From the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster we present Let the Bible Speak. It's good to have you join us today as we spend time around the Word of God, preaching Christ in all His fullness to men and women in all their need. in tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, my great Redeemer's praise. Let glory tromble my God and King, Triumphs of his praise, the triumphs of his praise. Assist me to proclaim, Assist me to proclaim, To spread through all the earth abroad The honors of thy name, The honors of thy name, Jesus our sorrow see His life and health and peace! and frees. He breaks the bond of cancer's skin. He sets the prisoner free. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the violence flee. I bid you all warmly welcome today and as we gather around God's word it is our prayer that the Lord will come near and bless our hearts. And for those watching at home and other places, I bid you welcome to and trust that the Lord will bless his word to all of our hearts. I invite you to turn in your Bible, please, to the book of Judges, chapter 16. The chapter deals with the Philistines bribing Delilah into discovering the secret of Samson's great strength. As we break in at verse 18 of the chapter, we read, And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he has showed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man, And she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head. And she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. But the Philistines took him. and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house. Howbeit, the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon, their God, and to rejoice, for they said, Our God hath delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hand. And verse 27, now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. And there were upon the roof about 3,000 men and women that beheld while Samson made sport. And Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand and of the other with his left. And Samson said, let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtiol in the burying place of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel 20 years. Amen, may the Lord bless these verses to our hearts. Let's just bow together and we word a prayer as we seek the Lord's help. We return to his word today. Our loving Father, we rejoice that we can bow in Thy sacred presence. We thank Thee for the Scriptures of truth. We bless Thee, Lord, that the entrance of Thy Word giveth light. We thank Thee that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. for instruction, for reproof, for correction. And Lord, we would desire to learn of Thee even through Thy Word today. We ask that Thou would draw near to us, open up the Word to our hearts and open our hearts to the Word. We pray, Lord, that Thou would speak to those for whom we believe this Word has been designed. We ask that this Word would prove to be a blessing to every waiting heart. that men and women might come to recognize and to enjoy the blessing that God has for all of our souls. Come then, cause us to hear thy speaking voice, and in all things glorify thy dear son, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. I'd like to share a few thoughts with you from the verse 22 of the chapter. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. As you probably know, Samson was a Nazarite unto God. That is, he was set apart for the Lord's service from the day of his birth. He was never to eat grapes or drink wine, nor was he permitted to ever shave his head or have a haircut. This was all part of his token of separation. Samson, as a grown man then, must have looked a shaggy individual. But as long locks were a token of his consecration to the Lord, his hairy appearance was an outward sign of his being set apart unto God, the God of Israel. He's also a man of immense physical strength. It's recorded in the passage that he lifted the city gates off the city of Gaza and carried them all the way to Hebron. I've Googled this. That's a distance of 60 kilometers, 37 mile. So we can only imagine the feat that that was. Regrettably, however, Samson's physical strength was contrasted by moral weakness. He fell a prey to the evil woman in Timnath, whom he married, but that marriage collapsed. Then he was taken in by Delilah, of whom we have read in these verses. She wasn't just a man-eater, she was an agent of the pit, sent to trap the servant of God. The Philistines were always enemies of God's people, still are even to this day. They persuaded Delilah to try and entice Samson into revealing the secret of his great strength. And after a few disappointments, she finally got it out of him. Isn't it so that Satan knows our weak spots, and he'll work on that to try and bring down the child of God? Oh, how it reminds us we always need to be on the alert. Verse 19 of the chapter shows Samson, he finally succumbed to Delilah's powers of persuasion, and like an innocent pup, he lay down with his head upon her lap, and she ran her fingers through his hair, and the big softly was so hypnotized by the feeling of her caress. He just fell asleep like a baby. All she had to do then was summon the Philistines, who were conveniently lying in wait. They come out of hiding, and Julie shaved off his hair, thus robbing him of his strength. Of course, the tragedy is that when he wakened, he wasn't even aware that his strength was gone. by giving in to his own desires after the things of the flesh. He lost any power he had in his life. And here he stands as a warning to us all, because through his carelessness, his enemies found opportunity to attack him, to overcome him, to ridicule him. You know, if any child of God trifles with sin, he cannot expect to prosper. Sin will rob the child of any power, the child of God, that is, of any power in his life. And hence his testimony carries no weight. But worse than that, he becomes the object of scorn and ridicule. The ungodly point the finger and say, well, if that's being a Christian, I want no part of it. And so we all need to be on our guard. The ungodly could tell the Christian sometimes how to live. Here were the Philistines, they made a mockery of Samson. They bored out his eyes, therefore robbed him of his vision. He's left in the dark for as long as he lived. Isn't it true, sin is a robber? They brought him to that mill where they compelled him to turn that grinding wheel. Now there are references in Scripture to the ox treading out the corn. And it may be said that Samson was forced now to behave like a beast of the field because of his sin. How true it is, sin will take you farther than you want to go, and it'll cost you more than you want to pay. What a sad sight Samson had become. The man who had conquered so many others was now conquered by his own foolishness. What a picture of the backslider he is. And it all started in a moment of moral weakness. The one who was so valiant for truth had courted the enemy of his soul, and now was shorn of his locks of dedication, and was being led captive by the devil at his will. The loss of his eyes meant that the darkness shut out all his joy. He's brought into this awful bondage because sin brings loss. A man may be a champion of the faith, but sin will reduce him to a life of slavery, and Satan is a hard task master. Oh, may God keep us. from falling. It won't hurt to remind ourselves of the words of 1 Corinthians 10, 12, where it says, wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall. Let us all be vigilant, beloved, ever watchful, that we do not become enslaved by desires after worldly and fleshly things. Verse 21 of this chapter is a very poignant statement of truth. The Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house. And you can sense there the decline. This is a man who used to be separated unto God. But while we lament that such should happen to a child of God, we would have you take hope in the words of the next verse, verse 22. Howbeit, the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. There is encouragement here, beloved, for any who feel themselves cold at heart. And I trust the Lord will bless his word to your heart even at this time. Notice firstly, what's pictured in this growing? Samson's hair may have been shaved off or at least cut very short, but it wasn't rooted out. The basic foundation was still there. The living roots were still intact for nothing short of carrying the head clean off him was going to remove that. Hair is a living thing. And while the Philistines may have removed what they could get their hands on, yet there was something there that they couldn't touch. It had to grow again. And so it is with those who belong to the Lord. When a man is saved, God puts within him his Holy Spirit. He becomes a new creature. There is within him that new nature. He's a new being. The hair we see on the head is really only the fruit of the tree. The real life is in the roots where nobody can see. And so with that eternal life that God puts within his children when he saves them. The fruits of the spirit that are seen in the outward life of the believer are the product of what has been planted on the inside. Now the devil will give you a close shave if you let him. Sin will rob you of your crowning glory. It will steal your testimony, your effectiveness for God. It'll rob you of all appearances of Christianity just as it robbed Samson of all appearances of the Nazarite. The child of God has got to fight the good fight of faith. A shaven-headed man did not look like one separated unto God, but Samson was still a Nazarite underneath. And it's true that a believer can lose all appearance of belonging to the Lord, but the Lord knows them that are his. As far as God is concerned, he could still look at Samson and know He was his child. Samson's hair went missing for a while. He lost all likeness to what he had been beforehand. And the Christian who gets away from the Lord may lose all those things that mark him out as a child of God. And of course, this is also something we have to be careful about and stand on guard against. But if the roots of grace are still there in the soul, then the hair must grow back again. The trees around the countryside lose their leaves in the autumn season. They're bare through the deadness of winter, but come spring, and those same trees will soon begin to show there's still life within. When you think of it, When a man is saved, he becomes inhabited by eternal life. Well, eternal life cannot die. It's impossible. And no man who is ever truly born of God can ever remain totally dormant. It's against the nature of God. And no man born again of God's Holy Spirit can be at ease while he wanders in sin. He cannot rest, for the life within him will all the time be struggling to show itself again. If the Spirit of God is still within a man, then sooner or later there will be, there must be, signs of life. That man may show signs of discomfort at the mention of God's Word, but he may get ratty with other people, maybe even with himself. But that's only because the hair is trying to grow again. And he's felt it on his head. And he may be thinking, oh, if my hair grows again, I'm going to look like it did before. But what is worse, it's going to make it more obvious to people around me that I have been without my hair for a while, and that'll be embarrassing. And so you can see how the backslider might be hindered from coming back to the Lord. But listen, don't ever imagine that He's happy in sin because he isn't. He can't be. And he won't be until his hair is allowed to grow again. Well, maybe you know somebody in that situation. Well, there's one you can pray for. Then secondly, what's symbolized in this growing? Samson's great strength lay in his consecration to God and his head of hair. was his outward token of that dedication. When he lost his lux, he lost his consecration. When he lost his consecration, he lost his strength. The only way he could regain that strength was to reestablish his consecration, and this growing of the hair was the type and token of that renewal. Speaking of the church of Jesus Christ as a whole, can we say, is the church a power for good in society in this day in which we live? Has the church lost her power? Is she still a force for good? Do sinners, do the unconverted, does this wicked world still take note that the church is a force for good and for God? Or is she losing her influence over the mass of sinners around us? No doubt there were people who maybe looked at Samson and thought, well, you're far tidier since you got your hair cut. But to whom? Would they have said that maybe that's more Christian looking? To whom? To society? To the world? We're not advocating long hair for men in these days, but you notice when it is that people said he looked best was when he was at his weakest. Does that not tell us something? Doesn't it suggest that the world doesn't want the Christian to be so obvious? God delivers from becoming so respectable with no power left. Samson was once strong. So how was he to get his strength back? All he had to do was let his hair grow again. He must come and consecrate himself afresh to the Lord. And the parallel here is that the church need only get back to the old paths. It must say, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Jesus Christ. It must again learn to plead with God for the souls of men. Prayer must be the delight of the whole church. The glory of God must take possession of the church instead of any desires to be respectable. With its lux growing again, it will get its strength back. When it is consecrated to God, it will resume its former force. and bear its own testimony as in former days. And if this truth is applicable to the church, it applies equally to the individual believer. The child of God must not stifle the growth of his hair by neglecting his Bible. He must often be found in the place of prayer. You let your hair grow, we will then be able to see, to do what Samson did, get a hold of the pillars of the Philistine temple and bring it down upon those Philistine lords. But remember, first, there has to be that consecration. Otherwise, we remain like the shaven-headed Samson. So what thirdly was prophesied in this growth? Well, if the cutting of Samson's hair took away his strength. Do you ever wonder why did the Philistines allow it to grow again? Why did they not see to it that it was kept shaven? I mean, if the first shaving was so effectual, why did they not send the barber in every week to make sure it was kept short? The Philistines thought they were so clever. Job 32.9 says, Great men are not always wise. Proverbs 1.32, the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. Oh, the Philistines had put out Samson's eyes, yes. They thought that was enough to stop him doing any more damage, but how wrong they were. They didn't realize that as his hair came back, so too did his strength. And so it was. And hair began to grow. So what did this prophesy? Well, didn't it prophesy hope for Samson? When he put his hand on his head and he could feel it was getting longer, those locks were returning, he must have thought to himself, you know, there's still hope. I may not be able to see, but my strength will return. I shall yet be able to strike a blow for God. And as his strength increased, You can just see him walking day after day around that monotonous mill wheel, grinding the corn, but thinking, it's only a matter of time. And as his strength increased, the burden of the mill wheel grew lighter. His spirits began to lift within him. His devotion to the Lord was beginning to revive. There was a song coming in his heart once again. He was getting back to the place of sweet fellowship. with his God. Can't you see the joy returning to his soul? This further prophesied hope for Israel. Oh, thank God there was hope. His hair was growing. His strength was returning. Victory was on the horizon. Beloved, there's victory for you if you let the Lord have his way in your life. And lastly, it prophesied destruction for the Philistines. They didn't know it. But if they could have read Samson's heart, they'd have understood that he meant to shave their nation as closely as they had shaven him. Trouble was brewing for the Philistines. The man who had torn a lion apart, who slew a thousand with a jawbone of an ass, he was back. And what a calamity for the Philistines when he got back to that place of renewed consecration. And those thousands of party goers gathered in that big house to mock him. I tried to picture the scene. There must have been a great veranda around the house. And down in the middle on the lower floor, there were these two pillars that supported the building. And Samson's down there. And of course, with no eyes, they were poking fun at him and making a plaything of him. But he spoke to a young boy and got him to bring him over to where the pillars were. And with one hand on each pillar, he lifted his heart to God and cried, and the Lord restored to him the strength that he had lost. With a great heave, he was able to bring that building crashing down to the ground, and those thousands of Philistines who were so anti-God were launched out into eternity. Now, beloved, if you have to confess today that your effectiveness for God has not been what it should be in your life, let us encourage you. Get back to the place of sweet fellowship with your Savior. Let Him come take you up afresh and use you once again for His glory and the extension of His kingdom. Thank God He is able to restore unto you the years that the locusts have eaten. May you come to know afresh the joy of his salvation and go on your way rejoicing, and you can yet blaze a trail for God's glory. May the Lord bless these few thoughts to us. Let's just bow for a moment in prayer as we come to a close. Our loving Father, Thank Thee that this example has been set before us. We have to acknowledge, Lord, we're all prone to wander, but we pray that Thou will enable us, give us that needed grace to take stock of our lives. And if we have, if some will have to confess, I've lost out with the Lord, may they come even this day and renew their fellowship with Thee and give themselves afresh to Thee to be used for Thy glory and for the extension of Thy kingdom. Bless Thy word to this end we ask of Thee. in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for spending some time with us today around the Word of God. For further information, visit our website at ltbs.tv. We look forward to joining with you next time as we seek to let the Bible speak once again.