REFUGES OF LIES - Burns, William Chalmers

CHAPTER 5

“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and
under falsehood have we bid ourselves. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make
haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.” — Isaiah 28:15-17

We shall endeavour to notice the description here given us of those who believe themselves to be secure, and yet are not so; who make a profession of religion, but yet are not the children of God. They are persons who imagine and feel themselves to be in a state of security, and yet are open to God’s judgments – persons who are quite content with their state, and who yet, when judgment comes, will not be safe. On these
grounds they are contented: they have a vague hope, they do not well know how, that they will be saved.There are very few, for instance, in this assembly who are at this moment actually taking to themselves
the sentence of death; there are also, perhaps, few who would expect to be saved were judgment now to come; and yet there are, perhaps, fewer still who expect that when judgment does come they will be condemned. The great majority, therefore, are resting in some kind of hope which they would do well to examine – they know that they are not ready now, and yet they expect to be ready then.There are those who have a true assurance arising from their being now built on the true foundation, and
who have a hope which will never make them ashamed – a peace that will never leave them, and which, instead of being destroyed in the day of trial, will then be increased and confirmed. But then, as we before
remarked, there are others who have a strong assurance, and one which enables them to go on through this world with very great confidence, who yet at last, when judgment begins at the house of God, will be found
to have made lies their refuge, and who shall be swept away. God has said, “The hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.” Now it is to you we speak – we address
ourselves to this class – to those who have made a covenant with death, and with hell they are at agreement, — to all who have a vain hope of being saved when death and hell shall come.The question at present then is, whether you belong to those who are to be secure at that day, or whether you belong to those who shall be swept away and destroyed, having made lies their refuge. Plead, my dear friends, that we may now be enabled to preach the Word with all boldness as we ought to speak it; for, as one says, a minister should never preach without the persuasion that the truth he speaks can no more be denied or come down, than the throne of the Eternal itself can be shaken. Preaching thus, power will accompany the Word and believers be established in the faith, as it is said, “Let not your faith stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” Remember this, that it is God himself who will soon be Judge.
The matter will be taken out of the hands of ministers and people, and the Lord will separate between the foundation of sand and the only sure foundation he hath laid in Zion.But, not to lose time, we would at once direct your attention to one or two of the refuges of lies in which
men are hiding themselves. And the first of them is this: Men imagine that they will be saved although they are not regenerated. They imagine that they will be saved, and yet if the question were put to them, “Have
you been born again?” they would instantly shrink from giving an unhesitating answer. They will say, when they are asked, that they have a great confidence of being at last saved, but then they have a confidence of being saved stronger than their confidence that they have been born again of the Spirit. Now it is quite evident and certain that when a man has a confidence of being saved, stronger than his confidence that he is born again of the Spirit, that man is deluded and is hiding in a refuge of lies. His hope is a false one, because it rests upon a God-dishonouring lie, even on this – that a man may enter the kingdom of heaven without being born of the Spirit.To press this subject home at once, we ask, Is your confidence of being saved stronger than your confidence that you have passed through the great change which the new birth produces? These ought in every case to stand upon the same ground, and they should rise and fall together – that is to say, that if a man have the certainty that he is not born of the Spirit, he should at the same time have the assurance that he will die eternally. Ah! but is this the case? Is it so? or is it not rather a certain fact that there are many, many who have very little confidence that they are born again, who yet have a confidence of being saved at last,
though they do not quite know how? – in plain language, such of you are then saying, I have a hope that God’s word, where He says, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” is to be found
out to be a lie at the last.But, not to remain longer on this, many are taking refuge in another such lie, and it is this: They think and
say that they are born again, although they shrink from testing their new birth by the simple Scripture marks of regeneration. There is nothing more common in the world than for men to slur over this matter. If you
press it home upon them and prove clearly, even to their natural understanding, that they are quite inconsistent in their views, they will answer, “Well, we cannot deny it, we cannot explain it, but still we hope, or we believe, that we have been regenerated.” Ah! this is one of the most fatal and fearful and soul- destroying doctrines of the Church of Rome, and one of the most dangerous heresies that is spreading in a sister Church. Men say, we must have been regenerated; and when you show them that they really never could have been regenerated, they turn round and say, “Oh! but we must have been regenerated, because we
have been baptized.” But this is not confined to other churches or to other lands; it is common among Presbyterians – it is common in many that shrink from the very name of Popery, or of Puseyism, to have this
idea; but, ah! they all shrink from Scripture marks of a true change of heart. They virtually hold the baptized world to be regenerate, and very many among you who are now present do so. They look at a Christian
land, and at baptism, and at the communion, and they say that in the midst of all these Church privileges a man must surely be regenerated. Ah! but try them by their fruits: “Can a good tree bring forth evil fruit, or
can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit?” If you say that to them, they immediately draw back and answer, “Oh, but it is uncharitable to be judging in that way of the character of others.” And then, if you go on
further and say, “Have you received the Holy Ghost? Are you led by the Spirit? Do you walk in the Spirit? Do you truly and heartily hate all sin? Do you no more love the world? Do you crucify the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eye, and the pride of life? Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Is Christ to you the pearl of great price?” Ah! when you come to them with these touchstones, they shrink from them and are silenced –
they cannot answer. If you deal with them in general terms, they will go along with you as far as you choose; but they will not stand particular trial – they cannot, they dare not. If you take texts that cut, as it were,
between the joints and marrow, and pierce the conscience to the quick, they will start, and shrink, and fly aside in an instant.My dear friends, I do not say these things from hearsay or report; I have again and again met with people, who say that they have been baptized, and therefore regenerated, by receiving baptismal grace, communicated through the successors of the apostles; but then whenever you come to try them with
particular texts, a striking difference in their confidence is manifested, and they begin to tell you that with them it is matter of faith, and that we should charitably think well of all. Yes, but then fruits are not matter of
faith: fruits are surely what we see before us, and you know that it was Christ and not man who gave us this text – “By their fruits ye shall know them.” True it is, that we cannot always judge by these. True it is, that
we may often judge of believers as if they were not; and we may often be deceived by hypocrites, and judge of them as if they were believers; and true it is, too, that at the day of judgment, when many shall bring
forward” their works as an evidence of regeneration, and say, “Lord! Lord! have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works?” that the
Lord shall say, “I never knew you: depart from ME.” But the true root of the matter is just this, that a man’s regeneration is disproved when there is something that is dearer to the man than Christ – when there is
something that is nearer to his heart than God and God’s truth. All confidence in such a case is false; it is a refuge of lies – a refuge of deception and delusion.Oh! in our Scottish Church it is quite common for men to shelter themselves in these lying refuges – quite common for a man to say, I have been baptized, and admitted to the communion; I pass for a Christian, both in the Church and in the world. Christ’s ministers take me for one of God’s people, and so I must be one of them. Ah! but go on a little further, and press them a little nearer; they don’t like to come to close quarters – to close, heart-searching tests; they fear even man’s judgment. What a poor confidence must it be that cannot stand the scrutiny of a fellow-worm! Oh! if any avoid this – if any say, I’m afraid of God’s ministers, how will you stand the searching glance of the holy God, when He takes the matter into his own hand, and lays judgment to the line, and equity to the plummet? How will you bear that? If you cannot bear God’s simple word now in the mouth of a perishing fellow-worm, how will your countenances gather blackness when He speaks the word of his power with his own mouth? Oh! if you are afraid to meet the eye of some minister, how will you ever meet Jehovah with his eye of fire? This, too, is a refuge of lies that will be swept away by the hail, and destroyed with them that are hidden therein.Now we have mentioned two of these. O that you would judge yourselves in this matter, that ye be not judged of the Lord. Do you ever hope to be saved? Yes, you do; and do you think you are a new creature? No, you do not. Therefore you do not think that you are now a new creature, and yet you do hope that you will be saved. Yes, you have a hope, and it’s built upon another hope, and that hope is, that God’s Word will be found untrue. Well then; we have just to say in answer to that, that whatever becomes of any creature’s hope, God’s Word shall be found true: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” But then again you say, “I hope I am regenerated.” Do you, my dear friends? – but then what proof can you give? Now, here you would like to get the question dropped; and if we were speaking personally to you just now, you would say – “Oh! but you should be charitable; don’t be judging too severely, not looking too narrowly into other men’s matters; leave that to God and to their own consciences.” Ah! my dear friends, but do you know that a person who walks much in the Spirit, and whose heart is right with God, will never feel in this way to any, even towards the meanest and most ignorant. No; he will, on the contrary, always be thankful when anyone comes to him in this way – he will be glad to get help in the awfully momentous matter of searching out his own heart – he will be glad to get help to seek out the leaks and the holes in the sides of the vessel, for he knows he has to make a long and perilous journey over the sea in it. Yes, he would be thankful if even an enemy were to find out a leak in the vessel before the storm comes. There is nothing better for us than thus to be assisted to discover the roots of bitterness that are about our souls, and the inconsistencies that mingle with our profession of Christ, so that we may walk wisely toward them that are without.But, thirdly, many people are in the practice of making another excuse, which we shall merely name, and it is this: they say, “It’s quite true that we don’t belong to those people that are ‘the saints;’ we are not exactly so scrupulous as they are about many innocent things; we are not so full of peculiar ways; and it is true that if they only were in the right, or if they only could be saved, we should not have much hope; but
then we hope that there’s an easier and a plainer road to heaven than that.” Now, it is true that many of you may be saved without belonging to anyone particular party; you may be quite unconnected with them, and
yet you may be saved. For instance, there may be a class of persons whom you consider too religious, and too strict, and too particular in their ways: you may be saved, and many of them may be condemned. We do not, therefore, ask what party you belong to, or whether or not you belong to any party at all. What I ask is, Do men take knowledge of you at any time that you have been with Jesus? If you live entirely among men of the world, do they clearly see that whatever family you belong to, it is to a different family from them? that the spirit which breathes in you is a different spirit, that your sorrows are different and your enjoyments
different? Be not deceived. If your fellow-sinners and companions, among whom you dwell, have never had occasion to remark this difference of heart, and of conversation, and of end in life, you may take it for granted that you are not one of God’s people.Do not shelter yourselves under the thought that because you see people go further than you think
necessary in some instances, that therefore in no instance is a broad line of distinction to be drawn. God’s people are marked, my dear friends, they always must be marked by his holy image. Likeness to Christ is
not an empty, fruitless thing; union to him is not a light matter. Union to the best party among believers is not necessary to salvation; union to the best, as we call it, party in the Church is not necessary either; but
union to Christ is necessary, whatever side you take on any disputed point. Oh, let your chief care be, not so much to clear yourself of the necessity of taking one side or another, but to be clear on this point, — that whatever congregation you belong to, or whatever cause you espouse, you make it evident that a change of heart has taken place, and that a change of life is flowing from it. Make it visible to all men that you have something more about you than mere morality, something quite beyond morality. The world itself will put up with morality, and outward decency, and propriety of conduct; they have got many moral men among
themselves; they do not object to it.You may not go to the profane or the immoral lengths that some do, and yet you may belong to the world
after all; there is, you know, the respectable world and the esteemed world. There are many, like the inhabitants of Sodom, who live in crime and iniquity, openly seen; but then there is the polite world and the
vulgar world, the refined and the polished world: — yes, the world that will be soon politely ruined, and who will go in thousands, politely, to the pit. And then there is the fashionable world, and the world of pleasure,
the honourable world, the respectable world, the decent world, and the sensual world too. There are many, many different departments in it, but it matters very little after all to which men belong, so as you are far
from God and have no hope of heaven. You know that there may be many of these upon both sides of the Church; every such question divides men, while, alas! it does not separate between the precious and the vile:
but in both parties the world will hate those who are the true children of God. The world will very easily know a man not to be of itself if he be constant in communion with God, and if he have God’s own mark set
upon him.For instance, my dear friends, you that consider that you really are the children of God, perhaps you were in some party last night, which you required to be present at, among relatives and friends, and there was a great deal of mirth and amusement going on at it; you joined it, not for the sake of that, but for some other cause. Now in the midst of all that vanity, you might not be reproving anyone, you might be quite silent,
you might be quite calm and cheerful, and yet there would be something that would make your ungodly acquaintances feel not quite at ease. They would feel in their hearts in this way: Well, that person goes a great length and does not seem displeased, but he or she is not of us; we cannot tell what it is, but there is something different. This feeling is quite evident in the very constraint often, or restless uneasiness, of the ungodly in the presence of a true believer. Now, does not this just illustrate what we have been speaking about? Know you not, that if ye were of the world, the world would love its own? O yes! it would love its own; but because, and it may be, only and simply because, ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Ay, and it will hate the most amiable, and the most gentle, and the most affectionate ofttimes, just because there is that tells of another Master than the world serves, and that acknowledges One who is Lord of the heart and the conscience. It is not the gentleness, and the meekness, and the amiability that they hate, it is a something behind it, which they can see quite well, testifying for God.So it was with the Lord Jesus. Oh, had it been possible to conciliate the world, Christ‘s example would have done it, for He went out and in among them, continually doing good, and speaking words of love, and performing marvelous miracles, and the world liked this in Christ – that was all for its good; and if it had seen nothing more, it would have loved Jesus too. But, ah! the world saw, beneath all that,

HOLINESS TO THE LORD written upon all his words and actions, on his very features, as well as his walk and conversation among them. The world could not bear that; it could not endure to see all sin regarded with
perfect abhorrence, and God’s law performed and vindicated before their very eyes; to see God’s law, and not the world’s opinion, set up as the only holy standard for man’s life. The world acknowledges, as it imagines, God’s law; but oh! what place does it get from the world? The law they obey is made up of part of God’s law and part of man’s – that is to say, God’s law is respected and obeyed whenever man’s will goes with it; and when they clash, public opinion judges of the question and decides the matter. That is what the world approves; but if you meet them with a “God hath said,” “Thus saith the Lord,” as your only reason, and your only authority, the world cannot brook that. This was what Christ did, and they hated him.We have no given you one or two marks by which to try yourselves, and I would therefore charge everyone here present, of whatever rank, and in whatever circumstances you may be – man, or woman, or child, husband or wife, man of business, old, young, rich, or poor, to examine yourselves. I ask you, as in the sight of God, does the world see anything in you really and essentially different from itself? Does it see anything in your words or actions opposed to what it finds in itself? Is this the case or not? For we do assert with confidence this truth, that the world cannot long associate, or intimately become acquainted with any child of God, without coming across, before long, something in that child of God which it never found in itself, and which it would never look for in itself. Oh! the world sometimes detects the shallow professor;
even the blind world does this.For instance, did you never see one such, sitting perhaps in a mixed company, and conversing with a real child of God? That professor will chime in with all that the true believer says, and will agree with every word of it. Well, but the moment the latter leaves the company, and the professor is left alone with some man of the world, who, perhaps, has a half-sneer upon his face at what has being going on – Oh! I daresay you have remarked such cases, and just noticed how the professor will, as it were, try to get off, and if he doesn’t say anything, he makes it evidently appear, by his look at least, that he is saying – “Well, I spoke in that strain, or I did so and so, just because that man was there, and I could not do otherwise.” Oh! we surely need not say that such a man as that is merely using religion as a cloak, and that he is trusting in one of the refuges of lies, which the hail shall sweep away, and destroy forever.Professing Christian! does the world take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus, or no? Does the world show a dislike to you because of a difference which exists between it and you? Or does the world love you? If so, it loves you because you are its own. Christ has declared again and again, that the friend of the world is the enemy of God, and you are the friends of the world. The very world itself in a Christian land openly calls itself the friend of Jesus! And what a refuge of lies is this! We do not exaggerate when we say, that in this very city multitudes lie hidden in these lying refuges, and sleeping in them the awful sleep of death! And oh! we feel indeed that if any of us have escaped from these fearful delusions, it is not we that have done it – it is because “I have chosen you.” The snare is broken, and we are escaped.

But again: another refuge of lies in which men are concealed is the following, and we would entreat particular attention to it, as being one of the most deceitful, and one of the least apparent. Some people have
got as it were beyond the former refuges of lies, — they are not deceived by them. They have given up a great deal more than most people, and are outwardly living much as the godly do, on the whole. They have got a name to live, and they think that they are really going to receive victory over all their sins. They do get an apparent victory over many of them; but ah! there is some idol in the camp, — some secret sin which they
are holding fast by their right hand, and with all their power, and which they will not let go.And we have not a doubt that thousands are ruined eternally by this alone. They are so often warned by the children of God, and so often entreated by gospel messages, and so often reproved by the holy example of many around them, that at last they are as it were hemmed up to living like them, being thus surrounded on every side by some outward fence against open sin. They have given up many sins, and sacrificed many of their evil ways, and to all appearance may be living very correctly; but then there is one sin remaining in which all the strength of temptation lies, because it is one in which all the strength of sin is concentrated. You know this, that if sin be shut out in some one particular lust, and if in that you refuse it gratification, it will concentrate itself in the one which you indulge. Just in the same way as when you have a reservoir for water, you can keep every other part dry, because all the water runs immediately to that part where it can flow freely down; and, therefore, suppose that a man be, however secretly, a drunkard, then he may be very scrupulous in many other things, but all the strength of his love of sin will flow into that channel where it knows it can get gratification. And thus with the sensualist, he may be refined, and scrupulous too, in all outward acts; but there may be, and there often is in the bosom of man such a sink of impurity, and of unholy imaginations, that all the power of sin flows into these, and feeds within itself upon unholy thoughts and unhallowed desires.

Our object is simply to illustrate this truth, that when a man is once really given over to the power of any known, cherished, presumptuous sin, that then the whole strength of sin in his nature flows in that direction,
and needs not to seek any other in order to ruin a man’s soul. For instance, is worldliness the snare, is deep- rooted love of the world the leading feature in a man’s character? Then all the power of sin will show itself in that form, and he may not be distinguished for anything more than an inordinate cleaving to the world; still sin is concentrated there, and fills up, through that, the whole soul. And then another man is proud; whatever befalls him is employed to satisfy his pride, whatever he does shows how proud he is, and so in his case the power of sin is concentrated in his pride, which swallows up and engrosses every feeling of the soul. Then self-righteous is another such ruling sin, and oh! it shows itself in many a specious form, feeding upon the most opposite substances, and deriving strength and power from all. How true it is, that if one sin be allowed and cherished and encouraged, then the whole power of the law of sin gathers itself up, and prepares for the attack, and it will soon bear down upon you with awful force, and carry your soul away. The soul is very much like a citadel, not wholly secure at every part. The enemy advances and begins to reconnoitre, and marks where the weak point is. It matters not how many gates are barred, or how securely
they are protected, if one stands wide open; and the least skilful commander knows this, so he watches his opportunity, musters his men, brings the entire force to bear upon the weak side, and though all points may have been defended but that one, he will advance and seize the citadel as an easy prey; the inhabitants will be borne down at once, and brought to a surrender. Thus it is with the souls of some present. Oh! that you would now begin to inquire, what is the lust that is holding my will captive – what is the sin that is ruling me with an iron hand? Perhaps it is some idol sitting on the throne of your affections, and usurping the place of God; you find it no sacrifice to deny yourselves other things, because you are, it may be, partly insensible to them, and it is this idol that you fall down and worship. Or, perhaps, it is some forbidden pleasure, — something that you cannot bring yourself to give up for Christ, and yet it will not come into subjection to his holy law. Perhaps it is self-glorying, — perhaps you cannot consent to be nothing, that Christ may be all, — perhaps you cannot give up your will and lose it in his, — perhaps it is pride, —perhaps it is some attachment which you have formed, and which you are unable to give up, but which is swallowing up all the energies and the powers of your soul, — or perhaps it comes from your desire to retain
