Men, well it's great to be here tonight, and we're going to start there in Acts chapter 10 verse number 38.
You've got a great crowd here. Who's a regular here? You typically come here all the time.
All right, great. And then we've got a lot of visitors tonight, so thank you everyone for coming and for driving out here.
The part that I want to focus on is beginning in Acts chapter number 10 verse 38 where the Bible reads,
The Bible reads,
And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God,
and this is the part I want to focus on, to be the judge of quick and dead.
To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
And if you would, turn back in your Bible to the book of Judges chapter 2.
The title of my sermon tonight is Jesus in the book of Judges. Jesus in the book of Judges.
The Bible says to him, give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
You'll find Jesus in Genesis. You'll find Jesus in Exodus. You'll find Jesus in Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua.
And even in the book of Judges, you will find Jesus quite a bit.
Now, before we get into the book of Judges, let me just mention to you that the word judge or judges or judgment or some variation on that is used 758 times in the Bible.
And it's almost always in a positive light.
Now there are some verses that tell us, Judge not, that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged,
and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again, warning us about hypocritical judgment or judging according to the appearance or whatever the case may be.
But judgment, judging, being a judge is a very important subject in the Bible. 758 mentions.
That makes it one of the top subjects in the Bible.
And it calls Jesus Christ the judge. And we have a whole book called the book of Judges.
Look at chapter 2, verse 16. This is where the Bible kind of explains what the whole book of Judges is about.
It says in verse 16, nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges which delivered them.
And I want you to notice that term, they delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods and bowed themselves unto them.
They turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord, but they did not so.
And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge.
For it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.
And it came to pass when the judge was dead that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them.
They ceased not from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.
So the book of Judges is about this cycle where the people have no strong leader and they start worshipping other gods and getting involved in all kinds of sin, but then God sends them a judge that is also a deliverer.
So all throughout the book of Judges, the judge and the deliverer are the same person.
So this guy comes in and he saves them out of the jam that they're in.
He gets them out of bondage to the Philistines or whoever has taken over.
And then they serve God for a while while they have that strong leadership.
And then as soon as that leadership is gone, they go back to their old ways.
And then the cycle continues.
God raises up another judge, another deliverer.
That's what's being explained.
So when we talk about Jesus in the book of Judges, first of all, I'm going to start out by just talking about how all of these judges picture Jesus.
And then we're going to get specific and we're going to home in on the most important judge, probably the quintessential judge, which is Samson.
Okay.
And show the really strong parallels between Samson and Jesus.
Now Samson is a picture of Jesus and points us to Jesus Christ.
But let's start out by turning to John chapter 5 in the New Testament.
John chapter 5, we're going to start out by just talking about the book of Judges in general.
And I'm going to show you how Jesus Christ is a judge.
So these men in the book of Judges that are called a judge and a deliverer, they picture Jesus because Jesus is the ultimate judge.
You're turning to John 5.
I'll read for you from Matthew chapter 12 verse 18.
Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my spirit upon him and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles.
That was Jesus' mission, to show judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed shall he not break and smoking flax shall he not quench till he send forth judgment unto victory.
And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.
Look down at your Bible there in John chapter 5 verse 21.
For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
For the Father judgeth no man, watch this, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.
So we see here that Jesus Christ is the judge.
Look at verse 26.
For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself,
and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man.
Look at verse 30.
I can of mine own self do nothing, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just,
because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
Go to John chapter 9, and while you're turning there I'll read for you John 7 24.
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
John 9 39 verse 39.
And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world.
So we often don't think of Jesus being a judge, do we?
We don't think of Jesus being the judge.
We think of him as being the Savior.
We think of him as being the Deliverer.
We think of him as being the Son of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Lamb of God.
But Jesus Christ is the great judge as well, according to the Bible.
Look down at verse 39.
And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world.
That's one of the reasons why he came.
That they which see not might see, and they which see might be made blind.
Okay, flip over if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
While you're turning there, Acts 17 31 says,
Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
whereof he gave assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead.
So that man that he ordained to be the judge is Jesus, the Bible tells us.
Romans 2 16, and the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.
2 Corinthians 5 10, where you are,
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
And then if you would turn back to Judges chapter 3.
And while you're turning to Judges 3, I'm going to give you 2 Timothy 4 1,
I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.
I know that's a lot of scripture that I'm hitting you with,
but this is just the tip of the iceberg of 758 scriptures about judging, judges, judgment,
and just over and over again, Jesus Christ is identified as the judge, even specific from God the Father.
Hey, God the Father has delegated all of that responsibility to Jesus.
He's given Jesus the judgment.
All of the judgment has been committed unto the Son, the Bible says.
So Jesus Christ is the judge.
So it's not hard to find Jesus in the book of Judges when Jesus is identified as the great judge.
So these judges that we read about in the book of Judges, they prefigure Jesus or they're a picture of Jesus or a shadow of Jesus.
Especially because the judges in the book of Judges are also identified as a deliverer.
This is something that comes up over and over again.
Look at Judges chapter 3 verse 9.
And when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel who delivered them,
even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.
Look at verse 15.
But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gerah.
This is a pattern.
Look at verse 31.
And after him was Shamgar, the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad, and he also delivered Israel.
Over and over again, the Bible calls Gideon a deliverer.
Ehud is a deliverer.
Othniel is a deliverer.
Shamgar is a deliverer.
These guys are deliverers.
Go to Nehemiah chapter 9.
Nehemiah chapter 9 is a scripture that refers back to the period of the judges.
And it's interesting because instead of using the term deliverer, it just calls them a savior.
And of course we know Jesus Christ is the savior.
Savior and deliverer both pretty much mean the same thing.
So in the book of Judges we see the term deliverer.
In Nehemiah, he's going to call it a savior.
Look at Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 25.
And they took strong cities and a fat land and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards and olive yards and fruit trees in abundance.
So they did eat and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.
Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against thee and cast thy law behind their backs and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee.
And they wrought great provocations.
Therefore thou deliverance them into the hands of their enemies who vex them.
And in the time of their trouble when they cried unto thee, thou hurtest them from heaven.
