Thank you, men, for leading the breaking of bread service. It's been a real blessing this morning just to focus our minds and our hearts on our Savior and God. Please open your Bibles to James chapter 5. Last time we took a brief look at the warning against finding security in riches. I said James opposes the idea that we should secure our future in present riches. The entire passage could be summed up with three Ps. Possessions 1-6, Patience 7-12, and Prayer 13-20. We are still in the part that deals with possessions. We looked at verses 1 through verse 3 of chapter 5 and we'll continue at the end of verse 3 and look right up to verse 6. I will probably have to come back next week and finish off verse 6. James here continues his assault on those rich Jews who, unbelieving Jews, who by their very manifestation of how they are living demonstrate that they do not have a relationship with God. They have faith in their riches, they pursue their treasures, and are consumed by self-indulgence. This is all because they have rejected God. And God has not opposed them. He's allowed them to find pleasure in this life. They have divorced themselves from the authority of God. And if you just remember back a few sermons, when James speaks about verse 13, he says, come now you say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Yet you do not know what your life will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes instead. You ought to say, and the implication is you do not say this. You ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live. And we will get to do this and that. They have divorced themselves from God. Why? Because they are gods in their own eyes. They get to judge people and condemn people. They get to determine their own direction of their life. They get to determine the fruition of their life. They get to bring about their own riches in life. And he says, well, God is not opposing you. You get to live the way that you want to live because God is not a part of your life because you have not made God a part of your life. So they've divorced themselves from the authority of God and they think they can live the way that they want. Yes, contextually, this is directed to the Jews in the synagogue who are not believers. So we get that. And I've been asked so many times over this last few weeks, well, how does that relate to us? And unfortunately, we tend to think that way, right? How does it speak to me? My goal is to help you understand the condemnation that James raises in this passage. And it should become clear by means of exhortation how you ought to live. So let me give you an illustration. If he's condemning the pursuit of riches in place of God, what should we not do? pursue riches in place of God. It's pretty simple, right? I don't have to tell you that. By implication, you should know that. But this morning, I am gonna add closer to the end of the sermon, an exhortation for those of you who are struggling to make sense, to join the lines. I'm not gonna give you application. I'm gonna draw an implication. I'm gonna draw out the exhortation that James is giving here. It's called the silent exhortation. Authors do this in the Bible. They tell you what not to do and then in reality they're telling you also what to do by pointing out what you should not do and that is what James is doing. Speaking and condemning the rich unbelieving Jews in this context by also implication highlighting how believers ought to live. Don't ever lose sight of the reality that James is talking about faith being demonstrated. The theme of this book is faith manifested or faith lived by means of righteous works. Faith is seen in how we live. And the same thing here. Their faith is in their riches, is in their wealth, is in their treasures. And so as a result of that, they love and they demonstrate the reality of their faith. We looked at verses one through to three, now read with me verse one through to six and we'll pause as I highlight some realities. Come now you rich, same words used in verse 13, come now you who say, and so James is talking about the same group of people and he calls them in a very Old Testament way of calling people to repentance. He calls him to a sense of repenting of their sins. And he says, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Judgment is coming. So repent. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. If you weren't here last week or last time, what James is talking about is the present faith and dependence they have placed in their wealth, in their riches. And he says those things are fading. They are not long lasting. They will not carry you to eternity. Yet you place value and also future hope in your present riches. That's why he says weep and howl because misery is coming. Judgment is coming. Your riches will be resurrected, not literally, he's using a metaphoric language. Your wealth, your gold and your silver will be resurrected to testify against you, to show where your faith truly was, to demonstrate what you really hoped in. These testimonies, these things that you hoped in, will eat your flesh like fire. They will consume you. They will be the judgment against you that you have not placed your faith in God. That's where we ended. I made a clean break from verses 1 through 3a. Because there is a difference in how James addresses them in the next section, so 3b, you have laid up treasure in the last days, sets out a series of statements that have the same words. Notice he says in verse 3b, end of verse 3, you have, look at verse 5, you have, middle of verse 5, you have, and the end, the