True Riches

Transcript

GR 1642
5/27/2012
True Riches
James 1:9-12
Gil Rugh

James opens up very quickly, almost abruptly. After identifying himself and those he is writing to, he moves right into talking about God’s purpose and trials in our lives as his people. We belong to God, He watches over us, He cares for us. Everything in the world and everything personally in our lives is under His control. And yet that doesn’t protect us from difficulties, unpleasant things, from sorrows, from trying times. James is reminding the believer that he is writing to, Jews particularly who have trusted Christ and who are living outside the land of Israel. They would have multiple pressures, not only anti-Semitism that would characterize most of the Gentile world in which they would find themselves but now they are Christians so they are not only looked down upon but despised by the Gentiles because they are Jews but fellow Jews would be opposed to them because they have placed their faith in Christ.

This brings all kinds of other problems to life, jobs lost, family relationships broken and so on. To live under pressure and go through trials, we need wisdom from God. So James talked about the fact that we consider it joy when we go through trials because we know the hand of God is maturing us. The trials serve the purpose of focusing our attention on God, demonstrating our trust in him. You need extra wisdom, how to handle the trials, how do we apply the Word of God in this situation and walk faithfully with the Lord. Now when we come to God and ask Him, He is delighted to give the wisdom we need. But we have to come really believing.

If we are Christians, we live by faith. But trials put the pressure on us. God I don’t understand what is going on here but I don’t come to complain to God. I don’t come to tell God what He has to do. Nothing wrong coming and giving my requests before Him. But when I come in faith, I come trusting that He is sovereign and I can present the desire of my heart. But I come trusting Him, He will do what is right, I don’t always get what I ask for. Sometimes I look back and say thank You Lord for not giving me what I ask for. It seemed to be best for me then, but I appreciate His wisdom. (Now sometimes I never see why God did things the way He did them, why He did them that way.) When we come to God we have to come in faith. We can’t come as a double-minded, two-souled person. We have our faith in God but also looking for an out over here in case God doesn’t do what I would like Him to.

Some of this we wonder are we dealing with a believer or unbeliever. That is why James say our faith is being put to the test in verse 3. It is the testing of our faith and that testing is for the purpose of proving it, refining it, demonstrating that it has passed the test. But it is a test. For some people it reveals they don’t really have their faith in God. A double-minded, two-souled man cannot get anything from the Lord. James 1:6-8, “but let him 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 let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” There are people who think they can run to the Lord when a difficulty comes and then they are over here in another time and you think what is going on in their lives. They are back and forth, here and there. God doesn’t provide wisdom for those kind of people and so their confusion just gets worse.

It seems like he changes subjects in verses 9, 10, and 11. But then in James 1:12, “blessed is a man who perseveres under trials.” When he is approved and accepts some of the same terminology that we had in verses 2, 3, and 4. So that helps us see that he is really on the same theme. How are those who we would say, poor, the lower class and maybe talk about them? They have less, how do they handle trials and their circumstances in life. What about the rich, how do they conduct themselves? Particularly under pressure and so on with the character of their walk with the Lord.

So he addresses both groups of people. The brother in verse 9 of humble circumstances and then the one who is rich. So the contrast is those who have little and those who have much. What is their attitude to be as they walk through life here and as believers in particular because he focuses on the brother? One of the things when you are going through trials we don’t get absorbed for good or ill the material things of life. For the person who has little, the trial compounds it and he can become consumed with his circumstances. The rich person has a different set of temptations. He can become confident that he will not be affected the same way someone else is. And shown good decisions and made wise investments. Well I have done well. And he develops a self-confidence and arrogance. Neither man, the poor man or the rich man functioning that way would be walking in faith, trusting the Lord.

These trials come and they are not always the same kind for everyone but no one escapes them, rich or poor alike. So James addresses them, first the man of humble circumstances in James 1:9, “but let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position.” Humble circumstances, a word that has a breath of meaning like we could use it. It could mean just poor, financially poor. Could mean somebody low on the totem pole so doesn’t get much respect kind of thing. The context here is he is primarily dealing with material possessions because he is going to contrast this poor man with the wealthy man, the rich man. And often they go together. The person going through difficult times, the Jewish believers who may have lost their jobs. Because not a fellow Jew is going to keep them employed if they are trusting in the Messiah that the nation Israel has rejected and the Gentiles had a hard time with the Jews to begin with. So now you are out of a job and turn to family for help and a Jewish family is not going to help, a Jewish member who is now trusting the Messiah that they are rejecting.

