If you wanna turn in your Bibles
to the book of Judges, the book of Judges chapter 14, this is
going to be the second part of last week's message on Samson. I don't know about you, but I
really enjoy thinking about what God is teaching us about this
man, Samson. There's a great deal the Lord
is saying to us through him, But as I tried to emphasize last
week, when we understand the message of the gospel in the
New Testament revealed to us by the spirit of God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, God's only begotten son, when we understand
that message, why he came, what he did, what he accomplished
and obtained for us, his ascension and where he is now reigning
in glory, to save us to the uttermost by his intercession at God's
right hand. When we see that in the gospel,
then when we read the Old Testament, we understand what God's message
is there too. It may be difficult to see because
in the Old Testament, it comes through shadows. In the New Testament,
the light is bright. As Rommel said, it's plain. It's
God's own dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest.
who sits in glory and intercedes for his people, having accomplished
their redemption by his own life, shedding his own blood for them.
When we look at Samson, we're going to see the Lord Jesus Christ,
therefore. And I want to point out some
of these things to you. I want to also drag back in chapter
13, so that you can see the continuity here through these chapters.
There's a great deal of material here. We're not going to be able
go through all of it in detail. Even if we did, we would still
have so much to cover. It just wouldn't happen. But
one thing I want to emphasize here is that Samson was a type,
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He foreshadowed in his life what
Christ would actually do, who he was, his office, his relation
to his people, his work in order to save them and all that he
did in accomplishing that salvation for them, defeating their enemies,
all of it's seen in the life of Samson. So again, this is
the second part in that series. Now, if you recall from Judges
chapter 13, Samson's birth was promised. He was born of promise,
remember? Before he was born, The angel
of God, which we understand to be the Lord Jesus Christ from
scripture, because when the angel of God ascended in that flame
of that offering offered to God, he did wonderfully. And that's
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, wonderful. And also because Manoah
and his wife understood that they had seen God in seeing him,
which we understand is the Lord Jesus Christ. No man has seen
God at any time. The only begotten son who is
in the bosom of the father, he has declared him. so that Samson's
birth was of promise. And you know that God created
this world because of a promise he made to his son. He created
this world because he promised eternal life to his people when
he promised to the Lord Jesus Christ that by the pledge of
his own sufferings and death, he would raise them to life and
give them eternal life with him That's God's eternal promise
to give eternal life to as many as he had given to his son. And
so the Lord Jesus Christ was born of promise. The Old Testament
itself is full of that promise and Samson is seen in his birth
to be a child of promise. And not only that, but his father
Manoah, now we don't talk about Manoah's faith much, but his
father Manoah, when he heard that the angel, the Lord Jesus
in his pre-incarnate form had appeared to his wife and told
her about Samson's birth by promise and what would happen, Manoah
himself asked the Lord to come again and tell him that promise,
remember? And here's a man of faith. What
does God do by his spirit in us when he gives us faith in
Christ? Out of our hearts springs this prayer, Lord, come to me
and speak to me of him. And then Manoah said, when he
asked this of the Lord in Judges chapter 13, he entreated the
Lord in verse eight, and he said, oh my Lord, let the man of God,
which thou did send come again to us and teach us what we shall
do unto the child that shall be born. He not only wanted the
man of God, who was the Lord Jesus Christ, to appear again,
but he wanted him to tell them what to do. And this is faith's
attitude. Show me Christ, tell me what
I ought to do. Isn't it? Because we were created
in Christ Jesus in order that we might live to God. And this
is the effect, the result of the new covenant in Christ's
blood, that he would work in us that which is well-pleasing
in his sight. And we might be mature in that,
okay, that faith. So we see that in Manoah. But
then the sacrifice that they offered, remember? And so we
see that Samson's birth, his name, by the way, Samson means
son, S-U-N. And it also means servant. And
I think I might've mentioned this last week, I don't remember.
So in Samson, we see the sun, we see the brightness of God's
light in this man who was a servant and how was he a servant? He
was a servant because he lived, his life was before his birth
and up to his death, he lived for the deliverance of Israel.
He lived for others, he lived for God's people. So he was a
servant and in his life, we see the brightness of the son of
righteousness, we see a reflection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
his birth was not only of promise, in that he was given by God,
according to promise, which was a mirror of really how Christ
was born, of promise, to a woman who had never born before, and
a miraculous birth by the Spirit of God, conceiving Christ in
her womb, And yet this woman, Manoah's wife, had to also, by
a miraculous act of God, had to conceive Samson in the womb.
So we see that similarity there, a reflection again of the Lord
Jesus Christ and his coming. But also remember the offering
that Manoah and his wife offered at the approval of Christ, the
man, the messenger of God who appeared to them. They put that,
flower or that meal offering and they put that kid that that
small lamb or that goat on the rock to offer it and the fire
then consumed it and Christ did wondrously remember and uh and
they asked him before that they asked him what is your name and
he said why do you ask me my name seeing it a secret that's
the way it's written in the king james version but um In the King
James Version, it also says, and it's true, that this is in
chapter 13, verse 17, Manoah said to the angel of the Lord,
what is thy name? that when thy sayings come to pass, we may
do thee honor. You see, Manoah wanted to give
credit to the angel for all the things that were about to come
to pass, which was what? It was a promise God made about
Samson, how he would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines.
