Refined Faith 1980

Every one of those lessons that Al read is prophetic of a time in which we now live in a special way, I believe. And whenever we read that passage in Isaiah 61 about being able to open the eyes of the blind and set the captives free and bring good news to the poor, here it's repeated again in Luke 4, there is in us a kind of a frustration. You know, how come this isn't happening in our lives? And we all know that this ought to be going on corporately in the body of Christ.

And what's wrong? So today I would like to talk about what is taking place and will have to take place before we can expect this prophecy to really be fulfilled. That we will be able to go out and preach good news to the poor and truly set the captives free and really bring healing. It's not a cheap thing, it's a costly thing.

The price was paid by Jesus, but we're going to share in that price. To begin with, the symbol of fire. The symbol of fire is present in every dealing that God has with the human race.

And it has to do with judgment or refinement. The separating of the gold from the dross. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament end with a tremendous emphasis on that symbol of fire.

For instance, the last two chapters of Malachi include verses like these. Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me. The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.

The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap.

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Till they present right offerings to the Lord.

For behold, the day comes burning like an oven. When all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts.

So that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall.

You shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet. On the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. According to scripture, the end of the world as we know it, the end of this age for sure.

Will take place by three waves of fire visiting the world. The last of these three waves, the final one, will be judgment. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.

And then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise. And the elements will be dissolved with fire. And the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved. What sort of persons ought you to live in lives of whole be in lives of holiness and godliness. Waiting for the hastening, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

Because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved. And the elements will melt with fire. And this visitation of fire will be preceded by the fire of prophecy.

A prophetic word will go out over the entire planet. And it will be proclaimed by people like you and me calling the nations to repentance. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

Then the end will come. And the fire of a prophetic word will be preceded. By a fire of trial.

That will be directed specifically. Toward those who are being raised up by God to preach that gospel over the whole world. How in the world are you and I going to preach and live the fire of God.

Unless we ourselves have been refined by that fire. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or a wrongdoer or a mischief maker. Yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed.

But under that name, let him glorify God. For the time has come for judgment to begin with a household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the impious and sinner appear? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful creator.

Now, certainly. The trial of fire is part of the life of every believer. Just as surely as we can know that if we seek God's kingdom and his righteousness first, God will absolutely provide for us and take care of us.

We can know with the same assurance that if we seriously follow Jesus, we will experience seasons of triumph. But while that goes for all believers of all time, I believe there's a special application to the believers in the body of Christ on earth right now. If it is true that the end is near the way believers all over the planet seem to feel it is near.

And if the body of Christ is to proclaim with an aggressive gospel the nearness of the end and call people to repentance all over the earth. Then surely the body of Christ on earth at this time can expect that it will be prepared for its task, refined and toughened for what it is to do by fire. The time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God.

Now, in his mercy, God has given most of us and will doubtless give all of us a kind of a little sample of what that's going to be. Gets us ready for the times of severe trial by allowing us individually and sometimes corporately to experience. Less severe trials that many of us may be going through right now.

For instance, we are going along our way satisfied that we really are trying to live by faith. As far as we can tell, we truly mean this. We say, you know, I don't know where I would be without faith in God or I don't know where I would be if I didn't have Jesus.

And we mean that it's we're not exaggerating. We sincerely mean that as far as we can tell, we are really trying to apply our faith to our daily life. We're seeking God's face daily in prayer.

We're trying to receive sustenance from the scriptures. We're trying to translate the faith that we have received from God into our work, our family life, even our leisure time. We're altering the way we handle money, the way we deal with people, the way we solve problems to conform these things to our Lord's will.

And we're making some progress. And then all of a sudden, a bomb drops right down into our midst. Into our lives comes trouble, some disappointment or some awful humiliation, a tragedy.

Maybe pain comes into our body or into our mind that we just can't understand. Or vicious persecution strikes us. And now all of a sudden, everything in us, including our faith, is shaken.

Sometimes the trial passes quickly like a summer storm. Sometimes it goes on and on and looks like it's never going to stop. But in either case, what is happening now is that we don't have that simple view of things that we had before.

Things aren't like they were. There are questions coming up inside our hearts like, how could a God that I have believed in allow this thing to happen to me? And sometimes even, is there a God at all? Or how can this road of faith that I've been traveling bring me to this place where I have been beaten and robbed and stripped of everything I had except my pain? Probably nobody amongst you doesn't have some sense of what that's like. But the question is then, where did Jesus ever promise that things like this would not happen to us? If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, if they persecuted me, they will persecute you.

If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. I have said this to you that in me, you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation.

But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. In the world, you're going to have tribulation.

That's a promise. In me, you'll have peace. In the world, you're going to have persecution, rejection, a cross.

