Testimony of Wealth

Text: James 5:1-5 “1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 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. 4 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. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.”

What really intrigues me about this passage is that the ‘corrosion’ of gold and silver that James mentions isn’t the normal sort of corrosion that we’re used to. For us, corrosion is often a sign of a lack of use. A lack of care. A lack of maintenance. In this case, it has a different cause. It’s caused by not using them the way they were intended to be used. It’s caused when they take a higher priority in your life than God does.

In a sense, it is my job to read you your spiritual “rights.” It’s my job to caution you: The corrosion of your gold and silver can and will be used against you on the last day.

And there is no “right to remain silent here.” You have been give some measure of wealth by God, whether it is great or small. But the test is there regardless of how much gold and silver you have.

Whether we are either anxious or content, depends upon our economic outlook. That is where our confidence for the future seems to be found. Yet, it is written, “Do not be haughty or set your hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (Paraphrase of 1 Tim. 6:17).

What is the most important thing to do in order to secure your child’s future: for your child to get a great education so he can get a good job and make a lot of money or for him to know God? If they are college age, when you were (or for some of you, while you are) considering which university is right for your child, did the proximity to a church, let alone a campus ministry, factor into the decision? What does that say about your priorities— about where gold and silver rank in relation to God?

What testimony will our wealth give about us?

One of the readings that we missed two weeks ago when we celebrated our anniversary is quite devastating on this account: James 4:1-5 “1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?”

That, itself, is pretty damning testimony from God’s Word.

You give to God, but only after you’ve satisfied your appetites. You spend the gold and silver God has given you on your own comfort, your own entertainment, your own pleasure. Even when you give to help others, that help is more about you and your desire to feel like their savior than it is about their need. You don’t need to worry about giving someone the shirt off of your back. You’ve got a closet full that you don’t wear that you can give them. And then, as if God hadn’t given you more than enough, you covet what others have.

What will the testimony against you be? Will it be that “You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter” (5:5)?

Repent. Repent and trust in Christ.

“9 [Y]ou know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9, ESV)

Let’s really consider that for a moment. As Charles Spurgeon put it so well:

Obviously Christ’s existence did not start when He was born of the Virgin Mary. He is eternal. There was never a time in which He was not. And we are told that, in the past eternity prior to His birth of the Virgin Mary, He was rich, to say the least. He was quite rich in possessions. Think back to the Old Testament and hear Him saying, from His throne, “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the cattle on a thousand hills are mine. Mine are the hidden treasures of gold; mine are the pearls that the diver can not reach; mine every precious thing that earth has seen.”

We also call people rich who have honor—and if they have great wealth but are in disgrace and shame then it’s harder to call them truly rich. “But our Lord Jesus had honor [that only] a divine being could receive. When he sat upon his throne, before he [laid aside] the glorious mantle of his sovereignty to become a man, all earth was filled with his glory. He could look both beneath and all around him, and the inscription, “Glory be [to] God,” was written over all space; …the harps of …cherubim and seraphim continually [rang out] with his praise, and the voices of all those mighty hosts were [continually raised] in adoration.”[1]

...“[C]an [you imagine] the rivers of praise that flowed [through] the city of God? Can [you] imagine …the sweetness of that harmony that [constantly] poured into the ear of Jesus, Messiah, King, Eternal, equal with God his Father? No; [we can not imagine it. A]t the thought of the glory of his kingdom, and the riches and majesty of his power, …our words fail; we can not [express even a fraction] of his glories.

“Nor was he poor in any other sense. [The one who has] wealth on earth, and honor, too, is poor if he [does not have] love. …Without love man is poor [no matter how much wealth he’s given.]

“But Jesus was not poor in love[, either]. When he came to earth, he did not come to get our love because [He was lonely]. …[H]e was beloved of the Father and of the Holy Spirit...

…He was rich in every conceivable way, beyond anything we could express. And yet the One whose crown was decorated with stars laid that crown aside. The One whose shoulders wore the royal robe of the ruler of the universe became a man dressed in a peasant’s garment. How the angels must have marveled, looking on Him in amazement, wondering what it all could mean. “He for our sakes became poor.”

