God Is a Rewarder of Those Who Seek Him (2 of 4) — Paul Washer

I think that around the dinner table tonight, we ate our bread with tears. And that's a phrase that can be used in ancient literature to mean to eat your bread with sorrow, to be in great pain. But we ate our bread with great joy tonight, all of us recounting many of the great things that God has done on our behalf.

And you know, it's amazing. I've never sat around a table with a group of individuals which they were talking about the great victories they had won that caused the hearers to break out in tears. But only when we speak about the great victories that God has wrought in our lives do the tears come forth.

God's Goodness and Our Joy

When we realize how undeserving, how unwilling, how pitiful, how small, how faithless that we truly are as men and women and how good our God is. This is always about him and it is always about his goodness, always.

And our joy comes not from our performance, but our joy comes from his, his faithfulness and his performance. I was speaking, I've been counseling a young seminary student and he's just totally distraught.

He just lives in anguish. He lives in doubt. He looks at his failures, his problems, his shortcomings and everything else. He loses all joy and he lives in despair. And I spoke to him recently and then wrote him again over the same matter.

And I said, young man, I said, there's a really good chance you're more spiritual than I am. But I'm a lot happier than you are. And the reason for that is your eyes are placed upon you. You hope to find your satisfaction, your peace, your salvation, your joy in your performance.

I've lived long enough with God and failed enough times to know that's an impossibility. I look to Christ and his perfect work is never a cause for a ceasing of joy. I always have joy regardless of my circumstance, regardless even of my failure, my shortcomings and my sin.

I have joy because my life, my salvation. Is founded upon the finished work of Christ, and that is so important, that is more than just words, that salvation. Now, I want us to go into Hebrews chapter 11.

Faith Rests on God's Revelation

We've been studying faith, walking by faith, and in verse one, we learned that we could have assurance of things that we hope for. And we could have convictions that things exist and things that are that we have never seen.

Only for one reason, and that God has spoken, that God has spoken. And if you and I are to ever have faith, we must be filled with the revelation of God. We must be filled with the knowledge of God. It is so important to understand that faith is nothing more than presumption.

It's nothing more than a leap in the dark. If it is not based upon, thus saith the Lord, and so our God has promised us. And in verse two, we saw that men of old gained approval by faith. This is always the case.

And yet this goes totally against every form of man-centered, man-invented religion. All of that has to do with gaining approval by works, gaining approval by performance, gaining approval by doing this or doing that.

But we understand that men of old in the Bible, and women of old, as we will see, they always gained their approval before God through faith, through believing Him. Something very important about this, and something I always tell people, that you will never be anything except a recipient of God's grace.

That's all you will ever be. And we reach out, we extend our hands to be recipients of that grace by faith, by faith in Jesus Christ. Verse three, by faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

This is such an important statement. If we can believe, if we believe that there is a God, and we believe that this God has such power that He can not only create, but also sustain the entire universe, then is there anything impossible for Him?

Is there anything impossible for Him? We wonder sometimes, can I trust God with my family? Can I trust God with my finances? Can I trust God with my children? Can I trust... You trust Him every day with these things, whether you know it or not, because He sustains the very universe in which they exist.

And if we come to the conclusion that He can do the most miraculous, which would be to create a universe and sustain it, then every other thing is trite before Him. Every other thing is simple, it's a tiny thing.

If I can solve this one question, is there a God? Is He who He says He is? Then everything else is over. I can trust Him. I can trust Him. Now, in verse four, by faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain.

Abel, Cain, and Approval Through Faith

It's very, very important that his sacrifice was not acceptable because the difference between blood and grain and this and that and every sort of thing. It wasn't... His sacrifice wasn't more pleasing to God because of something that was in it.

It's more pleasing to God because it was offered by faith. He truly believed, as we are going to see later, he came to God believing that God was and that God was the rewarder. I can imagine Abel taking his offering, offering it to God in knowledge that he had something to offer because God gave it to him.

And that he was giving something back to God, knowing that it was the right thing to do and that God is the rewarder of those who seek Him. What Cain, on the other hand, is probably thinking, as so many people do, I don't know why I'm having to give this to God.

