You
have here in the King James version, "Though now in heaviness through
manifold temptations the trial of your faith…” The word “temptation”, to us “temptation”
has the connotation of being allured into evil. The word for “temptation” in
verse 6 and for “trial” in verse 7 are synonymous, they are alike with this
little exception: the word translated “temptation” is peirasmos and the
word translated “trial” is dokimos. Peirazo—the verbal form of it—is a
trial, a testing that could be neutral or have an evil connotation, a testing
and the outcome may be bad. But dokimos—or the verbal form dokimazo—is
a testing and the outcome is going to be good.
So,
the words that he uses are alike, synonymously; that right now you are in heaviness
through many peirasmoi, through many trials that are grievous, bad.
But the dokimos, the trial of your faith is more precious than gold.
The end of it is good, though it be tried with fire that we may be found unto
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of our Lord.
The
occasion of the writing of that to these members—the sojourners of the Diaspora
of the six provinces Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia—the
occasion of the writing of it is very apparent. When Nero—mad, insane emperor
Nero—accused the Christians of burning the imperial city of Rome in order to
take away the blame and suspicion from himself, he violently persecuted,
decimated, hounded the followers of our Lord. “These are the ones that have burned
the city!” And they literally took those Christians—this is about, we're
talking about 64 A.D.—he literally took those Christians and daubed them with
pitch and used them, hung them up and used them for burning torches to line the
streets of the city of Rome while he furiously drove his chariot through the
streets.
It
was a vicious thing that happened under Nero. Now the provinces always copied
the manners and the attitudes of the imperial city; only to an extremity, they
did it more so. And when the provinces saw that the caesar and the capital
city persecuted and martyred the followers of Christ, they immediately followed
example, only more viciously. So the trial by fire, the testing by fire that
the Christians were undergoing in Rome became even more vicious in the
provinces: Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.
In
that terrible persecution the Apostle Paul was beheaded and Peter was crucified
with his head down. Both of these great representatives of Christ lost their
lives in this trial by fire. Simon Peter before he was martyred—and he speaks
of it in the second epistle—Simon Peter knowing he was going to be martyred he
writes these letters, two of them here, to these in the diaspora; the
disciples of Christ that are scattered abroad in what we know today as Asia
Minor.
Now
he uses a word to describe that trial by fire that is astonishing to me, it is
amazing to me; it is the word time; “precious”, of great value. Time,
“That the time of your faith—that the trial of your faith—being much
more time, ‘precious,’ than gold that perisheth.” And the remarkable
thing as you look at it is the way Simon Peter likes the word. In these
general epistles that word time, precious, will be used once by James, not
at all by John, not at all by Jude, but Simon Peter will use it seven times; it
is very noticeable. The first time here, “The trial of your faith being much
more time—precious—than of gold.” The second time in the 19th verse:
"You're redeemed not with corruptible things like silver and gold but with
the time blood of Christ—with the precious blood of Christ."
In
the second chapter in verse 4 he will use it, "To whom coming to our Lord
as unto a living stone, disallowed by men but chosen of God and time—precious.”
Then he uses the same word in the sixth verse, "I lay in Zion a
cornerstone, elect, time—precious.” Then he uses it again in the
seventh verse, which is one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible,
"Unto you therefore who believe, He is time.” He is precious.
Then when we turn to his second epistle he uses that word twice again, “Simon
Peter,—verse 1—a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them who have
attained like time faith,” precious faith. Then he will use it in the
fourth verse, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and time promises,
“precious promises.
Now
we're going to look at the way he uses this word which is astonishing; it is
unbelievable. I can understand his use of the word in II Peter 1:4:
"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and time promises,” precious
promises. I can see that easily; they are precious, the promises of God, they
are time promises. I can easily understand it when he uses the word for
faith, “to them that have attained like time faith, “precious faith; the
faith that saves us by which we die, I can understand that, a time faith—a
precious faith.
I
can understand it when he uses the word with reference to our Lord in verse 4,
5, and 7 of the second chapter of the first epistle, talking about our Lord, He
is time. "Unto you therefore who believe our Savior is precious,” He
is time. And I can understand it when he uses it with regard to the
blood that represents the poured out crimson of the life of our Savior; we're
not redeemed with corruptible things, we're not bought with silver and gold, but
with the time blood of Christ—the precious blood of Jesus. I can
understand that, but when he uses the word here, the first time that he uses it
in our text:
The
trial of your faith is much more time—precious—than of gold that
perisheth, though that faith be tried with fire that we might be found unto the
praise and honor and glory and the appearing of our Lord.
That
suffering, and agony—yea, and martyrdom—should be time, precious, more
precious than gold. How could it be? How is it that trial is time,
precious? How is it that in agony to believe in hope against hope is
precious? How is it that in great suffering there is preciousness? Trial
unto death; how is that precious?
Well,
that's the sermon. As you think of it, and take it before God, let the Lord in
the Spirit speak to you. Immediately there comes to our souls the real and
significant meaning of what the apostle is saying. The trial, agony, the
dearness, the cost of the thing makes it precious. If you suffer for it; if you
weep over it; if you cry; maybe if you die for it, it immediately becomes time,
precious.
All
right let's look at it in human relationships. It is these for whom we suffer
or for whom we weep, for whom we agonize who are time, precious to us. When
Jacob was making his way to the south and left Bethel, he came down to a little
town called Bethlehem and there Rachel, the wife that he loved, travailed in
pain and in giving birth to a son. Dying in childbirth, she called his name, ben
oni—Benjamin, and there near Bethlehem Jacob buried her and set a pillar
above her grave.
The
lad was the youngest of the twelve sons of Israel, but he was time, he
was precious to the patriarch beyond what mind could understand. And it was
so that when Joseph was sold into Egypt and became prime minister, that the ten
sons of Israel went down to find food, for there was a great drought in Canaan,
and they appeared before the brother whom they had sold not knowing who he was—now
prime minister of the greatest nation, then, in the earth. And the prime
minister said, "You leave your brother Simeon here. You take this
food back to your father. But do you have another brother?" And they
looked at one another in amazement, “Why should he ask if we have another
brother?” They answered, "Yes, a little one who is dear, precious to his
father who's not with us." The man said, "If you come back for more
food, don't you return unless you bring that little brother."
As
the days passed, the famine was fierce; Israel said to his sons, "You must
go down into Egypt and buy more corn." And they said, "But the man
said except we bring with us our youngest brother we are not to see his
face." And Israel said, "You shall not take Benjamin. Joseph is
lost, wild animals have eaten him up. This is the child of my love and the
child of Rachel's sorrow and death. He's too precious.”
And
as the famine waxed fiercer and they faced starvation, Israel had no other choice, so they took Benjamin; Joseph's brother. And the story,
remember the cup found in Benjamin's sack? And they returned, and the man
says, "The rest of you can go including Simeon, whom I've held hostage
here that you would return. All of you can go but Benjamin is to stay."
Then
Judah—who had pledged to his father, Israel, his own life to protect the life
of the boy— [Judah] drew near, and in the forty-fourth and forty-fifth chapters
of the Book of Genesis, made the most moving appeal that human tongue had ever
uttered. And he closed it after describing the death of the boy's mother and
how dear he was—precious he was—to his father's heart. Judah ended the appeal with this sentence: "How shall I go up to my father and the lad be not
with me?" It was too much for human heart to bear and when Judah said
that, Joseph burst into tears, put all of his slaves and servants away from him,
and said to his brother, "Come near! Come near, for I am Joseph your
brother." And he took Benjamin and kissed him.
Why
all of that? For the very obvious and simple reason; it is these for whom we
suffer, who have cost the most, over whom we prayed the most earnestly, who are
the most time, “precious” to us. It is just the opposite of what you
would think. If it cost nothing, if there are no tears for it, if there's no
agony over it you treat it lightly; but if it costs, it is precious, time.
That is the human relation.
