Riches Reveal (James 4:17-5:6) [2026-1-25]

All right, good morning, church family.

Once again, as you find your seat, if you would open your

Bibles or type in your devices the book of James this morning

we're going to be in James chapter 4.

James 4 · chapter mention

Just looking at the very last verse.

I wanted to include this last week, but I just couldn't fit it

in. And so we're going to be James

417 and then the bulk of our message will come from James 51

to 6:00. So as you guys turn there, type

that in, I'm going to open this in a word of prayer and then we

will jump into the sermon. So let's read our text first

before we pray. James 4 beginning in verse 17.

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for

him, it is sin. Chapter 5.

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

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.

Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields,

which you kept back by fraud or crying out against you, and the

cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of

Host. You have lived on the earth and

luxury and in self indulgence you have fattened your hearts in

a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered

the righteous person. He does not resist you.

You will pray with me, Lord, as we get to a text this morning

that deals with money and finances and lifestyles.

Lord, I know that this is always maybe a sore spot for many of

us, especially in in such an affluent area, an area not only

affluent because we're in America, but even affluent here

in Seattle. Lord, I pray that you would help

us to to not be defensive this morning, to not be to go into

spiritual protection mode, but that you would help us to to be

open and transparent and honest with ourselves and, and

especially with you, Lord, about where you may be calling us, to

consider our finances, consider our wealth and what we do with

it. I pray this in the name of

Jesus, Amen. Imagine if a man sat down to

play the game of Monopoly. I realized that they're probably

some here who are young enough. Then you may have never even

played Monopoly a a day in your life.

Imagine if someone sat down to play Monopoly and as he began

playing this game, everything is going his way.

He lands on Boardwalk, he buys it.

He lands on Park Place, he buys it.

He now has the two most expensive properties.

He puts hotels on these properties and every time

someone lands on them, he cashes in big.

He is doing well in the game, so well that he gets this big fat

wad of Monopoly money. Now suppose he goes about his

life so happy of how rich he is. But one day somebody comes to

him and says, Sir, you do realize that you're not actually

rich, right, man? It says, what?

What are you talking about? Takes out his his big fat wad of

Monopoly money. Says, look, look at this.

How can you say I'm not rich? Look, look at how much I have

any the man says, yeah, I see that.

But you do realize that is Monopoly money.

It's not real. How can you tell me it's not

real? I I used it to buy all this

property. Well, sure, but that only exists

in the game. This is real life.

That is a game. You are rich in the game, but

not real life. How many of us been playing this

game called life, earthly life, so long that we forget what is

truly life and we forget what it means to be truly rich.

The money we have on this earth is is ultimately eternally no

better than Monopoly money. If you stop and think about it

this morning, we get to a text where James is, is challenging

the rich and how they live. And, and I want to to to to come

humbly this morning as we look at this, because I I recognize,

you know, on the spectrum, if we look at the world, right, we're

fluent. Many of us are homeowners.

Many of us have jobs making good money.

I have AI mean I even as a pastor relative to the world, I

make good money. So I hope we will all be humble

as we come to this text this morning.

Let's start with the exhibition of the text and then I'll give

us application. James chapter 4, beginning of

James 4 · chapter mention

verse 17. I want to start by exposing the

text and then I'll give us application.

Here's what James writes. So whoever knows the right thing

to do and fails to do it, for him, it is sin.

Now commentators debate over whether verse 17 is connected to

verses 13 to 16. One of the reasons I didn't

include it is because there is this question of are they

connected? If you read verses 13 to 16,

verse 17 just seems out of place.

It doesn't seem to go with it. And so if they are connected,

how are they connected? I'm not going to step into those

Muddy Waters, but for the purpose of this sermon, I'm

going to assume they are connected because of this word.

So you notice verse 17. So.

So how are they connected? If you remember last week, there

were some in the church who were making business plans.

They were making these plans to go into a town and to sell their

their goods and to make a profit.

The what's wrong with that? The problem is they were making

their business plans absent of God.

And James exhorts them that God should not only factor into

their equation, He is the equation.

He must be the equation. God's will must be the deciding

factor in their business plans. And so now James exhorts them,

He says whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it,

for him it is sin. Now what is James's point here?

I think he's given a specific meaning and a broad meaning.

Let me let me give us a specific meaning and a broad meaning.

Here's the specific meaning. These merchants now know that

the right thing to do is to submit their plans to God.

