James 5:1-6
James chapter five, verses one
through six will be our passage. And it looks like we have maybe
about three more messages in James. And then I think we’ll
go back to the Old Testament and pick up where we left off
in Judges. So we did Joshua, we’ll pick back up in Judges.
But for now, let’s give our attention to God’s word. This is James,
the brother of our Lord. And he says to the Christians
who are scattered around, Come now you rich, weep and howl for
the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted
and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded
and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your
flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in
the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers
who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud are crying
out against you. And the cries of the harvesters
have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived
on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened
your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and you have
murdered and the righteous person and he does not resist you. Amen. This is the word of the living
God. Well, we have been in the boxing
ring with James and you know, you get the idea of watching,
you know, you’ve watched some boxing movies and he’s been giving
us some jabs. He’s jabbed at us about suffering
well, letting suffering run its course running that suffering
with endurance and letting it do its good sanctifying work.
He has jabbed at us about being listeners, but also doers of
the word. He’s told us to be slow to speak
and quick to listen. He’s given us another little
jab about faith without works is dead. If we say we have faith,
it ought to show forth in the fruit of our labors. He’s spoken
to us about taming the tongue. and living unspiritually. He’s
talked to us about being worldly and boasting. He’s going to,
after this passage tonight, give us a couple more little soft
jabs, patience while suffering, praying in faith. But tonight
he gives us the Muhammad Ali. I mean, he gives us a punch in
the jaw that is going to knock us back. And I think you’ve already
seen that in the language as we have read it. But he lands
a big one. He lands a whopper, a surprise. And he begins with an accusation. He begins with a condemnation.
Come now, you rich. Weep and howl for the miseries
that are coming upon you. He’s speaking of judgment. He’s
speaking to wealthy people who have obtained wealth. have hoarded
that wealth and have oppressed others in the process, either
by stepping on them or defrauding them or even letting them suffer
even to death. So this brings up a question,
an age old question for Christians. Now, these are rhetorical questions,
which means you don’t answer them out loud, right? I got four
or five for you. Is it okay to be rich? Just think
on it. Is it okay to be poor? Is it
more godly to be rich? Is it more godly to be poor?
Well, let’s think about what the scripture says. Jesus tells
us not to lay up our treasures on this earth where moth and
rust and destroying thieves steal, breaking and steal, but lay up
for ourselves treasures in heaven. Is Jesus condemning being rich? Or you could go over to church
history and you could look at the monasteries, the monks who
took bowels of poverty in order to be like Jesus. Or maybe you know someone who
is wealthy. Maybe you are in fact yourself
wealthy and you’ve been able to, or you’ve seen other wealthy
people be a blessing to others, be generous with the church.
give opportunity through their wealth for kingdom functions,
kingdom ministries to take place. Or think about how rich was life
in Eden and how rich life in heaven will be, which is Eden
restored. So back to those questions, is
it okay to be rich? Is it okay to be poor? Is it
more godly to be one or the other? I think here’s the answer. We
should be content with what our heavenly father dishes out. We
should be thankful for every blessing he gives us. And that’s
not only for what we have, but I love how our shorter catechism
explains the 10th commandment on coveting. It says we should
be thankful to God for the competent, doling out of blessings that
he gives us, but we should have a right and charitable spirit
towards what is our neighbors and all that he has. The God
above, the heavenly God above dishes out, he doles out our
needs. He tailor makes our needs that
they might be met. Some of us are rich. Some of
us are poor. Some of us are in between. And
really what God is speaking to here through James is not whether
it’s godly to be rich or poor. It’s what your wealth does for
you, what it does to you, and how it causes you to treat others. Riches, according to the scripture,
are a false hope. We’ve been reading through Proverbs
here on Sunday night, and I’m not sure if we’ve gotten to the
ones that say it yet, but when we die, all that we accumulated,
It’s going to go to someone else. When we die, all that we accumulated
will go into the hands of the others. Will they be as diligent
as we were? Will they be as faithful as we
are? You read the book of Ecclesiastes, you read song of Solomon, the
King, the son of David says, I’ve had it all. I’ve had every
kind of woman. I’ve had every kind of wealth.
