Last Sunday, I spoke to you out
of the book of Judges chapter 13 concerning the accepted sacrifice
of Manoah and his wife. Turn with me again to Judges
chapter 13, if you would. While you're turning, let me
remind you that Manoah, who was Samson's future father, He was
convinced that after seeing the Lord, or the angel of the Lord,
which I believe no doubt to be a pre-incarnate appearance of
the Lord Jesus himself, he believed that the Lord was going to kill
him because he reasoned that no man or woman can see God and
live. You see, Manoah knew something
about the holiness of God. Do you? God is first and foremost
holy, friends. Manoah thought the Lord was gonna
kill him after revealing himself to him and his wife, yet his
unnamed wife, she's not mentioned in the scripture, the future
mother of Samson, was a woman of great faith. And in verse
23, she gave Manoah three reasons as to why the Lord would not
kill them. Do you remember what they were?
She said, if the Lord was going to kill us first, he would not
have accepted the sacrifice. What a wonderful gospel truth.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only acceptable sacrifice. Every believing child of God
is accepted in Christ, the beloved, Ephesians 1, 6. Secondly, why
would the Lord not kill them? He wouldn't kill them after all
the things that He had shown them. He showed them Himself
on two different occasions. He showed them their need of
a sacrifice. He showed Himself in the sacrifice. He showed Himself to be the sacrifice. He showed His approval of the
sacrifice. He showed them His acceptance
of the sacrifice. Would the Lord have shown us
all these things? I'm asking you. Would the Lord
have shown you all these things if He was going to kill you?
Thirdly, she said, nor would the angel, as at this time, have
told us such things as these. The angel had told us he was
going to give us a son. Would the angel have told us
how to care for that son? Would he have shown us these
things? Would he have given us these promises if he was going
to take our lives? Of course not. Friends, if God
meant in wrath to condemn us forever under the wages of our
sin, would he have given us his beloved son? Would he have given
us to his son? Would He have shown and revealed
Christ to us? Would He have shown us that salvation
is only in Him? Would He have given us the gospel
message? Would God have told us and promised
all these things? After all, He is faithful that
promised. God cannot and will not lie nor
change His mind. The promises of God in Christ
are what? Yay and amen. So let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He, God,
is faithful that promised. Look at verse 24 in chapter 13.
It says, and the woman bare a son and called his name Samson, And
the child grew and the Lord blessed him. Now there's no doubt, as
I said last time, that Samson is a type of Christ. His birth was miraculous because
his mother was barren. The Lord's birth was miraculous
because his mother was a virgin. Samson was sanctified. Samson
was set apart to be a Nazarite. The Lord Jesus was sanctified
to be the savior of sinners. Samson's birth was foretold by
an angel. The Lord's birth was foretold
by an angel. Samson delivered Israel by God-given
strength. Christ delivered true Israel
because he was God Almighty. Samson died in delivering his
people. Christ died for the deliverance
of his people. Samson was rendered helpless
by a haircut, blinded, had his eyes put out by his love for
a woman. He was bound with fetters of
brass, made to turn the hand mill as a beast in prison. And in the end, he lost his life
as he delivered his people. But our Lord Jesus as a man was
rendered helpless, so much so that he was forsaken of God.
While his hair was not cut, but men despised him so much that
they plucked out his beard in hostility and hatred. Our Lord's
eyes were not put out, but they were blind to the sin of his
people, and he took their sin upon himself and gave them his
perfect righteousness. And our Lord and Savior lost
His life in the place of His people, nailed to a prison called
the cross as a beaten beast of burden. And the Old Testament
from the very beginning of the creation of the world shows us
how God saves wretched sinners. God speaks life and gives life
to formless, void, dark and dead souls. And there's light and
there's life when He does. There's no doubt in the believer's
mind that salvation's of the Lord. That's not just a little
sovereign grace saying. That's the truth of the scriptures.
