If you would open your Bibles to the book of James, we'll
continue our study of James that we started a few weeks back and
we haven't made it far. This morning we're going to be
in verses 9 to 12 and we've kind of been going at a pace of about
four verses each week, give or take.
This morning we'll be in the next 4 verses of 9 to 12.
The title of the sermon is this All Flesh is Grass.
So let's read the text, open us our word of prayer, and then
we'll jump to the sermon. James one beginning in verse 9.
Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in
his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass, he will
pass away. For the sun rises with its
scorching heat and Withers the grass.
It's flower falls, and it's beauty perishes.
So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his
pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains
steadfast under trial, For when he has stood the test, he will
receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who
love him. He will pray with me.
Father, this morning as we look at a text about our our
mortality, we look at a text about the contrast between the
lowly brother and the rich. And we look at a text that is
about trials and how blessed it is to be steadfast through them
and the reward that awaits us on the other side of our mortality,
the crown of life. What I pray for all that are in
this room and those that still come into it, that we all one
day would wear this crown. I pray Lord, that that everybody
here would one day wear this crown, and that now today we
would boast in that day. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen,
The land of a rich man produced plentifully.
And he thought to himself, what shall I do?
I have nowhere to store my tops. And he said, we'll do this.
I will tear down my barns and I will build larger ones, and
there I will store all my grain goods.
And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for
many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry.
But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of
you, and the things that you have prepared, whose will they
be? So is the one who lays up
treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
You see, this rich man forgot one ubiquitous truth.
All flesh is grass. He believed he had riches for
many years to come, forgot that he was grass.
That's what the sermon is about this morning.
I'm going to start off with the next vision of the text.
Look at this verse by verse, and then I'll give application.
I think I have 7 exhortations for us this morning.
Let's start looking at it so we can understand what James is
teaching us this morning. Let's start in verse 9 where he
writes to us. Let the lowly brother boast in
his exaltation. So far in our sermon series we
have talked. James has talked about joy and
trials. He's talked wisdom and faith and
this morning he's going to transition to riches and
mortality. James starts with this
statement. The lowly brother boast in his
exaltation. Let's first ask who was the
lowly brother? We didn't know who we're talking
about here. I want you to notice that James
is calling this person a brother.
So he's talking about a Christian.
This is a fellow Christian in the faith.
And he says to them, Let the lowly brother, What is lowly
mean in that sentence? The Greek word for lowly has
three different definitions. Here they are #1 pertaining to
being of low social status or relative inability to cope,
lowly, undistinguished, of no account here's #2 pertaining to
being servile in manner, pliant, subservient, abject, and here's
#3 pertaining to being unpretentious or humble.
Now which of the three does James intend here?
We will see in verse 10 that lowly is being contrasted with
rich. You see that contrast or being
contrasted which tells us that this is someone who is not just
necessarily poor. They have a low socioeconomic
status in the eyes of the world, not in God's eyes, but in the
eyes of the world. They have a low socioeconomic
status. Remember, James is writing to
Jewish Christians who have been dispersed.
He's writing to the dispersion, and many of them have been
dispersed because of persecution.
They're living outside of the promise and because they've been
driven from it because of persecution.
And what happens when you get driven from your home?
Often you have hard Financial Times.
You might even have social ostracism because you're not
with your people. You're living in foreign land
among the Gentiles. And so James is exhorting them.
He's letting, he's telling them, let this lowly brother boast.
What does that word boast me? Just take pride in something to
glory in something to pride oneself or to brag.
Now why would James tell to boast?
Isn't boasting sin? Why would he tell them to boast?
The Greek word for boast 2 points are in order.
The Greek word for boast can also be translated.
Rejoice or glory can also be translated that way.
A lot of times you see the word rejoice or glory.
It's the same Greek word for boast.
It can mean to rejoice in something, to glory in
something, and B. The Bible teaches us that not
all boasting is sin. There is a righteous kind of
boasting. I'll give you some examples.
