Let us again go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we bow before thee and ask thee that tonight we may learn something of what it is to live by faith. We're conscious that except the Lord build a house, they labor in vain that build, And that without faith it is impossible to please thee. So give us our God the ability to grasp truth tonight as we study together for the Lord Jesus' sake. Amen. When you trusted Christ as your personal Savior, automatically, instantly, and without your suggestion, you were enrolled in the school of faith. God automatically enrolled you in the School of Faith. Now the School of Faith is a difficult school and you won't graduate until you get the glory. Life is a classroom where you work, where you live, and the Bible is a textbook. The faculty is Hebrews chapter eleven. And if you want to meet the dean of the faculty, he's a man by the name of Abraham who walked by faith one hundred years. Now, for the next few Lord's Day evenings, apart from next Lord's Day evening, our brother David Morris will be with you next Sunday night because I'm going to be in gospel meetings at Apple's Chapel. But we want to examine the subject of faith. from the book of Genesis, from the life of Abraham. In chapter twelve of the book of Genesis we have in chapter thirteen, how to live by faith. Excuse me, yes, how to live by faith or how to walk by faith. Then in chapters fourteen and fifteen we have how to war by faith. Then in chapters sixteen and seventeen, two of those difficult chapters. Two that I have an awful lot of trouble with, how to wait by faith. I'm impatient. I'm impatient. But chapters sixteen and seventeen of Genesis teach us how to wait by faith. Then when you come to chapters eighteen and nineteen, you have how to work by faith. And then in chapters twenty through twenty-two, how to worship by faith. Now, in Genesis chapter twelve and thirteen, these chapters teach us that if we're going to walk by faith, we must understand five ministries that faith provides for us. And faith performs these five ministries for us as we seek to walk with the Lord. So let us begin our reading in chapter twelve. and we'll read the first four verses. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house, into a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great. And thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And indeed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Heron. He was seventy-five when he departed from Heron. He was one hundred seventy-five when he died. So he walked with the Lord for one hundred years. How to walk by faith. Well, the first ministry that faith provides for us is faith brings us out. That's what you have in these verses that we read together. Now, you can always tell a person who is walking by faith when you examine his ears. You must pay attention to the man who is walking by faith by examining his ears. Abraham heard God's call. And that's so important. He heard God's call. If you're going to walk with the Lord by faith, you have to have ears that are sensitive to the Word of God because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Romans chapter ten and verse seventeen. Over and over again in our Lord's earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus said, He who has ears to hear Let him hear. Very important message. And seven times over in Revelation chapters two and three, the Spirit of God says, He that appears to hear, let him hear. God's voice came to Abraham. And notice, Abraham didn't receive explanation. He received promises. Get out, Abraham. And then God said, I will, I will, I will. And later on in the chapter, God adds another, I will to it. I will. Now, if you're going to walk by faith, don't go around looking for explanations. You don't live by explanations. You live by promise. God doesn't owe me one explanation. But God is great. gives me promises. When you start to walk by faith, hearing the word of God, God says, I will show you. That's what he said to Abram. He said, get thee out from thy kindred, from thy father's house. I will show thee. I will show. You take the first step, and then I will show you what is the next step, and I will show you what is the next, and so on. Now the world says, show me, and I will believe. But God says, believe me, and I will show you, and I will make. What a difference. You see, in chapter eleven of Genesis, you have the children of men who had journeyed to the plain of Shinar. God told them to spread about upon the face of the earth. They said, no, we're not going to. We're going to stay right here. We're going to build us a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and we're going to make ourselves a name. That's what they said they were going to do, but they didn't. Because God came down to view the city and the tower which the children of men had built, and he confounded their languages and scattered men abroad upon the face of the earth. But God says to Abram, I will. And one of the things he said to him, I'm going to make your name great. The people in rebellion at the tower of Babel, they said, we're going to make a name for ourselves. God says to Abram, I'm going to make a name for you. What a difference. What a difference. Now, if you want God to make you, start living by faith. Faith takes you out as your ears are open to the voice of God. I will show. I will make. I will bless. Now, why does God do this? Why does God do this? Well, he did that in order that Abraham might be a blessing. And God blesses us in order that we might be a blessing. We have today in the church too much of this personal, individualistic Christianity that says, I want a blessing, not I want to be a blessing. There's a big difference. Oh, what a difference. God blesses you in order that you might bless others. You're a channel. You're not a reservoir. God comforts us in order that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble. Faith brings us out. You can tell a man of faith by his ear. He hears the voice of God. But you can also tell a man of faith by his eyes. Acts chapter seven says that the God of glory appeared unto Abraham. That's what it says in that great sermon by Stephen. God's glory was revealed somehow to Abraham. And Abraham began to look for a city. The glory of God affected his eyes. He got his eyes off of Erdogan. He got his eyes off of Sodom. Sodom didn't attract Abraham. He lifted up his eyes high