out of our blue hymnal 298. 298
God leads us along. In shady green pastures so rich
and so sweet, God leads His dear children along. Where the water's cool flow lays
the weary one's feet, God leads His dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood Some through the fire, but all through the
blood Some through great sorrow, but God gives us all In the night
season and all the day long Sometimes on a mount where the sun shines
so bright, God leads His dear children along. Sometimes in a valley in darkest
of night, God leads His dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood Some through the fire, but all through the
blood Some through great sorrow, but God gives us some In the
night season and all the day long Though sorrows befall us
and Satan oppose, God leads His dear children along. Through grace we can conquer,
defeat all our foes, God leads His dear children along. Some through the water, some
through the flood Some through the fire, but all through the
blood Some through great sorrow, but God gives us all In the night
season and all the day long Away from the mirin, away from the
clay, God leads His dear children along. Away up in glory, eternity's
day, God leads His dear children along. Some through the waters,
some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through
the blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all in the night season and all the day long. Thank you. You may be seated. Good morning, everybody. So your
pastor has asked us to read Judges chapter 16. Judges 16. And we will read the entire verse
or the entire chapter and beginning in verse one. Then went Samson
to Gaza, and saw there a harlot, and went in unto her. And it
was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they
compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate
of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, in the morning,
when it is day, we shall kill him. And Samson lay till midnight,
and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gates of the
city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and
all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top
of the hill there before Hebron. And it came to pass afterward
that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was
Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines
came up unto her and said unto her, entice him and see wherein
his great strength lieth. And by what means we may prevail
against him, that we may bind him and to afflict him. And we
will give thee every one of us 1100 pieces of silver. And Delilah said to Samson, tell
me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth? And wherewith
thou mightest be bound to afflict thee? Verse seven. And Samson
said unto her, if they bind me with seven green withs that were
never dried, then shall I be weak and be as another man. Then the lords of the Philistines
brought up her seven green whips, which had not been dried, and
she bound him with them. Now there were men lying in the
wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him,
the Philistines are upon thee, Samson, and he break the whips,
and as a thread of toe is broken when it was touched with fire,
and his strength was not known. And Delilah said unto Samson,
Behold, thou hast mocked me, and hast 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. Delilah
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. And Delilah said unto Samson,
Wherewith thou hast mocked me, and told me lies, tell me wherewith
thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, out thou
weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. And she fastened
it with a pin and said unto him, the Philistines are upon thee,
Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep
and went away with the pin and the beam and with the web. And
she said unto him, how canst thou say I love thee? When thine
heart is not with me, thou hast mocked me these three times,
and has not told me wherewith thy great strength lies. 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, and said unto her, there has not come a razor
upon my head. For I have been a Nazarene unto
God from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength
will go from me, and I shall be weak and be like any other
man. And when Delilah saw that he
had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of
the Philistines saying, come upon this once. for he has showed
me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines
came up under her and brought money into their hand. And she
made him sleep upon her knees. And she called for a man and
caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head. And she began
to afflict him and his strength went from him. Verse 20. And she said, the Philistines
be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep
and said, I will go out as the other times before and shake
myself. And he wished not that the Lord
had departed from him. But the Philistines took him
and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him
with fetters of brass. And he did grind in the prison
house. How bit the hair of his head
begin to grow again after he was shaven? Then the lords of
the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great
sacrifice unto Dagon, their god, and to rejoice. For they said,
our god hath delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hand. And when the people saw him,
they praised their god. For they said, our god hath delivered
into our hands our enemy. and the destroyer of our country,
which slew many of us. And it came to pass, when their
hearts were merry, that they said, call for Samson, that he
may make us sport. And they called for Samson out
of the prison house, and he made them sport, and they sat him
between the pillars. And Samson said unto the lad
that beheld him by the hand, suffer me that I may fill the
pillars where when the house standeth, that I may lean upon
them. Now the house was full of men
and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there.
