If you wish to follow along,
turn to Leviticus chapter 22. Leviticus chapter 22. We'll finish
out this chapter. My subject for this morning will
be this. There's my title and my subject
in general. Vows, V-O-W-S, vows. Free will, that's one word, free
will. Not two words, free will. There's
a big difference. God willing, I'll mention that.
Vows, free will, fertility, and willingness. That's what we see. in our text, and our text is
Leviticus 22, 17 through 23. Let me read through it, make
a few brief statements, then I will get into my message in
earnest. Leviticus 22, verse 17. Now the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, and unto all the
children of Israel, and say unto them, Whatsoever whatsoever he
be of the house of Israel or of the strangers in Israel If
you were visiting an Israelite, this is still true of you under
Levitical law that the house of Israel or of the strangers
in Israel that will offer his oblation for all his vows and
and for all his freewill offerings which they will offer unto the
Lord for a burnt offering, ye shall offer at your own will
a male without blemish of the beaves, of the sheep, or of the
goats. Now notice even here, your vow
or your freewill, one word, freewill offering, does not leave you
carte blanche to do what you want. You still must offer God's
acceptable sacrifice so you don't have free, one word, will, second
word. You can only do this by free
will, one word. I'll try to explain that in a
little more detail later. But whatsoever hath a blemish,
that shall ye not offer, for it shall not be acceptable for
you. And this is just the way it is, free will, one word included. free will, one word included.
And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord,
to accomplish his vow, or a free will offering in the beeves or
sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted. There shall be no
blemish therein. So again, your vow, which is
not demanded, this is something you could vow to do, you could
pledge to do, Promise to do and you give this offering and yet
the scripture not here But in other places makes it clear once
you have vowed this vow that vow is binding It's binding now
The vow was similar to the free will offering in that you're
not commanded to give the vow offering but if you give the
vow offering you must stick to the vow and Anyway, and whosoever
offers sacrifice, peace offering, it's got to have no blemish,
blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wind, or scurvy,
or scab, ye shall not offer these things unto the Lord, nor make
an offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the Lord. So again,
you are not at liberty with some supposed free, one word, will,
second word, This is only a free will one word offering and it's
got to be perfect. No blemish. either a bullock
or a lamb that hath anything superfluous or lacking in his
parts, that mayest thou offer for a free will offering, but
for a vow it shall not be accepted. And I'm not going to go into
the detail of the difference between those this morning. Ye
shall not offer unto the Lord that which is bruised or crushed
or broken or cut, neither shall ye make any offering thereof
in your land. And this is talking about the
reproductive parts of the animal must be intact. They must be
fertile animals. They were not to be harmed or
changed in any way. That's important. Neither from
a stranger's hand shall ye offer the bread of your God of any
of these, because their corruption is in them, and blemishes be
in them, they shall not be accepted for you, therefore, Free will,
one word, offering, is not the same as free, one word, will,
two words. And the Lord spake unto Moses
saying, when a bullock or a sheep or a goat is brought forth, then
it shall be seven days under the dam. And from the eighth
day and henceforth it shall be accepted for an offering made
by fire unto the Lord. And whether it be a cow or you,
you shall not kill it and her young both in one day. And when
you will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Lord, Offer
it at your own will. That is the second time we have
read a similar phrase like that. On the same day it shall be eaten
up. Ye shall leave none of it until the morrow. I am the Lord. Therefore shall ye keep my commandments
and do them I am the Lord. Neither shall you profane my
holy name, but I will be hallowed. But I will be hallowed among
the children of Israel. I am the Lord which hallow you,
that brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am
the Lord. So again, vowels, V-O-W-S, free
will, one word, Fertility and willingness, vows, free will,
fertility and willingness. All of these facts under the
Levitical law speak of Christ and his redemptive power. Whether anyone understands this
or not, even if I did not understand it, the truth is still true. You don't want God to accept
you based upon your vows. and based upon your even one
word, free will. This is talking about Jesus Christ's
vow and Jesus Christ's, one word, free will. A vow is a sacrificial
present. For instance, when Hannah, she
gave an offering when she was what? Vowing Samuel, little Samuel,
to the Lord. That was a vow. She didn't have
to do that, Matt. But it was a vow, but once she
vowed him to the Lord, he's the Lord's. So that's one of the
ways we see that used. A vow or a sacrificial present.
The free will means this. Free will, one word, means spontaneous
or voluntary. And I'm here to say that's all
it means. That's all it means. But that is exactly what it means. This was an offering that was
given simply as actual gratitude to
God. It was not demanded in any way.
It's permitted that I want to do this simply out of gratitude
to my God under the Levitical law. The fertility of the sacrifices,
they must be fertile. They must be. And the personal
willingness of the one who offers. they all typify, speak of, look
forward to the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now briefly,
let me note a few foundational facts first. I will give you
four. Most of my time will be spent
on the fourth one. Number one, there are two main
offerings here in our context, the vow. And as I've said, the
vow is an offering of pledge or promise. I trust Jesus Christ. That what he pledged to the Father,
what he promised to the Father in the covenant of grace, that
he fulfilled every aspect of every vow he ever agreed to pledge. We see the vow or an offering
or a pledge or a promise. We also see a free will offering. As I said, this is an actual
offering of pure gratitude. Listen to me. We rarely ever
do that as believers. But you hear what I say? I said
we rarely ever do that as believers. Most of the time, most of the
time, Maybe even all the time, maybe even all the time, and
that's as far as I could go with that. Even when we are moved
by the Spirit of God to offer up acts of gratitude toward God,
even then, I know that it's true, the flesh is with us, the Adamic
nature is with us, our fallen state is with us, and it always
affects our vow in some way or another. James tells us that
sometimes we pray and we pray looking for something just to
consume of our own lusts. And I want this book to keep
on constantly, constantly reminding us how bad our flesh really is. You ever get over that, you've
went too far. You've went too, T-O-O, too far. Secondly, there's a con job out
there. And I will, what some would probably
say, pick on a certain denomination. But I do this for a reason. They're
the only ones that are bold enough to put it up on their marquees,
or on the names of their church building, their denomination.
They call themselves Free Will Baptists. You've seen them, we've
got them all around us. If you ever noticed, I'm not
saying they all do, but everyone I ever remember seeing spells
it Free Will Baptist in what way? As one word. But what they
really teach is not the free will offering, or even the free
will offering of Jesus Christ. What they're teaching is the
supposed, the lie that's called man's free will two words. They won't spell it that way,
the way it ought to be spelled. Free will two words, that is
this doctrine, and it's a heresy. That is when man fell in the
garden, yes man fell, but the one thing that survived the fall
was man's will. And that's the one thing that
did not survive the fall, is man's will. The book is clear. A man's heart must make him willing.
This book says that over and over and over again. Our Lord
said, himself said, out of the heart, out of the abundance of
the heart. And that seemed like a good word,
abundance. But he says out of the abundance of the heart, what
happens? The mouth speaks. and evil thoughts. What is thought
but the will? Evil thoughts and murders and
fornications and adulteries. Our hearts are desperately wicked
above anything else that exists. Our hearts are demonic, that
is enemy hearts to God. The word Satan means enemy. I
have a satanic heart by nature. I have a satanic heart. Adamic
nature is satanic, it is at enmity against God Almighty. God help
me never to forget that. God constantly remind me of that
fact. Let me tell you something, when
they say free will, and they spell it one word, they're a
con artist. They're a huckster. because they're
not talking about the free will of Jesus Christ, one word, they're
talking about man's supposed free will, and it does not exist. An illustration was given by
one individual to a gospel preacher, and I'm gonna change it a little
bit, what the gospel preacher responded, but there was a man
who, speaking to a gospel preacher, he says, I have free will. He
said, let me prove it to you. And he says, see my finger? I
can move my finger this way, or I can move my finger this
way. That's free will. I can move my finger this way,
and I've just done that too. Or I can move my finger this
way. That's free will. And the preacher said, no it's
not. No it's not. If your will was free, you can
make your finger purple, 50 feet tall, and the king of England.
But you can't do that. But there's one thing I can't
do. I cannot make that finger bend backwards just by my wheel
and make it touch the back of my hand. I cannot do it. Man doesn't have a free wheel. His wheel is limited by his nature,
by his heart, by his inner corruption. And again, the book says our
hearts are desperately wicked above All things, that's number
two. Number three, even here, free
will is never a man could choose whatever he wants. Was it? Was it? You can't just choose
whatever, you could choose or not choose. You could choose
or not choose to offer an offering, right? You could choose or not
choose to offer this offering. But if you offer this offering,
you had to offer it according to God's stipulation. You were
not free to do with that offering whatever you wanted to do with
that offering. So free will, that is two words,
free will, doesn't exist anywhere at any time. Now listen to me. Even God is not free will. God is holy will. He is separate will. And God
cannot lie. So God's not free to lie, right? He cannot. So there's some things
God cannot do. He cannot change. He's immutable. So the very concept of free will
is a lie that man has created to make himself think he's on
the throne. I'll tell you, here's what man's
will is, we will not have this man reign over us. Now man has
a will, you can mark it down, but it ain't free. It ain't free. And even here, free will, the
free will offering, it's never left to choose what you want.
A vow or free will could be offered or not offered, but no one could
choose anything they wanted. And then you have the really
technical, well, you can't do it anyway. I mean, not everything
is possible to man, but certainly a man willing his own salvation
is possible. No, it's not. Christ said you
will not come to me. Your main problem is your will.
You will not come to me that you might have life. And then
as our beloved brother Paul just preached a moment ago, God also
says, God the Son, some men, no man by nature, can come, except
the Father which hath sent me, draw him. You see, that which
could be offered must be offered at your own will. But it has
to be what God has willed. You see it? Your will must be
subject to God's will. That's Levitical law now. That
is Levitical law. Number four, only one man can
fully fit these shadows. Do you hear what I just said?
Only one man can fully fit these shadows. Yes, it is true. Men must desire salvation. If
you never desire salvation, you will perish without it. Do you
hear what I just said? Anybody here that's been on the
TV, radio, internet, if you don't ever desire salvation, you'll
perish without salvation. Man must desire salvation, but
all who desire salvation must desire it at God's accepted sacrifice. You're going to believe God.
You're going to submit to the truth of God's sacrifice. That's
your vow. That's your free will. At best. At best. And for the sake of
argument, at best. Think of it. Number one under
this fourth heading, no blemish is allowed. And you know the
passage and others like it. First Peter 1, 18 and 19. Christ
is a lamb without blemish and without spot. And I'll just stop
and say, you know what? Most professed Christians have
no problem with that. Do they? I'm not saying all,
but most. I would say the greatest majority
of those who profess at least what we call evangelical Christianity,
that is those who believe something must happen to a man for him
or her to be saved, to be converted. I know there are the universalists
that think we're really all saved and we're all good, whatever.
But I'm not even dealing with that this morning. They don't
argue that Jesus Christ was without spot. Hebrews 9, 14, he offered
himself without spot to God. And most that I know of don't
disagree with that. Where they do begin to disagree,
to kick, where unbelief begins to rise up is when we begin to
talk about full fertility. You hear what I'm saying? These
animals. Now, a free will could have something
superfluous. One leg may have been a little
longer than the other. That's what it's talking about. One
leg may have been a little weaker than the other. You can still
offer that as a free will offering under Levitical law, but if it's
a vow, if it's a vow, you can't do that. But if it's vow offering
or free will offering, it's not to have its reproductive organs
damaged or changed in any way. You remember what our Lord said,
John recorded it? Unless a corn of wheat falls into the ground,
it abides alone. But if it falls into the ground and it does its
thing, It bringeth forth much fruit. I'm here to declare that
our Lord Jesus Christ's redemptive work was fully fertile. I'm not
talking about this blasphemous stuff that Hollywood and the
History Channel and the Discovery Channel promotes that Jesus married
one or more women and had several children by them women. That's
blasphemous. That's blasphemous, but I'm here
to tell you that Jesus Christ has a seed. He's fully fertile. His redemptive
power is full fertility. He's not flawed in his fertility.
Isaiah 53, and this chapter is without question speaking of
Jesus Christ. Even the New Testament lets us
know that without question. And it says in verse 10, yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. God did this. Yes, wicked men
crucified him, but this was an act of God Almighty. The crucifixion
of Christ was first and foremost an act of God Almighty. God even
ordained the wicked acts that men would do unto him when he
hung on that tree. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see seed. Now the hills don't
damage it none at all, but he shall see seed. He's fertile
in this. Do you see that? He's fertile
in this. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. He want to die, but he ain't
going to, Mason, stay dead. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall what? Prosper in his hand. He's fertile. He's fertile. He shall see the travail of his
soul, that is the Lord, The father, if you will, will see the son,
he shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be what? Satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. Why? Because they go straighten
up and live right. They will have a change of walk,
and life, and belief, and understanding. They will, but that's not the
point here. He shall justify many for he shall bear their
iniquities. Now we sang this song, and there
are those who believe in free will. Now remember I picked on
the free will Baptist? Well sadly, almost all Baptists
are free willers in our day and age. Almost all of them are,
at least to get it. Now you got a certain group that
believes you gotta have free will to get it, but once you
get it, God don't trust your own will, God's gotta keep you
safe, so you got eternal security. Now, am I not telling you the
truth? Is that not how some of them, they're not called free
will Baptists. But even when they talk about free will, they'll
spell it free will one word and not free will two words. I have
to say this, on behalf of the free will Baptists, they're more
consistent and more honest than most so-called other Baptists
in our day. They are, they are. But you could be consistently
wrong, go to hell. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. Alt-Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians,
whether they believe in free will or they don't believe in
free will, the two words, free will. They will see, living he
loved me. And then they say these words,
dying he saved me, but they don't believe that. Now they really
believe if pressed, well dying he made it possible for me to
be saved. That's not what William Chapman, Wilbur Chapman wrote.
He said, and if you're gonna sing it, believe the truth and
sing it, or don't sing it at all, at least be honest. Living,
he loved me. Dying, he saved me. Buried, he
carried my sins far away. Rising, he justified freely forever. And one day he's coming. Oh,
glorious day. Full fertility. Romans 5 verses
6 through 11 says this, those for whom Jesus Christ died are
reconciled. And they shall be saved. Go back
and read it yourself. Romans chapter 5 verses 6 through
11. So then, number three, even the
willingness of the sinner is a product of Christ's redemptive
power. Did you hear what I said? Turn
to the 110th Psalm. And somebody says, well, you
always go there when it comes to this subject. It's because
it's still in the book. God didn't say this is true up until 2020.
And then it's void after 2020. Did he? I've not read it anywhere.
Not in this book. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool. And
our Lord Jesus Christ, when he was here on the earth in flesh,
quoted this very thing referring to himself. So I know this talk
about him. Right? The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength, fertility, power, might. The Lord shall send the
rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou. Where? Amongst all
those that like you. Not just there. Rule thou in
the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing. And you can just say, thy people,
willing. because the emphasis is on the
willingness. But when are they going to be willing? Willing
they will be, willing they must be, willing they will be brought
to be. But thy people willing in the
day of thy fertility, your power, your might. Even Paul puts it
this way, Philippians chapter two, and he puts it in conjunction
with Jesus Christ's submission to the Father's will, that he
suffered the death of the cross, wherefore God highly exalted
him. And he puts it this way, for it is God. You work out your,
not work for your salvation, but work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling, for, for it is God. that worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now God does not will for you,
but he must make you willing. And he will do so if you're his
in the day of his power. Number four, Christ alone willed
the vow. Turn back to Hebrews 10. Now
remember, in Christ, person and work, the vow offering and the
free will offering are one and the same. Now, under Levitical
law, for the fallen sons and daughters of Adam, they were
different. But in his fulfillment of them, he didn't offer two
sacrifices. He offered one sacrifice, foresee and forever. And all
of these pictures and types, that one sacrifice meant all
of them. It meant all of them. Listen to Hebrews 10. And you
know the context, but look at it, verse six. In burnt off,
no wait a minute, I gotta get verse five. Wherefore, cause
bulls and goats won't cut it when it comes to God taking away
your sin. It never did. Never shall, it's not gonna happen
again. Not gonna be a time for Israel when God'll, no sir, no,
no, no. Wherefore when he, that's Christ,
cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
not, but a body hast thou prepared me. And that's a real, bonafide,
flesh and bone and blood body. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo! That's so simple of a word, yet,
is saying, stop in your tracks and look at this seriously. It's
even stronger than a behold. A behold could just be, okay,
that was marvelous. Lo is this, whoa. I best gander
on this for a while. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book it is written to me. I come to do thy will, oh God. Now here's the question. Do we believe that he did it
or not? That's the question. Do we believe
that living he loved me, dying he saved me, buried he carried
my sins far away, rising he justified me freely forever and bless God
one day, What a glorious day he'll return and receive me unto
himself that where he is, there I might be also. Lo, I come to
do thy will, O God, and I'm here to announce emphatically he did. He did. Number five, Christ also
alone freely gave himself for his offspring. Paul, you read
it, John chapter six, as it is written, and this ain't no new
thing. The Old Testament prophets preached it, Jesus Christ preached
it, the apostles who wrote the New Testament preach it, and
those who are truly sin of God today still preach this. And
it is written in the prophets, and they, that is the ones the
Father gives to the Son, and they shall all be taught of God. That whole group of people. A
group that no man can number of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
people, nation. He saved the world, folks. Now
he didn't save everyone in the world, but he saved the world.
Just like God saved the world in Noah's day and the world still
perished in Noah's day. Both were true, were they not?
He destroyed the world that then was, but he still saved the world.
Did he not? And when Jesus Christ died, because
he did not die for everyone, they shall perish in their sins
justly. and righteously, but he did die
for some. And they're gonna be taught of
God, and everyone that's taught of God, they're gonna learn,
they're gonna know of Christ, they're gonna trust Christ, they're
gonna flee to Christ, they're gonna cling to Christ, they're
gonna bow to Jesus Christ. Christ alone freely gave himself. He said when he prayed, I pray
for these, and he's talking about 11 out of 12. There was 12 men
with him, but he wasn't praying for one of them. And he's praying
for 11 of them. He said, I pray not for the world,
but those that thou gave me out of the world. And then a few
moments later, Joey prayed, I don't just pray for those 11 alone.
Now I'm paraphrasing, but I don't just pray for them, that is those
11, but for everyone that shall believe on me through their word.
And if you ever believe, now God will send a man preaching,
but he's gonna have to preach their words. Mac, there is no other words
to preach other than this holy scripture, this book. Just as,
you know, that man in hell wanted his brothers to have some kind
of experience that would guarantee they wouldn't go to hell, right?
And even Abraham, the father, said they got the book of God.
Let them hear the book of God. If they don't, they'll rightfully
come to this place. Ephesians 5 puts it this way.
This is Christ fulfilling the vow. Christ offering himself
willingly. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse
25. Husbands, love your wives. Now
there's a message there, but that's not my subject this morning.
Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church
and did what? and gave himself for it. Notice he doesn't say here he
died for it, though that's part of the equation. But here he
gave himself for it. He gave his whole life for the
benefit of the church, the elect, the sheep, those who are brought
by the Spirit to believe on him. Now all who hold to their vow
or vows, V-O-W-S, all who hold to their supposed freewheels,
two words, or their actual freewill, one word. Here's the problem
with that. They seek to rob God of his glory. Because Christ is the one who
vowed. And having vowed, he was bound
by that vow. And he lovingly, willingly, freewheelingly
offered himself without spot to God on behalf of his people. God says through the prophet
Isaiah, I got some glory, and I placed that glory on my elect
person, that one elect person, my servant. That's Isaiah 42,
the New Testament lets us know that's all about Christ. It's
all about Christ. See, somebody says I don't like
election, it's because you don't love Christ. because he's the
elect one and the elect ones were elected in him. So if you
don't like elections, it's because you don't like Christ. That's
just what, and the book says that's our problem. Light coming
into this world, what? We love darkness rather than
light. That's what we are by nature. It's what we are in ourselves. God Almighty comes down and arrests
us and does something for us. It says Christ loved the church
and gave himself for According to the Apostle Paul,
he says, some of you are called, not everybody's called, are they? That's what he says. First Corinthians
chapter one, go back and read it yourself. God didn't call
everybody. Not many mighty, not many noble. They're not even
called. They're not even called. But God called the base, things
that are despised, but what's it all boiled down to? But of
God are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made in us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, and this is the
reason, this is so, so that no flesh should glory in his presence. Therefore, you want to brag about
something? Brag about Jesus Christ. And that's what it is. It's about
bragging about our Lord Jesus Christ. I wish I did that. You know that. I meet people,
I cower. Never done that. Because we ought
not just say, well let me tell you about Christ. Brag on him. Boast in the Lord. He gave his only begotten son. Turn to Romans three and I'll
close this. Romans three. Verse 20, therefore,
by the deeds of the law, that's even these deeds, we see these
vows, these free will offerings, you try to get to God by you
doing those things yourself, you'll never make it to God.
You'll be so busy that you'll die busy and you'll die and go
to hell. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of
sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Now look at it. Even the righteousness
of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. A couple weeks ago there
was some fellas on Before We Are on TV, and they quoted this
verse, and all they concentrated on was and upon all them that
believe. But they said nothing about even
the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. It's his faithfulness that matters. And what God's people believe
in is his faithfulness. He fulfilled the vow. He freely
and willingly offered himself without spot to God. I trust
him. Isn't that what this says? Even
the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto
all and upon all them that believe, because there is no difference,
we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. God help me to believe Christ. Just trust him. Mac, will you
close us in prayer, please? We thank You for the knowledge
and the wisdom that Thou has given the ones who stand before
us. We ask You to increase it. Help us to learn to love Christ
more through the teachings of Thy Word. Father, forgive us
of our sins. Bless those that are sick in
our congregation. Help them where they might come
back to be with us. Amen. Siri says working on it. She
must have heard me ask a question. I've never known Siri to answer
a scriptural question at all. I'll have it ongoing to work,
and somebody will be preaching, they'll blurt out a question,
and she'll say, I don't understand the question. I'll say, I don't
doubt you don't. Yeah, but most people won't admit
to that. Yeah. Money is truth.