them over this morning. Proverbs chapter 18. your church, as I understand, has been working through and studying the names of God. And so this morning I decided to dig into my repertoire of sermons, and I decided to do one that really addresses the name of the Lord for the believer. And we find this wonderful and magnificent and marvelous promise for us written by Solomon, And he says in verse 10 of the book of Proverbs chapter 18, these words, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is safe. And may God add his blessing to the reading of his word and all God's people said, amen. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much this morning for your wonderful word that you've given to us. We thank you that you inspired it. Holy men of God wrote it. and we have it today, you've preserved it for us, and I pray, Lord, that we will learn deep down in our souls this morning the truth of your name, and then, Lord, by your own spirit, it will be applied to our hearts and our life, right where we're living, so that our faith is a daily, moment-by-moment walk in trust in you. Thank you, Lord, for your promises, and may you bless it this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. I want you to consider what it would have been like if you lived back in Bible days. Because if you did, you would be living in a time of tremendous insecurity. Daily life was full of constant threats. And the looming questions that were faced daily were, number one, will I, myself, live tomorrow? Or will I make it through the year? And secondly, will my family, my clan, my tribe, my town, my city, my nation, will we survive at all? I mean, consider what life was like back then. No doctors, medicine, public health, no public health, no hospitals, no surgery, no insurance of any kind. Let's face it, most of you boomers would not be around. Mortality rates for mothers and children were high. Illnesses often proved to be lethal since there were no drugs. To break a leg or an arm meant that you would be maimed for life. To get a cut, it could lead to infection and possible gangrene. Plagues threatened entire communities, especially if they had poor sanitation. Since the society was agricultural, starvation could take place if they had famine or pestilence. And then of course they faced the threats of the world powers of that day because of where Israel was centrally located. Who surrounded them? The Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, not to mention the people who live within their own land like the Philistines and the Canaanites. and consider that the major road for the world passed through the very heart of Israel. So that meant armies were constantly coming through their country. They would often take what they wanted from the people and the people could do nothing about it. And then on top of all of that, the political leaders of that day were often corrupt. And because of these struggles that people face, they were constantly looking somewhere for safety, for security, and for strength. And so it was into this arena that Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, bursts forth with this marvelous divine promise when he says that the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe. So this morning, the question I would like to propose to you is where do you go for safety and for security and for strength? Well, God promises in this verse for his people that he will be maximum security for his saints. The Bible says the name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous run into it and they are safe. So two very simple things I'd like us to see this morning about the name of the Lord. Number one, the name of the Lord is a place of strength. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. Now there is an immediate image that comes to my mind that I've been to many, many times in the land of Israel that's a strong tower. It's a place called Masada. Have you ever heard of it? Masada is located on the shores or right next to the Dead Sea in the desert of Israel. It is a rock plateau that explodes 1300 feet up from the surface of the ground and on the top of it is 21 acres in size. The only way you can get up to the top is through what they call the snake path. That was of course before today, now they have a gondola and you can get up there in a couple of minutes. Why was it a fortress? Well, King Herod, the King of Israel, during the time when Christ was born, built this magnificent fortress because he was concerned about a Jewish revolt. He was obsessed with his own security. He lived constantly with the fear of somebody else threatening his power. And so he turns this natural defensive tower into a fortress. But the height of it wasn't enough to give him security. He builds a wall around the summit that has 30 defensive towers. There were two paths, one on the front side and one on the backside, and both of them had strong gates. It was virtually impenetrable. And it is with this fortress in mind, when we look at Proverbs 18, we see what the name of the Lord is. The name of the Lord is a Masada. It is a strong tower. Now question, why does the writer of Proverbs say the name of the Lord? Why doesn't he just say the Lord? The Lord himself. And of course, understanding the scripture, the name has something, has a meaning that's very specific. Number one, the name always refers to a person's character, who they were. For example, in biblical times, when you name your child, you named it, you named your child sort of as a statement of your faith. Like, do you know the name Elijah? What does that mean? The word El means God, Jah, J-A-H is a shortened form for the name of the Lord. So Elijah means my God is Lord, a statement of faith. Take the name Isaiah. The name Isaiah simply means that God is my Yeshua. He is my salvation. Or you know the story of Hannah who was a prayer warrior and she cried out to God that God would give her a son. And when the son was born, his name was Samuel, which literally means asked of the Lord. So the naming of your child, the name has the idea of a statement of your faith and your belief, your character. Now I want you to notice specifically this morning it says in verse 10, it says the name of the Lord. And you'll notice that the letters are all in capital letters, L-O-R-D. That's important to understand. Because this is referring, in fact is the name Lord, L-O-R-D in all capitals is found in your Bible 6,800 times. And it is referring to God's personal name, okay? So my name is, my personal name is Steve. God has a personal name. In the English, it reads L-O-R-D, but in the Hebrew, it has four letters. They are the letters Y-H-W-H. You say, well, how do you say that? Well, that's been the problem for throughout history and how to say the name of the Lord. Because Jewish people did not want to say the name wrong. Have you ever had anybody tell you, say your name? Like my last name's Pettit. People call me Petit. I said, I'm not small. You know, they get your last name wrong. You understand what I'm saying? So how do you say Y-H-W-H? Well, Jewish people generally who are Orthodox don't say it. They say the name Hashem, which literally means name. They say the name and they know that's referring to the name of the Lord. Well as Bible translators went along there was a group of Jews called the Mazarites and they interjected some vowel points between those consonants and they took the name Adonai, A-O-N-A, inserted them between Y-H-W-H and they came up with the name YHWH. And then when the Bible was later translated into Latin, it was changed into the name Jehovah. Some say Yahweh, others say Jehovah, but it's referring to God's personal name. Exodus 6.3, listen to what God said. He said, I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty. That name is El Shaddai. But by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. Psalm 83, 18. That men may know that thou whose name alone is Jehovah art the most high over all the earth. So here's what the writer Proverbs is saying. He's saying the name of Jehovah is a strong tower. It's a place of strength for the child of God. It refers to us to what God is like. So question, what does the name Jehovah actually mean? Well, it is translated this way. It means to be present or it means to exist. The name is derived from the Hebrew word which means to be. So the idea is this, that he is the God who really exists. And consider this, if you're living in ancient times, every nation had their own gods and all their gods had their own names. And what God is saying by his name is that I am the only one that exists. There are no other gods. There are no other ones to worship. They are false gods. They don't exist, but I exist. I am the only living God. I am the ever living God. And without me, you are nothing because I am the cause of everything. That's the idea of it. I'm the one who exists. And when God told Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, do you remember what Moses did? He asked God a question. Listen to what he says. Behold, Moses said, when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you and they shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? And do you remember the answer? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he says, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. I am is simply an expression of the name Jehovah. I'm the only one. Tell them all the other gods are false gods. I'm the only living ever living God. And that is his essence. It means that God depends on no one. And there is nothing outside of God's control. He's self-existing. By the way, I want you to know that you're not self-existing. You didn't bring yourself into this world and you cannot exist on your own. God is self-sufficient. He doesn't need you, we need him. God doesn't need air to breathe. He doesn't need food to eat. He doesn't need water to drink and he doesn't need to take a nap because he never rests. That is not your case. You live perpetually in need of outside help for your existence. God needs nothing. And G. Campbell Morgan, the great British preacher, defined the meaning of this name as, I love this, the becoming one. That is, he is the one who becomes to his people all that they need. I will be what you need me to be. It suggests in the name that God, it suggests that God who is an infinite being will adapt himself to our finite being in order to bring about the strengthening of our finite being with all the strength of his infinite being. It means that God will arise in the experience of God's own people to meet every single need of their life. Now folks, that is an amazing promise. That God will meet every need as it arises in the experience of God's redeemed people. He's saying, that's what my name means. And I want you to consider with me that Jesus when speaking to the people of his own day said before Abraham was, what did he say? You know what he was saying? He is saying that the I am of the Old Testament Jehovah is Jesus revealed in the New Testament. Let me tell you something, Jesus is God. And it is through him that every single need of our life can be met for Jesus came into this world to be one of us. He died on the cross to pay for our sins. He rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven. He is now seated at the right hand of God and he ever lives to do what? To make intercession for us. And so therefore he's saying to us that whatever need arises in your life, and by the way, they arise constantly and perpetually. You're not any different than your children. My son Steven is married and he has four boys. The oldest is eight. You know what their household is? Perpetual needs. My wife decided to do something bold about a year ago. She decided that when my son had to go out of the country on a work project, that we would send my daughter-in-law, whose parents are missionaries in Japan, that we will send her to Japan and she will fly to Utah and take care of the four boys for two weeks. You know how long it's taken her to get over those two weeks? They were perpetually needy. And God says that whatever the need is in your life, I will arise to meet that need. Why? Because of the nature, because of the character of my name. But let me also say the name is not only a reflection of a person's character, but it's a reflection of a person's authority. In other words, if you use that name, it means that you are appropriating the power that goes along with the name, the name of the Lord. In other words, there's an authority, there's a power there. Years ago when I was much younger in evangelism, We were holding revival meetings right outside of Washington, D.C. In the church where I was preaching, there was a gentleman there that I'd come to know over the years because I'd preached in the church many times. And he was head of the secret service at the White House in Washington, D.C. His name was Bill Ludkey. Bill came up to me one night and he said, Steve, I want to do something special for you and your group. He said, I'd like to give you a tour of the West Wing of the