1, we'll continue in this passage focusing on verses 3 and 4 today. So far, we have been introduced in verse number 1 to the author of the book of James. Surprisingly enough, it's James, and he identifies himself as a servant of God. We studied that. Verse 1 also introduces us to the audience to the 12 tribes. which are scattered abroad, greeting is sent. The cross-reference there is Acts 8, verse 1. These believers in Jerusalem were scattered due to the persecution that arose following the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7. And here is James, their pastor. writing to them, to instruct them, and to encourage them. In verse 2, we talked about biblical joy, which is not dependent upon one's circumstances. They were to count it all joy when they were in diverse temptations. Joy is not about everything going well externally. Joy is about an internal choice and decision. It's not about circumstances. It's a matter of choice. It's something God wants us to have, and it's something God's made provision for. True joy comes through God's presence, God's spirit, and God's word. And then there are two words we're going to focus on in verses three and four this morning. Those two words are patience and perfection. Patience and perfection. Let's read beginning in verse 1 and down through verse 4 James 1 1 the Bible says James a servant of God and The Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad greeting my brethren count it all joy When you fall into diverse temptations knowing this here's why you are to count temptations a joy knowing this that the trying of your faith, those are the temptations of verse two, the temptation of verse two is the trying of your faith in verse three, worketh patience. I can count temptations a source of joy if I will be mindful of God's intended outcome. If I can focus on what the Bible says is the good that can come out of difficulty, trial, tribulation, hardship, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. Patience is a virtue to be desired. Verse number four, but let patience have her perfect work, Notice that patience is feminine in the passage. There seems to be good reason for that. It's very often that women are far more patient than men. At least that's been our experience, hasn't it? Verse four, let patience have her perfect work that she may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. Okay, so here is a progression in the passage. We've got temptation, which leads to patience, which leads to perfection. And the reason that I am to view temptation in the light of joy is because of this progression that the Bible presents. God can use the trying of my faith to work patience in my life which leads to perfection and that is something that God expects and that God desires and so we have this connection between patience and perfection and they're used together here. We've got to start with patience, what it is, and what leads to it. James 1 says what leads to patience is the trying of your faith. Let me give you a cross-reference. You'll want to mark James 1, but come to Romans 5. Romans chapter 5, the trying of your faith worketh patience. Now nobody wants their faith to be tried. Nobody wants to experience the kind of temptations we're talking about in the early part of James chapter 1. This is not necessarily temptation to sin. This is not being drawn away of your own lust and entice. This is facing difficult times, having bad days, going through trials and valleys and and all of those things. Romans chapter 5 verse number 1 says, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that a blessing that you are not God's enemy? You are his child? that you are not the recipient of his wrath and of his judgment. You've received his love and kindness and grace and salvation. It is a wonderful blessing to be at peace with God. The only way that's possible is that God declares us righteous based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. We're justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse two, by whom also, so something on top of that, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Verses one and two are full of blessings. The grace that saved us didn't stop there. We have grace to help us stand In this evil day, we have access to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. We have a hope in which we can rejoice. All of those blessings. Verses 1 and 2. Verse 3. And not only so, look at this, but we glory in tribulations also. Glory and tribulations. I've not reached that level in my Christian life yet. The level I'm at right now is avoid tribulations at all costs, right? But based on all the blessings in verse one and two, I ought to allow God to work in my life to such an extent that I can get to verse three where I glory in tribulations also. But how does that work? How could one glory in their tribulations knowing that tribulation worketh patience? And patience, experience, and experience, Hope, and hope maketh not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. It is based on the knowledge, verse three, of what tribulation produces. It produces patience. It's based on the knowledge, James 1.3, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. Come with me to Psalm 119. There's a verse we read during devotion time this past week. On the girls trip, Psalm 119, verse number 71. Psalm 119, verse 71. The Bible says, it is good for me that I have been afflicted. Now stop right there. Affliction? Good? Those words don't seem to go together. Who wants to be afflicted? Who enjoys being afflicted? Who seeks out affliction? Nobody normal, right? But it is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. The psalmist here is David. You read about his life in the Old Testament and he certainly was He was anointed King of Israel because Saul had disobeyed the Lord. But for the next however many years of his life, he didn't spend