Good morning. Let's open this
morning service with hymn number 70 and your hardback hymnal number
70. Holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty. Let's all stand together. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy,
holy, merciful and mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Him and seraphim falling down
before thee, which wert and art and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. holy holy holy lord god almighty
all thy work shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons,
blessed Trinity. Please be seated. Good morning. I know I say this
a lot, But there's not a hymn that we could have opened this
service with better than that one that just declares, supports, encourages
us in the topic that I want to try to deal with this morning
on the holiness of our God. Obviously, that hymn writer had
Isaiah chapter 6 in mind, when he wrote the words of this hymn.
And Isaiah, in the year the King Uzziah died, he said, I also
saw the Lord. And he was high and lifted up.
And the cherubim, the seraphim that flew over his throne crying,
holy, holy, holy, as the Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth
is filled with his glory. In the year the King Uzziah died,
Israel was in trouble. Uzziah died shamefully, afflicted
with leprosy because he tried to usurp the position of the
priest and take it on himself to approach God without a priest.
And Isaiah, fearful that the Lord had completely taken his
hands off of Israel, went to the temple that day. And he said,
in the year that King Uzziah died, I also saw the Lord. We're in trouble. We're in trouble
because of our sin. And pray the Lord will be pleased
to cause us to leave this place today saying, I also saw the
Lord and he was high and lifted up. We're going to be looking at
a few verses in Judges chapter 13, if you'd like to turn with
me there. in your Bible, Judges chapter
13. Titled this message, Our Nazarene. The word Nazarene means
separated or consecrated, which is exactly what the word holy
means. And Samson, now in the next couple
of chapters, he is a type. of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is our holiness and our sanctification before God. I pray the Lord will
give us faith to rest all our hope on the Lord Jesus Christ
for our holiness and our sanctification before God. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, Truly, holiness is something
that we cannot comprehend. We cannot
understand. We know it's true. We know, Lord,
that you are other than we are, all together holy. Lord, we come
into thy holy presence. as sinners in need of a Savior,
and so thankful that we have thy dear Son, who himself is
holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, to stand
in our stead. Lord, we pray that you would
send your Spirit in power and that you would Enlighten the
eyes of our understanding that you would enable us to set our
affections on things above where Christ is seated at thy right
hand and that we would find all the hope of our salvation in
his glorious person and in his accomplished work of redemption. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. You have your Bibles open to
Judges chapter 13. Let's read the first five verses
together. And the children of Israel did
evil again in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered
them into the hand of the Philistines 40 years. Here's our experiences
in it. Our sin is a continual battle. And the Lord will turn us over
to our enemy temporarily to a feel the affliction. of our sin. And there was a certain man of
Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. Now Manoah is the same name as
Noah, the one that God raised up to build the ark, and his
name means rest, rest. We have rest in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose work was finished before
the foundation of the world, the scripture says. And he is
our Sabbath, he is our rest. So the Lord raises up this man
by the name of Manoah, and he's gonna give him a son. The son's
gonna be called Samson. which translated means like the
sun, like the sun. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
son of God, but he's also likened in the scriptures as that ball
of fire that raises every morning and sets every evening and gives
light and warmth to this world. And so Like the son, we're going
to see Samson and his father, Manoah, are all given to us to
point us to the Lord Jesus Christ, who will deliver us from our
sin. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman. Now this is Manoah's wife, Samson's
mother. She's never named in the scriptures. It's called the wife and she's
called the woman, but that's it. And she goes unnamed. And what a picture of the believer
who doesn't call attention to himself. And in one sense, we
go unnamed at all the glory. All the glory of our salvation
might go to our husband in whom we have our rest. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman and said unto her, behold now thou art barren,
embarrass not. You are infertile and you have
no children. That's what that means. But thou shalt conceive and bear
a son. The son of God was birthed into
this world through the womb of his church, spiritual Israel. and born of a woman, born under
the law, born to redeem those who are cursed by the law. And that's exactly what he accomplished. Now therefore beware, I pray
thee. Here's what I want us to see this morning. This is the
Nazarite vow. It goes back to Numbers chapter
six. God gave the children of Israel
this instruction under the law. If a man wanted to separate himself
for a period of time, if he wanted to consecrate himself in service
to the Lord, he would take this Nazarite vow as a symbol of his
consecration. Now, the Nazarite vow could be
taken for a day, it could be taken for a week, it could be
taken for a year. In this case, it's taken for
a life, his whole life, Samson. The one who's like the son born
of Manoah, representing our rest in Christ, is going to be a Nazarite
all his life. Not faithful to keep the conditions
of his vow. One of the conditions of the
vow was that he was not to touch anything dead. Samson touched
a lot of dead things and a lot of dead people. The other condition
of the Nazarite vow was that he wasn't to cut his hair and
we know that At the end of his life, Delilah, his wife, had
him cut his hair. And he was strapped to the pillars
of that Philistine house, the scripture says, where all the
Philistines were gathered together. And in his last effort, he pulls
those pillars down and he kills the enemy of Israel. A picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. His wife cut his hair,
took away his strength, took away his glory. And in his final
act, he pulled down the house of the enemies of God and destroyed
them by his own death. Samson, you know, died in that
event. So all through this story, we're
going to see Samson as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here
he's a type of the separated one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
himself was called the Nazarite. He was born in Nazareth. And
so here we go. Look at verse five. Verse four, now therefore beware,
I pray thee, drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any
unclean thing. For lo, thou shalt conceive and
bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head. For the child
shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he shall begin
to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." What
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that Hebrews chapter
12, verse 14, without holiness, no man will see the Lord. Without holiness, without being
consecrated and separated from sin, that's the unholiness of
this world. No man can see the Lord. We have
to have a holiness. We have to have a righteousness.
that is acceptable in the sight of a holy God. Habakkuk 1, verse
13 says, thou art of pure eyes than to behold sin and iniquity. So God is holy. We just sang that. Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord God of hosts. He's other than we are. He's
consecrated. He's separate from us. He's sanctified. That's another
word for holy in the Bible, separated one. Another word for holy or
separated one is the word saint. And the believers are referred
to as saints, separated ones, holy in the sight of God. Another word for holiness or
separation or consecration is Pharisee. Pharisees were a sect
among the Jews who separated themselves and held themselves
up as more righteous than other men. And the Lord said to his
disciples, he said, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees, you should not see the kingdom
of God. So they had set themselves up. Here's the difference between
a Pharisee and a saint. Who does the separating? Who
does the separating? You separate yourself. You hold
yourself up as if you have a righteousness that is acceptable to God in
what you've done and what you haven't done. You look down your self-righteous
nose at other men and think that you're better than others? That's
pharisaical, isn't it? Standing in judgment, taking
the beam out of another man's eye, or the speck out of another
man's eye while you have a beam in your own. That's just being
a Pharisee. Standing in judgment of other
men, thinking that you're better. But that's what Pharisee means,
separated ones. But if the Lord separates you,
If he puts you in Christ and makes you holy, makes you to
be a saint, then you'll have rest. Listen to what the Lord
said. Come ye out from among them and
be ye separate, saith the Lord. You know, that's one of the evidences
of what the Scripture teaches when John the Baptist and even
the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 26 said, repent and do ye works
that are meet for repentance. One of the works that's meet
for repentance is that you come out. of all false religions. A man says he's heard the gospel,
he believes on Christ, he knows that this is the truth, and he
continues in a false church, he's not come out from among
them. He's not done works meet for repentance. If God gives
you repentance, you're going to walk away from every bit of
that. And so here's the work of the
Spirit of God in the hearts of God's people. He causes us. We can't stay under a false gospel
when the Lord separates us. We have to assemble ourselves
together with God's people where the gospel of God's grace in
Christ is lifted up. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
seven. Hebrews chapter seven. Look at verse 25. Wherefore, he, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is able also to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. For such a high priest became
us. He took on the likeness of sinful
flesh. He was born according to the
flesh after the seed of David. He came into this world as God's
perfect man. For such a high priest became
us, who himself is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sinners. He's separate from us, never
sinned. God made him sin on Calvary's
cross when he had his hair shaved, his head shaved, and his hair
cut off, and he laid down his crown of glory. That's another
word. You know, in the English language,
we have so many words in our vocabulary, but most languages
aren't that way. One word can mean lots of different
things. And one of the words that Nazirite
means is a crown. crown, crown of glory, the separated
one who's been crowned King of kings and Lord of lords. And
so he's separate from sinners and he's made higher than the
heavens. Who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer
up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the sins and
then for the sins of the people. For this he did once when he
offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests
which have infirmities, but the word of the oath, this is the
covenant of grace, this is the promise that God the Father made
to God the Son, and God the Son made in response to his Father
before the world ever began. According to this oath, which
was since the law or much longer before the law, This oath goes
all the way back to eternity past. Maketh the son who is consecrated. Here's the word Nazarite. He's
consecrated. He's set apart. Forevermore. Hebrews chapter 10 says we are
sanctified. We are set apart. We are made
a Nazarite. We are consecrated to God. through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. Once and for all. This is our
consecration. The Lord Jesus Christ, he that
sanctifies. And that's the Lord Jesus. And
they which are sanctified are all as one. Wherefore he's not
ashamed to call them his brethren. Here's the glorious, but yes,
you and I have to be separated. We have to be consecrated. We
have to be made holy. And yet we have no holiness in
and of ourselves. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world to do. Scripture goes on to say
in Hebrews chapter 10, for by one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified, them that are set apart. See,
our sanctification doesn't begin when God gives us faith to believe. For by one offering, 2,000 years
ago on Calvary's cross, he hath sanctified, past tense. or you
have perfected them that are sanctified. John chapter one, when Philip
came to Nathanael and said, we have found the one that Moses
and the law speaks of, Jesus of Nazareth. And you remember
what Philip said or Nathanael said to Philip, Nathanael, remember,
he's the one that was under the fig tree. The Lord said, an Israelite
indeed, in whom there is no guile. Nathanael obviously would have
been praying under that fig tree, asking the Lord to save him and
reveal Christ to him. And at that very moment, and
Nathanael says, Nazareth? Nazareth, what good thing can
come out of Nazareth? Nazareth was a small village
and it was despised and held in contempt even by the Jews. And They were not only backwards
people and of insignificant importance in Judea, but they were a murderous
people. I mean, we see that. And this
is a small town, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he goes back to
his hometown to inaugurate his public ministry and take that
passage of scripture from Isaiah 61 and declare himself to be
the Messiah. What'd they do? They took him
to the brow of the hill to kill him. They tried to murder him.
That's the kind of people that lived in Nazareth. Hateful, murderous,
backwoods. What's the scripture say? Despise
not the day of small things. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to our God. How many times our God
has done such small things? Why? Because he'll not share
his glory with another. And he came into this world as
a baby in a manger, in the backside of a barn, in a feeding trough. He brought down Egypt with things
like flies and lice and locusts, brought down the greatest nation
in the world, our God. does great things in small ways,
ways that men don't acknowledge. You know, men look at big organizations
and lots of money and big denominations. Well, there's the presence of
God. No, no, no. God is here, brother. I know
he's here. We're preaching his gospel. We're
lifting up Christ. And he said, if I be lifted up,
I would draw men to me and we're two or three gathered together
in my name. There I am in the midst of them.
God has separated us and he's called us out and he's taught us the truth
about who he is and he's promised to meet with us. Don't despise
the day of small things. That's how our God works. And
you remember Gideon, when the Lord came to Gideon, and Gideon's
hiding out behind the wine press, and Gideon is amazed. He said, I'm of the least of
the tribes of Israel, and I'm the least member of my tribe.
Why would you come to me? So I can get all the glory. Here's
what I'm saying, brethren. Why'd God save you? Why'd he
save me? Why did he pick the least of
the least? Why did he, why does he, why
does he pull his children out of the bottom of the barrel?
That no flesh had glory in his presence. He gets all the honor
and all the glory and all the power. And he works with small
things to glorify himself. What a glorious God. That's something
to do with this whole idea of being out of Nazareth. The Pharisees
one time, they said, no prophet ever came out of Galilee. Search
the scriptures, they said. You search the scriptures and
see if you can find a prophet that came out of Galilee. Well,
Jonah did. Jonah came out of Galilee and they knew that. But they despised the fact that
the Lord was was so mean and so insignificant. That's what
I mean by mean, not mean-spirited. You understand that? He was of
little value. The disciples, when they were
brought before the Sanhedrin, they said, these are ignorant
and unlearned men. You gonna teach us the law? But
they took notice that they had been with Jesus. What a difference. That is all the difference in
the world. It's not education, it's not
power, it's not influence, it's not money, it's not size. It's having Christ with you. And he glories in making himself
known what is obscure and contemptuous among among men. Think about the lineage of the
Lord Jesus Christ and Ruth is in it. Ruth the Moabitess. She came back with Naomi and
she married her kinsmen redeemer and they had a child and Obed
and Jesse and then David. And we have, you know, when God
brought the children of Israel across the Jordan River into
the promised land to take that first city, Jericho. We have
a harlot by the name of Rahab, who ends up in the very lineage
of the Lord Jesus. Who would have thought? Who would
have thought? Here's the way our God does things.
He doesn't do things in great big flashy ways that that catch
the attention of the eye of flesh. He does things quietly and secretly. And when he speaks to your heart
and to my heart, he doesn't speak in loud language. He doesn't
have to, he doesn't go about the cities in Isaiah chapter
42, begging men to follow him or making a big noise out of
it. No, he doesn't do that at all. He speaks in a small, still
small voice. Look for the small things. You
know, the flesh is always looking for something big and grandeur.
No, God is doing things and little things in little ways. Quickly, the three things that
the Nazarite was to do was not to touch anything that came from
the vine. He was to be, he was to abstain
completely from any alcohol. Now we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the fulfillment of that type, but he drank wine. So he wasn't a physical Nazarite. He was a spiritual Nazarite.
What does wine represent in the Bible? Happiness, joy, gladness,
all those things are spoken of when it comes to wine. You and
I, we've got to have a vacation every once in a while, don't
we? We've got to have a day off. We've got to have a change of scenery.
We get cabin fever. We need something different in
order for us to be happy and content. If we just shut ourselves
up in one place, we can't be content with one thing. We've
got to have different meals all the time. We can't eat the same
thing over and over again and wear the same clothes every day.
we have to have a change. Why? These are the things that
make us content and happy and, you know, that wasn't true of
the Lord Jesus Christ. How many times we read of Him
rising before dawn and going out by Himself to be with His
Father. The Lord Jesus Christ received
all of his joy, all of his happiness, all of his contentment, every
single bit of it from his union with his father, his relationship
with his heavenly father. Oh, that we could learn to get
more of our contentment from him. But we don't, because we're not
separated like he is. He's the one that's holy. He's
the one that's undefiled. He's the one that's separate
from sinners. He was a perfect Nazarite, a
perfect Nazarite. Matter of fact, to the contrary,
we see things in this world and we enjoy things in this world.
Every single thing the Lord Jesus Christ looked at, all he saw
was the result of sin on that. I mean, he was so holy and pure
that he couldn't get happiness or contentment from anything
in this world. Even when he looked at his disciples,
he was so put out with them sometimes. He was amazed at how much sin
had affected them. You understand what I'm saying. He couldn't derive his happiness,
his contentment. He's the anointed one. That's
another thing that wine represents. The wine, the anointing of the
spirit of God. And he came in the full power
of the spirit of God. You and I have the Holy Spirit
by measure. He had the whole spirit of God.
He was the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one. And all of
his contentment, all of his happiness, every bit of his joy, came from
his union with his father and the power of the Holy Spirit
upon him. He's the Aaron, the oil of gladness
that was poured upon his head and went down his hair and down
his beard and down his, and dripped off the hem of his garment. There's
our Lord. He derived all of his pleasure
from his heavenly father. And that's what makes the cross
such an agony that we can't enter into. You and I can be happy. We can be content. We can have
joy from material things. He wasn't able to because everything
material was affected by sin and he was holy. He had to get
all of his contentment from his heavenly father. And that's the
cup that he didn't want to drink from in the garden. Father, if
there be any way, he knew that when he went to the cross, that
God would make him sin. And that being made sin, God's
eyes being too pure to look upon sin, would be turned away from
him. My God, my God, blessed thou
forsaken me. You and I can go hours, days
without thinking much about God. He had a perfect union with his
father. Why? Because he was the separated
one. He was the Nazarite. He's the holy one in which we
must be that holy. We have to be that holy. We can only be that holy if we're
found in him. The Nazarite was to touch nothing
dead. We know that wasn't true of Samson. One time he killed
a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. And there's
a type of Christ as well. But the Lord Jesus Christ was
life himself. Life himself. You know, in the
physical world, we have to have light in order for there to be
life. But in the spiritual world, you
have to have life before you can have light. The scripture
says in John chapter 1, in him was life and the life was the
light of men. You know, some of us came out
of a very very self-righteous, pseudo-intellectual, reformed,
Calvinistic way of thinking, where we thought that we had
been educated into the gospel. You know, you can't have life
until you have light. And you've got to be taught the
right way before you can become a believer. You know, just the opposite is
true. You can't be taught of God and
you can't understand a single thing until God gives you life. Life is a sovereign, unilateral
work of grace whereby God invades a man's heart and gives him life
in Christ. And then the light comes. You
don't educate a man into the gospel. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ is. He's life himself. Did the Lord not say to Martha
at the resuscitation of her brother Lazarus, when she said, Lord,
I know my brother will rise again in the resurrection, he said,
Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. The man believeth on me, though
he be dead yet shall he live, and if he die, he's never gonna
die, never gonna die. Believest thou this? Believest
thou this? Yea, Lord, yea, Lord, I believe
that all life is in you. You and I come into this world
spiritually dead, separated from God. If Christ doesn't invade
us and give us his life, give us himself, The scripture says
Christ is our life. He doesn't just show us the way
of life. I am the way, the truth and the life. There's nothing dead in him.
Nothing dead in him. Until he went to the cross. And he drank of that bitter wine
mixed with gall. They gave him, he drank damnation
dry. The very bitter dregs of that
cup, he drank it all. And he died. He died. And by his death, we
have life. For you are dead. You are dead. And your life is hid in Christ. And when Christ, who is your
life, shall appear, then you shall appear with him in glory. There's the Nazarite. There's
the separated one. We've got to be separated unto
him. We have to be holy. We have to be consecrated. We have to have the breath of
life. I mentioned this recently, you
know, when God fashioned Adam from the dust of the earth and
the scripture says he breathed life into his nostrils. Why did
he breathe life into his nostrils? Because his mouth was shut. If
you're going to give due resuscitation on a man whose mouth is shut,
you got to breathe through his nose. And that's what the law
does. It shuts the mouth of man and
makes him guilty before God. God breathed life. Here's the
life of God. In him was no death. He's the
creator of all life. Nicodemus, except you be born again, born
from above. You cannot see the kingdom of
God. Life comes before light. Don't think, well, I can't have
life in Christ until I know more. I've got to be more educated.
I've got to have more experiences. I've got to have, no, Lord, save
me. You're not going to have any
understanding of the gospel until the Lord gives you life. Life. And the scripture says you have
not because you ask not. He never refused to give life
to someone who comes to him for that life. Lord, I'm dead in
myself. I've got no life. I've got no
righteousness. I've got no holiness. Lord, you're
gonna have to make me alive. You're gonna have to raise me
from the dead. And the third thing about the
Nazarite was that it was not to cut his hair. We see that
all throughout the picture, all throughout the scriptures in
1 Corinthians 11, 15. You know, in some religious traditions,
women think that they are making themselves more holy by covering
their head with a doily when they come into church or wearing
a hat over their head. But here's what the Bible says
about that. If a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her and
her hair is given to her as her covering. So here's the hair
is a picture of glory and covering. That's the covering. Shameful
thing for a woman to shave her head. And that was the picture
of the temple prostitutes in the Bible days. And men, contrary to that, a
baldness, which I can relate to is referred to as shameful
in the Bible. And then we go to the Song of
Solomons, we see the Lord Jesus Christ described in all of his
beauty and all of his glory as having a head full of black hair
like a raven. Now that's a picture of his youth.
That's a picture of his strength. which he carried with him to
Calvary's cross. But then in the book of Revelation,
when we see another picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, now his
head is filled with white like wool hair, which is a picture
of his wisdom and his glory, which he gives to his people. You remember Absalom, the son
of David, was fleeing from David's men and he had long flowing hair
and he, his horse ran under a tree and he got, his hair got caught.
This picture says, the scripture says that his hair had been pulled,
which means it had been braided. He had these long braids and
somehow he got caught up in the limb of this tree and he's hanging
by his hair from this tree. Well, you know what that's a
picture of. The Lord Jesus took off his crown, his glory. He had his head shaved on Calvary's
cross. He hung there by his very hair. Like Samson, in one regard lost his strength
and that he died, but another regard through death saved his
people. Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, fulfilled
everything in the scriptures that God had given through the
law for the Nazarite. He consecrated himself unto his
father, perfectly holy, separate from sinners. If you and I are
going to be acceptable in the sight of God, we must have him
standing in our stead. We must be found in him. We must have his righteousness. We must look to him alone for
all of our acceptance before God. All right, let's take a break. Okay.