We are turning to James chapter 5. We welcome you in our Savior's precious name. If you get cold up there you can close those windows. I am sure you will not be getting cold tonight. We are very thankful for the sunshine so don't be complaining that it was too warm. Don't be doing that tonight. I like the heat and we will endure it and we trust you will enjoy. Your time here in the house of God for those who are joined with us online We welcome you in the Savior's name, and we are hoping that sermon audio is working a lot better We were able to hopefully get that working and up back and running again It has been down for a few weeks But we're trusting that is all coming through if you're watching on sermon audio James chapter 5 and We'll read the first six verses of the chapter, and so let's hear God's word. Go to now, ye 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. Ye 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 the Sabbath. You have lived in pleasure on the earth and have been wanton. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you. We'll end our reading at the sixth verse of James and the chapter five. Now tonight we begin our 27th message in our series in the book of James and in doing so we come to the final chapter of James, James's epistle. And in doing so we find that James addresses and deals with a number of matters. He deals with the vanity and the dangers of earthly riches and of earthly pleasures. We want to consider what the Holy Spirit through the penmanship of James has to say about earthly treasures and about worldly pleasures. It would be true to say that we live in a society that has a greater disposable income than any previous generations have ever had. Instead of one car in the driveway, multiple vehicles now crowd our yards and our garages and our driveways, whereas in previous generations people aspired to purchasing a council house of their own, now today purpose-built houses, some covering thousands of square feet are now the dwelling places of many. While in the past a trip to Portrush on a Sunday school outing was as foreign as people ever got on their travels, we now can jump into an aeroplane and find ourselves on some foreign luxury holiday complex at the other end of the world. Disposable income, that income that is left after all of the bills are paid is most certainly greater than at any other time in the world for many and yet disposable income being greater today as in previous or greater than in previous generations, happiness and satisfaction are at an all time low. I read recently that an increased number of researchers are linking consumerism with unhappiness. not with happiness but unhappiness, symptoms of which range from obesity to depression. And such evidence is that riches and wealth are no guarantee to having a happier life. And so what does God say through the pen of James about earthly riches and worldly riches? pleasures. Well he addresses here in verse 1 the rich men and many of the commentators believe that James is addressing those whom he had been addressing in the previous closing verses of chapter 4. Those entrepreneurs who intended to venture into a new market, into a new city, and to coin a phrase, to rake in the money over a period of a year. And James says to such wealthy individuals, those that were pursuing wealth as the only goal and purpose to their existence on earth, James says to such people that instead of rejoicing, that they were to weep and howl for your miseries, that shall come upon you. James 5 and the verse number 1. Really these begin, these words begin James's denunciation of the sins of the rich focusing upon those who were living their lives simply for worldly prosperity and worldly advances. And so he uses these words to weep and to howl. Weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Now those words weep and howl, they express uncontrollable, audible grief, typically accompanied by wailing, by sobbing, by crying. This would have been the kind of noises and experience that a person would have had when they suffered a traumatic and a traumatic personal loss. Like the death of a family member. This is the type of experience that they would have experienced. To weep and to howl. And these are the expressions that James uses. And such was to be the response of these rich men when they contemplated, when they looked ahead. And they considered the crash and the calamity that was about to materialize and how powerless their riches would be in such a day. Don't forget that Jerusalem is soon to be destroyed by the Roman governor and by the Roman general Titus. in A.D. 70. And James foresees this prophetically. He sees what the riches of these individuals will do on that day. They'll do nothing. They were never going to push back Titus. They were not going to stop the destruction that was going to materialize, how their wealth would be taken by the Romans and carried away by others. And so foreseeing that, he says, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. You see our wealth, our wealth can do many things for us, but it cannot do everything. In the book of Psalms, in Psalm 49, We're reminded in the Psalm of the deficiency that there is in earthly riches when it comes to the redemption of the soul. Let me read the verses 6 through to 8 of Psalm 49. They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of the richest, none of them can by any means Redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth forever. And the psalmist here reminds us that the redemption of the soul, the salvation of the life cannot be accomplished and cannot be bought by earthly riches. Earthly riches may buy you a luxury yacht, Earthly riches may buy you a super car. Earthly riches may buy you a holiday home and some exclusive postcode. But earthly riches cannot secure you or I a home in heaven. In fact, the pursuit of earthly riches, if this is the sole purpose of a person's existence, will be the cause of many a misery, not only in this world, but most certainly in the world that is to come. And there is then therefore a lesson, brethren and sisters, too often we look at the super rich and we envy them. And there's a jealousy that arises in our hearts. I was looking at a thing on the internet the other day, with regard to super yachts. I'm not thinking of buying any. This super yacht cost 120 million pounds. 120 million pounds. Isn't that scandalous? Someone would spend that amount of money, 120 million pounds, marble throughout a beautiful vessel. But you know, we look at such an individual, And I looked at them and I saw part of the ship was another vessel and it had anti-gun, they had guns on that particular vessel in order to keep pirates away from that vessel because if you have a vessel that size and worth that amount of money, you're worth the robbing. If you've got a dinghy down in Port Rush, you're certainly not worth the robbing. But if you had a 120 million pound yacht, you're worth the robbing. And you think of the misery, and you think of all the wealthy individuals, what do they have in front of their homes? Large gates. not to lie anybody in to their homes they live with fear anxiety worldly care and we would look at them and think well look at the money that they have and the riches that they have and yet brethren and sisters we're not to be envious of those whose wealth exceeds our own but rather We are to take to heart the words of the Apostle Paul. We are to be content with such things as ye have. For he has said, I will never leave you, never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Riches have their troubles, and riches have their miseries attached to them that are so often hidden from us by a pretending world, by a pretending world. A person lives only for earthly riches, and they have no thought of laying up for themselves treasures in heaven, then the misery that will ensue a death for them. It'll be like the misery of the rich man that we read in Luke chapter 16, who lifted his eyes and hails being in torments. Such people who live only for the gaining of worldly wealth are never to be envied, but rather child of God, they are to be pitied. They are to be pitied. Can you imagine what it is to be a person who one moment is cruising in the Mediterranean on a 120 million pound yacht, and in the next moment, they're found lifting their eyes in hell. What a contrast. Of all of the world's wealth at their disposal, and to end life a spiritual beggar. and to spend eternity in hell. Howl and weep, rich men, who thought only about worldly accumulation and worldly wealth. Howl and weep for the miseries that shall come upon you. O May, if you're watching in tonight and you're not a Christian, may today and tonight you come to faith in Christ and find the greatest treasure, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now James then proceeds, after arousing the attention of these individuals, he now proceeds in the next number of verses, the next five verses, to identify particular sins that these rich men were guilty of. and thus unfolds to his readership why these men were to weep and how. You see, God knew their wickedness and God starts to expose through the pen of James, he starts to expose their sin. These were men who had come into the visible church and yet had never any saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. And God knew their sin and he is now exposing them for them. And so James starts to identify a number of faults in these verses. So we want to consider them as we make our way through these next five verses. The first fault that these rich men were guilty of was the hoarding of their riches. The hoarding of their riches. Look there at the end of verse three. You have heaped treasure together for the last days. That's their first fault. That's their first folly. They heaped up treasures together for the last day. Now the words heaped up or the phrase heaped treasure together is one word in the original and translates elsewhere in the scripture to lay up, to treasure up, to keep and store. I think we know the thought behind it. The word is the thought behind it of the accumulation of riches. Now James is not denouncing the practice of putting a little aside for a rainy day. He's not encouraging individuals to be reckless when it comes to personal wealth and personal finances. No, no. Because to do that would be then to go against the teachings of other scriptures. And we remember that scripture is united. in its teaching. You'll not find, as some will claim, contradictions in scripture. No contradiction in scripture. Every scripture is backed up by another scripture. And so, to say that we are to be reckless, to say that we're not to, as it were, have a little aside for future days and for future emergencies would certainly not be in line with the teaching of scripture. I think I quoted recently that little image that's used in the book of Proverbs 6 about the ant that was industrious during the summer in order to get through the winter months. And there we're taught the lesson of preparing for future days and not to be negligent. with regard to these things. 