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All right, we are in judges chapter 14 and we're continuing this evening with the story of the next judge which is Samson. Now chapter 13 last week did have to do with Samson but it was primarily with his parents and his miraculous birth. And we learned a lot in chapter 13 regarding the fact that he was a Nazarite child from the womb and it was a unique case because of the fact that he was a Nazarite from birth and he was supposed to remain a Nazarite until his death. And typically the Nazarite vow was only for a small season up until a vow was accomplished and then they were able to shave off their heads or the locks of their heads or however long their hair grew. Whereas Samson actually kept this vow or was supposed to keep his vow his entire life. And this is obviously symbolic of the Lord Jesus Christ because he came to seek and to save that which is lost. He basically in a sense made the oath to come and save us, right? Because he could swear by no greater he swore by himself the Bible says and he accomplished that at his death. Now in chapter 14 we actually get into the story of Samson in his latter years when he's older and we begin to see a lot of his accomplishments. In chapter 13 verse 25 it says, And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dam between Zorah and Eshtol. So that we see there that the Spirit of God is upon Samson. Now here's the interesting thing about Samson, okay? Because you read the book of Judges and you read the story of Samson. I mean there are chapters 13 through 16 are all dedicated to him, okay? So it's all about Samson and he's very unique in the sense that he doesn't operate or should I say God does not use him as he used the other judges. And here's the thing with the other judges when you read the stories about them you basically can figure out the pattern, right? You know the people are oppressed, the oppressors are coming, they have them under servitude for X amount of years, the people cry out into the Lord, God raises up a deliverer, he judges the people, he rallies them together, they fight the war and then there's peace, right? And here's the thing, when we get into the story of Samson we have a tendency to actually forget that. That Samson was actually supposed to be a judge. He was actually supposed to deliver the people of Israel from the hand of the oppressors which at this time were the Philistines, right? Now who knows how this could have turned out, it could have been that Samson should have been the culmination of the book of Judges of the greatest judge who would symbolize Jesus Christ the best and to whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required. And one unique thing that we see about the judges is that they're supposed to be used to rally together a people to fight against the oppressors. But here's the thing, Samson was the army. He didn't rally anybody together, he didn't need to. The Spirit of God was upon him in such a way he didn't need to rally anybody together, he just took care of it himself. You know, I kind of like that. It's just like, you got to send a man to do a man's job. It's just like, don't worry everybody, I'm going to take care of it. And I don't want to get ahead of myself here but that is symbolic of Jesus Christ. And so throughout these four chapters that we see here, we see that Samson's life should have been used to symbolize Jesus Christ. And unfortunately, though at times it was, because he gave in to his temptations, because of his flaws and his failures and his lack of integrity, you know, he ruined his life. And that's kind of for all of us because, you know, we're called Baptist but we're also called Christians. We're supposed to symbolize Christ. Now look, you can't blame Jesus for our failures. You cannot blame Christ if we mess up, you know, that's our fault. But we are what the Bible would call ambassadors for Christ. What does that mean? We are his representatives. They used to say the only Jesus that people will see is you, right? The Bible tells us that ye are our epistles written in our hearts, known and read of all men, you know. And you know, there's a lot of Christian books out there, so to speak, epistles that have no content, no doctrine, you know. They have the label, the title as Christian, but it's a picture book. There's no content found within it. You know, we as Christians should represent Christ. We should show forth the praises of him who have called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, the Bible says. You know, we should let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father, which is in heaven. We should take Samson's proverbial life as an example of what we should not do and the potential that we could have in Christ to do great exploits for him as the Spirit of God comes upon us as well. Now let me just say this, is that, you know, Samson is one of those characters in the Bible who you hear the Spirit of God coming upon a lot. The only other character that we see that with is the prophet Ezekiel, where the Spirit of the Lord took him and gave him revelation, but the Spirit of God came upon this man a lot and the supernatural ability that he gave him was supernatural strength. Now let me say this, I don't believe that's available to us today, okay, you know, for the Spirit of God to come upon you and you can just like take on 30 guys or you can take on 300 men with a jawbone of an ass, you know, or you can rend a lion in half. You know why? Because I don't think God is concerned with those things and you know what? Those things would be great if people required a sign. Those things would be great if we didn't have the canonized Bible, but you know what? We have the Word of God that gives us the power. In fact, the Bible says that the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword. It pierces even to the dividing, you know, rending the lion to the dividing of sunder of soul and spirit, joints in the marrow and is a discern of the thoughts of the intense of the heart. Far more powerful than physical strength is the power of God. It can make a far greater difference in a person's life when there's a spirit filled Christian doing the work of the Lord. And I'm not saying that physical strength, physical prowess is not important, of course it's important. You know, men should not be weenies. Men should not be weaklings. They should not be effeminate or faggoty in any way. We should be strong. And obviously there's men who are