in the palace with a crown on his head, seated on a throne. He spent running from Saul who was chasing him and hunting him down for his life. He spent in caves and in the wilderness. David knew something about affliction. And you know what he said? That was good for me. I learned so much through the afflictions that I experienced that I could not and would not have learned otherwise. And that is a really important lesson this morning. The principle is this. You are going to have to develop the ability to allow the Lord to use the difficult things in your life to make you better, to make you stronger. to draw you closer to Him, to make you more like Jesus Christ, to grow your faith, to develop your trust, to deepen your relationship. So many of those things cannot and will not happen absent of afflictions, Psalm 119. Trying of your faith, James 1. Tribulation, Romans 5. All of those things are unavoidable in life. We are all living in a world under the curse of sin. We all sin against others. They sin against us. There's this friction that's going to be created. This world is under a curse. You are not going to pass through life unscathed. You are not going to pass through life with all happy days. You are not going to pass through life with all easy times. You are going to face your fair share of hardships, heartaches, tears, pain, But the question is, what are you going to do with it? How are you going to approach it? How will you come out of it? Will you allow the Lord to use it to accomplish His purposes in your life? We're gonna emphasize It's impossible to be perfected without the tribulation that leads to patience, that leads to perfection. So if we want to be perfected, if we want to be all that God wants us to be, we can't take this factor out of the equation or we won't get the right answer. So if we can't avoid it, We've got to learn to develop an attitude to where we can face it and allow God to use it in the process of our perfection. Come to 2 Peter chapter one. I want to emphasize that point with this verse. 2 Peter chapter one and verse number six. This is not an enjoyable lesson this morning, but it's an important lesson. Nobody wants to think about either the things that you have gone through or the things you are going through or what you might face in the future. Nobody enjoys talking about the sad, gloomy, depressing times in your life, but there's, if not necessarily a purpose to them, there is a desired product from them. And if we're going to have to face them, we might as well extract all the benefit that we can. 2 Peter 1 verse 5, the Bible says, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith. Christian, you are to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Don't stop at salvation. It's not a finish line. It's a starting line. Add to your faith. It takes diligence. You gotta work at it. Put in some effort, some intentionality, okay? Add to your faith, and here are the items. Virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, verse number six, and to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness. Okay, so let's back up. 2 Peter 1.6 says we are commanded to add patience to our faith. It's in this list in 2 Peter 1. Add to your faith. We go on down the list. Patience is one of those items. God has commanded us to have patience. But the only way to add patience is through trouble, tribulation, trying times. So if we are commanded to have patience and the only way to have patience is to experience difficulty, then we can't escape difficulty. In fact, we've just got to allow God to use it to develop what he wants to be in our lives. Here's what Job had to say in Job 14.1. Man that is born of woman is few days and full of trouble. Do you ever wonder why you have all the problems in your life that you have? The Bible has the answers because your mother is a woman. Man that is born of woman. So if you're in that category, here's what you have. Few days and full of trouble. Job 5, 7, man is born into trouble as the sparks Fly upward. If you ever light a fire and the flames go down, maybe you've lucked out and you don't have to face what everybody else has to face. But here's the point. Everybody has trouble. Everybody has heartache. Everybody has tribulation. Everybody's faith is going to be tried. Now here's the thing. My trials might be different than your trials. Your troubles might be different than my trouble. My pain might be different than somebody else's pain. But the truth of the matter is, really, we have no idea what other people are going through. We come to church and we put on our nice clothes and sometimes we put on a nice smile, right? You have no idea what's going on. in somebody's life. You have no idea what's going on in somebody's home. You have no idea what's going on in somebody's heart. Do you know what we think? Well, everybody has problems, yeah, but I'd way rather have their problems than my problems. We're tempted to think that we would really like to just trade with somebody else. We're tempted to become bitter at God because we view somebody else's trouble as much less and much less significant than ours. But what would be better is if we could just let the Lord use the troubles that come our way to develop the patience that leads to perfection in our lives. Add your faith patience. How do you get patience? Your faith is tried. But are you going to allow that to produce patience in your life? Patience is endurance. Patience is doing right when it's not easy to do right. Honestly, this morning, I've had a really easy life. I have. I'm not complaining. I'm thankful for that. That doesn't mean I've had a trouble-free life. There are things I've been through that I really don't want to talk about with anybody. I've had unhappy times. And here's what I know. You have too. And maybe I know about them and maybe I don't. But here's what we all know. Nobody knows what