James just told them they now know that's the right thing to

do, that when they make plans for their life, to submit their

plans to God. And so knowing that he's telling

them now that you know this, if you go ahead and make plans out,

consulting God's will, you have sinned.

I think that's the connection. That's the specific connection.

Now, what is the broad meaning? James is getting at what we

commonly call sins of omission, right?

We often talk about sins of Commission.

That's doing something that you shouldn't do.

And then there's sins of omission, not doing something

that you should do. It's a broad meeting here is

that sin is not just things that we do, but it's also things that

we fail to do that we should. And James is saying whoever

knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is

sin. Let's look at verse one, chapter

5. Come now, you rich, weep and

howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.

Now James is going to change subjects and he's going to turn

his attention to a specific category of people in the

church. He's going to dress for the next

6 verses, a specific category. Here's the category, the rich.

Now I want to be clear. I don't think that the rich

James is referring to in this passage, not the letter and this

passage are Christians. I think the rich previously may

very well have been rich Christians.

I think the rich here in this passage are lost people, rich

lost people. Which then would raise the

question, why does James address them, right, If he's writing to

the churches there, you know, are these rich lost people in

the church? Probably not.

So why is he addressing them? It may be what's not a

rhetorical device known as apostrophe, right?

You're like apostrophe and that like the little thing like it

is, there's also a rhetorical device called apostrophe.

What is that? It is speaking to people who are

not present for the purpose of those who are.

It's a rhetorical device. It was, it was.

It's often used. So he starts with the same

harkening that we looked at last week.

He says, come now. It's a way of saying, now

listen, he calls them you rich, come now, Now listen, you rich.

This is the third time in this letter that James has

specifically addressed the rich. Now, when James says rich, don't

read that as billionaires or even millionaires don't read it

that way. A person who owned a home, ate

multiple times a day, had multiple changes of clothes and

owned possessions would have been considered rich in those

days. That's what made someone rich.

Those things made someone rich in those days.

And so James gives the rich a command here.

He says weep and howl. It's an interesting command.

We saw this idea back in James 49 where he said, be wretched

and mourn and weep. There James was exhorting these

professing Christians who had made themselves friends with the

world, and he said you should mourn over your sin.

Here he's exhorting the rich to do the exact same.

The word for weep is the same word used in chapter 4-9, But

this is the only time that the Greek word for howl is used.

What is? We don't use that word, all that

howl, right? They have a dog howling.

What does it mean to howl? It means to cry out with a loud

voice, either in joy or pain. Now here's what's interesting.

Normally we think of the poor as weeping and howling.

Remember, think of the the poor weeping and howling over their

their poverty. But James says that the rich

should weep and howl. Why you ever, you ever had a

like a you ever seen a rich person?

You know where they're like crying?

You're like, why are you crying, you bitch?

Why would the rich weep and howl?

Look what he says for the miseries that are coming upon

you. That word for miseries means

wretchedness, distress, trouble, misery.

Now here's the question. What are these miseries and why

are they coming upon them? James will answer the why in

verse 3. We'll get there in a minute.

But as far as the what? What are these miseries?

Notice these miseries are not present day.

James says that are coming upon you.

This leads us to believe that James is most likely referring

to the day of judgment, or as the Old Testament prophets would

say, the day of the Lord. Look at verses 2 to 3.

Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten.

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.

James here gives 3 descriptions of their wealth.

Let's look at them individually #1 Your riches have rotted.

Riches can is a very broad term in the Greek.

It can refer to any abundance of earthly goods or wealth.

And James says that these riches, that they have rotted,

they have suffered decay #2 Your garments are moth eaten, right?

Why would their garments be moth eaten?

Well, ancient clothing was made. They didn't have polyester,

right? Ancient clothing was made almost

entirely from wool or linen or silk or animal hair.

And moth larvae would feed on keratin, a protein that's found

in animal fibers. These moth would lay their

larvae and then they they would they would eat away at the

clothes. And you go take out your, your

sweater, whatever you want to wear, and all sudden it's got

holes in it. Three, your gold and silver have

corroded. What does that mean?

They're corroded that, that the Greek word they're for corroded.

It means to undergo the process of oxidation of metals, to

become rusty, to become tarnished, to corrode.

Now these words of James, they reminds us of Jesus's words, do

they not? In the Sermon on the Mount,

where when Jesus taught the crowds, he says, do not lay up

for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and

where thieves break in and steal.

