Warning to the Rich

Book of James  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  47:39
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Reading Ecc 2:4-10
Good morning everyone and thank you for being here today. I hope you have prepared yourself to receive something this morning. That you come expectantly to be engaged in the message this morning.
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We come to the 5th chapter of James this morning. And as we come to this section of scripture we will come to probably that harshest words that James presents to the church. He has brought up the topic of the rich and poor and he brings up again today. If you recall in chapter 1 he encouraged the brother of humble circumstances the boast in exaltation because of the high place that they have been put in and the rich boast in in his humiliation because he recognizes that he will pass away like the flower of the field. The Christian weather rich or poor has a been saved and boast in what the gospel has shown them to be true.
Then in the 1st half of Chapter 2 he condemns the favoritism that was being shown in the church. They were giving preferential treatment to the wealthy and dishonoring the poor. He even comes to the point that he says “If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin...
And in the second half of the same chapter he uses the treatment of the poor as a negative example of faith and works.
James 2:15-17 “15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.”
He returns the the rich and the poor in chapter 5 and this is where we begin today. Open your bibles and stand with me as we read the Lord’s Words.
James 5:1–6 CSB
1 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. 4 Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Armies. 5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous, who does not resist you.
Why does James keep coming back to the rich and the poor. Is it wrong to be rich? He seems to be pretty hard on those that he defines as rich. First of all it is not sinful to be wealthy. It is also not sinful to be poor. Money in itself is neither good or bad. Jesus said that it comes down to who or what you serve.
Luke 16:13 CSB
13 No servant can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Money and riches can become a mater over a person. Paul didn’t say that money is the root of all kinds of evil he said. What he said is:
1 Timothy 6:10 CSB
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
There are many places in the bible that states that God gave wealth to people but he also took it away for his purposes.
Proverbs 10:22 CSB
22 The Lord’s blessing enriches, and he adds no painful effort to it.
Jesus came and turned the connection of wealth and spirituality on its head. It was a prevalent belief of the time that the gods would distribute wealth to the virtuous and good and remove it from the those that we not virtuous. One’s wealth was proportional to their virtue and so the rich thought they were being rewarded for who they were. What a person had was a symbol of who they were. This lead to the wealthy to spend abundant amounts of money on projects and showy things to display how good they were. There was no value in giving to the poor, this would lower a persons wealth and thus have a negative effect.
This shouldn’t have been the same in the people of God. He always championed the poor, the widow, and others that were marginalized and did not have the means to take care of themselves. The reality of James is context is that there were only two economic classes. They were the really reach and the really poor. Taxation of the poor for the projects of the rich was a huge impact on the people. On top of that unlike today there were barriers that prevented people from moving from one class to the other.
One resource I found put rough 5% of the population in the wealthy class and they held 50%+ of the trade. Everyone else, the other 95%, served the top 5%. 95% would be defined at the poverty line and lower. No wonder they were calling out for a savior to come and overturn the situation that they were in. He just did not overrun it they way they thought he was going to. We find that the early church spread though the poor. There are very few people referenced in the NT that would have been on the wealthy side of the economic class. But we now there is a portion because James has already addressed them a couple of times. He has been giving tests so to say to determine who the true believers are and here James is addressing the rich and gives a stark condemnation of them.
He is going to break down the evils that these people were doing with how they were dealing with money and in reality how they were serving the master of money and not God.
James 5:1 CSB
1 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you.
He starts with a warning that the rich people need to wake up. Come!!! now you rich people. Weep and wail over the miseries coming. The Old testament calls out the rich in this type of language multiple times. It should not have been new to the Jewish Christian’s but was probably new to the Gentile Christians. Who is James speaking of? Who would be in this group? Is it everybody with money. No, he then goes on to tell of the characteristics of the people that fall under this rebuke.

