Judgment on the Wicked Rich | Sermon 07/03/2022

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Alright, church, if you would please turn with me in your Bibles to James chapter 5. The last chapter of the book of James.

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James chapter 5. We're going to be in verses 1 through 6 of James 5.

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The title of this sermon is Judgment on the Wicked Rich. Judgment on the

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Wicked Rich. Hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

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God. James chapter 5 verse 1. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.

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Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth -eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire.

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It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure. Behold the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields and which has been withheld by you cries out against you.

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And the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

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You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

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You have condemned and put to death the righteous man. He does not resist you. Thus ending the reading of God's holy inspired word.

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Let's pray quickly, church. Father, please teach your people today as you have taught me,

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Lord. Please, Lord, help us to understand, Father, the context of these passages,

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Lord. How they relate to us, Lord, and what hope we have because of what Jesus has done even despite these things.

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And Lord, help us to see, Lord, how some of these pursuits can really take us away from you.

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And so, Father, please help me to speak in a way that is helpful and clear and let it always be true.

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I pray this in the name of your Son, Jesus. Amen. So in our study in James, we have learned that God is the giver of good gifts.

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All things come down from him, right? It says, coming down from the Father of lights.

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Like a master carpenter, our God creates everything and everything is his, except even he makes the wood from which the tree is used for the carpenter.

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He spoke matter into existence. All matter is from him and by him.

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The flowers of the field, the silver in the mountains, the coral in the ocean reefs, the elk herd migrating through a forest down to the very food we eat, the technology we own in the houses we live in.

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None of it, church, is truly ours. All of it is from God and it is all

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God's possession. We are merely stewards of what God has given us.

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The Lord will let his resources pass through our hands this whole life and on the day we die, we will enter eternity taking none of it with us, not a single thing.

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And the Lord has commandments and standards on how we steward those possessions, on how we steward what he's given us, to not idolize things, to use them in ways that only he has prescribed, to use them in good and righteous ways.

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But in a fallen world, man is quick to take good things that God has given, right?

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And they lust after things, they pervert things, and greed is one of those lusts.

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Greed is a form of lust. It is the lust for material items in excess. It is this unsatiable desire for money, possessions, or power, or all of the above.

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The Bible has much to say about greed and before we get into the exposition of our text,

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I wanted to consider greed in the Bible in one particular story and the consequences that came as a result of that greed.

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So you can follow along or you can just listen to me in 2 Kings chapter 5.

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We have our example, 2 Kings chapter 5, you have Naaman, Naaman is the captain of the army of Aram, or what we know to be

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Syria. And he was actually a great man according to the Bible. This Gentile man, the

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Bible says, was a good man. He was highly respected, he was a valiant warrior, and it even says the

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Lord had given Syria the victory through Naaman, a blessed

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Gentile, but it also says he was a leper. He was a leper. Leprosy is a very contagious disease that was obviously much more prevalent in Bible times.

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It still, I guess, has some prevalence in Asia and Africa, very rarely.

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But it's this disease where it affects the skin and you can often get painful lesions on the skin.

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You can get numbing, you can get all these different things that come as a result of it, which result in deformities and things like that.

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Leprosy, it affects the skin. He had a very, very severe case. Naaman's wife, though, had a little servant girl from Israel, a little servant girl, and she actually adored her master.

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She adored Naaman and Naaman's wife, this little Israelite girl. And so she had told them, you need to go to the man of God in Israel.

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You need to go to the prophet so that you can be cured, she told him. So Naaman thought it was worth a try and he asked the king of Syria if he could go seek healing in Israel.

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The king of Syria sent a king, I'm sorry, sent a letter to the king of Israel, letting the king of Israel know what they were hoping for, healing.

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And so the king also gave Naaman 10 talents of silver, 6 ,000 shekels of gold, and 10 changes of clothes.

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This is a lot of stuff. Remember, one talent of silver was 6 ,000 denarii, and a single denarius was one day's worth of work.

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So in just silver, if you add that all up, he was bringing in 60 ,000 days worth of labor and wages, 60 ,000 in just the talents of silver.

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If a man worked six days a week, about 300 days a year, this would be wages for 200 years.

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200 years, it was a mighty gift. But the king of Israel was worried. It says he tore his clothes, and not that he thought

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Naaman in Syria was going to invade, but he goes, who am I? I'm not

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God. Can I kill? Can I give life? Can I heal? I can't heal this guy. It's just all of a sudden this pressure, right?

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The king of Syria, this great nation, is seeking Israel's help to heal this great warrior, this commander.

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So, word of all that came to the prophet Elisha, and he said, send the leprous man to me.

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Send him to me. And so Naaman and all his company came to Elisha, but Elisha stayed in his house.

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He sent only a messenger out to Naaman and said, go wash in the

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Jordan River seven times and you will be clean. It was just too simple to Naaman.

