Introduction:

Too many people think money is security and will bring them happiness but… I Timothy 6:9&10 warned that it can be just the opposite. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts,  which drown men in destruction and perdition.

If you have ever heard the stories of people who have won the lottery you know that verse is true? So many of them eventually file bankruptcy or squander their money, they no longer talk to family members, and life has become joyless. A few years ago, a columnist whose name is Jim Bishop reported what happened to people who won the state lottery:

1. Rosa Grayson of Washington won $4000 a week for life. She hides in her apartment. For the first time in her life, she has “nerves.” Everyone tries to put the touch on her. “People are so mean, “she said, “I hope you win the lottery and see what happens to you.”

2. Ken Proxmire was a machinist when he won $1 million in the Michigan lottery. He moved to California and went into the car business with his brothers. Within five years, he had filed for bankruptcy. “He was just a poor boy who got lucky and wanted to take care of everybody,” explains Ken’s son Rick.

3. Willie Hurt of Lansing, Mich., won $3.1 million in 1989. Two years later he was broke and charged with murder. His lawyer says Hurt spent his fortune on a divorce and crack cocaine.

4. Charles Riddle of Belleville, Mich., won $1 million in 1975. Afterward, he got divorced, faced several lawsuits and was indicted for selling cocaine.

5. Janite Lee of Missouri won $18 million in 1993. Lee was generous to a variety of causes, giving to politics, education and the community. But according to published reports, eight years after winning, Lee had filed for bankruptcy with only $700 left in two bank accounts and no cash on hand.

 6. Evelyn Adams won the New Jersey lottery not just once, but twice (1985, 1986), to the tune of $5.4 million. Today the money is all gone and Adams lives in a trailer. “I won the American dream but I lost it, too. It was a very hard fall. It’s called rock bottom,” says Adams. “Everybody wanted my money. Everybody had their hand out. I never learned one simple word in the English language — ‘No.

Money will buy a bed but not sleep; books but not brains; food but not appetite; finery but not beauty; a house but not a home; medicine but not health; luxuries but not culture; amusements but not happiness; religion but not salvation; a passport to everywhere but heaven.

I. The Hoarding of Riches.

1. In chapter five, James again gives another test of genuine faith and addresses misplaced faith. That is faith in riches rather than God. James is speaking to people who faced a choice between following God or trusting in what money could do for them. He continues in verse 1, Listen up ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. To those who have gained their riches in an ungodly manner James says, weep and howl, literally “burst into tears.” No matter how long a person may live or how rich he may be, money cannot bring him happiness. All the money in the world won’t buy you a remedy for an incurable disease.

In his book For Better or For Worse, Walter Maier included this story: “A rich man had committed suicide. In his pockets were found two items: $30,000 in cash and a letter. The letter read in part: ‘I have discovered during my life that piles of money do not bring happiness. I am taking my life because I can no longer stand the solitude and boredom. When I was an ordinary workman in New York, I was happy. Now that I possess millions, I am infinitely sad and prefer death.”

2. The phrase in verse 2, Your riches are corrupted, probably referred to grain which wealthy landowners had allowed to rot in storage while people starved. The inspired writer also says your garments are moth eaten (v. 2). The elegant clothing which was a sign of status and success James says is moth eaten or “worthless.”

James continues in verse 3, Your gold and silver is cankered. The Greek word translated cankered means “active poison” or “rust.” Rust is poison to metals because it affects their nature. James knew that gold and silver do not rust, but he was referring to their effect on those who possessed them, because these precious metals had poisoned the nature or souls of the wealthy believers that James is addressing.

3. They were stockpiling their money (v. 2-3). The point he’s making here is that whatever you simply accumulate, deteriorates. God gives us wealth to be used for eternal values.

… If a man’s religion does not affect his use of money, that man’s religion is vain. — Hugh Martin

4. You either use your wealth for God or self. You either use it for things of eternal value of you lose it. People who trust in money for their security can never have enough to make them feel like they are completely secure. The result is a growing bank account and a dwindling sense of peace. Sometime just greed alone will cause someone to hoard.

Illustrations

Bertha Adams being of sound mind died at the age of 71, in Palm Beach, FL. The Coroner’s report said,” she died of malnutrition, weighing only 50 pounds. She would go around and beg people for food. You may be thinking, “how sad”. Upon searching her home they found among other things, a big mess!” They thought she died penniless. Until they found two keys to 2 safety deposit boxes; one had over 700 shares of AT&T & $200,000 cash. The 2nd had only cash, $600,000.

Her great wealth didn’t do her any good. Her entire hoarding didn’t add another pound to her under-nourished body or another day to her life. James views this type of hoarding as obscene because it corrupts and corrodes life. It is clear from this context that riches, money and wealth can be misuse, hoarded and destroyed one faith.

4. I need to clarify here James, does not condemn wealth either does God. It is the love of money that is the root of all evil. There are 4 things to understand about Wealth – first wealth is not inherently “evil”. Poverty is not inherently spiritual. The danger is not possessing riches but riches possessing you. God is concerned with the attitude & actions not the amount.

The more you own, the more powerful you are. It’s the power of the almighty dollar. But this isn’t what bothers me. What bothers me is the connection people make with owning expensive luxuries and being a good person. We see a model on television wearing a 120,000 dollar necklace and a 10,000 dollar outfit and immediately we feel the need to be like them. We’re taught that being like them is the only way. We are hounded with these images everywhere we look. This is the lifestyle we’re taught to live. Sell your soul for the newest T.V. Sell your soul for the fastest car. Sell your soul for what’s cool and in. But how does that make you happy? Materialism, it’s our sickness and it’s rising.

Luke 12:15 states, 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.

II The Exploiting of Others.

1. James is condemning those who have gained their riches by exploiting others. 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.

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: –Deut. 24:14

Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase. Proverb 13:11

2. 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 Sabbaoth” (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.

3. He continues in verse 5&6- the wealth that had been dishonestly acquired was used for selfish extravagance and will be “Exhibit A” on the Day of Judgment. Their influence in the courts was misuse to punish anyone who resisted or challenged them, to the point of imprisoning and killing the just people who had done no wrong.

Application:

1. Riches are given to you in order that you might invest it employ it to advance the work of the One who gave it to you. You are a steward of God’s affairs, a steward of the things entrusted to you. And some day every one of us must give an account of what we used it all for. Now, using it for a certain degree of your own enjoyment and pleasure is right, too. The man who learns how to use money for that purpose has learned how to be poor in spirit, that he might be rich in stewardship. Paul says in his first letter to Timothy that “God has given us richly everything to enjoy,” {cf, 1 Tim 6:17}. But that is not the only purpose of it. It is also to be used for the advancement of his work.

2. If you have the attitude that the things God has given you belong to him and not to you, then if he takes them away you do not feel upset; they were not yours to start with! And if he wants to take them away and use them somewhere else, that is up to him. This is the attitude Jesus is talking about.

Conclusion:

It is said that about 200 years ago, the tomb of the great conqueror Charlemagne was opened. The sight the workmen saw was startling. There was his body in a sitting position, clothed in the most elaborate of kingly garments, with a scepter in his bony hand. On his knee lay the Holy Scriptures, with a cold, lifeless finger pointing to Mark 8:36: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and loose his own soul?”

Conclusion:

We know the Father promises to forgive us when we confess our sins, but we often have trouble believing we are forgiven. That’s why we must not use feelings to determine truth. God’s word is true, and it says, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us”

  Psalm 103:12