White House, the president's office. I thought, cool. He says, here's what you do, you show up at 645 at the gate, not on the east side, but the west side, and you tell them that you're there to take a tour, and they'll let you in, and I'll give you the tour. I said, okay, so we got up early that morning, and we were there by 645, and I walked up to the gate house on the west side of the White House, and I said, my name is Steve Pettit, this is our group, and we're here to have a tour of the west wing of the White House. The man said, sir? We do not give tours of the West Wing of the White House. That's only on the east side. I said, sir, I'm here to get a tour of the West Wing of the White House. Now he stared at me and got a little irritated with me. I mean, I thought, come on, man, the week before you had Benjamin Netanyahu and now you got Steve Pettit. Let me in. And I said to him, he said to me again, he said, sir, we do not give tours of the West Wing of the White House. I said, I was told to come here. He said, who told you to come here? I said, Bill Ludkey. He stared at me, said, just a moment. He made a phone call, put the phone down. He said, all right, come on in. So we came walking in. Man looked at me, he said, man, you're getting the Royal Red Carpet treatment. And so we walked down the entranceway and walked in and there was Bill and he met us and we toured the whole thing. I mean, we went into the president's office. We went into the Rose Garden. We went to where the cabinet meets. We went to everything. And when I left there that day, I realized that there was power in the name of Bill Ludke. You ever heard the statement? It's not about what you know it's about, who you know. The name of the Lord is a strong power, a strong tower. That means to use the name of the Lord means to appropriate his person and his power in our situation. Consider Peter and John as they entered into the temple in Jerusalem, there was a lame man sitting there at the entrance of the gate called Beautiful. The man begged for financial aid from these two disciples and their response was absolutely striking. Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up and immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up, stood, walked and entering with them into the temple, walking and leaping. and praising God. When Peter was later questioned by the authorities, where did he receive the power to heal this man? He replied, be it known unto all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him does this man stand here before you whole. The right to use another's name carries with it the authority of that name. Folks, that's why prayer is so powerful. The man was healed as they prayed in the name of Jesus, who is Jehovah, representing him and his purposes in the earth. And when you pray in the name of the Lord, what are we doing? We are invoking his authority. Listen to John 14, 13. And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do that the father may be glorified in the son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. is maybe the great issue we're facing today. We're living in such a world where we have so many things at our fingertip, but we don't necessarily have God. And we need God. We need his power. We need his presence. We need to be praying people. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. So number one, the name of the Lord is a place of strength. But number two, the name of the Lord is a place of safety. Notice he says, the righteous runneth into it and is safe. You probably know the statement, in fright, either there's fight or flight. In fright, you either fight or there's flight. When you were threatened, what do you naturally do? Well, fear forces us to flee. And we do need to run, but where do we run? We need to run to a strong tower where there is safety. On May 31st, 1889, at 4.07 in the afternoon, the South Fork Dam located at Lake Connemaw, right outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that dam broke. It drained out within 45 minutes, 20 million tons of water. 14 miles down river, 450 feet lower than the level of the lake was a city called Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Have you ever heard of it? Within a short period of time, a wall of water standing 36 feet tall filled with debris like boulders and barbed wire and trees barreled into the city at 40 miles an hour. And what happened? Instantly houses were crushed like eggshells and locomotives, trains were tossed around like baseballs. And within 10 minutes, 2,209 people lost their lives. The Johnstown flood of 1889 was and still is the worst flood disaster in American history. But amazingly, there were many people that survived. Do you know why? Because Johnstown is sort of in the middle between two mountains. It's like a large holler. And when people heard or knew that the flood was coming, what did they do? They ran to the hills and they got above the floodplain and they survived. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord, our God. Our help is in the name of the Lord. He is the maker, the creator of heaven and earth. What do the righteous do when they are threatened? Where do they go for safety? They go to the name of the Lord. So question, how do you do this? Well, in order to do this, you have to come into circumstances where your faith in the name of the Lord is going to be tested. You got to go through trying experiences. It's in the trial that you run to the Lord. And perhaps nobody understood this so clearly as a king of Israel named Hezekiah. Do you know his story? You can read it in the book of Isaiah. You can read it in second Kings. You can read it in the Chronicles. It's all there for you to read. It's amazing story. First of all, he was threatened by a dreaded adversary, the Assyrians. They had come to conquer the land of Israel and the Assyrians were a no more Mr. Nice Guy army. They made all the bad people in history look like they were Boy Scouts. When they would come to conquer a city they didn't want to fight all the time so what they would do is they would conquer a city, they would bring all the leaders of the city out, they would chop their heads off, they would stick them on stakes, impale them alive, they would flay them alive, skin them alive and essentially they motivated the next village or the next town to surrender. Well they came to Jerusalem and they sent their speakers to speak and they spoke to the king's emissaries and basically you think trash talking started with the NBA. Well let me tell you where it started, it started in the Old Testament. And so these leaders of the Assyrian army under the leadership of King Sennacherib they started trash talking but they made a fatal mistake, they started trash talking God. And when Hezekiah found out all that they said and he received a letter, he took the letter. What did he do? He went up to the house of the Lord, the temple. And would you listen to his prayer? And I'm going to use the name Jehovah where the name is Lord is mentioned so that you'll get the picture. It says Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers and he read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah. And Hezekiah prayed before Jehovah, and said, O Jehovah, God of Israel, which dwells between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone. Of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. Jehovah, bow down thine ear and hear. Open, Jehovah, thine eyes and see. And hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands. They have cast their gods into the fire, for there were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore, they have destroyed them. Now, therefore, O Jehovah our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art Jehovah God, even thou only. He cast his burden upon the Lord and the Lord sustained him. And what did he do? He went down to his house and that night he slept and he slept like a baby. You ever had a bad night's sleep? Well, he got a good night's sleep. And he woke up the next morning and he sent some spies out to find out what was going on in the Assyrian camp. And when they got there, what did they discover? They discovered that the entire army in one night had been slain by one angel, 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. That's called protection. That's called safety. And I think of Peter when he took out a sword and you remember he cut off the guy's ear and Jesus picked up the ear and stuck it back on his head. That's called quick surgery. And what did Jesus say? Put up your sword. He said, if I needed to, I could call an army, not an army of humans, but an army of angels. And Jesus said, I could call 12 legions of angels. In the Roman army, a legion was 6,000 soldiers times 12. That's 72,000 angels. What can 72,000 angels do? Major damage. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous, they run into it. And what did they discover? They find they're safe. But then almost on the heels of that, we find that Hezekiah suffered another threatening circumstance. This time, it was a deadly affliction. For the scripture says that he became sick to the point of death. And what did he do? He turned his face to the wall. That is to the wall of the temple. And he prayed unto Jehovah and listened to his prayer. He said, I beseech thee, O Jehovah, remember now I've walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart and have done good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass before Isaiah was gone into the middle court that the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah saying, turn again and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David, thy father. I've heard your prayer. I've seen your tears. Behold, I will heal thee on the third day. Thou shall go up into the house of Jehovah. And in all of this, God healed him, gave him 15 more years to live. What was important was not that the Assyrians were defeated or that Hezekiah was healed, but that Jehovah was alive. that Jehovah was the Lord of hosts, that the Jehovah was the Lord that heals you, that he is the captain of our salvation. The name of God comes to be known in our life when we go through conflicts, through tensions, through fears and through tears. And what do we do? We go through the test where we find out that God becomes for us all that we need him to be. And as we finish this morning, I'd like for your own personal benefit to go to Psalm 23. And I want us to see the names of the Lord all found in this final Psalm written by King David. Because in the Bible, especially the Old Testament, the names of the Lord are compound names. You understand that? Like Jehovah Shama, Jehovah Shalom, Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah Sidkenu. Now we understand that. Jehovah's personal, the compound name is what they do. My name is Steve Dad. Steve Evangelist. Steve Babycakes, that's what my wife calls me. You understand? Steve Son, Steve Uncle, Steve Pop Pop. And the Bible tells us that the name of Jehovah is not only who he is, but there's another name that follows that reflects what he does. Let's read Psalm 23, and I'll make a commentary as we go through as we finish. The Lord Jehovah is my shepherd, Jehovah-Rohi. I shall not want Jehovah-Jireh. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters, Jehovah Shalom. He restoreth my soul, Jehovah Rophay. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake, Jehovah Sidkenu. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, Jehovah Nisi and Jehovah Saba, the Lord of hosts. Thou anointest my head with oil, Jehovah Makedesh, or Makodesh, the one who sanctifies. My cup runneth over, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Jehovah Shama, the Lord who is there. And I want you to think with me. Jesus fulfills every single name. Jesus is the great I am, the Lord. He is a good shepherd. He is the one who provides all of our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. He is our peace because in the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world, my peace I give unto you. He is the great physician. He makes the dead to rise and the blind to see and the lame to walk. And he comes to heal us of all of our diseases. He is our perfection, our righteousness. For when we receive him, we receive the perfection of his life. And we stand before God, not in ourselves, but in Christ. He is our protector. He will keep us from evil. As we pray, Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. He is our purifier. It is the Lord who sanctifies us. You can't be holy in self, but you can in Christ. And finally, he is our presence, Jehovah Shama, for he says, I will never leave you and I will never forsake you. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and they are safe. May I encourage you this morning, run to the Lord, run to him. If you don't know the Lord, run to him from your heart, cry out and say, God saved me and he will save you now. And if your burden casts your care upon him for he cares for you. and he will sustain you, and he will never suffer the wrath.