Well I read God's word this morning and turn with me to 2nd Timothy chapter 4. Chapter 4 and in this section beginning with verse 7 the apostle is declaring his final word you might call this his departing words where he says I fought the good fight I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. And then he says in verse 8, in the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Well, the Apostle has suffered greatly. He's writing this from the infamous Mamertine prison. It was dirty, dark, unsanitary. The smell of human waste was no less extreme than the stench of human despair. A horrible, horrible place to be. Paul was underclothed and he could not warm himself. It must have been in the winter time. And he admonishes Timothy, come at your first opportunity and please bring my coat. I mean, Paul was suffering. And it was not wrong for him to seek creature comforts. Timothy, bring me my coat and come to me as soon as you're able. Now, his condition was undeserved. He had been charged with sedition, which was unfounded. He was a man of high birth, from a good family, of wealthy means. He was a Roman citizen, which carried all the benefits that came with Roman citizenship. But none of this mattered now. He was in a common prison with common criminals, suffering along with the common criminals, He had been abandoned by his friends and followers with little hope of being released from his chains. Anyone outside of Christ looking upon Paul's miserable condition would have only come to one conclusion, that Paul was a wretched failure. In other words, he had lost everything and had nothing to show for his effort. But Paul knew different. And we know differently. What is the measure of your life? What do you consider success? As you look upon your life, is your success measured upon the size of your bank account or the influence that you've had upon individuals and the power that you have managed to accrue for yourself? What is your measure of success? Well, Paul's measure of success was not necessarily the measure that this world would look upon as being successful. So for Paul, he looked upon his life in a different way. For him, he says, look, I have fought the good fight. And so he saw the importance of maintaining Christian warfare. And then he says, and I have finished the course. He understood that his life was a particular course that designed by divine providence, and he was faithful to the course that God had placed him in. It may be different for each of us, but where God has you, are you being faithful in where God has you, in the course that you are currently on. And your course may take many different turns as you go through life, and it may change multiple times. But for the Christian, we ultimately have one purpose and one goal, and that's to honor our God. That's our goal. That's our purpose, to honor God. Oh God, help me not to be derailed or distracted from honoring you. Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever things you do, do all to the glory of God. For of him, through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. God is worthy. And so, well, God, help me to honor you with everything I do. Or as our Lord Jesus Christ would put it, seek ye first. In other words, first and foremost, with the ultimate priority, seek first the kingdom. That is the reign of Christ and his righteousness. And the other things that the people of this world, Jesus says, you know, even the Gentiles long for these things. What are you going to eat? What are you going to drink? What about your housing? All these things are important, but it's not our chief interest. So Paul says, look, I fought the good fight. I have finished the course and I've kept the faith. And so for the apostle, He had a different view of that which is successful, different than what the people of this world would look upon. And I hope that each of us can agree with Paul. We look back over our life, and that was the focus last week, just an opportunity to look back. What do you see? Do you see a life in which you have been faithful to your call, faithful in your service to Christ, or have you been found wanting? So the Apostle says, look, I've done all that God has set me to do. He's not claiming perfection and neither are we. We fall so far short of all that is expected of us. But at the same time, we should be able to say that the overall direction of my life has been in service to God. From the day that God saved me until now. My life has had the single focus of serving Christ. I can't say that perfectly, but I think the overall direction of my life, the greatest grief of my life are those times that I have not. And so we are single-minded, single-purposed. And so Paul says, and now that I have looked at my life and had examined my life, I can say now, in the future, verse 8, there is laid up for me a crown. He refers to it as a crown of righteousness. It's a crown to be placed on the head, a victor's crown, if you will, a great trophy. given to the faithful, a crown promised to the apostle, but it's not just to Paul, not just to the other elders, but to every single Christian, for all those who have loved his