So these kind of problems press in. Brother of low circumstances, humble circumstances. What is he to do? How is he to see things? One thing you don’t do is get focused on the physical situation and absorbed with that. You know my world is falling apart, I don’t have anything, just scraping by. Nobody really shows me any respect. I am just treated as though I am not important. Nobody cares, Lord, do you care? You know I am going from hand to mouth from day to day. Well first of all what is the focus of the poor man to be? A believer of Jesus Christ. Well he is to glory in his high position. So he has a low position and his poverty and perhaps destitute situation. He focuses on attention on all that is his in Christ. He is glorying in his high position. This particular word glory is translated, this words means to boast sometimes. To boast, to glory, to pride oneself. It is given here as a command. Remember we said the book of James is filled with commands. Fifty-four commands in one hundred eight verses. This is one of those commands. The brother of humble circumstances is to glory or you could translate it the brother of humble circumstances must glory in his high position. That has to be his focus. Who I am in Christ? That is my boast in the good sense. That is what I glory in. I gave glory in being an important person, being a wealthy person. Being this, being that but I can glory in the fact that I belong to the living God. I have been exalted by him to a place of great honor.

Back up to Romans 5, Paul uses this word in a similar kind of context in Romans 5:1-2, ”Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into the grace in which we stand; and we exult.” Now there is our word translated glory. In James we have a different word translated glory we hope in the glory of God. Here we are talking about we exult, we boast any pride we have. It is not in ourselves but it is in our relationship with God and what he has done for us in Christ so we have obtained our introduction in the position we now have in this grace in which we stand and this is where our boasting and our confidence is. In the hope of the glory of God, someday we will see God’s glory in different words. There we exult, that is what lifts us up, causes us to have the good confidence, not self-confidence but a confidence of assurance of glory in who I am in Jesus Christ.

James 5:3, “and not only this, but we also exult (there we are) in our tribulations.” That is what James has been talking about, tribulations. So here he is talking about that glorying, that boasting, exulting, the things that would beat you down but they don’t beat us down as believers because we know who we are in Christ. Through faith in Christ, I have gained an introduction, I have been placed into a position with Christ and his Father that puts everything in perspective. I belong to God, I am His child, I am His servant. Nothing can change that.

Come over to II Cor. 12:(( stop in Chapter 11 to give you a little appreciation of what Paul going to say in Chapter 12. He is talking about everything he has gone through and is going through as a believer. In “II Corinthians 11: 23-27, are they servants of Christ? (I speak as if insane) I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, (see here is a Jewish believer, he has difficulty in dangers from his countrymen, fellow Jews, and he has it from the Gentiles as well, sort of in a no man’s life humanly speaking because as a Jew, he is an outcast from the Gentiles, they don’t want anything to do with him and as a Jew who believers in Christ, the Jews don’t want anything to do with him,) dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; (he lived a life of danger) I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.” The things he has gone through.

You say why didn’t the Lord take better care of Paul. Paul was a great servant of the Lord, a faithful servant of the Lord. This is part of God’s plan for Paul. So he is going through all these things. Then you come over to “II Corinthians 12. And he had a thorn in the flesh from Satan that made his life more difficult. And God’s answer is No, I won’t take it away, I will give you the grace to endure it. So “II Corinthians 12:9, And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” (The trials, the difficulties we saw in James let this trial has its perfect work of bringing us to completion, all that God intends us to be. So the power that God wants to display through me will be brought to further perfection and completion through my weaknesses. We do just the opposite.) Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, (that’s his glory, that’s his confidence) so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” Lord, If I have more of your power in my life, then we find out we get sick, we find out we lose our job and we say Lord, that is not what I asked for. Wait a minute, maybe it is. Because maybe through his, his power will more powerfully and clearly be demonstrated.

