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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/marvin-derksen/a-rewarding-god/
Hebrews chapter 11 and verse number 6. But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Just go up a little bit, at least in my Bible to chapter 10 verse 35, the same page in my Bible, Hebrews 10 and verse 35.
Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience that after you have done the will of God ye might receive the promise for yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry.
Let's just go back to chapter 6 for one more verse before we look at some others as we're going. Hebrews chapter 6 and verse number 10. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister.
Some of you likely have read articles or books written by Mr. A .W. Tozer. He was a very godly man, he's gone home to heaven now, but he made a statement one day that has stuck with me. A .W. Tozer wrote, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Now you might want to think about that a little bit, because one of our great needs, I believe personally, is the fact that the knowledge of God is missing in many of our lives.
Now I'm not being critical brethren, but I have wondered at times, we encourage younger Christians, we encourage younger brethren to take part, and that's a good thing. I'm not being critical of that, but I'm just wondering if if we had a greater knowledge and appreciation of the God that we are worshiping, whether there might be a more spontaneous expression of gratitude.
I can take part because I feel coerced, but when I come to understand and appreciate who God is, then I would desire to be able to express that. And so we have read today that without faith it's impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
So I just want to look very briefly, and that time has gone very quickly, but I just want to give you a bird's-eye view of a rewarding God. A rewarding God. What comes into your mind when you think about God?
Do you look at him as a rewarder, or is there a sense sometimes of saying, well, you've got to really measure up, and you've got to just, you know, and if I measure up, then maybe. It's interesting, when I look at the context of Hebrews chapter 6, have you ever asked yourself why it appears where it is?
It's between Enoch and Noah. Now the writer is going down the personality list, or the various individuals, and he's looking at these individuals who move by faith, and all of a sudden it almost seems to be out of context.
He said, he makes a doctrinal statement, without faith it's impossible to please God, for he that comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, and then he goes on to Noah.
Now why did the writer stop there and give us this very important doctrinal statement? I'd love to hear your answers or your suggestions, but to me, whoever wrote Hebrews is looking back to their day, and then looking back at his day, and we're able to look back, we're able to look at our day to understand that basically what the world has said for years is just the same.
Number one, there's no God. Or they might say there's probably no God. Now Richard Dawkins was not the originator of that statement, but that's what the world is saying today, isn't it? There is no God.
And then, of course, the second part of that statement is, well, if there is, if you Christians are ignorant enough to believe that, you're really a loser. You're really a loser. It doesn't pay. And here's the writer, and he's saying, listen, he that comes to God must believe that he is, number one, number one.
Is there a God? Yes, yes, we believe that. And secondly, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. To me, that's a profound statement, and that's a foundational truth, that our God is not a hard employer.
He's not someone that delights to hold back reward and recognition and blessing. No, he is a rewarding God. And that's why, as we have looked at chapter 10, we have understood that the writer says, look, don't cast away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward.
There are tremendous results that will come as you move on. We've been hearing about Christians, or these believers, and they were under attack to draw back and to go back to the shadows and to the visible.
No, he said, don't cast away your confidence, because it has great recompense of reward. Our God is a rewarding God. He is. He delights to give. He delights to recognize. He delights to fill our hearts with the reward that comes from knowing him.
And that's why I just took the time to read in chapter 6 that God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name. But we've been hearing about insignificant body parts, and most of you have not been on the platform.
I don't want to say this conference could not have run without you. It would be a sad state of affairs, wouldn't it? No, God is not unrighteous to forget your work. Some of you are teaching Sunday school.
Some of you are raising a family. Some of you are intersecting with neighbors. Whatever the case, there's a wide spectrum of activity for God. You have been ministering to the saints, and you do minister, and God is not unrighteous to forget your work and your labor of love, which you've showed toward his name.
That's vertical, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. That is horizontal, isn't it? And so I just appreciate that when I'm called upon to think about God, that I need to understand that he is a rewarding God.
There's something to rewards and crowns. I'll try to give you a bird's-eye view, but we understand from the Lord's words in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount, that he singled out individuals, he singled out groups, and he said, verily, they have their reward.
