Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 24 from your Soft Back Temple, number 24,
Jehovah Tzedkenu, the Lord our righteousness. Let's all stand
together. Jehovah Sidkayu, the Lord, our
righteousness. We love to call you by that name,
our Savior Christ Jesus. Jehovah Sidkayu, The God-men
live for us, bringing eternal righteousness, which God imputes
to us. Jehovah-Sid-Kei-nu, our substitute
who died, Your blood has put away our sin, and we are justified. Jehovah Sidkeyu, your love has
won our praise. Trusting your blood and righteousness,
we're saved by your free grace. Jehovah Zid-Ka-Nu, we stand in
you alone. Our only fitness before God is
in our Lord, His Son. Jehovah Zid-Ka-Nu, the Lord,
our righteousness. Christ Jesus, you alone we call,
the Lord our righteousness. Please be seated. Good to have Tom back. And Tom, so you'll know, you
have a very able replacement. So, Adam, we appreciate you leading
us these past few weeks. Let's open our Bibles together
to Judges chapter 16. Judges 16. I've titled this message, Honoring
Christ. Honoring Christ. Let's bow in
prayer and ask the Lord to bless. Our heavenly father, you've told us that we could
come before your throne of grace with boldness, confident that
thy dear son, our savior, our sin bearer, all our righteousness
has made us accepted Lord, that we have the joy and the privilege
of being able to come before you as the almighty God. And know, Lord, that we have
a righteousness in Christ so that as he is, so are we. Lord, as you loved him, you love
those who are found in him. Lord, that is our hope. That
is the promise that you've made, and we know that you are faithful
to all of your promises. Lord, we have proven ourselves
once again this week to be unfaithful in so many ways. What great comfort
we have in knowing that the shed blood of thy dear son covers
our sins, and that he has put them away by the sacrifice of
himself. Lord, for Christ's sake, we pray
that you would shed your mercy upon us and that we would be
reminded again this morning who you are, what you've done. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Judges chapter 16, we will finish
this morning, our time with Samson. The Lord has given us many beautiful
pictures of Christ over the past few weeks as we've considered
this man and how he pictures for us. Lord Jesus. We saw last Sunday in verse 30
that Samson pulled down the temple of Dagon, having his arms strapped
to those pillars, and what a glorious picture of the Lord's victory
over the enemy. that he achieved in his death
on Calvary's cross, having defeated death, having put away our sin,
and having destroyed the works of the devil. Now, in the next
verse, in the last verse of this chapter, in the last verse that
the scriptures give us concerning Samson, we see that his brethren
go to retrieve his body. And what the Lord has given us
in this verse shows us how it is the brethren of Christ, the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ, honor him in his death and in
his resurrection. Let's read this verse together.
Then his brethren and all the house of his family came down
and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah
and Estheral in the burying place of Manoah his father. And he
judged Israel 20 years. how often we've seen the importance
of numbers in the Bible. The Lord doesn't tell us that
Samson judged Israel 20 years just as a historical fact. There's a gospel significance
in this. The Lord Jesus Christ being our
judge has perfectly completed everything that's required for
the judgment of God to be fulfilled. And that's what the number 20
represents in the Bible, perfect completeness. You remember when Jacob, fleeing
from his brother Esau, went to his uncle Laban's house, and
he takes Leah and Rachel as his wives, and there he works for
Laban for 20 years. And at the end of 20 years, he's
able to leave with his wives and his children and all the
flock that the Lord had given to him. It required 20 years
of service in order for him to earn his freedom. The sons of
Jacob, sold their brother Joseph into slavery, the scripture says
for 20 pieces of silver. A picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
being sold into the slavery of sin in order to bring life to
his brethren, which of course is what Joseph did. 20 pieces
of silver is what it took in order for him to be sold In Exodus
chapter 30, the Lord instructs Moses that all of the, they're
in the wilderness now, and the sacrificial system has been given
by God to the children of Israel. And the Lord instructs Moses
in saying, every Israelite 20 years and above, is to bring
a sacrifice. And they were all to bring exactly
the same sacrifice, whether they were poor or rich. The sacrifice
was exactly the same for everyone from 20 years old and above. Perfect completeness. That's
what this number 20 reminds us of. The Lord told Moses also
that men could not go to war until they were 20 years old.
And so in Old Testament Israel, if you were under 20 years old,
you were not conscripted into the army. that was only for the
20 year olds and above. Only then were you mature enough
to fight in war. Of course, the clearest picture of this
in terms of perfect completeness And that's what we're looking
at. We're looking at Samson as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ
serving Israel, spiritual Israel, for 20 years in order to complete
the requirements of God's perfect justice. And, um, The clearest
picture of that is the number 10 multiplied by 2. We know that
10 is a picture of God's perfect law. and that too is found in
the scriptures to describe our union with the Lord Jesus Christ,
to be found in Him. As He is, so are we. And so by virtue of our union
with Christ, we have the hope of knowing that the law has been
perfectly completed, not only by Him, but by virtue of our
union with him, the law has been completed by us. It's been fulfilled. Christ himself is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So here's
Samson's family. a picture of the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ, all of his family and all of his brethren
coming to honor him for his 20 years of faithful service, having
been God's savior for Israel. That's what we're doing right
now. We've come here together this morning to honor Christ,
to lift him up, for his perfect work of redemption, having satisfied
the demands of God's law, having labored all that was necessary
for his wife, and having made the perfect sacrifice of himself. and having gone to battle, having
gone to war as the 20 year old and getting victory in that battle
over sin and over death. What a, what a Samson, what a
glorious savior, what a perfect judge for all of Israel, for
us to come and in response to what he did. Notice in the last
part of verse 30, so The dead which he slew at his death were
more than they which he slew in his life. Oh, what great hope
we have in knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ in his death slew
the enemy. He defeated Satan. He put an
end to death. And he continues to slay us. He brings us to the end of ourselves
so that we have no hope of salvation outside of him. Being made dead
to sin, dead to ourselves, dead to any efforts that we could
possibly make to redeem ourselves. We are dead to that. and made
alive in Christ. Oh, we have every reason, brethren,
to honor our Samson, to lift him up. The perfect, complete work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, accomplished as the judge of all of Israel. Turn with me to Acts chapter
eight. Acts chapter eight. There's a eunuch from Ethiopia
who has gone to Jerusalem in order to try to find God. And
all of his attempts to know God through the rituals and the ceremonies
and the law left him still without hope. And so now he's going back
to Ethiopia and he's taking with him a copy of the word of God
and sitting in his chariot. He's reading from Isaiah chapter
53 and a disciple by the name of Philip comes up to the chariot
and says to him, understand this, what thou readest. And you remember
the Ethiopian said, how can I except a man should guide me? And he
asked, he asked Philip to come up into the chariot. And the
scripture tells us in Acts chapter eight at verse 32, exactly where
that Ethiopian was reading from the book of Isaiah chapter 53. Verse 32, in the place of the
scriptures, which he had read was this, he was led as a sheep
to the slaughter and as a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened
he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away and who shall declare his generation for his
life is taken from the earth. Here's what we have a picture
of in Samson pulling down the pillars of the temple of Dagon
and accomplishing in his death the death of more than he ever
slew in his life. Judgment and justice is, the
scripture says, his name. And the Ethiopian asked Philip
in the next verse, he says, is the prophet speaking of himself
or does he speak of another? And Philip beginning in that
very passage of scripture preached unto him the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's who he's talking about. He's the one who in the humiliation,
how did Samson die? He died with his eyes gouged
out. He died bound to those pillars
by his enemy. He died in humiliation. And in
his humiliation, he brought forth judgment and justice. There's
our hope. That's why his brethren all come
to take his body and to lift it up. By the way, the word lifting
up here You see it, we see it now when
they show a funeral procession in the Middle East. They don't
carry their caskets the way we carry them, down by the ground,
by your side. What do they do? They lift up
those caskets above everyone's head. They're honoring the dead. That's exactly what's happening
here. When they came and got the body of Samson, they didn't
just carry it away shamefully. They didn't hide it in a box
and try to put it in a hearse. No, they put it up above their
head and they carried it in pride and in glory, honoring their
brother and their judge for the accomplishments that he had made
in bringing judgment to Israel. This is what this is all about.
And this is what we do. And I, if I be lifted up, the
Lord Jesus Christ said, will draw all men to me. He was lifted
up between heaven and earth. He was lifted up on Calvary's
cross. And as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness,
so must the son of man be lifted up. We are here to honor what
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished in his death on Calvary's cross. And our whole life is an expression
of that. Our life is an expression of
worship and thanksgiving and honor and glory for what our
judge, what our Samson has accomplished. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
12, Matthew chapter 12. And look with me at verse, at verse 17, that it might be fulfilled, which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, behold my servant. Now this is a quote from Isaiah
chapter 42. The Lord is telling us through
the prophet Isaiah, Look to Christ, look up, look up for your redemption
draws nigh. Behold my servant whom I have
chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased for I will
put my spirit upon him and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. Brethren, here's our hope. Here's
our hope. Everything God required for the
judgment of sin and for the holy justice of God was accomplished
when Christ pulled down the temple of Dagon. He slew more in his
death than he ever did in his life. And we come to lift up
his body, to honor him, to exalt him, to glorify him, Look at verse 19. He shall not
strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the
streets. He's not looking for a following.
He's not begging us to let him have his way in our lives. He's not pleading with us to
accept him. He'll not raise up his voice. He's not... No. No. When he's ready to bring
us to himself, we just come. We come. He makes us willing
in the day of his power. And here's what the believers
saying, right? Lord, let this be the day of
your power. Make me willing. Cause me to come. A bruised reed shall he not break. You know the Lord Sin is what bruises us, isn't
it? And the Lord will allow us to
experience that until we come as a bruised reed, as a smoking
flax, the wick to a candle that has very little oil to leave
it. And instead of snuffing out the
candle, instead of breaking the reed, He binds up the brokenhearted
and he flames the fire of that smoking flax. A smoking flax
shall he not quench till he send forth judgment and justice. Samson judged Israel in perfect
completeness for 20 years. All of his brethren, every single
member of his father's family come down to where his body is
and they lift it up and they honor him for his faithful destruction
of the enemies of Israel. Turn with me to John chapter
9. John chapter 9. Look at verse 39, and Jesus said,
for judgment I come into this world, that they which see not might
see. I have made a judgment, a discerning
judgment between the elect and the reprobate. And I cause my
children to acknowledge their blindness and to come to me as
the light of the world. That they which, I've come to
make a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites.
And those who see not, I give them light that they might see.
And they which see will be made blind. be made blind." Look at
the last verse of this, and some of the Pharisees which were with
him heard these words and said to him, are we blind also? Are you suggesting that those
of us who have lived such an exemplary life of morality and
religiosity and have spent our entire life studying the Bible,
are you saying that we're blind? And Jesus said unto them, if
you were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say, we see,
and therefore your sin remains. For judgment, I came into the
world. One more passage. Look with me
at John chapter five. John chapter five. We're honoring
our Samson. for having completed perfect
justice by his death on Calvary's cross. John chapter five, look
with me at verse 21. For as the father raises up the
death and quickeneth them, even so the son quickeneth whom he
will. For the father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the son. that all men should honor the
Son. Even as they honor the Father,
he that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which
hath sent him." We worship God. We honor God. I got a text recently from a
friend said he got up every morning and he prayed that God would
show him his will for his life that day so that he could become
the man that God had created him to be. And I sent him those
verses where that they said, what work, what must we work
to work the works of God? And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
and this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has
sent. That's God's will. You're trying
to figure out what God's will for your life is. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his will for you. That's
his purpose for his people to believe. I said that was my last verse.
You gotta look at this one. Look at 1 John 4. This is glorious. This is so
glorious. Honoring Samson for his judgment. He judged our sin by the sacrifice
of himself. God saw the travail of his soul
and God said, I'm satisfied. When I see the blood, I'll pass
by you. That's sufficient. That's all I required. All I
required was a perfect sacrifice. And he brought forth judgment
and justice for the Gentiles. Here's our hope. Is there a day
of judgment coming? Yes, there is. Yes, there is. There's a day of judgment. Scripture's
clear on that. The world lives in denial of
that, but we know it's true. God has promised it. But here's
what else he's promised, brethren. Look at 1 John 4. We often quote
the latter part of this verse, but I want you to see it in the
context of the entire verse. Chapter four, verse 17. Herein
is our love made perfect, that we might have boldness in the
day of judgment. For as he is, so are we in this
world. There's our hope. We need not
fear the judgment of God. The full fury of God's justice
was poured out on our Samson on Calvary's cross. And in his
death, he slew the enemy. And so here's our boldness. Our
boldness in the day of judgment is that as he is, so are we. Right now in this world and in
the world to come. Our union with Christ, there's
that number 20 again, isn't it? Two times 10, he fulfilled the
law, and by virtue of our union with him, we need not fear the
judgment of God. His fury has been expiated, the
scripture says. It's been quenched, the fire's
been put out, and we lift him up. We've come down, we take
his body. Notice, go back with me to our
text. Then his brethren and all the
house of his father. This is every believer's experience. It's not that some honor Christ
and some don't. The ones who don't honor him
don't know him. But all that know him, Lift him up. All that
know him, honor him for the 20 years of justice and judgment
for Israel. Every member of his family come
down and they lift him up. Everyone that the father chose,
everyone that the Lord Jesus Christ became the atonement for
will worship him. And by the way, that's your purpose
in this world. You know, people are like, I
gotta figure out what God's will is for my life. Worship Him.
Worship Him. That's His purpose for you. To
bow before Him, to lift Him up, to honor Him, to believe on Him
and to worship Him. You know what? If the Lord, by
his grace, enables us to do that, the rest of it will just all,
it'll all work out. It'll all work out. Every member of his house, to even suggest that there is
someone, one individual for whom Christ died that's going to end
up in hell is to dishonor him, is to dishonor him. But that's
what we're being told in religion. God loves everybody and Christ
died for everybody. And bless his heart, most of the folks
that he died for, he's going to end up tormented in hell for
all eternity. No, no, no. No. Everyone he died for, every member
of his family, every brother that he has, all that are of his father's
house, Every single one of them came down. They came down. You can't honor Christ without
being humbled yourself. The way up is down. They had
to come down to get his body. And that's where you and I have
to come. And what a blessing it is when the Lord humbles us
so that we come to see that we have no righteousness. We can't
satisfy God's justice. We're not worthy. We're dependent
upon him for his mercy and for his grace. And he gets all the
glory. He gets all the glory. Zacchaeus, come down. for I must abide in thy house
today.' And Zacchaeus made haste and
came down and received him joyfully into his house. That's where
we are, perched up in our tree, trying to see the horizon and
trying to figure out the future and trying to see what's going
on. And God says, come down, come down. I must go to the house
this day. And he made haste and he came
down. Joel chapter three, verse 11
says, assemble yourselves and come down. And then that verse
ends with a prayer. Oh Lord, cause thy mighty ones
to come down. If the Lord leads us to ourselves,
we will be mighty in our own strength. We'll be proud and
self-righteous and God resists the proud and he gives grace
to the humble. humility, bowing before God,
worshiping him and lifting him up. He took him and brought him
up. They held up the casket. God has given him a name that
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee
shall bow. He's given him preeminence. He
really does get all the glory. He said, I'll not share my glory
with another. Our God will get all the glory
for our salvation or he won't save. Men want to give him some
glory and then they They give him feigned worship with their
lips. The Lord said, with your mouth
you honor me, but your hearts are far from me. Why? Because
if you listen to them talk enough, and as a man speaketh from his
heart, so is he. You listen to people that pretend
to be worshiping God, and you find out that they're holding
on to something that they've done for the hope of their salvation. Notice, go back with me to our
text. Then his brethren, all the house
of his family, they're honoring Samson for his 20 years of complete
perfect judgment to Israel and for the destruction that he accomplished
of the enemies of Israel. And they came down and they took
him and they lifted him up. They carried him triumphantly.
with rejoicing and glory honoring his body as they carried him
back. And where did they bury him? Between Zorah and Estherel. Now Zorah, these are both cities
in Dan, which is where Samson was from. And they took him to
the burial place of his father, Manoah. And Noah, you remember
what your name means? It means rest. And that's what
Manoah's name means. It means rest. And so. It's a picture of our rest in
Christ that we've ceased from our labors. We're not looking
to something that we do or something that we've done for the hope
of our salvation. The work was finished, the scripture
says in Hebrews chapter four, from the foundations of the world.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is our Sabbath. He is our rest. And that's where we sit. And
that's where we wait. We don't expect God to bless
us because of some labor that we are performing. We are looking
to the performance of our Samson, his work for the complete judgment
and justice of God for our sin. And Zorah, Zorah means hornet. And in Deuteronomy chapter seven,
the Lord promised Moses that when they got to the promised
land, he was going to send a horde of hornets to chase off the enemy. And then Joshua reminds the children
of Israel how the Lord got the victory over the Amorites by
hornets. He sent hornets to sting them
and chase them out of the land. You remember 1 Corinthians chapter
15? Oh, death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. Ten times two,
he kept the law not only for himself, he kept it for us. There
is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The sting of death. Stinger has
been taken out. I heard a story about a family in their car and a bee
gets loose in the car and the children are just panicking because
this bee's flying around. The father grabs and catches
the bee So you don't have to worry about that bee anymore.
Well, daddy, where is he? And he turned the bee loose and
the stinger was pulsating in the hand of the father. That
bee doesn't have a stinger anymore. Doesn't have a stinger anymore. Our rest, the Lord Jesus Christ
has taken the sting out of death. He has bore our sins in his body. and offered himself, not to you
and me, but to his father to satisfy justice. That's why we rest. He's our
sin bearer. The Lord has sent the hornets
to destroy the enemy. And estural, estural translated
means entreaty or plead. or intercede. And so we have
here a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only of our sin bearer,
but we also have him as a picture of our advocate with the Father.
If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous one. He will entreat for you. The, the, the, uh, How does James
say it? The effectual, fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. Oh, and he prayed for us. Father,
I pray not for the world. I pray for them which thou hast
given me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou hast
given them unto me. I've kept them. I pray now that
you would keep them and that they might know my glory. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our
estural. He's our advocate. He's our intercessor. He's the one who entreats for
us and pleads for us. He did that from the cross. Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. You and I don't have any idea
what sin really is. We suffer the consequences of
it, the shame and the separation that comes, but we get over it
pretty quick. The real picture of sin is the
cross. And all that took place there
between God the Father and God the Son. And if one of those sins that
don't bother us much needed to be atoned for, and that was the
only thing that needed to be atoned for, what the Lord Jesus
did would have been required for justice and judgment. Father, forgive them. They know
not what they do. James puts it like this. He said,
we often pray amiss that we might consume it upon our own lust.
We ask things for God, like our little children ask things from
us that's not good for us. And it's not good for them. And
often we have to say to a small child, no, you can't have that.
You can't have that. And the father, God often responds
to our prayers that way. Never, not one single time did
the Lord Jesus Christ offer prayer to his father that the father
said no to. Every prayer he prayed. When
he prayed for Peter. Peter, before the cock crows,
you're going to deny me three times, but be of good cheer.
I have prayed for you. I prayed for you. We have our
Lord resting between the hornet and the entreaty. Our sin bearer
and our advocate. and we rest in him. Every member
of the Father's family gathers together, comes down, and lifts
him up for his 20 years of faithful judgment. How glorious. We worship a God who saves. Sinners rejoice. in Christ. We need a Savior like that, don't
we? All right, let's take a break.