We talked about, it's so true
how our nation is taking for granted the blessings and privileges,
freedoms our Lord's given us. And I don't suppose I can do
anything about that, but maybe I've got your ear. And my strong
advice to us is don't ever take this blessing for granted. that
the Lord's given us to gather together to worship. It's such
a great blessing. Don't ever take it for granted. Thank God for it and ask Him
to continue if He'd be pleased. That's just for free, something
that came to mind. Alright, we're going to look
this morning at Samson, a type of Christ. You know, every Christian,
every believer, is a paradox. At the same time, we're the chief
of sinners, yet completely righteous. We have a nature that can do
nothing but sin. At the same time, we have a nature
that can never sin. That's just a paradox, isn't
it? And that certainly describes Samson. Do you read the life
of Samson? You see he's a paradox. He's
a very, very complicated man. There are times we see Samson
so strong in faith. He listed in that hall of faith
in Hebrews chapter 11, there are times he's so strong in faith.
And other times, he's so weak in the flesh. There are times
Samson appears so wise, God gave him such wisdom. And there are
times he's the most foolish man we know. Samson is not given
to us as an example that we should follow. Most of what Samson does,
you ought not do. Samson is given to us as a type
of Christ. This is why he's in Scripture,
as a type of Christ. He's a type of our Savior who
knew no sin. yet was made sin for his elect.
Samson is a mighty man of war, a type of Christ who's a mighty
man, who destroyed the sin of his people by his death as their
substitute. And I want us to see four ways
Samson, from his birth to his death, is a type of Christ. First,
Samson is a type of Christ in his birth. Judges chapter 13,
verse 1. And the children of Israel did
evil again in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered
them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. And there was a
certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, he was
a tribe of Dan, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren
and bare not. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman and said unto her, Behold now thou art barren
and barest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Now
Samson's mother was barren. I don't know how long she'd been
married, been trying to have children, but she was barren.
She was like Sarah, Abraham's wife. She was barren. And the
Lord had shut her womb so that she would be a picture of the
Virgin Mary. And we read this to open the
service. Mary was a virgin. She didn't
know a man. It was impossible for her to
have a son. But she did, didn't she? She
had a son and an angel came and promised her son by the power
of God. Same way Samson's mother was
promised a son. An angel came and promised her
this son by the power of God. Samson was a promised son. He
was promised to his mother. Well, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the long promised son, the
long promised Messiah. He is the promised seed. And
both of these sons, Samson and our Lord Jesus, came for the
same purpose. They came for sin. They came
because of the result of sin. Samson was born during a time
that Israel was in bondage because of sin. They were in bondage
to the Philistines because of their sin. It was the sin of
idolatry. The Lord delivered them to the
Philistines. Samson was born so he would begin
to set Israel free from that bondage. Christ was born in the
flesh because God's elect were in bondage because of their sin.
And he was born to set spiritual Israel free. Now I've told you
this, the picture is never as good as the person. Look at the
end of verse 5, this is why Samson was born. He shall begin to deliver
Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Samson was only
born to begin to deliver Israel from its bondage to the Philistines.
He would begin the job, but it wouldn't be finished until another
type of Christ came along, until King David came along. All Samson
was born to do was begin the job. The Lord Jesus Christ was
born to do the job. He was born to not only begin,
but to finish the job. He is the author and finisher
of our faith. He didn't come to begin to set
his people free. He shall save his people from
their sins. He shall make them free. Now
verse four, this is the promised son. This is the instruction
of the angel to Samson's mother. Now therefore, beware, I pray
thee, and drink not wine or strong drink, and eat not any unclean
thing. For thou shalt conceive and bear
a son, and no razor shall come on his head, for the child shall
be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver
Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." Samson's going
to be a Nazarite from his birth. A Nazarite was someone who was
voluntarily separated or consecrated to the Lord. It could be for
a time, a short time or a long time, could be your whole life.
Samson would be a Nazarite his whole life. And he was born that
way to be a picture of the Lord Jesus, the Nazarene. That's what they frequently called
him, the Nazarene. And our Lord Jesus Christ was
voluntarily separated. He was consecrated to be the
savior of his people. He was consecrated to God forever.
I read on verse 16. The woman was alone when the
angel came to her. Verse six, she came and told
her husband saying, a man of God came unto me and his countenance
was like the countenance of an angel of God. Very terrible.
