A sentence from the 10th verse of the 48th chapter of Isaiah's prophecy. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. I have chosen thee in the furnace affliction. There is one great doctrine in the Bible that is always a source of infinite comfort to the people of God, and that doctrine is the doctrine of God's absolute unlimited sovereignty, that God is sovereign, that he's over all things eternally and absolutely supreme. So it doesn't matter what our circumstances are, God is over them all. It doesn't matter what our difficulties are. God is working out His plan and His purpose through them all. It doesn't matter what temptations we have to endure or what afflictions come upon us after humanity. God in His great love in His infinite compassion is working all things together for good to them that love the Lord. This is a great doctrine, the doctrine of the Reformation, the doctrine that nerved the Reformers in their battle against the people, the doctrine that gave strength to the Covenanters in the killing times in Scotland when they refused to bow the knee to ecclesiastical tyranny. It's the doctrine that has been a help to the people of God in the days of darkness, in the valleys of sorrow, and in the periods of trouble. God is sovereign. I want to say that before I loved him, he loved me. Do you remember what Paul said? I love him because he first loved me. Before I knew him, he knew me. Before I claimed him, He claimed me. Before I choose Him, He choose me. He was not moved in His love. He was not moved in His choice by anything that was in me, by any works that I had done, or could do, or would do, but out of a heart motivated only by love. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy. That's very clear from the great portion over in Romans. If you have your Bible and check with me for a moment, you'll find how clear is that portion of scripture concerning this matter, the ninth chapter of Romans. It says here in verse 11 of Romans 9 for the children, that is Jacob and Esau being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. So here we have God's sovereignty. And in this text, we have something about the sovereignty of God. He says, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. I want to discourse on four things. the people of the furnace. Going to have a look at the people of the furnace of affliction. And then I want to look at the purpose of the furnace. And then I want to look at the power of the furnace. And then I want to finalize on the privilege of the furnace. First of all, the people of the furnace. Two men at the Gate of Eden are building altars. One's called Cain. He builds an elaborate artistic structure. He covers it with a work and labors of his hands. The other man, Abel, builds a simple altar of sacrifice, slays the lamb, and the stones of the altar are stained with blood, and fire comes and consumes the sacrifice. Cain rises up against Abel, And he says, I don't like your sacrifice. I don't like your theology. I don't like your gospel. I don't like that God has accepted you and rejected me. And he clubs him to death. God chose evil in the furnace of affliction. Turn the pages of scripture a little way. And you find a man called Enoch. He lived in an evil age. He lived among ungodly sinners. He lived in a time of malpractices, vileness, filth, sin, ungodliness. He took a stand walking with God and he was derided, inherited, ridiculed and sneered at, but he walked with God and God chosen in the furnace of affliction. Few more generations and we have old Noah. He lived in a viler age than Enoch because the earth was now filled with violence. And every thought of the pre of man's heart was iniquity against God. He obeys God and he builds an ark for the saving of his family. And he's hysteric and buffeted. And he's ridiculed. And he receives all the scoffs of men. For a hundred and twenty years, he's a reject, God chosen in the furnace of affliction. What shall I say of the afflictions of Abraham, the friend of God? What shall I say of the afflictions in the furnace of Jacob during his sojourn on earth? The afflictions of Joseph, when the iron went into his soul and he lay an outcast in the prison house of the king of Egypt. What shall I say of that young man who's hunted from den to den and from cave to cave in the mountains of Angedi? David that should be on the throne and he's a rejected king. a despised figure, a hunted exile. God chooses his people in the furnace of affliction. The fiery prophet Elijah did not sit in the queen's establishment. There was no seat for him at Jezebel's table. His was the lonely brook and the cave and the flesh and bread supplied by the raven. His was the widow's home with a handful of meal and a little oil in the crews. God chose him in the furnace of affliction. When I turn to the New Testament, I find that the apostles were chosen in the furnace of affliction. Theirs were the imprisonments. Theirs were the beatings and the buffeting. and the revilings. Theirs were the sorrows and the tribulation. For Christ said to them, with much tribulation ye shall enter into the kingdom. What shall I say of the early church who endured the fires of the furnace of persecution? What shall I say of the Reformation leaders? What shall I say of the Covenanters? the man of the great second evangelical awakening. Where