I had to earn it with my own sweat. How many people speak that way with regard to their time, their employment and finances? Well, I don't know why I need to offer this to God. I'm the one that had to go out there and earn it.

Little do you know, old proud and stupid man, the very breath that you drew every second of every day came from Him. The power, the ability, the intellect, whatever is required to do your job, it came from Him.

Abel recognizes I have something to offer because God gave me something to offer. And Cain's thinking he did it all by himself, all by himself. And that offering it was just some pathetic, stupid little religious ritual.

Why do I even want to bother? I'll do it because it's to be done. There's really no use in it. Now, none of us would say that, but we spoke last night about something very important. We do many religious things, even good things, not by faith.

When we sing a hymn unto God, when you say here this evening, it should have been by faith, believing that God is, believing that God received such a sacrifice, believing that it was pleasing to God, that it was actually doing something, that it was actually reaching the throne of God, that God was actually hearing your song, your singing, your heart.

It just wasn't some empty religious activity that you were doing. This is also good for the servant of the Lord who is burdened by many, many years of service and many, many years maybe of not seeing much fruit, but realizing, no, there is a reason to offer.

There is a reason to give by faith, by faith, by faith. And then we see that through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous. Something very important. Righteousness comes through faith, always through faith.

And this is very important because faith is the opposite of works. And being the opposite of works, it is also a denial that God could ever be a man's debtor. Do you know when I study religion and I study things of that sort and study cults and everything else that sometimes I have to study, I'm well aware of something.

That every religion on the face of the earth, with the exception of true Christianity, is a religion of works. Now, why is that? Why are men glad to receive a religion of works and yet will practically kill a messenger who comes to them and says it is free.

It is a gift. Receive it by faith. Why is that? I'll tell you why. Because men want to be God. You say, well, what on earth does that have? No, men want to be God. Men want to be the greater. You see, the lesser is always blessed by the greater.

When you have a religion of works, what you're saying is you have blessed God. You have made yourself greater than God. God is the one receiving from you. And now God owes you because of the things you have done.

And that's why men love works so much. They would rather have a religion of works than a religion of salvation through grace and by faith. But we see that men have always been approved. They've always been declared righteous only by faith.

Enoch and the Desire to Please God

Then it goes on in verse five. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death. And we spoke about that last night. There's a very, very important part here. It says, and he was not found because God took him.

I love that. I would like for God to do this to me. You say, well, that's preposterous. God doesn't do that anymore. Where did you read that? God can do it if he wants to. God can do anything. But I would like that to happen to me.

I really would. It would be nice not to die. It says here something very important. He did not see death and he was not found because God took him up for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God.

Now, who witnessed this? God witnessed. God witnessed and saw that this man was pleasing. Now, here's something very important to the carnal Christian. There is no such thing, but people who call them Christians call themselves Christians, though they live in carnality.

Here's something very important. There is a doctrine out there that seems to say that that men get saved. If they never really grow in the Lord, they never have a passion for the Lord. They're always carnal.

They never grow in sanctification. But bless God, they're saved. And then when they cross over, they're transformed when they're in heaven and they become pleasing to God. But look at what it says about Enoch.

He was pleasing to God before he was taken up. Before he was taken up, he was pleasing to God. Do you know if you could take away absolutely everything with motivation in the Christian life and just replace it with one thing, if you could just 24 hours a day or every waking moment, live with the greatest motivation to simply be pleasing to God, not to do great things, not to be an important person in Christendom, not to be well known, not to be well thought of.

Just one thing. I desire only one thing of the Lord, and that is to be pleasing to him, not to satisfy self, not necessarily to satisfy others, but to be pleasing to God. That's your one goal. What would that fix?

Absolutely everything. You say, well, would it fix my marriage? Yes, it would. Because your problem in your marriage is always trying to please yourself. If you set it upon yourself to please God, then you wouldn't have any problems with that selfishness anymore.

You say, will it fix my relationships? Most certainly it would. Would it make me a better father? Yes, it would. Would it make me a better mother? Of course. Would it make me a better church? It would make you a better church.

To have one goal. I desire to be pleasing to God. What do you desire? Well, I want to get out of seminary. I want to be in a ministry somewhere. Oh, really? And what if God doesn't want either of those things?