That is what Paul says, that is why I can glory and boast in my weakness. God is perfecting me so his power can be more manifest in and through me. So I will boast about my weakness that the power of Christ may dwell in me. “II Corinthians 12:10, therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Amazing testimony, what does Paul glory in, what does he boast in. Verse 9, I’ll boast about my weakness because there I see, these trials, these persecutions, these weaknesses, these difficulties, they are strengthening me. The world would like at it and say, there is a beaten man. What does he have to show for all his work, all his labor? What kind of house does he live in, what kind of retirement does he have, and what kind of chariot does he drive? It hasn’t got him much has it? Paul says this is my glory because look what God is doing through me. We look back and say oh poor Paul, he went through life and just didn’t have very much. To bad he gave up so much and didn’t enjoy life. Wow, to be used like Paul. It took weakness that I might glory, boast.

Come back to “James 1:9, but let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position.” So not only understanding what is happening in the trial but who I am in Christ, my high position. I look around at the world and I am nothing but in Christ I have been exulted to the heavenlies. Back up to Ephesians “1:3, 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.” That is where our exalted position is. We have seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Come down to Ephesians 1:18-19, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might.” This is who I am and what I have in Christ. Come over to “Ephesians 2:4-7, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” No matter what wealth might have or what wealth I might not have as a believer in Jesus Christ on this earth, how do you measure that compared with what I have. I have been seated with Christ in the heavenlies. I have been given the position of honor. I have an inheritance there with God. As you come back to James, stop in I Peter (just after James). “I Peter 1:3-7, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” On it goes.

Do you see the position we have, the inheritance we have, we are assured it is there. So the brother of humble circumstances back in James 1 is glory and boast, not going around as a bragger in the wrong sense. But his glory is what, all I have is Christ. The inheritance stored up for me in glory, the position I have been given in Christ to be seated with him in the heavenlies. The world doesn’t see it. The writer from many years ago put it this way. Let him remember that he is a prince and glory in it. He is a prince on his way to his kingdom traveling by rough roads, enduring many hardships, suffering from hunger, cold and weariness, and the people from among whom he is traveling do not know anything about his greatness, but he knows. Let him glory in his high estate. How true that is, the world doesn’t know but we know.

What a remarkable thing to consider. Who are the people of the greatest wealth, greatest riches, and greatest honor? It’s us, because of the grace of God that has been bestowed upon us. James goes on, verse 10, to contrast this; and the rich man and this would be the brother of humble circumstances and the rich man. He would address the brethren here. Most believers come from the lower strata of life. But there were the rich even then. We have been privileged to live in a rich country and by standards of other places in the world, all of us are rich even those of us who have been considered poor by the standards of the states. We are measured over there. Remember we were in another country many years ago. There was a man who was our taxi driver and he was aglow because he lived in a province of a million people and he was given the highest honor. He was selected, the only one to be able to come to the states and work. He couldn’t stop talking about it with his broken English. Do you know what he was going to do? He was going to work at a fast food restaurant in Florida. And we hardly would say that is one of the higher positions here. But for him, I mean, he was the hero in that province.

You know it is relative, how wealthy are we? We stayed in a hotel and there’s all these people lined up and looking at the fence around. I said, what is everyone looking at here? The person working said they are looking at you. Why? Well what it would cost you to stay at this hotel one night is what they would make in a month and they are just enthralled to look at such rich people. Gee, I’m going back to Pastor in Lincoln, Nebraska, at that little church. Here I am they are staring at me, it is relative in that sense. We are wealthy, we have the benefits to that. Well, a warning to the rich here. The rich man, he is to glory as well, in his humiliation. And basically in the same word, you have in verse 9, you have the brother of humble circumstances. The rich man is to glory in his humble circumstances.

In other words, you have the reverse. The poor man looks how rich he is and the position he has in Christ. The rich man looks and sees how he has been humbled in Christ. What a blessing it is to belong to the Lord. So both men don’t have their eyes on what they have or don’t have. The rich man has his eyes on what he has in Christ so he is humbled to think of who he is in Christ. The grace of God has been bestowed upon him. His wealth is not a cause of self-exultation, self-confidence. That is the why in the church, those things don’t make a difference. Because why? We share in the wealth that Christ has provided for us and that is all that matters. We don’t hold positions in the church because we have this much money or you know being poor doesn’t give you an in with the Lord and being rich doesn’t give you an in with the Lord. So the rich man is to glory in his humility, humiliation. But it is important that you see it is the same word that you have translated humble circumstances from the beginning. From like the flowering grass, he will pass away. Earthly riches are not the measure of our wealth; easy to forget that. Because there are pressures that come to our life when we don’t have enough to meet the needs. Just is, the pressure is there.

