Our Deliverer

Eduardo Elizondo—July 20, 2024

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We're going to study another Proverb. Last time we studied one of the Proverbs in:

Proverbs 11:5: "The Righteousness of the Perfect shall direct his way..."

This time we're going to study v 6, because we're going to see some things that are wonderful regarding this verse.

Last time we talked about how "The Righteousness of the Perfect shall direct his way..." and how God directs our steps!

But in this other proverb that is a companion, because they both start the same way, "The Righteousness of the Perfect…"

Proverbs 11:6: "The Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them…"

That's why this message is titled Our Deliverer, because we're going to see, as we saw last time as well, that is the Righteousness of God and God Himself is our righteousness, as we saw in the previous message.

Verse 6: "The Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them, but transgressors shall be taken in their own lust."

We're going to see that second part of the verse, as well. But we're going to study the first part where it says: "The Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them…"

In one, it says the Perfect and the other one says the Upright, but both of them talk about the Righteousness of:

• those who are seeking God
• those who are loving God
• those who have made a covenant with God

and they

• love Him
• love His ways
• love His Word

We're going to see something amazing because these two go together. We read about "…the Righteousness of the Perfect…" in directing us and understanding how it's a relationship with God!

It's not His law separated from Himself, but it is His Law:

• with His Spirit
• with His Word
• with a daily relationship of prayer and study

In the second consecutive proverb—

Proverbs 11:6: "The Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them…"

We're going to see that this is another important part of our relationship with God; that we know and understand that He not only will guide us, but that He Himself is our Deliverer!

We're going to see that it's "The Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them…" because when we keep His commandments—His Righteousness, because all of the commandments of God are our righteousness—He will deliver us and He Himself will do it!

• when we think about that in plain terms
• when we think about the Righteousness of the Upright

We have so many examples in the Bible, which we're going to just talk about a couple of them.

JOSEPH

The first one is Joseph and then there's many others in the Bible where the Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them! When we read the story of Joseph, and you can read it on your own, in Gen, 38-39; everything that happened with Joseph in those chapters.

It talks about how Joseph was sold as a slave, but then even as a slave in the house of Potiphar, that he prospered, that God made him to prosper in everything, to the point where Potiphar put him over his entire household.

We don't have the time to read all of the Scriptures, but we know this story. We know that He was delivered from the servitude and was brought up to be the ruler of that household. Potiphar put everyone under Joseph in that household. So, he was delivered one time!

Then what happened? We know the Potiphar's wife that lied about him, but he stood firm in the Righteousness of the Upright when he said…

Gen. 39—we're going to read a little bit of this account because it is something important where the Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them!This is the righteousness that Joseph had because he believed God! He was taught by his father, Israel, and by his grandfather, Isaac, the ways of God even back from Abraham.

We know what happened; we know that Potiphar put him over all his house.

Genesis 39:9—Joseph said: "There is none greater in this house than I. Neither has he kept back anything from me except you because you… [talking about Potiphar's wife] …are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"

• he knew that it was God who had given him all of that.
• he knew that it was the Righteousness of God, the commandments
• he knew what was right, what was wrong
• he knew that lying with her would have been the easy way to please her and to continue that position

But God had much, much bigger plans for Joseph! It was that Righteousness that he had to hold on to, and he did.

Verse 10: "And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie with her, or to be with her. And it came to pass on a certain day that he came into the house to do his work. And none of the men of the house were inside…. [she probably sent them out] …And she caught him by his robe, saying, 'Lie with me.' And he left his robe in her hand and fled, and got out of the house. And when she saw that he had left his robe in her hand and had fled, she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, 'See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice. And when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried aloud, he left his robe with me and fled and got out'" (vs 10-15).

We know that it's a lie; we know that she was lying. She was deceiving, because she didn't get her way!

But it was the Righteousness of the Upright, in this case of Joseph, that ultimately—it wasn't immediate—he actually went to jail. But in these circumstances, in this case, even the fact that everything that he had done, that delivered him, because Potiphar believed him enough to not put him to death.

He should have been put to death if that was the truth. But Potiphar probably knew Joseph well enough and what he stood for, and that he feared God, because God blessed him in everything, that he feared God in everything that he did.

Verse 20: "And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison… [a testimony that he believed that this couldn't have been the case] …a place where the king's prisoners were bound. And he was there in the prison."

Then again, we see later that God prospers everything and He makes Joseph the keeper of the jail. Then we know the rest of story with the baker and the cup-bearer. But it is an amazing thing when we come back to

Proverbs 11:6: "The Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them…"—because it is that righteousness that delivers!

We know that God Himself is our Righteousness. As we saw last time, the Lord our Righteousness shall deliver them.