Well, I want to get out of college and I want to get a job and go. Oh, really? We'll have movers and shakers a lot of times. Those are the, I don't know, kind of guys in Christianity that just know how to move things around, know how to get things going, know how to motivate.

Sometimes I talk to these guys and they go, well, what's your vision? And heart cry. What? What's your vision at heart cry? Jesus Christ. No, no, no, no. What do you want to do? Because you get scared when they start asking you these kind of questions.

Get up in the morning and pray. And then I want to I want to read Bible. And I want to love my wife when she comes downstairs. I'm going to play with my children and go over Ian's Bible verse and then I'm going to go to church and I'm going to pray with Darren.

No, what's your vision? I said, I don't have a vision except for Jesus Christ. I don't want to be anything. I don't want to be a big shot. I don't want to be important. I don't want to conquer the world.

I just want to be pleasing to God today. And that is enough. That is enough. And strive as I might. I haven't obtained that goal. So why should I look for another? The more I walk with the Lord, the more I realize this child likeness stuff is really important.

Visions. Should we have a vision except Christ? Isn't he the heavenly vision? Should we have plans? I mean, what sort of plans? Daytimers. They don't really work well in planning ministry. I know the necessity of organization.

I know the necessity of all that. But what I'm trying to say is simply this. So many times we can have plans and schemes and all sorts of things that we want to do and we want to be. Even in the name of the Lord.

And yet they're all just fodder. They're all just sawdust. And God will come and tear them all down and say, I just want this from you. What would it be like if tonight we just simply captured this one thing of, I want to be pleasing to the Lord.

When we dismiss, while we're sitting here listening to the message, my thoughts, I want them to be pleasing to the Lord. And when I walk around and meet with brothers and sisters in Christ, well, in that time of short fellowship, I want to be pleasing to the Lord.

And when I go home tonight and sit around the table over those marvelous cookies you made, I might say over those cookies, I want to be pleasing to the Lord. And that's all I wanted. And then I want to go to bed.

That's so different than much of what's being promoted as evangelical Christianity today. He was pleasing to the Lord and he was pleasing to the Lord before he died. This is such an encouragement to me.

It is such a great encouragement. Now, here's something that I want you to look at. Now, a lot of times when we listen, we hear about Old Testament saints and things like that. We just almost we canonize them.

We make them into people that they weren't. We think too much of men. When I look at Enoch and I think of this man, I think of what was he as a young follower of Yahweh? I mean, how was he? Didn't he probably stumble like me?

Didn't he probably grumble like me? Didn't he have all the faults that I have? Wasn't this life of his of walking with God? I mean, he had hundreds of years to do it. It wasn't in a process of growing.

But in the end, he was so pleasing to God that God took him. I love what one old preacher said, you've probably heard it a thousand times, but his explanation of this, I'll never forget, as a little boy, I heard him saying this.

He said, well, this is just very simple to explain. Enoch had grown so accustomed to walking with God, they were walking one day and walking and walking. And Enoch just forgot how far he'd gotten away from home.

And God looked at him and said, Enoch, we're closer to my house than yours. Just come home with me. I look at this. And I have had the privilege in my life of knowing men like this. Old, old men and old, old women, saints of God.

And they carry upon themselves this mark. One time a college student said, sir, you're a man of God. I said, no, I'm not a 42. I'm a boy of God. You've got to be at least 65 before you're a man of God.

They care. They carry upon themselves this mark of having walked with God. They carry upon themselves this mark of having been loved by God and even chastised by God. They're broken. They're different.

They glow. And then they go to be with him. It gives me great hope. Now I'm in the middle part of my life. I've walked with the Lord just a bit over 20 years. And there is enough in my life to discourage me to think that I'll ever make much progress.

But there is scripture that calls me on to hope that I will make progress, that in the end of my days, Paul Washer will be pleasing to God because it is a thing that the Lord will see to. It will be done.

And he'll see to it in your life. He who began a good work will finish it. He will finish it. He will finish it. He did that in Enoch's life. He'll do that in ours. Do not become discouraged. Do not become discouraged.

Faith, Obedience, and God's Trustworthiness

By faith, realize that he who began a good work in you will finish it. Now it goes on, verse six. And without faith, it is impossible to please him. Now, why is that? The faith or lack of faith we have with regard to anyone, any person, is a demonstration and a declaration of what we think about their character.

