The words to which I should like
to draw your attention this morning are to be found in that 18th
chapter in the book of Proverbs at verse 10. The book of Proverbs chapter
18 and verse 10. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. The righteous runneth into it
and is safe. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe." I suspect we're all very familiar
with some parts of the book of Proverbs. We know from the introduction
that many of these Proverbs were written by that great king, King
Solomon, There in the opening chapter of the book of Proverbs
we have it put to us that these are the Proverbs of Solomon,
the son of David, king of Israel. And of course we remember what
we're told of Solomon, that he was one of the wisest men that
ever lived. You remember how at one point
early on in his reign he was asked by God what he would like.
God came to him and said to him, ask what I shall give thee. And
Solomon asked not for riches, or for power, or for a long-lasting
kingdom. No, what he wanted was wisdom. He recognised that with such
a large kingdom to reign over, and really when he came to the
throne, in some ways it was a very divided kingdom. You remember
how he came to the throne, his brother, one of his brothers
declared himself king. and almost the country descended
into civil war. So when Solomon came to his throne
he would have been conscious of his great need of wisdom in
order to bring together the kingdom and to heal those divisions that
were within it. And so he asked the Lord for
wisdom. He recognized the wisdom that he would need and the Lord
gave him wisdom so that he was one of the wisest men that ever
lived. And we're told that part of the
ability that God gave him was to come up with these proverbs
that we now have recorded in the Word of God. In the first
Kings it's told how that Solomon was a very productive king. We're
told here he was wiser than all men, his wisdom excelled the
wisdom of all the children of the East country and all the
wisdom of Egypt. We know that the Egyptians, as
a people, were a very wise people. But here it says Solomon's wisdom
exceeded and excelled their wisdom. He was wiser than all men, it
says. And he spake 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. And
he spake of trees, it says. He spake also of beasts, and
of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. So many of his
proverbs, much of his wisdom was concerning natural things.
But here in this book of Proverbs we have spiritual wisdom. We
have wisdom concerning not just the things of nature, the things
of time, but we have wisdom concerning the things of eternity. And we're
told later on in that chapter in the first book of Kings how
there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all
kings of the earth. Other kings, recognizing his
wisdom, would send their servants to hear his wisdom. And there
were those kings that even came themselves. The Queen of Sheba,
you'll remember, came to hear his wisdom. So here in the Book
of Proverbs we have really the wisdom of God. These were written
by Solomon, but really they were the result of the spiritual wisdom
that God had given him there early on in his reign. And no
doubt these are some of those 3,000 proverbs that Solomon was
enabled to write. Now, what is a proverb? Well,
it's a rather difficult thing to define, but if you look in
your dictionary at home you will probably find it says something
like this. A proverb is a short saying,
a short well-known saying that expresses truth. And certainly
that's very true concerning many of these proverbs. They're very
short. Some of them are very well-known.
And they deal with a great variety of matters. But really we could
say the focus of the attention of the Book of Proverbs is on
wisdom. What does it say there in that
first chapter? It says that these are the Proverbs of Solomon,
the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction,
to perceive the words of understanding. This was the emphasis, this was
the great point of this Book of Proverbs, to teach wisdom,
to teach instruction. And really that instruction and
that teaching, it centers in the fear of the Lord. There in
the seventh verse of the opening chapter we're told this, that
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise
wisdom and instruction. And more than once as we read
through this book we find the fear of the Lord mentioned. Now
this is not a slavish fear, it's not a terror that is being spoken
of. Really when it speaks of the fear of the Lord it's talking
about a reverence for the Lord. It's talking about a fear that
is accompanied by love. When we come to this 10th verse
in this 18th chapter, really the emphasis is rather different.
And we might think that this verse really would be more at
home in the Psalms. Certainly if you were to quote
this verse to someone familiar to some measure with the Word
of God, they might presume that it's found in the Psalms. It's
got a rather Samish feel to it. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower, it says. The righteous runneth into it
and is safe. And there are just five things
that I want to look at in our time together this morning. Firstly,
what is meant by the name of the Lord? Why does it say the
name of the Lord is a strong tower? Why doesn't it just say
the Lord is a strong tower? There's the first thing. The
second thing is, what does it mean when it says that the name
of the Lord is a strong tower? Why is that expression used?
