the 16th and 17th verses of the 28th chapter of Isaiah's prophecy. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make heath. Judgment also will I lay to the lie, and righteousness to the plummet, and to heal shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place, the refuge of lies. Every man and every woman, every boy and every girl in this service tonight is faced with four stern, impregnable and imperishable facts. The fact of conscience, the fact of sin, the fact of death and the fact of judgment. These are four things that no person can escape from. And these are four things from which you must hide when they are stirred in anger and in wrath against you. You need a hiding place from conscience when it resurrects its head, and when it sounds the trumpet blast of condemnation in your heart, you need a refuge from the whip of conscience stirred. When with your guilt you are assailed, and by your guilty past you are indicted, you need a refuge from your conscience. Every man and every woman in this meeting needs a refuge from sin. Sin, the great despoiler of the universe. Sin, the great destroyer of the souls of man. Sin that bites. Sin that mocks. Sin that bars. Send the scars and send the dams. You need a refuge, my friend, from sin. Thirdly, you need a refuge from death. Every man and every woman in this meeting one day is going to die. You may not feel like dying this evening, You might say, preacher, I don't want to talk about a coffin. I don't want to think about a shroud. I don't want to meditate upon a grave. But let me tell you this evening, no matter how unconcerned you may be, no matter how flippant your attitude may be, Let me tell you, one day you shall certainly die. It is appointed unto man once to die, but after death, the judgment. That brings me to the last point, friend. You need a refuge from the judgment. the day when the stars shall fall, the day when the sun will be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, the day when all the angels of God march to the judgment, the day when all the devils in hell go screaming to the judgment, the day when every generation of the human race and resurrected bodies march with great dread from to the judgment. You will need a refuge in that day. Now there are three things I want to say about this text. I want to examine first of all the towers of falsehoods. And I want to bring before you the tests of truth. And I want to finish on the terrors of the judgment. Let me ask the question, can a man or a woman be absolutely sure that they have got a refuge that will fully answer conscience, a refuge in which they can hide from every sin, a refuge that will shield them and keep them safe in the dark waters of death, and a refuge that will bring them through victoriously in the hour of judgment. Well, there are certain tests that you must make, and I trust God you'll make those tests this evening. I don't know what your refuge is. I don't know what you're trusting in for eternity. I don't know where your hope lies. and in what you must for the eternal betterment of your soul in eternity. But I know this, if your refuge is worth anything, it must be a sure refuge. There must be no doubt about it. If you've got any doubts about the refuge you're hiding in, friend, it's a false refuge. If there's one little glimmer of doubt now in your soul, that perhaps in the hour of death, perhaps in the day of judgment, perhaps in the time of bitterness and woe at the end time, your refuge will crumble. It will not stand the test. You'd better, friend, get rid of it now and get into a sure refuge now. then, my friend, continue hiding in a false refuge. Will your refuge stand up to the darts of the enemy when the cold waters of death come around you, when eternity's doors open for you, when the sands of time for you have forever Have you a refuge that keeps the soul sure and steadfast when the billows roll? If you're not absolutely certain of it tonight, friend, you'll not be certain in death. You'll not be certain that the judgment or in the great eternity. The second test I would put to you tonight, is your refuge a saving refuge? What do I mean by that? Is it saving you, friend, from the power and from the guilt of sin? Don't tell me you're ready for eternity if you're still wallowing in the quagmires of your iniquity. Don't tell me you're fitted for heaven when you're running in the company of hell. Don't tell me tonight, my friend, that all is well for your soul when outwardly and inwardly you are shot through by the reigning habits and by the control of the scepter of sin and the scepter of evil. Let me tell you, friend, the man that has a sure refuge, praise God, he's saved not. Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Thank God Jesus saves you. And if you've got a refuge, friend, that's a proper refuge, it'll be a saving refuge. Let me say something else. If you've got a sure refuge tonight, it will be a sanctifying refuge. What do I mean by that? I mean that every day I'll be spurning the wrong and choosing the right. Every day I'll be forsaking the world and the flesh and the devil. And every day my affections will be set on things above and on things beneath. For I am dead and my life is hid with Christ in God. You show me a man that says he's safe for eternity, and I'll show you a man that loves holiness. I'll show you a man that loves the throne of grace. I'll show you a man that loves the Word of God. If you don't love this book, don't profess that you love its author, for you don't. If you're not instant in prayer, then don't tell me you're headed out for heaven. For the man that goes to heaven is the praying man, and the woman that's bound for the glory land is the woman that knows the throne of grace by constant occupancy of that throne in prayer. It'll be a sanctifying refuge. I'll tell you something else. If you've got the proper refuge, praise God, it'll be a satisfying refuge. You'll