We'll turn to Joshua chapter
20. Joshua chapter 20. I've referred
several times over the last few months about cities of refuge.
The city of refuge. I hope tonight we can take a
quick look at this. There's so much here and I feel
like I'm just skipping a rock across a very deep pond. Boy,
what a precious pond that is. These cities of refuge, that's
my subject. And what it covers is if there was a manslayer,
in our day we call that a manslaughterer, someone that killed someone without
intention. If they flee to this city of refuge, designated city,
an appointed city, and they get there, and they stay there, inside
those walls, there's sanctuary. There's safe haven. But something
a little bit more than that, there's the removal of guilt. Removal of guilt. We can't do
that, can we? That's the Lord's Law. That's what we're going
to look at. Here in Joshua 20, we'll begin in verse 1. Looking
at the first nine verses. And the Lord also spake unto
Joshua, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, a
point out for your cities of refuge. Wherefore, I spake unto
you by the hand of Moses." He told Moses this over 40 years
before. And he's telling it now to Joshua
to act on it. This was declared before it ever
came to pass. It came to pass for Joshua. And
you know what we're doing this evening? We're telling what's
already been done. Does that sound familiar at all?
Something was declared beforehand. It came. And now we're talking
about it. Refuge was declared. Refuge came. And now we're talking about Him.
Him. Verse 3, that the slayer that
killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither
and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. And
when he that doeth 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, and 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 into his own city, and into his own
house, and into the own city from whence he fled. and they
appointed Kedesh, in Galilee, and Mount Nephtali, and Shechem,
in Mount Ephraim, and Karjath Arba, which is Hebron, and the
Mount of Judah. And on the other side of the
Jordan, by Jericho, eastward, the Lord told Moses, He said,
you're going to do three cities on this side of the Jordan, three
cities of refuge, and if the Lord grow you, How are you going
to grow? Doesn't that kind of happen naturally?
The Lord's got to do it. If the Lord grow you, then you'll
put three more on the other side of the Jordan. It says, on the
other side of the Jordan, verse 8, 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, and Bashan, out of the tribe of Manashe. 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."
This refuge, this person that accidentally murdered someone,
someone accidentally died by their hand, the law said they
must die. You took the life of another,
you have killed, you must die. And the avenger of blood would
come and kill them. That's what God's law says. And
that very law that condemns them is the very law that sets apart
these cities of refuge. Isn't that something? What's
these cities of refuge? This refuge, this place of salvation,
it was appointed right after Moses came down from Sinai. In
Exodus 21, it says, if a man lie not and wait, if you don't
premeditate this murder, but God deliver him into his hand,
then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. I'm going
to set this. as a place where you can go.
This refuge city, this hiding place, this place where guilt
was removed, where preservation is lasting. This is a person. It's not just a place, it's a
person. Isaiah said, and a man shall be as a hiding place from
the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in
a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Well, that sounds like a good refuge, doesn't it? Who is it?
And it's a man. A man shall be these things.
David wrote in Psalm 32, Thou art my hiding place. Where's
my refuge? It's a person. He's praying to
his Lord. He said, Thou art my hiding place.
Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. I need deliverance. It's going
to take a person, not a doing. Not a physical place, not a denomination,
not a creed, a person. It will take God to deliver us.
Many claim to know this hiding place. They claim to know this
sanctuary, this refuge, this city of refuge, Christ the Lord,
but they do not enter into the city. They do not enter in. They may stand out in front of
it and say, there's the city. They may be able to tell you
how many rooms are inside, which way the streets run, north or
south, east or west. But if they don't enter into
the city, they're not in it. They may turn around away from the
city and defend the city. They may go to war with everyone
trying to attack this city, faithfully defend the city, and still not
be in the city. You hate a rigged system? I do, don't you? People that
commit a crime in our country, intentionally, they premeditate
a crime. And as soon as the police show
up, those avengers of blood that we have a picture of in our nation,
they say, I was temporarily insane. I was crazy. I'm going to take
refuge in myself. Those people aren't crazy, are
they? They're cunning. They're cunning. We have a welfare system
in this country. And as designed on paper, it's
a wonderful thing. What a great idea. That's a good
thing, isn't it? But it's fully and utterly abused. People take advantage of our
welfare system. My back. I know I was raised
in a lot of my family. Say you hurt this way. Say you
hurt that way. They can't prove it. They aren't lame. They're
lazy. And they're thieves. They're
stealing from everybody in this nation, ain't they? That's called
corruption. That's a rigged system. A corrupt
system. It's a system that can be corrupted.
Man, so many men and women, they willfully and they eagerly sin
against God. Then they claim to be saved again.
They intentionally sin against God. They fulfill their own lust.
They fill up their own bellies. And they attempt to declare that,
oh, the blood of Christ has purged me again. This is all over, isn't
it? It's all over TV. It's all over
college professors, movie stars, anybody. Like it's some kind
of golden parachute. People can do anything they want.
And then they raise the white flag. Oh, I'm in a city refuge
right here inside of me. You can't touch me. Men and women,
pervert the mercy of God in Christ and trade it for the mercy of
men. Men, do you think that won't be punished? That's a severe
blasphemy to claim His salvation to get your neighbors and your
co-workers and your boss off your back. What a shame. They do it for their own pride,
for their own comfort. They profess that they have run
to a city of refuge, Jesus Christ the Lord. That's the city of
refuge. But they turn again to the shelter of their own righteousness,
the refuge of their own works, the refuge of their own experiences.
What blasphemy! Turn over to Deuteronomy 19.
The Lord mentions this. These city
of refuges, several times such scriptures. Here in Deuteronomy
19, here's an example the Lord gives us of a manslayer, because
we can take anything and just twist it the best we can. That
must be grandma. That had to have been grandma.
Now I know she had three pistols in the car and she planned the
bank robbery ahead of time. She had a ski mask, but now grandma
just had to have been a manslayer. She saved us everybody, didn't
she? She's a believer. Premeditated robbery and murder.
What does the Lord give us an example of? Here in Deuteronomy
19 verse 4. And in this case, of the slayer,
which shall flee thither, that he may live. Whoso killeth his
neighbor ignorantly, whom he hateth not in time past." Someone
that didn't premeditate this. Verse 5, as, here's an example,
when a man goeth into the wood, into his neighbor to hew wood,
he goes to chop down some trees, and his hand fetches a stroke
of the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the
hilt. and lighteth upon his neighbor that he die, he shall flee into
one of those cities and live." Man goes out to chop wood, to
cut down a tree, and he swings that axe, the axe head comes
off, flies through the air, hits his neighbor in the head, and
kills him. We'd say, boy, that's a terrible accident, isn't it?
What does the law of God say? Murdered someone. A soul was
taken. He must die. And at the same
time, he says, that's exactly who I'm talking about. Someone
that didn't know what they did, unintentionally killed someone,
I have a city for them. Over in Numbers 35, he tells
us, gives us an example of someone rolling a stone off the hill.
They got a road of hills all over this place. I saw it happen
behind our house not too long ago. They was rolling some big
old rocks. I mean, them things, it took two or three of them
to get the thing, the rock rolling. And once it started, it didn't
stop. If that was to roll off a hill and kill someone at the
bottom of the hill, this city of refuge is for you. That's
who it's for. But our Lord's salvation is incorruptible. He will not be taken advantage
of. He's not a man like us. Mercy
is not a manipulated means to an end. Mercy is undeserved.
It's begged for and it's given and it's not repented of. That
gift of mercy. If the Lord is merciful to you,
a work has been done in you and mercy has been accomplished.
Look down at verse 11. Deuteronomy 19.11, But if any
man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up
against him, and smite him mortally, that he die. He planned this
murder. He did this willfully. And fleeth
into one of these cities. Oh, I was a manslaughter. It
was an accident. I'm going to the city of refuge.
Verse 12, Then the elders of his city shall send and fetch
him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of the
blood, that he may die. Thine eye shall not pity him.
Don't you feel sorry for these people. But thou shalt put away
the guilt of innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with
thee. I want us to see this context
here that this isn't some get out of jail free card. This isn't
our reserve parachute just in case. It's something we can use
at any whim. This is serious business. This
is the law of God in front of us. Now here in our text, Joshua
20, beginning in verse 1. Joshua 20, verse 1. And the LORD
spake unto Joshua, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying,
Appoint out for your cities a refuge. Wherefore I spake unto you by
the hand of Moses. Who appointed these cities a
refuge? God did. Who declared the city of refuge? Him. Who came up with this? The
Lord did. He told them to do it. For what
cause? Why did He do this? Verse 3,
that the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly
may flee thither and they shall be your refuge from the avenger
of blood. That is every child of God. Every
child of God what don't they don't know anybody. I know Kevin.
I'd say is everybody, you know I'd say is everybody who's related
to every child of God. We are convicted of sin for the
first time There's a shock There's uncontrolled fear there's anxiety
You first time you fear the Lord just like a small child. My children
grew up. They physically feared me and Because if they didn't
do what I'd tell them, I was going to bop them. And I ain't
had to bop none of them in years. Why? Because now they still fear
me, but they fear me in honor. That's my father. I don't want
to disrespect him. But we begin with that physical fear. I've
sinned against God. He's going to kill me. There's
some anxiety. There's some shock. We didn't
have that knowledge before. We're swinging that axe on that
tree. You ever chop down a tree? It's
nice. You get your grown frills, books. head sharpened real good
and the chips fly. And you swing it like a baseball
bat, like you're playing for the Padres. Oh boy, it's nice. It's a good feeling. And then
you give it all you got and you just feel wood on wood. Uh-oh. Where'd that head go? I didn't
mean for that to happen. What happened? My neighbor's
dead. I killed him. You move that big
old stone off your driveway. Unless there's a big canyon down
there, it don't matter. You shove it, thump, thump, thump,
and then you hear screaming at the bottom of the canyon. There's
a shock. There's a fear. There's an anxiety. You broke God's law. That's the
instinct men have in us. It's written on our hearts. You
can deny it all you want to. Go push a rock off a cliff. Here's
somebody screaming. You're going to feel it. When the Holy Ghost first convicts
us of sin, when He comes to a child of God and He convicts us of
sin, we have no idea what in all we have truly done. We don't
know every sin we've committed. We don't know what we intended
to do, what we didn't intend to do. We don't know nothing.
We just know we're sin. I don't really know what that
means, but I know I'm it. We know we're guilty. We know
the law is just and right to condemn us and kill us. For how
many of them? I don't know me. That's pretty
basic, isn't it? We don't have a deep understanding.
We just know what we are. We did not know our neighbors.
We didn't know our brothers and sisters in Christ. But now we
see that's who we were slaying, isn't it? So we flee. We run. You don't lollygag when you're
fleeing. You don't take your time and
pack your bags. Oh, I'm going to bring these pictures with
me. You flee. You run. Take clothes on your
back and get out of there to the city of refuge. We flee to
the cross of Christ. That's where we go. He said,
come to me, all you that's weary and you're heavy laden. What
are you heavy laden with? Good ideas? No. You're heavy laden
with sin. Guilt. Against the God you've
offended. He said, come unto me. My yoke's
easy. My burden's light. What do people
do when they enter that city of refuge? This is beautiful.
Look here in verse 4. And when he that doth flee into
one of these cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of
the city. We've read about gates before,
haven't we? "...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." First, when you enter that city, that narrow
gate, You know how wide I bet that gate is? I don't give my
opinion often, but it was one man wide. I bet the entrance
for those manslayers was one man wide. You come into Christ. You come into Him. You say, I'm
the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. You come into Him and you
declare your cause. Why are you here? Why are you
here? I killed my neighbor. I didn't
know I did it. But I did. I killed him. And
I need mercy. You know what you're declaring
in that? Who's your neighbor? Looked at
that recently too, didn't I? Who is my neighbor? Didn't they
ask the Lord that? Is it the sinner next door that
don't know God? Yep. I slew him. I hated people. I got mad at
somebody that was going too slow on my road today. You know what
I did? I slew him. That was intentional, wasn't it? I was out of this
heart. Who else is my neighbor? My brethren
that I did not know were my brethren. I fought against them, I kicked
against them, I bit them, I devoured them, I slew them. I didn't even
know who they were, and I did it, and I need mercy. Who else lives in my neighborhood?
Who else is closer than a brother? That's a friend. Now we're getting
somewhere. Now it ain't offending old mommy
and daddy. Now it ain't offending them real sweet people next door
to me. I killed Christ. I didn't know I did it. I wasn't
even born yet. I need mercy. Explain that, Kevin,
in great detail. No! Give me mercy. I don't understand
it. Just clutch ahold of him like
Jacob. I ain't letting you go. I'm in
these walls now. You ain't getting rid of me. So many people, they're like
that blind man. They say, oh, I see, I see, I see. They see everything
underneath the sun, don't they? Except the fact they used to
be blind. I ain't got no problem finding somebody that knows who
Jesus is. I got a problem finding a blind man that don't. And that
needs to be healed. I got a message for them. This
man, he said, well, I might have hurt somebody's feelings one
time. I said, I won't get into that. That's a joke I used to
tell. You enter in that narrow gate. You come to Christ begging
mercy, declaring your guilt, and what happens? What happens? Somebody comes in this room and
says, I was mean to you all for 40 years. I didn't do nothing
but cuss you, and bite you, and do things I shouldn't have done,
and the whole time I was sinning against God. And I need mercy. You that have been shown mercy,
what are you going to do? Well, you're going to have to
take some classes, and you're going to have to sit over there
for six weeks, and then you come sit up here with the big folks.
You're going to have to sit at the kids' table when we eat. No, look here.
They shall take him into the city unto them. Unto them. Why would they take a man that
just killed somebody unto them? I just killed somebody, too.
That's how I got here. That's my family. Come here, I'll take
them under me. Hug up on them and give him a
place. You need a place to stay? Right
there you go. You need something to drive? You can borrow my car
anytime you want to. That he may dwell among them. You don't
need to go nowhere. You don't need just visit. You
stay right here with us. It's a special thing to hug a
man that just killed somebody. You enter into the narrow gate,
you confess while you're in that city of mercy, and you are accepted. You're accepted. And while you're
in that city, the law of God says there's no guilt. You ain't
under church watch. You ain't gotta wear handcuffs.
You ain't gotta have big brother walk you down, go, you need some
vegetables? I gotta go with you. Don't you go leaving. There's
no guilt. There's full acquittal. There's a full remission of sin
in Christ. That's fellowship, isn't it?
With all those people in there, that's the fellows in the same
ship. How long does that safety last? We'll give you three months. No. Look here in verse six. And he shall dwell in that city
until he stand before the congregation for judgment, until the death
of the high priest that shall be in those days. Then shall
the slayer return and come into his own city and into his own
house and to the city from whence he fled. He has to stay there
until that high priest dies. As long as that high priest is
living, he has full acquittal. He has full acquittal. Once he
dies, then he can go home. Once he dies, then he can go home.
He has the right to go home. When we enter Christ, when we
enter the person, how long will our high priest live? He's the
only one who had an oath. That's what we read before we
started service today there in Hebrews 6. There's been a whole
mess of high priests. There's a high priest in all
six of these cities, isn't there? They didn't have an oath with
them. Why? They died. They're man, just
like us. They died. Christ lives forever. Those others
were appointed, they were ordained, but Christ was made the high
priest forever. Forever, after the order of Melchizedek. How do you get into these cities?
The way to the cities of refuge was always kept clear. That road
that went in, that could be easily traveled. The magistrates, once
a year, they had a road crew get together, and they were responsible. They surveyed the roads into
these cities of refuge, and they made sure that it was clear of
debris. A tree fell down. Well, you better get out there
and cut it up. The road has to be clear. They would send out
those crews, and they'd take big, large rocks and get them
off the road. Take away the trees. Take away all the possibility
of any stumbling stone. Get it out of the way. You got
something that's just hanging you up if you need to run to
that city refuge. This crew went through and got
that big stumbling stone out of the way. All the high places
got put down. All the low places got filled
in. That was a flat level straight road straight to the city of
refuge. All along that road, they placed
markers. In bold capital letters, REFUGE. They put it at the intersections
with an arrow. Because if you're fleeing, you're
running. And you're running, and you see
REFUGE that way. You hang a right, and you go. Times of the essence. They didn't
have to hesitate. They just looked at those signs
and kept going. Those signs and those crews that
go out and clear those roads, that's a pretty good picture
of the Lord's ministers, isn't it? I want to take away any stumbling
stone I can for someone to get to Christ. I want to cut up any
tree laying across their road and get it out of the way and
then me get out of the way. Go! Run! Where are these cities? I won't
bother you. If you get a map out, you plot
all these things out, every one of them is within a half a day's
journey from anywhere in the land of Israel. Either side of
the Jordan, didn't matter where you are, you can make it there
in half a day. That's close, isn't it? Christ is omnipresent. Lo, I am with you always. People
say, I found Christ. He ain't the one that's lost.
You'd be in good shape if you was lost. Men don't need to get
saved, they need to get lost, don't they? They may just find
out they're close to a city refuge. Right there. Those cities are easy to find.
They were all on a hill. They were high and lifted up.
High and lifted up. That's what happens twice a week
all around this country in different states. Here and there, close
to us, the Lord has the city of refuge lifted up. He's exalted
every Wednesdays and Sundays, Thursdays if you're in New Jersey. Close, ain't far away. How do
you and I run to a city of refuge now in our day? Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Look and live. Kevin, I can't run. I can't run
no more either. I lost that ability. I can't run. I can't flee. Don't
have to. Don't have to come out of your
seat. Run to Him. Seek mercy. Seek refuge in the
only place it can be found. Seek Him, right where you sit.
Christ is our refuge, not the church. Run from the church,
run to Christ. Christ is our refuge, not our
works. Run from your works, run to Him. He's our refuge, not
a creed, not a confession, not a denomination, not a catechism,
a person, not a religious ceremony. Run to Him. Flee to Him. Now
in this type of Christ, this picture of the cities of refuge,
this is also an anti-type. Things that don't always add
up. Types fail, don't they? This type and picture of Christ
is not a perfect one. I'll give you some good advice.
Don't ever cling to a type. Cling to Christ. There are six
cities of refuge. There's only one refuge. Christ. One way, one truth, one life.
Him. These cities, they protected
people from physical death. We're all going to die. There
will come a day I don't breathe no more. This body is going to
return to dust. Worms are going to consume it.
Christ protects us from eternal death, eternal damnation. To
enter these cities, here in our text, a man has to exert himself.
He has to flee. He has to run. There is no physical
strength needed to enter Christ. No walking aisles. No performing
anything. Look to Him. Believe Him. That's it. These cities, they were for those
who accidentally killed someone. We didn't accidentally kill nobody,
did we? We did it on purpose. And it was premeditated. And
it ain't quit being premeditated even after the Lord saves us,
has it? I'm going to read you something.
I didn't have this in my notes. Give me a second. 1 Corinthians
chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Fifty years from now, somebody
may read this, or hear this sermon. They may have done something
intentional. They get to this point, and they just are bawling,
and they say, this ain't me. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God." That covers everybody. That gets every one
of us in thought, word, or deed. Gets us somewhere. We everyone
did it on purpose. Verse 11, and such were some
of you. But ye are washed. But ye are
sanctified, you're set apart, you're made holy. You are justified
in the name. Where? Outside that city, in
the name. In the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. I don't deserve to be in that
city. Flee to the city? I don't deserve to be in Christ.
Flee to Him. Beg Him for mercy. To know that,
the Lord's done a work in you. To be washed is the Lord doing
a work in you. To be justified. Everything you
did was perfect your whole life. My good and faithful servant.
That's to be in Christ. He ain't looking at you. Looking
at that boy born in Piedmont Methodist Hospital 41 years ago.
He's looking at his son. And he says, you're in Him. You're
in Him. That's where we need to be in.
Coming to Him. These cities, they were for those
that had killed someone by chance. Who'd Christ die for? The ungodly. The ungodly. A man or woman that's
entered into Christ, is safe in Christ, has a home there.
They've got a home there. That's where they abide. They
have fellowship there with a whole bunch of people just like them.
Just like brothers and sisters. One body. Those people, they
ain't gonna leave. Would you leave? You say, ah,
I can take it or leave it. Maybe this half, I'll keep this
hand in there, but I'm going to reach out the wall this way.
No, you ain't. You're going to stay right in the middle of that city. Everything
I need's here. Everything I want's here. They
ain't going to leave it, and they don't even want to talk
about leaving it. People invite me to church sometimes.
I ain't got no interest. I tell people I'm a pastor, and
I say, I ain't that religious. What's that mean? Chew on that a while.
What Paul told us, he said, we're not of those that draw back into
perdition, are we? You come in there asking for
mercy and you get it, you ain't going nowhere. I ain't drawing
back. I'm going to stay right here
where he put me, right where he drew me, where I fled at the
same time. He was drawing me as I was running.
I want to talk real brief about these cities. We'll probably
come back to these cities again sometimes. Solomon wrote Proverbs
18, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. It's easy to see it's
mighty. The righteous runneth into it and it is safe. What's in a name? I want to look
at these names of the cities real fast. They're in verse 7.
The first one here is Kadesh. It means holy. That first city
was named holy. You think that's a coincidence?
It's the first attribute. He's holiness. He's holy. Christ
is the Holy One, both as God, He's a holy God, and as man. The God-man that walked this
earth, He was holy. Adam was morally innocent. Christ
was holy. His divine nature. He's abundantly
qualified to be our mediator, our Savior, our Redeemer. Christ
is made of God unto us righteousness and holiness and justification
and sanctification. The next one there is Shechem.
That means the shoulder. The shoulder. I sat on that for
a while. I don't know what that means.
The government sits on a particular shoulder, doesn't it? Just one.
Isaiah told us that in Isaiah 9, 6. The government shall rest
upon his shoulder. All the kingdoms are going to
be on one of his shoulders. Christ carried the enormous load
of our sin on His shoulders at Calvary, didn't He? He bore our
sin. He carried it as our refuge.
And then there in Luke 15, we see that lost sheep. Does He
walk in front of the sheep and say, come on little buddy, you
can do it. Walk through that mud hole. Get out of them briars
by yourself. He picked it up, put it on His
shoulder, and gladly carried it back. The next one's Hebron, means
fellowship. In 1 John 1.3 it says, truly
our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. In Christ we have access to and
we have fellowship with the eternal God, the Holy God. And we're
gonna have uninterrupted communion with Him in glory forever. True
fellowship, eternal fellowship with Him. The next city is Bezer. That means a fortified place. He's our fortification. He's
our palace, our castle. Psalm 91 says, I will say of
the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, and in Him
will I trust. In Him. Those walls of that city,
I trust them. I trust them. Ramoth means exalted. Christ is our exalted Savior.
Philippians 2.9 says, God hath highly exalted him. Christ is
the one by whom we have been exalted from our lowest state
in that miry pit of corruption. And we're made to sit among princes,
thrones of glory, joint heirs with Christ. How are we exalted? Because Christ was exalted. Because
Christ is the one we exalt. We honor Him. We magnify Him
only. And the last one is Golan. That means revealed or manifested. Christ is God manifest in the
flesh in 1 Timothy 3.16. And He is the one revealed to
us to whom we are called. That's the person we're called
to. And by whom we are saved. In Christ, the glory of God,
in the face of him, of a person. Paul said, without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God who is manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. That's three on one side of the
Jordan, and three on the other side of the Jordan. There's a
whole lot you can read about that. And you say, well, the
Levites got 42 cities, and then they got 6 cities of refuge. That's 48. 48's divisible by
12. 12's the side of election. And then, well, then you got
4 of those. If I got to take a calculator to church service,
I ain't getting nothing out of it. If I can't divide that quick,
I ain't going to get it. Jordan picture's just crossing over,
doesn't it? Well, it's perfect on this side of the Jordan. Christ
is. Who's our Savior? Christ is.
How long is that good for? Ever. Whenever I depart this
world, what's all my refuge? Christ is. Perfection. How long is that going to last?
Forever. Forever. It's good enough for me. What's sweet, too? This is for
the Israelite, isn't it? So many people bound up following
the law. You ain't Jewish. We're all under that law. But
they honor these things. Some of them wear hats and funny
haircuts. I'm a Gentile. Does this apply
to me? What if I've done plenty wrong? Is this just for them? Look here
in Joshua 20, verse 9. These were the cities appointed
for all the children of Israel. and for the stranger that sojourneth
among them, that whosoever..." Whosoever. Does that include
me? Whosoever. "...killeth any person that unawares
might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of
blood, until he stood before the congregation." This is for
those that have never entered into Christ. You've never come
to Him, and you just found out there's a law and you broke it.
Run to Him. What's the first thing I'll do?
Flee. Drop everything out of your hand. Run to Christ. What
about those that's been in that city for a long time? Run to
the city. Stay in the city. Trust your
mighty fortress who is your God. One more time. Don't let off
of it. Turn over to Psalm 62 and I'll
let you go. Psalm 62. Psalm 62, verse 5. My soul, wait thou only upon
God, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my
salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. My God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times. Ye people, pour out your heart
before Him. God is a refuge for us. Selah. That's a musical term. It means pause. Dwell on that
note a good while. Soak it in. I hope we can.