Now there in 1 Peter 4, I'm going
to make a few comments about many
of the things that Peter has written here by virtue of his
being inspired by the Holy Spirit. But I mainly want to talk about
verse 4 on the issue of crown of glory. The crown of glory. Peter had said much about the
Christian life, the life of a believer on this earth, which on a big
part is a life of suffering, life that is difficult. You remember
he said, if the righteous scarcely be saved, who are the righteous? They are sinners saved by the
grace of God, washed in the blood of Christ, clothed in his righteousness,
They are those who have been regenerated and converted, born
again by the Holy Spirit, given the gift of faith, which men
and women do not have by nature, given the gift of repentance,
preserved unto glory, that's final glory, by the Lord Himself,
by His grace and power, and who persevere in the faith against
all affliction, But Peter puts things in perspective. If you
look at verse one, he said, the elders which are among you I
exhort, I encourage, who am also an elder, an elder in the faith,
mature, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, Peter was
there when Christ was crucified, and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed. And I believe one of the main
points that he's making here is this. As much as we may suffer
here on this earth for the cause of Christ, as much as we may
hurt, as much as we may be tested, it's not our suffering that guarantees
the glory that shall be revealed. No. Their suffering, all people
suffer to some degree or another. But it's Christ's suffering on
the cross that guarantees the glory that shall be revealed.
Now what does that do for our suffering? Our suffering for
the cause of Christ, for righteousness sake, over the gospel, over our
witness of Christ, simply identifies us with Him. Are you a follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ? If you are, then you know even
though he was a moral teacher, he was infinitely more than a
moral teacher. He's my savior, he's my redeemer,
he's my surety, my substitute, he's my keeper, he's my forgiver,
he's my righteousness. And it's his sufferings as the
substitute, the surety, the redeemer of his people that guarantees
our final glory, guarantees our salvation. And that's the thought
that Peter's putting forth there. And so therefore, he says in
verse two, feed the flock of God. What are you gonna feed
them with? The word of God, which is among
you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, not forcing,
not browbeating, but willingly. Not for filthy lucre. Not for gain, but because of
a ready mind. You see this as life and death,
that's what he's saying. I tell you, it's like I tell
people all the time. You may not want to hear what
I have to say this morning, but I'm gonna tell you something.
You need to hear it. And in my prayers, you don't
find that out too late. You don't find it out too late.
And we're ready to preach the gospel. With a ready mind. Not reluctantly. And he says
in verse 3, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but
being in samples to the flock. Not setting yourself up as the
authority over God's heritage. That's God's people. It's kind
of like this, I'm not Christ. I'm not your Savior. I'm not
your Lord, but I'm gonna tell you about one who is. And what I tell you must be subjected
to his word. There are too many people, and
I've often said this, a couple of things. The worst thing that
can happen to any true preacher of the gospel is that he gain
a following for himself. That's the worst thing that can
happen to me or anybody. I've seen it happen too. And the worst thing that can
happen to any congregation is that they follow that man without
testing him, judging him by God's word. And that's what Peter's
saying here. Being lords over God's people,
overruling. What I say goes. No, what God
says goes, and if I'm not preaching according to this word, it's
because there's no light in me, Isaiah said. We preach God's
word. Now, I know every preacher says
they're preaching God's word, but you have an objective standard
by which to go, and that's this Bible, Genesis to Revelation. This is God's word. And I'll
tell you another thing, too. Men change, but the gospel doesn't
change. How does God justify a sinner? There are people that I know
today who used to preach the truth on that, but they've changed. That never changes. How does
God, a holy and righteous God, forgive, accept, and declare
righteous a sinner who deserves nothing but death and hell? How
does he do that? And the answer is by his free
and sovereign grace based upon the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. His obedience unto death. Their
sins having been charged to him, imputed to him, and his righteousness
imputed, charged, accounted to them. A righteousness that they
had nothing to do with. I know men who preach that, now
they've changed. And people follow them. They've
gained a following for themselves. If I ever change that message,
you either fire me or don't come back. Because that gospel does
not change. Verse four, he says, when the
chief shepherd shall appear, that's Christ. He's the chief
shepherd. He's the great shepherd. The good shepherd. The chief
shepherd. His preachers are under shepherds.
But Christ is the authority. It's His Word. And when He appears,
you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. That
crown of glory. Now Peter's going to end this
epistle on a positive note. What's he been talking about?
He's been talking about suffering. Now we need to talk about suffering
because suffering comes along with the territory. And I've
told you that. Peter's told us that. It's all through the Bible. And
Christ told his disciples that, the world's gonna hate you. I used to hear, a preacher told
me one time, he said, unless unbelievers see that we love
them, they won't listen to our message. And I told him, I said,
well look, I wanna be kind. I do, I don't wanna be mean and
cruel, and I want people to like me, just like anybody else. Yeah. But the fact is, believers, unbelievers,
do not know or recognize true love when they see it. And one of the most basic passages
that proves that is John 3, 19. Here, when the scripture says,
this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world,
and men love darkness and hate the light. Why do men hate, why
does the natural man, reject the light of the gospel because
it destroys his or her hope, his or her refuge. You see, it
leaves a center open to nothing for salvation, no hope except
Christ and his righteousness. It won't, listen, it won't allow
you to bring in your good works, your free will, It won't even
allow you to bring in what you see as your faith, because it's
not faith that saves us, it's Christ. I've got a message on
that. I offended a man out in Oregon on that. I was listening
to it. I made that statement. He couldn't
believe I made that statement. I said, well, I'm going to show
you how to make that statement. Must we have faith? God-given faith
in Christ is a necessity. But it's Christ who saves us.
