Will there be degrees of reward
in heaven? That's my subject this morning.
Will there be degrees of reward in heaven? The subject may seem
a little strange to you at first. But it's arisen from a number
of things, as I mentioned in the previous message. I've had
some calls, a bit of conversation with both pastors and others
asking me about this issue and asking me about the difficulties
with this issue. There is a question among many
as to whether or not there will be degrees of reward among God's
saints in heaven. Some clearly declare that there
shall be and consider it heretical to suggest otherwise. Some clearly
declare that there are no such things as degrees of reward and
declare it to be heretical to suggest otherwise. Now, understand
this, that men may hold doctrinal notions that are contrary to
one another and not see how inconsistent they are. So don't be too quick
to jump and judge somebody as being horribly evil because they
differ with you in some aspect of gospel truth. We recognize
that men are frail, fickle folks. I remember the disciples falling
down before the Lord Jesus after his resurrection and thought
they'd seen a ghost. That's pretty strange. That's
pretty strange. So I speak with dogmatism, but
I do not mean to suggest or imply by that dogmatism that someone
who differs somewhat or lacks understanding in these things
is heretical and must be looked upon as one who is lost and certain
to be damned. That is not the case. My purpose
in bringing this message as your pastor is that you Be no more
tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the slight of men and cunning craftiness. My purpose is God's
glory. I want to glorify God in my thoughts,
in my actions, and by all means in the message declared from
this pulpit. I want to build you up in the
faith. I want you who believe God to be confident with regard
to God's grace and goodness in Christ Jesus, particularly with
regard to God's grace and goodness to you in Christ Jesus. My object
is not to breed doubt among God's people, but faith and confidence
among God's people. I want you ever to draw near
to the throne of grace with a true assurance of faith in Jesus Christ. And I want you who are without
faith, you who are yet without Christ, without the knowledge
of God, without life before God, I want you to believe on the
Son of God. Oh, Spirit of God, will you by
your word accomplish these ends today? Salvation in its entirety
is the work of God's grace. We just sang amazing grace, how
sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Salvation in its entirety
is the work of God's grace. That's the foundation upon which
we build all doctrine. That is the hermeneutic principle
upon which and by which we interpret scripture. Everybody who opens
this book and seeks to understand this book has some hermeneutic
principle. For most, the hermeneutic principle
is that somehow things have got to be fair and God's got to deal
with you and with me on the basis of our works, good or bad. And
somehow, as we make ourselves different from other people,
we've got to be treated as such. That's the hermeneutic philosophy
of will worship and the hermeneutic philosophy of the age. It is
not the hermeneutic principle of Holy Scripture. The Scriptures
teach us universally, universally. The Scriptures teach us from
the beginning to the end that salvation is by God's grace.
Now, you will find various passages in Scripture that seem to contradict
that. You sure will. You dead sure
will. You're going to find passages
in scripture when pulled out by themselves appear to contradict
that. No question about that. You say,
well, why? Why? Let me give you a little
secret. This book is full of gins and
snares by divine purpose to destroy those who will not believe. So you can find things in this
book that seem to contradict the fact that Jesus Christ is
God. You can find things in this book that seem to contradict
the fact that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and immutable. You
can find things in this book that seem to contradict the fact
of the Divine Trinity. But the book in its entirety
declares those things so plain so clearly that you can't miss
them without ignoring the Word as a whole. So what do you do
when you interpret Scripture? You interpret the obscure in
the light of the obvious. Now please understand that. When
you read the Word of God, you always interpret the obscure
in the light of the obvious. All heretical groups are built
upon the notion that you interpret the obvious in the light of the
obscure. All around this part of the country,
we have Campbellites, those folks who call themselves Church of
Christ. And do you know what the whole religion is built on?
The whole religion is built on Acts 2.38. Repent and be baptized, every
one of you, for the remission of sins. You see there, you've
got to be baptized to have your sins forgiven. You've got to
be baptized to repent. You've got to be baptized to
have salvation. That's plainly stated, right
there it is. Yes, that's the way you understand it, but that's
not what the book says. That's not what the book says.
And that obscure passage is not given to be the basis of interpretation
through the scripture. The scriptures everywhere teach
that salvation is by grace alone. By grace alone. That means that
somehow Acts 2.38 has got to fit in there. That means that
somehow all those things that men point to and object to say,
that can't be so because. Don't worry about the versitis
of this generation by which folks are going to hell. Read the word
of God and always interpret the obscure by the obvious. And let me give you some obvious
things. God hath saved us and called us not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now that's taken
from 2 Timothy chapter 1, where Paul, as it were his dying act,
knowing that this is his last word to his young son Timothy,
knowing this is his last word of inspiration, says, now I'm
going to define for you the gospel for which I'm suffering death.