appearing. So this morning, I want to take a few moments to examine the saint's reward. That's the title of the sermon this morning. The Saints reward. What is this trophy promised for the faithful? And I trust that as we look at it this morning, it will serve to bring us joy and encourage us as we are pressing on to the end. Because there are many difficulties in this life. We are not promised that this world is heaven, though many Christians are pretending that God has purpose for your best life to be now. But it's not now. It's not here already. We are moving towards eternity, but it's not here yet. So in this world, We expect many tribulations, many trials. Peter says, don't consider it a strange thing when these fiery temptations or fiery trials come upon you. It's not something unusual. It's the condition of God's people. Jesus says, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Don't be trying to have your reward now. That's what the Pharisees did. They wanted their reward now. And that's all there was for them. the admiration of men, the recognition of others, but that is their reward. That's what they wanted, that's what they got, and that's all there was. But not so for us. So throughout the Bible, there is a running principle of the consideration of our final destiny. It's always before us, it's always in front of us. Our final destiny. And for the Christian, we are promised a great reward. We read in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9, things which eye has not seen, nor ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who loved Him. All that God has prepared. Now, there is a sense in which we have it now. But it's not what the world would look upon. It's Christ. We have Him now. Is He your greatest treasure? Jesus said, look, let me tell you what the kingdom is like. This kingdom that I'm telling you to seek first, let me tell you what it's like. It's like a merchant man that trades in pearls, and he discovers this pearl of the greatest value. And he goes and sells everything he has to have this one pearl. That's what the kingdom is like. Have you found the one pearl? Or is this like a man who finds a treasure in a field? And it's like he looks here and there and he, did anyone see me? Here's this treasure. So he buries the treasure in the field and he goes and sells everything he has to buy that field because he's found the treasure and nothing else is of greater value. You get the idea. For the Christian, We have discovered the treasure. We have discovered that which is of greater value than anything else is Jesus Christ alone precious to you. You know, just examine your life, the things that you consider important, the things that direct your attention. You know, I often, you know, I marvel that there are so many people that profess Christianity, though not nearly as many, you know, I've been on the earth for a while now, There was a time when the United States professed 87% Christianity. It's now just a little above half. And they say that in the next few years, it will drop below 50% for the first time in our history. But even among, let's just say for the sake of argument, let's just say that 50% of Americans are Christians. Would that not have a profound impact upon our land? I look at our sanctuary, but it's not just our sanctuary. Anywhere you go in the city, there's room for all, you might say. There's a lot of empty places in every church. And churches are folding at an alarming rate. There are churches being planted, but the number of churches failing are far outnumbering those that are being planted. And these are just facts. And this is the condition of, and, you know, we are, I mean, we're an amazing congregation. We're small in number, but our attendance is very regular. We're not of the sort that, you know, we don't come for any sniffle of the nose or, no, we tend to be pretty faithful people. But not so in most congregations. I talked to a pastor friend the other day. He says, yeah, we're about to embark on a further cleansing of our role. We did that. We completed that back in the 90s. And we don't have an inactive membership. We just don't. And we don't have an expectation nor an allowance for an inactive membership. There are churches that have your resident membership. Those are the ones that they know who they are. And then you've got your non-resident membership. Those are the ones that don't even know where they're at, where they've been, what they're doing. They're just people on the roll that they have no idea who they are and where they are and what they're doing. But I'm very thankful that we're not of that sort. But, you know, that said, What is the focus of our life? Is it Christ Jesus? And you see it brought to bear in everything that you do. Everything that we do as a congregation is Christ at the center. I know the first distinctive of our church is Christ-centered. But I've preached on our seven distinctives several times. And when I preach, I always say, is that true not only of our church, but of you? What is the overwhelming direction of your life? And what governs the things that you do and the decisions that you make? Well, the