Fannie Crosby wrote that song.
We just sang two Fannie Crosby songs. I love that woman. I really
do. She is so sweet and special to
me. Turn with me back to Judges 15. There is so much in this chapter. For each of these messages, I've
thought about breaking them up, but I haven't done it. I felt
led to look at the whole chapter, and that's what we're gonna do
tonight. For a recap of what we've looked
at so far, as a picture of Christ, the angel of the Lord came in
chapter 13 to Samson's parents. and announced his birth. And to declare that he would
be the deliverer of his people from bondage. We see a picture
of Christ in that. Israel was in bondage to the
Philistines. They were the heathen. They were
the outcast. They represent sin. They represent the sin and the
spiritual death that natural man has been enslaved to. So his birth was announced, and
he was born, and he grew into a man. And chapter 14 told us
that he fell in love with a Philistine woman. He took a wife from the
sinful enemy. And that's exactly what Christ
did. That is literally exactly what Christ did. That is who
he set his love and affection on. His chosen bride was the
natural enemy of him. Not just the enemy, but his enemy. But he loved her. But God, that's
the gospel, isn't it? But he loved her. And he married her and he provided
for her. And he was faithful to her, even
though she was unfaithful to him. You know, like Peter told the
Lord, he said, they all may forsake you, but not me. They may turn
you in, but not me. You know, I'll, I'll die for
you. I'll die. Well, doesn't all the bride of
Christ think that about themselves at one point? She was unfaithful to him. At
the end of chapter 14, Samson's wife brought loss to him, proving
she still had the nature of sin in her. Chapter 15 says, but. Even though she was what she
was and was how she was and did what she did, chapter 15 verse
1 says, but, It came to pass within a while after, in the
time of wheat harvest, that Sampson visited his wife with a kid,
and he said, I will go into my wife into the chamber. She's
the one who offended him, but he's the one who came to make
reconciliation with her. It was at the time of wheat harvest
when the fields were full. Ready, you know, all the fruit
has come in. It's ready to harvest. The world was thriving. Verse
one, but it came to pass within a while after in the time of
wheat harvest that Samson visited his wife with a kid, and he said,
I will go into my wife into the chamber, but her father would
not suffer him to go in. Her father, the Philistine, representing
sin, said, you can't do this. You've lost your union with her. Verse two, and her father said,
I barely thought that thou hadst utterly hated her, therefore
I gave her to thy companion. That's what happened to the bride
of Christ in the Garden of Eden. That's what sin did. That's what sin caused her to
be, given to another. Given to another. That loss of
union, that bondage to sin, brought death to her. It did, it brought
death to her. Look at verse six. Then the Philistines
said, who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the
son-in-law of the Temnite, because he had taken his wife and given
her to his companion. And the Philistines came up and
burnt her and her father with fire. The wages of sin is death. In Adam, all died. As I mentioned to you last Sunday
night, there are three women mentioned in the life of Samson. Four, if you count his mother,
who I was talking with a brother today about the fact that her
name is never given. Samson's father's name was given,
but it just kept saying his wife, you know, Manoah's wife. In his life, there are three
women, three loves given to him and nothing good can be said
about any of them. Nothing good. This is the first one right here,
his wife. And there are two more in chapter
16, and this is how the Word of God portrays all three of
them. This one is an enemy. She's a
Philistine. You have an enemy, and then when
we get to chapter 16, you'll see we have a harlot and we have
a traitor. All three of them collectively
represent Christ's bride. That's us. That's us. They represent us. That's what
happened to us. In sin, we died. Because of our
sin, we died. The Lord told Adam, dying thou
shalt die. And that's exactly what happened.
