Our text this morning is found
in the book of Proverbs. In Proverbs chapter 18 and verse
10. Proverbs 18.10. The name of the
Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it
and is safe. Proverbs of course is part of
what we call the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. These writings
of King Solomon who received that answer to his prayer when
he requested that the Lord would grant him wisdom. He was the wisest of men by the
goodness and the grace of God and so we have these various
writings in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. But
as we turn to these words that we have announced as our text,
the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth
into it and is safe. I want us to take up the spiritual
significance, the spiritual interpretation, because like every other part
of the word of God, the wisdom literature ultimately directs
us to the Lord Jesus Christ. We can think of those words of
Christ in John chapter 5 when he spoke to the Jews and said,
search the scriptures for in them you think that you have
eternal life and these are they that testify of me. We ought to be those who would
seek to find Christ in every part of scripture. And the Lord
Jesus is certainly here in this book. Remember how in the opening
chapter, there in verses 20 and 21, we read, Wisdom crieth without
She uttereth her voice in the streets, she cryeth in the chief
place of concourse, in the openings of the gates, in the city she
uttereth her words. And now that scripture is evidently
fulfilled in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. There we see
him in that chief place of concourse on the great day of the Feast
of Tabernacles recorded in John chapter 7 and at verse 37 and the following verses. In the last day, it says, that
great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any
man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit,
which say that believe on him should receive. For the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. But there is the Lord Jesus then.
in that great place of concourse, the last day of the feast, standing
and proclaiming the coming and the ministry of the Spirit. The Lord Jesus, I say then, is
clearly to be discerned in this book, and we know that He is
set before us certainly in the eighth chapter. We see him there
as the wisdom of God again, does not wisdom cry and understanding
put forth a voice. And then he goes on to speak
of his eternal sonship, his eternal generation by the Father, the
Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways. before his works
of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning wherever the
earth was when there were no depths I was brought forth then
when there were no fountains abounding with water before the
mountains were settled before the hills was I brought forth
and then again he speaks in terms of his coming to men Then I was
by him as one brought up with him, I was daily his delight,
rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable part
of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men." In
all of these things it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is speaking
or the Lord Jesus Christ who is being spoken of, the wisdom
of God. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
says Paul, whom of God is made unto us wisdom. And so, here
as wisdom speaks in the words of our text this morning, the
name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth
into it and is safe." I want us to consider then the Lord
Jesus Christ as the tower of safety. We know that He is the
rock of salvation, He is the sure foundation, He is the precious
cornerstone. These are various names that
are applied to Him in other parts of the world and here we see
him as the tower of safety. First of all then to consider
this strong tower which is the Lord Jesus Christ. You will observe
in the text that what is declared is not set before us as a simile. It doesn't say the name of the
Lord is as a strong tower. It's interesting to observe that
there are other verses in the scripture where the translators
of unauthorized version have interpreted the verse as a simile,
although, strictly speaking, in those verses it's not similes
that we have. I think of words like those in
Lamentations chapter 3 verse 45. It reads, Thou hast made us as
the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. But
if you look up that verse, Lamentations 3.45, you will observe that the
word as is in italics. In other words, it's been introduced
by the translators. It's not there in the original. Literally it says, Thou hast
made us the off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the people. Similarly in Psalm 73 and verse
22 we read, So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before
thee, it reads, as a simile. But in fact the word as again there appears
in italics, literally it says So foolish was I, and ignorant
I was of this." Not making a comparison. But the psalmist is confessing
his ignorance, his bestiality, as he comes before God. Well
here, in our text this morning, the authorized version translators
have left it as it stands. They've not introduced the idea
of simile. The name of the Lord, it says,
is a strong tower. Now, what are we to understand
then by this bold statement? Well, here we're reminded in
some ways of the very character of God. His name. His name is
of course a declaration of himself. We are well aware of the significance
of names in Holy Scripture. There are some very striking
examples when we read of Rachel back in Genesis 35. when she
gives birth to her second son, Benjamin. Remember how there,
in verses 17 and 18, we see that she dies in childbirth, and her
dying breath, she calls the boy Ben-Onai, the son of my sorrows. the son of my sorrows, and yet
Jacob calls the boy Benjamin, and that's the name by which
we know him. Benjamin meaning the son of my right hand. But a very striking example of
the importance, the significance of these names. And as we've
said many times, one of the most striking of all, of course, is
that name that he's given to the prophet Elijah. as he suddenly
breaks on the scene in Israel in the midst of all the awful
idolatry, the worship of Baal in the days of that wicked king
Ahab and his wife Jezebel. And suddenly there in 1st Kings
17 we read of Elijah, the Tishbite, and the name Elijah declares
Jehovah is God. Eli-Jah, Jehovah is God and most
significantly of all when we come to the New Testament the
human name that is given to the Lord Christ the angel says they
shall call his name Jesus the Greek form of the Hebrew name
Joshua which means salvation They shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins." All God's name
then is the declaration of God, it's a revelation of the character
of God, and we see that so strikingly when we think of the name Jehovah
or Lord, as we have it here in the text, Lord in capital letters.
