God Is His People's Great Reward # 2

God Is His People's Great Reward # 2

God being an infinite reward, there can be no defect or scantiness in it. There is no lack in that which is infinite. "Is God sufficient for every individual saint?" Yes! If the sun, which is but a finite creature, disperses its light to the universe, then much more God who is infinite, distributes glory to the whole number of the elect. Every individual Christian has a membership in God. Though there are millions of saints and angels, there is enough in God to fill them. God is an infinite reward, and though He is continually giving out of His fullness to others - yet He has not the less. His glory is imparted, not impaired. It is a distribution without a diminution.

God is an honorable reward. Honor is the height of men's ambition. What greater dignity than to be taken up into communion with the God of glory, and to possess a kingdom with Him!

God is an everlasting reward. Mortality is the flaw of all earthly things. Eternity cannot be measured by years nor ages. Eternity makes glory weighty (Psalms 48:14), "This God is our God forever and ever!" Oh, you saints of God, your praying and repenting are but for a while - but your reward is forever! As long as God is God, He will be rewarding you (Hosa 2:19). God's love for the elect is as unchangeable as His love for Christ (Psalm 73:26), "My portion forever." This portion cannot be spent - because it is infinite; nor can it be lost - because it is eternal.

Question: Will this reward overwhelm us?

Answer: In the eternal world, our faculties shall be extended, and through the Mediator, Christ - we shall be made capable of receiving this reward. God's glory will be seen and enjoyed by us. 

Question: Where does the certainty of this reward appear?

Answer: God, who is the oracle of truth, has asserted it. God's oath is laid as pledge (Psalm 58:11). He has given the anticipation and first fruits of this reward to His saints in joy and consolation, (Galatians 5:22), which assures them of a harvest afterwards. 

Question: But when shall we be possessed of this reward?

Answer: The time is not long. (Rev. 22:12). Sense and reason think it a long interval - but faith looks at the rewards as near.

Question: But why is this reward at all deferred?

Answer 1: God does not see fit that we should receive it. Our work is not done. A day laborer does not receive his pay until his work is done. Even Christ's reward was deferred until He had completed His work and said upon the Cross, "It is finished."

Answer 2: God defers the reward that we may live by faith.  No grace honors God like faith (Romans 4:20). God has given Himself to us by promise. Faith trusts God's bond, and patience waits for the payment.

Answer 3: God adjourns the reward a while to sweeten it and make it more welcome. After all our labors, watchings, and conflicts - how comfortable will be the reward be. The longest labors, have the largest returns.

If still it is asked, "When shall the time of this reward be? I say, the righteous shall receive part of their reward at death. No sooner is the soul out of the body - then it is present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). And the full coronation is at the resurrection when the soul and body shall be united and perfected in glory. You are within a few steps of heaven! Your salvation is now nearer than when you first believed (Romans 13:11).

Several applications follow.

Use 1. OF INFORMATION

Branch 1. Hence it is evident that it is lawful to look to the future reward. God is our reward; is it not lawful to look to Him? Looking to the reward, quickens us in piety. It is said that it revives the spirit and makes us walk without being weary.

Branch 2. If God is such an exceedingly great reward, then it is not in vain to engage His service. The infinite Jehovah gives a reward that is as far beyond our thoughts - as it is about our deserts. How apt are people, through ignorance or mistake, to misjudge the ways of God! They think it will not be worth the cost to be pious. They speak evil of true religion before they have tried it; as if one should condemn a food before he has tasted it. Besides the gratuities which God gives in this life - provision, protection, and peace - there is a glorious reward shortly coming (Psalm 19:11). God Himself is the saints dowry! He has those riches which are nowhere else to be had - the riches of salvation. 

Branch 3. See the detestable folly of such as refuse God (Psalm 81:11). Is it usual to refuse rewards? God offers an incomprehensible reward to men - yet they refuse!  Man, by his fall, lost God; he does not see where his best interest lies. He flies from God as if he were afraid of salvation, and what does he refuse God for? The fleeting and unsatisfying pleasures of the world! To loose God for these perishables is an example of folly worse than that of Lysimachus, who, for a draft of water, lost his kingdom. We read in Scriptures of two cups. "The Lord is the portion of my cup." Those who refuse this cup shall have another cup to drink of - "Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone - this shall be the portion of their cup."

Branch 4: If God is such an immense reward, then see how little cause the saints have to fear death. Are men afraid to receive rewards? There is no way to really live, but by dying. Christians would be clothed with glory - but are loath to be unclothed. They pray "may Your kingdom come," and when God is leading them to this kingdom, they are afraid to go. What makes us desirous of staying here on earth? There is more in the world to wean us - than to entice us.  Is it not a valley of tears? And do we weep to leave it? Are we not in a wilderness among fiery serpents? And are we loath to leave their company? Is there a better friend we can go to - than God! Surely, those who know that when they die they go to receive their reward, should neither be fond of life - nor fear death! The pangs of death to believers are but the pangs of travail by which they are born into glory.

~Thomas Watson~

(continued with # 3)