Our text tonight is found in
Isaiah chapter 48, that chapter that we read. Isaiah chapter
48 and verse 10. Behold, I have refined thee,
but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction. Isaiah chapter 48 Verse 10, Behold,
I have refined thee, but not with silver. I have chosen thee
in the furnace of affliction. First of all, I want to say something
with regards to the context. It's important that we understand
the circumstance in which God first gave the word. Historically,
this chapter has some reference to the restoration from the Babylonian
captivity, that dreadful event that would befall the kingdom
of Judah about a hundred years after the ministry of the Prophet.
And there they would be in exile for some 70 years, languish there
at Babylon, but there would in God's purpose be a restoration. And that is spoken of here in
verse 20. Go ye forth of Babylon. Flee
ye from the Chaldeans with a voice of singing. Declare ye this. Utter it even to the end of the
earth. Say ye, The Lord hath redeemed
his servant Jacob. O how the Lord loved him! In
verse 14, He will do His pleasure on Babylon and His arm shall
be on the Chaldeans. Though they were overwhelmed
by that people and taken away and brought into the captivity,
yet God would not leave them there forever. They would be
restored. The words then that we have in
this chapter have some regard to that future event. Words,
of course, are being written many years before that restoration. As we read in verse 3, God says
through the Prophet, I have declared the former things from the beginning
and they went forth out of my mouth and I showed them I did
them suddenly and they came to pass God is able to prophesy of those
events because all things are subject to his decree as we just
sang in all those appointments of the grace of God all those
eternal settlements of the eternal covenant. All these things must
be worked out in the fullness of God's time. And what came
upon the children of Israel in the exile was the way in which
God was pleased to deal with them and to punish them because
of their sins and principally for that awful sin of idolatry
how they were so desirous of being like the nations round
about them they copied those heathen people they like those
nations wanted to make their idols He says to them here at
verse 4, Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck
is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass, I have even from the beginning
declared it to thee. Before it came to pass, I showed
it thee, lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them,
and my graven image, and my molten image hath commanded them. how deluded these people were
in their idolatrous ways. They made themselves gods and
they bowed down and they worshipped them. And time and again we see
how the Prophet is rebuking them because of the folly of their
idolatrous ways. When we turn back to chapter
14, Verse 18. The question is put,
to whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare
unto him? The workman moulteth a graven
image, the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth
silver chains. He that is so impoverished that
he hath no oblation, chooseth a tree that will not rot. He seeketh unto him a cunning
workman to prepare a graven image. that shall not be moved. Have
ye not known? Have ye not heard? Have ye not
been told ye from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the
foundations of the earth? It is heard that sitteth upon
the circle of the earth And the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers,
that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them
out as a tent to dwell in. How they that departed from Him,
who is the only true God, then sought to make themselves idols,
these works of men's hands. Oh, this was their father. But what was God doing? He was
going to punish them, but not destroy them. He would refine
them from their idolatry. He would chasten them, and then
he would restore them. And this is what we read here
in our text. Verse 9 he says, For my name's
sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain
for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee,
but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction." Or they are reminded, even in
the language that he used there, this furnace of affliction. There was a previous occasion
when they were in such a terrible situation in a furnace of affliction. when they were in Egypt in the
days of Moses and how the Lord God brought them out of that
furnace back in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and there at verse 20 the Lord
hath taken you says Moses and brought you forth out of the
iron furnace even out of Egypt to be unto him a people of inheritance
as ye are this day. And what God had done in delivering
them from that furnace that was Egypt, God would be able to do
again. He would bring them out of the
captivity in Babylon. I remind you then here of that
previous deliverance. Even though they had sinned so
grossly in their idolatrous ways, yet the Lord will not cut them
off. Behold, I have refined them,
but not with silver. I have chosen them in the furnace
of affliction. Well, as we come to consider
these words for a while tonight, I want to say something with
regards to God's favour and God's furnace. That is the division
that I want to make, the two points that I want to take up.
We'll come to the furnace of affliction, God's furnace. But
first of all to say something with regards to the favour of
God. Observe what God says here in
the middle of the text. I have chosen thee. Lord, the great doctrine of God's
election. I have chosen thee. Again, at verse 12, Harken unto
me, O Jacob, and Israel my called. I am he. I am the first. I also
am the last. Are we not reminded how the God's
choice of His people is a free choice. He says here in verse 11, for
mine own sake, even for mine own sake will I do it. God acts in absolute
sovereignty. God acts freely. There is nothing
outside of God that moves him to make this choice of his people. As Paul says in that great ninth
chapter of the epistle to the Romans, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And when we see the outworking
of that that free election when we see it being worked out in
God's quickening of the sinner that he has set his sovereign
love upon we're reminded there in the opening chapter of John's
gospel that they were born not of blood nor of the will of the
flesh nor of the will of man but of God It is all of God freely,
of God altogether, of God. He says here at the end of verse
11, I will not give my glory unto another. All this salvation,
and what we have in the experience of the children of Israel in
their ultimate deliverance out of Egypt, is a representation
of God's great work of salvation when He comes to save the sinner.