Earlier I had asked the question, what are these

miseries and why are they coming upon them?

And James now tells us what they are.

He says these miseries will eat your flesh like fire.

It's pretty graphic, isn't it? These miseries will eat your

flesh like fire. This again confirms that James

is referring to the Day of Judgment.

On that day these rich will suffer the same fate as the rich

man. And Luke 16, if you remember

there the rich man also died and was buried, and being in Hades,

being in torment, he said I am in anguish in this flame.

These rich will have the same fate.

Why? James writes, their corrosion

will be evidence against you. In other words, their corrosion

will testify against you. How so?

How, how, how will their corrosion testify against you?

Well, the they're rotted riches, they're moth eaten garments,

they're corroded gold and silver will testify that Jesus was not

their treasure. When they get to the judgment

and they stand there in in God's courtroom, the witnesses that

will come forward to testify in this courtroom will be their

rotted riches, their moth eaten garments and their corroded gold

and silver. And it will testify that Jesus

was not their treasure. Their riches were their

treasure. Notice James writes you have

laid up treasure in the last days.

Now last days refers to anytime post Christ.

I don't read that as like you know, the the literal last days

is anytime that's post Christ and this is exactly what Christ

said not to do. They're doing the very thing

that Jesus said not to do. Do not lay up for yourselves

treasures here on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in

heaven. Look at verse 4.

Behold the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you

kept back by fraud or crying out against you, and the cries of

the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

Now James gets into the weeds of their business dealings.

James says these rich are land owners, right?

You know, I mean we, we own land now, but you know, don't

necessarily think of us as rich, but in those days if you own

land, you were rich. They own, they own these rich

are land owners. They have fields, let's say it

was a a wheat field, and they would hire laborers to mow these

fields, probably better translate, reap these fields.

Laborers would take a sickle and they would go and they would

reap and then they gather the grain and the landowner would

then be able to sell that grain. These laborers would often work

all day in the hot sun, cutting down grain for hours, and then

at the end of the day, they would come to the owner for

their payment for their wage. But the text says the landowner

kept back the wages of the labourers by fraud.

What does that mean? Means he didn't pay them.

He didn't pay them. Now this was not an uncommon

practice in antiquity. God had given multiple warnings

in the Old Testament about this. Malachi 35.

Then I will draw near to you for judgment.

I will be a swift witness against those who oppressed the

hired worker in his wages. Leviticus 1913.

The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all

night until the morning. And here's probably the best

one. Deuteronomy 2414 to 15.

You shall not oppress A hired worker who is poor and needy,

whether he is one of your brothers or one of your

sojourners. You shall give him his wages on

the same day before the sunsets, for he is poor and he counts on

it. See the way that that wages work

back then. It's not like today where you

get paid, you know, once a month or once a week or quarterly, or,

you know, however you get paid today, you typically labour's a

day. We got paid daily.

They would work all day, they would get their wage and then

they would go into the market and they would buy what they

needed for food. They would bring that food home

and then their family could eat. This is why Jesus says give us

this day Our Daily Bread. They lived many laborers lived

day by day. And so if you worked all day,

you're already exhausted and famished.

You go to get your your pay. You don't have savings, you

don't have money tucked away in Vanguard to go pull from.

You need that money to buy food, and if they hold that back, you

don't get to eat that day, he said.

Well, then file a report with the Department of Labor.

There is no Department of Labor. The poor often had no recourse

of action here when their wages were withheld.

Their only recourse was to cry out, and this turns out to be a

strong recourse because their cries, the cries of the

harvesters, reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

What's interesting is that the name Lord of Hosts, it's used

242 times in the Bible, but only twice in the New Testament.

This is one of them. It's as if James wants the rich

to know that the cries of these defrauded laborers.

It may not reach the judges ears, it may not reach the

governor's ears, it may not reach the King's ears, but it

will reach the Lord of host ears.

He will hear their cries and he will do something about it.

The verse 5 you have lived on the earth and luxury and in self

indulgence you have fattened your hearts in a day of

slaughter. James now condemns the rich by

describing their lifestyle and two phrases #1 you have lived on

the earth and luxury and in self indulgence.

Now what do these two terms mean?

Luxury. What is that?

This is the only time it's used in the New Testament.

