Turn back to James chapter 6.
Or James chapter 5, I'm sorry. Now what a way to speak to the
rich. Go to now, you rich men. Weep
and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you." Now these
miseries that he is speaking of are the miseries that are
associated with eternal punishment. And he says to the rich, weep
and howl to the miseries that shall come upon you. I've entitled
this message, It's a Bad Thing to be Rich. It's a bad thing to be rich. I dare say that every one of
us have wondered at one time or the other, maybe a whole lot
of times, what it would like to be, what it would be like
to be rich, to have millions of dollars, to where if you didn't
want to, you wouldn't have to go to work. You can spend all
your time traveling the world. You wouldn't have to worry about
Money, you wouldn't have to worry about paying your bills. You
wouldn't worry about financial stress in any way. You'd like
to try it, wouldn't you? You'd like to try it. Somebody
says, I'm not interested in that. Nobody believes you. Yeah, you
would. You'd like to try it. And here's my question. Is he even talking about material
wealth? There were a lot of rich men
in the Bible. Job was the richest man in the
East. And then when God took everything
from him, he ended up giving him twice more than he had. He
was twice the richest man in the East. Abraham was a man of
great wealth. His nephew Lot was a man of great
wealth. David and Solomon were men of
vast riches, untold riches. A lot of men in the Bible were
wealthy, but they were men who walked with God. There's nothing intrinsically
wrong with riches, that they can be a curse. If they keep
you from looking to Christ, they're a curse. But they can be a great
blessing. As a matter of fact, 1 Timothy
6, 17 says, God has given us all things richly to enjoy. So there's nothing wrong with
wealth or riches. The rich man he is talking about
is the man who is not poor. I want you to think about that.
There's only two kinds of people in this world. Rich men and poor
men. There's no such thing as a middle
class in the scripture. There's rich men and there's
poor men. And the rich man is anyone who
is not poor. David, that wealthy, wealthy
man said ten times, I am poor and I am needy. Now he was very wealthy, but
he was poor. You know what that means? He didn't have anything. He didn't
have one thing that God could accept. He didn't have anything
that could recommend him to God. He knew he was a sinful man.
He was poor. He didn't have anything to bring
to God. And yet he had great needs. Oh, how I need. grace of God. How I need His unmerited favor
toward me. How I need the forgiveness of
sins. I need the Lord to freely forgive me of my sins. How I
need His mercy. How I need to be given a heart
to believe. How I need to be given a heart
to repent. How I need to be given a heart
to love. How I need to be preserved by
the grace of God. I'm poor. I don't have anything
that can recommend me to God. I don't have a thing. I'm spiritually
bankrupt. Yet I have great needs. Now anyone who is not what I
just described is a rich man. A rich man is someone who is
not poor. In Luke chapter 6 verse 24, the
Lord said, woe unto you that are rich. Once again, he's not talking
about material wealth. Woe unto you that are rich. And when the
Lord says, woe, that means woe. Woe unto you that are rich. You've
received your consolation. Like the rich man who God sent
to hell, who fared sumptuously here, this life is all you have. Woe unto you that are rich. You've
received your consolation. Your good time has come right
now, just in this life. Like the rich fool who said,
soul, take thy knees. Thou hast much goods laid up
for many years. Eat, drink, and be merry. And
God said, thou fool, this day thy soul shall be required of
thee. Then who shall these things be
that thou hast laid up for yourself? So is he that provides treasure
for himself and is not rich toward God. You remember what the Lord
said to the rich young ruler who had great possessions and
couldn't part with them? He said, it's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of heaven. Now how impossible is it for
a camel to get through a needle's eye? It can't be done. And it's easier for that to take
place than for a rich man to be saved. You remember how the
disciples said, who then can be saved? If this guy can't be
saved, who can be saved? How hard it is for them who trust
in riches. That's the key. How hard it is
for them that trust in riches to enter the kingdom of heaven.
