There is instruction here for us. He will give a reward as his work shall be. It is good to consider the words endure and patience, because it relates directly to our reward. When we picture enduring a trial, we sometimes just picture hanging on, barely hanging on by our fingernails, and, Oh, it is too tough. But God's endurance refers to the quality of character that does not allow us to surrender God's standards and values because of trials and circumstances. It pictures not succumbing while under trial. It pictures one, as Paul commented, who continually strives towards the fulfilling the purpose that God has called him for. And in one definition, it does not show just enduring, it shows progress of going forward, despite what the trial is. It also pictures one who realizes the purpose of building godly character. To be able to rightly and lovingly rule and teach and care for those God gives us. That is part of enduring.
We will not turn to Ephesians 4, but it says…perfecting the saints, and that is what our job is going to be until they come to the fullness of Jesus Christ. That is why we have to strive.
As further incentive and enduring, we should all remember that salvation is truly a gift from God, but position, office, jobs, rewards, will be given on the basis of our efforts. Why? Because the zeal and effort put forth at this time will give us the skills to serve God's people at that time. That is why we should work as hard as we can now to stand fast and to make it.
Revelation 2 and 3: He that overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death; and will eat of the hidden manna; he will receive a white stone; he will receive a new name; he that overcomes and keeps God's word will receive power over the nations; he shall rule the earth with a rod of iron; he will be clothed in white; I will make him a pillar in My temple; He will not go out anymore. To him who overcomes will I grant to sit with Me on My throne; (and here it comes, Jesus Christ speaking), even as I overcame and sat down with My Father in His throne.
Jesus Christ had to overcome just as we do. That is what it is all about. This is part of persevering.
Now we all know about the talents because the time is going to come, based on our talents, we will be given cities; some five, maybe some one, maybe some ten, maybe some of you fifteen. If we are faithful in small things, like Richard brought out, we will be given the big things.
When will these cities be given?
I do not think we have a two-year course in city management before get them. I think we are going to be given these cities right away. I think the reason will be that we are going to grow with the cities, with the people who come out of the Tribulation. We are going to have that kind of knowledge of God. God is going to help us, but we are going to help take care of these people immediately. It is not going to be somebody else. It is going to be you. Hopefully it is going to be me too.
Now a friend used to say, There is good news, and then there is bad news, and then there is really good news! The good news is that Jesus Christ is going to return; the bad news is that the world would come to the brink of destruction; and the really good news is that He would come at last and set up His government - the most wonderful blessing to the people of the earth.
You are going to have a part in that, brethren.
Part of it is found in Micah 4 (which we will not turn to for time), but people will come to the capitol in Zion; every man will sit under his vine and fig tree; none will make him afraid. To me that is a marvelous thought about the Kingdom of God.
Yes, we are all afraid of something - when I was a boy of about 11, the polio scare was big. I touched somebody who came down with polio, and I was afraid I would get polio. I was afraid for months. We could not go swimming because of polio. We thought that is where it came from.
[Because of fear,] how many mammograms are taken? … . . .
Not somebody else's, see. So we were part of the group that very successfully preached the Kingdom of God to the world, but each person's judgment is an individual matter. What this program tends to produce is a situation where the great bulk of the actual work of preaching the gospel is done by a relatively few, and the first thing you know, that program can be deeply mired in - I think you will recognize this term - the pay and pray syndrome that very likely is not producing any personal growth at all, or very little. What it is doing is helping somebody else to do the work.
Please do not think that I am entirely against that because a measure of that is necessary, and there is a measure of good in that. So, it is not entirely useless. But I also personally believe that this played a major role in why so many were so unprepared for what happened when the doctrines began changing; why so many of us may have lost our first love, turned Laodicean, and fell asleep. The work was being done, was it not? Yes, that part of the work was being done. But as I have been trying to get across here, there is more to the work of God than preaching the gospel. In one sense (I have made this statement before), that is the easy part. For each one of us personally, the hard part is overcoming.
And so in that kind of a situation it is very easy to ignore our personal responsibility to God to grow and overcome, because we can always justify what we are doing by saying, The work is being done; therefore I am okay. See? So the gospel is being preached, so why worry.
But here is the real catcher. All of the evidence that it is being done is visible, and that is living by sight. It is visible and contained in numbers, and we are to live by faith, not by numbers. If you are living by sight would you ever say that Gideon's three hundred would whip a great big army of many, many tens of thousands? Of course not. It is only those who are living by faith who could see the reality of the possibility. If you are living by sight, the numbers were all stacked against David. If you are living by faith, David did not have a shadow of doubt that God was going to back him up in whipping that big giant. This is what I am getting at. To grow, to overcome, forces a person to live by faith. We cannot be living by numbers.
