The Wicked Wealthy (I)
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
Well, we return this evening in our studies through this epistle of James. We come to the fifth and final chapter—can you believe it? The fifth and final chapter of this incredible letter. And the issues of wealth and its abuse are highlighted here. And, of course, these issues of wealth and its abuse are frequently the subject or the target of the Old Testament writers. There are many passages that can come to mind that I can refer to this evening, that we can go to—many passages that I came across this week in preparation. But the one that stands out is the one that was read in your hearing, in our call to worship— Psalm 73.
So turn with me once again to Psalm 73 by way of introduction. Of course, Psalm 73 is the first psalm in the third book of the Psalter. And most of these psalms in this section are written by this man that we're familiar with, Asaph. He's a songwriter connected to the temple and the worship of the temple. He explains to us in verse 3 of Psalm 73 that he had a sin problem. What was the problem? "For I was envious of the boastful. I saw the peace of the wicked." That's his sin problem.
And here are the super rich of his day as he's describing them. And he says, here's what I saw. Here's what I saw. Verse 4, "there are no pains in their death." They don't seem to die like the rest of us. “And their body is fat." In other words, they have more than enough. They gorge themselves. They eat beyond what they're supposed to, to the extent of gluttonous. They gorge themselves. And he goes on to say they're constantly indulging themselves. And “they are not in trouble as other men." They don't have the same problems the rest of us seem to have. "They are not plagued like the rest of mankind." And it was really eating him up.
Verse 6, "Therefore lofty pride is their necklace; The garment of violence covers them." So they are exalted in their pride and their arrogance. They take whatever steps they think necessary to gain advantage. Verse 7, "Their eye bulges from fatness; The delusions of their heart overflow." They think also that they could do whatever they want, whatever they choose to do, whether it's within the confines of the law or not. It doesn't matter. They want their way no matter what, right?
Verse 8, "They scoff and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high." "They have set their mouth against the heavens." In other words, they even talk—they dare talk—even against Almighty God, against Yahweh, the God of heaven and earth. "And their tongue goes through the earth." That's a picturesque expression if you're trying to imagine it. It goes on to say in verse 11, "They say, 'How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?'" "Behold, these are the wicked; And always at ease, they have increased in wealth." Rather than all of that getting them in trouble and trial and difficulty, they've actually grown in their wealth even as they flaunt all of these sinful lifestyles and patterns. God, it's not fair. Throughout the Old Testament, the same issue recurs over and over again, as the writers identify the wicked wealthy—the rich unrighteous, the rich ungodly—who live just as Asaph describes here.
Now when you come to the New Testament, the same thing is addressed. The same issue is addressed as well. Perhaps nowhere more like the Old Testament prophet than in James 5, this issue is addressed. Here, our text, the first six verses of this fifth chapter, James addresses the same issue: the prosperous, wealthy wicked. Now just to remind us, James has been talking to us about pride and humility, and he tells us that pride really marks the unbelieving one. Pride really characterizes unbelievers. If you're not in the faith, that's the beating heart of your life—resisting God. Resisting God.
Humility characterizes believers—submission, desiring God to be your God, yielding to Him wholeheartedly. The bent of your heart is one of submission and yieldedness. What would You have me do, Lord? I'm ready, I'm prepared. And as we've been seeing for the past few weeks in James, he's already shown us the difference between humble judging and proud judging. We saw the difference between humble planning and proud planning, and now James turns his focus to that which dominates so much about life: money, wealth, spending.
And he's going to say to us, there's a humble kind of handling money and wealth, and there's a proud kind of handling money and wealth. There's a kind of humble spending, and there's a proud, arrogant spending. Of course, his focus here really is on the proud, and in particular, he's talking to the wicked wealthy. He's addressing the unrighteous rich.
Now, what you need to know is there are a few commentators who believe that James is addressing here sinning Christians, that they say that these are wealthy Christians who have allowed their wealth to get the better of them. But I really believe that that conclusion is absolutely unwarranted from the text. These are wealthy, I believe, unbelieving landowners of large estates, which were so typical in the first century. And let me share a few reasons why that is the case.
For example, in this passage that was read in your hearing, there is no exhortation whatsoever. There's no call to repentance, no exhortation, no call to repentance, as there was in the previous paragraph when he was talking about the Christian entrepreneur, the one who was planning without referring to God's sovereignty and His providence. There's no call for repentance here, no expectation of salvation. There's only here, judgment.
But I think the strongest argument for these being unconverted wealthy wicked, is the transition that occurs in verse 7. But let's back up and look at verse 6. Look at what he says, "You have condemned and murdered the righteous…" which is really in contradistinction to who you really are, right? But look at this. Look also at the transition, notice the beginning of verse 7, "Therefore, be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord." You who are oppressed by those wicked wealthy, hang in there. Be patient. Trust God. Don't lose heart. Don't be like Asaph in the first portion of his song.
So he's going to tell them that judgment is coming on these wicked people that he's just described. And so, beloved, it seems pretty clear from the context, from the text, when you look at the transition as well, that the first six verses are really addressed to unbelievers. Now the question is, why? Why would James do that? If he's speaking primarily to and about unbelievers, why would he include it in a letter that is addressed to the church, to Christians? What are his reasons for including this paragraph?
Well, here are a couple of thoughts that you may want to consider. First of all, I think it was targeted at the wealthy unbelieving rich in hopes that they would either hear about it or read it and be confronted with their sin. He addresses them directly, "Come now, you rich." I think there's some hope and expectation on James' part that they might hear about this letter he's written and they might hear it read and be exposed to the truth and be confronted with their sinfulness. And hopefully, that would really get them to come all the way to Christ as a result, to faith in Christ.
A second possible reason for including this paragraph in his letter to believers is to help us as believers understand God's perspective about the ungodly rich in our world. Because like Asaph, we can easily be tempted to envy the prosperity of the wicked and to think like Asaph, I've washed my hands in innocence all day long and I've got nothing for it. But I think thirdly and probably most importantly, James includes this section addressed to unbelievers so that we can listen in as well, you and I. We can listen in and be guarded as believers. Make sure that our hearts are insulated. Be guarded as believers from the madness of materialism.
I think he wants us to see materialism out of control, run amok, gone to its furthest extreme and in so doing, to make sure that we guard our hearts as believers. So James begins his condemnation in verse 1 with — watch it, look at it — with a pronouncement of God's judgment, God's coming judgment, we read, "Come now, you rich, cry, howling over your miseries which are coming upon you." The Greek verbs "cry" and then "howling" occur frequently in the Old Testament. In the Septuagint, the LXX, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it occurs there to describe the response of the wicked to the day of the Lord when it comes. That's an important association.
