Have you received the promise?

Apostle Tracey Robinson, 2022 All Rights Reserved

Hebrews 11:1-2; 39-40

1 NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

• Here the scripture says NOW
• NOW defined here means “at the present time or moment”; right now.
• NOW faith is your assurance, your confirmation, your titled deed to experience and produce the evidence of the finished work of Christ; and to believe just as Jesus believed.
• NOW faith in the faith of Jesus Christ and His finished work is the “substance of the things you hope for with the evidence of the things not seen, but yet believe in” because you have received the promise.
• Faith requires proof and must have evidence.
• The devil in your flesh and its Will requires proof and evidence of your new life in Christ.

2 For by it the elders obtained a good report.

39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

• We often read and study about the spiritual reputation of faith of the Elders and the fact that they obtained a good report through faith, but did not receive the promise.
• God provided a better thing for us. The promise is Jesus, His birth, burial, resurrection, ascension and dissension of Jesus born in you and me (new creatures) as our evidence, assurance, and confirmation of the promise of God.
• In the Old Testament the believers prophesied of His coming and they believed in God and His promises by means of their faith, but they never received the fulfillment of what was promised. The promise was Jesus.
• In Hebrews 11:40 God had us in mind and had something better and greater in view for us so that the heroes of faith in the Old Testament should not come to perfection apart from us, that is before we could join them with the promise.

Hebrews 12:1-3

1 WHEREFORE seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

• As a result of which we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, who have a borne testimony to the Truth, let us as New Testament believers that have received the promise strip off and throw aside every unnecessary weight and sin that clings to us and entangles us to keep us from running our race in Salvation, with patience and endurance by being steady, active, and persistent in our appointed time in this race.

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

• Staying focused with our center of attention and interest on the “better thing” that God has promised and NOW provided.
• Jesus is the forerunner in this race; He is the pace setter; and the Source of our faith, and is also the finisher of our faith.
• Jesus faith will bring us into the maturity and perfection of our belief in Him.
• Jesus endured the Cross for the joy of obtaining the prize of the finished work of the Father set before Him.
• Jesus despised and ignored the shame of the Cross as He condemned sin in the flesh.

3 For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

• Considering all that Jesus endured from sinners for sinners should be compared with all your test, trials, tribulations, sufferings, and sacrifices, so that we won’t grow weary, exhausted, lose heart, and faint in your minds.
• Jesus the Christ did it all for us making it possible for us to perceive and accept Him through His birth, burial, and resurrection. For Jesus is our better thing!

• In the New Testament the believer’s faith should be based upon what Jesus did in us and through us to save us, deliver us, sanctify us, and to make us holy and righteous in the sight of God the Father.
• Yes, I said what He did because it is already done even on our part as well, but we must “walk it out” to manifest the substance called faith in Jesus as proof and evidence of Jesus’ being the new creature in each of us.
• As New Testament believers we must become our Model Jesus the Christ.
• As being the Model of Jesus we are the setters of the Word of God in Spirit and in Truth revealed NOW in the earth for the world, the flesh, and the devil to see and hear.

In closing,

• Where does your faith lie?
• What and who is it in?
• After your confession, repentance, forgiveness, baptism, and born again experience where does your faith lie?
• What does your spiritual reputation speak?
• Where do your faith in Jesus and His completed faith lie in you?
• Has Jesus been born in you (birth)? Has Jesus been crucified in you (burial)? Has Jesus rise in you (resurrected)?
• Your faith in Christ Jesus must be tried to experience Salvation as a born again new creature, regenerated, and filled with the Holy Ghost.
• Don’t operate by the same faith of the Old Testament believers whereas the Holy Spirit could not dwell in the believers. He could only come upon them or around them.
• New Testament believers must be “possessed by the Spirit” to dwell in their spirit.
• Hebrew 11:4-38 are our examples of the Old Testament believers and their faith which gave them a good report, but not the promise.
• All throughout the Old Testament was the promise of a Savior coming.
• Many of us as New Testament believers are trying to believe God, love God, understand God, know God, hear God, and manifest the Will of God without the promise.
• And without the promise, the doctrine of the Apostles and the Prophets won’t be made perfect in you.
• The doctrine of the Apostles and the Prophets is the foundation with Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom the Church is fitly framed together growing into the Holy Temple together to become the habitation of God through His Spirit. Ephesians 2:20-22.
• Old Testament believers had faith in God meaning they lived by their trust, by their confidence, and by their faithfulness and were rewarded for their faithfulness.

Habakkuk 2:4 Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

• The original Hebrew text translation of faith is faithful trust, fidelity, or confidence.
• Romans 4:3 say Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
• We must be cleansed and prepared to be righteous and claimed as righteous by the Spirit of God through the promise.
• The Law of the Old Testament did not and will not declare anyone as being righteous. The Law only declares everyone as being in sin and sinful
• Everything happen “outside and around” man with the Old Testament believers because they never received the promise.
• New Testament faith believers live by the faith of the Son of God, not by your faith and trust in God.
• We should live by the finished work of Jesus by His faith, i.e. by His faith I’m healed; I’m delivered; I’m made free; I’m born again.
• Jesus’ faith has already got what we need. My faith in His faith causes me to receive what I need.
• This is NOW faith!

Amen

Sunday, January 16, 2022