Father, we have sung about a blood that is able to save us from our sins. And we rejoice that you sent your Son to die for our transgressions so that all of those decrees that were written against us for all who believe might be nailed to the cross and we bear that guilt no more. Thank you for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Lord, I thank you for these dear people that you have brought into our assembly today. Father, you know that I feel a huge responsibility in feeding your sheep today and a much inadequacy. But I ask, Father, that you would use stammering tongue and my mind to communicate clearly the truth that you would have these dear people to hear today. So we ask for your hand of blessing upon the preaching of your word, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, it's good to be with you all here today. My name is Mike Yonke. I'm actually a lay elder at Faith Community Church. Our senior pastor, Pastor Tim, is not here this week. He is continuing some studies in California at the Master's College. Actually, I just saw today a picture of him sitting behind John MacArthur's desk. So I guess all the students get an opportunity to do that. So that's pretty neat. So I'll be looking forward for Pastor Tim to come home. I think next week he'll be with us. I'm pretty sure on that. But anyway, it'll be neat to see what the Lord has laid upon his heart through his studies. Well, if you've been at FCC, Faith Community Church, for any length of time or maybe even a short time, you would understand that we believe firmly in preaching the whole counsel of God, and that means the entire Word of God, both the Old Testament and the New Testament. You know, Pastor Tim has been preaching now for 15 years, and you have to wonder, is it possible for a man in his preaching career to actually completely cover the whole counsel of God's word, the entirety of God's word. I think it was J. Vernon McGee who it was actually said of him that he probably preached through the entire Bible in his career. Some certainly have gotten close, but nonetheless, the exhortation and the goal from scripture is to preach the whole counsel of God. And I think for that very reason, and I've said this before, especially when I have the opportunity to fill the pulpit here and and the responsibility to fill the pulpit. That when you're a guest speaker, you know, you look at the whole counsel of God's word, you look at God's word, the size of it and think, what in the world am I going to preach on? And I think that what a guest speaker just needs to do is what has God been laying on your heart at the time? And I think that helps really narrow things down. And that's that's exactly what I did. And recently, our family and our family devotions, we just finished reading through the life of Samson in Judges chapter 13 through 16. And as we ended this study, it's a very fascinating study of this basically an ancient superhero is what he is. I was impacted with how pertinent the message of this story really is to us. as believers today. You know, it's not just a kid's story, is it? Now, it makes a great Sunday school lesson. I mean, in the first service I mentioned that, hey, it is much easier to teach kids the story of Samson than it is the doctrines of grace. But it's not just a kid's story. It's not just a cool story about a strong guy. Although, if you Google Samson, your search will bring up a lot of scholarly articles on how Samson is merely Jewish folklore or simply just an Israelite Hercules. On the contrary, I think it's very important for us to remember that the author of Hebrews said what? He said, you know what? When he was talking about the heroes of the faith in Hebrews chapter 11, I would love to have time to talk about Samson, but I don't have the time. You see, he recognized him as a real individual. That story actually happened. Well, today, thankfully, We have the time to look at Samson, although you are not going to get the inspired commentary as you would have had the author of Hebrews actually written on it. You will not get that for me, but I will do the best that I can, but judges chapter 13 through 16. We're going to look at this narrative in the life of Samson. We're going to treat this. narrative as if it is historical historically accurate as if it is literal and as if as if it is inerrant. So if you have your Bibles I would like for you to turn to judges chapter 13 Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua and then judges. While you're turning there. I thought I would give you kind of the path or the trail that we will be following in our study today. Number one, we're going to give a brief historical background of the narrative of Samson. And it's going to be very brief. We could probably spend a lot of time on this. You could probably spend a semester in a seminary class on the historical background of the book of Judges. So it's going to be very brief. We're going to actually highlight the narrative. We don't have time to go through the whole thing verbatim, but we're going to highlight some of the major points of the actual narrative so that we can get a gist of what happened in this story. And then thirdly, and simply, we're going to make applications from the text. Well, a brief historical background of the book of Judges. Judges records about a 350 year time span in the history of Israel. This time period would begin roughly at the death of Joshua. Remember, the children of Israel exited out of Egypt. They partially conquered the promised land. Joshua died that's where they all the Israelites promised that they would they would keep the covenant of the Lord but that's roughly where this time period began at the death of Joshua and then this 350 year time span would end roughly with the crowning of King Saul as the first monarch of Israel so the establishment of the monarchy in Israel You know, I think that if one could compare this time, this 350-year window in Israel's history, I think you could compare it to the Dark Ages, at least some of the movies that you see about the Dark Ages. It's just kind of, it's dark, it's always raining, it's muddy, people are poor, people are illiterate. Probably, if that's what you're thinking about Judges, the book of Judges, you're probably not that far off. If you picture an Israel here that is poor, that is picked on, that is probably illiterate, probably not far from being correct. But lastly, the book of Judges is characterized by what Judges itself says, that this time period was characterized by a cycle of sin on the part of the Israelites, a continuous cycle of sin. And then on God's part, it was a continuous cycle of judgment and deliverance. You see, Israel would sin. God would send a nation to oppress them, to punish them for their wickedness. Israel would cry out to God because of their oppression. God would raise up a judge and deliver the nation of Israel through that judge. And this cycle would happen over and over again. Well, there again, that's a very brief historical narrative of the book of Judges. But if you would turn to Judges chapter 13, and let's go ahead and start beginning this amazing story of the life of Samson. Verse 13, excuse me, verse one of chapter 13, picks up with this cycle that we just mentioned. The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. The story picks up with the birth of Samson. The name of Father Samson was Manoah. We don't know what his mother's name was, but his mother had the occasion of an angel appearing to her and said, you have no children, but you are going to bear a son. And this man is going to be a Nazirite. He's going to be outwardly separated to the Lord, and he is going to deliver the people of Israel from the Philistines. Now, notice some of the requirements of being a Nazirite. Again, a Nazirite vow is something we don't have a lot of time to get into detail with. But it is known that some heroes of the faith would take upon the Nazarite bow for a certain period of time and then they would end it. Some of them like Samson as well as Samuel were Nazarites supposedly for life. But it says in verse three. The angel says therefore be careful and don't drink wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean for behold you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head. So that's one of the things that a Nazarite what was supposed to do never cut his hair. Hence the long hair we know from Samson. The child should be a Nazarite to God from the womb, and he will begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines. But a Nazarite was to touch no wine or strong drink, and they were to touch nothing that was dead, defiled, or unclean." Well, the other thing that we know about Samson's birth, besides the fact that he was going to be a Nazarite, was that God was going to raise him up to deliver the nation of Israel from the Philistines. We don't know a lot about the childhood of Samson. Basically, what we know it picks up in verse 24 of the same chapter. It says the woman bore a son. So the angels, the angel of the Lord, his message came true. The woman bore a son and they called his name Samson. and the young man grew in the Lord blessed him. So, all we know is that the Lord was favorable towards him, that he grew up in a believing household and the Lord blessed him. Well, in verse 25, I kind of get the idea that here in verse 25, Samson was probably His age was at least marrying age because we in the following chapter, we start talking about Samson getting engaged here. But verse 25 is interesting because it says that the spirit of the Lord began to stir Samson. Now, what does that mean that he began to stir Samson? Well, it may very well be that he was old enough to look around at his surroundings and say, you know, these Philistines are a real pain. You know, the way these Philistines treat us and oppress us, that is not right. That should not happen. So maybe God was beginning to stir up a discontent in Samson to begin his ministry of deliverance of the children of Israel from the Philistines. And so, with that stirring up, I believe we pick up chapter 14, verse 1, and we find something. That Samson is going to Timnah. Verse 1 of chapter 14 says that Samson went down to Timnah, which is a Philistine city. Now, I believe that Samson was following the stirring that God had given him. Now, I don't know what the actual original plan that God had was that, you know, Samson was just going to kind of walk through the streets of of this of this city and kind of pick a fight or they were going to pick a fight with him and he was going to go ballistic on. I don't know exactly what the original plan was, but what we find is that Samson got severely sidetracked in his job. Look at the rest of chapter or rest of verse one in chapter 14. And at Timnah, he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. He goes back and he tells his father and his mother, I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife. And of course, being from a good and a godly home, his parents said, Samson, surely there has to be a godly girl from our relatives or at least from the whole nation of Israel that is not an uncircumcised pagan Philistine woman. Surely. But Samson would not have it. And Samson said, get her for me, for she is right in my eyes. In verse four, his father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. We're going to talk about that concept a lot more later to come. But I think what we see here. is this act of disobedience in Samson's life by wanting to engage in romance and eventually in marriage with an unbeliever, with a pagan woman, was really, I think it really set the stage for disobedience in his life. You know, sin has a tendency to snowball. Samson sowed disobedience, and I think as we're going to see through the rest of his life, I think he reaped pain and he reaped bitterness because of that. But in verse four, we see something so amazing. Yes, Samson is going down the right direction. But what is the author of judges say? His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord. Now, I will say this. We have to compare scripture with the rest of scripture. And according to the book of James, it is impossible for God to tempt anyone to do sin. And so God did not tempt Samson to marry that woman just so that he could get it to the Philistines. No, what we are seeing here is that God is so sovereign and absolutely in control that he is able to even use our sin to fulfill his purpose and for his glory. That's what we're going to see from this verse. So don't think that God tempted Samson to do this evil. He did not. It was on his own will that he did this evil. Well, continuing on with the narrative, Samson went down with his father and mother, and it's in this little engagement part of the narrative that we have the first account of Samson's strength. It's almost like the first time he realized that, hey, there's something different about me. Samson and his father and mother are going down to Timna to arrange the marriage to start the wedding feast. And the Bible says, and we don't know for sure, but it seems like Samson's parents probably were behind him or way ahead of him or whatever. But as Samson was walking by one of the vineyards of Timna, a young lion comes out of the vineyard. roaring to kill him and to eat him. Verse six says the spirit of the Lord rushed upon Samson and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. You see, with the strength that Samson had, that which is big now becomes tiny. So the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and it was literally like that lion could have been a tiny baby goat, and he tears the lion in pieces. Well, he continues on with his journey. Verse seven says that he was all the more committed to marry this woman. She was right in Samson's eyes. Clearly, you know, you want your wife to be right in your eyes, but that is not the only criteria for finding a godly spouse by any means. But nonetheless, after some days, he returned to take his wife. He did something that is probably very manly, probably something that is very male. He went back to look at his handiwork. And the Bible says that after some days he turned aside to see the carcass of this lion. And certainly probably to some degree, Samson was like, I can't believe I just did that. I'm not convinced that he really knew what was happening. And I think that he just went back to take a second look. I do think it's kind of a man thing. I mentioned to the first service that I am I have kind of a pet peeve about possums. When I see them on the highway, I try to nail them with my car. I mean, I don't get dangerous with it and go out of my lane and that kind of stuff. But if I if I hit one. There's occasion when I'll look back in the rearview mirror and say, boys, you want to go back and try to find it? It's like, yeah, let's do it. So I find the nearest intersection. I go back. There it is. I nailed it. So it's kind of a manly thing. And I think that's what what Samson is doing here. He goes back and he finds the carcass of the lion. And what does he find in it? The swarm of bees. Now, the Bible records that Samson scoops up some honey. eats it himself and then takes it to his parents. But it's very careful to record something. He did not tell his parents where it was from. Why? Because this is the first record that we have of him violating his Nazirite vow. His parents probably would have been horrified that he touched a dead carcass. And so again, we see once Samson started sinning, it kind of kept snowballing. And we see that it was very easy here for Samson to disregard his Nazarite vow, to disregard that outer, those outer things that he did to show an inward commitment to God. He dishonored that. Well, at the wedding feast, the Bible says that the feast was there and it was going on. And that there were 30 companions, whether Samson had known it or not. You know, it's just not a wedding without having some kind of bride grooms along with it. So these 30 men of the Philistines were there. And I think we get a little bit of insight into Samson here. I think Samson was the kind of guy, not only was he stirred by the Lord, but I think Samson was just the kind of guy that just got bored easy. You know, here he is at this wedding feast, you know, and it's everybody's eating, having a good time. He's like, oh, come on, there's got to be more to it than this. So what does he do? He proposes a riddle. Sure. Why not? Let's let's do a jeopardy thing. And so that's what he does. Verse 13 or excuse me, verse 12. He says, let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is within the seven days of this feast and find out. then I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. But, verse 13, if you can't tell me what it is, then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. And the 30 men were like, okay, bring it on, bring your riddle. You know, it's always fun until somebody has to make a riddle, right? And that's kind of what we see here. So here it is. Ancient Jeopardy. Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet. Now that probably did not rhyme in the Hebrew. It rhymes in the English, but in the Hebrew it probably would not have rhymed. That's not how they made poetry back then. Well, after three days go by, these 30 men cannot solve the riddle. And we kind of mentioned the man thing. You know, now it's turned in from something just being a simple, you know, can you guess what this riddle is to a manhood issue? Okay. And these 30 men on the fourth day come up to Samson's wife and they said, and they're not joking here, entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, or we're going to burn you and your father's house with fire. Did you invite us to this party to make us poor? Well, his wife listened to them, realized the danger that was involved here. And the Bible says that Samson's wife wept over him and said, you only hate me. You do not love me. And I told the first service that in our family devotions, when I read this, I would read this to my children with fluttering eyelids. And with a I tried to do a high female voice with a Texas accent. And tell what my oldest child said, Daddy, when you do that, that makes me feel weird. Would you please stop doing that? And so I did. But that's the that's the I think that the overtones that this woman was probably creating. That's the kind of the way I pictured, at least. And she says, you haven't told me what it is. And he, Samson, says in verse 16, but I have not told my father nor my nor my mother. And shall I tell you now clearly Samson had not yet had marriage happiness 101. Had he. That is not a good thing to tell your wife. Well she went before him the seven days that the feast lasted it says in verse 17 and she pressed him hard to the point where he was vexed. And he said OK I will tell you and the men of this of course she told the men the riddle. And verse 18, it says, the men of the city said to him on the seventh day while the sun was setting. So they waited to the last minute and they came to tell to Samson and say, we've got your riddle. And of course, it was an allusion to the honey and to the lion. And they said, what is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion? And Samson says something not too flattering to his wife, but he said, if you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle. He knew there was something going on that was not right. Well, the spirit of the Lord comes upon him in verse 19. He goes to another city of the Philistines, Ashkelon, and he kills 30 men. He takes their clothes and their garments and their spoil and gives it to the men that he owed the garments to. And, you know, we can look at this and say, OK, now, was that wrong of Samson to do that? Did he commit murder there? I think first of all, the problem is you have the spirit of the Lord rushing upon him to do this. And the second thing you got to remember is these Philistines were not innocent people. And in fact, chapter 13 says in verse four that the whole purpose that God was raising up the Philistines was because raising up Samson was because God wanted to kill some Philistines. God was going to judge some Philistines. That was his intent. And so clearly the 30 men, they might have been innocent bystanders. in this particular instance, but I don't think they were in any way innocent. They had oppressed the nation of Israel for a long time. Something happens in verse 20 that was not good. Samson's wife was given to his best man, and verse 1 of chapter 15 picks up with this. And it says, after some days, at the time of the wheat harvest, and that's important to remember, the wheat harvest. Because at the wheat harvest, you have what? You have standing grain of really gold, dry wheat, right? Some of it's been harvested, so it's been collected. It's important to remember that. But it was the time of the wheat harvest that Samson went, his intent was to go back to his wife at Timna. And he was going to bring a young goat, kind of as a peace offering, so to speak, He said, I will go into my wife. But the father said, that's not going to happen. Her father said, I really thought that you utterly hated her. Now, certainly, I think his father or his would be father in law probably understood what kind of a man Samson was. And he was probably trying to tread a little bit lightly. I mean, I thought you took off so fast and never came back. I thought you hated the girl. So how about the younger sister? She's pretty, too. Well, it didn't work. Samson says, this time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines. Samson becomes furious at this and he says, this time I shall be innocent. I think that word this time is interesting. Does that mean that Samson was thinking about the 30 men that he just killed? And maybe was that malicious? Was that wrong of him to do that? I don't know. But he said, this time I will be innocent in regards to the