Proverbs 17 3 the fanning pot
is for silver and the furnace for gold But the Lord triath
the hearts What a beautiful metaphor this is And it's seen also in
other scripture both Old Testament and New Testament our Lord used
this picture To teach us something about his dealings with us as
believers Now this is his business with believers Let's look at some scripture
together. Let me read you turn to Zechariah 13 and Let's look
at that one together, but I want to read you Job 23 10 Well, you're
kind of turning to Zechariah 13 9. I want you to look at it
because it's so every word in this is key to our text really
and I believe will help us to understand this picture and And as we look at these two verses,
I'll have you listen to Job 23.10, but as you look at Zechariah
13.9 and hear that one, think about the results of this trying. I want to look at every aspect
of this picture, but look first at the results because it's so
conspicuous in each of these verses. Listen to Job 23.10 while
you're holding that verse there. He knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall
come forth as gold. I'll be precious, I'll be valuable,
I'll be... The desired result will be accomplished
when he tries. He doesn't try in vain. Now look
at Zechariah 13, nine there, and I will bring the third part
through the fire. He's talking about people. 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." You see the result now
when he tries us. He refines us as silver and gold. He's refining our heart though.
He's refining our heart, and what's the result? We're gonna
call on His name, and we're gonna say, He's my God. And He's gonna
say, you're my people. What a beautiful result. So what
is it the Lord actually does to try us, and what is accomplished?
that's described this way. The refining process for silver
and gold, you're familiar with it. The Lord uses pictures that
we have some understanding of. In order to teach us spiritual
truth, he uses this simple picture. And you know that when silver
and gold is refined, it's essentially a burning away. The purpose of
the fire is to burn away impurities in that substance, in the metal. So the metal itself is actually
diminished. It might weigh less, it might
be less, a little bit less in mass. But that which is tried
is greater. That which is refined is greater
in every way that counts. It's greater in value, it's greater
in purity, it's greater in worth. What is taken away when our hearts
are refined is not sin, not in the sense of our meritorious
standing before God. I use that word meritorious and
merit. We know what merit is. A demerit
is a mark against you and a merit is a mark for you. Meritorious
meaning it counts before God. It's not sin taken away in that
sense. Christ washed us from all of
our sins in that sense. Christ is the taking away of
all of that. God doesn't have to send us trials.
If he did do it for that purpose, it wouldn't do it. It wouldn't
accomplish that. That's not why he does it. Our Lord did that
on Calvary. When he does something, it's
done. We are pure and perfect in the sight of God. And only
the blood of Christ accomplishes that. And his blood accomplishes
it completely. The answer to what is taken away
when our hearts are tried is found in 1 Peter 1.7. Here's this same metaphor in
the New Testament. 1 Peter 1.7, that the trial of
your faith, the trial used in that same sense that's in our
text, being much more precious than of gold which perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." So the result
again is us rejoicing in the Lord and glorifying Him and honoring
Him And the trial of our faith, again,
compared to that of gold, which perisheth. But notice that word
faith in this verse, the trial of your faith. It's not your
sin being taken away when you're tried, it's your unbelief. It's your flesh, the old man
is diminished. And I know that we'll never be
completely rid of it in this world, but that's the picture
here. It's your faith that's being tried. We believe on Christ. If we do, if we do, we do, right? And yet we're still full of unbelief,
full of unbelief. We pray, Lord, increase our faith. Do you mean that? You want to
believe more on the Lord Jesus Christ, the answer to that prayer
might just be fire. It might be fire. And that's
okay. It's good fire. It's fire that's
necessary when he deems it so. The us that looks to Christ alone,
there is an us that looks to Christ alone. Simon said to that
Ethiopian, if you believe with all your heart, well, we know
our old heart don't believe at all, so he's got to be talking
about the new, if you have a new heart that believes on Christ
alone, but that heart is sullied by the us that never changes,
the old us, the flesh it's called in the scripture, Not in the
sight of God, in an eternal and again meritorious sense, that's
not it. It's not, that can't be sullied. Christ is that. Christ is our
righteousness and that can't be diminished before God in a
meritorious sense. But as we live in this world,
as we walk in this world, to honor or dishonor the Lord with
our works, It's true that our old man sullies
the new. The old heart corrupts and pollutes that, which
we do. Sin is mixed, John Newton wrote,
with all I do. Sin is mixed with it, just like
the impurities in gold. In talking about our works, you
will find good works in the scripture. You'll find them talked about
as having nothing to do with your salvation. If it's of works,
then it's no more grace. If it's grace, then it's no more
works. But you'll also find good works spoken of in this way. God hath before ordained that
we should walk in good works, Ephesians 2.10. That's the cause
of it. We're not getting any glory out
of it. Don't want any by his grace. And he works in us to
will and to do that which is good in his sight, Ephesians
2.10. So he gets the glory and all that. Ephesians 2.10 is, he hath ordained
that we should walk in good works. And Philippians 2.13 says that
it is the Lord that worketh in us, both to will and to do of
his good pleasure. The result of our good works
is that fruit is borne unto God. Listen to what our Lord said
in John 15.8, the cause of our good works being his ordaining
it, and he's actually working it. What God ordains, he actually
does it. He ordained our redemption and
then he came and actually did it. So he ordains our good works
and then he actually works in us to even want to do them, much
less do them. And then listen, what's the result
of that? John 15, eight, herein is my
father glorified that you bear much fruit. so shall you be my
disciples. Now we're tried by God that we
might shine forth as gold to his glory, to the glory of our
Lord who loved us and saved us freely, not because of those
works. Our works are because of that
salvation, cause and effect. Now the method by which we're
tried, it says in our text, is fire. Fire. Think about all the fire
in your life. Maybe right now, but throughout
your past and what you can likely expect in the future as well.
Because when God gives faith, he tries it. When he gives a
new heart, he'll try it now. He said he would. But think about
this method, fire, temptation. This world entices us, specific
things entice us to fall, to doubt, to dishonor the Lord with
our actions. Temptation, trial, just hard. Paul said, I believe to Timothy,
endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It's not gonna
be easy to be in his army. Hardship, pain. Pain, people
suffer with physical pain. People suffer with spiritual
and mental anguish. Sorrow, that's fire. Abraham was tried on Mount Moriah. What a trial that would be. Take
your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love. Did he have to
mention that? Yes, he did. whom you love, your
only son, whom you love, and offer him unto me on Mount Moriah."
Wow, you talk about a trial now. Abraham could have logically
denied that command. He could have logically said,
Lord, I'm not gonna do it because you promised that through my
son, Isaac, the seed of God would be born. And so this ain't gonna
work, I'm not doing it. And that would have made sense.
It always makes sense when we defy God, doesn't it? It always
makes perfect sense to us, as idiotic as it is. What a trial. He raised that
knife above his boy and was ready to plunge it. And the Lord said,
Abraham. David was tried. as the Israelites
camped against the Philistines. You think he would have been
justified in just kind of going along with everybody else? Yeah,
you're right, man, he is big. We ain't got a chance, let's
go home. Or let's just surrender, you know? Because this ain't
gonna happen. But he said that Goliath has
defied the army of the living God. That's a trial. What's David gonna do? What's
he gonna do that day? Abraham and Sarah, this is a
very instructive one here. Listen, Abraham and Sarah were
promised a son by God in their old age. And both of them were thinking,
there's no way that can happen. We're past the age of that. It's
impossible. And you know what they were actually
tried with in that scenario? Time. Time. Think about all the times in
your life that your trial was just time. God let days go by
and months go by and years go by and no sun. And they were
tried by that time, by nothing. Nothing will try you harder than
anything. And what did they do? They tried
to be smarter than God. We'll do this our own way. We'll help God out. Maybe this
is, it always makes sense that maybe this is the way God intended
for this to happen. We'll do it this way. Time went by and God's promise
wasn't fulfilled for a time. And they doubted and they acted
on their own unbelief rather than the promise of God. Oh,
how many times. How many times. And you know what's amazing?
