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Okay, we're in Isaiah chapter 40 this morning, look down at your Bibles at verse number 1, it says, Come for ye, come for ye my people, saith your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double over all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough place is plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. And we're in a miniseries on Sundays entitled Miraculous Nativities, a survey through unlikely births in the Bible. And what we're doing is basically each week we're highlighting many of the miraculous births that the Bible talks about leading up to the miraculous birth, of course, of Jesus Christ. We'll talk about that next week. And last week we actually spoke about Isaac and his miraculous birth and the meaning behind it, the purpose and meaning, and how really it increased the faith of his parents, the faith of Abraham, who is the father of faith, according to the Bible. Now this morning I'm going to focus on two characters who experienced a very similar miraculous birth. The first being Samson, and the other being John the Baptist. And I'm going to show you this morning that although both of these men have a lot of similarities to Jesus Christ, really they also have striking similarities between one another. And so John the Baptist is very similar to Samson, Samson very similar to John the Baptist, and we're going to look at that this morning. Now I started us off in Isaiah chapter 40 because of the fact that this is a prophecy of John the Baptist. And in fact, it's pretty unique to think about that John the Baptist, though he did no miracle, though he didn't have any special supernatural powers, he was a man of God who preached the word of God, and God saw fit to prophesy of his coming in the Old Testament. Now the only other individuals that have that is, of course, Jesus Christ. You do have the two witnesses in the book of Revelation, but they've already been born. So really they're coming back. Whereas John the Baptist was not born as of yet, he did not exist in the Old Testament, but his existence was so important that God saw fit to prophesy of him, not just in the major prophets, but also in the minor. Now go with me if you went to Malachi chapter number three, Malachi chapter number three, we're going to see some striking similarities between John the Baptist and Samson. And really it's almost like as though they're the same person of the opposite of the same coin. They're a different facet of the same diamond. One succeeded, one failed. Both of them were men of God, both of them loved the Lord, both of them were judges, so to speak, but one succeeded and one failed. And really this sermon could be applied in different ways, but I think especially it can be applied to parents. We have a lot of little ones in our church and they have bright futures ahead of them. And we want to view it as such and look at the testimonies of the Lord, the examples of these men of God in the Bible to show us what we should and should not do. Now his birth and his ministry, as I mentioned, was so essential that God saw fit to basically mention and predict of his coming. Look at Malachi three and verse number one, it says, behold, I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom he seeks shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom he delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. Go to chapter number four. I'm going to read to you from Matthew chapter 11, verse nine, where this is reiterated. It says in verse number nine, but what we are for to see a prophet, yeah, I say unto you, I'm more than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verse 11 says, verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And keep in mind that the person who said that was Jesus. He's honoring John the Baptist and saying, there's no one greater than John the Baptist. Of course, he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. But John was a pretty prominent character in the Bible. And in fact, he's probably a little more prominent than Samson himself, even though Samson is a pretty popular character in the Bible. Look at Malachi four and verse number five. How about this? You know, John the Baptist, it's so important that our Old Testament actually finishes off with the prophecy of him coming. I mean, literally the Old Testament finishes off talking about John the Baptist. Look at what it says in verse five, behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Now here's the thing is that obviously when we read this, this is referring to end times Bible prophecy. Okay. And in its most literal sense, it's referring to those two, one of those two witnesses, which I believe one of them is Elijah, because it's talking about the great and dreadful day of the Lord referring to the rapture. And that is exactly when the two witnesses come to the earth, they come a little bit prior to the second coming of Christ. And so this is literally referring to Elijah returning back, but this is later reiterated in the gospels, referring to John the Baptist, because the day of the Lord could also be referred to as the visitation of the Lord, referring to the first coming of Jesus Christ. And we know that John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah, right? Now Samson on the other hand, he wasn't prophesied of, but he was mentioned in the Hebrews hall of fame. So that still says something. Let me read it to you from Hebrews 11 32. It says, and what shall I more say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah, of David also and Samuel and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, look what it says, stop the mouths of lions, which is exactly what Samson did. He rent a lion and twain, given us a spiritual application that we as Christians can also overcome Satan. Lion is obviously a picture of Satan. Now I'm going to show you some similarities between the two and make some applications to them. Go with me if you would to Luke chapter number one, Luke chapter number one. What are some similarities between the two? Well, number one, both of their parents were childless and barren. Now both of the parents were godly as well, because Samson had Manoah, his mother, who Manoah and his mother who, you know, there were godly parents, they loved the Lord. They were serving God and they wanted a child and God granted them that petition there. And you know what? John the Baptist had the same thing, Elizabeth and Zacharias who were godly people who were simply, you know, they weren't special in the sense of, you know, they weren't preaching God's word, they weren't mentioned a whole lot in the Bible, but they were godly parents who wanted to raise up a child unto the Lord. Now let me read to you from Judges chapter 13, verse number one, it says, 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 40 years. And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and bare not. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her, Behold now thou are barren and bare is not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. So we see the similarity with Jesus Christ that an angel comes to Mary and says that she shall be with child and like man or an angel comes to Manoah and tells them, hey, you shall conceive, you shall have a child. You see that symbolism there. Now look at Luke chapter one and verse number five, excuse me, it says there was in the days of Herod the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abia and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Now look folks, not much is said about these parents, but just to have that one phrase right there, that one verse, that one sentence says a lot. You know, it's like when God saw fit to describe Eglon as a very fat man, it's like he gets that one little phrase, but there's a lot of packed into that one little phrase, pun intended, right? Well, there's a lot of packed into this one verse. They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. What is that telling us? That they exercise themselves rather unto godliness. They love the Lord. They're keeping his commandments. These are righteous people, but look what it says in verse seven, and they had no child. Now what can this tell us? Well, you know what? Just because someone is barren, just because someone can't have children doesn't mean they're ungodly people. Now obviously that could be the case. There could be sin in a person's life. We see that God shuts up the womb of an entire city because they are against the Lord. They are trying to reproach the name of God. There's instances like that, but for the most part, sometimes people are just barren. They can't have children. It has nothing to do with their walk with God, because here we have two parents, two groups of parents, Samson's parents, John the Baptist's parents, who are godly. They're walking in all his commandments. They love the Lord, but they're barren. Doesn't mean they're wicked. Doesn't mean they're ungodly. Doesn't mean they have unconfessed sin. It's just part of the sin nature of not being able to bear children. It says in verse seven, they had no child. So look, it's no coincidence that verse six, the content of verse six comes before seven, because God is trying to let us know, hey, there's nothing wrong with them, spiritually speaking. It's just that they just can't have children. They had no child because that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well-stricken in years. Verse 36, verse 36, now, as I mentioned last week, in the Bible, having children was a blessing. I mean, it's always a blessing, right? It's a blessing today. But I'm saying, as far as what is viewed as by the general public, it's a blessing. It was a blessing in those days. Today, obviously, it's considered a curse, to the point where they're willing to literally murder babies through abortion, through contraceptives, and birth control, and all these things. Children are looked down upon today in 2020, but in those days, it was considered a blessing. It was considered the hand of God when someone would be able to bear children, and a lot of them. Look at verse 36, and behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her, look what it says, who is called barren. Now, keep in mind that, as I mentioned, it was a blessing to have children in those days, so that means everyone in her vicinity, so to speak, they knew that she was barren. In fact, she was called barren. How do you like that? I mean, you can't have children to the point where they're like, oh, there goes barren. Not barren as in B-A-R-O-N, barren as in B-A-R-R-E-N. Oh, there goes the woman that can't have children, because it was an unnatural thing for people not to have children, because people wanted children, you understand? So they're like, well, something's wrong with her body. Something's wrong with them. They can't have children. But, hey, she was miraculously giving a child, or able to produce a child with Zacharias in her old age. Now, what's interesting here is that Mary comes to Elizabeth, her cousin, in the sixth month, okay? So she's in the sixth month of her pregnancy. She comes, and later on, we see that she stays with her for three months thereafter. So what I believe is Mary's coming to her to kind of help her out during her pregnancy, you understand? And, you know, the principle there is that, hey, we need to help the ladies out in our church when they're pregnant, or when they have children. So she stuck with her until the ninth month, when I'm sure when she bared the child and helped her out and gave her that assistance, you know, in like manner, we should do the same. When someone has a child in our church, we need to be a blessing to them, bring food to them, ask them if they need anything. We need to sow those good seeds, amen? So we see that there. That's the first thing we want to notice is the fact that they're both barren, they can't have children, but they're godly people. And so, you know, often we look at people who are suffering from some sort of physical ailment, or some evil has come upon them, and we think, oh, man, they must be involved in sin. Well, that's not always the case. Sometimes it's just the course of life. Sometimes it's just the mishaps of life. It's the evil day that comes upon an individual, it has nothing to do with their walk with God. And I will say this, if that individual doesn't respond to that trial correctly, yeah, they can get involved in sin and then, you know, receive the chastisement of the Lord thereafter, because they're not responding well, they backslide, they get away from God. But for the most part, you know, people who are going through a difficult time, they're often just being tried. They aren't being chastised, they're being tried. And this is a great example of that. So one of the similarities, their parents are both barren, childless, but godly. The second one is that both had an angel appear to them to announce their miraculous birth. The third is that both had a specific purpose to fulfill, okay. Now you're in a, go to Numbers chapter six, if you would, hold your place here in Luke chapter one, because we're going to return back to that. Here's the thing with both Samson and John the Baptist is they were both Nazarites, okay. Basically their parents sanctified them from the womb and the implication there is that they had a specific purpose to fulfill, okay. Now let's look at the Nazarite vow in Numbers chapter number six. Obviously this is non-existent today in the New Testament. It was existent in John's day because John technically is still in the Old Testament. The Old Testament was not complete until Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross. At that point, he brought in the better covenant, the New Testament. But at that point when he was born, when Jesus was born and John, they were both in the Old Testament. Look at Numbers chapter six verse number one. It says, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, when either man or woman shall separate themselves to bow, valve, and Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried. All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. All the days of the valve of separation shall there shall no razor come upon his head, until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separated himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy and shall let the locks of his hair, excuse me, the locks of the hair of his head grow. All the days that he separated himself unto the Lord, he shall come at no dead body. So what do we see over and over again with the Nazarite vow? Those who are separating themselves unto the Lord. Now obviously every Christian should be separated unto the Lord. This is referring to a specific individual who wants to carry out a task and is abstaining from certain things of this world to be able to fulfill that task, okay? Now by the way, this is not the sermon here, but the exception to men growing long hair would be right here. Samson, for example. We understand that the Bible teaches us that it is a shame for a man to have long hair. Doth not nature even teach you that if a man have long hair, the Bible says, it is a shame unto him. You know, men should have their hair short looking like a man, you know, where people don't have to question whether you're some queer or something, okay? The exception to that rule in these days, by the way, was if you're taking a Nazarite vow. And here's the thing is that, you know, if it's a glory or if it was a shame to a man to have long hair in those days, that means when someone would view a Nazarite who had long hair, it was humbling because they understood this person has not fulfilled their vow. You understand? So they would look at that individual and say, well, this person has not yet fulfilled their vow, you know, this is why they're a specific Nazarite. So the exception to the rule of men having long hair was the Nazarite, separated unto the Lord, okay? Now what was the purpose for Samson being a Nazarite? Well, he was a judge and he was a unique individual in the sense that the Spirit of God would come upon him and give him supernatural strength to destroy the enemies of God. One of the most exciting portions of scripture to read is the story of Samson, where he's just whooping people left and right with the jawbone of an ass. I mean, what a sight to see for someone to take a jawbone of an ass and just make heaps upon heaps of just dead bodies all over the place of God's enemies. You know, it's an amazing thing. And even then, he took that jawbone of an ass, he destroyed the enemies of God and God hauled a place in that bone and he drank water thereafter to refresh himself. I mean, his amazing exploits were done by Samson because of the supernatural strength that God gave him. I'm going to read to you from Judges chapter 13, go back to Luke. Judges 13 verse 4 says, Now, therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine, speaking to Samson's mother, drink not wine or strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing. For lo, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come on his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb. And he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Now, obviously, when it's referring to no razor coming upon his head, it's not referring to within the womb. What it's saying is that this child is going to be sanctified from the womb. He has a purpose for when he exits the womb, okay? But I do want you to notice that his mother kind of basically took the Nazarite vow as well, right? Because he said, Now, therefore, beware, I pray thee, drink not wine or strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing. And the insinuation there is that whatever you do, you're actually affecting your baby. Even in the spiritual matters, all right? Look at Luke chapter 1 and verse 13, But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zechariah, for thy prayer is heard. And thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. So what do we see with Samson? We see that he shall be a Nazarite from his mother's womb. What do we see of John the Baptist? He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. Now, as I mentioned, Samson was a judge. And what does that mean when the Bible talks about Samson being a judge? It doesn't mean he's wearing like some long robe and, you know, making money off of people and just condemning people left and right like judges today. You know, what that's referring to is that he's judging Israel according to the Word of God. Or at least he should have, right? He ought to be, what his responsibility was is to preach the Word of God into Israel and say, hey, your idolatry is wicked. It's wrong. God is judging you because you are violating transgressing his commandments. This is why this is coming upon you. This is what the Bible says. That's what a judge is. So all the judges were supposed to do. The difference being is that these judges were simultaneously a military leader as well. They operated like a general. So they were to tell the people, hey, you're wrong. You know, you're wicked for doing this. This is what the Bible says. But let me go ahead and deliver you out of the hand of your oppressor. Just keep in mind, this is during the time when every man did that which is right in their own eyes. And they would often be punished by God by, you know, God allowing a foreign enemy to come and overtake them, oppress them for years, decades even. They would cry out into God. God will raise up a judge, also known as a deliverer, to come and deliver the children of Israel out of the hand of that oppressor. So that was the purpose of Samson. And Samson was a symbolic representation of Jesus Christ who was the ultimate deliverer. Who has the Spirit of God upon him as well, obviously, without measure. And so that was Samson's purpose. I mean, what a great purpose. Not just to be a judge but be one of the judges, one of the only individuals in the Bible other than Ezekiel where the Bible would say that the Spirit of God came upon him. The Spirit of God came upon him. And it would give him this supernatural strength. Now, you know, unlike Hollywood today, you know, I'm sure they put out some stupid movie of Samson out there and he's probably this buff Samoan or something, you know, long hair, the dude's ribbed, he's all baby oiled up and the guy's got pecs and just looks massive because the way they would explain all those exploits is, well, he had to have muscle. He had to have been big. He had to have been some body builder. You know, he had to have been able to do these things. But you know what? I don't believe Samson looked like that at all. He was probably, you know, skinny, without muscle, you know, looked kind of weak. What? You're ruining my picture of Samson. I thought it was like Dwayne Johnson or The Rock or something. Isn't that what? Or Conan or something. Isn't that what he's supposed to look like? No, because at that point, people would look at him and say, oh, it's because he's big. It's because he takes roids or something, you know. That's why he's able to do these great exploits. But rather when they see him, they know that the Spirit of God is upon him. Because not by might nor by power, but by his Spirit. My Spirit saith the Lord. So it took the Spirit of God to come upon Samson to do that great exploit, to empower him. Well, you know, the spiritual application there is this. You know, we shouldn't rely on our talents, even though if we have them. We shouldn't necessarily rely on our disciplines, though that's important to have. Most of all, we should rely on what? The Spirit of God. Because our talents can only get us so far, our disciplines can only get us so far, in order for us to breach that boundary where we can do great things for God, we need the Spirit of God upon our lives. So the people will say, well, I know Bruce Mejia. How can that happen? God must be with him. Because Bruce can't do that. You know, I know so and so or whatever, they're not that smart. How can God use them so greatly? Well, it must be God who's with them. And what happens is that God gets the glory, you understand? So you know, it's a give and take kind of thing, you know. If you really want to be used by God, you know, just recognize you're not going to get the glory for it. God's going to get the glory. When someone looks at the great exploits that you do and the souls that you get saved and the great works that you accomplish, at the end of the day, when people look at you like, you did that? Oh, man, God must be with you then. Because I don't know how you can do that by yourself. You know, don't take it as an insult. Take it as, amen, you know, Spirit of God is with me. That's what I need. So Samson was not this roided, Al Conan, Dwayne Johnson, WWE-looking guy. I believe he was just a regular person, did not have the muscular, you know, look or anything like that because his power, he didn't receive from his muscles, he got it from the Spirit of God. Okay. Well, you know what? John the Baptist was also a judge because he came in with guns blazing as soon as his ministry started. I mean, he didn't come in with the message of, you know, grace, grace, and more grace. He was like, he was ripping face right off the bat. The Bible says in Matthew 3 verse 1, in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So he was in the wilderness until the time of his showing, the Bible says to Israel. What was he doing? Preparing, meditating, you know, reading the Word of God. Just drawing knives, the Lord praying, doing all those things until the point where he knew it was his time to come out and preach the Word of God and fulfill his purpose there. Think about this, you know, Samson kind of abused his power, didn't he? He used his power to tie foxes together and light their tails on fire and just light up a whole field on fire. I mean, pretty cool, but, you know, I don't know if that's what God wanted him to do. Whereas John the Baptist, the Bible says that he was a burning and shining light and he were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. So instead of lighting others on fire, he lit himself on fire and people came to watch him burn. You know, he was an exciting preacher. Okay. A lot of people came to watch John the Baptist preach because he was an exciting preacher. The Sadducees, the Pharisees would come and listen to him preach. They wanted to be baptized of John the Baptist because he was such a dynamic, exciting preacher. You know, he lit himself on fire, so to speak, and then the people came to hear him preach. Now, you know, their parents had, they understood that their children had purpose. You think of Samson's parents, it says in Judges 13 verse 12, and Manoah said, now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child? And how shall we do unto him? Pretty honorable. It's like, what should we, how should we train him? How should we order him? How should we train him? You know, they don't have this selfish agenda for their child. Why do you want my, I just want my children to just make a bunch of money, right? You know, I want my child to just be some movie star or something. You know, I want my child to just make tons of money so that they can, you know, take care of me when, when, when I'm old, I want my child to do X, Y, and Z. No, they wanted to know how God wanted to order that child. You know, in like manner, we should do the same. And look, not every child in this room is going to become a pastor and there's something wrong with that. Not everyone's going to be a missionary, but they can be a man or a woman of God. They can serve the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. They can love God. Still do great exploits, win people to Christ, be a blessing to other people, be a faithful church member that can still do great works for God who loves the Lord. That's more important than those things. Not saying that they can't make money, have a good job, you know, to provide for their family and be a blessing to others, but you know, that should not be the main objective of every parent. And look, I'm saying this because a lot of times in Hispanic cultures, you know, Hispanics, they come over and it's just like, they want their children to have a better life than they had. And so they want their kids to make all kinds of money because they struggle and then they have to eat beans and rice back in their home country. And you know, they don't, they're not very happy when their children begin to serve God. How's that going to pay the bills? You know, I was like, well, don't you know, I can have a job and go to church and live a Godly life too. The difference is I'm not waking up on Sunday morning with a hangover because I've been partying with my cousins. Okay. So we should have this same attitude when it comes to our children. Lord, how shall we order the child? What is it that you want for my son or my daughter? Help me, give me wisdom to raise my child in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. Okay. The Bible tells us that we are his workmanship in Ephesians chapter two, verse 10, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So we see that every individual in this world has a preordained work for them to do in Christ. Right. And our job as parents should be to seek out what that work is for our kids. You know, obviously these things are not going to be clear to us, you know, right off the bat, but what we should do is fulfill that which is clear and then clarity will be brought in the future as far as the specific purpose and will is for our children. So we see there that their similarities range in the fact that, you know, they had an angel announced their coming. They both had parents who were barren, stricken in age. They did not have children. They were godly parents and they both had a purpose for their life. Samson was to be a judge and do great exploits. And what I mean, I would have loved to have seen what Samson's life would have been like if he didn't fall into sin, he could have done some great works. John the Baptist had a purpose for his life and you know what? He fulfilled that purpose from beginning to end. Not only that, but both proceeded the coming of a King. You know, John the Baptist was preparing the way of the Lord, which is the King of Kings. In a sense, Samson was the same thing before the kings came into play. Before that, you had the judge, the system of the judges, then you had the system of the kings. And obviously Samson came prior to that. The Bible says in Matthew 3, for this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. So you see that, you know, the prophets of the Old Testament and referring to the judges as well, they bore witness of the coming savior by their lives, you understand? When you look at Samson, you can see that he's a typology of Jesus Christ. He witnesses of Jesus Christ through his life, but you know what? John the Baptist literally prepared the way of the Lord. You know, he clarified the road and led people to Christ through his preaching. Look at Luke chapter 1 and verse 17. What's another similarity that we see with them? They're extraordinarily filled with the Spirit. Right? I mean, these people were extraordinarily filled with the Spirit. It says in verse 17, and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Now, this is not referring to like a different spirit, right? The spirit of Elijah is the Holy Spirit. That's what it's referring to. But the reason he says the spirit and power of Elias is because Elias, which is Elijah, did great works, was an awesome preacher, you know, preached the word of God. He was a truthful preacher. He was a great individual in the Old Testament, therefore, he's likened unto John the Baptist in the New Testament, who came in his spirit and his power. Judges 14, 6 says, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, referring to Samson, and he rent him, referring to the lion, as he would have rent a kid. I remember when I first read that as a new believer, I'm like, like a kid, like a child? That's gruesome, referring to an animal. And he had nothing in his hand. But he told not his father or his mother, what he had done. So we see that the Spirit of God gave him such supernatural strength that he was just able to tear a line in twain. I mean, that's strong. That's amazing. That's powerful. And although he didn't tell his father or his mother what he had done, it was a great symbol of what Jesus Christ is going to do to Satan, right? He's going to bruise his head. He's going to destroy him. He's going to rent him in twain. Okay. But we see that there. Now you're in Luke chapter one. Now there's a lot of speculation and confusion regarding the filling of the spirit of John the Baptist, because he's filled with the spirit from his mother's womb. And some people are like, well, how can it be filled with the spirit from his mother's womb? He's not even saved yet, right? How can this be? Well, there's a couple of things that I'm going to explain to you what I believe this is and what this is referring to. Let's read it first and foremost. Look at Luke one verse 13, it says, but the angel said unto him, fear not Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shall call his name John. By the way, we see there that when Zacharias is in the temple fulfilling his duty, he's praying and he's praying specifically for a child because he says thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son. Verse 14 and thou shall have joy and gladness and many shall rejoice at his birth for he shall be great on the side of the Lord and shall drink neither wine or strong drink and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. Now go to verse 39 of chapter one, verse 39. Now keep in mind that it's not saying that he's sealed with the Holy Spirit, he's being filled. And the reason this causes a lot of confusion is because we automatically think, well, only saved people can be sealed with the Holy Spirit of God according to Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. We know that when we get saved, the Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell within us, we're sealed unto the day of redemption and to the purchase possession. That's when it comes to salvation. But what you need to understand is that this is still in the Old Testament where the Spirit of God can come upon any individual, both saved and unsaved. And a great example of this would be Balaam, the son of Bozor, who was a false prophet yet had the Spirit of God come upon him in order for him to preach the truth, okay? But this is what I believe this is referring to, okay? When it says that he was filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb, this could actually be referring to the fact that his mom is filled with the Spirit. Because remember, whatever the mom does affects the baby in the womb. She's taking the Nazariah bow, that means the baby is too. If she's filled with the Spirit, so is the baby, you understand? Another explanation could be this is that God, this is just a unique case where God literally does fill the baby with the Spirit of God, okay? And that's definitely possible. But here's the thing, this is not saying that he's filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb as far as like, you know, he's preaching in his mother's womb or he's, you know, he's doing these things and his mother, he's just ripping face, he's ripping his mom and all these, you know, that's not what it's referring to. I actually believe what this is talking about is that it's predicting when he's going to encounter Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary because he says he shall be filled from his mother's womb and is talking about the moment where Elizabeth sees Mary and he leaps in his mother's womb. Look at verse 39, and Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah and entered into the house of Zechariah and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb and look what it says, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. So we often see that these things work in tandem. She takes a Nazarite vow, so does the baby. She's filled with the Spirit, so does the baby. So it kind of shows you how strong of a connection a woman has with a mother has with her child. Right? Very strong. That even to the point when she hears the salutation of Mary, the baby leaps in the womb. Okay. And he obviously leaps because he's identifying the Christ that's within the womb of Mary. He obviously can't see, but keep in mind that children obviously are pure, and the Bible says, you know, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall seek God. Understand? Pretty amazing here. Now, you know, my wife was talking about, yeah, we sometimes have when the babies kick, you know what I mean? Well, what about like a backflip? Imagine that. I mean, you know, the babies sometimes kick, and sometimes you even see the handprint. How many moms ever had that, where you literally have the handprint? It's kind of weird. You know, got a foot coming out and all these things, and they just kind of move around or whatever. And it's kind of gross. I'm just kidding. Because my wife was like, look, look, look, it's just like, it's like Alien coming out or something, right? I'm kidding. Sort of. I'm just being honest with you, right? It's kind of crazy. But imagine a baby leaping though. It's like, where do you find the space? But it shows you that he encountered Christ, and let me say this, if you would have seen Christ in those days, you probably would have done a backflip yourself. It's how amazing that sight would have been, right? And it shows you how potent Jesus Christ is with being filled with the Spirit. That when, like for example, when Jesus Christ is about to be arrested, I just thought about this, the men come to arrest Jesus, and they're like, whom seek ye? Because like Jesus of Nazareth, and he said, I am he, and what do they do? They fall backwards. It was like the Spirit, you know, forget the force, you got the Holy Spirit, who literally just pushed them back and they fell back on their bottoms, on their rear ends. So you know, he's obviously God himself, he's God in the flesh, and the potency of his feeling of the Spirit is so powerful that even an unborn child, you know, recognizes it, okay? He leaps, he's rejoicing. It says in verse 42, and she spake out with a loud voice and said, blessed are thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Oh, wait, this is a side note, that's why it's important to have, you know, women with children in their womb in church. They're going to be familiar with the voice of their pastor, amen? So it's important to play good music, godly music, to speak to your child while they're in the womb. We're not of the sort that believes, oh, they're not a real human being, they're not alive until they come out or something. We understand they're alive from the very beginning. There's human being from the very beginning, and here we see that even though John the Baptist is not born, the guy is doing parkour in his mom's womb. To the best of his ability, obviously. He's reacting to the presence of God, okay? Now go to Matthew chapter 11, if you would, Matthew chapter 11. So both were supernaturally, extraordinarily filled with the Spirit, okay? And here's the thing, you know, if you compare these two stories and say which one would you rather be like, many people would say Samson. I want to know what it's like to do all those things. But you know, what did Jesus say? There's none greater than John the Baptist, though. So it kind of shows you where his priorities were, what was the most important thing, what was the most important exploit for an individual to do with the Spirit of God that was upon him. So another similarity here is that they both had weaknesses, just like any individual, right? And this is good to see because often we view men of God as being just faultless and man, they're just godly or they're at a level that we can't attain to. But what we need to understand is that every individual, every man of God, even in the Bible had weaknesses, okay, they had flaws. There's no temptation taking you, but such as is common to man, okay? Every single one of them had it. Now Samson's weakness was lust, as we clearly see in his story. He has a girl problem, okay? You know? And you know, his parents, some of them were at fault for this. They're too lenient with him. Give me her and a wife, for she pleaseth me well. What they should have said is like, time to take you back to the woodshed and teach you the ways of the Lord. Talking to me like that, boy. So his weakness was lust and really, you know, John the Baptist's weakness was doubt, okay? We see that later on. Now think about this is that sometimes we inherit the weaknesses of our parents, do we not? Obviously we create our own weaknesses, but sometimes we even inherit the weaknesses of our parents. Because John the Baptist was doubtful, but so was his dad, Zacharias, and in fact, that's why he was made dumb. And by the way, he's the one praying. Lord, give us a child, you know, and he's like, all right, Elizabeth shall be with John. He's like, well, how do we know this is going to happen though? And then the angels are like, all right, well, this is how you know you're going to be dumb until he's born. Not being able to speak, mute, right? Because he doubted, even though he prayed for these things. And look, this is just human nature. We pray for things and it's just like, but how's it going to happen though? I know God can do it. I don't want to stagger at the promises of God through unbelief. I want to be strong in faith, but how's that going to happen? Look at Matthew 11 verse one. So John gets arrested, it says in verse number one, and it came to pass when Jesus had made an end of commanding his 12 disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now when John had heard in the prison, the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said unto him, are thou he that should come or do we look for another? So these are some pretty sobering words here, are they not? You know, it kind of shows you the heart of John the Baptist, that even though he's just this hard-nosed preacher and he's preaching hard, you know, this is a time of vulnerability for him where he's just like, are you the one that should come or do we look for another? Now some people would interpret this as saying, you know, he's doubting his salvation. I don't really believe that's what it is. I think what he's doubting is whether he's going to be delivered or not, because he's in prison. He's probably going to die. I mean, he probably knows that he's going to die, right? And you got to keep in mind, you know, like, let me give you just a real raw example of this, okay? An illustration. You know, when you're a kid and you get in trouble and, you know, your parents tell you to come back into the house and you can't play outside, you're just kind of looking out through the window. You see all your friends playing. You're like, man, am I ever going to go out there ever again? I got to stay in here. Well, think about this. John the Baptist, he's preaching. People know of his ministry. Now he's in prison and Jesus is still out there and he's thinking like, man, God's in the flesh here. Why didn't you just take me out? Why can't I just go out? So therefore there's a question in his mind, Lord, you know, are you the Christ? Are you going to deliver me? Are you going to help me get out of this or not? And really that's the biggest doubt that people have. I'm not saying that people don't doubt their salvation. That happens obviously. And then, you know, they get that taken care of and then they move on. But you know, even after you get assurance of your salvation, you're going to go through seasons in your life where you doubt whether God's going to deliver you from fill in the blank. You're going through a financial struggle. You're going through a health problem. You're going through some trial in your life and you wonder like, man, I wonder if I'm going to make it out through this. And then you begin to question, you begin to doubt, right? And you wonder like, man, is God really with me? You know, is God, does God love me? Am I being punished? Why am I going through this? Why is this happening in my life? And it's a normal thing to think because we see John the Baptist, who's a great man, who that thought came into his mind. Okay. Now, look what it says in verse four, Jesus answered and said unto them, go and show John again those things which he do here and see the blind received their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf here, the dead are raised up. The poor have the gospel preached unto them and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. So what does Jesus say? He doesn't, he doesn't say yes. He just says, go remind them of the works that have already been done. So the principle that we can learn there is that when we go through a difficult time and we doubt, and maybe we're going through a dark valley and we question whether God's going to deliver us. We just need to remember the works of a four time and say, well, God did it before he can do it again. You know what I mean? And look, Jesus does not rebuke John the Baptist for his lack of faith. And in fact, verse seven, as they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, what went ye out in the wilderness to see? Reach shaken with the wind. But what went ye out for to see a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in King's houses, but what went ye out for to see a prophet? Yes, say unto you, a more than a prophet. Now why is he saying this to the multitude? Because the multitude just saw John the Baptist's disciples come and say, Hey, are you the Christ? So Jesus is kind of reinforcing and saying, well, what did you expect? John is still a prophet. He's more than a prophet. He's not a reach shaken with the wind. Now listen to this, because think about it. We view this as John being weak in faith, right? Oh, you're being weak in faith because you're questioning what's going on. But think about this. Really the person who is weak in faith is those who go through a difficult time and they draw back. They go to the world. They forsake the Lord, right? They go back to their old habits or they just, they forsake Christianity, so to speak, where they don't go to church. They don't go soloing. They just, they just leave it all. Is that what John's doing? What is he doing? He's sending his disciples to go seek out Jesus. Now think about this. The Bible says in Hebrews 11 six, for without faith, it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. And he is a reward of them to diligently seek him. What was John doing? He was coming to Jesus through his disciples to, to confirm that he is. So actually John was exercising faith because when we go through a difficult time, you know, that's not a time to get out of church. In fact, that's the time to come to church, right? That's not a time to stop reading your Bible. Stop reading your Bible. That's a time to start reading your Bible more, to seek after God, to confirm that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. He that cometh to God is referring to an individual who comes to the Lord seeking answers, help, strength, deliverance, and you must believe that he is the source of that deliverance, the source of that blessing, the source of that answer that you need. So really, even though, yeah, he had a little bit of doubt and he was struggling at the end of the day, his faith was strengthened even so much the more. Now turn with, if you would, to Mark chapter six, Mark chapter six. So what's another similarity with John the Baptist and Samson? Both met their demise at the hand of a wicked woman. Stinking Delilah, stinking Herodias' daughter, right? So look, it shows you that by hook or by crook, you know what I mean? These wicked women are going to try to get the man of God sometimes. Now with Samson, you know, she succeeded. Let me read to you from Judges 16 verse 18, when Delilah, by the way, don't name your daughter Delilah, just like you should have named your son Demas. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, if your name is Delilah, forgive me, it was a bad joke, I'm sorry. She said and called for the Lords of the Philistines saying, come up this once for he had showed me all his heart. Then the Lord of the Philistines came up unto her and brought money in their hand and she made him sleep upon her knees and she called for the man and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head and she began to afflict him and his strength went from him. And she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as other times before and shake myself and he wished not that the Lord was departed from him. But the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass and he did grind in the prison house. So we see that he became a little presumptuous, proud, you know, he's messing around with Delilah and Delilah is like, you don't really love me because you're not telling me your weakness. By the way, Samson, you're an idiot. Let me just say this, you know, she's done. She's doing this multiple times after the first time. I'm just like, see you sucker. I'm not messing with you anymore. You know, I got to get right with God. Okay. You're, you're trying to kill me. That's very evident, but he sticks around. I don't know if it's because she was pretty or something. I was like, what's wrong with you? But you know, when you, when you look at teenagers today and when they're involved in relationships, it kind of makes sense. Right? You know, you see teenagers when they're in love, they're just like, they're just stupid. They just have this gray matter and they just love is blind. And you know what? That's why it's important that parents, you win the hearts of your children, amen? Because once that son or once that daughter falls in love with that opposite gender, you know, it's, it's all over from there. Okay. Yeah. So I remember my father-in-law telling me like, he's like, Hey, if you want my daughter, you got to go through me first. I'm like, we're going to fight or something or what? Like, and he's like, he's like, cause once I give you the green light, she's yours. She's going to like you. You guys are going to, you know, so I have to make sure I protect my daughter kind of thing. You understand? Basically what he's saying is like, once I give my daughter the green light, I can't stop her from not liking you kind of thing. Cause once that relationship has already been cultivated, it's kind of over with, amen? And it was over with. I'm a good guy. Look at Mark 6, 22, and when the daughter of the said Herodias came in and danced and pleased Herod, and then that sat with him, the king sent him to the damsel, ask of me what's over that will, then I will give it thee. And he sware into her, what's over thou shall ask of me, I will give it thee unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth and said unto her mother, what shall I ask? And she said, the head of John the Baptist. So Herodias' mother's the one who was having an adulterous relationship with the king. So she's still bitter at the fact that John the Baptist was preaching about that, caused this big stir and you know, this public announcement was made with John's preaching against that adultery. So she's mad about that. So Herodias' daughter's dancing and he's like, I'll give you whatever you want. She asked her mother and the mother's like, kill John the Baptist, behead that guy. Verse 25, she came in straightway with haste unto the king and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by, meaning immediately, in a charge of the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry, yet for this oath's sake and for their sake which sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought and he went and beheaded him in prison and brought his head into charge and gave it to the damsel and the damsel gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse and laid it in a tomb. Go with me if you would to Proverbs 22 and this will be our last scripture, Proverbs 22. So yeah, you know what? He died at the hands of, you know, technically at the hands of Herodias' daughter requesting that he be beheaded, but still he died an honorable death because he died doing God's will. Serving God. He was killed because of his preaching. That's really what it was, okay? Whereas Samson, you know, he at the end had the spirit of God upon his life, but yeah, you know, obviously God had different plans for him, for him to fulfill. Here's my last point. And I would say this is the most important point, okay? Parents, please listen up. Here's the great similarity between the two. They were both properly trained by their parents. They were fully trained. He said, well, how can that be if Samson chose a different route and he backslid? Well, because children have a free will. Amen. Yeah. Understand? So obviously we understand that we have a responsibility to raise our children right in the ways of the Lord, in church, reading the Bible, living a godly life, a holy life, rejecting worldliness and, you know, bad associations and whatnot, just doing our best to teach them. And at the end of the day, you need to realize that children, they grow up and, you know, they have their own will and sometimes they choose a different path. Sometimes they choose not to serve the Lord. Sometimes they choose to backslide, to get involved in things that they ought not to, to displease their parents and dishonor God. That happens. And it's not necessarily your fault, right? Now obviously with Samson's parents, they were a little lenient, but still it wasn't necessarily their fault. They did everything they could on their part to raise their child right. And in my opinion, they did raise him right. And I'm explaining why, look at Proverbs 22 verse six, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. Now the question is depart from what? Well, I believe this is referring to departing from the faith. You see, if you focus on number one, getting your child safe, most important thing, obviously, but then thereafter, obviously you have other instructions. God has other instructions that you need to give your child to live a godly life. And if those convictions and those standards are embedded in the soul of your child, even if they take a wrong turn somewhere off in life, they're going to find their way back. They will find their way back. And the proof of that is Samson. Because Samson made a lot of dumb decisions, but look what it says, go to Judges 16, go to Judges chapter 16, Judges chapter 16. Now John the Baptist finished off great. I mean, he just, he came, he preached, he fulfilled his purpose, he died a martyr, he's in heaven as a famous dude, you know, I mean, for all of history. Who doesn't like John the Baptist, you know, that's one of the reasons I'm glad I'm an independent fundamental Baptist, named after one of the most savage dudes in the Bible, John the Baptist, and that's not his last name. He identified himself as a Baptist, right? I should preach a sermon called The Similarities Between John the Baptist and Independent Fundamental Baptist or New IFB Baptist. So he finished off great, why? Because he had great training. Elizabeth and Zechariah did an outstanding job. They fulfilled their purpose in the child's life, he preached the Word of God. I mean, he had to learn that from somewhere, he learned that from his parents. He learned the Word of God from his dad, he learned the Word of God from his mother. They focused on that child's training because they knew he had a purpose in life to prepare the way of the Lord. And let me say this, every child here has that same purpose. To prepare the way of the Lord to make his path straight. And you ought to see it as thus, you ought to view your child as a child who could win many souls to Christ, who can honor God, do great works for him, and will please the Lord. That should be our goal, folks. That when we think about our children, we view them for what they could be in the Lord, not for what you can get out of them. You should view them and say, this person is going to be a great man of God, this young lady is going to be a great wife, she's going to bear many children and raise those children and be a housewife, amen? She's going to bear children and love her husband and teach the young women to love their husbands and to be a keeper at home. That's a great work. This young man, you know, if he's never a pastor, that's all right, he's going to win a ton of souls to Christ, he's going to know the Word of God, he's going to believe right, he's going to lead many to righteousness. Have those goals in your mind for your children, that's how we should view them. And you know what, when you think about your children like that, you treat them a little differently. You talk to them a little differently. You stop being a hypocrite. We live one way in church and a different way when you go back home, because you understand that they will emulate everything that you are. But if you don't have a John the Baptist and there's a potential case where you have like a Samson, that's okay, look what Judges 16 says in verse 28, and Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, obviously right now he's chained, he's being mocked, his eyes have been plucked out, verse 28, and Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me. I pray thee and strengthen me, I pray thee only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenge of the Philistines for my two eyes. So what do we see him at the end, calling on the Lord? Yeah, it's at the very end, but he didn't depart from it. He didn't say God's not real. He didn't say God's fake, I was faking it this whole time. I don't believe in Jesus, I don't do that church stuff. No, he said, O Lord my God, help me, strengthen me, remember me. So it shows you that, by the way, this is probably thus within himself, he's praying unto the Lord, he's not doing this to be a show, he's not saying this because his parents told him to do it, this is what he personally believed. So even though he had some chinks in his armor, so to speak, his parents raised him right, trained him correctly, taught him the way he should go, because even when he took a left turn, he still didn't depart from the ways of the Lord, because we see right here that he finished his life saying, Lord, remember me, strengthen me, fill me with your spirit. And God gave him that power to be able to destroy the Philistines and really die somewhat of an honorable death in the sense of, you know, at least he went out killing a bunch of God's enemies, you know, that's still good. So what's the lessons that we can learn here? Well, both Samson and John the Baptist had similar upbringings, they have faithful parents, but they both had a free will. And one succeeded in fulfilling God's perfect will, the other settled for less. So our goal should be to raise a John the Baptist. But in case you get a Samson, fret not, as long as you're training him in the way he should go. We can do everything on our part, but just remember that your children, my children, they all have a free will. We just want to make sure that we cultivate an environment for them so that they use that free will to serve God. Amen? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for these examples in the Bible, Lord. I pray that you help us as parents, give us wisdom. And Lord, help us to train up our children in the way they should go, Lord. And even if they stray a little bit from you, Lord, I pray, Father God, that you'd work in them to work their way back and seek you out in their time of distress. And Lord, help us to raise a lot of John the Baptist, but sure enough, there's going to be someone, even in my family potentially, who can be like a Samson, who departs from the ways of the Lord for a season. But then, Lord, remind us that even if that's the case, if we train them right, they will make their way back. We love you so much, and we thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.