James Part 10 - Do Not Envy, Be Patient

Andrew Grey contitnues the Sunday morning sermon series on the book of James, with chapter 5v1-7. This is from Sunday 7th June 2026.

Transcript

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James chapter five. Let me pray and then read. Let's pray. Almighty God, Heavenly Father, we thank you that in your word, the Bible, you give us not just information about you, but you also give us power. Power to reveal yourself to us, power as you hold up a mirror to our own souls. We pray that as your word is read and preached, that you would do us eternal good through it. Work in us what you will and desire. And we ask that for Jesus' name's sake. Amen. So, James chapter five, I'm going to read verses one to seven. Let's listen to the words of Almighty God. 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. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Thanks be to God for his true and living word. You do not become a Christian in order to get power and riches. I hope that's not a shock to anyone. If you want to become a millionaire or a global influencer or a power broker in the corridors of power, know that becoming a Christian is not the route to the top. Okay. Generally, Christian people in most places and most times are not at the top of the pile, the worldly pile, that is. Earlier on in his letter, James tells us this. Those are the kinds of people who the Lord seems to love to choose and save and love the poor in the world. Elsewhere in the Bible we read this not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish, what is weak, what is low, what is despised in the world. And then comes the challenge. How does the Christian then live when he does not have riches or power? Or worse still, how does the Christian live when oppressed by those who do have riches and power? The Christian people to whom James, the brother of Jesus, wrote his letter, this was part of their experience. Back in chapter 2, verse 6, he talks about the rich ones who oppress you and drag you into court. Power and riches were the only things that matter. We have got, in our country, we have got a cultural memory of God's law. The Ten Commandments kind of loom somewhere in our imaginations. There is a dim idea still that people are made in the image of God. All people are made in the image of God, so a human life is precious. That memory is dimming tragically. Back then, you get in our time machine, head back to the days of Christ, the days of the Apostle Paul, the days of James, those cultures were only beginning to encounter the Bible. It never occurred to them, for example, that something like slavery was evil. So, yeah, we live in a far fairer society. Most of us, let's be honest, we have far more and we are far less vulnerable. But most Christians, in most places, in most times, they know what it was like to be like the people in James's day, to be vulnerable, weak, poor, and oppressed. So most Christians on this planet right now would variously know what it's like to have the courts stacked against you. There are plenty of places where a Christian could be oppressed legally or even murdered with no justice. There are plenty of places and plenty of our brothers and sisters who know what it is to not be able to get on in life. Get a job, get a better job, earn more, provide for your family because they're a Christian. We could think of any Christian in any Muslim majority state. You're treated as a dimy, a slave class. The passage before us, at the start of James chapter 5, it puts on the table what I have called wicked wealth. Wicked wealth. God's aim here, as in all of this letter of James, is to move Christian people towards what James calls wholeness, being whole. So we have a problem with a split soul, even Christian people, so I love Jesus, but I also love other things. My loves are split, they're divided. And the Lord wants us to love him with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength, and then out of that to flow a love for our neighbor. And what's before us today, wicked wealth, it is a massive challenge to wholeness. It's a massive challenge to that whole love of God and of neighbor. It is really easy for the split soul to take us to places of revenge. So when oppressed by someone, revenge, or to grumble against the Lord. Why do you give this to me, God? Or envy. Where it wants us to end up, where the Lord wants us to end up, is in the start of verse 7. Be patient. This is the climax, this is the application. Be patient, brothers. Where we begin though, James gives us what I have called a picture of wicked wealth. These are really dark verses, actually. I don't know if you spotted that, you felt that. These are very dark verses. Verse 1, come now, you rich, weep and howl. God the Holy Spirit is denouncing a group of people. And in these verses, did you see, he holds out no hope for them. Elsewhere in the book of