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It says he was furious. He thought that Elisha was going to come out.

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He was going to stand over him. He was going to do something probably fantastic or spectacular looking.

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He was going to call upon God, right? He was going to call upon Yahweh, and all of a sudden place his hands on him and this cure would just miraculously happen on Naaman's body.

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That's what Naaman thought. He said, aren't there rivers of the Damascus that are better than the waters of Israel?

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This water couldn't cure me. But Naaman's servant convinced him to have faith and to do it.

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Go in the Jordan River, wash. And it says that Naaman went into the Jordan River.

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He washed seven times and his flesh was restored to him to the point that all the leprosy was gone and that his skin, it says, was that of like a newborn baby's, like a child's skin.

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His skin was so renewed. He was clean. So Naaman with all his company after being cured, they go right back to Elisha's house and they come to him and they want to offer those gifts.

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You've got to take these gifts. He urges them to take the gifts, but Elisha refused.

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Elisha refused all that treasure for what had happened. Kind of made me think of like a charlatan like Benny Hinn who, you know, makes these big events where he charges people to come in with tickets and it's a healing event, but no one actually leaves healed, right?

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But Elisha didn't want anything. So Naaman was essentially content with taking some soil from Israel.

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He's like, can I just take some of your dirt? And he takes some of his dirt because he wants to put it back where in Syria and he wants to build an altar over the

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Israelite dirt to where he says, I will no longer offer sacrifices to idols or to false gods.

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I'm only going to offer sacrifices to who he says is the only God, Yahweh.

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It's just amazing. It's amazing. But something changes here.

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Something changes. Gehazi was a servant of the prophet Elisha and greed had overtaken

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Gehazi's heart. Without telling Elisha, Gehazi ran after Naaman and then caught up to him.

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And Gehazi lied and said, prophets have come, Naaman, and we need a talent of silver and two changes of clothes.

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He lies to him. So Naaman, in his generosity, he says, no, please,

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I insist, take two talents of silver and take the two changes of clothes. Take them.

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So Gehazi takes these riches for himself. He takes these garments and he stores them in his own house for his own selfish possession.

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Not for anyone else. He lied for self gain and for the fulfillment of his greed.

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The word says, but Gehazi went back and stood before his master and Elisha said to him, where have you been,

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Gehazi? And Gehazi said, your servant went nowhere. Nowhere.

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Just kind of shrugged. Remind me of, you know, something a kid would say, nowhere, I've been nowhere. But of course,

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Elisha is a man of God, he knows. He knew before he even asked. Did not my heart go with you when the man turned from his chariot to meet you?

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I saw everything. God told me everything that you did, essentially. Is it a time to receive money and to receive clothes and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male and female servants?

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Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall now cling to you and to your descendants forever.

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Huge. So it says Gehazi left Elisha's presence and it says he was so leprous, he was white as snow is what it described.

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He was just covered in the most severe leprosy for what he had done. Now just like what happened to Gehazi, we are going to see in our passage in James chapter five that greed leads to more sin and more sin and more sin.

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And ultimately, the greedy one who does not repent from his ways will not escape judgment.

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They will not be able to face the inescapable judgment. So let's take a look at that now, starting in verse one.

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Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.

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Remember, in James chapter one, we went over the rich brother who is to glory in his humiliation.

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In James chapter one, we preached on that. We had determined even in James chapter two that it was not uncommon to see a brother with wealth to come into their assembly.

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They were to just not practice personal favoritism toward that more wealthy brother. We talked about being wealthy as a

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Christian. That it is not inherently sinful that God uses wealthy

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Christian men and women in the kingdom to do amazing and righteous things. But as Paul says, it is the love of money that is the root of all evil.

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All kinds of evil. You have the patriarchs who had great wealth like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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They served and loved God despite their wealth. King David is a good example of one who had all he could ever want, and yet all

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David wanted was the Lord. Without Joseph of Arimathea, a rich Christian, there would be no tomb ready for the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, you have Zacchaeus, the rich chief tax collector, who climbs up the tree in faith to see

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Jesus, and he repents from his greediness, and he makes restitution, he makes things right, and he follows after Jesus after that.

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You have all these examples, and yet as much as we see it is possible to be rich and follow

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Christ, the Bible also demonstrates being rich can be a serious and substantial obstacle to genuine discipleship.

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In the case of the rich, young ruler, you see that it is sometimes a threat, money can be a threat to entering the kingdom of God, it was for this young man.

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Ananias and Sapphira, I believe that they are saved, and yet they sinned, it was one of the first cases of church discipline, a very harsh one, they held back part of their land proceeds, excuse me, when they were supposed to sell their land as Christians to give help and charity to brothers and sisters in need in the first century there.

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And now we see this in James, Proverbs 10, verse 22 says,

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It is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich, and He adds no trouble to it.

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God blesses with riches sometimes, but those who seek wealth apart from the blessing of God will only bring sorrow and troubles upon themselves.

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So, James begins his diatribe with the same words for the imaginary Christian merchants from the previous sermon, from the end of James chapter 4, he says,

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Come now, come closer to listen, come here, listen up you rich.

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There is a similarity to the Christian merchants in that both of them, and now the wicked rich, fail to consider

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God in their stewardship, and they disregard His desires for humanity and respect to riches.

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They were planning, remember, these Christian merchants were planning, they said we're going to make a profit, and they're not considering what

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God wants in that. That's not a bad thing, but again, they weren't considering the sovereignty of God we saw last week, and now we have the wicked rich also not regarding God.

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So it says that they are howling, they are to howl, right?

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He's sounding like an Old Testament prophet in a way, if you read this.

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He's directing his rebuke not towards Christian brethren, he's like an

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Old Testament prophet speaking against the rich who oppress Christians in their lands.

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We are not certain if the rich would have even heard this indictment, right? He speaks out, he's not talking to Christians, he's speaking to the wicked rich, but this is not unlike what the prophets used to do in the

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Old Testament. They would often herald judgments on neighboring nations, but none of the neighboring nations would have delegates or people to hear those judgments.

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Isaiah would say these prophecies and these woes and judgments against Assyria and Babylon and Egypt and all these things, and yet they would not often hear it, and this is possibly the same thing.

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James is just kind of sidestepping in his letter, he's not directing his rebukes to the

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Christians, he's putting it towards, essentially, the wicked rich who have been treating these

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Christians wrongly. So, James doesn't simply say to weep, but he says,

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Weep, and allow your Zantes, howl, scream for what is ahead.

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This doesn't seem like the contrite weeping and mourning from James 4 that marks genuine repentance, but wail for destruction is coming.

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No longer mourn in hopes of repentance, scream for the terrors coming.

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The same word is used in the Septuagint, in the Old Testament in Isaiah 13, it says wail for the day of the

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Lord is near. It will come as destruction from the Almighty, therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man's heart will melt, they will be terrified, pains and anguish will take hold of them, they will writhe like a woman in labor, they will look at one another in astonishment, their faces will be aflame.

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Howl or wail here, this word, is only found in James in the New Testament, and it's only found in the writings of the

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Old Testament prophets, and it's only ever in the context of judgment.

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That's the only time this word is ever used, in the context of judgment. According to John Calvin, he says,

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Repentance has indeed its weeping, but being mixed with consolation, it does not proceed to howling.

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Something is different here. This isn't a mourning or a weeping so that you may be repentant, he's rebuking them, howl and wail for what's coming.

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For what's coming. This is something different, something terrible is coming, and that call to howl shows that.

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This is a curse pronounced upon who we believe to be wealthy landowners. These were wealthy landowners.

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The greedy acquisition of land by the rich, and exploitation of the needy were well -known conditions in the

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Greco -Roman Empire. It happened often. And like in typical

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James fashion, he sounds like his older half -brother, Jesus, who pronounced a similar curse upon the rich.

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In Luke 6, verse 24, Jesus says, But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.

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They have chosen their reward in this life and not in the next. So then, what is ahead for the wicked rich?

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What does it say? It says miseries. Miseries of all types are about to come upon them.

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Now this could be pointing to some sort of hardship now that may leave them in a wretched state, like for instance, he could be saying something as,

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You wear purple, and one day you are going to be wearing rags. He could be saying that.

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Wealth can be an alluring idol to people. But I think what he's actually pointing to is eternal judgment and misery in hell.

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We'll see more of that, why that makes sense. So if you continue, go to James 5, verses 2 and 3.

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Your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth -eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you, and will consume your flesh like fire.

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It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure. So James had already addressed the brevity of life in the previous verses to Christians.

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He said life is a vapor. It is short. Now he addresses the rapid nature of degradation of earthly possessions and riches in this life.

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The grain haul, the clothing, the gold and silver you put your faith in will not save you.

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They are passing away. You need to put your faith in the One Who doesn't pass away.

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He uses the perfect tense to show in a way that although these rich people cannot see it, these items are already in a state of decay.

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They are already in a state of decay in the perfect tense. They are already losing their worth and quality for them.

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They won't give you life after death. They will only fade away. Your riches and wealth have seppo.

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That is the Greek word decayed or rotted. This is the word from which we get septic. From septic tank.

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That's it right there. Rotted. Like a septic tank. This may indicate that they are so rich and that they give nothing away to the poor and needy that their excess actually rots and no one even uses it.

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They're so rich. They have so much. And yet it just sits there and it rots and no one gets the benefit of it.

