Andrew Johns - Examples of Youth in Service & Action - Class 2 - Samson - Fighting Human Weakness in Youth

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   We’ll now invite Brother Andrew to come forward and speak to us to the subject Samson, fighting human weakness in youth. My dearly beloved brethren and sisters and our dear young people, we have this afternoon a character who forms a very great contrast to Joseph that we considered last night in many respects. And yet interestingly enough, God used both of them in you, and both are mentioned in Hebrews Chapter 11. And yet the the nature of their lives, both from the start to the end were very, very different. And God called upon both of those young men to do very different things with very different responses. See, Joseph grew up in a in a home that was anything but a stable, good Christadelphian home. Sampson grew up in a model Christadelphian home. And yet when he got in company with the enemy, he was unable, because of human weakness, to maintain the stand that Joseph was able to maintain.

2. 1:22

   When he arrived into Egypt. We’re probably very familiar with the background to to Samson’s life, so there’s no real need for us to spend a lot of time on that. He lived at the end of the period of the judges and we know what the period of the judges was characterised by. In fact, at the start of that period, recorded in the appendix at the end of the book of Judges in Chapter 17 onwards, we have that phrase OFT repeated that every man did that which was right in his own eyes. It’s characteristic of our generation. It’s been characteristic of many generations down through history, but that was what it was like at the start of those 400 years, and it just got worse. As if when men don’t do that, which is right in their own eyes, it can get worse.

3. 2:15

   When it did get worse, it got worse. There was a gradual deterioration over that period, and God, we know, delivered Israel on many occasions, and there was. This cycle.

4. 2:31

   Which we’re all familiar with, when the children of Israel got themselves into great difficulty through thin, which brought suffering as it always does. And in their distress they cried unto Yahweh, who raised up a deliverer and brought salvation. Only to find that some short time later the whole cycle of human endeavour began again. But the interesting thing is by the time we get to the end of the period of the judges, while there was sin and suffering, we get to the point, brothers and sisters and young people, that there was no supplication.

5. 3:17

   And that tells us the depths of the degradation of society. By the time we reached this man Samson, he wasn’t living in an in an easy time. There was on the part of Israel at that time no repentance, no recognition of God, no crying for his help. Even though the previous generations had done that and at the peak of apostasy we find God doing something. Verse one of Judges chapter 13.

6. 3:50

   And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Yahweh. And Yahweh delivered them. That’s different from every other cycle in the judges. Because there is no recognition of God by the people, there is no crying unto Him now. But in Yahweh’s mercy He provided A deliverer, and Samson was to be that man.

7. 4:19

   This was the longest period of oppression by Israel’s worst enemy, and that’s what Samson was being raised up to do. There was flesh unrestrained. There was no moral influence left in Israel. Apostasy at its absolute peak and at that point in history, God sent a deliverer. It echoes, does it not, in the? Fourth in the 6000.

8. 4:49

   Years of human. History. It got to a point after 4. 1000 years where no longer was Israel or the Gentiles calling out for God, and at that point, at the peak of human wickedness, God sent his own Son. And here he sends a deliverer, and you know, he couldn’t find anyone suitable in all of Israel.

9. 5:13

   He looked through all the tribes and do you know what he had to do? He had to raise one up from birth. And it so seems, as we commented last night, that at times when the people of Israel had got into such degradation, when things were so bad and the difficulties of the deliverance were so intense, that God had to start even earlier. With individuals whom he called to his purpose. And now we’re told that he’s starting. In the womb, and we know he had to do that with his own son because of the wickedness in the world and because of the. Great need amongst humankind.

10. 6:03

    Look at verse. 2. And there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah, and his wife was Baron. And bear not the Angel of Yahweh appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold, now thou art Baron, and bearest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. We’ll have to read that casually, don’t we, to see the emphasis?

11. 6:32

    On her. Barrenness 4 times in 2 verses we’re told there that she was barren and she bare not. There was no hope of that happening in her life but God. Came and said there’s going to be a miracle here. I’m going to work in Israel. And a son is going to come forth. There is a laboured.

12. 6:54

    Emphasis that this. Had to be God’s work. Had it not been for his intervention, there would have been no hope for Israel in that generation. There is a miraculous birth here, and God is the prime mover, and you’ll notice there in verse 3 this unusual term. The woman. It’s not a very nice term to call Manoah’s wife. Why not give her name?

13. 7:25

    It’s much more personal. But all through this chapter, 7 times she’s called the woman she’s never ever named in the record. And here was typically God moving into human affairs. With a miraculous provision of a deliverer to the woman and anyone’s mind who knows anything about the Bible should go back to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, divine intervention. And a woman is going to bring forth a son who’s going to deliver God’s people.

14. 8:06

    You see, brothers and sisters, the parallels are all there. Israel had lost the dominion, just like man had in the beginning. He’d lost. They’d lost dominion to the Philistines, who were now ruling over them because of their own wickedness. They were unable to deliver themselves out of that situation. And God alone could work.

15. 8:28

    And he had to move, and he works on a barren woman to bring forth a deliverer. But the tragedy is that that deliverer, miraculous though his birth was, never ever finished the work that he was called to do because of human weakness, He was in many respects a type of the great deliverer to come who would complete the work that this man failed to do because of his own weakness. And so in the Scriptures, brethren and sisters, Samson types no, not only the Lord, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in many respects, but because also of his human weakness, he types Israel’s behaviour and ours too.

16. 9:19

    And on the Bible marking sheet for today, you’ll find some of those parallels lifted which you might find useful. But we must see brethren and sisters and young people in his life, not just a life that we can identify with because of his weakness. And very often you hear young people saying, well, Samson’s one of those people in the Scriptures that I can at least identify with.

17. 9:48

    It’s very difficult to identify with with. An. Amazing examples like Joseph or Christ himself or John the Baptist. But many people feel that they can identify with the weakness of Samson. But you know, young people and brothers and sisters. Samson’s life is not here in the divine record just so that we can identify with his weakness.

