We're going to be looking again
at the cities of refuge as they're found in the Old Testament. But before I go there, I'd like
to read a verse of scripture that I read last time at the
opening, and that's found in the book of Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, a wonderful
verse of scripture about those Old Testament type shadows and
pictures. It tells us here in Hebrews chapter
10, for the law having a shadow, All of the Old Testament types,
shadows, pictures, the tabernacle, every piece of furniture in it
had something to say about the Lord Jesus Christ, but those
were only a shadow. And when people began to worship
those things, they had taken their eyes off of who is truly
to be worshiped, or we may even say they never saw who to truly
worship. The brazen serpent, what a typical,
what a type, what a shadow, what a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the one who would take our sin, who would become sin for
us. And yet the Jews, 400 years later,
had to have it destroyed because they had turned it into an idol
and were worshiping it as something that would deliver them from
the consequences of their problem. Well, here, Hebrews chapter 10,
verse one, for the law having a shadow of good things to come
and not the very image of the things. Not the very image. They were shadows. But the Lord
Jesus Christ is not a shadow. He is a person. He is a savior. And that's the one. He is the
one that we're called on to worship. And by the grace of God, by his
revealing spirit, we're allowed to do that. So as we go back
here to the book of Numbers chapter 35, keep in mind that these cities
of refuge are a shadow of good things to come. In the book of
Numbers chapter 35, I'd like to begin reading in verse 11,
chapter 35 of the book of Numbers, verse 11, and we find in this
passage that there was a prescription given by God to have some cities
of refuge. 48 cities were to be given to
the Levites. They were not to inherit a piece
of property like the rest of them were to inherit, but they
were given 48 different cities throughout Israel, out throughout
Canaan. And out of those 48 cities, there
were six of those that were to be cities of refuge that those
who had committed, had killed someone accidentally could go
to and not have the avenger of blood take their life after they've
entered into that city. Well, here we have that even
though there were six cities, I am also convinced just because
of the nature of man, my own nature, that there were people
that went to other cities and said, this city should be just
as good as a city of refuge and I should be able to hide here
and not have the Avenger of Blood come in. Our nature will always
argue with God. Our nature is never satisfied
with the word of God. In fact, we heard read this morning
there in the book of Romans, our nature is enmity with God. It is invariance with God and
anger with God and warfare with God. And when he brings up a
subject, it's almost just like us telling our kids, don't you
dare do that. You know the results. They did
it. They're going to try it. So and
that was the way with our parents and their parents and so forth.
So here we have. in this 35th chapter of the book
of Numbers beginning with verse 11, then you shall appoint you
cities to be cities of refuge for you that the slayer may flee
thither which killeth any person at unawares. and they shall be
unto you cities for refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer
die not until he stand before the congregation in judgment.
And these cities which ye shall give, six cities shall ye have
for refuge, and you shall give three cities on this side of
Jordan, and three cities you shall give in the land of Canaan,
which shall be cities of refuge. These six cities shall be refuge
both for the children of Israel and for the stranger and for
the sojourner among them, that everyone that killeth any person
unawares may flee thither. So we have the command by God
to Moses to set up these cities of refuge. Now, the names of
the cities are not given here, so we're gonna travel to another
book, and that's the book of Joshua, the book of Joshua chapter
20, and there we discover the names, and you know, the names
of the cities of refuge are also very typical of the person Christ
Jesus and the characteristics and attributes of our Savior.
And that's one of the things that we'd like to look at today
as we travel over here to the book of the cities of refuge
in the book of Joshua chapter 20. In Joshua chapter 20, we
read here, beginning with verse seven. In Joshua chapter 20,
beginning with verse seven, and they appointed Kadesh in Galilee,
in Mount Naphtali, and Shechem, number two, in Mount Ephraim,
and Kirjath Arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah, and
on the other side of other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they
assign Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe
of Reuben, and Rameth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and
Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh. These are 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. Now,
the person who kills someone unawares was usually in a work
activity. And we looked at that as we went
through there. They were out in the woods. The illustration
is a man's out in the woods and he has a friend with him and
they're getting some firewood. and he swings his hatchet or
axe, and then he swings it again and the head is loose and it
flies off and hits his friend in the face and kills him right
there. Well, under the law of God, an avenger of blood, when
he heard about this, it was a family member, he could come and take
your life for that. Now, I never heard that illustrated
so much as with visiting with brother Lance Heller because
down in the Papua New Guinea, it is still in effect. If somebody
kills somebody, somebody of the relative of that one that was
killed has every right in the world to come. He said it is
an ongoing over centuries battle that continues on and on and
on. And it's not a kind way that
they deal with this. I mean, they are serious and
they are going to kill somebody and with the idea that someone
in their own group is going to be killed. It's just a... Well,
the Lord shares with us that this happens here in that a person
who kills somebody has the right because by man's blood, shedding
blood, his life shall also be forfeited. Well, I'm thankful
that at this moment, we're not at that point right here, okay? But in the days that we read
about, there were cities of refuge for people to go to. Now, as
we mentioned, These cities were appointed. The six cities of
refuge give us many pictures about the Lord Jesus Christ.