Okay, so he wanted to know his name because he wanted to do
him honor But remember, all this is written for our instruction.
The name here that's revealed wasn't a secret in the sense
that the Lord was trying to hide it from them. It was a question,
why do you ask my name? Because it's wonderful. So when
they understood his name, then they would understand him. So
they were asking, and rightly so, as every believer does, what
is your name? Tell me who you are. what you
will do, because by this we'll know who to glorify, who to give
credit to. And so that we see not only in
the birth of Samson, was it by promise, by a miracle, mirroring
the conception and the coming into the world of the Lord Jesus
Christ to save his people from their sins, but also it was all
done for what reason? For the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the one whose name is wonderful. And it was seen here
in this sacrifice too. What was the promise that God
made to his people that Samson would begin to deliver the Philistines
from the hand of their enemies? What was the promise God made
to his people in the birth of Christ? His name will be called
Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. And how did
he do that? How did he fulfill that promise of God to save his
people from their sins? When he offered himself to God
for us. when he stood before the throne,
the court of heaven, the governor of all the universe, and as our
surety, he answered the demands of God for us. with himself,
with himself. He didn't just say, well, here,
let me give something that belongs to me. He gave himself, he gave
all that he had. And so it was all done, all of
Samson's life, all of his, his birth, his life and his death,
because he was consecrated to God as a Nazarite from the womb
until the day of his death was all done. for the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ to teach us about him. Now, it does say here
that he would be a Nazarite. Look at Numbers chapter six.
I mentioned this last week, but I didn't have you turn there.
In Numbers chapter six, because I saw something this week that
you will enjoy, I think. Numbers chapter six. I'm not
gonna read what the vow of the Nazarite was, but suffice it
to say, that the Nazarite was dedicated to God and he did certain
things. He couldn't eat grapes. He couldn't
drink of the fruit of the vine. He couldn't eat any unclean thing. And he had to shave his head.
He had to let his hair grow. I'm sorry. Is that the way it
says here? Nazarite. I know. Oh, yeah. Verse five,
all in number six, verse five, all the days of the vow of the
vow of his separation, there shall be no razor come upon his
head. So he had to let his hair grow long. And you know that
in 1 Corinthians 11, it says that for a man to have long hair,
it's a shame. For a woman, it's her glory, because a man is the
glory of Christ, is not the glory of Christ, but is to reflect
Christ. But the woman is the glory of
the man, so that she shows her subjection to her husband with
her long hair, and he shows his subjection to Christ, that he
gives Christ all the glory by his shorter hair. But for a man
to have long hair in 1 Corinthians 11, 5, it says that it's a shame
for him. Here is a man who has long hair.
He took a vow, he's dedicated to the Lord. His life is separated
to God. His strength was in this consecration. God set him apart. That was his
strength. God set him apart. God chose
him. And all the way until, unlike here in number six, not just
a short time, but all the way to his death, Samson was a Nazarite
to God. And the word Nazarite means Nazarene. He was of Nazareth, Jesus of
Nazareth. And the Christians were associated
with that sect of the Nazarene in Acts chapter 24. And that
was a shame to them that they were associated with him. In
fact, the man who argued against Paul before Felix tried to use
that as a way to have Felix condemn Paul because he was associated
with the sect of the Nazarenes, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
we are too. We believe him. They were called
Christians because they were associated with a sect of the
Nazarene Christ of Nazareth. The one from his birth to his
death was dedicated to God, separated from God from the womb to his
death. But look at Numbers chapter 6 here. I want you to see this
in verse 21. This is the law of the Nazarite
who has vowed and of his offering unto the Lord for his separation
beside that which his hand shall get according to the vow which
he vowed so he must do after the law of his separation. He
had to fulfill his vow. And because of that, notice in
verse 22, and the Lord spake to Moses saying, speak unto Aaron
and unto his son saying, on this wise you shall bless the children
of Israel saying to them, dot, dot, dot. When did the blessing
come? when the vow of the Nazarite
was fulfilled. And notice verse 24, the Lord
bless thee and keep thee, the Lord make his face shine upon
thee and be gracious to thee, the Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace and they shall put my name upon
the children of Israel and I will bless them. The Lord Jesus Christ
fulfilled the vow. That's why all the blessings
come to us. And so in all these ways, we
see Samson, even before his birth, was to give glory to the Lord
Jesus Christ, was to reflect his name in all that he did.
