James 5:1-6 - Trust in God, Not in Riches!

Good morning Calvary Chapel. Good morning, please.

Good morning. Hey man, an exuberant brother

over there. Hey man, God bless you, man.

Please turn in your Bibles with us to James Chapter 4 and we

James 4 · chapter mention

actually going to, I'm sorry, James Chapter 5.

James 5 · chapter mention

Actually, we're going to start James chapter 5 today.

James 5 · chapter mention

We're we're, we're cutting right through it.

I just want to thank everybody for coming this morning as my

sister is already so eloquently and graciously have already

given that that welcome. We thank God that you chose to

worship with us this morning. And we also thank God for those

who are watching on Facebook and those who are behind prison

walls who have chosen to listen to us this morning.

We thank you. We thank you.

It's always so good to see you guys to come in.

I look so forward to Wednesday nights and on Sundays when I get

a chance to just fellowship with you all.

It's such a blessing. You know, I, I, I thank God that

he calls me to be a part of a family, a, a family of believers

who truly, truly love one another.

And if there's one thing I can say, if you're here for the

first time, if there's one thing I can say, when you walk into

Calvary Chapel Westmoreland, the one thing you will experience

would be genuine love. You will experience that.

And I thank God for that. I thank God for that.

So we're going to go ahead and just pray and get into the Word

this morning. OK, Father, every day that we

have an opportunity to wake up and to give you praise and

worship, it's a blessing. David said that I will bless the

Lord at all times. That means we bless you when

we're suffering. We bless you when we're

abounding. We bless you in our mountaintop

experiences, Lord, and we bless you in our valleys.

We thank you for your faithfulness.

Great is your faithfulness to us.

And Father, as usual this morning as we come, we come and

gather, not just for fellowship, not just for the worship, but we

also come for the ultimate worship, which is to sit under

Your word and have an opportunity to obey you, to walk

in your truths. We thank You, Lord, that You

have given us of Your Word, and not only do you give us Your

Word, Lord, but through the power of Your Holy Spirit You

give us understanding of Your word, Cause us to be able to

rightly divide Your word, and we can only do that through the

power of Your Holy Spirit. So this morning we asked for a

manifestation of Your Holy Spirit upon each and every one

of us. To those of us who were

listening, I pray God that you would open our hearts and our

ears. Allow the Word to be a seed that

goes in to our hearts and that it takes up root there, and

cause it to bring forth fruit in our life that the world would be

able to see. And Father, for me, your

servant, I pray God that you would speak through me, that it

would be your voice that people hear.

It would be your words, your truth.

Lord, it's not mine, it's yours. So be with us this morning,

Lord, be with us. May we feel your presence.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. I could come and sit over there

and you can come up and take care of this if you Amen.

Amen. What is a blessing?

It's a blessing. I I was just thinking Pastor

Clark and myself and Brother Ted, as we were sitting out in

the what we call our prayer owl back there and we're lifting up

prayers to the Lord. I was just thinking about a song

this morning that was just really heavy on my heart, and

the song is great. Is your faithfulness.

And I think there's times that I kind of take a.

For. Granted, God's faithfulness in

my life, I think there's times that I just kind of expect his

faithfulness in my life. But the truth is, is that He's

faithful even when we're not, as his word clearly says.

And every day, regardless of whether we are having things go

so easy in our life or whether we're having things go hard, we

experience God's faithfulness. The fact that we're here today

is an example of God's faithfulness, fact that we woke

up this morning, the things that He provides for us.

We all have roofs over our head and we have food on our table

and we have clothes on our back. It's an example of God's

faithfulness, especially when you find that there's others who

don't have those things. But God has blessed us and have

given us above all things, the salvation that he's given us,

which is more important than anything that we can wear,

spend, or eat is the salvation of the Lord.

And we have that. We have that.

So thank you for taking that little ride with me this

morning. So just thinking about his

faithfulness in our lives. So let's go into James chapter 5

James 5 · chapter mention

and I'm going to read this and we're going to go back and we're

going to look at it and we'll see what the Lord has to say.

