Warning to the Rich
Notes
Transcript
Order of Service
Order of Service
Welcome
Welcome
Prayer
Prayer
Hymn - REVIVE YOUR CHURCH, O LORD (540)
Hymn - REVIVE YOUR CHURCH, O LORD (540)
Notices
Notices
Prayer Meeting - 7:30pm
Friday 7pm - Online
Sunday Morning 11am & 6pm
Tithes & Offerings - £
Main Prayer
Main Prayer
Hymn - LORD, HAVE MERCY ON US (826)
Hymn - LORD, HAVE MERCY ON US (826)
Reading
Reading
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.
Sermon
Sermon
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
Now listen
You rich people weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you
The rich arrogantly disregarded God and His Word
Unknown if the rich would hear the letter being read out (James 2:6 they do not appear to be church members)
The poor took comfort that God knew of their hardship
James pronounes divine judgement upon the rich that they cannot escape from.
They have their share of misery awaiting them
Jessus said...
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Return ...
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
“Weep and howl”
Not: Blessed are those who mourn
Howl - wailing (long cries of unconsolable anguish)
James speaks of a lack of repentance
James and the Epistles of John 1. Address (5:1)
John Calvin observes, “Repentance has indeed its weeping, but being mixed with consolation, it does not proceed to howling.”
The life of luxury the rich have enjoyed wis about to turn into a life filled with misery that includes suffering and “pain caused by physical diseases”
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.
Rotten / decayed
In the time of Job riches were seen as vast numbers of animals
At the dawn of Christianity rich people who possessed lands of homes sold them and gave they money to the poor.
In James’ time wealth consisted of food, clothing, gold & silver
Luke 12:16-20 Jesus gave parable of the rich man who stored signioficant grain in ever bigger barns
Moth Eaten
In the absence of modern preventative chemicals
Moths eat clothing of both rich and poor alike
For the poor this is not of concern because what they wear is all they own
Corroded
Gold and silver corrode figuratively
Their value comes and goes
It does not serve any meaningful purpose
Evidence against you
Their wealth acts as evidence against them
Used for their own selfish pleasure
Eat your flesh like fire
Fire has an unrelenting distruction and consumes everything in its path
God’s judgement they cannot escape
God’s wrath can strike the sinner in this life
King Herod boasted of his own power and riches....
Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.
return..
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.
Hoarded / Laid up treasure
They have stored up God’s Wrath against themselves
When Jesus’ returns they must face judgement
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.
The rich do not just hoard they also cheat others out of their wealth
The wages you failed to pay
Labourers were paid a daily wage and expected to be paid at the end of the day
The law of God, given through Moses, was clear
“not to hold back wages of a hired man overnight” (Lev 9:13 & Deut 24:14-15)
Delay resulted in no food for their families
The workmen who mowed/harvested your fields
The crops yielded wealth for the landowners
The cut the standing grain, bundled it and collected the sheaves into shocks (so they could air dry).
These workers were needed so that the ripened grain did not spoil because of bad weather or other reasons.
The wages.... [of] the workmen … are crying out against you
Instead of the joy of the harvest season, they contend with the anger of broken promises, delays and prospect of not being paid at all
They cried out against the rich and demanded justice
“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.
For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”
return....
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.
The cries of the havesters have reached the ears of the “Lord of Hosts”
Their cries are not heard by the rich, but they are heard by the “Lord Sabaoth”
"Lord of the armies in heaven and on earth”
He puts his majestic power to work to vindicate his people and mete out swift justice to their adversaries
You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
After they have increased their wealth they turn it into luxuries and sinful pleasures
After they afford all the bodily comforts they desire, they literally squander their resources on wasteful living
Jesus portrayed the rich man “who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day” (Luke 16:19) as a man deserving of hellish punishment not for what he did but for what he failed to do. That is the rich man failed to Love God and failed to care for his neighbour lazarus. That was his sin.
The Prodigal Son - squandered his wealth in wild living.
This is the life those rich people whom James denounces pursued.
He therefore addresses them harshly
You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter
James uses picturesque language
He likens them to the cattle fattened for the day of slaughter
The rich are indulging themselves in luxury and licentiousness and are unaware of the impending day of judgement
Their doom is certain and their destruction swift
Consider: Wealth & Prosperity Gospel
You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
Literally/figurately
Those rich people who (James 2:6) brought poor people into court are now guilty of murder
Directly or indirectly they killed a human being who was unable to defend themselves
Metaphorically
The rich man who withholds wages of a labourer deprives him of his livelihood thus indirectly commits an act of murder
James and the Epistles of John 5. Murder (5:6)
In the second century before Christ, Joshua ben Sira said,
The bread of the needy is the life of the poor; whoever deprives them of it is a man of blood. To take away a neighbor’s living is to murder him; to deprive an employee of his wages is to shed his blood. [Sir. 34:21–22, RSV]
Return…
You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
The rich determined to rid themselves of the poor man, although he was righteous and had not opposed the rich
The rich had manipulated the law to affectively commit murder
Hymn -
Hymn -
Q&A
Q&A
Hymn -
Hymn -
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Doxology
Doxology