Turn again to James chapter 1
and we read from verse 9 the following. Let the brother of
low degree rejoice in that he is exalted but the rich in that
he is 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 withereth the grass and the flower thereof falleth and the
grace of the fashion of it perisheth. So also shall the rich man fade
away in his ways. Let the brother of low degree
rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he is made
low. The gospel of Christ, the gospel
of our salvation, the good news of salvation, presents unto us
the fact that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
wretched, rebellious sinners, who dwell in the darkness and
are full of darkness inside and out. Those who have gone astray
from God, those who have rebelled against God, those who hate God
from the womb they have gone astray conceived in iniquity
conceived in sin and going astray from the womb speaking lies we
have all turned against our maker we have all rejected God in every
way in thought and deed, in all our intentions, in all our desires,
our whole life except God intervenes is one of rebellion and hatred
against God. We seek our own glory, our own
ways, we seek to make ourselves rich in this world with the things
that God has given us freely in this world. We take of what
he has given, we take of the riches of the land, we take of
the glory of nature, we take all that he has given unto mankind
and we use it to enrich ourselves, we use it to pursue our own pleasure,
we use it to bring ourselves glory. all the while denying
God His glory, all the while turning our back upon Him, all
the while in our hearts, as fools, saying, in effect, there is no
God. That is what we are, sinners
by nature. And it is unto sinners that Christ
has come in the Gospel. He has come into the world to
save sinners. In Mark 2.17 we read that Jesus
saith unto them, they that are whole have no need of the physician,
but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance. Christ came into this world to
save sinners, to call sinners to repentance and to salvation. But most, indeed all by nature,
see themselves as having no need of salvation. We do not see ourselves
as being those who are sick, in need of a physician. We don't
see ourselves as being sinners. We consider ourselves, in effect,
to be righteous. Oh, we may give lip service and
say, oh, well, I'm not perfect, but then nobody is. I'm not really
any worse than my neighbor. We don't see ourselves as sinners.
Therefore, when the message of the Gospel comes unto us, when
the message of Christ and His salvation comes unto us in our
natural state, we've no time for it. Because we don't need
it, we don't need saving. I'm not sick, I don't care. I'm not poor. Christ Jesus came to call sinners
unto salvation, those who are brought to know that they are
sinners, those who are brought to know that they are sick in
need of a physician, those who are brought low, humbled under
the mighty hand of God, brought to see that they are nothing,
Brought to see that they are sinking in the depths of the
seas of their sin. Brought to see that they are
lost, perishing, captive, held fast by the chains of their iniquity
and the judgment of God that rains out against it. Brought
to see that they are hell-bound, except God comes unto them and
shows them mercy. These are those for whom Christ
came, those who are brought to see that they are sinners. For we are all sinners in fact,
and indeed, and in thought, we are all under the wrath of God.
As we read in John, Christ came not to condemn the world, he
came to save, he came not to condemn because the world is
already condemned. You and I are already under condemnation,
we have already earned it by our own rebellion, our own disinterest,
our own unbelief. We are headed for judgment. Everything in the world tells
us this. We live in a world where there
is death all around every day. We hear of those who pass into
eternity every day, those who are losing loved ones, those
who die from this means and that means, old age, heart disease,
cancer, those who died violent deaths, those who are caught
up in war or violence on the streets. Every day there are
those who are perishing and going from this world into another.
