Word of Salvation – Vol. 27 No. 06 – November 1981

 

The Refiner’s Fire

 

Sermon by Rev. Steve Voorwinde on 1Peter 1:7

Scripture Reading: Malachi 2:17-3:5; 1Peter 1-9

 

There are many ways in which we like to think of God.  There are Biblical pictures of God which are dear to our hearts, which are favourites with us all:

– God is our heavenly Father and we are the children on whom He has compassion;
– God is the Good Shepherd and we are the sheep of His pasture;
– God is the great King and we are privileged to be His subjects.

But there are also ways in which we very seldom think about God.  Perhaps these are pictures that the Bible doesn’t use so often, but they may also be pictures which are less comforting and more painful for our human understanding.  They don’t fit in so easily with the way we would like to think of God.

And one of these pictures is that God is the Refiner – He is the smelter, the metal worker, the smith.  He is the workman and that means that we are the metal that goes into the furnace.  We are the metal that gets hammered out on the anvil.  And that’s not a very comfortable view to have either of God or of ourselves.

1. But let’s be honest, let’s face the facts of Scripture, and they tell us that if we come to God, if we belong to Him, then He has every right to test us. He has every right to test the genuineness of our faith – as gold is tested in the fires of the furnace, so God tests the quality of our faith in the trials of life.  It is His job to purify us, to refine us, to sanctify us.
2. In the Old Testament this theme occurs again and again:

Prov.17:3 “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests hearts.”

And then in Psalm 66 the writer reflects back on the history of Israel and makes this comment: “For Thou hast tried us, o God, Thou hast refined us as silver is refined.” (vs.10).  And then later on in the prophecy of Isaiah the Lord Himself echoes these words when He speaks to His people Israel: “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” (Is.48:10).  And again as the prophets look forward to the coming of the Messiah, they see Him as the refiner of His people.  In the well-known words of Malachi quoted in Handel’s “Messiah”:  “Who can endure the day of his coming?  Who can stand when he appears?  For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.  He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them liked gold and silver.” (3:2 & 3).

And so the teaching is unmistakably clear.  The Lord is the refiner of His people.  He has the sovereign right to place us in the furnace of affliction.  He has every authority to test our faith and try our hearts.

1. Now before you think that all of this sounds very harsh and cruel, I want to say three things of a practical nature that bring it all into perspective:
2. Firstly, it shows us that we are very precious in the sight of God. It is only precious metals like silver and gold that are refined.  In fact the Bible says that our faith is more precious than gold, our hearts mean more to God then our gold means to us.  If you happen to have any investment in gold bullion or Kruger-rands then you will no doubt appreciate what this means.
3. Secondly, we must understand the purpose of the refining process. The metal worker puts the silver and gold through an intense heat so that the impurities, the scum and the dross will come to the top and be burned away, and only the pure metal remains.  And likewise when God puts us through trials and affliction He has a way of purging sin and impurity out of our lives.

He knows how to make us more pure and even more precious in His sight.  One of our hymns has said it very well:

“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie;
My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.” (P.H.411:4)

3. And thirdly we need to remember how the goldsmith knows that the dross has in fact been consumed. How does he know?  What does he look for?  Allow me to let one of the Bible commentators speak for himself:

“The beauty of this picture is that the refiner looks into the open furnace, or pot, and knows that the process of purifying is complete, and the dross all burnt away, when he can see his image plainly reflected in the molten metal.” (Baldwin, p.243)

The job is done when he sees himself in the liquid silver or gold.  That’s the positive side of the refining process.  The negative side is to remove the scum, the dross, the impurity, the sin.  The positive side is that God will see Himself reflected in us.

1. And probably the clearest individual case of such testing is Joseph. Many years later the Psalmist makes this remark about the experience of Joseph:
   “Until the time that his word came to pass,
   The word of the Lord tested (or refined) him.” (Ps.105:19).

You could say that Joseph went from one fiery furnace into another:

– First there was slavery,
-Then there were the false accusations of Potiphar’s wife,
– Next there was prison,
– And last but not least, there was his sudden rise to power and affluence.
And surely this was no less of a test than the other trials
through which he was called to pass.

But through it all Joseph was refined and in the end we see how clearly he reflected the very character of God.

When his brothers came to him he wasn’t bitter or revengeful, but he’s gentle and kind and forgiving.  Listen to the tone of his language as he speaks:

I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!
And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry
with yourselves for selling me here,
because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you…!
It was not you who sent me here, but God.” (Gen.45:4-8)

What a fantastic work of “trying” as one tries silver by heat had been going on in Joseph, and how beautifully he came through the trials!   Through it all he had become a clearer reflection of the character of God than ever before.

1. Now of course it’s tempting to say that all that has been said so far belongs to the age of the Old Testament. Perhaps God doesn’t deal with His people this way any more!  And yet it is the whole content of this Old Testament teaching that forms the background to Peter’s words in our text.  There he is talking about suffering grief in all kinds of trials, and of these he says:

“These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

1. Again the picture is exactly the same as it was before. On the one hand there is the gold that is refined by fire.  On the other hand there is our faith that is proved genuine by all kinds of trials.  The point of comparison has not changed.  The experiences of the Jews in the Old Testament will be repeated in the lives of the Christians of the New Testament.  God is still the refiner and the purifier of his people, and He still uses all kinds of trials to achieve His purpose.

