All right, good morning, church family.
Once again, as you find your seat, if you would open your
Bibles or type in your devices the book of James this morning
we're going to be in James chapter 4.
Just looking at the very last verse.
I wanted to include this last week, but I just couldn't fit it
in. And so we're going to be James
417 and then the bulk of our message will come from James 51
to 6:00. So as you guys turn there, type
that in, I'm going to open this in a word of prayer and then we
will jump into the sermon. So let's read our text first
before we pray. James 4 beginning in verse 17.
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for
him, it is sin. Chapter 5.
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 or crying out against you, and the
cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of
Host. You have lived on the earth and
luxury and in self indulgence you have fattened your hearts in
a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered
the righteous person. He does not resist you.
You will pray with me, Lord, as we get to a text this morning
that deals with money and finances and lifestyles.
Lord, I know that this is always maybe a sore spot for many of
us, especially in in such an affluent area, an area not only
affluent because we're in America, but even affluent here
in Seattle. Lord, I pray that you would help
us to to not be defensive this morning, to not be to go into
spiritual protection mode, but that you would help us to to be
open and transparent and honest with ourselves and, and
especially with you, Lord, about where you may be calling us, to
consider our finances, consider our wealth and what we do with
it. I pray this in the name of
Jesus, Amen. Imagine if a man sat down to
play the game of Monopoly. I realized that they're probably
some here who are young enough. Then you may have never even
played Monopoly a a day in your life.
Imagine if someone sat down to play Monopoly and as he began
playing this game, everything is going his way.
He lands on Boardwalk, he buys it.
He lands on Park Place, he buys it.
He now has the two most expensive properties.
He puts hotels on these properties and every time
someone lands on them, he cashes in big.
He is doing well in the game, so well that he gets this big fat
wad of Monopoly money. Now suppose he goes about his
life so happy of how rich he is. But one day somebody comes to
him and says, Sir, you do realize that you're not actually
rich, right, man? It says, what?
What are you talking about? Takes out his his big fat wad of
Monopoly money. Says, look, look at this.
How can you say I'm not rich? Look, look at how much I have
any the man says, yeah, I see that.
But you do realize that is Monopoly money.
It's not real. How can you tell me it's not
real? I I used it to buy all this
property. Well, sure, but that only exists
in the game. This is real life.
That is a game. You are rich in the game, but
not real life. How many of us been playing this
game called life, earthly life, so long that we forget what is
truly life and we forget what it means to be truly rich.
The money we have on this earth is is ultimately eternally no
better than Monopoly money. If you stop and think about it
this morning, we get to a text where James is, is challenging
the rich and how they live. And, and I want to to to to come
humbly this morning as we look at this, because I I recognize,
you know, on the spectrum, if we look at the world, right, we're
fluent. Many of us are homeowners.
Many of us have jobs making good money.
I have AI mean I even as a pastor relative to the world, I
make good money. So I hope we will all be humble
as we come to this text this morning.
Let's start with the exhibition of the text and then I'll give
us application. James chapter 4, beginning of
verse 17. I want to start by exposing the
text and then I'll give us application.
Here's what James writes. So whoever knows the right thing
to do and fails to do it, for him, it is sin.
Now commentators debate over whether verse 17 is connected to
verses 13 to 16. One of the reasons I didn't
include it is because there is this question of are they
connected? If you read verses 13 to 16,
verse 17 just seems out of place.
It doesn't seem to go with it. And so if they are connected,
how are they connected? I'm not going to step into those
Muddy Waters, but for the purpose of this sermon, I'm
going to assume they are connected because of this word.
So you notice verse 17. So.
So how are they connected? If you remember last week, there
were some in the church who were making business plans.
They were making these plans to go into a town and to sell their
their goods and to make a profit.
The what's wrong with that? The problem is they were making
their business plans absent of God.
And James exhorts them that God should not only factor into
their equation, He is the equation.
He must be the equation. God's will must be the deciding
factor in their business plans. And so now James exhorts them,
He says whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it,
for him it is sin. Now what is James's point here?
I think he's given a specific meaning and a broad meaning.
Let me let me give us a specific meaning and a broad meaning.
Here's the specific meaning. These merchants now know that
the right thing to do is to submit their plans to God.
James just told them they now know that's the right thing to
do, that when they make plans for their life, to submit their
plans to God. And so knowing that he's telling
them now that you know this, if you go ahead and make plans out,
consulting God's will, you have sinned.
