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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-lavery/nazariteship-and-devotion-to-god/
Now turn with me, please, to the book of Numbers chapter 6. Numbers chapter 6. And we'll read from verse 1. We won't read the whole chapter, but likely you'll be reminded of it as we read. 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 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 or eat moist grapes or dried.
Verse 5. 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. He shall be holy and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
Now verse 6. All the days that he separateth himself from the Lord, he shall come at no dead body. Verse 9. And if a 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 he shall save it, and on the eighth day he shall bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Verse 13. 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. Now just for sake of time, verse 18. And a 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 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. Now we know that God will bless the reading of his precious word.
Our brother Skates was telling us a little bit about the glue that holds things together. And I thought, you know, they say that it was an Irishman that invented the strongest glue that was ever made.
The problem is he can't get the lid off the jar. But anyhow, I'm not going to talk about that kind of glue. Now the book of Numbers is a book for the pilgrim. It's a book of the wilderness. It doesn't even mention the laver for the priest.
We have that in the book of Leviticus, but it's the ashes of the red heifer. So that's something that's available for the pilgrim. Now we've been reminded of God's holy order in the local assemblies. And in the book of Numbers, you'll remember likely at the beginning, God took about 14 months after he brought his people out of Egypt to set them in order.
And he gave them a traveling order as they would travel through the wilderness. God's a God of order, not of disorder. And then he said, you know, when you camp, there's going to be an order in the camp.
They couldn't choose where they were going to be in the camp. God said, you're going to be at a certain place. And they're all gathered around the tabernacle with the Lord in the midst of his people. Now we've been asked the question, is that really all that matters?
We love to go according to the divine order and we should. And God has set an order down. He set a pattern for the local assembly. But you know, there's something more important or maybe just as important.
Let's put it that way. And that is to have a heart for these things. It's one thing just to do things as God would want them. But we need to have the devotion. That's really the glue that holds things together, a devotion.
So I ask you, how's your devotion to the Lord? How's my devotion to the Lord? How am I going to know if I'm really devoted to the Lord? Well, I think there's only one way because the previous chapter, and it's good to keep things in order as God has given them, the previous chapter five of Numbers, you have an unfaithful wife.
How would they know that she was unfaithful? Well, I'm not going to go through all that. We don't have time for that. But you know, there's a bitter waters. She was to partake of the bitter waters. And I would take it that the bitter waters, whatever you think of them, that would represent the word of God.
And it's only as we read the word of God that we'll really know where we stand in the light of God. If we're really faithful, we can't be faithful to the Lord if we don't study the things about the Lord and know who he is.
But when we get into the word of God and we learn more of this wonderful person, that's what brings out our heart and devotion unto him. Now, in the book of Numbers and the Pentateuch, you know, there were some men that were priests, and they couldn't be a priest unless they were part of a priestly family.
There were some that were Levites, but they couldn't choose to be Levites. They had to be in a family of Levi. But when it comes to the Nazarite, there was anyone, any one of God's people in that day could be a Nazarite.
And that's something that's open to each one of us. A Nazarite was a person that was separated unto the Lord. Good thing to be separated from the world. Good thing to be separated with God's people. But the important thing of separation to be separated unto him and live our lives to please him.
No matter what others are doing, there are many that are departing from the faith today, but we need to keep ourselves right with God. And the way we will keep ourselves right is have devotion in our heart.
Now, that doesn't mean that we're going to set the pattern aside. If we have real devotion, we're going to go according to the divine pattern. And it doesn't matter how small the assembly is that you're associated with.
I've often said, you know, at the priesthood began, there were Aaron and four sons. There were only five priests in all Israel. Two of them were taken by death for offering strange fire unto the Lord.
There were only three left, but those three could still function as priests. They could still offer. And don't be discouraged if your assembly is small, you can still function and you can still offer.
And perhaps God, as he has at times, will add others onto your company. Now, what we want to learn about the Nazarite, first of all, is this, we read, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink.
And you will know that wine in the scripture speaks of joy. So what we would say now, where am I getting my joy? As far as wine is concerned, I'm talking about literally drinking. I hope you don't touch alcohol at all, except when you remember the Lord.
But you know, it befuddles a mind and it gives you courage to do things you wouldn't normally do. And it can cause a lot of trouble in one's life. But we need to be entirely separated unto the Lord, not even a moist grape or a dried grape.
We can't have partial devotion. It must be wholehearted devotion unto the Lord. And to get our joy, where from? Not from the joys of the world, not from the pleasures of the world, they're only for a short season.
But we get our joy from the Lord, being occupied with him. And if we're occupied with him, the more we get to know him, the more we'll be devoted to him. If I want to love him more, I've got to realize more and more his love for me.
And we learn that from the scriptures. And then our hearts will respond in love. So that's something that is inward. Where is my joy coming from? The joy of the Lord is your strength. If we're going to live for him, we need to go to the right place for our joy.
Well, now there's something outward. That's the long hair. Something against nature. It's not natural to be devoted to the Lord and let the locks of his hair grow long. Well, why would he have to do that?
Well, I'll tell you what I believe it means in the picture for us. What is long hair? It's given to the sisters for a covering, for a mantle. I'm not going to go into headship. We need a head covering as well as a long hair.
But the long hair is given as a covering. So that tells me that the Nazarite, he's not living his life to please himself. He is going to be hidden. If we're going to try and promote ourselves in any way, we're not going to be happy.
That's for certain. But just forget all others. No matter what they're doing, be devoted unto him. And just work unseen. It's unnatural. I'm hidden, but Christ is seen. How much of the Lord Jesus do they see in my life?
Much do they see in your life? We'd have to hang our head in shame likely. I think just here we are to represent this person, not pushing ourselves, not wanting to be recognized. That's what a lot of people want to do.
Now, I was thinking when our brother was talking in Acts 15, who spoke first? Peter. Who spoke next? Barnabas and Paul. Who spoke last? James. You know what James says in his letter? Quick to hear, slow to speak.
He waited till the others had said their little bit, and then he comes in. Sometimes we're too quick to speak, aren't we? We should listen to hear. That's what we've been reminded of right from the conference last night, having ears to hear.
It means not just hearing what they said and being able to recite it, but it means paying heed to it. That's the thing. We need an ear that pays heed to the Word of God. And here's a Nazarite. And you know, the hair is his crown.
It's his devotion to God. And that's what really counts. Let no man take thy crown. That's in the address to the church at Philadelphia. What's he speaking about? It's the crown of devotion. Because you know, the day is coming when we'll cast our crowns at his feet.
What are we going to give to him? What he has given to us, our devotion to him. But then he wasn't to come near a dead body, not even for his family. That may seem very hard and very difficult. I know it wouldn't be difficult to come in contact with a dead body because the wilderness was strewn with the bones of those that had perished.
But we're living in a dead world. But he said, you keep clear of this. And even your parents, maybe they're not saved. You have a difficult time. But don't let that hinder you from being a Nazarite. That's what he, generally speaking, what we have here.
Family functions may hinder our Nazarite ship and friends and so on. But he said, no, you don't let that. We're living in a dead world. No life. Defilement in the world can rob us of our devotion. And that's what we read next.
I think we read that verse, verse nine, if anyone dies suddenly by him. So we have that contamination as possible. And concentration is necessary. It's not easy to get through this world unscathed. We can't just go with the flow.
We can't drift along. We need to walk circumspectly or we can be robbed of our Nazarite ship. An illustration really of this, I hope you'll understand it. I was born and raised in a little row house over in Ireland.
Didn't have a lot of ground, little backyard with a six foot wall and the toilet as well was out in the backyard. Not looking for sympathy, doing a lot better now. But anyhow, it used to be cats that walked across the wall.
They weren't always clean, you know, and sometimes you even had a concert during the night and you couldn't sleep very well. So we're so clever, you know, in Ireland, we found a way to stop them from walking on the wall.
We thought, put a little cement on there and broken glass. You think it stopped them? Not at all. Why? They walked circumspectly. They picked their steps and that's what we need to be very, very careful.
We're so complacent, aren't we? Well, maybe I should speak for myself. We can become some complacent and forget we need to pick our steps in this world if we're going to live for God and we can fail. And here the Nazarite lost his concentration and so on and he fell.
So what's he going to do? Begin again. We've all failed. We all want to be devoted to the Lord, but there's times that we fail. Well, you know what you do? Just get back to square one again. Just start over again.
You know, you do that when you're on a diet, don't you? And you lose it sometime, a lot of doughnuts or whatever. And what are you going to do? Just give up and keep overeating? No, you're going to get back to the diet again.
Now, there's something else. The Nazarite, it would seem he would have a knowledge of the offerings. That's good because a knowledge of the Lord Jesus and what was accomplished at Calvary is what draws our hearts out to him.
Nothing else. Well, we appreciate his life, but really it's his death and his devotion. And that's what we have here in this. We have the, well, there's a sin offering and a burnt offering, peace offerings, meal offerings, drink offerings.
And drink offering, of course, again, speaks of joy. Paul was a drink offering. And I have I be poured out upon the sacrifice offering of your faith. Saints at Philippi sent him a gift. He said, that's your sacrifice.
And you're the priest. And I'm just a drink offering. You know, that's why he was so happy. No matter what his circumstances were, it didn't really matter. He was here to serve others. His heart was touched by the Lord.
He was a captive of the Lord, not a captive of Rome. His heart was kept evaded by the man of Calvary. And here we have the, the, the meal offering speaks of the life of the Lord Jesus. That beautiful that we have the, the account of his life.
We have the gospels. We have things in the Psalms and in other portions of the word of God that reminds us of the, of the beauties of the Lord. Are we studying our Bible? Are we looking for the beauties of the Lord in our Bible?
God saved us to be occupied with his son. We're going to be occupied with him throughout all eternity. Should we not have a desire to be occupied with him now, to learn more of this person? I think the more we learn of him now, the more we're going to learn of him in the future.
So be occupied with Christ. Read your Bible, study your Bible. Don't be satisfied even with what you hear at a conference. We need as individuals and Nazarite was an individual and here he is. People couldn't understand why is he so happy?
They can't understand why we're so happy. We don't go in for the pleasures that they go in for. They're missing out. The pleasures of sin are for a season. So God helped us to be separated from the world in every aspect.
It's sports and it's religions and it's pleasure. We don't need that. We have got something far, far better. We've got our blessed Lord himself. The one who went to the cross at Calvary and all these offerings, of course, you know, are to keep us in a relationship and the enjoyment of our relationship with him.
The last chapter of the book of Exodus is the erection of the tabernacle and the glory of God. When all was done according to the pattern, the glory of God and his presence filled the house. And then the next chapter is a burnt offering in Leviticus and the meal offering and the peace offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering.
What are those for? To keep us in communion with him. The sin offering in Leviticus isn't a sinner coming to have their sins forgiven. It's a believer. So we need to get into the word of God and God wants us to be kept in that place of nearness.
We could go into the gospel of John. You could think of John leaning on his bosom. He was enjoying that place. That's where the Lord wants each one of us. We're all on the breastplate of the high priest, but are we enjoying that place?
Now, when it comes to the end, we read about what the priest did. Verse 19, he would take the shoulder. Shoulder speaks of strength and so on. And it says, he'll put them upon the hands of the Nazarite after the hair of a separation is shaven.
I've already mentioned that they cast their crowns at his feet. You know, in Revelation two, there's one mention, isn't there, of the crown in Smyrna, their suffering, their suffering comes first and then the glory.
Then the church at Philadelphia, there's a crown again. It's a crown of devotion unto the Lord because they honored him. The Lord says, I'll honor them. They're going to be temple pillars in the temple of my God.
Revelation five, four and 20 elders, and they're wearing crowns. When you come to the end of the chapter, what do they do? It says they cast their crowns at his feet and they ascribe unto him glory. It's Smyrna, glory and suffering, honor.
I've honored him in Philadelphia, power sitting upon thrones. May the Lord help us. Let no one take thy crown. So this was the only thing that I know of that could go on the altar apart from the sacrifices was the hair, the devotion, a devotion that was given back to him.
What he has enabled us to do and live for him is a devotion. But then it says the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. This is holy for the priest and the wave breast and the heave shoulder.
And after that, the Nazarite may drink wine. Now the heave shoulder, the shoulder speaks of strength. We're not told exactly, but I would think it's obvious that the heave shoulder would heave vertically toward the heaven, heave shoulder.
And as we do that, we think of the greatness of God. We think of the God of creation. All is greatness. Will that draw our hearts out to him? Well, there's a wave breath, wave breast. The breast speaks of affection.
If the one speaks of creation, the other speaks of redemption. It speaks of the lowliness of the Lord because of his love for you and me as poor, lost, guilty sinners, because of his love for us today.
Well, let not draw our hearts out to him to think of the one in his greatness who took the lowly place, went to the altar, offered himself a sacrifice for sin. And not only for the bring us into a relationship with God, that would be likely more of the Passover, but to keep us in that relationship and to keep our hearts warm.
You say, what did the Nazarite get from it? He got the wine, he got the joy, but there was something else. What did the priestly family get? Well, I'll tell you what, they got something from it, didn't it?
They were able to feed on these things. So the Nazarites not doing this to put himself forward. But if you and I are real spiritual Nazarites for the Lord Jesus, the priestly families all go into benefit.
Isn't that important? You know, people make decisions today that affect other assemblies. They never seem to think all are interested in is themselves. I want to prove that I'm right. No matter what the brethren say, I want to show that I'm right.
And they don't think what is going to cause. May the Lord help us to think of the priestly family, even to take the wrong place, if it's going to be peace among God's people. So you see, what's the glue that holds the whole thing together in this little message?
It's devotion unto the Lord. And I'll just finish with quoting what I've already said. Let no man take thy crown.