Salvation is of the Lord. For every child of God, the Lord
of heaven will make all his goodness pass before them and he'll proclaim
and reveal the name of the Lord to them. Is that not what he
did for you, child of God? He'll be gracious to whom He'll
be gracious. And He will show mercy on whom
He'll show mercy. That is His glory. He causes
us to stand upon Christ the rock. He puts us in the cleft of the
rock. He covers us with His omnipotent hand. And He passes by us in
love and mercy and grace in Christ. And throughout the contents of
all the Old Testament scriptures are pictures and types of the
Lord Jesus Christ with whom we have to do. He gives us, He shows
us, and He tells us. What Noah's wife told him, there's
salvation in no other. We see Christ in the covering
of skins for Adam. We see Christ in the sacrifice
of Abel. We see Christ in the ark that
Noah built. We see Christ in the sacrifice
for Isaac. God is able to provide Himself
a sacrifice. We see Christ in Israel's Passover
lamb. We see Christ in the blood over
the doors, being the only reason that God passed over them. We
see Christ in the pillar of the cloud. We see Christ in the pillar
of the fire, leading his people to the land of promise in a barren
wilderness of a world full of enemies. We see Christ in the
bread that fell from heaven. We see Christ in the rock that
followed with living water. We see Christ in the tabernacle
and everything within it. We see the Lord Jesus in the
brazen serpent. And all who look to Him high
and lifted up shall live. That's the gospel. We must look
to Jesus Christ and live. We see Christ in the cities of
refuge. We must get to Him in order to
have life. And the Old Testament shines
forth the light and the life of the one who was coming to
save his people from their sin. And that's why it's called a
hymn book, H-I-M. I love to call it that because
that's what it is. It's all about him, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said himself, Moses wrote
of me. The Lord Jesus in the books of Moses and all the prophets
and the Psalms expounded, he preached unto them in all the
scriptures, every one of them the things concerning himself,
Luke 24, 27. And nowhere in this sacred book
does man have a part in the payment of his sin, nor in the salvation
of his soul, nowhere. Last Sunday when I finished,
I didn't feel like I was finished. So the Lord willing, for this
Sunday and maybe the next couple, if the Lord's willing, I'm going
to bring you a short series on Samson, a type and picture of
Christ. So let's begin this morning in
Judges 14 and look at verse 1 with me. And I've titled this message,
and the riddle. Here we have a story about Samson
taking a wife and the riddle, the mystery of the work that
he alone accomplished. It was this riddle, it was this
mystery that in the end was the means to save all Israel as I
think you'll see. Okay, verse one, and Samson went
down to Timnath and he saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of
the Philistines. And he came up and he told his
father and his mother and he said, I've seen a woman in Timnath
of the daughters of the Philistines, now therefore get her for me
to wife. Verse three, then his father
and his mother said unto him, is there never a woman among
the daughters of thy brethren or among all my people that thou
goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said
unto his father, get her for me, for she pleaseth me well." Isn't it amazing that Samson
desires to take a wife from among the enemies of the Philistines? But is it not more amazing that
Christ would take a bride from among the Gentiles? That's even
more amazing, is it not? And the response of Samson's
parents in taking a bride outside of Israel is much like the Jews'
response in the New Testament of Christ showing mercy and grace
to Gentiles. And I suppose the incredible
thing is that the parents of Samson did not know that this
was actually the will and purpose of God by the leading of His
Spirit. You know, I think we forget so
many times when things go what we think to be wrong or not good,
however you want to say it, that it's God working all things after
the counsel of His own will. Verse four clearly states, but
his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord. What? Him taking a bride among
the Philistines. You see, God is the first cause
of all things. You know, we say that a lot.
You know what that means, just what it says. He's the first
cause of everything. Everything. They didn't know
that God sought an occasion against the Philistines, for at that
time, the Philistines had dominion over Israel. And knowing something
of man's nature, it was not Samson who sought this occasion against
the Philistines. Being a man, Samson was following
his will and his lust as such. The He spoken of here is God.
He's the first cause of everything. It was the Lord's sovereign providence
that brought about this occasion. And as always, God's sovereign
providence will lead to the downfall of His enemies. Again, as the
first cause of all things, Samson takes a bride among his enemies,
and it was of the Lord. And we can find such comfort
in that. Whatever comes our way, whatever transpires in this life
by the sovereign providence of God, we can rest assured that
it's for our good and for God's glory. Everything is, whether
by His ordaining the good or sovereignly allowing the bad
to come to pass. What a God. Samson's parents
had no understanding that Samson was doing according to the sovereign
will and purpose of God in the deliverance of Israel from the
Philistine. Just the same as the Jews had
no idea that Christ came, was going into the Gentiles. It was
all a part of God's will and purpose to deliver all his people,
both Jew and Gentile alike. from the enemy of sin. And I'm
so thankful that Christ came into the world to save Gentiles,
because that's what I am. Friends, come to Christ. He came into the world to save
sinners, and those who are well, righteous in their own eyes,
have no need. Samson's parents were not unreasonable
to show reluctance, concerning Samson's choice of a wife. They
had every reason to. But what a picture she is of
the true bride of Christ. She was a pagan. She was a Gentile. She was a worshiper of strange
gods. Does that sound familiar? That's
what we were. Our Lord will have mercy and
not sacrifice. He came not to call the righteous,
but sinners, pagans, Gentiles, worshipers of strange gods to
repentance. That's who He came to save. We see first that Samson chose
this wife. Why? Because she pleased Him,
according to verse 3. Samson says, She pleaseth me
well. She would, humanly speaking, prove to be an unfavorable choice.
