I. WORKING ON HIS SAINTS FROM ABEL TO NOAH
A. After Saving Adam, God Continuing
to Work on Some of His Descendants
Who Took God’s Way of Life
After saving Adam, God continued to work on some of his descendants who took God’s way of life based upon the principle of the tree of life and became God’s saints according to God’s election. These particular descendants of Adam were separated people, sanctified unto God according to God’s election, God’s choosing.
We saw in the previous message that Genesis 3 reveals that God works to save lost and fallen sinners. Following that, God continues to work on His saints who take His way of life. Abel lived a model of the Christian life as a full-timer who was absolutely for God. But do you believe that without God’s moving on and with Abel, Abel could have been a person who was living God full time? He could be such a person only because God moved and worked on him, through him, and with him. He was a fallen person, a fallen descendant of Adam, yet he could live such a life. It would have been impossible for him to do this by himself without any kind of support. Abel’s doing was not by himself; it was God who worked on him and made him such a person.
We cannot serve the Lord as full-timers by ourselves. In ourselves and by ourselves we cannot make it. In ourselves and by ourselves we would already have given up long ago. Paul said, "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10). Paul was what he was because of the sufficient grace of Christ (2 Cor. 12:9). It is the grace of Christ that has made us what we are in Him. If Abel were here today, he would say that the very God whom he worshipped made him such a person. This is God’s work. God produced people who would take His way of life based upon the principle of the tree of life. Otherwise, God would have no testimony on this earth. The beginning of the Bible shows us a person named Abel who can be considered as the first full-timer on this earth to live God. This was God’s work to produce such a person.
1. God Having Respect
unto Abel and His Offering
God had respect unto Abel and his offering (Gen. 4:4). The word respect is a weighty word. If we respect someone, this means a lot. God, the Creator, gave respect to a person, His creature. If the President of the United States has respect for a person, this is an honor to him. Genesis shows us God’s work in giving respect to Abel, one of His creatures. Such a fallen person received the salvation and the sustaining power from God to be a person living for Him. Abel was the first person to be honored and respected by God. At that time he was the most glorious person on earth. All of us should aspire to be like Abel. All of the full-timers should be Abels.
(The History of God in His Union With Man, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)
