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Hey guys, welcome back. We appreciate you as always. This sermon is called, From Thorns to Crowns. And in this sermon, we're going to unpack this statement. And that is, the world gives us thorns, but the Lord turns them into crowns. And we're going to take a look at that picture in the Bible. But really, I spent a lot of time in the sermon talking about glorification. So remember salvation, free gift, everybody knows that, has three phases. Justification, sanctification, and glorification. And when you understand these from the Bible, it's really going to help you to understand a lot of other things and hopefully definitely be a blessing to you. God bless. All right. Amen. 1 Corinthians chapter number nine. So the other day I got invited to Burger King and the guy that invited me kept trying to get me to take one of the crowns. He's really adamant about that. Really wanted me to take one of those and wear it the rest of the day, which I was about to do. And he's like, nah, you're going to look dumb. But that got me thinking of a sermon to preach, which I titled, From Thorns to Crowns, From Thorns to Crowns. And basically what we're going to do this morning is we're going to take a look at, really more specifically, we're going to look at a doctrine. It's called the doctrine of glorification. So I've mentioned this before. Salvation has what we'll call three phases. Okay. You've got your justification, you've got your sanctification, and then you have glorification. And in that glorification phase is what we're going to call it. That's where you get a lot more, what do you want to say, false doctrines, falsehoods, things like that. Because there's a lot of it that's vague. It's guaranteed, right? It's promised to us, but there's a lot of vagueness to it. So I want to make sure that we are just all on the same page and what the Bible says about glorification, what the Bible says about crowns. Now I get it, a few months ago when we were in 1 Corinthians, we talked about the rewards, the judgment seat of Christ, and things like that. We're going to review a little bit of that, but we're going to focus more so on the crown aspect and basically what happens when we get glorified. What does that look like? Do we really know? What are some of the falsehoods and things of that nature? So you're in 1 Corinthians chapter number nine, look down to verse 25. Paul says, and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we are incorruptible. So obviously using a little bit of sports to illustrate a point that he's trying to make, and that is that what the world gives us is temporal. It fades away, but what we do for the kingdom of God obviously does not fade away. That lasts forever, okay? Now keep your place there. We're going to come back probably towards the end of the service, but go to Matthew chapter number six. Matthew chapter number six. This also, of course, got me thinking back to my Sunday school days where people would teach about rewards and say, well, you know, you guys are going to get crowns, and there's a crown of this. There was always like 18, 20 different types of crowns that you could get, okay? And, you know, as I'm studying this out in the Bible, I'm like, you'd be lucky if you could really nail down like one. You're going to see that here in a little bit. So I did some digging around just to kind of see what professing Christianity has to say. I found anywhere from 20 down to five different solidified, done deal, doctrinal crowns that you can get, okay? And it's just not what the Bible says. So we got to get into this here. So quick review, okay? The Bible talks about in the afterlife, in eternity, that we're going to get treasures, rewards, crowns. Okay, you're going to find those three things typically mentioned, stored up for us. And just a quick review here. Matthew 6, look down at verse number 19. Look at what Jesus says here. It says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through to steal. Okay, so if you think about that and meditate on that, what is that saying? What that's saying is that the things that we do for the kingdom of God, okay, they don't corrupt. They don't fade away. They don't get rusty. They don't decay. And I think the biggest one of all is that nobody can take that from you, okay? Just like your salvation, nobody can take you out of the hand of Christ. No one can take the things that you have built, that you have stored up for yourself in heaven, okay? A thief cannot break through and steal those things. Verse 20, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Okay, now go to 2 Thessalonians. No, I'm sorry. Hold on, hold on for a second. Go to Romans chapter four. Romans chapter number four. Then we'll go to 2 Thessalonians. Go to Romans chapter number four. So obviously, you know, we talk about this quite a bit, about storing up for yourselves, treasures in heaven. And I've mentioned this before, especially in the repent of your sins crowd, okay? A lot of these types of preachers, even, you know, even the old IFB is notorious for doing this, is they'll try to use this as a way to guilt trip you into doing things, okay? And I say that's wrong. I don't think we should do that. And there's several reasons why I don't think we should do that. And one of them, because that's not what the Bible says. That shouldn't be your main driving force, okay? Well, I'm just doing these things so I can get these rubies, and I can get this gold, and I can get these crowns. And, you know, we've built this picture of what they're going to look like in our minds, and that's it, right? We should do these things because we love God, right? That we're appreciative of what he did on the cross for us, okay? That should be the driving factor. That should be the motivation for why we do these things. Romans chapter 4, look at verse number 25. And what we're going to learn here, I'm just going to kind of rattle the first two of these off, okay? I mentioned three things at the beginning of the service. Your salvation has three phases, okay? You've got justification, sanctification, and then glorification, okay? You say, well, what's this justification thing about? Real quickly, if you're looking for a verse, verse 25, it says, who was delivered, obviously Paul talking about Christ, who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification, okay? We are the recipients of justification. Obviously, we know this is a very basic doctrine here. Now, the Book of Romans, what this does is the Book of Romans teaches us how justification works. Paul spends a lot of time in this book. You just do a search on the word justify, justified, justification, okay? It's all throughout this book. And what Paul's doing is he's describing how this works, that it's free, it covers our sins, past, present, future, that we are the recipients. There's no way you can lose it, okay? It is Christ that makes us justified in the sight of God, okay? And this, by the way, is obviously an eternal thing, okay? So, it's something we have to understand. It's something that we have to realize, because what's the main thing being taught out in the world today? Well, you can be justified if you do your works, otherwise you're not justified before God, and you just get into a bunch of heresy. Now, go to 2 Thessalonians 2, 2 Thessalonians 2. In regards to justification, when you get to Galatians, Paul spends a lot of time defending justification. So, if you want to study that doctrine by itself, you'd want to focus on reading Romans for the teaching of it, okay, which is just salvation. It's something we're all in here very familiar with. I don't want to pound that down too much today. But then, Galatians is all about defending that, okay? And taking a look at the Judaizers and the works people that come in and try to take that away from us, okay, and put that justification on the shoulders of man for what? For pride reasons, okay? And so, we obviously don't want that. But everybody who's saved is justified because of what Christ did, not because of what we did, okay? So, justification, first phase of salvation. Now, the second one can be broken down into two