Before we really get into our text for today I want to come clean about something. You see, I know that whenever I plan a sermon series that I have to move much quicker than I would really prefer. Instead of taking roughly 10 weeks to walk through James’ epistle (like we’re doing), I would love to spend an entire year walking through this epistle. Now, to some of you that may sound like a good idea, but to most it sounds painfully slow; you prefer the 10 week look much more than the year-long one. Now, there’s nothing wrong with wanting the quicker look, but it comes with a price. The bad part about it is that when I have to rush myself through a text, there are times when a thought doesn’t get fully developed and it causes some problems down the road. Well, last week was one of those weeks. If you recall, we talked about worldliness vs. Godliness. We spoke about how so often we choose to define ourselves in terms of the world and its values and not on God’s terms. We seek after our earthly desires and not the will of God. Now, we said all of this, but I failed to really put a name to all of it. You see, all of this could be summed up by the word humility. We are to have humility when it comes to God. I said last week in closing that we’re stupid, ignorant, and foolish when it comes to what we really need. In other words, we have no reason to be proud of who we are or boast about ourselves based on our own efforts and desires, so we need to humble ourselves before God.
James ended the text that we looked at last week by talking about when we make ourselves judges; judges of ourselves, judges of others, and judges of God. We ended last Sunday by seeing James ask the question of his audience, “But who are you to judge your neighbor?” In other words, why do we think that we have any business or right to cast judgment upon anyone else? Now, in our world today we are so quick and prone to do this that we don’t even realize that we are doing it. I’ll admit to you that Amy and I are constantly saying to one another something about kids acting up in stores and talking about how parents need to take control. We even do this with our friends and their kids some times. However, we have little to no clue what is going on in their lives, and we both have to admit that if someone happened to catch us in one of those moments where our kids were in “rare form” they might think the same thing about us. I’ll tell y’all something else that’s funny that happens when it comes to preaching. I always chuckle a little when someone walks up to me and says, “Tommy that was a good sermon, I just wish so-and-so was here to hear it.” I always say thank you and move on, but I always find myself wanted to ask the person if they actually heard it or if they just spent the whole time thinking about who wasn’t there. You see, who are we to think and judge that any other person is more in need of hearing the good news of the gospel than we are? Who are we to think that we are any better off than anyone else? That’s the stage that James is setting for the text that we come to today.
Now, what comes next is what on the surface seems like a hard left turn for James. He seemingly changes the subject completely on us when he writes, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” However, once we really unpack this statement, we start to see some of the things that thinking along such lines insinuates and presumes. It presumes we will live as long as we please, that we can make whatever plans we please (we can go whenever we want to), or that we have the ability to execute whatever plan we conceive. In other words, when we say that things will or will not happen and we say them with a sense of certainty as if we control the outcome, then we forget who is really in control. I used to have a seminary professor who would say at the end of every class, “Lord willing, we will next meet one week from today in this same room.” Now, several of us always wondered why he didn’t just say our next class would be next week, so we asked him about it. His response was that there was absolutely nothing certain about our meeting next week. He reminded us that neither the students, nor the professor had any control over being able to meet the next week. You see, this is sort of the biblical way of stating that earthly adage of not taking any moment for granted. We have to remember that all of the things that we take for granted, our family, our health, our security, and even our having a tomorrow, are gifts from God that are completely and totally in His hands. We have to remember that most basic and simplest of biblical truths, that God alone is in control.
After some discourse along this line of thought and a reminder to his audience just how fragile and momentary life is, James goes on to give an example of a type of person who commonly exhibits this boasting about the certainty of tomorrow, this person who many times seems to lack humility before God. He goes on to talk about the rich. Notice the connection that is made here with both this section and the previous one starting with the phrase, “Come now.” Now, there are some pastors and biblical scholars who have taken this passage as a literal condemnation of those who have been blessed with great earthly wealth. However, I don’t that that view of wealth fits in with the overall narrative of James, with Jesus’ teaching on the subject, or on Scripture’s stance on wealth as a whole. There are even times like Proverbs 10:22 where wealth is seen as a sign of the Lord’s blessing. After all, we’ve been talking about keeping things in their proper place in terms of priority. In the encounter between Jesus and the rich young ruler as it is recorded in the Synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we see that Jesus’ issue isn’t with the man’s wealth, but with the lack of humility that he shows and his holding his earthly possessions as his main priority. Well, if you will recall that last Sunday we talked about priorities and the things that the world places a high mark upon being things that are not high values in the kingdom of God. You see, we live in a world where money means everything to us. Recently, a boxing match took place between two premiere fighters, one of whom is named Floyd Mayweather. Now, I won’t go into this man’s life story, but I’ll just say that he’s a bad dude who has been a serial offender of domestic assault. Yet, he is given a place of privilege in our world because of the great wealth he has amassed. However, it’s not like he is the only example of such a person that I could give. There are numerous people on both a global and local level that are really not what we would consider to be kind people, yet they are given privilege because of their wealth. We pay attention to what they have to say simply because of their material wealth. The sad fact of the matter is that in the world where we find ourselves today, it’s really the outlier to find someone who has amassed great wealth who doesn’t have their wealth as their main priority.
