You know, we had our brother here before he played guitar; he just made the statement, and I would like to respond to it.
When you see this list, it seems impossible that you, knowing yourself as a sinner, could ever increase and be made into a man of God. But, you know, after seeing this list and seeing that actually God is in relentless pursuit of our becoming a man of God, still, it is as simple as this: by the grace of God, just be sure you are being added to, and you are growing and increasing.
He says, “If you are on the increase.” So do not look at this whole pile and say, “My goodness, I am at step one, going to step two.” Just increase, and you will be fruitful and useful.
It is not a matter of piling up these badges upon our life. Because, you know what? In one sense, Peter mentions these things as a sequence. In another sense, because of the life of the Lord, He actually develops all of these things in our life.
But, you know, be on the increase. Do not allow the enemy to get you standing still. And, as impossible as this seems, here is the point: it is the Lord who began the work, and He will finish it.
Now, do you trust your faithfulness to get through this, or His faithfulness?
You know that wonderful verse where Paul says:
I have been crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:
And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,
Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.
When Paul came to the end of himself—and really, if we try to pursue this in our own strength, we will soon come to the end of ourselves—Paul tried to do all of this, I am sure, in his zealous young Christian days.
But coming to the end of himself, he said, “Lord, I have failed. I cannot keep the law.” The Lord said, “Now, you just live for Me.”
And something happened in Paul’s faith where he put it this way: “I do not live now really by my faith, but I live trusting His faithfulness.”
And brothers, that is what we need to do. We trust His faith. We cooperate with this process.
We had a wonderful discussion group this afternoon after this thing, and one of the points that came out was: when the Lord prompts us along one of these lines, just cooperate with Him, and there will be increase.
And, you know, the amazing part of God’s amazing grace is, when He appears, you will be like Him. Now, who would dare to say that anybody other than Almighty God could accomplish something like that? But the Lord will.
By His grace He saved you. By His grace He will complete you. Now you trust His faithfulness and cooperate with Him. Do not allow the enemy to make you feel condemned.
You say, “Well, I have just taken a survey of all the brothers here, and I am on the bottom of the totem pole.” No, do not ever feel that way. You know, if you are increasing, then the Lord is your life; His life is manifesting itself through you.
Just increase. Do not compare yourself to somebody here or somebody there. You just increase, and the Lord will continue to draw you along in this, and you will be fruitful in this.
Now, we want to go back and look at Samson, and actually we are going to pick up and read all of Judges 16. I know it is a little long, but I think if we can read this whole chapter together, we can see the tragedy of Samson. So I want to read it: Judges 16.
Now, in Judges 14, you know, was where that marriage feast took place, and then the wedding that was never consummated, and the frustration, and then the enmity. Now we are in Judges 16.
We would hope Samson would be older and wiser, but in fact, he was not.
And so it opens up:
Now Samson went to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.
And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither.
And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city,
And were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.
And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight,
And took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all,
And put them upon His shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.
After this, it came about that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah—another Philistine.
The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her:
Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth,
And by what means we may prevail against him,
That we may bind him to afflict him:
And we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.
So now, each one of these Philistine guys would give her eleven hundred pieces of silver. Trivia question: how many pieces of silver did she have? Well, there are five cities of the Philistines, so there would be fifty-five hundred pieces of silver. Now, that is quite a bribe.
Verse 6:
So Delilah said to Samson,
Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth,
And wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.
What a request. Samson spotted something in that request, because he lied to her.
Verse 7:
Samson said unto her,
If they bind me with seven green withes that were never dried,
Then shall I be weak, and be as another man.
Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now she had men lying in wait in the inner room, and she said to him, “The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.”
But he snapped the cords as a string of tow snaps when it touches fire. So his strength was not discovered.
Then Delilah said to Samson:
Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies:
Now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound.
He said to her:
If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied,
Then shall I be weak, and be as another man.
So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.” For the men were lying in wait in the inner room. But he snapped the ropes from his arms like a thread.
And Delilah said to Samson:
Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies:
Tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound.
He said to her:
If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web,
And fastenest it with the pin,
Then shall I be weak, and be as another man.
So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them into a web. She fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.” He awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.
Then she said:
How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me?
Thou hast mocked me these three times,
And hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.
And it came about, when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was vexed unto death.
So he told her all that was in his heart. You have been there, have you? I see a lot of “Amen,” dear.
So Samson told her all that was in his heart and said:
There hath not come a razor upon mine head;
For I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb:
If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me,
And I shall become weak, and be like any other man.
When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart.”
Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. She made him sleep upon her knees, called for a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him.
She said, “The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.
Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza, bound him with bronze chains, and made him a grinder in the prison.
You know, they took the ox off the grinding stone, where they grind the flour, and they put Samson on there. They made him walk around in a circle all day long, grinding.
Verse 22:
Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven off.
Now the lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their god, and rejoiced, for they said—and they made a little song:
Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
When the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said:
Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy,
And the destroyer of our country,
Which slew many of us.
Sounds like a little Walt Disney song of the seven dwarfs, does it not?
Verse 25:
And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry,
That they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport.
Poor blind guy. Bring him in here for a little sport.
So they called Samson from the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. Then Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.”
Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. About three thousand men and women were on the roof, looking on while Samson was amusing them.
Then Samson called to the Lord and said:
O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee,
And strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God,
That I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
Samson grasped the middle pillars on which the house rested, braced himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left, and Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.”
He bent with all his might, so that the house fell upon the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life.
Then his brothers and all his father’s household came down, took him, brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of Manoah his father. Thus he judged Israel twenty years.
Lord, we now want to look at Your side of the story. We sense even the fear of God as we see the tragedy that so evidently is before us.
Oh, Lord, give us grace to understand how to be made men of God by Your grace and by cooperating with You in every way.
As we study now tonight, we ask that You quicken our bodies that are tired, our minds to be alert to understand, and our hearts to be open even to Your speaking to us in these days. We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Now, as our brother mentioned this afternoon in passing, and it certainly is true, Samson was used by God, but he never became a man of God.
We see him in his early days, his young, brash days, his self-willed days. He is full of the grace of God. He is full of the Spirit of God. He has got the hunks of honey in his hands, because God is wonderful.
And he went foolishly and tried to marry a Philistine girl. God, in His sovereignty, prevented it.
And I am not at all sure but what even that lion jumping out at him in the vineyard was not some kind of warning from God about what was waiting ahead. But he did not listen to the promptings nor the signs; he went full speed ahead.
And even after being frustrated in this marriage to this Philistine woman, and realizing that all of the Philistines were in enmity with him, you would think he would get the point: stay away from the world.
But he was not saved by the precious promises of God, as in 2 Peter 1, saved from the lusts of corruption, but found himself full of lust again—lusting after these Philistine women.
Now he should know better. You know, the Lord is very merciful upon our foolishness in the early days, but when we become stubborn and self-willed in a path of self-destruction, what can God do?
And so here again, he becomes entangled with the world, becomes entangled in his sensuality, and he runs after these women.
And we see this story that has happened. Unfortunately, because of what he did in getting the thirty garments, now the Philistines knew that this ordinary-looking man had supernatural strength.
They knew something of the riddle. He had given it away. And now they needed to know: what was the secret of this strength?
Now they knew the riddle was, “He has strength”—or actually, God gave him strength, but the way Samson put it, he had the strength. Now, what is the secret of his strength?
Now the Philistines had to know. They were obsessed. You know, these five cities, these five kings of these five cities—they were big guys. I mean, they were important people. Can you imagine the five of them coming to visit Delilah?
They were desperate to know what the secret was of this man. Notice what it says in Judges 16:5:
The lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her,
Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth,
And by what means we may prevail against him,
That we may bind him to afflict him.
Oh, Samson was getting into a lot of trouble.
You know, God was so gracious to Samson. To me, Samson is such a picture of God’s sovereign grace. As I said, in a time of unfaithfulness, God was faithful and raised up Samson.
You know, the interesting thing about the judges is that it almost seems God displays His sovereign choosing by choosing people no man would choose to judge Israel.
No human being who reasoned the thing out, if he had to choose a judge to save Israel, would pick Gideon. He was a chicken from the tribe of Manasseh, and the least of the families in the tribe of Manasseh. Nobody would pick him.
Of course, who would choose Samuel? He was just a little boy in the temple. Would you choose him as a judge to deliver them from the Philistines? Or Deborah? She was a woman. Or Samson, this kind of wild young man, full of himself?
Yet, you know, in this book of Judges, in the decline, God almost shows you, “I choose whom I choose by My grace.”
How this applies to us. As I said before, why would He choose us? You know, He dug into the bottom of the barrel to pull me out, and for yourself as well.
There are not many noble, not many wise, not many rich, not many of stature, and all this kind of stuff. But God chooses the foolish things to show the world, “I choose whom I choose. I love whom I love. It is My grace, and it is sovereignly given.”
So God chose Samson, a most unlikely person to become judge. And you see what it says at the very end: even after his death, he judged Israel twenty years and began to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.
In fact, Samson was a judge. But what a tragedy. You know why? He never even realized he was a judge. He was just mad. He was reacting. He was self-willed.
You know, when God called Gideon, Gideon did not think he could possibly be a judge, but God confirmed it for him. Then Gideon lived the rest of his life realizing he had this purpose and calling in his life. He made his calling and election sure by obedience to God, and Gideon was a good judge for the days of his life.
Samson never understood his calling and choosing. As we see at the end, he not only lost his strength; he lost his vision.
Now, what did we read in 2 Peter 1 about those who stop increasing? Those who do not go on become blind and forget the very basis of their life: the grace of God in their life.
And here is a judge who is blind to the fact that he is a judge, that the Lord is using him in spite of himself. I mean, it is a tragedy, is it not? It is a tragedy.
Just think of all the potential. It is one thing to be a young man, sort of full of yourself. It is another thing to be a man who is unwilling to be instructed by God.
A lion jumps out, and you do not get the message. You get burned trying to marry a Philistine girl, and you do not get the message. You go off with a Philistine harlot, and you do not get the message. You fall in love with Delilah, and you do not get the message.
Eventually, what can God do? If this is the set of your will, all He can do is let you get into the place where they bind you, cut off your power, make a fool of you, and take away your testimony.
But, you know, they might take away his strength and take away his calling, but they could not take away the life.
You know, unfortunately we have Christian brothers who lose it all. They had a calling on their life, and a purpose, and a goal, and a ministry, and a life, and somehow they blow the whole thing.
You cannot fulfill your calling. You can be unfaithful. But you can never take the life of Christ away from you.
And now here is Samson down there, grinding away. His hair is growing back. Now he is blind, and there is one more thing he can do for his country: finally, lay down his life.
It is such a picture for us, is it not? It is something he really should have done a long time before. Finally, he lays down his life and kills more at that moment—those three thousand people—than he killed all during his time of striving.
And so he was not only accounted a judge for twenty years in Israel, but, as a brother came up and reminded me, he said, “You know, my brother said, ‘Take it easy on Samson. He is in the Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11.’”
In fact, his name is mentioned as a man who exercised faith. But he exercised his gift. He had the power of the Holy Spirit. He exercised faith, but he fell short of being all that God wanted him to be.
Now, we do not have to dwell on this long, but I am hoping tonight that you will make a decision in your heart not to be like Samson.
Now, what was the secret? We talked about the riddle—this wonderful riddle of God’s grace, this wonderful riddle of Christ in your life. It is so ununderstandable to the world; they just cannot grasp it.
As a matter of fact, we have a hard time grasping it in one another’s life, do we not? Except we learn that in our lives for sure, God’s grace is upon me, and He has given me these fruits in my hand.
And when the lion jumped—adversity—the Lord turned it into strength in my life. Even in my weakness, He became my strength.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
What a wonderful riddle this is. And it is meant to be made a secret of our heart.
The Lord pours out His grace upon us, but He has a purpose for us. This calling is not just a calling to salvation, nor is it just a calling to be a judge—a calling to ministry. What is it a calling to? Last night: a calling to glory, and a calling to excellence.
So there is more to it, you see. There is more to it.
The Bible says that we need to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts and in our life as Christian men if we want to fulfill the calling that God has for us.
It is not just that you can kill people with your bare hands. I have a feeling that is what a lot of ministers are: they could kill people with their bare mouth, you know?
I think that the calling is higher than just, “Well, what can you do for the Lord? That is all the Lord is interested in. Be like Balaam’s ass. Just speak, that is all. I do not care about your character.”
Oh, do you think the Lord feels that way? “I do not care what you are like, but I want you to do this.” God wants us to serve, and He has prepared works beforehand for us to accomplish.
Now, the Lord gives us all this power of the Holy Spirit, like we see in Samson’s life. Are you not thankful for the gifts of the Spirit that God has given to you? I mean, thank God for that. What an enabling that is in our lives.
We should serve God with power, not to the exclusion of the character and the life that He wants us to be.
Oh, you know, the saints in Israel were doomed to an up-and-down roller coaster ride, up and down, until finally a vessel came along who not only had the power of the Holy Spirit, but had character in his life.
And that is when Israel stopped this and started going like this. They became a kingdom. And do you know who that person was?
Well, not really David. David had this character—of course, he was human too. All of these men turned out to be human. It was Samuel who finally had character in his life and the ministry of prophecy in such a way that it turned the hearts of God’s people back to the Lord.
So, you see, what the Lord is looking for is a vessel filled with the Spirit and filled with the character of godliness. Then God can use such a vessel.
And so He is looking for all that in you and me. It does not matter how small the network of our life is.
You know, in the Bible we find all kinds of fascinating people. One brother in our fellowship group today was talking about the little things that the Lord wants us to do.
We always like to turn to Paul and see his great worldwide traveling and the great things he did. But how about a man like Ananias of Damascus?
You never hear of the brother; you do not even know who he is. And so God says this to Ananias. He says, “Yes, Lord.” He says, “Go there and pray for Saul, the persecutor, because I saved him, and I have a calling, and I want you to be there.”
And that is the only time we ever hear of this man. But he was there at the right time to serve the Lord. He was actually one of these times of change in Paul’s life that really became part of Paul’s ministry as a result.
He is the first one who called Paul “Brother Saul.” That was Ananias.
So not everybody is a Paul. But Ananias had character in his life. When God told him to go to this man who was persecuting Christians, he had the guts to do it, I think. He obeyed God, denied himself, and as a result, he was used by Him.
Oh, the Lord has this for all of us. But we must learn this secret.
You see, even Samson was reticent to give away the secret. And so when Delilah started getting it out of him, as only a woman can, started nagging, started crying, started saying, “But you promised,” and all of that kind of stuff, Samson lied one time, two times, three times, telling her things that just were not true, because there was a secret there.
And it was worth more than fifty-five hundred pieces of silver.
Can you believe the tragedy of Samson? He gave away the secret.
I hope you never give away the secret. Actually, by the grace of God, you cannot really give it away, but you can expose it and open it to ridicule.
What was this secret that he had in his heart, that he would not give away? Finally, she got after him, got after him, got after him. “I will tell you where the secret lies.” That secret lies in your heart. It lay in Samson’s heart. The world could not touch it.
They could see the honey. They could hear the riddle. They could understand he was strong, but they had no idea of the secret—no idea of the secret.
And so finally, Samson, vexed and wanting his woman, gave in and told her the secret of his heart. That is a terrible thing.
What is the secret of our heart? Well, I like the way it is put here, because it instructs us in a way. If you look right here and see Judges 16:17, Samson told her all that was in his heart and said:
There hath not come a razor upon mine head;
For I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb:
If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me,
And I shall become weak, and be like any other man.
And notice what it says about Delilah, a worldly person. Even though she was a worldly person, when Delilah saw that he had told all that was in his heart, there was something different about this testimony. It came out of his heart. She recognized it.
You know, the world can tell when it has gotten to your heart, compromised your heart, and snatched something out that was all yours and God’s—the secret of your life.
And what is the secret that we just read right there? I like it because it is twofold. Let me give you the second part first.
The secret of Samson is, “I am like any other man.”
Second part: except, “I have been separated to God since I was born.”
This is a matter of his character. This is a matter of who he was. This is a matter of the very depths of his heart.
Do you know what his power was? Do you think it was in his hair? Is that his secret—my hair? See, many people think it was his hair. No, his secret was not his hair. But his hair was an outward sign of his secret.
“I have been separated to God, and now I am giving it away.” What a tragedy.
Oh, the Lord Jesus’ precious blood was shed for you and me, for us to carry this secret. We are no longer our own. We belong to Jesus.
We have been separated from the new birth. We have been separated.
“If my hair is shaved,” he says, “I will become like any other man.” You see, is that not the mystery of the Christian life? We are like any other man.
You know, an outsider sees you, perhaps, and they say, “How can you be such a holy person? How can you treat your wife—she is going through a tough time—and you are treating her so nicely? I would just leave them. I would not put up with that.”
Of course, usually it is the women we are talking about, you guys. But you know what I am saying. Whatever side of the coin it is, the world just cannot understand. “I do not understand how you are like you are.”
And the fact of the matter is, you are like any other man. How many of you think you are about two steps away from being a total worldly sinner? But for the grace of God.
Do you think you could continue to be holy? I do not think so. There are not enough perks in it in this day and age. It used to be the popular thing a few centuries ago, but now, you know, there is no perk in being an out-and-out Christian.
You cannot maintain that long in your own strength. But, you know, you have a secret: you have been separated since the birth. It is the Nazarite.
Now, I give you my opinion, and this is only my opinion. Why did the Lord keep showering His gifts, His grace, His protection upon this young man Samson?
It is because He loved him, and He chose him, and He had a job for him to do—true, to be a judge and deliver Israel from the Philistines.
But I cannot help but think that the reason God was continually pouring out, with such long-suffering patience, His grace upon Samson was that He wanted Samson one day to make that Nazarite vow voluntarily, from his own heart.
Now, you know, his mother and father set him apart from his birth. He had nothing to do with it. The fact that he did not have a haircut or drink any wine had nothing to do with him. He was raised in a home where they did not let him.
And perhaps he even understood some of the purpose behind it and some of the beauty behind it. But, you know, God was trying to bring him to the point where, of his own free will, he would make the Nazarite vow.
Now, what is this Nazarite vow? I just want to look at it for a minute, because some of you may not have read it recently. It is over there in Numbers 6.
Just look at it in its simplicity, because there are only four things really that I want to show about it. It is really quite simple.
Now, in Numbers 6, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel.” Now He has talked about how to consecrate the priests, how to take care of the Levites, what they are supposed to do. He is putting things in order—how things are supposed to be done.
They are numbering the soldiers and numbering the Levites. They are getting ready to go into the promised land and numbering all the people. That is why the book is called Numbers. It is working out all of this thing.
And now, after talking about the priests and the Levites, He comes to this part and says:
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 moist grapes, or dried.
All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree,
From the kernels even to the husk.
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.
Verse 6:
All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord
He shall come at no dead body.
Okay, we will just leave it at that. He defines that a little bit further.
Now, I want you just to see four things about this Nazarite vow. Number one, it is completely voluntary.
Let us suppose you are from the tribe of Judah, just for the sake of argument. The Levites have been set apart, and the priests have been set apart. But you want to dedicate yourself to God. Here is your provision, right?
In a sense, you can be a priest. You know what I am saying? You can be consecrated before the Lord by this Nazarite vow, if you want to do it.
Any man or woman who wants to make a vow. What do we hear here? A free-will vow.
And so when you do this, you do it on your own. You do it because you want to do it. You are not forced to. The whole tribe does not have to do this. No person has to do this specifically. It is just for a person who loves the Lord this much: they make the vow.
I will look at the three points and try to make a spiritual application, just to save time this evening.
Number one: no grapes, no wine. Now, what does this mean?
Well, the grapes and the wine represent the joy of life. It is the joy of man. You get together, and wine makes the heart merry, and you know all of that sort of thing. And it does not say there is anything wrong with wine.
But you know what a Nazarite has done? He has dedicated himself to the Lord. And this is the Nazarite’s testimony—not this: “Well, I am a Nazarite, so I do not believe in drinking. Take it or leave it.”
This is not the testimony of the Nazarite. Here is the testimony of a Nazarite: “I am drinking from the true vine. I have tasted the honey from the rock, and He is my joy. I do not need that.”
The world goes to the bottle to find a moment of joy. The joy of the Lord is my strength. I rejoice in the Lord, and He is my vine, and He is my wine, and He is my grape.
Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess;
But be filled with the Spirit.
This is the voluntary testimony of a Nazarite. He is not going around humbugging everybody who is drinking wine or eating grapes. There is nothing wrong with eating grapes.
He wants to testify clearly in his heart: “Do you know who the center of my life is, and the center of my heart?”
The second thing: do not shave your head.
Now, you know, the Bible says it is a shame for a man to have long hair, because it is seen as a man being in a subordinate position. He is a slave. He is under cover. You know, he is like a woman; he is subservient.
And it is a shame for a man because men are supposed to stand proud and rule, masters of their own destiny.
Now, here is this guy who is willing to bear the reproach of submission. He submits himself to his Lord, and he bears this mark upon him, which people say, “What is the matter with that guy?”
He says, “Well, he is under the Lord.” They say, “What a shame. This is a mockery. What a waste. This guy is subservient. It is a reproach. Why do you not become a man?”
But really the testimony is, “I have separated myself to God. I am His servant.” You see, this is like the basic meaning of that.
And the third meaning, you know: do not touch a dead person. This is just this—again, it is a free-will offering where a person keeps himself from touching death in this world.
You know, it is almost impossible not to touch death in this world, is it not? You cannot listen to all music, because some music, you touch death. You cannot see all movies; some movies touch death. You cannot watch all television shows; some touch death.
There are many things in this world with death in them. You touch it, and you feel immediately contaminated.
Now, a person who voluntarily gives himself to the Lord, and this dedication says, “I am going to keep myself, by God’s grace, from this contamination of the world.”
Just like Daniel. You know, he could have drunk the wine of the king and eaten the meat of the king, but he kept himself separate, so his testimony could be that God is my joy, God is the strength of my life, and God is my Lord.
And it is the same thing here. You know, it is like what Paul says in 1 Corinthians. This is not a question of right or wrong. “Well, can I listen to rock and roll music?” It is not the question: can you or can you not?
It is a question of this. Paul asks these questions: “Is it profitable to you? Will it enslave you? Is it edifying?”
And if it is not, leave it alone.
You know, they were asking about all such things, like marriage and various different questions: what is right, what is wrong? Christians always want, “What is right? What is wrong?”
Paul says, “Well, here are some standards for you. Is it edifying? Is it profitable for you? Will it put you in bondage?”
He says, “I am free to do anything, but I will not be put in bondage by anything.” Why is Paul saying that? Because he is a servant, a bondservant of Jesus, and he wants no bondage from anything else.
And so this is like the spiritual tone of the Nazarite vows.
How Samson, with all of his self-willed ways and everything, surely at some point must have had a moment where he thought to himself, “You know, I need to dedicate myself to God. He has called me to be a judge. Of my own free will, now I stay apart for Him.”
And the tragedy of Samson is, he never did this.
Now, he continued to know the grace of God, and even the power of the Holy Spirit. As the enemy kept trying to jump on him, he continued to know the power of the Holy Spirit. But, you know something? He was not dedicated to God. He just lived a self-willed life.
How can you expect anything else? Because in the book of Judges it says everybody does what is right in their own eyes. He was just doing what everybody else was doing.
Do not think of him as so bad. You know, most people were living, doing whatever they wanted to do in their own eyes. In the midst of an evil and perverse generation, Samson did not stick out as somebody particularly bad. He was just doing what everybody else was doing.
But, you know, in order to be a vessel who could stop this and go to this, there has got to be more than just swimming with the world. There has got to be a separation unto God.
Now, I mentioned that Israel, for four hundred and fifty years, went up and down and up and down. Finally, they stopped going up and down and started going up. And you know why they started going up?
Samuel was a man who had the ministry of hearing God and speaking God’s Word, but also had the life to back it up. You know what Samuel was? A Nazarite from birth.
And there is another Nazarite in the Bible we could learn a little lesson from—at least, for me, it is an interesting little lesson, if you like this kind of stuff. Who is the Nazarite in the New Testament? John the Baptist.
Now, Jesus was a Nazarite in heart. Daniel was a Nazarite in heart. But John the Baptist was another guy who looked wild, his hair all long, and he abstained from all of these things out of devotion to God. He was a Nazarite.
And we learn a lesson from him. Here it is. This is what I want to say.
Samson bears this testimony: “Out of the eater came something to eat.” The lion jumped out. I found the power of the Holy Spirit. I killed the lion. Out of the lion I got food.
John the Baptist’s testimony was also, “Out of the eater was something to eat.” Now, he ate locusts.
Now, you know, locusts in the Bible are symbolic of wasted years, where Israel was being wasted by the locusts. It was an internal invasion. I would call it an invasion of the flesh, if you do not mind me using this kind of symbolism.
You know, we might learn how to resist the devil when he comes in some outward pounce, but be eaten up by locusts. John the Baptist made locusts his food.
You know, it says in Joel 2 God will restore all the years the locusts have eaten—all years that are wasted, all of that internal loss.
So let me put it this way: if we are going to be Nazarites, we have to be aware of the eater outside and the eater inside—the lion and the locust—in order to overcome and be victorious.
So there is Samuel, and he was a Nazarite from birth. He was separated. What does this mean? Samuel just went through this process.
He grew up as a little boy in the house of God, learning to sing the songs, learning to trim the lamps, learning to help out Eli in the daily rounds, opening the door every day and closing it down at night.
He was just a faithful little boy, but he learned in the house of God how to serve. What big deal? Just a little boy. But his life was separate to God, and it was separate all of his days.
And it says, when the Word of God started coming to Samuel, the presence of the Lord returned to the children of Israel.
But this man not only spoke God’s Word; he lived it. He lived separated unto God and laid down his life for these people.
If you read the early part of 1 Samuel, you will see he laid down his life and interceded for those people.
You know, before they went the first time, he said, “Look, if you will return your hearts to the Lord and put away the Baals, then the Lord will defeat the Philistines.”
The people put away the Baals and said, “Samuel, cry out to the Lord for us.” Samuel put up an offering on the altar and began to pray, to intercede for Israel.
The Philistines came racing down on them to try to capture the children of Israel, and God sent a big thunderstorm down, frightening the Philistines. They turned and ran. Israel turned and chased them and routed them in a great mistake.
Because from that time on, Israel was freed from the Philistines while Samuel was reigning. Samuel interceded.
Well, anyway, you see the whole point. Now, here is the point that I am leading to.
The Lord pours out His grace upon you and me. How many of you could nod your head when I say, “Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good?”
I mean, do you know of His mercy, and do you know of His grace? Can you think of the times He has healed you, delivered you, prevented you, helped you, given you an answer when you needed it, directed your path, and borne up with you in a time of your own rebellion?
He struggled with you. He waited for you to come around. Then He blessed you and continued on.
There have been so many times in my life where I thought, sure, God was going to come down and hit me. He said, “That is enough.”
And sometimes, when I am rebelling and fussing with God, you know what He does? He is the only person I know who uses this tactic. God will just bless you more and give you more love. He heaps the coals on your head. He has got to break you and bring you through repentance from His goodness.
I mean, what a wonderful, gracious God we have. He is so full of mercy and compassion.
But eventually, eventually, when He captures our heart, will we come back to God and say, “God, I want to be a Nazarite of my own free will. I want to be separated to You of my own free will.”
Now, that is Nazarite, Old Testament. Of course, you know what it is in the New Testament, right? It is Romans 12:1-2. Now let us just look at it for a second: Romans 12.
Because we do not have a Nazarite vow in the New Testament, because it is not even a vow. The children of Israel made vows and tried to keep them in their own strength, but they did not have the Holy Spirit and Christ living within.
Now, in Romans 12, Paul has shared the gospel of the grace of God. He said, “You are no longer under the law; now you are under grace. You have been saved by grace. Now you stand in the grace of God, with the peace of God and justified with God.”
There is so much grace and mercy that he shared. But when he comes to Romans 12, Paul is urging them because he senses the Lord wants something from this.
He says:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
Which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world:
But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
That ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Now, we know this Scripture is used all the time. And I must say, although it is used with good purpose, it is used any time anybody is trying to dedicate themselves for anything.
It is almost like the “if” clause for service. Sometimes, you know, I remember as a young Christian, I used to go to a Keswick conference. I do not know if you know what that is.
Every Friday night in this Keswick conference, they gave an appeal for those who wanted to serve God, who felt called to be a missionary, who felt called to be a minister, or something like that.
So they would always come to this verse. And basically it said this: “Now, if you want to be a minister or a missionary, you have got to lay your whole life down on the altar for God to take you out to serve Him in wherever—Africa, something like that.”
So this became like the required law: if you want to become a minister, you have got to lay everything down on the altar and give yourself to God.
This has also become the law for if you want to have a sanctification experience: you have to lay everything on the altar before God. If you want to live the victorious life, you have got to lay all on the altar before God.
And so this has been made like the big move that we have to do if we want to receive these very things, or if we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit: lay everything down.
Romans 12 is used all the time. Well, what does it really mean?
Paul says, “Now, I am beseeching you. I am urging you based on the mercies of God.”
Now, what is the difference between the mercy of God and the grace of God? It is the same thing: it is love—God’s love.
Now, the difference between grace and mercy, basically as I see it, is this: grace is looking at the love of God at the source.
That is, God is gracious. Grace partly means He is beautiful. He is surprising in His love. And His love is so beautiful because it is so undeserved.
When we talk about grace, we are talking about love looking at the source—that is, God Himself. When we talk about mercy, we are talking about love, but now we are looking at the neediness of ourselves.
It is the same love, but now looked at from the perspective of ourselves. Here we are, so needy.
But, you know, “I beseech you, brothers, by the mercies of God.” What he is saying is, “Have you tasted His love? Have you known this mercy that I spoke about in these chapters? Have you known that you have been saved?”
If you know that, your life can be given to God. You know that you can present yourself to God as instruments of righteousness. Do you realize the freedom you have as you walk by the Holy Spirit now and no longer by the flesh?
Do you realize God has great purposes for you, that God is for you, and no one can be against you? Such wonderful words Paul speaks through all of these things.
He says, “Now, based on all of those mercies, have you tasted Him? Have you seen Him? How about, of your own free will, offering yourself a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God?”
Many times people come and offer their sins to God. But this is saying, “No, offer yourself. Cleanse those things as a holy sacrifice unto God.”
Now, this phrase here in Romans 12, for somebody who is Jewish, would immediately come back to the whole burnt offering.
Now, you know, the Jews gave a number of different offerings God wanted them to offer. But the highest of the offerings, because it was voluntary, was the whole burnt offering.
When a Jew took, for thanksgiving to God and out of his own free will, a whole animal, laid it on the altar, and the whole animal was completely burned, he ate nothing. He got nothing out of it. It was everything for God, just consumed up as a sweet aroma to God.
That is a whole burnt offering. And that is what God is saying here. He says, “No, I do not want a chunk of you. I do not want your sin. I am not talking about a dead sacrifice.”
“Do not come up here and just collapse on the altar and say, ‘I am just dead and empty.’”
No, come as one who realizes, “I have been chosen by God through grace. I have been called to glory. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. Old things have passed away. All things have become new.”
“I have been cleansed by the precious blood of the Lamb. I am being led stage by stage by the life of Christ who lives within. I am in Christ, and Christ is in me.”
“And here I am, a living person. I have all of this freedom. Now I can do whatever I want as a Christian. All I want to do is, ‘Lord, where else can I go? You alone have the words of life that I need.’”
“And I want to come to You and give myself as a living sacrifice, so I can be useful. Just let it be an act of worship. I want, of my free will, to give to You.”
You see, this is a consecration of our lives that we give to God of our own free will. How God waits for us to exercise our will and just give ourselves to God with no strings attached.
This is not regarding ministry, although it may involve ministry. It is not regarding holiness, though it will involve holiness. But what it means is that this is for every Christian, not just those who are going to be missionaries. It is for every brother.
Have you known the mercies of God? What are you going to do with that? What is your response?
I love this. I love the manners of our mighty God. He never forces us to do something against our will. But He says, “Are you willing? Are you ready to present yourself to Me as a living sacrifice?”
To just say, “Lord, whatever You want for my life.”
Now, brothers, this is a starting point, but it is also a daily starting point.
Let me just say something very practical about this whole list of increase in our Christian life.
If you set your mind and heart on Christ Jesus at the beginning of the day, giving yourself as a free-will sacrifice for God, much of the day will already be hemmed in by His gracious hand.
You have probably eliminated at least fifty of those lions of the flesh and things that would come your way and catch you unaware.
You know, if you just step out into this world, you are totally in the flesh. You got out of bed in your old-man pajamas and you did not put on the new man.
You just go walking down through the world. This person texts you, and this person calls you, and this person is nasty to you, and this guy is driving too slow. By the time you get through the day, you are completely wiped out.
Or, before you go anywhere and make yourself susceptible to locusts within or lions without, you say, “Lord, I give You my life today.”
Do you know what happens there? It releases so much grace in your life. You set your commitment, your way, to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will keep you through the day.
I am not saying the lions will not jump. I am not saying this will make you immune from tragedy, even. But He will take out of the carcass and make something sweet, because you love God and are called according to His purpose.
And you are set in this way. You are a sacrifice for the day. It tightens your senses. It makes you aware when you are being tempted.
You know, when you are just out of the Spirit, you are not even aware sometimes that you are being gnawed at by something.
But when you have laid your life before the Lord, even at the start of the day, you say, “Lord, I just give myself.” It does not take twenty-six minutes. You do not have to go through some big ritual.
You just lay your heart before the Lord and say, “Lord, You captured my heart. Where else can I go? I am Yours for today.”
“Lord, give me my daily bread. Keep me from the evil one. You are the glory. You are the One I trust. You are the One who will get me through. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit.”
It sounds so simple. You could make it a routine that is meaningless. But if in your heart you really mean it, you know what I think this little portion really is saying?
It is saying this: not, “Oh God, I come to You because I lack this, I lack gifts, I lack the Holy Spirit, I lack holiness, I lack godliness.” It is not that we come, “I lack, I lack, I lack. I am no good, I am no good.”
You know what it is? We come to Him and say, “Lord, You are all that I need. You are my righteousness and my wisdom for the day, my redemption and my deliverance. You are all that I need for the day.”
“I just want to recognize that the grace of God is upon me. But I do need something. Here it is: God, would You keep that which You have placed in me for today? I do not want to lose it.”
“I do not want to let the secret out of my heart. I do not want to fritter it away and let it leak out somehow.” Do you understand what I am saying?
In other words, we do not come and say, “Ah, Lord, I am nothing. I am just a piece of junk.” No, we come and say, “Lord, by Your grace I am cleansed by Your grace and blood, and You fill me with Your Holy Spirit.”
“Now, Lord, I am saying, I want to put my life in Your hands today because You are my Keeper.”
Now, this is the one thing we cannot do well. We receive the grace of God, but we cannot keep it. Only the Lord can keep that which we have committed unto Him.
That is what Paul’s confidence was, was it not?
I know Whom I have believed,
And am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him.
Do you believe He is your Keeper? Today, He needs to be your Keeper. You have the grace of God. You have the gift of the Holy Spirit. You have the mighty power of God.
But just say to God, “God, would You keep that? Keep that. Keep me in there. Keep me in that. Lord, I am so prone to wander. Do You not know that?”
“Lord, even with all of the grace, I could forget Your grace and Your mercy. And Lord, I just need You to be my Keeper today.”
And the Lord will keep it. The Lord will bring us through the day, and you will sense the difference between living out of your own strenuous straining and living with the assistance of the very life of God Himself through you.
But it comes by setting ourselves at that beginning of the day.
So, do not be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. What does that mean?
At least it means this: it means for you to dare to say, not just, “I am a worthless heap.” We all know we are sinners. We have nothing to boast of at all.
But it means to come to God and say, “I am, by the amazing, surprising grace of God, a new creature in Christ. I have everything that I need in my Lord.”
“I can call on Him during the day. You have given me the Holy Spirit because I lack wisdom, but He is my wisdom.” Now that is new thinking.
You know who you are. Now, if you know who you are, you also know that greater is He that is within you than he that is in the world.
But if you forget who you are—and, like I say, practically I think this is true—most mornings when you get up in the morning, you get out of bed in your old-man pajamas.
You have a nasty attitude. “Ah, another bad day out there. The stock market is down to two thousand. Oh boy, I have got bills I cannot pay.”
Already you have got negative thinking. “Oh, there is my wife snoring away. She bugs me to death. And the kids are yelling at me already. It is six-ten in the morning.” You start out in that kind of attitude, you know?
And just with one moment, you can say, “You know, that is not really me. I have been crucified with Christ, and now I live by the life of Christ in me.”
“I am a new man. Thank God for the day. I wonder what He has got in store for me today.”
You know something? I bet you, if I look in the Word for just a minute, I may find something I can meditate on and chew all day long. You know, when He gives you a candy, it is an all-day sucker.
Just something living, something in the Word, something, you know?
Now you have hope because you know you are a new man—Christ in you. You, as you really are, who you truly are, love the Word of God, love to pray, love being righteous, and love to serve the Lord.
Because that is Him. That is who you really are.
Now the old man—the guy you are used to, the guy with the big loud voice, not the still small voice—the old man with the big loud voice says, “Ah, you are still the same old dummy, are you not? Look in the mirror. You are just one day older and dumber.”
And, you know, he always talks like that. You are used to him talking, so you say, “Yeah, I agree with you.”
No, do not agree with him.
No, you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
But you see what I am saying? At the beginning of the day, you can turn the whole thing around. Attitude just changes night to day.
But there is something that happens that enables you to go through this.
So this consecration in Romans 12 is not just a one-time thing. It is something we really do in our lives day by day. Give yourself to the Lord, and you will sense His abounding grace upon your life.
You know what? He has so much in store for us. He wants to provide us with so much that He waits for your permission, and He will do it.
Sometimes we get so blessed, we stop asking. “I have got my daily bread. I am a wise guy. I do not need His wisdom.” And then we do not recognize His mercies anymore. We are headed for trouble.
Now, here is my appeal that I would like to make tonight. I want us to have just a little opportunity here where men can come down to the front and just kneel down and offer themselves as a living sacrifice unto God.
Only because I know probably some of you have not done this in a while. And maybe somebody here has even kind of gone away from the Lord. You need to come back to who you are in Christ and give yourself to Him.
He will never force anybody. His Spirit may be talking. He may be convincing, but He will never force, because He wants you to do it of your own free will.
But I am just persuaded here, as I have been praying and thinking about sharing this tonight, that there may be some brothers who would like to take this opportunity, get down on their knees, and say:
All to Jesus I surrender,
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.
“Fill me with Your love and Spirit. Lord, I come as a living sacrifice. Where else can I go? I have tasted Your grace. I am spoiled by Your love, and I want to give myself to You freely.”
You know, if Samson—I still fear—had made that crossover in his life, and somehow made what was his inheritance from birth his own desire, he would have been a man of God as well as being used by God.
And you and I, from our new birth, have been separated to God. Are we now, of our own free will, to declare that and to commit ourselves to that?
Now, this is something that is pleasing in the heart of God.