And Christ himself fulfilled all this in his own sacrifice
of himself to God for our sins. And by that he established, he
set forth and justified us in his own righteousness. What an
amazing thing this is. What an amazing thing. When Samson, took this vow to the Lord, he
fulfilled it in his life. When the Lord Jesus Christ took
this vow to be separated into God and the eternal covenant
of God's grace, pledging his blood and then in time coming
and fulfilling that pledge, it was because of that vow. that
he then, as the man ascended in the flame, or the angel, the
Lord Jesus Christ ascended in that flame, it was because of
that that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended in the glory. Do you
see? It's like it was showing that
he was successful. Could the Lord Jesus Christ ascend?
and lead captivity captive and give gifts to men if he didn't
first descend first and accomplish God's will in humiliation? No. And because he ascended, it means
that all that he was given to do he fulfilled. So that like
a shepherd, if God had committed to him all of his sheep and he
came back and one of them was missing, it would be to the shame
of the unfaithful shepherd who failed. But Christ ascended,
therefore all of his sheep were brought to glory. He died the
just for the unjust to bring us to God. He was successful
on that day he made atonement in Leviticus chapter 16. It says
that in verse 30. And so just as the shepherd is
unsuccessful and unfaithful if he doesn't bring all of his sheep,
and as the high priest would be a failure if he didn't actually
make atonement, and the Redeemer would be no Redeemer unless he
actually paid the debt and release all the redeemed. So our Savior
ascended into glory in victory, total victory over his enemies
as the Lord Jesus Christ did in this offering of Manoah and
his wife. And so we see that in Judges
13. Now in Judges 14, we're going to get into this next part here
about Samson's relation to these different women. And this is
the theme of Judges 14, 15, and 16. The relation of Samson to
these women corresponds to the relation of Christ to his people. But when you read these chapters
in 14, 15, and 16, we naturally feel ashamed for Samson because
he first loved a woman of the Philistines, of the uncircumcised. In other words, a Gentile, someone
who was not of Israel. And then in the next chapter,
in chapter 15, he goes on, he went into a harlot. And so, and then in, all right,
so maybe it's in chapter, yeah, I think it's in chapter 15. And
then chapter 16, he goes to, it's in chapter 16, it's a harlot.
And then in chapter 16, verse four, you see him with Delilah. So there's three different women
mentioned in Samson's life. Every one of them were women
of ill repute. First, a woman of the uncircumcised,
second, a harlot, and then Delilah, who was also a harlot. And so
we think, well, as I was reading and thinking about these things
over the last several days, I was also thinking, how could this
be? How could Samson love this woman? The woman, in the first
case, begged him to tell his riddle. and then use that against
him. And the second case, a harlot,
they bound him up in the city, shut the gates, closed them,
locked them with bars. And then the third case, Delilah
begged him to tell about his strength. And in every case,
it was to Samson's weakness. It seemed as if he was made weak
by that. because he submitted to her in
this. He told his riddle. He went into
the harlot in this city and allowed himself to be captured. And then
the third case, it was finally where they took him, they bound
him, put out his eyes and made him grind until his hair began
to grow. And finally he brought down the
whole temple of the Philistines. So in all these things, we see
the relation of Samson to these women of ill repute. But I want
you to think about this because we need to understand the great
significance of these women and what it means here. And I want
to get into the details of it somewhat, but first of all, realize,
think about this chapter in the New Testament, in John chapter
8. Remember that famous chapter, the first 11 verses of John chapter
8. What happened? Well, there was
a woman, When Jesus was there teaching the people, there was
a woman who was caught in the act of adultery and she was brought
to Jesus by the Pharisees, by the scribes and the Pharisees.
And they set her right in the middle where he was teaching.
Right there where he's claiming to be sent of God with God's
word, they bring a woman who was taken in the very act of
adultery. Now they got him. Moses said
that this woman should be stoned. This adulterous woman, what do
you say? Did the Lord Jesus Christ stone
her? That's what the law required. Why not? It's interesting that
there were many women when Jesus was on the earth that he is seen
with. Remember the woman who was bowed
together and couldn't straighten herself up, she couldn't stand
up. And Jesus said to her, woman, you're loosed from your infirmity.
