When Money Means Misery
James 5:1-6
Most all of us here are old enough to remember Johnny Carson. He said a lot of interesting things. One of the things he said that I have thought a lot about is, "The only thing money can give you is the freedom to not worry about money." Think about that. He's talking about money and what money can and what money cannot do for you.
Experts say that on average, we spend about 50% of our time thinking about money. We're thinking about how to make money, thinking about how to spend money, thinking about how to keep money, thinking about how to save money. We do spend a great deal of our time thinking about the subject of money.
I think that is one of the reasons why the Bible has a great deal to say about the subject of money. You can read your Bible and from the beginning to end you will discover that the Bible has a great deal to say about the importance of money, the place of money, the use of money and the misuse of money.
In fact, Jesus had a great deal to say about money. I think about half of the parables that the Lord Jesus told revolved around the subject of money. We are told that one time Jesus went into the Temple and was sitting in the treasury and He was looking at how people were putting their money into the treasury because Jesus understands how very important money really is.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that money is evil. Sometimes people misquote I Timothy 6, verse 10. They misquote it by saying that money is the root of all evil. That's not what it says. It doesn't say that money is the root of all evil. It says that the love of money is the root of all evil. There is nothing wrong in and of money itself.
There's nothing wrong with having money. When you read this opening verse and it says, "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you," that is not a blanket condemnation of money or of people who have money.
In fact some of the great saints of the Bible were people who had a great deal of money. Take Abraham, the father of the faithful. We're told in the Old Testament, Genesis 13, verse 2, that Abraham was very rich. He was a rich man, and yet he was a great man of God.
In the New Testament we are told about a man who came and requested the body of Jesus and buried the body of our Lord in his own tomb. In Matthew 27, verse 57, it says, "There came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph."
This is no blanket condemnation of the rich. Sometimes some of the godliest and most committed and most dedicated people in the world are people who have a great deal of money. Yet, here is a passage of scripture which warns about a particular misuse of money. He is talking about people who let money become the controlling principle in their life.
James 5:1-6
What he's dealing with in this passage of scripture is the matter of those who let material things become the controlling principle in their life, become the number one thing in their life. He is talking about when they let money get out of proportion in their life.
Of course, you say, "Tonight the message is not for me. I'm not a rich person." Yet, I would say to you that most people who are in the world would consider you to be rich.
I want to ask a question tonight. How many of you have a car? Raise your hand. How many of you have at least two changes of clothes? Lift your hands? How many of you if you wanted to could eat at least three meals today? Then raise your hands. How many of you are able to eat out at least at McDonalds one time a week? Raise your hand. Did you know that you would be considered by most of the people in this world as a rich person?
It is all relative when we talk about this whole matter of money and riches and those kinds of areas. But he's talking about people who let money get out of proportion in their lives, people who make it the goal of their life to get money and who live only for the accumulation of money, and he says to them, "You are headed for the miseries."
He says in verse 1, "Weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you." We know that animals howl. People don't howl. I've heard a few soloists who come close! I'm not talking about any of our soloists, of course.
But he's saying that you are headed for some miseries.
Let's talk a little bit about when your money means misery. There is first of all in these verses of scripture the misery of
I. Idle Wealth.
That's what he talks about in verses two and three. He talks about the misery of idle wealth.
You will notice in the last part of verse 3, "You have heaped up treasure for the last days." Heaping up treasure. He's talking about the hoarding up of treasure, the heaping up of treasure. He is talking about accumulating and putting it to no good use.
The Bible does not teach that it is wrong to lay up money. In fact, there are several scenarios laid forth in scripture where we are taught to lay up money. Second Corinthians 12, verse 14, says, "For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children." So there is nothing wrong with parents laying up for their children and preparing an inheritance for their children.
Then the Bible tells us that it is not wrong to lay up money for God's work in His house. In I Corinthians 16, verse 2, it says, "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." It is not wrong to lay up money to give to the work of the Lord.
Then the Lord Jesus in Matthew 6, verse 20 said, "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal."
There is nothing wrong with laying up money, but he is not talking about laying up money here. He is talking about heaping up money. He is talking about hoarding money. He is warning of the misery of idle money.
It is a picture here of some unused treasure. It is the picture of money that could be used for beneficial purposes that could be used to help somewhere else, and yet it's not doing any of that. It's just unused treasure.
Most churches are full of unused treasure. Not just money, but I wonder if there is some unused talent that you have hoarded up and you're not using that talent for the Lord Jesus Christ. Is there an unused witness? You know the story of Jesus. You know how people can be saved and yet you have hoarded up that treasure of the good news of the gospel. The Bible warns about the miseries of idle, unused treasure.
