We are in the fifth chapter of James tonight. We're now in the last chapter, sort of closing in on the end of our study. James is a challenging book to teach. In that it's challenging for me. Just think about it a minute. What topics are absent from the book of James. Eschatology. Well, Al, tonight, it's funny you mention that, we do have a mention in James 5 verse 3, you have heaped treasure together for the last days, but outside of that one reference, that's about it. Not much about eschatology. What about the cross? Now, the atonement, the general way of saying the cross, well, you start scanning through it Do you find the Atonement referenced here? In other words, it is not a doctrinal book. And when you think about that, you understand Luther's statement that he founded an epistle of straw in that it simply does not have the deep doctrinal content that you're going to find in a book like Ephesians or Romans. It's a very different book. It's very practical in its nature. It's a book that exhorts us to very practical Christian living, but it assumes certain things. I think it is clear that it assumes, let's take the question of salvation by grace. Where are you going to find that? But it assumes it. It's sort of underlying it all, but when we talk about justification in the book of James, remember it is there that he emphasizes the place of works along with faith. That our faith is not a non-working faith. But there's just a lot of ground that we run into in the epistles of Paul, for instance, that we simply don't find here in the book of James. But at the other hand, there's things here in the book of James that are being emphasized that you typically don't find in Paul's writings. You may find him making reference to it, but not to the depth that James does. And an example of that is what we have before us tonight. And it is a warning to rich people. Now you're saying, well, that's good. I like a warning to rich people because that sort of leads me out of the equation. If I were to ask you tonight, are you rich? You're a very wise man to say that. Well, yes, you have hit the jackpot. If you took the entire world's population and did it by percentage, let's say 100 beans in a jar, To be born and raised in the United States, you've got about five of those beans. If there's 100 beans in the jar, each one bean representing 1% of the world's population, about five of those beans is the percentage of the world population of the United States population. In other words, about 5% of the world's population. So you had a 5 in 100 chance of drawing out the bean if it were simply a matter of chance, And let's suppose you had something to do with your birth, your birthplace. But the point is, is that you already have wealth because of where you are. You have opportunity as far as where you are. We think of people in the third world, no matter how brilliant, no matter how bright they might be in their homeland, let's say you're going to be an entrepreneur, you're going to be a Bill Gates. Well, let's see you do what Bill Gates did in Bangladesh. It's not going to happen. I don't care how bright, how brilliant you are, it's just not going to happen. That your environment to some degree controls the scope of opportunities that you have. And so if you're born in an impoverished country, in a third world country, the odds are stacked against you immensely. from ever having the wealth that you and I take for granted here in the United States. And I realize if I were to go around the room and say, are you wealthy? Most of us would say, oh, no, I'm not wealthy. It's the guy down the street. The big house down there on the corner, that's the wealthy guy, not me. But again, wealth is all relative, isn't it? It's all a matter of the fellow living next door to you. I keep saying I'm going back to Tejas. where we rode the mules in, you remember, 20 years ago. Killed the mules, riding them in. And I said the two rich guys in town up there sent the mules down for us. And the reason I knew they were rich is because they owned the mules. Nobody else in town had a mule, but they had the mules. And that was the only thing that differentiated them, as far as I could see, from anybody else in the village. They didn't live any differently from anybody else, but they had the mules. And so you would say, well, they're the rich fellas there in that village. And I'm going back. I'm anxious to see in 20 years what has changed in the village of Tejas there in the Chinatown Indian area. Be interesting to see. They didn't have electricity when I was there before. No running water except down in the creek. It was pretty primitive. And I'm anxious to see if it's still that way today. We'll see. But again, you understand that If you say, do you have everything you want, if that were your criteria of wealth, none of us could say, well, there's always something more we would want, I suppose. Do you have everything you need, which is really what the sign of wealth should be. Do I have everything that I need? And most of us in this room would say, yes, I'm very blessed I don't need really anything more than what I have. Are there things out there I'd like to have, I want? The eyes are never full, says the Proverbs. You're never going to get everything you want. But when it comes down to what you really need in life, are those needs being supplied? Yes, they are. And so we're dealing with this warning to those then who are like us, rich people. Let's read our text and you'll see what I'm saying. James 5 verse 1, Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Give heaped treasure together, for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cryeth. And the cries of them who have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. Ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist If we go back and take a look at where we have been here and get this working, notice at first glance it appears that we have sort of introduced a brand new study tonight, a brand new section of the book of James. We, in the previous topic, were talking about presumptuous speech, of saying we're going to go to this place, we're going to stay there a year, We're going to make a profit, and then we're going to come back home. James tells us we shouldn't say that. We should say, if the Lord wills, we're going to do that. So, we've had that discussion just previous to this, and now we go to this. But I want you to notice the go-to now, or a better translation might be, hey now, or come now. of go to now, but it's a similar thing. It's a call to attention, and I want you to realize that we had that very same thing back in chapter 4, verse 13. Notice, go to now, ye that say, today or tomorrow we're going to go into such a city. Here we have it again, go to now, ye rich men. So again, it is a similar introduction, and to me, that's what sort of binds these things together. And when we look carefully at it, what we are looking at overall, since about chapter 3, is the idea of man's pride. Remember we have in chapter 3, starting in about verse 13, this contrast for two kinds of wisdom. One that comes down from heaven, the other that comes up from the earth. The one that comes up from the earth is devilish, sensual, so forth. It is the source of all conflict. We are dealing with that same topic, man's pride, which is at the heart of that wisdom that comes up from the world. And it is that pride manifesting itself in various ways. Previously, man's pride shows itself in his confidence in what he can do. Remember in the previous section, I'm going to go to such and such town. I'm going to stay there a year. I'm going to make me some money. I'm going to come back. You see, he's proud of his ability, of what he thinks he's going to be able to do. Now, we see his confidence is in what he has, in what he possesses, in his material possessions, his wealth, his money. Since chapter 3, verse 13, we've been dealing with this big picture of man's pride, the heart of that devilish wisdom that comes up from the earth. And pride will show itself in a lot of different ways. First of all, in chapter 4, verse 1, in how we deal with others. If I think I'm better than you, then you better get out of my way. You better not be sitting in my seat. You better not be taking the thing I want. If I think you're better than me, then I'm always going to be envying you and jealous of you. And so, when you have this inequity going on, that from man's heart of pride, either I'm better than you, I deserve what you don't deserve, or you're better than me and I need to have what you've got. All of that is man's pride manifesting itself, and it's the source of all conflict. In the church, if you've got people out of sorts with one another, somebody wants something they're not getting. That's the bottom line. I want something, and I'm not getting it. And that comes back to our pride. And then secondly, as we saw last time, Pride exhibits itself in our presumptuous attitude towards the future. That we can make our own luck. You ever heard that expression? I somehow can control the success or failure of my life. I mean, you think of all the positive thinking stuff that's out there. I'm glad I'm not a salesman. Because I don't think I could, I would want to slit my throat rather than sitting through those Zig Ziglar, you know, what do you call those? Promotional things or positive thinking, motivational speakers. Yeah, I'd be like, you know, live in a van down by the river. That'd be my kind of motivational speaker. Yeah, I don't think I could take it. But it's the idea that all you've got to do is just set your mind to something and you can achieve whatever you want. And it's the bottom of the health and wealth gospel. It's the same thing. It's just the Christianized version of a motivational speaker is telling you you can do it. It's like the little engine that could. I think I can. If you think you can, you can. If you'll just put your heart into it. Well, like I said, let's go to Bangladesh and see how that plays. See how it works there. E.W. Johnson used to say, the health and wealth gospel is a great gospel as long as you're young, healthy, and got a lot of money. It's a great gospel. You take any of those things away and it's a lousy gospel. The health and wealth gospel is a lousy gospel to die by. You see why? Because it's telling you that you are in charge. You can make it happen. You can be healthy if you want to be healthy. Now, that's a hard gospel to die by. Because it's telling me that if I'm dying, I must have done something wrong, right? I mean, the keys to health are in my hands if I just use them, so I must not be using them. I must be disobedient somewhere if I'm sick and dying. And I notice none of these health and wealth preachers live forever. Have you noticed that? They get sick and die as well as everybody else. But notice the pride, the