And then he laid his hand on her back and immediately she
was made straight. And the Pharisees, he did this
on the Sabbath day. He can't be of God. And then
there was that woman in Matthew 15, who was of the Syrophoenician
woman of Tyre and Sidon. not a Jew, not of Israel, a woman
of a city of bad reputation, the people who were under the
curse of God. And here comes this woman of
that place, a woman of Tyre and Sidon pleading with Christ for
her daughter who was troubled by a devil. And remember what
happened? He comes to her, I mean, she
comes to Christ, he doesn't even answer. She comes to his disciples
and they intercede against her to the Lord Jesus Christ and
says, she's crying after us, send her away. And he said, I'm
not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. What
a rebuke you would think, right? She said, Lord, help. She worshiped him and she said,
Lord, help me. He said, it's not right to take
the children's bread and give it to dogs. And she said, truth,
Lord, but even the dogs eat of the crumbs of their master's
table. And he said, oh, woman, great
is thy faith, be it unto you even as you will. And from that
moment, her daughter was free. So there was another woman. And
then the woman in Luke chapter 7, When the Pharisee came, invited
Jesus into his house and this woman was there and the Pharisee
looks at Jesus and this woman is coming up behind him and pouring
out her tears, so many tears that she used her own tears to
wash his feet and then dried them with her hair. And the Pharisee
said, you know, if he knew, if he was a prophet, he would know
what this woman is. And then Jesus said, well, you
know, I have something to say to you, Simon, Pharisee. There
were two debtors. One owed 50, another owed 500
pence, 10 times what the first owed. And when neither one of
them had anything to pay, the creditor, frankly, freely, with
nothing from them, forgave them all their debts. And he asked
the Pharisees, he said, which of them do you think will love
him the most? And he said, well, I suppose the one who was forgiven
10 times what the other one owed, 500, not 50. He said, you've
spoken rightly. This woman, since I came in here,
has not ceased to wipe my feet with her hair, shed her tears
on my feet and to wipe them with her hair and to pour this on
my head, this alabaster box. But when I came in here, you
gave me no water for my feet. You didn't annoy my head with
oil. But this woman, because she was forgiven much, she loved
much. So there's a third woman. And
remember all the women who attended to Jesus' needs when he was on
the earth? They followed him, trying to
do things for him. Mary, Martha, the sisters of
Lazarus, And Mary Magdalene, who was another woman of ill
repute. So he was always seen with these women. There was the
woman at the well. She had five husbands and the
man she was now living with was not her husband. And again, the
one in John eight, the woman taking an adultery. So the Lord
Jesus Christ prominently was seen with publicans and harlots. And this is, And this seemed
to be contrary to what? The law of God. And then there's
an entire chap, I mean, entire book of the Old Testament, the
book of Hosea, that's dedicated to God's instruction to Hosea,
whose name means Joshua, Jesus, to go marry a harlot and to bear
children by her. she did in the first two you
know I'm not going to get into that but the point is here is
that somehow what Christ did didn't violate the law in fact
it honored the law and so what we see in Samson here where he
first loved a woman of the Philistines He went down and he saw this
woman there in chapter 14, we're gonna see this. And he loved
her and he asked his mom and dad, I want her, I wanna marry
her, get her for me. And so they both go down, he
goes down with them and he talks with her. And after he talked
with her, he loved her more. And I have to have her. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to save sinners. That was the reason he came,
to save his people from their sins, both those who were represented
by the nation of Israel and Judah then when Samson was given by
God. And also the wives, these women of these ill repute and
the Lord Jesus Christ came in. What is happening here? How can scripture do this? It
was obviously God's will that Hosea marry a harlot. It was
obviously God's will that the Lord Jesus Christ loved Martha
and Mary and Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well, the woman
in John 8, the woman who came with her child, her daughter,
vexed with the devil, the woman who poured alabaster box or broke
it open and poured it on his head and washed his feet with
her tears and dried him with her hair. All these women were
loved of Christ and many more. The woman bowed together for
18 years. How could this be? How can you reconcile this? Well,
it's because God prefers he delights in mercy right he delights this
surprises us in fact it so surprised those who were opposed to Christ
that they hated him for this they used this as a weapon against
him to accuse him to hold him as if he was under judgment But
no, this is where he actually fulfilled the very righteousness
of God. You see, when we were utterly
without righteousness, guilty and helpless, without strength,
then the Lord Jesus Christ came and he fulfilled. He did. He,
in his life, by his faith in God, he made known the righteousness
of God. Amazing. What is the righteousness
of God? It's his mercy to sinners, his
grace to sinners on the basis, the ground of the blood of his
own son. We read it, and Ramel read it
last week in 1 John 4, 10. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be, what? the
blood sacrifice that made appeasement of God's wrath and satisfying
his justice that he might have mercy and grace upon sinners,
the propitiation for our sins. That is the righteousness of
God made known. This is contrary to all that
we naturally think. We think like the Pharisees.
Well, what's more important is that you actually do the law.
Now, actually, here's something we didn't realize. This was something
we did not expect. It was a total surprise that
Jesus Christ, by his obedience in faith to God, would shed his
blood, lay his life down, and in so doing, would save a people
who were in themselves harlots. and worthy of the stoning of
God's law. And he wouldn't just honor God's
law in doing that, but he would save them so that God's mercy
would be fully and abundantly poured out upon them and God's
law honored in what he did because of the love of the Lord Jesus
Christ for a sinful people. And this is what I see in Samson. And John Fortner used to say
it this way, Brad and I were talking about this last week
after the service, that Samson portrayed the Lord Jesus Christ
in that he had an insatiable desire and love for harlots. That's why he came. He, the son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He washed us,
He who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
Revelation 1.5, right? These are the very words of the
Spirit of God revealing to us the heart of Christ. If you've
seen me, you have seen the Father, the heart of the Father. This
is His delight. This is the will He came to do
and did. And He didn't fail in it one
iota. So here's the Samson, our almighty
Samson, you see. And I wanna make sure we get
that in before we get this. Now let's look at this in Judges
14. Judges 14, Samson went down to Timnath and saw a woman in
Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines, obviously not of
Israel, of the enemies of God's people. And he came up and told
his father and mother and said, I've seen a woman in Timnath
of the daughters of the Philistines, now therefore get her for me,
to wife. I wanna marry her. He saw her,
he loved her, I want her, get her. He goes to his mother and
his father, like Jesus in Luke 2 49. What are you doing with
these people here? Talking in the temple, you're
only 12 years old. Don't you know, I must be about my father's
business. This is my father's business. I came for this woman.
to give his life for the church. Verse three, then his father
and his mother said to him, is there never a woman among the
daughters of all thy brethren or among all thy people that
thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines,
the Gentiles? The whole New Testament is about
this mystery. Don't you know? God saving the
Gentiles. The Jews were as a people and
a nation rejected Christ and in Ephesians, He says, this is
a mystery, hidden God from the foundation of the world, that
God had a people out of the Gentiles. He gave to his son an eternity
and he would love them and they would be his body, one with him. He goes on. And Samson said to
his father, get her for me, for she pleases me well. But his
father and mother, notice, knew not that it was of the Lord.
We didn't either, did we? No one else did either until
God made it known through his holy apostles and prophets. In
Ephesians chapter three, Paul says, I was given this as a stewardship
to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ to the Gentiles. that you might know the love
of God which passes knowledge, the height, the breadth and height
and depth of the love of Christ. So his father and mother knew
not it was of the Lord that he sought an occasion against the
Philistines, for at that time the Philistines had dominion
over Israel. The Lord not only loved and saved a people for
Christ, but he destroyed all of their enemies in one fell
swoop. Verse five, and then went Samson down and his father and
his mother to Timnath and came to the vineyards of Timnath.
And behold, now it must have been that Samson was separated
at this time from his mother and father. They all went down
to Timnath. They were somehow not together because later they
didn't know about this, but when he, Samson, is going to get his
wife, what happens? Behold, a young lion roared against
him, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and Samson
rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in
his hand, but he told not his father or mother what he had
done. Just tore the lion in two. Amazing. Just like he was nothing. There's so much to say about
this. As I said last week, the strength of this man, he had
the power of God. No one could tear a lion in two.
No one could just... All of his claws, you've seen
claws on a lion. They can latch themselves onto
animals and the animal can't get free. Their claws are like
fish hooks. Their teeth are huge. They could
crush you without even breaking a sweat. And he grabs the lion,
like you're nothing, you're nothing. Who was this? What happened here?
The Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of his invincible, almighty
hatred for our enemies and love for his people, by the spirit
of God, by the power of his word, he slew our enemies by fulfilling
his word in the cross. He defeated Satan, he destroyed
the works of the devil. He let go those who were held
in bondage to that devil all their lifetime. The Lord Jesus
Christ, he says, a strong man keeps his goods and peace in
his castle. But when a stronger than he comes,
he overcomes him and binds a strong man. And then he takes away all
his goods, his people, the Lord Jesus Christ did that. Just tore
him up. Now it says here, and he went
down in verse seven, but he told not his father or mother what
he had done. It was still a secret. He wasn't boasting. Hey, look
at me. No, he didn't do any of that.
He knew it was the spirit of God, didn't he? He knew it was
a secret. It would be revealed in time.
He didn't come to proclaim himself, although he did. He wasn't boasting. He was here to save his people
from their sins. That would be his accomplishment. He goes on
in verse eight. And after a time, he returned
to taker and turned aside to see the carcass of the lion.
This is not a short time. It would have been a long time
because the lion's flesh of the lion would have decayed. His
bones would have been there. The bees would have made their
nest in his carcass. And behold, there was a swarm
of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. And what's sweeter
than honey in scripture? The law of the Lord, remember
Psalm 19? Let me read it to you there.
He says this in Psalm 19. He says, the law of the Lord
is perfect in verse seven. Let's see, let me get it right
here. Yeah, verse seven. The law of
the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the
Lord is sure, making wise and simple. The statutes of the Lord
are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, gay, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb. And what's sweeter than honey
and the honeycomb? is the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, what he did in order to fulfill and end the law for
righteousness. As I tried to elucidate just
a moment ago, and what he did to save sinners, he more than
fulfilled the law. He did more than the law ever
demanded because he gave himself for us. And that is sweeter than
the honey. He defeated our enemies, He made
a shame, he spoiled principalities and powers. He nailed the accusation
against us to his cross and he spoiled them. And then he led
us as his captives free from our captor. So he goes on. So he took in verse nine, he
took thereof in his hands and he went on eating and came to
his father and mother and he gave them, they did eat and he
told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass
of the lion. The Lord Jesus Christ lived upon, he lived for the
will of God. He would do it. He would work
it out. That became the gospel, the work of Christ for us, the
one sent from heaven by God, the son of God, the son of man
in our nature, doing all to save us. That's the gospel and the
fulfillment of it. He did it. He not only lives
upon the word of God, of what he would do, but he actually
fulfilled it so that it would be for us good news and we live
upon it just like his father and mother. He lived to do the
will of God and he delights in what he did and he makes that
known. It's all of our food. We all eat that. Verse 10, so
his father went down to the woman and Samson made there a feast,
for so used the young men to do. Came to pass when they saw
him that they brought 30 companions to be with him. This is like
a wedding gathering, like before the wedding, they would gather
together and the Philistines brought 30 men to be his companions. Well, you wonder sometimes what
they really meant by that, not his true friends, but something
else they had in mind. Verse 12, and Samson said to
them, I will now put forth a riddle to you. If you can certainly
declare it to me within the seven days of the feast and find it
out, then I will give you 30 sheets and 30 change of garments.
But if you cannot declare it to me, then shall you give me
30 sheets and 30 change of garments. And they said to him, put forth
a riddle that we may hear it. What was his riddle? It's gonna
be concerning this honeycomb out of the lion. Verse 14, he
said to them, out of the eater came forth meat and out of the
strong came forth sweetness. Again, when the Lord Jesus Christ
by his death on the cross accomplished everything, including the utter
crushing of the head of Satan, that's our food. That's our food. That's what we eat. We drink
his blood and eat his flesh. We live upon by faith upon the
son of God and what he did. Out of the eater came forth meat,
out of the strong came forth sweetness, and they could not
in three days expound the riddle. The riddle was what? The gospel.
It came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson's
wife, entice thy husband that he may declare to us the riddle,
lest we burn thee in thy father's house with fire. Have you called
us to take that we have? In other words, all we have is
our clothes. Have you called us to this marriage now to give
up what we have? Is it not so? And so 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 to her, behold, I
have not told it to my father, my mother. Shall I tell it to
thee? And she wept before him the seven
days while the 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. Okay, what's happening here?
This woman that Samson loved is very weak. She's from an uncircumcised
people. She has no strength. She's a shameful woman, isn't
she? And she pleads with him, tell me the riddle. Isn't this
talking about the need of God's people to hear from Christ concerning
his work to overcome their enemies? Isn't it saying this? Now, when
we look at these things in scripture, we say, well, I don't know. It
seems like that the prototype or the shadow, the type itself
seems to be imperfect. It seems like that it fell far
short of what Jesus did in terms of clarity and other things.
Well, of course it will, because it's just a shadow. Adam was
a type of Christ, wasn't he? A figure of him that was to come.
And yet in that figure, he actually plunged his entire posterity
under the condemnation of sin. How could that be? Well, he was
a type in the sense that he stood for them in all that he did in
that first commandment of God not to eat of the tree of knowledge
of good and evil. So here this woman, even though
she was the object of Samson's ardent love, in herself she's
weak, in herself she's under what? Well, her own people threatened
her. They told her, we're going to
burn you with fire and your father too, unless you are loyal to
us. And what does that remind you
of in the New Testament? Think of the book of Galatians.
The Judaizers come down to the Galatian believers and they said,
you know, you also need to be circumcised. And they use these
wily words in order to subtly introduce to them something they
would need to do in order to make what Christ did work, in
order to do their part, in order to make them loyal to the Judaizers
and not entirely loyal to Christ. And Paul told them in 2 Corinthians
11, 3, I'm concerned for you. This is 2 Corinthians 11, verse
3. He says, I'm concerned that you might even be enticed to
leave, to depart from Christ, the singular one who saved us
for another gospel, that you might be enticed by the devil. Let me read that to you in 2
Corinthians 11. He says, I fearless by any means as the
serpent beguiled Eve through her, through his subtleties.
So your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. The only way of salvation, the
only one you are to worship, the only way you can come to
God, Christ. The simplicity, it's like a single
eye. All you see is him. I'm concerned
that you're gonna be enticed away from him just like Eve,
just like the Galatians. And so what did these men here
do to Samson's wife in Timnaph? They laid a yoke upon her, like
you would put upon an ox to plow in the field. And Samson speaks
of this. He says in verse 18, the men
of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went
down, what's sweeter than honey? What's stronger than a lion?
And he said, if you had not plowed with my heifer, you had not found
out my riddle. In other words, you put the yoke
of bondage upon my wife in order to find out the secret mystery
of my riddle. Well, this is exactly what the.
the Pharisees and the Judaizers throughout the Middle Testament.
Everyone who was opposed to Christ always seeks to destroy his people
and him together. They're always opposed to him.
They fight against him and their tool, their weapon is to introduce
this need to have something other than Christ. Why didn't this
woman utterly say, you know what, you go ahead because my husband
is Samson. And I trust his strength over
yours because the type doesn't go that far in Samson's case. We don't see in the type here
God gave to us the resurrection of his wife. or the harlot in
that city, or Delilah, we don't see that. But what we do see
is Samson's love and dedication to these women that would cost
him, make him vulnerable in weakness and shame, associating with them,
bringing shame upon him, showing that he would, like the Lord
Jesus Christ, through his weakness and shame, actually save his
wife. And so you see that in type here. And so it says in
verse 19, the spirit of the Lord came upon him and he went down
to Ashkelon and slew 30 men of them and took their spoil and
gave change of garments to them, which expounded the riddle and
his anger was kindled and he went up to his father's house.
