charisbarak

1. Knowing the promises 2. Knowing the promise maker A faith that lacks either element is not real faith. Faith is knowing the promises & knowing the promise maker and living your life in obedience to Him.

The content of the J./C. faith is a living God. All other "faiths" are generally what can be seen or in the lies of the enemy. The basis of Noah's faith was his belief in God & his obedience to our living God's directions. The basis of our faith is what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross for us & our actions because of this. Our faith grows as we spend more & more time in the Word & getting to know HIM!

The 2nd is knowing God will reward those who seek Him. To seek is to search & discover what you can about God in the Word. This would be a consuming desire to seek Him. This is where a true relationship with God exists. Knowing the facts without action being taken is foolish & not rewarding!

Faith is knowing what the Truth is, believing it & knowing for sure that it will be fulfilled one day.

Perseverance in our faith is difficult sometimes because of the trials we must go through. It is important because we need to finish the race & earn the rewards. Christian fellowship helps us to persevere--by encouraging each other--to spur us on! Keep our eyes on Jesus & help others to make it through their trials too. Love each other.

When you continually deliberately sin, it is actually a life-style--an insult to God. This is speaking about apostasy, not weakness of the flesh. In 10:29: trample Jesus underfoot, treated blood of covenant as an unholy thing, and insulted the Spirit of Grace---show it is apostasy.

The prime motive for meeting together is worshipping God. We worship God when we obey his commandments. He wants us to encourage each other & has given us gifts so we can do this. Our usual motivation is "me" and what can I get out of it? Christians get out of the habit because they choose other activities and don't stop to think about being an encourager of others. We can help them by praying for them & inviting them to join in.

The veil separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy place in the tabernacle. Only the high priest could enter, and only at specific times in the year. When the veil was ripped in two at Jesus' crucifixion Jesus' sacrifice made the way to God. The curtain/veil was not needed anymore. Our access to God is the new & living way because we don't have to go through a priest or any other means to speak to God ourselves & Jesus is our ever-living priest!

The blood of bulls & goats only satisfied the requirement of God for each sin & had to be done every time they sinned. But Jesus, the greater Lamb, fulfilled this requirement for all time & through & through. Those saved out of the early sacrifices are saved in the shadow of Jesus' coming & the Messiah knows those who are His!

Christ's first coming was to offer Himself as the sacrifice for our sins and, I might add, to give us a chance to see & experience Him for a few years on earth--written for our growth in the Bible. His second coming, however, is to come to bring salvation--be the Messiah for our Jewish brothers & sisters which they were expecting at His first coming. The man of sorrows & of our Lamb, Jesus Christ, is mentioned in Is. 53 about His first coming!

There is only one God and the only perfect mediator between God & man is the God-Man Jesus Christ. He made fellowship possible with God by giving his life as a sacrifice for us & our sin, ransoming us from sin's fatal grasp!!

Christ's sacrifice went deeper than the offerings of bulls & goats. Jesus was perfect--the offerings were perfect on the outside--Jesus is sinless--man continued to need offerings to pay for his sin. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice--a one-time sacrifice taking all our sins upon himself--past present & future. It is finished!

Redemption is the releasing of something for a price. Years ago, we had green stamps & blue chip stamps which we saved in little booklets and redeemed for a gift of some sort. The price of our redemption was the death of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Unlike the sacrifices in the OT, this is a once for all sacrifice--lasting FOREVER! PTL!

The external sacrifices were only regulations--no deeper. A guilty conscience keeps us from God because we haven't asked forgiveness & done what we could to restore our fellowship with God. We can only come boldly when we have accepted Jesus' sacrifice for us, cleansing us.

There were no sacrifices for intentional active rebellion against God--only for those sins committed in ignorance. The new covenant does provide forgiveness for this sin as long as we humble ourselves & repent & accept Jesus' gift of salvation for ourselves.

Man was unable to keep the old covenant because he was/is sinful. The new covenant: provided for the law to be written on their hearts by the Holy Spirit that we would be with God & be His people forever that we'd know the Lord personally and that we'd be forgiven our sins.

Jesus is the mediator between God & man in the New Covenant because he died on the cross for our sins which separated us from God. Each time we pray He is there interceding for us to the Father.

In v. 26 he is described as holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike human priests He is perfect, He lives forever & He only had to sacrifice one time for all persons. Jesus, who died for me, loves me as I am. Who else I know could I trust in & hope in as my priest?

Jesus can save us completely because He is our Great High Priest. He intercedes for us to the Father. He is on our side!! He loves us!! We are being saved on a daily basis! A priest interceded for the people to God because that was the God-appointed way. Jesus, having earned the right to die for us, He also intercedes for us to God. No longer do we need another man to intercede for us. We can pray & be heard!!

A surety or guarantee is a promise of the fulfilling of a debt owed. Jesus, Himself, is our guarantor--He promises the fulfilment of the new covenant with us. He is preparing a place for us in heaven.

We have fled to a place of refuge & strength--the Lord. We stay close to Him, because, knowing all the trials we'll face in this life we will need Jesus as our hope every step of the way. We actively take hold of this hope as we take hold of the promises of God. Our hope is an expected hope, knowing the scriptures & the promises of God. Not a questionable hope, like, "I hope we get to go to heaven," etc, but He is our hope & I know it will happen! Our hope is not a question--rather a person!! The anchor of our tossing ship of life is sure, strong, unshifting. It is anchored on the Rock of our salvation, Jesus!

If we exercise faith & patience on a daily/minute by minute basis, we will truly grow to maturity. Our perspective changes to God's perspective--we learn to love the things/people God loves, and to hate what He hates. It is a delicate balance, but if we do these things daily because of our love & hunger for God, it is a result of our desire to grow closer to Him--a fruit of pursuing this relationship with God, knowing that in ourselves we are nothing/have nothing but what God gives us in grace. Praise Him!!

Apostasy is the conscious decision to give up God and salvation renouncing and denouncing them. They could not be restored because their hearts are closed & hardened to God now. In the parable of the sower, they would be the ones who had accepted salvation but do not have deep roots. In the parable of the tares, Jesus points out that the weeds & wheat grow up together. At harvest time, the wheat will be harvested because it has fruit--the weeds will be destroyed. So, these persons will seem like Christians, but only God knows for sure......

I don't find much difference in the persons described in v. 4 & 5 and the true Spirit-filled believer. The writer would be saying that the true Christian would be a growing Christian--maturing little by little. When I catch myself trying to figure out if that person is truly a Christian or not, I just remember...Only God knows if this person was really a believer or not. Some people are good at pretending--acting out what we'd like to see. I know I just can't see how I could ever turn my back on God and give up my salvation just like that. :-(

According to v. 14 we become mature with constant use of the Word. We need to study with others, by ourselves, memorize scripture, and put into practice what we learn to become more spiritually mature.