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[0:00] precious thing that we've seen. The first thing, Jesus. to you who believe he is precious. finish this line this morning. Give me the next eight words to this song. There's a land that is fairer than day.

[0:39] And by faith we can see it afar. That's why faith is so precious. We can see things we otherwise never would see. That land, that new heaven, that new earth that is awaiting us. So precious Christ, precious faith.

[0:58] Let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing on our day. Our ever blessing and blessed God, we have received mercy upon mercy, new ones this day. We've been receiving all of our life from our first breath and will to our dying breath.

[1:22] Goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life. And so we meet to give you praise. That we are surrounded by your mercies.

[1:34] And we were therefore rich if there was nothing more than just having you. That we can say of you as David did in Psalm 67, then God, our God, will bless us.

[1:48] That you are our God and that you have blessing instead of cursing. This is wealth untold. So make us more aware of our riches in Christ.

[2:01] That in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And that if we have him, whatever else we don't have, we are rich beyond telling. So strengthen our faith and feed it this morning that we might glory in Jesus Christ.

[2:18] Do the same for our children. Teach them what's worth running after. What is truly precious. Make Christ precious to them. And so from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, may the Lord's name be praised.

[2:33] We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen. So this morning we come to the third precious thing then. And it's probably not something if we were left to ourselves that we would put on our list of precious things.

[2:52] But it's something that God teaches us in his word and in experience to regard as precious. And again, so again, it just shows us why we need to have God teach us what's truly precious.

[3:05] Because we wouldn't put this down as a precious thing. And so we need God to teach us. Or we will sinfully shrink away from that which we ought to welcome as something better than gold itself.

[3:20] It has the looks of harming us, but is really sent to do us untold good. I speak of the preciousness of trials. Precious trials. So have you got trials recorded on your asset side of your portfolio?

[3:37] Or do you think of them on the liability side? I trust by the time we're done we'll see that they are indeed assets. Precious, precious trials.

[3:49] So we turn again to 1 Peter. It's interesting that that's where our brother Winslow has taken us all three times for the precious things so far to Peter's epistles.

[4:02] And we're there to begin with again. 1 Peter 1, 6, and 7. And I think that the NIV misses a bit on their translation.

[4:17] So I'm going to ask if anybody has the King James or New King James Version. Would you hold your hand up? If you're willing to read, Sam. I asked two questions together and your hand was up on the first.

[4:31] So I'm going to ask you to read verses 6 and 7, please. 1 Peter 1, 6, and 7. Wherein you pray with your joys, though now for a season, if need be, we are taken as tremendous temptations.

[4:46] That the trial of your faith be much more precious than with gold that perishes. Though each white and fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory in the experience of Jesus Christ. That the trial of your faith be much more precious than gold.

[5:03] And I think the NIV states that your faith being much more precious than gold. Yes, faith is more precious than gold.

[5:14] But I don't believe that's what's being said here. What's being said here is that the trial of your faith is more precious than tried gold.

[5:25] Tried and proven faith is even more precious than tried and proven faith. So if faith itself is precious, then anything that tests that faith, that purifies it, that strengthens it, is also precious.

[5:42] And I trust we're seeing the interrelatedness of God's precious things. Christ is precious, and so is the faith that perceives him as precious.

[5:54] And so are the trials that test my faith, purify, strengthen, and prove it genuine. And by that process enables me to better prize Christ as precious.

[6:10] So these things are all interrelated and connected, and they really bring us back to the preeminent preciousness of Christ. So we're looking then at the trials, the testing of our faith.

[6:26] All sorts, from the smallest to the greatest trials. We're to see them then as the tests of our faith. And they're precious, because in the first place, the trial of your faith proves its genuineness.

[6:44] So you've got a hunk of something that looks like gold, but you want to know for sure that it's the real thing. What do you do?

[6:54] Well, you subject it to the fire. And sure enough, it's proven to be genuine. It's tried by the fire and proven true. Well, in the same way, God puts your faith to the trial to prove its genuineness.

