Participants: Pr. Doug Batchelor
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR000840
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05:09 Good morning friends. Good morning.
05:12 That was beautiful. And we sure appreciate, 05:15 there we go. Sure appreciate that 05:18 music also those inspiring mission stories. 05:21 I have the privilege of teaching you the Sabbath 05:24 school lessons this morning, 05:25 which I normally do from our home church in 05:27 Sacramento. And from Sacramento I usually greet 05:30 the rest of the world. So this morning I want 05:32 to greet Sacramento worth about 6:50 in the 05:34 morning. And so they told me to quit. 05:40 And about oh, 10:20 but I wasn't sure if that's 05:44 California time or Louisville time, 05:47 so we'll just play it by the ear and see what 05:48 happens here. But I am very thankful I can teach 05:52 this lesson with you. I think when the organizers 05:55 saw what the subject was today they may have 05:57 been little nervous because we are going 05:59 through our study guide dealing with old 06:02 testament couples for better or for worst. 06:05 And it's my happy task to talk to you about, 06:08 Samson and his women: The Folly of Passion. 06:13 And actually it is very spiritual lesson. 06:15 And I am going to see if I can highlight some of 06:17 the spiritual aspect of this. 06:19 You know someone could probably take this in a 06:21 more salacious direction but I don't want to 06:23 do that. I think that there are a lot of 06:25 analogies in the life of Samson between him 06:30 believe it or not in Jesus. So listen carefully 06:33 as we study this. Now we have a memory verse. 06:36 It's lesson number 6 in your quarterly. 06:38 The memory verse is from first John chapter 2 06:41 verse 16. And I think many of you know this 06:44 by heart. It says for all that is in the world 06:48 the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and 06:52 the pride of life is not of the Father it is of 06:55 the world and the world pass it the way in the 06:58 lust thereof, but He that does the will of God 07:01 will abide forever. I had one of the verse, 07:06 you know Samson had unusual privileges. 07:08 If you begin by going to judges chapter 13 like 07:12 Jesus, his birth is fore told through an 07:16 angelic visit. And like Jesus his mother is told 07:22 that her child and the father is told there is 07:25 a great mission for his life. And the matter of 07:29 fact the name Samson means sunny and or bright. 07:34 And it could be because of this bright angel 07:37 that came and brought this message to them that 07:39 they gave him that name it could be because they 07:42 saw that he had a bright future. 07:45 Now most of us know the story of Samson and he 07:48 made a lot of mistakes. And it makes me think 07:52 sometimes that even though he was several 07:56 generations in the church when he was born, 08:00 and even though he was prepared with all those 08:02 opportunity that doesn't automatically mean a 08:05 person doesn't have a freedom of choice. 08:08 God would have all men to be saved. 08:11 He is not willing that any one should perish but 08:13 we all have free choice. And Samson certainly 08:15 exercised his freedom of choice. 08:17 Well, I am getting ahead of myself a little bit. 08:20 We'll get into our study here. 08:23 I told you the word Samson means sunny, 08:26 Mininova his father's name means rest. 08:30 And they were hoping that he was going to bring 08:32 rest to his people. And then he was told 08:35 in Judges chapter 13 verse 5, 08:38 "He shall begin to deliver Israel and the word 08:43 deliver is from the Hebrew word it's Yasha 08:46 which means to defend. And it's very similar to 08:51 the word of Jesus Yeshua. In the same way the 08:54 angel said to Mary to call his name Jesus or 08:57 Yeshua for He will save His from their sins. 09:00 The angel is telling them until this have the 09:03 promised child. And He says, 09:05 He will begin to deliver, He'll begin to save 09:07 God's people. So even there Samson is supposed 09:11 to be a type of Christ and that He was destined 09:13 to be a savior of the people. 