Christ is the Savior. And that offends people. And
that's why the Lord told his disciples, they'll throw you
out of the synagogue. They're going to throw you out of their
worship services because they don't know me nor the Father.
So he's been talking about this suffering, but here's what he
says. He says basically the same thing that Paul said in that
little passage that I read in Romans chapter 8, where Paul
made this statement. Let me read it to you again.
This is verse 18. He says, for I reckon, that's
an accounting. That's what that means is the
word impute. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. And here Peter mentions this
crown of glory. This is one of five heavenly
crowns that believers will receive in glory. Now normally when we
think of crowns, we think of somebody like a king, don't we?
King. And you say, well, how could
we ever think of ourselves as kings? Well, the Bible says we're
servants. Willing, loving, bond servants
of Christ. And Christ is the one true and
only King of Kings. But he is King of Kings. Now,
The apostle probably had in mind earthly kings there showing the
sovereignty of Christ over all. I mean, he's in control even
of evil kings. Scripture tells us that. They
don't know it, they don't recognize it, and they don't worship him,
but he's sovereign. He turns the king heart whichever
way he wants. But also his people, the Bible
tells us, are brought to be and called to be kings and priests
unto God. Not that we're sovereign. Not
that we're in charge. Because only God is the sovereign
king of the universe, he's in charge. But we're members of
a royal house. That's right, our family is a
royal family, our spiritual family. I used to get tickled because
these people when they do their genealogies and they'll say something,
I was related to George Washington. If everybody who thought they
were related to George Washington were really related to George
Washington, you could say he really was the father of our
country. But big deal. But if you're in
Christ, if you're a believer, if you're washed in His blood,
clothed in His righteousness, you're a member of a royal household,
spiritually. Royal children of God. And we
do have authority. It's not our own, it's the authority
of the King of Kings. We're ambassadors of Christ,
the one true King. And we're priests unto God because
we have free access to the presence of God through the blood of Jesus
Christ. We can come boldly to the throne of grace. Our heavenly
Father, Abba Father, that's what Paul wrote. But you know the word crown here
means, it can mean a mark of royalty or in general, exalted
rank. Usually the crown that a king
wore would be the word that we would translate diadem. But this
is not that word. This is another word, Stephanos.
The name Stephen comes from it. And it was used in ancient Greece
in their games, the Olympic games, sort of. And it referred to like
a wreath or a garland used in those games to place on a winner's
head. And as such this word is used
figuratively in the New Testament as the reward of God's grace
promised to his people whom he preserves unto the end and who
persevere by his grace and power unto the end. You know most people
when they look at these words considering the five crowns.
Most people, you know how they think of them? They think about
rewards that we earn by our service. But that's not what it is. There's no mention, listen, when
it comes to the people of God, and what God gives us, and what
we have in salvation and its blessings, there is absolutely
no mention of earned rewards. Plural. Not in the Bible. There is mention of reward, singular,
but it's not a reward we earn. It's always the reward of grace. And it's part and parcel of what
Ephesians 1 and verse 3 calls all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Over, let me give you this. Over
in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul mentioned an imperishable crown. And listen
what he says here. This is 1 Corinthians 9 and verse
24. He says, know you not that they which run in a race run,
all but one receiveth the prize, so run that you 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. Think about somebody training
for the Olympics to do a marathon or something like that. They
work hard, they train, and they're doing it to obtain a crown that's
gonna fade away, that's gonna perish. But we as believers who
are in training, by God's grace and power through the Holy Spirit,
making ourselves not worthy in the sense of earning
anything, but making ourselves ready, complete in that sense,
and incorruptible through the word of God. He says in verse
26, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fine I, not as
one that beateth the air, What he's saying there is, you know
that athlete that's training for the Olympics, he may be confident,
but he really doesn't know if he's gonna win or not. Uncertain. He may not be as good as somebody
else that's running against him, but we do it, not uncertain. We know that our end, our finality,
the ultimate, is sure and certain. Why? Because of our hard work? No, because of what Christ did
on that cross. Because of his blood and his
righteousness imputed to us. And so he says in verse 27, therefore
I keep my body and bring it unto subjection lest by any means
when I preach to others I myself should be a castaway. Unqualified. We're to persevere in the faith.
but we're running a race. Now Hebrews 12.2 tells us how
we're to run the race, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. So that's the crown that's imperishable. That's eternal life. And then
over in 1 Thessalonians 2, in verse 19, he mentions a crown
of rejoicing. He says in verse 19 of 1 Thessalonians
2, what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even
ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? That word
rejoicing, when you see the word joy or rejoice or rejoicing,
you have to know what it means. Sometimes it just means exactly
what we think of when we rejoice, we're happy. We're settled. But other times it means boasting,
glorying. Paul wrote that in Philippians
3, we glory in Christ Jesus. Now we joy in Him, we're happy
in Him as far as our salvation is concerned, but he's talking
about we boast in Christ. My boast, my confidence is in
Christ. The glory of His person. You
see, my confidence is not in who I am. My confidence is in
who He is. God manifests in the flesh. My confidence is not in my confession. My confidence is not in my works. It's in Christ. It's the glory
of His person and the power of His finished work on the cross.