And I asked him not whence he was, neither told me his name.
And he said unto me, behold, thou shalt conceive and bear
a son and now drink no wine or strong drink, neither eat any
unclean thing. For the child should be a Nazarite
to God from the womb to the day of his death. Then Manoah, her
husband, entreated the Lord and said, O my Lord, let the man
of God which thou didst send come again unto us and teach
us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. And
God hearkened to the voice of Manoah. And the angel of the
Lord came again unto the woman as she sat in the field, but
Manoah, her husband, was not with her. And the woman made
haste and ran and showed her husband and said unto him, behold,
the man hath appeared unto me that came unto me the other day.
And Manoah rose, and went after his wife, and came to the man,
and said unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman?
And he said, I am. And Manoah said, Now let thy
words come to pass. How shall we order the child,
and how shall we do unto him? And the angel of the Lord said
unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman, let her beware.
She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let
her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. All
that I commanded her, let her observe. And Manoah said unto
the angel of the Lord, I pray thee, let us detain thee until
we shall have made ready a kid for thee. And the angel of the
Lord said unto Manoah, though thou detain me, I will not eat
of thy bread. And if thou would offer a burnt
offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord. For Manoah knew
not that he was an angel of the Lord. And Manoah said unto the
angel of the Lord, what is thy name? That when thy sayings come
to pass, we may do the honor. And the angel of the Lord said
unto him, why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? Now this angel, is no mere angel. This angel is a pre-incarnate
appearance of Christ. I know that so. He's not a mere
angel because every other angel, if you ask them, they told his
name. They're always identified. We read about the angel Gabriel
coming to Mary. They were always identified.
But not this angel. He said, what do you want to
know my name for? My name's secret. That word secret is wonderful. My name is wonderful. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ. His name should be called wonderful.
And the name of Christ is secret. God must reveal that name of
Christ to us because it's too wonderful for us to ever know
it by human intellect. And look at this next verse,
verse 19. This will remove all doubt this
angel is Christ himself. So Manoah took a kid with a meat
offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord. And the
angel did wondrously. And Manoah and his wife looked
on, for it came to pass when the flame went up toward heaven
from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in
the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked
on it and fell on their faces to the ground." Now this angel
did wondrously because he is wonderful. Not just his name,
that's who he is, he's wonderful. And this flame went up from off
the altar toward heaven And the angel got in it. This angel got
in this flame and in this smoke and ascended back to heaven.
He identified with this sacrifice. Now Gabriel never would have
done that. Michael never would have done that. No angel, mere
angel ever would have identified with the sacrifice, with the
burnt offering like that. Only the Lord Jesus Christ could
do that because He is the sacrifice. And Manoah and his wife watched
this. And they know exactly what that means. Look at verse 21.
But the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and
to his wife. Then Manoah knew he was an angel of the Lord.
And Manoah said to his wife, we shall surely die because we've
seen God. And his wife said unto him, if
the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received
a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands. Neither would he
have showed us all these things, nor would at this time have told
us such things as these. Now, Manoah, he thought, we're
going to die. He's running around like chicken
little. We're going to die. We're going to die. Because he remembered what
God told Abraham. No man shall see my face and
live. You can understand how he thought. We're going to die.
We've seen the face of God. Thankfully, Manoah wasn't alone
here. His wife was with him. The weaker vessel was stronger
in faith at this time. She had some words of wisdom
that were very helpful. And you men, Don't ever think
that a woman is not bright enough to give you some advice, to tell
you some things that are true, or she might not have more wisdom
in a matter than we do, or she couldn't instruct us, because
that's not so. You remember Apollos, a man who was mighty in preaching. He came into town, this man Aquila,
and his wife Priscilla, took Apollos into their home and they
taught him. This woman, Priscilla, helped
teach Apollos. They expounded unto him the way
of God more perfectly. So don't think just because she's
a woman she doesn't have more wisdom in some matters, or at
certain times. I remember when I was in my upper
20s and early 30s, I began to be a substitute teacher in my
dad's Sunday school class sometime. If you all remember my dad's
class, it was the, I don't know if I can say older, older ladies. It's given to men to teach and
preach the word, isn't it? It's given to men to be leaders
in the home and in the church. Women are not to usurp authority
over the man. But now you get in your picture,
this 28-year-old kid standing in front of those ladies. Who's
got the most wisdom in that room? I mean, it's pretty obvious,
isn't it? They forgot more gospel than
I ever knew. That's what's going on here. Samson's mother gives
us good hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. She makes three statements
that are good hope. She says first, if God was going
to kill us, he wouldn't have promised to give us a son. We've
got to at least live long enough to have his son. His son's going
to be born. God promised it. Here's hope
for sinners. If God intended to send all of
Adam's race to hell, he never would have promised his son to
be the savior of sinners. God's gonna save somebody. He
promised to send his son. Second, Samson's mother says,
if God was gonna kill us, he never would have accepted the
sacrifice. Here's a good hope for sinners.