Christian has Christ at the core. He's our reward. We are also promised additional reward, if you will. And I say that carefully because Christ is our reward. But Paul is talking about here in verse 8 something that is yet to come. He already had Christ. Something that is yet to come in the future. there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. Let me say this, it is not our primary consideration for serving God. In other words, our primary consideration is based upon Christ, not upon us. So when we come to Christ, we die to self. And I think every Christian, every true believer knows that. Jesus says, if any man, generically man or woman, if any person will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. And, of course, the cross is an instrument of execution. It was the death penalty of the day. And so, Jesus is saying, if anyone will come after me, let him die to self and follow me. Die to self to the extent, if a man doesn't hate his father and mother and brother, sister and his children and his wife and his life also, he cannot be my disciple. In other words, Jesus Christ is supreme. So our primary consideration for service is not ourselves or what we can get. Our resolve must be to serve Him regardless of what serving Him may gain for us. We should always ask ourselves, and I know I've asked this before you many times, Would I serve him if I knew there was no reward? I mean, if there was nothing, you die and that's it. Would you serve him if there was no reward? Or are you nothing more than a hireling? In other words, the only reason you serve him is what you can gain from him. It's like this. I was in the business world for I guess what, it was 15 years before God called me to the ministry. And I was in the restaurant business, and I've been, if I added them all up, you know, I probably had, you know, during the course of time, several hundred employees. And never, ever did I have one of those employees come to me and say, Dale Crawford, you're such a wonderful guy. You are the most wonderful guy I've ever met in my whole life, and I just want to serve you for the pleasure and privilege of serving you, because you are just such a wonderful guy." I never had that. No. Instead, they would come to me looking for a job and expecting to get paid for the job. And we would negotiate at the very beginning. You know, I'm going to start you off at this pay. And there was an expectation that they would get regular raises. That's the way it works. That's not the way we work as Christians. We're not hirelings. Lord, I will serve you as long as you give to me. And if you do not give to me, I will not serve you. That's a hireling. That's someone who is serving only because they will gain something. And that gain may simply be, I'll serve you if you get me out of hell. I don't care anything for you. I don't, you know, I see no value in you. But I know there's a heaven and a hell, and I don't want to go to hell, so I will take upon myself the name Christian, and I will come to church, and I will go through the outward motions of Christianity, not because I love you, but because of what I can get from you. That's not the Christian. We are not mere hirelings. We are those that have found a treasure. Jesus Christ is altogether lovely for us. And so we serve him because he is worthy. He has captivated our hearts and our minds. He's our bridegroom and we love him. Now that said, this does not mean that our reward is not a consideration. I'm not talking out of both sides of my mouth. I hope I'm preaching very balanced theology here. No, we do not serve Christ so that we can gain something from him. And we would serve him regardless of the outcome because he is worthy. He is the King and we gladly give ourselves unto Him and as Jesus says, and after we've done all that we can do, we are still but unprofitable servants doing that which is expected of us. And so we have nothing of which to boast and nothing of which we would look at Him and say, you owe me, look what I have done. But that said, it doesn't mean our reward is not a consideration, because the Bible speaks of it many times. And if it speaks of it many times, it tells us that we don't just ignore it, and it tells us that it is not of any significance, or not without significance. You know, Jesus told us to rejoice in consideration of our reward. Here's what he says. This is the Beatitudes. And he reminds us, look, as a Christian, as one of my followers, you can expect suffering. Write it down, mark it down. It's a part of discipleship. It's a part of those who follow me. But then he says this, blessed are you When men cast insults at you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of me, it's because you're a Christian, it's because of who you profess, on account of me. Then he says, Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. He says, look, rejoice, jump up and down, you know, be glad because your reward is great. I'm not unmindful of your suffering for me, he says. And so we always keep an eye on eternity. 