Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / 17.15 - James 5:1-6 - Give Others What They’ve Worked For

Transcript

17.15 - James 5:1-6 - Give Others What They’ve Worked For · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

• 0:00
  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
• 0:03
  podcast from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
• 0:08
  We hope that this podcast will help you to know Christ, grow in
• 0:11
  his Word, and show his love to others.
• 0:14
  Let's dive right in. Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.
• 0:17
  And today we are in James 5 and verses one through 6 and we are
• 0:22
  going to be looking at kind of a very particular thought.
• 0:25
  We're going to see some perhaps applications for us today, but
• 0:29
  the main thought that James is dealing with here is dishonest
• 0:33
  business dealings. Dishonest business dealings.
• 0:37
  I might phrase this a little bit more for you and I today, as
• 0:43
  those that help you are worthy of their reward.
• 0:49
  Those that help you are worthy of their reward.
• 0:53
  So I'm going to read through the verses and then we'll see what
• 0:56
  we have for today. James says.
• 0:59
  Come now you rich people weep and wail over the miseries that
• 1:04
  are coming on you. Your wealth has rotted and your
• 1:08
  clothes are moth eaten. Your gold and silver are
• 1:11
  corroded and their corrosion will be a witness against you
• 1:15
  and will eat your flesh like fire.
• 1:18
  You have stored up treasure in the last days.
• 1:22
  Look, the pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your
• 1:26
  fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached
• 1:31
  the ears of the Lord of Armies. You have lived luxuriously on
• 1:36
  the earth and have indulged yourselves.
• 1:39
  You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
• 1:42
  You have condemned, You have murdered the righteous who does
• 1:47
  not resist you. All right.
• 1:50
  So as you're listening to that, you might go, what in the world?
• 1:54
  What is happening? So James here is kind of echoing
• 1:56
  a lot of what we would hear from the Old Testament prophets.
• 1:59
  That's kind of the style in which he is writing and if you
• 2:03
  will, preaching to us right now. And it's this thought there were
• 2:08
  people here that were rich. And we've dealt with that in
• 2:13
  Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.
• 2:16
  And these rich individuals, they were taking advantage of others
• 2:21
  through dishonest dealings, through withholding wages from
• 2:25
  who the wages should go to, through taking advantage of
• 2:29
  others and seizing things through the court system that
• 2:34
  they did not need to seize. And that's even some of what we
• 2:38
  would read in Chapter 2. So James says you guys need to
• 2:43
  repent of what you have been doing.
• 2:47
  That's what he says in verse #1 to weep and wail over the
• 2:50
  miseries that are coming on you. He says God is going to make it
• 2:54
  so that you suffer the consequences of your actions.
• 2:58
  And so your response should not be to become stiff necked and
• 3:02
  just be like, Oh yeah, I can ride up the storm.
• 3:04
  I've got enough money, I can make it through.
• 3:06
  He says no, like mourn, weep, wail for what is happening.
• 3:12
  And then he says because your money is not going to last.
• 3:17
  This is what we read in chapter 1.
• 3:19
  He says your wealth is rotted, your clothes are moth eaten,
• 3:23
  your gold and silver are corroded.
• 3:26
  He says everything that you have built up for yourself, it will
• 3:30
  not last. Your, your wealth, your
• 3:34
  possessions, your animals, all of it will die.
• 3:37
  It will go to someone else. It'll fade away.
• 3:39
  Your clothing, even the animals itself will eat through and
• 3:43
  destroy. He says your gold and silver are
• 3:45
  corroded. Technically gold and silver
• 3:47
  doesn't corrode, but he's saying it's not going to last and save
• 3:52
  you. And he says their corrosion, the
• 3:56
  gold and silver's corrosion, the fading away of even the most
• 4:03
  certain of your wealth, will be a witness against you and will
• 4:08
  eat your flesh like fire. He, he says in essence this, you
• 4:12
  are going to be just as perishable as your riches.
• 4:21
  And the fact that the riches go away, it's going to show how
• 4:24
  much of you and your integrity and your soul has also rotted
• 4:31
  away just like all the rest of your stuff.
• 4:35
  It says you have stored up treasure in the last days.
• 4:39
  So here the last days. This is again a throwback to the
• 4:43
  Old Testament prophets. This would be referring to the
• 4:45
  day of the Lord, the day when God comes and brings ultimate
• 4:49
  justice on everything and he brings judgement on those who
• 4:54
  have acted wickedly. And he says, yeah, you've
• 4:57
  hoarded up tons of money. And when God comes back, like
• 5:02
  it's not going to benefit you, there is going to be no, no good
• 5:07
  results of this. In fact, it's going to condemn
• 5:10
  you that God's going to be like, all right, what did you do with
• 5:14
  the goods, with the wealth, with the clothing that I gave to you?
• 5:17
  Did you give it to others? Did you show my love?
• 5:20
  Or did you hoard it all up for yourself?
