Go ahead and turn with me to
Judges chapter 16 if you would again tonight. Judges chapter
16. I have a lot to cover, so I'll
get right with it. Samson was chosen and designated
as the Lord's servant before he ever came into the world.
He was to be Israel's deliverer, judge, before he was formed in
his mother's womb. And in this and in many other
ways, Samson is a picture and type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We've already seen that. It seems that his trouble always
took place when he set his eyes on a woman. And in Judges chapter
16, we find Samson in trouble once again because of his love
for a woman. The Philistines knew that Samson
loved this woman and her name was Delilah, as you well know.
And they came to her in verse five and had her to entice Samson
to find out where his great strength came from. And Samson toyed with
her. He lied to her, but in the end,
he gave in to her. And in verse 17, we read, he
told her all his heart And he said unto her, there hath not
come a razor upon mine head, for I've 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. And when Delilah saw that he
had told her all his heart, he'd been truthful with her. She sent
and called for the lords of the Philistines saying, come up this
once for he has showed me all his heart. Then the lords of
the Philistines came up unto her and brought money in their
hand. And she made him, Samson, sleep
upon her knees. And she called for a man and
she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head. And
she began to afflict him and his strength went from him. And
she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke
out of his sleep. And he said, I will go out as
at other times before and shape myself. Now look at this last
line in verse 20. And he wist not, he knew not
that the Lord was departed from him. Now in our study tonight,
we'll see many pictures of the gospel. This is the gospel according
to Judges chapter 16. And we'll see things concerning
ourselves and the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we've already
said, Samson in many ways pictures the Lord Jesus, but in many ways
he pictures us also. So first I'd have you notice
there in verse 20 how Samson pictures you and I. Samson was
very presumptuous. So are we. We're a presumptuous
people. Look again, the last line in
verse 20, and he, Samson, wist not, that word means knew not,
that the Lord was departed from him. Samson presumed that he
still had the presence of God. Now, as we've said many times,
it was not his hair, it was not Samson's hair that provided his
strength. It was the presence of God. It
was the Spirit of God when the Spirit of God came upon him.
And Samson presumed that he still had the presence of God. And
he presumed that he still had his strength. He presumed that
he still had God's presence. But the Lord was departed from
him. Samson wists not. We often wist
not. We often presume many things
that we should not. How presumptuous we are by nature. But thankfully, our God remembers
that we're dust. Aren't you thankful that the
Lord remembers that we're dust? He knows our frame. He knows
how frail we are. And He doesn't forsake us when
we become presumptuous. You know, we take every breath
presumptuously. We just do. We presume that our
breathing will continue, but the next one could be our last. So we must pray with David, keep
back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion
over me. Lord, don't allow me to be presumptuous. Peter was presumptuous. He said,
Lord, all the others may forsake you, but not me. I'll never ever
forsake you. What presumption? Just hours
later, with cursing, he denied the Lord Jesus three times. David was presumptuous, a man
after God's own heart, when he numbered the people of Israel.
In pride, he imagined that he had done some great thing to
make Israel mighty and great in number. He counted, had the
people counted. In 2 Samuel chapter 24, God had
warned him through Joab not to do so, but he did so anyway.
And in judgment, God made him to choose between three different
punishments. Seven years of famine. three
months of fleeing from their enemies, or three days of pestilence. And David said, I'm in a great
strait, let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for his
mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand of man.
So the Lord chose for him, and he sent a pestilence upon Israel
from the morning even until the time appointed, and there died
70,000 men. David wist not. The apostles were sent by the
Lord into a storm. You remember that? When he came
walking to them on the water? And he did so to prove them.
May we always remember that when the Lord proves us, tries us,
tests us, it's never to prove to us our strength or that we
have any, never. He's proving to us our weakness,
our inability, and our total dependence on Him. And this night,
the apostles wished not. When the Lord fed the multitude
with the loaves and the fishes, He asked Philip, you remember
that in John chapter six? He said, when shall we buy bread
that these may eat? And this He, our Lord, said to
prove Philip. For he himself knew what he'd
do. The Lord knew what he was gonna
do. The Lord knew there was gonna be a lad there that day with
those fish and those loaves, and he was gonna feed 5,000 with
it. But the Lord did this to prove Philip. And he would expose
Philip's inability to fill this need. That's why the Lord allows
us in our presumption to fall. Philip wished not. When the Lord
puts our faith to the test, he's exposing our weakness, our inability,
and our total dependence on him every time. How many times do
we presume until we learn? I'm still adding and I'm still
counting. How about you? Will we ever learn?
