This passage that we've read
together from Judges chapter 16, from verse 23 to 31 might
well be called the death of Samson. But as before, we remind ourselves
that it is the Lord Jesus Christ that is revealed here. And in many aspects of Samson's
life and ministry, We have been able to discern episodes, incidents,
experiences, the words, the actions of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
in this, we remind ourselves that the Old Testament Scriptures
and all that they contain speak typically of our Saviour. And when we're looking at the
Old Testament Scriptures, we are looking at them with an eye
also to the new, where the Lord Jesus Christ is more fully revealed. And I believe that if we look
for Christ, we will find him. If we are a people who are anxious
to discover him, the Holy Spirit will not leave us without that
help. Indeed, this insight of the value
of the Old Testament is one of the blessings of God for us,
his children. And Paul, I believe, speaks for
every child of God when he says that it is his great desire to
know Christ. I hope that's your desire as
well. I hope that's why you came to
the service this morning, that you might know Christ, that you
might discover something new, something fresh, something about
him that you hadn't seen before. Oh, that I might know Christ. Paul says that we might discover,
he's speaking in Philippians chapter three, verse eight, he
says that we might discover the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus, my Lord. That's what we're here for, to
discover something of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord. And anything that opens up to
us a glimpse of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
is a rich blessing to our souls. And whether those things are
easy to bear or hard to bear, whether they are to be laboured
in to discover Christ or easily discerned, Anything that opens
up to our view, to our soul, a view of Christ is a blessing
to us. He is that pearl of great price. I just had a little incident
that arose in the past few hours that I'm going to bring in here.
It wasn't actually part of my thoughts earlier in the week,
but I'm going to mention it to you and just take the time to
do it. Because last night we were at the rescue mission and
a brother preached well. He preached faithfully about
the Lord Jesus Christ. And at the end of the meeting,
a gentleman came up, I won't mention his name, but a gentleman
came up and he wanted to speak to me briefly. And what he had to say, I found
very discouraging and disheartening. It had been as if What was said
in the service was like that pearl of great price. The Lord Jesus had been lifted
up. It's as if the preacher had come
and he had taken out of the black velvet box that pearl of great
price and he held it up and he spoke. And he spoke carefully
and he spoke thoughtfully and he spoke winsomely about this
pearl of great price. And at the end of the service,
this man came up and he says, I'd like to talk to you about
the box that that pearl was in. And I think, what? What is this? What is this conversation that
we're having here? Why all this nonsense? Why are
we talking about history? Why are we talking about archaeology?
Why are we talking about symbolism? Why are we talking about the
vain ideas and thoughts of men and women? Why are we talking
about all of this nonsense? And he wanted to show me pictures
and he wanted to tell me about his writings and his thoughts.
And I'm saying the Lord Jesus Christ has been in the midst
of us. great price has been here and this is all we can talk about.
And that's the problem today in so much religion. They're
too interested in the peripheral stuff, the packaging and they
don't see the Christ which is the centre of our labours and
our worship. All the sermons that are preached
today and there will be thousands of them. All the sermons that
are preached, many, many of them will be designed to show you
and teach you something about yourself. But true gospel preaching teaches
you about Jesus, teaches you about the Saviour, teaches you
about the way of life, the eternal life. True gospel preaching brings
you to the cross True gospel preaching brings us to the empty
tomb of the risen Christ. And it is that pearl of great
price, that valuable thing, that inestimable, valuable thing that
ought to be the centre of our attention. There's a little fellowship in
Nowra down in New South Wales that I go and preach at from
time to time in Australia. And they have a sign pasted in
the pulpit, just there, just right there. And every time you
walk up and stand in front of the pulpit, there it is in big
letters right in front of your eyes. Sir, we would see Jesus. And you can't get into that pulpit
without being reminded of the purpose for being there. That's
your job this morning, mister. That's what you need to do. Don't
you go telling us about whatever. We want to see Jesus. And as we look at Samson, we're
looking for the Lord Jesus Christ. And I trust this morning we will
not be disappointed. As a judge in Israel, Samson
held a divinely appointed office. He had been placed there by God. Just turn with me please to Acts
chapter 13. I just want to take a few moments
and read a few verses from Acts chapter 13 just to As it were,
here we are at the end of the story. We're going to be talking
about the death of Samson. But here's another reminder of
the context in which this story takes place. Acts chapter 13
and look at verse 14. The Apostle Paul is here. This is during his first missionary
journey and he's in the country that we now call Turkey. And
he has gone to the synagogue in this place called Pisidia. And when they departed from Perga,
they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day and sat down. So they just sat down in the
congregation there in the synagogue. And after the reading of the
law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them,
saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation
for the people, say on. Now they may well have discerned,
even from the demeanour of the apostle, that he was a man who
was well versed in the Old Testament scriptures. Here he was a visitor,
he'd come from Jerusalem, he'd come from Israel. Here he was
in Turkey, he was a visitor. They thought, well, let's see
if this man, he's obviously a teacher, let's see if he's got something
that he can say to us. Then Paul stood up and beckoning
with his hand said, men of Israel and ye that fear God, give audience. The God of this people of Israel
chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as
strangers in the land of Egypt, and with a high arm brought he
them out of it. And about the time of 40 years,
suffered he their manners in the wilderness. He's going through
the history of Israel here. And when he had destroyed seven
nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to them
by lot. He broke up that land into the
12 tribes and gave it all to the tribes. And after that, he
gave unto them judges. Here's the reference. He gave
to them judges about the space of 450 years until Samuel the
prophet. And afterward they desired a
king and God gave unto them Saul the son of Kiss, a man of the
tribe of Benjamin by the space of 40 years. And when he had
removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king,
to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David,
the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil
all my will. Of this man's seed hath God,
according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour Jesus. See what Paul had done there?
He went into this synagogue where there were people that he may
never have met before, but immediately he took the opportunity of showing
them how from the history of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ
had been brought by God to be a saviour of his people. And these men that had been given
and women also that had been given to Israel to be their leaders
through the ages from the time of Moses and Joshua through to
the coming of Saul and David as kings in Israel. They were
judges who had been divinely appointed of God to rule over
the tribes and the nation as a whole at a time of persecution
from their enemies. There are about a dozen or so
of these judges in total. I've got some of their names
written down here, I'll just tell you what they are. Othniel,
Ehud, Deborah, that was a lady, Gideon, Abimelech, Tola, Jer,
Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Samson, and Eli. These are the principal judges
that are identified to us during this period. And Samson was there
in the midst of that list. He acted as a leader of the 12
tribes of the children of Israel. We reminded ourselves that Samson
was a Nazirite. As such, he had been set apart
by God as a defender, as a deliverer, and even as an executioner of
the enemies of God and God's people. This divine appointment
is important for us to understand that Samson stood in the place
of God as far as the people of Israel were concerned. We look
to the Lord Jesus Christ now. But when God appointed a man
in those Old Testament days, it was as if that man himself
was the Word of God amongst the people. It was to that man that
they went in order to be directed and led, whether they were Moses
and Joshua, whether it was the judges, whether it was subsequently
the prophets in Israel. It was these men who brought
And of course, Deborah, who brought the word of God to the people. These men were God's mouthpiece.
They were God's representatives. Always imperfect, always fallible,
always subject to sinful passions, as we've seen in the life of
Samson. I'm not holding him up as a moral example to any of
us. And yet, this was the person
anointed by God to do his will and to fulfil his purpose. And
the death of Samson must be seen in this context. Because in the
death of Samson, we discover the death of thousands of people. I don't know how many thousand.
But there were 3,000 men and women on the roof of this building. I don't know how many were inside.
The same again? More? Was it so packed inside
that they climbed onto the roof to look down into it? If there could be 3,000 on the
roof, how many were there underneath? Maybe double, maybe twice double. The death of thousands of people
is a stark reminder that God judges sin and God holds men
and women accountable for their sin. The Bible says the wages of sin
is death. And in Ecclesiastes 7, verse
20, we're told that there is not a just man upon earth that
doeth good and sinneth not. Not one. Not one upon earth is
just before the holy God. Paul tells us twice in the book
of Acts, all have sinned. There's a comprehensiveness about
this. We've come short of the glory
of God. All have sinned. Ezekiel 18 verse
4, it says, Behold, all souls are mine. The souls of all of those thousands
of people in that temple of Dagon, in that celebratory festival,
were gods. They were all his souls, to do
with as he would, as the judge of all the earth. The souls,
all souls are mine. And the soul of the father, so
also the soul of the son is mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Men and women are so blind in
the flesh. We live like we are immortal. We deceive ourselves to think
that life will just keep on going in the same way as it has. And suddenly, in a moment, we're
taken to eternity. And that's it, we're gone. We're
just like a vapour, just like a wind, just like a smell. A
smell in the wind. And it's gone. It's away. And we deceive ourselves. We
think that it's going to be, you've probably all got your
plans for tomorrow. I'm telling you what we're going to do on
the 23rd of February. The 23rd of February! And we don't know that we've
got the next minute. in this world. That's how serious
eternity is and men and women are blind to the implications
and consequences of their sin. We're like these Philistines.
That's what we're like. We're making merry in our self-deception
and the roof is caving in. and the walls are collapsing
around about us. These were Philistines. You tell me, they deserved it. Oh, they deserved it. Did they? Did they? God forgive your self-righteous
hypocrisy. And God forgive mine. How dare
we think that their lives were any less valuable than yours
or your children's? How dare we think that the collapsing
of this building and the stampede and the screams and the pain
and the suffering that they all endured, if that had happened,
in an American city. If that happened anywhere in
the world, it would be news and we would say, oh, isn't that
a terrible thing? Like those who spoke about the
wall that fell in the time of Christ, the wall of Siloam. Do
you think you're any better than them? What about the lad? See, sometimes
it's interesting, isn't it? When you just get one person,
you sometimes hear about 20, 50, 100, 1,000 people that have lost their lives.
But then you find one name, one person, one individual that you
know. What about the little lad whose
job it was to hold Samson's hand and lead him about that place. It was all he had to do. He wasn't
there poking him with a stick or spitting on him. He wasn't
there getting drunk and engaged in this great big merry party
that was going on. His job was to lead Samson around.
You know where that boy is? That boy's under the roof. That
boy's under the pillar. Let me tell you what the sin
of these people was. They were guilty of idolatry. That was it. They were just people,
but they were idolatrous people. They said, our God hath delivered
Samson, our enemy, into our hand. And in their ignorance of the
true God, They'd lived all their life in gath. In Gaza. They were working people. They
were getting on with their fishing. They were getting on with their
farming. They were raising their vines. They were raising their
animals. They were trying to live to the best of their ability. They looked at the world around
about them and they thought, well, we can't explain all these
things. We know that here's a man that has done us harm. We know
that here's a man that has slain our brethren. and they were getting
on with their lives. But in their ignorance, they
attributed to a heathen deity, Dagon, what was truly God's honour
and none else. Hey, they were smart enough to
know that who had delivered Samson into their hands was this trollop,
this Delilah. but they attributed it to their
God. They didn't understand and they
expressed these things in terms that made sense to them. Sure,
they had a statue. Let me tell you what the Bible's
explanation of idolatry is. Look at Romans chapter one with
me, please. Romans chapter one. Look at verse 21 of Romans chapter
one. When they knew God, they glorified
him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds
and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave
them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts,
to dishonour their own bodies between themselves. Who changed
the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. Look at verse 28. And even as
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave
them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are
not convenient. That's idolatry. And we often
think of idolatry as worshipping creatures or images. But properly
speaking, it applies to everything and anything that is set up in
the heart of a man and in his imagination. that lessons, reverence,
respect and honour that is due to the true God. Anything. You don't need a model in the
corner. You don't need a graven image
if you've already got one in your heart and in your mind. And our idols in this world are
our philosophy, our science, our money, our health, our children,
sport, entertainment, power, influence and any number of other
things that men and women strive after in this world and it is
idolatry and we're as guilty as the Philistines in this matter
before a holy God. We have imbibed the wisdom and
the values of this world. We've swallowed it hook, line
and sinker. No better than the Philistines.
And we imagine that God is blind to our sin, while we see things as they really
are. Can you imagine the presumption
in that? We've bound God up in chains
of our making, just as the Philistines bound up God's representative
in those fetters and put him down in the dungeon of their
prison house. We've made God work for us, just
as Samson was caused to push and grind out in the prison place. God works for us. with our religion,
and our ritual, and our systems, and our structures, and our denominations,
and our power and control seeking. We prayed God in front of us
in our religious ceremonies, and we deceive ourselves as did
the mocking Philistines. when they called out Samson to
make sport for them. This was God's representative
on earth. And they laughed at him. Galatians
chapter six, verse seven says, be not deceived. God is not mocked. Judgment is coming. And that
right soon. So here the picture, here the
type yields to a deeper reality. Here we see beyond Samson, here
we see the Lord Jesus Christ. We see him, not Samson, as the
victim of abuse. We see him, not Samson, as the
object of taunts. We see him as the sufferer, him
as the prey pursued, him as the sacrificial lamb, preyed for
the entertainment of men and women. when the Jewish guards
and the Roman soldiers mocked the Saviour, when the fiends
assaulted Him in body and in mind and in spirit, when God
turned His back against the Lord Jesus Christ so that Christ could
no more see His Father's face. There we see the true significance
of Samson's torture. Jesus was bound and beaten and
prayed before a mocking crowd. Maybe you say to me, well, didn't
Samson lose his eyes? That never happened to the Lord,
did it? Well, maybe you know something that I don't know.
But Psalm 38 verse 10 that we read together earlier says this. and we see Christ in these Psalms,
do we not? My heart panteth. My strength
faileth me. As for the light of mine eyes,
it also is gone from me. Maybe the Lord did lose his sight
in the midst of his suffering on the cross. Maybe That's a
reference and a picture of the fact that he lost sight of his
father when his father forsook him. Maybe it's a picture of
the blackness of darkness which fell upon that crucifixion scene
for three hours as the Lord suffered there for the sins of his people. Samson had a prayer that he gave
to God. It was a prayer of faith. Samson's strength wasn't in his
hair. His hair was a picture of his
strength. Samson's strength was from the
Lord. It came to him when the Spirit
of God came upon him. And God always hears and God
always answers the prayer of faith. The effectual, fervent
prayer of a righteous man, made so by the blood of Jesus Christ,
is heard by God when he prays. Nor is it a man's own faith But
it's the power of God that delivers the sinner out of his sinful
condition and gives him the faith to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ as the way of salvation. And now Samson becomes the avenger. You know, that's a name that
the Lord Jesus Christ takes also, a name for the Lord. In 1 Thessalonians
4, verse 6, he is the avenger. So Samson reaches the central
pillars upon which this building stands. And he stoops to conquer. and he extends his arm around
these pillars and he lays his weight against them. What a lovely
picture that is of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory who
stooped to conquer. who humbled himself, who came
into this world, who took our flesh, who died for our sins,
who laid down his life as a willing sacrifice for his people, and whose outstretched arms exposed
him to every form of abuse, even the very divine justice of a
sword unsheathed that it might pierce his very heart in the
judgment of God against our sins. And yet, whose arms are outstretched
equally to embrace every sinner who comes to him in repentance,
trusting in him alone, for their life and for their peace and
for reconciliation with God. Christ, by his death, defeated
our enemies. Samson, by his death, defeated
the Philistines. Christ, by his death, defeated
our enemies, the enemies of God, the enemies of God's people.
Christ defeated death. Christ defeated hell. Christ
defeated Satan himself. By his death he finished the
work of deliverance that Samson could only begin and couldn't
complete. By his death he reconciled us
to God. by carrying our sins as His sins,
carrying our guilt as His guilt, our culpability as His culpability,
our punishment as His own. And there on the cross, He bore
an eternity of judgment against our sin in His own body and by
the shedding of His own cleansing blood. Titus chapter three, verse
five says, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration,
the cleansing of regeneration, and by renewing of the Holy Ghost. That's where our life is to be
had, in Christ's death. and in that great, quickening,
enlivening work of God the Holy Spirit in a sinner's soul. Samson's family came to find
his body. They knew where he was. It wasn't
a secret that these Philistines had arrested him, abused him,
imprisoned him, mocked him, made sport of him and they came to
collect his body when the obvious news of such a tremendous destruction
reached their ears. They recovered the body of Samson
there amongst the rubble and they took him away to bury him. And as always the case, every
type of the Lord Jesus Christ ultimately breaks down. We can
only see so much of Christ in the types and in the pictures
and the metaphors of the Bible. The reality is much more glorious,
much more wonderful, much more special, more of a delight to
the people of God. They buried Samson and they buried
the Lord Jesus Christ but the Lord Jesus Christ died and is
alive again. Christ says of himself, I am
he that liveth and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell
and death. We remember and we respect the
heroes and the heroines of the faith, but we worship Jesus Christ. We worship him as our Lord and
Saviour, the one who died for us as our substitute and is alive
forevermore. And we're not called to rely
upon the strength of men but to trust in Jesus Christ. Samson was strong, but Christ
is stronger than death. Samson began to deliver, but
Christ saved his people from their sins. Samson looked to
Christ in faith. And so do we to find eternal
life. Isaiah chapter 12 in verse two
says this, and with this we're finished. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord Jehovah is my strength
and my song. He also is become my salvation. I trust it is so. Amen.