But as the book of Hebrews brings out in chapter 10, it is a shadow
of good things to come. And you know, as we look at the
cities of refuge, we find out that there are some things about
them that Jesus Christ does not fulfill, and we're thankful for
it. The first thing that we may say
that there were six cities of refuge, but there is not six
saviors. There is one savior. There's
one person. There is one man as ordained
by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There
is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. There is one. Now there, there
were six choices. And I'm sure that the person
that slew someone unawares went to the one that was the closest
to him. Be a fool if he didn't. But there were six choices. And
here we find out there is not six choices. All roads do not
lead to Christ. There is only one way, and that
is through the gospel of God's grace. We are only saved by the
grace of God and not by our works. So that illustration, I'm thankful
for Christ over this. There was no deliverance, no
salvation, no eternal salvation in going to those cities of refuge. You know what? There was none
that benefited by those cities of refuge except an innocent
manslayer. He had to be innocent to be allowed
in there. If he was found guilty of murder,
he was allowed to be taken out of the city and given over to
the avenger of blood. Well, it's interesting that that
word avenger of blood also is translated in the scripture as
kinsman or redeemer, kinsman redeemer. I'm thankful that someone
else is the avenger of blood and took care of that on my behalf. He's the one that went to the
cross on my behalf. All right. As we look at this,
we find that there was no sanctuary allowed for a real murderer in
a city of refuge. There was no sanctuary for a
real sinner in the city of refuge. Well, I'm thankful that we find
in Christ Jesus that he died for sinners of all stripes. that sinners are those he saves. I heard a message the other day,
and it's gonna be part of my Wednesday night, but you know
the rarest thing in this world? It's not a diamond, it's not
a ruby, it's not gold, and it's not platinum. The rarest thing
in this world is a sinner. You just don't find many. You
don't find many in the Old Testament. Now, we know a lot of sinners.
But there were very, very few that were revealed that they
were a sinner in God's eyes. Jesus Christ came to die for
sinners, and by and large, nobody wants to admit that they're a
sinner before God, or bad enough to ever be cast out into eternal
darkness. No way am I that bad. Now, I know a couple people that
are, but I'm not that bad. Well, we find out that the Lord
Jesus took upon himself the sins of his people, and it was real
sin. We read about Mary Magdalene.
You know, she was a sinner and everybody knew about her sin,
including Christ. And they said, if this man was
really a prophet, he would not let this lady next to him because
she is a sinner. They found fault with him because
he ate with publicans and sinners. And you know what? That's all
the church is made up of. is publicans and sinners. I remember
the pastor who brought me the gospel sharing about somebody
who wanted to start a fuss with him one time. And you know, this
really will too. Just call somebody a sinner that
deserves hell. And you got a fuss on your hands.
Well, Brother Mahan was told that his church was just full
of sinners. And you know that preacher wanted
to get a fuss out of Henry. You know what Henry said? You
got that right. A true church is only filled
with sinners. That's all we are. We only plead
his blood and righteousness. We have nothing else to plead.
And so he has revealed that unto us. So this place that the cities
of refuge, we find the thief on the cross could not go there.
Mary Magdalene could not go there. We find that Saul of Tarsus could
not go there. But everyone that Jesus Christ
was given in the covenant of grace before the foundation of
the world were the worst sinners. In fact, Paul said, chiefest
of sinners, and I've yet to find anybody that was truly born again
that did not take that moniker upon themselves. I am the chiefest
of sinners. I am the chiefest of sinners.
Christ died for the ungodly. He didn't die for just a man
that committed a bad thing. He had a really bad day and the
axe head fell off, or he was throwing rocks, you know, one
to the other, one to the other, moving a pile of rocks, and the
rock slipped and hit his friend in the head and killed him right
there. This is not what Jesus Christ died for. He died for
sinners, people who know they are sinners. It's revealed to
them that they're sinners. We find that the cities of refuge
could not protect the manslayer's natural life. Jesus Christ gives
eternal life. You know what? That guy had to
live there until he died, unless the high priest died. He was
confined to that for the rest of his life. In many ways, he
was almost in a prison. Well, in Christ, we have freedom. We have freedom from the law.
We have freedom from God's judgment. We have every freedom in this
world granted to us. And this manslayer, though he
is at peace and safety, he still was like a prisoner. He couldn't
go visit his family. He couldn't go home. He couldn't
go back to where he grew up. He couldn't do that. He had to
stay in there. Aren't you thankful that our
refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ, is far better than that picture,
that type, and that shadow? I'm thankful the Lord gives us
that picture, that type and shadow in the scriptures, but we find,
because I live, ye shall live. That's what Jesus said. He's
at the right hand of the Father and all of his children shall
live and not only live to the end of this life but shall have
eternal life granted to us when he saved us by his grace. It
began and then we find out it began in the council halls of
eternity in the covenant of grace. I promise them eternal life. and he went on and did that. Well, as we look in there in
Joshua chapter 20 and verse 7, the first city of refuge that's
listed there in verse 7, and we'd like to go through here
and look at these cities and their names because all of the
cities of refuge have a great and significant statement about
the Lord Jesus Christ, about the Savior of his people. This first one that we run into
is Kedesh. Well, you know, I'm thankful
for somebody that took the time to bring this name Kadish, which
is a Hebrew word, into the English language and give us the definition. I don't know Hebrew. I don't
know Greek. I don't know what those words
mean. I'm thankful for translators that has done that work for me.
And I'm thankful for people that spent much of their life, many
times, much of their life investigating what these words mean so that
they can be looked at from our English standpoint and say, oh
my goodness, that's what that word means. Well, Kadesh has
a very significant meaning. This word means holy place. or holy or righteous and you
know there is no greater place to be than in the holiness of
God. God is holy. We find that this
statement is made. Turn with me, if you would, over
to the book of Hebrews chapter seven. In Hebrews chapter seven,
we read these words about this holy one. We are desperately
in need of a holy one because we're in desperate need of holiness. We have none of our own. We were
brought into this world through sin. In sin did my mother conceive
me. I was a sinner at conception. Now, it may have been a while
after I grew up that I realized that I was doing wrong, but we
were sinners at conception. We're just as cute as can be. That's our nature. A lot of people
want to argue about that, but it is just the way it is. If
you think for a moment that by putting your children into a
place that is called a Christian school, you're going to prevent
them from being around people that are unholy, You're making
a grave mistake. If you believe in the education
that you're gonna get there, good. But you're not gonna prevent
your children from being sinners by having them around a Christian
environment. And sometimes it's the worst
environment. All right, here it tells us in
the book of Hebrews, let me get over there, the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews chapter seven, we have this wonderful word about our
Savior that is typical of what that word Kadesh means. Just
think for a moment, from a Hebrew standpoint, the person that is
headed for the city of refuge is saying, I'm headed for holiness. I'm headed for Kadesh. I have
none of my own. I need to go someplace where
there is. All right, Hebrews chapter seven,
verse 22. We read these words. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. The everlasting testament, the
everlasting covenant is compared to a candle is the sun. The... Old Testament is a candle
and the everlasting covenant is the sun. There is no comparison
because there's no deliverance at all in the old covenant. There's no deliverance by the
law. There's no salvation whatsoever but there is everlasting salvation
as a result of the everlasting covenant. And here we have that
he's so, Jesus is a surety of a better testament and they truly
were many priests because they were not suffered to continue
by the reason of death. That was a sad thing. All the
high priests died. For the person that was in the
city of refuge, he said, hallelujah. I didn't think I was ever going
to get out of here. It's like Prince Charles. I don't
know if he ever thought he'd be king. Mom just keeps going on and on. Well,
can you think for a moment to be glad for the death of the
high priest so you can finally go home? Well, here we have,
and they truly were many priests because they were not suffered
to continue by reason of death, but this man. because he continueth
ever hath an unchangeable priesthood. Talking about our savior. He
has an unchangeable priesthood. He was a priest in everlasting
before, he's a priest now and he's a priest in everlasting
after. Wherefore he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto him, unto God by him,
seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Now
notice in verse 26. For such a high priest became
us, who is holy?" Who is holy? You know what the law, the Ten
Commandments, you know what that represents? The holiness of God. and if we don't have that perfect
holiness, we have nothing with him. We have no part of him.
If we're not holy, we have no part of him. He is holy, goes
on to say, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made
higher than the heavens. Who needeth not daily as those
high priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then
for the people's for this he did once when he offered up himself.
For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity, but the
word of the oath which was since the law maketh the son who is
consecrated evermore. What did it say in verse 26?
As we think about fleeing to the city of refuge, we're thinking
about fleeing to the city of refuge of Kadesh and that name
in our understanding because we can understand Hebrew. The
word Kedesh means holy, holiness, righteousness. And what a picture
it is that when people flee to Christ, they're fleeing to a
holy one because we're not. They're fleeing to a righteous
one because we're not. We have none of that and he has
every bit of it. That's why we are pressured by
the Holy Spirit to flee to him, to flee to Christ because he
takes care of all our inadequacies. We find that this very picture
that is given in the scriptures, I'm going to just quote something.
And then I want you to go look at it. I know thee whom thou
art, the Holy One of God. You know, in 99.9% of the churches,
that would be a symbol of salvation. What did you say? I know thee
who thou art, the Holy One of God. You know who said that? Do you know who said that? Turn
with me, if you would, to the Book of Mark. Now this one recognized
this fact about God. This one recognized this fact
about Christ. In the book of Mark, turn back
with me to the book of Mark, as we think about this one that
has just watched his best friend fall to the ground as an act
when he swung that ax and that head came off and caught him
right between the eyes and he fell to the ground and he went
over and checked him and he's dead as a mackerel. And then
he said, I need to go to holiness. I need to go to the Holy One. All right, here in the book of
Mark, in the book of Mark chapter one, and this just shares with
us that this one, Mark chapter one, verse 21. It
says, and they went into Capernaum, and straightway on the Sabbath
day he entered into the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished
at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority
and not as a scribe. And there was there in the synagogue
a man with an unclean spirit, and cried out, saying, Let us
alone. What have we to do with thee,
thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee." You know, this demon knew much more about the
Savior than almost everybody that is a member of any church.
What does it go on to say? I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God. And our translator did us a great
favor and capitalized those words. The Holy One of God. Mark chapter one and verse 24. I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him saying,
hold thy peace and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit
had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. by
the command of the Holy One. He came out of that man. in the book of 1 Peter 1. Turn with me there if you would.
In 1 Peter, as we think about the need to go to this holy place,
to go to the holy one, to go to the one whose name is Kedesh,
holiness, I need to be there. I am not holy. My goodness, it
doesn't take us very long after the Lord gives us the new birth,
we find out what grave condition we are actually in, how far we
are lost, and what kind of thoughts we've had towards God that were
so inscriptural when we had a Bible in our hand, when we thought
we were okay, and then we find out He is holy. I am unholy. and I need his holiness. I need that position with God
that he has. Here in the book of 1st Peter,
we read these words, 1st Peter 1, verse 15, it shares this,
but as he which hath called you is holy, So be ye holy in all manner of
conversation, because, 1 Peter 1, verse 16 now, because it is
written, be ye holy, for I am holy. We need that desperately. We need that. We need holiness.
And that doesn't mean you're sitting in church raising your
hand. It doesn't mean all of that stuff that the holiness
movement has produced. It means we need Christ. There is no substitute for him. No works will carry that out. We cannot get holiness by our
activity. We cannot get holiness by our
works. We must have his holiness. And he is the only one that can
give it. Read with me, if you would, in
the book of Hebrews chapter 12. In Hebrews chapter 12, as we
look at this wonderful book again, Hebrews chapter 12, and there
in verse 14, it tells us without holiness, you'll not see God.
Boy, if you don't make it to Christ, if you don't make it
to Christ, if you stop along the way, if you substitute anything
else, If you say, you know, I know what it says, but I don't think
that's the truth. You know, the only thing we have,
the only thing we have to discuss, the only thing we have to produce,
the only thing that we have to give is here. There is no argument that will
ever convince anybody. There is no discussion. There
is nothing that will convince anybody this is it right here. And if they will not believe
this, they will not believe the one rose from the dead. This
is absolutely necessary. Where does faith come from? Faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It's not
how convincing we are, it is the word of God. If they will
not take the word of God, they will not believe though one rose
from the dead or they found the ark or they found that, what
are they looking for up there in the curse of Oak Island, the
mercy seed or whatever it is. They think it may be down there
with all that gold. I remember hearing someone, if
they ever did find it, all they'd find is a box. There's nothing
there. There's no salvation in finding
or looking at that box, nothing. It is Christ. Notice here in
the book of Hebrews chapter 12, verse 14. Hebrews chapter 12
and verse 14 says, follow peace with all men and holiness. And then it continues on, without
which no man shall see the Lord. Why are we compelled to go to
this city of refuge, to Christ? Because he is holiness and we
are in desperate need of it. Without it, we can't see God.