If God was going to damn the entire race of Adam, he never
would have accepted his son as a sacrifice for sin. Never would
have done it. He's going to save somebody through
that sacrifice. He accepted it. Third, she says,
if God was going to kill us, he wouldn't have told us all
these things. Here's hope for sinners. God's word is still
being preached. If God intended to damn all of
Adam's race, He never would have given us His Word, which tells
us of salvation in Christ. If God intended to send all of
us to hell, He never would have sent us a preacher preaching
God's Word. This is the foundation of everything
we believe. This is the foundation of our
faith. It's the Word of God. I'm so thankful He gave it to
us. That's a good hope, isn't it? God promised His Son, He
accepted the sacrifice, and He gave us His Word. So, verse 24. The woman bare a son and called
his name Samson. And the child grew and the Lord
blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at
times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtal. Now Samson
grew, he as a boy grew. And the Spirit of the Lord was
with him from the time he was a boy. He moved around between
these two camps because the Spirit of the Lord directed him. And
this kid, he wasn't just playing. He was already, he was out, he
was gathering intelligence for what he was going to do as he
got a little bit older. Well that's a picture of our
Lord Jesus. Scripture says of the boy Jesus in Acts chapter
2 verse 52. Now you figure this out this
afternoon. Jesus, the Son of God, increased in wisdom and
stature in favor with God and man. You see how Samson is a
type of Christ in his birth. He was born to deliver Israel
from bondage. Samson is a type of Christ. One
day, he was out taking a walk, and with his bare hands, he killed
a lion. Look at that in chapter 14, verse 1. Samson went down
to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the
Philistines. And he came up and told his father
and his mother and said, I've seen a woman in Timnath of the
daughters of the Philistines. Now, therefore, get her for me
to wife. Then his father and his mother said unto him, is
there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren or
among all thy people that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised
Philistines? And Samson said unto his father,
get her for me, for she pleases me well. And his father and his
mother knew not that it was of the Lord that he sought an occasion
against the Philistines. For that time the Philistines
had dominion over Israel. Now Samson, Humanly speaking,
ought not have been looking for a wife among the Philistines.
God told him don't do that. But he was looking for a wife
among the Philistines because he was looking for a fight. He
was looking for a reason to pick a fight with the Philistines
because that's why he was born. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Father,
gave him a wife. Gave him a bride. And I'm telling
you, she's the worst of the worst. A Philistine's got nothing on
the bride of Christ. She's the worst of the worst. But she pleased Him well. He
loved her. He set His affection upon her
and He determined to have her. And He came to redeem her. And
He came looking for a fight. Because that's why He was born.
He came to die so that His bride would live. And read on here
in verse 5, Judges chapter 14. Then went Samson down, and his
father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of
Timnath. Apparently Samson had kind of wandered off from his
parents, and behold, a young lion roared against him. And
the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as
he would have rent a kid. And he had nothing in his hand,
but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.
Now when this says a young lion, it doesn't mean a cub. This means
a young lion in the prime and strength of his life. He jumped
out and roared against Samson, attacked Samson. I remember being,
Holly and Savannah were little, we took them to, I don't know
if it was Columbus Zoo, wasn't it? We took them to Columbus
Zoo. And they, I love the lions. I like to go see lions, you know.
