A Rebuke to the Unrighteous Rich part 1 How you spend it

James chapter 5 verses 1 through 3. Now to be honest with you I am preaching on a subject that I fear and dread the most and that might surprise you. I am not that big of a fan of talking about money in the life of the church. You know when you bring up the subject of money and the preacher is the one who brings up the subject usually people roll their eyes or make a joke or make a snot a little comment to their wife and say oh here we go again. I think we've all been in those circumstances but money is a part of life and money is good, money is bad, it can be but yet James deals with this subject of money here in Scripture.

Now to kind of get our minds started this morning I'll say it like this you can tell a great deal about a person by how they spend their money. Isn't that right? Money can be a great indicator of the condition of one's heart whether they are rich or poor money can be a great indicator of the condition of the heart. Now that leads us to the scripture this morning verses 1 through 6 or excuse you 1 through 6 deal with money it's all one passage or one message but we're going to deal with verses 1 through 3. James is dealing with money and he's dealing with money in the lives of these people who are within the church.

Now we know that there are lost people within the church because James has already addressed them. Now let me pause there for a minute and explain what I mean by that. Lost people are never the church it's only those who are the redeemed but yet as we are the church on this earth as we gather together it is inevitable that there are lost people among us that is a normal thing that is also a healthy thing there were always lost people who followed Christ.

So we have this church that's been scattered we have these different churches that James is writing to and they are solid Christians among them but yet they are struggling Christians among them but yet there are some who are lost in the fellowship and James is dealing with money and he's dealing with how the people in these fellowships dealt with their money. Now we know that James has been giving test after test after test throughout this little epistle but right now as we are getting into chapter 5 we're going to see that there is another test.

James issues another test and as a matter of fact James is demanding from them good works to flow from their lives in the area of money. In these next verses James teaches that how you spend their money can be a great test and he is demanding listen demanding good works flow from their lives and he's dealing with this area of money. Now I'm going to put the title of the message up on the screen it's a rather lengthy title and I apologize for that but the title of the message is a rebuke to the unrighteous rich part one because this morning we're going to look at how you spend it then next week we're going to look at part 2 how you earn it.

So the title of the message is a rebuke to the unrighteous rich part one which is how you spend it and we're going to be in verses 1 through 3 of James chapter 5. Let's read the verses together. James says come now you rich he says weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth eaten your gold and your silver have rusted and their rust will be the witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire it is in the last days that you have stored up for yourselves treasure. Now I'm going to stop there because I want us to spend the adequate time in these verses.

Now you'll notice on the screen that we really just have one main truth this morning we're going to look at the other two main truths which come through the following verses next week but we have plenty of time to look at point number one but before we get into the the message I want us to see the importance of verse one go back to verse one he says come now you rich he says weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you I want us to begin the message with verse one and end the message with verse one but what I want you to see is these two words at the beginning come now now the English Standard Version as well as the New American use the same words which are come now and what James is doing is he is giving a demand for their attention the old amplified version really gets it right the old amplification amplified version says come now but it's all caps I like that because the construction of the language shows us that James is saying you better listen up he's not being soft-handed he's not saying this with a whisper as a matter of fact there's only one other place in the book of James that this language appears and that is earlier in chapter 4 verse 13 look at your text what does he say come now what is James doing James is saying you better listen to what I have to say in our language you could say it like this he's saying you better pay attention you better get this a matter of fact if he was going to use his voice he might raise his voice he might even take his hand and slam it on the pulpit but verse one is very important because it is part of it is an introduction to a very strong rebuke from James and that rebuke starts in verse one and goes all the way down in verse six James as a matter of fact has what some say the strongest rebuke to the readers right here in these verses one Bible commentator that I read said it like this that James these verses these verses contain James blistering scathing denunciation yes I think if we could understand what James is saying we would say this is blistering as a matter of fact this gets a little scathing what am I trying to show you an introduction what am I trying to help us to see this is not some soft-handed message from James James is not being apologetic he's saying you better listen and you better pay