Abraham - Walking in Faith

How do you claim the land? By faith. How do you exercise that faith? We must have ongoing feet that just step out by faith and claim our inheritance in the Lord.

Let's pray together. Father, our great desire today is that we understand the word of God and then do it. It's so easy for us to study and to listen and to learn and to take notes, but it's so hard for us sometimes to put it into practice. Now help us to put it into practice. Help us to make a difference in the world today, in our neighborhood, in our family, wherever we may be. Oh God. And Lord, some of our people are discouraged today. I pray that you'll encourage them. Help them not to look at themselves, but to look at your wonderful Son and realize how much they have in Him. Now bless our study of the Word, we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and for His sake, Amen.

The first lesson that you and I must learn in the school of faith is how to walk by faith. We're not going to be very successful warring by faith until we learn how to walk. You must walk before you can stand and face the enemy. Now you find the walk of faith illustrated specifically in the life of Abraham, and in particular in Genesis 12 and Genesis 13. 

Faith brings us out, we read in Genesis 12:1-4. The Lord said to Abram, "Get out, get out of your country, and I'm going to bless you and make you a great nation." Faith brings us out. That's salvation. And then faith brings us in, Genesis 12:5-9. Abraham arrived at his inheritance. When you trusted Christ as your Savior, you were blessed immediately with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. He has brought you out that He might bring you in. He called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. He translated you out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Faith brings us in. 

Now sometimes we don't always obey the Lord and, like Abraham, we have a lapse of faith and we disobey. Then what? Well, faith brings us back. It comes as a surprise to some people that faith is always tested. God sees to it that every Christian is tested in his faith because the only way faith can grow is through testing. Testing is the exercise for the muscles of your soul. True faith is always tested by the Lord. Now when the Lord tests you, He knows just how long and just how much. I have often said that when God puts us into the furnace, He keeps His eye on the clock and He keeps His hands on the thermostat. He knows how long and He knows how much.

In Genesis 12, Abram is tested by circumstances and there he failed. There was a famine in the land, and Abraham went down to Egypt and he got into trouble. He was walking by sight instead of walking by faith. He was living selfishly instead of for the glory of God. And he got into trouble. He was chastened for it. In fact, he paid for it for the rest of his life in one way or another. The consequences of a believer sinning are very serious. Christians cannot sin and get away with it. Well, but faith brings us back. And he went back to Bethel and back to where his tent had been, back to where he'd been at the beginning, and he built an altar and there he worshiped the Lord. 

Well, no sooner is he right with the Lord again than a new problem comes along and he is tested. He was tested by circumstances with the famine in the land; now he's tested by people—his family, Lot. And Lot had a lot of flocks and herds, and Lot was a wealthy man. Some of this he got down in Egypt and it caused strife. And so Abraham tells Lot to make his decision which way he wants to go, and he gives Lot first choice. That was a very gracious thing on the part of Abraham. That's the way to solve problems—just step aside and let God take care of it for you. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: a mind of submission, a mind of cooperation and love. 

Well, Lot separated himself from Abraham, went down towards Sodom. And where does that leave Abraham? You know, somebody looking at this scene would say, "Well Abraham, you are a fool. To begin with, you are the older of the two, you should have first choice. You are the spiritual leader." And Abram says, "No, no, that's not the way we're going to do it. I'm going to practice what the word of God tells me to do. I own the whole land anyway, what difference does it make? I'm the heir of all of this and my descendants are going to have this land. I'm not going to worry about Lot. God will take care of the whole situation." 

Now in Genesis 13:14, we read that faith brings us on. After he'd been through the testing of the famine and the testing of the family, now he's going to go through a special time with the Lord. By the way, it's afterward that we get the blessing. No chastening for the present seems joyful, it's grievous. These problems we go through are not entertaining, but they are enriching. And afterward is when we get the blessing. "Nevertheless, afterward," says Hebrews 12, "it yields that peaceable fruit of righteousness." We become more like the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's read about how faith brings us on. Genesis 13:14: "And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: 'Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.' Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the Lord." 

Faith brings us on. Life is not always problems, life is not always disputes and strife and difficulties. Here we have a beautiful parenthesis in the life of Abraham when he's fellowshiping with the Lord and enjoying very, very special blessing. Well, we must never stand still in the Christian life. We're learning how to walk by faith. And the faith that brings us out and brings us in, the faith that brings us back and brings us through, wants to bring us on.

