The greatest blessing, now listen
carefully, the greatest blessing God ever bestowed on you, the
greatest blessing God ever bestowed on you was not the day He gave
you a faithful wife or the day He gave you a faithful husband.
but the day he sent to you, a faithful messenger of the gospel." I'd
strongly urge you to get that tape, listen to it, and corner
Jim and get his notes next to the last point on a pastor being
an overseer and read those carefully. I'd recommend that you do that. God will not take it lightly
for men to spurn the voice of his servants. All of these preachers
could speak with some measure of experience and knowledge about
what I'm saying. I imagine folks who tried to
defrock you of your preaching papers, you could speak well
of that, Scott. Let me just share an experience
with you. I'm going to preach in a minute,
but I want to share this with you. I think it might be helpful. I don't
believe I've ever shared it with anybody. in a public manner. I pastored a church in the mountains
of West Virginia for nine years. I took it a whole lot earlier
than I had good sense in taking it. I was 21 years old. But I
had a lot of brass, and I knew the gospel. And for nine years,
Tim, I fought folks tooth and toenail every day for nine years. I mean, I had to fight just to
preach. You know, everybody was upset about something one way
or another. They'd been established in religion
for 75 years. And they wanted somebody to preach
to them once or twice a week, maybe have a little something
to say on Wednesday nights. And I thank God there were some
folks, I believe, come to know Christ and the gospel while I
was there. And there are some dear people within the confines
of that congregation. I believe some of God's sheep.
But they've had occasion over the years to hear the gospel
time and time again. And I finally just got tired
of fighting. I got just plumb, plumb tired of fighting. Told
men in the meeting one night, I said, fellas, if y'all want
to fight, you can have it. I'm not going to fight. I'm done
with it. I can go somewhere and preach
in somebody's house in a corner, and not have to fight to get
to preach. Not going to do it. And since
they left there, now listen to me. I don't say it in any way
except the deepest sorrow. God won't let them hear anything
else. They haven't heard a word from
God in five years. And the pity is they don't even
know it. don't even know it. God will not take it lightly.
You stand up and spit in God's face by spitting in the face
of God's servant, and you say, well, I don't want to hear it.
Pretty soon, God will let you have your way. OK, bud, you just
won't hear it. I'd urge you, urge you, to give
thanks to God that he gave you a man to preach the gospel. I
love God's people. And I love God's servants. I'm
thankful for them. Now tonight, I want you, if you
will, to turn with me to Revelation chapter 4. If the Lord will allow us to, I want us to take a glimpse,
just a little glimpse, within the veil, without any vain curiosity. without the evil of just curious
speculation, but with faith, hope, and expectation, I want
us to look into some of those things which concern our eternal
estate in heaven's glory. At the outset, I realize that
we know very, very little about heaven. We know very, very little
about the eternal estate of bliss which awaits God's elect in heaven. I know folks say, well, I know
a lot about it. No, you don't. You just think
you do. The whole of that which describes the eternal glories
of heaven is given in mundane language because we couldn't
understand it in any other way, and we don't even understand
the mundane language. I know that heaven is a place,
a real place, of eternal bliss in the presence of God and the
holy angels, where the people of God shall dwell when time
is no more. I know that heaven is a place
of happiness, bliss, glory, peace, and love. a place of perfect righteousness
and truth where neither sin nor sinners can enter. But beyond
those things, we just don't know much. The Holy Spirit seems to
have saved up the details for that day when we enter into our
eternal glory. As it is written, I have not
seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. We don't
know where heaven is. We don't know what our heavenly
bodies will be like. We don't really even know what
the events of eternity will be except praise and worship to
our Redeemer. Now I somehow can't picture me
spending eternity floating along on a cloud playing a harp. You
know, I just, I don't think these fingers were made for it. So
I think maybe we'll be doing something besides that. But we
just don't know what we don't. We don't know those things because
God hasn't shown us those things. We know a great deal more about
what not what is not going to be in heaven than we do about
what is going to be there. I read in the book that there
will be no sickness there and no sorrow, no more pain and no
more tears. I know that according to the
scriptures, there'll be no darkness, no disappointment, and no death. According to the book, there
will be no care, no corruption, and no crime. There will be no
more trials, no more temptations, and no more tears. But in reality,
we know very little about what's going to be there. And I suppose
that's best. I expect it is. If we knew as
much as most folks pretend to know about the future, we wouldn't
do anything in the present. And that's the reason most folks
who talk about the future don't do anything in the present. But there are some things plainly
revealed about the believer's eternal inheritance in heaven.