This word, this Greek word, it means to live a life of self

indulgence, to live for pleasure, to revel to corrals

usually associated with in temperament, feasting and

drinking. Self indulgence, What does that

mean? This is actually used twice in

the New Testament. The other time is in First

Timothy 5-6, where it talks about widows who lived in self

indulgence and should not be enrolled in the church's

records. Forgiving it means to indulge

oneself beyond the bounds of propriety, to live luxuriously

or voluptuously. Now you realize that I just, I

defined those, but that I didn't really give you a lot of

specifics on that. Does it definitely tell us what

does it mean to live luxuriously?

What does it mean to live in self indulgence?

I'll get there in the application.

That's the first way. You can then say, here's the

second way you have fattened your hearts in a day of

slaughter. Now, this is a metaphor.

This is clearly a metaphor, but I guess it could also be

literal. They may have literally fattened

their hearts by eating so well. But James is using a metaphor to

illustrate what they are like. What?

What is he trying to illustrate what they're like?

He's saying you are like calves that are being fattened right

before the slaughter. This word slaughter, it again

points us to the day of judgment.

This again, all the clues are pointing us that this is the day

of judgment. Slaughter is the day of

judgment. Not only will their corroded

riches be a testimony against them, but so will their fattened

hearts be a testimony against them.

Look at verse 6. You have condemned and murdered

the righteous person. He does not resist you.

What does that mean? He does not resist you.

The NIV smooths this out a little bit.

Here's how the NIV translates it.

You have condemned and murdered innocent men who were not

opposing you. You've condemned and murdered

these innocent men who were not opposing you.

Now, does this mean they were literally murdering the poor?

I don't think so. I mean it's possible, but I

don't think so. I think he means this in an

indirect way. They were, they were murdering

them indirectly. How so?

In the book of Sirach, which is an apocryphal work, the author

writes this. To take away a neighbor's living

is to murder him. To deprive an employee of his

wages is to shed blood. If if you are poor and you have

no money, you have no savings. You depend on your wage, your

daily wage, and the person who's hiring you is not paying you.

I would imagine maybe some people did die from hunger from

not being able to eat. Or maybe they got certain

sickness and died from the sickness because they couldn't

eat. As I mentioned before, people

lived day by day. Most people live day by day.

They needed daily wages to be able to buy their daily bread.

Now it seems clear to me that from these statements and verses

one to six what we just read, these are not the actions of

people who have Christ as their treasure.

These are people who have riches as their treasure.

Which is why I think here he is not talking about rich

Christians, but rich lost. That being said, does that mean

that we should be like, don't apply to me?

Let's move on to verse 7. There is always things for us to

learn in God's Word. Always.

I have 7 exhortations for US7 exhortations #1 To make plans

without consulting the will of the Lord is sin.

To make plans without consulting the will of the Lord is sin.

How often do we make plans without consulting the will of

the Lord? Everything about that.

How often do we make plans without consulting the will of

the Lord? What to major in college?

What job to take when we finish college?

Who to date or how long to date? Who to marry or when to marry or

if you should marry? What house to buy or where we

live? How much should we spend on

travel or couch or refrigerator or bubble tea?

When to have kids or how many kids to have?

When to retire, or whether we should retire at all?

I think it's not uncommon, by and large, for Christians to

make decisions without consulting the will of the Lord.

I do not think it is all that uncommon for Christians to make

decisions without consulting the will of the Lord, especially if

the decision is not sinful. This is the this is the tricky

part. You're like, I don't need to

consult. There's nothing simple about

this. I don't need.

We don't just consult the will of the Lord on things that are

right and wrong. As I said last week, there's

nothing simple about goods. There's nothing simple about

moving to this town. There's nothing simple about

selling goods in this town. There's, there's, there's

nothing simple about spending a year there.

There's nothing simple about making a profit.

None of those things are simple. So what was wrong?

They didn't consult the will of the Lord in their plans.

Now we might wonder why? Why would they not?

Right? Like you know, I imagine, you

know, perhaps it never crossed their mind that they needed to

consult the will of the Lord. Everything about that.

Perhaps it never crossed their mind that maybe I should check

with God and this is what He wants me to do.

But James says, now that I've told you, you need to, to not do

so is sin. And the same is true for you and

me. Now, I want to be very clear.

I don't want to suggest that if you are torn after after church

today and you want to go eat somewhere right, and you're torn

between Chick-fil-A or Popeyes, well, Lord, what is your will?