God hath saved us and called us within holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. By grace,
he is saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
if by grace. Then it is no more of works. Well, that's pretty obvious,
isn't it? Where do these things fit together?
They don't. Push grace in, you push works
out. Push works in, you push grace
out. That's what it says. If it's
by grace, then it's no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work
is no more work. Now if it were possible, as many
attempt, to separate heavenly rewards and heavenly glory from
God's salvation, then we might possibly talk about degrees of
reward in heaven, if you could separate the two. But heaven
is not separated from God's salvation. Don, heaven is the finishing
of it. Heavenly glory is the consummation of God's salvation.
Salvation is not to be divided up into little compartments.
Most people think about salvation when they walk down the aisle
and got saved. That's another sermon. And they
walk down the aisle somewhere, said a little prayer and got
saved. Ain't nobody ever experienced that. Brother Don, that's what
everybody does. I know. I know. Nobody ever got saved by walking
down an aisle. Nobody ever got saved by saying the sinner's
prayer. Nobody ever got saved by repeating what somebody else
told them to say. Oh, no. People have the idea that salvation
is limited to one aspect of something. And even that one aspect, they
pervert. Men are saved by God calling them from darkness to
light, giving them faith in Christ Jesus and life by his power and
by his grace. But salvation just is experienced
there. I almost slipped up and said
it begins there. But it doesn't begin there. Salvation
is an eternal thing. Every aspect God's grace that
brings us from the ruins of fallen humanity in our father Adam to
the glory of the sons of God in everlasting heaven is God's
salvation and it can't be separated and Compartmentalized from one
thing to another I remind you then Salvation is the whole work
of God's grace Grace here is glory be God glory yonder is
grace complete Now, let me try to answer as clearly as I can
four plain questions about this matter of rewards. Number one,
what is the doctrine of those who teach degrees of reward in
heaven? What do men really teach? If
you still carry one of those Bibles that's been messed with,
one of them Schofield reference Bibles, you can look it up, almost
any note that's got something to do with rewards, and it'll
tell you this. One of the men involved in compiling the Schofield
reference Bible, the new Schofield reference Bible, was a fellow
by the name of Merle Unger. He wrote a lot of books. He was
professor of Dallas Theological Seminary for over 19 or 20 years,
somewhere in that vicinity. He was a real popular theologian
in the days when I was in school. In his handbook of theology,
I'm sorry, in his dictionaries, Unger's Bible dictionary, this
is how he states it. Now, I'll give it to you in his
own words. And this is exactly what's commonly
taught by being concerning rewards. Listen carefully. Rewards are
offered by God to a believer on the basis of faithful service
rendered after salvation. David Coleman, you were raised
in a church that teaches this thing. Is that an exact statement? Is that exactly accurate? Okay. It goes on to say, God recognizes
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 teach
concerning degrees of reward in heaven. I'll sum it up in
five statements. They teach that salvation is
limited to the experience of conversion. You can't separate,
as I've said before, one part of salvation from another. The
book doesn't. Paul says we are saved, we have
been saved, we're being saved, and we shall be saved. The scriptures
speak of salvation being nearer than when we believe. We're told
plainly by our Lord Jesus that he that endure to the end, the
same shall be saved. So salvation takes in the whole
experience of God's grace. Number two, these fellows teach
that it is possible for a person to be saved and not be a faithful
servant of Christ. Rewards are for the faithful. Would you find me somewhere in
this book where there's a man or woman who believes God, who's
not faithful? Find me one. They don't brag
about their faithfulness. They don't see their faithfulness,
but the book describes them as such. They're faithful. They
believe God. Number three, many women, by
their service to God, put God in obligation to reward them.
God's obligated to reward faithfulness. Is it possible for sinful man
to do something by which he obligates God? What stupidity. Number four,
these fellows teach that there will be two judgment days, one
for believers and another for unbelievers. These people must
make the Bible fit their doctrine. I remember Day after day Shelby
had the same professor that they didn't teach theology to the
ladies in those days they change now But in those days they didn't
teach theology classes to the ladies, but she had the same
professor for the classes our theology professor Opened every
class Every day in class, but whatever class just like this
referring to the passage in Timothy rightly dividing the Word of
God He said Lord help us to rightly cut up the Word of God And that's
what I meant cut it up You've got to cut it up and fit it back
together to make these things work. But this is what they teach.