They were receiving their reward right now. They were receiving recognition because they wanted that. And so there were Pharisees, and they made a great, great show of prayer. Stand in the street corner, and they'd have the phylacteries, and they'd, you know, have long prayers, and people say, wow, wonderful.
Just look at how much he prays. Or people that would be giving alms and so on, and they make a great display. He says, verily, they have their reward. And so sometimes, I'm afraid, we'll get a reward here.
We'll get the recognition that we want, that we crave right now. But that has no eternal value. But then he says, no, no, there are rewards in the future. And as simply as giving some cold water to a thirsty soul, verily, that person will not lose his reward.
And so this is not just for a select few. This has to do with the reality of a rewarding God. And I find it interesting that when it comes to crowns, and you'll notice that there are a number of crowns that are identified in the Bible, but they're really two Greek words, and I'm not a Greek scholar, so I won't go in that direction, but there are two Greek words for the crowns.
There's one word, I think, is Stephanos, and the other word is the word that we get our word diadem from. When it comes to Stephanos, our brother Stephen here, that's where that name came from, means victory or victor.
And of course, it was the reward, it was the crown that was given to the Olympic Games, originally for running, boxing, and for wrestling. And that crown, or that Stephanos, was really a wreath that was woven out of oak leaves, ivy, parsley, myrtle, olive, roses, and violets.
And as you can appreciate, it was given out here in Garneville, it wouldn't last a day, it would be wilted by sunset. Just a temporary recognition. Well, that was for the Olympic Games. Interestingly, it was also given to state servants whose work deserved to be honored, and it was worn at wedding feasts.
And so if you got a Stephanos, you were either in the Olympic Games, or you were a state civil servant that was recognized for service, or you might wear it at a wedding feast. It was that which the soldiers gave to the Lord Jesus.
It was a crown of thorns, it was the Stephanos, the victor. Do you recall how they bowed the knee in mock worship? They said, hail. The word means rejoice, rejoice. Sadly, that word had already been used by Judas in the garden.
He came and he said, hail, master. Rejoice, master. What a tragic moment. The hail of betrayal. Here was the hail of mockery when they put a crown of thorns and they beat it into his brow. He was supposed to be the victor, and now they were recognizing him as that.
That's Stephanos. But there's also the word, the diadema, or the diadem. And that has to do with royalty. Royalty. We didn't sing it throughout this conference, but many times we do sing, crown him with many crowns.
Now, please don't get the idea that that means that there's about 25 crowns going up on his head. That's not the idea here. The diadema, or that kind of a royal crown, involved really a blue ribbon that went around the turban of the individual.
Many times that blue band of ribbon was marked with white, which the Persian kings used to bind on their turban. And I remember reading that Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, when he entered Antioch, he had conquered Antioch, he set two crowns on his head, or he had two blue bands on his turban.
And that meant that he had sovereignty over Asia and he had sovereignty over Egypt. And as you read the book of Revelation, you will understand that Satan has seven diadems on his head. Antichrist has ten.
There's a diadem of ten crowns showing his sovereignty over ten kings. And in Revelation chapter 19, verse 12, John says,. And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And he that sat upon it was called Faithful and True.
And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes are as a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns. Many diadem. He is the King of Kings, and he is the Lord of Lords. That's the diadem.
But what pertains to us are really the Stephanos. And so very quickly, let me just very quickly look at just a few of them. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. It'll help us to stay awake if we have to turn to these passages, and so we'll just read them very, very briefly.
1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse number 24,. Know ye not that they which run at a race run all, and but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
He's looking at Christian service here, at progress in our lives as believers. And he is looking at, he's giving the illustration of an athlete, of one who's keeping under his body. He doesn't want to be a castaway.
And of course, the Olympics and other sport venues are very careful with regard to sport-enhancing drugs and so on. All kinds of very brutal penalties are inflicted. And of course, Canada has the very sad distinction of having Olympic gold medals stripped of that medal.
Mr. Ben Johnson won the hundred-yard dash in record time, and the next day it was removed from him because he had cheated. He had taken performing-enhancing drugs. The writer here, Paul, is very, very concerned that that doesn't happen to him.
And he's encouraging Christians to run so that they might gain the prize. I think when we look at Philippians chapter 3 that we find that Paul enhances the picture here. And in Philippians chapter 3 that we really didn't read from, he looks at himself in three different ways.