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But hey, they're still rich. They are wasteful. Hoarded supplies can indeed decay.

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He says, Your garments have become seto brota. Seto is moth.

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Brata is eat. Your clothes are full of holes from moths.

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Do you know when someone doesn't have to worry about moths eating their clothes? When do they not have to worry about moths eating their clothes?

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When the only pair of clothes they have are the ones they're wearing. They have no clothes stored in excess.

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All that they own, all that they have is what they wear. Garments stored away in excess are subject to being eaten by moths.

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Also, did you know it's actually not even the moths that eat the clothes? It's moths land on clothing in your closet and they lay eggs.

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And it's actually the moth larvae and worms that eat the wool, the linen, the cotton until they're big enough to fly away.

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So, anyways, I'm sure a lot of you could have gone your whole life without knowing that, but it was interesting.

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The wicked rich don't share their abundance of extra clothing with the poor. Isaiah 50 prophesies of the servant who is

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Jesus that will be crucified. Isaiah 50 says, Behold, the Lord God helps me.

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Who is He who condemns me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them.

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The moth will eat them. This sort of speech about moths in the Bible is always in reference to decay or destruction.

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Always. You used to have wealth, but now it is decayed.

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The wheat in the storehouses is rotten. You used to have extravagant clothing, but now it has holes.

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What you have valued above God will now become worthless to you. What you value above God will become worthless to you.

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And when you value things above God, when you idolize things and they become worthless to you, typically you either want that idol to become fresh in your eyes again if it's become worthless to you, or God is often very gracious in making an idol pitiful and repulsive before you.

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I've known brothers who have been addicted to alcohol, and all of a sudden, God made alcohol repulsive to them and disgusting to them, and they don't drink anymore.

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They don't get to drunkenness anymore, I should rather say, since drunkenness is the sin there.

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And so that is often a grace from God. However, this isn't the case for the wicked rich here.

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This continues to escalate for them. He says your gold and your silver have katiotai, rusted, corroded.

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It's been tarnished. And yet what's interesting is precious metals don't actually rust.

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Gold and silver don't rust or corrode. So what is He saying?

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He may be speaking more figuratively about the metals. Not sure. That by storing up gold and silver that are never used for yourself or for the good of others, it might as well be as good as rusted metals like iron, steel, whatever.

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He's trying to basically indicate a worthlessness of those things, of gold and silver.

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And yet, I think this is really the big relation here. The root word of rusted is eos.

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Eos means venom or poison. I think what

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He's trying to point to is your gold and silver, that idol, it's become like poison to you.

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It's killing you. And that's true. That's true.

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Greed like this, items like this, they can kill a man. There are people who have gone in pursuit of riches in their greed, and they have lost their lives doing it.

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According to Ezekiel, silver and gold can't save you. He says, they will fling their silver into the streets and their gold will become an abhorrent thing.

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Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the

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Lord. It doesn't matter how much gold and silver you had. You can't bribe God. You can't give

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God any of that gold and silver. He made it. He won't receive it. You can't buy your way into heaven.

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Even during the intertestamental period, Jewish thought was against the hoarding of silver. The ancient

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Jewish writing of Sirach 29 .9 -11 says, help a poor man for the commandment's sake, and because of his need, do not send him away empty.

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Lose your silver for the sake of a brother or a friend and do not let it rust under a stone and be lost.

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Same word. It says, lay up your treasure according to the commandments of the Most High, and it will profit you more than gold.

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These wicked rich are doing the opposite of what God's Word commands, and even

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Jewish literature condemns their action. What is it worth it to you if you die and your riches never get used for righteous things?

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That's the question. What good is it if the next generation isn't taught the value of work but ushered into a life of luxury in their inheritance?

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And that's not to say an inheritance is bad. An inheritance according to the Bible is a good thing.

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It's that to teach a young man to one day be a hardworking man is worth more than the silver he could receive in that inheritance.

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Both are good. It says in their case, the rust will be a martion.

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It will be a witness. The rust will be a witness. See that?

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Verse 3, it will be a witness against you. The rust. It's interesting. The corroded and stored up metals will be evidence against the wicked rich.

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As a finger pointed to the guilty party, so will be the decay of their treasures and unused goods.

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Because right stewardship of our money isn't simply storing it up to never be used. Hoarding our money is not good stewardship.

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The Bible makes that clear. We should save. We should make an inheritance, but we shouldn't be hoarding and storing up.

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We're going to see that. Good stewardship of our money also contains how we give it back to God.

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As tithes, as offerings, as helping the needy in our community. This storing up will be a witness to them.

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It will be a witness against them. It will stand there. All their riches, all their unused riches and treasures will be a witness in the courtroom of heaven.

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Their abundant pleasures were worth more than the great need and destitution of others. So, the rust will not only degrade and destroy their riches, but it says it will eat their flesh.

