The Refiner's Fire Faith Series — E.A. Johnston

God's Refining Work in Joseph's Life

In Psalm 105, we read about God's sovereign, divine activity in the life of his people, in particularly his dealings with Joseph. God's Word declares, He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant, whose feet they hurt with fetters.

The Refiner's Fire and the Removal of Dross

He was laid in iron, until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord, tried him. That word tried in the Hebrew is an interesting word, friends. It is the word saraph, and it means to fuse or refine metal.

It speaks of a furnace of fire, so hot that a founder, like a goldsmith or silversmith, can refine and test metals. It's a verb, meaning to refine or to test. And this word describes the purifying process of a refiner who heats metal with the express purpose of taking away the dross to where what is left is just a pure substance.

We see this thought in Proverbs 25, 4. Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer. This reference is to the refiner's fire, and our text here in Psalm 105 refers to Joseph, and there is a picture implied of a master tradesman like a goldsmith or silversmith intently at work over his heated fire as he lowers the metal into the flames and holds it there with his iron implement until the gold or silver is pure and refined.

Divine Trials as Purification and Correction

But the central thought here in regard to God's people, it's in particular for Joseph for when this word tried, it applied to the people of God, that God tries them. This word refers to the purifying effects of external trials that God often uses to purifies people from sin.

We get a sense of this from God's word in Isaiah 125, where God describes a sinful nation laden with iniquity, and he's dealing with a rebellious people, and he declares, And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all that tin.

Tin speaks of a worthless metal compared to gold. My message today, friends, is entitled The Refiner's Fire, and we are still in our faith series and the deeper life and the need for revival, and I want us to look at this passage from Psalm 105 today as we study God's sovereign activity in the life of his children.

Maybe you're going through a trial, and you don't know why. Maybe you're overwhelmed, and you don't even know what's going on because you're so worn out and weary and beat up, and you keep praying and looking to God, but you're still in your trial and rough circumstance, and you don't know why you're still there.

Well, at times, children need discipline, discipline that is corrective in nature, as seen in Job 5, 17 and 18. Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth. Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty, for he maketh sore, and bindeth up, he woundeth, and his hands make whole.

The verse opens with the happiness of the person under divine correction, but I can assure you, friends, there is nothing happy about the purifying process of God while you were in it. It's a raging fire of pain and suffering for self-kicks and struggles against any annihilation.

Joseph's Prison Furnace and the Waiting Season

Or text from Psalms speaks of Joseph in a suffering condition, sold for a servant, whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in iron. Iron speaks of an ironclad circumstance that no man can extradite himself from.

It's a prison, literally, of iron, and it is there that Joseph sits until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him. We learn from Genesis 41 .1 that Joseph sat in prison a full two years after the baker and the butler being his prison mates.

For we read,. And it came to pass at the end of two full years that Pharaoh dreamed, and behold he stood by the river. So Joseph was in his furnace of affliction and fetters laid in iron. If you've ever been in a trial, friends, you know of which I speak, where your circumstances are so bleak, held from man, so non-existent, all your resources are expired and the storm rages on, increasing in fervor.

You are exhausted, overwhelmed, beat up, chewed up, and the only hope you have is in a God who seems a million miles away, and the sky is so dark you can hardly see him. It is here, in the refiner's fire, that the work is done, where self goes the way of the cross, and in the words of a prayer of Evan Roberts, Though hellish hosts revile forever, I'll lay myself on Christ my Savior.

Trusting God's Presence and Sovereign Care

That's all you can do. Lay yourself on Christ and lean on him, and stand on the promises of God. God will try us in his refiner's fire. And as bad as things get, we have this assurance. When the silversmith holds the metal under the fire, not once does he ever take his eyes off the silver.

God's eyes are upon you, friend, in the fire. You are in his sovereign hands and in his care. And like a father pities his children, God, as our Father, only has our best interests at heart. He needs to purge away the things in our life that are harmful to us.

Cooperating with God's Pruning and Purification

He needs to purify us so we can be more useful vessels to him. And while we are in his refiner's fire, he is looking for one thing. He is looking for our cooperation. For God builds his servants through the divine process of reducing and decreasing.

Gold must be reduced to its purity in the furnace of affliction. A branch must be trimmed back and decreased before it can grow more fruit. If we desire further usefulness for God, then we must submit both to the refiner's fire and the divine pruning knife.

We must be willing to be reduced to nothing so Jesus can be everything through us.