The book of Hebrews is based on this idea: let us go on to maturity. You say, "Well, I'm standing still in my Christian life." No you are not, you cannot stand still in the Christian life. We are either going forward by faith or going backward in unbelief. There's no such thing as standing still. Going on in the Christian life, continuing to walk with the Lord, involves the whole person. It involves all that we are and all that we have. Now if you and I are going to go on by faith in the Christian life, what are the essentials? What is required of us? Well, Abraham answers that question for us. 

Number one, an obedient will. Genesis 13:14: "And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him." Now you'll recall that when God called Abraham, He called him to leave his family, his country, his kindred. You find that in Genesis 12: "Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father's house." Well, if you look at Genesis 11:27-32, you'll discover that Abraham did not obey completely. When he left, he took his father with him and some of his relatives, and then his brother died and then his father died. And when Abraham finally left Haran, he took Lot with him. Now I can understand that; Lot was his family. Lot was an orphan, so to speak, his father had died. Abraham did not have any children. It would have been logical to take his nephew along—except for one thing: God said you shouldn't do it.

There's an interesting statement in the book of Isaiah 51:2. The prophet is speaking to the people of Judah and he says, "Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him." You see, God started with the least possible number: one. And then Abraham had his wife: two. But both of them were old and beyond the age of having children, so you really had zero as far as humanity is concerned. But God called him alone. Often God does that. When God's going to do a work, He calls somebody alone and then He gives that person the vision, and then He adds to that person the people needed to carry out the vision. 

An obedient will. Finally, Abraham is alone. You know, there's a tendency on the part of all of us to depend on human nature. Abraham was this way. After a while, Sarah says to him, "You know we don't have any children, why don't you get another wife?" And so he's going to marry Hagar. Hagar's going to give birth to Ishmael. And one day Abraham is going to say, "Oh that Ishmael might live before thee!" But God didn't want Lot, and God didn't want an Ishmael; He had it all planned for Isaac. God was going to do a miracle in their lives. An obedient will. God asks for obedience, and obedience is an evidence of faith. The book of Hebrews says, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out to a country he did not know, obeyed." By faith he obeyed. Faith is not simply knowledge in the mind, and faith is not simply feeling in the emotion; faith is the obedience of the will. And if we're going to go on in the Christian life, we must have an obedient will.

Blessed is the man, or the woman for that matter, who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, who doesn't stand in the way of sinners, who doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful—separated. Lot was separated from Abraham. An obedient will—that's the first essential if you and I are going to go on in our walk of faith. 

Secondly, an open ear. I notice in Genesis 13:14: "And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him." And then God spoke to him. Now we don't read that God spoke to him down in Egypt. We don't read that God had any special message for him there. But now He talks to him. Obedience is the organ of spiritual understanding. Jesus said, "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." You say, "Well, I want to know the word of God better." Then obey Him. Do the thing you know He wants you to do. What does He want me to do? What's the next thing? You know what God wants you to do; He'll tell you. An open ear.

Now faith depends on the word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, Romans 10:17. Faith and the word of God must go together. In fact, the Bible is called the word of faith. It is the word that generates faith. It is the word that strengthens faith. It is the word that reveals God's will to us. It is this word of God that relates us to God. If you and I were together in your home and we were going to have fellowship, we would talk to each other. We would listen to each other. This is the way we relate to each other. And God gives to us the power to obey through faith, and that faith comes from the word of God. It's a marvelous thing. When you get into the word of God and saturate your mind and your heart with the word of God, then your faith increases. But when you ignore the word, then faith cannot grow. He had an open ear. 

There's an interesting statement about the Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah 50:4. Isaiah 50, beginning at verse 4. Now this is a Messianic passage. Isaiah 50:4: "The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary." That's a good thing to have. How do you get it? "He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away." This is the Lord Jesus. Early each morning He awakened and He listened to His Father's will. He had fellowship with the Father. An open ear. Now if you and I are going to go on in this life of faith, we're going to have to have an open ear, open to the word of God.