• 5:23
  And then that day you're not going to be able to be like, Oh,
• 5:25
  well, I was just being shrewd And you know, my great, great
• 5:29
  grandkids need a nest egg. God's going to be like, no, you
• 5:33
  had plenty of means and there were people that needed
• 5:36
  clothing. I can think back to the end of
• 5:38
  Chapter 2 where James was saying, some of you rich people
• 5:44
  say that you believe, but you don't even go out of your way to
• 5:48
  help someone to have food to eat today.
• 5:50
  And you have plenty. And that's a lot of what he's
• 5:56
  saying here now in Chapter 5 is you had the means and yet you
• 6:01
  defrauded others and you stole from others and enough was never
• 6:06
  enough with you. Verse #4 look, the the pay, the
• 6:10
  pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your fields
• 6:15
  cries out that if you will, the the money, I'm going to use an
• 6:19
  example. The money in your wallet that
• 6:22
  you owe to the people that took care of your agriculture is
• 6:26
  like, Oh no, we belong to, you know, I'm, I'm going to say the
• 6:30
  name John. You belong to John.
• 6:32
  I don't need to stay in your wallet.
• 6:36
  It's kind of the mental picture. I have kind of a Muppets type
• 6:38
  deal that's going on and he says it, it's crying out.
• 6:42
  It's like the blood of Abel would be the first thing that we
• 6:45
  read in scripture that that cries out to God from the earth.
• 6:49
  And that would be from Genesis chapter 4.
• 6:51
  Again, they're speaking. It's it's not speaking
• 6:55
  literally. It's not that the blood is
• 6:57
  literally growing a mouth and tongue and vocal cords and
• 6:59
  saying stuff it it's just saying proverbially the pay that you
• 7:03
  owe these people for the work that they did for you.
• 7:06
  It's crying out and it's saying, hey, that I belong to someone
• 7:11
  else and they're the universe. For the outcry of the harvesters
• 7:14
  has reached the ears of the Lord of armies.
• 7:17
  That there are people praying and crying out to God as a
• 7:22
  result of your wickedness, and they are asking God for justice
• 7:27
  because of what you've done. And God is hearing and He is
• 7:30
  paying attention. Verse #5 You've lived
• 7:33
  luxuriously on the earth and have indulged yourselves.
• 7:38
  You don't have a care for others.
• 7:39
  You haven't benefited and blessed others.
• 7:41
  Instead, you have just hoarded it up for yourself.
• 7:44
  You cared about making yourself happy.
• 7:46
  You did not care about benefiting others with the
• 7:50
  material wealth that God has given you.
• 7:52
  He says you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
• 7:55
  It's here. Let me look real quick 'cause I
• 7:59
  have a commentary pulled up right here and I thought there
• 8:02
  was a hopeful comment. Yeah.
• 8:07
  Indulging one's passions is described here as fattening the
• 8:11
  hearts. Says you've done whatever your
• 8:13
  heart wanted, kind of a Ecclesiastes type of thing.
• 8:17
  You, you've anything you wanted to do, you did.
• 8:21
  But it is a day of judgement. It's a day of slaughter and it's
• 8:24
  it doesn't matter how much of your pet projects and passions
• 8:30
  that you got to participate in, he says.
• 8:33
  Today is a day of judgement and it's coming for you, He says.
• 8:36
  You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous who does
• 8:41
  not resist you here. There was a mistreatment to
• 8:46
  condemnation of bringing before the courts, in essence, people
• 8:50
  that underwent ridiculous hardship as a result of your
• 8:57
  defraudment. And they did not fight fire with
• 9:02
  fire. They didn't come after you.
• 9:03
  They didn't attack you, but you went after them.
• 9:06
  And woe to the people that woe. Woe to the people that return
• 9:14
  evil for good and that attack people that have never attacked
• 9:19
  or done them wrong, even as we would read in Proverbs.
• 9:23
  So what? What can we take away from this?
• 9:24
  Because as far as I'm aware, I don't know that we have many
• 9:28
  people listening to Tabernacle talk that own large farms and
• 9:33
  you're just busy defrauding your workers.
• 9:37
  I don't think many of us are in that that instance.
• 9:40
  If you are, stop it. Repent, pull a Zacchaeus and
• 9:46
  return back what is owed to other people.
• 9:49
  Don't frivolously sue others. Don't try and don't try and
• 9:57
  stick it to the man. Like don't try and get
• 10:00
  everything you can from someone else.
• 10:04
  There's a lot of places. I, I think right now you, you
• 10:06
  can go to a restaurant and you can order some stuff and you can
• 10:09
  have in your mind, I'm really going to cause a stink about
• 10:12
  this and I'm going to try and get some like free food and I'm
• 10:15
  going to try and get coupons and I'm going to try and get a free
• 10:18
  dessert and this and that. Don't do that.
• 10:21
  Just be honest and forthright. Don't try and get and get and
• 10:25
  get from other people. Seek how you can bless others,
• 10:28
  not what you can take from them. And realize that when others,
• 10:34
  whether physically, emotionally, spiritually, when they have done
• 10:39
  good to you, return good back to them.
• 10:44
  Like be kind, say kind words, use a kind tone.