And yet the Infinite became an infant. The One, upon whose shoulders the universe hangs, hangs at his mother’s breast. The One who created all things and upholds creation becomes so small and weak that he must be carried by [His mother].

As a baby, He didn’t rest in a cradle of gold, but in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes rather than royal robes. And He couldn’t even rest there long before His mother had to carry Him to Egypt. Then, when He comes back, the hand that made the worlds took up a hammer and nails, learning the trade of a carpenter from His step father.

Never was there a poorer man than Christ; he was the prince of poverty. He was often hungry and was always dependent upon the charity of others. The One who scattered the harvest over the acres of the world at times had nothing to stem the pangs of hunger. The One who dug the springs of the ocean sat upon a well and said to a Samaritan woman, “Give me a drink!”

He walked everywhere. He had nowhere to lay His head. “He who had once been waited on by angels becomes the servant of servants, takes a towel, ‘girds himself, and washes his disciples’ feet! He who was once honored with the hallelujahs of ages is now spit upon and despised! He who was loved by his Father would now say, “He that eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.”

The eternal Word of God sweat great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. His flesh was torn beneath the whips of the Roman soldiers. He is nailed to the cross, so poor that they have stripped Him naked from head to foot and exposed Him to the face of the sun. He was so poor that when He asked them for water they gave him vinegar to drink.

And why? “So that we through his poverty might be rich.”

All who are marked with the blood He shed there on the cross are rich. Even if you do not own a square foot of land, even if you aren’t sure how you’ll be supported through another week, in Christ you are rich.

No, I’m not mocking you. I’m not taunting you. You really are rich. You have in your possession now things more precious than gems, more valuable than gold and silver.

It is yours, even though it is not yet in your possession, because it relies on the promises of God. Right now in heaven there is a crown of gold which is yours today. It will be no more yours when you finally have it on your head than it is now.

Imagine the crowns all ready for God’s people and picture yours there with them. Picture the richest crown of solid gold with the most precious jewels there for you.

And imagine the garment that is waiting for you, stiff with gems and white like snow. When you are finally done with your weekday garment, that will be the clothing of your everlasting Sabbath. When you have worn out this poor body, there remains for you “a house not made with human hands, eternal in the heavens.”

Picture your inheritance there, already yours, promised to you by the One who is faithful and true, and remember that they were bought by the poverty of your Savior. Look upon them all and say, “Christ has bought them for me.”

Bless His name, praise Him, trace every stream to the fountain, and bless Him who is the source and the fountain of everything you have. Brothers and sisters in Christ, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich.”(Spurgeon, Charles. “Men Made Rich by the Poverty of Christ.” https://www.bartleby.com/268/5/9.html)

Repent and believe that, in Christ, that will be the testimony that is given about you on the Last Day.

One of my favorite moments from my time here at St. Paul happened in a meeting of one of our groups—I won’t say which one, because really it could describe a number of them. The treasurer’s report was given. My short version is that the report indicated that, over the previous few months, literally hundreds of dollars had come in. And then, by the time of the report, nearly all of it was gone. Glancing around the table, I saw a group of people who heard that news and could not have been happier, because that money had gone to help people in need, it had gone to support mission work, it had gone to be used to build up God’s kingdom. Whatever the opposite of “Your gold and silver have corroded,” is, they were it.

That will be the testimony that is given about you on the Last Day.

As a theologian named Johann Gerhard has written,

“Any physical thing I possess [O God]… I owe to Your kindness. Indeed, I do not merit a single crumb of bread, much less all the great earthly things that You shower on me. When people possess these earthly things, we say, “They have had good fortune.” But they are really gifts of your grace. Nothing is more blessed than to use these gifts in service to others and to give them away. You have made me Your partner in this happy matter of giving gifts by granting to me a greater share of earthly possessions. You sowed in me the seed of Your grace so that it may grow to become a harvest of kindness toward others. You have committed to me great wealth in earthly possessions so I have the means to do good to my fellow servants. Streams of material blessings flow to me from You, the font of all good things. Whatever I am, whatever I have, whatever I give to others, I confess that all of it comes from Your kindness. For Your boundless mercy, I give you eternal thanks. Amen.” (Gerhard, Johann. “Meditations on Divine Mercy.”)

May that always be the testimony that will be given about you on the Last Day.