This salvation is altogether of the Lord. Salvation is of
the Lord. He will not give His glory unto
another. He does the work. He does it from beginning to
end. When we think of the Father and the electing love of the
Father, how He has set that love upon a people. and He has sent
His Son in the fullness of the time to accomplish the redemption
of that people. And how the Son fulfills all
of that that He has undertaken in those eternal settlements,
in the eternal covenant. He does the will of the Father,
He is obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He dies
the just for the unjust to bring sinners to God. And then that
work of redemption, how it must be brought home into the experience
of those that the Father has set His love upon, those that
the Son has redeemed. The Spirit must come and He must
make these things known to the sinner. The sinner must be born
again, born from above, born of the Spirit of God. He must
have that faith that comes by the operation of God. All this
salvation is God's work. I will not give my glory unto
another, he says, here at the end of this 11th verse. And when
Paul unfolds something of this great work of salvation, there
in the epistles of the Romans, we think in terms of those three
chapters, 9, 10 and 11, We come to the end of that 11th
chapter. How the whole is concluded with
a great doxology of praise for of Him and through Him and to
Him. Be glory forever and ever. All the work is God's. I have chosen thee, you see. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction. As I said, this reference to
the furnace takes us back, reminds us of that previous deliverance
out of the iron furnace which was Egypt, those words that we
read from Deuteronomy 4 verse 20. But remember how Moses goes
on to say something more concerning the reason that lies behind the
way in which God was pleased to deal with the children of
Israel in bringing them out of Egypt. Later in Deuteronomy chapter
7 and verse 7 he says the Lord did not set his love upon you
nor choose you because you were more in number than any people
for you were the fewest of all people but because the Lord loved
you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto
your fathers after the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and
redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh
king of Egypt. Here is the reason. Because the Lord loved you. Oh, it was God's sovereign love
whom he did for now. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son. And that foreknowledge, it is
not merely a foreknowing of events before they occur. It's not a
foresight of things in the future. No, that foreknowledge is associated
with the love of God. He knows His people. He loves
His people. and so he predestinates them
to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, because
the Lord loved you, it says there in Deuteronomy 7 and verse 8,
and because he would keep the oath which he sware unto your
fathers. It's not just the sovereign love
of God, it's also the faithfulness of God. He is faithful. He is
faithful to His Word, He is true to Himself. All the reason, you see, why
God makes choice of any people is to be found in God Himself. The children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, it says. They've done
nothing. It's nothing in them, it's nothing
about them. The reason is found in God Himself. It's election. It is eternal election. It is
free election. It is unconditional election. This is the favour of God that
is spoken of in our text. I have chosen thee, says the
Lord God. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."
Or the furnace of affliction. What we have in the text is these
parallel statements that we find sometimes in the prophets, we
find it many times in the prophetic Psalms, the poetic Psalms. It's a feature of Hebrew poetry. that they have these parallel
statements and we have something similar here in our text I have
refined thee it says but not with silver I have chosen thee
in the furnace of affliction this furnace of affliction is
the place wherein God is refining his people you see that eternal
election is evidenced in time in their effectual calling God
will call these people God is dealing with them when he takes
them out of Judah and removes them into captivity and in all
this God is dealing with them and God is refining them we know that whom he did predestinate
them he also called There's that golden chain that
we're familiar with in the 8th chapter of that epistle to the
Romans. God's predestination is what
occurs in eternity. Election is eternal election.
