Whenever we shun God's wisdom, we will be shunned by God's blessing. Clement of Alexandria was an early church father who lived from 150 AD to 215 AD. He wrote several books which helped form certain theological beliefs which we still hold dear today. Some of his focus was on the nature of Christ, the role of women in the church, which was scandalously liberal for his day, and the nature of faith in the life of the believer. Now, as we begin our time today in the book of Judges, I would like for you to consider what Clement of Alexandria has written about freedom of choice and God's blessing. Listen carefully to the very profound points that he makes. He wrote this. It is not those that abstain from wickedness from compulsion, but those that abstain from choice that God crowns. It is impossible for a man to be steadily good except by his own choice. For what is made good by compulsion of another is not good. For he is not what he is by his own choice. It is the freedom of each one that makes true goodness and reveals real wickedness. True goodness only comes when we select the option without being forced in any way to withdraw ourselves from wicked activity. And this is what God rewards. He crowns it. If someone focuses on making us abandon our evil behavior and our tendencies, that's not true goodness if we do so. And we should not expect to be nicely compensated by God when it's under compulsion. Whenever we shun God's wisdom, we will be shunned by God's blessing. When a person comes into relationship with Jesus Christ, God places within us, for the very first time, the power to constantly choose to withdraw ourselves from participating in evil. But He doesn't remove our ability to choose. We now have the ability to consistently choose behaviors that serve God's purposes through the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But we can also ignore it altogether. You see, God wants you and I to develop true goodness, which brings Him the greatest honor and glory. Even a young believer who carries deep feelings of hurt, in anger from being treated in ways that no one ought to be treated, and choose not to let thoughts linger that are desirous thoughts of seeing the other person suffer for their wrongs. A believer who has long and a torrid history of giving in to pornography, can choose not to put themselves in situations and places where they have the opportunity to feed an impure thought life. And because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life, we can choose not to lash out with our tongue when others insult us or say awful things that are not true about us. Now, Samson is given to us as a picture of a man who is filled with the Spirit of God Yet he chose to live his own life. We are going to see in chapters 14, 15, and 16 of this book of Judges what trouble his choices got him into. He was in trouble most of his adult life because he made the wrong choices. But God never forsook him. God continually offered mercy on his behalf. Samson's life is the story of every one of us who has ever given his or her life to Jesus Christ. God has a definite plan for us, our life as well. We need to constantly choose to live according to that plan. If you haven't already done so, please open your Bibles with me to Judges. We are in the 14th chapter this morning, Judges chapter 14. And I begin with verses 1 through 4, Judges 14, verses 1 through 4. Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother, I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife. But his father and mother said to him, is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives or among all our people that you must go and take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? But Samson said to his father, get her for me, for she is right in my eyes. So Samson leaves his country, goes down about four miles southwest to this little town, Timna. where his enemies, the Philistines, live. The enemies who have been holding the Israelites captive for about 20 years. It's interesting here that Samson's whole attitude is very demanding. It's one of, I have my rights. I'm 19 years old. I've got a right to have whatever I want. And I want a woman. I want that one. I want you to get her for me. I'm entitled He knew all the time that this was a direct violation of the law of Moses Deuteronomy 7 says very clearly you shall not intermarry with the Canaanites when you come into the land For they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods for you are to be a holy people to your God This was the same sin that put the Israelites in captivity in the first place. We saw that in Judges chapter 3 when they began to intermarry and be led away from serving Yahweh. Samson, who had been set apart for special devotion to the Lord even before he was conceived, shows no interest in the things of the Lord. The only thing that interests him is what he sees. And he sees a Philistine woman. Our world, which is ruled by the eyes, is not unlike Samson's. Commercialism sure knows this, doesn't it? On television, or in a magazine, or online, we see something, we want it. Little in our world regulates our desires. On the contrary, so much in our world validates our desires. You really deserve this. And what we define as need, what is it? It's really just desire. Virtually no desire deserves to go unpunished according to our societal norm today. But listen, we might get our way. But when we make choices apart from the Holy Spirit's leading, we will someday loathe that decision. The cry of our heart will be, I knew better! Why didn't I listen? Whenever we shun God's wisdom, we will be shunned by God's blessings. The fact that God used Samson's disobedience to do his work must not be interpreted to justify doing evil. Some may think that Samson, if he had not gone to this unholy woman, the beginning of Israel's deliverance from the Philistines, would never have occurred. But the truth of the matter is that if Samson had not gone after this unholy woman, the Philistine woman, The deliverance probably would have been more thorough, not as partial. Remember, Samson only began to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. Another 20 years later or so, David would complete it. Samson surely was directed by God to seek an occasion against the Philistines and to lead the Israelites in breaking out from under their yoke. But Samson did not take time to inquire of the Lord how. or in what legitimate ways he might do this. We don't find him asking as we do see his successor, Samuel. What he did is he said, speak Lord, for your servant is listening. Nor did he seek divine guidance when his parents questioned his seeking a bride among the Philistines. All that mattered was that she looked good to him. I don't know about you, but I have little wonder that Samson's potential for greater deliverance was reduced by his pleasure-seeking choice. Samson only began to deliver Israel from their oppressors. And like all the other judges, what do we read of them? We read, and they delivered Israel. We don't see that of him. Whenever we shun God's wisdom, we will be shunned by God's blessing. Never try to justify evil because some good might come of it. This only perverts the grace of God into that which sanctions evil conduct. It's true that like Samson, God's purposes will be accomplished in spite of our disobedience and bad choices. But don't ever think that you are free to use this as justification to go ahead and make a wrong choice. You don't win a drug addict to Christ by snorting cocaine with him. You don't evangelize someone you're attracted to by having sexual relationship with them. Marrying a non-believer in hopes that they will one day give their life to Jesus Christ. does not nullify God's command forbidding the saved from marrying the unsaved. Now in each of those cases where someone has gone ahead and chosen wrong, and God did indeed bring someone to himself through that relationship, this simply shows the grace of God working in spite of the wrong choice, as we see here in Samson. God can and does fulfill His purpose in spite of our choosing amiss. I love what the psalmist says as he writes this in Psalm 76 10. Certainly the wrath of man shall praise you, God. When God isn't permitted to rule in our lives, He overrules and works out His will in spite of our decisions. were the eventual losers for rebelling against him. But God will accomplish his purpose either with us or in spite of us. Samson should have been going to war instead of to a wedding. But God used this event to give Samson occasion to attack the enemy. Because of this event, we're about to see Samson kill 30 men, burn up enemy crops, slaughter a great number of Philistines, slay 1,000 of them. But you know, Samson hadn't planned any of these things. God worked them out just the same. With brilliant irony, the narrator describes a free spirit, a rebel driven by selfish interests, doing whatever he pleases without any respect for his parents and with no respect for the claims of God on his life. But in the process, he ends up doing the will of God. Now this brings a natural question. If we are inclined to make important decisions solely on the basis of what we feel, something that looks good to us, And it really isn't the best choice according to God's plan for our life. Would God in his grace ever give us some sort of warning before we got in too deep? Yes, I believe very often he does. In fact, we see him do that for Samson right here in our passage. When Samson and his parents went down to Timnah to make arrangements for the marriage, it appears that Samson left the main road, got off the beaten path, and left his parents also, by the way, and went on a little detour as far as the vineyards. And there a lion attacked him. Vineyard was a very dangerous place for a man under a Nazirite bow. He was not supposed to have anything to do with grapes. Anything. Or anything associated with the vine. According to Numbers 6 verses 1-4. Now before we read the next couple of verses from our passage, let me tell you what the majority of the Bible commentators say about this narrative that we're about to read. And I think they're right. God sends a lion as a warning to Samson that he was walking down the wrong path. And then God gives Samson the supernatural ability to bare-handedly kill this young lion. You see, God in His grace and His love for Samson, I believe was saying through this that we're about to see here, He was saying to him, I'm adequate. You're going the wrong way. I can defeat the Philistines in another way. One that will not compromise your walk with me. One that will not compromise my character. One that will not compromise the people of Israel in any way. I think God brings lions into all of our lives to show us that He is adequate for whatever happens. These lions come rushing at us. Sometimes they're financial. Sometimes they're emotional. Sometimes they're spiritual. They come upon us so quickly, we don't know what to do except say, Lord, help. And the moment we say that, God fills us with a spirit and we find ourselves adequate to defeat whatever lion comes. The lion comes in the form of Satan. 1 Peter 5 says, be alert, be sober, watch out. Your adversary, the devil, is coming at you like a roaring lion, licking his chops to get at you. But God is adequate to meet your needs regardless of what is happening today in your life. The Holy Spirit gave Samson power to defeat an enemy, the lion. Samson persisted on the path of disobedience into enemy territory and an unlawful wedding Failing to see how God wanted him to defeat the enemy of the Philistines Pick up with me now verse 5 verses 5 through 9 now Let's start with verse 4 actually His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time, the Philistines ruled over Israel. Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him, roaring. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. but he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes. After some days he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. He scraped it into his hands, and he went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and his mother, and he gave some to them, and they ate, But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of a lion." Well, the lion had been a warning from God. But it was also a demonstration of God's mercy to Samson. God delivered Samson even though Samson was in the wrong place, a vineyard. And was heading for another wrong place, Timnah. to commit an unlawful act, marry a pagan woman. But even God's mercy was enough. But it didn't stop Samson. Again, Samson plays with fire, drawing near to a carcass he's not supposed to touch by Nazarite vow. You're to stay away from any dead thing. It forbade him from coming in contact with anything dead. Samson ignores that. Maybe he wants to do nothing more than admire his work at killing that lion previously on his way into town. But then he notices the surprising presence of honey in the carcass. Samson sees the honey. He wants it. He takes it. And just like an American consumer, he throws out all signs of danger and poor decision-making ever so nonchalantly. He eats as he's going along. He wants to take the woman he's not supposed to marry, and on his way to do so, he takes some honey that he's not supposed to eat. Right now, we're in the midst of the Christmas holiday season. It's a time of indulgence, isn't it? You and I can be quite adept at ignoring the lion that God perhaps has sent our way. Maybe previous Christmas seasons you went far outside your budget in gift buying and holiday shopping. By the time January and February rolled around, the lion roared in the form of the credit card bill. By God's grace though, you called out to him, you cried out, and he spared you. Yet, here we are again. It's the holidays all over. The temptation is just as strong as it was before. Last year's indiscretion. You want to just keep buying and buying, making purchases with money that you don't yet have. Maybe you faced a lion of poor health. God has mercifully brought you out of a problem that was due to your wrong choosing of food and nutrition. Now you have some great seasonal delights before you. I've already eaten more Christmas fudge than I should, but it's so good! Maybe last year Christmas was spoiled for you because of the rudeness and obnoxiousness of Uncle Jack. Perhaps he deserved the blunt comments that you made at him. It was an uncomfortable few weeks as the family divided up and took sides. But Uncle Jack and Aunt Eunice have agreed to come to Christmas again this year. Will you show him the same kind of grace that Christ extends to you every day? Do you have a lion that God has sent to keep you from going down a wrong path. Whenever we make choices apart from the Holy Spirit's leading, we will someday loathe that decision. The cry of our heart will be, I knew better! Why didn't I listen? God even sent me a lion! Whenever we shun God's wisdom, we will be shunned by God's blessing. Each time that it is mentioned that either Samson or his parents went to Timnah, in verses 1, 5, 7, and a couple times after that, it says they went down to Timnah. They indeed did go down rocky mountain gorges. Their geographic path was downward, but so was the spiritual path they were taking. Samson's path is a reminder of Jonah's journey. Jonah went down to Joppa, down into the ship heading to Tarsus, down to the bottom of the sea, Samson and Jonah both rebelled against God their rebellion was against God and it spiritually pulled them both down Rebellion against God always leads downward World will say that's all right Samson Do what you want you have the right to do anything you desire As Christians we cannot trust unbelievers to tell us what direction we should be going. This world does not know what direction it is heading. The mentality of this world is the epitome of confusion and chaos. Thereup is God's down. Our plumb line for decisions is not based upon society's opinions, but upon the Word of God. This is the reason Samson's parents protested their son's choice because it was contrary to the Word of God. Their protest, however, was rather lackluster. His parents briefly argued against the sin, but then they went right along with it. They opposed the marriage and disobedience by talk, but not by walk. They went down to Timnah to arrange the marriage. Samson's parents arranged this marriage according to the local customs. That included a seven-day feast for which the Hebrew word that is used here in our text is Mishtah. Mishtah literally means drinking party. So apparently one more element of Samson's Nazarite vow was broken. And Samson, as any good host would do, provides a popular form of entertainment. Riddles. were the favorite party game of their culture. Let's pick up with verse 10 now. Verses 10 through 14. His father went down to the woman and Samson prepared a feast there for the young men. For so the young men used to do. As soon as the people saw him, they brought 30 companions to be with him. And Samson said to them, Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is within seven days of the feast and find it out, then I will give you 30 garments, linen garments, and 30 changes of clothes. But if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes." And they said to him, put your riddle, that we may hear it. And he said to them, Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet. And in three days, they could not solve the riddle. Sad to say he constructed the riddle out of the experience of his sin. He didn't take seriously the fact that he had violated his Nazirite vows. You're bad enough to disobey God, but when you make a joke out of it, you've sunk to new depths of spiritual depravity. Samson continues to go down to Timnah. Samson propounds a riddle that looks like his odds are pretty certain for victory. But a sure thing is never a sure thing when you're flaunting God. Whenever we shun God's wisdom, we will be shunned by God's blessing. Let's see how it turns out. Verses 15-18 now. On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us? And Samson's wife wept over him and said, You only hate me. You do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people and you have not told me what it is. And he said to her, behold, I have not told my father nor my mother. And shall I tell you? She wept before him the seven days and their feast that their feast lasted. And on the seventh day, he told her because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle. What's sweeter than honey? A woman's words. What's stronger than a lion? A woman's tears. Indeed, the lion and the honey within it were warnings. The woman is too strong for Samson to overpower and too sweet to resist. God was saying, stay away from her. In Samson's case, justice is poetic, literally. Having seized what he desired, Samson composed a poem, and then the poem is composed against him. This definitely is poetic justice. Samson knows he had lost, and once again, in riddle-like fashion, he accuses them of cheating by having plowed with his heifer, a young cow, conspiring with his wife. Now, a word to the wise men. Never, ever, under any circumstance, in jest or in seriousness, or to any person at any time, refer to your woman as your heifer. And yes, this was just as demeaning, insulting in Samson's day. It is just as demeaning and insulting in the Hebrew as it is in the English. Getting back to our point, we often don't realize this about our American consumerism. But whenever we see, want, and take, irrespective of the will of God, Just like Samson, we will reap what we take. Whatever was sweet in the mouth becomes bitter in the belly. Especially if we celebrate the satisfaction of our desires in the manner of Samson. We are simply sowing the seeds of our own destruction. Short-term satisfaction often leads to long-term disappointment and degeneracy. Our poems of defiance, so to speak, through which we boast that we can get away with anything, will come back and haunt us. MIT professor Jonathan Gruber might be able to vouch for this. Our companions, whoever or whatever they may be, who serve our interests now, can turn out to be our enemies. You see, whenever we shun God's wisdom, we will be shunned by God's blessing. Verses 19 and 20. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelton, and struck down thirty men of the town, and took their spoil, and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father's house, and Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man. Now for a second time in the book of Judges, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Samson this time for the taking of 30 Philistines to make good on his bet. Remember the Lord had said that Samson would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. Samson's sinful desire for a Philistine wife was used toward that end here. Samson has no interest in delivering Israel from the Philistines. At this point, he's only interested in taking out his anger on the Philistines. A righteous deliverer, Samson is not. Yet the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him and uses his unrighteous desire for a pagan woman to further God's righteous purposes. Now, God is not the author of evil. On the contrary, He overcomes it and He makes it serve His purposes. In a world polluted with sin, salvation is a messy business. Just look at the cross. Watch and see how God overcomes the evil of Judas' betrayal. The evil desires of the Jewish leaders. And the cruelty of the Roman oppression to accomplish His plan to redeem you and I. Samson's life is the life of all of us who have given ourselves to the Lord. It's a life of choices. Choosing between the sinful nature and what the Holy Spirit of God from within us is leading us to do. I believe that Samson made the wrong choices, but God overruled them to fulfill his ultimate purpose in ridding the land of the Philistines. And the Scriptures are really clear for us today. Now those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ have put to death the sinful nature and its passions and its desires. We have that ability now because of the Holy Spirit. If we live by the Spirit, then we will walk by the Spirit. Have you come to know the perfect Deliverer? These imperfect deliverers in the book of Judges make us yearn for the perfect Deliverer, Jesus Christ, who when we place our faith in Him, places within the life of the believer the Holy Spirit to reside and to lead us to the decisions, to the right decisions that participate with God in His Kingdom plan. Bring his greatest blessing to our life You know there is not a more important decision that you will ever make in your life And to give your life to Jesus Christ You do this first by recognizing your need for his mercy You don't deserve and you can never earn his salvation You have to recognize that although you are not worthy in any way, you can even still receive it though. It's an undeserved gift. It's called grace. It's because Christ has paid the penalty for all of your sins when he died on the cross. Last thing I want to say to you this morning, whenever we shun God's wisdom, we will be shunned by God's blessing. Amen? Let's pray.