If you say to someone, listen, I know what I'm talking about. Trust me on this. Just do it. And they say, well, you know, I just don't know. You're saying something about their character. You're saying something about their ability.

You're not just denying that you want to do something. You are saying something about their character. It is impossible to please God without faith. Because if you do not have faith, you're saying God is not worthy of trust.

And that's what we talked about last night. And it's so important. Many people talk about faith and obedience, and they talk about them as two separate entities. In a sense, they are. But in a sense, they're not.

Why do I obey God? Because it's the right thing to do. That's legalism. Why do I obey God? Because I love him. Yes, Jesus said that. But let's throw in another element here. I obey God because I believe him.

He tells me to walk a certain way. Or he tells you to walk a certain way. You do that not just because obedience for the sake of obedience. You are obeying him because you believe that what he says is right.

When you disobey God, you're looking up at him and you're saying, as I said last night, one of two things. One, God, you are ignorant. When you do not obey God, you're saying, God, you simply do not understand.

You simply don't know how the world is today. You treat God almost like a teenager would teach an old grandfather. Oh, grandfather, you live in the past. You really don't know what's going on today. You really can't understand.

And I can't listen to your counsel. That's one possibility. When you disobey God after he has told you to walk a certain way, you're saying you just really don't know. Or you're saying, God, you know, but you're evil.

You know what's right. You know what's best for me. But you don't want to tell me because you want to steal my joy. You want to crush my life. You want to take away my freedom. But when God sets out a path before us, as he has in his word and we obey it, we're saying, God, I believe that, you know, everything.

And that there is no error in you. And I believe, God, that you are good. There is no darkness in you at all. That what you tell me is the best thing for me, the wisest thing for me. And I will do it because I believe you.

When you believe God. Or when you do not believe God. You are screaming out what you believe about his character. He's trustworthy or he's not. He's all knowing or he's not. See, that's why disobedience is so vulgar.

That is why disobedience is so blasphemous. I said this last night. I want to say it again, because sometimes people who run somewhat in our circles are always talking about the law, the law, the law, as though it was something more important than God himself, as though it was something that God had to submit to.

My friend, disobedience isn't a horrible, terrible, wicked thing just because the rule has been broken. It is because a holy God has been offended. A God worthy of all obedience has not been obeyed. We are declaring that we do not believe him.

We're declaring either that he is evil or that he does not know all things. We are attacking the very character of God. We are offending him when we disobey him. And that is why sin is so terribly sinful, so terribly sinful.

Now, it is impossible to please God without faith. Now, I want you to think about something. Jesus headed off to do what he needed to do. And the disciples said, look, they want to kill you there. Don't go back in that area.

And he says, I'm going anyways. And they look at each other and kind of shrug their shoulders and say, well, let's go die with it. Now, in a sense, they were loyal. In a sense, they were being devoted, but they weren't believing.

They were doing something, believing that it would result in nothing. You say, what are you trying to say? I'm trying to say that there is a hate to use this word, but there's a real optimism in faith.

Faith Looks to God's Promised Reward

There is a real optimism in faith. And I know you can take that and do silly things with it. So don't. But there's a sense of being optimistic that when God has commanded me to do something, there's a reason for it.

And there is a end result. Although I might not see the promise, although I might not grasp it in my hand, there is the end result. There is a reason I will do this. Why? Because God is true, because he is and he is the rewarder of those who seek him.

If I obey him, there is a reason for it, an end result that is good. I see so many people that almost treat themselves as though they were martyrs and martyred by God. I'll serve him for the sake of nothing.

I had someone come up to me one time and they said, you know, you just you just give so much to God and being a missionary and doing all this stuff. And I said, what are you saying? Well, you're just so, you know, humble and giving and full of piety and so selfless.

I mean, you have been reading all the wrong books. I said, you've got it all wrong. He said, well, then why are you in the jungles of Peru and doing all these things? I said, because I studied finance at the University of Texas.

He said, what? I said, yes, I studied, you know, a lot of things like that. I was going to be a lawyer and I was going to be on investments. And I studied all that. That's why I'm doing this. He goes, what are you talking about?