senses, and that's called sanctification, okay? Now, in one sense, we have a permanent sense. So, you're in 2 Thessalonians 2, look at verse number 13. So, after justification, the moment a person believes, saved, born again, placed into the hand of God, you're in the body of Christ, okay? Look at verse 13, but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation. Now, look at this, through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. So, the moment a person hears the word of God, believes, okay, they get saved, they're born again. They're obviously justified because of what Christ did, but there's an automatic sanctification that takes place. Sanctification means to set apart, okay? And so, what Paul's reminding the Thessalonians of here is that, hey, the moment you guys heard the word of the truth and you believe, the Holy Spirit came into you, okay, there was a quickening, there was a new birth, and that automatically separates you from the rest of the world. It separates your new man from your old man. So, you have this two nature thing going on right now, okay? So, that part is obviously eternal, just like justification. That part is obviously automatic and it can't go nowhere, okay? Now, go back one book to 1 Thessalonians 4, and I want to show you this in the temporal sense, okay? And this is where I'm going to draw the concept of thorns from. Remember the title of the sermon, From Thorns to Crowns. From Thorns to Crowns. It'll make more sense when we get further on down the road. But I want to show you that sanctification, the doctrine of us living a godly life is temporal, okay? Why? You say, well, why is it temporal? Because it's hard, it's difficult, it's not automatic, okay? But when we get to glorification, you're going to see, because all things have become new, it's automatic, okay? It's automatic. But right now, it's not automatic, right? We have to fight with ourselves, don't we? Just like we just read in 1 Corinthians 9, this thing is a race. It's a race that requires endurance and hardship, okay? Look at verse number 1, 1 Thessalonians 4. So Paul says, Furthermore, then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that ye, I'm sorry, that as ye have received of us, now look at this, how ye ought to walk and to please God. So you would abound more and more. So this is just a general principle in the Bible, okay? The more godly you decide, you know what I'm going to be, I'm going to walk with the Lord, I'm going to be obedient, okay? The more you'll abound, and abound in what? What does abound mean? It means to move forward, it means to make progress, real progressiveness, okay? The real progressiveness that should be taught out in the world, that's what he's talking about there, that's what's profitable, okay? That is what is profitable, that is what rings throughout eternity, and nobody can take away, okay? But understand, when you read that verse, this is not automatic, is it, okay? We have to work at this, that's why he's having to write this, okay? So what are we talking about? We're talking about sanctification, okay? Look at verse 2, for ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus, verse 3, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication. So what is he talking about here? Well, he's saying, hey, you know, for your sanctification, because you're set apart by God, and you're saved, you're justified, you're free, okay, you ought to know how to possess your vessel, you ought to know how to walk through this life, and you're gonna have to fight the flesh, okay? Because you're not glorified yet. So he says, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication. That's what the commandments are for, that's what the wisdom and all the principles in the Bible are for, for our sanctification. So that we're not living our lives like the world does, okay? Makes sense, verse 4. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God. And of course, that's in reference to physical relationships outside of marriage, fornication, things of that nature, okay? So what I want you guys to understand, okay, justification, it's free, it's automatic, it's eternal, it is forever, it's because of what Christ did, okay? The moment you get saved, you are justified. This is why we are so adamant against people that teach repent of your sins, because we know that we are justified. It's so clear in scripture. The next phase is sanctification, okay? We are saved unto good works. We are saved so that we can now begin to do good works. Why? To stay saved? No, we've already covered that. So that we can abound more and more. So that we can take the kingdom of God, get more people in, and because obviously we love God, okay? But sanctification has two senses. Obviously the automatic sense, which is the moment you believe you're set apart, you're sealed by the Holy Ghost until the day of redemption. But then you have this temporal part, hey, which is the effort between us in conjunction with the Holy Ghost to live a godly life. Think about it, why does Paul say, hey, don't grieve the spirit, don't quench the spirit? Because we can do those things, that's why he says that. So sanctification is literally a thorn, it's hard, it is not easy, okay? It is a daily battle, it is a constant process of us learning the word of God, what is true, what is acceptable to God, and actually implementing it in our lives, okay? That is what sanctification is. And that part of sanctification basically is what determines our treasures, our rewards, and crowns, whatever so they may be. Now, let's move on to number three, which is glorification, okay? Now, I don't have a word in the Bible that says glorification, but just to kind of give you a picture here, go to John chapter number seven real quick, John chapter number seven. And we'll just kind of piggyback off of something here, I think. If I can find it, if I can find it, I might not be able to, let's see here. It's a long chapter, and I think, let's see here. I think I'm looking for glorified in John chapter seven. 39, yeah, thank you, yes, 39, 39. Okay, look at this here. Actually, you know what? Back up to verse 37. Back up to verse 37. So he says, Now, look at verse 39, he says, Okay? So you can see that word there, glorified. Now, when did Jesus get glorified? Obviously, you have the death, burial, resurrection, after the resurrection, and he descended, or I'm sorry, he ascended, not descended, I had a Joe Biden moment there, but after he ascended, what did he say was going to happen? Well, I'm going to send the Holy Ghost down to you. So as he goes up, he sends the Holy Ghost down, okay? So the glorification process is obviously after death. After the body gives up, we get new life, okay? We get our bodies, our new glorified bodies. Like if you were to die today, God forbid, okay? You're not going to get your new body now. It's obviously at the rapture because Paul said that we'll be changed in a moment, changed in the twinkling of an eye. So how fast is the twinkling of an eye? I don't know. Go ask an ophthalmologist or something. Maybe it's like a tenth of a second. It's pretty quick though, okay? But that's when you're actually changed. But here's kind of a picture of that. We're in Christ, okay? And he says, or the Bible says in this verse here, that as he's saying these things, obviously, they're not quite getting it. You know, they're not quite understanding it. But after he was glorified, they're like, oh, okay, that makes sense. Now I understand. So with that being said, I want to just kind of teach you a few things here. Go to Isaiah chapter number 11. Back to the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter number 11. And we're going to look at a couple of things here, okay? So the reason why I want you to understand this, really there's several reasons. Because it's Bible doctrine, and that would be number one. Number two is probably because of the state that Christianity is in today. I mean, you have these Pentecostals, and let me just say this, okay? There are very few even professing Christian churches, there are even against Pentecostal churches, okay? And what's their predominant message? Well, that you can do healings today, that you can have your best life now, that you can have this now, you can have life and have it more abundantly. They don't even understand what Jesus said when he said that, okay? But it's all about the here and now, that everything can be perfect for you here and now. And what we say is because we understand justification, because we understand sanctification, okay, in both senses, and we're going to understand glorification, okay, that keeps our doctrinal position straight as we float through the Bible. We understand that we have not yet been glorified, okay? So what does that mean? We have not been completely perfected, okay? Now let me just show you a picture of what that time will look like, when we are perfected, okay? So Isaiah chapter number 11, this is talking about the millennial period, and you know, on your own time, read the whole chapter. It's a very obviously interesting, very quick read, very simple. But we're going to start in verse six. Now look at this here. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them, okay? Now I don't know of any kind of a zoo that's available today, where you're going to see something like that. Okay, what about verse seven? And the cow and the bear shall feed, okay? Right now, how does that work? The bear shall feed on the cow, if he runs into it, okay? The young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, okay? Do lions eat straw today? No, okay? This will make sense when we get to Romans, okay? But look at verse eight. And the suckling child shall play on the whole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den, or viper's den, or snake's den. That's what that's talking about there. That is definitely not in today's day and age, is it? There ain't nowhere that that's gonna happen today on this plan. Look at verse nine. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the sea. Now what is our job today? Our job today is to be that manifold that God uses to display wisdom that he's given us to the world being observed by the angels. First, or I'm sorry, you read Ephesians to get that doctrine, okay? That is not happening now. That is forthcoming. That will be the case, okay? Now look at verse 10. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious. Look at that word there, glorious. What are we talking about? We're talking about glorification. Glorification takes place after this time on earth as we know it now. Now just to clear this up here, I wanna contrast it by going to Romans chapter number eight. Romans chapter number eight. And I don't know if you guys have ever had this, but one of the things that Pentecostals have come at me with is saying, well, you're denying the atonement because you're saying that people can't be healed. You're saying that God can't stop the mouths of beasts and you're saying all this stuff and that's what they like to throw at me, okay? And I love to bring them to Isaiah chapter number 11 because they want us to believe like we can have that in the here and now. Now they may not put it to you like that, but that's what they're implying by saying, well, if you're really saved, if you're really filled with the Holy Ghost, if you're really a spiritual person, then you should be able to do these miracles and this and that. And you know, that's some of the emails I got back from my sermon a couple Wednesdays ago about denominations. People didn't like that. Catholics, but especially Pentecostals, love to, you can see the comments, but really the emails, you know, where they like to throw this stuff out there. No, you know, you're denying the atonement. You don't understand that we can have our best life now and denominations are what keep that straight and you're denying truth and you're hurting the brethren. You're not my brother. You teach works salvation. You're not saved. I mean, it can't be more clear than that, okay? But I like to remind them, okay, this is forthcoming, what we just read, Isaiah chapter 11, that is millennial time where the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord. The lion is eating straw, okay? Children are playing with vipers and they're not getting bit. They're like, oh, look at this one's pretty cute. You know, everybody's getting along. That ain't happening now in any zoo. I don't care how many drugs you give these animals, okay? I don't care how many psychics, how many charmers you have. That ain't happening. Here's what's happening in the here and now. Romans 8, look at verse 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, you see that? Sufferings of this present time. One of the things that Christians like to say is that, well, if you're suffering, you're getting persecuted, like your reviews, your decrepit reviews, obviously proves that God's not on your side. You don't have a bunch of people, so God's obviously not on your side. And that's interesting because Paul seems to be on our side. He says, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared, now look at this, with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Notice the language shall be revealed in us. What is this? What is this? Forth coming, not yet. Okay? This will happen. Glorification comes after sanctification. It comes after we are shed of this present vessel that we all have. As long as you're wearing the flesh, you have not yet been glorified. Now it's a promise. It is guaranteed to happen, but it is not happening now. Okay? So what Paul's saying here is, hey, all of these things that we go through, all of these pains, all of these pricks, all of these thorns, if you will, in the flesh, okay? That is nothing in compared to glorification. That is nothing in comparison to what we will eventually experience in the times that we just read in Isaiah chapter 11. Look at verse 19. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. So what does that word mean, manifestation? For the revealing. Okay? So what Paul's trying to say here is that the body of Christ, or creation, you know, that God has set apart in him, his body, his church, is waiting. So inside of us is this groaning. Inside of us is this desire for the new man to be clothed with that glorified body so that we don't have to have this constant daily struggle between old and new. Verse 20. Actually, you know what? Just for the sake of time, let's go to verse 22. He says, For we know that the whole creation groaneth. Okay? That is the opposite of Isaiah chapter 11. And that is something that a lot of people today do not want to admit. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until, what does that say? Now. Now look at this. Verse 23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to it, the redemption of our body. Okay? That is what we are waiting for. That is what we are guaranteed to see one day. The glorification of the new man that God has placed inside of us. Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter number 15. And just again, I know these verses will definitely be familiar to you, but let's look at them anyways in the mind frame of glorification. So glorification, you can think of it like this. It's basically, it's the big picture. It's the end of the story. That's what it is. Big picture. End of the story. It's when this is all said and done. Old man is out of the way. New man is clothed with that body that Christ has given us freely. Okay? Look at this here. 1 Corinthians 15. Go all the way over to verse 42. Verse 42. So the Bible says this. So also is the resurrection of the dead. Now look at this. It is sown in corruption. It is raised in corruption. Okay? And that's why I titled this, well, one of the reasons why I titled this sermon From Thorns to Crowns, because that's what God does. He takes the things of the world, this corruption, okay, and makes it incorruptible. The world gives us thorns, but the Lord gives us crowns, and I'll demonstrate that to you here in a bit. Okay? But look at verse 43. It is sown in dishonor. What does that mean? Well, that means that when we are born, okay, we're not born with a new man, like the Mormons teach, okay? We weren't spirit babies up in heaven before we were born of the womb. And that is what they teach. And I've had them tell me that on multiple occasions. Okay? It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in what? Glory. See that word there? Again, glory. Glory. Glorification. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. Not because of you and I, but because of what He has enabled for us. Verse 44. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And of course you study the life of Christ, John chapter seven especially, through the end of the book, and you get to see that, don't you? You get to see there is a difference. God pens down the differences pre-resurrection and post-resurrection of Christ, and we get to see a glimpse of that for us. Okay? A spiritual body. There is a natural body. So let me read that again. Go back to verse 44. So it is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. Okay? There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. Verse 45. And so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Okay? So what does that mean? Well that means obviously that Adam brought sin into the world. The first man did that. That passed on to all of us, and Christ had to come to solve that equation. How did he do it? He was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, never sinned, never made any mistakes, never did anything wrong. Okay? What happened? Well, they put him to death. Okay? And his body, okay, his body, he rose from the dead. He walked out of that tomb. Okay? Glorified all of that stuff. And because of that sacrifice, and because he was able to defeat death, we are grafted in him. We are placed in him. And so we will experience a glorification because of that. Okay? Verse 45. And so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Okay? What does quickening mean? It means to make alive. It is Jesus that makes us alive. It is his word that makes us alive again, that causes us to be born again. New birth, verse 46. Howbeit that was not first, which was spiritual. Okay? But that's, see, that's, this is what the Mormons teach. They teach the opposite of this verse here. So if you guys are ever in a pinch, write this down. Make sure you know this, because if they hit you with that Kolob spirit baby stuff, you got to know this. You have to know this. You have to understand to go right here. This is the process of life. Howbeit that was not first, which is spiritual. See, Paul wants to make sure you get this, that you understand this. You weren't born saved. You weren't born spiritual from your mother's womb. Okay? But that which is natural and afterward, that which is spiritual. Verse 47. The first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven. Okay? Verse 48. As the earthy, such they also that are earthy, as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. What is Paul trying to say here? Okay? Now you might not want to go around telling people earthy because they're probably not going to understand what you're saying, but basically it's you have saved and you have lost. Okay? Now, if you're saved, obviously you have this earthy vessel. You have this earthy flesh, but we are guaranteed one day to be free from that and to be heavenly. Okay? Remember when a person gets saved, all things are become new. It's brand new. It's a clean slate. This flesh does not make it into heaven. Okay? Therefore nothing bad makes it into heaven. Verse 49. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall, this is a guaranteed promise. We shall also bear the image of the heavenly. And because that's vague, what does that image look like? Does anybody in here know exactly what their new man's going to look like? No, nobody does. Right? But there are people out there that claim to know this, that claim to have insight on this, but this is what we have to go off of here. Okay? Verse 50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit in corruption. And of course, there's a whole host of doctrine we could get into there. The point is, okay, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, flesh and blood cannot do anything to merit justification or anything of that nature. Does that make sense? Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number five. 2 Corinthians chapter five. So you've got justification, you've got sanctification, and you have glorification. Okay? Now, sanctification, right? There is a temporal phase to that, and that is where we are at now. We are trying to maintain sanctification, to try to live a holy life. We want to be separate from the world. Why? Because that's what God has called us to do. And that's what church is for. So we can come together and kind of learn, hey, you know, this, what the world's doing is not correct. It is not right. We're not going to be a part of that. We're not going to do that. We're going to separate ourselves from the world. Not because we have this attitude like, I'm better than you. No. Okay? But because we serve God, we want to live a godly life. And of course, one of the benefits of that is an increase somehow in treasures, rewards, crowns, things of that nature at the judgment seat of Christ. Look at verse 10. Okay? For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That means in front of this judgment seat. That everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Okay? Now, notice he doesn't say whether it be good or sin. Why doesn't he use that word sin? Well, because sin denotes some sort of payment required. And we know that Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of not only us, but also for the sins of the whole world. The sin debt has been wiped off. It has been paid. There's nothing left for a person to do other than to receive the free gift of salvation, inherent justification, so on and so forth. And so at that point, what happens? Well, we learn to sanctify. We learn to be able to prove what is acceptable to God and what is godly, what is not godly, what are doctrines that are taught by, you know, by men that you gotta follow, versus what are doctrines that are clearly taught and stated in the Bible. Okay? Once we rectify those things and we solve those things and we understand those things, okay? That frees us. That gives us liberty to basically live our lives in a meaningful way that is pleasing to God. And that brings treasures. Okay? Now, obviously, we all know, well, what's one way we get treasures? Well, soul winning. That's obvious, okay? And we'll break that down in greater detail at a later time, but there are a whole host of ways to get treasures. You'll read Matthew chapter five, go read Matthew chapter number six. The edification process, edifying brethren, taking care of your brother and sister in Christ is a humongous way to get treasures in heaven, a huge way. There is more about that in the Bible than there is about soul winning. And I'm not saying that's more important than soul winning. We do both. We do both equally and I push both and I bring it up every service because that's how important this is for us to understand, okay? We need both. The problem is people look at two things, no matter what, you give most people two things that are connected and you know what they're gonna try to do? They're gonna try to cut them in half. Well, which one's better? Don't matter, dog. Do them both. Do them both. Hey, don't worry all this. No, no, no, no. Do them both. Do them both. It's too easy, okay? You say why? Look at the verse again, okay? Look at the verse again. Understand this. For we must all appear. This is a guarantee. This is an obligatory statement here. We must all, guaranteed, appear before the judgment seat of Christ, not the reward seat of Christ. The judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Look at verse 11. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God. And I trust also are made manifest in your consciences, okay? And we've taken a look at the judgment seat of Christ. We understand what happens there. We don't know exactly what it's gonna look like, but basically our works, the things that we've done in our bodies here on this earth are gonna somehow be put into fire, okay? What happens when you burn gold? Well, it gets purified. It looks better. Burn silver. You know, same thing. What happens if we were to burn these chairs here? You know, burn this piano. Burn wood. Burn hay. Burn stubble. It gets consumed. It goes away. It's completely gone. Okay, those things don't make it into heaven. So that's why I'm telling you in heaven there's nothing bad. You're not gonna be there like, oh man, you know, just eternal sorrow. Now that doesn't exist because anything done bad in our bodies just gets burnt at this judgment seat and doesn't pass on into glorification. Why is that? Because it is God that has enabled us to be glorified. It's because of his sacrifice and what he did on the cross. Our works, obviously, in the body do, however, mass up treasures for us, but, you know, at the end of the day we don't really know what those exactly look like, okay? Remember, we're doing these things because we love God, because he saved us. It's our reasonable duty. Go to Romans chapter 12 and read that on your own time, but I think you guys get the point, okay? So let's move on. Now go to John chapter number 19. John chapter number 19. And we're gonna look at how I got the title of the sermon today. John chapter number 19. So the reason why I'm spending more time on glorification is because in the Bible you can see the word justification. It's in there, it's clear. You can see the word sanctification. It's pretty easy, okay? But when it comes to glorification, it's there, but a lot of it is vague and we're not told specifics, okay? And you'll see why at the very end of the service, why that's the case. So John chapter number 19, I want you to look at this here. Look at verse number one. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him, verse two, and the soldiers platted a crown of thorns and put it on his head and they put on him a purple robe, okay? So they take these thorns basically and they braid them together and they put them on his head. Obviously a very painful thing. Obviously they were doing that to mock him, you know? Look at verse three, and it tells you, and he said, I'm sorry, it said, Hail King of the Jews and they smote him with their hands, okay? So what do we have here? We have thorns which picture pain, torment, judgment, things of that nature, okay? And that's kind of the sanctification process. That's kind of all who shall live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, okay? It's a thorn. It's a pain. We in this present time have discomfort. We have trials. We have tribulations. We have persecutions. We have random things that seem to happen to us sometimes that are not good, okay? We're not going to have our best physical life now. That comes at the phase of glorification. Now go to Revelation chapter number 19 and I'll show you the picture of how God reverses this, okay? Now remember, hey, just a couple chapters back from John 19, what did Jesus tell the disciples? He says, if they hated me, they're definitely going to hate you, okay? The reason why the world hates you is because you're not of the world. And so what does the world do? The world puts thorns on us. The world tries to put pain and torment and false judgment on us. Now what does Christ do about this and how does this speak to glorification, sanctification, and that sort of thing? Well look, Revelation 19, look at verse 11. So John says, and I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness, look at this, doth he judge and make war? Isn't that kind of the situation that we find ourselves in? Do we not find ourselves more often than not just in our lives having to make judgments? Whether that be out soul winning, judging a person's salvation, judging what they say is true or false, or family members of the community or what have you. And what does that often lead to? That often leads to making war. Often leads to us having some sort of a war with someone or some group of people. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because so many people have this weak view of the Lord Jesus and the New Testament, Jesus straightened everything out and there's no judgment and he just told you to love your neighbor and that's it. That's it. That's the Bible to most people today. Love your neighbor and your neighbor doesn't matter. Sodomite, pedo, doesn't matter. Just love them. Completely false, completely negligent to say that. Okay. We serve a God who in righteousness, meaning right all the time, judges and makes war. Okay. And so it's interesting what he did to that crown of thorns and that purple robe that they gave him. Look at verse 12. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head, now look at this, were many crowns and he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself. Kind of interesting. Thorns, plural in John 19. Revelation 19, you have crowns, plural, many. And he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself, verse 13, and he was clothed with a vesture. Okay, remember that purple robe? Now look at it. A vesture dipped in blood. Now I'm not saying this is the same thing, things are written this way to teach us something. Okay. This vesture dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God. So the world put a thorn, a crown, I mean, I'm sorry, a crown of thorns on him and he comes back with many real crowns on his head. They put a purple robe on him, mocking him and when he comes back in his glorified state, what do we see? We see him with a vesture, a clothing article, a garment dipped in blood. Okay. And that's why I'm saying the world gives us thorns, but the Lord turns them into crowns. Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter nine where we first started. Okay. This is basically teaching us here that the life that we live now, okay, the sanctification process does somehow make glorification even better than baseline, than base model. Okay. Why? Well, because we know that we can store for ourselves treasures. So when the world's and darts and things of this nature at us, we realize, you know what? Those things cannot even be compared to what Christ has in store for us. He takes those things and turns them into royalty. Okay. And so there's this call all throughout scripture, especially, you know, throughout the epistles that we are called to endure life. We're called to endure sound doctrine. Okay. Sometimes sound doctrine can step on your toes and it can hurt you. Okay. What are you going to do? You're going to quit. You're going to get out of the race. You're going to tap out. You're going to fall out. Okay. That is unprofitable. Okay. And one of the things that I think we could definitely benefit from is understanding that all of those things, and that's just something simple. Okay. What about the attacks from your mom, the attacks from your dad, your brothers, your sisters, your uncles, your aunts, your neighbors, your friends? You know, when we can resist that, just know that someday that pain, that thorn is going to be turned into a crown somehow, some way, shape, or form. First Corinthians chapter number nine, look at verse 24. So Paul says, know ye not that they which run a race run all. This is a race. Sanctification leading up to glorification is a race. Okay. It requires effort. It requires your participation with the Holy Ghost to say, you know what? That grieved the Holy Spirit. That hurt my conscience. Okay. I gotta make a change real quick. I gotta do better. Okay. And I will do better. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth a prize. So run that ye may obtain. Okay. How do you obtain? Run. That's it. Endurance. Just decide in your heart, I'm not quitting. Okay. No matter what happens in anything in the world, in any other church, I will not quit on God. I have a Bible. I have the word of God. I'm surrounded with people that love God. Okay. I am going to run so that I can obtain. Remember what Jesus said. Okay. His burdens are not grievous. His yoke is not burdensome. It is light. Okay. Our call to action is very simple. It's to just run. Okay. Verse 25. 