Our meeting in Sarasota went
well this week. Thank you for your prayers. I
was so encouraged for so many of you all that were there. It
was a real blessing. And the brethren there are very
encouraged. Let's open our Bibles together
to a very familiar passage, one you hear me quote often, but
one that I can't hear often enough. It's in Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah
chapter 40. While you're looking there, I'll
remind you that February the 6th, 7th, and 8th, which will
be here before you know it, is our conference. And so looking
forward to that as the Lord enables you to pray for that meeting
and for the men that will be here. Their names are listed
in the bulletin. In addition to them, Donnie Bell is also
going to be here with us. So looking forward to that meeting. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 1, the
Lord speaks to his preacher and he tells him what to say. He
says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem. I wonder if you're here this
morning in need of hearing a word of comfort. If you are, There's
a message of hope in the gospel of God's grace in the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he goes on to say,
doesn't he? He says, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and
cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. I want you to take special note
of that word accomplished. I don't know of a word in the
Word of God that summarizes the gospel better than that and distinguishes
the difference between the gospel we preach and the gospel that's
being preached everywhere else. This is an accomplished work. It's finished. There's nothing
for you to do. It's done. Tell her that her iniquity is
pardoned and she has received of the Lord's hand double for
her sins. The double imputation. God made
him who knew no sin to be sin for us. In other words, our sin
was charged to Christ, imputed to Christ, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. His righteousness is imputed
to us. That's the double blessing. I'll skip down to verse 9. I'm sorry, verse 6. And the voice said, cry. God
said, tell him, declare it. And the prophet said, what shall
I cry? In other words, Lord, where do
I start this message? Where do I start it? Tell them all flesh is grass,
and all the goodliness thereof is the flower of the field. The
grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Tell them
they're grass, that'll be their comfort. Only when they realize
that they have nothing in themselves will they look to Christ for
their everything. Tell them they're grass. Tom, you come please. Lead us
the hymn in the back of your bulletin. Let's stand together. Good morning everyone. Our scripture
reading is found in John. Gospel of John, chapter 6, and
I will start in verse 25. John 6, 25, And when they had
found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him,
Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles,
but because you did eat the loaves and were filled. Labor not for
the meat that perishes, but for the meat which endureth unto
everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For
him hath the God the Father sealed. And they said unto him, what
shall we do? What we might work the works of God? This is the
question that everyone time and time again we ask. What do we
have to do? What is it that we do? And this
is what natural man asks. And the Lord Jesus Christ answered
and said unto him, The work of God, that ye believe on him whom
he hath sent, that is the work of God, that we might believe
in him, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then said unto him, What sign
thou showest thou then, that we may see and believe in thee,
that thou doest work? So they want a sign, they want
some evidence is what they're asking for. Our fathers did eat
manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. So he's saying God the Father
in the past he gave us this sign and this sign was his bread that
he gave us to eat. They did not understand what
this sign meant. In verse 32 he says, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life into the world. They said
unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said
unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. He's saying to them, that sign
was pointing to me. That sign that Moses gave that
God brought down the bread, that was a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I am that bread. and he who eateth
him shall never thirst. But I said unto you that ye also
have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me
shall come unto me, and him that cometh to me I will in no ways
cast out." This is a promise the Lord gives us, that if we
come to him But those that come to Him, we see why they come.
Because the Father gives them. I came down from heaven, not
to do my own will, but to do the will of Him who sent me.
