7 Churches: Smyrna, the loyal assembly; the refiner and the furnace

Revelation in chapter two again, it might be appropriate just to commit the reading of the word of God in prayer. Our father, we just take a moment. We would hesitate to ever open thy word and to give its meaning to the people of God and to take the tremendous responsibility of conveying the mind of God to others without first bowing in thy presence and owning the worthlessness, the uselessness of flesh and natural skill and abilities and the dependence we have upon thee for spiritual enablement and for the spirit of God to take divine things for the blessing of his people.

We commit ourselves then to thee in this brief time. We take a moment to think of other places. We think of Mimico this weekend and the Bible readings there and pray that God would richly bless his people there and give help in every way as we now commit ourselves to thee in the savior's name.

Amen. Chapter two of Revelation and verse number eight unto the angel of the church in Smyrna. Right.

These things say at the first and last, which was dead and is alive. I know thy works now should just point out that most other manuscripts would say the that is the only place where that expression is omitted. Thy works, I know, is the way it should read.

I know thy tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich. I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.

Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried and you shall have tribulation. Ten days be thou faithful unto death. I will give thee the crown of life.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. Now, God will, I am sure, add his blessing to the reading of his word.

Now, you cannot come to this letter without being impressed with at least two things on the surface. The first is that geographically, geographically, Smyrna was not that far away from Ephesus. Geographically, you could in that day, we wouldn't do it today, you could walk it.

Probably it would be a fairly good day's walk, but it was not a distance that was appreciable. Yet, Ephesus knows nothing of persecution. Smyrna is going through tremendous persecution.

Second thing that you cannot help but notice is it's the shortest letter to any assembly. We would have thought this assembly that is going through trial and through persecution and is in the furnace of affliction. I'm sure the Lord is going to just pour tremendous words of comfort to them.

And but it's the shortest letter. Brevity marks it. What is it for brief verses? That's all just so brief.

So you cannot help but be struck by these things so close to the other assemblies. And yet here's the only one knowing persecution going through tremendous difficulty and yet just four verses for them. So let me then come to this letter with you and look at this loyal assembly and consider together something of the divine refiner and the furnace.

It's an assembly that obviously is passing through persecution. If you were to look and to appreciate the dispensational view, this is that period after the balmy honeymoon days of the early assembly when persecution arose in the Roman Empire. And the things that we read of are things that put us to shame.

When believers would be taken and covered with tar to be used as torches to light the arena. For Nero and for the Roman emperors, bodies burned at the stake, individuals left for the sport of spectators to be mauled to pieces by wild beasts. When you read of things like that in church history, you almost begin to think maybe there'll be some special place in heaven for those people.

You hardly feel worthy of being in heaven with them when you read of what they have gone through, but looked at in its literal historical sense to consider something of the of an assembly that is passing through trial and the lessons we would learn from it. This letter will show us something of the sovereignty of God. It will teach us something of the suffering of saints.

It will underline for us something of the strategy of Satan, and we will see spiritual assessment being given to us of of believers. So come with me then, first of all, to the refiner and his ability, the refiner and his ability. Three things that I want to show you about this refiner.

I want to talk to you about his suitability, about his sovereignty and about his sympathy, this refiner and his ability, his suitability, his sovereignty and his sympathy. Each presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is in keeping with the need that he will address in that assembly, that's, you know, kindergarten, seven churches taught us from the day we first came into assembly fellowship, but each uniquely contains in it something that will be such a comfort to those who are in need.

And so you will notice, first of all, he brings before us his suitability to be a refiner. He is, we are reminded in verse number eight, the first. And the last, he is before everything.

He is the conclusion of everything. He is absolutely suitable. He not only knows the future, but he's there already.

If you understand what I'm saying, he's there already, not just that he knows what's going to happen. He lives in eternity. He is first.

He is last. Now, you will have to understand that because you and I cannot understand that we can't conceive of it doesn't mean it isn't. So if your mind and mine were the ultimate judge of everything, we would have a sad God to worship and to serve.

We have a God who is greater far than any of our minds can conceive. He lives. He has inhabited eternity.

That's how great he is. When I drive down your highways here and I see some of the big houses and look at some of the greatest states, I begin to think, you know, that person must be important to have that big a house. Well, God is so great.

The only house big enough for my God is eternity itself. He's the God that inhabits eternity. Nothing else could contain him in his greatness.

And so he's there already. And so when you and I are going through trials, when you and I are suffering and wondering why and when is it going to end? We've got a God that's there already. He's the first.

He's the last. And that God is your Savior and mine, the Lord Jesus. I am the first.

I am the last. That title, as many of you will know, occurs three times in the prophecy of Isaiah, not only indicating deity, but foreknowledge and control and sovereignty over all things. He is the one as first and last that governments may come and go, but he remains.

He may raise up a Nebuchadnezzar to judge a cold, difficult people called Israel, but he would raise up a Cyrus to bring about deliverance for his people. He's a God who is absolutely in control of all things. He is first.

He is last. He's there already whenever any trial occurs. But you will notice his sympathy as well.

I am he that became dead, he says in verse number eight, he who became dead and is alive. In other words, whatever you may be called upon to pass through, however great the trial may be, however intense the furnace and its heat, whatever may occur to you, I am he who became dead and now I'm alive. Interesting that that same expression is used and I tells us about he the word not was made, but the word became flesh.

He that was rich became poor. He became obedient unto death. He became dead.

He willingly moved into death, willingly became dead so that he could, among many, many other things, so that he could experience death and he could succor those who were being put to death for him. And so we have here his his sympathy, the worst that could possibly be done to them. He knew not just mentally, not like because many of us, we have read it in a book or heard about it somewhere else.

He's gone through it himself. And so maybe there's someone here and now I know I'm using this individually, not collectively. Maybe there's someone here and there's reproach at home, misunderstanding at home because you're a Christian.

His own brethren didn't believe in him. His own kinsmen said he's beside himself. You know what that means? They said he's mad.

He's out of his mind. Maybe someone here and in the community, the workplace, reproach and, you know, this sneering look, the condescending behavior, he knew all of that, the song of the drunkard. We esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

No beauty in him that they desired him. Men could see nothing in the Lord Jesus that they would naturally admire. He had no self-assertiveness, no pride, no macho-ness about him as a man.

Kind, tender, humble, lowly, serving, nothing that men viewed as that which really would make a man big in the eyes of others. He knew all of that. He is the one who became dead and is alive.

But we see as well in this chapter, in this letter, rather, his sovereignty. Thou shalt be tried for ten days. Now, in its dispensational setting, it would have to do with the persecution, perhaps for ten years under Diocletian.

Others link it with ten different persecutions, but we're just going to take it as it is here. Thou shalt be tried for ten days. Be thou faithful unto death.

I will give thee the crown of life. Ten days of trial that he was allowing to occur. His sovereignty.

What we mean by that is that nothing occurs outside of his control. Now, I've got to be careful because some young Christians may think, well, then you mean he caused that to happen? You mean he made people persecute? No, no, no. That is not sovereignty.

Sovereignty is that nothing occurs without God allowing it to occur. Not that God makes it occur. God is not the author of sin.

God is not the originator of sin and of evil. God in his sovereignty uses the worst that men can do for the blessing of his people. That's sovereignty.

God used a high watermark of men's evil at Calvary to bring about the greatest blessing for the human race. That's God's sovereignty, that God would take whatever men would do and use it to work out his purposes. And so here then we have a picture of of God's sovereignty.

Now, you'll notice that God says 10 days, not 11, not 12. God limits trials. God knows when the trial, you may not know when the trial is going to end.

I don't know when the trial is going to end, but God does. Tried for 10 days, we are reminded in 1st Peter, Peter says, speaks there of trials that come for a season and for a reason. So those two things should always brace us when we are in any kind of trial.

Trials come for a season and they come for a reason. And so God says here to the assembly at Smyrna, he says, you will be tried 10 days. So the Lord is limiting both the length of trial and the character of its trial for his people.

It is vital to realize that ultimately. Every trial, taking the words of both Peter and the words of James and James, chapter one, every trial becomes a trial of your faith. Now, what we mean by that is simply this.

It's not a matter of do I still believe in the Lord Jesus or am I still say that's not what I mean by a trial of your faith. Every trial will put to the test what you think of God. OK, does he deserve my faithfulness despite all that's happening? Can I trust him in the dark? Is he really good and is he really going to give me the best in life? There are many people who have failed the trial.

Many of us have failed the trial at different times in life, but it ultimately becomes what do I think about God? Is he good? Well, if he's good, why is this happening to me? Is he in control? If he's in control, why is this happening? Is he really going to give me the very best in life as he's promised? And why is this happening to me? Is is he really working for my good? Then why is this happening? Is God trustworthy? Is God aware of me? And all of those questions, you know what they're doing, they're a trial of your faith. What do you think of God? And so amidst trial, we are reminded then of the need for holding on to what we have appreciated and learned of God as we pass through a trial. And so he speaks here in these first few verses of the refiner and his ability.

Trial is, I say, a strange thing. That's hardly the word to use. But there is something inscrutable about God's ways amidst trials.

For example, when I come to Acts chapter 13, there are two men. There's a James and there's a Peter. James is taken by Herod and he is beheaded.

Peter is then taken by Herod because he saw that it pleased the Jews and he's about to behead him. And you know the story, the angel comes and leads him out. Iron gates yield and Peter leaves and of course goes to the Rota and you know all the rest.

But why is it that? James is beheaded. Peter's allowed to live. Why is it earlier in the gospel, both of Matthew and Mark? I think it's in Matthew, it's the same chapter.

Peter begins to walk on the water and looks around and sees the storm and cries, Lord, save me. And the Lord lifts out his hand and saves him. But earlier in the chapter, John the Baptist is beheaded, yet he's waiting for the Lord and deliverance.

Things are inscrutable in God's ways. Why is it that Smyrna knows tremendous persecution and just up the street a bit, up just heading a little north and east, an assembly called Pergamos that we would say they need it. They're not going through trial.

God's ways are inscrutable. The assembly that he has nothing negative to say about is the assembly going through the fiercest furnace of affliction. Many times it is the choicest of God's saints that know the greatest of difficulties and trial.

And the reason for that. I was going to say it's simple. No, it's not.

The reason isn't simple. The explanation is beyond me. But let me just give you maybe just a little five percent of the answer.

Five percent of the answer is God couldn't trust me with the trials he gives others. He knows I wouldn't stand. He knows that the trial came to me.

I would collapse. There are others that he can trust with. He can only trust in Abraham.

He could never have trusted a lot to offer up a son or a daughter. Only trust in Abraham with that. And so God allows trials to those who he has equipped to pass for with the refiner and his ability.

Let me come to the furnace and its intensity, the place, the person, the pressures. Let me talk to you about the place. Smyrna.

Smyrna was a city that was given over to idolatry, first of all, but also given over to the worship. It was one of the first cities given over to the worship of a cult of the Caesars. Caesar is God.

And that was the ringing acclamation of the city of Smyrna, that Caesar was God. Now, as long as as long as Caesar got his place as the chief God, you could have all the other gods you wanted. But just make sure that Caesar is the God.

And this was a city given over to the worship of Caesar and to other idols as well. It was a city as well that was fanatically devoted to Rome in its allegiance politically. It was a city.

It had a patron goddess called Sybil, who every winter and spring died and rose again. And that's part of the background of the one who became dead and is alive. Contrary to all the myth and idolatry of of the city, there was a real living savior who they could rely upon.

Likewise, it was a city where there was a crown of of temples was called the crown of Ionia, idolatrous temples that dotted the landscape. And if you were at a distance, you would see the city and it was called the crown of Ionia with all of its idolatrous temples. That's the background for the crown of life.

And then finally, if you read church history, it is the city in which a man named Polycarp. Now, there are some differences as to dates, A.D. 156, A.D. 169, but probably within about 60 years of the penning of this letter, there was a man named Polycarp, an aged disciple. At that time, I think he was over 90 years of age who was let out and burned at the stake for his faith in Christ.

Interesting to think that Polycarp may have read this letter that that John wrote to the assembly at Smyrna, be thou faithful unto death. And as they led Polycarp out, telling him, just recant and you don't have to die. Eighty and six years has he done me no wrong.

How can I be unfaithful to him at last? Refused to be tied to the stake, wanted just to stand there and allow the flames to engulf him. And as he seemed to be not dying as quickly as they wanted to, they rushed to him with spears to to put him to death. This very city.

So you can understand something of the of the atmosphere, the idolatrous unbelief of this city, Smyrna and its opposition to what was of God, the place. But then the people, the persons involved, they were Jews and Gentiles. I know, he says, the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not.

