We're continuing on this passage we started last week. We looked at verses 1, 2, and 3. Then we'll be looking at verses 4, 5, and 6 this morning. So let's read the entire text. So we're prepared and then we'll pray. James writes, Come now, you rich, cry, Howling over your miseries which are coming upon you, Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. You have stored up such treasure in the last days. Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, that which has been withheld by you cries out against you. And the outcries of those who did the harvesting have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have lived in self indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous man. He does not resist you. Father, turn our attention now to your word. Open our hearts to understand what it says. Help us, Father, in every case, as we're hearing the word expounded and explained and proclaimed, that we would be asking in our hearts Father, how does this word apply to me? How does this matter? What is the significance of this to my life that I might be quick to obey? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. One of the great preoccupations of man is the acclimation of things. Whether it be possessions, cars, trinkets with bling, land, homes, this is not, the scripture tells us, the sum of our life. God did not give us wealth for the purpose of investing it in things so that we can admire what we have. An abundance of possessions just brings, often, more trouble with it. Luke 12, verse 15. He says, then he said to them, this is Jesus speaking, watch out and be on your guard against every form of greed. For not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions. Our lives are more than the things that we possess. Even the wealth we have, be it great or small, once our needs are met, that wealth exists to become then a conduit of blessing to others. That's why God has given it to us. We saw this last week in 1 Timothy 6, verses 17 to 19. We read that in the introduction. It's worthy for us to read it again. 1 Timothy 6, verses 17 to 19, Paul writes this. He says, Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, or to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies with all things to enjoy. Command them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. There Paul clearly tells Timothy that the reason that God has given wealth is so that we can be generous and ready to share and to be rich in good works. That's what it is to fund. You're not to be proud of your wealth, you're not to be proud of your possessions, you're not to flaunt them, and you're not to set your hope in them. In short, the idea is that you are to pass the blessing that God has given you onto others. Yes, we need to meet the needs of our families. Yeah, or rather, no, it's not a sin to be wealthy. Yes, it is okay to have nice things, but the purpose of wealth is, first, to meet the needs that we have, second, to wisely plan for the future, but third, to put that wealth to work for the purposes of God's kingdom and to bless others with it. Matthew 6, verses 19 to 20. Jesus said, this is in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. No doubt. that James, as he is writing chapter five, has these words of Jesus clearly fixed in his mind. The point is not to spend your life and your wealth storing up or hoarding treasures on this earth. Instead, we're to use what God has given us, use what God has made us a steward over, such that those things and that wealth will bring us eternal reward. And you do that by using your wealth for the purposes that we mentioned just a moment ago. So in chapter five, one to six, James is really indicting the rich who were in the Jewish churches because many of them used their wealth for all the wrong reasons. Again, he's not indicting them because they're rich, he's indicting them for the wrong use of their wealth. They had chosen to love their money, which God had given to them. And they had chosen to use it rather instead of for his kingdom and to bless others, they use it to bless themselves only and to hoard it. So in these six verses, James is telling them how they can expect God to deal with them because of this and why. And in fact, last week we saw the central idea was really what Paul states openly in 1 Timothy 6, verse 10, that the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. The love of money is a root of all sorts of evils. So we said last week there were five points to this two-part message. We saw two of them last week. The first of them was that the love of money leads to judgment. We see that in verse one. This is really what they could expect because they had chosen to be lovers of money, lovers of money. And what they had to look for because of that is the discipline of God in this life if they were a Christian and the judgment of God in hell in the next if they were an unbeliever. And so James commands them, he says, cry, howl, mourn over this sin, hate it, howl like the uncontrolling mourning of the death of a loved one. Your judgment is coming. Your judgment is certain because of this. And the only way they could ever stop that is to repent of their sin and trust in Christ if they're not saved, or if they are saved to confess and repent of it. so that they would leave that type of life behind and begin to use their riches for what God intended them to be used for. James tells them that you should mourn because you have not loved God. You've chosen to love and worship money instead. You've loved it instead of God, and in so doing, you have become one of money's lovers. You've engaged in an adulterous relationship with it