Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Psalms 46. Psalms 46. I've entitled this message, Who
is my refuge? Who is my refuge? And I'd like to look at one verse,
verse 1. Psalms 46 verse 1, God is our
refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Now, who is
our refuge? Now you know that may seem to
be a question that's so obviously answered, you just hear it and
you think, well, God, God is our refuge. That's the answer. That's the only answer that you
can give. But do you know Scripture bears
out that there is a false Refuge. And actually, it comes down to
this. It's either one of two people,
two persons. Scripture bears that out. It's
either man or God. It's either me or the Lord. Now, let's just look. Here's one thing I know. I know
that the Scripture bears out that all men, in their minds,
have a refuge. They all have a refuge. There's
got to be. There's got to be a place of
hiding. Now listen to me. I'm telling
you, there is no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This thing of
being just... You know, I don't really care
too much for this stuff. I don't really need a refuge. I don't see the importance of
a refuge. I'm going to tell you something now. Scripture bears
out that all men have a place of hiding. Now, I want you to
turn. Hold your place right there.
Turn with me to Isaiah 28. Isaiah 28. Here's a real familiar passage
of Scripture, but let's just look for a second and see what
Scripture has to say. Isaiah 28, verse 14, 15. Isaiah
28, 14. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful. Now, here's what scornful means. Braggars. You braggars. You that are bragging, bragging
ones that scoff at and mock the Word of God. Wherefore, hear
the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule oversee this people
which is in Jerusalem." Now, I'm convinced that he's primarily
talking to preachers. He's talking to preachers. You
men that rule over, that oversee, that set yourself up as being
pastors, I'm talking to you, I'm talking to those that hear
you. Because ye have said, because you said, and it's not that they
say these words outwardly, but the Spirit of God is going to
give revelation to what they're thinking. Now, this is what they're
thinking. Because you've said, we have
made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement. Now, what he's saying is this.
Because you've said that we don't have any anxiety over, we don't
have any concern about dying. We have no concern about dying.
Because we've entered into a contract. We've entered into a covenant.
That's what he says. We've made a covenant concerning
this thing of death. We've made a covenant with the
prince of darkness. Not actually with him, but we've
made a covenant concerning him. We're not going to be destroyed.
Everything that is required for safety, we've taken care of. Now, listen to this. Because
ye have said, we have made a covenant with death. There's an agreement
now. In our minds, in the minds of
carnal man, we've settled this thing. We've got a contract here. Now listen to the Lord's answer
to their false security concerning this contract. When the overflowing
scourge shall pass through. Now, man by nature believes it's
going to be a judgment. You believe it's going to be
a final judgment? I had somebody, in my family one time was telling
me, he said, believers won't be at the great white throne
judgment. I'll be at the judgment seat
of Christ, but there's going to be one judgment, and everybody's
going to be there. We're all going to stand before
God. So when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. And here again is the revelation
of the Spirit of God revealing what these men are resting in. Men and women that have made
a covenant with death. We've made lies our refuge and
under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Now, I got to thinking about
this thing. We've made lies our refuge and
I thought, What are they resting in? Well, the scripture says
it's lies. But now, sum that up. Tell me exactly what that is.
Well, I can tell you this. The Lord said, I am the way,
the truth, the truth, and the life. I am the way, the truth,
the life. Do you know what these lies that
men rest in? It's anything that they think
they're adding to Christ. If He is the truth, then anything
that you think you've added to Him or assisted Him in, I am
the way. Does that mean that I have to
add my, you know, choice or will to make that way. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. Now, a refuge of life. Now, listen to what I'm saying.
I want to try to say this as plainly marked as I know how.
If there is something that you think you've done in order But
to be saved, if there's something that you think you've done, that
you've done, we made a contract, we made a covenant with death.
If there's something that you think you've done in order to
be saved, it's a lie. It's a lie. I accepted Jesus
Christ as my personal Savior. Therefore, the Lord saved me. That's a lie. God saves men and
saves women totally by grace and then tells them about it.
Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. When God
grants faith, He's already given you life. Brother Henry said
it like this. Let me say it like this. Somebody
asked him, Brother Henry, is life or faith first? He said
you can't separate them. When faith comes, life is there. That's life. God gives life and
faith and you believe. I was baptized in order to be
saved. That's a lie. That's a lie. I exercise my free will. John
1.13 says, It was not by the will of the
flesh. That's a lie. That's a lie. Listen to me. Salvation
is totally by the work of God Almighty who imparts. I'm going
to give you a new heart. God gives life. And the Lord says, you say it. We've made a covenant with death
and withheld with agreement. When the overflowing scourge
will pass through, it's not going to come to us because we've made
lies our refuge and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. We're hiding under a lie. Think we are. We're not. We're not. Did men think they got into that
covenant? How did they think they got into
that covenant? Well, it's fair. We made a covenant
with death. We made a covenant with death.
What did David say? This is all my salvation. He
made with me a neverlasting covenant, ordered in all things insured.
This is all my salvation. Now let me ask you this. Who
is the author and finisher of our faith? It's Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. Not of me and the Lord. God saves
men by grace, totally. They say, we've made a covenant
with death, and with hell are we at agreement. This is a lie. Now listen to
me. I'm telling you, I have one more time that I know of, and
I may not have the whole time to finish this message. The Lord
may take me before this message is over. I don't know. But I'm
telling you right now, with these next few words that I've got
to come out with, I'm going to tell you something based on this
word right here. This is the truth. Men think
that they have made a covenant with death. This is what they
said. There was a choice to be made concerning whether or not
I wanted to be saved. They said the Lord loves everybody.
The Lord never said that. They said Christ died for everybody. The Lord didn't say that. Who
said that? Liar said that. Because he's
the truth. Now, if the Lord didn't say that,
and somebody is saying that that's the truth, then they're deceived.
I'm just honest with you. This is it. I'm telling you, in the last
few days, I was able firsthand to witness again the hopelessness
of leaving this world without a substitute. And this is serious. This is serious. Men will say,
I didn't want to go to hell. There was a choice to make. Do
you want to go to hell or go to heaven? So I decided to give
my heart to the Lord. to accept life, and therefore,
because I decided to accept life, I entered into a covenant. I made the covenant. We've made
a covenant. We established the covenant. How stable is that covenant?
How stable is that covenant? Well, here's what Scripture says. Galatians 2.16. Galatians 2.16. I was reading this this morning,
going over my notes, and listen to this. Knowing that a man is
not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of
Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Let me tell you why. so we can
all hear it again. Let me tell you why we cannot
be justified by the works of the law. Because if there is
in your mind a thought that you're justified by the works of the
law, and you offend in one point, then you've broken the whole
law. If you think that because you
accepted the Lord, and that was the essence of the foundation
of your salvation, if you offend in one point, it's nullified,
it's gone, it's nothing, it's nothing. It must be kept perfectly
for it to be valid. So by the works of the law, It
cannot be done. It cannot be done by man. By
the works of the law shall no flesh be justified because we
can't keep it. We can't keep it. We have no
ability. How stable is a covenant that
a man makes with God? Back in Isaiah. Judgment, let
me read this, 17, 18. Isaiah 28, 17, 18. 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, and your covenant with death shall be disannulled.
It means obliterated. and your agreement with hell
shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then
ye shall be trodden down by it." Here's what the Lord is saying,
I'm going to lay the plumb bob of judgment. You know what you guys build,
you women, you know what you have. Take a plumb bob and drop
it. You know what it's going to do?
It's going to go straight down. It's going to be exactly upright. And I'm going to line it up with
the cornerstone himself. And if your decision, if your
covenant, if your will, so-called will, doesn't line up with absolute
righteousness, if you're resting in that, if you're resting in
something and it doesn't line up with righteousness, I'm going
to lay the line and righteousness to the poor man. And whatever
doesn't line up with him, his righteousness, he said, it's
going to be obliterated. You know, all of a sudden you
start thinking, you know, maybe my will is not perfect. Maybe
my decision has not been perfect. Maybe I have been resting in
lies. Now, you think about this. So
based upon the Scriptures, a refuge of life, which means that I'm
resting in something that I've done. I've done. It's no refuge
at all. Well, back in Psalm 46, Psalm
46, verse 1, there is a refuge, a refuge of
true safety. And here's what the psalmist
says. is our refuge. It's either a refuge of lies
or it's the Lord himself. God is our refuge and strength
of very present help in trouble. For all who have been regenerated
by the grace of God, here's what Scripture says, God, and when
we say God, you see God, the tri-unity of his being. Here's my refuge. God the Father
chose to show mercy to me. Now, here's a refuge before the
foundation of the world. This is my refuge. This is the
very essence of that everlasting covenant of grace. God has been
pleased to show mercy to me. What was it in me saw that merited
His mercy. Nothing. Nothing. Here's all
my hope right here. This is all my hope. I'm telling
you, I don't have another hope. God Almighty chose to show mercy
to me. Here's all my hope. When Christ
died, when Christ died, He died for me. When he died at Calvary,
this is what he said. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. Here's all my hope. This is all
of my comfort. This is all of my refuge. That
the Spirit of God has regenerated me and given me a heart for Christ. Now, let me ask you this. What
confidence? You know the answer. What confidence? do I have that the Father chose
me and gave me to the Son? What confidence do I have that
Christ died? I know what He said. He said,
I lay down my life for the sheep. What confidence do I have that
He died for me? Here's the only answer I got.
I believe Him. I believe Him. I don't believe
in myself. I don't believe in myself. I
am a sinner. And I need a Savior. I need a refuge. I need to be
placed in the cleft of the rock because I can't place myself
there. I need for God Almighty to have
everlastingly loved me. Because in my essence, I wasn't
there. I could not change His mind because
He's God. He changes not. The only hope
that I have is that He, this is what David said, hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, and it was ordered in all things." Everything was
ordered. Ordered. Ordered. The counsel
of the Lord is going to stand. It's going to stand. And it's
sure. And David said, this is all my
salvation. What am I going to say to Him?
in the day of judgment. What am I going to plead for
my own marriage? I've already read, Mitch, what
happens to those that do that. Lord! Lord! We've prophesied Your name. We've
cast out devils in Your name. We've done many marvelous works
in Your name. All of those things that men
justified themselves, they were lies. It was a refuge of lies. How do you know? Because the
Lord says, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never
knew you. Bind them hand and foot. Trust in the Lord. Almighty God has a people and
He's going to save them. There's a covenant. There's a
refuge. There's a rock. in which God
Almighty has placed His people. And they've always been there.
They've always been there. And in time, here's what's going
to happen. He's going to get them under
the sound of the gospel. How are they going to get there?
I don't know. But I can tell you this. He's
going to get them there. And Almighty God is going to
send them a preacher. He's going to give a preacher
a heart to proclaim the truth. And it's going to be the truth
that honors God Almighty and gives no honor to man. None. Here's what a truthful preacher
will tell everybody, and he's talking to himself. I'm a maggot. I'm a worm. I'm a nobody. Nobody. And Almighty God has
chosen to show this nobody in himself his good pleasure. Put me in a rock. All right,
now let me ask you this. There's only one of two people
that can be a true refuge. It's either the Lord of glory
or it's a man that thinks he's made a covenant with death. One
of them is truth and one of them is a lie. And God, who cannot
lie, has said, I'm going to line everything up with my Son. I'm
going to lay the line, plummet to righteousness. And whatever
doesn't measure up to Him is going to be swept away. How stable
is God Almighty being my refuge? Here's what He says. And His
Word, His Word is not going to return void. It's going to accomplish
the purpose. John 10, 27, 28. How stable is
this refuge? He said, My sheep, hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. How stable is that? That's sure. That's what David said. This
is all my salvation toward and all things, and it's sure. I'm
going to leave this world, Gary, trusting one or two people. I'm
going to trust myself or I'm going to trust God. And I'm going
to tell you something, by the grace of God, I don't believe
in me. God is our refuge and strength. Strength. You that know Him. Once you're there, God's taught
you, you don't keep yourself. The Lord is our strength. were kept by the power of God
through faith that he gives and gives and gives. He is a very present, he is an
abundant, speeding aid, a very present help in trouble. This center is in trouble. I
need a refuge. I need a hiding place. David,
under the inspiration of God's Spirit, has declared that the
Lord himself has proven himself to be our very present help. Let me just read this to you. Be still. Be still. That word right there is such
a sweet word. Relax. Relax. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. And the God of supplanters, the
God of sinners, The God of those who know something about themselves,
what they are and what they can't do. The God of Jacob. You know, I am so thankful that
God gave me a heart to admit that in myself, that's my name. That's my name, Jacob. But by
the grace of God, the Lord said to Jacob, and He says to everyone
that believes He says, not anymore. Your name is Israel, a prince
of God, prince of God. The Lord of hosts is with us,
the God of Jacob. You that need a refuge, the God
of Jacob is our refuge. Lord bless the word, our hearts
for Christ's sake. Amen.