Man and His Money

Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. I want to talk to you about a subject that's on everybody's mind, and that's the subject of money. I know that you're interested in money.

If you say that you're not, I have a tendency to believe that you're not telling the truth. And you can tell a lot about a man's character by his reaction to money, whether it be in plenty or whether it be in poverty. I heard about a man who came into a large inheritance, several hundred thousand dollars. It was such a great amount of money that the man was old and he had a weak heart. They thought they better not tell him that he had so much money just bluntly because it might cause him to have a heart attack. They said, well, the preacher is good with words. We'll ask the preacher to tell him. And so the minister went over to tell him.

The minister thought rather than just telling him straight out, he'd kind of ease into it. Rather than a statement, he put a question to the old man and he said, Grandpa, what would you do if you had $200,000? He said, Pastor, I'd give it all to the building fund.

The pastor fainted. Now, you can tell what a man's attitude is and a lot about his character by his relationship to money. There are a lot of deceptions about money. A lot of people have some wrong ideas about money. Some people think that money brings happiness. It doesn't. It can buy almost anything but happiness, take you almost anywhere but to heaven. Other people think that money brings security. It doesn't. Other people think that money is sinful.

It isn't. It is a necessary means of exchange. The Bible doesn't say that money is the root of all evil, contrary to popular opinion. The Bible says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And I want to tell you one more time that a man's character and a man's religion and a man's spirituality may be measured by his attitude toward money more than almost anything else. Somebody said stewardship is that area of life that tells how men make money and how God makes men. So we're going to be talking about a man and his money or, if you please, a woman and her money. The very first thing I think that God is interested in, so far as our wealth is concerned, is how a man saves his money, how a man saves his money.

Let's look in chapter 5, verse 1. Go to now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.

Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Now here James is talking about how a man saves his money. And he says there's some people who just treasure up money.

The word for treasure is the word we get our word thesaurus from and it actually means a collection. There's some people who collect money like other people who collect stamps. I mean, they have money, not necessarily money that they're going to need for retirement or money that they're going to need for the future, but money that is kept for money's sake. What James is talking about here is what I would call stagnant wealth, wealth that has been heaped up, wealth that has been salted down, wealth that has been hoarded, the Bible condemns. God wants us, I'm certain, to save money. The Bible tells us to go to the ant and be wise and the ant saves a certain amount for the future and so forth.

And the Bible talks about leaving and inheritance. God wants us to save money. I believe that with all of my heart that the saving of money is not wrong but wise. But the Bible warns against hoarding money, treasuring up money, keeping wealth beyond that which is proper and that which is right.

That is loving money for money's sake. Again, I remind you that the Bible says the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Now, the Bible does not condemn wealth. Some people think that the Bible condemns wealth, but it does not. As a matter of fact, the Bible says it is the Lord thy God that giveth thee power to get wealth. And you can study the Bible and you'll find some of God's saints have been wealthy. For example, the Bible says of Abraham in Genesis chapter 13 and verse 2 that Abraham was very rich in silver and gold, and yet he was the father of the faithful, very rich in silver and gold.

When David died, here's the way the Bible described him. First Chronicles chapter 29 verse 28, In a good old age, full of days, riches and honor. The Bible says both riches and honor come from the Lord.

Riches and honor. The Bible didn't condemn David for dying with riches and honor. It seems to commend him. There was a rich man who was used of our Lord. As a matter of fact, he loaned the Lord Jesus his burial place. His name was Joseph of Arimathea. He was a disciple of the Lord Jesus. And the Bible says of him in Matthew chapter 27 and verse 57, He was a rich man. I was preaching when we were preaching through the book of Acts about a man named Barnabas. And there's great indication that Barnabas was a man who had money.

He was a wealthy man, but he used his money for the Lord, a good old Barney, son of consolation. Mary, Martha and Lazarus in whose home the Lord Jesus would frequently stay must have been people of means because they had a large home. It was a place where they could have banquets. They had feasts.

They had guests to come in. They were able to show their lavish love to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Bible does not condemn wealth as such, but the Bible does condemn the hoarding of wealth, the loving of money. What the Bible calls that is covetousness.

We would call it today ruthless greed. Listen to this verse. Luke chapter 12 and verse 15, And he said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness.

Now listen, folks. I have been a preacher for a long time, and I've had people confess all kinds of sins to me. But I don't ever believe I've ever heard a man confess covetousness.

Or a woman. It's a very deceptive sin. And that's the reason our Lord said take heed, beware of covetousness. The Bible calls covetousness idolatry in Colossians 3 verse 5. Covetousness, which is idolatry, and idolatry is no small sin.

It could be that I'm speaking to some today who little would dream that God's estimation of them is that they are idolaters. It's one thing to possess money. It's another thing for money to possess you. I was reading about a woman named Hetty Green. Hetty Green lived a number of years ago when she was living. She was reputed to have been the richest woman in America. When she died, old Hetty had 100 million dollars, and that's back when a million was a million. But you know what this woman was like?