as you have rejected God in favor of your lustful love of wealth. Second, we saw that the love of money leads to hoarding. That's in verses two and three. They had hoarded wealth to the point where it was literally rotting and rusting and good for nothing. The food stores that they had piled up were rotting, James tells them, because they had so much that they couldn't eat it. But in holding onto them instead of giving them to others, All they had done, all they had accomplished was to simply be greedy. They refused to allow them to be a blessing to others in need. They had put, as it were, a dam over the river of God's blessing to others and then just let it rot. God's good gifts were being wasted because of their greed. They had accumulated clothing also to the point that they weren't even able to really use it all. It sat so long it became nothing but food for moths. And so in their greed they had purchased clothing to do nothing else but become worm food. The money, James tells them, the coinage that they had collected, was so isolated and unused that it had begun to rust. And the very presence of that rust, James says, is a testimony against them. It cries out against its owners. And those riches that were crying out to God were to bring judgment and discipline against them. And just like fire, that judgment would be speedy and efficient and effective. It stored up that treasure, James reminds them finally. In other words, you've hoarded all these things that will testify against you and you've done it at the same time when your judge is most likely to return. And so instead of being useful for the blessing and benefit of others and serving God's kingdom, their accumulated wealth sat uselessly doing nothing. Judgment was coming. because they had become one of money's lovers. And their adultery would not go unpunished. This morning we continue on the text now in verses four, five, and six, as James gives us the last three reasons why God's judgment was coming upon them. And here's reason number three, because the love of money leads to fraud. The love of money leads to fraud. Look at verse four. James writes, The pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, that which has been withheld by you, cries out against you. As if they needed more things to testify against them. It cries out against you. And the outcries of those who did the harvesting have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. The charge that James brings against them next is shocking. And we see that it's shocking because of the way he begins verse four. This is a word that we don't use much in English today. We don't often go around saying behold. But that's what James does here. He says behold. It's a shock. You need to see this. You need to pay attention to this. James is telling them you need to be shocked by this. Shocked by what you've done. It's an interjection in the Greek. It's often used in front of statements that were either a surprise, or to take special note of, or something that was so shocking that it was hard to speak about. Just like the hoarding of verses 2-3, this is something for them to be ashamed of, something for them to repent of. It's awful. Keep in mind that as we look at this, the two great commands of the law of God are to number one, love Yahweh with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and number two, to love your neighbor as yourself. And what's happening here does neither. James tells them the pay of the laborers. That gives us the what of this verse, what James is talking about. He's talking about the pay that the wealthy landowners owned to those who had worked for them. These are wages. It's what a person is due. It's what they are owed. It is what no one has any right to withhold from them. Pay again refers to a wage. When a worker is employed by a landowner, There's a contract essentially that's going on. It was usually a verbal one, if nothing else, but there is an offer of work extended to the worker. And if that is accepted by the worker, if he chose to work for that landowner for the day, then pay is promised. And the promise to pay rested upon the landowner's honor. God commanded them to pay those workers every single day. This is back in Leviticus 19, verse 13, where God makes this abundantly clear. In that verse, he says, you shall not oppress your neighbor nor rob him. See how God sees this? Not oppress your neighbor nor rob him. The wages of a hired man shall not remain with you overnight until morning. Similarly, in Deuteronomy 24, verses 14 and 15, It says, you shall not oppress a hired person who is afflicted and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who is in your land within your gates. You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun goes down. For he is afflicted and sets his soul on it so that he will not try against you to Yahweh and it becomes sin to you. Later, the Lord spoke to Israel to tell them that because they had cheated these workers, he was going to judge them. Malachi chapter three, verse five, it says, then I will draw near to you for judgment and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages. Would you have put those sins together in a grouping? This is something the Lord sees as very serious. They were to pay their workers. and they were to pay them on the day it was owed. Remember, the text tells us before the sun had set. Now, why is this such a big deal? Why did God command that payment like that be made and be made that frequently? Well, these were day laborers. And without their labor, the agrarian economy of Israel would fail. It depended upon them and upon their work. These were people