Then thirdly, we have these two words, the righteous. We're told
that the righteous runneth into it. Well, who are these righteous
that are here spoken of? That we are told run into this
strong tower. Then we have the act of the righteous,
they run into this strong tower. And then finally, in the fifth
place, the result of that action, we're told, the righteous runneth
into it, and as a consequence, is safe. First of all then, what
is the significance of this phrase, the name of the Lord? As you
read through the Word of God, you will find this phrase fairly
frequently. It appears over a hundred times
in the Old Testament alone. the name of the Lord. It's obviously
a very significant phrase. There is obviously some meaning
to it. It's meant to teach us something. Why so often are we told about
the name of the Lord? Well, you'll notice that the
word Lord here is in capital letters and we know that when
we come to the Word of God and we find the word Lord written
like that, really it's a translation of the name of the Lord, the
name Jehovah. Whenever we find the word Lord
written in that way, what is being translated is the name
of the Lord, that name Jehovah. Now where does that name come
from? Well it comes from a Hebrew word which means to exist. And
so the name of the Lord, that name Jehovah, is to put across
to us the eternally existing character of God. There is only one who can claim
to always exist. And God makes himself known by
this name, this name Jehovah, the existing one. It's one of
the most popular words. If you were to be able to read
the Hebrew Old Testament, you would find that the word Lord,
as it's translated in our version of the Bible, is one of the most
common words that you would come across, that name Jehovah. It
appears more than 6,500 times throughout the Old Testament. And the Bible, of course, is
a revelation of God. The Bible is given to us to teach
us concerning God, to teach us concerning what He is like, what
He is not like, and to give us that true knowledge of Him. And,
of course, this name Jehovah was the name by which God made
Himself known unto Moses. You remember when Moses was there
in the wilderness and he sees that burning bush and he comes
to the bush and he hears the voice of God. And it comes to
this, Moses said unto God, behold, when I come unto the children
of Israel and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers
hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, what is his
name? What shall I say unto them? And God then speaks to Moses
in this way. God said unto Moses, I am that I am. He expresses
to Moses his eternal existence, that he is the eternally existing
God. And, of course, also implied
is the fact that he is unchangeable. God is uncreated. He is eternally
existing. And he is unchangeable. People
sometimes ask the question, don't they? If you're discussing with
someone the subject of creation, well, they'll say, well, it's
all very well to say that God created the world, but who created
God then? As if this is a difficult question
to answer. Well, the answer is simple, isn't
it? Nobody did. you're looking at any dictionary
under God, it will tell you that he is the uncreated being. So
to ask the question, who created him? It's a meaningless question. It's not a question that makes
any sense. The Lord is eternally existing and he's also unchangeable. How often we have that put before
us in the Psalms. Remember that 102nd Psalm? how we have that put to us towards
the end of that psalm. The psalmist speaks of God as
the unchanging one and contrasts him to the things of this world
and the things of time. He says to God, of old hast thou
laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work
of thy hands. They shall perish. The psalmist recognises that
all these things, these created things are only here for a time
and then they will be taken away. All of them, he says, shall wax
old like a garment. As a vesture shalt thou change
them, and they shall be changed. And then he contrasts that with
the eternal God. He says, thou art the same, and
thy years shall have no end. This is a frequent theme within
the Bible, isn't it? The unchangeable nature of God.
And it's often put before us in the hymns. There is a hymn
based on the last verse in this 18th chapter. It says there,
there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. And you
will find that John Berridge wrote a hymn, and one of the
lines in that hymn, it contrasts Jesus Christ to us. He says, we change, but Jesus
is the same. We have that well-known phrase
in the New Testament. It speaks of Christ as being
the same yesterday, and today, and forever. So when we come
to this word Lord, and we find it in these capital letters as
we have it here in this verse, we're to be reminded of the eternity
of God, and of the unchangeableness of God. But as I say, it does
not just say here that the Lord is a strong tower. No, it says
the name of the Lord is a strong tower. And why does it put it
to us in that way? Well, the name of someone really,
in some contexts, it means to us their reputation, doesn't
it? We might say of someone, oh, he's really made a name for
himself. What we mean is he's generated
for himself a good reputation. And certainly this is how God
uses that word at times. You remember how he speaks to
Moses. He told Moses to go and stand
before Pharaoh and Moses does so. And what is the message that
Moses is told to give to Pharaoh? There in the 9th chapter of Exodus
at verse 16 the Lord says to Moses, rise up early in the morning
and stand before Pharaoh and he gives him a message. He says
to Pharaoh, in very deed for this cause have I raised thee
up for to show in thee my power and that my name may be declared
throughout all the earth." God says to Moses that these acts
that he is going to perform, these judgments on Egypt that
are going to come, one of the purposes of them is that God's
name may be declared throughout all the earth, that God will
become widely known in his power and in his ability to do these
miraculous things. Secondly, we might say that the
name of God is put before us to represent all the attributes
of God, the character of God. And there on the mount, as Moses
is given the law, he is told to hew two tables
of stone, and God says he would write upon these tables the words
that were in the first tables, which were broken. And Moses
went up early in the morning and he took in his hand those
two tables of stone and the Lord descended in the cloud and stood
with him there and proclaimed, it says, the name of the Lord.
