The Refuge of a Wall | Ep26

Transcript

We have been in a series of lessons based on the cities of refuge.

The phrase that the Hebrew writer uses is that we flee to Christ our refuge. The background of that are the events about the six cities of refuge that are spoken of in the Old Testament. And they’re great lessons in making comparisons between the manslaughter, the one who innocently killed someone, having to flee to one of those cities for protection, and the protection that we have when we flee to Christ.

The other thing that is great about the cities of refuge is there’s also great lessons in looking at the meaning of each of those cities. There are six different cities, and each of those cities had a meaning, a name with a background of it. And that gives us some insight into the great refuge that we find in Christ.

We’ve looked at several of them. Today, we’re going to look at the one called Beezer. The word Beezer in the Hebrew means a wall, a wall.

Well, in this country, in the last few years, we’ve heard a lot about a wall. You know, it was that being built, Trump was going to build to protect us from the illegal aliens coming in. Walls through the years have been built everywhere for protection.

A wall can be good or a wall can be bad, you know. A wall can protect you from something bad, or it could be that you’re on the inside of a wall and being held captive. Well, Jesus Christ offers a wall of protection for us.

And I want us to look at that idea as we think about the protection that Jesus Christ offers as a wall of refuge for us. First off, it is a protective wall because we’re in divine hands. Jesus spoke about this in John 10, and he’s talking about those who belong to him.

And notice what he says in verses 27 through 30. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hands.

My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hands. I and the Father are one. When we get into Christ, we are in divine protection.

We are in a situation where God will protect us. He says there, nobody can snatch them out of God’s hand. If you are in Christ, you are in the hands of God.

Now, we’re going to talk about it more later. You can get out of those hands, but nobody can overpower and snatch you from that. Satan cannot force you out of those hands.

Nobody can drag you out of those. If you leave, it is only because of your own choice of leaving the protective hands of God. And so the first wall of protection we have is that the saved people are in the hands of God, and he will protect us.

It is also a protection, he offers protection from temptation. In 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13, he said that no temptation has taken you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted above that where you’re able, but will with the temptation provide a way of escape.

Notice that wall. There is a wall that will protect us and can protect us from temptation. Sometimes when we are tempted, we believe I’m the only one that has this temptation.

He said no, there is no temptation taking you, but such is common to man. Other people have similar temptations. Many other people have the same temptation.

But notice what he says, no temptation has taken you, but such is common to man. But God is able to keep you from being overcome. No temptation can overcome you.

God will give us that way of escape. Now the problem is, we don’t always look for that way of escape. When the temptation of sin comes, sometimes our focus is off of God and on the temptation.

But if we will put our thoughts and our minds back on God, there will be a way to escape that temptation. And so he says no temptation has taken you, but such is common. God will provide a way that you can be able to bear it.

Also, we stop and think about the protection, that wall of protection, is that God will literally protect us from Satan. Satan does not have all power. Satan cannot force us to do anything.

Satan cannot take control of our mind. Now we can let him have control of our mind. We can submit to whatever he wishes, but Satan does not have the power to overcome us.

James exhorts us in James 4 verse 17. Resist the devil, Satan, and he’ll flee from you. Satan is limited.

He does not have the attributes that God has. God can be everywhere at the same time. Satan can only be in one place at one time.

And so when Satan’s here, he’s not on the other side of the earth. When he’s on the other side of the earth, he’s not here. So Satan cannot be everywhere at the same time.

And so Satan can be resisted. God does not allow Satan to have more power than we have. We can resist the devil, and he will flee from us.

Another wall of protection that God has given to us as Christians is that we have divine intervention and mediation. We have divine intercession and divine mediation. The idea is this.

We have a mediator between us and God that can take our sins and present them to God for purification. We can be made clean and pure. God knows our situation because Jesus Christ is a mediator.

Paul says in 1 Timothy 2 verse 5, there’s one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is the perfect mediator between us and God because a mediator should be equally related to both parties to bring about reconciliation. Well, Jesus is that perfect mediator.

He is 100% God, so he understands God’s view. At the same time, he is 100% man. Therefore, he understands man’s view.

And therefore, he can be that perfect mediator to bring us back together with God when we depart from him. But not only that, but we also have a divine intercessor. An intercessor is someone who stands beside someone to plead their case with them to somebody else.

A mediator stands between two parties. An intercessor stands beside one party pleading his case. When we pray for each other, we are interceding for each other.

As we are God’s children who are in the church, we have intercessors. All of our brothers and sisters can pray for us and with us. They can’t mediate for us, but they can intercede for us.

And we confess our faults, as James 5, 16 says, they will intercede for us. We have a divine intercessor in that the Hebrew writer said in Hebrews 7 and verse 25, that Jesus Christ ever lives to intercede for us. He is our intercessor as well as our mediator.

John expansive on this in 1 John 2, 1 and 2, and he said, I write these things that you sin not. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus Christ is our advocate, it says. He is our advocate or he is advocating for us. In that sense, it’s the same thing as him being that intercessor for us.