presumption that undergirds that whole system. I can make my own luck. I can set a goal and reach it if I just apply myself, if I think I can. Now, is there a sense in which we want to be confident? Is that important, to be a confident person? I would say absolutely. But are we confident in ourselves or are we confident in our God? That's the question. Who's holding the strings here? And this idea of saying, I'm going to go to such and such city and I'm going to make some money and all this stuff, what James is saying, the humble man doesn't talk like that. The humble man realizes that there's someone else in control of his life. And that if God wills, I'll do that. But there's all sorts of contingencies that can pop up that I don't foresee. And so tonight, we come to the third way that pride is manifesting itself, and it's in our relationship to our wealth, to our money. That's the section that we're starting tonight. So let's take a look at it. In verse 1, and I've called this turning rejoicing into misery, he sort of mocks the rich man. And he says that you need to start weeping and howling howling like a dog that's hit with rock or yapping, you know, because of the miseries that shall come upon you. Now, is it true that whoever is rich is immediately to be condemned? Is there anything necessarily evil about having a lot of money? Of course not. There's some very godly spiritually minded, rich people. The Christian view of wealth is that we are to be stewards of that which God has placed in our hands. And there are some that God has placed a whole lot more in their hands than He's placed in others. And again, relatively speaking, God has placed a whole lot more money in your hands than He has the average fellow down in Mexico, or especially the person in Bangladesh, or India, or China, or a place like that. So there's nothing inherently wrong. It is not money that is the root of all evil. It's the love of it, as you well know. So what is James talking about here? And again, I believe he's emphasizing how, again, the overall theme of how pride manifests itself, that along with wealth generally comes pride. Would that be true? Are most wealthy people proud people? What are they proud of? They made the money. You didn't. They're better than you because they made a lot of money. Okay? So, in general, this is the case. Not every rich man falls into this category, but a lot of rich people. There is a very difficult test. In fact, the Puritans said it was the most difficult trial you'll ever face in life is unbroken prosperity. And the reason it's the most difficult trial is because you fear it so little. You know, I know David can't handle being rich, but I think I can. You know, that's the way I look at it. Yeah, I could do it. Just give it to me. And therein lies the problem, doesn't it? I'm not scared of it. I'm not scared of the trial of being rich. Now, the Lord has somehow managed to keep me from being rich on several occasions. I had a near brush with being rich, and he has delivered me from each and every one of them thus far. So, that's probably a good thing. Obviously, that means what? I can't handle it. I think I could. I don't think riches would corrupt me. It would, David, you know, but not me. But obviously, that is not the case, or else God would have perhaps blessed me that way. Notice that for the rich man, and especially for the lost man, Wealth, money is the source of joy and security. It's his confidence. Somebody read Ecclesiastes 7.12. Al, you will spot that. This is a very interesting verse. It's talking about your defense. It might be the defense of a city. It might be the defense of your life. Ecclesiastes 7, verse 12. Notice he said there's two different kinds of defenses or protection. One is wisdom, one is money. And that of the two, wisdom is the far better defense because it brings life with it, whereas the implication is that wealth doesn't. Wealth corrupts. But notice that both wisdom and money or wealth are viewed here as a defense. Now let's think about that a minute. Why would you call money a defense? It keeps trouble away. How does it keep trouble away? You can buy your way out. You can hire you an attorney. Go sue the guy. You know, you can defend yourself if you've got lots of money. Right? When Asaph, we're going to talk about that Psalm in just a minute, Psalm 73, he talks about that the rich man doesn't have the trouble in his life. that the poor man has. He's got the resources. And in fact, most of the time, it is the rich man bringing the trouble on the poor man rather than vice versa. And so the point is, is that to a lost man, his money, his wealth, is a measure of his security in life. The more money he has, the more wealth he has, the more secure he is, right? The more confidence he has, And therefore, then, money becomes the source of his joy, or as it's stated here, his rejoicing. But notice that in a time of judgment, when God brings judgment on a nation or a people, it will not protect one from the miseries brought upon them. I mentioned that I've had some close brushes with being rich. One of which was Holmes Moore's son. Holmes is pastor up in Bible Baptist Church in St. Louis, his son Robert, very brilliant guy, computer nerd, computer guy. And at one time when we were living in Nashville, Robert came down to look at some software I had developed. It's a long story. But he got all excited about it. He wanted to go into partnership with