What was it that he did proclaim? Well, if you look in the next
verse it says this, 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 transgressions 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." So when God says to Moses that he's
going to proclaim the name of the Lord, what he is proclaiming
is the character of the Lord. He proclaims the mercy of God,
the grace of God, the long-suffering of God, and the abundance of
the goodness and truth of God. And these are the things that
are put before us here as a strong tower. The Christian takes refuge in
the fact that God is an eternal God, that He is an unchangeable
God, that He is a gracious and a merciful God. And sometimes
this is all we can hope in. How the hymn writer says, when
all around my soul gives way, he then is still my strength
and stay. And it's his attributes, it's
his character that enables the Christian so to trust in him.
He knows him as an unchanging God, as a merciful God, and that's
his ground of his confidence. So when we read of the name of
the Lord, it speaks to us of the reputation of God, of the
honour of God. Then it speaks to us of the character
of God, what he is like. But thirdly, it speaks to us
of God himself. And if you turn to the 20th Psalm,
you will see how the Psalmist appreciated this. There in verse
20, We have this phrase in the first
verse of that psalm, the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble,
the name of the God of Jacob defend thee. There we have that
equivalence made between the name of the Lord and the Lord
himself. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower, well it's the Lord that's a strong tower and his name is
a revelation of him. And the safety that is spoken
of here at the end of this verse is a safety that comes through
knowing him, through knowing his name, through knowing his
character, through knowing his attributes. And this is something
that is so frequently put before us. Let me just take you to a
few places in the 91st Psalm. We have this phrase given to
us in Psalm 91 verse 14, the Lord speaks in this way, it's
a Psalm as we read in the opening verse that deals with he that
dwells in the secret place of the Most High and the Psalmist
says of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him
will I trust. And then in verse 14 we have
the Lord himself speaking, and he says this, because he hath
set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set
him on high because he hath known my name. Again we have this reference
to the name of the Lord, and we're told there that the deliverance
that God gives is a deliverance that comes through knowing the
name of God, through knowing the character of God. And this
is a promise that God makes to all his people. This is what
marks out the people of God from the people of this world. What
is the essential difference between the Christian and the non-Christian?
Well, it's not in external things. It's not just in the fact that
Christians do some things that the world doesn't do. And it's
not just in the fact that the Christian doesn't do some things
that the world does do. In Isaiah chapter 52 we have
this prophecy. It's a prophecy that's given
to us, and the Lord speaks in this way. Therefore, he says,
my people shall know my name. Therefore, they shall know in
that day that I am he that doth speak. Behold, it is I. This
is the essential difference between the Christian and the non-Christian.
The Christian knows the name of God, and it doesn't just mean
he knows his name in that literal sense. When we use the phrase, sometimes
in our day, we might be speaking to someone and they say, well,
do you know so-and-so? And we might say, well, I know the name.
What we mean is we don't know the person, but we know the name.
Well, that's not the way that the Lord is speaking here. When
he says, my people shall know my name, what he is really saying
is that his people shall know him. This is a personal knowledge,
and it's a very intimate knowledge that's spoken of here. Sometimes
we have the Lord speaking in the opposite way. And if we turn
back to the book of Exodus and we find that chapter where the
Lord speaks to Moses, chapter 33, what does it say in verse
17? Moses is praying to the Lord
to go with them through the wilderness to the promised land. And the
Lord said unto Moses in verse 17, I will do this thing also
that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight,
and I know thee by name. You see how the expression is
put before us as indicating a personal knowledge, an intimate knowledge. When the Lord says that he knows
Moses by name, he's not just saying, I know that you're called
Moses. No, he's saying, I have a personal relationship with
you. I know you personally. And again,
this is something that is promised to all the Lord's people. In
that great chapter in the book of Isaiah, we have a whole string
of gospel promises. And one of them, it runs in this
way. In Isaiah chapter 45, It's a word to Cyrus, that great
king. But really, through Cyrus, it's a word that's given to all
the Lord's people. And part of the promise that's
put there is this. For Jacob, my servant's sake,
and Israel, mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name.
I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. It puts
before us the personal nature of the work of God, how God deals
with individuals. how God deals with people individually. He doesn't just deal generally
with a certain group of society. No, He deals with individual
people. He calls them by their name.
