Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
One of the greatest things about blessings in time is that each one counts toward eternal blessings for the believer in eternity. Each time God is justified in blessing you it means you have aligned yourself with his Word. Each time you agree with God that he is right and you are willing and are trying to follow his will, you are telling God you want his will in heaven, done on earth; starting with you. It starts with your conformity to the character of Jesus Christ. Our blessings from God do not start with what we do; they start with what we think. We have a training poem in the children’s class that we all need to follow.
“The young and the old, have thoughts untold. From thought as a seed sprouts word and deed.”
As you say yes to God’s will, you also say yes to his blessings. Your good works which are produced in time are parlayed into eternity as each one is recorded I Cor.3:11-15.
God keeps your good works listed for you. For some of these works; well, you were aware of them at the moment, and God blessed you in this life for them. And some of which of these good works were not rewarded with apparent blessings. For some of the Christian’ works you pay a dear price and you will not see that blessing until eternity. Some times you never knew you blessed the name of the Lord by your choices. All of these works will be opened at the time when your efficiency report will be given at the believer’s judgment seat for rewards.
The difference between God personally blessing you as a believer, and God blessing the lost through establishment law blessings such as free will, marriage, family and national freedom, is that the blessings the lost receive out of this world end at the grave, whereas yours do not. Your blessings count for eternity, but their blessings actually condemn them at the day of their accounting, because their blessings come from the goodness of God and they are offered by God to them to lead them to repentance, Rom.2:2-4. Their blessings all stop at the grave, whereas the believers’ blessings go on forever. Our blessings in time are but a taste of the main course which will be served up after we have entered heaven.
It is sad that so few believers ever get far enough in their Christian growth and spiritual maturity that they are confident enough to anticipate the day of their passing and going to be with the Lord. The Lord has played such a small part in some believer’s daily lives that their narrow understanding of His love for them comforts their hearts and minds very little. Leaving this world some how is a greater burden to their souls than the joy of finally being with the Lord.
Many Christians, as they approach the end of life on earth, look at all they have worked for in this life and what has consumed so much of their valuable time. What they did not realize when they came to the end of their lives was that they were on God’s time table.
The spiritually maturing believer, however, does not think this way when his or her time comes to depart this earth. When the time to leave this world approaches the mature believer, his or her leaving is comforting. Hope three of being glorified with the Lord shuts out the nagging details of life and it produces a greater concentration on their present reality of leaving. All you can talk about at this point is the Lord. Your witness shines brighter than it ever did.
These are the last of your last days or weeks on earth as you know it and you are racking up eternal rewards at an alarming rate as you talk about the Gospel and its power more than ever. Your body may be in a lot of pain, but you can hardly contain yourself.
From II Timothy 4:6-8 the Apostle Paul gives to us the correct snap shot of a believer who has not wasted his Christian opportunities.
This my friend is what dying grace looks like. Dying grace is both temporary and personal.
Ps.116:15 “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” The word “saints” is translated in the Hebrew two basic ways. Qados which means one who has been separated and refers to ones position in God. The other word which is used in our immediate text is hasid. This usage is defined as the godly saints of God; the people of God with a focus on their faithfulness. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.
God has such a giving nature, and he knows how excited you will be to receive your eternal blessings, especially since he knows you have qualified by your faithfulness to him, for receiving those eternal rewards. It is also exciting to the believer for as Paul said in II Tim.4:8 ...there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. The word laid up is a present, passive, indicative verb which translated means, I know with absolute certainty that the crown of righteousness is awaiting me which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day;.... The verb give is a future, active, indicative verb, which translated means Paul knew the Lord will give him that crown. Paul knew great blessings awaited him. He knew the Lord God kept his word to His saints.
It may be comparable, in a very small way to our Christmas giving to our children, especially when we know they have the capacity to appreciate us as parents. We can’t wait to see the expression of excitement and appreciation which they have for the gift or gifts which we have sacrificed to provide for them. And the greatest gift we all will receive when we get to heaven is when our Lord Jesus Christ welcomes us home with open arms.
Certainly it is not precious in God’s sight when he has to take an incorrigible believer to heaven prematurely. It must be heart breaking, if you will, for God to have to constantly correct his children for disobedience and defiance, and even more sad when He has to take them out of this life in shame. An unyielding and hardened believer does not go easily. The Bible tells us the way of the transgressor is hard, Prov.13:15.
But, the spiritually mature believer has a wonderful capacity to receive dying grace because this believer has walked faithfully with the Lord. When he sins he quickly repents and gets back in fellowship with God. He assumes the position of obedience to the word of God. God is not a stranger to them and they are not unfamiliar with his care and comfort. This believer’s reverence for the word of God has built a rapport with God that is unflinching, even in the face of death.