And there are some things that are plainly revealed for our
encouragement, our enjoyment, our consolation, and to strengthen
our hope. Now, my text this evening is
found in Revelation 4. And in this text, the Apostle
John is giving us a picture of the people of God before the
throne in the presence of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'd like to read the whole two chapters here, but we'll just
read a few verses. Let's look at verse 4. Revelation 4, verse
4. Round about the throne. Now,
you know whose throne it is. It's the throne of God and of
the Lamb. It's the throne of our sovereign Redeemer. It's
the throne of David, which our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to
when he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
Round about the throne were four and twenty seats, and upon those
seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment,
and they had on their heads crowns of gold. The four and twenty
elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship
him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before
the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power. For thou hast created all things,
and for thy pleasure," I like that, for thy pleasure, only
for thy pleasure. not for mine or yours, but for
thy pleasure. They are and were created." Now,
these four and twenty elders represent the whole company of
the redeemed in heaven. They represent the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ. They represent the whole church
of Christ. Now, please understand, I'm not
talking about the Baptist church of Christ. I'm not talking about
the Campbellite church of Christ. I'm talking about all of God's
elect. I'm talking about everybody who
ever believed on Christ from Adam all the way to the end of
time. I'm talking about the whole company
of God's redeemed ones, those who were chosen in Christ and
redeemed in Christ and regenerated in Christ and spend eternity
in Christ. That's His church. That's His
body. That's His bride. You might say,
well, I just don't believe all saved folks are in the pride
of Christ. Well, you believe wrong. You just believe wrong. I wonder how on this earth. Well,
Abraham's not in the church. Was he chosen in Christ? Was
he redeemed in Christ? Was he? Was he regenerated in
Christ? Well, would you please tell me
when he got out of Christ? He's in him today. The Church
of God is what I'm talking about. All the hosts of God's elect
are represented by these four and twenty elders. These four
and twenty elders are those who represent the people of God,
redeemed, justified, and glorified in Christ Jesus the Lord, and
they bear the characteristics, representatively, of all God's
elect in the eternal estate. These 24 elders reveal several
things that I think are important for us to notice. They tell us
certain things about the bliss of God's saints in heaven. First
of all, all of these 24 elders are clothed with white raiment,
all of them. How did they get in? They were
wearing white raiment, the pure, spotless robe of Christ's righteousness. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness,
my beauty are, my glorious dress, midst flaming worlds, in these
arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head." Not only were they
wearing the white raiment of Christ's spotless righteousness,
that righteousness which Christ worked out and established for
them as a man by his representative life in this world, but as they
have come now round the throne, they all worship the Lamb. And when, verse 8 of chapter
5, I'm sorry. And when they had taken the book,
or he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and
twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of
them hearts and golden vials full of odors, which are the
prayers of the saints, and they sung a song. And this is the
song they sang, Thou art worthy. to take the book and open the
seals thereof, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to
God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests,
and we shall reign on the earth." These ones who stand before the
throne are worshiping the Lamb, and they have all been redeemed
by the blood of that Lamb. Those are good characteristics
of God's elect. They wear His righteousness.
They worship Him. They're redeemed by Him. In that
great eternal day it shall come to pass, as we have so often
sung, when this poor listening stammering tongue lies silent
in the grave, then in a nobler, sweeter song I'll sing thy power
to save. They're all seeing His presence.
They're all redeemed by His blood. And they're all around the throne.
They're around the throne. Now, I don't know how all this
takes place. I just know they're all around
the throne. All of His saints seated around His throne. And
His glory so magnificent, so great, that they all see Him
with clear and perfect vision. And they all worship Him perfectly
and clearly. And they all are in the same
proximity to Him who sits on the throne. They're around the
throne. And they are all kings and priests unto God. That's
what the book says here. They are men and women in whose
bodies, by the power of God's Spirit, sin has been conquered
perfectly. Why, we're going to reign as
kings. Right now we're kings. Conquering this old flesh. But the day is coming, Mark,
and we're going to perfectly conquer this flesh. That's right. They're all priests. That means
they can go right up to God. They can go right into God's
presence. Kings and priests. These 24 elders shall all reign
with Christ on the earth. There's a day coming when the
king shall descend. He redeemed this world. That's
right. He bought this world lock, stock,
and barrel. You belong to it. You belong
to it. I thought you said he just died
for his elect. Well, he just died to save his
elect and to justify his elect. He died so he could have you
in his hands to do with you what he will. Thou hast given him
power over all flesh, that includes you and me, that he may give
eternal life unto as many as thou hast given him. He's got
you in his hands. And he purchased this world,
and one day he's coming again, and he's going to ease himself
of his adversaries. That means he's going to put
you in hell if you don't bow to his throne. And he's going
to create all things new, and we shall reign with him forever
upon the earth which he shall make a new. They're all going
to reign with him, all of his saints, all of his saints. Now
here's something else. This is characteristic of God's
saints. Here's my text right here in verse 4. And they had
on their heads crowns of gold. These crowns are going to be
my subject tonight. I want to talk to you a little bit about
believers and their crowns. According to our text, in the
beginning of heaven's eternal day, all the people of God shall
have crowns of gold on their heads. Now let me try to answer
three or four questions. I hope that God will make the
word profitable to you. First of all, what are these
crowns? What are these crowns? I began
preaching the gospel of God's grace. Invariably, you go somewhere
and begin talking to folks and telling them that we're redeemed
and justified and sanctified and accepted in Christ and perfect
in Christ and that our standing is in Christ alone, that all
of God's people are perfectly accepted in Him. Somebody said,
but what about the crown? Do you mean I've heard all my
life that we're going to, some of us had certain crowns, some
of us had other crowns. I recall preaching one time Pretty
good-sized church. And I was dealing with the thing
of Christ being everything to the believer, you know. And this
fellow came up and shook hands with me after services, and he
said, well, I always thought, preacher, there's going to be
degrees of reward for God's faithful people in heaven. I said, well,
I hope you know better now. Now, when I get done, I hope
you'll know better. I want you to understand exactly what the
book teaches. What are these crowns? I looked them up in the
scripture. Follow along with me. 1 Corinthians
chapter 9. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24. There is an incorruptible crown,
which is the reward of perseverance. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24. The Apostle Paul says, Know ye
not that they which run in a race run all? That is, everybody who's
in the race is running. But one receiveth the prize.