They teach their two second comings. You hear it all the time. Now,
people don't refer to it as that way. Two second comings, a secret
one and a public one. First, Christ is coming right
through the church, and then there's going to be a second
chance. You're going to have seven years of tribulation. And
then Christ is coming again, and you're going to have a millennial
kingdom, and God's going to set up a throne for his son over
in Palestine with a bunch of Jews to rule that peanut country.
What absurdity they teach there gonna be two resurrections the
Lord's coming and they're gonna be a secret rapture and and then
they're gonna be the resurrection of the just and the resurrection
of the unjust and They're gonna be two judgments one judgment
For believers called the judgment seat of Christ when God's gonna
get out big movie Projector and show all the bad things you've
done all your life and you're gonna sob and cry and we bury
hidden shame all that And then it'll be a great white throne
judgment for the unbelievers. The scriptures teach none of
those things. Judgment day. the great white throne judgment,
the judgment seat of Christ. All are one great day of judgment. And he who sits on the judgment
throne is Christ, the man who died in our stead at Calvary.
And judgment day shall not be a day in which things are weighed
to decide who gets in and who stays out, who gets crowned and
who doesn't get crowned. Judgment day is a day of declaration. No more. On that great day, God
our Savior shall declare concerning all his elect, all his sheep,
these shall enter glory because it's right. And here's the rightness
of it, my righteousness and my blood and these shall be damned
because it's right. And here's the rightness of it,
your transgressions and your iniquities. And then they teach
fifthly that believers will have to suffer for their sins after
all. This idea of degrees of reward
in heaven is nothing on this earth except the baddest form
of purgatory. That's all it is. You're going
to have to suffer for your sins. You're not going to get by. You're
not going to get by. Bill, that's so contrary to the
gospel. Christ put our sins away. How are you going to suffer for? Christ put our sins away. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's the language
of the book. How are you going to suffer for
that for which Christ has already suffered? Is God unjust? Is God
unjust? Payment God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding shirt, his
head, and then again at mine. Oh, no, no. Well, But brother
John, that's not what we're really teaching. We're just teaching
you're going to be rewarded if you do good. And you're going
to suffer loss if you don't. Did I hear something different?
Was there something different about that? That's what I said.
Rewards is nothing but a badness doctrine of purgatory. That's
all it is. I recall I've told you this just recently. Preaching
for me once when I was pastoring at Lookout. was a fellow who
should have known better. He said, and I wrote it down
this time, or I've looked up what I'd written down, you will
spend eternity weeping in heaven over every sin you commit on
this earth. How sad. The book says God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes. The salvation of God does
not present to men and women a heavenly glory that's a mixture
of sorrow and gladness, a mixture of joy and torment, but rather
a declaration of full salvation and everlasting glory on the
basis of the finished work of the substitute. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. All right. What are
the implications? of this doctrine, the inevitable
implications. If the doctrine of degrees of
reward in heaven is to be accepted, these things must be acknowledged.
Heaven's glory is not the reward of grace, but the payment of
a debt. If you can accept that, then
keep your yo-yo with stars in it. Heaven is not a place of unmingled
joy, but a place of mingled joy and grief. If you can accept
that, then you accept your great mansion on Main Street in heaven
while I live in my little cabin in glory land. God does indeed
withhold good things from them that walk uprightly, and some
evil shall fall to the just. God says no good thing will he
withhold from him that walketh uprightly. God says no evil shall
happen to the just. But if there are degrees of reward
and suffering loss in heaven, then God does withhold good things
from those that walk uprightly. And he does cause evil to happen
to the just. The blood of Christ and the righteousness
of Christ, if there are degrees of reward in heaven, The blood
of Christ and the righteousness of Christ will not alone be sufficient
for our everlasting salvation. Christ is not sufficient alone
for our acceptance with God. And some part of God's favor,
some of the blessings of God must be earned by us. Here's the third question. Why must we oppose so dogmatically
this horrid doctrine? Let me give you five answers
very quickly. Number one, you will search this book in
vain to find it. It is without foundation in Holy
Scripture. Now, you can get your Schofield
Reference Bible and find it. And you can get Clarence Larkin's
Dispensational Truths Horror Magazine and find it, but you
won't find it in this book. It is without foundation in this
book. Nowhere in the Word of God is
such a thing taught. Not one passage referred to in
support of the doctrine even hints that some saints will have
more and some less in heaven. Not one of the crowns mentioned
in the Bible is said to be given only to certain believers, not
one of them. All these crowns are given to
all God's saints. The four and 20 elders all are
seated at the throne with golden crowns on their heads. Number
