I'd like for you to turn with
me to Judges, the 16th chapter. Now this is
a lengthy text. It spreads out from chapter 13
all the way through chapter 16. And it's the whole history of
a man called Samson. He's a very well-known figure
from the Old Testament. Movies have been made about him.
Stories told. Almost every piece of child literature
in the churches I attended when I was young had stories about
Samson and his strength. And he was a man of God, and
his name is among the faithful listed by the Holy Spirit himself
in Hebrews 11. Verse 32, Samson. And I want you to know this,
if you want to know what's going on in the book of Judges, you
can turn just a few pages over there to the very last chapter,
and you'll find out that this was a time when Israel had no
king. And it said every man did what
was right in his own eyes. That's what was going on during
this period of Judges. They had a king. Our Lord and Savior was their
king, but they couldn't see him. They wanted an earthly king.
They wanted a man. They wanted a man. He was a man
of God. Now, I want to say this at the
outset. You cannot justify this man's
sanction by the way he lived his life. He'll leave you with
your mouth open. How on earth was this man recognized
of God as a judge in Israel? How could a man live his life
this way? You cannot justify this man Samson
by the way he lived his life. Most of what is written about
him seems to be a total contradiction of his calling. But I also want to say this.
Anybody who's ever experienced the sovereign grace of God in
their hearts knows it is exactly the same way with them. Isn't
it? Huh? Is it not true of you? When you examine your own life
in the light of God's sovereign grace, isn't it just exactly
that way with you? You can't justify yourself as
a believer by the life you've lived. You can't do it. Paul
said, if Abraham, now we're talking about the man that God raised
up as the father of the faithful. Here's the prime example of faith. And he said, if Abraham were
justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. Not before God. Abraham was a
son of a heathen idol worshiper. He made idols. made and fashioned
these images for ungodly men to worship. Or what about David? Here's a man after God's own
heart, a prophet, the writer of the Psalms, the king of Israel,
the sweet Psalms, an adulterer, a murderer, an abuser of his
station as the king, a sinner indeed. Can you go through David's
life and just it? There's no way. No way. What about Judah? You remember
our study of Judah in the past? Went down, got involved with
his daughter-in-law in an incestual relationship, or a lot down in
Sodom. And then listened to Isaiah after
he saw the Lord. Now, in that fifth chapter of
Isaiah, He woe and everything, woe to the drunkard, woe to this
one, woe to the adulterer. He woed everything coming and
going in chapter 5. But in chapter 6, he saw the
Lord. And he saw Him in the death of
a man that he absolutely worshipped, Uzziah the king. Wrote everything
the man did down in a book. And when God killed him, He smote
him as a leper. And that's when he saw the Lord.
And I saw him high and lifted up. That's the way you see the
Lord in salvation. High and lifted up. Not poor
little Jesus, boy, that you feel sorry for. He's knocking on the
door, but you won't open the door and let him in. That's not.
This one up here, high and lifted up. His train filled the temple.
The seraphims held their wings over their eyes and covered themselves
in his presence and cried, holy, holy, holy. When he saw the Lord,
Russell, he said, woe is me. Huh? Daniel. Was there ever a righteous man
like Daniel? Boy, he didn't even think twice
to lay his life on the line. He was a righteous man. He prayed
constantly. He was a righteous man before
God. But it said when he saw the Lord, His comeliness melted
into corruption. And what about the beloved John
on the Isle of Patmos when he saw the Lord, he fell down at
his feet like a dead man? There's no way you can justify
your life or any of these other men of God. You cannot justify
their life by the way they lived it. We better learn this. I read
it to you a while ago, by the deeds of the law there shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. We need to learn that. Paul said, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. If righteousness come by the
law, then Christ is dead and vain. Why did he die for? If
you can be righteous in your doings before God, if you can
work out a righteousness, then why did he have to die? Why must
there be a substitute? Why must there be a representative?
Come and live under the law. He's the lawgiver. He didn't
have anything to prove. Why did he live under that law?
Because you don't have a righteousness and never would have unless he
brought out one for you. Well, preacher, now what are
we going to do? We're just going to ignore this man's ungodly
behavior? Not at all. We're going to call
it what it is, ungodly. What it is? 1 Corinthians 10,
11 tells us that these things happened unto them for examples,
and they were written for our admonition upon whom the end
of the world had come. Ungodliness is ungodliness no
matter who commits the deeds. And there'll come a time when
God will put His prophet's finger in your face, and He'll say,
thou art the man, just like He did to David. Huh? He'll do it,
won't he? And we as children of God are
warned over and over and over about such things. In Ephesians
5 and 11, we're commanded to have no fellowship, he said,
with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to reprove
them. For it's a shame even to speak
of those things which were done of them in secret. One of the charges that men make
against grace preachers is that they preach that it's OK to sin.
