always hits me. But the deepest
stroke that pierced him was the stroke that justice gave. And
it just makes you admire God's justice. He will not let sin
go unpunished. How Christ would bear the wrath
of God before he would let one sin go unpunished. and how we
admire our just God. We love him the way he is. I
just love thinking about that. Well, I've asked Andy Davis to
preach for us tonight, and I'm looking forward to hearing him.
Come on up, Andy. Good evening. If you would open
your Bibles to Numbers chapter 35. I want you to put a marker there
and also put a marker in Deuteronomy chapter 19. Just another account
of the same story. We're going to kind of go between
the two. Alright, so we'll start reading
in Numbers chapter 35. And I'll start reading in verse
9. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say unto them,
When you become over Jordan, into the land of Canaan, then
shall you appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you,
that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person it 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 of these cities which you
shall give six cities shall you have for refuge. You shall give
three cities on this side of Jordan, And three cities shall
you give in the land of Canaan, which shall be cities of refuge. These six cities shall be a 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 hither." So our subject tonight is to
look at the picture of the cities of refuge that were given. Now,
there were 48 cities that were given to the Levites. And remember,
the Levites didn't have any land, so they were given land that
was appointed to them. So these Levites had 48 cities,
six of which they appointed to be cities of refuge. place where
you could go if you were killed somebody accidentally, and you
wouldn't be killed. Now, it tells us in verse 15
that anyone who wanted to come, they could come in. There's no
restriction whether you're an Israelite, whether you're a stranger,
anybody who wanted to come could come. There was safety in the
city. Outside of the city, there was
no safety, but there was safety in the city. Now, who would this
be important to? This would be important to someone
who wanted to be delivered from the sentence of death. This would
be important to someone who was not able to defend themselves
against the revenger of blood. So what happened when you killed
someone, manslayer, you know, accidentally killed someone in
somebody else's family, their relative, someone was appointed
from their family to take vengeance upon you. So they could, and
they were called the revenger of blood. and this revenger of
blood would come after you and they could kill you. And it was
just okay, all before the law, except if you were in one of
these cities of refuge. So, in looking at this picture
of this city of refuge, just at Luke 24, 27, it says, this
is when the Lord was walking with those two men after He had
been risen, and they were talking about the events that had gone
on in Jerusalem. It said that He expounded unto them in all
the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. So whenever we deal
with Scripture here in the Old Testament, these were the things
concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. We may not see Christ
in the Scriptures when we read it, but He's there. How many
times have you read something, and then over and over, and then
one time you just see it? That's the Lord revealing Himself
in His Word to you. So Christ is in this Scripture,
and what I hope to do during the time we have is just point
to where Christ is in this Scripture. Now, these cities of refuge were
the picture of Christ, the haven of safety and rest. Every person
in here right now has a price on your head. So you are wanted,
just like this bandslayer. There's a price on your head.
You have violated God's holy law in every word, every thought,
and every deed. So, right now, at this time,
you are guilty. And what you find interesting
is the Scripture testifies against you. Somebody might think, I
don't feel that way, but the Scriptures actually testify against
you. And in fact, in looking at it, there's actually a testimony
of four nuns that testified against you in the Scripture. Now, you'd
believe the word of four nuns, wouldn't you? What they have
to say would be true, wouldn't it? Let's find out. Turn over
to Romans chapter 3. Let's see what their testimony
is. Testimony of four nuns, Romans
3, verse 10. There is none righteous, no,
not one. Second nun, verse 11. There is
none that understandeth. Third nun. There is none that
seeketh after God. And in verse 12, there is none
that doeth good, no, not one. These are the four nuns in the
scriptures that testify against you. So you have a price on your
head at this very time. There is none that doeth good.