two, this doctrine of degrees of reward is totally contrary
to the plainest statements of scripture. Listen to what the
master says in Matthew 6, chapter 20, verse 12. We read just a
little bit ago. In the parable of the vineyard,
he says, these last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made
them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and the heat
of the day. You remember a few weeks ago,
Brother Nybert preached to you on David's spoil? All of the
men of Belial said, those fellows who stayed down here, they don't
get any of the spoils. And David said, oh no, oh no,
they who stayed by the stuff as well as they who went into
the battle shall alike divide the spoils and this is a statute
in Israel forever. God's people are never spoken
of as having something withheld from them. The book tells us
plainly that if we're children then heirs, heirs of God and
joint heirs with Jesus Christ. The book tells us plainly that
God blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
before the world began. The book tells us plainly that
when he presents us before his presence, he'll present us holy
and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Spotless before
him. Imagine that. Spotless. So that
when Christ gets done with me. Hard as this is to grasp, when
Christ gets done with me. God Almighty, in all the purity
of His holiness, Adam can't find one spot in me, not one thing
to blame, not one fault. That's called grace. Pure, free
grace. When we see Him, We shall be
like him. Not a little bit like him, just
like him. For we shall see him as he is. Can there be degrees
of holiness? Degrees of perfection? Degrees
of faultlessness? Degrees of glorification? Number
three, this doctrine, degrees of reward in heaven, makes service
to Christ a legal thing. It promotes pride. It threatens
punishment. and it inspires by reward. Almost all of you here, and most
everyone who will hear this message, however it is broadcast later,
have experienced a good bit in religious tomfoolery. Growing
up all my life, what time I went to church, I was taught to be
scared to death of God. That's all. Scared to death of God.
About the only time the Bible, not about the only time, the
only time the Bible was ever read in our home in my presence
was when I'd gotten in trouble and Mother decided she was going
to try to scare the hell out of me. And she'd read about hell
and fire and judgment. And it didn't work. It didn't
work. And religion is designed to scare
folks, scare people, make them scared of God. And once you make
a profession of faith, then you're taught you've got to be scared
God's going to get you. You know, I actually heard a
fellow say, I've heard more than one. I've heard fellows say, if you
don't tithe, God might kill your babies. Well, that sounds good,
doesn't it? If you don't do things this way,
God's going to get you. And folks are intimidated and
they're scared. And so they give and they work and they tithe,
hoping either to thwart God's anger or earn God's favor and
his works. Totally contrary to free grace.
God's people aren't mercenaries. They're not mercenaries. If you're
here because you're trying to get something from God, get up
and go home. You give because you're hoping to get something
from God don't give Now I'm gonna pay my tithe I don't want God
to take that out of my hide keep it I'm as serious as I can be
God's people are not mercenaries. They're not mercenaries. We serve
him cause we want to We serve Him because He's put something
in our hearts called love and gratitude and faith in Christ
Jesus the Lord. More than that, this doctrine
robs Christ of the glory of His grace and makes room for men
to boast before Him. If there is one point of a diamond
in my golden crown that I've earned, then I've got a right
to boast. I can brag on that. And fifth,
the doctrine of degrees and glory has the obnoxious odor of works
about it. And there's no room for works
in the kingdom of grace. Turn back to Exodus chapter 20
for a moment. Exodus chapter 20. I want you to see something.
You can't worship God on an altar of hewn stone. There's no room
for your bragging in God's kingdom. No room for your baggage in the
straight and narrow way. Look at Exodus 20 verse 25. If
thou will make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it
of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast
polluted it. What? If you You put your hammer
on it. You put your chisel to it. Oh,
it's just got this, this little, one little nick here. Let me
knock that off. You destroyed the whole thing. That's just
like Uzzah putting his hand on the ark to steady it. Oh, God's
ark needs my help. God's salvation needs something
by me. Oh no. You put your hands to it. You
polluted it. Now, turn to the book of Revelation
chapter 21. Here's my text. I'll be done
with this. Here's one text of scripture
which both destroys the doctrine of degrees of reward and assures
every believer of an everlasting fullness of joy in heavenly glory. Revelation 21 and verse 4. After all that he has said concerning
the beauty of that holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down
from God out of heaven, He adds another and he says, and, and
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there should
be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying. Neither shall there
be any more pain for the former things are passed
away. Without question, there is much
weeping on the way to heaven. Faith in Christ delivers us from
all curse, but not from all sorrow. From all possibility of damnation,
but not from any trial or difficulty. Faith in Christ is the path of
trial. It is the path of adversity.
