Turn to James chapter 1 again. James chapter 1. Make a few comments this morning
concerning verses 9 through 12. James 1.9. James writes here. and says,
let the brother of low degree rejoice, that word means glory,
in that he's exalted. But the rich, in that he's made
low. Because as the flower of the
grass, he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen
with a burning heat, but it withers the grass. and the flower thereof
falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes, so also
shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man
that endures temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive
the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that
love him. Paul, the Apostle Paul, if you'll
recall, told the believers when he wrote the letter to the Philippians
that whatever state he was in, he had learned to be content. And to a great degree, that's
what James is saying and teaching the brethren here as he continues
to teach them about rejoicing when they fall into all kinds
of temptations or trials. In this passage, he would have
the brethren, his brothers, you and I, know that the specific
circumstances and the specific states in which we find ourselves
are to be dealt with with a spiritual understanding and not a worldly
one. He addresses brothers and sisters. He says brethren. brother, found
in two estates or two conditions. One he terms the brother of low
degree and the other he terms as the rich brother. Both of them are brothers, that's
what we're talking about. When we're brothers and sisters
in Christ, and this is not just a title, that we should think
of as somebody special. It's talking about being brothers
and sisters in the spiritual sense. It's a family relationship
that we have, one with the other. And the ties that we have and
the bonds of grace that bind us in the blood of Christ are deeper
than and stronger than those that we have with family if we
are brothers. Brethren in Christ are closer
than brothers in the flesh. Brothers and sisters in Christ
have an eternal union. We're going to live together
forever. If you can't stand me now, how are you going to stand
me in heaven? Because we're going to be there forever. The response
to both of these situations is for both the brother of low degree
and the rich brother to glory. The brother of low degree is
to rejoice in being exalted. The rich brother's to glory in
being made of low degree. That thought process, if we think
about it, is not logic to the flesh, and it's utter foolishness
and foreign to the natural thought process. This world's religion,
in their carnal logic, makes its living on what they call
blessings. If someone's poor, financially
speaking, much of religion points to that condition as proof that
you have no faith. If you had faith, they say that
if you had faith, you could tap the richest unlimited wealth
and perfect health in this world. In other words, poverty reveals
that God's not blessing you. And it's because you're not fully
employing what faith avails to you. Predestination, purpose,
or provenance never enter their thinking because such things
squash the notion that all you have to do is release your faith
and the riches of this world just fall in your lap. That's not faith in Christ. It's
faith in faith. On the opposite side of that
coin, those who are rich and increased with goods and rich
preachers claim the blessing of God because they're men of
faith. No one seems to consider that the rich preachers get their
money by sapping and draining the means of the poor and promises
ways of being rich. And they call it seed faith and
faith partners. They all claim a ministry to
those that are hurting. And somehow the remedy is always
to empty the pockets, the wallets of their hearers. All of that's
garbage. You know it. And it's not what
James is talking about here. And those of this world will
never understand what James is talking about in this passage.
Just like Paul said, I have not seen nor heard, neither have
entered into the heart of a man, the things which God has prepared
for them that love him. But God's revealed them to us.
That's what I'm talking about this morning. Now, Both these
estates, both poverty and riches can prove to be temptations because
they're both attributed to the brothers. They're both blessings
from the Lord, not what we think, but they're promises. Whatever
our situation, no matter our situation, if we're believers,
The place in which we find ourselves is exactly the place where God
has put us and it's our blessed place. Every step we've taken
in our existence is by grace. And that grace is the distinguishing
factor that brings the rich and the poor, both of them, among
the brethren to a place of spiritual, one commentator said, I believe
it was Tim, said commonality. Both are brought to a state of
common existence. As Paul said, by the grace of
God, I am what I am. Jude calls our salvation the
common salvation. Beloved, when I gave diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for
me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
What Jude's saying there is that the price of redemption is precisely
the same for every one of the elect. The use of rich and poor brethren
are for the purpose of presenting us with two extremes here in
this passage, just like black and white, light and darkness,
life and death. Rich and poor are diametrically
opposed like those things I might name. Within the brotherhood,
it's clear. There are rich believers as well
as poor believers, believers of low degree, he calls them. But in the truest sense, in the
spiritual sense, there's no difference between the two. Both are believers,
they're spiritually equal, and they stand on the exact same
footing. So both have reason to rejoice.
