Greed in Times of Trials-Part-II

Introduction:

Once again, a warm welcome to all of you. As we go through the epistle of James I believe that they are reforming our day to day lives.

Just to remind you that we are going through the Epistle of James. Last Sunday, we dealt with vs. 1-3 of James chapter 5. This morning we will take on vs. 4-6.

Last week we learned about the greed in times of trials. What was phenomenal about that was; greed does not produce happiness. Greed always produces misery. it does not give a bundle of joy; It gives us a bundle of anxieties. If you are a believer today, and think that you are not vulnerable to greed. I think you are in the most dangerous place. The point is, we all are vulnerable to it and because of that we need to protect ourselves from this decease of greed by the medicine of the Word of God.

So, may I invite you to open your Bibles to James 5:1-6?

(Scripture Reading & Prayer)

The folly of human nature is neatly summed up by the case of the middle-aged school teacher who invested her life savings in a business enterprise which had been elaborately explained to her by a swindler.

When her investment disappeared and the wonderful dream was shattered, she went to the office of the Better Business Bureau. "Why on earth," they asked, "didn't you come to us first?  Didn't you know about the Better Business Bureau?"

"Oh, yes," said the lady sadly, "I've always known about you. But I didn't come because I was afraid you'd tell me not to do it."

So, once again the title for the sermon this morning is:

“Greed in Times of Trials.” Part-II

In this message we will look into 3 points.

1.      The Consequence of Greed: Vs. 4

2.      The Indulgence of Greed: vs. 5

3.      The Sinfulness of Greed: vs. 6

1.      The Impact of Greed: vs. 4

In the 2 points that we dealt with last Sunday; we looked into the warning against greed and the futility of Greed. In vs. 1 James warned his rich readers of their greed. And the warning was about the judgment of God that was going to fall upon them because of their greed.

Then in vs. 2 & 3 he showed them the futility of their greed. In other words whatever they had so far accumulated through ungodly means was being wasted away. In both of these verses James exposes their greed of accumulating things for themselves. Perhaps they had become so blind in their greed that they must have forgotten about the things they had accumulated. Because James mentions that their riches had corrupted and their garments were moth-eaten.

Then in vs. 3 James again exposes his reader’s blindness towards their greed. Not only their garments were affected by their greed, but their ornaments were also affected by it; for the fact that they were corroded. Both of the above verses suggest to us that James’ readers had accumulated a lot of wealth but they had never put that wealth in its proper usage. And eventually these things were wasted away uselessly. Because it was not being beneficial to anybody else.  In both of those points we saw that these rich people’s greed did not remain limited to themselves.

Then in vs. 4-6 James explains that these rich people’s greed had affected those who came in their contact. And these people were their laborers.  

Notice vs. 4, “Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.”

If we look closely in the first part of the verse we notice that these rich people possessed a great amount of farming land. What comes out of this part of the verse is: these rich oppressors had put people to work, but they had not paid their labor charges. Not that they were not able to but because they were not willing to pay it. They wanted their lands to be mowed free of cost.

It’s quite ironical that the people whom James was writing this letter to, were the descendents of those whom God delivered through Moses. Those people were treated as slaves in Egypt; they were given a hard labor. Their affliction was terrible and God called Moses to redeem those people from that slavery.

But the point is: when God brought them to the Promised Land; apart from all the other laws, He also gave them instructions about paying the laborers.

God had strictly forbidden the defrauding of labor. Leviticus 19:13, "'You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.”

In Leviticus God commands His children not to oppress the laborers. But in Deuteronomy 24:14-15 He gives the reason why they were not supposed to oppress these laborers.

Deuteronomy 24:14-15, “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers, or of your foreigners who are in your land within your gates: in his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it: lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.”

The conclusion that comes out of the above 2 verses is this: “Your oppression today, is not a guarantee that you will not oppress somebody else tomorrow.” The point is: every single person has the potential to oppress. There is no place for the saying: “Oh he or she is not that kind of a person. I know that they will never oppress anybody like that.”

Secondly, in the second part of the verse James is opening the blind eyes of his rich reader’s; that those whom you have oppressed are crying out. The phrase ‘crying out’ means: ‘to call out loud.’ Now, what James is warning his rich readers is that; the people whom you have oppressed are calling out loud to God. That’s what James is saying in the next sentence. “…and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.”

