Now let's look at James chapter 5, you know, this is a book about wisdom. We've said that it really is the New Testament book of Proverbs, a book about wisdom. What it means to receive wisdom from above and to receive our lifestyle from above, because we've seen that the gospel is revealed, our means of justification before God is revealed from heaven, but so is our lifestyle. Wisdom comes from above, and we've seen what it is like in many respects. Today, we are going to look at a passage that is a scorcher, makes my hands sing to hold the Bible. It's a very strong word, and James, of course, is, you remember, the oldest of Jesus' younger brothers. Very Jewish, very aware of his Old Testament, his Torah, and he is preaching in James chapter 5 like Isaiah. There are many parallels. Isaiah, you know, would not only address the Israelites, but he would then address the Babylonians and the Egyptians and the Flistines. And God would have a word for all the nations through Isaiah, which also shows us that God is not just the God of his believing church. He's the God of the entire world, and therefore he's the one who made every group of people. He's the Lord of every nation, whether they acknowledge it or not, and he has something to say. But in this passage, he's going to say something particularly strong about riches. We have seen in chapter 1 that James addresses wealthy and poor people within the church, and he says, look, you wealthy people, be humble, realize your wealth does not put you on a pedestal. You poor people lift up your heads and realize that your poverty does not put you underneath anyone in God's church. We all stand on the same ground. And then in James chapter 2, you remember Rocky preached on this passage about how we are not to show favoritism to wealthy visitors. You know, there's kind of people that come and you say, boy, you sure would make a good member of our church. Get her in here, man. It would elevate this church. James says that's from the pit of hell, have nothing to do with it. And then he makes this comment, verses 6 and 7, which hint at what he's going to talk about now. And he says, don't you realize it's the wealthy people out there in the world, the unbelievers, who are oppressing you poor Christians? Because you know most of the Christians in the first century were of the poor type. The church has always found its beginnings among the poorest of the people and the dispossessed and the disenfranchised. And he says, don't you know why would you show favoritism to the wealthy? They're the very ones who are using their power to oppress you and put you in prison and torture you and kill you. Now in chapter 5, he is now going to launch, James is, a frontal assault on rich people. Making anybody here kind of nervous? Get out of it. Because everybody here is in the top 2% of the world's population in terms of wealth. There's probably not one person in this room that's below the top 2%. You should feel a little squirch until you realize that you are not accepted by God because you're so wise in the use of your finances. Now you should be wise in the use of your finances and we'll talk about it. But that's not the reason you have access to this table. That's not the reason you have access to heaven. The reason you have access to heaven is that someone was infinitely wise with the use of his resources. Jesus Christ, infinitely wealthy only universe and later decide why for you. So that you in your poverty and in your corruption would have purity and would have infinite wealth. That's what he did, the wisest of them all. And that's how you have access to this table and that's how you have access to heaven. So dear friends, I don't want this scorching prophecy to hit you in the wrong way. I want you to listen to it very carefully because remember all of the Bible is not spoken to you but is all spoken for you. So you're listening in on somebody else's conversation. God is talking to those who have rejected God as creator and redeemer and who are now abusing their wealth. And you say, well what good is it for us? How many of you here have older siblings or ever did? Just raise your hands. Now you know what I'm talking about because I'm the third of four. You remember when mom or dad just got really angry at your older sibling and you were listening in it. It kind of made you feel bad. You were wondering if they were mad at you. But then later on this and I wasn't mad at you honey but you heard it. You saw the wrath of your mother. And one thing, if you were a wise younger sibling you were sure not to repeat the behavior that she just excoriated with unspeakable language against your older sibling. So you learn, don't you? You learn by listening. You have a parent in heaven. He's not mad at you. His anger is not being exercised against you. If you're trusting in Christ, his anger has already landed right there on Christ. He's not angry with you but he's angry. And if you want to know what makes him angry, just listen to this prophecy. Just listen to this oracle of judgment and you'll learn something about your dad in heaven. And as you learn knowing that he loves you and he's forgiven you for all your dirty rod and ugly sins of wealth, you will say if that's what makes him unhappy and the opposite makes him happy, that's what