The City of Refuge - Edwin Eby

Thank you girl for the story. There's a lot of points, and there

was the one reason that Jesus told stories cause people get the point. Some

of them did, some of them heard the story and didn't get the point.

So I'm good to be here with you again in the presence of God.

And God would do something in our hearts again for us. Okay,

yeah, I might say one thing to you, brother dural is uppear in

the front someone that's traveling and they're out there somewhere. I was disappointed that

they couldn't hear me last night when I leave the pulp, and I'm sorry

for that. So if I get away from her, just do this share

to me. Accustomed to a mic or my suitcatered home and we use it

all the time, so I don't always. I'm sorry for that. If

you're out there listening hereover you are so okay. It's time for children's Church.

There's not enough darkness in the whole wide world. Brothers, take courage.

It's going to be okay for the faithful and so so tonight last night

we spoke to the God spoke to us, to the fearful and the restless,

and the sick and the dead. And the and the wild tonight,

guys can speak to us. Consolation tonight is for the faithful. It's up.

So if there's some restlessness, and see God takes sides. You know

what sides are. God takes sides. He's he's ready, he cat and

the mouse. He has made all the provision for the unbelievers, but even

their plowing is sin. But for the righteous and for the faithful, there's

a consolation. And you can open your bibles here. We're gonna sing our

song here soon, but you can open your bibles a while to Hebrew's chapter

six, because that's going to be our text, Hebrews six first seventeen to

twenty. And we're gonna do a little Bible study out of Hebrews Chapter six,

seventeen to twenty, and then you can help your hymnal's there. The

Life Songs to seventy seven will sing the third verse of our theme song here

before we get good further on number seventy seven Life Songs and Pity Angels Behaved

came from the world a line to Covy in the souna see more for my

soul that night, Oh marvelous soul, wonderful and my soul shall over be,

Oh marvelous, so wonderful is my save yours love for me. And

so it is here in our text, chapter chapter six. And I don't

know what you want to title this tonight. We could have different titles.

So we could call this a city of refuge, or we could call this

of the Jesus City, or we could call this consolation in Jesus Christ,

or other words that we could use. But in a dark, broken world,

there's not enough of darkness to put out a one small candle. And

that was extremely encouraging to me, because, like we mentioned last night,

sometimes preachers have to cry for what's going on, and then we look out

into the world and without hope, people are miserable, and that's what's happening

in all around us. And Peter told us that knowing these things beforehand,

knowing these things beforehand before the judgment, that we have a hope, that

we have a way. And as humans, you see, like Peter and

the waves were going on, but he missed that he had Jesus, and

we're so much like that, and so we are. We are sometimes overwhelmed

with the darkness and the world in which you live, says that it's going

to get better and better, folks, The Bible says it's going to get

worse and worse, and darker and darker. And nicole is faithfulness, faithfulness,

And we have a Jesus, and that is our subject tonight, because

Jesus is our consolation. It reads here where in verse sixteen, for men

rarely swear by the Great, and an oath for confirmation is to them an

end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show under the

heires of promise, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath

that by two immutable things, that is God's unchanging wisdom and his unchanging absolute

truth, in which it was impossible for God to lie. We might we

can, or we might we can we had the opportunity is provided to have

a strong refuge or consolation. Consolation not a word we use very much,

but I think we look in other versions. What we would find there is

the word that we have a strong refuge, a place of safety, because

that we can trust in God, who is unchanging, and he'll never let

us down, and he'll never pull a fast on us. When we get

to the judgment. We can know exactly how it will be. He's not

going to pull a fast food on us or a scam in any kind of

thing. We have what we need, and we have in this word,

which is God's Word through us and through the Holy Spirit, and God's Spirit

in us, we can have a strong refuge, a place of safety.

David said things like this. The Lord is my rock, my strength,

and my buckler and my horn of salvation in my hot tower. And it's

a place you can go when there's danger, shelter of one who is an

advocate. I am told that that a good lawyer goes on to become a

judge. And in life, Jesus is our lawyer, our advocate. In

death he will be our judge. And it reads in First John words like

this, my little children, these things right on you, that you sin

not, And if any man sin, we have an advocate. We have

a lawyer. That's what that word means. We have a defense lawyer with

the Father Jesus Christ, the Righteous, and he is a propitiation for our

sins, not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the

whole world. It's all provided We've been going in around these things. And

here lies two very different doctrines. And there is a group doctrine that says

that we have an advocate so that we can sin. Now, they wouldn't

say it that way, but the thing is, you can sin each day,

and you can, and you can get saved, you can get forgiven

for that. But we rather believe in the Bible teachers that we have a

lawyer, an advocate, so that we sin not. And those are two

very different doctrines. None of us are sinning us, but we have an

advocate, not so that we can sin and get saved or or forgive,

but we have an advocate so that we sin not. As a story told

about Abraham Lincoln before he was when he was a young man over in Illinois,

he was a lawyer. He was a lawyer, and as the story

goes, there was a young a widow lady who had a son, a

bad son, and he was accused for killing a man, and it looked

like everything was going to be against him, and it looked like he was

going to be prosecuted for his sin. And the lady came with her husband

or with her son, and pled and begged Abraham Lincoln as a young lawyer

to take her case. And he thought a little while, and he said,

I'll take it well. At the at the trial, the prosecutor was

telling and giving his evidence that the young man was wrong, and mister Lincoln

said, how do you know? He said, I saw it. It

was in night, the sun the moon was shining bright, and I saw

it with my own eyes. I saw him do it. And mister Lincoln,

with his long coattail and he's tall, black hat, he pulled an

almanac out of his pocket and he said, you're a liar, because that

night it was new moon, not full moon. And the young man was

freed. I'm telling a parable here. I'm telling a parable here. And

the young lady and the man come running up to Abraham Lincoln and grabbed his

feet and said, I I'll try to pay you. I'll try to pay

you. Abraham to Lincoln said it, say, okay, it's already paid

for. Sorry paid for. And you say, my brother Edwin, now

you just toddy true of security. Well, let me ask you a question.

With the young man go out the next night with a powder keg under

his saddle with the lady in John chapter eight, who was forgiven of her

sin, which she go out the next night with another man a thousand times.

Now, well we're getting h that's yeah, we're getting into doctor now.

But Jesus as our advocate, so that we sind not. And so

here we are in Hebrews chapter six, and we're gonna do a little Bible

study here, and maybe we can learn some things here in Hebrews chapter six.

No doubt, we know we would all agree that the writer, I

think it was possible, Paul, but we cannot argue about that who it

was. The writer was, without doubt writing to Hebrew listeners and a Hebrew

audience. And he was, we'll say, arguing in the righteous sense,

debating, defending, and speaking about Jesus Christ, who was the fulfillment of

sacrifices and temple and an author and lambs and blood and administrations and law and

faith. And here in this particular couple verses, he was, no doubt,

without doubt, referring to the symbol that Jesus is a fulfillment of the

cities of refuge. Back in Deuteronomy, the cities of refuge were a place

of protection. And we're putting packing a whole bunch in here, in the

first ten minutes and then we'll unpack this again. The cities of refuge were

a place of physical protection for those who were manslaughters, and Jesus is a

place of spiritual protection for the Christian, a place of refuge, a place,

a strong constellation. You can count on this if you're a Christian to

night, you can count that Jesus is a strong refuge and a place of

safety. And Jesus is in many ways and means also some kind of physical

protection. But there's another whole thing that we won't get through this week,

so Leyland will have to preach on that. But he is spiritual protection because

if a Christian is spiritually protected, then he's also physically protected because it doesn't

matter what happens to him after that. You get that little peace there because

faith understands that if we are spiritually protected, then we are also physically protected.

