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Good afternoon, thank you for
being back in your place. If you would stand, we'll get started
with our service. Proverbs chapter two, verse number
one says, my son, if thou will receive my words and hide my
commandment with thee so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom
and apply thine heart to understanding, yea, if thou cryest after knowledge
and lifteth thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver
and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou
understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
It's good to be in the Lord's house today. Brother Marsha,
so would you open us? and drum and singing, page number
55, window roll. ♪ In the traffic of the mountains,
in the times of need ♪ ♪ And in the lonely ways of the world,
what can you say? ♪ ♪ If you say the words together,
oh, we're on the other shore ♪ ♪ And the roads are smaller,
we're on the other end ♪ ♪ In the golden spot upon the golden
plain ♪ ♪ Bound to the right hand of the Lord ♪ ♪ With red
horses galloping ♪ ♪ To the glory of His righteousness plain ♪
♪ With His children dancing around Him ♪ ♪ In the golden spot upon
the golden plain ♪ When the rollers fall on yonder,
I'll be there. When the rollers fall on yonder,
When the rollers fall on yonder, I'll be there. to sing thy praise. Strings of
mercy at their ceasing, a voice of love on its praise. Teach me some,
thou glorious Son, ♪ Raise the mountain, raise the
volleys ♪ ♪ Crowns of thy redeeming love ♪ ♪ Here I raise my heavenly song ♪ ♪
Hither by thy help I'm found ♪ ♪ And I know I find the pleasure safely at home ♪ ♪ Wondering how the Lord above
♪ ♪ Leads to rescue me from danger ♪ ♪ Interposes gracious love ♪ ♪ Oh, to grace how great
a debtor ♪ ♪ Daily I'm constrained to be, but I do not fear ♪ Don't you wander, Lord, I feel
it. Don't you leave, love, that I love. Here's my heart. Take it, steal it. Steal it, Lord, I want it. you December hasn't changed. This town looks the same. They still light that tree in
the city square. There's red, white, and green
shining everywhere. And I wish you were here. And I wonder, Is the snow falling down on the
streets of gold? Are the mansions all covered
in white? Are you singing with angels,
silent night? I wonder what Christmas in heaven
is like. There's a little manger scene
Down on 3rd and Main I must have walked right by it a thousand
times But I see it now in a different light Cause I know you are there
And I wonder Are you kneeling with shepherds before him now? Can you reach out and touch his
face? Are you part of that glorious
holy night? I wonder what Christmas in heaven
is like. Is the snow falling down on the
streets of gold? Are the mansions all covered
in white? Are you singing with angels,
silent night? I wonder what Christmas in heaven
is like. Amen. We'll be in the book of
Joshua. This is on. There we go. Wow. The book of
Joshua, chapter number 20. The book of Joshua, chapter number
20. And while you're turning there, I think pastor went home.
He's not feeling good. So we just go in and pray for
him. He's feeling a little under the weather. He just came in and
powered through this morning's message and then went home. So hopefully
he's asleep. And I know he likes pushing himself.
Just being prayer for him that he gets better, starts feeling
100 percent. So, Joshua chapter number 20 is where we're going
to be at today. We've been preaching through
this book and it's been a while since I've gotten to preach again,
so I'm excited to get back into this. Joshua chapter number 20,
if you find your place there, if you can and are able to, please
stand in honor of reading God's word. We'll go ahead and read
it. We're going to try and read the whole chapter. We'll do it
quickly, alright? It says, The Lord also spake unto Joshua,
saying, Speak 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 unawares and
unwittingly may flee thither, and they shall be your refuge
from the avenger of blood. And when he that doth flee into
one of the 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 into the city unto them,
and give him a place that he may dwell among them. And if
the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver
the slayer up into his hand, because he smote his neighbor
unwittingly, and hated him not before time. And he shall dwell
in that city until he stand before the congregation for judgment
and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those
days. Then shall the slayer return and come into his own city and
into his own house, unto the city from whence he fled. Verse
7 says, And they appointed Kadesh in Galilee, and Mount Naphtali,
and Shechem in Mount Aphraim, and Kirjath Arba, which is Hebron,
in the mount of Judah. And on the other side of Jordan,
by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness, upon
the plain, out of the tribe of Reuben, and Rameth in Gilead,
out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, out of the tribe
of Manasseh. These were the cities appointed
for all the children of Israel and for the stranger that sojourneth
among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares might
flee thither and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood
until he stood before the congregation. So obviously, I titled it Christ
Our Refuge, Christ Our Refuge. Let's go ahead and pray. Dear
God, thank you so much for this day. I just pray you calm my nerves, give
me the words to say, Lord, thank you for this This honor Lord
to get in preacher ward, and I'm not deserving Lord by just
pray that you help me deliver the message Lord that you have
for us Lord prepare hearts Lord Thank you so much that you are
a refuge you can turn to in time of trouble and your precious
name you pray Amen, amen you may be seated So I went to heartland Baptist
Bible College and I This story doesn't involve me. It involves
a friend that I had, different doormates and so forth. And one
night, this is the way the story was told to me, one night this
friend I had, he lived below me, he lived downstairs. It was
about probably two o'clock in the morning. He's living in his
dorm and he's there asleep in his dorm trying to get ready,
get some rest for the class the next day ahead of him. And as
he's sleeping there about two in the morning, he starts hearing
a frantic knocking at the window. It's kind of, And it's nonstop. And again, it's not very loud,
but it's just kind of nonstop. And he kind of awakes from sleeping
there. He wakes up, and he sees a hand
kind of reaching out from outside the corner of the window, kind
of knocking on the window. And he kind of startles him, right?
