Cities of refuge

[0:00] one of these with you. You can see if you want to go through the New Testament in a year, reading, I think it's four or five chapters a week, then there's a plan there for doing that. So I'd encourage you to do that. So we're reading through the same sections at the same times. Let's now worship God and let's sing to his praise. Psalm 91, Psalm 91, the words also on the screen. Psalm 91, and we sing the first two stanzas of the psalm. He that doth in the secret place of the Most High reside under the shade of him that is the Almighty Shalabani. I of the Lord my God will say, he is my refuge still, he is my fortress and my God, and in him trust I will. These two stanzas in Galilee, God's praise. And after that, Barakah, we'll read us some prayer in Galilee.

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[13:41] I will say ones were awful in the sky, but alone, I fell in the water, such as I shed on you So the pain of the fiance and the black transitioning Our age, we had lost ship, crowd, rope spare, Restless, Let the place from us Run Amen.

[14:22] God bless you. Amen.

[14:42] excuse me we sing again to God's praise this time we sing from Mission Praise 1072 1072 in Mission Praise in Christ alone our hope is found Christ alone my hope is found He is my life, my strength, my song This cornerstone, this solid ground Burned through the future's drought and storm What types of love, what depths of peace When fears are stilled, when strivings cease My comfort, my all in all

[15:48] Here in the love of Christ I stand In Christ alone, who took on flesh Fullness of God in helpless pain His gift of love and righteousness Scorned by the ones He came to save Till on the cross as Jesus died The wrath of God was satisfied For every sin on Him was laid Here in the death of Christ I live Here in the ground His body lay

[16:53] Light of the world by darkness slain Then bursting forth in glorious day Up from the grave He rose again And as He stands in victory Since God has lost His grip on me For I am His and He is mine Bought with the precious blood of Christ No guilt in life, no fear in death This is the power of Christ in me From life's first drive to final bread Jesus to launch my destiny No power of hell, no scheme of man

[17:58] Can ever pluck me from His hand Till He returns or calls me home Here in the power of Christ I stand If you could turn on your Bibles, please to Joshua chapter 20 We're not healthy sending bunch tonight, are we?

[18:54] Joshua chapter 20 And we'll read the whole of this short chapter Then the Lord said to Joshua Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge As I instructed you through Moses So that anyone who kills a person accidentally And unintentionally may flee there And find protection from the avenger of blood When he flees to one of these cities He is to stand at the entrance of the city gate And state this case before the elders of that city Then they are to admit him into their city And give him a place to live with them If the avenger of blood pursues him They must not surrender the one accused Because he killed his neighbour unintentionally And without malice after a forethought He is to stay in that city Until he has stood trial before the assembly And until the death of the high priest To his sermon at that time Then he may go back to his own home

[19:57] In the town from which he fled So they set apart Kedish and Galilee In the hill country of Naphtali Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim And Kiriatharba That is Hebron In the hill country of Judah On the east side of the Jordan Of Jericho They designated Bezer In the desert On the plateau In the tribe of Reuben Ramoth and Gilead In the tribe of Gad And Golan In Bashan In the tribe of Manasseh Any of the Israelites Or any alien Living among them Who killed someone accidentally Could flee to these designated cities And not be killed By the avenger of blood Prior to standing trial Before the assembly Amen And may God bless that reading Of his word To us Again let's draw near to God In prayer And again let me remind you Of the sheets here

[20:57] And the different churches That were introduced to Through these sheets With the prayer points That are associated We've got three churches here This week South Harris Three church It was known as Harris Free Church But actually it came to Presbytery the last couple of months And they applied for a change of name So they're now in the process If not having already received it Of changing their name From Harris Free Church To South Harris Free Church Or Leverborough As we know it And we have a description there Of the work there Which we know well And the prayer points And also we're giving an insight Into the Free North In Inverness The Big City Centre Church And also Grace Church Montrose Which is a very recently planted church With a small attendance And no settled ministry at present So let's be my blog Let's unite our hearts