There is the danger when we have more than enough adequate resources, it is easy to begin to trust in those resources, isn’t it? Well I have things pretty well laid out, I’m pretty secure. I have my investments diversified. You know I’m pretty confident that everything is fine. Well, that may be so. But I must be careful that this is not my focus, that it is not what I have materially that defines me. How humbled I am that I have been saved by God’s grace. That is why it is difficult for a rich man to be saved. Jesus said it is harder for a rich man to be saved than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

Why? Because there is a certain amount of pride, arrogance, and self-filling that comes to that purpose. He lacks that sense of need that I am nothing in the sight of Almighty God. I am a hell-deserving sinner in the eyes of the Almighty God. When they are saved by grace, they need to focus on their humiliation that they consecrate on. Why? Like the flowering of the grass, they will pass on. I realize my life, if I’m a billionaire, is what, transitory. Not to long ago, we had one of the world’s most well-known billionaires pass away. Didn’t matter that he had billions, he couldn’t buy more life. He died the same as a person who didn’t have a dime to his name. He was buried, gone, and everybody had claimed him and put his face on magazines, but it didn’t change anything did it. He passed away and already people begin to forget. So the sun rises, you note, there is more of an expansion on the rich. The Bible doesn’t condemn being rich but that I would heed the repeated warnings about the dangers of riches. With the unbeliever, it could be a barrier to his salvation.

For the believer it could be a danger that we begin to trust in the things we have. There is danger associated so we have warnings given. Remember back in Deuteronomy, God told Israel, when you go back into the land and you prosper, remember who gave you the ability to prosper, remember who prospered you so that you do not forget God in your abundance. But Israel didn’t make it. I shared with you many years ago I was taking a course on the west coast. I was studying theology and they surveyed the church around the world and they found the pattern when Christianity came into an area, it usually had its greatest compact on the lower classes. They were more receptive, this is consistent of what Jesus said of the difficulty of a rich man being saved. But then they found that as people got saved they became more responsible and they began to do their work under the Lord not as under man and so on. In the economic world, they begin to rise. They found that the level of their intensity to Christ and their commitment to Christ in service began to go down as it went up. So they began to prosper more but their Christianity gets weaker. We fight that here. We have so many things to do and so many things to fill our lives with and so many things to enjoy, we hardly have time for the Lord, don’t we? Well we say, we gotta do this, we gotta do that, we are doing this and we are doing that, getting this and moving on, and enjoying. And God has blessed us.

All of a sudden we get caught up with it now, it is just hard to fit the Lord in and little by little it gets moved further and further out and the deterioration takes place. The rich man is to constantly to remind himself that all these things are going to be gone. The picture, the sun rises with a scorching wind and it withers the grass, the flower falls off. The beauty of its appearance is destroyed so the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. It is going to be gone, what he has, what will happen to it. It is gone off, what did they do with a lot of the great mansions that were built in prosperous days. Well, some of them are like museums, you can go take a trip through them, others have been torn down.

Why? Because nobody wanted to keep them up, they got to expensive and then taxes came in. This is going to endure for, what, gone, gone. Isn’t this an encouraging sermon? We are like the flowering of the grass, we are on our way out. Come back to “Isaiah 40:6-8, (God instructed this, what is he going to preach?) A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?” All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. The contrast, “Ps. 102:11, my days are like a lengthened shadow; And I wither away like grass.” Come to “Ps. 103:15-16, as for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more; and its place acknowledges it no longer.” What a contrast, what a change. We come and go, we come and go. Soon we are forgotten, it doesn’t take long. Doesn’t matter how great we were, what we did, sometimes you may get your name on a monument or a bill being named after you, but you know, pretty soon we are just a memory.

I think of this sometimes, we used to like to go to antique stores. Sometimes you go there and they have all these pictures. I say, these are somebody’s family. They had meant something sometime but they are just now items of curiosity. People who buy those pictures have no idea of who, they are just something old and they wanted something old and isn’t that nice? And if you happened to get one of some famous person that has some value or something and you see what it is worth? Nobody really cares. We are going through, we have all these slides we took. Marilyn and I look for them and you know what, nobody is going to want these. In fact, I am even bored looking at them myself and I am in them. What do we do with these? Marilyn says here I’ll cut that up. Snip, snip, snip. Here’s another bag Marilyn. If we don’t care, who will? All right. I don’t come from a very sentimental family. I told you about my mother one day, my mother is in glory now, we were out to lunch. We took Mom out to lunch. At lunch I said to Mom, hey Mom today is my birthday. Do you know what she said, you are kidding? No Mom, it is really my birthday. Well how about that, “Happy Birthday!” We went on with lunch.

