"If money talks," said a popular comedian, "all it ever says to me is good-bye"
There are several miscellaneous matters in this last chapter, but the key thought seems to be that of the second coming of Christ (vv. 7-9). When Christians honestly look for the return of Christ, the evidences of this hope show up in their lives.
When we gain an eternal viewpoint, our earthly perspective is never the same. Our view of money changes.
After all, our viewpoint is all important:
A man in New York City had a wife who had a cat. Actually, the cat had her. She loved the cat. She stroked it, combed its fur, fed it, and pampered it. The man detested the cat. He was allergic to cat hair; he hated the smell of the litter box; he couldn’t stand the scratching on the furniture; and he couldn’t get a good night’s sleep because the cat kept jumping on the bed. When his wife was out of town for the weekend, he put the cat in a bag with some rocks, dumped it in the Hudson river, and uttered a joyful good-bye to the cat. When his wife returned and could not find her cat, she was overwhelmed with grief.
Her husband said, “Look, honey, I know how much that cat meant to you. I’m going to put an ad in the paper and give a reward of five hundred dollars to anyone who finds the cat.”
No cat showed up, so a few days later he said, “Honey, you mean more to me than anything on earth. If that cat is precious to you, it is precious to me. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll buy another ad and raise the ante. We’ll increase the reward to one thousand dollars.”
A friend saw the ad and exclaimed, “You must be nuts; there isn’t a cat on earth that is worth a thousand dollars.”
The man replied, “Well, when you know what I know, you can afford to be generous.”
If we have any inkling of what it means to be part of God’s kingdom, we can afford to be generous. We can establish priorities by the way we give and live.
In James 5, money talks about three sins of the wealthy.
I. Money talks about the sinful accumulation of wealth, (1-3) “. . . a witness against you.”
James 5:1. Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
The point he’s making here is that whatever you simply accumulate, DETERIORATES. God gives us wealth to be used for eternal values.
You either use your wealth for God or lose it. Someone asked of a wealthy man who died, “How much money did he leave” expecting the answer to be about the millions he left. But the answer was, “all of it.” You either use it for things of eternal value of you lose it.
Matthew 6: 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
In the Parable of the Pounds in Luke 19 the servant that received one pound hid it in a napkin which indicated that the servant did not really expect the king to come back. He was not at all concerned about the king’s return so he did not bother with the king’s business.
The corruption of the possessions of wealthy people witness against them. People who hoard don’t believe God gave them wealth for a reason.
For many years Hetty Green was called America’s greatest miser. When she died in 1915, she left an estate valued at $100 million, an especially vast fortune for that day. But she was so miserly that she ate cold oatmeal in order to save the expense of heating the water. When her son had a severe leg injury, she took so long trying to find a free clinic to treat him that his leg had to be amputated because of advanced infection. It has been said that she hastened her own death by bringing on a fit of apoplexy while arguing the merits of skim milk because it was cheaper than whole milk.
At one time, she was the richest woman in America. Her estate was valued at from 65 to 100 million dollars. Her income from real estate, stocks, bonds, etc.—was $5 a minute or $300 an hour. Yet Hetty lived her life on a lower scale than her scrubwoman did.
For example, she padded her thin, worn clothes with newspapers to keep the biting New York City cold from chilling her too badly. She was sole owner of a couple of railroads, she never indulged in the luxury of a Pullman berth. Instead she sat up all night in the day coach.
One hot, sizzling day, someone found the world’s richest woman in the stuffy, hot attic of a warehouse that Hetty had inherited from her father. For hours and hours she sweated away doing what? sorting white rags from colored rags because the local junk man paid a cent a pound more for white rags.
Realizing that if she had a permanent address the tax collector would swoop down upon her and claim $30,000 a year, Hetty Green drifted from one cheap lodging house to another, dressed in rags, and with so little baggage that suspicious landladies often made Hetty pay for her night’s lodging in advance.
Prior to her death at the age of 81, the victim of a stroke of paralysis, the nurses who cared for her were instructed by friends of Hetty to wear their street dresses, not their white uniforms. In this way, Hetty would think that they were poorly paid servants. She would not have died peacefully if she had suspected that they were expensive, trained nurses. Such, in part, is the unique riches-to-rags saga of Hetty Green, a woman who loved money. If she had loved God instead of money, how different life would have been
No wonder the Bible tells us not to set our affections upon things of the earth. Rather, we are to Love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our mind, and with all our soul. This is the greatest commandment ever given
I. Money talks about the sinful accumulation of wealth.
II. Money talks about sinful acquisition of wealth, James 5:4.
“Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth” (James 5:4).
God is not only concerned with what we’ve got but also how we got it. Don’t use dishonest means to rip people off. How you become wealthy matters to God. These rich people had held back the honest wages of the poor. The Bible speaks against this practice in many places.
Deut. 24:14 Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates:
15 At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the LORD, and it be sin unto thee.
Lev. 19:13 Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
Prov 13:11 Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.
They used fraud to steal these wages, and their sins would find them out We often hear the phrase “Money talks ” In this case, the stolen wages cried out to God for justice, and the needy workers cried out to God too. “Lord of Sabaoth” (v. 4) means “Lord of the armies” and is the “battle name” of God. See Isa. 1:9 and Rom. 9:29. God would come with His armies and judge these thieves
Just as bad as withholding wages is profiting off of peoples weaknesses like tavern owners or the government for taking advantage of people who play the lottery.
Charles Colson told the following story in an address at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi:
I love the illustration about a man named Jack Eckerd. A few years ago I was on the Bill Buckley television program, talking about restitution (one of my favorite subjects) and criminal justice. Bill Buckley agreed with me. A few days later I got a call from Jack Eckerd, a businessman from Florida, the founder of the Eckerd Drug chain, the second largest drug chain in America. He saw me on television and asked me to come to Florida. He agreed Florida had a criminal justice crisis, would I come down and do something about it? And we did. We got the attorney general of the state, the president of the senate; we got on Jack Eckerd’s Lear jet; we went around the State of Florida advocating criminal justice reforms, and everywhere we would go Jack Eckerd would introduce me to the crowds and say, “This is Chuck Colson, my friend; I met him on Bill Buckley’s television program. He’s born again, I’m not. I wish I were.” And then he’d sit down. We’d get on the airplane and I’d tell him about Jesus. We’d get off at the next stop, he’d repeat it, we’d do the same thing again, and I’d talk to him about Jesus. When we left I gave him some of R. C. Sproul’s books and I gave him C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, which had such an impact on me. I sent him my books. About a year went by and I kept pestering Jack Eckerd. And eventually one day he read some things including the story of Watergate and the Resurrection out of my book, Loving God, and decided that Jesus was, in fact, resurrected from the dead. He called me up to tell me he believed that, and I asked him some other things. When he got through telling me what he believed I said, “You’re born again!” He said, “No, I’m not, I haven’t felt anything.” I said, “Yes, you are! Pray with me right now.” After we prayed he said, “I am? Marvelous!” The first thing he did was to walk into one of his drugstores and walked down through the book shelves and he saw Playboy and Penthouse. And he’d seen it there many times before, but it never bothered him before. Now he saw them with new eyes. He’d become a Christian.
He went back to his office. He called in his president. He said, “Take Playboy and Penthouse out of my stores. The president said, “You can’t mean that, Mr. Eckerd. We make three million dollars a year on those books.” He said, “Take ‘em out of my stores.” And in 1,700 stores across America, by one man’s decision, those magazines and smut were removed from the shelves because a man had given his life to Christ. I called Jack Eckerd up. I said, “I want to use that story. Did you do that because of your commitment to Christ?” He said, “Why else would I give away three million dollars? The Lord wouldn’t let me off the hook.” Isn’t that marvelous? God wouldn’t let me off the hook. I don’t know any theologian who’s better defined the Lordship of Christ than that. And what happened after that is a wonderful sequel and a wonderful demonstration of what happens in our culture today.
We are caught up with this idea that we’ve got to have big political institutions and big structures and big movements and big organizations in order to change things in our society. And that’s an illusion and a fraud. Jack Eckerd wrote a letter to all the other drugstore operators, all the other chains, and he said, “I’ve taken it out of my store. Why don’t you take it out of yours?” Not a one answered him. Of course not--he’d put them under conviction. So he wrote them some more letters. But then Eckerd’s Drugs began to get floods of people coming in to buy things at Eckerd’s because they’d taken Playboy and Penthouse out. And so People’s removed the magazines from their shelves and then Dart Drug removed them from their shelves and then Revco removed them from their shelves. And over the period of twelve months while the pornography commission in Washington was debating over what to do about pornography, and while they’re trying to come up with some recommendations for the president about what to do which will result in laws which if Congress ever passes them will be sued by the ACLU and will be tied up in the courts for 10 years—meanwhile, across America, one by one, stores are removing them. And the 7-11 chairman, who sits on Jack Eckerd’s board, finally gave in two weeks ago and 5,000 7-11 stores removed it. And in a period of twelve months, 11,000 retail outlets in America removed Playboy and Penthouse, not because somebody passed a law, but because God wouldn’t let one of his men off the hook. That’s what brings change. —James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp. 46-48.
I. Money talks about the sinful accumulation of wealth
II. Money talks about the sinful acquisition of wealth
III. Money talks about the sinful allocation of wealth, 5:5.
A. You can’t buy happiness
“Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter” (James 5:5).
Luke 12:15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
If there is one message that comes to us in ten thousand seductive voices, it’s the message of our country and our century that life does consist of things. You can see it on a hundred billboards as you drive down the highway. It is the message from the sponsor on television. It is sung to you in jingles on radio. It is blared at you in four-color ads in the newspapers.
We’re like the donkey that has the carrot extended before it on a stick. The donkey sees the carrot and wants it, so the donkey moves toward it, but the carrot moves, too. The carrot is always there, promising to fill the appetite. But what it promises, it does not deliver.
I heard a joke this past week about a young man who was driving his BMW around a curve when he realized the car was out of control and about to plummet over a cliff. The young man jumped out, but his left arm was severed from his body. He stood there looking down at his burning BMW and said, “Oh, no! My car! My car!”
A man, who had stopped to help, said, “Mister, you have just lost your left arm, and you’re crying about your car?”
The young man looked down and said, “Oh no, my Rolex watch!” —Frank Pollard, “Do You Like Where You Live?,” Preaching Today, Tape
These men were living in needless luxury and were spending wantonly, using money that was not rightfully theirs. James compares them to senseless cattle who feed themselves without restraint, little realizing that they are only being fattened up for the slaughter See Amos 4:1-3.
A. You can’t buy happiness
B. You can’t buy justice, 5:6
“Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you” (James 5:6).
It is often the case that those who have wealth also have political power and can get what they want. “What is the Golden Rule?” asked a character in a comic strip. His friend answered, “Whoever has the gold makes the rules ” James asked, “Do not the rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats?” (James 2:6)
This is perhaps the best example of money talking. The Rich’s can buy a pardon and OJ can buy his verdict.
Conclusion: God intended for money to talk about your priorities and values. Are you living for today or forever?
Matthew 6:19, 20 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
A sobbing little girl (Hattie Wiatt, Paul Lee Tan, #1833) stood near a small church from which we had been turned away because it was overcrowded. I can’t go to Sunday school, she sobbed to the pastor as he passed. Taking her by the hand, he found a place for her inside the sanctuary. The child was so touched that she went to bed that night thinking of the children who had no place to worship Jesus.
Some two years later, this child lay dead in one of the poor tenement buildings, and the parents called for the kindhearted pastor to make the funeral arrangements. Beneath her pillow he found a crumpled purse rummaged from the dump. In it were 57 pennies and note scribbled in childish handwriting. This is to help build the little church bigger so more children can go to Sunday School.
For two years she had saved for this offering of love. When the pastor read that note, he knew instantly what he would do.
Carrying this note and the cracked, red pocketbook to the pulpit, he told the story of her unselfish love and devotion. He challenged his deacons to get busy and raise enough money for the larger church.
But that was not the end.
A newspaper learned of the story and published it. It was read by a Realtor who offered them a lot worth many thousands. When the church could not pay so much, he offered it for a modest figure and said he would take as a down payment exactly 57 cents.
Checks came from far and wide. Within five years the little girl’s gift had increased to $250,000. Her unselfish love had paid large dividends.
When you are in the city of Philadelphia, look at Temple Baptist Church, with a seating capacity of 3300, and Temple University, where hundreds of students are trained. Have a look, too, at the Good Samaritan Hospital and at a Sunday School building, so that no child in that vicinity will ever need to be left outside at Sunday school time.
In one of the rooms of this building may be seen the picture of the sweet face of the little girl whose 57 cents so sacrificially saved made such remarkable history. Alongside of it is a picture of her famous pastor, Dr. Russell H. Conwell.
A famous preacher, known for his long sermons, was asked to give the annual “charity sermon” for the poor. It was suggested that if he preached too long, the congregation might not give as much as they should.
The preacher read his text from Proverbs 19:17—“He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will He pay him again.” His sermon indeed was brief:
“If you like the terms, then put down your money.”
Yes, money talks. What will it say to you at the last judgment?