stronger than others. We should have strength as men, correct? But our focus should be on the power of God. You know, we should not make arm our flesh, rather we should make the Word of God, the Spirit of God, our dependence on Him. You know, horses are prepared until the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord, the Bible says. So we see that with Samuel, and what we're going to do tonight is not just cover chapter 14, we're going to go 14, 15, and 16, but don't worry, okay? You Eutychus' out there, worry not, you know, Eutychus is the guy who when Paul was preaching he like fell asleep because Paul was a long time preaching. Don't worry about that. I'm just going to give an overview of what we see in these chapters, and then we're going to give some application to some of the truths that we see here, because a lot of what we see in 14, 15, and 16 is just a lot of storytelling. Now there is symbolic meaning behind it, there's some things that we can learn, but a lot of it is just like some things that Samson was doing that was just crazy. Now look at verse number one, it says, and Samson went down to Timnath and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines, and he came up and told his father and his mother and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines, now therefore get her for me to wife. Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me, for she pleaseth me well. But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he saw an occasion against the Philistines, for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. Now let me give you a couple things here before we get into this exact story that we see here. As I mentioned, Samson's supposed to symbolize Jesus, let me give you two ways that he does. First of all, as I mentioned in the beginning, Samson symbolizes Jesus as a one man army. This guy is just whooping people left and right, single handedly, right? Just taking on these sturdy guys here in chapter 14, chapter 15, Judah delivers them to the Philistines, he slays more people, I mean he's going just crazy buck wild on these people, and he's doing it single handedly. Now you say, wow, how's that symbolic of Jesus? Isn't Jesus, you know, isn't Jesus this, this long hair, piece, piece and all this stuff? No, he's not. Where are you getting that from? That's weird. Okay. You know, Jesus is the one man army. Because in Revelation chapter 19, when he comes on a white horse, he has us with him, but guess what, we're not doing anything. Because the sword of his mouth actually destroys all the people who are behind the anti-Christ. We don't need to do anything because he's a one man army. So Samson symbolizes Jesus Christ as that one man army. Just as Samson didn't need the help of anybody from his people to take on the Philistines in like manner, Jesus doesn't need our help either. When he comes back and he sets up his millennial reign in Revelation chapter 19, he just comes and just wipes everyone out. With the brightness of his coming, the Bible says. Amazing. In fact, go to Revelation chapter 19, hold your place there in Judges, Revelation chapter 19. Little Paul, I ask you this every week, sorry, can you give me some water? Revelation chapter 19, hold your place there in Revelation, or excuse me, in Judges chapter 14, go to Revelation 19, if you would. So Samson symbolizes Jesus as a one man army. Look what it says in verse 11 of Revelation 19. And I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame, thank you, flame of fire. And on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. And his name is called the word of God. This is obviously Jesus Christ, it says in verse 14, and the armies which were in heaven followed him upon the white horses. You say, who's that, that's us. Clothed and fine linen and white and clean, and out of his mouth go with a sharp sword, that with it, he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he treaded the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. That's not, it says he treaded the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. He said, why is the army there? We get front row seats, baby. We just get to see this firsthand. See God just completely destroy the enemies of God who are coming against them just as Samson did in the book of Judges. Go back to Judges chapter 14, if you would. So that's one point that I wanted to make is that Samson symbolizes being the one man army as Jesus Christ. But also as I mentioned, Samson exemplifies the power of the spirit rather than the strength of the flesh. Now this is important because of the fact that if you watch, and don't watch by the way in parentheses, if you watch any Hollywood movie about Samson, it's always this like Samoan huge guy. He doesn't even have seven locks. He just has long hair. You know, it's The Rock, right? Dwayne Johnson. And he's all big and huge. And you know, it's this Bible version of Conan, basically, right? This roided out actor who plays Samson. But you know why they do that is because they got to come up with a reason why he was able to have such supernatural strength and accomplish such great exploits with his strength. Well, here's the reason why. It's not because he's taking steroids. It's not because he's, you know, injecting himself with horse steroids or whatever, and you know, doing all these extra things or whatever to bulk up. No, it's the power of God upon his life. That's why he was able to do these things, okay? He's not able to rend a kid because he's got massive forearms, because he's working out his forearms. He was able to do it because he had the power of God on his life. And look, it's good to have strong forearms, amen? But here, and look, Hollywood has done a horrible job at depicting who these people are, and they give us this formula because they want, they're trying to take out the power of God from the actual story itself. That's what they're trying to do. In fact, Samson, I believe, probably didn't look like much. And here's the reason why. It's because every great man of God in the Bible was never much to look upon. It's fact. I mean, think of the apostle Paul, who did great exploits in the New Testament, was a great missionary. And what did the Bible say? That his presence was weak and his speech contemptible, but yet he was strong, and the power of his might, he did great and mighty works. I mean, think about how they depict Jesus. This Pantene Pro-V shampoo model, right? With this long, flowing, luxurious hair, even though