Well all right. “Psalm 49: You would have thought my mother would have known when I was born. “Psalm 49:1-9, (You have a title under Ps. 49, The Folly of Trusting in Riches). HEAR this, all peoples; Give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, Rich and poor together. My mouth will speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart will be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will express my riddle on the harp. Why should I fear in days of adversity, when the iniquity of my foes surrounds me, even those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the abundance of their riches? No man can by any means redeem his brother Or give to God a ransom for him____For the redemption of his soul is costly, And he should cease trying forever______That he should live on eternally; That he should not undergo decay. Man doesn’t have the ability to control this, only God does. “Psalms 49:10-12, For he sees that even wise men die; The stupid and the senseless alike perish, And leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is, that their houses are forever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they have called their lands after their own names. But man in his pomp will not endure; He is like the beasts that perish.” Obviously, we have an eternal destiny but as far as life comes we die like the dogs, like the animals. Our life comes to an end. There is more to us as created in an image of God, but as far as our earthly pattern goes, we are going to pass off the scene just like the animals do. “Psalm 49:16-20, do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house is increased: For when he dies he will carry nothing away; His glory will not descent after him.

Though while he lives he congratulates himself____And though men praise you when you do well for yourself___He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see the light. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish.” It is God who gives us the wisdom to understand what really matters in life, the importance of a relationship with him that prepares us for life beyond life, eternal life. What a contrast, what a difference.

Come back to James. So as James as you can see from the passages we read from the Old Testament, for these Jews who are now believers, he is just reminding them of what God has said and putting it in perspective. It is humbling. You realize look what we have and look how God has blessed us but I realize leave it all behind, I will someday be gone. That’s fine, because we are prepared for it. So we can rejoice not in what we have here on earth but what the Lord has provided for us just like the poor man can be rejoicing. Just want you note the stress on the verbs of James 11, the sun rises, it withers, falls off, is destroyed. These sharp verbs here that bring it before, almost like a rapid succession of events. The sun rises with the scorching winds, the sun rises then the withering takes place, the flower falls off, then the destruction takes place. So the rich man in the midst of his pursuits passes away.

Come back to “Luke 12: (Jesus early in this chapter)4-5, And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who after He has killed has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!” And then that word of encouragement, the very hairs on our head are numbered and God knows the sparrows and we are more valuable than the sparrows. And the promise that whose confess Christ will be confessed before the angels of heaven. Come on down in that “Luke 12:16-21, And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a certain rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘this is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will what you have prepared?’ “So is the man who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” It doesn’t mean that if you have riches, you are not going to be saved, but it does give us strong warning that true riches and our relationship with God if you don’t have that, you don’t have anything. Because the only riches which we endure are the riches that are stored in heaven. It just permeates the scripture, this emphasis.

Come over to 1 Timothy 6. There is a reason that God addresses this subject again and again, because of the dangers that we face, the distractions that come. I think that often we as Christians get progressively weakened in our Christianity and in our devotion to the Lord not by overt actions but by subtle creeping wearing away at our commitment. That subtle turning away just so many things distracted and involved and our blessings become a distraction to us. They turn us away from the whole hearted commitment to the Lord. Warning given by Paul to Timothy. Pick up “1 Timothy 6:6-10, But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang.” We raise our children, we like them to be successful, we like them not to have to go through what we went through. We would like them to have a comfortable life, we would like them to enjoy the good things. What we want more than anything else for them is that they know the Lord and walk faithfully with him. And if they are dirt poor and people think of them as a failure, that is alright if they come to know the Lord and walk with Him. Sometimes even we as Christians, parents get so caught up in it. They get the idea that this is the most important thing they can do with their life. Be successful. That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t want to encourage to be wise, prepare themselves the best we can for life. But the best preparation is what? A vital strong relationship with the Lord. If they don’t have that, they will have nothing all their life. How terrible that my children would grow up, my grandchildren, be wealthy beyond measure and die and turn eternity in Hell. I mean, they have nothing and I encouraged it and I thought it was wonderful and I boasted about it to everyone and all of a sudden did I contribute to that? The subtle way that we just get – well, we have good intentions. I want them to do well, I think it would just be better for them.