That's a lie. I've never preached. I've never
read a grace preacher in any civilization who said that, not
in any time or era, who ever preached that it was OK to sin.
That's just a lie. Grace is not an excuse for sin. It's the remedy for it. Much
of what Samson did was wrong, and it's perfectly right to condemn
those things and put them in their proper light. But the real
value in the life of Samson and in the lives of every true child
of God is our relationship with the Lord of glory and the gracious
redemption that He's accomplished for us and in us. That's where
the value is. And knowing this truth is what
enables believers to worship God and love Him and love all
those begotten of Him. They know what they were. They
know what they are. And they know what they are capable
of doing apart from His grace. When Samson's mother and father
found out that he intended to marry a Philistine woman, they
were angry and confused. They said, is there never a woman
in Israel? You have to go down and marry
a daughter of a listening? You've got to go down there?
Is there never a woman in Israel? Oh, they were confused. And so
were we a lot of the time. But the Holy Spirit gives us
a key in Judges 14, verse 4. Listen to this. But his father
and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord. It was of the Lord. God often
overrides our evil deeds and ungodly ways to accomplish His
eternal purpose of grace. He does it all the time. And
that's exactly what I want you to see in this man's life. Samson
is a type of Christ. He's a type of Christ. He's a
type of Christ in his birth. You know that Samson was one
of only two men in all the Old Testament scriptures whose birth
was announced by angels? The only other one was Isaac.
The angel come and told Abraham. He said, when the time comes,
when God's time comes, Sarah's going to have a child. Isaac,
type of Christ. And so was Samson. foretold by
the messenger of God. And his birth was by the intervention
of God. His mother couldn't have any
children. She was barren. Same thing with Sarah, who had
Isaac. And then his birth was to a special
purpose. In Judges 13, verse 7, listen to this. But he said unto
me, Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son. And now drink
no wine, nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing, for the
child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day
of his death." What in the world is a Nazarite? He's going to
be a Nazarite. His mother before he was born
couldn't drink any wine, strong drinks, she couldn't do any of
those things. She was forbidden to eat grapes that wine was made
from because this, her son, was going to be a Nazirite. Well,
a Nazirite is one whose whole person and life is dedicated
to serve the Lord. Dedicated before he's born to
serve the Lord. His reason for being, his whole
life and all the providence that attends it are of the Lord. It's of the Lord. Are you ready to be shocked? All God's children are Nazarites. That's the only reason you have
for being in this world. It's because He dedicated you
to His service, to serve His purpose of grace. We're all Nazarites. We're all, as Paul described
himself in Galatians 1.15, separated from our mother's womb. Ain't
that what he said? And called by His grace. We are
all, as he wrote to Timothy, called with a holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. We were set
apart, sanctified in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the
world to one purpose, and that is to serve God's eternal purpose
of grace and the glory which He makes known by it. And as
Nazarites, our whole being has been set apart and dedicated
to the service of our Lord. And then secondly, Samson is
a type of Christ in His person. When you hear the word Samson,
what's the first thing that pops into your mind? Power. Power. Strength. There was never
a man like Samson in strength except the Lord Jesus Christ.
None were equal to Samson. He slew a thousand warriors with
a jawbone of an ass. You might take on two or three.
And I've been in some skirmishes, and you don't want any more than
that. This man took on a thousand warriors, full armor with a jawbone
of an ass, and left them lying in their blood. And one old preacher
said he still does. He still does use the jawbone
of an ass. The Valistines sought to trap
him down in Gaza. You can read through the story
this afternoon. They sought to trap him in. And
they went down there in that city and had high walls on the
city. And Samson went in there and
spent the evening with a prostitute. And they let him. They let him
come right into the city. And then they snuck over there
and had these big iron gates. These gates were 90 feet wide. Somebody said they were 12 feet
tall. They were anchored on iron posts
into the ground and those posts into the stone wall that went
around the city. And it had a big iron bar that
went through it. And those soldiers slid that
thing. I forget how many tons they said that thing weighed.
