Well, we have been blessed to be in the Word and in the book of James for the last several weeks, and we are in a section that's talking about how do we live with and encounter various types of trials. And so we hear from the first section of verses two through four that when we encounter these trials, we should have a sense of joy about us, that we should, yes, even though it's counterintuitive to our fallen natures and our grumbling ways about us, that we should see trials for what they really are. If you're a believer, trials are there to test us and to help us grow stronger, to help test our faith, and to bring about a good work in us. It talks about that we know that the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. When we get tested, we can get stronger. We can last longer. We don't need to go towards grumbling. We don't need to go towards despair. We can go towards joy and gratefulness because we know God is with us. And so, God has a project that he's working in us, and that is our maturity, that we're being perfected, we're being completed, all the way until the day of Christ Jesus, until he comes to bring us home, when new heavens and new earth come, and we get to be with our Lord, and that'll be a wonderful day, amen, when Christ comes? Well, he's doing that work in us, and we are to embrace that work of being sanctified, knowing that Christ is working that out in us, we should join him in that sanctification process. So we're called to count things all joy. Not only that, it says since we're bringing unto completion, it says that we're to not lack anything. Well, we often lack things, don't we? And so the next section talked about how if any of you lacks wisdom, what should you do? You're experiencing trials, you don't know exactly where to go or what to do, you lack wisdom, you should go to God. You should ask Him for the wisdom that only He gives, and He is a good God who will give it to us generously. He is not spurnful or spiteful. He is not stingy. No, He is generous. He's gracious. And He loves to give us good things, including Himself. And we said that Christ is the wisdom of God. He gives us Himself in Christ. And so let us ask in faith. Let us ask with confidence that God knows us, God hears us, God sees us, and God loves us, and that He will give us the answer to our prayers We should not go to him like non-Christians, like people who doubt, like people who are unstable, like people who are, God, will you help me? But I don't know, God, will you? No, we're supposed to be the people who have faith. And yes, it's true, we do stumble, we do lack faith sometimes. That does not mean that God never hears our prayers. No, what he's saying is we're not to pray as if God doesn't exist, as if God doesn't hear us. No, we're to pray knowing the truth, that God is with us and he is for us. and we are to be stable in Christ. And so, that brings us now to our time in verses 9 through 11, where we're still generally talking about the idea of how are we to live amongst these various different trials. The Bible will even call them tests to our faith. right? How are we to live? Well, in today's passage, we're going to be talking about the lowly brother and the exalted brother, or what people have said, the rich brother and the poor brother. And there are often...is it not true that finances are often a trial and a test for us as believers, as humans. Humans experience these, but we're being told how we as believers can interact with these various types of trials and these tests. So we're going to ask the question as we do, as is the overarching understanding of our time today and of this section, what does Christ teach us regarding enduring trials? What does Christ teach us regarding enduring these trials? Well, here's the specific trial that we're going to be taught today. Our first point for this morning is this, it's that believers who are tested in poverty are to boast in the Lord for their exalted spiritual position. Believers who are tested in their faith and who are tested particularly with the trial of being impoverished, of having lack, of not being able to have the resources that they need. What are those Christians, what are those tests supposed to be? We're supposed to run to the Lord, not with despair, but we are to boast that even though we have lack in our physical material needs, we have much in our spiritual, in our spiritual life. We are to boast in the Lord for their exalted spiritual position. This is what James is speaking to us, and again, this is what James is speaking to us from the wisdom of Christ himself. And so let's go with this verse 9 here. It says, "'Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation.'" What are we to do when we are struggling financially or struggling with material needs? It uses the term lowly brother. Now here's something that would be good for us to know. Lowly brother does have this idea of connotation of finances and in a lowly place or position. It could mean financially poor, but it also could just mean in a humbled or humiliated state. Sometimes it's not necessarily talking about finances. It could just be a person has been humbled, or maybe a person is in a lower position, and so they're lowly. They're of small status and small position. So what are you to do not only when you don't have the resources that you feel you need for