The Sins of Wealth (James 5:1-6)

Morning. Welcome. Glad you could be here. Once you open your Bibles to James chapter 5, 5th chapter of James, James 5.

We're going to be looking at verses 1 to 6 this morning. James 5, 1 to 6.

And let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, thank you for the opportunity this morning to open the word together.

We pray, Father, that your spirit would do his marvelous and mysterious work in us this morning, that as we hear the word, what we hear would be united with the heart of faith, that we would receive the truth, welcome it into our own hearts, that your spirit would apply it where it need be for each and every one of us in our own unique way.

Father, at the macro level, these things are common to all of us, and yet for each of us, there are these little individual situations where your word speaks to us in a very particular way.

And so I pray this morning for my brothers and sisters, for those who perhaps are feeling a bit discouraged, having perhaps come out of a difficult week, as they come in this morning and gather with your people, may your spirit encourage them through the word.

Father, for those who are a bit complacent this morning, feeling perhaps just even a bit smug, oh

Lord, do your work there too to challenge them and to enable them to see that all that we have that is of any worth is only because of the gift that you have given us in Christ.

And so we are very grateful for that and pray that his name would be lifted up this morning in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, so the text before us this morning is an interesting text. There's been a lot of them in James for sure, and this is just another one, but the text this morning before us echoes with the kind of fiery preaching that we would often associate with the

Old Testament prophets, that kind of fiery oration.

For example, let me just kind of get you thinking that way. For example, in Isaiah 10, we read in verses one to four, woe to those who enact evil statutes and to those who constantly record unjust decisions, so as to deprive the needy of justice and rob the poor of my people of their rights, in order that widows may be their spoil and that they may plunder the orphans.

Now, what will you do in the day of punishment and in the devastation which will come from afar?

To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your wealth? Nothing remains but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain.

In spite of all this, my anger does not turn away, and his hand is still stretched out.

I mean, you imagine that being like the Sunday morning sermon? Rough stuff. Or Amos chapter four, beginning in verse one, hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, bring now that we may drink.

The Lord God has sworn by his holiness, behold, the days are coming upon you when they will take you away with meat hooks and the last of you with fish hooks.

You will go out through breaches in the walls, each one straight before her, and you will be cast to Harmon, declares

Yahweh. Yeah, that's fiery preaching. That's Old Testament prophet style, fiery, fiery preaching.

I've entitled the message this morning, The Sins of Wealth, The Sins of Wealth.

And let's do this. Let's set a little bit of context before we dive into this because I think it's helpful to get our orientation.

In chapter four, James has given a very passionate call to humility. You remember over in verse six, where he says,

God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. In verse, down to verse 10, humble yourselves in the presence of the

Lord and he will exalt you. So James has made this very impassioned plea for humility, but following that he takes up the sins of pride that are in exact opposite to the kind of humility that God desires among his people.

You remember when we were together, I think it was just two weeks ago in chapter four, verses 11 and 12, he took up the sin of pride that reveals itself in the use of the mouth in an inappropriate way to run down the reputation of a fellow believer, verses 11 and 12.

The use of slander and contempt with our fellow believers. You remember

James called us out on that. And then in verses 13 to 17, again two weeks ago, he took up the presumptuous plans of the future and the manifestation of pride there, where the idea that we live independent of God and we make our plans and we expect

God to bless them. Verses 11 to 13, excuse me, to 17, he took that up.

And now before us in chapter five, one to six, we see the third example of sin.

And here it's an interesting one. It's the misuse of wealth and power. The misuse of wealth and power in particular to oppress the poor and to indulge ourselves.

That's five, essentially five, one to six. And I would say that this last demonstration of pride and the opposition to the kind of humility that God desires of his people, expects of his people, and even his spirit empowers of his people, is probably the most serious of all.

This sin of wealth and the abuse of power is probably the most serious manifestation of pride in this whole section.

But let me read it together for you, beginning in chapter five and in verse one, where he says,

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

Your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth -eaten.

Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire.

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, and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the

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

You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man.

He does not resist you. Now, again, doesn't that sound like the

Old Testament prophets of old, that kind of language? James is here pronouncing judgment upon the wealthy and the hard -hearted towards the poor and the suffering.

