The Snare of Riches (James 4:13-5:12)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
This morning we are going to start our time together a little differently. We are going to open with the first two questions of the Heidelberg Catechism.
Heidelberg Catechism Question #1:
What is your only comfort in life and death?
Answer:
That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has delivered me from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, also assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
Heidelberg Catechism Question #2:
How many things must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
Answer:
Three: first, how great my sin and misery are; second, how I am delivered from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.
My guess that every Christian in here would affirm these foundational truths verbally. We would say that certainly our lives are not our own and that they belong to God. That we want to live out our lives with thanksgiving to God for delivering us from our sins.
That is until we go to make plans and fill out our calendar. As Christians we can be really good at verbally affirming the right things about God and us. But so often in how we live out our day to day lives, we do so as functional atheists.
How we live in the day to day moments are telling of our faith.
Like a great physician, in our passage this morning, James examines how we live in the day to day and diagnosis our heart problem, but then offers us medicine to help us towards the goal of his letter, spiritual completeness, spiritual wholeness.
You can find our text for this morning, James 4:13-5:12 on page #1201 of the Red Pew Bible in the seat in front of you or under you if you are in the front two rows.
Last week, as we looked at James 3:13-4:12, we saw that James called us to pursue Godly wisdom from above by submitting ourselves to God. And part of this submission was a call to humble ourselves. These theme of humbling ourselves is continued this morning in the call to humble ourselves as we submit the whole of our lives to God
Now, before we read our passage this morning, I want to draw something out to help us along the way. First, at a quick read through, it can seem these three sections, 4:13-17, 5:1-6, and 5:7-12 are disconnected. That they are separate thoughts. But they are not. They are all three taking different angles at the same thing, are we living out our lives submitted to God in both our planning and our waiting or are we given over to sin?
With that in mind, I invite you to follow along as I read the word of the LORD for us this morning from James 4:13-5:12.
Here’s what I think is the main idea of James 4:13-5:12, “If we believe there is a God and that he is Sovereign, then let us live like it. Holding our plans loosely and waiting patiently on the LORD.” We are going to unfold this in three points: (1) make plans, but hold them loosely, (2) don’t covet, the rich’s woeful end, and (3) wait patiently, the LORD is coming.
Point #1: Make plans, but hold them loosely (James 4:13-17)
Point #1: Make plans, but hold them loosely (James 4:13-17)
Planning is part of life. Most likely, we all have some type of calendar and calendar system for keeping track of our plans. For our home, we use the Apple Calendar on our phones. My wife and I both have a personal calendar, a work calendar, and then our family calendar. We both are able to see each other’s calendars so that we can plan our week accordingly. I’m sure many of you do the same.
Plans are part of life. Plans in themselves are not the problem. The problem is that when we put something on the calendar, we think our plans are set in stone. For we go through our day to day lives thinking we are sovereign over our daily lives.
Think about it, how often do we get mad and frustrated when our plans fail to come to fruition? Why do you think that is? Because we think ourselves to be more in control?
This is true of us and it was true for James’ original audience. For they thought they could make good plans that would turn out accordingly.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—
It’s one thing for us to plan. To make plans for business, in our homes, even in our churches. But do we see the heart issue James is getting at here? It’s not the plans themselves, but the arrogance in the plans.
James is calling out this presumptive attitude that those planning have that they know what will take place, because they have made the right plans. They presume that all will go without a hitch in their plans for the year and that they will indeed make a profit.
This is arrogant, because we are not sovereign and we do not know what lays ahead.
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
When the mist comes, it doesn’t stick around for long. It’s there one minute and then gone the next without anyone hardly noticing.
And this is the reality of our lives, they are a mist. Here one moment and gone then next. James draws this out not for us to be morbid, but to awaken us to the reality of this life and how we live in its brevity.
We are not to presume anything. For we do not know what tomorrow brings, and therefore to make presumptive plans in our arrogance is downright foolish.
Make plans we must, but we must not presume our plans to be what governs the world around us. We must not think our planning is sovereign over life.
It matters not how much as parents we plan our children’s future, how well we plan for retirement, how well we plan for pursuing a healthy lifestyle, or anything else. We can be the most detail oriented planner there ever was, and still our plans would not be sovereign. For we are not sovereign, there is but one who is sovereign over all things.
21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
The purpose of the LORD alone will stand. Therefore if we are to live out our Christian lives truly humbling ourselves before and submitting ourselves to God, then we must submit even our plans to him.
Realizing that it is his purpose and his plans alone that will stand.
This truth is both humbling and encouraging to us, Christian. This means that there is nothing outside of the purpose and the plans of the Sovereign LORD.
Every failed plan of ours, every thing that didn’t go according to the way we thought it would, none of it catches the LORD by surprise.
He is working through each and every part of our lives for our ultimate good and his glory! But part of being humble before the LORD is acknowledging this truth in how we live and how we plan.
Plan we must, but as we do our plans are to be held loosely and submitted to the LORD.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
James is not simply giving us a phrase we must use in a formulaic manner. That is, we are not to merely say, we will do this, if the Lord wills, and then we are covered from being in sin or living as a functional atheist.