So run that you may obtain it. And every man that striveth for
mastery is temperate in all things." That is, if he's striving after
this crown, striving after this reward, he's going to be governing
himself and be temperate and modest in all things. Now, they
do it to obtain a corruptible crown. That is, they do it to
get them a crown that they can show off. But we, an incorruptible,
that is, they get a crown, they show it off for a little while,
it's just a little wreath, you know, just made out of a few
leaves, and in a few days it's going to die away. We do it to
obtain a crown forever, an incorruptible crown. I therefore so run, not
as uncertainty, so fire I, not as one that beateth the air,
but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest
that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself
should be cast away. I know what's taught. I'm not
altogether ignorant of what's going on in this world. Fellas
say, well, what Paul's saying is, I stay at this thing because
I don't want to be put on the shelf. If you don't stay at it
now, the Lord's going to put you on the shelf of uselessness
and he won't use you no more. That's not what he's talking
about. And what the word is? Reprobate. Lest, when I preach
to you, I fail to reach the end, and at the end I'm reprobate. And what he's saying is this.
Like runners in a race, the believer must press on. He must persevere
unto the end. You see, it is not he that begins
the race that wins the prize. It is not he that runs well in
the race that wins the prize. It is not even he that runs swiftly
in the race that wins the prize, but he who runs to the end. Now,
if you run to the end, you're going to have found a crown,
an incorruptible crown. That's what Paul is saying here.
Turn over to the book of James, chapter 1. James, the first chapter. There is an incorruptible crown
for those who persevere." Well, who are they? Well, they're God's
elect. That's who perseveres. All of
God's elect stay at it until the job's done. They stay at
it until they enter into glory. They stay at it until God calls
them home. Well, preacher, I know some fellows
who, they ran for a long time and they were faithful for a
long time, but when they got old, they got craggy and they
fell aside. They never entered the race.
They never did. They never knew our God. If they
did, they couldn't have let Him go. Couldn't have let Him go. Look here in James chapter 1,
verse 12. There is also a crown of life,
which is the reward of faithfulness to the Lord our God. Blessed
is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is proved, that's
literally a translation, for having been proved, when he is
tried, He's gone through the fire now and come out the other
side, all the better for it. Having been proved, he shall
receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them
that love him. Those trials that destroy a man's
faith, I've seen it. You've seen it. I've seen men
endure this trial and endure that trial. But finally, Satan
lays one out there they can't take anymore. And they just quit. They just quit. They forsake
Christ, forsake the gospel, forsake God's saints. They just quit. Proved that they never had faith.
They never had faith. Those whose trials destroy their
faith never really had any true saving knowledge of Christ, they
shall perish. But those who are faithful, even in their trials,
prove that their faith is genuine, and they shall have the crown
of life." Everlasting, eternal life. Turn with me to 2 Timothy
chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. There is also a crown of righteousness. This is a crown of righteousness,
which is the reward of those who love Christ at His appearance. It is not a reward of those who
love prophecy. It is not the reward of those
who rightly divide the word of truth. I can't help telling you. Jim and I went to school together. I wouldn't want to say where,
but we went to school together. I recall one morning in Dispensational
Truths class. You ever heard of those things?