beginning of verse 6, you have. Clearly James now is speaking directly to them in how they have lived. He described them in their totality in verses 1 through 2 verse 3, but now he's speaking specifically in the enjoyment or their wealth and their treasures and how they demonstrated their independence from God through these statements, you have. They are still alive, but James is circling them out saying, it's done. If you've not repented, your judgment is at hand. So those four realities, we will begin to look at this morning. You have laid a treasure in the last days. You have lived in luxury. You have fattened your hearts and you have condemned and murdered. All these speak about how they demonstrate that they have no relationship with God. They are not under the authority of God. They do not submit to the Lordship of Christ. They are independent people. Free agents. performing their own will, living according to their own passions, desiring their own end in this life. James is not saying that you can't have stuff. He's not saying that you can't enjoy stuff. He's saying you cannot have those things apart from God. We have to work hard in these sections where it's clearly, historically and contextually directed to a specific audience. So we have to work hard at understanding what it means and then how it applies to us. If we live without God, if you have a life without God, it will mimic how these people live. You may not be rich, but you will have the same desires and pursuits in life. What's the point that James is making? Can be summarized as follows. The way you live will be the lifelong legacy that will characterize you and mark you for judgment. The way you live will characterize the demonstration of your faith and it will mark you out for judgment. God does not intervene in these people's pursuits. Note that. God allows them not only to pursue it, but to get it and to enjoy it. God has taken his hands off these people because at the heart of the issue is that their faith has not been placed in God but in what they have. Mammon, riches, wealth has been their God and God has handed them over to it. God does not intervene in their pursuits, does not intervene in the indulgence, God does not intervene in the hatred of him. Now I want you to pay particular attention to those four statements. You have statements? Because those will tell you what to avoid. If you're a believer, make clear notes of those four statements. The last one is a bit difficult and granted, there's an interpretive issue there. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person, he does not resist you. So if you want to know what that means, you got to be here next week. I will hint at it. Or for those of you that will not be here next week, listen to it online. What you place your faith in is what will testify against you in the day of judgment. God is far from them. God is not in their plans. God is not in their pursuits. God is not in their possessions. So James says, be careful how you live. There are three qualities of the faith that James demonstrates in verses 3b through 26. Three qualities of this faith. The first is dishonest gathering of gain. Dishonest gathering of treasure. That's verse three and four. Secondly, there is selfish indulgence. Try to say that fast. Selfish indulgence that is seen in verse 5. Then there is unjust condemnation. That is verse 6. Dishonest gathering, selfish indulgence, and unjust condemnation. This morning we will try to cover verse 3 through to 5. If I don't finish There's always next week, so don't judge me. Let's give, I don't want to get your honey. Let's give attention to dishonest gathering of treasure. Verse three, you have laid up treasure in the last days. The statement laid up treasure begins a series of statements that are used in the same way beginning in Greek with the same letter. All have the epsilon or E in English in the beginning of these words. They all are in the same tense. That's why it's translated in English in the same way. You have laid up, you have lived, you have fattened, and you have condemned. Clearly James has something in mind. What does it mean when he says, you have laid up? Let me first deal with the tense. This is a holistic idea. He's not talking just about a past action. And in basic Greek, most guys will tell you it's a past completed action. Wrong. No, it doesn't work that way. It's a past holistic action. It's an action that has taken place and it's not giving you any idea about the timing of the action or the ongoing nature of the action. That's not his point. He's just saying this is how you have lived. This is indicative of who you are. It's descriptive of the entirety of your life. This word laying up or laid up can be translated as storing up. Storing up wealth or possessions means to amass a reserve. You know when people said COVID was coming? Lockdown was coming? What happened? You all went to the shop and did what? You bought out all the toilet paper and tin food you could buy. You amassed wealth. James is talking to you. No he's not, I'm just joking. It has the idea of keeping in store and laying in reserve. I think you know what that means, right? It's not just to have, it's to have more than you need. To treasure up goods for a future use. To place dependence or security in what you have, your wealth, for a future day. You all set? He's already hinted at that in verses 1 through to 2. Your riches, your gold and your silver, sorry, 2 and 3. Throughout the Middle East, this word was used of temple storehouses. Apparently, people used to store their treasures in temples. So they