Our Lord Jesus was the only perfect man who ever walked on this earth
and he was known as the man of sorrows and rightly so. Faith
does not prevent pain and sorrow and bereavement. Faith gives
us that with which we cope with those things. Faith in Christ
makes us understand his purpose in things. and gives us confidence
before him, but it doesn't take them away. When Sally called
the other morning to tell us about her daughter-in-law's death
in that fire, she was weeping horribly, weeping horribly. Oh, that shouldn't happen. What? That shouldn't happen? I expect I would, and I expect
you would. unless you're made of ice. Faith in Christ causes us to
worship God in the midst of trial. There are many things which believers
suffer in this world along with other men, because this world
is a world of sin. It's a world of sorrow. And you're
not going to escape those sorrows. And there are many things that
bring tears to the eyes of God's saints, which the world can never
know. Our inward sin, our unbelief, rash speech, proud hearts, anger,
coldness, lack of resignation to our God, depression. Those are things that believers
deal with that the world can know nothing about. There are even some precious
tears we shed here that shall be wiped dry from our eyes when
we cross the Jordan. Here we weep with repentance
and we weep with concern for others. We weep in sympathy with
others. Those are bitter things, Merle,
we wouldn't give up while we live here, would we? Blessed
weeping. We weep with tears of longing
for our Redeemer. And even now, our Heavenly Father
does much to wipe tears from our eyes. Our life is not a morbid
experience. Oh, no. I wouldn't trade my life with
anybody on this earth. I really wouldn't. Nobody. Nobody
on this earth. But we do have our sorrows. We
do pass through the fire and through the deep waters and through
the raging sea. And the Lord God says, I'm with
you always. And when he put Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego into the fiery furnace, Brother Don, did you ever notice
what they lost? Did you ever notice what they lost, Bob? The
only thing they suffered while they were in that fiery furnace
was the bonds that held them. That's all. That's all. The fiery
furnace is for our good. And while we're there, there's
one like the son of man walking in the midst of the fire with
us who has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. God gives us a measure of resignation
to his will. He teaches us patience by the
things we suffer. teaches us to trust his providence, reminds us of his promises, and
gives us grace to remember those promises. He blesses us with
a sense of his presence. And in the midst of the deepest
gloom, in the midst of the deepest gloom
even here, Rex, he overflows our hearts, flooding us with
the knowledge of the love of Christ that passes knowledge. And reminds us that the sorrow we endure here,
we endure because the Lord chastens every soul he loves. Bastards may escape the rod,
sunk in earthly vain delight, but the true born child of God
may not, must not, would not, if he might. Our Heavenly Father
chastens every son whom he loves. He graciously causes our hearts
then to be lifted up and fixed upon better things. He says,
if you then be risen with Christ, set your heart on things above. Set your heart on Christ, who
is our life. Set your heart on Him. And as
your heart is set on Him, everything else falls in its rightful place. Yet in heaven's glory, God will
wipe even these tears from our eyes. Impossible as it is to
imagine. Impossible as it is to imagine. There will be no tears in any
eye Seated on the 24 seats around the throne with Christ in heaven If God didn't wipe away all tears
from our eyes there are a lot of things that would cause us
much weeping Do you know I'm fully aware Sammy
that God's forgiven all my sin And I lay in bed at night sometimes
is still weep I over things I did before I ever knew the name of
my Redeemer. I can't forget it. I can't forget
it. We weep over our sins since being
born of God. We weep over our sins now. Try
to pray. Your heart's so full of corruption
and evil, heart breaks before God. If it weren't for God wiping
tears from our eyes, we certainly would weep over past sins. We
certainly would weep over wasted opportunities. We would weep
over everlastingly lost souls. I do now. I do now. But then, the former things will
pass away. And then we will see everything
through the eyes of Him who did everything and did it because
He loved us. There'll be no weeping and no
sorrow. Our great God in heaven's glory
removes us from all sin shall remove us from all sin
and all sin from us, and He will remove us from all
the evil consequences of sin. That's just more than I can preach
about. Go home and try to get your heart
around it. Around him who loved you and
gave himself for you. Will there be degrees of reward
in heaven? When there can be degrees of
love in the heart of God for his own. When there can be degrees
of acceptance with God through the merits of Christ. When there
can be degrees of salvation by God's free grace, when there
can be degrees of atonement by Christ's precious blood, when
there can be degrees of holiness created by God's new creation,
then there will be degrees of reward in heaven, but not till
then. Amen.