Let's turn back to James 1. I've entitled this message, Being
Exalted and Made Low. Now these are two great blessings
of grace. Number one, being exalted. Let
the brother of low degree rejoice and that he is exalted. And the
rich man is a brother as well, and he says, let the rich rejoice
in this, in that he is made low. Now here are two things that
you and I need. We need to be exalted in Christ,
and we need to be made low. And notice he says in verse 9,
let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted. Do you know the only place in
the world where everybody is the same is the church? There
are other institutions that claim that. There are other organizations
that claim that. There are governments and societies
that claim that. but it's only true in the Church. And don't you love it that way?
Turn with me for a moment to Matthew chapter 23. I want to
look at a few scriptures on this. Matthew 23 beginning in verse
8. But be not ye called rabbi, for
one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon
the earth, for one is your father which is in heaven. Neither be
ye called masters, for one is your master, even Christ. And
he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever
shall exalt himself shall be abased. he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted. Turn to Galatians chapter 3. I love the fact that there is
no hierarchy in the kingdom of heaven. Everybody is the same. Galatians chapter 3 verse 27, For as many of you
as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there
is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ, enter you
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Look in Colossians
chapter 3. Beginning in verse 9, lie not
one to another, seeing that you put off the old man with his
deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free, but Christ is all in all. Now what a glorious truth this
is, brethren. Brothers and sisters in Christ
Jesus, not one up above another. They're all the same. And in
the church, this is the only place where that's real. Others
claim it, but in the church, it's real. You feel that way,
don't you? You don't feel exalted above your brethren in any way.
Now he says, let the brother of low degree in our text, in
James chapter one, literally not far from the ground is what
that means. It's also translated cast down
and base, poor in spirit. Now this is the brother of low
degree. Now it's interesting that everybody
I read without exception says this low degree has to do with
material poverty. It's the believer who is very
poor and has very little materially. Well, if you're materially poor,
it could certainly be included in that meaning. It could certainly
be included. If you're materially poor, and
you know Christ, what do you do? Rejoice. For one reason,
the reason you're materially poor is because it's God's will
for you to be, and you're right where He has placed you, and
it's best for you, and it would be to your detriment if it were
any other way. For you, whatever's going on
with you, it's the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you.
And you can rejoice to know that he's in control. But think of
this. How rich you are in Christ. What wealth you have in Christ.
How highly exalted you are in Christ. Now, if you're poor,
what a reason to rejoice. God's in control of that, and
you're high and exalted in Christ. If you have nothing but Christ,
what do you have? You have everything, don't you?
If you have everything but Christ, what do you have? Nothing. You believe that? I really believe
that. Christ Jesus is all. So let the
poor brother rejoice in that he's exalted, but I feel quite
sure that the main reference to this, it's mainly speaking
of spiritual humility. And let me show you who this
low brother really is. Turn with me to Luke chapter
18. We're going to stay here for a few moments. Luke chapter
18. Now here we have the brother
of low degree described. beginning in verse 9. And he spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. Now, before we get into the brother
of low degree, he's first contrasted by the opposite. the man who
believes himself to be righteous. Now all you have to do to be
self-righteous is to believe yourself to be righteous in any
form. That's called self-righteousness. And you know what goes along
with it every time? You always despise others. Those two things
always go together. Self-righteousness and despising,
belittling, looking down your nose at others, the ability to
be blind to your own faults, but eagle-eyed toward others.
That's the man who is self-righteous. He can always see everybody else's
flaws, and he's blind to his own. Now, the Lord says in verse
10, two men went up into the temple to pray,
but one man a Pharisee and the other man a publican. Now listen
real carefully. These are the two representative
men. You and I are in one of these
two groups. These two men represent the wicked
and the righteous. Now, you fall, I fall right now,
tonight, into one of these two groups. I'm either Mr. Pharisee
or I am Mr. Publican. The righteous and the
wicked. There are only two different
kinds of people, the righteous and the wicked. And I've said this before,
but I like saying it again. The wicked all believe themselves
to be righteous, or at least have the potential to become
righteous. and the righteous all believe themselves to be
wicked. There's no exceptions to that
rule. That's the way it is all the
time. Now, verse 11, the Pharisee stood
and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not
as other men are. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican, I fast twice in the week and I give
tithes of all that I possess. Now, I love the way the Lord
points out the Pharisee stood and prayed this. What's the next
word? With himself. Now, he thought
he was praying to the Lord, but he wasn't praying to the Lord.