Dispensational Truths. A professor stood up, and this
is what he said. Now, this is what he said. He
was praying. I knew he wasn't praying because
I looked. I wasn't praying with him. He said, Lord, help us to rightly
cut up the Word of God. I said, oh, my, so is what he's
doing. Cut up the Word of God. Well, that's not what he's talking
about here. He's not talking about folks who just love to
cut up the book to fit their schemes of prophecy and give
a prophetic interpretation. Listen to what it says, 2 Timothy
4, verse 6. I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight. I have finished my course. I
have kept the faith. That's that perseverance I was
talking about. Paul came to the end of his way. He said, I've
stayed at this battle from start to finish, and I have finished
my course. That is, I've done all God intends
for me to do. That's right. I've just stayed
at this thing, and my work's done now, and all through the
time I've kept the faith. I've kept the faith. 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 appearing." Well,
preacher, who is that? Let me ask you something. Do you anxiously anticipate the
day? when his glory shall be universally
known and acknowledged, when the King shall come talking to
you, talking to you, those who love his appearing. You see,
all who love Christ and love his appearing shall receive this
crown of righteousness, and all believers do, all believers do. Children of God are looking for
Christ. They're expecting Him. That's
just right. Folks tell me, say, well, we ought to be always looking
for Christ. God's people are always looking
for Christ. They're just looking for Him. Now there are times
when their vision and their anticipation is keener than it is at others.
But in the general tenor and direction of their lives, their
eyes are fixed on Him, and their hearts are fixed on Him, and
they are anticipating that day when His glory shall be revealed. And they'll have a crown of righteousness.
There is also a crown of rejoicing. Turn over to 2 Thessalonians,
or 1 Thessalonians rather, chapter 2. I want you to see this one.
There is a crown of rejoicing. which is the reward of those
who seek the salvation of God's elect. Look at verse 19. What is our hope or our joy or
our crown of rejoicing? Are not even you in the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? He said, what is the
thing that we most greatly rejoice in? Why, it's when we see you
in the presence of Christ at His coming. For ye are our glory
and our joy." Now, what's Paul talking about? The wise man said,
Children's children are the crown of old men. You ever get around Scott Richardson
and listen to him talk about his grandbabies? Children's children
are the crown of old men. But when our Lord Jesus Christ
comes in his glory, to gather his elect from the four corners
of the earth, and he presents them all to his father, saying,
Behold, I and the children which God hath given me, as he rejoices
in the salvation of God's elect, as he rejoices in the fullness
of his body, as he rejoices in the perfected adornment of his
blessed bride, so will we." So will we. Paul was not saying
this. He was not saying, I glory and
rejoice in the fact that I was the instrument of your conversion.
Let me show it to you. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 3.
He wasn't saying, I glory and rejoice in the fact that I was
the instrument of your conversion. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 7. Neither is he that planteth anything,
neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
Now, I raise a pretty good-sized garden every year. Well, I plant
it. I plant it. My wife raises it.
And folks ask me, you know, oh, that's good corn. Man, that corn's
so pretty. How'd you get such full ears
on that corn? Well, I've got a marvelous hoe. I've got a hoe
that, man, it just, it'll work corn like you ain't never seen
anything work corn before. It's best hoe. You ought to see that
hoe work. It gets up there and gets up
close to that corn and gets the weeds out and pulls the dirt
up around that corn and packs it in good and tight. Well, that's
foolish. That's foolish. She takes a hoe. She does all the work. And she
gets all the credit. All credit. I try to take a little
now and then, but nobody who's around pays any attention, you
know. She gets all the credit. Now, listen. We're preachers
of the gospel. We're hoes in God's hand. Hoes
in God's hand. That's all. That's all. If God happens, maybe, in his
good providence, to speak to you through these lips, God did
the speaking. He did the speaking. That's all.
What Paul's saying is this. He's saying, I glory and rejoice
in the salvation of God's elect. I do. I glory and rejoice in
the salvation of God's elect in the gathering of God's sheep.
Why? Because the salvation of God's
elect is the glory and the joy of Christ Jesus, our Redeemer. What does that mean? You're our
crown of rejoicing. We're going to stand before Him
and give praise to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. There
is also a crown of glory. Turn over to 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter
5, verse 4. There is a crown of glory, which
is the reward of our union with Christ. When the chief shepherd shall
appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." Try to get hold of this if you
can. When Christ comes, we're going to be like Him. We're going
to be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is.
And Wayne Robertson, whatever he is, as a man I shall be. Whatever he is in human flesh,
whatever he is as a real man, I shall be. Listen to what he
said. The glory which thou gavest me. He's talking about the exaltation
of his eternal manhood. That's right. There's a man seated
in glory, the God man. And the glory that thou gavest
me, he said. I have given them that they may
be one even as we are one. There is the incorruptible crown,
the crown of life, the crown of righteousness, the crown of
rejoicing, and the crown of glory. What are they? What are they?
Come back to Isaiah chapter 28. I think I found something that
might help you. Some of you fellows have heard about these crowns
all your life. I've heard all kinds of foolish notions. You
know, we're going to, some of us are such good Christians,
we're going to have to balance those crandles. We're going to
spend eternity keeping those things on top of our heads. Somebody's
going to have a whole stack of them. Poor old Jim Byrd. He just ain't going to make it.
He might have a little star here to pin on his forehead, you know. But what are these crandles?