I want to do. Let's pray to that end. Father, thank you for letting us listen in on your attitude, your heart toward the abuse of wealth. And we pray Lord, make us wise. And we pray that the gospel would make us wise so that we would not cower in fear wondering if you're going to destroy us. But by faith in Christ, we would know that you love us. But we would also know the behavior that you hate and the behavior that you love. Speak, O Lord, for your servants, listen. Amen. James, chapter 5, verses 1-6, you're the Word of God. Now, listen, you rich people. Weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted and mawls have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have horted wealth in the last days. Look, the wages you fail to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men who were not opposing you. All men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever. Amen. I know some of you are really struggling with your finances and I am sorry about that. But something I have discovered through the years is that those who have little suffer with the same fundamental temptation as those who have a lot. Warren Buffett puts it this way, he says, if you are a jerk, you will be a bigger jerk after you make a billion dollars. So everybody struggles whether you have a little or a lot. And sometimes there are folks in the church and in the world who try to put rich people on a guilt trip. And that is not my intention and certainly not God's intention. Abraham was very wealthy. Solomon was extraordinarily wealthy. Jesus ministry was funded largely by wealthy women, Luke 8, who followed him in an appropriate way, but who filled the persons of the disciples ministry. So there is not a shred of evidence in the New Testament or the old that God despises wealth or wealthy people, but he does despise something. He despises the misuse of wealth that condemns or hurts other people, that fails to love other people. He hates that. So he doesn't hate wealth and he doesn't hate money, but he does condemn those who condemn others by misusing their wealth. Let me say it again. This is the thrust of the entire text. God does condemn those who condemn others by the misuse of their wealth. Now this lighting bolt is largely directed outside the people of God. Now you can read Isaiah or you can read James and you can find all kinds of lighting bolts directed right at God's people. Now this one is directed at the culture at large. Let me tell you why. James was the bishop of Jerusalem. They were a very poor church. James was seeing missionaries go out from Jerusalem into other parts of Syro Palestine, which was basically the Holy Land and surrounding neighborhoods. And what James was seeing happen was that the poor Christian people were being ravaged and savaged by the poor or rather the wealthy owners, plantation or farm owners, in Syro Palestine. Here's what they were doing. And by the way, Seneca, the Roman philosopher, Seneca who was the household philosopher who trained Nero, Seneca said the same thing was happening in the Roman Empire in Italy. Here's what happened. The large landowners could control market prices, especially during seasons of famine. They could live on the little that they brought in and control the prices in the marketplace and absolutely put the small farmer out of business. And when those opportunities arose, that's exactly what they did. Then they bought the neighboring farms and then they made them tenant farmers and often subjected them to what appears to be abject slavery and abuse them. And sometimes they didn't even pay their wages. And what could they do about it? Absolutely nothing. Why? Because the biggest farm owners were the judges. And the worst of them all were the sagesys. They were the wealthy, privileged class, kind of the house of lords. They owned everything and they were the judges. There was no justice in the land and the small business people were being put out of business. And this was impoverishing the church, impeding their ministry. And I suppose James himself had some righteous indignation about it. So he writes to the rich people and he's telling them this once again, God condemns those who condemn other people by the abuse of wealth. First of all, God condemns. Look at your first two-and-a-half verses. You'll find that James says, look, weep, literally weep wailing. Don't just shed a few tears. Don't just pat a little, cry out with an unholy sob whale. Because misery is coming upon you. What misery? Okay, now he's going to use the perfect tense in Greek. Here's what the perfect tense means. It's past that is something has already started to happen. But it continues in the present and right on into the future so that it's not something that just happened once in the past. It happened. It started a process that's continuing. Here's the process. Your wealth is corroding right in front of your eyes. It's already started corroding. It's corroding now and it's going to corrode completely at the end. It says, you rich people taking advantage of other people. We tell you about your riches. They're already rotting and he's specifically referring to food because people would store up their grain that was currency. If you had grain, that was like having money and you built big barns and you put it in there