He looks at himself as an accountant, and he is weighing up his life. He's counting what has real value to him. And really, the unexamined life is really not worth living. He said, there were a lot of things that were to a gain for me, humanly speaking, but I realized that they were worthless.
They were dung, is the word he used. And he says, I left them all behind. And then he looked at himself as an athlete, and he says, I'm pressing toward the mark. He says, not as though I had already attained.
And so it's interesting that when he looks at his progress, there is a sense of dissatisfaction, and that's a good thing. I would venture to say that none of us here, and I'll speak personally, number one, I am not satisfied with my progress as a Christian.
I would like to be more like Christ. I would like to have a greater grasp of the Scriptures. I would like to have greater zeal. I would like to have my life count more for Christ than what it has. And so there is a sense of a sanctified dissatisfaction in life.
And as we think of heaven's evaluation, we understand that we are running under his eye. But alongside of that dissatisfaction there, as you remember in Philippians 3, there is this sense of devotion, this one thing I do.
And I think if we could leave this weekend together with this burning exercise, this one thing I do, a lot of us, or maybe I'm speaking to myself, I dabble with a lot of things, and I'm easily distracted.
Start here and then go there and then go there, and I lose focus. But here's Paul, and he's looking at himself as an athlete, and he said this one thing I do. And then he says, forgetting those things which are behind, and so now he's looking at a direction.
Forgetting those things which are behind, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now, we can't live in the past. If we live in the past, we'll live with all kinds of regrets, but the past is important.
As we have learned lessons, as we have gained knowledge of God and gained knowledge of ourself, and so we need to make a conscious exercise of heart to forget those things which are behind, our failures, yes, our successes.
Sometimes we can try and live in the past and let the globe continue, and it doesn't continue. He says, I'm pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling, and so he moves on with the determination, because he is desirous that there might be this incorruptible crown that would be given him for progress in the Christian life.
Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 5. That clock is continuing to tick. 1 Peter chapter 5, verse number 1. The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock.
And when the chief shepherd shall appear, shall be manifested, ye shall receive a crown, a Stephanos, a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Now I am not going to repeat the excellent ministry that our brother Stephen gave yesterday, but let me just address my beloved brethren, and yes their wives, but let me just speak to my beloved brethren here that are the overseers, that are the shepherds that are here today.
You were involved in a very, very, very difficult work. In fact it's always been that way. The world has never had much value for shepherds, have they? In fact the first world ruler, you remember who he was, he was Nimrod, who was a mighty hunter.
Not a shepherd, a hunter. And of course he had no, he put no value on on the prey, and of course that's exactly the way the world is run, run by Nimrod. And then you remember that when the nation, when the family of Jacob came into Egypt, Joseph very wisely asked that they would be given the land of Goshen, kind of off by itself.
You know why? Because they were shepherds, and shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. They were an abomination to the Egyptians. They saw no value in them. They needed to be segregated. And then of course as you fast-forward the reels, you will come to the moment when David steps into that camp with Goliath down in the valley.
And you remember what Eliab, his older brother, said to him? He said, David, why did you come down? What are you doing here? And then he says, and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?
You can just, you can just sense that the venom coming out of his mouth, the reproach, the shame. David, what are you doing? You're just a shepherd. You've just got a few sheep. You don't belong here.
This is for men. And the shepherd that was about to bring the victory that day was despised and rejected by his own, his own brethren. Shepherds have never had a lot of honor given to them, and yet here we have read about the Lord's recognition of them.
To those that seek to lead the flock of God, when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Wonderful to look at the Lord Jesus as the true shepherd, as the good shepherd.
When you look at John chapter 10, you'll understand some of the features of the shepherd from heaven. The shepherd knows the sheep. Sheep are kept for wool, not for meat, and so every, every sheep was important.
Every sheep was important. And he says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them. The shepherd knows his sheep. He knows their tendency. He knows their condition. As we were hearing yesterday, the shepherd looks over the flock, and if there's a straying sheep, then of course that shepherd goes after him.
The true shepherd, the Lord Jesus, he leads. The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out. So shepherds are to be leaders. They are to guide the flock. And wonderfully, the Lord Jesus was exactly that.
