Gooding, David: 14 - Sampson - Part 2

For your very kindly words. It has been a pleasure for me to be with you these weeks, and I thank you for all your friendliness and your gracious hospitality. Thank you too for the way that you have worked hard, uncomplainingly, at least as far as I know, uncomplainingly. That you haven't gone complaining to the elders that the seats were too hard, or if you have, they mentally haven't, uh, uh, relayed your complaints to me. At any rate, thank you for working with me. It has been hard work, I know, but there is a law in the spiritual world, as there is in the natural world, that if a man work not, neither shall he eat. If God has blessed you through these sessions together, then I certainly am grateful, and I pray your return and that you will remember me. St. James says, be not many teachers, for we shall receive the greater condemnation. If God has used my word to bless you, pray regard the possibility of greater condemnation on me, having dared to be a teacher, and pray for me of your kindness and good pleasure. Let's begin our study this evening by reading in the book of Leviticus chapter five. The book of Leviticus chapter five. And verse two, Leviticus five verse two. If anyone touch any unclean thing, whether it be the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of unclean cattle, or the carcass of unclean creeping thing, and it be hidden from him and he be unclean, then he shall be guilty. Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatsoever his uncleanness be, wherewith he is unclean, and it be hid from him, when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty. The Book of Numbers and chapter uh six. Book of Numbers, chapter six. Numbers six and verse one. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall make a special vow, the vow of a Nazarite, to separate himself unto the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat fresh grapes or dried. All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the grapevine, from the kernels even to the husk. All the days of his vow of separation, there shall no razor come upon his head. Until the days be fulfilled in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy. He shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow long. All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall not come near to a dead body. He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because his separation unto God is upon his head. All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord. And if any man die very suddenly beside him and defile the head of his separation, then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it. And now our book of Judges, and verse fourteen. And Samson went down to chapter fourteen, verse one. And Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah 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 Timnah 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 Philistine? 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, for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time, the Philistines had rule over Israel. Then went Samson down with his father and his mother to Timnah, and behold, there a young lion roared against him, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand. But he told not his father or his mother what he had done. And he went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. And after a while he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of, uh, of the lion, and honey. And he took it into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave unto them, and they did eat. But he told them not that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion. Chapter Fifteen and verse 12. And they, that is the men of Judah, said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. Samson said unto them, Swear unto me that ye will not fall upon me yourselves. They spake unto him, saying, No, but we will bind thee fast and deliver thee into their hand, but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new robes and brought him up from the rock. And it came to pass, when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands dropped from off his hand. And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and smote a thousand men therewith. And Samson said, with a jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men. Chapter sixteen, verse fifteen. And she, that is Delilah, said unto him, how canst thou say I love thee, when my thine heart is not with me? Thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. It came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him that his soul was vexed unto death. And he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There has not come a razor upon thine head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man. 