Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee." And what we have here in Isaiah 32
is we have a refuge, a refuge, a true refuge. It says in verse 2, "...and a
man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, a covert from
the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place." In Isaiah 28,
it says this, verse 15, Because ye have said, We have made a
covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement. When
the overflowing scorch shall pass through, it shall not come
unto us, but we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood
have we hid ourselves. Down in verse 17 it says, This
judgment also will I lay to the lion, and righteousness to the
plummet, and the hell shall sweep away the refuge of lies. So you
have a hiding place, two refuges. One of them is true and one of
them is false. But sometime in a person's life, they'll need
a refuge, a hiding place. a place of safety, a refuge that
will still and calm fears, a refuge that may even save your life. That happens in this world. A
storm comes up, you hope you've got a place to hide. Well, over
there in Isaiah 28, it says there's a storm going to come, and they've
got a refuge, but their refuge will be swept away. But all people,
sooner or later, they're going to need a refuge from pain. They're
going to need a refuge from death. They're going to need a refuge
from fear, a refuge from storms. And some in this world have made
a refuge and prepared a refuge for whatever will befall them
in this life. They buy insurance, have retirement
plans. get very involved in physical
fitness, you know, make themselves last forever. They have the best
doctors, and they build storm shelters, all kinds of things
to make refuges for themselves. But the most important, the most
necessary refuge or hiding place that a man needs is the one that
most folks are least concerned about. And that's a hiding place
from God, Holy Law and His justice that demands punishment for sin
and His wrath upon those who have no hiding place. Oh, we need a hiding place. The
girl sung it, O rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself
in thee. Be of sin the double cure, save
from its guilt, save from its power. And when my eye strains
close in death, and I pass through worlds and places unknown, and
see thee on thy judgment throne. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee." Both don't even think about it, and
you know why they don't? Because they've already accepted
Jesus. They've already walked it out.
They've already made a decision. They've already been to an altar.
They've already signed a card, already been baptized. But there's
two hiding places brought before us here. The one is a true refuge. And that true refuge is a man.
Behold, a man. There is a man. Ain't that what
it says? And I too, a man shall be as
a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, as
rivers of water in a dry place, as the shatter of a great rock
in a weary land. Over in the other, there's a
refuge, and they understand. And they say, there, you know,
they've made a covenant with death. Death ain't going to bother me.
Death ain't going to bother me. We've made a covenant with hell.
We're in agreement with hell. We've made our decision. We're
all fixed up. Death ain't going to get me.
Hell ain't going to bother me. I made a decision one day. I
joined a Baptist church. Listen, when the overflowing
scourge will pass through, it ain't going to come to us. When
God's judgment comes, when God's righteousness comes, when God's
wrath comes, when God's law comes to condemn us and show us that
we stand before the judgment throne, it ain't going to hurt
us at all. We've made lies our refuge, and
under falsehood have we hid ourselves. One is a true refuge, and it's
a man, and the other is a refuge of lies, and it's made in the
imaginations of men. And the first refuge is a revelation
of God. Only God can make you see this
refuge. The second, that refuge of lies
in an invention of men, that's what they call it, a refuge And
all men feel their need of refuge of some kind at one time or another,
but all men are not equally safe in their place of refuge. They're
not equally safe. There's refuge here in both places.
One of them is safe and secure. One of them are going to be swept
away. God said, I'm going to lay righteousness
to the planet. And I'm going to send a sweeping
well of water, I'm going to send a red sweeping great swept, and
they shall be swept out of those refuge of lies. And it's vitally
important to us today, and I want to know for myself, I do not
want to find out at the end that I was trusted the wrong thing,
that I was hid in the wrong place. That I made lies my refuge, that
I lied to my own heart, lied to you, lied on God, lied to
my conscience, lied to my understanding. I want to know the truth. I want
to know it. And all we need to see whether
our refuge is true or whether our refuge is false. Now, let's
look here in Isaiah 28. Let's look at this refuge of
lies, this false refuge. Ain't that what it says there
in verse 15 and 16? It says, We have made a covenant
with death. How do you make a covenant with
death? And with hell, we're in agreement.
When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it ain't
going to come unto us. We've made lies our refuge, but,
oh, listen. God says in verse 17, Judgment
also I'll lay the lion and rises to the plummet, and the hell
shall sweep away. The refuge of lies in the water
shall overflow the hiding place. Overflow it, and your covenant
with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell
shall not stand. When the overflowing score shall
pass through, then you shall be trodden down." Let me see
if you've got a refuge of lies. Let me give you a few of these
refuges of lies. You know what are the refuge
of lies we hide in? First of all, it's a wrong opinion
of ourselves. That's the first thing about
it. We've got a wrong opinion of ourselves. And what is a wrong
opinion of ourselves? We're not sinners. We're righteous. We're good folks. We're moral
folks. We're doing the best we can.
And they may have a wrong opinion of themselves. You keep Isaiah
and look over in John chapter 9. I'm not sure exactly what
I'm talking about. John chapter 9. Here's some folks who had
the wrong opinion of themselves. Like that Pharisee who went up
to the temple to pray. Two men went up to pray. One
was a Pharisee, the other was a publican. That Pharisee prayed thus with
himself. John chapter 9. That Pharisee
prayed thus with himself, and I thank you, Lord. I thank you,
that, I thank you, O Father, I'm not like, O God, I'm not
like everybody else. I pray, I fast, I pay tithes
of all of us, and twice in a week I fast. I don't commit adultery
in this name. Oh, look, oh, he was so good,
and I'm not even like that publican over there. That's the thing
that people have. They have the wrong opinion of
themselves. And preachers give them the wrong opinion of themselves.
You're good people, you just need Jesus. Christ did not come to save good
people. He came to call sinners to repentance. He came to seek and save what?
The lost. And look here in John 9, 33. This is that blind man talking
to the Pharisees, and they were really upset that Christ had
opened this man's eyes, and they kept trying to figure out what
happened. And this blind man told these Pharisees, if this
man were not of God, he could do nothing. If Christ were not
of God, he could do nothing. It's not been heard since the
beginning of the world that a man's born blind, his eyes has been
opened. And watch what they said. They answered, said unto him,
Thou wast altogether born in sins. Dost thou teach us? And cast him out. What they're
saying is, you're the one that's the sinner, not us. You was born
in sin. We wasn't born in sin. That's
that wrong opinion of ourselves. And all you know, they all start
talking. I told the Lord one day, says,
you know, there's a tower over there in Galilee in Siloam, and
it fell, and it killed five people. I said, boy, they must have been
really wicked. And our Lord says, you know,
you suppose they were sinners more than anybody else over in
Galilee? And what about the blood that
Pilate sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice? He killed some
people? He said, you think they were
sinners above all everybody else down there? He said, I tell you,
except you repent, you are also likewise perished. And oh, beloved,
we'll certainly get, if we don't see our sins here, and don't
see we're born in sins here, if we don't see what we are here,
we'll certainly see what we are when we face judgment. Won't
we? We'll certainly find out. We'll
meet our sins at the judgment. We'll find out what we are there. That's the first thing, is a
wrong opinion of ourself. That's a refuge of life. And
a wrong opinion and view of the love of God. This is really something
here. You know, it's a wrong opinion,
a wrong view of the love of God. If God is all one way, now you
listen to me, if God is all one way in character, and only has
one attribute, then He isn't God. But they make God to be
one way. When you make God to be one way,
and there's two ways they do it. First of all, they say, my
God, and that's the first thing they say. My God is a God of
love. God is a God of love. No, God is not a God of love.
He is love. He loves righteousness. He loves
holiness. He loves truth. Justice. He loves his law. He loves his
son. And next thing they say, oh,
well, he's a God of love. Listen. I'm telling you something,
God is a God of love, and this love is manifested in one place,
and that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not show His
love to anybody outside of Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. Where at? In Christ. Who shall
separate us from the love of God? Where's it at? In Christ.
And, oh, beloved, I'm telling you, God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto Himself. And when they say, well, God
is just, what they're saying is that God, because I'm such
a good person, and had such a good life, and it ain't been perfect,
but God being just, He's some way or another, He don't let
me get by. He could not treat me wrong. That's what they say
when they mean, that's what they mean when they say that. But
I tell you something, you know how just God is? He will by no
means clear the guilty. He will not at all acquit the
wicked. You know how just God is? That He respects no man's
person. No man's person. I don't care
what you've accomplished, where you've been, who you know, and
what you don't know, and what position you hold in this world,
how much power you've got, how powerful you may be. You don't
impress God. The earth is the Lord's in the
fullness thereof. The cattle on a thousand hills
is here, and all the gold in the mountains is here. What could
you possibly give to God that God would want from us or anybody
else? He made the world before you
ever got there, before I ever got there. And, oh, listen, that's
a wrong opinion of ourselves and a wrong opinion in view of
the love of God. And, oh, listen to this one. Here's a false refuge,
here's a refuge of lies, an old experience that stays old. Now, what does that mean? That
means that you're holding on to something, you're holding
on to some profession that you made back then. You made it 15 years ago, 20
years ago, 10 years ago, when you're 14, 16, 18, and you're
holding on to that. Holding on to an old experience.
I don't know how many people I've talked to like that. A fellow
told me one time he'd come here to talk to me. He'd brought his
Bible. He's going to show me all the things that I was wrong.
And we sat and we talked, and he, I said, he's telling me about
his conversion experience. He says, you know, he said, I
saw, I saw Jesus and also saw this, this light and this warm
feeling came over me. And I said, well, which of you
trusted, you trusted Christ or that light and that warm feeling
come over you? He said, I'm trusting both of them. So that means he
don't know a thing in the world about Christ. And he's way up
in his years, and he's holding on to that experience. He's not
trusting Christ right now. You see, people think, you know,
repentance in faith is not an isolated experience. They think,
well, I repented back there. I went to the altar back there.
So that's because I had that experience. That means, therefore,
that I'm saved. They say, I know I'm saved because
I was there. Well, listen. I'm telling you
something. If you ever repent, you never
stop repenting. If you ever believe, you never
stop believing. Now, everybody here that knows
what I'm talking about, in your heart of hearts, you're constantly
saying, Oh, Lord, forgive me. Oh, Lord, I need you. Oh, God,
help my unbelief. I mean, it's a constant thing. We don't run back and say, Well,
I believe Christ back then. I believe Christ today. I don't have to run back to some
time. Today is my day of salvation, and it's nearer now than when
we believed. And a profession, beloved, and
an experience that stays old, and you've got to keep running
back to it and running back to it to find assurance, that means
you're trusting an experience. You're not trusting Christ. Do
you look to Christ right now? Is your heart going out to Him
now? Are you repenting now? Huh? I tell you, Paul the Apostle,
here's a fella, here's a fella. He was a Pharisee. A Pharisee's
had lots of experiences. But you know what? He counted
everything he believed before he trusted Christ. You know what
he said about it? Duh! He offered sacrifices on Jewish
altars. Went to the best school of his
day. I'm telling you, he was somebody.
Everybody said, boy, if that Saul of Tarsus is not saved,
there ain't nobody saved. You ought to hear that man pray. Oh, he's got the broadest philately.
Oh, he is something. And Paul, when he met Christ
on the Damascus road and God gave him his sight, do you know
what he says? I found everything Before Christ apprehended me,
everything before I seen Christ, and know Christ, and Christ made
himself known to me. He said, I count that done, garbage,
nastiness, filthiness. That's what he's called it. Would
you run back to garbage? And that's what you do when you're
running back to an old spirit. You're going back to garbage.
Paul would went back and say, well, I'm going to pick up some of
that garbage. Hey, I trusted Christ. I don't want a little
garbage to go with it. I want a little dung to go with
me. That's my, you know, I might, I might, you know, I'm touching
him now. I might want to go back here and get me a little boy of dung
to bring along with me. Would you do that? Huh? People say, well, I knew the
Lord once. If you ever know him once, it's enough. If you don't
know him, that's what people say. I knew the Lord once. Oh, what an awful thing to say.
I knew the Lord once. I knew a man once. I knew the
Lord once. But what happened? Did you forget
Him? Did He forget you? And oh, listen,
let me tell you another refuge of lies. Not only a wrong opinion
of yourself, a wrong view of the love of God, and an old experience
that stays old, a profession of faith that doesn't produce
the fruit of the Spirit. Huh? Look over here in Galatians
5. You keep Isaiah here. Look over
with me in Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5, verse 22.
You know, a profession of faith that doesn't produce fruit and
the fruit of the Spirit. You know, our Lord said, a tree
is known by its fruit. Look what it says here in verse
22. I said, excuse me, Galatians 5, 22. But the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
Oh, my. Who wouldn't want to be like
that? You don't have to have a law to produce that. The law
can't produce it. And a tree is known by its fruit.
The Pharisees had doctrine, but they had no fruit. The Pharisees
claimed to be holy, but they had no fruit. The Pharisees were
super-religionists, and they had ceremonies, but they didn't
show any mercy, they didn't show any love, they didn't show any
forgiveness, they didn't show any compassion. And let me tell
you, you know what the difference between legal conviction, legal
conviction and Holy Ghost conviction? Legal conviction, makes you stop
doing certain things. You put away certain sins. Legal
conviction makes you want to start doing better, changing
the way you dress, changing the way you act, changing where you
go. But holy ghost conviction gets your heart and makes you,
God changed my heart. This outward ain't going to do
it. I noticed last night in the airport, two places I sat. There are some folks there that
the women had their bonnets on, their long dresses, and all their
kids had their long dresses on, and the men had their long-sleeved
shirts and their dark pants and all that, you know. But they're
in an airport, and they still got to have all their religion.
And those devils there, they had their little bonnets on,
they had their long dresses and all that. But here they got cell
phones in their ears, flying on airplanes, sitting there texting
on their telephones. But they want everybody to know
that we're religious by the way we dress. We got our bonnets
on. We got our own dresses on. We don't have women there wearing
neckties. That'd be too worldly. That's
legal conviction. But if God ever does something
for their heart, they'll understand the bonnet won't cover your sinful
mind. If God ever does something for
your heart, a long dress won't cover your nakedness. Ain't that right? Oh, that's
what I'm talking about. Fruit. And where there's life,
I'll tell you what, there'll be growth. It may be slow. And fruit may be just in the
bud, but it's there. It's there. Let me tell you another. This is the most common refuge
of lies. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. No telling how many of you in
this building at one time or another said this. Maybe some
of you are doing it now. Tomorrow. That's the most common
refuge. Tomorrow. Next Sunday. Next Sunday. That's the most
common refuge. Felix, when Paul preached to
him, he says, when he preached to righteousness, temperance,
and judgment, Felix trembled. And he says, I'll call you again
when I have a more convenient season. When things are more
convenient, I'll call you back. But today, today is the day of
salvation. Think not. So don't say, oh,
go to now. Say, today I'll do this. Today
I'll do that. Today I'll go here. Today I'll
go there. He says, you don't know what
a day should be. What is your life but just a
vapor, a smoke? that appear for a little time
and vanishes away. What happens to this refuge over
here in Isaiah? What happens to this refuge? What happens to it? Oh, my. Look what God says here. Verse
17 of Isaiah 28. Judgment also will I lay to the
lion, and righteousness to the plummet, And oh my, when God lays that
plummet line, you've got to measure up to His plummet line. And the
hell shall sweep away the refuge of lives, and the waters shall
overflow the hiding place. And watch this, and your covenant
with death shall be disemboweled. Your agreement with hell, it
ain't going to stand. When the overflowing score shall
pass through, then you shall be trodden down, down by it. It's awful to think about, ain't
it? Oh, thank God, though, there's
a true refuge. And it's not where, but it's
who. Over in Isaiah 32. It's not where,
but it's who. There they had a place. Here
we have a person. Oh, my, thank God for the true
refuge, the true hiding place. And we need a refuge. Look what
it says there in verse 2. And a man should be as a hiding
place from the wind. We need a refuge, you know, from
the wind. What kind of wind? There's the
winds of trials. There's the wind of false doctrine.
And there's always a new wind blowing somewhere. The new wind
that's coming, always new winds are coming up. And then there's
the fierce wind of God's wrath as it comes blowing through.
He says an overflowing storm. And when that winds of trials,
that winds of false doctrine. I read a bulletin article this
week that a preacher wrote, a preacher
I know very well, and he neutered the gospel in that. He destroyed
the gospel in that article. They start going down a direction
I don't want to go. Going down a direction I don't
want to go. And that's winds it blows. And
it blows across your soul. It blows across your mind. It
blows across your heart. And it's cold wind. You feel
that cold wind? We need a refuge from this wind.
And when God's wrath starts blowing across you, oh, we need a hiding
place. Uh-huh. And oh, beloved, and
then there's, we need a refuge from the tempest. And not only
from the wind, but a covert from the tempest. You know what, we
had a tempest this morning. That wind just whipping and blowing,
the rain blowing against you, and oh, that's a tempest. And
it just comes and it blows in every direction. And you have
these great winds and this great swirling rain, and all this tempest,
and all just an uproar, just a horrible storm. Oh, we need
a refuge from the tempest of this world. This world is a tempest. Oh my, it's tempest in every
way. Economically, socially, politically. This world's in a tempest. It's
just a world, I tell you. We sometimes think, oh God, if
I could just not even think about it. Watch it. Don't want to hear
any more about it. And then there's the tempest
of public opinion. The tempest of the lust of the
heart and the mind. The tempest of God's holiness
and justice. We need a refuge from the tempest
of Satan's temptation. And they would come and scatter
us as a whirlwind if we didn't have a hiding place. And then
not only that, look what it says. Oh, a man should be a hiding
place from the wind, a cover from the tempest, and rivers
of water and a dry place. We need a refuge from the dry
place. What's dry? You ever feel like
your soul is so dry, like you know there ain't no life in it
at all? It feels like it's a desert in you. And your eyes are dry. You know, you think, oh God,
it's been so long since I've had a tear in my eye. I don't
need my heart so hard I can't even cry. Dry eyes, dead heart,
the dry place of disappointment, the dry place of helplessness.
Oh, we need a place. Oh, sometimes it gets so dry
in some services, and it gets so dry in our hearts, you feel
like you're walking through dry leaves, you know, in the fall
of the year, and you just sound like a big elephant running through
them. You just hear this noise, noise, noise, but there's no
life there. It's deadness and dry. And, oh, beloved, then we need
a refuge in the weary land. It says it be as a great shadow
of a great rock in the weary land. Oh, weary, weary land. Weary land. You keep that. Let
me show you something over here in Hebrews 12. Let's look at
this together in Hebrews 12. You all get weary. I know you
get weary. You get weary of your trials.
You get weary of your life. You get weary of your loneliness.
You get weary of your jobs. You just get weary of your flesh.
You get weary of so many. You get weary of this world.
We all get so weary of this world. get weary of having a fainting
heart, no resting place. There is no resting place in
the Spirit. You're weary and there is no place to lay down
and get over your weariness. But look what it says here in
Hebrews 12 and verse 3. For consider him, think of him,
that endures such contradiction of sinners against himself. Whenever
you get weary and you feel like you can't go on, Lest you be
wearied and faint in your mind, you start thinking about Christ
and what He endured. Weary, weary, weary. And oh, not only do we, there's
a refuge of life, there's a true refuge. Look back over here to
Isaiah 32. We need a refuge from the wind,
from the tempest, from a dry place, and from being in a weary
land. And we have one, look what it
says, we have one. And a man shall be as what? A hiding place. We talked about
that wind, we got a hiding place for that wind. And let me tell
you, who is this man? Who is this man? God said, behold my fellow, my
fellow, There is only one man between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. Pilate brought him out before
he crucified him and says, Behold the man! And it says he took not on himself
the nature of angels, but he took upon himself the seed of
Abraham, being found in fashion as what? A man. A man. This man is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me tell you something else about this man. It says in verse
1, he's a king. He's a king. And what does a
king do? He reigns right now. What's he
reigning in? He's reigning in righteousness.
Rat down. And what does that mean? That
means, beloved, that He reigns in righteousness. Everything
He does for us, He does it in righteousness. Everything He's
done for us, He's done it because of righteousness. He reigns over
us in righteousness. And all He does is righteousness.
His scepter is a scepter of righteousness. And it says the government shall
be upon His shoulder. And it says here, here's our
hiding place from the wind. And I tell you one place that
I want to be when God's fierce wrath comes through this world.
And it's on this world now. It's obvious the wrath of God's
on this world. It's obvious. I mean, you know,
you'd have to be blind, damned, and dumb not to know that the
wrath of God and the judgment of God's not on this world right
now. You know what happened? You know what God said? He says
when the people don't seek Him and trust Him and look to Him,
you know what He does? He said He puts the basis for it. in
power. Every time Israel forsook God,
you know what he done? He gave them the sorriest priests
there was. He gave them the sorriest kings there was. You know what he done when they
forsook him? He said, get you some idols and set them up. That's what God said. That's
the judgment of God. And it's on us. And oh, when that fierce
wrath of God comes, and the judgment of God, the punishment of God,
I've got a hiding place for it. When that wind starts blowing,
it can't find me. It can't find me. We used to
play hide-and-go-seek, you know. We don't have to play hide-and-go-seek.
God put us in a place where we're in good. It always says you're being covert
from the tempest. You know what a covert is? Covert
means a secret place. Covert. You know, we have covert
operations. That means it's out of sight. It's undercover. And
we are undercover. We're hid. We're out of sight.
Where are we hid at? You know, the safest place to
hide from God is in God. We're hid with Christ in God. We sang that old hymn, cover
my defenseless head to be hid. You want to hide from God and
His justice and His judgment and His wrath? Hiding Christ? It's a place of secrecy. You
know why it's a place of secrecy? The world don't know nothing
about it. Those folks that had that refuge of life didn't know
where it was. You know the only people who know where it's at?
People sent it. But this is the secret we want
everybody to know. That God's wrath and law and
justice, His righteousness can't find us here. This is a secret
place from the world in religion. It's here from the wise and prudent,
our Lord said. And then He says not only that,
but He's rivers of water in a dry place. Rivers of water in a dry
place. Look at Psalm 46 with me. Boa River, down there in the
Yucatan, where I sat. They don't have any rivers. It's
dry. They have water. They got the
ocean, and they got water just right below the ground, but they
don't have any rivers. Hot and dry. And oh, when you
go in a dry place and you come up on a river, and you see all
that green there and all that lushness and all that, you sit
down by that river. Put your feet in that river.
Splash that water upon yourself. Sometimes you may even jump in.
It's dry all over the place. But here's this river. Here's
this river. Look what it says in Isaiah.
Excuse me, Psalm. Verse 4, There is a river, the streams
whereof 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 in that right
early. There's a river flowing right
out of the throne of God. John saw it. And here, that's
what we have. Sit down by the river and rest
and refresh yourself. And then it says here back over
in Isaiah 32, in the shadow of a great rock in the rear land. Here's this great, great rock.
Have you ever been out and it's getting real, real hot and you
look for a place to get in the shade? Oh, boy, find a shade. You say,
boy, there ain't a shade. It's just so hot you can't find
a shade nowhere. Well, when it gets really, really hot, and
really dry, and really miserable, brethren, God has provided us
not just a rock, great rock. And in this, you know, he says,
you know, we have this weary place we're in, when you get
weary, weary of yourself, weary of your trials, weary of your
own heart, your coldness, weary of this world, weary of struggling,
weary of your loneliness, sit down in this great rock, sit
down under it, and feel that shadow come over you. Let me give you this real quick. Let me show you the blessings
that we have from this man who is our hiding place. We have
some great blessings from this. There's the false refuge and
the true refuge. One's going to be swept away.
The other one's secure. It's a man. And look what it
says here. Here's the first thing about
it. blessings from our hiding place. And verse 3, and the eyes
of them that see shall not be dim. Oh my, we'll have dim eyes. Oh, I can't see, I can't see.
Christ opened the eyes, you see. Now they can see clear. What
do they see clearly now? They see that there's a false
refuge, and over here's the real one. I want out of this, I want
in that one. Huh? They really see things as they
are. You know, the only people who
are realists in this world is God's people. They're realists.
Everybody else is living in a fantasy world. They're living in a fantasy
world. And oh, their eyes can see clearly.
They really see things as they are. They see the difference
in the refuge of lies and the refuge of this man, this refuge
of truth. They see themselves. They see
Christ. And look what else it says, "...and
the ears of them that hear shall hearken." Oh, he's going to give
the mirrors to listen. Don't you hear what Mary says
to me all the time? Did you just hear what I said?
Are you listening to me? And I have to repeat back to
her what she says if I'm in the other room. Yeah, you know, because
you think I'm doing something else. You know, she didn't hear
me. She said, did you hear what I
just said? And I repeat it back to her. You think I ain't sharp,
boy, I tell you. I know who buttered my bread.
