and presupposition of all men with regard to religion, that men and women are motivated in religious activity, in sacrifice, in devotion, in service to Christ, by the promise of reward or the threat of punishment or the loss of reward. This is so thoroughly ingrained in all men that it is a part of almost all religious teaching no matter what brand of teaching you're talking about. It's a part of Islam, it's a part of Judaism, it is a part of what is called Christianity.

I'll tell you a little bit about how influential this doctrine is. Back in the days prior to the Reformation, when the Pope in Rome wanted to build St. Peter's Basilica, and he needed to get a lot of money from a lot of poor people around the world, he invented a doctrine. is the doctrine of indulgences, and the doctrine goes like this.

If you will give so much money, then when you give your money to the church in the name of Jesus, for Mary's sake and Jesus' sake, then a soul will be released from hell. And there was a man who came selling indulgences. Actually, there were many all around the world, priests who came selling indulgences. One in Wittenberg, or Wittenberg, Germany, came and this is what he said. he said, as soon as the penny jingles in the cup, a soul is released from hell. And so multitudes gave out of their deep poverty what they could to get the souls of their loved ones released from hell. And of course, Martin Luther heard Titzel's comments and his blasphemy, and that was one thing that greatly inspired Martin Luther in his moving away from the Church of Rome and his doctrine and declaring salvation in Christ alone and by grace alone. But that doctrine has had its permeation throughout the religious world of our day.

So that almost all Protestants as well as Catholics, almost all Baptists as well as teach some form of the degree of reward in heaven's glory, and by those things would endeavor to get people to do what they would not otherwise do. Get them to give what they wouldn't otherwise give. Get them to go where they wouldn't otherwise go. Get them to come to the church when they wouldn't otherwise come, because if you don't, if you don't, God's going to take your crown away. If you don't, you're going to get to heaven, but just by the skin of your teeth, and you'll be embarrassed all through eternity. Now, I'm not just putting this on top of my head.

I'm telling you exactly what is taught almost universally among conservative, fundamentalist, Baptist people. Now, I want this evening to answer a question. As a matter of fact, I will probably deal with it tonight and again next Tuesday. The subject is, will there be degrees of reward in heaven?

I realize I'm not going to settle the controversy that rages concerning this doctrine. That's not my purpose. But as your pastor, it is my responsibility to build you up in those things which become sound doctrine, so that you will not be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine and by the slight of men and cunning craftiness.

Now, salvation in its entirety, if you get this, If you can get this one basic principle, fundamental, essential truth of Holy Scripture inscribed in your heart by the finger of God, you won't go too far astray anyway. Listen to this. Salvation in its entirety is the work of God's free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. Anything that looks like, smells like, or acts like works and free will run from it. Just bank it. Just bank it. It's wrong. It's just dead wrong.

Now, this is the foundation principle upon which we interpret Scripture. It is our hermeneutic principle, our basis of doctrine, because this is the hermeneutic foundation principle of Holy Scripture itself. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is by grace alone. through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. It comes to us originating in the grace of God. It is given to us only in Jesus Christ and upon his merits, and it is received only by believing him. If it were possible, if it were possible to separate heavenly glory and the rewards of heaven from God's salvation, then you might possibly talk about degrees of reward in heaven. But if heaven is, as the scriptures declare it to be, the glorious inheritance of the saints of God, given to us by free grace alone, if it is just the consummation of God's work of salvation for us and in us, then there is no possibility of degrees of reward.

Salvation, you see, involves everything that is required. Salvation involves everything that's necessary. Salvation involves everything that's included in the whole business of bringing sinners from the gates of hell to the possession of heaven's glory, and works nowhere enter in. Now, let's look at the scriptures, and I want to raise and answer three questions, and then I will give you one text of scripture with which we will bring the conclusion to the message.