attention now for us why is this important I'm gonna tell you why it's important if James took this subject serious we should too even though I might be uncomfortable dealing with the area of money see I there are a lot of things that other preachers have done that I don't like either some of the things that you've seen in your life and in your ministry experience that make you shy away from the preacher that talks about money I don't like it either but yet we must be true to the word and I must be true to the word and true to the calling and this is a subject that we must take serious because James demands us to take it serious so go back to the verse and we see verse one he says come now and then he gets into verse two he says your riches they have rotted and your garments have become moth eaten your gold your silver it is rusted and their rust will witness or be a witness against you and they will consume your flesh like fire then the last sentence of the verse it is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure so that leads us to the main point this morning you see it on the screen their riches they were hoarded up their riches they were hoarded up now you'll notice that the this main point this main truth really comes from verse 3 the latter portion of verse 3 the new American that I read from says stored now the King James in the amplified uses the word heat now the new American excuse me the new international version uses the word hoarded and I like that word it reads you have hoarded wealth in the last days now again why do I refer to those different translations whether you say stored or heaped or hoarded the idea is communicated that these people had taken material wealth and they had piled them up they had stored them up now I want us to go down these verses and I want us to notice four things and I have put these on the screen for your convenience first I want you to notice what they hoarded notice what they hoarded go back to the verse verse 2 he says your riches and he goes on to say your garments and then verse 3 he says you're gold and you're silver why is James using so many words here why does James sing the pile words up why couldn't he have just been very brief here James is is directing their attention to certain aspects of their life so let's break these words down I want you to notice that they had riches now all of the translations that I refer to use the word riches now this word riches refers to general wealth in other words it can be just applied to wealth in general but the word rotted here gives us the context the word rotted points more to the fact that they had accumulated now this might sound strange food stuffs why do I say that we're gonna understand that a little more when we get into these words but what I want you to see is James is saying you have accumulated you have a pile riches but he's talking about piles and piles of food stuffs I remember the old Exodus story remember when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years and they needed to be taken care of you know God's a good take a good supplier he's a good provider and what did God do God allowed a man a bread from heaven to rain down and they were to gather it up they were not to store it up there was only one day of the week that they were to store it up and that was the day before the Sabbath because they were not permitted to gather on the Sabbath but what did the Israelites do they didn't take God at his word and some of them did what they took some of that manna and they tried to store it and that's what these people that James is writing to it done they had accumulated great food stuffs and I'm gonna show you what that means a little later also they had garments they had garments all of the translations I refer to use that word as well but in James day we must understand what these words mean now in James day this word garments would have referred to many outer garments they had inner garments and then they had outer garments and a matter as a matter of fact when we're reading the New Testament or the Old Testament as well we will see words like robes and cloaks and in James day many times some of the wealthy they would take their robes their cloaks their outer garments and they would be decorated in a very ornate way that's what James is talking about he's saying that you have hoarded up riches but you have also hoarded garments many different garments and they would have been decorated in a very elaborate ways a matter of fact many of them would have jewels attached to those garments also I want you to see that they had precious metals I think it's obvious that precious metals refer to gold and silver but gold and silver in James day would have been the number one indicator of a man's wealth many times coins in that day would have been minted from gold or silver but many times they would have been an alloy in other words it would have been gold or silver mixed with another metal what am I trying to show you they had a hoarded notice precious metals many garments and lots of food stuffs now what do we need to take away from this they were a people that hoarded things up they stored these things up they had accumulated much second I want you to notice what will happen second I want you to notice what will happen go back to verse 2 with me what does he say your riches have what rotted your garments have been become what moth-eaten your gold and your silver what they have rusted I want you to notice that the riches what does he say they're rotting this is why this word rot this is why we believe this touch touches on or refers to food stuffs because the word rot is only used once in the New Testament right here but in the common Greek language of the day this word rot in the original always referred to rotting wood rotting food rotting