(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

...service. It's good to see everyone here this morning. Let's all take our songbooks, please, as we find our seats and let's turn to hymn number 364. We'll begin this morning with hymn number 364, Standing on the Promises of God, hymn number 364. 364, let's sing it out nice and loud on that first verse, number 364. Standing on the promises of Christ my King, through eternal ages let his praises ring. Glory in the highest I will shout and sing. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot bear. When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail. By the living Word of God I shall prevail. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord. Bound to him eternally by love's strong core. Overcoming facing with the Spirit's sword. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot fall. Listening every moment to the Spirit's call. Resting in my Savior as my all in all. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises of God. Heavenly Father, thank you very much for this day. Lord, thank you for our health. Please help those who are not healthy and please bless the singing in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen, over to hymn number 413. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, hymn number 413. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross, number 413. Let's sing it out on this first verse together. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss. From victory unto victory, his army shall he be. Till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the trumpet call obey. For to the mighty conflict in this his glorious day. Ye that are bid now serve him against unnumbered foes. Let courage rise in danger and strength to strength oppose. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in his strength alone. The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own. But on the gospel armor and watching unto prayer where duty calls for danger he never wants to hear. Alright, this time we'll go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, put up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week will be in Ezekiel chapter number 14. We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms. Across the page we will be taking a group photo today immediately after the morning service. So as soon as the service ends, don't go running off but just go out this side right here. We've got a little roped off area in the parking lot. So we'll all just group in there and as quickly as possible just snap a photo of the whole group. This will be for the back of the yearbook or the front of the yearbook. It's going to be on the yearbook somewhere. Below that, the church picnic is this Saturday. So here we are. We've arrived this Saturday on the corner of East Curry and North College Avenue. It's the southwest corner. So you don't want to just type in Papago Park because it will take you to the wrong place because Papago Park is so big and has so many different aspects to it. You want to make sure you end up where we are which is on that corner of College and Curry right off of the Red Mountain 202 freeway. And we're going to provide hamburgers, hot dogs, beverages, and if you'd like, bring a side dish or a dessert to share. You don't have to but we'd love for you to do that. And everybody's invited again this Saturday at noon. Below that, we've got the list of those attending the zip line activity this Friday. Make sure that that's accurate. And make sure to sign the waiver which is available in the Church Members Only Facebook group. See Brother Segura for more details. On the back, congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Avgulas who just got married on Monday. Be sure to congratulate them. Small town soul winning trips are starting up again Saturday, November 27th. And so the details for those are always over here. We've got the sign up sheets, the information on the small town soul winning trips, and then under the other upcoming events, the locations for the next several are listed below. And that's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. All right, you should find the insert of the song on the Sea of Galilee in your hymnals. If you don't have an insert, please raise your hand and we'll sing it on that verse on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. Let's sing it on the Sea of Galilee. We are rocked, our hope of eternal salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus who bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful deep and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, that our enjoyable song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals, cloud with those and us ring. Jesus, Savior, great and forever and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, prophet and priest they cling. Christ is coming over the world victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, that our enjoyable song. Alright, this time we'll pass the offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 19. Deuteronomy chapter number 19, as we always do. We'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads Deuteronomy chapter 19, starting in verse number 1. Deuteronomy chapter 19, the Bible reads, When the Lord thy God hath cut off the nations, whose land the Lord thy God giveth thee, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their cities and in their houses, thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it. Thou shalt prepare thee away and divide the coasts of thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee to inherit, into three parts, that every slayer may flee thither. And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee thither, that he may live, whoso killeth his neighbor ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past. As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbor that he die, he shall flee into one of those cities and live. Lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and slay him. Whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past. Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee. And if the Lord thy God enlarge thy coast, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy fathers, if thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the Lord thy God, and to walk ever in his ways, then thou shalt add three cities more for thee, beside these three. That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for inheritance, and so blood be upon thee. But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and fleeeth into one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send and fetch immense, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee. Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it. One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth, at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established. If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong, then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days. And the judges shall make diligent inquisition. And behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother, then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother. So shalt thou put the evil away from among you. And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you. And thine eyes shall not pity, but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Dear Father, thank you for letting us congregate today on a Sunday, Lord. Please bless the sermon. Please let it edify us and let it apply to our lives today. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. This morning I'm preaching on the subject of the cities of refuge. The cities of refuge. Now the main chapter on the cities of refuge is in Numbers chapter 35. We're going to start here in Deuteronomy chapter number 19, which doesn't refer to them by name, but it is talking about the cities of refuge. And this seems to be basically the more basic teaching that gets expanded upon more in Numbers 35. So we're going to start here in Deuteronomy 19. But first of all, let me just read you a dictionary definition of what the word refuge means. Refuge means shelter or protection from danger or trouble. A place of shelter, protection, or safety. Now let's jump into this and see what the Bible is talking about here in chapter 19, verse 1 of Deuteronomy. When the Lord thy God hath cut off the nations whose land the Lord thy God giveth thee, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their cities and in their houses, thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it. Thou shalt prepare thee away and divide the coasts of thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to inherit into three parts that every slayer may flee thither. So the idea here is to have cities in each region to kind of break the land into regions and have a city in each region for the slayer to flee into. Now what are we talking about here, the slayer? Well, we're not talking about what the Bible would consider a murderer, but we're talking about someone who kills someone, but it isn't really murder. And we're going to get some examples of this as we go. Look at verse number 4. And this is the case of the slayer which shall flee thither that he may live. Whoso killeth his neighbor ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past. So this is basically someone who kills someone else by accident. They did not desire to kill them or lay in wait for them or premeditate murder against them, but they accidentally end up killing them for whatever the reason. And by the way, this is where we get our modern word, manslaughter. What we talk about legally as manslaughter comes from this Bible passage where it talks about the slayer. Slaughter is just the noun of that verb, slay. And so it says in verse number 4, whoso killeth his neighbor ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past. Verse 5, as when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the health, and lighteth upon his neighbor that he die, he shall flee unto one of those cities and live. So the Bible here gives an example, a guy's chopping wood, the axe head flies off the end of the axe and just happens to slam into some guy's head. He dies. It's not really murder. You didn't try to kill that guy. He had nothing against that guy. It was an accident. So he flees into one of these cities of refuge in order to live. Look at verse 6, lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer while his heart is hot and overtake him because the way is long and slay him, whereas he was not worthy of death inasmuch as he hated him not in time past. So the way things have worked in ancient Israel is you don't have a police force. You don't necessarily have things laid out the way that they are in the United States of America in 2021. Back then, if someone just committed murder or killed someone, you could pretty much just kill that person on the spot. You know, you didn't necessarily have to go to court or have a trial or go through any of that. If it's clear, if it's obvious, you could just take care of it and really just anyone could take care of it. But typically, the person who was wrong, let's say it was their brother who was killed or their father or their son or their uncle, whoever it is that is a friend of that person or a relative of that person who was the victim, you know, would just go and take care of it. And the only time that judges would have to get involved is basically if there's something to judge, if there's any kind of a dispute or question about things. But in general, when someone kills someone else, they are just killed by the avenger of blood, which is pretty much just anybody who decides to take care of this. Now, we'll get into more of that as we go here. But it says that the whole point of having more than one of these cities of refuge is so that it's not too far away to get to the city of refuge. Because let's say somebody accidentally kills someone or they kill someone through their negligence but they weren't actually setting out to commit murder. If the city of refuge is really far away, the avenger of blood might just get to them before they have a chance to get there. So it needs to be close enough where they can immediately flee there before people find out what they've done and just take vengeance themselves. So it says in verse number 7, Wherefore I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee. And if the Lord thy God enlarged thy coast, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy fathers, if thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them which I command thee this day, to love the Lord thy God, and to walk ever in his ways, then shalt thou add three cities more for thee beside these. So he's saying, look, if the land is big enough, make it six instead of three. Because you want to make sure that these things are in close enough proximity for people to get to them when they need them. And here's why, verse 10, that innocent blood be not shed in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee. Now what is verse 10 saying? Don't miss this. Verse 10, the innocent blood being shed, would be the guy who accidentally killed somebody. He's not worthy of death. The axe handle flew off the axe. He didn't mean to kill the person. He's not a murderer. He's not worthy of death. So if the avenger of blood comes and kills him, he's really killing an innocent person in that sense. And so then innocent blood is being shed, and then blood's upon you. That's why you want the city of refuge to be close enough for this guy to get to, so that that doesn't happen. There's not this miscarriage of justice. Now the key thing that I want to point out in verse number 10 is that if innocent blood is shed in the land, then basically that blood is sort of held against the land as a whole, and innocent blood comes upon you as a people. So basically the nation in which innocent blood is being shed is guilty as a nation. You know, we as a nation in America today are guilty of innocent blood. You know, due to the abortion clinics and other things where murderers are allowed to live after they commit premeditated murder, and then they're just allowed to live. And then you have, of course, the abortion clinics murdering two or three thousand innocent babies a day. That's bringing innocent blood upon the land. And what we have to understand is that not only are human beings victims of crimes in the Bible, but there's also such a thing as sinning against God, sinning against the Lord. This is what we often forget in our society today where you hear people talk about some wicked sinful practice and say, well, you know, but who are they hurting though? You know, who did they hurt when they did that? But what we need to understand is that even if a human being is not necessarily injured or harmed or wronged in any way, there are sins that are sins against God. And when it comes to murder, obviously there is a victim. But God is also the one that you're sinning against when you commit murder, not just against that life that you took. You're also sinning against God. We're going to get to that later in the sermon as well. But notice that the land is held responsible for the innocent blood that is shed therein. So it's not just the murderer who gets punished. You know what else is the one who gets punished? The society who tolerates murder also gets punished. A society who tolerates murder and allows it and coexists with it and acts like it's fine is also guilty because the whole land gets held responsible for innocent blood shed therein. So he's saying, set up your government, set up the system in such a way that the innocent blood that's shed is dealt with and so that the whole land is not guilty before me. Look at verse 11. But if any man hate his neighbor and lie and wait for him and rise up against him and smite him mortally that he die and fleeth into one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him from thence and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood that he may die. Then I shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away, and this is the key that I was just talking about, thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with