Another myth:

The belief that all believers, all who have taken the "four steps of salvation," will receive the same reward. The concept of salvation by grace has led logically to the teaching that there are no rewards for living an obedient Christian life. If we are saved by faith apart from works, then how can we be rewarded? God's grace saves us all on the same basis.

But the New Testament speaks of rewards in many passages, particularly in the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation. To say there are no rewards for serving the Lord is to defy the Scriptures and also to destroy a prime motivation for struggling to be an overcomer.

In the case of many believers, if we remove the fear of punishment and the hope of reward, they will drift through life aimlessly. This is why the Spirit of God placed the fear of punishment and the hope of glorious rewards in the sacred text. Those who have removed the fear of punishment and the hope of reward from the Book of Revelation are in danger of having their name removed from the Book of Life.

We live in a demonic environment. It requires all the strength and will power we possess to press through each day to victory in Jesus. Very few of us would make the supreme effort if there were no fear of God to goad us and no hope of glory in Jesus to inspire us.

The fact is, we are going to be clothed with our works in the day of resurrection. We are going to reap precisely as we have sown. The New Testament is very clear in this matter. Those who teach otherwise are mistaken. They are false prophets and they need to repent and ask the Lord to help them preach the truth.

Continuing to preach a lie after we know the truth leaves us vulnerable to severe Divine chastening.

The doctrine that the overcomer, of Revelation, Chapters Two and Three, is the individual who merely has made a profession of belief in Christ. Because of the false concept that we are saved by faith apart from works of righteousness and therefore there is no reward for seeking the Lord, it is being taught that to qualify as an overcomer we are required merely to state our belief in the Lord Jesus.

But it may be noticed that Jesus made only one statement that was common to each of the seven churches of Asia: "I know your works." If it were true that we are an overcomer merely on the basis of professing belief in Christ, then the repetition of I know your works is meaningless and superfluous.

The verse that is used to support the "overcomer by identification" doctrine is as follows:

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. (I John 5:4)

This does not mean that if we profess faith in the Lord Jesus we automatically have overcome the world. It means, rather, that if we will place our faith in the Lord Jesus, walking each day in Him, we will receive wisdom and power from the Holy Spirit to enable us to overcome our worldliness, our sinful lusts, and our rebellion, self-will, and desire for preeminence among the brothers and sisters. Faith is a fight!

To be continued.