18. 10:14

    What it’s there for is to show us the principles by which deliverance and dominion over the enemy can finally be achieved. That’s what it’s actually there for. It’s not so much about his strengths or his weaknesses, and he had great strengths and great weaknesses, but it’s about God’s way to overcome sin and human weakness, despite what we might think, that’s what.

19. 10:44

    Samson’s life is all about and we’ve all got to come to grips with that because we’re never, ever going to overcome sin, brethren and sisters, unless we do it God’s way. Samson learnt that the hard way. The earlier we learn it, brethren, sisters and young people, particularly, the earlier we learn God’s way to overcome sin.

20. 11:14

    The better off we’ll be. And the less pain and agony we’ll suffer all through our lives as. Samson’s life is witnessed. You know the Angel didn’t just come and promised a son. If we read our Bibles more carefully than that, we’ll see something else. Verse 4 Because he said, You’re going to conceive and bear a son. This is what he said to Manoah’s wife. But verse 4 continues Now.

21. 11:41

    Therefore beware, I pray thee, he says, and drink not wine, nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing. For lo, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come on his head. For the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he shall begin. Isn’t that interesting? He shall begin.

22. 12:04

    He would never finish. Delivering Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Because of his own limitations. And it would be left. To the greater Nazarite, the greater son of the woman who would later come. But that important message in verses four and five are repeated twice by the Angel that he was to be a Nazarite from the womb and. There is the fundamental crux of Samson’s life. It is the foundation principle of deliverance, the deliverance that God can offer.

23. 12:48

    It’s the foundation of it all. Here right at the start. Of his life. God is telling us that a Nazarite life from birth is essential before deliverance can come. We. Can’t overcome or have dominion over the enemy until we have dominion over ourselves. And that, in a nutshell, is what Samson’s life is about. And his life, dramatically, in fact tragically at times, illustrates that principles.

24. 13:21

    You know his failure to have dominion were due to his lapses in his in maintaining his Nazarite principles. And He would only begin to deliver because of those lapses. I’d like you to go back to Numbers chapter 6 for a moment. You’re probably all familiar that Numbers chapter 6 contains the details of the Nazarite law. But in Numbers chapter 6 and at verse 2, Yahweh said to Moses, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow vow of a Nazarite to separate themselves unto Yahweh, He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of the of the wine or vinegar of strong drink. Neither shall he drink any liquor of the grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried.

25. 14:26

    And so it goes on listing all the details of that which was expected of a Nazarite. But what we notice first of all is that. If a man. Or a woman wanted to be a Nazarite. They could. There was no compulsion. It was a voluntary devotion to God for a chosen period of time.

26. 14:51

    And it’s very clear the further we look into that and we haven’t got time to prove all this, this afternoon, but it’s very clear that there was a an association between the Nazarites in what he did and what he was commanded to do and that of the high priest. And so on the overhead here, it says that he was to be identified really with the high priest because the priests were to drink no wine. There was to be no contact with death, just as with the Nazarite and the priests.

27. 15:28

    Sorry. The Nazarite was to keep his hair uncut and the High priest was to wear a crown which said holiness to to Yahweh. In fact, the word for crown is as used for the high priest occurs in this chapter in relation to the Nazarite. But he was also. Identified with the the. King in some respects, and so in principle what God was saying. Is that a man?

28. 15:54

    Though he was not of the tribe of Judah or of the tribe of Levi, could in fact imitate the behaviour of the king priest for a short period of time of his own choosing, he would volunteer to devote himself to that. Because God had called. The nation as a Kingdom of priests and an holy nation.

29. 16:15

    And so any individual in Israel could do that. But there are several fundamental things, two in fact fundamental principles upon which the Nazarite vow was based. The first we’ve just read in verse 3, and that is a separation from wine, a separation from all intoxicating influences on the mind. That’s really what what God was concerned.

30. 16:41

    About and from death, the avoiding. All corrupting and degrading influences upon the mind because God is really concerned with the mind more than anything else. And in verse 8 we find the other principle. All the days of His separation, He is holy unto Yahweh. So it wasn’t. Just a matter of abstaining from some things. There was a positive side to Nazarite’s ship, and he was to be holy unto Yahweh all the days that he had chosen, and there his mind was to be elevated in divine things. It was to be seen in his life and in his actions. And so we have.

31. 17:29

    Two fundamental principles, separation and holiness, or separation and consecration, dedication to God and. Both of those were essential. Characteristics of a Nazarite And if you have a look in verse 5, the hair in fact, of the Nazarite really symbolized both of those two foundation principles. Verse 5 says and all the days of the vow of his separation, there shall no razor come upon his head until the days be fulfilled in which he separated himself unto Yahweh. He shall be holy and shall let the locks of his hair, head of his hair grow.

32. 18:07

    So he’s got to separate all his days from those other things, and he’s got to be holy unto Yahweh. And in that context, we’re told that he must let the locks of his head grow to show that he is separate and consecrated in holiness to God. I want you to remember that that the hair was a symbol of. Both of those foundation principles of Nazarite ship, well, that’s.

33. 18:34

    What the law said about Nazarite ship. But when we come back to numbers, Chapter 13. Sorry Judges. Chapter 13. And we look at Samson. He was an unusual Nazarite to say the least, because we’ll notice that there are at least three major departures from the Nazarite law. The 1st is that he was not a voluntary candidate for Nazarite ship. God said this lad will be a Nazarite before. He comes out of the womb.

34. 19:23

    He had no choice. Not only that, he had to be a Nazarite for life. A Nazarite normally could choose how long he was going to be a Nazarite for. And the third thing is that his mother. Actually shared that Nazarite ship with him, which is a very unusual thing. Well, there must must.

35. 19:42

    Be some reason for all of those things, brethren and sisters, and they’re very, very powerful. God is telling us this. Young people listen that if we want dominion over the Philistine influence, there’s only one way to get it. Nazarite ship. Is not optional, it’s mandatory. It’s got to be for life. It can’t just be when you feel like it, and it’s got to start young if.

36. 20:22

    It’s going to be effective. What an amazing thing, and they’re the principles of godly life and how do I overcome the enemy I laid down in the life of this individual that God called. In fact, what God said about that Nazarite ship, unique as it is here to Manoah’s wife, is the most important thing.