I think of what Christ said to the lukewarm church that nauseated
him, the church at Laodicea, he said, you say, what? What's
the first thing they said? I'm rich and increased with goods
and have need of nothing. The self-satisfied church. Christ said, I'll spew you, I'll
vomit you out of my mouth. God said, to this man will I
look, even to him that is poor. Contrite in spirit who trembles
at my word. I repeat, it's a bad thing to
be a rich man. And the miseries he's speaking
of is hell. Once again, Go to now ye rich
men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Everybody who's rich, everybody
who is not poor will be in hell. It's only the poor in spirit
of whom it said theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What a blessing
to be a bankrupt sinner. What a great blessing because
that is the person that Christ came to save and he succeeded. Every bankrupt sinner is a saved
sinner. Christ died for them. Now let's
go on reading James chapter 5 verse 2. He says to these rich people,
your riches, the things you have are corrupted and your garments
are moth-eaten. Now, if he's talking about material
riches, you're going to have to say that all wealthy people
are going to hell. And you know that's not the case. There's
so many wealthy people in the Bible that God saved that walk
with God. This represents something. Now,
what does this rich man have? What is it that he possesses?
Well, he says, I have a free will. I have the ability to turn
when I want to. I have many good works. Those
are the things that I have. I can name all kinds of good
things that I have, and what does God say about them? Your
riches are corrupted. They're not real. They're sinful. The word is actually putrefied.
They're putrefied. Your garments, what do garments
represent? Our covering, our righteousness. Throughout the scripture, that's
the way a garment is represented, our righteousness. the righteousness
of Christ. We were just hearing about it
in that song of Jehovah's Akenu. The Lord our righteousness. Now, the rich man, his garment
is not the Lord our righteousness. It's a garment of his own spinning.
And Christ says it's moth-eaten. It's moth-eaten. There's holes
in it. It's no good. I couldn't help but think of
that man who came in without a wedding garment. And the king. looked out over the audience,
and there was a man without a wedding garment. And he said, Friend,
how camest thou in hither having not a wedding garment? And the
man was speechless. Now that wedding garment is nothing
less than the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the only covering.
And what did the Lord say to do with that man? Bind him hand
and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness,
where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now, the
garment this rich man has is moth-eaten. It's no good. Verse
3, your gold and silver is cankered. And that word cankered is actually
poisoned. In Romans chapter 3, It's translated,
the poison of asps is under your lips. This rich man's gold and
silver, that which he trades with, is cankered and poisonous. You see, the only currency the
kingdom of heaven recognizes is this. Come buy wine and milk
without money and without price. If you have anything to bring,
are disqualified. If you have anything to recommend
you, anything, you are disqualified. And you know I'm sitting here
thinking while I'm saying this, I don't have anything to recommend me
to Him. I really don't. I don't have one thing that I
would bring and say, Lord save me because I did this or I'll
stop doing it. No, no. I have nothing. It's only as
you have nothing that you can buy. Come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. Freely. Without a cause in you. If you have something to pay,
You're disqualified. He says, your gold and silver
will be nothing but a witness against you on the judgment day,
how they will torment you in eternal misery. You've heaped up, look at his
language, you've heaped up treasure together for the last days. I
don't know of anything that I would less like to talk about than
hell. Eternal punishment. It kills me when I hear preachers
talking about hell like they like talking about it. Hellfire
and brimstone preachers. I can't stand that kind of stuff.
That doesn't take away the reality of hell. And if God sends a man
to hell, that's because that's exactly what they've earned. Somebody says, how could a loving
God send a man to hell? A loving God doesn't, but if
just God does, There won't be anybody that God loves in hell.