And they had this lion enclosure and it was some sort of plexiglass
or something. And I kind of went around the
corner, maybe I wasn't supposed to go there, but there was this
male lion asleep in the corner of this glass enclosure. I went
up just to look at this thing, and he was asleep with his paw
on the glass. His paw was as big as my head. I mean, this thing's enormous. That's the lion that attacked
Sampson. And Samson just reached out,
he didn't have any weapons with him, just bare hands, and he
broke his neck. Just as easy as he would a lamb, just broke
his neck. Really what he did, he ripped
that lion's throat out. He just grabbed him by the throat
and ripped his throat out with his bare hands, with his huge
male lion. Now you imagine The power and
the courage. The kind of man Samson was, he
took a lion and killed it with his bare hands. My soul! He did that as a type of Christ.
It says here that the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon
him. You don't have to turn here,
we read this to open the service. But listen to this to see if
this is not a type of our Lord Jesus. When He faced the roaring
lion, Satan. In Luke 4 verse 1, Jesus, being
full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness. Our Savior was alone with Satan
in that wilderness because the Spirit of God directed Him there.
And there, in that wilderness, He defeated Satan. Satan just kept coming after
Him. All these different temptations. And our Savior defeated Him.
Just ripped His throat out. Made Him scurry off, you know,
running. Well, a little while later, Satan
came back for more. Satan came back for more at Calvary.
And at Calvary, our Savior finished that roaring lion once and for
all. Crushed his head. And he did it alone. He did it
with no helpers. He did it with no weapons. Scripture
says when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down with the
right hand of the majesty on high. And if you look in verse
8, here's the result of that victory over that lion. And after
a time, he returned to take her, and he turned aside. You remember
that lion he killed? He went back over to see what
happened to it. He turned aside to see the carcass of the lion,
and behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass
of the lion. And he took thereof in his hands
and went on eating. And he came to his father and
his mother and gave to them, and they did eat. But he told
them not that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the
lion. Now this honey, is the sweetness of the gospel that
God's children enjoy. We enjoy all the sweetness that
comes from the death of Christ because Christ defeated every
enemy by himself. Now the gospel that we hear,
if it's not sweet to the taste, if grace is not sweet to the
taste, then something's wrong. It's either being preached wrong
or it's being heard wrong because they're nothing more sweet than
grace. They're nothing more sweet than
the death of Christ for His people. This is the gospel of Christ.
It has to be sweet, doesn't it? This is the gospel that we declare
who Christ is and what He's done for His undeserving people. That's
a sweet gospel with a sweetness that comes because Christ defeated
every enemy. Third, look over in Judges chapter
16. Samson is a type of Christ when he chose his bride. In verse
4 of Judges 16, And it came to pass afterward that he loved
a woman in the valley of Sorok, whose name was Delilah. And the
lords of the Philistines came up unto her and said unto her,
Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by
what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to
afflict him, And we'll give thee, every one of us, 1,100 pieces
of silver." Now we meet Delilah. Delilah's famous, isn't she?
And we don't know whether Delilah is an Israelite or a Philistine,
but we do know she had the heart of a Philistine. She had the
heart of a rebel. And Delilah was an evil woman. And if Samson didn't know that
when he met her, he should have figured that out very quickly.
Delilah's an evil woman. Now I have a word of advice for
you boys. I want you to listen to me. Don't marry a girl just
because she's pretty. Don't do it. You find out before
you marry who she really is. Find out who she is. I'm telling
you now, your life will be miserable if she's pretty on the outside
and ugly on the inside. She'll make your life a misery. Don't
do it. And that goes for you girls too.
Now don't you do it. Don't you see this boy, oh he's
so cute. No, don't do that. Now you find out who he really
is. You better find out who a man is before you put yourself in
subjection to him. I'm telling you. We'll look at
this. Samson chose this woman for a
reason, but it's going to cost him. It's going to, humanly speaking,
going to make his life miserable. Now, we're not supposed to look
at Samson, remember. We're to follow his example.
Don't do most of what Samson did. Don't go down to the Philistines.
Go and find some rebel who hates God and marry him. Look at Samson
as a picture of Christ. Samson married this woman to
be a picture of the Redeemer. And you wonder, Samson ought
to know better. What on earth is he doing picking
out this woman like Delilah to marry? Oh, because Samson is a type
of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm glad God didn't choose good
people. I'm glad God didn't choose pretty women to be his bride,
because that left me out. God chose ugly women. He chose
a woman whose heart is like Delilah. It's a heart that's black with
sin and rebellion. Christ loved a people from all
of eternity who by nature hated him, but he loved her anyway. And right from the start, Delilah
shows who she is. She's got the very same heart
as Judas Iscariot. She agreed to sell out Samson.