be happy about it. If I wasn't happy, my friend, about the refuge that's Jesus Christ that I'm trusting in tonight, then Christ couldn't help me in death or in judgment. But praise God, heaven is satisfied with Jesus. Praise God, justice is satisfied with Jesus. And hallelujah, there's not a sinner that ever trusted Him. That's not completely. I'm absolutely satisfied with Christ. To Jesus every day I find my heart is closer drawn. He's fairer than the morning, brighter than the rising sun. He's all my fancy pictured in its fairest dreams and more. And each day He grows still sweeter than He ever was before. Jesus satisfies you. I'm not satisfied with myself. I'm not satisfied with my service, but bless the Lamb, I'm satisfied with Him. Praise His name. Tell me, have you got a sure refuge? Have you got a saving refuge? Have you got a sanctifying refuge? Have you got a satisfying refuge? Those are the tests of truth. Now test your refuge tonight. See of what sort it's made. Is it a refuge of lies? Is it? A false thing that will crumble when the thunders of God start and leave you unmasked and uncovered in your nakedness to face an angry God, angry because of your stupidity, folly and sin. What are the refuges that men hide in? What are these towers of falsehood? What are these refuges of lies? Of course, first of all, if I went down into this audience tonight and I asked you, why? Are you not a Christian? What are you trusting in? Among these pews there would be many people who would say to me, well, you see, I'm doing the best I can. You know, I'm not really as bad as you seem to think I am. It's all right, Mr. Paisley, to talk about drunkards and prostitutes and gamblers and blasphemers needing God's salvation, but I'm different. See, I never did anybody any harm. I never committed any great crime. I never did the things that vile sinners have done. Listen, preacher, I'm not too bad. I want to ask you a question, friend, tonight. How's that sort of refuge going to stand the test? You just test it tonight. When your conscience begins to trouble you, does it satisfy your conscience to say, I'm not too bad? Does it? No, you know perfectly well that that answer doesn't satisfy your conscience. Tell me, will it help you when the death rattles in your throat and the death chills in your brow and you're headed out to meet your God? Will it do you then any good to say, I wasn't too bad anyway? Will it help you when you stand at the bar of God and God reads the books, the laws and commandments of the books? Will it help you then, poor Christ-rejecting, unregenerate, unconverted soul? Tell me, will it help you then in the hour of the judgment? I tell you, you'll stand in confusion in that day of your trusting in your own morality. Listen to what the Word of God says. Isaiah 64. And verse 6, but we are all as an unclean thing. There's your depravity. You're an unclean thing in the eyes of God. And all our righteousnesses, mark your plural, Not just your righteousness, but your righteousnesses are as filthy rags. My, there's not only your depravity in this verse, but there's your impurity in this verse. All your righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Listen to this. And we all do fade as a leaf. There's your mortality here today and tomorrow gone forever. Let me tell you, we're going down the valley one by one with our faces towards the setting of the sun. Down the valley where the mournful cypress grows, where the stream of death in silence onward flows. We are going down the valley. We are going down the valley. We are going down the valley, one by one. We all do fade as a leaf, but that's not at all. And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. There's your iniquity. Ponder it tonight. Have a look at it! Your depravity, your impurity, your mortality, and your iniquity! And yet you say I'm good enough. What a fool you are, hiding in a man-made refuge of lies. But there are people in this meeting who wouldn't give me that answer if I went to talk to them. I know what they would say. They would say, Mr. Paisley, do you see that man there? Well, if he's a Christian, I'm a far better Christian than he is. Do you see that woman there? She professes to be born again, but I live a far straighter and more upright life than her. Do you know what your refuge is? Your refuge, friend, is someone else's feelings, someone else's sins, someone else's imperfections. someone else's bad habits and base iniquities. You know what you're doing? You're gathering up the sins of the saints, and you're piling them all up, and every man knows that the saints have sinned. They're not perfect, any of them. They're not going to heaven because they're perfect. They're going to heaven because they're saved by grace alone. And you've piled up all the sins and imperfections of God's people, and you're hiding in a refuge of lies. Will it do you any good when you come to die to be able to say, but the man next door was a thief? Will that help you? When you stand in the judgment, will it do you any good to point out some man you knew and say he did so and so? No, friend, that man will answer for himself. Ian Paisley will stand in his own shoes on the day of judgment and so will you. You'll stand before God yourself, right? Let me emphasize. What a fool you are to be trusting in the sins of others as a refuge for your soul. And then, of course, there's the poor fool. And if I went down and spoke to him in the meeting, he would say, well, you know, preacher God, there's a God of love. I don't go in for your hellfire judgment message. I believe that God is all loving, and there is no hell, and there is no judgment, and there's nothing to fear. I'll just go on the way I'm going. I'll be all right in the end, will you, friend? Let me tell you if the Bible's true, and it is. And remember this, the only revelation you have of God is in His Word. This Bible portrays God as a God of love, but there is no discord in the universe of God. And God's love is perfect. And it can only be perfect as it exercises judgment. Where there is no judgment, then there's discord. And love only rules by law. And law, my friend, must rule. And God is not only infinitely loving, but God is infinitely just. And if you'll not have His mercy, you'll have His wrath. And if you'll not go to God's heaven, then you'll go to God's hell. And if you'll not bow at His Son and receive Him, then one day you'll bow at the foot of that Son. for a verdict of judgment and eternal doom. Make no mistake about it. What a fool you are to twist the Scriptures and pervert them to your own damnation. But then there's people here tonight in the meeting, and if I went down and said to them, why are you not saved? They would say, I don't believe in God. I don't believe that there's a God in heaven. The Bible says, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Do you think that philosophy of yours, friend, will help you to live and help you to die, help you to stand in the judgment? Many years ago when I first came preaching to this road, but I suppose 20 years ago, I went down the road one day, and I went into Moore Street, and there was a great empty space in Moore Street at that time. It's no longer there. There's a power station built in it. And I looked at it, and I said, I know what I'll do. I'll put up a tent in that ground, and I'll preach the gospel to these people. So I went to look who owned the ground and could I find who the owner was. And I met a man and he said to me, Ian, you know what you should do? You should just go and put a tent on it and say nothing to anybody. And nobody will know who you are or what you're doing and before they get rid of it, your mission will be over and no one will say anything. So that's exactly what I did. And nobody ever said to me, you were on that ground or who owned it or what it was. And eventually it was wrecked. by the corporation and taken over. But let me tell you this, I had a piece of ground. I had no tent. I was just a poor, struggling preacher. And I had very little money. And I heard that there was a man away down in Georgia Street. Man, I don't go down there today or they would kill me. I was stoned out of that area the other day. There was a man down there and he had a tent. So I went down and saw this wee man. He was a devoted son of the Pope. I knew that to look at him. And when he looked at me, he said, what do you want? I said, I hear you have a tent. He says, I have. He says, I have an old, dirty, cargate tent. It's been lying here since the war. It's a three-poller. He says, I haven't a pole, I haven't a rope, but I've got the tent. He says, I'll let me see it. So he pulled it out from under a lot of old junk, broken sideboards and broken boards. And he brought it out. And then we started to bargain for it. I'm a Bellamena man, and I don't believe in giving away anything. You all know that. And he said, you know, that tent's worth a lot of money. I said, don't talk foolish. You haven't a pole or a piece of rope for it, and you tell me it's worth a lot of money. Well, he said, how much will you give for it? I never like anybody to ask me a question like that. I'd rather they made the price and then the bargaining could start. So I said very quickly, I'll give you 12 pounds. It was all I had. And he looked at me, he says, 12 pounds for that tent? I said, yes, you're getting a bargain. Oh, he says, well, I want it out of the road. Give me the money. So I got out my two fivers and two pounds and gave it to him and I got the tent. Then I had to get poles and we got poles. And we got ropes and we got the old tent up. It was like the dark hole of Calcutta inside it. With a real heavy old dirty cargy tent. And I got an electrician to put lights in it. And we lit it up and I started to preach. And God started to move. My, what meetings we had under that canvas roof. Old time, old fashion. Holy Ghost charged meetings with sinners. coming to Jesus. In one of the houses just across from the tent, there lived a man who professed to be a communist and an atheist. His wife was ill. She was dying with TB, and all they could do for her was take the window sash out of the upstairs window. And there she lay, and at night you could hear her coughing away her lung. I had a great burden to reach that woman for Christ. So I went to the door, and when I got to the door, this man stood there. He said, You'll never come in here! I said, Why? He said, Because you believe in the Bible, and I believe it's a pack of lies. I don't know why I said it, but I said to a man, You have a woman dying upstairs, and I would need to reach her with a gospel. But I'll never come over your doorstep until you come begging me to come in." And he said, well, you'll never be in. I'll never ask you over the doorstep. I said, time will answer that, and I left. Of course, I believe and been subtle, you know. So I went to two good godly women that were in the church. And I said, now I want you to get some fruit and some flowers, and I want you to go to the door when that fellow's not in. And there'll be one of the neighbors there, and they'll let you up the stairs, and you can witness to the woman and get her saved. And so they did it. I got them up the stairs while the old rascal was away. And the woman got right with God. Thank God for that. Of course, He never would let me in. The mission went on for six weeks. A couple of hundred people professed faith in Christ. Some of them are members of the church to this day. And I pulled down the old tent and took it up to Mount Murray. But about a week after the tent was down, one morning early, knocking came to the door of the house in which I was living. I threw on a dressing gown and I came down the stairs and I saw two men through the glass panel and I opened the door. And it was that communist and his brother. I said, what do you want? The