He knows their name. He knows them personally. And this knowledge, this personal
knowledge, as I say, it's a very intimate knowledge, but it's
also a knowledge that is accompanied by love. And if you turn to the 91st Psalm,
you'll find this verse at verse 14. And we've already referred to
it. It says here, because he hath set his love upon me, therefore
will I deliver him. I will set him on high because
he hath known my name. And you see the parallel statements
that are there in that verse. What's being put before us is
that to set his love upon him, it is equivalent to knowing his
name. And it's inevitable, isn't it,
that when a man comes to see the true character of God, he
will love Him. And if a man does not love Him,
well, we can say for certain that such a man does not know
Him. The faith that God gives to his
people is a faith by which they come to know him, and it's a
faith that works by love. That love is inevitable when
a man sees God. When a man sees the Lord Jesus
Christ, when he really sees him in that spiritual sense, he sees
him as the altogether lovely one, as the one thing needful. Again, how often this is put
before us in the Word of God. this love that is inevitable
when a man comes to see God. Yes, there is that fear of God,
there is that reverence that's spoken of in the early part of
the book of Proverbs, the fear of the Lord, that's the beginning
of wisdom. But there's not that slavish
fear, there is a love. And such a fear, such a love
will draw a man to come to God. The righteous runneth into it,
it says, and is safe. The righteous man, and we'll
look in a moment at what that means, the righteous man runs
into the name of the Lord, and he runs into it because he sees
an attraction in it, because he has a love to the Lord. And
surely, when we read this phrase, the name of the Lord, what is
the final revelation of the name of the Lord? Who is the final
revelation of the character of God, of the nature of God? Well,
surely it's the Lord Jesus Christ that is put before us in these
words. The name of the Lord, the revelation of God, and he
is that final revelation, how we have that stress to us in
the opening of the book of Hebrews. The writer says, God who at sundry
times and in diverse manners spake in time passed unto the
fathers by the prophets. He refers back to the Old Testament
prophets and he says, well, that there was a revelation of God
there. But then he says this, he says that that God hath in
these last days spoken unto us by his Son. Just as God spoke
through the prophets in the Old Testament age, Here in the New
Testament age we have had that final revelation of the character
of God. We have had the Son of God himself
who has come into the world to reveal God, to make God known. And this is what Jesus Christ
spoke of himself as he comes towards the end of his time here
on earth. How does he speak of his work?
There in the 17th chapter of John, It's almost the last words
of that prayer that he prays shortly before his arrest and
his crucifixion. O righteous father, he says,
the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these
have known, that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto
them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. I have declared
unto them thy name, he says, Well, again, this was not just
Jesus Christ coming into the world to tell men and women that
the name of the Lord was Jehovah. No, he came to declare the character
of God, the attributes of God. He came to teach people about
what God was like. I have declared unto them thy
name, he says. And this was, of course, in accordance
with prophecy. When we read in the 22nd psalm,
there's no doubt that that psalm is a psalm that speaks of Christ.
Just look at how it opens. Oh, it says, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Immediately, we're arrested by
those words of Christ on the cross. And one of the things
that's prophesied concerning Christ is this, in the 22nd verse
of that 22nd psalm. Christ speaks in this way, he
says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. He says this
is the work which he came to accomplish, the declaration of
the name of God, of the being of God, of the unchangeable nature
of God, of the character of God. Here in the psalm he says I will
declare thy name. There in the book of John he
says I have declared unto them thy name. He came to accomplish
that work and he came to save. When we read in this verse in
Proverbs about the safety that the righteous experience, surely
it's to bring to our minds that safety that Christ came to accomplish. How is he spoken of before his
birth? It's a very familiar passage
there in the first chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. The Lord appears unto Joseph
in a dream. and he speaks to him in this way concerning Mary
he says she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his
name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins this
is the safety that is written of here in the book of Proverbs
this safety that comes by the righteous running into this strong
tower there they find that safety that salvation from their sins
this is what is meant by the name of the Lord finally and
ultimately it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He is a
strong tower. What does it mean then when it
talks about the name of the Lord as a strong tower? Well of course
it emphasises to us the strength of God, the power of God. We have some strength, don't
we? We have as much strength as he gives us. That's true in
a natural sense. There are some people who are
very strong naturally. They seem to be able to endure anything.
And then there are some people who are weaker. You have a lower
pain threshold. You cannot do so much. Well,
that's true in a natural sense, that all that strength comes
from the Lord. And it's also true in a spiritual
sense. There is such a thing as natural strength. There is
such a thing as spiritual strength. There are those who are stronger
spiritually. There are those who are weaker
spiritually. How that's explained to us and expounded to us in
the book of Romans. You remember in the Roman church
there was that division between those who were very observant
of the law and those who were not so. and the Apostle speaks
to them about those who are strong in the faith and how they ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak and not please themselves. This spiritual strength, just
as natural strength comes from God, so spiritual strength comes
from God. How we find so often in the New
Testament that link between strength, spiritual strength, and the Lord.
We might think of the passage of Paul, I can do all things
he says through Christ that strengtheneth me. we might think of that passage
at the end of the epistle to the Ephesians how Paul says to
those Ephesians, be strong in the Lord and in the power of
his might and he speaks of the armour of God but there's no
point having armour without strength, is there? you can have the most
heavily armoured man but if he has no strength it will be useless
to him This spiritual strength, it can only come from the Lord.
And that's surely what's set before us here when we're told
that the name of the Lord is a strong tower. There is the
source of strength. There is the foundation of the
spiritual strength of the Christian. And it's not just in the New
Testament. In the Old Testament also, how we're told in the prophecy
of Habakkuk, he says, the Lord God is my strength. this strength
that the Lord has, this infinite strength, He is almighty and
He gives strength to His people. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. Well, He's strong, but He's also a tower. Why does it
speak to us of a strong tower? Why not a strong castle, or a
strong cave, or a strong fortress? Well, surely it's partially,
at least, to put before us the highness of God. A tower is something
tall, it's something high, the name of the Lord is a strong
tower, surely it's intended to impress upon us that God is a
holy God that he is a high God how Isaiah saw this, didn't he?
in that famous sixth chapter of his prophecy in the year that King Isaiah
died he says I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and
lifted up And how he sees those seraphims, those angels, flying
about the throne, and what do they cry? One cried unto another,
it says, and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The
whole earth is full of his glory. This is part of the character
of God, isn't it? His holiness, his highness. How men and women, in our day,
they think of God just as men and women always have, as one
like unto themselves. and as they overlook the faults
of others, they suppose that God will overlook their faults.
But this God is a holy God. He is a just God. He is not a
God that can forgive sin. He is not a God that can overlook
sin. No, there must be consequences
to sin. The wages of sin is death. He
is a strict God. He is a perfect God. And he sees
all things. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. A strong tower. He is high. He is holy. We look
at churches today and they are often built with a tower, aren't
they? And surely part of the reason is to represent the highness
of God, the holiness of God. And church buildings are sometimes
very magnificent, aren't they? Now those who built those buildings,
what were they trying to capture? Surely they were trying to capture
in some way the highness of God, the holiness of God. Of course
in one sense it was quite futile for them to try and capture it
in that way. These buildings are very impressive but they're
nothing compared to the majesty of God. He is high and He is
holy and He is ultimately found in His Word. You can have a very
elaborate building a very magnificent building and you might think
well surely if we were to worship God in that situation it would
bring to us the majesty of God but we know that it doesn't.
We can look at a beautiful building and it may seem very beautiful
but it doesn't teach us really anything concerning the majesty
of God. It's very far short of God. The highness of God is an infinite
highness. The holiness of God is an infinite
holiness. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. Then we're told this, the righteous
runneth into it. When you may say, who are these
righteous? We're told in another place,
aren't we, that there is none righteous. It's in the book of
Romans, in that third chapter. The apostle is dealing with the
difference between the Jew and the Gentile. and he comes to this point. He
says, what then? Are we, the Jews, better than
they, the Gentiles? No, he says, in no way. For we
have before proved, both Jew and Gentiles, that they are all
under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous. No,
not one. And it's not just the idea of
Paul. It's not just that Paul has come up with this theory
he's quoting, isn't he, from those two Psalms. In Psalm 14,
We have very similar language that no doubt the Apostle is
calling to mind. The Lord looked down from heaven,
it says, upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. It's a very similar phrase. There is none righteous, says
the Apostle. And you may say, well, if it's
only the righteous that are able to run into this strong tower,
then it seems of very little value to me. You may say, well,
I'm quite the opposite of the righteous. I feel so unrighteous. But as we've just said, there
are non-righteous. There are those who are self-righteous,
aren't there? We might think of the Pharisees at the time
of Christ and that famous parable that the Lord spoke concerning
the Pharisee and the publican. There was a self-righteous man
as he came into the temple and thanked God for all that he had
done and all that he was. He was self-righteous, but he
had no use for this strong tower, for this refuge that's spoken
of here. And if you'd gone to him and
spoken to him of the Lord being a refuge from sin, of the Lord
being a saviour of sinners, he would have said, well, I'm certainly
not a sinner. He would have seen no attraction
in the Lord as a refuge. He would have seen no attraction
in the Lord Jesus as the saviour of sinners. And it's just the
same today. Our men and women, they may celebrate
his birth, but they see no attraction in him as a saviour. They don't
think they need one. Of course they all admit, we
all admit that we make mistakes and we do things that we should
not do, but if you were to go to someone and ask them if they
were a sinner, of course they would say no, certainly not.
