“Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” (Revelation 3:ll)
“Behold, I come quickly,” means that Jesus will come suddenly. There is a quickness in God’s movement like lightning flashes. He said, a man can take away your crown by leading you into error, leading you into sin. God has preserved for you a crown, but it can be taken away. Let me tell you a memorable story of a crown that was taken away.
There was a brother working with us in evangelistic missions. One night he had a dream. In the dream a bright angel came to him and said, “Let me show you your crown.” The angel showed him something so magnificent, so glorious, that he could hardly describe it. The crown had every form of beautiful, costly stone and was made out of pure gold. The angel passed it by and went to one less beautiful and less valuable. He passed by that one too and went to one made of silver, but it was still pretty and beautiful. He passed by that one too. He went to one made of brass, yet it was also beautiful. At this time the brother began to panic in his dream. He said, “I would take this one!” The angel passed it by. He went down to one made of iron. The brother was now absolutely terrified and desperate. He would be glad to get anything. The angel passed it by. Finally, the angel went down to a crown made out of clay. At this point the brother woke up out of his dream. When he shared it with me, I told him by the Spirit of God that there was something in his life for which he needed to repent, as he was losing his crown. Soon we found out he was involved in wicked sexual sin. He would not accept our counsel, nor our prayer for him. When he was discovered, he got mad and left. He died a very horrible death just about a month later. I am sure God was telling him it was possible to be an absolute loser, though he had the opportunity at the beginning of being a great winner and an overcomer.
Therefore, dear brethren, let us hold fast that which we have so that no man would take our crown.
