All right, James Chapter 5. I
titled our lesson this morning, Riches That Are Truly Evil. Let's
read our text, the first six verses of James 5. Go to now,
you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come
upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be
a witness against you and 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, the Lord of hosts. You have lived in pleasure on
the earth and have been wanton. You have nourished your hearts
as in a day of slaughter. You've condemned and killed the
just, and he does not resist you. Now, by no means do these
verses condemn earthly riches or say they're not teaching us
that earthly riches are a curse. We know that's not so by comparing
this with other scripture. Job, Abraham, David, and Solomon
were all the wealthiest men on earth in their times, and these
men all knew the Lord. They were blessed greatly of
God. Now, earthly riches can be a curse. They are a curse
if trying to accumulate earthly riches makes it so you don't
have time to worship the Lord, or you don't have time to seek
Christ. It takes your attention away from worship. Earthly riches
are a curse if they are the only riches that you ever have, the
only riches that you ever seek, and you don't seek spiritual
riches. But the riches that these verses and all the Bible condemn,
are riches, the good things that we think we've done, that make
us spiritually rich toward God, make God accept us. That's exactly
what he's talking about. He tells us at the end of verse
three, you have heaped treasure together for the last days. You've
accumulated these things to use in the last days, in the day
that you stand before God in judgment. These verses are condemning
us trusting anything that we've done, that we've accumulated,
rather than trusting Christ alone. Look at 1 Timothy 6. The Apostle
Paul makes this very clear to us. 1 Timothy 6. Verse 17. Charge them that are rich in
this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain
riches. See, the problem is trusting
in these things. They don't trust in uncertain riches. but in the
living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, that they
do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute,
willing to communicate. So it's a curse to have, it's
not a curse necessarily to have those things. What scripture
is teaching us is the curse is trusting in those things, trusting
in those things that we've done that we think has made us spiritually
wealthy. But before we talk about them,
let's talk about the poor. What a blessing, and it is a
curse to trust in these religious things that we've done that we
think has made us rich toward God. But I'm telling you, it's
a blessing of God to be spiritually poor. That's right, it's a blessing. Because who is it that Christ
came to save? He came to save the poor. He came to save the
poor in spirit. Look back at James chapter 2,
verse 5. Hearken, my beloved brethren,
Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith
and heirs of the kingdom, which he hath promised to them that
love him? That's the blessing. If God's made us poor in spirit,
well, he'll make us rich in spirit and spiritual things. Look back
at Matthew chapter five. I have no doubt that left ourselves
Every one of us would choose to be rich, wouldn't we? Rich
in this world, and do I have to worry about paying your bills
just to go be able to do, pay for whatever you wanted to do?
And there's nothing wrong with that, as long as we're poor in
spirit. Look what a blessing it is to
be poor in spirit. Matthew 5, verse 3. Blessed are
the poor in spirit. It's not that they're cursed.
It's not that they're downtrodden. It's not God who cast them off.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Well, if the kingdom of heaven is yours, you're unspeakably
rich, aren't you? Well, that only belongs to the
poor in spirit. Read on verse six. Blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled. The people who are so spiritually
poor, they can't buy spiritual food, spiritual drink. Those
people are rich beyond measure. If we're so poor, we don't have
any righteousness so that we crave it, we hunger and thirst
after it because we need it. If we're poor like that, God's
made us rich beyond measure. Because if you crave righteousness
like that, God's going to fill you with the righteousness of
Christ and you'll never hunger or thirst again. Isaiah said
in Isaiah 66 verse 2, to this man will I look. God says, this
is the man to whom I will look. I'll look with pleasure on him.
I'll look in acceptance on him, even to him that's poor and of
a contrite spirit. That's the person that God has
blessed. Now, a person can be very wealthy
materially and still be poor spiritually. A person can be
rich in this life. and still be spiritually bankrupt
so that they don't have anything to bring to God, they don't have
anything to recommend them to God, they have nothing that they
can use to pay for their sin debt because they're spiritually
bankrupt. Now that rich person will be
spiritually poor if God saves them. I promise you that. Everybody
God saves, it doesn't matter their bank account. They will
be spiritually poor if God saves them. And I'll give you a good
example. King David. King David, king of Israel, was
the richest man on earth. Five times, King David said,
I'm poor in need. David often in the Psalms, I
couldn't even count them, how many times he comforts himself
with this knowledge. God will bless the poor in spirit.
