The editor of my Bible has as a title for Hebrews 11. He calls it “The Roll Call of the Heroes of the Faith.” There are a great many eminent servants of God found here. They were not just saints; they were above average saints. And yet it wasn’t because they were above average people in strength, wisdom or personal holiness. They attained greatness through practical faith in the omnipotent God. And they accomplished extraordinary things for the Lord because they trusted Him. They were leaders of revival; they led souls to the Lord; they restored fallen people; they worked miracles. Paul begins to conclude the chapter by saying, “These all, having obtained a good report through faith…”
One of those great servants of God was Enoch; a man about whom we have very little information. But we ARE told in Genesis – and here too – that he was translated, and as such did not physically die. We should all be drawn toward Enoch, because don’t we, too, hope and expect to be translated? He was the first, and we expect to follow, not in his steps, but in his flight. In his case, the Bible adds something very important to his story. “Before his translation he had this testimony, that he PLEASED God. From there Paul laid down an important principle: “without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God.” And he followed that by saying that God is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him, apparently referring to seeking the Lord by faith.
I’d like to share a few thoughts with you this evening about the relationship between faith and Christian rewards. I am not going to say that we must please God through our obedience, holiness and faith before the Lord will reward us with translation. Enoch’s exodus from this world was special and came as a surprise. Our translation from this earth has eschatological significance and comes as a part of bringing all things to God’s intended conclusion. Nevertheless, I would like it to be said of me “before his translation he pleased God.” I hope that is something you yearn for yourself – “I want to please God.”
Going back to tonight’s theme: God – the God of GRACE – is a REWARDER.
“Grace” as you know, refers to unmerited favour. Grace cannot be earned and therefore it is not a reward. On the other hand, the God of all grace does render rewards for proper service and a proper approach. “He that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
The Bible is replete with statements, promises and exhortations about rewards God gives to His people. For example, David said, “The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me” – Psalm 18:20. There are rewards for holy living and in expressing God’s righteousness in us. In talking about what he read in God’s word, David said, “Moreover by them is thy servant warned; and in keeping of them there is great reward” – Psalm 19:11. There are benefits in obeying His word. Isaiah 62:11 – “Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold his reward is with him, and his work before him.” Jeremiah 31:16 – “Thus saith the Lord; refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord…” The Lord has promised to recompense His chosen people for their faith and their holy living.
The New Testament has as many, perhaps even more, statements about rewards for God’s saints. The Lord Jesus told those who are persecuted: “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven…” – Matthew 5:11. In the next chapter He said, “Thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.” Matthew 10:41-42 – “He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” Among many others we have Col. 3:23-24 – “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Hebrews 10:35 – “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath GREAT recompense of reward.” This verse seems to take us to rewards for faith in the Lord and in living in trust of Him. One of the last statements in the Bible is the promise of the Saviour – “Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be” – Revelation 22:12.
God is righteous, and as such He will not be a debtor to any of His servants. But at the same time, perhaps God rewards His people for their service, because H is gracious. For example, it is by grace that the Lord has promised to bring us before His judgment seat. In comparison to all the waste in our live, we don’t deserve any sort of reward. And yet, “we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may RECEIVE the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” – II Corinthians 5:8-10. Isn’t that talking about rewards? And I Corinthians 3:11 – “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”
With these things in mind, let’s go back to what Paul tells us at the end of Hebrews 11:6. God “is a REWARDER of them that diligently seek Him.” There is a sense in which even those who don’t seek God will be rewarded. God will render unto them the penalties they deserve for their pride, rebellion and self-righteousness. But here Paul is speaking of positives. These are good rewards. I know we could look at other verses and find other contexts, but in this text, God’s rewards are given only to those who are DILIGENTLY seeking Him.