daily living, but when you're in a position when you feel like somebody is towering over you and they have power or control over you? It's appropriate to understand kind of multi-senses here in this phrase. How are Christians supposed to react to that? Well, they are to understand that God has placed them in this position or they have found themselves in this position in God's providence. What are they to do? They're to look upward and to see, even though physically they are struggling, whether it be monetarily or just even with the position they're in, but spiritually, God has blessed them immensely. If you're a Christian here today, regardless of your financial status, you have been raised to be with Christ in the heavenly places. And this is a wonderful blessing. that Christ has given to us. But if you're paying attention, as I know all of you are, the whole time, every single word that is said, you would have caught that we are actually commanded to do something that maybe is surprising. We're being commanded here to boast. And as you hear that word boast, it usually has a negative connotation, does it not? Boasting is often understood to be something that we shouldn't be doing. Boasting is awkward, people are self-centered, they're thinking too highly of themselves, they're elevating themselves often, and boasting, rather frequently, is, we're told not to boast. The Bible has many verses, many, many verses that talk about the wickedness of boasting. I'll just, just a few, there's bad examples of boasting. Psalm 12, three through four says, may the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that makes great boasts. Those who say with our tongue, we will prevail, our lips are with us. Who is master over us? This is clearly a bad type of boasting. This is something that God hates, something God is against. Another example, now in the New Testament, This boastfulness is something that Paul, if you know Paul, he uses many lists. He likes putting things out in lists. Well, boastfulness is one of the ones in the bad list that you're not supposed to do. I'm sorry, Romans 1, 29 through 30 says, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness. So here's a list of unrighteousness. Evil, covetousness, malice, they're full of envy, murder, strife. Deceit, maliciousness, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, here's our bad boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, and so on and so on. But obviously, we are not being commanded to boast sinfully. We're being commanded to boast in really the only way that would be appropriate to boast, which is we boast in the Lord. We boast, we take great pride and great joy by speaking of God's goodness. And we say, oh, God is so good. God is so kind. I'm so grateful to God. I'm so grateful that He has chosen to bless and to work and to keep and to preserve and to guard me, us. This is the right kind of boasting. Psalm 44 speaks of this. what is happening, the psalmist says in verse seven, but you have saved us from our foes and have put some to shame, those who hate us. God, you saved us, you protected us. Verse eight, in God we have boasted continually. Interesting, we're not supposed to boast in ourselves or in any other wicked thing, but we are supposed to boast in the Lord all the time. This is a regular occurrence that we should have. And we will give thanks to your name forever. We're supposed to stop and say, isn't that true? Think about that. We boast in the Lord continually. We give thanks to His name. So one commentator, Anthony Bird, describes what this passage is talking about in this section about the lowly boasting in the Lord and boasting in their high position. It says this, take pride in his high position. The poor believer is told to take pride in his high position. What really matters is the elevated status that faith in Christ confers. He or she is a child of the king, a member of royal household. who will one day inherit the kingdom that God had promised to those who love him. Even now, he has been endowed with a richness of faith that is of far more value than precious metals such as gold or silver. What James, the brother of Jesus, and what the wisdom from the Scriptures through Christ are teaching us is that no matter our circumstance, no matter the difficulty that we may be going through, in this case we're talking about often financial difficulties or maybe we're in a position of lowliness, no matter how hard that might seem, If we are in Christ, we are saved in our souls, we are saved in our spirits, and our whole bodies will be redeemed in the end. And that's what we look forward to. We look forward to a current experience of God and His grace through the Spirit, but also a future completed time. when God will bring all things together underneath fully his subjection, including us, and he will separate those who are his from his enemies, and we will be exalted, ruling and reigning with Christ forever in the new heaven and the new earth. And so we don't need to be discouraged by our particular situation. Isn't that exactly what was going on in Pastor Mala as he was speaking about how, please pray for us that we wouldn't be discouraged because there are people who are no longer following the Lord, who no longer acknowledge God, that they're moving away from acknowledging God, and they could get discouraged that their culture is deteriorating away from the things of God. But if we are in Christ, we can have confidence. No matter what situation we're in, no matter how hard it may be, Christ has raised us, and we have an important and blessing of a future. In fact, this really is the picture of the gospel, is it not? The gospel that we who are lowly get exalted because of Christ. Let me read the verses from Ephesians 2, well-known verses, describing these gospel truths, and notice the shift. from lowliness and sinfulness and wretchedness to exaltation because of Christ. Chapter 2 verse 1 and on says this, and you were dead in the trespasses of sins in which you once walked. following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. This is our lowliness before God. This is a picture of really our low position because of our sin. This is the bad news of the gospel, if you will, the bad news before the good news. that all are sinful in need of a Savior. Because of our sin, we must be saved. We must repent to God. But how does that happen? God must call us to Himself. We must see the wickedness of our sin. We must hate our sin. We must love Christ, the one who is offered to us. And so that's why we get the good news in verse 4. It says, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God loved us even in our lowly state. He made us alive together with Christ and by grace you have been saved and raised up. We've been exalted. It says raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places of Christ Jesus. This is good news. The believer has good news that despite their circumstances of financial difficulty or positional lowliness, that we have been elevated. This is not just a tactic to feel better. Sometimes we can live our lives or the world around us just wants these life hacks to try to distract us so that we don't feel bad, but then we just go back to it like a dog returns to its vomit. No, no, no, this is a promise of the good news of the gospel that regardless of our situation, that Christ overcomes our life through His spiritual blessings, amen? And so this is the type, this is how we experience trials. This is how we are to live. This is how we are to love the Lord. This is how we are to be blessed by the goodness of the gospel. And so let me ask you this question this morning. How quick are you to boast in the Lord when tested in trials? How quick are you to go towards boasting in the Lord? Is that a quick response that you have? Or are you quicker to grumble? Are you quicker to despair or maybe to get angry or to get sad or to get fearful, right? When you don't have enough, you feel like there's more life than there is paycheck. Where do you go? What do you do? Do you try to fix it? Do you try to, well, I gotta make more money. I gotta hustle, I gotta hustle. Or do you go, Lord, no matter what, you love me, and we'll be fine because you're with us, and you've said, well, if you've given us your son, won't you give us all things? We're gonna be fine. We're gonna be fine. I pray that you would. This is what Christ calls us to do through his word. This is what we are able to do by the power of the spirit. We were not able to do this before we were saved because we did not have the spirit of God within us. We did not have a nature that enabled us to be able to do what was right by faith. But if you're a Christian here today, by the power of Christ in you, by the power of the Holy Spirit residing in you, You can now participate with Christ, with the Spirit, and move towards gratitude. You can say, Lord, I want you, I love you, I'm grateful to you. Don't feel like you are stuck in despair, like, oh, I can't do it. No, no, no, ask Christ to help you see the right thing, to know the right thing, to move towards him in faith, to move towards him. Maybe it's a besetting sin. Many people struggle with besetting sins, sins that are just hard to crack, hard to shake. Maybe there's a besetting sin of grumbling or a besetting sin of fearfulness or being anxious about your budget or about your situation. Christ has come to set you free. And so believe in Christ, believe in his gospel, and participate with the Holy Spirit's work in your life. Let's read Psalm 34 as we see the psalmist here doing this very thing. He says in verse 1, I will bless the Lord at all times. All the time, I will bless the Lord. His praise shall continually be on my mouth. This is a declaration of what we're called to do. I will bless the Lord at all times, not just in the good times. No, His praise shall be continually on my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. My soul, my deepest part of who I am, my being, my very being will be one that is shaped by gratitude, gratefulness, and by boasting in the Lord, by trusting the Lord and telling of His goodness. Let the humble hear and be glad. This is wonderful that we can have joy in the midst of trials. We're called, we're commanded to see things differently and count things as joy. Well, this is one of those things. When we are lacking, Christ is abounding for us, and so we can let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I had the blessing of growing up in a Christian home. Many of you know my family and my father and my mother. They were wonderful parents to my brother and I. And there was often times where we didn't know if we were gonna be able to afford