It has been my privilege to fellowship with the young people this past week. I remember last year at this youth retreat, the Lord gave us a very precious time together. Again this year, the Lord was faithful and really moved among the young people.
As the young people prayed about the conference, they came up with several Scriptures that they wanted to emphasize. One of the Scriptures they emphasized is in 2 Timothy, and we would like to look at it together this morning.
We will read 2 Timothy 2:19-22.
Nevertheless the firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His: and, Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.
Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some unto honor, and some unto dishonor.
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, meet for the Master’s use, prepared unto every good work.
But flee youthful lusts, and follow after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
When I read the several Scriptures the young people suggested, this one stayed in my heart. During these days, we have been speaking about the matter of consecration.
As I am here to share with all of you this morning, when I see the young people sitting in the front row, my heart goes out to them. If you will allow me, I would like to share with the young people one more message on consecration. I hope everybody will receive something from it.
We are all burdened in this day because the church is very large. It is a very large house, as Paul said. But in this Lord’s house, the Lord wants precious, honorable vessels.
There are many vessels in the house—some for honor and some for dishonor. But the Lord’s eyes look to and fro across the earth for those vessels of honor to choose.
During the youth retreat, I used three examples from the Old Testament of honorable vessels. They were vessels of honor because their lives were consecrated to the Lord.
We talked about the intimacy of consecration from the life of Samuel. When Samuel said to the Lord, “Speak; for Thy servant heareth,” this began a lifelong fellowship with the Lord, in which he heard and sought the word of the Lord.
Then we looked at the life of David, and we saw his wholehearted consecration to the Lord. We saw how he inspired those around him also to give themselves to the Lord.
Then we looked at Daniel as a vessel of honor to the Lord. He set his mind to serve the Lord alone, and the Lord gave him great understanding and wisdom.
Now I felt in my heart that it would not be right not to share, by example, a vessel of dishonor. In this matter of consecration, there is a need for warning.
I want us to look at another familiar character in the Old Testament, just to learn the lesson of consecration from the life of Samson. I would like for us to meditate for a few moments on Samson and stolen consecration.
Let us turn to Judges 14. We want to read some verses together to remember the story. In Judges 14, we find Samson as a young man, so it is good, for the young people’s sake, to look at this passage.
We will read the first nine verses of Judges 14.
And Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.
And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.
But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord; for He sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel.
Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah: and, behold, a young lion roared against him.
And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.
And he went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well.
And after a while he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.
And he took it into his hands, and went on, and did eat as he went: and he came to his father and mother, and he gave of it unto them, and they did eat: but he told them not that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion.
Let us pray.
Our Father, we thank You for all that You have given us in Christ Jesus our Lord. You have given us Your grace, Your calling, and Your gift. Help us all to respond to such gifts by giving ourselves unto You.
O Lord, exhort our hearts in this matter of consecration. Speak to us by Your Holy Spirit this morning. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
As we were looking at the Old Testament characters, there were some things they had in common. These vessels of honor were raised up at a very important time in the life of God’s people.
We all know the background of the book of Judges. The children of Israel were in the promised land, but they had no king, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. This caused great spiritual weakness.
Because they were unfaithful and worshiped idols, they often found themselves oppressed by the enemy. Here, at the time of Samson, the Philistines were oppressing the people of Israel.
But when they cried out to the Lord, He had mercy. No matter what condition God’s people are in, when they cry out to the Lord, the Lord has mercy.
It seems as though the Lord looks down upon them, chooses a sovereign vessel, and raises that vessel up to deliver the children from their oppression. This is God’s sovereign grace.
The stories of the judges are stories of God sovereignly choosing a vessel to deliver the children of Israel from their enemies. This is the case with Samson.
You know, of course, about his sovereign birth. His parents were barren, but the angel of the Lord came and said, “I will give you a son.” He would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines.
This was a miraculous choosing. Samson was born sovereignly, and then we see his sovereign upbringing.
From his birth, he was consecrated by his parents. He was a Nazarite from birth. He was devoted unto God. He never cut his hair, he never drank wine, and he stayed away from all dead flesh.
He was the most remarkable and unusual young man. He was also unique in his gift. When the Holy Spirit came upon him, he had great strength.
Now, as you know, unfortunately Hollywood pictures Samson in a certain way. If you ever see a movie on television about Samson, you see that he is always some kind of muscular he-man, like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But probably Samson was not like that. As a matter of fact, his strength was a secret. It was when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him that he had superhuman strength.
So I always tell young people that Samson was more like Mel Gibson than Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was a good-looking man; he was not weak. But Samson was not super-strong in his own flesh. When the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, he had superhuman strength.
He was God’s sovereign vessel for this very time. At that particular time, the Philistines were oppressing Israel.
The Philistines were very wise. They allowed the children of Israel no blacksmiths, so they could make no swords or spears. Anybody who wanted anything sharpened had to go to the Philistine blacksmiths to get his tools sharpened.
But God raised up a sovereign deliverer. Samson, filled with the Holy Spirit, did not need any sword or spear. With his own bare hands, he could kill and tear apart a lion. One time he used the jawbone of a donkey to kill a thousand men.
So, in a time when there could be no metal arms, Samson was still used to deliver the children of Israel. God chose this vessel. You can see God’s grace upon him.
We remember Judges 14:4:
But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord; for He sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel.
The Lord knew all about Samson. He was raised in consecration. But when we see Samson here in Judges 14, does he not look like a typical teenager?
Even though he had the Holy Spirit, and even though he was consecrated, when we see him in Judges 14, he was a self-willed, stubborn teenager.
As I look at these young people, I do not see that they could possibly be like that. But then I remember my own days as a teenager, and I think maybe they are stubborn.
Samson was stubborn. He was self-willed. He knew what he wanted, and Mommy and Daddy had no advice for him. “I want to marry this girl.”
Actually, this was a girl whom the children of Israel should not marry. His parents said, “No, no, no. Please find somebody else.” But Samson said, “No, get her for me. She looks good to me.”
Is this the action of a consecrated young man? He was very stubborn and unwilling to change his mind. So his parents and Samson went down the road to meet this girl.
As Samson walked down the road, he transgressed again. The Nazarites should never go near grapes, but Samson went into the vineyard. What was he doing in the vineyard? He was up to something.
While he was there in the vineyard, a lion jumped out. My brothers and sisters, this is amazing. The Lord was with him, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. He tore the lion apart and killed it.
By God’s grace, God protected him. The Lord was with him, even though he was a stubborn, foolish young man. This is God’s amazing grace.
Of course, the lion was very surprised, but Samson probably was even more surprised. He did not know he had that kind of strength. It was God’s grace, and the Lord was with him.
When he went down toward the wedding feast, he went again into the vineyard. He was still a naughty boy. But he went in there, and what did he see? Inside the lion there was a honeycomb.
He took some of the honeycomb and ate it. Then he gave some to his parents. When he got to the wedding, he also wanted to boast. He wanted to show off.
He said, “I want to give you a riddle.” But really, he wanted to boast about how strong he was. He said to the Philistines, “If you can guess the riddle, then I will give you some clothes. But if you cannot guess, then you give me some clothes.”
We see in Judges 14:14 the riddle:
Out of the eater came forth meat,
And out of the strong came forth sweetness.
I was reading one modern Jewish translation of this, and it says, “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the bitter, something sweet.” However you want to look at it, this is a riddle of the grace of God in Samson.
When the Lord saves us, He pours His grace out upon us. As we walk, even as young people, we begin to understand this riddle of the Christian life: out of the eater, something to eat.
The enemy is as a roaring lion. He is always prowling, trying to catch us. But when temptation jumps at us, or when the enemy tries to take us, the Lord gives us the way of victory.
When the enemy attacks, the Lord gives us food. He makes us stronger. This is true in our Christian life by God’s grace.
The Lord protects us, and we find in our Christian life that when we go through difficult times, they only strengthen us.
You remember Caleb as he stood at Kadesh-barnea. He said, “Let us go into the promised land.” He said, “The enemy will become our food.”
This is our experience as Christians by the grace of God. He not only saves us; He makes us more than conquerors. Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the bitter, something sweet.
This is also the Christian life. Even out of tragedy and disappointment comes something sweet.
The Lord works everything together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. The world cannot understand Christians, especially when a Christian goes through great difficulty.
Christians respond so differently than the world. The world becomes bitter, and the world tries to escape. But the Christian waits for the Lord, and the Lord gives resurrection and life through the circumstance.
Most of the Christians who have been through bitter experiences are the sweetest Christians.
Samson tasted and saw that the Lord was good. But Samson was also careless. He wanted to boast, and he told this riddle.
The world could not figure out the riddle, but the world knew something: “Go to his wife, and she will get the answer out of him.”
Samson was so naive. He thought that maybe he was strong in body and also stronger in mind than his wife. Now all brothers know this is impossible.
His wife cried and cried and cried, and finally he told her the riddle. Of course, she told the riddle to the Philistines.
When they told Samson the riddle, he got so mad that he got up and killed thirty men. But because Samson was playing with the world, he lost his blessing.
Samson is just an Old Testament picture, but within this picture we can see something of what is necessary for true consecration.
The first thing we notice is how patient the Lord is. Here was a young, foolish boy, but the Lord protected him. The Lord gave him the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord was kind and merciful.
Perhaps you know the story. The Lord sovereignly prevented Samson from marrying the girl. He got so mad that he went away, and when he came back again to take her, she was already married.
Actually, the Lord was protecting him. The Lord is merciful. I do not know, but I sometimes think that maybe the lion was a warning to Samson: “Watch out.”
In any case, we can see how merciful, how patient, and how longsuffering the Lord is. Here was His vessel, filled with the Holy Spirit and called to be a judge to deliver Israel from the Philistines.
Yet God was merciful, because He realizes that even His vessels have to go through a process—from the natural man to the spiritual man.
Especially when we are young, if we are filled with the Spirit, we are also filled with ourselves. But the Lord stands with us. The Lord uses us, but the Lord brings us to the cross—to the place where we do not depend upon ourselves, but depend upon the Lord.
The Lord is very longsuffering regarding His vessels. He must bring us all from this natural state into a spiritual awareness.
But in real consecration, there must come a point where the vessel responds to the mercy of God.
For Samson, his parents consecrated him. His parents taught him the separated life. Thank God for godly parents. They cover us by their prayers and keep us, by the Lord’s help, from much foolishness.
But there comes a point where Samson has to take the Lord for himself, where Samson says, “I, of my own free will, consecrate my life—not because my parents want me to, but because I want to.”
How do we come to this point? We all know this passage in Romans 12:1:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
What is necessary before we can present ourselves to God? I would put it this way: we have to have a little history of His mercy.
Paul, in his letter, is saying, “If you understand your salvation, give your life to God.” If you have experienced His mercy in your life, it is time to give yourself to Him.
When we experience His mercy, it should capture our heart. The goodness and kindness of God should lead us to a place of repentance.
The Lord is so merciful to us. But in order for consecration to be completed, God has done everything He can do; now Samson must respond back.
The tragedy is that Samson never did. He remained selfish. He remained self-willed. He continued to follow after his own lust. He never came to God.
If he had any spiritual sensibility, he would have said, “O Lord, I have been so foolish. Now I come to You and give You my life. I ask for Your mercy.”
Or even as Samson became aware of his calling, he could have said, “This is a very important job. I am to begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. O Lord, I see my calling, and I come to You. I deny myself. I want to be faithful to my Father. Please give me grace.”
Even on the most simple level, as a result of these affairs he had in the world with the Philistines, he should have recognized, “These are my enemies.”
The Lord allows us sometimes to make mistakes and go through things so that we can understand that we have an enemy. Samson should have come to the Lord and said, “O Lord, the Philistines are my enemy. Every time I fellowship with them, they take something from me. Lord, keep me from the evil one.”
This is where every young man and every young woman should come to. Samson is just a picture of the Christian life, but we have so much more.
This matter of coming to the Lord should not be a one-time consecration. The Lord has given us His grace. He has blessed us in so many ways. He has been patient with us as unworthy vessels.
But when will we deny ourselves, take up the cross, and be equipped by His grace to be a worthy vessel? This is what is necessary for real consecration.
Brothers and sisters, we looked this week at camp at this passage in 2 Timothy 2. In the midst of this large house with many vessels of all different kinds and character, it says, “The firm foundation of God standeth. The Lord knoweth them that are His.”
On Sunday morning, we can have a thousand people meeting. But when the Lord looks at us, He is looking for worthy vessels.
He is not at all concerned with how many vessels we have, even if everybody is just a wooden vessel. No, He wants honorable vessels. He wants these honorable vessels to be useful to Himself.
In this story, we see the tragedy of Samson’s life: unfulfilled consecration. The Lord did all He could, but Samson never responded.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy that not only does the Lord know who are His, but we have a responsibility:
Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.
We have to cooperate in this consecration. The Lord knows us and has a sovereign plan for us by His grace. But as we become aware of this sovereign plan, it is ours to respond to Him, to come to Him, and to give Him our lives.
That is why Samson needs to be a warning to us. There is an enemy. The enemy comes to steal consecration, to kill, and to destroy.
If we do not give ourselves to the Lord, the enemy uncovers us, and then he is able to steal from us.
In the story of Samson, how did his strength get stolen? We find in Judges 16 that once again he went down to Philistia, and he fell in love with another Philistine woman.
You would think he would begin to get smart. Not only were the Philistines his enemy, but these women were his enemy. Yet he fell in love with Delilah.
The Philistine leaders came to Delilah to find out the secret of his strength. Samson was very weak compared to the power of women.
Delilah wept and cried and said, “You do not love me. You will not tell me the secret.” A man can take that one time, but every day, every day—it is just too much.
Now we see when his consecration was stolen. In Judges 16:15:
And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thy 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 to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, that his soul was vexed unto death.
Then, in verse 17, Samson told her all that was in his heart. He said that if his hair were cut, he would 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 for the lords of the Philistines.
Samson had the secret of his consecration in his heart. In his heart, he was consecrated to God by his parents.
Some people think he lost his strength when they cut his hair off. He actually lost his strength when he revealed his heart.
He said, “I am just like any other man, except that from birth I have been separated unto God.” When the world found that secret, they stole the secret out of his heart.
It was a terrible tragedy. What a tragedy we see before us. He lost his power. Then they poked out his eyes, and he lost his vision.
He lost his usefulness. He lost his calling. He lost his testimony.
They took Samson and made him like an ox. They put him in a grinding mill, and instead of an animal, he had to go around and around in a circle and grind the flour. He became a reproach to the testimony.
Here was God’s judge, and now they used him like a beast. If we do not consecrate our lives to the Lord, we can lose our vision, our testimony, our power, and our usefulness.
But I cannot leave the story there, because God is sovereign and He is merciful. It turns out that God knew Samson would be stubborn.
When we say that God is sovereign, it means that He knows what is going to happen. He planned Samson’s life to use his stubbornness for His own purposes.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is sovereign, and He uses every vessel in His house. Is this not the mercy of God? He does not throw any of His vessels out.
He is so merciful. He uses every vessel for something, because we are His vessels. No matter how unprofitable we are, He will use us for something.
He used Samson even knowing his stubbornness. But, my brothers and sisters, our choice as to whether we are going to be worthy or unworthy has to do with our consecration.
Which is the better way: to be used by the Lord in spite of us, or to cooperate with the Lord and be used as a vessel of honor?
In Samson’s life, he did, in fact, deliver Israel from the Philistines. But because he was not consecrated to the Lord, because he would not walk with the Lord, his life was lonely.
He was bitter. He was a problem to the Philistines, and he was a problem to God’s people. Nobody wanted him. He lived a lonely life.
He could have lived in the blessing of sensing his calling being fulfilled, of the purpose of God being realized in his life, and of cooperating with God to do all His will.
The Lord will use us, but it depends on our attitude toward Him just what blessing we receive.
Now you know the end of the story. We see God’s sovereign grace once again. The Lord was merciful to Samson, and He gave him a chance once more to have a testimony.
Samson was blind, but his hair grew back. Even though he was blind and had become a useless vessel, this is a picture for us that there is still the life of the Lord.
The hair grew back. So, in Judges 16, we turn to verse 28. In the middle of a great feast of the Philistines, they were looking at Samson and laughing at him. But the Lord gave Samson one more chance.
And Samson called unto 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.
And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and leaned upon them, the one with his right hand, and the other with his left.
And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead that he slew at his death were more than they that he slew in his life.
I wish I could say that Samson’s heart had changed, but he never became a spiritual man. Even this final prayer was for his own revenge.
But the Lord heard him, and the Lord honored him. Once more, the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. He tore down the temple with his own hands.
More men were killed that day than during the rest of his time as deliverer. By God’s mercy, there in Hebrews 11, among the testimonies of the giants of faith, Samson’s name is mentioned.
That is God’s mercy. He let him go out in glory. But he wasted his life. His consecration was stolen. He never fulfilled with all his heart God’s purpose for him.
Yet the Lord used him in spite of it all. This comes down to one question.
Again, I appeal especially to the young people. You have a whole life ahead of you. You will experience His grace and His mercy.
But when He cares for you, when He delivers you, and when He blesses you, will you come back to Him?
One of the things that causes me the greatest burden is when I hear Christians saying, “I am just satisfied to be any kind of vessel in the house.”
They talk about the mansions up in heaven, and some people say, “That is okay. I will just take a little tiny house up in heaven.” They seem to have no desire really to please the Lord.
Is it enough just to be a wooden vessel, just to carry water in the house or to put dirt in it? In these last days, there are many vessels in the house of God.
But our Lord looks down for the gold vessel and the silver vessel—those who are willing to give their lives to Him, so that He can take us through the fires and purify the gold and the silver, to make us useful vessels in these last days.
This is crucial. I am very encouraged, because the young people in this day seem to be very special, and the Lord is calling them once again.
May we pray that the Lord will make vessels of honor who are fit and useful for the Master until the day He comes back. May the Lord have mercy on us all.
We give You thanks, Lord, for Your grace to us. We give You thanks for our precious young people. We give You thanks for our own lives as adults as well.
We sense the beseeching, the invitation based upon the history of mercy. We want to offer ourselves as living sacrifices unto You.
O Lord Jesus, You spared nothing in Your consecration. You gave Your all for us. Forgive us for being so foolish. Forgive us for our stubborn ways.
Lord, we want to be found in Your house useful to You. Take these young people who have heard these simple words this week, and our precious brothers and sisters here, and in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and California.
As You walk in the midst of the lampstands, find vessels of honor who are wholly given over to You. O Lord, we pray that Your heart may delight in Your vessels.
We thank You for Your sovereign grace in our lives, and we pray that You will gain glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.