DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 26, 1879,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the
plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the
waters shall overflow the hiding place." Isaiah 28:17.
OVER against amazing mercy, the Holy Spirit sets awakening judgment.
The acceptable year of the Lord is also the day of vengeance of our God
and the sentence which shall confirm the righteous in his righteousness
is attended by another which says, "He that is unjust let him be unjust
still." When the Lord shall come to be glorified in His saints, He
will, at the same time, take vengeance in flaming fire upon those that
know Him not. In the present instance, in the 16th verse of this
chapter, the Lord declares "Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a
stone, a tried stone" and then, immediately in our text, He speaks of
another laying–"Judgment also will I lay to the line, and
righteousness to the plummet."
Upon the roses of Grace grow the thorns of Justice. Whenever the Lord
bares His arm for mercy towards Believers, He gives a backstroke to His
enemies. Therefore, even the activity of love wears a threatening
aspect to those who live impenitent, wedded to their sins, since it is
accompanied by an energetic display of justice. Take care that you
remember this, you who are unbelievers and yet dream of some millennial
benediction, or latter day glory which may bring salvation to you. Is
it not written, "Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! To what
end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light"?
Whatever good may be in store for Believers there is none for you! The
pillar of fire which will give light to the Lord's Israel will be
darkness to you, O you Egyptians! To those who are out of Christ, even
the greatest triumphs of Divine love will be terrible–they shall
behold and wonder and perish–they shall see the plentiful goodness of
the Lord but they shall not eat thereof, but die in the gate. These are
heavy tidings for you who love not the Lord, but they are as true as
they are heavy–as certainly as Mercy lays her Foundation, as surely
will Judgment sweep away those who reject it and build upon another.
Nor shall there be long space between the rejection of the blessing and
the execution of the curse. Longsuffering will have an end and then the
swift-footed executioner shall overtake the sinner and woe shall be
unto the hairy scalp of him that goes on in his iniquities.
Another great Truth of God should never be forgotten–it is this–a
great privilege involves a great responsibility. It is a great
privilege to hear the Gospel, but woe unto those who shut their ears to
its warnings and invitations, for it shall ring out their death-knell.
It is a very high favor to see the Foundation which God has laid in
Zion and to be exhorted to build upon it. But of those who reject that
Foundation, vengeance will be exacted. Upon whomever this Stone shall
fall, it shall grind them to powder! In proportion to the love which
gave the Only Begotten to be the Foundation of a sinner's hope will be
the Divine indignation against those who reject Him.
You who see Jesus set forth before you as the Cornerstone of the Lord's
own choosing and yet perversely turn aside to prepare false refuges of
your own will have to answer to God for this insult to His Son, this
despite to His Spirit! Every hour in which you make lies your refuge
and hide yourselves under falsehood, you increase your guilt. O that
you would consider this! But I hear one say, "We have no refuge or
hiding place and do not feel that we need any." I answer that this very
self-conceit of yours is your refuge! Every man knows in his own
conscience that he needs a shelter of some sort to screen himself from
stern Justice. He supplies his conscience with something in the form of
a shield because he inwardly knows that he is not able to appear before
God without some sort of apology, or attempt at justification.
Let him cripple his conscience as much as he pleases, there is a
something within him which tells him that everything is not right. He
may brag as he likes, but he has at least a suspicion of danger, a fear
of coming judgment! Even as a man
needs the shelter of a cave, a hut, or a house for his body, so he
needs a refuge for his soul. And when he rejects the solid Refuge which
the mercy of God has provided in Christ Jesus, he sets to work to build
another shelter and to lay for himself another foundation where he may
repose.
Our desire this morning is anxiously and solemnly to warn men of what
will come of their willfulness and to lead them to look a little before
them and spy out, through the telescope of Scripture, the sure future
of their ungrounded hopes. Thus I trust they may be led to abandon all
false refuges and may be guided by the Spirit of God to accept the sure
Foundation which God has laid for His believing people. O how I long
that you may, all of you, be right for eternity! I would not have one
of you perish, any more than I would wish to perish myself. O Holy
Spirit, bless my feeble words to the good of these, my beloved people!
May my weakness of thought and speech never hinder You from working,
but rather, in this hour of my infirmity, You speak, Blessed Spirit,
with greater power!
First, let us see the Lord judging false refuges. Secondly, let us
picture their destruction. And thirdly, let us take the warning which
such a subject should convey to every thoughtful mind.
I. LET US SEE THE LORD JUDGING MAN'S REFUGES. He says, "Judgment also
will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet." Observe that
however carelessly we may judge ourselves, God will not so judge us. We
may take things at second hand and view them very lightly, but God
makes personal observation and takes a careful survey. We may foolishly
say, "Do not let us trouble ourselves too much or become too anxious,
things will no doubt get right one of these days," but God is in
earnest and there is no trifling with Him. Observe that His survey is
performed with the utmost accuracy. He will not judge according to the
sight of the eyes or the hearing of the ears, but He will go into
matters and make a thorough search.
An ordinary builder sent to examine a house would probably content
himself with hastily looking to see whether the walls were
perpendicular and whether the work was of the quantity and quality
specified in the contract. He could tell this pretty nearly with his
eyes, or by measuring with his feet. But if a very careful and
scientific survey were needed, he would then produce his plummet and
his line and try everything by the regular accepted tests of builder's
work. And hence our text describes the Lord as laying judgment to the
line and righteousness to the plummet–that is to say, He makes a
deliberate trial of our confidences, compares our hopes with our
conduct, our beliefs with His Truth–and our expectations with the
facts of the case. He measures and gauges and gives an accurate
estimate of what we are and where we are.
O that we might have Grace to invite such a test at once by praying,
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts!" If
the Lord will help us to know ourselves, now, it will save us from a
sad discovery at the last. Let us examine ourselves, because God will
examine us on the Judgment Day! Let us come to the plummet and to the
measuring line and give up random hopes and hasty confidences. Better
the distress of honest anxiety than the presumption of foolhardy
rashness! It is much better to be afraid where there is no cause for
fear than to be at ease where there is no ground for confidence. Well
did Cowper say–
"He that never doubted of his state, He may, perhaps, he may, too
late."
He who takes things for granted may find himself to be a fool in that
day when folly will never again have opportunities for wisdom. All
things will, in the end, be put into the scales and weighed–and
Infallible Justice shall give its final decision! It is wise to
anticipate that final and irreversible verdict by a present and honest
searching of the grounds of our hope. According to the connection of
our text, there are three ways by which we may, all of us, judge
whether our confidences are refuges of lies or not. For, first, if they
are safe hiding places, such as will bear the brunt of the coming
storm, they are founded upon Christ. "Behold, I lay in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure
foundation."
Now examine, my dear Friend, your hope for eternity. Is it the hope
which God has set forth in Scripture? Is it based and bottomed upon the
work of the Lord Jesus? For if not, as the Lord my God lives and as
your soul lives, it will fail you in the day of trial! If God laid the
Foundation and you accept it, you may feel quite sure about it, for God
never yet laid down a fiction as the groundwork of faith. He never
mocked human reliance, yet, and never will! If the Lord laid the
Foundation you need not hesitate to build on it, for the responsibility
of its security is with the Lord and not with us. We may fairly put it
thus with our hearts in hours when all things are questioned–if our
faith is vain, at least we have
grounded it where Divine Revelation commanded us to ground it! If there
is a failure, it is not ours only, but a failure on the part of Him who
laid the Foundation for us!
But such a thing shall never be–the Christ of God never fails! We
shall find Jesus to be what the Father declares Him to be, a sure
Foundation which shall support us in life, bear us up in death and
sustain us throughout eternity. Come, search yourselves, and try your
hopes by this test! Hang this plummet against your wall–do you stand
even with it? Is Jesus Christ All in All to you? Do you rest on Him and
on Him alone? If so, you are surely saved! But if not, you have made
lies your refuge! He then gives us a second test and that is if our
confidence is a right one, it comes to us through faith, for it is
written in the 16th verse, "He that believes shall not make haste." He
shall not be confused. He shall not run away in trepidation and alarm.
He shall not be in a hurry to anticipate the day of blessing, nor be in
distress about the hour of trial. "He that believes" is the man whose
soul is fixed on the sure Foundation and, therefore, abides in peace.
Now, my Hearers, do you believe for your salvation, or do you look to
your own feelings and doings? If your hope is grounded upon sight, or
feeling, or working–it will one day fail you. Do you rest on
ceremonies, upon something performed by a priest or a minister, or are
you resting upon outward religiousness, upon attending the means of
Grace and bowing, kneeling and standing like Christians? Then I warn
you that these sandy foundations will be washed away when the floods
come! Have you faith in Jesus Christ? Do you believe the Infallible
Word of God and do you confide in His Infallible Son? If you do this,
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but never shall your Foundation be
moved! Your hope shall stand firm as the Throne of God!
Judge yourselves, then, by this–bring this plummet and this line to
bear upon the building that you have been erecting for years–and
remember that if it is not of faith it is all in vain! Salvation is of
Grace through faith! By faith the sinner is justified and the just
lives by faith! Without faith it is impossible to please God, therefore
see to it that you have the faith of God's elect or your hope is
vanity! A third test seems to me to be proposed in my text, "Judgment
will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet." Here, then,
is the test of righteousness. If our hope is sound, it is a holy,
sanctifying hope which purges us from sin and breeds in us all that is
true and good.
This is a test which some do not like to apply. They are wonderfully
pleased when we are preaching the Gospel of believing, but when it
comes to fruit–to the declaration that true faith works by love–they
fight shy of it. But I beseech you, my Brothers and Sisters, be not
like these foolish persons! Court those tests which are the most
searching and thorough, that you may make sure work for eternity.
Exercise a loving severity toward your own soul. Be lenient to every
other person, but be sternly severe to your own case. Without holiness
no man shall see the Lord. Have you this holiness? The faith that is
without works is dead, being alone. Have you the works which prove the
sincerity of faith? If the Grace of God does not change your character;
if it does not make you hate sin and strive after that which is right,
just and good, then it is not the Grace of God at all! You have but the
form and are without the power of it. Is this the case with you? Come,
do not flinch, but go through with it and deal fairly with your own
soul!
We shall now apply these tests to certain refuges which I am sure will
turn out to be refuges of lies. A few of these we will mention at
length. The first is the hope which some men ground upon their own
moral goodness. "It will be all right with me," says one, "for I have
not done anything much amiss. If I have been faulty, we are poor,
imperfect creatures and we cannot help it. On the whole my aims and
objectives have been greatly superior to those of the bulk of mankind.
I do not think I can have incurred much wrath from God, or that I need
be under any apprehension as to being judged of Him at the Last Great
Day."
Alas, my Friend, yours must be a refuge of lies, for it will not stand
trial by the first plummet! It is not based upon the Foundation which
God has laid! Your hope has nothing to do with Christ, that precious
Cornerstone. It is evident that you do not want Him, or His blood, or
His righteousness, for you are altogether independent of such help. Why
should God have taken the trouble to lay a foundation in the blood of
His own Son when it is evidently quite a superfluity, since you can
save yourself? Do you not see that, inasmuch as you rely upon your own
moral goodness, you as good as tell the Lord that the gift of His dear
Son and His death on Calvary were all a mistake, a Savior was not
required and an Atonement was not needed? If you can save yourself, so
can others, and the whole plan of Grace becomes an absurdity. I feel
sure that since you cannot stand this first test your refuge is a false
one.
Now, try the second touchstone as to faith. You have no faith in God.
Your hope is not based on faith in Jesus–you have no faith except
faith in yourself. You are trusting to the works of the Law, but do you
not know what the Scripture says, "By the works of the Law there shall
be no flesh justified in His sight"? You are opposing the Revelation of
God– He declares that men are not saved by works, but by Grace, and
you, on the other hand, claim salvation by your own works! You are
under a gross delusion and your trust is a refuge of lies! Moreover, my
gentle boaster, is not this plea of moral goodness a lie from top to
bottom? In the calmness of your mind can you prove this excellency of
yours? Your outward life may have been comparatively pure, but I am not
sure of that if all were known.
Look back and see whether there are not more stains than you thought,
more grave faults than you would like to confess. You have a very
flattering memory, which obliges you by forgetting things which it
would be inconvenient to remember. Your righteousness is little better
than a house of cards and if you ever blow upon it with anxious breath
it will come tumbling down! I call upon you to put away such folly and
to open your eyes to facts. Please remember that even if your outward
life may have been correct, God regards the heart and takes account of
the inner life. Your thoughts, have they not gone after evil? Your
imagination, has it never delighted in sin? Have there been no corrupt
desires, no selfish ambitions? Hare you come up to the standard of
God's perfection? I will ask you no more questions–I know you have
not, for the testimony of the Searcher of all hearts is this, "There is
none that does good, no, not one."
Therefore I know that you have not done good. You, like your fellow
men, are a sinner and condemned! I beseech you put away this vain
glorying and seek a better refuge. A spider's web is not slighter than
this confidence of yours! A bubble is not more frail, or a breath more
unsubstantial. If this is your shelter, it is worse than no shelter!
The fig leaves of our first parents, when they were all dry and
shriveled, were a better covering than our poor merits. If we were not
maddened by our sins, we should never be so insane as to dream of
pleading our own excellence before God! If we had any just idea of what
holiness is, we should confess our iniquity and then close our mouth in
the silence of self-condemnation. Lay but justice to the line and
righteousness to the plummet and our personal moral excellence is seen
to be as a bowing wall and as a tottering fence.
I have noticed, however, in the second place, that a number of persons
make a refuge for themselves out of the notion offate. They say,
"Everything is settled and determined and ordained and, therefore, if I
am to be saved, I shall be saved. And if I am to be lost I shall be
lost. After all, we are creatures of circumstances and are like the
fish of the sea taken in a net, or sea birds caught in the wind,
driven, we scarcely know where. Let us hope that all may come right at
last, but we cannot help it whatever may occur." I have no hesitation
in saying that this refuge is a refuge of lies. It would not endure one
of the tests and assuredly not the last, for its tendency is to deny
all moral obligation and, therefore, it is no friend to holiness. It
deliberately charges God with the creature's sin and makes out the
sinner to be the injured person and clear of the guilt of his own acts.
Many persuade themselves that they believe it, but it is such a poor,
paltry shelter that I wonder they are not ashamed to mention it! In the
bottom of their hearts those who urge it know better. Look here, good
Sir, and see your own inconsistency. Why did you punish your boy this
morning for willful disobedience? Why did you not say to him, "I will
not chide with you, my Son, nor chasten you, though you provoked me,
for you cannot help it, you are ordained to it"? The thief that broke
into your house the other day, did you lie still and let him take your
silver? If he was ordained to have it, he would have it–why did you
open the window and cry for help? When the thief was taken, did you say
to the magistrate, "Do not punish him, he could not help it. No doubt
some Divine decree led him here"?
The scoundrel that called you, "liar," the other day, and knocked you
down in the street–did you rise up and with a quiet smile thank him
for it, for he could not help it, he was only the agent of a Divine
purpose and the instrument of an Omnipotent Predestination which he
could not resist? You never thought of such folly! You feel that those
who injure you are responsible and you treat them accordingly. Now
mark–you are responsible, too. It is a Truth of God that all things
are fixed, but it is not a Truth that, therefore, men may live in sin
and lay the blame upon God! Whatever foreordination and predestination
may be or may not be, they leave men free agents and responsible being,
or else both Law and Gospel are absurdities and the Bible is ill
written.
In other matters men do not act on the supposed inferences of fate, but
on the evident necessities of everyday life– why not in religion? It
may be true that everything is fixed and doubtless so it is, but
because it is fixed, whether I shall live or not, do I, therefore,
refuse to eat? Because it is fixed whether I shall sleep or not, do I
refuse to undress and get
into my bed? Because it is predestinated whether I shall be rich or
not, do I leave my shop and get away and leave my goods to sell
themselves? No, verily, predestination or no predestination, you are
all eager to get gain! Men are not such idiots in other things as they
pretend to be in the things of God! The plea of fate is a fool's refuge
worthy only of a brainless sot!
Since it will not stand even my feeble brush, you may be sure that it
will all dissolve beneath the iron rod of the Prince of Truth! It is in
vain for you to say, "We were delivered to work this iniquity," for you
know that you sin willingly and you refuse Christ deliberately. You
choose the evil and turn your backs on the good and, therefore, your
ruin must be laid at your own doors. Cease, then, from the vain
endeavor to justify yourselves and seek unto the Lord and His Christ!
The third shelter of lies which many fly to is a hope based upon novel
doctrines. Each age would gladly have its own Gospel and the present is
not behind hand in the desire to be its own prophet. Many are ready to
help in this presumptuous design. Certain Divines attain to eminence by
undermining the Gospel they pretend to defend and forging new theories
upon the anvils of their own fancy. Men who would never have been known
if they had acted honestly, have gained a cheap notoriety by vending
heresy and yet wearing the garb and eating the bread of orthodoxy! The
most fashionable form of this evil, just now, is the production of
novelties with regard to the future punishment of the wicked.
False Prophets prophesy smooth things and talk of a larger hope, which,
being interpreted, is this–that men may live very much as they like
but some time or other, and somehow or other, character will cease to
operate upon destiny and the righteous and the wicked will stand on a
par. This is the old doctrine of falsehood with which the sinner
blesses himself in his heart, saying, "I shall have peace though I walk
in the imagination of my heart."
The punishment of sin has been doubted from the very beginning. The
chief of all subtle thinkers said in the garden of Eden, "You shall not
surely die!" By this larger hope, insinuated rather than boldly stated,
the serpentine philosopher tempted the woman and ruined our race.
Pleased with his success, he continues to use the same artifice,
asserting either that sin is trivial, or that penance can remove it, or
that Hell is temporary, or that the soul will be annihilated, or some
other form of the same radical lie. His perpetual cry is, "You shall
not surely suffer what God threatens! You may sin and yet there is a
hope larger than the Revelation of Jesus Christ, wider than the Savior
has proclaimed."
In this refuge there is no Christ and no faith in Him–and assuredly
there is nothing in it that conduces to holiness. Mark its influence
wherever it is received. When any of our friends embrace the novel
theology, do they become more devout, more earnest, more gracious, more
holy as the result of it? I think not. Are these the persons who make
our Prayer Meetings a power? Are these the winners of souls? Are these
the men who speak much of Jesus and live in daily fellowship with Him?
Do we see them more careful to avoid conformity to the world? Our
witness is that the consequences are the reverse. Did you ever hear of
a man who was converted from vice by hearing that sin would be lightly
punished and who, in proportion as he grew purer in life, grew more
heterodox in his views?
Such an instance would be a rarity, if, indeed, it ever existed! But
when a man who holds orthodox doctrine, backslides and declines, as a
general rule he finds it convenient to adopt some novel hypothesis in
order that he may feel comfortable in his sin. Is it not so? So far as
my observation goes, these modern notions go with looseness of life,
with worldliness of heart, with decay of prayerfulness and with
backsliding from the living God. And as you lay this line and plummet
to them, it will soon be seen that they are refuges of lies. At any
rate, Sirs, suppose your larger hope should turn out to be correct? In
what respect will the orthodox be the losers? But suppose your larger
hope should turn out to be a mere delusion? What will become of you who
venture your all upon it?
We are, in any case, upon the safe side of the hedge and this is no
small advantage when the weightiest interests are at stake. Suppose
there shall be no Hell? If I am a believer in Christ, it matters not to
me. But suppose there is–and there is–then you who are unbelievers
are in an evil plight! If you do not catch this will-o'-the-wisp of a
larger hope, as I believe you never will, then where are you? It
behooves every man not only to make sure, but to make doubly sure!
About the soul we need the utmost certainty. I would counsel you to dig
deep and see what you are resting on. I would have you make sure that
you do not permit a falsehood to lie like a worm at the root of your
hope! Seek to know the reason for your building on Christ and when you
have ascertained that, then look for God's guarantee for placing stone
upon stone in the building up–and without this do not rest!
Nothing but Divine authority ought to content you in the business of
eternity. The views and hypotheses of the learned Dr. Somebody are of
no value to me, for I can theorize for myself if I have a mind to. I
need facts and certainties, for I dread every refuge of lies. Alas, we
have another brood of men whose refuge is that they make a profession
of religion. "I am always at a place of worship," says one. "I am never
absent from a single service and, what is more, I joined the Church
some years ago and I have kept up my membership. I have been baptized
and I come to the Lord's Table with great regularity. I feel a good
deal of pleasure in religious exercises. I am not sure that I was ever
born again. I am not sure that I ever repented of sin. I am not sure
that I try to live a holy life, but still I am a member of a Church and
that is a great comfort to me."
Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, this will not do! Unless this membership
of yours with a visible Church is backed up by holy living and unless
there is an inward resting upon Jesus Christ and a vital faith whereby
you hold fast to Him, your name may be on the Church roll, but it will
not be found written in the Lamb's Book of Life! And this profession of
yours, instead of blessing you, will curse you! If you are not savingly
converted, you are guilty of a daily hypocrisy and chargeable with
sacrilege for appropriating sacred things to which you have no right!
Unconverted one, you are an intruder into the family of Christ; an
interloper at the feast of the King of kings! Search yourselves lest,
being found at the bridal feast without a wedding garment, you should
be cast out into outer darkness!
You need not be hurt by the exhortation, for those of us who speak to
you are often forced to carry out a severe search within our own
hearts. How often I put myself through my paces with many an anxious
question! I have taught others, but do I know the Truth for myself? I
have brought others to Christ, but have I come to Christ myself? What
if, after having preached to others, I, myself, should be a castaway?
What the Lord's ministers feel bound to do to themselves, surely you
need not be too proud to endure! If you are doing very little for your
Lord and Master compared with others, you may well be very anxious and
careful, for the doom of unprofitable servants is not a light one and
barren trees are not always allowed to stand. "Oh," says one, "but I do
not like heart-searching." Then I am afraid for you. You who do not
examine yourselves; you who are not willing to be tested and tried by
the Word of God, you cause us serious suspicion lest you may have built
very rapidly with wood, hay, stubble and yet your whole structure will
be consumed in the last great fire!
Let me speak a word concerning certain ones who have a hope of being
saved which does not sanctify them, for there are professors who feel
sure they are Christians and will go to Heaven and yet they show no
sign of being prepared for it. They live as others live and yet imagine
that they shall not die as others die! They have an outward film of
morality upon their lives, but underneath it there is worldliness and
love of sinful pleasure. How dare they hope? If they sow iniquity shall
they reap perfection? Can a man go to Heaven who is not heavenly? Can
lovers of worldly pleasure enter into the dwellings of the perfect? O
Sirs, if your hope does not lead you to follow after holiness, away
with it! God help you to away with it at once and to begin aright.
Above all things dread an empty, baseless hope of Heaven, for it will
make Hell all the more terrible!
Some, too, make a refuge of their old experience. Now, an old
experience which is all old is a manifest deception. A true experience
continues and grows day by day. Not with one even pace each day, but
still, as a whole, the Divine life goes forward to perfection–but
where it does not do so, but comes to an end–it is not the Divine life
at all. Have you never heard of the man who wrote down his experiences
of religion when a young man so that he might fall back upon it in
later years? He lived in neglect of all godliness but, having already
experienced religion, as he said, and having made a record of it and
put it away with the title deeds of his farm, he dreamed that when he
came to die he might fetch it out and comfort himself with his
evidences of salvation!
His daughter went to the drawer and found that the mice had eaten it.
Ah, dear me, it was not much loss, for that hope which is grounded on a
musty experience which is not supported by a present love of God,
present prayer, present fellowship and present striving against sin, is
a lie! It is all in vain to say, "I know I did experience such-and-such
a thing a dozen years ago when I joined the Church." What of that? If a
man is alive, now, he does not need to prove it by going back to the
records of his youth! Present life is its own evidence. If you are not
living to God, today, I care not a button what you profess to have done
20 years ago! If you had a true faith then, you have it now–and if you
have no faith now, you are in the gall of bitterness.
It is true that he that believes in Christ is saved, but we must have
proof of it in the consequent life. If the man is not saved from living
in sin, we infer that he has not believed. And if he does not persevere
to the end, we are sure that he is not one of the Lord's own–"for if
any man draw back," says the Lord, "my soul shall have no pleasure in
him." This is the test of true faith. Those who have really believed do
not draw back unto perdition, for they have believed unto the salvation
of their souls. Oh, then, I pray you, if your imaginary experience in
former times has dissolved into present carelessness and sin, do not
attempt to hide behind it! It will not endure the line and the plummet,
therefore put it away and seek God this day that He may begin a sound
work of Grace upon your souls.
I hope I have said enough by way of laying the line and the plummet to
false refuges. May the Lord awaken the carnally secure and lead them to
forsake their useless hiding places and shelter themselves in Christ.
II. Very briefly let us, in the second place, PICTURE THE DESTRUCTION
OF THESE REFUGES OF LIES. A
man has been very comfortable in one or other of these refuges for a
good number of years, but at last he is getting old and is laid aside
to think. Infirmities are increasing, death is drawing near and he
takes a look into the dark future. He finds himself facing an eternal
state and he has need of all his confidences and hopes to sustain him.
Now, what happens? His spirit undergoes a great storm and what is the
result? Does he dwell in a fortress which defies the hurricane? No, his
shelter is so frail that, according to the text, "the hail shall sweep
away the refuges of lies."
A cold, hard Truth of God falls from Heaven like a hailstone and
crashes right through the glass roof of his false confidence! He looks
up astonished and, lo, another and another forgotten Truth descends
with the same violence and crushes through all opposition till it
smites his soul. He had always hoped, good, easy man, that sunshine and
quiet would last forever and then his glass house would have been all
he needed. He never reckoned on these hailstones! Great Truths of God
which he forgot, neglected and despised, come rattling down upon him
from Heaven in awful earnest and with deadly aim. He must think and he
has much to think of–but no means of forgetting any of it. His
conscience, which he tried to smother, awakes, and as it awakes the big
hailstones of Truth come through his roof faster and faster.
Down falls all his comfort and peace of mind as hailstone after
hailstone pounds all his hope to pieces! "After all, I never was born
again and the Scripture has well said, 'You must be born again.' I
never yielded up my selfishness and I cannot be saved unless Christ is
my King. I did not really close in with Christ and cast my naked soul
on Him–I trusted in something else and I am lost forever!" Great
hailstones thus follow each other and against them the deceived heart
has no defense. Presently the storm comes up with tremendous wind and
the hailstones are hurled forward like terrible artillery and the naked
soul finds its refuge utterly swept away–not a thread of it remains!
His refuge fails the man and his soul, unhoused, unsheltered, starts
back in horror!
It starts back in vain! God has now to be met and the soul has no
hiding place! The fire eyes of the Most High are burning the heart
through and through and rocks and hills refuse a shelter. God grant
that this may not be your case and that it may not be mine. May it
never be said of us, "When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden
destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and
they shall not escape." Let us fly to Jesus at once! Let us most
solemnly exercise faith in Him now! I pause while this is done. Is it
so? Have you rested upon the Son of God for everything? Then you may go
forward and neither fear hailstones nor coals of fire, for he that
believes in Him shall never be confounded!
Another impressive picture is set before us in the text. "The waters
shall overflow the hiding place." Imagine one who, in the time of
Noah's flood, does not choose to enter into the ark for he does not
care to be tied down to God's way of deliverance. Salvation by an ark
is too simple, too childish–he wants a more philosophic way. Besides,
he does not care to be cooped up with Noah and a handful of
narrow-minded people who shut them in and shut everybody else out. He
has broader views and, therefore, he has found a shelter on the side of
the hill–in a great cave where thousands can assemble and enjoy a
liberty denied them within the pale of the ark! It is utterly
preposterous to suppose the flood will ever reach so high as this
elevated cave! It is hundreds of feet above the plain and, in the
judgment of the wisest men, it is more than safe.
After a day or two of extraordinary rain the man would look down from
his hiding place and see the waters covering all the lower area and
creeping up the valleys foot by foot. And he would remark upon the
abundance of rain, but scoff at the idea of a general deluge. He would
be easy, hoping that the rain would cease, but as it continued he would
begin to think, "I may not be quite so safe after all." Imagine his
horror when the flood, at last, fills up the ravine and creeps up
the rocky steep. With cruel lips, seeking his destruction, the water
threatens the cave in which he thought to dwell so safely. At last it
penetrates his hiding place! It climbs to the very roof! It sweeps over
his head and his false confidence has proved his ruin. Such will be the
end of all that hide themselves, but hide not in Christ!
I will tell you in what fashion this overthrow will come. First, the
mirth of the mind is damped with doubt. The man does not feel so easy
as he used to be. He is afraid that God's Word may be true and that
things will go amiss with him. Soon the doubt has oozed into his refuge
and become a pool of fear–the man is sadly afraid and the dread
saturates and dissolves all his joy. The Truth of God's Word still
further comes home to his conscience and he begins to be more and more
alarmed. Nor does he continue long in one place, for he is growingly
distressed–the waters are evidently advancing upon him and he cannot
escape.
He has come to be altogether dismayed. He hardly knows what will become
of him and within a little while, unless God's mercy shall prevent and
enable him to find the true shelter, he will be drenched in despair and
washed away in terror. At last he cannot believe that there is any
salvation possible for him. He hears death and Hell approaching and his
flesh creeps with horror. Let him alone and you will find him filled
with terror. If his conscience is really awake, he will dread to go to
sleep at night lest he should never wake again! I have seen such in
their dying moments afraid of everything, fearing alike to live or to
die.
At last the man is taken away and where is he? Lost, lost, lost! The
hail has swept away his refuge and the flood has overwhelmed his hiding
place. He has perished forever from the Presence of the Lord and from
the Glory of His power. None can find a ransom for him. He rejected the
Foundation which God laid and sought to find a refuge for himself– and
he has been taken away in his presumption.
III. Time fails us, but I want you TO LEARN THE LESSON OF WARNING which
I have just strength enough to indicate in a few words. May the Holy
Spirit bless it, though I am scarcely able to express my thoughts. The
first lesson of warning is let us build on God's Foundation. He knows
better than we do what is right and safe. Come, you wise people, be as
children and believe your God! Come, you who like something of your own
imagining, and for once yield your own fancies. Indulge your whims upon
some common business, but in this matter it will be safer to believe
God's Word than to continue dreaming and devising for yourself.
You may be a very intelligent person, but will you compete in
intelligence with God? Very likely you may know a hundred times more
than I do. You may know a thousand times more if you choose to think
so, but you cannot have a better hope than mine, for I rest on Jesus
Christ alone! You may have what hope you like, but I would not change
with you for all your learning. My hope lies in simply coming to Jesus
and depending upon Him and learning how to love Him. I recommend the
same to you. Come, and from the love of Jesus learn how to be a
Christian! Learn to be holy! Learn to be unselfish! Learn to live
according to God's Word.
There is a power about faith in Christ to give a man the mastery over
himself–a power to be found nowhere else. I have seen the drunk, the
thief, the harlot believe in Jesus Christ and become converted–and
from that very day they have become gracious, godly, pure-minded
people! I have never seen anything else make such a change in men as
faith does! We may surely speak as we find and use a remedy of which we
see the cure. We have, moreover, tried it ourselves and, therefore, we
speak what we know. Therefore come and rest in Jesus and when you come
to die you will at least be able to feel, "I have God's sanction for
the Foundation I have built upon and therefore it cannot fail." O may
the Holy Spirit bring you to this!
Again, let your refuge be wholly built up of Divine Truths. Do not try
to comfort yourself with a lie. Dear Friend, let the Truth of God be
all in all to you! Counterfeit coin enriches no man. Have nothing to do
with false and flattering teachings. If your hope is not built on
solid, substantial matters of fact, give it up and get one that is! If
your hope of being saved depends on a dream, or a voice you thought you
heard in the air, or some other such nonsense, put it away! Build upon
your Lord's life, death and resurrection–build upon God's
promises–build by the work of the Holy Spirit with faith and you shall
have the reward of eternal life!
In a word, rest on Jesus, the eternal Son of God made flesh and
bleeding to death for man! Build on His complete work and there
only–and then if winds blow and waters rage you shall be safe, safe
forever! God bless you, for Christ's sake. Amen.
__________________________________________________________________
Satan in a Rage