For example, in Isaiah 13:6, we read, "Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty." It will come as destruction from who? The All-Powerful One, Almighty. In fact, the second word, "howling," — ‘ololyzo,’ translated, "howling" in our translation, occurs only of violent grief; violent grief. And in the Old Testament, in the septuagint, it always occurs, this word, in reference to God's judgment. So this must mean that the miseries—’talaiporia’ is the Greek word here translated "miseries" in verse 1—talks about—when it talks about the miseries, it's not talking about simply a drop in the stock market. We're talking about the miseries that will come upon the unbelieving wealthy, the wicked wealthy, when the day of judgment comes, and it is coming. It's coming.
Jesus told the wicked rich of His day to expect the same thing. You remember, He said the following in Luke 6:24, "Woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full." Luke 16 comes to mind at this point where Jesus, you remember, told the story of the rich man who lived sumptuously every day, lived in purple, fine linen, extravagantly, had everything he wanted. And then you have Lazarus the beggar laid at his gate full of sores, the dogs licking those sores, desiring to even have a crumb that fell from the table of the rich man. And then death came, and the roles were immediately reversed because one of them was righteous and the other one was wicked, and eternity brought the reality of that to bear.
Jesus said these kinds of things, and when He said these kinds of things, you have to understand, beloved, that it was a shock to the sensibilities of the people around Him in that day. Why? Because in first-century Judaism, they embraced what we refer to as retribution theology. Retribution theology is still around and alive in the church today, unfortunately. It teaches that there's a direct link between your physical circumstances in the world and God's view of you.
So, for example, retribution theology looks around and it says, well, if you see someone who is rich and wealthy and prosperous and who doesn't seem to have many physical problems, then that means that God is pleased with that person, God is honoring that person, that means that person must be righteous, and God is blessing them as a result. On the other hand, retribution theology says if you see someone who is poor and struggling and going through all kinds of physical difficulties, well, that means that they are unrighteous, God is displeased with them, and God is laying His hand heavy upon them because He is really displeased with them. And the two are always tied together in retribution theology.
Now, of course, we know that God blesses people many times, but not always in physical blessings. Not always in physical blessings, with reference to His people. Take Lazarus as an example in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. This mindset, this idea, this retribution theology idea is alive and well, particularly in what we call the health and wealth and prosperity gospel today. Those people who say if you're a Christian, God wants you to drive a certain kind of car, you know, He wants you to have a house here, a house there, a house in Europe, maybe Lake Cuomo. That is absolutely not true. But this is the mindset they had.
You remember when Jesus in Matthew 19:23 said, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." Remember how the disciples responded to that statement? Remember what they said? They said to Him in verse 25 of Matthew 19, well, “then who can be saved?" Do you see how they're thinking? I mean, after all, in their mind, the rich are rich because they are righteous and God has blessed them, and so if they can't be saved, well, what about the rest of us? None of us can. This is the mindset.
Now, this is the context in which James pens this first verse of chapter 5. "Come now, you rich, cry, howling over your miseries which are coming upon you." Your wealth, he tells them, is no indication, absolutely no indication of God's being pleased with you. Mark it down. James announces to the greedy, wealthy, wicked, and he says, you should begin crying. In fact, you should begin wailing. In fact, howling in anticipation of the pain that's going to replace your ease and your pleasure, this bubble of luxury and laughter is going to pop. And what will be left will be affliction, torment, and pain.
All of the words in this strong passage, by the way, are words of judgment. They're words of judgment. It has an Old Testament flavor, the flavour of a Jeremiah, the flavour of a Joel, and God is going to do this. In fact, this is so certain, this is so indisputable that He's going to do this, that God is going to do this, that in the Greek, under inspiration, James uses the perfect tense of verb, which is a completed action. In other words, it's done and dusted, it's signed and sealed, this is going to happen. So you better begin wailing and howling.
And by the way, we need to understand, we need to understand even as we go through this that the Bible—let's mark it down as we begin to consider this passage—the Bible, let's be clear, nowhere, nowhere, let's be crystal clear, nowhere does the Bible condemn wealth. There's no problem inherent in wealth itself. In fact, wherever you find in the Bible wealth acquired by legitimate means—by means like working hard, saving, investing, inheriting—it is identified, in fact, as a gift of God.
Now we don't have time to turn there, but you remember in Deuteronomy 8 when Moses is telling the children of Israel, he's talking to them about the land. He tells them, you're going to go into the land that God is going to give you, and there you are going to inherit houses you did not build and vineyards you did not grow, and you're going to have all of this material prosperity. He says, remember—he says, when that happens, remember that it is God, Yahweh, who actually gave you this wealth. It is God who gives you the power to make wealth. So wealth acquired by legitimate means is a gift from God.
In Scripture we learn that a number of the righteous were wealthy, like Abraham and Job and David and Solomon and Josiah, to name a few. You get to the New Testament and you have Lydia, the first convert in Macedonia, the book of Acts, you have Philemon. And so while the Bible addresses the problems that come with wealth, it nowhere condemns wealth. So let's be clear. And when it does condemn the wealthy—not wealth, the wealthy—when it does condemn the wealthy, it is not for the wealth. It isn't. Instead, it always—it's always because of three things, one of three things or a combination thereof.
When it condemns the wealthy, it condemns them, number one, because of how their wealth was acquired, how they got it—by deceitful, dishonest means, etc., etc. Secondly, by how they use it, by what they do with the wealth that they have. And thirdly, for the attitudes they allow to develop because of their wealth, thinking that somehow they're responsible for all that they have acquired. Look at what my hands have accomplished—you know, the Nebuchadnezzar problem. They take full credit. When the Bible condemns the wealthy, it is for one of those three things or a combination of them: how it was acquired, how it's used, or the sinful attitudes that result from it.
So if it's not for their wealth that James is condemning these people here, what's it for then? What are the sins of these people here in James 5? Well, in the next five verses, we're going to look at them together briefly—tonight and next Lord's Day, Lord willing. James focuses the spotlight on four sins that tend to attach to those who are wealthy apart from God. Four sins.
Number one, sin number one: the sin of uselessly hoarding, the sin of hoarding. The self-focused, self-centered hoarding. Notice verse 2: "Your riches have rotted." That's a sort of general introductory comment—your riches. This will be the judgment. It's in the perfect tense. It's as if it's already happened. Your wealth has rotted away to nothing, he tells them. It's as good as done.
Imagine now, in an agricultural economy, imagine every animal has died, every crop has been locust-eaten, every bit of your farm is totally destroyed. For a monetary economy like ours, it would be like this: you have lost every single asset that you have, the bank balance on every one of your many accounts is what? Zero. Every single thing is gone. You have no assets to sell. You have nothing to mortgage. You have nothing to trade. And then James adds, "and your garments have become moth-eaten." Your garments, ‘himation’ (Greek word), refers to long, loose, flowing outer robes that were so common in the ancient world, in the Middle East. But the wealthy would take those garments and, first of all, they would be made of the finest material. They would be dyed a colour that only the wealthy could afford—something of purple was often used or scarlet. In addition, they would beautifully decorate them and even embroider them.
