Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 37 from your Spiral Gospel Hymns
hymnbook, number 37. Let's all stand together. Approach, my soul, the throne
of grace in every time of need. There's mercy for the needy one
who Jesus' name shall plead. Though I'm a weak and sinful
wretch, I will approach the throne. I'll lean upon Christ's mighty
arm and bleed His blood alone. Upon the precious blood of Christ
has opened up the way by which I can draw near to God and to
my Father pray. Though Satan tempts my heart
to sin, I'll call upon my God. And if I fall, He'll lift me
up and cleanse me in the blood. The way is open, God will hear
my groans and cries of grief. Nothing can keep me from His
throne but my own unbelief. Oh Lord, my unbelief, remove
and turn my heart by grace. Come tell me to approach your
throne and there spread out my case. Please be seated. That's a great opening hymn for
time of worship. I was reminded when we sang,
especially that last stanza, what Peter said when he was in
the boat and the Lord was on the water, and he said, Lord
bid me to come unto thee, bid me to come unto thee. He has
bid us to come unto you. Come, come, drink from the water
freely. All you that labor are heavy
laden. I'll give you rest. My burden
is light. My yoke is easy. Learn of me. That's what we've
come here to do this morning, to learn of Christ. We're going to be in Judges chapter
15 this first hour, if you'd like to open your Bibles there
with me. Judges chapter 15. Let's pray together. Our merciful and gracious Heavenly
Father, we come before thy throne of grace, thanking you that we
have thy dear son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, as our
advocate, our substitute, our sin bearer. We thank you for
his successful work of redemption. We thank you, Lord, for the perfect
righteousness that you give to your people in him. Lord, we
pray now that you would bless your word to our hearts. We ask,
Lord, that you would open the mystery of the gospel to us once
again and enable us to set our affections on things above where
Christ is seated at thy right hand. Enable us, Lord, to rest
in his glorious person and his finished work of redemption.
Bless your word. Bless your people. Lord, we are
in need of your grace. We thank you for it. We ask it
in Christ's name. Amen. Judges chapter 15. We'll begin reading in verse
7. And Samson said unto them, though you have done this, yet
will I be avenged of you. And after that, I will cease."
The Philistines had just burned his wife and her family as a
result of Samson taking away their sustenance, their crops,
their vineyards, their olive trees. He destroyed them all.
You remember with the foxes that had the torches. And so Samson now is saying,
I'm going to be avenged for what you have done to my wife. We have here a beautiful picture,
again, of the gospel of God's free grace. Samson being a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Philistines being a type of the
enemies of God, Satan, sin, death, the grave, and how Samson avenges
for his wife. And I pray the Lord will encourage
us in this. Justice demands. You say, well,
you know what, why are we talking about vengeance? Because God's
divine justice demands vengeance if we're to be saved. And so
It's essential, it's necessary for our salvation that the Lord
Jesus Christ avenge the enemy of the gospel. And we have a
picture of him doing just that. In verse eight, and he smote
them hip and thigh with a great slaughter and he went down and
dwelt in the top of the rock Edom. Then the Philistines went
up and pitched in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi. And the man
of Judah said, why are you come up against us? And they answered
to bind Satan, Samson, I'm sorry. Are we come up to do to him as
he has done to us. Then 3,000 men of Judah went
to the top of the rock of Edom and said to Samson, knowest thou
not that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this
that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, as they
did unto me, so have I done unto them. An eye for an eye. a tooth for a tooth. The law
must be satisfied. Justice must be exacted perfectly
according to the law. And they said unto him, we are
come down to bind thee that we may deliver thee into the hand
of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, swear
unto me that you will not fall upon me yourself. And they spoke
unto him saying, no, but we will bind thee fast and deliver thee
into their hand. But surely we will not kill thee.