37. 20:43

    It’s not just that he was going to be a miraculous boy. It’s what the Angel said he was going to do. And what he was going to be separation from all the filing influences of sin and its effects and a consecration of a life to. God in holiness. And the earlier the better. God says the earlier the better.

38. 21:08

    Perhaps we’re starting to get a little. Closer to our theme, which we’ll come back to tonight, you know the. Lesson is, young people, this world is screaming at you. If you’re still at school, you’re getting this every day and even in the workforce and the training courses, people are getting this thrust down their throat all the time. Expand your horizons, broaden your outlook, fulfil your desires, be yourself, make your mark. Inhibition is bad.

39. 21:39

    For you and God says Nazarite, ship is the only way. Narrow down the influences of your life, abstain from ungodly and defiling ways and behaviour and seek that which is good, true, positive and honest. It’s the only way to have dominion. It’s. The only way to have. Happiness. And did you notice, young people, that the Angel did not say to Manoah’s wife? That when this.

40. 22:18

    Lad grows up, he will be a nazarite and learn that when he learns the truth. Didn’t say that at all. The Angel said this Nazarite influence will start in the womb, and those of you who’ve grown up in the. Truth, Be thankful for that marvellous privilege. It’s good to bear the yoking youth.

41. 22:46

    And a woman was to be involved as a result in the Nazarite vow. Look at verse 4. We read that a moment ago. It begins and says now therefore beware, I pray. Thee. Drink not He’s talking to the woman and she repeats that to her husband in verse 7. And then in verse 8, Manoah. Who was a godly man?

42. 23:11

    Praise to God for direction they they saw the significance of of the marvel of what God was going to do in Israel and and he is on his knees and praise to God and says in verse 80, please send the Angel to come and tell us how we should direct this child. This is such an important thing. We want to know how we should, how we should bring up this. Lad, if he’s going to deliver Israel. But in verse 9, God hearkened to the voice of Manoah, and the Angel came again unto the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoah, her husband, was not there. This is being very deliberate.

43. 23:53

    This Angel is avoiding Manoah for some reason and is going back to the woman all the time. And the woman in verse 10, we find runs off and gets her husband and comes brings him back and the angel’s still there. We find that Manoah in verse 12 asks the Angel directly the question that he asked in prayer.

44. 24:14

    He’s very concerned to do the right thing. He’s a very godly and honest man. And the answer comes back in verse 13. And the Angel said, The Angel of Yahweh said unto Manoah. Of all that I. Said unto the woman, Let her beware she. May not eat of anything that cometh of the vine. Neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing.

45. 24:44

    Of all that I command her, let her beware. It’s the same word. Fact. It’s probably better translated. Observe in fact, three times in that chapter you’ll find in verse 4 the word beware. It’s occurs in verse 13 and in verse 14 is all the same word and it means to very carefully guard or observe.

46. 25:07

    What an amazing answer that was when Manoah had prayed to God and then asked the Angel, what should we do to bring up this young lad so that he’s a godly young man? And the Angel just kept on repeating what he’d said before. Of everything that I’ve said to the woman, let her beware.

47. 25:24

    She shall not drink wine. She shall not blah blah. What was he trying to tell Manoah? What was he saying was saying this? It’s the divine influence on that child Manoa that’s going to be important. This is my work, said God. It’s not a matter of what you, Manoa, are going to do in your own strength and how you will bring him up, even though he was determined to bring him up. As a godly.

48. 25:59

    Young man, God’s not denying that he was a godly man. You know. But the way. For them to bring up this child was for the woman to be a Nazarite. What a powerful lesson that is for all parents the way. To bring up young Nazarites, brethren and sisters, is to be a Nazarite, not in Word, but in deed. And in truth.

49. 26:33

    It was no good Samson’s mother as he was growing up, saying. Now, Samson, I’ve told you before, the Angel said you’re not to drink wine. Glug glug glug. And she had some of her own. What would that have taught Samson? No good at all. She was also to live exactly the same life that she was going to expect in her son, who was God’s son in a sense, for doing a very great work. The actions are much more powerful than words, aren’t they?

50. 27:05

    We all know, brothers and sisters, that words don’t influence our children, but actions do, You know, it’s no good telling our children to do this or that and then doing it ourselves. It’s no good telling them. They’ll be patient and getting impatient with them. They will learn what they see. They won’t learn what they hear told them. Well, not very often anyway.

51. 27:33

    Children learn to become what they see lived. What an enormous responsibility that places on us. All parents have a controlling influence on the lives of their children as to whether they are NAD right. And young people don’t think you’re exempt from that lesson either, because there’s a fundamental principle that you ought to come to grips with before you get married.

52. 27:56

    And that is if you are ever, by the grace of God, blessed with an inheritance of his in seed that follows you. If you’re blessed with a family in days to come, just make sure that your life. Is sorted out before they come into the world because it’s too late to sort it out afterwards, but Samson’s parents had their lives sorted out.

53. 28:22

    And we have. Nothing in the record to to make us think anything else that than that Samson’s mother or was a Nazarite the whole of their life. They were a faithful and godly couple. They’re portrayed very favourably in this record. Not only chosen by. God for this miraculous birth of the Deliverer. But she herself appreciated those principles of Nazarites. Shiban accepted.

54. 28:51

    It we find that. Menorah is a man of prayer. We find them endeavouring to bring up Samson in godly. Ways day later in this chapter. You remember it was as it was read in our hearing today, they brought a voluntary burnt offering indicating their dedication and it was accepted miraculously by God. And the other thing we know about them is that they were Danites.

55. 29:16

    Danites living in Zora. Sorry, I just lost the. Transparency The tribe of Dan at the beginning of the period of the judges had tried for a very short time. The yellow area there is the is the territory that was allotted to Dan not far from Jerusalem down towards the coastal plain of the Philistines in Philistine country largely.

