Rewards are presented as an addition to salvation, earned through faithfulness and love for Christ after salvation. The sermon distinguishes between salvation, a free gift, and crowns, which are rewards for dedicated Christian living. It explores various crowns mentioned in scripture, such as the crown of life, glory, rejoicing, and righteousness, emphasizing that these are earned through actions like faithfulness unto death and soul-winning. The ultimate reward is not earthly accolades but an intensified experience of God's presence and glory in eternity, with the greatest joy being to see Christ face-to-face.
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I want to speak on crown. Revelation chapter two and verse ten. Revelation two and ten. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Then in first Peter chapter five and verse four, you have the crown of glory first peter five and four just a couple of books before the revelation and when the chief shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a crown of glory that fatheth not away the crown of glory in a few more pages toward the front of your bible or first cessalonians chapter two and verse nineteen read about for what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the final one is in Second Timothy chapter four. Second Timothy chapter four. A couple of books. Past Thessalonians. Second Timothy chapter four and verse eight. 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 appearance. Noticeable to any casual reader of the Bible that there are really three classes of people in the world.
two are to be identified here, the unsaved person who needs salvation. Then the one who is saved and knows he has eternal life and knows he's going to heaven, then there's such a thing as a Christian who is living for the Lord. Now many people are saved by grace. They know they're going to heaven. They know they have eternal life. But they're not going in for the rewards, and that's what we want to speak on this morning. Reward. Now, salvation is a free gift. You don't work for salvation.
You don't work to get a gift at Christmas time or on your birthday. When you work for something, you've earned it, and it's a reward for your labor. But salvation is a free gift from God. Eternal life is a free gift from God. And so if you're going to be saved, it's on the basis of grace. Jesus Christ did the work that saved. You can't do it. Once you get that eternal life, now you can go in for winning crowns. Crowns are in addition to salvation.
where crowns are the result of your faithfulness to Christ, your love to Christ after you're saved, and there are five of them in our Bible. I trust that's made clear. So many people think they have to work hard to get to heaven. No, you don't. The Lord Jesus Christ did all the work necessary to take you to heaven if you'll believe it. When on the cross he said, it is finished. He bowed his head and died. The work for salvation was done, and just like the thief on the cloth, he had lived a wicked life, so he couldn't have earned salvation, and he didn't live only a couple of hours after.
The Lord said, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise, so he didn't do anything in the future. to try and repay and recompense the Lord for saving him, he was saved on the basis of the grace of God, the sovereignty of God. But here are people today, and they hope they're going to get to heaven, they're doing the best they can, they're working and working and working, but salvation is not by human work, not by works of righteousness which we have done. But according to his mercy he saved us, the thief, and lived a wicked life.
Yet in that last hour the Lord saved them and said, Today shall thou be with me in power? Now a lot of people say he's not going to get a reward. Well, from what we see he won't. As to the light that he followed, because he only lives an hour of it. But I do believe this. there are going to be a lot of people in heaven through that thief trusting Christ in a few minutes before his death. He may get credit for that because he turned against his fellow criminals and he trusted Christ right then and then.
Unlikely many have been saved through since through his testimony and his convert. We'll leave that with the Lord. Now in the connection with these crowns, very interesting is the word crown in our Bible has two meanings in the original. The word stephanoth is used and is used in connection with earthly crowns and rewards, such as a garland or a wreath or a cluster of oak leaves that depend on an athlete at the Olympic. Yes, they get crowned. they win a reward. Or it also includes with what we've got here.
I mentioned those texts. There is the crown of life. Gift of life is one thing, the crown of life is something else. Christ, as I give unto them eternal life, you've got eternal life here. But when Christ comes, he's bringing his rewards with him. Words, the crown of life is something you have to earn after you become a Christian. So that crown of life is from the word Stephanos, something that you earn down here. Also the crown of righteousness and the crown of rejoicing. That truth, those words and the crown of glory, those words come from the word Stephanos.
But there's another word which means diademon, diadem. And that's not included in the judgment of Jesus Christ because this word implies it belongs to a sovereign, it belongs to a monarch, it belongs to someone who has power and is placed upon his head. And that is true of our Lord Jesus Christ. He'll have the diadem. he's in the place of authority and exaltation. The one pertains to man, Rastephano. That reward pertains to men and women who are saved by grace and lived for Christ.
For when it comes to the diadem, only Christ can lay claim to that and he'll wear it. So there's a big difference between the meaning of the word crown and truthful meaning in the original, Stephanoth belonged to men and women who have earned it, and that which belonged to Jesus Christ, the divine monarch and son. Let us look into these crowns. How wonderful these crowns are. You have the crown of life. How do you get this crown of life? Be thou faithful unto death.
And I will give you a crown of life. She's talking to people who are already a Christian. They could say, well, I've got life. I'm a Christian. I wouldn't be suffering like I am. Why would I be put to death as a martyr if I didn't already know the Savior? They had so much, but they loved their Lord so much they were willing to suffer for them. And they were willing to die. This crown of light is in addition to eternal life. Then the same thing in connection with the next crown. You have the crown of glory.
The crown of glory. Now glory is a gift. He tells us, Father, thou has given me glory, and I have given it to them who now has given me glory. He's given us glory, but there is a crown of glory. This is for elders, under shepherds who are willing to feed, lead the sheep, and lay down their life for the sheep that needs be, who will protect the sheep and fight for the sheep. This is not a higher living, a real checker. He can win the sacks down of growth.
Then you have the crown of the soul winner, and I want to emphasize this. The soul winner gets a crown of joy and rejoices. This is the soul winner's cup. Now, I was saved before ever I won a soul to Christ. I was saved in the kitchen of our home in Stratford, Ontario, when my father on May the third, nineteen twenty-five, pointed me to the faith. I got saved that night. I had eternal life, and I had joy. But, friend, ever since then, every time a soul got saved, I got an added joy.
And that's only a little compared to the joy that will come on that day when the Lord comes and the Apostle speaks of peace. are by joy and rejoice. He speaks of those whom he has wanted Christ, and all the joy that will be the Apostle Paul's in that day, and also every soul's winner. My life, I wouldn't be surprised over the years. A hundred or more Christians are in heaven that were saved in my meeting. There they are. and hundreds and hundreds still living.
One to Christ. Now, that's not going to make my salvation any more sure. I was just as still of heaven the night my father led me to Christ as I am now. And winning souls and helping God's people hasn't added one thing to my salvation, but it's going to be my crown of rejoicing in eternity. What a joy, what a joy to see all there through my poor instrumentality. It's a thrill. Even today, I thrill when a person from Scotland tells me I've accepted God.
It just makes a thrill go through me from top to bottom. It's a thrill. And I don't take this old wine sting to take all the joy. But I have witnessed, if you put it together, how people have been saved and families brought back together to live for Christ. Paul speaks of it. He says, you referring to these Christians. He says, you are my joy. You are my joy. Here's the whole winner's joy. I want to use this in connection with these other references to the Christ.
Here is joy when you're saved. But friend, when you win souls to Christ, and I hope you make an effort to do that, when you win souls to Jesus Christ, there's that much joy that you won't taste here. You'll get them. Our poor hearts and minds don't have the capacity to take in the joy that we'll see and experience. when we get there. What joy. Here is the show in our joy. You know over in Acts eight. There's a lovely church text there.
Here you find in the very first verse, and Saul was consenting unto his death, that is Stephen. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the region of Judea and Samaria. Except the Apostles. The Apostles stayed right in Jerusalem. And who was it that did the soul win? Who was it that went everywhere, scattered everywhere, winning souls? Just the rank and pile of God's people. Not the Apostles. It tells you at the end of that verse, except the Apostles.
They went everywhere, shattering the good deeds and winning souls to Christ. It just seemed that in those early days those young converts had a sacred duty to defuse the gospel that had brought the joy to her own heart, and they wanted others to have it, and they had love for souls, they paid the price, and think of the great revival that swept. throughout that part of the world, not altogether through the apostles, the rank and file Christians. Let me say that today so many Christians are putting the responsibility of soul winning up to the preacher.
Remember, you can be a soul one. And you haven't tasted the rich wine of winning a soul to Christ until you've won one. Some of you men... and women, when the first little baby come along, it was the only baby in the world. My brother, youngest brother, I talked to him the other night on the phone, and I knew before he started talking what he was going to say, because two months ago he became a grandpa, and I knew what I was going to get. Sure enough, he said, that's what he said, I don't care, because my young, I'm busy, that's as good as everyone. I knew just exactly what he's going to do.
Here's a new baby. And boy, I know his chest went up. Friends, you get a spiritual thrill like that when you see people want to trust. The soul in her jaw, and you know how God likens it? They that the wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. They that turn many to righteousness as the soft. forever and ever can you explain that winning a soul to Christ will make you shine as the brightness of the firmament and as a star forever and ever that surely will oh how wonderful the wind sold to Christ and you've got the ammunition to do it with the Bible Get acquainted with your Bible and verses of Scripture that show men and women how to be saved.
Now we're not after church members. You have to pad your book of members till you had to buy a second one by getting people just to come down the aisle and join the church. And that's about the last to see them. It's the last Easter. We want to see people saved by the grace of God and their lives saved. A lot of people like to join the church today somewhere in this town around the nation. They won't be a bit different tomorrow morning. They'll go in and join him with a crowd and use the same language. But if you get really born again and God comes in and your life changes and you go in tomorrow morning and you don't join in with a crowd, you don't listen to their smucky stories and you don't tell them.
You'll find those folks they're getting together. What's happened to you? What's going on with this? Yes, there'll be a difference. You found Christ. You're a new creature in Christ's womb. This is reality. And friend, God wants reality. And it's up to every born-again Christian to stop and give the soul to Christ. And I go so far as is. If you don't have a love for souls and the desire to see people saved, I question yourself at least. I question the Spirit of God.
Because when the Spirit of God comes in to a person when he's saved, what does it mean? The love of Christ can strain at me, says the heart. And the fruit of the Spirit of love, you'll want to see others. save like you and happy like you. How wonderful it is then to be our soul. Well, now if you're going to apply that to the increase in joy that's going to be ours, when we get to heaven, and as Paul says in Philippians four, one, and he hears second Timothy, first Timothy four, second Timothy, first Thessalonians, two, and ninety.
Here are these lovely texts. And if there's going to be an increase in joy, we're free. A joy that will have to have heaven's body to contain it. Is that not true about this life? He's talking about, you've got eternal life now with your faith. But you're going to have a life. You're going to have an abundance of life. You're going to have to have heaven's capacity to take in that life. going to be so wonderful, you'll get a new dimension of the love of God and the life of God when you get to heaven as you've lived for Christ.
Furthermore, the glory. You say, well, I've got salvation. It was given to me when I accepted Christ when I was born again. Friend, you haven't touched the hem of the garment of the glory of God. You're like a child paddling on the beach of a mighty ocean. Not till you get to heaven, and God grant that you're going to get there. And if you have gone in for this crown of glory, oh, the glory that will be yours, you'll have to have heaven's capability and capacity to take it, and God will give you that capacity.
Oh, the glory, and I want to say this, you'll have it, and other people in heaven will not if they didn't win these crimes. They're there, saved by the grace of God. But this expense, this quantity of glory is going to come to those who win the crown, win the crown. People look wrong. Lots of athletes look wrong at the Olympics. Well, they say, I'm an athlete. But they're not getting a crown. They didn't win. Oh, yes, when they get to heaven.
When other Christians are more joyful than you are in taking more of the love of God and the life of God? Why? Well, you got saved, all right. The grace of God sought her that. As a poor sinner, you thought to Christ that you didn't go in for the war. You didn't go in for the war. And those who win these rewards, it just simply means it. They're going to have a capacity for God's life, God's love, God's goal, God's righteousness. Other Christians will not have. Because he says, Paul says, one star differs from another star in glory.
You'll just be a Christian. And as we mentioned one time previously, when the Olympics on, a very small percentage men are out there as athletes competing. The most of the folks are spectators. spectator sitting in the grandstand, seeing it all over the TV. Yes, they're just sitting, look, they're not getting a thing because they didn't work for it. Only those who are living for Christ, winning the reward, will get the reward at the judgment seat of Christ. Are you just going to stand there as a spectator?
I know a lot of people are going to say when they see what these people got, who won these rewards, I wish I had my life to live over again. See, one of the best things that happened to any Christian if they had five minutes in the presence of God and come back to the earth. You'd win for winning souls for Christ. You'd be a change for... would live for eternity once you got a glimpse of that glorious place. These are rewards that Christians can win. I don't think they're going to be medals, diplomas, cups, did you see on the shelf, trophies?
No. If I get my Bible right, the rewards are going to be an intensification. of some of the things or attributes of God that we've tasted from the accepted Christ. I've got light now, but all the crown of light. I've got righteousness now, but all the crown of light. Yes, I've got these other things, sir, I've got glory. Well, what about the crown of glory? And it's for you and me. If you're just living for this life, as a Christian, come to meetings, that's about it.
You won't get these rewards. And remember, it takes a lot of sacrifice and discipline to be a winner. Think of these Olympic athletes. Start practicing when they're kids, discipline. While other kids are out running around, they're practicing. They're training themselves, disciplining themselves. And they go through some disappointment. But finally, the glorious hour comes when the golden hour of the world was made. That day, those who paid the price, who lived for sight, will be to be rewarded with.
It will be the thrill not of time, the thrill of eternity. These poor wreaths of men and women are getting today in garlands and clusters of oak leaves, what they're getting at the Olympics. All that's going to be passed, friends. All that's going to be passed. It's only those who are going in for the crowns of his mansion that will last and last, whatever. That word, incorruptible count, and apply to all the others. something that's incorruptible would last for all eternity. Every crown that's made on earth and worn on earth will fail and perish with the earth.
It's corrupted. The oldest crown in history is the crown of the Lombard, and it was worn by Italian kings. And the most famous crown is that belongs to Charlie May. And it was worn and has been worn by Spanish monarchs. Because so the most celebrated crown, the most beautiful crown, was that worn by Robert Bruce, made by the gems and jewels of the ladies of Scotland. But the richest crown is the crown of British kings and priests.
I was in... England went to some years ago in the Tower of London, and I saw this crowd. Other crowns that belonged to the royal family. Guards were standing around there, and you couldn't use your camera. If anyone took a picture, that camel was taken. You never got it back. There they were guarding these lovely guys, these beautiful guys. I looked at them. and light the shine of it, they dazzle you. Yes, these are the crowns of earth for earthly monarchs, but all these crowns are going to pass away.
The oldest crown and the most famous crown and the most beautiful crown and the most costly crown ever made on earth. was made out of thorns by the enemies of the Son of God when they made a crown of thorns and put it on his head and they smote it with a reed, forcing those thorns into his brow until the blood ran down his feet. That crown was made on earth, a crown of mock, Yet that crown left it marked on the brow of the Son of God, those marks will be on his brow forever.
While all these other crowns will be gone, that crown will live forever. For if the scars and the hands and feet and sides of the Son of God remain, so will that church that has scars around his brow. John saw that wound, the Lamb freshly slayed. Those wounds are fresh. And so in eternity, what will set the Son of God apart from all others in heaven? How shall I then know thee amidst those hopes about what opens to will show me the object of my love?
Those wounds... Those wounds, Lord Jesus, those deep, deep wounds will tell of the sacrifice that freed me from sin, from death, from hell. That's the crown that made the greatest in present. The crown that came from the curse of the earth was born by the Son of God. But in that coming day he'll have a die again. He's the King of Kings. He's the Lord of all. What I think of these crowns is nice to go into them, and you find in Revelation chapter four, those that represent the church, they're casting their crowns at his feet.
Why have they cast their crowns at his feet? There's something far more grander than these people. crowns to grin for? Well, what's that? What are these crowns? They pass our apprehension. I think what surpasses these crowns is when we see the king in his beauty. Is that what caused them to cast their crowns at their feet, his feet, when they saw them on the throne? When we see the Lord Jesus, all that we did was changed into insignia.
We call to see in the face, face to face. Face to face with Christ, my Savior, face to face, what would it be? When will rapture I be holy Jesus Christ, who died for me. Fanny Crosby, the blind poet said, when someone tried to sympathize with her about being blind, she says, don't sympathize with me. I'm happy, for the first face I'll ever see will be the face of my Savior. Yes. She could look into the most beautiful faces on her, but when she opens her eyes in glory from fairest of the fair, Ah, yes, that's the fairest faith on earth than in heaven.
The faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. One time a man borrowed J.L. Moody's Bible. He asked for it in Moody's, let him have it. And when he got back, got his Bible back, Moody's got his Bible back, he found these words written on the fly of him. The light of heaven is the face of Jesus. The joy of heaven is the presence of the Lord Jesus. The melody of heaven is the name of Jesus. The theme of heaven is the work of Jesus. The employment of heaven is the service of Jesus. The duration of heaven is the eternity of Jesus. The fullness of heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ of death.
They saw on that mountain of transfiguration when Moses and Elijah said, saw no man save Jesus only. During the Battle of Britain, it was a large crowd jammed into a bomb shelter. When I was over in England, I stayed with Dr. Packer, quite a doctor, and said, Brother Wilson, I come in from my all-day service at my office, only to spend the night with a few nurses in air-age shelters. And in the community we had our area. And he said, I didn't get a minute's sleep, but I went back to my office the next morning.
For here's this great air raid shutters. Packed. The planes were coming over from Germany. And a huge bomb exploded just outside this shelter. And the whole mob broke into hysteria, weeping, crying, screaming. running out even mothers leaving her children behind. They were so caught up with hysteria. Finally an ordinary woman got up on an elevator. She cried out, she said, don't go out, get worse out there. She said, she had lost her husband in the war.
Her son was in the airport. tried and tested in those awful days she began talking to this congregate and she just said do we not trust in the law have we not committed ourselves to him and thus she began to wax eloquent although she had never been known as a published digit but she began waxing eloquent and she said Our confidence is in God. We're British people. We're England's lady. And she went on and stilled a cell over the whole place.
Some of the mothers came back in and there they sat. Someone lit a candle and someone else lit a candle. And then prayers began to follow. Two days after this happened, King George the Six turned up at the home of this lady. And it was on February the fourteenth, nineteen forty-one, King George the Sixth. He saw her as she faced with me. He shook her hand, and he looked into her face.
He said, All Britain is proud of you. and he filled a medal, pinned a medal on her Caligula dress. And he took hands again and left. What did you think, what do you think was the thing that impressed that lady the most? Was it the medal? No, no. Oh, she said, to think. I looked into the face of my beloved mother. I saw my king. Face to face. That meant more to me than the medal on my head. No matter what medals or rewards we win at the judgment seat of Christ for faithfulness after this day, the greatest of all is when we see him face to face.
His perfect likeness wherein all is raised of sovereign grace through endless years of prayer. Friend, it's a wonderful thing to know Christ is your Savior and then live for him after you are saved and get these rewards in that great day. Something to show we didn't waste our lives after we trusted him. We sent him for his glory. Think of what David said. day which it has for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I await with thy likeness you won't be satisfied until you await with his likeness but you can be satisfied down here by knowing him as your personal savior and your living law day after day living with his joy his life in your heart when he looks at me and that he'll do just like the king looked at that woman when
he looks at me will he be able to say well done good and peaceful sir enter thou into the joy of my lord or will he say ill done without faithless sin. You're saved, but no reward. You do await your life from telling. I save you by my gates, and I am grateful. I'm glad you trust me. No reward? Others rejoice you with capacities that you don't have.
Like millions, fears of influence throughout the millennium, Here's a responsibility in the coming kingdom. You're just a pride. You enlisted. You haven't gone up the ramp. No stripes on your shoulders or any stars on your shoulders either. Just a Christian. Not one who went out and won nothing. That day we'll cast all our crowns at his feet. Thou art with. Lord, you saved me in whatever I did. You gave me the strength of it.
I'll tell you, it'll be a sad day for every unrewarded Christian. And if you were afraid, remember you're going to be at the judgment seat of Christ. And if you just wasted your life, everything's going to go up in smoke. Anything you did. That's what we saw on this passage in I Corinthians three. Wood, hay, and stubble it all went up and smoked. Only that which abides gold, silver, precious stone, will he reward, and that will last forever. It'll be a sad day for some Christians, no reward. But I'll tell you something sadder still, is for you not to be a Christian at all.
You won't even see it. It'll be hell on the lake of fire, for it. I'm going to close with a verse. Over in First Peter four, seventeen eighty. For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God, that is with God's own children. And if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them? that obey not the gospel of God. And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner of evil?
If you are not saved by the grace of God, those of us who are saved, we are going to take our turn before God. And if our turn comes first, our judgment must begin with the judgment. What will the terrible issues be for those who stand before the great white world? Their names are not written in light eternally. They lived and died without Christ. On their sentences depart from me, ye wicked, into everlasting torment, prepared for the devil and his angels.
The choice rests with you. Are you a sister? Are you born again? And if you are, are you living for Christ? And are you going into the garlands and reefs of this poor world like the flowers you put on the grave of your loved ones that wilted in the few days? That's this world, Lord. Good old, I have jumped in, but last forever and forever, and with heaven's capacity, You'll enjoy these heavenly thrills. It's yours. It's within your grasp to receive Christ and cross the day to win crown for his name.
And you'll see the king in his gift. Very close. Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus, Christ has come before me. He asked thy blessing on thy word. We thank thee for every one who saved, thou thy grace. He thought they lived for Christ. Remember those who are not saved this morning. They know not the Lord Jesus. Oh, may thy spirit single them out and save them. They might be with Christ and thus forever. We ask that in his worthy and precious name. Amen. And I know Billy was going to be here before I set my ad in.
I put it in the ad. We're happy to have Billy with us. And I'm only going to treat for a little while. And then turn the meeting over to him. Just a couple of verses in the chapters we've been speaking on. First Corinthians chapter three. And verse fourteen. If any man's work abide, which he hath built upon, 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. This brings out the point that a person can be saved, a real Christian, and yet lose his life.
Because he is living out of fellowship with God, and all that he's doing is out of fellowship with God, and his life goes up in smoke. They're either building gold, silver, precious stone, on the foundation, or wood, hay, shovel. And I just think of one illustration of the Old Testament that will bring this out, and that's all I want to keep on tonight, is this one Old Testament illustration. The story of Abraham and Lot. Lott was Abraham's nephew, both were wealthy herdsmen, having large flocks and so on. So Lot began his downward course by allowing his herdsmen to differ with Abraham's herdsmen, allowing them to have strife one with another.
And it came to a head so Abraham and Lot discussed the situation. And Abraham said, all right, my nephews. You take your choice. You just take your choice. And so young Locke, of course, he wanted to get a lot, and so he made his decision. He saw the well-watered plains of Georgia, those beautiful pastures, those lovely rivers that flowed down that valley, the two went together, green grass and flowing water, ideal for his flock. And so it says, He saw he beheld the well-water's plagues of Jordan, and he made his decision.
He chose that. The next thing he did, he set his tent toward Sodom, for at the end of that remarkable valley, and he even associated God with his decision. He said it like the garden of the Lord. God's in this place, and he set his tent toward Sodden's reputation of that wicked ungodly city ungodly he knew yet the first thing he saw when he got up in the morning was Sodden the last thing at night was Sodden and so there you see his eyes fixed and posted towards Sodden it wasn't long he moved right into Sodden whether he's sold his flocks and became commercial we know not But the last thing we find him a judge, sitting as a judge in the gates of Sodom.
You see the steps of this young man. While he was there, undoubtedly, his wife became charmed with this wonderful city, lots of nightlight and highlight. His daughter fell in love with the handsome young men. of Sodom and two or three of them married some of these young men, but he still had two left. Then an angel came. Two or three angels came to life and told him that God is going to destroy the city and you get up. But oh, he'd been there so long, he had so many friends. He was so well off.
And although the New Testament tells us, His righteous soul was vexed from day to day with vanity fair. Oh, yes, he still had ties there, but he was unhappy. But the moment came, and the angels practically had to lay hold of them and pull them out of thought. Even old Lot knew he had no business, he saw the one thing the angels told them and made specific. Look not behind him. The new Leaf Shaman never looked back. But as they started to go, they got to the outskirts of the town.
And Lot's wife, she looked back. She thought of the world, his friends, the companions, and all that she enjoyed over these many years. A lot of Shaman had gotten into her heart. And she said, Can't I take one more look? She turned and she looked, and she was enshrined in a pillar of salt. There at that spot today, Lot's wife, a pillar of salt, a warning to those who disobeyed God's word. When they got far enough out, God reigned, piled and then stoned upon their city, and it was burned into ashes.
Lot... lost everything. Cappel all gone, his daughters and their husbands, and when he went to warn them of what was coming, the laughs of Lot. Well, you seem to be very happy here in Sodom with one enough to get out. What are you doing living here? They laugh at Lot's daughters and their husbands perished in the old world. His wife perished and Lot escapes with his two birds and dogs. Then what happens? God destroys these cities. Now we come to Abraham.
After this happened, God says, Abraham, you are nice enough to let Lot make his choice. Look eastward, westward, northward, and southward. All shall be thine. Even what Lot has. It drove Abraham. And so God said to Abraham, Abraham, in the first verse of Genesis fifteen, Fear not, Abraham. I am thy shield, and thine exceeding great reward. Abraham, you let Lot be, and you let me be.
I'm going to give you all that love. You don't have to have any fear of your neighbors. All the nations around you, I'm your shield. I'll defend you. I'll come between you and your enemies. More than that, Abraham, I am your reward. You're exceeding great reward. You lost everything. Abraham, you're going to gain of this. Not only all your earthly possessions, gain me. I am your exceeding great reward. Loss, loss, everything, is enough in smoke, wood, hay, silver.
Abraham gained it. He was more wealthy after that than ever. And God says, I am above and beyond. All this earthly wealth, I am your exceeding great reward. Here we have an illustration of the one who built wood, tin, stubble, and blasted up. The other gold, silver, precious gold, he came. Look not far off. Each moment sweetly left, let God but choose.