James, James says some very stark things to the church, things that hurt, to be honest. He's constantly speaking to brothers, and he often says that, doesn't he? Christian brothers that are in the family of God, but they're going down the road of the split soul. They're trying to have one foot in Christ and one foot in the world. And he's telling them how to repent back to God. And he says that when we do that, there is grace, and there's more grace, and there's always grace. But to these people here, there is none. Actually, James is not expecting these people to hear. He is talking about them, he is not talking to them. So the people James describes here, these are the wicked, the Christ-hating, church-hating power brokers of the world. They're not in church, but he's talking about them to the church for the sake of the church. If you're a reader of the Old Testament, you will find this is often something that the prophets of the Old Testament would do. They would directly address a God-hating pagan nation, maybe it was Babylon or Assyria, who would never hear that word, but the people of God would. And it was really important for them to hear God denounce their wickedness, to help them to be patient, to endure, to not be tempted, and to know that God will act in his time. So it's actually really important for us, for the church, to look at an ugly picture of wicked wealth and power so that we don't envy it, and that we learn to be patient. So let's study this really vile picture. There is hoarding. See that in verse 3, the end. You have laid up treasure. You know, think of a dragon with his hoard of gold, which he jealously guards. There's piles of cash in the bank, there's gold in the vault, massive pension funds, investments. It's all piled up. This is not using wealth to bless others, this is just hoarding. And so, Christian, don't envy it. The dragon with his pile, it's actually disgusting. You know, that lingering lust for wealth in our hearts, it will split our heart. You know, Jesus says things like, you know, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So see how horrid it is. Not just hoarding, but also abuse. Verse 4, the laborer's wages, you kept back by fraud. Money buys power. You hire people, you employ people, you've got power over them. And so they defraud them, they cheat them. These these ones who James denounces, they were utterly loaded, yet chose not to pay their workers. There was no comeback, there was no tribunal, there was no lawyer to help. They were treated as slaves, or worse, through their abuse, verse 6, they even killed them. And this is something very close to God's heart. The Old Testament law often says things like, Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight. The Lord loathes this particular kind of sin where someone who is weak and vulnerable is abused. So there's hoarding, there is abuse, and there is self. Written large, verse 5: luxury and self-indulgence. These people they exist to please themselves. Maybe you've been following that uh recent scandal in Scotland, the government official who stole over 400,000 pounds, and you look at his purchases, he blew it on luxury and self-indulgence. It's kind of funny, you know, the bald man buying his 2,000 pound hairdryers, but it's also grotesque, isn't it? You know, £160,000 stolen to blow on a motor home. But it's not just that, man. We live in a world of massive accumulation, stuff and stuff and more stuff, stuff for me. It's ugly, it is wicked, and the Lord hates it. Therefore, the Lord's judgment will come. The Lord's judgment is coming upon the wicked wealthy. Now it's not intrinsically evil to be wealthy. The Bible is not against wealth. It seems that even in the church to which James wrote, there were some rich people. Chapter 1, verse 10, we read about the lowly brother and the rich brother. So if a Christian gets rich, that is great. Make sure you give a big. Here's John Calvin. God did not appoint gold to go to waste or clothes to be eaten by moths, but intended them to sustain life. So if you're wealthy, you can sustain life. So what are you investing in? What are you giving to? There are basically two types of life to sustain, aren't there? There's the life of the body, which for the Christian is mercy ministry, and there is eternal life. That's the life and the work of the gospel. But God is deeply, deeply, implacably, bitterly opposed to the love of money. And that in all of its works and forms is what James is denouncing here. With the love of money comes forgetfulness of God and pride and self-service and neglect and abuse, and the Lord loathes it. It is vile to him. And so James addresses this person and says, God is utterly opposed to you. What are you going to do about it? Well, James and the church, and we, we are to imagine, you know, we're to imagine this man or woman wickedly in their wealth, hearing the verdict of Almighty God on them. And