2 Corinthians 4.17, for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we live not of the things that are seen, but of the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." We keep our minds fixed upon eternal things. That's the focus. Eternal things. Because everything else is failing. You're going to give up everything else. What's your greatest treasure? Earthly treasure. Well, whatever it is, you're going to give it up. It's Corrie Ten Boom that says, hold everything loosely. For when God has to pry it out of our hand, it won't be nearly as painful. I'm paraphrasing. We tend to hold everything tightly and we don't want to let go of it. Loved ones and possessions and the glory is Christ will always be ours. And he will not ever be taken away. And lo, I am with thee always, even to the end of the age. And he will never leave us, nor forsake us. And nothing shall pluck us out of the Father's hand. So he's our chief treasure. And we are keeping our eyes fixed upon him. Paul says in Colossians 3, if you have been risen with Christ, and the word can also mean since, since you have been raised with Christ, because the resurrection is a present reality. Now, we're looking forward to the resurrection, but His resurrection is our resurrection. His death is our death. His life is our life. So, if since you have been risen with Christ, seek those things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, keeping your eyes fixed upon Him. not upon this earthly difficulty and that earthly difficulty that tends to grab hold of every thought and every, you know, the danger is the earthly difficulty can come, And it can consume everything else. I can't surf anymore. I'm just caught up in this, and this is all there is. No, that's not all there is. He is all there is, and He is sufficient. Yes, we're weak and frail in this life, but that's the condition of our life. We're weak and frail. And he doesn't say, come ye who are robust and strong and follow me as long as you're robust and strong. Quit following me. No, we're all weak. We're all weak and frail. Every one of us. And we serve him. Paul says, look, I've learned how to both abound, and I've understood want." And he says, you know, I've understood all these things, abundance and wanting and strength and weakness. But he says, look, I've learned to be content in Christ. And that's the context of the verse where he says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I'm not going to be drawn aside by this earth's condition. I can do it all through Christ. And so we follow the Savior. Paul's confidence in death also resulted in confidence in his reward. And that's what he's saying. In verse 7, confidence in life. Confidence in death, I've fought the good life, I've fought, I've finished the course, I've kept the faith, and the context, I'm about to die. He says, verse 6, I am already being poured out as a drink offering. My life is already being taken from me. But as I look back over my life, I have continued to press on. But there's something awaiting me. There is a crown of life. The Apostle Paul never presumed upon the grace of God. And I know as Southern Baptists, we are surrounded by those who believe in once saved, always saved. And do we believe that? Yeah, we do. But we give it a different title. We call it Perseverance of the Saints. It's the P in TULIP. Or you can maybe give it a different word instead of perseverance of the Saints. Preservation of the Saints. The believers in Christ are being preserved until the end. So they do press on. They do continue to fight the good fight of faith. All Paul is doing is saying, I'm looking back at my life and I can see evidence of God's grace in me. That's what he's doing. And so, Paul never presumed upon God's grace, and neither should we. Paul would have agreed with Peter. Peter says this, 2 Peter 1.10, Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you. I mean, how do you know His calling and choosing you? Now, we never hold election before an individual when we're bringing them the gospel. Never. And it's not proper. We never say, come if you can. If you're one of the elect, you can come. But if you're not, you can't. So you need to be very careful and take some time to find out if you're one of God's elect. No, that's false preaching. That's improper. That's a perversion of the gospel of grace. We never say, come if you can, before you can come, you need to make sure that you are worthy of coming. But for those who have professed Christ, we understand Well, I have professed Him because He's done a work in me. He changed my heart, granted unto me faith and repentance, and I am regenerate. And those who are regenerate bear certain fruits that they are regenerate. So Peter is simply saying, look, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you. King James Version to say, make his calling and election sure. He says, for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. For in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied for you. This in no way lessens our dependence upon God for His grace, and it did not lessen Paul's dependence upon God. He says in 2 Timothy 1 verse 12, For this reason I suffered these things, but I am not ashamed. So he's talking about the persecution, his suffering, and he's