Obtaining a Good Testimony

Pastor Edward Keith Hassell

Grace Fellowship / Rusk, Texas

Sunday AM / July 28, 2024

Hebrews 11:39–40 NKJV

And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

God’s people are called to be His witnesses.

We are called to be witnesses of the only true and living God as revealed in Scripture.

Isaiah 43:10–12 NKJV

“You are My witnesses,” says the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, And besides Me there is no savior. I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, And there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses,” Says the Lord, “that I am God.

We are called to be Christ’s Witnesses to a lost and dying world.

Acts 1:8 NKJV

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Eternal Life depends on believing in the only true God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent (To bear witness to the truth and die for the sins of the world.)

John 17:3 NKJV

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Being a witness can bring enlightenment and salvation to the broken and humble or hostility from the proud and rebellious.

We are called to bear witness to the truth.

John 5:33 NKJV

You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.

John 18:37 NKJV

Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Our lives are to be a living witness or “testimony”.

We overcome the accusations of the enemy through the word of our testimony.

Revelation 12:10–11 NKJV

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

The “word of our testimony” is the declaration of our faith as evidenced by the fruit of our lives.

The way we live is the platform from which we declare our faith. If the fruit of our lives is not consistent with our declaration of faith, then our testimony is empty.

Has someone brought an evil accusation against you? Live in such a way that the fruit of your lips and of your life prove them wrong.

We obtain a good testimony through faith.

Hebrews 11:1–2 NKJV

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

Hebrews 11:5–6 NKJV

By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:13 NKJV

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Hebrews 11:39–40 NKJV

And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

The testimony of our faith is not based on whether we receive the promise in this life, but on the evidence of a life lived through faith in God in the light of eternity.

The testimony of the true saint is evidenced both in life and in death.

The testimony of the true saint outlives them, testifying to the next generation and beyond.

Response to the Word

Do you have a genuine testimony of faith in Jesus Christ?

Is the fruit of your life consistent with the words of your testimony?

Have you accepted your calling to be a witness for God and of Christ?

Are you living in such a way that you will obtain a good testimony that will be celebrated in the next generation and before the throne of God?