And according to thy manifold mercies, thou gavest them saviors.
And those are who?
The judges from the book of Judges.
They are saviors who saved them out of the hand of their enemies but after that they had rest, they did evil again before thee.
And of course we know how the cycle continued over and over again.
Then let me just quickly show you.
This is all just kind of building a foundation here for the book of Judges that Jesus Christ is a deliverer.
The most powerful verse on this and I want you to turn to Acts chapter 7 if you would.
Acts chapter 7.
There are a lot of verses on Jesus being a deliverer.
In Luke chapter 4 verse 18 Jesus said that he was come to preach deliverance to the captives.
But this is the best one.
Romans 11 26 says, and so all Israel shall be saved as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer.
Capital D.
And shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
That's Jesus Christ the deliverer.
Jesus Christ the judge of quick and dead to whom all judgment has been committed.
The son of God Jesus Christ the ultimate judge and the ultimate deliverer.
The ultimate savior.
Look what the Bible says in Acts chapter number 7 verse 35.
This is such a great verse.
It says in Acts chapter 7 35 this Moses whom they refused saying who made thee a ruler and a judge.
The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
Now the thing that has always struck me about this verse is how in the first half of the verse it talks about them refusing him by saying who made thee a ruler and a judge.
But then it says God made him a ruler and a deliverer.
So do you see how the word judge is replaced with deliverer in the second half of that verse?
So the people who have a bad attitude, the people who refuse to submit to Moses' leadership, the people that did not want that man to rule over them, to them they see him as a judge.
Like that's a negative thing. Who made thee a ruler and a judge?
And then God who has the right perspective says he was sent to be a ruler and a deliverer.
And what that tells me is that whether or not these men of God are a judge or a deliverer unto you depends on what your perspective is.
It depends on whether or not you're guilty.
See if you're a guilty person, if you're a bad person, if you're a wicked person, when you hear a spirit-filled preacher getting up and preaching hard on sin and if you have all that sin in your life
and if you're stubborn and you don't want to change and you don't want to repent and you don't want to get right with God, you know what you're going to say?
Oh man, he's judging me. He's so judgmental. He says, you know, why do you have to judge? Isn't that what they say when they hear hard preaching?
But you know what? The person with the right attitude says, hey, thank you for delivering me.
Thank you for saving me from a life of drunkenness or saving me from gambling addiction or just saving me from all the stupid decisions and the diseases and the filth of this world.
Hey, thank you for helping me. But it's the same person. It's the same preaching.
It's a different attitude toward the man of God whether you see him as a judge or whether you see him as a deliverer.
Of course, Christ, because this is about Moses, but what about Jesus Christ? Jesus is the judge, isn't he?
You know why we don't often think of him as a judge? I said earlier in the sermon, hey, the Bible says over and over again how he's the great judge and how he's going to judge the world and he's going to judge the quick and the dead.
You want to know why we don't often talk about that or think about that? Because we're saved.
So we're not, you know, we're not on the receiving end of his judgment primarily. We're more excited about the fact that he saved us.
You know, we're looking at Jesus and we're talking about he's the deliverer. He's the deliverer. I mean, think about the songs in the hymnal.
What do they emphasize? He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee.
But it's not like he's coming to judge me. It's not emphasizing that because you know what? We look at him with the right attitude.
Thank you for saving us. Thank you for delivering us. You delivered us from the wrath to come.
But you know what? He also wants to save us from the bondage of sin because whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin.
And so just as much as the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt physically with taskmasters that were beating them and making them work.
You know what? If you are living a life of sin, you're in bondage to sin.
You're a slave to the bottle or you're you're in bondage to drugs or you're in bondage to whatever other sinful addictions, gambling, pornography, you name it.
That stuff doesn't bring liberty and freedom into your life. It brings bondage.
And here comes Jesus Christ not only to save your soul, but he's also leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps.
He's also teaching you a right way to live your life as well. And when preaching comes at you and tells you, hey, this is what the Bible says.
This is the way walkie in it. A bad attitude says, oh, you're judging me. And the good attitude says, wow, this is great. A burden's been lifted.
You're trying to deliver me. You're saving me. You're helping me. Thank you.
So it's all depending on your attitude. So judge or deliver or you decide. It's the same person. Jesus, Moses, preachers. How about your parents?
You know, you look at your parents. Oh, man, my parents are on my case all the time. My parents are judging me.
The Bible says children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.
Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth.
But some people just think of their parents as somebody who's there to just judge them.
We ought to think of our parents as someone who's there to deliver us.
They're trying to save us from problems. They're trying to save us from making bad mistakes.
You know what? We that are parents, we've made mistakes in our life and we don't want our children to make the same mistakes.
Or we've avoided mistakes and we want them to dodge that same bullet that we dodged.
Parents don't sit around trying to dream up ways to take away fun out of the life of their children and make them miserable, find new ways to make them suffer.
Parents worry about their children. They love their children. They care about their children.
And all they want, if they're right parents, is for their children to grow up and love the Lord and live a happy and godly, peaceful life.
That's all we want for our children. Okay?
And a lot of times they think, though, that we're just out to judge them and condemn them and get on their case.
But really we're trying to save and deliver them from problems that we see entering into their lives.
So judge or deliver. Right? It's interchangeable.
In Acts chapter 7 verse 35, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 2.
And in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 we'll see a similar concept where we can see how the same person can evoke different reactions in different people. Right?
To one person, a pastor could be considered the most hateful preacher in America.
Another one would say, man, this is the preacher that really loves us.
This is a loving man. This is a godly man.
Other people say, oh, this guy's hateful. He's mean. He's, you know, it's the same person.
Why is that? Now, your friends, they can look at you as Mr. Christian goody two shoes.
Or they might say, hey, here's an upstanding, you know, godly person who loves the Lord.
It's all based on people's perspective.
And here's a great verse on that in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 15.
For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ.
Now, a sweet savor? Savor has to do with the word flavor.
You know, it's a similar word. It has to do with the way something smells.
Or it could have to do with something the way something tastes.
For example, the Bible says dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor.
So that's talking about a bad smell.
And then also it says if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? That's taste.