I’ve had every kind of experience. I’ve had two of everything. He
might be saying, and it’s worthless. All is vanity. All is meaningless. Riches are a false hope. And
we want to think through a couple of categories from this passage
that ought to help us work through this. Riches overall picture
are a false hope. And one of the ways we see that
is that riches are uncertain. Some of you are pensioners, I
know, and so you get a check in the mail every month, no matter
what the market is doing. And that check will come till
you’re dead, and probably till your spouse is gone. Others of
you have 401ks. There’s money in the market for
you if it’s there. And what’s the number one rule
of retirement? Don’t outlive your money. And if you’ve been watching the
stock market, particularly these last, I don’t know, two years,
three years with COVID, it’s a volatile market. I get my little
statement every quarter. I open it up and look at it and
see, you know, make sure whether, see if I’m gonna be the Walmart
greeter or not when I’m older. Half joking. One of these statements down
12, 13%. Count on your riches then, why
don’t you? It’s not wise. Riches are uncertain. These markets,
these times we live in, they’re volatile. They’re up and they’re
down. But think about your other riches,
maybe the things you’ve accumulated. You know, when you try to get
a mortgage or sign up for a credit card or go get yourself a car
on a note, they want to know how much do you make. They also
want to know how much you got. And they’re not often talking
about what’s in the attic, what’s in the basement, what’s in all
the extra closets in the house. But we’ve just said, you know,
the markets are up and down. Your house may be worth this
or that. Your money may be worth this or that. But think of the
uncertainty of riches. Your kids, I don’t know most of your kids,
I’ve met some of them, but they’re probably gonna rent a dumpster,
right? They’re gonna call 800 junk.
They’re going to call Good Samaritan. They’re going to call Goodwill.
They’re going to call the auction house. And when you’re gone,
where will all your stuff be? It’ll be scattered about to people
you know nothing of. And that’s how we need to view
riches. Riches are uncertain. They have feet, they have legs,
and they go walking. So riches are a false hope. Why are they a false hope? They’re
uncertain. Riches are a false hope also because they possess
us. We talk about our possessions,
but isn’t it true that our possessions can possess us? I remember hanging
out with a guy when I was in college. He was a fella in our
church down at the coast and he would take me duck hunting
and deer hunting and skeet shooting and all these fun things. And
he asked me one time because I was a year or two from graduating
from college. He says, do you want to live to work or do you
want to work to live? And I’d never thought of that
distinction before. And probably I had been living to work, uh,
living to work cause I needed the money, uh, living to work
because you know, it passed time or do you want to work to live?
You know, sometimes we have someone in the church, they’re unemployed
and we’ll pray for them and we’ll pray three things. Lord, give
them work. so that they can provide for
their family, support the church, and help those in need. But very
often, those three things are not in picture when we think
about making money. We think about making money to
get more, to accumulate. I have a family member who has
lived a pretty average life. Works for a very good company
and was able to retire at, I think, about age 52 after 30 years.
He’s got one of those pensions that won’t quit. Works for one
of those companies that will never run out of money. But he
got into trading. And he said, I’m going to put
thus and such amount in the market. And be reminded, he’s provided
for. He’s got a pension that won’t
quit, all the rest. Well, that wasn’t enough. He
said, I’m going to wait to retire until I double that nest egg.
And so now that he’s retired, he’s 52, 53 years old, and he’s
got so much money, he could never begin to spend it all. And I
mean that with the amount, it’s a lot. It would take, it took
him a long time to accumulate it and it possessed him. But
he can never divest himself of the amount of money that he has
saved, but it has possessed him. And he’ll never get back the
years that he missed with his children. He’ll never get back
the years that he missed at the dinner table. He’ll never get
back the years that he missed building friendships or being
in church. And so you can live if you’re
not careful to get. You can live if you’re not careful
to keep. And so money, riches are a false
hope. They’re uncertain, we know that,
but they can also, that can possess us. There’s a third thing to
think about under this whole category of riches being a false
hope. Yes, money is uncertain. Yes, it can possess us. But the
third thing we want to think about is riches are a stealer. They’re a theft. They can rule
you. What does Jesus say? No one can
serve two masters. Either you will serve one and
hate the other. No one can serve two masters.
