Rich Man, Poor Man
James 1:9-11
Remember the nursery rhyme, "Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief." We're going to talk about "Rich Man, Poor Man."
One of the reasons I enjoy studying the book of James is because it is such a down-to-earth, practical book. James has a way of touching life where you and I live it. In the previous verses, for instance, James has talked about the fact that life has its share of trials and difficulties, and he says that the purpose of these trials which come to the life of the believer is that our faith might be tried and purified and made strong.
James continues by talking about something which we know to be true in everyday experiences. He says that there are different economic and social levels in life. There are some people who are well-to-do. There are other people who do not have a great deal. There are some people who live in economic abundance, and there are some who just struggle and they just barely can get by.
Not only is this true in society in general, but it is also true among the people of God. There are some Christians who do not have a great many of this world's possessions. They live in lowly circumstances and they just barely get by. They know the Lord and they love the Lord, but they have a struggle.
On the other hand, there are Christians that seem to do quite well. They prosper and they have an abundance of materially things. So just like it is in life, even in the family of God there are these social and economic distinctions.
James is going to approach this particular matter in a very unexpected and unusual way. James is going to say to the rich believer and also to the poor believer that both of them are to rejoice. He says to the poor believer, "Rejoice." He says to the rich believer, "Rejoice."
What you have here is what you call a paradox. You will find these paradoxes all through the Bible. For instance, you will have a statement like this, "We are weak and yet we are strong." A paradox is a statement which is a seeming contradiction but it is apparently true. It seems to be contradictory, and yet it seems to be true to fact. Someone says that a paradox is truth standing on its head shouting for attention.
James gives us a paradox. He says, "Let the brother of low degree (the poor believer) rejoice, and let the rich believer also rejoice." Yet, they are to rejoice for opposite reasons.
I. The Poor Brother.
He says in verse 9, "Let the brother of low degree." He discusses this believer's low condition. The word really means not rising above the ground. It means someone who is in a low estate. Of course, this is true as I have already suggested. There are believers that come from very humble circumstances and don't have a great deal.
Very often they are looked down on by the world and considered to be insignificant and nonentities to the world. They are in low degree.
Christianity has had a great appeal to those who are poor. In fact, the Bible makes it very clear that the Lord Jesus Christ has a special ministry to the poor. The Bible talks about our Lord and tells us the Jesus Christ identified with the poor. In Matthew 11, verse 29, Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls."
Jesus Christ came into this world and became of low degree. He was born into a very lowly home, in a very poor family. Second Corinthians 8, verse 9, says, "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." Jesus Christ, who was the King of Kings and the Lord and Lords, existing in the glories in all of the wealth and magnificence of eternity, left that high estate and came down to a lowly place in order to be our Savior.
As you study the history of the Christian faith you will discover that Christianity made its most notable converts in the early days of the faith among those who were poor, the fishermen and the slaves, and to those who were in lowly positions.
In the mission field today we know that the trend still is the way it has always been, Christianity moves from the lower classes up to the upper classes. It is very important for us to understand this and to understand the importance of ministering to the poor.
I think one of the grandest statements that was ever made of the Lord Jesus is where the Bible says about Jesus, "The common people heard him gladly." Aren't you glad the Lord loves the common people?
Abraham Lincoln says the Lord must love the poor because He made so many of them. You and I are to be very careful that we not neglect the poor. You and I are to welcome the poor. I have always loved the fact that our church here is a people's church. Anyone who wants to can come to our church and they are welcomed. As the doors open up, it doesn't matter your social status, it doesn't matter how much money you do or do not have, you are welcomed in the house of God, the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida. We are a people's church.
Romans 12, verse 16, says, "Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate," that is associate with people of lowly position. When you take up time with the lowly and you take up time with the poor, you are being like the Lord Jesus Christ.
He talks about the believer, the brother of low degree, his lowly condition. But he says to that lowly believer, "Rejoice." The word "rejoice" ties into an Old Testament concept of glorying or exalting with the result that there is exuberant joy. "Let the brother of low degree (the believer of low degree) rejoice in that he is exalted." What has happened to this person who is of low degree? He has become a brother which means that he has become a member of the family of God. It means that he has had an experience in his life which has given him infinite worth and infinite position.
In James 4, verse 10, it shows us what can happen to the lowly person. It says, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." That means that if you will come to the Lord and admit that you are a poor, lost sinner, the Bible says that God will forgive you of your sins and will lift you up. You become somebody in Jesus Christ.
The world may not think you are anything, but God thinks you're everything. You may have very little of this world's goods, and yet in the things that really matter you are very, very rich. If you know Jesus as your Savior and have repented of your sins, you are rich in the things that really matter.