Isaiah 28, verse 5, all these crowns are one crown. They're
one crown. In that day shall the Lord of
hosts be for a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty unto the
residue of the people. That's it. That's it. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
prize we seek. I'm running a race, yes sir. And I'm fighting a battle. You
best believe I'm fighting a battle. A battle with this flesh, a battle
with this world, a battle with the religion of this world, a
battle with the prince of darkness. I'm fighting a battle. And I
stay at the race. I stay at the race. Because I
must be found! in Christ having his right. He's the prize I seek. He's the
crown we shall wear. Christ is the reward of his people. You say, well, that's not enough
for me. Well, I'm not talking to you. That's right. What more could
we need or desire? What do you want? What do you
want? Do you want righteousness? He
is the Lord, our righteousness. Do you want peace? He is the
Prince of Peace. Do you want love? He is the incarnation
of love. Do you want forgiveness? He is
forgiveness. Do you want redemption? He is
redemption. Do you want perfect sanctification? He is sanctification. Well, preacher,
I want some gold to walk on. Well, I expect you got all you're
gonna get. You just got all you're gonna
get and it's gonna perish with you. Christ is what we want. Christ is heaven. Sweet fellowship with him. The
sweet blessedness of total communion with Christ. The sweet blessedness of total
submission to Christ. Oh my God, there's nothing I
want more than that. The sweet blessedness of total
conformity to Christ. That's the whole of it. That's
the whole of it. He is our crown of life. He is my crown of joy. He is my crown of righteousness. He is my life. He is my incorruptible
crown. He is all and in all. I want no more. I want no more. Another question. Who's going
to wear these crowns? According to our text, all the
saints of heaven are kings and Now kings generally wear a crown.
And they are all crowned as such. And all of their crowns are the
same. Look at what it says. They had on their heads all the
twenty-four elders. All of them. They had on their
heads crowns of gold. Crowns of gold. Now listen to
me. We do not believe, because it
is nowhere written in the scriptures, and it is nowhere implied in
the scriptures, we do not believe that there are degrees of reward
in heaven, degrees of glory, and degrees of happiness, and
degrees of blessedness among God's elect in heaven. Amen,
that's all. This book doesn't teach you.
Well, I heard that all my life. I'll tell you why you got it.
I'll tell you exactly where it came from. Back along about,
oh, 14, 1500, the old granddaddy in Rome, that's the granddaddy
of Harris. You know what I'm talking about?
The fellow with the little cap on his head that walks around
looking so holy? Now, just in case you don't understand, I'm
talking about the Pope. He, uh, he needed some money.
Yeah, he needed some money, wanted to build a big shrine over there.
So what, he sent the priest around, selling indulgences. One day
a fella by the name of Martin Luther heard one of those priests
selling indulgences, and he said, now put your money in the box,
and as soon as the penny jingle in the box, the soul is released
from hell. Oh, I've got a daddy down there. Let me give you two
pennies. He was a rat. And he got all
the money he wanted. All they need. They're still
doing it. They're still doing it. They don't talk much about
it now, but they're still doing it. Well, modern day fundamentalist
Baptist religion found out because they got folks in the church
that don't know God, because preachers don't know God, because
the gospel they preach is not God's gospel. And we can't keep
this thing working. What are we going to do? Well,
I'll tell you what. Tell folks that they'll pass.
God will bless them. And if they'll don't pass, God
will give them a big crown. That's insightful. God's not
in business selling his goods. He's not in the business. This
book doesn't teach it. Upon the very surface of things,
Such a doctrine is apparently false. You see, it promises a
reward of debt. It promotes pride and self-righteousness. It says that some things are
to be earned by human works as wages that God is obligated in
his righteous justice to pay. It makes our acceptance and our
joy in heaven dependent upon our works and our faithfulness,
not upon God's grace and God's faithfulness. It gives honor,
praise, and glory to stinking human flesh. I say let this heresy
be rooted out and dashed to pieces once and for all. is all. He's everything. The notion that
there will be degrees of reward in heaven runs contrary to everything
that is most plainly and clearly revealed in the gospel of the
grace of God. We won't turn there. 1 Corinthians
chapter 4 verse 7. Who maketh thee to differ? What
hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou didst receive
it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Huh? I'll tell you what, in the context,
then he saw that preacher. Who gave you the ability to preach
at 70 years of age? He said, well, I studied hard. You won't
hear him say that. Or, I prepared well. Or, you
know, I've got a good mind. You know why he's able to open
his mouth and speak the words for God? God did it. God did it. There's a little
old lady that goes around and plants flowers in the churchyard. She's too soft to come forth. And she can't speak the words. She's timid. She's shy. Why, she'll just walk up and
say good morning, and she'll fall over with shock. My friends, our salvation and
our acceptance before God is a matter of pure grace. The minute you add your work
or even your thoughts about works you'd like to do if you could.
The minute you add anything to the grace of God, for your acceptance
with God, now don't misunderstand me, for salvation, for justification,
for sanctification, or for reward in heaven, the minute you think
by what you are and what you do, you earn something from God,
you have unchristed Christ. If any man be circumcised, Christ
won't give you as big a reward. That's not what he said. Christ
shall profit you nothing. Grace plus is not salvation,
by the answer's it's damnation. I said, but I thought that, well
the scripture certainly takes back since it does. But you trust
baptism to wash away just a little cigarette stain from your finger
and jump sight and you've missed Christ. I'm just telling you the truth.