Let me read Romans 4.18 to you. You know that story. Go in under
Hagar and have a child with Hagar, my handmaid. Yeah, that sounds
like a great idea. We'll do it that way. We'll have
an heir like that. But listen to Romans 4.18, talking
about Abraham now, who against hope believed in hope that he
might become the father of many nations according to that which
was spoken. So shall thy seed be. And being
not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when
he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb, he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. and being
fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also
to perform. Now knowing that story from Genesis
16, where they doubted and did it their own way, forgot the
promise of God. Which is it? Did Abraham believe
or did he doubt? Both. The scripture says both,
doesn't it? He believed God. And yet he was full of unbelief. We believe God, but we must always cry, Lord,
help. I believe you, Lord, help. I
trust you, Lord, help. Now think of this in closing. And don't, just because I'm saying
this is the last thought here, don't tune out yet, don't tune
out. Listen to this, this is probably the most important thing
I'll say all morning. And if God will put this in our
hearts, it'll change us forever. It'll forever change the way
we live. Now we depend on God for that. But if he does, it's
not if you will, God will, it's if he will, we will. And I'm
telling you right now, if he will, it'll change us forever. We know, we know as believers
that Christ is our all. He is our all sufficiency in
this world. It doesn't matter what your problem
is right now, what you're worried about, what grieves you, what
you go to bed thinking about at night and worrying over. It
doesn't matter what it is, Christ is the answer to that. He is
the solution to that. I don't care what it is. We know
that. We know He's our all. We know
that we're complete in Christ. We know that all things work
together for our good. Why? The context of that is this,
because it's Christ that died, yea, rather than is risen again.
We know that. Paul said, we know. We know that
all things. He works them for our good. And
nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We also know that God will and
does and shall, he has, he will, he tries faith, he tries our
hearts. We know it's gonna happen. And
we know when he does that he's the answer. We know that when
he does, he's causing us to look to him. We know that when he
does, he's bringing us back in. You know what's gonna happen
now, and you know how he'll do it. He'll do it by temptation. He will bring temptation before
you. We know that he will do it by
giving us a reason for our flesh to do stupid things. He will do it by sending us great
trials of pain and sorrow. We know that he'll try us by
time. He'll try us with nothing. And that may be the hardest trial
of all. And yet knowing all that, we
still fail. Isn't that amazing? We still
don't recognize it when it comes. Expect it, look for it. Think about it right now. You've
got something before you now, and you know what you need to
be thinking about? Don't you be thinking about how I'm gonna
get out of this. Think about how I can honor the
Lord Jesus Christ in this. It'll change us forever if God
will put that in our heart. We'll never be the same again. It's God that try the hearts,
not people. Don't get bogged down in the
circumstance now. It's not circumstances that try
the hearts. It's God. He gives a new heart and then
he refines it. Our old heart can't be tried.
It's nothing but dross. He's gonna burn it up one of
these days too. And it's not gonna get better.
It's gonna get gone. And as gold refined is more gold. Not in quantity, but in quality. The heart, the heart that says
before God, honestly, by His grace, I live, nevertheless not
I, but Christ liveth in me. That heart, when it's refined,
it'll be more Christ. Not in quantity, and not even
in quality in the sense, in the eternal sense, but right now.
More Christ and less me. That's what I want. That's what
I want, more Christ and less old me. Look for it now, expect
it. Whenever your flesh wants to
do or say something stupid, look for how Christ can be honored
in it. There's nothing wrong with praying, Lord, take away
the thorn in the flesh. But how much better to say, Lord,
may you be glorified in it. It'll be a great value to you.
It'll be a great blessing to those who love you, rather than
a grief. And God will get all the glory. May God make it so. Amen.