I don't want to suggest that we have to consult the will of the

Lord as to where we go eat today.

That being said, how often do we make life decisions as though

we're choosing between Chick-fil-A and Popeyes?

This is so important, especially when decisions seem obvious,

especially when decisions go against conventional wisdom.

Because so often the reason that we don't consult God's will is

that it's just an obvious decision.

It's just conventional wisdom. Of course we would do this.

Why would we not do this? It seemed obvious that Peter

should pull his sword out and fight, but that was not the will

of the Lord. It seemed obvious that Sarah,

because it had been 13 years since God had given the promise,

she wasn't getting pregnant, so here's my servant.

This must be what God wants to do, but that was not the will of

the Lord. It seemed obvious that Saul

should go ahead and make the sacrifice because Samuel said

wait for me for seven days. Seven days were up.

He wasn't there, so I should just go ahead and make the

sacrifice. But that was not the will of the

Lord. It seemed obvious that when the

oxen stumbled and the ark of God, this holy ark of the Lord

was going to hit this dirt, that other should reach out and grab

it and keep it from touching the ground.

That was not the will of the Lord.

It is so important that we consult the will of the Lord,

especially when something seems just obvious or conventional

wisdom. Consulting the will of the Lord

is not simply good advice. The times I tell people that I

don't know what to do, what should I do, and I'm like, you

should ask the Lord, that's good advice.

It's not simply good advice. It is obedience.

It is obedience to consult the will of the Lord #2 Sins of

omission are often far more deceptive than sins of

Commission. Sins of omission are often far

more deceptive than sins of Commission.

As I mentioned in the exposition, verse 17 has a

specific application and a broad application.

And the broad application is this, to know the right thing to

do and to not do it is sin. In other words, sins of omission

are still sins. What are some examples of sins

of omission? Ignoring the poor, Not speaking

up when we should. Failing to pray or read our

Bible. Not correcting error.

Withholding forgiveness. Not sharing the Gospel.

Now here's the thing with sins of omission.

Here's the problem. They're often far more deceptive

than sins of Commission. Why?

How so? Because they are more subjective

in their nature and subjective in their extent.

Let me give an example from the tongue.

Suppose we tell a lie, right? That would be a sin of

Commission breaking one of the 10 commandments.

When you tell a lie, you feel the weight of it.

You realize you lied. Your conscience testifies I told

a lie. I shouldn't have done that.

You feel the weight of that. Now suppose we hear a lie and we

don't speak up to correct it. Did we send?

She sends a commissioner. Tricky, aren't they?

The nature and extent of sins of omission makes them very

difficult to identify. For example, at what point does

a lack of sharing the gospel become a lack of love?

At what point? At what point does a lack of

prayer and a lack of reading God's word become laziness and

indifference? At what point does silence

become fear of man? At what point does neglect of

the poor become greed? At what point does a lack of

forgiveness stop being processing and start being

bitterness? There are people who are having

a hard time forgiving. They say I'm processing right

now. At what point does that stop

being processing and start being bitterness?

This verse teaches us that when we examine ourselves, we are not

just to go down a list and think, where did I lust today?

Where was I unkind today? Where did I get angry today?

We are also to ask ourselves where did I know the right thing

to do today? And I didn't do it. #3 On the

Day of judgment, those who have poured out their sweat to store

up earthly treasure will pour out their tears for their loss

of heavenly treasure. On the Day of judgment, those

who have poured out their sweat to store up earthly treasure,

we'll pour out their tears for their loss of heavenly treasure.

James rights, Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the

miseries that are coming upon you.

Now let me give a bad application of this first.

This would be a bad application of this.

We should make a lot of money. There are people here.

This would be like, we shouldn't make a lot of money.

That's a bad application of this verse.

That's not what James is saying. That is not what the New

Testament teaches. The issues are with either a how

the wealth is acquired, B to what purpose the wealth is

acquired, or C the consequences of acquiring this wealth.

Now, one commentator, he lists four major sins of the rich

here. Here they are A hoarding B

fraudulence. C indulgence D betrayal.

Let's look at those individually.

A hoarding you have laid up treasure in the last days.

Now, often when we think about hoarders, we typically think

about people who hoard trash or what we call trap.

I mean, to them it's not trash, but we often got people who

hoard. They hoard garbage or papers,

cups and, and I don't know, all kinds of stuff.