Sinful Storing

James 5:2–3 CSB
2 Your wealth has rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days.
One of the characteristics of the rich that James is referring to is that they have horded their wealth for them selves. James brings up three areas that were used to define a person financial status. First is food. It is likely that James is refering to food that has been collected and stored but will in the end rot because they have an abundance that they do not share. This may bring to mind Jesus’ parable of the Rich Fool in Luke
Luke 12:16–21 CSB
16 Then he told them a parable: “A rich man’s land was very productive. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What should I do, since I don’t have anywhere to store my crops? 18 I will do this,’ he said. ‘I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there. 19 Then I’ll say to myself, “You have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” ’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is demanded of you. And the things you have prepared—whose will they be?’ 21 “That’s how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Like this man there is this idea in these people to store up their food for a day that they can take it easy and drink, and enjoy yourself. Jesus teaches in the parable to store up treasure for God and not for ones self. He doesn’t say be poor but he says that the wealth that has been given to you should be used in a way that honors and pleases God. Food was one of the ways that wealth was defined and if not taken care of it will rot in the end.
Second he says that their cloths are moth-eaten. The cloths here refer to outer garments such as cloaks, robes, and such. Many that we dressed up with fine embroidery and jewels. It these would hve been very expensive due to the time to make them without the aid of modern machines. If you remember back to the story of Achan. What did he steal from the battle field that he was not supposed to take.
Joshua 7:21 CSB
21 When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Babylon, five pounds of silver, and a bar of gold weighing a pound and a quarter, I coveted them and took them. You can see for yourself. They are concealed in the ground inside my tent, with the silver under the cloak.”
Or Sampson
Judges 14:12 CSB
12 “Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can explain it to me during the seven days of the feast and figure it out, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.
Clothes were a status symbol and the more you had and the more elaborate they were the more wealthy your were shown to be but James says this is selfish and has no eternal value. That it is a waste as the clothes in time will deteriorate and be moth eaten. And lastly he brings up gold and silver. Gold and silver were or precious metals were also how a person defined wealth. James says that these metals will rust and corrode away. We know that silver and gold don’t rust so what is he talking about. He could be using this literally. The gold and silver may not have been as pure as we make it today and the contaminating metals could cause it to rust and loose value. Or it could be figurative that in the end no matter how much gold or silver you have you cannot buy your way into heaven. That it is useless if it is only used for the selfish purposes of the life on earth. Either way James’ main point is that the rich store thing of this world for no other reason than for self. There is no thought of others or God.
He then personifies these things and they will be a witness against them. How these people store selfish wealth will stand and testify against them as having a saving faith and that they will even condemn them to destruction in judgement of fire. The last days refers to the time until Jesus returns. James rebukes the sinful acts of wealth hording.

Sinful Gain

James continues with the next characteristic of the people he was referring to.
James 5:4 CSB
4 Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Armies.
The rich not only horded the wealth they gained for themselves the also gain wealth dishonestly. The day workers were a part of the working economy of the time. The reason this was so bad was that these people lived off of the wages they recieved each day. They did not make enough to save wealth. They worked each day and made just enough to get by. The rich were exploiting the poor by keeping at least a portion of the wages and they were withheld permanently. God speaks of this in the Mosaic Law
Leviticus 19:13 CSB
13 “Do not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages due a hired worker must not remain with you until morning.
Deuteronomy 24:14–15 CSB
14 “Do not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether one of your Israelite brothers or one of the resident aliens in a town in your land. 15 You are to pay him his wages each day before the sun sets, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be held guilty.
God commanded that the hired worker be paid his wages at the end of each day. James says that this sinful action of withholding pay cries out and the outcry of the workers has reached the Lord of Armies. God hears these cried and they will not go unpunished. Christians are to be honorable in their dealings with other people. They are not to take advantage of the weak. In todays world I think of the people who take advantage of the elderly with phone and internet scams. Preying on people and using dishonest means to become wealthy.

Sinful Indulgence

After this James adds
James 5:5 CSB
5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
The main word here is indulged more specifically self indulgence. These people pursue passions and pleasures due their excess. The seek what every they want. They have amassed all of this wealth and now what do they do with it, they indulge. This is what the lead the Prodigal Son. He gains his inheritance early and then runs off to spend it on indulgences.
Luke 15:13 CSB
13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living.
The feeding of indulgence doesn’t lead to satisfaction. You just have to turn on the TV and look out in our world to see that people are constantly indulging themselves. Are they ever satisfied with what they have? Do they have enough toys, enough women or men, enough prestige, or the best cars. The list goes on and on. When there becomes an abundance of wealth with out the self control of the Holy-Spirit man will fall into many different sins in attempt to satisfy. The man who had it all came tho this conclusion.
Ecclesiastes 2:4–10 CSB
4 I increased my achievements. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made gardens and parks for myself and planted every kind of fruit tree in them. 6 I constructed reservoirs for myself from which to irrigate a grove of flourishing trees. 7 I acquired male and female servants and had slaves who were born in my house. I also owned livestock—large herds and flocks—more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I gathered male and female singers for myself, and many concubines, the delights of men. 9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom also remained with me. 10 All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles.
Solomon had it all and it wasn’t enough. The people James is talking about are doing the same things and we still see this self indulgence running rampant in our county and lives today. They have fattened of became soft. This is another picture of judgment.