Without it, we can't be in his presence. You must be born again
and what comes with that? Holiness. to be holy as God is
holy. He imputes his righteousness,
which is another word for holiness. He imputes his righteousness
to us. He gives it to our account. He clothes us with his righteousness,
with his holiness. We are accepted and beloved because
of it. It's not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saves us. And
so it is absolutely essential that we flee to him who is holy. He is the only. Holy One. What did those angels say in
Isaiah chapter 6? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty. Holy, holy. Oh, we need that
so bad. We just cannot comprehend. I'm approaching a time when I'm
going to be going on. I'm a lot closer now than I was
10 years ago. And I'm just thinking about what
it is going to be like to not know sin. And finally have a view of Christ
that is not held back by my nature and my flesh. To be able to look
at him with complete clarity and say, holy, holy, holy is
the Lord God Almighty. But I'm thankful he imputed that
holiness to me. He put it to my charge. He gave
it to me in the blood, shed blood of Jesus Christ. Here we read
there in the book of 1 Corinthians 1, it talks about the Lord Jesus
to his people has made unto us wisdom and righteousness. which
is just another way of saying, be ye holy as I'm holy. Without
holiness, you'll not see God. You must have my righteousness.
The righteousness of Christ is an absolute essential. We'll
never meet God without it on peaceful terms. The city of refuge
suggests that the Redeemer we have as a sanctuary of holiness. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the refuge for the unclean and the unholy. No one else. The holiness of the Lord Jesus
is the only hope of the sinful. The Lord Jesus never could have
saved us unless he had been glorious in holiness. To think for a moment
that he had one scintilla of sin damns every believer. There is no salvation in a person
that's a sinner. We must have absolutely perfect
holiness as our savior. We cannot have anything else.
And in fact, the Bible tells us he's nothing else than pure
holiness. He never thought, never did,
never performed any act against God. You know what? When he touched
a leper, he didn't get leprosy. When he touches us that are sinful,
he doesn't get our sin. But we do find out there in the
book of Isaiah chapter 53, that our sin was laid on him. And as such, God the Father justly
punished those sins, punished us. Our sins were placed in bondage,
imputed upon him. And we find out that because
of that, he imputes his holiness to us. So we just get to fly
to that city of refuge. In the Hebrew language, holiness
unto the Lord, a holy place. I'm going to the holy place.
And that's not Jerusalem. He is the holy place. He is the
only holy place. Kaddish reminds us when we were
drawn to Christ in salvation, he gives us his imputed righteousness
and forgives all our sins. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness,
the holiness of God in him. No, some days we don't act very
holy, but that's not what God goes on. God goes on imputed
holiness. God looks at his son and he sees
us. That's the joy of it. That guy
that fled over there to Kadesh, he still killed somebody, but
he's in the city of refuge. We're still sinners, but we're
in the city of refuge. We're in holiness. Oh, what a
joy. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. I wish I could shout that. What
a blessing. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Colossians. Colossians. Colossians chapter
two. Colossians chapter two, verse
13. It's still amazing to read the
last phrase of that verse 13. Still amazing. But let's begin
with the first word. And you, being dead in your sins
and uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with
him, made alive, I asked a young man this last week, that word
was found in Ephesians chapter two, hath he quickened? I says,
do you know what quickened means? And he says, that's being fast.
That's our vernacular today. Being quick, being fast. I said,
this is an old English term that means to be raised from the dead. Quickened, made alive. Now notice
the last part of this verse of scripture, having forgiven you
all trespasses. He has made his people holy,
righteous. The righteousness of Christ has
been imputed to every one of his people. The holiness of God
has been imputed to him. As we mentioned earlier in Isaiah
chapter six and verse three, holy, holy, holy. is the Lord
God Almighty. When we go to the Old Testament,
as well as we read about him, the anti-type, the Lord Jesus
in the New Testament, he is a lamb without blemish and without spot. There is no sin in him whatsoever. He became sin for us, but he
had no sin of his own. A lamb without blemish, he is
holy and harmless and undefiled. You know, he told a bunch of
Pharisees one time in John chapter eight, who among you can convince
me of sin? No finer statement has ever been
made by the mouth of God. You cannot because you can't
find one sin. You know there in the book of
Acts, it tells us that when Pontius Pilate was willing to let him
go, due imposed on pilot. And the covenant of grace was
carried out. He was delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God, and you with wicked hands
have crucified and slain. God, before the foundation of
the world, determined this is exactly how the Savior must go.
He must go this way. And men and women voted to do
it and said, take him out and crucify him. Don't you think
for a moment there wasn't both sexes out there in the streets
saying, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. Because in
the church, there's male and female that are made holy by
the holiness of Jesus Christ the Lord. Oh, what a statement. Holy child Jesus, he that is
holy. What a statement goes on and
on through the scriptures about the Lord Jesus Christ. And here
we have a city of refuge with that name. Well, my time is getting
close. I would like to just say a few
words about another one of these cities. That's the second one, and it's
the word Shechem, found in the book of Joshua chapter 20 and
verse 7. Shechem, and Shechem means shoulder. A shoulder portrays Christ as
the place of strength and safety. Shechem. Flee to Shechem. Flee to Kadesh. Holiness. Flee
to Shechem. It's strength. He has all strength
and all power. He is the Almighty God. He has
all strength and all power. We find those words in the book
of Revelation, the Lord God Almighty. You know, to many people that's
a misdefinition because In our natural state, we want a God
that is not quite almighty, because we'd like to influence him. But
he is almighty. There is no power that he does
not have. And in so doing, we find out,
turn with me to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter nine, if you would. Isaiah chapter nine. We read
this about the Lord Jesus here in prophetic statement. In Isaiah
chapter nine, verse six and seven, let's read these verses of scripture.
We normally read these in December, but they need to be read in April
and May and the rest of the months. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. Two descriptions
of the same person and what a statement is made we have. the man Christ Jesus, and we
have this everlasting son. All right. The government shall
be up on his shoulder. I don't know why, but sometimes
I just say, now government, I wonder what that means in the Hebrew
language. I know what it means in the English
language. We have it all around us. But government, this word
government shall be upon his shoulder. Do you know what that
really means? That word comes to us from Hebrew words, which
means to turn the head. Now, government wants us to turn
the head towards them. That's what that came from. The
emperor wanted us to turn. Yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir,
yes, sir. We'll do it, yes, sir, yes, sir. That's what that word
means. But when it comes to the government
shall be up on his shoulder, who is in charge of turning our
head? Turn me and I shall be turned
is what we find in the scripture. In the day of your power, you
turn us. You know what? He's so attractive
that he turns our head. He turns us to Him. By nature,
we are turned exactly opposite, away from Him, 180 degrees out. We're anathema to Him. I mean,
we're away from Him. We are 180 degrees out. We're
going away from Him. And when He catches us and turns
us and brings us to Him, He has turned our head. And we say,
thank you, Lord. The way I was going was the way
to the pit. You've turned me to you. The
government shall be upon his shoulder. He is the one that
demonstrates strength. We have strength only in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We have only strength in him.
We only have security in him. You know, every place else is
insecure. But security in him by his own
power, by his own shoulder, he makes us secure. We're settled
in him. Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. He did not phantomly bear our
sin and then it became real when we accepted Jesus. He did nothing phantomly. He
did it on purpose and complete. Why was his name given Jesus? He shall save his people from
their sins is why he was given that name Jesus. Would you turn
with me to the book of Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15. And with
this we'll close and Lord willing we'll pick it up next time. Luke
chapter 15 verse four. What an illustration the Lord
gives us about a good shepherd. He's lost a sheep. Now he knows where that sheep
is. He goes right for it. He didn't have to spend a lot
of time looking for that sheep. He knew exactly where that sheep
was. Let's read here. What man of you Having a hundred
sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and
nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until
he find it. All right, amen. And then he
says, and when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders
rejoicing. Why does he lay it there? Because
that's his strength. We have a Savior with great strength. You know what He's able to do?
Put away sin forever. How strong is that? How glorious
is that? So we have been brought to Shechem's
shoulder. We have strength in Him, safety
in Him, and we'll pick this up, Lord willing, next time. Brother Mike.