and you store more and more grain. He said, that grain is already rotting. And he said, you're clothing. The malls are already starting to eat holes in it and pretty soon they're going to eat the whole bloomed thing and you'll be naked at the end is basically what he's saying. So the very things that mark you as a distinctive person you eat well and you dress well, it's already damned and it's already started in process. I know some people who spend $100,000 in one year on their wardrobe. You don't look shocked. That really concerns me. Some people who spend enormous amounts of money in draping themselves with materials that are finely tailored, the best materials in the world pampering themselves. And James says, you folks are doing that to the abuse of other people and we'll talk about how that does sometimes abuse other people. The malls are already eating it. That clothing is judged and then he says, look the very thing that you think is incorruptible could not be tarnished. You're gold in your silver. Doesn't tarnish does it? Oh yes, it does. In God's economy, it's already started to rust out. Already started to corrode and it will be completely gone at the end. Now look what he says. He says, not only will it corrode but that corrosion, that corruption of all of your wealth is going to do two things. First of all, it's going to be your witness in heaven. You know they say, you can't take it with you? Well unfortunately for the rich oppressor, he does take it with him. A big barn full of stinking refuse. And that barn is crying out before God saying, we could have fed the world but that jerk kept us here in this barn until we rotted. That voice is going to testify before God with the clothing and the currency and the money and the food. It's all going to say, it's going to testify against the rich oppressor. This is what James is saying. You people who are taking advantage of God's poor, let me tell you something. We feel sorry for you because we're going to be rich in the end and you're going to lose it all. And then he says, not only will the corrosion testify against you, he says it's going to eat you up. Lovely words from James, don't you think? Do you think he's a delicate man? It's going to eat your flesh like fire. Oh man, James what do you really think? Strong memo to follow. So God, you see James is saying, God has an opinion and God has a judgment. And this is it. Now God judges those or condemns those who condemn others by the misuse of wealth. Now he's going to show us how we condemn others with the misuse of our wealth. What's the first thing he says? Is it 3B? He says, you hoard wealth. Is the word from which we get the saris, which the word saris, in case you were wondering, means a collection, a collection of words in the case of the saris as we use it. But here he's just saying, you the sarisize, you collect, you hoard. Why did people do this? Let me tell you why. Because you're afraid. You're afraid there's not going to be enough at the end. And you're insecure. And you want to be sure you pile up enough. Secondly, you really like it when someone secretly finds out that you really have a lot. Oh, you're not sure, of course not. I mean, he's Memphis, Jeremy Town. We don't show off, but we like people. Man, it means that he sure is humble. So it's a mark of distinction that you have a big that full of stuff. That's why we do it. We'll talk about how that gets broken in us. But you see why God despises this is because you found your security and your things instead of in Christ salvation, what he's done for us on the cross. You found your mark of distinction and your self identity in what you own instead of the love of Jesus Christ for your soul, which is the mark that identifies us as his people. So you can see why it's so irritating to God that people would hoard things. John Wesley put it this way. He said, if I die with ten pounds to my name, I have lived and died as a thief and a robber. Say what? Ten pounds does not very much. Wesley was basically saying, look, he divested himself. We are the people who divest ourselves. You may not do it all at once, but you have a plan to divest yourself for the kingdom and for the glory of God. So make a plan to do this. Don't be foolish like those who are getting hit with a lightning bolt. Listen to what God is saying to these other creatures of his. Listen in on this conversation. He says you've hoarded well. Secondly, he says you've held back the wages. You not only took over their farm, made them a tenant farmer, now you've made them a slave and you don't even pay them what you owe them. And did you not give them what you could have because you ordered it? Now you're not giving them what you should have because you owed it. Friends, in 1977, CEOs, if you compare the salary of American CEOs with the wages, the average wage of the laborer, and I'm talking about manufacturing concerns. Back in 1977, the CEOs made 29 times what the average laborer made. So if the average laborer made $10,000, the CEO generally made $290,000. Do you know what the multiple is now or what it was last year, $2,200? The after tax disposable income of the top 1% of the American population in terms of income, the top 1% from 1977 in inflation equal dollars has arisen 115% from an after tax disposable income. Do