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It will consume their flesh like fire. Essentially, He is telling them all the corrosion and all the eating away of your riches, it's going to happen to you too.

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It's going to happen to you. He's telling the wicked rich. At high temperatures, fire can destroy almost everything.

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Garments, flesh, gold, silver. It can melt it at the right temperature.

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You name it, it can burn it. And this is alluding to God's judgment on them.

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This burning. Amos 5 -6 says, Seek the Lord that you may live, or the

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Lord your God will break out like a fire, and He will consume with none to quench it.

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The rust will consume their flesh like fire. It kind of reminds me of Herod in the book of Acts.

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Do you remember in Acts 12 where Herod comes out in the royal apparel in purple and he looks all rich and he starts speaking to the people and the people say, he is like a god.

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And it says that he stole the glory away from the Lord. He didn't rebuke any of that and he took the glory from God.

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And it says an angel of the Lord struck him and he was consumed. Consumed by worms.

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Right? Different sort of consuming, but very similar as this rich leader gets judged.

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So, this is pointing to someone filling a treasury up with valuables.

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What they've stored up on earth will in no way help them after the vapor of their life evaporates.

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According to one commentator, to be wickedly rich is to be spiritually bankrupt. To be wickedly rich is to be spiritually bankrupt.

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They have stored up not righteousness, but they have stored up pleasure. And as the

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Apostle Paul says, they have stored up wrath for the day of wrath. Stored up treasure for the last days is not like positively setting money aside.

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Okay? That's a good thing. That's not what he's talking about for the last days of your life or something like that.

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You should set aside some money so you can care for your family in your old age. You can care for your health care and things like that.

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That's not what he's saying when he says last days. This is language that is typically used before what's called a coming day of the

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Lord. A coming day of the Lord. A day of vengeance is coming. And it may be pointing to probably the final judgment is what

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I think it is. He's saying you have piled up wealth in an age that is near its close.

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Maybe he's talking about AD 70. Judgment though is coming. Your full storehouses will be replaced with equal amounts of wrath.

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Jesus says in Luke 12, a man is a fool destined to die who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God.

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So the question is for us, are we storing up treasure for ourselves here on earth?

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Are we putting our faith in the possessions that we have in the comforts of this life?

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Are we showing that our treasure is truly in heaven?

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Let this cause us to consider if we cling too closely to our possessions, to our earthly treasures.

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But now James is going to go beyond his indictment and he's going to list some accusations against the wicked rich if you go to verse 4.

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He says, Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields and which has been withheld by you cries out against you, and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the

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Lord of Sabaoth. So his charges were a bit general at first, but now they're more direct.

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Now they're more specific and they're pointed in nature. Not only will the gold and silver be a witness, but now

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James has specific evidence that would show them to be guilty. The misthos, the pay, the reward, the wages of the laborer who reaped their fields has been defrauded from them.

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They've been deprived of their payment. Stolen from them. The laborer's wage.

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And these wages it says cries out. The rust cries out. The rust is a witness.

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And now the wages are a witness and cry out. They shout against the rich landowners.

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Think about it. The harvest is over. The fields are empty. And the barns of these wicked rich are filled to the top by the unpaid labor of Christians.

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They're filled. This goes directly against the law of God and was one of the biggest sins of Israel that led to their exile.

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Greed and not taking care of the needy. Leviticus 19 .13 says, you shall not oppress your neighbor.

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They're being oppressed. It says, nor shall you rob your neighbor. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning.

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That is to say, if you have a laborer in your fields, you are to pay them that day.

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You are not even to wait until morning, God commands. Jesus' parable of the workers who got paid at the end of the day was a very real concept then.

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It was a very real thing in the first century as well. Because the prayer for daily bread was legitimate.

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A lot of times we think about that, of course, in regards to the Word of God, but they legitimately needed their daily bread.

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They needed to eat. They needed the Lord to provide for them. Each day they needed their pay to often buy what they needed for their families.

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These workers cut the grain. They bundled it. They processed it. They beat out the chaff.

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And they kept the grain from spoiling out there in the field. They not only made the landowners money, but they saved them from losing money as well because they came and they got it out of the land.

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They got it off the field. Harvest time is supposed to be a glorious time.

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Some of you here love the fall time. You love autumn time. I know

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I do. We love the autumn time, and it's beautiful here in ways that I've never seen before. But there's a reason.

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Why do you think the autumn time, the fall time, has been so historically joyful?

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So amazing? And it's actually because of that harvest mentality. It's the harvest mentality.

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The abundance that God has grown out of the ground. Seed was sown. The weather was right. The rains came.

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The pestilence was stayed. And now there is a bountiful crop. There is joy in bringing in the harvest, but not for these

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Christian men and women. Not for them. This would not be a joyful time for them in the harvest.