09:16 As he began to mature and he saw the oppression 09:19 of his own people under the Philistines, 09:23 it tells us and you can read Judges chapter 09:24 13 verse 25, "And the spirit of the Lord began 09:28 to move him at times, and that word is it began 09:33 to stir him at times between the camp of Dan, 09:39 between Zorah and Eshtaol. Now Samson is the only 09:44 hero that comes from the tribe of Dan, 09:48 you got King Soul and you probably have 09:53 others who come from the tribe of Benjamin like 09:55 Saul of Tarsus. You got Mathew from 09:58 the tribe of Mathew Levi, you've got different 10:00 judges that came from different tribes but 10:03 Samson is the only one who becomes a hero from 10:06 the tribe of Dan. And by the way 10:08 a great deal of the book of Judges of about a 10:12 dozen different judges, a great deal of the book 10:16 of Judges is dedicated to Samson. 10:18 So I think we need to recognize some of the 10:20 spiritual lessons that are then. 10:23 Somebody said one time great men are born in 10:26 times of great oppression. This was the time when 10:30 the children of Israel were being greatly 10:32 oppressed by the Philistines. 10:35 Moses was born during that the oppression of 10:37 Egypt, Samson during the oppression 10:39 of Philistine, Jesus during the oppression 10:42 of Rome. God raises these people up to deliver 10:45 and Christ of course is supposed to deliver us 10:48 from our sins. Now even during the time of Samson 10:54 gestation within his mother. 10:56 His mother has given very careful guidelines that 11:00 she should not eat anything unclean or drink 11:03 anything fermented from the wine. 11:06 She is given very strict guidelines regarding 11:10 her personal health habits because God is going 11:13 to use this young man in a special way. 11:16 Now if ever there was a scripture in the Bible 11:17 that would be a good catalyst to talk about the 11:19 health message. You haven't heard too many 11:22 people talk about the book of Samson in the 11:24 context of health. We usually use 11:25 Daniel chapter one. But here the strongest 11:28 man whoever lived physical strength God 11:32 makes a connection between the eating and 11:35 living habits of the mother and his life. 11:39 And so there's something to be 11:40 said for that I wanna read a quote for you from 11:42 the book Patriots and Prophets page 562. 11:46 There are few who realize as they should how much 11:50 there habits of diet have to do with their health 11:53 their character, their usefulness in this world 11:56 and their eternal destiny. You mean there is a 11:59 connection between our health and our living 12:01 habits and our eternal destiny? 12:03 The appetite, now the word appetite there it 12:06 can mean the physical passions whether it's a 12:08 passion for food or other things. 12:11 The appetite should ever be in subjection to the 12:15 moral and intellectual powers. 12:18 We all have those animalistic desires in our 12:22 natures but we are not just an animal we are a 12:26 spiritual creature in the image of God. 12:29 We are an animal as usually governed by its 12:31 passions people are to be governed by their 12:34 intellect and the passions are to be 12:37 subject to that. Now you'll see why this is an 12:40 important point as we study on in this lesson. 12:43 The body should be servant to the mind and not 12:47 the mind to the body. You know there is the man 12:50 who was brought to Jesus one day he was paralyzed 12:53 and he was carried on his bed, 12:55 after he was forgiven and healed he left Jesus, 12:58 he still had his bed but instead of the bed 13:00 carrying him he's carrying the bed. 13:03 And the bed in the Bible represents sort of the 13:05 carnal side of the nature we all have that, 13:08 the question is, is the bed carrying you or you 13:11 carrying the bed? And after we've been 13:14 delivered by the Lord, we still have temptation, 13:16 we still have desires. But they are to be in 13:18 subjections to the higher powers of the mind. 13:21 Amen. Amen. That's one of the things I think that 13:24 distinguishes a victorious Christian from those 13:27 who are just lead by the lust of the flesh and 13:29 the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. 13:30 Now was also set aside to be a Nazarite. 