me. Well, I wasn't interested in going into partnership with anybody, let alone Robert. He was a little bit of a loose cannon, unstable guy. Just a short while later, after we sort of discussed that and discarded it, Robert wrote a piece of software that allowed you to copy DVDs. It was the first commercially available software program that allowed you to copy DVDs. He was making at one time several hundred thousand dollars a month. His house outside of St. Louis, he had a helicopter pad where the helicopter would pick him up in the morning and flying to downtown to his office in downtown St. Louis. I mean, the guy made millions. Like I said, the Lord preserved me from the temptation to be rich. Well, obviously, Hollywood sued him. They took him to court over copyright violations. They won the case, technically. But really, Robert won because they basically agreed out of court to settle. And the settlement was that Robert would no longer sell his software, but that he could keep the profits that he had made from selling it previously. And he had made millions. Had his own jet. Went all over the place. Well, then he came down with pancreatic cancer. If money would preserve you from pancreatic cancer, he would have been preserved. He went all over the world. He had the resources. He had the means. to go all over the world, and he did, searching for someone who could cure his cancer. And he died about a year later. You see, when God brings judgment upon a person, no amount of money in the world is going to spare him. There is a lot in these few verses that tends to point to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and I'll perhaps develop that a little bit more as we go this morning. this morning, this evening. I'm still a little goofy. Going to get a lot more goofy before it's over. One of the strange things about the siege of Jerusalem was that the rich Jews in Jerusalem tried to escape the city. It was surrounded by the Romans. They were starving to death. And so, in order to try to preserve their money, they swallowed gold coins. Well, the Romans found out they were doing that, so now not only do the Romans capture them, they gut them to see whether they've got any money in them or not. The Romans are going to gut them to see if they do. In other words, being a rich person in the siege of Jerusalem didn't spare you. It just increased your misery. And there'll be a number of things that sort of makes us think that that's what James is alluding to. Obviously, it's a judgment that is going to come on the rich man, and it seems to be pointing to that episode. That's what I was just saying. Okay, let's go on. Second verse is telling us what we should know is that our wealth cannot be preserved. It cannot last. It's a very common biblical theme. We see Jesus speaking along these lines in the Sermon on the Mount about the corruption, the rust and decay, the moth eating the garment. Anybody ever had moths eat garments? I have, yeah. It was a nice suit. Not anymore. Now there's the moth gets through with. Notice that what is being emphasized here in verse 2 is the temporality. of wealth. Riches that are stored eventually will decay and ruin. I'm trying to think of examples. I've got plenty in my own life. Maybe you'd like to share one of something that you got. I had a boat given to me. Delbert Miller gave me a boat that is set out in my backyard and ruined. You just leave it alone, what happens? It ruins. It decays. It gets old. It wears out. The tires rot. The bearings get dry. Y'all ever had that experience? If you don't maintain it, if you don't preserve it, what happens to it? It just falls apart. What is ours one day will be someone else's. That is the statement to the rich man. Remember, the rich man that built the barns and greater barns, thou fool. your soul is required of thee." And then the statement there in Luke 12, verse 20, and whose will, somebody's wealth, whose will it be in that day? It's not going to be yours anymore. I am acutely aware of that, having to be the executor of my mom's estate, that whatever you have, it's going to wind up with somebody else. It's just a matter of time. We often say that whatever you've got, you're either going to lose it or... What's my statement? You're either going to... Well, use it or lose it is what we say. You're either going to leave it or lose it. One or the other. Old Buddy Abbott used to say, I've never seen a hearse pull in a U-Haul. You're not going to take it with you. You're going to leave it behind. That whatever you've got, doesn't matter what it is, It's going to be in somebody else's hand before too long, if the world stands. Then, in verse 3, notice how we are dealing here with riches testifying. The language here is crying out against us. It will be, James says, a witness against us that will eat our flesh as if it were fire. The notion is clearly ill-gotten gains. Illicit wealth. The word rust, and you might take issue with this, notice in verse 3 it says your gold and silver are cankered or rusted is the literal translation. Obviously gold and silver does not literally rust. I mean rust is oxidation and gold and silver don't oxidize. gold and silver do become tarnished, or perhaps a better word, a better translation would be the term corroded. And they are especially corroded when they are simply hoarded, when they're stored, when they're not used. And that seems to be the implication here. Notice the point that