Some people hoard wealth. If somebody asks you, are you a

hoarder? Oh, no, no, no, not at all.

Some people hoard wealth, Douglas Moo writes.

In the Western world, where amassing material wealth is not

only condoned but admired. We Christians need to come to

grips with this point and James, and ask ourselves seriously this

question, When do we have too much?

See, we often started our starting point often.

I know this because I think this way too.

Do I have enough? I got, I got 4 kids, you know,

and man, have you guys seen like a, you know, it's like $80 fill

up my gas caught tank and, and, and college is like $2,000,000

and, and, and you know, like health insurance, you know, I'm

just like I don't have enough. Do we ever stop and ask the

opposite question? When do I have too much B

fraudulence? Behold the wages of the laborers

who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud.

Now I hope and pray that no Christian would ever be guilty

of fraud. Right?

But Judas was so was akin, so was Ananias and Sapphira.

See indulgence. You have lived on the earth in

luxury and in self indulgence. I'll talk about this more in

point #7 But we're all reminded of the rich man in Luke 17 who

was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted

sumptuously every day. And then D betrayal, you have

condemned and murdered the righteous person.

These wealthy land owners were turning a blind eye to the to

the needs of the poor and the needy in that same story.

And Luke 16, at the rich man's gate was a poor man named

Lazarus who was laid there daily at his gate.

He was covered with sores and he desired to be fed just with the

crumbs that fell from this man's table.

Now, here's why this point is so difficult.

Douglas Moo, what I read just a minute ago hit the nail on the

head, except I would take out one word because he said in the

Western world, and I want to say it's not just the Western world.

China loves wealth too. So does Korea.

So does Japan. In the world where amassing

material wealth is not only condoned but admired.

We admire the rich. We envy them.

We praise their hard work, their savvy investing, their luxurious

lifestyle, their comfort and their convenience.

And yet it appears that James pities them.

He pities them. Why?

Because they have poured out their sweat to get all these

riches, only to pour out their tears to lose it all. 4 The only

way to be truly rich is to be rich towards God and rich in

good works. The only way to be truly rich is

to be rich towards God and rich and good works.

These rich are wealthy, they have riches, they have garments,

they have gold, they have silver, and on the day of

judgement they have nothing. They have nothing.

Brothers and sisters, the only currency in heaven is blood.

I read that Elon Musk is currently worth around 600

billion dollars, $600 billion. That is the number we can't

comprehend at age 54. If he lived to be to to 94, so

he lived another 40 years. Do you realize he could spend

$41 million every single day for 40 years and not run out of

money? He makes more in a single day

that I will make in my whole entire life, and on the day of

judgment all of us in Christ will be infinitely richer than

Him, The Lord said in Ezekiel 719.

They cast their silver into the streets and their gold, like it

is an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not

able to deliver them the day of the wrath of the Lord.

They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it,

for it was the stumbling block of their iniquity.

James writes that these rich, their their riches and their

garments, and their silver and their gold will be a testimony

against them. So, John Calvin writes, 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.

In other words, there's only two ways to be truly rich, to be

rich toward God and to be rich in good works.

Where do I get this from? Remember the parable, The Rich

Fool, this parable, there's this man who who has a he has land

and he has a harvest. And he's, I mean, he's like,

it's like the blockbuster harvest, the biggest harvest he

had ever had. And he's like, oh, no, I've got

so much I can't fit in my barn. What am I going to go to waste?

What do I do with all this extra?

He's just like, he's like man, he's just contemplating.

All of a sudden he's like, I got it.

I will build bigger barns and then I'll be able to store all

this. He does it.

He builds all these bigger barns.

He harvests, puts it all in there.

He goes to his front porch, gets him a glass of sweet tea, sits

down and says, so you have laid up goods for many years.

Eat, drink, relax. And God comes to him and says,

you fool, you're going to die tonight.

Jesus says so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and

is not rich toward God. In Paul's exhortation of

Timothy, he writes As for the rich in this present age, they

are to do good, to be rich and good works, to be generous and

ready to share the story of treasure for themselves.

There's only one way to be truly rich, and that's to be rich

toward God and rich in good works.

Everything else is Monopoly money, Five money, savings,

possessions, investments, lifestyle all have a way of

revealing where our treasure lies.

Money, savings, possessions, investments, lifestyle, they all

have a way of revealing where our treasure lies.