King David was poor in spirit. And God said, that's the man
after my own heart. The person who's spiritually
poor is needy. He needs things. He's needy because
he's so poor he can't provide anything for himself. Yet that
person is the rich person. I am needy for grace to cover
my sins. Are you? Are you needy for grace?
Well, then you're rich because God has promised grace to the
poor. I'm needy for mercy because I'm
a sinner. That person's rich. If you're needy for mercy, you're
rich because God's promised rich mercy. God is rich in mercy. He's promised that mercy to the
poor in spirit. I'm needy for forgiveness. I
got no excuse for my sin. I can't say I didn't do it. If
you're needy for forgiveness, God's made you rich because he
promised to forgive sinners richly. We have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins according to what? the riches
of His grace. Now that's riches that a poor
person has. I need God to give me a new heart,
because my old one's ruined in sin. Well, God's promised that
He'll give a new heart to the poor. I need God to keep me by
the power of His grace, because I'm so poor I can't keep myself
for one second. And that's what God's promised.
He promised He'll keep them. Now see, it's a blessing to be
poor and needy, Because the person who's poor and needy before God,
God's also made them rich before God. Look at Ephesians chapter
three. This is what the poor in spirit
have from God's grace. Ephesians three verse eight. Unto me, whom less than the least
of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. God gives unsearchable. He gives limitless. No matter
how much you search, you'll never find the bottom of it. You'll
never find the end of it. He gives limitless riches in
Christ to the poor in spirit. The poor have the limitless riches
of God's eternal love. The poor in spirit have the limitless
riches of God's mercy and God's grace. They had the limitless
redemption in the blood of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
son, cleanses us from all sin. The poor in spirit had the limitless
righteousness of Christ. Righteousness they can never
lose, because it doesn't depend on them, it depends on Christ.
The poor in spirit have limitless eternal life that Christ purchased
for them. See, God makes every poor sinner
infinitely rich. That's who's the rich person.
That's the person who has true riches, a poor sinner. They're
rich in what Christ has done for them and what Christ has
done in them. But now in our lesson this morning, James is
telling us that the opposite is true for the religious person
who thinks that they're rich in the things that they've done.
James tells us their riches are not good. Their riches are evil. And you think, well, what's wrong
with all the good things they do? They feed the poor. They
take care of homeless people. They do all these things. They
help people with drug problems. They go out and they try to shut
down abortion clinics. What's wrong with all that? Absolutely
nothing. Absolutely nothing. Unless you're
trusting in them for righteousness. Unless you're trusting in those
things to hope that God will accept you in them. James says
those aren't good works. Those riches are evil. I'm going to give you five ways
from our text this morning that man's riches are evil. Number
one, man's riches, his own self-righteousness is evil because those who trust
in them are promised eternal damnation. Back in our text,
James 5 verse 1. Go to now you rich men, weep
and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Now James
here is talking about the miseries of hell. I don't like to talk
about hell. You don't like to hear somebody
talk about it. We don't like to think about hell. But we need
to know this. Hell is a real place with real
eternal suffering for those who refuse to trust Christ. And hell
will be just wages for the unbeliever. They'll be just wages. They tried
to build up riches that they could use to buy something from
God and God let them buy it. He'll give them exactly what
they've earned. God will give them their money's
worth. He surely will. But it'll be hell because their
good works are evil. Their riches won't satisfy God's
justice, won't satisfy God's holiness. Their riches won't
pay for sin's debt. Those riches, it will earn them
eternal separation from God. And God will give them exactly
their money's worth, exactly what they've earned. All right,
number two, man's riches are evil because it's promised to
them eternal damnation. And secondly, man's riches are
evil because their riches, their so-called righteousness is worthless. Verse two, your riches are corrupted
and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered
and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall
eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped together treasure
for the last days. Now your riches, your righteousness,
your good works, James says, are corrupted because they're
corrupt, evil works. They're not good works. And those
riches will never buy anything from God because they're worthless.