Samson woke in the middle of the night and went out there
and pulled those gates up, boat, bar, post and all. Put them on
his shoulders and carried them 27 miles up a mountain and set
them up there on the mountain of God. There was no man equal to Samson
in his strength except the Lord Jesus Christ. He bare on his
shoulders all our sins, all of our persons. all of the weight
of the character of God as a man. And he carried it for 33 and
a half years. You think of what he had to carry. And then Samson is a type of
Christ in his office as judge. This was a bad period in Israel's
history when they had no visible king. They had a king, but not
one that they could see. And so God sent them judges into
Israel. And Christ was a judge. He came
as a judge into this world. They were given to deliver the
people from their enemies and from the spiritual adultery and
fornication of false religion. And these judges were typical
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. How was he a judge? Well, he
was sent of God to establish judgment and righteousness in
the earth. He said, this is the condemnation.
If you want to know what the judgment of God is, he said,
here it is. Light came into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than light. And then, fourthly, Samson
was a type of Christ in that he loved a fallen woman. He was
a man whose whole life seemed to be surrounded by prostitutes. Read the story. Every one of
them. Prostitutes. Dare I say this? So it is with
the Lord. Who was washing his feet when
he lay in the house? Was it not a prostitute? You
remember the young woman taking in adultery in the very act?
I'm kind of like Brother Henry, I'd like to know how they knew
where she was and what she was doing. They had personal knowledge
of it all along. But they took her in the very
act and they brought her and they threw her down at his feet.
Who did he justify? The prostitute. He sent away those religious
men with their heads bowed down. Do you know it was a prostitute
who was the only one who understood what his death was? Not any of
the men who walked with him, not any of his disciples, but
a prostitute understood his death and anointed him for his death. Do you know there's only four
women mentioned in the lineage of Christ? If you go through
and read the lineage of Christ, the Messiah. Only four women
were mentioned in that entire lineage. Tamar, who played the
harlot, Rahab, the harlot, Ruth, the Moabite, and Bathsheba, the
adulteress. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners Vile, putrid, unclean sinners. Sinners double
died. That is the hardest thing in
this world to get into the head of a man who was raised in religion.
Christ didn't come to call the righteous. He came to save sinners. Sinners. Listen to this. When we were
yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
He commended his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, how wicked she was. She sold
him to his enemies for the price of silver. She used the mystery
of his strength to bind him in the house of his enemies. She
drew nigh unto him with her lips, but her heart was far from her.
She used him to have her way, and for his love for this wicked
woman, He found himself given over to the will of them who
hated him. And Samson was a type of Christ
in that he suffered and died for his sins. If Jesus Christ did not make
my sins his own, then I still have them to pay. That's right. It is still left up in Proverbs
17, verse 15. You ought to take a highlighter
if you've got it and highlight this verse of Scripture. It says,
"...he that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just,
even they both are abomination to the Lord." How can it be that the sinless,
holy, virtuous Son of God can be condemned and poor, filthy,
wicked sinners can be justified before God? How can that be?
It's by an act of God that transcends all thought, all reason. You'll never reason it out. It transcends thought. It transcends
reason. It's by an act of grace that
goes beyond anything that we could ever imagine. For God has
made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. I listen to people sometimes. They get on me when I preach
about this. and try to make this over into
some simple little transaction like going to get your license
down at the courthouse or just an exchange. It was just something
on the book. My friend, you better go back
and read about that crucifixion again. God poured out His wrath
on him the way He'd pour it out on an enemy. They spit in his
face. You think you could spit in the
face of God and get away with it? They spit in his face, Nathan. They slapped him and said, who
slapped you if you're a prophet? Shoved that crown of thorns down,
whipped him. He was marred. You couldn't even
recognize him, who he was. And then nailed him on a cross.
And then gathered around him and laughed at him while he died. How can it be? that sinless,
holy, virtuous Son of God can be condemned, and poor, filthy,
wicked sinners like you and I can be justified before God. It takes
an act of God's sovereign grace. People say, well, what do you
mean by that? Well, I'm just quite content to leave the Scripture
read exactly as it reads, ain't you? I don't see a thing wrong
with 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians 5.21. I don't see a thing wrong
with it. I wouldn't want to change anything
on it. And I think all we do when we
start to expound on it and build it and try to justify, I think
we just mess it up. Just leave it like it is. It
says exactly what it means. And there's one more thing that
I want you to see. having bound him and put out
his eyes and caused him great suffering. God resurrected this
man, Solomon, and gave his strength back to him. And I believe we miss a great
deal of the story of Samson as he goes to the pillars of the
temple if we do not see him as is pictured in his resurrected
glory. Ignored by His enemies. The Lord
came down and rolled that stone back. Our Lord walked out of
that tomb unbound. Stepped onto a cloud when He
got ready and ascended up into glory. And this world has been
denying it ever since. They've been denying it. He's
ignored by His enemies. Here's the Philistines. He threw
5,000 of them with the jawbone of an ass. Picked up that gate
that they couldn't even hardly close the bolt of it. He picked
the gate up and carried it 20-some miles up on a mountain. They
never won a skirmish with Samson. They lost every battle that confronted
him. But now here's this man out here
and he's pitiful in their eyes now, ain't he? He's defeated
in their eyes now. He's the defeated reformer. Old
Samson the judge. Old Sampson the judge, totally
ignored by his enemies. Rode off by society, not feared
as he once was. Out of sight and out of mind.