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 hath told me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her and brought the money in their hand, and she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man and shaved 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 at other times and shake myself. But he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. The Philistines laid hold on him and put out his eyes, and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. And the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god and to rejoice. For they said, our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. Verse twenty eight. 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 avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. Samson took hold of the two little pillars upon which the house rested and leaned upon them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left. And Samson said, let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might, and the house fell upon the loaves and upon all the people that there were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. And his brethren and all the house of his father came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying place of Manoah his father, and he judged Israel twenty years. The Lord help us to learn and accept the lessons of this sad story. We We disc- discovered on our last occasion that the enemy under whom Israel fell in the last of the times of the judges were the Philistines. And we found too, on that occasion, that the characteristic which marked the Philistines above all else was this, that they were uncircumcised men, outside the covenant that God had made with Israel and Abraham's seed, having no special relationship with God, strangers to the covenants of promise. We spent, therefore, some considerable time thinking together of circumcision and its significance. We noticed that it was not only an external mark that marked an Israelite as a descendant physically of the tribe of Abraham, but that it was intended as well to be a symbol of spiritual truth. It was meant to mark an attitude of heart towards God, a circumcised heart from which rebellious flesh, so to speak, had been cut away, leaving a heart pure and cleansed and willing to do the will of God and to keep his law. Of course, in Israel, we reminded ourselves that on times men bore the external mark of circumcision without giving any heed to the spiritual significance it was intended to have. In that case, it became merely empty symbol and of very little use. But the Philistines didn't even have the mark, let alone any spiritual experience that that mark was meant to symbolize. They were, of course, like many others, idolaters. Wise as were the lords of the five Philistine cities. They had not risen above the basic idolatry that marked the Gentile nation, worshiping the work of their own hands, putting their faith ultimately in their own brain and their own brawn. And in the end, we saw how that it was the Philistines who produced the giants, Goliath and his brothers, tremendous men, vast, big, mighty men. The flower of manhood, you might say. Big in brain and brawn. Men. Are typical of man, fallen, unregenerate, a heart and flesh uncircumcised, outside the covenant of salvation, unregenerate. Men who, like Goliath in the last analysis, will stalk onto the open stage of the world and defy the living God to his face. Putting all their trust in man. And a fallen man being basically at enmity with God. And we notice how the danger that these Philistines presented to Israel was that in the early days of the judges, they did not fight pitched battles that would have marked them out as particularly hostile. The danger was that peacefully they interpenetrated Israel and gradually took over this city and that city and the other city, until they became the predominant force in that southwestern part of the land of Palestine. Indeed, to the outside world, they came to give their name to the whole land. The outside world's impression of Pala- of Canaan was that it was the place where the Philistines dwelt. Palestine. Just like many folks today conceive of a Christian in terms of a nominal Christendom that has never experienced personal regeneration and has no knowledge of personal relationship with the living Christ, but has merely submitted to the external rites and rituals of Christianity. So was it in those far off days. That the danger was, I repeat, that gradually they were allowed to interpenetrate Israel until the majority of the Israelites were quite unalarmed, unaware that the distinctions between being in the covenant and outside it had been completely covered over. And so we must be grateful that God raised up at this time a deliverer for the people, his name Samson. I say we must be grateful. Though perhaps by the time our study is ended, we shall find in our hearts more disappointment than gratitude. Therefore, let us remember at this time that the Holy Spirit, recording Samson's name in the New Testament, puts him in that glorious honors list of the great men of faith. By faith, Samson did his exploits. And we, lesser men and lesser women, must be very careful tonight how we point a finger at Samson. And if the record obliges us in all honesty to point out those things in which he brings us deep and grievous disappointment, nevertheless, we must do it in all humility of heart, considering