He can plead our case before the Father. And so we have divine protection, that divine wall when we get into Jesus Christ, he puts a wall around us to help us to live that faithful Christian life. As we mentioned, that wall is that we’re in divine hands, God’s hands.

We have the divine protection from temptation. He will not allow us to be tempted above that we’re able. We have this all protection from Satan because Satan cannot overpower us.

And we have the protective wall of a divine intercessor and mediator that can plead our case before God. The greatest, maybe, divine wall we have is the blood of Christ. Of course, we are redeemed by the blood of Christ, Ephesians 1 and verse 7. When we are baptized into Jesus Christ, we reach the blood of Christ and therefore are cleansed of our sins and set apart for God’s service.

But the blood of Christ does not end when we’re just initially baptized into Christ. The blood of Christ is there always to forgive us of our sins. In 1 John 1 verse 7, he says, if we walk in the light, it’s He’s in the light.

We have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sins. You see, he says that as we walk in the light, we’re striving to live according to God’s will. The light of God’s Word, the Psalmist said, thy word is a lamp in my feet and the light of my pathway.

Psalm 119.105 And if we’re striving to live according to God’s will, he said that blood of Christ continually flows to keep us clean. As we repent of our sins, that blood forgives us. How wonderful a wall that is to keep us faithful, to keep us clean, that we can enjoy the benefits of being in Christ.

And then we also have that wall of a loving Father that when we do sin, he won’t suspect. We see that beautiful picture in Luke the 15th chapter with the prodigal son. The young son came to his father and said, Father, I want my inheritance now.

And he took it and went off into a far country and he spit it and spent that inheritance in sinful living. And he was such as a Jewish boy that had fallen so far that he’s there feeding the pigs, which they considered unclean. He was so hungry, he said, he would have been glad to eat what the pigs eat, but nobody gave them to him.

But the great news was, it says, he came to himself and he said, this is what I’ll do. I’ll rise and go to my father and I’ll say, Father, I’ve sinned and I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your servants.

And when he went back home, the loving Father ran to meet him. Hugged him, gave him a kiss, put a robe on his body and shoes on his feet, gave a big party for him. That’s a picture of our God that when we sin, when we live a life of sin and depart from this faithfulness, God wants us to come back.

It appears in that parable that that loving Father was looking down the road, maybe every day, looking for his son to come home to bestow upon him forgiveness. And so we have that great wall of a loving Father who wants us back. It doesn’t matter what we’ve done, if we’re willing to repent, he’ll take us back.

And that’s what 1 John 1 verse 8 says. If we repent of our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and it cleanses us from all unrighteousness. So we can be thankful that that city of refuge is a wall of protection around us that can protect us when we get into Jesus Christ.

But I want to remind us that we can lose that protection. You know, we can quit listening. Jesus said in John 10, that was, my sheep hear my voice.

What if we quit listening to the voice of God? What if we can’t quit listening to the commands that he’s given? What if we refuse the discipline that God has sent into our life to make us better? You see, Hebrews 12, 4 through 14 says that God will discipline those whom he loves, and he disciplines us for our good so that we can be made holy. What if we resist that discipline? What if we refuse to be made better by it? We also find in Revelation 3, 14 and 15, as Jesus described the church in Laodicea, that they had grown lukewarm. And he said, because you’re not hot and not cold, but lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth.

You see, we can lose that protective wall by being lukewarm in our Christianity. And we can go back into sin and lose it. Peter describes the sad situation of faithful Christians who’ve gone back and lost their salvation.

He said in 2 Peter 2, if after they have escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state is worse for them than the beginning. Where it’s better if they had not known the way of righteousness than after having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. What has happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog has returned to his vomit again, and the scythe was washed to waddling in her mire.

You see, he said, it’s possible to go back into sin. So we’re not talking about this protective wall being once saved, always saved. That’s not taught in God’s Word.

God says he has that wall about us, but we can get out if we’re unfaithful to him. We can go back and live a life of sin. We see, sadly, that happened to Judas.

He was one of the twelve, but he betrayed Christ, and then he went out and hung himself. In 2 Timothy 4.10, Paul speaks of Demas, who had been a faithful worker, that he said, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. We see it in 1 Timothy 1, 18 through 20, where Alexander and Hymenaeus had made shipwreck of their faith.

And so Jesus offers a great wall of protection to keep us faithful. If we will be baptized into Jesus Christ and be sanctified, set apart for his service, he will have this wall about us. But we can reject that wall.

We can leave that protection, and we can go back into the way of sin. It’s not once saved, always saved. But when we’re in that sinful condition, we can come back to a loving Father who takes us back and restores us to faithfulness again.

What a great blessing! That city of refuge of Jesus Christ that is a wall of protection for us. We urge you to get into Jesus Christ, remain faithful, enjoying all the protection that wall offers. Thanks for joining us this week and spending time in God’s Word.

Special thanks to Mac Graham, John Kachelman, and LightWay Media for recording, producing, and making this podcast possible. If you’re ever in the Littleton, New Hampshire area, we’d love to have you join us for worship and Bible study on Sunday afternoons at 4 at the Senior Center. You’re always welcome.

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