Alright good morning, and I invite you again to open your Bible to our text this morning. Our text this morning is James 1:9-11. Alright James chapter 1, I shall read beginning in verse 9. “Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.” Now, let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, again we bow before You and acknowledge that we are Your creatures and that we are people whom You have redeemed and that it is Your purpose that we live a life that is pleasing to You. We want to thank You for Your Word to instruct us and teach us how we might live a life that is honouring to You. And so we look to You now for Your blessing. Please grant us understanding and help us that not only we might know Your Word but we might do them. For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Alright this morning as we look at this text, we want to talk about rich Christians and poor Christians. Now there is a book written by Robert Kiyosaki entitled “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. It’s a book about his two daddies, one poor and one rich. But it’s really a book about helping us to know how to be rich. Now there is a restaurant chain called PappaRich, which is no longer around but we still remember. Now I used to joke that this restaurant is not about teaching us how to be rich. But if I bring my children there, it will be papa poor alright because it is expensive alright to eat in that restaurant.

Now James writes his letter to the church and he also talks about rich and poor Christians. So here’s the point that there are poor Christians and there are rich Christians. Now the magazine called Forbes, I think it’s a business magazine. And every year and maybe periodically it will come up with a list of the richest people on earth, maybe the ten richest or the fifty richest or the hundred richest people on earth. In that list, you might find Christians. I do not know, but there are at least people in that list who claimed to be Christians. Elon Musk recently had been as it were proclaimed to be a Christian alright, and that I understand has gone viral just the past one or two weeks ago.

Are there Christians in that list, the fifty richest people on earth? Well, I do not know. But what James is telling us is this, that there are rich Christians alright. Perhaps there are rich Christians in our midst, and perhaps there are also poor Christians in our midst. So are you rich or are you poor? Or perhaps you are somewhere in between alright, neither very rich nor very poor. Now whether you are rich or poor, now this is what James is saying. This is what this text is about. Whether you are a rich Christian or you are a poor Christian, James has something to say to you this morning. So the Word of God has something to say to us.

And so what we’re going to do this morning as we look at this text is, first of all, to look at what James said to the poor Christian and then what he says to the rich Christian. So let us begin and look at what James says to the poor Christian. Verse 9: “Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation (in some translation let the humble brother or the lowly brother exalts or glory in his exaltation)”. Now you see, the word ‘lowly’ there or ‘humble’ as in some translations actually means poor. Now we can see that that is what James is talking about in this context because the word ‘poor’ is mentioned in contrast in verse 10 to the rich.

So James is making a comparison or is speaking of two groups of people. Here are the lowly and there, there are the rich (you may call the highly alright). The lowly and the highly. Why does James call the poor lowly or humble or those in their humiliation as it were? Let them glory in their exaltation. Now I think the reason why James calls the poor lowly is the same reason why people today call the poor lowly because they are not highly esteemed, maybe? They are considered as lowly. They are not the very important people. They are not the VIPs. They are regarded as nothing. And so James says let those who are regarded as nothing, those that are being looked down upon by the people of this world, those who are humble in their means, the lowly.

Like I said, he is actually talking about those who are poor, poor materially. And James therefore I say (as I mentioned earlier) is telling us to recognise this, that there are true Christians, true believers who are lowly. Now perhaps you know in our context here that needs to be emphasised. Don’t you realise that there are Christians who are poor? Well, these are godly Christians. They are people who love the Lord dearly. And these are people who served the Lord faithfully, but they are poor. They are poor. They are poor for many reasons. Perhaps some of them are poor because they come from poor families. That’s why they are poor.

Some of them are poor because of their faith as we noticed here in this series that James was writing to the Christians who were under persecution for their faith because they wanted to follow Jesus Christ. They lost their job. They perhaps lost their business. They had to run away and being scattered everywhere. They lost their livelihood. And so they are poor because of their faith. And others, perhaps they are poor because of an illness. They are in poor health. They spend a lot of money on their health, on medical bills. And so they are poor. Or perhaps some are poor because of a misfortune. They kind of failed in their business, got bankrupt, and then they became poor, and so on. And so there are many reasons why a Christian may be poor.

