Turn this morning to the book
of Numbers, chapter 6. Numbers, chapter 6. When I was ten years old, my
family moved from Birmingham, Alabama to St. Louis, Missouri. And that was quite a change.
And we went from going to this little country church to what
was referred to as a high Methodist church. And I found out that
meant sort of low Catholic. It was this gray stone, massive
edifice. with big alcoves and like 40-foot
ceilings and stained glass windows down the side alcoves and the
steps up to this huge altar with a massive rose window and stained
glass thing. The service always began with
an acolyte, which is a low altar boy, and he would light the candles
all across the front of the building. then set his thing down and run
down through the basement and come up and then lead the procession
with this huge wooden cross on a pole down with the two ministers
and this huge choir and this organ. And I mean, it was quite
a scene. And of course, it didn't take
me long to figure out I wanted to be one of those guys. It was better, you see, leading
that thing down there. and sitting back in a corner
with nobody watching you, and have to sit there with your parents
and listen. And every time, we knew the end
of the service was coming when this minister would come around
out of this big pulpit and raise his hand, and he would always
say the same thing. He would say, May the Lord bless
thee and be gracious unto thee. And may the Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee and give you peace. May the Lord make
his face to shine upon thee and be gracious." Now, why do I remember
that so much? I knew it was almost over when
he did that, and I was going to get home and go out and play
again. I recently received a birthday
card, and at the bottom was written this scripture reference, number
6, verse 24-26, which is the portion of scripture that what
this old man used to recite. So when I got this card, I looked
up the verses and read it, and I felt impressed to go back and
read. in the 30-something years I've
been looking at the Bible, never read what came before this. And
I'm going to caution you. I'm going to read this now, beginning
in verse 1 of number 6. And this is the type of Scripture
that we read and start to zone out. The details and the specifics
can be absolutely mind-numbing and overwhelming. And I'm reading
this for a purpose. and with good reason, which you'll
see as this message unfolds. But turn with me now and follow
along in number six, and bear with. What this is, so you know going
in, what's recorded here are the legal requirements to those
who would become Nazarites. A Nazarite was one who voluntarily
took a vow to do something, to accomplish something specific.
And some folks you would know from the scriptures who are Nazirites,
Samson was a Nazirite. That's what all this thing with
his hair was about. Amos the prophet was a Nazirite. Samuel
was a Nazirite. Who else was? John the Baptist
was a Nazirite. So here's what was required if
you were going to be a Nazirite. Verse 6, And the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto
them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves, to
vow a vow of an aphorite, to separate themselves unto the
Lord, 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 grapes. All the days of his separation
shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the
kernels even to the husk. And all the days of the vow of
his separation there shall no razor come upon his head, not
his head or his face, until the days be fulfilled in which he
separateth himself unto the Lord. He shall be holy and shall let
the locks of the hair of his head grow. And all the days that
he separateth himself unto the Lord he shall come at no dead
body. He shall not make himself unclean. He can't come in any proximity
to a dead body, even if it's his father, or his mother, or
his brother, or his sister, even if they die. And because of the
consecration of his God is upon his head, all the days of his
separation he is holy unto the Lord. And if any man die very
suddenly by him, he's just walking down the street, the guy falls
over dead. and he hath defiled the head
of his consecration. He is unclean now. Then he shall
shave his head in that day of his cleansing, and on the seventh
day he shall shave it. And on the eighth day he shall
bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons to the priest at
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And the priest
shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a
burnt offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he is sinned
by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day. And he
shall consecrate unto the Lord the days of his separation, and
shall bring a lamb of the first year for the trespass offering.
But the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation
was defiled." He had to start all over. Verse 13, and this is the law
of the Nazarite. When the days of his separation
are fulfilled, when he finally accomplishes what he set out
to do, what he vowed he would do, When the days of that are
fulfilled, he shall be brought into the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, and he shall offer his offering unto the Lord,
one he-lamb, one male lamb of the first year without blemish,
for a burnt offering, and one you-lamb of the first year without
blemish, for a sent offering, and one ram without blemish,
for peace offerings, and 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 the priest shall bring them before the Lord,
and shall offer his sin offering and his burnt offering. And he
shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord,
with a basket of unleavened bread. And the priest shall offer also
his meat offering and his drink offering. And then the Nazarite
shall shave his head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, and shall take the hair of his head of
his separation, and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice
of the peace offering. and the priest shall take the
sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the
basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands
of the Nazarite, and after the hair of his separation is shaven.
And the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the
Lord. This is holy for the priest, with the wave breast and the
heave shoulder, after that the Nazarite may drink wine. This
is the law of the Nazarite who hath vowed, and of his offering
unto the Lord for his separation Beside that, that his hand shall
get according to the vow that he vowed, so he must do after
the law of his separation." I read that and I thought, who
do I know that can do that? If when you did it all, got it
all ready, and you went out and started getting these animals,
It says you had to have a Ulam that was without blemish. How
do you know if it's without blemish? I mean, maybe it's not limping,
but if somehow it had some blemish and you got there, then none
of it counts for anything because it's no longer perfect. And I'm
thinking, who could have done this? I don't know anybody could
do this. And then I thought, yeah, I do.
I do know somebody. who could not only have done
this perfectly, but could also have fulfilled the Levitical
law and the ceremonial law and the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.
He could have done it all and as Jesus Christ the Nazarene. He could do it. He could do it
perfectly. And I realize this is a picture
and a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called in Matthew
2, it says of our Lord, he shall be called a Nazarene. But let
me just point out a few things. I'm not going to read all these
verses again, but let me point out just a few things to show
you why this is a type of Christ. You see in verse 2, it says they have to separate themselves.
Well, that's a picture of Christ because he was with God the Father
in heaven. And yet he separated himself
and came down here and lived. He separated himself. And you
know what? He was separated for 33 years.
Our Lord volunteered of his own will to be separated. And then
it says he made a vow of vows. And this vow of vows is a promise
not just to do something, but if you look it up, it says to
do something wonderful. This had to be extraordinary,
what was done. And our Lord, whose name is wonderful,
he separated himself for one purpose. He vowed, Father, I'm
going to go save your people. I'll go get them. I didn't come
to save the whole world. His vow was, you see in verse
2, it says, speak unto the children of Israel. He's doing this. He vowed to live perfectly. for
God's children, so God's people will have a holy righteousness
and can one day come into the presence of their Father. He
vowed to put away their sin, to die in their place so they
could go free. This is a wonderful thing to
do, and only he could do it, because it must be done perfectly
according to God's holy law. And this whole thing about strong
drink in verses 3 and 4, I know some of us here May never have
been intoxicated with alcohol. That may never have happened
to you. But everybody in here has been intoxicated. There's
been something that you wanted so bad. That's all you could
see. Well, when Christmas comes around,
that's what makes it tough, is our children get fixated. They
get intoxicated with something. They want it. They want it. Parents
get intoxicated with their children in this day. The whole world
revolves around them. Our Lord Jesus Christ was never
intoxicated with the things of this world. You know, our Lord,
it says, didn't even have a place to lay his head. He didn't even
own a pillow. The one thing he had, which I
guess could be said was his, was his robe. And they took that
away from him before they crucified him, didn't they? And this thing
about the not cutting of hair and beard, our Lord must have
had substantial hair. I don't know how long he went
without cutting it, or if he ever did, I don't know. But I
know this, he had substantial hair because I tell you what,
the soldiers grabbed it and tore it out in hands full. And you
can't do that with just a bristle the way the young people wear
it today. And this is also a picture, the hair is the crown. And I
tell you what, even though he came from the Father, he never
gave up his kingship. He's Lord of lords and King of
kings, no matter what else. And you see in verse 5, we see
the certain indication that this is about our Lord, because he's
the only true Nazarite. You see in verse 5, it says,
the last phrase there near the bottom, it says, He shall be
holy. Now, that can't be anybody but
Christ. That cannot be said about a man. It absolutely cannot.
And you see verse 8, it says, "...all the days of his separation."
He's holy unto the Lord. You know, those who joined the
Nazarites were made holy. All this doing pictures the doing
of another who made them holy. It's not their doing. They couldn't
do this perfectly. But Christ did it perfectly.
It's a picture of His doing for us what we can't do for ourselves.
I can't go 33 minutes or 33 seconds without some evil, wicked, sinful
deed or thought. But the Lord Jesus Christ did
something amazing. He lived 33 years perfect. Isn't that wonderful and glorious
that He lived without sin? Turn over to Luke chapter 7 with
me. Old number 6. What about this business of contact
with the dead. Anyone here who has not been
in the presence of a dead person? Maybe you haven't, but you will
be. You just wait. It will come to you. What happened when our Lord came
in contact with a dead person? When He came into the presence
of a dead person? One example was in Matthew 9. A woman came
to our Lord and said, My daughter died. She died. And he said, no, no, she's just
sleeping. And he went with her, and when he entered the room,
everybody said, you're wasting your time to go get him because
she's dead. He said, no, she's asleep. And
when he walked in the room, what'd she do? She sat up and talked.
And when Lazarus, his sisters came, if you'd been here, our
brother wouldn't have died. And he wept for her. Poor thing. Poor thing. She didn't know. Our Lord has no dead children.
He said, Lazarus, come forth. And out he walked. He wasn't
dead. In the presence of our Lord, there was nobody dead.
And you see here in Luke 7, verse 12. Luke 7, verse 12. Now when he came nigh to the
gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out. the
only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and much people
of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her and said unto her, Don't weep. And he
came and touched the coffin. And David Barron stood still,
and he said, Young man, I say unto thee, arise. And he that
was dead sat up and began to speak, and he delivered him unto
his mother. And there came a great reverence
on all, and they glorified God, saying that a great prophet is
risen up among us and that God had visited his people, he will
not have any dead children. No death comes into his presence.
And the final evidence, if we need it, that that is so, is
Jesus Christ died and three days later he raised himself from
the dead. God has no dead children. He will raise us up also. Isn't
that a wonderful thing? What a wonderful thing. So what
about all these offerings and sacrifices here that had to happen
to fulfill the vow of the Nazarite? We had turtle doves and pigeons
and a ewe and a lamb and a ram and unleavened bread. Well, they
all had to be made. But what sacrifice was required
of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene? He made himself the sacrifice. You remember when Abraham and
Isaac were going up the mountain? And Isaac knew about the sacrifice. He said, Father, here's the fire
and the wood. Where's the lamb? And Abraham said, The Lord shall
provide himself the sacrifice. Jesus Christ made himself the
sacrifice. That's why it's without limit,
without spot. He's the perfect lamb. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He's the bread of life. He died
that we, his people, might live. And when all was accomplished
according to the Scriptures, according to his vow he made
to the Father, he gave up the ghost. Now turn over to Hebrews
7 with me. Hebrews chapter 7. He died, he arose from the grave,
and he is seated at his Father's right hand. And when his vow
was completed, and he made himself a perfect atoning sacrifice,
Jesus Christ arose and He seated at the Father's right hand as
the high priest of His people. Look in Hebrews 7 and here's
the difference between Jesus Christ, the high priest, and
all these Old Testament priests from Aaron on. Here's the difference.
In Hebrews 7, verse 19, for the law made nothing perfect. You
see, the problem with the law is that we can't keep it. And
it doesn't matter how hard we try, I'm not ever going to let
alcohol pass these lips. OK? But I'm watching you over there
with your glass of wine, and I'm going, man, I'd really like
to have a glass of that. You read about people who do
awful things, and we need to understand the only difference
between them and me is either I haven't had the opportunity
or the hand of God restrains me from it. That's the only difference. And the law can't save anybody,
and the effort to keep it can't be done, can't be fulfilled.
It just didn't do that. You see, verse 19, the law made
nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did. You know what that word hope
is? A better vow. by the which we draw nigh unto
God, and inasmuch as not without an oath," that's the word, vow,
he was made a priest. Jesus Christ was made a priest
because of his vow. For those Old Testament priests
were made without any vow. They didn't vow to do anything.
They just were appointed to be priests. They went in and went
through the motions so that we'd have that picture to recognize
our high priest when he came, that we'd recognize Jesus Christ. as our high priest. But this with an oath by him
that said in him, The Lord swear and will not repent. Thou art
a priest after the order of Melchizedek. By so much was Jesus made the
surety of a better testament. You see, the Old Testament is
the law. Obey and live. The New Testament
is believe on Christ and be saved. He's already filled the law,
done it for us. And they truly were many priests,
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
They all died. But this man, Jesus Christ, because
he continueth ever hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able
also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for us. For such an high priest
became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, Separate, you recognize
that word? He's the Nazarite who was separated,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who
need, if not daily, as those high priests to offer up sacrifices,
first for their own sins and then for the people's. For this
he did once when he offered up himself. That's what makes him
unique as a priest. He didn't make sacrifice after
sacrifice. When he gave himself, it was enough. It accomplished
it. Verse 28, For the law makes men
high priests, which have infirmities. They are not perfect. But the
word of the oath, the word of the vow of the Nazarite, which
was since the law, makes the Son, Jesus Christ, who is consecrated
or perfected forevermore. Now, turn back to number 6, and
what is the importance of this priesthood thing? After this explanation of the
vow of the Nazarite, God tells Moses to tell Aaron, who is the
high priest, to say something to the children of Israel. He
didn't say, say it to the Malachites or say it to the Hittites. He
said, say it to the children of Israel, God's people. And
look what he said in verse 22. And the Lord spake to Moses,
saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying on this wise,
Ye shall bless the children of Israel. Do you see, if a Nazarite did what he set
out to do, it created a blessing. God was pleased with what was
done. Jesus Christ in the Nazarene,
out of that, to come save his people. And God's pleased with
that. God honors that. all the children of God are blessed
by it. And here is now the scripture
that we read earlier. Verse 24, we can now hear this
as believers. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious
unto thee. And the Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. Because of the accomplished vow
of Jesus Christ of the Nazarene Here's what we receive as God's
people. We're blessed. We're greatly
benefited. We're kept. No eternal harm can
ever come to us. And don't just let this go over
your head. Listen to this. All the glory of God is reflected
on us by the shining face of Jesus Christ, God's Son. He doesn't
look at us. He looks at us in Christ. We receive grace, not what we
deserve, but rather what we need, a perfect holy righteousness.
God's countenance toward us is not anger, not disfavor, but
favor. We're received as perfect sons
and daughters. And lastly, we have peace. No
more fear, no more worry, no more anxiety. We're at peace
with God in Christ. Now, did anyone notice When I
was standing out here, holding my hand up, saying those words
that were used in that old Methodist church, and when I read this,
that there was a subtle difference in what I said. That old man used to say, May
the Lord bless thee. May the Lord's face shine upon
thee. There's no may in this. Now,
there's a subtle thing here, but don't miss it. This scripture
does not say the Lord may bless you. He might, if you do this
or you do that. That's what that old man was
saying. He was saying, if you give, you put enough money in
that plate down there, if you come here every Sunday, and if
you don't do this and you don't do that, then the Lord may bless
you. The blessings of God are not
predicated upon or based upon anything we do. No. The blessings
of God are found only in Jesus Christ because of what he did,
what he accomplished. He fulfilled his wonderful vow
and he purchased salvation by his work. Now, let me give you
an illustration to see if I can get us to grasp this. Can you
all see what that is? But every kid in here knows what
it is. And every child in here would like to have this. It's
a $10 bill. Now, I determined to give it
to one of the children here. And first, let me tell you how
I got this $10. You see, last Saturday I left
Lexington and drove to Princeton, New Jersey. That's 637 miles,
if you're wondering. And I spoke for Clay Curtis.
And then I drove down to Annapolis, Maryland, and the next morning
I saw a customer, and I saw another one in Washington, D.C., and
another one in Baltimore, and then I drove to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Stayed there, and the next day I drove to Buffalo, New York,
and I saw a customer there, and I was supposed to go to Detroit,
and that all fell through. That night when I finished by
nine o'clock, I found out, so I headed for home. And I got
to Erie, Pennsylvania, and there wasn't any hotel rooms. And I
got to Cleveland, and there weren't any hotel rooms. I finally just
pulled in a last parking spot at a place and slept for two
hours and drove on home, got home at 7.30 in the morning on
Wednesday. That's how I got the $10. I sold enough stuff to cover
my expenses, and thank goodness I made more than $10, but that's
where this $10 came from. I earned it, and I can do with
it what I want to. So yesterday, I called Mabel
Lynn, with the permission of her mom, and told her I had a
gift for her and asked if she'd like to have it. And she said,
Oh, yes, please. And I told her that I would come
to her on Sunday, and if she'd just ask me for her gift, I'd
give it to her. Now, Mabel, in a few minutes
after I finish and we sing in that last song, I'm going to
come up that side aisle, and I'm sure your folks will let
you get over near the side there, and I'm going to bend down, and
if you ask me, I'm going to give you your gift. You don't even have to speak
to me. I know you want it. She's been looking at me ever
since I came in this morning. Now, stay with me here. that when I got up that side
aisle and I bent down, Mabel said, Mr. Bob, I really don't
want your gift. I'm going to borrow my dad's
van and fill it up with really cool stuff, and I'm going to
drive up all those places because obviously it worked for you,
and I'm going to make myself $10 or maybe more. Now, would that be an insult? And I'd have to laugh at how
silly that is. A ten-year-old driving 1,700
miles in three and a half days. What in the world is she thinking? What is she thinking? Is that
the most ridiculous thing in the world? No, not really. You want to know what the most
ridiculous thing in the world is? That religious folks They
refuse the free grace of God and set about to earn salvation.
They reject the righteousness of Christ and set about to establish
their own. They make silly little sacrifices
at Lent and mock the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary. They
refuse the robe of Christ's perfect righteousness and put on filthy
rags of self-righteousness. Folks, salvation is a promised
gift. It is not a work which we have
done, but the work that Christ the Nazarene already finished.
We either have his righteousness, or we have no righteousness at
all. Christ either put away our sin at Calvary, or it won't ever
be put away. It is not something to be earned,
it is a gift. Christ already paid the price,
his blood. We need him to call us and reveal
to us by his Spirit, because we will never ask for it by nature.
Now, all God's children can claim
these blessings in Christ. Here is the question of questions.
Who is a believer? Who is a child of God? I want
to know that. Don't you? Look over at Acts
chapter 11 with me. One more scripture. We're going
to come back to number six for one second, but Acts chapter
11 for a minute. When Paul spoke to King Agrippa,
Agrippa said, Paul, you almost persuade me to be a Christian. And in Acts 11, verse 22, Then
tidings of the things came unto the ears of the church which
was at Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should
go as far as Antioch, who when he came and had seen the grace
of God, was glad and exhorted them all, that with purpose of
heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man,
he was a good speaker, a good apostle, a good prophet. and
full of Holy Ghost and of faith. And much people was added unto
the Lord. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul,
the apostle Paul. And I'm sorry, Barnabas was not
an apostle, but he was a prophet. And verse 26, And when he had
found him, he found Paul, he brought him unto Antioch. And
it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves
with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were
called what? Christians. Christians is what
they're called. And that happened first in Antioch.
Now, turn back to number six. Believers are called Christians,
and there's a reason. We follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
And why do we do that? In number six, after we get the
blessing, all these blessings, the Lord be gracious to you.
The Lord make His face to shine upon you. The Lord be merciful. We get all these blessings in
Christ. And you know what happens then when we see that? You know
what? We want to be with God's people.
Verse 27 says, When they heard this blessing, they shall put
my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them
even more, will be identified with the people of Christ. So
the question is, am I a Christian? I heard this illustration one
time. If they had a courtroom and they were trying people to
find out if they were Christians, they were trying them by by jury,
would there be enough evidence to convict me? It's a good question,
isn't it? Would there be enough evidence
to convict me? If we can't answer that question
honestly and with some assurance, we need to flee to the Lord Jesus
Christ and ask him to reveal himself to us. Because the blessings
only come to the children of Jesus Christ of Nazarene who
did this wonderful What did Mabel do to earn her
gift of $20? That's alright with everybody,
isn't it? That she gets a double portion? What did Mabel do to earn this?
Not a thing. And even for that, she had to
get a call from the one who was giving her the gift. Now, what
is Mabel required to do to get her gift of thirty dollars? That's okay with everybody, right?
Did not our Lord say, Can I not do with mine own what I will?
You see, I thought that she would follow my suggestion to share
her gift equally with her brother Henry and with her sister Lydia. Every Christian here has been
blessed beyond description. Salvation is so much better than
we can even imagine. We delight to have our brothers
and sisters receive the blessing, too. All Christians are going
to a wonderful place to be with their wonderful Lord because
he did this wonderful thing for us. He saved us. He saved us. May the Lord bless his word.
Let's bow together.