Numbers chapter six and verse
one, it says, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying. Again, what
proof we have here of Moses being the mediator, the go between
God and his people, Israel, and the Lord spoke unto Moses saying. Now, if Israel is going to hear
from God, it's going to be through Moses. And believer, if you're
gonna hear from God, it's gonna be through your one mediator
and go between the man, Christ Jesus. That's just the way God
ordained it. I found it very interesting that
the first 10 chapters of the book all begin the same way.
That's how God is gonna speak to us through his mediator, through
his son. The Lord spake to Moses. In times
past, in various times and in various ways, God spoke to us
through the prophets. Moses was a prophet of God. But
in these last days, the Lord speaks to us through his son,
through his word, his son who is the word of God. In verse
two, he said, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto
them, when either man or woman shall separate themselves to
vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord. Now
the word Nazarite means just that, it means separation. The word Nazarite means separation. In Israel, there were basically
three categories of men said to have, to be separated unto
God's service. The priest, their office was
hereditary. This separation was attached
to Aaron. He had to be of the house of
Aaron. And they were separated to offer
sacrifices unto the Lord, to burn incense and to bless the
people. of Israel. Then secondly, there
were the prophets. God set men aside and their office
was not hereditary. It wasn't taking over for a family
member. God's prophets were called and
God's prophets were separated to deliver the word of God to
God's people. And then we have the Nazarites
and their office was neither hereditary or like the priest
by a special divine call or like the prophets called of God. In most cases, a Nazirite separated
themselves by an act of their own. They are the act of their
parents. Any man or woman could separate
themselves into the Nazirite's vows. Numbers chapter six deals
with this consecration, the separation of the Nazarite and the law concerning
the Nazarite. And there are different kinds
of Nazarites in the Bible. As you know, in the Old Testament,
Samuel was a Nazarite. Samuel, God's prophet, was a
Nazarite from birth. Samuel remained a Nazirite all
the days of his life. And he was dedicated, if you
remember the story of Hannah, he was dedicated to and separated
unto the service of God by his mother, Hannah. And then probably
the most famous Nazirite of all is Samson, especially in the
Old Testament. And in the New Testament, John
the Baptist was a Nazirite. And Samson and John the Baptist
were the exception of choosing themselves to be a Nazirite.
Both of them were appointed by God Almighty to be Nazirites
before they were born. They were also separated into
the Lord and his service for the duration of their life. They
were a Nazirite all the days of their life. But in general,
a Nazirite, was a man or a woman that made a personal vow for
a limited time. Now, he or she could take the
Nazirite vow for a day and they could take it for a week. They
could take it for a year or a lifetime. And this vow that the Nazirite
made was to be kept precisely according to the law and the
precepts that God gave concerning a Nazirite. And once this vow
was made, God expected it to be kept. Now, during the time
the person vowed, they vowed to take the Nazarite vow for
however long they determined they were to separate themselves
unto the Lord for the service of the Lord. And the Bible was
very clear on this much. It would be better for a man
or woman not to make a vow at all, than to make a vow unto
the Lord and let it go unkept or unpaid. Deuteronomy 23, verse
21 says, when thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God,
thou shalt not slack to pay it. For the Lord thy God will surely
require it of thee, "'and it would be sin in thee, "'but if
thou shalt forbear to vow, "'it shall be no sin in thee.'" Solomon
wrote in Ecclesiastes 5, verse four, "'When thou vows to vow
unto God, defer not to pay it, "'for he hath no pleasure in
fools.'" It's foolish to make a vow unto God and not keep it. He said, For he had no pleasure,
God had no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed.
Better it is that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest
vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause
thy flesh to sin." As I read that verse today, I thought,
boy, that's something I do a lot. Allow this mouth to cause my
flesh to sin. Don't make a vow to God if you're
not planning on Now, verse three here, number six, look at this.