And a bit like ants which scurry around on the ground, whenever
somebody comes along and crushes a few, they just run off and
try to pretend that there's nothing happening, that they won't be
the next one to be crushed. We just turn our backs upon death,
we try not to think about it. Somebody dies, we go to the funeral
the next day, we try not to think any more about it, we get on
with our lives, we seek our pleasure in this world. We pretend it's
not going to happen. We walk backwards towards the
grave. We never look at it, we never
consider what's beyond. We grasp at everything we can
in this world as though it goes on forever. What fools we are! Yet James says of us who think
we are so rich, so rich in what we have, so rich in what we are,
so rich in our own understanding, so rich in our own wisdom, he
says of the rich, the flower of the grass he shall pass away. The sun is no sooner risen with
a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof
falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth. So also
shall a rich man fade away in his ways. The sun is mightier than the
grass. The sun of righteousness, the
sun of God, is mightier than every blade of grass that calls
itself a man or a woman in this world. What fools we are. We grow up one day, the next
day we're cut down. We will perish. This truth is
universally known. We can see it all around us.
We see the generations come, the generations go. This world
is not the end. Our own conscience tells us this. Yet we bury it in the sand. And
the word of God tells us. The gospel comes and sounds an
alarm, a warning. And we turn aside and say we
don't want to know. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, to cause sinners to repentance. He comes not to
condemn, you're condemned already. He comes with his gospel preaching
life, salvation, deliverance from this that shall come upon
man. You need not die. And yet, given the choice, given
the choice, when man exercises his own free will, given the
choice, he chooses death every time. I can stand before you
this day and say, will you choose life or will you choose death?
Will you follow Christ or will you reject? Will you believe
the gospel or will you go your own way? And you will go your
own way. proving the reality and the truth
of the gospel in its declaration of the depravity of your own
heart. You go your own way against all
reason and all logic and all common sense because your heart
is darkened and you will not believe and you will not receive
the truth. We cannot. We're blind, we're
dead in trespasses and sins. We can't help ourselves. even
though the message of grace in the gospel comes unto us and
says those who believe in Jesus Christ will be delivered from
the wrath to come, delivered from judgment, delivered from
condemnation. They will have the righteousness
of God. They will have everlasting life. Theirs is an inheritance to come
beyond comprehension. Even though the gospel promises
life, righteousness, salvation. riches beyond comprehension in
Christ Jesus, we would rather go our own way and take our own
chances and say I'll see what's beyond the grave when it comes.
We'd rather hope in some fairy dream of a Father Christmas God
who's benevolent to all that when it comes to it, even though
we've rejected him all our life, even though we had no time ever
for him, at the end we get beyond the grave and he says it's okay.
Everything's fine, live forever. We'd rather take our chance on
that even though all reason and sense says otherwise. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. To save them from
the wrath to come. To save them from judgment. But it's not really that that
we need saving from, is it? that's not our greatest problem
and that's not the great work in God's salvation truly that
he has to change. Delivering us from the rough
to come is one point, one aspect but we really need to be delivered
from ourselves. It's the deliverance from the
nature of sin within us, the weight of unbelief, the irrationality
that is in man by nature. It's being delivered from our
wretched rejection of the truth that is the real miracle. When
Christ comes and delivers a soul, it's miraculous. that He changes
the will. He makes His people willing in
the day of His power, we read in Psalm 110. This is the miracle
that because Christ has taken away the condemnation, because
Christ offered Himself in the place of sinners and took away
their sin, and took away the judgment and brought in the righteousness
of God for them. The miracle is that he changes
their hearts as a consequence. He causes them to believe, He
causes them to be willing, He causes them to cry out for mercy. He makes those who hated Him,
love Him. He makes those who ran from Him,
run towards Him. He makes those who spake ill
of Him, praise His holy name. He makes us willing. Oh what a miracle of grace it
is when unwilling, unbelieving, wretched sinners are changed
in their very heart, in their very nature, to turn from themselves,
to turn from all they sought, to turn from all their natural
riches, to turn from all their natural glory, to turn from their
natural prides and come before God as wretched, lowly, humble
sinners saying, I'm nothing, Lord have mercy upon me, the
sinner. The miracle is when a rich man
is transformed into a brother of low degree, one who has nothing. One who says, Lord, I am a sinner. I am the sinner. Save me, Lord,
or else I die. Give me mercy, Lord, or else
I perish. I've hated Thee, I deserve nothing
from Thy hand. I've spent my entire life running
from Thee, running from the Gospel, putting my hands on my ears that
