Barry Metz 10/08/17

Misusing Riches Brings God’s JudgmentJames 5:1–6

Our passage this morning in the first six verses of James 5 is about misusing riches. The principle issue that I want to highlight or billboard up front from the passage is the issue of hoarding … the issue of hoarding.

And interestingly if you ask your good friend Siri to define hoarding, the first definition that shows up is this: ‘a large board in a public place, used to display advertisements, a billboard.’ I think this use of the word comes from England.

Now the bible doesn’t discourage saving or investing but it does condemn hoarding.1 We hoard when we amass riches (or other stuff) for the future. Maybe we could ‘Christianize’ that definition by saying ‘we hoard when we amass riches (or other stuff) for the future and we don’t seek God’s input.

Now defining hoarding that way immediately raises a question in my mind. Maybe it does so in yours. When does saving cross the line and become hoarding?

It seems like it’s easy to see hoarding at its extremes --there was the case in the 70s of a woman who died of malnutrition on Easter Sunday…she had wasted away to 50 pounds…she was always seen begging from her neighbors…buying used clothing…she had become a recluse…. well after she died they found out that she had safe-deposit boxes at two different banks which had cash, bonds, stock certificates etc worth….drumroll please…. a million dollars…So the sad reality was that her hoarded riches weren’t doing anybody any good….neither herself or anyone else. So again it seems easy to see hoarding at its extremes, but back to our question, when does saving cross the line and become hoarding? I’m not sure that we can answer that in a black and white way. It seems like it’s an issue of the heart. It’s something we need to bring before the Lord for his input.

But after further reflecting on it, I found myself wondering if a better question than “Have I gone from saving to hoarding?” is “Am I being a good steward, Lord, with your resources?” Isn’t that the more important question? The scriptures teach us that God owns it all…but we possess some things… and we are stewards of everything God has given us to possess.

So the issue is really not ‘Am I hoarding?’ but ‘am I stewarding God’s resources well?’ That seems to be the better question. {And as believers the bible is clear we are not to hoard God’s resources but to steward them.}

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Let’s drive home the sin of hoarding with an object lesson.

May I have a volunteer?

This table and these water bottles and this friendly volunteer who will hand me water bottles represent God. God is the one who owns everything. Doesn’t Psalm 24:1 tell us that? The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. God is the one who owns everything and he gives us everything we have. Perhaps we inherited a sum or a relative gave us a sum of money but it

1 Wiersbe, Be Mature

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was God who ultimately is behind everything we possess. He owns it; we currently possess it; we are stewards.

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Let’s get started. To the volunteer: You hand me one bottle at a time.

(Note: the vast majority of bottles that I am handed are going to go in 4-5 small bags which become increasingly bulky to hold)

Let’s have a little dialogue as we walk through this. I have three questions that I’ll ask and try to answer and then give you an opportunity to give input.

1. So why do people (why do we) hoard? There are probably a host of reasons. We get attached to objects that others see as trivial: “I might need these egg cartons later. Just in case, I better save them.” Anybody gone there? Could it be that we hoard because we’re anxious about the future? Could there have been a time in our lives when we were dirt poor and we’re committed to not ever be there again? How about from you? Any reasons we might hoard?

2. What are some deep-seated assumptions that might lead to hoarding? Again I have some ideas but my ideas don’t exhaust the possibilities.

If I don’t take care of myself, no one else will. Or… I don’t know if I can trust God to care for me.Or… It’s my wealth… I can do what I want with it.

3. Why is hoarding a problem?

My hoarded wealth distracts me…my attention is given over to my hoarded riches.

My hoarded wealth distracts others…John Piper says this ‘If we look like our lives are devoted to getting and maintaining things, we will look like the world, and that will not make Christ look great’2 When we hoard God is not shown to be big and great.

My hoarded wealth can choke the word…Mark 4:19 …the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things… choke the word

Inevitably our hoarded resources become more important than our relationships. “Hoarders usually feel isolated, depressed, and misunderstood by others. Their hoard becomes a part of their identity.”3

2 Piper, “Don’t waste your Life” page 1083 Got Questions Ministries, Logos

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But the most important reason hoarding is a problem is that Jesus commands us to lay up treasure in heaven rather than on earth.