he's from Israel. The guy looks like he never even stepped down in the sun once. This Caesar Borgia-looking guy with blue eyes. The guy's like six foot five. He wears a dress. But you know what the Bible actually tells us about Jesus? That he had no comeliness. That we should desire him. In fact, he was acquainted with grief. He was stricken. He was not a person that today we would say, oh, he's handsome. Get that. Oh he's cute. Oh he's handsome. No, in fact, he had no comeliness. He had no beauty. Though he was rich, yet he made himself poor that you by his poverty might be made rich, the Bible says. King of kings, Lord of lords, he took upon him flesh. The Bible says that the word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. And guess what? The glory was not physical beauty or prowess that he had. It's the fact that he's God. And he was the prime example. And look, I'm not saying that there wasn't people in the Bible who, you know, for example, David, the Bible says that David was comely. But I believe that pictures the spiritual comeliness of the Lord. But look at Saul, for example. Saul had everything. I mean, he was head and shoulders above the rest. He was head and shoulders. This guy was the man. But you know what? That's one of the reasons that the mighty are fallen. Because he let pride get to his head, became stubborn, and it became a byword and a proverb in Israel. The kingdom of God was taken from him and given to someone who was more handsome. No, it just said someone who was better than him. Better than him. What does it mean when it said better? It means godly and more obedient, you know, because obedience is better than sacrifice. Okay. And what I'm saying is that, you know, Samson exemplifies the power of the Spirit rather than the strength of the flesh, just as Jesus Christ, just as Paul, and just as we should be. You know. And look, I'm not saying don't brush your teeth, okay? Take the stuff out from between your teeth. Take the eye boogers out of your eyes. You know, make sure you look in the mirror, make sure you don't have no snot or boogers hanging out. You know, there should be a sense of like care that you have, right? For yourself. But you know what? You shouldn't be like, you know, checking yourself out in the mirror every single day. Because at the end of the day, that's not what's important. It's not. You know, you should be focusing on the power of God in your life. That's what we need. You want to be successful? You get the power of God. The Spirit of God. The Bible even says, not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord. So it's not by how strong you are. It's not about your physical prowess. Hey, it's not about how much you could lift. And I'm thankful guys in our church can lift heavy, amen? I'm thankful for that. That's good to have strong men. But you know what? It's not even about that. It's not about how well you can fight either. And I like to fight. I mean, not like, you know, I don't do it every day or anything like that. That would be like a sport that I enjoy, okay? But it's not even about that. It's not even about how much knowledge you have, right? How book smart you are. How beautiful you are. How handsome you think you are. It's about the power of God in your life, yeah. You know, men shall be lovers of their own selves. That's a true statement today. Mr. Rico Suave, thinking that he's all that and a bag of chips. This is Rika Suave, who thinks she's all that and a bag of chips. You know, yeah, but your chips have preservatives. You know, and look, you should think your spouse is attractive, amen? I'm not saying, I'm not saying, all right, well brother, looks aren't important. Just let everything deteriorate. Don't take a shower. No, don't go to that extreme. What I'm saying is the emphasis should always be placed on godliness. Beauty of the inward man, right, which is in the sight of God of great price. That's what's more important to God than anything else, is our ability to obey, to be godly, etc. The Bible tells us, let me read this to you from Isaiah 53 verse 1 of our Savior. It's a prophecy. It says, Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the armor of the Lord revealed? For he, referring to Jesus, shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. The Bible says, this is referring to Jesus Christ, and you know what, we should reflect that. Now, I'm not saying go around saying that you're ugly, or something like that, I'm proud to be ugly, you know. What I'm saying is, this is, the emphasis should always be on the power of God. The emphasis should always be on exercising yourself rather than to godliness, right? Rather than anything else. And look, I'm for eating healthy. You guys know that. I'm recruiting every single one of you, little by little. Brother Hye just got recruited to the keto gang here, second day in, amen. And we're coming for you guys next, right? I'm for it. I'm for eating vegetables. I'm for, you know, I'm standing for sugar for a season, you know, I'm for these things. But at the end of the day, the exercising should be unto godliness far more than anything else, okay? Because that's what's most important. Now, so let's go through this. So what we see in chapter 14 is Samson desires a woman of Timnath, who is the daughter of the Philistines, and he wanted her to wife. Now some people get this confused, and they say, well, this is where it started. But actually this is something that God placed in the heart of Samson in order that Samson should find an occasion to fight against the Philistines. Because we got to look at the overarching picture of the entire story, which is Samson is a deliverer sent to destroy the Philistines and deliver them from the hand of Israel, right? Or from the hand of the Philistines. So he comes and this is the reason he has here. Now look, this is not a carte blanche commandment or an example for you to go find yourself an unsaved woman to marry or to find or to date or whatever, okay? It's like, oh, hey, Samson did it. Well, you know what? Samson's in the Old Testament. Samson didn't have the entire Bible. We have 66 books. We know what the Bible says. We have far more scriptures that tell us not to do that. You can't use Samson's example and say, well, I'm going to give me a daughter of the Philistines. Because just like Samson did. No, God put that on Samson's heart. It's an exception to the rule and order that he may deliver and find an occasion against the Philistines. So Samson goes down and as he's