It's that that is derived from what God said to Moses at the
burning bush in Exodus chapter 3. God declares himself to be
the Great I Am. He uses, as we've said before,
the verb to be. And he speaks in the first person,
he's speaking of himself, he declares his name to be I Am. I Am that I Am. And this name, Lord, as we see
it in the text, is really the third person singular of that
same verb. God says, I am. And we say, He
is. He is the unchanging one. I am
the Lord. I change not. therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed." Oh, the Lord Jesus is that one who
is the same yesterday and today and forever. What do we see here
then with regards to this strong tower? It reminds us of God,
it reminds us of the character of God. as Jeremiah says, a glorious
high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary,
or that throne of God, that God who is sovereign over all things,
that one who is ever doing according to his will among the armies
of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say to him, what doest thou? He is that God who
is sovereign, who always executes is good and perfect will and
no man is able to frustrate his design. But then, besides declaring
to us something of the character of God, this name, the name of
the Lord, it's also, as you know, the covenant name. It's a name
associated with the covenant. Go back to Exodus as we said
it's there in chapter 3 that the Lord God appears to Moses
and calls and commissions him to be the one who is to deliver
the children of Israel from the bondage which was Egypt. And
then just a few chapters later in Exodus chapter 6 Exodus 6 and verse 3, God says,
I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the
name of God Almighty. But by my name Jehovah was I
not known to them. And I have also established my
covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land
of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers. And I have also
heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians
keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant." It was to the man
Moses that the fullness of that divine name, that covenant name
of Jehovah was revealed when he actually came to deliver the
children of Israel out of that bondage which was Egypt. And later, after God has brought
them out, and you know much of the history that's recorded here
in Exodus, God brings them out by a mighty arm and a strong hand, brings
them through the Red Sea, brings them to Mount Sinai, enters into
covenant with them, and yet so quickly they transgress, and
they worship the golden calf, and God speaks of rejecting them
and he will take of Moses and make a nation but Moses stands
in the bridge and pleads for them before God and then God
is pleased to come and declare himself to Moses in Exodus 34
we have God's covenant how the Lord descended in the clouds
and stood with Moses there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Here it is, a proclamation of
that name, Jehovah. The Lord passed by before him
and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
unto the third and to the fourth generation. And we're told how
Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. Oh, it's a declaration there
of the covenant. It's the covenant name. That
covenant in which God is pleased to reveal himself as a gracious
God. And so, ultimately, we see how
this name is revealed in the person and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. When we come to the end of the
Old Testament, the very last book there in Malachi 3, And
verse 1, we have Him who is spoken of as the messenger of the covenant,
and we looked at that verse just a couple of weeks ago now. Who
is the messenger of the covenant? Why, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's Him who in the New Testament
He said before us is the mediator. The mediator and the surety.
of a better covenant, says the Apostle writing in Hebrews. Here then, we're to think principally
as we said at the outset, we're to think of the Lord Jesus Christ. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. Going back again to what he said
to to Moses. Remember, when they
come out of the land of Egypt, God goes before them in the fiery
cloudy pillar, the pillar of a cloud in the day, the pillar
of fire by night. God leads them in the way. And
when the Egyptians are pursuing them, that fiery cloudy pillar
goes from before them and comes behind them and protects them. And then we're told in Exodus
23 and verse 21 that it is the angel of the Lord who is there
in that fiery, cloudy pillar. And in that particular verse,
Exodus 23, 21, it says, My name is in him. God's name is in the
angel. God's name is in the fiery, cloudy
pillar. And that name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is Christ who is there. It
is Christ who is the one ultimately in whom God declares his name
and reveals himself. You know, the language of Paul
in the opening words of the epistle to the Hebrews. God who at sundry
times and in diverse manner spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets. as in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son." Oh, this is the name, the name which is
above every name. It's the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. And there
we see it time and time and time again, in the prophetic Scriptures,
in every part of Scripture really. We have that one that is spoken
of in Isaiah 7, Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall
bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel. They shall call his name Immanuel,
which by interpretation is God with us. And then again, In Isaiah
9, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder, and his name, his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor of the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. Time and time and time again
I say, they shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people. from their sins. This is the
one who is spoken of here by Solomon. Himself is a type of
the Lord Jesus. His very name Solomon of course
means peace. He is the Prince of Peace. And
as we see there in Isaiah 9.6, that's one of the names that
he's given to the Lord Jesus Christ. The name of the Lord
is a strong tower. Well, having sought to identify
the one that he's spoken of here as a strong tower and seen from the analogy of faith, as the
old writers would call it, that scripture interpreted itself,
bringing other parts of scripture to bear upon a particular verse,
taking account of the whole tenor of the Word of God, establishing
then that it is the Lord Jesus. I want, in the second place,
to consider those who are saved or rather the safety of those
who are saved because we're told at the end of the verse the righteous
runneth into it and is safe as you might observe in the authorised
in the margin of your authorised version that the the word safe
literally means to be set aloft to be set aloft. We think of the language of the
Psalmist in Psalm 61, When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me
to the rock that is higher than I, for thou hast been a shelter
for me and a strong tower from the enemy. Oh how God sets his
people aloft He puts them on that rock that is higher than
themselves. He brings them into that strong
tower for shelter and for safety. And again, we're reminded of
it in the portion of Scripture that we were reading. There in Isaiah 26, in the opening
word of that chapter, in that day, What is that day that is
being spoken of? It's the day of the Lord. It's
the day of grace. It's these last days, in that
day. This song shall be sung in the
land of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation
will guide a point for walls and bulwarks." And then again
at the end, verse 20, "'Come, my people, enter thou into thy
chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself, as
it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpassed.'"
Well, here then we see that place of security. It is in the Lord
Jesus Christ and only in the Lord Jesus Christ. The psalmist
says God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of
trouble. You know the language there in
Psalm 46 and of course Luther's great hymn in Westerberg is really
a paraphrase of Psalm 46. a safe, strong hold, how God
is still. It's based on those words of
the Psalmist, Psalm 46, or that place of safety, where God sets
his people, they are sheltered, they are secure, they are set
on high. Again, we can think of the language
of another of the prophets, Zechariah. In Zechariah 9, verse 12, he
gives that gracious word, that lovely exhortation, turn you
to the stronghold ye prisoners of hope. All those who feel the
awful reality of their sin, those who feel that they are prisoners
to what they are, has fallen in Adam and Eve. have they shut
in to their awful unbelief, they cannot deliver themselves, they
cannot save themselves, but what an exhortation! Turn you to the
stronghold, ye prisoners of hope." They are not without hope, because
there is One who is mighty and One who is able to save even
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, considering then something
of those who are saved, I want us to observe two things. We read of them as being righteous
and we read of them running. The righteous, it says, runneth
into it and is safe and is set on high. First of all, what are
we to understand by this reference to running? Does it not remind
us of faith? It reminds us of faith. Different
figures are used in scripture to indicate what faith is. Faith is sometimes spoken of
as a look. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God. And there is none else
looking unto Jesus, looking only unto Jesus, looking away unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And then faith
is also likened to coming. Those that believe are the ones
who are coming, approaching, drawing near to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Those that come and call upon
him. But also this running. They run unto Christ. They run
into Christ. because they feel themselves
to be in great danger. And what is it to run to Christ? Why? It's to be those who are
trusting in Him. They that know thy name, says
the Psalmist, will put their trust in thee. If we know anything
of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be those who
are trusting in Him. We know nothing of His name if