In me, you're going to have joy. Now the lesson we just have to learn, if the fire of God is ever going to accomplish its purpose in our lives, is to let the fire come in and do its work of refining and accompanying us to the place where we finally have the kind of faith that can go right on rejoicing in God in the midst of the flames. If we're forever running away from God's fire as we have been inclined to do, and have done many times, playing it soft and safe all the time, we will never be of any use to the purpose of God.

Oh, I like to hear a pleasant gospel. Why do they always have to talk about things like that? Talk about prosperity. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you as though something strange were happening to you.

Well, every follower of Jesus is going to have to know that. Don't think it's strange, he says. And this is Peter talking.

And Peter knows from his experience what he's talking about now. This isn't something strange. This is something necessary.

It's necessary for this flame to come in and burn out the drops and leave the gold there. See, before the trial came to me, most of my hopes were false. They were really pinned on vanity.

And now, all these vain hopes are getting burned up. Before the trial came to me, my confidence was not in God, even though I may have said it was. But all too often, secretly in my heart, mainly my confidence was in me.

In my superiority over those other slobs. You know, my spiritual maturity. My greater knowledge.

My discipline and commitment, etc. And from my pedestal, I was able to look down my nose on all the others and feel very comfortable. Ah, but now the trial is burning them all up.

And even now, through this trial, the flames are still looking at these things that I put such stock in. As I look at myself and what I'm into, I begin to realize that the only thing I have, the only thing I have is Jesus. God's mercy, nothing else.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes to prove you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share in Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Not only are we to understand the meaning of the trial, this flame that's looking at my life, but we are to rejoice in this thing.

Because in the trial, in the flame, I begin to experience a communion with Jesus, which was never possible before. Now I'm getting to know Jesus in the fellowship of his suffering, under the yoke of his cross. I'm sharing in this.

Our visions of Jesus come to us on the mountain. But communion with Jesus comes to us in the valley. You know, and if you get the vision of Jesus and never get that communion down in the valley, you don't have anything.

Peter got some idea of who Jesus was up there at the transfiguration, but he never really knew that Jesus who he got a glimpse of there until he began to suffer for his Lord. And if you look back over your own life, doubtless you will find it true. That those times when you have gone through the flames are the times when you began to experience communion with Jesus in a way you never knew it before.

So the trial that you may be going through now, or the trial we may have to walk through starting tomorrow. When it comes, don't just grit your teeth and suffer through it. But Peter says, rejoice in it.

Worship God in the middle of it. Sing his praises. Praise the Lord who is with you in the middle of the flames.

Paul and Silas did just that. You know, they turned their imprisonment in Philippi into songs of praise and they didn't sing praises to God in Philippi as a gimmick to bring on an earthquake. You know, they praise God and all of a sudden, boom, an earthquake.

See, it'll always happen. They didn't have any idea that was going to be an earthquake. They hadn't read some of these books that promised that if you do that, you know, the door will open.

You'll be all set. All they did was praise God in the middle of the flames and their joy was not. We know that pretty soon, you know, there's going to be an earthquake and we'll be out.

But God is with us. And what happens is his problem, not ours. And they praised him.

Likewise, for us, the rougher things get in our lives, the more joyful and free and loud, if you like, should be our worship here. Amen. That's right.

You know, it should be free, you know, and then it'll be real. If, for instance, the praises and the shouting and the hallelujahs are shallow based on, you know, no cost in our lives, then they have a hollow ring. But when we begin to feel the flames, then the hallelujahs and the shouts of praise are absolutely valid and right and necessary.

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Not only are we to understand the meaning of the flame and not only are we to rejoice in that flame, but we are also to receive its blessing. Praise God, we don't have to wait for the blessing until we finally get out of the fire and we're standing on the sea of glass before the fire.

The blessing comes in the middle of the fire. I will not leave you desolate. I will come to you.

And that promise is most dramatically fulfilled when we're in the flames. The same son of man who walked with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace walks with you in your flames and rests upon you as your head is covered with this world's shame. Take the blessing.

If God is raising up a people to cover this earth with a gospel to be proclaimed with an authority stronger and more marvelous than anything that's been seen since apostolic days. And if you and I have hopes of being in that company, ordained and called to do that job, and why shouldn't we? Then we need to understand that God is preparing the body that's going to do this all over the world right now. And especially in those places where people are suffering in ways we can't even imagine.

He is doing it not only by baptizing people in the spirit, but by also baptizing them in fire. Now, the baptism of the Holy Spirit can happen in a matter of minutes. It comes as a gift to anybody.

But the baptism of fire, for most of us at least, takes time. God puts us into the flames, and then when we can hardly stand it anymore, he pulls us out, lets us cool a little bit, and sticks us back in again. He pulls us out, in and out, until we learn to praise him in the flames, and until the gold is pure and the steel is hard.

May God help us to welcome the flames from God just as much as we welcome the Holy Spirit from God. And in that fire, rejoice, praise him, thank him, worship him, until the fire of God has made us ready for the work that lies ahead. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you as though something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God.

Let's think about that and then go to some prayer. Let's take our time.