Let me tell you some things I found out about her. Rather than buying thicker clothes, she would stuff newspapers in the clothes to keep from getting cold. And speaking of newspapers, when she read her morning paper, she sold it again that night to somebody else.

That's right. She felt, well, you know, I can get a little bit for this newspaper, so she'd read it and resell the newspaper. She had a warehouse where she collected rags and old Hetty herself, worth 100 million dollars, went in that warehouse and she spent all afternoon separating rags, the white ones from the colored ones, because she got a penny a pound more for the white rags. She had most of her investments in New York City, and rather than paying income tax in New York, she lived in little hovels and apartments under an assumed name so they wouldn't know that she had a residence there and taxed her. And that's the kind of woman she was.

When Hetty Green died, she was on her deathbed and they wouldn't let the nurses come in in regular uniforms because she thought it would be a waste of money to hire a real genuine registered nurse so they had to take the uniforms off the women. She couldn't die in peace if she thought they were wasting money paying that much salary for nurses to take care of this woman. What was her problem? You see, she had more money that she could possibly spend. It wasn't money that she needed. It was money that she loved. Once I knew a Baptist, he had a pious look. He had been totally immersed except his pocketbook.

He put a dollar in the plate and would sing with might and main when we asunder part, it gives us inward pain. Now, I know folks like that. I mean, they're making money. They don't need any more money.

They're really just kind of keeping score. And they don't want that money in circulation. You see, God wants money in circulation. God wants everything in circulation. There's enough to go around.

There's enough to take care of everything. And when God created the world, if you'll think about how God made everything, he made it with a propensity and the ability to give. The sun gives. Because the sun gives, we have life. The earth gives. And because the earth gives, we have life.

The trees give. And because the trees give, we have life. That's the way God intends for us to live.

But some people can't trust the Lord that much. And they say, Well, Lord, I've just got to keep hoarding it up. I've got to keep stashing it away.

I've got to keep salting it down. And it's an inordinate, an inordinate love of money that the Bible condemns. A bell, somebody said, is not a bell until you ring it. A song is not a song until you sing it. Love is not love until you give it away. Joy is not joy until you share it. And wealth is not really wealth until you spend it.

I mean, what good is paper sitting around somewhere? So let me give you a verse. Ecclesiastes 5, verse 13. There is a great evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. You can keep money and it will hurt you.

That's what James is saying here. Look, go to now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rest of them, watch it, shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped together treasure for the last days. Now James was writing to rich people.

And you say, well, then he's not writing to me. Let me say something, folks. Most of the people in this world, and especially those in the third world country, if they were to see your lifestyle, they'd think that you live like a king. Did you know that? We're wealthy. Don't get the idea we're talking about millionaires now only when we're talking about rich people. These people that James was talking to, he said, listen, listen, misery is coming to you.

And let me tell you what happened. About 10 years after James wrote this, Jerusalem was destroyed, about 10 years. One million people died at least in the destruction of Jerusalem. And do you know who the looters and the vandals and the murderers went for first? The most wealthy people.

Those were the very first people to go under. You see, these people were hoarding up all this, and James says, listen, it'd been a lot better if you'd have gotten it to work for the Lord Jesus Christ rather than having it hoarded away somewhere, rather than having it salted down somewhere. I think what James is saying is if you're saving for a rainy day, you're going to have one.

You're going to have one. But he also talks about the judgment when rusty riches will testify and say, here was money that could have been used to win souls. Here was money that could have been used to build a church. Here was money that could have been used for the glory of God, but it wasn't.

It was just kept for the sheer love of money. Now, friend, I want to tell you, God looks at a man, and God is interested in that man and his money, first of all, as to how he saves it. Secondly, God is interested in a man not only as to how he saves it, but how he secures it. Look, if you will, in verse 4. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is kept back by fraud, crieth, and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Now, James says, not only are some guilty by the way they save their money, but some are guilty by the way they have secured their money. That is, there were some wealthy who were oppressing the poor, and they were not paying on time, and they were keeping back wages, and somehow, because of the might and the strength, the economic power that they had, they were oppressing the poor. Let me tell you something, folks. God is against gain that is wrongly gotten, and God is specially against those who oppress the poor.

I'll just give you a hint about something that will help you all of your life. God is always on the side of the poor. Now, you think about it. You read the Bible through, and you'll find out that God is always on the side of the poor, and you'd better have a heart of love and compassion that wants to share with those who are in need. God is interested not only in how a man saves his money, but how a man secures his money, and the curse of God is upon ill-gotten gain.

The Bible makes that very plain. In my estimation, those who make money by the liquor industry, by the gambling industry, those who make money by oppressing the poor, slum lords, and all of the rest of them have the curse of God on them. And if you're in a business, if you're in a business that somehow collects money in a wrong way, get out of that business. You don't need that kind of money.