When we closely notice this sentence we notice that James is borrowing his language from the book of Exodus.

Exodus 2:23, “Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.”

Exodus 3:7, “And the Lord said, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.”

Exodus 3:9, “Now behold the cry of the children of Israel has come up to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.”

And the reason why James is borrowing that language is because, he wanted his rich readers to know that, the kind of oppression their ancestors faced, and kind of oppression they were inflicting upon their laborers was the same.

Application:

As a faithful leader James was warning his rich readers about the impact of their greed. Greed has not only affected you but it has affected the people that are in association with you. Greed not only affects us but it affects the people who are close to us. It always affects those who are in our family and those who are in our neighborhood. We cannot say that my greed is hidden from everybody; therefore it’s alright to have that greed. Your greed will be exposed one day. The question is not whether you have any kind of greed or not. We all have some or the other kind of greed. But the question we need to ask ourselves is: are we bringing our greed before the Throne of Grace everyday of our lives? Are we praying about our areas of selfishness? Are we honestly exposing our weaknesses before God in prayer? 

Matthew chapter 18 gives us an example of unforgiving debtor.

The King in this story released the debtor who was not able to pay his debt. But the same debtor after going from the King caught hold of one of his own debtor and vs. 28, “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarius; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat by saying, “Pay me what you owe.” Vs. 29, “So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him.

2.      The Indulgence of Greed: vs. 5

Vs. 4 makes it clear to us that; James’ rich readers had oppressed the poor laborers and had accumulated a lot of wealth.

Then in vs. 5 James says that, “You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.”

Now, before we go any further let’s understand that pleasure and luxury in and of itself are not wrong.

The Greek word for ‘pleasure’ is ‘truphao’ it means ‘debaucherous pleasure.’ It has the idea in itself the pleasure drawn from unethical or immoral practices. The word ‘Luxury’ in Greek is ‘spatalao’ it means ‘wanton’ that again means luxury drawn from harming somebody. And the meaning of those words really fit the description of the rich oppressors.

This shows us that life of immoral pleasure and luxury soon becomes out of control.

And this was true of James’ readers. They oppressed their laborers and robbed them of their wages in order to have pleasure and luxury. They were busy in the indulgence of greed.

But in the next half of the verse James again warns them. “…you have fattened yourself in the day of slaughter.”

What James has in his mind is, an animal that is well fed before it is slaughtered.

And truly speaking every animal that is meant to be slaughtered is first of all well fed; so that it would give a good quantity of meat. But the kind of slaughtering James has in his mind is the judgment of God. James’s rich audience had fed themselves with pleasure and luxury. They had become rich with ungodly means and used their riches to indulge in immoral pleasure and luxury paid with the unjust gain.

King Solomon at the end of his life wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. When his eyes are opened he understood one truth, Ecclesiastes 11:9, “Rejoice, young man, in your youth, And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, And walk in the ways of your heart, And in the sight of your eyes; But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.”

The same was the picture in other churches of the New Testament. Paul also cautioned Timothy about such people in the Church.

2 Timothy 3:1-4, “But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;

3.      The Sinfulness of Greed: vs. 6

James 5:6, “You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn't resist you.”

In this verse we can see the progression of these greedy people. First of all they hoarded things; that led to fraud that again led to indulging in sinful pleasure and luxury. And finally they became murderous. Their indulgence had become so sinful that in order to maintain their lifestyle they were willing to go to any degree.

The word ‘condemned’ means ‘sentencing somebody.’ That suggests to us that these greedy people had fraudulently used the courts to sentence these poor people. That is what James says in, James 2:6, “But you have dishonored the poor man. Don't the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?”

Application:

When we think of the progression of sin we can’t help but think of King David. Let’s go to 2 Samuel 11.

In 2 Samuel 11:1 we are told that, “It happened, at the return of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.”

We can easily see that because of major victories in King David’s life he became lazy. His laziness led him to adultery in vs. 2-5. He lusted after Bathsheba.

His lust progressed into adultery and finally that adultery turned into murder.

The point I want to drive home is this: David knew God. The Bible tells us that he was a man after God’s own heart.

Perhaps you might not be living in a gross sin. Perhaps you might be secretly indulging in some sin that is not so serious. But pay heed that a little spark in the forest begins a wild fire. Therefore protect yourself by the power of God’s Word.

It all begins with the gospel. If you know the gospel have you believed it? If you have believed it, have treasured it?