The Nazarite (The Meaning of Submission) — Paris Reidhead

The Nazarite as a Picture of Submission

Numbers, chapter 6, verses 1 through 21. As we approach the theme of the Nazarite, we understand something anew of the meaning of submission. Perhaps we could have equated it and said, the Nazarite, surrender, submission.

You listen as I read, beginning with the first verse. Take unto Moses, 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, 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 most moist 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. 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 separateth himself unto the Lord, and he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.

All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall come at 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.

All the days of his separation, he is holy unto the Lord. And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration, then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it.

And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to 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 sinneth 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 a trespass offering. But the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled.

And this is the law of the Nazarite. When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and he shall offer his offering unto the Lord.

One he lamb of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering. And one you lamb of the first year, without blemish, for a sin offering. And one ram without blemish, for a peace offering. 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 offering.

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.

The priest shall offer also his meat offering and his drink offering. And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings.

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, 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 heave shoulder. And after that, the Nazarite may drink wine. This is the law of the Nazarite who has vowed and of his offering unto the Lord for his separation, besides that that his hand shall get, according to the vow which he vowed.

So he must do after the law of his separation. Now this portion that I have read is found in a very beautiful setting, here in the book of Numbers. You find the moral order of the Christian life given to us in this portion, including the seventh chapter.

Now I shan't read further, make any other reference to it, than this general outline that I'd like to share with you. The chapter 6, verses 1 to 12, speak of the separation of the Christian. In chapter 6, verses 13 to 21, speak of the worship of the Christian.

Then the portion I haven't read, verses 22 to 27, speak of the blessing upon the Christian. And chapter 7, verses 1 through 89, give to us the service of the Christian. And isn't this the moral order in which the Lord deals with us?

First it's separation, leading to worship, resulting in blessing, which prepares us for service. And seeing this, this juncture, enables us to understand something of what we expect to find in the description of the Nazarite, as we have it.

The Nazarite Means Separation

Now will you turn back, please, to chapter 6 and verse 1. We shall consider, in not too great detail, but sufficient at least to give some insight into this important matter. You may, when you see the word Nazarite, associate it with the village of Nazareth.

There is probably a root connection, undoubtedly there is, because of the location of Nazareth. It might have been that it was considered such because it was so separated from the rest of Israel. But basically there's no connection.

There wasn't a city of Nazarites by any means. The word Nazarite is a transliteration of the Hebrew word, meaning separation. That's exactly what it means. The Nazarite is one who is separated. Now when you understand that, you have the basic teachings of all that will follow.

The Nazarite was separated. Now notice his procedure in becoming a Nazarite. Look, if you please, at the second verse. When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of Nazarite. First, it's a voluntary choice.

The priest didn't appoint some. There was no lot drawn. There was nothing more than the inner drawing of the person's heart toward the Lord. No constraint and no commandment. Nothing is given other than that which is resident in the individual's heart.

Now you will be happy to see that it is not a priest that is given this privilege alone. It can be of the priest or of the people. A man or a woman, anyone who loves God sufficiently to heed the call of his spirit to the heart, is entitled to vow the vow of a Nazarite.

It's purely a personal matter. No one is constrained and no one is forced. There's no injunctions concerning it or even recommendations about it. It's simply the prescription given for those who feel the drawing of the Lord in Israel.

The Three Areas of Nazarite Separation

But will you observe the practice of the Nazarite as you find the three areas of separation. First, total abstention from wine. All kinds of wine, the wine, or the husk, or the kernel, or any part of the vine tree was to be rejected by him for the period of his separation.

May I suggest to you a type here that the reason this is proscribed to him, that he is forbidden to take the wine, is that it might be shown that as a Nazarite he does not depend upon natural sources for natural joy.

The matter of joy is very important in every Christian's life. I'm sure it was there. And by forbidding himself the use of anything that had to do with wine, he was indicating that his separation was to the Lord and all joy that he would experience now should come be of heavenly origin.

Then you notice that his hair is to be untouched. There is to be no razor come upon his head, he's not to cut it, he's in no wise to touch it during the period of his separation. May I suggest that there's a reason for this also.

By conforming to the patterns, and the fashions, and the styles of the day, he found his status, his acceptance. He was part of the group, and by now identifying himself with Jehovah, he was indicating his willingness to accept the reproach of Jehovah.

And thus, to find that his status no longer depended upon the approval of his fellow. To the contrary, by the growing of his hair, even then it was trimmed and cut in certain fashion, but now he has indicated that he is closed in with God and looks not longer to his fellows or his place.

Then you'll notice that there was the avoidance of all contact with death. We come to the place where our hearts just move a little as we read the seventh verse. He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, or for his brother, or for his sister when they die.

How much nearer could he come? Here were these nearest and dearest with all the ties of blood, and yet in no sense will he minister to them, serve them, nor touch them. He will not make himself unclean.

Speaking of the fact that he disavows all the claims that nature has upon him, and that he is giving himself wholly over to the Lord, and nothing shall distract or dissuade him, nothing shall in any wise move him from this commitment to the Lord.

The Offerings Reveal Grace, Not Human Merit

But separated as he was in these three particulars, you will notice that his self-denial and his separation was not enough. It was not enough. Offer up his separation to the Lord as he might. This was not sufficient.

And thus we find that he is to bring offerings. He is to bring the trespass offering. This speaks of trespasses committed in the past. This speaks of trespasses committed since the last trespass offering.

It speaks of the deeds which he has done, which grieve a God whose name is holy. Then he is to bring the sin offering. This which speaks of the atonement made for him as a person, for out of his heart springs the deeds, for from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and deeds proceed from within, out of the heart.

And the sin offering has reference to that provision made by God in grace, not only to through the trespass offering provide forgiveness for what we have done, but by the sin offering to provide cleansing and deliverance from what we are.

Then he was to bring the peace offering. This speaks of that peace which Christ has made for us through the shedding of his blood, providing the grounds upon which we meet, offering his own perfection as the grounds of our acceptance.

Our peace is through the blood of his cross, yes, but it is on the basis of the infinite perfections of the Son of God. And wasn't it to your heart as significant as to mine when you found that the hair that he shaved, the hair of his separation, was to be placed upon the fire under the peace offering?

And indicating thus that he found even no virtue in his obedience, that even in his heartfelt separation and sacrifice, there was still nothing in which he could trust himself. And so when he had finished this, he didn't preserve it.

He didn't have it woven into some kind of a picture marking the date and time as we find in years gone by, when in the Victorian age people would take the hair that they had been so proud of and have it woven into hair pictures that would hang in a gruesome memory upon the wall.

Nothing of that sort at all here. He has, takes it and says, he doesn't say, look how separated I was and how sacrificial I was. He takes this, which was the evidence of his obedience, and he brings it over and he puts it on the fire under the peace offering saying, what is that that I offer?

Nothing. My peace is not in what I am or what I have done, but in what he is that's pictured by the peace offering. And then the whole burnt offering is provided in order that there might be that total identification of himself with the one that is to come.

And in the offerings of the Nazarite, you have the sweet and silent testimony that everything he did and everything he brought and everything he offered was simply a token of love and carried with it no merit whatever.

Oh, if those today who seek by means of works of righteousness which they are doing could understand the Nazarite. This one most dedicated and separated and serious and earnest of all, came with the hair and he put it under the, on the fire, under the peace offering and he said, nothing in my hand I bring, all is of grace.

Unless someone should think that by their service they gain merit, might they learn from the Nazarite and the peace offering. But I would like to show you for just a moment how Christ was foreshadowed by the Nazarite.

Christ as the Perfect Nazarite

Might I suggest that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one true perfect Nazarite that the world has known. This I say because I feel that in the Nazarite God was giving to Israel a foreshadow cast by this one that walked without drawing from earthly joy, without conforming to the customs and patterns of his day, and with a complete separation to the will of the one that had sent him, letting no tie of flesh interfere.

I say the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that is, can perfectly foreshadow by the Nazarite. Well, may I, will you see it in this, that there is in Christ a complete separation from earthly joy. As he left heaven with all of its infinite joy and glory and became flesh and dwelt among us, the Lord Jesus was by his birth exiled into a land which was under the curse because of its sin.

And thus he could find no joy in earth. Even though he had made it, even though it was all fashioned by his mind of infinite love and brought into being by his hand of infinite power, he could find no joy in the works of his hands, no joy in earth.

Because of man's sin, it was under the curse. He could find no joy in Israel, this nation that he had called to himself to be a witness for him, to know him, and to make him known. And yet the Lord Jesus, living in the midst of Israel, born of, a maid of Israel, could find no joy in Israel because of her stubbornness, her willfulness, her rebellion, her sin.

Under the sentence of death, he was thus doomed to live, to move, to walk, to work without the possibility of earthly joy. We discover that when our Lord Jesus was just, was born, he chose, he sovereignly chose to be born in most humble circumstances.

First, by choosing to be born of a maid, not married at that time, though pledged to Joseph, there should be associated with his name that ceaseless stigma. Then, by being born in a humble home, it was necessary for him, choosing Mary to be his mother, it was thus necessary for him to be born in the most humble of circumstances, in a stable, and to be laid in the manger.

And because of the choice of the one that should bring, give to him the body that he would have as the vehicle of his incarnation, he was forced to spend probably eight years of his life as a political refugee, an exile, in a country where Mary and Joseph were there by the mere sufferance of their neighbors.

To return to Nazareth and to learn early the necessity of daily labor for daily bread was that separation that our Lord Jesus voluntarily placed upon himself by the choice that he made as a Nazarite. Then to see him submit himself in order that in all things he might be likened to you, to indescribable anguish and suffering of the flesh, his body, forty days, forty nights in the wilderness, sustained only by the power of his heavenly Father, permitting to himself no claims that he would rightly have for sustenance and nourishment, a Nazarite indeed, perfectly fulfilling the will of the Father, for remember, it was the Spirit that drave him into the wilderness.

Then to see our Lord Jesus Christ as you recall at the earlier age of twelve years, staying back in Jerusalem, and when chided for having caused pain to his mother and to Joseph, he should say, wished ye not that I must be about my Father's business, wholly separated unto Job, unto the will of the Father.

He entered his ministry wholly committed, totally separated to the Father's will. The first miracle that he performed, as you will recall, was in Cana. And when Mary came to him and advised him of the host's embarrassment at the absence of wine, you will recall that our Lord Jesus looked at her and said, Woman, what have I to do with you?

In other words, disclaiming all the ties of nature, addressing her as woman, though she were a stranger to him, indicating that the ministry that he was to perform was not based upon the ties of nature or family, that his service was to be rendered perfectly to his heavenly Father.

You recall when he was in Samaria at the well of Sychar and his disciples asked him and he said, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work.

Our Lord was indicating that he was the Nazarite, wholly separated unto the Lord. And then in that most pathetic of pictures concerning our Lord's earthly pilgrimage, when you see the totality of his separation, in those words so filled with deep meaning to the sensitive heart, the disciples went unto their houses and he went out to the Mount of Olives.

He had not a place to lay his head. Not a place to lay his head. His disciples, yes. But the Lord was willing to choose the will of the Father, even when it meant the cold night on the hillside with the morning dew upon him.

He was a Nazarite, wholly separated unto the Lord. But you see this, when he himself now as the Nazarite fulfills all that was pictured by the offerings brought by the Nazarite. For it was the Nazarite who in his total separation, during which time undoubtedly his heart cleaved perfectly to Jehovah that brought the trespass offering.

And so it was the Lord Jesus that had perfectly done the will of the Father, of whom the Father graciously spoke, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And yet, even in this total abandonment to the will of the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ was prepared to bring the trespass offering, not for his sins, but for your sins.

For you see, his separation under the will of the Father was that he himself might become the trespass offering. For in his separation wholly to the Father, perfectly pleasing the Father, he prepared himself to identify himself with you and take upon him your sin and my transgression, your trespass and my evil deed.

And the Lord Jesus Christ thus offered himself as the trespass offering. The Nazarite bringing the trespass offering not for himself, but of himself. And then you see his love that reached out to your need, not willing to be merely to you the means of pardon from your past deeds, but his desire was so deep as to be to you the deliverance from the tyranny of your sin that he became unto you the sin offering, the Nazarite offering the sin offering.

Then you see him as the peace offering, bringing his own infinite perfection, his own holiness, bringing to the Father his all that he is as a sweet savor offering, and saying as it were to the Father, the people that I love, the people for whom I die, have nothing to offer thee, and so I offer all that I am for them, that they may meet thee on the grounds of peace in my perfection.

And then the burnt offering when the Lord Jesus Christ offers himself, and with himself he offers you in that wonderful identification where you join him in that total union so that it can be said that you are crucified with him and buried with him and quickened with him and raised with him, he becomes the burnt offering.

The Nazarite thus fulfills all that was said of him, for he should offer the trespass offering, the sin offering, the peace offering, and the burnt offering. But he did it not for himself, but for me and for you, that there might be pardon and deliverance and peace and glorious union in all that God is in Christ.

The Christian's Voluntary Vow and Wholehearted Obedience

How are we to be instructed by the Nazarite vow? What are we to see in it? You say perhaps to yourself, is it necessary for me to take the vow? Here were these in Israel that were still covered by the blood offered on the day of atonement and still had the privilege of bringing the lamb to the door of the tabernacle whenever there was need, and yet there were in Israel those who chose to become Nazarites.

Do I have to become a monk? Do I have to become an ascetic? Do I have to separate myself? Ah, note here that there's no have-to in this at all, no have-to, no coercion, no force. But let me ask you if you do not see as I have seen in my own heart the test of my purpose in serving God.

This gives me the means by which I can assay the value, the gold content of what I offer to him in prayer and in service. Why do I offer it? The Nazarite offered it only because he found it in his heart to offer it to the Lord.

No coercion, no conscription, no force. Do you find, therefore, in viewing the Nazarite that there's a desire in your heart to be perfectly pleasing to the Lord? I trust you do. For I firmly believe that this is one of the best evidences of regeneration.

He said, I will give you a new nature, a new heart, a new life. And I believe that when you've been made partaker of the divine nature, you have in you the same desire that the Lord Jesus Christ so perfectly manifested.

If you've been born of God, you want to please God. And this desire to please God ought to be of real comfort to your heart in assuring you that you're in Christ. The Nazarite lived wholly to the glory of God.

This is that which marked his separation. He continued his tasks. It wasn't a separation in the sense that he left the field from tilling, then that would have been merely the excuse for laziness. He didn't leave his family, that would have been the excuse for dereliction of duty.

He didn't leave the worship of the temple, that would have been the excuse for unbelief and failure. He continued in the field, he continued caring for his responsibilities, he continued in his place of worship.

But by his Nazarite vow, he has now entered into a covenant with God that sanctifies the most menial task that he can perform. And he is doing nothing longer as an end in itself. Therefore, the way he serves his employer and the way you serve yours will determine whether or not you are living wholly to please the Lord.

You say, well, I want to please God, but I don't like my job, and so I just slip through it and care not what kind of a day's service I render. My friend, if that's the case, you may be perfectly sure that you are not pleasing the Lord.

For when you see the Nazarite, you see immediately all distinctions between secular and sacred removed, and the vow is a vow to glorify God in the midst of every activity. Do you find this in your heart?

Do you find also with the Nazarite submission to the whole will of him who loved you and gave himself for you? This was that which the Nazarite did, submission to the will of God. He dare not choose for himself, because such choice could only be dictated by self-interest.

There must be a higher interest for the choice, and that is divine, divine benefit, divine glory. The Nazarite submitted perfectly to the whole will of God. Do you say that your purpose thus is to please God, is to live to his glory, is to submit to his will?

Do you? How can it be other with a child of God? How can it be other? Oh, the incongruity of someone saying, I am a Christian, but I want to please myself. I belong to Jesus Christ, but I want to live for my fame and honor and prestige.

I belong to Jesus Christ, but I'm determined to choose my way. The Lord shall not choose for me. Complete, total contradiction of terms. Could we not say, therefore, that in all biblical definitions the Nazarite is the Christian, the one who has recognized the rightful place of Jesus Christ in his life?

Do you not see it here in this that is the very threshold of the Christian life? If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, a glad, ready, spontaneous recognition of the place that Christ must occupy in the life.

Here it is, the threshold into the Christian life. Thus what you see in the Nazarite that is of significance is not primarily his abstention from wine and his abstention, letting his hair grow and the failing to touch the dead body.

These were but types and pictures and shadows of something of infinite spiritual meaning that was to be fulfilled first in Christ and then by the Spirit of God in every believer. That he would thus, by his sacrifice of himself, bring to himself a people who were not coerced and forced and made to serve him, but would vow a vow unto the Lord of their own will.

And every Christian does this at the very threshold of the Christian life. From today on, as long as I shall live, Jesus Christ is to be the Lord of my life. There is the Nazarite vow. Thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Lord Jesus.

We must not only assay our purpose, but we must also recognize our relationship. He was to bring, was the Nazarite, the offerings. And thus we too come with the Lord Jesus Christ to Calvary and there we see him as our trespass offering, shedding his blood, bearing upon himself the guilt and condemnation for our testimony.

He is the lamb of the trespass offering. And we come and see him dying for us. He is the lamb of the sin offering. And we see him not only taking the penalty of our sin upon us, but we see him being made to be sin for us, he who knew no sin.

And thus we see ourselves in Christ. See him dying for us for the atonement of the deeds we've committed. Seeing him dying that we might be delivered from what we are. We see him as the peace offering, offering for us his own perfections, those which we totally lack.

For my friend, you not only lack the means of atoning for what you have done, you lack the power to become what you ought to be. And the Lord Jesus Christ offered himself as the peace offering that he might become what you ought to be and never could by yourself provide.

And he said by the peace offering to the Father, everything that they are not I am, and everything that I am they are not, and everything I have is theirs. And I offer myself to become to them what they must be.

And thus we meet him, our Father, our Heavenly Father, on the grounds of peace. Because he not only died to atone for what we had done, but he offered to us his own infinite perfections. And then we see him as the burnt offering, and in this our union with him in his death.

Union with Christ in Death and Resurrection

For in the burnt offering you have identification with Christ. We see ourselves bringing to this place, the cross, all we are there to reckon, to know that when Jesus Christ died, we died. Oh, dear Christian friend, will you let the Spirit of God drive this truth so oft repeated home but once more and the deeper this time?

When Jesus Christ died, you died. This is a historical fact, a spiritual actuality. You never need die more or again. When Christ died, you died, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him. Ah, but says one, I heard you say that, but I am still troubled by the same temptation.

I am still troubled by the same difficulty, and believe me, try as I will, I don't feel the least dead. May I take this opportunity to say that you are not going to feel dead. There is nothing in the Scripture that gives you the slightest inclination to think that you will now reach a point or then reach a point where you feel dead.

Nothing. There is no witness of the Holy Ghost to the feeling of deadness. In fact, when you are tempted, you feel very much undead, very much undead. You are very alert to and alive to the motions wherein temptation arise.

But will you understand that temptation is not sin and that there is no experience of grace promised in the Scripture that will immunize you to temptation or the possibility of falling? There will not come at any stage in your pilgrim journey a time when you say, well, now I feel dead.

If you're looking for a ceaseless moment, look no further. You will not find it. But what do you find? You find the grand fact of history that when Jesus Christ died, you die, whether you feel it or not.

You die, and die further you cannot, and die again you cannot. You died in Christ knowing this. Then, oh, what a terrible thing it would be for someone to try and reckon himself to be married if he hadn't been.

What a terrible thing. But you see, I find no difficulty at all in it, because I can remember that seventeen years ago, is that right? Seventeen years ago, on tomorrow actually, no, February 9th, Tuesday.

I have to untie the knot on my finger to find out, you see. But the fact is that there was an event, a historical event, when at a given place, at a given time, something happened. Now, for some of you, that hasn't happened.

And I'm earnestly hoping that we'll see, soon see, some kind of a means of breaking the log jam in the river of matrimony. I want you to know that. I'm all in favor of it. But the fact still remains that I had a historical event which makes it simple for me to reckon.

I can reckon on the fact in every decision I make, in every choice I make, in every commitment that I make, that I'm married. The historical event is simply something. Now, that would be far from the truth if I were to tell you that 24 hours a day, or the 18 or 20 that I'm working in awake, that I would say that I'm consciously aware of this fact.

That's not the case. But you see, whenever an issue arises, whenever a decision must be made, the historical fact asserts itself, and thus is the basis of reckoning. And so it is, dear child of God, that you recognize that when Jesus Christ died, you died.

And when you know this, and when you see this, and when you are willing to consent to the historical accuracy of the Word of God, that you died when Christ died. Someone come to you, come to me and say, now, do you feel particularly married?

Most of the time I have to say, no, not in the least. Are you? Yes. But you see, they're not interdependent. My feelings have nothing to do with it. Historical facts were established. So one would say, do you feel dead?

No, not in the least. Are you? Yes. When did it happen? When Jesus Christ died, I died. There is absolutely no witness to death, to union with Christ in his death. Now, there is a witness to being born of the Spirit, and there is a witness to being filled with the Spirit.

There's an inner knowledge, an inner certainty. But believe me, there is no witness to this, to this matter of our union with him in his death, in his burial, in his quickening, in his enthronement. There is no inner spiritual consciousness.

There is a glorious certainty based upon the Word of God. But the reckoning in your hour of need, the basing of your conclusion upon the fact, the resting of your future upon the truth, releases the Spirit of God in the moment of your temptation to bring into your life divine power.

This is what I want you to see, that in the Nazarite you must recognize your relationship. We are not our own. We have been crucified with Christ. We have been buried with Christ. We have been raised with Christ.

We have been seated with Christ in the heavenlies. This is historical. On the basis of this, and the basis of our reckoning, ourselves to be dead, and therefore no longer having personal reason to use our bodies as the vehicle of our own purpose.

There is something that we are entreated in the Word of God to do with our bodies. Just as the Nazarite came and he presented his body to the Father, to the Jehovah, in order that it might bear the testimony of Jehovah, and bear the witness of Jehovah, and he might be marked out as belonging to him, so we are invited, yea, we are entreated by the outstretched, nail-pierced hands of Christ to present our bodies as living sacrifices.

Presenting the Body and Depending on God for Joy

This is what he asks you to do. He asks you to come to him. You notice there's no commandment. There's no coercion here. This is one of the most marvelous revelations of the grace of God that you find anywhere, that after you have benefited from his death, after you've been washed in his blood, pardoned from your transgressions, given eternal life, the Lord Jesus Christ comes to you, holds out those hands, looks at you, and can preach you, and pleads with you, and says, I beseech you, brethren, by these mercies, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.

And, my dear, you have it within your power to refuse to give to Jesus Christ the only thing you have that he wants, and that he asks you for. You have in your power to withhold from him what he wants.

It's a vow that you make voluntarily. He won't force you. Oh, listen, can you withhold from him, can you refuse to him that which he claims in love, and that which he asks in tenderness, and that upon which his whole purpose depends?

Because in the New Testament, everything he does, he does through the Nazarite. All of his work is through the Nazarite. It wasn't so in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, he only works through those who voluntarily present their bodies.

What does this mean? It means that no longer are you going to seek earthly joy. He may give it, and in the course of his purpose for you, it may come. But there is a detachment. There is no dependence upon it.

There is no insistence upon it, and you do not find earthly joy in any sense necessary for your wholeness of being, when once you present your body to him, and know what he has for you as his normal life.