13:35 Nazarite would take this vow, 13:37 and the word Nazarite means they were separates. 13:40 Our Christians supposed to be separate from the 13:43 world. Amen. Was Christ separate from the world? 13:47 And Samson was called aside to be separate, 13:51 to be unique. You know one thing 13:53 you have discovered about Samson after he begins 13:56 his ministry if you will is that he doesn't 14:01 really have an army, I mean Gideon had his 14:04 300 even Jonathan had an amour bear, 14:07 David had his mighty men. Many of the great 14:11 people of God had their partners and their 14:14 comrades, or their army. Samson seemed to always 14:17 be alone. And I want to really emphasis that 14:23 point that I think Samson was a lonely man. 14:27 And let me go on you'll understand that better 14:31 in a moment. It is possible, 14:34 now who else was a Nazarite in the Bible 14:36 that was filled with the Holy Spirit? 14:39 John the Baptist, were guidelines given to John? 14:41 Was John filled with the Holy Spirit? 14:44 In the same way that Samson was the mightiest 14:46 of the judges physically John the Baptist was the 14:48 greatest of the Prophets spiritually, right? 14:52 Was Jesus a Nazarite? Well, the jury may still 14:57 be out on that. You know a lot of paintings paint 15:00 pictures of Jesus with long hair typically right? 15:04 You'll notice all the Jehovah witness paintings 15:06 of Jesus' hair short because it says, 15:07 how could he have long hair when that verse says 15:09 it's a shame for man to have long hair. 15:11 And, but if you are a Nazarite, 15:14 it was okay to have long hair you wont cut your 15:16 hair. Well, it was possible to have the vow of 15:20 the Nazarite for a specific period of time. 15:24 It did not mean to be a life long vow. 15:26 Samson was told you are a Nazarite for life. 15:30 it could be that Jesus lived as a Nazarite until 15:33 He began His ministry at 30 years of age. 15:35 And like I said, the scholars don't agree on 15:37 this. But there is a verse you need to consider, 15:40 Mathew chapter 2 verse 23, 15:43 "And he came and he dwelled in a city called 15:45 Nazareth that it might be fulfilled that was 15:49 spoken up by the Prophets he shall 15:51 be called a Nazarene". Now they are quoting 15:54 from Judges speaking of Samson. 15:58 And so Mathew saying that there is a spiritual 16:02 connection here between the fact that he grew 16:04 up in the city Nazareth which is drawn from the 16:07 same route as a Nazarite or as a Nazarene because 16:11 he was going to be separate. 16:13 And so whether Jesus lived as a Nazarite for 16:16 the first 30 years before He began His ministry 16:18 we don't know, we do know after His ministry 16:20 that must have been over because He was drinking 16:23 grape juice which a Nazarite could not do. 16:25 So like I said, the, this not a total agreement 16:29 in that but I thought I was sharing. 16:33 As we now look through Samson and his women. 16:35 And I'll be delicate and how I share this with 16:37 you. There are three women that are involved in 16:41 his life in some form. All three of them betray 16:47 him. Now if Samson is a type of Christ and if a 16:54 women represents a church and if you study 16:58 the history of God's people especially in the 17:01 Old Testament; do we see a pattern where God's 17:05 people often forsake the Lord and they go after 17:08 other lovers that there is betrayal? 17:11 So I think that there maybe a lesson there if 17:13 you want to use the spiritual analogy. 17:17 Here I will go to the Judges chapter 14 verse 1, 17:19 "we have talked about the birth, 17:20 they call his Samson the spirit of the Lord is 17:22 moving on him". Now they are constantly 17:27 involved in the business with the Philistines, 17:29 they are subjugated by the Philistines. 17:32 They understand their language fairly well. 17:35 And it says in Judges 14 verse 1, 17:37 "Now Samson went down to Timnah", 17:40 I looked up that word this morning. 17:42 The word Timnah means forbidding image, 17:47 something forbidden like an idolatry or something 17:50 you look at and that tells about something about 17:53 what was happening here. And he saw a women in 17:57 Timnah of the daughter of the Philistines, 18:01 doesn't say she had a great character. 