And there were upon the roof about 3,000 men and women that
beheld while Samson was made sport. And Samson called unto
the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and
strengthen me, I pray thee. Only this once, O God, that I
may be at once avenged of the Philistines for these two eyes. And Samson took hold of the middle
pillars upon the house stood, and on which it was borne up,
and on one on his right hand, and the other on his left. And
Samson said, let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed
himself all his strength. And the house fell upon the lords,
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. Then his brethren and all the
house of his father came down and took him and brought him
up and buried him between Zorah and Ishtar and the burying place
of Manoah, his father. And he judged Israel 20 years. Let us pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
Lord, we're so thankful for this blessed opportunity that we have
to come together, Lord, as believers, as your sheep, to open up your
word, Lord, and to read, Lord, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
we confess to you that we are ignorant and we know so little. And, oh, Father, we must come
together and hear, Lord, from you. And oh, Father, Lord, that
you have give this congregation a man to labor in your word to
study and to prepare. Lord, while others are working
in the week and are about their jobs and their business, Lord,
you have given a man to study. Lord, that he might come before
us and declare from your word the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
as he stands this morning, Lord, not only in this pulpit, but
in every pulpit, Lord, where your people are gathered, would
you be with that man that he might declare Jesus Christ and
him crucified? And would you comfort us, Lord,
your people, with your word, Lord, that we might behold him
and behold his glory and rejoice in him. Lord, that we might have
strength, Lord, that we might have faith, and Lord, that we
might look to him for all our salvation. Again, Lord, we pray,
bless this service, Lord, and bless this congregation, we ask.
And Lord, we thank you, Lord. that we're able to be, Lord,
here this morning with your people. These things, Lord, we pray in
Jesus' name. Amen. As you remain sitting, let's
sing 106. Tell me the story of Jesus 106. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell how the angels in chorus
sang as they welcomed his birth. Glory to God in the highest Peace
and good tidings to earth Tell me the story of Jesus Write on
my heart every word Tell me the story most precious Sweetest
that ever was heard Lasting alone in the desert, tell of the days
that are past. How for our sins he was tempted,
yet was triumphant at last. Tell of the years of his labor,
tell of the sorrow he bore. He was despised and afflicted,
homeless, rejected, and poor. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell of the cross where they
dealt Him, writhing in anguish and pain. Tell of the grave where
they laid Him, tell how He liveth again. Love in that story so
tender, clearer than ever I see. See, let me weep while you whisper,
love paid the ransom for me. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Thank you, Brother Tony. I realize
I asked you to read a long, long passage, so thank you. I appreciate
it very much. It'll be a help to us. All right, so let's be in Judges
16. Now in this chapter, there's
two stories being revealed, being told, and they speak of grace. They both show us the grace of
God. In Samson we see two types. One type is that he is a sinner
saved by grace. And the other type that we see
is he is a picture for us of the Lord Jesus Christ and what
he did to save sinners by the grace of God. And this he accomplished
in his death and resurrection. Now in Samson we see a man who
is most peculiar. He's clearly used of the Lord,
and blessed of the Lord, and kept by the Lord. But this man
is a sinner. And I remember, oh, I guess it's
a been about 25 years or so. I used to work in a factory with
a lot of religious people. They happened to be Spanish Pentecostals,
and I was talking with one of them, as often we spoke when
we had time, and he didn't believe that Samson was a child of God,
because Samson was a sinner. And the man I was speaking to
was not a sinner. He made mistakes, he said, but
he was not a sinner. And all of God's people are sinners. Sinners saved by grace. And we rejoice in that word.