You remember our Lord spoke of a poor Christian. Yes, the Bible talks about Christians who are poor. Don’t you realise that? You remember anyone? In fact, there are many. I think Joseph and Mary alright the parents of Jesus, they were poor. That’s the reason why they could only bring a dove alright a bird for offerings. Poor people brought those animals as a sacrifice. But we also remember our Lord spoke of a fine Christian called Lazarus. Now all Lazarus had (we are told) is just a little box or bag for begging. That is all he had. That is perhaps the same with many Christians that that’s all they have. It’s some clothing, not a lot of things. Don’t even own a house. But that is true of many fine godly Christians.

Now you see, we live in a time when many poor Christians are very confused. They are very confused in our age and time. Why? You see, they are discouraged and they are without much hope as it were. And they are depressed because they go to churches that tells them a different story. They go to churches that tell them that a Christian cannot be poor. Familiar? I was having a conversation with a Christian just last week, and she told me that she comes from a church that preaches such a message And she told me this. She said that she knew that there’s something not quite, but she couldn’t put her finger on what was exactly wrong with that kind of a message.

Here is a famous preacher who preaches such a message. Here is Joseph Prince, and I quote him. This is directly taken from him. He said or he wrote: “My friends, get this right. God abhors sickness and He loathes poverty. He gave everything He had to annihilate sickness and poverty when He gave us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for us. He placed all humanity’s sin as well as the curse of sickness and poverty on the body of Jesus. All you need to do right now is to respond to Jesus’ finished work. Your sins have been forgiven, your physical body will be healed, and your poverty will be history.”. What a great news as it were for the world that if you become a follower of Jesus Christ, your poverty will be history.

Many, I mean these preachers do not know what to make of what James is talking about here. And James says that there are such people as the humble, lowly brothers. They are people like Joseph and Mary who loved the Lord. There are people like Lazarus who is a fine Christian. Now you see, many Christians are told that if you are poor, it’s because you are either lack of faith or lacking in faith or you are outside the will of God. Now I want to ask you: Do you know of any Christians who are suffering with poverty? There are many. There are many Christians who are suffering from a lack of material means. Many Christians, godly Christians in Africa who are poor.

I’ve been to Myanmar, as I told you a number of times, for more than ten years. And every time I visited there, I saw poor Christians. Poor Christians. You can go to the Philippines today, you will see poor Christians. You can go to Indonesia today and India and Afghanistan and Cambodia. Yes, there are poor Christians everywhere. And they are poor not because they are ungodly, not because they are lacking in faith, not because they are outside the will of God. They are poor because they are Christians. Maybe because of your faith.

When I went to Myanmar, I remember I saw what they ate. The little boys and the little girls, young men, young women, I saw what they ate- rice, lots of rice. Put more gravy and then they add rice, and that is if they are fortunate they had rice to eat because so often when I went there, I saw them that they had nothing to eat. Every treats, most of the treats when we went there, we will bring a bag of goodies with us to feed the children. I saw what they wear. I saw the kind of places that they lived in or what they don’t wear. You see a lot of naked children, people without shoes. I saw that they were living in conditions that to us is horrific. No water supply.

We had to go to the lake just near the houses to draw water, dirty waters. They bathe there, animals there. They washed there and they drink the waters there. Even on this day, they lived without electricity. It’s amazing, wondering how can it be true in this day and age. But they are poor Christians. Now my question is this: What do you say to them? There are poor, fine Christians, but what do you say to them? Now, this is what I believe that if you understand what James is saying, this is what you should say to them. Run from prosperity preachers. That is what you should say to them. Stay away from these kinds of messages. Don’t listen to these people. They are not telling you the truth.

We would say to them what James would say to them. That’s what we are interested in this morning as we start this passage. So we want to find out what does James tells these people, and that is what he is writing here to the lowly brothers, to the poor Christians. James said I have something to say to you, and this is what James is saying to them. Two things. James tells them firstly that they are to be aware of something. Aware of what? James says that you poor Christians, not poor like poor thing. No, that’s not what James is saying. You poor Christian in a sense you are poor materially, I want you to know something. I want you to know or to be aware of your high position.

Now James, if you read his letter, loves to use puns. He’s a master of it with words, and he talks about these brethren who are low and say you are not low; you are high. And I want you to know that you are high. Now that is what we should say to poor Christians. You are not poor thing. Don’t let the world deceive you and don’t let some Christians so-called deceive you to think that you are also poor little creatures. You need more money to feel better. That is from the world. So James says, first of all, that poor Christians, poor materially ought to remember and be aware of their high position. That’s why he says here in verse 9: “Let the lowly brother glory (or exalt)”.

