Alright, brethren, Joshua chapter
20. The Lord provided these cities
of refuge there in Canaan. And this was one of the first
things the Lord did once the fighting had stopped, is He provided
these cities of refuge. And He said, if a man committed
manslaughter, killed someone unintentionally, God provided
this city where he could flee. It was for the one who committed
manslaughter. He killed someone unwittingly,
unintentionally. He didn't have hate in his heart. It wasn't premeditated. But it
was also for the nearest kin to that one that was murdered.
That's the avenger of blood. that near of kin. And the Lord
said their heart would be hot within them and they would be
pursuing after that one who did the slaying. And this was to
keep them from committing sin as well, this city of refuge. Because the one who had committed
manslaughter could flee into the city of refuge and he'd be
safe. He'd be safe. He would come to
the gate, he would present his cause to the elders at the gate,
and they would bring him in. And he would stay there until
Judgment Day. He would stay there until the
priest, the high priest, died. And they wouldn't deliver him
to the avenger of blood. And then once his case was heard,
once he was judged, and once the If a high priest had died,
he could return to his own city, to his own house. The cities of refuge are a picture
of our one refuge, the Lord Jesus. He's our city of refuge. Our
city of refuge is Christ. All these Old Testament scriptures
bear witness of Christ in shadow and type. Our Lord said that,
He said, told the Pharisees, you search the Scriptures, for
in them you think you have life, and they are they which testify
of Me. That means these Scriptures all
testify of Him. And He was speaking of these
Old Testament Scriptures. Those two on the road to Emmaus,
He expounded to them in all the Scriptures, beginning at Moses
and all through the prophets, the things concerning Himself.
And He opened their understanding and made them hear and understand
and believe on Him. That's my prayer tonight, that
the Lord would be the teacher, that the Lord would expound the
scriptures to us and open our understanding and make us see
Christ like never before, all new, like it's the first time
we ever beheld Him. That's my prayer. Well, a refuge
is a place where one may flee into for safety and security. And without a doubt, that's who
Christ is. Deuteronomy 33.27 says, the eternal
God is thy refuge. That's who Christ is. He's our
eternal God. He's your refuge. And underneath
are the everlasting arms. He's holding his people, carrying
his people. He's bringing us into the refuge.
And the city of refuge was a place you could flee in hope. You had
some hope going to that city. You're going to be saved. You're
going to be safe. Scriptures speak of believers who have fled
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us, which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul. Our hope, where's our
hope? Well, it's sure and steadfast.
Our hope enters into the veil. That's where the forerunner has
entered. Our Lord Jesus Christ. He's entered. That's where He's
seated. That's where we flee. We flee to Him and our hope enters
in where He is and our hope is Him. Our hope is Him. He's the
high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. We're going
to see here the high priest died. Christ is our high priest who
ever lives. Now, first of all, it's God the
Father who provided his son to be the city of refuge. God the
Father gave his son to be the city of refuge. It says there
in verse 1, the Lord also spake unto Joshua, saying, Speak to
the children of Israel saying a point out for you cities of
refuge where have I spoken to you by the hand of Moses. The
Lord had already spoken to this when they were in the wilderness.
And now he does it again. But the Lord spoke to Joshua
beforehand. He spoke to him concerning these
cities of refuge before there was a manslayer, before anybody
needed the city of refuge. He declared to Joshua, you set
up these cities of refuge. You're going to need them. That's
what He's telling them. Set them up. And that's the case
in eternity. God the Father chose His Son
and appointed Him to be the city of refuge for His people. God
said, appoint out for you cities of refuge. And God the Father
appointed His Son to be our refuge. Hebrews 1.2 says, He hath in
these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed
heir of all things. It says, and he was faithful
to him that appointed him. He's the appointed one. He's
the appointed city of refuge, being justified freely by his
grace to the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has
set forth. God set him forth. Just like
God appointed these cities, God set Christ forth to be the propitiation
through faith in his blood for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. before one had committed
manslaughter, God provided the city of refuge. And so before
Adam fell, and before all fell in Adam, God had already provided
Christ our Redeemer, our city of refuge. You weren't redeemed
with corruptible things, you were redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot and blemish, who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world.
and made manifest to you who by Him do believe in the Lord."