Think about all that is yours as a born again believer in Christ. You are a child of God. You are a joint heir with Jesus Christ. You have an inheritance in Glory. You are a citizen of the heavenly kingdom. You are somebody if you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. You are exalted, you have been lifted high in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You have a new wisdom. James 1, verse 5, says that if you lack wisdom you can ask of God. You can have the wisdom of God in your life. You have a brand-new wardrobe. You have shucked those old rags of your own righteousness. You have been robed in the perfect righteousness of His righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a new wealth. You are rich in the things that really matter if you know Jesus as your Savior. You can be rich in faith, joy, and peace. You are rich.
I read about a man who was very poor and he could just barely get by. Then a rich uncle of his died and when he died he put a fortune into his will for this poor man, and because of the death of the member of his family he instantly became a millionaire.
Did you know that is exactly what has happened to you if you know Jesus as your Savior? When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, because of His death you have been made a spiritual millionaire in the Lord Jesus Christ. Rejoice, brother of low degree because you have been exalted!
II. The Rich Brother.
Carrying the thought in verse 10 of the matter of exalting or rejoicing he says, "But the rich, in that he is made low." The word rich is from where we get our word plutocrat. The plutocrat, the rich person, the prosperous person.
You will read in the New Testament and you will find even in the early years of the faith that there were people who were rich and prosperous who were believers. Do you remember Joseph of Arimathea? When it came time to bury the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, He was buried in the borrowed tomb of Joseph. Joseph was a very wealthy believer.
Do you remember Barnabas, the son of consolation, who was such an encouragement? The Bible makes it very clear that Barnabas was a very wealthy individual. There is nothing wrong with being prosperous either. Just because you are poor, that does not make you spiritual; and just because you're rich, that does not make you sinful.
There is nothing wrong with being rich. There is nothing wrong with being rich if you got it in the right way and if you use it in the right way. If you do not let it affect you in the wrong way and if you do not let it take a place in your heart that is intended for the things of the Lord, then God can use you if you are a prosperous believer to be a blessing to His work and God can use you to help the things of God.
It says about this brother who is rich that he first of all warns of the dangers of material prosperity. There are some dangers here. You will notice in the book of James that James will, on several occasions, give some warnings concerning the matters of material prosperity. He uses an illustration. James is so much like the Lord Jesus. They were brought up in the village of Nazareth out in the world of nature.
Jesus would take things out of nature and He would illustrate spiritual truth from the realm of nature. That is exactly what James does here. He says in verse 10, "Because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away." He means as a wild flower out in the field. It's as if James reaches down and he pulls one of those beautiful wild flowers and he uses this wild flower to teach an illustration, an illustration of the dangers of material prosperity.
Why are material things so dangerous? Why is it so dangerous to acquire material things? One of the reasons is that material things are so desirable. You will see that beautiful flower and immediately you want to pick it up and pluck it. The same thing is true with material things.
Some of you are young couples and have recently married and you're getting started in your family and in your home. There are certain things that are desirable that you want. You want a good, nice looking car. So you reach out and you pluck that car. Then you want a good house to live in, maybe with a gated fence; and you want a manicured yard and you want a den, and you young guys want a big screened television so you can watch the football games.
You want a nice bed. You want the kitchen utensils and dining room furniture. You want all these material things. Then you want entertainments. You want to pluck this flower and then you want to pluck that flower, and it is just normal.
Did you know some young couples today want to start off when they get married right where their parents are now?
You didn't have anything when you got married. You just barely scraped by. But now your kids have come along and want to drive a car just like you drive. They want to live in a house just as big as you live in. They want to go to Acapulco just like you go to Acapulco. They want to start off right where you are.
Material things are so desirable, and they are dangerous because they are so desirable. If you're not careful these material things can give you the idea that they can meet every need of your life. Sometimes people think that just because they've got a few dollars in the bank that they can handle any problem that comes along or meet any need that comes along in their life.
Just one unexpected medical bill can wipe out that bank account.
Sometimes it gives people the idea that material things are more important than spiritual things. It is good to have material things. There is nothing wrong with material things, but don't ever let material things come before spiritual things. Don't ever get so interested in your entertainments and your toys and trinkets that you neglect spiritual things. Learn to be rich in the things that really matter.
You can be a material millionaire and you can be a spiritual pauper. I've seen it happen in my ministry over the years. I've seen it happen literally hundreds of times. Young couples get married, they struggle, and then they begin to acquire some things and they get a little bit bigger house and get a little bit bigger salary and then the next thing you know they're not coming to church like they use to. They used to serve in a place of leadership, but they don't have time now to serve.