When you know what you are, you're thankful that God saves sinners
graciously in His darling Son. Now, let's remember these three
things as we look at Samson here. First, we see that a sinner saved
is going to make his boast, and he's going to glory in Christ. He's going to glory in Christ
for his salvation. He's going to be made to know,
my strength, my salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. The other
thing that we see is that the sinner saved by grace is always
growing in the grace and knowledge of his Lord and Savior. We, because
of this flesh, because by nature we are sinners, we are humbled
and brought low. And the Lord uses those times
to teach his child. And when we come up out of those
dark valleys, we like to think that we've learned our lesson
well, that we've got the hard lesson and we're not gonna forget
it. And sadly, it isn't long before we find ourselves back
on our face, seeing how frail, how weak, how foolish we've been
and forgotten our God once again, who mercifully and graciously
shows us our sin and our need of Him and draws us again to
Himself. And we grow, hearing again and
again of the grace of our God, given freely in Christ. And third,
the sinner saved is learning, just as Christ teaches all his
disciples, that without me, ye can do nothing. Nothing. We're learning. I can't do anything. What I think is right, what I
think should happen, if I do this, this is what's going to
be the result. No. Without Christ, I can do nothing. And so it's a good place to be. We don't like to be there, but
it's a good place to be, on our face, before the throne of God,
crying to Him, Lord, have mercy on me. Save me, Lord. Remember me. I've titled this
message, Avenged for My Two Eyes. This pattern of Samson as a sinner
saved by grace, and the type that we see of Samson, the pictures
we see in Samson of Christ, our Savior, is witnessed right in
the first three verses of this chapter. Let's first read verses
one and two. Then went Samson to Gaza, and
saw there an harlot, and he went in unto her. And it was told
the Gazite, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed
him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the
city, and were quiet all the night, saying in the morning,
when it is day, we shall kill him. Now, first off, let's deal
with the elephant in the room, which is Samson is a sinner. he is fornicating with this woman,
this harlot. And a lot of people in religion
don't like to see their heroes and people that they would like
to believe are Christians, they don't like to see them stained
with the filth of sin. And so some have said, she's
not a harlot, she's an innkeeper. Well, if she's an innkeeper,
then she's keeping a brothel, because the word is that she's
a harlot. That's the word that's given. Now, we see a pattern in Samson
in these three chapters, 14, 15, and 16. We see this man has
an eye for the ladies. And he's got his eye on these
women. He had a wife briefly. Now he's
with the harlot. And soon he's going to be with
Delilah. And these women who, as I understand
it, are all Philistine women, keep turning Samson's eye on
them. He's turning their eye to look
at them, and they're alluring and attracting Him to themselves. And they picture what sin works
in all our hearts, in turning our eye away from the Lord and
looking to the things of the flesh. Peter said, brethren,
abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. That's what sin does. It's a
war on our souls. And it's horrible. It's filthy. It's vile. And when we're made
to know just how corrupt and vile our sin is, it's very grievous
to the people of God. It troubles us. And it should
trouble us when we forget. And I'm thankful for the comfort
of our God in Christ. Because otherwise we'd be driven
to utter despair when the Lord shows us just how dark and evil
our own hearts are. So like Samson, we're all sinners.
And yet Samson is beloved of God. But Samson is a sinner. And he didn't become perfect
to attract God. God loved Samson before the foundation
of the world, before Samson did any good or any evil. God didn't
see something in Samson, no glimmer of light, no goodness in Samson
and said, you know what? I think I'll be kind to this
one. I think I'll do him good. No,
he saw nothing good in Samson. He saw Christ, and that's what
he sees in all his children, is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we come to the Father
and Jesus Christ, the Son. Our flesh is born of corrupt
seed in Adam, and the scriptures are showing us we're all sinners.
None of us is perfect. None of us is good. None of us
can exalt ourselves over another. We can't say, well, because I
don't go to Harlots, I'm not like Samson. Yes, we are. We're all filthy, vile sinners,
and all our sins are an adultery against the true and living God.
We all need the grace and mercy of God. And the way our Lord
does that is He reveals Himself to the new man, not to this flesh,
but to the new man which is born of the seed of Christ, the incorruptible
seed of Christ. This flesh doesn't do anything
good. Nothing good comes from this flesh. It's enmity against
the true and living God. But there's a picture here in
this harlot and the Philistines that goes deeper than this sin
that we see Samson in right here. She's in harlot and she pictures
the whore of Babylon. She pictures false religion. Every false way, every lying
spirit, every divided tongue, She pictures that which is evil
and unrighteousness. What men call righteousness are
filthy works to God. They're filthy works to God.
And she pictures fleshly religion. And the Whore of Babylon, like
the Whore of Babylon, she pictures the false and evil way, which
captures the heart of man, which entices the heart of man and
says, ooh, this is interesting. This is different. This is clever. Oh, I never thought about God
in that way. And it mixes up the truth. It just defiles and ruins the
truth. It peppers in a few words that
we're familiar with, but it's lies. It's false Christs. It's false spirits. It's lying
spirits that lead us away from the true and living God so that
men are deceived by it and lost forever. Solomon spoke of this
harlot in Proverbs 7, saying she's the strange woman which
flattereth with her lips. She allures and flatters with
her lips and draws you in. You know what you need to know.
You're a good person. You've done things pretty good.
Come, come join us. Be with us, says the false and
lying spirit. Solomon said her house is the
way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. You know,
go over to Revelation 17, let's see it. Revelation 17, and we'll
pick up in verse four, and this is where John writes of the whore
of Babylon. And listen to his description
of her. And the woman, verse four, was
arrayed in purple and scarlet color. and decked with gold and
precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full
of abominations and filthiness of her fornication." She's just
multiplying, right? The inventions of men going through
the earth. When people hear of this sin, it just doubles and
triples into new and worse things, just getting more and more corrupt. It's just filthiness of fornication. And upon her forehead was a name
written, mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth. She's every false and lying way.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with
the blood of the martyrs of Jesus Christ." If you don't go along
with her, if you don't cave and make concessions, a few concessions
here and just put up with that over there, she'll put you to
death. As Paul said, all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. They will. Now,
he says here, verse six, yeah, at the end of verse six, he said,
and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. That's how alluring, how attractive
the false and lying way is, how appealing she is, that the apostle
John wondered at her with great admiration. That's the deceitfulness
of the false way. And the angel said unto me, wherefore
didst thou marvel? Oh, it just cuts us in the heart. Cuts me in the heart. Because
I'm reminded, I see the weakness of this flesh and how easily
enticed our eyes are taken away from Christ. And Him who is most
precious, Him who is fairer than 10,000, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He's the one that we need. And there's so many distractions
in this world that take our eye off of Him, the eye of faith
off Him. For false Christs, our Lord said,
and false prophets shall arise and shall show signs and wonders
to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. We don't keep ourselves. The
grace of God keeps us. We need him. We need the grace
of God always. We're never too big. We never
outgrow Christ. All spiritual blessings are given
to us in Christ. That's where the Lord keeps his
people. He brings them into Christ. He
blesses them in Christ ever. He's our salvation. Now, these
Gazites are Philistines, and we know that the Philistines
are a picture of the sin in our hearts. They picture, they represent
all matter of sin and folly and foolishness that we in our flesh
do. That's what the Philistines are.
And we're told that they compassed him in and laid wait for him
all night in the gate of the city and were quiet all the night,
saying in the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him. You see, our sin is quiet in
the night. It's not making a lot of noise.
It doesn't want to disturb you too much. It wants to keep you
sleeping. And so it doesn't ruffle many
feathers. It's content for you to lie there
in absolute darkness, not knowing the great danger that you are
in. It'll just keep you lying there
asleep. And nature's night, we're not
troubled by sin. We're not afraid of sin. We touch it and handle it and
deal with it all the time and think we're fine in night, in
the night. We're not worried about it. How
many are compassed about with their sin and lie in utter darkness,
unaware of just how great a danger they're in? Our Lord says, Awake
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light. In that bright and glorious morning,
when the dead shall arise and stand in the brilliance of the
light of our God and Savior, and we stand before holy God
seated on the great white throne of judgment, and the books will
be set and open, and everything that we thought was hidden deep
in the recesses of our dark hearts and minds will all be brought
to lay bare in the brilliant light of the eye God. And then, that poor wretched
soul who has no covering for their sin, all those sins that
they thought, this isn't so bad, and the things that we justify
and explain away as really not being bad, and that day before
the all-seeing eye of God, then you'll know, I didn't see it
that way, but now I can't hide from my sin. and you have no
place to run, and you have no covering for your sin, you that
mock Christ this day and have no heart or desire for Him, and
do not believe Him. And your sins will carry the
wicked away into everlasting habitations of death. And so we read in John 3, 19
and 20, this is the condemnation. that light is coming to the world
and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should
be reproved. And all the sins of the Philistines
in the hearts of men will be laid bare in that day. and they'll
be reproved in that day when Christ returns. And you won't
have help and they'll flee from you and you'll be left standing
there to die in your sins, that second death. But the word of
faith which we preach speaketh on this wise, if thou shalt confess
with thy tongue the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. you shall answer for no sins
because Christ answered those sins for his child and cover
them with his blood and put them away forever blotting them out
from the book you shall stand before God before his throne
faultless he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his
deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God God hath
done this. God hath put away the sins of
his people. God hath delivered his people
from all the Philistines, those sins of our heart and those vile
things that we've done. This great victory of Christ's
death on the cross and resurrection from the grave is pictured for
us here in verse three. Let's look at Judges 6.3. And
Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight. Now when I
read this, I thought of Mary Magdalene, who went very early
to the supplicar of her Lord, John telling us, when it was
yet dark. When it was yet dark, when you
and I were yet in our sins, yet dead in Adam, spiritually dead
knowing nothing, thinking that we were something and yet full
of sin and ruin, and ripe for death, Christ came and laid down
his life, willingly, as the surety of his people, to pay their sin
debt, to deliver them from the hands of justice, to make us
righteous in his own blood, to present us faultless before the
throne of God, saying, behold, I and the children whom thou
hast given me, here they are, Lord, spotless, blameless, unreprovable,
without wrinkle or fault, a beautiful bride that you gave to me. Here
she is, Lord. I've redeemed her with my own
blood." We see here Christ arising from the dead. And it says, Samson
took the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and
went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders,
and carried them up to the top of a hill that is before Hebron. Do you not see Christ and what
He did in laying down His life and being buried in the tomb,
how that He bore us on His shoulders? and carried us up to the throne
of God faultless. He did the whole thing, defeating
all our foes, destroying all our sins, and its power over
us, and delivering us from darkness, and brings us into the light
of his grace and glory. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ,
the Son of the living God, and upon this rock, he said, I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. We're built and founded upon Jesus Christ, the foundation
stone. He's the mighty Savior. He's
the King of kings and Lord of lords that delivered his people. So that we don't look to our
works anymore. We're not looking to our good
works and our religion and trying to cleanse our filthy hands of
our filthy works. We rest in Christ. We trust Him. We believe Him.
Hebrews 2, 14 and 15 says, for as much then as the children,
that's you and me who believe Christ, As much 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. When we were awakened by our sin, we strove, we labored,
we spent trying to clean ourselves, and it didn't work. And we were
afraid because we knew I've not done enough. But Christ came
and put that all away by the death of himself, and his resurrection
testifies that we in Christ are justified, justified righteous
before God in him. So don't be distracted when you
read of Samson. Don't be distracted by the sin
that you see. What it's saying to us is, you
and me, all our works are filthy. We're sinners like Samson. He's showing us we cannot save
ourselves. God has provided the Savior,
Jesus Christ the righteous. Believe him. Next, being delivered
in such a glorious fashion, Believers do find themselves thinking,
especially new believers, and we've been so high, and so lifted
up, rejoicing in what Christ has done, we think, I can't ever
see myself sinning again. I don't think I'll ever be brought
low again. I'm so thankful, I'm so joyful,
I can't believe what God has done for me. But it isn't before
long that we see what vile, wretched sinners we are in this flesh. All we have to do is look at
the scriptures. You think about what Noah saw, and yet it wasn't
long before he sinned, becoming drunk. And you think about Abraham
and what he knew of the true and living God, and yet how he
stumbled and took the nursemaid of Sarah. and lay with her. And you think of David and the
horrible sins that he committed, and the stumble of Isaiah, and
Elijah, thinking, running from a woman after God had given him
such a great victory. And even Peter, who walked with
the Lord, who saw him and heard him speak, and knew him as a
friend. And yet he betrayed his Savior
three times. Three times. And so we see how
quickly we forget how slow learners we are. That's probably the biggest
lie I ever put on a resume. Fast learner. No, I'm not. I'm
not a fast learner. I learn things very slowly, and
I thank God for his patience with me, as do all you, my brethren. Oh, fools and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken. That's me. That's me. Being delivered from
the Gazites with a mighty show of strength, it wasn't long at
all before Samson's eye was turned again to another woman, another
Philistine woman, Morsin. Look at verse four. And it came
to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorok,
whose name was Delilah. And so the Philistines of the
heart Just like in our own heart, we're ready. Oh, here we go.
We got him. We got him back. We got him. Let's destroy him now. Verse
five, and the lords of the Philistines came up unto her and said unto
her, entice him and see wherein 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, 1,100 pieces of silver. And so the temptation started
coming, and they just kept on coming and coming time and time
again, tempting Samson to deny that God is his strength and
his salvation and the hope of glory. 1 John 2.16 says, For
all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust
of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but
is of the world. These are the things that come
from our own heart. These are the things that carry
us and lead us away. And it's a very dangerous game
that we play because we think we have our sin, our pet sins
under control and that we can handle them and that we can put
them back in the box whenever they're getting out of hand.
And we think we got a good handle on it until we realize we don't. We don't. And there's been many
people who have thought they could keep their sin under control
and have learned the hard way, be sure of this, your sin will
find you out. And if not for the grace of God,
we'd be lost forever. We'd be lost forever. We would
be the ones with that conscience seared as with a hot iron and
we would not be turned by the grace of our God to Him again.
And so we need the grace of God. Now look at verse 16 and 17.
Let's drop down there. It came to pass when she pressed
him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was
vexed unto death. That's what we're doing. The
lusts we partake in make war against the soul. And he was
vexed unto death that he told her all his heart and said unto
her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head. For I have been
a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my
strength will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like
any other man. Now the significance of Samson's
hair, Samson's strength is the Lord. That's the strength of
every believer, it's Christ. My faith is not my strength,
it's Christ who gave me the faith. Faith is how I understand and
know the peace of God, have peace with him and understand and see
Christ is all my righteousness. He's my righteousness. And so
this hair of Samson, it's a symbol of his relationship. It's a visible
symbol that he is the Lord's. And what you'll notice, is that
after many successes and Samson being used of the Lord and doing
many mighty works, he begins to be confident in his works. And he becomes proud. And he
thinks, I've got this now. I'm doing well. I do some mighty
things. Lord's blessing me and I'm working
and I'm doing what's right and I can do anything, anything. And so after she has his hair
shaved, we read in verse 20, 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 and shake
myself. I think what he was saying there
is he understood something's not right, but I'm gonna go and
put on a show and act like I got this thing. I'm gonna shake myself
and roar and flex and wield things and they'll run. But they didn't,
because it says here, he knew not that the Lord was departed
from him. And I was thinking about that,
the Lord departed from him. You know, Paul makes a very bold
statement about believers in Philippians 3 verse 3. For we
are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. And our Lord tells us, I will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee. And so we understand from
the scriptures that the Spirit of God, which is given unto us,
never leaves us. He dwells with His children always. Even when we sin, we grieve Him,
because He never leaves us. He stays with His people and
doesn't depart from them. But what the Lord will do for
His child is for their good, and He'll be gracious to them.
He'll be gracious to them, and so He'll chasten His child, that
we learn not to touch that thing again. That we remember, I better
not go there. And the Lord, He's the one that
keeps us, because we've been back there before, and it's the
Lord that keeps us. But He will chasten us, and He
will teach us and draw us to Himself again as often as it's
needed. And so when it describes Samson
as, or the Lord as having departed from Samson, it's speaking of
that visible display of strength that left him. The Lord didn't
leave him. He's still a child of God, but
he didn't have that visible display of strength. He was being humbled. He was being brought low. in
himself. He was being put on his face
with his teeth in the gravel. And so God is gracious. He'll
be gracious to whom He will be gracious. And that means He's
not going to leave you, His child, looking away from Him and trusting
a false way. He's not going to turn you over
to the whore of Babylon to go off with her. He's always going
to deliver you and bring you back to Himself in mercy and
grace. This is why we rejoice in Christ,
why we preach Christ, because He's always drawing His people
back to Himself. He's always healing and comforting
and giving rest and peace to His child in Christ. Not because
we've repented of this sin and stopped doing that thing. No,
He gives us that hope and faith and confidence in Him by His
grace. By His grace, He does it. And
so we preach Christ. And so his chastening serves
to turn our eye to Christ again. Now verse 21, but the Philistines
took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza
and bound him with fetters of brass and he did grind. in the prison house. That grinding
is a millstone. He was milling grain which was
not going to be bread for him. It wasn't going to fill his belly.
He was spending and laboring just like we do in sin and in
the false way for bread which does not satisfy. He had no peace
in it. He was grinding away. And that's what the Lord will
allow his child to do. Just like the prodigal son, he
was there feeding slop to pigs that were eating better than
he was, and it was a while before the scriptures say he came to
himself. And he came to himself and asked
the question, how many hired servants of my father's have
bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger? And that
prodigal son was brought to confess his sin. And to own what he is
before the Lord and ask him for mercy. And it says he arose and
came to his father. And that's what the Lord was
doing with Samson here. And what he does with us. There's
many times where I have seen me wasting time trying to fix
and get right and rework and redo things that I can see my
hand of flesh in it that is ruined and messed up. And I just keep
flailing around until the Lord stops me and brings me to see,
um, look to me. Look to me, child. Stop doing
what you're doing and look to me. trust me cry out to me and
behold what i do for my people look at look look to me all ye
ends of the earth and be you saved now this is being done
here in verse 22 with with samson look at that how be it the hair
of his head began to grow again after he was shaven the lord
softened Samson's heart. The Lord restored that peace
and that fellowship with God. He brought the hair back. He
began to grow that and Samson began to think on the Lord, I
have no doubt, no doubt. There in that low spot, praying
and quietly crying to the Lord. Now Samson's fleshly eyes were
put out. And what we see in that is Samson
now had to walk by faith. Samson had no visible sight.
He had no ability in the flesh anymore to see. He now walked
by faith. And that's the picture there.
And so the day comes in verse 28 where Samson's brought into
a place where the Philistines would mock him. They would make
sport of him. They would tease him and make
him look like a fool. and make him look foolish and
humiliate him even more while they were sacrificing to their
false deity, Dagon. We read in verse 28, Samson called
unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, Remember me, I pray thee,
and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I
may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. Now, Samson's eyes were a great
trouble to him. His eyes were a great trouble
to him. And he had some double vision. He had double vision and that
was a snare to him time and time again. He was snared by his eyes. Now don't miss what we see here
is that by nature we have the same two eyes as Samson. We get snared and our sight is
taken off of Christ time and time again and looks to those
things which are not profitable. And the wrath and vengeance of
God should have fallen on me. from my sins, and the wrath and
vengeance of God should have fallen on you for your sin, to
repay you according to the debt of sin that you owe to holy God. I should have been destroyed.
Yet God in mercy sent His darling Son, who laid down His life,
who took the place of His children, bore the wrath of God, bearing
our sin in His own body, and He took the wrath of God in Himself,
giving His life to pay, to make payment, to satisfy the justice
of God, to satisfy the law of God for His people, because we
cannot keep the law ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. So, the Lord did that for us
and remove that bondage of us. In grace and mercy He strips
us, He brings us low. revealing the grace and mercy
that he has for sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he brings
that to our hearts. He shows us our need, and we
come to Christ as our Savior. Lord, save me. Remember me, Lord. Don't pass me by, Lord. Have
mercy upon me. And so by taking vengeance on
his own darling son, who suffered the wrath of God for us, we are
delivered and saved in Christ. And that's what we see in these
next verses. Look at verse 29 and 30. And
Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house
stood, and on which it was borne up, and 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 bowed himself with all
his might. and the house fell upon the Lord's
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 so in this death of Samson
we see the death of Christ our Savior who laid down his life
to slay, to put away all the Philistines of our heart, all
the sins of our heart, which separated us from God. And he had all his people in
himself, so that we died with him and are delivered from our
sins. We see in this death what we
read of Christ. Paul said, knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with Christ. that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. And when Samson took hold of
those two pillars, the one on his right hand and the other
on his left, and said, let me die with the Philistines, we
see Jesus. We see Christ the Savior. With
him they crucified two thieves, the one on his right hand and
the other on his left. And the scripture was fulfilled,
which saith he was numbered with the transgressors. And Jesus cried with a loud voice,
John saying, he said, it is finished. The price has been paid. I've
ransomed my people from the pit. I've redeemed them with my own
blood. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost to save his people. Dying with sinners like us to
put away our sin, to present us righteous and holy to our
God. In his death, all the might and
power and strength of sin seen in those Philistine lords, they
died. They had no power. And the others
that were crushed there were all the people that were therein.
We in Christ died with Him so that the law has no more strength,
no word to say to us, nothing to say to us. The justice of
God is satisfied. God is at peace with His people. That's why He sent Christ to
reconcile us unto Himself, that we might know the true and living
God in the face of Jesus Christ. And we can now say, With the
saints of God, I through the law am dead to the law that I
might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. We see Jesus having spoiled
principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly. all
our enemies, all our foes to shame. It's all on display, nothing's
hidden. God did it in broad daylight
to deliver His people to know He's the salvation of God. That's
the one I need. Lord, save me, help me, have
mercy on me, Lord. All who cry to Him, all who ask
Him, He's a merciful and gracious Savior and cleanses the sin of
all His people who cry to Him, who ask Him. So the life of every
believer we see is just like Samson and his life. We are sinners. You that believe in Christ are
sinners saved by grace. And because of the greatness
and the strength and glory of our Savior Jesus Christ, we see
we don't have anything to boast of but him. He's our boast. He's
the one that we tell others of what he's done for me, what he's
done for a sinner like me. Encourage them to come and hear,
to look to Christ. Our Lord draws his people graciously
through the word preached. Engrafting that word that speaks
of Christ and what he's done to accomplish our salvation. That's how he blesses his people.
That's where he meets with his people, in Christ Jesus, our
Lord and Savior. I pray you bless that word to
your hearts, brethren. Amen. Brother Joe, would you close
us in a hymn and then in prayer? Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn. 256. It is well with my soul. 256. you And peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot,
thou hast taught me to say, It is well. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, let this bless the surest control that
Christ hath regarded my helpless estate. and has shed his own
blood for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. I sinned, O the bliss of this
glorious thought, I sinned, that in part, but the whole, This
nail to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord,
praise the Lord, O my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And, Lord, haste the day when
my face shall be sighed, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend. Even so, It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Thank you. Our heavenly merciful
Father, we thank you for your amazing grace to us as sinners. And Lord, will you continue week
after week to allow us to gather here and assemble to hear the
unsearchable riches of our only hope, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, continue to watch over us and protect us. and also be
with Tony and Rita and the girls as they travel. Keep them safe
and watch over them and watch over all of us, O Lord. And you
know perfectly, Lord, all the situations and concerns. We think
of Scott and Johnny also. O Lord, restore them to health
again, that they may also come together with us in worship.
Father, continue to be with us. And we also think of our loved
ones, Lord. Father, will you have mercy upon
their souls and call them out of nature's darkness. Father,
all things are possible with you. And open our mouths, Lord,
whether it be our neighbors, our parents, and our relatives,
and whoever we meet, Lord, that we may declare the great things
that you have done for our souls. For Jesus' sake alone, amen.