going down, he finds a young lion. The Bible tells us and he rends the lion, okay? He basically tears it in half. Very strong, right? And he tears it in half. He leaves it. He finds the woman that pleases him. The Bible says in verse 8, and after a time, he returned to take her and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion and behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. Now, when he tears the lion, that's a good picture of what we as Christians should do when Satan attacks us. Because the Bible tells us that Satan is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And the Bible says in 1 John chapter 2 that ye young men are strong for ye have overcome the wicked one. And I'm not saying you have to get into a spiritual battle where you're defeating Satan and all this charismatic hoopla or whatever. When we talk about overcoming the lion, we're talking about overcoming the temptations he sends our ways, the times when he discourages us, he tempts us or whatever it may be. We can overcome the wicked one, i.e. the lion because the word of God abides in us. So he does that, but then he comes back and he sees the lion with honey inside. I know that's weird, it was weird to me when I first read it, I was like, what in the world? Like is there blood in there too? And then he reaches in, he grabs the honey and he starts eating it. This is disgusting. This is unsanitary. For us, but even more so for him, why? Because he is a Nazarite. He's not supposed to come unto a dead animal at any time. So right there, strike one, he's already violated his vow. What does that show you? A lack of integrity. What does it show you? Well, we see here that he's alone and we see that when he's alone is when he compromises his vow. It's when he's alone that he compromises his integrity, not when he's around someone else. And in fact, what does he do? He brings the honey and who does he give it to? His parents. Where'd you get that from? The fruit guy on the corner or whatever, you know, grab the honey from there. And by the way, his mom was also a Nazarite. So he caused her to violate that vow as well. What is the concept that we learn here? We learn that we as Christians should be people of integrity, not just when we're around Christians, but when we're by ourselves as well. When we are alone, when there's nobody else watching, we should have the same mentality as David. I should have said no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them to turn aside. It shall not cleave unto me. We should have the same attitude as Joseph that says, how can I sin against God and do this great wickedness? When he was tempted of Potiphar's wife, right? Have integrity, not with just when we're at church, not act all Holy, Holy, Holy, we're at church, but mirror that also when we're at home, when we're at work. You know, we're Christian, we're not just part-time Christians, you know, only Thursday and Sunday and when we go soloing, no, we're like full-time Christians. Don't you want to go into full-time Christian service? Where you're in it, there you go. You're a Christian 24-7, at least you're supposed to act like it. So we see that there. So he brings the carcass, he violates the Nazarite vow. No one knows about it, but him, it says in verse 10, so his father went down into the woman and Samson made there a feast for so used the young men to do. So verses 10 up until about or up until the end of the chapter, what we see here is that he takes this woman and he marries her. They have this feast for seven days, this Philistine feast for seven days. Now keep in mind, he's still looking for an occasion. What does that mean? He's looking for a reason to fight the Philistines. So in his agenda, what he wanted to do was put forth this riddle, this weird riddle, right, that we see in verse number 14, it says, and he said unto them, 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. And the reason he did this was because he's like, if they don't get it, I'm just going to slaughter them. So he's just looking for whatever reason just to fight them. Now he puts forth this riddle, the guys cannot get it in three days. So what do they do? They go to his wife and they say, hey, here's your options. You tell us the riddle, or if you don't, we burn you and your dad. And by the way, they ended up burning the dad and the wife anyways, because of the next chapter we see that because Samson lights the foxes on fire and lights their vineyards on fire, the Philistines come back and they burn the wife and the dad anyways, you know, because these Philistines are wicked, they're wicked people. So she puts forth, she tells him, you know, she goes to Samson, by the way, one of the things that Samson was weak on was women, you know, because she just basically, he basically tells her what the riddle is. She goes, tells the Philistines, the Philistines come and it says in verse 18, and the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, what is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion? And he said unto him, if he had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle. Does this show you? This basically shows you how much he values his wife. My heifer. He calls her the heifer, a cow, which makes you wonder, right? But it says if he had not plowed, in other words, what he's saying is that if he had not worked with my cow, you know, to find this out, you wouldn't have known this, okay? So loving, right? By the way, Hispanic homes, they do stuff like that, okay? Or like the wife will call like the husband who's like really big, gordo, and it's like a term, gordo means fat, it's like a term of endearment. And vice versa, flaca, gordo, they say all these insulting things that actually means like they're terms of endearment. My wife and I don't do that, yeah. So he puts that riddle and then he's upset and the Bible says in verse 19, and the spirit of the Lord came upon him and he went down to Ashkelon and slew 30 men of them and took their spoil and gave the change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. So he's like, all right, you guys win, but I'm going to kill 30 of you anyways. He's like, here, here, because you guys got it, but 30 of you guys are still going to die, okay? It's pretty funny. But Samson's wife was given to his companion whom he had used as his friend. So we'll see later on, Samson goes back home. What kind of marriage is that? So he goes home, he leaves his wife with the Philistines in the land of the Philistines. That's weird. You know, by the way, newsflash, you and your wife should live in the same house, okay? Should live in the same house. You know, long distance relationships don't work. You know, long distance relationships don't work before or after marriage. I'll be honest with you, unless you get married soon enough, you know, but once you get married, it should be that you guys dwell together. You should leave and cleave unto your wife. And you can't cleave unto your wife if you live in another state, okay? Anyways, but so he leaves and dad, because he's a Philistine, he's not a believer, he's like, well, time to marry her off to someone else. We don't know how many days or weeks or whatever, but he gives her to Samson's companion. This is weird, okay? But you know what, this is how the unsaved behave even today. You know, we hear about things that the unsaved people do, like what in the world? You just get divorced, like you just like ordered chips off of a candy machine or something, like it's just no one's business, it's just like easy. We value marriage, amen? We value children, we value marriage, it's sacred, but obviously these Philistines are not saved and they behave like people today. Now chapter 15, look what it says, 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, this is referring to an animal, and he said, I will go into my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in, and her father said, I barely thought that thou hast utterly hated her. Therefore I gave her to thy companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Take her, I pray thee, instead of her, man. So the dad's like, don't worry, her sister looks way better than her. Oh, thanks dad, it's like, good night. But it shows you how unsaved people behave, right? These godless, idolatrous, wicked people should be no surprise. And Samson said concerning them, verse 3, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure? And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, I can't even catch one, and took firebrands and turned tail to tail and put a firebrand in the midst of between the two tails. This guy's very creative. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corner of the Philistines and burnt up both the shocks and also the standing corn with the vineyards and olives. So he gathers up three hundred foxes, he lights their tails on fire and just sends them into the, and just destroys their crops, destroys their vineyards, destroys their olive yards to get back at them for what the father had done. And verse 6, Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. Even though the wife helped out these guys, they ended up burning her anyways. Goes to show you, you can't trust people sometimes, especially if they're not saved. And Samson said unto them, Though you have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease. He smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter, and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Edom. Then the Philistines went up and pitched in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi. So in this chapter we basically see that the Philistines come to the men of Judah and basically tell them, hey, you need to deliver Samson into our hands. Judah comes and says, hey, we need to wrap you up, tie you up, and we're going to give you over to the Philistines. And he basically says, all right, I just want to make sure that you don't kill me, because we're not going to kill you, we're just going to deliver you up unto the Philistines. So Samson's own people delivered him up to this foreign nation to die, like Jesus. How the Jews delivered up Jesus unto the Romans to be crucified, in like manner we see the same thing take place here. Now Samson just allowed himself to, just as Jesus allowed himself to, to fulfill the scripture and to save us. But Samson allowed himself to, because he's like, well, I'll let you wrap me up. And Judah did not know this, but the reason he was allowing them to is so he can fight against them again and basically destroy them. Okay. Look at verse 14, and when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire and his bands loosed from off his hands. And he found a new jawbone of an ass and put forth his hand and took it and slew a thousand men therewith. Man, that's a strong jawbone. Think about that. That guy had some calcium, a thousand? Sixteen and Samson said with the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, and with the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men. What does that mean? Heaps upon heaps, meaning the bodies are just piling up. This is how much he's, he's trying to let you know how much killing there is going on here. Okay. Look at verse 17, when he had made an end of speaking that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand and called the place Ramath-Lehi. And he was sore of thirst and called on the Lord and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance unto the hand of thy servant, and now shall I die for thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. But God clave a hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water there out, and when he had drunk, his Spirit came again and he revived. Therefore he called the name thereof Anhachor, which is in Lehi unto this day, and he judged Israel the days of the Philistines twenty years. So here's another miraculous thing that takes place. First of all, it's just miraculous that he uses a jawbone of an ass to kill a thousand men. Not a sword, not a spear, a jawbone of an ass, okay. So he uses this heaps upon heaps, he's using this to fight the wars of God. And it just so happens that God uses that same instrument to replenish him when he's thirsty. He uses it to miraculously bring forth water to revive him and basically help him to replenish. What is that a picture of? I believe it's a picture of the Word of God because of the fact that we use the Word of God to fight the Lord's battles. It's a good sword, it's a good weapon to use as an instrument to fight Satan, to fight the reprobates, to fight false doctrine, to fight, to fight, to fight. But you know what, when you've done all the fighting and you feel exhausted, it's also good to replenish you. God can cleave a hollow point in that Bible when you open it up, not just to study, not just to memorize, so you can give an answer to every man that asketh you of the reason of the faith that is in you with meekness and fear. It's not just to preach the Word of God to be instant in season out of season. You know what it's for too? It's to renew us. When you're discouraged, when you're tired, you've been yelling at your kids all day or your boss has been yelling at you, you're having a bad day, well you know what, open up that jawbone that comes from God's own mouth. Open it up and take in that replenishing water of God's Word so you can become replenished and revived again. You see the dangerous thing is that sometimes people only use the Word of God as a weapon. Right? It's like, King James only, it's only to fight, no, actually it's also to minister unto you as well. We don't want to become such good fighters that we don't even know how to sustain ourselves spiritually. It's okay to read the Bible, not just for information, but also for inspiration. Now obviously the vast majority of Christians, they read it for inspiration and they get no information. They're just, you know, foolish, biblically illiterate foolish Christians because they don't learn the Bible. And look, we need to learn the Bible. We need to get the info, we need to know what we're talking about, we need to know the doctrine, we can't allow us to just, oh I just want to be inspired, just give me the Psalm of the day. Just give me the Proverb, the inspirational Proverb of the day. Hey, that's great, but we need information. It's like this one post that I saw and it was like a calendar, you know those calendars where it has the days and then it has like the Bible verse? And the Bible verse was this, you know, if thou shalt bow unto me, I shall give you all the kingdoms of the world. Now if you're like, what's wrong with that? That calendar's for you. I'm going to get you that calendar, because that's Satan talking, fools, yeah. You know, we need information of the Bible. We need to learn, look the Bible says to grow in grace, amen, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God does not want brutes as Christians. We need to learn the Bible. But you know what, there needs to be a balance to that, and we also need to allow the Word of God to inspire us as well. There's nothing wrong with reading the Bible and allowing it to comfort you. Just reading something and it comforts you, you feel revived, you feel inspired, the Word of God is ministering unto you. I mean, the Holy Spirit is called the Comforter, and let me just give you a news flash. He's not called the Comforter because it just makes you feel all fuzzy inside every once in a while. That's called gas or heartburn. It's called the Comforter because he uses the Word of God to comfort you, because he brings all things into remembrance whatsoever things Christ has taught us. So they work in tandem, do they not? As we gain the knowledge of the Bible, that same knowledge the Holy Spirit can use to comfort us. We use that jawbone of an ass to slay the enemies of God with the Word of God and the teaching of God's Word, but we also do it to drink up and revive ourselves, be replenished, just as it did with Samson, all right? We're almost done, okay? Chapter 16. This is going pretty good, amen? Thank you for those four amens, I'm just kidding. Verse one, then went Samson to Gaza and Saul there and Harlot and went in unto her. What in the, okay, hold on a second. Didn't you just finish winning this crazy battle? God provided this miraculous thing, and then all of a sudden he's just into sin now. Now what does verse number one means? It means he is fornicating with a prostitute, and look, fornication is wicked, it's bad, we don't permit it in our church, but fornication with a prostitute is really bad. Harlot is a prostitute. A prostitute, young people, is when a woman sells her body for money. This is wicked. You have this man of God here, this judge of Israel, who's given himself over to lasciviousness, to work uncleanness, literally, right? Just all of a sudden. Verse two, and it was told to Gaziad, saying, Samson has come hither, and they compassed him and laid weight for him all the night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, in the morning when it is day, we shall kill him. So he's in there with his harlot, the people catch word of it, and they're like, okay, close the gates, we're gonna ambush him, basically, as soon as he comes out, because they've heard of him. Verse three, and Samson laid till midnight and arose at midnight and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them and bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the hill that is before Hebron. Okay, this is pretty cool. So he stumbles out at midnight, they close the doors, and he just breaks them off, and he's like, where am I gonna put these? So he's like, what? I just put them on his shoulders, and he just took them, okay? The Spirit of God is still coming upon him at this time. You say, why? Well, because God is merciful. God is being merciful to Samson right here. Now, by the way, this is figurative, also symbolic of Jesus Christ, because just as he bore the cross, Samson is bearing these doors upon his own shoulders as well. The weight of it, right? A heavy weight. Verse four, and it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. Good night. So you see one of the problems that he's having? Women, right? His problem is women. He's sleeping with this prostitute in verse number one, and then he finds this girl named Delilah. Commercial break, don't name your daughters Delilah. You know, look up names, okay? Jezebel sounds good. Sounds so, no, no, no, no, no. Bad idea, okay? Jeroboam. Jerry. Brother Polini came up to me, you know, because they're having a son, or else someone, and he goes, he's like, hey, we got a name, what do you think about Jeroboam? Now he was messing with me, but I didn't know, and I'm like, how do I answer this? And I'm like, and then he finishes off, he goes, and then we could just call him Jerry. I was like, this guy, he needs the knowledge of the Bible. He's reading it too much for inspiration and not enough information, okay? He was just joking though. So let's see here. So the number one problem that he has is women, okay? We see that already just within the first couple, four verses that his problem is women. Verse four says that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah, and unsafe woman obviously, but the second problem that he has is that he's witless. What does that mean? He has no smarts. The guy's an idiot. You're exaggerating. If you read the story, you know exactly what I'm talking about. He's witless. What does that mean? He's an idiot. Why is he an idiot? Verse six, and Delilah said to Samson, tell me I pray thee we're in that great strength life. Now keep in mind, they're trying to figure out where his strength is, so they go to the woman in order to get it. In other words, they know what his weakness is to a certain extent. It's women. And if they can get to the woman, they can get to figuring out where his strength lies. I pray thee we're in that great strength life, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. I mean, I would be like, why do you want to know? Why are you asking me this? What does the prophet think to know this? And Samson said unto her, if they bind me with seven green wits that were never dried, then shall I be weak and be as other men. Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green wits, which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he break the wits as a thread of toad is broken. When it toucheth the fire, so his strength was not known. So they come, he just breaks it and just whoops them. See, at that point, it's like, all right, get out of my house. I can't trust you. I can't believe you did that. You know, okay. But it happens three more times. Verses 10 through 12, verses 13 through 14, verses 15 through 19, the same thing. Verse 10, and Delilah sent his hands and said, behold, thou hast mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, if they bind me fast with new robes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak and be as other men. I would be like, no, no, no, I know what you're doing, again. You think that's so stupid. That's why the point is he's witless. No common sense. Where we at? Verse 12, Delilah therefore took new robes and bound them therewith and said unto him, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were liars and way to bind them in the chamber, and he break them from off his arms like a thread. And Delilah sent them to Samson, here's the truth, I was mocking, no, you're mocking me. And told me lies, tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound, and he said unto her, if thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. And she fastened it with the pin and said unto him, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. I read this, I'm like, Samson, bro, wake up. She's trying to kill you. But you know what? A lot of teenagers are like this. Even young adults, right? Where they're just like blind. You can just show them how bad they are, how wicked they are, and they're just like, I love her, but I love, I love him though. Yeah, but the guy smokes weed. He doesn't have a job. He has two other kids in different states. He's paying child support. He has the number, you know, one or whatever, he has some joker or whatever on his, his face is tattooed. But yeah, I know I can change him. They're just like, are you stupid? What in the world? It's like, yeah, but you know, bro, she's a chola. She's from one of the gangs. She just got out of prison. She sells drugs. And she's like, but I love her. So we got to take it easy on Samson, but not really. Because he exemplifies a lot of young people even today, right? And look, parents, this is why it's important that we have a good relationship with our children, right? That they would trust us, they'll trust our wisdom, our instruction, our advice, you know, when looking for a spouse, because once it happens, it's done. They're just like, they're in love stage, right? Well, this is, this is, Samson is a perfect example of that because the lady's like trying to kill him. She's trying to kill the guy and he's just like telling her all, and he's lying to her, but it's just like Samson, just leave. Verse number 15, and she said unto him, how canst thou say, I love thee when thine heart is not with me? Thou hast mocked me these three times and has not told me wherewith thy great strength lieth. And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death, that he told her all his heart and said unto her, there hath not come a razor upon mine head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. And this is what I tell people when they ask me, why don't I shave? If I be shaven, then my strength shall go from me and I shall become weak and be as like other men. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the Lords of the Philistines saying, come up this once for he has showed me all of his heart. Then the Lords of the Philistines came unto her and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep on her knees. And she called for a man and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head. And she began to afflict him. What does that mean? She's like hitting him. And his strength went from him. Now look, this is all figurative. Our strength does not lie in our hair today. For Samson it did though, because it was symbolic. It was symbolic of the Spirit of God that lighted upon him. And when God told him not to shave it off, and he shaves it off, aside from the fact that his hair was symbolic, the reason why the Spirit of God left him is because of his disobedience, because he disobeyed. And they shaved it off and they came and his strength went from him. Verse 20, and she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And look what it says. This is scary. And look, this is not somewhere you want to be ever in your Christian life. He woke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as other times before. What other times is it referred to? You know, the times when they bound him and he just broke it apart, he was spear filled. He still did great exploits. He's like, I'm just going to do it like I've been doing it. I'm going to keep going to church and fornicate. I'm going to keep going to church and smoke weed. I'm going to keep going to church and drink alcohol and get involved in sin. I shall do it as other times before. Okay. And shake myself. And he wished not that the Lord was departed from him. That's scary. God's like, where are you going by yourself because I'm not with you anymore. Now, this does not mean that he lost his salvation as the Pentecostal charismatic tongue flappers would like to think that it says. Because of the fact that the power of God and salvation are two different things. There are many Christians out there who are saved, but they are powerless. They have no power. If once we get saved, we just have all kinds of power, the Bible will not command us to walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. The Bible will not command us to not grieve the Holy Spirit, not quench the Holy Spirit and to be filled with the Holy Spirit if it just came automatically. When we're saved, we have access to that power. But you know what? In like manner, that power can be taken back or we just lose the power of God in our lives. And you know what? This guy, he didn't know it. Why is that? Because he was stubborn. He that often being reproved stiffened his neck, hardened his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed and doubt without remedy. What is suddenly? Just without him even knowing it. And he didn't know it. He came out bald, locks are gone, didn't even know. What does that mean? I mean, that's kind of weird for you not to know that you're bald. Like when just a couple hours before you just had a full set of seven locks of hair, right? What does that mean? He got used to it. He was so accustomed to it that he just expected it to be there. Don't expect for you to have the power of God in your lives tomorrow. We need to renew ourselves in the Lord on a daily basis, right? We cannot depend on the victories of yesterday to carry us forth today. The Bible says we have to carry our cross daily, right? And follow him. It has to be a daily decision that we make. Look what it says. It says, but the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass and he did grind in the prison house, howbeit the hairs of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. Now we won't finish it for the sake of time. What happens? They basically take him out to be sport, to basically show him off. He is redeemed. And the reason the Bible says that the hairs of his head began to grow again is because God was going to use him one last time. But you know what? The last time he was going to use him was going to cost him his life because he ended up committing suicide. He gave his life, right? He gave his life to destroy every single Philistine and in doing so delivered him from the hand of the oppressors just like in like manner when Jesus Christ died for us on the cross. He delivered himself, allowed himself for his life to be taken in order to save, to seek him to save that which is lost. And you know, he did a great work at the very end, but it was a very sad ending. He lost his vision spiritually and physically speaking, right? Because they took out his eyes. It says the Philistines took him, put out his eyes. Where there is no vision, the people perish. But he that keepeth the law, happy is he. What is that referring to? Being obedient to God's word, right? So he lost his vision. He lost his sense of direction. It says the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza. You know, I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day. Well, if you're in sin, you're just going down. Now you will never go to hell, but you know you're going down spiritually. The Bible says, order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. He lost his liberty. It says, but the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass. That's like someone who gets out of church, gets into sin. What are they with? They're bound by sin, alcoholism, worldliness. They think they're free, right, but they're not really free because out there when they're in front of all their friends and their buddies, you know what they're doing? They're acting like they're free, but when they go home, they're crying themselves to sleep at night because they know they're being chastised with the Lord. They know they're not right with God. They lost their liberty. He lost his purpose. It says, and bound him with fetters of brass and he did grind in the prison house. What does it mean to grind? It's one of those things where you just go round and round and round and round. You know, you're just going in circles and guess what? When you get out of God's will, you go to the world, you may think you're going somewhere, but you're just going in circles. You are going somewhere, it's just in circles. Like the children of Israel who went in circles for 40 years, that's what you're going to be doing. Okay? Don't worry, we're almost done. No checking the clocks. And then lastly, he lost his progress because it says that the hairs of his head began to grow after he was shaven. You know, you know what, one thing that kind of, well, let me give you this example. I'm on keto right now, okay? And I have a goal that I need to meet that I want to meet. And there's times when I'm tempted to just eat some stinking bread. I just want some bread. I just want some good chicken, not chicken, some pizza with some fat, fluffy, steamy dough. But you know what, if I do that, I'm going to lose progress. You know, I'm going to set myself back. So one thing that keeps me from just giving in to sin, I mean to sugar, one thing that keeps me from doing that is the progress because I worked so hard to get to this point. I don't want to lose that progress. And think about yourself, obviously, spiritually speaking, you've done a lot of progress, spiritually speaking. Started reading your Bible, being faithful to church, growing, soul winning. Don't let that one bad decision set you back. You'll lose progress. And in fact, you know what, it could be a decision that can cost you your life. Are you willing to take that risk? You know, don't lose the progress. Don't be like Samson and just throw it all away. He could have been the greatest judge in Israel. God was willing to dedicate four entire chapters to his exploits. And we could have read four entire chapters of like being like, wow, that's amazing. But instead we're like, whoa, that guy messed up bad. You know, don't let those four chapters that God gives you be lost where you become a byword and a proverb to the world. So what's the sermon today? Well, you know, don't be like Samson, amen. Don't be like Samson. And look, God will use you. God will use you and your obedience to bring the Lord to God, or He'll use you and your disobedience to teach someone else what not to do. Don't be like that. Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. And thank you for the life of Samson. Thank you for the testimonies of the Lord. And he made a lot of good decisions, but we understand that he also made a lot of bad decisions. And I pray, God, that you would protect us, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Help us, Lord, as much as possible to live a life that's pleasing unto you. And may your spirit be upon us continually all the days of our life. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.