SNBS Warning to the Rich, James 5, 1-6

Good evening and welcome to Sunday Night Bible Study with Pastor Josiah Shipley of Witton Baptist Church.

Maybe I should quit saying good evening because I think the air time on this is gonna change to the morning, but it doesn't matter. I'm just gonna keep rolling with it.

So here we are in James chapter 5, the final chapter of the book of James.

And a reminder that this is the half -brother of Jesus who was an unbeliever of the

Gospels record for us until after the resurrection. And if you remember from chapter 4 verse 13 when we started the section on God's sovereignty, he said, come now you who say, and then he tunes those guys up.

We have very similar here. We have a judgment passage, a calling out, come now.

In other words, I'm gonna take you to task on this issue. So we have another warning passage, and this one is for the rich who fraud the poor.

So let's read verses 1 through 6 of James chapter 5. Come now you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.

Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth -eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidenced against you, and they will eat your flesh like fire.

You have laid up treasure in the last days, that is the eschatos, in the last days.

Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the

Lord of Hosts. More on that in a minute. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self -indulgence.

You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person, and he does not resist you.

Now, obviously this passage is not against all the wealthy. In fact, in 1

Timothy chapter 6, verse 17 through 19, Paul tells godly church members how to rightly use their resources, godly church members, rather than misuse those.

This passage is the judgment passage about those who abuse the poor through greed. If you notice, a lot of this passage sounds a lot like Jesus' Sermon on the

Mount in Matthew chapter 6, verse 19 through 21. This is the second time in the book of James where he has said something that sounds like a quote from Jesus at the

Sermon on the Mount. What does that tell us? Well, it doesn't prove it, but it at least implies to me that James was there for the

Sermon on the Mount, even though he didn't believe the seed was planted, the truth that Jesus spoke was planted, and later on when he became converted, he remembered those truths and then believed and loved and expressed those truths.

That's a little bit of encouragement for those of you who have family or friends or co -workers or whatever that are unbelievers, and you are trying to plant those seeds.

You're trying to be a good witness and example. Your work is not in vain. When the

Holy Spirit regenerates that person, that work which you have done will not be in vain. We serve a sovereign

God. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the misery that's coming upon you.

So if rich people are not always in trouble like the ones in 1st Timothy, what are these rich doing? Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth -eaten.

What's that imply? That the riches are staying in the same place, not being used. Your gold and silver have corroded, and the corrosion will be evidenced against you.

Well, there's nothing wrong with saving money. What is it about this corrosion that's evidenced against you?

Well, there's two things. First, they have laid up for themselves treasures, as Jesus said, laid up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where the moth does not destroy and there's no corrosion.

They're doing the opposite. They've laid up for themselves treasures in the eschaton, the last days, in this current age, in this worldly system, and their garments are moth -eaten, their silver and gold have corroded.

And you know why they've corroded? Because they were supposed to be given to their laborers. But they kept back that money that was owed to the laborers who mowed their fields.

They kept it back. Not because they didn't have it and said, hey, I'll get you next week. They kept it back.

This is explicitly forbidden in the law of Moses, Leviticus 19, 13, and Deuteronomy 24, 14, and 15.

So God, from Exodus, excuse me, from Leviticus, from the books of Moses said, if you owe someone money who worked for you and you have it, you give it to them.

So we're not talking about employers that didn't have the money and said, hey,

I'll get you back double next week. We're talking about employers that had the money, plenty of it, kept it back, and while their gold and silver is corroding, these people, their workers, by implication, are starving.

And in that sense, they have helped murder them. Some of them apparently have died.

They have cried out, and their cries have reached the ears of the

Lord of Hosts. Now, remember that title is the Lord of Armies. Sabaoth, the

Lord of Armies. In other words, you know why they've reached the Lord of Armies? Because the Lord is coming to judge those who have mistreated these poor believers who worked for the money that they were not paid and they are starving for.

Money they needed to live. Verse 5 is such an amazing analogy.

You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self -indulgence. That is the antithesis of the

Christian life right there, living in self -indulgence. If you are living in self -indulgence, you cannot be living in a

Christian life. The Christian life is about a denial of self, about treating others as more important than yourself,

Philippians 2, 3, and 4. Living a life of self -indulgence is the life of an unbeliever.

You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. So much like when you're getting ready to slaughter an animal, a goat, a sheep, whatever, a pig, you fatten it up, right?

And the animal doesn't know that it's being fattened up because it's almost it's time to die. Well, these people living in self -indulgence have fattened their hearts up for a day of slaughter where the

Lord of Hosts is coming to slaughter them, and they don't realize the judgment that's coming on them. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.

Now, I bet a lot of you medical people and athletes out there that are listening to this know the

Greek word for heart. It is the word cardio. Cardios.

Like cardio, like cardiology, like cardiac arrest. Cardio is the word for heart.

There's your Greek of the week right there. So here it is. Let me scroll up in case my face is in the way. James 5 .5.

We have here heart or the plural hearts is cardio or in the plural cardios.

There is the Greek word for heart right there. It's used 156 times in the New Testament and twice in this chapter.

It repeats itself in verse 8. So, this is not a indictment on all rich.

It is an indictment on those who who abuse the poor with their wealth.

The poor that have worked for the money, and they have kept it back when they shouldn't. Okay. I'll tell you what

I'm gonna do. I think I am going to do verses 7 through 11 later, and I might do that one live.

Okay. All right. Love you guys very much, and this one's short, but I hope it was beneficial to you.

Please like, share, and subscribe these. Facebook, YouTube, doesn't matter. Love you guys very much. Talk to y 'all later.