18:04 She probably had a good appearance he saw, 18:07 and he said to his parents, 18:09 his father and his mother, I have seen a woman in 18:11 Timnah of the daughters of the philistines now 18:13 therefore get her for me as a wife. 18:17 And the father and mother could grieve that their 18:19 son was, pardon me, son was great calling is 18:23 now about to throw away his ministry by a bad 18:27 marriage they're really worried. 18:31 And you and I have seen cases before where there 18:34 is perhaps a young man who has tremendous 18:36 opportunity for ministry. I have seen some young 18:42 people who had tremendous powers for Evangelism. 18:45 And then they get into a marriage with somebody 18:47 who is up the world and it often unravels this 18:51 is very, very sad and it's like that they were 18:53 looking on the outside and they said all such a 18:55 beautiful person I'll convert them later. 18:58 And they fall for that famous line and your God 19:02 and His mercy sometimes people marry outside of 19:05 their faith and God and His mercy sometimes it 19:07 works out. Don't use as an excuse to go 19:10 against the word of God, the Bible says you 19:12 should not be unequally yoked together. 19:15 Amen. Amen. And I saw what her, 19:21 she pleased me it well. And her parents say as 19:23 you can understand, is there no women among 19:26 the daughters of your brethren? 19:27 Or among all of my people? In other words if it's 19:30 not even going to be from the tribe of Dan 19:33 at least from the children of Israel that you 19:35 must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised 19:38 Philistines. And the parents emphasized that 19:40 because some of the other neighboring nations 19:42 namely the Edomites, the Moabites, 19:45 the Ammonites, they were still enemies of Israel 19:48 but they all believed in circumcision. 19:51 They were loosely related to the Jews but not to 19:55 the Philistines. They were total foreign 19:58 pageants, idolaters. And it was a great 20:04 sorrow of heart to the parents that Samson would 20:06 do this. But you know they could have said no. 20:10 He did ask his parents permission but he probably 20:12 began to whine maybe their only son the mother 20:15 had been barren. Or by the way I don't 20:18 want to rush past that point. 20:20 There are seven examples in the Bible of miracle 20:23 births. Six examples of which seven examples of 20:27 babies that are born to mothers that are barren 20:30 all of those babies are types of Christ. 20:34 Real quick, you've got Sarah was barren, 20:38 Isaac is born. Isaac is type of Christ 20:40 he goes up the mountain as a sacrifice, right? 20:43 Rebecca was barren. Isaac praised for Rebecca 20:45 she has Jacob and Esau. 20:47 Jacob is a type of Christ; he is the father of 20:49 Israel, the twelve patriots the twelve 20:51 Apostles a lot of analogies there. 20:53 Rachel was barren, prayer first born son 20:56 Joseph tremendous type of Christ. 20:59 Saves His people sold by His brothers, right? 21:02 You've got Shunammite woman who was barren. 21:06 Elijah prayed she has baby boy dies while working 21:08 in the field and he's resurrected a type 21:10 of Christ. This miracle baby boy dies he's 21:12 resurrected. You've got Hannah who was barren, 21:15 Samuel comes along. He's the type of the Christ. 21:17 He's a Prophet, he's a priest. 21:19 He is a judge of Israel as Jesus is our Prophet, 21:22 our priest, our judge. Then you got 21:24 John the Baptist, miracle birth greatest 21:27 of the prophets and Samson. 21:30 So don't miss the point he has to be a type of 21:32 Christ because he's among the miracle births 21:35 that you find in the Bible. 21:36 So he now begins to want this pageant woman. 21:41 And the parents are saying why, 21:43 why would you go after her? 21:44 She's unclean. You know, you wonder what the 21:48 angels might have thought when Jesus said I am 21:49 going to this world because my bride is down 21:52 there in this unclean world. 