ourselves also, lest we be tempted. Samson the deliverer was certainly a mighty man, a man of faith, a man endowed with a spiritual gift that was tremendous and spectacular. Yet when he died, the fact is that Israel are still in bondage to the Philistines exactly where they were when Samson began. So that Samson's efforts have produced no lasting deliverance. Moreover, when Samson dies, he dies himself in the power of the Philistines, blind and a slave. He stands on the page of scripture to give us all great encouragement, that if God would use such a man as Samson proved to be, God must be exceedingly kind and gracious, he might even consider using the likes of us. He stands as a dark, dark warning to all who are possessed of any spiritual gift. To remind us that spiritual gift is not necessarily the same thing as spirituality. That spiritual gift is not necessarily the same thing as godliness, as holiness of life. And the spiritual gift can be found in men and women at the very same time as they are guilty of such faults that eventually spell spiritual disaster. But let's think of him, and think of the tremendous advantages with which he started his life and ministry. For the preparation of Samson for the great work that he did was largely the preparation of his parents, and especially his mother. What a tremendously privileged man Samson was, to have had parents like he had, to have had a godly father and an even more godly and discerning mother. For while both were godly, you will perceive that at every stage Manoah's wife had more spiritual will discern discernment them than than the Manoah. Noah. Let us confess our great debt to the godly women in the church. What do we owe, I wonder, to Lois and Junisi, who covered young Timothy from his conception onwards with their prayers, and taught his infant years the Holy Scripture, and made those impressions on his tender mind, formed the very background of his ministry when he became a mature servant of God. Let us, who have had such godly parents and godly mothers, let us public servants who are supported constantly in the pri- by in prayer, by godly sisters, unknown and unseen. Let us remember them. And let us remember that perhaps we owe more to their prayers and their godliness than to our own gift and our own exercise. Let us, let it keep us grateful but humble. This woman, Samson's mother, was called upon to prepare herself for the birth and ministry of Samson, her son, by an extraordinary devotion to the Lord. She was called upon to be a Nazarite and to abstain from the vine and from all things made of the vine. This status of a Nazarite was, as we all know, a special status. It wasn't particularly sinful. If you didn't become a Nazarite. The whole thing was normally a voluntary thing. It was a state of special devotion to the Lord. But these were difficult days. Days when the distinction between the uncircumcised and circumcised, men outside the covenant and men within it, had all been blurred. And to counteract that, God asked of this woman a special separation unto God. A special loyalty, a special devotion, a special and extraordinary consecration. And it remains thus. God is kind. God is no rigorous tyrant. There are reaches of the spiritual life that are optional. But let us observe that there are tasks that cannot be done for God, unless we are prepared, sometime during life, to spend a period of special devotion to the Lord. The mere routine of general piety is not always enough to win the victories that need to be won when the people of God are in spiritual low water. The nurse wife was prepared to give herself to this special devotion, surrendering joys that were themselves were legitimate. There was no prohibition in general upon drinking wine in the ancient covenant. To abstain from it, therefore, was a mark of being willing to surrender ordinary, customary blessings, joys, natural things, in order to be the more especially devoted to the Lord. You see, to give up something that is wrong in itself is no sacrifice, is it? It would be a sin to hold on to it. For a thing to be a sacrifice, it'll have to be a bad thing, uh, it'll have to be a good thing to start with, won't it? We are called upon sometimes to show our devotion to the Lord and his cause, being willing to give up even legitimate things, that we may consecrate our energies the more undividedly to the Lord's service. But let us notice now that her devotion to the Lord was not of that negative s- kind that sometimes overtakes us. Our Lord has warned us against that kind of thing, hasn't he? Against that negative kind of holiness that fasts and then parades itself before the public in the spirit of, what a good boy am I? Please see that I'm fasting. Please notice the things I'm going without. This good woman's devotion was not of that kind. It was based on an exceedingly positive experience of the Lord. It was not merely separation then from wine, it was separating to the Lord. Let me briefly recount to you that unforgettable experience of Christ that that dear woman had. There came to her a man, a man of God, as at first she thought, but a man who, as