And this is the Father's will which He has sent me, that in
which He has given me, I shall lose nothing, but shall raise
Him up on the last day. The will of God the Father is
that the Lord Jesus Christ came to save a people, a chosen people,
and He shall not lose not one, not one of them. And this is
the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the
Son and believed on Him may have everlasting life, and I will
raise them up on the last day." What a wonderful promise to those
that put their trust in the Son. The Jews murmured at him because
he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they
said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and
mother we know? How is it then that he says,
I came down from heaven? The familiarity they had with
Jesus, they know where he came from as far as they thought that
Joseph was his father. But we know that he was born
of God. Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them murmur not among yourselves no man can come to
me except the father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise
him up at the last day it is written in the prophets and they
shall be all thought of God what a wonderful promise that he's
going to teach us all Every man therefore that hath heard and
hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." Lord God teaches us
to come to Jesus, to look to him for everything. Not that
any man have seen the Father, save he which is of God has seen
the Father. Very, very I say unto you that
he that believeth on me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. The Lord
Jesus Christ is our bread. He is our bread. The fathers
eat manna in the wilderness and they're dead. This is the bread
which cometh down from heaven, that a man eateth thereof, and
not die. We eat of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We look to him for everything. We look to him for his righteousness,
which is what the bread represents. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eateth of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world." He lives
his flesh. He sacrificed himself, his body,
his holy body, to take the punishment for our sin. He took the responsibility
for our sin. The Jews, therefore, strove among
themselves, saying, how can this man give us flesh to eat? Then
Jesus said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except
ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood,
ye shall have no life in you. Whoso eateth of my flesh and
drinketh of my blood has eternal life and will be raised up in
the last day." Of course this is the double blessing that Pastor
Greg talked about. The righteousness of Christ and
his sacrificial death on the cross for our sins. For the flesh
is meat indeed and the blood is drink indeed. He that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. What a wonderful promise again
that the Lord Jesus Christ dwells in us. As the living Father has
sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he
shall live by me. We live by the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the bread which came down from heaven not as the fathers
eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever." These things he said, he in the synagogue
as he taught in the Carpentrium. Let us go to the Father. Father
God, we come before you by the Lord Jesus Christ, by his merits
alone and we come and we thank you of this wonderful blessing,
first of all, of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We thank you
for him. We thank You for we have a place here that we can
listen to Your Word and listen to the Gospel and listen to Jesus
being magnified. Father God, we ask that Your
Spirit be with us, that Your Spirit will be with Greg, Father,
and that You may bless the message. The message may be Christ glorifying
Him, you might open our ears and our eyes, Lord, and we might
hear of you, Father. We also pray for the rest of
the churches that preach the gospel. May the gospel be preached
in clarity. We are reminded also of Brother
Dennis. We pray for him as he preaches
today in California. We ask for a blessing for that
service as well, Father God. And once again, we thank you
and we We are in recognizing that we need the Holy Spirit,
Father, that we might see Christ glorified, we might see Him more
clearly in His glory. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Open your Bibles with me to Joshua,
the book of Joshua, chapter 20. Joshua, chapter 20. Every time we come together,
we are mindful of our need to have our sins
forgiven. Now the natural man, the natural
man only sees the sin problem as a behavioral problem. And he convinces himself that
he doesn't behave as bad as others behave and so therefore he's
okay. or he convinces himself that
he's behaving better than he used to behave and so therefore
he's okay. When the spiritual man is enabled
by the grace of God to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he cries with Job in saying, behold, I am vile. He realizes that his sin problem
goes much, much deeper than his behavior. Have you ever heard
someone say, perception is reality? How you perceive something to
you, it's real. Sometimes people will say, well,
you know, you're not really getting worse, you just seems like you
are to you because you see more and more to Christ. Well, let
me tell you this, perception is reality. And my perception
is that I have never been as proud. I have never been as unbelieving. I have never been as self-righteous. I have never been as worldly
as I am right now. I'm sinning worse now than I've
ever sinned in my life. Now we're not talking about sin
as a behavioral problem. We're talking about the old man
and what he is in his unbelief, in his depravity. That's what
we're talking about here. And for those who by the grace
of God have been able to see themselves as sinners, and that's
only by God's grace. He's got to make you to be a
sinner. Otherwise, you're going to be just like everybody else
and you're only going to interpret sin as acts of disobedience. What you actually perform as
a behavioral issue. Once God makes you to be a sinner,
you're going to say with Daniel, when I saw him, my comeliness
in me was turned into corruption. Everything about me. Lord, I
had heard of you by the hearing of my ear, but now mine eyes
have seen you and I repent in dust and ashes. I'm vile. Lord, I need a place
to hide. I need a refuge. There is an
avenger of blood that is pursuing me. There is a law of God that
must be reconciled. And God's law says an eye for
an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And God's not going to be settled
with anything less than complete retribution. Lord, if that's
true, if that's true, I can't satisfy your law. I need a hiding
place. I need a city of refuge that
I can flee to. Now the Lord had told Moses,
when you get into the promised land, you choose out some cities. And those cities are going to
be cities of refuge. I love what you said, Norm. Everybody
in those cities knew why they were there. Everybody knew why we were there. The governors or the magistrates
of those cities were very diligent in making sure that all the roads
leading to those cities were well maintained. They sent out
work crews on a regular basis to make sure that there were
no obstructions in the road, there were no fallen trees over
the roads, there were no rocks in the roads, there were no potholes
in the roads. And then they put out signs.
Mixah, that's Hebrew for refuge, with arrows on them pointing
to the cities of refuge. And there were three cities on
the eastern side of the River Jordan, and three cities on the
west side of the River Jordan, and wherever you lived in Palestine. If you, if you accidentally killed
another person, And it had to be accidental. If you had hatred
or vengeance in your heart towards that person and you performed
murder towards them, then the full retribution. But if you
were guilty of manslaughter, it was an accidental death. The
law still said that the nearest of kin of the one that you took
their life had the right to get retribution by taking your life.
It was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But if you
could flee, if you could get away from that avenger of blood,
if you could get to one of those cities of refuge, then in that
city you were safe. Until the death of the high priest. And when the high priest died,
then you come out. Now, as is true with everything
in the Word of God, these are gospel pictures, aren't they?
These cities represent the Lord Jesus Christ. You have your Bibles
open to Joshua chapter 20. If God's made you to be a sinner,
and we're not talking about just behavior, we're talking about
perception being reality. What is your perception of yourself? Do you perceive yourself to be
worse than you've ever been? That's your reality. When I said,
well, I just seems like I am, but no, I really am. I really
am. If God's made you to be that
way, you're going to be running to that city of refuge and you're
going to be thankful that there's signs out on the road pointing. Behold, the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sins of the world. Mixah, refuge, run there, go
there. It's the only safe place to be. And the road's been paved. We're
not putting encumbrances in the road. We're not saying, well,
you know, you got to do this and you got to do that. You got
to work over this rock and through that tree. And you got to make
these steps. No. We're gonna make the road as
clear and plain and simple as we can possibly make it and move
all the Obstructions so that you can get yourself to Christ Verse 1 the Lord also spake unto
Joshua saying speak to the children of Israel And that's what I'm
doing right now As Norm reminded us in the previous
hour, we say nothing but thus saith the Lord. And if you're
a child of God, all you want to know is what God has to say.
You don't want to know my opinion. You don't want to know anybody
else's opinion. What does God say? Well, here's what God says.
Speak to the children of Israel saying, appoint out for you cities
of refuge. whereof I spake unto you by the
hand of Moses. God had already told Moses. And
much emphasis was placed, if you go back to Deuteronomy and
read all about the cities of refuge there, much emphasis was
made on these cities being a place only for the manslayer, only
for the one who committed accidental manslaughter. And we'll deal
with that in just a moment. That the slayer that killeth
any person unawares, Unawares may flee thither, and they shall
be your refuge from the avenger of blood. And when he that doth
flee unto one of these cities shall stand at the entering of
the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause to the ears
of the elder of that city, they shall take him into the city
unto them, and give him a place that he may dwell among them.
He goes to the gate of the city, he pleads his cause, he confesses
what he did, but he tells them that it was an accident, the
Avenger of Blood's coming after him, please let me in. And if
the Avenger of Blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver
the slayer up to his hand, because he smote his neighbor unwittingly,
and hated him not before time. He didn't do it out of malice,
it was an accident. And he shall dwell in that city
until he stand before the congregation for judgment, and until the death
of the high priest, and they be in those days. Then shall
the slayer return and come to his own city, and unto his own
house, unto the city from which he fled. Now the Lord Jesus Christ
is our high priest. He's pictured here not only in
the city of refuge, but he's pictured here in the death of
the high priest. The Lord Jesus Christ went to
Calvary's cross and paid the full retribution for our sin. All our sin. Not just the things
that you're ashamed of outwardly, but all the things that you're
ashamed of inwardly. He put away all our sin. He died
on Calvary's cross. He bore in his body the sins
of his people and suffered the full wrath of God in order to
satisfy divine justice once and for all. That's his death. That's our hope of being delivered
from the avenger of blood, the law. The law that is pursuing us,
hot on our heels. The law is not going to satisfy,
won't be satisfied with anything less than full retribution. The
law can't save, only thing the law can do is condemn. The only
thing the law can do is kill. The only thing the law can do
is inspire sin. People put themselves under the
law thinking that they're going to be less sinful. By the law is the knowledge of
sin, and the law is the strength of sin. Christ himself is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
The law doesn't put away sin, the law doesn't even restrain
sin. You put yourself under the law
and that sinful nature we're talking about right now, that
self-righteousness, that pride, that unbelief will only become
worse. it'll only become worse if you
think that somehow that you're satisfying the demands of the
law you are becoming more sinful more sinful and more in condemnation
to God than you've ever been before and the sad thing for
you is that if you're under the law you don't know it you don't
know it only those who are under grace see the depravity of the
soul The evilness of their flesh. Verse 7, And they appointed Kedesh
in Galilee in Mount Naphtali. Now Kedesh translated means holy
place. Holy place. And Shechem in Mount
Ephraim. Shechem translated means back
or shoulder. And Kirjath Arba which is Hebron. Hebron translated means unity
or fellowship. Each one of these cities in their
names tells us something about the Lord Jesus Christ. in the mountain of Judah. And
on the other side of Jordan, by Jericho eastward, they assigned
Bezer. Bezer translated means enclosure
or walled city. In the wilderness upon the plain
of the tribe of Reuben and Ramoth in Gilead, which means height
or exaltation. Out of the tribe of Gerd and
Golan, which means rejoicing, rejoicing. Out of the tribe of Manasseh.
These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel
and for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth
any person at unawares might flee thither and not die by the
hand of the avenger of blood until he stood before the congregation. Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse
27 we read the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are
the everlasting arms and he shall thrust out the enemy your greatest
enemy your greatest enemy my greatest enemy is the law of
God He's the one pursuing us. He's
the one that will kill us if we be found outside of Christ. Isaiah chapter 32, listen to
this, behold a king shall reign in righteousness and princes
shall rule in judgment and a man, a man, the man, the God-man,
a man shall be a hiding place. hiding place from the wind and
a covert from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place
as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land oh Lord I'm thirsty
I'm weary I'm there's a hurricane coming I've got to have a hiding
place there's a storm coming and don't don't believe for a
moment that it's not coming The day of judgment, the day of wrath
is coming. God's gonna reconcile things.
Not one sin, not one single sin, and we're not talking about just
bad behavior now. Every remnant of unbelief, every
shadow of pride, every thread of self-righteousness, everything,
God knows it. You see, the problem is that
man looks at the outward appearance. That's all the natural man can
see is just behavior. But God's looking at the heart,
like those whitewashed tombs you talked about, Norm. Men are
so good at cleaning up the outside, make it look pretty, but the
inside's full of dead men's bones. The day of judgment. Oh Lord,
might I be found in Christ. What I'm saying to you right
now is, if you're a sinner, flee to one of these cities of refuge. Flee to all of them. fleet all
of them Psalm 32 verse 7 thou art my hiding place thou shalt
preserve me from trouble thou shalt compass me with songs of
deliverance what did Golan mean rejoicing that's the end it starts
with holiness and it ends with rejoicing those are the six cities Oh, to be found in Him. How blessed
it is to discover that in His person, and by His blood, and
through His righteousness, we are secretly and securely preserved
from all judgment. Neither the law nor justice is
able to condemn us. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Sin nor Satan reigns over us. You are not under the law. You're under grace. Therefore
sin shall not reign over you. You're able to believe. You're
able. You see, when we're under the
law and in sin, we're not able to flee to Christ. Death nor hell is a threat to
us anymore if we're in the city of refuge. The world nor the
grave can injure us anymore. To have Christ as our refuge
means that we have the Holy Spirit as our earnest possession who
seals our hearts in all the promises of God, which are in Christ,
yea and amen. We don't preach a yea-nay gospel.
We don't say, well, you know, God loves you, has a wonderful
plan for your life. Can you imagine Noah putting
a sign out on the outside of the ark after God shut him in?
After God shut the doors of the ark, Noah and his three sons
and their wives are all in the ark, and the wrath of God is
opened up to the destruction of the world, and Noah slides
a sign out the window saying, God loves you and has a wonderful
plan for your life. Or like the billboard we've got
down the street here, God's not angry. There's a day that God's
anger is going to be shown. It's going to be shown. The only people we can say that
to... I told the folks yesterday over
in Sarasota, I said, this is not a Christian nation. There
isn't a Christian nation, except Israel, Old Testament Israel.
was the only Christian nation that ever was on the face of
the earth, and most of them weren't Christians. The only thing Christian about
this world is Christians. And the only place you're going
to find Christians is where the Lord Jesus Christ is lifted up
in the preaching of the gospel of his free grace. The only thing about this world
that's Christian, you're looking at it, Right here, look around. This is it. And every other place
where God's people gather together and rejoice in the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only thing Christian
about this world. Oh, for the Lord to awaken our
soul to the truth of the gospel and enable us to have some understanding
of the mystery of Christ and his church. To find the Lord
Jesus Christ to be our hiding place, to rest from our labors
and flee to him. What do those signs say out on
the road? Refuge! Refuge! Now, what about this thing of
unintentional murder? Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. Verse 7, 1 Corinthians chapter
2, verse 7. But we speak the wisdom of God,
and that's Christ. God has made him to be for us
our wisdom, our righteousness, our redemption, and our sanctification,
our redemption. Christ is everything. He's the
wisdom of God. We speak the wisdom of God. We
tell a man about Christ. in a mystery. We know that it's
hidden from the natural man, but it's not mysterious. It's
just that the natural man can't see Christ. He can't see. It's amazing to me how people
can come and listen to the gospel of God's free grace being preached
and think that they're hearing the same thing they heard out
there in religion when they listen to something. They think they're
hearing the same thing. Let me tell you what happens in the
brain. They hear the word God. They hear the word Jesus. They
hear the word grace. They hear the word faith. They
hear the word believe. And they put it all together
in their own mind and come to their own conclusions. And they've
got ears, but they do not hear. They've got eyes, but they do
not see. And people sit under the gospel
and they don't hear. They don't hear. It's not because we're putting
obstacles in the way. Oh, we shout it from the rooftops. We want men to hear. We want
them to know. We want to make it as clear and
simple and unencumbered as we can make it. We want to preach
the simplicity of Christ without any mixture of law, without any
mixture of works, without giving men anything to do. But if the
Lord's not pleased to open the ears and open the eyes, men won't
hear and they won't see. Which God ordained before the
world unto our glory. Our glory. What is our hope of
glory? It's Christ in us. It does not
yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall
appear, we'll be made like Him. All this flesh will be shed.
No more sin. No more sin. Oh, I long for that
day. I long for that day. Verse 8. We're talking about
this thing of unintentional murder. murdering unawares, accidental
death. That's what the city of refuge
was for. It wasn't for the murderer who set in his heart to kill
his brother. Which none of the princes of
this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. Had they known who the Lord Jesus
Christ was, they wouldn't have done what they did. But as it is written, eye has
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the hearts
of men the things which God prepared for them that love them. Paul
says in 1 Timothy, I was, he talks about his life, I was a
blasphemer, I was a persecutor, I was an injurious man, and then
he goes on to say, but I obtained mercy because I did it in ignorance. I didn't know what I was doing.
I didn't know who the Lord Jesus Christ was until he shined the
light of his grace from heaven and spoke to my heart and said
to me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who art thou, Lord?
I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. And what was Saul's response?
Lord, Lord, what would you have me to do? Now turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. This gospel, here's my point
right now, and I want you to please hear this, oh that God
would give you and I ears to hear this. The gospel, what we're
hearing right now, is the most dangerous thing in the world. There's no threat from terrorists,
there's no war, there's nothing in this world that is more dangerous
and at the same time more saving than the gospel. Dangerous for
those who hear and don't believe. Yes, we killed our brother. Yes, we were in unbelief. Yes, we came into this world
speaking lies and hating God. But like Saul of Tarsus, the
child of God can say, I did it in ignorance. I did it and I didn't know who
he was. Now I know. Hearing this message and not
believing, you have your Bibles open to Hebrews chapter 10. Verse
25, not forsaking Now I've heard preachers say,
you know, well you've been out of church, you know, for a couple
weeks, you've forsaken the assembling of yourselves together. I had
somebody ask me this morning about somebody that, you know,
stopped coming. Are they gonna, you know, are
they gonna come back? If they don't, they have forsaken
the gospel. They heard the truth. They acknowledged
it. They said they believed it, and
they've left the gospel. And if you can leave, you will
leave. But here's the warning of God's
Word. This is what this unintentional murder is about. There's no mercy. There's no mercy for those who
have heard, listen to what Hebrews chapter 10 says, not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together. This is a person, this is a Demas,
this is an Alexander, this is the one who gave profession of
faith in Christ. They heard the truth, they said
they believed it, and they were able to walk away from the gospel
and go back. Go back to a works gospel. Go back to a man-made religion.
Only proving that they never really heard it to start with,
but condemning their souls. As the manner of some is, but
exhorting one another, and so much the more as we see the day
approaching. That's what I'm trying to do to you right now.
Exhort you. Encourage you. Don't forsake the assembling
of yourselves together. Don't move somewhere where you're
away from the gospel, young people. You get a better job, you have
an opportunity to advance yourself in the world. Don't go there
if there's not a gospel church there. Don't walk away from Christ. Don't do it. For if we sin willfully, Now every sin I've ever committed
was done as an act of my will. Every unbelieving thought I've
ever had, every thought of pride I've ever had, every action of
disobedience I've ever done was an act of my will. You can't
sin without willing to sin. So what's he talking about if
we sin willfully? we have received the knowledge
of the truth. There remaineth no more sacrifice
for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery
indignation, which shall devour the adversary. of how much sore he that despised
Moses' law without mercy under two or three witnesses, died
without mercy, of how much sore punishment suppose ye shall be
worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God and counted the
blood of covenant whereby he was sanctified an unholy thing
and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace." That means
he heard the gospel, he gave He gave confession to the gospel
and he walked away from the gospel and said, as I've seen people
do, I've seen it happen. I've seen it in this fellowship
over the last 20 years. And speak lies about God out
of their mouth and go back to a man-made religion The price
was too high. The seed was planted in rocky
soil and it sprung up for a little while, but because there was
no depth of root in it, the heat of persecution came and it withered
and died. And that seed won't come back.
The seed that was planted in the hedgerow and got caught up
with the thorns of this world and the cares and thorns of this
world and they forsook the gospel. forsook the gospel, spoke blasphemies
against God. This gospel message, there's
actually been times when I have been hesitant to tell someone
the gospel because I cared for them as a
person and I feared that they wouldn't believe what I was telling
them and I knew that the knowledge of that message
was going to increase their condemnation before God. This gospel's dangerous. This is the sobering truth for
each one of us. These cities of refuge were for
those who didn't know what they had done. You can't go anywhere else. Very quickly, go back with me
to our text. I'll try to deal with these very
quickly. I promise. the first city, a holy place,
a place recognized by God as set apart. That's what the word
holy means. To be holy means that God recognizes
you as separate. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the only one who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate
from sinners. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. Heaven and earth is filled with
Thy glory. The only safe place to be. God can't fellowship with
anything that's less than His absolute holiness. His eyes are
too pure to look upon iniquity. He can't fellowship with us outside
of Christ. We've got to be found in Him. Kedesh it starts with holiness
isn't it doesn't it it's the it's the first city it's the well Hebrews chapter 12 says
without holiness no man will see God now how are you and I
going to be holy How are we going to lift up holy hands? How's
a sinner? I'm talking about a sinner now who sees themselves beyond
and deeper and more depraved than just some bad behavioral
problems. Everything about them is vile. And they're getting
worse. How are you going to stand in
the presence of holy God? Get to Kedesh. Get to Kedesh. He is our holiness
before God. What's the second city? Shechem.
What did I say Shechem means? It means back or shoulder. I gave my back to the smiters,
the Lord Jesus Christ said in Isaiah chapter 50 verse 6. The
chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we
are healed. Oh, when his back was opened
to expose the bones of his body with that cat o' nine tails,
it was the wrath of God's judgment falling upon him. And he's the only, his back is
the only one able. The only one able to satisfy
all we like sheep have gone astray, the Lord has laid on him the
iniquity of us all. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. And what'd the Lord say? Are
you burdened? Are you heavy laden? Do you have
a weight of sin that you cannot carry? Not talking about just,
well, you know, I've got this problem or that problem in my
life. Everybody's got problems. You think, well, my family and
my story, take my word for it. I may not know more about more
folks than you do, but I promise you, nothing unique about your
family. We're all messed up. We're all dysfunctional. If you're burdened and heavy
laden, come unto me. I will give you rest. My burden
is light. My yoke is easy. Learn of me. The governments were placed upon
my shoulder. I offered my back to the smiters. The only hope that we have in
being crushed from the weight of our sin is that the Lord Jesus
Christ himself would be our Shechem. Hebron, you see that third city,
Hebron? It means fellowship, unity, or
concord. And John says in 1 John chapter
1 verse 3, that which we have seen and that which we have heard
we declare unto you that you may have fellowship with us and
truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus
Christ. I am crucified with him. I have
unity with Him. When He died, I died. When He
lived, I lived. When He was buried, I was buried.
When He rose again, I rose again. I had a man with multiple degrees
in a very well-known religious school say to me last week. He was a professor. First thing
he said to me was, I'm faculty yet," and gave the name of the
school. And I thought, I know you're
trying to impress me, but I would be more impressed if you just
walked up to me and said, I just got out of prison and I've still
got a problem with criminal activity, than to tell me what you just
told me. And at the end of the conversation,
he said, I said, well, what is the gospel? He said, this is
the gospel. And he quoted 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 3 and 4. Christ
died, was buried, and rose again. That's the gospel. And I said, well, you left some
words out. That verse says how that Christ died, according to
the scriptures, and how that he was buried and rose again,
according to the scriptures. And he said, oh, you're parsing
the verbs in the Greek now, huh? And I finally said, you know,
we've just got different gods. And here's the most telling thing
about that whole conversation I had with him. When I said to
him, we worship different gods, he immediately said to me, no,
we don't. I said, oh, yes, we do, but that's
okay with me. I don't want your God. Why do
you need me to affirm you? I don't need you to affirm me. No, no, we don't worship different
gods. Well, I'm sorry that we do. How that Christ died was very,
you see the gospel is not in what happened 2,000 years ago,
it's in what was accomplished in the death, burial, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what was accomplished is
that when Christ went to Calvary's cross, all God's elect were in
Him. And when Christ died, I died. That's what Hebron means. It
means unity. It means fellowship. And that's
what Paul meant when he said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live but I life
that I live now in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and died for me When he was buried I was
buried when he rose again, I was rose a unity Get to Hebron The
only hope that we have a fellowship with God is to be in fellowship
with Christ That's why Paul said oh that I might know him and
the fellowship of his suffering These cities of refuge were given to tell us something about the
one in whom we have refuge from the law which rightly pursues
us even though we did it in ignorance. Keresh, holy place. Shechem,
shoulders back. Hebron, unity with Christ. Bezer, Bezer means enclosure
or walled city. This wall is not like the walled
city of Jericho. This is an impenetrable fortress. This is a wall that will not
allow the enemies to come and take us. Bezer was a wall well
protected. Zechariah chapter 2 verse 5 says
that we have a wall of fire around about his people. We have a strong
city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. And when we read of the New Jerusalem,
we find that the foundation of those walls was twelvefold. Oh, this walled city is a safe
city. It's a safe place. Refuge! There's no problem with the roads. No problem with the roads. The
avenger's blood is coming. Run to Christ. Ramoth means height
or exaltation. Therefore he is able to save
them to the uttermost that come to God by him. He makes the mountains
low and he makes the valleys high. He gives grace to the humble. He exalts his people. He lifts up the brokenhearted
and he brings us to the height of the throne of God so that
in Christ in the heavenlies we are. Golan is the sixth city It means
rejoicing. And I think it's just so glorious
that the Lord in giving us these six cities starts with holiness
and ends with rejoicing. Rejoice in the Lord. You say, well, you don't understand
my troubles. Again, I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known
unto all men. Why? For the Lord is at hand.
He's near. He's near to you. All flee to
Christ. He's given us cities of refuge
to tell us about who He is. Has God made you to be a sinner? Refuge. Refuge. The signs are out. The road's
been paved. Run. Run to Him. Right now. Right now. Right this
minute in your heart. Run to Christ. You've got no
other hope. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for Your Word and we ask now that Your Holy Spirit would bless
it to our hearts and give us faith to believe Thee. For we
pray it in Christ's name and for His sake. Amen. I'll ask the men if they'll come
and distribute the bread and the wine. And Tom, we're going
to sing number... Just remain seated, please, 126.