Well, dear congregation, before we come to consider God's Word, let us seek again the Lord's face in prayer. Let us pray. O our Father and our God, thy Word forever is, O Lord, in heaven settled fast. Thy testimonies are faithful and true. And we pray our God that at this time, as we come to consider thy word, that help would be given to speaker and hearer alike, that we would be preserved by thy word, and we would be quickened, quickened from our apathy and our indolence, that we would be quickened in spiritual things, As thy word goeth forth, may it go forth in the power of God the Holy Ghost. As thy word goeth forth, may not one word fall to the ground. May every word be upheld and sustained by Christ who has given it. We pray then, our God, that thou would grant us thy mercy, and thou would pity us, and come and our teacher be. This we pray, seeking the pardon of all our sins for Christ's sake. Amen. Well, dear friends, let us return to that portion of Scripture that we read together. Judges on the chapter 15. And we shall read again, verse 19. But God cleave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout. And when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived. Wherefore he called the name thereof, Enhachoreh. which is in Lehi unto this day. En haKoreh. Dear friends, with the Lord's help, we will be considering this place of Samson's reviving. En haKoreh was the place of this servant of God's reviving. When he was weary of soul, when he was spent of body, there God met with his servant and revived him in his serving. It means the fountain of him that prayed. Or if you have a margin, you will read, the well of him that cried. It was the place where Samson poured himself out onto God in his crying to God, the well of him that cried, the fountain for the one that prayed. What was it then? It was a spring of reviving to the soul of this weary servant of God. Now, we all know, I trust, this Judge Samson. We all learn of Samson from a very early age. Samson does some things that are good and profitable, but he also does some things that we ourselves would not have done by God's grace. But Samson, according to the New Testament, obtained a good report. He was named with the prophets in Hebrews chapter 11. He obtained a good report as a man who had faith, conquering the enemies of God and doing the work of the Lord. So he stands out, I think, to us in our age. He stands out as an example of what we experience in the Christian life. We all can experience highs and lows. We can all relate to the need of reviving in the soul. There's many times when we feel weary in the Christian life, and what? Think on the New Testament witness. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. We are thankful for that, aren't we? Because like Samson, we have faults. But we know that grace abounds even in our faults. God's strength is made perfect in weakness. Whose weakness? The weakness of his servants, the weakness of his followers, the weakness of his people. God's strength is made perfect. God's strength. Now we can relate to these truths in our own experience. And just as Samson required an en-hachari, so do we. We also require such in our Christian living and witness. Now, the context of the chapter, why Samson is brought to this place, follows on from chapter 14. See, at the end of chapter 14, the spirit of the Lord came upon his servant, and he went to Ashkelon, and there he slew 30 men. But while he was away doing the work of God, Samson's wife was given to his companion, his friend, by her father. And in chapter 15, when Samson realizes this is what has been done, remember Samson's wife was a Philistine herself. He destroys the crops with the 300 foxes. And the Philistines thought to pick a fight with Samson, and he slew them. He slew each and every one of them. And then he went and dwelt at the rock Etam. And what happened? The Philistines then went to the men of Judah and camped around them. And this conveys to us a weak church. And that's what we have today. We have a weak church, because here we had 3,000 men of Judah, and only 1,000 Philistines went to them and camped around them. And the 3,000 men of Judah gave in to the 1,000 Philistines, and they went and arrested Samson for them. So the context of this chapter and the lesson for us as we consider Samson's day in Hachoreh is that he faced a worldly foe in the Philistines. But not only did he face a worldly foe, he also faced a weak church. 