Five Tests of the Refiner's Fire — E.A. Johnston

Biblical Images of the Believer's Faithfulness

Life for a believer is described several ways in our Bibles. We are to be like an athlete who competes for a prize, Paul tells us, and to run our race faithfully to the end. We are to endure hardship like a good soldier with our eyes not only on our enemy but on our commanding officer, Jesus Christ.

We are to be patient like a hard-working farmer who waits for the fruit of his crops to come forth. And each of these are apt descriptions of how a believer should live his life for the Lord and his Savior, but also believe, friends, that God will put each one of us through various periods of testings, trials, adversity, hardships to try us and to test us to prove what is in our hearts.

The Refiner's Fire in Job and David

We see this in the life of Job. He literally lost it all so God could prove him and take delight in him and receive glory from him. And Job had this to say about his many ordeals, but he knoweth the way that I take when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Another Bible character who experienced great trial and affliction was King David, and he had this to say in Psalm 66, 10,. For thou, O God, hast proved us, thou hast tried us as silver is tried. So we see, friends, we have this imagery of a furnace, of a refiner's fire, while the refiner of the commodity, whether it be silver or gold, he places that precious metal into the fire to burn out all the impurities, to draw us, to burn away and separate all that's useless, worthless to the refiner.

And God, the refiner of our souls, often puts us in times of testings, in storms of adversity, to try us and to prove our hearts. We see this from Isaiah 48, 10, which declares, Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver.

I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. And friends, we see a detailed picture of the divine refiner as found in Malachi 3 and verse 3,. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

So we see this aspect of the purpose of God in the refining process. We see in our text from Malachi that the objects in the fire are the sons of Levi, God's people. And he compares them to valuable precious metals like silver and gold.

He says his purpose with them is to purify them and to purge them as gold and silver. And for what purpose, friends, does God do all of this? The last part of our verse states that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousness.

God is cleansing them for his use, for his glory, for his namesake. And God will perform the same process on each one of us as well, friends. Oh, how painful the pruning process is. How hot the fire gets when it's turned up seven times seven.

How hard it is to part with our darling sins, to have those sins be burned out of us through trial and suffering and adversity, to be separated from all we hold dear in this world in regard to our self-life, and to be placed under the hand of the refiner of our hearts and souls.

The Divine Tools of Spiritual Refinement

God has many tools in his divine toolbox that he can use to accomplish his purpose in our lives, to cleanse and purify his vessels for use in the master's hand, to mold and shape us into a more clear reflection of his dear son Jesus.

What are these items in his divine toolbox, you might ask? They are these, and I have had every one of these tools applied to my own life, friends. These tools are the divine pruning knife for the cutting away of the self-life for further fruitfulness, the powder's wheel for the breaking of the self-life and remolding of character for further usefulness, the furnace of affliction for burning out the dross and the worthless to be a better reflection of Christ Jesus, the hammer of trial to break up all false hopes and foundations, the storms of adversity to strengthen our faith and grip on the anchor of our soul, Jesus, the sword of suffering to participate in the fellowship of his sufferings.

The Five Tests of the Refiner's Fire

The title of my message this evening, friends, is Five Tests of the Refiner's Fire, for I believe there are five tests that each one of us will pass through in life at one point or another. I remember Adrian Rogers saying, if your life has just been sunny skies and you've never been in a storm of life, friends, just hold on and wait, and you will because those storm clouds are on the horizon of your life.

And as I sat in that sanctuary and listened to those words of Dr. Rogers, I was beneath sunny skies in that period of my life. My business was going well. I had a pretty wife and a darling little baby girl, and all was going my way.

Then life came. Storms came and changed things, if you know what I mean. The sky darkened. The wind began to blow. The waves became billows, and my faith was put on trial, and my life was placed into a session of testings, all for the purpose of God and his glory.

Perhaps some of you know of which I speak. Your own lives have felt the tools of the divine toolbox, as they have been applied to your life, whether in times of trial, adversity, grief, or sorrow. I want to list these five tests of the refiner's fire for us now, friends, and then I will elaborate upon each head.

I apologize for the use of alliteration in this sermon, for I seldom use it because I feel it's overdone in our day, but it fits its purpose for this particular message. Here now are these five tests.

Number one, the test of fidelity through wilderness. Number two, the test of faith through storm. Number three, the test of faithfulness through prosperity. Number four, the test of fellowship through suffering.

And number five, the test of finality through judgment. I will begin with a true story. I once heard Manly Beasley relate the following incident in his life, and if any of you are familiar with Manly Beasley, you know he was a Baptist preacher as well as a great sufferer.

He said the following. He said that he was reading the book Bone of His Bone by F .J. Hegel, and it made an impact in his life. So Manly Beasley traveled to Mexico to meet F .J. Hegel, where Hegel was serving as a missionary.

He wanted to see if what Hegel wrote was real in his life, and he found out that it was. And while he visited F .J. Hegel, he shared a trial that he was going through in his life, and Manly Beasley asked F .J. Hegel if he could give him any advice on how to get out of this particular trial.