But Samson's wife was given to his companion whom he had used
as his friend. And it came to pass within a
while after in the time of wheat harvest that Samson visited his
wife with a kid and said, I will go into my wife into the chamber,
but her father would not suffer him to go in, wouldn't allow
it. And her father said, I verily thought that thou had utterly
hated her, not true. Therefore, I gave her to thy
companion. A bad thing to do is not her younger sister fairer
than her. And Samson didn't love this woman because of her beauty.
Christ didn't love his people because of her beauty. This woman
wasn't as beautiful as her sister. Not outwardly. But when he went
and he saw her and loved her and then spoke to her, I have
to have her. I want her. Get her for me. She's
mine. And then her husband gives her
to another man. And so what happened? Samson
brings upon them what they thought to do to him and his wife. Samson
said concerning them now, I shall be more blameless than the Philistines,
though I do them a displeasure. And so Samson went and caught.
How could he do this? You normally think of a strong
person as kind of bulky. He must have been very light-footed
here. He caught 300 foxes. He took firebrands and turned
tail to tail, put a firebrand in the midst between the two
tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go
into the standing corn of the Philistines and burnt up both
the shocks and also the standing corn with the vineyards and the
olives. What did he do? He took the very thing they thought
to do to him, these foxes, remember Herod that fox or the foxes that
spoiled the vine. He took these foxes, tied them
tail to tail, put a brand between the tails, lit the brand on fire.
The foxes went crazy and burned down everything that the Philistines
had labored so hard to do, to bring forth for themselves, he
burned it down. He exposed them and destroyed
them. He brought upon them the justice
that they thought to bring upon his wife and him. He just simply
gave them what they had coming. This is the way you want to live
with me? That's fine. I can handle that. 300 foxes.
There you go. That's incredible. Who could
catch a fox and 300 and who could hold them without, you know,
tying their tails together? I don't know how this happened,
what it looked like, but this guy was amazing. There was nothing
he couldn't do. So our Lord Jesus Christ, he
can not only save his people, but he can defeat and destroy
his enemies and shame them and make them look pitiful because
of their, because of their hatred for his people. He can do it. And said, verse six, the Philistines
said, who has done this? They answered Samson, the son-in-law
of the Timnath, because he has taken his wife and given her
to his companion. And the Philistines came up and
burnt her and her father with fire. Now, I don't know exactly
how to reconcile all the picture to the details of Christ in his
life, but I do know this. that though the enemy threaten
his people, and though they are accounted as sheep for the slaughter,
they are more than conquerors to him that love them, right? And though in this life we suffer
loss, and though we be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and have
to stand before Nebuchadnezzar and say, You might want us to
bow down to your image, but our God is able to deliver us. And
if he doesn't know this, we will not bow. We are not even thinking
about how to take answer to you because we've already made the
decision and committed ourselves into the hand of Christ long
before this. Pitch us in, pitch us into the
fire and in the fire there, the Lord Jesus, the son of God stands
with them. Now, that means that no matter
what comes on the believer, even though we die, we rise with Christ,
doesn't it? If the spirit of him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his spirit that dwells in you. So we might appear to be
total loss, but not so. Though they burn you with fire,
the Lord will raise you up. He's going to keep his people.
He's not going to lose a single one. He's going to take glory
to himself. Remember, to the name of him
who did wondrously. Well, it says then, Samson said
to them, though you've done this, yet will I be avenged of you?
Avenge, notice the word, vengeance. He brought upon them the very
evil. they thought to bring upon him. And throughout the years
of his ministry, you see the two things mixed together here.
You see Christ showing absolute grace and mercy upon poor and
wretched sinners. And then you see these proud
and arrogant self-righteous like Cain, for example, who brought
his own sacrifice and said, my sacrifice and the value of it
at least equals if does not exceed the very offering of the blood
of the son of God. His righteousness is in his greatest
mind. That people who came to Christ
were silenced and the gospel was hid from them. And it was
done because it seemed good in God's sight. but to the others
who were poor and thirsty and needy and hungry, lame and withered
and leprous and devil possessed and dead. He raised them up. He delivered them. He healed
them and he forgave them. And this is God's glory that
the love of Christ would deliver us from the wrath of God because
he laid his life down for us. We're going to have to stop there
because of time. If we could just go on and on, there's so
many things to talk about here, but we're not going to have to
take the time to go into all these details. Maybe sometime
we'll get into this more. Let's pray. Father, help us to
always see the greatness of our Savior and ever trust him and
his almighty strength to save us. Even when we see our enemies
strong and prevailing against us, help us not to doubt the
strength of our heavenly Samson. No one can stand against him.