something. We often had to live within our, we had to live within our means. But I really remember as a young boy growing up in our household that our parents would say, Yeah, we don't know how this is going to happen. You know, they'd pull out the son or mijo or whatever. We don't know how this is going to happen. But we know that God is with us, so let's pray. And then let's thank the Lord for the prayers that He's already going to answer. The Bible says we could say thank you. The Bible says that God hears us and knows us and He'll give us. We don't know exactly how He's going to answer it, but He's going to take care of it. He's going to do it. So let's just keep praying." And we would pray. We'd pray every day. We'd pray every week. Sometimes it'd be a long time, but the Lord would come through in all that we needed. And so I just remember growing up saying, God is there, and He is real, and we don't need to be all scared. Why are we scared? Because my parents were a great great blessing to us, that trust in the Lord. It'll be okay. And there were hard times. There wasn't all, you know, there were times when it's easy to struggle, but praise the Lord. May we be that type of person. May we be those types of person to our families, to our friends. May we be the type of church members that encourage each other when we're struggling, to remind each other that, hey, let's boast in the Lord. Let's boast in the Lord and what He's doing. It'll be okay. You know, you may be one of the lowly brothers or sisters that you're discouraged because there are people who are against you because of your faith. You are being persecuted. You are being put in a lowly position because people want to have things over you or have things against you. This often happens in relationships. This happens amongst our family, unfortunately. Our family members are not always lined up with the Lord or lined up with us, and there may be a difficult dynamic there, or maybe amongst some of our classmates or our co-workers, where people don't like us because we're Christian. Well, this is the same thing that Christ has called us to. Remember the words of Christ, that you're blessed when others revile you and persecute you. and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account." Wouldn't that be a person of lowly estate who's being placed underneath somebody else? It says, rejoice and be glad. Your reward is great in heaven. This is the same, this is what Christ is calling us. Look to the future. Look to the truth that even though you're lowly now, you'll be exalted fully later. For they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Be reminded that Those who are tested in poverty, both monetary poverty, even just the poverty of position, that we are to boast in the Lord for our spiritual exaltation. Now let's look at the second part of this section. How are we to respond to these trials? It's actually for now the rich, those who are in prosperity. Our second point for this morning is believers who are tested in prosperity, it moves from poverty to now prosperity, are to boast in the Lord, same command, for their spiritual humility. Those believers who are tested in prosperity, who are abounding, who have much, they don't lack, they actually have much, what are they to do? Well, they're not to get prideful in what they have, no, no, no, they're to boast in the Lord again, but for their spiritual humility. This is the, if you will, kind of the opposite side of the coin. Whether you have much or whether you have little, we are to always boast in the Lord, amen? This is what we're called to do. So what does James say in verse 10? And the rich in his humiliation. Now, this verse does not have the exact verb that the other one has, but it's because the previous verses, it's of the same vein. It's just like the lowly brother is supposed to be boasting, well, so is the rich brother. They're supposed to be boasting. Boasting in the same one, boasting in the Lord, but for what the Lord has done in and through them in their, in this case, in His humiliation. in his lowliness before the Lord, and that he was able to be counted as one of the Lords. Let me read this now from Curtis Vaughan, says this, says, the humiliation of the rich then is a humbling of the soul, a disposition of the heart. It is the attitude of a man whose pride and material wealth has been shattered. He now knows that all worldly glory is perishable, and that true wealth consists in the things that are eternal. This newfound way of seeing things, he is to glory. So whether you have much, or whether you have little, or whether you have much, we are to always boast in the Lord, and we are to have the right understanding that our lives are completely dependent on the Lord, and completely blessed by the Lord. And so if the Lord chooses to bless, you and material wealth, praise the Lord for that, but we do not place our hope in those riches. We do not place our hope in those possessions. Maybe we do have, maybe we are people in high positions. Maybe we do own businesses and are leading companies and have departments and even families and those sorts of things. God blesses us in many different ways. But we are not to place our hope in those blessings, we are to place our hope in the Lord. And so, I really appreciate it, Jeremiah says it so clearly. In fact, this is just showing