[7:10] That your faith may be proved genuine, 1 Peter 1, 7. And therefore may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

[7:23] So how important is the genuineness of our faith? I trust when we studied faith itself and why it's precious, we came away with a sense that, yes, it's got to be genuine faith.

[7:35] Not all faith is genuine. We saw there is a faith that doesn't save. There is a faith that doesn't last. There is a faith that is not saving and useful for anything.

[7:46] And so it's the genuineness. It's the difference between praise, glory, and honor when Christ returns and rebuke, shame, and disgrace at his return.

[7:59] So just suppose for a moment that nobody got into heaven without five pounds of true gold. And you had five pounds of something you thought was gold, but you didn't know for sure if it was the true thing.

[8:13] Is it fool's gold? Is it genuine gold? How important would it be to you to test it before you got there to be sure you had true gold? Well, so it is with faith.

[8:24] None will be allowed in heaven but those who had true faith in the righteousness of Jesus and trusted in him to save them. So I want to be sure I have the real thing.

[8:36] Real saving faith, not the false faith with which many live and die. Will my faith prove true on the day of judgment? Or will it prove to be in this dead, useless faith that we read of in Scripture?

[8:51] Well, we don't have to wait until that moment when we come into the fire of the last judgment and are proven for whether we're true or false, whether our faith is true or false.

[9:04] Right now, the genuineness of our faith can be tested. So God puts you in those painful, grief-causing situations. Things that, like fire, feel like they're going to destroy you.

[9:17] And yet our God is the perfect refiner, sitting over his precious jewels, his precious people. And he knows just how hot to make the trials and just how long to leave us in the fiery trials.

[9:31] And in the end, the genuineness of our faith is proven. How do we know if faith is genuine? Well, our faith in Christ survives the fire.

[9:44] It survives the trial, the test. That's not a given. Again, some people have whatever faith they had destroyed by trial.

[9:57] And so that's the stony ground here, that hears the gospel and immediately rejoices and professes faith. But when a little persecution comes or trouble comes, then they wither and die and prove to be unbelievers from the start.

[10:15] They never had the root of the matter in them. So trials in themselves do not prove us genuine. But for true faith, it survives the trial.

[10:28] Our trial does not embitter us against Christ. Our trials do not turn us away from Christ, but rather drive us to him. We draw nearer to him, and this shows that our faith is the real thing.

[10:43] It looks to Christ. It perseveres in the heat of trial. I could not have gone through it without him, you say, of that trial.

[10:54] I found him to be all I needed. And you see, that experience is so assuring. You're his, and he is yours, and your faith survived.

[11:07] Untried faith is uncertain faith. Winslow says, a man knows not upon what he's really leaning until God brings his dependence to the proof.

[11:18] Well, that's what faith is. It's dependence, isn't it? It's leaning. And we really don't know what we're really leaning on until that lean is put to the test.

[11:29] We might think we're leaning on God when, in reality, we're leaning on wealth, our own strength, our own ingenuity, and wisdom, and ability to get ourselves out of tight fixes, and maybe friends, and our influence, and our influence, and gifts, and abilities, but we're really not leaning on God.

[11:48] He cannot know for sure until God tests him, and then he sees what his faith is really leaning on. Does he fall apart and turn away from God, or does he find God to be his true support?

[12:03] Well, just a couple examples. First, David. David, his faith was put into the furnace, wasn't it? And tested, and tried, and it was proven genuine.

[12:17] In 1 Samuel 30, in verse 6, David and his men were away from home. You know, they're on the run, running from Saul, and so they run into the Philistine land, and they're given a city there where David and his men and their wives and children live, and they were away from home.

[12:34] They returned to find their camp burned and smoldering, wives and children gone, and we're told David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.

[12:46] Now, that's faith under trial. That's testing. Maybe you've wept your eyes out to where you can weep no more. That's as low as David had ever been.

[13:00] And yet, God turns the heat up even higher. Amazing. Do you know, he knows exactly how much heat we need in our tests of faith.

[13:10] And as low as he was, he turns the heat up higher because David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him. Each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters.

[13:24] So David's on the fire. He's lost his wives and children and everybody else and the whole camp, and he's weeping and tired from weeping.