And then he goes on to speak of no one can serve God and mammon. Now we live in a world, and I’m
talking about a Christian-mindseted world, of Western affluence, right? We wanted to come to America
and build a nation, a nation where we could worship God and
live according to the word of God. And quickly that became
a strong capitalistic nation where we as one of the smallest
countries in the world have gained some of the most wealth. And
then you add Christianity to it. And I don’t mean just the
Christian prosperity, name it and claim it gospel. But you
think about the financial gurus that rule the Christian, get
on a budget market. And what do you hear from them?
You need to build wealth. You need to get rich. You don’t
need to trust God for daily bread is basically what they’re saying.
But you need to get rich so that you’ll never be without. Well,
what if God wanted your daily bread to be slim so that you
would look to him and your hands would be up? What happens when
you build so much wealth under the guise of Christianity and
being a Christianly responsible? You begin to say, you know what,
God, you were wrong about this. I don’t need to trust you. I’m
doing doggone good myself. I’ve got my 12 months of nest
egg that you’re supposed to have and all the rest. Wealth is a
heart stealer. I forgot to say that part. I
said it was a stealer. It’s a heart stealer. Your heart
can go after building wealth and building a nest egg and your
heart can go after doing all the right things that the financial
person says to do. And we can work at building these
treasures and not touching them and hoarding them. Somebody in
my family was telling me recently, they know one man that has about
35 antique autos. meticulously restored, beautiful
cars. They all sit in garages and they
never get driven. And so if you get in one and
turn the key, what is it not going to do? It’s not going to
run, but they all have a tax bill. They all have a maintenance
bill. They all have insurance on them because you know, while
they sit there, they’re, they’re at risk. And one of these men
is getting old and he doesn’t know what to do with his car
collection. He worked really hard to get it, but his children
aren’t interested. Imagine that. because they saw
what it took to build this collection. And there’s another man in this
realm of friendships who has this massive art collection.
And I mean so massive that he’s now left it to UNC Hospitals.
You probably see it. I’m looking for you, yes. You
probably have seen the artwork at the UNC Hospitals, real artwork,
oil paintings and gold frames. This man has left it all to UNC
because he had no one to give it to. But you spend a life accumulating. You spend a life of your heart
going after these things. And then it takes, well, the
snap of a finger of God and it’s, well, you’re gone and it’s still
around. But riches, yes, they’re uncertain. Yes, they can possess you, but
they’re heart stealers. And when Jesus speaks of the
word mammon, it’s a very interesting word that used to mean something
was entrusted to you. And so if I entrusted my mammon
to you, you were to be a steward of my mammon. But the word mammon
in the New Testament use has become a negative word. It’s
what you trust in. And if you trust in your checkbook,
if you trust in your 401k, if you trust in your ability to
gather and earn and spend wealth, Jesus is saying it will steal
your heart. It will take you away. There’s
a fourth thing that riches will do. And it’s according to this
passage, I believe it will cloud your thinking. Who in their right
mind hires somebody to do a job and then doesn’t pay them? It’s
somebody whose judgment has been clouded. Well, if I can get away
with not paying them, I’ll have more. It clouds your thinking. This is a person in this passage
who lives in a self-indulgent life. What’s better than, I’m
gonna just make something up here, what’s better than one
Porsche, two Porsches? That’s the mindset of a self-indulgent
person. I just need one more dollar,
one more thing. And I don’t know if you caught
it in the passage, but it speaks about how you condemn and you
murder. And the righteous has done nothing
to you. What happens when a person is hardworking,
oppressed, and they do without? And I’m not talking about in
today’s culture where you can get an unemployment line. You can get
on Medicaid. you end up dying, right? You
end up dying a pauper’s death. And so now that we’ve said these
things about riches and what they will do, I want us to read
right through the passage again. It says, come now, you rich,
weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your
riches have rotted. and your garments are moth eaten.