Now he says here, your gold and silver is cankered and rusted. Now I'll admit, I don't know
a whole lot about gold and silver, but I do know this. Gold can't
rust. Gold can't corrupt and decay. I saw a documentary one time,
this fellow somewhere in Europe was digging around his backyard
and he found one of the great treasure troves of Roman gold
found in one place in Europe. He was digging around in his
backyard. I mean, he found it. And the gold, a lot of that gold
had been set in different kinds of metals and stuff, but those,
all those, the other metals were decayed away. They rusted away,
just turned back to dirt. But the gold is exactly how they
buried it. It was just dirty. They just
brushed it off and it completely unchanged. Because gold can't
rust and decay into nothing. So the person who won't trust
Christ, but he's trying to earn his salvation and buy it with
his own riches, he doesn't have any real gold and silver. It's
cankered. It's rusted. You know what he's
got? He's got worthless fool's gold.
and fool's gold, fool's silver will never purchase redemption.
The only thing it can purchase is damnation. But look at 1 Peter
1. These are not the riches that
a believer has in Christ. Look here at 1 Peter 1, verse
18. For as much as you know that
you're not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your father,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot." See, that's the riches a believer
has. The blood of Christ is precious. It's not like this worthless
fool's gold. The blood of Christ is so precious, it paid the redemption
price for a number no man can number. The blood of Christ is
so precious, it put away the sin of a number no man can number. They're going to have it. They're
going to have the redemption that Christ purchased for them.
Then James says your garments are moth-eaten. Everybody here
knows exactly what that means. It's an obvious picture of our
attempts to produce our own righteousness, to cover our sin. James says
they're moth-eaten. They're full of holes. Well,
we try to use our works, our riches, to buy this robe of righteousness,
to weave a robe of righteousness that'll cover us, make us accepted
with God. All we get is filthy rags, rags
that are defiled with sin, rags that are full of holes that will
not cover our sin and our shame. And God won't accept it. Remember
the parable the Lord told of the wedding feast, and that man
tried to come into that wedding feast without a wedding garland.
That's like us trying to come before God in our filthy rags
and God won't accept it. That man must be cast out because
he doesn't have on a wedding garment. The only garment that
God will accept is the righteousness of his son. I look back at Matthew
chapter six. See, that's what the believer
has. This righteousness is perfect covering and that person will
never be cast out because he's trusting Christ, not his own
riches. Matthew 6, verse 16. Moreover, when you fast, be not
as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces,
that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you,
they have their reward. That's what their riches, that's
all it can purchase. Men will know, oh, this is a
religious person. He's fasting, he's denying himself. Oh, he's so pious, he's worshiping
God. Well, they got their reward. That's all their riches can produce.
But verse 17, he says, but thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine
head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast,
but unto thy father, which is in secret. And thy father, which
seeth in secret, shall reward you openly. Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where
thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also." See, man's religious works,
they're just for show, aren't they? They'll impress men, and
they got their reward, but they won't impress God. Man's religious
works, all they do is rust and decay. They're full of holes,
they won't cover our sin and our shame, and any old thief
can break through and steal. They're worthless. But look back
in 1 Peter again, 1 Peter 1. But if Christ is our treasure,
if Christ is our riches, we'll have riches that'll never rust,
that'll never decay, and that'll never be stolen. Stolen by anybody. 1 Peter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again into a lively, living hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that's incorruptible,
that's undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. That treasure
will be revealed in the last time. You never lose it. That's
the treasure that the believer has, but those who are trusting
in themselves, all they got is a fool's gold. It'll corrupt
and fade away to nothing. It's worthless. All right, thirdly,
man's riches are evil because they're a dishonest way to try
to earn something from God. It's dishonest to God and men.
Verse four, behold, the higher of the laborers who have reaped
down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cry it. And the cries of them which have
reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, the Lord
of Hosts. Now you read this verse, and
I know the image that comes into everybody's mind here in this
area of the world is a cold air. That comes into everybody's mind,
I bet you. And certainly it is evil for a man to make himself
rich by refusing to pay a fair wage to his employees. coal barons
and steel barons and land barons all made themselves rich, didn't
they? By creating a system that made them rich at the expense
of their workers. You know, they had company towns
where the owner, you know, he owned everything. They had company
stores, he owned it all. Sharecroppers, you know, all
that was invented to keep the workers poor. Those poor people They weren't
lazy. They worked hard. Oh, they worked
hard. All week, they worked hard. Six
days a week, they worked 12 hours a day. And at the end of the
week, you know what they had to show for it? They were further in
debt to the owner of the mine or the land or whatever. They were further in debt than
when they started because they had to pay rent to the guy on
the mine. They had to shop in his stores,
and he overcharged them for everything. And they just go further and
further and further in debt. Now, how much did they work? Now that's
a dishonest way to get rich. And the Lord of Sabaoth, the
Lord of hosts, has heard the cries of those people. The Lord
knows, and the Lord will deal with it. He'll deal with it.
