Consecrate me now to thy service,
Lord, by the power of grace divine." Remember that. Thank you, Sherry. All right, go back to Leviticus
27 and read the first two verses with me again. Leviticus 27. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel. and say unto them, When a man
shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the Lord
by or according to your estimation." Speaking to Moses. The title of this message is,
The Lord's Estimation of a Sinner. Or, What is a sinner worth to
Christ? The Lord is speaking to Moses
here, and throughout the book of Leviticus, if you just browse
through for yourself, you'll see nearly every chapter begins
this way. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel. Nearly every chapter begins that
way. The Lord is speaking to Moses and tells him to speak
to the children of Israel. This is God's Word, and he told
Moses, you just repeat what I said to my people. This is for my
people. And what he's going to talk about
is consecration to the Lord, giving oneself to the Lord. And there's a beautiful gospel
picture here. But this is God's Word, and it's written to God's
people, because they're the only ones that are going to hear it
anyway. They're the only ones that are going to love it and
hear it, believe it and receive it, because they've been born
of it, begotten of it. So the Lord told Moses, you tell
them, you say unto the children of Israel, you say unto them,
every one of them, when a man... Now, it's not just a man. We're
going to see this can be a woman, this can be a young person. Whoever
it is that makes a singular vow, those persons, whoever it is
that does that, it's going to be for the Lord. And according
to your estimation, Moses, according to the way you value them, according
to the way what worth you put in them, according to your estimation. Moses was the priest. Now, you
may not know that, but Moses was a Levite. He was just as
much a priest as Aaron, their brothers, remember? So Moses
was the priest here. Now, a vow. A vow, the word vow
means promise. And here, every time it's used
in Scripture, it's to God. It's a vow to God. It's a promise
to God. And it's always about consecration. That is, consecrating yourself
to God or someone or something. We saw that. He said it would
be for the Lord. This is all about for His glory,
for His servant. Now, the Lord chose... You've
got to stay with me, okay, because I'm building up something. All
right? You're going to have to listen.
I know it's Wednesday night, and I don't want to make this
deep. It is deep. I mean, I don't want to make
it too shallow at all. But it's deep. But I think we're
going to see something wonderful here. The Lord chose the Levites
to be the preachers. The Levites were the preachers,
they were the priests, they were the ones, you know, that represented
the Lord to the people. But anyone who wanted to could
serve around the tabernacle. You didn't have to be a Levite.
That's what this is about. If you want to serve, you want
to be a part of this tabernacle, he said, anybody, whoever it
is, whatever tribe it is, you just come, present yourself to
the Lord. That's what this is about. You can serve, you can
run errands, you can wash dishes, you can cut the grass. They had
grass back then to cut. Yes, they did. They had ashes
to empty, had dishes to wash, errands to run, all of that.
Anybody who wanted to, wanted to serve full time, could do
stuff. Sweep the floor. Anybody. Male,
female, old, young. Didn't matter how old you were,
how young you were. If you want to consecrate yourself
to the service of the Lord, you could do so. You could do so.
Now, the word singular. Brother Tim James uses that word
quite often. But singular is actually the
only time it's used in Scripture. But the word singular means a
distinguishing vow. That is, something that's going
to set you apart. The difficult thing. In other
words, this is serious. The Lord is saying to Moses,
this is a serious thing, a serious thing to present yourself before
the Lord, to serve the Lord. This is not an idle boast. If
you're going to give yourself to serve, it's going to cost
you. It's going to cost you. And we'll
see that in a minute. Now, turn with me to Ecclesiastes
5. Ecclesiastes, right after Proverbs. Now, he says, now, if anybody
is going to make this solemn vow of service and wants to serve
the Lord, it's a very serious thing. It's going to cost you.
Now, you may think, and I have thought in the past, that vows
were not a good thing. But Scripture says otherwise. It mentions vows quite often.
But the fact is, it's better not to vow a vow if you don't
intend to pay it. Now, this is what Ecclesiastes
5 says, verse 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God,
defer not to pay it. He had no pleasure in fools.