As anybody would, sleeping in the middle of the night, you
hear this knock at your window. And he wakes up. He's unsure of what
to do. So what does he do? He wakes up, and he kind of He
slides the window open. He unlatches it, slides the window
open. And as soon as he slides the
window open, a hand reaches in and pushes the window open and
somebody tries to climb into his dorm room. Middle of the
night. And that somebody, it was not
somebody I was close to, but it was another, another student,
trying to climb into his room. And you know, my friend is frantic.
He doesn't know what's going on, why is this happening. This
other kid is trying to climb into his room at 2 in the morning.
He's unsure of what's happening. And in all the confusion, this
other kid finally blurts out, he's like, I need some help.
And what had happened was this kid, you know, as is very common,
he's got a craving for tacos at one in the morning. And there's
a taco truck down the street from Harlan Battles, Iowa College.
So he thought the smart thing to do would be to sneak out of
his dorm, jump over the fence, run down and get tacos. Except
when he came back trying to climb in the same way, there was a
security guard. His truck was parked right there
where he was trying to make his entrance. Now, his plan to get
back to the dorm without being noticed is foiled. It's not going
to work out, so he begins to freak out. And so what does he
try to do? He tries to find any entrance
he can to the dorm room. He can't come in the main entrances
because, for this exact reason, they place the RAs, their rooms,
right by each entryway. So he says, okay, I'll check
windows to see if any are open. And lo and behold, none of the
windows were unlocked. So he does what he will, the
next best thing he could do, his last resort, right? He bangs
on his window, hoping, just hoping that my friend would let him
take refuge in his room. Trying to let him in, trying
to hide him. And because at this point, the RA's knew somebody
was missing. They were looking for him. And
this is where he found himself. He found himself in a position
where he kind of had his back up against the wall. He had no
idea what to do. So he seeks this refuge, right? And this
man, this thing we see, this account we see in this passage,
The hypothetical here, this man would find himself in a very
similar position, back up against the wall, not knowing what to
do, right? So this passage, chapter 20, takes place after they conquer
the land and it's time to divide up the land. God kind of says,
okay, let's pause and we got to take care of something. Because
I'm afraid something might happen. I know humans, I know how you
guys are, and I also know that accidents happen. And we're going
to set apart some cities. These cities are going to be
cities of refuge. And these cities of refuge are going to be used
for a man. How many of you heard the term
manslaughter? That's kind of the modern vernacular
we use now. Vehicular manslaughter, whatever
it may be. So in this passage, God says, you're going to set
apart these cities, and these cities are going to be used by
a man who inevitably one day is going to need them. And this
man would have found himself in a very peculiar position. His back up against the wall,
not knowing quite what to do. Right? I can just imagine maybe
a hunting accident, just out with his friend, working at the
mill, whatever it may be, and accidentally this man, he kills
his fellow man. The blood of his friend, of his
co-worker, of whoever it may be, is now on his hands. He killed
him. The Bible calls him a manslayer.
Manslaughter. Now, before the law was even
given to the people of Israel, God had already kind of communicated
to them that blood was to be paid with blood. Whenever a man
murdered another man, that man's life was now forfeit. That was
the only payment acceptable for murdering another person. So
now, in this situation, a man knows he just killed his fellow
man. It was an accident, but nonetheless, it's very clear
that blood is going to be required of him because he took somebody
else's life. His life would be the only payment
for this other man's life. And God said, I'm going to set
a plan for this. That's what these cities are
for. And it was for this manslayer who accidentally took the life
of his fellow man. Of course, after this happened,
what would make this even more interesting and more of a dire
situation is that there would be somebody called the Avenger
of Blood coming after him. And back then, this would be,
For example, a man is working with another man, and he accidentally
kills this man, and this man had a son, an elder son. That
elder son would now be titled the Avenger of Blood, and he
would be the one that chases after this man who killed his
dad accidentally, and he would be chasing down to try and get
sweet revenge. to kill this man for what he
did to his dad, to his father. And if he didn't have a son,
then maybe the brother or an uncle or even his father. So
now he finds himself in a position where he accidentally took the
life of another man and he knows that his son or his uncle or
his brother is going to catch wind of this and he is going
to be chasing after blood. He is going for his head. Now
what do I do? What do I do now? My back's up
against a hard place. I don't know what to do. I'm
confused. I'm already shocked at what just happened. And now
after all of this, I know that after not much long time, there's
going to be somebody after me wanting to kill me. To avenge
this life. Much like my friend in college
and much like this man, how often is it that we as sinful creatures,
sinful human beings, we find ourselves in the same exact position,
right? The only difference though between
this man and us is that many times our sin isn't accidental.
We're 100% guilty. And with this sin, we know that
sin brings a whole flood of consequences and aftermath. And us living
in this earth, many times we find ourselves in a place with
nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no idea what to do, no clue on
how to fix this, and it's all because of sin, right? It's the
aftermath of the sin we commit. It's the aftermath of the sin
others around us commit. It's the aftermath of just living
in a sinful world, right? Death and sickness is just an
aftermath of sin. That's what it is. And there's
hurt, and there's pain, and there's fear in this world, and it's
all because of sin. And sin many times has many human
beings just kind of backed up against the corner in a situation
where they just have no clue how to deal with it. No clue
how to find their way out of it. And it's just a terrible,
terrible, scary, fearful, stressful situation that many humans, many
Christians, many of those who are unsaved just constantly find
ourselves in. Because of sin. But God had a
plan for this man. God had a plan for the manslayer.
He had a plan for him. Now, God could have just left
this manslayer to kind of fend for himself and figure it out
for himself, but he didn't. God's gracious, God's loving,
God is merciful, and he has a plan for them. And God told Joshua
in these passages to assign cities of refuge where this manslayer
could flee to to take refuge there, to be protected. Now when
a manslayer went through this experience and he's running away
from the Avenger of Blood and he runs over to this city of
refuge and he shows up at the gates at one of these cities,
he would be met by the elders of the city. And these elders
would investigate and they would interrogate him until they found
out if this case truly was accidental. Was it just premeditated murder? Did he mean to kill his fellow
man? Or was it truly an accident? And if it was a premeditated
murder on purpose, then the punishment would be swiftly executed. But
if it was determined to be an actual accident, then what they
would do is they would assign him a place in the city where
he would live. And as long as he stayed in the walls of this
city, this city of refuge, he was safe. They would not deliver
this manslayer into the hands of the avenger. They would provide
for him. He would be able to get a job.
He would be able to work. He would have a place in the city
to live. And as long as he would not leave this city, his life
was safe. The avenger of blood couldn't
reach him. They wouldn't hand him over to the one that was
after his head. These were the cities, the plan
set aside by God for the manslayer. And a little more history about
these cities that God chose. Of course, God is, he loves details,
and it's awesome the way he does this. And this is just more reading
to historians and commentators, but these cities that were chosen
were chosen very deliberately. They were chosen strategically.
First off, all these cities mentioned later in the chapter, every single
one of this, if I was to pull up a map on the screen, every
single one of these, you would see these cities were built on
top of a hill. or a mountain. These cities were
built in a high place. And why was that? It's because
they would be more easily seen. Well, when a man finds himself
in this position, the cities needed to be something that could
be easily seen. That whenever you look for these cities, it
wasn't kind of hidden in the woods. It wasn't anything like
that. It was clearly seen from a far away, far away place. Not
only that, but historians kind of read into the history of Hebrews
and this nation, how they used to live, and a lot of times it
was the priest's job to keep the roads of these cities clear
of any obstructions, of anything that could prevent a manslayer
seeking refuge from getting to the city. The roads were always
clear, the roads were always accessible. The roads leading
to the cities were always open and clear from any obstructions
or garbage or trash. And also no matter the time of
day or night, the gates were always open for a manslayer seeking
refuge. Not only that, but obviously
as roads begin to develop, as paths begin to develop from city
to city and town to town, It said that there were posts that
clearly indicated and gave direction to the nearest city of refuge,
so it could be easily found no matter where you were at. And we know it's easy to make
the connection right. In fact, I'm going to read Psalms
46.1, and it's an incredible passage. It says, God is our
refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will
we not fear through the earth be removed and through the mountains
be carried into the midst of the sea. Though the waters thereof
roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the
swelling thereof. Selah. God is our refuge. And you've
heard this said over and over again, and we know it from the
Word of God, just in His relationship with us, that Christ has become
that refuge to so many people. In fact, even unbelievers who
don't have a relationship with Christ, who aren't saved, they
even understand the world kind of portrays this thing of even
the false religions of Christ being a place of safety, a place
of refuge, no matter what situation of life you find yourself in.
Christ is our refuge. And it's amazing, Psalms just
points it out so perfectly clear. And the thing is that we're all
guilty of messing up. Every single one of us. And the
aftermath of sin always often puts us in a place where our
back is up against the wall. But praise the Lord that every
single one of us has a refuge that is accessible. This refuge
is accessible to every single person in need. Everyone. And
this refuge provides things for us when we need these things,
when we find ourselves in a place of trouble. Right? This refuge
provides strength when we're weak. This refuge provides comfort
whenever we're brokenhearted. This refuge provides mercy whenever
we're guilty. This refuge provides protection
when we're not safe. The refuge provides joy when
we're sad or depressed. This refuge provides grace. This
refuge provides forgiveness. This refuge provides encouragement.
This refuge provides us with unending love, unfathomable love. This refuge even gives us strength
in helping us overcome sin. That's our refuge. This refuge
is Christ, and He's accessible to all. He is our refuge as we
travel through this life and we often find ourselves in desperate
need of the things only He can provide. We need a refuge in this life.
And Christ is the only refuge. And just like these cities, Christ
is accessible to all. He's like a city set up on a
hill that can be easily seen by the weary traveler. The road
that leads to Christ is always clear of any obstruction. There's
no hoops you have to jump through. There's no price you have to
pay to get to the refuge. This refuge is available no matter
the time of day or night or the season of life you find yourself
in. This refuge is available time and time and time again
as much as you need Him. And the weight of this refuge
is clearly marked in His Word. And so far I've kind of just
been hitting things everybody already knows. Christ is our
refuge. Of course He is. We've heard
this over and over again. But I wanna focus on something
else. Something that makes this truth,
hopefully, Lord willing, the point of this, much more impactful
for every believer. Is this. I wanna read back in
Joshua chapter 20, verse number six. It says, and he shall dwell
in that city until he stand before the congregation for judgment
and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those
days. Then shall the slayer return
and come unto his own city and unto his own house, unto the
city from whence he fled. You see, when that classmate
was trying to climb into my friend's window, he was seeking refuge. He needed refuge. He messed up. He was facing the pressure of
his mistake, and he needed a refuge. And as he climbed to that dorm
room and my friend let him in, he needed refuge. But how pointless is that refuge
if that classmate knew That no matter how much refuge my friend
could have hidden under the bed, my friend could have done whatever
he could have, whatever comfort he could have given him, at the
end of the day, he knew the next morning he'd be sitting in the
Dean of Students office having to pay for his mistake. You see,
the manslayer would run to the city of refuge, and yes, they
determined it was an accident, and yes, they'd give him a house,
and yes, they'd give him food, and yes, they'd give him a job,
and yes, they'd give him protection from the Avenger of Blood, but
to be honest, I don't think I could be in that situation and really
find myself at peace if I knew that after a certain while, one
day, inevitably, I'd have to walk out the city gates, and
waiting for me was the Avenger of Blood ready to take my life.
And yeah, you can try and give me all the pleasantries, you
can try and comfort me all you like, but I know that one day
just outside those city gates is a man with a sword ready to
kill me because I accidentally killed his father. Yeah, I understand
that this house is nice and I understand that you give me nice words and
you come alongside and I made some great friends and they try
and comfort me in my situation, but no amount of comfort, no
amount of refuge, no amount of any of this is really, really,
no amount of any of that is really getting me to a place where I
can really feel peaceful because I know that one day I have to
face the avenger of blood. I have to face my death. No amount
of any of that will ever really, really, really let me be at peace.
Because I know one day, he's coming for my head. One day,
I have to face my death for what I've done. But God didn't leave
it like that. God said, you're gonna stay in
this city, and once the high priest dies, the one who killed
his fellow man is free to go home, And the picture of that
was this, that while the avenger of blood, he came up to the city
gate, and maybe he set a tent there, and he was saying, there's
a man in there who killed my father, there's a man in there
who killed my son, there's a man in there who killed my brother,
and I require his blood for my father's death, for my brother's
death. And as the manslayer would take
refuge in the city, Eventually, he lived there year after year
after year, then the high priest would die. The picture was this. The death of the high priest
was enough to satisfy the death that the revenger was seeking
for. The death of the high priest was a substitutionary death for
the life that the manslayer took. And once that happened, once
the high priest passed away, The revenger of blood was supposed
to be satisfied, and he would go his way. And the one who killed
his brother accidentally would go back to his home, all debt
taken off his shoulders. Because no amount of comfort,
no amount of refuge you can give somebody, that man specifically,
would have made him feel comfortable unless he knew that there was
hope that one day he could go home without fear of having to
face his death. That's really where the city
of refuge really hinged on. And yes, we know Christ is our
refuge and I thank God so much that the word of God is so very
clear that whenever I'm struggling, whenever I'm struggling with
depression, whenever I'm struggling with temptation, whenever I'm just
battling with the consequences of my mistakes, of my sin, praise
God that I can get on my knees and I can turn and I can run
to my Father and He'll embrace me with open arms. And as long
as I'm living on this earth battling, the consequences of sin, my sin,
your sin, everybody's sin, the death, sickness, whatever it
may be, praise God that Christ promises, I will comfort you,
I'll be your city of refuge, I'll give you strength, I'll
give you encouragement, I'll be there in your lowest times,
I'm here to strengthen you. But you know what? No amount
of any of that would be, there would be no point to any of that
if at the end of the day I knew one day no matter how much comfort
Christ gave me on this earth, no matter how much strength he
gave me on this earth, one day I knew I would open up my eyes
and open them the lake of fire. Because let me tell you something,
a high priest has died. The high priest has died. And
the high priest's death was sufficient. It was a substitutionary death
that was acquired of my life because of my sin. And praise
God that Christ is my refuge in a time of hurting. Praise
God that Christ is my refuge as I go through this world. But
even more so than that, praise God that the high priest has
paid the price for my life, for my sins. And this is a weird
message to preach Sunday afternoon, to be honest with y'all. Pastor
was feeling, like he was feeling under the weather, so kind of
up in the air, most likely what was going to happen, he was going
to be homesick, and I was going to preach this message on Sunday morning,
which is usually when you preach more of the salvation messages,
because Sunday afternoon it's mostly, you know, hopefully everybody
in this room is saved, but I still believe the Lord wanted me to
preach it this afternoon. And it's just a beautiful picture
of how gracious and merciful God is. And yes, it would have
just been enough if God said, you know what, as you go through
life as a father, as a mother, as a child of God, whatever it
may be, as you go through life, I'm going to comfort you and
encourage you. And yeah, that would have been nice, but it
would have been really hard to live this life comfortably knowing
that at the end of this life, I was going to open my eyes in
hell no matter what happened. No matter the amount of comfort
Christ gave me, no matter the amount of strength Christ gave
me in this world, Christ being our place of security, all of
that hinges on the fact that I don't have to pay the price
for my sins one day. Because that price has already
been paid. And maybe that's why the Lord
had me preach this afternoon anyways. It's just as an encouragement. There's some ways I want to apply
this very specifically, very quickly. And we'll get out of
here. We can enjoy the comfort of our
refuge through this life because of the sacrifice that was made
by the High Priest. So there's some obvious ways
I kind of have to apply this, right? The first is salvation.
This is wholeheartedly really a salvation message. And again, I'm not preaching
this to a Sunday morning crowd where there's a higher chance
of a visitor being here who hasn't heard a clear presentation of
the gospel, who needs to hear this. But I am preaching to a
group of human beings. And there might be somebody in
this room who you've been in church your whole life, you wear
a suit and tie, you wear your dress down to your ankles, to
your knees, and you show up to clean the church, you show up
to sing some songs, you show up in your faithful choir, and
you're in choir practice, and you're involved, and you've been
a Christian for your whole life. But there just might be somebody
in this room who hasn't gotten it settled. who's too scared,
and the Lord is convicting you of your need for Him as a Savior,
but you're just too scared to go through with it because of
what people might think about it. I was talking to a pastor
about this message and telling him how worried I was that I'm
gonna be preaching the salvation message to a room that I believe
is full of saved people, and he says, Lalo, you can't ever,
ever, ever be scared of preaching the salvation message. I've preached
to audiences and whoever I thought was going to get saved didn't
even react. But then here comes the deacon's wife, here comes
the pastor's wife, here comes the deacon, and they've been
battling with their issue of salvation for years. And there
just might be somebody in this room who you know you're not
saved, and the Lord is dealing with you about it. And let me
tell you, right now is the time to get it settled. In the book
of 2 Samuel, we're given an account of a man named Abner, and there's
kind of a conflict going on, and we know Abner is running
away from a man named Ashael, and as Ashael is chasing after
Abner, Abner kills him with a spear, and it's just the way it happened
that we can get into that whole story. It's kind of interesting.
Well, Ashiel had an older brother, and this older brother's name
was Joab. And you fast forward the story another chapter, and
we see that Joab, he's angry at Abner, and he wants his head.
He killed his brother, and now he wants to kill him back. So
Abner begins to flee. And you know where he flees?
One of the cities of refuge. And in 2 Samuel chapter 3, we
see that as Abner is coming up to the city gates, Joab meets
him at the city gates, and he says, hey, Abner, come over here. And Abner, he goes over with
Joab, and Joab takes out a sword and kills him. And fast forward
to the end of the chapter, and David is mourning his friend
Abner. He's crying, he's mourning his
friend. I'll go ahead and read what David
says here. In 2 Samuel 3, it says in verse 33, And the king,
this is David, lamented over Abner and said, Died Abner as
a fool dieth? Thy hands were not bound, nor
thy feet put into fetters. As a man falleth before wicked
men, so fellest thou. You know what he's saying? Abner. Nobody tied your feet. Nobody
tied your ankles. Nobody tied your hands. You were
at the city gates. You were there, man. He ran up
to the city gates, and just before he made it in, Joab calls him
over and kills him. He says, Abner, you died like
a fool. You were right there, man. You
knew. You just had to take a couple
steps in. You were in the city gates. You were in safety. Let
me tell you, there's somebody in this room who's battling with
the issue of salvation. You're right there. Nobody has
you tied to where you're at. Nobody's keeping you from entering
the refuge. Nobody's keeping you from entering
into the city. But if you die today, tomorrow,
next week, you know the truth. And if you die before ever, ever,
ever really getting it right with God and asking Christ to
become your Savior, let me tell you, you've died as a fool. Nobody was keeping you from it.
You've heard the gospel presented time and time again. And let
me tell you, no amount of pride, no amount of vanity, no amount
of bad looks, no amount of questioning is ever, ever, ever, ever worth
eternity in hell. Make the decision now. I don't
care if you've been a faithful deacon of the church. I don't
care if you've been a faithful mom at the church. You're a teenager
who's growing up in the youth department. Whatever it is, whoever
it may be, it could be our pianist, it could be our sound room, whoever
it is. I can get personal because I'm just talking to us, right?
I don't care, whoever it is, you're at the gates. Don't wait
a second longer. Don't die as a fool. Don't die
as a fool. Here's another way I want to
apply it to us. What's coming up in a week and
a half? A Baptist, one of Baptist's favorite, favorite holidays,
right? And this idea of Thanksgiving, it's a holiday we kind of come
together and we give thanks for what God has given us. And this
is an easy application. Are you aware of the situation
that you were in before Christ saved you? Do you really grasp
Do you remember the situation you found yourself in before
you called Christ to save you? Let me tell you, it wasn't a
good place. It wasn't a good situation. You were dealing with
the consequences of your sin, and not only that, but just around
the corner there was a man, the revenger of blood, waiting to
exact revenge on you. The payment required because
of your sin, and that was death. Do you remember that? Do you
think about that often? About the fact that what every
single one of us truly deserves is death? Eternal death? A place in hell? A place in the
lake of fire? Do you remember that? And if
you do, are you thankful for the fact that Christ saved you?
Are you thankful for the fact that the high priest paid the
ultimate price so you wouldn't have to pay that price? When
was the last time you genuinely got on your knees and said, God
Almighty, I just want to take some time and thank you for the
gift of salvation. I don't deserve it. Nothing I
could ever do could pay you back for it. I deserve to burn in
hell for eternity because of my transgressions. But Christ,
thank you so much for putting your life on the line for mine. I want to read a story to y'all.
We have a little bit of time, so I was hoping we had time for
this. The story took place, really started in May 27, 2002. There was a Jacksonville police
officer and his name was Ike Brown. Mike without the M, just
Ike Brown. Ike Brown received some heartbreaking
news from his colleagues. His sergeant, lieutenant, chief,
and chaplain came to his home and told him that his son had
lost his life in a shooting accident. Ike's son was a bright young
boy. He was kind of the class clown,
and he loved basketball. And he was a kind young boy who
loved his family and friends. That's how Mr. Ike Brown referred
to him. On the day the shooting happened,
his son was playing video games at his friend's home, and then
all of a sudden shots started going off inside the house, killing
21-year-old Isaac Brown Jr. and his friend Jeffrey Hicks.
After the police investigation, they discovered that the two
young men weren't connected with the murderer at all. They just
happened to be there when the suspect named Takoya Cranor opened
fire. So a prosecutor attested that
Takoya went to Barry's Southside home that night to smoke pot
and drink beer, which eventually led to this murder. Three years after, Mr. Ike's, Ike Brown's son, the trial
began. After he died, after they buried
him, the trial began. And for the first time ever,
Mr. Ike would face the man who killed
his eldest son. At first, he went into that courtroom
wanting what anybody conceivably, would conceivably want, right?
Revenge. Wanted revenge. But to his surprise, things didn't
play out that way. This is a quote from Mr. Ike.
When that day came for court and I see him for the first time,
I tell you, I just loved him. I can't explain it. I didn't
have the feelings I thought I was going to have. I thought I was
going to be angry. I thought I was going to think
I hate you and I want you to die. But I felt none of that.
He thought he would feel rage, anger, or even want to exact
revenge against him, but he was very surprised that instead he
felt compassion from the very moment he laid eyes on the man
who murdered his oldest son. In fact, throughout the whole
court proceedings, Mr. Ike did something that surprised
everybody and even angered his own family. He begged the state
not to pursue the death penalty. I said, I don't want him to die.
They couldn't understand it, and I couldn't either, to be
honest. I questioned myself. I asked God what was wrong with
me, and it didn't sit well with my family. For years, even his daughter
didn't speak to him. And his wife was just battled
with this. She was conflicted with this internally because
of his decision. He says, a lot of people still
don't understand me. And for a while, I didn't understand
me. But I realized that it wasn't me. but the God in me that was
really doing something that I didn't even know was taking place. Ike
questioned God about the compassion he felt towards his son murderer.
Instead of hate, he chose forgiveness. Tekoya was sentenced to life
imprisonment for first degree murder. For three years while this man
Tekoya was in prison, Ike would write letters over and over again
and throw them away until one day he decided to actually send
a letter. In this letter, he told Tekoya that he hoped things
were going as well as they could in prison. But at the end of
the letter, he asked Tekoya for a favor. He said, he told Tekoya,
he wrote to Tekoya that he missed his son greatly. And he asked
Tekoya if he could fill in for his son until he sees him again
in heaven one day. About three weeks later, he gets
a letter back. He sees that it's from Takoya
and he sits down in his police cruiser to open the letter and
he's afraid of opening it because he's expecting anger, hatred,
leave me alone. But what he read, it shocked
him. Takoya wrote back to him and said, dear Mr. Brown, I now
know that God is real. I told God that if you meant
what you said and you forgave me, that I wanted to hear from
you and then I got the letter. I told God that if I heard from
you, I would give my life to him. At the end of the letter,
you ask me for a favor. You can pull up the image now.
You ask me to fill in for your son, and I know that I am undeserving,
but if you'll have me from this point on, you're my dad and you're
my son, and I'm your son. This is a picture of them embracing
each other in 2009 when Ike legally adopted Mr. Takoya as his legal
son. Do you realize that's us? Do
you grasp that? We're sitting in an afternoon
message and I know the pastor, the preacher isn't very eloquently
spoken. And I know your tummies are full. And I know you're tired.
And I know you're looking forward to whatever plans you have this
evening. But let me remind you, that's us. We don't deserve it. We don't deserve for the high
priest to put his life on the line for every single one of
us. That's us. Never forget that. Never forget
that. When life isn't going your way,
when life is hard, don't ever forget that that's you. And that's
me. Teenagers, grasp the fact that
that's you. That every single one of you,
no matter how young you are, deserve a place in hell forever.
But Christ said, please, join my family. And you don't deserve
that. But that's where we're at. Because
of the love of God. because he wants to be our refuge,
because the high priest, can you imagine with me as this manslayer,
he found refuge in the city, and then all of a sudden, he
hears word that the high priest heard about his situation, so
he said, you know what, I heard about your situation, and I'm
gonna place my life on the line just so you can go back home
and enjoy freedom. That's what happened for us. That's what
Christ did for us. When was the last time you thanked
Him for that? You showed gratitude for that gift. We don't deserve
that. But Christ gave it to us anyway.
The salvation message can get old and repetitive, but it should
never be that way. Because we're just deserving
of hell and death as any old rotten sinner. Because guess
what? We are those rotten sinners. We don't deserve that. But praise
God, that's the gift He's given every single one of us. When was the last time you thanked
Him for it? You showed gratitude for it. But the last point of
application, and I don't want us to leave here without talking
about this, is this. There are countless people, you're gonna
see them at work this week, you're gonna see them at Thanksgiving,
that don't know this is an option. That don't know there's a refuge
for their sin-stricken life. They have no clue about any of
this. And these people are going through
life dealing with the consequences and the heaviness of sin in this
world, of their personal sin, of the sin around them. And yes,
we see that very clearly. The roads, the signs on the highways
and byways are pointing to Christ. But then these people are walking
around this life who are hurting. They need a refuge. They have
no hope of any of this. And then comes along these false
witnesses, these false doctrines, these false religions. And they
come and place other stakes, right? Other signs saying, no,
this is the refuge you need. No, this is the refuge you need.
No, this provides the refuge you need. You have to pay a certain
amount of money. And maybe, just maybe, you can
make it to heaven. That's not a true refuge. And
there comes another religion who says, you know what? There
is no hell. You don't have to worry about that. You just gotta
serve our God, and one day you'll make it to heaven. Literally,
no, they're leading him to a false refuge that leads straight to
the path of hell. And they come along, the Mormons,
right? And they say, no, hell is really the life we're living
on earth. We're facing hell right now. There's no hell after this
earth. And saying, this is your refuge. Follow us to this refuge.
And they go out to the highways and byways, and they start planting
all these other stakes, saying, no, go to this refuge, and go
to this refuge. And the whole time, you are believers
who claim to have faith in the true God, who claim to have faith
in the Word of God, and yet, we can't hand out tracts? And
yet, I don't have to fill out the tract rack every single week,
because the tracts are still there? And yet, we have visitation
once a month, and a handful of people show up? And we say we
know the way to the true God. We know the true gospel. And
what are we doing about it? We're saying, man, thank God
for that, and I praise God that this is in my life. But my family
members and friends, they don't get any of that. No. I'm keeping this to myself. Yes, let's be thankful. And if
you're battling this issue of salvation, get it right. And
if you're saved, then I urge you, brothers and sisters, let's
start doing more to lead other people to this. People who need
this. People who don't even realize
this is what they're searching for. The love of God. Christ in their hearts. An eternity
spared from spending eternity in hell forever away from God.
We claim to be thankful for it, and we're thankful to God for
it, but what about our family members, our friends, people
we see every day? When was the last time you handed
out a tract? I'm not saying sit down with somebody and right
off the bat lead them to the plan of salvation. That's what
we should be doing, but at least hand it out a tract. You know,
we meet once a month to do door knocking. That's a time to show
people the path to this. Are you sharing it with others?
Or are you kind of hogging it all to yourself? Remember, these
cities were open to everyone who needed them. And yes, the
priests work hard at keeping the gates open and the road free
of obstructions, but so many times, it's like we believers
who have had to use the cities time and time again, we're the
ones that set up our own blockades so other people can't get there.
Because we're selfish, because we're scared, because we're full
of vanity and pride, No, no, no, no, no. This refuge, the
high priest's sacrifice, is for all. It's for everyone. And it's sad, right? My dad was
Jehovah's Witness for 20 years. And there was no one more faithful
to door knocking than my dad. Every day. Hour after hour after
hour after hour. You know what the sad thing is?
There's so many false religions, false teachers, who are out there
boldly proclaiming the road to their false refuges, leading
countless to hell. And the people that claim, we
know the way to the true God, we know we serve the true God,
this is the only way to get saved. Man, if we only got a quarter
of bold as they are, as faithful as they are, we'd be way leagues
where we're at now. So yes, if you're battling with
it now, get it settled. You're at the city gates. Don't
die a fool. And be thankful for the gift
you've been given. Don't forget that that's us. And we don't
deserve that. We don't deserve to be adopted
into the family of God. But don't let it stop there.
Let it drive you to do something this holiday season, as you go
to work, as you see family members Thanksgiving. And you know what?
They might be that loud, obnoxious uncle that anytime you try to
talk about the gospel, you know it's a fight on your hands. But
let me tell you, it's a fight worth fighting for. No matter how annoying
that family member is, they don't deserve, it would hurt you to
see him in hell, right? So fight the fight. Don't give
up. You'll see him at Christmas. But those friends that have shunned
you because, oh, you're the church boy, don't stop fighting. It's
worth the fight. Share this gift. These cities of refuge, this
refuge that we have, that we found in Christ, and the payment
paid by the high priest. It's not for us to hog, but to
declare it with the whole world. declare it with the whole world.
Christ is our refuge, and I thank God for that. But all that hinges
on the fact that the high priest, Christ, our Savior, paid the
price for you and me, and there's countless others who have to
learn about it, who need it. They don't even realize it, but
you're the vehicle that God chose to deliver that message of hope
to countless who are living their lives in hopeless sin. Let's
go ahead and pray. Dear God, thank you so much for
this day, Lord, and thank you for the fact that you can be our
help, Lord, in time of trouble, Lord, and not only that, Lord,
but you paid the ultimate price for every single one of our sins,
Lord, and may we never forget the sacrifice you made for us
and the love you have for us and the fact that we are undeserving
of any single bit of it, God. And Lord, I pray, Lord, that
you You encourage us as believers, Lord, to go out into the highways
and byways, and while there's other false religions, Lord,
trying to lead people astray, help us, Lord, to boldly proclaim
the way to the only true refuge, Lord, and that's you, Lord. Help
us not to be afraid of family, of friends, of what people may
think of us, or even apathy or laziness. Help us, Lord, to do
the work you've called us to do. If you're dealing with somebody
in their salvation, Lord, I beg you, Lord, that they get it settled
this afternoon, Lord, and they never have to worry about it
again, Lord. Thank you, Lord, so much for your word and your
love. In your precious holy name, I pray. Amen. Let's all stand. And as Jay leads us in a verse
here, just do business with the Lord. And don't die outside the
city gates. Or maybe there's a family member
you've kind of given up on. It's time to reignite that fire
and fight the fight. Share the gospel with them, however
the Lord speaks to you. Loving, loving, loving, loving,
loving, loving, loving, loving, loving, ♪ And for me, a home, a home ♪
♪ You are giving me a home, a home ♪ Firm is he, tenderly Jesus is
loving, Loving no sinner alone. Amen. Just some points of interest
here from the bulletin. Again, keep praying for Pasha.
He feels better, feels 100%. We have teen cleaning this this
coming Saturday, November 23rd. Bring your lunch money for that.
And the next day we're going to do the teen fundraiser. That's
next Sunday, November 24th. This is to raise funds for for
the teens and kids going to camp this next year. That's always
been a huge help. And we're so thankful for a church that loves to give
and loves to come behind these young people. It's going to be
Italian-themed. There's a sign-up sheet in the
back. And you notice I left it out on purpose. So, ladies, please
leave your wine at home. And then we have the Lord's Supper.
That was not good. Okay. We have the Lord, I'm going to
get to talking to you for my wife later. Okay. We have the Lord's Supper
coming up Tuesday, November 26th at 7 p.m. and there will not
be a Wednesday night service the next day because of that
and the church offices will be closed the 27th to the 30th.
Christmas mission offering coming up as well December 1st. This
one will collect the money. And then our Christmas cantata,
The Heart of Christmas, which I'm super excited for. I know Brother Aaron's
been working hard with that. Sunday, December 8th. This will
be during the afternoon service, and there'll be a cookie fellowship,
which is going to be great. And then Jay Hyatt. We didn't think
he'd make it, but he's graduating December 7th at 2 p.m., and there
will be light refreshments following the ceremony. Brother Marcio,
do you mind dismissing us in a word of prayer? Father, we're
here. We're here to be in your house
today. I just wanted to put an end to
the tension about the truce meeting. I just wanted us to come back safely. you
Christ Our Refuge
| Sermon ID | 1117241959134847 |
| Duration | 59:30 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Joshua 20 |
| Language | English |
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