Hegel replied, I cannot tell you how to find deliverance from your trial, but I can tell you how to live in it. And that is wisdom, friends, from a man who had experienced trial in his own life through the death of his little daughter who was accidentally poisoned by the very people Hegel was witnessing to with the gospel.

Often God will place us in trials so we can help others through theirs. And now, friends, I have some things I want to share with you this evening, and I speak from that perspective of having been in each one of these tests and trials myself.

I know of which I speak, and I wish to pass on to you some of the truths which I have learned as I have sat at my master's feet and have passed through these various times of testings in my life. So here now is test number one, the test of fidelity through wilderness.

Fidelity Through the Wilderness

The Jews were in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses was on the backside of Midian in the desert for 40 years. Joseph was thrown into a pit and then cast into a prison for a number of years. The people of God each placed through times of testing for the purpose of God to be worked out in a demonstration of His power and for His glory to be displayed.

The test of fidelity through wilderness is a theme which runs through my Bible. I look at the passage in 1 Samuel as I peer into the life of Hannah in her barren wilderness of wanting a child. Oh, how that woman prayed and poured out her heart to her God.

Her fidelity of faith is tested in that wilderness where our passage states, she went up to the house of the Lord year after year. There was a length of time attached to that barren wilderness in Hannah's life, but her fidelity to God is demonstrated by her faith in God and her importunity in prayer.

Listen to these verses from 1 Samuel 9 and 13. So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by the post of the temple of the Lord and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore.

And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life and there shall no razor come upon his head.

And it came to pass as she continued praying before the Lord that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.

Dear friend, have you ever been placed in such a wilderness like Hannah? Perhaps you are a woman and you desire a child, but you are barren and you are in bitterness of soul. Perhaps it is a marriage that has become a wilderness and you don't know how you're going to survive it.

Whatever your particular case is, dear friend, what you are in is indeed a wilderness of the soul. And when you pray, are you like Hannah and you weep sore? You are in a place of such a barren wilderness that all you can do is stand on the word of God and cling on to your faith in God.

And you are misunderstood like Hannah where Eli thought she was drunk. But we see in the life of Hannah how God had her in a test of her fidelity to God. She is so serious in her deep faith in God that she vows a vow to the Lord of hosts.

I can see this same aspect as it is applied in the life of Moses. Listen, friends, to the following description of Moses in his wilderness and God's purpose in it. These words are those of F .J. Hegel.

For forty years on the lonely slopes of Midian, the fiery Moses is schooled. There were graves, if I may so speak, scattered all over the mountainside where hope after hope was buried until at last a self went down in utter annihilation.

So we see, friends, this aspect of the test of the wilderness in the life of Moses. Listen, friend, Moses was in two different schools. His first school was that he learned in the learned halls of Egypt where he was trained in all the wisdom of Pharaoh's court.

The second school Moses entered was in the backside of the Midian desert where Moses is in God's school where God had to get Egypt out of Moses and get Moses out of Moses, so to speak. It was the self emptying of Moses that occurred in that wilderness time in his life.

And this had to transpire God's way for Moses to become the leader of a half a million people through the wilderness of Sinai. So his fidelity to God is tested in that wilderness period of his life which lasted 40 years.

Faith Through the Storm

The second test, friend, is number two, the test of faith through storm. I believe, friends, that in this test is a dividing test, a separating test for it separates the tares from the wheat, the goat from the sheep.

The test of faith is applied through storm. Luke 6, 48 declares, he is like a man which built a house and dig deep and laid the foundation on a rock and when the flood arose the stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it for it was founded upon a rock.

Here is Jesus describing a true convert who stands upon a firm foundation of saving faith. He cannot be moved no matter how high the water gets or how hot the oven becomes. The test of faith through storm is a weeding out test.

Jesus spoke of this weeding out process in his parable of the sower and the seed as seen in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 13 and verses 20 through 23. We read now, but he that received the seed into stony places the same as he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not rooted himself but doeth for a while for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word by and by he is offended.

He also that receives seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful but he that receives seed unto the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some hundredfold some sixty some thirty.

So we see here friends a test of separation of sifting of dividing the good fish from the bad the wheat from the tares the sheep from the goats and this is the test of faith through storm. God will bring such a storm in one's life to test their faith in him to see what sort it's made of.

Many today friends have joined a church and they are yet unconverted individuals. They are mere professors of Christ and not possessors of Christ. They do not have true saving faith. Their profession of faith will do them fine beneath calm sunny skies when life is in their favor but when the tide turns and the wind begins to blow and the ship is tossed upon the waves and heading for the rocks to be broken apart they cave in and turn away from God and as apostates.

They did not have an anchor to their faith to get them through to glory. We see this mentioned in Hebrews 6 19 and 20 which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast and which entereth into that within the veil whether the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Jesus is the anchor the soul of a true convert so this test of faith through storm will strengthen the faith of the true convert but will reveal the hypocrisy of a false professor. The next test friends is number three the test of faithfulness through prosperity.