He only saves without a weapon, but by the strength of His arm,
fulfilling all of Scripture in His life and in His death. He
overcame our enemies and silenced them so that none can accuse
those whom God has justified. None can condemn those for whom
Christ has died. He reigns in glory and we are
there now seated with Him in glory, reigning with Christ and
the salvation He has won by His victory. Lord, give it to us
now. Let us never doubt His strength, His goodness, His power over
our enemy. Let us never doubt His love because
He loved us from eternity. Nothing can separate us from
the love of Christ. It's by His love that we will
be more than conquerors. And we know, Lord, that He always
gives us the victory, always gives us the victory. What a
Savior, so successful. Help us never to doubt Him in
the face of our sins, in the face of this world that hates
Him and loves its righteousness. Lord, help us to flee to Him
and treat our own righteousness as nothing but dung to have His.
In Jesus name we pray, amen. Oh, yes, I'm sorry. We're gonna
have the Lord's supper, thank you. Someone's paying attention. Okay, Brad, Tom, do you help
me? While they're getting these,
let me just give you an instruction from scripture. When we take
the Lord's Supper, it's only an outward sign. It's nothing spiritual, except
it's an outward sign of our inward faith in what Christ has done,
shedding his blood for us and breaking his body for us. Now,
this means that only those who believe Christ are to take this. Only those who believe Christ
are to take this. I can't look into your heart.
I'm not going to hold you in a court of this church to find
out whether or not you believe him, but examine yourselves whether
you are in the faith. And if you are, if you find that
you have nothing in all of your hope of salvation now and forever
resides only in the Lord Jesus Christ and you cry to him and
you by faith take of what he has done in his broken body and
shed blood for you, then you take. This is His commandment
to do in remembrance of Him, to know that God considers Him
only in all of His consideration for you. That's what faith is. I don't consider myself. I don't
consider anything of my own. I look to Christ only. And in
looking to Him, I have all. That's what faith is. It's abandoning
all hope in my own and finding everything God requires of me
in His Son. And therefore, because I find
it in Christ, I come boldly into the very throne, the presence
of God in all of his glory, because I come by the blood of Jesus.
By the blood of Jesus, what could God demand more? That's the only
thing he considers. That's what faith teaches us.
You see, and the Lord Jesus Christ, when he took that bread, that
night of the last Passover, before he went to the cross, he said,
this bread is my body broken for you. This do notice in remembrance
of me. Whatever we do here in this life
by faith, we do it considering, thinking on, coming to God by,
trusting in, giving glory to God and worshiping Him because
of the Lord Jesus Christ in His broken body and shed blood for
us. Do it in remembrance of me. And
when we remember Him, what are we going to do? Lord, remember
Christ for me. Lord Jesus, remember me when
you come into your glory. Our memory is suspect and fails,
don't we? Half the time we forget. But
we rely on the memory of God who cannot forget. He cannot
forget his son, or his sacrifice, or the wrath he poured upon him,
or the people he gave to him whose names were graven upon
his breast, whose names he mentions in his intercession and advocacy
for us as our surety and our high priest. constantly bringing
us and the price he paid with his blood into the presence of
God. We are in the presence of God in our savior. He appears
there now for us. That's what scripture says. And
we believe him. And contrary to all appearances
in myself, I look to Christ. That's what faith does. And so
he says, you take that bread, And when you do, you do show
forth the Lord's death. You preach Christ crucified until
he comes. Take the bread and eat with me. And in the same way, he took
the cup, which represents, it's not actually, but it represents
the blood he shed. He drank the draft. of the dregs
of God's wrath down completely in order to fulfill every condition
in the everlasting covenant for our eternal salvation and glory. And he said, so this cup, he
said, is the new Testament in my blood. It fulfills it. The
testator died. All the testator promises therefore
given to his people and he rose again and reigns in glory as
sovereign over all to give it to them to make sure his will
is actually administered properly. When someone dies on earth and
they make out a will, they trust the guy who takes care of it
to make sure it's right. He himself rose again to make
sure it was set right. Subdue their enemies, bring them
to glory. Make myself, make me known to
them. I want them. Father, I will that they also
whom thou has given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which thou has given me because I finished the
work. And this is the New Testament. That's what it speaks of. complete
fulfillment of all God had in his heart from eternity for his
people is met and satisfied and fulfilled in the blood of his
son. It goes beyond all comprehension,
doesn't it? It stretches way beyond all dimensions
of any attempt to explain it, except we believe it and God's
spirit continually brings it to our memory. And he said, so
when you do this together, not individually, but as the body
of Christ, each one, members in particular, remember me, take the cup and
drink it. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for
the blood you shed, the life you gave, the people you saved.
Thank you for Taking your throne again in glory and making your
glory known in what you did, making the character and the
work and the purpose and love and the justice and righteousness
and all of your perfections and all of your holiness known to
us in the gospel of your son. Give us grace, Lord, to believe
you and to live accordingly. upon the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It is by his work and his grace
that we conquer all of our enemies. In Jesus name we pray, amen.