Hello and welcome. Let me ask you something, if I might. As you live in this world, as you go about your daily life, do you ever find yourself looking at the people of the world and, maybe without even thinking about it, a feeling of envy comes over you?
This could be because you see individuals who are prosperous. They have, perhaps, many things of the world. You could drive by a multi-million-dollar neighborhood of homes and see really beautiful houses and cars. The whole area is just beautiful.
An individual who is a believer, a child of God, might from time-to-time feel a tug somewhere within them to where they have a longing to have what these people have and it could be for many different things. It does not necessarily have to be for homes or cars, because envy covers a wide spectrum and it varies from person-to-person.
The Lord, of course, knows our situation, which is that He has brought His Gospel to certain individuals, His elect people, and He has begun the drawing process or has saved them. They have been attempting to live the Christian life. As they go on, they are growing more in grace and in the knowledge of God.
Also in the Christian life, there has been much affliction and much difficulty, because this is the normal situation. The Lord Jesus said in the Gospel of John, “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” because this is normal.
More than that, we are living in the time of Great Tribulation that the world has never seen, which is spiritual in nature. The church age has come to an end and it is a very sorrowful situation for the churches and congregations of the world.
But the believers, too, are facing very stressful times. As we now look around the world, we have learned that this world has an end. Not only this, but we have learned when the end will be. The end will be on May 21st in 2011. This will begin the “day of the LORD,” which will continue for five months. The whole five-month period is the “day of the LORD.” Then God will finish the world. He will destroy the whole universe and world along with all of the unsaved on the last day, which will be October 21st in 2011. So we have this information as we look out at the world and this really should help us greatly in living the Christian life.
Now in Psalm 73, we find a Psalm of Asaph. It says in the first few verses, Psalm 73:1-6:
Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
Then it goes on.
This is referring to a believer who is looking at the wicked. Wherever you look in this world, you are going to look at the wicked. The wicked are those who are in their sin, and everyone is in their sin if they do not have a Saviour.
Here in Psalm 73:3, the Lord moves the writer to say:
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
And this is an easy sin to fall into. If we take our eyes off of the Lord Jesus, we could easily fall into this sin.
The whole context of this Psalm is being envious of the wicked, up until a point, which is what is stated a little further on. We read in Psalm 73:17-19:
Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
We have also learned from the Bible that May 21st will be the day when the Lord does come for His people; but sadly, sadly, this is also when He closes the door of salvation on this world. There will be no further deliverance, no further grace or mercy or salvation after May 21st. For all of the people who were not raptured, those who are left behind, this will be their end. This is their end and the Lord will cast them “down into destruction.”
So, you see, this is the solution; this is the “balm” or the medicine for envy. “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red.” No, do not look at it them; see what follows. Do not look at the world with the bright shining sun and all of the beautiful things that are in this world and the people who are enjoying life in this world, yet there is great wickedness. Do not look on them and envy them for their carefree attitude and the seeming peace that they pretend to have. No, look a little further, and we do not have to look that far at this time because this date is close. Look to that day and no longer envy, no longer desire what the unsaved possess. No longer desire anything of this world, because these things are going to have an end and they will pass away.
Rather, feel sorry, feel pity and compassion and have a great concern for these people because this is it for them. This is all the inheritance that they will ever get to enjoy. The few things that they manage to possess in this lifetime will be it and then it will be taken from them. Forever and ever, these people will lose out on eternal life. They will lose out on an eternal habitation, an eternal possession that God is going to make for His people.
I have used this example before. We could look at a billionaire. We cannot say “millionaire” anymore, but a billionaire. He has yachts and planes and many homes in resort areas and a beautiful wife and beautiful children, everything that you could want. We could look at him and say, “Oh, I would like to be in his shoes.”
Well, the very same person, the exact same individual hops out of bed one day. He is extremely excited to go about his business because he has a good life. So this billionaire hops out of bed, puts on his shoes, forgets to tie a shoelace and trips down the steps and does great damage to his neck.
The next thing we know, he is in the hospital and the doctors are not giving him a very good chance to live. As a matter of fact, they do not think that he is going to make it more than a couple of days.
Well, now how do you feel about that billionaire? How do you feel about putting yourself in his shoes? No, you would not want to be in his shoes? Well, why not? He is the same person. He is the same person where just twenty-four hours earlier you could have had a gnawing feeling in your mind, an ache in your belly because, “Oh, would it not be nice to be him?”
No, no, now you do not want to be him, even though he still has the money and the boat and the house and the wife and the children and the business. You do not want to be him because he only has a few hours left to live.
You see, knowing his end just removes envy completely. Likewise, knowing the end of this world should remove envy from our lives completely. May it not be found among us any longer.