If
we would have comfort, we can surely find it in the character of God.
This is our strong tower, we run into it and we are safe.
Mark
you, beloved, not only is this true as a matter of fact, but it is true
as a matter of experience. I hope I shall now speak the feelings of
your hearts, while I say, we have found the character of God to be an
abundant safeguard to us. We have known full well the trials of life!
thank God we have, for what would any of us be worth, if we had no
troubles? Troubles, like files, take away our rust; like furnaces, they
consume our dross; like winnowing-fans they drive away the chaff, and we
should have had but little value, we should have had but little
usefulness, if we had not been made to pass through the furnace. But in
all our troubles we have found the character of God a comfort.
You
have been poor — very poor: I know some of you here have been out of
work a long time, and you have wondered where your bread would come
from, even for the next meal. Now what has been your comfort? Have you
not said,
“God is too good to let me starve; he is too bountiful to let me want.”
And so, you see, you have found His character to be your strong tower.
Or
else you have had personal sickness; you have long lain on the bed of
weariness, tossing to and fro, and then the temptation has come into
your heart to be impatient:
“God has dealt hardly with you,”
so the Evil One whispers; but how do you escape?
Why you say,
“No, he is no tyrant, I know him to be a sympathizing God.”
“In all their afflictions he was afflicted,
the Angel of His presence saved them.”
(Isaiah 63:9)
Or else you have had losses — many losses, and you have been apt to ask,
“How
can these things be? How is it I have to work so long and plod so hard,
and have to look about me with all my wits to earn but little, and yet
when I have made money it melts? I see my wealth, like a flock of birds
upon the fields, here one moment and gone the next, for a passer by
claps his hand, and everything takes to itself wings and flies away.”
Then we are apt to think that God is unwise to let us toil for naught; but, lo, we run into our strong tower,
and we feel it cannot be. No; the God who sent this affliction could
not have acted in a thoughtless, reckless, wisdomless manner; there must
be something here that shall work for my good. You know, brethren, it
is useless for me to attempt to describe the various ways in which your
trials come; but I am sure they that know Jehovah’s Name will put their
trust in him.
Perhaps your trial has been want, and then you have said
"His name is Jehovah Jireh:, the Lord will provide;”
(Genesis 22:14)
Or else you have been banished from friends, perhaps from country, but you have said,
“Ah! His name is Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord is there;”
(Ezekiel 48:35)
Or
else you have had a disturbance in your family; there has been war
within, and war without, but you have run into your strong tower, for
you have said,
His name is Jehovah Shalom, the Lord send peace
(Judges 6:24)
Or else the world has slandered you, and you yourself have been conscious of sin, but you have said,
His name is Jehovah-Tsidkenu, the Lord our righteousness
(Jeremiah 23:6)
and so you have gone there, and been safe; or else many have been your enemies, then his name has been
Jehovah Nissi, the Lord my banner
(Exodus 17:5)
and so he has been a strong tower to you.
Defy, then, brethren — defy, in God’s strength, tribulations of every sort and size.
But,
beloved, besides the trials of this life, we have the sins of the
flesh, and what a tribulation these are; but the name of our God is our
strong tower then. At certain seasons we are more than ordinarily
conscious of our guilt; and I would give little for your piety, if you
do not sometimes creep into a corner with the poor publican and say.
God be merciful to me a sinner
(Luke 18:13)
Broken
hearts and humble walkers, these are dear in Jesu’s eyes. There will be
times with all of us when our saintship is not very clear, but our
sinnership is very apparent; well, then, the name of our God must be our
defense:
“He is very merciful “ —
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,
and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
(see note Hebrews 8:12)
Yea, in the person of Christ we even dare to look at his justice with confidence, since
“He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
(1John 1:9)
Possibly
it is not so much the guilt of sin that troubles you, as the power of
sin. You feel as if you must one day fall by the hand of this enemy
within. You have been striving and struggling, but the old Adam is too
much for you. It is a stern conflict, and you fear that the sons of Anak
will never be driven out. You feel you carry a bombshell within your
heart; your passions are like a powder magazine; you are walking where
the flakes of fire are flying, and you are afraid a spark may fall and
then there will be a terrible destruction of everything Ah! then there
is the power of God, there is the truth of God, there is the
faithfulness of God, and, despite all the desperate power of sin, we
find a shelter here in the character of the Most High.
Sin
sometimes cometh with all the terrors of the law; then, if thou knowest
not how to hide thyself behind thy God, thou wilt be in an evil plight.
It will come at times with all the fur of the flesh, and if thou canst
not perceive that thy flesh was crucified in Christ, and that thy life
is a life in Him, and not in thyself, then wilt thou soon be put to the
rout. But he who lives in his God, and not in himself, and he who wraps
Christ’s righteousness about him, and is righteous in Christ, such a man
may defy all the attacks of the flesh and all the temptations of the
world; he shall overcome through the blood of the Lamb.
“This is the victory that overcometh the world,
even our faith.”
(1John 5:4)
Then,
beloved, there are the temptations of the devil, and these are very
dreadful; but how sweet it is still to feel that the character of God is
our strong tower. Without walls of grace and bulwarks of mercy, how can
a tempted soul escape the clutches of the arch destroyer? But where the
soul lies in the entrenchments of divine promise all the devils in hell
cannot carry it by storm.
The Righteous Run Into the Strong Tower
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