In Matthew 13:9, the Lord Jesus said, "Take heed that you hear. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear." We must hear the word of God. In Mark 4:24 He says, "Take heed what you hear." There's some things I won't listen to because I want to have my ear open to the word of God. Luke 8:18 says, "Take heed how you hear." Right now, how are you listening? Are you attentive to the word of God, or are we giving to the Lord just a part of our attention? I had a letter from a listener and I appreciated the letter, but she said she did a crossword puzzle while she listened to me teach. Well, I'd prefer she open her Bible and just follow along in the word of God, because it's hard to do a crossword puzzle and listen to the word of God. 

An obedient will, an open ear. Thirdly, an observing eye. He says, "Lift up your eyes now." In verse 10, Lot had lifted up his eyes; he was walking by sight. But God was saying to Abraham, "By faith now, you just lift up your eyes and look. You see all of this land, I'm going to give it to you." Let God give you your inheritance. In fact, that's what He says in Psalm 47:4. You ought to mark that verse in your Bible. Psalm 47:4: "He will choose our inheritance for us, the excellence of Jacob whom He loves." Let God choose your inheritance for you. Let God put you where He wants you. He says to us, "Now lift up your eyes and see all that I have for you. I've given it to you. It's yours." An observing eye. God shows us what He wants to give to us. 

Well, there's a fourth essential, I think, if we're going to go on in this walk of faith, and that is an ongoing walk. That is a courageous walk, lifting up our feet and claiming what God has given to us. Genesis 13:17: "Arise, walk in the land. Lift up your eyes and see, lift up your feet and claim all that I have for you." This is almost the same thing He said to Joshua. Joshua 1:2: "Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses." And He said that to Moses back in Deuteronomy 11:24, almost in the same words. How do you claim the land? By faith. How do you exercise that faith? By stepping out. Just step out by faith. A courageous ongoing walk. It's not enough to have an open ear. Not enough to have observing eyes. We must have ongoing feet that just step out by faith and claim our inheritance in the Lord. 

Now I appreciate this because the easiest thing to do is to read about it. It's so nice to sit in your cozy chair at home and read books about beautiful places far away. But that's not quite the same as being there. At breakfast you don't sit and read the ingredients listed on the side of the box of cereal. You could die doing that. You eat the cereal. And God is saying to us through Abraham, "Look, lift up your feet and move. I've given this land to you; now claim it for yourself." 

Now where does all of this end? Suppose you do have an obedient will and an open ear and observing eye and ongoing feet, claiming what God is giving to you. Well, you'll end up doing what he does: he worships the Lord. Genesis 13:18: "Then Abram moved." Some people don't like to move. I may be speaking to someone right now and you've got to make a decision—should you move? Well, if God is guiding you, you move. You move by faith. The ongoing changes in our lives that come through faith. I don't like change; I like things to move along in an orderly fashion. I like to be comfortable in what I'm doing. But sometimes God shifts things, He changes things. "Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre." Mamre means fatness, the richness of his fellowship with the Lord. "Which are in Hebron"—Hebron means fellowship. "And built an altar there to the Lord." Here he is worshiping the Lord with his tent and his altar. The tent is telling everybody, "I'm a stranger in this land." The pilgrim life of Abraham. This is Abraham's life: the tent and the altar. The tent says, "I'm a pilgrim," and the altar says, "I belong to God." One balances the other. The tent says, "I don't belong to this world," the altar says, "I belong to the next world, I belong to God." Lift up your eyes and look, lift up your feet and walk, lift up your heart and worship. The altar is saying my citizenship is someplace else. I worship the true and the living God. Faith brings us on. 

And you know, it's a good thing faith does bring us on. Abraham had to get over his hurt because of Lot. Lot had hurt him deeply. He was grieved over Lot. His disappointment was there. But God said, "Look Abraham, let's keep on moving. Don't stand still, don't sit there and nurse your wounds. Let's get moving. Build an altar, Abraham. Let's have a worship time together and let's witness to the people around us." Furthermore, God was getting Abraham ready for the big battle in Genesis 14. You and I have no idea what battles lie before us. So if you want to be able to carry the burdens of life and deal with the bruises of life, if you want to be able to face the battles of life, you'd better have an obedient will, an open ear to the word of God, an observing eye—the vision of what He's given to you—and ongoing feet that step out by faith and claim the blessing.