In the two places actually here this evening, Numbers chapter 35, I'm going to take also a look at Luke chapter 15, verse 1 to 7. Numbers chapter 35, verse 9 to 15, and then Luke chapter 15, verse 1 to 7. Generally, I don't have a couple of passages like this, but I wanted to bring this out tonight. Lord had laid the Luke 15 1-7 on my heart as I was really just kind of going through the rest of it and it just all seemed to work out real good. So let's take a look at Numbers chapter 35 and verses 9-15 and stand with me if you would when you find your places and we'll read the Word of God here together. We'll begin there with Numbers 35, the other Luke 15 verse 1-7. My message tonight is Christ our refuge. Christ our refuge. I'm thankful that Jesus is our refuge and not only that but that he is a big enough refuge for every single one of us. I remember years ago on a hiking trip that I was on, I was out and the storm had came up and it was thundering and lightning pretty good and the bottom fell out and it was raining. And just so happened that along the trail there was a big I'd come to a place, I was soaking wet, and I'd come to this place where there was this big rock overhang that was hanging over and stood up underneath that for a while and was able to kind of wait for the storm to pass by. I'm thankful for those refuge places that we are offered in life, and I'm thankful for Christ, who is big enough and helps us when we need it. I've entitled this message, Christ Our Refuge, as I said, and as we look here this evening, I wanted to make some correlation between how we can see Jesus here in numbers and how we also see him in the book of Luke. Many years ago, there was a man by the name of Adrian Rogers. Anybody ever heard of him? He was a good brother. I enjoyed listening to him. Don't know everything about him, of course, but I did listen to a bunch of his sermons when I was younger. He's with the Lord now. But I enjoyed listening to him. I thought he was a good brother, but as I was putting all this together I was thinking about a comment that he had said years ago and he said if somebody asked him one time if if he had ever read Read all the Gospels and he kind of laughed a little bit and he said yeah He saw read all for the Gospels and he kind of laughed a little bit and he said yeah I didn't just read all four of them. I read all 66 of them and the guy was like 66 of them He said, yeah, because Jesus is in every book of the Bible. And so I thought that was good. And so praise the Lord for. him and his ministry. But here tonight, let's take a look at our text here this evening. Numbers chapter 35, there in verse 9, the Bible says, Lord, speak to Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, when ye become over Jordan and into the land of Canaan, then ye shall appoint you cities, now to be cities of refuge for you, that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unaware. And they shall be unto you cities of refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer die not until he stand before the congregation in judgment. And of these cities, which ye shall give six cities, which ye shall have for refuge. And ye shall give three cities on this side, Jordan, three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan, which shall be cities of refuge. And these six cities shall be a refuge both for the children of Israel and for the stranger. and for the sojourner among them, and every one that killeth any person unaware may flee thither." Let's take a look at Luke chapter 15 verse 1 to 7. The Bible says, Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if you lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, till he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. And I say unto you, likewise shall joy be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. Let's pray. Father, we thank you this evening, God, for your word. Lord, I'm thankful we have it. We can trust in it, depend on it, stand on it. Lord, I'm thankful, Lord, for you giving it to us. Lord, I pray you'd help us tonight as we read through it, that we can take these things that we read this evening and the things we hear and apply it to our life, that we be strengthened and be better off for it. Lord, you said it would not return void. So God, as I preach tonight, I pray that you would just have your perfect work and way in all of us this evening. Lord, help me to be emptied of myself. God, just be filled with your spirit. And Lord, I pray in all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. As I said here tonight, we're going to be preaching on Christ our refuge. And here this evening, there in the book of Numbers, we do see a really good picture of the work of the Lord Jesus that He has done in our life. We also can see some great examples of that, good pictures of it and symbols of that in the book of Numbers. And I'll show you here in just a minute why we went to Luke 15. In the Old Testament what we see is we see that God had established some cities that were called the cities of refuge. And each one of these cities really pertained to an aspect or another picture of who the Lord Jesus is and what He's all about. We think about Christ as our refuge. The Bible does say that and teach us that He is our refuge. He is at present helping time of trouble, our high tower, our shield buckler hiding place, our safety, our rock. He is our pavilion. He is all of these things to us. And so as He is our refuge here tonight, how can we not look at the cities of refuge as well and see the Lord and think of Christ? Because it is in these places of refuge where we see that those who were guilty run to. And listen, do we not here this evening understand there's none righteous, no not one. And that all of us here tonight needed a place to run to because we ourselves were guilty. Guilty of sinful things, guilty of things that we had done. And in the Old Testament, God had laid out these cities of refuge for there to be for places so that people who had committed crimes, such as accidentally killing somebody, but also there were places for murder trials to take place, and that would be the place where the person would go, and that would be where the judge and the congregation of the people would listen to everything that took place and the high priest there and everybody else there would render their verdict. If they didn't make it there through the Old Testament, we see that there was this principle really of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and the avenger of blood who was the relative of a family member. If someone was killed in their family, then the relative, the avenger of blood would come and seek them to do justice and pay justice. The idea was that the avenger of blood would in essence... It's interesting because the avenger, the Hebrew word for avenger in the Old Testament is also and can mean to redeem or to reclaim or to restore. And so the avenger of blood, what his idea was is that, well, he says, it's my right to avenge my family member who has been slain, and so I will redeem. I will, by avenging their blood, I will, in essence, redeem them. I will, in essence, restore them, restore their blood. And so that was the idea. So what the Lord did was he established six cities to be on this side, three on this side of Jordan and three on this side over in Canaan, so that people could run to. And what we see is, we understand here tonight in the book of Numbers that this, the number six, of course, there were six cities. The number six means the number of a man. That's what man is. In numerology, six is the number of a man. It's also the number of sin. And it is the place where man who is guilty of sin would go to. And so just like I said, even us ourselves here tonight, when we think about the cities of refuge and what they are and what they mean, in the Old Testament, that's where those who were guilty went to so that they can be tried and have a fair trial and the high priest would declare if they would be freed or if they would be put to death. Then we also see in our life here tonight that listen, all of us are guilty here this evening of sin, that we're all guilty of things that we've done. And so where did we run to and where did we go? We also went to a place of refuge. But even more than that, we went to a person of refuge where we can find safety in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so all of us were guilty and we found solace, we found safety, and we found our refuge in the Lord Jesus. And so, that is exactly what we see here tonight. The very first truth is, is we see the position of refuge. The position of refuge. As I said, all of us, that we were lost, we were guilty, we had committed all kinds of sins, but yet, just as in the Old Testament, they ran to a place where they could be heard. They ran to a place where they knew that fair justice would be done. just like us here tonight. We run to refuge. We run to a person. We run to the one who would give us a fair trial. We run to one who would hear what we had to say. Listen, if there was anybody that knows anything about our life, the ins and outs, and knows how to be fair, and knows how to be just, it would definitely be the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here tonight, we see just a great example of our position in refuge, in that we were on the outside of refuge, When we were seen as guilty and found guilty because we were guilty, then we ran to the Lord Jesus, and it was there where we found solace, and it was there where we found safety, and it is in Him where He becomes our refuge, our high tower and pavilion, because we are all sinners and there's none righteous, no, not one, that all had fallen short of the glory of God. And so we seek our position of refuge in the Lord Jesus, just like these folks, here in the Old Testament did as well. Now, just as the cities provided this physical safety, we see that Christ also provides for us a spiritual safety. Jesus provides us a refuge, an eternal salvation. The Bible tells us in Matthew 11 and in verses 28 to 30, the Bible tells us that that all you that labor and are heavy laden, he says, I shall give you rest. And so the invitation is for everybody to come, for all to come, those who are laboring and those who are heavy laden, those who have a lot on them, those who are laid down guilty of sin, God says, come, come unto me. And so we see this place of refuge that God allowed these people in the Old Testament to go to when they were guilty of sin and then in the person Christ we see Jesus as our refuge. Now when we break down the cities of refuge what are some things we see? Now understand the Bible shows us that there are six. There are six cities of refuge and number one the first city was named Kadesh. Now what does Kadesh mean? Well, as I said, these cities of refuge, because they typify who Christ is, they are a picture of who the Lord Jesus is. And so what does Kadesh mean? In essence, I mean, what it's all about. I mean, if it's going to typify who Jesus is, then surely these names are going to help us out. and understanding even more about who Jesus is and what He's all about. Well, the name Kadesh means to be sanctified. It means to be consecrated. It means to be holy. It means to be set apart. And is that not what we receive when we come into the city of refuge? When we come into Christ, that is what we are. We become consecrated. We become holy. And we become set apart in the Lord Jesus. And so that is one of the things that we see. in just one of the cities that typifies who Jesus is. But the next thing, number two, we see that the other city was called Shechem. What does Shechem mean? Well, Shechem means shoulder. It has the idea of Christ as being our strength and our support. Luke chapter 15, let's hold your place here and go real quickly over to Luke chapter 15. And we look at verses 1 to 7, and as we've already read these things tonight, I want you to think about the names of these cities as we think about Luke chapter 15 verses 1 to 7. Now Kadesh, it means to be consecrated, means to be holy, means to be set apart. Now when we look here in verse 4 and we see in this parable of the Lord, when he said there in verse 4, he says, What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. Well, and then verse 6, And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which is lost. I want us to see here tonight that we see Kadesh has the idea of being consecrated, set apart, or made holy. And is that not what we see? I mean, even here in the text we see how the Lord Jesus seeks that one that is lost. And once He has found them, well in essence that is the idea of salvation. He has found them and they are now saved. And what is He doing? He is bringing them away from the wilderness. And where is He bringing them? He is bringing them home. And so as he's bringing them home, what is that? That is a consecration. That is to be made holy. He is, in essence, taking them from one place and taking them to another. It is the idea that the sheep that is lost has now been found and is now saved. And who done this? We see the picture of Christ who is going to do this. Kadesh, sanctified, holy, set apart. Shechem, as I said, means shoulder. Now you get to verse five here in our text there in Luke 15. The Bible says when he had found it, he layeth it on his what? Layeth it on his shoulders. So he finds this sheep that is lost. And this sheep that is lost, in essence, gets saved. And he puts that sheep, in essence, on his shoulders. That is the name of the next city of refuge. It has the idea to mean shoulder. It means strength and support. But not only that, but you say, well, why does he put the sheep on his shoulders? Well, the sheep can't get to heaven on its own. Amen. The sheep can't get to heaven on its own. Us, we can't get to heaven on our own. How do we get there? Through the support and the love and the grace and mercy of the shepherd. And so that's why we see this sheep that is on the shoulder. But also this city of refuge that means shoulder. And how do we get to heaven? We got to heaven on the shoulders of the Lord. Listen, it wasn't by our own goodness. It wasn't by our works. It wasn't because we could get there on our own. But it was through Christ. It was through the shepherd. It was through our refuge. And so, We can see that Sheka means shoulder, has the idea of strength and support like the lamb that is carried on his shoulder. The next city of refuge is Hebron. It has the idea, it means to join or to associate. The idea of that is to have fellowship. Did not the Lord also say that I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee? Does not the Bible tell us that that he is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Does not the Bible tell us that he lays down his life, in essence, for his friends. And so we see that here tonight the next city of refuge typifies and is a great tremendous picture of who Jesus is. The Bible says that, listen, all those that are guilty, all those that are guilty of death and all those that are going to die by the avenger of blood, where do they go? They go to the city of refuge. What is a city of refuge? Well, we then showed it that number one, Kadesh, has the idea to be holy and set apart. Listen, if I'm lost and I'm dead and trespassing sin, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so if I'm dead and trespassing sin, and I'm gonna die and I'm guilty of sin, where am I gonna go? I'm gonna go to the Lord Jesus so that I can make holy. Why? Because I have a sin nature, and I'm gonna die and go to a devil's hell if I don't get this thing right. And so I come to the Lord Jesus to get saved. But not only that, we see that the shoulder, how I couldn't get there on my own. Check them, the next picture, the next city of refuge, how Christ here in Luke 15 comes. to us where we are. Notice the Bible says he went to the wilderness. The wilderness didn't come to him. The sheep didn't come to him. He went there to where the sheep was. He went to where the sheep was. Jesus came to where we are and he placed us on his shoulders to bring us to heaven. And so he is our refuge, shechem, our refuge. Hebrew means to join or associate, fellowship. Fellowship, I'll never leave you know for safety I can imagine From the wilderness all the way back home the shepherd and the sheep had good fellowship Every single day listen all of us. We can enjoy fellowship with God all of us listen We have we have 24-hour. We have 24-hour days seven day a week access to God now man praise the Lord for that and Praise the Lord that we don't have to go to a high priest or anybody like that on this earth to get to the Lord Jesus. I can just speak to Jesus on my own. I don't have to wait for God to wake up in the morning. I don't have to ring the doorbell and see if He's at home. I don't have to ask Him, is He too tired to listen to me today? No, listen, I can get to God anytime I want to get to Him. And so here we see the, The sweet fellowship, this is when we're saved and we're in the presence of Jesus. And when he says, I'll never leave you nor forsake thee, what do we have? We have a friend, we have a friend, we have fellowship. That is our city. The next one, next city of refuge was Ramoth. Ramoth, what does Ramoth mean? Ramoth means high or exalted. Is that not who Jesus is? He is highly. He is exalted, the name that is above every name. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is lifted up, sitting on the throne of heaven, one day gonna come back for his people, but the Lord Jesus tonight is lifted up, he is exalted, that whereby there is no other name under heaven whereby man can call upon to be saved other than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is highly exalted. His name is highly exalted. And so when we seek refuge, where do we find it? In the exalted name and position of our Savior. So he's a city of refuge, a place of refuge tonight. Lastly, or almost lastly, Golan. What does Golan mean? That is the next city, number five. Golan has the idea to exile or to remove. Now isn't that also what the Lord Jesus done for us whenever we got saved? He in essence, He removed our sin away from us. He didn't just cover it up with the blood of bulls and goats, but He blotted it out like it never existed. He didn't just cover it up and try to and try to put pain over something that was dead and dying and going to rot. No, He blotted all the sins out like they were never there to begin with. No, He removed our sins from us. He removed our transgressions from us. And not only that, but in process He removed us from this earth to heaven. When I got saved, my name was written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. My citizenship transferred from here to heaven. So now one of these days when I die, one of these days when I die, I'm going to enter into heaven's gates and my name's going to be written there. Not only was my sin removed from me, but my name was then in my position on this earth. was then removed up into heaven. My citizenship was removed. Now we got the last one, which is Bezer. What does Bezer mean? Well, Bezer, the last city of refuge, means to fortify, means to secure, means a stronghold. It typifies and I think gives a good picture of Christ who is our keeper in life. Doesn't the Bible even tell us about our salvation that no man can pluck Him out of my hands. And so we can see that as we mentioned earlier that Christ is our refuge, yes, He is our high tower. He is our shield, our buckler, our pavilion, our keeper, our safety. He is all of these things in life. And so the last city, Beezer, has the idea that He is a security, that He can fortify us, that He is our stronghold, that we can run to Him and nothing else can get to us. We come to Christ. He's our shield. He is our strength. And He is our keeper. And so all six These cities of refuge point to who Jesus is. So everybody that was guilty run to the place of refuge. So we see our position refuge. Secondly, here tonight, and we can flip back over if you want, but I think we can see all of these things, all six of these cities, I believe we can see them in Luke chapter 15, verses one to seven. But as we flip back over here this evening, Numbers chapter 35, The second truth is not only our position in refuge, but I think we can also see our access of refuge. One of the things that we understand, even in Joshua chapter 20 and verse 9, I'm going to have to turn there, but you can jot it down. One of the things that we understand about the cities of refuge is that the cities of refuge were to be always to be kept clean and easily accessible for anybody to get there. That is one of the things about the City as a Refuge is that God wanted to make sure that anybody who was running to refuge He could have an easy way to get there. That there was nothing in the way, that there was nothing that would keep them from coming to Him. And so the city of refuge was ordered, the roads to the city of refuge was ordered to be clean, to be free. Not only that, but not only was it ordered to be clean and clear and to be easily acceptable, but it was done that way so that anybody who needed to reach The city of refuge could, so that anybody could get there. Hey, praise the Lord that the city of refuge that we find whenever we're guilty and we need to come to Christ, when we say, God, man, I failed you today, Lord, I need forgiveness, we can come to our refuge, which is in the Lord Jesus. And doesn't the Bible tell us in 1 John 1, 9 that if we confess our sin that He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And so we come to our refuge who is willing to offer forgiveness and has cleared the way, making it easily accessible for us to get there. And we can get there every single day. We can get there every second of the day. Easily accessible. And God's desire was for those people back then, in picture of us today, is to have access God, to have access, to have access to a place of sanctuary, to have access to the city of refuge just like he desires for us today. So the roads to the city of refuge were kept clear, they were easily accessible so that anybody could reach them without any hindrances whatsoever. And also this, They were positioned in certain areas, strategically positioned by God, here in Numbers 35, three on this side and three on this side, and strategically positioned all throughout so that anybody that needed to reach the city of refuge could get there in a day or less. A day or less. And does not Jesus say, does not the Bible say, today, if you'll hear His voice, Harden not your hearts. Today is the day of salvation. God wanted to make sure that there was a city of refuge where somebody can get to it, somebody could run to it, strategically positioned, easy, easy way to get there. There was nothing in the way, you can get there, and anybody can get there in a day or less. Because His desire was for you to be in a place of refuge. Man, praise the Lord, just like for us today, we have a God that, God in heaven that had desire for us to have easy access to Him, that He had positioned Himself in such a place where we could reach out to Him, where we could run to Him. Not only that, but we also see, and just of course as we read, look at Numbers 35, And let's take a look at verse 15. Notice the Bible says in these six cities shall be a refuge both for the children of Israel and for who? For the stranger and for the sojourner among them. So we see the city of refuge was not just for God's people, but it was for everybody. Jesus, the Bible says, John 3 verse 16, for God so loved the what? The world that he gave his only begotten son. so that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Does not the Bible also tell us that all that come to me I will in no wise cast out? Listen, it didn't matter if you was of the people of Israel or if you was a stranger on the outside and you was a Gentile. It didn't matter if you was just soldiering in the land and passing through. Listen, there was a place, God had a place of refuge. God had a place of comfort. God had a place of rest. God had a place of fairness for everybody to go to in a day or less. We see the access of our refuge, and it was open to every person and easily able to get there. In Acts 10, verses 34 and 35, the Bible says that God's no respecter of persons. And in every nation, those that fear Him and want righteousness are accepted with Him. And so we see the city of refuge in the person of the Lord Jesus for every nation, every tongue, every language. And that when they fear Him, and they work the righteousness of God, they are accepted of Him. So we praise the Lord for the Lord symbolizing the availability for every person to be able to come to Him. His grace extended to all people. We even see here in Numbers 35 and verse 15. Romans chapter 10 and verses 12 and 13, the Bible talks about the path to salvation. clear and available to everybody that believes in Him. Third truth is this tonight. The extent of refuge. The extent of refuge. The individual seeking refuge to remain in the city. Let's say that someone was guilty and they were guilty of accidentally slaying someone. The Bible gives evidence of these, examples of these sayings of men that are out maybe perhaps Cutting down trees or doing different things and the acid comes off and hit somebody and it kills them And and so what they do is they run to the city of refuge at least the Avenger of blood come on his way and so he runs to the city of refuge and whenever he gets there he is able to experience not all of these things we've talked about already, but also the extent of the refuge and And so while he's there, this person who is awaiting to be heard and tried and sentenced to see if they will be safe or not, the individual seeking this refuge had to remain in the city. If the individual was deemed that it was all an accident, And they said, well, we're going to cover this sin. We're going to accept it in essence. And that which you're guilty of, we're going to find you innocent of this. Well, listen, whenever we went to the city of refuge, we were guilty. But when we got there, did he not say, I'll tell you what we're going to do. Even though you're guilty, we're going to let you be innocent. Man, praise God for that. Even though you're guilty, we're going to let you be innocent. And so whenever he got down there and they pronounced him innocent, there was one thing he had to do while he was there. While he