above the horizon. And Hebrews eleven says he looked for a city. that have foundations whose builder and maker is God. You see, you can not only tell a man of faith by his ears, you can tell a man of faith by his eyes. For the eyes of the man of faith, they measure the present by the future. They measure the immediate by the ultimate. They are evaluating the things of this life by the heavenly glory. that's yet to be not to the world they're eccentric the man of faith is eccentric and to the church the man of faith is eccentric because you don't find many people in the church today who are living by faith the average church member today does not live by faith But beloved, you and I know that once we've seen the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, nothing else really matters. Nothing else really matters. You can tell a man of faith by his eyes. Not only can you tell a man of faith by his ears and by his eyes, but you can tell a man of faith by his feet, his feet. Hebrews eleven says, By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed. His feet. Trust and obey, we sang. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. It doesn't say that Abraham had feelings. But by faith Abraham, he obeyed. Now what did Abraham do? He picked up one foot and put it in front of the other. Well, that's a rather simple thing to do, isn't it? But you see, faith touches the ordinary things of life. Faith is not believing in spite of the evidence. Faith is believing in spite of the circumstances. Faith is believing in spite of the consequences on the outside or feelings on the inside. That's faith. Faith is obedient, no matter what the consequences are on the outside. Or how I feel about it. On the inside. Faith. You see, when you walk by faith, faith brings you out. Faith brings you out. I'd like to ask you a question tonight. Do you need to be brought out? Do you need to be brought out? Are you somewhere? Or are you in something? And God says, I can't bless you. And I can't make you a blessing unless you come out. Are you? Now you know. Faith brings us out. That's the first thing, first ministry that faith does in relation to the child of God in the school of faith. Faith brings us out. But then second, the second ministry, faith brings us in. Faith brings us up, and faith brings us in. Notice Genesis chapter twelve, verse five. And Abraham, or Abram took Sarah, his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Heron, and they ran forth into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came. Faith brought him out in order that it might bring him in. And we read verse six, and Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sychem, unto the plain of Moray. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said unto thy seed, Will I give this land? And there builded him an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel. and pitched his tent having Bethel on the west and Hayai on the east. And there he built it an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. Faith brings us in. Some believers are ever going out. The only sign they ever see in the door is exit. But God brings us out in order that he might bring us in. Separation is positive, beloved, not negative. There are doors that say entrance. Some people are in a revolving door. They are standing in the same place. They're going nowhere. And that's a shame. It is possible as a believer to be in a revolving door. You're going nowhere just around in circles. Faith brings us in. God calls us out in order that he might bring us in. When he got into the land, he did two very important things. And these things are very important. First of all, he pitched his tent. And second, he built an altar. Wherever you find Abram, you find two things that go together. His tent. and his altar. Now you can always tell a pilgrim by his ears, his eyes, his feet, and his tent. The tent speaks of the fact that he's a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth. It speaks of the fact that we are very temporary. You and I live in a tent. Second Corinthians chapter five, verse one says, Therefore we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, if the tent of this tabernacle, if our earthly tent be dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands. In other words, I live in a tent. God likens the body of a child of God to a tent that can be taken down very easily. So I'm living in a tent. I'm very temporary. Abraham moved that tent whenever and wherever God sent him. Not a lot. He moved into a city. Now you can't move a city. And it's pretty hard to move a triplex home or a tri-level home from the city. But a tent. A tent can be picked up. A tent can be taken down. A tent can be relocated. Abraham was a man of faith because he lived in a tent. Are you prepared to move if God asks you to? How prepared are you to do the will of God? Or are your tent pegs in concrete? You're removable. You poured concrete over the tent pegs. God can't move you. Isn't it amazing? Abram was seventy-five years old when God moved him. He was seventy-five years old. Now you can tell a pilgrim not only by his tent, but also by his altar. For wherever Abraham went, he pitched his tent and then he built his altar. The tent. You see, that was his relation to the world. His tent. His altar. That was his relation to God. These two things always spoke well of Abraham. Now the tent without the altar is meaningless. And the altar without the tent doesn't say anything. You can have either one or the other and it's meaningless. It's like our brother Adrian passed prayer this morning. He said, Lord, deliver us from being Christians that carry our Bibles under our arms on a Sunday. But we never tell anybody how to be saved. The tent without the altar is meaningless. And the altar without the tent doesn't say anything. You see, people watched Abram at this altar. They could have said, you see, the Canaanite was done in the land. The Parasite was there. The Amorite was there. They could have looked at Abram and they could have said, what's he doing? He said, well, he's worshiping God, but I can't see his God. Well, his God's invisible. His God is in heaven. Well, Abram must do what God tells him to do. Maybe that's why he moves so much. He's simply obeying God. Now, if I'm moving around, but I don't have an altar, I have no testimony. But if I have an altar and am not moving around, I have no consistency. The