[13:36] And yet, God says, no, there's more fire. And they all start talking about stoning him. It's your fault, David. So he's really low now.

[13:47] He's really in the furnace of the trial of his faith. And then there's this little phrase that followed. But David found strength in the Lord his God. Wow.

[14:00] That's it. He's in the fire. He's being tested like he had never been tested before to that degree, perhaps. And he found strength where?

[14:10] In the Lord his God. In other words, the trial turned him to the Lord and he found strength to go on. He didn't say, oh, God, if that's how you're going to treat me, then I'm done with you. People do that.

[14:22] People do that all the time. But it was faith under trial and that proved genuine by its continuance through the trial.

[14:34] The same could be said of our Lord Jesus, who is the man of faith par excellence. Of all the people of faith in Hebrews chapter 11, they don't hold a candle to Jesus, our man of faith.

[14:46] Perfect man of faith as man trusted in his God. In every trouble, in every trial, it was his God. He trusted in God.

[14:57] It didn't end his faith. It drove him to his God. And his faith persevered. In that greatest trial of all, when there was no sight of God, he could not see him.

[15:07] He could not feel him. Even there on the cross, his cry was, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

[15:18] He was still holding on that he was his God. And there in his faith, surviving the hottest trial of his faith. So faith is precious.

[15:31] The trial of our faith is precious because it proves its genuineness. So thank God for every fresh evidence of the genuineness of your faith. As you emerge from another trial with your faith still clinging to God, she found strength in the Lord, her God.

[15:53] And that confirms and proves that your faith is real and you have confidence to stand in the last day. So the trial of faith is precious because it proves its genuineness.

[16:04] Secondly, it's precious because it purifies and refines your precious faith. So your faith tested by trials is of greater worth. It's more precious than gold that's purified by fire.

[16:18] So what does the goldsmith do with his precious gold? Well, he puts it in the fire. Not to destroy it, but to burn out, to refine, to separate the dross from his precious metal.

[16:33] And so there he is with his gold and it's precious to him. And he puts it in the fire, fire that consumes. And he keeps it in the fire, hotter and hotter, burning off the cheaper metals that are mixed in with it.

[16:46] And at the end of the trial, is it more precious or less precious gold? Well, it's more precious because it's more pure. It's refined.

[16:56] And even so, faith, rather than being destroyed by fire, is made more precious still as the earthly elements are burned out of it. Again, we talked about we may think that we're leaning on God.

[17:11] And indeed, we may be. But we also may be putting another toe or two on other things. We're going to be. Our wealth, our position, and all those other things. And faith, you see, sorts that out and burns it out and purifies the gold.

[17:27] And we had a water purifier sales lady come to our house and wanted to show us why we needed a water purifier.

[17:38] And she took the water out of our tap and put it in a pan and put it over the stove. And there was some nasty scum on it that I had never seen in our water before. But it was the heat that brought the scum to the top.

[17:51] And that's what faith, the trial of our faith does, doesn't it? It brings, it doesn't introduce anything. I don't think she put anything into that water and said, see, you got dirty water.

[18:02] No, it just brings to the top, to the surface, what was always there. And that's part of the purifying process, isn't it? John, did you realize this stuff was in your heart?

[18:14] No, I didn't. How do you realize it now? Because I was put into a fiery trial and it brought the scum right up to the top where I could see it. Well, now what are you going to do with it? I've got to go to my Savior and have it cleansed and washed and be purified in his blood and with his power.

[18:32] And that faith is purified in the fire. Burning out those that draw us of self, of worldliness, of earthly mindedness, of unbelief, of misplaced confidence and dependence, love of other things, false treasures.

[18:52] We're mixed in with our faith. The trial reveals that we might turn from it. So, if you're in the trial, remember who the refiner is.

[19:05] He's the one that loves you, that loved you unto the death of the cross. And he's the one controlling the heat and the amount of it, the length of it.

[19:17] And he's using this refining fire to sanctify you and to burn out your dross. Remember, Jesus is called the author and what of our faith? The perfecter, the finisher, the perfecter.

