Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1501
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, October 26, 1879
“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 28:17.
OVER against amazing mercy, the Holy Spirit sets awakening judgment. The acceptable year of the Lord is also the day of vengeance of our God and the sentence which shall confirm the righteous in his righteousness is attended by another which says, “He that is unjust let him be unjust still.” When the Lord shall come to be glorified in His saints, He will, at the same time, take vengeance in flaming fire upon those that know Him not. In the present instance, in the 16th verse of this chapter, the Lord declares “Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone” and then, immediately in our text, He speaks of another laying—“Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.”
Upon the roses of Grace grow the thorns of Justice. Whenever the Lord bares His arm for mercy towards Believers, He gives a backstroke to His enemies. Therefore, even the activity of love wears a threatening aspect to those who live impenitent, wedded to their sins, since it is accompanied by an energetic display of justice. Take care that you remember this, you who are unbelievers and yet dream of some millennial benediction, or latter day glory which may bring salvation to you. Is it not written, “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light”?
Whatever good may be in store for Believers there is none for you! The pillar of fire which will give light to the Lord’s Israel will be darkness to you, O you Egyptians! To those who are out of Christ, even the greatest triumphs of Divine love will be terrible—they shall behold and wonder and perish—they shall see the plentiful goodness of the Lord but they shall not eat thereof, but die in the gate. These are heavy tidings for you who love not the Lord, but they are as true as they are heavy—as certainly as Mercy lays her Foundation, as surely will Judgment sweep away those who reject it and build upon another. Nor shall there be long space between the rejection of the blessing and the execution of the curse. Longsuffering will have an end and then the swift-footed executioner shall overtake the sinner and woe shall be unto the hairy scalp of him that goes on in his iniquities.
Another great Truth of God should never be forgotten—it is this—a great privilege involves a great responsibility. It is a great privilege to hear the Gospel, but woe unto those who shut their ears to its warnings and invitations, for it shall ring out their death-knell. It is a very high favor to see the Foundation which God has laid in Zion and to be exhorted to build upon it. But of those who reject that Foundation, vengeance will be exacted. Upon whomever this Stone shall fall, it shall grind them to powder! In proportion to the love which gave the Only Begotten to be the Foundation of a sinner’s hope will be the Divine indignation against those who reject Him.
You who see Jesus set forth before you as the Cornerstone of the Lord’s own choosing and yet perversely turn aside to prepare false refuges of your own will have to answer to God for this insult to His Son, this despite to His Spirit! Every hour in which you make lies your refuge and hide yourselves under falsehood, you increase your guilt. O that you would consider this! But I hear one say, “We have no refuge or hiding place and do not feel that we need any.” I answer that this very self-conceit of yours is your refuge! Every man knows in his own conscience that he needs a shelter of some sort to screen himself from stern Justice. He supplies his conscience with something in the form of a shield because he inwardly knows that he is not able to appear before God without some sort of apology, or attempt at justification.
Let him cripple his conscience as much as he pleases, there is a something within him which tells him that everything is not right. He may brag as he likes, but he has at least a suspicion of danger, a fear of coming judgment! Even as a man
needs the shelter of a cave, a hut, or a house for his body, so he needs a refuge for his soul. And when he rejects the solid Refuge which the mercy of God has provided in Christ Jesus, he sets to work to build another shelter and to lay for himself another foundation where he may repose.
Our desire this morning is anxiously and solemnly to warn men of what will come of their willfulness and to lead them to look a little before them and spy out, through the telescope of Scripture, the sure future of their ungrounded hopes. Thus I trust they may be led to abandon all false refuges and may be guided by the Spirit of God to accept the sure Foundation which God has laid for His believing people. O how I long that you may, all of you, be right for eternity! I would not have one of you perish, any more than I would wish to perish myself. O Holy Spirit, bless my feeble words to the good of these, my beloved people! May my weakness of thought and speech never hinder You from working, but rather, in this hour of my infirmity, You speak, Blessed Spirit, with greater power!