the future holds. I know what I have faced. I have no idea what I'm going to face. But regardless of what it is, I've got a friend that's taken it closer than a brother. He's promised never to leave us or forsake us. He's a very present help in our time of trouble. He is able to work all things together for good. If, if we love him, if we trust him, we want to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. So patience, it only comes, only comes through difficulty, but it leads to Perfection. Come back to James 1. James chapter 1. It's our second term this morning. Perfection. And it's defined for us in the passage. James chapter 1 verse 3 again. The Bible says, knowing this, and I hope you know it. that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect. What does that mean? And entire. That's what it means. Wanting nothing. Perfect in the Bible is not sinlessness. It's completion. Perfect in the Bible is not sinlessness, it is wholeness, it is entirety, it is lacking nothing, it is, here's the word, it's maturity. It's maturity. Colossians 4.12 is the cross reference you're going to have to turn. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete. in all the will of God. So I've got three points regarding perfection this morning, and I'm gonna focus mainly on the last one. We'll go quickly through the first two. First of all, God has commanded us to be perfect. Did you know that? It's all throughout the Bible. God has commanded us to be perfect. Now, He remembers our frame. He knows that we're dust. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. It's not about sinlessness. God has not commanded you to be sinless. God has commanded you to be perfect, to be mature, to be complete. Let me read you the verses. I've noted them there. Genesis 17, 1. When Abram was 90 years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am the almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. God told Abraham to be perfect. Deuteronomy 18, 13. To the nation of Israel, thou shalt be perfect. with the Lord thy God. In Matthew 5, verse 48, Christ preaching the Sermon on the Mount, and he says, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father is perfect. In the context, he's talking about treating everyone equally. He's talking about the rain falling on the just and the unjust, the sun shining on the just and the unjust. He's talking about loving your enemies and blessing those that persecute you and praying for them to spitefully use you. And he says, be perfect like your father is. No respect to persons. Second Corinthians 7.1, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness. in the fear of God. In 2 Corinthians 13, 9, this also we wish, even your perfection. In verse 11, finally, brethren, farewell, be perfect. Hebrews 6, 1, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection. We set the bar so much lower than God does. God has raised the level of expectation far beyond what our flesh is comfortable with. And you know where he put the bar? Perfection. Maturity. He wants you to be complete in your faith, in your Christian life. He has commanded it. That's his expectation. Secondly, God has provided for. our perfection. He didn't just tell you to do it and leave you to figure it out for yourself. No, he told you how to do it. And then he said, and here's how he told you how to do it. Then he told you the steps to take. He, he, he told you to do it. And then he, he made it possible for us to reach to that level. Let me show you Hebrews 13. three things that God has done to provide for our perfection. Hebrews 13 verse number 20. The Bible says, now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Oh man, I feel like we should go back and read that again slowly. Here's what God did. To make you perfect, verse 21, He put His perfect Son inside of you. If you are saved, you are indwelt by the person of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you. God didn't just tell you to be perfect. He put perfection within you. It's up to you simply to yield to His control, to allow His work to come out in your life, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ. So here's the provision God made for your perfection, the indwelling Christ. Here's the second thing, come to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16. 2 Timothy 3 and verse number 16, the Bible says this, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be Perfect. Look how the words define, throughly furnished unto all good works. What did God give you to make you everything he wanted you to be, to enable you to do everything he wanted you to do? He gave you Holy Spirit inspired scripture, which is profitable for everything you need in life. God has provided for your perfection in the person of Jesus Christ and in the pages of his word. The Bible is given to make you perfect, to complete your faith, to round out what is lacking in your Christian life. It's all right here. Okay, next one, Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four, verse number 11. God commanded us to be perfect, but God has provided for our perfection. Ephesians chapter four and verse 11. Speaking of spiritual gifts, And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, verse 12, for, here's the reason those gifts are given, for the perfecting of the saints. for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God into a perfect man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. You know what God gave you for your perfection? He gave you a pastor. He gave you spiritual leaders. He gave you a local congregation. the body of Christ, a group of people where everybody has different spiritual gifts, and if we exercise those spiritual gifts in the context of local assembly, it brings us all to perfection, okay? So God commands you to be perfect, be provided for your perfection, but you cannot have perfection without patience. That's point C. You cannot have perfection without patience. Here's our final two verses this morning. Look at 1 Peter 5. This is coming back to what we started with in James 1. 