Episode Transcript
All right, Proverbs 11, verse 8 and 9.
The tile of the message tonight is delivered from trouble.
And everybody wants to live as trouble-free of a life as possible.
It's natural for us to want to do that.
And tonight we're going to learn about escaping from trouble.
And the devil does all he can, not that I have to tell you, but he does all he can, to try to stir up trouble for us.
He's always plotting and trying to execute some type of plan to trouble the people of God.
Tonight Solomon's going to talk to us about escaping from that trouble.
And we're going to learn how to view trouble properly from God's Word and how to identify it.
In Proverbs 11, verse 8, the Bible says the righteous is delivered out of trouble.
The righteous is delivered out of trouble.
Man, we could stop right there, praise God, and go home just with that right there, because that is such a wonderful promise, a wonderful blessing.
But we couldn't really rejoice in it if we didn't understand it.
Because we say, "Lord, here I am having trouble again."
And you said the righteous is delivered out of trouble, and here I am having all this trouble.
Well, the word "trouble" here is not talking about trouble in the sense of irritation, agitation, frustration, discomfort, and pain.
It's not talking about that type of trouble.
You have still waters.
He leads me beside the still waters.
You also have what other kind of waters?
Troubled waters, like a bridge over troubled waters.
And so you have that troubled waters.
And in the same way, you can have a still heart, or you can have a troubled heart.
And the trouble that Solomon is talking about here tonight is not talking about the trouble that troubles waters and troubles hearts.
We're going to have trouble in this world.
We're going to have tribulation in this world.
We're going to have sorrow and pain and fear and dread.
But the Hebrew word translated "trouble" here tonight, it means "tightness."
You think, well, how can trouble mean "tightness"?
What is he talking about?
If you'll think about it, we use that same word "tightness" when we're defining a specific type of trouble.
We do the same thing.
It's trouble when you find yourself in a very uncomfortable position that you can't get out of, that's very difficult to get yourself out of.
We might say, for example, "I'm in a really tight spot right now."
That's literally the type of trouble that Solomon is talking about here.
Because if you look this word up in the Hebrew, it means "tightness."
"I'm in a really tight spot."
"I'm in a real jam."
Or, "I'm in a pinch."
All right?
So all of it illustrates that squeezing in to where you're in a tight spot and you just can't get out of it.
The circumstances have pinned you in.
That's what Solomon is talking about.
The devil wants to get us in a tight spot.
The devil wants to put us in a jam so he can shackle us to that difficult and painful situation.
Let me tell you this.
The righteous is delivered out of trouble.
Now, who's the one delivering us out of trouble?
God is, of course.
Now, here's what we can derive from that.
That's why I said the devil wants to put us in a tight spot.
He wants to get us in a jam.
God will never put you in a jam.
He'll never put you in a pinch, so to speak, in the sense, I believe, that we're looking at here tonight because God delivers us out of that rather than puts us into that.
It doesn't mean that we won't be in a situation that we don't have control in.
It doesn't mean that we won't be in circumstances we can't immediately escape from.
But when God puts us in circumstances like that, we're not in trouble.
It's an opportunity for God to teach us, grow us, and use us in a way in that situation he couldn't have used us before.
For example, when the apostle Paul was confined in prison in Rome, he couldn't get out of prison.
He couldn't just go roam around and go wherever he wanted to and enjoy his freedom.
No, he was in prison.
He was chained.
He was put on a ship.
He was shipped over to Rome to stand before Caesar, and he was put in prison.
But he was not in trouble.
The Jews thought he was in trouble, but the Jews were the one who was really in trouble.
The apostle Paul's in heaven right now.
Who's in trouble now?
It's the people who got him put into prison, but what God did while he was in prison was use Paul exceedingly and abundantly above all that he could ask or think.
And here we are enjoying the benefits of those prison epistles to this day.
But true trouble, where we're pinched in, God delivers us from that trouble, because the devil wants us to get into a situation to where we're truly pinched in, to where God's not going to use us.
We're not in prison for the gospel's sake.
We're in prison for our own unrighteousness sake.
We're in prison for, or we're in a pinch or a jam for our own disobedience and an ungodly walk.
And then we're in a real jam.
And the devil wants to get us in that real jam.
When the devil went into the Garden of Eden, he tempted Adam and Eve.
You know what he got Adam and Eve in?
In a real jam.
Something they couldn't get out of.
And apart from the grace of God.