Samson wist not that the Lord had departed from him." Did you
know that the Greek word for wist is yada? You've heard that word. People
say yada, yada, yada. Well, what they're saying is,
I know, I know, I know. I know, I got this. No need to
bother me with the details. I know, I know, I know. The word
presumption is defined as an idea taken to be true, although
it's not known for sure. Assume, presume. We live in a
presumptuous world. That's the problem with religion
today. Men and women are presumptuous. They think they're entitled to
grace. They think God owes it to them to save them. They wist
not. They yada, yada, yada. And they
don't know the truth. God is indebted to no one. God
doesn't owe any of us a thing. Nothing but death, hell, and
eternal judgment. That's what we deserve and that's
what God owes us. Nothing else. And what Samson
is doing here, he's doing in the power of his own flesh. He
wished not, he knew not that the Lord had departed from him. Well, Brother David, I thought
one saved always saved. I thought the Lord never forsook
his people. I thought that He would never
leave them nor forsake them. I thought His love was everlasting
and never ending. It is. It is. But sometimes He
departs for a season. Sometimes He departs His people
for a season. And He does so to teach us. He
does so to accomplish His will in us. And that was the case
with Samson. The Lord allowed his presumption,
and in the end, Samson, because of his presumption, did exactly
what God had purposed him to do. You remember we were told
early in the story of Samson that God had raised him up to
destroy the Philistines, and that's exactly what he'd wind
up doing, as we'll see. In Luke chapter 22, The Lord
told Peter, he said, Simon, Simon, he said, behold, Satan hath desired
to sift you as wheat. Remember that. He said, but I
prayed that your faith fail not. And then he said, when thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren. Now, the Lord didn't prevent
Satan from sifting him as wheat. That's what he went on after
that to deny the Lord three times. He never promised that he would
prevent Satan from sifting him. He promised to pray that Peter's
faith fell him not. And Peter's faith didn't fail
him. And Peter's faith in the end
did just what the Lord meant for him to do. He told us, he
said, Peter, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And
that's exactly what Peter did. I want you to keep your place
here in Judges and turn with me to 1 Peter 1, if you would. I want you to see this. 1 Peter 1, keep your place in Judges
16. And here in 1 Peter 1, verse
4, look at this with me. Give you a moment to get there. Here in 1 Peter 1, verse 4, Peter
writes, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not
away reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through
manifold temptations. Well, who sent those temptations?
The Lord did. And he sent them on purpose.
He sent them for a reason. What is that reason, Peter? Verse
7, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than
of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. Now, this is not to our honor
and to our glory, but to the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we cannot accomplish spiritual
things through the arm of the flesh. It's impossible. To think
that we can is to say, yada, yada, yada. I know, I know, I
know now. I got this, I got this. Look
at verse 8 here in 1 Peter 1. Whom having not seen ye love,
and whom though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of
your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Oh, there may
be a departure from the Lord for a season, but He's going
to accomplish His purpose. And if you're one of His, it's
going to be for your good, and it's going to be for His glory.
Now back in Judges 16, I want you to look at verse 21. But the Philistines took Him,
that being Samson, and put out His eyes, and brought Him down
to Gaza, Embound him with fetters of brass and he did grind in
the prison house And I was my point here is how glorious is
it that we have a God That is blind to our sin That's the picture
that we have here. Samson pictures the Lord Jesus
who causes God to be blind to our sin in His going to the cross
of Calvary. That's what this bringing down
of the temple of Dagon is all about. That's what the destruction
of the Philistines is all about. It's about conquering death.
It's about finishing the work. It's about putting away sin.
It's about defeating sin and Satan. Getting the victory over
death in the grave. That's what this is about. Now
I want you to see this. Look at Isaiah. Again, hold your
place in Judges. And look at Isaiah chapter 42.
Verse 18. Here we read in verse 18, Isaiah 42, Here ye death, And look, you blind, that you
may see." Now look at this, verse 19. Who is blind but my servant? Or death is my messenger that
I sent. That's talking about Christ. Who is blind that is perfect
and blind as the Lord's servant? seen many things, but thou observest
not, opening the ears, but he heareth not. And the Lord is
well pleased for his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law
and make it honorable." How can God Almighty not see something? I think you know the answer.