First, what is this doctrine of the degrees of reward in heaven? What is the doctrine of those who teach this thing? Now, I realize that men have various opinions about things, and they have slightly different ways of stating things, but basically their doctrine is the same. If I didn't directly quote what they said, someone might hear this tape and say, well, Don just pulled that out of his hat, and that's not really what men say. If you have a Bible dictionary, pull it down and look at it, almost all of them will say virtually the same thing.

This is a quotation directly from Merle F. Unger, who taught theology at Dallas Theological Seminary down where you were raised. That's the Mecca down in Texas among religious folks. This is what he said. rewards are offered by God to a believer on the basis of faithful service rendered after salvation. It is clear from the scripture, I didn't say that, Unger, I'm quoting him, it is clear from the scripture that God offers to the lost salvation and for the faithful service of the saved, rewards. Often in theological thinking, Unger says, salvation and rewards are confused.

He's my word, not his. I've often been accused of confusing the things of God, but I contend, no, I'm not confused. This fellow is. Listen to what he says. Often in theological thinking, salvation and rewards are confused. However, these two terms must be carefully distinguished. Salvation is a free gift. while rewards are earned by works.

Rewards will be dispensed at the judgment seat of Christ. The doctrine of rewards is inseparably connected with God's grace. A soul being saved on the basis of divine grace, there is no room for the building up of merit on the part of the believer. Yet, God recognizes, listen now, this is a direct quote, God recognizes an obligation on the part, an obligation on his part, to reward his saved ones for their service to him. Nothing can be done to merit salvation, but what the believer has achieved for God's glory, God recognizes in his great faithfulness with rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. Now, this is what those men who teach degrees of reward in heaven teach.

Five things, if you're taking notes. I draw these directly from that quotation. Number one, they teach that salvation is limited to the initial experience of grace, and most people think of it that way. Most people doesn't. It's amazing how a religious line, it's amazing how falsehood, folks will just grab hold of it like a magnet grabs metal. And the truth, man, you can pour it on them, pour it on them, pour it on them, pour it on them, and they just don't hit it. Most everybody, when they talk about salvation, they talk about what happened down the road 20 years ago, or what happened this morning. They talk about salvation as just being the initial act of faith and the initial experience of grace.

The Word of God never does that. Never! You cannot separate one part of salvation from the other. Read Romans 8, verses 28-30. The Apostle Paul, beginning with God's purpose of grace in election and predestination, includes in the work of salvation, election, predestination, justification, sanctification, and glorification. It's all one package. You can't separate one part from the other.

Not according to the Apostle Peter. He says that we are saved as those who are coming to Christ. Not those who have come to Christ. It's really errant to talk about, well, I believed on the Lord Jesus. That's really errant. I believe him. It doesn't matter what I did yesterday or not, I do now. It doesn't matter what I did this morning or not, I believe Him. I am coming to Christ. Yesterday's irrelevant. We forget what's behind. We're coming to Him. I have come to Him, I am coming to Him. By His grace, I shall yet come to Him by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Salvation, then, in its parts cannot be separated. Our Lord Jesus says, He that endures to the end shall be saved. Here's the second thing. taught by those who teach this doctrine of degrees of reward. They teach that it's possible for a person to be saved and not be a faithful servant of Christ. Not everybody believes that. Not everybody does.

You, uh, every one of you have got folks in your family, folks who are friends, folks related to you, who were once religious and zealous and you're If I were to ask you about it, if I were to ask you about it, more than likely this is what you'd immediately start to say if you didn't block yourself.

You'd say, well, he'd gotten away from the Lord. No, he didn't get away, the Lord didn't know him. Never knew him to start with. The scriptures, read Luke chapter 14. Our Lord said you cannot be my disciple except you deny yourself and take up your cross. How often? What does it say? daily and follow me. Take up your cross daily and follow me. So when I was there when so-and-so got saved, you don't have any idea who got saved or who didn't. You and I don't have any idea what goes on in somebody's heart and what doesn't.

