Numbers chapter 35, this will be our last study in the
book of Numbers. I've enjoyed this book very much.
We've just hit mainly the high places. That's all I intended
to do, more really than I intended to do. But the Lord's willing,
we'll go on next time to Deuteronomy. But in Numbers chapter 35, this
is concerning the Levites. That was one of the tribes of
the children of Israel, the children of Jacob. He had 12 sons. One
of them's name was Levi. And they were over all the maintenance
and the ministry of the tabernacle and the priesthood. These were
very, very valuable people, the Levites were. They would tear
down the tabernacle. when they moved it, often was
moving there in the wilderness. They were responsible for taking
the fence down, taking the tabernacle down, carrying it to the next
location, set it all back up. They were responsible for all
the cleaning of the tabernacle. They were a tribe that was invaluable. I mean, their estimation could
not be valued. The priesthood could not exist
without the tribe of Levi. Aaron and his children were out
of this tribe, but his family were chosen particularly to be
the priesthood. And that's what we want to consider
tonight, the Levites and what the Lord gave to them as their
inheritance. Let's look in verse 1 in Numbers 35. The Lord spake
unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,
Command the children of Israel that they give unto the Levites
of the inheritance of their possession, cities to dwell in. And ye shall
give also unto the Levites suburbs for the cities round about them,
and the cities shall they have to dwell in, and the suburbs
of them shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for
all their beasts. And the suburbs of the city which
ye shall give unto the Levites shall reach from the wall of
the city, and outward a thousand cubits round about. And ye shall
measure from without the city on the east side 2,000 cubits,
on the south side 2,000 cubits, the west side 2,000 cubits, and
the north side 2,000 cubits. And the city shall be in the
midst. This shall be to them the suburbs of the city." Now,
just to say a word about this to begin with, these Levites, they had no inheritance among
the children of Israel. when all the land on the east
side of Jordan was given out to lots to the two-and-a-half
tribes, and then the other tribes on the west side of Jordan, the
Levites never had any inheritance. They weren't given any land whatsoever. The Lord had set them aside to
be a special people unto Him to minister, and this was their
full-time job, was to minister. And as you look through the Old
Testament, one of the things that they did more than anything
else was preach. They were preachers. They were
teachers. In the days of Hezekiah, he was one of the better kings
in Judah. I love him. He's one of my favorite kings
of all Judah. But he loved the Levites. He
saw the value that they had for his people, and he supported
them. And he said this about them,
he said, they give you the good knowledge of the Lord. I like the way he said that,
the good knowledge of the Lord. And in Nehemiah's day, when they
were building the walls and when they were building the temple,
this is what was said about them. And the Levites caused the people
to understand the law, so they read in the book of the law of
God distinctly And they gave the sense and caused the people
to understand. Now, that's a blessing, ain't
it? To have a man to open up the Word of God and say, this
is what this means. This is what he's talking about.
I tell you, that's invaluable, ain't it? We should value the
men that God has raised up. God raises men up. He gives them
gifts. And He helps other people with
these people. He raises them up to teach. He
raises them up to preach. And if you want to be saved, sit under a gospel preacher.
God has chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. You want to be established in
the faith? You want to be settled and not tossed about with every
wind of doctrine? Then sit under the preacher.
God has given them His Word, He's opened them up to it, and
I tell you, preachers, I mean, they may be an old Tennessee
hillbilly two before like myself, but you know what God does? He
raises people up just like me, and He teaches you fellas and
you ladies things that He don't even teach you in your study.
He teaches you a lot in private, and blessed be His name for it.
But how many times have we sat under a preacher, Larry, and
we left saying, man, I never knew that before. What a blessing
that was to me. And you know, it's not just the
pastor. We've got teachers. We've got some wonderful teachers
here. And we ought, as this is what this is about here, giving
these suburbs, giving these cities, 48 cities they give to the tribe
of Levi. 48 cities they gave to them.
And you measure probably around a half a mile, maybe just a little
bit more, around these cities, that was the suburbs. They had
their outbuildings in there, they had their gardens, and then
they had their cattle. Forty-eight cities they gave.
But I tell you, I tell you, they was glad to give it, wasn't they? They didn't go and say, man,
I hate to give those people my, my, this city. You know, they're
not doing anything. They're retired. They're on vacation. They knew better, didn't they?
