“When Money is our God”
(James 5:1-6)
Series: Living the Faith (James)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
•I invite you to take your Bibles and join me this morning in the book of James, chapter 5 (page 813;YouVersion).
While you’re finding that let me take a moment to comment on a particularly significant Supreme Court ruling this past week concerning the legalization of same-sex marriage.
If ever we were in doubt that we live in a post-Christian nation, then surely the Supreme Court’s decision Friday removed all doubt. One writer suggests Christians must now learn to live as exiles in our own country.
Frankly, I feel we should already be doing that. This country has never been our home. It is but a way-station, a missionary field, a place through which we pass on our journey to a far greater place. This country is where we live temporarily as we endeavor to share the Gospel each and every day. We are missionaries.
Never forget that the majority of Christians have not lived in America, are not white, and have never spoken English. This country is not our final home. While we are here we must preach the Gospel and embody Gospel marriage, biblical marriage, the faithful uniting together of one man and one woman for life, a union that pictures the unique relationship of Jesus Christ and His bride, the church.
Russell Moore is our good friend who has spoken here in our church, and is the president of the ERLC, Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission. On Friday after the ruling, Russell made a brief video clip I want to share with you.
**[Video: 2 mins]
While much has changed as a result of Friday’s ruling, much remains the same. We will continue to preach and teach only the Bible’s definition of marriage.
Our church is and will remain “open and affirming,” in so far as we are open to all people and we affirm all people as unique persons created in God’s glorious image. And we love folks enough to tell the truth, affirming the truth of God’s Word and seeking to live under its teachings for our good and for God’s glory.
Speaking of God’s Word, have you found James, chapter 5?
We are now in the last chapter of James’ letter and he begins the chapter with a blunt warning to those who are rich. While James has in mind particularly those wealthy landowners who may not even be Christians, what he warns about wealth applies universally to all people for all time.
James warns us about what will happen if money is our God. With all of James’ concern about worldliness—living in such a way that we are not transforming the culture around us but rather allowing the culture to change us—with all of James’ concern about worldliness, beginning as early as the midpoint of chapter 4 and up to our text this morning, this warning about riches suggests that love of money may be one of the greatest temptations to draw us into worldly thinking and worldly living.
•Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments 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 heaped up treasure in the last days.
4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
•Pray.
Introduction:
Well if there’s one thing we’ve learned about James as a writer it is that he does not mince words. He doesn’t sugarcoat the truth. He’s very blunt.
He gets right to the point here in these opening verses of chapter 5 warning us about the danger of riches.
I came across this statement by Albert Barnes. This is from his Notes on the New Testament. I find what he says here about being rich helpful to us in so far as we are sometimes given to extremes on this topic, either condemning wealth altogether or minimizing its danger in order to make us feel better about our possessions.
Albert Barnes writes:
“There is no sin in merely being rich; where sin exists among the rich, it arises from the manner in which wealth is acquired, the spirit which it tends to engender in the heart, and the way in which it is used.”
Allow me to read that again. Barnes says:
“There is no sin in merely being rich”—and that is true, isn’t it? We never read in the Bible that a person is sinning by being rich. Job is a classic example. He was very wealthy. God in His sovereignty, took away Job’s wealth because the Lord gives and the Lord takes away; He does as He pleases. But afterwords, not only did God restore Job’s wealth, but gave Him twice as much as he had before. There is no sin in merely being rich. Many folks in the Bible were wealthy. So again to Barnes:
“There is no sin in merely being rich; where sin exists among the rich, it arises from [and note these three things] the manner in which wealth is acquired, the spirit which it tends to engender in the heart, and the way in which it is used.”
If there is a sin connected to riches it has to do with whether we got our wealth illegally or unethically, our love for wealth, and the spending of our wealth in ways that are unhelpful or harmful.
It is especially that second area that concerns James—“the spirit which it tends to engender in the heart.” This is James’ most pressing concern. He is concerned about our allowing money to be our god.
Let’s go back through these verses together and note two main headings and then a few action steps in response. First:
I. Money may Deceive us [1-3]
To be deceived is to be duped into believing something that is not true. The deception mentioned by James is implicit here in verse 1 and has to do with the judgment to come. James is saying that those who are rich—and again he has in mind wealthy landowners who were treating their laborers, their fieldworkers in ways that were unjust and unkind—these rich persons are living in such a way as though there were no judgment to come. They are living as though Jesus were never coming back.
So James is warning about the judgment that one day will come to these wealthy persons. And the deception is evident in the way James addresses them in verse 1. He says:
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!