But the effectual call is that that comes in time. that comes
into the experience of those whom God has set his love upon
and chosen, whom he did predestinate. Then he also caught. God obviously works from eternity
into time. But when he comes to us, and
there are those, you see, who are much troubled and perplexed
by the whole truth of the doctrine of election. How are we to approach
the doctrine of election? As I said, God works from eternity
into time. But when we come to approach
this, we should work from time back into eternity. Isn't that
what Peter says in the exhortation that he gives in the opening
chapter of his second epistle? He says, give diligence to make
your calling and election sure Peter places the calling in front
of the election give diligence to make your calling sure in
the first place that's calling that comes in
time it is the experience of the effectual call of the grace
of God that comes before there can be any assurance of eternal
election. We're not to be troubled about
that eternal election. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. He has made choice of them in eternity. When we come to
examine ourselves we have to consider first and foremost the
whole matter of calling. and not just our general core
that comes in the Gospel but all do we desire that there might
be that efficacious work of the Spirit in our hearts that the
core might come to us in that personal and that specific way. Now God calls his people and
what does he do? He calls them out of a wicked
world out of a fallen world the whole world lieth in wickedness,
says John at the end of his first general epistle. The whole world
lies in the wicked one. All that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of
life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. Love not the
world. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. or how God saves his people you
see by calling them out of this wicked world he purges them he refines them
from all the sin that is about them all the sin that is within
them here we have this imagery of the furnace and when The metal
is placed in the furnace. It's there for a purpose. It's
there to be purified. I have refined thee, he says,
but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction. And we find several mentions
of this great work that God does when he comes to deal with his
people. We find many of these references
in the Old Testament in those portions that have regard to
the experience of the children of Israel as they are taken into
exile. For example, in Jeremiah chapter
6, reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord has
rejected them. All here is a people that God
has rejected. He's not refining them. They
are reprobate. Again, the Swami says, they put
us to weigh all the wicked of the earth like dross. But that's
not the way in which God deals with His people. When God comes
to deal with His people, His purpose is to cleanse, to purge,
to refine them. to deliver them. Is not this
a brand plucked out of the fire? Says the Prophet Zechariah to
Satan himself. Is not this a brand plucked out
of the fireside? For God has made choice of a
people and he has chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the things that are wise. and the weak things of
the world to compound the things that are mighty. Now God deals
in a way so different, so contrary to the ways of the world. You
remember how when he's writing to the Corinthians, Paul reminds
them what they were. What they were before they came
to experience the grace of God, before they came to know that
Efficacious call that work of the sovereign grace of God in
their souls. In chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians,
in verse 9 he says, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God." What a catalogue of sins he gives here. And all these
great sinners, he says, none of those who are in this way
of sin shall inherit the kingdom of God. Who then can be saved?
well he continues at verse 11 and says and such were some of
you and such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are
sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God all God is able to save his people
though they be those who are immersed in this wicked world
God is able to save, and God does save, and He saves them
from the uttermost, and He saves them to the uttermost. This is
the favour of God. This is the favour that God had
here towards the people who were a sinful people, a most idolatrous
people. But God says, Behold, I have
refined thee, but not with silver I have chosen thine, in the furnace
of affliction. Oh, let us come to consider something
of this furnace, when God is dealing with his
people? Why then the believer's soul, we could say, is like a
furnace? We know that the soul of the
child of God is likened unto a battlefield. What will ye see
in the Shulamite is the question that's put there in the Song
of Solomon chapter 6 and verse 13. Or what will you see in the
Shulamites, as it were, the company of two armies. All those two
armies. The flesh lusting against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh. The old nature, the
new nature. Now these are contrary, the one
to the other, says Paul, and you cannot do the thing that
she would. The believers saw like a battlefield. but also we can say that the
believer's soul is like onto a furnace. Let us just for a while consider
that figure of the furnace. I have chosen them in the furnace of affliction. We would understand this doctrine
of election. We don't only have to attend
to the whole matter of effectual calling. to give diligence to
make our calling and our election sure, we do well also to take
account of this furnace. We're told that the Lord's fire
is in Zion and His furnace in Jerusalem. What is Zion? What
is Jerusalem? That's the church. That's the church. And that's
where God's furnace is. And this is how God teaches His
children. Verse 17, Thou saith the Lord thy Redeemer, the Holy
One of Israel, I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee
to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest
go. Or let us just for a little while
then, as we begin to come to a conclusion. consider this figure
of the furnace of God, the furnace of affliction. And I want to
observe three things. First of all, there is the matter
of God's purging. As we've already said, this is
what God was doing with his people when he removed them into the
captivity. it was a furnace of affliction
it was the place of refining and when God deals with us when he deals with us in ways
that are so contrary to us and so difficult for us to understand
when God seems to cross us and brings us into those situations
that are fraught with all manner of difficulty and trial? Is there
not a purpose? Afflictions make us see what
else would scape our sight, our very foul and dim old world,
and God our pure and bright. Or doesn't the Lord God make
us to see something more and more of ourselves? Isn't that
so much part and parcel of what it means to grow in grace? to
know more of ourselves, how dim we are, how foul we are. And
yet at the same time we discover something more about the goodness,
the grace of God. It's growing grace, says Peter,
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. All
the more we know of ourselves the more we will see how great
our need of the Saviour is. He must increase, I must decrease,
says John the Baptist, how true it is. And this is why God makes
use of the furnace, the place of refining, the place where
He purges His children. He appoints the trial the fiery
trial and in that fiery trial we're brought to discover something
more of the preciousness of faith and that faith that as its object
the Lord Jesus Christ, Peter speaks of it, the trial of your
faith being much more precious than of gold though it be tried
with fire is found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ, or when the Lord Jesus Christ appears. When we come to that great deliverance,
and this is what would be the portion of that people who were
being taken into exile, there would be restoration. The Lord
would appear again. The Lord was not casting off
His people. For my name's sake will I defer
mine anger, he says, and for my praise will I refrain for
thee that I cut thee not off. He will not permit his people
to be tempted above that which they are able to bear with the
temptation. Does he not make a way of escape that they may
be able to bear it? And there's no denying that this
is the lot of all those who are of the election of grace. Peter
goes on in that first epistle in the fourth chapter in verse
12 to say Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery
trial that is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto
you why he's writing to believers and the trial is not some strange
unusual thing this is the mark of God's church They're retried people, attested
people. We're not to think it's strange,
as though some strange thing was happening. It's never been
the lot of God's true spiritual Israel. Why in that furnace of
affliction what happens? All the impurities are discovered,
all the impurities will begin to rise to the surface. The Psalmist
can say my sin is ever before me or God will cause us to see
our sins that we might come and confess our sins and acknowledge
our sins and plead forgiveness for our sins and desire that
God would purge us of all our sins. Here is God's purpose then
in the furnace it is to purge his children of all their sin. But then also, three lessons I said, besides
God's purging, there is ever the promise of God's presence.
