Crowns

Now, let's read two verses in the book of the Revelation chapter 19, Revelation 19 and verse 11. And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns or diadems and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself.

That's all I'm going to read. Now, with the collapse of the southern kingdom of Judah, John has been exiled to the Isle of Patmos and the Aegean Sea. And therefore, John uses now Roman time because in Matthew, the writer places Christ at the cross, whereas in the gospel of John who uses Roman time, he is still at Pilate.

He very likely uses the custom of the Romans in relation to crowns. I'll point out five of them as I move along. When the Roman legionaries attacked a fort, a village or whatever, the first man who climbed the ramparts on the ladders, he would meet the concerted effort of the defenders and most of the time the man died.

On the other hand, he might live. If he lived, he received a crown for valor. That was called the diademus or the crown muralis.

Takes it to Hebrews 2 and 9, doesn't it? We see Jesus made little Lord and the angels for the suffering of death. We see him now crowned with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. And our Savior suffered the concerted effort of his enemies.

And especially on the cross, he'll receive that crown for having gone into death. The second crown, I don't think that you will remember this name. It's a Latin name.

The crown, the diademus obsidianalis. For on the exchange of hostilities, some of Rome's legionaries were taken captive. The training of the legionaries cost a lot of time and money.

And every soldier was precious in the sight of imperial Rome. So, volunteers were called in order to free the captives in the camp of the enemy. It was usually undertaken during the hours of the night.

Called for great skill, military intelligence, as these men tried to rescue their fellow soldiers in the hands of the enemy. Most of the time, they were successful. And as they delivered their fellow soldiers on the way back, these captives scattered into the bushes, broke off leaves of the olive tree, and wove crowns, placed them on the head of the liberators.

Now, that takes you to the truth of Romans 6, 7, and 8. It says the apostle, We thank God that at one time you were the servants of sin you have now obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine. Christ the liberator. Brethren, we are grateful, aren't we, today that he has made us free.

We have peace. The blessings of God have been showered upon us. We are no more in bondage.

The liberator has come and he set us free. Broke the chains. I don't know what kind of bondage you were under.

That's obsidianalis, the crown that those received who delivered others. Then you have the crown of triumphalis. That was given to a man who had strategic capabilities such as Titus.

For as Rome conquered one province after the other, that meant taxes. It meant prisoners. It meant slaves.

Rome has expanded its territory once again. Paul refers this in the epistle to the Corinthians. I don't have time to go into this.

To some, he says, we are the saver of life unto life. And to some, the saver of death unto death. What he means is simply this.

That during the conquest, some prisoners were brought into the next Roman headquarters. And while the Roman priests offered sacrifices upon the heathen altar, some of them were executed as a warning to other nations not to resist the imperial power of Rome. Triumphalis.

Ah, brethren, it's amazing, isn't it? The Savior came from heaven's height. You ever wonder why he chooses small earth? Some time ago, I met an astronaut. He was commander of Apollo 17 mission.

He was a Christian. He took a New Testament with him on the board of the rocket and he read. That made Madeline O'Hare, if you know who she is, raging mad.

And as he blasted off into space towards the moon, he read in the beginning, God created. Because of the intense pressure of the NASA program, he got clean away from God. We have to watch this.

We can be too busy. He said, Fred, God restored me on the lunar surface. Well, maybe some of us should buy a ticket to get there.

I said, Jim, how did this come to pass? He said, Fred, I couldn't make out my native America. I tried to locate my native Colorado. I couldn't see it.

America was just like the thumbnail North America that is. Asia, a little brown spot. The Pacific, a blue overlaid with white clouds.

And on the lunar surface, it came to me. Oh, God, how great thou art. I got restored on the moon.

Earth, he said, just about that size. See, my dear brethren, when you're up in this, on the moon, you get a different perspective of the universe. He said, when I was taken with the immensity, the majesty of God's creation.

Oh, how small man is. And here we are. On this earth we plant, we sow, we suffer.