Jesus makes in the parable of the talents is that wealth is not to be hoarded. It is to be put to use. It is to be productive. Anybody remember this text and what it's talking about? The guy that got one, what did he do? He buried it. In other words, is he using it? And remember the condemnation? The Lord, when He asked for His money back with what He had made, the man says, here's your talent. I've given you back everything you gave me. And the problem is that wasn't enough, because he said, why did you lazy bum, you lazy hound, why didn't you go do something with my money and give me the usury, the interest on it at the very least? You could have loaned it. And notice that the whole implication there, and there's a lot of interpretation of that parable, a lot of things going on there, but at the surface level, it's teaching us that the things that God has placed in our hands are not to be hoarded. The TV show hoarders, you know, where you just collect and collect and collect. Who gets the use of it? Well, nobody really. Not even you. And the man that buried the talent in the ground, he didn't even get to enjoy it himself. It was absolutely useless, absolutely wasted. And so the point is that wealth is to be invested, it is to be put to work, and certainly that is true as far as the Kingdom of Heaven is concerned. We would certainly say that's true as far as the economics of our country, but as far as the Kingdom of Heaven, that if Christ and God has placed something, resources, in your hands, He's done that for a reason, that you invest it, that you use it. Okay? And the corrosion is the evidence that it's been hoarded, and it's been hoarded even in the last days. And again, this phrase, the last days, from James' point of view, living roughly about 60 A.D., would point to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. It's the last days for the Jews, which is where James is in the church in Jerusalem. So it's their last days, and they've hoarded up wealth against the last day. Okay. And then, verse 4, ill-gotten riches cry out against us. And this idea of ill-gotten riches, the context here in verse 4 is that you have defrauded your workers. People that are actually working for you, producing your wealth, you're holding back their wages. You're defrauding them. The idea in Leviticus 19, verse 13, which is the text that tells us that you're to pay your worker every day. I mean, this is clearly part of the social law of Israel. Are you familiar with the text that you don't keep your worker's wage overnight? Are you familiar with that? Let's read it. Look at Leviticus 19. This is sort of along with the idea that you don't take a poor man's cloak for a pledge, for a down payment, because he's going to need that coat to sleep at night, stay warm. This is very similar. Leviticus 19, verse 13, Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. Now that's a strange law. Why do you suppose that's there? I mean, what's that saying? What's the principle? I'm sorry? Nobody's promised tomorrow, okay? That's certainly true. I mean, and keep in mind, how many of you get paid every day? You know, in our culture, that's not what happens. We agree with an employer, we get paid at the end of the week or the end of the month, something like that. But these are day laborers, we've got to remember. The typical laborer in Israel was not somebody that's a continual employee. It's the hired hand that you go. And back where I'm from, we had a lot of the Mexicans that had come into the country to work. And there were places and contractors and farmers knew these places where they would drive up in their pickup, hold up their hands, so many fingers, and that many guys jump in the back of their truck. And they pay them in cash back When I remember that going on, it's $5 an hour in cash, cash on the barrelhead, no taxes withheld, no questions asked. At the end of the day, they worked eight hours, you give them 40 bucks, and there is no obligation that the next day they're going to have a job. Maybe they will, maybe they won't, but it's just day by day. And so it's the insinuation that this is a poor man, and this may be the only money he has. and for you to hold it back, to withhold the wage, is to keep a, what shall we say, a crowbar or a pry hanging over his head, that he then becomes your, practically speaking, your slave because he's got to come back because you got his wage. I'll probably not explain that, but you see the problem? When you've got a guy who's just working from day to day, you need to settle up with him at the end of the day. That seems to be the principle. Okay. But notice what else is in that same verse. In verse 13, the last half of it deals with withholding the wage that is owed, but the first half of it is defrauding your neighbor and robbing him. Notice the idea of doing one to the poor man is the equivalent, as it were, of robbing your neighbor. So in other words, this was seen as a serious matter when you don't pay your worker what you owe him. Now, we have stories in America of the so-called company store. Tennessee Ernie Ford famously made that famous. And the problem with the company store is the guy working in the coal mine At the end of the day, he has to go to the company store to buy what he has to live on, and it costs him more to buy what he needs than he got paid. And so the deeper and deeper and deeper in debt he goes. And that's the kind of thing that is being