He says here in the in the first verse, he says, come now you

rich weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon

you. Your riches are corrupted and

your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and your silver are

corroded, and their their corrosion will be a witness

against you, and will eat your flesh like fire, if you have

heaped up treasure in the last days, indeed the wages of the

laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back.

By fraud, cry out. And the cries of the reapers

have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabeaf.

Verse 5 says you have. Lived on the earth and pleasure

and luxury. You have fattened your hearts as

in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have

murdered the just. He does not resist you.

What a sobering section of scripture.

What's really amazing about this is that after.

He gives us this section on we do not know.

When you look back at the end of chapter 4, he talks about we

don't know what's going to happen from one day to the next,

so we shouldn't do it presumptuously.

We should not live our lives absent from the dependence on

God and recognizing His will in our lives every day.

And then he comes down to Chapter 5.

Which is the first time in this scripture that he literally

speaks to the unbelievers. This is a message he's speaking

to the unbelievers throughout this entire.

Book So far it's been my brother and my brother and and it's been

about believers. But now he's taken a moment to

speak to the unbelievers. Now, these may be the

unbelievers who came and visited the church and he knew that

these unbelievers were abusing the poor, particularly those who

he's writing this book to, you know, the, the, the, the poor

believers, they're, they're abusing them.

And and he's going to talk about how they're abusing him.

And he takes this moment to not talk to the believers, but to

speak to these non believers. And he does it in the form of a

warning. And it's, I mean it, it, it's

almost, it almost cost chills when you think about this

warning that he's giving to these unbelievers.

I don't know if whether or not they, they, they truly heed this

warning, but this is indeed a very serious thing that he is

giving and saying to these unbelievers.

Now, one thing I do want to make clear, that the Bible doesn't

necessarily condemn being rich. It is not necessarily.

It's not condemning being rich. This is not an indictment

against people being rich, but it does warn, it warns US

against making wealth an idol in our lives.

It warns US against trusting in it or letting it corrupt our

hearts as it can so often. But instead, James, James is

urging us, and as we go through this, we're going to hear him in

many ways. Let us know that it is those

that to those who are rich, that you should have a posture of

generosity and a reliance on God.

Regardless of whether we're rich or poor, our reliance should be

on God, trusting in Him and not in anything that we have.

God has no problem with the rich in general because it's God who

made riches. He created riches, He created

wealth, and not only that, but He also gives us the power to

get wealth, but he is against trusting in those riches.

It almost goes right back to what's often been said, and

what's been said many times is that we should never, ever trust

love or or or or depend on the creation more than the Creator.

In First Timothy 6 and 17, he says command those who were rich

in this present age not to be haughty.

Don't be prideful or trust in uncertain riches.

There's nothing certain about riches.

You can have riches today, and tomorrow you don't have

anything. What's valuable today may not be

a value tomorrow. So he says don't trust in

uncertain riches. The only thing that's truly

certain is Jesus Christ, and it's only what we do for him

that will last, he says. So don't trust in uncertain

riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things

to enjoy. So he gives, he's not a, he's

not against riches. He gives us riches.

He gives us all things to enjoy. Now I know some of you may be

thinking, when women, I ain't rich, I'm not rich.

When do I get my riches to enjoy?

And when you really think about riches, it's really relative

because if you leave the United States and going to another

country, you will see poverty on a level that you've never seen

it here in the United States. The worst poverty I've ever seen

was in Compton, CA. There's some places there that

are really, really poverty stricken, but then you go to

other places, other countries and Compton looks like Beverly

Hills compared to some of these places.

So it really is relative. It really is relative and and

quite honestly, God, you know, Jesus said, look, if you have

food and you have clothing, you really have what you need.

We're. Rich.

That's rich. So in Proverbs 11/28, he says he

who trusts in his riches will fall.

It's a it's such a snare. It's such a trap to trust in

riches. It gets you to feel like

everything's OK now because I can afford to get what I want.

But if you think about it, it's the rich who has more sorrows

than anybody, more sorrow than anybody.