I think that's the connection. That's the specific connection.
Now, what is the broad meaning? James is getting at what we
commonly call sins of omission, right?
We often talk about sins of Commission.
That's doing something that you shouldn't do.
And then there's sins of omission, not doing something
that you should do. It's a broad meeting here is
that sin is not just things that we do, but it's also things that
we fail to do that we should. And James is saying whoever
knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is
sin. Let's look at verse one, chapter
5. Come now, you rich, weep and
howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
Now James is going to change subjects and he's going to turn
his attention to a specific category of people in the
church. He's going to dress for the next
6 verses, a specific category. Here's the category, the rich.
Now I want to be clear. I don't think that the rich
James is referring to in this passage, not the letter and this
passage are Christians. I think the rich previously may
very well have been rich Christians.
I think the rich here in this passage are lost people, rich
lost people. Which then would raise the
question, why does James address them, right, If he's writing to
the churches there, you know, are these rich lost people in
the church? Probably not.
So why is he addressing them? It may be what's not a
rhetorical device known as apostrophe, right?
You're like apostrophe and that like the little thing like it
is, there's also a rhetorical device called apostrophe.
What is that? It is speaking to people who are
not present for the purpose of those who are.
It's a rhetorical device. It was, it was.
It's often used. So he starts with the same
harkening that we looked at last week.
He says, come now. It's a way of saying, now
listen, he calls them you rich, come now, Now listen, you rich.
This is the third time in this letter that James has
specifically addressed the rich. Now, when James says rich, don't
read that as billionaires or even millionaires don't read it
that way. A person who owned a home, ate
multiple times a day, had multiple changes of clothes and
owned possessions would have been considered rich in those
days. That's what made someone rich.
Those things made someone rich in those days.
And so James gives the rich a command here.
He says weep and howl. It's an interesting command.
We saw this idea back in James 49 where he said, be wretched
and mourn and weep. There James was exhorting these
professing Christians who had made themselves friends with the
world, and he said you should mourn over your sin.
Here he's exhorting the rich to do the exact same.
The word for weep is the same word used in chapter 4-9, But
this is the only time that the Greek word for howl is used.
What is? We don't use that word, all that
howl, right? They have a dog howling.
What does it mean to howl? It means to cry out with a loud
voice, either in joy or pain. Now here's what's interesting.
Normally we think of the poor as weeping and howling.
Remember, think of the the poor weeping and howling over their
their poverty. But James says that the rich
should weep and howl. Why you ever, you ever had a
like a you ever seen a rich person?
You know where they're like crying?
You're like, why are you crying, you bitch?
Why would the rich weep and howl?
Look what he says for the miseries that are coming upon
you. That word for miseries means
wretchedness, distress, trouble, misery.
Now here's the question. What are these miseries and why
are they coming upon them? James will answer the why in
verse 3. We'll get there in a minute.
But as far as the what? What are these miseries?
Notice these miseries are not present day.
James says that are coming upon you.
This leads us to believe that James is most likely referring
to the day of judgment, or as the Old Testament prophets would
say, the day of the Lord. Look at verses 2 to 3.
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.
James here gives 3 descriptions of their wealth.
Let's look at them individually #1 Your riches have rotted.
Riches can is a very broad term in the Greek.
It can refer to any abundance of earthly goods or wealth.
And James says that these riches, that they have rotted,
they have suffered decay #2 Your garments are moth eaten, right?
Why would their garments be moth eaten?
Well, ancient clothing was made. They didn't have polyester,
right? Ancient clothing was made almost
entirely from wool or linen or silk or animal hair.
And moth larvae would feed on keratin, a protein that's found
in animal fibers. These moth would lay their
larvae and then they they would they would eat away at the
clothes. And you go take out your, your
sweater, whatever you want to wear, and all sudden it's got
holes in it. Three, your gold and silver have
corroded. What does that mean?
They're corroded that, that the Greek word they're for corroded.
It means to undergo the process of oxidation of metals, to
become rusty, to become tarnished, to corrode.
Now these words of James, they reminds us of Jesus's words, do
they not? In the Sermon on the Mount,
where when Jesus taught the crowds, he says, do not lay up
for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and
where thieves break in and steal.
Earlier I had asked the question, what are these
miseries and why are they coming upon them?