I said, I'm talking about investment. That's what I'm talking about. Young person, I'm talking about investment. It has very little to do with piety. It has very little to do with being selfless. It has to do with do I believe that God is and that he is the rewarder of those who seek it?

I have one life. And as I was sharing to the young people this afternoon, this is not a dress rehearsal. I don't get a second chance. I have one life. Now, the question comes down to how am I going to invest it?

If God is and he is the great rewarder of those who seek him and seek him, I shall. I mean, I've got two options here. I've got two portfolios, don't I? I've got Satan, CEO of a company called The Whirl.

Sending out every kind of advertisement. Possibly I can be bombarded with to invest everything I have in him. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to do any kind of investment, I'm going to check out the CEO.

I'm going to check out the company. And I'm going to check out those who have invested and see how well they are doing. But I want to tell you something. I've looked at the CEO. He's never kept a promise as long as he has existed in his fallen state.

And I've looked at his company. It is in shambles. It is an absolute shambles. And I've looked at those who have invested their lives in his way, and they are in hell. And I don't want to seem trite. I don't want to seem irreverent or anything.

But I've looked at the other portfolio. And there stands the Lord Jesus Christ. Truth incarnate. Faithfulness incarnate. Selflessness incarnate. Who's laid down his life on my behalf and offers me a kingdom that will not perish.

This has nothing to do with some little missionary and his piety. This has to do with finance. This has to do with investment. How are you going to invest your life? Do you believe that God is and that he is the rewarder of those who seek him?

Do you believe that? Do you believe that this world is passing away? Do you believe that there is a kingdom coming? Do you believe in things that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard? Have you caught a vision of the one who died?

Yea, rose again from the dead. Have you had a glimpse of his faithfulness? I was very young, very strong. I'm middle aged. Tomorrow I'll be old. Just imagine right now if for the last 20 some years I had been an unbeliever and invested my life in this world.

Here I am. I'm 42. I'm not going to get stronger. I'm not going to get younger. I'm definitely not going to get better looking. What's happening? I've hit the other side. And if I had invested these last 22 years of my life in this world, if I stand here right now, would I have such joy?

No, I would be saying glass half empty instead of glass half full. I would be saying half my life gone. The rest of it, it's just rolling downhill. But you see, it's completely the opposite for me. This candle is going out because the sun is rising.

You don't need candles. Who knows? My luck, I'll have to live here till I'm 120. But you know, 40 more years. 20 in Christ has flown by. 40 is going to go faster. And then I'm there. You say, yes, the end comes.

No, the beginning comes. The beginning. The beginning comes. So here's the question. Do you believe that God is? Yes, I do. Well, do you believe that he is the rewarder of those? Then seek him. That he might work out his purposes in your life.

Don't worry about the purposes of others, the purposes of God in others. Just God's purpose for you. Seek him. A lot of people today, they don't want to talk about rewards. And a lot of people, that's all they do is talk about rewards.

I talk about rewards because the Bible talks about rewards. Now, I don't have a clue as to what they are. I just know much has been promised to me. I just know that God is and he is the rewarder of those who seek him.

Now, I hear sometimes people will say to an old saint or say to a missionary, you've given up so much and they just look at the person like you don't even have a clue as to what I'm doing. I've given up so much.

What does that say about your view of God? What have I given up? What? Sin, death, the grave, a torturous, meaningless life on this planet. What have I given up? Please write out the list really quickly so I can speak to God about these things.

Surely he'll want to know. What have I given up? And something else that's very important. Some of you, he will call to be missionaries, maybe. And he will send you to the most horrible places on the face of the earth.

And maybe even you'll die there on top of a mountain, half frozen and starving. I don't know. And others of you, he will make very, very successful. And cause you to prosper in all your ways and but demand of you the same dedication to use what he has given you for the advancement of his kingdom.

You see, it's not God's purpose for me that ought to be thrown on you or your purpose for God should not be the thing I'm striving for. Or God's purpose for you should not be the thing I'm striving for.

God has called you. God has given you a specific purpose. God has commanded you to seek him and to believe that if you do seek him, he will reward you. And that way manifests itself in so many different, different manifestations.