That's what happened to man because of his sin against God. And this
is what God had to do because of man's sin against God. This is what God had to do. Verse
two. And her father said, I verily
thought that thou hadst utterly hated her, therefore I gave her
to thy companion. Is not her younger sister fairer
than she? Take her, I pray thee, instead
of her. And Samson said concerning them,
now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though
I do them a displeasure. He said, based on what has happened,
this is the only thing that's good and right. This is what
justice demands. And therefore, this is what has
to come because of their sin against me. Verse four. And Samson
went and caught 300 foxes and took firebrands and turned tail
to tail and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. He took a rope and he tied one
end to one fox's tail and the other end to another fox's tail,
and between them he had a torch. He had a fireball. Verse five,
and when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into
the standing corn of the Philistines and burn up both the shocks,
that's the cut, they've already cut the corn and it's just piled
up. The shocks and also the standing corn with the vineyards and olives. corn, grapes, olives, everything. He burned up everything in the
land, everything that was needed to sustain life, he burned it
all up. And in our Lord Jesus Christ's
good time, he is going to burn this land up. He's gonna burn
this land up because of man's sin against him. He's gonna send
a judgment of fire to this world that is going to literally burn
everything up, all right? And that's so, and that's what
that represents. But with that being said, because
of man's sin against him, there is another judgment that he has
sent. A judgment before that judgment
that is to come. It's a judgment of foxes. The
foxes are the greatest cause of the fire. This fire that's
going to come, it's going to be because of these foxes. Turn
over to 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 7 says, the mystery of iniquity doth
already work, sin. Only he who now letteth will
let until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that
wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit
of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all
power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish because they received
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should
believe a lie." is going to send them strong delusion that they
should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe
not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. There is
a judgment of strong delusion that God has sent to this world
because of man's sin against him. The strong delusion is false
religion. False prophets. Foxes. Foxes have spread the land with
it. They've spread this land with
it. Turn over to Luke 13. Verse 31, Luke 13 verse 31, it
says, the same day there came certain of the Pharisees saying
unto him, get thee out and depart hence for Herod will kill thee. These false prophet Pharisees
tried to use the excuse of Herod to get rid of our Lord. They
didn't want him there anymore. They didn't want him continuing
his work there. They said, you need to get out
because Herod is going to kill you. All right, verse 32. And
he said unto them, go ye and tell that fox. You tell that fox, behold, I
cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow and the third
day. I shall be perfected. Our Lord said, you go tell that
fox. He's a fox. That man is a fox. Turn over
to Luke 9. Verse 57, and it came to pass that as they
went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow
thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, foxes
have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son
of man hath not where to lay his head. You know, he's not just talking
about being poor and having no money. False prophets are accepted
in this world. They really are. They are welcome. They are loved in this world. False prophets have a place in
this world. Foxes have homes in this world.
But he said, I don't. I don't. Turn over to Ezekiel
13. Ezekiel 13, verse 1. And the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets
of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy
out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the Lord. Thus
saith the Lord God. Woe unto the foolish prophets
that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing. O Israel,
thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. You've not gone
up into the gaps. Neither made up the hedge for
the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the
Lord. He said, your false prophets
are like foxes, just all foxes. And all they're doing is ruining
everything. bringing ruin to this world. They're just burning
everything up. They're running through this
land, burning everything up. False prophets are the great,
great judgment on this world allowed by God. He allows that
to happen. And he's allowed many of them.
John said, try the spirits. You try the preachers. You try
the prophets. You try the foxes. to see whether they are of God
because many false prophets have gone out into the world, many.
Go back to Judges 15. Verse four, and Samson went and
caught 300 foxes and took firebrands and turned tail to tail and put
a firebrand in the midst between two tails. And when he'd set
the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of
the Philistines and burn up both the shocks and also the standing
corn with the vineyards and olives. Then the Philistines said, who
hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the
son-in-law of the Temnite, because he had taken his wife and given
her to his companion. And the Philistines came up and
burnt her and her father with fire. And Samson said unto them,
though you have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and
after that I will cease. He said, you did this to my wife,
And he didn't say, she will be avenged. He said, I will be avenged. You did this to my wife, and
I'm gonna be avenged. And as much as you've done it
to her, you've done it to me. Isn't that what our Lord said
in Matthew 25? As much as you've done it to them, you've done
it to me. When he stopped Saul of Tarsus, he said, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? Well, I wasn't, Lord. I was persecuting
your people. And as much as you've done it
to them, you've done it to me. That's how it is with our own
wives. Whatever you do to her, you do to me. Good or bad. You
do something good for her, you're doing it to me. You're just so
happy about that. Well, that's what our Lord Jesus
Christ said concerning his bride. I've joined myself to her in
redeeming her back to me. We are one. And because we are
one with him, when he avenges himself, he avenges her. He avenges
his bride. Luke 18 says, shall not God avenge
his own elect? He'll avenge them speedily. Verse seven, and Samson said
unto them, though you have done this, yet will I be avenged of
you, and after that I will cease. And he smote them hip and thigh
with a great slaughter. And he went down and dwelt in
the top of the rock, Edom." Based on Isaiah 2 and Isaiah 57, that
was a place where idols were thrown down. It was a cliff where
men and women would throw their idols away. Verse nine says, then the Philistines
went up and pitched in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi. Lehi means the place of the jawbone. For the sake of our picture,
we could think of it as the place of the skull. That's what Golgotha,
that's what Calvary was called. That's where the avenging took
place. That's where the idolatry was cast down, the cross of Calvary. Verse nine, then the Philistines
went up and pitched in Judah. They went up and pitched in Judah
where the men of Israel were. Spread themselves in Lehi and
the men of Judah said, why are you come up against us? And they
answered, to bind Samson are we come up to do to him as he
hath done to us. Then 3,000 men of Judah, 3,000
men of Israel, not the Philistines, but Israel, went to the top of
the rock 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 to them, an eye for an eye. Judgment
and righteousness must come to pass. Verse 12, and they said
unto him, we're 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 yourselves. And they
spake 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. Can we see the comparison that
the Jews were the ones who came and laid hold of Christ and bound
him and brought him to the Romans? They said, we want him dead,
but we don't want to do it. We want you to do it. We're not
gonna do it, you're gonna do it. Verse 13, they spake 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. 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 and he found a new jawbone of an ass and put forth
his hand and took it and slew a thousand men therewith. That's amazing, isn't it? A thousand
men with a jawbone. That jawbone is the cross. Those two new cords, those ropes
that bound him were death and the grave. Our Lord laid in a
new tomb where no man had ever laid before. But there came a
point where death and that grave could conceal him no longer. And those bands had to let him
go. Verse 16, and Samson said, with
the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone
of an ass, have I slain a thousand men. When Christ died on the
cross, the scripture says all of his people died in him. They
all died with him. Those thousand men were his own. They represent his elect. Paul
said, I am crucified with Christ. I died in Him." That's the particular
number that was slain, the elect of God, the enemy though they
were. Their judgment of death that
was carried out on the cross of Calvary. But even though they
died with Christ, the accomplishment was all His. Verse 16, Samson
said, with the jawbone of an ass, Heaps upon heaps with the
jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men. And it came to
pass when he had made an end of speaking that he cast away
the jawbone out of his hand and called that place Rameth-Lehi. That means the lifting up of
the jawbone or casting away of the jawbone, meaning he did it
alone. He by himself accomplish this. It wasn't the cross. It was the
Christ who hung on that cross. Now, our Lord takes the message
of the cross and he uses a jawbone to preach it. You could say the jawbone of
an ass. Our Lord has been pleased to
use a jawbone to slay his people with the message of the gospel.
This jawbone is the cross. This jawbone is the preaching
of the cross that God has been pleased to use to slay and conquer
his people to himself. With all that being said, In
both cases, it's not the jawbone. It's not the jawbone. It's not
the preacher. It's the Christ he's preaching.
Proof of that is in Numbers 22. We're not gonna turn over there,
but some of you know this story and have heard this story. In
Numbers 22, the Lord literally used the jawbone of an ass, a
donkey. You remember that story when
that donkey started talking? The mouth of an actual donkey
spoke to a man named Balaam. The jawbone of an ass. Meaning
our Lord can use anyone or anything. He can use, you know, a preacher's
not important. He can literally use a donkey
if he wants to. The scripture says the message
concerning him is a new message. It's a new song, the Psalms call
it. It's about all things being made
new in him, a new jawbone. Verse 18, and he was sore of
thirst. From the cross, our Lord Jesus
Christ cried, I thirst. In him his people thirst. Ho, every one that thirsteth. If any man thirst, David said
in Psalm 42, my soul thirsts for God. If any man hunger and
thirst. Verse 18, he was sore a thirst
and called on the Lord and said, thou hast given this great deliverance
into the hand of thy servant. And now shall I die for thirst
and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. But God, clave
and hollow place that was in the jaw, meaning in this place,
this city, Lehi. God made a cliff in the rock. cliffed through the cross, and there came water thereout,
just like Christ the smitten rock, and the water flowed out. Verse 19, God clave in hollow
place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout, and
when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived. Wherefore
he called the name thereof in Hachori, which is in Lehi unto
this day. That name means the well of him
that called or cried. That's Christ. Christ is the well. Christ is
the gospel. He is the well of salvation. Verse 20 says, and he judged
Israel in the days of the Philistines 20 years. Christ is the judge,
seated on his judgment throne now and forever. Amen.