who were not wealthy. These were people who had very little. And their families depended heavily upon them bringing home money in order for them to eat and to pay their rent or their mortgage or buy them food and clothing every single day. And if they did not receive their pay every day, they couldn't afford to do those things. And the specific act of that James chooses here is quite ironic. These are workers, James says, who mowed your fields. That's the work of harvest. It's cutting the crop at the end of the season. Think about that. What does the harvest represent for the landowner? For the landowner, it's when he retrieved his harvest so he could feed his family. It's when he would, at the time of harvest, after he had gathered his crop in, it's when he could sell it so he could receive money to live on. And so James is saying, these workers who are working for you, you deny them their payday when they are working so that you could receive yours. So James reminds him, this is deeply hypocritical. Then after they had done all the work for the landowner, after they had made sure his harvest was secure, he refused to pay them. And remember, the laborers were supposed to be paid, they were supposed to get their pay every single day. Their pay was supposed to be continuous. But what happens here? Well, in this case, the pay never came. And I do mean never. Because you see, the word that's used here for withheld, it's a verb, and here this verb is in the perfect tense, and that means, when we talk about the perfect tense, it means a verb that is a past action that has continuing results. What do we mean by that? Well, it means that they withheld the wages with the result that they were still withholding the wages. They didn't just not pay them on the day that they worked, They still hadn't paid them. This withholding was not temporary, it was permanent. This is not just delayed pay, this is robbery. So this was a serious injury against these workers by the wealthy landowners. Do you see how greed stops others from receiving the blessing that's due them? If someone works for someone else at an agreed upon wage, it is robbery to not pay them at the time in which they are supposed to be paid. The employer is certainly at liberty to pay his workers more than what is owed, but he is never at liberty to pay them less. The minimum that he can do is what he has promised. Paying what you have promised someone on time is not grand, It is not grace, it is not big of you. Paying what you promised to pay on the day when you promised to pay it is simply what is owed. In other words, it's what the Lord, the minimum the Lord requires. Otherwise, just like these people, you're a thief. And so rather than withhold pay, they were to be generous to the poor. That's always the mindset that the Lord wants his people to have. In fact, it was a fascinating thing. God had set up the economy in Israel in an amazing way. You see, every seventh year in Israel, all debts were forgiven. Did you know that? In the nation of Israel, every seventh year, every debt that there was was just wiped off the books. It was forgiven. No matter who owed you what, it was forgotten. It was just forgiven. Even if you had lended to someone on the sixth year of the seven-year cycle, and that loan just started, in year seven it was wiped off the books. So if someone came into hardship in year six, and that's why you loan money, or why you borrow money, isn't it? because you need money that you don't have. And so if someone comes into hardship on year six, they came to ask you for a loan and you knew this person could repay, they could make the payments, but there was no way that debt could be repaid by the end of the year. Then on year seven, their entire debt would just be forgiven by the command of God. Would you loan to that person? And you say, well, pastor, from a business standpoint, That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It would be foolish to do that. It would be foolish to give them money in that sixth year or the fifth year or even the fourth year. You knew you wouldn't be getting most of it back. What does God say about this? Listen to this. Deuteronomy 15 verses nine to 11. God speaks to the nation of Israel this way. He says, listen, beware. Beware, that's a warning. That's how he starts this, beware. Lest there be a, listen to what he calls it, a vile thought in your heart saying, the seventh year, the year of the remission of debts is near. And your eye is hostile toward your needy brother, and you give him nothing. Then he may cry out to Yahweh against you, and it will be a sin in you. You shall generously give to him. Your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing, Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work. Do you hear that? And in all that you send forth your hand to do, for the needy will never cease to be in the land. Therefore, I am commanding you saying, you shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your afflicted and needy in your land. And you say, well, how does this apply to us? Well, we're not under that provision of the law in this age, but what is the point? The point, what's the principle that God's trying to teach here? The principle is be generous. The principle is give to the person who has need if you can. And the principle is expect nothing in return. Luke chapter six, verse 35, Jesus says this. He says, love your enemies. He's even going a step further, saying this is how you even treat an enemy. Love your enemies and do good and lend. expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great. And you will be sons of the Most High, for He Himself is