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 crown. Okay. Very simple. The things that we do by running this race can not ever corrupt. Verse 26. I, therefore, so run, not as uncertainly, so fired I, not as one that beateth the air. So he's like, I'm not doing this like a shadow boxer. You know, I'm not playing that game here. He says, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. What does that mean? Sanctification. He's saying my body wants to go this direction, but I have to fight it and suppress it. Now, did Paul make mistakes in his life after salvation? Obviously, yes. Of course. Of course. He had the old man and he brings that up in Romans chapter seven and in several places throughout scripture, the Holy Spirit inserts things where you're like, ah, that was pretty messed up, which you did to old Timothy there and you didn't do that to Titus. You know, there's a lot of things that we could go look at. Okay. Paul made mistakes. We make mistakes. So what Paul wants us to do is, hey, run through it. Don't quit. All you have to do is you just don't ring that bell. Don't quit. 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 a castaway. Now, we're going to run through through some things and we'll be done. We're getting close to wrapping this up here. Um, go to second Timothy chapter three real quick. Second Timothy chapter number three. So why are you bringing us up? Well, again, because I do believe that there are rewards for not quitting on the Lord, for not throwing this out. Okay. There's going to be rewards for your endurance, just for, for, for finishing the race. I think that's what Paul's message is to us. Now, of course, where it gets complicated is because we don't know exactly what it looks like. And if you're like me, you want to know what this looks like. I want to know exactly like, what, what kind of treasure is like, you know, and that's what Pastor Meadows teaches. You know, he thinks that the mansions that Jesus mentioned are the body. I think that's, I think I agree with that. I haven't heard anything this, you know, concrete against that, but no matter what your belief is, it's a good thing. Okay. Whether you believe it's an actual, you know, brick and mortar mansion or made with, you know, stucco, I don't know. Okay. It's still a good thing. Okay. It's still a good thing. And it's not worth fighting over. Definitely worth discussing, whether it's a treasure or a crown, you could possibly say for your faithfulness or your endurance. Now, second Timothy three, look at verse 12 real quick says, yay. And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. This is that foreign process that I talked about. And there are people that are not here today because of this. There are people that no longer come to this church. Churches like ours because of persecution from inside the family. Um, persecution from protesters and things of that nature. It's a real thing. Okay. The devil wants you to quit. Your flesh wants you to quit. So it's a two on one battle, but greater is he that is a youth and he that is in the world. And I think that's what people fail to realize and fail to remember. Now, what I want to do now is I just want to kind of spend a few moments talking about crowns. We're just going to run through some verses here on crowns, just so that you guys have a good picture of the playground regarding crowns. Okay. Because like I said, there's people out there saying stuff. There's 18 crowns mentioned between Revelation two and three. No, no, no. There's only six crowns mentioned in the entire New Testament. No, there's only five crowns. Please do me a favor when you guys get home. If you have a Bible software or you can use my phone, whatever you want to do, just go type in the word crown and just New Testament, 24 times and look at all the references. Okay. Out of 24 times, you're not going to find 24 crowns. Okay. Go look it up in the Old Testament. A lot of times the word crown just means to cover, like for example, wisdom, knowledge, proverb, I think it's Proverbs 12 or maybe it's Psalm chapter 12. Don't quote me on that. A virtuous woman is a crown unto her husband. Okay. And so a lot of times with that knowledge in mind that I just gave you, you know, you want to apply that to reading through the New Testament because sometimes it's used in that sense in the Bible. Well, a crown is just a covering of, you know, like the church is a crown to believers and things of that nature. Okay. So we're going to look at specific crowns in glorification. Let's take a look here. Let's see. So you're going to find beginning in first Corinthians chapter nine, specifically verse 25, we read the word crown in that verse. Okay. Now the next one that we're going to look at, it's not the next one chronologically, but the next one that we're going to look at here is right here. Philippians chapter four. Did I have you turn there yet? Go to Philippians chapter four. I'm sorry. And then we're going to race to a couple others, but I just want to kind of give you some examples of how people abuse this here. Philippians chapter number four, right after Ephesians, right before Colossians, Philippians four, look at verse one. So Paul says this, therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for. Now look at this. My joy, what are the next two words? And crown. My joy and my, or he says and crown. So stand fast on the Lord, my dearly beloved. This is no joke. You can find this very easily. There are people out there that use this verse to teach that there's a crown of rejoicing, that you're going to have physical crown of rejoicing. And I'm not saying they're a super heretic for teaching that or anything like that, but this is pretty vague. Okay. This is pretty vague. Let's follow it in pattern here. Therefore my brethren, dearly beloved, he loves the brethren. Okay. And long for, he longs to see them. He longs to be with them. My joy, they bring him joy and crown. So stand fast on the Lord. He's saying that the brethren here are like a crown to him, like a covering, like something to rejoice in. Okay. But people take a look. Oh, crown, crown. Okay. If you're a real joy, a joyous person, and you have joy, guess what? In eternity, you're going to get a crown for that. Okay. That's one of the crowns. You get a mass. Now is that what that says? We've got to be careful. We moved from the known to the unknown. And I'm just trying to give you a framework this morning, just an area for you to go back and do more so that you can learn what this stuff really means so that you can understand what do we know about physical crowns and eternity. Now go to 1 Thessalonians chapter two. First Thessalonians chapter number two. I'm going to show you another goofball one here. First Thessalonians chapter number two. Look down at verse number, let's look at verse number 19. Okay. For what is our hope, our joy, our crown? Okay. Same language. You see that same language that Paul used already in Philippians four? For what is our hope, our joy, or crown of rejoicing? See? And they'll say, hey, see, if you're a rejoiceful soul, if you're good at rejoicing and giving thanks, then at the judgment seat of Christ, you're going to get a physical crown for that. It's going to have these green and red rubies on there. Come on, man. That might sound cute in Sunday school, but it's wrong. You did not get that from here. What is he saying? For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing, are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye, okay, ye Thessalonians, ye believers, ye this group of people, are our glory and joy. So again, he's using the fact or a crown, something to rejoice in. Like, I don't know, if you're like me, I like coming to church. I like seeing people that are sane, people that are safe, that have the same beliefs that I do. It's a crown of rejoicing on Wednesday, on Sunday, on Saturday, okay? It's a good thing. It's a great, wonderful thing, okay? Nowhere am I seeing anything about this being a physical, hands-on crown that you're going to get at the judgment seat of Christ. Now, let's go to 2 Timothy 4 2 Timothy, chapter 4, like I said, the thing I want you to do is to do a study on this. Let's go look at all the times the word crown is used in the Bible and tell me how many you can come up with that are solid, put your hands on, right at the judgment seat of Christ, you're going to be handed this crown and it looks like this. Just let me know. 