The Dross from the Silver Prov. 25:4 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

God has vessels in his house 2 Tim 2:20-21 and he wants these to be vessels of honour – the only way to take an old man made new and make him a vessel of honor is to get rid of the dross from the silver.

The process in silver involves fire – the silversmith heats metal and the dross is skimmed off – or else the metal is heated and other metals (lead, tin, copper) rise to the surface – air is then blown upon them – they oxidize and turn to powder – then the powder is blown off the pure metal – either way requires fire.

After you get saved some of the sins come out of your life quickly – you knew they were wrong before you even got saved and then you just gave them up by God’s grace.

But other sins are much harder to give up and much harder for you to see – God sees them – and he has to get those out of there for you to be a vessel of honor – so he heats things up – the suffering or trial refines the silver of the redeemed soul.

For Joseph there was a prison (pride over the dreams), for Paul there was a thorn (potential pride over the revelations) – for Daniel there was the lion’s den (he accepted worship) – for Jacob there was the crippling wrestling match with an angel (he went from supplanter to prince) – for David there was the death of Bathsheba’s child – for Joshua there was the defeat at Ai.

A preacher listed the dross after the fire in a commentary – Self-love; self-praise; laziness; pride; envy; selfishness, covetousness, indifference to the lost; lack of love for the Bible; insincerity; love of security and comfort; lack of zeal; desire to exaggerate; gossip; tale-bearing; back-biting; fear of man; and self-pity.

I know of no other way for these particular sins to come out without a blazing fire.

The fire may take on different characteristics in your life – sickness, you might get fired from your job, jilted by a trusted friend, prison, death of a loved one, divorce where you are the innocent party, tragedy (like the loss of everything in a storm or a fire), miscarriage, near fatality (like a wreck), a few months in a home (Jubilee), etc.

You come through these things to find amazingly that you are not what you were when you went into these things – something has changed supernaturally.

Just remember when you get into the fire:

• Call on the Lord Zech 13:9 – draw close to him
• Trust the Lord – the refiner is there watching closely Mal 3:3
• Yield to the Lord – the refiner is looking for an improvement in the vessel – Prov 25:4
• Glorify the Lord – the refiner won’t stop until he gets what he wants – Is 48:10-11