She would betray Him eventually for fear of her own life. If
not for God's preservation in keeping you and I, dear sinner,
every believer would do the same. Simon Peter denied and betrayed
the Lord three times in fear of his life. Humanly speaking,
religiously speaking, the bride that the Lord has chosen is a
pagan, Gentile, worshiper of strange gods. By nature, we're
worshipers of self because we're lovers of self and we've proven
in our godless lives to be the least of the least and the worst
of the worst. Now, is that not so? The Apostle
Paul said that concerning himself. He said, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation, all our acceptance, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And then he added,
of whom I am she. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. In due
time, Christ chose a bride, worthless, wretched, worshiper of false
gods, and he made her his own. My, my, thank God that by his
grace, his name is called Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. Now, if you're a sinner, that'll
be important to you. Be the most important thing in
your life. Secondly, we learn that the bride,
the wife that Samson chose, was not the pretty one in the family.
Brother Darwin preached a message one time about Leah and Rachel. You know that story. And he titled
it, Waking Up with the Ugly Sister. That's a good description of
us. Ugly. Ungodly. without Christ and without
hope in this world. Samson's wife's father told him
in the very next chapter that he had given his wife to another,
a companion of his, but he told Samson, he said, but you can
take my younger daughter who was the prettier one. What a
picture this companion of Samson is to the law of God. Never thought
about that. The law of God, friends, is not
our enemy. Did you hear what I said? The
law of God is not our enemy. The law of God is not the enemy
of Christ. The law of God is Christ's companion. For Christ and the law, the glory
of God is at stake. God cannot save a sinner apart
from holy justice while he would cease to be God. The holy law
and justice of God requires that the law be perfectly obeyed,
fulfilled, kept in infallible and strict appliance. If that
were not so, God's holy justice would mean nothing. And God being
God, God being sovereign, has to do with Him always doing and
being right. The guilty cannot go free. The
innocent cannot be punished. Why? Because of God's holy justice. God will not allow it. His law
will not allow it. The holy justice of God being
God hangs on those two things. Justice is the soul that sins,
it shall die. Mercy is that Christ died the
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. In both,
the justice of God is met. And God remains God, holy, right,
and just, and the law of God written by Christ Himself as
God, their companions, wanting and desiring the same thing,
the salvation of His people. My, my, the law wants God to
be honored. The Father, Son, and the Spirit
as God will be honored because God the Son will honor God and
the Son will honor His law by the sacrifice of Himself. And
that is the gospel. That is why salvation is of the
Lord and of the Lord only. And how beautiful are the words
we find, for then must He, Christ, often have suffered since the
foundation of the world. But now, once in the end of the
world, hath appeared to put away sin. How? By the sacrifice of
himself. And in the only way for chosen
sinners to be saved, Christ honored God's holy justice and by the
sacrifice of himself, he made chosen sinners holy and just
by becoming the only sacrifice and substitute that a holy and
just God will accept. And that is the gospel. It's
a message of hope for the ugly sister. Now to think that Samson
chose her because it pleased him to do
so was one thing, but to pick her, to choose her, it was his
prerogative alone. The fact that we are informed
that Samson's wife was not the pretty one certainly alludes
to the fact that her beauty was found only in being the wife
of Samson. Now stay with me on this. The
only beauty, the only comeliness, the only righteousness, the only
goodness that we have is in being the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. Nothing within ourselves
The Lord told Ezekiel, and speaking to every fallen son and daughter
of Adam, he said, when I passed by thee and saw you polluted
in your own blood, I said unto you, when thou wast in thy blood,
live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live." God said, live. That's the only reason
we live. He said, I spread my skirt, my
righteousness over you. I covered your nakedness. I swore
unto you. I made a covenant with you. I
made a promise to do you good as my wife. And you became mine. You're my bride. You are beautiful
because you belong to me. I'm the one that washed you with
water. I'm the one that washed away your blood. I'm the one
who anointed you with oil. I'm the one who clothed you with
bordered work and badger skin and fine linen and silk. I decked
you with ornaments. I put bracelets on your hands.
I put a chain around your neck. I put a jewel in your forehead.
I put earrings in your ear. I made you beautiful. a beautiful
crown upon your head. I decked you with gold and silver."
Now listen very closely to this. And then the Lord said this in
Ezekiel 16 verse 14. He said, and your renown, your
standing, your position went forth from among the heathen
for or because your beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness. which I had put upon thee, saith
the Lord your God." Friends, there's nothing about us but
ugliness until we became the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our beauty and comeliness comes
from Him. The beauty of the moon at night
is only due to the reflection of the sun upon it. Husbands,
love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself
for it. And then thirdly, and probably
most importantly, the bride of Samson was the wife that God
chose for Samson. His relationship with this woman
would prove to be the means, as I've already said, by way
of divine purpose and providence, that Samson would in the end
deliver his people. I hope you're following me on
this. We're talking about Samson as a type of Christ. All Samson's
trouble was due to this woman. Now, I'm not trying to offend
any of you ladies, but it was the same with the Lord Jesus.
All His trouble came because of His bride. Well, He was wounded
for her transgression. He was bruised for her iniquities.
The chastisement of her peace was upon Him. By His stripes,
she was healed. This is the reason that Christ
came into the world, that He might sanctify and cleanse His
bride. By the washing of water, by the
Word. Ephesians 5. That He might present
this bride unto Himself. Present her how? A glorious wife. A glorious, perfect bride. A beautiful bride. Not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Oh, I looked in the mirror this
morning and said, who's that old man? There's spots and wrinkles
everywhere. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
I'm without spot or wrinkle, without sin. Perfect, beautiful,
glorious in every way. He has made His bride to be so,
to present her to Himself. She's holy without blemish. What
a great mystery concerning Christ in the church. What a great mystery
concerning Christ and His bride. And that brings me to the second
part of my title, The Riddle, The Mystery of Samson's Life.
Now in verse 10, we see that Samson made a feast and in verse
11, we read, and it came to pass when they saw him, that they
brought 30 companions to be with him. And Samson said unto them,
I will now put forth a riddle unto you. And if you can certainly
declare it me within the seven days of the feast and find it
out, then I'll give you 30 sheets and 30 changes of garments. But
if you cannot declare it me, then shall you give me 30 sheets
and 30 change of garments. And they said unto him, put forth
thy riddle that we may hear it. And he said unto them, out of
the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth
sweetness. And they could not in three days
expound the riddle. And it came to pass on the seventh
day that they said unto Samson's wife, entice thy husband that
he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's
house with fire. If you don't find out the answer
to this riddle, we're gonna kill you, and we're gonna burn you
and your family up. And in verse 16, and Samson's
wife wept before him and said, thou dost but hate me, and lovest
me not. Thou hast put forth a riddle
unto the children of my people, and hast not told it me. And
he said unto her, behold, I have not told it my father, nor my
mother, and shall I tell it to you? And she wept before him
the seven days while their feast lasted. And it came to pass on
the seventh day that he told her, because she lay sore upon
him. And she told the riddle to the
children of her people, the riddle that Samson's wife betrayed. Now this riddle, what a picture
it is of the mystery of godliness. And this riddle, these men thought
that they knew, but really Samson was the only one that really
knew what the riddle meant. You see, it was the work that
Samson alone accomplished. It's a mystery that Samson alone
had experienced. The riddle that eventually led
to Samson's arrest, his binding and his blinding and his imprisonment
and his victory in the end was found in the revelation of this
mystery. On the way to visit his pride,
the story tells us he's attacked by a lion, Samson is. And we're
told that the spirit of the Lord came upon him. You know, I'm
convinced that Samson didn't have abnormal strength unless
the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. And here the Spirit of the
Lord did, and with no weapon but by Himself, He destroyed
the line in short order. What a picture of what our Lord
did at Calvary, friends. Christ took on Satan, who as
a roaring line, And he destroyed this so-called king of beasts
and he made short work of the task. And this is where the riddle
comes in. Samson slew the lion, but he
didn't tell his parents. He told his wife. I didn't tell
my parents and I'm not going to tell you. And as far as I
can see from this passage of Scripture, Samson didn't tell
anyone about what had happened until he told his wife. And later
when Samson returned to Timnath, enough time had passed that when
he went by the place that he had killed the lion, there was
nothing left but just the skeleton, and there was a beehive that
had formed inside the carcass. And he retrieved the honey, and
he ate it, and he even gave some to his parents. And they found
it to be good. How tasty is the sweetness of
God's Word, the honey of God's Word. The world would not think
anything good could be found in the carcass of the dead, but
the child of God finds the sweet honey of God's grace in the defeat
of Satan and within the deadness of their own souls. The Lord
has defeated the lion and the children of God reap the benefit
thereof. Like Samson gave to his mother
and father to eat, everyone who has tasted of the grace of God
delights to give it to others so that they might also eat the
sweetness thereof. That's what you're doing this
morning. You're tasting the sweetness of God's mercy and grace, and
you're going, oh, that's so sweet. That is so sweet. Samson told
his wife this great mystery, this riddle, and out of fear
for her life, she betrayed that secret. And we don't have the
time to go into just how much that pictures our betrayal of
the gospel mystery on a daily basis. The Lord working all things
after the counsel of His own will, we see that Samson's wife's
betrayal produced the end and the designed result. That's what
I want you to see. God's divine providence always
does. All things work together for
the good of God's people. Israel, the people of God, benefited
from this. And the reason for the riddle
is found in the result that it produced. It produced exactly
what God purposed it to. It was the purposed occasion
for the destruction of God's enemy. Now, this world believes
it has the answer to this mystery. Sadly, most don't even know the
mystery of godliness. Verse 18, And the men of the
city said unto Samson on the seventh day before the sun went
down, What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?
You see, they knew the answer, but they didn't know why. This religious world has a form
of godliness, it sure does. This religious world knows some
things, but they don't know who killed the lion. And they don't
know who provided the sweetness of his grace. And they refuse to glorify God
as God. They wrestle with the Scripture,
it says, to their own destruction. They are said to search the Scriptures,
for in them they believe that they have life, but the Scriptures
are they which testify of Christ, and they don't know Him, and
they don't love Him. You know, the three lies of religion
today are God loves everyone, Christ died for all the world,
and man's salvation is according to his own free will. And men
and women use the Bible to prove their point. They quote the Bible
to set forth their doctrines. Well, John 3.16 says, they seek
to live in a way that suggests that they're a righteousness.
They know, but they don't know. They know, but they don't know.
That's the difficulty in preaching. We're not preaching to just outright
infidels, though they are, but with men and women who profess
to know God. That's the problem today. You
can't teach anybody anything. They know everything. There was a time I knew some
things. I knew some things about Christ, but I didn't know Christ. And I do count them all but done
that I may win Christ. What a picture here of true religion. The difference is subtle, but
it's deadly. Now hear me when I tell you this,
knowing about Christ is not knowing Christ. I know some things about
President Biden, but I don't know him personally. To those who have not God-given
faith, the gospel is a great mystery. It can't be understood
but by divine revelation. Samson alone slew the lion. Samson
alone tasted the sweetness, but they didn't know from where it
came and they didn't know how it was obtained. It was a mystery
unto them. And it's a mystery unto you until
God reveals it to you. But you better believe that Manoah
and his wife benefited from what Samson had done. I can see Manoah there licking
that honey up and saying, boy, that's the best honey I ever
ate. And that's what we do as the children of God. Samson fought the battle and
he slew the beast. And his parents didn't have any
part in the battle. They weren't there when he killed
the lion. They weren't there when he retrieved the honey from
the lion's carcass. But they no doubt benefited from
the work that Samson did. Christ putting away the roaring
lion. What a wondrous mystery. But
His people received the sweetness of victory because He's made
them His bride. Everything He has belongs to
us. We're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ. We have His perfect righteousness.
Samson's wife and the men of Timnath are pictures of false
religion and false hope. And they'll do whatever's necessary
to save themselves. But in the end, it always falls
short of the glory of God. Christ in Him crucified is the
glory of God. Oh, they knew that the lion was
strong. And they knew that honey was sweet, but they did not slay
the lion nor taste the honey, and the mystery is put forth
to their ruin. What a picture this is. False
religion and false professors are ever learning and never coming
to the knowledge of the truth. They know about things that they
don't know, and beloved, it's not what we know. but it's who
we know. Unto you it is given to know
the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without,
all these things are done in parables, done in riddles, and
in proverbs. How else could something so sweet
come out of something so dead? It's accomplished by the finished
work of Samson. Israel's deliverer. It's finished
by Christ, the captain of our salvation, through his sufferings
to bring many sons and daughters unto glory. That's the gospel
news. May God be pleased to make it
so. For his glory, our good, and for Christ's sake. Amen.