I want to read a verse of scripture
from Ecclesiastes chapter 5 if you'd like to turn with me there
in your Bibles Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and I want to pause right now
to welcome all our visitors our brethren from Sarasota are here
and we're so very thankful for that and several others I'm not
going to attempt to we'll have time after the second hour to
fellowship together around the table and I hope that everybody
will stay for that and and that everybody will make an effort
to get to know someone that you've not met before. It'll be a blessing
to you. That hymn we just sang was inspired
by that passage of scripture in Isaiah chapter 6, where Isaiah
said, I saw the Lord and he was high and lifted up. And the seraphim,
each having six wings, hovered over his throne And they cried,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth
is filled with his glory. And the first words out of Isaiah's
mouth were, woe is me. If we believe what we just sang,
then that will be our heart's attitude right now as we approach
the God of glory, the one who is himself thrice holy. will
approach him with that spirit what was me I am undone I'm a
man of unclean lips I live among the people of unclean lips my
eyes have seen the king I need mercy and I need grace and that's
what we've come here for this morning and the Lord tells us
in Ecclesiastes chapter 5 at verse 1 that we are to keep Thy
foot, when thou goest to the house of God, tread softly, remembering
that you are in His presence." And He's not like us, not in
any way. That's what holy means. He's separate from sinners, undefiled. and be more ready to hear. James
said that to be swift to hear and slow to speak, that God would
give us ears to hear. Lord, would you enable me to
hear thy voice? Would you cause me, Lord, to
know Christ and to know the truth of your gospel? It's a mystery. it's a mystery to the natural
man if the Lord doesn't reveal himself to us we have no way
of finding him out if he's not pleased to make himself known
and the gateway to the heart is the ear for faith comes by
hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God then to give the sacrifice of
fools Sacrifice the fools is to think
that somehow God will favor you with his grace based on something
that you've done. Based on something that you have.
That's the sacrifice of fools. For they consider not that they
do evil. They don't know. that the things
that they're offering for their sacrifice are in and of themselves
evil. That's just the spirit of an
unbeliever. When the scripture speaks of
fools, it's talking of unbelievers. And they don't know that their
wills and their prayers and their works are evil before God. They believe that somehow they
can offer those things up to God as a sacrifice for His grace
and for His mercy. The Lord would cause us to have
that spirit of worship, and if he does, then we'll find ourselves
worshiping him, as he told the woman at the well, in spirit
and in truth. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that you've provided us a time and a place where we can gather
together in thy name. We thank you for the precious
promise that assures us that where two or three are gathered
in thy name, there you are in the midst of them. We rejoice
in knowing that thou inhabitest the praise of thy people. Lord,
in order for us to be able to praise, in order for us to be
able to hear, in order for us to be able to believe, in order
for us to have our hearts opened. The mystery
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us. We are
completely dependent upon your spirit to accomplish that work. You've told us that we're to
ask for you to send your spirit in power. Lord, if our worship
is to be done in spirit, you'll have to do it. We pray that you
would cause him now to come in his sweet presence and in his
awesome power to make known to our hearts our need for Christ
and who he is. Cause us to find our rest in
him. We ask it in his name. Amen. We've been using this Bible study
hour for a couple of months now to consider the names and titles
that are given to us in the Word of God for the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that the Bible in
its entirety is given to us in order to reveal Christ. In the
volume of the book it is written of me. beginning with Moses and
the prophets and the Psalms, he expounded unto them those
things concerning himself. He said to those religious men,
you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal
life, you think because you've memorized a few verses and learned
a few doctrinal truths that somehow you've merited favor with God,
but in fact you've missed the message of the Bible. for these
are they which testify of me." And the Lord is so glorious in
his person that it takes the Holy Spirit over a hundred names
and titles to reveal him to us. And one of those titles that
we find used many times in the scriptures is the Nazarene. When the scripture speaks of
the Lord Jesus Christ being Jesus of Nazareth, it's not just giving
us a reference to where he grew up, though he did grow up in
Nazareth. But it's telling us that the
Lord Jesus Christ himself is the Nazarene. Turn with me to
Matthew chapter 2. Matthew chapter 2. And he came in verse 23, I'm
sorry, verse 23 of Matthew chapter 2, and he came and dwelt in the
city called Nazareth. Remember, he was conceived in
Nazareth. It was in Nazareth that the angel
came to Mary and spoke to her and told her that that holy thing
that had been conceived in her womb was by the Spirit of God. And then in God's providence,
the Lord moved Mary and Joseph during her pregnancy to Bethlehem
to fulfill another prophecy that Bethlehem be in the house of
bread and that's where the place that's the place where our Lord
was born but then he comes back to Nazareth and grows up in Nazareth
why well the scriptures clear look at this that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called
a Nazarene." Now the word Nazarene means separated one. It means
separated one. That's what Nazarene translated
means. And it means the same thing that
the word holy means. It means that he is separate,
undefiled, sinless, and separate from sinners. It means he's not
like us in any way. He's been devoted or dedicated
as the Nazarite vow was, we'll look at that in just a moment,
to the Lord. as a sacrifice for sinners. He's separate from his brothers. In Genesis, the scripture, when
Jacob prophesies his blessings upon his sons, he speaks of Joseph
and he says of Joseph, you are a Nazarite. You are separate
from your brothers. You're not like your brothers
at all. Joseph was a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was the one who went down
into Egypt even as the Lord Jesus Christ after his birth and before
taking his place in Nazareth. went down in order to flee from
Herod, Mary and Joseph had to take him down into Egypt. All
foreshadowing what he would do when he came into this world
in order to deliver his people, even as he brought the children
of Israel out of Egypt. So he brings us out from underneath
the bondage of the law and the taskmasters that require a quota
beyond our ability to fulfill. That's what he came to do. And
so the Lord Jesus Christ is like Joseph in that he is sent before
us down into Egypt in order to bring about a great salvation
for Israel. That's what Joseph said. And
he's the one who holds the keys to the storehouse. Joseph was
the one who supplied the bread for the children of Israel. He
was the one that they had to go to in order to get access
to that bread. And what he opened, no man could
shut, and what he shut, no man could open. And so when Jacob
speaks of Joseph and says of Joseph, you are separate, and
that word is Nazarite, you are a Nazarite from your brothers.
You're not like them in any way. What he was saying to Joseph
was that you're the savior of your brothers. even as the Lord
Jesus Christ, the anti-type, would come in likeness to that
type and fulfill all that the prophecies had to say. So when
Matthew says that he grew up in Nazareth, that the prophecies
might be fulfilled, that's what it was speaking of. That the
Lord Jesus Christ, being separate from his brothers, would come
and bring salvation for us. John chapter 1, will you turn
with me there? Now, the Jews held Nazareth and those
that were from Nazareth in contempt. And it's no different today. Men hold the Lord Jesus Christ
in contempt. They do not believe that they
depend upon Him alone for all their salvation. Men don't have
it. You know, people have a problem
with the gospel. It's not a problem with doctrine.
It's not a problem with limited atonement. It's not a problem
with total depravity. It's not a problem with irresistible
grace. The reason why men have a problem
with the gospel is because they're born into this world hating the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's not that they hate the doctrine
of total depravity or that they hate the doctrine of sovereignty.
They hate the God who is sovereign and they hate the God who declares
them to be totally depraved. They hate God. And you've heard
me say this before. If you've never hated God, if
you've never hated God, I am so sad to tell you that you still
do and you don't know it. You don't know it. That God would expose our hatred
for Christ and break our hearts for in spite of our hatred for
Him, He laid down His life for His sheep. and he takes those
who are at enmity with him. That's what that means. And he
makes them his willing servants and his loving brothers and his
friends. But he does it. He does it. He does it all. He's the Nazarite. He's the one that's separate
from us. He's not like us. Look what John
chapter 1 verse 45 And Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith
unto him, We have found him of whom Moses, and the Law, and
the Prophets did write." Now Nathanael knew that the entirety
of the Old Testament was about the coming of the Messiah, the
Christ, the long-awaited one, the one that would deliver Israel
from all their sin and from all their enemies. And Nathanael
says, we found him. Jesus the Nazarite. We're not changing the Word of
God. That's exactly what that means. We don't read Jesus of
Nazareth as if he's just giving reference to where he's from.
we just read in Matthew chapter 1 that he was born in Nazareth
that the prophecies concerning him being a Nazarite might be
fulfilled so now from now on when the Lord's referred to as
Jesus of Nazareth it's Jesus the Nazarite the separated one the son of Joseph and Nathanael
said unto him Philip knew that. Nathaniel says, Nathaniel refers
now and says, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? A Nazirite? Someone from Nazareth? Can anything good come out of
there? Oh, not only can something good come out of there, the only
thing that is good, the only thing that is good The Lord said
to the rich young ruler, why callest thou me good? When the rich young ruler said,
good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Why callest
thou me good? For there is none good but God.
Now the Lord wasn't denying his deity, he was bringing that rich
young ruler to understand what he had just said. You call me
good, do you understand what you're saying? In fact, I'm the
only thing that's good on the face of this earth. The Lord
told Moses on Mount Sinai, I'll cause my goodness to pass before
thee. Goodness and mercy shall follow
us all the days of our life. The Lord Jesus Christ, the only
one, the good. Paul makes it clear, does he not? God makes
it clear to his people in Romans chapter three, in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth what? No good thing. There is none good. None good. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
Well, so-and-so's good. I've done some good things. No,
not one. Not one. That's what God says.
And the way God sees it is the way it is. God says there's no
son of Adam that's good. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world as separate from sinners. He came into this world as the
Nazarite, conceived of the Spirit of God so that the seed of sin
would not be given to him by birth. It was imputed to him
upon the cross of Calvary. But at birth he came into this
world completely separate from sinners. But the world says what
Nathanael says. Can anything good come out of
Nazareth? Look what happens with Nathanael
in verse 47. And Jesus saw Nathanael coming
to him, in verse 47, and saith unto him, Behold an Israelite
indeed, in whom there is no guile. This is a child of Abraham. This
is a spiritual child of Israel. who has poured out his heart
in prayer to God that God would make himself known to him. Nathanael
had done that. How do we know that? From the
next verses. Look what he says. And Nathanael
said to the Lord, verse 48, Whence knowest thou me? How do you know
who I am? And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig
tree, I saw thee." I was the one you were talking
to. I was the one you were pouring out your heart to. I heard that
prayer. I was the one that put that prayer
in your heart, in order that I might make myself known to
thee. And Nathanael just lost it. He just lost it. He said, Oh
Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel.
No man could have known what you just said had you not been
the Nazarite. Oh, shut my mouth for what I
just said about anything good coming out of Nazareth. For truly
you are the goodness of God. the Nazarite the separated one Jesus answered and said to him
because I said unto thee I saw thee under the fig tree believest
thou thou shalt see greater things than these you're not going you're
gonna see the fullness of me satisfying all the demands of
the Nazarite vow before it's over and you're gonna see the
angels of God ascending and descending upon me." That ladder that Jacob
saw in that dream, the ladder itself was the Lord Jesus Christ.
He saw the angels descending and ascending upon him. You're
gonna see the power of God fulfilled in what it is I have come to
do. Even Satan knew that the Lord
Jesus Christ was the Nazarite. Look with me at Mark chapter
1 verse 24. Mark chapter 1 verse 24. Here's the sad truth. Is that
the devils know things about the Lord Jesus Christ that men
don't know. The devils believe things about
the Lord Jesus Christ that men won't believe. Mark chapter 1 verse 24 let us
alone what have we to do with the thou Jesus the Nazarite art
thou come to destroy us I know who thou art the Holy One of
God am I not reading the right verse Okay, I saw some of you
flip. Sometimes I give you the wrong
reference and I see you moving around looking for it. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God, the Nazarite, the devils
knew who He was. Do you? Do you know who He is? Oh, I hope so. For to know Him,
is to have the life of God in you. He said in John chapter
17 this is life eternal that they might know thee the only
true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Not to know him
like the devils knew him. James said you believe that there's
one God you do well the devils believe that and they tremble. Oh but to to have him fulfill
for you all the vows of the Nazarite." When Pilate wrote that inscription
on the plaque above the cross, it read, Jesus the Nazarite. king of the Jews. You see God
used the lips of devils and God used the lips and the pen of
men like Pilate to declare the truth about who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. When the women came to the tomb
on the resurrection morning The angels met them there and said,
you seek Jesus the Nazarite. He's not here. He's risen. He's fulfilled the vows of the
Nazarite. Peter in Acts chapter 2, when
he preached the message to those Jews in Jerusalem on the day
of Pentecost, he said to them, Jesus the Nazarite, a man approved
of God before you. So the second phrase was a definition
of the first phrase. Jesus the Nazarite, the man approved
of God. He's not like you. He's separate
from you. God is pleased with Him. He's not pleased with you. The only way I'm going to find
God to be pleased with me is to be found in Him. In Acts chapter 10, when the Lord knocked Saul of
Tarsus, off his high horse in Acts chapter 10, he's telling
that story and he said, when the Lord said, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? And Saul said, who art thou,
Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus the Nazarite, whom thou
persecutest. Later, the Apostle Paul was called
the ringleader of the Nazarenes, those who are followers of the
Nazarites. Now, when we think of the Nazarite,
we think of Samson. And Samson's birth was much like
the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Manoah's wife was barren, unable
to have children, and an angel of the Lord came to her and told
her that she was going to conceive, not of the Holy Spirit like Mary
did, but in very like fashion, he explained to her that she
was going to have a child. And this child was going to be
separated unto God from the womb. That he was to be a Nazarite. that a razor was not to touch
his head, he was not to eat of anything that came from the fruit
of the vine, or drink any of its liquor, and that he was not
to touch anything that was dead. And the reason the angel gave
Manoah's wife this description of this child for he said for
he shall begin to deliver israel out of the hands of the philistines
this this child that you're going to give birth to he's going to
be a type of the one he's going to begin to deliver the children
of israel out of the hands of the philistines the philistines
are representative as the enemies of Israel. The Philistines are
our enemies. It's our flesh. It's our sin.
It's the judgment of God's wrath and His law. It's Satan himself
and all the things that he would use in this world in order to
take us away from God. What did the Lord say? He said,
are not going to be able to prevail against them. What did Samson
do? Samson went and he took the gates and the bars, the scripture
says, and he carried them off up to the hill and laid them
down. And the children of Israel were
able to go in and invade the Philistines. Why? Because of
the work of Samson. And how do we see Samson dying?
We see him strapped to two pillars, don't we? Pulling down the very
temple of Dagon and destroying the Philistines in his death.
Christ is pictured in the life of Samson. Now there were three
things that Samson was supposed to avoid as a Nazarite and in
fact he was probably the greatest offender of all of them. And therein also we see the likeness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. For though he maintained perfectly
his separation from sinners in his life, in his death he suffered
all the violations of the laws of separation that we're guilty
of and bore our shame and our guilt on Calvary's cross as our
substitute. Well, the first thing we see
of Samson is that he was not to drink of, well, I tell you
what, turn with me to Numbers chapter six. Numbers chapter
six. Verse one. And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say
unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves
to a vow, a vow of a Nazirite, to Nazirite themselves unto the
Lord." The word Nazirite is used four times in that one verse.
It's just translated separate in a couple cases and Nazirite
in a couple more cases, but same word. Separation. So this was a vow now that an
Israelite voluntarily took upon themselves in order to consecrate
themselves to God's service for a period of time. And this was
the vow that Samson was born to fulfill. In verse 3, he shall
separate himself from wine and strong drink and shall drink
no vinegar or wine or vinegar of strong drink. Neither shall
he drink any liquor or grapes nor eat moist grapes or dried
All the days of his separation shall eat nothing that is made
of the vine tree, and from the kernels even to the husk. All
the days of the vows of his separation, there shall no razor come upon
his head until the days be fulfilled. in which he separateth himself
unto the Lord, he shall be holy, and he shall let the locks of
the hair of his head grow. In all the days of his separation,
or all the days of his Nazarite vow, himself unto the Lord, he
shall come at no dead body. He shall not make himself unclean
for his father, for his mother, or for his mother, for his brother.
In other words, if his mother, father, brother, or sister dies,
he can't touch their bodies in preparation for burial. He can't
kiss their dead bodies. He can't. Why? Because he's a
Nazarite and he's made a vow he cannot touch anything dead,
he cannot cut his hair, and he cannot drink of the fruit of
the vine. Now don't misunderstand the Scriptures. God nowhere in the Bible prohibits
the consumption of alcohol certainly it's a it's a drunkenness is
a shameful thing and and uh... but there's no there's no prohibition
in the word of god this was a this was a tight this is a picture
where's the first with there's a there's a lot of first mentioned
in the word of god in other words when something is first mentioned
in the word of god picture that you see a bit in that place illustrates
the point of that throughout the Word of God. Where's the
first place we have the first mention of the vine and the fruit
of the vine? Right after the flood. Noah planted
a vineyard and he made wine from that vineyard. And what did he
do? He became drunk. And what did
his drunkenness result in? The uncovering of his nakedness. Now that's the picture here.
The picture here is that of sin. It uncovers our nakedness before
God. And we've become intoxicated
with it. And what did the Lord Jesus Christ
do? He who knew no sin became sin
for us. And so though he was sinless
and separated from sinners in his life, in his death he bore
in his body the fullness of the evil of all the sins of all of
God's people and pressed out the wine press of God's wrath,
drank the bitter dregs of that cup, and suffered the judgment
of God for having broken that Nazarite vow. And that's what
happened in his death. That's what happened in his death.
He took on our sin and God judged him and cursed him for that. The second thing was that the
Nazarite was not to cut his hair. And what do we see a picture
of with Samson? In all of his drunkenness and all of his touching
of dead things and killing people, he didn't ever cut his hair.
And so he continued to have power, didn't he? He continued to have
power. And that was the mystery and
the secret of his power. Nobody knew it. And Delilah wanted
to know what his power was. And so she cried and she pleaded
and she begged until she finally found out what the source of
his power was. And when he went to sleep, what'd
she do? She cut off his hair. He cut off his hair. His own
wife weakened him in his death. You know, that's exactly what
we did. The hair is a picture, it's a
crown of glory for a woman. The hair, the blonde hair, I
mean the gray hair of an old person is their sign of wisdom. The Lord Jesus Christ is described
as having hair like, white like wool. Baldness in the scriptures
is considered a shameful thing. Why? Because of the symbolism
that hair represents and what it represents in the person of
Christ. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
hung on Calvary's cross, his wife cut off his hair. He was made subject to death
for the first time. What was the third thing that
a Nazirite was not to do? touch anything that was dead,
for as soon as he touched something that was dead, he became what? Unclean. We come into this world
dead in our trespasses and sins. And what the Lord Jesus Christ
did on Calvary's cross is He touched us. He touched our very
nature. He took upon Him the deadness
of our own sin. and suffered the wrath of God's
judgment. He's the Nazarite. And he fulfilled
perfectly the requirements of the Nazarite vow until he went
to the cross. And then he made himself subject
to all those things that separated him from us. and he took upon
himself our nature and our sin and became us so that in his
death God's people died in him. In Acts chapter 21, I conclude
with this, the Apostle Paul comes back to Jerusalem, don't have
to turn there, the Apostle Paul comes back to Jerusalem and he's
been out preaching the gospel to the Gentiles And the apostles
in Jerusalem are concerned because the accusations are being made
against Paul that he's preaching against the law. He's preaching
against the law, which he wasn't doing. He was preaching Christ
as the fulfillment of the law. And so the apostles got together
and they said, we have four men here who are prepared to go into
the temple and make a vow. It was the Nazarite vow. They
had shaved their heads. They were going in to make a
public commitment to the Nazirite vow. And for the first seven
days they were to remain shaven and they were to not touch anything
dead. And then at the end of the seven
days they were to make a blood sacrifice. That was the Nazirite
vow. And the Apostle Paul thought
Well, I'll participate in that and that will give me an opportunity
to quiet my detractors, my gainsayers." And he agreed to do it. And he
shaved his head. And he went into the temple seeking
to fulfill that picture of the law in order to silence his enemies. and the scripture says in Acts
chapter 21 at the end of the seven days what was to happen?
He was to make a blood sacrifice. God wasn't going to have that.
The blood sacrifice has already been made. You can't make another
sacrifice. Sin's already been put away.
The Nazarite has already satisfied the demands of God's law. And God, a riot broke out. and
put that whole thing to an end. Paul got arrested and he ended
up in Rome. Why? God wasn't going to let
blood be shed. And God recorded that in the
scriptures. Paul learned much from that and
became more clear on law and grace after that than he ever
was before. We don't try to answer all the objections of
those who hate Christ. And we don't try to satisfy their
curiosity by doing something like that. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He
is the Nazarite. He's the separated one. I cut
off his hair. I caused him to be made unclean
by my spiritual deadness. I was the one who exposed his
nakedness before God on Calvary's cross through my own drunkenness. God's pleased. God's satisfied.
The vow's been fulfilled. Come to Christ. Just come to
Him, just like you are. He's done it all. All right,
let's take a break.