But the devil wants to put the child of God out of commission.
He wants to shackle us to a difficult situation, a painful situation.
And he wants us to be so preoccupied by the trouble that we're in that he renders us useless to the kingdom of God.
And he has done people like that before.
When you follow Satan's temptations, you will get yourself in a pinch.
An unrighteous walk will put you in a tight spot every time.
I've spoken to people before who because of their situation that they were in, they felt like they were absolutely useless to the church, useless to the kingdom of God.
And perhaps for that time they were.
My family was talking about someone that we know just two or three days ago.
This person is a believer, but this person has not been walking with God as she should.
And because of that, her life has been shackled, absolutely shackled due to her unrighteous lifestyle.
And it's very difficult when King David disobeyed God, and he had to run from the throne.
During that period of time, he wasn't ruling from the throne, he was running from the throne.
And so the devil wants to put us in that situation, but the righteous is delivered out of it, meaning as long as we are following God's will, we will never get ourselves in a pinch.
As long as we're following God's word, we may get ourselves in prison for the gospel's sake, we'll never get ourselves in a pinch for unrighteousness sake.
And so like the apostle Paul, whenever he was in prison for preaching the gospel in another place, then he was able to sing praise to God.
And then the Philippian jailer, he got to hear the gospel and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and was saved.
And so that wasn't in a pinch, but for righteousness sake, it put him in a circumstance he couldn't get out of.
So I want you to understand the difference.
But the devil hates God's people, and he's always scheming some kind of plan to harm us and hinder our walk with God.
And he'll stir up an adversary against us many times and try to bring us into some type of trouble, some type of a pinch.
But if we're walking with God, we'll be delivered out of it.
I've had adversaries in churches try to stir up trouble against me.
I've had adversaries at work try to stir up trouble against me.
And if we get into trouble for our own wrongdoing, that's on us.
But that's not what this is talking about here.
This is talking about trouble that someone's trying to create for the child of God to get them into.
But the Bible says the righteous is delivered out of trouble, meaning they are ultimately pulled away from that trouble.
That word delivered here, it means to strip away from, to strip away from.
They're pulled away from that trouble.
They're separated from that trouble, so they are not connected to it as the devil and our enemies intended us, intended on us to be.
So this doesn't mean we want to experience trouble with the enemy.
We will.
King David had plenty of trouble with his enemies.
Mordecai in the book of Esther had trouble with his enemy Haman.
He was troubled, but he wasn't in a pinch.
He wasn't rendered useless because he was a righteous man.
And what this does mean is that ultimately we'll be delivered from that pinch, from that jam that our enemy is trying to put us into.
God delivers the righteous out of trouble.
Look back in your text and the wicked cometh in his stead.
Well Mordecai was a godly man and Haman hated him for it.
Wicked Haman hated him so badly.
He built a gallows that was 50 cubits high to hang them on.
That's a really high gallows.
They wanted everybody to see it.
And you know I would say that when you're sentenced to die and they've already built your gallows for you, you're probably in a real jam.
You know you're in trouble, but Mordecai put his trust in God to defend him.
And against that wicked man, God brought him into judgment, poured out his wrath, and he ended up hanging Haman on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai.
Esther 7 verses 9 through 10 says, "In Harbona one of the chamberlains said before the king, 'Behold also the gallows 50 cubits high which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman.
Then the king said, 'Hang him thereon.'
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.
Then was the king's wrath pacified."
Or you could say, "Propituated."
"Mordecai was delivered out of trouble and the wicked came in his stead."
Now I've seen this principle happen out in my own life and perhaps you've had this happen out in your life as well, but with this in mind, take your pen now.
Take your pen and underscore the words, "the righteous."
The righteous.
Now underscore the word "out."
Now underscore the wicked.
What are we going to underscore next?
"In."
That's exactly right.
"In."
So we find a law in this verse.
"The righteous go out, the wicked come in."
The righteous go out, we're speaking about trouble.
The righteous go out, the wicked go in.
That is a fundamental Bible truth.
We could call it a kingdom truth.
When it comes to trouble, the righteous go out, the wicked come in.
Now here's the thing, here's the deduction for all this.
For the righteous to go out, they must first be in.
You can't go out of something that you're not in.
Someone says, "Get out of this church."
Well you can't get out unless you're first in the church, right?
So for the righteous to go out, they must first be in.
Consequently, for the wicked to come in, they must first be out.
Here's the kingdom and truth for you tonight.
"In the kingdom of heaven, things don't end the way they begin."
"In the kingdom of heaven, things don't end the way they begin."
Luke chapter 16.
Luke chapter 16 verses 19 through 25.
Luke 16, 19 through 25.
"There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen."
Now this rich man is an unrighteous man.
This rich man is a wicked man.
He's clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.
"And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus."
"Beggar was a righteous man, which was laid at his gate full of sores and designed to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.
Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.
Then it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried."
Like that.
One gets transported by angels, one gets transported and dropped in the dirt by some pallbearers.
And so he says, "It was buried.
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment, seeing Abraham afar off in Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.'
But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that thou and thy lifetime receiveth thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things.
But now," see that?
"But now he is comforted and thou art tormented."
Do you know what happened there?
They, "Oh, Lazarus, you know, I'm sure that the world thought he was in a pinch.
And the rich man's probably not caring for him at all.
Lazarus was happy just to get some scraps from the trash can.
And the rich man probably thought he was doing so well.
But now the rich man's in trouble.
In the kingdom of heaven things don't end the way they begin.
Abraham said, 'But now he is comforted and thou art tormented.'"
Listen, if you ever are at a loss of words and you just don't know what to say, then praise the Lord.
If you ever just think, "You know what?
I really want to praise God.
I'm just not sure what to do.
I'm in a bad mood or I'm feeling sorry for myself.
My circumstances aren't good."
There's always two words that you can use to praise the Lord.
Always two words that every child of God can rejoice in.
And that's the words, "But now, but now I once was lost in my sin and unbelief, but now I used to mock the name of God.
But now I used to be a drug addict, but now I like Brother Doug, I used to be head the wrong direction and I was going the way of this whole world, you know, and following this old devil or whatever.
But now I thank God that there's a, "But now for the child of God," the words, "But now in the Bible remind us that with God things can always change in our lives.
With God things can always change in your life."
Here's the kingdom truth for you tonight.
Never judge your future potential based upon your present trouble.
Never judge your future potential based upon your present trouble.
That's what the devil wants to do.
He wants you to start looking at your situation, looking at your trouble that you're in, and he wants you to say, "Man, there's no hope for me."
There have been a lot of people, I've been one of them, there have been a lot of people who through the circumstances that they were in their lives have said, "I'm ruined.
I'll never be able to do anything for God.
You know, the Lord's not going to use me.
I'll never be the same again and all these other things."
And the devil wants us to focus on our present trouble and not our future potential, which the grace of God will overcome our present trouble.
Again, if you're walking in the righteousness of God, if you're walking in the way of God, the righteous go out, the wicked come in.
Never fret what an ungodly person does to you.
Never do it.
How did the apostle Paul get into prison in Philippi?
The ungodly put him there when he was walking in the way of God.
How did the apostle Paul get into prison in Rome?
The ungodly put him there.
They made a vow to kill him.
People were trying to get him.
Finally, they had him in jail and finally he appeals to Caesar and they sent him all the way to Rome.
But for walking in the way of God, and the wicked come after him, and the wicked put him in that situation for his walk with God.
Peter, same way.
John, both John's, the apostle John, John the Baptist, same thing.
John lost his head.
The apostle John lost his freedom because the wicked put them there.
Man, John was put on the Isle of Patmos.
Was he in a pinch?
He got to see heaven and the spirit.
There's no pinch there.
John the Baptist lost his head, but he gained the commendation of Jesus Christ who said, "There's never been another prophet any better than him."
That's no pinch.
Never dread.
When you are walking and you're following the Lord, you're not being chastised because you've been out living some hedonistic life, but you're trying to do the best you can and follow the Scriptures and do what you're supposed to do and then along comes some enemy that hates you and that wants to harm you and they put you in a bad situation.
Just like them, never dread what a wicked person does to you when you're walking in the way of God.
Because in the end, they're coming in and you're going out.
I say this since I made the comment years ago that I thought my ministry was destroyed, my ministry has never been better.
I've seen more souls saved.
I've had a closer walk with God, happier than I've ever been in my life.
In understanding Scripture in such a wonderful way and being able to enjoy my walk with Jesus, you know what that is?
That's a "but now."
But now, never fear what a wicked person does to you when you're walking in the way of God because the righteous go out, the wicked come in in their place.
Look here now in verse 9.
We'll try to wrap this up.
"And hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor."
Now this goes hand in hand.
"A hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor."