Just as that Pharisee would have said, well the publican over
there, he's a sinner, but not me. I'm a righteous man, I've
done everything that's required of me. I've worshipped God in
the right way, I've complied with all his demands. The Pharisee
would not have run into this strong tower, into this salvation
that's spoken of here. It was the publican, wasn't it,
who came dependent upon the character of God. It was the publican who
came on the grounds of mercy. It was the publican who came
hoping in the mercy of God. There is a man running into the
strong tower. And so it's not surprising, is
it, that the Lord Jesus speaks of the publican going down to
his house justified. He went down to his house a righteous
man. The righteous runneth into it.
Not the self-righteous, but those who have that righteousness given
to them. They are called righteousness
because the righteousness of God is there. It's not their
own righteousness that's spoken of here. The publican knew little
of his own righteousness. He was not a righteous man in
himself. But as he came in that way, seeking God be merciful
to me, a sinner, and depending upon the mercy of God in Christ
Jesus, so he is declared righteous. So he goes down to his house
justified. The righteous runneth into it
and is safe. What is the main difference between
the righteous, the self-righteous, and those who are like the publican?
the publican, that was conscious of his need. His eyes had been
opened. He saw himself not as a righteous
man but as a sinner. God be merciful to me, a sinner,
he said. And this is something that all the Lord's people will
see. No man will run into this tower unless he is conscious
of his own danger, of his need of safety. This is something
that the apostle knew. You remember how he, previous
to his conversion, had been a Pharisee and how he, no doubt, would have
spoken in the same way as that Pharisee in the parable. He trusted
in his own righteousness. He thought he had complied with
the law and done everything that was required of him. And sometimes
we can fall into the same trap. We can look at what we do. the
way that we worship, the version of the Bible that we read, the
hymns that we sing. And we can say, well, surely
we are more worthy of God's blessing than other people who do not
do these things. It's the spirit of the Pharisee
that motivates us to speak and to think in that way. And Paul, before his conversion,
he looked at the law and he thought of it as something that was easy
for him to keep. But when God opened his eyes,
he saw that the law was not just a natural thing, that it was
a spiritual thing. What is the first and the greatest
commandment? Well, it's not about doing things or not doing things,
is it? The first and the greatest commandment is thou shalt love
the Lord thy God. It's talking about the attitude
of the heart, not just what we do with our hands or our minds,
what we say or do not say. The first and the greatest commandment
is thou shalt love And this is what the Apostle saw, and how
immediately he saw that he had not complied with it. When the
commandment came, he says, sin revived and I died. He died to
all hope in himself. He became like that publican.
And again he could only come on the grounds of mercy. There
was a man running into this strong tower. Those who run into this
tower, they see their need. and that need is shown to them
by God. Well, the question then is whether you have seen your
need of this salvation, whether you see an attraction in the
strong tower that is spoken of here, whether you see your need
of this salvation that is spoken of here, this safety that is
spoken of here. When a man sees his need, such
a man will desire salvation and he will seek salvation and he
will find salvation. the righteous, those clothed
with the righteousness of Christ, those declared righteous by God,
not by themselves. These are they who run into this
strong tower. And look at the language that's
used concerning them. The righteous runneth into it. The picture that's put before
us is of a man who's desperate, a man who's very conscious of
his danger, a man who is in a hurry, a man who is rushing into this
strong tower, a man who is flying into it. And this is the only
way that anyone ever comes into this strong tower. That is the
only way by which any man ever comes to the Lord Jesus Christ.
They run, they run to Him. They come in desperation, they
come in self-despair. How the hymn writer puts it,
fowl I to the fountain fly. You see the haste that he moved
with. Not fowl I to the fountain walk, or wander, or stroll. No, fowl I to the fountain fly. And it's the same picture that's
put before us here, the righteous run into it. How it brings before us the futility
of so much of what is called preaching in the so-called Christian
church today. Now men and women, men and women
these days, will stand in pulpits and just exhort men to turn to
Christ. Or they say, you must turn to
Him, you must close with Him. As if men and women are neutral,
as if they're on the doorstep of this tower, undecided as to
whether to go in or not, and all they need is a little more
persuasion, and then they'll go in. That's not the way that
people come to Christ. That's not the way that any man
has ever come to Christ. The righteous runneth into it. What is the purpose of preaching
then? Well, it's to set forth Christ as a strong tower. It's
to put before the people Christ as a place of salvation, as one
who is able to save. And as the convicted sinner hears
of Christ and sees Christ in the Gospel, then they will run
to Him. Then they will fly to Him. What
is this, running into the Lord? Well, in another proverb we have
very similar language. In the 29th proverb, we have
this written, the fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth
his trust in the Lord shall be safe. It's a very similar expression. Here we have a man running into
the Lord, into the name of the Lord, and it says that man is
safe. There we are told that whoso
putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. this righteous
man running into the strong tower, what he's doing is putting his
trust in the Lord. He is believing in the Lord. And believing in the Lord is
very much more than just what men and women call believing
in God. It's more than just saying, well, I believe there is a God. in the third chapter of John,
we're told this, as Christ speaks to Nicodemus, he speaks in this
way, God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world,
he says, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth
on him is not condemned. And the word on there, where
it says believeth on him, really it's the same word that we have
in the previous verse, where it says God sent not his son
into the world. It could just as equally be translated,
he that believeth into him is not condemned. You see, there
is more than just a believing on him in a natural way. There
is more than just saying, well, I believe that there was a man
called Jesus who lived for 33 years upon the earth around 2000
years ago. Men and women can believe that
without running into this strong tower, without believing into
him. No, there is faith here, there
is a trust here. there is a dependence upon him.
He runs in, he comes conscious of his need. If a man doesn't
come, he isn't conscious of his need. And this running into him, it's
not just a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the Christian.
Last time we preached here, last time I preached here I spoke
on that passage in John about following. My sheep hear my voice
and they follow me. And as we look at the picture
that's put before us, we see a man continually leading his
sheep. It's not just that he stands
and calls them once, and then they come. No, he goes before
them, and he calls them, and they follow. There's a continual
following. And so here, this running into
this tower, it's not just something that a man does once. Of course,
there is a first time. There is a first time when a
man, conscious of his sin, is given faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ and puts his trust in him. But such a man will inevitably
have to come to him again and again. The righteous runneth
into it. He runneth into it whenever he
comes to the end of himself. Now we have it put before us
in that 61st Psalm. The psalmist, he looks to himself
and he says, well, I'm at the end of everything. From the end
of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed.
Our hearts are overwhelmed sometimes, aren't they? And so it was with
the psalmist. And where does he look in the
situation in which he's in? He looks to the Lord. And how
does he speak of the Lord? He looks back to his past experience. For thou hast been a shelter
for me and a strong tower. It's exactly the same language
that we have here. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. And the psalmist looks back over his life and he says
to the Lord. For thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong
tower from the enemy. And now I'm coming again. Now
I'm again. And my heart is overwhelmed.
Now again I'm at the end of the earth. Time and time again, the Christian
has to come into this strong tower. He has to cry to the Lord,
as the psalmist did. He has to run to Him. He has
to fly to Him. And what is the result? The righteous
runneth into it, it says, and is safe. If you have a margin,
you will see that the literal language that's used is this.
The righteous runneth into it and is set aloft, that is, put
on high, put out of reach, as it were. We have the same Hebrew word
in the next verse. The rich man's wealth is as his
strong city. Solomon is contrasting the man
who trusts in the Lord with the man who trusts in his own wealth.
It says the rich man's wealth is his strong city. The same
word is used as is here translated safe, set on high. The rich man
puts his confidence in his wealth. It says a strong city to him,
as an high wall, it says, in his own deception. He is deceived
concerning his wealth. He puts his trust in it. He doesn't
realise that one day it will all be taken away from him and
he'll be left with nothing. The righteous, by contrast, runs
into this strong tower. And here is real safety. Here
he actually is safe. the righteous runneth into it
and is safe, just as the Lord is spoken of
as being set on high. And we have exactly the same
word as is here translated safe, used concerning the Lord in the
33rd chapter of Isaiah. We're told this, the Lord is
exalted, the Lord is set on high, It's the same word that's used
here and translated safe. Just as the Lord is set on high,
so his people are set on high with him. How Christ speaks,
because he says, I live, ye shall live also. Where I am, he says, there ye
shall be. I go to prepare a place for you,
he says. There is the ultimate safety with Christ, which is
far better. His people are safe in this strong
tower, not because of their own strength. No, Christ says, no man is able
to pluck them out of my Father's hand. There is the safety of
the man who has run into this strong tower. He is safe because
he is in the hand of God. He is in an almighty hand. He
is in an unchanging hand, an eternal hand. all these attributes,
this character of God that we spoke of, that's implied by the
name of the Lord here. In all those attributes, and
in all that character, there is the safety of the man who
has run into this strong tower. They are safe from the punishment
of sin, safe from the judgment of God, safe from all those things that
caused them to run to this strong tower in the first place. that
sense of their sin, their distance from God, their safe from that
eternal separation. No man is able to pluck them
out of God's hand. All the righteous know this. You look through the Old Testament,
all those who have trusted in the Lord, they have come in this
way, and they have known Him as a strong tower. You think
of a man like Noah, who saw things and experienced things that are
beyond what we can ever imagine. When Noah entered into that ark,
his trust was not in the ark. It was a flimsy thing really,
wasn't it, compared to the forces of nature that were unleashed
at that time. It wasn't just that it rained.
No, we're told, the fountains of the great deep broke up, the
windows of heaven were opened. This was something that was beyond
anything any other man has ever seen. His trust was not in the
art, in those bits of wood that he'd nailed together. No, his
trust was in the Lord. The Lord was to him a strong
tower. There was his safety. There was his confidence. You
think of a man like Daniel. You read the prophecy of Daniel.
You hear about what happened to Daniel when he was cast into
those den of lions. Where was his confidence? It
was in the Lord. It was in the name of the Lord.
It was in the character of God. And the Lord in whom we trusted
kept him, kept him safe, kept him from the power of those lions.
Then you might think of a man like David and how frequently
in the Psalms we have David speaking of God as his refuge. We've noticed
a couple of places already. how David had to come to God
time and time again in this way. You remember that very trying
and difficult time in David's life. He had been pursued by Saul and
Saul was coming to the end of his reign, but David was in a
very dangerous situation. And you remember how he goes
to live with that man Achish, amongst the Philistines, which
was a great mistake. And eventually he's sent back
to his own city, to Ziklag, where he'd left all his families, all
the families of his men, all their possessions. And what are
we told about their return to Ziklag? Well, it says when David
and his men would come to Ziklag on the third day, they found
that the Amalekites had invaded. and smitten Ziklag and burned
it with fire, and they had taken the women captives. They slew
not any, but carried them away. David and his men came to the
city, it says, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their
wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. How distressing it must have
been for David. How distressing it must have been for those men
that were with him. No wonder that we're told they lifted up
their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. And
not only that, but the people that were with David, they spoke
of stoning him. This man that they'd put their
trust in, this man that they'd supported and encouraged and
fought for, they speak of stoning him. Because their soul was grieved,
every man for his sons and for his daughters, we can well understand
it. His own people were turned against
him, and it seemed as if he was left with nothing. And sometimes you may come to
those situations where you feel to be left with nothing. But
what are we told about David at the end of that sixth verse?
And here is the essence of faith. But David, it says, encouraged
himself in the Lord his God. There is a man fleeing to this
strong tower. He reminds himself of the character
of God. He reminds himself of the promises
of God. He reminds himself of what God
has done for him in the past. As he says, if we just refer
to it, thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from
the enemy. And now he needs it again. And
he encourages himself in the Lord his God, the unchangeableness
of God, the promises of God, the power of God, the eternity
of God. Again in the 18th Psalm we have
a very similar expression. This is a Psalm of David that
he sang in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of
all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, it says. And he
said, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength, Have you ever said
that to the Lord? Have you ever experienced this
deliverance that David knew in a spiritual sense? The Lord is
my rock, he says, and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my
strength in whom I will trust, my buckler and the horn of my
salvation and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord who
is worthy to be praised, So shall I be saved from mine enemies. He looks back again to his past
experience. How the sorrows of death compassed
him. How the floods of ungodly men
made him afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed
him about. The snares of death prevented him. And it was these
things that led him to fly, to run to this strong tower. In
my distress, it says, I called upon the Lord and cried upon
my God, and he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry
came before him, even into his ears. There is a man running
into this strong tower. Well, again, the question is,
have you run into it? Have you known this flying to
this strong tower? As you are conscious of your
own need, it's not the righteous man that comes here. It's not
the self-righteous man. And it's not the man who hesitates
to come because he feels himself too bad and says, well, I must
improve myself before I come to this strong tower. That's
not humility, is it, for a man to speak in that way? It's not
humility to tarry till you're better, it's pride. The man who
speaks in that way has not given up all hope in himself, has he?
He still thinks he can make himself better before he comes. But this
righteous man, he sees his badness, he sees that he can do nothing.
And he sees that he's never going to make himself better. And that's
why he comes in this way, he just runs into this strong tower. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe. Amen.