“A GOOD REPORT.” (Heb 11:39)

Sept 1st, 2002

 

Int.      We all remember too well every six weeks in school when we had to take the “report card” home to our parents.

 

            a.         Some State Nursing Homes are visited by State Officials and receive a “GRADE” on quality, etc.

 

            b.         Some Restaurant chains do this from time to time.

 

1.         Vincent's Gr. N. T. renders this “having had witness born to them a good report”

 

            a.         See on (Vr.. 2). “For by it the elders obtained a good report.”

 

2.         The term "good report" is found 10 times in Scripture.

 

3.         Let us examine this phrase “good report”, verses bad report, etc.

 

I.       NOTICE SEVERAL DIFFERENT KINDS OF REPORTS.

 

          A.      THIS WORD ‘ALL’ IS NOT AN ‘ALL INCLUSIVE’ TERM.

 

                        1.         (Deu 32:20) "And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith."

 

                        2.          The fall in the wilderness of the generation which came out of Egypt is held out as a warning,

 

                                    a.         (1 Cor 10:11-12) "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. {12} Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

 

            B.      ELI’S SONS DID NOT HAVE A GOOD REPORT.

 

                        1.         (1 Sam 2:24) "Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord's people to transgress."

 

                        2.         It is said of Joseph in (Gen 37:2) that he brought unto his father an evil report.”

 

                            3.           (Num 13:32) “The Spies brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched..."

 

                        4.         (Num 14:37) "Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD."

 

                        5.         (Neh 6:13) "Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me."

 

                        6.         (2 Cor 6:8) "By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;"

 

                        7.         (1 Ki 10:6) "And she said to the king (Solomon), It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom."

 

                        8.          (Isa 53:1) "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?"

 

                        9.         (Acts 6:3) "Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business."

 

            C.      CONSIDER SEVERAL GOOD REPORTS IN THE SCRIPTURES.

 

                        1.         (Prov 15:30) "The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart: and a good report maketh the bones fat."

 

                        2.         (Acts 10:22) "And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee."

 

                        3.         (Acts 22:12) "And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there,"

 

                        4.         (Phil 4:8) "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

 

                        5.         (1 Tim 3:7) "Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil."

 

                        6.         (Heb 11:2) "For by it (that is, faith) the elders obtained a good report."

 

                        7.          (3rd John 1:12) "Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record; and ye know that our record is true."

 

                        8.         Abel “had witness borne to him (a good report) that he was righteous,”(Heb 11: 4). (Vincent’s Gr. N. T. ).

 

                        9.         Enoch “had witness borne to him (a good report) that he had been well-pleasing unto God” (Heb 11:5). (Vincent’s Gr. N. T.)

 

II.      THOUGH THEY RECEIVED A GOOD REPORT; THEY RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE IN THEIR LIFE TIME.

 

            A.      LIVING BY FAITH IS A LIFE LONG ENCOUNTER.

 

                        1.         It is said of Abraham in (Heb 6:15) "And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise."

 

                        2.          Abraham patiently endured...He waited many years for an Isaac and even longer for the realization of that "eternal life."

             

                        3.         Pulpit C. on (Heb 11:20) says: "The sin of Rebekah and Jacob in intercepting for the latter what his father had intended for Esau did not make the promise of none effect. Had Isaac been announcing only his own pleasure, he would most certainly have recalled the words which Jacob had appropriated so treacherously; but the patriarch felt that he dared not do so."

 

            B.      CONSIDER WHAT THIS PROMISE WAS.

 

                        1.        It was the promise of “the seed of the woman” (Gen 3:15)

 

                        2.        The promise of "the seed of Abraham” (Gen 22:18);

 

                        3.         The promise of the setting up of the kingdom of heaven by the “Child born” (Isa. 9:6, 7),

 

                        4.         The promise of the "pouring out of God’s Spirit upon all flesh” (Joel 2:28).

 

           C.      NOTICE THAT OUR TEXT SAYS; “They received not the promise.”

 

                        1.         Pulpit Commentary: They “received not the promise.” (Heb 11:39.)

 

                        2.         Successive generations of godly men hoped for the advent through the weary centuries, and passed away before the Messiah had been born.

 

                        3.         “Or the true sacrifice offered,

 

                                    a.         (Heb 10:8-9) “Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.”

                        4.         “Or the way into the holiest made manifest,

 

                                    a.         (Heb 9:8) "The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:"

 

                                    b.         (Heb 10:19) “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,”

 

                        5.         “Or the great gift of the Spirit bestowed.

 

                                            a.         (Luke 24:49) "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry[1] ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high."

 

                                    b.         (Acts 2:33) "Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he[1] hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear."

 

                        6.         They continued to the end of their lives under the temporal and preparatory economy — the dispensation of law and ceremony and shadow."

 

III.    NOTICE THE GOOD REPORT GIVEN FOR US. (Heb 11:40)

 

          A.      SOMETHING BETTER IS PROVIDED FOR US THAN FOR THEM.

 

                    1.          "We have received the fulfillment of the great gospel promise. Christ has come.

 

                        2.         He has achieved our redemption.

 

                        3.         He has sent to the Church his Holy Spirit.

 

                        4.         He has given us a completed Bible.

 

                        5.         He has opened heaven over the world; and we see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

 

                        6.         Nor is this earthly life of higher privilege the only advantage which we possess.

 

                                    a.         For at death the believer’s spirit now goes at once to be with Christ — a blessing which, prior to the advent, was in some mysterious sense denied to Old Testament saints.

 

                                    b.         (Lk 16:22) “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;”

 

                        7.         Immediately after death we are “made perfect.”

 

                        8.         In the presence of the glorified Christ, nothing whatever is lacking to complete our blessedness, except only the resurrection of our body."

 

                        9.         Vincent's N. T. Gr. says: "The better thing is for us. It was not for them: they lived in the assurance of a future time better than their own, and in this assurance of faith, did their work and bore their burden in their own time. It is one of the achievements of faith to be cheerfully willing to be only a stage to some better thing which we cannot share."

 

            B.      NOTICE THAT WHICH WAS MISSING FOR THE O. T. SAINTS.

 

                        1.         Pulpit Commentary: They were “not made perfect.” (Ver. 40.) Old Testament believers, while on earth, did not obtain the clear knowledge of gospel doctrine which we possess who have received “the Spirit of truth;” and they did not attain to the high level of spiritual happiness which is within our reach, now that Christ has sent us “the Comforter.”

 

                                    a.         The Spirit of God came upon men in the O. T.

 

                                    b.         The Spirit of God dwells within the believer today.

 

                        2.         (Gen 6:9) says: “.......Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

 

                        3.         Perfection means "maturity" or from milk to meat in (Heb 6)

 

                                    a.         (Heb 6:1-2) “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”