Even though the flesh is destroyed, the spirit is whole. And that

is why Felix Monds and Connor Grebo and George Blaurock could do what they did

and from there we got called Menna Nights. And the world around us doesn't

understand that. They don't believe that that is one reason, not all the

reasons, but that is one reason why healthcare is a paramount issue in American

minds and Canadian minds and around the world, because people are afraid to die

for a very good reason. And this is why. I don't know what

the figures are currently, but it's like in the high ninety percent of the

health insurance funds are spent in the last I think, like six months of

life or something like that. It's this great, big grand page to try

to hang on, so you do everything that you can do. One day,

I was riding over from the BWI airport with a shuttle in this strange

man. He was just saying stuff on the way, and one thing he

said, he said, why is it everyone wants to go to heaven,

but no one wants. Everyone's paying to try to stay out something like that.

Then he went on, see, but faith is different to this,

because faith knows. And this is why the spiritually dead and wild and restless,

like we spoke of last night, are feverishly attempting to somehow save their

physical life because it's all they have. And if that's all you have,

then do it all. Spend it all, because beyond that there's no hoop

see and young people. I used to believe that there wasn't. I thought.

I think I was taught this. I'm not sure. I used to

kind of think that there wasn't any fun in sin. There's a lot of

fun in sin. It's just that it doesn't last very long. The Bible

teaches us that it doesn't get you very far. But we're getting bogged down

here. The point that we are wrapping up here is that faith has a

refuge and a strong consolation in Jesus Christ. And that's my message for this

evening. And now keep your finger there, maybe in Hebrews, or stick

a little paper or something in there. And we're going over to Joshua chapter

twenty. So this advocate, this advocate that takes up for the for the

accused. And if you're not accused here, and you weren't condemned, then

you're welcome to go home. This message don't apply to you, except that

it does, because if you go home and say you are, then your

liar, because the Bible says that we all have sinned. So it's for

all us. And here we're in josh chapter twenty, and we have this

instruction about the city's of refuge. And we want to do this little study

here and learn something about Jesus tonight, to bring us some hope, to

let us know that there's not enough darkness in the whole wide world to put

out one small candle. So we're here in Josh chapter twenty. Speak to

the children of Israel, say a point out for you cities of refuge wherever

I speake unto you by the hand of Moses. Now further back from that,

after the flood in Genesis chapter nine, and will go for sake of

time, God had laid down three new laws as he progressively showed man who

he was. Beginning with Adam, he kept showing more and more and more

of who he was. I call it the progressive knowledge of God. He

kept teaching more and more. So after the flood, many things we don't

understand. But after the flood he laid down three new laws which revealed his

holiness and the knowledge of his holiness to men. Number one, that animals

would fear men and wherever the youngsters are. This is hard to understand,

but before this you could ped a lion. But now animals who are afraid,

the cat, the mouse, Gerald. I was afraid of the cat,

and they're afraid of Gerald too, sitting there. And number two,

that man would eat meat when I'm going to exert something in here. And

I think there's a brother crop sitting right down here, and he probably has

a doctrinal understanding of this, is that you right here from Harrisburg there.

Well, whoever you are here, I don't know if I have everyone here

and right. If I'm doctrine incorrect, you can correct me. Okay,

whoever you are out here. They could eat meat, but there was an

important part of eating meat. You didn't eat blood, because the life was

in the blood. And here's a little tidbit for the young man. This

is what I believe about Daniel. Daniel was a rogue young man because he

was one of the princes, and he lived a high life and disregarded the

holiness of God. The Bible says, and this is not the way we

always teach it. This is what I believe. And he was about sixteen

or seventeen years old, and he was over there in Jerusalem having a high

day, and because of that, God punished him, and he was carried

by the Babylon in six hundred miles chained naked and with others and halt up

there to Babylon as a young man. And this is what I believe.

And can you doctrinal? Men can argue with this, or you'd like to

have your family. But when he got up there, he was asked,

he learned a lesson going up there, that's the point. And when he

got up there, he knew that he was punished for his wickedness. He

was a prince smart young man. But e when got up there, he

was smart enough to know and understand that he was being punished for his wickedness.

