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.
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.