3,000 men of Judah gave him up to the enemy. So here we will see, dear friends, His, but also more importantly, our necessity for an en ochore. We shall look at this under three headings. Equipped by God, spent for God, and revived by God. and I trust with the help of God, the Holy Spirit, we'll see some use of this for ourselves. Firstly, then, equipped by God, verse 14 and 15a. What was he equipped by God for? For what reason was Samson equipped by God? He was equipped by God in order that he may contend for God. contend for the field. And that's why we, as servants of God, are equipped by God that we may contend for that faith once delivered unto the saints. And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms, remember the men of Judah, apprehended him, put cords upon his arms. These cords that were upon his arms became as flecks that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands, and he found a new jawbone of an ass. equipped by God. Now, we have this important phrase here in verse 14, the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. That's important, for without the Spirit of the Lord, we can do nothing. Is that not what we are reminded of in the New Testament? Without Christ, we can do nothing. And it is the supply of the Spirit of Christ that Philippians 1 verse 19 tells us that we need for our service in this world. So we see the necessity. The church void of the Spirit of God will do nothing. We are wholly dependent upon God's Spirit for our equipping. And dear friends, it is in the book of Judges that this phrase first appears, that we read of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon man. We have Othniel chapter three and verse 10. We have Gideon chapter six, verse 34, and you can look the rest up for yourself. So in the book of Judges, when these judges were appointed, See the Spirit of the Lord coming upon men to equip them. Why? To contend for his cause. And what were they equipped with? What is this Spirit of the Lord that has come upon them? Well, I suggest to you in light of the New Testament, it was the Spirit of Christ. 1 Peter 1 10-12 tells us that it was by the Spirit of Christ that the Old Testament prophets prophesied. You see, Christ has always been mediator over his church. He has always upheld his cause by his Spirit. He didn't just start upholding his cause at the incarnation. He has always been as the son, the mediator of the covenant. So it's always been, dear friends, by the spirit of Christ that the church has contended for Christ in this world. So by the same spirit that Samson contended, we also contend a spirit of Christ. It is His cause. It's not our cause. And the church needs to grasp this in the day in which we live. It's not my cause. It's not your cause. It's not a congregation's cause. It's not a denomination's cause. It's the cause of Jesus Christ in the world. And God is pleased to use us weak vessels, to equip us for contending for his cause. And you know, we can trace this throughout the whole of the Old Testament scriptures. And we see its great and ultimate fulfillment in Christ himself. Christ being the true servant of the Lord. And Christ himself needed the Spirit in his ministry. We have that prophesied, Isaiah 61 verse 1. We have it confirmed by Christ in Luke 4.18 as he reads this chapter. Isaiah says, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. It's Christ speaking. Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of prison to them that are bind. So we see the fulfillment of this work of the Spirit in the actual person and work of Jesus Christ himself. and we are to work in his name and for his cause. Now, dear friends, this eschatological, that means this end times messianic significance, element is, of course, of great significance to us. How can we live and labor in the Spirit today? Because Christ has passed through the heavens. He has obtained this for us. What did he receive of the Father? He received the promise of the Father, and he sent forth on the day of Pentecost the Spirit, pouring the Spirit out upon the church. Dear friends, we read nowhere in Scripture that he has recalled the Spirit from the church. We still have the Spirit in the church today, that same Spirit that was poured out on Pentecost. Now we see why we ought to go to our El Chokhore. We ought to cry to God for reviving. We ought to seek his face for reviving in this age and in our generation. He sent forth another comforter into his church, that which equips us for the Christian life. We possess the same spirit as Samson possessed. No less. Verse 14, we read that the Spirit came mightily upon him. Acts chapter 2, we read that the Spirit rushed upon them mightily. What do we have here? We have Samson's personal Pentecost. That's what we have, his personal reviving. We ought to seek ourselves such personal reviving. You know, we ought to know when we need reviving. And when we walk close with God, that's when we're conscious of these things. We ought to be spiritually sensitive. You know, we live in a generation when people are far too sensitive. The world's far too sensitive. You can't say anything wrong because it's a criminal offense to hurt someone's feelings. But the Christian ought to be sensitive in a good way and more sensitive than they are in their works of wickedness. We ought to be sensitive to the truth and to the reality and to the experience or whether or not we walk close with God or we experience the reviving of a spirit in this day in which we live. Samson's personal Pentecost. What's he pointing us to? A greater Pentecost. that which we know that has come and fulfilled, that which we ought to live in the power of today, the power of Pentecost. That's the power the church of Jesus Christ is a living today, same power. So he was equipped by God. And we knew from our text that an element of his equipping was liberty. You see, he was bound and his bands loosed from his hands. So an element of his equipping was this liberty that he had to engage the enemy. And dear friends, we have this liberty in Christ. If Christ hath set you free, ye shall be free indeed. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set you free. What an encouragement for us to seek God, to enter into the contest. We have been set free. We are at liberty to serve God. Therefore, let not indwelling sin bind you any longer. Let not discouragement hinder you any longer. Let not how things are cloud over how things should be. Persevere, dear friend. You have been set at liberty. God has equipped you to pursue him and his cause. Paul reminds us in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians and chapter 3, that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. There is liberty for the church. We are not bound by the constraints of society. We are not bound by the constraints of government legislation. We are the church of Jesus Christ. We have been set at liberty. His kingdom is a greater kingdom and it's his kingdom that we live in and that we serve. Now, children, I trust you know and did note the instrument that Samson used. This instrument may be a strange instrument to us. Verse 15a, and he found a new jawbone of an ass. Well, children, that's a strange weapon, isn't it? To slay the enemies of God. a jawbone of an ass. We read of another weapon in the book of Judges, and it's called the sword of the Lord and the sword of Gideon. And you know, if it was left up to us, what would we do? We would cry, give me the sword of the Lord. Give me the sword of Gideon. I don't want the jawbone. It's not sufficient for the task. we would cry, wouldn't we, for the sword of the Lord? Jobo, strange weapon. But what we learn here is that what seems insufficient to us is actually the sufficiency of the Lord. What a wonderful, comforting truth this is to us, for how insufficient do we feel in the cause of God. We feel all so insufficient, and yet it pleases the Lord to use the weak things to confound the mighty. Dear friends, let us not give up the old paths as being insufficient in the cause of today. They are the sufficiency of the Lord. It is that which God has given us and equipped us with to contend for his cause. Let it be a jawbone of an ass, because if it's God's equipping, it will be sufficient for the cause. And we see that it was a new jawbone. Here we see God's manifold wisdom. It wasn't an old jawbone that would have turned to dust with the strength of Samson's hand, or as he slew one of the Philistines came to be of no use to him. It was a fresh jawbone in God's providence. A fresh donkey had died, leaving this bone to be used. You see, so God even orders these things in his manifold wisdom when he equips us for the cause of God. But secondly then, let us note that he was spent for God. He was equipped by God, but we see that he was spent for God. Verse 15b, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. Many today, dear friends, spend their strength. They spend their strength for that which is vain. unprofitable, but not Samson on this occasion. I think it's Isaiah says to us and warns us, why do you spend your money on that which is not bread? Why do we waste the gifts and talents and the enabling that God gives his people on things vain? Not Samson. He was equipped and he was spent for God. Dear friends, there's no greater spending than being spent in the cause of God. And many of you here have fought the fight a lot longer than I have. And you know all too well what it is to be spent for God, to pour everything you have into serving the head and king of the church. But I trust that we see the correlation between the two. If we are equipped, let us be spent. Let us not waste. The apostle Paul tells us, redeem the time, for the day is evil. That's what we ought to do. We ought to strive in ourselves and set our minds to redeeming the time, to daily put forth our hands, to daily take hold of this jawbone of an ass, and to daily slay the Philistines before us. Samson was active. active in the cause of God. And those that are alive are active. Remember Christ has quickened us by his spirit. He's made us alive unto God. And we as Christians have the life of God in the soul. Would we waste such a life? Or will we take it? Will we use it? My dear friends, don't mistaken me. I'm not saying that everyone is called to be a minister, or everyone is called to be a missionary, or everyone is called to be an office bearer, or to be an outreach worker. That's not what I'm saying. You can take up the cause of God every day at your bedside. You can take the cause of God up every day in witnessing to your family. You can take the cause of God up every day by witnessing to your neighbor. These in and of themselves are great feats and works for God. Don't diminish them. If God has equipped us to pray, let us pray. If God has equipped us to say a word for the blessed Savior, let us be sure to say that word. And it was a comprehensive victory. It was a victory that deserved a psalm of triumph. Here we have the psalm of Samson, verse 16. With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. There's the thousand Philistines that the 3,000 men of Judah feared. Samson didn't fear them. Why? Because his sufficiency was off the Lord. The