two go together. You can always tell a pilgrim by his tent and his altar. Now this is a balance in the Christian life. God balances the Christian life. God brings me out that he might bring me in. And every time he brings me out, I got to leave some baggage behind. Mark Twain said something quite interesting. You see, he said a move is equivalent to a good fire. A move is equivalent to a good fire. It usually gets rid of a lot of baggage. Oh, the baggage that we accumulate, not only in our attics and in our basements, but in our lives. baggage excess baggage faith brings us out and faith brings us in but faith does something else it brings us back faith brings us back here's a third of these things and we read in verse nine and Abram journeyed going on still towards the south and there was a famine in the land And Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land. And it came to pass when he was come near to enter into Egypt. He said unto Sarah his wife, Behold, now I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon. Therefore it shall come to pass when the Egyptians shall see thee. They shall say, This is his wife, and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee that thou art my sister, that it may be well with me. for my sake. And thy soul shall live because, and my soul shall live because of thee. And it came to pass that when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her and commended her before Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And he entreated Abram well for her sake. And he had sheep and oxen and asses and men servants and maid servants. and she asses and camels. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh in his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife. Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this thou hast done? Unto me, why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why should, why saidest thou, she is my sister? So I might have taken her to me the wife. Now therefore behold thy wife, take her and go thy way. And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had. And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and lot with him into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the south, even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Heiah. unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. Faith not only brings us out, faith brings us in, but thanks be unto God, faith brings us back. Here under trial Abram falls flat on his face. He goes down to Egypt because there's a famine in the land. He went, when God brought him out, he went to the place that God told him of. Could you imagine God leading us into a place where there's going to be a famine? Boy, something is wrong with my formula. for discovering the will of God. If God leads a man to a place where there's a famine, most people today think that if you're walking in the will of God, you'll never have any scars, you'll never have any difficulties, there'll never be a famine, there'll never be anything like that. Well, you see, beloved, if I understand the truth of the will of God, if I understand this truth, in the school of faith, there must be examinations. God gives exams in the school of faith. God brings me out. Then he brings me in. And when he brings me in, he has to test me. And if you just drift along and you're never tested and your faith has never brought the grips with the God that you claim you serve, you better examine your faith, see if it's genuine or if it isn't. You see it. Now, the difference is this. After we fail the exam, then we know what the subject was. That's usually the way it works in the School of Faith. You see, in school, we know what the subject is, and often we fail the exam. There's a famine in the land, and Abram went down. He went down to Egypt. Now, Bible geography, friends, is inspired. bible geography is inspired no man ever went down to jerusalem in when you go to jerusalem it is always up let us go up to jerusalem it's always up but whenever you go in in scripture to egypt you go down because egypt in scripture is a type of the world egypt is a picture of the world when moses gave his parting message to the children of Israel in that book called The Book of Deuteronomy, for that's what it is. He said to them, Now the land into which you're going is not like the land of Egypt. When God brought the children of Israel to Canaan land, he said it's not like the land of Egypt. To get out of Egypt, you have to go up. And beloved, if you want to get out of the world, you have to go up. If you want to get into the world, you have to go down. Always. Always you go down. You see, the land of Egypt was flat and monotonous. Canaan was a land of hills and valleys. Nor there are people who always cry out. God, give me a mountain top experience. They don't realize that once you get up on top of the mountain on the other side, there has to be a valley. There's always a valley that follows a mountain top. The other side of the mountain is a valley. But if you want monotony, you have to go back to Egypt. If you want monotony, you have to go back to the world. I always feel sorry for unsaved people. I feel sorry for people who have never been saved. Their life is so monotonous. So monotonous. They always need a bigger dose of something. to make life interesting. They always need it. They're never at rest. They never know the joy of Isaiah twenty six and three. Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind he stayed on thee. It's so monotonous. Oh, may God deliver us from Egypt and the monotonous life that the world has day by day. Now the child of God doesn't have that problem. The land to which we're going is a land of hills and valleys. Sometimes we're climbing. Sometimes we're resting. Sometimes we're in the valley. But our God is the God of the valley as well as the God of the hills. The land into which I'm bringing you is a land of hills and valleys. Now Abram, he went down into Egypt because he was running away. Do you ever try running away? Jonah did. It's interesting in the first chapter of the book of Jonah how many times Jonah went down. went down he went down he went down Abram was running away you see now the same temptation Abraham faced here in the land of Egypt you and I faced in the life of faith what was it the temptation to run number one and temptation to lie a twofold temptation A temptation to run and a temptation to