you know what it's going up in the lower 20% of those in our country over those same years? It hasn't gone up. It's gone down 9%. With all the discussion and all the concern about taxes and so on, do you realize that our taxes in America for those in the top 1% have gone down 13%, which is the equal of the pay of those in the lower 40%. So the tax break has been equal to what they make over the past 1 year. Now look, I don't like taxes either. You know, Patrick Henry used to complain, no taxation without representation. I want to say, well, how about taxes with representation? If you really want to know what that feels like, get worse. So I'm not in favor of higher taxes. I'm just simply saying something's going on here that probably would not make James real happy. But honestly, I'm not so concerned about James. I'm concerned about his brother and what he thinks. I think he's not real happy with that. He is not unhappy that people are making 115% more than they used to. I think what he would be unhappy about is that a huge proportion of this country, the bottom 40% average has not grown whatever bottom 60% if you average them all has not grown whatsoever. I don't think he's real happy about that. Let me just take another side road. In my limited experience in race relations in Memphis, let me just say something, there are not going to be race relations in Memphis if this issue is not addressed in Memphis. Am I saying that's right? I'm not saying that's right. I'm saying it's true. I'm not speaking from a scripture verse, so this is Sandy Wilson speaking, but mark my words. There will not be reconciliation until there's economic justice and empowerment where the top 1% start caring about the bottom 20 and the bottom 40 and the bottom 60 for him and 6. James says to those in the outside world, listen, he's not talking to us, he's talking to them. He says this is how you condemn people, you hoard things and then you don't even pay them. You don't seem to care. And then he says to them, not only are you hoarding and you're holding back, but he says thirdly that you're hurting people. I'm sorry, thirdly, he says you're high living. You're living behind the hog. He says to them, look at this, the luxury. He says you spend money on luxury and self-intultions. I know, we all love to pamper ourselves, be kind to number one, all the rest. But James says that God is upset with the nations because the typical approach is to spend the whole lot of money on ourselves rather than other people. And there's something not right about this. And I just simply say, just listen to what he's saying to them. And obviously there's something about that in me too. Look, I have a Scottish background. Scottish heritage. I come from the old country and we're not known for our liberality. I'm sorry, Scottish friends, but that's our reputation. There's a story of a Scottsman who got in a taxi cab in London and they went a few blocks and the taxi cab wrecked. He was a terrible wreck and the Scottsman was thrown over on the sidewalk. He was bloody, bruised, broken, just looked horrible. The cab he was okay after a few moments and he went over and said, sir, I'm sorry, is there anything I can do to help you? And he said, yes, Laddy, would you just be sure the meter's turned off? Look, I noticed like to grab on to things. But James says, look, you've been self-indulgent. And you know what? It's not just the wealthy who do this. It's the people with modern incomes who really want to live beyond their means. This is the disease. Is that you want more than you need and you're determined to spend it. Robert D. Manning wrote a book last year called Credit Card Nation. You know what that looks about. Do you realize that in equal dollars, our consumer installment debt doubled from 80 to 90 and from 90 to 2000. That's quadrupling. Listen, our disposable income did not quadruple. It did not even double. But our consumer installment debt is going right through the ceiling. People generally owe about 85% of their income. Literally. It's huge. And it's an international problem. It's a national problem. It's a personal problem. It's a family problem. As one woman, young woman, they were just starting out and they just had a few things and she wanted to get things as quickly as she could. And she said to her husband, you know, do you have just been thinking? If we, if we did not make our next two payments on the refrigerator and skip the next payment on our dishwasher, we can make a down payment on you widescreen TV. And a lot of people are thinking it's an enormous problem and it's a problem in this congregation as well. But see what God is saying to those who are just taking just consuming the energies and the material of this world and spinning it on themselves. He does not like it. And then fourthly, he says, you're hurting other people. You're condemning and murdering innocent people who did nothing to harm you. What did these Christian people do to you? He says. And yet you are determined to wipe them out. Remember a man named Saul? He was one of them before he was converted. And James says God's judgment is on that when we are hurting other people by the way that we live. Let me tell you how the rest of the world feels. They feel in Memphis and other parts of the world as my ears listen