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In the Fiery Furnace
In the Fiery
Furnace
April 1978 (Hawaii Prophetic
Conf) and June 1970 (Dallas)
Daniel 3:19
- 30
Introduction
This
is a Book of prophecy. What is written here are the deeds, the circumstances,
events which are also harbingers and revelations of the
future.
1. Israel.
In
the tribulation, the times of Jacob's trouble, in deliverance of
Israel.
- Compare the bush burning
unconsumed.
- Compare Isaiah
43:1-47.
- Compare Zechariah
13:9.
Throughout the age,
- Compare Psalms 121:3 &
4.
- Compare Daniel 3:22; God requires their
persecution--so Hitler, so Egypt today.
2. All
God's children; parable of the promise for us
all.
The Inevitable, Inexorable Trial By
Fire.
I. The Inescapable Fires of Trial.
Suffering Awaits Us All. Get Ready to Be Plunged into the Fire, are
you?
1. The usual place where God's people
are found. The wonder if you are not on trial; the rule rather than the
exception.
- Compare Hebrews 11:36-38
- Compare John 16:33
- Compare Acts 14:22
- Compare the Pilgrim's Progress. No life,
joyless, none so involved in conflict.
- Compare
Revelation 12:17. Especially the Christians assailed. The furnace burns seven
times hotter with pitch, tar, sulfur to burn more fiercely. It is hot for
cremation; hotter for this. The griefs of God's people are innumerable, like
waves of the sea.
- Compare Job, even his wife urged him to curse God for
his life.
- Compare Jesus' temptation in His trial for a reason,
for a better thing.
- Compare Revelation 12:10
"accused of brethren--right day."
He (Satan)
knows how to fit the bait for the fish; he knows how to trap the bad and he
soweth infernal seed of evil in our hearts, and they become part of our past.
He lays his black whelps on our doorstep and then publishes to the world that
they are our own blood offspring; he accuses us--"you hypocrites......
unnecessary......." Says our faith is fey, our experience is
presumptuous.
The world afflicts us as if not
crying in misery; men in torment as in II Timothy 3:12. From the furnace of
galling oppression. Flame, faggot.
Chastenings
correct us. As in Hebrews 12:5-13, the path of pain, loss and sorrow,
fragmented, beaten down by hosts of God's chosen
ones.
God tries us as in Genesis 22--obedience;
I Kings 3:5 of Solomon--the glittering
possibilities
II. Purpose in the Permissive
and Preventive Will of God
No hurt at all.
God not evil. Help, not hurt.
1. Tried,
tempted, slain with sword.
- Compare the old warrior, bent sword to see whether it
would endure testing. God tests us that we might be fit for the conflict.
- Compare, we cannot be exalted without conflict. We
cannot be conquers without battles. We cannot win nations to the glory of God
unless tried of our faithfulness.
2. Refined the goldsmith, not dross, but gold; its got
to be silver, not metal. Bangkok, not pebbles, but precious
stones.
3. Separation of the true believer from the pretender (I
Corinthians 11:19 and I John 2:19). To define Nebauchadnezzar with the furnace,
so skeptics question your declaration with a sarcastic reply. The sinners
question your commitment with open idolatry. Satan tries us and God tries us;
he tells it straight, he doesn't mince words. The path of bereavement and trail
and heartache and tears is beaten down by the children of God--a path they all
know. If you are a child of Go, get ready for the furnace, because you're going
to be plunged in it.
How much of your religion is fluff and froth and foam?
Saint of God said, “The tearing down of the scaffold has ruined the altar.
And we die for want of the headman’s block.”
4. Loose their bands. Fetters of sin burn. Bonds of
mortality are burned. They are greed.
(1) They have depended upon experiences and emotion;
driven to Christ and His finished work. Live upon Christ, not depending on self.
Burning of self; indifference, reliance on self--knowing we will fail. We are
helpless when thrown into the furnace. No strength or hope, only recovery in
God.
(2) Graces are refined and multiplied. We learn to
return good for evil. Trust in trial, the glitter of these graces are best seen
by the furnace’s heat.
(3) Liberated to witness:
- Compare Martin Luther,
excommunicated.
- Compare Balthazar Hubmeier, the tongues of
expressing.
(4) Cut the cords that bind us to
earth
- Compare the child’s death–focus on heaven,
promises.
- Compare pain, affliction, and
deliverance.
III. The Complete Deliverance
of God.
In Daniel 3:27, "a hair, not smell
of fire." God never leaves a miracle half done; God does not begin and not able
to finish (Philippians 1:6).
- There is no
instance in the New Testament, where He touched a sick man to improve him
somewhat.
- He never cast out some devils, and
then left other demons in the man's soul to torment
him.
- He never just healed one blind eye, and
left the other one blind.
- He never unstopped
one ear, and left the other one deaf.
- When
the angel came down from heaven and slapped Peter on the side and awakened him,
the next day he was going to beheaded by Herod, it says, "and he loosed all the
chains and stocks and bonds of Simon Peter. Also opened the iron door and let
him out free. That's the Lord!
So God's work forever in us is a perfect work. God
makes the worst thing that ever happened to you, and however sorry we may think
the material is in His hands, however wretched or unworthy, God is going to do a
glorious, finished work (as Paul in II Corinthians 1:11).
When through fiery trials, thy pathways shall ride, My
grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flames shall not hurt thee. I
only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
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