Faithfulness Through Prosperity

Often when we think a test of our faith we tend to limit them to that of trial and perhaps adversity but listen friends God will test us just as much in seasons of prosperity as well as adversity. In fact it is often in seasons of prosperity where Satan gains his greatest ground against a believer because that person becomes self-reliant in good health or self-sufficient in strong finances.

The test of prosperity can often be our biggest challenge. We see this is true in the life of King David and in his son King Solomon. Look what happened in the life of King David. There he is a self-reliant king who has rested upon his recent victories and enjoyed the blessings from the hand of God when he should be up fighting battles for the Lord and busy in the Lord's work but we find him on his couch of ease and pleasure.

Look at 2 Samuel friends in chapter 11 which is the saddest chapter in that book. It depicts the spiritual bankruptcy of David. Look at verses 1 and 2 and it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbi but David tarried still at Jerusalem and it came to pass in an evening tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.

We all know the sad ending to this tragic story which begins with adultery and murder and ends with a kingdom divided and a family ruined. Oh the ruinous effects of sin. David in his season of peace and prosperity falls into great and grievous sin and we see what God thinks about David's moral failure in the last verse of chapter 11.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. So David in his test of faithfulness through prosperity becomes unfaithful to his God and the sins of the man whose heart was after God now break the heart of God.

We see the same thing occur in the life of David's son Solomon who begins well with God but finishes poorly for God. He had to learn that all of life's pleasures were only vanity, vanity and in the end he learns his lesson from his great failure in prosperity where he ends his writing in Ecclesiastes with the following observations.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil.

So we see friends this test of faithfulness through prosperity and we must be very aware that some are tried by prosperity. The church at Laodicea possessed everything materially speaking and that was her downfall.

Fellowship With Christ Through Suffering

Let us now proceed to this next test of the refiner's fire and that is number four. The test of fellowship through suffering. In Philippians 3 .10 we read the following that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.

Listen friends this is perhaps the least understood test we will face as we pass through such a testing. It's hard for us to see God's purpose in such great grief, such terrible pain, such tremendous suffering.

Through a sort of suffering all we can do is lay beneath that sword as it's cutting edge brings us to an experience of fellowship of his sufferings. I'll never forget the story of Helen Rosevere. As a new convert she was a member of Graham Scroggie's church and she went forward one evening in a service.

Dr. Scroggie took her Bible and took out his pen and wrote the verse Philippians 3 .10 in her Bible and then he tenderly said to her, you have come here. You now know him. I pray that someday you will be privileged to know something of the fellowship of his sufferings.

Twenty years later while she was a missionary in the Congo she was cruelly attacked by a violent mob. Her teeth were knocked out. She was raped. She was beaten with a rubber hose and as she lay there in physical agony her mind raced back to that chapel where Graham Scroggie had written in her Bible and his words to her about the privilege of someday suffering for Christ through that fellowship and there she was in that test now suffering for his namesake and she focused on Philippians 3 .10 and as she did she was able to make it through that terrible ordeal.

This friends is a hard test to be in because seldom do we have clarity from heaven as to the reason for this test of fellowship of suffering. All we know is that it hurts but God is with us in that hurt.

The cross had both shame and pain associated with it. It was both a scandal and a torture. Perhaps the test of fellowship of suffering may come in different ways. It may be the loss of our reputation as being fools for Christ's sake as the apostle Paul states.

This test may come in the form of persecution as we suffer for his namesake and the gospel. After all did not Jesus declare blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Whatever form this test of fellowship through suffering comes we can be sure friends that although we have no answer now we can confidently know on that day future that we were indeed privileged to suffer for his namesake and lastly this final test which I have listed and that is test number five.

The test of finality through judgment. This is graduation day friends. This is when we will receive our diplomas so to speak in the Christian life. Rewards will be handed out on that day. My Bible speaks of this judgment seat of Christ as seen in Romans 14 10 for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

We see a more descriptive picture of this final test in first Corinthians chapter 3 and let me read this to us now for it tells us how everything we go through in this life no matter how tough and hard and tragic one day will all be worthwhile as we see it in light of eternity.

Here now is the word of God on this test of finality through judgment. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid upon the face which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall trap every man's work of what sort it is.

If any man's work abide which he hath built there upon he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire. So in regard to these tests of the refiner's fire whether it is the test of fidelity through wilderness, the test of faith through storm, the test of faithfulness through prosperity, the test of fellowship through suffering, the test of finality through judgment all these times of testing have a purpose in the divine will of God he is a sovereign and he will not allow anything to pass into your life friend without at first passing through his hands.

God's Watchful Purpose in Every Trial

As the silversmith places the silver into the white hot flames of that furnace of affliction to burn out impurities and to separate quality from the worthless dross remember this friends every moment that silver is in the fire the eyes of the silversmith are never taken off the silver no matter how difficult your current trial is dear friend God's eyes are upon you Christ is sitting on the mountain side so to speak he's watching you in your little boat while it's being tossed upon the waves and his eyes are never once taken off of you.

You can rest assured friend that his purpose in your life will be carried out to completion through the process of the refiner's fire all for his great glory. Let us pray.