though their circumstances differ. In the natural realm, their response
is to be of a spiritual mind that brings them to a single
place, a common place where they can boast. I get that. So that they can boast without
pride and rejoice without jealousy or envy of one another. The brother of low degree, verse
nine there. Those words low degree doesn't
refer to a spiritual state. This is about a brother without
wealth, without property, and without influence or earthly
rank. He's not much. Low degree concerns
financial means. And he's to rejoice in the fact
that spiritually He's been raised to sit in heavenly places in
Christ and rejoice that in Christ, he possesses those riches, true
riches, true greatness and true rank. Though he may be without
anything of worth, naturally speaking, he's joint heirs with
Christ, who's heir of all things. He
may be very low and he may be extremely poor, wearing rags
as to his outward appearance, and yet he's greatly exalted
in a spiritual sense. The world may view him in pity,
but he knows that he's a child of the King, a son. He's of a miraculously high birth
and descent. He's been born from above, born
of God, and he belongs to his family. Being an adopted son
of God, he's an heir of God and joint heir of Christ. Wearing rags. In his present riches, Of God's
grace, he's possessed of justifying, pardoning, and sanctifying grace. He's been given a new name, a
name better than that of the sons and daughters of the President
of the United States. He's the son of the Lord God
Almighty. He's a king and a priest unto
God. This poor man lives daily. in
the company of God, Christ and the holy angels. His boast and
his glory is in the Lord that has by grace given him exceedingly
above all that he could even think or ask. He can boast in
himself, but he glories in the Lord. His sins are forgiven. And he's made to be the righteousness
of God, the very righteousness of God. The law has no claim
on him. His conscious has no ground upon
which to accuse him. And to the world's eyes, he's
poor. But to the eyes of faith, he's
rich beyond compare. He can rejoice because his circumstances
have nothing to do with his joy. His joy is that he's been elevated
to perfection in Christ. His joy is that he's been, knows that behind every circumstance
of his life, of this life, and the one to come, is the smiling
face of God and divine providence, his divine providence. He may
be the least esteemed in the church, Something I found in
this, he may be the least esteemed in this church or in that church
or among the brethren, but you know what Paul said? If then you have judgments, a
matter of dispute of things pertaining to this life, listen, he said,
set them to judge who are the least esteemed in the church.
They know what troubles are like in this life. And they understand
problems that the rich man doesn't understand. What about the rich
man? Let's talk about him for a minute.
Are things different for him? The rich man is to rejoice because
he's made low. The natural tendency of having
the resources of this world, the good looks, the status, the
rank that comes with it is to fill men with pride, self-importance. But the wealthy influential brother
has learned three things that I can think of. He's learned
that he's nothing for one thing. And he's learned to recognize
the emptiness of the possessions of this world. Most of all, he
knows the source of all that he has. The Lord gave the third thing. He knows that the Lord gave him
custody of it. And he can take it away anytime
he wants to. Read Job. The rich man has been made to
realize that his financial position neither aided nor hindered his
salvation. Had nothing to do with it. He's
been brought low. He's been made to understand
that promotion comes from the Lord alone. He's been made to
realize that his natural wealth is only temporary and he'll soon
pass from this earth and leave it to somebody else. He's been stripped by grace and
had the truth revealed to him. In consideration of that low
estate out of which he's been raised by God's providence, he
can't boast in riches because he knows where he got them. and
knows it was not by any merit of his. Paul reminded us in Corinthians,
who makes you to differ? Who makes you to differ from
another? And what have you got that you didn't receive? This
lowness to which he's been, this low estate to which he's been
brought does not have to do with the loss of wealth, but rather
a change of mind that God has given him in repentance and placing
Christ in him, that while rich, he's been brought to rest in
Christ alone. Timothy says, charge them that
are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, or trust
in uncertain riches, but trust in the living God who gives us
richly all things to enjoy. The glory of his condition is
that God has made him high, but he's low in the thoughts of himself. This rich man, verse 11 here
now, This rich man has been brought to realize he is going to wither
and die. That's what that love and faith
is all about. Along with all of his riches,
the recognition that he enjoys in his wealth, his strength,
and his health are going to decay and die, especially in death.
