The Cities of Refuge

Q: What does the Bible say about cities of refuge?

The cities of refuge, established in the Old Testament, symbolize Christ as our refuge for sinners seeking safety from judgment. The cities of refuge, mentioned in Joshua 20, were designed to protect individuals who unintentionally caused harm, allowing them to flee from the avenger of blood. These cities, appointed by God, provided a means of grace and safety, symbolizing the refuge found in Jesus Christ. As the ultimate refuge, Christ offers salvation to all who believe in Him, ensuring protection from eternal judgment due to sin. They serve as a physical representation of God's mercy, illustrating His provision for sinners in need of redemption and safety from the consequences of the law.

Q: How do we know that Christ is our refuge?

Christ is our refuge as the perfect fulfillment of the cities of refuge, providing safety and salvation from sin's judgment. The cities of refuge were established to represent God's provision for sinners, illustrating that those who fled there were safe from judgment. Christ fulfills this typology perfectly; He is the refuge for all who are guilty and in need of salvation. Romans 8:1 states that 'there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,' emphasizing His role as our protective refuge. Just as the cities provided a physical shelter, Christ offers us eternal security from the wrath we deserve due to our sins, welcoming all who believe in Him to find rest and safety in Him.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to understand Christ as a refuge?

Understanding Christ as our refuge helps Christians grasp the depth of God's mercy and the security of salvation. Recognizing Christ as our refuge is crucial for Christians as it deepens our understanding of God's mercy and justice. The concept of cities of refuge illustrates how God's law exposes our sin and guilt, compelling us to seek shelter in Christ. By understanding that we are guilty and in need of His grace, we appreciate the richness of salvation. This acknowledgment fosters a deeper relationship with our Savior, enhancing our trust and reliance on Him in times of trouble, ensuring that we turn to Him for help instead of relying on our own efforts or worldly solutions.

Q: Can anyone find refuge in Christ?

Yes, anyone who acknowledges their guilt and seeks Him can find refuge in Christ. The cities of refuge were open to anyone guilty of unintentional killing, symbolizing that God’s grace is available to all who recognize their need for salvation. Similarly, Christ invites everyone, regardless of their past, to come to Him for refuge. The requirement is simple: faith in Him. As John 6:37 states, 'All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.' This assurance underscores the inclusivity of Christ's offer of salvation, emphasizing that all who are guilty can flee to Him and find refuge from sin's judgment.

Q: How does one flee to Christ for refuge?

To flee to Christ for refuge, one must believe in Him and trust in His finished work for salvation. Fleeing to Christ for refuge involves recognizing one's guilt and sinfulness and turning in faith to Jesus for salvation. This act is not about performing works but trusting entirely in Christ's atoning sacrifice. In Romans 10:9-10, we see that confession and belief in the resurrection of Christ are foundational to salvation. By placing our faith in Him, we acknowledge that He is the only means of safety from God's judgment, and through repentance and faith, we enter into His grace, securing our position as children of God. The pathway to Christ is clear and accessible, requiring only sincere faith.

For the past 45 years, I've had
the blessed privilege of preaching the gospel to people all over
the world. I've gotten to know a lot of
people, have a lot of dear friends. I got a call this morning from
some friends. I've known them many years. They've just got one child. He's
just about destroyed his life. I've known him since he was just
a small boy. A young man of such potential. Good academics, good baseball
player, opportunity to play ball, go through school. And now he's
strung out on drugs, and parents are helpless. Just helpless. And after chatting with his dad
for a little while this morning, I said, take refuge in the Redeemer. Take refuge in Christ. He's your only refuge. The eternal
God is thy refuge, Moses said, and underneath are the everlasting
arms. What a sweet word of assurance
to our poor souls in the face of trials and heartaches and
opposition, oppression and care and danger. Throughout the word
of God, we're assured again and again that the triune Jehovah,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is our refuge. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our hiding place, a cover from the tempest and the storm,
Isaiah said. Blessed are those people. Oh,
blessed are you who can take refuge under his wings, who can
lift your hearts to heaven and say to the eternal God as David
did, thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me. from
trouble thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance."
David's son Solomon gave us this word of wisdom, the name of the
Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe. No sooner did God give his holy
law at Mount Sinai by which men are all condemned, His holy law
by which he identifies and exposes our sin. His holy law by which
he declares every lawbreaker to be justly damned. No sooner
did he give that law than God promised, I will appoint thee
a place whither the guilty shall flee. Then the Lord God instructed
his servant Moses as he was bringing the children of Israel through
the wilderness into the land of Canaan, to appoint six cities
of refuge, whereby men who were guilty of slaying a man unintentionally
might flee and be safe, fleeing thither to the city of refuge.
We've read about these cities of refuge now three times in
great detail as we've been reading through the scriptures. in Deuteronomy
4, in Deuteronomy 19, in Numbers chapter 35, and then again this
week in Joshua chapter 20. I want to talk to you about these
six cities of refuge. The title of my message is the
cities of refuge, but my subject really is Christ, our refuge. I pray, oh, how I pray. that God will cause you who are
under His wrath on the brink of hell to flee
for refuge to Christ our Lord and cause you who are His with
the heavy hearts, with the broken spirit, with an empty soul when
everything appears to be crushing you down. Flee to refuge in Christ
Jesus, our Lord. All right, let's read our text
in Joshua chapter 20. Joshua chapter 20. The Lord also spake unto Joshua,
saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, I point out
for you cities of refuge, whereof I speak unto you by the hand
of Moses, 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 doth flee unto
one of those cities shall stand in 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. Verse 6. 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 unto his own house and unto the
city from whence he fled. And they appointed Kadesh in
Galilee, in Mount Naphtali, and Shechem in Mount Ephraim, and
Kirjath Arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain 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 Basin out of the tribe of Manasseh. 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, and still he stood before the congregation. These cities of refuge clearly
portray for us the Lord Jesus Christ and God's salvation in
him. The word refuge carries with
it the idea of hope. If we have a place of refuge,
we have a place of hope. When I was a boy, some of you
will recall the days we used to have bomb shelters built around
us. Folks who could afford to would make bomb shelters. These
days, folks are doing similar things for other reasons. But
in our days, because of the Cold War and people afraid of being
attacked by Russia, we would have bomb shelters built so that
people had the idea that if you could hide in enough concrete,
the nuclear blast wouldn't really destroy you. But we had some
hope because there was a place of refuge. And we regularly had
drills at school for fear of being attacked. So we'd go hide
down in the basement of the school as if that might possibly give
you some hope. And so that encouraged a little
hope, but the hope was really a delusion. Had there been such
an attack, it wouldn't have done any good to have gone to the
basement of the schoolhouse. It just gave a sense of hope.
Well, Jesus Christ is the refuge for our souls. And that's not
just a sense of hope. There is real hope for sinners
because Christ is a refuge made by God for our souls. We flee
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us. And
that hope is Christ Jesus, the Lord, who for us entered into
heaven, and he is the anchor of our souls, sure and steadfast. I want to show you how these
six cities of refuge typify our Savior. First, I must call your
attention to the fact that these cities of refuge were places
of safety for the guilty, places of safety for the guilty, for
men who were under the sentence of law. Men who would die if
they were found outside the refuge. Men who had unintentionally slaughtered
another man. The places of refuge were designed
specifically for those who had unintentionally killed another
man. A man goes out to work with another.
And an axe head flies off, hits his neighbor in the head, he's
dead. That neighbor's next of kin was obliged under the law
to pursue the man who had killed his kinsman and slaughter him,
except if he got to the city of refuge. And if he got into
the city of refuge, there he was safe and the avenger of blood
was not allowed by law to harm him in any way at all. That's
Christ Jesus our Lord. We're guilty. We've broken God's
holy law. Every one of us by acts of unbelief,
by acts of sin, unintentionally slaughter our own souls. Our intent is worse than that.
Our intent is to kill God. Our intent is to murder God. Our intent is to shove God off
his throne and tell him you have no right to be God. I will be
God. That's our intent. But we, by
our acts of sin, by our unbelief, by the corruption of our nature,
our heart enmity against God, unintentionally would slaughter
our own souls. And so the Lord God has provided
a place of refuge for us. Now, I often have asked myself,
why were these cities of refuge given to protect one who killed
another person unintentionally? Unintentionally. It could certainly
have been wiser, more cost effective, more efficient, simply to have
had someone who had been involved in something like this to appear
before the elders of the congregation and have the case presented before
a fair and just trial and find that the person was not guilty
of having intentionally murdered a man. That would be far wiser,
far less costly, far more efficient as a method of law. But these
cities of refuge, like everything in the Old Testament, please
understand this, everything in the Old Testament was designed
by God to give a picture of redemption, grace, and salvation through
faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Redeemer. So these cities
of refuge, the Lord God established even as soon as He gave the law,
and then repeated it four times until at last Joshua is given
command, now the time has come, appoint these cities of refuge
for the children of Israel. So that these cities of refuge,
like all other things in the law, would picture for us redemption
and grace in Christ Jesus. A person might be anywhere in
the land of Israel, on either side of the Jordan, and easily
flee to one of these cities of refuge within just a half a day. Just four or five hours, he could
be in the city. No matter where he lived, in
all the land of Canaan, even on the east side of Jordan, within
four or five hours, he could easily be in one of these cities.
What a picture of our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus. The number
of cities is six. The number of man, the number
of failure, the number of defeat. Christ is the Savior for such
sinners as you. Failures, defeated, ruined, false. But Brother Doug, don't you have
anything good to say about us? That was the good part. That was the good part. What
you are without Christ is sin and death and failure and defeat
and misery and damnation. And that's all you will ever
be apart from Christ, our Redeemer. That's all. you will ever be.
The cities of refuge, we discover in Joshua 21, were taken from
the cities belonging specifically to the Levites, to the priestly
tribe of Israel. You see, everything with regard
to God's salvation Everything with regard to the sinner's acceptance
with God. Everything with regard to eternal
redemption. Everything with regard to deliverance
out from under the curse of the law. Everything with regard to
the forgiveness of sin. Sinners and God's priest, the
Lord Jesus Christ. So these cities of refuge were
taken from among the Levites, and the life of the man in the
city depended upon the life of the high priest. He was to abide
in that city and stay there until the high priest died, and then
when the high priest had died, he goes back to his home completely
free. These cities of refuge belonging
to the Levites were 48 in number. I'm sorry, the cities belonging
to the Levites were 48 in number, multiples of 12, which is the
number used throughout scripture to speak of God's elect. So these
cities of refuge were cities of refuge for fallen sinners. Cities of refuge typifying Christ,
our high priest. Cities of refuge for God's elect. Appointed specifically for chosen
centers. The way to the cities was always
kept clear. Regularly repaired so that the
road to the refuge was easily traveled by one fleeing to the
city. The magistrates of the cities.
I read this in historic writings, but it makes perfectly clear
sense to me. the magistrates of the city were
required every year to send out crews, send out crews to clear
the way to the city, making certain that there were no large rocks,
no trees falling across the way, and every low place would be
filled, every high place would be leveled so that a man would
have no trouble at all fleeing to the city and fleeing without
any implement in the way. Along the way, there were signs. He said, refuge, refuge. So that the man fleeing for his
life, when he comes to a crossroad, doesn't have to stop and say,
which way do I go? He says, refuge, this way. And he goes right on
his way fleeing to the city. What a picture those signposts
are of gospel preachers. This is our business. This is
my business, my only business in this world. Oh, preacher,
hear me! The only business in this world
any preacher has is to point sinners to Christ. To point sinners
to Christ. To point sinners to Christ. Not to stand and debate doctrine
and creeds and history, but to point sinners to Christ. Anything
else performed by any preacher is a mockery to men's souls,
a waste of time, and dishonoring to God. Our business is to point
centers to Christ. Anyone guilty of manslaughter
had the right to flee to the city of refuge and was guaranteed
safety for his life as long as he stayed in the city of his
refuge. Did you hear what I said, David?
Anyone guilty, anyone guilty had the right by God's word to
flee to the city. Preacher, can I come to Christ?
Are you guilty? Can I come to Christ? Are you
a felon? Can I come to Christ? Do you
need Him? Anyone guilty has right by God
to come to Christ and take refuge in Him. The Lord Jesus is the
refuge for sinners so that all who come to Him are saved from
the wrath of God. And the way is so plain that
a wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot err therein. What's the
way? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. It's simple. It's easy. Read
the 10th chapter of Romans. There, the Apostle Paul, written
by the Holy Spirit, says, now, lest you stumble over the stumbling
stone like the Jews did, trying to establish righteousness of
your own, understand that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
What does that mean? Don't say in your heart, who
shall ascend up to heaven? That is, to make your way up
to God. Christ has done that. Don't say
in your heart, who shall descend into the deep? That is, bring
God down to man. Christ has done that. Well, what's
there for me to do? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy heart and in thy mouth. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. Can't be that simple. That's
how simple it is. So simple that no man will believe
except God the Holy Spirit grant him life and faith in Christ.
Well, surely I've got to do something. Even after God saves us, we are
all by nature worshipers of the works of our own hands. We all
want to do something. We all want something to do by
which we can commend ourselves to God. Ron Wood did no way to
God but Christ for believers or unbelievers. He's our refuge. He's our refuge.
Second, you and I need a refuge. A refuge is something we need
when we're in trouble. and sense that we're in danger. We've all taken refuge in times
of storm. Take refuge when trouble comes.
We seek refuge in a lot of places. Some people seek refuge in the
preacher. Some people seek refuge in a priest. No difference. Some
people seek refuge in an altar. Some people seek refuge in religious
exercises. No difference. Some people seek
refuge in making some reformation of their lives or trying to promise
God they'll do better. And all of it is just works.
There's only one refuge for our souls. That refuge is Jesus Christ. There is no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. When God Almighty
had told Noah that he was about to flood the world with his wrath,
about to destroy the world in the waters of his fury. He called
Noah into the ark. He said, come into the ark. And
Noah took refuge in the ark. And all the flood of God's furious
wrath fell upon Noah in the ark. But no water touched Noah. He
was in the ark. He was in the ark. Christ is
our ark. Take refuge in him, and the wrath
of God will never touch you. We need a refuge because we're
sinners. Guilty. Guilty. It's amazing to me. It shouldn't
be because I've been there. But P.J., it's amazing to me
that men and women can live in utter debauchery and never know
their guilt before God. Some of you have great shame
because of the things you do. And you wouldn't want me to know
about it. Oh, wouldn't want Brother Don
to know about that. He's the preacher. You wouldn't
want mom or dad to know about it. You wouldn't want your husband
or wife to know about it. And you have great sense of guilt
and fear lest they find out what you really are. And yet before
God, who sees and knows all, you have no guilt. You live in
utter contempt of God Almighty saying, God doesn't see. If he
sees, he doesn't care. If he cares, he won't do anything.
And no sense of guilt. Oh, blessed are they whom God
teaches guilt. Guilt before him. Guilt of conscience. Oh, would to God he would give
you such guilt. Cause your conscience to scream,
scream, relentlessly scream until God alone silences the scream,
giving you faith in His dear Son. The refuge is for the guilty,
only for the guilty. If you're yet without Christ,
you're under the wrath of God, in immediate danger of hell.
Now, I can scare you with that. I can scare you with that. The
wrath of God abides on you. Did you hear me? That's not my
word, that's our Savior, the Son of God said that. The wrath
of God abides on you. Not someday you're going to inherit
God's wrath. Not someday God's going to be
angry with you. Not someday God's going to punish
you. God has drawn out His glittering
sword. And the wrath of God right now
abides on you. And you are but a breath from
hell. But scaring you with hell won't
make you guilty before God. Won't do it. Won't do it. Only
the revelation of Christ and yourself in the light of Jesus
Christ crucified will arouse your guilt. You see, when God
found sin on his son, Don, when God found sin on his son, he
turned his back on his son. And he cried, Awake, O sword,
against one that is my fellow. Smite and slay the shepherd. And in the fury of his utmost
anger, God slaughtered his son. Because God's are purer eyes
than to behold iniquity. God Almighty, the avenger of
blood, is angry with the wicked every day. And yet he against whom we sin continually has made his own
son a refuge for sinners. That's mercy. He against whom we sin continually
has made his son a refuge for sinners. And he, this day, continues to hold you in life
and to keep you out of hell. Oh, what mercy, what mercy, what
mercy that God keeps you out of hell, who fully deserve everlasting
damnation. What mercy, what mercy. You deserve to be damned. You
deserve to be damned forever. You court destruction. You court
hell. You hate God with every fiber
of your being. But God Almighty has provided
a refuge for sinners just like you and me. Oh, God makes you to know your
guilt and your sin and calls you now to flee to Christ. We who are believers, sinners
who fled to Christ for refuge are in constant need of our dear
savior's refuge for our souls. And he's just the refuge we need. He's just the refuge we need. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace that we maintain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. Now, hear me, sons and daughters
of God Almighty. Use Christ as a refuge for your
souls. Use Christ as a refuge for your
souls. Use Christ as a refuge for your
souls. He's a refuge to preserve us
in temptation. You mamas and daddies make a
great mistake, in my opinion, by justifying the rebel conduct
of your sons and daughters by saying, well, they faced things
we didn't have to face. That's not so. That's not so. Bob, your grandchildren faced
the same temptations you had to face, very same ones. They're
just more people, so it looks like more. The same corruptions,
the same sin. It hasn't changed. It hasn't
changed. And I'm telling you, sons and
daughters of God Almighty, there hath no temptation taken you,
but such as is common to man. And God will, with the temptation,
make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. And that
way is Christ our refuge. Christ our refuge. He's a refuge
to comfort us in trouble. Let not your hearts be troubled. Stop troubling yourselves. Stop
fretting yourselves. That's the word. Let not your
heart be troubled. Stop troubling yourself. Oh,
how we trouble ourselves. How we trouble ourselves by trying
to take care of things for ourselves which only God our savior can
take care of. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me, the Savior said. Cast
all your care on Him. Cast all your care on Him. Well, how can I do that? Because,
Lindsay, He careth for you. He careth for you. He careth
for you. You think you care for your sons
and daughters? You think you care for your grandbabies? Do you think you care for one
another? Our care is utter hardness compared
to this. He careth for you. Like as a father pitieth his
children, as a mother tenderly cares for her nursing child,
so he careth for you. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. In all your ways acknowledge
him and lean not into your own understanding and he shall direct
thy paths. Trust him. He's a refuge to protect
you. David made two statements. He
said, what time I'm afraid, I will trust in thee. So fear and faith don't go together.
I challenge that. What time I'm afraid, I will
trust in thee. If you ever walk across a swinging