would take it to the priest or the priestesses and they would keep it safe for them. It's a good idea. They often didn't get it back, by the way, just saying, don't put your money in the church. It's not an investment. Put your money in the Lord. Finally, it came to mean private home money boxes, safe boxes. That's where we get the idea from. And most of us have a safe box. You either put it in your cupboard or below your bed. I don't know where people put it nowadays. It used to be in the wall. It's a place where valuables are stored. But take notice what it says. You have stored up treasure. This is beyond, and contextually, yes, money or riches is in view, and I'll explain why I say that. But it's beyond the fact that they've just gathered enough money. Not that he uses a very specific word. You have laid up what? Treasure. It sounds like a pirate word. And you think of gold when you hear treasure. And behind that idea is actually that. That it is precious to you. can see some of you thinking of a certain movie, of a certain guy who loves a certain ring and he calls it my what? Precious. That's the idea. Something that has become so important to you that there is nothing like it in this world. It is a treasure to you and you have laid it up for a future day. You have stored it up because your value is defined by this thing or things. You have gathered treasure. This is more than just goods. This is something that is valuable to us. Don't understand the condemnation here. James is not condemning the gathering of stuff. Some of us gather alliteration guns. I'm not pointing to one person. I was thinking GG. Why are you guys looking that way? Some of us gather goods. Some of us gather garments. Some of us gather washing machines. You get the idea. No, nobody does that. We love to gather. He's not actually opposed to gathering stuff. It's making the thing that you have gathered a treasure, a precious ornament that has the quality or the value of being worshipped. What lies behind this? Look at verse 2. Your riches have rotted, your garments are moth-eated, your gold and your silver have corroded. Sure, those things have been collected in that time, but he doesn't use those words because it's beyond that. It's more than money. It's more than gold. It's more than garments. It's a thing or things that have so grabbed the heart of the individual that it has become the most important thing in their life or in their lives. Jesus speaks about this quite often. Do not lay out for yourselves treasures on earth. Exact same language as James uses. Take note that he also says that these treasures, the things that they have placed their hope, their trust, their value in, the things that define them, is laid out, look at the last line that starts with the preposition, in the last days. I can't tell you how many articles and papers I have seen and read on this in the last days. Yes, it is an eschatological statement. How do we understand in the last days? Well, we have to understand it in terms of what they are doing and how that relates to last days. He says, you have laid up for you something precious in the last days. There's two ways to understand it. The last days could be a period that began with the coming of Christ and continues on until the culmination of the day of the Lord, the future day of his coming. Or, in the last days, meaning a future day that is still in the future, that is not present yet, still in the future, you have laid it for, and some do translate it that way, for the last day. That's an unnatural use of the preposition, and don't think that that is what James has in view. I don't think it's, you have laid a treasure for the last days. Think about what they're doing. They are valuing and valuing and placing dependence and security in things on the earth while it is the last days. Remember what Jesus taught his disciples the 40 days before he went to heaven? What did he speak about? The kingdom. What do you think was prominent on their minds? the kingdom. What does Paul speak about? What do the apostles speak about when they preach the gospel and the coming of Jesus Christ? They are thinking that the imminent return of Jesus Christ, it is on our doorstep. The judge is at the door ready to make himself known and he's saying to them, you are placing value in things and it is the last days? Really? You are making a waste of your time, of what you value. since we are living in the eschatological last days before the coming of Christ. This is 2,000 years ago. And we will say exactly the same thing. It is the last days because we don't know when our Savior will come. And we would say the same thing that James says. You are laying out treasure for yourself and it is the last days. You're placing value, you're placing your significance as an individual in the things that is on the earth. And yet it is the last days. What foolishness is that? Your value is not wrapped up in what you have. Your future hope is not wrapped up in how much you have. James condemns both security and identity in possessions in the last days. Last days is a problem to most guys. Let me explain it this way. I'm going to use the analogy of an eclipse. When the moon goes in front of the sun, what does it do? It casts a shadow, right? So that slowly, this is the sun, this is the moon, slowly takes away sunlight. That is what the last days are. If the coming of the Lord is the sun, the last days are like the moon or is like the moon if you use it as a compound is like the moon and it's slowly eclipsing the coming future day where Jesus will return and make himself manifest