Flee for Refuge | Sunday, August 23, 2020

Good morning, Cross Connection Church at Home family. Before we cut over to Pastor Anthony and our worship team to lead us in worship this morning, I would ask that you send a text message to a friend or a group of friends to invite them to join us for church online. All you have to do is send them the link live.ccchurch.com so that they can connect with us.

Now, let's go over to Pastor Anthony as they lead us in worship.

Let's pray.

Well, God, we thank You for today. We are so encouraged, Lord, that You are for us. We can believe Your Word; we can believe Your truths. Lord, we agree with the Word that says Your love is better than life. God, we thank You for the victory that we have in Your Son, Jesus. Would You just do a work? We ask, Lord, that You would sing songs over us—songs of peace and songs of deliverance. Would You sing over Your congregation, Lord, as we minister to You? We bless Your name. In Jesus' name, amen.

I searched the world, but it couldn't fill me. A man's empty praise and treasures that fade are never enough. Then You came along and put me back together. Every desire is now satisfied

Nothing is better than You. I'm not afraid to show You my weakness, my failures, and my flaws. The God of the mountain is the God of the valley. There’s not a place Your mercy and grace won't find me again.

Look, there's nothing better than You. I know it's true. You turn mourning to dancing. You give beauty for ashes. You turn shame into glory. You're the only one who can turn cares to dancing. You give beauty for ashes and turn shame into glory.

You're glory, the only one who cares. You're the only one who cares. Oh, there's nothing better than You. There's nothing better than You. Yes, Lord, nothing is better than You.

Hey, Cross Connection Church! Welcome to church this morning. We would love to be able to pray for you. We are a church that loves to pray, and to help us pray for you, please let us know how we can do that. You can go to prayer.lifeinconnection.com to give us your praise reports and prayer requests. Our prayer team is eager to pray for you, so please reach out.

For any other points of connection, you can visit lifeinconnection.com. That's where you can find all kinds of information.

Now, in just a moment, Anthony is going to lead us in a song. This is the time that we've set aside to give back to God for our tithes, our offerings, and things like that. There are several different ways you can do that. You can text "give" to 84321; you can give any amount there. You can also go to give.lifeinconnection.com, or you can mail it to us here. The address that Nick is going to have listed below is awesome.

Today's mission, which we are getting behind right now, is the Good News Clubs. They are starting up as the school year begins, but this is a very strange time. I don't have to tell you that things are very different and very weird. So, pray for them that they would have wisdom and the opportunity to minister to kids throughout Escondido.

Alright, guys, God bless you. Love you, and see you soon.

My great rewards, I am Yours. Through each day, I will say, "Seasons."

Lord, thank You so much that through all of these uncertain times, we can trust You. Even when we don't understand what's going on around us, we know that You go before us. We know that You see all, and Your plans are good. You have everything in Your control, Lord, and we are so thankful.

For you, our Father, we love You so much. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

I hope that you were able to catch our broadcast last week. This morning, we are continuing a study in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, which is the fifth book of the Bible. In this study, we are considering the statutes and judgments of God. The stipulations we are examining were the basis for God's relationship with the people and nation of Israel 3,400 years ago.

The Old Testament book of Exodus, which is the second book of the Bible, describes how God redeemed and rescued the people of Israel from 400 years of bondage and slavery in Egypt. You may be familiar with this story if you saw the classic Charlton Heston film, The Ten Commandments, or if you grew up with the Disney version, The Prince of Egypt. Perhaps you battled your way through Christian Bale's 2014 film, Exodus: Gods and Kings.

The story of Exodus is one that, as I said, is familiar in Western culture because we still live in a Judeo-Christian culture. However, most conceptualizations of the stories of the Pentateuch—the first five books of the Bible—have been largely mythologized in our day. This means that most people you will interact with have a limited knowledge of the things written in the Old Testament, and what they do know, they think is archaic myths that tell us little more than what literature and worldviews were like two and a half millennia or more ago.

For the Christian, these things are histories recorded for a purpose. As a matter of fact, the Christian believes that these things are given by inspiration of God and are intended to teach us about Him, how and what He does, why He does it, and how we can and ought to interact with Him. These and many more things are, I believe, given to us in Scripture. In fact, in the New Testament, we read that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

For those of you who have been connected with Cross Connection Church for any length of time, you know that this is a passage I reference often. This passage helps us to understand why Christians for the last 20 centuries have...