And so you walk down the street and you literally wore your status. It was that visible. It was that obvious. People knew how rich you were by the clothes that you wore. They were of great value, these garments; they were very expensive—very expensive. So expensive that they actually willed them to their kids as part of the inheritance. The wealthy would take the garments, and because they had a large number of them—so much that they couldn't really wear them all. This demonstrated their wealth and so what they would do is store them in these trunks. But of course, in that hot climate, if somehow a moth got inside that trunk, it would cause—what? Wreak havoc, right? Extensive damage.
And James says that's exactly what's happened: "your garments have become moth-eaten." Open your garment trunk and you'll see a little fluttering of wings, and it's just big gaping holes. You now have the appearance of the beggar that you so despise. And then he adds in verse 3, "your gold and your silver have rusted." Now, of course, gold and silver, as we know them, don't rust. So what does he mean here by that? Well, there are two possibilities. It was true that in the ancient world, there was enough alloy mixed with precious metals in the making of coins that sometimes they could rust. There would be a residue that would come off on your hand, like, you know, like a bad penny. You know, the green stuff that comes on your fingers or on your clothes, and you get that green call. It's possible that's the reference.
But most likely, James is saying this: your money isn't working. It's rusting. It's a figure of speech. And he's saying it's so stockpiled that you never touch it. It's sitting there. You're not doing anything useful with it. It's not doing any use for anyone who is in need. Instead, it's rusting, metaphorically speaking.
John Calvin says the same thing concerning the hoard of wealth that they're having—in fact, depriving others while hoarding for themselves. He says this, commenting on this passage, and I quote, "God has not appointed gold for rust nor garments for moss, but on the contrary, has designed them as aids and helps to human life." And when you and I hoard, when we accumulate more than we need, those things begin to be of no use to us or to anyone else. Well, that's exactly what James is actually attacking these people for.
Now, notice that James gives three compelling reasons that hoarding makes absolutely no sense, and it actually brings God's displeasure. Verse 3, he says, "their corrosion will be a witness against you." In other words, the disuse of your resources—because you're just stockpiling and piling them and piling them and not using them—the disuse of your resources will serve as evidence against you, judgment day. God gave them for you to use.
And secondly, notice the reason he gives that hoarding makes no sense and it brings God's displeasure. He says it “will consume your flesh like fire." In the judgment, their rusty, unused wealth will become part of the reason for their eternal destruction.
And the third one he gives at the end of verse 3, "you have stored up such treasure in the last days." Last days, of course, a reference to the reality that the day of judgment is drawing near. God says to the proud, unbelieving, wealthy man, there's coming a day when you will have nothing. And in fact, the more you have now, the greater will be the loss, and so the greater judgment as well.
But I don't want us to miss this because it doesn't just go to loss. I want us to see that there's a personal punishment here. There's a personal punishment here. Back in verse 1, He says, "cry, howling over your miseries which are coming upon you." And in the middle of verse 3, he says, "their corrosion will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire." Now, follow closely. The corrosive effects of time on your sinful horde will be a judgment against you, and it will then be your turn to rust and corrode. The image is clearly that of hell. It's clearly the lake of fire.
Beloved, if that was true in the first century, how much truer this is today? Commentator Motier writes this, and I quote, "These people lived without watching God's clock. They stored earthly goods as if there was nothing to expect but this life and its needs. They planned to live forever, but on the earth.” Looking at these three verses, and you see why God is so displeased. All the wealth they had, all that God providentially allowed them to gather, all of it, all of it. Watch with me. Look at the text. All of it. What kind of stuff was it? What kind of stuff was it? Clearly, you will see this. Everything was temporal. All of it. Everything was temporal.
Look at the adjectives in verse 2 and the verbs: rotted, moth-eaten, rusted, corrosion. All of it. What is He saying? God is displeased with these people, these wicked wealthy, these rich unrighteous, because what they heaped up, what they hoarded for themselves was all, all of it, all of it, temporary. Temporary.
Under verse 3, "You have stored up such treasure in the last days!" You know what this brought to my mind? "You have stored up such treasure in the last days!" In other words, you are looting the jewelry store on the Titanic. In the last days. In the last days, you're doing this. You see, God's displeasure with the unrighteous rich is that all of the money He gave, all that He gave, He gave it to them, all of it. And by the way, He gave it to them. God is the one Who's the source. Remember, He makes the sun to rise on the good and the evil. But all the money, all the wealth, all the prosperity He gave them was spent on the here and now, all of it.
They're self-absorbed, they're selfish, they're self-indulgent. It's me, I, myself. This life, this body, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life, to use the language of John. And that hoarding habit of theirs, that spending habit of theirs reflect what? Of course, it reflects what? Their hearts, right? Their hearts. Because their hearts and their beliefs and their loves are reflected in how they use and steward the resources that God gives them.
What did Jesus say? "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” Matthew 6:21. You see, a person who only loves what time will consume is abominable to God because that person does not love what God treasures. And that is why Jesus said in Matthew 6 and verse 19, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal (v.19). But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal (v. 20). For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (v.21)."
In verse 24, He says, "No one can serve,” —no one can be a slave to— “two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." But the unrighteous rich invest entirely in what can be corroded, what can be lost, what can be destroyed. I love what Randy Alcorn says in his excellent little book, The Treasure Principle. This is what he says. He says this, "My heart always goes where I put God's money." "My heart always goes where I put God's money."
Watch what happens when you recalibrate and reallocate your money, shifting the priority from the temporal things to eternal things. "My heart always goes where I put God's money."
So where did the unrighteous rich put God's money? They always put it in the here, in the now, in this life, in this earth. And I wonder if God on the judgment day will bring out to them a completely and deeply rusted car that they once owned. I wonder. I wonder if He will bring out the remains of the houses and their cars and their clothes and their gadgets—cracked, ruined, melted. And God will say something like this: That's all where you spent what I gave you on. That's where your treasure was, where your heart was.
But believers are different, aren't we? This world is not our home. "For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the one to come,” Hebrews 13:14. We don't believe the lie that we can take any of this with us. You see, your and my life are just a little dot. Little dot. And those 70, 80, 90 years—however, you get on that dot—extending from that dot is a line that never ends. Eternity. That line is eternity. Your life and mine is a dot. And extending from that dot is a line that never ends. Are you living just inside the dot, or are you living for the line? For eternity. So what we Christians do is that we are the very best investors in the world, because as Christians, we invest in that which brings the greatest returns, most ultimate returns—eternal reward. Glory with God. Because we're thinking of lasting things. Permanent things.