So the word savor is like a good taste or a good smell. It could go either way.
So the Bible says that to God, from God's perspective, we are a sweet savor of Christ.
So when God looks down at his children, me and you and other born again Christians,
we're a sweet savor of Christ unto him.
We remind him of Christ and it's a sweet savor in his mouth or in his nostrils.
But it says we're unto God a sweet savor of Christ. That's from his perspective.
But then it also says in them that are saved and in them that perish.
To the one we are the savor of death unto death and to the other the savor of life unto life.
And who is sufficient for these things?
So here's what that means.
If I show up at somebody's door and I've got the word of God and I'm preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ,
I show up at their door.
I'm a savor of Christ because I'm an ambassador for Christ. I'm bringing the word of God.
I'm not coming in my own name. I'm not coming to preach my own message.
I'm coming to preach about Jesus and to tell them about Christ.
They don't even know me, right? I'm a stranger. I just walk up.
But as soon as I say, hi, I'm from Steadfast Baptist Church and I start to talk to them about the gospel,
open the Bible, show them some verses, it's a savor of Christ unto them.
Now to some people the Bible says it's a savor of death unto death and the other the savor of life unto life.
What that means is to the person who does not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the person who does not trust in Christ, doesn't want to trust in Christ,
has no interest in the things of God, doesn't want to hear about Jesus,
we're like a savor of death unto them. We show up and start talking about the Bible.
You know what they taste? Death. They smell death.
Now I'm thankful that I don't know what death smells like. Who knows what death smells like?
Anybody out there? No? Yeah. Unfortunately, yeah. I don't know what death smells like.
You know, my brother-in-law is a paramedic. I'll bet he knows what death smells like,
you know, because he's constantly dealing with situations where he has to be confronted with death in his day-to-day life
and I'm sure it's not a pleasant smell, the smell of death or the taste of death.
So you understand why people can get so mad at the good news. They get mad, right?
Why do they get mad at Bible preaching? Why do they get mad at soul winning?
Why is it that you knock on the door before you've even opened your mouth? They're already mad.
Because you just put a death taste in their mouth. They have the taste of death in their mouth, the smell of death.
Why? Because you're reminding them of where they're heading. Down.
I mean, look, you're actually a prophet of doom. If they are not saved and if they're not going to get saved
and they don't even want to hear the gospel, then you know what? You are just a messenger of their own doom and destruction
and that's a taste of death unto them, a savor of death.
But when you come to somebody who's already saved, they're glad to see you.
It's like a breath of fresh air. It's like a cool drink of water. Why? Because it's that life taste, the savor of life unto them.
It's a sweet smell to them. It's a sweet taste to them.
You know, the few times in my life that I've been at home and had a Bible believing Christian come knock on my door
and want to give me the gospel, man, I was happy. I was excited. I was thankful.
Even before I went soul winning, I had somebody before knock on my door and bringing the gospel.
I was already saved, but I was not involved in soul winning and I was just thrilled that somebody's out preaching the gospel.
Somebody came to my door. Well, that made me really happy.
And you'll see people get happy. Hey, thanks for what you guys are doing.
Keep up the good work because it's a good flavor to them or the person who's interested in the gospel,
even if they're not saved, but they're open to the gospel, they're interested in the gospel.
They want to hear the gospel or you're even able to win them to Christ. Well, you know what? That's a sweet taste to them.
Those people are going to love you. So you're going to be loved and you're going to be hated, right? Why?
Because you're representing Christ. There are people out there who love Christ. There are people who hate Christ.
I mean, people screamed, crucify him. His blood be on us and on our children.
That's some extreme hatred that they have for Jesus. And so, you know, he said, Marvel not my brother if the world hates you.
If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you, is what Jesus said.
So we see here that these men of God and Christ himself, they're either a judge or a deliverer.
They're either seen as the doom judge, just always talking about wrath and doom and gloom,
or they're seen as the deliverer who's preaching the gospel and not only trying to get your soul saved,
but also just trying to preach how to live your life so you can be a godly Christian.
So it's up to you to decide which one.
And you can see how the whole book of Judges points to Jesus because you have this dual role of judge slash deliverer, judge slash savior.
And that's exactly what Jesus is. So we could go through each judge and talk about how they all represent Jesus.
But what we're going to do is just focus on one judge, which is the most important judge, I believe, which is Samson.
And there are a lot of parallels between Jesus and Samson. So let's go to Judges chapter 13.
There are actually four entire chapters dedicated to this story in the Word of God.
And the only person who has this much airtime in the book of Judges, a close second is Gideon.
Gideon has a lot of scripture dedicated to him in the book of Judges.
But Samson is really the most emphasized judge. And it's interesting because Samson is of the tribe of Dan.
And Dan is the one of whom it was prophesied that he would be a judge in Israel.
I believe, I didn't have this in my notes, but I believe it's in Genesis 49 verse 16.
Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
So Dan is seen as the judge. You don't really see the tribe of Dan exercising any kind of judgment.
So I believe that that prophecy in Genesis 49 is prophesying Samson.
When it says, hey, Dan's going to judge Israel, because Samson is the most emphasized judge in the book of Judges.
He's the last judge mentioned in the book. It's kind of the climactic story in the book of Judges.
So who was Samson? Well, Samson's story starts out in Judges chapter 13 verse 1.
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord.
And the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah.
And his wife was Beren, and just in case you don't know what that means, and Berenot.
Okay, sometimes the Bible repeats things for emphasis.
She was Beren and she Berenot.
It says in verse 3, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her,
Behold now thou art barren and bearest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son.
Now therefore, beware I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing.
And on and on the instructions go.
So the first parallel with Jesus that I want to show you about Samson,
because I'm going to show you parallels between Samson and Jesus.
Now Samson pictures Jesus is that number one, they both had their birth announced by an angel,
and they both had a miraculous birth.
This woman was Beren. She was physically unable to have children.
But God performed a miracle and allowed her to be able to conceive and have a child,
even though that was physically impossible due to her barrenness.
So number one, they both had their birth announced by an angel.
Number two, they both had a miraculous birth.
