James No.12 A Word to the Rich

James, chapter 5, verses 1 to 6. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and will eat your flesh like fire.

You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached out the ears of the Lord of Hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure.

You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned. You have killed the righteous man.

He does not resist you. May God bless the reading of his word to our hearts. I direct your attention to James, chapter 5, and as our reading was very short, let me just read it to you again, and this time in the authorized version of the Bible.

I'll dip into the previous chapter in the 17th verse, and then read right to the 6th of the next chapter. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you, and ye shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold the hire of the laborers, who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud.

Crieth, and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

You have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you. We are proceeding to work our way through the epistle of James, and it's perhaps not inappropriate in the providence of God that we, coming to the fifth chapter, also have in mind, particularly this Sunday, our own responsibilities to poor people, spiritually poor, and also physically poor. And it's the thought of the poor, and particularly physically so, that is dominant in the mind of James as he writes these few verses.

Let me remind you that in the previous study we had last week, I majored just for the closing few moments on that final verse of the fourth chapter. To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. There I said was a twin iniquity that was to be thought of in terms of a relative to the sin of presumption.

So coupled to the sin of presumption, I argued, is the sin of omission. You can sin by doing nothing. And maybe it's that thought that launches James into this particular teaching in the opening verses of the fifth chapter, when he has more than just a little soft word for rich people.

Here in these verses, and perhaps the strength of his terminology shocked you, James has a lot to say about the responsibilities of those who have materially to those who don't have. And the gospel of Christ, as you will find so often taught by our Savior, is directed first of all to the poor. And when a person is spiritually and physically rich, then they have an increasing sense of responsibility, or should have, to divide what they have in abundance with those who have little, if anything, at all.

Does this language, as I say, strike you as being a little bit too strong? Howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. Is James overstepping the mark? You remember, James is none other than the brother of our blessed Lord at the human level.

And our Savior was the most sensitive of people. And yet, going beyond the strength of the language of James in this fifth chapter of the epistle that bears his name, is the teaching of Jesus Christ, which becomes almost too powerful, vitriolic, intense in its seriousness, as he pours out his judgment on those who are hypocritical and claim spiritually to have everything, and yet cause others who have very little to have even less, and don't share spiritual blessings and privileges with them. James is here repeating the very message of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And as such, we need to listen to what he has to say. We might at another level say, well, this doesn't apply to us. Not only is the language too strong, we're not rich people.

After all, it would seem here that James has in mind the tycoon of the Middle East, the man who's a great agriculturist, who has lots of lands, the man who engages in commerce and as a result has made a great deal of profit. We're not like that. We're not rich people.

We're only sort of moderately well-off, if that at all. And yet, riches are a relative thing, my friend. We could take you to some of the villages in Nepal, and alongside the villages there, you and I would be considered to be very, very wealthy people indeed.

We could take you after some of the remote areas of Bangladesh, and there you would see poverty that makes you like a king or a queen, by comparison. You could be taken into the area where the untouchables in India are found in their millions, particularly on the streets of Calcutta and on the streets of Bombay, and you would discover there, by contrast, that you and I are very well-off indeed, in comparison. No, I'm not suggesting, therefore, because of this particular point that I have just brought in front of you, that James is necessarily speaking of us when he's speaking of these rich, insensitive people.

But I mention what I have just in case we could ever ourselves become so insensitive to the needs of others that something of the teaching of James might have more than academic but practical relevance. We are called to have the same disposition as Jesus did, who though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, so that we might profit by the wealth that he puts at our disposal. Similarly, he has called us who are spiritually and relatively materially rich to improve the lot of others by living our lives for their advantage.

It says, Professor Barclay, in one of his commentaries, which I'm not particularly recommending, it is an incredible thing that Christianity could ever be considered as the opium of the people. You remember that was the allegation that Karl Marx and Lenin made, that Christianity was just something that the rich people handed out as a little sup for the poor people. No, says Barclay, when you read passages like this and many other that could be brought to bear in the Word of God, you come to an appreciation that Christianity is the poor man's religion, and the Gospel is first of all, and its benefits, to be preached to the poor.

And if in any way we water down the teaching of Scripture in this area, then we do as much damage to the Gospel as does the most liberal, radical scholar who carves away and dissects from the Word of the living God. We have a responsibility, spiritually and physically, to those who are in need. So come to James now, as in the first verse, he addresses some rich, insensitive Jewish people, and he does so very strongly.

Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl. That same expression as in the thirteenth verse of the previous chapter, go to now. Or in the language of the authorized version, now listen.

James wants to waken them out of their apathy. Here is a message that must be broadcasted, here is something very important for them to realize. And what he has to say gets increasingly difficult to accept, because he is bringing a message of censure.

And he says, weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you, because the way that you're living your life makes you forfeit any possibility of God's blessing. That very word weep and the word howl in the original language are most strong. They are, if you like, the language and the experience of hell.

And the idea of miseries coming upon these people dovetails with the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, that those who reject Him and reject their responsibilities to others shall be condemned in this life and in the life which is to come. The doctrine of hell and damnation is not popular. And I get no joy out of preaching it.

But it is embedded in the word of God almost on every page. In A.D. 70 these rich men knew what it was for the fulfillment of the prophecy of James as the Roman soldiers surrounded Jerusalem, as Palestine was sacked, as the Jews were carted off and flung around like confetti around the known world of the Roman Empire at that time. But that is just a physical outworking of something that shall become even more real spiritually in terms of judgment and condemnation for those who reject the gospel of Jesus Christ and also reject the outworking of the gospel in terms of helping other people.

Well, as I say, this is strong meat. But it's something that we cannot vault over. We can't jump from the 17th verse of the previous chapter to the 7th verse of the next chapter.

We have to take the whole of Scripture. I get increasingly impatient in those people who tell me that they believe the whole of the word of God and then they come to an embarrassing passage and they don't want anything to be said about it. That is nonsense.

Scripture is all inspired by the Lord, whether it is pleasing to our palate or not. Well, let's analyze then the conditions of these rich insensitive people for whom the wrath of God is stored up. What is their difficulty? Well, the second and the third verse tells us this.

What they never saw, the futility of wealth. The fourth verse, what they never heard, the misery of the poor. The fifth verse, what they never feared, the reality of judgment.

The sixth verse, what they never knew, the sympathy of Jesus. What they never saw, the futility of wealth. Come to the second and the third verses.

There were three ways in which the oriental indicated that he was well to do. Three ways in which his social standing becomes apparent. Three ways in which he measures his wealth.

And you can put them into words that start with the same letter. Grain, garments and gold. Grain, garments and gold.

The riches referred to in the second verse, right at the beginning. Is wealth acquired by the agriculturalist who has been selling his corn on the open market. His clothing, well that's obvious in the second verse.

Garments are another indication of his wealth. And thirdly, the gold referred to in the third verse. A man was wealthy in New Testament times if he had grain, if he had garments, if he had gold.

With grain he could trade. With grain he could make money. Garments were indicative of the fact that he had a large wardrobe.

And he could clothe himself fancifully and ostentatiously. You remember how when the brothers of Joseph came to him in the story in the book of Genesis. He sent them away with new garments.

When Samson asked someone to interpret his riddle, he offered as a prize changes of garments, changes of clothing. When Naaman came to the prophet, he offered him for a cure of his leprosy, changes of clothing. When the apostle Paul talks about his own, the way in which he lived his life in such a singularly disciplined fashion.

The acts of the apostles, he said, I coveted no man's apparel. I coveted no man's gold. So these three areas of acquiring wealth are grain and garments and gold.

But, says James, there's a futility in built into this wealth. As for your riches that come through the selling of grain, says James, they'll become corrupted. They will rot.

As grain that is unused rots. As for your garments, they'll be devoured by moths. They will be ragged.

As for your gold, and here he stretches his metaphor, it will become rusty. It will become corrupt. Here James shows to us the futility of wealth.

Grain that rots. Garments that eventually become ragged. Gold that becomes as rust.

And these people who have lived their lives in just gathering together more and more riches, shall ultimately find that on the day of judgment, the very rust of their gold will become as a cancer that burns into their soul and devours them. You see, these people have rejected the teaching of Jesus. Jesus has said, don't lay up for yourself treasure on earth where rust and moth causes it to decay.

Rather, invest in the bank of heaven. Use what you have got in the interest of God and therefore in the interest of men. But instead, these people, verse 3, heap treasure together for the last days.

And their very wealth becomes cancerous and accuses them. Because it has been wrongly applied. What these people never saw, the futility of wealth.

What these people never heard, the misery of the poor. Look at the fourth verse. Look, the wages you fail to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you.