you that this is the scriptural truth and teaching from the Old Testament, New Testament, it's all over, we're showing from the scriptures. But Jeremiah 9, the Lord says this in verse 23, thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches. Verse 24, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. It is very tempting, is it not, that when you are prospering, to not acknowledge the Lord. It's very tempting to move towards self-sufficiency, to lift yourself up and to forget about the Lord, and to say, oh, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, because what I'm doing is bringing this about. But that is a lie that we often fall into, and so God, through His scriptures, through His prophets, through many different authors of the scripture, has to remind man again and again and again. We have to be reminded because this is so typical of our experience, is it not? That when we're not doing well, we might blame God and say, oh God, why aren't you blessing me? Or when we are doing well, we forget God, don't we? And we live in our own strength. But no, we are so dependent on God. I love this Jeremiah, it says, if you want to boast in anything, boast that you know me. Boast that you know the Lord and that he understands him. You want to boast in something? Boast in the Lord. What is the Lord like? He practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness on the earth. He's a good God. He's a righteous God. He's a fair God. He's a merciful God. He's a gracious God. God loves it when we boast in Him. God loves it when we give our praise and adoration to Him. That is why we were made. That is why our first parents were even placed on the earth, so that they, through the showing being made in the image of God, men and women together, that they would partner to be on the plan of God, which is to what? To fill the earth with glory givers. to fill the earth with a humanity that would just be praising the Lord for His goodness. God gave a good earth, a good garden, good food, everything they needed. And what happened? Instead of remaining in a state of glory-giving, they went against the commands of God and actually got plunged into a state of humiliation because of their sin, a state of punishment, a state that God righteously warned them against, but they did anyway. And so we are called to glory in God, regardless of our situation. Paul says the same thing in Philippians. We're familiar with these verses. It says, talking about contentment, not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am in to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound, whether I have nothing or a lot. In every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Regardless of the situation, Let me just first say here, it's true that the Bible talks a lot about rich and poor, about those who have much and those who have little. It's a common theme. And it is true that some people, I think, have wrongly said that to have wealth is inherently wrong, that being rich is somehow bad. No, it's not inherently wrong. Wealth can be a blessing from the Lord, but it's what you do with that wealth. Do you store it up for yourself? Do you place your hope in that wealth? Do you take credit for that wealth as if God did not give you the means to be able to make that wealth? No. All of our lives should be centered on pleasing God, praising God, and pointing to God. And so, it's not wrong to be rich, but it is wrong to have a love of money that leads to all kinds of evil. So, this is what the Scriptures through Christ is warning us. If God blesses you, praise the Lord! May we give Him all the praise and glory. If God blesses you with lack, literally, if He blesses you with little, praise the Lord! Because He's giving you a different kind of test. But is it not also true that Yeah, maybe those who have. In fact, most of us, truth be told, most of us probably in this room would likely be more on the rich side than the poor side. Many of us know where our next meal is. Many of us do know it's going to be in that room over there with delicious meatballs and all kinds of stuff happening, right? Many of us know, amen. Praise the Lord, right? But we're not, many of us, most of us, are not living meal to meal, not knowing where our next food is, not knowing where we'll stay tonight. According to the world standards, most of all of us are really rich, like very, very rich. Even though some of us don't feel like it, even though some of us might grumble, it's true. gas prices, and food prices, and all kinds of those things. Inflation are a real thing, and we get pinched, and we feel it. But truth be told, we have so much. Truth be told, our families have much, our church has much, and it's true there are people who are very much struggling, and we should help them, seek to help them. But many of us would, we should likely see ourselves in this monetarily blessed, and so what should we do? We should keep the right perspective on it, amen? James gives a reason why we should do this. In verse 10, right after he says, let the rich in his humiliation, let him boast in his humiliation, meaning that he's boasting in the fact that God has He has much in the eyes world, but really, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, in order to enter the kingdom of God, you must be born again. You cannot enter it that way. You