Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number two in your hardbacked hymnal.
Hymn number two, Love Divine. Let's all stand together. Number
two. Divine all loves excelling, joy
of heaven to earth come down. Fix in us Thy humble dwelling,
All Thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure, unbounded love Thou art. Fix in us, God, Thy salvation,
Enter every trembling heart. Breathe, O breathe, Thy loving
Spirit Into every troubled breast. Let us all in the inherent Let
us find that sack of rest Take away our bent to sitting Alpha
and Omega be And of faith as its beginning
set our hearts at liberty. Come, Almighty, to deliver, let
us all Thy life receive. Suddenly return, and never, nevermore
Thy temples leave. Thee we would be always blessing,
serving as Thy hosts above. Pray and praise Thee without
ceasing, glory in Thy perfect love. Finish then Thy new creation,
pure and spotless let us be. Let us see Thy great salvation
perfectly restored in Thee. Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place, Till we cast our crowns before
thee, Lost in wonder, love and praise. Please be seated. Good morning. you'd like to open
your Bibles with me to Judges, the book of Judges. We're going
to be looking at another type of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded
in God's Word in Judges chapter 14. Let's go before the Lord in prayer
and ask His blessings. Our glorious and merciful Heavenly
Father, we come into Thy holy presence, looking to and resting
our hope in Thy dear Son for all of our acceptance and all
of our righteousness. Lord, left to ourselves, we are
nothing but sin. Left to ourselves, we are separated
from Thee, and we thank You for Your mercy and for Your grace.
We thank you for the accomplished work of redemption in thy dear
son. We thank you for the promise
that you've given to meet with us and to reveal to our hearts
his glory. Lord, we pray now that you would
be pleased this hour to send your Holy Spirit in power, that
you would bless our hearts Like you bless the penman of scripture,
Lord, that you would give us eyes to see and hearts to believe
and that you would enable us to look on Christ, our savior,
thy dear son, for all our hope and all our salvation. For it's
in his name we pray, amen. We know that all of these Old Testament characters
point us to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that certainly is the case
with this judge by the name of Samson. Samson's name translated
means like the sun, and we see in him the work of redemption
accomplished in the Lord Jesus Christ. The verses that we're
going to look at this morning, we're going to see how the Lord
Jesus destroyed the works of the devil on Calvary's cross. There was a time when we were
held in bondage and in darkness. We could not see, we could not
believe, we could not have faith. And the Lord Jesus Christ delivered
his people from that bondage in his sacrificial death on Calvary's
cross. That's the picture that we have
here in Judges chapter 14. I want you to notice with me
in verse 6, if you will, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon
me or upon him. The term or title Christ translated
means the anointed one. You know that. As does the word
Messiah. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one who came in the full power of the Spirit of God to accomplish,
and I give emphasis to that word accomplish, the salvation of
his people. He didn't come to make an offer
to us to be saved, He came to offer Himself to His Father on
behalf of His elect, and He actually successfully redeemed His people
on Calvary's cross. He broke the power of sin. He delivered those who were in
bondage to death. That was his redemptive work. And he came as the anointed one,
the Messiah. All these anointings that we
see in the Old Testament are types, they are foreshadowings
of what would be fulfilled when the Lord Jesus Christ came. He
said, I did not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but
I came to fulfill them. And so when we look at the anointing
of Aaron, for instance, the priest, we see in his anointing a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Psalm 133. Psalm
133. We'll begin reading in verse
1. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. It is like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard,
and went down to the skirts of his garment. You remember the
woman with the issue of blood said, oh, if I could but touch
the hem of his garment, I would be made whole. That's where,
that's exactly what's being referred to here with Aaron. He was anointed
as our priest, as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, who intercedes
on our behalf and offers himself to his father behalf of his people. And we come in unity, crawling
as it was with that woman, seeking to have some drops of
grace from that anointing come from the hem of his garment.
That's the unity that believers have together, is the anointing
of the Spirit of God. But our anointing is but drops
that come off the hem of his garment. His anointing was in
full measure, was in full measure. The scripture says that he was
anointed with the spirit of gladness above his fellows. So when the
Lord Jesus Christ came, he came in the full power of the spirit
of God. And when we read this about Samson
and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, It reminds
us of this anointing that was given to Christ, our Messiah,
when he came in the power of the Spirit of God to accomplish
the salvation of his people, mightily upon him. David was
anointed king. We've seen these judges be an
anointed judge, Aaron was anointed priest, all the prophets were
given the anointing of the Spirit of God, all pointing to this
full anointing of Christ who came in order to save his people. Notice that in the rest of this
verse six, on the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and
he rent him as he would have rent a kid and he had nothing
in his hand. Now, Samson is going down to
Timnath. Timnath translated means a portion. To get for himself a wife. It's
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ gathering together from the Philistines,
those who are by nature outside of natural Israel, physical Israel,
and to bring them to himself. But before he can make us to
be his wife, he has to slay this lion. notice that he does it
with his bare hands as if it was a baby goat. This is not a cosmic battle between
good and evil, between God and Satan, whereby, you know, the
Lord is receiving blows of, no, When the Lord Jesus Christ defeated
Satan on Calvary's cross, he slew him as if he was a kid with
his bare hands. Now, Satan is no match. We are
no match for Satan, but Satan is no match for Christ. And he is God's devil. And he
defeated him on Calvary's cross. And that's what we have a picture
of here. Let's go back to verse 1 in this
chapter. We dealt with these verses Wednesday night. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
have to have any weapons in order to accomplish the salvation of
his people, in order to defeat the powers of Satan, in order
to deliver us from darkness and translate us into the kingdom
of his light. He did it with his bare hands.
Now the hand in the Bible is a picture of works. And so we
see here a type of the Lord Jesus Christ defeating Satan by his
works, by his righteousness, by his accomplishment of everything
written in the law. Verse one of Judges chapter 14,
and Samson went down to Timnath and saw a woman in Timnath of
the daughters of the Philistines. Now Philistines translated means
immigrants. And that's what God's people
are. They're strangers, they're pilgrims,
they're foreigners in this world. And the Lord Jesus Christ comes
down to those people and he retrieves to himself his portion, his portion. And he came up, and told his
father and his mother and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath
of the daughters of the Philistines. Now, therefore, get her for me
to wife. Oh, it was God the Father that
elected a wife, chose a bride for his son. It was God the Holy
Spirit that was sent to fetch that bride and to bring them
in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what these are pictures
of. Look at verse 3. Then his father and his mother
said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of
thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take
a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father,
Get her for me, for she pleases me well. The Lord set his affections on
his people. When he saw his bride, he loved
her. He loved her with an everlasting
love, never a time when the Lord Jesus Christ didn't have a love
for his bride. Ephesians chapter 5 says, husbands,
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it. Here's the evidence, not that
we love God, but that he loved us and gave his son as a propitiation
for our sins. The evidence of God's love for
his bride is what he accomplished for her. Calvary's cross when
he rent the devil with his bare hands and delivered his people
from their sin. Look at, she pleased, she pleaseth
me well. And we'll see in the next chapter
of Judges, the reason why she pleased him was not because of
her beauty. Matter of fact, when she's given
to his friend, the father of this woman says to Samson, look
at her younger sister. Is she not more fair? There were
more women in the family that were more beautiful than was
this woman. And yet, Samson loved her. and
she pleased him, and now he's going to go down to Timnath to
retrieve her to himself. There's nothing in us that attracts
the Lord Jesus Christ to us. His love for us is something
that he places on us according to his own goodwill and purpose. We're attracted to one another
when we see something attractive or beautiful in another person,
but it wasn't so with the Lord. He chose that which was not. He went to, just thinking about Hosea and
Gomer, you know, how the Lord, and there's a type of Christ
in his church, how the Lord told Hosea to go down and fetch from
the slave market a bride who was a harlot. There's our Lord
choosing his people. And so he says here in verse
four, and his father and his mother knew not that it was of
the Lord, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines. And
at that time, the Philistines had dominion over Israel. Until this lion is killed, the
Philistines are gonna have dominion over Israel. And sin will have
dominion over you and over me. until the Lord Jesus Christ as
our strong man. Now what Samson is a picture
of? One who is like the sun, one
who comes in miraculous strength, one who is anointed with the
spirit of God in order to slay the lion, in order to get to
himself a bride that pleases him well. This is the gospel,
brethren. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done out of love for his people. Verse five, then went Samson
down and his father and his mother to Timnath and came to the vineyards
of Timnath. It's where it always happens
at the vineyard. It's the wine press was at the
vineyard. This is the wine press that the
Lord Jesus Christ trotted out the wrath of God's justice for
the sins of his people. This is the, this is the shedding
of his blood as a covering for our sins. So he comes down to
the wine press in the place of the immigrants to get to himself
a bride out of the portion which God has chosen for him. And behold, a young lion roared
against him. And that's all this lion can
do, brethren. It's all he can do is he can
roar. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. The Lord Jesus Christ, in the
full power of the Spirit of God, the anointed one, the Messiah.
He came. It wasn't the devil that killed
Christ on Calvary's cross. It was God the Father, pleased
the Father to bruise him. God made him to be an offering
for our sin. The devil in this story is but
a pawn. He's a pawn. He's no strength,
he's got no power. He's pictured as this baby goat
that Samson takes and slays with his bare hands. But he roars
at us, doesn't he? And he accuses the brethren.
He uses our sin to accuse us. And he tries to bring us back
under the law in order to find our acceptance with God. Well,
if we can just figure out some way to keep God's law a little
better than we do, that maybe we could have acceptance with
God. No, that's what the Lord Jesus Christ did. Look at 1 Peter
1, verse 8. I'm sorry, maybe it's 2 Peter
chapter 1. Well, let me just quote it. I
wrote the wrong reference down, forgive me. The scripture says,
be sober and be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a
roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Be sober, be vigilant. In what? In faith. To look to
Christ. To rest your hope in Him. To believe on Him. Somebody found
that verse? Because I wanted you to see the
next verse afterwards. Chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 8. Yes. Look at the next verse. Whom
resists steadfastly in the faith? What is it to resist the devil? It's to flee to Christ in faith. It's when the roaring lion rears
his ugly head and you see the evidence of that in your own
sin, that you flee to Christ. This is the honey that came out
of the lion. that the Lord is going to use
the death of this lion in order to bless his people. Resist steadfastly
in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. The afflictions of
this roaring lion, the afflictions of our sin, notice the word accomplished. There's something that's going
to be accomplished by this roaring lion in the lives of God's people. And what I'm hoping the Lord
will impress on our hearts this morning is that he has defeated
the lion. He has torn this lion. Not only
has he torn him, but he has found in this lion a honeycomb. And he's taken the honey out
of the carcass of this lion, and he's given it to his mother
and to his father. Now, honey in the Bible is a
picture of the Word of God. The Word of God points us to
Christ. It's all a spiritual picture
of our salvation. Go back with me. Go back with
me to our text. As I said, what happened at Calvary's
cross was not some sort of cosmic conflict between God and the
devil where one blow is given and another blow is given until
finally death comes, no. No, it was God Almighty that
slew his son on Calvary's cross. When he saw sin on his son, the
sins of his people, the justice of a holy God was required to
kill his own son. And that's exactly what happened.
It was the father that put him to death. Satan is a pawn in this story,
but it's through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ that all
of the temptations of the devil and all of his wiles and all
of his works are defeated in the lives of God's people. Let
me show you that. Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. We'll begin reading in verse
14. For then, or for as much then, As the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Here's what we see
in the book of Judges with Samson. The Lord Jesus Christ, the strong
man, anointed mightily with the Spirit of God, looking down on
the Philistines and seeing in Timnath a woman that pleases
him well, and on his way to get her as his bride, there's a lion
that roars. He's got to be killed. He's got
to be destroyed before he can bring to himself this wife. And that's exactly what he did,
to deliver them who fear of death all their lives, to destroy the
works of the devil. Now, what are the works of the
devil? Sin. Sin's the works of the devil.
And sin is a transgression of the law, is it not? How did the
Lord Jesus Christ accomplish the destruction of the devil
on Calvary's cross? Well, he put away our sin by
the sacrifice of himself. He separated them from us as
far as the East is from the West. He buried them in the depths
of the sea. He said, I remember them no more. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
successfully covered the sins of God's people. And he fulfilled the requirements
of the law. What is it that the devil uses
when he becomes your accuser? He uses your sin, doesn't he?
And he points you to the law, and he reminds you of how far
short of the law you fall. And his accusations are not a
lie. His accusations are true. except that the Lord Jesus Christ
has slain that lion. He has fulfilled all the requirements
of God's holy law. So that there is, that's exactly
what Paul was talking about in Romans chapter seven, when he
said, the law of God is holy and just and good. We love God's
law. And Paul went on to say, but
I am carnal, sold under sin. In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. To will is present with me, but
how to perform that which is good. The perfect obedience to
God's law, I find not. I cannot find anywhere in myself
the ability to fulfill the requirements of God's law. And how does Paul
end Romans chapter seven? Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Oh, thanks be to God. Through Christ Jesus I am free. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them that are in Christ, who walk not after the flesh." We're
not walking after after a legal salvation. We're not walking
after a works salvation. Yes, Satan comes as a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour. And our sin reminds us of what
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross when he put
away our sin. And he silenced the roaring of
the lion before God so that there is now no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus. In God's providence, he always fulfills his purpose on behalf of his people, bringing
good out of evil. The clearest example of that
is seen at Calvary's Cross. Nothing more evil has ever taken
place in the history of this world than what took place 2000
years ago at Galgotha, when God made himself subject to the hands
of men and laid down his life and allowed them to crucify him
on Calvary's cross. And as our sin bearer suspended
between heaven and earth, the only man, the only man that was
able to reach up and touch God without being defiled is the
same man, or without being destroyed, is the same man that's able to
reach down and touch sinners without being defiled. The God-man,
our substitute, our surety. No evil has ever taken place
in the history of the world like what took place there. And no
good has ever happened like the goodness that came out of that. And that same truth and that
same principle, brethren, applies to your sin. The devil is God's devil. He
will allow you to be sifted. Isn't that what the Lord said
to Peter? Peter, the devil has asked me
if he could sift you. And before the cock crows, you're
gonna deny me three times, but be of good cheer. I have prayed
for you. And when you have been converted,
when you've seen all the benefits of the things that I've done
for you, teach the brethren. Use your sin and your salvation
as an encouragement to the brethren who will have the same thing
accomplished in their lives by their sin. When the Lord gave Rebecca, those
two boys, Jacob and Esau, twins, two nations in her womb, that
struggled together when she said, why am I thus? Why am I the way I am? And the
Lord said, because there's two nations in you. There's two forms
of people, Esau and Jacob, the reprobate and the elect, the
one who's nothing but sin and the one who's completely, perfectly
righteous before God. And they struggle with one another.
But here's what the Lord said. The older, which was Esau, a
picture of our flesh, shall serve the younger, which was Jacob,
a picture of our new man in Christ. Here's what I'm saying, brethren, that when we sin, it is our sin
that God uses. to drive us back again and again
and again to Christ. When the Spirit of God comes
and convicts us of our unbelief, which is always with us, you're
not talking about just doing something shameful. I'm
talking about the sin of who we are, the sin of our nature. And the Lord reminds us what
we are outside of Christ. At the same time, he causes us
to flee to Christ for all our acceptance and all of our righteousness
before God. That's the picture we have here.
The Lord Jesus Christ rent the flesh of this roaring lion as
if he was a baby goat. And now look, look at the rest of the story,
verse eight. I'm sorry, look at verse seven. And he went down
and talked with the woman and she pleased Samson well. Oh,
I pray that our Samson, our anointed one, our strong man is talking
with his wife right now. That's what he does. This is
why she pleased him because of the conversation that they were
able to have with one another. She heard his voice and she followed
him. And one look from her eye smote
his heart so that he was so well pleased with her. He just wanted
to be with her and commune with her and him and her with him. Look at verse eight. And after
a time he returned to take her and he turned aside to see the
carcass of the lion. Now the scripture doesn't tell
us how much time, but time enough for this lion to decay and for
there just to be a skeleton of some sort, maybe with some skin
on it. And some bees have created a hive inside the carcass. And behold, there was a swarm
of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. Now, honey in the
Bible is a picture of God's word, the sweetness of his word. It's like honey to our taste
and the energy and the spiritual power that God gives to his people
by his word. And he took thereof in his hands
and went on eating and came to his father and his mother and
he gave them and they did eat. But he told them not that he
had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion." Here's the picture. The very
hand that slew the lion is the hand of God that takes the honey
from the lion and feeds his sheep. His people, the sweetness of
His grace. How often we see that. Was it not the blindness of Bartimaeus
that caused him to cry out, O Lord, that I might see Jesus, thou
Son of David, have mercy upon me? Was it not the issue of blood
that the woman had who had spent all that she had on physicians
and was worse off now than she was before? The woman had gone
from religion to religion to religion, doctor to doctor, and
no healing for her issue of blood. Oh, but if I could touch the
hem of his garment, if one drop of his anointing could come off
of the hem of his garment and touch me, I could be made whole.
Was it not the leper who was afflicted with leprosy from the
top of his head to the sole of his foot that said, Lord, if
you will, thou can't make me old. What are these all pictures
of? They're pictures of honey coming
out of the carcass of the lion. They're pictures of this roaring
lion who accuses us of our sin and tries to take us back to
the law. And God takes the honey of his
word and reminds us that the Lord Jesus Christ has put away
our sin and he has fulfilled all the requirements of the law. And the mother and father of
Samson didn't know where it came from. Didn't know where it came
from. They enjoyed the benefits of
it, but they didn't understand it. You know what the difference
between intellectualism and faith is? Intellectualism pretends to understand
something that it doesn't believe. Faith believes what it does not
understand. God does not require us to under... We can't understand it. We received
the honey from the hand of the master. How can we understand? How can we understand the one,
the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ? Great is the mystery
of godliness that God was manifested in the flesh. Do you understand
that? How that God could be made in the likeness of sinful flesh?
How that God could be born of a woman? How the one who said
in the Psalms, if I was hungry, I would not tell you, as a baby
cried for the breast of his mother? Can you understand that? Can
you understand how omnipotence had to learn to walk? Or how
omniscience had to learn to talk? Can you understand that? Can
you understand how the glorious I Am, the creator and sustainer
of all things, could die? We don't understand any of these
things. Nothing that we believe do we understand. Samson's mother
and father did not understand what was happening. Samson knew. Samson knew. that he had slew
the lion. He didn't tell anybody else.
Samson knew where the honey came from. Oh, brethren, we're not called on
to understand. We're called on to believe. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for this story of Samson and for how it points us in faith
to thy dear son. Thank you for his accomplished
work in destroying the works of the devil and setting free
those who are in fear of death all their lives. Lord, we pray
that you would continue to use the roaring of the lion and the
appearance of our own sin to cause us to look again and again
and again to the successful Savior in whose name we pray.