So we've got someone trying to destroy their neighbor.
A wicked person, this hypocrite and a hypocrite is a play actor who wears a mask to cover his real face or her real face.
And they're trying to convince you that they have your best interest in mind.
They'll try to gain information about you so that they can go down the road and tell bear about you.
And a lot of people have a good time playing both sides of the court.
They'll come to you as a friend.
They'll learn about you, praying for you, all this stuff.
The next thing you know, they go over to someone else and they stir up trouble about you and they're talking about you to that person and then they'll come back to you and start talking to you about that person.
Meanwhile, they act like they're friends with both and they're really trying to stir up strife between the two of them.
"A hypocrite destroys his neighbor with his mouth."
And a neighbor, you know, it's like in the Ten Commandments, you know, you shall love your neighbor as yourself and you're not to bear false witness against your neighbor.
The Ten Commandments and the law, I should have said, but that's what it's talking about.
It doesn't just mean his next door neighbor.
But with his mouth, a hypocrite will destroy his neighbor while he's acting like his friend.
A hypocrite will get close to you.
A hypocrite will destroy his neighbor with false teaching as well.
A hypocrite will get up behind the pulpit, put the mask on, look like a godly person, and then begin teaching false things that end up destroying people, that damn them to hell, that destroy their potential growth as a believer.
A lot of the people that write, most of the people that write me for help on the website, and I talked to one last night, that Tammy was mentioning, there were a lot of people that write me for help on the website.
It's because of false teaching they hear at church.
And so they'll destroy them.
I was listening to a video clip this week.
I think he was a fundamentalist preacher, but he had a big church.
And he got up there and Brother Shepherd, he described our church to a T.
He wasn't talking about our church, but he described it to a T.
He says, "We got churches out here."
He says, "I'm going to preach now."
He's the one who tried, "I'm about to preach now."
He says, "We got churches out here."
He said, "Their doctrine is pure, and they come in every Sunday, and they're teaching their theology, and their theology is pure, and it's right, and they're saved, and they're on their way to heaven."
He says, "But God didn't save you, so you could sit in the classroom and learn more and more of His Word each Sunday."
My goodness.
He said, "He saved you, and He sent His Holy Spirit, so you could have fire on your bones."
And I'm like, "These poor people, these poor people, of course, never wants that he mention the Scripture, never wants to ever quote the Bible, and so here's these folks thinking, "Man, God didn't save me, so I could keep taking the Scriptures and getting more and more and more in His Word, and learn more and more and more of His will for me, and His truth revealed to me.
He saved me, so He could put fire in my bones."
What is that?
Now, you've got people going around trying to stir up fire on their bones, and they don't even know what it is.
People trying to run off emotion rather than live off grace.
That's the difference.
Man, I tell you what, you give the truth of the gospel to me.
You give me the Word of God.
I'll get some fire in my bones, but it'll be the right kind of fire.
It's not going to be this kind of dramatic stuff that He's trying to work people up to get so that they can think, "Look at us, we've got fire in our bones.
These people over here, all they know is the Bible.
God help us.
God help us."
And people like that, they're hypocrites.
They're acting like they're helping their church members become better Christians, but if anyone believes what He's teaching them, they're damaging if those people are saved.
They're damaging their walk with God.
So a hypocrite destroys his neighbor, but look here now, "But through knowledge shall the just be delivered."
Here's the just being delivered again.
"Through knowledge shall the just be delivered."
You know how you get knowledge?
Through the Word of God.
The Word of God gives us knowledge.
"The entrance of thy word giveth light," the Scripture says.
And so here's what we have.
We have one hypocrite with his words.
He's destroying people.
We have a just person on the other hand, and through righteous words gains knowledge.
And then what does that knowledge do?
It delivers the just.
It delivers the just.
You want to get in a jam?
You want to get in a real jam?
Just sit underneath the preaching of a hypocrite for a while.
That'll put you in a real jam.
That'll put you in a jam so you're scared to go to church because you're afraid you're going to leave, doubt your salvation.
It'll put you in a jam because like a lot of people, they go and they think, "Man, I'm not learning anything.
I'm not getting anything out of this.
It's the same old, same old stirred up messages.
I used to go to church and I'm telling you, that preacher could preach and stomp and shout and smash his fist and get people to say, "Amen," and it didn't matter what Scripture verse he told us to turn to.
It was the same old sermons every time.
Just rehashed with another Bible verse.