to this world it is slowly fading the light is slowly getting dimmer the sunshine is slowly fading away because when that day comes when the full eclipse is there he reveals himself and the day is over The last days is something like that. It grows greater in intensity as Jesus's future day draws near. James's point is this, you are mounting treasure and wealth and placing security and hope in it, and yet you don't realize Jesus is coming. It's the last days. They live as if a future day of judgment is not there. They live as if the future eschatological hope for believers is not a reality. They live as if Jesus is not going to come back. Guess what? God does not oppose them. He actually lets them get away with it. Look at the next line. Not only are they gathering treasures which he is opposed to, but also how they gather treasure. James points out, Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept by fraud, are crying out against you. And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. Not only are they hoarding wealth, but also James condemns how they are getting to this wealth. The gain of wealth by unjust means. James points out that they're not only interested in making more money, in setting their hope and their future in what they have, but they want more. and they will do anything to get it. Even rob day workers. Listen carefully. The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields. Interesting statement. These were guys, labourers, who would stand in a the edge of a field and the farmer would come out he would be the owner of the land he didn't own them but he would give them work and so he would say come and mow my lawn I think it's Matthew 16 or Matthew 12 where Jesus gives us Matthew 20 gives us an illustration of this where the owner comes and he gives them work at different stages in the day. That's the people that is in view here. We have something similar, right? Our guys stand on the street corner and a bucky would pull up and people would jump in the back of the bucky and you will give him work. And if they can't get the job done, he will get another guy also standing on the street corner and then you will come and do the work and pay them accordingly. So these are day laborers who used to come and do the harvest on behalf of the farm owner. So this is a farm owner who owns a field and has people working for him. Pretty clear picture. What happens at the end of the day? They go to the farm owner and they report to him, here are your sheaves, here are the things that we have gathered. and he would recompense, he would pay them for their work at the end of the day. This guy doesn't do that. Notice what it says, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud are crying against you. Listen to Deuteronomy 24 verse 14. I believe this is an echo of Leviticus chapter 19 verse 13. And it says, you shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land and in your towns. You shall give him his wage on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it, meaning he needs that. so that he will not cry against you to Yahweh and it becomes a sin in you or against you. Very interesting. It's almost the same, right? But there's something different. In that case, he says, you better pay them less they cry out, less they cry out to Yahweh. Listen carefully. The wages of the laborers are crying out against you. He's using it very similarly to how he's used the, in verse three, your gold and your silver. They, the corrosion, will be evidence against you. They will be witnesses is the word there. They will testify against you. It's being personified is the word. He's using it in a very specific way. It is not like the wages has a mouth and they are talking on behalf of the laborers. His point is you're not stealing in secret. God sees your theft and that thievery, that stealing will reach the ears of God. It has been withheld by you, defraud or stolen by fraud. The word literally means to deprive one so as to cause injury or suffer loss. Interesting. It's not just that you're holding back, but you're holding back is causing injury to somebody that should be getting that thing that you are holding back. It's wickedness. They display their faith in their security, in their riches, and in their treasure. They display their faith in not caring about people. These people do not love God, and therefore they do not love God's people. Now, it's disputed whether the laborers here are believers or not believers. And in Deuteronomy, it's both God's people and not God's people that is in view. And so it's probably that kind of idea. He's stealing all the land, and he's stealing from everybody. He doesn't care. This is injustice. And it is interesting that this unjust act doesn't go unseen by God. And guess what? This unjust act will not go undealt with by God. God will judge these wicked people. How do I know that? James uses two different words to indicate that God stands opposed to them or rather actually he is at war with them. The word cries and Yahweh of hosts or Lord of hosts and I'll explain that in a moment's time. The word cries is a word that relates to somebody that has a battle cry. Not just a scream for help. These, the wages that are being stolen by these land owners is calling out an army to fight against him or them. What is the army? It says, the ears of the Lord of Seboeth or Seboeth, however you want to say it. That is the Lord of the armies. Yahweh of host or Yahweh of the armies. The battle cry goes out to the God of armies. Your thievery, your stealing, your defrauding of people, your unjust treatment