kind to the ungrateful and evil." So, what's he saying? What's the principle that James is building this upon? Well, what we're getting from the Old Testament, what we're getting from the teaching of Jesus, what we're getting from James reinforcing that here in James chapter five, is that when you do that and when you do that with a right heart and you have joy in it, he says that Yahweh is the one who will repay you. He clearly said that in this text. He will bless you. And by the way, interestingly enough, the law commanded that when one Israelite lended to other, did you know they couldn't even charge interest? Why do you think that was? In fact, it was illegal to do so, it was forbidden in the law. Why? Because when someone borrows because of hardship, it's not God honoring for you to make a profit off of their difficulty. So in the end, what were the wealthy landowners doing? This is not just not being generous to those in need. It's not even fulfilling the bare minimum of paying their wages. They weren't even temporarily withholding the wages. They were greedily and permanently refusing to pay what was owed to their workers, and they had been hard-hearted and certainly refused to be generous. That's grievous, because this is a person who knows the heart of Yahweh and what he desires, and they utterly refused to even meet the bare minimum. What's God's response to all this? Well, the money that's still sitting in the bank accounts of the wealthy landowners That money that could be set into action could be going out to bless the workers by at least paying their fair wage. That money's in their bank accounts. Remember, what's it doing versus two and three? It's rusting. It's good to nobody. It's not doing anything. Oh, but it is doing one thing. It's crying out to Yahweh as a prosecuting attorney cries out to a judge for justice against the criminal, isn't it? That's what he tells us here. Then James adds that those who have been robbed, those who have been slighted, those who have been ignored, those who have been callously treated and are crying out to Yahweh, the irony in the text is heavy. See, the rich don't hear their cry for help. They don't care. But there is somebody who does. And it's Yahweh God. This is the cry of justice from those who are struggling to feed their family, struggling to pay their mortgage, struggling to clothe their children. They have been robbed, they have been defrauded, and now they're in dire straits because of the hard-hearted, greedy, callous hearts of the sinful wealthy. And those cries for justice have reached the ears of Yahweh. Here James refers to Him in an interesting way. He calls Him the Lord of Sabaoth. That's an Old Testament term that refers to God as the commander of heaven's armies. And the verb that James uses for have reached, referring to the cries of the defrauded, means, again, it's in the perfect tense, it means their cries have entered into his ears. And being a perfect tense verb, that means that those cries have entered into his ears, and they are still in the ears of God ringing. What's the point? Wealthy landowner, you need to know that Yahweh is not forgotten. Those cries will not leave his ears until he has given justice to those who are defrauded. And he is the Lord of Sabaoth. He will avenge the defrauded. In other words, he is coming with all the angelic armies of heaven to execute vengeance. That's what these wealthy landowners should fear. And he's doing it on behalf of all those who have been wronged. He's coming to avenge those who have been injured by those who are greedy. And not paid what was due to others. To say nothing of being generous to the poor. Excuse me, to say nothing of being generous to the poor. What do we find out here about the character of God? That he defends the defenseless, doesn't he? Well, verse four, money's lovers commit fraud to prolong their affair with money. Fourth, this is verse five, the love of money leads to excessive selfishness. Look at verse five. James continues his indictment, he says, you have lived luxuriously on the earth. and lived in self-indulgence, you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter." James uses two words to describe the life these people live. The first is he tells them they have lived luxuriously. That's one word in the original. That word appears nowhere else in the New Testament. And interestingly enough, it means to break down. The idea is it is broken down everything that is hard or harsh or difficult. So it came to mean softness, softness. In other words, everything in their lives is soft. Nothing harsh reaches them, is what James is saying. They've used their money to shield them from the harshness of life. They've kind of fenced themselves off from the real world and created a fantasy in which to live. Everything is luxury, everything is soft, everything is easy. It's a break from the harshness of reality. They've used their money to create a dream world existence where nothing bad happens to them, at least as much as they can prevent it. So for them, money is the answer to everything. If you just spend enough, you can insulate yourself enough from the difficult realities of life. They just buy whatever kind of life they want to have. As we mentioned above, this is the polar opposite of the purpose for which the Lord created wealth. They have hoarded their wealth instead of blessing others. Then they even withheld pay from those who gave them their payday. Now, they're going to take that same money that they've used to withhold from others and made others' lives harsher. They're going to take that same money that they have used, that they have refused to