Well, let us turn to God's Word
once again, and turning from the portion we read in Numbers
35, turning to the New Testament, and the words that we find in
Hebrews 6 and verse 18, and really the latter part of the verse.
I'll read the verse, Hebrews 6, 18, that by two immutable
things, two unchangeable things, that is God's promise and God's
oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for
God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. To say something with regards
to the believers refuge As we have it here, we read of those
who have fled for refuge, who have fled for refuge till I halt
upon the hope set before us. Paul, of course, includes himself
and those that he is addressing, these Hebrew believers, he's
very much addressing those who are the men and women of faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ as that one who is the promised Messiah. He has previously spoken of false
faith, very solemn words at verse 4 following the impossibility
for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly
gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted
the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing
they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put
into an open shine, apostasy. What a fearful thing! He speaks
of those who are falling away. But then he goes on at verse
9, But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things
that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. He's made reference
then to those who appeared to be believers, but their faith
was not true faith, and they soon fell away. As the Lord Jesus says, He that
endures to the end, the same shall be saved. That is the mark
of genuine faith. And what does that faith do?
Why, it flies to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It is that faith
that's associated with Abraham, the father of the faithful, the
father of all them that believe. Verse 13, When God made promise
to Abram, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I
will multiply thee. And the reference of course is
to the words that we have back in the Old Testament, in that
22nd chapter of Genesis, where we see the fate of Abram being
tried, He is commanded by God to take his son, the son of promise,
Isaac, and to sacrifice him upon one of the mountains, Mount Moriah,
the very place where the temple would subsequently be built. And he is obedient. Remarkable
that Abraham is received, the son, of promise now commanded
by God to sacrifice him and he is willing to obey the commandment
of God. He doesn't of course kill the
boy but God does make provision. There's the ram caught in the
thicket that is to be sacrificed in the place of his son. Now the angel directs him to
a ram for a burnt offering or the Lord provides himself with
the ram. And then the blessing that comes
upon Abraham. Verse 16 of that 22nd chapter,
By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because I was done
this thing, and not without thy Son, thine only Son, that in
blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seeds. These are the words that Paul
is referring to. as the stars of the heaven, and
as the sand which is upon the seashore. And thy seed shall
possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice."
In the seed of Abraham, then, all the nations of the earth
are to be blessed. And that seed, of course, there
is Isaac. But Isaac, a type of the Lord
Jesus, Ultimately it is Christ that is the true seed of Abraham. We're told as much, aren't we,
in the language of Galatians chapter 3 and there at verse
16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made and he said not to seed as of many but as
of one. and to thy seed, which is Christ. For it is in Christ that all
the promises of God are yea, and that all are men. And all those promises in the
Gospel are confirmed by the oath of God. And this is what the
Apostle is speaking of here in the words that I read for our
text, the 18th verse. the impossibility of God lying.
The blessing is there, the blessing of Abraham, and the blessing
of Abraham centers in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that we might have strong consolation. We were fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us. And this is what I want us
to consider then tonight, something of the believer's refuge. It is the gospel. It is the promise
of God fulfilled in Christ and not only confirmed by the oath
of God but ultimately of course ratified by the death of him
who was the testator of the New Testament. Now Abraham saw the
Lord Jesus Christ in those events that are recorded back in that
22nd chapter of Genesis the Lord says to the Jews there in John
8.56 your father Abram rejoiced to see my day and saw it and
was glad Abram saw the day of the Lord Jesus Christ in time
in those events recorded for us in that 22nd chapter of Genesis. Doesn't he say to his son as
they come to the mount and young Isaac inquires, you know, where
is the sacrifice? Here is the wood, here is the
fire for a burnt offering, where is the sacrifice? And Abraham
says, God will provide himself. God will provide himself, a lamb
for a burnt offering. And so it was. Of course, in
that Isaac is spared, we see in that really a type of the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaac who is the type
of Christ. But what Abraham beholds there,
he sees the great truth of the pardon of sins by the blood of
sacrifice. There can be no remission of
sins without the shedding of blood. And Christ, behold the
Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." That's
what he sees. Isn't the Lord Jesus Christ there
in so much typology back in the Old Testament Scriptures? We
read those verses in Numbers 35. And that's all typical, that's
all the type of the Lord Jesus Christ. That provision that was
made, cities of refuge for the manslayer, someone who we might
say by chance or by accident was guilty of killing another
man. But there's a place of refuge for the manslayer. the cities
of refuge, but those cities, do they not also point us to
the Lord Jesus? We read those words in Isaiah
32 and verse 2 that a man, a man shall be in a hiding place, it
says, from the wind and the covert from the tempest. A hiding place
from the wind, a covert, a shelter from the tempest. And it's a
man. And who is the man? Well, it is that man. the Lord's
man. It is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the man who has come from heaven. He is the place of refuge. And how is that one who is the
place of refuge? He makes every provision for
his people. He provides for them continually
as they live that life of faith here upon the earth. as they
follow as it were in the steps of Abraham, the father of all
them that believe. David confesses in the psalm,
I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. No bread shall
be given him, his waters shall be sure. The Lord does make provision,
and we're all familiar I'm sure with the language of Christ in
his own preaching in the Sermon on the Mount and those words
recorded in in Matthew 6 verse 30 wherefore if God so
clothe the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is
cast into the oven shall he not much more clothe you O ye of
little faith Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we
eat? or What shall we drink? or Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things, but seek
ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all
these things shall be added unto you. Revealing are the words of the
Lord Jesus when he says to his disciples, O ye of little faith,
are we not as guilty as ever they were guilty? Our faith so
small and yet or the object of that faith so great a saviour
as the Lord Jesus Christ is. He is a place of refuge to his
people in the midst of all their trials and all their troubles.
And that Gospel, that Gospel that is Yah and Amen in the Lord
Jesus Christ, what does Paul say writing there in 1 Timothy
4.8? It has promise of the life that
now is and of that which is to come. The life that now is, this
current life, and all our temporal needs, but also promise of the
life that is to come. And God is that One who keeps
His people. are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation that is ready to be revealed,
it says, in the last hour. All the promise that God gives
in He tells His people there in the Old Testament, as I day,
so shall thy strength be. He strengthens His people. When
they need spiritual strength and when they're in the midst
of trials and troubles When Satan is so active, when Satan comes
to assault them and ensnare them, he lays his bait and tempts,
and we fall into sin. Well, what are we to do? We're to look to one. There's
only one place of refuge. Peter. utter those words, doesn't
he, that lovely passage in 1 Peter 4.12 Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial that is to try you as though some
strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice in that you are partakers
of Christ's offerings. Now we have to learn that life
of faith, life of complete and utter dependence never looking
to that place of covert in the midst of all our trials and all
our troubles Paul knew it when he had that thorn in the
flesh and he pleads with the Lord and the Lord doesn't remove
it but the Lord assures him my grace is sufficient for them
my strength is made perfect in weakness he says Our weakness
is a place where God reveals His great and His gracious strength. As thy day, so shall thy strength
be. We have no innate strength. We
don't have a stock of grace that we can call upon. We don't have
a cupboard, as it were, full of faith that we can draw out
as and when we would desire. We have to look to the Lord continually
for fresh supplies. of grace. We have to continually
depend on the Spirit for all those fruits are the fruits of
the Spirit. It's nothing that we can produce in and of ourselves. And our God's promises in the
Gospel so perfectly fit all the conditions of the Lord's people. All the Lord then has given is
promise. We were, last week, looking at
the 12th verse of this chapter, weren't we? You may recall those
who were present then, who tried to say something with regards
to the inheritance of the promises, that ye be not slothful, but
followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. All that life of faith, it's
not a life of sloth, there's much holy activity where there's
that life of faith where there's that true waiting upon the Lord
we don't wait passively as it were there's all that exercise
of soul we rest in his promises that's a great verse isn't it
the end of this epistle in the last chapter where Paul reminds
them of the promise that God gave to Joshua I will never leave
thee, nor forsake thee." Verse 5 there in chapter 13. And there of course in the original
there's some 5 negatives. That's a great verse. I know
it's simply translated in our authorised version, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. But the great emphasis of the
verse is brought out in that hymn, isn't it? The singing of
the Lord's Day. Our firmer foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word.
And that line of the hymn, where God says, I'll never, no, never,
no, never forsake. The strength of God's promises
And those negatives, so emphatic. He that hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Those
cities of refuge were very much a place of safety. It's interesting, isn't it, what
we read there in that passage in Numbers 35. And the language that we have
at the end of the portion we were reading the congregation have to make
a judgment between the manslayer and the person who is seeking
to revenge the blood of his beloved and it says in verse 25 the congregation
shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of
blood and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his
refuge where he was fled and he shall abide in it until the
death of the high priest which was anointed with the holy oil
But if the slayer shall at any time come without the border
of the city of his refuge, whither he was fled, and the revenger
of blood find him without the borders of the city of his refuge,
and the revenger of blood kill the slayer, he shall not be guilty
of blood. And it goes on, and we should
have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of
the high priest, and then he can return to the
land of his possession. But the city of refuge is a place
of refuge only until the death of the high priest. And of course,
there we are reminded that the anti-type is so much more glorious
than anything we ever witnessed in the type. So much more glorious. because Christ is the high priest
of his people forever. And isn't that what the apostle
is saying here? He says, we have strong consolation
who have fled for refuge till they hold upon the hope set before
us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil, whither
the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek." There's something much more glorious
about Christ's priesthood. It's the priesthood of Melchizedek. It's an eternal priesthood. the priest of Aaron of course
it went from one generation to another generation and that person
who goes to the city of refuge is secured in that place until
the high priest dies those who go to Christ as their refuge
why their safety is secure for time and for all eternity They have fled for refuge, to
lay hold upon the hope that is set before them. And that ultimate
hope, of course, is heaven. It's that place where Christ
the forerunner has entered for his people. He has gone before. He has gone before to prepare
a place for them, a place of safety and security for a never-ending
eternity. It's paradise. It's where the
Lord Jesus Christ is. He's in heaven. Later in chapter 9, and verse 24 it says Christ is
not entered into the holy places made with hands which are the
figures of the true but into heaven itself now to appear in
the presence of God for us Christ is in heaven now remember
when we go back to the Old Testament and all that we have there in
the way of types and shadows and figures God's special dwelling
place we know there was to be the tabernacle as he says in Exodus 25 they
were to make the Ark of the Covenant with the mercy seat, they were
to place it in the Holy of Holies and God's promise was there he
would meet with them and commune with them from between the cherubims
upon the mercy seat. It was the place of communion.
It was the tabernacle. And eventually the tabernacle
is taken in the days of David and set up there in Jerusalem. And then David's son Solomon
builds the temple of the Lord. And that's where God was. That
was the dwelling place of God. in Salem also is his tabernacle,
his dwelling place. In Zion says the Psalmist. And when we come to the New Testament
it's not surprising that that imagery of the tabernacle and
the temple is taken up to describe to us something of what heaven
is. It's a place where God is, where God dwells. And much of the imagery, as you're
aware, I'm sure, in the book of the Revelation, that mysterious
book, so much of the imagery is carried over from the Old
Testament Scriptures. And there in the penultimate
chapter, Revelation 21, John sees the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. And then he says, verse 3, I
heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle
of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall
be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their
God, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed
away." It's a description, isn't it, of what heaven is, and it's
where God's tabernacle is, and God is dwelling with man. And then Later in the chapter,
verse 22, he speaks not of the tabernacle, but now the imagery
is that of the temple. I saw no temple therein, for
the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. The Lord God Almighty and the
Lamb are the temple of it. The Lord Jesus Christ, when we
see Him in the incarnation, the the God-man, the great mystery
of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, the human nature of
the Lord Jesus is really the fulfillment of the tabernacle and we have it there in this
epistle to the Hebrews in chapter 9 and verse 11 we read of Christ being come and high priest of
good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not
made with hands." That is a most significant statement here in
this epistle. Because of course Hebrews opens
to us so much of what we have in the Old Testament in certainly
in the books of Moses, in Leviticus, or even in Numbers where we were
reading tonight. Christ. Having become an high
priest of good things to come, Paul says, by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle. What is that greater and more
perfect tabernacle not made with hands? It's the human nature
of Christ. Conceived by the Holy Ghost in
the womb of the Virgin Mary. And doesn't the Lord himself
refer to his body as the temple? You know the passage there in
the second chapter of John when he says to the Jews, destroy
this temple and in three days I will build it again. And they
imagine he's speaking of the temple, standing there in Jerusalem,
but he wasn't. And after his resurrection the
disciples remembered those words. All the Lord Jesus manifest in
the flesh is the great antitype of the tabernacle and of the
temple. And it is His presence, it's
the presence of the Lord Jesus in heaven that makes heaven what
it is. It would not be heaven without
the Lord Jesus. You know Rutherford brings it
out, doesn't he? in the sands of time are sinking. Time and
again, the Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. The Lamb is all the glory. All that city, we're told it
had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for
the glory of God is the light of it. and the Lamb is the light thereof. There's no temple there because
Christ is there. Heaven, that holy happy place
where sin no more defiles, where Jesus is pleased to unveil his
lovely face and look and love and smile. That's heaven. It's
been said that some desire Christ only for heaven. But the true
believer desires heaven chiefly for Christ. I'm sure we all desire
heaven. But why do we desire heaven?
Do we want to know Christ because we want to go to heaven? No.
The true believer desires heaven because he knows that that's
where Christ is. And that's where of course we
see the the beatic vision. Beloved now are we the sons of
God it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that
when we see Him we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He
is. Oh this is that refuge you see
that's being spoken of here in the text. We have a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. What a blessed hope it is, which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
and which enters into that within the veil. Though our hope already
enters into heaven through the Lord Jesus, whither the forerunner
is for us entered, even Jesus, Maiden High Priest, forever after
the order of Melchizedek. O God, grant that grace are we
those who have fled, fled for refuge, to lay hold upon that
blessed hope. May the Lord bless to us His
Word. Amen. Let us sing our second praise. The hymn
is 1097. It's a lovely hymn. on Christ as the refuge, the
refuge for sinners. The Gospel makes known it is
found in the merits of Jesus alone, the weary, the tempted
and burdened by sin were never exempted from entering therein. The tune is to God be the Glory
1011, the hymn 1097. Our refuge for sinners the gospel
makes known, Tis found in the merits of Jesus alone. For he, the tempted and burdened
by sin, Exempted from entering wherein