56. 30:01

    They were unable. To take that territory because of the ferocity of the Philistines at the time, and they therefore looked for an easier option and they went. Way up north. Where the Zeidanians dwelt carelessly and were not in a fighting mood. And they killed them all and took their territory. Marvelously brave and courageous Danites, and the majority of the tribe was up there. But there were a few tenaciously hanging on to the original inheritance because they knew Yahweh had promised it to them, and they had enough faith to stay there and to defend it against the.

57. 30:35

    Inroads of the Philistines and of the world. And Samson was born into a household in that circumstance here at Zorah, right on the border of the territory of Dan. So he’s born into a very favourable environment. What a marvellous privilege that was for him, verse 24 tells us. And the woman? Bare a son and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and Yahweh blessed him. His name means brilliant sunlight. And finally, there would now be a ray of lights amidst the darkness of Israel’s sin, or so it seems. His mother named him that way for. And Yahweh blessed him.

58. 31:25

    What does that mean? What? Can it mean? Brethren, sisters, except that from an early age he began to to appreciate divine things, and Can you imagine anything else with a mother and a father like that? His mother would have taught him carefully about Nazarite principles, what it meant, and who the enemy really was. And God’s deliverance in the past and all that had happened to their forebears through the period of the Judges and the inheritance that God had given that was now overrun by these enemies and the promises that God had given to the fathers of the nation.

59. 32:06

    And so and so, and so it went on. And day after day, she would have. Drummed that into that little child as he was growing up and Yahweh blessed him. He was a growing young mind that was appreciating divine things and accepting and knowing what Yahweh really wanted in his youth. Verse 25 Fill. Then the Spirit of Yahweh began to move. Him, and so he now as he came.

60. 32:32

    Became a little more independent. Brothers and sisters and young people, the spirit of Yahweh actually started to generate in this man, and he’s probably still a teenager. It’s very fitting that the spirit of Yahweh was moving in him because it was God’s work. Remember, Israel hadn’t cried. God was going to show his mercy to the nation. Through a man that he had raised up. And we have here a picture of a of a godly. Enthusiastic young man who’s moved by the word of God and by divine things, and it began to move him the. Word at times is not in the original the the translators have translated move him at times from one Hebrew word. And that word really means to impale or to agitate. It’s it’s rendered to stir or to urge on. And he’s urged on in the camp of Dan. And he wasn’t really a young man who was seeking his own interests.

61. 33:36

    There was a camp and that was all it was. It wasn’t the inheritance of the. Tribe, though it should have been one of the biggest. It was a camp. With a few faithful tenaciously hanging. On to the truth there and the remnant. Had forsaken it and gone to the world and he’s hanging on in the camp of Dad and the word of Yahweh is moving this young man. Take the picture.

62. 34:00

    There’s a young lad who’s fired by the truth and he’s moved in the camp of Dan and we shouldn’t have the chapter break there. He’s under great pressure because of the Philistines in there. And we find in verse 1 of chapter 14 and Samson went down to Timnath, moved by the Spirit of Yahweh. You know what Timnath means?

63. 34:25

    Means the assigned portion. And it should not have been into the hands of the Philistines. It should have been in the hands of Danites. And he goes down to the assigned portion that Yahweh had given him, because Yahweh was moving him. He was fed up with the Philistines. He knew that God had.

64. 34:44

    Promised this to him, and he moved down into that territory which was occupied. Verse 4 tells us that his father and mother knew not that it was of Yahweh that he sought an occasion against the Philistines, for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. Oh, what an awful word that is. Comes straight out of Genesis 1 when men lost dominion because of sin.

65. 35:09

    It was meant to have dominion over all things, but lost it. And now of all the people in the world that have got dominion over Israel, it has to be the filthy Philistines. That’s why he was agitated. He could see God’s purpose turned on its head and he went down to the assigned portion.

66. 35:30

    Israel had never been at a lower point since they came out of Israel under the dominion of sin of the. Land of sin. And they were. Content for it to be so, because in chapter 15 of Judges and verse 11 they say that to Samson. The men of Judas said that to Samson.

67. 35:48

    But he saw the situation. Samson saw very clearly what the situation was and it. Ought. Never to have existed. So down he goes, and he. Saw a woman in timnath of the daughters of. The Philistines. It is Samson’s great and only recorded weakness, and at times we think, oh, what a fool. He went down there, fired by the word of God to wrest back the dominion that belonged to Israel, and he happened just to see a. Woman and thought she looks pretty nice and his original intention was waylaid.

68. 36:41

    What a tragic thing. We do think, don’t we, at times, that Samson was a fool, all he was. But let’s translate that into our own experiences. Let’s translate his weakness, his only recorded weakness, for one of ours, brothers and sisters and young people. Go on, do that in your own mind. You. Think of a weakness that you know you have.

69. 37:12

    And think of it from now on in the context of Samson’s life. Do you know this woman? Should never have been in Timnath, and it was only because of the failure of. His brethren in an earlier. Generation to uphold the truth that that woman was even there. What a tragedy when he’s coming down there to fix what that they had failed to do before.

70. 37:37

    He bumps into the remnant of what was leftover. Because they hadn’t lived the truth. He bumped into it nevertheless. She should have been gone along with all the Philistines 400 years before. But the lusts of his eyes had blinded his mind, derailed his original objective. And we’ve no longer got the Samson of chapter 13 at verse 25.

71. 38:10

    You see, in Philistine territory, brothers and sisters, things always look a little. Different than they do when we’re here or when we’re home. They’re always a little different. You know, we might be moved to do the right things when we’re home, when we’re comfortably reading our Bibles, when we’re thinking about the word of God in a godly home environment. But beware, when we walk into Philistine territory, there are many, many casualties, young people, brethren and sisters of experience and age who’ve had to learn that lesson the hard way. You know, it’s much.

72. 39:03

    Easier for us to say no at a distance than when we’re face to face with a human being who’s attractive, who’s got personality, who’s got feelings and emotions. It’s much, much more difficult to say no, or to think is just quite as clearly as we saw them when we were. Home and we’ve got to be very, very careful because we all possess all of us. It’s not just denounce Samson, brothers and sisters, all of us possess powerful emotions in our bodies. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. Which are not of the Father and that do influence us all at times.

73. 39:47

    And they pulled a blind down over all. That he knew and he lost control. All he ever knew. About the Philistines was temporarily blotted out and his mind lost control of his actions. What of all his Nazarite principles? He’d had them ground into his mind since he was this high. He knew them backwards.

74. 40:13

    He knew about separation. He knew about dedication to God. The spirit mind must control the actions of the body. And now it’s all back to front. He marches back up to his father and mother. In verse 2 he came up and told his father and his mother and said, I have seen a.

75. 40:35

    Woman out of the daughters of the Philistines now therefore get her for me to wife. What a terrible thing he’d allowed. His lust to concede and instead. Of bringing back 16 heads. Of the Philistines, he came back to tell his parents that he’d seen a woman in Timnath. His spiritual vision had been blinded.

76. 41:03

    Conscience temporarily blocked young people. Sin always has that effect. It’s the first effect A. Blind and shutters will come down. Over our eyes, over our moral. Faculties so that we can’t. Any longer see things as clearly as we could see them before. And there is a very important reason for confining and narrowing the influences of our lives, because once our lusts, whatever they are. Don’t have to be in the same.

77. 41:41

    Direction as Samson’s whatever. Our lusts are if they are. Inflamed brethren, sisters, it’s almost. Impossible to take control of them and horrified parents Here his mother and father who had brought him up all this time and are faced with a with an unmitigated tragedy. God’s work was about to be undone. All those years that they’d carefully nurtured and nourished this land, he’d grown up into a fine young man, virile and active in the truth, determined to take action.

78. 42:13

    Against the Philistines. And now he. Wants to marry a philistine and uncircumcised and unbaptised. Woman, that’s what it amounted to absolutely unthinkable to Manoah’s wife and to Manoah himself and that his parents make a passionate appeal to him. Very clearly reasoned in verse 3. His father and his mother said is there. Never a woman among the.

79. 42:38

    Daughters of thy brethren, that is. Isn’t there anyone? In the truth, or among all my people whom thou goest to that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines. If only he’d heeded that, brothers and sisters and young people, if only he’d heeded that sound advice, it would have saved so much tragedy, so much heartache for him and his family.

80. 43:06

    But he’s. Totally. Irrational Samson said unto his father, Get her for me. For as the margin says. She is right in mine eyes. Oh, he’s really gone. She is right. What tragic. Words out of the mouth of the potential deliverer. He’s been raised up to deliver a people who could do nothing else but that which was right in their own eyes. And now he is saying that he wants to marry one of the enemy because she’s right in mine eyes. What a tragedy.

81. 43:44

    Back in Joshua, just make a note of this, We won’t turn to it. In Joshua chapter 23 and verse 11 to 13 in. Joshua’s last. Words He warned the people and said if you make marriages with the heathen, when you go into that land, make sure you understand that God will not deliver you. Oh.

82. 44:06

    Powerful things. And he went on to say, there’ll be thorns in your eyes, thorns in your eyes and that enemy eventually. Poked his eyes out.

83. 44:21

    Just be careful. Just be careful, young people and brothers and sisters, where we let our eyes go and where? We let our feet wander, you know. Over recent months. I’ve heard of of young people who have. TV’s in their own rooms, their own bedrooms. What unmitigated folly.

84. 44:47

    To bring philistine territory right back home and young people. Who will go out to discos or to nightclubs and think that they can wander into the meetings? Or youth group on the next occasion.

85. 45:11

    What utter folly. Inflamed lusts infect the mind, inevitably affect the mind, and sin deteriorates. It always deteriorates the mind. Do you know what happened to Sampson here? You count them later. But 10 * 10 times God tried to intervene providentially to stop this marriage that Sampson wanted to contract from going ahead 10 times. God wanted that.

86. 45:42

    And a tragedy is that Samson became increasingly unresponsive because the further he dabbled with sin and fiddled around with the Philistines, the more locked in he got. And it was only all finished when she was a pile of ashes. God had tried 10 times to stop that. And he wouldn’t listen because once sin has started it.

87. 46:09

    It affects our minds. Young people learn that lesson early. Sin affects the mind. It affects the thinking process. It affects the judgement. And we might think that we would never marry outside the tree. We’d never do what anything, anything that Samson did. Well, Samson didn’t think he would either. He went down there to get the Philistines, and look what he bumped into. He didn’t know it was there.

88. 46:38

    Samson didn’t think he would either. He went down there to keep the Philistines and look what he bumped into. He didn’t know it was there. He didn’t. Know what to? Expect and it brought absolute heartache to his parents, anguish and frustration, bitterness and suffering to him that never ever left him for the rest of his days.

89. 47:00

    It it scars on his. Mind that he could never ever arise, young people. And it gave great pain to Yahweh and the heavens who’d raised him up to be a deliverer. It gave opportunity enemy to to blasphemy.

90. 47:26

    I’d like you to turn to that passage, Second of Corinthians, chapter 6. We all know it well. We hardly need it to be reinforced that marriage is only in the Lord. Young people, keep reinforcing that idea in your minds and be. Careful where you let your feet. And your eyes wander because there the apostle says in verse 14 be you’re not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

91. 48:03

    For what fellowship are the righteousness with unrighteousness? It’s that serious? What Communion? Hath light with darkness, What concord hath Christ with Belial are he that believeth, Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said.

92. 48:24

    I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and they shall be my, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And Samson accepted the yoke of the truth early in age. Now he wants to be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. That unequal yoking, as can be seen from that that illustration will cause chafing and pain and aggravation. Now, but the real.

93. 48:51

    Issue is really in verse 17 because there Paul goes on to say wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate. Now where have you heard that word? Saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. You see what God is saying, Marriage out of the truth is a denial of Nazarite ship.

94. 49:24

    Be separate and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. The corollary of that is if we don’t, God won’t. You know that’s not the end. Read verse 18 and I’ll be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore, he goes on to say in Chapter 7, verse one, these promises. Dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, and there in the context of marrying out the truth. I believe the Apostle Paul, without any question of a doubt, had the Nazarite principle in mind. Separate verse 17 and perfect holiness. The two foundation principles of Nazarite ship and you will be my sons and daughters, said the living God. What a marvellous.