are God's people today? In the great establishments of the land, in the great cathedrals of those great establishments. Nay, verily, God's people are in the furnace of affliction, despised, hated, ridiculed, buffeted, Persecuted, imprisoned for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Think it not strange, my beloved, that you should enter through the fire. Think it not strange that you should be cast into the furnace of affliction. Think of not some strange thing that you too should be called to suffer, that you should be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. For it is the people and the furnace that God chooses. Do you want to be chosen by God? Well, friend, endure the cross and despise the sheep. the people of the furnace. Could I look with you at the purpose of the furnace? What is the purpose of this furnace of affliction? First of all, it is to assure us of the Father's love. You say to me, Preacher, that's a strange way to assure us of his love. Let me tell you, my friend, today that whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you have never known the chastening of the Lord, if you have never known the scourge laid upon you, if you have never traversed the dark valley, If you've never known the flames of affliction to blister you as you pursued your way upward, heavenward, and homeward, and Godward, then, friend, you can put a question mark at your salvation. For when the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Every blow that's struck is tendered by the Father's care. He knows what he's doing. He knows how much you can endure. He knows that affliction is good for you. He knows that it will wean you from the world and draw you closer to himself. The furnace of affliction is not only assurance of love, but it is a way of trial. Anything that is worth something must be tried. That diamond cannot show forth its beauty until it faces the cutter, until it knows what it is to be cut and to be chipped, that its beauties might be seen. The silver must be refined in the crucible. The gold must be put into the furnace. It's because God's saints are worth something that God tries them and tests them, that he might purify them seven times like the sons of Levi, that they might show forth the glories of him who has called them out of darkness into his most marvelous light. The furnace of affliction is the manner also of the sacrifice. My friend, God's people need the fire. The Christian that is flameless is useless. Absolutely. If there's no flame of burning in your soul, if you don't know the bitterness of the sacrifice, you'll never know the joy of triumph. If you never carry the cross, you'll never wear the crown. If you do not suffer with Christ, you will never reign with Christ. This is the divine principle. It's the method of the sacrifice. It is also the manner of conformity to Christ. Did you ever read that word in Revelation 1 and verse 15? Here we have the vision of Christ. And what does it say of my blessed Savior? It is a wonderful word. It says His feet, Revelation 115, His feet like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace. The head of Christ speaks of His deeds. The feet of Christ speaks of His humanity. That's where He touches earth. Christ and his humanity went through the furnace of fire. And if you're going to step in the footprints of Jesus, the footprints of Jesus lead to the furnace of fire. The footprints of Jesus lead to the place of loneliness. Outside the The man that walks with God will go it alone. There'll not be many with him to strengthen his hands or uphold him in the dark hour of loneliness. It is the way the master went, should not his servants tread it still. to be conformed to Christ, to walk in his way, he is in the way of misunderstanding. When your own family will turn against you as Christ had the experience when his mother, his blessed mother and his brethren said he's beside himself, he's a madman. Misunderstanding, ridicule, suffering, rejection, beating, imprisonment, judgment, the cross of shame, and the agony of the passion. If we as a church are going to be conformed to Christ, we're going to endure all these things. This church is going to enter into the furnace of affliction. Every believer who is an intricate part of this church is going to bear the scorching flame that is to trials. That's the purpose of the furnace, part of its power. The other day I saw the metal taken from off one of our printing machines. placed in the furnace for to be melted. And when that lead was all melted and liquid, then a red substance was added, and that brought the drags to the top, and then the dross was skimmed off, and underneath was metal that was pure, ready to be remolded to print again the message into which it was molded. And as I stood and watched that, I said, so like my Savior, He takes us and He puts us into the furnace. Thank God for the red substance of the Redeemer's blood that brings up the dross and skims it away from us and leaves us pure that we might do the work and the will of God. The furnace is for cleansing. The furnace is for conforming us to the mold. The blacksmith takes the cold piece of iron, and he hammers it, and he tries to shape it. And although he uses all his muscle, and although he uses all his strength, the cold steel resists his blow. But let him put the