If that's what they're trusting in, they have more sorrows than

anybody. But he says, but the righteous

will flourish like a foliage. Wealth with integrity allows us

to have peace. Bible says that he who walks in

integrity walks securely. Don't have to worry about the

don't have to worry about the results of walking in a way

that's not of integrity, which brings on consequences.

Don't have to worry about that when you're blessing is in with

integrity. Proverbs 10 and 22 says the

blessing of the Lord makes 1 rich and he adds no sorrow with

it. Now I also want to take a look.

I'm going to go back to the Old Testament a little bit and take

a look as we talk about these riches and Deuteronomy 8 and 18.

God says this. He says, and you shall remember

the Lord your God. This is Moses speaking.

You should remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives

you the. Power.

To get wealth that he may establish his covenant which he

swore to your father's as it is this day.

And the Bible actually gives us both Old and New Testament

examples of people who trusted in him and he has blessed with

great wealth and we look at the Old Testament.

Abraham was a man of great wealth, but he was also a man

that followed closely with good effect.

God said that he is his friend. Job.

Lord said, you know, the Bible says he was righteous above all

man in that at that particular time he had great wealth.

He also suffered more than most of them, more than probably any

of us will ever have. Hopefully it'll be more than any

of us ever have to, but yet he was a man that had great wealth.

And of course, Joseph, man of great wealth.

And there's others that we could mention as well.

Isaac, Jacob had wealth. And these are people who love

the Lord. And also in the New Testament

there are examples of those who have great wealth.

Joseph of Arimathea, by the way, who's a very tomb that Jesus was

laid in. And while I mention him, I might

as well go ahead and mention Nicodemus, because Nicodemus

also a man of great wealth and believed.

In fact, he helped Joseph of Arimathea to wrap.

Jesus for his. Burial.

Then there's Philemon who was a man of God who was also rich.

So money itself is neutral, honestly speaking and and and

and just having it is not a sin. But when we love it and pursue

it more than we love or pursue God, that's when it becomes an

issue. That's when it becomes an issue.

It corrupts the heart. And to be honest with you, there

is very few things that people who really love money, there's

very few things that they won't do to to get it.

It's just like that selfish ambition that we talked about.

This is what I want and I'll do anything I have to do to get it.

That's the love of money. So yes, it becomes a problem,

but money itself is neutral and it's not money that's the

problem, but it's the love of money that is the problem.

And unfortunately for those who have money, and Jesus made this

statement himself, that those who are rich if they're not

trusting in the Lord. And if they're not committing

what they have to the will of the Lord, it's very, very

difficult for them to get into the Kingdom of heaven.

How difficult If you look at a the eye of a pen need I'm and I

bring that up because when I was young, I mean it says in the

scripture too, but when I was young, my grandmother and when I

would spend time with her and she would put her glasses on and

try to. You guys have any thoughts of

that? Your grandmother's, you know,

try to get that thread to get through that little eye, that

needle, and then eventually, eventually, she just looks at

you and say, look, your eyes is better than mine, you know,

here, come and do this. Now it's us who are saying to

younger people, your eyes are better than mine.

But yeah, I remember my grandmother doing that.

And then Jesus is saying it's easier.

For a camel to go through the eye of that needle than it is

for a rich man to get into heaven.

And again, this is not an indictment on people being rich.

This is talking about those who are trusting in their riches,

those who have decided that they were going to be selfish with

their riches. In First Timothy 6 and 10, James

says and and a lot of people quote this and they.

For some reason, they kind of misquote it.

They'll say, look, money is the root of all evil.

You hear that a lot. Money is the root of all evil.

But that is the misquote of that scripture.

It is not money that's the root of all evil.

Actually, what it says is that the love of money, and it's not

the root, but it is a root of all evil.

There are many, many roots of evil.

Money is one of them. Money is one of them.

So as we go through this now, James looks at two things in

this section concerning the wicked unsaved who are rich.

And the first thing he looks, he looks at how they acquired their

wealth. And then he's going to take a

look at how they use their wealth.

So let's go here to verse one. And it says here, come now.

In other words, listen, take heed.

