Before you turn to the book of
Judges, I would like you to stop at a couple of my favorite verses
in the book of Luke. You know where I'm going. Chapter
24. Chapter 24, that chapter, and
I cannot know how long ago it was, but it's been some time
ago, when we went through that passage of Scripture on a Wednesday
night, and my comment was, I wish I could have been there and heard
that message. And then I went home and about
midnight, I woke up and I says, we have that message. That's
the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the message
that Jesus Christ. Now, how he went through that
as quick as he did is a miracle of God's grace. But those people
understood some of the things that were mentioned in the Old
Testament. So it tells us there in the book of Luke chapter 24,
verse 27, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, Now, I
don't know what Jesus Christ had to share with his disciples
with regard to Judges chapter 16, but I'm convinced that he
brought out some points with regard to himself because it
is full of types and shadows of Christ Jesus and his ministry. It is filled with Christ and
his service to his father and to the salvation of his people.
It says there, in beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he
expounded at them in all the scriptures, the things concerning
himself. Now, that word expounded has
an interesting meaning. It means to explain thoroughly. Now, I don't believe any of us
have ever explained a passage of scripture thoroughly. But
it tells us with regard to Jesus Christ speaking to these two
on the road to Emmaus, that he expounded unto them, he explained
thoroughly. And I'm just going to take that
to the bank. He translated, he filled in, he interpreted, he
went the whole nine yards that those folks understood that the
Old Testament was about the Savior, the Lord Jesus. And then in that
same chapter, verse 35, if you'd turn with me to verse 35. And they told what things were
done in the way and how he was made known of them in breaking
of bread. Now, the interesting thing here,
it's not his home. It's not his meal. It's not his
chairs. It's not his couches. He is a
guest, and he takes over the breaking of bread. And in that,
he reveals to those disciples who he is, and when they know
him, they disappear. All right, and then a passage
of scripture, and this is gonna be the title of our message tonight,
is found in this verse of scripture over in the book of John chapter
12. John chapter 12, verse 21. Some Gentiles here in the book
of John, they're called Grecians. And most of the time when we
run into that name, we're talking about Gentiles. They may have
been from Greece. They may have been from other
places, but it tells us here in the book of John chapter 12,
verse 21. Oh, Why doesn't Luke look like John? John 12, 21. It says, the same
came therefore to Philip. Now it says in verse 20, there
were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the
feast. And then it says, the same came
therefore to Philip. which was of Bethsaida of Galilee,
and desired him saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Now they wanted to see him in
his earthly view. But tonight, and as we always
speak, as we hear the gospel preached, we're looking at Jesus
from a spiritual standpoint. We have never ever seen a physical
form of Jesus. The only information that we
have with regard to Jesus Christ comes out of his word. And if we get our information
from any other place, If it's hearsay, if it's some other book,
it is not what we need. We need to know what Jesus is
described as from the word of God. So we would see Jesus. Now, would you travel with me
over to the book that we've been looking at? And that's the book
of Judges. Judges chapter 16. This is the
last chapter that deals with our friend, and the judge that
will judge Israel for 20 years. In the book of Joshua chapter
16, we have a lot of information shared. And you know, I remember
the times that I was pretty put out with Josh, with not Joshua,
with Saul. Let me get it right here. With
Samson, there we go. I was pretty put out with him
because he was not a very good example. And how could we have
this man come into our pulpit and preach for us? He smokes. And then we find out he's chosen
of God. He's called before he's born.
His birth is a miracle. And on and on it goes about this
man. And then he is a Nazirite. He's not a Nazarene, he's a Nazirite. And he is one of the few identified
Nazirites in the Bible. In fact, we allude to the fact
that there's a couple others, but this guy is identified as
a Nazirite. He is really set apart. You know
what we find that word set apart is translated in the New Testament?