others to shield themselves from reality. That's the epitome of selfishness. They've stolen from others to give to themselves. every possible luxury. And then when life is soft, when life is easy, when life is protected from anything hard or harsh, they descend one step further. This is the second word that James uses. In the English it says they have lived in self-indulgence. Again, that's one word in the original. It literally means to indulge every desire of the human heart. It is to give your heart over to anything that it craves. is to give yourself over to every possible pleasure you could want. Now listen, beloved, as you're sitting there in the pew this morning, you know your own heart. If you had seemingly endless money, and you had shielded yourself from the rest of the world, and you did that so you lived in complete luxury and there was nothing harsh, and you had kind of boxed yourself off from all of the difficulties, And then with no cares and nothing to think about, what's your mind going to pursue? It's going to pursue the depths of your own depraved pleasure, isn't it? This is where you begin to think that everything that exists, even other people, are here to gratify your lusts. It is to give yourself over to the fullest pursuit of all your flesh craves. Now, let me ask you a question. How do you think that's going to turn out? Your life becomes nothing at that point but a lust fest. As I've said before, this is why the excessively wealthy, the excessively rich are often so bizarre. They actually have the money to let their depravity fulfill its perverse cravings. And the more that you fulfill your lust, the more depraved and twisted they become. And then you seek more and more. So no matter what level you sink to, you don't think it's enough. You don't find it fulfilling enough. And so you go further. You have to do more and more to get your sick heart the fix it craves. And there are no limits. to the level of depravity that the human heart can sink to. Whatever your mind can imagine, that's what you will seek. At this point, the person that James is talking to here will forget God, they will forget family, they will forget others that they love, they will forget the purpose for their existence, they will forget everything. And they will put the world out of mind and use everything and everyone as their personal plaything. There's no self-denial whatsoever at this stage. All of the guardrails are gone. There's only self. And at that point, a person's sensual thirst becomes their own narcotic. Even Solomon allowed himself to sink to this level. Listen to this, Ecclesiastes 2, verses 3 to 11. Solomon writes, I explored with my heart How to stimulate my body with wine while my heart was guiding me wisely. And how to seize simple-minded folly until I could see where is this good for the sons of men and what they do under heaven the few days of their lives. I made my works great. I built houses for myself. I planted vineyards for myself. I made for myself gardens and parks. I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made for myself pools of water from which to water a forest of growing trees. I brought male and female slaves. I had home-born slaves. I also possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of the sons of men. many concubines, that I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me. All that my eyes asked for, I did not refuse them. Do you hear that? I did not withhold my heart, Solomon says, from any gladness. For my heart was glad because of all my labor and This was my reward for all my labor. Thus I turned to all my works, which my hands had done, and the labor which I had labored to do, and behold, be shocked. Why? What's he just described? The life that almost everybody wants. I had everything imaginable, gold and silver, without limit. Hundreds of concubines, slaves to wait on me hand and foot, buildings that I could look at, cities that I could, I built that. Aren't I great? No pleasure did I withhold from my eyes. That's what many people want. Then he says this, thus, I turned to all my works which my hands had done, and the labor which I had labored to do. Behold, all was vanity, and striving after wind, and there was no advantage under the sun. Solomon says, I did it all. I let my heart go as far as it could. I took off all the guardrails and I pursued all the pleasure I could possibly amass. And guess what happened when I got to the end of it all? It's useless. This is the total surrender to whatever your heart craves. What does God say about this kind of life? 1 Timothy 5, verse 6, it says, he who lives in self-indulgence is dead even while she lives. Dead. Do you see how riches can draw your heart away from God? And how riches themselves become something that you worship? Because you see, as long as your new God money gives you what you want, You'll continue to worship it. You'll continue to be its lover. What's James' verdict on this kind of behavior? Look at the end of verse five. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. James is describing something that I'm familiar with, something that we used to do on the farm. We raised up cattle to be a little over a year old. We fed them with grain so that they could put on as much muscle and fat as possible. In fact, we had designed their food exactly so that they would maximize their gains. And then, when they were at optimal the peak of physical perfection, so they were young enough to not be tough, but old enough to be muscularly mature for the meat that you were going to get them, well fattened. Guess what we did? We shipped them off to be slaughtered. The whole idea of fattening is for the purpose of preparing them for slaughter. See, here James tells them that the more that they engage in their self-indulgence, the more they engage in their pleasures, and the more that they live for themselves, all that they are doing is storing up the slaughter of the wrath of God for them. It's as if James is saying, you want judgment? Just keep living like you're living. And the more you do, the more judgment you are storing up for yourselves. This is James' plea. Also for believers who are on the verge of abandoning themselves to this kind of life, to stop. So I don't know that I can sink that far. Oh, yes you could. Solomon did. And God had gifted him with more wisdom than any man's sense has ever had, other than the Lord Jesus Christ. James is calling them to consider the cost. And he's informing them that there is a price to pay for rejecting God and pursuing self-indulgence. And there's discipline for the Christian who rejects the holy, the set-apart life that God has called them to. because His holiness must be seen through you. That's how the world sees it. That's how other Christians, your brothers and sisters in Christ, see it. James is pleading for these people to wake up. And instead, like lemmings, they're playing a deadly game of follow the leader as they're enticed by their lusts that are hung in front of them like an irresistible carrot on a stick. And James is pleading for them to wake up, pleading for them to stop, pleading for them to turn. Beloved, if you're headed down this path to whatever degree you're able, to whatever degree you're following your lusts, stop. Reject them. Turn from your sin. See the vanity of it. And choose obedience instead. Fifth, fifth, the love of money leads to murder. The love of money leads to murder. This is chapter five and verse six. You have condemned and murdered the righteous man. He does not resist you. This is the final descent in their love of money. And if you've reached this point, if you've reached the point that we've been talking about in verse 5 and verse 4, what stands in the way of you fulfilling all of your lustful cravings? What's the only thing that stands in your way? Well, it's other people who refuse to cooperate with your pursuit and love of wealth. who refuse to cooperate with you feeding your own lusts. Or others who refuse to participate with you in your descent into lustful impurity. Others refuse your requests. Those requests become demands on your part. Those demands then become forced coercion. And if they still won't participate in the worship your idol demands, then you will retaliate or destroy them. That's what James is saying here. Push someone who has totally surrendered themselves to their lusts and they will do whatever they can to bring you down. James uses the word condemned here. It has a judicial context. It means to condemn or to pronounce guilty. These type of people find you guilty of refusing to do what their lusts demand and the idea is that they actually were taking people to court who would not fulfill their lusts. Essentially become false witnesses against their brothers. This is the testimony that those who love their wealth will do anything to anyone and sacrifice anything upon the altar to feed their money, God. And their preoccupation with having their lust fulfilled will drive them to take everything from everyone to satiate that desire. They must feed their hunger. And they will stop at nothing to do that. The righteous here in this text are those who seek to obey God. Those who do not participate in this kind of self-gratifying rebellion. The righteous here are innocent in this case, and the rich who are self-indulgent even go so far as to drag them into court. They're looking for a legal judgment to force him to do their will. The righteous man who is poor and has no means to put up resistance only has one hope, and that's in God. So that's what he does. And as we've already seen, God is the defender of the defenseless. He's the one in whom we put our trust. He's the one who we trust to fight our battles for us. And if we trust in him and the wicked appears to prevail, then we know God will somehow use that for his glory and our sanctification. It's what the Lord always does. So what's James' point as we look at these six verses? Don't be a lover of money. Don't commit spiritual adultery with it. Don't forsake God in order to serve it. Wealth is a gift of God to be used carefully and for the purposes which he has given for it. But when it becomes to you a master instead of a servant, it becomes an awful thing. It will pull you away from God It will dominate your life. It will cause you to spiral downward into a cesspool of sin. And it then gives you the means and ability for your depravity to have fullest expression. Don't be one of money's lovers. Instead, love and serve God with everything you are. And that's especially true with the wealth that he has given to you. So this morning, as we close these six verses, ask yourself the question, is money my master, or is it my servant? Father, this morning, we thank you so much for the clear, direct words that James has given us in this text. Father, we pray that you would find in our hearts Those who love and serve you, not those who love and serve money. Those, Father, who are eager to obey you from the heart, not those who are eager to make money our master. So, Father, this morning we simply pray this. In all things, in all ways, we would love and seek to obey you and resist those temptations that are put in front of us to use your good gifts for evil. Help us, Father, to do it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.