It's not only His Truth; in this case, He delivered Joseph from death. But then that same Righteousness in the prison took him:

• to be the keeper of the prison
• to talk to the cup-bearer and the baker
• to interpret the dreams

because God gave him all that!

Then Potiphar made Joseph ultimately to be second in command in all of Egypt, the world's greatest power at the time. It was the Righteousness of the Upright that delivered him. He was delivered from slavery, going into the house of Potiphar and being that second in command. He wasn't living as a slave, then he was delivered again from prison and made the second in command. That deliverance kept coming back and back again.

The same thing with many others in the Bible, where they stood by what God says, and that Righteousness of the Upright delivered them!

DAVID

Another example, how much he was fleeing from Saul? He was really fleeing from him and for his life. But that Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them!

David knew that he was not supposed to touch the anointed of God in King Saul. He didn't kill Saul when apparently God put Saul right in front of him to take his life when he was in the cave. We know that story. But that Righteousness delivers them!

God delivered David in that case, we don't have the time to go there to those Scriptures, but we know them well. He delivered him from shedding blood! The other people that were with David, said, 'God has put him into your hands, but he feared God, same as Joseph.

That's what we have to do, as well; to remember that that Righteousness is going to deliver us from the things that we do. We're also going to read some Scriptures to know and understand that that Righteousness of the Upright is also the Lord our Righteousness, that He Himself comes and delivers us! He intervenes in our lives actively:

• when we love Him
• when we obey Him
• when we praise Him
• when we do the things that He delights in

2-Sam. 22—this is David. This is after all of these trials that we were talking about, because God delivered him! He knew that it wasn't just his righteousness in terms of himself. But the Lord Himself, the Lord, our Righteousness! As we saw last time, He is the One Who was delivering him!

2-Samuel 22:1: "And David spoke to the LORD the words of this song in the day the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul."

We can read this exact same thing in Psa. 18 as well, by the way, and so much more.

Verse 2: "And he said, 'The LORD is my Rock, and my Fortress, and my Deliverer.'"

We can see right there, the Lord is my Deliverer. This goes with what we read in the Proverbs, where it says, the Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them!

• the Lord is our Righteousness
• the Lord is our Deliverer

Not only in the way that His Righteousness guides us to deliverance, that He Himself intervenes, that He Himself loves us, cares for us and delivers us!

That is something to keep in mind, especially with the times that we're living in, that God is our Deliverer.

But we have to continue to seek that righteousness that only God can bring, to seek the righteousness of:

• His Laws
• His Commandments
• the Righteousness of the blood of our Savior Jesus Christ, Who is our Deliverer.

Verse 3: "The God who is my Rock, in Him will I trust…."

That's why he was a man after God's own heart, because he was trusting in God.

"…He is my Shield…" (v 3).

• He's our Shield
• He is our Deliverer

"…and the Horn of my salvation…" (v 3)—and He is for us, as well! He is the One Who has carried it out. Jesus Christ has given his blood for us!

"…my High Tower, and my Refuge, my Savior…." (v 3).

And if we stop and think about what this means for us, it's amazing to think that He is our Deliverer through what He has decreed in His commandments. That's His Righteousness, and through His sacrifice, His blood, He is our Savior. He says:

"…You save me from violence" (v 3). That's literally what happened right in the cave!

He was going to commit violence, because that's what everybody was telling him to do, 'Go ahead and kill Saul, he's in your hand, he's right here, he's ripe for the taking.

Now David says, "…You save me from violence." He did literally!

Verse 4: "I will call upon the LORD, Who is worthy to be praised. And I shall be saved from my enemies."

• so shall we be saved from our enemies
• so shall we be saved from Satan the devil
• so shall we be saved from all the things in this world, all the evil in this world

We're going to read a couple of other verses about this, about the deliverance of God, because it's the Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them!

Psa. 40:16—another Psalm of David, because he really understood that he had that connection, that relationship with God, that He was his Deliverer.

This is what we want to emphasize today. In the last message—The Righteousness of the Perfect—we talked about He is the One Who directs our way, but He is also our Deliverer. He intervenes in our lives.

Psalm 40:16: "Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You, and let the one who loves Your salvation always say 'Let the LORD be magnified.'"

This is what God wants us to do. He wants us to rejoice IF we are seeking Him and to be glad in Him.

"…and let the one who loves Your salvation…";

• we love His salvation
• we anticipate the Kingdom of God
• we want to be transformed
• we want to be renewed in our minds
• we want to be changed
• we want to magnify the Lord

It says, "…let the one who loves Your salvation always say 'Let the LORD be magnified.'"

Knowing that He fights the battles for us, that He is our Deliverer, He's not only going to guide our ways, that Righteousness of the Perfect, this is "The Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them…"

Then he really understood our condition and so shall we need to understand our condition. This is what we need to do:

Verse 17: "But I am poor and needy; may the LORD think upon me…"

That's what we want. We want the Lord to think upon us. The Lord our Righteousness shall deliver us!

"…You are my Help and my Deliverer; O my God, do not delay" (v 17).

We can cry out to God this way in our praise to mention these same words when we're in great trials and afflictions and suffering, which many of us are of different kinds. This is what we are to pray.

Please think upon me, Lord. You are my Help. You are my Deliverer. Oh my God, do not delay. Come to me. Because without You, I can't do anything. I can't deliver myself from this trial, this affliction, whatever kind it is.

• God will fight those battles for us
• He will save us
• He will deliver us

Psa. 144—here it also talks about the deliverance of God. And it's an amazing thing when we think about that the Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them; it's both:

• it's the righteousness in the actions that we take in following after God
• it's also God Himself as our Deliverer

To know and understand that that is one of the things that He does, because of His love for us, not for anything that we deserve.

Psalm 144:1: "Blessed is the LORD my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle…"—because he knew that the battle was God's!

That even the training of his hands and his fingers was from God!  He was his Rock, and that's what we have to remember: He is our Rock!

Verse 2: "He is my Loving Kindness and my Fortress, my High Tower and my Deliverer, my Shield and He in Whom I take refuge, Who subdues my people under me."

This is what we need to remember that we are in training to be kings and priests. He will subdue people under ourselves.

• we don't even know who they are
• we don't even know how many
• we don't even know any of that, yet

But first we have to seek the Righteousness of God and what He says to do, but also Himself, the Lord our Righteousness!

As we saw last time, to know and understand that is our Righteousness, the Lord Himself is our Deliverer.

This is an amazing thing when we understand that the Righteousness of the Upright will deliver us! It is the Righteousness of God Himself! The Lord our Righteousness in His commandments and in His direct actions in our lives. It's both things; it's not just one or the other.

Romans 11:26: "And so all Israel shall be saved, according as it is written…"

Obviously, this is the background is talking about Israel, talking about the Church and about the role of Israel having been called to be 'a special people' of God. Then the role of the Church to provoke them to jealousy, because they did not obey Him.

How God is going to accomplish His work through the Church and then He's going to also bring back Israel and fulfill his plan like He intended.

But in the Millennium He's going to give them all those blessings and they're going to become what they were supposed to be in the first place. When that happens is what we're reading here:

Verse 26: "And so all Israel shall be saved, according as it is written: 'Out of Sion shall come the Deliverer, and He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob'"—that's Jesus Christ Himself! The Deliverer has come out of Zion!

He showed and he says, "…and He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob" (v 26).

Why? Through that righteousness! The Righteousness:

• of his blood
• of his sacrifice
• of His words
• of His commandments
• of all of His instructions

Verse 27: "For this is My covenant, which I will make with them when I have taken away their sins"—talking about Israel, when He opens their mind as well to understand!

We know that there's going to be 12,000 sealed from each of those tribes at the time of the end, right before the return of Jesus Christ is imminent to this earth.

• we know this is going to happen
• we know God loves Israel
• we know that He will deliver them

He will give him an opportunity!

• we also know that a big part of those who are called out ones now are also descendants of physical Israel

We know that, too! It's not one or the other. There's overlap and there's purpose to both of them.

But we know that God is our Deliverer! It's the Righteousness of the Upright that shall deliver them! The Lord our Righteousness shall deliver us! He will intervene in our lives!

Prov. 11—we'll read in the second part of this Proverb what happens. What happens for the ones that are not following this, that are not following Righteousness:

Proverbs 11:6: "…but transgressors shall be taken in their own lust."

We're going to see a couple of Scriptures about this. We've seen the Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them!  We know God is our Deliverer, just like He delivered all of his people throughout history. That's what He's doing right now, actively involved in our lives:

• IF we seek Him
• IF we go to Him
• IF we put all these things in His hands

"…but transgressors shall be taken in their own lust."

Exo.15—because this is an example of how the wicked shall be taken in their own lust! We know this is the song of Moses, that Moses and all the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord right after they crossed the Red Sea when they saw their enemies covered by the water, all the army of Egypt.

Exodus 15:9: "The enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.'"

And we know what happened. We know that they were all buried in the sea.

Verse 10: "But, You blew with Your wind; the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters."

Why? Because they were trapped in their own lust! Their lust was:

We're going to make them servants again. They're going to come and serve us. Why did we let them go?

Forgetting that their Deliverer had taken them out, that they couldn't, that they were terrified of all dying, because he had killed the first one of both man and beast in Egypt. They ignored the Deliverer and they were taken in their own lust, trying to enslave them again and bring them back!

God said, 'Greatest deliverance!' It was one of the greatest deliverances of all time, massive! Delivering an entire people across the Red Sea.

That's how the Proverb is actually fulfilling one of the examples of how this has been fulfilled; that the transgressors shall be taken in their own lust!

This is an amazing thing that even the ones who were delivered. They knew some of them, not all of them, transgressed and they were also taken in their own lust. We know the story and it's not to put the people of Israel down, because we all have human nature! We all fall! But there is a warning here:

• that we are not taken in our own lust
• that we do not transgress
• that we come back to the righteousness of our Deliverer
• that we come back to the Righteousness of God

Numbers 11:1: "And the people complained about their distress, speaking evil in the ears of the LORD…."

Instead of trusting Him—that He was going to deliver them, that He was their Righteousness—they were complaining against Him and complaining against Him, meaning it wasn't just a complaint, it was really not believing in Him and in His power.

"…And the LORD heard it, and His anger was kindled. And the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some in the outermost parts of the camp" (v 1).

That's what happened because they were taken in their own lust!

Verse 2: "And the people cried to Moses. And when Moses prayed to the LORD, the fire was quenched. And he called the name of the place Taberah because the fire of the LORD burned among them. And the troublemakers in their midst lusted with great lust. And the children of Israel also turned and wept, and said, 'Who shall give us flesh to eat?" (vs 2-4)

So, it's like it was an immediate complaint, and right away after this fire had come, there was more complaining.

Verse 5: "We remember the fish, which we ate freely in Egypt…"

It was not freely, they were working as slaves all day with hard servitude. That was not freely! They forgot the Righteousness of God, they forgot their Deliverer, and they were delusional here! It was not free!

"…the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic" (v 5). Yeah, they were missing the produce, but they also forgot their hardships!

Verse 6: "But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes."

That was their great lust and we know what happened; in v 30, we can see this. You can read the rest of the chapter, but this is the conclusion of it at the end where it says:

Verse 30: "And Moses went into the camp, he and the elders of Israel. And a wind went forth from the LORD… [when they were craving meat] …And it brought quail from the sea and let them fall by the camp, about a day's journey on this side, and about a day's journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits high upon the face of the earth" (vs 30-31).

Can you imagine a day's journey is miles for miles, like two cubits high, like so tall, a couple of feet tall, just of the birds of the quail. There was so much!

Verse 32: "And the people rose up all that day and all night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quail. And he that gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague" (vs 32-33).

Because instead of trusting in God, instead of asking what they needed and being patient and loving God, and understanding that He has done great things for them and believing Him, they just asked to satisfy their lust. We cannot do that because God is our Deliverer!

But we have to follow in His ways. We have to condition ourselves to His will, not the other way around.

"…the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague. And he called the name of that place Graves of Lust because there they buried the people that lusted" (vs 33-34). That was a very, very important lesson!

Coming back to Prov. 11 to close out this message today, but hearing in Prov. 11:6, we see how true this is. We see how it goes way beyond the surface.

Proverbs 11:6: "The Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them…"—because the Lord, our righteousness, is our Deliverer!

But we are to be like David, where we love the Lord, our Deliverer, not only when He delivers us, that we cry out to Him when we're in distress, when we're in need, but we trust that He can deliver us and that He will deliver us, whether in this life or at the resurrection, and to have that type of faith.

That's what God wants because the transgressors shall be taken in their own lust! We have seen today a couple of examples of how transgressors are taken in their own lust, and we shouldn't fall into that. We shouldn't fall into that because we have seen how the Righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them!

We have seen in the last message how the Righteousness of the Perfect shall direct his way!

We see the totality of the Word of God, and we see everything that he's doing in guiding us to:

• His Commandments
• His Judgments
• His Laws

But He Himself is our Righteousness!

• He Himself not only guides us
• He also delivers us from all our trials
• the Lord is our Salvation
• He is our Deliverer

Scriptural References:

• Proverbs 11:5-6
• Genesis 39:9-15, 20
• Proverbs 11:6
• 2 Samuel 22:1-4
• Psalm 40:16-17
• Psalm 144:1-2
• Romans 11:26-27
• Proverbs 11:6
• Exodus 15:9-10
• Numbers 11:1-6, 30-35
• Proverbs 11:6

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Genesis 38
• Psalm 18

Also referenced: Message:
The Righteousness of the Perfect

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Transcribed: 7/25/24

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