And James now tells us what they are.
He says these miseries will eat your flesh like fire.
It's pretty graphic, isn't it? These miseries will eat your
flesh like fire. This again confirms that James
is referring to the Day of Judgment.
On that day these rich will suffer the same fate as the rich
man. And Luke 16, if you remember
there the rich man also died and was buried, and being in Hades,
being in torment, he said I am in anguish in this flame.
These rich will have the same fate.
Why? James writes, their corrosion
will be evidence against you. In other words, their corrosion
will testify against you. How so?
How, how, how will their corrosion testify against you?
Well, the they're rotted riches, they're moth eaten garments,
they're corroded gold and silver will testify that Jesus was not
their treasure. When they get to the judgment
and they stand there in in God's courtroom, the witnesses that
will come forward to testify in this courtroom will be their
rotted riches, their moth eaten garments and their corroded gold
and silver. And it will testify that Jesus
was not their treasure. Their riches were their
treasure. Notice James writes you have
laid up treasure in the last days.
Now last days refers to anytime post Christ.
I don't read that as like you know, the the literal last days
is anytime that's post Christ and this is exactly what Christ
said not to do. They're doing the very thing
that Jesus said not to do. Do not lay up for yourselves
treasures here on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven. Look at verse 4.
Behold the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you
kept back by fraud or crying out against you, and the cries of
the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
Now James gets into the weeds of their business dealings.
James says these rich are land owners, right?
You know, I mean we, we own land now, but you know, don't
necessarily think of us as rich, but in those days if you own
land, you were rich. They own, they own these rich
are land owners. They have fields, let's say it
was a a wheat field, and they would hire laborers to mow these
fields, probably better translate, reap these fields.
Laborers would take a sickle and they would go and they would
reap and then they gather the grain and the landowner would
then be able to sell that grain. These laborers would often work
all day in the hot sun, cutting down grain for hours, and then
at the end of the day, they would come to the owner for
their payment for their wage. But the text says the landowner
kept back the wages of the labourers by fraud.
What does that mean? Means he didn't pay them.
He didn't pay them. Now this was not an uncommon
practice in antiquity. God had given multiple warnings
in the Old Testament about this. Malachi 35.
Then I will draw near to you for judgment.
I will be a swift witness against those who oppressed the
hired worker in his wages. Leviticus 1913.
The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all
night until the morning. And here's probably the best
one. Deuteronomy 2414 to 15.
You shall not oppress A hired worker who is poor and needy,
whether he is one of your brothers or one of your
sojourners. You shall give him his wages on
the same day before the sunsets, for he is poor and he counts on
it. See the way that that wages work
back then. It's not like today where you
get paid, you know, once a month or once a week or quarterly, or,
you know, however you get paid today, you typically labour's a
day. We got paid daily.
They would work all day, they would get their wage and then
they would go into the market and they would buy what they
needed for food. They would bring that food home
and then their family could eat. This is why Jesus says give us
this day Our Daily Bread. They lived many laborers lived
day by day. And so if you worked all day,
you're already exhausted and famished.
You go to get your your pay. You don't have savings, you
don't have money tucked away in Vanguard to go pull from.
You need that money to buy food, and if they hold that back, you
don't get to eat that day, he said.
Well, then file a report with the Department of Labor.
There is no Department of Labor. The poor often had no recourse
of action here when their wages were withheld.
Their only recourse was to cry out, and this turns out to be a
strong recourse because their cries, the cries of the
harvesters, reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
What's interesting is that the name Lord of Hosts, it's used
242 times in the Bible, but only twice in the New Testament.
This is one of them. It's as if James wants the rich
to know that the cries of these defrauded laborers.
It may not reach the judges ears, it may not reach the
governor's ears, it may not reach the King's ears, but it
will reach the Lord of host ears.
He will hear their cries and he will do something about it.
The verse 5 you have lived on the earth and luxury and in self
indulgence you have fattened your hearts in a day of
slaughter. James now condemns the rich by
describing their lifestyle and two phrases #1 you have lived on
the earth and luxury and in self indulgence.
Now what do these two terms mean?
Luxury. What is that?
This is the only time it's used in the New Testament.
This word, this Greek word, it means to live a life of self
indulgence, to live for pleasure, to revel to corrals
usually associated with in temperament, feasting and
drinking. Self indulgence, What does that
mean? This is actually used twice in
the New Testament. The other time is in First
Timothy 5-6, where it talks about widows who lived in self
indulgence and should not be enrolled in the church's
records. Forgiving it means to indulge
oneself beyond the bounds of propriety, to live luxuriously
or voluptuously. Now you realize that I just, I
defined those, but that I didn't really give you a lot of
specifics on that. Does it definitely tell us what
does it mean to live luxuriously?
What does it mean to live in self indulgence?
I'll get there in the application.
That's the first way. You can then say, here's the
second way you have fattened your hearts in a day of
slaughter. Now, this is a metaphor.
This is clearly a metaphor, but I guess it could also be
literal. They may have literally fattened
their hearts by eating so well. But James is using a metaphor to
illustrate what they are like. What?
What is he trying to illustrate what they're like?
He's saying you are like calves that are being fattened right
before the slaughter. This word slaughter, it again
points us to the day of judgment.
This again, all the clues are pointing us that this is the day
of judgment. Slaughter is the day of
judgment. Not only will their corroded
riches be a testimony against them, but so will their fattened
hearts be a testimony against them.
Look at verse 6. You have condemned and murdered
the righteous person. He does not resist you.
What does that mean? He does not resist you.
The NIV smooths this out a little bit.
Here's how the NIV translates it.
You have condemned and murdered innocent men who were not
opposing you. You've condemned and murdered
these innocent men who were not opposing you.
Now, does this mean they were literally murdering the poor?
I don't think so. I mean it's possible, but I
don't think so. I think he means this in an
indirect way. They were, they were murdering
them indirectly. How so?
In the book of Sirach, which is an apocryphal work, the author
writes this. To take away a neighbor's living
is to murder him. To deprive an employee of his
wages is to shed blood. If if you are poor and you have
no money, you have no savings. You depend on your wage, your
daily wage, and the person who's hiring you is not paying you.
I would imagine maybe some people did die from hunger from
not being able to eat. Or maybe they got certain
sickness and died from the sickness because they couldn't
eat. As I mentioned before, people
lived day by day. Most people live day by day.
They needed daily wages to be able to buy their daily bread.
Now it seems clear to me that from these statements and verses
one to six what we just read, these are not the actions of
people who have Christ as their treasure.
These are people who have riches as their treasure.
Which is why I think here he is not talking about rich
Christians, but rich lost. That being said, does that mean
that we should be like, don't apply to me?
Let's move on to verse 7. There is always things for us to
learn in God's Word. Always.
I have 7 exhortations for US7 exhortations #1 To make plans
without consulting the will of the Lord is sin.
To make plans without consulting the will of the Lord is sin.
How often do we make plans without consulting the will of
the Lord? Everything about that.
How often do we make plans without consulting the will of
the Lord? What to major in college?
What job to take when we finish college?
Who to date or how long to date? Who to marry or when to marry or
if you should marry? What house to buy or where we
live? How much should we spend on
travel or couch or refrigerator or bubble tea?
When to have kids or how many kids to have?
When to retire, or whether we should retire at all?
I think it's not uncommon, by and large, for Christians to
make decisions without consulting the will of the Lord.
I do not think it is all that uncommon for Christians to make
decisions without consulting the will of the Lord, especially if
the decision is not sinful. This is the this is the tricky
part. You're like, I don't need to
consult. There's nothing simple about
this. I don't need.
We don't just consult the will of the Lord on things that are
right and wrong. As I said last week, there's
nothing simple about goods. There's nothing simple about
moving to this town. There's nothing simple about
selling goods in this town. There's, there's, there's
nothing simple about spending a year there.
There's nothing simple about making a profit.
None of those things are simple. So what was wrong?
They didn't consult the will of the Lord in their plans.
Now we might wonder why? Why would they not?
Right? Like you know, I imagine, you
know, perhaps it never crossed their mind that they needed to
consult the will of the Lord. Everything about that.
Perhaps it never crossed their mind that maybe I should check
with God and this is what He wants me to do.
But James says, now that I've told you, you need to, to not do
so is sin. And the same is true for you and
me. Now, I want to be very clear.
I don't want to suggest that if you are torn after after church
today and you want to go eat somewhere right, and you're torn
between Chick-fil-A or Popeyes, well, Lord, what is your will?
I don't want to suggest that we have to consult the will of the
Lord as to where we go eat today.
That being said, how often do we make life decisions as though
we're choosing between Chick-fil-A and Popeyes?
This is so important, especially when decisions seem obvious,
especially when decisions go against conventional wisdom.
Because so often the reason that we don't consult God's will is
that it's just an obvious decision.
It's just conventional wisdom. Of course we would do this.
Why would we not do this? It seemed obvious that Peter
should pull his sword out and fight, but that was not the will
of the Lord. It seemed obvious that Sarah,
because it had been 13 years since God had given the promise,
she wasn't getting pregnant, so here's my servant.
This must be what God wants to do, but that was not the will of
the Lord. It seemed obvious that Saul
should go ahead and make the sacrifice because Samuel said
wait for me for seven days. Seven days were up.
He wasn't there, so I should just go ahead and make the
sacrifice. But that was not the will of the
Lord. It seemed obvious that when the
oxen stumbled and the ark of God, this holy ark of the Lord
was going to hit this dirt, that other should reach out and grab
it and keep it from touching the ground.
That was not the will of the Lord.
It is so important that we consult the will of the Lord,
especially when something seems just obvious or conventional
wisdom. Consulting the will of the Lord
is not simply good advice. The times I tell people that I
don't know what to do, what should I do, and I'm like, you
should ask the Lord, that's good advice.
It's not simply good advice. It is obedience.
It is obedience to consult the will of the Lord #2 Sins of
omission are often far more deceptive than sins of
Commission. Sins of omission are often far
more deceptive than sins of Commission.
As I mentioned in the exposition, verse 17 has a
specific application and a broad application.
And the broad application is this, to know the right thing to
do and to not do it is sin. In other words, sins of omission
are still sins. What are some examples of sins
of omission? Ignoring the poor, Not speaking
up when we should. Failing to pray or read our
Bible. Not correcting error.
Withholding forgiveness. Not sharing the Gospel.
Now here's the thing with sins of omission.
Here's the problem. They're often far more deceptive
than sins of Commission. Why?
How so? Because they are more subjective
in their nature and subjective in their extent.
Let me give an example from the tongue.
Suppose we tell a lie, right? That would be a sin of
Commission breaking one of the 10 commandments.
When you tell a lie, you feel the weight of it.
You realize you lied. Your conscience testifies I told
a lie. I shouldn't have done that.
You feel the weight of that. Now suppose we hear a lie and we
don't speak up to correct it. Did we send?
She sends a commissioner. Tricky, aren't they?
The nature and extent of sins of omission makes them very
difficult to identify. For example, at what point does
a lack of sharing the gospel become a lack of love?
At what point? At what point does a lack of
prayer and a lack of reading God's word become laziness and
indifference? At what point does silence
become fear of man? At what point does neglect of
the poor become greed? At what point does a lack of
forgiveness stop being processing and start being
bitterness? There are people who are having
a hard time forgiving. They say I'm processing right
now. At what point does that stop
being processing and start being bitterness?
This verse teaches us that when we examine ourselves, we are not
just to go down a list and think, where did I lust today?
Where was I unkind today? Where did I get angry today?
We are also to ask ourselves where did I know the right thing
to do today? And I didn't do it. #3 On the
Day of judgment, those who have poured out their sweat to store
up earthly treasure will pour out their tears for their loss
of heavenly treasure. On the Day of judgment, those
who have poured out their sweat to store up earthly treasure,
we'll pour out their tears for their loss of heavenly treasure.
James rights, Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the
miseries that are coming upon you.
Now let me give a bad application of this first.
This would be a bad application of this.
We should make a lot of money. There are people here.
This would be like, we shouldn't make a lot of money.
That's a bad application of this verse.
That's not what James is saying. That is not what the New
Testament teaches. The issues are with either a how
the wealth is acquired, B to what purpose the wealth is
acquired, or C the consequences of acquiring this wealth.
Now, one commentator, he lists four major sins of the rich
here. Here they are A hoarding B
fraudulence. C indulgence D betrayal.
Let's look at those individually.
A hoarding you have laid up treasure in the last days.
Now, often when we think about hoarders, we typically think
about people who hoard trash or what we call trap.
I mean, to them it's not trash, but we often got people who
hoard. They hoard garbage or papers,
cups and, and I don't know, all kinds of stuff.
Some people hoard wealth. If somebody asks you, are you a
hoarder? Oh, no, no, no, not at all.