Philistines when I do them harm. So what does Samson do? He catches 300 foxes. Now, when you read some of these scholarly articles that you can Google up, you're going to realize that these guys take the story of the foxes and they're like, well, that would take him forever to catch 300 foxes. Look, the point of this is that we're dealing here with miracles. Miracles are unnatural. We're dealing with supernatural strength, all kinds of different miracles. The fox thing does not bother me at all. I mean, it may have taken him a few days. He may have done it in an entire day. is, is that when the Spirit of God comes upon this man, he can do amazing things. But Samson catches 300 foxes and he takes two of them and ties them together. So he's got 150 groups of foxes. He puts a torch between each tail and he turns them out into the standing grain of the Philistines. Look at verse five. When he had set the fire to the torches, He let the foxes go through the standing grain of the Philistines, and he set fire to the stack grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards. Now, you've got to understand back then, this is not like you and I hearing on the news that some farmer out in western Kansas accidentally, through a lightning strike, had a thousand acres of wheat burned up. I mean, we'd be like, oh boy, that's a bummer. It's a bummer to be him. But that absolutely had zero effect on us. We still go to the grocery store and get our food. Not so here. Now, these guys, the Philistines, just lost their wheat crop, okay? It's probably going to be a really difficult winter for them. We see that they just took it right in the pocketbook here. So they are furious. So in verse 6, it says, the Philistines then said, who in the world has done this? They were in it for war now. And they get wind that it was Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite. because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion. What are the Philistines do being the ungodly and evil men and evil nation that they were the Philistines came up and they burned her and her father with fire. You see Samson's anger Samson's actions led to the death of this man and this woman will verse seven. Samson is livid. He said, if this is how you do things, I swear I will be avenged on you. And after that, I will quit. And Judges chapter 15, verse eight records this. And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow. Now, he doesn't give the numbers of men that were killed there because the emphasis is on hip and thigh. The idea is that it was a great, nasty, vicious, violent slaughter. He literally shredded people probably to death. He was furious. And after that, the Bible says that he went to the Rock of Betam and rested. Well, the Philistines, they came up. And they encamp against this little city of Judah and Lehi. You got to understand there that. that Samson was doing things that affected everybody, right? And all of a sudden, this little town of Judah sees a 3,000-man army of the Philistines encamping against them. And they're like, why are you encamping in battle array against us? What did we do? And of course, they said, we want Samson. And the men of Lehi were obliged to go get Samson. So they go. They find Samson. And they said, look, we need to bind you and take you to the Philistines. And Samson's concern is that, look, You don't kill me. I don't want to be killed by my countrymen. And they gave him his word that they would not kill him. And they escort him to the Philistines. We'll look at verse 14 of chapter 15. When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Well, that must have been even if you're Samson, that must have been been scary. The spirit of the Lord rushed upon him and the ropes that were on his arms that the men of Lehi had bound him in. became his flax that had caught fire and his bonds melted off of his hands. If you could take like a dry piece of straw and hold it taut and take a lighter and just light it right in the middle, it would just literally burst off. And that's what that's kind of the impression that we get here. Well, Samson in verse 15 sees this group of Philistines, at least a thousand. There was obviously probably more rushing at him. Samson looks for a weapon. All he can find is the jawbone of a dead donkey. He grabs the jawbone with his hands, and the Bible records that he killed 1,000 men with the jawbone of this donkey. You know, Samson, being the poet that he was, breaks out in a line of poetry in verse 16 and says, with the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps of people In other words, with the jawbone of a donkey, I have struck down a thousand men. The rest of the chapter records that Samson gets very thirsty. The Lord provides a drink for him from a rock. Well, again, as we pick up chapter 16, I think we're seeing Samson in a downward spiral. We are seeing that when you sow sin, you will reap the consequences of that. And oftentimes when you begin to dabble and to play in sin, it becomes easier and easier to sin. And I think that's exactly what we see as we pick up Chapter 16 verse 1 the Bible says this Samson went to Gaza now I have to try to give Samson the benefit of the doubt here Maybe God stirred him to do that like he did at Timna and if that is the case great, but then once again Samson got grossly sidetracked and it says there in verse 1 that he saw a prostitute and he went in to her so we see Samson dabbling in sin and going to new lows. Well, the Gazites were told that, hey, Samson is here. So they got a group of men to set him in ambush. And their idea was, OK, he's with he's with the prostitute. And when he gets up in the morning, we're going to surround him. We're going to ambush him and we're going to kill him. And probably what they did is they probably locked the city gates. They probably thought, hey, look, at least we will contain the problem. You know, if he gets out, he's going to be hard to catch. But if we can contain the problem, we have a good chance of getting this guy and killing him. So in verse three, when it talks about Samson, whether or not it was the Lord that woke him up or or Samson was just a savvy guy. And so, you know, I guarantee you there's knuckleheads out there that think I'm going to. Wake up in the morning and they're going to try to catch me and this and that. I'm going to get up at midnight. That may very well have been the case. Or maybe he just woke up for whatever reason. But at midnight, Samson gets up. And he probably realizes that the doors of the gate are locked. Now, these gates, these doors were not just farm gates. They were not just doors like that. They were meant to provide protection and defense from invading armies. Well, the gate is locked. So the Bible says that Samson arose at midnight. He took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts that connected the doors and he pulled them up the bar that was probably the crossbar to keep the door locked and everything he pulled up. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of a hill. that is in Hebron, about 20 miles away, left the city completely vulnerable and open. Absolute and amazing display of strength. Well, the Bible records in verse four that it was after this occasion that Samson once again falls in love with the wrong woman. Samson did not learn from his first mistake. I think it's interesting that God did not allow him to marry that woman, did he? And you would think that Samson would have learned from that mistake, but clearly he didn't. And this is where we are introduced to the infamous Delilah. Well, the lords of the Philistines wanting to get Samson go directly for his heart. And the heart, his heart is where? With his woman. And they come up to Delilah and they say, seduce your husband to find out where his great strength lies. And we'll each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver. And Delilah being the evil and wicked pagan Philistine woman that she was, she does that. And she comes up to Samson and says, tell me where your great strength lies and how you might be bound. That one could subdue you. Why would you even want to know that if you really love somebody? Well, Samson kind of toys with her. We kind of know the story. I kind of picture again the fluttering eyelids and the Texas accent here. She really lays it on thick to him and to the point where the Bible says that she says in verse 15, how can you say I love you when your heart is not with me? You've mocked me these three times. And you have not told me where your great strength lies. And she presses him so hard with her words, day after day, and urged him that his soul was vexed to death. And finally, he gives it up. He spills the beans. And when he does it, she knows it. She knows that he has poured out his heart, and she knows she's got him. He says this, has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man. I don't know what the significance of the hair was. In my estimation, I believe that Samson had probably already violated the first two commitments of his Nazirite vow. Probably the drinking strong drink, and of course we know that he touched things that were unclean. In my estimation, I'm wondering if this was the third and final violation of his Nazirite vow, and that was symbolic of him losing his strength. I could be wrong on that, but I wonder if that's not true. Well, Delilah in verse 19 makes Samson fall asleep on her knees and she called a man to shave off the seven locks of his head. It kind of gives you an idea what Samson's hair was like. It wasn't just big bushy kind of a deal. It was actually like seven big pigtails that he had. And so they called the barber in there to shave those off. Delilah begins to torment him and says Samson the Philistines are upon you the Bible records that for whatever reason Samson actually thought that he was going to get up and it was going to be like all the other times before But he did not know that the Lord had left him and in verse 21 it says the Philistines seized him and they gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with the bronze shackles and he drowned at the mill in the print in the prison and We all know the story in the following verses that after a while they called Samson in to their temple to have a celebration. You see, back then when you defeated an enemy, you didn't just defeat them, you defeated their God. And so we see Samson in this situation, not only has he dishonored himself, but he has honored God. When they brought Samson into that temple to make fun of him, they were also making fun of Yahweh. And we all know the story. They bring him up, and the young lad leads him to the main support structures of the temple. And the Bible records in verse 29, Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested. And in verse 28, he said, O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines from my two eyes. And God did that, and Samson said, let me die with the Philistines. He bowed with