Address—C. Hendricks
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Certainly would no longer be at home in that which hated thee, but patience. In my footsteps go thy sorrow as thy joy to know we would, and O confirm the power with meekness, meet the darkest hour by shame. Contempt, however tried, but I was stormed and crucified 282.
Master, we will know.
We are all in the land for each other.
Again, strange gold.
By sorrow.
Numbers, Chapter 6.
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 vowel 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.
All the days of the vow of his separation, there shall no razor come upon his head.
Until the days be fulfilled, in which he separated himself unto the Lord.
He shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
All the days that he separated himself unto the Lord, he shall come at no dead body.
He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die, because the consecration of his God is upon his head. All the days of his separation, He is holy unto the Lord.
And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration, then he shall shave his head in the day of the cleansing.
In the day of his cleansing, on the 7th day shall he shave it, and on the eighth day he shall bring 2 turtles, and so on.
Verse 13 This is the law of the Nazarite when the days of his separation.
Are fulfilled.
Verse 18 And the Nazarites shall shave the head of his separation.
At the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation.
And put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings. And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarites, after the hair of his separation is shaving.
And the pre show wave them for a wave offering themselves. Verse 21 This is the law of the Nazarite who hath vowed, and it is offering unto the Lord.
Or his separation, besides that his hand shall get according to the vow which he vowed, so he shall do.
So he must do after the law of his separation. You have noticed one word.
That I've read over and over again in this passage, and that is separation.
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And the word that's translated like in verse 7 consecration the same word in the Hebrew.
Same word in the original.
Consecration, separation. When a man or a woman took the vows of Nazarite.
That was that they decided they were going to be holy and altogether and entirely dedicated to the Lord for whatever period of time that fowl was the last.
It doesn't. It doesn't give a time limit to it. Maybe some vows would be for for a month, some for three months, some for a year. I don't know.
But it's a vow that they took upon themselves. They wanted to be holy, dedicated to the Lord. They didn't want anything else to come in that would interfere with this, this consecration.
I'd like to look at this.
That's right. The true Nazarite. Of course, with the Lord Jesus. He was the truly separated one. We got that, and I'll read the verse that's in Hebrews 7.
Hebrews 7.
Earth, I believe it's 25.
But I may be wrong there. Hebrews 7.
25 And six, Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing the other liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest he came us, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.
The position that he's in now on high is he's separate from sinners. He's taken a position in separation, even physically from sinners. He's in on high and the glory is our high priest. But he was that morally when he was down here, he was the true Nazarite. He was the separated 1.
And yet, as we were noticing this morning, he was the most accessible of all men.
The one that that woman in John in Luke 7 could could come to and wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hairs of her head and annoyed his feet with ointment and fists down.
He was that.
Accessible, though he was the most separated man morally.
And now positionally, and we too are separated ones.
We too, are cancer rights. Notice, I'll just read one of the introductions to an epistle. Look at First Corinthians as a good example.
First Corinthians chapter one. Paul called an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes our brother under the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified, set apart, separated in Christ Jesus called Saints. You could put in there called Nazarites because that's really the meaning called Saints A holy 1A separated 1.
With all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours.
So we're all separated to God. He separated us.
We have the sanctification of the spirit that Peter speaks of. He's given us divine life, given us a new nature, and we're sanctified by the blood set apart to God. We're not our own any longer. Notice that verse in 2nd Corinthians 5 comes to mind and I'll read it. Connection with this subject we have before us in 2nd Corinthians 5 and that he died for all verse 15 that they which live should not henceforth.
Live unto themselves but unto him which died for them, and rose again the Christian who is who is living unto himself.
Is wasting his life.
We're not to live unto ourselves. He died for all that they which lived. That's those of us who believe the gospel we live. We have life. He's given us, eternal life, the very life of the Son.
That we should not live unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us, and rose again.
So if we're living unto ourselves in any measure, we are missing the very purpose.
For which God saved us. He saved us, that we might now live to Him who died for us and rose again.
So we're all Nazarites, we've all been called into this position.
There was one in the Old Testament that was a Nazarite by birth. His name was Samson.
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He was.
Born in Nazareth and when we were born into the family of God, we were born Nazarites.