I should not hear, lest hearing I should believe. O Lord, thank
You that You persisted. that you were long suffering
with me, even though I tried to run away, even though I would
not listen, even though I railed accusations upon your name, even
though I mocked and I scoffed and I said this cannot be so,
and I went in my own wisdom and my own way, and I tried to escape,
you came. You followed me with the gospel,
you spake comfort unto my soul, you brought me low, you brought
me to an end of myself, and then you showed me Christ. Then you
set before me Christ in my place, bearing my sin, bearing my iniquity,
bearing my unbelief. Then I saw myself in Christ upon
the cross, judged under the wrath of God. Then I knew I was nothing,
and He was all. O Lord, have mercy upon me, a
sinner. As Christ came to call sinners
to repentance, to salvation, those who know they're sinners,
those who are brought low, humbled, brought to see they are nothing,
to know they are nothing. And it is these brothers of low
degree, sisters of low degree, these whom He exalts, whom He
exalts. And he makes them like this because
finding them as they are as rich men. As those who are full of
their own selves, full of their own importance, full of their
own intellect, full of their own wisdom, full of their own
reason. That's where he finds us in the
beginning, he finds us as the rich. Rich in ourselves, rich
in our own understanding, rich in our own ability. confident
that if there's salvation to be found we can we can gain it
through our own decision or our own righteousness our own works
we're rich by nature but he comes unto us and humbles us and takes
away our riches and strips us bare and leaves us naked and
brings us down and this work in humbling a sinner to teach
him what he is and to bring him unto Christ as nothing in order
that Christ should lift him up in the gospel and exalt him.
This work of humbling the rich is a blessing unto him. left to himself left to ourselves
we like the grass under the heat of the sun would fade away in
our ways we will perish and many do and today many will plunge
into the grave not knowing God full of their own importance
their own pride and arrogance rich men who find themselves
like the parable in hell separated from God, seeing poor Lazarus
in the lap of the Lord, and pleading to be delivered from where they
are found, from the fires of hell, the darkness, the terrors
in which they find themselves locked for eternity. Many rich
men will find themselves there today. Oh, that it should not
be us. Because if the Lord comes in
the gospel, and causes a brother who is rich to be made low. What a joy that is. James says, let the brother of
low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that
he is made low. Let the brother who is rich rejoice
that he is made low. There's no greater blessing than
if you're found in your sin, feeling yourselves to be rich
and of great intellect and great understanding and great wisdom,
thinking yourself to be something. There's no greater blessing than
if God should come in the gospel and make you low. Oh, to be made
low. Oh what a joy, what a blessing
if God in grace in the gospel, if Christ comes to us and makes
us low, brings us down to the dust to see what we are and to
know his mercy and grace in coming unto sinners such as us and delivering
us not just from the wrath to come. but from ourselves, from
our sin, from what we are by nature, wretched unbelieving
sinners. Oh, to be made low. Christ saves
his people by delivering them from themselves and by his spirit
he humbles them. before He exalts them, before
He lifts them up from the gutter, before He delivers them from
their captivity, before He sets the captive free, He makes them
low. This is what the Spirit's work
is. There's no salvation except you're
brought this way. There's no salvation except you're
brought to go through a narrow gate, a straight gate and upon
a narrow way. You're brought to shed all your
righteousness, all your vaunted pride, all that you think you
were, all your riches must go. in order that you should be brought
through that straight gate onto a narrow way that leads to salvation. He'll bring us every time, every
one this pathway. And though it's a painful way
at the start, it's a wonderful way when we realize what we've
been delivered from. It's a joy if you're rich to
be stripped of all you are, made low and brought to the feet of
Jesus. It's a joy not to be left to
ourselves and our own understanding. The greatest terror, the greatest
misery that you can know in this world is that God should leave
you alone, is that God should take the light of the gospel
away. There are many who never hear, many who've never heard
the truth. and many who when they do turn
aside from it, the greatest judgment that can come upon us is if God
takes the sound of this gospel away, as if he stops speaking
to you, as if you're never brought to hear it again. You're left
to yourself, you say I don't want to know and God says very
well then, go away. wander off into the darkness
I'll trouble you no more. As if God leaves you to yourself
as if he leaves you to a reprobate mind as we read in Romans. We ask God to leave us alone
and if he gives us what we want we're left with nothing but destruction. It's the greatest mercy when
he won't give us that request, but when he brings us down to
nothing and brings us by faith to ask God for wisdom, for salvation,
for Christ, for deliverance. Brings us to see Christ, who
trod this pathway before we did. who knows what it is to have
been brought down to nothing, to have gone from the greatest
height to the greatest depths in order to save his people.