1 Peter 5. Let's start back in verse 6, just because these are great verses. 1 Peter 5, 6, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. This is what this takes. It takes some humility. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant. "'cause your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, "'walked about seeking whom he may devour, "'whom resists steadfast in faith, "'knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished "'in your brethren that are in the world.'" You're not alone. You're not the only one going through something difficult. The same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Verse 10, but the God of all grace, all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, look at this, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect. Establish, strengthen, settle you. No perfection without suffering. I would love to be perfect without suffering, but the Bible says it's impossible. God is only able to make me perfect through the refining fire of tribulation. I'm not going to go looking for it. I'm not going to go seeking it. I'm not going to try to create some hardship in my life. But something, sometime, somewhere, somehow is going to come my way. The question is, how will I approach it? How will I respond to it? How will I deal with it? And am I going to come out on the other side purified and perfected. Well, it depends on how much humility that I have. It depends on how much I will depend on the God of all grace who has called me to glory and to virtue. But you see in 1 Peter 5, you can't have perfection without suffering. So we've got a choice. Feel sorry for ourselves or trust God. Mope, complain, or trust God. Wish that we could trade with somebody else, or really draw near to the Lord and ask him to bring something good out of whatever it is in your life that isn't. Come to Hebrews chapter two. You can't have perfection without patience. You can't have patience without trouble. And nobody's exempt. Hebrews chapter two. Verse number nine. But we see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. Arch thankful that he did that. Verse 10, for it became him. for whom are all things, and by whom are all things. Stop and think about who we're talking about. This is the Word, who is in the beginning, and who was God, and who created all things. Jesus Christ, the Creator, by whom are all things. Jesus Christ is the heir of all things. He will rule and reign as King of the universe forever and forever. For whom are all things, by whom are all things, but look at what verse 10 says about him in bringing many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Do you see that? Do you understand the importance and significance of that? Jesus Christ is the one we're talking about in Hebrews 2.10. Do you know how he was perfected? Jesus perfected. Obviously, we're not talking about sinlessness. He always has been, always will be holy. He didn't become sinless through suffering, but he was completed. When he became a man, he learned some things he didn't know. He is able to be our great high priest because he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, because he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He became perfect through suffering. And if it took suffering to perfect the Son of God, then obviously, Obviously, there's no way for us to be perfected without the same thing. If Jesus couldn't skip this step, there's no way you and I can skip it. So back to James 1, we'll read the verses there and we'll close. James chapter 1, verse number 2. The Bible says, my brethren, count it all joy. Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Now, come on, think about this in its context. Acts 1-8, be witnesses, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, outermost part of the earth, they didn't. Acts 8-1, they were forced to. because the persecution that arose following the stoning of Stephen and the believers in Jerusalem were scattered. And so James writes to those scattered believers and says, don't feel sorry for yourselves. Don't pout. Don't hang your head. Look at this situation as an opportunity. Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, and that's where they were. How, James, verse three, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, let patience have her perfect work, she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Okay, so tribulation, patience, perfection, doesn't work any other way. Do you know what the outcome? of the Acts 8-1 persecution was? The fulfillment of Acts 1-8. The gospel spread because they were persecuted. Souls were saved because they were persecuted. The mission enterprise began because of some hardship and difficulty that they faced. We all want smooth sailing. We all want 100% easy, happy days. It's not realistic. But how are you going to respond when trouble comes your way? God wants to use it. I'm not saying God causes all of it, but here we are and there are things we all face. Are you going to let God use it? to bring about his purposes in your life. That's a really, really important lesson to learn. God help us with that. Father, thank you so much for your word. And God, thank you for these young people. God, thank you for the good lives that we do enjoy. God, we enjoy freedom and prosperity. here in this country. We're thankful for that. We wanna hang on to that. But Lord, we all live in a world under the curse of sin, so help us to learn to count it joy when we fall into diverse temptations. Help us to know the trying of our faith works patience. Help us to desire the perfection. Lord, that can be the outcome if we'll love you and we'll trust you. Increase our faith. We thank you for these things. In Jesus' name, amen.