Number three, they both lived in a time when Israel was under foreign rule or foreign occupation.
Because in Samson's day, they were under the Philistines for 40 years.
They were in bondage.
Well, in Christ's day, they were under the Roman rule.
They had a foreign occupation of the Roman Empire.
So that's number three.
Number four, they were both turned over by Israel to that foreign ruler to be punished.
Okay, now let me just kind of catch you up on the story of Samson.
Flip over to chapter 15.
For the sake of time, I'm just going to briefly catch you up on the story of Samson,
tell you a little bit about who Samson is,
because I don't want to assume that everybody knows this story.
Sometimes it's easy to think when you grow up in church,
oh, everybody knows about Samson.
But not everybody grew up in church.
Or even if you grew up in church, you might not have heard this broken down.
So I'm just going to tell you the story and give you the basic breakdown.
The angel comes to Samson's parents, as we saw,
and tells them, you're going to have this child,
and this child is going to be a Nazarite from his mother's womb.
Now, the Nazarite vow was a temporary vow that men would take
where they would not do certain things for a certain amount of time.
And they would not eat any grapes.
They would not eat any raisins.
They would not drink any fruit juice of any kind.
Obviously, they wouldn't drink any alcohol or wine or anything like that.
They would also not put a razor to their head.
So they would actually let the hair of their head grow,
which is not normal for men.
Typically, obviously, men have short hair.
But they were told to let the hair of their head grow.
And they were not supposed to touch any dead bodies
or get near anything that was dead.
So they had to follow these certain rules of consecration.
And at the end of that time,
they would cut off all the hair that they had grown out.
They would shave their head.
They would offer a sacrifice and so forth.
So this is getting into the depths of the Mosaic law,
the ceremonial law, and things that we don't do in the New Testament.
But this was a temporary thing.
Well, this is a special situation where this guy is going to be a Nazarite
from the cradle to the grave.
This is a special situation.
So he's born, and they say from the beginning,
even while you're pregnant, you're going to follow these rules.
And he's going to be born.
He can't touch a dead body.
He can't eat any grapes.
He can't drink any wine.
He can't eat any raisins.
He can't do this and that and whatever.
And he's supposed to not cut his hair.
He's not supposed to have a razor come to his head.
So anyway, Samson grows up,
and the Spirit of God began to move upon him,
and the Spirit of the Lord would come upon him at times.
And he's living in the land of Dan, in the tribe of Dan.
Well, there comes a point where he decides he wants to get married,
and he wants to marry a Philistine girl.
Okay, and his parents are obviously very upset about that
because God has told them in the Word of God
that they need to marry someone who worships the Lord
and not to marry the heathen.
And it wasn't like an interracial issue.
It was just the fact that they worship another god
because anybody who wanted to could join the nation of Israel
if they would get circumcised and keep the Passover.
They could come in from all nationalities.
But the Philistines, they worship false gods,
and so his parents are very upset when he comes to them and says,
hey, I want to marry this Philistine girl.
They say, well, look, what about all these beautiful girls
up here in the tribe of Dan?
Why are you going down to the land of the Philistines?
But the Bible says they didn't understand
that he was actually looking to pick a fight with the Philistines,
so he had an ulterior motive when he picked this girl.
He wanted to seek an occasion against the Philistines.
So he goes down to the land of the Philistines,
and his parents end up cooperating
and helping with the wedding arrangements and everything like that.
And they negotiate with the parents of the girl.
And he goes down to this wedding, and it's a seven-day wedding feast.
And he decides that he's going to have a little fun with the Philistines
because, remember, he doesn't like the Philistines.
But he's pretending that he does.
He's going down there, party with them, marry one of the girls.
But he doesn't like them.
He's sick of the fact that his country has been in bondage
to the Philistines for the last 20 years.
So he goes down there, and he says,
hey, I'm going to put forth a riddle unto you.
And if you can guess this riddle,
then I'm going to give you 30 changes of clothing.
And basically, if you don't guess it,
then you're going to give me 30 changes of clothing.
And back then, clothes were really expensive
because they didn't have machines.
So everything's handmade, hand-sewn, very labor-intensive.
So they say, okay, give us your riddle.
Well, what had happened was when Samson was on his way down
to go see the Philistines and have this party,
there was a lion that attacked him,
and he ended up killing the lion.
God's spirit came upon him,
and he became endowed with supernatural strength
where he was able to kill a lion with his bare hands.
So when he kills a lion with his bare hands,
he leaves the carcass there.
Well, then when he comes back to go talk to his parents,
he ends up finding the carcass.
He wants to go check it out.
Because if you tore up a lion with your bare hands,
you'd want to go back to the scene of the crime
and just kind of check out your handiwork
and kind of just relive that past glory a couple times.
So he goes back and checks it out,
and bees had turned its carcass into a beehive.
So bees had gone in there and had dwelt there,
and there's honey inside of this lion.
So he ends up eating the honey.
Now, this is a total violation of his Nazarite vow
because he's not supposed to come near any dead bodies,
let alone eating honey out of a dead, rotten lion.
But he wasn't squeamish about it,
so he went there, and he ate the honey,
and then he even gives it to his parents.
He didn't tell his parents where it came from
or his parents would not have eaten it,
but he brings it to them.
So he says, okay, I've got this riddle for you,
and if you would actually look at chapter 14,
I'll show you the riddle.
They say at the end of verse 13,
put forth the riddle that we may hear it.
And he said to them in verse 14,
out of the eater came forth meat,
and out of the strong came forth sweetness.
Meat in the Bible just simply means food,
not necessarily what we would think of as meat.
Out of the eater came forth meat,
and out of the strong came forth sweetness,
and they could not in three days expound the riddle.
So they can't figure this out.
They're trying to figure out,
out of the eater came forth meat,
out of the strong came forth sweetness.
They can't figure out what it means,
so finally they decide to cheat
because they don't want to lose.
So they go to his wife and say,
hey, look, did you invite us to this wedding
just to take our stuff,
just to get our 30 changes of raiment?
You're going to figure out what this riddle is,
or we're going to kill you,
we're going to burn your dad's house.
