We're going to be looking at
numbers thirty five. I've titled this message, the
city of refuge, the city of refuge. Now, there's six of them total,
as we'll see. And you can look in your bulletin. I wrote an
article regarding the six the six cities of refuge. And actually,
I've never done this or heard of somebody doing this before,
but at the end, towards the end of the message, I'm going to
tell you the definitions of those, and it's found in your bulletin,
and we're going to kind of go down through that. So if you want
to hang on to that, keep it close by for that reason. In Numbers
35, in verse number nine, it tells us, and the Lord spake
unto Moses saying, Speaking to the children of Israel and saying
to them where you when you become over Jordan into the land of
Canaan, then you shall appoint to your cities. You shall appoint
you cities to be cities of refuge for you that the slayer may flee
thither, which killeth any person that unawares they shall be into
you and to use cities for refuge from the Avenger. that the manslayer
die not until he stand before the congregation in judgment.
And of these cities which he shall give, six cities shall
you have for refuge. He 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 thither." This hour, I would
like for us to see that we are the slayer that it mentions here.
We are the one that's guilty of killing. We know this in many
different instances, but I would also like to see that The revenger
or the avenger that it mentions here is the law of the Lord.
Law had claim upon us unless our sin be put away. That word
avenger means a person who exacts punishment for wrongdoing. So
certainly it has to be the law. And I would like lastly to see
our hope in Christ as our city of refuge. The first thing we
notice here in this chapter is that there's six cities. We know
that six is the number of man according to the scripture. That
is man's number given of the Lord. When the Lord talks about
the number six throughout the scripture, he's referring to
man. That tells me that this city
of refuge, that these cities of refuge are for guilty men. They've been made guilty and
therefore need a place to hide. Well, what are we guilty of?
And I mentioned this the first hour, but we're saved from and
we're guilty of transgression of the law. We're guilty of iniquity
and we're guilty of sin. So our trespass and transgression
are literally against the law of God. If the Lord says, don't
do that, according to the law, it's what we have done in trespassing
that law. That's our transgression or our
trespasses. Iniquity is what we try to do once that we've
transgressed the law to fix it. In the Old Testament, they would
offer up sacrifice, but it had to be done a certain way. Some
men would offer up other sacrifices, such as cane. That would be considered
iniquity, to be offering the works of our hands. This is what
all religion is based upon, is iniquity. And lastly is our sin. Brethren, we are not sinners
because of what we do. We are sinners because of what
we are. I can't stress the importance of that because every preacher
that stands in the pulpit this day is either telling people
that it's what they do or it's what they are. And only the Lord's
preachers are telling men that it's what you are. And there
is no undoing what you are. You need a substitute. Thankfully,
the Lord has made for us a city of refuge to run into. Now in
our bulletin, I wrote that article I mentioned to you about being
guilty, guilty of murder, guilty of the murder, the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Every man, every man is responsible
for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He certainly only died
for his people, but there were literally men there putting him
to death. Do we see that? So there were
men that were guilty there putting him to death. That's one way
you can be guilty. The other one is to hate the
Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture likens hate unto
murder. Do we know that? Over in the
book of First Peter, I believe it is. It said, he that hateth
his brother without a cause is a murderer. So in God's eyes,
hate is murder. Therefore, if a man hates the
gospel, hates the Lord, he's a murderer unto the Lord himself.
That's exactly what he's doing. And that's what men want to do
by nature. They want to kill God. They will not have this
man reign over them. But us, the Lord has called,
We delight in the Lord reigning over us, don't we? We delight
in the Lord's sovereignty as God. And lastly, obviously, you're
guilty of the death of Christ if he was bearing your sin. If
he was bearing your sin. So the Lord has me in charge
with the death of his son. Thankfully, the Lord hath put
away our sin. He does not see us guilty any
longer because we are in the city of refuge. We have fleed
unto him. This is the same, and it's the same exact message as
I preached the first hour of running to, of looking into the
serpent upon the pole, is running to the city of refuge. It's the
same thing. Both in the first hour, they were bitten. So they
were made sinners because they were bitten. This man physically
killed something. But if you notice the word that
he actually says at the end of verse 11, he says, at unawares,
meaning he was unaware that he did it or it was an accident.