lie. It is written to believers in Ephesians chapter four, lie not one to another. Let every man speak the truth with his neighbor. The sad part about a half-truth, it's shaded. You never know the whole thing. You see, when Abram got down to Egypt, he lied about his wife. Did you notice verse twelve? Oh, there's something so important in verse twelve, if you miss it. You miss it. He says, Therefore it shall come to pass that when the Egyptians shall see thee, they shall say. You see, Abram was moving away from the I will of God to the they will of people. And if you're worried about what they shall say, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. Abram was. He was worried about they will instead of the I will. Up to this point, Abram had heard God say, I will, I will, I will. And he believed the promises. But now he's talking about they will. Proverbs chapter twenty-nine and verse twenty-five says, The fear of man bringeth a snare. If you can believe God's I will, you can forget about people. If you can believe God's I will, friends, you can forget about people. Abraham lied. Abraham got into trouble. Abraham was rebuked by Pharaoh. Isn't it an awful thing? when a child of God has to be rebuked by a man of the world. Abraham went up out of Egypt. We read in chapter thirteen verse one. He went up out of Egypt. You know why? Faith brings us back. It not only brings us up and brings us in, but it brings us back. You know where he went? He went to the place he had been at the first. He went to Bethel. or he went to the place of the altar and the tent, where his altar had been at the beginning, having Bethel, the house of God, on the one hand, and Hayah, a heap of rubbish on the other. Now I've read a lot of books on the victorious Christian life, and I've listened to a lot of sermons on the victorious Christian life, and I believe there's such a thing as a life of victory. I don't always agree with the victorious life creatures, however, because there's one thing they do that never sits right with me, never does, because I believe the life of victory is for every child of God. This is a victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. I believe Alexander White, that blessed Scotsman who gave us White's Bible characters and Bunyan's characters. A great writer. If you've never read White's Bible characters, you should read some of them at least. It's a series of books about, oh, seven or eight in length, seven or eight volumes. Oh, my, to read him on Barzilia in the Old Testament. It's worth the price of the book. Well, anyway, Alexander White gave the best definition I know for the victorious Christian life. And it's so simple, you'll notice it when I mention it. This is what he said. He said, the victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. Isn't that simple? The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. God brings me up that he might bring me in, and then he brings me back when I fail an examination. And it is a new beginning with God. So you failed. So you failed. You went down to Egypt. You lied. And you know, whenever that happens to us, the old devil comes along and he says to us, you're finished. You're finished. But you see, faith comes along and it says, no, you're not. I bring you back. Faith brings us back. And it's an amazing thing. Abraham came back to where? The father's house. For that's what Bethel means, the house of God. He's the first prodigal in the Bible who came back to the father's house. For he was a prodigal living in Egypt. See, it doesn't matter how much you sin, whether it's a sin of just telling a lie or whether it's a sin of living with a pig. Doesn't make any difference. He's a prodigal who came back. You see, I wonder tonight, is there somebody here who needs to come back? Before you went into sin, the devil said, you can get away with it. But then when you sinned, The old devil comes to you and he says, but you can never get away with that. Oh, beloved, listen tonight. The same faith that brought you up and that brought you in brings you back. And Abraham came to the place he had been at the first between the Bethel and Hayai. Bethel means house of God. Hayai means heap of ruins. And the child of God who's walking by faith has his eye on the house of God, the place where God dwells. For his ear is in tune to the word of God. His eyes are seeking the glory of God. His feet are walking in obedience to God. And he's looking to God as a stranger and a pilgrim in the earth. Where's his back? His back is on a heap of ruins. That's where I came from. When faith brought me out, I came out of a ruined life, a life that was ruined by sin. And I heard the message of God's complete remedy in Christ. And faith brought me out. I simply believed on our Lord Jesus Christ, the message that Christ died for my sins, that he was buried, and that he arose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Then faith brought me in. He brought me up and he might bring me in and he brought me into the family of God. I'll tell you something. It often brought me back. Oh, the blessed truth. He restores my soul. There are two more sections I'd like to take up. But if I do, I'm going to be in trouble. So I'm going to stop just a few moments early tonight, but I want to ask you a question. In fact, I want to ask you three. Do you need to be brought up tonight? Are you somewhere into something that God wants to deliver you from? Faith brings us out. Do you need to be brought back tonight? You might be living in Egypt. And all the temptation that Egypt gives. You might be there. And oh when we get to the next section we're going to have a lot to say about this. A lot to say. Does God need to bring you back? Where did you go astray? That's the very place he's going to bring you back to. He brought Abram right back to the place he left. He left the tent and the altar. God brings us out. Faith brings us out. These are great ministries faith provides. It brings us out. It brings us in. And it brings us back. Now let's pray. Oh God our Father, we thank you for the life of faith. We thank you for the school of faith. We pray that these things will not simply be something that we go over in our minds and we know them well. We're not going over new truth, but going over necessary truth. And we ask you to graciously take the word and bless it to each of our hearts. Bring us out. Bring us in. Bring us back. And may we know the joy.