must be of humble spirit, of humble, and God has chosen to bless us with being able to see the truth of the gospel and to be humbled enough to be able to enter into his presence through the gospel of Jesus Christ, through belief in Christ and Christ alone. And so we must be humbled, must be, come to a place of humiliation. in order for us to have the exaltation. Praise the Lord that he humbled me. Praise the Lord that he showed me the truth. Praise the Lord that he showed me what worldly riches are compared to spiritual heavenly riches. Praise the Lord he opened my eyes. I couldn't have done it without his help. He showed it to me. He offered it to me. Praise the Lord for this humiliation that I'm experiencing that is needed to be in the presence of God through Christ alone. So what does he say? He says, may the rich man boast in his humiliation. Verse 10, because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away. He knows that what he has is not forever in terms of his monetary life. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, its flower falls and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. If you are rich, if you have much, praise the Lord. But many of you, either by personal experience or at least most of all of you know by story, at least of other people, that riches do not stay forever. Riches can be bestowed upon people or they can be earned over long periods of time, but they do not always stay. In fact, we know that they won't stay forever. You can't take riches with you. You're going to die. James uses a well-known used phrase here and imagery of grass withering, of flowers perishing, of beauty falling. This is all over the Scriptures in the Old Testament and Psalms and Jesus even uses this, but Isaiah 40 is a good example. Verse 7 says, This is the fleeting nature of our temporary lives, our temporary sort of worldly, this-worldly physical lives. They don't always stay the same. Things change. But that's why we're supposed to be anchored in the things that are eternal, amen? Things that won't change, like the Word of God, like our salvation. I appreciate the proverb here on Proverb 30, which gives this right perspective on how we should see things. particularly with our wealth. It starts in verse 8, it says, "'Remove far from me falsehood and lying. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me. Just give me what I need, Lord, lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.'" This is wisdom that's throughout the Scriptures. No matter the situation, just give me what I need, Lord. And He will. He's promised to do so. Also, the wisdom in Ecclesiastes, there's a couple bits of wisdom here. In chapter 2, this one's kind of funny. I don't know if it's funny. It's sad, really. It says this, it says, "'I hated my toil in which I toiled under the sun. seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me. I mean, I'm not gonna live forever, so whatever I'm working hard at, whatever thing I'm building up here on earth, I'm gonna have to hand it off someday. And what does he say? Verse 19, and who knows whether he'll be wise or a fool, yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. I mean, if you make a fortune in this world working hard, Isn't it true? Don't we know? Maybe you don't know specifically. But, you know, think of these major fortunes. What do these millionaire, billionaires, you know, what do they try to do? They set up these foundations, they set up these trusts, they set up these very particular frankly, controlling stipulations of how their wealth is to be spent by their families, by their companies. Why? Because they want their wealth to go on, even past them. They want their riches, they want their fame, they want it to keep going. And why? Because it's something they built, it's something, it's their names on that wealth. And what is, you know, what is this wisdom from Ecclesiastes? Yeah, but you can't really control it all. It can be squandered away. Riches aren't forever. We don't have control, even though some of us would like to from the grave. We don't have control. And then this other bit of wisdom here from Ecclesiastes in chapter 5, it says, there is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun. Riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. He had riches, but he didn't keep them forever. And he is a father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. And he came from his mother's womb, and he shall go again. Naked he shall come, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. This also is a grievous evil. Just as he came, so shall he go. And what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness and much vexation and sickness and anger." We totally should do Ecclesiastes. This is a great book. This is a really good book. There's a lot of good wisdom here. And, in fact, years ago we preached through this early on in the days of our church starting and being planted, and there's so much wisdom here in understanding what Solomon and the truths that we're seeking to be taught here. But what is he saying? It's true. You could work really hard, you can gain a lot, but you can lose it quickly too. And so what is the wisdom that we're called to do? We're called to boast not in our wealth, not in our possessions, but in God and in the gospel and in our position that He has given us. He has