It's either all Christ or no Christ. It's either all grace
or no grace. You put works in it and you're
lost. That's what I'm saying. That's right. All the blessings
of God were given to God to let before the world began as a covenant
promise of God. Listen to this. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath, underscore
the word in your mind, will you? Blessed us. Who? God to let, that's who. with
A-L-L, all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus before the world began. I had a, well I haven't had one,
I had a lot of fellows there. They talked about heavenly places.
Well, that's talking about when you pray Y'all talking about
that road to Emmaus thing I heard some ladies talking about in
the court services? You isolate yourself from the world for three
days and you get holy. You know, you... I wish folks
would understand. If you lived in a closet with
no light... Now listen. That's talking about
when you get up here on a higher spiritual plane. God, you're
neglected here. No sir. Those heavenly places in Christ,
it's back yonder before you ever thought about anything before
our daddy had it in him. In the covenant of God's grace,
he gave you everything he's got to give you. That's love. God has saved us and called us
with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and his own grace, which was given us in Christ
before the world was. All the blessings of his grace.
Whatever it is that God has to give, whatever he will give or
can give to pieces of flesh such as we are, he has given to all
his sons in Christ Jesus. More than that, God never accepts,
much less rewards anything but perfection. You just received an offering.
I hope you gave generously. But unless you gave with a perfect
heart, I don't care if you gave a dime or $10,000, unless you
gave with a perfect heart, you'd just as soon have bought a keg
of beer with it. As far as God's concerned, oh,
don't preach that, we'll have to shut the church down, shut
her down. Just shut her down. If you're in Christ, you gave
with a perfect heart. That's right. He made it perfect. He made it perfect. God won't
accept anything less than perfection. He can't. He's perfect. He can't. And He's sure He's going to reward
anything but perfection. He rewards perfection. And in
Christ, we're perfect. Look at it. Colossians 2 verse
10. Colossians 2, verse 10, you see a fellow standing before
you who doesn't look too perfect and doesn't act too perfect. I've got almost two pounds too
much. I need to lose two pounds. And I've got about that many
hairs too few. I need to gain two of those. And I'm thinking about two things
too wrong, I'll get rid of. But in God's sight, in God's
sight, as holy as God's Son I am, that's perfect. That's just one
perfect. Look here, Colossians 2 verse
10. You, you who are redeemed and
justified and called, You, you who bow to Christ and trust Christ
and follow Christ. You, you who know your sin and
your guilt but know His righteousness and His grace. You are complete
in Him. That means you're not lacking
anything anymore. Not lacking. What does God require?
Well, I'm not sure I can tell you, but whatever it is, I've
got it. That's right, perfection. Our
Lord plainly states that our reward shall not be based on
the merits of our service, but upon his purpose of grace. Read
at your leisure Matthew chapter 20. The parable is, the fellow
says, listen boy, go down there to the local corner, and hire
me and the men to work in my field today, and tell them I'll
give them a penny to work today." And so he went out and hired
them. And he sent them out again about the middle of the day,
and he said, there's still some loafers down on the corner. We had one
of those in Western Salem, you know. Called it Buzzard's Roost. Go down there to Buzzard's Roost.
That's where God got us. Down at Buzzard's Roost. Go down there to Buzzard's Roost
and tell them that Come and work my field the rest of the day
and I'll give him a penny. And it wasn't that much. And then
he said, getting about dark, he said, let's get done. Go down
there and get the rest of those fellas and tell them I'll give
them a penny. And so there were some fellas who worked 11 hours.
They had long work days, man. And then there were some fellas
who worked five hours. And there were some fellas who
worked just an hour. And he came and called him up and started
to give Tim a penny. Well, thank you. And then Jim,
he came in the middle of the day and gave him a penny. Wait
a minute. And then Morris came and that
fella, he just worked a little while and took a coffee break
then and gave him a penny. Now, wait a minute, Lord. You've made us equal with them. You understand. You understand. You're equal with them. And the
last shall be first, equal to the first. And the first shall
be last, equal to the last. That's it. I was preaching on
this line one time. A lady came up to me and she
said, Brother Don, you mean to tell me I've I've
paid my tithe for 20 years in the Baptist church, and it's
not going to get me no more than if I were to pay his tithe for
20 years in the Methodist church? I'm telling you the truth. It's
exactly what you said. You understand what I'm saying?
