Envy and Pride
Psalm 73:1-9 ESV
Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who
are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had
nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw
the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies
are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not
stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence
covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts
overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they
threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their
tongue struts through the earth.
When we believe in Jesus
Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives, and we take up our cross, and we
follow our Lord in obedience to his will for our lives, he delivers us from
slavery to sin. Jesus Christ, through his death and resurrection, made the way
of escape for us out from underneath temptation to sin. But, we have to take
that way out. We have to deny self and daily take up that cross and follow
Jesus. We have to daily, by the Spirit, be putting to death the deeds of the
flesh, and walk according to the Spirit.
For, although Jesus Christ
set us free from our slavery to sin, we have to walk in that freedom, by his
grace, and in his power and strength at work within us. Because, the reality of
it all is that, as long as we live in these flesh bodies and in this world, we
are going to be faced with temptation to sin. And, we will be tempted and
allured by the pleasures this world has to offer us, and even by false grace
gospels which give us the notion that we can continue in sinful practices and
still be saved and bound for heaven.
We will be tempted, too, to
compromise our faith and convictions, and/or to be envious of others who seem
to have it better than us. But, the envy here is that of wanting the ease and
comfort that the ungodly appear to have, which I believe is one of the draws to
this false grace gospel.
The true gospel demands death
to sin and living to righteousness, a walk of faith in Jesus Christ, which
lives by the Spirit and not by the flesh. It demands holiness, which is living
separate from the world of sin and living separate unto God, wholly devoted,
faithful to the Lord, empowered by the Spirit and strengthened in his might to
be mighty conquerors in battle against our enemies of Satan and the flesh. And,
it makes no compromise with the world of sin or with the flesh of man.
But, the false grace gospel
teaches no need for repentance or obedience to Christ. It teaches, instead,
some obscure man-made faith in Christ which allows the follower to continue in
sin without guilt and remorse. It requires no death to sin or living to
righteousness, and yet it guarantees heaven as the eternal destiny of all who
would believe in all that it has to offer. This is a gospel of men. And, it is
created in man’s image. And, it is intended to appeal to and to pacify the sins
of humankind, i.e. the flesh of man.
Backslidden Christians
Psalm 73:10-15 ESV
Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no
fault in them.
And they say, “How can God know?
Is there
knowledge in the Most High?”
Behold, these are the wicked;
always at
ease, they increase in riches.
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed
my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked
every morning.
If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have
betrayed the generation of your children.
Many Christians, who have succumbed
to the temptation to fall back into sin’s deceitfulness, have embraced this
false grace gospel because it alleviates their guilt and it allows them to live
in a false sense of peace while continuing in sinful addiction. They believe
the lie which says that God no longer sees their sin because when God looks at
them all he sees is Jesus Christ. And, they believe the lie that God’s grace
permits them to continue in willful sin against God, and that their continued
willful sin cannot impact their eternal security. But, this is not what
scripture teaches.
Scripture is real clear on
this subject. If we make sin our practice, regardless of what we profess with
our mouths, we will die in our sins. If we claim to have fellowship with God,
but we walk (in practice, in lifestyle) in darkness (sin, wickedness), we are
liars who do not live by the truth. If we walk according to the flesh, we will
die in our sins, but if by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the
flesh, then we will live. If we hold on to our old lives of living for sin and
self, we will die in our sins. True faith in Jesus Christ dies with Christ to
sin and it lives with Christ to righteousness.
[See: Gal. 5:19-21; 1 Jn.
1:5-9; Rom. 8:1-17; Lu. 9:23-25; Eph. 4:17-24.]
God’s grace to us is not a
free license to continue in sin without guilt or without remorse. His grace,
which brings salvation, instructs us to say “No!” to ungodliness and worldly
(fleshly) passions (lusts), and to live self-controlled, upright and godly
lives while we await Christ’s return (Tit. 2:11-14). God’s grace puts sin to
death. It does not codify or console it.
Until I Went
Psalm 73:16-28 ESV
But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to
me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I
discerned their end.
Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make
them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away
utterly by terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when
you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
When my soul was embittered,
when I was
pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a
beast toward you.
Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my
right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and
afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is
nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is
the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an
end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made
the Lord God my refuge,
that I may
tell of all your works.
So, we need to have our eyes
opened to the truth. We have to go to the Lord in prayer, seeking his face, and
ask him to reveal his truth to our hearts, but we have to do this in truth. He
knows if our hearts are not sincere and if we are just trying to make a show of
piety when, in fact, we are still holding on to our sins and to the control
over our own lives.
But, it is there in prayer,
and in the Word of God, that the Spirit of God will prick our consciences and
he will show us where we have gone astray. He will reveal to us the lies of the
enemy, too. But, we have to be honest. We have to be sincerely seeking, willing
to forsake the lies and to embrace the truth, or the exercise will be a waste
of our time and efforts.
So many Christians are stuck
in their ways and refuse to allow God to reveal his truth to them, because that
might require change on their part, and they don’t want to have to change. This
can be in the area of sin, but it can also be in the area of false doctrines or
beliefs they have embraced over the years which are keeping them from walking
in full devotion to Christ and being used of him to minister his love and grace
to this fallen world.
If we are confronted with the
idea that we may be going the wrong direction, we must be willing to take that
to the Lord in prayer, and be willing to hear from the Lord and to change our
beliefs, attitudes, and actions where necessary. Obviously we don’t have to
entertain false religions or beliefs which are obviously contrary to the Word
of God, such as which would deny Jesus Christ or which would try to make him
out to be just another prophet of God, but not the divine Son of the One True
God. But, we have to have transparent hearts willing to receive from the Lord
whatever he has for us.
The truth is that if we walk
in sin, and we live in unfaithfulness to God, as our daily practice, we will
die in our sins, not have the hope of heaven when we leave this earth. If we
want to have the assurance of eternal life with God and that we are truly saved
from our sins, then we need to walk according to the Spirit, by the Spirit, and
not live to fulfill the desires of our flesh. The Christian life is a walk of
faith, in obedience to our Lord, making God our refuge and our strength, and
not the things of the flesh and of this world in which we now live. So, make
sure you are on the right path.
Lord, I Need You
Songwriters: Christy Nockels
/ Daniel Carson /
Jesse Reeves / Kristian
Stanfill / Matt Maher
Where sin runs deep Your
grace is more
Where grace is found is where
You are
And where You are, Lord, I am
free
Holiness is Christ in me…
My one defense, my
righteousness
Oh God, how I need You
Thursday, March 1, 2018, 6:11
p.m. – Thank you, Jesus, for this teaching from Your Word. Bring its truths
home to our hearts, I pray in Jesus’ name.
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