thee. In order to clear Israel of this guilt, here's what needs to happen. The guy who's actually a murderer, the guy who actually lied and wait, he actually premeditated and murdered someone, that guy must be put to death. If he flees to the city of refuge, then drag him out of there. It's not that no one can be taken out of the city of refuge, it's that it's there for the guy who actually legitimately did not commit murder but killed someone by accident or negligence or whatever. But the actual murderer gets removed from the city of refuge and put to death so that the blood and the guilt of the innocent blood is taken away from Israel. Okay, now this teaching in Deuteronomy 19 is just a really basic teaching. It doesn't really give us all of the details and all the information. For that, we got to go to Numbers chapter 35. So go to Numbers 35. Deuteronomy 19 is just kind of an introduction to this idea of the cities of refuge. But we get a lot more detail in chapter 35 of the book of Numbers. Because keep in mind, these things are not in order when you're reading the Bible because of the fact that Deuteronomy is like a recap. You know, going back in time over things that Moses said, Moses preached and so forth. So just because it's after it when you're reading your Bible doesn't necessarily mean it's after it chronologically. So in Numbers chapter 35, we get a later, more expanded explanation of this so it goes into more detail. And this is where we get the term cities of refuge. So look at chapter 35 verse number 6. And among the cities which he shall give unto the Levites, there shall be six cities for refuge. So see, at this point, it's just six because of the fact that we've already gotten through the story where the children of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh decided that they want to inherit on the other side of Jordan. If you remember that story in the book of Numbers, they want to inherit over on the other side of Jordan. And obviously, there's that division of the Jordan River separating them. So they're going to need three cities of refuge on that side and three on this side. So what God has said in Deuteronomy chapter number 19 has come true that three is not enough, extra land is being taken. And so therefore, we're just going to go straight for six when we're reading this in Numbers chapter 35. So it says in Numbers 35, 6, there shall be six cities for refuge which he shall appoint for the manslayer that he may flee thither and to them he shall add forty and two cities. So all the cities which you give to the Levites shall be forty and eight cities. So here we find out that basically the Levites inherit forty-eight cities and six of these get set aside as the cities of refuge. So these cities belong to the Levites who are the ones who serve the Lord and teach the word of God to the children of Israel. That's where the city of refuge is. Jump down to verse nine. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, when you become over Jordan into the land of Canaan, then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you that the slayer may flee thither which killeth any person that unawares. And they shall be unto you for cities, cities for refuge from the avenger that the manslayer die not until he stand before the congregation in judgment. Right? Because it's questionable whether this is murder, this is an accident. What is this? So he flees to the city of refuge and it's decided whether he's an actual murderer in which case he gets dragged out and killed or is he allowed to stay in the city of refuge. Let's keep going here. It says in verse number 13, and of these cities which ye shall give six cities shall ye have for refuge. Ye shall give three cities on this side, Jordan, and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan which shall be cities of refuge. So as I said, three on one side of Jordan, three on the other. These six cities shall be a refuge, verse 15, both for the children of Israel and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them that everyone that killeth any person unawares may flee thither. You know, it's one of the beautiful things about God's law in the Old Testament is that basically you're treated equally under the law whether you're homeborn or whether you're a foreigner. God did not have this attitude where there's a different set of rules for the Jews and for the Gentiles. Rather, God has the same set of rules for everybody. He's not a respecter of persons and so whether Jew or Gentile, whether you're a citizen or a non-citizen, it's the same set of rules that apply to both. And so it says here in verse number, let's see, where did we leave off, verse number 16, it says, And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he's a murderer, the murderer shall surely be put to death. And if he smite him with throwing a stone, wherewith he may die, and he die, he's a murderer, the murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he smite him with a hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die, and he die, he's a murderer, the murderer shall surely be put to death. Hmm, I'm not really sure if God's for the death penalty or not. I mean, how many different ways can God say this? And by the way, the death penalty is not just part of the Mosaic law. The death penalty is instituted with Noah when Noah gets off the ark. And God said, Whoso shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. And so all the way back to Noah's ark, it's instituted the death penalty. And by the way, this is reiterated in the New Testament in Romans chapter 13, when it talks about government bearing the sword as an avenger taking wrath upon him that doeth evil. And when it talks about the government being an avenger or a revenger of wrath, it's referring back to this idea that God had ordained revenge to be taken on innocent blood. But in the New Testament, obviously we're under the powers that be. We're under the American government. Obviously the Romans are under the Roman government. And so for them, the government was acting as an avenger, as a revenger, fulfilling this function. And so today, obviously, we don't have the right in the United States of America to take these things into our own hands. If someone commits murder, we can't go out and take care of it ourselves. But rather, our government is there to be a revenger. And if they fail at that, then we all suffer as a result. If they succeed at that, if they do right, and if they punish wrongdoing, then we're blessed as a nation. If they fail, then we as a nation suffer. And so it says here, in verse number 18 at the end there, the murderer shall surely be put to death. It doesn't matter whether it's an instrument of iron. It doesn't matter whether they used a rock or a baseball bat. It doesn't matter what the weapon is. You know, was it an assault weapon? You know, or what was the caliber of the weapon? Is it a rifle? Is it a handgun? You know, what is it? These all kill people. It doesn't matter if it's a knife or a baseball bat or what, a slingshot. If you kill somebody with it and it's intentional, then you've committed murder, right? That's what the Bible says. It says in verse 19, the revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer. When he meeteth him, he shall slay him. So this is what I was saying about the fact that when it's obviously murder, when it's clearly murder, when there's no question about it, he just dies. I mean, just the revenger of blood, whoever that is, that's just a person who takes this upon them because they care about the person who was killed. You know, as soon as they meet him, they kill him. But if he thrust him of hatred, verse 20, or hurl at him by lying in wait that he die, or if an enmity, or an enmity smite him with his hand that he die, he that smote him shall surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The revenger of blood shall slay the murderer when he meeteth him, right? So, again, if it's lying in wait, if it's of hatred, meaning that it's premeditated, the desire is to kill this person, they're a murderer, and the