The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. But they never heard those cries. They never appreciated the biblical proposition in both testaments that those who exploit their brother and their sister are condemned by the living God.

Do you know it was against the law for a man to employ another and to keep his wage until the following day. When work had been done, then the man had to be paid for his labor. Deuteronomy 24, verse 14.

Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brothers or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it, for he is poor. And setteth his heart upon it, lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.

There isn't time, I've got several references in the Old Testament that support that proposition. That if you exploit someone who is in need, you sin against the living God. And he hears, because God is the God of the underdog.

He's the God of the widow and the orphan. He's the God of the person in unfortunate circumstances. Again and again the book of Deuteronomy says, remember this you Hebrew people.

Once you were pilgrims going through Sinai. Once you were in the bondage of Egypt, but God has dealt graciously with you. Therefore the stranger who is within your gates, you are to share with him what God has given to you.

And unless you do that, you fall foul of my commands and my standards. What these people never heard, the misery of the poor. But God hears, he hears the cry of the laborer who has reaped and not been rewarded.

He hears the cry of those who have been alongside him in the fields expecting to be paid, and they were not. And my friend, you have to take the principles from Scripture and apply them in the 20th century. Wherever there is exploitation, wherever there is need, God is unhappy.

For theology is not something of the mind, it's something that affects the lifestyle. It's something that affects the community. And God forbid that any nation that has a Christian foundation as ours does or did.

God forbid that it should cut loose of a sense of responsibility to those who have not. God forbid that we as a church, I praise God more times than I care to share with you. For our shops and for the way that profit from those shops is used for third world projects and for the alleviation of suffering.

I praise God for the thousands of pounds that people here give for the cause of mission abroad. Because it seems to me this can do nothing but please almighty God. For in the communication of the gospel, there is the improvement of society in third world lands.

With the creation therefore of new jobs and new wealth. And this dovetails with the teaching of Scripture. Why these men were censured? What they never saw, futility of wealth.

That's why they were condemned. What they never heard, the misery of the poor. That's why they were censured.

What they never feared. Look at the fifth verse. They never feared the reality of judgment.

You have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. Says the old fashioned language of the Avey. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

Give that to you in the NIV. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You've fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.

You've imagined that there is no more to life than just acquiring wealth and satisfying the physical desires of the body. And James gives us a very, very interesting metaphor from Scripture. We have in the forefront of our minds a cow.

Say, a Herefordshire cow. And there is this beast. It's so happy in the meadow.

Every day he puts his head down onto the grass and he gollops up more. I've never seen a cow do anything else but eat. I sometimes wonder where they put all the stuff.

And then he goes down to the river that's running just at the bottom of the field and he drinks. And he eats again and he drinks and it's all marvelous. Someone said about the miracle of nature how incredible it is that a brown cow can eat green grass and give white milk that's turned into yellow butter.

But it's not such a pretty ending for the cow, is it? As he eats his grass and as he gets fatter, I mean one day he can be having breakfast and really enjoying himself on the luscious grass that's in the meadow. And he doesn't realize that the van that's come alongside the country lane is big enough to house him and one or two of his brothers. And take them along to the abattoir.

He can have his breakfast in peace. And yet the slaughterhouse can be prepared for him, ready for him and he's not upset. Well, that's exactly the condition that James in a very blunt fashion here presents.

You've nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You've got fatter and fatter. Says A.T. Mottier in an uncommonly humorous passage for him in one of his commentaries.

In his response to this verse, you have fattened yourself for the day of slaughter. Oh, to be a thin beast when the butcher comes. Oh, to be a thin beast when the butcher comes.

Oh, to be lean as a Christian when the Lord comes. Oh, to have used what I had in the interests of others and not stored up for myself my own riches. Or preserved my life with such a modicum of comfort that I'd never risk my limb in the service of Jesus Christ.

Oh, to be lean when he comes and not to be fat. It was when Jeshurun waxed fat, you remember in the Old Testament, the old-fashioned way of talking about Israel. When their circumstances became comfortable in the promised land spiritually.

They became clumsy. They became indolent. They became short-sighted.

What these people never feared was the reality of judgment. They were like the rich fool who built bigger barns. Was concerned about his investments on the stock exchange and not realizing that the day would come when his soul would be required of him.

Nourishing his heart, not knowing that the slaughter day had come. The day when he has to stand in the presence of God and has nothing to give an account for his sins. Has never been to Jesus and known the cleansing of his blood.