Listen to what I'm about to say. I'm about to say something that

you really need to hear. And again, remember, he's

talking to unsaved people who are wealthy and he knows that

these people have used their wealth to abuse the poor and

oppress the poor. He says, come you who you rich,

speaking directly to them. And then he says this, weep and

how for your miseries that are coming upon you now, when you

would listen to most rich people who are really trusting in their

wealth and thinking that because I'm I'm rich, I don't have to

depend on anybody but me. The last thing that they would

think that they would have to listen to is somebody say,

you're going to be miserable. How can I be miserable?

I got everything I want. Oh, miseries coming.

So this is almost written in in the in the flavor of an Old

Testament prophet who was saying judgment has been declared and

it's coming upon you. This is what you have to look

forward to. You think you have to look

forward to enjoying the rest of your riches, But that's on this

side. When you are judged, when you

when judgment hits, you got another problem.

I was listening to Phil the the guy from Duck Dynasty.

He was speaking one time and he said something and, and, and I

remember who remembers Duck Dynasty by the way.

OK, OK. I just want to make sure.

He said something very injured. He said, you know, we have 3

problems. He caught my attention.

I'm listening. He said the one problem we have

is sin. All have sinned and come sure to

the glory of God. That's the one problem we have.

The second problem we have is death, because it's appointed to

every man wants to die and then after this the judgement.

But then he said the third problem is judgement.

That's the third problem we have.

And that's why it was important for Jesus Christ to come,

because He delivered us from the sin.

He took on our sin. He became sin for us.

Jesus is the answer to that problem.

But Jesus is also the answer to the problem of the second issue,

which is death. Because Jesus says that if you

believe on me, though you be dead, yet shall you live.

And those who believe in me that are that are alive, you shall

never die. So Jesus is the answer to that,

but he's also the answer to judgment because he took on the

death of the judgment the penalty for death for us.

He handled that. That's why it's important to be

in Jesus Christ because without him those are still going to be

a problem for everyone of us who don't trust in Him.

So this is about this unbelieving non Christian rich,

rich folks who was oppressing the poor believers, some of whom

James is writing to, like these people that James are writing

to. These people are being oppressed

by the poor. This is a warning to the wicked

who trust in their riches. He said you better in

anticipation of what's coming. You can just start weeping and

howling now. Just start weeping and howling

now because judgment is coming. It's already been, it's already

been pronounced. And then in verses 2 and 3, he

says your riches are corrupted. So these are the things that

they trusted in. And here when he talks about

your riches, they're actually talking about their food, their

grain, their wheat. He says it's corrupted.

In other words, it's molded. It's as good as molded.

It's not going to do you any good.

And then he said in your garments are moth eating.

You walk around in these expensive clothes and you and

you're thinking that hey, I'm looking good and you know I'm

going to always look good like this.

But but but but James said no, they are moth eating.

Those garments will be eaten with moth.

Who remembers the mothballs? All right, I got a lot of folk

about you generation here today, mothballs with you young folks

who wondering what are they talking about years ago, you

walk in your closet and you'll be overwhelmed with the smaller

mothballs. I'm going to go to my

grandmother's house. I knew exactly when I walked

past her closet because the mothball smell would just bounce

out of there like crazy. But the reason why they use

mothballs is because, yes, garments would be eaten by moth

that would get in your closet and they will start eating like

your sweaters and things of that nature.

So the older folks used to use the moth balls and put them in

there because it was like a pest.

It worked like a pesticide and would keep the moth away.

And I'm wondering if it really worked, but they used it.

I know it worked against me because I didn't want to go in

the closet that that smell was so that smell was so powerful,

you know, and even like, you know, when when they were, you

know, my grandmother would come over to the house sometimes I

could smell it on her clothes, you know, say, wow, grandma got

that sweater out of the closet, that muff.

But that's what they believe. But James is saying won't be no

mothballs here, bro. You know the the the moth is

going to eat. Your garments that you think you

are so great and you think you're looking so majestic,

what's going to be eaten up? And then he goes on in verse

three, he says in your gold and your silver is corroded.

