Title: The Deception of Wealth

Text: James 5:1- 7

Date: 8-15-04.am

Thesis Statement: Following the same line of thought about practical faith, as he did in chapter 4 and throughout this letter, James issues a warning about the deception of wealth. Like Jesus, James doesn’t condemn wealth nor does he condemn having wealth. His condemnation is for those who haveg iven in to the deception of substituting faith in wealth for faith in Jesus Christ.

James 5:1-7

5:1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.

2 Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten.

3 Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!

4 Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

6 You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you. NASB

James begins this passage with the same phrase he used in verse 13 of chapter 4 “come now!” Again, listen up! He addresses those whom he describes as you rich. This is a class of people whether believers or non believers who are rich in this present world. But we know from the context he’s referring specifically to those who are abusing their wealthy position. We’ll see in a moment how they are abusing it, and he is also addressing everyone else who might be looking at them favorably or with envy and thinking about following their example. It seems to me these people may be the same group of people he addressed in chapter 4 – those who have made it a habit and continue to make it a habit of leaving God out of their plans. They have made their own plans, gone their own way made their profits and have become rich in worldly goods. And James’ words of warning in chapter 4 about leaving God out of their plans rings hollow to them.

They might respond to James by saying, listen James you say it’s wrong to leave God out of my plans and make my own way, you say nothing good will come of it and God won’t bless me. But look, I’ve done it and I’ve done it my way and look at my bank account look at my treasures look at my wealth I’m rich beyond my wildest dreams. I can do what I want when I want and how I want so don’t talk to me about changing my ways.

The danger for Christians is we see non-Christians and even some Christian brothers living this way and we have a desire to be like them. To make them our role models. They seem to have the Midas touch. King Midas was the mythical king of Phrygia (modern day Turkey) who prayed to the Greek God, Bacchus, the god of wine and revelry and asked for the power to turn everything he touched to gold. In earlier versions of this myth king Midas was at the point of starving to death because everything he tried to eat turned to gold. In later renditions he turns his daughter or sometimes it’s his son into gold. He eventually again called on Bacchus who being gracious gave him the cure. The moral is the same this great ability wasn’t without consequences; his desire to be wealthy left him ruined.

So having the ability to prosper isn’t always a blessing. Here we have a group of people ignoring God and prospering. But in their prospering they have lost sight of what’s important they no longer play by the rules. They make up their own rules as they go. They have gained wealth and in the gaining of the wealth they have mistakenly placed their trust in the wealth itself, so they have become willing to do whatever is necessary to keep what they have and to gain even more.

James describes their way of life, how they abused their position, in verses 4 through 6. Verse 4 says they have gained their wealth by cheating those who work for them, they have become dishonest.

In verse 5 James implies they lifestyle of luxury came at the expense of others, and led a life of wanton pleasure. In other words they have forsaken moral values for the sake of pleasure, they have adopted situational ethics and morals. If it feels good and I can do and get by with it, then it must be ok to do it. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

In verse 6 James says they have even gone so far as to murder those who they think might stand in the way of them getting what they want. We find an account of something like this in 1 Kings 21. It’s the story of Naboth, King Ahab and Jezebel Ahab’s wife. It’s the text of the late Dr R. G. Lee’s famous sermon Payday Someday. Dr Lee who is famous for his graphic pictorial language describes Ahab as the vile human toad who squatted on the throne of the nation and Jezebel the human adder coiled by the throne. 1 Kings 21 tells us Ahab wanted Naboth’s vineyard, Naboth didn’t want to part with it and he refused to sell it, which caused Ahab to sulk and pout so Jezebel hired men to give false testimony against Naboth and he was stoned and king Ahab who had much wealth and many vineyards obtained one more. But while he obtained one more vineyard he also fell under the wrath of God for what he had done. While he was rich and powerful he did not posses immunity from God’s judgement. Listen to what God said to Ahab and Jezebel through Elijah the prophet

I King 21:17-19

17     Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

18     "Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth where he has gone down to take possession of it.

19     "And you shall speak to him, saying, 'Thus says the LORD, "Have you murdered, and also taken possession?"' And you shall speak to him, saying, 'Thus says the LORD, "In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth the dogs shall lick up your blood, even yours."'"(NAS)

In verse 23, he gave this prophecy concerning Jezebel: "And of Jezebel also has the LORD spoken, saying, 'The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the district of Jezreel.' (NAS)

In verse 29 the Bible says Ahab repented of what he had done and the Lord spared him and brought judgement upon his house after he died. Eleven years after his son Joram began to reign we read in 2 Kings 9:33-26 God’s prophecy was fulfilled against Jezebel.