God's purpose is to reproduce Himself. It is to create His image in us, and that requires personal overcoming and personal faithfulness in the experiences of life. That is not something that someone can do for another. Mr. Armstrong could not do that. That is something that each one of us has to do for ourselves, and this is something that rests upon the quality of our own personal relationship with God. It is in this very area that it helps greatly to see ourselves as involved as part of a cause.
Let me illustrate it this way. A marathoner is one who wants to run 26 miles in a race for fame and fortune. Well that is his cause, and the result of having that cause is that he prepares himself to achieve his cause through all of the practice that he goes through, enduring that in order to achieve it. But you see, he has a cause, and it provides the motivation to overcome the physical deficiencies in order to be prepared to finish the race.
The word cause, according to Webster's New Dictionary, means, anything producing an effect or a result. Let us begin to expand and build on that. It also means any objective or movement that a person or group is interested in and supports, especially one involving social reform. That is a very interesting one, because that is exactly what we are involved in.
Webster's Lexicon of the English Language says this: The side taken in a contest between individuals or political or religious movements. Let me give you some synonyms. There are scores of synonyms for this word, but I will use some that are, say, appropriate to this sermon. Synonyms for the word cause are: prime mover, instigator, … . . .
And all the way at the end of the book, practically the last piece of counsel that is given in the entire Book, says this:
Group salvation is not God's foundation of judgment. Everybody has to do their own work. Now we are not really getting too far away from walking. Walking is work, and the person has to walk himself. Is that not correct? So just hold that in mind.
Another factor in a group in which the preaching of the gospel is dominant is that a great deal of the actual work of preaching of the gospel is done by relatively few. That leads directly into the pay and pray syndrome, and that is not producing personal growth at all. All it is doing is helping somebody else do the work. Now there is nothing wrong with that, and so a person can say, Well, I helped Joe Smith do the work. That will certainly earn them some reward. But I am looking for the greatest growth that we can possibly have.
I personally believe that what I am speaking of here played a major part in why so many were unprepared for what happened when doctrines began changing in the Worldwide Church of God. I believe it is why so many just simply disappeared. Maybe they lost their love, maybe they turned Laodicean, then they fell asleep, as the Worldwide Church of God imploded. After all, the gospel was being preached, so why worry? Why be concerned? Call me Alfred E. Neuman, but it is really sad, because that approach, if it dominates in a group, is going to lead to something that is very dangerous. That is because God's purpose is to reproduce Himself, and that is an entirely different and far bigger goal, a far greater cause, than merely preaching the gospel. I personally believe that approach played a major role in why so many were unprepared for what happened.
God's purpose is to create us in His image, and that requires personal faithfulness in the experiences of life. That, brethren, is not something that anybody can do for anybody else. Each person can be faithful only on his own. The virtues, the qualities, the characteristics that require personal involvement - they cannot be given to somebody else.
I am still touching on the walking thing: walking is work, walking is moving, walking is producing something, in the biblical sense. It is something that rests upon the quality of our own personal relationship with God. It is in this very area that it helps greatly if we see ourselves as part of a cause.
A cause, brethren, motivates. It is going somewhere, it is producing something. A marathoner is one who likes to run, and they want to run 26 miles. Maybe they are doing it for fame, for fortune, for personal fulfillment, and that is that person's cause. So what does he do? He prepares himself, through training, to achieve his cause. No one else can do that for him. You cannot trade one person's physical fitness and give it to someone else. Neither can one's spiritual fitness be transferred from one to another.
A cause is more than merely a goal, because some goals are very quickly reached. A cause requires sustained effort. It is not something that is over in the blink of an eye, or in one day, or one week. It is something that pushes a person, for perhaps many, many years because he envisions the fulfillment of that cause, and the joy that he will have whenever it is finally accomplished.
Now the word cause, according to Webster's New World Dictionary is anything producing an effect or result; any objective movement that a person or group is interested in and supports, especially one involving social reform. We are involving personal reform in the image of God. Webster's Lexicon of the English Language says this: That a cause is a side, [like the Democrats are on one side, and the Republicans on another side; the Cardinals are on one side, the Rangers are on another side] taken in a contest between individuals, political, or religious movements. Synonyms are: prime-mover, (a cause is a prime-mover), instigator, producer, … . . .
Let us take a quick trip over to Revelation 22. This is Jesus Christ speaking, and He does not want us to forget this.
I do not think we focus on reward very much. Just so we understand the meaning of the term reward, I would like to quote from the Reader's Digest Great Encyclopedic Dictionary under the term reward. It says, something given or done in return, especially a gift, a prize or recompense for merit, service and achievement. And, of course, you know the other meanings of reward monies offered for the return of lost goods (like a briefcase), profit or return. But in the Greek the word is misthos, and it means wages, hire or reward. God is going to reward us for the effort we put forth, the changes we make.
I think most of us tend to be myopic as we go through life (I know I do.), only seeing what is in front of us, how our families are doing, our job, the everyday problems that continually face us. We do not stop to consider that in a very short time we will be receiving the rewards for our labors. And it is really important for us to consider that we will be given a reward, and though in this physical life, at this time, that reward may seem somewhere off in the distance, but the day will come, and probably much sooner than most of us think, when this reward will be of the utmost importance to us and to God the Father and to Jesus Christ. See, They want to give us the biggest reward possible that They can possibly give us - because that indicates our growth and our ability to serve, and to accomplish all that God and Jesus Christ want done.
What are the rewards based on? Please turn over to I Corinthians 3. We will read verses 7 through 18. Now there had been a division in the Corinthian church as all of you are aware. One group was of Apollo, one of Paul, one of Peter, and one of Christ. This sounds a lot like the churches today. I am with this person, that person and so forth. And the leaders of the church seemed to have lost vision of what God was doing. They were polarizing. They were having their own groups. And this group is better than that group. It was causing a lot of division and pain. Paul was called to plant and Apollos to water. And in all of this it was God who gave the increase, but they missed this and they became polarized, as I said, each to their own individual.
And in God's plan there are tremendous rewards for having done your job well. Tremendous rewards - office, joy, happiness, and fulfillment as we have never begun to understand it - for doing the job correctly. God tells us that He is going to hold us accountable, and that He will bring His rewards with Him.
We should take that seriously, with the pluses and the minuses. But for an individual to be held accountable (and this is the intent of the sermon today), defined objectives have to be established. I am just going to give you two today (and they are down the road here); but defined objectives have to be established. What are you being held accountable for?
Since I was in sales all those years, you have to make up your coming forecast for the year. One salesman might say, Well, I'm going to sell more this year. That is not a good objective, and it will not fly with the company. The company would rightly want to know what percentage more you felt you were going to sell, what products you were going to sell, the profit that you were going to sell them at, the product mix, where you were going to sell it, your monthly expectations (your quarterly, your semi-annually expectations). They want to know all the facts. In other words, they want to know what you are going to complete - and how you are going to complete what you say you are going to do. They want something to measure against.
That is what objectives are for - that we might measure against something. Hopefully today, when I finish, you will know what you and I have to measure against. This individual knows precisely what is expected of him; and if he completes what is expected of him, or goes over it, then he is a hero. If he does not, he has not done his work correctly. God wants us to understand, brethren, that we are all going to be held accountable!
We humans make a lot of mistakes, even those of us in God's Church. Our ability to learn from our mistakes is part of what God uses to build character in us. In the book of Revelation, we read that it is the overcomers, the conquerors, those who will not be defeated, those who do not resign from serving and obeying God and who ultimately are given eternal life in God's Family.
God is ready and willing to forgive us for our mistakes. But He expects us to learn our lessons well, ...For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
God demands a great deal of obedience and submission from us. He requires our victory over sin. In reality, He gives us that victory. He guarantees us that victory, if we work with Him by fulfilling our responsibility to conquer sin.
Yes, we have all made costly mistakes, but the costliest one of all is to ignore God's promise - He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.
We show by our good works that we have living faith. When God tells us by His Word to do something, we show that we believe Him by our actions. We are saved by the life of Christ, not by works. We are given salvation as a free gift from God, but we are rewarded or given our particular responsibility in God's Kingdom according to our works. Jesus Christ inspired John to write in Revelation 22:12, And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. Works with faith is very, very important.
Everyone has either good or bad works. We need to be sure that our works are good. Faith along with good works is a living faith, and that is the kind of faith we must have. True faith is far more than a mere profession of belief. It requires righteous action; it requires good works. Faith is the gift of God for forgiveness of the past; it is a key to obedience; and it is the victory that has overcome the world.
This is how we end the Book. Look! It is going to come fast! Once you realize what is going on, there is a very, very short window! Do not lose the opportunity that comes in that window!
The warning is clear. Once things reach a certain tipping point, God will move speedily and decisively, and things will wrap up so fast, as Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong used to say, that it will make our heads spin. God is not going to tarry once that point is reached. The Father will say, Son, go! And He will.
He is not going to let things linger and fester too long, because as He stated in Matthew 24, that no flesh would be saved alive. He does not want to lose humanity. So, He has to come quickly once things reach that point.
Do we need to be convinced that there is an urgency here in God's book about the coming of Jesus Christ? Yes, it is going to be shocking and devastating. It is going to be an awesome display of God's power.
There is going to be carnage like we've never even imagined. And it is coming fast and soon. It is our job to be ready.
Now is the time to put our spiritual house in order if we want to present ourselves as holy, righteous, and faithful before God; now is the time, while there is still time to put the corresponding works into practice. Jesus says to us:
Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Revelation 22:12: