What Will You Do

What will you do throughout eternity? Are we going to be in eternal retirement? I'm sure you know the answer to that, that it is not eternal retirement. When people lose, let's call, purpose in life, and they just pass the years ahead and just let them go, then life can be very boring and unhappy. We need a purpose. We need a goal. We need something that we work for. That's the way God made us. Now, we know that God has something wonderful for us. If you turn with me to 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9, He says, I have not seen, nor ye heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

You know, God's got things prepared for us that you and I cannot imagine. We just cannot imagine what God's got for us. Now, indeed, God does reveal a little glimpse of what He has for us, because He says, yeah, in verse 10, God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. And so, through God's Spirit, God does give us a little understanding, a little bit of a picture of what He has for us.

Because as you and I look at the whole universe, and I'm not just talking about planet Earth, but I'm talking about as you look at the whole galaxy, all that space is to be developed. And you and I surely will have a role in that. It's huge. It's huge.

So God has given us a certain understanding, and part of that is the capability of having eternal life. As we turn into Ephesians 2, verse 8 and 9, it says, Ephesians 2, verse 8 and 9, it says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any one should boast. So God has a plan, and He has saved us from this world, but the final salvation is still to come. What He has done for us today is but nothing compared to what is to come. And it's all because of faith, the faith of Christ, of what God is doing for us. And therefore it's not of ourselves. It's God's gift. And it's not of our works, because you and I cannot boast. It is from God, the Father, and through Christ, His Beloved Son. It is a gift. And so God is giving us this eternal life as a gift. And for it to be joyful, it has to have a purpose. It has to have a reason to live. Otherwise it's an absolute pure boredom. You know, imagine just sitting on cloud line and playing guitar forever. It'll get a bit boring. But God has a purpose. And one thing we, you and I, we all have to learn is that even though we are now going through pain, we all go through pain. Very, very different types of pain, physical, emotional, health-wise, whatever it could be. We have to learn to convert that pain into purpose. We have to learn to convert that pain into purpose. We gotta look beyond, because there is a great purpose beyond.

And we know that we will be doing a lot of work. We are gonna be busy. God has a big plan for us to work.

You know, Christ said, my father and I, we work. You read that in John 5, 17. The Father works, Christ works. And we will be working. We will have a job, an eternal job, of accomplishing, of working. However, the amount of blessing that that job will be, it will depend on how we do today. It is, in a sense, dependent on what we can do.

In Matthew 16, verse 27, it says that God will reward us according to our own works. So let's just read Matthew 16, verse 27. Matthew 16, verse 27. For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will, that's Christ, will reward each according to his works. And so he has a great plan for you and I. We have a very challenging and exciting job. We do. But the size and the value and the content of that job depends on how we're doing today. So as a member of God's divine family, as his sons and daughters, we're going to have the opportunity of having exciting projects that we will work on.

Responsibilities, lasting achievements, joy upon joy of success upon success, doing good works, which are so missing today. When you and I will be born again in the resurrection, you and I will be happy and obedient members of God's government, of God's family. The Father has delegated all the tasks today to the Son, and we are being trained under the direction of the Son, as let's call it our chief executive officer. But we will be working and administering that government around the universe for the benefit of others. And so today, brethren, I want to look at seven groups of people that will have been given eternal life, and within each group, because we will fall under one of those seven groups, we will be given greater or lesser individual responsibilities.

In Revelation 22, verse 12, we see that Christ will bring rewards with Him. He says, And behold, I am coming quickly. In other words, He is going to come suddenly. You and I know that things are pretty bad around us in the world. But thank God He is going to come and be suddenly, because people are going to be caught and aware like a thief in the night, because they are not prepared for it.

And so, but He is going to bring, He says, Yeah, My reward is with Me to give to everyone according to His work. So this is Christ, our judge, whom the Father has delegated all judgment and authority to Him. And He is saying, He is going to give us, He is going to reward us, He is going to judge us according to our works today.

In verse 14, He says, Blessed are those who do His commandments. Now, I know some of your Bibles say something else, but those are incorrect statements, because the original manuscripts, the great majority of original manuscripts, the majority text, says, Blessed are those who do His commandments. For they will have the right to the tree of life. In other words, they will have eternal life and may enter through the gates into the city. In other words, New Jerusalem.

But those that will not enter are those that do not keep the commandments of God. And He says, they are the ones that are dogs and sorcerers and sexually moral and murderers and idolaters.

And those that lie, that love and practice lie, they are those that do not keep the commandments. So in verse 14 says, the positive, keeping the commandments, you'll have eternal life. And verse 15 says, the negative, if you don't keep the commandments, you will not have eternal life.

And so we do have a responsibility to do today. In Romans chapter 2, in Romans chapter 2 verse 6 through 8, Romans chapter 2 verse 6 through 8, it says, God will render to each one of us according to our works, according to our deeds. And eternal life, which is a gift, is conditional on obedience. You see, you and I, we don't earn eternal life, but it is conditional on obedience. It's like you can say to your children, I'm going to give you this, but if you don't behave, I'm not going to give it to you. I'm going to take it away. I mean, you didn't earn it because it's a gift, but it's conditional. It's different. It's conditional.

You see, so eternal life is conditional. And it says, yeah, eternal life to those who are patient, and patient, continuous in doing good, seek for glory, honor, and immortality. In other words, those that are keeping God's laws and doing what's right, they will receive eternal life. Conversely, in verse 8, tribulation and anguish on everyone that breaks God's laws and commandments, who dies evil, regardless of nationality or skin color or whatever, that's immaterial. Because there's no partiality with God. You see, we know that we all have sinned.

Romans 3, verse 23, says we all have sinned. Which one of you and I have not sinned? We all have. I have. We all have. And we know the wages of sin is death. Romans 6, 23. But eternal life is a gift, but conditional on us, repenting, changing, and overcoming. And that's why, for instance, in Romans 12, where it talks about that we have to do good. In Romans 12, it says in verse 17, repain no one evil for evil.

And then if it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all man. And then in verse 21 says, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. We have to repent. We have to overcome. And indeed, we read also in Revelation 21, verse 7, it says, he that overcomes will inherit all things. So it is conditional. This gift of eternal life is conditional. It's up to us to do what God wants us to do. And God does give us His Holy Spirit, which is the helper, that helps us to be overcomers. God's Holy Spirit is His Spirit of sanctification.

You and I receive God's Holy Spirit, and the sanctification of the Spirit that pricks our minds, pricks our consciences, and says, I'm going to put my name there, George, don't say it that way. Don't do that, or don't act that way. So, and then we have to follow that lead. God's Holy Spirit never forces us. We just have to follow that lead voluntarily. And therefore, it's up to you and I to be overcomers. And so God has got a gift.

That's eternal life. But in addition to the gift, in addition to the gift, there is a reward. The reward has to be earned, and that is according to what we do. Some will have bigger jobs, and some will have lesser jobs in the world tomorrow, in the kingdom of God.

But for those jobs, you and I are being trained now. We are in training now. And so not every one of us will occupy the same position in the kingdom of God.

We will have different positions and roles in the kingdom of God. The Church of God, over the last nearly 2,000 years, from the first coming of Christ to the soon second coming of Christ, has had basically its acts recorded, and we read that in the New Testament. But Christ, in the book of Revelation, writes seven letters to the Church of God over these basic nearly 2,000 years. And in these seven letters, they obviously addressed to seven physical churches that existed at the time, but it also represented seven eras of the church throughout these two millennia.

But it also represents seven types or general groups of attitudes that you and I can be in. And to each one of these seven eras or seven stages or seven groups of people that Christ is summarizing the history of the church over these two millennia, each one of these seven groups has a definite promise at the end of that letter, which is subject to those individual groups overcoming the specific problems that they may have.

In other words, subject or conditional on their repenting and overcoming. But the interesting thing, and we're going to look at them very briefly today, but the interesting thing, brethren, on those seven groups, that four of them, all that is promised is eternal life. Three of those seven groups is promised specific areas of responsibility, but the other four, all that it promises, is eternal life, conditional on their repentance, on overcoming their different problems.

So that's the generic groups, but within each group, then depending on your works, you'll have greater or lesser different responsibilities. So let's very briefly look at those seven historical eras of the church, and those are in Revelation 2 and 3. So let's turn to Revelation 2 and 3, and just very quickly look at those groups and the promises that are given to them. The first historical era is from Revelation 2, verse 1 through 7, and that's the era of Ephesus.

And that is typically the era between about 70 AD to about 300 AD, or the current era. And there it says, I know your works, in verse 2. And Christ knew that they were fighting against apostasies of so-called apostles, but they were false apostles.

And they also fled the persecution of the Roman system, but after 69 AD, it appears that they stopped proclaiming the gospel as effectively. And so it tells them to repent of that. And then in verse 7 says, to him that overcomes, I'll give to him to eat of the tree of life. He that overcomes, I'll give to him eternal life.

In the second historical era, which is from verse 8 through verse 11, which is the era of Smyrna, typically of the years 300 to 650 of the current era, we read that in verse 8 that these, in verse 8, it says, I know your works, I'm a part of verse 9, I know your works, tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. So we see a group of people there were poor and they suffered because they went through tribulation.

They were going through difficulty and trials under the hands of what became this Roman church, which was falsely claiming to be God's church or spiritual Israel or Jews, but they were not. They were the synagogue of Satan. It started originally from Samaria, but then moved on to Rome. And then in verse 10 it says, and we can see they go through trials, and then in verse 10 says, the latter part of verse 10, be faithful, the latter part of verse 10, be faithful until death, and I'll give you the crown of life. And then it says at the end of verse 11, He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.

And so the promise to this era as well is a promise of eternal life.

The third historical era is from verse 12 through 17, also of Revelation 2.

That's the Pergamos era. And the Pergamos era of the Church of God existed somewhere between the years 650 and 1000. It was a time when paganized Christianity was finally adopted as the official religion of the declining Roman Empire and what followed.

So we find here a group of a church in which there was a lot of compromise.

And the development of these pagan mysteries of this, which originally came from Babylon, but it went into Roman Catholicism, took its toll among those brethren that compromised.

And that's what we see here, for instance, in verse 15. It says, Thus you have those who hold the doctrine of the Decolatans, which think I hate. Which was a Samaritan, which basically became Roman, which was following, basically, paganism.

And then it says in verse 16, repent, overcome.

Or else I'll come quickly, suddenly, and we'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Here as an ear let him hear, what the Spirit says to the churches. So that applies to us all, of course. Because my question is, in what group do we fall in? Do we individually fall in? So, but anyway, this is to him that overcomes, I'll give some of the hidden manner to eat, and I'll give him a white stone. And on the stone, a new name written, on which no one knows, except him who receives it. And so, the hidden manner, we know, Christ says, I am the manna from heaven.

And that basically is eternal life. And the white stone was in that era, they gave people a little white tablet, which is like a passport to have access to pagan banquets. And each guest received a white stone with their own name written in it.

And so, basically it's saying a promise of eternal life into Christ's banquet, which is the wedding of the Lamb. And obviously, those people, like all the others, they would have been redeemed from the earth. But it does not show this group, also does not show this group qualifying for a special role.

It basically is just saying you will have eternal life.

The fourth historical group, which is Thyatira, which is in verses 18 through 29, till the end of this chapter, Thyatira.

The Thyatira church was a church that was persecuted during the Middle Ages, around about between the years 1000 to 1500 current era. It became a powerful church, and its later works were greater than its initial ones. But there was a problem, as we can see in verse 20.