God promises that He will be with His people. There's that
sense in which when the children of Israel were taken into exile
in Babylon, the Lord God went with them. If you read the opening
chapters of the book of Ezekiel, that becomes apparent. The book
opens with that remarkable vision that Ezekiel sees of the throne
of God and the wheels, this great chariot as it were. And then
as we read on, we come to chapter 10 and we read about the glory
of God God's throne is taken up from the midst of the temple
and then God is on the east of Jerusalem. And then when we go into chapter
11 we see how that chariot of God, that great throne, the wheels
within wheels and so forth, is next on the mountain east of
Jerusalem. And it all indicates how that
God is with those who are being taken away to Babylon, which
was to the east. God was with the exiles. God is ever with his people in
all their trials. And we have that of course in
the familiar words that we have here at the beginning of chapter
43. Isaiah 43, But now thus saith
the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel."
All God is with his children, be it in the floods or be it
in the flames. And you know we see it so wonderfully
in the experience of those three Hebrew young men, Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego. they were cast into the fiery
furnace there in Daniel chapter 3 because they would not bow
down to idols they would be faithful to the Lord their God and they
are cast into the fiery furnace but then what does what does the king behold? Daniel chapter 3 verse 23 these
three men Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego fell down bound into
the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar
the king was astonished and rose up in haste and spake and said
unto his counsellors did not we cast three men bound into
the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the
king true O king he answered and said lo I see four men, loose,
walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the
form of the fourth is like the Son of God." Well, here is the
great promise, you see, God is with His people in the midst
of all their trials and all their troubles. Yes, God is doing a
great work. It is a real furnace. It's a
place of purging. It's a place of refining. He'll
set their sins before them. But God himself is with them.
Oh, that's our confidence. And then thirdly, as God is present
with his children, so there is also that assurance of God's
protection. He will never permit that they
should be tried above what they are able to bear. Again, the
prophet Malachi speaks of it. He speaks of the great messenger
of the covenant to the Lord Jesus Christ, that he speaks of there
at the beginning of chapter 3. And then in the second verse,
"...who may abide the day of his coming, who shall stand when
he appeareth for he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap 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. Here is the refiner working at
his crucible but how he sits, he doesn't depart he carefully
watches over the whole process he's there, he's at hand to ensure
that the heat is applied correctly or he will never allow his children
to be tried above what they're able he's one there at hand,
he's present and he's present to ensure that the whole process
accomplishes his own gracious end. He has a purpose to fulfill. Oh friends, this is our comfort,
is it not? The Lord Jesus says to his disciples
as he comes to the end of his ministry, these things have I
spoken unto you that in me you might have peace, in the world
you shall have tribulation. but be of good cheer I have overcome
the world the Lord Jesus is that one who is able to overcome all
these things he has a favour to his people
he has set his love upon his people though he has chosen them
in the furnace of affliction though he will do his own work,
his strange work ever a gracious one but he will prepare that
people for His own eternal praise. O friends, is not this our comfort? Or that we might have that assurance
that this God is our God? When He comes and says to us,
Behold, I have refined them, but not with silver. I have chosen
thee in the furnace of affliction for mine own sake. Even for mine
own sake will I do it. Oh, the Lord be pleased then
to do it for us, to do it in us, and that we might be those
who would give Him all the glory. The Lord bless to us His work.
Let us worship God now in the singing
of the hymn 872. The tune is Tuam. Number 76. Golds in the furnish
tried ne'er, lose his aught but dross, so is the Christian purified
and bettered by the cross. Afflictions make us see, what
else would scape our sight, how very foul and dim are we in God,
how pure and bright. The Hymn 872.