Bible Reading: Joshua 12 & 13; Psalm 145; Jeremiah 6; Matthew 20
Jeremiah 6:30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.
Jeremiah prophesied that Jerusalem would fall to the Babylonian army. This was a disciplinary action by the Lord upon his people because they would not obey or honor him. He had tried again and again to get their attention. He had sent prophet after prophet to them and they would not hear.
Jeremiah 6:13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
God uses a simile to compare the people to silver. Like a founder putting a precious metal in a fire to melt out the impurities, God has done this with his people. However, instead of melting out the impurities and leaving that which is most precious, God has found them to be reprobate silver. This is silver that is to be rejected because it is not genuine. When the fire is applied, this all burns up because there is no real silver in it. How sad to think that God came looking for genuine faith in Jerusalem and found only dross!
There are several warnings in the Bible for us to consider the genuineness of our faith in Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 13:5-6 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.
As a refiner assays the genuine nature of silver by putting it in the fire, the Bible tells us to examine ourselves to see if Jesus Christ is in us. When the fire is applied to a believer's life, everything that is not Jesus will burn off and he will be left. But if the fire is applied and there is no Jesus that person is reprobate – rejected as not genuine. The apostle Paul was confident that the Corinthian's faith was genuine, but he told them to examine their lives anyway. You should too.
What are we looking for when we examine our lives for the genuine, precious life of Jesus within us? We are looking for a genuine faith and a change of life that shows the reality of Jesus living in us. A person who is reprobate is a professor but not a possessor of Jesus Christ.
Titus 1:16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
This is why fiery trials come our way – to test the genuine nature of our faith.
1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
True faith in Jesus comes out of the fire showing the genuine relationship with Jesus Christ in your life.
In Christ,
Rody