There was some toleration to apostasy. And so that Jezebel, that woman Jezebel, and if you remember Jezebel was a woman, that under King Ahab, 1 Kings 16, 13, 31, led great compromise in Israel at that time.

And that parallels the false church of the false woman in Revelation 17, verse 4 and 5. That is the false church with its daughters, which then has become what today is called the Roman Catholic Church.

However, during the time of the wall dances, this false church started an inquisition against all those who followed God's commandments and those that rejected the Babylonian system. And many innocent people died, including members of God's church. But some did compromise, in fact, many, and they left God's law and accepted this system to be spared from the torture of the Catholic inquisition that occurred at that time. This is a problem that could be similar to happen just before Christ's return, when iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold.

In Revelation 2, verse 22, it says, "...indeed I'll cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her integrate tribulations, unless they repent of their deeds." So those that fall into this false church's ways of compromise, they will go through serious trials.

And that's why we read in Revelation 18, verse 4. So if you keep your fingers there in Revelation 2, but let's just quickly go to Revelation 18, verse 4, what it tells us, get out of her. Revelation 18, verse 4, it says, "...and I heard a number of voices saying, Come out of her, my people, lest you share in essence, and you receive of her plagues." Because this is that Babylonian system, which is described in chapter 17 as Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Holids. And so that church system has children, and we are told to get out of her. If we go back to Revelation 2, verse 23, it says, I will kill her children with death. In other words, the different churches that came out of that system. And then in verse 26, it talks about the promise of those that overcome. And it says, This is interesting, because it's the first group, this fourth group, where it's not only promised eternal life, but it's promised that they will rule over the nations.

So people that are in this group, and that's why it says, who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So people that are in this type of mindset or group or environment, they will have a responsibility to rule over the nations around the world. It says, over the nations. It doesn't say over Israel, but it says over the nations. So very well, it could be Gentile nations. Let's move now onto the fifth group, which is in chapter 3, verse 1 through 6. That is around about the year 1500, till the year 1930 around there, which is the Sardar's era.

And it says, yeah, I know your works, that you have a name, that you are alive, but you are dead. In other words, they refer themselves as Church of God, but it's a dead era. They're not doing effective work of proclaiming the gospel as they should. And so it says in verse 3, it says, Remember therefore now what you have received and heard, all fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I'll come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I come upon you. It is possible, because when he talks about a thief, like a thief in the night, that some of this group would continue existing into the time of the coming of Christ. Verse 4 says, You have a few names, even in Sardar's, who have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. So there are a few, but only a few, that will walk with Christ, and having these white garments is analogous of Revelation 19, verse 8, which is the righteous acts of the saints. And then in verse 5 it says, He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Again, in this group, all that is promised is eternal life. And it's interesting that of the five groups that we've seen so far, four of them have only been promised eternal life. And the one that was promised a rule over the nations was the group of Thyatira.

Now we move on to the next one, which is the sixth historical era, which is referred to as Philadelphia, very probably from the years 1934 till today. And that is Revelation 3, verse 7 through 13. And again in verse 8 says, I know your works.

You see, God knows what we're doing. He knows our hearts. In every group, He knows our works. And one of the things by the very name of this group, which implies brotherly love, it's very probably a group of people that have a lot of lovingkindness and brotherly love between each other. And He says, I sit before you in open door, and no one can shut it, for you have little strength, have kept my word, and have not denied my name. So Yah is people that are meek and malleable. They obey in God, and they are doing the work. They're preaching the gospel. They're doing God's work.