And I think, and I'm going to try to demonstrate this to you, I think here, this particular section of James is actually not addressed specifically to believers, but to unbelievers.

I think this address is for the unbelievers, and by extension and application for us as believers, but I think it's being addressed towards wealthy unbelievers who are taking advantage of the power that's afforded to them by their status, by their wealth, by their position, and they are oppressing and abusing poor believers, the poor believers.

Now, why do I say that? Why do I say that? What leads me to believe that James is speaking here to unbelievers and not believers?

Well, there are a few lines of evidence, so let me kind of run through it with you and see if you don't agree.

He calls them, notice, he calls them you rich, verse 1, and then down to verse 7, which is what we'll pick up next week, but in verse 7 and 12, he refers again to brethren or brothers.

Nowhere in this section does he use that term of familiarity, that term that is so common among Christian people, to refer to one another as brothers or brethren or brothers and sisters.

There he just calls them you rich, you rich, and you might think, well, what about chapter 4 and verse 4 where he calls them adulterous?

Yes, that's true, he does, but again in that context he immediately then speaks to them again in terms of repentance and humbling yourselves, and the

Lord will exalt you, and that kind of language which clearly indicates there that he is talking about believers, even though the sin is very serious, rising to the level of a spiritual adultery.

But here we don't see that. We don't see any language which softens what he speaks of here, and in fact, when he exposes their sin here, again in contradiction or comparison to chapter 4, he doesn't call them to repent.

Notice again back to chapter 4 where he has used the term adulterous, but there notice he does call them to repent.

Verse 7, submit therefore to God, resist the devil, he'll flee to you, draw near to God, and he will exalt you.

So that's the language of repentance, but here there's none of that. In fact, just the opposite, and what you find here is that he calls on them to howl in misery at their condition.

There's no invitation here for repentance. Yes, ma 'am, you'll hear, let me develop it for you.

Okay, good, thank you, let me develop it. So here he's not, there's no call to repentance, there's only judgment words.

It's all judgment. He anticipates their judgment, in fact, and not their salvation.

Verse 3, where he says the rust will witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire.

You've stored these things up in the last days. They've been stored up as your treasure and so forth.

So again, no laying, no call for repentance, no terminology that's common among brothers, even when speaking about sin and the need for repentance.

No call to repentance, only judgment, only judgment. Now, how does this fit?

How does this fit? Well, Old Testament prophets, again, if you read the

Old Testament prophets, on regular occasions, they pronounce judgment on the unbelieving nations around them.

Even though it's likely those unbelieving nations would never read those words, would never even hear those judgments spoken.

And yet, the prophets regularly do that. God calls them to speak prophetically, judgmentally upon the wicked nations around them.

And why? Why? Well, I think that these judgments, and perhaps this speaks a little bit to that question, these judgments really accomplish,

I think, three things. Three things that benefited Israel of old and by James' use of a similar approach, benefit the

Christians of his day and benefit us of our day. So here, let me put my case for you here.

The promise of judgment on the wicked is a promise that the wicked will not last forever, but that God will ultimately defend his people.

That's an incredibly important promise. In fact, it's a promise that we've been exploring in the sermon in Psalm 1, is it not?

Beyond that, the promised judgment upon the wicked, it comforts

God's people in their suffering. In a sense that God is fully aware of their suffering and will do something about it.

And that is an anchor for the soul and enables the believer to hold up under this kind of unjust suffering.

And third, I think, it certainly reveals the standards of God's justice and righteousness.

In other words, it speaks of what he expects of people, including the wicked. He does expect them not to act in this way.

He doesn't say, oh, well, you're wicked. Of course, you're going to act like that. No, no, it's wickedness.

It encourages the people of God to walk in the spirit and avoid, in this context, the corrosive effects of wealth.

The corrosive effect of wealth. Let's talk about that a moment.

You may not think you are wealthy, particularly in relation to your perhaps neighbors.

You look to your neighbors, you look around you, and perhaps relative to them, in your circumstances, you say,

I'm not. There may be a lot of things, but I'm not wealthy. No, actually, we are.

We are. All of us here, every one of us here is wealthy by all historical standards and indeed by present reality throughout this world.

We are wealthy, every one of us. It's just a fact.

We live in a very prosperous age, and we are a prosperous people. We are a wealthy people, which means that there's something here for us.