[21:59] In prayer Let's pray Our Heavenly Father We thank you for the gift of prayer We thank you that this is the means Through which we can come And express our adoration Of who you are You are our God You're the God who is almighty And majestic You're our creator And our sustainer You're the God who is just And pure And you're the God Who is gracious And merciful And loving And kind And caring towards us We thank you that you Are our God And we can call you Our God We can Know that we are children of God Through all that has been done For us in Christ Father we thank you For the sending of Jesus Into this world And we thank you Lord Jesus For coming Into this world We thank you for the work Of the Holy Spirit Who shows us Jesus Who draws us towards Jesus And convicts us of our sin And our need of Christ And so we thank you

[22:59] That we can come in prayer To express our worship We can come in prayer Seeking to draw near To the one true God And through the name And through the finished work Of Jesus Christ Our Saviour We thank you Lord That we can come Confessing our sin Not pretending That we are not sinners Not pretending That our hearts Are pure We are not those Lord Who are righteous We are not those Who are healthy at heart We are sinners And we thank you That we can confess that And know from your word That when we confess Our sin You are faithful and just To forgive us our sin And purify us From all unrighteousness Unrighteousness We thank you for the gospel We thank you that We can express our praise In response to the gospel As we come in prayer We thank you that we can come With our burdens And our trials We can come with our problems And the things that worry us And we can find a friend

[23:59] In Jesus Who listens to us And hears us And helps us We thank you Lord That we can bring others as well To you in prayer We thank you that this evening We can come Seeking your help For those who grieve That some of us Prepare to To meet with Morning families In the In the remainder of this evening We pray For those who are grieving We pray for those Who need your comfort And who need your strength And who need your help In that special way At this time And we pray that They would find you Lord The father of all compassion The God Of all comfort We pray for your help With the services This evening As we come together That we may Truly have a spirit Of worship And that we may Find comfort And we may find That otherworldly peace As we draw near to you In prayer And Lord we thank you That we can come As part of the Universal Church of Christ We know that people

[25:00] Around the world Are meeting As we meet Some in secret And some In public Some Conscious of the Risk and the danger And seeking to meet Underground And others Who are able to meet In this public way As we are We ask Lord That you would be At work Across the world That you would be Blessing And that you would be Speaking In every fellowship Where your people Are gathered And we pray Especially for these Fellowships That we are directed To this evening Those who are Our brothers and sisters In Christ We pray for those Who meet in Leaverborough Even now as we do We thank you For that place And we thank you For Mark And calling him To that place For the Settled ministry That there is there At present And we ask Lord That you would be At work in that Congregation We pray That there would be Growth amongst Your people That they May know The reality Of your presence

[26:00] As they meet Together in public And in the private Place And we ask Lord That as they Go out into the Community And as they Seek to reach out As they And we are called To with the Message of the Gospel Lord That you would Open hearts And we would And you would Open doors That the gospel Message would Penetrate And would be Heard and would Be believed And taken hold of By faith in that Place We pray for Those who Meet also In Inverness For the Pre-North Congregation We ask Lord For your Guidance And for your Wisdom To be given To all those Who lead there At this time We pray for A man of your Choice to be To be found To lead in that Congregation And we pray In the interim Lord That the work Of the gospel Would continue Through the Office bearers To be found To be found To be found In the Spirit and In truth And we thank You Lord For the work

[27:00] In Merkinch There In such a Needy area Where there is So much Addiction And so much Difficulty Such a Violent Community At times And we pray That as they Seek to reach Out in what In many ways Is a dark Place with the Light of Christ That people Would see Jesus And hear Jesus And respond To Jesus Just as Levi heard The call Of Christ We pray That there Would be Many In that Area That would Hear The call Of Christ To follow And would Follow We pray For the work In Montrose Also In that New church Plant There And we Ask Lord In a place Where there is Such a Density Of population That you Would give Wisdom To your People To be able To reach Out also There With the Gospel Message We pray That you Would send A leader To that Congregation That would Be able To take Them forward

[28:01] In your Will And we Pray That they And we Would take All the Opportunities That you Give us To share The gospel And our Knowledge Of Christ For those That you Set Around us Hear our Prayers Lord Take away Our sin Give us Strength For this Evening we Pray In Jesus Name Amen Let's sing Again To God's Praise Hymn Number 122 Hymn Number 122 The words Also on The screen Come Holy Ghost Our hearts Inspire Many Heaven's Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire

[29:11] Let us thine influence prove So shove the old prophetic fire The gen of life and love Holy Ghost, our good by thee The prophets wrote and spoke Unlock the truth, thy self the key Unseal the sacred food Expand thy wings, celestial dove Through door of nature's night

[30:12] On our disorders bid its move And let there now be light For through himself we then shall know If thou with dinner shine And sang with all thy saints below The depths of love divine If you could turn in your Bibles please to Joshua chapter 20 Joshua chapter 20

[31:25] Just a reminder here of the context We've been going through Joshua We've seen how the children of Israel have been led Into the land that God promised them They've been facing opposition for the vast majority of that period There's been bloodshed, there's been battles, there's been struggles There have been skirmishes of all kinds But we said from about chapter 18 onwards There's a change and we see Israel, God's people as a nation Now living in the land that God promised them They've gone from being in a position where they were constantly under attack and living with great tension To being in a position where they were in a more settled state The country, chapter 18 verse 1 was brought under their control

[32:30] They had a good measure now of peace from their enemies They weren't under such an intense attack Still they were dangerous, still they were threats But there was relative peace And so you might expect The book to draw to a conclusion with And everybody lived happily ever after God's people had peace The land was subdued And everybody lived happily ever after It's what we might expect If we were idealistic If we were unrealistic But the reality is quite different That kind of happily ever after ending We find in fairy stories But that doesn't ever fully happen in this world There's constant struggles in this world There are constant battles

[33:30] Jesus said, in this world you will have trouble And God's people Continue to know A measure of trouble That's the bad news The good news is That there is a world to come We must not ever lose sight of eternity We're in time presently But let's never lose sight of eternity There is a world to come There is a place that Jesus Is preparing for his people Called heaven And it's a place of perfect peace It's a place of perfect joy It's a place of perfect health We won't have all the coffin We won't have chests that are tight We won't have temperatures that are high There's no sickness

[34:31] There's no sorrow There's no pain There's no fighting There's no war There's no death Because there will be no sin And we get a picture of that place In Revelation 21 Let me just remind you of it I never tire of reading this passage Where John is given just a glimpse Into the paradise that is promised to God's people John the Apostle in Revelation 21 says Then I saw a new heaven And a new earth For the first heaven And the first earth had passed away And there was no longer any sea I saw the holy city The new Jerusalem Coming down out of heaven from God Prepared as a bride Beautifully dressed for her husband And I heard a loud voice from the throne Saying now the dwelling of God is with men

[35:32] And he will live with them They will be his people And God himself will be with them And be their God He will wipe every tear from their eyes There will be no more death Or mourning Or crying Or pain For the old order of things Has passed away And that's a comfort for those even Who are seeking to gather this evening There is a gospel There is good news There is that promise Of God For those Who trust him There is a perfect New world to come But in this world In the old order There is sin And it's around us And it's in us And so there is always Some kind of trouble

[36:33] And for God's people In Joshua 20 Although their enemies Were now Not seeking to kill them In the same Way as they were Trying to kill them Previously It seems That sometimes God's people Will actually Try to kill each other Sometimes deliberately And sometimes by accident And so God told Joshua To set aside cities of refuge And that's our focus this evening We're looking at these cities of refuge Three questions This evening First of all What were they?

[37:12] Secondly What were you given In these cities of refuge? And finally Who do these cities Point Us towards? So first of all What were these cities Of refuge?

[37:25] Look at verse 1 The Lord said to Joshua Tell thee as your lights To designate the cities of refuge As I instructed you Through Moses So that anyone Who kills a person Accidentally And unintentionally May flee there And find protection From the avenger Of blood What were these cities?

[37:47] Well If I simplify it To If I oversimplify it Greatly It's kind of like a den Boys and girls Those who are a bit younger here And even those who are not younger But have got decent enough memories The cities of refuge And in some way They were kind of like a den Remember these games That we used to play When we were young The chasing games The hunting games And there'll be the runners And there'll be the catchers And the runners would pursue The runners And there would be those Who were being chased And so the runners Would go after The people who were out In the open field And if you were caught That was you out of the game You were disqualified You were finished As far as the game went But in these games There was always There was always dens And you could run To one of these dens

[38:47] They were safe places So if the person Who was chasing you Pursued you And the den Was over there If you got to the den Before they got to tag you You're still in the game You're safe And you remain safe Until you come back Out of that den And in a In some way These cities of refuge Were a kind of Very very serious version Of that If one person Had accidentally Killed another person Then that person's Family would usually Go after the killer And they would want To kill him They would want to Verse 3 Avenge His blood There was no police force There was no guarding So if you wanted Somebody to be punished For doing something wrong If you wanted Somebody to be punished For killing somebody In your family Someone that you love Then you had to Go after them yourself And sometimes

[39:49] If there had been An accident And someone Had been killed The killer Would know That the family Of the person Who died Would be after them And they would be Trying to kill him So he could run To one of these cities To try and Get refuge It was a safe place For Somebody who had Unintentionally killed Another person To go It was a place Where they could be Protected It was a place Where they could Seek justice And sometimes In life We can feel Under attack Sometimes In life We can feel That people Are against us Perhaps because Of something We did Or Were said To have done Perhaps because

[40:49] Of something That we Said Or were reported To have said And we're In that situation Where We may have Said something We didn't Particularly mean Anything bad In it But those Who have been Hurt by it Don't think That way And they Come after us They might Call us names In school And make life Difficult in school They might Make us look Stupor on social Media Seems to be The main Ground of Terrorism These days They might Make things Difficult In our Workplace Or in our Family context Or whatever It is we go And we know We're under Attack We're struggling So where do We go When we're in That situation Where do we Go for refuge Where do we Go for strength Where do we Go for help

[41:50] We go to God Psalm 46 Verse 1 Says God Is our Refuge And our Strength And ever Present Health And trouble So the Man in Trouble In Israel In the Day that We're reading Of it In Joshua 20 The man Who's in Difficulty And who Knows there Are people Coming to Try and Spill his Blood He can Flee to One of These cities For refuge And the Man and The woman And the Boy and The girl Who find Themselves in Trouble Today Maybe For no Reason of Their own Can come To God And flee To God For refuge So that's What these Cities were In introduction Second point Is what Were you Given What could You expect When you Came to One of These cities And there's Two things That we can Note here You can

[42:53] Expect Justice And you Can expect Protection If you Were found To be Innocent First of All Justice Verse 4 When he Flees to One of These cities He is to Stand in The entrance Of the City gate And to State his Case before The elders Of that City To stay In that City Until he Has stood Trial before The assembly So again Let's think About this Person This person Who's on The run The person Who's on The run Whose life Is in Danger Who has A hit Man out Against Them Or the Family Of A person Who is Being killed Against Them If they Wanted To get A fair Trial They could Run to One of These cities They were Never going To get A fair Trial They were Never going To get A hearing When people Were at

[43:53] Their throats So they Wanted to Get some Kind of Measured Balanced Fair Trial They had To flee To one Of these Cities And if They were Found not Guilty When the Elders Heard their Case Then that Would be Declared They're not Guilty And justice Would mean That you're Unable to Stay alive You're kept Safe However If it Was found In that City that This person Was actually Guilty Justice meant Death And we Might say Well that Seems a Bit heavy But if We say That It probably Says more About us Than it Says about God God made Us Every human Being Is made

[44:53] By God In the Image of God God loves Us God Places Such a Huge Value On every Human Life And if Someone Takes a Life Then God Takes that Very seriously And that Comes through In this Passage And God Promises Judgment For those Who do Such You know In this Country In the United Kingdom If we Look back Just a Year Last year According to The statistics It's Reported That 192 200 Babies Lives Were Taken In the Room 12212

[45:55] Babies Lives Were Taken In the Room In one Year That's 204 412 Babies Lives Taken In the Last 12 Months Between England Scotland And Wales All Legally Just a Few Days Ago In New York America There Was A Legal Ruling That Babies Could Be Aborted They Could Be Killed Right Up Until The Day Of Birth CBN News Wrote This New York Legislators Cheered And Applauded Tuesday Night After State Senate Removed Restrictions On Late Term Abortions Allowing Unborn Babies To Be Aborted Up Until The Day Of Birth And

[46:59] The Judicial Professionals Cheer And They Applaud At Such A Decision Our Culture In The USA In The UK Says That's Okay God Says That's Not Okay That's Murder Sin Always Brings Justice Because God Is Holy The Law Of The Land The Legislators Of Our Day May Not Deliver Justice But Ultimately And Eternally God Will And These Cities Were Places As We Backtrack To The Passage Where Justice Could Be Worked Out For The Individual And If They Were Found To

[48:00] Be Innocent Of Premeditated Murder They Were Allowed To Remain Alive And If They Were Found To Be Guilty Their Lives Were Taken So They Could Expect Justice The Second Thing They Could Expect In These Cities Was Protection Verse Four When He Flees To One Of These Cities He Is To Stand In The Entrance Of The City Gate And State This Case Before The Elders Of That City Then They Are To Admit Them Into Their City And Give Them A Place To Live With Them If The Avenger Of Blood Pursues Him They Must Not Surrender The One Accused Because He Killed His Neighbour Unintentionally And Without Malice Aforethought He Is To Stay In That City Until He Has Stood Trial Before The Assembly And Until The Death Of The High Home In The Time From Which He Fled Verse

[49:00] Nine Any Of The Israelites Or Any Alien Living Among Them Who Killed Someone Accidentally Could Flee To These Designated Cities And Not Be Killed By The Avenger Of Blood Prior To Standing Trial Before The Assembly So Here Again We Have The Scenario And The Avenger Of Blood The Family Of The Person Killed Comes Looking For The Killer They Are In Pursuit Of The Killer They Come To The City Gate And They Know That The Killer Is In The City And They Demand That He Be Handed Over They Want To Take Justice Into Their Own Hands But The Law That Set Down Here By God Is That The Elders Of The City Were Not To Hand Him Over They Were To Give Him Protection He Was To Have Protection Until He Has Stood Trial And Then If He Was

[50:00] Found To Be Not Guilty Having Stood Trial There Was An Ongoing Protection Now If We Take A Moment To Apply This To Ourselves We Have An Enemy Of Our Soul We Have A Pursuer We Have Somebody Who Would Destroy Us If He Could Get His Hands On Us And His Name Is The Devil 1 Peter 5 He Says Your Enemy The Devil Prowls Around Like A Roaring Lion Looking For Someone To Devour And If We're Out In The Open Plain And If We're Seeking To Defend Ourselves With Our Own Strength We're Very Vulnerable We Have No Hope But God Calls Us To Come To Him For Refuge And For Protection Now If We Dig a Little bit Into

[51:01] The Illustration Here We Ask The Question Are We Innocent Only The One Who Was Innocent Remember In These Cities Could Be Assured Of Protection Are Are We Innocent No We're Not I'm Guilty As Sin On Every Count As Are All Of Us So Shouldn't We Face Death In The Face Of God's Justice Well Yes We Should But The Gospel The Good News Is That Jesus Died In Our Place He Has Taken The Punishment For Our Sin He Has Met The Requirements Of Divine Justice He Has Become A Propitiation For Us He Has Taken God's Wrath Upon Himself We Sang About It In The Hymn That We Just Sang We Sang These Words Till On The Cross As

[52:01] Jesus Died The Wrath Of God Was Satisfied For Every Sin On Him On Christ Was Laid So Here In The Death Of Christ I Live And Protected I Have Refuge These Cities Give Those Who Fled There Protection When They Were Declared Innocent And We If We Have Come To Christ If We Have Asked For That Cleansing In His Blood And We Are Declared Innocent There's No Condemnation And We Are Promised Eternal Protection We Are Promised Eternal

[53:01] Security That's The Gospel Final Point Who Do These Cities Point Us For To And The Answer We've Given Already In Part Is Jesus This Is A Very Clear Picture Of The Gospel Of Jesus Christ Deep In The Old Testament But We See Here Christ And Even As We Look At The Names Of The Cities That God Designated We See Jesus There So Clearly Verses Seven Through To Verse Eight So They Set Apart Keddish And Galilee In The Hill Country Of Naphtali Shechem In The Hill Country Of

[54:01] Ephraim Kiri At Harba That Is Hebron In The Hill Country Of Judah And So On We Have These Different Names Now When You Look At The Names The Commentators The Scholars Tell Me That These Names They Have Meanings So What Are The Meanings Of These Names Of These Cities That Have Been Designated By God As Safe Places Places To Go For Refuge Well Kedesh Means Righteousness Shechem Means Shoulder Hebron Means Fellowship Bezer Means Fortress Or Strong Ramoth Means Heights Golan Means Exan And All These Names They Point Us Forward To Christ When We Stop And Think About Them They're Like Pieces Of A Jigsaw And We Put Them All Together We See A Picture We See A Portrait Of Jesus And One Of The Commentators Puts

[55:02] This Much More Succinctly Than I Can Warren Weerspe Says This These Names Can Be Used To Describe What Sinners Experience When They Flee By Faith To Jesus First He Gives Them His Righteousness Kedesh And They Can Never Be Accused Again There Is No Condemnation Romans 8 1 Like a Shepherd He Jesus Carries Them On His Shoulders Shechem And They Enter Fellowship Hebra With Him He Is Their Fortress Bezer And They Are Safe They Dwell On The Heights Ramoth Even Though They Are Exiles Golem Pilgrims Stranger In This World So These Names These Cities

[56:02] They're Signposts And They Point Us Forward To Jesus He Is The Way And He Is The Only Way For Us To Receive That Refuge That Protection He's The Only Way The Only Name The Only Means To Which We Can Have Salvation Someone Who Was Seeking Salvation In This Day In Joshua 20 They Couldn't Decide To Run To Any Old City And Say Well I'll Seek Justice I'll Seek Protection There They Weren't Safe There There's No Salvation There It Had To Be One Of The Cities That God Designated And We Tonight Seekers Of Salvation We

[57:03] Cannot Find It In Any Religion Or Any World View We Can't Seek It Any Old Way But There Is One Way And There Is One Name And That Name Is Christ Final Word The Location Of These Cities You Can Read About This In Deuteronomy 19 3 The Location Of These Cities The Accessibility Of These Cities They Had To Have Roads They Had To Have Bridges To Them They Had To Be Very Easily Accessible It Meant That Wherever You Were In The Promised Land Whatever You Were You Could Travel Within One Day And Reach Your Destination That Place Of Safety In One Of These Cities There Was A Need For That

[58:03] Because You Were Being Pursued Your Life Was In Danger So If Somebody Wanted Protection If Somebody Wanted Justice If Somebody Wanted To Be Saved They Couldn't Delay Not For One Moment They Had To Run To One Of These Places They Had To Run Immediately And For Us Those Who Are Sinners All Of Us We Need To Flee We're Told From The Wrath To Come That Was John The Baptist Sermon Flee From The Wrath To Come Because Of Our Sin We Are Deserving Of Wrath So We Need To Flee From That Wrath Not Jog Not Walk Not Saunter Not Dilly Dally But We Need To Flee From

[59:03] The Wrath To Come And There's Only One Place That We Can Flee To Find That Safety That Security And That's Christ When Is The Day Of Salvation Not Tomorrow It's Today If We Want To Be Saved If We Want To Be Secure If We Want To Be Protected If We Want Christ To Satisfy The Divine Justice On Our Behalf By Shedding His Blood So That We Can Be Christ Then We Need To Flee To Him Now And We Are Promised Refuge We Are Promised Salvation As We Flee To Him So

[60:04] May We Be Find Free This Evening To Find Refuge In Christ We'll Close By Singing From Psalm 46 God Is Our Refuge And Our Strength And Straits A Pleasant Aid Therefore Although The Earth Remove We Will Not Be Afraid We'll Sing Psalm 46 Verses 1 To Verse 7 To God's Praise God Is Our Refuge And Our Strength In Six Of Present Day That For Although

[61:05] The Earth Remove We Will Not Be Afraid Though Hills Are Mixed As She Be Cast Though Waters Rolling Make And Trouble Be In O'er The Hills High Swelling Seas To Share Our River Is Who Streams To Glad The City Of Our

[62:05] God The Holy Place Wherein The Lord Most High Had His Abore God God In The Mist Of Her Doth Dwell Nothing Shall Her Remove The Lord To Her And Help Her Will And That Right He Blue The Heath That Rage To Lunge A Sea The Kingdoms

[63:07] Move And Whale The Lord God Attired His Voice The Earth Did Man For Fear The Lord Of hosts Upon Our Side Doth Constantly Reve In The God Of Jacob The Refuge As Sif Be To Maint In And The