So they threaten her,
and so she cries and ends up ruining the whole wedding.
Just by crying and just begging him and moaning.
So finally he gives in and tells her,
okay, here's what the riddle is.
He tells her about the lion and the honey
and everything like that.
So then on the last day,
they all know the answer to the riddle.
And so he gets so mad,
he says, well, the only reason you know this riddle
is because you plowed with my heifer.
Well, that didn't go over real well with his wife or anything.
They figured that he doesn't like her very much
if he's calling her that.
So he ends up getting so mad,
he storms out of there,
and he goes to get the 30 changes of raiment?
He goes and kills 30 Philistines
and takes their clothes off their bodies
and brings the 30 changes of raiment.
So he's mad, okay?
So if he wanted to pick a fight with these people,
he's on track with his plan, okay?
So anyway, the Bible says in verse 19,
the Spirit of the Lord came upon him,
he went down to Ashkelon and slew 30 men of them
and took their spoil.
And gave the change of garment unto them
which expounded the riddle,
and his anger was kindled,
and he went up to his father's house.
So he storms out of the wedding,
he leaves everything behind,
he turns in the 30 changes of raiment,
and just leaves without his wife.
So they basically assume,
they think, okay, he doesn't want her anymore.
You know, I guess the wedding's off.
I guess this isn't going to happen.
Well, look, after he cools down, though,
look at chapter 15, verse 1.
But it came to pass within a while after,
in the time of wheat harvest,
that Samson visited his wife with a kid.
A kid is a young goat.
So he's bringing a goat because, you know,
they're going to have a barbecue and have a party and so forth.
And he said, I'll go into my wife into the chamber.
But her father would not suffer him to go in.
And her father said,
well, I verily thought that thou had subtly hated her.
Therefore, I gave her thy companion.
He's like, she's married to somebody else now.
You know, she was all excited.
She was dressed up with nowhere to go.
So she was ready to get married.
So we just married her off to the best man.
You know, and she's married to him now.
And he said, well, hey, isn't her younger sister fairer than she?
You know, let me show you another model that we have in stock here.
You know, the younger sister.
And he doesn't like this.
He's mad.
So he ends up catching these foxes
and basically lighting their tails on fire.
He puts a firebrand in their tails
and he just releases these animals as incendiary devices
into the Philistines' fields.
They're just burning up their crops.
And, you know, it was a little bit cruel to animals as well.
He's lighting these things on fire and sending them into the field.
So it says, you know, he sends them out and he burns down their fields.
So then everybody's mad because their crops are being destroyed
and everybody knows it was Samson.
Well, they end up taking it out on the woman and her dad.
Because they're like, well, it's your fault because you cheated on the riddle
and you gave away his wife to somebody else.
So they end up burning her father's house to the ground
and killing them and everything else.
Look at verse 7, though.
And Samson said unto them, though ye have done this,
yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I'll cease.
So basically he's already destroyed all these crops and everything,
but Samson says, you know what, I'm going to do just a little bit more here
and then I'm going to stop.
And it says, he smote them, verse 8, hip and thigh with a great slaughter,
and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etom.
So he ends up going down there and fighting these people
and killing a bunch of Philistines.
And it says in verse 9, then the Philistines went up and pitched in Judah
and spread themselves in Lehi.
And the men of Judah said, why are you come up against us?
And they answered, to bind Samson are we come up.
To do to him as he had done to us.
We're going to do to him what he did to us, right?
And then look, this is funny, look at verse 11.
Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etom
and said to Samson, knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us?
What is this that thou has done unto us?
And he said unto them, as they did unto me, so have I done unto them.
So they're both saying the same thing.
Well, I'm just doing to them what they did to me.
Well, we're just doing to him what he did to us.
So, you know, they're both just escalating this fight.
It's not going to stop, folks.
Now let me just stop at this point and kind of point out the obvious here.
Samson's got some problems.
Samson is not a role model for our lives.
I hope you're getting that.
This is not a man who's going by the book here.
This guy is kind of a wild guy.
He's doing a lot of wrong things.
He's making a lot of mistakes.
And what I want to emphasize to you is that there are people in the Bible
who are a picture of Jesus Christ or they point us to Christ
or they're a foreshadowing of Christ, but they're not Christ.
Right.
You understand what I'm saying?
So when we say Samson pictures Jesus Christ,
that doesn't necessarily mean that he's a wonderful person.
Yeah.
Okay.
God, anytime he uses a sinful man to picture Jesus,
obviously they're not going to line up on all points
because no one is equivalent to Jesus.
I mean, Jesus is one of a kind.
There's one Jesus.
And so these Old Testament men,
whether we're looking at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua,
men who picture Christ are not Christ.
And so they're sinful human beings.
But you know what we can take from that, though,
is that even if we're sinful, even if we have problems,
God can still use us as an ambassador for Christ.
Now we want to try to be as godly as we can.
We want to try to be as righteous as we can
to be as greatly used by God as we can,
but don't feel bad if you're not perfect or if you made mistakes
because guess what?
God can use the foolish things of this world to confound the wise
and God will use sinful man in order to glorify himself
and point people to Jesus
because God used a sinful man like Samson to point us to Christ.
And I'm going to get to that a little later how he points us to Christ.
But I just want to make sure that you understand the disclaimer
that this is not the right way to live your life.
Defy your parents.
Go marry a heathen girl.
Storm out of the wedding because you get mad because you lost your gambling
and then you go out and start lighting animals on fire
and you're burning fields down
and you're just killing Philistines and everything like that.
Obviously, God is using these events,
but Samson's doing a lot of wrong things.
Look, he shouldn't have been eating honey out of this dead body
when God specifically commanded him not to do that.
So Samson's making a lot of mistakes.
So anyway, I'm just going to finish the story.
Then I'm going to go back and tie in the parallels with Christ.
So just to finish the story,
we're just doing to him what he did to us
and this is what they did to me.
I'm just paying them back, right?
So finally, these 3,000 Israelites say,
look, the Philistines rule over us, buddy.
We're going to have to arrest you and turn you over to them.
So he says, well, just promise me that you yourselves aren't going to kill me.
And they say, we promise.
So he allows them to bind him and turn him over to the Philistines.
Well, when they turn him over to the Philistines,
the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him
and he ends up ripping the ropes right off his hands that he was tied with.
And he looks for a weapon, you know, because he wants to fight the Philistines.
And the only thing he finds is the jawbone of an ass.
So he grabs this jawbone of a donkey or an ass
and he basically just uses it as a bludgeon
and just starts fighting off the Philistines.
And he's in kind of a narrow place,
kind of a rocky area where they can only come at him one at a time.
You know, they can't all just come at him
because obviously no matter how strong you are,
if people are coming at you from all sides, they're going to get you, right?
But he's able to be in a strategic location
where he is just slaughtering them and no one can stop him.
And he ends up killing a thousand men.
I mean, they just keep coming and he's just one after the other just bashing them apart,
just killing these guys, the Philistines.
Through, obviously, God's Spirit comes upon him.
He has the supernatural strength, the Bible tells us.
So he gets done with that battle
and he ends up, you know, going back home
and many years go by and he judges Israel.
Look at chapter 16 verse 1.
It says, Then went Samson to Gaza and saw there in Harlot and went in under her.
Look, this is, once again, this man is committing a lot of major sins, right?
Because he's going to a prostitute now.
So he goes down to Gaza to a prostitute.
Why is he going to Gaza?
He's going basically just into the belly of the beast,
into the heart of the land of the Philistines.
He goes down there, goes to a prostitute.
Well, people recognize this guy.
I mean, they're like, this is Samson.
He had a reputation.
So they said, okay, well, we're going to get him.
You know, he's trapped.
We're going to get him in the morning.
They basically put the city on a lockdown.
They lock it down and they say, hey, in the morning, we're going to get this guy, right?
So he ends up getting up in the middle of the night,
sneaking out and ripping the gate off the hinges, the gate of the city.
He rips the door off the hinges and carries the door and takes the door with him, okay,
through this supernatural strength.
Now, typically when Hollywood or somebody wants to portray Samson,
he's like a giant body builder looking guy, right?
You know, it would be an actor, just like a huge muscular guy.
I personally believe that Samson probably just had a normal build.
I mean, I'm not saying he was a little skinny wimp or anything like that,
but I don't think that he just looked like some gigantic Arnold Schwarzenegger-looking guy or something
because then they wouldn't have been so wondering, you know, where in does his great strength lie?
They'd just be like, well, it's right here, buddy.
You know, it lies right here.
So, you know, they're looking at him saying, what in the world?
Because they couldn't believe it.
How can a man rip this gate off its hinges?
How can this guy fight us for hours and hours?
You know, he just has this supernatural strength and ability to just keep fighting
and just defeat any warrior that we throw at this guy.
So, anyway, he ends up loving this other woman named Delilah, okay,
and this is the famous, of course, Samson and Delilah.
So, he's always getting involved with the wrong women.
So, you know, after the whole prostitute incident in Gaza,
he ends up getting with this woman named Delilah.
Well, the Philistines get to her and they say, hey, you know, we're going to give you 1,100 pieces of silver each
if you can figure out the secret to Samson's strength and deliver him to us.
So, she starts to cry and bug Samson, sort of like the original wife did, right?
So, she's crying and whining and, you know, so she's just kind of breaking him down.
So, he keeps lying to her and telling her, oh, it's this, and everything he tells her to do, she tries it.
Okay, now this should have been a signal to him that, you know, maybe I shouldn't tell her the truth.
But he tells her, oh, you know, if you get a brand new cord, brand new ropes that have never been used
and tie me up with those, you know, then it'll take away my strength.
Of course, he just rips them off like they're nothing.
Oh, if you get these seven green widths, these green plants,
and you use these plants that can be wrapped around and tied, you know, oh, no.
And then he had, remember, his hair is long because his hair is grown out from the Nazarite situation.
And he says, well, if you take the seven locks of my head and, you know, weave them into a loom,
where does he come up with this one, you know?
That's going to take away my strength.
So, while he's asleep, she weaves his hair into this loom and then he gets up and just rips the loom
and he's like carrying the loom with him.
So, nothing's working.
And some people have pointed out also that he's kind of getting closer to the truth each time.
Because, you know, the final lie that he tells has to do with his hair.
So, you're getting warmer.
So, finally, she just keeps bugging him and crying and he's just a sucker for this.
So, he finally just tells her, look, I'm a Nazarite and I wasn't supposed to ever cut my hair.
And if I cut my hair, if my hair is shorn from my head, then I will become weak.
I'll be just like any other man.
And so, she knew something, she knew this is different.
She knew we got him, you know?
So, she ends up, she shaves his head while he's asleep.
She cuts off his hair and then the Philistines come and he didn't realize that he lost his strength.
He jumps up and goes to fight him and they just easily defeat him, you know?
Because without the spirit of God supernaturally giving him strength, he ends up just getting whipped bad.
So, they end up putting his eyes out.
You know, they put burning rods into his eyes.
They punch out his eyes to make him blind.
And they put him in bondage.
And what they end up making him do is actually become like an animal that would turn the millstone.
So, what they would do is they would have animals walking in a circle.
And this is like, you know, old machines, ancient technology for grinding mills.
They'd have these wheels that would grind mill the millstone.
They talk about the upper and the lower millstone because the one wheel, the stone wheel would roll over the other stone and crush the grain or whatever they're trying to crush and make flour.
So, they'd grind things.
And so, animals would walk around in a circle to turn the millstone.
So, they end up harnessing him up to basically just be like an animal, just walking around in a circle, just humiliated.
He's blind.
He can't see anything.
And he's harnessed up like an animal to do an animal's job.
Okay.
So, the Philistines are pretty happy that they've got Samson and that they were able to take away this, you know, public enemy number one.
To the Philistines, this horrible terrorist, you know.
So, basically, he ends up being brought to a big party that they have because they're going to have a big feast under their false god, Dagon, which is the great fish god of the Philistines.
The word dog in Hebrew means fish.
Even in modern Hebrew, dog means fish.
So, Dagon is like a fish god that they worshiped back then.
Okay.
And so, they're going to have a big, you know, party and worship their god, Dagon.
Dagon delivered Samson into our hands, right?
So, at this party, they have thousands of people there.
And they say, hey, let's bring Samson so that we can make sport.
Let's make fun of him.
Let's mock Samson and laugh at him.
So, they bring Samson to this feast that they have.
And he's there and they're laughing at him.
And making fun of him.
And he's just a complete loser, right?
But the Bible tells us the hair of his head began to grow again.
Now, obviously, God could have infused him with strength regardless of the length of his hair.
But it's a picture of the fact that God's giving him a second chance.
You know, his hair starts to grow again.
And he's there at this feast.
And he asks the boy that's leading him around, you know, leading him by the hand, because he's blind.
He's got somebody leading him around.
He says, take me to the pillars.
The two pillars were on.
The house standeth.
So, the way that this temple was built, or this facility was built, was that there were two important pillars that held up the main load.
Okay.
So, he goes to these two pillars.
And he basically puts his arms on these two pillars.
And he prays to God to just give him strength one last time, Lord.
Just let me be strengthened one last time.
And he said, let me die with the Philistines.
And he ends up pushing on these two pillars with all of his might.
And through that supernatural strength, he's able to just push over these two pillars and basically bring down the whole building.
And all the important Philistines are there.
All the Lords.
All the warriors.
All the leadership is there.
And the thing just comes crushing in, caressing down.
And thousands of people die of the Philistines in this building collapsing.
Okay.
And then the Bible tells us.
Let me find my verse here.
The Bible tells us of that in verse 30 of chapter 16, if you want to flip over there.
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 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.
So what we see here is that Samson, by wiping out the leadership of the Philistines and wiping out all these worshippers of Dagon,
he ends up setting his people free now.
Because remember, his people are in bondage to the Philistines.
Well, not anymore.
I mean, now they can easily defeat the Philistines now that all the great warriors and leaders and everybody was killed by Samson.
So basically, what we see is that even though Samson completely screwed up his life in every possible way imaginable,
and he ended up a complete failure, blinded and being like an animal.
And he just committed fornication.
He broke his vows to God.
He just did everything wrong.
Yet in the end, God allowed him to accomplish his ultimate purpose, which was to free Israel from the Philistines.
Now, it's kind of a strange story, isn't it?
It's a little bit of an odd story.
It's a really cool story.
It's one of the most exciting stories in the Bible when you read chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16 of Judges.
I remember reading it as a kid and just being fascinated by this.
You know, I saw the Hollywood movie back then, the old movie.
Who saw that old movie?
Victor Mature as Samson, about three or four older people that saw it.
Well, I saw it when I was a kid.
And you know, even though the movie is totally inaccurate, even though the movie gets everything wrong,
you know, one good thing about that movie is that it made me go upstairs and read my Bible
because I was like, I'm going to go read that story now.
You know, I did the same thing after I watched Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston.
I was like, all right, now I'm going to go read the Bible.
And I remember coming down and saying, Dad, let me tell you, you know, this movie got it wrong.
And my dad and I were kind of talking about, you know, all the things that the movie changes from what the Bible actually has.
But anyway, this is a cool story.
But now I want to show you how this story, which on the surface seems a little strange, doesn't it?
And a lot of Bible stories when you read them, you're like, wow, these are cool stories.
They're really exciting.
It's a great read.
But what in the world is God trying to tell us here?
What's the message?
Now, there are a lot, you know, a lot of messages you could take from the life of Samson.
Like, hey, even if you're a great spirit-filled guy, you start messing around with prostitutes and disobeying God,
you're going to end up blind and acting like an animal.
You know, God can really mess up your life if you live a life of sin.
OK.
I mean, we could go into all those kind of applications.
But what I want to talk about, though, is just how this points us to Jesus.
Even a story like this, who probably on the surface people would look at this and say,
man, if there's one story that's not about Jesus, if there's one guy who doesn't represent Jesus, it's got to be Samson.
Or if there's one book of the Bible that's not going to be about Jesus, it's probably the book of Judges,
because the book of Judges has some of the wildest stories.
And I mean, the Samson story is one of the more normal stories.
I mean, there's some wild stuff.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
I mean, there's some wild stories in the book of Judges.
It's a fun book to read.
It's a treat when you get to it in your Bible reading, because there's never a dull moment.
OK.
But even Samson becomes a beautiful picture of Christ.
Let me just go through these quickly as we close here.
I want to go through 15 parallels that I found between Jesus and Samson.
So I already mentioned a few.
I'm going to back up and review those.
Number one, they both had their birth announced by an angel.
Number two, they both had a miraculous birth, because his mother was barren.
Number three, they both lived in a time when Israel was under foreign rule or foreign occupation.
Number four, they were both turned over by Israel to that foreign ruler.
Because if you remember, the Jews turned Jesus over to the Romans to be crucified.
And the Israelites, they bound Samson and turned him over to the Philistines, right?
And turned him in.
So they both had that in common.
Number five, they both ended up with a non-Israelite bride, a Gentile bride.
Because think about how the Gentiles are the ones who ended up being receptive to the gospel.
The church, the bride of Christ, consists mainly of Gentiles, and so Samson, he had
this non-Israel bride, this Gentile bride, the Philistine bride.
Number six, they both ate honey, because the Bible tells us that Jesus ate honey, Samson
ate honey.
You say, well, that's a stretch.
All right, the rest of them are a lot better than that.
That's a legitimate point, my friend.
Number seven, they both spake in parables and dark sayings.
Jesus spake a riddle, Jesus spake in parables and dark sayings.
Number eight, Samson had seven locks of hair, and in Revelation, Jesus is pictured as the
lamb with seven horns.
Number nine, they were both betrayed by someone close to them for pieces of silver.
Because remember, Jesus was betrayed by Judas for 30 pieces of silver.
Samson was betrayed by Delilah for 1,100 pieces of silver.
That was a lot more money.
Number 10, they were both forsaken by God.
Go to Judges chapter 16.
They were both forsaken by God.
What am I talking about?
Remember when Jesus was on the cross?
What did he say?