No one can stand before God in and of what you've done, what
you've said, what you thought. It doesn't matter. You are guilty,
and the Scriptures testify against us. So you have a price on your
head, and the only thing right for the law to do is to kill
you. That's the only way justice will
be served, is to take your life for the sins that you've committed.
just as the revenger of blood had the same right in the scripture
here to take the life of the person who took someone out of
their family. That's what the law demanded, and they were called
upon to do that from their family. Now, keeping this in mind, that
you have this price on your head, how important does that city
of refuge sound to you now? I would say that a one-room shack
where I could hold up at night and be able to lay my head and
not worry about somebody kicking in the door and killing me sounds
pretty good to me right now. It's a place where I can go and
know that I'm not going to be killed and that I have some degree
of rest and safety. David said in Psalm 91 verse
2, he said, I will say to the Lord, He is my refuge and my
fortress. My God in Him will I trust. And in Psalm 99 he says, The
Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times
of trouble. But the thing is, what if you
don't know you're in trouble? How important is that refuge
if you don't know that you're in trouble? Now, if I'm someone
who hasn't killed someone, what need do I have of the city refuge?
I have no need at all for it. But if you're in trouble and
you don't know you're in trouble, that's a dangerous place to be.
Christ is our refuge, and in Him is three things. First, if
you'll turn over to Colossians chapter 1, In Christ is the forgiveness
of sins. Chapter 1, verse 14. In whom? Who's whom? In Christ. In Christ,
we have the redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. So, the only place forgiveness
of sins is, is in Christ, through His blood. The second thing,
if you turn to John chapter 8, Now, I think maybe even Todd
mentioned this story this morning. This is the story where the woman
was taken in adultery. She was caught in the very act.
They saw her doing it. So there's no question in mind
as to whether she was guilty of this. She was caught. In Christ
is no sin. If we look in John 8, verse 7,
it says, So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself
and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him
cast the first stone. And again he stooped down and
wrote on the ground. And when they heard it, being
convicted by their own conscience, they went out one by one, beginning
at the eldest, even to the last, And Jesus was left alone, and
the woman standing in the midst. And when Jesus had lifted himself
up and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where
are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? And
she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. I don't understand. He is the sinless sacrifice. He had every opportunity to cast
a stone. She was caught in the very act.
But yet, we see the Lord say, neither do I condemn thee. How
could that be? He has to be just. Well, the
only way that He couldn't condemn her is if there was no sin. This
was one of His people in His body for whom He died for. One
of those people who He was the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Her sins were no more. And even
though in time we commit sin, we commit sin, we commit sin,
but yet those sins have been paid for. And before God, the
way He sees it is really the way it is, not how I see it and
not how I feel or how anybody else feels. It's how He sees
it, because He's my judge. And he says, I'm not going to
condemn you. There was no reason for him to cast the stone at
her because there was no sin. It had been paid for. So in Christ
is the forgiveness of sins. In Christ there is no sin. And
last, if you'll turn over to Colossians chapter 3, In Him is our life. Colossians
chapter 3 verse 2, it says, set your affection on things above,
not on things on the earth, for you are dead, and your life is
hid with Christ in God, and when Christ, our life shall appear
then shall you appear with him in glory." It says that our life
is hid with Christ in God. In Christ is our life. Now, we
will know nothing of death after the death of this flesh is gone.