flesh so culture dictates context in this instance what do we see this word in their day was used to refer to rotting wood rotting flesh rotting foods and that's why many Bible commentators believe James is talking about food stuff but what's James saying all that food you're accumulating is rotten also notice what will happen to the garments they are eaten they are eaten what does it say your garments will be moth eaten now in that day bugs and things like that eating clothing was more more common I think it was probably would be safe to say there really two reasons why clothes in that day were made of a natural substance but also care I don't know if you've ever faced that before I remember growing up my grandmother always used mothballs why because the mall can eat up clothes what do we see here he's saying all those ornately decorated garments yeah in a instant they can be eaten but also what does he say the precious metals what does he say they will rust now this word rust in the original it is a compound word and it is a strong word and it means to completely rust to completely and thoroughly corrode now what must we take away from this what is James trying to say notice the tense in the verse go back to it your riches have rotted your garments have become moth eaten notice what he says your gold and your silver they have rusted it's going on as they speak what is James showing them he's saying you've hoarded up all these things you think you've got things under control but what is happening right now is that the food is rotting and the bugs are eating your clothes and that gold and that silver those coins in your pocket yes they will thoroughly and are thoroughly being corroded but then I want you to notice the judgment James kind of changes right here in verse 3 he says your gold and your silver have rusted and then notice how the verse changes he says and their rust will be a witness against you that seems strange and will consume your flashlight fire James is referring right here to the judgment all of the translations that we refer to say the very same thing and what is James saying right here in verse 3 he's saying that at the judgment their riches will be a witness against them go back to that verse he says and their rust will be a witness against you so what we see here is as at the judgment these people who have hoarded up so much that decomposing process the rust the rotting the the bugs who will eat their garments will literally rise up against them at the judgment so at the judgment their riches and this process will rise up as a witness against them also I want you to notice that at the judgment their riches will consume them and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume notice your flesh like fire what what is that right there this is a reference to hell itself James is referring to the literal place of physical torment that we Bible Christians believe now I want to pause here for a minute and I want to tell you something there are a lot of people who say they're Bible Christians but they do not believe in a literal biblical heaven nor a literal biblical hell otherwise they would not say some of the garbage that they say but yet the Bible teaches there is a literal physical hell I will just rattle off a few passages of scripture that refer to a literal physical hell Luke 16 23 mark 529 excuse me Matthew 529 Matthew 1028 Matthew 13 42 and verse 50 Revelation 14 9 Revelation 1920 Revelation 20 verse 15 if you want those passages I'll give them to you after the message what am I trying to show you the Bible is stacked full of references to a physical literal hell and what James is saying is at the judgment all of this junk that you've hoarded up will be a witness against you and he's referring to the fact that they will be in agony this tells me he's dealing with lost people also I want you to notice the fourth thing notice the timing notice the timing go back to the verse verse 3 and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire now notice this last sentence it is in the last days that you have stored up or hoarded up for yourselves this treasure notice the timing here now all of the translations basically say the same thing but in the last days in the last days that last excuse me the last days are the time between Christ's first coming and Christ's second coming I want you to get that because there's a lot of confusion about what the last days are you know people are saying well preachers have always been saying we've been living in the last days that's true because according to the scripture Paul was living in the last days James was living in the last days and the last days are this time between when Christ came the first time and when Christ is coming the second time and you know what we call this the time of grace we are experiencing grace and James is rebuking them for hoarding their goods when they should have been used in the time of grace that's why he's referring to this particular time he's saying you have hoarded up all this stuff all this food stuff all these garments all these precious metals they're rotting it in your right under your fingertips the bugs are eating your clothes the coins in your pockets are rusting there is a judgment coming and you're doing all this in the time of grace in other words they should have taken advantage now listen of this window of opportunity for what to use what they have now let's take a look let's take a step back and look at what's going on James is writing to these churches they are strong Christians there they're struggling Christians there and there are lost people in the life of the church and he's noticing in the fellowships there are some people who are just hoarding things up now we've already discovered that when they scattered from Jerusalem some did well but