the story proved to her as it unfolded, was none other than the one we have learned to call the second person of the Trinity, our Lord Christ himself. Mark, it was no vision. It was nothing short of the appearance of the Lord, who spoke with her, who allowed her and her husband to come and bring their very literal offerings and to burn them on a very literal altar. An appearance of Christ in his pre-incarnate day. The experience was summed up in that word that we treat so lightly, but became so inexplicably full of meaning to Manar and his wife. They had an experience of the wonderful, all the wonderful mystery of it. That God should come down in human form and stand and talk to his creature face to face, so that they might see him. Oh, the indescribable wonder when the living God appears and there falls on the human spirit that immeasurable feeling, having Having stood stood. in the very presence of God. Oh, how real did that unseen world appear when presently they saw this man, this real man, this God in human form, whose feet had verily stood upon terra firma in front of them, in their world. And they saw him rise and ascend into the very heavens. A real man that had been within arm's length of them. And living still in God's glory. That was a transforming Forming experience. experience. One calculated to fit the need of those dear folks at that time. The Philistines were their enemy. Unregenerate man. Man outside God's covenant. Uncircumcised man. Man in the flesh. Man fallen. Man rebellious. Man eventually blowing himself up to the size of a giant and defying God. How shall we fight that man when we've got him within our very own breasts? There is one way to fight him. There is one secret. To have had an experience of the second man, the Lord from heaven. That glorious man and genuinely human. But that different kind of man. For it is written that the first man is of the earth, earthy. The first man was made a living soul, able to reproduce. But the second man, while being man, genuinely human, a different kind of man, the second man was made a life-giving spirit. And in all our warfare against the flesh, that disobedient rebel, that fallen humanity within and without, there is only one key to success. It is in union with that second man, that life-giving spirit. For it is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus that sets us free from the law of sin and death. Now they not only saw him rise into heaven, a real man, but, uh, see the way he ascended, and how? For in those early days, as they placed their burnt offering upon the altar, and the smell of it went up to God to be accepted for them. The angel of the Lord did wondrously, for it seemed that he stepped within the flame of the sacrifice and descended to God, enveloped in the ascending flame of that ascending offering. There have been times in the course of human history that must have had special poignancy even for the divine persons themselves. And such a day was this, when the pre-incarnate Christ in human form ascended that altar, and then in the flame returned to heaven. How his mind must have been looking down the centuries to that foreordained occasion when he should do in all its fullness what here in rehearsal he did. When he should climb a different kind of altar, even Calvary's cross, and offer himself a burnt offering without spot to God. What a marvelous story. In a world full of unregenerate men, be they circumcised outwardly or uncircumcised outwardly, fallen unregenerate men, lost in their rebellion against God, plagued with a flesh now that is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. That second man began the deliverance. Being in the form of God, he thought it not a thing to be grasped at, to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took the form of a servant. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross. Wherefore, God has highly exalted him and given him that name that is wonderful indeed, above every name. It's no wonder that Paul cried out, and in crying gave us the secret of his own victory over the flesh, that he might know and know ever more intimately, this Christ, this obedient Christ, obedient to death, and ascended now to God's heaven. Lest at this moment we are thinking that such wonderful things are the experience of only a few. Let me remind my heart and yours of that gracious promise Jesus Christ our Lord made. And just before he went, said he to his disciples, I will not leave you orphan. I will come to you. I will manifest Myself myself to too. you. We see him not now with literal eyes. There do come moments when he graciously fulfills that promise and draws near to his people and speaks their name, be it Mary, Mary, or Simon, Simon, be it by the sea or in the home or in the cemetery, or traveling on life's road, and he makes himself manifest, makes our spirits aware of his presence, of his reality, of that spirit world, and renews our faith in him. And the throbbings of that eternal life he has given us. In him. In living union with our blessed Lord, that perfect man, is our strength to overcome the unregenerate flesh. And when we have marked his special devotion, when we have marked how gladly he who had the right to be on equal terms with God surrendered that right and made of himself a servant and became obedient unto death, how then do we resist his call? When he invites us from time to time, not merely to be saved, not merely to be ordinary believers, but to be prepared now and again, if need be, to show some special devotion to him and to his cause. So Samson was born of such a mother. God claimed that life likewise to be the life of a devoted Nazarite to the Lord. He was to abstain from wine, natural joy, from the defilement of death, even when the death was that of a parent. He was to wear long hair like a woman. In one sense, a shame, isn't it? It's a shame for a man to wear long hair, not a sin, a shame. I repeat, not a sin, a shame. He was to wear long hair, sign of his devotion to God, a kind of symbolic surrender of his manhood, that he should be devoted as a wife to her husband, that he she he should be devoted to the Lord. And in his devotion to the Lord, he was given by God a remarkable spirit. A gift of spiritual power, the likes of which very few men in the Old Testament era had. That it was a spiritual gift, given and used by the Holy Spirit, we are told in the words of Scripture itself, so that, uh, whatever we think of the use to which Samson put it, we must be careful not to dispute Holy Scripture. It was a gift of the Holy Spirit. Mark then at this outset that this special spiritual gift that Samson had was nothing to do with his own natural strength. He was no giant, as far as we know. No Mr. Muscle whose muscles and brawn stand out to us as though he were a Mr. World or something. In fact, had you met Samson coming up the street, you might have mistaken him for the moment for a woman, because, as I say, he wore long hair. And you inquired then to find his secret, and he had been prepared to tell you. He would have explained, yes, my extraordinary strength is a gift of God's spirit. It stems from that experience my mother had of that other man who visited our world and went back to the other world in the flame of the sacrifice and has ascended to God's right hand. And my mother was devoted to him, the living God, and I devoted to him, hence my spiritual strength. And I think I can imagine Samson in his happier days, or at least I wish I could imagine Samson in his happier days, pulling on his long locks and saying, you know, this hair of mine, well, of course, it's a symbol. There's nobody with a strength in that stuff. My secret strength is in my utter devotion to the angel of the Lord, the God that visited me, my mother, and my father in days past, and has ascended to heaven, to whom I too am devoted. What happened to the man? Possessed with those initial advantages. Given that amazing spiritual gift, and called upon for a correspondingly special devotion. Let's be generous. He did obtain some victories, didn't he? He slaughtered some of the enemy, some hundreds or thousands. He caused trouble. Perhaps it began to alert Israel to the danger that was in their midst. Perhaps it stopped them altogether settling down and saying to themselves, well, what did it matter whether a man was circumcised or uncircumcised? Perhaps they should forget those distinctions that Moses had and Abraham had brought in, and perhaps they should be more generally minded and accept unconverted and converted all together in one horrible mix. And perhaps the disturbance he created and the consciences he aroused contributed eventually to the fact that in later ages men took on the struggle and carried it to a nobler level and eventually defeated Defeated the the Philistine Philistines altogether. altogether. He was a man of faith that wrought some victories and brought them by the Spirit of God. When you said that, then you have to add that he never once led Israel unitedly in battle against the Philistines. He never once radically challenged the Philistine threat. And when he died, Israel were where he found them, still in virtual captivity. When he died, he himself was still a slave of the Philistines and blind as well. In his life, there were two major series of incidents. We have not now the story, the time to examine those stories in detail. They're marked as two major incidents by ending each time with the the ti- fact that he judged Israel for such and such a period. They are both concerned with the love of women, and love, if you please, of Philistine women. And you meet at once that curious contradiction in Samson's life, that on the one hand he was found fighting Philistines, and on the other hand, loving their women. A curious contradiction, but it explains to you from the very start why he never delivered Israel from the Philistines. You will never deliver anybody or yourself either from a state or a people or an attitude with which, in the intimate depths of your heart, you are in love. How could he ever deliver his nation from those Philistines? Fighting them on Tuesday mornings and Friday afternoons. If Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, he was wanting to cry peace and go down and