We will know nothing of it. The only reason for death is
sin. If He's my life, there's no way I can even know the presence
of sin, the power of sin, or the penalty of sin, because it
doesn't exist in Him. I am united to Him, and in Him
there is no sin. So I will never know anything
of death ever again, once we drop this flesh. And in Him is
our life. So He's the only reason we live
and move and have our being. Now, Christ is that refuge, and
in Him we have those things. But outside of Christ, the opposite
is also true. Outside of Christ, first, the
penalty of sin, which is death. Outside of Christ is only death,
because He is the only means by which we can have life. So
if I'm not in Him, I have the penalty of sin, which is death,
and the second death eventually when it comes. I don't want that. Outside of Christ is sin. Your sins are on you before God. Now you think about that. We
try to hide what we do from one another just to save face, but
God sees everything. I don't want him to see him with
my sin, have him see me with my sins on me, because that's
the means by which I'm gonna be punished, and then I'm gonna
be condemned. Outside of Christ, our sins are
on us, and we are guilty. And lastly, outside of Christ
is a law that can never be satisfied. We have not kept one commandment
one time. I can never satisfy the law with
anything I do, I say, I believe, my intentions. Nothing will satisfy
this law. That's why there's no end to
hell. There's no way that I can pay off, I can satisfy anything
that I've done. So these are the things that
are outside of Christ, the penalties of sin, the nature of sin, and
a law that can never be satisfied. Now, who is this city of refuge
for? Was the city of refuge for good
people? No. The city of refuge was for
guilty people. people that had killed somebody
else. That's what it says back in our text in verse 15. Any
person that killeth any person unawares may flee thither. So,
it's only for people that are guilty. Now, who is Christ for? Religious people? For good people? You'd probably think so by the
way this world tries to dole him out, and tries to talk about
him and what they've done for him, and all the things they're
doing in his name. But we don't read that in the
Scriptures, so it really doesn't matter what people say. We have
to go by what the Scriptures say. Christ is for sinners. Christ is for the guilty. It
says Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. Not good
people, not religious people, not people that are trying, He
came in this world to save sinners. Sinners are people that can't
save themselves. Not sinners and anything else, just sinners. Now, with respect to these, coming
back to the cities of refuge, it said that these cities were
placed in the center of these countries, so in the centers
of the land. So these six cities had to be
easy to get to. You didn't put them in the far
corners, up some mountain, way down somewhere where it would
be really hard to get to, because otherwise you'd have a really
good chance you'd get caught. So they had to be very centrally
located. And so all the people who would
try to seek these cities, they were able to find it. I read
a little bit about the history of these and it said that they
made big road signs and big red letters that said refuge with
an arrow that pointed toward the city. So there was no mistaking
where this city would be. You could find it if you went
along the main roads. So the main roads would have
big signs pointing towards the city of refuge with the letters.
Now Imagine right now, you're the one fleeing. You've got somebody
after you. You see the sign, refuge. Now,
are you going to debate as to whether or not that city offers
the protection that it advertises? Are you going to try to weigh
out the options? You know, I know somebody says that, but does
it really offer the protection that it advertises? I don't know
if I quite believe that. Well, You might think that way,
and you might spend time considering those things, but the revenge
of blood is going to catch up with you and kill you. That's
what's going to happen when we're spending the time debating about
whether it offers the protection it advertises. Outside the city
is death. Outside of Christ is death. If we have to wait to prove whether
or not the city, whether Christ, offers the protection that the
Word says it does, we will be lost. Because it's not of faith. Faith is a hope towards something
that we haven't seen. If you have to tell, if I, every
time, when I travel every week, if I have to really prove that
the airplane is able to take me where I want to go, Before
I'm willing to step on it, I'm never going to go anywhere. I
have to get on it having faith, believing it will take me where
they said it was going to take me to go. We have to trust Christ
for the things that are written in this book, believing that
they're true. So you can't wait and try to
debate it before you get proof that it's there, because it's
not a faith, it's too late. Now it says that one time a year,
the priest and the magistrate, remember these are the cities
of the Levites, their job was to clear the road on the ways
to these cities. So they would go out on the road,
they'd travel the road, and they'd try to find anything on the road
that was in the way. Anything that would slow you
down from trying to get there. If there's a tree in the road,
chop up the tree, move it out of the way. Rock slide from a
hill came down on the road, start digging out the rocks, get them
off the road. The road had caved in, build it back up. The road
was free and clear of impediment to get to the city. Now, you
can see the picture of the gospel here, I hope. This is the calling
for the pastor. If you'll turn over here to Deuteronomy
chapter 19, we're asking him, Mark. In verse 3, it says, Thou shalt
prepare thee a way. This speaks to clearing the way
of the road, preparing the way so that there is no impediment,
nothing that can slow me down in order to get to the city.
The pastor's calling is to clear the way to Christ, to get everything
out of the way. If you have to stop to move the
trees, if you have to turn around because of the rocks, The revenger
of blood is going to catch you, and he's going to kill you, and
you're never going to make it to the city. This is speaking
figuratively of what the pastor's calling is to do to clearing
the way. Anyone who puts an impediment in your way between you and coming
to Christ is a liar. and they're not interested in
you getting to the city of refuge. They're interested in you jumping
the hurdles that they've set before you. The gospel is free
and it's clear and there's no impediment in coming to Christ.
We're called to come. This person's lives will cost
you your life just to get around their roadblocks. Now there is
nothing that stands in your way if you desire to come to Christ.
The road is clear. Baptism will not allow you and
baptism will not prevent you from coming to Christ. Now, I
don't know why you wouldn't want to be identified with your Savior,
but baptism won't prevent you from coming, but it also won't
give you anything extra to keep you to coming. So, we're called
to come. Secondly, sin in your life cannot
prevent you from coming. Trying to say, I'm going to stop
this particular sin before I'm coming, you know, I've got to
feel more clean before I do that. you're never going to come. Because
in my experience, I've never stopped sinning and sin in my
heart. Even though maybe outwardly I have, the desire is still in
my heart, and that's what God looks on anyway. So sin is not
going to prevent you from coming to Christ. The road is clear. The mountain of regret that is
your past cannot prevent you from coming to Christ. Everyone
in here has baggage. We're all people, sinners, and
we all have baggage. This will not prevent anyone
who desires to come to Christ to come unto Him. The strength
of your faith will never be the reason you could not come in.
The Lord knows our every weakness. He's the object and He is the
source of our faith. It's not my faith that saves
me. It's the faith of Christ. We are called upon to come to
Christ. So the road's clear. Baptism
won't have anything to do with you coming or not coming. Your
sin, your past, and the strength of your faith will not keep you
from being able to come to Christ. What then can prevent you? We
talked about how you couldn't get there. What can prevent you?
First is waiting for another man to tell you that it's okay
to come. You're waiting for somebody else to say, you know, I just
don't know if you're ready yet. You know, you haven't done these
things and, you know, waiting for another man to tell you it's
okay. That's not in the scripture. And any church or pastor that
would say something like that is not looking after your best
interest. They're not interested in you
coming to Christ. They're interested in you glorying in what you do
because they've set the rule for you to do it. What can prevent
you? Waiting until you stop some particular
sin. It's never going to happen. I've
struggled with this, you know, growing up under the gospel.
I never questioned whether the gospel was true, but I also never
knew, in terms of my experience, as to when I really believed.
So I thought at some point, well, maybe if I start doing these
things, you know, it'll be, you know, a little bit better. But
I found over the years, it just never happened. I was like, I
better get to Christ because this is my only hope. And he's
going to have to take me just the way I am, as a sinner. And
we're never going to stop sinning, so waiting to stop is not a reason
for you not to come. What can prevent you? Waiting
until you feel more ready. Until you know more, until you
believe more. Now in my experience, I know
more and I believe more today than I did 10 years ago. But
before God, I'm no less holy. I'm just as holy as the first
time he birthed me, the new man in me. But yet in terms of my
growth in grace, I know more today, but that's no reason for
me not to come to Christ. It's anyone who seeks shelter
from the penalty of the law, that's what he's there for. What
can prevent you not casting off your grave clothes? Believing
something that you do or something that you don't do will enable
you or prevent you from coming. What we do or don't do doesn't
have anything to do with whether we come to Christ. We're called
to come to Christ because we're sinners. We're called to come
to Christ because we're going to die if we don't. So, believing
that we have to stop or start something to come to Christ,
that's not in the Scriptures. If you see Him, you will come
running once you see His face. Do you recall the story of blind
Bartimaeus? He's calling for him, calling
for him. Shut up, Bartimaeus. Be quiet. And finally, they said,
rise and be of good cheer. He called a thing. What was the
first thing he did? He cast off his grave clothes.
He threw his coat down. First thing he did. And what
that represents is he's casting off everything that was important
to him, everything that was his righteousness, and he's saying,
I'm throwing it to the ground. I'm just going to get to him.
All I know is he's the only means by which I can be healed, and
I'm throwing this all away, and whatever he says to do, that's
what I'm going to do. And when he got to him, he followed
him in the way. So, what can prevent you typically
has everything to do with us. It's our own baggage that we
carry and that we set up for each other and ourselves. We're
called upon to come. The gospel clearly teaches that.
And it's only in him we'll find a safe refuge. Now, and keep
in mind here, let's keep reading in our text back in Numbers 35.
It's not just that you got inside. So this is interesting. You could
get inside the city refuge, but it all had to be legal. So if
you'll read in verse 24 of our text, Numbers 35. So you got in the door. Then
the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger
of blood according to these judgments. And the congregation shall deliver
the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the
congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge, whether
he was fled, and if he shall abide in it, unto the death of
the high priest which is anointed with the holy oil." So here we
find, you've got in the door. Now we've got to make sure everything's
legal. It's not just that you were inside
the door, so that you were judged of the congregation. Now, if
you were found not guilty, you could stay in the city. You didn't
have to worry about anything else. You were protected. All
those who are found in Christ are declared not guilty. We were placed there in eternal
action before time began. Christ came in time and died
for our sins. But yet, in the process of time,
we're called upon to come. were called upon to come to this
city, evidencing the work that he had did for us before time
began." Now, it all had to be legal, so the congregation had
to say, yes, this person accidentally did this, he didn't mean to do
it, you're protected from the revenge of blood. Now, all those
found guilty, look down in verse 31, moreover, you shall take
no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is separate
from what we've read about here. which is guilty of death, but
he shall surely be put to death. And this is given as a picture
as well. There are many who claim to be in Christ, yet they have
no love for Him. They don't know Him. He's only
a means to avoid punishment. I don't want to go to hell. Nobody
wants to go to hell. But these people, they run, they
join themselves to a church, a congregation, and they say,
they get baptized, I'm in Christ, but yet they know nothing of
His person. They have no love for Christ. And they're only
in there to avoid punishment, just as these murderers who fled
to these cities of refuge did. So that's why they tell us this
here. There may be people who murdered somebody on purpose.
They run in the door to the city of refuge, protect me, protect
me. This is my safe haven. I want to avoid punishment. But
yet it says they had to be judged of the congregation, whether
it was legal or not. The same is true of those who
claim to be in Christ, because there's no one in this world
who's going to get away with anything. It's an offense to
us when we hear our Lord's name blasphemed, when we hear His
name and His character portrayed in a way that's not Him. No one
that knows Him would portray Him that way. I found in my own
experience, Ken Griffey Jr. came to my office in New York,
and I knew he was going to be there signing autographs, so
I wanted to learn a little about him. I knew who he was, so I
tried to read about him before I came in to meet him. I was
thinking I knew something about Ken Griffey Jr. And so when I
went in to meet him, I said, you know, I really liked you
when you were at Cincinnati, just trying to make some evidence
that I had seen him play there and was from the area. He said,
I hated Cincinnati. He said, the best day of my life
was when I left Cincinnati. It turned out I didn't know Ken
Griffey Jr. at all. I thought I did. From what I read about him, I
thought I had the facts. I thought I knew who he was,
but it turned out I did not know this man at all. This represents
those people who claim to be in Christ. They know some facts,
but they don't know him at all. God will judge that in his own
time. God will root out the tares. He'll throw those things out.
The only safe place to be was in the city. Safety was not knowing
that the city existed, knowing where the city could be found.
You see, you could know exactly where it is. You could know right
there, that's the city of refuge. If I get in there, I'm safe.
That didn't offer you any safety. Knowing all about the city did
not offer you safety. It's the same difference, as
I just said, of knowing about someone versus knowing someone. So you can know all about the
city. What good is that going to do you when the guy comes
knocking at your door and puts a knife in your chest? You've
got to be inside the city. Knowing someone inside the city
is of no safety to you. Your whole family might be inside
the city, but what does that leave you if you're outside the
city? The revenge of blood is coming after your head. Safety
was not standing at the gate of the city. You could even see
inside of it. There are many who sit here week
after week, but never come to Christ. We're called upon to
come to Christ, because that's the only place of safety. I can
look inside, I can see it, I can hear the Word preached, I can
read the Word, I can say, yes, that's true, but if I don't come
to Christ, That's the only place safety is. You can look at the
gate of the city, but if you don't come in, the avenger of
blood can get you right outside the gate of the city, even seeing
inside. Safety was in the city. Now, what might happen if you
came outside the city? And that's dealt with here as
well. Look in verse 26. But if the slayer shall at any
time come without the border of the city of his refuge, whither
he was fled, and the revenger of blood find him without the
borders of the city of his refuge, and the revenger of blood kill
the slayer, he shall not be guilty of blood." Why? Because he should
have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of
the high priest. But after the death of the high
priest, the slayer shall return into the land of his possession.
So, even though you had safety, if
you came out of the city, He could kill you, and it was okay.
There was nothing the law was going to do to him for killing
you, because you should have remained inside the city. Now,
there are many who could come, anyone who could come to Christ,
to come to Christ for safety, for forgiveness, for cleansing
of sins, and then turn their back on Christ and to leave Christ. They ought to be found out, because
they have no love for Him. Anyone who's seen his face and
has come to him, they won't go away. They're going to keep coming
and they're going to keep coming and remain in the city. Do you
remember the story of the Passover? Safety was inside the house with
the blood over the door. If you came outside the house
for any reason, even though you started out in there, you were
dead. The same principles here. If
you come outside the city of refuge before the death of the
high priest, Blood was on you, and He could kill you. You had
to be in the city for safety. So, what is being in Christ? Now, with the time we have left,
I'd like to look at just a few verses of this. First, turn to
Acts 24-24. I'll try to go through these
quickly. And after certain days, when
Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for
Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. Being in
Christ has something to do with faith in Christ. So He's the
strength of my faith. The only means by which I can
have faith in Him is if He bursts a new man in me and gives me
faith to believe in Him. So He's the strength of my faith.
but he's also the object of my faith. So I can't just say that
he has to be the object of what I have faith in. It's not the
series of doctrines that are here in the Scriptures. You can
believe those and see that they're true just looking at this logically,
but my faith has to be in him, in his person, what he did for
me. That's not only my strength,
but he's also the object of my faith, being in Christ. Second
thing, turn over to Romans chapter 8. What is being in Christ? It's
life itself. Verse 2. For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death. The Spirit of life is in Christ
Jesus. Outside of that, it tells us
right here, the law of sin and death. So there's one or the
other. You're either in Christ or you have the law of sin and
death. Christ is life itself, because as we already kind of
talked about, He's not only the source of my life, but He's the
means by which I don't have any sin. And if there's no sin, there's
no reason for death. So Christ is life. So what is
being in Christ? Turn over one page here to verse
39. Nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God. which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. So being in Christ is where the
love of God abounds. I want to be there. I want to
have God's love where he can look at me and says that he loves
me, loves my person. That can only be in Christ. So if I'm in Christ, I have the
love of God. In chapter 9, verse 1, he says,
I say the truth in Christ, and why not? The truth is in Christ. He said, I'm the way, I'm the
truth, and I'm the life. The truth of who I am before
God, a sinner. the truth of who He is to me.
He's my Savior. He paid for my sins. He died
for them. He is my righteousness. So, He is the truth, not only
the Word, but in everything that He does for me. What is being
in Christ? Turn over to 1 Corinthians 1. In verse 2, unto the church of
God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ
Jesus, called to be saints. Being in Christ is me being made
holy, sanctified in Christ Jesus. That's the only way I am holy.
That's the only way I am without sin, is to be in Christ Jesus,
united to his person. What is being in Christ? Turn
over one page to 1 Corinthians 1.30. But of him Father, are you in Christ Jesus,
who has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption? Who put you there? How did you
get into Christ? Father put you there. He put
you there in divine election before you ever were. So the
only way I was in Christ was if he put me there. So, if He
put me there, there's nothing that I did or didn't do, because
it was well before I was ever even born or created. So, it's
only by His hand I'm in Christ. And lastly, what is being in
Christ? Turn to 2 Timothy 2. And verse
10. Therefore, I endure all things
for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." What is being
in Christ? It's salvation itself. We think
we want to be saved from our sins, and we do. I want to be
saved from the presence of my sins. I hate what I am. I want
to be saved from the wickedness of this world. I want to be saved
from many things. But salvation is not just being
delivered from those things. That's part of it. Salvation
is being in Christ Himself. He's our life. He's our Savior. He's everything unto us. So,
those are things that are being in Christ. Now, it tells us,
if you go back to our text, Numbers 35, anyone could flee to this city
for refuge. And to stay, everything had to
be legal. There could be no falsehood, no liars dwelling within, until
when? Until the death of the high priest. And when he died, the slayer
was free. All charges against him had been
dropped. He was able to walk out the door
and there would be no charge held against him, no revenge
or blood, no penalty exacted against him because of the death
of the high priest. The slayer was free to return
to his family and to his home. Now what is this used to picture? This is used to picture substitution.
Read verse 33. So you shall not pollute the
land where you are. For blood, it defileth the land. That's the murder. And the land
cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by
the blood of him that shed it. Who is our eternal high priest? Our high priest died. He died
because of sin. He died because of my sin and
the sins of every one of the people whom he came to die for
were on him. Blood for blood. I could never
pay off the blood debt that I created, so he had to shed his blood in
order to pay it. And this is a picture of our
high priest dying. And if he died for your sins,
if you were in him, if you were in the city, just like the person
who would flee to the city for safety, all of your shame, all
of your guilt, all of the claims against you, all of your sins
are gone, they're forgiven, and they're forgotten. You are free
from the law of sin and death. The law has nothing to say to
you. The law is not made for a righteous man. And by His death,
He satisfied the law, He satisfied the Father, and I can be accepted,
and I can approach unto Him. I can call upon His name in prayer
and know that He hears me for Christ's sake, and not the unclean
sinner that I know I am outside of Him. Now, what is my only
evidence that He died for my sins? Because that's really what
it's about. Because if he died for my sins, there's nothing
for me to be charged with. I can go free, I don't have to
worry, and I will be saved. What is the only evidence that
he died for my sins? Did you stay in the city? It
says if you stayed in the city until the death of the high priest,
you were free. But if you went out, you'd be killed. Did you
stay in the city? Did you stay on Christ? Was He
your only hope? Is He your only means by which
you can be forgiven? Is He the only thing that you
desire? Did you wait there believing that He was the only hope and
only grounds of salvation? I'm going to ask you to look
at one last scripture in Isaiah chapter 28. because He is our refuge. And
if we stay in the city, we're told that we're going to go out
free, and that there will be no charges held against us. In
Isaiah 28, look at three verses here. Verse 15, and this is a picture of what
a false refuge is, because you have said, we have made a covenant,
an agreement with death. And with hell, are we in agreement?
Hell's not going to come get us, because we've worked something
out. And when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it
shall not come unto us. For we have made lies our refuge,
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. We go down to verse
18, and this is where the Lord looks upon all these false refuges
that we can hide on outside of Christ. Your covenant with death
shall be disannulled, cancelled. In your agreement with hell,
it shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, this is the law, the Father looking at you,
seeing all your sins on you, then shall you be trodden down
by it. For from the time that it goeth forth, it shall take
you. For morning by morning shall it pass over, and day by night,
and it shall be a vexation only to understand even the report.
For, this is the story to all those who hide in a false refuge,
outside of Christ alone, The bed is shorter than a man can
stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than he can
wrap himself in it. What good is a bed that you can't
lay on? What good is a covering that doesn't cover you? Being
outside of Christ, being outside of the city of refuge, you're
exposed. You're not covered. You're not
comforted. You're exposed in the revenger of blood. The penalty
of the law will get you outside of Christ. Flee from the false
refuge. Stay in the city. Salvation is
in Christ Jesus. He's all in all who flee unto
him for refuge. Christ is our city of refuge. And each and every one of us
are called upon to stay in the city.