And then he purposed that he was going to do God's will from there

one. And one of the things he was asked to do was eat blood,

because that's what the Babylonians did, and he said, no, I

ain't doing that, And that's that story. But after the flood they were

commanded to eat meat. But I think it's an important doctrinal part that it

did not include blood, because blood is the life is in the blood radiation.

If you cut your finger and you don't arm and you don't get help,

you're going to bleed to death and you're going to die, not because

you got your arm cut off of because your blood is going the life is

in the blood. So anyway, and third blood for blood, someone murders

someone, they're going to pay same. Sain and Moses talked about it numbers

thirty five about polluting the land for blood. It defiles the land. He

was talking about this situation. Can you imagine with me all the justice that's

going to happen when Jesus becomes the judge. Can you imagine all the justice

that's going to happen for all the abortions. If blood for blood by the

millions, you see, and that was the law take a man's life,

there'd be an avenger come after you and take your life. See, God

is both justice and mercy, and Jesus came to show us both of these.

David writes that justice and mercy kiss each other in Jesus Christ. David

the prophet, he was a prophet Jesus said, So he prophesied that justice

and mercy were going to meet in Jesus Christ. And he is our mercy

now, but judgment later. See this judge, this lawyer becomes a judge

in life. He is an advocate mercy for sinner and mercy for saint.

He's mercy. He's the God of great mercy, the Bible says, and

they very long suffering, but one day so from mercy for sinner and saints,

and in death he is justice for sinner and saint. But we are

that guy that that advocate, Abraham lingoln set free. And there's nothing that

we can do about that. But we have a strong accepted accept it.

Like we've been talking about, it's not because of us, but it's because

of the death of Jesus Christ. It's taking away too long, but it's

so wonderful. It's a wonderful doctrine. And so Jesus explained this, or

the pardoner Moses explained this. They were to have these cities and if a

man was there was a difference between premeditated sin or if they if he was

guilty of premeditating it. See, sometimes people kill other peoples and it's called

manslaughter because maybe they didn't really mean to do that. Maybe they were looking

at their cell phone and doing things that they shouldn't do, but they didn't

really mean to wreck and kill somebody. But then there's people like Absalin who

said, or Esau, when my father dies I'm bringing justice premeditated and even

the law today and the country will live, makes a difference between premeditated man's

slaying or involuntary men's slaying. And God even recognized this. In these cities

of refuge, we're here in chapter twenty of Joshua, and God wiordained these

six cities of refuge, and these cities were cities of compassion. The slayer

that killeth, any person unaware, unmeditated, and unwittingly may flee thither,

and they shall be your refuge from the Avenger of Blood. And when he

that does flee under one of these cities shall stand at the terny of the

gate of the city and should declare his cause in the years of the elders

city, they shall take him into the city under them and give him a

place that he may dwell among them. And if the Avenger of Blood pursue

after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hands.

Because he smote his neighbor unwitting the land hated him not before time. And

he shall dwell in that city until he stands for the congregation for judgment,

and until the death of the high priests that shall be in those days.

Then shall the slayer return and come at his own city and onto his own

house under that city. From whence he fled. And he pointed six cities

verse eight, and on the other side, six on one side of Jordan,

and six on the other side of this was about the biggest the state

of Maryland, and something like this, and dead seas, and three cities

on that side, and three cities on that side. And we have the

names there in in verse in verse eight. And he shall flee to these

cities, and shall stand at the end of the gate of the city and

tell the elders what his cause is, and to take him into the city.

And this avenging of blood was he was protected until there was judgment about

whether he was premeditated or whether it was involuntary or voluntary manslaughter. And if

it was voluntary manslaughter, then they turned him over to the avenger of blood,

and it was blood for blood. But if it was involuntary or unwittingly,

then he stayed inside of the city. And he was safe all the

days of the high priest. And not only that, because see there was

no police force in those days to do these things. And it was the

more responsibility of the family. Remember from the from the law of law that

if if, if there was a killing, that had to be blood for

blood, and that family member was responsible to go after that other killer.

And we have this Exodus chapter twenty one, number thirty five did Urm in

nineteen and so one. He talks about that situation where a man's working in

the field and he did not and the backs head flew off and hit Jason

in the head, that kind of thing. And then he yeah, we

have the other instances where the slayer. But anyway, they could run to

the city. They could run to the city. And each of these were

levice cities, all the suburbs you read here, and forty eight cities and

all six six main cities and all their suburbs where the levice lived, and

these forty eight cities and all there were cities and refuse. You could go

there. Uh, there's there's some illustrations of this, and you could go

there into that city and you grab a hold, well, we'll get there.

So this was God's way of justice. And it was the average days

in this city's size. If you ran there was no place that it was

more than about thirty miles and if you run hard, young man, you

could get there. An average man could run in one day and get to

the city. So if the man if the Avenger of blood I'm sorry,

if the Avenger of blood was a wave was after him, he could get

there in one day. And there's some things that the Bible teaches us,

and there's some things that geography and history teaches us. These cities were strategically

located on both sides of the river, and there was easy access for them

to anybody that was running from an avenger of blood. And the land of

Israel is not that big, So the point that I'm making is getting to

refuge was easy, was available, and the bridges were to be built across

every ravine, and that the highways would come through. The ravines would be

bridges, and they were to be kept up so that the person that was

running for restuge wouldn't have to waste time getting down and back up the ridge

to the other side. And every spring, after the spring rings men were

responsible to build up the highways and grate them up and get everything so that

they were highways. Said that you're running, you could get there, and

at every intersection they had a sign. They had a sign that said refuge.

Just like going down power Line Drive and I was coming up here from

Jerilds tonight. I could know that I was coming up to Halsey because there's

a sign there said power line drives. I just stayed on power Line Drive.

Well, if you stay on this road and you got to the intersection,

you didn't have to stop it and say decide if this was going to

the hostel he or this and going to Tangent. There's a big sign there

said refuge. And so a runner that was flat out running from the Avenger

of Blood, they wouldn't have to slow down. They just kept on rolling.

And when you got there. The gates of the city were never to

be locked. That was because if someone was running for thirty or forty miles

to get to the city and then they and they got there in the middle

of the night and couldn't get in, what a catoctrophe the Avenger of Blood

to get them right there the devil and they could still be cut down.

So the gates were so when you got there, you just went in,

and once you got in, you were safe until you know, they had

to council and siwar it. And not only that these cities were supposed to

have lots of stuff in there, food, beads, everything that you needed

to live, because once you got in there, you were safe and you

could stay in there so long as the igh breeze was living. It was

a guaranteed place of legal protection, but also placed some material provisions and food

stuffs and so forth, And it was a place of guaranteed safety. And

not only that. In verse nine, if was not just for Jews,

it was for anyone that lived in the land, for the stranger. The

same justice, the same protection, the same attning grace was free to everyone.

And Jesus is our refuge. And the Hebrew writer is making this word

picture that we have who have fled for refuge to Jesus Christ have a strong

encourag bridgement to seizeon the hope that sets before us, that that it that

we're safe and it's okay, and there you can be, and there that

you have an advocate that you sin not hurry because Jesus is the only saving

refuge. And this is a beautiful This is a beautiful thing. And that's

why we sing this kiss Christmas him something like this. It says, all

the hopes and all the fears of all the years are mad, indeed tonight,

because apart from the saving work of Christ, we are lost in sin,

and the avenger of blood, we being sinners, is going to take

us down. And moments chapter six warns us that the consequences of our sin

is death, blood for blood. And maybe I remember a number of years

ago I was having involved meanings over there in southern Maryland, and someone came

up to me afterwards, and they said, well I was maybe I just

went straight from innocence to saves. Well, I can't say that I was

a sinner, So maybe there's someone here that never was a sinner. But

you might not have to argue with the scriptures. I think I knew what

she meant. She was a good girl, and I did the right thing.

But see, I was born by the sinner and sinned, and still

sometimes sin independenty. For sin is death. But Jesus is a refuge,

and he takes up for his and he lets him into the city. He

is the city. He is the place of refuge. And if I was

just run to the city and cling to the priest, I can go over

there and the doors rep and I can go in and Jesus and grab all

the feed of Jesus. And Jesus just shut the door and tell the devil

this one's mine. Go get somebody else. This is mine coming to me.

All you that labor and have you laden, and I will give you

rest from running and hiding, like we heard last night. And I don't

know what your need might be this evening, but as a child of God,

you can find that need met in the refuge of Jesus Christ. More

friends on Facebook won't do it. More thumbs up and likes will not do

it. People won't do it, medicine won't do it. Houses and land

won't do it. Only Jesus can and Jesus the Jesus city is easily just

like the CA's refuge or He's easily accessible. His arms are open, they're

waiting, just like the prodigal son's father. He was just there praying every

day. Read Daring John First John, and the propitiation is made for our

sins and for the sins of the whole world. That does not mean brothers

and sisters. I know you know this. That does not mean that everyone

is saved. It means that the provision for salvation is made and now it's

our turn. But it's easily accept if the Lord is near onto those that

are broken heart. It's on thirty four, and he saves those who are

contrary and crushed in spirit. And he was totally broken for our sin.

This is good Friday right. And he was bruised for our iniquities. This

is a satisfaction attonement. Some people don't like that substitution thing, but I'm

sorry, I'm out of time. Aready another doctor, but this but he

was bruised. God bruised him for our iniquities. I can't explain that,

but I love it because he's a strong consolation and he's a place of safety

in a terrifying world. That is, there is one who is completely accessible

to everyone. And our cry ought to be not loaning for ourselves in our

churches, but to everyone that hears us refuge rafage, ruftige. There's a

place. Come. Come. It's called mission work. We're the bride of

Christ right, and we are his feet and hands on earth. Literally.

Jenner Sadler taught me, and I didn't know that before that. Years ago,

he could have done it all, but he went back into heaven.

We're gonna talk about that on Sunday morning. God will he and he left

the two men, and we are his hands and feet and our He just

refuge, refuge, refuge, because the city is always open and the gates

are never blocked. It's the same picture. See, it's the fulfillment of

Josh twenty. Come like nicod Just come like Nicodamus, say, Master,

we know that you are true. Just tell me what I should do.

That's all we have to do. But that's what we must do. Seeing

we don't have the answers, but Jesus does. And the door is always

wide open, even if you show up in the middle of the night,

even if you go over to your parents' door in the middle of the night,

and for somebody here that's still not at rest. If you'll just go

in the middle of the night, because he's all always there and he's always

open, and he will always take you in from the avenger that's needling and

has your conscience all born down. But then it's not always easier because even

that will bring some contention. One time I preach the message of war that

Jesus started, it was about how that see among families and all this cause

when people do this, it causes contention. That's kind of another subject too.

And not only that, Jesus is the bread of life. See,

these cities had all everything stocked. The shelves are full. Just like you

ladies, get the shelves all lined up there, you like the can.

That's because there's provisions. Well, Jesus is the bread of life. He's

adequate for all our knees. And one day, it says in Revelation twenty

two, there's a water gushing out from the front of God is constant refreshing.

And there's a big tree there, the tree that was in the garden.

I guess, I don't know. It just says that's the tree of

life there. And it says every every every month has it. One month

has an apple, one month has orange or whatever. Having food. I

don't know what it is. That's our food. Each month it has another

one. We're just gonna eat that stuff, one for each different month.

I'm constant, constant sustainance. And Paul says we have redemption through his blood,

the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which

he is lavished upon us. We have resources for life, resources for triumph,

resources for victorious living as huge as we have found our place in the

city. Not only that Jesus is the only safe place you can be as

repentant as you want to be. But if you don't go into the city

of Jesus, you're still not safe. If you if you look for any

other place besides a city of refuge, it wouldn't really matter. And the

Hebrew writer actor argues about this about going outside of the city, because if

you go outside of the city, you are you are liable to be killed

again. So it is if we go outside of Jesus, there's no safe

place, he says. For anybody that goes outside and returns back outside of

the city, it's game for blood again. And the bad news is we're

sinners, and the devil is our master and the avenger of blood. But

the good news is that Jesus is the refuge for sinners from every wind that

blows in every storm we sing, and it's open to gentiles. And I'm

thankful for that because I don't have that Jewish glaed My name's not Rosenthal or

Rosenberg or Rosan something I don't know of anybody here like that, God bless

you. You have some kind of something if if you do, but not

above me, because in this city that's all broken down. But there's a

couple of differences here enclosing. The biggest difference is in the cities of refuge

protected only those people who were innocent of a capital crime or voluntary manslaughter.

But Jesus died for even crimes that were premeditated. Even criminals who premeditated against

others can get in here and there's no counsels going to put him out.

It's a beautiful thing. Jesus is even a refuge for a high handed sinner.

And that was the problem there in Luke chapter seven with Simon, he

didn't understand how high headed center that he was. What he didn't understand was

that jew that he was. He was just as wicked as the woman who

just walked out of the clubhouse as it concerned the holiness of God. See,

so maybe you haven't killed anybody in cold blood, but you maybe have

wished that you didn't have to deal with some of us. And Jesus said,

that's the same as pre meditative murder. And of course in the refuge

this was dependent upon the life of the high press. Well, the hard

hot rice is the man Jesus Christ is living in the eternal heavens forever.

And the same way that you saw him come go, it's the same way

he's coming again. And there was no guarantee for feeble men like us in

the city's refuge that we could run fast enough to get there. But we

don't have to worry about that. In Jesus he's plashing off, and he's

opening off, and he's ready, and we don't have to bother. We

don't have to be concerned that we can't get there. We can get there.

He's waiting, and like already said, when we get there, he'll

pull us inside. He shuts the door, tells the devil got him,

who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. Behold,

I stand at the door and I knock. So the picture here shifts from

the doors of a city of referees that we have to approach, to the

door of our own hearts as he approaches us. And in that situation the

doorstring was inside and he opened the priest would open it and let them in.

But in our case, in Jesus Christ, Jesus says in Revelation three

twenty. Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and this picture

is that the light string is on our side, and we decide if we

are going to let him in or not. It's not someone else's door,

it's our door. It's your door. No one else is inside to control

the latch. Sunday Night, to Lord Willing. I want to preach muchage

on every man to his own. See the door latch is on the outside.

May I come in and give you refuge. God has given you and

our full control, and he will not force open the door. But praise

be to God. The bottom line is for Christians tonight is the message of

encouragement and a message of mourning. But mostly I wanted to encourage us.

We have a strong consolation. It doesn't matter what's going to happen or yet

already did. It's okay if we continue over here at this cross, keep

staring at it and looking at it. May God bless you. I'm sorry

I took too much time again the seating, but I pray that you can

be encouraged somehow. Tonight. The world's going to get worse and worse.

But we're inside and we want to stay inside. And it's one reason for

Churcha's brotherhood to encourage each other stay inside, stay inside, you know,

brother, Yes, let's stay inside. Let's stay inside. And God is

coming for us, and there's a great hope in that. It's not done

yet. You're working on us, but salvation is not complete yet. That's

coming up real soon. Let's stand together for prayer. Father, we thank

you so much that we have a strong consolation. We thank you for the

Jesus City, and we thank you that we can be a Jesus nation in

a Biden Trump nation inside it and whatever other countries are out there, we

have this little we have this Jesus place and this Jesus safety, and we

pray that our lights would shine because we know we learned that from that little

line over there in Kentucky, that it came all the way over here,

toss by your hand. That there's not enough of darkness in the whole wide

world to put out one small candle. So we pray for grace and wisdom

and a light in a dark world. And we thank you and bless you

in the name of Jesus. Amen.