But really and truly, that's not what James is talking about
here. As horrible as that is, as much as that makes our blood
boil, James is talking about something much worse than those
coal bearers. James is talking about men trying
to earn a righteousness before God with dishonest dealings with
almighty God. They're trying to get something
from God they haven't really earned. They're trying to short
pay God like they do their employees and think they're going to get
away with it. They're trying to manipulate God. They think,
well, if I do this, God's going to have to do this for me. This
being dishonest with God. Look back at Romans chapter two.
Now the Lord of hosts, Here's what they've done. He knows,
and they're going to reap exactly what they've sowed. Romans chapter
two. Therefore, thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doeth the
same things. But we're sure that the judgment
of God is according to truth against them which commit such
things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which
do such things, and doest the same? Do you think that you're
going to escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the
riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after
the hardness and impentinent heart, treasurest up unto thyself
not riches, but wrath. against the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every
man according to his deeds." Now, the self-righteous man,
the religious man who's made himself a religious, self-made
millionaire, that man's a fraud. He's an absolute fraud. He's
not righteous at all. He's guilty of the exact same
sin of the heathen that he looks down upon. And he's guilty. He's a fraud. Yet, he will not
beg God for mercy. He will not. And you know why
he will not beg God for mercy? Because he despises God. He despises
him. He despises the riches of God's
grace. He thinks he's rich enough. He
despises the riches of God's grace. He thinks he's righteous
enough, so he despises the righteousness of God's son and he will not
beg God for mercy. Now the Lord of hosts knows what
that man is. God's not fooled. God, you cannot
defraud God. He'll give that man exactly what
he's earned. Exactly. He'll give him hell.
The Lord of hosts will give everyone in judgment, everyone without
exception, exactly what they've earned, exactly what they deserve.
The Lord of Hosts will give those who patiently trusted Christ
exactly what they've earned too. He'll give that self-righteous
man what he's earned. And those who trust Christ, those
who patiently wait on, those who patiently keep trusting in
Him will get exactly what Christ has earned for them. That's what
He says in verse 7, Romans 2. To them who by patient continuance
and well-doing Seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal
life, and they'll have it. God will give it to them because
that's what Christ has earned for them. All right, back in our
text, James five, here's the fourth thing about man's riches.
Man's riches are evil because they promise pleasure and they
deliver the opposite. They're going to deliver suffering.
Verse five, he says, you've lived in pleasure on the earth and
been wanting. You've nourished your hearts
as in a day of slaughter. Now the greatest human pleasure
that there is, is works religion. That's exactly right, it's works
religion. Nothing makes this flesh happier
than earning our own righteousness before God. Thinking we've got
something to stand on, our own two legs before God. Nothing
makes the flesh happier than that. And it makes us think that
we're rich. when we're not. It's a mirage. Look at Luke chapter 16. What James says here is you've
nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You've sought all
this stuff. You've gathered all this stuff
up. You made yourself so happy. You thought you had plenty of
everything. And all you've done is just make
yourself a beast being fattened up for the slaughter. That's
all it is. You think about a farmer takes
a cow Out there in the field, all the other cows. Out there
in the weather, when it rains, when it doesn't, you know, whatever.
They're just out there, they're eating grass. That's all they
got to eat, grass. They got to, if they want a drink
of water, they got to go down to the old muddy pond and give them a drink
of water. And a farmer comes, he takes one of those cows, takes
it up there to the barn, puts it in a barn. That barn, climate
controlled, air conditioning, heating, heat. That cow eats
no more grass. Big old things of oats, probably
poured molasses or honey in them and something. Just weighs that
cow every day. Just, oh, it brushes it and takes
good care of it. And all the other cows are so
jealous. Here I am out here eating grass. And there's that cow.