bridge, and I know some of you think you can fly, and heights
don't bother you, I'm not one of you. I recall walking across
a swinging bridge at Grandfather Mountain when I was a boy, and
heights bothered me. As long as the heights are solid,
I'm all right. a mountain underneath me. That doesn't bother me. But
walking across a swinging bridge, well, I was just as brave as
anybody else. I got about 10 feet out there. And then all
of a sudden, that bridge started to swing 100 feet each way. Now,
it didn't really do that, but I thought it was going to swing
upside down. And all the choice I've got is
to hang on and keep moving, to hang on and keep moving. I was
afraid. But I was clinging to that bridge
sides and walking as carefully as I could with all my might. That's a poor illustration of
what I want you to understand. I know what it is to walk before
God with fear, not knowing how this is going
to work, not knowing how this is going to turn out. For you, for your sons and daughters,
fear for my own? Who's raised a child and not
known that? Fear, fear. And what time I'm afraid, I'll
trust in thee." And then David said concerning the believer,
he shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed. Trusting in the Lord, my heart
is fixed. We read earlier, I will trust
in thee. Third, I want you to see that
the Lord Jesus Christ is just the refuge we need. These six
cities of refuge beautifully portray him. They were cities
appointed by God himself. Cities of refuge anticipated
the need for refuge. God told Moses as soon as he
gave the law, now I'm going to give you a place of refuge. And
then he told him repeatedly to appoint out these six cities
of refuge. But they weren't appointed for 40 years. Better than 40
years. Joshua was already in the land.
The land was already possessed. And now in chapter 20, Joshua
is dividing up the cities of refuge. But the cities of refuge
were appointed by God in anticipation of the need of men for the refuge. So our Lord Jesus is the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, appointed, ordained,
and accepted by God as our sacrifice and our substitute in anticipation
of the fall, in anticipation of our need. He's our refuge.
These cities of refuge were given to provide shelter and safety
and life for people who deserve to die. That's Christ our Lord. If the avenger of blood caught
the guilty one outside the city of refuge, he was obliged to
kill him. And if God Almighty finds you
outside Christ, he's obliged to kill you. If the guilty man
fled to the city of refuge, as long as he was there, he was
under the protection of God's law. The same law that condemned
him protected him, what is in that city. Now hear me. Amen. The law that screams for your
execution in hell. If you find refuge in Christ,
that same law demands your everlasting safety in Christ the Lord. for
just dissatisfied can't expect no more. And the avenger of blood
could not exact anything from the man in the city. So the law
exacts nothing from the believer. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. These cities of refuge were all
easily seen. They were each one established
on a high hill or a mountain. So that the man who, oh, now what do I do? That's
my neighbor, he's got six children and a wife, and I've killed him,
what do I, there's the refuge! And off he goes. And so it is,
Christ Jesus is set on God's holy hill of Zion. And he said,
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
me. And so we, by the preaching of
the gospel, lift him up for sinners to flee to him. As I said earlier,
the cities of refuge were easily marked, easily identified, and
easily accessible. But what about the obstacles?
Many obstacles lie in the way. Christ took them out. There stood
the law. Christ fulfilled it. There stood
our sins. Christ removed them. There stands
God's justice. Christ satisfied it. And so our
Lord Jesus Christ has made the way clear. It's the task of every
gospel preacher to do the same, to continually make clear the
way to God our Savior. It is our business, like John
the Baptist, prepare ye the way of the Lord, so that the preacher
continually removes obstacles out of the way. Oh, what obstacles
men raise up. You've got to have so much knowledge.
You've got to have so much experience. You've got to have so much feelings.
You've got to go through this. You've got to go through that.
You've got to go to Christ. That's all. You've got to go
to Christ. Nearly 30 years ago, I was sitting
in a preacher's home. But he decided that you got to have
so much knowledge, got to learn, got to have some brains to be
a believer. And I said to him sitting on
his couch in his living room in front of his wife, I said,
you've developed a system of works as damning to men's souls
as if you required them to be circumcised. Now hear me, whatever
any man puts between you and Christ is works. Whatever any
man puts between you and Christ is works. And it's damning. It's damning. I don't care how
good it sounds. You went through that nonsense,
feelings and emotions and all the stuff you got to do and feel
or you can't come to Christ. Years ago, I was preaching a
place and sitting across the table from a fellow. He said,
he said, well, I've been seeking the Lord for 30 years. I said,
do what? I've been seeking the Lord for
30 years. His pastor was sitting right beside him who preached
that nonsense. I said, that's not so. I said, you've been seeking
him that long. You'd have found him a long time
ago. That's just not so. That's just not so. There's nothing
between the sinner and the Savior. Come to Christ without delay. But Brother Don, don't I have
to do something? That's what I'm trying to tell you. No. but
don't have to work something up, no! But don't have to go,
no! Come to Christ. You don't have
to wait for me to get done preaching right where you are. You don't
have to say a prayer. Don't move your lips. You don't
have to walk up front. Don't move your feet. Come to
Christ, believing Him, trusting. Our business is to make the way
plain and clear. These refuge, these cities of
refuge were opened to Jew and Gentile alone, and open for sinners
guilty. Open for sinners guilty. Turn to First Corinthians Chapter
6. Let me wrap this up. First Corinthians Chapter 6. I want every one of you here
to read these three verses with me. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? That takes in every one
of us, the unrighteous. And then, just in case you're
wondering who the unrighteous are, the Spirit of God inspired
the apostle to describe the unrighteous in many ways. Be not deceived,
neither fornicators, That's unrighteousness. And I am tempted to spend the
next two hours trying to explain to you in this perverse generation
that every form of moral immorality of debauchery is unrighteousness. Well, that's, you're out of step
with the times. I plan to stay that way. And
you'll be smart too. Fornication. That word fornication
is really the word from which we get our word pornography.
Every form of moral deviance. Nor idolaters. Idolaters. Idolatry? The worship of your
hands. The worship of a false god. Even
worshiping a false god under the name of the true god. Idolatry. Nor adulterers. Adulterers. These days. Just every little
whip stitch, huh? Here's a fellow that left his
wife to go marry another one. A woman left her husband to go
marry another one. Well, everybody does that. Everybody but God's
people. Everybody but God. God's people
don't act like this. That's just not so. That's just not so. Read
on. Nor effeminate. Just in case
you don't know what it's talking about, it's talking about fellows
who are limp-wristed and light in the loafers. Talking about queers, homosexuals. I don't call them gay. That's
not the word. They're sodomites. Nor abusers
of themselves with mankind. Men who abuse others with violence
is particularly referring to sexual perversity. Nor thieves,
nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners. Now isn't that something? Isn't
that something? Ronnie loves them all together.
fornicators and adulterers and sodomites and thieves and idolaters. And he loves them all together.
They shall not inherit the kingdom of God. No unrighteous person
shall enter into God's kingdom. Now, read the next line. And
such were some of you. Rex, I've hit you there somewhere.
And I've hit Don there somewhere. In all likelihood, in reality,
I've hit you with every one of them. And I know I've hit Don
with every one of them. And such were some of you. Sometimes I think this next word
is the greatest word in English language, but. Oh, glorious, but you are washed,
washed in the blood of Christ. You are sanctified, made holy
by God's grace and regeneration. But you are justified before
God in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Because Christ is a refuge. for our souls. Now, I repeat,
everything about this centers on the high priest. That center
can stay there and live as long as that priest lives. And when
the priest dies, he steps out of the city and goes on living.
Our great priest died for us and we live in him. And our great
priest lives again at the right hand of God. And because we have
such a high priest, he's able to save to the uttermost all
them that come to God by him. Amen.

The Cities of Refuge

What does the Bible say about cities of refuge?

How do we know that Christ is our refuge?

Why is it important for Christians to understand Christ as a refuge?

Can anyone find refuge in Christ?

How does one flee to Christ for refuge?

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The Cities of Refuge

What does the Bible say about cities of refuge?

How do we know that Christ is our refuge?

Why is it important for Christians to understand Christ as a refuge?

Can anyone find refuge in Christ?

How does one flee to Christ for refuge?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

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