humbled us so that we might be with Him. And so let me ask you, how quick are you to boast in your humiliation? How quick are you to talk about how the fact that God humbled you? Is that something that you talk about often? I think I've heard some of you say some of those things sometimes. Praise the Lord that He's so gracious to us because, boy, did He have to humble me. It's not about what we have. It's not about the clothes we wear. It's not about the family we came from. It's not about how much money we make. It's not about the size of our house. What do we boast in? Praise the Lord that He's gracious and that He saves sinners like me. How quick are you to talk about your lowliness, to talk about your neediness? That's not always a comfortable thing, but as Christians, it must be a regular thing. to always be seeing things in the right perspective, or at least to be working on having our minds renewed all the time. That's why we need to be taking in the Word daily. We need to be singing these Psalms. We sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We need to be singing on our lips and in our hearts and in our minds. We need to be speaking of the truth of God's Word to ourselves and to others, addressing one another, it says in the Scriptures. Is it a quick thing for you to talk about your lowliness and how God loves you and accepted you in your state of lowliness? This is what we're called to do. We're called to see ourselves rightly, regardless of our outward blessings. We are actually all lowly. And so, this ultimately points us. to the point of really all the Scriptures, when James says, hey, those who are lowly, boast in your exaltation, and when he says those who are rich, boast in your humiliation. Yes, this is wisdom that is taken from the Old Testament, from the New Testament, but really what do we see here? This is just pointing us to the picture of Christ Himself. This text is saying, live as Christ lived to us, for us. Was Christ not humbled? Was Christ not the most elevated who had all the riches and glory in heaven? And yet, because of his great love, he humbled himself, taking the form of a servant. He took humanity to himself, never losing his divinity, but taking to himself a human nature which is lowly in its state. Is this not pointing us to see this lived out in the Lord Jesus Christ? Philippians 2 says this so nicely. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, a lowly place, being born in the likeness of men, lowly, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. James is pointing us to the truth that when, who else is when their rich became low? Christ, when he was rich, became low. And so we are to boast in Christ, and we are to place our faith in Christ, in Christ alone, not our circumstances, not ourselves. Not only that, the opposite is true. When Christ was lowly, He went to death, death on a cross. It was through His lowliness that He became exalted. It was through His service that He became glorified. His state of humiliation on earth becoming low, and then it's His state of exaltation. Just read on in verse nine of the same chapter. It says, therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So if you are here this morning and you're a believer, hear the words of God through James. Look to Christ in your circumstances. Whether you have a little bit or whether you have a lot, look to Christ. Be encouraged by His gospel work for you. Place your faith not in your works, in His works. Praise His name. Glorify Him. If you're a believer here who's been struggling, maybe you're struggling with anger towards God or disappointment, remember, Christ, our God, our King, did what was necessary to save us, and His promises are true. And even if you're struggling, ask for the faith to believe it and to see it rightly, and He will give you that faith by His Spirit. And if you're here and you don't know the Lord, then you have boasted in your own works. You have boasted in something other than Christ himself. And if you are not a believer here today, you must humble yourself. If you think highly of yourself, you must lower yourself to the feet of Jesus and place your faith in him and him alone. And ask him to forgive you of all your sins and ask him to help you repent. And guess what? He promises that those who come to him, he will cast aside none of them. And so, no matter who you are today, look to Christ, look to His lowly estate in serving us, and also look to His elevated estate, and that's what we can do. We can boast in the Lord regardless of our estate. Amen? Let me pray. Father in heaven, thank you so much for our Lord Jesus, who though He was rich with the fullness of the Godhead, Lord, and the fullness of His divinity and all the glory, Lord, He chose by the covenant of redemption to be able to come to this earth, Lord, and take on a human nature and make himself lowly just like us. And Lord, what a good news this is for people who need saving. So Lord, Lord, I pray that you would encourage us that regardless of our situation, we would place our trust and faith in you. that we would not be discouraged or in despair, but Lord, we would see the goodness of Christ through the scriptures. We'd know this, we'd see this, we'd sing this, we'd believe this, and it would comfort us. So please help us to follow in your footsteps, we pray this day. Amen. Amen.