revenger of blood kills him when he meets him. It says in verse number 22, though, but if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him anything without laying of wait, or with any stone wherewith a man die, seeing him not, and cast it upon him that he die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his harm, then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood according to these judgments. So, there are a lot of situations that end up being a little bit more iffy, or a gray area, and so these need to be taken to court, and you have to look at the evidence, and judge, and say, okay, is this murder or not? Now, where does God draw the line? Well, it's pretty clear on the side of murder that in order to be considered a murderer, in order to be convicted of murder, you have to intend to kill the person, okay, and you have to in some way either lie in wait for them, or hate them in time past. It has to be shown that you hated this guy previously, okay. Now, what does that mean? That means that in a situation where if somebody just did what's called a crime of passion, which is what we call today in America, second degree murder, where someone basically just lost their temper on the spot, they didn't hate this person in time past, they didn't plan this, they did not premeditate this, but they just sort of just blow up on the spot, or maybe just hit somebody, or whatever, and that person dies, then, you know, they're not guilty of murder, they're not convicted of murder. Murder in the Bible has to be premeditated in some way, which is what we would call today first degree murder. That's what the Bible considers murder, otherwise it's considered manslaughter, okay. So that's why it says in verse 22, if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him anything without lying of weight, or with any stone, or with a man may die, seeing him not, and cast upon him that he may die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his harm. Now, that's the way I interpret this. Now, another way that you can interpret this would be to say, well, manslaughter is only if it's an accident. Mans And even if you just, you know, just on the spot, if you mean to kill them, even if you do it right on the spot, it's murder. You know, this is a little bit unclear to me as far as which of those things is, but I would say that second degree, or crime of passion, does not fall under death penalty, according to this scripture. Although, if someone sees it the other way, I can see where they're coming from. For sure, if it's an accident, they're not a murderer. Okay. And, if they lie in wait or premeditated, it's for sure murder. The second degree murder case, you could kind of read it either way. I read it as second degree murder would fall more under the manslaughter side of things. But, it says here, in verse number 24, Then, the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood, according to these judgments. So, based on what God has given as guidelines, there's going to be a judgment. Now, here's the thing about this. Obviously, what God has given are just examples. Hey, a guy's cutting wood and the ax handle flies off. Or, oh, hey, a guy drops a big heavy rock and he didn't know anybody was down there and it lands on somebody's head, or whatever. He's giving these as examples, but at the end of the day, there's going to be some human judgment that's going to be needed here to look at the situation and judge the situation, based on the examples the Bible gives. And, here's the thing. This is how we need to understand the Bible in every area of life. You know, the Bible's not going to bring up every single specific situation that you're going to face in your life, is it? I mean, think about all the time you deal with situations in your life that are not specifically described in Scripture. So, how do you make a decision in that situation? What do you do? Well, what you do is you look at what God has told us, you look at the laws that are there, you look at the rules that God has given, and then you base off that what would be right in any given situation. Because not everything's mentioned in the Bible. Let me give you some examples. You know, for example, the Bible doesn't say anything about smoking at all. There's no mention of smoking. There's no mention of smoking tobacco, and there's no mention of smoking pot. Now, we don't want to just make the mistake of saying, Well, you know, the Bible doesn't say, Thou shalt not snort cocaine, so I'm just going to do it. You know? I mean, sure, it said not to be drunken, but it didn't mention anything about shooting up heroin. You know, that would be a pretty stupid way to read the Bible, wouldn't it? Because what we need to do is understand that God is not telling us every little thing in the Bible that we could encounter in our lives, or else the Bible would just be like a gigantic set of encyclopedias. It would fill an entire building, and we wouldn't even be able to read it. We wouldn't even know what the rules are, because there would just be too much for us to process. God wants us to use our brains and our human reasoning. He wants us first, though, to take this information in the Bible, put it into the computer, put it into our brain, and then that's the lens whereby we look at every other situation we might run across. Okay? And you say, Why do you even teach stuff like this, Pastor Anderson? Why are you preaching on the Cities of Refuge, this archaic legal system from over 3,000 years ago, and you're going to tell us about the Manslayer and the Revenger of Blood and all this stuff? This stuff's not relevant, but yes, it is relevant, my friend, because understanding God's thoughts and God's ways will help us to make the right decision when we come across things that are relevant to our lives. Okay? That's why I don't really like this buzzword of relevant preaching. You know, you get a lot of advertisements from the liberal rock-and-roll style megachurches, and they talk about how the message is always going to be relevant. You know what, let me just tell you right now, I'm going to preach some stuff that's not relevant. Because here's the thing, who am I to decide, well, this is relevant and this isn't? I'm going to take everything in the Bible and try to make it relevant, try to make it as relevant as I can, but at the end of the day, sometimes I'm just going to get up and just teach things because they're in the Bible. And I don't need a reason to teach something that's in the Bible. I don't have to justify, why am I preaching on this? What's the point? Why do we need to know this? Hey, we need to know it because it's in the Bible. It's in the Word of God. Everything in the Bible should matter to us. And it all goes into our worldview. You know, we have a certain Christian worldview, biblical worldview. Where do we get that worldview? From the Bible. So all of these biblical teachings, they come into our minds, and then we judge situations in life that are never mentioned in the Bible. So when we come to an issue that's not mentioned where we deal with something like, let's say, issues of the Internet that didn't exist when the Bible's written, or issues of cars and trucks and airplanes, and we want to understand drugs like heroin or something that weren't around when the Bible was written, we look for principles in the Bible that can guide us in those decisions. And you know, when we think about smoking, we would talk about the fact that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. And if God doesn't want us to be a glutton, and if God doesn't want us to abuse the temple, if God doesn't want us printing marks on our body, if God wants us to keep this vessel clean and for our bodies to be clean, then obviously he doesn't want us just damaging our body through cigarette smoke, damaging our health, stinking up the joint, making our bodies dirty and smelly, and also harming our health. I mean, it's obvious, right? And then when it comes, you know, obviously, tobacco is not something that we would consider a mind-altering drug, okay? I understand that nicotine has some effect, but it's not really a mind-altering drug, any more so than a lot of the food we eat or something is going to change our frame of mind or how we feel at that moment, or a cup of coffee or whatever. But, marijuana is a mind-altering drug. And so, you know, when I look at mind-altering drugs like marijuana or heroin or whatever else, then I would look at that and I would look at the verses on alcohol and say, okay, if God wants me to be sober, if God doesn't want me to be drunk with wine, then why would he want me smoking pot and taking drugs that are taking me out of that sober frame of mind? And so, you know, when I judge things in the church because, you know, the Bible says that we can't have people that are called a brother who are drunkards in the congregation. You know, I'm going to also apply that to a drug addict because of the fact that these things fall under the same category. So we don't want to just take this super narrow view of scripture that says, well, if the Bible doesn't mention it, then we have no opinion on it. Now, there are some things that are truly outside the scope of the Bible that we don't need to have an opinion on, that are just personal preferences and they don't really matter. But when it comes to something like drugs or smoking or something, where we can find something in the Bible that is analogous to that and we can make the comparison, then we need to do so and not just say, well, the only guys who could go to the city of refuge is if your axe handle flew out or if you dropped a rock, that's it. No, there are millions, there are literally millions of scenarios where you could accidentally kill someone. And yet, you would not be put to death for that. Now, here's the thing. If you stop and think about this, any time you kill somebody, any time you kill somebody, unless you're acting in self-defense or something or you're executing a murder or something, but any time you kill somebody in the situations described here like dropping a big heavy rock on their head or your axe handle flies off, there's a little bit of negligence on your part, isn't there? Because you're the guy who didn't check his axe. You're the guy who didn't have his equipment dialed in correctly. You're the guy who's just dropping rocks off of high places without yelling look out below or seeing if anybody's down there. I mean, obviously there's an element of negligence involved here. If you do something that accidentally kills someone else, let's say you're driving your car and you're driving along and you accidentally run over a pedestrian. Well, maybe you could have been paying attention a little bit better or maybe you could have been not going so fast or whatever. Let's say you run down a bicyclist and kill a bicyclist, right? You could look at that and say, okay, you did wrong here. Or let's take it a step further, what if you're driving drunk and you're out there driving drunk and you kill innocent people? That happens all the time, my friend, and that's another reason why you shouldn't be drinking. And by the way, everybody who I've ever known who drinks ends up getting behind the wheel drunk. That's just pretty much something that happens a lot. And so you constantly have drunk driving accidents and you have people often killed by drunk drivers. Now here's the thing, it's easy for us to get angry about that and it ought to make us angry. I mean, it's a heinous crime and innocent people are dying. Being angry about that is natural and normal, but we could go too far in our anger and say, if you're a drunk driver and you kill somebody, I think you should be put to death. But is that what the Bible says though? Does the Bible say that you should be put to death for killing somebody as a drunk driver? No, because in the Bible it's intentional. Murder is intentional. If you did not mean to kill someone, if you did not set out to kill someone, it's not murder. Now if you got in the car and you see some pedestrians and you just point your car and just, you know, that's murder, right? You know, if you just say, I'm going to get in my car and I'm going to go out and kill people, you know, that's murder. Whereas even if you're being an idiot, even if you're doing something stupid, even if you are drunk, is it a sin? Of course. Is it wicked? Yes. Is it a crime? Yes, it is a crime. It's manslaughter. But is it murder whereby you should be executed? No. So should a drunk driver who kills somebody be executed according to scripture? The answer is no. As much as I'm against drinking, as much as I hate drunk driving, as much as it would break my heart to see innocent people killed by some idiot who's out drinking and driving and everything like that, you know, at the end of the day, we must get our worldview from the Bible and base our opinions on the Bible, not just what's conservative or liberal or what we like or what we think. Because, you know, it's really easy for us to be really hard on sins that we don't have anything to do with and then go easy on the stuff that we're kind of guilty of. Isn't that human nature? See, for me, I've never drunk alcohol in my life. I don't even know what beer tastes like. I don't know what it feels like to be drunk. I've never experienced that. So it's pretty easy for me to just say, yeah, nuts to these drunk drivers. Kill them. But at the end of the day, that's not just. That isn't right. That isn't fair. Now, some of you that have a drinking and driving background are like, no, I agree with Pastor Anderson, you know. Yeah. You know, because you've done it. Now, hopefully you didn't kill anybody, but I'm just saying like, you know, you've done the drinking, you've done the driving. So my point is that all of us, we have our own different perspectives and our own prejudices based on the stuff that we're guilty of and not guilty of. We want to go easy on the stuff that we don't, on the stuff that we do, and we want to be just coming down like a ton of bricks on the stuff that we've never been tempted by or never gotten into. But at the end of the day, we need to put aside our bias, we need to put aside our ideas and our thoughts and say, you know what? The law of the Lord is perfect. God's word is the boss. And so what's my opinion on drunk drivers? Should they be put to death? No. Why? Because the Bible says that for a murderer to be put to death, it must be intentional. And remember, the only thing that was a little iffy in this passage was the idea of second degree murder. And I told you my opinion on that. I put that on the manslaughter side. Some people would put that on the, the, the capital murder side. You know, somebody who just in a moment decides to, you know, just stab somebody or something, just in a fit of rage or crime of passion. But again, even if you put that in the murder side, you'd still be agreeing that every murder in the Bible is intentional. It's done with the intent to kill. There's a desire to kill there. That's required for it to be murder according to the Bible. So it says in verse number 25, and the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood. Why? Because the slayer is not the murderer. Two different guys. You got the slayer and you got the murderer. Just because you've killed somebody doesn't make you a murderer. These are two different people. So the slayer is delivered out of the hand of the revenger of blood and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge, whether he was fled and he shall abide in it until the death of the high priest, which was anointed with the holy oil. And so what we see here is that let's say you accidentally killed somebody. You're not just off scot free though, are you? Whether you're chopping wood and the handle flies off the ax, whether you are, you know, moving stones and you drop a stone on somebody's head and they didn't have a hard hat on or whatever, whether you are driving drunk and run into somebody, you know, all the different millions of scenarios we could come up with. If you kill somebody, you're not off scot free. Okay. Unless it's self-defense or executing someone. Because the Bible is clear that in a situation of