Christ. set apart, anointed is Christ
in the New Testament. So we're going to look at this
over here in this book that it mentions. And we've looked in
the past there that this man and what he did was
not revealed to the parents. They didn't understand what was
going on. but God did and He ordained it. Now, Mike read a
passage of scripture Sunday that has been a blessing to me for
a long time. In fact, I was asked to preach one time at a conference
and I didn't have any warning. I was just there and a guy didn't
show up. So he asked me to preach and it was from the passage in
1 John 1, verse six. And I have to remind myself of
this verse of scripture when I start reading about Samson.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. John chapter one, verse six,
there was a man. Now we study about Samson, we're
gonna find a man. I've shared with you that the
hardest lesson I have ever learned in my walk with Christ was the
man who brought me the gospel was a man. To find out that he
was just a man. Well, he would have told me all
along, but I had him on a pretty high pedestal. Well, I'm thankful
for the gospel he preached, but he was a man. Here we have a
man. We have Samson. He's a man. He is God's man. He's God's judge. He's going
to judge Israel for 20 years, and he is going to be raised
up, has been raised up, and will continue in his entire life. In his death, he is going to
take care of all the captains. and the lords of the Philistines. And once that is done, the Philistines
are virtually defeated in Israel." He's going to take care, they're
all there for a celebration. And that celebration is they
have Samson. Well, there's much to be said
there with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ as we follow that
pattern. The Lords were there, the house
fell on them, Samson judged them for those 20 years. But let's
read verses 1, 2, and 3 of the 16th chapter. It is so full of
pictures of our Savior. Samson is a true type of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of his people. the one who saves
his people from their sins. His name is Jesus. Now in verse
one, it says here in the book of Judges chapter 16, verse one,
it says, then went Samson to Gaza and saw therein Harlot and
went in unto her. And it was told the Gazites saying,
Samson is come hither. And they come past him 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 this is just, my goodness, what he
does. He opens up that city like nobody
has ever opened up that city. He took their doors. It says
here, and 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. Now people can say, and they
do say, there's no man that has that strength. I don't care what
you want to say about it. This is a fact. Samson tore the
gate posts out of the ground in some way and the doors and
carried them on his shoulders up that hill and away. He left
Gaza vulnerable. He took away their protection,
the way that they could shut themselves in. Samson is a type
of Christ, and we'll see that in these three verses. As we
go through this chapter, we'll see some more. Samson name means
like the sun or sunshine. You know, when we get to looking
about the Lord Jesus, we find in John, let's just go over there,
John chapter one, verse nine. You know it by heart, let's read
it. John chapter one and verse nine. We have this said about
our Savior, the Lord Jesus. John chapter one, verse nine,
the scriptures share this. This was the true light. Now
Samson's name means light or sunlight. How appropriate. that he would be named that by
his parents and have that kind of statement made for us. And
then here, these many years later, we look at it and say, well,
I know somebody else who's the light, the true light. It goes
on to say, who is lightest every man that cometh into the world.
Now that light, the light of God, the light of the Lord Jesus,
It is what gives us physical life. It is what gives us physical
life. If we don't have that light,
we don't have life. Once that light is taken from
us, we are dead. But when it comes to the church,
The light is spiritual light. He is the spiritual light. He's
the revealer of the truths of God. He's the opener of the heart
of the truths of God. He's the one that gives us the
new birth and the capabilities of believing what God's word
is and how it is there for our benefits. And it gives us a great
account of how God saves his people. So Samson has this characteristic
about him, you know, in, in looking at Samson, he was not just the
judge of Israel when his parents heard he was going to be born.
He's not just. They're in time. As we find out,
all the servants of God, all the children of God, all the
elect of God, God had knowledge of them before the foundation
of the world. When did that knowledge begin?
We can't, we just say old eternity. It is the same knowledge that
he has when he said there, I have loved you with an everlasting
love. Now, what is that? I can't get my head about it,
but you know what? It is there for us to believe.
I've loved you with an everlasting love. This man, Samson, he was
God's eternal choice for the job he had to do at this time.
Now, for the people who study this stuff, And I could never
do this, but the guys who have studied this stuff say that this
16th chapter was carried out in about 1120 BC. Now give a hundred years in either
direction, we're probably pretty close. So that many years prior
to the birth of Christ, we have someone that is chosen of God
before the foundation of the world to be the judge. You know
what this judge, he reminds us of the eternal, choosing of the
Lord Jesus Christ as the servant that Samson was. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 42. Samson was a choice, an eternal
choice God had made. He's the only man that could
have ever done this because God chose him to do that. Here in
the book of Isaiah chapter 42, we read these words with regard
to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In the book of Isaiah
chapter 42, and there in verse one, the scriptures say, behold
my servant, who I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him
and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He's my servant. He's my elect. We can look at
Samson. He's my servant. I chose him
before the world began. So we have this comparison made
between Samson and the Lord. He is truly a picture, a type
of Christ. You know, as we look at this
and we go back a few chapters, we find that Samson was born
in a very interesting way. His parents, his mother was barren
and she could not have children and she never could have children.