We were not there, brethren, whenever the Lord was crucified,
and yet if he was bearing our sin, we are certainly guilty
of his death. He was dying for us. Do we see
that? So we need to be hid in the city of refuge because the
law has a claim on us. The law has a claim on us. We
are guilty before the law if he has not put away our sin. Hawker put it this way, Robert
Hawker, and I put this in the bulletin, I believe, but it says,
Have not you and I committed against our own souls by sin
against God's laws against Jesus himself by crucifying him again
and again and putting him to an open shame? There can be no
doubt brethren that we are guilty before the law of God. We are
guilty for the Lord's death. We are very much guilty. Here's
the good news and our only comfort. Aren't you glad the Lord speaks
comfortably to his people? He told Isaiah to tell them,
he said, speak comfortably to Jerusalem, tell her that her
warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned, and she
hath received double of the Lord's hands, double for her sins. Well, there's good news, isn't
it? Brethren to know that the Lord not only put away our sin,
but he put us in the Lord Jesus Christ at the same time he took
our sin away, but he put us in the city of refuge at the same
time. That's the goodness and mercy of the Lord, isn't it?
It's the only way that could happen is him doing the work.
Now I want us to notice this word avenger. Quickly, the word
avenger literally means a person who exacts punishment for wrongdoing. So there can be no doubt that
this is the law. But I find it interesting that the Hebrew word
for that is G-A apostrophe A-L. It's Ga'al, and it's the same
exact word as kinsman redeemer, as kinsman redeemer, the same
exact word. The avenger is the kinsman redeemer.
So what is the Lord trying to tell us here, or not trying?
What is the Lord teaching us, I should say? It's that men try
to use the law to be redeemed. Men try to use the law to be
redeemed, but the only thing that the law is going to say
to them is death. This avenger is also referred
to as a revenger, or an avenger is also referred to one who's
gonna get revenge. It's the one and the same where
he's coming after them over the blood. So let me explain it to
us this way. So if a man committed murder,
he could flee to the city of refuge because the avenger, a
near kinsman, a near kinsman could seek after him to kill
him. And he would be just under the law to do so. So if someone
was to kill someone, a near kinsman could avenge them by taking that
man's life by the law. An eye for an eye, a tooth for
a tooth. Have you ever heard that before?
That's how the old law worked. It was an eye for an eye. Everybody
would just equally do back and forth things to one another.
And because this man took a life, then his life could be taken
by the avenger. But here's the good news. There
was cities of refuge that he could go into, and he would be
protected. He would be sheltered, and the
avenger could not come into the city of refuge to enact that
of the near kinsman. He could not. He could not take
vengeance upon him. He could not take revenge. It
was the law that stated he could stay in the city of refuge until
the priest died. He could stay in the city of
refuge and be safe. In the book of Ruth, we hear
something of the kinsman redeemer. We hear that Boaz, well, I guess
I should start at the very beginning. There was a woman named Ruth
and her mother-in-law was named Naomi. Naomi had journeyed to
the land of Moab and got for her two sons, two wives. One was named Orpah, one was
named Ruth. And we see in the fullness of time and the passing
of time that the two sons died and her husband died and so she
decides to go back to Bethlehem. And Ruth says, I want to stay
with you wherever you lodge, I'll lodge, your God will be
my God. Now under the Levitical law, whenever someone would die,
it was the responsibility, if they were married, if a man was
married to a woman and they died, it was the responsibility of
the next of kin to raise up seed unto the woman for the man that
died. That was the purpose of this
law, or that was the law that took place. And the purpose of
that was because we knew through the Old Testament that the Lord,
the Messiah was gonna come through the bloodline of this particular,
of his people. He had given the promise to his
people that he would be born accordingly. So we know that
this seed was to be raised up because they did not know, you
can imagine the grief of a woman desiring to have the Savior be
born into her. wanting to have a son, wanting
to have a child. And Hannah prayed thus, and that was the reason,
is that she wanted to have the Savior. And so you can imagine
the grief that would take place if your husband had passed away,
then there was no hope for you to have any children. So the
Lord made the law in order for a man to raise up seed unto that
who's fallen. Turn with me to Ruth chapter three, and I'll
show us that. When they returned back to Bethlehem,
The Lord had purposed for Ruth to go during the barley harvest
to glean according to the words of Naomi. And she fell upon the
field of Boaz. And Boaz, she found out, was
a near kinsman unto her. A near kinsman. The same exact
word as we've already mentioned. Now look at verse 12 with me. And this is Boaz speaking unto
Ruth. Ruth chapter three, verse 12,
and now it is true that I am thy near kinsman, how be it there
is a kinsman nearer than I. Tarry this night, and it shall
be in the morning that if he will perform unto thee the part
of the kinsman, well, let him do the kinsman's part. But if
he will not do the part of the kinsman to thee, then will I
do the part of the kinsman to thee. As the Lord liveth, lie
down until the morning. And she lay at his feet until
the morning. And she rose up before one could
know another. And he said, let it not be known
that a woman came into the floor. Also he said, bring the veil
that thou hast upon thee and hold it. And when she held it,
he measured six measures of barley. Now, do you find it interesting
that we're talking about a kinsman-redeemer, the same thing in numbers, and
we're also talking about the number six again, the six cities
of refuge, and now we have six measures of barley? This truly
has to be the grace and the mercy given unto the Lord's people,
and that's the only explanation we can come up with. gave her
six measures of barley and laid it on her. And she went into
the city, and when she came to her mother-in-law, she said,
who art thou, my daughter? And she told her all that the
man had done to her. And she said, these six measures
of barley gave he me, for he said to me, go not empty unto
thy mother-in-law. Then said she, sit still, my
daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall. Now look
at this, brethren. This is our hope, what the Lord
did for us. For the man will not be in rest
until he have finished the thing this day. In the scripture, it says this,
in Psalm, David was writing, it says, this is the day that
the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad of
it. What day is he talking about? Is he talking about this day
that we're in right now? Well, certainly this is the day
the Lord hath made, but he's talking about the one day, the
one day that the Lord Jesus Christ died. This is the day, the day
of all days, the day that salvation was wrought for the Lord's people.
This is the day. And when he said, that's what
we're speaking of right here. The man will not be in rest until
he has finished the thing this day. Certainly the Lord finished
the work, didn't he? Certainly the Lord saved his
people and gave them the cities of refuge to flee into. The Lord
makes you know that you're guilty. You will flee to this city of
refuge. Now look at verse four or chapter
four, verse one. Then Boaz went up to the gate
and sat him down there and behold, the kinsman of Boaz of whom Boaz
spake came by and to whom he said, ho, such a one. Turn aside,
sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down.
Now understand, Boaz is approaching the nearer kinsman than himself. So what is transpiring here?
He had to go through this nearer kinsman before he could redeem
Ruth. Now in verse four he says, I'm
sorry, in verse five, then said Boaz, what day thou buyest the
field of the head of Naomi Thou must also buy of Ruth the Moabitess,
the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon
his inheritance. And the kinsman said, I cannot
redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance. Redeem thou
my right to thyself, for I cannot redeem it. Do we see that the
Lord Jesus Christ is approaching the law here? And the law says,
I cannot redeem lest I mar my inheritance. We sung a song just
a little bit ago about God being the just, being just God and
the justifier. How did he do that? The Lord
Jesus Christ himself fulfilled the law, being our city of refuge. So now the law cannot come and
avenge. The law cannot come and say anything
against, nor seek after, nor seek death for the child of God. It has been satisfied. The law
has been satisfied. The law could not save us. It
had a claim against us. It was the near kinsmen pursuing
after us, but the Lord Jesus Christ is our city of refuge. If you are in Christ, the law
cannot approach any longer. That is our hope. He put away
our sins, so the law has nothing to say against the Lord's people.
This is the only way. that we can be safe from the
avenger of blood. That's the only way we can be
safe, is to be found in the city of refuge, to be found in Christ. Go back with me to Numbers 35.
I want us to notice a few things about these cities of refuge
that are glorious in the design of our Lord. In verse 14, he
says, you shall give three cities on this side of Jordan and three
cities you shall give in the land of Canaan, which shall be
cities of refuge on this side of Jordan and on this other side
of Jordan. Now, Jordan represents death
in the scripture. The River Jordan represents death.
So what is the Lord showing us here? He's showing us that there's
three that bear record in heaven. A few Wednesdays ago, we spoke
on the number three. Remember that? Three that bear
record in heaven are the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. And
these three are one. And there's three that bear record on the
earth, the water, the word, and the blood. And these three agree
in one. So he's given us three cities of refuge on this side
of eternity. And he's given us three cities of refuge in eternity
itself. He completely finished the work
for his people by satisfying the father. That means no matter
where you go, no matter what you do, you can't get outside
of the city of refuge. That's good news for me. If I'm
in the city of refuge, that means he's put me there. The law can't
say anything against me any longer. It's not trying to, Seek vengeance
upon me or seek, it had the right, the law has the right to kill
us if we have sin. It's God's sovereign right to
pass by some and to elect others. It's God's sovereign right to
kill whom he will and save whom he will. We bow to that, don't
we? The Lord Jesus Christ is this city of refuge, the only
place where the law will not seek to kill us because he satisfied
that law. Now I mentioned this a little
bit ago, but in verse 25, I want us to see this. 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 he shall abide in it until
the death of the high priest, which was anointed with the holy
oil." This is a scary thing if it was true for us, because you
can only stay in the city of refuge as the slayer, as the
guilty one, until the high priest died. Once the high priest died,
you could no longer stay in the city of refuge. This is what
God said, and therefore that means it was so you would have
to leave the city of refuge when the high priest died. What do
you think would transpire immediately after that? The Avenger would
find out Whitney or she and immediately want to take your life and according
to the law, be justified in doing it. So let's read on and see
what the Lord says. 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 finding without the borders
of the city of his refuge, the avenger of blood kill the slayer,
he shall not be guilty of blood. He is just in killing him because
he is without the city. Now, brethren, I cannot stress
and emphasize enough the importance of we must be found in the city
of refuge, Jesus Christ. The law demands justice. We do not need to leave here
this day thinking that there is anything that we can produce
to please God. There is nothing that we can
do to make God happy. There's nothing that we can do
to honor God in and of ourself. We have to have this city of
refuge, Jesus Christ. We must be found in him or the
wages of sin is death. or its eternal damnation. Lord,
give us the city of refuge. Why wouldn't you flee to the
city of refuge? Why would a man not flee to it? This is the same
as looking upon the serpent we heard in the first hour. Of course
you would look upon the serpent if you were bitten. We have to
run to the city of refuge. Thankfully, he gives us legs
to run to him. He gives us eyes to see him and ears to hear him.
He's given us a place in the Lord Jesus Christ before the
foundation of the world, our glorious city of refuge. You know that you're guilty.
Flee to Christ, brethren. You don't have to fear death.
You don't have to fear death. And you know what? You don't
have to fear our high priest dying again because he died once. What does that mean? That means
we can stay in the city of refuge forever. I've mentioned this
before, but in Romans 8 it says there is now therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Well, when is now? Now is right
now. And now is right now. and it
will never not be now. whether it's in time or eternity,
it's right now. There's now therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who have fled to the city of
refuge for their aid, who are hiding in the Lord Jesus Christ. Flee to him. Our high priest
will not die. He will not be put to death again.
He one time died, entered into the holy place by his own blood,
and he redeemed his people, putting us into himself, the city of
refuge. In Hebrews chapter two, verse
17 says, wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for
the sins of the people. Brethren, our high priest is
holy. He's harmless. He made reconciliation for the
sins of his elect people. Our high priest is separate from
sinners and he's made higher than the heavens, the scripture
says. Our high priest is eternal. We can rest in a city of refuge
that's eternal, can't we? If it was temporary, or if at
any time something were to transpire that would place us outside of
the city of refuge, death would be the sentence. But thanks be
to God, you did not and I did not put myself or yourself into
the city of refuge. God did it. And what God has
joined together, no man can put us under. No man can put us under. Our Lord is our high priest,
our eternal high priest, and we rest in this our city of refuge. Now, in closing, I want you to
look at your bulletin where it says. In Joshua Chapter 20 at
the top, it says the six cities of refuge. first city in this
understand too. This is the order that the Lord
gave them in his scripture. I didn't rearrange this order,
but this is a glorious gospel truth right here in this in these
six cities of refuge. The first one is Kadesh, meaning
holy place. The second one is Shechem, meaning
back or shoulder. The third one is Hebron, meaning
association. The next one is Bezer, meaning
gold ore. The fifth one is Ramuth, meaning
heights. And the sixth one is Golan, meaning their captivity,
their rejoicing. Brethren, our high priest, our
high priest entered into the holy place, the Kadesh, for his
people. He bore our sin upon his back,
upon Shechem. He bore our sin into his own
body and by his works, his shoulders, the works of himself, he hath
put away our sin by his own blood. He was associated with God, yet
he was not destroyed. And he was associated with man
and not defiled. And because of this, we now have
oneness with God. We now have association with
God, that is Hebron. He took the polluted sin, the
polluted dross of our golden ore, And by His own blood, by
God's design alone, He's presented a vessel of finer unto the Lord,
a vessel of honor that is pure unto the Father. This is Bezer.
He ascended on high and led captivity captive. Our Lord is seated higher
than the heavens. This is the heights that we are
seated in with Him. That's Ramoth. This is why, brethren,
Golan, Their captivity is our rejoicing. We are captive unto
His grace. We are captive unto His love
and His mercy. We are captive in Him. And that
is our rejoicing because we are held captive no longer by the
law. We're held captive by the city of refuge. We are in Christ
Jesus. That's why we rejoice. Run to
Christ. Run to Christ. Flee unto Him,
the city of refuge. If you can, you will. You have
to, because you've seen yourself as a sinner. He's the city of
refuge for His elect. He is our Savior, and we rest
in Him alone. Father, bless Your Word and cause
us to flee unto the city of refuge. Pray that You would keep us in
Christ. Keep us looking unto Him. In
Christ's name we pray,