Your gold and your silver have corroded and their corrosion
will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like
fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold the
wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back
by fraud are crying out against you. And the cries of the harvesters
have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived
on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened
your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and you have
murdered the righteous person, and he has not resisted you.”
So he said, James has been kind of giving us some little jabs,
but here’s a big punch. And you may be saying to yourself,
well, this was for other people. I’m not rich. I don’t have a
payroll. Uh, you may be saying to yourself,
um, I know that God sees, I know that God will call all to account.
Um, this is, this is, this passage isn’t for me. Well, it is for
you, uh, because God knows each of our hearts. He knows what
we desire. He knows what we do, what we
think. And there are certainly sins
for which we ought to examine ourselves and repent of because
this passage is saying God sees. And at the end, he settles accounts.
But I want you to think about a big picture thought of this
passage. This is a person that gets wealth. He hoards wealth. He holds on
wealth. And what he doesn’t understand
is all the clothes in his closet are moth-eaten. All his gold
in the basement and the safe are corroding. And what does
God say? Judgment is coming. And a little
bit of it’s coming now, you’ve accumulated and it’s rotting.
You’ve accumulated and it’s moth eaten, little judgment now. But
it’s also saying the corrosion of your gold and your silver
is gonna be evidence against you. What does that mean? You
just thought you were off the hook, didn’t you? Every one of us has a little
money. Every one of us has a little wealth. And what does God require
of us? The church treasurer is really gonna appreciate this.
He wants your tithes. He wants your offerings. And
what happens to the people of God when they aren’t good stewards? Well, I can’t help but think
of during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, when the Israelites
were moving back from Babylon, they were gonna rebuild the temple.
They laid the foundation of the temple, and then for 20 years,
they did nothing. And Haggai, the prophet, comes.
He’s sent specifically to preach to Israel and say to them, Y’all been putting your flat
screens up, right? Y’all been rolling your trash
in and out for, for 20 years. And the temple is still in ruins.
And he sort of gives an RC Sproul, what’s wrong with you people?
Right. Uh, and, and in a sense, that’s what James is saying.
What’s, what’s your money doing for the kingdom? What’s your,
wealth doing for the kingdom. There’s judgment now, but there’s
also judgment to come. What does Paul say to the Corinthians? It is required of stewards to
be found faithful. And so just before we think we’re
off the hook here, it might be good as James has done for us
to look at our pocketbook, look at our date book, Look at how
we spend our time, use our resources and say, Lord, Lord, am I being
faithful? Am I being useful? Am I being biblical? And we have to remember all these
things that we do are not done because, oh, rule, beat it into
you, obey the rule. Why do we obey God? It’s because
he first loved us. He saved us from our sins. He’s
brought us out of Egypt. He’s brought us out of sin and
slavery and brought us and put our feet firmly on the ground
that we might live for him. And so one of the things that
ought to drive us to be good stewards of what we earn, what
we do with our earnings and how we invest in the kingdom, uh,
is, is we, we do it out of gratitude for Jesus Christ and all that
he has done for us. We don’t want to be legalistic.
We don’t want to, um, I think it was y’all that were telling
me one church will ask you for your W-2s, right? Make sure you’re,
Hey, we don’t, we don’t want to do that. Um, but examine your
heart, examine your heart in this area with your wealth. Last
week in our boasting the previous week, or maybe last week, it
was in our, how we use our date books, how we manage our time,
but may God give us grace. to escape the future judgment
by resting in Jesus alone. But may we also be found faithful
knowing that he will open the books and we want to hear well
done, good and faithful servants. So let’s do pray together. God,
we thank you for your mercy in Christ. To have a stop and look and examine
our checkbooks, our pocketbooks. We thank you that the weeping
and the howling and even the miseries that are due for our
sin were placed on Christ. His miseries in the garden, his
misery at the mountain of Calvary were our miseries. And we thank
you that we are free from that ultimate wrath, that ultimate
curse, and that ultimate judgment. But Lord, we do need to be faithful.
We do need to be diligent in serving you and following you
your way. So give us your spirit. and your
word to helping God as we ask in the name of Jesus, our great
savior and all God’s people said, amen.