They knew better. They gave them the good knowledge
of the Lord. And I bet you the children of
Israel said, man, they're worth more than what we've given them. I'm the only one in this whole
congregation that you pay any money to. And I appreciate that. And you've been trying to give
me more. I just don't need it. Larry wouldn't take any. Glenn
wouldn't take any. Terrence wouldn't take any. But
it's not just about money, is it? giving them your prayers,
giving them your presence, giving them your honor. They're worthy
of that. Those who spend time in God's
Word and then come here and we sit down and they teach us. Well,
I tell you, they're worthy of our honor and support and priority
and appreciation. And that's what He's telling
them here, these Levites. Give them 48 cities and all the
suburbs Besides that, they paid them tithes, too. They gave them
ten percent. They brought their vegetables,
their crops, even some of their cattle and everything. They gave
ten percent up on top of these cities. So they took care of
these fellows. When I was a kid growing up in Little Old Free
Will Baptist Church, you know what they taught me? Now, this
shows how shameful and how uneducated some people are. They taught
us that it was wrong to pay a man to pastor. If that's why he's
doing it, he shouldn't be doing it anyway. That's what he said.
That's what they said. Paul said, the ox that treadeth out the
corn, are you going to let him eat some of the corn? You're
just going to work him all day and stick him in the stall and
say, well, that's what he's for, to work. You don't need any of
the corn. Wouldn't that ignorance? That's
just plumb ignorance of those people. Here now in verses 6, verses
9-15 are these cities of refuge. Let me just read some of this
to us. Look here in verse 6, beginning in verse 6, the cities
of these refuges. And among the cities which ye
shall give unto the Levites, there shall be six cities for
refuge, which ye shall appoint for the manslayer, that he may
flee thither, and to them shall ye add forty and two cities. So all the cities which ye shall
give unto the Levites shall be forty and eight cities, them
shall ye give with their suburbs. Now look down in verse 9. And
the Lord spake unto Moses, speaking to the children of Israel, and
saying to them, When ye be come over Jordan unto the land of
Canaan, then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge
for you, that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any
person at unaware. 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 the six cities
which ye shall give, six shall ye have for refuge. And of these
cities which ye shall give, six shall be for refuge. Ye shall
give three cities on this side, Jordan, and three cities that
ye shall 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 every one that killeth any person unaware may flee thither."
Now, there in verse 16 we are told that this was for not only
the children of Israel, But if there were strangers, and that
was a blessing, wasn't it? The Lord included the stranger.
He never left out the stranger. Probably Gentiles that had been
converted to the Lord through the children of Israel. And the
sojourners, those who just came there to sojourn and live among
the children of Israel. This law applied to them, too.
If they killed anybody, they could flee to the land. We read
there in verse 11, though, that it was an accidental death. It
wasn't a death that was did on purpose, what we would call premeditated,
but it was a death, accidental death, unawares. Here in verses
16 and 18, I want to see something about
murder. I want to begin with this. I want to emphasize something
here, learn something practical here about murder. Here in verse
16 through verse 18, look at this, what an awful thing murder
is. 16 And if he smite a man with an
instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer, the murderer
shall surely be put to death. 17 And if he smite him by throwing
a stone, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer,
and the murderer shall surely be put to death. 18 Or if he
smite him with an hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die,
and he die, he is a murderer, the murderer shall be put to
death. Look over in verse 30. Whosoever
killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the
mouth of witnesses, but one witness shall not testify against any
person to cause him to die. In verse 33. So you shall not
pollute the land wherewith you are, for blood it defileth the
land, And the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is
shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it." Now, murder
is an awful thing, isn't it? Murder is an awful thing. The
Lord Himself is the one that instituted what you and I know
as capital punishment. And they killed a man who had
deliberately killed another man. You remember when Cain killed
Abel? And the Lord didn't establish
a death penalty there. He cursed him and banished him,
but he never did kill him for that. And all through the time
before the flood, we never read that the death penalty was enacted
of the Lord. But as soon as Noah got out of
that flood, one of the first things the Lord did was enact
the death penalty. Remember that? I imagine he did
it because the earth was filled with violence. I imagine before
the flood there was rampant murder being committed by one man on
another man. But as soon as they left the
ark, here is the commandment that the Lord gave. He said if
a beast kills a man, then you kill that beast. If a man kills
another man, if a man murders a man, then he is to be put to
death. So it was the Lord himself that
enacted the death penalty. If we murder someone intentionally,
if we do it on purpose, out of the hatred of our hearts, malice
of our hearts, then what we're to suffer, according to the Word
of God, is death. And here's the reason the Lord
told Noah to enact the death penalty, because He said, in
the image of God, I made man. And when we kill somebody, we
do it out of hatred. We do it because we hate God.
It ain't so much man that we hate, but we hate God, the image
of man in Him. And that's why He said it was
to be punished with death. If this country doesn't want
to keep the death penalty, that's fine with me. Whatever this country
wants to do, that's fine. But don't use the Bible as an
argument of saying that it's against the law of God to kill
somebody for murder, because it's not. And Hebrews and Romans
chapter 13 tells us plainly that the state, the authorities, the
powers that God has set up, He bears the sword not in vain. And we're to fear those who are
in authority because God has given men the authority to execute
judgment upon men who commit crimes. And murder is the ultimate
that a man can commit. It's an awful crime, ain't it?
And God, as soon as the flood was over, enacted the death penalty. But here's something that comes
right on the heels of this here in our text. This is the second
thing we want to say about this is in verse 30, and look at this
a couple of places. Numbers chapter 25, 35 and verse
30. Whoso killeth any man, the murder
shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses. But one witness
shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. While at the same time the Bible
talks capital punishment. It teaches this very clearly,
that you better be sure when you put somebody to death that
that man's guilty. You better be sure. You better
be careful about a prosecutor who will hide evidence Or investigators
who won't properly investigate a crime are witnesses who bear
false witness to cause a guy to be put in jail or to be killed. You better be careful with that
because that's a crime too. And you know what they did with
prosecutors who did that and witnesses who bore false witness?
Look over here in Deuteronomy chapter 19 and verse 15. Deuteronomy 19, verse 15. Look at this. I wish that our country,
a lot of our laws in the beginning were based upon these very principles
given to us in the Word of God. Our forefathers, even though
many of them, and maybe most of them, weren't even professing
Christians, and maybe very few of them were actually Christians,
I don't know, but they knew something about man's depravity. And they
knew something about the holy principles taught in the Word
of God. And they set up a lot of laws regulated by these principles. And they work. They work. Here
are some good principles. Look in verse 15. Deuteronomy
chapter 19. Look in verse 15. One witness
shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin
or in any sin that he sinneth. At the mouth of two witnesses,
or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established. So you just don't have one witness
to come up and say, I saw this man rob a bank, I saw him kill
somebody, and take that man's word. At least two witnesses,
or three witnesses, and then it has to be established. Look
in verse 16. If a false witness rise up against
any man to testify against him that which is wrong, then both
the men between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the Lord,
before the priest and the judges, which shall be in those days,
and the judges shall make illegent inquisition. And, behold, if
the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against
his brother, then notice what they did with this false witness.
Then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto
his brother." Now that's what ought to be done, isn't it? We have prosecutors and they
found this out. They have investigators, police
officers that have hid information and sent men to prison for years
or even worse. And when it comes back to them,
they say, well, let's fire that guy. No. I'll tell you something
better. Do the same thing to that man
that he did to that other man. enact the same penalty against
him as he did the man that he found guilty falsely. Now, how
would that affect a society if we handle it like this? Well,
read on. So shall thou put evil away from
among you, and those which remain shall hear and fear and shall
henceforth commit no more any such evil among you. Now, they
tell us that these things are not deterrents. to crimes, they
are, aren't they? They are. If they're swift, if
they're just, and it's executed, it will deter crime. It will
deter crime. But there's two sides, isn't
there? We have our high school kids, even down in our grade
school today, and especially in our colleges, we have the
college teachers and professors teaching our young people against
capital punishment. And what they're stressing is
so many people have been put to death unjustly. And that's
true. That's true. That's true. But
they ought to stress the other side. If somebody has been unjustly
put to death, then find out who did it and give him the same
thing. That would stop it, wouldn't
it? That would stop it. Two things, let me say about
this, then I will go on to the city of refuge because I want
to spend just a little bit of time there. Two things I want
to say about this, crimes and punishment, executing judgment,
two things. One, you and I are fallen creatures
and we live in the midst of a society that's fallen, that's sinful.
We have to have laws. We have to be a society of laws,
and they have to be just, and we need men to execute those
laws. If we don't, we're going to wind
up with a lawless and dangerous society, and I don't want to
live in a society that way. I want our society to be established
in law. That's the first thing. The second
thing is this. Because we are fallen creatures,
Our society is fallen. We've got to be careful not to
be too harsh. We've got to be careful not to
be too strict, to punish beyond measure every little crime that's
committed. We can get too strict where all
of us will be criminals, and then what's going to happen then?
It's going to be depressionism. It's going to be depression.
And it bothers me when everybody says, boy, they ought to pass
a law. Boy, they ought to pass a law. And if they passed all
the laws everybody wanted to pass, all of us would wind up
being criminals and paying fines and being mad. We've got to be
careful because we are fallen creatures. And we have to be
patient, don't we? Society has to be patient. And
there has to be places where there's generosity in society. And there's even mercy. There's
even mercy. But we can't exist in a society
like that. So here the church preaches the
gospel. The church preaches forgiveness.
That's what she's here for. What's the state here for? To
punish the evil doers. And to protect that which is
right. Okay? Got your civics lesson
for the day or whatever it is. Now let's go quickly to the cities
of refuge. And for that, I don't want to
go back to our text. We can leave that. But I want you to go to
the 20th chapter of Joshua. 20th chapter of Joshua. In verse
1. The cities of refuge. I tell
you, I don't know of any more beautiful picture in the Old
Testament than the cities of refuge. And that's what we want
to look at just for a minute. If you had killed a man unawares,
you did it accidentally, you could flee here and there
you would be safe. Look here in Joshua chapter 20 and look here
in verses 1 through verse 3. I love this language. This is
after they got over there in the promised land. The Lord spake
unto Joshua, saying, Speaking to the children of Israel, saying,
Appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto
you by the hand of Moses, that the slayer that killeth any person
unaware, that word means ignorantly or accidentally, and unwittingly
may flee thither, and they shall be your refuge from the avenger
of blood. Now, I love this language. It's
very telling. It's very instructive. Let me say it like this. Let's
look at it like this. Especially here in verse 3. You
can imagine this happening. Here you've got two men working
together. They're cutting logs. And while they're cutting, swinging
the axe, Sharp axe with a big head on it. One of them draws
back to swing and the head comes off and takes the other man right
there. Sinks deep into his skull. And
down he goes. Down he goes. The man comes over
and leans over him and to his horror he lays there with his
eyes open. Blood gushing. He's dead. He's gone. A blow to the head.
The man is almost in shock. I mean, he's afraid. He's fortified. He doesn't know what to do. He
stands there trembling. What am I going to do? And then
some onlooker says, I'm going to tell his family. Well, he
knows his family. He knows that big brother that's
swift on his feet. He knows he's skilled with weapons. And he begins to wonder, what
can I do? What am I going to do? And it
seems to me he has only two options. One, he knows he doesn't want
to stand there and wait on the man's brother to come and slay
him, kill him himself, pour out his own blood. Oh, I can't wait
for that. His only other option is what? Flee. His only other option to
flee to the city of refuge. Now, this is more or less, in
general, where our Christian experience begins. Is it not?
We're going along. We're living our life. We're
working. We're raising our family. We're
going to school, T.J. Living our lives. Then suddenly,
more or less suddenly, what happens? Boy, we come face to face with
what we've done. We come face to face with the
way we've been living before God. We come face to face with
what we are before God. And it shocks us. I mean, we're
fearful. Our conscience begins to scream.
And it seems like, just as this man had two options, we've got
two options. We can stay and wait for the
avenger of blood. We can wait for the wrath of
God to come and consume us. We can flee to the Lord Jesus
Christ for refuge. Now that's what this passage
here teaches. And I'll be honest with you,
I don't lack this modern day language that describes a man
coming to Christ. We hear this business about deciding
for Christ. Don't we hear that? What does
that mean? Will you decide for Christ? Or,
I decided for Christ. Where is there any awakening
in that? Where is the seriousness in that?
I decided for Christ. Or, coming forward for Christ. Or, repeating the sinner's prayer.
Did you repeat the sinner's prayer? Ok, then you're alright. I don't
like that language. I love this language. We have
fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul. We don't decide for
Christ. We flee to Christ. Every place
you see it in the Gospels, when those men came to Him, in their
hearts they were fleeing to Him. They had but one option. I mean,
the first option, they just didn't want to consider it. That woman
with an issue of blood, what was her option? Death. Death. It's either coming to Christ,
getting to Christ, or I'm going to die. Blind Barnabas, sat by
the highwayside begging. Blind, he couldn't see. Everything
he got had to be given to him. He was going to sit there until
he died, or he was coming to Christ. The leper, the man that
was full of lepers, he had these two options. Die in my leprosy
or come to Christ. It was no deciding for Christ.
It was fleeing to Christ for a refuge, for healing, for sight,
for life. That's what this teaches us.
I just love these words, don't you? Flee. Flee to Christ. That's a Bible
language. I like that. There's a lady left
here one time, it's been a number of years ago now, and she said
something when she left. She said, well, Bruce believes
in this dramatic experience, this spiritual experience that
you've got to have. I don't know what she was saying.
I don't know what she thought people had to experience. But
I know this, brothers and sisters, and there's some of you here
tonight that know this. You don't come to Christ if you're
not a sinner. You don't come to Christ if you're
not a perishing sinner. You don't come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lord of glory, blowing bubbles and laughing and holding
hands with your sweetheart. You come to Christ because you've
got no other option except to perish. The wrath of God, the
sense of His judgment has filled your conscience. God has made
you afraid. You're staring down at a man
that you've killed, as it were. And what do you do? Oh, you flee,
don't you? You flee. And if you call that
experience, all right, it's a good experience. It's a Bible experience,
isn't it? That men flee to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Men don't stumble on Christ as
men stumble in a hole in a dark night. But only the ruined, guilty,
depraved sinners in their own sight come to Him. And I tell you, people use all
kinds of excuses. They entertain all kinds of silly
notions until they become afraid. This is what this fleeing to
Christ is all about. There's some anxiety there, isn't
there? There's some fear there. Friends,
I remember. I remember when the Lord awoken
you, really awoken you. I remember how you felt. I felt
the same way. I felt exactly the same way.
Sometimes the Lord awakens us, at least to a measure. He did
me this way when I was a young man. But He let me put it out
of my mind. But He kept coming back to me.
He kept coming back to me, making me afraid. You ain't got an option,
man. You're going to die. The avenger
blood is on your trail. He would not let me get away
from that until finally He brought me to Himself there at His feet. A man will use all kinds of excuses
and silly reasoning until he's made afraid. He'll set by stream
fishing, singing, whatever will be, will be. If I'm predestinated
to get to the city, I'll get there. If I'm not, I won't. So
he just sets there and fishes and enjoys the campfire. But
let the avenger of blood peep out of the bushes. Let him see
that shiny weapon in his hand. Let him hear, I've got you, boy!
I've got you now, boy! You know what he'll do? Buddy,
he won't take time to be a good camper and put out the fire.
He won't take time to put the last fish on the strainer. He
won't pack up his gear. You know what the one thought
will be in his mind? I'm a dead man if I can't get to the city
of refuge. And that's the way God must deal with us. He must
drive us out of these silly notions and carnal security and rest
that we have and all the excuses that we make. And the way He
does it, boy, by letting us look at this dead man that we've just
killed, He does it sometimes by shocking us, by waking us,
more or less. And then we flee. Then we flee
to the Lord Jesus Christ. These cities were so important
as cities of refuge, and God took them so seriously that He
named them. Here in the verse 7 of Joshua
chapter 20, He named all of these cities. All of them was named. Most of them, maybe all of them,
but most of them, all of them in the land of Canaan was on
moles. They were all on mountains, raised places where they could
be easier seen. Once every year, the Jewish Senate,
they sent out a host of workers to clean these roads to the city
of refuge. There was no stones, the place
was swept, no little pebbles. Every so often there was a sign
that said, refuge, refuge. They came to a fork in the road.
They put two signs on the fork that you were to take. On each
sign was not just one word, refuge, but refuge, refuge. Refuge, refuge. It pointed to the city. All the
bridges over every creek and over every river. There had to
be bridges. They checked the bridges to make
sure there was no rotten boards in them. Every year, once a year,
they were sent out to clear the highways, remove all the stones,
the logs, and the limbs from the road to the city of refuge.
That's how important this was. That's how important this was.
Can you imagine how easy it was? And maybe this happened. Maybe
this happened. Maybe a man was fleeing from
the avenger of blood and he was a swift man coming up behind
him and the poor man stepped on a sharp rock and down he went. Down he went. And what did he
feel in his back about the time he hit the ground? A dagger. A dagger. A man crossing a bridge
and the avenger of blood is on his trail. He falls through one
of the holes in the bridge, and there he's hung. And what does
he feel in his back? The dagger. He's running down
the road, and there's just a limb that's not being cleared out
of the way. And he's looking back, and he hits the limb. And
just as he hits the limb, boy, God's got the knife around his
throat and decapitates him. This is how serious this was. There may have been a lot of
people beginning to flee. And they didn't make it. They ran into a log, ran into
a limb, tripped over a stone. That's why it was so important
that these roads be kept clean and clear, and signs be there,
and bridges kept in repair. It was important for a man to
escape the danger of blood and get to that city of refuge. And
people wonder today why we're so clear on the gospel. Why we're so technical when we
open God's Word and give the true sense of these things? Why
are you fellows so dogmatic? Why are you narrowing the way?
Why does it have to be so technical for us? Because it's life or
death. It's life or death. There's but
one way of salvation, and that's in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. I don't care who you are. You
may be a pope. You may be a preacher. I don't
care who you are, what you are, what you've done. There's but
one way of salvation, one place of safety, and that's in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I would say it this way and
be this plain about it. Give your soul no rest until
you find yourself accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because,
brothers and sisters, there is no other place. There's no other
place. And we make it clear because
the Word of God makes it clear. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man comes unto
the Father but by Me. He's the way, isn't He? That's
why we make it plain. That's why a lot of times we
go through books, our teachers going through books. It's because
we want to deal faithfully with God's Word. Whatever it says,
we want you to know it. And we want you to know it plainly. We're careful. We're careful.
Boy, this is serious. The Lord told the prophets this.
He said, cast you up. Cast you up. Prepare the way. Take up the stumbling blocks
out of the way of My people. Go through the gates. Prepare
the way of My people. Cast up, cast up the highway,
gather out the stones, lift up the standard for my people. And when the John the Baptist
came, what was said about him? He came preparing the way of
the Lord. Make straight in the desert a
highway for my God. It's serious, isn't it? It's
serious. That's why we keep the way so clear to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Here in Joshua chapter 20, and
I won't keep you just a minute. Look in Joshua chapter 20, and
look here in verse 4. And when he that doeth flee unto
one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of
the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders
of that city, they shall take him unto the city unto them,
and give him a place that he may dwell among them. Well, he may dwell among them. That's a wonderful thing. He
come here and he confessed his cause. He confessed. He's gotten out to the city.
And what happens when he gets there? He tells them why he's
there. I mean, he don't hide a thing,
does he? I just thought I'd come for a visit. Just happened to
be in the neighborhood. Man, there he stands painting. Can't you see it? Did you see
it in your mind's eye? He comes to the gate of the city.
And what does he look like? Man, he's sweaty. His heart's
a pounding. He's breathing. He's still looking
behind him. Would you guys hurry? Would you let me in this place?
I'm desperate. I'm desperate. Did you see him
standing there? When he comes to the gate of
the city. What are you doing here, man? What do you want here? I've killed a man. I've killed
a man. There's a binger on my trail
and if he catches me, I'm a dead man and justly so. Can I get
into this city of refuge? Would you accept me in? Ain't
that a beautiful picture of salvation? We've got it in our day. People
have the Lord standing on the outside of a poor man's heart,
bagging him. Bagging him. Oh, He's bagging you. He's bagging
you. Who is the bagger? We are. Here this man stands
at the gate. Desire and interest. Desire and
interest. And they let him in, and look
at this, they give him a place among them. Ain't that wonderful? They give him a place among them. Now, I can just almost see this
happening, and you'll have to forgive me if my imagination
is always running with me on these things. And I can't prove
these things, but I love to think that these things happen. The
Lord just got away with making these things happen. Can't you
almost see a fella, he's a logger, and the scripture gives us account,
you know, if a man's using an axe, and the axe comes off and
hitting him in the face. Can't you see this man out in the timber,
up in the hills, and cutting those big pines up in Lebanon? And boy, he's making all kinds
of money. And that's just sort of become his life. And he's
not keeping the Sabbath day. Oh, he quits work. He's afraid
they'll stone him if he don't. But he don't worship the Lord.
He's just not interested in that. Man, he's got his eye on those
big cedars up in Lebanon. He's making all kinds of money.
And he's just, you know, just living for himself. Then all
of a sudden, that accent comes on. And that changes that old
man's life. There's an amazing passage. I think it's in Exodus chapter
20. You can look it up. I'm not sure where it's at. I
think it's in Exodus chapter 19 or 20 in there somewhere.
But anyway, it says something to this effect. And it's talking
about the city as a refuge. If a man kills another man unawares
because the Lord has delivered him unto his hands. Man, that's
strange, ain't it? He didn't kill him on purpose,
but he killed him because the Lord delivered him into his hands.
Then he will appoint him a place to flee. Ain't that amazing?
See the Lord behind this? He was behind the act they had
coming off. And now this fellow that had no concern for the Lord,
to worship him or know him, he's fleeing to the city of refuge,
and he gets there, and lo and behold, now who's he among? These
preachers. A whole town full of preachers
and his family, and they take him in there, and what do they
do? Preach to him. Preach to him. And he can't even leave. He can't leave. He has to stay
there until the day of his high priesthood. I tell you, the Lord
can take some drastic means to save His people. You know it.
And He can take some drastic means to get people on to the
gospel. How many times as he laid somebody up and put them
flat on their back in the hospital bed to send somebody there to
preach the gospel to them. You and I know of an old lady
he put on her face and put her in the nursing home so we could
go there and preach to her, don't we? Boy, he does things like
that. He'll take everything a man has.
He'll give you nothing to eat. So you'll wind up down in a homeless
shelter and send a preacher in to preach the gospel to you.
He's got ways of getting to His people. He's got every means
available to Him. And when He's pleased, He uses
them. He uses them. And He gives you a place among
His saints. And He says here in verse 5,
and we'll close with this. And if the avenger of blood pursue
after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his
hands, because he smote his neighbor unaware, and hated him not the
four times." Never deliver him up. Do not deliver him up. It was against the law to deliver
this man up. I mean, this was a sanctuary.
This was a sanctuary. You didn't dare deliver him up.
God said no. Boy, he isn't. being in Christ
a safe place. God will never deliver one of
His little children up to the will of their enemies. They're
safe in Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. No judgment. No judgment. You're
safe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But at the same time, the Bible
teaches that. Look back over in Numbers chapter
35, this one last two verses, and I will close with this. Look in Numbers chapter 35, look
in verse 26. But if the slayer shall at any
time come without the border of the city of his refuge, whether
he was fled, and the avenger of blood find him without the
borders of the city of his refuge, and the avenger of blood kill
the slayer, he shall not be guilty of blood, 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
unto the land of his possession." Now, you and I should understand,
for our own assurance and joy, that those who are in Christ
are in Christ forever. I want us all to understand that.
The Word of God teaches it. But it also carries with it this
warning. It carries in it this warning. Abide in Him. Abide in Christ. Don't leave Him. And I tell you,
you love to hear that preached, don't you? Because you know what
the Scripture says when the Lord says, I'll put My fear in their
hearts, and they shall not depart from Me. If you can leave Him,
You've got a problem. You've got a problem. Because
He said you won't do it. You're told not to do it. You're
warned. And then at the same time, we're
told you won't do it if you're in Christ. A lot of people do,
don't they? How many of you have I seen?
We thought they were in Christ. John saw it to the breaking of
his own heart. Paul said, My soul shall have
no pleasure in them who draw back. How many have we seen draw
back? But then he turned around and said, But we're not of them
who draw back into perdition. John said, They went out from
among us, and they broke our hearts when they did it. But
they went out that it might be made manifest that they were
not of us. They professed to be, but they
weren't. Oh, in Christ. In Christ forever. And we won't leave. I don't want
to leave him, do you? I'm afraid to leave him. I'm afraid to leave him. Lord bless you.