This means that God knew Adam would fall and God had ordered,
He had appointed a Savior before Adam fell. He had purposed to
glorify His name and the salvation of His people in Christ before
His yet sin ever entered. inter-covenant with our Redeemer,
our Lord Jesus, and Christ inter-covenant with the Father. And that's why
the Scripture says in Revelation 13, 8, He's the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. He would answer for all the sins
of all His people and make us righteous and satisfy God for
the sins of His people. Now here's the purpose. This
is the purpose of the city of refuge in verse 3. It says that,
Joshua 20 verse 3, says that the slayer that killeth any person
unawares and unwittingly may flee thither. And they shall
be, these cities shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. Now the sin is what we call manslaughter. Manslaughter. It's not premeditated
murder. The Lord said plainly that a
murderer has to die for his sin. That's what God said. But though it was unintentional,
a person had been killed. Somebody's loved one had been
killed. Though it was unintentional, though there was not premeditation,
though there was no hate in the heart, somebody's loved one had
been slain. A person, a living person made
in the image of God had been killed. Life's been taken, somebody's
accountable. And the avenger, his heart is
hot. This is his loved one. And so
the slayer must have a place he can flee for refuge. Gotta have a place he can flee
for refuge. All the children of Adam are sinners. All fell
in Adam, all are sinners. And we urge those that have never
believed on Christ to flee into this city of refuge. It's the
only place you can find refuge. Flee into Christ. He's the only
one that can save us from our sins. But the picture here is
for believers. At this point, Israel's been
delivered out of bondage. Israel's been delivered through
the wilderness. They've been carried across the Jordan. And they've been delivered into
Canaan. And the picture here is for believers. Believers who sin. Now every
believer born of God hates our sin. And that's just so. As believers,
you don't want to sin. You're not sinning with a high
hand. You're not just saying, I'm going to sin and nobody's
going to tell me otherwise. That's not the heart that God
gives His child. You see what Christ had to pay
to put your sin away and you don't want to sin. And your desire
and your effort is to honor Him, to serve His people, to honor
Him in everything you do. But our sin nature is only sin,
and that's just so. Look back over there at Romans
7. I want to point out something here in Romans 7. Verse 18 says, I know that in
me that is in my flesh, in that nature I got from my father Adam
dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present with
me in the new man, but how to perform that which is good I
find not. Now that means what it says. When Christ said there is none
good, no not one, and he told that rich young ruler there's
none good but God, that's what he meant. That's exactly what
he meant. How to perform that which is
good I find not, for the good that I would I do not, Wouldn't
you do good and never sin? That's what every believer desires. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that I would not,
it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find
then a law, a standing law, that when I would do good, evil is
present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. By God's grace, that's so. If
we're born of God, that's so. But I see another law in my members,
in my sin nature, warring against the law of my mind, bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? We're learning about him in our
text. The one that's going to deliver
us from this body of death. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's who. So then, with the
mind, I myself serve the law of God. With the new man created
of God, I serve God. But with the flesh, the law of
sin. Now somebody might say, well, Paul's only speaking of
sins in our fleshly heart. Okay, you go to the doctor and
the doctor says, your body's fine, you only have a heart disease.
You're going to think, well, that's not that big a deal. Your heart's, your body's fine,
you're in good health, your muscles look good, but your heart might stop pumping
at any minute. You say, that's a serious problem. When Paul says, with the flesh
I serve the law of sin, it means everything we think, everything
we do flows through the law of sin. It flows through our sin
nature. So sin is mixed with everything
we do. What does that do to a child
of God? It humbles you. It breaks your
heart. It breaks your heart. You take
this avenger. This refuge is for him, too. This city of refuge. So when
that person, his heart's hot against him, you just imagine
somebody killed your loved one. It's not going to much matter
to you in the moment whether they did it accidentally or premeditated. And not a very good chance they're
going to be able to explain to you that person that did it,
that knew they didn't have malice in their heart, their heart's
breaking over it. But you're going to be hard pressed
to convince it of that one who's offended. So this city of refuge
is as much for that avenger as it is for the one who's done
the manslaughter to keep them from sinning. And you see, when
you see Christ, and you see that He had to come and lay down His
life for you, if you hadn't committed any sin outwardly, which that's
not so, but if you had never committed any sin outwardly,
you were conceived in sin. And your sin's in your nature,
and it's what you are. And Christ would have had to
die for you the same. And when you see that, and you
understand that, That's going to cool that hot heart and break
it and humble you down in the dust. So that you remember when
James said he spoke about the patience of Job. And everybody
knows what Job suffered. He was sick, he was covered in
boils, everything had been taken from him. Well then, he said,
you remember the patience of Job. He waited on the Lord and
his latter end was better than the beginning. And then James
says, when your brother is sick, you anoint him with oil, you
pray for him, and you confess your faults one to another. What
does that mean? It means don't treat him like
Job's friends treated Job. Don't act like you don't have
sin. Don't act like you're not without sin. And if you see what
a vile, wretched, maggot you are in yourself, in your flesh,
that will cool the hot heart. That will break it. And that'll
make us say, Lord, thank you for this city of refuge. Our text shows that sin is sin. Though it may be committed unwittingly,
it may be that we don't even realize we have sinned. And there's plenty that is not
that way. But if when you were an enemy
of our Lord and just hated Him and were sinning as wittingly
and as cunningly and as craftily as you could, and yet He laid
down His life for His people, Doesn't that break your heart?
Doesn't that make you see, if he did that for me when I was
that much of an enemy, and I see this city of refuge
who is there for me, that's going to break my heart. That's going
to break your heart so that you're not going to take vengeance.
So it's as much for the avenger as it is for the one who's offended.
The avenger of blood, first of all, represents the offended
law of God. God and His offended law. Sin
is sin. And the wages of sin is death.
Somebody has died. Sin has been committed. Death
is the wage earned. Now this is so in anything that
you and I do. But God has provided the refuge
And he's provided a refuge for you for even when you don't even
know you've sinned. And you unwittingly sinned. And
you didn't do it with premeditation and malice in your heart. The
avenger also represents that near of kin, that one that's
offended, that one that's hurt. So the city of refuge was provided
to keep him from sinning more. You can find it in Deuteronomy
19, 6. Lest the avenger of blood pursue the slayer while his heart
is hot. The need of us all, every one
of us, is to flee to Christ our refuge continually. The message
is the same for the believer as for every other sinner. For
the offender and the one offended, flee to Christ our refuge. That's our gospel. Christ our
refuge is near. He's near and it doesn't matter
where you are or what your problem is. He's near. There were six
cities. They were situated so they were
near no matter where you were in Israel. The city was near.
There were signs that pointed to the city. And they kept those
signs pointed there. And they kept the way cleaned
out so you could get there. That's what God's messenger is
supposed to do. He's supposed to be pointing
you to Christ. To Christ. This is the way. Go to Him. Flee
to Him. And that's what we as brethren are
to do to one another. This is Christ. Flee to Him.
Go to Him. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in time of trouble. Wherever they were,
there were six of them, and wherever they were, there was a city of
refuge somewhere near. And the scripture says, Psalm
46.1 says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present
help in trouble. Very present help. The Lord of
hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.
No matter where you are, no matter what you need, Christ is near.
Flee to Christ the refuge. He's the only refuge. And in
the names of this city we see who Christ is and we see how
He's the refuge for those that flee to Him. Look down there
at verse 7. Kadesh means holy. There's one
that's holy. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the Holy One. That's what the scripture calls
Him. He's our sanctifier. He's our sanctification. He's
the one that separates us into Him and keeps us separated into
Him. If we're going to enter the city
of refuge, it's going to be because He brought us into the city of
refuge. Such a high priest became us. Why did it become us to have
such a high priest who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, made higher than heaven? Because we are the sinners. Shechem, verse 7, means the shoulder. The government is on his shoulder.
The government of his church is on his shoulder. Unto us a
child is born. Unto us a son is given and the
government should be upon his shoulder. He willingly took the
sin of his people and willingly bore on his shoulder all the
justice and judgment that God demanded of his people. He bore
it all on his shoulder. and satisfied God, and purged
our sins, and made us the righteousness of God in Him, and He finds His
child wherever they are, and He puts us on His shoulder, and
brings us into this city of refuge. He's not only the city of refuge,
He's the way into the city of refuge. He's the one that's drawn
us to the city of refuge, carried us on His shoulder to the city
of refuge. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned
everyone to his own way. The Lord laid on him the iniquity
of us all, on his shoulder. Hebron, verse 7, means fellowship. We don't have any fellowship
with God the Father, holy God the Father, but in one. There's
only one in whom we have communion with the Father. Truly, our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. God is faithful
by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord. Beezer, verse 8, means a fortified
place. He's the fortified place. You
believe on Christ, you flee into Christ, you trust Christ. The
only way to get into Christ, flee into Christ, by His grace,
by Him giving you life and faith, you believe on Him. That's how
you get into this city. You trust Him. You pour out your
heart to Him. He will be a fortified place
for you. He'll protect you. He'll protect
you from the avenger of blood. He will. This is what the Scripture
says, The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous
runneth into it and is safe. He said in Psalm 91,2, I will
say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him
will I trust. Ramoth, verse 8, means exalted. God has highly exalted him. He exalted God. He highly exalted
God. Wherefore God also has highly
exalted him, giving him a name above every name. It's his name
to whom every knee is going to bow. It's his name every tongue
is going to confess. Golan, verse 8, means revealed
or manifested. It's by God revealing Christ
to us that we behold the righteousness of God as a person. And He is
that righteousness. In Christ, the righteousness
of God, we behold how that God is just to justify His people. And it's because He revealed
Christ to us. When it pleased God who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son unto
me. And He keeps revealing Him to
you. He keeps shining the light to you. He keeps making you come
to yourself and see you need Him. You need Him. But the slayer, he left all. And he fled to a city of refuge
and he had to stay in that city. Now get this picture. Scripture, our Lord said we have
to lose our life. When he went to this city, he
left his life, he left his house, he left his loved ones, he left
everybody and he fled into this city. We have to lose our life
and we have to flee into Christ where we are to abide all our
days. Now get the picture here. He
comes to the gate. The gate is the place of judgment. He comes to the gate. And when you come to Christ,
you come into the gate. And He came to the elders of
the city and they took Him, He laid His case out before them,
told them. and told him he had a need. He
couldn't be saved if he didn't enter that city. And they received
him into that city and gave him a place where he could dwell,
and they kept him safe in that city. Verse 5 says, If the avenger
of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer
up into his hand. We flee to Christ, we lay our
cause before Him, This happens the very first hour. This happens
in every time of need. You flee to Christ. You lay your
cause out unto Him. He receives all who come to Him
seeking mercy. He gives you a place to dwell
in Him. And He shall not deliver you
to the slayer. He's answered to the slayer. And the avenger, he won't deliver
you to the avenger of blood. He's satisfied justice. He's answered the vengeance of
God. And he won't deliver his child
to the avenger of blood. The slayer, though, was to remain
in that city until the day his case was judged. That's fled into Christ. You're
in Christ now. You trust Him. And God has appointed
a day in which He will judge this world in righteousness by
Christ. He's our judge. He's our righteousness. He's our advocate with the Father.
He's going to judge. Our day of judgment is coming
when He's going to declare the case and declare He's the righteousness
of His people. He's going to declare that before
all. But for every elect child of God, justice was satisfied
at Calvary. He satisfied it. He's robed you
in his righteousness. And we're in him now by faith.
And in that last day, that righteous judge is going to declare before
all, he is our righteousness. No matter what anybody can say,
this is the good news. There is no charge that's going
to stick before God for his people. Because Christ is answer to judgment. And here is something else. Now
get this. And the slayer, the man who committed the manslaughter,
he stayed in the city of refuge until the high priest, who was
the high priest for that day, until he died. Why was that? That was for the
avenger too. Why? Matthew Henry hit the nail
on the head. He said the high priest was to
be looked upon as so great a blessing to his country that when he died,
their sorrow upon that occasion should swallow up all other resentments. This was for the avenger whose
heart was hot toward the offender. When you're offended and your
heart is hot toward the offender, when you see the death of Christ
your high priest, bearing in his body on the tree what you
deserve, that swallows up resentment. That swallows up resentment. You could have, you could just
be so sure that one that slew your, just imagine now, that
one that committed manslaughter. They did it on purpose. I know
they did it on purpose. I'm going to get them. I'm going
to slay them. And when you behold Christ your
High Priest who laid down His life in your stead, and you were
guilty just flat out, and you know it, right now, today, where
you sit, if it wasn't for Him, that's going to swallow up that
desire for vengeance and melt your heart. and break
your heart. This was as much for the
Avenger as it was for the manslayer. It was for both of them, this
city of refuge. Isn't Christ a city of refuge
for us in every situation? It doesn't matter if you're the
offender or you're the one that's been offended. Christ is the
refuge. Flee into Christ. He's going to cool the heart
so that we're going to stop our pursuit when we see Him bear
what we deserve. And then, in that day, when He
stays in that city, we stay in Christ. We don't leave Christ.
We can't go outside of Christ. He's our refuge. We have to stay
in Christ. Trust Him. Just like they were
to stay in that city till the day their case was judged and
till the day the high priest died. Then they could go to their
city. Then they could return to the
city from which they fled. They could go back to their own
house. You stay in Christ. You stay
in Christ. You believe on Christ. You trust
Christ. No matter how bad it gets, no
matter what the trouble is, no matter... Stay in Christ. Believe
on Christ. Lay your cause out before Christ. Confess all your sin and need
to Christ. And lay out your cause before
Him. and stay in Him. Stay in Him. And in that day of judgment,
when He makes it manifest that He worked every work for you
and in you, and He is your righteousness and your strength, and the only
reason you stayed in the city of refuge was by His grace. And
He makes all to know. He is your wisdom, your righteousness,
your sanctification, and your redemption. And He makes the
whole world see He's the high priest who died, who laid down
His life, so that ever... I'm telling you, in that last
day, it's not going to be that sinners are going to have to
be forced to bow. No, no. You didn't have to be forced
to bow when you saw Him. You hit your knee willingly and
confess with a broken heart. It would be too late for those
that didn't flee into the city of refuge then, but what I'm
saying is you're going to see Him and you're going to know
He's that high priest, that faithful high priest who laid down His
life for His people. And then in that day, you're
going to return to the city from which you fled. We're going to
go into our heavenly city from which we fled when we sinned
in Adam, and when we were conceived in sin, and when we went from
our mother's womb, speaking lies, and every time we sinned, that's
where we were fleeing from. But we're returning, and that's
the city we're entering into. And that's our house. We're going
to enter into our house, reserved in heaven for you by our Lord. Christ is the refuge for sinners. There's one way to flee into
this refuge. That's by faith. Go to Him. Go to the gate of heaven. Go
to Him. And pour out your case before
Him. Lay out your cause before Him.
And pray to Him to save you. And all who have fled to Him
for refuge, this is what we say. Listen to Psalm 62.6. He only,
He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. That means
I don't have any. It means you don't have any.
He's my defense. I shall not be moved, and God
is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. Now here's what we say. This is what I'm trying to say.
Trust in Him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before
Him. God is a refuge for us. That's the truth. All right, Brother Greg.