by David J. Stewart | March 2003 | Updated June 2018
"Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches." (Psalm 73:12)
Photo to Right: Prosperous heathen, Angelina Jolie, who has publicly stated in her arrogant sinful pride: "There doesn't need to be a God for me" (AV Club, September 6, 2000).
It is sometimes discouraging as a believer to see ungodly people in this world live in costly extravaganza and excess, while in many parts of the world born-again Christians are living in poverty. King David saw this in his day and was frustrated by it. The same holds true for believers today. It is always frustrating to see the wicked prosper. Why do good things happen to bad people? It is upsetting to see the ungodly become filthy rich. They destroy people's lives and families by promoting every type of wickedness imaginable. Why should they be rewarded for it?
"For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." (Psalm 73:3)
Atheist Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world with a massive mansion in Washington State valued at over $50,000,000. His fish tank is so big that a scuba diver goes down into the tank to maintain it. Yet, so many soul-winning churches are struggling to keep their doors open. Ted Turner is one of the richest men in the world, yet has called Christians "losers." Satanist hard-rocker, Ozzy Osborne and his family, were recently paid $20,000,000 by MTV to do a cable series showcasing his dysfunctional family. Sodomite, Elton John , has spent tens-of millions-of-dollars on extravagant clothing, shoes and cars. The whores and whoremongers of HollyWEIRD with all their billions of dollars make God want to vomit. The hordes of Hell and their pornography have spawned a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide. These are the demonic means by which multitudes have become rich. The gambling, liquor traffic and tobacco industries have helped destroy tens-of-millions of lives and families. They are very proud and arrogant with no remorse for their evil deeds! King David saw this evil pride amongst the prosperous heathen of his day.
"Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment." (Psalm 73:6)
Did you know that 1,200,000,000 people in this world survive on less than $1 a day (that's right, one dollar). 2.8 billion people live on less than $2 a day. People in North Korea are eating their neighbors (cannibalism) because of Communist government. Masses of people are dying from starvation, lack of nutrition and aids in Africa at an alarming rate. The Bible declares that to whom much is given, of the same shall much be required. God will hold the rich accountable for how they obtained their riches, and for what they did with those riches.
"Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish." (Psalm 73:7)
Photo below: Prosperous heathen, Miley Cyrus (aka, Hannah Montana), who has inspired a generation of young girls to become sassy, lewd, immodest, arrogant, feminist, rebellious whores.
David
was also frustrated that the ungodly had much fewer problems than the average
person. Perhaps David saw an honest man lose him home, while a scandalous
crook bought a mansion. Perhaps King David saw a man work hard and save up
his entire life for retirement, then lose his health and die before he
could enjoy it. Or perhaps a rich crook cheated that man out of his
life-time savings (something like the crooks at Enron, and the government
officials who were accomplices). We see things like this all the
time. A heathen pervert like Hugh Hefner (Playboy founder) lives to a ripe
old age, but a young Christian couple serving the Lord dies in a tragic car
accident. We see things like this happen all the time. It just
doesn't seem fair!!!
It doesn't seem fair that an atheist should be the richest man in the world. It doesn't seem fair that these heathen women like Julia Roberts, Brittany Spears, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, etc...should become filthy rich by stripping naked and behaving like animals on camera. Yet, godly women who are living for the Lord Jesus Christ cannot afford to buy many of the things they would like to have. It doesn't seem fair that Christian families should have to live from paycheck-to-paycheck, while these pornographic-pigs have more money than they know what to do with. David saw that the wicked of his day had it made compared to the average man. The wicked prospered then, just as they do today!
They are not in trouble as other men ; neither are they plagued like other men. (Psalm 73:5)
David was disgusted at the same thing that we often are...the inequalities between the righteous and the wicked. David didn't understand why the wicked prospered over the righteous. How can this be? The answer is that Satan is the god of this world (2nd Corinthians 4:4). God has allowed mankind to "do his own thing" so-to-speak. We have all been given a free-will by God. We may choose to live for Jesus, or we may choose to live for ourselves (which is in effect living for the Devil). David learned at the house of God (i.e., the sanctuary) what the end of the wicked would someday be (and it comforted him). David realized (as we must) that we are on the winning side!
"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." (Psalm 73:17-19)
David learned that the wicked have their day coming when they shall stand in judgment before God Almighty (a day when the ungodly shall be "utterly consumed with terror."). The end of the wicked will be destruction.
"For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works." (Psalm 73:27, 28)
Listen friend, the wicked will have their day in God's criminal court (the Great White Throne of Judgment). No one is going to get away with anything! The wicked will pay for what they have done!
"Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him." (Ecclesiastes 8:12)
Photo below: Prosperous heathen, Conan O'Brien, who has publicly blasphemed Jesus Christ and openly admitted that he's going to Hell when he dies.
One
of the most prosperous comedians in recent decades has been Conan O'Brien, who
openly mocks God and
boasts that he is
going to burn in Hell forever. How sad and tragic!!!
Don't be fooled, the whores and whoremongers of Hollywood will stand in judgment before God. Don't fret, Hugh Hefner's day is fast approaching... he's in his 80's and times running out. Madonna's day is coming (and her beauty is fading fast). Budweiser's time is soon coming (and the death toll continues to sky-rocket from alcohol caused deaths). Marlboro's day is coming (while millions upon millions of people are ready for the hospitals and nursing homes because of cigarettes).
We are living in America today in a self-destructive society! The daily news has become insanely terrifying. People, especially youth, are out of control. Flakka and other forms of drugs are everywhere, driving people out of their minds! Here's a story in Florida about three teenagers raping a mother. Here's a story from Florida about a man who cut his own 5-year-old sister's head off in front of police. I could show you thousands of such horrifying stories. This is just as horrifying as the evil incidents we read about in the Old Testament book of Judges.
To complicate matters, the U.S. government has allowed tens of millions of illegal immigrants to flood into the country from gang-infested Mexico and other problematic places, bringing their criminal culture with them! Look at what these six Hispanic teenage punks (and one black) did to these two innocent white teen girls (WARNING: These are graphic details and made my cry this morning, what happened to these two girls in Texas in 1993). Hell WILL BE hot enough, if they died in their sins without Christ! Folks, this is what teenagers without Jesus Christ are capable of committing! My father used to say that “anyone can become a monster without Jesus Christ!” He was 100% right! America today is just like the book of Judges in the Old Testament, when there was injustice everywhere, because there was no king in the land. Today, we have leaders, but they are failing to execute justice. Those monsters weren't executed for 17 years, because of their “rights”! Ecclesiastes 8:11, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Oh how we need to get back to honoring and obeying the Word of God in America!!!
Don't Let the World Help Kill You!
Sadly, my own biological mother smoked herself into a wheel-chair at age 52 from a stroke. I recall when I was growing up, watching my mother puke her guts out... night after night... year after year... from all the booze, cigarettes, pills, et cetera. She was a mess. I never knew anyone who was so naturally gifted on the piano, she was able to play while carrying on a conversation with others, which I always thought was amazing! She began playing piano in Sweden at age 4, but could only play with her right hand after her major stroke in 1989. She never played beautifully with both hands again. The wicked tobacco companies will never show you that kind of truth. Teenagers start smoking only because of peer pressure. Hollywood is a major promoter of cigarettes, which is so stupid. There's nothing sexy or admirable about giving yourself cancer, stinking up the area around you, and wasting your money! I have never smoked anything except barbecued meats on the grill! Amen!
After her stroke in 1989, my mother continued to smoke like a chimney. Oh, how the Devil comes to kill, steal and destroy (John 10:10). She ended up in a nursing home, where she could receive the medical attention she required. Sometimes she would even ignore her visiting grandchildren, while begging for a cigarette at the other end of the room. She was addicted very badly. Her circulation became so bad that both her legs had to be amputated. The tobacco companies should be required by law to show the TRUTH, but they deliberately hide it. They won't show you what happened to my mother (because their sales would gradually plummet into the ground). I shutter to remember the bloody knee stump after the first amputation that caused her so much indescribable pain. After the second amputation, she didn't even live a month and died from infection, heart attack, stroke and failing kidneys. Her doctors were talking about putting her on an iron-lung machine, but my parents decided against it. When your quality of life has deteriorated so much that you need a machine to keep you alive, it's time to go on to Heaven! I can confidently say that there's nothing even remotely "Kool" about killing yourself with cancer sticks.
My poor mother suffered. What started as a teenage smoking fad at age 15 escalated into a major nicotine addiction. When her legs were amputated, even the morphine they administered to her couldn't stop the pain because it was so excruciating. Infection set in... the doctor gave drugs to her... drugs, drugs and still more drugs. After 13 years of pain, suffering and misery... she passed into glory at the age of 65 in 2001. Thank God, she was a born-again Christian, but the sin of smoking destroyed her body (the temple of the Holy Spirit). So sad! My father was also a believer, but drank himself to the grave at age 77 in 2011. After my mother died, my father drank more. I remember the day when my young children stood gazing down upon their grandfather on the ground, while he was lying in a pool of broken glass and alcohol. He was unconscious. He ended up in the hospital from hitting his head from the fall.
Oh, how sin destroys! My mother lived on "Kool" cigarettes. My father was a happy drunk, not an angry drunk, thank God! That is, alcohol helped him relax, not turn insanely violent as it does some men. The cigarette producers will stand before God someday and be convicted for what they helped do to my mother. Smirnoff and Budweiser will give account for helping destroy my father. The ungodly will reap what they have sown. I thank God I have never smoked a cigarette or drank a drop of liquor. I love and miss my parents and am thankful that they were born-again believers. They were faulty human beings, just like you and me. We all have our skeleton closets. I hate booze and cigarettes!!!
Entertainer Michael Jackson's day is coming. Frank Sinatra's day has come—he's now burning in Hell. In his song "Chicago... Chicago," Frank Sinatra repeats the mocking words... "Chicago, the town Billy Sunday couldn't shut down!" Oh, how foolish! Oh, how wicked! Frank Sinatra mocked the man of God for his stand against the evils of his day: dancing, gambling and booze. Frank Sinatra was a fool, he mocked God's man and rejected Jesus Christ. Billy Sunday is in Heaven.
"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. 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." (James 5:1-3)
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (1st John 2:15-17)
"And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:40)
"For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." (Luke 18:25)
"For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." (John 3:20)"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." (Psalm 9:17)
The Holy Bible Will Keep Us from Sin; Or Sin Will Keep Us From the Holy Bible
It is mankind's
love for sin (the lust's of the world) that keeps him from coming to the light
(Jesus Christ and His Word) for Salvation. This is why it is so hard for a
rich person to be saved, because their money allows them to fulfill the lusts of
this world. Their love for this world keeps them from the light of
salvation. You see, to be saved, you MUST admit that the sinful deeds in
your life are just that--SINFUL! People don't want to be saved, "...lest
his deeds should be reproved" (John 3:20). People want to live in sin and
also feel good about it. You can't be saved until you repent about your
sins. You must admit that the fornication in your life is horribly sinful.
The rich men of this world are not about to do that. So, they avoid Christ
and His Word at all cost.
Don't be envious of the prosperity of the ungodly...their day is fast approaching. Riches and wickedness seem to go together in this world. Or as one man wisely put it, "Wealth simply lets you go further down the road you were already on." Let's face it, MOST people are on the wrong road. Money has destroyed more Christians than adultery. So many believers have sold out in covetousness to the almighty dollar. What are they doing for God in their life? Do they go soul-winning? You don't need money to go soul-winning. We must set our hearts and minds on heaven above, that is where I want to lay up rewards. Any temporal splendor which the heathen may enjoy down here will only be for a short time. David realized the error in his thinking, so must we. The wicked will rot and burn in hell.
David did not
remain ignorant, his eyes were opened. We all think foolishly at times, we
must become wise. We are all ignorant at times, we must learn. The
righteous will prevail. Will you have any rewards in heaven? Things
are not what they seem! True riches cannot be measured by the appearance
of a person. I would much rather be a poor born-again believer, than to be
a rich unsaved person. Frankly, there is no such thing as a poor
believer. We are all extremely rich in the Lord. You can take
everything I may own in this heathen world, but you CANNOT take my God-given
salvation and riches in heaven. Thank God for the eternal gift of
salvation!!! (the greatest wealth any human being could ever possess).
Listen friend, if you don't not have Jesus Christ living in your heart as
personal Savior... then you are very poor indeed! You need to settle this
once and for all. Why don't you admit to God right now in your heart that
you are a woefully wicked sinner, guilty (Romans 3:19), deserving of hell-fire
(Romans 6:23; 2nd Thessalonians 1:8,9; Revelation 20:11-15). 