A man like Samson came and set his love on Delilah and she agreed
to sell him out for some pieces of silver. Just like Judas Iscariot
sold our Lord for 40 pieces of silver. Now verse six in Judges
chapter 16. And Delilah said to Samson, tell
me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth and wherein
thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. And Samson said unto her,
if they bind me with seven green wits that were never dried, then
shall I be weak and be as another man. And the lords of the Philistines
brought up to her seven green wits, which had not been dried,
and she bound him with them. Now there were men lying in wait
abiding with her in the chamber, and she said unto him, The Philistines
be upon thee, Samson. He break the whips, as a thread
of toe is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was
not known. And Delilah said unto Samson,
Behold, thou hast mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me, I
pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her,
If they bind me fast with new ropes that were never occupied,
then shall I be weak and be as another man. Delilah therefore
took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him,
The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. Now there were liars
in weight abiding in the chamber, and he break them from off his
arms like a thread. And Delilah said unto Samson,
Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies. Tell me wherewith
thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou
weavest the seven locks of my head with the web, And she fastened
it with the pin and said unto him, the Philistines be upon
thee, Samson. And he waked out of his sleep. I think it would
be time not to go to sleep in Delilah's presence, don't you
think? He waked out of his sleep and went away with the pin of
the beam and with the web. That was a big old weaver's web
and he just ran off with it. Who knows how big that thing
is, dragging it along behind him in his hair. That's how strong
he was. Now each of these three times, these enemies of Samson
had tried to take him and kill him. This was their plot. But
they couldn't do it, could they? You see the picture of Christ
there? How many different plots did the Philistines cook up,
or the Pharisees cook up, to take the Lord Jesus? But they
never could do it. Because Scripture keeps saying
His hour has not yet come. His hour has not yet come. But
you know that hour eventually came, didn't it? And it came
by his will and purpose. Look at verse 15 of Judges 16.
And she said unto him, how canst thou say I love thee when thine
heart is not with me? Thou hast mocked me these three
times and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. And
it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and
urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death. that he told
her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor
upon mine head, for I have been Nazarite unto God from my mother's
womb. If I be shaven, then my strength
will go for me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.
And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she
sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come
up this once, for he hath showed me all his heart. Then the lords
of the Philistines came up unto her, and they brought money in
their And she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called
for a man and caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head.
And she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him."
Now it sure seems like Samson entered this thing willingly,
didn't he? I mean, three times she tried to get him killed.
What's going to happen if he told her a lie and she tried
to use that lie to get him to be killed and afflicted? It sure
seems like she's going to sell him out if he tells her the truth,
doesn't it? Well, of course she will. That's exactly what she's
going to do. And you think, what was Samson thinking? Well, humanly
speaking, he wasn't thinking, was he? But Samson gave away
the secret to his great strength so that he could be a type of
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus never could have
been taken to the cross against His will. If He's going to go
there, if He's going to be afflicted by those Roman soldiers, if He's
going to be afflicted by those Pharisees, He's going to have
to go there willingly because they cannot take Him against
His will. And He went willingly. Because
remember that ugly bride? The one whose heart is filled
with sin and iniquity and rebellion? He loved her. And He's going
to go put her sin away. By nature, she's not lovable,
but Christ loves her because He loves sinners and He went
willingly to redeem her. I ask you the same question I
asked you when we looked at Rahab and Harlot. You call somebody Delilah, that's
an insult, isn't it? Are you as guilty as Delilah?
Does the heart that lies in you by nature, is it just as wicked,
just as evil, just as hateful as her heart? Are you an open,
rebellious sinner just like Delilah? I hope so. You are. I hope God
shows you that. Because Christ only loved sinners.
Christ only came to die for sinners. And for reasons that can only
be attributed to the fact that he's going to be a type of Christ,
Samson loved Delilah. And it's going to cost him his
life. He loved her. It's going to cost
him his life. The Lord Jesus Christ loves God's elect. And it cost him his life. And
that's the fourth way. Samson is a type of Christ. He's
a type of Christ in his death. Judges 16 verse 21. But the Philistines took him.
Well, verse 20, she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson.
He woke up out of his sleep. He said, I'll go out as at other
times before and shave myself. And he wished not. He didn't
know that the Lord was departed from him. But the Philistines
took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza
and bound him with fetters of brass. And he did grind in the
prison house. Albeit, the hair of his head
began to grow again after he was shaven. Then the lords of
the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great
sacrifice in a day gone their God, and to rejoice. For they
said, our God has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hand. And
the people saw him, they praised their God. For they said, our
God has delivered him, delivered into our hands our enemy, and
the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us. And it
came to pass when their hearts were married that they said,
call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called
for Samson out of the prison house, and he made them sport. And they set him between the
pillars. And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the
hand, suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house
standeth, that I may lean upon them. Now the house was full
of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were
there. And there were upon the roof about 3,000 men and women. This was some structure. And
they all beheld while Samson made sport. And Samson called
unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me. I pray thee
and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I
may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the
house stood and on which it was borne up, the one with his right
hand and the other with his left. And Samson said, let me die with
the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all
his might And the house fell upon the lords and upon all the
people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at
his death were more than they which he slew in his life." Now
there are several pictures here of Christ that I want us to see
in the death of Samson. First, I mentioned this a minute
ago. Samson put himself in this position willingly. After Delilah
tried to get him captured and killed these three times, he
should have known what was coming. Well Christ, He did know what
was coming. He did know the suffering and
the shame that was coming to him and He went there willingly.
He knew exactly what was going to happen because He's the one
that ordained it to happen. from all of eternity, because
this is God's way, how He's going to save His people from their
sin. He went willingly. Then second, Samson suffered
silently. There's no record of Samson ever
complaining about this treatment he received from the Philistines.
He was completely silent. That's our Lord Jesus Christ,
the silent Lamb. He opened not His mouth. because
he knew he'd been made guilty of all that sin of his people.
And they accused him of all that sin. He never opened his mouth.
He never defended himself because he knew God had made him guilty.
Third, the Lord left Samson alone. That's
why his strength was gone. Now apparently, Samson was not
a huge muscle man. You know, he didn't look like
one of these guys pumped up on steroids. I stand here, I don't either,
but you can imagine, you know. If Samson was this huge muscle-bound
guy, the Philistines would have known where strength came from.
They would have known he got this strength from pumping iron.
But apparently, he looked just like any ordinary man. They knew
his strength was not in his muscles. They could have seen that. He
looked like an ordinary man, but he had such extraordinary
strength and they said there's some secret to it. We want to
know what the secret is. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
He was a real man. When people saw Him, they saw
a man. They said, this isn't the Savior.
His father and mother, we know them. We remember Him growing
up. He grew up in that carpenter shop. He's a nobody. He can't
be the Savior. But He was an extraordinary man.
He's the God-man. God was in Him because He is
God. And this man, who this extraordinary
man, the God-man, when he died, the father left him alone. The
father turned his back on his son because of the sin that was
charged to his son. That bride that Christ loved
so much. Oh, she's so sinful. She's so ugly and defiled with
sin. Christ took all that guilt of
His bride, took it to Himself, and the Father turned His back
on Him, left Him to suffer alone, just like He left Samson alone.
Fourth, the Philistines put out Samson's eyes. He was blind until
he died. When the Father turned His back on His Son, this wasn't
pretend. He turned His back on His Son.
He took His presence away from the Son. And the Lord Jesus Christ,
our substitute, was so alone. Oh, he was so alone. Nobody's
ever been alone as the Savior when he suffered for the sin
of his people. He was so alone he couldn't see
his Father. He suffered in darkness. When
he suffered, God turned the sun out, he suffered in darkness
because he was suffering what his people deserved. And then
as if that suffering of being separated from God was not enough,
The Philistines made fun of Samson. They said, let's bring him into
the house of our God. They're idle. Let's have some
fun making fun of him, mocking him, jeering him, smacking him
around a little bit. I can just see him smacking old
Samson. Come on, big guy. Where's all
your strength now? What are you going to do now?
Isn't that exactly what the Jews did? They bound our Lord, put
a blindfold on Him, and mocked Him, smote Him, said, if you're
a prophet, tell us who hit you. They made fun of the Lord Jesus
in the house of their idol. Their idol. Their religion is
deterred to nothing more than idolatry. What they did to our
Savior, they did in the name of religion. And Christ, our
Savior, suffered all that humiliation in silence. because he was bearing
the shame and the guilt of his people, so that we'd never bear
that shame in eternity. Sixth, the Philistines thought
that Samson was before them in weakness, but he was really there
in power. Now there's, writers have a lot
of different speculation about his hair growing back. It doesn't
seem like they waited a long time before they had this big
party. Maybe Samson's hair grew back very quickly. Something
happened. They didn't. It never dawned on them. His hair's long again. He could
have that strength back. You know, it never dawned on
him. Isn't that those Pharisees in our Lord's day, in His earthly
ministry? He worked all these miracles.
He did all these things. He fulfilled all these Old Testament
prophecies of the Messiah. And it never one time crossed
their mind This could be the Messiah, because they're blind,
just like these Philistines are blind. Samson wasn't before them
in weakness. He was before them in power.
The power that the Lord had given, the Lord was with him again.
Those Jews thought our Lord Jesus was there before them in weakness.
They thought, yeah, He passed through our midst before. We
couldn't lay hold of Him. We got Him now. They thought
He was there in weakness. They watched Him on the cross
and mocked Him, made fun of Him. If you're a son of God, come
down. If God loves you, come down. We'll believe you. He was
there. They thought He was suffering
and dying in weakness. They thought He couldn't come
down. Oh, He could come down. But he wouldn't. He wouldn't. Because he loved his bride. He
wouldn't come down because he was there in power. Because he
was there as the power of God putting away the sin of his people.
Doing what no one else could do. He didn't die in weakness.
He died in power. He died in power to put the sin
of his people away. He died in power making his people
righteous. He died in power, cleansing his
people from all their sin. And last, Samson died, right
along with all the Philistines, as our Lord Jesus Christ. He
died being numbered with the transgressors. Samson, you can
read, we skipped over some of his life. You can read about
how he took that jawbone of an ass. He's all the time killing
Philistines, you know, all by himself. But I'm telling you,
when he died, he killed more in his death than he did all
throughout the rest of his life. Well, a little bit the opposite
of that. Christ our Savior helped so many people during his earthly
ministry. He's all the time helping people, feeding people, and healing
people, and raising the dead, just doing all these miracles
to help people. Oh, the people he helped in his death. I told you this Wednesday evening,
helped. The Lord helping his people,
you know, and the Lord helps his people. He doesn't say, well,
you take this in, I'll take this in, we'll carry it together.
That's not how God helps his people. I told you about my two-year-old
nephew. He wanted to go, he was at our
house, he wanted to go for a walk. He couldn't, not strong enough
to open the door. He's certainly not big enough to go down. He
wanted to go see the bridge by her. He's not big enough to go
down there by himself. And I came up to him and said, you want
me to help you? And what I meant by that was not I'll open the
door for you and kind of walk on. What I meant is I'll open
the door and I'll pick you up and I'll carry you down to the
bridge and we'll see the bridge together. What I meant when I
said, I want me to help you, is you want me to do it for you.
When I say Christ helped his people, he did it for us. He did what we could never do
for ourselves. When he died, he saved a countless
multitude from their sin with his blood. Gave them eternal
life so that they'll never die. Now there are a few differences
between our Lord and Samson. Because the picture is never
as good as the person. When Samson died, there were
many Philistines left living, weren't there? There were many
of them. David had to come finish the job. When Christ died, there
were no Philistines left. When Christ died, there was no
sin left for any of God's elect. They're all cleansed under His
blood. Now you get a hold of that. Christ
died for you. You have no sin left. None. I know when you look at yourself,
all you see is sin, but I'm telling you, you have no sin left if
Christ died for you. He put it away with his blood.
Samson died to destroy his enemies. Christ died to give his enemies
life. Samson asked for strength to take vengeance on his enemies.
When Christ died, what did he say about his enemies? Father, forgive them. They'll
know what they're doing. And they have that forgiveness
because Christ died for them. If Christ died for you, you're
forgiven. Samson's a mighty man, isn't he? Oh, what strength he
had. We don't read of anybody ever having the strength of Samson. Samson's no better than an ant
compared to our Savior. All the strength, and he put
all the strength of his person into saving his people from their
sins. And brethren, they're saved.
They have eternal life and can never die because the one who
has all strength died for them. Samson, the type of Christ. Let's
bow in prayer.