emphasized here, the defrauding of your laborer, keeping him a... It's interesting, R.L. Dabney, who was Robert E. Lee's chaplain and a very famous preacher in the Southern Presbyterian Church, in his defense of Virginia in the South, took on the criticism of the North, that you've got all these slaves down here in the South. And he says, well, you've got all those wage slaves up there in the North. And what was he talking about? Well, there were city after city up North where you had people working in the factories, and they were wage slaves. They were free in the sense, much freer than, say, the farmhand here in the South. But they were not free in the sense they couldn't quit. They couldn't leave. They were tied to the place, to the job. And so Dabney called them wage slaves. You see the principle. You can't afford to leave. You can't afford to quit. You're free to quit, but you can't quit. All right. That's the kind of thing that we're talking about. And such money, the wealth, he says, cries. And we've got a number of inanimate things in Scripture crying out to God. One of those is, of course, the most famous one is the blood of Abel crying for what? Vengeance. Well, in the same sense, James is saying your ill-gotten wealth is crying for vengeance, crying out. It is appealing to a God of justice for justice. And if there's one thing you don't want, it's something that is connected to you, crying out for justice to the God of justice. Right? And not here is He described as the God of justice. He is the Lord of Sabaoth, which means the Lord of hosts, or perhaps put it this way, the Lord of armies. And again, this is the hint that we may be looking at what was coming ten years in advance of James. That the armies coming to surround the city. The Lord of armies is the one whom ill-gotten gain cries to. And then lastly, the last two verses, is that ill-gotten gains or riches, wealth, emboldens unlawful acts or immoral acts. Is that true? Give me an example. Yep, that's a good example. Got more money than they got cents. Got more money than they got morals. In other words, Janet, Bernie Madoff. Yeah? He Madoff. You know, there's just certain names that should have been your clue. Bernie Madoff. Imagine he's a crook. It's sort of like Sidney Slinker. Y'all remember him? Yeah? If you're not from Memphis, you wouldn't know the name. Sidney Slinker. A name like that, what's your first clue? The guy might not be on the up and up. But the point is that the wealthy tend to view themselves above the law, and I mean morality. That there is a standard of morality that applies to the peons down here, you and me, and there's another law that applies to them. Notice that James points out in verse 5 that the life that wealth allows you to live is a life of luxury Indulgence, ease, pleasure, basically a life that you waste on yourself and on your own pleasures. That's what wealth enables one to do. And so it is no great surprise then that since they get to live at that level, that they don't see themselves as under the same laws as you and I and the same morality. It's you and I. It's not just wealthy people, but extremely talented people. The athlete, Al. Did y'all ever run into Jim Carini? He was a preacher from Philadelphia. Used to come to our youth camps. And Jim was trained at Juilliard. And a talented, very extremely talented pianist. Concert called pianist. And in talking to him, he said, you would be amazed at the immorality at Juilliard. And he says, the sense is that these guys are so talented that in their mind, the rules that apply to you and me don't apply to them because they are so gifted. So it's not just money. It can be ability, an athlete, or a piano player, or whatever, a rock star, whoever. They see themselves on a different level. And so there is this golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rules, they make the rules whatever they want. Notice the reference here to the day of slaughter. You've nourished your hearts, he says, as in a day of slaughter. That reminds me of what Asaph said in Psalm 73. Asaph is the guy who said, my foot almost slipped. I'd almost fallen away from God because I saw the prosperity of the wicked. I saw bad people getting rich. And he says, just eat me up until I understood something. And basically, I'm putting into my words what he writes in Psalm 73. Now what I realized, and it was like two cows out in the pasture having a conversation. And they say, you know, the farmer doesn't love us like he loves that cow over there. Because you see that cow over there, he doesn't have to get out here and eat grass. He gets to eat corn every day. He doesn't have to get out here and roll around hunting for grass. He just never gets out of his stall. He's just standing there and they bring him corn every day. And this other cow says to you, you fool, don't you understand what's going on? The farmer's fattening him for the slaughter. And that's what Asaph then understood. That the rich man, who has no problems, no trouble, is just being fattened. He talks about so fat that their eyes bug out? That's pretty fat. I mean, that's fat. That they're so fat that their eyes bug out. But then he understood that they're being fattened for the day of slaughter. It's just like you're feeding the animal in the stall. You're giving him every good thing you can possibly give him. He has no problems, no trouble, right up to the day he gets his throat slit. And so these