But you know, you say that all the time. Don't you hear what
I... Listen to me. Well, that's what
God says, I give you ears and you hear now. My sheep hear my
voice. Their ears are open. They hear
the Word. They hear the truth. They got
distinguishing ears for the truth. If it was possible, the very
left would be deceived. But you know what? He said, if
it were possible. That means it can't happen. And
you know why? Because we have ear to ear. We
can hear. We hear the word of our Master,
and we obey Him. And not only that, but look what
else it says. The heart is taught. The heart also of the rash shall
understand knowledge. And that word rash, you look
in your margin, it says hasty. Used to be hasty, hasty. Got
to rush and rush. But oh my, listen, the hasty
heart shall understand not. You're quite down. Running to and fro. He says,
our Lord says, no man can come unto me lest the Father which
sent me draw him. And what next thing He says,
and they shall all be taught of God. Huh? All thy children
shall be taught of God. And he that hath been taught
of the Father, what does he do? He learns of Christ, and he comes
unto me. And God teaches our heart. It's
our heart that's taught. Ain't you grateful it's with
the heart that man believes? My son, give me your heart. Now,
the heart are the issues of life. As a man thinketh in his heart,
so is he. And Christ comes along, and this man, this refuge, and
this refuge are hearts. Get knowledge. Ain't that what
it says? You'll understand knowledge. There was a time we didn't have
a clue what was going on. And we wouldn't have a clue what's
going on right now if it wasn't for Him teaching us. Is that
not right? We wouldn't have a clue what's
going on. The heart's taught. And not only that, but look what
else is taught here. And the tongue of the stammerer
You know, it says, First they shall understand not. They understand
that Christ is all in all. They understand the difference
between the righteous and the wicked. And the tongue of the
stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. You won't stammer
around about the truth. Well, somebody asks you, well,
what do you, do you believe about election? You believe God's sovereignty? No, we'll speak plainly. Don't you all believe that it's
just Christ? No, no, no, we're not going to stumble over any
of that stuff. No, no, no, we're going to speak as plain as we
possibly can. Paul says, you know, I speak plainly. Everybody says plain talk is
easy to be understood. Well, that's why they wanted
to kill Christ, because they understood what he was saying.
The tongue is loosed. Ain't that what it says? The
tongue of the stammerers. And that stammerer is a person
whose tongue is loosed. They speak plainly. They tell
the truth. We now tell the truth about God.
Cosmotic God of our imagination. He is who He says He is. He is
high and holy and He has established eternity. He is sovereign. He
does as He will, when He will, for whom He will. If God saved
everybody in this building by His grace and left me to myself,
I could not say that He wasn't just and wasn't right and He
had the right to do it. He's God. And oh, listen, we
tell the truth about Christ. Christ is all salvation. Christ
is all salvation. His righteousness is the only
righteousness that there are. His obedience is the only obedience
we have. He's the only one who put away
sin. We are perfected only in Him,
in Him alone. I don't need nothing. My faith
didn't justify me. Christ justified me. My faith
wasn't nailed to the cross. My sins were nailed to the cross.
And beloved, what the gospel does is tells us what Christ
has done. And then faith says, I believe that. It's a done deal. My sins was put away when Christ
died. The gospel told me it was. Is that not right? Christ sitting
on the right hand of the Father for 2,000 years before I ever
knew anything about Him. My faith didn't put Him there.
God put Him there. But when somebody told me about
Him and says, you know that God would justify me and did justify
me in Christ, and He justly does so for those who have faith in
Him, I look outside myself and I go to Christ. Right now. And oh my, we speak plainly about
the way of salvation by a substitute. I love substitution. I love it. That means that when God's justice
called me forward and says, you know, it's time to die for your
sins. It's time for you to be punished
for your sins. Judgment has come. It's time to face you on your
judgment throne. And Christ stood up and says,
I'll take his place. Put your judgment on me. Punish
me. Give me his guilt. Give me his
sin. Give me His disobedience. Give me the wrath that's due
Him. And Christ died, not for Himself,
but for those He represented. And if God took Him in my place,
He cannot possibly come back and get me. Is that not right? If God took Christ in my place,
is there any danger He'd come back and get me? Could He do it? Would that be
just? He got my substitute. And then
we got His righteousness, we got His obedience, we got His
life. Absolute exchange, perfect exchange. And a man shall be as a hiding
place from the wind, covered from the tempest, as rivers of
water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in the
weary land. His eyes, dim old dim eyes that just you couldn't
used to see. People say, I just don't see
that preacher. I didn't see it either. until he gave me. I just
don't understand that. The heart of the rash shall understand.
I don't know how to tell it. He'll give you words. They'll
speak plainly. Huh? And a man. Which refuge
are you in? That one that's going to be swept
away by the hail and the overflowing scourge that'll trod you down?
Well, that one, that's the man. Which one are you? Which one
are you? Our Father, in the blessed holy
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for allowing us to
stand and speak of You again this side of eternity. Bless
You for allowing us to preach the gospel again. God bless it
to hearts, bless it to understandings. Lord, we know we tell the truth,
but Lord, we can't apply the truth. I can't open a heart,
I can't open a mind, I can't open an eye, I can't open an
ear, but Lord, You can. And I pray that You will. In
Christ's name and for His sake. Amen.