is crying out to the God who is readying his armies to come and deal with you. Just listen carefully. The money that you have stolen is crying out. Where did you hear that? Just a verse ahead, listen. Your gold and your silver have corroded, and their corrosion, what you have placed hope in, will be witnesses, will testify against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. That is army language. He will come and consume you in his anger and fury. What James is saying is that you don't realize that the injustice you are committing has not fallen on deaf ears. God will judge those who deal unjustly with poor people. That's the warning. Don't rob people of their income. Don't place value in the things that you have stolen. Don't place value or hope in what you have because God will judge you for your faith in those things. Don't withhold money to secure your own wealth. This is what James is saying. unjust gathering of riches so that they can feel more secure in their own possessions. And again, God does not stop them. He does not intervene. He lets them gather. He lets them get away with unjust action. And he lets it go on. until the day that he will judge them. Now, at this stage, let me just add a way to think about this. You may say, I'm not this guy, I don't steal money from people. Do you pay your taxes? Do you know that people get paid from our taxes? Hang on, hang on. Yeah, they steal as well, our taxes, but people actually do get paid. Government workers get paid by means of our taxes. Do you steal watching TV? I know that paying TV license is the dumbest thing in the world, but it's a law in our country, and it's not an unjust law. Maybe it is, I don't know, but kind of. But it's a requirement for you to watch TV. Do you steal watching TV? Because people get paid by that. Do you skip monthly payments? You've maybe got a clothing account, you know what, it's just Markham's, I'll just, I don't worry about it. Do you know that people get paid from what you pay? Do you skip your credit card? Yes, you may not be stealing in the same way, but the principle applies. Don't steal money from people. Why did they steal? Because they wanted to feel more secure in what they kept for themselves. Isn't that why we keep money? Isn't that why we don't pay our taxes? Because we want to feel more secure, have more to spend as we keep it from SARS, as we, sorry SARS, as we keep it from the TV license owners, the government, as we keep it from the creditors, Why do they gather more? Why do we withhold? Because we want to spend more on ourselves. And that is what James deals with next. Notice what he says. So not only, firstly, like we've seen, does he condemn the unjust gathering of riches and then placing your hope in it, but also he says there is the matter of selfish, selfish indulgence, not the Catholic word and I couldn't find an adjective for indulgently living so I just call it indulgence and correct me on Wednesday. James says, not only do they gather for themselves to secure a future, not only do they gather for themselves so that they can have more, but they gather for themselves so that they can enjoy more. Verse 5, you have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. Notice I said there were three things. There are four statements, you have statements. These two, verse five, should be kept together because both deals with indulgences. Indulgent living. Notice he says, you have lived luxuriously or lived on earth in luxury. It's the same word, lived luxuriously. That is self-indulgent living. Hang on, hang on. Does that mean if we enjoy our lives, we're being self-indulgent? That's not what he's talking about. I'll get to the meaning in a moment. This is to live for pleasure, to live licentious lives, to live in Waxed living, wanton living, to be extravagant, to be more, to have more than you need. The word actually has the idea of being soft. And one scholar says that having too much makes you soft. And so he draw a correlation between rich people and being, you know, soft. And so I'm like, I don't think that that is what James is saying. the softness is actually desiring soft things like silk, having more than you need and having more than you require. When you owned silk and soft materials in that day, You were well set. You had more than you needed. You were living in luxury because they used to wear like homemade clothes, like really basic homemade clothes, tunics. It looked like, you know the straw bags, if you cut the holes in it, you know, it looked like that. They became very smart and then used the bark of trees to make clothing and eventually less itching, but was still not as nice as we have today. So if you lived and had fine linen, soft clothing, you live luxuriously. That's the idea behind it. Living a life beyond the standard. Living a life that sets you up, sets you above the normal folk. And consistently desiring to live that way. Self-indulgence is what he is talking about. Now notice, he says at the end, You have lived on earth in luxury, in self-indulgence. That's one idea. And then he says, you have fattened your heart. You have dick hearts. You know the word dick in Afrikaans? No? Fat. They use it of cats and dogs that have a luxurious life. If a cat and a dog is dick, he's living the life. He's fat for a reason. It's not because he's just getting bones. He's getting the lamb chops that should be on your lips. You're giving it to him. He's living beyond the standard life. That's the idea here. And so verse 5 as a whole paints a picture of a person that is not your standard individual. It is not the