suffering greatly now. He's writing from prison. I suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, he says. For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day." It's all about grace. It's what He has done for us. We have a reward that's awaiting us because of what He has done for us. Paul's boast here in verse 7 is not a boast of personal accomplishment. It's a boast of what God has done for him. That's why the same book, the same epistle, you know, at the beginning, he says, I know whom I have believed and I'm convinced that he is able to guard what I've entrusted to him against that day. Those who are the recipients of God's grace persevere until the end. because of God's work of grace within them. Regret, on the other hand, if Paul looked back over his life and he saw, you know, man, my life has been full of folly and self-fulfillment, lust after earthly things, the desire for lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, he would be at this point of his life saying, oh God, is there any evidence at all of your work of grace within me. So yes, regrets bring doubts and Satan always uses them to his advantage and he continually brings them to mind so that we will be morbidly preoccupied with self. And so Paul would be on his deathbed here saying, I have not been faithful to fight the fight, and I have not finished the course, and I have not kept the faith, and I have no confidence at all of the eternal weight of glory awaiting me. But he doesn't do that because he sees God's work of grace being brought to bear upon his life. Well, what is this crown of righteousness that Paul is referring to? Paul is talking about the saints' reward. Our entrance into heaven is, first of all, based entirely with what he has done for us and based entirely upon righteousness that is not our own. I hope you understand that and I hope this is consistent with your theology. We refer to it as an alien righteousness. A righteousness that's beyond us, that's apart from us. It's not our righteousness. So we are accepted into glory not because of our righteousness or because of what we have done, which, by the way, is the hope that most people have. They're hoping they've done enough. That's the nature of entire branches of what they call Christianity. It's really the full sum of Roman Catholicism. It is hoping. Yes, they trust in Christ. It's not that they believe they're saved by works. They're saved through Christ. But here's the point. So the Catholic is baptized, receiving grace. And then as long as that grace is active in them through Christ, they are saved. But they're saved through these works that Christ enables of them, but it's the works by which they are saved. So, you hate to say that they believe in salvation by works, but at the end of the day, their confidence is in the works. So, they don't believe in assurance, because how do you know you've ever done enough? And so, you know, it's a horrible treadmill hoping that I've done enough good works to get me into heaven. And from their perspective, but at least we've got purgatory. Because, you know, I know I can't do enough in this life, but at least there's purgatory so that perhaps I can suffer some in eternity to gain merit to enter into eternity. That's bad theology, folks. I mean, we are saved. Last week, Chad preached one of the solas of the Reformation. Five solas. Sola Scriptura, sola gratia, grace alone, sola fide, faith alone, solus Christus, in Christ alone. And of course, it's all the work of God, so to God alone be the glory. Soli Deo Gloria. It's Christ alone. Grace alone, something He gives us. Faith alone, something He gives us by grace. In Christ alone. It's all of Christ. And we are saved by our sins being borne by Him as He carries them to the cross and bears the full penalty of our sin. Coming under the wrath of God on our behalf as our substitute and we trust in Him. But we need one more thing too. The law demands perfection. So we are transgressors of the law. that declares us guilty, and the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied our guilt by bearing our sins upon the cross. But we need righteousness as well. The law demands righteousness, but we have not been righteous. So what do we do about that? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ came to fulfill all righteousness. He, born under the law and kept it perfectly. We receive His righteousness. It's a double imputation, if you will. Imputation meaning justification. And there's a double imputation. Our sins imputed to Him and His righteousness imputed to us. Thus, we stand before God both guiltless and righteous. And He receives us into glory. It's all His work. Nothing in our salvation is by merit. It is all by the merits of Christ. Jesus says, John 15, verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. So all of our good works, all of our fruit is by virtue of our union with Him. So we saw in verse 1 of this passage that we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by His appearing and His kingdom. We will all stand before Him to give account. And then we will all receive our reward. Now, I believe there is sufficient evidence