____________With that background let’s look at our passage in James…. Follow along as I read James 5:1-6.

5 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. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

Now one of the problems in looking at a passage like this-- especially one that is so specifically focused as this passage is--is that a lot of what the bible teaches about wealth is not addressed. As I thought about that, it seemed fitting to set the stage for our passage in James with a quick overview highlighting the biblical teaching on riches so that we would some have perspective as we look at what James says here in chapter 5. In one of the books I surveyed, I found a comparison between ‘The world’s view of riches’ vs. ‘The word’s view of riches’…..‘The world’s view of riches’ vs. ‘The word’s view of riches.’

You’ll see the comparison on the back of your sermon notes. Follow with me as I quickly read through the chart, moving from the top down and reading from left to right.

The world’s view of riches…left column….money brings freedomThe word’s view of riches….right column…. The desire for money can be enslaving and lead to destruction; only Christ brings true freedom

Left column….money brings securityRight column….worldly wealth is very insecure…real security is found in knowing and trusting GodLeft column….money is what mattersRight column… the word’s view of riches…Christ and the kingdom of God are what mattersLeft column….money is powerRight column…. power comes by being filled with the SpiritLeft column….money establishes your worth as a personRight column….your worth is based on what God saysLeft column… money makes you successfulRight column….success comes from knowing and doing what God saysLeft column….the world’s view of money… money gives you optionsRight column….God is the one who ultimately gives you options.Left column….Money brings happinessRight column…the happiness that money brings is short-lived.Left column…. Money is your reward. Save it and spend it on yourselfRight column….the Word’s view of riches…. Give as much as you can!

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And finally…Left column…Money is your possession. Spend it on whatever you want.Right column….All that you have is God’s to do with as He pleases. You are a manager or steward.

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Okay, now having some of those ideas in our minds, let’s look at our passage.

Verse 1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you…

James clearly puts on the mantle of a prophet in these verses. Essentially he says, “You rich, God’s judgment is headed your way!” ….weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.

Who are the rich who James has in his crosshairs? Verse 4 tells us they are wealthy landowners who employ day laborers to work their land. But there’s a second question that is often entertained: “Are these rich landowners believers?” Students of scripture are divided on that point. I lean toward the idea that they are not believers. Two reasons--first, the way James attacks them without “offering them any redemptive options”4….For James it seems, judgment is a foregone conclusion and it’s coming their way! AND second, the fact that James often populates his text with the term ‘brothers’ in the vicinity of this passage-- James 4:11, James 5:7, James 5:10, James 5:12-- but the term ‘brothers’ is conspicuously absent in verses 1-6.

So I take it that in these six verses, James is prophetically announcing judgment on rich ‘Roman or Jewish landowners’5 who are oppressing believing members of his congregations.

Now the structure of the passage is easy enough to understand:

James pronounces condemnation on the unbelieving landowners in verse 1 and then verses 2-6, he gives the reasons why…

Verses 2-3 they’ve hoarded their wealth and it hasn’t done anyone any good.

Verse 4 they’ve defrauded their day laborers by withholding their wages.

Verse 5 they’ve followed a self-indulgent lifestyle.

And verse 6 they oppress the ‘righteous.’6

Now why would James preach a sermon to people who weren’t in the room? I said that James’ audience was rich unbelievers. I mean these rich unbelieving landlords were probably not in earshot of James’s words were they? Well you need to know that the Old Testament prophets would often do this--they’d preach a message of judgment against Egypt or Tyre or Babylon to the people of God, to Israel. Why? To encourage God’s people that there was a just God who saw what they were going through. John

4 Blomberg5 Blomberg, page 6 Moo

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Calvin highlights two purposes why James might speak to those who were not in the room for the sake of those who were in the room7

Do you see his two reasons? That the believers wouldn’t envy the rich AND knowing that God would be the avenger of wrongs they suffered, they could patiently endure.

Well we’ve talked all around verse 1 but let’s not miss what it says. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you…

The words weep and howl appear frequently in the Old Testament prophets in the context of judgment.8 Weep means ‘to weep from the depths of one’s being in grief and remorse.’9 Wail means to howl, especially as a result of sudden and unexpected evil and regret.10 The word goes beyond mere lamenting and refers to shrieking or screaming. “Taken together, weep and wail, picture an intense outburst of despairing, violent, uncontrollable grief.”11 The word miseries describes overwhelming hardship, trouble, suffering, or distress.12

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you…

Now let’s make sure we understand that the reason for this condemnation is not their wealth per se, but their misuse of wealth.

Now as believers we won’t face such a judgment, a judgment that would leave us shrieking, howling and screaming, but we will stand before the Bema seat of Christ to give an account of our lives as stewards. So it is good for you and me to wrestle with the question, “How much is enough?” “How much is enough, Lord?” “Am I being a good steward of all that you have given me?”

Well verse 2-3 give the first reason why the rich landowners are headed for a weeping and wailing kind of judgment--we see the description of hoarded resources. 2 Your riches have

7 Reworded from Blomberg, page 2208 Moo9 Nystrom, page 26910 Nystrom, page 26911 MacArthur, page 24312 MacArthur, page 243

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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.

In the ancient world, riches typically included land and its produce, clothes, and gold and silver. So it’s possible in verse 2, when James says “Your riches have rotted”….he has in mind produce that has been hoarded and rotted. But on the other hand, there’s ample evidence that the word rotting could be applied ‘metaphorically to anything that is transitory’13. So their hoarded riches have rotted, their hoarded clothes have been eaten by moths, and their hoarded gold and silver have corroded.

Notice James writes as if the rotting and decay and corrosion have already occurred. That’s all about the verb tenses James uses. The rich that he’s talking about can’t see that their great wealth has already lost its luster. But James uses a verb tense to communicate that the future of this decay and rotting and corrosion is so sure that we can talk about it as if it’s already occurred. “Their wealth stands already under the doom of the things of this world that will fade away and can provide no foundation for the life to come.”14

Your riches have rotted.Your garments are moth-eaten.Your gold and silver have corroded. It’s so sure, James says, we can talk about it as if it has already occurred.

Now technically gold and silver doesn’t corrode or ‘rust’. But there is some evidence that the word used here had taken on a general sense of decay.15 On top of that we should remember that ‘James is painting with the eye of a prophet.’16 His point is that wealth--hoarded wealth--is fleeting, it’s transitory.17 James is probably speaking metaphorically…. “Your gold and silver is becoming useless.” It’s already under the doom of the things of this world that will fade away.

And not only will their wealth bring no lasting benefit to its possessors, it will even stand as evidence against them. Do you see that phrase in verse 3? How will hoarded wealth stand as evidence against them (and I suppose….us)? The fact that some have accumulated so much says that they have been guilty of focusing on ‘earthly treasure’ at the expense of ‘heavenly treasure’ and that very fact shows plainly where their heart really was all along.

13 Moo14 Moo15 Moo, See Ezek. 24:6,11,1216 Nystrom17 Moo

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God intended, not that we hoard, but that we do good to others with our stuff! As Calvin commented, “God has not appointed gold for rust, nor garments for moths; but on the contrary, he has designed them as aids and helps to human life.”18

Well there’s a final phrase we haven’t talked about in verse 3 You have laid up treasure in the last days. Interestingly the word translated ‘laid up treasure’ is the Greek word from which our word ‘thesaurus’ comes from. Now I like thesauruses so I would necessarily expect a positive meaning here. But James is actually making an accusation with these words. What’s the accusation? We can understand his accusation by defining the phrase “last days”. Biblically we believe the last days started at Pentecost and the last days are the time period right before the climax of history when Jesus returns to judge the world.

So what James is saying is these rich are particularly sinful for laying up treasure right before Jesus comes to judge. “They’ve piled up wealth in an age that’s near its close.”19 It is in the last days and they are laying up treasure for themselves!

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Now let’s not just talk about them. Let’s talk about us. Haven’t we seen the grace of God already displayed in Jesus? Don’t we anticipate the judgment of God to come? Shouldn’t those two ideas motivate us to share, not hoard, our wealth?

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Well verse 4 gives us the second reason the rich face judgment--they have cheated their workers of their pay. 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.

