Episode Transcript
You take God's precious Word and turn the book of Proverbs 11.
God willing, we'll be expounding verses 10 and 11 tonight.
Proverbs 11, verses 10 and 11.
The title of the message tonight is "When Cities Rejoice."
Now in the Old Testament, a city might have a king.
It wasn't like a city that we would have today, necessarily.
But cities were sort of like countries in some sense.
But we're talking about a community.
We're talking about a political union with its citizens.
Whenever we're looking at the word city here.
I believe it was Ronald Reagan who first asked what is now a very famous question and is asked usually every four years during the presidential election season.
And it is, "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"
We hear that every four years now.
If you are better off than the incumbent president wants to take credit for it.
And if you're not better off than the person running against the incumbent president wants you to think that he can make life better for you.
If you're financially better off today than the White House wants you to give the economics the credit for your success.
And if you haven't figured out how politics go yet then I'll help you because it's pretty simple.
It goes something like this.
When something good happens, we're responsible for it.
When something bad happens, the opposing party is responsible for it.
That's basically it.
That's about as shallow of thinking as you can get.
But that's how people view what happens in our country.
And fortunately God tells us in the scriptures tonight how things really are when it comes to the state of our union and the state of any country or city for that matter.
And you'll be surprised to know the state of the union doesn't primarily depend on the political views of our leaders but on how they treat the people of God.
How they treat righteous people at least.
The Bible tells us that a city will be at its best if you look in verse 10 now when it goeth well with the righteous.
That's when a city will be at its very best.
When things are going well for the righteous.
Not necessarily, primarily of course the people of God.
But righteousness in a practical sense.
You know the Bible talks, the apostle Paul talks about heathenistic people who don't know the word of God but who by nature do the things that are written in his law.
They have a conscience and they do what's morally right.
And when things are going well for morally righteous people then the city is going to rejoice.
We're going to look at that here in just a moment.
Now when it talks about going well with the righteous.
In the book of Genesis when God created something we all know that after he created it he would look at it and the Bible says God saw that it was good.
And that word good in Hebrew is tobe.
We've talked about that word before in prior teaching.
And that word good there, the root word is word this word goeth well.
Or the words goeth well come from in our text tonight.
God was good to the earth so the earth went well as God intended.
When God created the earth he created it good.
He tobed it so to speak.
And it went well or it tobed and that is not proper Hebrew.
I assure you but I'm trying to make it simple for you.
And in the same way communities and political leaders have a responsibility to be good to righteous people.
To make sure that their community is as good or as tobe.
In other words it is as much the way God designed it to be as possible.
And when people try to live righteous, they try to live moral lives then they have a responsibility to uphold and support those righteous people.
They have a responsibility to reward people for their righteous behavior and to punish people for their wicked behavior.
In Romans chapter 13, Romans chapter 13 verses 3 and 4 we find this two part responsibility for civil leaders.
The Bible says in Romans 13, 3 and 4, "For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil."
So rulers should be a terror to evil works.
When someone performs things that are unrighteous, that are evil, then they should be afraid of the rulers coming down hard on them.
Alright?
It should be that way.
And then it says, "Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power or of the authority in that community?"
"Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same."
So what do we see here?
The ruler should cause terror in the hearts of people who do evil and they should reward people with praise and support in the community for those that do good.
Verse 4 says, "For he is the minister of God to thee for good."
Or if we were to use the Hebrew word and substitute that for that Greek word there, "He is the minister of God to thee for tobe."
"He is the minister of God for you for he going well with the righteous."
"But if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is a minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
So God established rulers for two things.
Number one, to praise the righteous for doing good and to condemn the wicked for doing evil.
And when political leaders are doing their God-given job, they will secure the right for the righteous to live righteously, and they will secure the right for the wicked to be punished justly.
They won't punish Christians for homeschooling their children.
They will praise them for it.
They won't cut public funding for righteous activity that's done in God's name.
And say, "Ah, well, separation of church and state, we're not putting any of our money toward that."
Instead, they'll give toward it.
They won't fire teachers for praying in school.
They will promote that behavior.