He's nothing now but the butt of their jokes. Seen only on
the occasion when they use him for their entertainment. Made
sport of. They order his coming and going.
They tell him when he can come and when he can go. And when they want him, they
call for him. And when they don't want him around, they keep him
locked away. His power and his glory go virtually
unnoticed. Samson's strength and the glory
of his character are returned, but not very many realize it.
Now picture this world, this rebellious, idolatrous world,
as the great house of Dagon, because that's what it is. That's
the fish god, half fish, or some refer to him as the dung god.
I think either one of them picture him pretty good. And the Lord held seemingly bound
by their wicked imaginations, the wicked imaginations of men. But then appears a lad. I want
you to see this in this story. Here's a lad. It don't even tell
his name. Insignificant. Name not even
mentioned in Scripture. Nobody pays him any mind. Nobody
pays him any attention. He ain't anybody. He's nobody
to fear. Nobody watches what he's doing.
Who cares what he does? Who's he? He's just a lad. What's
he going to do? He ain't nobody. And we don't
fear him who he preaches. He's defeated. He's nobody. Why
fear him? He's just a lad. This to me symbolizes
the preacher. The preacher of the resurrected
Christ. He sees the resurrected glory of Christ while everybody
else sees a defeated reformer. He sees the one who now has his
former glory restored to him while everybody else sees him
still on the cross. He sees the servant of God doing
the will of God while everybody else sees circumstance and chance. And by the instruction of this
man of God, the lad takes the faithful servant of God and he
leads him up to the pillars of the temple. And then he leaves
him alone. Huh? He leaves him alone. What are these pillars? What
are the two pillars that hold up the house of Dagon? Free will
and self-righteousness. That's what it is. Two big pillars. That holds everybody's refuge.
That holds the house of Dagon up in all of its glory. Man's
free will and man's works and his self-righteousness. And standing
there like the two big pillars of this ungodly temple. Here
they stand. What's the preacher to do to
tear down your refuge? What's that preacher to do? Simply
to take Christ, the crucified Christ, and lead Him over to
where the pillars are and leave Him alone. Leave Him alone. That's it. Just preach Him right
here between these two pillars. And it ain't the preacher that'll
tear down the refuge. It's Christ. It's Christ. And that's my object. in preaching
Christ is to place Him between the pillars of your house of
refuge and then get out of the way. Paul said the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal. I'm not going to accomplish anything
with make me out a campaign slogan and get out here and march up
and down the road and go over there and picket and all that
nonsense. They're not carnal. I'm not going
to organize some kind of rally and go up against the politicians
and all of the things of our day. You don't accomplish anything. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, they're spiritual. They're spiritual. And Paul said
they're mighty through God to the tearing down of your strongholds
and casting down your imaginations and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God. What does the temple of your
God rest on? What does it rest on? Is it your
will, your strength, your glory, your righteousness? Are you the author of your own
destiny? Are you your own potter? Do you owe all that you hope
in to yourself? Do you live for self, work for
self, and glory in yourself? May God the Holy Spirit this
day set our great Samson between the pillars of your refuge. Lean
himself into them and bring them down around your ears. Your temple
rests on your works, the labor of your own hands. Are you expecting
rewards at the end of your sojourn? Are you looking for a smiling
God to admire your sacrifices and offerings? Oh, wait a minute,
Lord. We did many wonderful works in
thy name. You've made a mistake. Recheck
the books. We preached in your name. We've
cast out demons. He said, depart from me, you
workers of iniquity. I never knew you. What a glorious thing it is when
God takes what this world sees as absolutely insignificant and
turns it into the power of God. Paul said, I'm ready to come
preach to you now at Rome. I'm coming. And he said, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation.