I believe it was an old commercial for motor oil where the mechanic used the line, "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later!" I do know for a fact that it was Walter Brennan that used the line many times in some old TV western series, "No brag mister, just fact!"
This week we are continuing to look at the natural and the spiritual aspects of the production of gold. God can refine you into gold, His way now, or you can wait and let the world refine you later to God's glory. With some time spent in St. Peters gate to get the priorities straight the end is the same. Jesus could say, "Pay me now, or pay me later, its your choice. No brag brother, just fact."
Now if you were to decide to have your gold refined out of you in the process I developed, let's say it would take one day. During that one day you would feel like you were in a pickle, "Oh, that smarts!" But after a day you would be done. Your gold would be precipitated as at least 99.9 percent pure in the powder form. Rinsed off and dried, you could put it in one of those plastic jars you buy Cinnamon at COSTCO, and looking at it know one would be able to tell the difference. It could also be used as an inert medium for growing hydroponic tomatoes. It really isn't gold until you melt it down into the metal, when the government would seek its cut. Just a short stint in the furnace and everyone could tell you are the real thing.
Now, contrast this refining process with the world's. First of all, the world's process is forty times slower. That means instead of one day in a pickle to get all your gold refined out of your concentrate, you would need to spend forty days and nights in a cyanide bath. Now because of the dilute concentrations of cyanide used in leaching of gold, after forty days you would probably be dead, but there is really no guarantee. You just might make it that far. However, if you didn't die you definitely would wish you were dead, after just a few hours.
If the cyanide wasn't bad enough, cyanide also dissolves the silver and a few other contaminants. So when the man, added his magic dust and precipitated out all your dissolved metals, you would still be full of silver as well as gold. When you came out of the furnace they would call you Dore. (door-e) You would look like gold, but you sure wouldn't be that refined. Now is where it would really get ugly.
The next step in the world's refining process is that your dore would be placed in a crucible and heated until you melted, just like they did when they made you into a golden bar. But this time, if the cyanide was not bad enough, when you were melted, all nice and hot, they would stick a pipe into you and bubble pure chlorine gas through you until all the contaminates, including your silver were refined out as dross chlorine salts. Then and only then would you come out as "gold tried in the fire." Just as Jesus commanded in Revelation 3:18.
Now three Bible verses directly speaks about this refining or trying process:
But he knoweth the way that I take: [when] he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23:10
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It [is] my people: and they shall say, The LORD [is] my God. Zechariah 13:9
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:7
All this refining talk may sound just as a bunch of hyperbole, to make it all too difficult to understand, or perhaps more appropriate in modern evangelicalism, "Jesus loves me, and when I gave my heart to Jesus, he promised to never hurt me in a way I do not like." In any event, how about a biblical application which I call the 10 - 90 rule which is based upon the scripture: Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16)
Now the first principle that makes it all work is the concept of one. One is the basis upon which the whole universe has been created and assembled. Christians speak of the Triune God or the Trinity. One God in three persons, a mystery beyond the grasp of human understanding, but a biblical truth that rises from the pages of scripture as one of the essential doctrines of the church. In that same way, beginning with one, we can begin to understand eternity and the limits of the present. But without one, one individual, one couple, one family, one church, one God, life itself is undefined.
Now this Bible reference is really in 90 -10 order and pertained to sending out the twelve, but as we continue you will see it all comes around to a limitation placed by God on this present era. In paraphrase, this passage becomes: "Be as child-like as an innocent 10 year old, and be as wise as the wisdom gained in a 90 year lifetime." But no matter how you state the order, starting with one you end up with the total of 100, which is defined as the maximum score in this refining principle, just like four nine gold, 99.99 percent pure.
Notice that we really make a contribution to the first 10 points or percent, God does most if not all of the 90. Perhaps another example relating more to money will illustrate the point better. We are all familiar with the parable of the talents recorded in Matthew 25:15-30
And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made [them] other five talents. And likewise he that [had received] two, he also gained other two, removing the tares. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, [thou] good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, [there] thou hast [that is] thine.
His lord answered and said unto him, [Thou] wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and [then] at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give [it] unto him which hath ten talents.
For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Now when we divided the Bible into two parts, rule and exhortation, some weeks ago, notice that the parable of talents is really all exhortation. We all are given a certain number of talents to begin with, but the use is really something we are given sovereignty. We are exhorted to invest them wisely. You can use your talent(s) for the glory of God, to reap fame in fortune in this world, bury them in a hole of your own choosing, or even put them in the bank. Now notice this principle, the man who started with five, earned five, making ten, but was given the one from the man who did nothing with his, leaving the one man with eleven. The last one talent being a complete gift.
Now see how this 10 -90 rule develops further in the following passages, but here the pattern changes completely from exhortation, to a conditional rule:
And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men [it is] impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. But many [that are] first shall be last; and the last first. Matthew 19:26-29; Mark 10:27-31 similar in Luke 18:28-30.
Similarly in John we see, this time in the context of being tried or refined:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. John 12:24,25
In the Authorized version the hundredfold occurs five other times:
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him. Genesis 26:12
And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see [it]: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing? 2 Samuel 24:3
But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Matthew 13:8
But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth [it]; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Matthew 13:23
And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Luke 8:8
Now we can get too carried away with this concept, and perhaps have to spend some time behind St. Peter's gate on our way to heaven, but I think you can see the development of the biblical concept of the 10 - 90 rule. We have to plant our seeds, our talents into God's garden, whether that be one or ten, God gives the increase up to a hundredfold. We also see the proper development of the biblical principle of rule and exhortation. We do what we are called to do, and God provides the increase within the created realm in which God gave to mankind.
Nowhere in all this do we see God in any way relinquishing His right to choose his own children as He sees fit. This is God's election of His children and not their free agency to choose their own righteousness. God's rule of His law always justifies our righteousness as His children, we are then exhorted to live child-like not childish lives.
Next week we will show some practical methods by which the child-like become wise, and perhaps more importantly how we all wise in our own eyes childish me, myself ,and I, mature adults can become more innocent child-like, amazed, and blessed in this life. It is truly and exhortation, we have it not, because we are too self seeking to grasp its simplicity. The question is really how we respond to trying times, now or later? "No brag mister, just fact!"
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