It's not going to get you any more. Matter of fact, it'll probably
get you both the same thing, eternal damnation. That's right. Your faithfulness. Folks talk
about their faithfulness. I'd like to meet a faithful man
or woman, wouldn't you? Only one. His name is faithful. The Lord God alone, my friend,
shall have the praise of heaven. And when we've done the best
that we could do, and I don't even know anybody who's done
the best they could do, I wish I could stand here and tell you
I've preached the best I could possibly preach, even with my
limited ability. I don't know anybody who's ever
done anything best they could do it. But when we've done the
very best we could do, all the days of our lives, we have done
infinitely less than we ought to have done. And if we could
do the very best that we could do, We've just done our reasonable
service. Just our reasonable service.
We're all unprofitable servants. Let me ask you something. I rather suspect, looking at
your faces, some of you maybe don't really believe what I'm
saying. Let me ask you something. Do you really want God to give
you what you want? Well, I'm talking about since
I became a Christian. I'm talking about since you walked
through that door. Would you really like for God to give you
just what you want? No. Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? Who shall stand before the presence
of that God? I'll tell you who will. He that
hath clean hands. You hadn't got that. I hadn't
either. But in order to stand for it,
you gotta have clean hands. And a pure
heart. And never lift up your shoulders. It means that Christ Jesus and
I stand in here with a pure heart, and clean hands, having never
lifted up my soul again." That's right. He's my representative.
More than that, we don't serve our God being motivated by a
desire for gain. We serve the Lord our God motivated by one thing, if our
service is anything. If it's not motivated by love
to Christ, and gratitude to God, it's not anything different. And even then, shall be washed
in his blood, and robed in his righteousness. The love of Christ
can save us. That's it. I was sitting beside a fellow
the other day, I'm sitting in his car. He said to me, he said,
we're all preachers. You can buy them for a dollar. I come in a hair, kicking him
in the head. Most preachers you can buy for
a dollar, or a dime, are just wink at them. God's servants, God's servants
are motivated by love for Christ, His glory and gratitude for Him. My friends, God will never reward
greed, Preacher, stand up and promise folks you do this and
God will bless you. You do something to get God's
blessings. He might let you think you've got a blessing. He'll
give you hell before it's over with. God doesn't reward greed. He doesn't do it. The bliss,
the glory, the happiness, and the reward of God's elect in
heaven shall be equal to all and full in all. How do you know,
Preacher? Because they're all equally loved
of God. All of them. They're all equally
redeemed by the blood of Christ. They're all equally righteous
in Christ. They're all equally heirs of
the covenant of grace and of the promises of God. Who shall
wear these crowns of gold? All the true people of God, not
one of God's elect shall ever be robbed of any heavenly blessing
or any heavenly privilege. The whole shooting match belongs
to God's people. everything. Well, how do we obtain
these crowns? Go and ask those 24 elders. Out
of God's elect, those who are redeemed by the blood of Christ
out of every nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue in all this world,
how do they obtain these crowns of pure gold? Abraham, I see
you have a crown on your head. Where'd you get it? Well, you see, I was a faithful
man. I know better than that, and
I know Abraham better. He gave his wife to a fellow
to do what he wanted to do. Yeah, not much faithfulness in
that. Where'd you get your crown, Abraham? Oh, God. Stretched out his arm of mercy
and called me as ne'er the cow did. And while I watched nations
perish before him, he preserved me. And he made with me a covenant
of grace. And he said, I will make thee
a blessing to all the nations of the earth. And he gave me
a crown. David! How'd you get this crown? All? How did you get your crown?
I hear the answer. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. All of God's folks answer that
way. They got their crowns by grace.
They got their crowns by hereditary descent. That's right. Hereditary descent. We are the
sons of God, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ Jesus. What on earth does that mean,
joint heirs? My daddy doesn't have anything. The only thing
we're going to fight about when he dies is who pays the bills. But I've got three sisters, and
if my daddy was a missionary, and he owned lots of properties,
Well, by law, unless it's made out of wheel and designated that
one of those girls got it all. Sure wouldn't designate I got
it all. But one of the girls was a good kid growing up, you
know, and they would deserve it. But unless he designated
it, his entire state's going to be divided up. She'll get
a little, she'll get a little, she'll get a little, Don'll get
a little. Not so with God's children. They are joint heirs. That means what he owns, I own.