Murder of the Just

James 5:6 CSB
6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous, who does not resist you.
James is revealing that these people were most likely using the justice system to kill people that could effect their ways of living. The word condemned means to pass judgment on someone. It was likely they were having the poor they took advantaged of killed in the courts so that they would not have to deal with. I remember a story in high school that there were people out there that would hire immigrants to work for them in the crops around Yakima and they would commit to pay them at the end of the month but on the 28th of each month they would call the authorities to have them turned in and arrested for being in the country illegally. I have no way of knowing weather this story is actually true but it make the point.
James says they have blood on their hands, they are murderers and the ones they are murdering are not resisting them.

Conclusion

What about today? do we deal with the same issues today? Do people today horde food? To store and store in the futile effort to care for self? Do we gain wealth dishonestly? Are we self indulgent? Do we murder those who are righteous?
Remember wealth is not sinful. We are given wealth by God to do good things with it. To take care of our families, to spread the Gospel and his kingdom, to care for the poor, to give to his work and others. But What James is addressing is that money and the heart of a sinner do these things. Things that are contrary to God’s will for a believer.
1 Timothy 6:17–19 CSB
17 Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy. 18 Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share, 19 storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of what is truly life.
But maybe the connection today may not be how much is stored but how much is wasted and consumed. Storing food in our day does not feed the pride of men. But I would have to say that we live in a society that selfishly indulges on food and drink and cloths. That we foolishly don’t store, we foolishly spend and spend and spend. We pay huge markups just for a brand or label. Not because the price tag reveals a better product of value. Have you gone to your closet and just looked at how many outfit you have. If you took every piece of clothing that you have not worn in a year. How big of a pile would you have? Do we horde for ourselves? The answer may be yes. Many do store but may I say that we have lost touch with the concept of money.
You see in James time if you didn’t have you usually went without. But we don’t have that problem in this country. Because we have credit. These are last years stats and so far 2022 looks like it is getting worse.
Credit card $5,221, Personal loan $17,064, Auto loan $20,987, Student loan $39,487, HELOC $39,556, Mortgage $220,380. Average American Debt $96,371. With the average household income in Spokane Valley at just over $60,000.
How a person deals with money will be a testament to who you are and what you value? The economic classes are blurred in today's world. I heard of a person one time who had taken out a crazy number of credit cards and lived very well, using one to pay another until it was maxed out and then take out another and another. But we still have the same problem? We struggle to follow the correct master.
Luke 16:13 CSB
13 No servant can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
The question today is the same question James was asking “who is your master” God of money. Do you follow the creator or the creation? Do we follow wall street, the Jones down the street, or Jesus? To store up treasure in this world or for the coming age.
Do we come to the place of humility as we see ourselves as redeemed sinners? Where we come to Jesus and ask him Lord how do I steward what you have given me well. Each believer must sit and seek out what God says about wealth and how they are to use it while the are on this world. Because it will testify to our hearts in the end.
So where are you at today? Do you find yourself relating to close to the people James was talking about and you need to pray and reflect and make some adjustments in your life? Maybe you have been taken advantage of or find yourself in the situation of the poor. God has heard your cried for justice. You may not see the results but you can have assurance that he has heard them.
Maybe you have more questions about God and these scriptures. Let me know and we can talk about them. Maybe you have this urging to talk to someone about Jesus and who he is and you want to commit your life to him. Please let me are someone you are comfortable with know.
So take some time and reflect before we take communion.

Reflection

I am going to ask the worship team to come up an play for a little while. I would ask that you spend some time reflecting on today's message. Write down your final thoughts, sit in prayer of worship and repentance, fill out a connection card if you would like to speak with me more.
Pray

Communion

1 Corinthians 12:24–25 CSB
24 which our respectable parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, 25 so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other.
1 Corinthians 11:28–31 CSB
28 Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep. 31 If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged,
Romans 15:5–6 CSB
Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.
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