Verse 1 suggests that these rich folks were laughing when they should have been weeping. It is reminiscent of James’ earlier teaching in Chapter 4, verse 9, “Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” Sounds a lot like verse 1, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!”
It’s as though James is saying, “You guys may be living it up and laughing it up today, but one day the judgment will come. Don’t be deceived. It will come.” Weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. He’s talking about the day of judgment. Verse 2:
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments 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 heaped up treasure in the last days.
There again, “the last days,” is a reference to the final day of judgment. Look again at verse 2 as James writes of the transitory nature of riches. Verse 2:
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
James is addressing the sin of hoarding our wealth, hoarding our possessions. The word “corrupted” there in verse 2 conveys the idea of rotting away. James says, “Your riches are rotting away.” Your garments—just as today, but especially then—the abundance of clothing was a sign of wealth. James says, “Your garments are moth-eaten.” It’s as if James is saying, “Why store up so much clothing in order to feed moths?” Hoarding, accumulating stuff one never uses.
Have you ever watched that show on hoarders? Or even that show about the two guys who travel across America to buy old stuff to resell? They run into these people who have hoarded barns full of junk, just full of junk. And sometimes they’ll try to buy some of that junk and the owners are like, “Nah, I can’t let go of that.”
Are we guilty of hoarding? Only in America can one have a business for people to store their junk. Storage facilities. Places to store junk. Many of us may be guilty of storing junk in our homes, in our basements, our attics, our closets. How much is enough? And for whom are we hoarding all of this? Why not just give it away?
James sounds again like his brother Jesus, our Lord. Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21:
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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 heaped up treasure in the last days.
Gold and silver actually do not corrode, do not actually rust. Of course, James knows this. Remember that he has in mind the last days, the day of final judgment when things that seemed to last forever will be removed forever.
And it’s kind of interesting, we often say of riches, “Well, you can’t take it with you.” James actually teaches here that while we can’t take riches with us, some of us will see those riches again when they testify against us in the day of judgment. See that in verse 3? He says, “Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you,”
It’s like James is saying on the last day, on the final day of judgment, a person’s riches will testify against a person, in essence saying, “I am their god. They did not worship the Lord Jesus Christ. They worshiped me.”
Money may Deceive us. Naturally, then, our second main point:
II. Money may Destroy us [4-6]
When James warns in verse 3 that one’s riches “will eat their flesh like fire” he’s warning what will happen if money is our god. Money cannot save us from the fires of hell. Money has the potential, then, to destroy us. Verse 4:
4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
Turning his attention again to these greedy landowners in James’ time, these landowners were treating their day laborers unjustly. Day laborers were common in New Testament times. You’ll remember Jesus said when we pray to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Most folks were day laborers. Like their name suggests, they were workers who labored during the day—usually in fields—and would be paid at the end of the day for their labor.
The Old Testament was very specific in commanding that day laborers be treated justly, whether they were believers or unbelievers.
Deuteronomy 24:14-15:
14 “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates.
15 Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you.
Don’t pay a man his wages at the end of the day and it is a sin. Well, that’s what was going on here in James’ day. Verse 4 teaches that there were day laborers who “mowed the fields” and the rich folks were keeping back the money they should have been paying.
And James says in verse 4 that this unpaid money, the “wages” in verse 4, he says these wages which were “kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers (the day laborers) have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” That word “Sabaoth” means the Lord of hosts, the Lord of the heavenly armies.” It’s a title that stresses God’s sovereignty. God sees all things, hears all things, knows all things, and controls all things. He knows what’s going on here and He will act.
And again, note this picturesque language James uses in verse 4. He says that the unpaid wages cry out. It’s like the money that these greedy landowners have kept in their closets or underneath their mattresses begins to speak, to cry out: “Unjust! Unjust! Pay the day laborer!” Who says money can’t talk?!
And while the rich landowners apparently cannot hear the money crying out, God hears the cry. God who is just and will one day render a complete, final, just judgment—He hears all things.
5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury (luxury and self-indulgence); you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
Verse 6 suggests that these greedy, wealthy landowners were acting in ways that led to the deaths of those who were oppressed. The just laborers were in no position to resist and have died at the hands of the rich.
And look again at how James describes the rich in verse 5:
5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
What an illustration! “You have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.”
