02.01. Part 1

Part I

BEFORE entering upon the subject of the Nazarite’s Vow, I should like to say very plainly that the salvation of a sinner depends altogether upon Christ and His perfect work on the cross, and it is received only by faith. The prayers, works, self-denial, and devotedness of the believer add nothing whatever to his salvation. To suppose that our salvation depends in any way upon ourselves is to be "fallen from grace," and to be in darkness and uncertainty as to the whole matter. But when we see that Christ is the Alpha and Omega of our salvation, that His atoning work has settled every question that sin had raised between God and our souls, that His blood "cleanseth us from all sin," and that we are on the shoulder of the Good Shepherd who has pledged His word that we "shall never perish," we find ourselves upon solid ground, and divine assurance takes the place of alternating hope and fear. The question of salvation was settled for me fifteen years ago. Has it been settled for you?... Has the momentous inquiry been wrung from your heart, "What must I do to be saved?" Is the great transaction done?... I trust it is so with each one in this company! An important fact in connection with salvation is sometimes overlooked, viz. that salvation is linked with the recognition of the rights of the Lord Jesus. It is written, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth THE LORD JESUS, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Romans 10:9). In a coming day every knee will be made to bow to Him, and every tongue will have to confess that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, but the believer does it now. By-and-by the rightful but now rejected King will have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth; but to-day His authority is only acknowledged and confessed by those who believe on His Name. A little millennium is set up in the heart of the believer, and he confesses Jesus as Lord. But at this point I fear the screw is often loose. Jesus is trusted as the Saviour but not fully recognised as Lord. He is taken on board more as a passenger than as captain of the ship. The captain has authority from stem to stern; the ship sails "whithersoever he listeth;" everything about the vessel and her voyage is under his control. Now let each of us ask himself the question, Have I got Christ on board as a Passenger, or as Captain of the ship?

Some—Jacob-like—will give Christ the tenth part; others will offer Him a larger proportion; but giving Him one-tenth or nine-tenths is not really owning His rights. The inhabitants of a besieged city wanted to make terms with their enemies, but the answer was, "No terms: unconditional surrender." That is what we must have if we want to be Christians worthy of the name. No terms with Christ, but unconditional surrender to Him—the loyal and unreserved recognition of His rights as LORD! And is He not worthy? Think of His unconditional surrender for us! See the Lord of glory stooping down into the dust of death! He sacrificed everything and laid down His life to make us His own. The love of Christ, expressed in death, has a constraining power over every heart that really knows it; and it argues with a cogency which nothing but the hardness of unbelief can resist, that we should not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto Him. Do we believe that "He gave Himself?" Then how can we make reserves in our surrender to Him? Shall we not fervently exclaim—

"Higher than the highest heavens, Deeper than the deepest sea, Lord, Thy love at last hath conquered.

Grant me now my spirit’s longing, ’None of self and all of Thee!’" May all bargaining and compromise and reserve cease from our hearts here and now, and may that short but all-comprehensive prayer of a surrendered and subject heart—"Lord, what wilt THOU have me to do?"—be our soul’s utterance to-night and evermore!

Surely none of us could be content to quietly assume that because our sins are forgiven we need not concern ourselves as to whether we are devoted to Christ or not! Let us not forget the judgement seat! Let us remember that there is such a thing as being "saved yet so as by fire!" My brother, your present happiness and your future place in the kingdom glory depend on your loyalty to Christ here on earth. May God touch us with a little of the fire that burned in the soul of a true Nazarite! No one was compelled to be a Nazarite. The Lord wants volunteers, not pressed men. The Nazarite was one who voluntarily devoted himself to the Lord—not of necessity, but of a willing mind. Grace wrought in his heart the desire to be wholly for the Lord, and then grace provided a way in which that devotedness could be expressed. The great need of the Israel of God to-day is more Nazarites—more thoroughly devoted men and women. Spiritual young people are a great testimony for Christ in these days of secularised Christianity, and I should like every young person here to have it impressed upon his heart that God has committed to him a stewardship of the interests and glory of CHRIST. If we have not an intense longing to be really for Christ, may God give it to us now!

Notice the three words—eight times repeated in this chapter—

"UNTO THE LORD."