[19:30] There's still more finishing work, more perfecting work of our faith. And he knows how to do it. It's in the furnace of trials. So, David confesses, before I was afflicted, I went astray.

[19:42] But now I obey your word. Oh, what a blessed thing was affliction, trial in his life. The areas where he was going astray, he's now back to obeying.

[19:53] You see, his faith was purified in the fire. Trials are precious because they purify our faith. But thirdly, they're precious because they drive us outside of ourselves to the Lord Jesus.

[20:09] They drive us outside of ourselves to the Lord Jesus. Trials expose our emptiness. They expose our weakness. We don't have anything to deal with this stuff. I don't have in me that which I need in this situation.

[20:23] I'm in over my head here. I don't have the resources for it. And it sends us running to Christ in prayer. Not that we never pray, but oh, how we pray when we're in trial.

[20:35] There's something of a different intensity when Peter's sinking on the water. It's not a long prayer, but oh, it's a hearty prayer. Lord, save me.

[20:46] And oh, how we pray in the fire and in the flood. And Paul is a thorn in the flesh tormenting him. Three periods of prayer, pleading with God.

[21:00] And in it, he learned more of the sufficiency of Christ. Winslow says, brethren, how little he would hear from us without trials and afflictions.

[21:12] I fear he speaks more truth than we want to acknowledge. How little he would hear from us without trials. He's too easily forgotten in times of prosperity.

[21:27] So as one of the old Puritans used to say, our trials have done their greatest works if they have brought us to Jesus. To look to him for grace, to help us in our time of need, to lean on him, to live upon him.

[21:42] Trials bring us to a more intimate acquaintance with Christ himself. Trials are calls to deal with Christ personally, to make use of him.

[21:53] All he is for all our need. Trials send us to Christ, and we grow in our appreciation of his preciousness. So Winslow says, the loss of an earthly friend is made to show us the preciousness of the friend we have in Jesus.

[22:09] Again, trials to drive us to Jesus. He goes on and says, beloved reader, when has Christ appeared the nearest and most precious to your soul?

[22:20] Has it not been in the pain of some trial? Oh, how precious has that trial made him. And if there was no other reason, that's one reason why trials are precious.

[22:31] The trial of our faith is precious because it shows us how precious he is. He says, the more your faith is tried, the more it deals with God. And the more it travels to Christ.

[22:43] I like his language. Where do you travel in trial? Where do you go? And he says, the more your faith is tried, the more it travels to Christ.

[22:54] And it's impossible for you to spend one minute with God or to catch one glimpse of Christ and not be sensibly and immeasurably the gainer, the richer.

[23:05] You will know more of Jesus in one sanctified trial, he says, than in wading through a library of volumes or in listening to a lifetime of sermons.

[23:17] The preciousness of trials. How little we would know experientially of the Lord Jesus without trials. What depths in his love.

[23:28] What condescension in his grace. What gentleness in his discipline. What a shelter from the storm. What soothingness in his sympathy. And so that's what he acknowledges has been true of him.

[23:43] That he's known most of the preciousness of Christ in trial. The greatest manifestation of his love for him. Those three Hebrew children thrown into the fiery furnace.

[23:55] It was in the furnace that the fourth one, like unto the Son of God, came and had fellowship with them. The disciples in the storm.

[24:06] And on and on we could go with illustrations of it. I've been reading in the life of William Grimshaw, a contemporary of the Wesleys and Whitfields, who preached the gospel in the north of England.

[24:20] And one of his friends, William Darney, was a big rough and tumble Scot that the Lord saved and turned into a preacher. A rough and tumble preacher who just went out and preached in the outdoors.

[24:34] And was often viciously persecuted because of it. He says, Heaven of heavens in my soul.

[25:09] It was a fiery trial that taught this rough and tumble Scot more of the preciousness of Christ. One life more than any other that I've appreciated that demonstrates this principle is John Payton, the missionary to the cannibals of the South Pacific Islands, now Vanuatu.

[25:34] Landed there on November 5th, 1858, along with his wife, Mary. A year later, she gave birth to their first child, a boy. Three weeks later, she died. And then two weeks later, their boy died.