Some people hoard wealth, Douglas Moo writes.
In the Western world, where amassing material wealth is not
only condoned but admired. We Christians need to come to
grips with this point and James, and ask ourselves seriously this
question, When do we have too much?
See, we often started our starting point often.
I know this because I think this way too.
Do I have enough? I got, I got 4 kids, you know,
and man, have you guys seen like a, you know, it's like $80 fill
up my gas caught tank and, and, and college is like $2,000,000
and, and, and you know, like health insurance, you know, I'm
just like I don't have enough. Do we ever stop and ask the
opposite question? When do I have too much B
fraudulence? Behold the wages of the laborers
who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud.
Now I hope and pray that no Christian would ever be guilty
of fraud. Right?
But Judas was so was akin, so was Ananias and Sapphira.
See indulgence. You have lived on the earth in
luxury and in self indulgence. I'll talk about this more in
point #7 But we're all reminded of the rich man in Luke 17 who
was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted
sumptuously every day. And then D betrayal, you have
condemned and murdered the righteous person.
These wealthy land owners were turning a blind eye to the to
the needs of the poor and the needy in that same story.
And Luke 16, at the rich man's gate was a poor man named
Lazarus who was laid there daily at his gate.
He was covered with sores and he desired to be fed just with the
crumbs that fell from this man's table.
Now, here's why this point is so difficult.
Douglas Moo, what I read just a minute ago hit the nail on the
head, except I would take out one word because he said in the
Western world, and I want to say it's not just the Western world.
China loves wealth too. So does Korea.
So does Japan. In the world where amassing
material wealth is not only condoned but admired.
We admire the rich. We envy them.
We praise their hard work, their savvy investing, their luxurious
lifestyle, their comfort and their convenience.
And yet it appears that James pities them.
He pities them. Why?
Because they have poured out their sweat to get all these
riches, only to pour out their tears to lose it all. 4 The only
way to be truly rich is to be rich towards God and rich in
good works. The only way to be truly rich is
to be rich towards God and rich and good works.
These rich are wealthy, they have riches, they have garments,
they have gold, they have silver, and on the day of
judgement they have nothing. They have nothing.
Brothers and sisters, the only currency in heaven is blood.
I read that Elon Musk is currently worth around 600
billion dollars, $600 billion. That is the number we can't
comprehend at age 54. If he lived to be to to 94, so
he lived another 40 years. Do you realize he could spend
$41 million every single day for 40 years and not run out of
money? He makes more in a single day
that I will make in my whole entire life, and on the day of
judgment all of us in Christ will be infinitely richer than
Him, The Lord said in Ezekiel 719.
They cast their silver into the streets and their gold, like it
is an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not
able to deliver them the day of the wrath of the Lord.
They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it,
for it was the stumbling block of their iniquity.
James writes that these rich, their their riches and their
garments, and their silver and their gold will be a testimony
against them. So, John Calvin writes, God has
not appointed gold for rust nor garments for moths, but On the
contrary, he has designed them as aids and helps to human life.
In other words, there's only two ways to be truly rich, to be
rich toward God and to be rich in good works.
Where do I get this from? Remember the parable, The Rich
Fool, this parable, there's this man who who has a he has land
and he has a harvest. And he's, I mean, he's like,
it's like the blockbuster harvest, the biggest harvest he
had ever had. And he's like, oh, no, I've got
so much I can't fit in my barn. What am I going to go to waste?
What do I do with all this extra?
He's just like, he's like man, he's just contemplating.
All of a sudden he's like, I got it.
I will build bigger barns and then I'll be able to store all
this. He does it.
He builds all these bigger barns.
He harvests, puts it all in there.
He goes to his front porch, gets him a glass of sweet tea, sits
down and says, so you have laid up goods for many years.
Eat, drink, relax. And God comes to him and says,
you fool, you're going to die tonight.
Jesus says so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and
is not rich toward God. In Paul's exhortation of
Timothy, he writes As for the rich in this present age, they
are to do good, to be rich and good works, to be generous and
ready to share the story of treasure for themselves.
There's only one way to be truly rich, and that's to be rich
toward God and rich in good works.
Everything else is Monopoly money, Five money, savings,
possessions, investments, lifestyle all have a way of
revealing where our treasure lies.
Money, savings, possessions, investments, lifestyle, they all
have a way of revealing where our treasure lies.