What I am telling you is this, everyone who believes on the Son of God worships him as his Lord and follows him as his master. Thirdly, These fellows teach us that men and women, by their service to God, somehow manage to put God Almighty under obligation to them. Now, you heard what I read, didn't you? Those were Mr. Unger's words. He said, God is now obliged to reward your service. Mark Henson's a faithful man. I commend him for his faithfulness. I commend him for his kindness to me. I commend him for the attitude with which he exercises his various responsibilities in this world. But Mark Henson has never thought about doing something worthy of putting God under obligation, except to Daniel. That's all. Who, by what work, will put Almighty God under obligation? Nobody except God himself.

And fourthly, those who teach the doctrine of degrees of reward teach us that there will be two judgment days, one for believers and another for unbelievers. These people have to make the Bible fit their doctrine, so they pick a text here and they run over there and grab it over here, and they run over here and grab that one and stick it over here, and grab that one and stick it over here.

If you're going to be honest in interpreting scripture, you interpret scripture in its and you deal with it as it obviously is meant to be dealt with. We don't build our doctrine like Russellites who quote a portion of a scripture here, a portion of a verse there, a part of a sentence over here, a part of a sentence over there, and put it all together. This is what the Bible means. No, it means exactly what it says.

They tell us by fitting all these things together, by rightly dividing the word of truth, a better way of putting it is by rightly cutting it up, They say there are going to be two second comings, one secret, one open. They tell us there are going to be two separate days of resurrection, one secret resurrection, the rapture of the church, and another open when the Lord comes the third time. They call it second time. And then there are going to be two judgments, one judgment for believers called the judgment seat of Christ, and one judgment for unbelievers called the great white throne judgment.

And the basic principle of this thing is that if it's a judgment day, it's going to be like a man going to trial. going to trial, evidence will be presented, and it's going to be decided who shall enter into heaven and who shall not, based upon the evidence presented.

Nothing like that is revealed in Scripture. I'll deal with it in a few weeks, Lord willing, but when we come to deal with the great white throne of judgment, it's not going to be a day of deciding anything. It's not going to be a day by which evidence is going to be weighed and the ultimate end is going to be decided. Oh no! Judgment day will be a day of God declaring the grounds on which he saves his people and damns the lost. That's all. It's going to be a day of manifestation, a day of desperation, not a day of decision.

And then fifthly, these who teach doctrine of degrees of reward in heaven, would have us to believe that God's people will have to suffer for their sins somehow. Somehow. Somehow you're going to have to pay. Somehow you're going to have to pay. I know Jesus paid for our sins past at Calvary. They were all future at Calvary. They were all future. But we got to pay for our sins after we're saved? No. No. A thousand times no. I recall years ago, I told you this story before, I was pastoring at Lookout, and I had a well-known evangelist come in who claimed to believe free grace. If he didn't claim to believe it, I wouldn't have had it. But all the time I was in school, a real popular fellow among Calvinistic men.

He came in. One of our ladies liked tobacco. You know, she liked to smoke. And he got a whiff of tobacco on her breath as she came through the door. Man alive. Yeah, she might as well have slapped him in the face. He got to work on the thing, he looked at her and pointed his long bony finger down at her and he said, now you're going to spend eternity weeping for every sin that you've committed against God since he saved you. If it had been today, I'd have said, sit down, shut up, I'll take over. I can't imagine such a thing.

What kind of heaven is that? The scripture declares otherwise. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. He despaired not his son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall we not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. It's God that justified. Who is he that condemned him? It's Christ that died. All right, here's a second question.

I've tried to show you honestly what these fellows teach, what's commonly received and understood by men. Now, what are the inevitable implications of this doctrine? The implications of what a person teaches are just as important as the direct statements of what they teach. Just as important. I try to tell young preachers all the time, learn something about theology. Learn the consequences of doctrine. learn the consequences of what you say, because the implications of doctrine are just as important as the statement of doctrine. Now, if the doctrine of degrees of reward in heaven is accepted, these things must be accepted. If I say that Skip Gladfelter, being a believer, Rex Bartley being a believer, one's going to stand in heaven on Glory Road, and the other one's going to be down in the slums.