visit them and marry into them. Of course, when he died, the Israelites were still in bondage to the Philistines. For Samson at heart had never basically repented of what the Philistines stood for. Said he to father and mother, get me a wife. I've seen a Philistine girl. And they said, pop pop, my boy. He oughtn't to do that, you know. Woman's not saved. Ah, but he insisted. That was no obstacle for Samson, apparently, that he was one of the uncertain types. So he went on his way, and there came out a lion to meet him and frighten him, and that was no obstacle either. And he used his spiritual gift to overcome the lion. Then he found honey in this lion and ate it and gave to the marriage ceremony, and in the course of the marriage ceremony and the breakfast that went on for some days, he posed a riddle to the Philistines. It was a funny riddle, as arbitrary as the man in the moon, because how could they possibly know what it meant? But his wife-to-be wormed the secret out of him and told it to the Philistines. In spite he went and slew certain Philistines and took their raiment and gave it to those that had won his wager. And he lost the bride by that means, so he took revenge on her father and burned the whole place. And the Philistines tried to take revenge on him. So he got a lot of wild foxes, bound their tails together and put firebrands on them and burned out the standing corn. And then he smoked them hip and thigh. The men of Judah began to be afraid, and they said, you're disturbing the peace, old boy. We have come to deliver you to the Philistines. He said, all right, you bind me. They bound him, but he broke the bounds, and using his remarkable spiritual gift, he slaughtered the Philistines, taking the jawbone of an ant, and brought himself to spiritual exhaustion and physical tools. Had it not been for the mercy of God to give him a special favor of a special stream of water, the man must have perished. But God at this time was merciful, and Samson was preserved. What do you make of it all? Spiritual gift, yes. I ask you what good it did. Who you say that was like, that was exciting. Wow! See those foxes going around with tar grains on their tails. Wow, it looked like Bill James the fifth. Guy Fawkes night. What sparklers there were. Oh, great blessing from God. Really? How do you me- measure what is of any good or not? By its sparkling effect? And the spectacular of the moment? Well, I suppose that's some temporary victory, and it never challenged the right of the citizens to be there at all, did it? Are you altogether comfortable too, about those other two things that he did? He slew a lion, came back and found honey in the carcass and took the honey out of the carcass and ate it. You say, what's wrong with that? Well, both his Nazarite vow and the instructions of Leviticus chapter five strictly forbade him doing any such thing. It wasn't even special devotion to keep away from the carcass of a beast. For that kind was enjoined upon all Israel. They were not to touch such a thing, or if they had to touch it, they were rendered unclean and must cleanse themselves. Samson, who was supposed to be a Nazarite and to go nowhere near death of any kind, not even for his parents, let the honey out of that carcass. He didn't tell his mum and dad. It's a good job too, because I, I can't begin to think what kind of a sermon they would have preached him if they'd have discovered where he got the honey from. And what about that business of a, of the ass? That was even worse, wasn't it? Because you could argue that when the babies came into this carcass, the carcass must have been bleached by the sun till it was dry. Now, the jawbone he took to slay, slay the Philistines with was a new jawbone, freshly dead, in the worst state of corruption you could find it. And he took that and used it against the Philistines, in downright and outright disobedience to these Natarite vows. Oh, would you say, what does it matter whether you obey the Bible or not, because God blessed it? It's a pity that it's ten past nine when such a fundamental question arises, isn't it? We might as well face it as, as briefly as we can. Here is a fundamental question. The fact that God blesses something I do, does that necessarily justify the means I use? Suppose I disobey Holy Scripture and God nevertheless blesses what I do. Does that make disobedience right? Shall we say it is of the Spirit of God, for the Spirit of God used Samson, and shall we say that the Spirit of God who wrote this book then turns round and encourages men to disobey that book that he himself wrote? You say, Mr. Preacher, the Bible itself says that when Samson, for instance, came to his parents and said, get me this Philistine wife, and they said, set tut tut, you know, Samson, the Bible says that you as an Israelite mustn't marry a Philistine. Doesn't the Bible say that it was of the Lord that he married that Philistine girl? Well, so it does. Well, you say, now how do you square it then? We come, I say, to a fundamental lesson. We must observe first that in the ways of God's government, there are at least two different levels. Let me