And this helps us to answer a very important question: How do you know that your faith is genuine?  How can you be sure that you’ve got the real thing?  How do you know that it’s fair dinkum and not false and phony?

Well, Peter gives a very straightforward answer: It is proved genuine by all kinds of trials.  In other words, these trials are blessings in disguise.  It’s God’s way of showing you that your faith is real.  It’s his way of letting you prove to yourself and others that what you have is the genuine article.

In his teaching Jesus showed us the other side of this coin.  You will remember in the parable of the sower that the second kind of seed fell on the shallow soil. It sprang up quickly, but when the sun came up the plants were scorched and withered. And later Jesus explains that these were the ones who received the Word with joy, but they only last a short time.  When trouble or persecution comes because of the word they quickly fall away.

Their faith was tested but it wasn’t proved genuine.  It was imitation gold.  It was fool’s gold and not the real thing.  And it’s those trials that tell the difference between fool’s gold and pure gold.  God sends those trials to test the genuineness of your faith.  How is it with you?  Has your faith been tested?  Has it been found to be true?  As Augustine said: “In the fiery oven the straw burns, but the gold is purified.”  Is your faith straw or is it gold?  And has it been purified in the refining fire of God?

Ᏼ.  Now if it is true that God tests the genuineness of our faith by all kinds of trials, then surely these are the kinds of experiences that a person should expect once he becomes a Christian.  It may not happen in every case, but not long after you’ve become a Christian those trials will begin to come.  They will be trials of various kinds, different from person to person, but just as real for every individual.  Those trials will show you what your faith is like and also what your heart is like whether, in the words of the parable of the sower, it is shallow soil or thorny ground or whether it is in fact the good soil which yields a fruitful harvest.

If we want growth it may be that God sends us trials.  This was the experience of John Newton.  He had once been a slave-trader, but when he was converted he became a famous hymn-writer, and it was he who wrote the beautiful words of “Amazing Grace.”

Now if a man can write words like that he must have had quite a conversion experience.  But after that he wanted growth, he passionately wanted to be a fruitful Christian.  And what happened? I’ll let the man speak for himself in his usual poetic way:

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and every grace,
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.

‘T Was He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer;
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.

I thought that in some favoured hour
At once he’d answer my request
And by His love’s constraining power,
Subdue my sins and give me rest.

Instead of that, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart,
And bade the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part…

“Lord, why is this?” I trembling cried
“Wilt Thou pursue this worm to death?”
“This is the way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.”

“These inward trials I employ
From self and sin to set you free,
And cross your schemes of earthly joy
That you might find your all in Me.”

Here was a man who wanted growth, more faith, more love.  But first came the trials.  First came those trails to test the genuineness of his faith.

1. And here again there is another valuable practical lesson. There are some Christians who have had a tremendous conversion experience, or sometimes after their conversion they have felt an amazing joy and closeness to God.  Day after day their spiritual life was just so real and effective.  But now all of that has gone.  They don’t know what’s happened and they so desperately want back what they had before.  What’s gone wrong?  Has the devil got in there and spoiled it all?  Or could this too be the hand of God?  Sometimes the Lord will test the genuineness of our earlier experiences by putting us through the fires of testing.  So let’s not pretend we are still on the mountain top when we know we are in the furnace.  Even in that unlikely situation you can still know the love and care of God. You may remember Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The liturgical form for infant baptism is very reassuring when it says that:

“God the Father assures us that He adopts us as His children and surrounds us with His love and care even when His hand tests us.”

But then of course there was that One Child who endured the severest test of all, but without the Father’s love and care.  And that test was what Jesus Christ endured in the fiery furnace of Golgotha.

Never was the test so great.
Never was the fire so hot.
Never was the gold so pure.

There was no dross, no scum, no sin.
There was only the perfect image of God Himself in all his mercy and justice and truth.  Never before had the refiner’s fire burned like this and never has anyone come through it so genuine, so pure, so true.  It proved that He was who He claimed to be – the very Son of God.

And this brings us then to the end of our text. These trials have come not only that your faith may be proved genuine, but also that it may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed, i.e. when He comes again.  And there is a double meaning here:

– Jesus Christ will be praised, glorified, and honoured because He was worthy of our faith and trust.

– And all believers will be praised, glorified and honoured because they have been approved by Christ.

– And so what a privilege it is when our faith is tested.  It holds blessings both for the present and the future.

For the present it means that our faith is proved genuine.

And for the future it will mean praise, glory and honour.  We will enter heaven with high distinction, magna cum laude, with highest honours.

Do you believe that?  Then you might even have the courage to pray with David?
‘Examine me, O Lord, and try me;
Test my mind and my heart.” (Ps.26:2).

He was asking God to put him through the refiner’s fire.  Maybe there are times when we should do the same.

Amen.