They won't fire teachers for teaching the truth and refusing to call a boy a girl, but they will applaud them for doing so, and they'll dismiss anyone who disagrees with that.
They won't prosecute Christian bakers for refusing to make cakes with unrighteous messages on them.
They will instead prosecute people who ask for those unrighteous messages to be put on those cakes.
They will make sure that they not only get to worship freely, that righteous get to worship freely, but they also get to practice their righteous lifestyle freely as well.
When someone tries to do right, they won't harass them.
They will stand behind them and encourage them and fight against their enemies.
They will stick up for the victims in a crime rather than punish the people trying to defend themselves.
They won't be people who are afraid to protect their life and their property.
They'll be people who are afraid to steal or destroy their neighbor's life or property.
That's the way it will be when it goes well with the righteous.
The Bible says that when it goes well with the righteous, when leaders do this, look back at your text, the city rejoiceth.
Now, the thing is, the city may not realize that they're rejoicing because of things going well for the righteous.
There will be some who may not put the connection together.
Nevertheless, the connection is definitely there.
And I'll tell you, in many, many of our communities today, in our nation for sure today in many ways, but in our communities today, the communities aren't rejoicing right now.
They're oppressed.
They're not rejoicing.
Straight, godly, masculine, Christian men are the most hated group in our country.
And the people who believe like us have been deemed by our president to be the most dangerous group in the United States.
I've heard him say so with my own ears.
In church, when you have leaders that are running a country like this, there will be no rejoicing in the city.
There will be oppression.
How many of you all remember during the presidential election this last time, and they had all the riots and everything?
And you remember when the wicked people flooded the streets, not to demonstrate, not to protest, but to riot, to violently riot.
Innocent people were afraid to drive their cars down the highways.
Truck drivers were afraid that if they ran over people blocking commerce, that they would be the ones going to jail, not the people blocking commerce.
And not only would they be the ones going to jail for running over the people, but if they didn't stop, those people may get inside their truck and drag them out.
And we remember this woman in one, I think it was, was it Seattle?
I can't remember where it was when they were surrounding her car, and she was in her car with her little child and asking for the police to come help.
And they said, "We've been told not to come."
Have you all seen that video?
It was the 911 call.
We got some.
Very sad.
Very, very sad.
It's not going well for the righteous like that.
It's going well for the unrighteous.
Their cause was being promoted, and the righteous people's cause was being neglected.
And what happened?
Millions of dollars worth of damage and oppression.
And do you remember the feeling you got?
I know the feeling I got.
When you think, you know, I'm scared to defend myself in a way, or I'm scared for my spouse as they drive down the road.
And I remember being concerned about going up to visit my wife's family because we usually travel through Illinois.
You got a bad taste in my mouth when I say that state.
But you just think, you know, I don't feel safe in my own country that when I'm trying to do right, that I'll be protected for doing so.
And that suppression, that's not rejoicing.
But there'll be no rejoicing when people like that.
President Biden said recently, maybe you all heard him, but he said recently that even after you account for inflation, that Americans have more money today than they did before the pandemic when Trump was in office.
That's a lie.
I heard him say that this week.
Anyone else hear him say that?
He's got several hands going up.
It's a lie.
And for the first time in my life, young people can't afford to buy a home.
I had no problem buying a house.
I had to own my first home when I was 20 years old.
No problem buying a house.
But for the first time, they can't afford to buy one.
For the first time in my life, they're building new housing developments.
Not for the purpose of selling the houses, but for the purpose of renting them.
I've never seen that before or heard of that before until now.
For the first time in my life, we're witnessing overt, in your face, unchecked political corruption.
So for the first time in my life, we can't trust our own government.
For the nation is weaker today than it's ever been in my lifetime, probably than it's ever been since its existence.
Very sad.
Think, "Oh, now we're stronger than we have before.
Now we're weaker socially.
We're weaker morally.
We're definitely weaker mentally."
Who ever heard of so much mental disease?
It's spiritual.
We're weaker militarily.
Drugs, criminals, and young men from the Middle East who are fighting age are flooding across our borders by the thousands every single day.
You show me a time when America was thriving and when people were rejoicing.