If you and I are to be saved, our sins got to be removed from
us. The Scripture says, as far as
the east is from the west. That's an infinite distance. Infinite distance. You know,
if you follow the orbit of the earth, you can go east and then
you start orbiting around and you go back to the west. Because
you're going in a circle. But in the vastness of this universe,
that's just infinite, You can go east infinitely, and you can
go west infinitely, and the two are never meet. Now that is how
far our sin has been removed from us. Isn't that something? Never to meet again. Never to
meet again. God remembers our sin no more,
because they are no more. God cannot see something that's
no longer there. God cannot see what does not
exist. Our sins are completely covered. Our sins are put completely away,
far as east is from the west. How? By the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Job said, my transgression is
sealed up in a bag, and thou sowest up my iniquity. Friends, this is God's bag that's
sealed. And it's Christ who sold it shut. God said, I, even I am he that
blotteth out thy transgression for my own name's sake. God did
it for himself and will not remember thy sins. And when God says something,
he says what he means, he means what he says. I, even I, I'm
the one that blotteth out your sin, and I do it for my own sake,
my own glory, my own honor, my own praise. And I will not remember
thy sins. And every believer can say, thou
hast in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption,
for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. If my sins are
cast behind God's back, well, if he turns around, they're still
in his back. They're still at his back and
he cannot see them. They're always at his back. That's
why God can't see them. He cast them there. The prophet
Micah said this, he will turn again, he will have compassion
on us, he will subdue our iniquities, and thou will cast all their
sins, all, sins, plural, into the depths of the sea. Micah
7, 19. I like what John Gill wrote on
that verse. He said, though our sin can be
seen with the eye of omniscience and taken notice of by the eye
of providence, yet they never will be held with the eye of
God's avenging justice that's been satisfied by Christ. Now that's just, that's the confidence
that we can have that our sin's been put away. The Pharisees came to the Lord
Jesus in contempt. And they said, you say that we're
the blind leaders of the blind. And the Lord said, if you were
blind, you should have no sin. But now you say, we see, therefore
your sin remaineth. In other words, if you were blind,
you wouldn't be so aggravated. Your sin would be pardoned and
taken away from you. But you say that you see. You
think yourselves to be wise and all-knowing, and you don't have
any need of illumination. Therefore, your heart's hardened,
and your sin remains. When what the Pharisees were
saying was yada, yada, yada. Yeah, we know, we know, we know.
We got this. We don't need you. We can save ourselves. We're
doing quite alright on our own. We don't need you. And it's just
the opposite for the needy sinner. Lord, I need you. I must have
you. Only you can put away my sin.
I can't put away your sin. Lord, you must give us ears to
hear. You've got to, Lord, give us
eyes to see. Lord, you must become blind to
our sin. Now again, back in Judges, again
verse 21, Judges 16. 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.
Where it says here the Philistines took him and put out his eyes,
My marginal Bible says bored out his eyes. Friends, our God is blind to
our sin. Our sin is bored out of his sight. Our sins are bore by the shoulders
of his beloved son, and our sins are bore on Calvary's tree. All
the sins of all the elect throughout all time were put on Christ to
bear and be bored out upon the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And the words there put out means
bored, thrust, pierced, how appropriate. Put out, Christ bore the stripes
that healed us. Put out, Christ's head, hands
and feet were pierced. Put out, thrust was the spear
into Christ's side. And it was all to put our sin
out of God's sight. They brought Samson down to Gaza.
Immediately I thought of the verse in 1 Timothy 1.15, this
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world. He came down, he left his throne
on high. He came down into the world to
save sinners of whom I am cheap. You see, it was our sin and the
payment, the full payment of our sin that brought Christ in
the world. Verse 21 says, they bound Samson
with fetters of brass. In the scriptures, brass represents
a few things, actually. First, it represents the presumption
and the obstinacy of our sin. Brass also represents the character
and righteous judgment of God. And brass also represents the
glory and majesty of God. Now in the Christ of Calvary's
cross, all these things met together in perfect harmony. It was there
that mercy and truth met together, and righteousness and peace kissed
each other, Psalm 85, 10. You see, our sin, met face-to-face
with God's righteousness. No man can see God and live,
and yet on the cross of Calvary, our sin met face-to-face with
God's righteousness. Our depravity met face-to-face
with His majesty. Christ became guilty and we were
made righteous. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him, 2 Corinthians 5.21. Notice also, and Samson
did grind in the prison house. Now in the prison house of sin,
you and I have attempted to work out our own salvation, trying
to produce grain for bread, but it was Christ, our strong man,
who grinds the wheat for us. Christ is our bread of life that
came down from heaven. He has trodden the winepress
alone, and of the people, there was none with him. He did this
for us. He did it alone. We couldn't
do it for ourselves. He came to set the prisoner free,
and it was the fetters of our sin that held Christ to Calvary's
cross. Now, we'll come back to verse
22 in a moment, but I want you to look at verse 23. 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. It's interesting was to me that
the word Dagon means fish. He was the Philistines fish God. He had the head and the hands
of a man, but he had the body and the tail of a fish. And he
was the Philistines God. And what a picture Dagon is of
the little G God of this world's religion. This unbelieving world
is said to practice science. You've heard that. I don't believe
in God, I believe in science. Well, the word science by definition
means knowledge. And yet the science that men
and women hold to today, it's not knowledge, it's simply a
theory. For example, the theory of evolution. Men believe that they crawled
out of the ocean like a fish, and we grew the head in the hands
of a man. And now we believe that we can
think for ourselves and we can do with our own hands everything
for ourselves. And yada, yada, yada. Men presumptuously
endeavor to do just that. It's to deny God's creation.
both natural and spiritual, it's to reject God's salvation. It's
not to submit to His authority. It's the same with the evolution
of salvation. There's such a thing as that.
God has said to do His part, and we must do our part, and
then salvation somehow evolves into life everlasting. It's no different than tying
the head of a man to the tail of a fish. and making a God out
of it. That's exactly what they did,
and that's what the world still does. It's a God of their imagination. It's no God at all. There's no
evolution and salvation. The work's finished, and adding
to it actually takes away from it. The God of Dagon is very
much alive today. This religious world, in the
religious world in the days of our Lord, like in the days of
the Philistines, in Samson's day, said, our God hath delivered
a strong man, our enemy, into our hands. I don't think so. Now, back to verse 22. It says there that, how be it
the hair of his, Samson's head, begin to grow again after he
was shaven. And if you have, again, a marginal
Bible, that word after there means, as before, it was shaven. The grinding of this wheel that
Samson did in the prison house, and him being made sport of,
had been going on for a while. Some time has elapsed here. It's said that the human hair
grows about three-eighths of an inch to a half inch per month.
And by now, his hair has grown back as it was before it was
shaved. And we've said many times, even
yet tonight, or even tonight, that the length of Samson's hair
wasn't the cause of his strength. It was the presence of the Lord
that was. So what is the significance of
the regrowth of Samson's hair here? Why does the scripture
mention it? Well, it pictures the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus. Samson's hair represents his
glory. Samson was shaved of his hair,
his glory, and Christ on Calvary was stripped of his, stripped
of his glory. But his glory, his hair, so to
speak, has grown back. The Lord Jesus was crucified
and killed. The Lord Jesus was buried. But
the Lord Jesus resurrected. He rose again, and that's the
proof that He and His glory is restored. It's here that we see
that the Lord was no longer departed from Samson, and the Father no
longer had forsaken His Son. God accepted the work that He
did, and He raised Him from the dead. That's the proof that His
glory is restored, and He raised Him from the dead, and God accepted
us in Him. And He raised us from the dead
with Him. We're restored to glory, not
because of anything we did, but because of what Christ did for
us. Christ was delivered for our offenses and was raised again
for our justification. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5,
1 and 2. And this is our only hope. We
have no other hope. Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Now look at verse 24 here in
Judges 16. And when the people saw him,
Samson, they praised their God, and 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 called Or 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 set him between the
pillars. That's what they did to the Lord
Jesus. They made sport of him. You know, that word sport means
just what you would think. It means merriment. It means
entertainment. They made entertainment out of
Samson and they did the same to the Lord Jesus. Sports are
meant for entertainment. And if you watched that game
last night, UK game, I texted Larry afterwards. He said, wasn't
that fun? Yeah, it's entertainment. It's fun, isn't it? The religious
leaders in our Lord's day made Christ to be their entertainment.
They mashed that crown of thorns down on his head and mockingly
praised him and said, hail king of the Jews. It was just sport. It was entertainment to them.
They struck him with their fist in the face and said, prophesy
and tell us who hit you. Nothing but sport and merriment
and entertainment that they did these things. That word sport
also means to laugh and mock and to play. They laughed at
him, they scorned him, they made sport of him. They said, if thou
be the Christ, save yourself. They said, He saved others, He
cannot save Himself. They're making sport of Him as
He's grinding out the bread of life in the prison house. Why
did they hate Samson so? The last part of verse 24 tells
us, they said, He's the destroyer of our country. He slew many
of us. Why did they hate the Lord Jesus
so much? It was the same reason. You know, you remember when the
Lord raised Lazarus from the dead? He raised him from the
dead and the religious leaders, the high priest and all his cohorts
got together and they said, we've got to do something about this
Jesus. We've got to do something about him. The Romans are going
to come and they're going to take away our place in our nation. We're going to lose our jobs.
We're going to lose our high positions. We're going to lose
the freedom that we have as Jews. They didn't have any freedom.
They just thought they did. Men hate the Christ of glory
for the same reason today. Why? Because He destroys them. He kills them. How so, David? He strips them of their righteousness. He pronounces them dead and trespasses
in sin. He kills them. There's nothing
they can do about it. They don't like it. We've got
to do something about this Jesus. We're going to lose what we have. And yet God's people are glad
to lose it. I'm not going to put any trust or confidence in
my righteousness. Yes, Lord, I am dead in trespasses
and sin. I need life. And this is the very thing that
we as His people love. We don't want anything to do
with our salvation, do we? Only He can save to the uttermost
those that come to God by Him, seeing that He ever liveth to
make intercession for me. And that's what Samson did. Verse
26, And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand,
Suffer me that I may fill the pillars whereupon 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 made sport." I don't know what they did, but
he was being entertainment for them. I just read a minute ago seeing
that Christ ever maketh intercession for those that he died for. Look
at verse 28. 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 my two
eyes. Now, the Lord Jesus had two eyes
that His enemies endeavored to put out, His Father and the Spirit. But Christ avenges them against
these murderers. And I think that's what we have
a picture of there. Now, I'm out of time, but I want
to close with the thought of these two pillars. In verse 29, and Samson took
hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and
on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand and
the other with his left. If you remember, David desired
to build the temple of God, but he was a man of war and God said,
no, you can't build the temple, you're a man of war. And Solomon,
his son, was given the privilege And this temple was built upon
two pillars. They pictured the church being
built on two pillars, those pillars being the pillars and the grounds
of the truth, which cannot be taken down. You see, it's on
truth that the church of God stands. And just as the gates
of hell cannot prevail against Christ, the rock upon which the
church is built, the truth is the pillars and Christ is the
foundation of the church. Solomon named those two pillars.
He named one Jachin, and that means he will establish. And he named the other pillar
Boaz, which means in it is strength. The church of God, Christ will
establish in his strength. Now in contrast, the two pillars
of the temple of Dagon represent just the opposite. How do I know
that? Because false religion is always the direct opposite
of the truth. You can find that so clearly
in the Scriptures. I mean, you take the truth and
counterfeit or the false gospel or the false truth against, it's
just the opposite of that. False religion's the opposite.
In the temple of Dagon, the work's not established, it's not finished.
There's still work to be done. We've got to do our part. Got to say a prayer, got to make
a decision, got to walking out, got to do something. What must
I do to be saved? It can't be that it's all done
for me. Can't be that it's established
and finished in the strength of another. What about me? What
can I do to be saved? We got to do our part. But the
pillar, Jacob, says it's established, it's finished. The Pillars of
Boaz says it's finished in the strength of Christ alone. And all God requires for the
building of His temple and His church is done by the strength
and the finished and established work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, salvation is not day
gone. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is not part man and part fish, and salvation is certainly not
part God and part man. It's not an evolutionary process. Salvation is of the Lord, period. Every other pillar that man endeavors
to build his salvation upon, Samson's going to pull it down. That's right. That's what Christ,
our strong man, did. He pulled it all down. Any other
work that we endeavor to build upon of our own, He tears down. Again, verse 29, And Samson took
hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and
on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand,
and the other with his left. I think immediately of the Lord
Jesus with his arms outstretched on the cross, one on the left
and one on the right. And Samson said, let me die with
the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all
his might. 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. Now that's the gospel of what
Christ has done for his people. Okay, thank you.