There's something here for us, even in kind of a prophetic judgment spoken on the wicked.

The Scripture never condemns wealth. We do know that. The Scripture never condemns wealth.

Only it's misuse. Only it's misuse. Money is not the problem.

1 Timothy 6, 9 -10, the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.

It is the love of money. It is a root of all sorts of evil. One writer said this, money is like seawater.

The more you drink, the thirstier you get. Man, there's so much truth in that.

It is like seawater. The more you drink, the thirstier you get. Now, again, at first glance, this section of James, it seems a little out of place.

It seems like it'll have little to do with us in our present situation. I mean, if I'm accurate in my understanding of the context here, then no one in here is, at least to the best of my knowledge, a wealthy unbeliever and certainly involved in the oppression of the poor and the causing of their suffering.

That's not our situation. We don't live there. Again, we'd ask, does this section of Scripture have nothing to do with us?

Is this just something we read and go, okay, well, yeah, that's a historical thing in their time, but for us now, well, okay, next.

No, no. 2 Timothy 3, 16 -17 tells us all

Scripture is inspired by God and profitable. Teaching, reproof, correction, or training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

So, I'm getting close to getting started. This is all just like trying to set the stage for us here.

We're believers. The movie this morning. And as such, we are not destined for wrath.

Amen. Amen. We're not destined for wrath and we're not destined for judgment, but we are nevertheless susceptible to temptation and the temptations this morning that are associated with wealth and the need to be reminded how seriously

God views the misuse of our wealth. God is very serious about the misuse of our wealth.

The abuse of wealth is a mark of a life given over to what he calls in chapter 3 and verse 15, worldly wisdom.

Wisdom is not that which comes down from above. Here's the worldly wisdom. It's earthly, natural, and demonic.

The misuse of wealth is a demonstration of a wisdom that is natural, demonic, and from the earth.

All right. Here's what we're going to look at together this morning, the time we have left. Four sins.

Four sins that are common to wealth. Four sins, or if you like, four temptations that are common to wealth.

And I want to look at them with you so that we might guard our own hearts in these last days.

In these last days. Four sins, four temptations common to wealth.

Here we go. The first, hoarding. Verses 1 to 3.

Hoarding. Ecclesiastes 5 .10, we read, whoever loves money never has money enough.

Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. In the

Sermon on the Mount, James, his older brother Jesus, warned against the hoarding of treasure.

Matthew 6 .19 and 20. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.

Now, James, here, by condemning the rich, he's doing so for engaging in that very same practice that Jesus warns about.

Verse 1. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.

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

It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure.

Come now, you rich, weep and howl, he says.

Again, he is not calling them to repentance. This is not a call to repentance.

It is instead an indication of the kind of despair that is going to come upon them in their day of judgment.

When that judgment arrives, and when will it come? Verse 3. The last days.

When it comes, it comes to them in the last days. They have disregarded

God's claims upon them, and they will, in the last day, at the judgment, they will be overwhelmed with the realization of their own folly.

That they have heaped up the treasures of this earth, and in the end, it stands against them.

It is not neutral. Verse 4. They are howling. Notice that. Where he says, come now, you rich, weep and howl.

Interesting word, only here in the New Testament. It speaks of the howling of a wolf. That mournful howl, right?

Once you heard it, you would know it. Howl of a wolf. Miseries, right?

Or your miseries, which are coming upon you. The miseries is a reference to judgment, and the judgment that immediately precedes the messianic era.

This is the kind of eschatological language that's being used. Notice again, verse 7 and 8 tells us, this is where we are.

This is where we are located here. Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until he gets the early and you be patient and strengthen your hearts.

Here it is, for the coming of the Lord is what? Near. It is near.

Can't wait to get to next week, talk about that. Jesus' words in Luke 6, 24 and 25.

Woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.

Woe to you who are well -fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

This is the great eschatological reversal that Brother Jeff talked about,

I can't remember now, a couple months back. Yes, what seems to be the life of Riley, as my father would always say, the easy street, in the end actually is the cause of such distress, such weeping, such howling, such misery, your miseries which are coming upon you.

What miseries? Why the miseries are coming upon them? Actually, in the context here, in verses 2 and 3, the answer is that their wealth will be their curse.

How's that for an eschatological reversal? Their wealth will be their curse.

