Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

We just finished a section that dealt with people saying what they will do in the future.

This is what a mind set on material things and worldly passions will do.

Now, James is rebuking this living even more than in the last section.

He zero’s in on worldly desires and passion for wealth.

In James 5:1-6

Powerful rebuke.

Powerful and very pointed for sure.

Much like Ebenezer Scrooge.

I am sure everyone here knows the book or movie “A Christmas Carol.”

In it we have one very greedy and bitter man, Ebenezer Scrooge.

He has made a fortune with his old friend and colleague Marley.

Marley died and it was all Scrooges.

He was so tight he would not allow his employee to have more than one piece of coal to keep warm with.

He paid him the bare minimum to get by.

He was holding back money he could be paying him for himself who did not even enjoy money.

He just hoarded it and worshipped it.

He did not enjoy it for anything but just having it.

Marley visited him followed by three other ghosts.

He saw his past, present, and future.

In the past he abandoned everything good for his wealth.

In the present he saw his employees home, Bob Cratchit.

He saw the simple and joyful times.

But the sad discomfort and ill Tiny Tim.

Finally, the ghost of the future took him to his end.

He did not see the date and asked if this was a shadow of the things that will be or the things that might be.

He was not told but taken back to his time with a decision to be made.

You see, Scrooge wanted money over everything and did not want anything to stop him.

He was judged and commanded to weep and mourn in a way, his money was worthless as Marley told him about the chain he had to bear for all eternity, he was defrauding Bob Cratchit, he was depriving Tiny Tim of the healthcare he needed, and finally his greed was causing death.

That is what this section is about.

It is about those who have wealth who only care about that money.

They do not help others but use others for more for themselves.

James is not saying being wealthy is evil or a sin, but that the love of wealth over the Lord and others is.

Paul said the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

Jesus said we can not serve two masters money and Him without loving one and hating the other.

That is what James is saying too.

James is saying that the love of money is the item that pushes self-sufficiency and hatred of God.

It is prideful and arrogant and it does nothing but cause grief upon grief.

Just like what happened to Scrooge…

The Love of Money Brings Judgment (1)

Explain: Come now is just like in the last section.

It is a strong command for those who are wealthy.

Some take this to be directed at the unbelieving rich and others at the believing rich.

I take it to be at both.

James is telling them that they should be weeping and howling for the miseries to come upon them.

This is the punishment that is sure to come to them if they remain self-sufficient and in love with their wealth.

This is for people who love their material possessions more than the Lord.

Those who desire money so much that they never honor God.

They will work every day and never take any of that and use it for the Lord’s work.

They hoard and keep it and never let it out of their sight, much like Scrooge from above.

Money and wealth is their god and nothing else matters anymore.

They are being warned that judgment is coming and they had better weep and mourn over their sinful lifestyle and turn from that because punishment is coming.

Illustrate: Much like this story from South Africa, naturist club owner Beau Brummell was irked by accusations from morals watchdogs that a shriveling Transvaal drought was brought on the the "sin" of nude togetherness at his 1000-acre farm.

So he asked his 370 visitors to get dressed.

And, for the first time in two months, it poured rain.

"It's enough to make me become a monk!" Brummell said.

(Ingrid Norton in Rand Daily Mail, Johannesburg.)

I am not saying that if someone repents of their false worship that something like this will happen so suddenly, but what I am saying is that God will remove any discipline he has placed on them.

Apply: Money is not evil and sinful, it is the love of it.

If we desire money more than people, or God, then our wealth, regardless how small, will cause grief and pain.

We will become bitter and arrogant like Scrooge did.

We will not help others or want anyone around because they may “take our stuff.”

We can overcome this through sitting back and examining our lives and looking at what we put our everything into.

If it is material items, we may be worshipping our wealth and material items.

We can leave that behind when we repent of that, turn away, change our minds about what is most important in life, and start seeking God’s wisdom which He will give us freely.

If we do not then…

The Love of Money Gains Worthless Treasures (2-3)

Explain: James is reminding them of a message that Jesus delivered just a few short years earlier here.

He tells them their wealth may corrode and rust and become moth eaten.

Jesus said these same things during the Sermon on the Mount.

He told the crowd that earthly treasures can rust, rot, become moth eaten, and be stolen.

They were to lay up treasures in heaven where that cannot happen.

Any time we desire to have material wealth over heavenly wealth, we are looking to items that fade and disappear to give us something that only God can.

They cannot do for us what only the Lord can.

They will rot and fade and leave us chasing more and more.

How much is enough money?

According to a very wealthy man, Just a little bit more.

That is what worthless treasure gain is.

It draws us for more and more because it is always fading.

It will go away.

It will condemn us at our judgment.

When we believers stand before Christ at the Judgment Seat of Christ we will see our material wealth and work go up in smoke because it was not for Him, but for us.

Everything here will fade and disappear.

It will rot and be gone regardless how good of care you take of it.

Illustrate: I had a sweater one time that was the best sweater I had ever found.

It was wool and warm, but it was thin and not bulky.

I could put it under a light jacket on the coldest day and stay warm.

It buttoned up almost like a shirt and was thin enough I could tuck it in like a shirt.

I loved it and have never been able to find another.

I had that sweater one winter because during the spring, the moths ate it up.

I pulled it out in late spring because a cool day hit, and it was all but gone.

That is what all wealth here is.

Here one minute and gone the next.

Apply: God has blessed us with some amazing gifts and material assets.

Yet they are only that, gifts.

They are not ours to keep forever because they are only here a second.

We can avoid worship of that when we recognize that nothing is eternal in the material world.

We cannot take it with us.

We can only leave it here.

When we recognize that, and I mean really recognize that, we can then start giving away wealth more freely.