The problem is not with laying up treasure.
There's nothing wrong with laying up treasure.
The problem is the brokerage account that we use, James
writes. You have laid up treasure in
these last days. Now that sounds good, doesn't
it? It's good to lay up treasure.
We are the lay up treasure. The problem comes with the
brokerage account they chose. They chose to bank with this
world rather than to bank with heaven.
What makes someone a Christian is determined by where their
treasure lies. This is one of the greatest
misnomers about Christianity, especially here in America.
It is not simply whether you have made a profession of faith.
I can get Naomi to make a profession of faith.
The question is, where is your treasure?
What is your treasure? You say, how do I know?
Well, it's not the only way, but it often reveals money, savings,
possessions, investment, lifestyle.
They all have a way of revealing where your treasure is.
I was thinking about this over the past few weeks.
What if every cent was public? Like like, like, like for you or
for me? I'll just use myself, right?
What if every single cent in my life was public?
So my credit card statements were public, Meaning you could
view all my credit card statements, my bank statements,
my brokerage accounts, checking accounts, savings accounts,
cash, PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, Apple Cash, Google Pay.
All of it was public. You could see every single cent
that flowed in and out of my life.
What if all of it was public? One day it will be.
It'll all be made public and all
of these financial statements will serve as evidence.
Where was our treasure? They will testify.
Where was our treasure? 6 The Lord of hosts hears our
cries when we have been treated unfairly.
The Lord of hosts hears our cries when we have been treated
unfairly. I don't want to spend too long
on this point because but I want to include it because many
commentators think the context here.
I think this is probably true, that these rich land owners are
the lost world and the laborers in the passage are the
Christians. Many commentators think that's
what's going on. Why James includes it is that
there are rich land owners who are the lost world.
The Christians are the laborers. They're the ones who are getting
defrauded. I think it's a good theory.
We do know that in the 1st century, not many Christians
were wealthy. Some were, but not many.
And we do know as well that many of them got it taken advantage
of by the world. And James wants to assure that
them that they're crying out have reached the ears of the
Lord of Hosts. I have heard stories of
Christians being treated unfairly even in 21st century
America. Brothers and sisters, the Lord
of Hosts hears our cries every time we are treated.
And some of you, I've heard you're treated unfairly, maybe
by your parents, maybe by your boss, maybe by the government,
maybe by society. Every time we are treated
unfairly, whether it is a boss, Co workers, schools, the
government, communities, the Lord of Hosts hears our cries
and he will do something about it.
He will seven last point. Luxury and self indulgence are
difficult to define but not impossible to identify.
Luxury and self indulgence are difficult to define but not
impossible to identify. James tells these rich you have
lived on the earth and luxury and self indulgence.
How do we define luxury? How do we define self
indulgence? The other day I sat down for
lunch and I asked my wife this question.
I said let me ask you. She didn't know any.
She didn't know I was doing this.
They had no idea. I just sat down with no context.
I asked her. I said, let me ask you a
question. Would you say that we live, we
mean a zwit family, that we live in luxury and self indulgence.
She said, well, it depends on how you define them exactly.
They become difficult to define because they're relative.
They're relative. I So I thought about it.
I was like, well, I'm curious. I asked ChatGPT, what are some
things that the third world countries consider luxuries but
we consider basic? What are some things that third
world countries consider luxuries, but we consider basic?
Here's what I got Clean, drinkable tap water in your
home. Hot water on demand.
Indoor plumbing, Sewage systems that work reliably 24/7
Electricity, Air conditioning, central heating, Reliable
Internet access, Refrigerators, 3 meals a day.
Refrigerated or frozen. Food wide food variety.
Eating meat regularly, Dining out, private bedrooms, Large
living spaces, Multiple bathrooms, safe, solid
construction, personal vehicles, Paved roads, Reliable public
transportation, affordable fuel, Smartphones, personal computers,
streaming services, washing machines and dryers, Microwaves
and dishwashers. Access to nearby hospitals,
emergency services, prescription medications, vaccines, health
insurance, public education and college.
Access libraries, toilet paper, soap and shampoo.
Clean clothing, beds and mattresses.
You know what's interesting is when I read through that list,
when I book an Airbnb, I expect all those to be there.
Luxury and self indulgence are difficult to define, but they're
not impossible to identify. So how do we identify them?
That's a question I will pose to you in worship and community.
Let's pray.