And then in verse 10, He says, because you've kept my command, and the word command is logos, which means the word, and kept the word to persevere. In other words, you did not give up. You persevered. And because of that, you will be protected from the hour of trial, which will come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. And that we understand to mean that those people, those that are alive in that group, will be protected from the Great Tribulation. In verse 11, at the beginning, He says, Behold, I'm coming quickly. So they are existing at the time of Christ's coming, suddenly. Hold fast what you have that no one may take your crown. This is the only group that has promised a crown, a special crown, probably ruling under Christ directly under that responsibility. Another interesting thing in this group, it says there will be a pillar in the temple of my God. So it will be basically pillars in God's headquarters in Jerusalem. And it says, And I will write on Him the name of my God, the name of the city of my God, that's New Jerusalem, and my new name, which is Christ's name. Those are the only ones that have God's name written on them. That's interesting, because the other groups do not have that. That's a promise specifically to this group. And so all these groups, they've all been redeemed out of the earth. They've all been brought back and become alive. They've all been redeemed. But this group has the Father's name written on their forehead. Could that be indicating that those are the ones described in Revelation 14, verse 1? Because those have the Father's name written on their head?

I don't know, but I know that's speculative, but that's interesting. It's an area for us to meditate. But anyway, the point is, this historical era, which will run through till the very time of Christ's coming, they are given a special crown, and they have God's name written on them.

So there will be a special group, and those are promises given to them in addition to eternal life. The last group is verses 14 through 22 of Revelation 3. That is, I guess, probably, let's say, run about the turn of the millennium, like in this last 20-plus years or a bit more or something, because it's an area which is a time when knowledge has increased and people have become, in a sense, arrogant, and are saying, well, I know it all, and I'm okay, Jack. That's a prevalent attitude in society in the last few years. And so Christ says to this group in verse 15, I know your works, that you're not a cold nor hot. Now, it is important to understand that all these groups are defined as Church of God throughout their years. And so basically they are people that keep God's commandments and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. But this specific one is more of an attitudinal problem of a lukewarmness, of a mindset of saying, I'm okay, I'm doing good, I'm thinking that they know a lot. But we've got to be careful as we analyze ourselves, are we amongst which group? Are we where? And we need to repent. And then it says in verse 17, because you say, I'm rich and become wealthy and have need of nothing. So there is an attitude of somebody that has maybe a lot of technical knowledge, very, very increased in his capabilities of knowledge, maybe arrogant, but is in a group that he needs to repent. So brethren, we have to analyze ourselves, where do we fall in, in these seven basic groups? This specific group, the last one of the Laodiceans, is given also a specific promise, and that's in verse 21, I'll grant to sit with me on my throne. So yes, they will be given a very important position in God's throne, but it's interesting they do not have a crown on their heads. So maybe it is some sort of a position, as personal office administration, to Christ's role of responsibility. We don't know. The point is there are various groups, which Christ, in his seven letters, described that the church era, basically, generically speaking, fits into these seven groups of attitudes. You and I need to be analyzing ourselves to say, where do I fit? Where do I fit? Am I involved? Am I doing the work? Am I compromising? Am I overly technical and arrogant? Or am I meek and teachable and doing what God tells me to do? And throughout this, we have to overcome and repent. Brethren, we all will be given different responsibilities.

We'll be given the rewards. Look at Revelation 11. Revelation 11, starting from verse 15, it says that's when Christ comes, at the seventh angel. But then we can see in verse 18 that Christ, when he comes, he says that one of the things he'll do is give his servants, the prophets and the saints and those who fear God's name, small and right, is to give those the reward. In verse 18, it says it's time that he will give the reward to us at Christ's coming.

And so within these groups, there will be greater or lesser rewards within these seven groups. We then have wonderful parables from Christ, wonderful parables from Christ, that it is important for us to keep in mind in this context. I'm not going to go through those parables in detail, but I'm just going to mention them and allow you to meditate as a study on those parables. The first one I will go is Matthew 24. In Matthew 24, verse 46 and 47, it's more of a warning there. Matthew 24, verse 46 and 47, it says, Blessed is the servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. You know, God is going to reward us, but we've got to be active doing what God wants us to do. We've got to be active. We've got to be overcoming. And he says, Surely I say to you that I'll make him ruler over all his goods. But if you're starting to say Christ is delaying his coming and starting to beat his fellow servants going back to the world, then there is trouble. And so we have to be doing. We have to be doing. In Matthew 20, we have a parable from verse 1 to verse 12. In Matthew 20, which is the parable of the workers in the vineyard. And you know the parable that one worked the whole day for 12 hours, and the other one came in at the last hour, and they all got the same reward. In other words, eternal life. And so the point, though, is that for those that have been around longer, God requires more of us than those that have been around shorter, because some that have only been there for one hour, they only require work for an hour. The others require work for 12 hours. So sometimes we've been around longer. We just have the requirement from God that he wants us to do a bit more. We have to continuously be adding to Godly virtues. We've got to keep growing. Another parable is Luke 19. That's the parable of the meaners. Luke 19. In Luke 19 we see from verse 11 through verse 28, Luke 19 verse 11 through verse 28, he says they all received a certain quantity.