The problem is not with laying up treasure.

There's nothing wrong with laying up treasure.

The problem is the brokerage account that we use, James

writes. You have laid up treasure in

these last days. Now that sounds good, doesn't

it? It's good to lay up treasure.

We are the lay up treasure. The problem comes with the

brokerage account they chose. They chose to bank with this

world rather than to bank with heaven.

What makes someone a Christian is determined by where their

treasure lies. This is one of the greatest

misnomers about Christianity, especially here in America.

It is not simply whether you have made a profession of faith.

I can get Naomi to make a profession of faith.

The question is, where is your treasure?

What is your treasure? You say, how do I know?

Well, it's not the only way, but it often reveals money, savings,

possessions, investment, lifestyle.

They all have a way of revealing where your treasure is.

I was thinking about this over the past few weeks.

What if every cent was public? Like like, like, like for you or

for me? I'll just use myself, right?

What if every single cent in my life was public?

So my credit card statements were public, Meaning you could

view all my credit card statements, my bank statements,

my brokerage accounts, checking accounts, savings accounts,

cash, PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, Apple Cash, Google Pay.

All of it was public. You could see every single cent

that flowed in and out of my life.

What if all of it was public? One day it will be.

One day it will be. It'll all be made public and all

of these financial statements will serve as evidence.

Where was our treasure? They will testify.

Where was our treasure? 6 The Lord of hosts hears our

cries when we have been treated unfairly.

The Lord of hosts hears our cries when we have been treated

unfairly. I don't want to spend too long

on this point because but I want to include it because many

commentators think the context here.

I think this is probably true, that these rich land owners are

the lost world and the laborers in the passage are the

Christians. Many commentators think that's

what's going on. Why James includes it is that

there are rich land owners who are the lost world.

The Christians are the laborers. They're the ones who are getting

defrauded. I think it's a good theory.

We do know that in the 1st century, not many Christians

were wealthy. Some were, but not many.

And we do know as well that many of them got it taken advantage

of by the world. And James wants to assure that

them that they're crying out have reached the ears of the

Lord of Hosts. I have heard stories of

Christians being treated unfairly even in 21st century

America. Brothers and sisters, the Lord

of Hosts hears our cries every time we are treated.

And some of you, I've heard you're treated unfairly, maybe

by your parents, maybe by your boss, maybe by the government,

maybe by society. Every time we are treated

unfairly, whether it is a boss, Co workers, schools, the

government, communities, the Lord of Hosts hears our cries

and he will do something about it.

He will seven last point. Luxury and self indulgence are

difficult to define but not impossible to identify.

Luxury and self indulgence are difficult to define but not

impossible to identify. James tells these rich you have

lived on the earth and luxury and self indulgence.

How do we define luxury? How do we define self

indulgence? The other day I sat down for

lunch and I asked my wife this question.

I said let me ask you. She didn't know any.

She didn't know I was doing this.

They had no idea. I just sat down with no context.

I asked her. I said, let me ask you a

question. Would you say that we live, we

mean a zwit family, that we live in luxury and self indulgence.

She said, well, it depends on how you define them exactly.

They become difficult to define because they're relative.

They're relative. I So I thought about it.

I was like, well, I'm curious. I asked ChatGPT, what are some

things that the third world countries consider luxuries but

we consider basic? What are some things that third

world countries consider luxuries, but we consider basic?

Here's what I got Clean, drinkable tap water in your

home. Hot water on demand.

Indoor plumbing, Sewage systems that work reliably 24/7

Electricity, Air conditioning, central heating, Reliable

Internet access, Refrigerators, 3 meals a day.

Refrigerated or frozen. Food wide food variety.

Eating meat regularly, Dining out, private bedrooms, Large

living spaces, Multiple bathrooms, safe, solid

construction, personal vehicles, Paved roads, Reliable public

transportation, affordable fuel, Smartphones, personal computers,

streaming services, washing machines and dryers, Microwaves

and dishwashers. Access to nearby hospitals,

emergency services, prescription medications, vaccines, health

insurance, public education and college.

Access libraries, toilet paper, soap and shampoo.

Clean clothing, beds and mattresses.

You know what's interesting is when I read through that list,

when I book an Airbnb, I expect all those to be there.

Luxury and self indulgence are difficult to define, but they're

not impossible to identify. So how do we identify them?

That's a question I will pose to you in worship and community.

Let's pray.