So there were those who were Jews. But of course, the Jews themselves would not have the power to put to death. So they were linked together.

This unusual marriage in a dysphoria place, this unusual marriage of Jews and Gentiles, the strangest of opponents joining together to persecute, to put to death believers who are being faithful to the Lord Jesus. False accusations and all that was part of it was was apparently what was being seen here. But behind it all, behind Jew and Gentile, there is this there is the synagogue of Satan.

There is Satan himself, seen as the tremendous opponent, the adversary of the people of God in the persecution that arose. Now, there are four assemblies that we will look at of the seven, four assemblies in whom we will find the activity of Satan and find him working. You know why? Ever since, I'm going to say the Garden of Eden, it predates that.

Ever since the fall, Satan has opposed whatever God finds pleasure in. Wherever there is God finding pleasure in something, this is my well-beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Satan tempts.

Satan would seek to mar. Here are testimonies for God. Here is where God is finding pleasure, where God is finding fruit.

And Satan will seek to mar it. And yet in the four different assemblies he is seen in in four different lights. Here at Smyrna, it's the fire of affliction.

When we come to Pergamos, we find that he becomes the friend of the assembly. When we come to the church at Thyatira, it's false teaching. And when we come to the churches at Philadelphia, he is the foe of all that Christ loves.

So he is. We see him as the fiery persecutor. We see him as the friend.

We see him as the false light. We see him as the foe. Now, I'll leave for you in your own thinking to answer why Satan is not seen at Ephesus, why Satan is not seen in Sardis, why Satan is not seen as active in Laodicea.

And I think if you have an answer for that, then I think you will gain some insight into another curious thing. And that is, why isn't that demon possession is not as prevalent in affluent, indifferent Western society as it is in some third world countries where there is no affluence, there is no world to entertain, there is no world to distract, there is no materialism that people will covet after. Just think about that.

Just leave that aside for now. But we have the place, Smyrna, with all of its idolatry and rabid opposition to God. We have the persons involved.

We have the Jew and Gentile joined together. We have them energized by Satan and his hatred of God and his hatred of all that that gives testimony for God. Let me come then to the pressures under which they were laboring.

There are at least four things. There was the pressure of their poverty, their poverty. The Lord Jesus says to them, I know thy tribulation and poverty.

They were poor. Now, it may well be that their poverty was due to the very simple fact that to join one of the guilds to have a particular kind of employment, each of the guilds had their god or goddess to which you had to pledge your faithfulness. And so believers couldn't go in with that.

They couldn't be involved with idolatry. And as a result, jobs were scarce. Persecution was evident.

People wouldn't deal with them. And so it could be that their poverty was as a result of faithfulness for Christ. He speaks of the blasphemy of of the Jews, and it would be perhaps against God and against Christ that I think is the idea of blasphemy.

But it would be a tremendous trial for the believers as well. He speaks of their imprisonment. Some of you shall be cast into prison persecution for 10 days.

And some of you would be put to death. Not all believers go through the same trials. Not all believers have the same measure of persecution or difficulty in the world as others.

And we've already suggested some reasons for that. Some would be cast in prison for 10 days. Some would have to give their lives and others would not.

There was imprisonment and then there was death. Why? Let me just broach a subject which is very broad and very difficult. Why do believers suffer? Why does God allow suffering? The question has occupied not just philosophers and not just people who have an interest in ethics, but has occupied believers as well, because somehow there is the idea in the minds of most people that if God is truly all powerful and God is truly all loving, then how can those two qualities allow suffering in our world? How can a God who is all powerful allow injustice, allow tyrants, allow dictators, allow wars? How can a God who is all loving allow people to to suffer and to to no heartbreak and to no heartache? Questions that are not easily answered.

And certainly you're not going to get some ultimate answer in 15 minutes from this speaker today. But the word of God does give us some insights into into some of the reasons that God allows suffering sometimes. And it's not often sometimes it's for correction.

And if you want to see that, you can look at the life of Jacob and look at how God chastens a believer. Sometimes it is to correct us. And as the psalmist said, I want to be before I was afflicted, I went astray.

God allows chastening at times as correction because of a wayward path. But I think I think that is the minority of times the minority. And I certainly learned from this that when another believer, another family, another assembly is going through a difficult period of time.

It is wrong for anyone to say it's because of their sin or their failure. Be very slow. I have a hard enough time knowing when things happen to me.

Why? Much less tell you why it's happening to you or to your assembly. So at times it is for correction. But at times also it can be for prevention.

You remember what the Apostle Paul said? Because of the abundance of the revelation, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, lest I should be exalted above measure. So that God allowed suffering of some form. We're not sure what it was.

He allowed some form of chastening, a messenger of Satan to buffet Paul for this great purpose, to prevent Paul from becoming ineffective in his service for God. So that was, you know, we call it a preemptive strike. God was being proactive for Paul.

God, knowing what we are made of, knowing how we think and how we are, God sometimes allows difficulties and trials to prevent us from becoming ineffective in our service because of pride or a sense of independence. If I had the eloquence, I'll be honest, if I had the eloquence of my brother, I would I begin to think I was something, you know, and he has never had a loss for a word. It just comes out of him like, you know, a saw is just and I just sometimes sit and feel so tongue tied when I'm around him.

God just prevents certain things because he knows we can't handle certain things. And he gives some people what they can handle and others, he holds it back. And so now that's a minor thing, you know, eloquence and all the rest.

But you don't understand what I'm saying, that God is proactive, preemptive strikes. He knows what we can and can't handle. And so suffering and difficulties and afflictions can be corrective.

They can be preventative. And of course, as we are so conscious, it can be educational or developmental. In fact, every trial, every trial should develop fruit in your life and mine.

And every trial should help us to know something more of God. That's what James says, isn't he? He says, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, not just the why of the trial. Why is this happening and what is wrong and why is this occurring? But as I am going through the trial to learn God in the trial to develop for God, what does God want to develop in me through this trial? What is it that I am lacking that I need to allow patients to have her perfect work, that I might be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing? What is this trial developing in me for God? What can I grasp of God in the trial? And so it is developmental and educational.

But a fourth thing about trial is that can also become a testimony to others. A testimony to others. Why were three Hebrew servants cast into a fiery furnace? So that Nebuchadnezzar would know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men, that there is no God like the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Why was it that Daniel went into a lion's den, that Nebuchadnezzar might make a proclamation that all men would have to pray to the God of Daniel? So God allows trials sometimes, not for some benefit for you, but rather that through you, His grace might be displayed unto others. Now, we've all heard of people, haven't we, who have seen a neighbor, a Christian who has gone through difficulty, maybe in their death, maybe in their illness, but they have been such a testimony for God in the way in which they have born and the way in which they have been faithful in that trial, unmurmuring, uncomplaining, giving honor to God amidst the trial, that that has spoken to an unsaved person and they've gotten saved or it's spoken to someone who's saved and it's seen them restored or if nothing else, it has spoken to others. And they have realized that person has something that I don't have.

They have a God that I don't know. They have a life that I don't have. And so trial and affliction can be for the sake of testimony as well.

And so it can be to discipline us and to correct us. It can be to develop us as believers. It can be to deter us from becoming ineffectual.

And it can be to display the grace of God in me to others that they may know the God that is able to sustain. So why do we suffer? Those are just some, just some of the sovereign purposes of God in allowing suffering to occur. But let me come then to the material and its quality, the material and its quality.

There is in this letter, as we've said already, as you think of the material that God is working with, this Smyrna assembly, there is the absence of all correction, isn't there? There's the absence of correction. So that means it was a perfect assembly, wasn't it? No, it doesn't. Doesn't mean it.

It's interesting that if you go back to the Old Testament, there was a time when a strange, very strange individual named Balaam was trying to curse the people of God. And as he tried on those four occasions, the curse, all he could do was bless. God hath not beheld iniquity in Judah.

How lovely are thy tents and so on. And the expressions of appreciation and of admiration for Israel that uttered, that were uttered by Balaam on that occasion. And yet, when you read what Joshua says about the children of Israel, that they were still worshiping idols through it, that there was still failure amongst them.

But you see, the lesson you learn is that whenever Satan is doing his worst, God says the best. Whenever Satan is doing his worst, God says the best. So it isn't necessarily that the assembly at Smyrna was perfect, but going through difficulty, God always says the best that he can about his people.

Now, be nice, be admirable, it would be godlike if we did the same, if when the people of God are going through the worst, we said the best, not coming down on them, not telling them they deserve it, not explaining to them where they went wrong and why this is when Satan is doing his worst, we should be saying the best. So there is the absence of correction, which doesn't necessarily mean there are no problems. It just means that this was the time for God to say the very best he could about his people.

There was the appreciation of their poverty. Thou art, I know thy tribulation in poverty, but thou art rich. We suggested last night when looking at the chapter one and verse seven, a day of coming reversals, that much of what occurs in these letters is the Lord Jesus reversing, reversing earthly verdicts.

And so instead of being poor, you're really rich, I'm reversing things. Poverty may exist materially, but spiritually rich, the appreciation of their poverty. There was an awareness of what they were enduring and he was going to limit the trial 10 days.

And then there was the approval that he placed upon them. Some of you now, verse number 10, some of you, I think this is the right understanding if I grasp it correctly. Some of you will be cast into prison that you all might be tried.

OK, so that what I learned from this is that someone else's trial becomes something that puts me on trial before God. How I respond to your trial, how I respond to the trial of another believer, another assembly really tests me in the presence of God. Some of you will be put in prison that you all might be tried.

How are the rest who weren't in prison going to respond to those who are put in prison? Let me give you a personal example, and I don't mean I'm not dropping names in places like, you know, people that bore you with their vacation slides. So forgive me if it's name dropping. Must be five or six years ago, I had the privilege of being invited to to visit some of the assemblies in what was then Hong Kong, well, still Hong Kong, what was then not part of China before Hong Kong and China became one.

And I was taken into communist China to Beijing to meet with some believers. And I was introduced to a man, an older man, gray haired man, obviously about 80 or so or older. And he recounted something of his life.

He had spent 20 years in a communist prison for being a Christian. He told me the years, something like 1967 to 1987, since then he'd been on house arrest, had to inform the police of all of his movements. Now, what came to me as he was telling me, 1967, 1987, I was saved in 1965.

For 20 years, I don't think I ever prayed. For believers who were imprisoned in other parts of the world for Christ. You see, his trial.

Sure, that I had failed the trial. I was just self-centered, me, mine, my children, my wife, my family, my assembly, my friends. I failed to realize there are people elsewhere in the world who are suffering for Christ.

I don't know their names. I can't pray for them by name. But I can bow my knee and ask God to give grace to those who are suffering, those who are imprisoned, those who know genuine persecution.

So I failed the test. I left shamed, not just that I was in the presence of a man who knew what it was to suffer 20 years for Christ in prison, but that when he was suffering, I was having a time enjoying all the liberties that God could give me here in this land and never, never thinking that there are men and women who know what it is to literally suffer. And he wasn't in prison.

He was working in a coal mine with little on the way of clothes to wear in the bitter cold with little food. No Christian fellowship. I left shamed.

Yeah, there are things we cannot do for other believers, but there are things we can do. You remember when the Lord Jesus is speaking of a future day and sits in Matthew, is it around Matthew 25, speaking about the sheep and the goats, right hand and left hand entered out into the kingdom. You saw me hungry and you fed thirsty and you gave me water naked and you clothed me homeless.

You took me in, uh, in prison and you visited me. Sick and you came to me and they said, when did we do that? And you, you, you know how that unfolds. What I learned there is a very important principle.

There were those who are hungry and you could give them food. There were those who were homeless. You couldn't give them their home back, but you could at least bring them in.

There were those who are in prison. You couldn't get them out, but you could at least go to them. So he didn't expect those who were in prison that you would somehow get them released or those who were sick, you would somehow heal them.

He expected them to do whatever they could do. If you can give a cup of water, give it. If you can feed a hungry person, feed them.

If you can visit them, visit them, do what you can do. Now, translate that back into this. There are believers who are going through trials.

There are assemblies going through trials. You may not be able to solve their problem. You may not have the answer to their difficulty.

But do what you can do. Pray for them, encourage them, support them, do whatever is needed. That's the lesson here.

Some of you cast into prison that you all may be tried and of them, there will be those who will be faithful unto death. The need then of knowing his approval. It is always trial, which reveals the reality and the thinking of others.

Just think of David as he fled from the Fibber. It revealed the reality, didn't it? I'm sorry. When he fled from Absalom, it revealed the reality of a Mephibosheth.

It display the friendship of a Hushai, the archite. I think there's there are a few things that are so thrilling and such a wonderful commendation. Hushai, David's friend.

What a commendation. You know, when it came out, came out on the day of persecution, came out on the day of trial. No, Hushai couldn't overthrow Absalom, but he could overthrow the council of Ahithophel.

And then there's a Shimei that reveals himself. And so all of this reminds us that days of difficulty, days of trial are what unmask, what bring to the surface reality and what enables some to rise and to share in whatever way they can. There was Barzillai, wasn't it, who brought just those beans and lentils and basins and beds to David.

They would have meant little back in the palace. They meant everything in the wilderness. Doing what we can do, let me hurriedly come, though.

To the finished product and its beauty. The finished product and its beauty that ye may be tried. The refiner increasing the value of the precious gold, taking that golden lampstand and making it shine brighter, more beauteous, more faithfully.

So whether individually, whether as families, whether as assemblies, the purpose of trial that ye may be tried, put to the test to enhance usefulness, to enhance beauty. The purpose of it. The promise, I will give thee the crown of life.

I have to be honest, going back and forth in my mind about the crown of life. I don't want to take away from the likelihood that it is a future reward, but I think there is a present application of it right now. Here's how I think.

I think here's my life and I've got these goals and I've got this ahead of me. And when trial and difficulty comes in, it's kind of a diversion. It's kind of an interruption of my life.

It's kind of a detour from what my life was meant to be. But what he's saying is that trial really brings us to the ultimate of life, of what life should be. Here is the very crown of life.

Here is the very best of life. It is going through trial and knowing God. It is going through trial and being tried and being approved.

It is going through trial and experiencing God amidst the trial. This is the best of life. James uses the same word, doesn't he, in James chapter one, crown of life to them that love him.

It is not trials are not a diversion in life. They are not the detours of life. Difficulties and persecution and problems, whatever form they take.

These are not the interruptions and the detours. This is what life is all about. This is the life God has designed, that we might know him better and that we may be developed for him and may become the believers he wishes us to be.

And then, of course, he says to this assembly, this church, they shall not be hurt of the second death. Now, that does not, of course, mean the possibility of a believer being hurt of the second death. It's just, again, living in the enjoyment of it, that the very worst that can happen in life, that whatever may occur in life, there is that which is before us for eternity, that even if it means death and none of us here, you know, it's so easy to speak about this.

You know, you almost feel hypocritical. Who of us is facing death? None of us. Who of us is even facing a rotten egg? None of us.

You know, we're talking so glibly about it. But the truth is that the very worst that men could do to these believers of Smyrna, even if it's death, he says, that's that's the end of it. They can go no further.

They can do nothing beyond that. Second death doesn't await you. There is an eternal prospect that lies before you.

And so he would give them that as encouragement, as compensation, as all that they would need to enable them to weather all that they were going through. The assembly at Smyrna, the briefest of the letters. Just a few brief verses, and yet so filled with comfort.

So filled with encouragement, because we didn't draw attention to it, let me draw attention to it now, we will find that to other assemblies, with one exception, the Lord presents different in the presentation of himself, the Lord will present different things, the sharp sword with two edges, his eyes like a flame of fire, his feet like brass and so on. But to the assembly at Smyrna, he presents himself just himself. I am the one that became dead and is alive first and last, just himself.

That's what he wants to do amidst every trial, amidst every difficulty. To reveal to you and to reveal to me nothing less than who he is in all of his suitability, in all of his sovereignty, in all of his sympathy to meet your need and to meet mine. Shall we speak to God in prayer? Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus, we bow together in my presence.

We thank you once again for the word of God, and we feel so lacking as we have read together of believers who knew what it meant to be faithful unto death. We have had liberties and freedoms. We have had prosperity in every way handed to us.

And yet we have failed these so miserably as testimony bearers in our world. We confess it before thee. We own the failure that marks us.

Yet thank you for the faithfulness that marks thee our God. We bless thee for a living savior. What resources we have amidst every aspect of life, every venue finds its resource in our Lord Jesus Christ and for him again.

Unitedly, we would give thanks to thee. We pause to thank thee for the people of God who have come. Thank you for the refreshments, the food that has been provided.

I ask thee and thy mercy to remember us for good as we return. Thanks to thee now for the food we shall partake of. Look to thee for the remainder of the ministry today and for time together with thy people as we return our thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.