Well, finally and quickly, what they never knew, the sympathy of Jesus. Look at this sixth verse. In the NIV, I have an argument to make on this sixth verse.

You have condemned and murdered innocent men who were not opposing you. The AV is to be preferred. You have condemned and killed the just.

And he does not resist you. The word there in the original is in the singular. And there's only one word.

The word men doesn't apply in the term innocent. Innocent men, it's just the word dikaion, which means just. And it's in the singular.

The idea is this, you have condemned and murdered the just. Again, AV, you have condemned and killed the just. And he does not resist you.

Well, what is meant by this? Well, I think the NIV obscures the meaning. They're thinking that the people who have been condemned are these poor folks who have been so maltreated. But no, I believe that James here is being far more delicate, far more profound in his argument.

He's saying you have condemned and murdered the just one. Who is the just one in scripture? Well, listen to the deacon Stephen when he's taking his leave on his final sermon because he's going to be stoned to death. When he's taking his leave of this world, he explains to the Jews what his testimony, what his life's work has been about.

And he speaks of Jesus. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ear, you do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did. So do you.

Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the just one of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers. Listen to the apostle Paul as in the 22nd verse, 22nd chapter of the Acts. And the 14th verse, he has a similar reference.

Acts 22 and verse 14. He's giving his testimony and he's referring to how Ananias ministered unto him. Brother Saul received thy sight in the same hour I looked up upon him and he said the God of our fathers has chosen thee that thou shouldest know his will and see that just one and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.

And when you move into 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 18, speaking of the death of Jesus, Peter says he died the just for the unjust. Now I say I would keep that as the original translation of this verse. You have condemned and killed the just and he doesn't resist you.

Well you say how is this worked out in your logic, in your rational argument, if it is rational at all. How can people be killing Jesus Christ when he's already dead? Well I come back to my observation at the beginning of this sick verse. What they knew or rather what they never knew.

The sympathy of Jesus. Do you not know my friend that Jesus relates to all those who are members of his church. When the apostle Paul before his conversion had been persecuting the people at Jerusalem.

He stopped on the Damascus road and the voice from heaven says Paul, Paul why do you persecute me? Jesus is speaking. But how can Paul be persecuting Jesus? Well the answer is this, Jesus has an empathy, a sympathy with his church. You hit Jesus' people and you hurt Jesus.

And this is what James is here arguing. You remember how the Lord puts it most clearly at the end of the 25th chapter of the gospel of Matthew. When he refers to those who are engaged in actions which have as their objective the alleviation of human need.

The Lord Jesus says when he's complimenting certain people. I was a hungered and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me.

I was in prison and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him saying Lord when saw we thee a hunger and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink. When saw we thee a stranger and so forth.

And Jesus said verily I say unto you in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren. You have done it unto me. You minister to the sick.

You minister to the spiritually ignorant. And you please Jesus. By default you allow their needs to pass by you.

As the priest and the Levite pass by the exploited man on the Samaritan road. On the Jericho road. And you offend Jesus.

When people are hurt. Jesus Christ is hurt. When people are greedy and cause those who have not sufficient to have even less.

Jesus Christ is hurt. When you condemn them. Then you condemn the Christ.

But the Bible says. He does not resist you. No.

He didn't resist Pilate. He didn't resist Herod. He didn't resist the high priest.

He went as a lamb to the slaughter. He went as a sheep before the shearers. He was killed on the cross and he didn't resist.

But remember there is always a calm before the storm. There is always a sense of uncanny peace before the violence of judgment comes. And this Christ.

Who went as a lamb to the slaughter. Feels with indignation. The needs of those who are spiritually and materially deprived.

And the day shall come. When he shall return. To execute judgment upon this earth.

And at such a time as that. You rich men. Weep.

How. For your miseries. That shall come upon you.

Strong teaching. Strong meat. But it's not mine.

It's in the Bible. It's on so many pages. I have to sound out the warning.

These were people. What they never saw. The futility of wealth.

What they never heard. The misery of the poor. What they never feared.

The reality of judgment. What they never knew. The sympathy of Jesus.

Never let yourself. Go into that category of person. But by a response to what the blessed Lord has done.

As you give him your heart and your life. So may he be pleased. And have sympathy with you.

As you share. Your spiritual. And your physical treasure.

With others. Thank God for James's word. To the insensitive rich.

Because by contrast. We can learn. And be warned.

Ourselves. Amen. Amen.