Alright brethren, let's turn
to Joshua chapter 20. Joshua chapter 20. We'll read
this chapter together. Joshua chapter 20. The Lord also spake unto Joshua,
saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, appoint out
for you cities of refuge whereof I spake unto you by the hand
of Moses, that the slayer that killeth any person unawares and
unwittingly may flee thither. Someone who's committed manslaughter. And they shall be your refuge
from the avenger of blood. If someone under the law, if
someone killed another man, that person's near kin, could come
and it was a man for a man, blood for blood. They could avenge
the blood of their near kin. And when he that doth flee unto
one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of
the city and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders
of that city. They shall take him into the
city unto them and give him a place that he may dwell among them.
And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not
deliver the slayer up into his hand, because he smote his neighbor
unwittingly and hated him not before time. And he shall dwell
in that city until he stand before the congregation for judgment,
and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those
days. Then shall the slayer return,
and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the
city from whence he fled. And they appointed Kedesh in
Galilee, in Mount Naphtali, that's the first city, and Shechem in
Mount Ephraim. And notice all of these cities
are in a mount, they're a place where they can be seen. Kerjoth
Arba, which is Hebron in the Mount of Judah. And on the other
side of Jordan, by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness
upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead
out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe
of Manasseh. These were the cities appointed
for all the children of Israel and for the stranger The Lord
is already declaring here to Joshua that promise He made to
Abraham that He has a people that are made up of Jews and
Gentiles. And 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. Now, what is a refuge? What is a refuge? Well, it's
a place of hope. It's a place where one can flee
for safety and for security. That's what a refuge is. Now,
these six cities are typical. They're a type. The law, Moses
spoke of me, Christ said. These are a shadow of good things
to come. Not the very substance, the shadow
of good things to come. And these six cities are typical
of our one God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the
refuge for guilty sinners. He's the refuge. The believer
is somebody who is, as a guilty sinner, has fled to Christ our
refuge. Look at Hebrews 6 with me. Hebrews
chapter... And you'll want to hold your
place in Hebrews. We'll be back and forth here some. Hebrews
chapter 6, verse 18. Let's begin in verse 17. wherein
God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that
by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation, look at this next phrase, who
have fled for refuge. to lay hold upon the hope set
before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both
sure and steadfast. This is a place of security and
safety. Which entereth into that within
the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus,
made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now,
you are a guilty sinner. I can say that without reservation
about everybody here, me included. You are a guilty sinner and you
need a refuge. You need a place of safety and
security. You need a place that you can
run to and hide yourself in so that the avenger of blood, God
himself, who will by no means clear the guilty, you'll be safe
and secure from the wrath of God. That place is the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is what the Scriptures teach.
Believe... How do I enter into that city? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Now, the first thing we see here
And I want to point out these names of these cities to show
you that Christ is that refuge. Notice these names. Verse 7,
Kidesh. This means holy. It means holy. Christ is the Holy One. For such a high priest became
us who is holy. holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, made higher than the heavens. This is our refuge. He's holy. And those who are
in Him are holy. This is what makes this, our
Redeemer, such a refuge. Look at the next city. It's called
Shechem. It means the shoulder. Shechem
means the shoulder. In Isaiah 9-6, Isaiah said, unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given. The government shall
be upon His shoulder. The government of the world and
the government of His church and His kingdom is upon His shoulder. The Scriptures says that sin
was laid upon Him, upon His shoulder it was laid. And He bore that
sin away. All we like sheep have gone astray,
We have turned everyone to His own way, and the Lord hath laid
on Him the iniquity." Laid on Him. It's on His shoulder. He finds each of His lost sheep.
He comes to wherever they are, and He finds those lost sheep.
And you know what He does with them when He finds them? When
He hath found it, He layeth it on His shoulders rejoicing. This is who our refuge is. Then the next word we see, Joshua
20 verse 7, is Hebron. Hebron. It means fellowship. When we sinned in Adam, we lost
fellowship with God. We lost communion with God. But
in Christ, our city of refuge, we have fellowship with God.
Scripture says, truly our fellowship, mine, every other believer here,
our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We have communion with Him. God
is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Look at this next city, number
4, in verse 8. It was Bezer. That means a fortified
place. You know, a refuge is not going
to be much good unless it's a fortified place. Unless it's a place where
no harm can come to you whatsoever. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. The righteous runneth into it
and is safe. That's our Lord. This is what
Psalm 91,2 says, I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and
my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust. He's the fortified city. Then look at the fifth city here,
verse 8, it's called Ramoth. That means exalted. Exalted. God hath highly exalted him. God's pleased with this city
of refuge. He's pleased with Christ the
Lord. And God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which
is above every name. And you know what He did when
He exalted him? Gave him a name above every name?
You know what He did? Look over at Ephesians 2. Ephesians
2. If you get a chance, you go listen
to the message that Brother Darwin Pruitt preached down at the Danville
Conference. A seat with a view. A seat with
a view. This is what he did. Ephesians
2 verse 4, But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love
wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened
us together with Christ by grace you're saved. You see, if you
were dead in sins, this is all by grace. And hath raised us
up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. That in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace unto us by His kindness
through Jesus Christ. This is the Exalted One. And
those whom God put in Him, those whom He represented, those for
whom He died, when He was exalted and given a name above every
name, they were exalted and made to sit down with Him. And that's
what He revealed. When He quickens us together
with Him, He raises us up, and we have a seat with a view. And
we begin to see all these riches He's given us in this fortified
city, in this exalted city. The sixth city in verse 8 was
called Golan. It means revealed or manifested. Christ is God manifest, revealed
in the flesh. Hebrews 1 says He's the express
image of God. Colossians says He's the fullness
of the Godhead in bodily form. He's manifest. Christ was manifest. God was manifest in Christ, in
the flesh. And in Christ, the righteousness
of God is manifest. how God can be just and the justifier
of hell-deserving sinners, his righteousness, how he makes satisfaction,
how he can make mercy and truth kiss each other in harmony. We've
been trying all our lives to legislate and pass laws to make
all the racial and all social barriers to go away so that we
can all be one. and it hadn't worked. It's gotten
worse. Worse and worse and worse. We
continue to divide between this political party and that political
party. Between this works religion and that works religion. Between
illegal and legal. Between majority and minority.
Between all these various things that we put forth and we keep
passing laws to stop it, to stop it, to stop it. And it's all
because we broke one. Because we broke one. And the
man who stands up and uses the gospel, so-called religion as
his platform to try to promote himself and gain a following
and try to, in the name and pretense of creating oneness, that man,
whether he's white or he's black, is the worst slave master that
ever lived on the face of the planet. This oneness is only
created when this revelation of Jesus Christ is made in the
heart, and we behold that by the faith and fidelity of Christ
Jesus the Lord, by what He accomplished on Calvary's tree, there is neither
Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female, but we are all
one by faith in Christ Jesus. It's the only way this unity
is going to be created. When it pleased God, Paul said,
who separated me from my mother's womb, called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me. I can't reveal it to you. I can't
reveal Christ in you. God has to do that. God in Christ
is the refuge for sinners. Do you need a refuge? Do you
need one? The eternal God is thy refuge
and underneath are the everlasting arms. This is what the psalmist
said. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory, the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God. Alright, the second thing. These cities of refuge were set
forth by the Lord. Look here in verse 1. The Lord
spake unto Joshua. That's who set this forth. He spake to Moses first, then
He came and told Joshua. He said, now set up these cities.
He set these cities forth. He provided these cities. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior set forth by God. by God the
Father. Romans 3.24 says, "...being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God hath set forth." to be the propitiation, to be
the satisfaction, to be the mercy seat, to be the city of refuge,
to declare His righteousness, that He might be just and the
justifier of all them that believe on Him. He set Him forth, just
like He appointed these cities. Here's the third thing. The way
into this city was prepared so that there was clear access for
the guilty. They could get into this city.
There was no hindrance for them to get into this city. Deuteronomy
19.3. And I'll just read this to you.
It gives the same instruction as the Lord has given it to Moses.
And He says, Thou shalt prepare the way into this city. Thou shalt prepare the way that
every slayer may flee thither and get into this city. Christ
Himself is the way. He is the way. He is the high
way. Look at verse 6. It says, He
should dwell in that city until they stand before the congregation
for judgment until the death of the high priest that shall
be in those days. Then the slayer shall return.
You see, when the high priest died, that guilty man could go
home free. So long as the high priest was
living, no harm could befall the guilty criminal who dwelled
in the city of refuge. There's two things here. Christ,
our high priest, died at Calvary. And when he died at Calvary,
he obtained eternal redemption for all of God's elect. But he's
risen and he lives. And because he lives, no condemnation
can come unto them whom he died for. God's holy law and His justice
demands they must be left alone. They can't come into condemnation.
They just can't. Every priest standeth daily ministering,
offering sacrifices, the same ones over and over and over that
cannot take away sin. Men trying to save themselves
and offer sacrifice after sacrifice that cannot take away sin. But
this high priest, after he made one offering for sin forever,
he sat down at the right hand of God. Henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool. Because he conquered
them. He conquered them all. He conquered
every one of them and they're going to all be made his footstool.
Because He has perfected forever them that He is calling out by
His grace. Them that were sanctified when
they were put in Him by divine election. Them that are sanctified
by His blood. Them that are sanctified when
they are called into this fortified city. Christ Himself has removed
all the obstacles out of the way. to approach unto our God,
our refuge. He's taken all the obstacles
out of the way Himself. Sin, your sin, my sin, the sin
for everyone He came to save had to be put away and He put
it away. God had to be declared just,
He declared Him just. Those whom He died for had to
be justified, He justified them. Satan had to be conquered on
their behalf, and He conquered Satan. He that had the power
of death, that kept us in bondage, He conquered him. You notice
here that this city of refuge was only for those guilty of
manslaughter. But Christ is the refuge for
those that are guilty of all sin. All sin. The city of refuge was for Jew
and Gentile. It doesn't matter who you are.
It doesn't matter what your station in life is. It doesn't matter
what your background is. It don't matter how sinful you
have been. He came to save sinners. He's our refuge to preserve us
from temptation. He's our refuge to save us in
trouble. He's our refuge from every present
danger right now. He never ceases being the refuge
of his people. I didn't write this down, but
Robert Hawker had an interesting observation on this that he said,
there's something in this that there was refuge on the wilderness
side and there was refuge on Canaan's side across the Jordan. And he said, What a blessed thought
that right now in this wilderness, he's our refuge. And when we've
crossed the Jordan of death and enter into glory, he'll always
continually forever be our refuge. And He sent His messengers to
clear the way. Look at Isaiah 62. This same
Lord who is the way, this same Lord who's taken out every obstacle
for His people to approach unto God, He's also sent forth His
messengers. And His gospel preachers are
doing this right here. What He's told them to do, Isaiah
62 10, go through Go through the gates, prepare
you the way of the people. Cast up, cast up the highway. That's what I'm trying to lift
up this highway before you so you see the way, so you know
the way. He's the way. Cast up the highway,
gather out the stones. I'm telling you right now, the
only thing that's keeping you from entering into this city
is your righteousness. You don't think you need to enter.
You don't think you're guilty. That's what's keeping you from
entering. Cast up, gather out the stones, lift up a standard
for the people, a sign, a direct, show them the way. That's what
His messengers are sent to do. He's the way. He's fulfilled
the way. He's taken all the hindrance
out of the way to sit forth His messengers to declare it. Here's
the fourth thing. These cities were near wherever
you were. They were near. And that's how
it is with Christ. whoever you are, wherever you
are, no matter where you are in the land, on either side of
the Jordan, you could easily flee to one of these cities.
Look at Romans 10. Listen, but the righteousness which is
of faith, speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart who shall
ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ
again from the dead, but what saith it? What does the righteousness
of faith say? The word is nigh thee. That means it's near thee. It's
close. How close is it? How close is
this word of salvation? even in thy mouth and in thy
heart, that is the word of faith which we preach." God's going
to put it there. He's going to have to put it
there. He's going to have to give you this faith. He's going
to have to put this word in your mouth, this word in your heart.
But it's near. It's near. Christ is near. That if thou shalt say, Confess
with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness." Oh, when you look at Christ Jesus
the Lord and you see everything that He did, everything that
He endured, all the suffering and the agony and the contradiction
of sinners against Himself. And then you behold Him on Calvary's
tree and you behold how He bore the wrath of God, how He swallowed
up justice, how He was pierced through with the sword of God's
divine wrath, and how He bore that eternal wrath in His body
on the tree. When you see that and you behold
that, that's what it took to work righteousness, to work the
righteousness God requires of you and me. When you behold that,
do you know what a blessing it is to hear these words? And all
you have to do, Melinda, is believe. And that righteousness is yours. What a light and easy yoke. He's born on his shoulder the
yoke. He's born the yoke of wrath and
judgment. He's born the heavy yoke so that
all remains for his people is a light yoke. Trust him. Trust him. Believe on Him. If that avenger
of blood caught that guilty man outside of that city of rest
for you, do you know what he could do? He could kill him.
Justly kill him. Justly kill him. The law demanded
it. He could. He could kill him.
If God finds you outside of Christ, do you know what His law demands?
The soul that sinneth must die. Must die. But if that guilty
man was in that city, if he got in that city of refuge and he
stayed in that city of refuge, he was under the protection of
that same holy law. God's got to cease to be holy
for condemnation to come on that man that's in that city. Every
sinner who flees into Christ, brethren, the law is your friend. The law of God is your friend.
because it demands no condemnation can come to you. Oh, how am I
going to enter Him? How am I going to enter this
city? By faith. Believe on Him. Believe on Him.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth
on Him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come. into condemnation, but is passed
already from death unto life. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
No condemnation. Who's going to lay anything to
the charge of one for whom Christ died? Who's going to be able
to bring any railing accusation against one that Christ died
for and purged their sin and put it away forever and God Almighty
says, I will not remember it anymore. Who's going to lay charge
to them? Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. having been made a curse for
us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. And now that law that was a curse
to us says, don't touch them. Don't touch them. Flee into this
city. Flee into it. If you're outside
of Christ, if you don't trust Christ, the wrath of God abideth
on you. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Here's the fifth thing we see. Abide in Him. Enter into Him
by faith and abide in Him. And you'll live. Abide in Him.
He says there in verse 6, He shall dwell in that city until
He stand before the congregation for judgment. Perseverance doesn't save you.
It doesn't. Perseverance is evidence you've
been saved. Perseverance doesn't make you
a disciple of Christ. Perseverance is evidence you're
a disciple indeed. We're not of them that draw back.
We're of them that continue in Him. He said, abide in me. Just
like that vine, that branch must abide in that vine. in order
for it to have life and live and bring forth fruit. So we
have to, we must abide in Christ Jesus that we might have life,
that we might bring forth fruit. The fruit of righteousness is
by Jesus Christ. Read Philippians 1. We are made partakers of Christ.
Here's the promise. We're made partakers of Christ. The evidence of it is that we've
been made partaker of the divine nature, that we've been brought
into this unbreakable, unchangeable union. The evidence of it is
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast until the
end. That's proof. Proof of it. That
God did the grafting and it wasn't just some little pretended graft
that you made. That God did it. And when we're
found in Him in that day, there's going to be a whole congregation
brought forth. And there's going to be some
books opened up, and there's going to be a book opened up. And there's going to be those
on the left are going to be judged out of the books. And every sin
is going to be brought into account, every vain thought ever out of
word, every sin that you've ever hidden and kept, sin you don't
even know about, is going to be brought forth out of the books. And then those on the right hand
who have fled for refuge in this city, Christ our Lord, who have
been grafted into the vine by the grace of God and who have
persevered in the vine until the end and held fast until the
end, they're going to be judged out of the book. It's called
the Lamb's Book of Life. It's called the book of the Lamb
that was slain from before the foundation of the world. When
God put His people in Christ and wrote their names in the
Lamb's book of life. I picture Christ Jesus the Lord
as He's entering into covenant with God Almighty, God the Father.
I picture Him writing down every name in the book. Every name
in the book. Every name in the book that God
gave Him. And then he said, Lord, Father, now make the world and
create them, and I'll go redeem them. And he was slain from that
very hour. And the names were in that book
from that very hour. And in that day, it's going to
be made manifest out of that book. These have been judged
in that Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And then, we're
going to enter in to that city from which we fled. The very
presence of God, the very communion with God, when faith shall be
turned to sight and we shall be with our Redeemer forevermore.
That heavenly Jerusalem. That city where every citizen
has equal rights, and every citizen has the free benefit of their
king, and their father, and their husband. That city where every
sinner has no reason for tears anymore whatsoever. Would you be a partaker of that
city? God says, Here's the command,
and I pray He make it effectual in your heart. Flee. Flee. Run. Run. Run as fast as you
can in your heart and believe on Christ Jesus the Lord and
enter into that city and stay put right there. You have a strong
consolation. God who cannot lie says, I will
save you. Amen.