He was praying with himself. Now that doesn't mean the Lord
didn't hear what he said. The Lord heard exactly what he
said. But it wasn't prayer to God. He heard it as the commission
of sin, and he saw the horrible things and lies this man was
telling. But as far as prayer goes, this man was praying thus
with himself. It got no further than the ceiling
in that sense. And notice he said, God, I thank
Thee. I'm not so proud as to give myself
the credit for what a wonderful person I am. I thank Thee. He gave God the credit. I'm giving you the credit. As
a matter of fact, I think perhaps this man was a Calvinist. He's
giving God the credit. I thank Thee. I'm not thanking
myself. You know, every Jew, listen to me, every Jew believed
in election and a limited atonement. Every single Jew. They believed
they were God's chosen people, and they believed the atoning
work was only for Israel. All of them believed that way.
And this man had some, I guess what he considered correct doctrine,
and he's giving God the credit. God, I thank thee. What he thanked him for was so
telling. I thank you that you've enabled
me to be this way. I'm not like other men are. Now, if my religion is that of comparing
myself to other men, I can always find somebody I come out on top
with. You can too. If that's what our religion is
about, I'm comparing myself to other men to see how well I'm
doing and how good I'm doing and how much I'm growing. I can
always find somebody and say, well, I'm better than that person.
And that's what this man was doing. He said, I'm certainly
not like this pathetic publican over here. I thank you that I'm
not as other men are. Now, I want you to notice the
absence of, I thank you that salvation is by grace. I thank
you for the righteousness and merits of Christ. I thank you
for the free forgiveness of sins. I thank you for your sovereign
mercy. I thank you for your favor. Oh,
I thank you for your presence. I thank you that salvation's
of the Lord. I thank you that everything you look to me for,
you look to your son for. Nothing like that at all, is
it? I thank you that I'm not as other men are. His hope was
in how God enabled him to be. Now, do you find any hope in
how God has enabled you to be a certain way? Do you find any
hope at all in that? Do you think, well, I must be
saved because God has given me this victory over sin and this
new understanding and this zeal and this love? The Lord's done
a work of grace in my heart. That's what this man is saying.
He's thanking the Lord for what God did. I'm different. I'm changed.
I'm new. I'm a different person. And I
give God the credit. God, I thank Thee that I'm not
as other men are. Now, he talked about the things
that he did not do. I'm not an extortioner. I don't
get my money through unjust means. use extortion. He says, I'm not
unjust, one who violates justice, one who's unrighteous and sinful
and deceitful, one who deals fraudulently with others. I'm
not unjust. I'm an upright, just man. And I'm not an adulterer. I've remained faithful to my
wife and I've never broken the marriage vow. I'm certainly not
like this publican. Now, it's one thing to say You're
not an extortioner, and you're not unjust, and you're not an
adulterer. It's one thing to say that, but
it's another thing to not be an extortioner, and not be unjust,
and not be an adulterer. Now here's the point. What this
fellow's saying was a lie. Everything he said he didn't
do, he did do. And anytime you hear anybody
making any boast or pretense about righteousness, they're
lying. They're lying. And anytime you see it raising
up its ugly head in yourself, I'm righteous. Hope you know
better than that. There's a voice, I hope it's
God the Holy Spirit, that tells you, I'm not being honest. Now,
this man made all these claims, though. I'm not guilty of these
things. He certainly was guilty of those
things. And then he speaks of his positive virtues in verse
12. He said, I fast twice in the week, not once, but twice.
And I give tithes of all that I possess right down to the penny
on the gross and not the net. I mean, I tithe. Oh, God never
tells anybody to fast twice a week, but he did. Now, we have this
man to juxtapose against the man of low degree. Look in verse
13. Here's the brother of low degree.
He's represented by the publican. You know what a publican is.
It was the most despised profession of that day. A man who collected
taxes for the Roman government. A publican. Despised. And the
publican, let's notice his posture. The publican, standing afar off,
would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven. I'm sure
that the Pharisee, when he prayed, he was just like this, maybe
even waving his hand. But this man wouldn't even lift
up his eyes to heaven. He stood afar off, and he was
beating on his breast. He smote his breast. He knew
that's where his problem was. His heart. His heart. He had
a bad heart. And he knew it was all his fault.