You can write that down. There won't be anybody in hell
that God loves, but just God will send these rich men to hell
who boasted in their works and their riches. And it was all
wrong. I think of this Psalm 52 verse
7. It says, It says, Lo, this is the man that made not God
his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches,
and strengthened himself in his wickedness. That's the rich man
that he's speaking of. The man who would not make God
his strength. He says you've heaped up evidence
against yourself. Verse 4. 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. Now, here he's speaking of these
rich men, and here many of them had lied. They made promises
of wages to the workers that were under them that they kept
back by fraud. They were dishonest. They were
liars. They were deceitful, manipulative
people. They didn't care anything about
people. They didn't really love people. No, they would kept back
the wages by fraud. You know, all your pretended
riches, you're a liar and you have no love for anybody but
yourself if you're a rich man. I can say that with regard to
all rich men. They're all like that, those
who do not believe in salvation by grace. Dishonesty, lies, fraud,
and no love would be the summary of their life. Now, there's somebody
who's heard the cry of these laborers though. The cries of
them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of
Sabaoth. Now that's found in the scripture,
New Testament, two times. The Lord of the Sabaoth. What does it mean? Well, it's
translated over 260 times in the Old Testament, the Lord of
hosts. That's all it means, the Lord
of hosts, the Lord of armies. I love the way Moses, in the
Song of Moses, In Exodus chapter 15, after they passed through
the Red Sea, he said, the Lord is a man of war. And indeed,
he is. Turn with me for a moment to
Revelation chapter 19. Beginning in verse 11. And I saw heaven opened, And
behold, a white horse. And he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge
and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no
man knew but he himself. He was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And
the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean, speaking of the righteousness
of Christ. and out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and
he should rule them with a rob of iron. And he treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he
hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of
kings and Lord of lords." That is the Lord of hosts. When we
read the 24th Psalm, the Ascension Psalm, the name is given to the
Lord Jesus, who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. Turn with me for a moment to
Joshua chapter 5. Joshua chapter 5. Now, Joshua has been commanded
to destroy Jericho, and he doesn't yet know how it's going to be
done. We read in verse 13 of Joshua chapter 5. And it came
to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and
looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with a
sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went into him. I'm
sure he was afraid. And he said, aren't that for
us? We're for our adversaries. Are
you on our side or are you on their side? And he said, neither. But as the captain of the Lord
Am I now come? The captain of the host of the
Lord, am I now come? And Joshua fell on his face to
the earth and did worship and said unto him, What saith my
Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's
host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for
the place whereon thou standest holy. And Joshua did so. Now
that's the Lord of hosts. That's the Lord of sabbath. When's
the other time when we read where someone was called upon to take
their shoes off their feet because it was holy ground? You remember
that. Exodus chapter 3, when God makes
himself known to Moses. Verse 1, Now Moses kept the flock
of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he
led the flock to the backside of the desert. He came to the
mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he
looked, and behold, The bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed. And Moses said, I'll now turn
aside and see this great sight. Why? The bush is not burnt. And
when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he
said, here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither.
Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place wherein thou
standest is holy ground. Now this bush that burned with
fire and wasn't consumed, what does that represent? That represents
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fire of God's wrath came
down upon him but couldn't consume him. He consumed the wrath. He consumed the fire. He couldn't
do it. Now that's holiness. The holiness of God and bringing
His wrath on Him. And His holiness, the Holy One
of Israel, where the fire of God's wrath couldn't consume
Him. He consumed the fire so that
God says, there's no fury in me. Not toward anybody Christ
died for. There's no fury in me. the Lord of hosts, the God of
Sabbath. He's heard all this. Go back
to our text in James chapter five. He says to these rich men, You've
lived in pleasure on the earth and you've been wanting. You've
nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You've lived in
luxury and self-indulgence and all of your supposed riches.
All you're doing is fattening yourself up for the slaughter
like a cow being fattened for the slaughter. That's all you're
doing. You're heaping up to yourself
treasures in that sense. He says in verse 6, you've condemned
and killed the just. and he doth not resist you."
Now regarding these rich men, he says, you've condemned and
you've killed the just. Now who are the just? The just
are the poor men. Every single one of them. I couldn't
help but thinking of the publican in the temple. What did he have
to recommend himself to God? Now, the Pharisee had plenty. Lord, I thank you that I'm not
as other men are. I fast. I give. I'm not in torture. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer.