2 Corinthians 12, 14 another scripture where we read the children ought not to lay off for the parents but the parents for the children. 1 Timothy 5 verse 8 is another passage where Paul writes if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. What James is dealing with here is the accumulation of money in a selfish manner that evidences that a person is really only living their lives solely for material wealth, and most certainly not for eternal riches. The practice of hoarding wealth, stockpiling wealth, amassing wealth for selfish reasons is what James is denouncing in this passage. God gives us power to gain wealth. God gives us the power to gain wealth and he gives us wealth for many different reasons. He gives us wealth so that we may use it to care for our families and to care for their needs. He gives us wealth to care for the people that God has entrusted to us, parents, grandparents, children, We're given wealth by God to devote it to his service. And we know that God would require us to give a tenth, a tithe, and then on top of that, the offering to the work of God. He would have us to use our wealth in order to win the loss. And we do that by giving to missionary causes, those societies that take the gospel to the regions where which we have no presence and yet they do it. We are to use it to care for those who are in need. We are to use it to support those in the ministry. in the ministry whether that be a full-time ministry or on the mission field what we're not to do is we are not to hoard it unnecessary to do so evidence is that we think more of our earthly treasures than we do our heavenly treasures now why are we not to hoard wealth to the extent that there are no outgoings to any of these areas that I have mentioned. Well, James tells us in verse two and three, he reminds us that our earthly possessions are items that will eventually devalue or decay. Here we're individuals and they all, they live for was their wealth, their money. And James reminds them here about the fact that money devalues and other things decay. Look there. at the verse two and three, your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered or it's eaten away with rust and the rust of them shall be a witness against you. James reminds these rich men, the reality that earthly treasure No matter how well guarded or as secure it might be, in safes, in banks, in depositories, all such treasure can be lost. Whether it be by inflation, by financial and stock market crashes, by depreciation, by theft, by fire, by recession, by decay, All of these things can take our wealth from us. Earthly treasures. And so James is focusing these men's attention on the fact that earthly treasures are but only transitory. They're fleeting. And therefore they were not to focus on those treasures in distinction to them, the distinctions of earthly riches that can devalue and decay. Thank God there is lasting wealth and treasure and riches. It's laid up for the believer in Christ. Peter speaks of that in 1 Peter 1, verse 4, of an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. And so the question comes to us, in which arena, in which arena is the most sensible to make investment in? The heavenly arena or the earthly arena? I would know that you know that it would be the earthly. And so let's do that. Let's stop trusting in earthly riches that so quickly can take wings and fly from us. In light of the reality that all we hold dear will corrupt and decay, we need to be confronted with the question, where is our treasure? Where is our treasure? Is our treasure in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt and where thieves do not break through instead? One preacher said, the only acceptable way to live in light of the second coming of Christ in these last days of redemptive history, is to live holding very loosely to the wealth that God gives you, and to make sure you're using it for his glory. And all my time as being a minister of the gospel, and even before that, any funeral service that I have been at, I've never seen a ball hitch on a hearse. We leave it all behind. We leave it all behind. The second fault that these rich men were guilty of was their fraudulent non-payment of wages. Their fraudulent non-payment of wages. Verse four of James five. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped on your fields, which is off you kept back by fraud, crieth. And the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of the Sabbath. having laboured hard to gather in the harvest for these rich landowners. The labourers had their wages withheld from them. by their employers. Now notice that it wasn't that these rich men couldn't pay the wages because we have already noted that they had treasured up. They had treasured up, verse 3, they had heaped treasure together for the last day. So it wasn't that they had come short and they were unable to pay these workers for they had already the money in the bank. The problem was that they wouldn't pay, they wouldn't pay the wages. James was aware that such fraudulent and dishonest dealings were forbidden and were in contradistinction to already commands given in scripture. Turn to Deuteronomy and the chapter number 24. We're thinking about these individuals going into the harvest field doing a day's work and then they come at the end of the day because that's how they would have been paid on a daily rate. Remember the parable about the vineyard? How they agreed to be paid a penny a day. Some went early in the morning, some at midday, and then some at the eleventh hour. Each one of them received a penny at the end of the day. And so they would have been paid their wages at the end of every day. And yet, here we have, they've come to the end of the day. and they haven't been paid their wages. Now, was that right? Was that proper? Well, Deuteronomy 24, let's read verse 14 and 15. Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it, for he is poor and setteth his heart upon it, lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, And it be sin on to thee. This is what James is referring to. He's referring to this law in the civil law of the Jewish nation. The individual was to be paid at the end of the day. If you turn to Leviticus 19, we have the same sentiments given there. Leviticus 19 and the verse 13. Leviticus 19 verse 13, thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. In other words, pay up, employer, pay up, Pay your employees at the right time and give them a just wage at the end of a just day's work. By law, what the honorable landowner was required to do was to pay their employee their wages, and such was not taking place. And now James addresses it. James reminds the men involved in such a dishonest practice that was nothing short of workers' exploitation. This was the exploitation of workers. This is what was happening, this is what was taking place. There's nothing new under the sun. James was reminding such men that the disquiet and the protest of their laborers, their employees, had come into the ears of the Lord of the Sabbath. God has heard the disgruntling and the murmuring and the just complaining of the employee against the employer because the employer was not paying the proper wages. The Lord of the Sabbath, who's that? The Lord of the Sabbath is one of the great titles of God, Jehovah. It means the Lord of hosts, the ruler of all the worlds. can be literally translated the Lord of Armies. And he's reminding the employers that the Lord of Armies has saw and has heard what you have done and you have set yourself against Jehovah. You've set yourself against God who is able to vindicate the oppressed and who is able to punish the oppressor. If you can imagine how uncomfortable that service would have been if you were an employer and you hadn't paid the wages of your employee that day, I tell you, you'd have been sweating a little bit. But it's pointed. It's pointed. I would hope that there are no employers listening to me and this is your practice with your employees. A man or a woman deserves their wages. If they have done, what is required of them from you as their employer. Funds should be in place to pay your employees a just and fair wage at the appointed time. By calling out this unjust practice, God, through the penmanship of James, is teaching us that wages of employees should be paid honestly and punctually. Failure to do so leads to the committing of fraud. It's fraud. Harry Aronside wrote, God is not an uninterested spectator. With regard to this entering into the years of the Lord of the Sabbath, the cries of these individuals. God is not an uninterested spectator. He is deeply concerned about the injustice and the oppression which caused such bitter suffering. As of old, he heard the cries of the slaves in Egypt when they sighed and groaned because of their unfair and wicked treatment by the taskmasters of Pharaoh. So he still takes note of every wrong that the privileged and powerful inflict upon the poor and the downtrodden. And maybe you're, as an individual, maybe you have suffered injustices at the hand of your employer. Well, if so, take it to God in prayer. Bring in the Lord of the Sabbath. He'll see to your vindication. The day of retribution is coming soon. The third fault, quickly, that these rich men were guilty of was their over-luxurious lifestyles. Verse five, you have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton, you have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter. Now the word pleasure in verse five is not what you automatically and what I automatically thought the word literally mean, what the word pleasure means. The word pleasure here And verse five translates to mean to indulge in luxury, to live delicately, to live luxuriously. That's what the word pleasure means in this verse. You have lived in luxury on the earth. These rich men, while the poor were not receiving their wages, ah, they were living lives of ease. They were living lives of