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They would not be paid for their work. They must cry out for justice.

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No one but God could defend them in this case. Deuteronomy 24 -15 echoes

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Leviticus, but it adds an extra element to it. It says, You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets.

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So that's the same as Leviticus, but then it says this, For he is poor and he sets his heart on it.

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So that he will not cry out against you to the Lord your God, and it becomes sin. The poor has set his heart on what he needs for his family.

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He needs it for his family day by day. It says,

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Don't make your neighbor despair while you sit in luxury. And there is a very real threat though in that Deuteronomy 24 passage.

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It says, He will cry out. Your neighbor will cry out. James says it too.

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The stolen wages cry out and the defrauded Christians cry out. And you say, Well, that's not much of a threat.

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They just cry out, so what's the big deal about crying out? But who do they cry out to in Deuteronomy 24?

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It says, That they cry out to the Lord of Sabaoth. They cry out to the

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Lord. And this word is not to be confused with the word Sabbath, the day of rest.

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This is different. Sabaoth is armies or hosts.

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The Lord of armies. The Lord of hosts. You might remember the line from Martin Luther's A Mighty Fortress is

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Our God. It says, Lord Sabaoth His name from age to age the same, and He must win the battle.

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That's because He is the Lord of armies. He's the Lord of armies. The shouts and pleas of those who did the reaping have arrived at the ears of the

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Kurios Sabaoth, the Lord of the Sabaoth. The commander has heard what they've done.

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The Lord of the armies of heaven and the armies of the earth has heard their cry. The stolen wages cry out like the blood of Abel cries out to God for justice.

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They cry out like the Hebrews who needed a deliverer when they were in slavery.

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Excuse me. When the wicked rich treat people this way, they think no one will know.

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They think no one will know. But God knows. And God sees. And He will make good on the injustice that has been done.

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Every single injustice on the earth for all time will be addressed by God. And just picture

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Him on His throne seeing all, knowing all. He can see their defrauding of these

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Christian men and women. The angels confirm it to His very ear. It has reached the ears of the

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Lord of Sabaoth. He will make it a point to act in His timing and in His will.

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The Lord of Sabaoth is holy, so He will judge all not made holy by Jesus. He is powerful, so He will avenge the powerless.

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He will punish all those who punish His people. May we never see this and defraud others.

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May we never greedily withhold from people, but be generous givers. May we be men and women of integrity.

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If you own a business, if you're a manager, never steal from your people.

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Never keep back from them. In fact, give them more. Give them the bonus that they need.

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Give them the love and appreciation they deserve. Give them the pay raise. Don't withhold it.

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Don't be stingy, the Bible would show us. And let us not always be looking to get free things from our neighbors or our brothers or our sisters, but pay them for the work that is due.

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Christians should be willing to pay and pay well. Hoarding is a curse, but giving blesses both parties.

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Hear that? Hoarding doesn't bless anyone. Hoarding brings a curse upon the hoarder, and it doesn't bless the one who needs from that person, but blessing blesses the person who gives and it blesses the person who receives.

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The accusations continue. Go to verse 5.

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You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure.

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You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. The wicked rich have etrufacete.

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They have lived in splendor. They've lived in luxury. They've lived in self -indulgence.

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And this would be a life of constant, continual feasting and drunkenness and self -indulgence and worldly pleasures of all type.

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That's what James is pointing to. And it's clear that the money that was owed to the workers has been used for this life of luxury.

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They are living, essentially, in extravagance upon the backs of Christians.

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Squandering. Wasteful. Ezekiel 16 says, Behold, this was the guilt of Sodom.

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She and her daughters had arrogance. Sodom had abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and the needy.

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Thus, they were haughty. Then they committed abominations before Me. Therefore, I remove

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Sodom and Gomorrah before Me. If we can't see that that's the sin of America, then we're blind.

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Right? That is the sin of America. In fact, we see in Ezekiel 16 and Romans 1 that the end result of careless ease, of luxury, of wanton pleasure, is doing that which is unnatural.

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Basically, what I'm trying to say is the sodomy and transgenderism that we see in our country today is a result of, according to Ezekiel 16, a life of luxury, ease, comfort, and not giving to anyone and not caring about anyone, but going for the

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American dream in such a way to make it an idol above the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a result of sin, of course, but it is a result of what

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Ezekiel says was their true sin in Sodom. That's where being led over to a debased mind to do the things which were unnatural comes from.

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And the phrase, on the earth, makes it clear that although they have indulged in pleasures upon the earth, they will receive torments elsewhere.

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Oh yeah, you've had pleasures on the earth, but you won't have pleasures in heaven.

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There is a sort of role reversal going on. You see that especially in the parable in Luke 16 with the rich man and Lazarus.

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Lazarus was laid at the gate every day, his body covered in sores, he was lame, he had nothing, he would beg for alms, and the dogs would lick his sores.

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That was Lazarus' life in this parable in Luke 16. But it says the rich man dressed in purple every day.

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He was rich. And it says he lived joyously every day and in pure splendor.

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However, after they both died, Lazarus was taken to heaven. It says he was taken to Abraham's bosom, and he was comforted there.

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While it says the rich man went to Hades. In the Greek, you pronounce it

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Hades with epsilon and eta. Epsilon, I'm sorry.

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So the rich man failed to love his neighbor, and all he could hope for, it says, was one drop of water to cool his tongue.

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You remember that? But he couldn't even get that. The rich man didn't even receive one drop of water to cool his tongue.

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And that story is very similar to the indictment upon the wicked rich here by James.

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The wicked rich have led a life of wanton pleasure. The only other time this word is used in the

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New Testament is in 1 Timothy 5 -6 concerning widows. Paul warns about widows, that they would be productive, that they would not be going from house to house as busybodies.

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And especially, Paul was concerned that widows would not be given over to fornication. It says this, but she who gives herself to wanton pleasure is dead even while she lives.

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1 Timothy 5 -6 The one who gives themselves to wanton pleasure is dead while they stand.

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The question is, do we give ourselves to just wanton pleasure? Just limitless pleasure?

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Sometimes we might want to. Sometimes we try to. But we have to repent from that.

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We have to repent from laziness. From idleness. They are likened to domesticated animals being fed excessively.

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Indulging in an over -the -top manner. They're gorging themselves on pleasures destined for the slaughterhouse.

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Their lawlessness, their revelry, their carousing, their debaucheries, their orgies and pleasures will lead them to the day of judgment.

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Doom is coming for them. What they think gives them the most pleasure is just fattening them up for what's to come.

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Building upon themselves more wrath. The Lord told Israel before the exile, the days of your slaughter have come.

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There is no remorse here in the wicked rich. This isn't someone getting ready for something that is coming soon.

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This isn't someone trying to make right upon the errors of their life, but they live lavishly until the very end.

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They are blind to what's coming. That's the picture that we have here. And now for the final and most damning accusation from James, go to verse 6.

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He says, You have condemned and put to death the righteous man. He does not resist you.

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The wicked rich have given, according to the Greek, a guilty verdict that makes one subject to punishment.

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This is likely that the rich have brought Christian laborers before the judge.

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These landowners have brought these Christians before a judge and they falsely accused them so that they wouldn't have to pay the wages that were due to them.

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So they kept crying out. The Christians kept crying out. Give us our pay. Do what is righteous.

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And the indication here is that the wealthy landowners brought them before the local judge, made false accusations, got false witnesses to come and confirm what they said, and they were punished and sentenced to death.

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That's heavy. That's huge. Some don't think this was a literal death, but figuratively, by depriving them of their wages, it would lead to death in a way.

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But I did a thorough word study on efanusate, and that 90 % of its use is murder.

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The other 10 % is the indication of put to death, which can be righteous or unrighteous.

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Murder is always, of course, unrighteous. Most of its uses are actually murder.

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James wants them to know the truth that murder was taking place.

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They were brought before a judge. They were sentenced to death. The Christian laborers cried out too much for them.

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They had them killed. And this word here that says the righteous man, this is actually in the plural.

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It means the righteous ones. These are Christians. The righteous ones.

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These are people made righteous by Jesus Christ. These were people who didn't deserve to die.

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God takes this very seriously. He says through the prophet Micah this concerning people who have been neglected and oppressed.

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Here's what the prophet Micah says. They covet fields, and then they seize them.

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They seize their houses and take them away. They rob a man in his house.

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They rob a man in his inheritance. The women of My people you evict. Each one from her pleasant home.

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From her children you take My splendor forever. For the rich men of the city are all full of violence.

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Now hear this, heads of the household of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel who abhor justice and twist everything that is straight.

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Who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with violent injustice. Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe.

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Her priests instruct for a price. And her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the

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Lord saying is not the Lord in our midst? Calamity will not come upon us. Therefore on account of you

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Zion will be plowed as a field. Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins. And the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest.

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Her leaders pronounce judgment for money. You get that? That parallels this verse.

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Her leaders pronounce judgment for money. They build Zion with the blood of the saints.

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Our Lord gets righteously angry when the rich oppress His people. And these

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Christians do not resist. They may be too powerless to oppose the wicked rich, but the

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Lord will. The Lord will. And that's what's encouraging.

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We see a courtroom in this passage where Christians stand trial, but a day is coming where the wicked rich will be in the heavenly courtroom and their rusted gold and silver and the pay withheld from the laborers along with the laborers themselves will cry out against them pointing to the true culprits and the

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Lord of hosts will condemn them and put them to death. And their flesh will be consumed by fire.