Almighty God, he comes to them and says, Miseries are coming upon you. Now you have power and riches and luxury and control, but misery is coming. You've accumulated wicked wealth and you've used it wickedly. Actually, you've been accumulating evidence. As your bank account has grown, so has the ledger in God's judgment against you. Evidence which will condemn you on the day of his judgment. And it is God's judgment that lies behind today's passage. And the next bit, too, verses 7 to 12, which God willing will get to next week. Really simply, the judge is at the door. And chillingly, he says to these unrepentant, wicked wealthy, he says, end of verse 3, you have laid up treasure in the last days. So we should constantly, as Christian people, hear the ticking of God's clock. It is ticking if we will but hear it. The last days, the last days in the Bible, that is not talking about a small window of time right before the end when things are going to get really bad. Lots of Christians imagine that. The Bible does not say that. The last days is the Bible's way of describing the whole of time from Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension all the way through to his return as judge. Those are the last days, and it's last days because God has nothing else to do on his to-do list apart from Christ to return as judge. So that the Savior has come, He's done his saving work, the Holy Spirit is poured out. You know, now is the day of salvation, now is the day to repent and believe and come to Christ. And the next thing on God's to-do list, Christ comes to judge the living and the dead. Now, these wicked wealthy did not know that. They were blind to it, they didn't care about it or for it. They couldn't see that their amazing wealth has already stopped shining. You know, the luster has gone from their gold. It's actually doomed, it's moth-eaten, it's rusted, it's decaying, it's being eaten up. Just like on the day of judgment, and for all eternity, in what the Bible calls hell, they will be consumed in the fire of God's judgment. And verse 5 is graphic. Just think about it. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. Now it's a metaphor from the slaughterhouse, isn't it? Only skinny animals are okay on the day of slaughter. Okay, if you're a skinny animal, you're fine. Now imagine a turkey choosing to fatten itself up. Come on, I need to eat more, load up more, bulk out bigger and bigger and bigger. And now says James, here is a man or a woman stuffing himself with gold, piling in the injustice, the selfishness, the greed. Give me more. Even though as he gets bigger and bigger and bigger, he is just priming himself, he is readying himself for the day of God's slaughter. Now, this is a fearful thing. It is right to be fearful of fearful things. It is so stupid, so foolish, so wicked to pile up wicked wealth even as the age draws nearer and nearer to the judgment day. Now, why is the Church of Jesus told this? Why are we preached this? Why do we listen to God as He denounces such people? Well, first it is so that we do not envy. God wants us to look at the sad ruin of the wicked wealthy so that we are not envious of them. It would be nice to have a bigger house, wouldn't it? Or a better school or private health care. Wouldn't it be great not to have financial worries? I envy, don't you sometimes envy? Wouldn't it be nice to have influence, to have power, to have control, to have mastery rather than being mastered. God gives us this word that we would not envy the unbelieving, wicked, wealthy. Do not envy them. There's a really wonderful and honest window into envy in Psalm 73. You might like to jot that down and read it another time. Asaf, who wrote that psalm, he was he was so honest. He reflected on how you give up stuff to follow Jesus. And you do. When you follow Jesus, you give up stuff. And then he looks around and he just honestly says, I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Is it in vain that I follow Jesus? That I'm trying to be godly rather than worldly. They have got their heart's desire. What have I got? And it is so easy to envy, and that takes us straight down that road of double-mindedness. You're walking with Christ, but then your feet slip away. Envy is like grease. And what James shows us is what's what Asaph discovered. It's the end, the end, the fate, the destiny of those wicked ones. Look at it. You don't want to go there. The flip side of envy is patience. So in verse 7, there is a therefore, and that word is so, so, so important. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. God's judgment is coming on these ones who hate Christ, who hate the church, who exploit the weak. God's judgment is coming on them. Therefore, be patient, brothers. God is on the side of his people, no matter what happens to them. We don't need to panic or fear or give up. All opponents of Jesus will be brought to an end. Therefore, now be patient. Here's how Jesus encourages us. This is from Luke chapter 6. He lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. So for Jesus' people, there is this amazing reversal. It's not just judgment, but there is also glory, there is satisfaction, there'll be fullness, not emptiness, there'll be laughter, not tears. Therefore, be patient. So even when we when we suffer for the name of Christ, we're to be like the laborers in the fields. And we know that He hears. Imagine a Christian woman in some place where she is weak and she is powerless and she is exploited. She's working her fingers to the bone for people who have no care for her or for the things of Christ. And she cries out, and the Lord hears. Her words reach the ears of the Lord of hosts. And that is a glorious thing for her, and it's a terrifying thing for the wicked, wealthy who oppress her. He sees, he hears, he knows. He will judge them, and he will receive her and us into glory. Or think of Jesus' parable, Luke 16, about the rich man and the poor man called Lazarus. We're fast-forwarded to that last day when the clock has finally stopped ticking, the day of judgment, and we look at these eternal destinies of the wicked wealthy and the Christian poor, and there's this vast gulf between them. It's an unbridgeable gulf. And Jesus says to the wicked man, Remember, in your lifetime you received your good things, Lazarus, in like manner bad things. Now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. It is the great reversal of Jesus' last day. So, verse 7, be patient. Now being patient, let's be honest, it completely sucks. No one wants to be patient. I don't want to be patient, I hate it. That word patience, it's the Greek word makrothumia. It literally means a long temper as opposed to a short temper. The KJV translation is helpful. Long suffering. Long suffering, enduring with Christ, under suffering. And it's really close connected to another New Testament word, steadfast. We get to that in verse 11. Remaining under faithfully. Now we've thought about that before, haven't we? Do you remember back in James 1? The Lord puts weights on us. Remember, weightlifting. He loads the bar even with oppression, poverty, and evil. And he says, be patient, be long-suffering, don't give way to revenge or envy or despair. Stay Christian in it, stay Christian under it, because the best is yet to come. It is very hard, isn't it? It's wonderful that we have a Saviour who is patient, steadfast, and powerful. I wonder if you spotted the Lord Jesus in our passage today. The Bible leads us to Jesus, presents us Jesus, encourages us to have faith in Jesus in lots of different ways. It's not always the case that the person of Jesus is right there in front of you in a passage, but actually he is today, in the verses I read from James 5. So consider with me our righteous Saviour Jesus. Verse 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He does not resist you. Now in Christian people we hear those words, and the Lord Jesus comes before the eyes of our minds. Jesus betrayed by Judas for thirty pieces of silver, wicked wealth. Jesus crucified unjustly, put to death by this powerful, wicked conspiracy. There is Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Gentile Romans, the people of Israel. There is Jesus all alone. He did not offer resistance against his oppressors, though he could have called down legions of angels against them. He was patient. Jesus defines for us the furthest extent of long suffering. It cannot get longer. And in the suffering of the perfectly righteous and obedient one, we find all grace. So here is all grace, such as we need it. There's the grace of forgiveness. When we are tempted to, or when we sin in anger or envy or despair, there is grace. There is grace for the Christian flowing from the Saviour. There is also the grace of holiness. And here it includes the grace to endure. Patience doesn't just suck. On our own, patience is impossible. We cannot magic it up, cannot create it in ourselves. It is a divine patience that we need. And very wonderfully, the Christian is someone who is joined to the Lord Jesus, in whom the Spirit of Jesus dwells, the Spirit of the patient Jesus. And that means we can pray and trust and expect for this spruit of the Spirit to grow. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Let me lead us in prayer. Let's pray. Almighty God, Heavenly Father, we thank you for showing us your hatred of wickedness, your justice and judgment. We rejoice in that even as we tremble before it. We thank you too for showing us a wonderful Saviour in the Lord Jesus. We thank you that in Him is all grace and mercy, but also power and holiness. And we pray for ourselves for the grace of patience, for a filling of your Holy Spirit, whereby we daily trust and obey and endure joyfully and gladly whatever it is you bring to us. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.