Verse 2, 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.

It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure. Now, let's just talk for a moment about garments.

It's hard for us to understand. Expensive garments in antiquity were one of the means of preserving and flaunting wealth.

We buy our clothes today made overseas, made by slave labor, and we buy them at Walmart and we pay pennies.

That was not true in antiquity. Clothing was very expensive and expensively made clothing was even more so.

In fact, it was customary to hand clothing down intergenerationally in antiquity.

News Alert, by the way, rolled the clock back like 80 years and it was common here, even in our country, for clothing to be transferred intergenerationally.

Your grandfather's dress shoes, for example. Hard for us to imagine such a world today, but it was somewhat true then.

It was very true in antiquity, very true. In fact, in Acts chapter 20, don't turn there, in Acts chapter 20, verse 33, we have the

Apostle Paul's words to the Ephesian elders there, and he says, I have coveted no one's silver or gold, and we would get that.

Okay, sure, I understand that. Or their clothes, or their clothes.

I never, I have the coveted no one's gold, no one's, no one's clothes. I mean, it's right on this, it's on par.

Gold, silver, clothes. These were the means of saving wealth, transferring wealth, and flaunting wealth.

Now, pure gold, pure silver, do not rust and do not corrode.

And that is a point that everybody in James, in James' day, would know full well.

He's not telling them something they don't know. They're all, oh, really? No, they know that. They know that.

So, I think James is undoubtedly speaking metaphorically here.

He's speaking metaphorically to the fact that at the judgment day, their gold and their silver will, as one author said, prove as valuable as rusted iron.

It will rust, it will corrode, not literally, but in the sense that at the judgment day, all your big stack of gold, all your silver will be as valuable as rusted iron.

In fact, it'll be worse than that. It'll be worse than just rusted iron. It'll be worse than useless because it will serve as your accuser and your judge, verse three.

Their rust will be a witness against you. Do you see that? It will serve as their accuser, as their judge.

It will be brought into evidence against them at the final judgment.

Now, these three verbs here, rotted, garments rotted, gold and silver rusted, or excuse me, rotted, rusted, moth -eaten, the clothing moth -eaten, they're all present tense verbs, and I only point that out to you because it stresses the present state of their possessions.

It's not like at the future this will happen. It is that they are now worthless.

They are worthless now, in the present. The condition already exists, but it will be revealed to their faithless eyes when they enter the day of judgment.

The reality is there. I might say by extension, it's there for us, and with eyes of faith, we can see that.

You've heard the expression that you've never seen a hearse with a u -haul attached, right?

I used to say that all the time, and then actually somebody on Twitter sent out a photo of a rehearse with a u -haul in the back, and so much of that.

At the judgment, the corrosion of their accumulated wealth that has been stored for their own greedy desires rather than invested for God's glory will act as the chief witness for the prosecution, and it will convict them of their hard -heartedness toward the poor and the needy.

Notice they're right there in this context, just like the Old Testament prophets. We might say that their wealth is like a rusty chain bound around them, eating into their soft flesh that will ultimately consume them in the day of judgment.

I cannot but help think of Jacob Marley with his chains forged in this life.

One writer said, the disuse of our possessions stands as a witness to our misuse of wealth.

Let me say it again for you. The disuse of our possessions stands as a witness to the misuse of our wealth.

That really comes home. Closets full of stuff, garages full of stuff such we can't even put a car in it.

The self -storage industry in America at last numbers

I could find is a 44 .3 billion dollar a year industry growing at 13 percent.

You might say 44 billion? I don't know. What does that mean? Well, let me give you this. How about this? The publishing industry in America, that's publishing all the books, 44 .2

billion and declining. We are less interested in transferring generational knowledge than we are of storing our stuff that when we die nobody is going to want.

Nobody is going to want it. Pods, which were big in Southern California where we used to live.

I haven't seen too many up here, but in Southern California, let me tell you, they are big business. That's portable on -demand storage.

I guess up here it's sea containers, right? You put sea cans on your property in Los Angeles and ask how more frowned upon.

So you get a little more upscale. You get a pod. It's a sea can. It's a short sea can, painted different.

They deliver it to you, put it in your driveway. Because your garage is so full that you have a $50 ,000 automobile sitting in the driveway and you got a garage stuffed to the gills with yard sale junk that if you sold it wouldn't bring 200 bucks.