are being fattened, the rich, for the day of slaughter. And notice the reference in verse 6. You have condemned and killed the just, and He does not resist you. There are some who believe that this is the clue that the letter of James was written by someone who took James' name, that it was written much later, because of sort of an obvious connection here. from what we know in church history, was called James the Just. And in 62 AD, at least 62 or 69, I think the evidence points to 62, he was martyred. This is the half-brother of Jesus, the pastor of the Jerusalem church, the author of the book of James. Most of Christians don't have a clue about any of this, but Josephus, in his description of the siege of Jerusalem and the events leading up to it, gives us this history. And let me share it with you. Josephus writes this. He says, And now Caesar, upon hearing of the death of Festus... Remember Festus? Remember Paul was in prison in Caesarea under Felix. And then Festus came and replaced Felix as the new governor. And it was then that King Agrippa and his sister showed up and Paul preached to him. So that's the new governor. Well, here Festus is now, a few decades later, is dead. So Caesar, upon hearing of the death of Festus, sent Albinus into Judea as procurator. They really weren't governors. They called them procurators. But the king deprived Joseph of the high priesthood and bestowed the succession of that dignity on the son of Ananus, who was also himself called Ananus. Let me explain what Josephus is saying here. Remember, at this time, the Romans are the ones who are picking the high priest. They're the ones that are choosing who gets to stay as high priest. And this guy, Ananus, who is the son of Ananus, high priest that gets picked at this point when Festus dies. Festus is the procurator there. He's dead. Caesar is in the process of sending Albinus from Rome to take his place. So we're in the interim. Albinus is not there yet. Felix is gone. There is no procurator. There is no Roman ruler. And so in that, he chooses Ananus, son of Ananus, to be high priest. I don't know if you know the significance of that. The Ananus, that's the Roman version of Annas. You remember the high priest that they took Jesus to first and then to Caiaphas? Okay. Annas is the old man. His last son, youngest son, was also named Annas. The Jews call him Annas ben Annas. Annas, son of Annas. The Romans call him Ananas, son of Ananas. But this is the youngest son of Anas. Remember Caiaphas was Anas' son-in-law. Okay. So this is the last one of Anas' sons. He had five sons, one son-in-law that served as high priest. This is the last one. Okay. Now the report goes that this eldest Ananas proved the most fortunate, the most fortunate man. He's talking about the old man. For he had five sons, who had all performed the office of a high priest to God, and who had himself enjoyed that dignity a long time formerly, which had never happened to any other of our high priests." That's interesting. They'd never had that happen in Israel's history. But this younger Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper and very insolent. He was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who were very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed. When, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity. Festus was now dead. Albinus was but upon the road. So he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others." Now, that is a very, very interesting statement here that He's saying this James is the brother of Jesus who was called Christ. The reason is because earlier in Josephus' history, he mentioned Jesus, who was, he says, he was the Christ. He was the Son of God who rose from the dead. And most scholars, quote unquote, say That's impossible. Josephus would never have written that. That was a Christian interpolation. In other words, Christians wrote that into Josephus' history after the fact. The problem is that why then would Josephus later in his history introduce James as the brother of Jesus, the Christ, if that was written in by Christians back there, that wouldn't make any sense. Josephus is writing this about James being the half-brother of Jesus, the Christ, assuming that you've read earlier that he already introduced you to Jesus. In other words, you wouldn't have any clue who this Jesus Christ was if it wasn't for that earlier statement. Yeah, yeah. You wonder how in the world could... it wouldn't make any sense. Why would you introduce somebody as the brother of Jesus, the Christ, if you had not earlier introduced Jesus? You see, problem. Okay, let's go on. And when he had forwarded an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned. But as for those who seem the most equitable of the citizens and such were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done. They also sent to the king desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more. For that what he had already done was not to be justified. Nay, some of them went also to meet Albinus, as he was upon his journey from Alexandria, and informed him that it was not lawful for Ananus to assemble a Sanhedrin without his consent. Whereupon Albinus complied with what they said, and wrote in anger to Ananus, and threatened that he would bring him to punishment for what he had done, on which King Agrippa took the high priesthood from him when he had ruled but three months, and made Jesus the son of Damnius high priest." So that is the history of Josephus, that during this interim, that Ananus son of Ananus, Anus son of Anus, condemned James and others to be stoned to death. Now, Eusebius has another account, he is looking at the writings of an early church father named Hegesippus, and it gives us a little bit more detail. Let me break in here just to shorten it. They came, therefore, and abodied to James, and said, these are the Jews, coming to James, saying, We entreat thee, restrain the people, for they have gone astray in their opinions about Jesus as if he were the Christ. We entreat thee to persuade all who have come hither for the day of Passover concerning Jesus. For we all listen to thy persuasion, since we, as well as all the people, bear thee testimony that thou art just, and show us partiality to none. Do thou therefore persuade the people not to entertain erroneous notions about this Jesus. For all the people, and we also, listen to thy persuasion. Take thy stand then upon the summit of the temple, that from that elevated spot thou mayest be clearly seen, and thy words may be plainly audible to all the people. For in order to attend the Passover, all tribes have congregated hither, and some of the Gentiles also." In other words, they've come to James. They said, you know, some of these people believe your brother is the Messiah and so forth. We want you to get up there on the wall of the temple. Everybody's here for Passover, and we want you to yell out there and tell them that your brother is in the Christ. Okay? To the scribes and Pharisees' dismay, James boldly testified that Christ Himself sitteth in heaven at the right hand of the great power and shall come on the clouds of heaven. The scribes and Pharisees then said to themselves, we have not done well in procuring this testimony to Jesus, but let us go up and throw Him down that they may be afraid and not believe Him. So they threw down the just man and began to stone him, For he was not killed by the fall, but he turned and kneeled down and said, I beseech thee, Lord God our Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And while they were there stoning him to death, one of the priests, the son of Rehoboam, to whom testimony is borne by Jeremiah the prophet, began to cry aloud, saying, Cease what you do. The just man is praying for us. But one among them, one of the fullers," that's a washer, clothes washer, a fuller, took the staff with which he was accustomed to wring out the garments he dyed, and hurled it at the head of the just man. And so he suffered martyrdom. They buried him on the spot, and the pillar erected to his memory still remains close by the temple. This man was a true witness to both Jews and Greeks that Jesus is the Christ. And shortly after, Vespasian besieged Judea, taking them captive. In other words, what he's saying was it was sort of commonly accepted among the people in Jerusalem that the reason for the judgment that was coming upon them was the martyrdom of James the just, this just man. So, does this verse apply? I don't know. It's very curious. James here is, of course, speaking in generalities, but he would be an example of that. Roughly as far as we can tell, that switch of governors took place in 62 AD. So it would be another eight years before Vespasian and the Romans invade Judea. Okay, well I'll stop, give y'all a break. I find that absolutely fascinating. I know what fascinates me doesn't fascinate a lot of other people. But again, the history behind it coming from other directions. of those, and especially Josephus, who took great pains in recording what led up to the siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. So, looking at that passage we looked at tonight, it certainly fits that scenario, that judgment was coming upon that city. The oppression of the just, in this case, the followers of Christ, would be one of the reasons. Any comments, points? Yes. Isn't that Romans 11? That's what I say. OK. Yeah. The problem there is that the language can indicate two things. That blindness, partial blindness has come upon Israel till the fullness of the Gentile comes in. In our language, that sort of implies that once the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, that the partial blindness will be lifted. But that is just one possibility. You could also say, in other words, it's going to remain until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. In other words, as long as there's others to be converted, that blindness shall remain upon the majority of Israel. So there's two ways of reading that same statement. I don't know if I'm making that clear or not. the full number of Gentiles to be converted. And the fullness of Israel is the same idea. It's the full number of those destined for salvation, elected to salvation. The fullness of the Gentiles is the full number of the Gentiles. Now, to my knowledge, I've never heard that connected to AD 70. I don't see a connection. I've not heard it argued. Not familiar with it if it's out there. The preterist view is so strong, however, and popular that there's probably somebody arguing that. Yeah, yeah. You know, that might be true if there were no Jews being saved today. You know, in other words, what you've got is concurrently you've got a remnant of Israel being saved, you've got a remnant of Gentiles being saved. Yeah, yeah, I find that too far out there, yeah. Well, let's spend our time in prayer tonight.