Many see in verse 4 an echo of Deuteronomy 24:14-15. Let me put it on the screen.

Notice the promise at the end of verse Deut. 24:15….if the hired worker cries out to Yahweh about withholding wages, the employer will be guilty. So there is an assumption that Yahweh 18 Moo19 REB

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sees and is moved by injustice. Yahweh isn’t the God of deism who winds the world up (so to speak) and then exits the scene. He sees. He hears. We can expect his involvement. We can expect his judgment.

But notice that James says, in verse 4, that two cries go up to God. There’s the cry of unpaid wages rising up from the bank accounts of the rich. “The unpaid wages tell a story to God; when personified, they themselves cry out to God and testify against the wealthy land owners demanding judgment.”20

The unpaid wages are like the blood of Abel crying out for justice. But it’s not just the unpaid wages which cry out to God for justice, the second cry heard by God is the cry of the unpaid harvesters. And James uses an Old Testament title for God, Lord Sabaoth, the Hebrew title for “Lord of Hosts” which uniquely pictures “God leading an army in defense of his people.”21 The phrase ‘conjures up the image of God going to war against the wealthy to defend his oppressed poor’.22 And it’s clear that James is out to provide ‘comfort for the poor within his congregations, insisting that God does see and hear their precarious situations and that he will bring justice.’23

One final note from verse 4, James uses a verb tense that communicates completed action when he writes the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. God has already heard their complaints and stands ready to act.

Well, in verse 5 James offers the third reason why the rich landowners will be judged--they’ve lived a self-indulgent lifestyle. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

The first two verbs in verse 5 clearly refer not just to an affluent lifestyle but to ‘debauched self-indulgence.’ Consider these other translations: “you satisfied your every whim”24, “you’ve reveled on earth and plunged into dissipation”25, and “you’ve luxuriated on the land and run riot.”26 They were like the rich man in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. They had received all the comfort they would ever receive. In the next life they would receive nothing but torment. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have gorged your hearts in the day of slaughter…the day of judgment when God’s enemies will be slaughtered. The day of slaughter is probably a

20 Blomberg, page 22321 Blomberg, page 22322 Nystrom, page 27123 Blomberg, page 22324 NLT25 Moffatt26 Rotherham

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vivid description of the day of judgment.27 Again James writes as if the day of slaughter has already begun.

Verse 6 offers the final reason why the rich landowners will be judged. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

There is an ancient tradition that says that the righteous person, here in verse 6, is Jesus himself.28 But it’s probably better to assume that James has in mind the day-laborer who has been defrauded of his wages and been completely taken advantage of. Has the righteous one been literally murdered? Possibly. Or James might be using the term figuratively…You have condemned and completely destroyed the righteous person’s life. He does not resist you. One writer says this about verse 6… “James, on a note of majestic pathos, concludes the paragraph by reminding us that the righteous are helpless victims of the stratagems of the rich and powerful.”29

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Where have we been this morning? What have we said?

We’ve said that James in the mantle of a prophet has warned rich unbelieving land owners that judgment is coming because they have misused riches. How had they misused their riches? They had hoarded wealth in the last days--days when the climax of history was right around the corner. They defrauded day laborers of their wages. They lived lives of self-indulgence. And they completely oppressed (‘murdered’) the workers that worked for them.

Early on in the message I highlighted the concept of hoarding and used it as a bridge of application to our time. The Bible never condemns saving but it does condemn hoarding. And at the beginning of the message I asked the question, “How do we know when we’ve gone from saving to hoarding?” And then I suggested that the better question is “Am I being a good steward, Lord, with your resources?”

The scriptures teach us that God owns everything, but that He gives us things to steward.

Are we being good stewards of God’s resources?

Paul’s words to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6 give us clear direction…

27 Moo28 Nystrom, page 27229 Moo

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Well, what might stewarding look like with our water bottles object lesson? Could my volunteer come back up? Let’s see how this goes as we try to steward the resources God gives us. (Maybe some of these resources will even make their way to the guys on the sound board or the fellowship hall!)

Note: Bag a few bottles, open one and drink it, and send the rest out into the congregation.

Let us pray.

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