I'm not like this publican. He was right about that. I give
tithes of all that I possess. And the publican would not so
much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but he beat upon his breast,
saying, God, be propitious to me the sinner. Lord, remove my
sin. There's nothing I can do about
it. I don't have anything to bring to the table. I don't have anything
to recommend myself to you. I'm nothing but sin. God, be
propitious to me the sinner. And what did the Lord say about
that man? He said, I say unto you, That man went down to his
house justified. Now that's who the
just is. The just is the man that God
has justified. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justified them. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather that's risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Now that just man is the one that God has justified. That one who stands before God
perfectly righteous. Now, in and of what he sees of
himself, he doesn't see himself that way. He sees himself as
a sinful man. But how does God see him as a
just man? I think one of the best examples
is Lot. Oh, Lot. You read his story and you would,
from the Old Testament, you'd assume he's probably not saved.
If you'd read his, he was a covetous man. He didn't show deference
to Abraham. He was a drunkard. He was incestuous. I mean, you can say all kinds
of... He pitched his tent towards Sodom. He didn't make any right
decisions at all. Everything he did seemed to be
wrong. And if you read his Old Testament story, what would you
say about that man? He wasn't saved. How could he
be and act like that? Well, how could you be saved
and act the way you do? But what does God say about Lot? Just Lot. Now if God calls him just, you
know why? He's just. His righteous soul, the scripture
says. He had a righteous soul? Absolutely. God said this. This is God's
testimony. God never lies. And that is how
real justification is. It makes it to where God says
regarding every one of his people, they're just, they're righteous,
they have no sin. And what is interesting about
every one of these righteous just ones They think they're
completely poor. They have nothing to bring to
the table. Now what does James say the rich man does to these
just men? He condemns. They condemn him.
They condemn him. Ah, but what you believe will
lead to sin. I mean, what you believe will
lead to indifference about obedience and holiness, and what you believe
will just love... There's nothing good about it.
They're condemning the message of the just. And they kill him.
They kill his character. If they don't murder him physically,
they kill his character. And look what it says next about
these just men. You've condemned and killed the
just, and he does not resist you. He doesn't fight back. He doesn't resist you. Why is
that? because he knows God's on the
throne and because he knows these men are in God's hands and if
somebody does something to me, God told him to do it. We're
like David when the Shema was cussing him and cursing him and
saying all kinds of terrible things about him and Abishai
said, let me go take off his head. He said, no, the Lord said,
curse David. That's why he's doing it. We really believe God
is sovereign, that he's in control of everybody and everything and
every word that comes out of your mouth even he's in control
of. He's absolutely sovereign. So the just man does not resist
you, rich man. But let me tell you somebody
who does resist you, rich man. He's against you. He's your enemy. It's true, if God is before us,
who can be against us? But if God is against us, who
can be for us? And with regard to every rich
man, God is against you. I don't want to be in that place,
do you? I want to take my place with the poor man. And the poor
man is who God calls the just man. It is a bad thing to be
a rich man, isn't it? But it's a good thing to be a
poor man. You see, every poor man who has
absolutely no righteousness of his own has the very righteousness
of Christ. To those who have nothing of
themselves, every one of them have Christ as all. And you know, I can say with
such depth of conviction, Christ is all I have. I don't have anything
else to bring. Christ is all I have. But he's
all I want to have. I don't want anything else. I've
heard people say, there's got to be more. Well, you just haven't
seen. You just haven't seen. If you ever see Christ, that's
all. You wouldn't say anything like that. Let's pray together. Lord, we ask that we would never,
by Your grace, be anything but a poor man, needing Thy Son to
be everything to us. Lord, make that real and powerful
and true with regard to each one of us. Teach us what it means
to trust Thy Son only and to glory only in the cross. Lord, may our hearts be inflamed
with a love to Thy Son, a love to one another, and a love for
His glory, and a love for the spread of His gospel. Bless this
word for Christ's sake. What do you got, Matt?