However, getting back to the text, we see that James paints a pretty dark picture here for the wealthy. I want you to hear James’ words to the rich again, “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 evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure 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. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.” Now, upon first reading this, we may think that those who interpret this as wealth equaling sin as being correct. However, think about what types of behaviors James is talking about. He doesn’t ever say that because you are rich then you will be condemned. No, it’s not about having wealth, but about what you do with it. The type of person who is depicted here is someone who withholds their wealth from both God and those in need. It’s the type of person who defrauds someone and who withholds a just payment. It’s the type of person who really only cares about getting more earthly possessions. You see, there is nothing wrong with wealth and riches in-and-of-themselves, as long as we are rightfully and faithfully using them in the service of God. That’s really the key to everything isn’t it; rightfully using it in the service of God?
I want to tell y’all two stories that have to do with choices about using earthly possessions. The first of which was told to me by a friend of mine who is a lobbyist. He told me a story one time about a client of his who out of the blue made a large donation to a charitable organization. When asked why he would do such a thing (since it actually hurt his business pretty substantially to make this donation), he said that it was because he had recently made a big business deal, but after the completion of the deal, he realized that what he had gained was what he called “tainted” money. By that I mean money that was obtained immorally; not illegally, but immorally. How many would follow the lead of this man and give it away? How many of us would justify to ourselves that it wasn’t like we did anything wrong and keep the money for ourselves? The second story has to do with my father. Now, I know that I’ve told some of you this before, but just bear with me. You see, back in the late 90’s, my father was in the paint business and things were actually going pretty well. Also at the same time, Mississippi State was completing the addition of several new skyboxes to their football stadium. Well, a friend of my father’s was getting a skybox and wanted to know if my dad wanted to go in with him. It would have meant a fairly significant cost increase for our season tickets to move from the regular seats to the skyboxes. While thinking over this proposition, my father was approached by some in our church about increasing his giving in order to pay off the church mortgage. He was able to determine very quickly that he couldn’t afford to increase his giving to the church, which caused him to realize that if his giving to the church couldn’t increase, then his giving for football shouldn’t either. I’ve always been very proud of my father for that decision because honestly I know that it isn’t one that many people would or do make. You see, many people find a way of being able to afford what they want, but never seem to be able to help anyone else out in their time of need. Many people relegate the majority of their earthly wealth and resources for themselves and simply give God what’s left over after they’ve done as they pleased.
So, how does all of this fit into the overall theme of True Faith Works that we’ve used as we’ve approached James’ epistle. Well, remember that all of the things that we enjoy: wealth, friends, family, status, power, fame, etc., all of these things are temporary. The only thing in this world that is everlasting is God. There’s nothing that we bring to the table that has any value in terms of our salvation. The only one who has anything to offer is God: the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the atonement for our sins, dwelling in heaven for all eternity. So, we’re left with a situation where God is owed a debt that only he has the means to pay. God has us completely dead-to-rights and is perfectly within his rights to leave us in the state of condemnation and misery that we placed ourselves in through our first parents Adam and Eve. And not just that, we continuously place ourselves further in this state over-and-over again through our constantly sinning against God and straying from his will. However, God doesn’t leave us in this broken condition. Instead, he restores us and gives us the one thing that we need in order for our relationship with him to be set right once again. God gives us his Son. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only begotten Son.” Notice that nowhere in that most famous of verses from John’s gospel does it say anything about us earning the Son or us deserving the Son, but only that God gave him to us.
You see, we’ve said all along that our good works ought to be our thank you’s to God and not an attempt at earning God’s favor. I can think of nothing more that makes me want to do the work of building God’s kingdom than to realize what it is exactly that God has so freely given to us. It’s not about God calling us to a live of isolation, poverty, and never being able to enjoy his blessings. After all, the very first question of Westminster Short Catechism says that we are to glorify God and ENJOY him always. God isn’t calling us to live lives of pain and misery. He’s calling us to live the fullest life that we can. The problem is that we don’t really know what a full life is. We think we do, but many times those are just Satan’s temptations as to what a full life ought to look like. A full life in the eyes of God is one that enjoys and cherishes the blessings (both big and small) that God gives, and uses everything that we have to glorify his name. What good is it to have fame, wealth, power, or influence if you don’t use them in the service of God? I want to close by reading some words from the apostle Paul that he wrote to his young protégé Timothy. 1 Timothy 6:17-19 reads, “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” People always ask what the meaning of life is. Well, this is the meaning of life, to do good works, to glorify God, and enjoy him forever.
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