man started to cry. I said, are you going to invite me in now? I said, I know what's happened. You needn't talk to me. I said, your wife's dead. You want me to do the funeral, don't you? And I said, you've come here weeping on my doorstep to invite me into your home now. That's a bit too late, isn't it? They said, oh, Mr. Paisley, don't talk like that. I said, I need to talk like that. I said, only for you, I could have witnessed to your wife and brought her to Christ. But I said, thank God, we were more supple than you thought we were. I said, my church woman were in with your wife. Got her through to the Lord before she died. But I said, it's no thanks to you. Well, he said, will you come down to the house? I said, I will. So I pressed and went down. I had a little Austin car at that time. I used to go into it, you'd have thought I needed a shoehorn to get me prized into it. And we went down together. And I stood at the door. I said, are you inviting me in? Oh, he said, please come in. He says, I remember what I said to you. He'd be inviting me in someday. And I got that man by the arm and I took him up the stairs. And his wife was stretched out on the bed. She was gone. And I said to him, now I want to ask you a question. Where's your Marxism now? Where's your communistic philosophy now? Where's all your crying and blasphemy against God now? That when death hits you, You have nothing to hide. That big man that could curse God and preach his communism, he stood like a child trembling, the tears running down his cheeks. I want to tell you, friend, go through the world believing there's no God, and when you face death, you'll know there's a God. When you stand at the judgment, you'll know there's a God, all right. What a fool you are to think you'll hide in a refuge of atheism. And there's worse than that. There's the people that hide in the refuge of religion. You religious sinners think you're ready for heaven because you've been baptized. You're a baptized candidate for hell if you're not born again. Let me put it straight to you. Think because you've been confirmed My friend confirmed in your sins. That's what you've been if you've never been born again. Think because you're a church member, you're safe for eternity. No, sir. There's millions of church members in hell. You can stand where God's people stand. You can sit where God's people sit. You can pass as a Christian and have the stamp of religion about you, but it's a refuge of lies. Religion without Christ will damn you deep in hell. Let me tell you, it's no use. I visited religious people, but they needed Jesus Christ. I visited a dear woman in Sandy Road today. She had religion, but she hadn't Jesus. But thank God, about ten minutes to five this afternoon, I pointed her to Christ. And she came to the Savior. My friend, you need Jesus. Let me finish with the terrors of the judgment. Let me tell you something about God's judgment, friend. It's sacred. It's God that judges you. Oh, it will not be man! Man's day will be over then! and you'll stand before the bar of God? How will you do in the presence of the God you've slighted and in the presence of the Christ that you've denied? Terrible day of judgment. Judgment is sacred. It's God that judges. Judgment is sudden. When they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them. First gospel mission I ever had was enlist in American Orange Hall in the Bream Valley. I was a boy of just over 17, and I asked the orange man to give me the hall, and they gave me. And when I got out there, it was in a shocking state, and a couple of us got down on our knees and scrubbed it out. Got a lot of old seats into it and I preached for I don't know how many weeks. Up the road there was a tent mission conducted by two brethren evangelists. One of them was Scotch Craig, a well-known brethren evangelist. People in the neighborhood didn't like the gospel. Many a night when I came through the door of that orange hall, the sods fell fast and thick upon me. And one day when the two Evangelists, the brethren evangelists, went to their tent. On a Sunday afternoon, they found it completely destroyed by tar. The fellows had gathered up a tar barrel that was in the roadside and broke it open and poured the tar over the seats and the platform and made a complete mess of the whole thing. The young fellow in the neighborhood, he boasted that he did it, laughed at the evangelists and at me, the preacher in the Orange Hall. You know, a few days afterwards, that young fellow was out driving a tractor in the field, and the tractor turned right over and pinned him to the ground. And before they got him out, he was in eternity. I want to tell you, you can't play with God, friend. I've seen men die, you know, when they oppose the gospel. I've seen strong sinners suddenly cut off peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them. Death and judgment are sudden. Death and judgment are sweeping. The heel shall sweep away the refuge of lies. Poor unconverted sinner, how will you do when the death rattle comes in your throat? How will you do when the death-drear breaks upon your brow? My sinner friend, how will you do in the darkness of death without Jesus Christ? Oh, the terrors of the judgment of our God. Praise God Jesus conceive you tonight. The doors of mercy stand ajar. He stretches out his kneel, pierced her. He says, come, please, God, you'll hide in Christ. Please, God, you'll be able to say, as you leave this meeting, hiding in thee, hiding in thee, thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in thee. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this house and for the opportunity to preach within its walls the gospel of Christ. O God, we pray in Jesus' name that Thou wilt save precious souls now in this meeting. deal in grace, deal in love with soul. Don't let them go out to the broad road and to the depths of eternal doom. My God, bring them to yourself tonight.