[25:48] Stunned at the greatness of the loss, and so early in their mission, which he was sure the Lord had led him on, Payton says, My reason seemed for a time to almost give way.

[26:00] His physical health broke. His emotional health turned to depression. He buried his two loved ones in a grave, dug with his own hands. And he writes, That spot became the place where with ceaseless prayers and tears I claimed that land for God.

[26:16] But for Jesus and the fellowship he stooped to give me there, I must have gone mad and died beside that lonely grave. But for Jesus and the fellowship he stooped to give me there, Where?

[26:32] In the furnace of trial. After speaking of many other specific trials he had in his ministry, He writes in another place, But we were ever conscious that our Lord Jesus was near us, And all trials that lead us to cling closer in fellowship with our Savior Are really blessings in disguise.

[26:53] The cannibals blamed all bad things that happened on the island upon Payton and told him, Our people are determined to kill you if you do not leave this island, For you're changing our customs and destroying our worship, And we hate the Jehovah worship.

[27:12] He awakened one night to the sounds of natives trying to force their way into his locked door. Another day a wild chief followed him around for four hours with his loaded musket pointed at him.

[27:24] I think one second would do me in, but four hours? This is what he says, Life in such circumstances led me to cling very near to the Lord Jesus.

[27:36] I knew not for one brief hour when or how attack might be made, And yet with my trembling hand clasped in the hand once nailed on Calvary, And now swaying the scepter of the universe, Calmness and peace and resignation abode in my soul.

[27:53] Trials and hair breath escapes strengthened my faith, And seemed only to nerve me for more to follow, And they did tread swiftly upon each other's heels.

[28:05] Without that abiding consciousness of the presence and power of my dear Lord and Savior, Nothing else in all the world could have preserved me from losing my reason and perishing miserably.

[28:16] His words, Lo, I am with you always, Even to the end of the world, Became to me so real that it would not have startled me to behold him as Stephen did, Gazing down upon the scene.

[28:30] It is the sober truth, And it comes back to me sweetly after twenty years, That I had my nearest and dearest glimpses of the face and smile of my blessed Lord In those dread moments when musket, club, or spear was being leveled at my life.

[28:46] Oh, the bliss of living and enduring as seeing him who is invisible. Now that's the language of faith, isn't it? Seeing him who is invisible.

[28:57] How do you see him, Peyton? I see him by faith in his word that tells me he's with me. And what strengthens your faith? Having a musket, a club, leveled at me.

[29:10] So the role of trials, Taking us out of ourselves, Making us look and live upon Christ, Makes them more precious.

[29:23] Years later, the islanders were ready to hunt him down and kill him one night. And a friendly native, At least what he thought was a friendly native, He was never sure whether to trust them or not, But tipped him off about their plans to kill him that night And told him to climb high up in a large chestnut tree in the bush.

[29:41] And he writes, Later, I climbed into the tree and was left there alone in the bush. The hours I spent there live all before me as if it were but yesterday. I hear the frequent, I heard the frequent discharging of the muskets, The yells of the savages.

[29:57] Yet I sat there among the branches as safe in the arms of Jesus. Never in all my sorrows did the Lord draw nearer to me And speak more soothingly in my soul Than when the moonlight flickered upon those chestnut leaves And the night air played on my throbbing brow As I told all my heart to Jesus, Alone, yet not alone.

[30:20] If it be to glorify my God, I will not grudge to spend many nights alone in such a tree, To feel again my Savior's spiritual presence, To enjoy his consoling fellowship.

[30:32] And then a personal word to the reader. If thus thrown back upon your own soul, Alone, all, all alone, In the midnight, in the bush, In the very embrace of death itself, Have you a friend that will not fail you then?

[30:50] It was the words of Christ, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Lo, I am with you always. Those were the promises that he clung to in the tree. So you see, from these examples, I trust you have found the same, That the trial of your faith Is taking you quite out of yourself.

[31:08] You're empty, you're bankrupt, And so you turn to him. And what do you find? Do you find more preciousness in Jesus Than you've ever seen before? And so trials, The trials of our faith are precious.