Separated ones sanctified in Christ.
Our life is now different. Completely new life has given us his own life. The life of Christ is ours.
His resurrection, life. And now we're not to live to ourselves.
We're not to live as those that are just worldwide.
Those whose vision is this scene. We have a new vision. We have a new horizon. We have new aspirations and new hopes and new joys, a new life.
Everything is new.
Many men be in Christ. He is a new creature. Old things were passed away. Hold all things to become him. We're new now. We're different.
And if you don't, if you are not perceived, if I am not perceived as different by the world, roundabout something wrong because we are different.
One of the greatest forces that young people all of us actually.
Have to face and that is peer pressure. We don't want to be different.
We want to just blend in with the landscape and go along with the crowd and not take a stand. But when we're Christ.
He was different. He was altogether different. A new kind of man. A new order of man.
They were sent, the officers were sent by the Jews to take him, and they came back. And why have you not brought him?
He was there.
He was the Holiness. He was the separated man. He was the true Nazareth.
It's interesting that the word Pharisee means the separated 1, and so does the word Nazarite. But what a difference. The Pharisee practiced the kind of separation that is.
Described by Stand by thyself. I'm holier than thou. I thank thee, Lord, I'm not like other men. I'm not like this public. And I fast twice in the week I go to church on Sundays I do this. I do that as a religious nature.
And he could look down upon the poor. Republicans, who would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven, would smoke upon his vest and said, God be merciful to me, a Sinner.
And the beauty about the true Nazarite is, he didn't despise those that were like that.
He was accessible to them and they felt at home in his presence.
Pharisees did those that practice that legal, ritualistic kind of separation.
They didn't. They didn't feel comfortable in his presence at all.
Samson had a secret secret of his strength.
There are three Philistine women who bathed in Samson's history from Judges 13 through 16.
And some of them were women of ill repute.
And they were Philistines, daughters of the Philistines, which of course, a true Nazarite should have had nothing to do with.
Well, Samson was a Nazarite from his birth, but he was just like we are in so many ways in that he wasn't true his Nazarite ship.
He wasn't a faithful Nazarite.
He allowed the.
He allowed the pleasures of nature to assume an ascendancy with him and it caused him to fall. There's two times that he revealed a secret. Do you remember when a lion roared against him and he slew the lion? He was a man of tremendous power because he was a Nazarite in the spirit of God in energized him to do those wonderful feats. And then he passed by there and there was the carcass of the lion and he saw some bees had built.
Some if they they had taken residence in the carcass of the lion, and there was this honey, and out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sequence, And that was his, That was his, his Riddle that he propounded to the to the Philistines.
And they couldn't have. They couldn't find out the Riddle And his wife kept begging him to reveal the secret to him. And they finally came up to her and they said, did you invite us here to to BZ Five of all our wealth?
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Get that Riddle from him, get that secret from him and she finally he finally she finally got his extracted from.
And on the 7th day of the feast they came to him and said, what is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lot?
And so then he had to pay them.
Instead of them paying him, but I wasn't so serious.
But with Delilah in the 16th chapter.
That was very serious.
And she.
He worked on him. Since we're on that point, let's just turn to Judges 16 as we consider this. I'm getting ahead of myself, but that's all right. The order is not too important.
In Judges 16.
In verse four, it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Surrey.
His name was Delilah, and the Lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him.
And see where in 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, 1100 pieces of silver.
Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee wherein thy great strength lieth.
And wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflicted the very way in which she puts the question.
Should have alerted him to the fact that she was up to no good.
And he played with her.
Sampson said unto her. If they bind me with 7 green widths, you see the first step in that direction of even addressing what this Philistine woman had propounded to him was the beginning of a course which ended in a calamity percentage.
So he's toying with her, and he says, if they bind me with 7 green Wicks that were never dried, then should I be weakened? He is another man. And then the Lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green Wicks which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, the Philistines be upon these sons.
And he break the widths as a thread of toe is broken when he touches the fire. So his strength is not known. But you'll notice that everything that he mentions here, the seven green width is, is similar to hair. It's it's it's chords, it's things like this. And then the next one, the light has said unto Samson, Behold, Alice mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied.
Then shall I be weak, and be as another man. While therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson, And there were liars in wait, abiding in the chamber, and he break them from off his arms like a thread.
Now how is it that this, this separated man, this Nazarite, could be so, so gullible?
So easy to be.
Enticed into this kind of a thing.
How is it that we Christians can be so unaware of the subtlety of of the world, and the religious world particularly like to entice us into a compromise of our position of separation?
How is it the weekends be so easily gone in and that's what this Phyllis, that's what the Philistine represents, It's the intrusion of the flesh into the things of God and.
These Philistines were Canaanites, and they should have been totally expelled from the land, but because of Israel's unfaithfulness to do that, they were left in the land to be a snare to them.
And Samson was raised up of God, the only way we can deal with the Philistines.
According to the principles of God is by separation. That's the only way we can deal with that kind of evil.
And Samson now is compromising the separation.
Verse 13 Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies. Tell me wherewith the lightest be found. And he said unto her, If thou weave us the seven locks of my head with the web, oh, he's getting dangerously close now to the place that was the secret of his strength, his long him.
Seven locks with his head, leave them with the web. And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson, And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.
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By this time, it should have been very clear that she was out to get that secret.
Remember when they came to the Lord Jesus? And they said, tell us by what authority doeth all these things? And who gave me this authority?
While he didn't answer that question, he said, I will also ask you one question and tell me the baptism of John, was it of heaven or of men? And they reason among themselves and said, if we shall say it was in heaven, he'll say, why then did you not believe him? If we say it was of men, they feared the people for all hell, John for a prophet. So they said we cannot tell.
And he said he would tell I you by what authority that he distinct.
He did those things by the authority of the Father.
And because he was the separated man in communion with the Father, his whole pathway.
That was the secret of his friend, fellowship with the Father, and separation from this world, and in all its involvements to Truly.
Separated men with true Nazareth.
Samson was in that right like we are by birth, by position.
But he wasn't a very good worker. He was not true to his Nazarite ship, And so here he's.
Playing around, if I can use that expression with this Philistine woman. And she now turns on all her feminine charms, and says unto him, How verse 15, How canst thou say I love thee, when thine heart is not with me?
Thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast told me wherein thy great strength lieth not told me wherein thy great strength flyeth. And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death.
That he told her all his heart. He told her his secret.
Something we should never do, the Lord said. Cast not your pearls before swine.
Less turning round, they rend you and trample them, you under their feet.
We don't tell the world the secret of our strength, Our strength is in separation from the work.
Our strength is in communion with the Father and in obedience to this book.
That's the source of the strength of the naturally, and Samson now discloses the source of his strength in my long hair, a place that they would never have guessed.
There's no strength in hair. That was the symbol of his consecration to God.
Spoke of his separation to God.
There hath not come a razor upon mine head, verse 17. For I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. If I be shaved, then my strength shall go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man. We read in numbers 6 and we'll go back to that shortly. But we read there that no razor was to come upon his head.
The flesh was not to be exposed, The hair was not to be cut. He was to maintain that that that long hair which spoke of his consecration to God with separation to God.
And now the razor is applied.
When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she went and called for the Lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath showed me all his heart. Then the Lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand.
I'm going to tell you.
A little personal history.
When I was a young man.
I became very interested in a young lady who was a Roman Catholic.
And.
We used to pray together. We used to read the word of God together. I brought her to the meeting on Wednesday nights, not on Sunday. She went to the Catholic Church, then with her folks.
And I brought her to the meetings.
And she confessed the Lord.
And one night, I said to her, We can't go on any further.
Unless you sever your connection with the Catholic harlot.
And she went home and told her father and mother, and her father was a policeman. I don't know if he was active at the time or not, but he had guns.
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And she told her that she was leaving the gossip church.
And he threatened with his guns to find me and kill me.
Because I was. I was poisoning her mind.
And.
She was terrified at the rage that her father flew in.
And then she couldn't see me anymore. That was forbidden.
I didn't see her for a long while.
Finally, I had to know I didn't go to meeting Lord's Day Morning that morning. I went to the Catholic Church and that we did.
And there you go, out of the Catholic Church, a place you'd sent you is renowned. She'd never go back there. She came down the down the rocket. I went in front of her, stood right in front of her. And I said, you have returned to this abomination that you said. Bless yourself.
Then I turned from her and walked away.
And I never forget, my mother used to say.
She called me Chucky, she said.
Aren't you sorry that we are so, so strong and so firm that you pressed her that far and I said sorry I give up 1000 Marines for the Lord Jesus.
Magic.
Though it was very, very hard, she had many tears.
But thank God that I required that she take that stand. And then she failed when the persecution came, and the threat from her father and all that, and she went back like a dog to its vomit in the hawk through its wallowing in the barn.
I tell that story simply to warm any young person here that is contemplating getting involved in one. That is not so.
And it belongs to some church system that is very much in error.
Don't take the first step in that direction.
If you do, it will lead to a second and a third and a fourth step, and it might be very serious.
Well, the Lord preserved me.
Thank God Samson, he went all the way and revealed the secret of his strength.
And so Delilah sends for the Philistines.
Verse 18 At the end of the verse. And the Lord of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees. Sleep, my sweet sleep.
And when the religious world puts us to sleep.
We lose our separation. Samson lost his hair.
And she called for a man and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head.
She began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, the Philistines be upon me, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself that he was not but the Lord was departed from him. That's exactly what you read in the address to the Laodiceans.
Thou art miserable, and wretched, and poor, and blind and naked. And he says, Thou knowest not.
Thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knoweth not but thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked.
He says, I counsel thee to buy of me gold fried in the fire, that thou mayst be rich, and life raiment, that the shame of thy nakedness be clothed. And I sat to anoint thine eyes, to tell me a sea.
Laodicea unaware. Samson unaware, did not know the Lord had departed from him. Laodicea the Lord's not inside, he's outside, knocking outside knockin.
That testimony was so bad, so untrue to him, that he's outside nothing.
And saying that any man hear my voice and come in and open the door, I will come into him, Sup with him and he with the individual.
The collective testimony is in Philadelphia.
It's all individual and they're deceived. As many as I love, I rebuke and chase and be zealous, therefore chase and be zealous, therefore everything.
In the midst of that Laodicean indifference, casual self-confidence self-sufficient.
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Attitude of independence and satisfied with themselves when they have nothing of Christ.
Nothing of Christ.
They weren't even aware of their state. Samson wasn't aware. He said he wished not that the Lord was departed from him, but the Philistines took him and put out his eyes. Now he learned, loses All the services has seen it.
And brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass. And he did grind in the prison house, Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved.
Even after one has fallen so sadly as Samson did, does that mean you can never, ever be used to the Lord again? No, it doesn't.
In fact, at the end of the account here Samson Sluma and his death and he did this night.
It says his hair began to grow again.
Then the Lords of the Philistines gathered them together, for to offer a great sacrifice of their day and their God, and to rejoice. For they said, our God hath delivered Samson our enemy, into our hand.
When the people saw him, they praised their God and they said our God is delivered into our hands, our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which threw many of us.
It came to pass when their hearts were married that they said call for Samson that he may make a sport and they called for Samson out of the prison house and he made them sport and they said in between the pillars.
Just think of that a Nazarite.
Seduced by this Philistine woman.
That was his weakness. He still assigned women pleasure, pleasure.
The very thing that the wine speaks of, the first thing that was to characterize in azurite, was to abstain from wine and strong drinks. And anything of the food, of the wine, vinegar of wine, vinegar of strong drink, even the grape juice itself, even the even the grapes themselves, to the to the seed stones, to the to the kernels or to the skin, anything made from the vine speaks of natural joy and pleasure.
And he found his pleasure in these philistine women.
Send Solomon. He had his fill of all that, 700 wives, 300 concubines, and yet his assessment of the whole thing is vanity of vanities. His emptiness is not satisfaction.
If you're really the Lord, if we're really saved, this world cannot satisfy us. It can't satisfy us. We have a nature that can only be satisfied by Christ himself.
Yes, we have another nature, an evil nature, the flesh that hankers after the things of this world.
But there's no more miserable person than the one that is playing both natures.
Going to church, going to meeting on Lord's Day and then.
Enjoying the flesh and activities of the flesh during the week.
That person is not happy, happy.