The Lord knows what is best for them. I want to pour into them, they need to know the Lord, you need to put your trust in Him, you need to walk with Him, you have to make a living, you will have to pay the bills, but you fit that in to what is the priority of your life. Word of warning here to believers, that some have gotten caught up with the love of money and wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Again the Scripture warning of that. Come back to James and we will wrap this up. “James 1:11-12, 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. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial: (We start a new paragraph with that verse but it is a transition because it connects it back, it shows that this isn’t a strenuous subject, but even our poverty becomes its own trial and whatever other trials are added that. We want to make sure he perseveres under trials.

Coming back to where we were in the opening verse here of the same terminology. The man who perseveres under trial. That word persevered translated endures back in verse 3, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Blessed is a man who endures under trial. Perseveres under trial. For once he has been proved back in verse 3, knowing that the testing (that word translated approved). Just a form of this word translated testing, the test. And we noted yokamos (it’s a test with the view to approval like you test medals, refining and it is purifying for their approval, now we have more pure gold, more pure silver and so on. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, under testing for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. That crown which is Life. Interesting, this crown of life is only referred to one other time in the New Testament.

Turn to book of “Revelation 2: (I think the context is significant, it is a letter to the church at Smyrna addressed to them by Christ. And you note the condition of this church, the people in this church), verse 9, I know your tribulation and your poverty (here he reminds them) (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. It is going to get worse. You would think that a letter from the Lord that this precious church would tell them, I’m going to intervene on your behalf). No, you are in tribulation, you are in physical poverty and the devil is going to intensify his opposition to you and you are going to be cast into prison so that you will be tested, there’s that word, the testing of our faith, testing to be approved. You will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful unto college. We can’t be faithful any longer than that though. Being faithful to the end. Being faithful to death, that’s. You know what I will give you the crown of life.

God has promised eternal life to us and with that is all that he has promised to us in Christ. I mean eternal life is not just living forever, but living forever in the fullness of God’s blessing and provision for us to enjoy all he intended for us until sin marred and ruined everything. But by the power of his grace, his salvation, brings it all back to us now. Eternal life, you get a crown of life, so the testing for the poor, for the rich, the pressures that come in, the temptations that come in, the distractions, he is not done yet. Verse 13 will go on to say when he is tempted and talk about soon kinds of temptations and testings that come that have to be dealt with. We never forget the end. One other passage, turn to 1 John 2, right back to a little further than James, we are almost to Revelation. “John 2:25, And this is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.” That summarizes it all. What has God promised to us, eternal life? What does that include? That includes all the wealth of heaven because he says I am an heir and co-hair with Christ. It doesn’t get any better than that. So how foolish that I as a rich person would be arrogant and caught up with the material things that I have been privileged to have. How sad that I as a person, destitute and in poverty would be absorbed in that. I belong to God.

I am going through this temporary time of trial because he is molding me and shaping me to share a throne ruling and reigning in a kingdom that he will establish on the earth. I need to be refined, prepared, matured in all that is going on. I must not lose that perspective. What we would call good times, the times of wealth and prosperity, or the bad times, the times of difficulty, of hardship and all the other things that can come. Cause what? It is the same, none of these things have affected what mattered. That is the beautiful thing of our relationship with the Lord. None of these things change it. I belong to the Lord. In a hundred years, it will be exactly as he intended for me and I will be enjoying it all. And so will you. So we can endure and conduct ourselves in a manner that God intends and provides for us by his grace.

Let us pray together. Thank you Lord for the riches that are ours in Christ. Lord we would acknowledge that the blessings that are ours, living in a prosperous part of this world and the privilege we have to enjoy many good things. They easily become a stumbling block, an obstacle, a distraction. We get caught up in them, we get distracted by them. We have less time for you, for your word, for the fellowship of believers, for service and we become weaker in our faith. Thank you Lord for the encouragement of your word, for the reminder of how gracious you are, to remind us continually of the inheritance that you have prepared for us in the glory of your presence. May we not lose that as the focal point of our lives at all times. Thank you for the blessings of this day, Lord, we look forward to what you have for us as we represent you and serve you in the days of the week before us. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen