THROUGH THE BIBLE - Judges 1..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Well, brothers and sisters, we come to a point where we bring the story of that man, Samson, to a close. Last week I said that Samson's story runs across four chapters in the book of Judges.

And this is indeed the last of the chapters that speaks to Samson before we move on. Move on. Now, we don't know exactly how much time has passed from the contents of chapter 15 that we examined last week. We're not really told, but we're told it is a different area. Samson was there.

If you remember what took place towards the end of that chapter, Samson had in his hand a fresh jawbone from a donkey, and he began to give it to the Philistines, and a thousand Philistinian men went down. The power of God was upon Samson. The Spirit of God was upon Samson. But now we're in a different area. That was in Lehi in the region of Judah, a bit more inland.

Now Samson heads west towards the Great Sea. We know it as the Mediterranean Sea. He goes to a place called Gaza. Now Gaza is the southernmost regional city among the regions of the Philistines. They had five major cities that belong to the Philistines in this day, and Gaza was the one that was to the southernmost point.

of those regions. Every one of those cities was governed by a ruler or by a lord according to our text. So in total you had five lords but they united together with one false deity and that was Dagon. Dagon is their god that is mentioned before us. Now we don't know why Samson head down that way, but we know what he got up to when he got to Gaza, don't we?

Actually in the very first verse of our chapter, the author of the book of Judges is quite candid, isn't he? And quickly we come to see more of the same of Samson. Unrestrained sexual passions is what seems to be governing this man at this point in time. In the first verse, we're told he has illicit relationships with a prostitute. And beloved, these unchecked sexual passions will be really the cause of his downfall as we'll come to see.

Samson has a weakness for women. But not any women. Because of the three times, we don't know how many relationships he's had with women, but of the three occasions that the Bible has shown us that he has had indeed illicit relationships, on three of those occasions they were women of Philistine. Forbidden women. Women that the Lord God had clearly forbidden the people of Israel to engage with.

Not because God is a racist God, He is not. But He gave the reason in Deuteronomy chapter 7, that if you engage your hearts or you partake with the women or the daughters of the pagans or the nations around you, what they will do is they will draw your heart from the only true God, the God of Israel, and they'll draw your heart to foreign gods. to pagan gods, to serve other gods, and then the wrath of God will come upon you, because God is a jealous God. Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one, He says. There is no other God, and they are to have no other God before them, and that's the reason.

But what we see here is Samson having some form of contempt. towards God and His law in engaging with these women. And that will continue with Delilah, as we saw in our chapter here. Before Samson's downfall, we can see already that he's sinking into the inevitable. He's sinking into judgment, it seems.

His arrogance in thinking that He can stand in and off His own strength, that He can determine what is right and wrong, what is good and what is evil, apart from the Word of God, at least He's walking in that way. For now, it's going to get Him into a lot of trouble because sin always catches you out. It always will. It's a lesson for all of us. God's law, God's precepts, God's commands, God's ways given to His people are not given just haphazardly.

Yes, as we live according to the will of God, we bring glory to His holy name, and there should be the highest ends for which we live. But everything God has commanded for His people is for the good of His own people. Everything. And God has commanded for the people of Israel, for the reason I gave earlier, not to engage, not to give their men over to the daughters of the pagans and the nations surrounding them. But Samson is not listening.

It's disobedience to God is what we see here. And whenever there's disobedience to the law of God, beloved, there is always something else present, and that is a lack of love for God, a lack of trust in God, and that will always breed a lack of confidence or contentment in God. That's always the case. Because all good things come from God. All good gifts, right?

Come from the Father. James 1.17. The question is, do God's people know this? The parameters that God has given us to live under and by, that limit the type of activities and the lifestyles we live, do we believe that God has put those in place because they are for our own good?

Sometimes we understand them, I hope most times, because the Scripture teaches us why. But do we know that God is only given and purposed that which is good for our lives. His law, His precepts, His commands, His ways are good for us. Christ's words, His teachings, beloved Christian, is good for us. He's satisfying to our souls.