First Corinthians 131 Let the one who boast, boast in the
Lord. This comes from Jeremiah 2nd
Corinthians 12/9. Therefore I will boast all the
more gladly of my weaknesses, or Galatians 614 But far be it for
me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So here another example. James is exhorting this lowly
brother to boast in what? To boast in his exaltation.
Now what does that mean? That word exaltation?
It literally means high place or height.
Literally like a literal high place or height.
So it's being used as a metaphor here.
It means a position of high status.
Now is James's being paradoxical here?
If he's lowly, how is he both seen any in his high status?
Isn't he lowly? What is James saying here?
Or remember what Jesus said? So The Who last will be 1st and
the 1st will be last, for everyone who exalts himself will
be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
James is writing to these dispersed Christians and he's
telling them, Listen dear brothers and sisters, you may be
lowly now, but it will not always be this way.
One day you will be exalted. Boast in that.
Look at verse 10A and the rich in his humiliation.
So the lonely brother is boasting in his exaltation, but
James exhorts the rich to boast in his humiliation.
Now we need to 1st ask who are the rich, right?
Anytime we talk about the rich, anytime you ever talk about rich
people, it's always tricky right?
Because riches are relative aren't they?
See the reality is compared to America, we might be middle
class or maybe upper middle class, but compared to most of
the world, most of us if not all of us are rich.
James says let the rich boast in what?
Boast in his humiliation? What is that?
Interesting enough, this word humiliation is the exact same
Greek word as lowly in verse 9. It's just a noun instead of an
adjective. This word means an experience of
a reversal and fortunes humiliation as an experience.
Now why would the rich boast in his humiliation?
Why would they do that? There are two options here, and
it depends on whether we think that James is talking about a
rich brother or a rich lost person.
It's not clear if James is talking about a rich brother,
Douglas Moo writes. James is saying the rich are to
boast and his identification with Christ and his people a
matter of humiliation in the eyes of the world.
Oh, James is saying that if this is a rich brother, this rich
brother should not boast in his riches or his high socioeconomic
status. He should boast in Christ that
but in the eyes of the world that is a humiliation that is
not seen as a good thing in the eyes of the world.
If James is referring to a rich lost person, then James is being
ironic, IE all this rich person can truly boast in is his future
humiliation in the judgement. And James is being ironical
here. It's not clear.
I'll come back to that. Look at 10 B Because like a
flower of the grass, he will pass away.
James here gives a simile that I believe is intended for both the
lowly brother and the rich. Like a flower of the grass.
Literally a wildflower of a Meadow.
That's literally a wildflowers. Is is how it translates.
Like a wildflower, he will pass away.
Now, what does that mean? Like a wildflower, he will pass
away. You ever been to see the
wildflowers at Mount Rainier? If you live here and you've
never done that, let me highly encourage you.
It is gorgeous. It is beautiful.
Take some time. I don't know what season is
June, July, something like that. I don't remember what it is.
But if you've never been to see the wildflowers, go see them.
We like to think of ourselves as mountains.
Mount Rainier has been there for thousands of years.
But the reality is, is that we are not like mountains.
We are like the wildflowers on the mountains.
Our lifespan is very short and in the grand scheme of things,
very insignificant. Look at verse 11.
For the sun rises with its scorching heat and Withers the
grass. Its flower falls, its beauty
parishes. So also will the rich man fade
away in the midst of his pursuits.
James continues with descriptions of his simile.
The sun rises with its scorching heat and Withers the grass.
If you've ever taken a flower, take any flower.
Put it in direct sunlight on a 90° day.
It doesn't take very long for it to die.
It'll die very quickly. It's flower falls.
It's beauty perishes, right? God has made some very beautiful
flowers. Roses, orchids, cherry blossoms,
Lotus, Tulip, hibiscus, dahlia, peonies.
They all lose their beauty. They all die, James says.
So will the rich man fade away and die?
James gives the picture that the rich man dies right in the midst
of his pursuits. Pursuits of what?
Pursuits? Of more money.
I saw that Elon Musk is now worth $415 billion.
Predictions are that maybe one day he'll be the first
trillionaire, and yet all of those billions cannot prevent
his death. It is coming and he can't stop
it. Look at verse 12A.
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.
Now, what is the connection between verses 9:00 to 11:00 and
12:00, right? He talked about riches and
mortality, and then he switches to blesses.
Man who remains steadfast on the trial.
What is the connection there? I think the connection is this.
Money is often a means to keep us from trials, isn't it?
See, people want money for all kinds of different reasons.
Some people want money because they want to flaunt their
wealth. Some people want money to to
provide stability and security. Some want money to keep them
from going through trials. But James is saying here that if
we want to be truly blessed, the path is not through riches but
through steadfastness. Blessed is the man who remains
steadfast under trial. Now, what is the word there for
steadfastness? Hoopo meno.
It's the verb form of hoopoe Monet.
James has already told us in verse 2 that we are going to
fall into trials. He says you're going to fall
into trials. And when you do, we have an
option. We all have an option to veer or
to persevere, and James says that we will be blessed when we
persevere. Why look at the B?
For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of
life. Notice the condition of that
statement When when that's the condition.
Meaning only after this condition has been met, when he
has stood, the test has stood. The test is one word in the
Greek. It means to pertaining to being
genuine on the basis of testing, approved, tried and true.
If you remember a few weeks ago I pointed out that all trials
are test, right? And when God gives you a trial,
he's testing you, He's testing me.
All trials are test. And we could argue that the
entire Christian life is 1 giant test, right?
This whole life is just one giant test, and at the end of
it, there will only be two outcomes.
Pass or fail. There's no grading on a curve,
but he gets an A or AB. It is pass or fail.
And James says that the one who perseveres through trials will
pass the test, and his reward for passing the test will be the
crown of life. Now what is that?
That is a metaphor for eternal life.
Look at verse 12 C, which God has promised to those who love
him. So not only is there a condition
here, the condition is when there's also a promise.
The one who passes the test will receive, will receive.
That's a future indicative future means that will be given
at a future date. You know, we, we would love to
be able to wear this crown right now, right?
We want that kind of assurance where I put this crown on, I
walked around and everybody knows I'm saved.
I know that I'm saved. I know I got it.
I have the crown in hand. We don't get it until a future
date. Nobody gets the crown of life.
Now you get it at a future date, but it is certain indicative.
It is the mood of reality. It's an indicative you will
receive the crown of life. God has promised it.
He says right here, which God has promised to whom?
To those who love him. Now why did James ward it that
way? Why doesn't he say to those who
believe in him? Why didn't he say to those who
trust in him? Why does he say to those who
love him? I think it's the same reason as
the argument that James will later make in chapter 2.
James will write that faith without works is what what
church family dead? And I think in the same vein,
faith without love is dead. God will only grant the crown of
life to those who love Him. Now stop their exposition.
Application of the text. I have 7 exhortations. 7 #1 The
way to be somebody is to know somebody.
The way to make a name is to know a name.
Most of the world is trying to be somebody.
Much of the world is trying to make a name for themselves,
aren't they? People accomplish this through
various means. Politics, business, social
media, sports, music, religion, education.
Most of the world is trying to be somebody, trying to make a
name for themselves. But then we come to Jesus and
it's no longer about being somebody, but knowing somebody.
It's no longer about making a name for yourself, but knowing
the name, James writes. Let the lowly brother boast in
his exaltation. What is he getting at?
I think he's getting at this. If we feel inadequate in any
way, maybe we're not as successful as our peers.
Some of you struggle with this. You look at your peers, you see
that they're more successful than you.
You graduated the same class, you had about higher GPA than
them. You know you're smarter than
them and yet they are more successful than you are.
Why? Because they're working right
now and not a church. Maybe we don't have as much
money as our colleagues. Maybe we don't have as many
followers or likes or subscribers.
Maybe we're not as talented as the next artist or athlete.
Maybe we don't have a prominent role in our church or our
community. Maybe our parents are not as
proud of us as they are our brother or our sister.
Maybe we simply feel invisible or unwanted or unneeded.
James says The way to fix this is not to fix it.
The way to fix this is not to fix it.
It is to boast in the fact that we know Jesus Christ.
Rejoice in the reality that one day you will wine and dine with
the King. Is that enough for you?
Is that enough for you too? Riches are relative, but we
should all acknowledge that most of us, if not all of us, are
rich. Riches are relative, but we
should acknowledge that most of us, if not all of us, are rich.
Whenever I read the category rich in the Bible, when I go
through my Bible and I read this category, Jesus talks about the
rich, James talks about the rich, Paul talks about the rich.
Whenever I read that category of rich, I often distance myself
from that term, right? The rich is for millionaires and
billionaires, not me, right? I might read this and be like
the rich boasts. Oh that's not me.
I looked up how much can a family of 6 make because we have
6. How much can a family of 6 make
in Seattle and still be considered middle class?
You know how much $240,000? That's crazy.
You can make $240,000 family OF6240 and still be considered
middle class. I was watching a YouTube
documentary the other day about porters, people in DePaul who
carry supplies for those hiking on Mount Everest.
They hike up this rugged terrain literally where it's like 1 slip
and you're dead. And on their back they're
carrying this huge heavy loads. I mean, the load is like 3 times
as wide as them and it like extends in the back and they're
walking like, and I'm like literally they take one wrong
step. They're dead.
They're hiking in the rugged terrain.
They, they, they, they sleep in these rugged makeshift hotels.
They work six days a week, often 12 hour days.
Do you know all of this? Do you know for how much money?
Between 15 and $30 a day. Many of them work for $15 a day.
BT how much net worth do you need to have for each each socio
economic class? This is net worth right?
So not not liquid assets necessarily net worth.
How much do you need? Here's what it gave.
Poor is between euro and 10,000, lower middle class between
10,000 and 100,000, middle class between 100,000 and 500,000,
upper 500,000 to 2 million. Affluent or wealthy 2 million to
10 million, high net worth 10 million to 30 million.
And then it goes on. And I was like, look, if if you
got more than that in our church, where's your tie been?
Now, I don't know where that puts you.
I don't know where that puts you, but the median net worth in
America, the median net worth in America, the 192,000, that's the
median net worth in America. Do you know what the median net
worth is for the world? 8500 with half of the world
having less than that. More than half the world is
worth less than $8500. Now, why do I give all these
statistics? This is why riches are relative.
They're relative. But we should acknowledge that
most of us, if not all of us, are rich.
We want to be careful that we don't distance ourselves from
the category of rich in the Bible simply because we don't
have millions compared to the world.
We are rich. We are.
Which leads to #3 My fellow rich brothers and sisters, boast in
your humiliation. My fellow rich brothers and
sisters, myself included, boast in your humiliation.
I mentioned earlier that if James is contrasting the lowly
and the rich as being saved and not saved, then James is being
ironical. He's saying that the rich can
boast and their future humiliation, IE their
condemnation. In other words, they can boast
in the fact that they gained the world only to forfeit their
soul. But I'm not sure that James is
necessarily saying the rich is lost here.
I'm not convinced that he is. I think he may very well be
saying this. My fellow rich brothers and
sisters, boast in your humiliation.
Now how do we do that? How do we do that?
Let's contrast this with the world.
When the world gets wealth, they typically boast in one of two
ways. Typically, they display it or B
delay it. They either A display it or B
delay it, A they display it. They display it in their homes,
their cars, their clothes, their furniture, their jewelry, their
bodies, their travel, their art or B.
They delay it. One thing I learned years ago,
especially in Asian culture, is that just because a person looks
poor doesn't mean they are. Many delay their wealth.
They save, save, save, save, save, and then they retire and
join endless cruises and buffets or playing golf.
Or they give it to their kids and their kids display it.
James is saying that as Christians we stood boast in our
humiliation. Now what does that look like?
Do you remember what the woman did who anointed Jesus's feet?
She broke a bottle of very expensive nard, poured it on his
feet. Do you remember what the
disciples said? When the disciples saw it, they
were indignant, saying why this waste?
They humiliated her in front of everybody, and she was gladly
humiliated. Remember what Zacchaeus did.
Behold, Lord, that half of my goods I give to the poor, and if
I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
How many of his friends called him a fool after this?