fact that they are able to enjoy, it is the fact that they pursue it. The fact that they would steal so that they are able to live luxurious lives. Don't forget, he says these words, on earth, you've lived your life of luxury Why on earth, James? I mean, clearly we are on earth. I mean, he's not talking to people on Mars or on Jupiter, right? He's talking to people who actually live on this world. So there's a deeper level of meaning by using that phrase. He says that you've made Your entire purpose in this life, your entire goal for this world was to enjoy me time, was to have my time, was to have me self time. You know what I mean, right? You have fattened your heart. You have enlarged yourself. You are filling yourself to the brim. You have filled your life with selfish goals, is what he's saying. You have become self-focused in your pursuits. What James is after is a life that is focused on self-satisfaction that is beyond proper. It is not the fact that you have Lamb chops in your cupboard, in your fridge. Nobody keeps it in a cupboard. It's a fact that you are buying the lambs so that in a future day you would have more than enough lambs. I'm using a bad analogy, but I think you get the point. Why does James make this statement? What did I start with? Your faith is put on display in how you live. What is he pointing out? Their faith is demonstrated by how they live. How do they live? They lay up treasure on this earth. The entire goal is to enjoy their lives on this earth. They are self-indulgent, selfish, and let me add, self-ignorant of what they are doing. God does not oppose them. He gives them what they want in their treasure. He gives them, lets them get away in the unjust treatment of the workers. And he lets them get their wealth to enjoy on this earth. Didn't Jesus speak about that? They have their treasure. Now, James dealt with that previously. Godliness, on the other hand, is seen in self-denial. Even though you can, you can have all those things, you deny yourself from placing future hope in your present riches, from treasuring wealth to the degree that it consumes you. There's a stark contrast between those who are God's people and those who are not. These people have no control over their passions. How do I know that? Notice what it says, that you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. There's two things to highlight here. You are enjoying yourself to the brim on this earth, and in the day of slaughter, it relates to the future day of judgment. You are building up for yourself wealth, treasure, living as if there is no day of judgment. The day of slaughter is a way of saying that you are ignoring the fact that judgment is coming. They don't live with the eye on the coming of Christ. They don't live with the eye on a future day of reckoning. They are not concerned about judgment. They're not concerned about standing before God. What they're concerned about is now enjoying their lives on this earth. And you know what? They will get it. A child of God does not put himself first. He's not self-indulgent. This is a mark of a person who has little concern for God, little concern for people, but prioritizes their own luxury over God-glorifying activity. Believers don't put themselves first. but they put God's pursuits first. Blindness of wealth or possession leads to blindness in self-indulgence. The more we pursue, the more we are consumed, the more precious the thing becomes, the more we want to enjoy. You've been there, I've been there, you know exactly what that feels like. Some of us think, well, because I have, I can enjoy, I can indulge. Because you have, you want more. And so the cycle goes on and on. The more you gather, the more it grips you. The more you build, the more it captivates you. The more you have, the more you want. And so the cycle goes on and on. And before you know it, God is no longer part of the equation. We will go, we will enjoy, we will live, we will make a profit. Their lives are focused on self and therefore they live luxurious, self-indulgent lives right now. Why do they do that? All these verbs that James uses are in a holistic term, it's called erist, it's past, shows that this is an action that's taken place, it's speaking about the characteristic nature of what has taken place. They are still alive and he's saying to them, this is what characterizes you. Seeking out treasure, seeking out yourself, seeking out a selfish indulgence, seeking out your own pleasures in this world. This is what describes and defines you. That is your faith on display. This should not be the attribute of a believer. Now, I have Few minutes left. Let me draw an exhortation. Some of us are struggling and I've had quite a few interactions with some of you on how, what James is talking about in terms of the unbelieving Jews here and the silent exhortation that he's giving, how does it relate to believers today? Now, if this is true of those, if this is demonstration of faith that is not in God, but in riches, then the opposite should be true of us. That is the obvious conclusion, right? But let me meddle a little bit. Let me give you an exhortation, especially on this last point. If God is not priority, if He's not the pursuit of our life, If God has been pushed to the periphery, then we are acting in no different way than these unbelieving Jews. If God is merely a convenient Sunday reality, but he has no authority on every other day of the week, We are acting as if there is no future day of judgment and reckoning for us. There is no condemnation, believers, but we do have a given account for our relationship