We may say it's hard when God brings us down. It's humbling. I have nothing left. But it's
not as hard as the journey. It's not as hard as the journey
that Christ trod. It's not as humbling as his pathway. The suffering we may endure is
nothing compared to his suffering. He came from the greatest height.
He came into a world of darkness rejected by all. He was obedient,
humbling himself. Obedient unto death. even the death of the cross.
He came, was rejected by all men, spat upon, reviled, rejected,
scorned, mocked, crucified. We read from Philippians chapter
2. Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God fought
in not robbery to be equal with God. He's God. He reigned in
glory above but he made himself of no reputation and took upon
him the form of a servant who was made in the likeness of men
and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself. and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. to the glory
of God the Father. As he came down from the greatest
height to a depth that no man has entered, to the death of
the cross, he went into the darkness, into the abyss, He was rejected
by everyone, you, me included. All men rejected Him. And bearing
the sin of His people, bearing their iniquity, His Father cast
Him out and poured out His wrath upon Him. He slew His own Son. He was obedient unto the death of
the cross. But having been brought there,
God gave him a name above every name. He hath highly exalted
him. He conquered death. He took away
sin. He brought in righteousness for
His people. He delivered them from sin. He
delivered them from hell. He delivered them from the devil. He delivered them from themselves.
He made them righteous. He gave them eternal life. And
on the third day, He and they rose again from the grave. and
he ascended into glory above and God gave him a name above
every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of
things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth
we shall all bow to his name Whether you're brought to know
him in this lifetime, or whether you go to the grave, a rich man
full of your own importance, rejecting God, you will find
yourself on the other side of the grave, bowing the knee to
Christ before he sends you off into outer darkness. Oh, how
exalted he is. What a pathway he took. What a pathway. But it's a pathway
that God will bring his people on. He will take the rich and
make them low. And he will take the brother
of low degree and exalt him. This is an experience we know,
not just when we're first brought to believe the gospel, Not just
when God strips us of all our riches of self-importance, self-righteousness,
our own will, our own desires, our own glory, our own wisdom. Not just when we're brought to
that point of crying out for mercy and being lifted up as
we see Christ taking away our sin, as we see his righteousness,
as we see his salvation. as we feel the wonderful overwhelming
love and blessing of God pouring down upon us. These are tremendous
experiences to go through when we know that our bondage is at
an end, when we know that our captivity has come to an end,
when we know that we are freed, when we know that Christ has
delivered us and saved us and shown us mercy. It's a tremendous
release. But we go on to find that the
flesh that dwells within us, as a believer, is always there. And the new man of grace, that
new life which is born within us by the Spirit, when we're
brought to faith in the Gospel, when God quickens us unto life
and causes us to walk before Him, we find this tension, the
flesh is always warring against the Spirit. The old man always
rages against the new man. The old man is always seeking
to exalt himself. We find this in our nature, in
our flesh. There's always this desire there
to be exalted, to rise up, to seek riches, to seek glory. The proud flesh is always exalting
itself. And daily, God makes it low. daily it must be crucified, daily
it's humbled, in order that the new man might be lifted up, in
order that the old flesh might be taken aside and the view of
faith has a clear view of Christ, our Saviour. As John the Baptist
said, when Christ came unto him, he must increase. but I must
decrease. This is the constant cry of a
believer. Every day, we say, Christ must
increase, but I must decrease. Oh Lord, make me low. Take away my fleshly riches. Take away the wisdom that dwells
in my flesh. Take away the pride of life. Bring me low. Cause me to rest
in Christ alone. Give me wisdom. Give me Christ. These verses continue James'
thoughts in this chapter. They follow on. Each part that
he speaks of flows into the next. They're a continuation of his
thinking. The trials we are brought into,
the temptations for which we rejoice are those that bring
us down, that make us low. Those things that take away,
that strip away the riches. They bring us down. They bring
us to the point of asking in faith for wisdom. for wisdom
and understanding, of crying out unto God for mercy, of calling
out unto God for Christ our wisdom, for Christ alone. Faith calls
for him, he who is made unto us wisdom. As we read in 1 Corinthians,
of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. This wisdom is
seen in his righteousness, in his sanctification, being separated
from this world. Under him, set apart for God
in redemption. in the freedom, the deliverance,
which he brings in for his people, delivering them from the old
man, delivering them from themselves, delivering them from captivity,
delivering them from all that held them back, taking away their
riches and giving them everlasting riches in Jesus Christ. Who asked for this wisdom? Those
who need it. the lowly, the brothers of low
degree, the whole have no need of a physician but those that
are sick. Our trouble is we don't ask because
we'd have no need by nature. We don't think we need him. We
don't think we need wisdom because we're wise ourselves. We don't
think we need righteousness because we're happy with our own. We
don't think we need redemption because we're not aware that
we're bound, that we're captive. We don't want to be set apart
for God. We like this world, we like our pleasures, we like
ourselves. We like our own glory. Those
whom the Lord brings through his gospel. to be stripped of
their riches. Those whom He puts through the
trials, whom He puts in the fire to burn up what they are, to
burn up the riches, to strip them down and bring them to be
nothing and cause them to cry out by faith, Lord give me wisdom,
give me salvation, give me righteousness. He causes them to hunger and
thirst after righteousness, Lord save me, have mercy upon me,
deliver me from myself else I perish. The natural man will never ask
for this, because he's proud, he knows it all, he doesn't lack
for wisdom, he's so rich in himself. but God's own, chosen before
the foundation of the earth, separated under him, are brought
to cry out, Lord have mercy upon me. Those in whom the Lord works,
those brought low, made to be of low esteem, those who are
wed to Christ, they know what he went through. in being made
low, as we saw in Philippians. They know the journey he took
on their behalf. They know the love he set upon
them to go to the horrors of the tree, to go into the horrors
of Golgotha on their behalf. They know the journey he took
in the darkness. the eternity of darkness in three
hours upon the tree. They know what He bore for them.
They know their sin. They know He bore the wrath of
God for all those evil things that they're aware of and all
the evil things they've done and said and thought they're
not aware of. They know what He bore for them. They're melted by His grace,
by His love, by His mercy. And they know that when He died,
they died with Him. When He was crucified, they were
crucified. When He was slain, they were
slain. And they in Him are lifted up,
risen, and exalted with Him. As Paul said in Galatians 2,
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And a life I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself for me. Oh, that God would make us low,
would bring us to see that we are nothing, would show us the
path his Son took, for sinners such as us. And oh, that we should
know that we are one of those like Saul, like Paul, who was
nailed to the tree in Christ, with Christ, one with him, who
suffered when he suffered, who died when he died, that they
should live. and rise and be exalted when
he was exalted. As Paul says, let this mind be
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form
of God, fought in not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men. and being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. Amen.