Wow, gold and silver corroded. And we're always told that gold

don't corrode, but he's saying it's going to be corroded.

In other words, it's going to be rendered invaluable.

You see, when you die, regardless of how much money you

have, how much gold and silver you have, it means nothing Once

you die. You don't take it with you.

I said, you know, he said you, James, I mean Paul said you

bring nothing into this world and you will carry nothing out

of it. You will carry nothing out of

it. So your gold and your silver is

corroded and their corrosion. Now this is really interesting.

He's saying in your corrosion will be a witness against you

and will eat your flesh like fire.

It's almost a picture of being in a courtroom where you as the

person that may be the defendant and you want someone to come and

testify on your behalf. So you choose the person that

you trust in the most to come and testify on your behalf.

The to, you know, hopefully give a testimony that would get you

out of trouble. So you try to bring the most

reliable person that you can think of the the one that you

trust in the most. And you put them in front of the

courtroom and you and they give their testimony.

But the testimony that they give actually is the very one that

indicts you, the one that actually renders you guilty.

So instead of testifying for you, it's testifying against

you. They're trusting in all these

gold and the silver and the clothes and all these things,

but it's going to corrode, and that corrosion is going to be

like a witness against you. And in judgement your flesh will

be eaten like fire. Just like that gold and those

precious stones were going to corrode, so will you in

judgment. James is not being gentle here.

He is really being as direct as he possibly can with this

warning. And then he goes and he looks at

the next, the next portion of that same verse, right here in

verse three, he says you heaped up treasure in the last days.

You heaped up treasure. That means you stored up

treasure. You, you didn't use your

treasure to help anybody. You didn't use it to bless

anybody. You used it.

You stored it up. Just wanted to keep it for your

own selfishness. You knew what you wanted to do

with it. You want your easement to come

as a result of what you have heaped up.

And over in over in Luke, Jesus gives a, an example of this

person who decides that they are going to heap up their treasures

and just hold on to it. They're not going to use it to

bless anybody with. They're just going to hoard it

for themselves. And it's over in Luke chapter

Luke 12 · chapter mention

12. And I'm going to go there real

quick because I it speaks to this particular section of the

Scripture, Luke chapter 12. And he says this.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

Let's look at verse 16. Actually, what I'm going to do,

I'm going to go back to 14 and then I'm going to read it

through to 21. He says this, he says, but he

said to him, man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?

This was someone who was crying out and wanted their brothers to

divide up the inheritance, the financial inheritance that they

received. And, and Jesus said, look who

made you know, who made me an arbitrator or a judge over you?

And then in 15 he said, he said to them, take heed and beware of

covetousness. Exactly covetousness that you

know that, that, that, that strong desire for something that

somebody else has for wealth or money or whatever it is that

someone else has. He says for one's life does not

consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.

One's life doesn't consist in the things that we possess.

It does not identify us. The things that we have, whether

it's money or whether it's it's food or clothing or whatever it

is, those things don't identify us.

Your car, regardless of how nice it is, doesn't identify who you

are. Your house does not just say who

you are. My life, your life does not

consist of the things you possess because those are

uncertain riches. They don't last, they don't

last. And then in verse 16 he says

then he spoke a parable saying the ground of a certain rich man

yielded plentiful. He had a bump in his in his

harvest. He had a bump and it yielded

much and overnight this man just became rich, became wealthy.

And you thought and he thought within himself saying what shall

I do since I have no room to store my crops?

Now listen to his question to himself, what should I do

because I don't have enough room to store my crops?

Well, how about giving some away?

I know some people here who have gardens and you get crops out of

your gardens rather it's zucchini.

It might be Peppers or I know for us sometimes we get cabbage

and things of that nature that you have.

And when you have an abundance of those things, you give them

out to your neighbors, you give them to people, you bless other

people. But this, but this guy is saying

what should I do with them? And I know that that happens

because even comes happens here. People give away eggs.

I've seen people give away zucchinis.

I mean, they've brought it to church and say here who who

needs it and other produce they say who needs it, who wants it.

But that's the heart of you here in at Calvary Chapel.