self-defense, like for example, if someone breaks into your house at night and you kill them, you don't have to go to the city of refuge for that because the Bible says that if somebody is breaking in the middle of the night and they get killed, there shall no blood be shed for them. There shall no blood be shed for them. Whereas if you accidentally kill someone, there has to be bloodshed. But here's what's amazing about this is that it ends up being the blood of the high priest. Okay. Notice what the Bible says here, because this is really an interesting point that ties in with the Lord Jesus Christ. Because everything in the Bible is pointing us to Christ. Even a passage like this about murder and manslaughter and, you know, seeming to be these finer points of the law, it's all ultimately pointing us to Christ. Notice how you stay in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Now, why is that? Because when the high priest dies, his death makes an atonement for all of these kind of loose ends of innocent blood that weren't taken care of. Everybody understand what I'm saying? So like a murderer, he murders somebody. He gets put to death. Now the land is cleansed. The nation is guiltless, right? Because a guy committed murder. The murderer was put to death. Blood for blood. Life for life. It's square. It's even. It's clear, right? In these other situations, however, you have an innocent person dying, okay? And when an innocent person dies, there has to be an atonement that's made for that. There has to be a vengeance taken for that. Now here's the thing. The guy breaking in in the middle of the night into your house, is he an innocent person? No. No. The guy who breaks into your house in the middle of the night and you kill him, he's not an innocent person, so there doesn't need to be any atonement made. There doesn't need to be anything to cleanse the land from guilt. Because remember, the land needs to be cleansed from the guilt of what? Innocent blood. Innocent blood. The land must be cleansed from the guilt of innocent blood. That guy who's attacking you or breaking into your house in the light, that's not an innocent person. If somebody's trying to kill you and you defend yourself, that's not innocent blood that you're shedding. Or if someone's executed for an actual crime worthy of death, so you know, the revenger of blood goes and kills the murderer, did he shed innocent blood? No. No, he's actually balancing the scale with that. Okay. If other people are put to death, according to the Bible, homosexuals, adulterers, whatever, that's not innocent blood, they're getting a punishment by the law, they're being executed for their crimes, that's not innocent blood. Does everybody see the difference? Whereas, if my axe head flies off and hits somebody in the head, that's innocent blood. That guy didn't do nothing. He's just minding his own business, bonk, and he's dead. You know, that's innocent blood. But the guy who did it, it's not really his fault. He's not really worthy of death. So therefore, God allows for an atonement to be made by the high priest. Okay. So when the high priest dies, basically of natural causes, just when he dies, then his death atones for all of these loose ends during his time as the high priest. Whatever happens on his watch, okay, his death covers those people's sins. So basically, let's say I accidentally kill somebody, and I go to the city of refuge, and I'm there, and then let's say 20 years later the high priest dies. Well, now I can leave. Because now everything is clear, everything's erased, everything's good to go. Or, let's say I go to the city of refuge, and the guy dies a week later. Score, right? I mean, that was easy. That was the shortest sentence, you know. Seven days in the city of refuge, and boom, I'm back to my homeland, I'm back to my hometown, et cetera. Now, let me just make it clear also that the city of refuge is not jail. It is not a prison. Okay. It's a place where normal people are living their lives. So if you go to the city of refuge, you're going to have a job, you're going to have a life, you're going to have a family. I mean, it's a normal town, because the Levites lived there all the time, and they didn't do anything. But they still live in, it's just their city. And you can even exit the city of refuge. You can even leave the city of refuge and go take a walk or whatever at your own peril. Because if the revenger of blood catches you outside of it, he kills you. So, basically, the city of refuge is there to protect you from being killed by the revenger of blood. If you leave, you're leaving at your own risk. So, it's not prison, it's not jail, but you live there. If you're smart, you'll spend most of your time there, if not all of your time there, until the death of the high priest. So, Jesus Christ is pictured by the high priest. And so, Jesus Christ, the Bible says, we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the son of God. And it says, we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was at all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. And so, the Bible's clear in the book of Hebrews that Jesus Christ is our high priest. And so, if you think about it, it's the death of Jesus Christ that covers all of our stupidity, all of our sins, all of our iniquities, all the things that we've done wrong. So, this picture here is a picture of substitutionary atonement, where instead of the guilty party dying for the sin, someone else dies for the sin. The high priest is dying for those sins. And obviously, no picture is going to be exact, but this is a shadow or a figure of what Jesus Christ is going to do when he dies on the cross for all of our sins and makes an atonement for us as our high priest. And so, that's the picture that's here. Let's quickly hurry up and get through this. But as we go down through here, it says, uh, but if the slayer shall at any time come without the border of the city of his refuge, verse 26, whither he was fled, and the revenger of blood find him, without the borders of the city of his refuge, and the revenger of blood kill the slayer, he shall not be guilty of blood. Meaning, the revenger of blood gets away with it because he said, well, it's not my, he was outside of the city, so it's open season, so I killed the guy. And then it's like, okay, it is what it is at that point. And then it's taken care of. The innocent blood's taken care of by that bozo who left the city of refuge. If he would've waited, it'd be taken care of by the high priest, right? So basically, more symbolism here is the idea is that, you know, you can either die for your own sin, or your own mistake, or the high priest can take care of it for you. And this is how it is with salvation, where the death of the high priest either covers your sin, or you cover it on your own. So you've got to get in that city of refuge so that it's covered by the high priest, okay? And basically, we could use an analogy of saying, you know, you gotta get saved. You gotta believe on Christ, and then now Jesus' death covers you. But let me just debunk the stupidity of Calvinism for a moment and their limited atonement. Now they use a lot of logic and reasoning to deny clear scripture that says that Jesus died for everybody. I mean, there's a lot of clear scripture, and of all of the points of Calvinism, this is their weakest point. This is their Achilles heel, where it's just so easy to destroy this false doctrine. Because they teach Jesus didn't die for everybody, but what does the Bible say? That he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. He died not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And so we have all these verses. We go on and on, verses and verses showing that Jesus died for everybody. And we could show verses where even unsaved false prophets, it says they denied the Lord who bought them. So Jesus' blood was still shed, the payment was still made, but they used human logic to say, well, I mean, you know, if you paid for your sins, and Jesus paid for your sins, that's two people paying for the same sins, it's like a double jeopardy, so therefore Jesus didn't die for you, you know, he only died, you know, so they come up with this logic. Instead of just believing what the Bible says, you know, here's what we know, Jesus died for everybody, but it doesn't do us any good unless we believe on him. If we don't believe on him, it doesn't help us, right? Because if someone doesn't believe on Christ, they go to hell anyway, even if Jesus paid for their sins. But they're like, well, how could they go to hell if Jesus paid for their sins? Just shut up and believe it, it's what the Bible says. They denied the Lord who bought them, and their damnation slumbereth not, period. You know, when we start using all this human logic and human reasoning to start going against clear scripture, you know, maybe your logic's wrong. Maybe your reasoning's wrong. And in fact, let's think about this story right here. I mean, in this story, the high priest dies one time. He doesn't die a thousand deaths for a thousand workplace accidents, a thousand OSHA violations, a thousand deaths. No, the high priest dies one time. The high priest dies one time, and you know what? That death that that high priest dies is for everybody in the whole nation who needs it. Does everybody understand? I mean, he dies and it covers everybody. Now, here's the thing though. If a person chooses to not go to the city of refuge, well then, they don't benefit from the high priest's death and they end up paying for it themselves. Whereas if they would have gone to the city of refuge, then the high priest's death would have taken care of it. But here's the thing. The high priest's death is still for everybody, and everybody has the opportunity to go to the city of refuge. Can God say, oh, no, no, if you're a stranger, you can't go there. You got to be a citizen. Oh, no, no, you got to be of the tribe of Judah. Oh, you got to be a Levite. Oh, you got to be an Israelite. You got to be circumcised. Is that what he said? Anybody has it available. You don't have to be the elect to go there. You understand what I'm saying? Like, you don't have to be some certain group to have access to it. No, it's available to everyone. And by the way, anybody can be elect who wants to be elect. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you choose to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you're the elect now, okay? Because God knew that in his foreknowledge. God had foreknowledge that you would do that, and so you're elect, okay? But this idea that, oh, yeah, you know, two people can't both die for the same... It's just a bunch of man-made logic, not supported by scripture. The truth of the matter is the high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, died for everybody. He tasted death for every man, okay? He died not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world, and he makes salvation available to all, but there's one thing that we have to do to be saved. What must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in the house, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. So there's something we have to do to be saved. We have to believe on Christ, and if we believe on Jesus Christ, then that death of our high priest Jesus Christ, it actually is effective to save us. Whereas here's the thing, you know, if you didn't go to the city of refuge, the high priest... what if you didn't go to the city of refuge and the high priest dies two weeks later? People are like, you idiot. You could have gone and hung out at the city of refuge for two weeks and you'd be alive right now, but you idiot are like, I don't want to go there. And then what you do, you got smitten by the revenger of blood and died for your own sins. And here's the thing, the refuge is available, the refuge of salvation, the shelter of salvation, the high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, not only... we don't even have to wait for him to die because he already died, okay? All of it's available, it's all right there, okay? And you can either die for your own sins or let the high priest's death cover you. Just like in the Old Testament, it's a great picture of salvation in that sense. And what's missing is this Calvinist idea where the high priest is only dying for certain people. Reality is death covers everybody, not even just the nation of Israel, but even strangers, even foreigners, it really covers everybody. All they have to do is just get to that city of refuge, all we have to do is believe in Jesus. It's that simple. So then he goes on and just to quickly point out a couple last things, he goes on to say that people should not be put to death based on the testimony of one person, but that you need to have two or three witnesses. That's also in chapter 19 of Deuteronomy. And then I just want to point out this last part in verse 31 and 32. It says, Moreover, ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. There are some people who have misunderstood this verse. They thought that this was like satisfaction, like, ah, yes, I'm so glad that this murderer died or something. That's not what satisfaction means. What satisfaction means is that you would basically take money instead of the murderer being put to death to satisfy the requirements of the law with something other than the death penalty. So for example, let's say you have a murderer and it's clear, it's first degree murder, he's guilty. You can't take any satisfaction for the life of a murderer, meaning, okay, well here, let me satisfy the requirements of the law by giving a million dollars. And the government's like, well, shoot, a million dollars. I mean, you know, yeah, we could give you a pardon. The Bible's saying that's wicked. It doesn't matter any amount of money. No amount of money can undo the blood guiltiness that has been brought upon the land. The only thing that can solve innocent blood is for the person who shed that blood for their blood to be shed or for the high priest to die for them. That's it. There's no other way. There's no paying your way in. And look, here's another great tie in with salvation. You can't buy salvation. You can't say, oh, well, you know, I know I've committed all these sins, but here, let me donate a hundred grand to the church. That's not going to work. That's not going to help because the only thing that can cleanse your sins is the blood of Jesus. Or you can pay for it yourself in hell. You can either go to hell and pay for it yourself or Jesus pays it for you, but you can't buy your way in. So that's why he says don't take any satisfaction for the life of a murderer. And the other important thing to note here is that the murder is not just a crime against humans, but it's a sin against God. Because if it were just a crime against humans, then I could say like, oh, you know, sorry, I accidentally, you know, shot the cameraman or whatever, here, let me just give your family a bunch of money, right? Let me just give your family all this money. And then the family's like, well, we really miss her, but you know, it is 5 million dollars. That's not the way justice works in the Bible because it's not just that family that you offended when you kill their family member. You know who else you've sinned against? God. When you commit adultery, yeah, you also wronged that man, but you also sinned against God. When you commit murder, you also sinned against God. And so that's why there's no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death, but rather he shall surely be put to death. Verse 32, you shall take no satisfaction for him that has fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land until the death of the priest. So not only the brazen murderer of first degree murder, you can't take money to compensate for that. But not only that, you can't take money to compensate for the guy who accidentally killed someone either because the one who accidentally killed someone, there still has to be an atonement made. It has to be life for life. It has to be blood for blood. Right with the refuge guy, it's the death of the high priest. But either way, it's life for life. Either way, the balances of justice are balanced. The scales