all of his strength, in verse 30, and the house fell upon the lords and upon the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his whole life. What a story. So let me ask you this. What do we do with that? What do you and I as Christians in the year 2010 do with this story? How do we draw application for our lives today? Well, unfortunately, I think that the story of Samson undergoes the same butchery is what I would call it as similar stories like David and Goliath when it comes to making application. You've all heard him before. Hey, God uses little people. Go out and slay your giants or the jawbone of the donkey represents God's word. So go out and slay the Philistines of sin in your life. You know, these kind of applications are dangerous, to say the least, but unfortunately, they're very common. We have to be very careful about over-symbolizing the Old Testament. I mean, when does it stop, right? If you can say, the jawbone of the donkey is the Word of God, now go slay your Philistines of sin in your life, where does the symbolism stop? It's very dangerous. That's probably a whole different sermon, a whole different semester of class. But we need to be very careful not to over symbolize the Old Testament. I do think, though, that there are three main applications that we can draw from this text today. In fact, I really believe that these applications just explode from the text. And I would like to share them with you today. Number one, the first application is this. God is sovereign even over the sinfulness of man. God is sovereign and able to fulfill his purpose and to glorify himself despite the wickedness of man, despite the wickedness of his children. You know, this theme, I think you can see over and over again throughout the scriptures and the story of Isaac and the story of Jacob. Jacob was a scoundrel. He was a liar. He had a very big time deceit problem. And yet God used that. Samson. God uses the sins of man to fulfill his purpose. Now, that is ultimate power, right? I mean, if a person can go out and do what you don't want them to do, and then you can take that for their good, for your glory, and to fulfill your purpose, that is ultimate power. And I marvel at the story, such as David and Bathsheba, how God could use a murderous, adulterous relationship to produce Solomon, who was in the genealogies of Jesus Christ. Amazing. I look at the story of Joseph. You know, if you review the story of Joseph in Genesis, you know that God used the sins of Joseph's brothers to ultimately save their own lives. God used the sins of his brothers that ultimately saved their own lives. That is amazing to me. I'd like for you to look at Judges chapter 14, verse 4 again. Remember what that said? His father and his mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. What a comforting thought that is. That God in His sovereignty is able to even take our failures and our sins and our transgressions against Him and turn them out for our good, His glory, and to fulfill His purpose. That is amazing. But, and this is the second point, but this, my dear brother and sister in Christ, is in no way, shape, or form a license for the believer to sin. Oh, God is sovereign. You know, I could go out and commit adultery and illegitimately father a child and, you know, hey, that child could grow up and be the next Charles Spurgeon. You know what? God has done that and God will continue to do stuff like that. But that is no excuse for us as believers to sin. I'll tell you what, as we look into the life of Samson, we see a man that is ravaged and tormented by the ramifications of his own sin. Samson went against the advice of his godly parents. He held in low esteem the honor of God when he violated his Nazarite vow. He sought romance and companionship from pagans. He yielded to lust, his hot temper. Samson reaped what he had sown. The end of his life, I believe, was filled with bitterness and anger. At the end of his life, he found himself chained to a grinding mill. He ground feed like a common donkey. while he bitterly bemoaned his eyes being gouged out by his archenemy, the Philistines. I believe that in my assessment, Samson died alone. He died alone, but he was surrounded by pagans. He was crushed to death by a building that he himself toppled. Samson reaped what he had sown. Do I believe that we're going to see Samson in heaven someday? Absolutely. Hebrews chapter 11. I believe that Samson is saved. I believe that we will see Samson in heaven someday. Do I believe that when Samson prayed at the end of his life, Lord, remember me, that it was a prayer of repentance similar to the prayer of the thief on the cross? Absolutely, I believe that. But I also see in Samson the bitter fruits of sin and the sobering reminder of James chapter 1. It says sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Sin has consequences. This is a message that we need to hear as a church. This is a message our young people have. Young people, sin has consequences. I was talking to Don Davis about this after the sermon. And it's almost like we get blinded to that fact. It's like we go out and we are willing to commit sin because we know that we will be forgiven of that sin. But the forgiveness of that sin does not negate the consequences of the sin. God's sovereignty and his ability to bring about good and to fulfill his purpose, despite or even through our sin, is no license to do as we please. It does not nullify the fruits and the ramifications of sin in our life. For me, the story of Samson has been a sobering reminder of that. Hopefully, we all remember what the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter six, and if you have your Bibles, I would ask you to turn over to Romans, chapter six. Romans, chapter six, verse one, the Apostle Paul says, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? Verse two, by no means, no, not never. No, it's terrible English, but awesome Greek. No, not never. Don't ever do that. We don't sin because we know that grace will abound. What what is the aspect of that of that grace? Clearly, one of the aspects of the grace is the forgiveness of sin. We know that when we sin, that God will grant us grace and forgiveness. But the other part of that grace is knowing that God is sovereign and in control of even our sin. But does that give us a license to continue in sin? And that's what the Apostle Paul says. No, absolutely not. No way. Well, as we look through the book of Judges, It would be safe to say that there was not one judge. And this is the third application. There was not one judge in the book of Judges that could save the children of Israel from their sins, whether he was male or female, whether they had superpowers or not. They could not deliver the children of Israel from their sins. They could they could deliver them from an invading army, but they could not deliver them from the cycle of their sin. You know, if we suddenly fast forwarded to Matthew chapter 1, what did the angel tell Joseph? He said this, Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, the angel said, she, meaning Mary, will bear a son and you shall call his name Salvation. You shall call his name Jesus. Why? Because He will save His people from their sins. He is going to do the very thing that judges could not do. Why is the book of Judges written? Because it shows how an earthly judge, an earthly deliverer, can really not deliver at all. Our deliverance from sin is in Jesus Christ alone. Jesus the Judge. Jesus Christ, the deliverer, has the power to save his people from their sins. And it is because of that. And this is what I want us to grasp here today. It is because of that. Not only does Jesus Christ and him alone have the power to save his people from their sins, but this also means that every believer in Jesus Christ has been freed from the bondage of sin. Sin does not have to be master over you Sin does not have to rule over you Paul makes this abundantly clear again in Romans chapter 6 and I'd like to read a couple verses from there Look at verse 10 Romans 6 verse 10 for the death that he died he died to sin once for all but the life that he lives he lives to God and So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to obey its lust. Paul says you must consider yourself to be dead to sin. What does he mean by consider? If I can borrow some John Piper phraseology here, this is not just positive chipper thinking, okay? It is a reality that we as believers have to engage our mind in, that sin no longer needs to be master over us. Through Jesus Christ, we do not have to be under the bondage of sin. We have to wrap our minds around this reality in such a way that our behavior is changed. It is living in that reality that through Jesus Christ, sin is no longer master over us. Look at verse 21 of chapter six. But what fruits were you getting at the time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. And I want to make one more comment before we close here today. You may find yourself today in the bitter fruits of past sin. And what I don't want to do today is kick you when you're down. My goal today is not to say, look, there's consequences to sin, and if you're living those consequences now, just deal with it because that's the way it is. No. With God, with Christ, there is even mercy and grace in the consequences, isn't there? But what I wanted to emphasize today was that, look, for us as believers, We do not have to be under the bondage of sin. Sin has consequences. Sin leaves baggage. Sin messes with your mind. Turn away from sin. The New Testament says we are to take sin like a coat. We shed it and we get rid of it. We've got to understand that we as Christians have that power to do that through Jesus Christ. Stop sitting around and feeling sorry for yourself because you're being tempted. You don't have to do that sin. I have seen that in my own life where I am grossly tempted and it just suddenly it comes to me and I just say, no, I'm not going to do it. You have that ability in Jesus Christ. You are not under the bondage of sin. So if I were to sum up this, let's learn from the life of Samson. Sin ravaged his life. Sin has consequences. But praise be to the Lord through Jesus Christ, sin does not have to be mastered over us. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. Lord, I have been tremendously convicted by this study. Father, you have said in your word that the Old Testament is, for our example, that we might learn from the mistakes and the failures of these past people. And Lord, we must learn from the life of Samson. Lord, I pray that there is a believer here today that is dabbling in sin, that is doing that which they know is wrong, that you would turn their hearts towards yourself. that you would help them to see the power that they have in Jesus Christ. So we pray that you would bless your word, bless the preaching of it. I pray that you would equip these dear people with all that they need to do your will. It's in Jesus' name.