It
is no less so in our spiritual relationships, “The trial of your faith is more
precious than gold that perisheth.” It is true in our spiritual relationships;
our trials chain us to God. Job, losing all that he had, finally his health, sat
in an ash heap covered with sores—boils from the top of his head to the sole of
his feet. And when Job's comforters came, you can see the pride of the man as
he defends and justifies his integrity. When you read the Book of Job, you
have there written large on the sacred page, the pride of a good man who knew
he was a good man.
Job
held his head high before the Lord; he threw his shoulders back before his
peers and Job described the philanthropies of his life, and the altruism of his
spirit, and the good deeds that he did, and the paragon of his example. All
through Job is proud and lifted up. But when the Lord deals with him, when
the Lord talks to him, and when the Lord shows him how really the spirit of a
man should be in the presence of the high God. In the forty-second, the last
chapter of Job, listen to the good man, listen to the best man—God said he was—listen
to the best man in the earth as he cries before God and says, "Oh, God, I
have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eyes seeth Thee, wherefore
I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." The trial of his faith, the
agony of his suffering brought in low before God; it is precious.
I
haven't time to speak of Paul who, in the eleventh chapter of II Corinthians,
names all of those labors that he says are all more abundant than all the other
apostles. Then beginning in chapter 12, he describes the revelations that are
given unto him when he was taken up into the third heaven where God is. Then
says, “The Lord sent a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me
and I took it to God thrice and I asked God to remove it and take it away and
the Lord said, ’Not so, for My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is
made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore,” says the apostle, “I glory in mine
infirmities—and necessities, and trials, and tears, and agony—for when I'm
weak, then am I strong.” The trial of our faith is precious.
I
must close. It is so in our heavenly relationships: It is the trial. it is the
sorrow, it is the agony, it is the teardrop, it is the suffering that makes
heaven heaven. “Pastor, that's the most amazing thing that an intelligent man
can say, that heaven is made up of the agony, and the tears, and the heartache,
and the sorrows, and the death that we experience in this life.” I did not
invent that, it is not my thought, it is what God says, listen:
And
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old first heaven and the old first
earth were passed away and I, John, saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem coming
down from God out of heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband. And I heard
a great voice out of heaven saying unto me, "Look! Look! Behold the
dwelling place of God is with man. And God shall wipe all tears from their
eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying. Neither
shall there be anymore pain for these old former things are all passed away.
Now
you tell me, what would that mean? “And there shall be no more death?” What
would that mean to one who had never seen a loved one lowered into the heart of
the earth? “And there shall be no more sorrow.” What would that mean to
someone who had never been brokenhearted? “And there shall be no more tears?”
What would that mean to somebody who has never cried? “And there shall be no
more pain.” What would that mean to somebody who never knew what it was to
hurt? It is the very trial that makes heaven time; precious.
One
time upon a day a long time ago, I heard a chorus; the song moved me. It's
the first time I ever heard it; the song moved me but when I learned of the
young woman who was singing it, I literally wept remembering it. It's a song
about the 23rd Psalm:
Though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for
Thou art with me,
Thy rod and Thy staff they
comfort me.
Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever.
[“Surely Goodness and
Mercy”; John w. Peterson]
And
the young woman, a young mother, had been stricken with cancer and faced an
inevitable death and she sang in triumph, this song. And it was the first
time that I ever heard it, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow—“I can't do
it. Do you know it? Let's all sing it.
(Congregation sings,
“Surely Goodness and Mercy”)
Isn't
that like heaven? Just like the presence of God. And that's the faith that
out of the trial, and the tears, and the age, and the death, and the heartache,
and the sorrow God shall give us some new and better thing. It is time;
it is precious.
In
a moment now, we stand to sing our hymn of appeal and while we sing it, a
family, a couple, or just you; giving your heart to God, putting your life with
us in this dear church. Loving Jesus who died, whose precious love cleanses
us from all sin. Looking forward to His appearing for all that heaven shall
mean. If God speaks to your heart today, come. Answer with your life, do it
now while we stand and sing.