of justice are balanced. Verse 33, so you shall not pollute the land wherein you are, for blood it defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. You see that? It's clear. Defile not therefore the land which he shall inhabit wherein I dwell, for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel. And you know, it's really sobering when you stop and think about the fact that, you know, when America allows innocent blood to be shed and it's not taken care of, that this is just like building up wrath of God. God's wrath is like building up in a bank account. Like every innocent person who's murdered or every innocent baby that's murdered or or every brazen murderer who's just given life in prison or something and he's not put to death, okay, these things just build up. They just stack up against America and eventually the punishment comes. So you may wonder when you're reading the book of Revelation, you know, what's with all the wrath? Why is God so mad? What's going on? What's he doing just destroying whole countries and cities and just why? Because he's paying back the land. He's making an atonement by killing people in the book of Revelation. He's killing people to make up for the innocent lives that have died. So if you think about like how many people or let's just take abortion alone, you know, how many lives have been destroyed through abortion? Like how many murders have been committed in the abortion claim? Does anybody know the figure roughly? Like 60 million? Okay so let's say it's 60 million in the United States, right? But then obviously there are people doing abortions in other parts of the world and doing other murderous practices and infanticide. You know what God's going to do? He's literally going to kill 60 million people is what he's literally going to do. Because I mean if you read the book of Revelation in the end times, those are the kind of numbers we're going to be dealing with when it comes to how many people die, okay? And that's just in America, you know, let alone all the other innocent blood. God doesn't just forget about it. He doesn't just go, you know what, you know, let's just push a reset button. That was the 70s. That was the 80s. For God a day is like a thousand years so it just happened yesterday anyway. God doesn't forget about it. It all gets treasured up. The Bible talks about treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and eventually he will literally kill someone for every one of those deaths, like he will murder that many people. You know, obviously it's not murder but he will slaughter, I should say, he'll slaughter that many people to make up for those murders that were done, okay? And so we need to understand the seriousness of these things that whatever we do, there is a consequence for it. Now when it comes to personal salvation, again, if we believe on Jesus Christ, we're off the hook because then Jesus' death covers it. Let's say you're here this morning and let's say you had an abortion at some point in your life. Let's say in the past you have had an abortion yourself, right? That's murder, okay? But here's the thing. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, that innocent life that you killed is actually taken care of by the death of Christ on the cross 2,000 years ago. So when Jesus Christ died on the cross 2,000 years ago, he actually made an atonement for the abortion that you had. Or whatever other murderers are in the room this morning that killed people in other situations. You know, workplace negligence or whatever, okay. Whatever people you killed, Jesus' death covers that. You don't have to worry about it because it's covered. It's done. Jesus died for you and he died for your sins and the people that you killed, Jesus took care of that. His death balances those. So God's not up in heaven, you know, treasuring up that wrath. So you know, whatever number of abortions were done, you know, you'd really only take the number of the abortions that were done by unsaved people because of the fact that those who are saved wouldn't count toward that number. But who's God punishing in the book of Revelation when he pours out his wrath? Is he pouring out his wrath on saved people? No, because guess what? Saved people go up in the rapture before the wrath of God is poured out. So he's pouring it out upon an unsaved world, an unsaved nation, and punishing them and holding them accountable for the blood that they've shed. Now obviously if you're saved and commit a grievous sin like murder, then even though you're not going to die for that sin necessarily, and you're for sure not going to go to hell because you're saved, you're going to heaven, God does chastise and chasten and punish us for our sins on this earth. But that's not the same as actually being killed. Because stop and think about it. The guy who went to the city of refuge, isn't that a punishment? He doesn't get to live where he normally lives. He doesn't get to see his people. He's got to relocate. He probably has to take some lame job in the city of refuge because they kind of know he's over a barrel and he needs employment. So there's still punishment. So yeah, we still have punishment for our sins, but we miss out on the big punishment of going to hell. Sort of like the slayer, he still gets a punishment, he's got to go live in the city of refuge, but he misses out on the big punishment of what? Just getting smoked by the revenger of blood wherever he finds him in whatever way he sees fit. And so it's a beautiful chapter. I hope that this morning you, number one, understood the principles of God's law that innocent blood brings guilt upon the land, that atonement is made by the death of the murderer, and that the death of the high priest can substitute for the murderer. Just like Jesus Christ's death substitutes for our death. The wages of sin is death, but Jesus already died. And so it's covered. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this teaching and your word on the cities of refuge, Lord. I pray that everyone who's here, Lord, would be edified by these teachings, and Lord, help us to always allow your law to be the lens through which we view events of this world or decisions or maybe political or criminal issues, or help us always to use your word as the lens, Lord. And also, Lord, if there's anyone here today who does not know for sure that they're on their way to heaven, I pray that they would get saved before it's eternally too late and that they would trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, their Savior, and it's in His name we pray. Amen. Amen. Let's take our hymnals and turn to hymn number 146, A Shelter in the Time of Storm, hymn number 146. Number 146, The Lord is our Rock, and Him we Hide, A Shelter in the Time of Storm, let's sing it out. All seven, yes. The Lord is our Rock, and Him we Hide, A Shelter in the Time of Storm. Sleep pure, whatever, there'll be time, A Shelter in the Time of Storm. Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, A weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, A Shelter in the Time of Storm. A shade by day, defense by night, A Shelter in the Time of Storm. No fears of long, no clothes of fright, A Shelter in the Time of Storm. Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, A weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, A Shelter in the Time of Storm. The raging storms, they round us deep, A Shelter in the Time of Storm. We'll never leave our safe retreat, A Shelter in the Time of Storm. Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, A weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, A Shelter in the Time of Storm. Oh, rock divine, oh refuge dear, A Shelter in the Time of Storm. We thou art held forever near, A Shelter in the Time of Storm. Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, A weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, A Shelter in the Time of Storm. Take our picture, so if we could just have you right away, let's just, let's get this over with as painlessly as possible. So just head out these doors this way, and let's get out there and do it.