Can you believe God? Can you begin to seek him in your life? You know, so much in our world and so much in Christendom, so much of our culture is designed to build a wall around us so that we don't listen to God.

A kid studies and he gets 18 and, you know, where's he going to college? I don't know if he is. What do you mean you don't know if he's going to college? What do you mean you don't know if your son's going to college?

You went to college. Yes. What about your son? I don't know. What do you mean you don't know? Everyone goes. No, not everyone goes to college. God could command my son to put on a backpack and go to Iraq, preach one message and be shot down.

You see, we assume too much. God naturally wants this to happen to me. No, God might not want this to happen to me. Well, God naturally wants me to take this. No, not necessarily. You need to reopen your life and get rid of many of the presuppositions that you have, that are built into you, not by the Word of God, but by your culture that has dictated and set out a path for you to walk in.

God has dictated and set out a path for you to walk in. And the two are never alike. You need to open, whether you're a teenager in high school or you're 85 years old, you need to reopen your life and seek God.

God, what do you want from me? What do you want from me? What do you desire from me? You know, one of the most amazing things is found in the message of the church to Laodicea. It's an amazing, amazing thing.

Seeking God Rather Than a Fixed Life Plan

The first thing that comes out of Jesus' mouth, amazing thing. He says, behold. You say, well, what's amazing about that? Well, let me show you. It doesn't make any sense that I should say behold, does it?

Why? You're all looking at me. Now, if I was in the back of the room and you were all looking in the opposite direction, then I would say, behold, turn around, look. That's what's so amazing about what Jesus says to the church.

The first thing he says is, behold. When he gives that great admonition, behold, I stand at the door and knock. When he gives that one admonition, behold. Why does he say that? I'll tell you why. The church is looking in the wrong direction.

And he has to call their attention back to him. And you know what? I'll just bet this, that that church in Laodicea is looking in the last place that they saw Jesus. Now, what do I mean by that? So many times, I told a missionary one time, he was talking to me, an old missionary.

And he said, Brother Paul, you know, tell me about what's going on. I said, well, Brother Trammell, I said, Peru is God's will for my life. He said, hold it. He said, Peru is not necessarily God's will for your life.

He said, Peru is God's will for you today. And he said, and if you close yourself off from God, thinking that Peru is God's will for your life, you could really miss out on what God's going to do in the future.

It's the same way with you. Possibly God, Jesus came to you and said, behold, I want you to do this. And so you started going, but you fall into the trap of this is God's will for my life. And you're missing the fact that maybe now he wants you to go into another direction or maybe he wants you to run in a different way or do a different thing.

And so we always have to be seeking him, always believing that he is the rewarder, never getting trapped in some spiritual rut thinking, OK, this is what I do. This is what I do. Now, God doesn't have to talk to me anymore.

We have to believe. We have to believe that he's the rewarder of those who seek him. And you have to begin seeking him again if you're not seeking him now. Every aspect of your life, you ought to seek him.

Every aspect. I don't care what it is. You're going to go buy a pair of socks tomorrow. Lord, I'm going to go to the store today. Need some socks. Give me wisdom. Help me. You ever stand in a mall and just sit there for four hours trying to figure out which tennis shoes you should buy?

You can't even decide what tennis shoes you should get. How are you going to make major decisions in life without the will of God? Every aspect of our life, I was teaching the young people today, it was young people.

I didn't use this word, but I use it often. You're practical atheists. There is so much you do in your life, so many decisions that you make in which God is not involved. There is no idea of deity here.

There's no idea of sovereign ruler here. Every aspect of our life, God should be consulted. We should seek him, seek his wisdom. Seek his direction. What do you desire from me, O Lord? Because I believe that you are the rewarder of those who seek you.

He is. He is. Let me just stop here for a second and say something very, very important. You've probably sung songs or heard songs that uses the word Adonai. It's a word that means Lord, owner. It was often used by the Jew in substitution for the word Yahweh.

It's one of the most beautiful words in the Bible. And of all the Hebrew words in the Bible that describe a relationship with God, that's the one most dear to me because it means owner, not just Lord, but owner.

Adonai actually has the idea of owner of a house. The owner. Now, in that relationship, God is the owner and I am the slave. OK, now think about this, because this will set you free if you can learn this.