I'm going to speak to us tonight
from one of the Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 18 and verse
10. Proverbs chapter 18 and verse
10. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. The righteous runneth into it
and is safe. We're living in days when I believe
most men are forced to consider the uncertainty of life. When
you stop and think about it, nothing has really changed in
regard to the uncertainty of life by this virus that we are
living with today. Man has never been promised In
fact, the scripture says, boast not thyself of tomorrow, for
thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Life in this world
has always been uncertain for men and women. The scriptures
speak of our life in this world being like a vapor, a vapor or
a cloud that appears for a short time and then it vanishes away. You can make a visit to the cemetery
and Go through the cemetery there and read the headstones and look
at the dates, the years of life that people lived who are there
buried, and you will find that there are people, there are bodies
there of people from all ages, from the very young to the very
old, and all in between. Life in this world is uncertain,
and yet the scripture here says The name of the Lord is a strong
tower and the righteous runneth into it and is safe. Men are being forced, I believe,
I trust it so. It would be for their good, be
for our good, if men are being forced to consider the fact that
life is uncertain and eternity is long. And there's no question
that death is before all of us, and we all have an eternity where
we will spend in either heaven, in the very presence of God,
or be cast into a lake of fire. My friends, there is a long eternity,
and life is uncertain. And the scripture tells us today,
today is the day of salvation. So I want us to think tonight
about the safety of the righteous. And looking at this proverb,
very simple word, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The
righteous runneth into it and is safe. I want to think about
this proverb and I want to make three statements. Three statements. The first statement is simply
this, the Lord is the strong tower. Now, I know the scripture
here says the name of the Lord is a strong tower, but it is
the Lord himself who is the strong tower, a fortress, a fortress,
which is impregnable by all the enemies of the righteous. You know, from ancient times,
we go back in the book of Genesis and just after the flood, it
wasn't long before we read about the first tower. And it was called
the Tower of Babel. And when you read that, you find
that men decided to build this tower and they said up to heaven. They were going to build a tower
up to heaven. And what it was, it was the work
of unbelief because God had given a covenant and given the sign
of the covenant, the rainbow to Noah, that he would never
again destroy all flesh, all creatures in this world. He would
never do that again by sending the great flood. And yet these
men who would build this tower, they thought by their own works,
by the works of their hands, they could build themselves a
tower, a refuge, a place of safety. And what we see there, when God
came down, and confounded the languages and scattered the people
away, what we see there is the futile attempt of man to provide
for himself a safety, a place of safety, a refuge. The scripture
here says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The Lord,
the Lord himself, he is the strong tower. We read in the book of
Judges, in the days of Gideon, that there were some people who
had a tower in their city and they thought they had a place
there of refuge, a place of safety, but it didn't serve because Gideon
and his forces were able to destroy the tower, bring it down. And
my friends, there's only one tower of safety for men and women,
and that is the Lord himself. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. The Lord himself, he is a strong
tower. And I would ask you, I would
ask you, I'd ask myself and all of us here tonight, where do we look for safety,
for refuge? Where do we run? The name of
the Lord is a strong tower. The Lord is a strong tower, my
friends, that men need. You know, God told Moses this,
this is found in Exodus chapter 33. Concerning the name of the
Lord, this is what I want to point out. God told Moses this,
I will make all my goodness pass before thee, now listen, and
I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. And that one statement there,
that one statement where God told Moses that he would proclaim
his name before him, God confesses his absolute sovereignty. He will be gracious to whom he
will be gracious. He will show mercy to whom he
will show mercy, my friends. Now most people today, in our
country at least, most people who profess to be believers,
to be Christians, they will acknowledge that God is sovereign in creation. They will acknowledge that God
is sovereign in creation. And then maybe most of them will
acknowledge also that He's sovereign in providence. That you were
born where God decided you should be born, into the family that
God put you in, at the time that God put you into this world,
my friends. He's sovereign in creation, He's
sovereign in providence, but here is where many people will
deny the truth about God's sovereignty. That is that he's sovereign in
salvation. He will be gracious to whom he
will be gracious. He will show mercy to whom he
will show mercy. And then in the next chapter,
this is what I want to bring to us in the next chapter of
Exodus, Exodus chapter number 34, God proclaimed his name. He proclaimed his name. He told
Moses that he would proclaim his name. And then in the next
chapter we read, God speaking, I will make all my goodness pass
before thee. You remember he hid Moses in
the cliff to the rock. And someone told me recently,
or they asked me actually, they asked me, do you know why God
put Moses in the cliff to the rock? And I said, no. And this person said, because