in Scripture to teach degrees of both reward and punishment. Now, by way of punishment, I do believe in degrees of punishment. that punishment will be according really to the degree of light we have received, the degree of understanding, and the degree of our corruption that's still linked to our understanding. It's simply this. The person who, well let's just say, we like talking about the native in the jungle that's never heard the gospel. Are they guilty? They surely are. All have sinned to come short of the glory of God. And creation, natural revelation, creation declares God to such an extent that they're without excuse. They're guilty. But what about the individual born in a Christian home, attended church their whole life, been around the things of God, and understanding the things of God. I think that's the essence of Hebrews 6, that they've tasted of the heavenly gift. Now partakers of it. It hasn't become theirs. Remember, saving faith has three elements to it. One is knowledge. We call that notitia. They've got all the knowledge. They've been catechized. They can recite the catechism. They know theology. Man, if you ask them what is sin, they can spew it out. Well, sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. Well, what is it to repent? Well, I can tell you. To be sorry for sin, to hate and forsake it because it's displeasing to God. And they know all of the, you know, what is the atonement? What is faith? They know it all. But it's just knowledge. And the second element, you've got to have knowledge, you've got to have a sense. They call that a senses. You have to agree with the knowledge. Oh, yeah, I believe it all. Yeah, yeah, I believe it. The third element is resting upon it. That's what we call fiducia. That is an absolute trust, an absolute confidence that these things are not only true universally, but they are true for me. He died for my sin, and apart from Him I am hopeless and lost. I need a Savior, and He is sufficient, and there is none other, and I will cast my lot with Him. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling, and I will serve Him all the days of my life. That's a far difference than the individual that says, hmm, so what? Who cares? I've got my life. I'm going to live my life. I'm going to eat, drink, and be merry. That's all that matters. Yeah, I know there's a God, and I know there's Jesus Christ, and I know all these things. Yeah, but He's not worthy of my life. there will be much greater condemnation for that individual than for the one who had never heard. So I do believe in degrees of punishment. Jesus says this, Luke 12, verses 47 and 48. And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will will receive many lashes. But the one who did not know it, you see, degrees of knowing, degrees of understanding, degrees of knowledge, degrees of life. The one who did not know it and committed deeds worthy of a flogging will receive but few lashes. For everyone who has been given much, much will be required. And to whom they entrusted much of him they will ask them more. I do believe there will be degrees of suffering. But I also believe that there will be degrees of reward. Paul is talking about reward. Now, what exactly is that? You know, the degrees of reward based upon labors for the kingdom, if you will. And this is a great mystery. It's a great mystery because it's all by grace alone. It's by what He has done through us. So, He receives all the glory. But Jesus speaks of laying up treasures in heaven. Matthew 6, 20. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. where neither moth nor rust destroys, or where thieves do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." What's your treasure? What is your greatest treasure? And are you spending your life on that? Jesus speaks of the great reward for those who suffer for his kingdom. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. And the Bible teaches that our reward will be commensurate with our works. Matthew 16, 27, For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels with him, and will then recompense every man according to his deeds. Matthew 16.27 and I'm sorry 2 Corinthians 5.10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad. But our reward is never meritorious. And that's what's hard to wrap our head around. As soon as I talk about reward, as soon as I talk about degrees of reward, we in our flesh says, well, what can I do? What can I do to get more? Well, it's all about Christ. And it's all about what he has done. Luke 17.10, I quoted a minute ago. So you too, when you do all the things that are commanded you, you say, we are unworthy slaves. We have done only that which we ought to have done. We've only done what He has commanded us. Where is there boasting in that? And it's God who always enables us to love and serve him. Philippians 2.13, for it's God who is at work in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Colossians 1.29, for this purpose also I labor, striving according to his power, which mightily works within me. But the Bible tells us several things about our reward. I'll go through this in close. First of all, the Bible speaks of several different crowns, if you will. These crowns that the Bible speaks of and doesn't give a great description of, but yet it speaks of them differently. There's a crown that consists of those that we bring to Christ, whatever that looks like. Here's what Paul says, 1 Thessalonians 2.19, For who is our hope, he says, or our joy, or the crown of exaltation? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? For you are our glory and our joy. You hear what he's saying? Paul spent his whole life preaching the gospel, seeking to bring others to Christ. He says, and those of you, my brothers and sisters who have come, you are our glory and our joy. It's you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming. The very existence, can you imagine as we stand before Christ on the day of judgment and we see those around us that Paul referred to as his children in the faith. Titus and Timothy, who are believers because of the work of Paul. Well, that's a wonderful joy, to present these before Christ as the treasures of His grace, but the fruit of our labor. James speaks of a crown of life. He says, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. So James speaks of a crown of life and is simply given to those who love Christ. And we love Christ because he has enabled us to love him. And then Peter speaks of a crown of glory. That's reserved for faithful pastors, and I don't know what that looks like. 1 Peter 5, 4, and when the chief shepherd appears, in other words, pastors are only under shepherds, but when the chief shepherd appears, you'll receive the unfading crown of glory. But here in 2 Timothy 4, it's referred to as a crown of righteousness. And he says it's not only for him, it's for you too. It's for all who have loved his appearing. What is a crown of righteousness? Well, we can look at it two ways. Is this righteousness to be understood as the source of the crown? Is it the reward for righteousness? Is a crown of righteousness given for righteousness? Or is righteousness itself the reward? And it can be either one, grammatically. a crown of righteousness. In other words, a crown that comes about as the result of righteousness, or a crown of righteousness, meaning righteousness itself, is the crown. Which is it? I think it's both. On one hand, we are saved unto holiness and good works. So the people of God are righteous. One of the terms that's used to describe a Christian is a saint. And a saint, Greek word hagia, simply means holy. We are the righteous ones. The crown that we are receiving is reserved for those who are righteous, the people of God. It is a crown of righteousness. And so in this sense, the crown is the result of our righteousness. Revelation 19, verses 7 and 8, Let us rejoice and be glad, and give the glory to Him. For the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean. For the fine linen is the righteous axe of the saints. It's a crown of righteousness. A crown given to the righteous. But again, I know I've said this many times in the course of this sermon, again, we have to understand that our salvation is entirely a work of God alone, which tells us then, yes, it is a crown of righteousness given to the righteous, but our righteousness is not our own, we have received the righteousness of Christ. So it's a crown of righteousness given to believers. But it's also true that we are promised an eternal crown of righteousness as our reward. In other words, the righteousness is the reward. What in the world do I mean by that? Well, only a Christian can understand that, really. Because an unbeliever cannot understand the torment that we go through as we strive to live a holy life and find ourselves so often wanting. And the grief, oh God, forgive me of my transgression. Paul says, you can hear the agony in his voice in Romans chapter 7 when he says this. And you really can can hear the agony, agonizing tone in his voice. He says. For what I am, let's see. Hold on. Yeah, he says, verse 19. Well, verse 18, he says, I know. that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. In my heart, Paul says, in my heart, in my greatest desire, I want to honor Christ my Savior, my treasure, my joy, the one whom I love. But then he says, For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. And if I'm doing the very thing that I do not want, I'm no longer the one doing it, but sin dwells within me. He says, I find the principle that evil is present in me, and the one who wants to do good. So the point is, the Christian is in this war And we love the Lord Jesus Christ more than life itself. And we strive after righteousness. Paul says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. I want to honor Christ with my life, not because I'm trying to earn something from Him, because He's worthy. And I want to please Him, and it breaks my heart when I do not. But we have the full expectation. that when the Lord comes in clouds of glory and we rise up to meet the Lord in the air, we will be stripped of the corruption that remains in us. We will be glorified and sin will be no more. In our existence now, we are able to sin. In our existence then, We will be unable to sin. It