Our
text today comes from verses 9-11 in this first chapter of the epistle of James,
but first, we review the first several verses for context:
“James,
a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve
tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. Consider
it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing
that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And
let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may
be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of
you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously
and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he
must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is
like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man
ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded
man, unstable in all his ways.”
Now
to today’s text, starting with verse 9: “But the brother of humble
circumstances is to glory in his high position; and the rich
man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering
grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind
and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its
appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will
fade away.”
I
will never forget my experience while I was deployed with the Navy Nurse Corps
during the Gulf War in 1990. Approximately 50 other Marine and Navy personnel
set up a hospital somewhere in the middle of the Saudi Arabian desert. I lived
in a 16-man tent about 100 yards from the medical unit.
Each
morning as I stepped out of the tent, I looked across the flat horizon to all
points of the compass. Initially I was stunned by the desert’s greenery. When I
expected varying hues of tan desert sand, there was instead a thin carpet of
green flowering grass. But every day, day after day, when the afternoon sun
hung overhead – the greenery all disappeared, scorched by the desert sun. And I
could not help but remember verses such as the one we’re looking at: “For
the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its
flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich
man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.”
Let’s
pause here a few moments to make an important point for personal application.
There is a Latin term often spoken of during Lent: Memento Mori –
meaning, “Remember, you must die.”
The
unavoidable truth of life’s brevity should assault everyone who takes time to
think about it – especially those of us on this side of 70. How often have you
looked back over the years and wondered how our lives could have passed so
quickly? We only need to look at photos taken in our younger days to realize
how quickly our years have flown. Tevye, in Fiddler on the Roof, sang it for
all of us:
Sunrise,
sunset/Sunrise, sunset/Swiftly fly the years/One season following another/Laden
with happiness and tears.
That’s
why, whenever I speak at a memorial service, I often use a text from the book
of Ecclesiastes: It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to
go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the
living will lay it to his heart.” (Ecclesiastes 7:2)
Listen,
please: It’s the wise person who considers St Peter’s words about this point of
life’s swiftness: ‘What sort of people ought we to be in holy conduct and
godliness? (2 Peter 3:11)
As
we saw last week, the first part of this epistle talks about universal trials:
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” James
then wastes no time telling his readers how to respond to and deal with those
various trials and sufferings: “Ask God for wisdom.”
It
is nothing less than a guarantee for failure if we attempt to cope with life’s ordeals
in our own strength and wisdom. We may succeed for a while. Many people do. But
eventually – unless the person has so hardened his heart that he is unable to
see what is right in front of him – eventually the truth catches up with them,
and the reality of death causes them to lose sleep at night.
Which
brings us now to today’s text which is linked by context to coping with life’s
brevity and sorrows: “But the brother of humble circumstances is to
glory in his high position; and the rich man is to glory in his
humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. For
the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its
flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich
man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. (James 1:9-10)
James
will return to this theme toward the end of his letter in chapter four: “Come
now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and
spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet
you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You
are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes
away.” (James 4:13-14)
So,
in this short passage of verses 9–10, we might ask why James tells the poor
Christian to rejoice in his exaltation and the rich one to rejoice in his
humiliation. I think Charles Spurgeon answered the question well: Both poverty
AND wealth are trials to test one’s faith AND to bring that faith to maturity.
And
please notice that James’ counsel to the poor Christian contains no notion of the
Name-it-and-claim-it heresy that promises the Christian wealth if he has enough
faith. Instead, James tells the poor Christian to rejoice in his ‘high
position.’ In other words, as Paul told the Ephesians, the poor – and the
wealthy – to rejoice because, “even when we were dead in our
transgressions, [God[ made us alive together with Christ. . . and raised us up with Him,
and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the
surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
(Ephesians 2:5-7).
Rejoice
that your name is written in the Lamb’s book of Life, that you have been
rescued from Satan’s domain and transferred to God’s kingdom. Such is a
fait accompli. It is not something that will happen in the future. Because of
our faith – rich or poor, sick or healthy, alone or surrounded by loved ones –
because of our faith we can all rejoice in our high position with Christ.
It
is on that point I want to pause a few moments. When you’re alone in your
apartments, think back to where you were before you came to Christ. Unless you
came as a young child and remained faithful to Him from your earliest ages, you
grew up like many of us who came to faith in our later years. You came from a
life laden with sin. And speaking for myself, I can
easily
extrapolate where I would likely be today if I’d stayed on the rebellious and
self-centered trajectory I was on.
For
me, salvation is not only about eternal life. It’s about a life free from self-destruction
and heartache. For me, salvation is ALSO about being set free from the prison
Satan had kept me in.
James
tells the poor Christian – as he is about to tell the rich one – poverty is
only temporary. Wait a while – as he says at the end of this epistle: (James
5:7-8, 11b) “Be patient, brethren, until the coming of the
Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient
about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be
patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord
is near . . . You have heard of the endurance of Job and have
seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full
of compassion and is merciful.”