You guys give. Do you have a heart to give?

You love to give. And this is what this is and

what this is what this is saying.

This guy is saying, look, what am I going to do with it?

I'll tell you what I'll do with it.

Look at what he says here. So he said, I will do this, I

will pull down my small barns and I'll build greater barns,

and there I will store all my crops in my goods, and I will

say to my soul, so you have many goods.

He said it to himself, He's pumping himself up.

So you have many goods, you have a lot, you have an abundance,

you got it laid up for for a long time.

And I will say to myself, so you have many goods laid up for many

years. Take your ease, eat, drink and

be merry. But God said to him, you fool,

this night your soul will be required of you.

This man had no idea that he would not be able to enjoy any

of those things beyond that very night, that very night.

So he may have been blessed to receive the riches, but he

didn't have control over how long he would live to enjoy him.

Only God has that, only God has that.

Then whose will those things be which you have provided?

And this is the, and this is the whole moral to this story in

verse 21. So is he who lays up treasure

for himself or stores up treasure for himself and is not

rich toward God. That's what this guy was dealing

with. You know, they, they, they had,

James said. You guys have treasured up, you

have, you have heaped up treasures, you have stored up

treasure in the last days. And when the Lord's about to

come back and you're storing up treasure instead of using that

treasure to bless other people, verse 4, indeed, the wages of

the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by

fraud. Now we're going to get into

verse 4. Now we're going to get in to

what or how they acquired the wealth, how they acquired it.

You know, what did they do with it?

You know what? You know, how did they acquire?

How did they get this? Well, how did they accumulate

all this wealth? Listen, how they did it.

It was ungodly, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields,

which you kept back by fraud. They cry out.

And also the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of

the Lord of Sabolas. Now James is saying here, you

didn't just get the money because you earned it.

You're not acknowledging what God did to give you this wealth.

You're not acknowledging the power of the Lord in your life,

the gift of Lord in your life, the blessing of the Lord in your

life. You're not acknowledging him at

all. All you're thinking about is

what you have and what you did. So he said they secured this

wealth by basically stealing because they defrauded the

people who worked for them. That's a sad thing because the

Bible constantly talks about, particularly in the Old

Testament, the Bible constantly talks about in several places,

that when someone works for you, when someone goes in the field

for you, you don't wait to pay them the wage.

Now we work and you know, we might get paid every other every

other week, maybe twice a month. We have those kind of schedules.

But back in this particular time, they didn't.

At the end of the day, they were paid their wages because they

needed them. They needed them just like

today. A lot of people, they can't go.

I mean, they're going from paycheck to paycheck.

If they miss a paycheck, if somebody they went to go pick up

their check one day and someone said I'm sorry, you're not

getting paid today, that could mean them being homeless.

That could mean them not having wheat food again until the next

payday. It could mean a lot of things,

but back in the days when they were, when they were doing,

having people come in their fields and work, these people

could not wait for a week or two weeks to get paid.

They needed their wages right then and there.

And that was the law that God gave.

Listen to what it says here in Leviticus chapter 19 verse 13,

Leviticus 19:13

it said you shall not cheat your neighbor nor rob him.

The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you until

morning. And then I want to look at

Deuteronomy. Over in Deuteronomy chapter 24,

Deuteronomy 24:14

verse 14, he says you shall not oppress A hired servant who is

poor and needy, rather one of your brethren or one of the

aliens who is in your land, within your gates.

Regardless of whether it's somebody that is a Jew or

somebody that you have acquired to be a servant of you in your

house, you should not deprive them of their wages each day.

Verse 15 Each day you shall give him his wages and not let the

sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on

it. They are depending on those

wages. He can't go home and tell his

wife he didn't get no money that day.

How the kids going to eat? How are we going to keep this

place up? So then it says, you know, lest

he cry, lest he cry out against you in the Lord and it be sin to

you. So I mean, so it was a law back

then that you paid. And they knew this because he

was writing to Jews and they knew this.

So that's how. So he was basically emphasizing

how corrupt and how selfish these unbelieving wealthy people

were. So you kept them back and and

and and and and the The sad thing is this.