yet some did not some suffered immensely but there is an element in the life of the church they're just hoarding things up they've got things together they've got food piled up they've got plenty of clothes that as a matter of fact not only plenty of clothes but nice clothes and they've got plenty of money in the bank and James rushes to condemn them and James is saying all this stuff will continue at the judgment and you will suffer torment because of it and then he says and you're doing this in the days of grace you're doing this in the last days James says a lot in these verses does he not I mean James says a lot I mean their riches were hoarded up and not only were they hoarded up they were hoarded up listen with the wrong heart and not what I said earlier to get us started you can tell a lot about the condition of a man's heart you can tell a lot about the condition of a person's heart by what they do with what they have and James listen it's zeroed right in on what was the title of the message this morning the unrighteous rich and he's dealing with how they spend it because they're not they're hoarding it up now as we move to a portion of the scripture I call it the application I want us to start moving from the text and I want us to start moving to us because it's not enough for us to look at the scripture and say boy that's a good word well that that's good I like how James says that we've got to take the Word of God no matter how technical we might get or how much time we might spend in it or how many words we divide or verses we divide and we got to bring it all the way back home to you to me to us I ran across something that John McArthur said and I like it I wrote some of it down he says hoarding tragically is one of the most widespread sins of our time God entrusts believers with material goods so that they may use them for his glory then he goes on to say the Bible does not teach that possessing wealth is sinful in and of itself what is wrong is to misuse one's wealth that's the great lesson for you that's the great lesson for me that's what we must take home see if we're not careful you'll be confused you'll go home and say well the preacher says if I got anything got money in the bank that's wrong no that's not true the Word of God never condemns a man for a having the Word of God right here condemns a man for how he uses what he has and the attitude in which he stores it see they didn't store it to use it they stored it to hoard it and there is a big difference now there's a great lesson here because you and I must evaluate why we've got what we've got and what we've got it for and how we're going to use it now I've given us an incomplete list I'm gonna go through this list I don't have it on the screen but I want you to pay close attention and I want to show you some obvious biblical means some obvious biblical uses of our monies and and our of our resources reasons why God would give Christians like you and me monies and material possessions because the Word of God says that all good things come from him so I'm going to give you four things an application and I want you to write these down and remember them first of all number one God gives us monies to provide for our own families God gives us monies to provide for our own families write this verse down first Timothy 5/8 we've already studied this in our journey through first Timothy what is Paul tell Timothy what is Timothy deal with the people in the life of the church at Ephesus he says but if anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his household what does that word in the household mean that means family he says if anyone does not provide for the needs of his own family he is denied the faith and he is worse than an unbeliever now let me park it right here for a minute according to James if a man will not take care of his own family he is worse than a lost wicked reprobate now don't get me started I've seen people in the life of the church they would not take care of their wives they would not take care of their children but they also took care of their own little whims and fancies but according to Timothy according to Paul according to what was going on in the Ephesian church God says if a man won't take care of his family he's worse than a lost man that's pretty low down isn't it and God gives us a good job God gives us a paycheck God gives us insurance or health benefits or a home or a nice car or a piece of property God gives us all of those things why to take care of our own family let me tell you we could have massive excuse me massive social reform if the people in our culture would just take care of their own in that right but what will happen in the life of the church and see those of us who are me and those of us who are leaders of our families we must evaluate our resources what God has been given has been given to us to take care of our families there's nothing wrong with putting money away in the bank there's nothing wrong with saving money for a child's college education there's nothing wrong with having a piece of land and there's trees growing on it and you know you're gonna cut those trees to seeing your child of color there's nothing wrong with that because according to what we see in Timothy we're responsible for taking care of our children I didn't say bomb a $50,000 automobile some of that's nothing but materialism and all that good stuff you know some people have got it confused they think that the Bible says well I should give my children the things that I didn't have that's not what the Bible says the second thing I want you to say is the Bible obviously teaches that our monies are to provide for kingdom work our monies are to provide for kingdom work drop this verse down acts chapter 2 verse 42 it's a pretty famous verse I think most of you know this passage of scripture but this is when the New Testament church was really getting off the ground if I can use that language God had poured out his spirit at the day of Pentecost and but yet the Gentiles really weren't swept in in a great fashion yet but yet we see the the great work of God and he is forming and building and starting that New Testament church and we see this exemplified in the life of these New Testament Christians and I'm gonna read it you don't have to turn there but it gives a brief description of their activities and their lifestyle and their behavior and it starts in verse 42 he says and they that's the believers who were there in Jerusalem they were continually devoting themselves to the Apostles they're teaching to the fellowship and the breaking of the bread in the prayer and everyone kept feeling a sense of all and many wonders and signs were taking place through the Apostles and all of those who believe were together and they had things in common that meant they shared things and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as one might be in need what do we see here this was an attitude of taking their possessions and making them at the disposal of God's work there were many Christians in the life of the Jerusalem Church who were financially destitute and they needed to be taken care of what is that alluding to that is kingdom work and we know that they were sacrificial they were willing to take what God had given them and pour it into notice kingdom work that's why God blesses us that's why God gives to us that's why God takes care of us you know I've heard of preachers of old I've heard of preachers through the years who drive driven very nice cars many times because others have given them to them you know it's a dangerous thing when a preacher drives a Cadillac in there right I've always said a preacher be better off driving a brand new Toyota instead of a used Cadillac but you know I as a preacher that my and I've listened to and I've read he gave most of everything away but there was a man that blessed that blessed his ministry by every year giving him a new Cadillac and what he would do is he would swing through town and he'd give him the old Cadillac and he'd give the preacher a new Cadillac what am I showing you that's just a little example of how a man who was blessed used his possessions he owned a car lot for kingdom work number three I want you to see that God gives us material possessions to provide for the poor to provide for the poor now I don't know if you know much as far as your Bible history the way things were progressing but as the New Testament church progressed and God was using those in Jerusalem and they scattered along came this man named Paul we know that he was that great apostle to the Gentiles but he goes out on this long ministry endeavor and then they had this great Jerusalem Council to discuss many things most of it had to do with the Gentiles that were coming into the kingdom the Gentiles who were coming into the church and 14 years after Paul had begun this ministry journey of being in the Apostle to the Gentiles they had this great Jerusalem conference and Paul comes humbly to submit his work to Peter James and John those who were repeated to be pillars of the church but they discuss many things about the law and grace through faith and all that but at the end of that great council one of the things that they said was remember the poor Galatians chapter 2 verse 20 gives us that it says that they only ask us to remember the poor the very thing I also was eager to do so they met together they discussed all of the Gentiles coming into the kingdom they discussed matters of the law and theology and then when they got right to the end of it those who were in Jerusalem said oh yeah Paul don't forget the poor Paul turned back and said amen brother that's what I've been doing all along what am I showing you God gives us possessions to do what to minister to the poor I was reminded this morning all of us who are living in America are rich you go to another country you go to a third world country and you will see that we are all rich one of the things that struck me the most when I went to India is the utter poverty we are rich now is it a sin to be rich is it a sin to be blessed is it a sin to be an American and to be blessed with more than one car and plenty of food in the refrigerator and money in the bank no it's not a sin to have those things but what is a sin is to hoard it God's given that for us to bless others that's why we pour money into the slums in India that's why we sin Luke to India that's why we we go over there some of you've never been but you're going by your heart and your prayer and your commitment to that ministry why those are the poor and you're willing to do that and I'm gonna tell you something I don't think anybody here is given sacrificially he says God's given us these things to remember the poor I was reminded this week there's a lady that I do some work for you know that I'm self-employed and through that I've come in contact with all types of people but there's a lady in our community she's a widow lady she's you know fairly well off she's done well her husband took care of her and she's she's done well and her children live off and she'll call me and I have different projects she wants me to do and sometimes she'll call me and it'll be something real small and our little joke is that we always visit talk about things going on in town and we catch up she's a real nice lady but because of her position in town she was telling me the other day how she came in contact with a lady who was poor she lived on a piece of property that many people in the family owned there were many heirs to that piece of property and that particular heir to the property quit paying the power