Sermon Transcript

“The Wicked Rich - Part 2”

Rev. Dustin Largent

James 5:4-6

July 27, 2025

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Introduction to the Book of James

We've been diving into the book of James, and we're almost done. That's the way we roll here at Sunrise—we just go through the books of the Bible and study them. Whatever we come up to, that's the topic. We probably only have about three or four weeks left in the book of James, and then we'll be going on to a new book. But this particular book has been pretty exciting. There's been a lot in it. Sometimes we don't get very far on a Sunday because we don't care about just seeing how much we can get through—we care about actually learning what it says and applying it to our lives.

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One of the things we're in right now, and this is unusual, is that we're talking about what we call the "wicked rich." Now, I know a lot of you are thinking, "Boy, he's talking about money already." Right? Well, I hardly ever talk about money. We just don't do that much. But this is the topic that came up.

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The Tests of Genuine Faith

The entire book of James is a series of tests. I don't know how many of you like taking tests—I hated taking tests. But tests are important for God. How do you know that you're really a believer? How do I know that I really have faith in Christ? How do I have assurance that I really am one of the people that's going to be with God when I die?

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Is it because I feel real warm and cozy inside? Is it because when I was at camp, when I was six years old, I prayed a little prayer and it never changed my life and nothing happened? No, that's not how you know. How you know is that you see the evidence of a change in your life by God in your life. God comes into your life and now you are transformed and changed. That's why the book of James is always saying works are important. It's not that they earn your salvation. But if there are no works, that's evidence that you never really were converted—like there was never really any change in your life.

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He's gone through a whole bunch of tests: how do you deal with trials? How do you deal with temptation? What kind of stuff comes out of your mouth? And then he gets to this section on how do people deal with money. The reason this is important is because within this church there in Jerusalem, where James was the pastor, there were people that were really rich in the church and people that were really poor in the church—in the same church, same pews. They sat next to each other. And what was happening is that some of these really rich people had gotten rich and they weren't sharing anything with anybody else. There were people that couldn't eat, and the guy over here has enough to last him for three lifetimes.

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The Wicked Rich and Earthly Security

I was only able to get through the first part, and it's talking about people who are rich—but they're wicked with their richness. It's not that being rich is bad. It's not wrong to be rich.

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Last week, what we found out is that these wicked rich people James is talking about were hoarding everything. They hoarded wealth, which meant they were hoarding crops. They just got as many crops as they could, hoarded them, and built bigger silos—built as much as they could—so they could feel secure. Their security was in their wealth. They had tons of clothes. And it says their wealth is rotting. Their clothes are becoming moth-eaten. The moths are eating their clothes. It even says their gold that they've stashed is starting to corrode. So, what it's doing is saying, “Listen, what you have on this earth isn't nearly as important as what you have in your account in heaven.” You spend a short amount of time here on earth—very short. We're like vapor, it said earlier, and then we're gone. And then what happens to everything we've accumulated? It goes to somebody else. We don't get it.

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Alistair Begg said a couple of weeks ago that you have two accounts: you've got an earthly account, and the goal is not to waste all of that and have it all here when you pass. You want to have that in your eternal account. You're always kind of transferring from your earthly account to your eternal one, because that's the only account you have access to once you die. That's the only thing you have—what you've built up for eternity.

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The Cry of the Defrauded Laborers

So, the first characteristic is they hoard wealth. Now James continues in verse 4:

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“Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.” (James 5:4)

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The laborers described here are day laborers. They show up in the morning, someone hires them, they work for the day, and then they get paid at the end of the day. That’s how the economy in Israel worked—it was based on day labor. Now, here it’s not as common, maybe in Chicago it might be. But in Seattle, where I pastored for a long time, it was common. I’d go to Home Depot, and there would be about 15 guys hanging out near the edge of the parking lot. They had their water bottles and were just waiting for someone to need help—usually with cement or construction work. Most of them were from Mexico or other international places. You’d negotiate with them—“I’ll give you a hundred bucks for the day.” They’d agree, and you’d work together. But at the end of the day, you don’t just drop them off and say, “I only pay bills at the end of the month.” Why do you have to pay them that day? Because they don’t have money from yesterday to pay for today. They need that money to feed their families tonight.

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If you hold that back and say, “I’ll pay you in a week or two,” that doesn’t help them. They won’t eat. Just because you have enough money to live on yesterday’s dollar doesn’t mean everyone does. In Israel, people lived day to day—not paycheck to paycheck. This was a big deal in their economy and culture. And Jesus even talks about it in a parable:

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“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.” (Matthew 20:1–2)

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He kept going back throughout the day to hire more workers. And at the end of the day, he paid them all. That’s the point—everyone gets paid at the end of the day.