She was barren. Without the blessing of the Lord,
she would have never had a child. You know, Mary was not in a position
to ever have a child. I love what it says in the scriptures.
Behold, a virgin conceived. She was not in the position to
have a child. Now she's going to have children
later. We read about them, sons and daughters. She is a very
special person chosen by God to bring Christ into this world. So we have, when we look at Samson,
we have that he was born by a special act of God. God intervened. God
intervened with his mother. God intervened and gave her a
son, call him a son, said he's gonna be a Nazirite. And he was
named Samson. And a few years later, we have
him as we read about him here in the book of Judges. The special
birth that God gave, the Lord himself shall give you a sign.
Isaiah, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Emmanuel and Samson are a little
bit different in names. Emmanuel means God with us. What a blessed name. And you
know, here and in the book of Matthew where that name is given
is the only times that he is called that. Every other time
we run into his name, Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Christ,
Lord, or Jesus, we assume we know from the scriptures that
this is Emmanuel. He is God with us. When he came
as he did, born of a virgin and given that name, that name was
carried through whether anybody ever used it again or not. He is God with us. The disciples understood that,
the saints down through time have understood that, and God
has granted to us the ability to understand that God was with
us. Now, we can discuss and talk,
how could he be 100% God and 100% man at the same time? The
deep things belong to God. It was something God did for
the salvation of his people. Samson was set apart as a person,
set apart by God for the purpose of laying down his life. Samson
was going to die. Samson, as we read here, we find
that Samson was set apart, a person set apart by God, And he is called
to this office. He was made a judge of Israel. Here in these verses, Samson
goes to the place that was different than his home. I don't know what
his home was like, but I know Gaza was different. This is a
central city of the Philistines. He leaves what he knows and comes
to a place he doesn't know. He leaves a place that he's at
home with and he goes to a place that is not his home. Well, how
that reflects on Jesus Christ. He came to a place that he created
And natural man, Adam and Eve fell and created this place.
And it is a septic tank. It is a graveyard. And yet Jesus
Christ would give up the glory that he had with the father before
the world was and come to this place. So Samson left a place
that he knew about and went to a place he didn't know about.
He went to Gaza. He went to a place where the
Philistines. Well, it doesn't take us very long after we get
there to find out what they thought of his visit. And it doesn't
take us very long to figure out after Jesus came to this earth
what the natural man's idea about Jesus was. Herod was really upset
and he had all the male children from two years of age and under
slaughtered because he wanted to take care of this So, we have
Samson, he goes to a place. He doesn't know much about. He
goes to another place. Jesus Christ, it says, he told
his father there in John 17, he restored to me the joy or
the glory that I had with you before the world was. So he came
to a place, he gave up that glory in a sense. Now, was he still
sovereign while he was on this earth? Absolutely. Was he omniscient? Yep. Was he omnipresent? In many ways, he knew what was
going on over in that city, and he knew what was going on in
that home, and he knew what was going on over here with his disciples.
He knew what was going on in the hearts of the Pharisees.
He knew what was going on. Was he omniscient? Absolutely,
he knew everything. He did not give up his godship. He didn't take on a little god
attitude. He was God come in the flesh. Now, when we talk about him from
a human standpoint, when you talk about Samson, it's just,
oh my goodness, this guy again. He's a rascal, but that's not
an accusation that could ever be brought against Jesus Christ. Yet without sin. Now we may judge Samson for some
of the things he did. They just don't look right, do
they? And yet we find that God used
them for his glory. And we've mentioned a number
of times that God is the only one that can take bad things
and turn them into good. And now he doesn't turn them
into good in our time. He has turned them into good
in his purpose from everlasting to everlasting. It isn't, well,
look at that. I think I better react to it.
No, he's not a reactionary. God is not a reactionary. He
doesn't react to things. It's already been planned out.
So here we have Samson. Samson is called to this office. He was made a judge of Israel,
and we find with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ that he was
a judge. He was set apart by Almighty
God to do what he had said he would do. He was set apart as
the person set apart by God. And in the book of Hebrews chapter
five, would you turn there with me? We are called on to consider. Let's consider. This one. In the book of Hebrews,
chapter five. Hebrews chapter five, we read
these words about the Lord Jesus Christ. Excuse me. Chapter three. Hebrews chapter three, verses
one, two, and three. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling. Notice that it takes a calling
and it has to be heavenly. It can't be a local call. If
it's a local call, it doesn't get the job done. If it's a heavenly
call, it's got all the job done. There's nothing left to do. It
is finished. Consider the apostle and high
priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him
that appointed him. Now, in many respects, we can
say that Samson was a faithful judge. There were times. Now we never have to say that
about Jesus Christ. We never have to say, well, there
were times. We always find him doing exactly what is right according
to the law. He fulfilled the law. I came
not to destroy it, but to fulfill it. And he fulfilled it on the
behalf of the church. That's why we can stand before
God. The law has been fulfilled in
Christ Jesus on our behalf. He was faithful. This man, Jesus,
was faithful. And then in verse three, for
this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, insomuch
as he who hath built the house hath more honor than the house.
You know, when this is written, we have a whole bunch of people
that are worshiping Moses. And you know, if Moses was in
their midst, he says, stop that. Remember what the Paul and was
it Barnabas? They went into a city and something,
they did something and oh my goodness, this is a, these are
the gods come down to visit with us. And they said, don't do that.
And over there in the book of Revelation, Man came down and
John bowed down, said, don't you do that. I'm just a man similar
to you, only in my glorified body. So we're not worshiping
people. We're worshiping the living God.
And Moses is not what we worship. Christ gave up the glory that
he had with the father. And we find out that Samson went
down there, went down to Gaza. I don't know what his home life
was like. but I know it's different down here because he isn't there
one day and his life is sought. One day, he's spending the night
there. Well, it tells us that he went
down there and he saw somebody. Did you notice that? Going back
to the book of Judges chapter 16, Judges chapter 16. Now it's interesting as we read
this and most people will just jump up and down and say, you
know, that's, that's, and I can't, I can't, I can't judge God and I don't
have to agree with Samson. But God used this. Now notice
here in the book of Judges chapter 16, it says that Samson went
down to Gaza and saw a harlot. You know, when we get to studying
about the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, when Jesus Christ
came down to this earth, to a place that he had not been to, a place
that he gave up his glory for, a place where he saw all around
him, Nothing but sin, nothing but degradation. There were a
few that he had saved by his grace, but by and large, he's
looking around and it is a desert. It is a desert place. But he
is down here on purpose. He is down here on purpose to
find his bride. And his bride has not been very
faithful. She lost her faithfulness in
Adam. And she played the harlot. Now,
if you cannot take that position, I'll have to say is, I remember
Brother Rupert preached a message out here about the maniac of
Gadara. And I'm spellbound. He's preaching
what we preach. He's preaching what preachers
preach about the grace of God. That that man, Jesus, went to
a cemetery and there was a man that was out of his head. And
he had all kinds of demons. And he mentioned in that message,
Brother Rupert mentioned that message, he's just like we are
by nature. Now we don't have those little
bitty devils that sit on people's shoulders like they're a picture.
We have a heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. We are, we have a demon in us. And you know, he mentioned
that in another church and the pastor's wife came up to him
and says, I've never had a demon. You know what? If we can't agree
that what Jesus Christ came to save and he came to save sinners,
And we say, I'm not one of those. Then we don't know him because
people who know him are well acquainted with agreeing with
him about who he came to save. He came to save sinners. I am
reminded of Hosea again. We keep mentioning this guy,
but he was asked to marry a harlot. God came to him and says, go
marry this woman. And she was unfaithful to him
from the very beginning. And then we find how Hosea hedged
her up. Hosea provided all her needs.
And finally Hosea won her. Jesus Christ came to this world
and he had a whole church of people that hated him from the
very beginning, heart deceitful of all things. We will not have
this man rule over us. We don't want to be around him.
We could just be like Saul of Tarsus was when he stoned Stephen. I want this to be done away with."
Well, God led him to glory on the road to Damascus. So we have
here the glory that the Lord had And then we find that the
Lord gave it up, came down in due time, the right time. And here we have him coming after
his bride, a sinner by nature, a sinner by practice, and a sinner
by choice. Now, Gaza means strong. Now, I think they probably thought
they had a pretty strong place. And you know, we in our natural
state think we are in charge. We have the gates. If you've
never read the book by John Bunyan called Holy War, I would encourage
you to read it because it just gives us a bird's eye view of
what God does when he comes to us. He calls us a man, man's
soul. And they got ear gate and eye
gate and all this stuff and how this great master came and won
over every obstacle. And here we have, it means strong,
how the whole person was such a strong resentment against the
God of heaven. We have that nature in us. Strong
against God, it is a fortified place. Samson came in, but he's
not leaving. We'll kill him by morning. Here
is a terrible place to be for Samson. Do you think they didn't
know who he was? He dressed different. He spoke
different. He came there after a harlot
and he's going to spend the night. And in that night, we have an
army of Philistines and we're going to kill him. Now it's going
to be in the morning. Samson came to Gaza. He came
and entered in without permission. These Philistines, he has killed
several thousand of them. He come down to Gaza. He didn't
say, well, I got my passport. Knock, knock, knock, knock. I
don't know how many times I've been given that verse of scripture
over in the book of Revelation, that Jesus stands at our door
and knocks. And if we let him in, he'll come
in. You know what? Samson went down to Gaza and
he didn't knock. He went down there without permission. He
is an Israelite coming into Philistine country uninvited, hated. So he goes there, he comes in
power and in strength to overcome the resistance. And this is what
we find with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. He came down and
he comes after his people without permission. And after he saves
his people, they say, thank you. Thank you for coming. Thank you
for overcoming. Thank you for what you did. Thank
you for all that you did to overcome me because left to myself, I
would have never done that. I'd have never come. Samson came
to Gaza in his great strength and he saw there a harlot. And
it doesn't take our studies of the Bible very long to come to
the conclusion that Jesus Christ came for an unfaithful bride. The book of Hosea speaks of that.
Not only did Samson go to Gaza, there he saw Harlan. You know,
when Jesus Christ came to this earth, he gets, oh, there she
is. There she is. You know what he did? He saw
his mother in the same plight that every other fallen creature
was in. Mary must be saved just like
everybody else must be born again. She was a sinner. We don't pray
to Jesus through Mary. She prayed to Jesus through Jesus. He was her Lord. Not only did Samson go to Gaza,
but he saw her. Christ did the same thing. He
went to her. He came down here. The Savior
not only saw our sin, but came unto us in our sin. He came to a special one. It
says he saw Harlot and he went unto her. Now I can't help but
think that there were probably several. And he went to one. And Jesus
Christ has identified himself in looking for, finding, and
saving a specific group of people. Lost, yes. Look like everybody
else, yes. But they've been marked out in
heaven from before the foundation of the world that he would come
and meet them in time and save them by his grace. The inhabitants
didn't take long to deliberate and have a plan. You know, as
we follow this with regards to the Lord, we find it wasn't very
long after he'd been born. They're after him. All through
his ministry, they're after him. They're at Nazareth. They were ready to throw him
over a brow of a hill and kill him. He is not liked. He is hated. You remember the
parable of the husbandman that went away, left the vineyard
in charge of some folks that would take care of it for him,
and he sent some people back to check on how it was going,
and they said, let's kill these guys. And then he said, the husbandman
says, I'll send my son. They'll respect him, they'll
respect him. And they said, this is the heir.
Let us kill him. Well, you know, the Lord is prophesying,
predicting, telling of who he is and what he's about doing
and what's going to befall him. He's going to give his life a
ransom. Good Shepherd. gives His life
for the sheep and the people that crucified Him. You know,
we do not know how many others, there may have been others, but
there's one on that day. This is the day. Everything else is before the
cross. Everything else is after the
cross. But we have on that day, a man on the right-hand side,
Jesus Christ told him, today thou shall be with me in paradise.
From that point forward and that point backward, that's exactly
what Jesus Christ shares with everybody that he ever saves.
You'll be with me for eternity, and you will be in bliss for
eternity. Now he's gonna take this rebellious, unfaithful group
of people, and once he saves them, they rest in his faithfulness. You know, I'm not very faithful. I'm just not very faithful. I'm
not very believing. But I have one who has taken
care of that for me. Though I don't believe, yet he
believes and he will stand by his word. Samson arose and put
death away. Did you notice that? He woke
up at midlife. We don't know exactly when the
Lord Jesus woke from his sleep in the grave. But when those
ladies came very early, about sunrise, the first day of the
week, he's already up. And what did Samson carry with
him? You know, there is a song we
sing once in a while. Death could not keep his prey.
Jesus, my savior. He tore the bars away. Jesus, my Lord. Can you just
see Samson in the strength of his might carry those doors and
bars and everything away? And those guys couldn't do a
thing about it. Did they follow him? No. Did
they come after him? Nope. They didn't do a thing. They let him escape. We find
with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, they sealed that tomb. Pilate said, make us as sure
as you can. And you know, the interesting
thing, the priest came to him and said, you know, make sure
there's a guard there because if his disciples come and take
the body away, then we're in worse shape than we were. So
they made it as sure as they could. And then when he's out
of the tomb, they tell those same guys and they pay them to
say his disciples came while we slept. Really, the latter
part was worse than the beginning. So Jesus Christ came out, he
tore the bars away. What did our Lord Jesus Christ
do? He was a successful sin bearer. He carried our sins as far as
the east is from the west. He put them behind him. He put
him in the deepest sea. We just have all kinds of ways
that the Bible teaches us what he has done with our sins to
put them in such a place. And then we find out he actually
paid for them, and there's nothing chargeable. He can't find the
debt, because the debt has been paid. He can't find what is owed,
because what was owed has been paid. When he said, it is finished,
that is exactly what he meant. The payment has been made in
full. Sin has been put away. It hasn't
been swept under the carpet. It has been paid for. How could
he do that? Don't ask me how he could do
it. But he did. God put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. In the book of John, would you
turn with me there to the book of John? John chapter 10. John chapter 10, verse 39. Therefore, they sought again
to take him, but he escaped out of their hand. Until it was the
right time, that's the way he operated. They didn't lay a hand
on him. You know, there's very few people
in the Bible that ever touched Jesus. The woman touched his
garment, and then we find the church, we handled him. We handled him. You know, we
spiritually handle him. We're permitted to touch God
in the spirit. So the Lord Jesus went to the
cross. They sought to take him a number of times. But when it
was done, he came out of the tomb. Death was put away. He tore the bars away. The gates
was open. He came forth from the grave
victorious. And it's no wonder it tells us
over in the book of First Corinthians, O death, where is thy sting?
He's taking care of it. In the book of Matthew chapter
seven. Oh, excuse me. First Corinthians 15. Let's just
go over there. First Corinthians 15. First Corinthians chapter 15. And verse 55. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law. But
thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in
the Lord. Oh, the sting of death is sin
and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be unto God.
All right, let's go back over there to the book of Judges chapter
16. I'd just like to go through verses
one through three again and see those types, pictures, shadows
of the Lord Jesus Christ as we see in this Judge Samson. In the book of Judges chapter
16, verses one, two, and three. Now the last verse of last chapter
said he ruled 20 years. The last verse of this chapter,
he ruled 20 years. It's not gonna be very long and
Samson is going to give his life. But I like what it says at the
end. He killed more in his death than he did in his life. All
right, then went Samson to Gaza. I see my Savior coming to this
sin-cursed earth and saw there an unfaithful woman and went unto her. He had her
specifically spotted. He went unto her. He came for
his church. Some of them in the church were
called Peter, Mark, Matthew. Follow me. Talk about his sovereignty. And it was told the Gazites,
saying, Samson has come hither. And they compassed him and laid
wait for him all night in the gate of the city for three and
a half years. Well, for more than that, about
33 and a half years, there was not much time that the Lord was
not hassled by somebody. And then he was very early. very
early age, his parents, Joseph, his stepdad, and Mary took him
down to Egypt. You know, I find that his son
might be called out of Egypt. And then we find right up to
the last, he shares with us, no man takes my life from me.
I lay it down to myself. And the man who's gonna pass
judgment on him, He tells him, you could do nothing except what
we're giving you. Wait for him all night in the
gate of the city and were quiet all night saying in the morning
when it is day, we'll kill him. And Samson lay till midnight
and arose at midnight and took the doors of the gate of the
city and the two posts and went away from them bar and all put
them upon his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the hill
that is before Hebron. I cannot imagine the strength
that it took, but we also find out what strength it took for
Jesus Christ to bear all the sins of all of his people throughout
all time on the cross, and then in that short time, be able to
pay for them completely and fully, what it took. So I took him out
and we'll stop there for tonight. We'll pick this up at the next.