was there, one thing he had to do is he had to stay inside the city of refuge until the high priest died. And when the high priest died, he could go free. Now think about this now. Jesus is our what? He's our high priest. And when Jesus died, He set us free. Did you get that tonight? Even though we were guilty, the Bible says these people that were guilty, they had to go to the city of refuge, they were tried by the peers, they were heard by the high priest, and they had to stay there until the high priest died. They couldn't leave. If they left the city, the avenger of blood can find them and kill them and they couldn't do nothing to him. But as long as he stayed in the city, As long as the guilty party stayed in the city, he was fine. As long as he stayed inside the city, he was under the protection of the high priest. But he couldn't go anywhere. But nobody could do nothing to him. But when the high priest died, then he could just walk right on out. Like nothing had ever happened. And that's you and me. When the high priest died, He set us free. The city of refuge. Just in the Old Testament pictures, pointing people to who Jesus is and to what Jesus is going to do. Typifying Him in every single city that's mentioned. Showing us about the high priest and typifying what Christ, our high priest, has done. The high priest's death marked the end of the fugitive's sentence. See, he was there. He had been heard, but he couldn't go anywhere. He was, in essence, he had to stay there in the city. But when the high priest died, that was the end of the guilty party's sentence. He could now leave. He could be a free person, a free man, a free woman. And when Jesus died, that's exactly what it was for us. Our high priest, when he died, it marked the end of our sentence. The end of our death sentence. Because the avenger of blood was coming for death. And the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, our high priest was there to set us free. Jesus, our high priest, through His death and His resurrection, secured our eternal freedom and redemption. His sacrifice, death on the cross, He paid the penalty of our sin, allowing us to be reconciled with God. The Bible tells us that the only way for us to have peace, the only way for us to have the peace of God is to have peace with God. And how does a man have peace? How does a man receive the peace of God? He receives the peace of God when he gets his heart right with God. He receives the peace of God when he has peace with God. And in order for me to have the peace of God, I have to say, OK, Lord, I'm guilty. I know I'm a sinner. I know that Your wrath is upon all those that are unrighteous. I know that Your wrath is upon the ungodly. I know that Your wrath is upon sinners. But Lord, here today, I ask God for Your forgiveness. God says, I'll cleanse it. I'll declare you free because my son, the high priest, has died for you. You run to the city of refuge and he has now died. He has paid the price. He has set you free. And now that there was enmity with God, now I have peace with God. And since I have peace with God, I can have the peace of God. So, we see that that is what our high priest did for us. Paid the penalty of our sin, allowing us to be reconciled to God. And this was something that was permanent. This wasn't something that only lasted a little while. Aren't you glad that your salvation tonight and your redemption, aren't you glad that it lasted forever, it didn't just last for a week? Aren't you glad that whenever Jesus saved you tonight, or on the day that you got saved, the preacher didn't give you a piece of paper and say, this is only good for seven days? Listen, your salvation didn't come with an expiration date. Aren't you glad that the day you got saved, when you walked out the door, the church didn't hand you a piece of paper and say, now this expires on 30 days or 90 days from this period. You're going to have to come back and do it over again. Man, a life. Oh, your salvation, that was forever. That was a permanent thing. That transaction was something that was permanent. You say, well, why is it so permanent? Why is it so permanent? Well, you see, in the Old Testament, the high priest died. In the New Testament, we see our high priest die, but he rose again. So it's a permanent deal. My Bible tells me, in the book of Hebrews, in chapter 7, verse 24 and 25, the Bible says, this man, he continued with forever. And praise God for that. Why is my salvation forever? Because He continues forever. You've heard me say it a million times, a man can't give you something he ain't got. And so listen, because He is life, because He is eternal life, and because He is the author and finisher not only of our faith, but of life as well. He is the author of life. Jesus is life. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And so we see that because our High Priest lives forever, So do we, and so does our refuge in Him. It was a permanent transaction. The Bible says, but this man continueth forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. It's unchangeable. You can't change the priesthood of Christ. It continues forever and it stays the same. So whenever I come to Christ as my refuge, well, I always have refuge. I always have life. because He continues forever. That's just another eternal security kick right there for those that don't like you. Those that don't like eternal security, that'll help you tonight. There ain't nobody in here that don't like eternal security, right? Okay, if you do, see me after the service, we'll talk a little bit. I love it, and I'm glad the good Lord we have it. And I'm thankful I ain't got to worry about losing it, praise God. Listen, I lose all kinds of stuff. If I could lose my salvation, I'd lose it, I promise you. But because he continues forever and because he has an unchangeable priesthood, because he is never going to die, my salvation in him is forever. My refuge in him is everlasting. That is the extent of my refuge. It is eternal. The Bible says, wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make his intercession for them. So the city is refuge in the Old Testament. Man, what powerful pictures of Christ as a refuge in him. He provides protection. freedom. Romans chapter 8 verse 1 says this, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Now we're going to stop with this. Now we've got to the city of refuge, we pointed everybody to Jesus through the cities of refuge, but there's one other thing. What about the avenger of blood? What's that all about? Well just real quickly tonight I'm just going to give you a couple of things and then we'll go home. So why do we have a city of refuge? We have a city of refuge because there is an avenger of blood that is out there that we're guilty. The avenger of blood is coming. So what and who is this avenger of blood? Well, number one, the avenger of blood must be a relative of the one who was slain. Family member who had the right and the responsibility to find out who killed the one that he loved and to exact justice upon him. So who is the Avenger of Blood? What are some things? Well, number one, the Avenger of Blood was a relative, but let's think about this now. Because not only do we see, even in the scriptures, the Lord Jesus as the city of refuge, but can also even be seen as the Avenger of Blood. Take a look at it. The avenger of blood. Listen to this. The avenger of blood. He had to be a relative. What was the Lord Jesus to us? The Bible says, He came unto His own and His own received Him not. He became one of us. He became a relative to us. He was born of a virgin. God clothed in human form. Became relative to us. And so, in essence, became relative to us and also became an avenger of blood. Because think about this, when a man is lost and dead and trespassed and sinned, there is judgment that is coming. Judgment. In the Old Testament, God is also seen as an avenger of his enemies, of an avenger of his people, of his enemies. So we see that even the Lord Jesus Himself in Tip of Odd Picture can be seen as an Avenger of Blood in the idea that the Avenger had to be a relative. Jesus was a relative to us in the sense that He was born of a woman. The Spirit had put on flesh and He became one of us. And the Avenger of Blood would seek to do justice, sought to do what was right. The Avenger of Blood made the things that were wrong, made them right. And that's what Jesus did too. He made the things that were wrong, made them right. Sin had to be dealt with. Sin had to be paid for. The avenger of blood, the avenger of blood was there for life. In other words, the avenger of blood was on the scene because a life had been taken. And God sees that life is so precious that He gave His life to save others. So just in typified ideas we can see pictures there as well. One last thing, Romans chapter 12 verse 19. The Bible says, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Now understanding that vengeance in the Old Testament, the word was the idea to reclaim, redeem, restore. So what does God in essence really kind of say there in Romans 12, 19, the idea seems to be that dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, don't reclaim yourselves, don't try to restore, don't try to do these things on your own. Because who in essence, who is our refuge? Who is our redeemer? Who is our avenger of blood? It is the Lord. He says there in the text, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place on the free as written. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay. saith the Lord. Vengeance is mine. He is the, in essence, the avenger of blood, their reclaimer. The one who knows all and sees all. Praise God for that. So here tonight, just some good pictures of some things that we can see about Christ our refuge. Let's pray this evening. Father, we thank you for this day. Lord, you are so good. Lord, we are blessed here tonight. Bless people. Lord, I thank you for this study. Lord, more of a study than an actual preaching message, but Lord, I pray that folks was able to find some good and profit in it and they were learning some things about your word tonight. God, just strengthen them and help them and even more so. Lord, just talking about these cities of refuge and how they typify and show even that much more about who you are. Lord, I pray that you'd bless our night tonight. God, you'd keep us safe as we leave Lord, throughout the work week, God, that you'd watch over everybody, keep everybody safe, give us a good night tonight. We love you and thank you for it all, and this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.