The good shepherd is the one who fed his own. I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. One of the great needs, one of the great needs that we have is for shepherds to feed the flock.
We need to hear the voice of God. We need to get into the understanding of this book. The good shepherd, he seeks, he seeks. Other sheep have I which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. And wonderfully, the Lord Jesus walked miles just to meet one wild man of Gadara.
Crossed over that angry sea to meet him. Went miles and sat upon a Samaritan well, Sychar's well, just to meet one weary, empty sinner and brought her satisfaction of life. The good shepherd seeks, and of course ultimately the good shepherd serves.
He gives his life for the sheep. You know what marks a shepherd? A shepherd loves sheep, simply. They love sheep. And I know some of us are not very lovable. Far from it. With all of our independent ways and our cranky spirits and our determination to do it our way.
And yet a shepherd loves sheep. And one of the great privileges and one of the great responsibilities is that there are those who have been given the responsibility to care for the flock of God. And there's a day coming when those that have served him well will receive a crown of glory.
You say, what is that? Well to me the crowns that are given are are visible indications, visible indications of the Lord's appreciation. Someone wrote that the very radiance of the Lord is chief shepherd will be upon the faithful band of under shepherds in glory so that all will see and recognize one of the noble band who cared for the flock of God.
Now if that is the case, as we move through the the corridors of eternity, we'll come across individuals. There's a shepherd. He's got the crown of glory. A visible evidence of the Lord's appreciation of the care for his own.
Let's go to James chapter 1. James chapter 1, verse number 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
We're living in a world in which sadly we don't experience a lot of reproach and suffering for Christ. I think many of us are horrified when we listen or watch the news and we see the evidence of Christians being persecuted in the Middle East and Egypt and so on.
Run through with the sword in the name of Allah and so on just because they are Christians. And here's James and he's writing to Christians that were suffering and he speaks about the fact that they will receive a crown of life because they have borne witness for the Lord Jesus.
It's interesting in Romans chapter 16 that there was a there was a believer and his name was Apelles. And if anybody can help me about Apelles, I would appreciate it. But all Paul writes is that just salute Apelles, approved in Christ.
Salute Apelles, approved in Christ. What was he saying? I think he was saying that here's a Christian. We don't know anything about him. Young, old, rich, poor, we don't know. But he'd gone into a trial.
Could have been a real tough trial. And he passed the trial. And the result was he was approved in Christ. That's not a small thing, is it? And as I look at this audience and as I look at this state, I made aware that there are Christians and you have gone through trials of a variety of things.
And you've gone on. You've gone on despite the cost, despite the hardship, despite the hurt. You've gone on. And it could well be that it could have been your name. Salute Apelles, approved in Christ.
There was no compromise. They stood firm and they will receive a crown of life. Philippians chapter 4 verse 1,. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and long for my joy and crown. So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
Philippians or 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, I think we need to read that just for another expression, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. And verse number 19, For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
For ye are our glory and joy. Here's a crown of rejoicing, and I would suggest that it involved the sole winner. A person who seeks to win others for Christ, and as Paul looked at these believers, he says, you're our crown, you're our joy, you are our rejoicing.
Now let me just say this. I have been in conferences and I've heard brethren and ministry was good, but they have suggested that the only reason why God saved us is that we might see other people get saved.
Now maybe I misunderstood that, but I didn't really agree with that. I think there's a far greater purpose. This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
But having said that, yes, we are here to bear witness for Christ. We're here to hold forth the word of life. We are here rubbing shoulders, interacting with individuals that we might see others brought to know the Savior.
And as Paul and Barnabas and Silas and all these huge volume of believers, brethren and sisters, as they poured their heart into the gospel of the advance of this work, at a tremendous cost, souls were saved.
And Paul says the result is a crown of rejoicing. We had meetings just maybe a month and a half ago in a very, very small assembly. There's ten in fellowship. And one of the sisters was in the hospital for major brain surgery because of an aneurysm.
And so she and her husband were not in view, and so we're down to eight. The assembly was very weak. There's no Sunday school. They don't get anybody into the gospel meeting. It's pretty discouraging.
But they said, yeah, we want to have gospel meetings. And so we sent out the invitations, and we had ten nights, short series. But in those ten nights, there were twelve people that came in. Now, there's no one that got saved that we know of.