You wonder if his wife called him a fool.
You wonder if his kids, that was their inheritance, called him a
fool. The Apostle Paul was certainly
wealthy before he became a Christian.
Most Pharisees were, and he went from being a Pharisee to a
prisoner, A prisoner who was often humiliated.
And we all remember Moses, Moses who refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the
people of God than to enjoy the fleeing pleasures of sin.
He considered the reproach, or we might say humiliation of
Christ, greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt.
My fellow rich brothers and sisters, boast in your humility,
for time is relative, but we should all acknowledge all flesh
is grass. Not only are riches relative, so
is time. Time is relative, but we're all
acknowledge that all flesh is grass.
In this passage, James is clearly pulling from Isaiah 40
where Isaiah writes all flesh is grass and all its beauty.
Like the flower of the field, the grass Withers.
The flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it.
Surely the people are grass. You see, the problem with time
is that it's relative, right? If I asked you the question is 1
hour long. Depends.
It's to load a web page. Yeah, that's a long time.
It's a long for a sermon. I don't know.
Relative to what is 1 hour long? Relative to what?
In what context? See, one of the things we
realized that people's perception of time varies.
People's perception of time varies.
Someone will say to me, I'll ask you how long they've been
dating. Oh, they've been dating a very
long time. How long?
At least six or seven weeks. I sometimes will ask my boys,
how long ago was that? It was a long time ago.
Like long. Turned out it was last week.
Time is relative. It can feel like we have a lot
of time, right? Sometimes life just feels like
it's dragging on, feels like we have all the time in the world.
It's just right. Sometimes life feels fast,
sometimes it feels slow. And yet James that the reality
is that he will later write what is your life for you are a mist
that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
This is why Moses writes, teach us to number our days that we
may gain a heart of wisdom. You see, what James is getting
at is that we can spend so much time working for something,
striving for something, chasing something, spend so much time
trying to get something and then it's gone.
Why? Because we are gone.
We're gone, Solomon writes. Then I consider all that my
hands had done in the toilet I had expended and doing it, and
behold, all was vanity. It was a striving after the
wind. Now why does he say that?
Why does he say everything is vanity?
It's striving after the wind. Well, here's here's one example.
It would be like if there was an abandoned warehouse that was
scheduled to be demolished. We could just use that, that one
right there, right that that grocery store that you, that
imagine if you took your life savings, that thing is going to
be demolished. They're going to build an
apartment complex there or something there.
That's what I even said. It's it's scheduled to be
demolished. I don't know when.
Imagine if you took your life savings and you renovated it.
You started painting it and putting up pillars and and and
fixing the glass in and doing. You took your whole life
savings, poured it when it's going to be demolished, but it
will be. How vain would that be to pour
your life savings into renovating a warehouse that's
going to be demolished? Yet how many lost people and
Christians alike pour their efforts, all their efforts, all
their striving, all their money into a life that will be
demolished? How many of us pour everything
we have into our life or the life of our children and it's
going to be demolished? Time is relative, but we should
all acknowledge that all flesh is grass. 5 Blessing is not the
absence of trials, but the steadfastness through them.
Blessing is not the absence of trials, but the steadfastness
through them. Word blessed can also be
translated happy. That's how some translate it,
and then that Bible translates it.
Happy is the one who remains steadfast.
You can translate it that way. Typically when we think about
whether we are happy or not, a large determining factor on
whether we're happy or not is whether we're going through
trials. Isn't that right?
I mean, when we're going through a trial, we typically feel
discouraged, we feel anxious, we feel fearful, we feel bitter, we
feel resentful, we feel envious. And it's only when we don't have
any big trials in our life that we feel happy, you know?
And that kind of what somebody asked me, you know, Hey, man,
how you doing? My first thought is, well, then
how many trials I'm good. Or if my knee is hurting and
man, how are you doing? Can't play today.
My knees hurting. How we think, right?
We immediately go to whether I'm going through a trial or not.
And yet James doesn't say blessed is the man who was
removed from trials but remains through them.
Now, what James is getting at here is not a subjective emotion
of when we can, whether we can consider it joy or not.