21:53 Are you listening to me? If a woman is the type 21:57 of the church and if Samson is a type of Christ 22:00 there may even be a spiritual analogy here 22:03 that He sees something in us even though we are 22:06 unclean. Now don't mix up the principles of being 22:09 unequally yoked. I am going back and forth 22:11 between the literal and the spiritual analogies; 22:14 is everyone clear on that. And they said can't 22:17 you find one in your people in, 22:19 you know he really sounds like a muscle 22:21 head here. I got that from John Lomacang. 22:27 I am not calling him that I mean John usually 22:28 use that term. He sounds like someone you find in 22:33 a gym. Get her for me. She pleases me well. 22:39 I want her. But that doesn't it sound like he's 22:42 little spoiled? I want her, you know and so 22:45 they finally relent. They could have put their 22:47 foot down so they, they arranged a marriage 22:50 and something interesting happens in the context 22:52 of this marriage. In working of the terms 22:55 of the dowry they are going back and forth from 22:57 Dan to Timnah. And on the way 23:00 Samson goes off the trail and he sees a lion that 23:04 roars against him. And this is when he's 23:06 really feeling his oats and the Holy Spirit 23:07 moving up on him. And the lion leaps 23:11 at him and he takes the line and he tears it 23:13 to pieces. Now let me emphasis something I don't 23:15 think he does that because he is muscle bound. 23:18 It says the spirit of the Lord came up on him. 23:20 Are you aware, no one in the Bible does it says 23:23 Samson had big biceps? Are you aware that same 23:28 spirit came up on David? And David killed the 23:31 lion and it doesn't say he killed the lion with 23:33 a sling. It says he took it by the beard and 23:36 the bear. The Holy Spirit came upon him. 23:41 And he tore the lion to smithereens and it says 23:43 like it was a goat threw it aside. 23:45 Well few weeks later he was on his way back 23:47 down the lion's carcasses decomposing, 23:50 he wonders it if it still there, he remembers the 23:52 memory. And he steps aside to see. 23:53 And lo and behold there is a nest of bees. 23:56 They are probably not your regular tree bees 23:58 closer to yellow jack it's but they used to eat 24:00 that honey and it's made the nest in the chest 24:05 cavity of this lion. And Samson looks at 24:09 the right and he looks to the left and he thought 24:11 boy honey and that's sound pretty good. 24:13 But you are not suppose to touch anything 24:15 unclean, if you are a Nazarite especially 24:18 anything at carcass of our, an animal that is 24:20 already unclean. So he takes some honey out 24:23 he brings to his parents, he doesn't tell his 24:25 parents he got it from the carcass of a lion. 24:29 And give it to them and they eat it. 24:34 Now then he goes to the wedding. 24:36 Now there are some spiritual lessons here 24:38 I think they are important. 24:39 At the wedding he thinks boy that was really a 24:41 unique experience. And maybe he's trying 24:44 to defer the cost of the dowry for the wedding, 24:47 I don't know but he says make a deal with you, 24:49 you Philistine men. He says, I'll pose a riddle 24:51 to you and if you can tell me my riddle, 24:54 he says then I am going to give you thirty 24:56 garments and changes of Raymond. 24:58 And if you can't then you give it to me. 25:02 And so you know gambling men maybe he waited 25:04 till they had a few drinks before they took him 25:06 up on this. And so they said go for it, 25:10 what's the riddle? Judges 14:14, 25:14 "He said to them out of the eater came forth 25:16 meat, and out of the strong came forth 25:20 sweetness. And they could not in three days 25:24 expound the riddle. "So here he got three 25:26 and half days. Then they begin to 25:28 go after his fiancée, his bride to be and say 25:33 look you got a, did you bring us to this wedding 25:35 to take what's ours? You better tell us, 25:38 you better find out from your husband. 25:39 I mean after all your Philistine, 25:41 we are Philistine, he's a foreigner whose 25:42 side are you anyway? If you don't help us out 25:45 we are gonna burn you with fire. 25:46 My question for you, where should her 25:49 allegiance have been? With her nation first 25:53 or with her husband? It should have been with 25:56 her husband, but they threatened her and what 25:59 she should have done is that she should have said, 26:02 oh my husband is the strongest man in 26:03 the world. Maybe she didn't know that yet. 26:07 And told her husband what was happening Samson 26:09 would have took care of them. 26:12 But instead she betrayed him, and she whined and 26:18 she cried and she plead with Samson and she just 26:20 nagged him until why he despaired of life. 26:25 I am sure nobody here has ever had that 26:26 experience before, on dangerous ground. 26:32 And he said alright, alright here's what 26:35 the riddle means. And before the sun goes 26:38 down on the seventh day, timings is very 26:41 interested in this story. They said that what's 26:44 stronger than a lion and what's sweeter than 26:46 the honey? And Samson said 26:48 if you had not knew how they had found out, 26:50 if you had not ploughed with my hair for you had 26:52 not found out my riddle. And he was infuriated 26:57 by the betrayal. He was deeply hurt by 27:03 the betrayal. How does it make Jesus feel? 27:10 When we betray the truth, we betray Him, 27:15 Jesus is the truth. We betray Him because 27:19 we cast our vote with the world. 27:21 We are more interested with acceptance with the 27:24 world than being accepted by our groom. Amen. 27:29 And you know from this point he never recovers 27:31 from that rejection. He never marries again 27:35 Samson has no children. It broke his heart that 27:39 he would be betrayed like that. 27:41 The other women in his life were just there. 27:44 He never marries, he's afraid of the hurt. 27:47 What happens now, oh by the way, 27:50 you know there is so much here and I am looking 27:51 at the clock and what is it mean honey out of 27:55 the lion? Well there is three meanings that I 27:59 think that you can understand from this. 28:00 First of all honey he takes something that is 28:04 good, something that is sweet from something 28:06 that is unclean. Marriage is good, 28:08 marriage is of God, it's not good that a man 28:10 should be alone, it is sweet, 28:12 it's a blessing, he defines wife finds it 28:14 a good thing, right? But if you take it out 28:18 of a deadline taking it from something that 28:20 is unclean. Marrying out of your faith it is bad. 28:24 And what he did as he took something that was 28:25 inherently good but he got out of something 28:27 that was bad and that makes it all bad. 28:30 So that's one lesson. Secondly honey out of a 28:34 slain lion is the symbol of Samson's life. 28:38 Even though the Lord had given him all of these 28:41 gifts that were good gifts he misapplied the good 28:43 gifts. Some people they have the gift in 28:47 music and just tremendous talent. 28:50 And God will let you misapply your talent 28:53 and a lot of people with gifts of music they 28:55 start off singing for the Lord, 28:56 they end up singing for the world and Samson 28:59 did that. But the good news is that before it 29:01 was all over, he gave his gift back to the Lord. 29:05 Thirdly, honey out of a slain lion, 29:07 spiritual analogy here. A lion is also a type 29:11 of Christ. He's the lion of the tribe of Judah. 29:15 A slain lion and a slain lamb they are in the 29:18 Revelation chapter 5, he says, 29:20 do not weep behold, this is the lion of 29:23 the tribe of Judah the root of Jessie. 29:26 We find salvation honey is the word of God 29:30 Psalms 119:103 how sweet are thy words to my 29:33 taste sweeter than honey to my mouth the lot of 29:35 the word is like honeycomb right? 29:36 What did Jesus eat when he rose from the dead? 29:39 Honeycomb! What did John the Baptist eat? 29:41 It is similar for the word of God in our mouths 29:44 often the prophets would eat a scroll that would 29:46 be like the honey in their mouths; 29:48 and so that honey from a slain lion is telling us 29:51 how our King Jesus, the lion through His 29:55 death that's how we get the word. 29:58 So there's some beautiful analogy is there and 30:00 I just don't have time for that all. 30:02 Anyway he later comes back to, 30:03 he wants to see his wife, he starts to feel 30:06 regret and, father in law gives his wife away to 30:10 his best man, betrayed again. 30:14 Now he's mad and now he launches a ramble 30:16 campaign against the Philistines. 30:18 Ties up 300 foxes and sets them loose and he gets 30:22 into an all out war with the Philistines, 30:26 pretty soon he's hiding out the rock Etam. 30:29 The Philistine say we are gonna attack Israel 30:31 unless you turn over Samson. 30:33 Samson is in tied up by his own people and 30:35 handed over to the Gentiles. 30:37 Did that happened to Jesus? 30:40 Was Jesus betrayed by His own people and handed 30:42 over to the Gentiles? And it says Samson dwelt 30:46 in the rock is in Christ like the rock. 30:50 That's said the story where Samson breaks the 30:51 bonds and he kills the thousand men with the jaw 30:54 bone of the donkey and I don't have a lot of time 30:56 to talk about some of those adventures. 30:58 You know it tells us in Deuteronomy that one 31:03 will chase a thousand, Deuteronomy 32:30 31:06 it says Samson slew a thousand men. 31:08 Moses prophesized that would happen, 31:10 how should one chase a thousand unless the Lord 31:13 is with them? Betrayal number two Judges 16:1, 31:18 Samson goes to Gaza that means strength the goat 31:22 and he's been kind like stubborn goat now. 31:26 And he find there a woman at the night there 31:27 harlot and why he is there it says, 31:31 the men of the city the guards of the city 31:33 are told. Who do you think told them? 31:38 You know how opposite Ray have protected God's 31:40 people when they came to her, 31:41 this Harlot betrays Samson to the 31:45 people of the gate. And so they try to 31:47 capture him. And what does he do? 31:49 He rips the gates right out of their sockets puts 31:53 them on his shoulders he says you think you gonna 31:55 keep me and with these gates, tears them right 31:58 after off the wall may seen flying every where, 32:01 hoists them up on his shoulders, 32:03 carries them for miles up to the hills of Hebron. 32:08 Jesus says that the gates of Hades will not 32:10 prevail against the church and against Him. 32:13 Amen. Amen. Mathew chapter 16 verse 18 32:17 upon this rock I'll built my church and the gates 32:19 of Hades shall not prevent against Him. 32:22 So he is betrayed again, now we get to the last 32:25 and the most famous betrayal, 32:29 what's your name? Delilah. Delilah, 32:31 well I remember that, anyone who named their 32:34 daughter Delilah? So it's like nobody 32:38 names their sons Nero or daughter Jezebel they 32:43 are sort of infamous names. 32:45 I actually know somebody named Delilah hope 32:47 they are not watching right now sorry. 32:52 Afterward it happened that he loved the women 32:53 of the valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 32:57 Sorek means red grapes, Delilah means the 33:02 consumer. This woman is the epidemy of 33:06 Revelation 17. She's something like the 33:09 Scarlet Harlot that betrays God's people 33:14 cup full of the blood of the saints. 33:17 And she develops this relationship with Samson 33:20 the Lord of the Philistines say, 33:23 how much do you want in order to betray the 33:26 secret of his strength? I mean we don't let you 33:28 to take him down he's got some secret weapon 33:30 we need to know what the secret is? 33:34 And they coven it with her for eleven hundred 33:38 pieces of silver. He's sold, 33:40 he's betrayed for silver does that 33:42 sound familiar? Joseph was betrayed by his own 33:45 for silver, total of five thousand five hundred 33:49 pieces of silver and she agrees. 33:51 Well they go through this game. 33:55 She says tell me what the secret of your strength 33:57 is in? He knew he got to were he didn't trust 33:58 anybody because he had been betrayed. 34:01 You know he get betrayed enough times he gets 34:03 words very hard to trust people. 34:06 And he keeps making these things up, and she says 34:10 the Philistines are upon me, and he jumps up and 34:12 he tears them apart and finally she just starts 34:16 begging him and nagging him. 34:17 And he realizes you know there, there is nobody 34:20 in life and I think that when Samson finally be 34:22 divulged the secret of secrets that he had been 34:26 consecrated to God his hair was his symbol of 34:29 his vow, he probably did that knowing that it 34:33 was going to cost him life but he felt what good 34:35 is it, you know I cant trust anybody. 