But to me, there was an outstanding night in which there was an individual that came for the very first time ever. Her name was Valerie. Valerie lived next door to one of the believers, Janice. Janice is a widow.
She's been a widow from her mid-twenties. She's in her fifties now. So for thirty-five years or thirty-four years, she's been a widow and doesn't have a whole lot. Oh, she has Christ. Yeah. She has a love for souls.
And for twenty-three years, twenty-three years, she has lived alongside of Valerie. And they have walked the street for exercise, and they've had coffee together. And Valerie has asked questions, and Janice has sought to give her Bible answers.
And, you know, there's been all kinds—twenty-three years of gospel sowing. That's a long time. Not twenty-three months. Not twenty-three days. Twenty-three years. And Valerie was, like Jericho, straightly shut up.
But on the Thursday night of that first week, Valerie came to the gospel meeting. She came trembling, literally. I don't know what she thought was going to happen inside, but anyway, but she came. And she listened.
And I know Janice was on pins and needles because Valerie's the type of woman that if she doesn't like something, she's gone. Literally, she'd walk out. She stayed for the whole meeting. We had coffee after.
She didn't stay for coffee, but going home, she said to Janice, she said, that really makes you think. And she told Janice the next day, I didn't sleep the whole night. I tell you that because it wasn't the preaching.
It was Janice. Janice. And there are no doubt soul winners here. You might not have a lot of results that you can look back to, but we're all in this together. I hope we understand that when it comes to the gospel work, it's not a tennis match.
Because in tennis, you've got yourself and your opponent, and if you don't gain a point, they get the point, and back and forth. That's not the way the gospel work runs. It's run as a baseball team. Well, you understand what I'm saying.
We're on a team, and we're seeking to advance the cause of Christ. And so if you can get somebody on first base, then the next batter will seek to get him to second base, and then to third base, and then finally home.
And that's what's involved. We're in this together. There are many links in the chain, and I might just be the first link. But as we labor together, there is this Stephanos in view, a crown of rejoicing.
And I believe that when we step into the judgment seat of Christ, I think there's going to be a lot of surprises. There'll be individuals that maybe we didn't see how much they did, but oh, they were sowing, and they were plowing, and they were watering.
And God will say, I appreciate what you've done. Here's the crown of rejoicing. You had a vital part in the salvation of others. Crown of rejoicing, not a small one. Finally, 2 Timothy 4. Paul's final written words that we know of, verse number six, for I'm now ready to be offered in the time of my departures at hand.
I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
A crown of rejoicing. Interesting that he speaks about the Lord, the righteous judge. He was about to stand before an unrighteous judge who's going to evaluate the merits as to whether he should live or die.
He says, I'm not living before that judge. I'm living before the righteous judge who shall give this crown of righteousness to me in that day. Some of you might not know the name of Tom Steffel. Tom was a Navy captain.
He's a dentist, and he was in the assembly in San Diego for many years with his wife, Bernice. He was a specialist. And so when we had meetings there quite a few years ago, we were ordered into the dentist's office.
He wanted to have a look at our mouth. And he looked at my mouth, and he said, well, you've got a lot of lead in there. We're going to have to do something about it. So we started. And 22 crowns later, I stepped off the chair.
That was over five weeks. I remember saying to him, just to tell you this, I remember saying to him one day with sincerity, but just with a sense of maybe lightness, I said, well, Tom, you're going to have a lot of crowns in the coming day.
Now, Tom, he was a football player when he was in university at McGill in Montreal, a big man with big fingers. I don't know how skillfully, he was a skill. He was an artist with a drill. I don't know how he did it, but he's just a big man.
But you know what he said to me? Quietly. He says, well, Marv, it would be nice to have something to lay at his feet. And I thought, he didn't take a lot apart, wasn't a vocal man. But he says, Marv, it would be nice to have something to lay at his feet.
I trust that that is the response of all of our hearts. Not a matter that we're looking out for number one, no, we are looking for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he is a rewarding Lord. He is a rewarding God.
And there's a day coming when our life will be evaluated, every one of us, deeds, motives, thoughts, intents. And I trust that we might just be able to appreciate heaven's wonderful evaluation, honest evaluation, and that we might have something in that coming day to be able to lay at his feet.