Look. Man, I can't really find enough to eat. That cow's getting
fat with all he's got. Who's the blessed cow? Oh, that
one in the barn is getting fattened for the slaughter. That's a self-righteous
man. He just fattened himself up for
the slaughter. Look here at Luke 16, verse 22. You know very well the story
of Lazarus and the rich man. In verse 22, it came to pass
that the beggar Lazarus died and was carried by the angels
into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was
buried. And in hell, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment,
and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he
cried and said, Father Abraham, Have mercy on me and send Lazarus
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue
for I'm tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, son, remember
that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things and likewise
Lazarus evil things. And now he's comforted and thou
art tormented. Now that's the most sad thing
I can imagine. If the only good things that
you ever have are good things in this life. The most sad thing
I can think of is if the only riches that you ever have are
those things you think that you did that made you spiritually
rich. If that's the only riches you ever have, that's the most
sad thing I can think of. Because you think that they're
giving you all this pleasure, and the only thing they're gonna
give you is eternal suffering. See, they promised pleasure,
but they gave you nothing but suffering. But those who trust
in Christ, and you hang on to this for some comfort now, those
who trust in Christ, they're going to have trial. They're
going to have trouble. They're going to have tribulation.
They're going to have sorrow on this earth, but their promise
is that they will be eternally comforted with Christ in glory. All right, here's the last thing
back in our text. Man's riches are evil. Because
they condemned the just. They condemned true riches. Verse
6, James chapter 5, you have condemned and killed the just,
and he does not resist you. Now the people who have faith
in Christ, those are the just people. They're the just ones.
They've been justified by faith, not by works. They've been justified
in Christ. And no one condemns the just
more than the self-righteous. That man who thinks he's made
himself spiritually rest, nobody condemns the just like he does. And the just don't resist it.
They don't resist it. They don't fight back. How can
they? They're poor and needy. They're
weak. They're powerless in themselves. They don't fight back because
they're relying on Christ to save them. They're not relying
on their own power. Now they don't fight back. They're powerless
to defend themselves, but the just will never be overcome,
ever. Because of God before us who
can be against us. See, that's the person who's
rich. Now look over one more scripture here, Matthew chapter
19. This is another one of those
stories that you know very, very well. The story of the rich young
ruler who came to our Lord. Let's look at verse 20. The young man saith unto him,
All these things if I kept from my youth up, I've kept all the
law of Moses. What lack I get? Jesus said unto him, If thou
wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast, and give
it to the poor. And thou should have treasure
in heaven, and come follow me. But when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. See, the problem wasn't that
this young man was rich. The problem is he was trusting
in those riches. He could not let them go. And
the real problem wasn't even the money he had in the bank.
It's the spiritual riches that he thought he had. All these
have I kept for my youth. I have obeyed the law of Moses.
I am spiritually rich. He thought he had a lot to offer
to God and he could not let them go. And that made it impossible
for him to be saved. Verse 23, then said Jesus unto
his disciples, verily I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly
enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again, I say unto you, it's
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. That makes it
impossible for that rich man to be saved by his own riches.
It's impossible. Some of the writers talk about
there was a gate, I don't know if it was in Jerusalem or some
city somewhere, And it had a gate that was kind of shaped like
the eye of a needle, long, like oval thing. And they say that
for the camels to go through that, they had to teach that
camel to get down on its knees and shuffle through. And he could
get through, the camel could get through, but it was real
hard to do. That's not what the Lord's talking about here. He
talking about a camel, great big old giant camel going through
the eye of a needle. It's impossible. That's what
he's saying here. Salvation by our works, by our
riches, is impossible. And the disciples thought, why?
This man's the pinnacle of Jewish society. If he can't be saved,
is there any hope for sinners to be saved? Verse 25. When his disciples heard it,
they were exceedingly amazed, saying, who then can be saved?
But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, with men, this is
impossible, but with God, All things are possible. Not only
are they possible, they're done. Salvation in Christ is done and
it's received through faith in Christ without any of the riches
of our works. May God be pleased to make all
of us poor, make us poor so that we'll trust Christ as our all
in all. All right. Lord bless you.