The
poor Christian might be tempted by the devil to think they are of no value or
use to God. And as an aside, the same temptation can fall to those who are
elderly, or physically disabled. In all such cases, those thoughts would be 100%
wrong.
Poverty
or wealth – or health or physical or mental limitations – none of these determine
our standing before God. Listen to the Lord Jesus speak to the impoverished Christians
at Smyrna (Revelation 2:8b-9a): “The first and the last, who was dead,
and has come to life, says this: ‘I know your tribulation and
your poverty - but you are rich.”
And
listen to what James writes about the poor a little later in this epistle: “Listen, my
beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to
be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to
those who love Him? (James 2:5)
Of
course, those who are wealthy can face the opposite temptation. They can be tempted
to think of themselves as either spiritually or socially superior to others.
But they must not think so. The rich and the poor are both level at the foot of
Calvary’s Cross. And each is equally responsible to God for seeking to imitate
Christ.
Listen
to Jesus rebuke the members of the Laodicean church: (Revelation 3:15-17) ‘I
know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were
cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I
will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have
become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”
As
the entire length and breadth of Scripture tells us, poverty and riches are
only temporary. TEMPORARY. Fifty years of wealth or poverty is temporary
in the light of eternity. A lifetime of wealth or poverty is temporary
in the light of eternity. And so the rich should rejoice when God humbles them
to the point of repentance, to the end that they ‘get over themselves’ and
produce the fruit of true repentance. (See Matthew 3:8)
Wealth,
health, status, and whatever else we deem important in life – all of it is temporary.
One hundred years from today, everyone – rich or poor, living in a mansion or
under a bridge – all of us will be decaying to dust – unless the Lord returns before
then, at which time all who are in their graves will hear His voice. Listen to God’s
word: “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all
who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those
who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the
evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” John 5:28-29
Christian
– we all had better be working on bringing forth fruit that demonstrates
humility and a realistic understanding that all the gifts God gives us are
given only on loan, to be used for the benefit of others and ultimately
for His kingdom. The Lord Jesus made it clear when He told His disciples: “We
must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is
coming when no one can work.” (John 9:4). Listen also to Peter: “As each
one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good
stewards of the manifold grace of God.” (1 Peter 4:10)
SO,
what are we doing with God’s gifts of time, talent, and treasure? Please hear
this: “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will
last.” (CT Studd)
To
that point, I’ve included in your handout a list of organizations I believe are
worthy of support. I’ve verified on Charity Navigator.org that each of these
charities is dedicated to helping the poor, or the homeless, or the hungry, the
prisoner, the unborn, and so forth. Whether a few dollars each month, or a lot
of dollars each month, to any of these – or to different charities you know
about – we are all responsible to help others.
One
day we will all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ. Jesus spoke of that
time in Matthew 25:34-40, “Then the King will say to those on His right,
‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you
gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave
Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked,
and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison,
and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did
we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give
You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and
invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in
prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I
say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of
Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
I
won’t at this time quote the rest of that text, but if you remember, the Lord
then spoke to those who lived only for themselves. It did not end well for
them.
And
this is a good place to return to those verses nine and ten as they also relate
to what James talks about persevering through trials. Some of you know the name
of the Romanian Lutheran pastor, Richard Wurmbrand. When Romania fell under
Communist control, Wurmbrand fearlessly proclaimed that Communism and
Christianity were incompatible. Of course, that didn’t sit well with the Romanian
communist government, and he was subsequently imprisoned and routinely tortured
for the next 14 years for his ongoing refusal to deny true Christian faith.
By
the way, what Wurmbrand said of the incompatibility of Communism and
Christianity, we must also say of Socialism and Christianity:
They are just as incompatible. Please remember Socialism’s history. For
example, the word ‘Nazi’ is an abbreviation of the German term "Nationalsozialist.
The term refers specifically to the National Socialist German
Workers' Party, which was led by Adolf Hitler.
And
then there is the USSR – the abbreviation of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics.
It
is a demonstrably true aphorism: “Those who forget history are doomed to
repeat history.” And I want to be clear about this: Voting for politicians
who call themselves Socialists is like signing your own death warrant and the
death warrants of everyone you know and love who faithfully serves Christ.
And
what Wurmbrand said of many of his fellow pastors who cozied up with Communists
is something we should all heed – especially as America begins to lean toward
Socialism at all government levels: “A man really believes not what he
recites in his creed, but [he really believes] only the things he is
ready to die for.”
We
will see in upcoming weeks as we look through his entire epistle, there is a fundamental
difference between professing Christian faith and possessing Christian
faith. That difference is evidenced by how our faith governs our lives. Will we
obey Christ when obedience becomes costly?
I
conclude today’s message this way: The overriding theme of this first chapter
of James’ epistle speaks to how a true Christian responds to life
circumstances. He tells us trials test our faith, producing perseverance and
spiritual maturity (verses 2-4, 9-11, 12-18). Finally (verses 19-27) obedience
to God’s word proves whether our faith is genuine. Verse 22 will serve as our
springboard next week:
“But
prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude
themselves.”