You sit and you listen to a hypocrite pretending to teach you God's Word and try to give you fire on your bones instead of, "Thus saith the Lord."
You'll get yourself in a jam spiritually speaking.
But the knowledge of God's Word to a just person, it delivers that person out of those situations.
It sets them free.
The Scripture always sets you free.
I told this gentleman I was talking to last night.
Due to some teaching he had been exposed to, he got himself in such a pickle that he feels he may never be able to get out of it.
For example, the teaching that works becomes the basis of your assurance of salvation.
You're saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, but when you start working and doing good works for God, then you can say, "Ah, I really am saved because look at the good works I'm doing."
So then what happens is, he's in this situation, so he says, "Well, as soon as you get that in your mind that the works now become your assurance of your salvation, guess what happens?
You have no assurance until you do works.
You should have assurance just because of the cross.
But now you're looking forward to the works to be assured.
You're saying, "Oh, it's not going to be the works that saves you.
It's going to be your faith in Christ alone."
But you can't be sure until you have the works.
And so they say, "Well, I can't work to be saved."
Then I wouldn't be believing in Christ alone.
So here's what I'll do.
I'll believe in Christ alone, and now I'll do some works so I can know that I'm saved.
As soon as you do that, you open up a Pandora's box.
And so now you get to the point where you say, "Well, now am I doing this work to know I'm saved or to be saved?
Am I creating a faith-based or a works-based salvation here?"
And you know what?
We're imperfect people, and because we're imperfect people, we have imperfect works.
And if you have an imperfect work, and that work's supposed to be the basis of your assurance of salvation, now you're having an imperfect assurance.
And so then you start working harder and harder to gain more assurance.
And all it is is like you're on a treadmill, and you start off at three miles per hour.
You're doing pretty good at three.
Four, you're doing okay, but you're not getting anywhere.
Why?
Because you're an imperfect person.
You have an imperfect work.
You have an imperfect assurance of your salvation.
So you intensify it.
You crank it up to seven miles an hour.
You know what happens now?
Now you're working harder than you ever have, and you still haven't gotten anywhere.
Now you're in the same gym you were in before, but you're worn out.
Physically, spiritually, emotionally exhausted.
And that's what this man is right now.
He told me last night, I said at privacy, I don't even know who it is.
He told me, "He's not from here."
He said, "He's just barely hanging on."
And I could tell it was dangerous where he was at.
He said, "I'm telling you, Richard, I'm just barely hanging on."
And so this person is supposed to drive down from out of state.
Meet with me Saturday at the house, and God willing, get his head on straight with the scriptures.
That's how important it is.
He's going to drive nine hours to come talk to a preacher.
And you know what causes all that?
False teaching.
And you know what I told him?
Any teaching, because remember, the righteous go out, the wicked come in.
Any teaching that encumbers weight upon the shoulder and brings trouble to that person is not of God.
Jesus said, "Come unto me, you who are weary and heavy laden, and what will happen when you come to me?
What do you see?
Rest."
You come to Christ, you get rest.
You preach the gospel, you'll be preaching Christ.
You'll be preaching, "Lay your burden down.
You take his burden."
And his burden is grace.
So it's easy.
It's light.
It's nothing.
And so when you preach the true preaching, it brings relief to the burden soul.
False teaching turns the soul's eyes away from Christ, puts it on themselves, and now they're weighted down.
And that's exactly where he's at.
And so a hypocrite will destroy his neighbor.
But knowledge, specifically the knowledge of Christ, crucified, buried, risen again, the knowledge of a perfect salvation, ready to be enjoyed and fed upon like that bread in the tabernacle that Brother Shepherd has recently been speaking of, that that light shines upon.
Already made up.
The bread's already made.
You don't have to bring any ingredients.
You don't have to do any work cooking it.
All you have to do is go, "Mmm, that smells good and eat it up."
That's what you do with the gospel.
"Oh, that good news sounds good to me.
Thank you very much, Lord.
I'll take it."
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
We thank you, Father, that the righteous go out, the wicked come in.
The hypocrite destroys with his words the word of God that brings knowledge, it always delivers.
There's destruction and there's deliverance depending on what words we listen to.
And I thank you that you give us the words of life that always, always bring freedom, that always take the burden off of us, and place it onto Jesus.
Thank you, Father, so much.
May we always, I pray, walk justly and listen to your word and your word alone and never heed the word of hypocrites.
In Jesus' precious name, amen.