95. 50:31

    Principle, that is, you know, true Prince, true Nazarites have their bodies in subjection to their minds. And they will take very great. Care where they go and what they do. Take. Care young people with whom you associate at. School or at work? The apostle said in First of Corinthians 15. Bad company ruins good morals.

96. 50:54

    That is a very. Important principle. Don’t learn it the hard way. Bad company ruins good morals. If we think we can socially join with those at work or at school, in whatever activity or whatever, without being affected, let’s think again, because we’ve already been deceived by sin and by its effects.

97. 51:20

    We must live in this evil world, young people and brothers and sisters, but not be part of it. Come back to Judges chapter 14

98. 51:33

    and see Samson’s response to his parents. His parents pleading in verse 5 and Samson went down. That’s how much notice he took of his parents.

99. 51:48

    He went down, and his father and mother went to Tim. Sorry, let’s read that again. Then went Samson down, and his father and mother to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath. And behold, a young lion roared against him, and the spirit of Yahweh came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have a kid, and he had nothing in his hands. But he told not his father or his mother what he’d done. So it’s evident that they weren’t with Him when that happened, and it’s intriguing that the Spirit of Yahweh should come upon him when he’s going down to Timnath to see this woman.

100. 52:28

     Why, when he is going down there did the spirit of Yahweh come? And why did His mother and father go down there in the first place? And what’s he doing? In a vineyard, of all places. His mother was evidently not in a vineyard. But we’re told in that in that story. There that he had nothing in his hand and he just ripped. The line apart.

101. 52:48

     Because the Spirit of Yahweh came upon him, and when he must have looked at that line. Afterwards all over. He must have been. Absolutely staggered. It wasn’t in his strength. He wasn’t such a powerful man that he could just get a line and just RIP it apart. Out of His natural strength, the spirit of Yahweh came upon him, and he must have known that in fact He did know it, and it played on his conscience. Now what God was?

102. 53:13

     Saying to him, Samson, you’re going down to Timnath and the Philistines are going to roar upon. You as a lion. If you’re prepared, I’ll RIP them apart in your hands, the spirit which comes from me. Said God is. Going to RIP. Them apart, Samson, but you can’t lay around with lions. You have to grab them by the jaws and RIP them apart.

103. 53:44

     You can’t hat them and say nice Pussycat. Which is what he was. Wanting to do at this stage and the longer he played around and thought about that. Woman that he wanted to marry, the harder it became to turn back and the less impact it had on him. You know he did not tell his mother and father why he told them a lot of other he. Went back and said I want to marry this, this Philistine woman.

104. 54:13

     Why didn’t he now tell him about the line? Because he knew there was something in that and God was trying to teach him a lesson. He knew that there was something there, and it was. Playing on his mind and he didn’t. Want to tell them because they would have immediately picked up the issue and said, Samson, can’t you see what that’s doing in your life?

105. 54:31

     He knew God was doing something, but he wanted to go that way, and he procrastinated for so long that he didn’t know where he was going to go, and he just kept on leaning. Back over towards Timnath to see this woman all the time. Here’s a graphic picture of the deteriorating effect of sin and of indecision in our lives, young people.

106. 54:55

     And he went back in verse 7 to see the woman, and he went and talked to the woman, he told and she. Pleased Sensing. Well, I don’t know why he went back. You know, I think he went back well. This incident of the line was worrying him and and he really believed he probably shouldn’t go. But then he thought.

107. 55:15

     Well, I’ll just go back once and it’ll convince me once and for all. Whether I should be there or not. And he went, what a stupid thing it was, because when he got talking to her, of course he liked it. She pleased him well and he’s decided to keep on going with the relationship.

108. 55:33

     But he should have stayed. Away and that interaction destroyed any growing doubts that there were in his mind that so it made it. Easier for him to. Rationalize and the impact of that lesson that God was driving home with a lion was lost. It was a God-given. Opportunity, and he’d thrown it away.

109. 55:53

     The more we capitulate, the more we oscillate with sin and making decisions, young people, the more likely we are to give in. The more quickly, the more decisively we make a decision for what is right, the easier it will be to to do it again. But there’s further degradation of his thinking. Look at verse 8. And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned the side to see the carcass of the lion.

110. 56:26

     And behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. Now that first word carcass there is different to the word in the end of verse 8 and in verse 9, and it really means the ruin or the fall of that lion. It’s an unusual word. But he goes down and and interestingly, he digresses across to see this line.

111. 56:47

     It was still. Plaguing it was still niggling at his conscience. Young people Never, ever ignore the twinges of conscience. God is telling us something and some practical advice about overcoming weakness and problems in our. If you know that you have a weakness or a problem. When you’re in a saner moment and it’s not, the problem is not there.

112. 57:15

     Sit. Down with your Bible and determine the course of action as to what you would do if that problem faces. You again determined that when you’re not in the prompt. Or that weakness and. I could rest. You can rest. Assured that when that. Rears its head again in your life. The first thing that will come into your mind is what you determined was the right thing to do. And if you have.

113. 57:43

     A plan of action to follow. You’ve got something to rest on and to hold and to walk straight out of that temptation or of that weakness and take that course of action. ‘Cause there’s no guarantee that we’re going to necessarily take it, but it will come back to our mind. If we’ve made a determined effort to to determine.

114. 58:03

     How we might overcome what we. Will do. What we will do in those circumstances is very important. To be. Don’t leave it to chance. But now Samson looks at the ruin of the Philistines, because that’s what it represented, and he’s amazed at the whole instant. He stands back and thinks about when it happened. And now there’s something even more unusual. There’s bees in a carcass, and bees never, never build, carc build.

115. 58:29

     They’re hives in carcasses or in putrefying remains. And there’s something strange, there’s something awfully strange about this whole thing. And he took the honey. Now what that word means in verse 9, He took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and he told them not at the end of verse 9 that He had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion. That is exactly the same word in the Hebrew that is rendered in verse 4, Dominion He.

116. 59:05

     Out of the carcass of that lion. Took Dominion and went back home and he gave to his mother. He didn’t tell them where it came from, he just gave them some of this honey. Or what was it? What was it? Telling him brothers and sisters, he didn’t tell them about that line, but God was trying to teach Samson a lesson.

117. 59:26

     He was saying to him that Samson, it’s only the Spirit of Yahweh that can ruin the oppressor and bring dominion. And it will only be. Then that sweetness and blessing, which is what Honey represents, would come. Samson, while you’re playing around with a live lion, there can be no sweetness. Stop dabbling with Philistine.

118. 59:53

     Women RIP the Philistines apart and sweetness will come out of that ruin. It’s powerful, isn’t it? That Samson by this stage has oscillated for so long that though he sees there’s something there, he doesn’t want to listen to that little voice in his head. Unless we make decisive action, we’ll always be in trouble, brothers and sisters, in the face of the providential hand of God. There seen in his life in verse 10. So his father went down under the woman, and Samson there made a feast.

119. 1:00:31

     For so the young men used to do, and in the face of God’s Proverbs, he goes down. Notice his mother didn’t go. But the wise man in Proverbs chapter 3 said Trust in Yahweh, and leaned with all thine heart, and leaned not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct thy paths, underlined the words all, in all thy way acknowledge. And Samson wasn’t doing that at the moment. And so he was allowed by God to go down, tragic as that was. If we will not acknowledge him in all our ways, young people, He will allow us to go our way.

120. 1:01:38

     And what a tragedy that is. And Samson. Threw a drinking party with his philistine uncircumcised philistine mates. That’s how far sin and its effects had deteriorated. And now he himself is under demeaning of the Philistines. He’s following their customs and what was the enemy and now his friends. What an amazing thing and don’t think.

121. 1:02:06

     That that won’t happen to us. Don’t think that the enemy out there and those who think diametrically opposed to all that God upholds us right and true, can’t become our friends because they can become our friends. As soon as we let down our guard and we sell ourselves out and follow their customs, we’ll be their friends.

122. 1:02:29

     If we stand up for what’s right, we’ll be their enemies and they won’t have a bar of us. Because he didn’t make a firm stand. He just went down and down. His mind just got worse and worse. And Singh defiled his conscience. It became. Easy and easy, and in fact, we got to the point. Where he could make a joke.

123. 1:02:47

     Out of the Providence of God Never Riddle about the line a joke out of the Providence of God. We can’t be involved in the world’s activities and it have no effect on us. We can’t. It will have an effect. And Samson’s party goes on and he only comes to his senses when he’s so deceived, betrayed and hurt because they found out he’s real by pressing his wife to be that he storms out in disgust. And verse 19 says and the Spirit. Of Yahweh came upon him, and he went down to Ascol and he. Slew 30 men.

124. 1:03:26

     That’s why the spirit of Yahweh came back to him, because he was ready to RIP the lion He put turned his back on all the Philistine ways and walked out to do. Damage to them and to uphold the principles of Yahweh and Yahweh was with Him. What a powerful lesson that is. Every time he turns his back on the Philistines in the record, Yahweh comes, comes back, isn’t. Isn’t that what?

125. 1:03:53

     Kong said in in that to verse in Second of Corinthians that we saw. Be ye separate and touch, not the unclean thing, and I will receive you while you’re dabbling, Samson, Don’t think. That the Almighty can be close to you and He. Went up interestingly, isn’t it? He went. Up to his father’s house.

126. 1:04:14

     End of verse 19. And you’d think, well, Samson, thank goodness you’ve learnt your lesson after all that. It took an awful lot. But chapter 15 verse one says, but it came to pass within a while after, in the time of the wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife. With a kid. And said I’ll go into my wife, into the chamber to consummate the marriage.

127. 1:04:42

     What an amazing thing. Surely he had learnt his lesson. Well, young people, this is the lesson. Sin permanently affects the mind. That’s why he went back. He had paths cut into his mind that he couldn’t eradicate, and he kept on coming back to that woman because he dabbled around with it for too long.

128. 1:05:16

     And now he comes back. Sin degrades. But you know young people, the reverse is also very true. The experience or practice of what is right, of righteousness, of godliness, of truthful things, of holiness, has a powerful effect on our minds if we make conscious decisions. Positive decisions to do what is right. It will become easier to do what is right.

129. 1:05:45

     You know, It’s the analogy of practicing any skill. If you want to be able to play tennis well, you’ve got to get out of there at court and you’ve got to practice. You don’t just hit 2 balls or know. How to do? It and then you can play tennis, not well anyway. And with the expression of righteousness in our lives, young people, we have to have practice. It’s the analogy.

130. 1:06:08

     That we are very familiar with in everyday life, and the apostle Paul says this in Hebrews 5. Solid food and this is taken from Weymouth translation Solid. Food is for adults, that is, those who through. Constant practice have their spiritual faculties carefully trained. To distinguish between good and evil, you. Know what that’s?

131. 1:06:34

     Saying when we practice doing what is right, our moral faculties will become sharper and sharper and we’ll be able to what is right and wrong. But if we have practice of unrighteousness and you’re in that environment all the time, our senses will become duller and duller and duller and we won’t be able to see what we’re doing.

132. 1:07:00

     Then Samson’s. Saga goes on and on. We don’t. We’re not going to look at any more. Of Samson’s life today, apart from right at the very end of his. Life he afflicted great. Losses on the Philistines. And then they burned his wife. He brought great slaughter on another occasion when his mind was focused on his on what God had actually called him for. His life is.

133. 1:07:24

     Characterized by great highs, great courage, great space for which he. Stands in Hebrews Chapter 11. But there is also great troughs of personal weakness. And it was that weakness that hindered God’s ability to work through him. And he never, ever resolved that problem, brethren and sisters, to start with the problem that that was a problem at the beginning of his life.

134. 1:07:57

     And we find, as we know in Chapter 16, the end of his life. He loved a woman again. And the problem, the problem that he had not effectively dealt with, came back.

135. 1:08:16

     And it’s again in the territory of Dan, in the valley of Soric that belonged to Dan, but is. Possessed by Philistines. And there in that place, he sold his heart, soul, and. Strength into the lap of a Philistine woman and the scars. Of his previous. Experiences had led him to ignore his conscience. Compare that with Joseph.

136. 1:08:46

     The practice of righteousness, when it came to a difficult decision, made the right stand because his faculties were sharpened. But Samson’s mind has been affected by sin. And. He can’t see as clearly and he hadn’t worked strongly enough to overcome. That and now the symbol of his, of his separation and his consecration.

137. 1:09:10

     His hair drops into the lap of a woman and the source of his power to gain dominion is snuffed out. That power lay in his separation of thinking and his devotion to holiness. That’s where our power lays, young people and brethren and sisters, in the separation of our thinking and a devotion to holiness.

138. 1:09:39

     There is power that can match nothing on earth in that but a woman, a Philistine woman, robbed him of the greatest power on earth and bound him in chains. What a powerful lesson. The world with its the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. All the ways. And activities that are associated with its philosophies can SAP the vital power that we have and take dominion. If we allow.

139. 1:10:16

     Too close a contact and allow the distinctions to blur. But that wasn’t even the greatest tragedy in Samson’s life. The greatest tragedy is in verse 6, verse 20 of chapter 16. And she said the Philistines are upon the Samson and he woke out of sleep. And he said I will go out of that other times and shake myself. And he whisked, not that Yahweh was departed, he just thought he could dabble.

140. 1:10:56

     Around. With the worldly things play, loosen light and still go back and have all the benefits of Yahweh’s association. And he was deceived, sadly deceived, and he didn’t even know that Yahweh had left him,

141. 1:11:22

     deceived by sin and his involvement in worldly things. And it put him in bondage with no power. Absolute bondage and sin will do the same, Young people, it’ll do the same. Samson was in a prison. House. His hair shaved, his eyes gouged out chains in darkness, in solitude. In agony, day after day, month after month, year after year.

142. 1:11:50

     And in that circumstance, with nothing else, what he’d learned in youth began to come back. He heard his mother’s voice in that prison. Young people Samson Nazarite ship is the only way to overcome the Philistines.

143. 1:12:20

     And all the events of his life fluttered back, and with no eyes he began to see with the clarity he’d never ever appreciated before. The true issues of life, separation from ungodly influences, and consecration in holiness are the only things worth striving after. Look at verse 22. Howbeit, the record tells us the hair of his head began to grow again margin as when he was shaved. This had taken some considerable time. And it’s not just saying his hair grew. His hair was a symbol of the consecration and the separation that bespoke the Nazarite.

144. 1:13:13

     His hair was taken away because he wasn’t consecrated and he wasn’t separate. But now it was growing again. It was telling us that his separation of mind and the consecration in holiness, though he was in a prison and could do nothing much. Was beginning to return. And they took him out at that time, after all this had gone round in his mind, and he’d seen the folly of his whole life.

145. 1:13:35

     They took him out amidst the mocking and humiliation and ribald laughter of the cruelest and filthiest people on earth, and they joined with their God to despise him.

146. 1:13:51

     And he couldn’t see them. He could only hear them, but he hated. What he heard, he despised it. And he whispered a prayer, O Yahweh, Remember Me I pray thee, and strengthen me. I pray thee only this once, and let me die with the Philistines, because I’m no better than they are. And he bowed himself with might not his own, and in his death brought the greatest victory of his life, a victory that’s typical now, which would be later carried out by the greatest.

147. 1:14:51

     Seed of the woman. Who all his life would have the minion over himself? So that in death he might deliver those who all their lifetime had been subject to bondage. Samson’s life, brethren, sisters and young people, shows that despite human weakness, pressures that he himself brought to bear because of his own folly, we can, through the mercy and grace of God, be victorious. But not until we recognize the Nazarite principles in our life. In conclusion, I’d like you to come with me through Paul’s words in Second of Corinthians chapter 10, 2nd of Corinthians chapter 10.

148. 1:15:50

     Here’s the issue. Young people and brother and. Sisters for our lives and the apostle says in second of Corinthians 10 and verse 3. For though we. Walk in the flesh. We do not war after the flesh, as Samson didn’t. He ought to have been fighting with a power that they knew nothing of.

149. 1:16:12

     For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty. Through God to the pulling down of strongholds, we can do anything. Through God’s power. But verse 5 says, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Let me read you that verse from the RSV. We destroy, Paul says, arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Dominion is not won or lost in the world. It’s won or lost in the mind.

150. 1:17:04

     The world is out. To control and to influence our thinking. But our greatest enemy is within, and God has given us the weapons to deal with it. It’s no good being in a book, young people, because it. Won’t do us any good when we need it. It must be in our minds. We’ve got to spend time exercising our minds on godly things so that when high and lofty things, arguments, proud obstacles to the knowledge of God, whatever it might be, weaknesses raise their heads.

151. 1:17:37

     We can destroy and take active the thoughts. Which if not taken captive, will lead to hideous monsters in our lives. Before they come out, that’s what the apostle is saying and the Proverbs said. Better is he that ruleth his own spirit than he that taketh the city. Samson could take a city, but he couldn’t rule his own spirit during part of his life.

152. 1:18:02

     And the challenge of his life is that dominion will only come by separation of our thinking from defiling influences and devotion of our minds and our lives to holiness.

153. 1:18:27

     In summary, then, what have we seen? That only Nazarites will have dominion, which involves separation from all defiling influences and consecration and dedication to God in holiness. That parents too, need to be Nazarites if their children are to be. We need to narrow the sphere of our lives to marry only in the Lord. And take notice of this, young people, before sin has made deep tracks in your mind.

154. 1:19:05

     Sin deceives, it deteriorates the mind, and because the mind is the area where the battle will be lost or won, take thoughts and practice righteousness, being aware always of God’s providential hand that we might in the age to come have dominion over all things.