A month ago I was visiting some of my family who live in Western Nebraska. They are true Americans, farmers for decades in the heartland. We would sit down to breakfast or dinner and I would say something like, “This sausage is really good.” And they’d say, “Well, that’s Janelle’s pig.” Or we’d sit at dinner and I’d say, “These steaks look good” and they’d say, “Yep, that’s Kerry’s cow.” Well, that gives you pause when you’re used to getting all of your food at Sureway.
You drive past cattle and they’re just always eating grass. I mean always eating, munching grass. And you know their whole life is eating. If cows smile, I suppose they are smiling. I mean, what a life. Just eating all the time.
But what the don’t know is that they are eating—in order to be eaten. They don’t know that this seeming life of luxury will lead them to a certain doom. They are being fattened for the day of slaughter.
Now look again at verse 5. This is precisely how James describes the self-indulgent rich. “You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.”
You see the danger of riches’ becoming one’s god? Life seems so good. Just indulging. Just buying, hoarding, withholding wages. Like a grazing cow, just munching away, fattening ourselves for the slaughter—preparing for the judgment to come.
This warning is not just for other people we believe to be rich. This passage is for every single one of us. We are all rich when we think in an historical and global context. We are far more wealthy than folks throughout history and far more wealthy than folks living across the globe today.
So how are we to respond to the passage this morning? Three actions; first:
Be Wise: Live with Eternity in View
Remember what James said at the end of chapter 4, James 4:14-15:
What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. You ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live…”
Live with eternity in view. As we said earlier, remember that this world is not your final home. Don’t be deceived by riches or by anything else. The day of Judgment will come when we will give an accounting of whether we have bowed before Jesus Christ and followed Him as Lord. Don’t allow riches to be your god.
The Apostle Paul also warns what will happen if money is our god. He says in 1 Timothy 9-10: “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
Proverbs 23:5, “Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.”
So live with eternity in view. Live for Christ. Know that true wealth is found in Him.
2 Corinthians 8:9, “Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”
True wealth is found in Christ. Love of money is but a cheap substitute for love of Christ. Love Christ, really love Him, recalling what He has done for you. Think of Him throughout the day, mediate upon His works on your behalf:
Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming
Oh glorious day!
Be wise: live with eternity in view. Second response:
Be Content: Enjoy what You Have
Some time back I came across this statement of the naturalist, John Muir. He was writing around the turn of the 20th century and writing about one of his contemporaries, a wealthy railroad businessman by the name of EH Harriman. And John Muir had nowhere near the money that EH Harriman had, but Muir made this statement, he said:
“I have more than E.H. Harriman, for I have all the money I want, and he hasn’t.”
That’s a great statement. “I have all the money I want, and he hasn’t.”
That was John Muir’s way of saying, “I’m content.” I have all I need and I enjoy what I have.
JC Ryle said, “It is possible to love money without having it and to have it without loving it.”
Money is not the problem; love of money is the problem. “It is possible to love money without having it and to have it without loving it.”
Be content: Enjoy what You have. Don’t live beyond your means. Third action:
Be Generous: Give to Bless Others
Rather than hoarding, give. Rather than collecting, give away. Be a good steward. Save for the future. And tithe. Right off the top, 10% to the Lord through the local church, the means for financing the ministry of the local church is the tithe.
I recall John Piper’s teaching about tithing. He was preaching from Malachi, about our robbing God when we don’t tithe. He said:
“My own conviction is that most…Americans who merely tithe are robbing God. In a world where 10,000 people a day starve to death and many more than that are perishing in unbelief the question is not, ‘What percentage must I give?’ but, ‘How much dare I spend on myself?’” (Sermon: “I seek not what is yours, but you”).
The question is not, “What percentage must I give, but how much dare I spend on myself.” Be generous: Give to bless others.
In the words of Randy Alcorn, “God prospers me not to raise my standard of living but to raise my standard of giving.”
Concluding Illustration:
Remember the guy in one of Jesus’ parables in Luke chapter 12, “the rich young fool?” Jesus tells the story to illustrate the truth “a man’s life does not consist in the things he possesses.”
So Jesus tells us about this guy who’s in the agriculture business and he’s having a really good year or two. His ground yields plentifully so he decides he’ll just build bigger barns to store all of his crops. He’s focused only on himself. After building his new barns, the rich man says to himself, “Now, take it easy. You’ve got all this stuff stored up. Eat, drink, and be merry.”
Jesus tells how the story ends: “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This very night your soul will be required of you, then whose will those things be which you have provided?’” That is, “You fool. Tonight you will die and you will leave everything behind.”
Then Jesus ends the story with these words: “So is he [a fool] who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
•Stand for prayer.
2 Corinthians 8:9, “Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”
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