So you get a pod. You get a pod. The disuse of our possessions stands as a witness against the misuse of our wealth.

It's true. The first sin was hoarding.

The second is fraud. Verse four, 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 Lord of Sabaoth.

Behold, Greek, ado, look, pay attention, listen up.

The wickedness of their deeds is being portrayed here, not in terms, notice of them defrauding other wealthy businessmen.

Fraud is a sin at any and every level. But notice here the fraud that's being called out is not that, you know, you conduct your business unethically and you defraud other investors and other business people and so forth.

No, it's not that at all. The fraud being called out here is spoken of in terms of taking advantage of the most weak and vulnerable members of society.

Look at the end, verse four. Behold, the pay the laborers who mowed your fields has been withheld by you.

These are the day laborers. These are the poor, those who are dependent upon getting paid at the end of the day or they will not eat.

They are literally living hand to mouth. A situation that, by the way, was very common in antiquity.

Far less so today, but they are defrauding the most vulnerable members of society.

I think that's the point. And notice again, James says that both the withheld wages and the cry of the workers have not gone unnoticed.

Behold, the pay of the laborers cries out and the outcry of those who did the harvesting reaches his ears.

Pardon me. God hears both the withheld wages as if they themselves speak and say, I should have gone to them.

And the workers themselves cry. Oh, Lord, I have a wife.

I have children. What will they eat today? And who hears it?

The Lord of hosts. Literally, I think you could say the

Lord of the armies of heaven. That's who hears it. I mean, that's a sobering thought, isn't it?

But the Lord of the armies of heaven hear these cries, and if he hears them, he will respond.

He will respond. Now, listen, it's some basic stuff here.

Okay, probably shouldn't even have to say it, but I feel compelled. As a

Christian, we have an obligation not to defraud our employees.

Shouldn't have to be said, but unfortunately it does. We have an obligation not to defraud our employees, and I would extend it to say defraud them by paying them less than they earned or need or are entitled to.

I would suggest you could take a disagreement with me, and that's fine, but the obligation of a

Christian employer to his employees extends beyond what is the barest minimum we get by that the law requires.

I would say the law of love puts us in a different place. But I think in a more general sense, you know, some of you are

Christian, you know, business owners and so forth. You're in positions of authority over other people's wages. Speaks to you, but for the rest of us,

I think there's a more general sense for all of this, and it's this. We have an obligation as believers to live honestly and honorably with regard to our finances.

I think that's how we can apply this. In other words, pay our bills on time.

We have an obligation to pay our bills on time. We have an obligation not to shade the truth or to cheat on our obligations.

I would extend it and say we have an obligation to be generous with other people, particularly those who are in need.

Let me give you a general principle of generosity in this area you might think about.

Proverbs chapter three, verses 27 and 28, where we read, do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it.

Do not say to your neighbor, go and come back and tomorrow I will give it when you have it with you.

Be generous. Hold your hand open. By the way, wealth is somewhat like jello in that you can hold more with an open hand than a closed fist.

And in fact, the tighter you squeeze your fist, the less you'll have when the hand is pried open. The sin of hoarding or the temptation to hoard,

I could say, the sin of fraud or the temptation to defraud others. Third, self -indulgence.

Verse five, self -indulgence. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have led a life of wanton pleasure.

You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. This is the third sin of the wicked wealthy, is the idea that they have lived a life of self -indulgence.

They have indulged themselves. Notice though, whereas you use the expression lived on the earth, it speaks about their general way of life.

This is what characterizes their general way of life. They are self -indulgent. Their lives are characterized by what we would now call conspicuous consumption.

Conspicuous consumption. In fact, James says they've lived like cattle.

They're continually feeding, right? You drive by the field and there's cattle in the field. What do they do? They got their head down and they're eating because they're cattle.

That's what cattle do. They just eat. Oblivious to the reality that at the end of this all, they're headed to the slaughter.

And James says, that's the way you are. You're like a cow who just spends your entire life consuming, unaware that when it's done and you're fat, you're going to get slaughtered.

The slaughter is coming. Again, another writer, he said, and I quote, material wealth only temporarily quenches the soul's thirst for meaning and acceptance.

Acquiring wealth to cure the problem of meaninglessness is like drinking coffee to solve the problem of exhaustion.

