Message
A Refiner’s Fire
Key Verse: Malachi 3:2-3
"But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness..."
Thank God for calling us as shepherds for God's flock in the African Continent. Thank God for blessing us through this conference. The conference has been so good that I even lost a sense of time. I cannot believe that it is already closing time. In closing the conference, we would like to think about Malachi 3:2-3, especially the title "A Refiner's Fire." I believe this title sums up the messages we have learned and gives us a practical action plan for African mission. Proverbs 17:3 reads, "The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart." This passage indicates that functionally each of our African UBF Bible centers should operate as the spiritual crucible and the spiritual furnace - the furnace to produce not silver or gold but fine disciples, as fine as the apostles of our Lord Jesus.
About five centuries before the Christ, the Prophet Malachi prophesied about the work of the Savior to come. He characterized the work of the Savior as the work of a refiner. He said that the Savior will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Notice the word "Levites." Who are the Levites? They are so to speak "staff shepherds" in UBF (Numbers 3:12; 8:14). In order to establish them as servants serving the Lord fully, the Lord did not allow them to make a living on their own. The Lord commanded them to live on offerings. The reason God established them as full time shepherds was that through them the Lord God wanted to train the Israelites as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
For this purpose, God trained the Israelites, particularly the Levites, for more than 2000 years. But by the time the Prophet Malachi came, the Levites became corrupt. However, God did not give up on them. God sent Jesus to "refine" the Levites!
Indeed when Jesus came he called his twelve disciples. He trained them to be shepherds and missionaries – not shepherds and missionaries of regular quality but excellent quality, as excellent as that of the Apostle Peter or the Apostle John.
"But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness..."
Here, "fire" refers to the fire of the word of God which is the sword of the Holy Spirit. "Soap" stands for the cleansing power of the word. Overall the refiner's fire or launder's soap denotes the message of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Through the conference we listened to three messages: Isaiah 2:2-3; Romans 1:16; and Galatians 5:16. As I listened to the messages I was reminded that if we put into practice what we have learned the Lord can use each of us as refiners of fire and launderers’ soap.
So let us review the messages the Lord has granted us so far.
First, God's vision for Africa.
The Prophet Isaiah saw the vision that in the last days people will stream to the Lord's mountain. "In the last days the mountain of the LORD'S temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem." Based on this passage we came to see the vision for Africa. For example in regard to the vision of the people in Egypt, the people of Egypt will say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Egypt UBF Bible Center. Shepherd Oyo Moses will teach us his ways, so that we may work in his paths." Now let us go to the southernmost part of the African Continent, the City of Capetown and see what the people of Capetown will say. If you have ears to hear, they will say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Capetown UBF Bible Center. Shepherd Andries Coetsee will teach us his ways, so that we may work in his paths."
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the ________ UBF Bible Center. ______________ will teach us his ways, so that we may work in his paths."
Now let each national chapter director put the name of his nation and his own name in the blanks above and read the passage. May the Lord bless us to establish the mountain of the Lord for each college campus of all 54 African nations, so all African students and their families would stream to the mountain of the Lord.
Second, the gospel is the power of God.
Romans 1:16 reads, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."
In verses 18-32 the Apostle Paul describes the condition of fallen men: They are godless and wicked. Although God gave them ways to know God they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They worship idols. As a result, shameful lusts took over them. They became gays and lesbians. Their minds became depraved. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
How can we save them from the power of sin? We can do it only through the gospel the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes! So let us go to our mission field with the conviction that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes!
Third, live by the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16 reads, "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature." Missionary Moses Yoon's message shows us the practical way to help students to overcome the desires of sinful nature.
The acts of the sinful nature include: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
But for everyone who repents and is baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins, God gives him the gift of the Holy Spirit. When one lives by the Spirit, he does not gratify the desires of sinful nature. Rather the Holy Spirit enables him to bear good fruit such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
As we go back to our mission field, may the Lord bless us to live by the Spirit, rely on the power of the Holy Spirit and work in and through the Spirit, so the Spirit of God would rebuke people to repent, turn to the Lord, and become new creations.
Again the Prophet Malachi asks, "[W]ho can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness..."
On my way from Los Angeles to Uganda, I read a newspaper article on a young Nigerian suicide bomber. The title of the news report was, "There are many more like me." The report came with the picture of the man: Umar Farouk Abdul Mutalab (23). Six weeks ago his father Alhaji Umaru, 70, the former chairman of Nigeria's biggest bank, contacted American security officials with concerns that his son had become radicalized after disappearing to the al Queda stronghold of Yemen. The concern became a reality: Farouk hid explosives in his body, slipped through security systems, boarded an airbus with 289 people on board, and tried to detonate it as the airbus approached Detroit on Christmas Day. However, he was overpowered and taken to the FBI for interrogation. Do you know what he said to the US marshals? "There are more like me who will strike soon."
As I read this article I realized that it behooves us to do a far better job in each of our Bible centers than the al Queda extremists are doing in their al Queda strongholds. Genesis 36:31 reads, “These were the kings who reigned in Edom (or Esau) before any Israelite king reigned.” Imagine in your mind a scale: on one side there is Edom, on the other there is Israel (or Jacob). When Edom goes up, Jacob goes down; when Jacob’s side goes up, Edom’s side goes down. Edom represents the flesh, whereas Jacob represents the spirit. The spirit must rule the flesh. The Spirit must fill the master’s position and the flesh must serve the Spirit. And we are happiest when the Spirit is the master. For this reason, the Scripture says, “Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up.” (Proverbs 30:21) Do you know what the first item on the list is? A servant who becomes a king (Pro 30:22)! So on the African continent, in each mission field, in each college campus, there are exactly two categories of people: those who belong to Edom’s camp, and those who belong to Jacob’s camp. Do you know what? God called Jacob to go to the Edom’s camp, fish students, teach them the Bible, and even better put the students through the furnace (i.e., discipleship program), and mold them to be a Jesus’ disciple! God’s peace increases only to the extent of the number of people moving from the Edom’s camp to Jacob’s camp.
Now let us think about the expression "radicalized." The word "radical" means "hardcore, fanatic, militant, or revolutionary". We are told, "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." But the Muslim terrorists are not born but "made." By the same token, disciples of Jesus are also made, not born. That is why Jesus commanded us to “make” disciples. The Muslim extremists fish Nigerian college students and train them to become Muslim fanatics, ready to sacrifice their lives for Jihad. But we are called to fish students from African youths, refine and purify them, so that they should obey everything Jesus commanded, even ready to suffer martyrdom for the sake of Jesus’ name.
"[W]ho can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness..."
Thank God for giving us the gospel the power of God. Thank God for the gift of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord bless us that daily we be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire. It has been said, "The Christianity in African soil is a mile long but an inch deep." In Nigeria even robbers sing hymn songs while ransacking the house of a missionary. What kind of Christians did the Christian community generate so far in the African soil? And we should not teach a watered down version of the gospel. We should not produce nominal Christians. We must produce quality Christians, and not just lukewarm Christians but radical Christians, as radical as the Apostle Paul! But we know the good old saying: like father like son; like shepherd like sheep. So, the first thing must first happen, that is, each of us must go through the test, just as the Scripture says: the crucible for silver; the furnace for gold, but God tests his heart. When we pass the test, the Lord should be able to use us as his holy instruments - the instruments to refine and purify African souls so in each of our Bible centers there would be modern day Levites who would bring offerings acceptable to God.
One word: a refiner's fire