[31:23] And then fourthly, The trial of faith is precious Because it develops perseverance. Turn to James, We're in 1 Peter, You know that the first chapter of James Takes us down a very similar path, Doesn't it?

[31:38] In James 1, And verses 2 to 4, We're looking at the point That trials of faith are precious Because they develop perseverance.

[31:50] James 1, 2, Consider it pure joy, my brothers, Whenever you face trials of many kinds. Why? Why should we put trials In the precious category of our portfolio?

[32:02] Why should we put it over here On the list of pure joy? Because, verse 3, You know that the testing of your faith Develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work So that you may be mature and complete, Not lacking anything.

[32:19] So faith enables me To see all my trials As handpicked by my all-wising And loving Father in Heaven To develop an all-important grace Of perseverance To make it all the way to the end.

[32:34] And that is so true That if I grasp it, I will count trials. As pure joy.

[32:46] The testing of your faith Develops perseverance. Later in Job's book, He puts forth the exhibit of Job. In James' letter here, He holds up the exhibit of Job.

[32:57] The testing of your faith Develops perseverance. In chapter 5, verse 11, You've heard of Job's perseverance. Perseverance. But folks, You wouldn't have heard about Job's perseverance If he hadn't been put through the fire, Would you?

[33:10] We wouldn't be reading about that In James 5, 11. Because it was sorely tested. And through that test, Perseverance was developed.

[33:23] So do we humble ourselves Under God's mighty hand, Submitting to Him and His will, Or do we murmur and complain And chafe under the yoke of trial?

[33:35] Do we blame Him or humbly suffer Without a hard thought against God? Winslow says, How little do we know Of our impatience and proud rebellion Until He brings us into the fiery trial And we learn what we really are.

[33:50] He tries our patience Only to increase it. And patience is perseverance. So that's the fourth reason That trials are precious Because they develop The very thing we all need If we're to make it to the end.

[34:08] Perseverance. How precious is perseverance? Well, how precious is the trial of faith That develops it? And then fifthly, These trials are precious Because they're the disciplines Of a loving Father in Heaven.

[34:22] Hebrews 12, 6. He disciplines those He loves. Every stroke of His rod Is a proof of His love, Winslow writes. Proof of His love. Proof of sonship.

[34:33] He does it to teach me some good. Indeed, Hebrews 12, 10 says He disciplines us for our profit. We're talking about precious things. We're talking about precious things. He disciplines me for our profit.

[34:45] That we might be partakers of His holiness. Whatever promotes holiness, Likeness to Jesus, More love to God and men, Whatever promotes that Must be precious.

[34:57] A couple weeks ago, I heard a man who'd been a Christian For five years now Tell me this.

[35:08] I learned something this week. I've had one of the best experiences In my walk with our Lord yet. Our Lord chastened me this week.

[35:21] I wonder if we'd write that. One of the best experiences In my five-year walk with Christ. He chastened me this week. It occurred to me why our Lord chastened me.

[35:33] It's because He loves me. We want our loved ones close to us. God is love. He really wants His loved ones close. And when we go astray, He works to bring us back.

[35:45] He wants me close to Him. So how precious are our trials then, brethren, From a loving Father Who wants us close to Him. And His trials of discipline say, Return to me.

[35:57] Return to me. You've wandered. Come back. Trials are precious Because they're the disciplines Of a loving Father. And lastly, Trials are precious Because they send us running To God's Word.

[36:11] To God's Word. More of that later on In this study of precious things. But trials send us to God's Word.

[36:23] Now, Winslow says, We ought to be meditating On His Word day and night. Letting the Word of Christ Dwell in us richly And be at work in us. But the distracting cares of life Too easily lead us to neglect it.

[36:37] But oh, How we come hungry To the Word of God in trials. To know its comforts, Its strength, Its help, And its wisdom. So David found it.

[36:48] Psalm 119.71 It was good for me To be afflicted. Tried. So that I might learn Your decrees. Learn your decrees.

[37:00] What a teacher of the Word Is trial. Luther said, There are three things That make for a good Minister of the Word. A good preacher of the Word.