The Prophet Isaiah denounced those who misuse their wealth (3:14-15; 5:8-15; 10: 1-4) as did Amos( 4:1-3; 8:4-10), Jeremiah (5:27-29), Micah (2:1-5) and Malachi (3:5).

Like these prophets, James rebukes those who misuse their wealth. Jesus gave us a clear principle to follow concerning material wealth in Matt 6:24. Jesus didn’t say there was anything inherently wrong with wealth or having wealth. Abraham the father of faith was a man of great wealth. What he does condemn is a wrong attitude towards wealth and misuse of it. Jesus said: "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. (NAU) In other words wealth can’t be your master, you must be master of your wealth. He also said: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also ( Matt 6:21). (NAS)

The hearts of these people James is referring to are with their wealth. It has become their master. It has replaced Jesus in their lives. We see the hopelessness of that in the account recorded in Matt19 and Mark 10 of the man who came to Jesus and asked what he could do to have eternal life. Jesus said obey the law. He told Jesus he had been obedient to the law all his life, but he recognized something was still missing, he needed something more. Jesus knew what was between the young man and a saving relationship. He told him to get rid of his material wealth, give it to the poor and come follow Him. Jesus did that because he knew this man had two masters and he could have only one. The Bible says when the young man heard what Jesus said went away sorrowful because he had much wealth. He wanted eternal life, but he didn’t want to give up his riches in this present world to be rich forever.

 “you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Weeping and howling describes the custom of wailing over the dead that was and is still a part of the culture of the middle east. In other words, James said go ahead and observe your funeral because you are already dead in you sin and you will face severe judgement from the Lord for the way you have lived.

Land and livestock were important sources of wealth in the middle east, Three others sources of wealth were grain products the fruit of the harvest, fine fabrics and precious metals silver and gold. James uses these last three as examples of the deceitfulness and hopelessness of physical wealth. He wrote, Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. There were no refrigerators or freezers to store food and in grain bins or grain sacks there was the ever present danger of rot. There were also no cedar lined closets or hermetically seal storage containers no facilities to store their clothes or fabrics to prevent insects such as moths from getting to them and destroying them. In both examples when that happened of course the possessions became worthless.

James said that’s what’s going to happen anyway. No matter how careful you are those things are going to rot and the moths are going to get them.

To further make his case he wrote Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. The point is gold and silver don’t in the normal course of things rust, but the in the coming judgement against them even those precious metals will rust away like the most worthless of metals. And the fact that the rich have placed their trust in these things will be a witness against them and will destroy them like fire. There is a picture here of the dangers of hell. Placing their faith in wealth has left them with nothing in the final judgement, their greed has even destroyed their soul.

What does that mean for the believer? What does it mean for the ordinary person. What does it mean for us? Wealth and being rich is subjective. When compared to the majority of the world each of us would be considered rich. When compared to Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, well we wouldn’t even compare. But we all have possessions, home, cars, campers, computers, furniture the list could go on.

James wants us to consider those who have neglected God in the gaining and maintaining of their wealth. He isn’t condemning wealth itself, having it or making it, just the how and why and who. He’s condemning the deception that wealth is all that’s needed to get by. He’s condemning the deception of being dominated and controlled by possessions. It is a reminder and a warning that possessions can’t and must never substitute for or replace relationships in our lives. We must possess our possessions, they must never posses us.

The most important thing in life is our relationship to Jesus Christ, not our relationship to the things we own. We must be known by our relationship to Him and not by what we have in worldly riches. Jesus said for where you treasure is there your heart will be too. Let me ask you this morning, where is your heart? What possesses you, is it the love of Christ of the love of things. Are you a good steward of your possessions or are they the master of your life?

Jesus wants to be your Savior, He wants to give you eternal life. He also wants to be your Lord and Master giving not only eternal life but abundant life as well. Possessions can never bring joy, they can never give you fulfillment or peace only Jesus can give you that. The question is will you allow Him to be Lord and Master of your life and all you possess or will you be in bondage to things. Will you experience eternal and abundant life or momentary temporal happiness? Will you give all the Him in faith?