And if the Savior doesn't come, we die. The diadema, the crown of triumphalus. Christ has conquered upon this world.

And you are one of the results. There's another crown. That's called the crown of valorous.

Any army that attacked Jerusalem always attacked from the north. The walls in the south are 250 feet high. In the north, at the temple, they're only 80 to 90 feet high.

So it always attacked from the north. As the soldiers penetrated towards the temple area, the priests tried to hinder them. They were all butchered just without any mercy.

You see, the Romans expected a tremendous hoard of gold and silver and treasures in the holy place. They penetrated inside. And the man who led the group came out wringing his hands because there was nothing in the most holy place.

The ark's been gone since 586 B.C. Nothing. But what took place is the soldiers who conquered the temple mount, they raised a flag on top of the temple, much to the chagrin and the consternation of Jews that were still living. In other words, Rome has come.

Rome has conquered. Here's the proof, the Roman standard on the temple itself, before they burned it down. Now, what that means is simply, my dear young brothers and sisters, you're under new management now.

Christ has a claim upon you. Paul understood it. We're not our own.

We serve a new master. We have a new destiny. Oh, the wonders of it.

And the Lord has not only saved you to delivery from hell, the Lord has saved you that you might learn his administrative purposes. For, see, God's going to use you in the coming day. The world will pass into a spiritual vacuum.

And hasn't the days gone by? It will in the tribulation time. And once the judgment of God will have settled down, the world will have plunged into spiritual vacuum because all the kingdoms of the world will be laid low. That's the book of the Revelation.

And that's where you and I come in. No, you're not, says the apostle Paul to the Corinthians. You're going to judge angels.

Don't you know you're going to judge the world? So, my dear brother, if you don't know the book, how will we know God's governmental principle in the coming day? We shall be with him in administrative capacity, especially throughout the millennium. You're under new management. Now, the last crown that was promised.

You see, in Rome, the legionaries were mercenaries. Their pay was very mediocre. When a castle was conquered, a village, a town, a city, it was an easy thing for the legionaries to get the spoil, fill their pockets, and vanish in the bushes to desert.

Well, there was a temptation. Rome anticipated it, and they promised a crown to every soldier in spite of temptation, remained loyal to the crown, loyal to the Caesar, loyal to the Roman Empire, loyal. Brethren, we are passing through wilderness.

We really don't belong here. In this world, in this age, there are temptations. They're real.

I'm not giving you any statistics or numbers, but the world has taken a terrible toll from among the saints today. Not only that, Satan seeks to bombard the Lord's people no matter which continent you're in. So, oh, yes, there's temptation.

But here's a crown that the Savior will promise you if in spite of temptation, in spite of difficulty that we at one time are to face in this world, whether they're legitimate or illegitimate, the Lord will give you a crown, being an overcomer. Some brethren say, you know, the book of Revelation. And they adamantly proclaim that we are all overcomers.

That has to be clarified. We're only overcomers, brethren, in the sense as we share the Savior's victory over sin, hell, and the grave. But it's a different matter conditionally.

Adam and Eve, you should have been an overcomer. They were overcome. Achan, you should have been an overcomer.

Adam and Eve, it was the lust of the eye. Achan, Samson, you should have been an overcomer. Solomon, they were overcome.

Lust of the world. Lust of the flesh. Go to the virgin soil of the early testimony when hundreds were saved in these early days of the apostles.

And Satan couldn't get fully at the Christians from without. So he started from within, Ananias and Sapphira. You should have been overcomers.

But they were overcome. The love of money. So here, my dear brethren, the Lord has a crown.

And ultimately, you and I will see the Savior. If not now, it will become very clear at that time that all you have done by faith, all your actions, your whole life poured out for Himself in whatever capacity God has placed you, you will realize then that all that you've been taught when you see Christ are true after all. The Lord will not withhold a reward.

He will not end quite a number of crowns in the New Testament which we haven't got time to look at today. But look up, young men. Look up, young sister.

It won't be much longer. And the Lord will have a reward for you.