He's not saying that. Well, blessed if you can have
the subjective emotion of, of, of considering a joy with this
trial. James is saying there is an
objective blessing when someone has a trial and they persevere
through it. There's an objective blessing in
this. You know, that phrase, blessing
in disguise. I've always hated that phrase.
Someone goes through a breakup and your girlfriend, girl goes
through a breakup and her girlfriend meets up with her and
she's like, you know, I think this is a blessing in disguise.
Somebody loses their job, you meet up with them, you're like,
you know, I think this is a blessing in disguise.
James is saying there's no disguise.
You don't have to look for a silver lining in your trials.
That's kind of what that phrase is.
Let's try to find a silver lining in this.
You don't have to look for a silver lining.
The blessing lies in the fact that God has kept us standing.
The trial did not destroy us because God persevered us.
That's the blessing. If you went through a trial and
you're still a Christian, you are blessed.
If you still cling to God, you are blessed because you haven't
fallen. 6 The world can offer crown, royal crown jewels and
crowning achievements, but there is only one who can give a crown
of life. The world can offer a crown,
royal, crown jewels and crowning achievements, but there's only
one who can give a crown of life.
Are not something unique to Christians.
The world goes through trials. Not just Christians go through
them. The world does.
The way that the world typically copes with trials is usually one
of three ways. Fun finances or fulfillment, or
another way to think of it is Crown Royal Crown jewels and
crowning achievements. The world can offer us Crown
Royal fun, pleasure, enjoyment. There is no trial that can't be
fixed by crown denial. What can wash away my trials?
Nothing but a bottle of crown denial.
The world can crown jewels, finances and fortune.
With enough money, you can buy your way out of trials.
As Ariana Grande said. Whoever said money can't solve
your problems must not have enough money to solve them.
And the world can offer us crowning achievements,
fulfillment through accomplishments and success.
When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.
The way to solve trials is just more blood, sweat, and tears.
As Beyoncé says, I'm going to work harder.
I'm going to work stronger. The world can offer Crown Royal
and crown jewels and crowning achievements.
There's only one who can give you a crown of life, James
writes. When we have stood the test,
because God has kept us standing, we will receive the
crown of life. Jesus said to the church in
Smyrna, do not fear what you are about to suffer.
Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison,
that you may be tested, and for 10 days you will have
tribulation. Be faithful unto death and I
will give you the crown of life. You know what he's saying there.
If you start to doubt and while in prison, they give you the
option to say you know what? I'm not.
I was just kidding. I'm not really a Christian.
Can I get out? Yeah, sure.
Come on. You'll get out of prison only to
enter an eternal prison. Be faithful unto death and I
will give you the crown of life. 7th last point, To be a
Christian means to not only believe in Jesus and follow
Jesus, but also to love Jesus. There are millions of Christians
who believe in Jesus, who follow Jesus but do not love Jesus.
There are some in this room. One of the most important
questions that we must ask ourselves and others is this.
What does it mean to be a Christian?
We can answer that question with these kinds of answers.
It means to know Jesus. It means to believe in Jesus.
It means to trust in Jesus. It means to follow Jesus.
It means to fear Jesus. It means to confess Jesus.
And those are all true. The problem is, you can do all
of those and not actually be a Christian because the Bible says
that knowing and believing and trusting and following and
fearing and confessing must must manifest themselves in loving
and a spiritual affection for Jesus.
If you say what you know, you know what love looks like.
Don't tell me you don't know what love looks like.
James is not the only one who makes this point.
Deuteronomy 79 The faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast
love with those who love him. Nehemiah 15 The great and
awesome God who keeps covenant instead, that's love with those
who love him. Psalm 14520 The Lord perseveres
all who love him. Daniel 94 who keeps covenant and
steadfast love with those who love him.
Romans 828 for those who love God.
All things work together. First Corinthians 29 What God
has prepared for those who love him, church, family, the crown
of life gets placed not on a head that knows him, it gets
placed on a heart that loves him.
So I want to ask you the same question that Jesus asked the
Apostle Peter. Do you love him?
Let's pray.