We maintain such a high regard for the Bible. We believe that the Bible is inspired, infallible, and inerrant in the original autographs. We hold that all that we ought to believe and how we ought to live before God is given to us in the pages of Scripture. This is an audacious claim, I know, but this has been the orthodox view of Scripture for Christians since the very beginning of the Church. In fact, those words written by the Apostle Paul were penned within four decades of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Now, I bring all of this up this morning as it can sometimes be challenging for us, when looking at a passage of Scripture like the one before us, to find relevance to our time. However, because of the teaching of Second Timothy chapter three, which I just read a moment ago, I come to a passage like this presupposing its relevance and application. This means that when I come to a passage like this, I personally approach it with the anticipation and expectation that God has something here for me to learn about Him, about how He works, and what He expects. I hope that you will do the same when you open the Bible to read or listen to the Scriptures. At the very least, you should do so praying that God would open your eyes to behold wonderful things from His law.

I am convinced that this passage in Deuteronomy chapter four holds some wonderful things from the statutes and judgments of God. So, all of that is a bit of a preface to just 71 words in Deuteronomy this morning, beginning in verse 41 of chapter four. There we read: "Then Moses set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan toward the rising of the sun, that the manslayer might flee there who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in the past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: Bazer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites."

We began several weeks ago talking about the law of God in Deuteronomy, which we will be looking at much more in depth in the coming weeks. I have entitled this series of studies...

Statutes and judgments are essential because this section of Scripture contains just that. As the people of Israel prepared to enter into the Promised Land 3,400 years ago, Moses, the great lawgiver and leader of Israel, stood before the people to remind them of the stipulations of their covenant relationship. He did this so that it would be fresh in their minds how they were supposed to walk and live before God as His people in His Promised Land.

This is similar to what my wife and I do with our kids virtually every time we go to be guests at someone's home. Right before we arrive, we get their attention in the car and say, "Remember our expectations." Then we go through four or five different things that we expect of them when we visit someone else's home.

One of the things I appreciate about God, when reading through His statutes and judgments in the Old Testament, is that He says to His people, "Listen, here are my expectations. You're my people; this is how my people are to behave." However, in the midst of rehearsing His statutes and expectations, He pauses to remind them of His mercy. We saw this several weeks ago in verse 31, where we read, "For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them." God is gracious.

The ultimate purpose of God's law is not our moral perfection; its ultimate purpose is to show us God's perfection and our inadequacy. It is really good at that. God's law is a reflection of His nature; it reveals His purity and highlights our imperfection. So, in the midst of revealing His perfection through His law, He reminds us of His mercy. That's what we have here in verses 41 through 43.

I believe that, among other things, this passage teaches us that God goes to great lengths to provide mercy to the guilty. Why does God do this? Because it is His very nature. It is what God leads with when He introduces Himself in Exodus 34, verse 6. There we read, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness."

And truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, He does not overlook sin or acquit the guilty, but He is by default merciful. How do we see that in this passage? Well, Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 41-43, is a manifestation of God's mercy in the midst of His statutes and judgments.

When we get into chapter 5, we're going to consider God's statutes and judgments in the form of the Ten Commandments. This will be the second time that Moses rehearsed these commandments before all of Israel. That's why Deuteronomy is called Deuteronomy; the word literally means "second law." The first time Moses rehearsed the Ten Commandments before all of Israel was 40 years prior to this in Exodus chapter 20.

To make sense of all that is happening in these verses in Deuteronomy 4, let me remind you that one of the Ten Commandments, the sixth commandment, is "You shall not murder." It is recorded in Exodus 20, verse 13, and we'll see it again in Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 17. I think we all agree that this is a good commandment. I don't think there is any rightly minded individual who wouldn't agree that murder is wrong, and the wrongness of murder is evidenced by the strict sentence given to murderers in Exodus 21.

Exodus 21, verse 12, says, "He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death." Whatever your personal opinions are about capital punishment, it is very clear that the Old Testament sentence for murder was death. But that's not the whole story. When Moses spoke those words to Israel in Exodus 21, he had more to say on the subject. There again in verse 12, "He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death; however, if he did not lie in wait but God delivered him into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee."

But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor to kill him by treachery, "you shall take him from My altar that he may die." Remember, God goes to great lengths to provide mercy to the guilty, so He gives this interesting provision. Moses provides further clarity on this later in the fourth book of the Bible, the Book of Numbers, chapter 35.

Beginning at verse 9, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, 'When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there. They shall be the cities of refuge for you from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment.'"

Of the cities which you give, you shall have six cities of refuge. You shall appoint three cities on this side of the Jordan and three cities you shall appoint in the land of Canaan, which will be cities of refuge. These six cities shall be for refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills a person accidentally may flee there. The whole of the 35th chapter of Numbers gives further explanation about this. I’m not going to read through all of it right now; you can do so later if you'd like.

Essentially, God here provides mercy to the guilty—mercy for the one guilty of unintended murder, or what we would call manslaughter. In ancient times, if you killed someone, you could expect to be killed for your crime. It was the custom in the ancient Near East that the one guilty of killing another would be killed by a near of kin family member of the one who was killed. This near of kin family member was referred to in Numbers 35 as the avenger of blood. It sounds kind of like a comic book character, but God, because He is merciful, made provision for the one who killed another without premeditation, unintentionally.

What we have in Deuteronomy 4:41-43 is Moses making good on this provision by establishing three of the six cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan River for any manslayer in the land. We will see this again in Deuteronomy 19 and once more in the book of Joshua, chapter 20, years from now when we get there. These six cities—three on the east side of the Jordan and three on the west side of the Jordan—were to be spaced so that they were effectively a day's journey from virtually anywhere in the land, so that one who killed another unintentionally could flee there.

Deuteronomy 19 even gives an example of what might happen. Imagine you are in the woods and you're cutting down a tree with an axe.

The axe slips, or the axe head slips off the handle, and it hits your neighbor, causing his death. It wasn't intentional; it wasn't premeditated, but he's dead. As a result, under the law, you are also dead unless you flee to the city of refuge.

Once in a city of refuge, a trial would be held before the elders of that city. If it is determined that the death was manslaughter, then the manslayer would remain alive in the city of refuge. The manslayer could find mercy and live there, but if he left the city of refuge, he could be killed. There was refuge and mercy only in the city. He would have to remain there for the rest of his life or as long as the high priest of Israel was alive. When the high priest of Israel died, those living in the cities of refuge were free to return to their homes in peace.

In Joshua chapter 20, beginning at verse 2, we read: "Appoint for yourselves cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the slayer who kills a man accidentally or unintentionally may flee there, and they shall be for your refuge from the avenger of blood." When he flees to one of those cities and stands at the entrance of the gate, declaring his case in the hearing of the elders, they shall take him into the city as one of them and give him a place to dwell among them.

If the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not deliver the slayer into his hand because he struck his neighbor unintentionally and did not hate him beforehand. He shall dwell in the city until he stands before the congregation for judgment and until the death of the high priest in those days. Then the slayer may return to his own city and his own house, to the city from which he fled.

I realize that this is a lot of information, but remember that God goes to great lengths to provide mercy to the guilty. Each of these six cities was established by Israel and maintained by the priestly tribe, the Levites. The Levites were provided for by the tithes, or really the taxes, in Israel. Thus, these cities were funded from the national treasury, if you will. The roads and the signs that led to each of these cities were to be well marked.

Kept and well maintained, God expected great care and expense to be apportioned to provide refuge and mercy. Why? Because God goes to great lengths to provide mercy to the guilty.

But here's the thing: I think it is fascinating that in all of my study of Scripture, and I have studied the Scriptures for a very long time, I can find no record of a city of refuge being used in the biblical record. Now, don't misunderstand; I'm not saying that they were never used. I'm sure that they were. If someone was killed and there was only one witness, the Old Testament law required that the killer not be capitally punished. Capital punishment could only be levied upon an individual according to the testimony of two or more witnesses.

So, a person involved in the death of another, where there was only one witness, would probably have been safe only in the city of refuge. I'm sure that there were cases of manslaughter in ancient Israel, and I'm sure that the cities of refuge were used, but it was rare enough that it is never recorded in the Bible. I’m sure that if you lived in ancient Israel, you didn't really ever think about the cities of refuge. When you did, you probably thought, "That's a lot of energy, money, and time wasted—prime real estate for nothing and for a bunch of criminals."

So, whether you lived three thousand years ago or you live today, you might be forgiven for thinking it irrelevant. This doesn't apply to me, and you would almost be right—until the day that you stand there, gazing into the open eyes of a lifeless body lying at your feet. The race of your heart tells you that something awful has happened and that somehow, in some way, you are to blame. Suddenly, you remember the words of Moses: "Appoint for yourselves cities of refuge." And then one little word begins to repeat in your head: "Run."