So he's smiting on his breast, and look at all he had to say. God, be merciful to me. And in the original, the definite
article is there. the sinner. God be merciful. And that word merciful is propitious. It's not the word that's generally
translated merciful. It's propitious. God, what he's
saying is God do something about my sin. There isn't anything
I can do about it. My only hope is what you do about
it. Propitiation. That means God's
reason for anger is removed. And he's saying, would you cause
your reason for anger to be removed by removing my sin? Be propitious
toward my sin. Put it away. Lord, save me from
my sins. You know that's a prayer that
I pray daily. Lord, save me from my sins. That's my problem, my sins. I
can't do anything about them. Only you can, God, be merciful
to me. The sinner be perpetuous. Now this man demonstrated in
this prayer that he understood something about the character
of God. He knew that God couldn't just up and forgive sin. God's
just. God's holy. He understood something about
the character of God. God will by no means clear the guilty.
He understood that. He understood God must punish
sin. Sin must be punished. And the
only way my sin cannot be punished, if he is perpetuated toward my
sin, that he put it away. God be perpetuous. God be merciful
to me, the sinner, the greatest sinner to ever live. Now that's
what this man believed about himself. Now look at verse 14. I tell you, There's the authority. I tell
you, these are the words of the Lord Jesus. I tell you that this
man went down to his house justified. I have some favorite words. The Lord Jesus Christ is my favorite
word. And then there's a tie between
these two, grace and justification. This man went down to his house
justified. And I think it's interesting
that he never gave any comment as to how that took place because
the man was saying, I'm the chief of sinners. He was beating on
his breast, saying he was a sinner by his own admission. He was
guilty of great sin. And yet the Lord says concerning
that man, that brother of low degree, And that's exactly what
he was. He was a brother of low degree.
Christ says that man went down to his house justified. That means without guilt, without
sin, with perfect righteousness, having never done anything that's
wrong and always done that which is right. That's what justification
means. This man went down to his house justified rather than
the other for everyone that exalts himself
shall be abased. And that's a promise. You exalt
yourself, you will be abased. God will take care of that. I
love what Nebuchadnezzar said. He said, them that walk in pride,
he knoweth how to abase. And he does. And this Pharisee
was doing nothing but exalting himself. No exaltation of the
Lord Jesus Christ. No exaltation of the free grace
of God, just the exaltation of himself. Look, I thank you that
I'm not as other men are. Now, can you see the fallacy
of that? I know you can. Oh my, what a
blind, blind man. You know, I think of what the
Lord said in Matthew 23 about a blind Pharisee. And indeed,
this was a blind man if he could make these claims about himself.
But what did the brother of low degree do, the one who smote
his breast? He humbled himself. He humbled
himself. Look what verse 14 says, For
everyone that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted. Now if you come into God's presence,
if I come into God's presence like the publican did, the brother
of low degree, we're going to hear the same thing we're going
to be exalted. Now how exalted is the Lord Jesus
Christ? You know we cringe at the thought
of being exalted, I realize that, but still this is what the Lord
said, the glory thou gavest me I've given them. Every brother
of low degree that comes just like this publican did, however
exalted Christ is, they're exalted right with him because they're
in him. Now, how high is Christ? That's how high I am. That's
true of every single believer as he is. So are we in this world. Now, when I talk about being
a sinner, I hate it when people talk about that and there's an
insincerity about it and it's like it's the right thing to
say. I don't ever want to call myself a sinner just because
I know it's the right thing to do. I want to do so ashamed of
my sin, hating my sin, believing myself to be the greatest sinner
to ever live. That's the only attitude I ever
want to have. Any other attitude is wrong. I don't want to say
it like a cliche phrase or knowing it's the right thing to say,
but I'll tell you this. I believe that I am a sinner.
And here's the glory of this. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. I'm one of those. He came to
save me. And anything he came to do, he
did do. He saved this sinner. Let the brother of low degree,
he has no ability, he has no righteousness, he has no merits,
He can't make any promises to God for what he intends to do.
He knows that in the future, if God doesn't do something for
him, it would just be just as bad as he was in the past. He's without
strength. When we were yet without strength,
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Now, if you're without
strength and ungodly, I can guarantee you that Christ died for you.
He put away your sin. You must be saved. And how exalted
you are. Let the brother of low degree
rejoice in that he is exalted. Back to our text in James chapter
1. Let the brother of low degree
rejoice. Now that word rejoice, it's not
simply be happy, although that's included in it. It's the word
used when Paul said, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let the brother of low degree
glory, boast, have confidence in the fact that he's exalted
because Christ is exalted. This is our faith. This is what we believe. This
is what our confidence is in. Let the brother of low degree
rejoice in that he's exalted, verse 10. But the rich, this
is talking about the rich brother, but the rich, let him rejoice.
Same, it's an elliptical statement. You use the same verb in verse
nine, verse 10, but the rich, he's a rich brother. Let him
rejoice in that he is made low. He is made to see that He is
low, that He is nothing, that He has no personal merit at all. Notwithstanding His riches, they
mean nothing to God. God's got plenty of money and
He doesn't need His riches. They mean nothing to God, and
he is nothing but a sinner saved by grace. Let the rich rejoice
in that he is made low. He's poor and needy. He mourns
over his low estate, his spiritual basement. He's made to lament
over his moral bankruptcy and inability. He's made low. Now that's mourning over sin.
Let the rich rejoice in that he's made low. Now, can you rejoice
that you're made low? It doesn't feel good, I realize
that, but can't you rejoice that you don't have anywhere to look
but Christ? That's what happens when you're
made low. It's not like you have any other options. The only place
you have to look is Christ alone. Let the rich rejoice in that
he is made low. Now, is being rich sinful? No. No. I like what the wise man
said, don't give me riches, lest I forget thee, and curse thee,
and don't give me poverty, lest I curse thee, and steal, and
so on. I want to be right in the middle. I want to be able
to pay my bills, don't you? I want to be able to pay my bills, like
on vacation. That's enough. Probably too much, but you know,
it's not like I'm Well, you know, everybody in here is rich as
far as that goes. Everybody in here. Let the rich in that he
is made low. Now, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
1. Not many rich men are saved. Verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren,
How that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things
which are despised have God chosen, yea, and things which are not,
nothing. to bring to nothing the things
that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of
him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made into us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Do
you remember how the Lord said, how hardly shall a rich man be
saved? It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to be saved. Well, you know, it's just as
difficult for a poor man to be saved, though, really. Remember what
the disciples said? Who then can be saved? When the
Lord said that, He said, with men it is impossible. Salvation is impossible, but
not with God. But with God all things are possible. Now, He says, but the rich in
that he's made low, because as the flower of the grass, he shall
pass away. He's been made to see the vanity
of all things. For the sun, verse 11, 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 beauty of
the fashion or face of it perishes, so shall the rich man fade away
in his ways." Now, I don't have any doubt that this is a reference
to Isaiah 40. Would you turn with me there?
Isaiah 40. Beginning in verse 6. And every time I think, what
am I going to preach? What am I going to say? I think of this verse. The voice said, cry. And he said,
why shall I cry? What is it I'm supposed to say?
If you tell me to cry, what am I supposed to say? And here it
is, all flesh, Pharisee flesh, publican flesh, all flesh is
grass. And all the goodliness, the beauty
thereof, is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it. Surely the people is grass, the
grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall
stand forever. Have you ever heard this? Life
is short and soon will pass. Only what's done for Christ will
last. Ever heard that? I've heard it
many times. What have you done for Christ
that'll last? Do you really have that high opinion of what you've
done for Christ? Life is short and soon will pass.
Only what's done for Christ shall last. No, life is short and soon
will pass. Only what's done by Christ will
last. And you know what I say to that?
Amen. I don't want anything I've done.
For one thing, what have I done for Christ? Well, you're a preacher,
aren't you? I still ask the question, what
have I done for Christ? I want to serve Him. I want to honor
Him. I want to glorify Him in my life. But the only thing I
want is to be found in Christ. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in Him. And here this passage of Scripture
tells us what's going to endure and stand forever? The Word of
our God, the Lord Jesus Christ, will stand forever and only what
He has done. Now, rich man, rejoice in that you're made low. If you've ever been made low,
what a blessing that is, because if you're made low, it's easy
to trust Jesus Christ as the only righteousness you have.
Now, let that brother of low degree rejoice. You've been exalted
to the very heights of heaven. perfect in Christ Jesus. God
looks at you and sees nothing but that which pleases Him. Let
the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, and the
rich in that he is made low. These are two chief blessings
of grace. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that we might be
brothers of low degree, and that you might enable us to rejoice,
and that we're exalted in your son, and he gets all the glory.
And Lord, cause us to be made low. Cause us to look only to
thy son. Lord, how we thank you for the
gospel, it's so glorious. Lord, we see ourselves in the
Pharisee and we pray for deliverance from that. Lord, it's our natural
religion. It's still in our flesh. And
Lord, we ask that you would deliver us from that. And Lord, we ask
that you would cause us to be just like that publican who comes
in beating on his breast, standing afar off, saying, God, be merciful
to me, thee, sinner. And, O Lord, that we might hear
those glorious words, I tell you, this man went down to his
house justified, rather than the other. Lord, deliver us from
exalting ourselves, because we know we will be abased, but enable
us to humble ourselves under thy mighty hand. that we might
be exalted. In Christ's blessed name we pray.
Amen.