It can mask the problem, but it cannot cure it. Wealth can never give true meaning to life.

Instead, we must learn the secret of contentment. I'll turn you back to Philippians 4.

Just be reminded of the man, the words of the man who has learned contentment, did learn contentment.

Philippians 4, beginning in verse 10, where Paul writes, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me.

Indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. He's talking about a financial gift here. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances

I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity in any and every circumstance.

I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

No, it's just a secret. It's a secret. It means it's not really apparent to everybody. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

There's the source of the power of the secret. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.

Beloved, I would contend that contentment springs from the well of thankfulness.

Contentment springs from the well of thankfulness. In other words, as we cultivate a heart of thankfulness and gratitude to the

Lord first and foremost, because we are in Christ and in Christ, all the riches of glory are ours, even though in this life, we may say, we may look around and say,

I'm not doing perhaps as good as I'd like, or I even think I need, and generate a thankful heart.

In fact, I would be so bold to say that thanklessness is a sure sign of unbelief.

Romans 121, Paul calls it out as the heart of the unbelieving man -woman world is a thanklessness.

When we descend into thanklessness in a moment, and it comes on us, we are living in unbelief in that moment.

We are denying the reality of the gospel, hoarding fraud, self -indulgence, or oppression, oppression.

Verse six, you have condemned and put to death the righteous man.

He does not resist you. A sin of oppression.

The reference here to condemned, I think, puts us in a legal framework. What's this in a legal context?

I think what he's talking about is the use of the legal system to oppress the righteous.

Oh, wait a minute, that sounds familiar. The reference here to put to death, the word is literally murder.

I think it's probably figurative. Probably figurative, and in other words, it's a reference to the denying through the use of legal means the righteous man's recourse to what?

To the actions of withholding his wages. In other words, they oppress them in the withholding of their wages because they hold all the power, and then there is no legal recourse available to them.

They use the system to crush them. Now, it's possible in that day, because so many lived on the brink of economic collapse, that perhaps

James sees this use of legalized oppression as murder in itself.

I mean, it's possible. If you don't think he's speaking here figuratively, you say, no, it's murder. That's murder.

It could well get there for sure. Notice this man, he does not resist you.

He does not resist you. The fact that the righteous don't resist the wicked man's oppression, in other words, there's no call here for revolution or any of those kinds of things.

This oppressed man, this oppressed minority, they're calling out to the only one who can save them in faith, and yet the wicked remains unmoved.

And I think James would say, it just adds to their guilt. It just adds to their guilt.

They take advantage of those who cannot help themselves, and the fact that they don't even, what the earth would say, try to help themselves merely increases their condemnation.

These are the truly helpless. Okay, let's put a bowl around it.

Hoarding, fraud, self -indulgence, oppression, these manifestations of the sin of pride are somewhat uniquely associated with the positions of wealth and power, prosperity.

And that's a condition that exists all around us, all around us.

And in fact, it is baked into our culture. It is baked into our culture.

And beloved, if we are not alert to these dangers, we're not alert to them. If we don't regularly seek out the satisfaction of Christ, rather than to look for it in the things of this world, then the corrosive effect of our culture will show up.

It will rob us of our joy. It will blunt our testimony for Christ, and it will incur the displeasure of our

Heavenly Father. These are sobering words, sobering words indeed.

Our Father, the word that wounds is the word that heals, and it is a word that has wounded this morning.

And yet the healing comes in the recognition that we do not stand on our own.

We do not look to our own righteousness, which is as filthy rags. Not all of our sin, past, present, future, including any and every sin associated with our own wealth and prosperity that has found its way into our lives, has been atoned for and paid for in full and total by Christ Himself.

There remains not one drop of the wrath of God for us, for He drank it all.

And in His love, He gives us His righteousness, that we stand clothed in the very righteousness of your

Son. And not only are we clothed in His righteousness, but we are adopted into your family and we become co -heirs with Christ.

And thus He shares with us His abundant treasures. He does so for eternity.

O Lord, we live here and now, we are people in bodies bound in space and time, and we confess we are short of memory.

We so easily forget what is really true, and fall prey to that which is passing, that which is illusionary, that which can never satisfy.

May you help us, even now in this moment, to be satisfied in Christ.