You see the word ‘glory’ here means this. It is translated in Romans 12 as rejoice. So the idea of this glory or exalt or some translation boasts means that you ought to be you know in your heart welling up this joy as you come to this realisation of your high position, not as what the world thinks of you but as how God thinks of you. You are privileged. You are so blessed. That is what we ought to remind ourselves of as Christians. We, as mentioned earlier on, of all the people in the world are the most blessed people. Even if you are poor, you are still the most blessed people on earth. So be aware, James says, of your high position. Rejoice, boast as it were.

Boast, here means that kind of sinful pride. But this boosting is to glory in. It’s to have joy in this realisation. That’s what this boasting means. So you can boast. You can shout as it were. You shouldn’t be ashamed. That’s what it is, the meaning. Don’t walk around feeling ashamed just because you have no money. So remember, James says. Be aware of your high position. Let us think of this example in the Bible. Think of Lazarus and the rich man, the well-known story. Now think of Lazarus. He’s poor, but he is a godly Christian. He’s a believer, yes his home perhaps was the five-foot way. That is where he lives. That is where he lives.

His food was the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. That is what he eats, the leftovers, donated food. His body, perhaps he doesn’t wear anything but was filled with sores and wounds. Now that is Lazarus. That is a picture that people of the world see. But what is the true position of Lazarus? Is it his possession? That is what shows his true position? Is it his health? No, he was a sick person. He had nothing and he was filled with sores. Now the Bible tells us that Lazarus ought to remember, and I believe he remembered that his is a high position because, for Lazarus, his true position is this. His true position is that he is loved by God. He is loved by God before the foundation of the earth; before even the earth existed.

God knew Lazarus and He loved him with an everlasting love. Paul tells us of the great privilege, the great standing as it were, the great position, the high position of a Christian in his letter to the Ephesians. Now listen as I read Ephesians chapter 1 beginning in verse 3 where Paul writes to the Christians and tells them how blessed they are- how blessed they are. It doesn’t matter if they are rich or poor but they are blessed because they are Christians. Verse 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, (verse 4) He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, (verse 5) He predestined us to adoption as sons”.

We are children of God. John exclaimed in his letter. Oh, he said, “what the wonder it is that we should be called children of God”! Do you remember that? Do you often remind yourself of that great blessing that you are none other than a child of God? Verse 7: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins”. Our sins have been forgiven. Verse 13: “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit”. You are a Christian. You have the Spirit of God in you.

Now you see what Paul is doing here in his letter there? He is reminding the Christians. We all need such reminders. We all need such reminders because very often we feel so depressed in this world because of the way that the world treats us, the way that the world looks down upon us because we are poor. And not just that, because of many Christian so-called look down upon us. They don’t talk to us in church because you do not belong. This is the elite clique in the church. We all drive Jaguar; you the Myvi group alright. So we feel so depressed. We often do not tell people where we live or what we ate last night.

No, you see God wants us to be proud as it were of our position as Christians, as children of God. Exalt, glory. That’s what James is saying, for you have a high position in God. You, though you are a beggar like Lazarus, but you are rich in Jesus Christ. That is the fact that we all need to know and remember. That is what we need to tell poor Christians, not tell them poor thing but tell them you are exalted. You are in a high position. Be proud. Don’t worry about those people who tell they have more money and think that only by having more money that you will be exalted to a high position. No.

Now think of the other person who is a rich man. Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus tells us. You see the rich man, by contrast, he lives in Beverly Hills or maybe here we say he lives in Sri Hartamas or Bangsar. He wears Rolex, he drives Jaguar, he carries a Coach. But Lazarus lives in the heavenly places. He wears the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is what James wants to remember. By contrast, you see, we have better things than this rich man. Think also that Lazarus knows God. That is a great blessing. It is an immense blessing to know God personally, to know Him as your God, and to know Him as your heavenly Father. Lazarus understands the providence of God.

Yes, he might suffer in this world. But when he suffers, he doesn’t suffer like the rest without hope. He knows that all things work together for good to those who love God and that God loves Him and that God cares for Him and that every hair on his head are numbered. Nothing falls from his head without the knowledge or the omniscient of God. God cares for us in such detailed way, and Lazarus knows that and he has that privilege. So James says poor Christians, remember your high position and glory in this (that’s the second thing he says) and rejoice. You see, Christians ought to be joyful people. That’s why Paul is able to write to the Christians and say: “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice”.