They use to be involved in the soul winning ministry in the church, but they've got a new set of friends now. You are in a dangerous condition, young couple, when you begin to put material things before your spiritual responsibilities to the Lord. I have seen many families wrecked when they got more interested in the material than in the spiritual.
Something else about the danger of material things that are so desirable is that it can make it hard for a person to be saved. You may ask, "Preacher, do you mean rich people can't be saved?" Of course, I'm not saying that.
Sometimes material things can make it hard for people to be saved. Do you know that some of the hardest people to witness to are the people who have a great deal of material things? They get the idea that they don't need the Lord. They get the idea that they are above repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It can be very hard for them to be saved.
Jesus said in Mark 10, verse 23, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" He didn't say it was impossible. He just said that it's hard for some people who have riches to get into the kingdom of God.
Riches are deceptive. Material things are dangerous because they are so desirable. But he also says that they are so delicate. Jesus says in verse 11, "For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass."
In that part of the world, they have what was known as a sirocco. It was an east wind that from time to time would come off the burning hot desert. For days there would be this blistering, hot east wind that would come off the desert, and it would be absolutely stifling. It would be so hot. The ground would become so hot that you couldn't even walk on the ground with bare feet. You had to water the plants at night or they would die because it was so hot and they would get burned.
Here's the picture of these flowers of the field and that hot wind comes in. The sun begins to burn with a burning heat, and it withers that grass and that flower. That is exactly the way material things are.
Material things are dangerous because they are so delicate. They can just be gone so quickly.
The Bible says, "Truly riches have wings and fly away." Just one bad move and you've lost it all. Just one economic collapse and it's all gone. Riches are very, very delicate. Don't put your hopes in something that is that insecure. Don't put your trust in something that is so delicate that you can lose so quickly.
He warns of the danger of material prosperity because it so desirable and because it so delicate, but also because it is so deceptive. He says in verse 11 that the flower falls. That's the picture of the petals beginning to fall off the flower. "The grace of the fashion of it is perishing." Its present tense is in the process of perishing.
You look at the pretty wild flower, and it looks nice; but what you don't know is that in just a matter of days it will be withered. Take a beautiful bouquet of real flowers, and it looks so lovely and luscious and the petals are bright; and then you come back in a few days and what has happened? The face of the flower, the petals have fallen. It is perished. It is passing away.
That person who is prosperous and they seem to be doing quite well, but what you don't know is that the process has already started. It is so deceptive. Jesus warned about the deceitfulness of riches. They are so deceitful.
He says in verse 11, "So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways." Literally, it means fade away in his journeys. This rich man is on his way making money.
Money is so deceitful and deceptive. Money can buy medicine, but it can’t buy health. Money can buy toys, but it can't buy happiness. Money can buy a house, but money can't buy a home. Money can buy a mate, but money can't buy a marriage.
Money can't buy you love. Money can't buy you peace. Money can't buy you one single more day of life. Money is a universal passport to everywhere but heaven and a universal provider of everything but happiness.
James says in verse 10 that the rich man is to rejoice "in that he is made low." What does that mean? The rich believer can rejoice because he has come to that point in his life where he realizes how poor he really is.
You'll either humble yourself or one day the Lord may humble you. One of these days you may get to the point that no matter what kind of food you have in your refrigerator, you won't be able to taste it. Your taste buds will be dead. The day may come and it won't matter how many dresses you have in your closet.
You'll be so old and feeble that you won't even be wearing those dresses. You'll just be wearing a gown. The day will come, and it won't matter how many cars you have in your garage because you won't be able to get into any of them. You'll be in a home of final care. The day will come that you will be reduced to the confines of a small bed and all you will have is what you have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I love this old gospel song. "My father is rich in houses and lands. He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands. Of rubies and diamonds and silver and gold, His coffers are full. He has riches untold. I once was an outcast, a stranger on earth, a sinner by choice and an alien by birth. But I've been adopted. My name is written down, an heir to a mansion, a robe and a crown. A tent or a cottage, why should I care. They're building a palace for me over there. Though exiled from home yet still I may sing, All Glory to God, I'm a child of the King. I'm a child of the King, a child of the King, with Jesus my Savior I'm a child of the King."
The Bible says that when the poor and the rich meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all. If you're a poor believer and don't have a lot of material things, but if you know Jesus, rejoice. You have been made high. If you are a wealthy believer and you have humbled yourself and come down to the Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to the cross, rejoice because He has shown you what the true riches are.
Let's bow our heads in prayer.