bill and the electricity was cut off and because the electricity was cut off her water well was shut down and this lady went for a month with no water in Brookhaven Mississippi very poor had no way to figure that out no way to go through the right the legal process to get that straightened out well this lady that I know who was a widow lady and she's been blessed she's she's financially fine she made a few phone calls to some friends and said we need to put some money in the hat these are ladies that would call themselves Christian ladies and because she knew some people in places of authority she made a few phone calls and said we got to get this straight well within a few days the lady had water now what is that example of she will tell you she did that as a Christian she will tell you that she did that in the name of Christ she has prayer with people like that and shares a gospel witness with those kind of people what am I showing you she was mindful of the poor and look we do that in the life of the church but also we do that as we go out into the world the church scattered the fourth thing that the church is supposed to do we are supposed to do as Christians with our material possessions is to provide for those who are in Christian ministry to provide for those who are in Christian ministry our great example of that is in first Corinthians chapter 9 that's a lengthy chapter but it's worthy of reading in first Corinthians 9 Paul is dealing with his position as an apostle in his rights as an apostle he had certain rights God given rights and he's dealing with these rights with this Corinthian church and no doubt there were those who wanted to take care of Paul and those who did not want to take care of Paul but beginning in verse 4 he talks about these things he says do we this is talking about Paul and his traveling companions do we not have the right to eat and to drink do we not have the right to take along a believing wife even as the rest of the Apostles and the brothers of our Lord and Cephas C Peter was married he goes on or do only Barnabas and I have a right to refrain from working what is he saying I have rights and he goes on to deal with these rights and he goes on to talk about how the church was supposed to supply his needs but then he goes on to say but I don't cash in my rights matter of fact if you study the letters to the Thessalonikans Paul says I provided my needs and the needs of others so as not to be a burden to you what am I trying to show you as Christians we are to supply the needs of those Christian ministers around us who need to have their needs met that's why biblically I can bring Luke Johnson in here who is an itinerant minister and when he is not preaching and preaching in churches and in India he is working and doing things to provide his own bills meet needs but when I bring him here I say we give to him we give to his ministry why because he is just like Paul he has he has the rights to have his have his needs met what am I showing you this is an incomplete list I'm trying to show you why God blesses us it's not about God blessing us for us it's about God blessing us for usefulness and as I conclude I want to take us back to verse 1 with James James chapter 5 let's read it together he says come now you rich he says weep and how for your miseries which are coming upon you remember this come now is strong this is part of a strong test a strong rebuke he's raising his voice he's probably pounding on the pulpit but what I want us to see is it goes on further than this strong rebuke and what I want us to see is he's saying listen have a broken heart weep over your condition weep over the fact that you've become a hoarder have a broken heart because there is an impending judgment because of the condition of your heart and see for you for me the lesson right here in verse 1 is we need to step up we need to listen up we better take serious the things that God takes serious and God takes our possession serious and listen this wording here of weeping and howling in misery this tells me that we need to rush to the closet and we need to examine our lives we need to let God examine the reason why we have what we have and why we do what we do with what we have we need to pray we need to seek God's will we need to lay open everything we have and say God examine my motives examine who I am with my property with my cars with my food with my bank possession my bank assets with my my retirement with my health benefits God I lay it all out there you examine it and you examine my motives and then if he shows you anything unholy unjust not right with him let God break your heart and let God adjust your heart and your approach to why you have what you have see it's not a sin to have oh but it's a sin to hoard it's not a sin to be blessed financially to be blessed with material possessions it's what you do with it it's what we do with it and so I want to call you to examine this message how you spend it because see you know what when it really comes down to it these guys they weren't spending it they were hoarding it now I'm not saying go cash in your retirement I'm not saying go quit your job I'm not saying go take all the money out of the bank no I'm saying go to the closet say God I've got what I've got am I hoarding it am I using it just for me I've got what I've got because of your goodness I need to provide for my family I need to take care of my wife my children but yet why do I have what I have and if he shows you any impure motive if he shows you any sinful attitude towards it any selfishness in it repent let God break your heart and then get on the fast track of using what you got for God's glory amen so the title of the message this morning is a rebuke to the unrighteous rich part one how you spend it let's pray together as we close