delicacy, luxury, extravagance, self-indulgence. Having increased their wealth by robbing their employees of their wages and by hoarding those riches, they were now using it for their own self-interest. indulgence. If we, these men, had have been living today they would have been dining at the tables of Michelin star restaurants, relaxing in the spas of five-star hotels, holidaying in the most exclusive holiday resorts across the world while their employees couldn't even put bread on the table. And James calls it out, God calls it out through the penmanship of of James. James says that such men, though they satisfied their earthly, fleshly appetites, in the process they starved their own souls. Notice that little phrase at the end of verse five, as in the day of slaughter. What day is this? Well, many believe that it is the day of judgment that is in view. And if it is, it is a most frightening depiction of it. You know what James was saying to these people, to put it in our own modern day vernacular? He was saying, you're like a fatted cow that's headed for the slaughterhouse. You're like a fatted calf that is headed to have its throat slit. Very vivid language indeed. The wealthy wicket who had uselessly hoarded the money They unjustly robbed from others and had self-indulgently spent on themselves were simply fatted calves waiting the judgment of God. You may ask, well, is there any hope for such an individual that's involved in such practices and such fraud and such pursuits? Is there any hope for such a person? Can such a person ever be saved? Well, of course they can. They can if they repent They have true saving faith on their part. The rich can be saved as much as the poor. It must be in our guard that we do not live and we do not slip into this kind of living, brethren and sisters. Yes, we can have our home comforts, nothing sinful about having a car, nothing sinful with having a well-furnished home, but when we crave life's luxuries all the time, and the purchasing of such luxuries, dents or compromises are giving to God. Then brethren and sisters, it's time to pull close the purse strings and to reevaluate our spending priorities. If we simply crave and we simply purchase at all times luxury after luxury, It's time to pull close the purse strings and to reevaluate our spending priorities. Matthew Henry in his commentary says on this verse, God does not forbid us to use pleasure, but to live in them as if we live for nothing else is a very provoking sin. And to do this on earth where we are but strangers and pilgrims, where we are but to continue for a while and where we ought to be preparing for eternity, this is, a grievous aggravation of sin. The fourth and final fault that these rich men were guilty of was their persecution of the just. James 5 verse 6, ye have condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you. Note the downward spiral. Notice how this begins and where it ends. It begins with greed. And that greed then develops into a hoarding of wealth and riches. And then that hoarding of wealth and riches leads to fraud. with regard to the employer and to the employee. And then that fraud, it leads to self-indulgence. And then that self-indulgence leads to the condemning of the just, and eventually it leads to the actual killing of the just. The downward spiral that began with just a covetous thought with greed and envy and jealousy in the heart, and this idea of self-advancement and the gaining of wealth, it leads them to commit one of the greatest and one of the most heinous sins, the taking of the life of the just. Here were a man or a group of men who were willing to destroy anyone and everybody who stood in their way when it came to the gaining of wealth and the fulfilling of their earthly and their fleshly lusts. Folks, what we learn from this is that if sin goes unchecked in our lives, it can spiral out of control and can result in the committing of the most heinous crimes imaginable. Wickedness knows no bounds and knows no limits. You know, they condemned and they killed the just one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did Judas do it for? Money. 30 pieces of silver. And he betrayed the just one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And thus, these individuals, having killed the just one, they had no qualms or no difficulties about killing the just ones. The just ones. But God took countenance of their behavior, and he was warning them that judgment was about to fall. God had marked down their sin. And so he says to them, Weep and howl because I have taken note of your sin. I have noted how you have hoarded your wealth. I have noted how your dealings have been fraudulent with regard to your employees. I have noted that you have lived over luxurious lifestyles. I have noted that you have persecuted and you have killed the just. And I'm visiting you. Howl and weep. Weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Oh, may God help us. May God help us with regard to our money, our finances. and may we not be guilty of any of these sins. And if we are, then let's get to the cross, let's repent of our sin, and let's seek for fresh cleansing in the blood of Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless even these words to our hearts for Christ's sake.