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The Cry of the Defrauded Laborers

James 5:4 says: “Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”

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These laborers are day laborers. They show up in the morning, get hired, work for the day, and get paid at the end of the day. That’s how the economy in Israel worked. It was based on day labor. In Seattle, where I pastored for a long time, this was common. I’d go to Home Depot, and there would be about 15 guys hanging out near the edge of the parking lot. They had their water bottles and were just waiting for someone to need help—usually with cement or construction work. Most of them were from Mexico or other international places. You’d negotiate with them—“I’ll give you a hundred bucks for the day.” They’d agree, and you’d work together.

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But at the end of the day, you don’t just drop them off and say, “I only pay bills at the end of the month.” Why do you have to pay them that day? Because they don’t have money from yesterday to pay for today. They need that money to feed their families tonight. This principle is even in the Old Testament.

In Deuteronomy 24, it says: “You shall not withhold the wages of a poor and needy laborer, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land. You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them. Otherwise, they might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt.”

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And in Leviticus 19, it says: “You shall not defraud your neighbor. You shall not steal. You shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning.”

Why? Because withholding wages from someone who needs it to survive is wicked. It’s not just unethical—it’s sinful. So, when James says the wages cry out, just like the corrosion of gold cried out last week, he’s saying that injustice is not silent. It reaches the ears of the Lord of hosts—the God who commands angel armies. That’s a terrifying thought. The cries of the poor reach the ears of the God who is ready to pour out judgment on the wicked rich.

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The Heart Behind Injustice

James 5:4 says: “The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you.”

Just like last week when the corrosion of gold was crying out—testifying and eating the flesh like fire—these fraudulently withheld wages are crying out. Now let me ask you: what’s going on in the hearts of those who don’t pay the laborers who worked for them that day? That’s what we care about—the heart. What’s driving them? Why are they not paying these people that night? What makes it wicked?

First, they only care about treasure on earth. It’s all about accumulating as much as they possibly can. Their heart says, “I’m going to accumulate all I can so I can be secure in what I think is all there is—this world.” They believe that whoever dies with the most toys wins.

Second, they care more about money than they care about people. It’s not that they don’t care about anyone, but when they look at others—especially those they hire—they see them as tools to make themselves rich. Those people don’t matter as much as having more money.

But here’s where it gets really wicked: because they’re rich, they can get away with it.

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Some of us might have our heads down in the sand, but did you know there are rich people who get away with anything? They have so much money that if they or their kids get in trouble, they just buy people off. They pay someone to get them out of it. Or they have so much power in their position that no one dares to challenge them. These are powerful people—even in the church—who control everything. They use bribes. They go behind people’s backs and say, “I hired him, but I’m not going to pay him. And you’re not going to do anything about it either, because I own you.” That’s how some of the wicked rich operate. Not all rich people are like this, but the wicked rich use their money to control others.

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And James 5:4 continues: “The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”

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Who is the Lord of hosts? This is the great part. The “hosts” are the angel armies—the armies of God. In the Old Testament, Israel was called His host. But here, it’s the heavenly host. The Lord who commands all the angel armies is hearing the cries of the defrauded laborers. That’s a terrifying reality. The cries of despair from the poor workers who can’t feed their families have reached the ears of the God who has an army ready to pour out judgment on the wicked rich.

Condemning and Killing for Wealth

James continues: “You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure. You have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one who does not resist you.” (James 5:5–6)

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So, not only are they hoarding wealth and not sharing it, and not only are they fraudulently gaining that wealth by cheating people, but now they’re living high on the hog with it while others are suffering. James says, “You’ve nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.” What do you do with a cow that’s been fattened? You slaughter it. That’s the image James is painting. These people are fattening themselves up with wealth and indulgence, not realizing that judgment is coming.

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This is happening within the church. And here’s the struggle: today, every pastor is a televangelist. Every church has a YouTube channel or livestream. But it didn’t used to be that way. Back then, only a few were on TV—and some of them were wicked.

Some of those televangelists would say, “God told me you’re supposed to give me all your money.” And you’d have 80-year-old women on Social Security sending in their last dollars while the preacher flew around in a private jet. Some even renamed themselves after money—like Creflo Dollar. That’s not Christianity. That’s wickedness.

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These are the kinds of people James is talking about—those who live in luxury on the backs of the poor. They take advantage of others and justify it in the name of God. But James says they’re just fattening themselves for slaughter. Their judgment is coming.

Judgment and the Call to Repentance

So now the rich are fattening themselves up with riches just as Jesus is about to return and slaughter them. And so they hoard the wealth. They rob by defrauding. They live in self-indulgence. And here’s the last one: they condemn, harm, and kill for earthly wealth.

Matthew 6:24 says: “No one can serve two masters. For a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

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That’s the point here. Who are you serving? If you flip back to James 2, we already covered this, but let me remind you:

“But you have dishonored the poor person. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into the courts?”

The rich are dragging poor people into courts where they can bribe and make money at the expense of regular workers. That’s wickedness.

Genuine Faith and Righteous Judgment

So, here’s the question James has been asking throughout this entire letter: What does this type of hoarding, robbing, defrauding, and self-indulgence—at the expense of others’ lives and livelihoods—say about a person’s proclaimed faith?

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Let me just tell you this: today, in 80% of churches, there’s only one sin left—and that’s calling something a sin. That’s the only sin that’s left. If you go to probably eight out of ten churches in town, the only sin is if you call something a sin. Because then you’re “hating” that person.

But that’s not what the Bible teaches. There is actual sin. And we have to be able to identify what that is. God gives us the ability to identify what genuine faith is—and what it’s not. There’s nothing wrong with looking at what God has already judged and saying, “God has already judged this.” If I say I can’t judge something that God has already judged, then I’m becoming a judge. Because I’m judging that what God said can’t be judged. I’m placing myself above God.

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God says we are supposed to judge what He has already judged—according to what He says. Now, we can’t go outside of what He’s judged. I can’t make stuff up and say, “That’s a sin,” when it’s not. But if God said something, and I disagree with Him, then I’m judging God. I’m saying, “God’s wrong.” So, the question James is asking is: what does this kind of behavior say about a person’s faith? It’s okay to make a decision based on the evidence. If a person is hoarding all their money, making it on the backs of others, defrauding them, and living that kind of life—it is safe to say they do not have genuine faith. Because all the evidence says they don’t.

And we should look at ourselves and ask: is there evidence in my life? Do I have genuine faith? Am I living my faith? Could I be convicted in a court of law for trusting and loving Jesus?

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James is saying that those who are wicked rich—their faith isn’t genuine. That’s what he’s saying. Their faith is not genuine. They need to repent. They need to turn. They need to mourn. They need to weep. They need to wail. They need to beg for mercy from God—the God who judges them. The God who is the Lord of hosts, who controls the angel armies. That’s what this passage is saying.

Closing Prayer and Encouragement

This passage isn’t meant to come down on you or judge you. When this was preached to the people in the church, it was meant for two reasons.

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First, to convict those who were the wicked rich and say, “You need to repent, because judgment is coming.” Second, it was preached to the poor people who were being oppressed and hurt, so they could say, “I know that justice is just around the corner for me. Yes, I’m being defrauded. Yes, I’m being hurt. Yes, the rich are abusing me—and they’re sitting in the pew next to me. But God, I know You are a God who judges. I can’t do anything about it, but You are the Lord of hosts. And I take comfort in knowing You’re in control.”

We’re going to end a little bit early because my piano player left me and went downstairs—and actually, a lot of the band left me. That’s okay. We won’t worry about that.

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Let’s pray.

God, I thank You. I thank You so much. We look at our world and we think, “God, how can You allow so much unfairness to happen? How can You allow wickedness? How can You allow bad things to happen to people who aren’t causing it?” I don’t understand, God, why You would do that. But You make it clear here that You’re in charge of all of this. You’re in control. You don’t let things just slide. There is judgment coming for those who hurt us, who cause us pain. And God, even though there aren’t a bunch of rich people in this room, there might be some of us who have heart attitudes that hang onto money for security. Maybe our hearts are willing to shaft someone else to get a little more on this side of heaven. God, convict us. Draw us more to Yourself. We want to be aligned with You. We don’t want to be that way. So, we repent. We turn from any of these sins that may apply to us. We surrender to You. We ask You to be the Lord of our life, in charge of our life. Guide us, lead us, empower us to be the kind of people You want us to be. In Jesus’ name.

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Hey, thank you so much for coming. If you’re a guest here, we hope to see you back again next week. Until then, have a wonderful and blessed week. Thank you.

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