It says, he shall separate himself, speaking of the Nazarite, he
shall separate himself from wine and strong drink and shall drink
no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink. Neither shall
he drink any liquor of grapes nor eat moist grapes or dried. All the days of his separation,
"'Shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree "'from
the kernels even to the husk?' Verse five, "'All the days of
the vow of his separation, "'there shall no razor come upon his
head "'until the days be fulfilled. "'In the which he separated himself
unto the Lord, "'he shall be holy and shall let the locks
"'of the hair of his head grow. Verse six, all the days that
he separated himself unto the Lord, he shall come at or near,
that means no dead body. He shall not make himself unclean
for his father or for his mother or for his brother or for his
sister when they die, because the consecration of his God is
upon his head. And all the days of his separation,
he is holy unto the Lord. Now, we see here that the duties
of a Nazirite are not given. It's simply implied that the
Nazirite who made this vow was to have a preeminent devotion
to God. Whatever he did, he did it wholeheartedly
and to the Lord. And during the time of his separation,
the time that he made this vow, according to the precepts of
God, we see that the Nazirite's separation was to be expressed
in three ways. We just read it. First, he was
not to drink anything that contained alcohol or any product that derived
from alcohol. He was not to even eat fruit
from a vine. Secondly, he was not to cut his
hair for the duration of his separation. And then thirdly,
he was not to have anything to do with the dead. Now, unlike
the priest, as we saw in past studies, who were commanded to
refrain from going to any funeral except that of a very close family
member, the Nazarite, during his time of separation, was not
even allowed to attend the funeral of his father, his mother, his
brother, or sister. And though we're not told here,
I suppose even his wife or child. Now, it's very important to understand
this, to understand anything about the vow of the Nazarite.
It's important to understand that this vow of the Nazarite
was a voluntary vow. It absolutely had nothing to
do with any acceptance with God whatsoever, none, none. The vow of a Nazarite to abstain
from alcohol, to refrain from cutting his hair, and pledging
to have no contact with the dead, simply spoke of the dedication
and the separation of the Nazarites life to God, but it had no saving
effectiveness, none whatsoever. It wasn't effectual to salvation. It did not merit acceptance with
God. If anything, as we'll see, as
I hope we'll see, it showed the Nazirite that there was no acceptance
with God apart from a substitute, a sacrifice and an offering unto
the Lord. Now the life of a Nazirite was
one of separation. It was one of living in a manner
that was different from the rest of humanity. He devoted himself
to God. You know, the Church of Rome,
in many ways, patterned their religion after the Nazarite. Men and women alike in the Catholic
Church, as you know, they are bound by an oath to live in poverty,
to live in celibacy and obedience. You have these monasteries where
they separate themselves from the world and people, still get
the idea today that these monks and sisters or whatever in these
monasteries living under these religious vows somehow make themselves
more holy by being separated from the world. Let me tell you
why it's ridiculous to think that. Men and women's problem
is not being separated from the world and being separated from
the sin in the world. Men and women's problem is being
separated from the sin within. That's our problem. We live with
the problem. We are the problem. And that's
what God has to show a man before he'll ever, and a woman, for
him to ever see his need of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can never
separate ourselves and go anywhere that our desperately wicked and
deceitful heart don't follow. The true believer who does make
a vow unto the Lord, he does so out of a sense of his love
for the Lord Jesus Christ. He does so out of respect and
out of worship for the God who chose them and called them and
saved them by his grace. Oh, may God enable us to truly
worship and serve him. Yet at the same time, they're
not at all motivated by a sense of accomplishment or reward.
A child of God's just not. You know, there are a lot of
people that think that some will have a little lesser role in
heaven. Oh, you'll get to heaven, but
you won't quite have the rewards that we have. Well, if Christ
is there, that's all that matters. He is our reward. The problem
is that in and of ourselves, we always fail. The life of a
Nazarite very well demonstrates and illustrates to us that sad
truth. No matter how serious we are
in our vow to serve God, we're gonna always come short of the
glory of God. And we always come short because
we can't provide what God requires, and that's perfection. Now, if
a Nazirite had vowed to be a Nazirite for a whole year, if on the 364th
day of that year, he broke his vow, he had to start all over
again. Isn't that something? 364 days,
got one day to go to fulfill his vow, and he breaks that vow,
and he has to start all over again. Even if a man is standing
next to him, on that 364th day of the year. And that man just
falls dead of a heart attack or something else. He, by being
just in contact with the one dead, has broken his vow and
he must shave his head and make the proper sacrifices and start
all over again. Look at verse 12 here, it says,
but the days that were before shall be lost. Those 364 days
don't mean a thing. It says because his separation
was defiled. And what a life lesson this is. You know, this may not be a good
illustration, but I'm sure each of you can tell a story of your
own that relates to this. But when I was a teenage boy,
like a lot of teenage boys, I started using curse words just because
I thought it was I was grown and I thought it was cool, you
know? And so I started trying to be grown up and cool, but
I knew that cursing was wrong. I knew that the words I was saying
were ugly and shouldn't be said. And I was just religious enough
that when I'd say a bad word, I began to feel bad about it. And every time I would vow to
the Lord or I would say unto the Lord, I'm not gonna say that
again. I'm not gonna say that word anymore.
Only to say it again and again and again. I'd tell God I was sorry. I'd
vow not to say the word again. And again, I'd start all over.
Only to very soon, it didn't take long, but only to very soon
break my vow and to curse again. You know, it wasn't until much
later as an adult, it wasn't until much later as a saved adult,
as an enlightened adult, that I saw that I was not a sinner
because, that I saw that I was not a sinner because I cursed,
but that I cursed because I was a sinner. And that's a tough
lesson to learn, isn't it? We do the things we do because
of what we are. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. Oftentimes we're snared by the
words of our mouth because they reveal our heart. Now, some might
say, well, I've never made a voluntary vow or Nazarite vow that must
be kept. Well, you might not have. But
all of us as professing believers have vowed allegiance to the
Lord Jesus Christ. We voluntarily separated ourselves
from all that which is opposed to the gospel. We are professing
Christians who vow to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. We believe The reference here
in Numbers chapter six to the dead being to the spiritual dead,
to those that are dead without Christ, dead in trespasses and
sin. We know according to the scriptures
that righteousness cannot have fellowship with unrighteousness.
We know from the scriptures that light can have no communion with
darkness. And God said, come out from among
them, be ye separate. He said, touch not the unclean
thing and I will receive you. But every single believer has
been separated, consecrated, and made a Nazarite, so to speak,
to the gospel by God himself. We just had. Paul said, I'm called
to be an apostle. And then he said, separated to
the gospel. consecrated, made a Nazarite,
to the gospel by God. God called Paul to preach the
gospel according to Romans 1.1. Now, stay with me if you can.
The true believer has given up any notion that they can approach
God in, by, or through the works of the law and any righteousness
of their own will. No need to try. Our righteousness,
filthy rags, God won't accept it. We voluntarily give up any
thought of salvation coming to us by our free will doing of
any works that we think would appease God Almighty, knowing
that it's God alone who makes us willing in the day of his
power. If God don't make you willing, You will not come to
Christ that you might have life. Why? Because you cannot come
to Christ that you might have life. But when it comes to us
and sin, what's done cannot be undone. The scripture is very
clear. The wages of sin is death. Sin always brings forth death
and sin has to be dealt with by God. God is holy. Sin has to be dealt with. It
can't be ignored. It's gotta be dealt with by someone,
either by us or another. Any good that we did before we
fail, it's lost, it's forgotten. But we ain't lost much because even our good is filthy. What
do we do then when we fail? Well, just like the Nazarite,
We must shave our head. Not literally. If we did, we'd
all be bald-headed. But spiritually, we expose our
self-righteous cover. We must look to Christ. We trust
Him. And what do we do? We start all
over again. Start all over again. And every time, it's with a clean
slate. That's such a... A blessed thought. Paul said, forgetting those things
which are behind, forget about them. They don't matter a hill
of beans. They don't matter because in
God's eyes, they're gone, forgotten. God forgot them, let's forget
them ourselves. Forgetting those things which
are behind and pressing onto those things that are. Well,
what's before us? Well, he said the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ. And here we have a picture of
the gospel. Now within these new hearts that
God has given us in Christ, there's a desire in every believer to
be pleasing to God. There just is. Just as I'm sure
you desire to be pleasing to your mother and your father or
your grandmother, or whoever raised you or whoever was important
in your life. A child of God wants to be pleasing
to their heavenly father. They have a desire to perform
that which is good. But our problem is how to perform
it, we find none. Now, if the Nazarite failed,
and he most often did, He shaved his head and he made his offerings. And he again was renewed in his
vow. He started over, free. And we
must understand, as I said a moment ago, there is no forgiveness
apart from an offering to God, the God that we've offended. All our sin is against God. He's
the one that's offended. He's the one that has to be appeased.
He's the one that has to grant forgiveness. And here's the amazing
thing. Even if the Nazarite sin was
unintentional, as we read in verse nine, if a man dropped
dead next to him, he broke God's law. for a Nazirite, and he's
got to start all over again. You see, when it comes to sin,
I was thinking about that. Well, I couldn't help it if this
man fell over, did I? The law of God says you're guilty.
You're next to a dead person. Well, how's that my fault? Well,
when it comes to our sin, we don't have any real control,
do we? By the deeds of the law, even the Nazirites vowed to keep
the law, it meant nothing. It didn't mean a thing. For no
flesh will be justified in God's sight. Paul said, because we
know that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ. That's the only way that we can
be appeasing to God. is in Christ. For by the works
of the law, no flesh that leaves us all out, whether a Nazirite
or not, doesn't matter. No flesh shall be justified,
Romans 3 20. And this the law could not do
and that it was what? Weak through the flesh and that
is our flesh. When the period of continuance
for the Nazirite ended because of his failure, he would present
himself at the door of the sanctuary. I look at verse nine. We see
here on the seventh day, that being the day of completion,
that being the day of rest, the failing Nazarite would shave
his head in humility. You see, he couldn't keep his
vow. And according to verse 10, on the eighth day, he would bring
two turtles," I believe that to be two turtle doves, or it
says two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation. They would be for a sin offering
and a burn offering and an atonement for the failing Nazarite. Then in verse 12, the Nazarite
brings a lamb for a trespass offering. But that's not all,
verse 14 says, and it was there that for the Nazarite, a lamb
of the first year was offered for a burnt offering, a sweet
smelling savor unto God, which speaks of his acceptance of us.
Secondly, it was there that a ewe lamb of the first year was offered
for a sin offering. And thirdly, Aram was there offered
for a peace offering with the Lord. Oh, I tell you, to break
a vow to God is a serious thing. As we said in the beginning,
no vow at all is better than to a broken, better than a broken
unpaid vow. Now, there's an offering here
to be made for trespass. There's an offering here to be
made for sin. There's an offering here to be
made for acceptance. There's an offering here to be
made for peace, but that's not all. Look at verse 15. Along
with a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with
oil and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil and their
meat offering and their drink offerings. And in verse 16, we
see that the priest brought all these before the Lord. An offering
was made for the Nazarites acceptance. for his sin and for his face. And God accepted it. And all
of these offerings point to one person, and you know who it is. They picture and they typify
the Lord Jesus Christ, who's our only acceptance with God.
You know, he's the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of his
people in this world. He's the unleavened bread anointed
with the oil of the Holy Spirit. He's the meat offering. He's
the water of life, the only acceptable offering to God. And I want you
to think about that seriously for a minute. The length of the
Nazarite's hair before he broke his vow had nothing to do with
his redemption. Didn't matter how long it was,
the length of his hair, which basically revealed the time of
his service. If he had long hair, it means
that he hadn't broken his vow and had been dedicated and obedient
to the Lord for a long time. But it didn't matter. All that
mattered was that no razor should touch him. There was no confidence. There was no assurance whatsoever
in salvation to be put on the length of the Nazarite's hair.
When the Nazarite shaved his head, according to verse 18,
he would take that hair that he shaved from his head and put
it on the fire along with the peace offering. And I believe
that just beautifully represents how the believer puts no trust
whatsoever in their works or their merit, but they trust all
to the Lord Jesus as their substitute for sin, as their sacrifice of
acceptance, and as their offering for peace. We don't put any stock
whatsoever in what we do, our works of righteousness, only
in the work of righteousness Christ did for us. And even though now the Nazarite's
hair is just short stubble, Most of you remember back a year
or so ago, I got one of those haircuts, just had a little bit
of short stubble up there. But doesn't matter how much hair
he had, he was still an azerite. The length of his hair had nothing
to do with it. His personal service had nothing to do with it. Do
you see what I'm trying to get across? Everyone around him might
know that he failed and every one of them may question that
anything he'd done before was good at all. But it doesn't matter. That's the beauty of God's grace. No matter how horribly we fail
and how horribly we fall, the believer is still a believer.
And in God's sight, we stand alone on the perfect work of
righteousness that Christ did for us. Boy, I tell you, if we
could ever really get ahold of that, I get glimpses of it every
now and then, and I rejoice so much. And then I go back to looking
within, and woe is me, and how could a believer or a Christian
do the things that I do? We're all guilty of it. But if
we could keep our eyes on Him, just like Peter, When he walked
on the water, if we could keep our eyes on him, we wouldn't
fall, we wouldn't drown. Our standing before God is not
based on anything we do or anything we don't do. Now, that'll make
some folks mad and they'll say, why in the world would somebody,
well, you just, you're an antinomian. You can believe however you want
to and believe that God's gonna save you. Well, if that's what
you wanna call it, but our standing before God, is not based at all
on what we do or don't do, but it's based wholly on the merits
of Christ our substitute. With the redeemed child of God,
it's never the person that is defiled. The Nazarite wasn't
defiled, it was his vow of separation that was defiled. It was his
promise that he couldn't keep. It was his vow that he vowed
that he could in no wise stand behind. That's what was defiled. We can start all over again.
Every time we start all over again. Thousand upon a thousand
upon thousands of times. Our salvation has nothing to
do with our vow. It has everything to do with
Christ's vow. for us. Our redemption has nothing
to do with our success. We don't have any success. We
always fail. Our redemption has everything
to do with Christ's success. Christ, as he lived on earth,
was not a Nazarite. He drank wine, he touched the
dead, why he even raised the dead. He even tasted death himself. Christ was a Nazarene. The scripture
is clear about that. He was Jesus of Nazareth. And
I found it very interesting and revealing that the words Nazarite
and Nazarene both come from a root word called Nezer, Nezer. And that word Nezer means crown. There's no doubt that the significance
of the Nazirites uncut hair has something to do with that. It
was, in a sense to him, represented an unblemished crown, the glory
of having the hair uncut. But in and of ourselves, brothers
and sisters, and due to our sin, and due to our inability and
our failures, we can never wear such crown. Our Lord alone wears
that unblemished crown as a perfect priest and king. You remember
what the Lord told Moses? We saw it in our study of Exodus.
He said, and thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and engrave
upon it like the gravings of a signet, holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put it on a blue
lace that it may be upon the mitre, upon the forefront of
the mitre it shall be, and it shall be upon Aaron's forehead.
Aaron representing our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ,
wears the perfect crown of righteousness that says holiness to the Lord. He is our holiness to the Lord.
Don't you ever doubt it. And that's what the beloved John
saw in Revelation chapter nine. You can turn there if you'd like. If not, I'll just read it to
you. But Revelation chapter nine, beginning in verse 11, John said,
and I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse. And he that sat
upon him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness,
he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire
and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And
the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean, and out of his mouth
goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations,
and he should rule them with a rod of iron. And he treaded
the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God.
"'and he hath on his vesture and upon his thigh "'named written
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.'" Now that's the Lord Jesus with
whom we have to do. And men, if they want to continue
to preach him as a little mealy-mouthed Jesus, wringing his hands on
the portals of heaven, hoping somebody would believe and trust
in him, you go ahead, but that's my Christ right there. And when
he comes again, That's the God with whom we have to do. Oh,
blessed Nazarene. Oh, great king and great high
priest thou art. You're our prince of peace. Thank
you, Lord, for separating yourself to the service of your Father
in our room and in our stead. Thank you, Lord, for working
out that perfect righteousness that we cannot provide for ourselves. Thank you, Lord, for being our
substitute and our sacrifice and our surety and our mediator
and our intercessor and our fulfiller of the law. He didn't have to. He voluntarily took that vow
upon himself like an Azerite. He never had to shave his head.
You know why? Because he was always perfectly
holy. separated unto God. Why? He knew
no sin. His crown was never tarnished.
His glory was never diminished. He still upholds his vow to his
people today. And he ever lives, the scripture
says, to make intercession for us. Man, that's a great Nazirite
right there. That's a Nazirite who can never
fail. And you know, I believe this is the reason that God's
prophet Moses recorded this observance of the Nazarite here in Numbers
chapter six, so that we might again see Christ and what he's
done for us. You and I are spiritual Nazarites. Our problem is we cannot keep
our vows. No matter what it is, we always
come short and we must shave our heads. But here's the glorious
thing. It's no longer in shame that
we do. No, we do it to show that we
put no trust in our vow, that we put no trust in our works. And because of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we get to start all over again. Every time I fail him, every
time I sin against him, he forgives me. why he died to put away all
past, present, and future sin. Christ, our heavenly Nazarite,
is perfect in every way. And he can never dishonor his
vow of redemption for his people. And the reason we get to start
over and over again until we leave this wilderness of a world
is we as spiritual Nazarites have vowed to put all our trust
in the sinless Nazarite. Isn't that right? That's my vow
before God. I'm gonna trust your son. He
said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear
ye him. Are we gonna hear him? His sheep
hear his voice and they follow him. Are we gonna hear him? Oh,
God enable us to do so. He vowed to put our sin away,
and it's in that that we really find the true meaning of the
vow of the Nazarite. And I hope you see that, and
I hope you rejoice in that as I did. May God be pleased to
add His blessings to the preaching of His word, teaching of His
word.