and how we live, how we demonstrate our faith. If we have no time for God's people, no time for God's word, no time for planning with God in mind, we are acting no differently to these people that have no relationship with God. If you're not feeling uncomfortable yet, I don't know where your faith is then. Let me push the envelope a little bit more. The world unashamedly disregards the Lord's Day. We would agree with that, right? They have no respect for the Lord's Day. When did Jesus rise from the dead? On a Sunday. Why do we meet? To remember him, to honor him. The world don't regard the Lord's Day as being special, precious, and important. Is it to us? Amen, right? It is to us. Is it really to us? When we emphasize selfish indulgence, when we emphasize our enjoyment, when we emphasize our pursuits over Jesus's day, we are acting no different to these unbelieving Jews. I think you're starting to see the connection. That's how application works. The truth is given, believers. It is absolutely clear. God requires our single most important devotion in life. It is Him and Him alone over everything, not just the Sunday. But Sunday is the day that He has circled out for His attention. Why then is it not a priority? How do we know that it is not a priority? The world will tell you it's okay to go out and around on a Sunday, go and do sport on a Sunday, go and swim on a Sunday. It's okay because it's just another day. And your argument may just be, you know what, it is just one day. Hang on, why did Jesus rise from the dead so that he can have a people that worships him, that devotes himself to him? How dare we? Think little of his day. Why do we want to skip one day for self-indulgence? How do we get there? When we prioritize ourselves and not our King. When we make ourselves more important and not our Lord. The reason we get there is because slowly the world has infiltrated our minds to think in terms of being self-indulgent. Nike, right? Just do it. Don't care about the consequences, just go for it. We are seeing the Christian world seeking out personal enjoyment more than seeking out God each and every day. That's why it's not a problem for us to give up things where God requires us to be. Do not give up. Do not forsake the gathering together of the saints. But it's so easy nowadays, why? I come now and again, I do this. The minute you start thinking in terms of what you do and how many times you've been there, you have missed the point. Jesus requires your devotion every single day of your life. But on His day, saints, on His day, how dare we dishonor our Lord and Savior who died to save us? just for a momentary, momentary experience of joy on his day. That's how you get to application. If you didn't understand the silent exhortation that James is giving there, if it didn't make sense to you, I hope that my exhortation is helping you to think through what is important in this life. We're getting to the end of this year and it's called the silly season for a reason because people act silly during the season. We don't care about what is important to God, but we do care about what is important to us. If he has died to save you, if he has died to sanctify you, then he has died to secure your life for himself. I don't think we always understand what is meant that we have been bought with a price and therefore our lives do not belong to us. Let me end with this. A guy by the name of Eric Liddell, some of you may know him, was a very faithful believer, qualified for the Olympics, ran in many sports, many tracks. But then when it came to him running on the Lord's day, what did he do? He's not only famous for being such a weird runner, he used to run with arms flaring like this with his head back, but he was good at what he did. He's not only famous for what he did in the sports, but what stance he took on the Lord's day. Ask any runner that knows a little bit about Eric Liddell, they will tell you he was not only a good runner, but a Christian who did not sacrifice the Lord's Day just for a medal. I don't care how good you are at your sport. If you don't understand the priority of the Lord's Day, then I'm concerned about where you are. Devotion is not a convenient thing. Devotion to Christ is a sacrifice. And believe us, the day may be coming when we will be called to make a sacrifice, when it will be hard to be here. And those of us who are making easy adjustments to our life right now may not show up when our lives are on the line when we need to come. We normalize self-indulgence, but we do not prioritize Christ as Lord over every single moment that we live. Let's pray. Father, we are saddened by the reality that we don't always think in terms of your priority in our lives, and we think like these unbelieving Jews who are self-loving, self-indulgent sinners. We prioritize our own time, our own enjoyments in this world, because we don't understand how important you are. Forgive us, Lord. Teach us by hardship, by discipline, by grace, by patience, by forbearance, how to live for Jesus Christ. We need you, Lord, to keep us on the right path. If you leave us to ourselves, we will not only wander, but we will ruin ourselves. So keep us. Draw us back by whatever means, Lord. Draw us back to faithfulness. Let there not be a season where we are not devoted to Christ. Let there not be a day where you are not the priority in our walk. Let there not be a Lord's day where you are not the priority in our worship. Forgive us for our unfaithfulness and for our lack of devotion. And Lord, motivate us to be faithful to you in all things. For your name we pray, amen.