will not be a possibility. Now, for a worldling, they go, so? Corruption doesn't mean anything to me. That's why there's no purity, no delight in holiness. But for the Christian, our greatest pursuit and our greatest desire is to honor our Savior and the very thought The part of our reward will be the reward of righteousness, the crown of righteousness. Well, this is the crown given to believers and it is ours. But let me close with this. But our greatest reward. is Christ, and he's already ours. I think it's Jonathan Edwards that says, look, and Edwards believed in degrees of reward too. But what is it? What does it look like? Well, what is your reward? What are you pursuing? What's your delight? What is your greatest treasure? Well, if your reward is duck hunting, or if your reward is going fishing in a boat, If your reward is a love of pleasure more than lovers of God, I just hope heaven has Disney World in it, because I can't imagine heaven without Disney World. Oh, I hope heaven is being able to party with my friends, because I can't imagine being in eternity without partying with my friends. But if your greatest treasure is Christ, then here it is. The pursuit of your life should be knowing Him more now. Knowing Him more now. How does that happen? Through His Word, through what we call the means of grace, through the ever-progressive partaking of the Word of God, prayer, the preaching of His Word, the church, These are means of grace, and most who call themselves Christians know nothing of it. Well, if Christ is your reward, then the greatest reward that you can imagine in heaven is knowing Him more, spending all of eternity knowing Him more. And Edwards actually said, That the same degree that you partake of him now, Enjoying him now will be the starting place in eternity. And the amazing thing is, any of you ever been to a symphony orchestra? You know, Baton Rouge has a symphony. You can go down, and it's really amazing. I don't know if you've ever, you know, I don't know if you like that kind of stuff. But you go there, the room is, I don't know if it's the acoustics in the room, but you go in there and you sit down and you hear the muffling of people talking and you're sitting there and all of a sudden the orchestra begins to warm up. And it's, I mean, the intensity of the sound. And all of a sudden, in beautiful harmony, they come together in beauty, and the sound fills the room, and you are enraptured. by what you are partaking of. You know, your ears hearing it, you feel the vibration through your skin and it's amazing. Well, Pat and I went to this and really I'm sitting there and she received the tickets for free. We didn't even have to buy them. We went there and I was enraptured. It was amazing. There was a young lady in front of me with her cell phone. texting during the performance. And I'm saying to myself, you know, maybe shame on me for being hypercritical. You know, maybe she was texting her doctor saying, you know, oh, I'm feeling bad, doctor, what can I do? Not likely, but, you know, giving the devil this do. But she could care less. And you could also see it. There are many people that came to the symphony Man, they're in, you know, they're in dresses and, you know, Pat was in a dress, I was in a coat and tie. It's a symphony. We go there and most people were, you know, it was, you might call it semi-formal. Yet other people in sweatshirt and jeans. It means nothing. It had no bearing upon them whatsoever. I think that's a picture of eternity. Because there will be some saints in eternity that are absolutely enraptured by Christ. He's there, I see. Others there that are Christians and so they're also enjoying Christ. but not on the same level. And the amazing thing is that one will not know the difference from the other. because it's only their heart and their sense of being enraptured by the Savior. Maybe that's true. Wouldn't that be just perfect for degrees of reward? If Christ is our reward to have Him more in eternity, but yet the person next to you won't understand the degree to which you are enjoying Him, and you won't necessarily know the degree to which they are, and it doesn't really matter anyway because the focus is Christ. Is he your focus now? Your chief reward? And is he sufficient to keep you pressing on? As you can say with Paul, I have fought the good fight, finished the course, kept the faith, and there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. But not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing." And I think last week I said that includes those who have loved His first advent that we're celebrating this time of the year, the incarnation of Christ, His coming in the flesh, Emmanuel, God with us, but He's coming again. And for believers, we treasure that. and we cannot long to see it. May Jesus Christ be ever more lovely in our sight. Let's pray. Father, I pray, O God, that this would be the case within each of us, that the Lord Jesus Christ would be altogether lovely, or as the Apostle would say, to know him, the fellowship of his sufferings, and just to know him and to know him more. Father, help us to know Christ more. In Jesus' name we pray.