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 8, and look at this one. 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 is appearing. The crown of righteousness. Here's why you have to know this. People could snatch this on you and say, hey, guess what? Righteousness is a crown and a crown is something that you have to earn. You have to endure. So why do you say that righteousness is just given unto you? And they're going to play this game with you. And that says. It's pretty obvious if you read the whole chapter, which we don't have time for. Henceforth, there is laid up for me. Paul's saying this as a guarantee. Paul was there when Stephen the deacon was martyred. Okay? Yeah. I don't remember him kneeling on a bed of rice. Obviously, he was sorry. Obviously, he was sorrowful for that. Okay? But look, Paul made mistakes in his life and never at any point was he like, oh, I lost my crown of righteousness. I have to get it back. I have to get resaved. I have to redo everything now. Why don't you find that out? Because it's not true. Okay? He's saying that righteousness, which is imputed unto men, this glorification process, okay, that's where I'm headed. I am going up there. My time is just about done. So he says, 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 that also that love his appearing. Okay? That new man, everybody with a new man, that new man loves his appearing. That new man, whether the person's in church, out of church, backslidden, you know, sliding forward, it doesn't matter. Hey, that new man inside of you wants this and is going to get this because we're not saved by works. So with that in mind here, is this crystal clear that there's a separate physical crown of righteousness with jewels on it and it's bigger than the crown of rejoicing? No, but there are people out there that teach that. There are people out there that believe that. Now go to James chapter one. James chapter one, we'll look down here real quickly, verse 12. Actually back up to verse nine. So James says this, let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he is made low because as the flower of the grass, he shall pass away. Now look at this, for the sun is no sooner risen with the burning heat, but it wither with the grass and flower thereof, faileth and the grace of the fashion of it perishes. So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. What's he saying? Well, a rich man, most do, do most rich people make it to heaven? No, most rich people say, you know what? I've amassed this much wealth in my life. I don't really need God. I can get there myself. That's typically their attitude. That's important to understand Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. So they'll say this, see, if in order to get eternal life, cause that's the crown of life, you have to endure temptation. And if you don't endure, you backslide, you fall off, you lost that crown, you lost your eternal life. Of course, it's true. We understand what James is doing here. Okay. He's talking about being respecters of persons. And he's basically saying, you know, understand guys, not only do rich men oppress you, but they fade away in their ways. And their ways are not the way that Paul preached, the way that you and I believe, the way of salvation through Christ alone. And so what he's saying here is there's a temptation that is in the world today to every single person that is living and breathing. And this temptation is to take you away from believing in the gospel. It is to take you away from believing on Christ for eternal life, which is a covering, which is a crown. And so he says in verse 12, blessed is the man that endureth temptation. He's talking about that temptation for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. But again, if you want to apply that to the judgment seat of Christ, a separate physical crown, I mean, that's your deal. You can believe that, but it's just not clear, is it? It's just not crystal clear. What color rubies on? How many points does it have on it? Is it completely circular? I mean, come on. Okay. You don't know. It's vague. The point is if we resist that temptation, obviously, we're guaranteed everlasting life. Now go to 1 Peter 5. We've only got a couple more. 1 Peter 5. We're going to look at verse 4 real quick. So Peter here is telling the elders, he's saying, hey, feed the flock. Okay. There is profitability in feeding the flock so that everybody can be of a ready mind. He tells them in verse 3, hey, be an example to the believers. Okay. Don't lord over God's heritage. So we don't, you know, and that's why I'm like, I'm not going to get involved in your personal life, tell you do this, do that. Okay. Buy this deodorant because that's what I buy. I'm not going to do stuff like that. Okay. I'm going to teach you what I think the Bible says and it's up to you to see what you think. But here it is. Look at this here. Verse 4. You know, when the chief shepherd, so after giving them the crown of glory that fadeth not away. Now what about the rich man that James talked about? What happens to his ways? They fade away. Okay. What about our eternal life? Does that ever fade away? No. So what does this crown of glory here more than likely talking about? The fact that our eternal life is not going to fade away. It is a guarantee. The glorification process, okay, is a guarantee. But people say, well, this is one of the crowns that you get at the judgment seat of Christ and it looks like this, this and this, or it may look like this, and I'd be more honest to say, well, we don't know exactly what it looks like, but it's a crown you're going to get at the judgment seat of Christ. It's not clear. So I don't believe that's what he's saying there. Now, you know, the crown crowd's going to come after me and, oh, you know, you're trying to mess with my crowns here and I'm not trying to be mean. Okay. Go to Revelation chapter 2. You can have all the crowns you want. Just run the race and let it sort itself out. That's probably the best advice with this that I can give you. Okay. We only got two more left. Look at verse 10. Revelation 2. Look at verse number 10. Now there it is. I thought I had the NIV for a second. I was like, where is it? Where's verse 10? All right. Verse 10. Fear none of those things. So this is obviously the letter to the church in Smyrna. Okay. Verse 10. He says, Fear none of those things which should or which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried and ye shall say unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Okay. And then he says, He that hath an ear, verse 11, let him hear. What the spirit saith unto the churches, he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. That's important for you to understand because what people will say is, well, again, you know, I'm telling you, eternal life is a crown and if you don't endure, if you don't last, if you're not faithful, if you get scared like Peter did, you're going to lose that crown of life. You're going to lose it. Jesus is exhorting them, saying, hey, this is what's going to happen guys. Okay. The devil's going to put some of you guys in prison. You're going to be there 10 days and you're going to physically die. But don't be scared. Don't be afraid because I will give thee a crown of life. Here's how the modern Christian reads it. Be faithful unto death and then and only then if you do that then you'll get eternal life. That's how they want you to read it. But that's not what he's saying. What the Spirit sayeth unto the church is he that overcometh. How do we overcome by believing? John 6, very clear. When you believe the gospel, you have overcome that great temptation that the devil has sown throughout the world to not believe on Christ. You have overcome that. He that overcometh, look at this, guarantee shall not be hurt of the second death. So what is this crown being referred to here in chapter 10? The crown of life. It is eternal life, which is a free gift. Okay. It is the tribulation and the thorns that come upon us from the world because God is going to turn them into crowns. It is a guarantee. Now, last one, right here. Revelation chapter 3. We're going to read 7 to 11. Okay. This is the message to the church in Philadelphia. And I have to bring this one up. I know we've gone a little long this morning because it does talk about a crown being taken away, but I want to explain that. Verse 7. And to the angel of the church in He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth. Obviously talking about Christ, when he opens that door, it's there for you. Okay. Only he can open and close these types of doors here. Okay. He controls all of that. Verse 8. I know thy works. Are we saved by works? No. Okay. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door and no man can speak any word and is not denied my name. Now, why does he bring that up? Well, probably because a lot of so-called Christian groups have denied his name. And we're in a country, we are in a world today where most of them do, just like Evan preached a couple Sundays ago, right? You know, most of these people that profess to believe in Jesus really don't. Okay. They say the name, they say Bible brother, all this type of stuff, but they don't believe in the God of the Bible. And they say, you are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee. So obviously the Philadelphia church here is dealing with what we're dealing with today, and it's the synagogue of Satan. Every synagogue in the world today, and everybody in here understands this, is satanic. It is nothing more than a satanic temple. That's what it is. Satanic, 100%. They're not God's chosen people. They're not just, well, which one's worse, the synagogue or the satanic temple? They're the same thing. The only difference is in the clothing and the days that they meet. That's it. But anyways, it's a different sermon. Verse 10, because thou has kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly, hold fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. See, you can lose your rewards. You can lose that crown of rejoicing if you don't rejoice. You can lose the crown of life if you fail away in temptation. You can lose your crown right here. And he's talking to who? He's talking to a local church, the Church of Philadelphia. That is who he's talking to. Notice he doesn't say that necessarily to all of the other ones. You say, well, why is that important? What does this mean here? How can some man take their crown? Well, back up real quick, I have set before thee an open door. So God has set before them this opportunity at this time that he's writing this. No man can shut it. And now has a little strength. Okay, so they've got a little strength, meaning they probably have a little bit of people in this body of believers that are actually saved. Says a little strength and has kept my word and has not denied my name. And obviously brings up the Jews because they're trying to destroy this church by sending in infiltrators. That's my opinion. That's probably what was going on here. Okay. He's saying now has kept my word of patience and I will also keep thee, verse 10, from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast. So he's basically saying hold fast that little bit of strength. Okay, you've got a group of people here that believe the word of God that are true believers that have not gone astray. And he says in verse, at the end of verse 11 there, you know, So in other words here, if people were to come in and basically prevent other people from being saved, over time this church will invert. And instead of having a little strength, having a group of people that actually believe the gospel and have overcome the wicked one by putting their faith and trust on Christ, okay, you will then have a group of people that call themselves Christians, that call themselves believers, but really are nothing more than an offshoot of the synagogue of Satan, i.e. New Evangelical Christianity. You say, prove it. Well, let's read the chapter, verse 12. That's the key to understanding this verse here, okay. He's saying there's a group of people that want to destroy this church and they're called Jews. They're the synagogue of Satan. Their goal is to stop you from serving Christ and to prevent anyone from being saved, to make this thing bigger than it already is. That's their goal. That's what they do. Okay, and so he's saying, hey guys, Christians, don't let any man take your crown. Okay, that's why we are real big on checking people's salvation if they're going to be with us for a very long time. This is why we won't put anybody into any kind of responsibility in this church if we cannot verify that they are born again, saved. Now, will some people slip through the cracks? Yes. It happens, we're only human, we can only do so much, okay. But the point is, verse 12, him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is what? New Jerusalem. You see, the churches out here today, they want to write physical Jerusalem on your forehead and on your heart because that's all they care about and that's all they know, why? Because most of them unfortunately are not saved, then he says, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. Again, he says this in verse 13, he that hath an ear let him hear, saith unto the churches. So, kind of like the church at Smyrna, this church is being threatened with being overran by people that are not saved. And if that happens, that crown, that covering of the church, the believers, is gone. Does that make sense? This church right over here, this Episcopalian church, they do not have a crown. Unless there's like one or two people by chance, you know, which probably isn't even true, that are saved in there, they got no crown. They're just a group of clowns meeting that mock us and they actually hate the word of God. Okay, last verse, I lied to you, last verse, First Corinthians chapter two, we're done right here. Last one, I promise. Okay. So remember, the world gives us thorns, but the Lord turns them into crowns. That's the motivation for this. It's for us to understand that sanctification is temporal. This battle that we have between old man and new man, it is temporary and someday we will be glorified. But you got to understand there was a vagueness in this. I just basically gave you all of the references that they use about crowns. Okay. That's it, man. So you're going to have to go back on your own time and search the Bible and find all these physical crowns that you're going to actually receive physically at the judgment seat of Christ. Okay. Look at this here. This will clear it up. First Corinthians two, look at verse number nine. Paul says, but as it is written, I hath not, what, seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man. The things which God has prepared for them that love him. So that's it. That's what all of this boils down to. Nobody really knows. Nobody has a perfect clear picture of what those rewards, treasures, crowns will actually look like or even actually be. That means that should not be your direct driving force for serving God. It should be because, Hey, I realize I have failed God. I was born a natural body sinner and that's what all of this boils down to. Nobody really knows that I'm a sinner and that God redeemed me. God saved me. So as a reasonable service, I'm going to go ahead and continue on trying to do the best I can in that sanctification process. And a lot of glorification, it's a mystery. Nobody really knows. Hey, you understand that. We understand that. So when you hear people, Oh man, the judge said, you're going to get this Ruby. This, and look, I know this sounds silly. Maybe it's just And it's our job, as I always tell you to get it corrected. Okay. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much Lord for the truth that you provide us week after week. I just pray you bless the fellowship after the service Lord and help us to really apply these things to our memories so that we can share them with others, Lord, that are definitely confused on the issue. And also Lord, that we may just have a proper motivation turned into the discipline for serving you and the doctrine that doesn't exist in the Bible to motivate us. We thank you again Lord for all of these things in Jesus name. I pray. Amen. All right, one more song and then we'll be dismissed.