If I say that, one's going to have such big crowns and so many stars in his crown, he can hardly hold his head up, and the other one, he may give him a duck and five yo-yo. If that's what I say, then I must say also that heaven's glory is not the reward of free grace, but the payment of a debt. Is that fair? I must say that heaven is not a place of unmingled joy. but a place of mingled joy and grief. I must also say that God does, after all, withhold some good things from them that walk uprightly, and some evil shall indeed fall upon the just. If some folks in heaven receive better reward than others, if some folks lose their reward and just get into heaven by the skin of their teeth, then there is a second degree to which evil falls upon the just, even in heaven. It must also be concluded that the blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ, the obedience of Christ, Christ himself alone, is not sufficient for our perfect, everlasting acceptance with God. Some part of God's If this doctrine is so, if it's so that some have greater reward in heaven than others and some suffer loss because of their lack of faithfulness or because of their sin or their faults, then some part of God's favor, some blessing of God's grace must be earned by us. All right, thirdly, why must we so dogmatically oppose this hellish doctrine? And it is a hellish doctrine. It is a hellish doctrine. We oppose it for these reasons.

Number one, it is without foundation in this book. It just isn't there. It just isn't there.

Not one passage supports the notion or even gives a hint of a notion that some saints will have more and some less. Some will enjoy more and some have great sorrow in heaven's glory. Not one of those crowns mentioned in the Bible are said to be given to only certain believers.

Let me look at the text with you. Turn to Revelation 4. Somebody said, but what about the crowns? Lord willing, I'll talk to you about that next week. Maybe in the lectures you can come back. Somebody said, but what about the crowns? We're going to have a crown of faithfulness, a soul winner's crown, a martyr's crown, all those crowns. Some folks have this crown, some folks have another crown. Let's look at the book, Revelation chapter 4.

The four and twenty elders. fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth forever and ever." Now, you can read any commentary you want to read, written by a conservative or a liberal, written by a Baptist, Protestant, or otherwise. Read any of them you want to read. Thus far I haven't read one that would suggest anything about these four and twenty elders, except these four and twenty elders represent the entire Church of God, all believers. That's what it represents. And they all have got crowns on their heads.

And they cast their crowns before the throne. Not James cast his crown and poor Bobby didn't have one, so he didn't want to cast. Now, Bob cast his crown, but poor Sally, she wasn't such a good, faithful church member. She didn't have a crown to cast. Oh, no, they all have crowns on their heads, given them as kings and priests unto God, and they take the crown off of their heads and say, we're not fit to wear this, and they cast it down at the master's feet. Not only is this doctrine without foundation in the Word of God, it's totally contrary to the plainest statements of Scripture. Let's look at some Scripture together, and I'll wrap this up. First, turn to Matthew chapter 20. I encourage you to read the whole parable. It is the parable where our Lord says the kingdom of heaven is like a householder.

He went out early in the morning and he hired folks to work for him. He said, well, you fellows, we used to have a place down in Western Seddon called Buzzard's Roost. That's where you'd go get fellows who wouldn't work a normal job, stayed drunk all the morning, was a little bit of money to buy a little wine, and you could work them a day or two, and then they'd go do what they wanted to do.

He said, would you work for me for a penny? Yeah, yeah, I'll work for you for a penny. What am I going to do? Whatever I can to. How long? All day long. Yeah, yeah, I'll do that. And he went out at noon. He said, will you fellas work for me the rest of the day for a penny? Yeah, yeah, we'll work for you. And then it went out the last hour of the day. He said, we need some help. Y'all come work for me. I'll pay you. I'll pay you what's right. He said, OK, we'll come. And at the end of the day, This householder gives every man a penny.

But he started not with those who came early in the morning, because he had something to teach. Remember, our Lord is teaching a parable. He starts with those who were hired last day, who worked just one hour. And this is what we read in verse 12. He paid them, and when they received it, the folks who were hired early in the day, they began to murmur against the good man of the house who gave them a place to work. And this is what they said, verse 12, These men have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. Now, that's the doctrine of all men. That's not right! That's just not right! You mean those folks are going to get the same thing as a man who's labored for 30 years in Mexico or 30 years in Africa? That's not right!

And the Lord says, is it not lawful for me to do with my own what I will? Our Lord tells us through the Apostle Paul that we're children of God, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. That means whatever he's got, we got. We're joint heirs. It tells us that we are made to be conformed to Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son of God. The Scripture tells us that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, and we were blessed with those blessings before the world began. The Scripture tells us that Christ loved us and gave himself for us, that he might sanctify us and cleanse us and present us to himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that we should be holy and without blemish before him.

Now, I'd like for somebody to tell me how you can be without spot and still have some. I'd like somebody to tell me how you can be without any wrinkles and still have some. I'd like somebody to tell me how you can be without blemish and still have a few blemishes here and there. Somebody tell me how you can be holy and still be unholy to some degree.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is determined to present us without fault and blameless before the presence of his glory. That means when he gets done with us, God will have no reason, no reason, on the basis of justice, God will have no reason to blame us for anything. That's called free grace. That's what it's called, free grace.

This doctrine must be rejected because it makes service to Christ to be a legal mercenary thing. And I'm going to tell you something. Every believer, Rex Bartley, is a soldier in the army of Christ, under the captain of our salvation, but not one of them is a mercenary. Not one of them. We don't serve God for what we get out of it. This doctrine promotes pride, because it causes folks to look down their nose at other people and say, I'm going to have a better place, a bigger crown, greater enjoyment of heaven than you. It threatens punishment.

Now, you come to church three times a week. I've heard preachers who claim to believe grace talk about tithings. You better tithe. If you don't pay your 10 percent, God will get 20 out of you. And threaten folks. I've heard such nonsense. Many of you have as well. And it's inspired by reward. You call. You give. You witness, you go, you say, you do, and God will reward you. You want to, you don't really have to sell things on the earth, where things moth and rust corrupt your treasures in heaven. And you do that by giving your money to me. You do that by sending your money here or there.

God's people give because they love him. They worship Christ because they love him. They serve him because they love him. They walk with him because they love him. and they are not mercenaries. I'm telling you, I don't hesitate to say this, if the threat of punishment or the promise of reward will get you to do what the love of Christ will get you to do, you've never met Him. You've never met Him.

This doctrine robs Christ of the glory of His grace and makes room for human flesh to boast before God. After all, if I've done something that puts God Almighty in an obligation to reward me, then I have the right to boast in his presence. If I do something by which I merit a higher standing before God than you do in heaven's glory, why shouldn't I brag about it? Huh? If I've done something that causes God to place me above you, why shouldn't I gloat over it?

This doctrine of degrees of reward in heaven has the obnoxious odor of works about it, and there's no room for works in the kingdom of grace. If you lift up your tool upon God's altar, you've polluted it. Now, let's look at one text of scripture. Here's one text which both destroys the doctrine of degrees of reward and assures every believer of the everlasting fullness of heaven's glory.

Revelation 21, verse 4. When this whole thing's over, oh, when this whole thing's over, when all God's sheep have been saved and all the lost are forever damned, judgment is passed and everything is reconciled to This is what's going to happen, Ron. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Now this is what that means. When God's finished with us, and he's finished with this thing called the world, and this thing called time, when he's finished with heaven, earth, and hell as it now is, when he's finished with men and demons and angels and finished with his elect and finished with the reprobate, he's going to save us so thoroughly that there will be no evil consequence, not even sorrow because of sin. I never heard much preach like that before. Now you have. That's called free grace. In Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.