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That's what's supposed to be encouraging here is that although Christians have been oppressed throughout the ages,

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God will make right. God will have the vengeance. God will do what is necessary even if you have been mistreated in this life.

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Very, very hard words this passage. Very hard words this sermon. But I had to give the text its due diligence.

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So as I wrap this up, there are some things I want you to consider from our passage. Some things

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I'll reiterate. If our biggest takeaways from this is, well,

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I'm not rich, and I don't do wicked things like these rich, then we've lost the point.

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At the beginning of the sermon, I mentioned how it is not sinful to be rich. That is absolutely true.

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That is true. And I get that. But I don't want us to lose the weight of what this text is saying.

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In Western culture, we can so easily compare ourselves to the richest of the rich.

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The richest people in our society. But we too are rich in many ways.

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We are capable of doing some of these things. We may not do exactly these things, or take it all the way to murder or theft, but we often seek too many pleasures in ways that God has not prescribed.

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Pleasures are good. We talked about that a couple sermons ago. But pleasures in a way that God has not prescribed is what we need to abstain from.

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We can sometimes not store up our treasure in heaven, but store it upon the earth. There may be people in this country, people part of the church, who hoard what

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God has given them to steward, but it's never given to anyone else.

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The wealth is stored up and given. None is given to churches or the needy. So again, are we hoarding for ourselves today?

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If we are, we need to repent. Build an inheritance. Take care of your family. But don't neglect the other things.

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It's not an either -or. It's a both -and. And if you have been defrauded here, church, by the wicked rich, you have the

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Lord of Sabaoth who listens intently for your cries. He will vindicate you.

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And it's actually happening to us right now in this country. Thomas Sowell says inflation is in effect a hidden tax.

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The money that people have saved is robbed of part of its purchasing power which is quietly transferred to the government that issues the new money.

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So the current inflation has been caused by the greed of the American people and the greed of our government.

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Wanting money from daddy government, and they were foolish enough to print it and disperse it.

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And look, I don't regret anyone who desperately needed it who got it.

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I don't. That's fine. I'm glad people who needed it got it.

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But diluting the currency of your citizens is defrauding them. It is stealing from them.

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A day's worth of work is now worth far less for us. I'm sure you experience that.

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Rent, groceries, everything you look at is higher here. Slavery is the end goal of such greed.

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So like James, I declare as a minister of the gospel for our government and for its leaders to wail and howl for what is to come.

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I charge our leaders to stop defrauding our people lest they experience the same judgment that has been pronounced on these wicked rich.

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I'm serious about that. They have done evil things to this nation.

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They will be held to account. Listen, if you have been having a hard time making ends meet lately or finding housing, trust

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God. Trust God. He will provide. I've seen it. I've seen it with people in this church who didn't think it could happen, and God has provided for them.

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He will help you bear this burden. I believe that. May He bring people to help you.

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And finally, I just want to say, who does verse 6 remind you of? You have condemned and put to death a righteous man.

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He does not resist you. That is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was defrauded by His people in the house of Israel.

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Jesus Christ was the God in the Old Testament from whom the wicked priests no longer tithed anymore, who gave spotted and lame sheep according to Malachi.

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He said, you have stolen from Me. Jesus is the one from whom Judas stole out of the money bag and sold his very life for 30 pieces of silver.

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Church, if you have been cheated, you have a Savior who was too. And He will not fail to make good on the judgment of the wicked rich, and He will not fail to bring you into His kingdom.

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We need to pray for the wicked rich. We need to pray for those who are in leadership in our nation.

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We should pray for their repentance. But this is the warning. James 5 is what's coming.

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And they need to know that truthfully. So for those who are rich, heed the warning you have seen here and you will receive treasure imperishable in heaven.

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For those here who are in need, if you are in Christ, you will be comforted and you will receive treasure imperishable in heaven.

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Let's pray. Father, we come before You. Thank You, Lord, for the message that went out.

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Please bless it. Lord, such a very harsh language, very sobering.

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Lord, what James is saying here, but it needs to be said. So God, I thank

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You, Lord, that as Christians, there have been those who have oppressed our people for many, many generations, and yet You will have justice.

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You will have the vengeance. You say vengeance is Yours. You will repay.

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We don't have to be worried about that. It's all in Your hands.

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God, please continue to provide for our people. Provide for Your saints, Lord, that they may be able to take care of their families, get the medical treatment they need, to have shelter, to have food.

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Lord, please help us, even though these characteristics here may not be us.

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They seem almost so far from us, Lord. Help us to take heed to the warnings here. Help us to not hoard up things.

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Help us to give freely and generously. Help us, Lord, to not store up treasure on earth, but to find

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Christ to be our treasure in heaven. We praise You, Lord. We bless Your name.