You just get out of that business. God looks at a man, and God looks at a man's wealth, and God sees how that man saves his money. God sees how that man secures his money. I'll tell you a third thing God looks at.

God also looks at how a man spends his money. Look, if you will, now in verse 5. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and have been wanton.

That is, you've taken your pleasure, you've done what you wanted, and you have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. Now God speaks of those who live for pleasure and pleasure alone. He speaks of those who selfishly take money that God has given them that ought to be a blessing to other people.

God has made them a steward over that, and they just lavish it upon themselves. Now God is not against having pleasure. God wants you to have pleasure. The Bible says every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from above from the Father of lights in whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. The Bible says that God takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants and that God wants us to enjoy the things of this world.

He's not against that. But while God is not against rightful and legitimate pleasure, God is dead set against wantonness, selfishness, lavishness, wastefulness, how we spend our money. Many of us, dear friend, are spending money that actually, money that could be used for soul winning, money that could be used for missions, money that could be used for church building. It is money that is lavished upon ourselves. And dear friend, I want to tell you that a miserly man is a miserable man.

And people who live for self and self alone as though Christ never lived, as though Christ never died, these are people who one day are going to have to answer to our Lord at the judgment. John D. Rockefeller was dying at the age of 55. He had a bleeding ulcer.

About the only thing he could eat was crackers and milk. He could not sleep for one solid hour without being awakened by pain. He had millions and millions of dollars. The doctor said, Mr. Rockefeller, you're dying and be dead in a short time. He got to thinking, he wasn't a stupid man. He got to thinking, well, if I'm going to die, it's time for me to stop concentrating on making money and start doing some of the things that I've always wanted to do and ought to do.

And he said, one of the things that I'm going to begin to do that I've been too busy to do before is I'm going to start giving my money. And he started giving his money. And the more he gave, the more God gave to him. And the more he gave, the happier he got. And as he started giving money, he testified later that when I learned to give, it so changed my life, my ulcer healed up, I began to sleep, and he lived for 30 more years in wonderful health.

A dying man who learned a secret that is there in the Word of God, it is more blessed to give than to receive. I wonder if we really believe that. Most of us don't believe that.

Our motto is get all you can, can all you get, sit on the lid and poison the rest. That's the way most of us believe. But my dear friend, the Bible says it is more blessed to give than to receive. And God looks down from heaven and God sees how a man saves his money. And when a man begins to hoard it, God says you're hoarding up trouble. God sees how a man secures his money and God says if you get it the wrong way, you're headed for trouble. God sees how a man spends his money and God says if you spend it the wrong way, you're headed for trouble. God also sees. God sees how a man shares his money.

God sees how a man shares his money and God says you're headed for blessings. Look, if you will, in verse 7. Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman, that means the farmer, waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and the latter rain. Be ye also patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. That is, don't be selfish, don't complain, don't be stingy, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. What is James saying? James is saying one of these days and very soon, soon and very soon, we shall see the Lord and we're going to give an account of our stewardship.

I'm telling you, just as surely as I'm standing here, he's going to look at me, he's going to look at you and say give an account of your stewardship and we're going to answer to the Lord. Now he says the farmer waits for the fruit of the earth and what he's saying is that when you give, it's like planting a seed and the crop is going to come. If we, dear friend, have sown seeds of kindness and seeds of sacrifice and seeds of faith and seeds of obedience, those seeds are going to produce the precious fruit that he's talking about.

That means that one day our Lord's going to come and he's going to reward his saints. Listen, what you give is never lost. Though you carve your name high above the shifting sands where the steadfast rocks defy decay, all you can hold in your cold, dead hand is what you've given away. We say that you can't take it with you. I guess you've heard that, you can't take it with you, we've all heard that.

I've heard of a man who said, well, maybe you can't, but he wouldn't be one to say you can't take it with you until he tried. He was dying in his own home and he was on his deathbed. He said, honey, I want you to take all my money and put it in a big jug and put it up in the attic, a jug with a handle on it, and when I die on my way up, I'm going to snatch at that jug and see if I can take it with me. He put all of his money in that big jug and they set it in the attic up there. Sure enough, he died and after the undertaker had done his business, she decided she'd go up in the attic and look. She went up in the attic and it was still there.

She thought, well, maybe I should have put it in the basement. Oh, folks, listen, you can't take it, but I'll tell you what you can do, you can send it on ahead. You can send it, you really can. There's a parable, Jesus said, you can take your money and invest it in soul winning and when you get to heaven, people there will welcome you to heaven. The only way to get your money to heaven is to invest your money in something that's going to heaven and the only thing I know that's going to heaven are souls of men. God is interested in money today. God is interested in how you save it. God is interested in how you secure it. God is interested in how you spend it and God is interested in how you share it. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.