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1. All persons in the furnace of affliction are not chosen. It is a great truth that every child of God is afflicted, but it is a lie that every afflicted man is a child of God. 2. The second preliminary remark I would make is on the immutability of God's love to His people. Think not, when you are in trouble, that God has cast you off. I. IF YOU WANT GOD'S PEOPLE YOU MUST GENERALLY LOOK FOR THEM IN THE FURNACE. Look at the world in its primeval age, when Adam and Eve are expelled the garden. They have begotten two sons, Cain and Abel: which of them is the child of God? Yonder one who lies there smitten by the club, a lifeless corpse; he who has just now been in the furnace of his brother's enmity and persecution. A few hundred years roll on, and where is the child of God? There is one man whose ears are continually vexed with the conversation of the wicked and who walks with God, even Enoch, and he is the child of God. Descend further still till you come to the days of Noah. You will find the man who is laughed t, hooted as a fool, building a ship upon dry land, standing in the furnace of slander and laughter: that is the elect of God. Go on still through history; let the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob pass before you, and you may write upon all of them: "These were God's tried people." Then go down to the time when Israel went into Egypt. Do you ask me to find out God's people? I take you not to the palaces of Pharaoh, but to the brick-kilns of Egypt. As we follow on in the paths of history, where were God's family next? They were in the furnace of the wilderness, suffering privation and pain. Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, against whom the people took up stones to stone them: these were distinguished above their fellows as being elect out of the chosen nation. Pass through Judges and come to the time of Saul, and where was God's servant then? He is in the furnace — wandering in the caves of Engedi, climbing the goat tracks, hunted like the partridge by a remorseless foe. And after his days where were the saints? Not in the halls of Jezebel, nor sitting at the table of Ahab. They are hidden by fifties in the cave, and fed by bread and water. I might tell you of the days of Maccabees, when God's children were put to death without number, by all manner of tortures till then unheard of. I might tell you of the days of Christ, and point to the despised fishermen, to the laughed at and persecuted apostles. I might go on through the days of popery, and point to those who died upon the mountains or suffered in the plains. I suppose it shall be so until the latest age. II. THE REASON FOR THIS. 1. It is the stamp of the covenant. 2. All precious things have to be tried. The diamond must be cut. Gold, too, must be tried. It was one of the laws of God, "Everything that may abide the fire, ye shall make go through the fire, and it shall be clean" (Numbers 31:23). It is a law of nature, it is a law of grace, that everything that can abide the fire — every-thing that is precious — must be tried. 3. The Christian is said to be a sacrifice to God. Now every sacrifice must be burned with fire. 4. Another reason why we must be put in the furnace is, because else we should not be at all like Jesus Christ. If He walked through the flames, must not we do the same? III. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE FURNACE? 1. It purifies us. 2. It makes us more ready to be moulded. What could our manufacturers do if they could not melt the metal they use? They could not make half the various things we see around us, if they were not able to liquify the metal, and afterwards mould it. There could be no good men in the world if it were not for trouble. We could none of us be made useful if we could not be tried in the fire. 3. Then the furnace is very useful to God's people because they get more light there than anywhere else. If you travel in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, or in other manufacturing districts, you will be interested at night by the glare of light which is cast by all those furnaces. It is labour's own honourable illumination. There is no place where we learn so much, and have so much light cast upon Scripture, as we do in the furnace. 4. One more use of the furnace — and I give this for the benefit of those who hate God's people — is, that it is useful for bringing plagues on our enemies. Do you not remember the passage in Exodus, where "the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, take to you handfuls of 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 blains upon man, and upon beast"? There is nothing that so plagues the enemies of Israel, as "handfuls of ashes of the furnace" that we are able to cast upon them. The devil is never more devoid of wisdom than when he meddles with God's people, and tries to run down God's minister. "Run him down!" Sir, you run him up! Persecution damages our enemies; it cannot hurt us. IV. THE COMFORTS IN THE FURNACE. 1. The comfort of the text itself — election. Let affliction come — God has chosen me. 2. You have the Son of Man with you in the furnace. Conclusion — There is another great furnace. "The pile thereof is of wood and much smoke, the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, shall kindle it." Would you be saved? There is but one way. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

WEB: Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.