Satisfaction will not come in engaging in what the world says is pleasurable. What is antithetical to the Word of God. True satisfaction comes in the only one who can satisfy our souls. And that is God through Christ Jesus. And in no one else.

Beloved, we must become intimate with this truth. Because if our hearts grow cold, our eyes will be removed from God. And then deception kicks in and you begin to believe the enemy. And what is the message of the enemy? God is holding back.

Are you saying that God has forbidden this activity? Are you saying God has forbidden these thoughts? Are you saying that God has forbidden to engage in these certain things? God is holding back from you. That's the whisper of the enemy.

Have you heard that before? Do you remember when we first heard that? Do you remember back in the garden? You will not surely die, he says, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like him. God's holding back.

He's holding back the good stuff from you because he wants it for himself. You know, you just be satisfied with the things he's given you, but he's holding back the best. That's a lie from the pit of hell. Samson sought to be delighted in what God has forbidden. He thought that God was possibly holding back.

The God had forbidden relationships with this woman, with the Philistines, with the pagans, with the nations, but he can go and engage with them. It'd be okay. There'd be pleasure in that. And it'd be okay, but it's not okay. Because God has determined and purposed only that which is good for his people if they walk according to his plans and his purposes.

If they walk according to his ways. And the incredible thing is what we spoke about last week, that God is still able, even in Samson's sin, in the engagement of his dealings which are illicit and sinful, that he's able to continue to accomplish his good plans and his purposes. Like I said last week, God is able to draw a straight line with a very crooked stick. Now, this continues in the life of Samson. We see it continue in the story with Delilah.

There's not a real need for me to elaborate a lot on this story because I believe if there is any part or portion of the last four chapters in the story of Samson, I believe this is it. This is the popular part, right? The relationship that Samson had with Delilah. He loved this woman, we're told. But Delilah didn't seem to love Samson, she seemed to love money.

The Philistine, the rulers had come to her and said, look you have a relationship with Samson and we think you're our key in, you're the way we can find his secret strength and what we can do to bind him and get him out of our face, out of our way, remove the stigma and the thorn in our flesh that is Samson. So they approached her and they gave her a proposition that she could not refused. 1,100 pieces of silver each. Remember I said five cities, there would be at least five Lords at this point. 1,100 pieces of silver each we're told.

That's 5,500 pieces of silver. Just to give you an indication, in the very next chapter a Levite priest is offered 10 pieces of silver per year. This is a lot of money and she takes it on board. The rest is history. She brings him and she settles in her mind to deceive Samson, to elicit from him the reason or the purpose, or I guess the secret of his strength, I mean to say.

And on three occasions, Samson gives her fibs. He says what she wants to hear. She goes ahead and tries it. The alarm is called. The Philistines are here.

And before you know it, Samson, he demonstrates his strength and the strength hadn't left him at all. And before long, she says to him, you don't love me. You don't love me, Samson. If you love me, you tell me the truth. You've mocked me on three occasions.

How dare you, Samson? How dare you say I love me?" And it melted his heart, it seems. Vexed to death, we're told. And then he tells her.

You would have thought he would learn from his three previous occasions, right? That she tried to deceive him on three previous occasions. But he didn't. I guess the lesson there is unchecked sinful passions will make you a fool. You're so burning up to engage in whatever sin you want to engage in that logic, you just don't see it.

You become a fool. So Delilah, greedy for money, she puts Samson down on her knees, calls a man to come in with a razor, and before you know it, his seven locks of hair are taken off. And then the call comes again, and this time Samson thinks he'll do what he always has done. But he doesn't. This time the Philistines come and grab him, they seize him and they tie him up and he can't do anything about it.

And we're told that he did not know that the Lord had left him. Isn't that an interesting statement? That Samson had not known that the Lord had left him. I mean, obviously what's meant by here is the power of the Lord had left him, but let me tell you something. The activity and the lifestyle that Samson had been engaged in tells me that his heart had left the Lord a long time earlier.

Because you cannot continue to live in unrepentant sin and say that you are in fellowship with the Lord. That's darkness. You can't walk in darkness and say, but I'm in the light. The Lord is faithful to his promises. He upheld Samson.

His spirit was upon him to do what the Lord had previously decreed that he would do even before Samson was born. But to walk in darkness and somehow say, I'm okay, I'm walking with the Lord, that's a lie. That's a lie. And so if Samson not even to know that the Lord had left him, I believe that's because he had turned his back on Him before this moment. The Philistines had caught him and they gouged out his eyes, a horrible experience.

and they succumb him to a life of hard labor on the mill as a prisoner. And in time, we don't know exactly how long, this is what the Philistines do, they throw a big feast, a big drinking party to sacrifice to their god Dagon and to celebrate. What are they celebrating? They're celebrating the final catch of this national menace called Samson. It won't bother us anymore.

Samson is completely out of the equation. And after they've had a few drinks, then they call him up and say, bring this Samson up here to entertain us, that we would humiliate him, that he would perform before us. Actually, literally the word there is that he would come and that we would laugh at him, that he would amuse us. And they do. And 3,000 of them were told are here and they probably all had much to laugh about with this once strong man with eyes gouged out and his strength is no more than a regular human being.

And it seems a break takes place, and when that break takes place, the man, the young man that was handling Samson, was with him. Samson asks him, could you please let me know where those two central pillars are, that I can put my hands upon them. Now this is very interesting, that it's one young man, we're told, that is handling Samson. One young man, this strong man who previously had a whole army of Philistines armed, would not even dare to approach him. Now he is humiliated in his sin and the consequence of his sin where one young man is able to handle him and the Philistines have zero fear of him.

And then he handles the pillars and what are we told? We're told that he prays. It's incredible how we see that he invokes all three names of God. He calls him Yahweh, Adonai Elohim. You see, Samson's plight was his own doing.

His unchecked sin got him to where he is now. His lack of trust in the Lord got him to where he is now. His motivations, even in his prayer, are questionable, aren't they? Because he's motivated saying that he wants the Lord to give him strength one more time so that he can avenge the Philistines because they plucked out his eyes. So even his motivation in the prayer is a little suspect.

But you've got to give him this much. He knows that in that point, where he is in the state of humiliation, apart from the strength of God, he can do nothing. He's been humiliated to a point where he recognizes, Oh God, if you don't give me strength, I can't do anything right now. My strength has departed. The Lord has departed.

In my own strength, I can't do anything. He'd been relying on his own strength. But now in the state of humility, he recognizes, I'm nothing unless the Lord gives me strength. We'll be defeated as a people unless the Lord gives me strength. Israel has no hope unless the Lord gives me strength.

And then, we're told the Lord gives him strength. Now it's interesting that you need to recognize this. Did Samson's hair instantly grow? Is that what it is? From the moment he put his hands on the pillars and he could do no more, to the time when the Lord actually gave him the strength to bring down that whole place, the temple of Dagon and crush 3,000 people in one sitting.

Did his hair just instantly grow? We're not told he does. Was it because he was under the Nazirite vow and because he was faithful that he retained his strength? And it's only at the moment where magically his hair that was cut. Is it because there was magic in his hair somehow?

Because the Nazirite vow that Samson had been engaged in, or was vowed to, was broken a long time ago. You remember. There was three elements to the vow, was there not? Not to touch a dead animal. Not to cut his hair.

And what was the last one? Sorry? Drink. Strong drink. It's not to drink any strong drink.

We've seen already in chapter 14 when he has the party, the feast with his companions, that they had a feast and the word there for feast is a drinking party. Did Samson engage in drinking? Can't be sure, but it seems maybe he did, perhaps. But we know one thing for sure, he did touch death. That lion that was dead when he came back had the honey in it and he pulled the honey out with his own hands and ate of it.

