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Complete Sermon Notes
JAMES PART TEN: 12/14/16
Context: Businessmen to the Rich – 4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
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God’s will vs. my will
5 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. 4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
James is writing to those who call themselves believers – what we do with wealth reveals our heart.
It’s not about “riches” – look at Abraham and David and Jobe comma but it’s allowing riches 2 tarnish your character. We want more and more and more so we commit fraud and take advantage of others.
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Riches can lead to a wasted life. Anybody can waste their life, but it’s particularly disheartening for the wealthy [life is an elusion]. Weep – miseries are coming: Mark 8:36 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? 37 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
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Riches are deceptive because we don’t see our need for God: Matthew 19:24 “…It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle…”
The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth – Lord of Hosts: He is God of the armies of the earth and of the heavens
WISDOM FROM PROVERBS 11
11 Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight.
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Deception: making something appear better or worse for gain.
Get a 2nd opinion: From the mechanic to the contractor – the politician to the doctor.
4 Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. 5 The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright, but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness. 6 The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, but the unfaithful will be caught by their lust.
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Wickedness and Unrighteousness go together: “My good works grow out of God’s working within me” (J.I. Packer).
7 When a wicked man dies, his expectation [a strong belief that something will happen] will perish, and the hope of the unjust perishes.
8 The righteous is delivered from trouble, and it comes to the wicked instead.
10 When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices and when the wicked perish, there is jubilation. 11 By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
25 The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself.
28 He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage.
29 He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.
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