No Christians ought to behave otherwise. We come every week to church, we are reminding ourselves of a great blessing, of a great standing before God, of a great privilege, and we ought to be rejoicing every day despite of our outward circumstances. Glory, boast as it were, exalt, rejoice in your high position. Now you look at chapter 2 and verse 5. Now James mentioned this: “Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?”. You see, James was still on that subject, and he reminds the poor Christian don’t you understand? That’s what he’s saying. Your high position that “the poor of this world who is rich in faith and they are heirs of the kingdom which God promised to those who love Him?”

Do you love God? Do you love God? And if you do, we are so blessed. All things work together for those who love God. Don’t just say all things work together, finish. For those who love God, for those who have a relationship with God, not the haters of God. The haters of God are not blessed. There are many haters of God here in this world today. The rebels against God, they are not blessed. Those who turn their back on God, they are not blessed. Are you such a one? So James says boast in this. Boast in this, in your high position. So that is what he would say to a poor Christian. That is what we must say to Christians who are poor materially and tell them be proud and be aware and remember your high position, your high position before God.

Now we shall look at the rich Christian because James not only has something to say to the poor Christians, he also has something to say to the rich Christians. As I said, some Christians are rich. And let me assure you alright- let me assure you that there is nothing wrong with being rich. Nothing wrong alright. Don’t today after hearing this message, oh poor me! I’m so rich. You remember Abraham was rich. Job a godly man was rich. David was rich. And James imagined that some in his church, although they were scattered by that time, but some of them were rich people. They were rich people. Yes, some Christians are rich, but only that they must remember this. If you are already Christian, James has something also to say to you.

So James says you must remember this. First, you must remember. We must remember and you must remind yourself. You must be aware, James tells the poor Christian you must be aware of your high position. And then now he tells the rich Christian in verse 10 that you must be aware of your low position. The imageries that James employs here, the low must remember they are high; the high in the eyes of the world must remember their humiliation or their low position. So that’s the first thing James tells the rich Christians. So in what sense they are low as it were? Verse 10, but the rich must remember or be aware of his humiliation, of his low position. Now in what sense? I think in two senses.

Firstly, they are low in the sense of their physique, physical position, so what we call a physical humiliation. They must remember their humiliation as it were, the physical humiliation. Now what James is saying is this, that whether you are rich or poor, we all possess the same physical body. Remember that because the rich man’s body is not better than the poor man’s body alright. If you’re not, you don’t believe that alright, you can go to the hospital and check. Bring a poor brother and test which body is more superior because just like the poor, the rich also suffer from migraine. You got migraine this morning? You must be poor because rich people no migraine one. See, rich people also need to visit dentists.

In fact, poor people would probably not likely to visit dentists. Rich people also suffer from arthritis, flu, heart disease. Rich people also can become si nao. Now when my children were younger, we don’t actually go for holiday but for a number of reasons. Being poor is one of the reasons. Now sometimes people give us coupons to go to stay in a hotel. In fact, once we actually went to this Sunway Lagoon hotel. It’s a legend, five to six stars hotel. And my children really loved hotels. They loved hotels. I’m sure many children love hotels. You go in, you go to the bathroom and you know they play with everything in the hotel. You jump in the comfortable, sorry in the hotel.

And so somehow in our mind at least in my family, hotels are for the rich. That’s a good hotel, everybody must be rich. The food only go in with coupons. Well, perhaps in a sense that is true, now hotels are for the rich. But hospitals are for all alright- hospitals are for all. And mortuary too. Mortuaries too, they are for all people. Now someone says that life is like a chess game. When the game is over, both kings and pawns go into the same box. And that is what James is talking about. Therefore in the story, remember that Jesus told about Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus said and Lazarus died. And then He said in the very next verse the rich man also died. So physically, no difference alright- no difference.

So we all suffer from the same physical ailments alright and decay and we all die. We all die. And James reminds the rich man this fact alright. Remember, be aware of your physical humiliation. Then secondly, said be aware or remember also your spiritual humiliation. Spiritually. You see, the world may look at the rich Christians and see his possessions. But God sees his sin and his wretchedness. You see the rich man’s status before the world is enviable, but his status before God is pitiable, shameful. Look at his heart. The rich man’s heart is filled with deceit, selfishness, and lust. Look at his lifestyle. How do rich people live? How do rich people live?

