Godly Fear and Its Goodly Consequence

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and His children shall ha
ve a place of refuge." Proverbs 14:26.

IN the Book of Proverbs you meet with sentences of brief wisdom, which,
to all appearances, belong entirely to this world and pertain to the
economy of the life that now is. I do not know whether it is true, but
it was said that years ago our friends in Scotland had a little book
widely circulated and read by all their children which consisted of the
Proverbs of Solomon. They say that it was the means of making the
Scots, as a generation, more canny, shrewd and wiser in business than
any other people. If it is so, I should suggest that such a book be
scattered throughout England as well and, indeed, anywhere and
everywhere!

The book might have been written, at least some parts of it, by
Franklin or Poor Richard, for it contains aphorisms and maxims of
worldly wisdom, compact but profound, sometimes poetic, but always
practical. Has it never surprised you that there should be such
sentences as these in the Book of Inspiration–secular proverbs, for so
they are–secular proverbs intermixed with spiritual proverbs–the
secular and the spiritual all put together without any division or
classification? You might have expected to find one chapter dedicated
to worldly business and another chapter devoted to golden rules
concerning the spiritual life!

But it is not so. They occur without any apparent order, or, at any
rate, without any order of marked division between the secular and the
spiritual–and I am very glad of it. The more I read the Book of
Proverbs, the more thankful I am that there is no such division,
because the hard and fast line by which men of the world and, I fear,
some Christians, have divided the secular from the spiritual, is
fraught with innumerable injuries. Religion, my dear Friends, is not a
thing for Churches and Chapels alone. It is equally meant for
countinghouses and workshops, for kitchens and drawing rooms.

The true Christian is not only to be seen in the singing of hymns and
the offering of prayers, but he is to be distinguished by the honesty
integrity, the courage and the faithfulness of his ordinary character.
In the streets and in the marketplaces, or wherever else the Providence
of God may call him, he witnesses the good confession. It is easy to
secularize religion in a wrong sense. There are many, I doubt not, that
desecrate the pulpit to worldly ends. How can it be otherwise, if
"livings" are to be bought and sold? I cannot doubt that the sacred
desk has been a place simply for earning money, or for gathering
fame–and that sacred oratory has been as mean in the sight of God as
the common language of the streets.

I do not doubt that many people have put religion as a show-card into
their business and have tried to make money by it. Like Mr. By-Ends,
they thought that if, by being religious, they could get a good
smile–if, by being religious they could be introduced into respectable
society–if, by being religious they would bring some excellent
religious customers to their shop and if, indeed, by being religious
they could get themselves to be esteemed, it would be a very proper
thing to do! Now, this is making religion into irreligion! This is
turning Christianity into selfishness! This is the Judas spirit of
putting Christ up for pieces of silver and making as good a bargain as
you can out of Him–and this will lead to damnation and nothing short
of it–in the case of anybody who deliberately attempts it.

Woe to that man! He is a son of perdition. Better for him he had never
been born! Instead of profaning the spiritual, the right thing is to
spiritualize the secular till the purity of your motives and the
sanctity of your conscience in ordinary pursuits shall cause the
division to vanish. Why, there should be about an ordinary meal, enough
religion to make it resemble a sacrament! We should wear our garments
and wear them out in the service of the Lord until they acquired as
much sanctity as the very vestments of a consecrated priesthood!

There should be a devout spirit in everything we do. "Whether you eat
or drink, or whatever you do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks unto God and the Father by Him." No, it is not a less
holy thing to be the Christian merchant than to be the Christian
minister. It is not a less holy thing to be the mother of mercy to your
own children than to be the sister of mercy to the sick children of
other people in the hospital ward. It is not a less sacred thing to be
the married wife than it is to be the virgin consecrated to Christ.

Wherever you are, if you discharge the duties of your calling as in the
sight of God, you can, by prayer and thanksgiving, saturate your lives
with godliness and make every action drip with sanctity, till, like
Ashur of old, it shall be said of you that you have dipped your foot in
oil. So shall you leave the mark of Grace wherever your footstep is
put. Let us endeavor to be so minded and refrain from sorting out our
actions, saying to ourselves, "In this thing I am to be a Christian–in
the other thing I am to be a businessman." "Business is business," says
somebody. Yes, I know it is, and it has no business to be such business
as it very often is.

It ought to be Christianized and the Christian that does not
Christianize business is a dead Christian–a savorless salt and with
what shall such salt be savored when the salt, itself, has lost its
flavor? Mix up your proverbs. Be as practical as Poor Richard counsels
and then be as spiritual as Christ commands. You need not be a fool
because you are a Christian! There is no necessity to be outwitted in
business. There is no necessity to be less shrewd, less sharp. There is
no necessity to be less pushing because you are a Christian. True
religion is sanctified common sense and if some people had got a little
common sense with their religion–and some others had got a little more
religion with their common sense– they would both be the better for
it.

This Book of Proverbs is just this common sense, which is the rarest of
all senses, saturated and sanctified by the Presence of God and the
power of the Gospel ennobling the pursuits of the creature. Let this
suffice by way of introduction. Now we are going to plunge into the
text. "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and His children
shall have a place of refuge."

I. WHAT IS THIS FEAR OF THE LORD? The expression is used in Scripture
for all true godliness. It is constantly the short way of expressing
real faith, hope, love, holiness of living and every Grace which makes
up true godliness. But why was fear selected? Why did it not say,
"Trust in God is strong confidence"? Has not religion been commonly
described by faith rather than by fear? In legal indictments it is
said, sometimes, of a man, that he, "not having the fear of God before
his eyes," did such-and-such.

Why is the fear of God selected? One would say that, according to the
general theology of this period, we ought to have selected faith. But
the Spirit of God has not given us the phrase–faith in God. He puts
fear, because, after all, there is a something more tender, more
touching, more real about fear than there is about some people's faith,
which faith may very readily verge upon presumption! But in speaking of
fear, we must always discriminate. There is a fear with which a
Christian has nothing to do. The fear of the slave who dreads a
taskmaster, we have now escaped from. At least we ought to be free from
such bondage, for we are not under the Law, which is the taskmaster,
but we are under Grace, which is a paternal spirit and has given us the
liberty of sons.

Brothers and Sisters, if you labor under any dread of God which amounts
to a slavish fear of Him, do not cultivate it! Ask God to give you that
perfect love of which John tells us casts out fear, because fear has
torment. Do not be afraid of God, whatever He does with you. The kind
of fear commended in the text is not such as appalls the senses and
scares the thoughts. It is a fear that has not anything like being
afraid mixed with it. It is quite another kind of fear. It is what we
commonly call filial fear of God, like the child's fear of his father.

Just think for a minute, what is a child's fear of his father? I do not
mean an evil child, a child that is obstinate, but a young man who
loves his father–who is his father's friend, his father's most
familiar acquaintance. Thank God, some of us have children whom we can
look upon as near and dear friends, as well as dutiful sons and
daughters to whom we can speak with much confidence and love. What is
the fear that a well-ordered, well-disciplined, beloved child has of
his own

father?

Well, first, he has an awe of him, which arises out of admiration of
his character. If his father is what he should be, he is to that son a
real model. The youth looks upon what his father does as exactly what
he would like to do and what he aims to copy. His judgment is, to his
son, almost infallible. At any rate, if he sees reason to differ from
his father, he is a long while before he brings himself to prefer his
own judgment. He has seen his father's wisdom in other matters so often

that he mistrusts his own apprehension and would rather trust to what
his father tells him. He has a profound conviction that his father is
good, kind, wise and could not do anything, or ask him to do anything
which would not promote his own good.

So he feels a sort of awe of him–a fear of him–which prevents his
questioning what his father does as he would have questioned anybody
else. He is prone to conjecture that his father may have got some
reason behind him that would explain what he does not understand. He
would not give another person credit for having that concealed virtue,
but he has such an esteem for his father–his dear father–that he
fears to raise any questions about his father's character, his conduct,
or his conclusions. In fact, that character so rules his admiration and
commands his respect that he does not think of questioning it.