Let me do a little exercise with you by way of application, an exercise that I had to go through myself in preparation so we get this idea of temporal and permanent. Okay? Now we're going to think together. In your mind's eye, picture a blank paper. A blank paper. And if you have a notebook, you might want to do this in front of you. Split it into two columns. In the one column, label it "Temporary" or "Temporal." The other column, well, label it "Permanent." Permanent. Now I'm going to give you a list of things that you can spend your money on, and you just put them in one column in your mind. And you say, oh yeah, that's temporal, or no, no, that would be permanent.
Now before we start the exercise, let me be crystal clear. Okay? I want to be crystal clear. Let me underscore this, lest there be any confusion. I did not say that the two sides, the two columns, are good and evil. I didn't say that. Okay? I didn't say that. I didn't say that the columns are worthwhile and worthless. I didn't say that. And I didn't say one column is important, one column is unimportant. I didn't say that. I said temporal and permanent. Okay? That's really important.
And I want us to be careful with this exercise. It is meant to get us to really examine ourselves, simply. So here we go. Temporal or permanent. So you put it in whatever column you think it should go:
Supporting a missionary who is taking the gospel to the unreached. Temporal or permanent?
A holiday by the beach.
Makeup.
Funding a Bible translation.
A Harley Davidson.
A renovated house.
Supporting a church plant.
Re-establishing a church that is struggling.
Helping a man through seminary.
A new patio furniture set.
A bi-weekly manicure and pedicure.
Supporting your local church ministry.
Buying Christian books for other believers.
A second holiday home.
The latest tablet or smartphone.
Supporting the persecuted church.
Giving to a Christian crisis pregnancy or adoption ministry.
Earrings.
Funding an evangelism resource.
Aiding destitute Christian widows.
Teeth whitening treatment.
I can go on. You get the idea. Now please again, listen carefully. Again, I didn't say, once you get it in one column, everything in that column is useless. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. Now, some of them probably may be useless, but not all of them are. I didn't say that everything you put in the temporal category is non-essential and you never need to spend it. Or you're less spiritual if you spend it on something temporal. I didn't say that. I didn't say that.
I said which is permanent and which is temporary? And then now ask yourself, as a proportion of what you spend, is there a proportion in your life that is noticeable that you invest in the eternal? I'm not asking for a percentage. I'm not looking for—that's not the issue. The issue is to really get us to wrestle before God and self-examine this area in our lives because the Gospel, beloved, must have bearings on every single area of my life, including this one.
And beloved, listen, I'm just like you. All of us are cut from the same cloth. We live in the same world. More than half of the budget has to go on meeting temporal needs. That's a reality. But here's the point: this is calling us to re-evaluate and re-examine this area of our lives. Maybe it's been a while since you've done that, and life gets busy and complicated, and you don't pause and re-evaluate the temporal, the permanent, and my giving and how I'm stewarding the God's gift that He's given me.
It's an exhortation, beloved, to make a deliberate decision to store up our treasures in Heaven, to be deliberate as an individual, as a family, to invest a proportion of our income, our resources in that which is permanent. Think about the goodness of God. Count up all the blessings of God and all that He's given you, beloved. Count your whole life and all the blessings—money, resources, all of that—that He's given you, and it's going to be a staggering number. If you were to count from the time that you became a Christian up until—count it all the way until He takes you to glory.
Now, think of all that you've spent on what is essential. Think of all that you spent on what was not essential but still important. Here's what you spent on what was not important but justifiable. Here's what you spent on what was rather inordinate, and here's what you just completely wasted and squandered. Then think of what percentage of all that God gave you, you invested in that which was eternal. And if that number shrinks by percentage like a digital, just shrinking and shrinking and shrinking until it's a fraction of a percent—how would you feel?
I believe your head will hang, and so will mine if that's me. That will be evidence, clear evidence in numbers, in concrete numbers, will be a statement of what I loved, what I believed in, and what I valued. I don't want that, beloved, and I know you don't want that either. Let us resolve by the grace of God to distance ourselves from the unrighteous, greedy rich who live only for the temporal, for the here and now—those described by James. We need to distance ourselves from the wicked wealthy by investing in that which will survive the coming judgment.
Hebrews 12 says that there's coming a day when God is going to shake everything, and only that which remains after the shaking is what counts—Hebrews 12:26 and 27. So the question is, beloved, are you investing in what can't be shaken? Are we investing in what can't be shaken? The unrighteous rich don't, and James says God will judge them. When our Lord said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth," what He was prohibiting was an attitude which is concerned and preoccupied with treasuring up that which is limited to this life, the here and now, and which can be taken from us in the moment of our death.
That concern with that preoccupation with the things of the earth and this life. Let me encourage us this evening to do something serious, soul-searching. Are you selfishly hoarding what God has given you? Do you just keep stacking it up and accumulating it? Did you tell yourself early on that once you had a certain amount, then you'd be more generous with people and their needs? You'd be more generous with kingdom work, and you've just continued to hold on to it and accumulate it year after year after year.
Are you selfishly spending all that God has given you only on your personal comfort and pleasure in an inordinate way? Well, if I had more, you know, then I'd support the kingdom work. Are you sinfully craving the wealth that God hasn't given you, or are you instead of those things storing up for yourselves treasures in Heaven? And to any unsaved person here in this place, this text says that everything you seek in life until you've sought the pearl of great price, the Lord Jesus Christ, will one day crumble in your very hands.
What is of value to you today? What are you giving your life to? That's how you could tell what you place value upon. Whatever you're giving your life to, whatever you're spending your energies for, that's what's of value to you. Now, what's of value to you? What is it? What is it? Are you thinking about it right now? All right, then let me ask you this— what's going to happen to that treasure that you're accumulating when you die? Where will your treasure be? Will your treasure meet you there?
My dear unsaved friend, the message is clear: do not store up treasure here on earth, but store up treasure in Heaven, and you begin by seeking the greatest treasure of all, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's likened in Matthew 13 to "a treasure hidden in the field.” When a man finds it, he sells everything that he has that he might have that treasure. And when the Holy Spirit reveals the Lord Jesus Christ to you in all His grace, you will give up the world, and you will consider it unworthy of your allegiance and devotion. You will count all of your so-called profits as dung, as nothing, rubbish.
Let's pray.
Father, thank You for Your Word. Oh, Lord, thank You for Your Word. Use it in our hearts, in our lives. Confront us, Lord, we pray. We live in a material world, and we're all being squeezed by it. We're influenced by it. God, help us to do some honest soul-searching, and help us be wise.
You've told us that we're to work hard, we're to invest, we're to save, we're to support our family. We're even able to use some of what You've provided for our enjoyment. You've given us all things to enjoy. But, Father, give us wisdom in each of our hearts to know where the line is, each and every one of us before You. And may we be wise, may we be obedient with what You have given us. May we be obedient with what You have given us, to be good, faithful stewards.