There are plenty who might even say if the Lord wills in a fundamentalist manner, but fail to truly submit their plans to the LORD.
A good test of this is to see how we react when our plans fail. Did we actually submit our plans to the LORD or were we tempted to think we were sovereign over our lives?
James, and the LORD are not pursuing simply our use of the phrase, “if the Lord wills”. No, they are after us living out our faith in humility and submission to the LORD, even in our making of plans.
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
We must not carry on in our arrogance in thinking we can plan and control the details of our lives. Our lives are not our own, they belong to God.
Therefore, let us make plans, but hold them loosely in submission to the LORD.
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
It is not just knowing this that makes us whole, it is putting this humble and submissive practice to work in our day to day living, in our daily planning that shows we truly know and acknowledge we are not our own, but belong to God.
But even when we fail, when we struggle, continue to also acknowledge that God’s plan and purpose in us and for us as his redeemed people will not fail. God will bring us to the day that our faith is complete if we continue to hold to Jesus!
In order to do that though, we must continue to humble ourselves and submit to God in our plans, but also in not coveting what others have.
Point #2: Don’t covet, the Rich’s woeful end (James 5:1-6)
Point #2: Don’t covet, the Rich’s woeful end (James 5:1-6)
We might be tempted at first to covet the Rich. Seeing all of their worldly treasure and maybe that is what tempts us towards making plans to pursue wealth and to pursue making a profit. But we should not covet them.
To help us in this reality, James does what the Prophets in the Old Testament often did, he sounds the alarm for what awaits the rich.
James 5:1-6 here is not addressing those who hold the name brother and sister. He is giving a warning to those who are not Christian, particularly those who are rich and not Christian.
But there is a uniqueness to this warning. It is not a warning with hopes that they may repent. It is not even a warning being given with an anticipation or hope that the rich may hear this warning.
No, the warning here of James 5:1-6 is given for the sake of James’ audience, his brothers and sisters in Christ. A warning so that they may hear what awaits the rich. A warning that will keep them from then coveting what they have in the here and now. A warning that we too need to help steady our hearts along the way.
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
Weeping and howling await the rich. Though they may thrive now, miseries are coming. The treasures they hold so close will soon fade.
2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 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.
The riches and wealthy clothing and treasures of the rich will come to nothing. And these treasures will prove to be without value in the end, in the last days, the coming day of judgment before God Almighty.
Now, this is not to say all with riches will be condemned. James here is not condemning all who are rich. He is condemning and showing the end of a particular group of the rich. The rich who cheat and steal. The rich who ignore the needs of those around them.
5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
The rich who have lived in their self-indulgence and fattened their hearts living in extravagance and hoarding for themselves wealth while committing injustice towards those who labor for them and live around them.
Sam Allberry captures these thoughts well,
James for You Hoarding
Saving is not ungodly if it is for a godly purpose, such as providing for ourselves so that we are not a burden on others, and providing for others. Wealth is to be used, not amassed.
but he continues,
James for You Extravagance
as with all good things, wealth is to be used in the service of others, not in the service of self. Wealth is to be used. We’re to be those who have in order to be those who give. In other words, we should never be living as well as we could. Unless we are living right on the poverty line, we should be giving to help meet the needs of others.
This is the very opposite of how the rich that James is addressing were living. They used their wealth and power to the harm of the poor and weak around them.
James states, “they (the poor) did not resist the rich.”
This is because they were helpless and to weak to resist the rich. Yet the rich abused and murdered those less than them by withholding necessary provisions.
This kind of evil and injustice of the rich’s hoarding and extravagant living should not be coveted.
For the cries of those afflicted and abused are not left ignored. God’s justice is coming and will be carried out on every injustice and evil in this world. The rich will be condemned for their evil, they will be judged according to the evil of their deeds.
And it is this warning, brothers and sisters, that is medicine to our hearts. Medicine that keeps us from being hardened towards the desire and pursuit of riches in this world. In this warning, we get to see the end. An end that should kill the desire of covetousness in our hearts.
Brothers and sisters, let us not covet the rich, for we know their end, that of judgment before our Holy God. A judgment that will cast them into a place of eternal torment of the weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Now maybe you are here this morning and you are just beginning to explore the claims of Christianity. You hear this warning and think it unfair and cruel.
Friend, there is nothing unfair about such judgment. For this is the judgment that we all deserve. For we all were created by God in his image and likeness. But, since our very good beginning, sin entered the world through the disobedience and rebellion of our first parents.
And this sin has since infected everyone of us. For we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We have all rebelled against him. And the wages of sin is death, both the first death of physical, and the second of judgment.
And yet, despite this, God has made a way for sinners, for rebels to be reconciled to himself through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. A sacrifice that is confirmed as accepted because of Jesus rising on the third day from the grave.
Salvation has been made possible from the curse of sin and death through Jesus. It is made possible to all who would turn from their sin and believe in Jesus.
This is why we as Christians have hope, because we trust Jesus in his first coming to have already taken our sin away. And friend, this too can be your hope, even today. I’d love to talk with you more after the service about what this looks like for you. Come find me in the back.
