The Refuge — E.A. Johnston

Noah's Warning and the Need for Refuge

In the days of Noah, when he was preparing the ark, he was a preacher of righteousness to his generation, for he warned them to flee from the coming storm of justice. Every stroke of his hammer on that ark was a sermon to his neighbors.

Their trouble was they failed to heed the warning given. Our trouble today is we fail to warn men, and that's a great injustice to them, for how will a man flee to a place of refuge unless he fears the coming storm?

The Gospel Must Reveal Sin and Judgment

My message this evening, friends, is entitled The Refuge, and my text is John 3, 36, which declares, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

I submit to you, friends, that a main reason few are saved today is we preachers don't preach the gospel in its proper order. We offer people at Jesus before they see their need of him. We have butchered the gospel of the Son of God in an attempt to make it more acceptable to sinful men.

I'm going to give us some reasons why this is so, and why so many join our churches today without a clue as to what being truly saved means. We don't show men their danger of dying in their sins and being cast into hell's furnace to be damned for all eternity, and this is why when they hear about a Jesus, that if they take him, they can go to heaven.

They'll take him casually because no demands are placed upon them. But those who are truly saved fall under all the rights and claims that the gospel has on a follower of Christ Jesus. But if by the terrors of the law we show men that they are in grave danger, if they remain, in their natural condition, and we make them sensible of the fierceness of God's wrath on sinners, then they will be more receptive to hear there is a way of salvation by Christ, as this makes them more willing to see their danger and to fly to the only refuge for sin.

If a man does not see his danger, he can't be alarmed and awaken to his lost condition, and therefore, in that state, he can't be saved. He won't understand what it is to be saved. Saved from what? We hide hell from people today and fail to warn men to flee from the wrath to come.

We just tell them about a love God who loves everybody, and you can take him or leave him, and if you do take him, you can remain the way you are. This is why we have so many baptized heathen in our churches today.

Christ's Death as Redemption from the Curse

But when men hear that Christ died for our sins, that makes them sensible that God is angry for sin, and he will execute vengeance on all sinners outside of Christ's blood. When men hear they are under a curse and that Christ has redeemed us from the curse, they will see how great a refuge for sin Jesus is.

They first must be made aware of the badness of their hearts and the poison in their blood, and by this, they will see the sin malady in them, like a physician would show you an x-ray of a black spot on your lungs.

When men see that black spot of sin on them, then they'll seek the remedy for sin in the person of Christ Jesus. When men learn that sin is a great offense to a holy God and therefore must be punished, that God will execute vengeance, then their eyes are opened to the justice and severity of God, who not sparing his only begotten Son, who suffered and died for them.

The Law Exposes Sin and Leads to a Substitute

They then see the nature and blackness of sin as a foul thing that must be severely dealt with, that when men are shown the strictness and severity of the law, that the sentencing of the law must be carried out upon all guilty lawbreakers.

They then tremble beneath the terrors of the law. They see the lightning, they hear the thunder as it comes down to them, and they seek a substitute for sin. They fly to that refuge for sin in the person of Christ Jesus.

False Professions and Carnal Security

But if our weak evangelism just talks about a love God who's handing out free tickets to heaven to all comers, then they don't mind raising their hand or walking an aisle to accept our little Jesus. They will make an intellectual assent to accept Jesus.

They will join the church, be baptized, serve in some capacity, and give their time in tithe. And when they die in their unconverted state, they'll open their eyes in hell's furnace of affliction. The antediluvians, in the days of Noah, saw no need for an ark of safety from the coming storm.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky. But they were warned. When the rain began to fall, it was too late for them, as their season of grace had passed. Today, men live within the doors of a church and rest upon a rotten foundation of carnal security from an empty religious profession.

They haven't been warned. They are baptized and hell-bound individuals who live in ignorance to both their natural condition and the grave danger of dying in their sins, and they enter eternity with a shock.

Final Judgment and the Call to Flee to Christ

But it's too late for them then. The ark of safety, the refuge from sin, the crucified Christ can't help them then, nor alleviate their miseries. Rather, God the Father stokes the fires of hell with them, as his fierce wrath is poured out upon them, like hellfire falling from heaven.

As it fell on the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, the smoke thereof went up like the smoke of a furnace. A man won't seek a refuge if he can't see the coming storm. Flee to the only refuge from sin, friend, in the person of Jesus Christ.

You must get to Christ, then. Get under his blood, or you will surely go to hell. Let us pray.