Thank You, Father, for how Your Word cuts across our lives and confronts our souls. Use Your truth, we pray, and may our attitude towards what You have given us be that of our Lord, in Whose name we ask and we pray, Amen.
So turn with me once again to Psalm 73 by way of introduction. Of course, Psalm 73 is the first psalm in the third book of the Psalter. And most of these psalms in this section are written by this man that we're familiar with, Asaph. He's a songwriter connected to the temple and the worship of the temple. He explains to us in verse 3 of Psalm 73 that he had a sin problem. What was the problem? "For I was envious of the boastful. I saw the peace of the wicked." That's his sin problem.
And here are the super rich of his day as he's describing them. And he says, here's what I saw. Here's what I saw. Verse 4, "there are no pains in their death." They don't seem to die like the rest of us. “And their body is fat." In other words, they have more than enough. They gorge themselves. They eat beyond what they're supposed to, to the extent of gluttonous. They gorge themselves. And he goes on to say they're constantly indulging themselves. And “they are not in trouble as other men." They don't have the same problems the rest of us seem to have. "They are not plagued like the rest of mankind." And it was really eating him up.
Verse 6, "Therefore lofty pride is their necklace; The garment of violence covers them." So they are exalted in their pride and their arrogance. They take whatever steps they think necessary to gain advantage. Verse 7, "Their eye bulges from fatness; The delusions of their heart overflow." They think also that they could do whatever they want, whatever they choose to do, whether it's within the confines of the law or not. It doesn't matter. They want their way no matter what, right?
Verse 8, "They scoff and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high." "They have set their mouth against the heavens." In other words, they even talk—they dare talk—even against Almighty God, against Yahweh, the God of heaven and earth. "And their tongue goes through the earth." That's a picturesque expression if you're trying to imagine it. It goes on to say in verse 11, "They say, 'How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?'" "Behold, these are the wicked; And always at ease, they have increased in wealth." Rather than all of that getting them in trouble and trial and difficulty, they've actually grown in their wealth even as they flaunt all of these sinful lifestyles and patterns. God, it's not fair. Throughout the Old Testament, the same issue recurs over and over again, as the writers identify the wicked wealthy—the rich unrighteous, the rich ungodly—who live just as Asaph describes here.
Now when you come to the New Testament, the same thing is addressed. The same issue is addressed as well. Perhaps nowhere more like the Old Testament prophet than in James 5, this issue is addressed. Here, our text, the first six verses of this fifth chapter, James addresses the same issue: the prosperous, wealthy wicked. Now just to remind us, James has been talking to us about pride and humility, and he tells us that pride really marks the unbelieving one. Pride really characterizes unbelievers. If you're not in the faith, that's the beating heart of your life—resisting God. Resisting God.
Humility characterizes believers—submission, desiring God to be your God, yielding to Him wholeheartedly. The bent of your heart is one of submission and yieldedness. What would You have me do, Lord? I'm ready, I'm prepared. And as we've been seeing for the past few weeks in James, he's already shown us the difference between humble judging and proud judging. We saw the difference between humble planning and proud planning, and now James turns his focus to that which dominates so much about life: money, wealth, spending.
And he's going to say to us, there's a humble kind of handling money and wealth, and there's a proud kind of handling money and wealth. There's a kind of humble spending, and there's a proud, arrogant spending. Of course, his focus here really is on the proud, and in particular, he's talking to the wicked wealthy. He's addressing the unrighteous rich.
Now, what you need to know is there are a few commentators who believe that James is addressing here sinning Christians, that they say that these are wealthy Christians who have allowed their wealth to get the better of them. But I really believe that that conclusion is absolutely unwarranted from the text. These are wealthy, I believe, unbelieving landowners of large estates, which were so typical in the first century. And let me share a few reasons why that is the case.
For example, in this passage that was read in your hearing, there is no exhortation whatsoever. There's no call to repentance, no exhortation, no call to repentance, as there was in the previous paragraph when he was talking about the Christian entrepreneur, the one who was planning without referring to God's sovereignty and His providence. There's no call for repentance here, no expectation of salvation. There's only here, judgment.
But I think the strongest argument for these being unconverted wealthy wicked, is the transition that occurs in verse 7. But let's back up and look at verse 6. Look at what he says, "You have condemned and murdered the righteous…" which is really in contradistinction to who you really are, right? But look at this. Look also at the transition, notice the beginning of verse 7, "Therefore, be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord." You who are oppressed by those wicked wealthy, hang in there. Be patient. Trust God. Don't lose heart. Don't be like Asaph in the first portion of his song.
So he's going to tell them that judgment is coming on these wicked people that he's just described. And so, beloved, it seems pretty clear from the context, from the text, when you look at the transition as well, that the first six verses are really addressed to unbelievers. Now the question is, why? Why would James do that? If he's speaking primarily to and about unbelievers, why would he include it in a letter that is addressed to the church, to Christians? What are his reasons for including this paragraph?
Well, here are a couple of thoughts that you may want to consider. First of all, I think it was targeted at the wealthy unbelieving rich in hopes that they would either hear about it or read it and be confronted with their sin. He addresses them directly, "Come now, you rich." I think there's some hope and expectation on James' part that they might hear about this letter he's written and they might hear it read and be exposed to the truth and be confronted with their sinfulness. And hopefully, that would really get them to come all the way to Christ as a result, to faith in Christ.
A second possible reason for including this paragraph in his letter to believers is to help us as believers understand God's perspective about the ungodly rich in our world. Because like Asaph, we can easily be tempted to envy the prosperity of the wicked and to think like Asaph, I've washed my hands in innocence all day long and I've got nothing for it. But I think thirdly and probably most importantly, James includes this section addressed to unbelievers so that we can listen in as well, you and I. We can listen in and be guarded as believers. Make sure that our hearts are insulated. Be guarded as believers from the madness of materialism.
I think he wants us to see materialism out of control, run amok, gone to its furthest extreme and in so doing, to make sure that we guard our hearts as believers. So James begins his condemnation in verse 1 with — watch it, look at it — with a pronouncement of God's judgment, God's coming judgment, we read, "Come now, you rich, cry, howling over your miseries which are coming upon you." The Greek verbs "cry" and then "howling" occur frequently in the Old Testament. In the Septuagint, the LXX, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it occurs there to describe the response of the wicked to the day of the Lord when it comes. That's an important association.
For example, in Isaiah 13:6, we read, "Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty." It will come as destruction from who? The All-Powerful One, Almighty. In fact, the second word, "howling," — ‘ololyzo,’ translated, "howling" in our translation, occurs only of violent grief; violent grief. And in the Old Testament, in the septuagint, it always occurs, this word, in reference to God's judgment. So this must mean that the miseries—’talaiporia’ is the Greek word here translated "miseries" in verse 1—talks about—when it talks about the miseries, it's not talking about simply a drop in the stock market. We're talking about the miseries that will come upon the unbelieving wealthy, the wicked wealthy, when the day of judgment comes, and it is coming. It's coming.