He just said, a fool uttereth all his mind. That's known by
a multitude of words. It's just a spat off, rash thing. But now, this is serious. Don't
be saying you're going to do something if you don't do it.
God hath no pleasure in fool. Pay that which thou hast vowed.
Better is it that thou shouldst not vow than that thou shouldst
vow and not pay. And there were several people
in Scriptures that made vows. Jacob. That's the first one I
can think of. Remember when Jacob said, Lord,
if you'll be with me wherever I go, You'll watch over me. If
you'll give me food and rain, if you'll watch over me, and
if you'll bring me back to Bethel, say, and you're my God. I'll know you're my God if you
do that. If you save me, in other words,
you're my God. So Jacob bowed that vow. Hannah. Remember Hannah's
vow? She wanted a child. She said,
Lord, If you give me a child, this
child will be for you. I promise. I'm going to bring
him back to you and consecrate him to you. That's what she said.
And that's what she did. Did the Lord honor that? He sure
did, didn't he? Jephthah. Remember Jephthah's
vow? Jonah vowed a vow. Others vowed
vows. David vowed. There were many
vows. But, you know, marriage is a
type of Christ and His church. That's what Paul said in Ephesians
5. This marriage of a man and a woman. And that's marriage.
A man and a woman. And he said, I speak of mystery,
but this is of Christ and His church. Now what do you do when
you get married? You take vows, don't you? Who are those vows before? Before
the Lord. And before witnesses. And you're
vowing these vows to one another. And you know, our Lord took a
vow. Our great husband vowed a vow. He made a promise to his bride,
didn't he? Oh, my. His avowal of love to
us, our husband, When the Lord said, will you take these harlots
to be your wife? He said, I will. Will you do
everything for them in order to save them? He said, I will. He said, will you love them freely?
Nothing from them? He said, I will. Till death do
you part or unite? I will. Will you never forsake
them or leave them, even though they leave you? What did Christ
say? I will. I vow that. Did He keep His vow? He most certainly did. Alright,
now when we hear of that, when we hear of that gospel call,
when we hear of Christ, our Lord and our Savior and our great
Husband, and we fall in love with Him, what do we do? The
same thing. And it's not a rash thing. It's
from a true heart. With a heart. confession is made. We say, Lord, I love you. When the Lord asked Peter, Simon,
Simon, lovest thou me? What did he do? He didn't hesitate. He knew he was a sinner. He knew
his love was so fickle and so fell far short of what it should
be, but he did love the Lord and he said, yes, Lord, I do
love you. Lord, I love you, and by your
grace, we say it this way, by your grace, Lord, I want to be
devoted to you. I want to be with you forever. I don't want to leave you, don't
I? And here's what David said in Psalm 50. David said this. He said, well, let me look it
up. I don't want to misquote it.
David said this. Offer unto God thanksgiving.
Here's the vow. Pay thy vows unto the Most High
God. Thanksgiving and prayer. Thanksgiving and prayer. That's
what the Lord expects of us. All right? Now, vow of vow. All right? This separated the
phonies from the true. Separated the phonies from the
true. Because they weren't coming to
get money, they were given money. See, the ones that consecrated
themselves, when he said if it's a young male, he said it's going
to cost them 50 shekels. That's a vast sum of money. I
don't know how many years' salary, or more than that. Whatever they
were worth in the work field, if they want to serve, permanently,
they're going to have to give that money to the priests. They're
going to have to pay that for themselves, according to their
value in the workforce. You see that? They've got to
pay. So this is going to prove the
sincerity of their love. They're going to give up everything. They had to pay the priest to
serve. And what they're saying is, they come to him, and what
they're saying is, I love the Lord, I love His worship, I love
His house, I love His people, I love being around the tabernacle,
I want to stay around here, I don't want to leave, and I'll pay for
the privilege of cutting the grass. That's what they're saying. I'll
pay for the privilege. If you just let me hang around
here, I'll pay whatever it costs me, no matter what the price. And they would count the cost.
Fifty shekels. Are you willing to pay that young
man? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I don't want to leave.