iron into the fire. Let him heat it. white hot than the flames. Let them apply to the flame the bellows for the wind. And when God puts us in the fire and blows upon the flame by the Holy Ghost and brings us out, then when we feel the hammer upon us, we are shaped easily into the pattern of our great Maker. and our great Savior's plan. The fire is good. It cleanses us. It conforms us. Thank God the fire consoles us. You'll get light in the fire. There are promises in that book you would never have known them if you hadn't been in the furnace. There are sweet revelations of Jesus in the Word, and you would never have been a partaker of them except you had been down in the valley. But when you were down there in the valley, how precious was the Word of God to you. What sweetness you found in the honey from the rock. What consolation from the Savior's arm. I have chosen thee. the furnace of affliction. I'll tell you something more. The furnace confounds the enemies of the gospel. The furnace of God's people. Look at Exodus chapter 9, the ninth chapter of Exodus. Great portion there. Verse 8 of Exodus 9, And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh, and it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt. and shall be a boil breaking forth with billions upon man and upon beast throughout all the land of Egypt. They took the ashes of the furnace and they confounded the enemies of God. And our ashes, when everything we think is burned away, God can take those ashes and confound our enemies. Isn't that a wonderful thought? That he can take the ashes of the furnace and use them to the confounding of the enemies of the gospel. My, when the old devil says, run that man down, you know what happens? God runs him up. That's what happens. And the old devil says, I'll destroy that work. God says, I'll prosper that work. And the old devil says, I'll lay a plan to discredit that testimony. God says to the devil, I'll discredit you and those that work for it. And so he does. You know, all a furnace does, it just breaks the bands and prays God that sets you free. Happy is the person who knows that he has been chosen in the furnace of affliction. My last thought, the privilege of the furnace. What is the privilege of the furnace? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego heated the furnace one seven times more hotter than it was wont to be heated. So fierce was the flame that those that threw them in perished. And they were bound and they were cast in. The king rose from his throne and he said, Look, did we not cast three men bound into the furnace? But behold, four men walking in the furnace. My, the furnace put you in your feet! Never were on your feet until you felt the flame. You never knew the sweetness of the Savior's love till you passed the time of sorrow and the way of affliction. And the fourth is like the Son of God. You'll never know the companionship of Jesus except you go into the furnace. It's in the furnace you meet the Lord. Standing somewhere in the shadows, you'll find Jesus. He's the only one who cares and understands. Standing somewhere in the shadows, you will find him, and you'll know him by the nail prints in his hand. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Welcome the flame. Welcome the refining fire. Welcome the furnace of affliction. Welcome the testings of God, because these things work everything together for good. to those of us who love our Lord. I have chosen thee. Maybe there's someone here and you have never received Jesus Christ. He's a stranger to you. And when you go down into the valley, you'll go it alone. There'll be no hand To help you, there'll be no Christ to console you. There'll be no Savior to lead you. You'll go it alone. You can meet Christ in this house today. He can lift your burden. He can cleanse your sins. He can forgive you freely by his grace. And you can leave this house knowing that the next time you go into the valley, Jesus will be with you. I was called last night to see a man who was here last Sunday. He's in the heart machine today in the hospital. He's along the border. And when the minister came in, the Methodist minister, he said to him, he said, are you redeemed by the blood of the Lamb? For I am. The Methodist minister said, yes, I'm a redeemed man. He said, thank God for that. I'll shake hands with you. If you had been an old apostate, I wouldn't have shaken hands with you. And then he said, you get Mr. Paisley up here. He's my minister. I want him here. The minister graciously rang me up, and I went up to see him. And we prayed and read together, and we repeated together that motto text we had last Sunday. But the God of all grace, who has called you unto his eternal glory, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle. It's great to have Jesus when you walk the valley, isn't it? It's great to have Jesus when death comes. It's great to have Jesus to introduce you to the joys of heaven. You can have him this morning. Will you take him? He loves you. He died for you. You say, preacher, what about my habits? What about my sins? What about my companions? Hand your troubles over to Christ and He'll undertake for you. He'll look after your habits. He'll look after your sins. He'll deal with your companions. He will save you. Hallelujah! He will save you now. May you trust Him for Jesus' sake.