And what is the only way for us to properly seek the Lord? Has anyone this evening seen the face of God while coming up the stairs from the front door? Or has anyone even seen His finger writing on our auditorium walls? Did any of those we baptized last week, come up saying they found the Lord under the water? Did anyone find the Lord in visions of rapture after partaking of the Lord’s Supper? No! There is only one way to find God, and that is by faith. The Lord has said, “Ye (shall) call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto and I will harken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” – Jeremiah 29:12-13. God will be sought and found only when we seek him with our hearts and souls – that is – by faith. The Lord can be found in His Word – when we look by faith, not simply through our minds. We can meet Him through the reception of the Gospel, which of course must be believed. He can be seen in His providential care – if we look by faith through all the mist of life. Creation reveals the Creator, but only to those who look by faith. Proof of that can be seen in the thousands of atheistic scientists studying creation.
To paraphrase our text – “He that cometh to the Lord must believe that He exists, but the one seeking the Lord must do so by faith, because it is impossible to approach him otherwise. And when someone does come he will find God to be a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Should we carry what Paul tells us here this back to II Corinthians 5 and his comments on the Judgment Seat? What is the difference between our golden or silver works and those which are kindling for the fire? We might answer in several ways: We might say that if things are not done decently and in order the Lord will not reward us. That is true. And if what we do is tainted by sin, what could have been golden will be turned to stubble. For example, if I was preaching this message because I thought it was the best lesson on rewards ever preached, there would be no reward in it for me, because of my pride. Or if I was preaching in order to be paid, I might get a check, but I wouldn’t get any eternal reward. Furthermore, whatsoever is done for the Lord, but without faith, is a waste of time and is sin – Romans 14:23. I might even add that if we serve properly and in faith in order to earn points or rewards, none will be given. If rewards are our goal, then ultimately we’d be serving for our own benefit – for our selves. Matthew 6:1 – “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.”
If I had to point to what I think is the key difference between works of gold, silver and precious stones and those of wood, hay and stubble, I would say that it is faith or the lack of faith. And a part of that would be: for whom that work was being done. If we go out knocking on doors, but we don’t go trusting God for His blessings, we will not be rewarded for that time of service. If I spend one hour, or six hours, preparing a message, and I share it with you without seeking God’s glory in it, there will be no reward – at least for me. For whatsoever is not of faith is sin and not worthy of reward.
In regard to this principle, Paul’s example was Enoch.
Genesis 5:18 says, “Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch. And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”
Moses tells us twice that Enoch walked with God. It may be a somewhat infantile thought, but I picture Enoch actually walking with the Lord. I visualize him waking in the morning and determining to spend that day in fellowship with Jehovah. “Whether he ate or drank or whatsoever he did, he did it all to the glory of God” – I Corinthians 10:31. If he was farming, he spoke with God in prayer while he urged his oxen forward. If he was a shop-keeper, he dedicated his sales and even his business to the Lord, speaking to his customers about the Saviour. But we also know that he was preacher of righteousness, and I believe he sought the face of God each and every time he spoke to others about sin, righteousness and judgment to come. He told anyone who would listen, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all…” (Jude 14) therefore my friend, you need to repent and trust the Lord. Every seventh day, as Enoch went to his special place of worship, he did so walking side by side with Jehovah.
Moses tells us that Enoch walked with God, but then, all of a sudden, “he was not; for God took him.” Poof… Enoch was plucked out and away from his earthly life. It wasn’t a heart attack, a brain aneurism, or pulmonary embolism which took him. Paul tells us that the man was “translated.” The word is also translated “carried over.” Enoch was serving and enjoying the Lord when one day God transported him to the other side of death. And Hebrews says that he was translated because “he pleased the Lord.”
How did Enoch please God? I have heard people talk about his preaching and prophesying about the coming of the Saviour. I wonder what else, about the Lord, he shared with people. I am sure that his message did please God. I have no doubt that the man lived as best he could in all the precepts which Christ and the apostles would eventually teach. I think that he “followed peace with all men, and HOLINESS, without which no man shall see the Lord” – Hebrews 12:14. And I am convinced that Enoch loved to fellowship with God. But in the midst of these things, I point out that Paul implied it was Enoch’s faith which most pleased the Lord. It was Enoch’s trust in Jehovah which prompted God to reward the man with this special translation.
And with that we come to what the Lord’s rewards might be for US.
I just finished reviewing two old books which I found hidden deep within my library. One was a study of Hebrews 12, called “In the Arena of Faith” by Erich Sauer, and the other was a small work on the “Judgment Seat of Christ” by a man named Sale-Harrison. Both of them spent time considering various crowns God will give to His saints for their service. One man described the “runner’s and wrestlers crowns,” which will be rewards for living the Christian life properly. And there will be a crown for soul-winners. There will be a “righteous crown” and perhaps a different one called a “crown of glory.” There will be a special crown for the pastor who has been faithful to his calling. There are appropriate lessons behind each of these, but in the context of this message, I think it would be a distraction to look at them. None of these crowns will be royal diadem like that which belongs to the King – the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is to Him we should be thinking and looking. Again I say, if we are serving the Lord in order to win crowns, then there will be no crowns at all.
I have a hard time believing the rewards which the Lord gives out will be confined to crowns, but I don’t know. Won’t there be different positions of honor in Heaven? Maybe those crowns will mark those differing positions, like insignia on a military uniform. Might not one mansion be more magnificent than another? Will there be distinctions in nearness to Christ? Will some streets be more golden than others? Will some people enjoy finer heavenly manna than others? What will those of us who have been saved “yet so as by fire” miss by not living and serving in faith? It’s probably pointless to speculate on these things, except for the conviction it should lay upon our hearts.
Despite all the possibilities when it comes to rewards, do you know what? Since I don’t deserve anything from the Lord, I’m not going to stress out about what I might not receive. I’m not going to stretch my imagination trying to figure what great rewards Enoch, Paul, Abraham and David will be given. But I will try to serve the Lord better today than I did yesterday.
Leaving the subject of rewards, I want to return to our general theme. I believe Paul is telling us that God rewarded Enoch with translation and probably much, much more because he pleased God and served the Lord through faith. Isn’t that the primary subject of this chapter? “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders, like Enoch, obtained a good report.”
For that ancient patriarch, one of his first blessings was translation. And without actually speaking to the man, I have to guess about some of the details, but here I go… Enoch was translated from his earthly limited communion with the Lord to full and direct fellowship. Isn’t the greatest “reward” that any of us could ever receive be to simply look into the face of our Saviour? Gold is valuable, but a gold mine is more valuable. A crown bestowed by God’s blessed hand may be a great reward, but it will not be as great as communion with the Lord behind that hand.
In an earlier lesson I pointed out that Jehovah spoke to Abraham and said, “Fear not Abram, I am thy shield.” This was after Abraham’s rescue of his nephew Lot from the hands of a of foreign army. Following that daring rescue, Abraham met with Melchizedek, and God’s very special priest blessed him. Then immediately “after these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield.” Some of you probably know your Bible well enough to know that I didn’t finish the verse. What God said was, “Fear not, Abram: I – am thy shield and (I am) thy EXCEEDING great REWARD.”
What is the greatest possible reward for our minuscule faith and our small service? It is just how Enoch was rewarded – “he was not; for God took him” to be with Himself. And what was Abraham given for his faith and service to God? “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.” There is no greater reward than the Lord Himself, and through what means, beside God’s grace, do we have access to Him? “He that cometh to God must believe…” “Without faith it is impossible to please Him.”
Why does Revelation 4:10 say that God’s saints will return their crowns to the Lord who distributed them? “The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Why did the twenty-four elders return their crowns to the Lord who gave them to them? Wasn’t it because only the Lord is worthy to receive glory and honour and power? Christ created all things for His glory, and that includes you and me. Furthermore He saved us for His glory, and even rewards us for His own glory. Therefore, these crowns are far too great to place on our mantle over the fire or in our trophy case. These rewards come from the Lord, and ultimately they belong to the Lord.
Do any of us have faith truly worthy of the Lord our Saviour? Is any of our service worthy of Christ? Do any of us trust the Lord and live in the kind of expectant faith we should? Faith is the key ingredient to our relationship to the Lord, from the moment of salvation to that day when we are standing before Christ’s Judgment Seat. Yes, by grace the Lord is a rewarder of our service for Him. But it must be the right kind of service and it must be bathed in faith and dependence upon Him.
“O Lord, increase our service and our faith that we might better glorify thy name.”