And I'll show you a time when it was going well for the righteous.
Did you ever dream that you would see a time when people would walk right into a store?
Just a group of people walk right into a store, take everything off the shelves they wanted.
In broad daylight without paying for it, right in front of everybody, and just walk right out stealing it, and nobody stopped them.
Nobody even tried to stop them because they're afraid if we stop the thief, something will happen and we'll be prosecuted.
I would have never dreamt that we would be living in a time like that, but it's happening.
So that's happening in Dallas, Texas right now.
This year in the city of Chicago, as of the time that I wrote these sermon notes, there have been at least 213 murders in that city this year.
Now there's only 365 days a year.
We're not even halfway through the year yet.
And that means we're well averaging over one person murdered in that city every single day.
You wake up thinking, "Who's going to get murdered today in our town?"
Or, "How many people are going to be murdered today in our town?"
It isn't amazing that the cities with the highest crime rates, because where do you want to go?
Where does the city rejoice in?
When people look at retiring someplace, you know where they want to go?
They want to see a good economy where their money will go further.
They want inflation low.
They want crime rate low.
They want to make sure that they feel safe in that community.
That's the type of community people look for.
They can rejoice in communities like that, where their private property is protected.
And someone's going to make sure that they're able to enjoy their constitutional rights or just their natural rights as a human being, depending on what country they live in.
It isn't amazing that the cities with the highest crime rates, the cities with the most homelessness, the cities with rising poverty, are run by those people who do not support the righteous.
They view us as their enemy.
California thinks we're the enemy.
California has become a haven for women who want to flee Texas to murder their babies.
Meanwhile, people in California are defecating on the streets, living like animals, who used to be their former middle class, can't afford to live in a house or an apartment anymore, and they're now living in their vehicles.
They have a special YouTube segment on there.
You can watch and they tell their stories of how they survive and given other people tips on how to live in their cars.
In short, it's not going well with the righteous in their land, so it's not going well for them.
That's really how it works.
And now, if you were to tell them that, they'd say, "Oh, that can't be it.
It's got to be because we're not diverse enough.
We're not inclusive enough.
It's got to be because of this reason or that reason."
And the more they press toward an unrighteous city, the more the crime will go up, the more the poverty will go up, the more the homelessness will go up, the more the oppression will go up, and the more the people will get out.
When it goes well for the righteous, the city rejoices.
Look back in your text, and when the wicked perish, there is shouting, shouting for joy, that is.
When the wicked perish, there is shouting, shouts of rejoicing for the relief that comes their way.
When the wicked begin to go away, wicked leaders oppress their people.
Righteous leaders empower them every single time.
A wicked leader will always oppress their people.
A righteous leader will always empower their people.
Wicked people steal, kill, and destroy.
So when those wicked leaders are gone, the stealing is gone, the killing is gone, the destruction is gone.
So no wonder people begin to shout, "Rejoy and rejoice."
Wicked people should be cut off from society, but instead, these wicked leaders are turning them loose on society.
No bail arrests.
Just book them in and book them out.
There's no fear in that.
Places where they're turning criminals loose, there's no shouting, there's mourning.
If people would only listen to the Bible, then they would learn, verse 11, that by the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted.
By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted.
There is a direct connection between blessing upright people and being blessed because of it.
I'll say it again.
There's a direct connection between blessing upright people and being blessed because of it.
Remember what God told Abraham in Genesis 12, verse 3.
This does not just apply to the Jews.
It applies to the righteous.
This applies to you, a Gentile, as well as it applies to the Jews.
Remember what God says to Abraham.
He says to us.
God told Abraham in Genesis 12, verse 3, "And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
When you bless the upright, God will bless you.
When you curse the upright, God will curse you.
By blessing the upright, the city is exalted.
What that means is the city is lifted up.
The city will be lifted up out of poverty.
It should be lifted up and be able to stand on its own and to be strong and to be exalted in the sense of its glory.
But if you look back at your text, that city it says, "But it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked."
It's overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
When the wicked curse the upright, when the wicked call them dangerous, that's one of the buzzwords now.
Do you notice that, Brother Shepherd?
Were you talking about it in Sunday school the other day?
Yeah, I've noticed it too.
That they'll come out, and I heard it said this week by one of the politicians, they said, "Well, that's dangerous.
It's dangerous."
Anytime someone thinks the way a Christian thinks and they try to call sin, sin, they try to stand up and tell the truth about something.
They say, "Well, it's dangerous to talk like that."
But when they come out and they call us dangerous and they ridicule our faith and they condemn us for obedience to God's Word, that's how the city is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
This overthrows the city.
It means the wicked curse the righteous, and when they curse the righteous, they don't realize they're cursing themselves.
I will curse them that curse you.
When the wicked set out to destroy the righteous, then they destroy themselves, and we're witnessing that today.
Just look at where the people are fleeing to right now.
Where are the people fleeing to right now in America?
Are they fleeing to California?
Are they fleeing to New York City?
No, they're fleeing to Texas.
They're fleeing to Florida.
And let me just word it this way.
They're fleeing to places whose legislators try to support the righteous and make sure that it goes well for the righteous.
They are fleeing to those places where hopefully they can come and say, "We're glad to be here.
I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as soon as I could."
That's another way of saying the city rejoices.
But that's what they're doing.
They're fleeing the states that support the righteous, and they're leaving the states that don't.
And those who are condemning the righteous are in decline financially, while those who are supporting the righteous are on the rise financially.
Tax, man, I tell you, when Brother Shepherd and I worked for the Department of Public Safety, it got a little better after you went into your own business.
But, man, it's nothing like, man, the state's got all kinds of money right now.
The state is doing fantastic in the economy.
Florida's doing great.
And you look at these other states, and they're in decline.
Wonder why?
Why are they struggling so much?
Look at our nation now.
Trillions of dollars in debt.
"Now, a city is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked," Solomon said.
Here's the beautiful thing.
You reverse that.
"If a city is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked, then the mouth of the righteous can overthrow the wicked and exalt that city."
And that's exactly what's going to happen when Jesus comes.
Remember, when we studied the book of the Revelation, if you'll remember, we learned that the church is a bride, and Jesus is her groom, her husband.
We also learned in the book of the Revelation that the church is a city, and Jesus is her king.
Oh, how nice.
So, when you're looking there in the book of the Revelation, if you'll notice in the book of the Revelation, Jesus comes back, and he builds a city.
That's what this is all about.
Don't look there in the book of the Revelation and say, "Oh, well, here's going to be the dimensions of it right here, and this is going to be the size of it."
Don't get caught up in all that.
It's not architecture.
The way we understand it, it's spiritual architecture.
And Jesus, as a king, is going to come back, and he's going to build a city where it goes well for the righteous.
And the only way to do that is for it to not go well for the unrighteous.
That's the only way it can happen.
And so he'll build the city, he'll make it go well for the righteous, and what's going to happen in the city, there's going to be rejoicing.
What's going to happen in the city?
The city's going to be exalted.
Revelation chapter 19, verses 15 through 16.
When Jesus comes back, he's going to overthrow the wicked by the mouth of the righteous.
Because it says the mouth of the wicked overthrows the city.
Now in Revelation 19, 15 through 16, you'll see the opposite happen when Jesus comes.
It says, "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations.
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress, the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."
In other words, it's not going to go well for the unrighteous when he comes.
But it has to not go well for them, for the righteous to do well.
Verse 16, "And he hath on his vestured, on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords."
So when he comes back, he's going to do what a king of a city is supposed to do.
He's going to come back, he's going to destroy unrighteousness, he is going to establish law.
A rod of iron, not a rod of a willow branch.
A rod of iron, in other words, he's going to establish law with teeth in it.
He's going to make it stick.
Righteousness will no longer be an option or something to mock at.
And John wrote later about this city that was established by Christ in the book of Revelation, chapter 21.
Now listen to what he said.
Revelation 21, 2 through 4, John said, "And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."
You see there, the church is a city, Jesus is her king, but how was that city coming down?
Like a bride.
The church is a bride, Jesus is her groom.
All this is the church.