Moses could not put himself in the cliff of the rock. How true
that is, my friends. But of him, the Apostle Paul
says in 1 Corinthians 1, but of him, of God, are ye in Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Who puts men and women, or I
should say, who put men and women into Christ Jesus? God did. God did. God put Moses in the
cliff of the rock. And then God passed by and He
proclaimed His name. Let's read this. I will make
all my goodness pass before Thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before Thee. Now here it is. I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before Thee. 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
will by no means clear the guilty. God proclaimed his name. So it is the Lord himself who
is a strong tower. The name of the Lord, our proverb
tells us the name of the Lord is a strong tower. It is God
himself who is a strong tower, my friends. And the psalmist
said this, the Lord is a strong tower and there is no force or
enemy which is able to destroy him. The psalmist said, great
is the Lord. and greatly to be praised. And listen now, his greatness
is unsearchable. That's the God and father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the God who is the strong
tower. He is great and he's greatly
to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. Each and every
one of his attributes, if you would, someone said in this time
when people are going through this crisis, that one of the
best things to do is to show gratitude, to be thankful, to
overcome fear, to be thankful, to be gracious, and just to sit
down and meditate. upon the various attributes or
characteristics of God and give thanks unto God that He is all-powerful,
that He is all-wise, that He is eternal, that He is immutable,
that He is love, that He does show mercy and grace, my friends. Think about these things. Meditate
on these things, the greatness of our God. What a remedy to
overcome fear. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. Now, my second statement is simply
this. There are the righteous. This proverb says the righteous. You know, in Romans chapter three,
the apostle Paul, he is showing that all men, both Jews and Gentiles,
that all men, we are all When we come into this world, fallen
individuals, we are sinful beings. And he quotes a verse from the
Old Testament which says, there is none righteous, no not one. Ah, you say, the Apostle Paul
says there is none righteous, no not one, but here this proverb
says the righteous. And so people say that's a contradiction. Have you ever had anyone tell
you that, oh, the Bible is full of contradictions? That's not
true, my friends. And if someone tells you that,
you might say back unto them, well, tell me one. Show me one
contradiction. No, there's no contradictions
in the Word of God because the Word of God is the product of
the same divine author, God the Holy Spirit, who inspired men
to write the Word. No. How can this both be true? What the apostle Paul quotes,
there's none righteous, no not one, and what the proverb tells
us, that there are righteous. How can this both be true? Well,
consider this. When Paul quotes that verse,
there's none righteous, he is in the middle of teaching how
it is that sinful fallen men may be made righteous. may be
declared righteous by God. Actually, he's answering Job's
question of old, when Job said, how then should man be just,
righteous with God? Paul is in the middle of declaring
how it is that men and women who, yes, by nature are guilty,
may be made or declared righteous by God. By nature, by man's goodness,
by the deeds of the law, there is none righteous. By the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh, the scripture says, be justified,
be declared righteous in his sight. For by the law is the
knowledge of sin. You know, sometimes people will
tell you, well, I'm just living by the Ten Commandments. Well,
you can't keep the Ten Commandments. The law, and that's part of the
law, the Ten Commandments, the law shows us our need. It shows us our problem, my friends,
but it doesn't give a remedy, not the law. Grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. The law came through Moses, yes,
but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. You see, Paul is
showing in this one verse of scripture, 2 Corinthians 5 and
verse 21, I believe it just sums it up so completely. How it is that a man who is by
nature unrighteous may be made or declared righteous by the
holy, righteous Lord God of heaven. How is that possible? 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21,
the apostle wrote this, for he, that is God the Father, hath
made him, God the Son, to be sin for us, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteous made the righteousness of God
in him. You see, the Bible speaks about
a transference. And that was pictured in the
Old Testament, all of those animal sacrifices. A man would bring
an animal, what would he do? Lay his hands on the head of
that animal. And that was a picture, that's
all it was, a picture of transferring that man's sins to the victim,
to the animal that would be slain. But what actually happened, my
friend, is God imputed, He charged His Son, the Lord Jesus, the
Holy Son of God, He charged Him with the sins of His people. And He suffered and paid the
debt, the sin debt of His people. And that righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ is charged or imputed unto all that believe. Yes, my friends, that's how it
is. The scripture says there's non-righteous
in ourselves, by our own works, by our own deeds, non-righteous. Oh, but some are made the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. That's the truth. Now, here's
the third statement, and I'll be brief. The third statement
is the righteous is safe. The righteous is safe. The name
of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it.
Trust in it. And you notice that word runneth.
It's not just one time. This is something that in the
last century, when I was growing up, It seems like this was taught
everywhere. You walk down a church aisle,
you make a decision, you pray or repeat a prayer, and that's
all settled and done. It's once and for all. The Bible
teaches that we come to Christ and we keep on coming. We believed
yesterday, and if it is true faith, we believe today. And
by the grace of God, we'll believe tomorrow. And the righteous runneth
in to this strong tower, into the Lord. And we just keep on
running in. The scripture says, looking unto
him, not looked unto him, but looking unto him every day. Looking unto him, the author
and finisher of our faith. Now let me give us four things,
four things, the righteous is safe. God said this through the
prophet Isaiah, say you this to the righteous, it shall be
well with him. Now let me give us four things
hurriedly, four truths. The righteous is safe, the righteous
is safe being one of God's children. The righteous is safe being one
of God's children. In Ephesians 1 and verse 5, having
predestinated us unto adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Now all
men, all men are God's creatures, all men. God had one son who
is his only begotten son, but every other son of God is made
a son by adoption. And you know every parent, those
of you who are listening to me, who are parents, you're gonna
do what you can to take care of your children. You're just
gonna do that because you love them. Now, if man, and I think
about that verse where the Lord said, if you being evil know
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall
your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him? Yes, my friends, God's children,
the righteous rather, are safe because they're God's children.
They're in the family of God. And number two, God's children,
the righteous, are safe because they're objects of God's love.
They're objects of God's love, my friends. In that 17th chapter
of John, where the Lord Jesus Christ is praying, we'd like
to refer to this as His high priestly prayer. One of the things
that he tells us there, and it's just full of blessings, truths,
but one of the things he says in his prayer to the father is
that the father loves us as he loved him. Can you imagine that? That's the way it reads. He loved
us as he loved him. Love them as thou hast loved
me. You say, who are those that God
loves? They're those, if you look in
that prayer, they're those that he gave unto his son. He gave
them to be the sheep, and he's the shepherd. He gave them to
be the bride, and he's the bridegroom. He gave them to be the members
of his body, and he's the head. Yes. He has loved them with an
everlasting love, the scripture says, even as he loved the Son. Number three, the righteous is
safe because he's been named in an everlasting covenant. An
everlasting covenant of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the
mediator, he's the surety, he's the messenger, of this covenant,
my friends. He is the covenant, really and
truthfully. It was a covenant that God made
with Christ and made with his people in Christ, promised eternal
life before the foundation of the world. And number four, the
righteous is safe being interceded for by our great high priest. Did you know just now, just as
we are meeting together in this way while I'm preaching, that
the Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, he's even now at
the Father's right hand making intercession for us. Wherefore,
he is able also to save them that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. The Apostle Peter,
let me close with this passage from 1 Peter 1. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his
abundant mercy, abundant mercy, according to his abundant mercy,
hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and
that fadeth not away. Now listen, reserved for you
in heaven. RSVP. There's a place there reserved
for you if you're one of his children. The name of the Lord
is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it,
and it's safe. Yes, my friends, safe. I think
of a hymn, the words of a hymn that we sing sometimes that Fanny
Crosby wrote, and she wrote so many hymns that are so beautiful. But one hymn has words like this. Safe in the arms of Jesus. Safe. on his gentle breast, bare
by his love or shaded, sweetly my soul shall rest. Yes, my friends,
we may rest in Christ, in the Lord God, for he is a strong
tower and the righteous runneth into it and is safe. Now, I'm going to ask Bill Parker
if he will come again. He's going to sing a hymn, Close
to Thee. It's number 328 if you have the
hymn book we use here, Great Hymns of Faith. Close to Thee,
what a beautiful hymn and what a beautiful prayer we'll be singing
as we sing these words.