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, is what Jesus said on the cross.
Why hast thou forsaken me?
Look what the Bible says of Samson in Judges 16, 20.
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 wished not, that means he did not know, he wished not that the Lord was departed from
him.
So here he is in his time of need, and the Lord has departed from him.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Number 11, they were both mocked and ridiculed right before they died.
Jesus is on the cross.
All they that see him laugh him to scorn, they mock at him, they shoot out the lip,
they shake their heads, they wag their head, they make fun of him.
And what did Samson do right before he died?
He was also mocked, ridiculed, and made fun of.
Number 12, they both laid down their lives willingly.
Because Jesus said, no man taketh my life from me, I lay it down freely.
I have power to lay it down, I have power to take it up again.
And Samson said, let me die with the Philistines.
And he ended his own life.
Number 13, and this I think is the most interesting one.
They both died with their arms outstretched like this.
Think about that.
Jesus on the cross, and Samson pushing those two pillars, he ends up in this position right
here, looking like an image of Christ on the cross.
Isn't that interesting?
And then verse 14, they both accomplished the most with their deaths, rather than everything
that they'd done in their life up to that point.
I mean, the reason that Jesus came to this earth was to die and be buried and rise again.
What was Samson's key achievement?
Well, it was freeing them by wiping out the Philistine worshipers of Dagon.
And then number 15, they both died to free others, to liberate others, right?
Because Samson died to make Israel free from the Philistines, and Jesus died to save us
from our sins.
He said, if the Son shall make you free, then you're free indeed, right?
You should know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
So here's the conclusion.
Go to Proverbs chapter 19.
That's a pretty interesting list, friend.
And I've been doing this series where I go through every book of the Old Testament.
I've showed Jesus in Genesis, Jesus in Exodus, Jesus in Leviticus, Jesus in Numbers, Jesus
in Deuteronomy, Jesus in Joshua.
And anybody who's listened to those sermons knows none of it's been a stretch.
You know what I mean?
Because if we want to start stretching, we can find all kinds of stretches.
You've got a hammer in your hand, and everything starts looking like a nail.
But the stuff that I'm pointing out is clear.
I mean, these parallels between Samson and Jesus, even if you're not impressed by one
or two of them, I mean, out of these 15 parallels, some of them are very compelling.
It's obvious that this story is pointing us to Jesus, that Samson in particular is
pointing us to Jesus.
But remember, the whole book of Judges is pointing us to Jesus by giving us these examples
of what?
These judge deliverers.
And that's exactly what Jesus is.
Let me just close on this one last scripture, which I think is a powerful scripture about
judgment.
The Bible says in Proverbs 19-28, an ungodly witness, this is Proverbs 19-28, an ungodly
witness scorneth judgment, and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity.
Judgments are prepared for scorners and stripes for the back of fools.
So you see here that there's a little bit of an interesting parallel here where an ungodly
witness, he scorns judgment, and who is the judgment prepared for?
The scorner.
The judgment is prepared for the one who's scorning the judgment that he's prepared for
that he scorns, that's prepared for him, and he scorns it.
Okay, do you understand what I'm saying?
And it goes to show you that wicked people hate judgment.
You know why?
Because they're on the receiving end of it.
So that's why wicked people hate judgment.
That's why they scorn judgment.
They hate judges.
They hate judges because they are guilty.
They accuse you of judging them when you preach the word of God because the shoe fits.
And so what should we do when we hear these things?
We need to embrace judgment and justice and be thankful for the judges that God has put
in our life.
Who are the judges that God has put in our life?
Our parents, preachers, pastors, just any mentor in your life.
Anybody who is guiding you in the way of righteousness, whether it's your mother, your father, an
elder brother, it could be a preacher, or just any mentor in your life.
You know, the person who won you to Christ, whoever it is that God has put in your life,
that judge in your life, we need to love and embrace them.
And most importantly, we need to love and embrace the ultimate judge, the word of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the ultimate judge.
You know, the Bible says, rebuke a wise man and he'll love you.
He'll love you when you tell him that he's wrong, when you judge him, when you give him
advice, when you help him fix things in his life.
You know, the famous passage that says, judge not that you be not judged, it doesn't end there.
It says, for with what judgment you judge, it shall be measured you get, with what measure
you meet, it shall be measured you again.
He says, why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye, but consider'st not
the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the moat out of thine eye, and behold
a beam is in thine own eye?
Thou, hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see
clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye.
Now the Bible does not say don't judge.
He says, you get yourself straightened out first.
First, get the beam out of your own eye, and then just don't judge.
No, he says, first get the beam out of your own eye.
Why?
So that then you can remove the moat out of your brother's eye.
Nobody wants to have a moat in their eye.
Nobody wants to have anything in their eye.
Any foreign body in your eye needs to be removed.
And if someone can help you remove it, so much the better.
But they can't do it while they have a beam in their own eye.
What's interesting is the very next verse, right after he says, first cast out the beam
out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy
brother's eye.
The very next verse says, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye or
pearls before swine.
I have a question.
How am I going to know who are dogs and swine if I don't judge?
You know what I mean?
If I can't judge anything, then how can God say, well don't give that which is holy
unto the dogs.
Well, I don't know who they are, because I can't judge.
Don't cast your pearls before swine.
Well, I don't even know who's a swine.
I'm not going to judge that.
I don't want to judge.
Now, should we judge after the appearance?
No, we judge righteous judgment.
Should we judge hypocritical judgment?
No, we judge righteous judgment.
But you know what?
When people come to us, and they're speaking the word of God to us, and maybe they have
to correct us, rebuke us, reprove us, tell us we're wrong, help us get the mote out of
our eyes, you know, we should be thankful.
Amen.
We should love Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Gideon, Samson, whoever that judge is, and the ultimate
judge, the word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the book of Judges, and Lord, we thank you that even
this book points us strongly to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, help us to understand what righteous judgment is, what an important subject you've
mentioned over 700 times in the Bible, Lord.
Help us to judge rightly, and help us to embrace those who love us and look out for our good
and seek to help us, and help us not to rebel against those who are trying to help us and
lead us in the things that pertain unto you, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.