Spirit of God came upon him. But then we see just how he was spent. We are suddenly brought to the cost of service. And there is a cost in serving the Lord. There is a cost for living for God in this world. And the cost is getting greater, I would say, in the society in which we live. And how are we to live in the light of this? Well, the best way and the best help for us is to think on Christ. Think of what it cost Him to purchase us. Think of what it cost Him to fill us and quicken us with His Spirit. That is the greatest motivation, to face the cost of service and being spent with God. And this man was spent. Verse 18 tells us how he was spent. He was sore of thirst, and called on the Lord, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant, and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. He was wholly spent physically, mentally and spiritually. And I trust we see the correlation between these three things. Because when we exert energy in being spent for the Lord, we will become physically tired at times. We will become weary in our members and in our body. And that naturally takes effect upon the mind and may cause us to be melancholy and a bit down. And that then leads on to spiritual effect. We become tired in spirit and weary and sore. So when we are spent for the Lord, we may expect these things. And that's what to look out for. When we are spent in body and mind, spiritual things will soon follow. That's why we need an Enhukure in our lives. He was so exerted himself in slaying these Philistines that he thought his sore thirst would itself be his own slaying. A thousand Philistines couldn't slay him, but he had been brought to the point of dejection and being spent that he thought his own thirsting would be that which would slay him. He was despairing. He was dejected. It reminds us a wee bit of the prophet Elijah. Remember the prophet Elijah, the great victory of Mount Carmel, when he slew the prophets of Baal. And he run ahead as it were of the chariot of Ahab. He girded up his loins and he ran by the Spirit of God ahead of the chariot to the gates of Jezreel. And the reaction of that wicked woman, Jezebel, was one that she would continue fighting. What happened to Elijah? He ended up under the juniper tree. But what happened? The Lord revived Elijah there. Sometimes we end up under the juniper tree. Sometimes we cry out like this man, Samson, that he would die of his thirst. It reminds us of ourselves, doesn't it? It reminds us that in the Christian life, we face a thousand Philistines each day. We do. We face them before we get out of our beds. One captain of the Philistines is called Captain in Dwelling Sins. There's a Philistine for you. And we all have a thousand in dwelling sins that plague us. Then we have kept in temptation to sins. The whole world wants to tempt us to sin, to forsake our God. We have trials and difficulties. We have worldly hostility. We have a visible church that seems too weak to help us in a larger scale. At times our faith is plagued with fear and with unbelief. Like a plague, it attaches itself to our faith. Sometimes we are despondent creatures. I speak for myself, dear friends. We can be despondent and dejected and weary in the cause of God. We are creatures of the dust. But we must not forget that the Lord is sovereign over all. And the Lord at times humbles us as Christians. He brings us to an end of ourselves. He humbles us as churches, as congregations. He humbles us as a nation in order that it may be crystal clear What is it that must be crystal clear? That we are wholly dependent upon him. We are wholly dependent upon the one who sustains us, who revives us, who keeps us in his cause. Now some see this as a spiritual high in Samson's life. Here we have, as it were, a recorded prayer of Samson. The only other recorded prayer of Samson is at the end of his life in chapter 16. But here we have a recorded prayer in verse 18. And we can learn from his prayer when we are spent for the Lord. He says to the Lord, thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant. Two things we can learn from that. When we are weary and spent, and when we go to the Lord, firstly, rehearse God's former mercy. Remember God's former mercy to you. Rehearse it in the ear of your Father who art in heaven. But secondly, remind God God doesn't forget, but God delights that his children remind him that we are his servants. And that's what Samson does. He rehearses God's mercy, and he reminds God that he is a servant. Here we see God's care and reviving of his servant. But thirdly and finally, revived by God. Our text in verse 19, revived by God. And here we have this conjunction, but God. Isn't it wonderful when we read that in scripture? But God. He is our sufficiency. We are wholly dependent upon him. And in these two words, what do we have? We have God's most gracious intention towards his servant, Samson. We have it written as well, as we'll sing in closing, in Psalm 73. Psalm 73, the psalmist is spent, but he remembers that God is his portion. My flesh and my heart feeleth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. It is wonderful, just like the psalmist here, and like Samson, when this objective truth becomes the Christian's subjective reality, that when we can say we were weak and weary, but God who faileth never hath strengthened me and made me able and made me willing in the day of his power. God in his great mercy interjects between our despairing, our despondency, and our dying. Just as he did here with Samson, God stepped in Samson thought he would die in his despair, but God, God was the strength of his heart and his portion forever. Reminds us of chapter two of Ephesians, doesn't it? Where we're told, but God, who is rich in mercy, We're told that God hath quickened us. We who were the children of wrath, the children of disobedience, God in his rich mercy and grace hath quickened us. Dear friends, just like we read nowhere that the spirit that was poured out in Pentecost has been recalled from the church, Nor do we read of a saint of God being unquickened after they have been quickened in the rich mercy of God. It cannot be. God has quickened us. We are lively spirits. Therefore, let us go to God for our reviving and for our quickening. R-N-H-O-R-A. Samson would remember this place of reviving. And in verse 19, when we read, but God claimed the hollow place that was in the jaw, not the jaw bone that he slew them with, but in Lehi, God, as it were, claimed the hollow on that hill or mountain. became all well a spring for Samson, the spring of him who cries. What does that teach us? Dear friend, it teaches us that the place of Samson's crying became the place of Samson's reviving. Therefore, the place of our crying will be the place of our reviving. But the question is, do we cry for reviving? Do we? We have the promise here of Samson, this example of a child of God crying and being revived. Dear friends, we ought to go to our inquiry. Do we have a sore thirst? I trust we do. For can we all not see the beleaguered state of the church? Can we not see despondency in the pews? Can we not see a people dejected? Yes, we can. We can see it all around us. Can we not see that the world seeks to gain ground after ground upon the church? Do we have a sore thirst? I trust we do, for we all have tasted of this dejection in these days. The world is hostile and the church is weak. Not to forget the sins of our own hearts, not to forget the trouble of our own minds. We have enough enemies of the Philistines before us today. Dear friends, go quickly to your inn Hachuri. But you may say to me, well, preacher, where is it? You keep saying this strange word, but where is it? Where will I go? Where can I go? Dear friends, your enhokore is greater than that of Samson's here in Lehi. A greater enhokore is your very possession in Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter four teaches us that the risen Christ victoriously and triumphantly ascended, passing through the heavens into the most holy place, a victorious redeemer, purchased for us entrance into the most holy, purchased for us a throne of grace, where we may go boldly to find grace, to find help, to find strengthening, to find reviving in this day of our need. This is the place of our crying, the throne of grace, the throne of grace upon which the risen Christ sits. A wonderful truth. After he hath purged our sins, he has sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. This is the place of our crying, and by the grace of Christ, it is the place of our reviving. Let us then go as individuals, as congregations, as a denomination, and cry. And in our crying, let us be revived. in the cause of God and the cause of Christ. Dear friends, in your despairing, remember this place. Don't forget it. Don't lose sight of it. It has been purchased at a great price. Therefore, when you have been spent for the cause of Christ and has adorned that great cost of being spent, this is where you go. You go to the one who has given you freely of the water of life. Pray for a fresh supply. They prayed for Paul in prison, that he would have a fresh supply of the Spirit of Christ. That's what we pray for. In your despairing, remember the sympathy of Christ. He is not an unsympathetic Savior. He has been touched with the feeling of our infirmities. No man will be spent more than what he was spent. in purchasing us. He was spent in giving himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice. Dear friends, go boldly and obtain. Don't just discover the secret of Enhukure in the life of Samson, but make this your place of dwelling. Make this your place of sustaining, of crying, and by God's grace may it be also the place of our reviving. Let us pray. Eternal and ever-blessed God, we thank thee that we have a place of crying this morning. We have a place of reviving. that throne of grace where we are commanded to come boldly. We pray, our God, that for his sake, thou would hear us in our crying, and for his sake, thou would revive us. Thou dost know every need of all of thy people here. Strengthen us. Strengthen this congregation. Strengthen every congregation in our denomination, every congregation in this nation that is faithful to thy cause. Strengthen thy church. O God, we faint and fail, but may it be our experience. But God is our strength and our potion forever. Hear us, we pray, for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.