And the church comes down and he makes a city out of this church in the sense of governance.
He makes a bride out of this church in the sense of relationship.
In the sense of nearness and union to God, it's going to be a holy city.
It's going to go well for the righteous.
There won't be anything but righteousness in it.
It's going to be a new Jerusalem.
It won't be like the old Jerusalem, where you had one king after another that kept messing up and sinning.
It's going to be a new Jerusalem with a new king and a new way of doing things.
God's going to be ruling.
And then he says in verse 3, "And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.'"
Now that tabernacle is the Lord Jesus Christ.
God said, "Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them."
That's what he said in the book of Exodus.
"Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them."
And so the tabernacle was God's presence among his people in the Old Testament.
It was a picture of Jesus.
It had earthly skin on the outside.
It had God on the inside.
It had the light on the inside.
It had bread so you could eat and live.
It had the blood atonement there, and it was right in the midst of his people.
And so now here comes the king.
Here comes the groom.
Here comes the tabernacle.
Watch what he says.
He says, "I heard a voice," verse 3, "out of heaven, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he," the tabernacle is a person, a person Jesus, "he will dwell with them.
And they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God.'"
Now when it goes, at that time it's going to go well for the righteous.
It has gone very bad for the unrighteous.
But now God comes in.
He is the groom.
He is the king.
He is the priest.
He meets his people's needs entirely by making them righteous, establishing righteousness, and giving them the love that their heart desires and that they need, and the security to know they'll always be okay.
And what's going to be the result of that?
Verse 4, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away."
I think that you could probably take Solomon's words here in Proverbs 11, 10 and 11 tonight, about the city rejoicing it going well in probably any age in human history.
As I pointed out, things are wrong, and they're definitely more wrong today than they used to be, and times are swiftly changing for the worse.
But I believe at any time in our Earth's history, you could take that proverb, and people could still be preaching about their city and what it's doing wrong, because man has always governed it.
Even King David, who was a man after God's own heart, messed up royally, literally, messed up bad.
In all this time, when we've been reading about it going well for the righteous and the city rejoicing, we think, "Oh, Lord, if only there was a place like that."
Do you all ever find yourself thinking, "If only there was a place in the world I could go to where Christians were welcome, where laws were kept, where you could actually live in peace and safety, and you didn't have to worry about any of this ungodly teaching creeping into your country.
There's no place like that.
There is no place like that."
And so as we're reading about it going well with the city, yes, it is a principle that should be applied to any government, and it can be applied, and God will bless accordingly.
Nevertheless, until the king comes back and builds his city on this earth, the world will still be mourning.
But when the king builds his city, every tear is then wiped away.
There'll be nothing but rejoicing left.
And folks, I've got chills on me right now, longing for that day.
We don't realize, I don't think, how stressed the average person is, the human body, the psyche of the individuals.
Even though we go about our day laughing and things like that, there is a tremendous stress upon people.
And when Christ comes back, there'll be an experience of complete relief, unlike none of us have ever known.
And that complete relief will literally be life from the dead.
That's how good it's going to be, and it's going to last forever.
Oh, even so come Lord Jesus, as the Apostle John says, finally, it will go well for the righteous, and the city will rejoice forever.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word tonight.
We thank you, Father, for again, shooting straight with us, Lord, telling us, Lord, what's wrong with the cities, when they're telling us we're the problem, and yet the solution they give just gets them worse and worse and worse in trouble.
And Lord, we're grateful for the reality check in your Word, Lord, that tells us this is the way it should be done, and this is how city prospers.
And Father, we, Lord, put no stock in man, except the man Christ Jesus.
And we look forward to His return, to His rulership, when He builds the city.
We look forward, Father, to His companionship, when He becomes, Lord, our ever-present groom.
And we look forward, Father God, to the unbroken relationship, Lord, when He is our forever High Priest.
Lord, here on this earth, the tabernacle of God being with man, we thank you, Lord, that it's not the God on Mount Sinai being with man, but it's the tabernacle of God that's going to be with man.
Someone, Lord, made of earth on the outside, and nothing but God on the inside.
In Jesus' precious name, amen.