I want to serve the Lord out of love and thanksgiving and
praise and desire to serve. He said, yes, I'll pay whatever
it takes. Now, that's his message of consecration.
That proves the sincerity of love, doesn't it? How much were
they to pay? Look down there again. If they
were fit and if they were able, if they were fit and able, if
the Lord had greatly blessed them, then much was required. When much was given, much was
required. If they were young and fit and
able, they were worth more. They were to do more. It's just
reasonable. If able, they were to give much.
Given much, to give much. Verse 2, he said, here's your
estimation of the person. He's talking to Moses, because
down in verse 12, he said, you're the priest. You're the priest,
Moses, as you value. You aren't the priest, so shall
it be. So it begins with the man, the male. Verse 3, if he's
from 20 years to 60 years old, he's to give 50 shekels of silver,
according to God's A shekel, 50 shekels of silver. It's a
female, 30. Men were worth more than women. You got a problem with that?
No. God's women don't do that. That's
the rule in the Scripture, isn't it? That's what God said. Why? Well, because men were stronger
and women were the weaker vessel. And back there in these days,
these days of hard labor, there were heavy loads to carry. Strong
enemies to face. Without strength, everybody would
perish. If there weren't some strong men, they would all have
perished. And the women all would have
perished without the men. That's just a fact. Much like
the old pioneer days. That's the way it was. But now,
there's a deeper picture here. This is a type of Christ. The
reason a man is worth more than a woman is because Christ is
worth more than this. Christ is the head, He's the
strong one, He's our provider, He's our protector. Fact is,
the whole fact of the matter is, Christ's the only one who's
worth anything. We're worth nothing. Without Him, we can't do nothing,
right? We're the weaker vessel. Christ
is our strong one. And without Him, we can't do
nothing. Without Him, we would perish. So he's worth an inestimable
value. Oh, the unsearchable riches or
value of our Lord Jesus Christ. But practically, our Lord is
giving this. If it's a young, able man that
can do more, he should. Why do you think the Lord chose
young men to be His disciples? Every one of His disciples were
young, able, fit men. And buddy, he sent them out in
hardships, didn't he? And he gave them great grace
and provided for them. Then verse 5 says, if it's from
5 years old to 20. 5 to 20. If it's a male, 20 shekels. Female, 10 shekels. 10 shekels. Verse 6, now if it's a month
old to 5 years old, just a babe, an infant, the estimation shall
be of the male, 5 shekels of silver. Now, they're getting
worth less, aren't they? Down to the female, 3 shekels
of silver. All right? Those are babes, infants,
children. Verse 7, if they're old, and
here it says 60. See, if 60 years old and above,
if it's a male, 15 shekels. If it's a female, they're worth
no more than a 5-year-old girl. You got a problem with that?
A female worth no more than a five-year-old girl. Now what would happen was
all these people would come to the priest and he'd put a value
on them. Young men, young women, old children,
some of worth, some of value, some could contribute to the
work, some could be of some good in the service, and some could
be just whatever, helpers and so forth, according to the value
that Moses placed on them. All right? What do you want? All right, here's the gospel
in there. Are you with me? Still with me? All right, now
where's the gospel in all this? Verse 8, But if he be poorer
than thy estimation, then he shall present himself
before the priest, and the priest shall value him according to
his ability. The priest shall value him. If
he's poor, if he's poorer than you thought, if he's poorer than
the poor, then he shall present himself to the priest according
to his ability, no matter who it is, male or female, young
or old. That person shall come to the
priest and say, here I am, I want to be a part of things. I want
to be a part. I want to serve. Will you take
me? It's just a real poor person,
one that doesn't seem to be of any value whatsoever. Will you
take me, Moses? Can I be a part of things? Now, knowing Moses, I know what
he's going to say. But he goes on to say, you know,
keep going, he says in verse 9, if it be a beast, even if
it's a beast, A beast, a dumb mule or an ass. It's all, he said, holy, no matter
what's brought. No matter what's brought. So
here comes a poor person, and they stand before Moses, the
priest, to be judged for their worth and their value, to be
accepted. Here comes a young man. He's
young. And he should be fit. He should
be able. But this young man has wasted
his substance. He's lived a hard life. And he
looks older. He's poorer than the estimation. He's wasted his substance in
riotous living. Here comes a young woman. And
this happens all the time. Comes a young woman. She should
be fit. She should be able. But she's
plagued to harlot. And she's used up. And nobody
wants her anymore. Or here comes a man who's got
some physical deformities. Maybe a withered hand. Can't
do anything. Or here's a woman whose mind
is not so clear. Can't think too clearly. Or here's
a blind fellow. Here's one that's hot. Here's
one that's lame. Here's one that's slow of speech.
Can you speak? No, not very clearly. Here's
one who's broken down, worn down, used up. Here's a poor one. Here's
a useless one. Here they come, the blind, the
halt, the lame, the worthless, the no good, the poor who can't
do anything, can't carry a load, can't pull their weight. In fact,
they're probably going to have to be carried away. But they
all, he says, bring them all, whoever wants to come and says
to the priest, will you have me? Then he'll look them over. He'll look them over and he'll
decide if they get accepted or not. And like I said, knowing
Moses, knowing the one that told Moses, I believe I know what
he's going to say. And he said, a beast, a beast,
whatever it is, verse 10, don't alter it. He said, don't change
it. Good for bad. Bring it just like it is. If
it's bad, bring it. No matter what it is, he said,
no matter what it is, it shall be holy, consecrated. You bring
it just as it is. Don't alter it. Don't change
it. Here's a fellow that's got an old gray mare. Here's an old
gray mare. She ain't what she used to be.
I don't have much, but here's what I'm giving. Sway back. Splay leg. Not need cow hocks. She's got every vice. She's got
vices I can't get rid of. She's never going to learn anything.
Will you take this old nag? She ain't nothing but trouble.
She ain't an easy keeper. Will you take her? Huh? The Lord
said, every one of them. And then the unclean. It says in verse 11, the unclean
beasts. Unclean? Bring an unclean beast
to the Lord. That's what he said. Bring an
unclean beast to the Lord. What's that? Dogs. Dogs. Dogs weren't ever sacrificed
unto the Lord. Nobody ever offered a dog. Here's
a fellow, all he has is an old dog. Does all this sound familiar? A dog. What good is a dog? Once again.
And Brother Ty told me he just lost his dog the other day. And
I feel for him when I lost my dog. But the truth of the matter
is dogs are not worth it. They're just not. And we've got
one left. After all these years, after
all those dogs, we've got one left. And boy, you're talking
about worthless. You know all that my dog is good
for? You know all that Charlie does, all he can do, honestly,
is lick my feet. That's all he does. And I let
him. That's all he can do. He's of
no service or value to anybody, but he gives me pleasure. Licking
my feet. You might think that's gross,
but I think it's a wonderful picture. As a dog kisses or licks
his master's hand. That's what worship means. He's
of no value, but he is to me, and I keep him. And it says the
priest shall value these that come, all of them. The priest
shall set the value on all of them. You're the priest, Moses.
You set the value on whoever comes. You decide who gets in. You decide who you accept. You
decide the worth and the value of these people. You decide,
whoever it is, no matter how poor they are. If they want in,
you're going to decide what their worth, whether or not they're
going to be part and parcel of all in. And if you do, if you
accept them, nobody can say a thing. They're accepted. Turn with me
to 1 Corinthians 1. Now, Moses took one of these
poor beggars in or whoever it is, broken down. If anybody argued,
Moses might say, it's none of your business. What I've said,
I've said. I say she's in or he's in because
she's mine. I remember, and those of you
who remember, Virgie Jones. She said this to me. If she said
this to me once, she said it to me a thousand times. She would say it to me. And the
Lord revealed Himself to her when she was in her sixties,
didn't He? She was about sixty-five, wasn't she? I think she was an
older woman. Pretty sure, wasn't she? But
she said this to me. All the time. I ain't worth nothing. She'd say that all the time.
I'd take my pants to have them hemmed. She was a good seamstress. And she always hemmed my pants
for free. And I'd thank her for it. She'd
say, I can't do nothing. She'd always say that. I can't
do nothing. I ain't worth nothing. Oh, boy,
she was to me. Was she to you? Just being here. She was of great worth, wasn't
she? Just her faithfulness to your mother. Oh, my. She'd say
the same thing. I can't do anything. I was of
no value. Was she? My, my. She was to me. Do you
see your calling, brother? Look at 1 Corinthians 1 verse
26, you see your calling brethren, I know you do, how that not many
wise men of the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called,
but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise. God hath chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty, the
base things of the world. Things which are despised hath
God chosen, yea, and things which are not, that is, nothing, nobody,
worth nothing to anybody and anything else. Worth nothing. They have nothing. They know
nothing. They are nothing. They can do nothing. They can't
contribute, and they don't have a dime to pay for their redemption.
That's your calling. That's who the Lord takes. to
bring to naught things that are why that no flesh should glory
in his presence." You see, the young man, not the young man,
the strong man glory and strength, the beautiful woman, the strong
woman. Oh, no. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us. Here's this wonderful scripture.
Oh, He's made unto us. Those who don't know much, He's
made unto us wisdom. Those who are unrighteous and
sinful, He's made unto us righteousness. Those who can't sanctify themselves,
he said, I'll sanctify myself that they might be sanctified.
And redemption. Those who have no redeeming qualities. Those
who cannot redeem themselves with corruptible things. He says,
I'll redeem you. That according as it is written.
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. So you see the picture
here? And the fact of the matter is,
The only one that the Lord Jesus Christ does take are the ones
that know themselves to be nothing. That's the only one. The only
one to take. What are you worth? In yourself,
what are you worth? Tell me, are you worthy? When
the Lord sent the disciples out with the glorious message of
Christ's unsearchable riches, the glorious message of whom
no one is worthy, He said, you inquire in that house where you
take that message who is worthy. And if you find a worthy house,
then your peace will be on a house. Remember that? If you find a
worthy house. Now what made them worthy? Remember?
They knew that they were unworthy. They were poor, so Christ was
all to them. They were nothing, so Christ
was all to them. They had nothing, so all that
Christ gave, His grace was everything to them. They were poor, wretched,
miserable, blind, naked sinners, and they knew that if they were
going to be of any value at all, Christ was going to have to give
them value. They knew that. I know you. I've
showed this to you so many times, just in case somebody hasn't
seen it. Brother Donnie Bell showed this one time to us here,
right here. And I never forgot it. It's a
wonderful illustration. You put a bunch of zeros together,
what do you have? What do you have? It doesn't matter
how many you put together. Twelve commas full of zeros. What do you got? Put them all
together. What do you got? A bunch of zeros. Any value whatsoever. Anything. None whatsoever. What does the scripture say?
They're all together. God looked down upon the children
of men to see if there were any. Anybody worth saving? None. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none good. No, not one. There's none righteous.
No, not one. Not one. God looked and saw that
there was no man. So, he came. One. One. Glorious person. The God man. Scripture talks
about being in Christ. Found in Him. Not having your
own righteousness. Because you don't have any. But
having His. He being found in Him. If you're in Christ, you're of infinite value to the
Father. Because He's the One. He's the
One that makes us of any value. We're all a bunch of nothing. Without Christ. Without Him,
we can do nothing. Are nothing. Know nothing. Would
be nothing. Would not even think on God.
Now here's what our great high priest, the people in this story
here, the people were to pay for their own redemption. But
these poor people came and it says that they didn't have anything.
They didn't have anything to pay. What can you do? Nothing. What can you contribute? Nothing.
Can you sing? No. Can you carry a tune? Can you preach? No. I stammer.
I would be scared to death to do that. What can you do? I can't
do nothing. Well, you got any money? No. You mean in your hand, no price
you bring? You're a nothing, a nobody, you
have nothing to contribute, and you want me to accept you for
that? Yes. What do you think he's going
to do? Here's what our great high priest
did, you see? He who is of infinite value to God, he who alone is
worthy, For all His unworthy people, He presented Himself
to the Father. He came down to this earth. All
had sinned. All of us had sinned to come
short of the glory of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ came down
and presented Him to the Father. And what's the Father's estimation
of His Son? What's the Father's value of
His Son? What does the Father say about this one, this one
Son of Man? What does He say about this one?
Oh, He's altogether lovely. He said, He's of great value
to me, infinite value to me. So He came, and He did what He
did. He paid the price. He paid the
price of redemption. We're not redeemed with corruptible
things such as silver and gold from our own conversation, but
with the precious blood of the Lamb without spot, without blemish.
And Christ came down here and did what He did for His people,
for these poor people. Who did He do it for? Those who
could do nothing, you see. He did it all. He paid the price. Jesus paid it all. All the dead
idols. He presented Himself to the Father. He paid our sin and death. He
paid redemption's price. His own precious blood. Though
we are nothing, Christ is all. Though we can do nothing, Christ
did it all and we are accepted in the blood. And the Father
says, Now they're worth, they're of infinite value. What's this
poor sinner worth? One million dollars. Because
of what Christ paid. What Christ paid. You said this
one time, what is a thing worth? It is worth what a wise man is
willing to pay for it. The value of things is generally
set by wise men and women who have determined the value of
that thing. Okay? But our Lord is wisdom itself.
And whomever he died for, whoever Christ shed his precious blood
for, they are of infinite value to the Father now. And not only
that. You see, we're of no value without
Christ until we come to know Christ, until we come to be like
Christ. Until the Spirit of God regenerates
us, until He makes us like Jesus Christ, we are of no value to
God whatsoever. Until God takes this tongue and
makes it give Him praise and quit cursing and full of bitterness,
until God takes these ears and hears His voice, until God takes
these hands and makes them do something for His servant, these
feet and walk in faith, until God does that, we are of no value
to Him whatsoever. That when He does, and what's
our value to God? He says, offer unto God thanksgiving.
Vow that vow, thanksgiving and praise. You can't do much, but
you can do that. Can't you? You can do that. And those who do, those who offer
this vow of thanksgiving and praise are of, to God, great
price. The price of His Son. Does that
make any sense to you? Romans 12 says, I beseech you,
brethren, by the mercies of God, because of God's mercy to you,
that you present yourselves as living sacrifices unto the Lord. A living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God. It's your reasonable servant
for the great price. Like those people. What can I
give? How much can I give? What does
it cost me? It's not too much for all that He's done for me.
Oh, my. For His praise, to the praise
and the honor and the glory of His Son, of His grace. This whole story reminded me
of an old poem that I heard years ago. My pastor used to tell it
to us, and I'm going to tell it to you again. It was battered and scarred,
and the auctioneer thought it barely worth his while to auction
off that old violin. But he held it up with a smile.
And he cried, what's my bid, good folks? Who will start the
bidding for me? Will somebody give me a dollar?
Two dollars? Will anybody give me three? Going
for three, going once, going twice, but no. In the room far
back, an old gray-haired man came and Titan picked up the
bow. He began to tighten up those
old loosened strings and he played a melody sweet and fair, as sweet
and fair as a caroling angel sang. Then the auctioneer in a voice
quiet and low said, what is my bid for the old violin?" And
he held it up with the bow. A thousand? Two thousand? Somebody make it three. Going
once, going twice, sold for three thousand. Cried he. And the people
cheered and some of them cried, we just don't understand. What
changed the worth of that old violin? And he said, it was the
touch of the Master's hand. And many a man, woman with a
life out of tune is battered and scarred by sin, is auctioned
off just like that foolish crowd, just like that old violin. But the Master comes. And the
foolish crowd, the world just can't understand the change that
is wrought in a sinner's heart by the touch of the Master's
hand. What is a sinner worth? Nothing. Not ourselves. But when Christ
redeems them, and when the Spirit of God makes them like Christ,
they are of great value to the Lord. The greatest value is to
the praise of the glory of His sovereign, saving, redeeming
grace. Okay. Stand with me.