It is a basic tenet 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. It's 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 in 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
others, 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,
vagabondous 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 can 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 make
it. Just make 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, He 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 statement 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. Now
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. God recognizes, listen now, this
is a direct quote, 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 who teach degrees of reward in heaven teach. Five things,
if you've taken 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 do. It's amazing
how a religious lie, it's amazing how falsehood, folks will just
grab hold of it like a magnet grabs a metal. And the truth,
man, you could pour it on them, pour it on them, pour it on them,
pour it on them, and it just don't hit. 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 chapter 8, verses
28 through 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 what 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 a 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. Every one of you have got folks
in your family, folks who are friends, folks related to you,
who are much religious and zealous, and you're asking. If I were
to ask you about them, if I were to ask you about them, 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, he 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
is 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 damn you. That's all. Who? By what work? will put almighty God under obligation. Nobody except God himself. Nobody. 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 doctrines. If you're going to be honest
in interpreting scripture, you interpret scripture in its context,
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, put it all together and say 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 they say Judgment Day is going to be like
a man going to trial. You'll be 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's revealed
in Scripture. I'll deal with it in a few weeks, Lord willing,
but we're coming 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
the 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 put his long bony finger down at her and he said,
now you're going to spend eternity reaping 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 that spared 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 condemneth? It's
Christ that died. All right, here's the 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, and 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 ducky fight
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 greater reward than others, if some folks lose
their reward and just get into heaven by the skin of their teeth,
then there is a certain 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 favor. 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 a 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 that will interest you in coming back.
But somebody said, but what about the crowns? You've got 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 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. Everyone
of them. 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. 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 to 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 fellas,
we used to have a place down in Western Salem called Buzzard's
Roost. That's where you'd go get fellas
who wouldn't work a normal job, stay drunk all the morning with
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. And the fellas
would go down there and he'd say, would you work with me for
a penny? Yeah. Yeah, I'll work with you for
a penny. What are we going to do? Whatever I tell you to do.
All day long. Yeah, y'all do that. And he went
out at noon. He said, well, you fellas work
with me the rest of the day for a penny? Yeah, yeah, we'll work
for you. And then he went out at the last
hour of the day. He said, we need some help. Y'all come work
for me. 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 they 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
ravened 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 in 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 Bible whatever
he's got, we've got. We're Jordanians. 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 Him. No, sir. No, sir. This doctrine
promotes pride, because it causes folks to look down their nose
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, are you going to pay
for it? I've heard preachers who claim
to believe grace, talk about tithing, saying you better tithe. If you don't pay your 10%, 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 come, you give, you witness,
you go, you say, you do, and God will reward you. You don't
want to lay up to yourself things on the earth where things moth
and rust corrupt your lips, treasures in heaven, and you do that by
giving your money to me. You do that by sending your money
here and 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 brood 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. Revelation
21. Verse 4. When this whole thing's over,
ah, 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 God. This is what's going to happen,
Ron. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. 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. You say, Pastor, I never heard him
that preach like that before. Now you have. That's called free
grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.