These words are the key to the chapter. It is not "under the law," but "UNTO THE LORD." There was no servile constraint—no legal bondage—about the Nazarite’s Vow. He was one whose heart burned with a desire to be wholly devoted "unto the Lord." Now I confess I know no arguments, and I am acquainted with no power that will move the heart to devotedness except the knowledge of the Lord Himself and of His love. It is possible to read books by the score, and to listen to the most faithful and blessed ministry for years together, and yet never know the Lord as a present living Object in heavenly glory. I venture to say that it is impossible to see and know Him there by faith without having an intense desire to be wholly devoted to Him here. Do you think that we could gaze upon the glory-crowned Person to whom angels and principalities are subject, and yet withhold the allegiance of our poor hearts? Do you suppose for a moment that we could see the hands, the feet, the side, that bear the everlasting tokens of His love to us, and remain in a state of passive indifference to His glory here? Could we see Him there—the exalted Object of the worship of delighted heaven, and at the same time be content to compromise His glory and dishonour His Name by conformity to the world which still sets Him at naught? A sight of that MAN in the glory takes the glitter from this corrupt and godless world. Its charms attract and its shams deceive no more. The heart says, "What have I to do any more with idols?" The ONE in glory becomes the "Object bright and fair, to fill and satisfy the heart," and the one who thus knows Him begins a new life. Instead of the affections and energies finding their home and object in the world and self, they begin to flow in the current of Numbers 6:1-27, "unto the Lord." It is not that we deny ourselves for an indefinite reason, or to improve our spiritual standing or reputation, but there is a positive Object—a Person of infinite worth—before our souls, and for the sake and for the love of that Person what would otherwise be painful, self-denial becomes a source of deepest happiness to our souls. I am bold to say that the Nazarite who really devoted himself "unto the Lord" got overwhelmingly repaid for his self-denial in the blessing and joy of his soul. Now, my brethren, are you prepared to be true Nazarites? Does the Person of the Lord and His love so command you, that the deepest and most cherished desire of your heart is to be devoted entirely to Him?

There were three things the Nazarite was not to do; these three negatives being simply the fruit and the expression of the positive fact that he was a man devoted "UNTO THE LORD."

1. He was not to eat or drink any part or product of the vine.

2. He was not to cut his hair.

3. He was not to come in contact with a dead body. The Nazarite willingly devoted himself to a life of

1. SELF-DENIAL, and for the Lord’s sake he abstained from that which would have been naturally pleasant to him. The testimony of Scripture is that "wine maketh merry" (Ecclesiastes 10:19), and "maketh glad the heart of man" (Psalms 104:15), and hence wine becomes the type of those earthly and worldly things that elevate and give pleasure to the heart and mind of man. The ordinary Israelite might indulge in wine and keep a good conscience; not so the Nazarite. The one who desired to be wholly for the Lord must abstain so totally that "from the kernels even to the husk" not a particle or a drop that came from the vine of the earth must pass his lips.

Alas! my friends, there are thousands in the spiritual Israel to-day who are not Nazarites; carnal believers who have never seen the Lord in glory or known the power of His cross, and whose joys are earthly and not heavenly. I only mention them to warn you that if you mean, through grace, to be a Nazarite, their example must be no standard for you. Professing Christians to-day are ready to drink every drop of the vine of earthly pleasure that they can get. They are ready to eat the whole vine—kernel and husks and all. The strait-laced legality of Puritan times has given place to a corrupt taste for pleasure and amusement, which is being gratified to the full by a sickly, effeminate, and unfaithful church, so that there is hardly any form of earthly or worldly pleasure which is not indulged in by professed people of God. My brethren if you are set for the Lord, you will very soon find out that you cannot go to a cricket or football match, to a dramatic or musical entertainment, or to a worldly party, and you cannot read light or fictitious literature, without defiling the head of your consecration. If you indulge in such things you will find that they destroy your appetite for the word of God, they take away your liberty in prayer, they bring a shade upon your spiritual joy, and very soon—unless you repent—they will deprive you of all power to be a living witness for Christ.

I speak plainly because I do not believe that any of you want to be merely theoretical Christians. The things which I have already mentioned carry so evidently the stamp of the world upon them that you have probably shunned them ever since you were converted. Perhaps the girdle of truth needs to be drawn a little tighter than this around the loins of our minds. There are many things which could not be pronounced sinful from which a thoroughly devoted heart would hold itself aloof. Each of us has got tastes and tendencies of thought which if we had remained unconverted would have dominated and coloured our lives. With one it is a love for the society of friends, with another a taste for music, a third is held spellbound under the magician’s wand of the poet, the mind of a fourth is absorbed by mechanical or scientific ideas, and so on. Remember I am not now speaking of what a man is engaged in as his business or profession, but of the source to which he turns for the pleasure of his heart when the claims of duty are discharged. Each of us, perhaps, could tell what he was naturally fond of, and each could perhaps also say that he had found by experience that the gratification of these natural tastes was not helpful to his spiritual life. All such things are products of the earthly vine - not always evil in themselves, but when the heart’s affections are entwined round them, and the heart looks for its solace and joy in them they have diverted us from the true Source of our joy; they have displaced the Lord from His true place as our heart’s absorbing Object, and the Nazarite is defiled.

Suppose that a widow was passing through a place where her husband had been murdered a few years before, you would hardly expect her to find much to gratify her heart there, however interesting the occupations and however innocent and entertaining the amusements of the place might be! Now do we look upon this world as the place where the One we love best was murdered? The earth did not yield HIM wine, but vinegar and gall, and He—the true Nazarite—has turned His back upon all earthly joys, saying, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come" (Luke 22:18). His joys are with the Father and in heaven, and He would have us so to know and to share them that we might count it a gain to turn aside from the vine of the earth.

"Thy love is better than wine... we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine," is the language of a heart truly attached to the Lord (Song of Solomon 1:2, Song of Solomon 1:4); and David could say, "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased" (Psalms 4:7). Bear witness, every Christian heart! Have you not had seasons of joy in the Lord which have infinitely surpassed everything that the vines of earth can afford? Would you willingly and deliberately sacrifice the former for the sake of the latter? I think not. Then take heed that you are not beguiled by the serpent, who ever seeks to rob us of our true joys by turning us aside to things which promise fair, but which yield no real satisfaction to the heart. It is a real loss to us when we turn aside to these things, and we have to prove it so in the end; even as it is said of Israel, "My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13). Of course, Mr. Self, who wants to enjoy everything in heaven and on earth—particularly the latter—without caring much in what relation things stand to CHRIST, will lift up both hands in great surprise, and protest against being "deprived of innocent pleasures," and will tell us very emphatically that he cannot "see any harm" in these things. Well, we shall have to let him take his own course, but the true Nazarite will know very well who has the best of it even now; and a day is fast approaching when Mr. Self himself may find out that a different course would have been more to his advantage.

Deuteronomy 29:6 has been instructive to me in connection with this subject: "Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the Lord your God." In the wilderness the Lord would make Himself the only Source, whether of sustenance or joy to His people. In the true spirit of this the altogether Perfect One refused both the bread (Luke 4:4) and the wine (Mark 15:23). He would only accept support from God. He would only have the solace and joy ministered by His God and Father. He was the true Nazarite. Even so He would have us to prove that He can carry us through this wilderness world without either its support or its solace. He would make Himself our bread and our wine, and instead of being worse off we should be infinitely better off, like Daniel’s band, who were "fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat." The devil is always ready to suggest that an out-and-out Christian is a melancholy creature who does not enjoy life at all. Every thread of that suggestion, warp and woof, is a lie. I will show you directly what it is that makes the long faces and the sad hearts, but you may take it for granted in the meantime that it is not whole-hearted separation to the Lord that makes a man unhappy.

Leviticus 10:9-10 is another suggestive scripture as to this matter: "Do not drink wine nor strong drink... that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean." A man cannot indulge in earth-born joys without having his spiritual perceptions blunted. If he goes on with them, he will presently tolerate what he would have once judged to be evil. Then godly watchfulness as to the little everyday details of life gives place to carelessness and laxity. Week by week the line of separation from the world becomes less distinct. Solidity and force of spiritual character is lost. The holy is not sought, nor the unholy shunned, with that intensity of purpose which once burned brightly in the soul; and ere long the once devoted saint drifts along with the circumstances by which he is surrounded, with little exercise and less joy, and completely shorn of the beauty of his Nazariteship.

Another solemn voice reaches us from Lamentations 4:7 : "Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire: their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick." How sad to think that the once lovely Nazarite may be reduced to such a condition as this! Have you never seen a blighted and withered Nazarite—a man who has lost the simplicity that is in Christ, and the beauty of holiness, and all the devotedness and heavenly-minded-ness that once shone so brightly in him? Now nobody can read Christ in him. True, his name is on a church-roll somewhere; he attends meetings perhaps; but he is not known in the streets. The men where he works don’t know that he is a Christian, and it is as well they don’t, for he is now more like a spiritual scarecrow than anything else. A man in that condition, instead of attracting souls to Christ, only scares them away. Let that man be a beacon-light to warn you from the rock on which he has made shipwreck. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the Nazarite’s decline and fall begins by his turning aside to find pleasure in some joy that is of earth and not of heaven. The Lord loses for the moment His all-commanding and unrivalled place as the Object of the heart. This opens a crack—very small, probably, at first—but the devil has got wedges which are small enough at one end to get into the smallest crack; and when they are once in he knows how to drive them home, unless divine grace works repentance and restoration. Then you get a man like one of Jeremiah’s Nazarites—worldly, conscience-smitten, and unhappy—a man who, sooner or later, will feel his thorough wretchedness; for if he is a converted man the Holy Ghost can neither give him the joys of heaven nor suffer him to be happy with the joys of earth. Thus, in seeking to enjoy two worlds, he for the present loses both. Alas! poor man, may God make thee a warning to us all! But the fearful results of a defiled Nazariteship have also another voice to us. We should be not only constrained thereby to keep ourselves pure, but we should be also reminded of our responsibilities in regard to others. "I raised up... of your young men for Nazarites... but ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink" (Amos 2:12). I believe I am right in saying that the temptations which prevail most easily with the young in Christ are those which come from professing Christians. I have seen many a promising spiritual life blighted by the company and example of professed believers. In this respect, "woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink!" Remember the Saviour’s solemn words about an offence (or cause of stumbling) given to one of His little ones...