What he's got, I've got. What he is, I am. Had they get their crown, I'll
tell you how, they got them by sovereign predestination, an
inheritance that was predestinated before the world was. For the
world was Bill Carver, God determined, for the crown of pure gold on
your head. He's going to replace that white one with a golden
one. Pure gold. And they got their crowns by
rightful claim. Listen to me. Every man or woman
who enters into eternal glory, Scott Richardson enters there
by absolute right. Absolute right. The right was
purchased by the blood of Christ. He purchased it. Those crowns
were earned by the righteousness of Christ. He earned heaven from
heaven. He earned it. What does God require? God requires that sin be punished
to the full satisfaction of the law. He said it's finished. And
it was punished. God required that Don Fortin
obey the law perfectly. Christ said it's finished, and
it was done. And more than that, we have been
made worthy of them in him. Let me show you one more scripture
here. Look in Colossians 1, verse 12. If you're not there, just
listen. Giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. You know what that means? He
has made us meet to be partakers. That means He has made us worthy,
worthy of inheriting, what is it? Worthy of inheriting the
blessedness of eternal glory. My friends, children of God,
you can laugh and rejoice in the face of your trials and troubles
that make you a headache in this world, for soon you shall wear
a crown. God will speak to it, because
Christ has already claimed it in our name. He's already claimed
it. Let me give you one more thing
quickly. What are we going to do with
these crowns? What are we going to do with these crowns? Look
here in the passage, Revelation 4, No sooner shall the Lord God
place the crown on your head and mine, than we will willingly,
gladly, anxiously take the crown off our heads. bow before the
feet of our God and Savior, and cast the crown down at the foot
of the throne of his sovereign majesty, saying, Not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy
mercy and thy truth sank. Look here what it says, The four
and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and
worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns
before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy." Why on earth would anybody do
that? I'll tell you why. Because he alone is worthy. He chose us. He redeemed us. He called us. He preserved us. He kept us. He brought us up
to glory. He admitted us into the eternal
presence of God. Perfect. He's the only one worthy. He's
the only one worthy. We'll cast our crowns before
his throne because then we will really, truly have a solemn reverence
for him. I think maybe we're beginning
to scratch at it. But one of these days, I'm going
to worship Him like He ought to be worshipped. And I'm going to love Him like He
ought to be loved. And I'll cast all praise at His
feet. And from the depths of my soul, from the bottom of my heart,
as we say, with nothing in between, I'm
going to say that no flesh should glory in His presence, not even
glorified flesh. And I'm going to stand before
Him and say, He that glorieth, let Him glory in the Lord. We will cast our crowns before
his throne, because then we're going to be
filled with a deep sense of sincere humility. We talk about being
humble, and I don't think we've been scratching at that. But
one of these days, we're going to say in meaning, I am nothing. I have done nothing. I deserve
nothing. Because it's the truth. We're
a bunch of nothing. And all that we've ever done,
the whole collected church of God's elect, all that we've ever
done these 6,000 years is nothing. Nothing. He's done it all. We'll cast our crowns before
the throne of our majestic redeemer and sovereign because we'll have
a deep sense of gratitude. He did it all. Look what he's done for me. Look
what he's done for me! Children of God, let me tell
you what he's done for me! Boss, stand up, sit down, and
shut up. God don't tell you what he's done for me. Let me tell
you what I've done for the Lord. I'd like to hear you tell me
what you've done for the Lord, if you'd be honest, because you've
never done anything. No. And we'll cast our crowns before
his throne, because then we will love him and teach him. In mansions
of glory and endless delight, I'll ever adore thee in heaven
so bright, then taking the glittering crown from my brow, if ever I
love thee, my Jesus Jesus. Do you have such hopes and expectations
as this? Do you expect to enter heaven
by the grace of God through the blood of Christ and be crowned
with everlasting glory? Are you a little anxious to cast
your crowns down at His feet? Are you? I'm anxious. I'm so anxious to render praise
to Him. I've got to be praised. Well,
begin doing it now. Begin doing it now. Give the
Lord the praise and the honor due His name. Worship Him. Humble yourself before Him. Submit
yourself to Him. Bow down to Him. Would you wish to be among those
Those 24 elders of the Church of God's elect worshiping Christ
in eternal glory. Would you like to be there? Say,
sinner, will you meet me? Huh? Would you like to meet me
around the throne and praise the Lamb? I tell you what, bow
down before the throne of His sovereign majesty right now.
Just bow down. Lord, if you will, you can make
me whole. I had a little girl call me Sunday
afternoon. She'd been listening to me on
radio. I don't know who she was hiding from. Apparently there's
somebody in the house that didn't want her to hear. She didn't want
to know she was talking to me. She said, Mr. Fortner, if I believe on Jesus, does that
mean I'm one of God's elect? I said, well, I don't know who
you are or anything about you, but it's all right. You don't
need to tell me. No, no, I'm sorry, that doesn't
mean you're one of God's elect. I said, you've got to believe
on Christ as He's revealed in the Scriptures and worship God
as He is. She said, oh, oh, I'm not talking
about believing on some man-made God. I'm talking about believing
on a God who can save me or who can damn me. I said, if you can
believe on Him, you're one of God's elect. Yeah, that's right. If you can believe on Him, He's
got a crown for you. That's right. Can you believe
on Him? Can you? Can you bow down and
trust Him? Trust Christ. Bow to Christ. Crown Him Lord Supreme. Crown Him Savior All-Sufficient. And in that case, we'll cast
our crowns before Him. Well, I hope maybe God will give
us the opportunity to cross like this one more time, this side
of glory. But if he doesn't, it may be that on this earth
I'll never see you again. Maybe. That'll be all right. That'll be all right. By the
grace of God, I'll meet you at the throne. where we shall cast
our crowns at his feet, and say, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and blessing. Amen.