Spiritual Potential

Yesterday afternoon I spoke a little word on spiritual progress. This afternoon I want to speak a little word on spiritual potential, and I'm going to take an Old Testament example. Judges please, chapter 13, verse 1. 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 forty years. Please note, forty years. And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah, and his wife was Baran and Bernot.

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her, Behold now thou art barren and barest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and 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 on 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 Philistine. Now we're going to look at the close of Samson's life, please, in chapter 16. Judges 16 and verse number 21.

But the Philistines took him, put out his eyes, brought him down to Geza, bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house. Now look further down, please, for the sake of time. We'll read verse 29.

And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and of which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he barred himself with all his might, and the house fell upon the Lord, and upon all the people that were therein.

So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. And his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtoah. That's where he began his ministry.

Chapter 13 and verse 24, and it's where he is buried. In the burying place of Manoah his father, and he judged Israel twenty years. Now those twenty years are dated 1075 B.C. to 1055 B.C., falling exactly between the battle of Ephek in 1st Samuel 4, and the battle of Mishpah in 1st Samuel 7. That's where Samson's ministry comes in.

Those twenty years. Remember he was forty. He was forty when he died.

His lifetime spanned the captivity, or the subjugation under the Philistine nation. That's his period. Now God will bless his work.

The life of Samson is not a triumph. Forget for a moment the Sunday school picture of Samson there tearing that lion apart. Forget that occasion with the gates of Gaza on his back.

Forget too, please, for a moment the jawbone of an ass, and a thousand slain. Those pictures are in our mind. But that is not triumph.

In fact the tragedy in the life of Samson is aptly seen in the closing picture. You see him there, don't you please? You see him and his binding. Samson, what's happened to the strength? What's happened to the power? Now you notice his binding.

Then you see him in his blinding. You see him now not only strength gone, but sight gone. And there he is in the Philistine city.

The man who was expected to be a champion for God is now a clown for the Philistine. His binding, his blinding, his grinding. The man who should have been a servant of God is now doing woman's work.

He's turning those grinding wheels for the Philistines. And you cannot help but bow the heart and ask, Samson, near mean sunshine, what went wrong? Where's the power gone? Where's the vision gone? What's happened, Samson? Where's the service that you were expected to fulfill? You know, if we did not have the comment of the Spirit of God in Hebrews chapter 11, we'd begin to wonder about Samson. But his name stands up upon that record, and Samson.

And we bow before the Spirit of God and his assessment of Samson. But please notice the note that the Spirit has put in as he closed Samson's history. And it says this, he slew more in his death, the dead that he slew in his death were more than he slew in his life.

He was more effective in his death than he was in his life for God. What do you see in that? Don't you see the sovereignty of God that could even, out of what we would see as failure, yet come in and use Samson even at that particular point in his life. This speaks volumes to my heart.

And I wonder how many of us, in the place that God has put us, in the potential he has placed within us, in the power that he's made available to us, can he use us? Or will he be disappointed? And would our very removal from the scene bring greater glory to him than even our service that we were expected to give? I want you to see this. And in that context, I want you to notice three matters I'll draw attention to in connection with his ministry, that we might learn from them. Something of the possibility and the potential of a young life for God and what God expects from him.

I want to speak first of the state of the testimony. He was born into Israel and born into the tribe of Dan. But of Israel it said they did evil.

Now that's not general, that's particular. The evil that runs through the book of the Judges again and again and again is a particular evil. It is the idolatry that had two parts to it.

It had part one, Balaam. Balaam means master. And you can see that Balaam was a challenge to the Lordship of Jehovah.

And the introduction of Balaam into their lives. Necessary, of course, they might argue, because Balaam was the corn god of Canaan. And you could hardly live in Canaan, men would argue, except bowing the knee to the corn god.

Master, and the challenges to the authority of Jehovah, we would say in our terms the Lordship of Christ. But the other side was different. The other side was to bring in the groves.

Now the groves was that which went back to Babylon. The groves were Astaroth. That wasn't a matter of authority, that was a matter of affection.

This wasn't lordship, this was love. And of course, Astaroth was the goddess of fertility. And you must pay respects to the goddess of fertility, must you not? But the people of God were expected to give authority to and affection to the one who had redeemed them and brought them into that place.

And this evil would seep in and undermine the spirituality of the people of God at this very time. It did it at certain times and in certain ways. And you can see how the evil come in.

And of course, God must judge that. How's the lordship of Christ tonight? How's our love for Christ? Let's just leave the challenge there for the moment and see that this had already come in. And at that very time, God began to work.

Something else was in this state of the testimony where Samson was born. Because he was born in the tribe of Dan. Now the tribe of Dan was a tribe where they had certain problem.

And if you go back to Judges chapter 1 and verse 34, you will find that Dan was under pressure. And Dan was being pressed up into the mountains. The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain.

What does that mean? They robbed them of their possession, robbed them of their peace, robbed them of the produce that they should have had. And they pushed them up into the mountain so that there was little provision, little possession. And you can understand there was no provision for meeting the need of the sins.

And so you can see that here was a crisis situation. And not only that, but there were some discontented in Dan. And they said, this is not good enough.

We need to find another place. And they usurped and caught hold of another priesthood. And they set up other practices.

And the tribe of Dan were literally decimated. And there Samson was born. In a day of weakness.

In a day when things looked as if the very tribe, the people of God were to be wiped out. You say that's pretty bad. That's bad.

The state of the testimony was such that there should have been an exercise. And likely there was. Because there was a barren woman there.

And you know that barrenness from Deuteronomy 11 was something that God told his people they would not endure if they were in touch with him. There would be no barrenness in the family. There would be no barrenness in the flock.

There would be no barrenness in the field. But there was barrenness here. And you can see how there should have been an exercise amongst the people of God about the state of the testimony.

Bring it down to us. Are you sure about the place where you are in the assembly as being the place where the people of God gather in submission to the Scripture and the Spirit? Are you satisfied with the provision there? Just be honest now and look at the state of the testimony. We did not send each one of us away today.

I know little here, but I know other lands. I know Ireland and I know Malaysia. There ought to be a burden on my heart as I think of assemblies that are in difficulty.

The saints are being deprived. There is decimation. There have been those who have left and wandered off to find a better place, an easier location, a more suitable place for the children, and so on.

Should it not send us away today, brethren, with a deep burden on our heart and a barrenness there that should prostrate us before our God, just as it should have done in the days of Samson, but God was working. God was working. Into that state of the testimony, a mother is told, a lady is told, you'll become a mother, but you'll have a boy.

Now that boy will come of divine power. This was an act of divine power. And not only an act of divine power, behind that act of divine power there was a divine purpose.

He shall begin to deliver Israel from the Philistine. Begin. God had a purpose for it.

When you see souls saved, that's an act of divine power. Salvation is a miracle of grace. We see God at work.

Do you recognize that God not only has acted in divine power, but he has a divine purpose. That young man, that young woman saved, in the plan of God there's a place for them to fill. There's a purpose for them to be reached in life.

You got a hold of that? You're not only saved from hell, thank God. Not only saved from heaven, for heaven, thank God. But you're saved to fill a place in the testimony for God while God gives you life and breath and being here upon earth.

Stop you young men and women. Ever dawned on your heart that behind your salvation there is the purpose of God and it must be your exercise to find that purpose and fill that place and use that provision that God has put into your hand. God made provision.

I'll come back to the provision that he made in just a moment. But I want you to see that boy growing up for 20 years. He's 20 when he begins to move for God.

Or the Spirit of God moved him between Ashdod and so on in that particular location. Here's Samson. But there is something more.

Because you understand that there has to be a secret to his testimony. Why should God use this man? How can God use this man in his purposes? Because remember the Philistines were invaders. They'd come in from Crete across Cyprus and they'd come into the seacoast.

They didn't know anything about the Red Sea and nothing about Jordan. They had slipped in and they possessed the land. They dispossessed the people of God and shoved them out and shoved them away.

They were great invaders of the people of God. They were idolaters of the people of God. Dagon was their God.

But Dagon was Baal under another name. That Dagon should again be the corn god. Although he's connected with the fish god.

But just leave that for a moment. Here were invaders. And not only were they invaders, they were idolaters.

And not only were they idolaters, they were great inventors. They invented the new cat and so on at that stage. And you can see how the Philistines, you say, well what do they speak of? You know that there are pictures, God uses certain pictures in his book of the flesh.

He uses more. That's the indulgence of the flesh. He uses ammon.

That's the intelligence of the flesh. But here you get the Philistines that I submit to you speak of those professors who come into the testimony and grab the land, dispossess the people of God, deny them the iron of the word of God, refuse to bow to the truth of God. And with result is they subjugate the people of God and they're under the domination of the Philistines.

It's godliness without the power. It's just empty profession. How can God raise up a man? Well he's got divine birth.

God has acted in power. We accept that. God has a divine purpose in him.

But now there has to be divine preparation. And Samson's mother is told, listen, you want your boy to be used of God. You have to submit to the same condition because he is to be a Nazarite.

He's to be a Nazarite. You have to accept the Nazarite conditions and bring him up in those conditions that when the moment comes for him to step out on the public stage, he'll be equipped to deal with the Philistine. The Nazarite vow.

Why should the Nazarite vow equip Samson? Because that was a denial of all that the Philistines stood for. Let me put it like this. There were three things in the Nazarite vow that spoke of the vowees relationship to Jehovah.

What were they? The first note is this. No wine. No wine.

Don't touch the vine. No wine. What's that? You know what wine is.

It's that which springing from earth brings earthly gladness and earthly joy. It's that which speaks of the stimulus that can be produced from earth. So what's the point of the denial of the wine? That of which other scents partook off in their day and so on.

Why is it that the Nazarite has to stay so rigorously apart? Well, this is the point. His stimulus had to be different from the stimulus of other. His stimulus couldn't come from earth.

No, not at all. He had to have a joy deeper than the earthly. Oh, I would like to make that plain.

He had to have a joy deeper than the earthly. That's no self-pleasing. There are things that, well, saints may do and may have pleasure at doing.

Self-pleasing. Isn't it all right to get that promotion in your job and be glad about it? Isn't it all right to have that, meet that lovely partner and marry her and have joy in it? Isn't it nice to have the joy of a family, a progeny, so on? You see, there's nothing wrong with that. But is that all? Is that all? Not for the Nazarite who would have his delight in God and in Jehovah.

Those joys and stimulus belong to earth and there's nothing wrong with them, please. They're grand, they're glorious, they're good. But here's something deeper.

He must have a joy that's deeper than the earthly. What's that mean? That's Galatians chapter 2. I am crucified with Christ. We had it yesterday.

Stand under that cross. Let the great cancellation fall through the eye. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

Where was his joy? My joy is fulfilled as he stepped through life in obedience to the Father, in obedience to the scripture, in fellowship with the Spirit. What am I saying? My brother, my sister, do you know the joy of taking this scripture and spending a few hours with it on your knee? Drawing from it the secret of joy. In the midst of every circumstance of life and to know the communion of the Spirit of God.

That's the joy. That's joy deeper than you can find in all the earthly delights that are legitimate. I'm not talking now about the illegitimate, all that.

I'm simply saying, self-pleasing is out. I draw my joy from the scripture. You young man, sit down with your Bible and meditate.

Not only meditate, but study. Not only study, but keep the record of your study. Sue that for the Bible readings and all the rest of the meetings you are equipped.

You young women, too, in a quietness of your own private place, draw from the scripture that which wraps our very affections around the Savior. And in the Spirit's power, it brings a joy deeper than the earthly. One, a stimulus.

But then the second thing, he wasn't allowed to touch a dead body, a dead body. But not only an ordinary dead body, the dead body of those that were dearest to him. This partakes of the character of the separation of the high priest.

Even the very dearest of his relatives, father, mother, and so on. You say, but that's only natural. That's the very point of the Dazurite vow.

This wasn't simply a delight in God. This was devotion to God, devoted to Him. You can see how he would be separate, therefore, from all that spoke of the penalty of sin.

What's the penalty of sin, Paul? Self-will. Self-will. So the Dazurite had to learn there was another will.

Have I learned it? I'm 53 years saved. I wonder, have I learned that there's another will that directs me step by step? And you young believers, a step towards a partner and a family and a job and an assembly and a place of service, will you go away from this conference with a desire to exercise before Him to find that place? Master, where shall I work today? My love flowed warm and free. He pointed me out a tiny spot.

He said, tend that for me. I said, oh no, oh Lord, why no one would ever see how well my work was done? Not that little spot for me? Master, His words, they were not stern. He spoke tenderly.

Disciple, search that heart of thine. Are you working for them or me? Nazareth was only a tiny spot and so was Galilee. No self-indulgent, no self-will.

And the third, not the stimulus and the separation, but there was the sign. What's the sign? Look at his hair. His hair's down his back.

What's that a sign of? That's a sign of a woman. That's what marks the woman out, the long hair. But he's taking the place of a woman.

What's he say? My strength is greater than the physical. My strength is spiritual. I'm taking the place of the weak in the things of God.

That's the picture that he's saying. That's why the Nazarite had long hair. Fear is not self-indulgence or self-will.

It's not self-pleasing or self-will. It's not self-indulgence. That marked him out.

It was a thing of shame. He was taking that place deliberately. This is not just delight in God and devotion to God, but it is dependence upon God.

I don't believe the Sunday school pictures of Samson with the bulging muscles and the mighty frame. He was just an ordinary sized man. But his strength was greater than the natural, greater than the physical.

He was a man who depended on the power of God. I wonder when we engage in the service of God, do we depend too much on the natural? Do we put all the weight on the natural and yet forget that we are handling spiritual things? I challenge my heart. So here's a man, a young man of 20.

He's got potential. He's got power. He's got a purpose behind him.

Can't you almost see him stepping out on the stage of God's purpose for him? Moving with masterly steps to fulfill and to realize the potential for God, what a picture it could be. The state of the testimony, the secret of a testimony, a word now on the success of the testimony. And immediately you find that that man, Samson, who's moving out now in the spirit of God, came upon him, began to move him.

Between Dan and Eshtoar, it said, between Zorah and Eshtoar, began to move him. And four times in the next chapter, the spirit came upon him vitally. And you say, that's great.

What's the lion? What's the gates? And so on. You can trisk. But when you look into his service, there's a little something begins to give you pause.

Because in chapter 14, he's tested on the stimulus, on the wine, on the wine. That which denied self-pleasing and you find him in the vineyards, as he goes down, and you find him at the feast with the Philistines. Samson, are you staying apart from the wine? Well, it doesn't really matter now.

But that's only physical, yes, but there's something deeper. She pleases me well. He's linked up with a Philistine girl.

He's going to marry her. It doesn't matter about the objection of his parents. It doesn't matter about the governmental objection of God, the lion and the whale.

It doesn't matter. As they step out in service, why there is a self-pleasing comes in. I want that place.

I want that partner. I want that part. That's what I'm going to do.

There's no subjection to the mind of God. And they're not drawing this stimulus from a joy deeper than the earthly. They are obsessed with the earthly joy.

Maybe we need to learn the lesson again. Maybe I need to stand where I stood those years ago, as I mentioned yesterday, as I saw another path opening up, and God spoke. And even through the verse of that hymn, as I gazed on that scene of worldly progress and politics and prosperity.

Oh, worldly pomp and glory, your charms are spread in vain. I've heard a sweeter story. I found a truer gain.

Where's your stimulus? Would you go home from this conference with a desire to know that stimulus from sources hidden from the world? As you stand under Galatians 2, I, not my self-pleasing, I am crucified with Christ. When you come to the next chapter, chapter 15, there you have him tested on the second element of the Nazarite vow. Here's the touching of the dead body.

Here's the separation that should have marked him. Would you say this is the chapter where you get some of those mighty acts of service? Yes, but there's a little bit of hesitation. Look down at the service and see just, is that the right motive, Samson? Revenge? Is that the right motive for a Nazarite? Look at those foxes, those jackals that he puts into the Philistine corn.

Is that the right thing? Is that the right method to use, Samson? You're touching the unclean animal. Look at that standing with that jawbone of an ass. Isn't that a mighty figure? But Samson, what about touching a dead body? Are you using the right method? You can see the picture I'm driving at.

Some of us in our service would need to look at the motive. That's a sobering thought. Gives me great concern.

Some of us in our service need to look at the methods. Some of us in our service need to look at the means. Samson ends up at the end of that chapter dissatisfied.

He's a thirsty servant. Maybe he hasn't drawn on the right springs. Not finding the satisfaction he ought to, speaks to me.

Should he not have stood under Galatians chapter 5 and 24, ye that are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its passions and lusts. Samson, would that not have judged all that you have professed to do? You've acted so much in the flesh. Blessing for my heart.

Quickly, time is gone. I want you to come to chapter 16. The last element of his Nazarite ship.

The stimulus, the separation. What's the sign? What's that? The long hair. Where do you find him in the lap of Delilah? You can see Samson's tendency.

He took that Philistine girl, wanted to marry her. Then you find him with a harlot and gazer. The first one was nationally alien.

This one's morally alien. I wonder about Delilah. My brother will correct me.

I can't find where she's called a Philistine girl. I believe she was an Israelite. I believe she betrayed him.

That's why they paid her. She betrayed one that you should have preserved. Be careful.

Servants can still be betrayed. And here is one who gets him into her lap. And then she discovers a secret.

And you watch Samson, the mighty Samson, lose those locks that marked him out. That showed his dependence on God. As soon as the hair is gone.

The last sign is gone. The Lord's departed from Samson. He goes out and shakes himself as before.

Maybe some of us need to have that lesson. Maybe we have learned that lesson. You can't repeat the past.

When God has departed, the Lord left him. And Samson is blinding. He's blinding.

He's blinding. He stands on a page of the Word of God as a warning to my soul. The potential that I have.

The possibilities that in the life of the saint. And yet the very perils that lurk. That come in the very areas where per chance I think I'm strong.

There's that delight in God. There's that devotion to God. There's that dependence on God.

And if we got a hold of that today, I think God could possibly still use you, still use me in service for him. May he do this for his name's sake.