I visited at lunch this week with some of our younger pastors, and my heart just broke for them. One said, “I unlocked the church, taught a Sunday School class, gave the announcements, lead the music, sang the solo, preached the message, turned out the lights and locked up. Eighty other people in the church, but I can’t get any of them to do anything.”
One by one they shared with me about the apathy and indifference in their churches. It’s true here as well, even though we have a very active and engaged congregation, I know there are a lot of folks have a lot to offer, but it is unused treasure.
I want you to notice what he says in verses 2 and following.
To the Jewish people there were three sources of wealth. There was grain. If you had an abundance of grain, then you were considered wealthy. There were garments. If you had a lot of clothing or apparel, then you were considered wealthy. Then there was, of course, gold and silver. If you had an accumulation of that, then you were considered to be very wealthy.
Notice what James says. He is talking about this wealth that has been hoarded up, that is idle. He goes out into the field in verse 2, and he finds that the grain is corrupted. It is rotten. It is not fit to eat.
Then he goes into his closet and he looks at his garments and his garments have been moth eaten and they are not fit to wear.
Then he looks at his deposit box at his gold and his silver, and it is cankered and it is not fit to use. It cannot be used. He is warning here of the miseries of idle money.
He says in this verse of scripture that one of these days the rust of them shall witness against you. Somebody says, "You can't take it with you." The truth of the matter is you can take it with you. In fact, it will be waiting for you when you get there according to this verse of scripture.
He says that you have hoarded up this wealth and yet it is a witness against you in the Day of Judgment. Your unused money can be a witness to you today. Wealth can be a witness to you today.
It is a witness to you but one of these days James says that this idle wealth, this idle money, is going to be a witness against you. It is going to be there like a pile of rust.
Somebody said, "I'm saving up for a rainy day." More than likely you’re saving it for a rusty day. One of these days you may stand in judgment and there will be a big pile of rust and you will say, "What in the world is that?" The Lord will say, "That's all the things I entrusted to you that could have been used for the things of the Lord."
Notice what it says in verse 3.
It will be just like a rusty chain eating into your flesh.
So first of all, there is this picture of idle wealth, idle money, and it becomes like rust that eats into their life. He is warning about the misery of idle money.
Then there is a second warning in these verses of scripture. Not only does he warn of the misery of idle money, but secondly he warns of the misery
II. Illegal Money.
verse 4
You have to get the setting, the atmosphere, of the day in which this was written.
In those days there were a number of people who were day laborers. They just went out into the fields and they worked a day at a time. That's who he's talking about here.
The way the system worked in those days is that you would be paid every day for that day's work. These day laborers were very poor. They just lived from day to day. They would put in a day's work, and at the end of that day they would earn their wages. They would go and they would buy the food and the necessities for the family, and they would take it to the family.
But now he is warning of the danger of illegal money. Here are people who are working day laborers, and yet the hirers are committing fraud.
In other words there were some people who at the end of the day they would make up some reason why they couldn't pay.
Have you ever had anybody make up a reason why they couldn't give you what was rightfully yours? They owed you something and yet they could find some little thing, some little point that they could pick on there as a reason why they didn't pay you what you were due?
Of course, the passage has its local setting when James was writing it, but it has a very modern, up-to-date application. The application today is that a person should be paid an honest wage for an honest day's work. A person who works someone is responsible to pay them an honest wage for an honest day's work.
But it also works in the opposite as well. It also means that if you work on a job you are to give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay.
Something else that it means that can be applied from here is that a Christian ought to pay his or her bills. If you want to be a poor testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ, then just don't pay your bills. Just don't pay what you owe. Just don't pay what you are responsible to pay.
He's basically talking here about two cries. Did you notice the two cries that go up in verse 4? There is first of the all the cry of the wages. He says, "Behold, the hire of the laborers, cries." The hire, that is, the wages, the money cries.
Our vices have voices. Here is the picture of people who are all owed money, and the money itself is crying up to the Lord. The same Lord who with omnipotent hands flung the stars out into the space and the same Lord who sees with His eyes the little sparrow fall is the Lord who has the ears who can hear the cries of the wages of the money that is owed by the laborers and it is unpaid. It is crying, "Thief, thief."
Notice the second cry. It says also in this verse that the cries of them that have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Saboath." Night came and they didn't get their daily wages. They go home with empty hands. Their rich employers go into their mansions to live lavishly and to spend their wealth upon themselves, and that poor day laborer goes and there is no food for the little babies and the little babies begin to cry and the man cries out and says, "Oh, God, I can't even feed my family."
They don't hear that up in the mansion, but the Lord of Host's ears hears it in Glory.
There is the misery of idle money. There is the misery of illegal money. But there is a third misery he warns about in these verses. He warns in verses 5 and 6 about the misery of
III. Indulgent Money
Verses 5-6
He says in verse 5, "Ye have lived in pleasure." The word pleasure means luxurious living. It means soft living.
I was reading here while back about a Saudi Arabian Sultan who came over to America. He went on a spending spree. I just jotted down what he bought while he was here. He bought 19 Cadillacs, 2 Porsches, 6 Mercedes, a $40,000 speed boat and a truck. He bought 16 refrigerators and $47,000 worth of ladies luggage. He had a total bill of 1.5 million and he paid another $194,500 to have everything delivered to Saudi Arabia. This is living in pleasure.
When Donald Trump got married, he gave his bride a $1.5 million diamond. They say that he spend $45 million on a wedding. There's more to making a marriage than having a $45 million wedding. You can drive a Rolls Royce; but if you don't know where you're going, what good is it to you? You may be able to have a $1.5 million diamond ring on your bride's hands; but if you don't have love, what good is it?
You can live in a multimillion dollar house; but if you don't have Jesus in it, then there's not a home in that house.
He is warning here about indulgent money. The word pleasure here means soft, luxurious living. It really means to break down. The idea of the word there is the idea that this kind of living has a way to break down moral conviction. It has a way of breaking down moral standards.
I always get afraid when I see people begin to prosper. I want God's people to prosper, but it concerns me because I have seen so many people who have prospered and it has had a detrimental effect on their morals and on their personal life.
You may know somebody right now who used to be in the House of God all the time, and then all of a sudden God began to prosper them. The next thing you know they are driving a little bit better car and then the next thing you know they've got a little bit better house.
The next thing you know they are not in the God's House anymore and then the next thing you know they've got a new set of friends. The next thing you know they are out in some places they have no business being in. Then the marriage falls apart and the kids get in trouble. Money can buy you into some places where you don't have any business of going.
That’s why James offers this warning about the danger of indulgent money. Don't let your money cause you to live in pleasure that breaks down your moral convictions.
Verse 5 says, "Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and yet you’ve just been fattened up for the slaughter.
The picture here is the picture of a cow. Those people who turn their money into an excuse for indulgence are just like cows going to a slaughter.
Ever been to a feed lot? Those old steers think they’ve arrived. If cows could smile, everyone of them would be grinning ear to ear. Granted the living conditions are a little cramped and you’ve got to put up with the smell, but man, the living is good!
That old steer just gets fatter and fatter and just waddles along. And one day, all of a sudden, he goes through a new gate unknowing where he has gone, and suddenly he smells the blood and he sees the knife and he weeps and he howls, but it's all over. He's in the slaughter house now. And before he knows it, he’s been knocked in the head and winds up on somebody’s dinner table.
Does that not sound like people all over the world? They live in big cities full of the hustle and bustle of life. Everything’s going their way. Life is good. Fattened up for the slaughter. That’s the way it is for people who live their lives with indulgent wealth, those who take their money and just lavish it upon themselves, are really getting themselves ready for the day of slaughter.
There is not a thing in the world wrong with money. There's not a thing in the world wrong with having pleasure. In fact, the Bible says that He gives us all things to enjoy. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the things that money can bring you.
But you just don't get it out of place in your life.
Let me turn this thing positive. I've given the warning of idle money and illegal money and the warning of indulgent money. Now let me talk to you about the ministry of
IV. Invested Money
Isn’t it wonderful to be able to invest in eternal things? To have enough spiritual insight to use money to be a blessing and to lead other people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?
God bless you wonderful people who give so generously to our ministry. As you take the money which God prospers you with and blesses you with, use some of it to enjoy yourself. That's fine. But the Bible says that you can invest that money. And we never will know this side of heaven what most of the investment of our money accomplished.
In Luke 16, Jesus told a parable that illustrates how shrewd men make money on earth, and then He says, Use your money to win people to Jesus, because those you wine to the Lord will live forever in heaven.
One of these days you are going to die and go to heaven. You're going to go up to heaven and you are going to meet somebody you have never seen in all of your life. They are going to come walking up to you. They're going to say, "Miss So and So or Mr. So and So, I've been waiting for you to come. I just couldn't wait for you to get here. I want to thank you."
You'll look at them and you'll say, "Thank me for what? I've never met you in my life." "Oh, I know that. You've never met me but you gave money to send a missionary to my country to tell me about Jesus and that missionary told me about Jesus and I'm in heaven because you gave the money."
Take your money. Enjoy it but also employ it for a ministry of invested money.
Let's bow our heads in prayer.