the world’s good opinion, and the world’s esteem, on account of which you cannot think of giving yourself wholly and unreservedly up to the service of God. My dear friends, you may be influenced by one or by
more, or by all these sins, but don’t know being to deal falsely with yourselves; if at one single point you indulge and allow any known sin, at however small a point, you are ruined there. – ruined! — Yes, a half-
mortification of sin is ruinous; it’s a refuge of lies, and if you feel that this in any degree comes home to your conscience, all your religion is vain; it is just made up of refuges of lies.Take a practical lesson from this. Do not put it off. I know that the natural heart shrinks from such an inquiry. Men are afraid of God’s coming to search out their hearts; and why? Oh! it’s not because they are secure; it’s because they know that there is some secret, hidden iniquity, that they dare not have exposed. It is just as if a man had got a thief concealed in a house; he would tremble when the search commenced, and would take the officers into any place or every place but the back-chamber where the thief was lying. But dear fellow-sinner, the day is coming when you will be searched, — the day is coming when all the secret sins you have ever committed will be known, and when that sin which you are cherishing and covering up, will lie exposed and found out. Oh! then, why not now? – why not get it detected now, and pardoned now? Ask this question of your own conscience, — Am I one of whom the world takes knowledge that I have been with Jesus? Are you one of those whom the world approves, — are you one upon whom the world smiles? Does it say of you, “He is a good man, we never disagree?” Ah! do they? If unregenerate men say of you that they never knew a better man, and that they approve of all you do, and agree with your views, it is at least very suspicious, — your election of God is very doubtful, — your place among his children has much need to be tested and examined before you hold your title good. Ah! if you are not too strict and too holy for the world’s notions of what is needful, you cannot be one of the Lord’s children. Again, is there some particular idol to which you are giving a place in your heart? We speak not only of people, but of preachers too. Yes! there is many a one who preaches about idols, and denounces idolatry, and exposes it in others, — many a one who is a holy man in the world’s eye, and in the Church’s eye, and yet an idol reigns within, — an idol of jealousy, or of envy, or of distrust, idols that will at last arise and destroy them. They hide in a refuge of lies; the hail shall sweep it away, and the waters shall destroy the hiding-place, if before the last day they flee not from all these and find a refuge. Oh! my dear friends, everyone who is sheltering himself in any false refuge shall be swept away – one wide-spread desolation shall carry them all away.But thus saith the Lord, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a precious corner-stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth shall not make haste.” And this day is this foundation laid in your sight. Come, then, from every lying refuge, come near to him who is now brought near to you. Christ the Lord is
ready now. He calls you to himself, and entreats you to forsake all lying refuges, and to come and build upon God’s foundation. The Lord is ready, ready still, ready in spite of rejection and neglect. This day recalls to my mind the time I last addressed some of you – since then three years have passed away – since then you have been called by God’s long-suffering, and by the riches of his sparing mercy, anew and anew to take your refuge in God. and, after three years He is as ready to receive you, and as ready to pardon, as ready to save to the uttermost, and to cry in your ear at this moment, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Ah! if you are saying, “I cannot believe it, my heart is so awfully depraved, I have resisted so long, I am so hard-hearted, so fearfully led captive by a perverse will, and by an unbelieving heart, which departeth continually from the cistern of life, from the fountain of living waters, I dare not come, I cannot be received now, it is too late – impossible.” But you have nothing to do with that; what He says is not what you have to do, or what I have to do; but “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone; he that believeth shall not make haste.” — “A new heart will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you.” — “I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
And now may God abundantly bless to the souls of all, the preaching of his Word among you!