But there's no record in the Old Testament that the cities of refuge were ever utilized, at least not in Scripture. So, what a waste? Or not? Two thousand years ago, an innocent man was brutally beaten and killed on a hilltop outside of Jerusalem, a hill called Calvary, and he died.

Because of your sin and mine, we are to blame. We all want to be the superhero, the avenger of blood, but the reality is that we're all the manslayers. We have blood on our hands; we have His blood on our hands. You and I, unintentionally though it may have been, are guilty. The one who died because of our sin has a near of kin, the avenger of blood, a Father who has every right to avenge the blood of His Son.

So what on earth can you and I do? There's only one answer, and it is found in the only place where the word "refuge" is used in the New Testament. In Hebrews chapter 6, beginning at verse 18, we read that we can have strong comfort who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor for our soul, both sure and steadfast, which enters the presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Our only hope and refuge as guilty sinners is to flee to Christ for shelter from the avenger of blood. For there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. The Father demands justice for the death of His Son but gives mercy to all who are in Him. Don't wait another moment; in Christ alone is refuge and mercy. He is our high priest forever.

When we come to a passage of Scripture like this one in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 41 through 43, we see it again in Numbers, in Exodus, and a little bit in Joshua. When we encounter passages like this that seem irrelevant to us, we need to understand the teaching of Paul's words in the New Testament book of First Corinthians chapter 10, where he says that all these things that happened to the nation of Israel, like here in the book of Deuteronomy, happened as examples for us. They are written for our learning and for our instruction, as we are living in our time in these last days. When we come to passages like this, we need to recognize that these things were...

Written down to teach us something, even if we can't find anywhere in the Old Testament scriptures where these cities of refuge were used, they point to the refuge that is available to us in Jesus Christ.

As we prepare to close today, I want to encourage you that these passages, which sometimes we can read over in a matter of seconds—it's only 71 words here in Deuteronomy chapter 4—require us to pause and pray. We should ask God, "What is it that you want to teach me about yourself, about your nature and your character here in this passage of scripture?" Important truths can be found.

For one, God goes to great lengths to provide mercy to the guilty, and you and I are guilty. We are guilty of the death of Jesus Christ by our sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive His righteousness. He died on that cross because of your sin and mine. Apart from the refuge that we find by putting our trust and faith in Him, we are open season for the avenger of blood—the Father in heaven, who will one day execute just punishment upon those who are not in Christ.

I want to encourage you to put your faith and trust in Jesus and to flee to Him for refuge today. Father, I pray that you would take these words from this passage of scripture and cause them to go deep into our hearts. I'm sure that there are some who are watching this morning who may not attend church. They probably would never go into a church building, but they have no problem clicking on a link that someone texted them from YouTube.

So, God, I pray that you would speak, and by your Spirit, that you would soften a heart. I pray for that person who has been running away from you, that they would turn and flee to find refuge in you. Lord, we thank you that you have gone to great lengths to provide mercy for the guilty—not just in what you commanded Moses, Joshua, and the nation of Israel to do in constructing the cities of refuge 3,400 years ago, but you went to even far greater lengths in sending your Son for us, that we could find refuge in Him.

So, God, I pray that you draw people to yourself, to trust in you and to find refuge in you, because even though you demand justice for the death of your Son, you also offer mercy to those who seek it.

You give mercy to those who put their trust and faith in Him. We thank You for that today, in Jesus' name. Amen.

In the darkness, we were waiting without hope, without light, till there was mercy in Your eyes. To fulfill the law and prophets, to a virgin came the Word from the throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt.

Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one, God of glory, my destiny. Praise forever to the King of Kings.

To reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost, to redeem the whole creation, You did not despise the Christ. For even in Your suffering, You saw to the other side, knowing this was our salvation, Jesus. For I said, You died.

Son, praise the Spirit, praise forever.

The King of Kings and the morning that You rose, all of heaven held its breath until that stone was moved for good. For the Lamb had conquered death, and the dead rose from their tombs. The angels stood in awe, for the souls

Encourage their hearts and strengthen them as they draw near to You. Even though we're not able to be in fellowship with one another during this time, pour out Your Spirit upon Your church, we pray.

And now, the Lord bless you and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May He lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

This one has a hint of lemon, just tepid. Can I get some lukewarm water, 78 degrees?