[37:12] Meditation, Prayer, And trials. Affliction. Because in affliction, In trials, The meaning of the passage Is often unlocked To us.

[37:26] And I think you know What he means, That when your heart Has been hurting In trial, And you turn to the Word of God, You find comfort there, Perhaps in Psalm 23 That you've memorized Since you were a child, But you suddenly find comfort In that like you hadn't known before.

[37:43] What was it That made the difference? It was the trial That opened up More and more Of the Word of God To you And you sucked Sweet encouragement From it.

[37:54] The meaning of the passage Is opened up to us In times of trial. Winslow says, Trials have been Our best commentaries On the deep things Of the Word. I have a lot of commentaries.

[38:08] Winslow says, The best ones Are the trials That come to you. He writes, We did not know That there was so much Sweetness in the Word Until we found So much bitterness In the world.

[38:22] We didn't know How much fullness Was in the Scriptures Until we found Such emptiness In the creature. And so David says, This is my comfort In my affliction.

[38:33] Your Word Has quickened me. So we find The reviving, Quickening influence Of the Word of God When we're down In trouble. In trials. And so trials Bring us to our right place At the feet of Jesus Like Mary To be taught.

[38:51] So there's at least Six things that Ought to convince us That These things Called trials Belong As assets.

[39:02] Precious assets In our portfolio. These are some Of the precious things Of God. Trials. Just a couple quotes And we'll be done.

[39:14] Winslow. Trying seasons Are our most spiritual Most prayerful Most Christ-endearing Christ-comforting seasons And so trial Becomes precious.

[39:27] Precious trial That makes Jesus More precious. The throne of grace More precious. The discipline Of our Father More precious. Holiness More precious. The saints More precious.

[39:39] The Word of God More precious. The prospect Of going home To glory More precious. There's one That I overlooked. Trials make The saints More precious.

[39:53] Isn't that true? I've got a brother. I've got a sister. They come alongside me And they weep With those who weep.

[40:05] What's that worth To you? As for the saints Who are in the land They are the glorious ones And in whom Is all my joy. What makes them More precious?

[40:16] Trial. Trial. They pray for me. They come alongside. They help. That's another thing That makes trials precious. It makes the prospect Of going home To glory More precious.

[40:28] For a time is coming When there will be No more trial And we will see Clearly then And looking back Over life's finished story We will count Among our richest treasures The preciousness Of trial.

[40:41] So let's Let's thank God For our trials Any questions Comments On why trials Are among our jewels Our gems Our precious things A word of testimony To the same effect Anything Before we Dismiss Yes Mark Well we all have Our chestnut trees Don't we Where we're Driven out of ourselves And onto the Lord I would have to think Of that Mark You're right I have been able To look back And see That God was good Even in confusing times When I didn't know How he was leading Where he was leading Where he was taking And forced a weight On him And Sure enough

[41:42] He knew what he was doing And my faith Was strengthened I think that I think I go through that I cycle through that Every three months You know What's going to happen here What's going to happen And then Oh yes he did He helped He He worked it all out And I say Why didn't you trust him Why didn't you I mean you've been through this You know How many times And I just find I'm never Done needing to get up Into that chestnut tree And to learn again That he's faithful And And when I come on the Other side of trial It becomes all the more Precious to me And I do find It helps me for the next trial To trust him But there's still a lot of Dross of unbelief In my faith And so the Lord knows that And keeps Putting me through The crucible Well let's thank him Together shall we We're blessed oh Lord To be Counted as your treasure

[42:42] That you would Count us As As your Blood bought children That you will gather up Your precious jewels At the last day That that could be said of us So Help us to trust you then In our trials Minister to us That we See Our faith For what it is So weak And tottering And yet What a savior We have And how worthy Of more faith And so Humble us And drive us Out of ourselves To find in Jesus All that we need And to Glory in Christ And I just pray That today Is This is a day You've Called your people Together That we might Find sweetness In the fellowship Of the brethren That we might Even be able To share with one another How Christ Has met us In our trials And so Strengthen one Another's faith Do us good In that way Today We ask in Jesus name

[43:43]  Amen Amen Amen Amen