• 10:49
  Choose to, you know, if it's someone that's invested in you
• 10:52
  spiritually, whether a, a teacher, a friend, kind of a, a
• 10:57
  discipler, a pastor, whatever it is like intentionally choose to
• 11:03
  be kind and to be good to those individuals because of the love
• 11:08
  that they have shown you here. There there were people, workers
• 11:11
  that mowed in the fields of these people and, and they made
• 11:14
  it so that these rich people could have a large crop that the
• 11:18
  harvesters made and and you would pay a harvester normally
• 11:22
  at the end of a work day. And here these rich individuals,
• 11:26
  they are not doing that and instead they are withholding
• 11:30
  pay. So let's not be like these
• 11:33
  people. Let's not be those that when it
• 11:36
  is actually Proverbs would have a lot to say about this.
• 11:40
  Proverbs, Solomon says do not withhold good from those who
• 11:45
  deserve it when it is in your power to act.
• 11:51
  You can't do all of the good to everyone all of the time.
• 11:55
  Like you don't have unlimited words, you don't have unlimited
• 11:59
  finances, you don't have unlimited gifts or time or
• 12:04
  ability to bake delicious things to give someone, but you do have
• 12:09
  the opportunity to do good to some people.
• 12:12
  We would read in Galatians 610. Therefore, as we have the
• 12:15
  opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially those who
• 12:19
  are from the household of faith. And even as I'm saying that, I
• 12:24
  remember this past Sunday from when I'm recording this and I
• 12:29
  don't know if these individuals listen to the podcast.
• 12:31
  If you do, I know what you did and I love you very much.
• 12:36
  My, my wife and my kids and I, we went out to a restaurant.
• 12:41
  Actually, it's the first time in the year and a half that we've
• 12:44
  lived here that we went to this particular restaurant on a
• 12:47
  Sunday afternoon and there were several families from the church
• 12:51
  that were there at this restaurant.
• 12:53
  And so that was kind of cool. I haven't interacted with that a
• 12:56
  whole lot in the time that I've been here, especially since, you
• 12:59
  know, after church, my kids are very ready for a nap.
• 13:02
  And so we normally don't go out to eat on this Sunday for that
• 13:06
  reason, But there were some people, there's a couple at the
• 13:10
  church and I, I couldn't, I couldn't try to pay for everyone
• 13:15
  from the church that was there. I think there was like, you
• 13:17
  know, 810 people from the church that were there on that
• 13:20
  particular day. But there was one couple that
• 13:23
  have been a blessing to me. And, and I wanted to do for some
• 13:30
  or I, I chose to try and do for some what I wanted to do for
• 13:34
  all. And so I, I flagged down the,
• 13:37
  the waitress that I knew was for this particular couple.
• 13:40
  And I was like, hey, I was like, could I pay for that couple for
• 13:46
  that couple's meal? She was like, yeah, yeah,
• 13:49
  absolutely. She was like, do you want them
• 13:52
  to know? And I was like, no, I had AI had
• 13:54
  a sneaky suspicion that once they were told, Oh yeah, your
• 13:58
  meals already been paid for that, that they might have a
• 14:00
  suspicion that it could be me, but I was OK with that.
• 14:03
  But I didn't want it to be like, you know, broadcasted,
• 14:05
  advertised, whatever. Well, turns out that that couple
• 14:10
  actually did like a Uno reverse card and they paid for me and my
• 14:13
  family's meal that day, even as I even as we paid for their meal
• 14:19
  And man, like that, that gladdened my heart.
• 14:22
  I was like, man, I, I want to try and do good to this family.
• 14:25
  And then that family went, Oh, no, we're going to try and do
• 14:28
  good for you. And I was like, Oh my goodness.
• 14:30
  And it just to my heart, it warmed my heart because it
• 14:33
  showed the love of Jesus because I, I just wanted to love that
• 14:38
  couple. And their response was we want
• 14:42
  to love back. And so I, I was just blown away.
• 14:46
  And that was the complete opposite of what I see here in
• 14:48
  James five one through 6, that instead of like defrauding
• 14:53
  others and trying to get the best of others, like we were
• 14:57
  trying to outdo one another in showing love.
• 15:01
  And that gladdened my heart as a pastor.
• 15:03
  That's the kind of stuff that I I wish our our church family and
• 15:07
  every church family across the world that they would do more of
• 15:12
  because if there were more people like that couple, man,
• 15:15
  this, this world would be a better place through God's
• 15:18
  people showing love to one another.
• 15:20
  So let's love each other. Let's do good to one another.
• 15:24
  Let's benefit, let's bless, let's not seek.
• 15:26
  We can take advantage of others, but instead let's do good to
• 15:31
  those that we have the opportunity to do good to.
• 15:34
  So I hope that's, even though it's kind of an interesting
• 15:37
  portion of Scripture, these 6 verses that you would get
• 15:40
  something from that and you would have some encouragement
• 15:44
  that you would be challenged to do right in your dealings.
• 15:46
  Don't try and always, you know, stick it to the man.
• 15:50
  Instead, find ways to share and show the love of Jesus to those
• 15:54
  around you, especially to those who are your brothers and
• 15:57
  sisters in the Lord. Thanks for tuning in.
• 15:59
  Have a wonderful day.