Jesus told the wicked rich of His day to expect the same thing. You remember, He said the following in Luke 6:24, "Woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full." Luke 16 comes to mind at this point where Jesus, you remember, told the story of the rich man who lived sumptuously every day, lived in purple, fine linen, extravagantly, had everything he wanted. And then you have Lazarus the beggar laid at his gate full of sores, the dogs licking those sores, desiring to even have a crumb that fell from the table of the rich man. And then death came, and the roles were immediately reversed because one of them was righteous and the other one was wicked, and eternity brought the reality of that to bear.
Jesus said these kinds of things, and when He said these kinds of things, you have to understand, beloved, that it was a shock to the sensibilities of the people around Him in that day. Why? Because in first-century Judaism, they embraced what we refer to as retribution theology. Retribution theology is still around and alive in the church today, unfortunately. It teaches that there's a direct link between your physical circumstances in the world and God's view of you.
So, for example, retribution theology looks around and it says, well, if you see someone who is rich and wealthy and prosperous and who doesn't seem to have many physical problems, then that means that God is pleased with that person, God is honoring that person, that means that person must be righteous, and God is blessing them as a result. On the other hand, retribution theology says if you see someone who is poor and struggling and going through all kinds of physical difficulties, well, that means that they are unrighteous, God is displeased with them, and God is laying His hand heavy upon them because He is really displeased with them. And the two are always tied together in retribution theology.
Now, of course, we know that God blesses people many times, but not always in physical blessings. Not always in physical blessings, with reference to His people. Take Lazarus as an example in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. This mindset, this idea, this retribution theology idea is alive and well, particularly in what we call the health and wealth and prosperity gospel today. Those people who say if you're a Christian, God wants you to drive a certain kind of car, you know, He wants you to have a house here, a house there, a house in Europe, maybe Lake Cuomo. That is absolutely not true. But this is the mindset they had.
You remember when Jesus in Matthew 19:23 said, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." Remember how the disciples responded to that statement? Remember what they said? They said to Him in verse 25 of Matthew 19, well, “then who can be saved?" Do you see how they're thinking? I mean, after all, in their mind, the rich are rich because they are righteous and God has blessed them, and so if they can't be saved, well, what about the rest of us? None of us can. This is the mindset.
Now, this is the context in which James pens this first verse of chapter 5. "Come now, you rich, cry, howling over your miseries which are coming upon you." Your wealth, he tells them, is no indication, absolutely no indication of God's being pleased with you. Mark it down. James announces to the greedy, wealthy, wicked, and he says, you should begin crying. In fact, you should begin wailing. In fact, howling in anticipation of the pain that's going to replace your ease and your pleasure, this bubble of luxury and laughter is going to pop. And what will be left will be affliction, torment, and pain.
All of the words in this strong passage, by the way, are words of judgment. They're words of judgment. It has an Old Testament flavor, the flavour of a Jeremiah, the flavour of a Joel, and God is going to do this. In fact, this is so certain, this is so indisputable that He's going to do this, that God is going to do this, that in the Greek, under inspiration, James uses the perfect tense of verb, which is a completed action. In other words, it's done and dusted, it's signed and sealed, this is going to happen. So you better begin wailing and howling.
And by the way, we need to understand, we need to understand even as we go through this that the Bible—let's mark it down as we begin to consider this passage—the Bible, let's be clear, nowhere, nowhere, let's be crystal clear, nowhere does the Bible condemn wealth. There's no problem inherent in wealth itself. In fact, wherever you find in the Bible wealth acquired by legitimate means—by means like working hard, saving, investing, inheriting—it is identified, in fact, as a gift of God.
Now we don't have time to turn there, but you remember in Deuteronomy 8 when Moses is telling the children of Israel, he's talking to them about the land. He tells them, you're going to go into the land that God is going to give you, and there you are going to inherit houses you did not build and vineyards you did not grow, and you're going to have all of this material prosperity. He says, remember—he says, when that happens, remember that it is God, Yahweh, who actually gave you this wealth. It is God who gives you the power to make wealth. So wealth acquired by legitimate means is a gift from God.
In Scripture we learn that a number of the righteous were wealthy, like Abraham and Job and David and Solomon and Josiah, to name a few. You get to the New Testament and you have Lydia, the first convert in Macedonia, the book of Acts, you have Philemon. And so while the Bible addresses the problems that come with wealth, it nowhere condemns wealth. So let's be clear. And when it does condemn the wealthy—not wealth, the wealthy—when it does condemn the wealthy, it is not for the wealth. It isn't. Instead, it always—it's always because of three things, one of three things or a combination thereof.
When it condemns the wealthy, it condemns them, number one, because of how their wealth was acquired, how they got it—by deceitful, dishonest means, etc., etc. Secondly, by how they use it, by what they do with the wealth that they have. And thirdly, for the attitudes they allow to develop because of their wealth, thinking that somehow they're responsible for all that they have acquired. Look at what my hands have accomplished—you know, the Nebuchadnezzar problem. They take full credit. When the Bible condemns the wealthy, it is for one of those three things or a combination of them: how it was acquired, how it's used, or the sinful attitudes that result from it.
So if it's not for their wealth that James is condemning these people here, what's it for then? What are the sins of these people here in James 5? Well, in the next five verses, we're going to look at them together briefly—tonight and next Lord's Day, Lord willing. James focuses the spotlight on four sins that tend to attach to those who are wealthy apart from God. Four sins.
Number one, sin number one: the sin of uselessly hoarding, the sin of hoarding. The self-focused, self-centered hoarding. Notice verse 2: "Your riches have rotted." That's a sort of general introductory comment—your riches. This will be the judgment. It's in the perfect tense. It's as if it's already happened. Your wealth has rotted away to nothing, he tells them. It's as good as done.
Imagine now, in an agricultural economy, imagine every animal has died, every crop has been locust-eaten, every bit of your farm is totally destroyed. For a monetary economy like ours, it would be like this: you have lost every single asset that you have, the bank balance on every one of your many accounts is what? Zero. Every single thing is gone. You have no assets to sell. You have nothing to mortgage. You have nothing to trade. And then James adds, "and your garments have become moth-eaten." Your garments, ‘himation’ (Greek word), refers to long, loose, flowing outer robes that were so common in the ancient world, in the Middle East. But the wealthy would take those garments and, first of all, they would be made of the finest material. They would be dyed a colour that only the wealthy could afford—something of purple was often used or scarlet. In addition, they would beautifully decorate them and even embroider them.
And so you walk down the street and you literally wore your status. It was that visible. It was that obvious. People knew how rich you were by the clothes that you wore. They were of great value, these garments; they were very expensive—very expensive. So expensive that they actually willed them to their kids as part of the inheritance. The wealthy would take the garments, and because they had a large number of them—so much that they couldn't really wear them all. This demonstrated their wealth and so what they would do is store them in these trunks. But of course, in that hot climate, if somehow a moth got inside that trunk, it would cause—what? Wreak havoc, right? Extensive damage.
And James says that's exactly what's happened: "your garments have become moth-eaten." Open your garment trunk and you'll see a little fluttering of wings, and it's just big gaping holes. You now have the appearance of the beggar that you so despise. And then he adds in verse 3, "your gold and your silver have rusted." Now, of course, gold and silver, as we know them, don't rust. So what does he mean here by that? Well, there are two possibilities. It was true that in the ancient world, there was enough alloy mixed with precious metals in the making of coins that sometimes they could rust. There would be a residue that would come off on your hand, like, you know, like a bad penny. You know, the green stuff that comes on your fingers or on your clothes, and you get that green call. It's possible that's the reference.
But most likely, James is saying this: your money isn't working. It's rusting. It's a figure of speech. And he's saying it's so stockpiled that you never touch it. It's sitting there. You're not doing anything useful with it. It's not doing any use for anyone who is in need. Instead, it's rusting, metaphorically speaking.
John Calvin says the same thing concerning the hoard of wealth that they're having—in fact, depriving others while hoarding for themselves. He says this, commenting on this passage, and I quote, "God has not appointed gold for rust nor garments for moss, but on the contrary, has designed them as aids and helps to human life." And when you and I hoard, when we accumulate more than we need, those things begin to be of no use to us or to anyone else. Well, that's exactly what James is actually attacking these people for.
Now, notice that James gives three compelling reasons that hoarding makes absolutely no sense, and it actually brings God's displeasure. Verse 3, he says, "their corrosion will be a witness against you." In other words, the disuse of your resources—because you're just stockpiling and piling them and piling them and not using them—the disuse of your resources will serve as evidence against you, judgment day. God gave them for you to use.
And secondly, notice the reason he gives that hoarding makes no sense and it brings God's displeasure. He says it “will consume your flesh like fire." In the judgment, their rusty, unused wealth will become part of the reason for their eternal destruction.
And the third one he gives at the end of verse 3, "you have stored up such treasure in the last days." Last days, of course, a reference to the reality that the day of judgment is drawing near. God says to the proud, unbelieving, wealthy man, there's coming a day when you will have nothing. And in fact, the more you have now, the greater will be the loss, and so the greater judgment as well.
But I don't want us to miss this because it doesn't just go to loss. I want us to see that there's a personal punishment here. There's a personal punishment here. Back in verse 1, He says, "cry, howling over your miseries which are coming upon you." And in the middle of verse 3, he says, "their corrosion will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire." Now, follow closely. The corrosive effects of time on your sinful horde will be a judgment against you, and it will then be your turn to rust and corrode. The image is clearly that of hell. It's clearly the lake of fire.
Beloved, if that was true in the first century, how much truer this is today? Commentator Motier writes this, and I quote, "These people lived without watching God's clock. They stored earthly goods as if there was nothing to expect but this life and its needs. They planned to live forever, but on the earth.” Looking at these three verses, and you see why God is so displeased. All the wealth they had, all that God providentially allowed them to gather, all of it, all of it. Watch with me. Look at the text. All of it. What kind of stuff was it? What kind of stuff was it? Clearly, you will see this. Everything was temporal. All of it. Everything was temporal.
Look at the adjectives in verse 2 and the verbs: rotted, moth-eaten, rusted, corrosion. All of it. What is He saying? God is displeased with these people, these wicked wealthy, these rich unrighteous, because what they heaped up, what they hoarded for themselves was all, all of it, all of it, temporary. Temporary.
Under verse 3, "You have stored up such treasure in the last days!" You know what this brought to my mind? "You have stored up such treasure in the last days!" In other words, you are looting the jewelry store on the Titanic. In the last days. In the last days, you're doing this. You see, God's displeasure with the unrighteous rich is that all of the money He gave, all that He gave, He gave it to them, all of it. And by the way, He gave it to them. God is the one Who's the source. Remember, He makes the sun to rise on the good and the evil. But all the money, all the wealth, all the prosperity He gave them was spent on the here and now, all of it.
They're self-absorbed, they're selfish, they're self-indulgent. It's me, I, myself. This life, this body, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life, to use the language of John. And that hoarding habit of theirs, that spending habit of theirs reflect what? Of course, it reflects what? Their hearts, right? Their hearts. Because their hearts and their beliefs and their loves are reflected in how they use and steward the resources that God gives them.
What did Jesus say? "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” Matthew 6:21. You see, a person who only loves what time will consume is abominable to God because that person does not love what God treasures. And that is why Jesus said in Matthew 6 and verse 19, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal (v.19). But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal (v. 20). For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (v.21)."
In verse 24, He says, "No one can serve,” —no one can be a slave to— “two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." But the unrighteous rich invest entirely in what can be corroded, what can be lost, what can be destroyed. I love what Randy Alcorn says in his excellent little book, The Treasure Principle. This is what he says. He says this, "My heart always goes where I put God's money." "My heart always goes where I put God's money."
Watch what happens when you recalibrate and reallocate your money, shifting the priority from the temporal things to eternal things. "My heart always goes where I put God's money."
So where did the unrighteous rich put God's money? They always put it in the here, in the now, in this life, in this earth. And I wonder if God on the judgment day will bring out to them a completely and deeply rusted car that they once owned. I wonder. I wonder if He will bring out the remains of the houses and their cars and their clothes and their gadgets—cracked, ruined, melted. And God will say something like this: That's all where you spent what I gave you on. That's where your treasure was, where your heart was.
But believers are different, aren't we? This world is not our home. "For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the one to come,” Hebrews 13:14. We don't believe the lie that we can take any of this with us. You see, your and my life are just a little dot. Little dot. And those 70, 80, 90 years—however, you get on that dot—extending from that dot is a line that never ends. Eternity. That line is eternity. Your life and mine is a dot. And extending from that dot is a line that never ends. Are you living just inside the dot, or are you living for the line? For eternity. So what we Christians do is that we are the very best investors in the world, because as Christians, we invest in that which brings the greatest returns, most ultimate returns—eternal reward. Glory with God. Because we're thinking of lasting things. Permanent things.
Let me do a little exercise with you by way of application, an exercise that I had to go through myself in preparation so we get this idea of temporal and permanent. Okay? Now we're going to think together. In your mind's eye, picture a blank paper. A blank paper. And if you have a notebook, you might want to do this in front of you. Split it into two columns. In the one column, label it "Temporary" or "Temporal." The other column, well, label it "Permanent." Permanent. Now I'm going to give you a list of things that you can spend your money on, and you just put them in one column in your mind. And you say, oh yeah, that's temporal, or no, no, that would be permanent.
Now before we start the exercise, let me be crystal clear. Okay? I want to be crystal clear. Let me underscore this, lest there be any confusion. I did not say that the two sides, the two columns, are good and evil. I didn't say that. Okay? I didn't say that. I didn't say that the columns are worthwhile and worthless. I didn't say that. And I didn't say one column is important, one column is unimportant. I didn't say that. I said temporal and permanent. Okay? That's really important.
And I want us to be careful with this exercise. It is meant to get us to really examine ourselves, simply. So here we go. Temporal or permanent. So you put it in whatever column you think it should go:
Supporting a missionary who is taking the gospel to the unreached. Temporal or permanent?
A holiday by the beach.
Makeup.
Funding a Bible translation.
A Harley Davidson.
A renovated house.
Supporting a church plant.
Re-establishing a church that is struggling.
Helping a man through seminary.
A new patio furniture set.
A bi-weekly manicure and pedicure.
Supporting your local church ministry.
Buying Christian books for other believers.
A second holiday home.
The latest tablet or smartphone.
Supporting the persecuted church.
Giving to a Christian crisis pregnancy or adoption ministry.
Earrings.
Funding an evangelism resource.
Aiding destitute Christian widows.
Teeth whitening treatment.
I can go on. You get the idea. Now please again, listen carefully. Again, I didn't say, once you get it in one column, everything in that column is useless. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. Now, some of them probably may be useless, but not all of them are. I didn't say that everything you put in the temporal category is non-essential and you never need to spend it. Or you're less spiritual if you spend it on something temporal. I didn't say that. I didn't say that.
I said which is permanent and which is temporary? And then now ask yourself, as a proportion of what you spend, is there a proportion in your life that is noticeable that you invest in the eternal? I'm not asking for a percentage. I'm not looking for—that's not the issue. The issue is to really get us to wrestle before God and self-examine this area in our lives because the Gospel, beloved, must have bearings on every single area of my life, including this one.
And beloved, listen, I'm just like you. All of us are cut from the same cloth. We live in the same world. More than half of the budget has to go on meeting temporal needs. That's a reality. But here's the point: this is calling us to re-evaluate and re-examine this area of our lives. Maybe it's been a while since you've done that, and life gets busy and complicated, and you don't pause and re-evaluate the temporal, the permanent, and my giving and how I'm stewarding the God's gift that He's given me.
It's an exhortation, beloved, to make a deliberate decision to store up our treasures in Heaven, to be deliberate as an individual, as a family, to invest a proportion of our income, our resources in that which is permanent. Think about the goodness of God. Count up all the blessings of God and all that He's given you, beloved. Count your whole life and all the blessings—money, resources, all of that—that He's given you, and it's going to be a staggering number. If you were to count from the time that you became a Christian up until—count it all the way until He takes you to glory.
Now, think of all that you've spent on what is essential. Think of all that you spent on what was not essential but still important. Here's what you spent on what was not important but justifiable. Here's what you spent on what was rather inordinate, and here's what you just completely wasted and squandered. Then think of what percentage of all that God gave you, you invested in that which was eternal. And if that number shrinks by percentage like a digital, just shrinking and shrinking and shrinking until it's a fraction of a percent—how would you feel?
I believe your head will hang, and so will mine if that's me. That will be evidence, clear evidence in numbers, in concrete numbers, will be a statement of what I loved, what I believed in, and what I valued. I don't want that, beloved, and I know you don't want that either. Let us resolve by the grace of God to distance ourselves from the unrighteous, greedy rich who live only for the temporal, for the here and now—those described by James. We need to distance ourselves from the wicked wealthy by investing in that which will survive the coming judgment.
Hebrews 12 says that there's coming a day when God is going to shake everything, and only that which remains after the shaking is what counts—Hebrews 12:26 and 27. So the question is, beloved, are you investing in what can't be shaken? Are we investing in what can't be shaken? The unrighteous rich don't, and James says God will judge them. When our Lord said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth," what He was prohibiting was an attitude which is concerned and preoccupied with treasuring up that which is limited to this life, the here and now, and which can be taken from us in the moment of our death.
That concern with that preoccupation with the things of the earth and this life. Let me encourage us this evening to do something serious, soul-searching. Are you selfishly hoarding what God has given you? Do you just keep stacking it up and accumulating it? Did you tell yourself early on that once you had a certain amount, then you'd be more generous with people and their needs? You'd be more generous with kingdom work, and you've just continued to hold on to it and accumulate it year after year after year.
Are you selfishly spending all that God has given you only on your personal comfort and pleasure in an inordinate way? Well, if I had more, you know, then I'd support the kingdom work. Are you sinfully craving the wealth that God hasn't given you, or are you instead of those things storing up for yourselves treasures in Heaven? And to any unsaved person here in this place, this text says that everything you seek in life until you've sought the pearl of great price, the Lord Jesus Christ, will one day crumble in your very hands.
What is of value to you today? What are you giving your life to? That's how you could tell what you place value upon. Whatever you're giving your life to, whatever you're spending your energies for, that's what's of value to you. Now, what's of value to you? What is it? What is it? Are you thinking about it right now? All right, then let me ask you this— what's going to happen to that treasure that you're accumulating when you die? Where will your treasure be? Will your treasure meet you there?
My dear unsaved friend, the message is clear: do not store up treasure here on earth, but store up treasure in Heaven, and you begin by seeking the greatest treasure of all, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's likened in Matthew 13 to "a treasure hidden in the field.” When a man finds it, he sells everything that he has that he might have that treasure. And when the Holy Spirit reveals the Lord Jesus Christ to you in all His grace, you will give up the world, and you will consider it unworthy of your allegiance and devotion. You will count all of your so-called profits as dung, as nothing, rubbish.
Let's pray.
Father, thank You for Your Word. Oh, Lord, thank You for Your Word. Use it in our hearts, in our lives. Confront us, Lord, we pray. We live in a material world, and we're all being squeezed by it. We're influenced by it. God, help us to do some honest soul-searching, and help us be wise.
You've told us that we're to work hard, we're to invest, we're to save, we're to support our family. We're even able to use some of what You've provided for our enjoyment. You've given us all things to enjoy. But, Father, give us wisdom in each of our hearts to know where the line is, each and every one of us before You. And may we be wise, may we be obedient with what You have given us. May we be obedient with what You have given us, to be good, faithful stewards.
Thank You, Father, for how Your Word cuts across our lives and confronts our souls. Use Your truth, we pray, and may our attitude towards what You have given us be that of our Lord, in Whose name we ask and we pray, Amen.
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