we leave this world, we do not care very much about the manner in which we leave. Our hope is not in this world. Our hope is in eternity.

Therefore, though we die, we still speak. A person of faith does not believe merely for blessings in this life. A person of faith believes in salvation in eternity. He believes that God will save us from death forever.

Lack of Faith Is the Root of All Problems

This is how human beings are. Observe it for yourself. It is deeply tragic when people have no faith. Human faith is strange. It is not that people have never experienced God. People believe, experience God, then turn around and stop believing again. This is very common. It is just like the Israelites who fell in the wilderness. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith is learned. Faith is a choice. Faith can receive testimony and experience God.

Brothers and sisters, let us begin to imitate this faith. Abel’s faith was such that even if he died, he would not say, “Why did this happen?” There is no “why.” Does God not govern everything concerning us? Much of what we experience is hardship brought about by unbelief. Much else is the practising of faith in hardship, coming out of hardship, and walking all the way into eternity.

Joseph did not complain when he was sold into Egypt. Therefore, brothers and sisters, you must know that lack of faith is the root of all problems. If you do not know what faith is, then imitate. Imitate the faith of Jesus, the faith of the Apostle Paul, and the faith of Abel. These are giants of faith. Did Abel know that his brother wanted to kill him? Yes, he did.

Then why did he still allow himself to be killed? I tell you: because he desperately wanted to bring his brother into blessing. He continually exhorted his brother: “Brother, you must believe God.” In the end, he was killed.

What did God send prophets to do? To warn the Israelites: “This is the path of curse. That is the path of blessing.” Yet they killed the prophets.

Jesus Christ came and told us: this is the path of life, this is the path of eternity, this is the path of glory. Yet they killed Jesus Christ. Why? Because people set their eyes on this present life. The logical system of this world is therefore deeply detestable.

That concludes our sermon. May God bless you all.