take you a vivid, vivid example. Herod, Pilate, and the Jews crucified Jesus Christ. Was that of the Lord? Well, yes, you say God had determined the crucifixion, and by our Lord's death and sacrifice at the cross, he determined to bring redemption to all mankind. Praise God for that. The crucifixion was of God, seeking a way of salvation for men. Oh. So that means, does it, that Caiaphas was right, and Pilate was right, and and the Jews were right, and God would never blame them, and he approved of what they did? Certainly not. It was the biggest crying out of hell. God being God reserves the right to overrule man's sin and disobedience, and out of man's wickedness to bring blessing. That will never justify man's wickedness. What would you think of me if I said, well, look, the death of the Lord Jesus has brought blessing to millions. And the death of Jesus was of the Lord, seeking a way of salvation for men, so it's the right thing to go and do to crucify Christ. What would you think of my argumentation? You would charge me with the most appalling confusion. And so we arrived at this, that the fact that God blesses an action can never be made the basis of arguing that God approves of that action one hundred percent. The fact is that God is exceedingly merciful. He blesses even me. He uses even me. I stand before you as a living example of his. Suppose that God approves of everything I do and think. Suppose for a moment that I am a perfect servant of God. If God blesses me, and he does, sometimes, you must know that it would be foolish and dangerous to suppose that everything I do is perfect. If God blesses me, in his mercy, I must still be prepared to turn round and examine my deeds and examine my works and judge them by his holy word. And failure to obey God's word will in the end bring to disaster. You say prove it. Well, Samson's story. He loved a girl, didn't he? And to get her was involved in these breaches of God's word. And God used him. But alas, his actions were superficial. God gave him one chance, didn't he? Let's briefly consider the second series of actions. How did they start? Well, he loved another girl. And she was in an enclosed city. I say these Philistines had been making some progress, hadn't they? What? They had not only interpenetrated, they now, if you please, had built actual cities with walls and gates. While they were getting strong. You're not going to put your head in that city, are you, um, handsome old boy? That made you attractive. Ha, there's nothing wrong in that, he said. I can go there, and I can get up when I please and come out. So anyway, and he lay with his love till midnight. He wasn't a very true love. Thereby hangs another story. There wasn't much devotion about that kind of love, was there? They may have had long hair, those women, and they weren't very loyal or devoted. And the listeners shut him in. Anthony used his gift, and out he came, gates and all. So now you'll have it, will you, that so long as you've got a spiritual gift, you may commit immorality any day of the week you like. Oh, come on. How did he manage to remove those gates if it wasn't the Holy Spirit of God and this extraordinary spiritual gift he had? Yet he had been involved in gross immorality. There have been occasions, all that we could forever draw a veil across them, when evangelists themselves, being used of God to the conversion of many folks, have been secretly engaged in immorality. It does not prove that because God blesses a man, he approves of all he does. He got out, didn't he? Ah, that was the trouble, you say. Oh, if he'd learned his lesson. He began to think that this spiritual gift of his was independent of obeying scripture, was independent of his Nazarite vow, was independent of God, and because he had it, he could do as he liked. And he went in once too often. And Delilah found out his secret. Oh, it wasn't merely that she cut his hair off. Long before that hair came off, Samson had denied the principle of obedience and devotion that that hair was meant to proclaim. He died, blind, a captive, and Israel in bondage still. Any lesson for us? They're free. Spiritual gifts. Ah. How do we need it. And in counteracting the works and power of the flesh, nothing short of God's Holy Spirit will do. We must never become smug, may we? Mere correct doctrine will not deliver us from the bondage and power of the flesh. Nothing short of the work of God's Holy Spirit will suffice. Let us never excuse ourselves for deadness and unspirituality. On the ground that they who sometimes have sought, uh, spiritual gifts have gone to extreme. We need godly spirituality. We need spiritual gifts. And then we must tell ourselves that there are dangers in spiritual gifts. The church in the New Testament that is chiefly commended for coming behind in no spiritual gift. They had spiritual gift of law, and a more contentious church troubled with immorality and strife you wouldn't have find in the whole of the New Testament. We need to be reminded that spiritual gift is not necessarily spiritual grace. It isn't necessarily holiness. It is not necessarily obedience to God. Indeed, there will come a day when some shall stand before Christ himself, and they will say, Lord, did we not in thy name cast out evil spirits? And he shall say, yes, you did, but I never knew you. If spiritual gift is to be true to the purpose for which it is given, it must be based and ever be used in lively devotion to the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible nowhere says, that I know of, that believers are one in the spirit. It says they're one in Christ. For the Holy Spirit is forever to be linked with that historic man, Jesus Christ, who visited our earth, died upon a cross, went back to God's heaven. And if spiritual power be divorced from him and the historical facts concerning him and become some kind of a nebulous power, in the end, it will prove unhelpful and positively destructive. We need to remember the spiritual power must always be linked to the historic Christ, yes, and spiritual gifts should always be preceded by those other works of the Holy Spirit. Fruit of the Holy Spirit, leading to godliness and holiness and self-control. For if we just indulge in spiritual gifts and power for its own sake, beware. It has happened many times, and not only with Samson. Spiritual gifts divorced from, uh, the fruit of the spirit will lead to immorality and worse. When we said that, we ought to say, judge of spiritual gift by what it does. When Paul had the occasion to write to the Corinthians, they had the gift of tongues, and there it was, the genuine gift of tongues. But even of the genuine gift of tongues, and Paul says, but look, gentlemen, what use is it? Well, there's some use, perhaps, yes, but you'll find other gifts more useful. And for the love of God, and for the love of your brethren, if you really love them, seek those spiritual gifts that are of the maximum profit, and don't seek gifts whose profit is minimal. What use really the firebrands on the tails of the foxes? But in the country. And finally, and perhaps most important of all, tragic lesson of Samson and his spiritual gift is this, that though he had spiritual power galore, he never really repented of what was the basic problem, the distinction between men of the covenant and men outside the covenant. As we would put it, between men regenerate and men unregenerate. God help me to say in kindness what now I say, we need that message now very specially. Let us praise God for every evidence of spirituality and true spiritual gift. Let us welcome it in whatever strange quarters as they may appear to us, it appears. Let us see to it that the claim to spiritual gift be not allowed to dis- to blur this basic distinction of the gospel. A man must be born again, or else he is never a child of God. Beware of spiritual movement and pretension that blurs that basic distinction and tells folks so long as they have spiritual gifts, it doesn't so much matter what they think about the matter of being regenerate and born of God's spirit. That is a Solomon sat note to him, though, isn't it? The Judges is a book of warfare, captivities, disobedience and failure and victory all intermingle. As such, it is truer to our own experience than oftentimes we like to admit, but therein is its reference. The God who in his compassion did not forsake his people in their troubles, but blessed them as much as ever he could, and delivered them whenever he could. And even when they failed, persisted with him. That God is our God today. Oh, let's praise him. For if we are unfaithful, he abides faithful. God give us the grace to be devoted to him and obedient to his word, that he might bless us with the fruit of his spirit, and indeed those spiritual gifts that we need to wage our spiritual warfare and to succeed to those victories which he longs to give us. Shall we pray? Now, Lord, as we bring thy word to thee, we have spent long on it this evening, and doubtless there will be many things that we have thought of that presently we shall forget. But, Lord, we pray that thou, having alerted our conscience and our mind as to what this passage of thy word is speaking about, give us grace, we pray, not merely to draw the immediate blessing therefrom that thou hast given to us this evening, but to have the wisdom to go away and at suitable time to read thy word again, to seek the guidance of thy spirit through these complicated chapters and their complicated issues. For Lord, too, though our salvation is simple, life for us is complicated, as history has shown us and as our experience knows. Help us, Lord, not to be those who run away when life becomes complicated in thy family and kingdom and church, but those who rather patiently seek thy will and study thy word and by thy spirit seek wisdom and illumination that is more than human. Give us large hearts to love all who love thee. To see in all and sundry, wherever possibly we can, the marks and movements of thy spirit, and to thank thee for it. Give us, Lord, unswerving devotion to thee and humble determination to obey thy word. So shall we be saved, and so mayest thou be pleased to use us. The blessing of one another, ourselves, and thy greater glory through Jesus Christ our Lord.