in on a few candid conversations that we Americans are really stuck on ourselves. We don't read much international news. We don't know that there are millions of millions of people starving this year. We don't realize that we spend as much money on diet programs as it would take to feed the whole world of poor people. They look at us and say, you must be living in some kind of a strange glass bubble. People in Memphis say that. Don't we realize this city is not going to move ahead until there's a real communal sense about sharing? Isn't it true Christian people they would say that the first thing the disciples did when they got together, besides studying the Bible and praying, what was the first thing they did they shared their possessions? Isn't that one of the clearest demonstrations of the gospel that people let go of the grip they had on their possessions? And those possessions let go of the grip that they had on the individual? Isn't that a sign of conversion? This is what James is saying. Now let's draw some quick conclusions before we come to the table. First of all, for any of you here who are not followers of Jesus Christ, if I were picking a text for you to hear this morning I probably wouldn't have picked that one because it's so strong and hard. But since it was the text for the day, let me just plead with you, plead with you, please don't go on in foolishness, please don't live a lifestyle like this. It leads to ultimate abandonment and destruction. If there is anything I could do morally to convince you not to go that route, I would do it this morning and take as long as it took. But I know it's a work of God to get your heart to convince you that this is not the way to happiness, to just pile up things that are corroding in your very midst. And I want to say to you that it's not a matter of making a few adjustments in your game. It's not a matter of just changing your golf grip a little bit and just make a few alterations. No, here's the deal. You got to quit. You had to completely surrender. I'm talking about a 180 when the rich young brilliant ruler came to Jesus Christ. He didn't make a few adjustments in his spinning patterns and just let me tweak your budget a little bit. He said completely be done with that old lifestyle. Get rid of it and follow me. And that's what's required by the gospel. Secondly, what does it mean to most of us here who are followers of Christ? It means this and we'll get to it next week in greater detail, but don't give up. You are the wealthy, sons and daughters of the king of the universe. You own it all and please don't trifle with this corroding, corruptible, maggot-ridden stuff. It's unworthy of your stature. It's a total denial of your inheritance. You are not acting like a prince when you do that or a princess. So you stick to your faith. You stick to your hope. You stick to your guns. And you live a life that reflects the knowledge and the certainty that this God and this God, he is not going to let you down. And he is not an Indian giver and he doesn't break his promises. So live like it. You are free. And you are free from the grip and enjoy yourself. Because you are truly the liberated people. And you know what? It's written all over you. How many people do I know in this congregation who had experienced this? Some with a lot of money. Some afraid a little money. But who are free? And who are being used of the king himself to proclaim his name by word indeed? That's the goal. That's the gift that was purchased by our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus Christ who in your wealth became poor, that we poor might become wealthy. We love you. We adore you. We praise you and thank you for your great gift of love. And for the promise of an inheritance that cannot be counted, we shall spend all eternity enjoying the vastness of it and being in staggered amazement that you really did love us infinitely beyond what we ever thought or imagined. Receive our praise and hear our prayers of intercession. Especially for those who have been made poor this very weak by the loss of someone they love. For Joe Bradley on the death of his dear wife Jane, please comfort him and remind him and others here that our wealth is not only in the universal possessions that will be ours one day, but in the renewal of communion with those that we love in Jesus. Bless the family of Zeta Schaeffer who died this past week, grant them your peace that passes all understanding. And gracious God, for the five little ones brought into our family this very weak, we praise you and thank you for your great gifts to us. For Hughes, Pettit's skull, the son of Trenton Lee, for how he robins and acclaim the daughter of David and Mary. For Mary, Victoria Sullivan, the daughter of where and Sally, for James Benjamin, Clements, the son of Jimian Karen, for Anna Grace McCarty, the daughter of Patrick and Amanda. Oh, God, we thank you. And may these grow up to be the wise ones who demonstrate by their stewardship of the possessions you've given charge to them for that they would indeed proclaim Jesus Christ. Now Father, hear our prayer as we submit ourselves to you and ask for your help that we may repent of all our sin and trust in the effective work of Jesus Christ for our forgiveness for we pray in his precious name. Amen.