That propitiation that I spoke of this morning. Satisfaction
to God's justice. My sins are put away. My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
That's my boast. I'm up here to brag not on me
and not on you, but on Christ. And he said it, the same word
in Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should glory boast, have
confidence, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
my crown of boasting. And then over in 2 Timothy 4,
let me read this to you. 2 Timothy chapter 4, if I've
got it marked here. In verse 8, he speaks of a crown
of righteousness. An imperishable crown. A crown of rejoicing, a crown
of righteousness. And here's what Paul says in
verse 8. He says, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown
of righteousness. How are you going to get that,
Paul? Well, look at what I've done. I wrote epistles, I've
worked hard, I've preached. No, listen to me. He says, which
the Lord the righteous judge shall what? Give me. Paul was already righteous in
the Lord Jesus Christ as all of God's elect are. You see when Christ, God chose
us before the foundation of the world and gave us to him and
put all of the responsibility of our sin upon Christ. All of our sin debt was imputed
to him and his righteousness imputed to us and that's why
he had to come and die and be buried and raised again the third
day. So he says this crown of righteousness is the ultimate
end of what Christ has done for me. And it's given, he shall
give me at that day, the day of glorification, and not, listen
to me, and Paul's not talking about what he had done for the
Lord, he's talking about what the Lord has done for him, this
proves it, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love
his appearing. Now who are all them that love
his appearing? Sinners saved by grace, believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Over in the book of Revelation
chapter 2 and verse 10, he mentions a crown of life. A crown of life,
the ultimate end of being with Christ. James 1 and verse 12
says this, blessed is the man that endureth temptation, that's
testing, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of
life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Who is
it that loves God? It's all of his people in Christ. Can you get him? That's okay. Okay, let's pray for Brother
Winston. I know he's had such a hard time
and that disease is so debilitating, isn't it, especially in his age. He's had to deal with it, how
long, Mark, 30 years? That's right. But the thing about
it is, I mean, for Winston and for any of us, this is the ultimate,
isn't it? His crown of life that God's
gonna give to all those that love Him. And those who love
Him are those who are brought by God's grace to see the glory
of God in the face of Christ. If God has ever brought you to
see your sinfulness, my sinfulness, and to see His way of saving
sinners through His grace, through the righteousness of Christ,
that's something, isn't it? Well, let me just say a few more
words about this crown of glory. This is kind of like the pinnacle
of all crowns, because he's talking about our final glorification
in Christ. And Paul said it, the sufferings
of this present world are not even to be compared with the
glory that'll follow. This glory is our eternal existence
with him in a glorified, spiritual, perfect body. We don't know a
whole lot about it other than what the Bible tells us a few
things, especially in 1 Corinthians. Let me just go over there in
1 Corinthians 15, where the Bible, God's Word does give us some
of the issues that we can glory in. If you'll look at verse 50,
for example. 1 Corinthians 15, 50. He says, now this I say, brethren,
that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. We suffer
in this flesh, these vile bodies, Paul called it this body of death.
We look at ourselves, we look at people like Brother Winston,
who was such a strong, upright man, and we see what sin does
to this body. But he said this body, cannot
inherit the kingdom of God. Neither does corruption inherit
corruption, incorruption, this body that's dying. And he says,
behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. That's the glory that he's talking
about. We're going to be changed. In a moment, he says, in the
twinkling of an eye at the last trump, for the trumpet shall
sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. And we shall all
be changed. Incorruptible. Now you know what
that incorruption is like? I don't know. And you don't either. Because that's something that
we haven't experienced yet. We have a foretaste of it in
the resurrected Lord, the resurrected Christ. In verse 53, he says,
for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal
must put on immortality. This is the glorified realm into
which the Lord brings all his chosen people, all who have been
justified. redeemed by the blood, all who
have been forgiven of their sins through the blood of Christ,
all who have been declared righteous now, even now before God, and
we will be made righteous in ourselves in that day. There'll
be no sin nature, there'll be no flesh to battle. Think about
it, that's the crown of glory. We'll go to spend eternity with
Christ in the new heavens and the new earth in a state of complete
holiness and blessedness with no presence of sin, no death,
no sorrow. It's immortality. And it's the
consummation of our salvation in every way. Conform to Christ
in every way. And all of this, and let me give
you these three things. The purpose and glory of God
stands behind this. It cannot fail. The righteousness
of Christ imputed ensures it. The work of the Holy Spirit is
the earnest of it. Are you looking to Christ? Well,
cast all your cares upon him, Peter says, for he careth for
you. Okay.