34:38 And finally she says to the Philistines bring 34:40 down your guards. He's told me everything 34:42 puts him to sleep on his knees, 34:45 stroking his head as though she loves him. 34:48 And it calls for the barber cuts off his hair, 34:50 shouts Samson the Philistines are upon me. 34:53 And he gets up to shake himself as other times 34:55 and this is a tragic verse. 34:57 He did not know that the spirit of the Lord had 35:00 departed from him. You wonder if there can 35:03 be some among the God's people among in the last 35:05 days raised in the church just assume because you 35:08 are raised in the church that means 35:09 God is with you. But you can hang 35:11 around with the pageant so long that you lose 35:13 the spirit of the Lord. And they put out his 35:16 eyes, they bound him, they put him in the house 35:23 to grind their flour. And we don't know how 35:27 long it was he probably mingled a lot of tears 35:30 with his toes as he went round and round 35:33 repenting for his squandered life. 35:36 And they would come by and mock him as he 35:38 ground. You know I heard someone say one time 35:42 and I wrote it down. Sin will find you, 35:46 numbers chapter twenty three, 35:50 thirty two rather twenty three be sure your sin 35:52 will find you out. Sin will bind you, 35:56 sin will blind you and sin will grind you. 36:03 Samson was found out by his neglect of his gift, 36:07 it blinded him, he was bound and they made him 36:13 grind and he reached the very bottom. 36:17 And at that point he repented little by little, 36:19 they didn't notice as he was repenting and 36:21 crying. I'll tell you what that some people sin 36:24 like Samson but they don't repent like he did. 36:27 They sin like David but they don't repent like 36:28 David. David spent days on his face. 36:32 He repented so long and it was long enough for 36:33 his hair to go back. Now I'd be repenting 36:36 a long time before that happened. 36:41 And as his hair grew they finally brought him 36:43 into the temple of Dagon to offer him as a 36:46 sacrifice to their pageant Gods, don't miss this. 36:49 And in amidst of all that he knew that they were 36:53 sporting with him, they were mocking him, 36:54 it says they were making sport of him, 36:56 mocking him, did they mock Jesus? 37:01 That he says the young man that bore, 37:03 that guarded him and he says where are the 37:05 pillars. Unfortunately Samson knew about the lay 37:08 out of the temple of Dagon. 37:10 And they brought him to the borders there and he 37:12 felt the pillars and he prayed, 37:15 Lord I am ready to lay down my life forgive me 37:20 fill me one more time with the spirit. 37:23 Do you think Samson would be in heaven? 37:25 He's mentioned in Hebrews is one of the faithful, 37:27 Hebrew's chapter 11. And he bowed himself, 37:30 the temple came down and the testimony, 37:33 the end of his life as he slew more by his death 37:38 then he did by his life. The last act of his life 37:40 was he brought down the temple of the pageant 37:43 God. Jehovah wins over Dagon which happened 37:47 later when the Philistines stole the ark. 37:50 There are many types I wanna close with his 37:51 thought, how was Samson like Jesus? 37:54 Jesus was delivered by the Heathen, 37:57 delivered by his own people to the Heathen. 38:00 Jesus was never married like Samson betrayed 38:03 for silver, he lost his strength for you and me, 38:07 protection was withdrawn. Jesus was blinded, 38:10 they put a hood over his head and they beat him, 38:12 they mocked him. He was bound that 38:14 we might be loose. He was mocked and tortured 38:18 when helpless, and Christ sets us free through 38:21 sacrifice. Lot of beautiful lessons there, 38:24 amen. Amen. And he did it that he might redeem 38:27 a bride that is pure. I want to be part of 38:30 the bride, don't you friends? 38:32 Lets' pray together as we close our lessons. 38:35 Father we thank you for the lessons in your 38:36 word that teaches us self control and 38:38 faithfulness, and redemption 38:40 and if any listening that have wondered from 38:43 their great calling I pray that they'll return 38:45 now and commit their gifts to you we ask 38:48 in Christ name. Amen. Amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17