Well, now, dear Friends, how far higher must be our fear of God in this
view of the matter? How could we question Him? No, whatever He does, we
say, "It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him." Like Aaron,
when his two sons were stricken down and, that, as a summary punishment
of their transgression, it should be said of us, as it was recorded of
him–"He held his peace." Aaron could not say anything against God,
however severe the stroke was. So, Brothers and Sisters, we cannot
judge God. I hope we have given up folly. We ought to be afraid to do
it. Sometimes terrible horror takes hold upon me, when I, now and then,
meet with a Brother or Sister (I hope in Christ) who will tell me that
God has taken away a dear child and they cannot forgive Him.

"That cannot be right, Sir." Oh, it is a dreadful thing for us to get
into such a state of heart that we question anything that God does!
No–"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Is it meet, do you
think, to imagine that our heavenly Father can do anything that is
unkind or unwise towards us? It is not possible! The Lord has done it!
Let that be your ultimatum. We fear Him too much to question what He
does. Our reverence of Him makes us jealous of ourselves.

A child, also, without any fear of his father in the wrong sense, is
sure to be very deferential in his father's presence. If his father is
in the way and if quiet is needed in the house, he will take his shoes
off his feet and be very quiet lest his father should hear and he
should disturb the unruffled calm. He watches carefully and studiously
guards his conduct lest anything he does amiss should reach his
father's ear and grieve his father's heart.

Now it would be very wrong for a child merely to restrain himself in
his father's presence out of respect for him and then break the bounds
with unbridled licentiousness in his father's absence, as I fear many
do. But you and I need not fall into this danger because we are always
in the Presence of our heavenly Father in every place. Who among us
that fears God as he ought would wish to do anything, anywhere, which
is wrong and offensive to Him, seeing that–

"Wherever we roam, wherever we rest, We are surrounded, still, with
God"?

Unwise daring were the person that could insult a king to his face and
commit trespass in his presence! A sense of the Presence of God, a
conscience that prompts one to say, "You, God, see me," fosters in the
soul a healthy fear which you can easily see would rather inspirit,
than intimidate, a man! It is a filial, childlike fear, in the presence
of one whom we deeply reverence, lest we should do anything contrary to
his mind and will. So, then, there is a fear which arises out of a high
appreciation of God's Character and a fear of the same kind which
arises out of a sense of His Presence.

Further, every child, of the sort I have described, fears at any time
to intrude upon the father's prerogative. When he is at home he feels
that there are some points in which he may take many liberties. Is it
not his own home? Has he not always been there? But there are some
things of which, if they were suggested to him to do, he would say,
"Why, it is impossible. Only my father may do that! I cannot give
orders as if I were the master! I cannot expect to govern! I am here
and I am glad to be here, but I am under my father. I must not presume
to exercise the control to which he has an exclusive right."

Now, that is one of the fears which a child of God has. "No," he says,
"how should I venture to stand in the place of God? God bids me–it is
not for me to object or to ask, 'Shall I or shall I not?' That were to
usurp the place of ruler, to be a master to myself, to ignore the fact
that the Lord, alone, is the Ruler. Such a thing God appoints–then it
is not for me to wish the appointment different. Should it be according
to my mind? Am I the comptroller? Is Divine Providence put under my
supervision? No," says the child of God, "I cannot do anything so
inconsistent with a dutiful allegiance."

There are some things which he feels would be arrogating a position
unbecoming altogether in a creature and much more unbecoming in a
creature that has received the spirit of fear whereby he cries, "Abba,
Father." O Brothers and Sis-

ters, it is well to have a fear of getting to feel great–a fear of
getting to feel good–a fear of getting to feel anything that should
violate your fealty or disregard the worshipful reverence you owe to
the Most High! That would be as if you took sinister license because
you were given a sacred liberty, or refused to do homage because you
had received favor!

Oh no, the virtuous child does not thus slight his indulgent father!
Neither must we ever think irreverently of our Covenant God. Holy fear
leads us to dread anything which might cause our Father's displeasure.
A good child would not do anything which would make his father feel
vexed with him. "It vexes me," he says, "if it vexes my father." So let
there always be with us a fear to offend our loving God. He is jealous,
remember that! It is one of the most solemn Truths in the Bible, "The
Lord your God is a jealous God."

We might have guessed it, for great love has always that dangerous
neighbor, jealousy, not far off. They that love not have no hate, no
jealousy–but where there is an intense, a definite love like that
which glows in the bosom of God, there must be jealousy! And oh, how
jealous He is of the hearts of His people! How determined He is to have
all their love! How I have known Him to take away the objects of their
attachment, one after another–break their idols and deprive them of
their precious vanities–all to get their hearts wholly to Himself,
because He knew it would never be right with them while they had a
divided heart.

It was injurious to themselves and so He is jealous of that which
injures them and jealous of that which dishonors Him. Let us have this
holy fear very strong upon us and we shall avoid anything which might
grieve the Spirit of God. A true child of the kind I have tried to
describe–and I hope there are some about–is always afraid of doing
anything which might cast a suspicion upon his love and his respect to
his father. If he feels that he has done something which might appear
discourteous, or be interpreted as akin to rebellion, he is eager to
explain, at once, that he did not mean it. Or, if he has made a
mistake, he is eager, at once, to rectify it and would say, "Father, do
not read my conduct severely. I love you with all my heart. I may have
erred. I have erred. I beg to express my deep regret and repentance."

He could not bear it that his father should think, "My child has no
esteem for me, no respect for me, no love for me." It ought to go hard
with every Christian when he thinks he has given God cause to doubt his
love. I should suspect he has, when he finds cause to suspect it
himself. When you say in your soul, "Do I love the Lord or not?"–just
think whether God may not be saying it–whether Jesus Christ, the
Ever-Blessed, may not feel cause, next time He meets you, to say to
you, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me? Indeed, do you love Me?"

Three times He may have to put that question because you have given Him
a treble cause for mistrusting you, as to whether, indeed, your heart
is right before Him. We know that the Lord knows all things and He
knows that we love Him. We fall back on that, but still, we would not
so act that the action should look as if we did not. We do not want so
to think, or speak, or do anything that should give just cause for
suspicion to the All-Wise One as to the reality of our professions of
love. Fear, then–this blessed fear–is what we must all cultivate. May
the Lord grant that we may have it, fully matured and fitly exercised,
for "blessed is the man that fears always."

II. But, now, giving our meditation a more cheerful turn, let us follow
the teaching of our text. It says that this fear has strong confidence
in it. WHEREIN IS THAT CONFIDENCE SEEN? The history of men that have
feared God may, perhaps, enlighten us a little on this matter. It is
written concerning Job that he was a man that "feared God and eschewed
evil." Satan was permitted to tempt him and he came into deep trouble,
but how blessed was the confidence of Job in all his trouble! How brave
a thing it was to say, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
blessed be the name of the Lord!" How grand it was of him to say in
answer to his wife, "What? Shall we receive good at the hand of the
Lord and shall we not receive evil?"

Best of all, that was one of the noblest resolves that ever mortal
uttered, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." A man up to his
neck in trouble–no, with the billows going over him–and yet his
confidence in God is not moved–no, not for a single moment! He
declares that if God does not set him right, now, while he lives, yet
he believes that his God, his Kinsman, lives and that, if he dies, yet
after his death, God would avenge him. "I know," says he, "that my
Defender lives, and though after my death the worms devour this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God and I shall get right somehow."

He feels sure about that, so his confidence is strong, and it lessens
not in time of trouble. You see the same implicit confidence in
Habakkuk. He draws a dreadful picture–"Though the fig tree shall not
blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive
shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut
off from the fold, and

there shall be no herd in the stall." He foresees the full stress of
the calamity and prophecies that it shall come to pass. "Yet," he said,
"will I rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation."
That was the simple consequence of his fear of the Lord. He feared and,
therefore, trusted. He knew the grandeur of the Divine Character. He
trembled to impute wrong or unfaithfulness to God–he feared Him too
much to have one hard thought of Him or to utter one mistrustful word
about Him–in the grandeur of that fear he felt a strong confidence!

Both Job and Habakkuk experienced and even tested this! And there are
many schooled in the same school, who have spoken after the same
valiant fashion when all God's waves and billows have gone over them.
That confidence will not only appear in time of trouble, but it will
appear in acts of obedience. The Lord calls His people to obey Him and
sometimes obedience requires great self-denial. We may have to
surrender what we greatly prize for Christ's sake. It is not always
easy to be confident in doing that which demands quick decision. We may
be prone to parley or to do as though we were driven, yielding to stern
compulsion, rather than surrendering with sweet submission. But to do
it with strong confidence can only come to us from having the fear of
God before us.

Now, Abraham feared the Lord with all his heart and when the Lord said,
"Take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and offer him
up for a burnt offering upon a mountain which I will tell you of–if he
had not feared God wonderfully and dreaded to do anything that would
look like rebellion against His orders, he would have said, "What?
Commit murder?"–for it will come to that–"Slay my own dear child?"
But no, though he could not understand it, he felt sure that God had
some meaning in it–that God could not be ordering him to do what was
wrong– that there must be a way by which it would be made right.

Besides, he remembered that in Isaac was his seed to be called and his
descendants were to come out of Isaac. How, then, can God keep His
promise? How can He fulfill the Covenant? This did not distress
Abraham, but being, "strong in faith, he staggered not through
unbelief." Therefore he rose up early in the morning and prepared the
wood. I have looked with tears at the spectacle of that old man, far
advanced in years, preparing the wood and then putting the wood upon
Isaac. And then going with him and telling the servants at the bottom
of the hill that they must stay lest they should interrupt the
consummation of that wondrous deed of faith.

And then Isaac says to him, "My father, behold the fire and the wood,
but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" It must have brought the
heart of Abraham into his mouth! Still, he seemed to swallow that
dreadful thought and he said, "My Son, God will provide Himself a
lamb." And so he takes him and lays him on the altar and draws a
knife–going through with it–right through with it, to the very last,
with wondrous heroism–till the Lord stopped his hand. But for his deep
fear of God, he never would have had the confidence to go through with
such an act of obedience! Although the Lord does not call you and me to
such strong tests as that, yet He does try our faith.

I have known, sometimes, when a man, in order to do his duty, has had
before him what appeared to be a terrible dilemma–"I shall have to
give up my employment! If I do that, what is to become of my children?
Were I a single man I would do it without hesitation. I would face
poverty. I would go down to the docks to ask for day labor. But there
are the children. The children–what is to become of the children?" You
see, you cannot feel like Abraham, who gave up his darling child for
God. You are staggered. Yes, but if your fear of God is very strong,
you will say, "I cannot make a compromise with any sin. I cannot
persevere with that sinful line of business in which I am engaged. Is
this the ultimatum? Then it admits of no alternative. If God should
leave me and my little children to starve, yet I must put all into
God's hands. It is His to provide, not mine. He does not allow me to do
a wrong thing under any circumstances. So here goes for God and for
righteousness."

If you have got a great fear of God, that is what you will do. But if
you have not the reverence, you will not have the confidence. For lack
thereof, you will timorously shrink back into the sin which galls you.
May God give you the heroic confidence which springs of a deep fear of
Him. The same confidence, the same loyalty to God will develop itself
when persecution is involved. There are, in this world, men who hate
true religion. And the experiences which occur to true Believers are,
consequently, often very painful. If we have much fear of God, we shall
have strong confidence, but if we have not the fear of God, then the
fear of man will make us waver.

Look yonder–Nebuchadnezzar's image of gold on the plains of Dura! A
great many people stand about the colossal figure who are of the race
of Shem, monotheists–that is to say, believers in one God–not
polytheists, whose creed might excuse their idolatry. Listen, now! At
the sound of flute, harp, sackbut and all kinds of music, the herald
proclaims

that whoever will not bow down and worship the image that
Nebuchadnezzar, the king, has set up, shall be cast into a burning
fiery furnace! How quickly does this recreant race of Protestant people
swallow their principles! See how they succumb, with their heads in the
dust, worshipping the golden image!

They had not much fear of the one God and so they break all His Laws.
They have more fear of Nebuchadnezzar and his furnace than they have of
Jehovah the God of Israel! But here are three young men, captives in
Babylon, who stand before the king. And when asked why it is that they
have not worshipped his gods and the image which he has set up, they
declare that they will not worship his god or fall down before his
image. They speak positively. They say, "Our God, whom we serve, is
able to deliver us, but, if not, be it known unto you, O King, that we
will not worship your gods or the image which you have set up."

Look at the king's fury! See how the devil lights up his face with
lurid glare! Look how a legion of devils possesses him! "Heat that
furnace seven times hotter than it has known," he says, "and cast these
daring rebels therein." The men are calm, unrushed by his rage, unmoved
by his threats. They do not even take off their hats to him. There they
stand, in their clothes and their hats, calm and quiet. They defy the
king, because who needs have a fear of Nebuchadnezzar that has a fear
of Jehovah? Who needs fear a king that fears the King of kings? So they
consent to be put into the furnace, for in the fear of the Lord there
is strong confidence.

It was bravely done by old Hugh Latimer, when he preached before Henry
the Eighth. It was the custom of the Court preacher to present the king
with something on his birthday and Latimer presented Henry VIII with a
pocket handkerchief with this text in the corner, "Whoremongers and
adulterers God will judge!" A very suitable text for bluff Henry! And
then he preached a sermon before his most gracious majesty against sins
of lust. And he delivered himself with tremendous force, not forgetting
or abridging the personal application. And the king said that next time
Latimer preached–the next Sunday–he should apologize and he would
make him so mold his sermon as to eat his own words.

Latimer thanked the king for letting him off so easily. When the next
Sunday came, he stood up in the pulpit and said–"Hugh Latimer, you are
this day to preach before the high and mighty prince Henry, King of
Great Britain and France. If you say one single word that displeases
His Majesty he will take your head off. Therefore, mind what you are
at." But then he said, "Hugh Latimer, you are this day to preach before
the Lord God Almighty who is able to cast both body and soul into
Hell–and so tell the king the Truth of God outright." And so he did.

His performance was equal to his resolution. However, the king did not
take off his head. He respected him all the more. The fear of the Lord
gave Latimer strong confidence, as it will any who cleave close to
their colors–

"Fear Him, you saints, and you will then Have nothing else to fear."

Drive right straight ahead in the fear of the everlasting God and
whoever comes in your way had better mind what he is at! It is yours to
do what is right and deny everything they devise that is wrong. God
will bless you and you shall praise Him! Moreover, this fear of God
declares itself in other things besides braving trouble and enduring.
It will be a tower of strength to you when you stand up to bear witness
to the Truth of God. Have you anything to say for Jesus? You will say
it in a very cowardly and in a sneaking manner if you have not a great
fear of God. But if you fear God much, you will be like Peter and John,
of whom, when the council saw them, it is said, "they wondered at their
boldness."

The fear of God will make you bold in speaking God's Word! Or should
you fall down in sheer exhaustion, instead of standing up in sound
enthusiasm, the fear of God will prove a potent restorative. Even if
you are overthrown, for a time, you shall overcome at the last. In the
Book of Micah we read, "Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy, for though I
fall, yet shall I rise again." He that really fears God expects to
conquer even though, for a time, he seems to be defeated. This fear
will come out gloriously in confidence in the hour of death. If we fear
God we shall, like Stephen, fall asleep, even if it is amid a shower of
stones. Glorious is the confidence with which Christians depart from
this life when they can depend on the God whom they fear with reverence
and serve with readiness!

III. I must hasten on to notice, in the third place, though not to
dwell upon it as I could wish–UPON WHAT IS THIS CONFIDENCE BUILT? The
fear of the Lord brings strong confidence, but why? Why? Because they
that fear God know God to be infinitely loving to them, to be immutable
and unchangeable, to be unsearchably wise and Omnipotently strong on
their behalf! How can they help having confidence in such a God? They
know, next, that a full atonement has been made for their sins. Jesus
has borne the wrath of God for them–how can they help being confident?
They know

that this same Jesus has risen from the dead and lives to plead for
them–and in their ears they can hear the almighty pleas of Jesus ever
speaking in their favor.

How can they help having confidence? They believe that this same Jesus
is Head over all things to His Church and Ruler of Providence. How can
they help being confident in Him? To Him all power is given in Heaven
and in earth! They believe that everything is working together for
their good! I ask again, how can they help being confident? They
believe that the Spirit of God is in them–dwells in them! What
confidence can be too staunch and steadfast for men who know this to be
true? They know that there is a mysterious union between them and the
Son of God! They know that they are members of His body, of His flesh
and of His bones.

What confidence can be too implicit? They know that there are two
immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie–His promise
and His oath whereby He has given them strong consolation. With such
strong consolation they may well have strong confidence–

"The Gospel bears my spirits up; A faithful and unchanging God Lays the
foundation of my hope In oaths and promises and blood." Oh, what
unwavering confidence may be based on this firm foundation which God
has laid for His people! But time fails me. I cannot enlarge upon it.

IV. Let me, therefore, close with a fourth reflection–HOW THIS
CONFIDENCE AND THIS FEAR ARE FAVORED OF GOD! Observe the promise. "His
children shall have a place of refuge." So, then, you see that those
who fear God and have confidence in Him, are His children! They have a
childlike fear and then they have a childlike confidence– and these
are the marks that they are His children. And what a favor is this! "To
as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of
God." Oh, dear Friends, there is a Heaven lying asleep inside those
words–His children. There is eternal Paradise couched within that
word–Abba, Father.

If you know how to say it with the spirit of adoption, you have the
earnest of the inheritance within you–you have got a Heaven, a young
Heaven within your spirit! Oh, be glad! To be a child of God is greater
than to be an angel! Why, were Gabriel capable of envy, he would envy
you who are the children of the Most High, however poor or sick or
downcast you may be. "Behold, what manner of love the Father has
bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God." "His
children shall have a place of refuge." Take heart, for this is a grand
thought for you that fear Him and confide in Him–you shall have a
place of refuge!

There is Noah. All the world is about to be drowned. In vain might one
climb to the tops of the mountains, for the waters will cover their
highest pinnacle. Must Noah be drowned, then? Is his destruction
inevitable? No, but there is an ark for him. God will not pull up the
floodgates of Heaven till Noah is shut in the ark. There is Lot–evil
Lot. He has been acting very badly and has got away down there in
Sodom. Still, he is a child of God. He is vexed with the filthy
conversation of the wicked, proving that he has some fear of God in his
heart. Well, what does the Lord say? "Haste you," He says, "for I
cannot do anything till you have come out here."

Lot must get to Zoar. There must be a little city to shelter Lot! God
cannot burn Sodom and Gomorrah till He has got Lot safe out of the way.
He must find a refuge for His children! Well, there are His people down
in Egypt. God is going to smite the firstborn and He has loosed an
angel to do it. And that angel is swift in His message–swift to do His
bidding and he will slay the firstborn of Israel as well as of Egypt
when he goes upon his terrible errand. He will make no distinctions.
Yes, but there are the blood marks over the door and the angel sees
that the bloody sacrifice has been offered in that house–and he passes
by. God's people must have a place of refuge and He found them one in
Egypt when the angel was let loose and the Angel of Death was there.

So it happened all along through Scripture history. God sent a famine
into the land and after the famine some that had fled the country came
back. And, among them, Naomi and Ruth. What is to become of Ruth? She
has been a heathen! But she has come to fear God. She has put her trust
under the shadow of the Almighty's wings. What is to become of Ruth?
Well, she must go and glean in the fields of him who is next of kin and
she found a place of refuge in his bosom. God takes care, you see, of
those that fear Him and have confidence in Him. But there is another
great famine and all the country is barren for three years long.

According to the Word of God, there is neither dew nor rain and there
is no food. But there is one man, there, who fears the Lord above all
the rest, and that is Elijah. Well, he must have a place of refuge!
There, you see, by the brook Cherith He sits him down and ravens that
were more likely to rob him, than to feed him, come to bring him bread
and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening! I heard,
some time ago, of a poor woman who was very hard pressed for food. But
she remembered the promise of God and she knelt down and appealed to
Him that He would provide her bread. Just afterwards a friend came in
who brought a loaf of bread to her.

The friend told her that this loaf of bread was bought for her husband,
but her husband was not well and he was unable to eat it because they
found that a mouse had been eating it. And it so turned him that he
could not eat the bread. But the loaf was not hurt, "And," said the
friend, "I dare say you will eat it. I have cut away the part that the
mouse touched." Oh, yes, God can make a mouse do it, or a raven do it!
His people shall have a place of refuge! When the brooks are dried up
and the ravens are gone, there is a widow woman over there who has to
sustain Elijah and that woman's cruse is nearly empty–and her barrel
of meal nearly all spent. Still, her house is the place of refuge for
Elijah and God provides for him there.

When the Lord Jesus was here, He knew that Jerusalem was to be
destroyed and He knew that His disciples were to be there. If history
is to be believed–and I suppose it is–no Christians perished in the
destruction of Jerusalem, yet they were very numerous. There is no
mention of them by Josephus. They were all gone away, many of them to
the little city called Pella, and other places beyond the river Jordan
because Jesus told them when they saw Jerusalem compassed with armies,
they might know that its desolation was near. So He counseled such as
were in Judea to flee to the mountains. Thus when that destruction
came, which was the most terrible calamity that ever happened on the
face of the earth, His people had a place of refuge.

And now, Brothers and Sisters, whatever is going to happen–and there
are some that predict dreadful things–as for me, I do not know what is
going to happen and, which is another thing, I do not care–His people
shall have a place of refuge. "Though the earth is removed, and though
the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters
thereof roar and are troubled, though the mountains shake with the
swellings thereof. There is a river, the streams of which shall make
glad the City of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most
High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall
help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were
moved: He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of Hosts is
with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."

If it should ever come to this–that the whole earth should rock and
reel, or burn and smoke and seethe, or burn, like a cauldron, into one
boiling mass–if there is no room for God's people on the earth to find
a refuge, He will find a refuge for them in the clouds. They shall be
caught up together to meet the Lord in the air! But, somehow or other,
His people shall have a place of refuge. His children shall have a
place of refuge. Lay hold on that! There is a refuge for you somewhere,
Christian, even in the matter of ordinary Providence! And there is
always a Mercy Seat for you to go to. There is always the bosom of
Christ for you to fly to! The fear of the Lord does not drive you from
Him. It drives you to Him and when it drives you to Him you have got a
place of refuge!

I find that Moses Stewart reads the text differently from anybody else
and I am not sure that he is wrong. He says the text means that the
children of those that fear God shall have a place of refuge and, if
so, this is not the only passage of Scripture that proves it. There are
many precious texts that speak of our children. Let us try to grasp the
promise for our children as well as for ourselves and pray for them
that they may have a place of refuge. There are some Believers going to
be baptized tonight. I hope they have got a firm grip of that Gospel
promise that Paul uttered, where he says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved, and your house."

The jailer did, you know, and we find that it is said, "He was baptized
and all his house." And for this reason–that he believed in the Lord,
rejoicing with all his house. Oh, we can never be satisfied till we see
all our house converted and all our household baptized–and all those
that belong to us belonging, also, to the Lord our God, for thus it is,
"His children shall have a place of refuge." May God bless you, dear
Friends, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMONS–Psalm 38.
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The Best Burden for Young Shoulders