And not just that, but he killed Philistines and his hands handled death when he took the clothing off to give the garments back to the bet that he had just lost. This man had already broken the vow. His strength wasn't simply because he was faithful to the vow as a Nazirite. Because he wasn't. His strength was because God in His decree had chosen for Israel in that moment to give her a deliverer by His own power and the instrument He would use is a crooked man by the name of Samson.

A man that He would humble over time. A man in his humility will come to recognize that Yahweh is the Almighty and the only Almighty God, and without Him I can do nothing. He had faith! The book of Hebrews tells us He did have faith, and He did indeed have faith. But He acted as though He didn't have faith.

And it's God's responsibility. In fact, the ones He loves, He humbles. And He disciplines. So that they can come to the point where they recognize without Him, we can do nothing. And beloved, that tower crashes down upon those people.

But I want to end with this. When those Philistines had Samson before them and he was humiliated and they asked him to entertain them so that they can laugh at him. Do you remember what they said? Let me take you back to verse 23. Just run your eyes back to verse 23 and see what is written.

He said, now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their God, and to rejoice, and they said, our God has given Samson, our enemy, into our hand. And when the people saw him, he was all bound and eyes gouged out, they praised their God, for they said, our God has given our enemy into our hand, the revenger of our country who has killed many of us. This is not simply that Samson is being mocked. It's the God of Samson being mocked. See, remember how we tell you always that the Old Covenant, the Old Testament is a type and a shape, it's a picture of what is yet to come.

It's a spiritual reality to come. What is happening with the people of God is they are to be a peculiar people, a people who are under the God of the universe, the only true God, the God of Israel. There are people who have covenanted with God and there are darkness, there are forces, there are false pagan deities around the place, but it's only the true God, the God of Israel, who is the only true God with the strength to make Himself known. And so when you have the Philistines, and you have them worshipping their God and giving sacrifices to God, and they're humiliating Samson, they're actually humiliating the God of Israel. Because this is the Redeemer, this is the God of Israel.

God has chosen him to be the deliverer of their people. He had a strength that we couldn't compete with. Our armed forces, we couldn't even come close and approach this Samson. But now his strength is gone. And therefore, Dagon, our God, has given us victory.

Therefore, our God is the strong God. He's given us victory over the people of Israel. And guess what? We can continue to oppress them. We can continue to rule over them.

They were mocking the God of Israel. Samson wasn't worthy of having his prayers heard on this day. But God had decreed that through this man, through this instrument, He will break the stronghold of the Philistines. He'll break their grip. Actually he says that back in chapter 14, verse 5, where he says to his parents, this is for this child shall be a Nazarite from the Lord, from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.

He had already decreed that he will do it. Now whether this instrument is a righteous or a faithful instrument to him or not, God has already decreed that He will do it. And He does. to bring glory and praise to his holy name. But beloved, there is a parallel that we need to see.

That in his death, Samson brought, he brought victory over the enemy. The Philistine lords and the leaders that were all there, those dignitary, the VIPs died on that day. And the temple of Dagon was crushed on that day. But Israel had many, many more enemies out there. So the Lord's Deliverer delivered Israel from an enemy, destroyed a temple, but the people of God still had enemies.

Beloved, we said to you that the book of Judges, or the Judges in the book of Judges, are types and shadows of the great true Judge to come, of Christ Jesus Himself. the one who is perfectly righteous and holy without spot or blemish the epitome of all that is good in his life he lived a life that was pure and faultless and sinless unlike the type and then willingly he laid down his life no one took it from him he laid down his life for his people So that in His death and His resurrection, praise be to His name, He doesn't only deal with an enemy, but every single enemy of the people of God and of God Himself. He dealt with it upon the cross. His shed blood dealt with all the enemies, all the false gods, every one of them. And then we're told in the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14, these wonderful words.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself, that's Christ, likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery." He dealt with the last enemy, death. Because Samson died, and he was buried. That's what we're told. And his bones are still there now.

Christ is the resurrected King because He put death to death. The only Savior. He is the only Deliverer sent by God to save His people from their sins. I hope that we've come to trust in Him because it's never too late. Look to Christ for the salvation of your soul and no one else.

Let's pray.