And they bound him with two new cords and brought him up from
the rock." Do we not see a picture of the Jews turning the Lord
Jesus Christ over for the Romans to do their work? And when he came unto Lehi, the
Philistines shouted against him, and the Spirit of the Lord came
mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became
as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off
his hands. Our Lord says this in Luke chapter
18, shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and
night unto him, though he bear long with them, I tell you, yes,
he will avenge them speedily. You and I are in need of the
Lord Jesus Christ to destroy the enemy. And what a glorious picture we
have here of that. Why were the Philistines so angry
at Saul so as to murder his wife and her family? Well, was it
not because of what he took away from them? He took away their
possessions. He took away their glory. He
took away their strength and their power. Why is the enemy
of God so hateful towards the Lord Jesus Christ and his bride? Is it not because God took away
his glory, took away all of his possessions, took away his power? Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
14. Isaiah chapter 14. This This picture, this type, goes
all the way back before time. It goes back into eternity when,
well, I say before time, it doesn't go back before time, only God
was before time. But it goes back before the foundation
of the earth. It goes back before the creation
of the world. It goes back to something that
took place in heaven between Satan and God. Look at, Look
with me in verse 12 of Isaiah chapter 14. How art thou fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut
down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations? Thou hast
said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven. I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation and the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the cloud. I will be like the most high,
yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit.
Here's a picture of what happened in the fall of Satan from heaven. It's what Samson did to the Philistines. Took away their glory, took away
their power, took away all their possessions, and they became
his enemy. Turn to me also, if you will,
to Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12. Lucifer, Translated means bearer
of light. You say, well, how could one
of God's angels have fallen so far? Well, like all the vessels
of God fitted for destruction, Lucifer was not elect. The angels
that followed him, the one third of the angels from heaven that
fell with him were not elect angels. And so, just like with
men, if the Lord doesn't elect us and choose us and preserve
us and save us, we will fall. We will fall. So, here we have
a picture of that battle that took place in heaven in chapter
12, beginning of verse seven, and there was a war in heaven.
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon
fought and his angels and prevailed not, neither was their place
found anymore in heaven. And the great dragon was cast
out and that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceived
the whole world. He was cast out into the earth
and his angels were cast out with him. Now here's what we
have a picture of with Samson burning all the crops, all the
vineyards, all the olive trees of the Philistines, taking away
from them their possessions, their power, and their glory.
It's exactly why, because they wanted power. They wanted to
be in control, and now the strong man is going to rise up and take
that away from them. In hatred for Samson, in hatred
for Samson, they slew his wife and his family. Was not the fire
that burned in our father Adam's heart lit by Satan himself? Was not
that which brought death to this world, separation from God brought
on by Satan, was not his temptation to man the same that caused him to fall from
Satan, I will become like the Most High. Did not Satan say
to Eve, the Lord doesn't want you to eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, lest in the day in which you eat of
it, you should be like God. That's really the heart of all
sin, a man wanting to be like God. The fool hath said in his
heart, no God. How foolish man can be to think
that they can stand against God and become God's themselves. And yet that's the root of the
problem, isn't it? This goes back to the fall of
Satan. It goes back to the fall of man. There's no way for us to understand
redemption. without us understanding the
fall. If you're wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it all.
We need to have some revelation from God as to what really happened
in the garden. We need to know that we spiritually
died. We were burned with the fire
of sin. Yes, the wife of the Lord Jesus
Christ died in their father Adam. In Adam, the scripture says,
all died. Spiritually dead, spiritually
separated from God, without any hope of righteousness or salvation
within ourselves, we died. So this is what we have
a picture of here. The wages of sin is death. The Lord said, in the day in
which you eat of this fruit, you shall surely die. And the book of Ephesians tells
us that we were dead in our trespasses and in our sins. So here's the
type here that Samson takes away from the Philistines, a picture
of Christ taken away from Satan, from Lucifer, his glory, his
power, and the hatred that Satan has for Christ and for his people
is what caused him to light the burning fire of sin in the garden.
and to turn us away from our God. Samson says in verse seven, though
you have done this, yet will I be avenged. I love it when the Lord said
to Saul of Tarsus, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who art thou Lord? I am Jesus
whom thou persecutest. You see, when the Philistines
attacked Samuel's wife and her family, they were attacking Samuel.
They were attacking Samuel. And Samuel said, I will be avenged
for what you've done. I'm going to execute vengeance
and the law to pay for what you have done. When you touch my wife, you're
touching me. That's what the Lord said. Turn
with me to Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah chapter 46. Look at verse 9. Remember the
former things of old. And that's what we're doing.
We're remembering the former things of old. For I am God and
there is none else. I am God and there is none like
me. Declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times,
the things that are not yet done saying, my counsel shall stand
and I will do all my pleasure. Here's the Lord speaking. I'm
going to execute justice and judgment. I'm going to avenge
myself for the death of my wife. We were burned with the fire
of sin and that sin had to be atoned for. It had to be paid
for. Justice had to be met. The law
had to be satisfied. And notice in verse 11, calling
a ravenous bird from the east. Who is that ravenous bird? The rock of Etem that we just
read about in Judges chapter 15 means the lyre of ravenous
beast. And so here we have the Lord
Jesus Christ as that ravenous bird that's going to come and
deliver his wife from the beast, calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man, the man, the Lord Jesus Christ, that executeth
my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. No question about it. Samson
said, I will be avenged for my wife for what they've done. I
will give to them what they've done to me. I will burn them
with fire. And he brought a great slaughter,
hip and thigh, slew a thousand Philistines. And he said, when
I have avenged my wife, go back with me to our text and notice
something here. In verse 12, Samson said unto
him, though you have done this, though you have lit the fire
of sin and you have spiritually killed my wife and her family,
yet I will be avenged of you. And after my vengeance, I will
cease. I will cease. When the law was
satisfied, sin was atoned for, the Lord Jesus Christ said, it
is finished. It is finished. Everything necessary
to avenge my wife and myself for her sin, I now cease. He ceased from his labor, the
scripture says. And we're to cease from our labor.
We're to cease from any effort that we might be tempted to do
to try to avenge ourselves, to try to balance the scales, if
you will, to try to satisfy divine justice. Only the Lord can do
that. After I have avenged myself, I will cease. Nothing else will
need to be done. It'll all be done. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
12. Isaiah chapter 12. Well, forgive me. I didn't double check my text
and it's not the proper place. The Lord said, I have seen the
affliction of my people in Egypt. Did the Lord Jesus Christ not
avenge the children of Israel by destroying Pharaoh and Pharaoh's
army in the Red Sea? Here's another picture of the
necessity that we have, that God avenge for our death and
for our sin. There won't be any hope of life
without it. There won't be any hope of salvation
without it. You say, well, where is their
grace and forgiveness and lenience in vengeance? Well, you know,
when we sin against one another, there's room for lenience. There's room for forgiveness
based on simple apologies because We want to be forgiven on those
basis, don't we? Between one another. Now, here's
the problem that men have. You thought that I was altogether
such a one as thyself. The Lord's holy. You see, he's not like us. He
doesn't say to us, well, I'll forgive you so that you can forgive
me. No, he has no need to be forgiven ever under any circumstances. So, exact vengeance is the only
way to satisfy his justice. It's the only way. And that's
exactly what happened on Calvary's cross. When God drew the sword
of his own justice and sheathed it into the heart of his own
darling son, he satisfied, he satisfied vengeance and he put
away the sins of all of his people once and for all. I've seen the affliction of my
people in Egypt. I have come down to deliver her. The only way for him to be avenged
is for our sins to be paid for, for the law to be satisfied,
for righteousness to be established. Turn to me to second Timothy
chapter one, second Timothy chapter one. I want you to notice the order
of salvation in verse 9. Who hath saved us
and called us? I mentioned this Wednesday night,
you know, sometimes we refer to our new birth as our salvation,
but it's really more accurate to refer to our new birth as
our calling. Our salvation was established
in the covenant of grace when the Lord Jesus Christ agreed
to be our surety before his father, when he became the lamb slain
before the foundation of the world, when he bowed his mighty
head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished. I have ceased
my labors. Everything that God requires,
I have provided. And then in time, in time, The
Spirit of God calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
He saved us, then he called us with a holy calling, a holy calling. to look to the Lord Jesus Christ
for all of your acceptance before God, all of your righteousness.
Here's the holy calling. You see, anything we bring to
the table of redemption is unholy. Anything we lay our hands to
is filthy in the sight of God. He called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death
and hath brought life in a mortality to life through the gospel." He put an end to death. He put
an end to Satan. He established righteousness. Turn over just a couple of pages
to Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter 2. And look with
me at verse 13. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given to me. Father, I pray not for
the world, but I pray for them which thou hast given me out
of the world. These are the elect of God given
to Christ and the covenant of grace. This is his bride. This
is his wife that he's exacting vengeance for. Through his own
death and through his own sacrifice, he is destroying the enemy of
God. He's destroying the devil. He's
destroying death. He's putting away sin. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had power over death, that is the devil, and deliver them,
who through fear of death were all their lifetime held in bondage.
Here's the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he continues to do
that. How oftentimes we're, our hearts are gripped with fear.
And we're reminded once again, oh no. Oh no. God said 365 times in
his word, fear not, fear not. I've destroyed the works of the
devil. He had power over death. Yes,
he lit the fire of sin in the garden. Yes, he fell from heaven. But I'm going to avenge myself
and my bride, and then I'm going to cease. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
become a curse for us. He had to be forsaken of his
father. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
upon a tree. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
bore in his body all the sins of God's people and put them
away, separating them from us as far as the east is from the
west. And God says, I remember them no more. This is the good
news of the gospel. Our Samson has avenged our death. And through his death, he has
brought about life in immortality. Go back with me to our text. Notice at the end of verse 10,
to do to him as he has done to us. That's what the Philistines
said. We're going to exercise an eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth. We're going to exact the law.
And Samson said in verse 11 at the end, and they did unto, as
they did unto me, so have I done unto them. The law shows no mercy. God's law requires justice. You
and I cannot fulfill God's law. Truth is, you and I have never
been able to keep one part of God's law to God's satisfaction,
not one single time. Not a single moment in our life
have we been able to love the Lord our God with all of our
heart and all of our soul and all of our time. The Lord Jesus
and all of our mind, the Lord Jesus Christ did that all of
the time. All of the time. That's what
God required. That's what he still requires. The Pharisees said, why eatest
thou master with publicans and sinners? And the Lord said, the
whole need not a physician, but them that are sick. I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Those who have
no righteousness, those who are dependent upon a righteousness
outside of themselves, one to avenge their death, one to destroy the enemy. Notice, go back with me to our
text, notice at the end of verse eight that he went down to the
top of the rock of Edom. Paul said in first Corinthians
chapter 15, moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel,
how that Christ died according to the scriptures and how that
he was buried and on the third day rose again according to the
scriptures. Samson after this great slaughter
of hip and thigh goes down to the rock of Edom. Three thousand Men from Judah
come down to reason with him. What have you done? Don't you
know that we're under the authority of the Philistines? And you've
angered them against us. They're gonna get revenge now
on all of us. Samson said, mind me, mind me. John chapter 18, When Judas brought
that band of Roman soldiers to the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord said, whom seekest thou? And
they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And the Lord said, I am. And these trained, fearless Roman
soldiers fell backwards to the ground. By the word of God, when
he declared who never a man spake like this man. Oh, he spoke with
authority. He is the very word of God. And when he speaks, men fall
down. They got themselves up and brush
themselves off. Don't you know, wondering what
in the world just happened? Peter pulls out his sword and
cuts off the ear of Malchus. And the Lord told him, said,
Peter, put away your sword. My time has come. My time has
come. And the scripture says, and they
bound him. Now I'm sure that those Roman
soldiers were used to having to, in arresting someone, having
to slam them to the ground and pin their arms behind their back.
I can just see the Lord Jesus after he said, I am. Doing, putting
his hand, go ahead, bind me. And they bound him. John chapter
18. And then when they took him to
the cross, I'm sure that these soldiers had never ever seen
anyone willingly lay his life down and spread out his arms
and say, there. They had to pin them down before
they could drive that nail, that spike through them. Oh no. The
Lord willingly laid down. He said, bind me. Go ahead and
bind me. And he broke those bands. He
broke them by his death. Notice in verse 13 of our text,
and they spake unto him saying, no, but we will bind thee fast. Well, that's what the Pharisees
thought, but we're binding him fast and we're gonna turn him
over to the Romans and they're gonna do our dirty deed for us. And all along, the Lord was using
those Jewish scribes and Pharisees and priests to accomplish the
avenging of the enemy for the death of his wife. You see that? It's so glorious. They thought
they were, they thought they were binding him. They thought,
well, this'll, this'll take care of this problem. What are we
gonna do? If we let him continue, we'll
lose our place and our nation. We're gonna lose our position,
our power. Go ahead, bind me. Go ahead and nail me to the cross.
What you don't know is that I'm in control of every bit of this.
And what I'm doing, what I'm doing is I'm avenging the death
of my wife and her family. And by his resurrection from
the dead, he broke the bands Notice that I started reading
in verse 13. We will bind thee fast and deliver
thee into their hand, but surely we will not kill thee. And they
bound him with two new cords. Now the scripture says that they
laid the Lord Jesus Christ in a new tomb, a tomb that had never
been used before, brand new. And the Lord Jesus Christ broke
that band. The stone was rolled away and
the Lord Jesus came out victorious. What? Oh, death, where's thy
sting? Where is thy victory? Sting of
death is sin. The strength of sin is the law,
but thanks be to God through Christ Jesus, I'm free. He satisfied
the law and he's put away the sting of death by his resurrection. This is the hope of Israel, the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Samson, our Samson
has avenged the death of his wife and her family. And the
Lord scripture says, I'm going to show you a new thing. You're
not gonna believe it. You're not, even though you see
it and even though men tell you about it, you're not gonna believe
it. Oh, what a new thing we have. This is the new covenant where
Satan is defeated, sin is put away. The devil, the enemy of
God and his people who fell from heaven and burned the wife, of the Lord Jesus Christ with
the same fire, separating her from her savior with the same
fire of sin that all men were, all men died in. We were like
everyone else dead in our trespasses and sins. The Lord Jesus Christ
has broken those bands asunder. And when he would come, look
at verse 14, and we'll close. And when he came unto Lehi, now
Lehi means jaw. And here we have a picture. We're
not gonna give, I'm gonna preserve, I'm gonna keep this next passage
for a separate sermon, but you know what's gonna happen next. Samson takes the jawbone of an
ass and kills 3,000 Philistines. And here's a picture of, The
preaching of the gospel is what we're doing right now, lifting
up the Lord Jesus Christ, encouraging God's people to know that he
has avenged for our death. He has quenched the fire of God's
wrath. He has brought about life and
immortality through the sacrifice of himself. And he does it through
the preaching of the gospel. He uses the foolishness of preaching.
And when he would come to Lehi, when he came to Lehi, the Philistines
shouted against him and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon
him. That's what happened on resurrection
morning. Spirit of the Lord came mightily
upon him. Came out of that tomb. And the
cords that were upon his arms became as flax that were burned
with fire. and his hands loosed, or the
bands loosed from off his hands. What a beautiful type. Over and
over and over again, we see in these historical events, a picture,
a picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in avenging the
death of his wife. Amen? All right, let's take a
break.