the most fashionable refuge of lies at present. By Charles Spurgeon.

You boast, we have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place. Isaiah chapter 28, verse 15.

I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level. Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies and water will flood your hiding place. Isaiah chapter 28, verse 17.

The most fashionable refuge of lies at present is the production of theories 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 just as they like, but somehow or other, the wicked will not be punished in eternal hell.

This is the old falsehood which the rebellious sinner imagines, saying to himself, I am safe, even though I am following the desires of my own stubborn heart. that God will punish sin has been doubted from the very beginning. The father of lies said in the Garden of Eden, you shall not surely die.

By this larger hope, the deceitful serpent 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 religion can remove it. or that hell is temporary, or that the soul will be annihilated, or some other form of the same damning lie.

His perpetual cry is, You shall surely not suffer the punishment that God threatens. You may sin as you desire, and yet never be punished in hell. When an unsaved man thinks about his eternal state, As a general rule, he finds it convenient to adopt some novel theory in order that he may feel comfortable living in sin.

So far as my observation goes, all of these modern notions are compatible with a wicked life, but it will soon be seen that they are all a soul-damning refuge of lies. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!