Three dangerous unknown conditions

Judges chapter 13 in verse 2. And there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren and barren not, 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. 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 Philistines. Let's read a verse in chapter 16 verse 19.

And she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head. And she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said the Philistines be upon thee, Samson.

And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before, shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. Let's turn over to Hosea chapter 7. A little book after Daniel, Hosea chapter 7. We'll just read a verse or two here.

Verse 8 he says Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people. Ephraim is a kid not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not.

They gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face that they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this. Lastly read in Revelation chapter 3. We'll read from verse 13.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things saith the Amen. The faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

I know thy works, thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou wert lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.

Because thou seest I am rich and increased with goods and of need of nothing. And knowest not that thou wert wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Counsel thee to buy of me gold, try to the fire that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see as many as I love.

I'll rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent. Behold I stand, or I am standing at the door and knocking. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him.

I will sup with him and he with me. The him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame. And I'm sat down with my father in his throne.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. I will confess that I've had a desire to change for some other method, some other message, but this has been in my heart, so be it negative or otherwise, it's been my exercise in view of the meeting this morning. I want to speak to you about three cases when there was a great loss.

In fact, three dangerous unknown conditions that sadly the individuals failed to recognize. One thing of course, when we have lost something and we know about it, we know where to find it perhaps, so we know how to seek for it. And there may be other times when we have lost something we really are not even aware of it.

And I take it that's even a worse condition, because then we're left wondering where it is and how to find it again, or perhaps we're not even cognizant of the fact that we need to find it at all. There may be other times when one has a serious disease and not know about it, not be aware that it's a condition that could result in his death. And a vast difference lies between that and one who is aware and can seek help and perhaps do so at the right time.

Another, of course, physical aspects of our life could be spoken about, but I want to turn from that to conditions that are spiritual, where we have three different individuals or three different groups of people that have lost or we're not, I should say, we're unaware of their true condition. And if there's anything we need to do, brethren, is we need to guard ourselves from being ignorant of our genuine state. It's very possible for us to take aspirin and cover over a great deal of pain and perhaps eradicate these symptoms that might cause us to be concerned.

And I feel that sometimes that's possible in Christians' lives, that I can do the same and you can as well. That we can somehow do or make ourselves feel like all is well, when in reality, the very opposite is the case. And that could be true among assemblies as well.

But you know, as believers gather to the Lord's name that we've been hearing about this morning, we can carry on a pattern, and we can carry on an outward display of scriptural order, and yet the heart be entirely wrong, and our inward condition be totally contrary to the will of God, and we might not even be aware of it. And so we need to be alert, and we need to, as we're hearing by our brother, we need to read the scripture and honestly apply it to our own hearts. We need to try to apply it in such a way that it has its direct application and has its impact upon us so that we might change and that we might correct.

These dangerous, unknown conditions were very serious. They demanded a remedy because they had grave consequences if they were left unchecked. And sadly, as I've said, these individuals were ignorant of their true condition.

They failed to see their need, and therefore they failed to remedy the problem. Sometimes we speak to the lost in the gospel, and we remind them of the fact that to be unaware of their danger is far worse than to be concerned and awakened to their need of salvation. And as one has said of old, that the majority of our gospel preaching really consists in trying to convince people they have a need, and to awaken them to their danger that they might be earnest about seeking God's remedy for their problem.

When I look at these three passages we've read, I want to think about Samson first of all, and his unknown condition resulted in a loss of his usefulness. It resulted in a loss of his liberty. It actually resulted in a loss of his life.

It was a disaster in the life of a man that had such potential when he was raised of God as the last judge in this book prior to Samuel, and the one who had the greatest ability that God had given him to be used for God and for the deliverance of God's people. What a what a miserable failure he was, and I see that as a potential for any one of our lives today. When we look at Israel in the book of Hosea, we find that they were unaware of the condition that resulted in the loss of their continuation to enjoy the land that they were very soon to be taken away because the end was coming and was very near.

They lost their preservation and the enjoyment of that place that God had brought them into. And in the case of that sad condition in Laodicea, that that resulted in the loss of their fellowship, the result of the loss of their testimony, and sadly they did not even realize that the Lord was outside. Time is going to limit any comments I might make on these, but I want to think about Samson and his ignorance of his danger.

He was ignorant of his danger. Samson was a man that had many great advantages, advantages that God had given him. The first was of course that God had divinely enabled his mother to give birth to this son.

She was a barren woman, and well worth our study to notice those women mothers that were barren in the Word of God and the sons that they produced. They're always unusual individuals. And so that he had a birth that fulfilled God's purpose to raise and deliver, to seek to deliver his people from the hand of the Philistines, the last judge that was raised of God apart from Samuel.

So he had a remarkable birth. He had divinely imparted power and ability. In fact I would say if you look at the judges you'll notice that he had more physical strength and power and ability than any other judge.

No other judge received what he did. This is if God was doing the very last effort to seek to deliver his people from the power of those enemies around them. When I look at the ability that Samson had and what he had received and what he was capable of doing, it reminds us that personal ability whether it be intellectual or oratory or even charismatic influence is not sufficient to keep you and me enjoying the things of God in our souls.

Sometimes the most able men are the ones that fall. Perhaps it's because they become like Samson because they depend upon themselves and become self-confident. That preservation requires devotion.

I believe the most important thing in the Word of God is a verse that we have in Proverbs, keep or guard thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. What comes from the heart is very vital and the heart is a little bit more than the head in that respect. The fourth thing that this man had it was a divinely directed home life.

His mother was told how to live herself and how to raise him. I think we notice in the scripture the influence of a mother was tremendous. In fact when there were mixed marriages in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah it says that the children spoke the language of their mother.

Just remember that. Now this mother was charged by God to maintain a character of life that would be reflected in her son and I take it that she did that. And then he had the privilege of participation in the nation of Israel and all of its worship and all the aspects of Jehovah and the relationship to him.

So he had many advantages. Advantages that sort of resulted in his benefit and his preservation. But when I look at this man I look at his failures as well because if he had four advantages he also had four areas in which he failed miserably.

And the first was I take it is that he took his Nazarite condition for granted. It was always his condition he was always a Nazarite so he never seemed to realize the solemn implications of that life and what it required of him. He assumed that was just simply the way it was.

The second thing is that you never find this man ever had the vow of an Azorite. It was that which is imposed upon him as it were by God and he wasn't voluntarily entering into it so it wasn't in his heart. And as I look at this man in that respect I see that he had the conditions of life without commitment.

He had conditions of power without the purpose that should have accompanied it. And so he never really bowed. He never turned his heart to the right desires to please God and to use his abilities for God and for the deliverance of God's people.

The third thing about this man Samson is that he continually trifled with defiling conditions. I don't see ever consciously sin in relation to the vow of the Nazarite or the condition of a Nazarite but you find him very close compromising, passing through the vineyard, handling the dead body of a lion and other aspects of that nature. He was trifling.

He trifled with the enemy. He played with the enemies of God's people. That was his occupation.

And so he was carrying on the life of activity that was prone to bring about his downfall. And the fourth thing of course is that he never, in my reading of this man's life, he never used his power or ability for God or for God's people. Everything he did was for Samson.

Every prayer that he uttered was for Samson, the man that was using God-given ability for his own pleasure or for his own purposes, failures. So you see that advantages don't protect and preserve child of God. We are prone to failures ourselves but we need to be careful.

And last of all we leave this man as he revealed the secret of his power to the enemy. I don't have time to survey the entirety of this man's life but it seemed like he didn't really realize who the enemy was. He didn't seem to understand the different means by which his enemy would seek to delve out his secret and to find out what was the cause of his power.

While they tried many different ways finally they got into his heart. He loved a woman that was really an enemy of God. And so you find a man that finds himself thinking that I'm going to go out just like normal.

I'll go out like other times and shake myself and deliver my own self. And he wished not that the Lord had departed from him. What a solemn loss.

And the sequel is found in the remaining chapter where he's found in the prison down in Gaza grinding with his eyes put out. Ultimately died with the Philistines. God gave him a recovery but what a loss.

What potential in a man's life. What could have been used for God. What could have been achieved for the deliverance of God's people but only God could say he will begin, begin to deliver Israel.

And he did nothing more. But quickly, when you look at Hosea, they were not ignorant of their danger, they were ignorant of their decline. There was a lack of knowledge on their part and sadly it was the knowledge that had prevailed for centuries of time.

It was not a sudden knowledge. You go back to the chapter 5 that is before you find that it says in verse 6, my people are destroyed or they're gone for a lack of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me.

Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God I will also forget thy children. We find in chapter 6 in verse 3 there's a perhaps a movement of God to stir their hearts in verse 3 he says then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. That was the way of the recovery, that was the possibility for them to be delivered.

But they come to this point and if you look at the other verses in chapter 7 you'll find that God points out their continual unfaithfulness, their passion for self-will and for carnality, and their failure to seek the Lord with a similar passion of heart, a desire to be faithful to him. And so we find that even their efforts to seek the Lord only reveals the fact that they were superficial and that God's dealings with them had only made clear the depth of their own sinfulness, of the impurity of their soul, and the intrigue of their hearts and their incontinence. And so we find that they had come to the point of weakness.

Three times over the prophet of this chapter speaks of them being like an oven, but it was an oven not a burning fervently for the zeal of the Lord of hosts, but it was an oven that was burning for the satisfaction of their own passions, their own lusts. And so we find similar circumstances in the word of God that should be a warning to us. And so we find here that the prophet says to them that he has mixed himself among the people and Ephraim is a cake not turned.

Understand in those days that they would bake their cake on a clay instrument perhaps and if they failed to turn it it would end up being burned on one side and raw on the other. It could only be thrown away as being inedible. That's what God is saying to these people.

They've never experienced any genuine repentance. They've never changed. They've never responded.

They've never come back. He says therefore, he says strangers have devoured his strength that he knoweth it not. They had mixed themselves among strangers.

There had been a continual decline and even though God had graciously given them times of restoration, yet they continued moved farther and farther away. Until finally at Hosea's time he speaks about them as an unfaithful wife that even though purchased had refused to respond in a positive way. He says strangers have devoured his strength that he knoweth it not.

And there's a loss of power. There's a loss of potential. There's a loss of usefulness.

When I look at the history of the children of Israel in the Old Testament, I seek to apply it to my own heart and we need to apply it to all of our hearts because by this loss of separation on their part of their mixing among the nations of the world, they lost their faithfulness to God. They lost their uniqueness among the nations of the world. They lost their privilege of being preserved in the place of God's blessing.

And they lost their testimony. But I need to quickly close. Time is gone.

And we look at Laodicea and they were ignorant of their true condition. Much has been said about Laodicea. Let me just say that they had some special endowments in this church, special privileges and special relationship to enjoy.

The first thing that the Lord says to them is a reminder that he is the God of the amen. He is the true and the faithful witness that he is the beginning of the creation of God. This is the one that they had a relationship to.

The one that was absolutely true. The one that was absolutely faithful. The one that was everything that he desired them to be and their relationship to him should have affected them because it should have been reflected in their life for their testimony as a local assembly.

Yet sadly they were in a professed relationship with this one that is speaking to them and yet expressed so little of his own character in their own responsibility. The second thing about their advantages is that they were numbered in chapter 1 among all the other lampstands of testimony and the Lord was moving in the midst of them. He was observing them all and he was truly conscious of their own condition and he had placed them as a testimony in the darkness to the glory of his name and for the purpose of continuing in that work and so they were placed in a very unique relationship and they had that responsibility to respond as well.

But also we find that in this chapter we learn that this assembly like all the others was the object of divine interest and affection. Now the Lord doesn't close this letter to this assembly without reminding them that he is because of his love he would rebuke them and he would even chasten them and he would do so for the purpose of them responding to him and all the time he says I'm standing at the door and I'm knocking. Just listen I'm standing at the door knocking and if any individual will hear my voice and open the door I will come in and will sup with him and he with me.

So they had special endowments special privilege and special advantages but let me just quickly say before I sit down the actual condition that the Lord Jesus reveals and he reproves. The first was an attitude of indifference. You know the thing about indifference among God's people today.

An attitude of carelessness not really cold but not really hot either. Just sort of drifting along and satisfied to have a little warmth and be thankful in your own heart that you're not cold of heart. Luke warm they were indifferent.

He says that because of that there was a condition that he despised without fiery zeal and without devotion. Jim Allen has suggested that they even had these cold ones unsaved individuals among them but they become very careless in their reception and so there was a mixture. The cold of the heart and the lukewarm condition seems to indicate a mixture and the Lord says that's intolerant to him as if he'll say that if they were cold he could deal with that.

If they're hot he would appreciate that. He says this lukewarm condition that makes excuses and just drifts along in life without any zeal and desire and exercise he says that is intolerant that's something that is very despicable. The second thing about them that he reveals that they were self-satisfied and they were complacent.

They looked at themselves and they could say in their own heart we don't really need anything we have everything we don't need to ask God for anything. We've received everything that we needed even more we're rich. I'm not sure that's physical riches I think that they thought that they were spiritually rich because the Lord doesn't reveal that they were actually poor materially he reveals that they were poor spiritually.

It's possible for one to be so self-deceived that we can think we're doing well with God and well in the things of God and forget that his estimation is really all that matters and so they were failing to apply the Word of God properly to their lives and to their own condition so that they were self-deceived and complacent. Complacency is a bane of life complacency is a bane of a spiritual life. It's the ruin of a child of God to become complacent Thank God we can be satisfied with all that we have in Christ but I don't believe personally that I can ever be satisfied with what my condition is it ought to be better and so we find that they were complacent.

They thought they were correct. They were self-deceived and ignorant of their true state and the Lord reveals what he has seen what he knows our state really to be and he applies the remedy to it they were self-occupied as well they didn't even realize the Lord was outside the door. What a sad condition to be in but it's a description of the church at the end of the age and brethren do not pride ourselves on being like Philadelphia we may be more likely to see you than we like to think.

We'd like to be like Philadelphia. Well there are certain Philadelphian conditions that are required if we're going to be so but I would just say this that the Lord makes his appeal. Now the Lord says as many as I love I rebuke and chase.

My God he still loves his own even though we are cold not not so cold but maybe lukewarm at heart. He loves us and he rebukes us and he will chase in us. He says I'm standing at the door knocking and to the individual he's calling because it seems like there's no hope for the collective body of those who are gathered in them in that place but he says I'm calling the individual if any man any person maybe at a conference like this hear my voice I will come in unto them and sup with him and he will meet with me.

And he says there's a promise what a promise it is and brethren and sisters may we hear his voice at this conference. I may be aware that we need to guard our hearts and maintain them in a fervent spirit toward the Lord. Fellowship with him Enoch walked with God for 300 years and in our day may we know something of the same in our experience.