And then you can see that then some, one, for instance, in verse 16, says, your talent that you were given, your spiritual talent, your spiritual gift, whatever it was, the ability that he was given. And by the way, brethren, we all have talents and abilities at the spiritual level. God has given every one of us spiritual gifts, and we all have to use them. It doesn't mean that because you have a spiritual gift that you're going to be a minister and preach, because your gift may be to encourage people, a gift of encouragement.

Your gift may be a gift of praying for others and consoling others. There are many gifts that you can be involved and help people. So, and your gift, your, your meaner, is earned 10. So this individual multiplied by 10 fold, while the other one only multiplied it by 5 fold. And you can see the reward is proportional to the work they did in this current life. And so God will reward people proportionally to our spiritual growth and our service. For instance, those in the fourth era, only that group of Thyatira, they may be those that worked only a certain amount of spiritual growth. Maybe they're only being given a small tribe to rule over, because it says you rule over nations. So maybe they'll be given a smaller tribe, others may be a bigger tribe, others may be a larger nation of Gentile nations. So it depends. The reward will be according to your spiritual growth.

For instance, those in the sixth era of Philadelphia, it says you'll be a pillar in the temple by God. So some will be a smaller pillar, and the other ones will be a bigger pillar. But they have that promise for them. So the reward depends on you and I what we do with what we have received. Then the next parable I want to look at is Matthew 25, which is the parable of the Talents.

Matthew 25.

And yeah, in Matthew 25, from verse 14 to 30, we have the parable of the Talents.

And then we see...

Matthew 25, 14 to 30.

You see that one had... ...ustrated, for instance, verse 16. He had five Talents, and he traded, and he made another five Talents.

And then verse 17, he had two Talents, and then he gained, and he made two more Talents. And so there, again, the reward is the same. Because if you look at verse 26 and 30, now verse 21 and 23, verse 21 and 23, he says, A good and faithful servant, I'll make you a ruler over many things, enter into the joy of my Lord. And verse 23, the one that had two Talents, he has the same reward. And so again, it's proportional to what we've done. So the works, the reward, will be proportional to what we've done. Whilst, from verse 26 to 30, the one that did not have any works, even the little bit he had received, that will be taken away from him. Now, these services and these Talents, and the opportunities we'll have in the world tomorrow in the Kingdom, will be to serve other people. The reward is not to be like the Gentiles, they want to be authoritarian over more people. The reward will be to serve other people. The greatest among you will be the greatest servant. And so, God has many things for you and I to do. And in fact, in John 14, in John 14, 1 and 2, we can see that in the Father's Kingdom, there are many offices. There are many opportunities to serve. He says, in my Father's house, there are many mansions. If it were not so, what have I told you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again, that's Christ, and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may also be. There are many opportunities in God's Kingdom to serve. You and I today are being trained to serve. What will you and I do for eternity in the Kingdom? It will not be eternal retirement. It will be a busy time, a busy time full of joy, happiness, contentment, and eternal fulfillment. And that will be the perfect job for you, the perfect job, because God can see, and God is training you today for a specific task that will be expanded in the new heavens and new earth beyond imagination. And it will be the most perfect job for you and I. You will love that job like nothing in the world. But it all depends on what you and I do today with what we have received today.