we're not trusting in Him. profession is only an empty profession. To have that true knowledge,
that experimental knowledge of Him, there must come with that
a trusting, a running into the Lord Jesus. Well, we need that
faith, that faith that comes by the operation of God, as we
read in Colossians 2.12. Faith of the operation of God
who raised him from the dead. How faith is associated with
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and not only faith but
also Hope is associated with the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
says Peter, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten
us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. And now we have to run to Him
who is now crucified, crucified for sinners and risen again for
their justification. Who are with those then who would
desire to run to Him and to enter into Him and see in Him that
only place of safety and security. Those that come to Him, they
are the ones who are set on high. They're kept. They're kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last day. This writing then, we can think
in terms of faith, but that faith often expressed, is it not, in
terms of prayer? We have to call and cry. We have
to be those who would be seeking after Him. Again, the language
of the Psalmist. Hear my cry, O God, attend unto
my prayer, he says. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto Thee. When my heart is overwhelmed
within me, lead me to the rock that is higher than I." All this
running you see. We call, we cry, the Kingdom
of Heaven, we're told, suffereth violence, and the violent take
it by force. There's that pressing in. As
we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, the running there. It is that
that is the mark of those who have faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's one of the evidences. of their trust in Him, that they
run to Him. And they're forever running to
Him, ever calling upon Him. But as we have mentioned here
of them running so, they're also described as those who are the
righteous. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe. Dr. Gill just makes a simple
observation. that this is not the self-righteous
person. Dr. Gill says of that self-righteous
person that they run from Christ. They run away from Christ. They
have no need of Christ. Those who are righteous in and
of themselves, righteous in their own eyes. They that are whole
have no need of a physician, but they that are sick says the
Lord. I came not to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance." The Lord Jesus doesn't call self-righteous
people. The Gospel is that that is addressed
to sinners. And we read here in this chapter
of the of the rich man, the very context, look at the next verse,
verse 11 it says the rich man's wealth is his strong city and
as an high wall in his own conceit before destruction the heart
of man is haughty and before honor is humility Oh, it's not
the rich, not those who look to themselves or trusting in
themselves, that anything has self-sufficiency here. Again,
in chapter 10 at verse 15, we're told the rich man's wealth is
his strong city. No, these righteous, they have
nothing of themselves. They're poor and they're needy,
although they're described as the righteous. How is it that
they can be spoken of in such a fashion then if they are poor
needy sinners, unrighteous sinners, ungodly sinners? How can they
be described as righteous? Well their righteousness is that
that they receive only from the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that righteousness that
justifies the sinner. It's that that the Apostle speaks
of in Philippians 3 and verse 9. Remember how Paul there expresses
something of his desire to be found in him, to be found in
Christ, not having mine own righteousness, he says, which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. Oh, it's that justifying righteousness,
Christ's righteousness, that is reckoned to the account of
all those that run into Him, all those that trust in Him.
That righteousness that was proclaimed by the Apostles in the course
of their ministry, we see it so many times there in the Acts
of the Apostles. All that believe in Him, says
Paul in Acts 13, are justified. from all things that they could
not be justified from by the deeds of the law." This is another aspect of his name as
we see in Jeremiah 23.6. The name of the Lord here in our
text is a strong tower. But there in Jeremiah 23 6 we're
told this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. He who is called a strong tower
is also called the Lord our righteousness. He has so many names, a multitude
of names. And as in Jeremiah 23.6 we read
of His name, so just 10 chapters later, Jeremiah 33.16, with all
concerning the Church, this is the name wherewith she shall
be called, the Lord our righteousness. Why His name becomes her name. All the righteous runneth into
it, runneth into this strong tower and is saved. But see what it says here. Observe
this word, how the righteous runneth into, into it. We have it in that familiar verse
of John 3.16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. literally in there as the force
of into God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son that whosoever believeth into him literally that's what
it says whosoever believeth into him shall not perish but have
everlasting life and we have it in the hymn 234 but he that
into Christ believes, what a rich faith, as he in Christ he moves
and acts and lives from self and bondage free. All we are
to be those then who only desire to be found in the Lord Jesus
Christ, as Paul says, to be found in Him, to be running into Him. to know Him as that One in whom
there is all the fullness of salvation, but not only all that
fullness of salvation, but more than that, all the great blessing
of safety and security. Once in Him, in Him forever,
thus the eternal covenant stands. Oh God's grant that we might
be those in. who know in our souls experience
something of what Solomon is declaring here in the text. It's
a text I'm sure that we're not unfamiliar with. It's one of
the great texts of Holy Scripture. The name of the Lord. The name
of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it
and is saved. The Lord be pleased to bless
the Word to us. Now let us conclude our worship
as we sing the hymn 1090, the Tunis Saxby 409, hymn 1090, Prisoners
of Hope. To Jesus turn, He is a stronghold,
ordained for you, gird up your loins and cease to mourn, and
to the Lamb your way pursue. The hymn 1090,