Well, you can go and find out alright. Now, what James is saying that oh rich and poor. Rich people, remember also your spiritual humiliation. You see, the rich people sing just like the poor people sing when they come to church. But remember this. Now rich people if you are rich, remember this. The poor people would sing: “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling”. The poor Christians will sing: “I need Thee every hour”. Remember, the rich Christians also sing the same songs. We don’t have a hymnal alright for the poor and one hymnal for the rich. And so you turn to the hymnal for the rich, you’ll find hymn number 89: “I don’t need Thee every hour”.

No, we don’t have a different hymnal set for the rich and the poor to remind ourselves- to remind ourselves alright. That’s what James is saying. We all the same physically, spiritual. Your spiritual humiliation. Be aware of your low position, your humiliation. Therefore, the second point to the rich people be what? Be humble. To the poor he said therefore exalt, boast. But for the rich, humble yourself once you come to this realisation about your humiliation. Therefore, be humble. Be humble when you remember that everything you possess comes from God. Verse 17: “Every good and perfect gift comes from above, comes down from the Father of lights”.

Everything that you have, rich people, remember comes from God. Rich Christian, now this is what James is telling them. Remark, remember of that. And you must humble yourself because God can take this away as easily as He gave them to you. A case in point is Job. Job was a rich Christian. So one moment he was very rich, the next moment he was very poor. God can do that. And so humble yourself. You must humble yourself also because you should realise that all your wealth is nothing; because they are only temporary. They are fleeting. They are only for a while. Now that reality is described by James here in verses 10 and 11.

But James tells the rich that they should as it were remember their humiliation “because as a flower of the field he will pass away. (Verse 11) For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.”. This is speaking to the rich. So remember this, everything that you have is only temporary and it can be taken away from you. So you must realise this, yeah okay you’re decaying.

Now James reminded the businessman. It appears that among James’ congregation there were some rich people. We can think of some rich, maybe Christian businessman. And James reminds them even in this letter in his fourth chapter, chapter 4 verses 13 and 14. Chapter 4 verses 13 and 14, he says: “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make profit””. Make more profit as it were in your business. Then James reminds them in verse 14: “Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”.

Now that is what the rich Christians should remember. What is your life? It’s only like a vapour, here today, gone tomorrow. Your humiliation. So what can the rich Christian glory in then, you might ask? You see, always to think about all this. No, there’s something that the rich man can glory in. This is what the Bible tells. Jeremiah chapter 9. Jeremiah chapter 9, and let me read verses 23 and 24. Jeremiah 9:23-24: “Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgement, righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the LORD.”.

This is what the rich means to glory in, not in your riches, not in what you have. But let him who glory, the Bible says, glory in this that you know God. Do you know God? That is the most essential thing for you who are rich this morning. That is the most essential thing. Do you know God? Do you know that He is a God who exercised loving kindness? He is God of love. Do you also know that He is a God who exercises judgement? He sees your life. He knows what you are thinking. He knows what is in your heart, and He will bring to judgement. He is a righteous God, and you cannot get away with all your rebellions against Him.

There will come a day God will judge all mankind. Every one of us will stand before the judgement seat of Christ to give an account of our life before Him. Do you know this God? For on the one hand is a loving, kind God. That’s why He gave His one and only Son to come to this world to die for our sin. And that’s why He pleads with you to come to His Son to receive forgiveness and salvation from damnation and from hell. Do you not fear Him who is the judge of all the earth that you will one day have to give an account of your life to Him? That is most important.

Glory in this that you know this God and have come to Him to embrace the gift of salvation that He has for you through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, there are poor and rich Christians, but one day everything will be stripped away from us. What finally comes is our position, our status in Jesus Christ. What is your position, your status in Christ? Do you have a personal relationship with Him? Are your sins forgiven? Are you a child of God? Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we again thank You for Your Word. We pray once again that You will remind us with this Word, the eternal inherent Word of God to speak to us today, those who are poor in physical means and things and those who are rich. God, we want to thank You that You saved us all, but help us to remember that the glory we have, the things that we should rejoice in and boast about is the cross of Jesus Christ. It’s to glory in a position as sons and daughters of the living God that we will be rejoicing in our life because of this position, this status, this standing we have before You. For these, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.