But do not delay. For the Lord Jesus came to save sinners in his first coming, in his second, he is coming as the judge. And this is a warning for you to urgency, but a call to patience for those of us in Christ.
Point #3: Wait patiently, the LORD is coming (James 5:7-12)
Point #3: Wait patiently, the LORD is coming (James 5:7-12)
7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.
Christian, knowing that our life is a mist, that God’s judgment and justice are coming, we who are living as exiles are to live patiently while we wait on the LORD.
James says here that we are to wait like a farmer waits for the rain. A farmer can plow the soil, he can till it, he can work the weeds out, but he cannot do anything to bring the rain, or couldn’t until modern irrigation systems came along. Now there isn’t even this kind of waiting on some farms. But that’s not the point.
The point here James is making is that as Christians we are to wait patiently until the Lord brings the fruit of his return in its judgment against the wicked and justice for the afflicted. We are to wait. To wait on the LORD.
Brothers and sisters, we need not rise up in revolution in the midst of our evil world. Christians are not to be revolutionists. We are to wait on the LORD to come and bring judgment and justice.
That is not to say that we should not call out against evil, speak up for the weak and helpless, for the LORD calls us to these.
But our duty is not to rise up and fight the rich, to fight those who oppress. As Christians we are called to wait on the LORD to right the wrongs, to bring justice, entrusting that he will indeed right every wrong.
8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
And as we wait, we are to not do so passively and idly. We are to establish, that is steady our hearts in knowing the LORD’s coming is at hand.
Wait a minute someone might ask, James had to be wrong here. For James wrote this nearly 2,000 years ago. And the LORD still has not returned.
Right you might be friend. But by at hand James was not referring to a length of time. By at hand, James was referring to nothing was standing between the return of the LORD and his coming. For the Messiah King, Jesus himself, has already come and lived and died and rose from the grave and now ascended. There is no other even left between his first coming and his second to take place. All that is left is for his most glorious return! We know not when that will be, but we eagerly are to await this return and know that it could be at any point! Therefore let our hearts be established in knowing this truth and waiting patiently for it!
9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.
But while we wait, James takes us back to our tongues and warns us against grumbling against one another while we wait.
The original audience for James was living scattered and dispersed throughout the land due to persecution in the early church. They were facing real hardships and real suffering. James does not diminish this.
However, he warns us against turning on one another in the midst of our waiting and the hardships of living in exile.
The Judge is coming and coming soon! And we need this to help us to keep from turning on one another with our tongues. We are to labor to strengthen one another in the faith, not tear down.
Oh let our grumbling tongues against one another be silenced.
To further strengthen us in our waiting, James points us to faithful examples who have lined the way before us.
10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
First James gives us the prophets broadly there in verse 10, but then he turns specifically to Job.
The prophets were charged with the duty to declare the word of God to the nation of Israel, and many of them suffered as they did so. I think here of the Prophet Jeremiah who was put in stocks and thrown into a cistern. Jeremiah was threatened to be killed because of his declaring God’s word to Israel. And yet, Jeremiah was faithful, he waited patiently and trustingly in the LORD rather than turning from it.
Then Job, we know that Job had all stripped away from him and then himself endured physical suffering. And yet Job did not turn and curse God. He acknowledged and worshiped God.
Job struggled and had to fight for faith in the sense of wanting God to just curse him loathing his birth, but Job did not curse God for his sufferings.
We are reminded here from these examples from James that suffering is not new. Suffering is the norm of the Christian life.
Hear these two quotes from Sam Allberry:
James for You The Prophets
Suffering of one kind or another is normal for the people of God. It is not the sign that things have gone wrong, but that they’ve “gone normal”.
James for You The Prophets
It is part of our arrogant, sinful nature to assume that we are the first generation ever truly to experience what we’re going through. James wants his readers to be very clear that what they are facing, while by no means easy, is certainly not new. Those who suffer as Christians are not blazing a new trail, but travelling a well worn path.
Let us look to those who have lined the way and suffered before us and see that our present sufferings and trials are not new to Christians. And therefore, we must look to their example of patient and faithful waiting on the LORD.
And we too then must remember that the LORD is compassionate and merciful. He will not leave or forsake us in our suffering. He will not abandon us. He is coming for us and even now is working all things out for our good and his glory.
Brothers and sisters, let this help strengthen us as we wait for the LORD Jesus to come again! Let us press onward to pursue spiritual wholeness, being found faithful as we wait.
12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
As Christians, we are to be a people rooted in truth. Therefore let our yes always mean yes. And our no be no. Our yes should never mean well maybe or I’m saying yes but really meaning no. Our speech, our actions are all to show that we belong to God and know that he is coming soon and standing at the door and will hold us accountable.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Brothers and sisters in Christ, our Messiah King’s return is at hand, let us be found faithfully waiting and living out this word in all we do. Therefore, let us be a people who plan, but hold those plans loosely as we wait on the LORD, knowing that it is his purposes alone that will prevail.
Let’s pray....