It was the fraud. It was the the actual wages that

they didn't pay that cried out. The wages that didn't pay cried

out. The reapers who were in the

fields doing the work, they cried out.

So how did they handle it? Did they go out and protest?

Did they loot this man's property?

Did they try to avenge themselves with it?

No, they prayed. They cried out to God, they

cried out to God. And God is going to be the

avenger. He's going to be the one to take

care of it says avenge not yourself, but give room to

wrath. Give room to godly wrath.

Let him take care of it. They didn't.

They didn't. They didn't decide to go out and

and COO and loot and all these illegal things against them

because they didn't get paid. They feel like they have a right

to do it, but they didn't do it. But instead they trusted in the

Lord. They trusted in the Lord.

That's also an example of Jesus Christ in the way that he deals

with being threatened, the way that he deals with being

reviled. He said over in first Peter, he

says, you know, when he was reviled, he did not revile

again. And when he was persecuted, he

didn't threaten, but he committed himself to the one who

judges righteously. The Lord will take care of it

and that's who he trusted in. So this guy, so he, he is James

is saying basically. You know the the wages cried out

to the Lord, and so did the reapers.

Who did they cry out to? Now, when you first read through

this, it looks like it said the Lord of Sabbath, but it doesn't.

It's the Lord of Sabeath. Sabeath Sabeath means the Lord

of armies. It means the Lord of hosts.

He cried out to the one who is the captain of the host.

That means God can make an army out of anything.

This is a, this is a, this is the God of the host of heaven,

the host of heaven. Remember the plagues back in

Egypt and the host that he was in charge, that he cried out,

that he sent as an attack. He didn't send people.

What did he send? He sent frogs.

He said, you know, he said locusts.

He is the God of hosts. He's in charge of.

He is command over everything. And this is the person.

This is the one who their cries came out to.

And then this is what they did with it.

And we're coming in for clothes. You have lived on the earth in

pleasure and in luxury. You have fattened your hearts as

in a day of slaughter. Think about that.

Picture what he's saying The whole time you lived here with

all your money, not trusting in the Lord, not allowing, not not

doing the will of the Lord with it, not serving the Lord with

it. But instead, you lived in luxury

the whole time you were here on the earth, you lived in luxury.

It's almost like the the story of the rich man and Lazarus.

Lazarus and the rich man, right? You know, it was the rich man

that lived in, in, in, in luxury.

He lived in luxury all the time. The Bible said he, you know, he

fared sumptuously. He had the best of everything

every day. But meanwhile, right at his

gate, there was a poor man who was ill, and he did nothing to

help, nothing to aid this person, nothing.

And when he passed, when he died, he woke up in he woke up

in a place that wasn't the same place that Lazarus woke up in.

Lazarus woke up in the in the bosom of Abraham.

But this other person woke up in Hades tortured.

And this is what? And this is the picture that

James is drawing here. Yeah.

While you're here on Earth. Yeah.

You lived in luxury. In fact, you you even fatten

your hearts in the day of slaughter.

And that's a picture of the, that's a picture of the, the

calf, the, the, you know, the, the fatty calf, you know who

they prepared for the day of slaughter.

That's a picture of him. So they go out and they, and

they slaughter this calf. Praise and worship team can come

forward. They, they, they, they slaughter

this calf, you know, after they fatten him up, treat him good.

And you can imagine the other calf, say, how come he gets all

the extra food? You know, no.

Why is he getting all the good stuff?

Meanwhile, he doesn't realize that he's being fattened up for

a day of slaughter. And this is the picture that

he's painting with this guy, you know?

Yeah. While you're here, you're

looking like you're, you know, you're, you're you're you're

you're you're doing good. You know, everything is better

than everybody else. You have the best of everything,

luxury. But meanwhile, you're just

fattening yourself up for the day of slaughter.

When the day of judgement comes, that's what you're preparing

for. And then in verse 6, and we

close here, he says you have condemned, you have murdered the

just, and he does not resist you.

You have redeemed, you have murdered the just and he does

not resist you. There's so many loves that we

have that can cause us to want to do those things.