In both of these situations, the low degree and the rich brother,
The poor and the rich are brought to mind the things of the spirit
and not the things of the flesh. By faith, both of them are made
to rejoice in the same person. Christ. In Christ, we're all
equal. They are equally saved, the low
and the rich, equally holy, equally righteous, equally whole, equally
rich, and equally poor. Their estate. in temporal matters
of this world is by providential design and may differ a great
deal, but in Christ they're all the same. You are all children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus. There's neither Jew nor Greek,
there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ. There's neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision. There's no barbarian or Scythian
or bond or free. Christ is all. All in all. Now concerning verse 12, the
temptations into which both rich and poor brethren fall are designed
to bring them to unity and commonality in Christ. Both rich and poor
and the poor are gonna receive a crown of life. See that? Rejoice, brothers and sisters.
We are in Christ, that's what he's saying. We're blessed to
endure temptations. The circumstances of this life
are just a segment. Think about that, just a segment
of eternal life. Let's glory in that we understand
and know that Christ, know Christ, and that He's the Lord. Now finally,
for just a minute, let's consider for a minute the
example that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope you can
appreciate, and this strikes you like it struck me, Reading
these verses, it hit me that we have a brother
of low degree. See if you can figure out who
he is. He had no money. He had no house. He didn't have a place to lay
his head. He had no wealth. He was a brother
of low degree. He came unto his own and his
own rejected him. He was hated. And had we lived at the same
time, we would have been those among those who scoffed him just
like everyone else. But God has highly exalted him
and given him a name above every name. You realize that we've got a
rich brother. Our brother, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is the son of God. Talk about rank. Talk about power and talk about
glory. He's the God man. And he's equal
with the father. He's our brother. I had a guy ask me one time.
He said, you really know the governor that well? I said, well, yeah. And I thought
to myself at the time, but I know somebody that's even greater
than him. I know God. He's of a high birth, Christ
is, and royalty, prophet, priest, and king. Our father made him
king over all things. He created everything in heaven
and in earth. Visible, invisible, thrones,
dominions, principalities, and powers. All of that was created
by him and he's our brother. He made the world and he made
everything in it. He owns it all. He controls it
all. He has need of nothing. He owns
every beast of the field and the cattle on a thousand hills. He's the one who laid the very
foundations of the earth and he stretched a line on it and
he set out the measures of it and every corner of it is square. Clayton knows what that means.
He lays blocks. But our brother condescended
to become a man, made a little lower than the angels. He became
a low degree in that he was exalted and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, the
death of the cross, to redeem his brothers that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Though
he was rich, Yet, for our sakes, he became poor, and James told
us to do the same thing. We were rich. And he said, if
you love to grieve, exalt. Through his poverty, we were
made rich. It behooved him, in all things,
to be made like his brothers. that he might be merciful and
faithful, be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. And
I would simply leave you with this. First John says, love one another. If any man love not his brother,
he's none of mine. I'll leave you this question.
Was this our brother of low degree or was he a rich brother? It's
hard to tell, isn't it? But this is the way that we should
be. It's the way that it should be
with us. We should love one another and be of the same
mind, one towards another. Knowing that our standing is
in Christ alone, not in our status, not in our wealth, not in our
health, or not in the clothes we wear, we should view one another
as sinners exalted who know who we are and know
the Lord Jesus has made us that way. Lord bless you.