The love of self, the love of money, and the love lovers of

pleasure, other than the lovers of God, which we read about back

in the perilous times of Second Timothy chapter 3.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

And he's saying that you know you've murdered, even to the

point when he means murder, that means that you have abused this

person so much. You've even dragged him into

court and have taken their land and taken things because you

rigged it because of your money to be able to pay for bribes and

things like that. You can bribe all the officials

and all the judges because of the money you have and your

reputation. So you drag these poor people

who have nothing into court and you take what little bit that

they have and eventually they either die of starvation, they

die of starvation, or they're executed for a crime they didn't

even commit just so. You could get.

Their land. It almost brings back the story

of of of Ahab and Jezebel and Nabeth, how they took neighbors

land because oh, Ahab just had to have his land.

Like he didn't have enough king of Israel.

But no, I want that land. So his wife being Jezebel, don't

name your kids Jezebel. It's not a good name.

Don't name your daughters Jezebel.

So Jezebel said I'll go get that land for you.

Had this guy killed so he can take his land.

It's almost in that same vein. We take advantage of somebody

because we can. So he murdered.

They murdered him and the and the biggest thing here is that

it cries out to the Lord when that happens because he does not

resist, just like Jesus did not resist.

Jesus didn't resist when he was threatened, when he was reviled,

he didn't resist. He was like a lamb led to the

slaughter, never opened his mouth.

When he was being persecuted for our sins, when he was being

judged for our sins, when he was being executed for our sins, He

never opened his mouth. He didn't resist.

And this is what James is saying.

They don't resist you. They don't come against you.

They don't put up any kind of fight against you, but instead

they cry out to the Lord. The big question here is this,

that I want to leave you with. David says that I are, that I

put always. I put the Lord before me always,

even though because he's on my right hand, I shall not be

moved. The question is, what are we

putting before us? What is our love that we're

putting before us today? Is it the love of money?

Is it the love of worldly pleasures?

Is it the love of our own personal desires?

What am I putting before us that's a head of God?

Is he on our right hand? Or is it something worldly that

we want that we're putting before us?

So as we pray and as we think on that, let that come through our

hearts so as we can prepare for communion now we, we go to the

Father. Lord, I, I thank you so much for

your word. It, it does several things as it

goes forth. It's like a fire and it

cleanses. It's like a purifying fire.

It exhorts us, it warns us, as it did with these wealthy

unbelievers. What a warning.

Because Lord, even in this time, those who woke up the next day

can come before you. Repent.

Turn from their wicked ways, Turn from their wicked ways and

walk after you. Let their hearts be transformed

to become givers instead of defrauding people, to care about

people and to truly love others and to use their wealth for good

and not for selfish reasons. They can repent, ask for

forgiveness. But Father, we thank You for

Your example of how we are to walk even if we are being

oppressed, if we are being abused, how should we respond?

You give us an example in Your word.

We cry out to You. We put it before you, Lord,

because you are the one who judge righteously.

So thank you for your example in Jesus Christ.

I pray, Father, that there's someone here and that word, the

message has touched their hearts, Lord, and we want to

come to a point of surrender where we give our lives to you,

Trust in you. I pray that today that they'll

do that, Lord. And the day in which Jesus was

betrayed, the night in which Jesus was betrayed, rather he

took the bread and after he gave thanks, he broke it.

And he said, take, eat. This is my body which is broken

for you. Eat this in remembrance of me.

Same manner he also took the cup and after supper he said this

cup is a new covenant in my blood, the blood that was shed

for the forgiveness of sins for many.

Jesus shed blood for everybody, those who are righteous, and he

shed it for those who are not righteous, because he said that

it's not His will that any should perish, but that all will

come to repentance. Thank you, Lord, for the

opportunity of repentance through your grace.

Drink this, and as often as you drink it, drink it in

remembrance of me. As often as you eat this bread

and drink this cup, we show the Lord's death till he come.

Amen. Anybody who would like to come

off to the altar for that spiritual cleansing to go before

the Lord. Authors open.