Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.
If you are specially blessed by God, how should you live? Samson was set apart to help liberate Israel, but he squandered his life. Today, more about a man whose great strength did not help him make great choices and whose godly heritage did not keep him from moral failure.
Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, in Samson's day, as in ours, having great privilege does not guarantee a good outcome. Dave, you're absolutely right, and I want to commend you for your ability to summarize Samson's life in such few sentences, because truly it is an interesting story of someone who is physically strong, called by God, and yet not having a moral compass.
What a story. And you're absolutely right that there are many who are born into privilege. You think, for example, those who are born into homes where the parents are famous, they have lots of money. So often those children go astray, and we discover that money is not necessarily a great gift that motivates them to do what is right. Well, speaking about money, I'm sure that all who are listening, you want to invest your money in a good cause. And I also realize that there are many of you who perhaps cannot contribute to the ministry of Running to Win, and we understand that completely. I ask only if you would consider and pray about the possibility of helping us, because our fiscal year ends at the end of this week. And the good news is, any gift that you give will be doubled. What an opportunity for you to help us. So if you discover that God is leading you in that direction, here's what you can do.
Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now if I said that too quickly, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again immediately following this message. Now Judges chapter 13, notice this. In this instance, Samson didn't have anything to say about it. The Lord says, I want you as his mother. I want you to take the vow.
I want you not to touch strong drink, etc. And Samson is to be a Nazarite from his mother's womb. What is the symbolism there? God is saying that this isn't something that you are choosing, Samson. This is something that I am choosing for you. I am going to choose that you will be special.
What an honor. And if you want to know what his vocation is, you'll notice in the last part of verse 5 it says, you will be a Nazarite to God from the womb and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. He will begin, but he won't do it.
And the reason that he won't do it is because the repentance was superficial, possibly non-existent, and all that he will do is somehow fight against them and put a dent in them, so to speak, but the Philistines will continue to harass Israel. He will only begin to do the work that really needs to be done. You get a sense of his importance?
A very privileged birth, a very privileged career, and you know who brought the word? I should have pointed this out earlier. It was the angel of the Lord, and who is the angel of the Lord? Is this Gabriel?
This isn't Gabriel. Remember that whenever you have in the Bible the expression an angel of the Lord, then it's referring to Gabriel or one of the other angels, but when you have the angel of the Lord, it is always a reference to Christ. If you remember a couple of years ago at Christmas time I preached a message showing that that was the case, that wherever you have the angel of the Lord appearing, and this was the angel of the Lord. Notice when Manoah later on prays that the angel will come back and help them to understand what is happening and the angel does that, it says in verse 16, the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, though you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord, for Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. Verse 17, Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name? So that when your words come to pass, we may honor you. But the angel of the Lord said to him, why do you ask my name? It is wonderful. It is wonderful.
My margin says incomprehensible. It means beyond understanding, and Jesus Christ is the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. This is Christ. Privileged birth, privileged career, a privileged anointing. Samson is born, verse 24, the woman gave birth to a son, named him Samson, the child grew up, the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Manoah, Dan between Zorah and Eshtaqol, and the Holy Spirit came upon Samson and made him mighty and strong. And this is the Samson now who is going to trivialize all that God is doing in his life. This is the Samson who's going to catch 300 foxes, tie them together at their tails, two by two, light their tails, and send them through the flax fields of the Philistines, and think that this is really funny. This is the Samson now who's going to slay a thousand people with the jawbone of a donkey. He's the one who's going to pick up the gates of the city, but he's also a man who's going to fall morally and spiritually. He has a very, very mixed kind of personality, the anointing of the Spirit, and yet incredible carnality.
I told you he was a mystery. Well, what do we learn from this? What are the lessons that come to us that should be life-changing and that should be put upon our minds in such a way that we will never forget them? Number one, remember this, that when God prepares a leader, he begins by preparing the parents first. When God prepares a leader, he begins by preparing the parents because the greatest means of communication, communicating scriptural truth and transforming power is still the lives of mom and dad. I want you to notice how Manoah and his wife were an exceptional couple because God chose them. They were able to handle the intrusion of this angel.
They didn't complain about the new responsibility that was put upon their shoulders. And I want you to notice how Manoah prayed to God in verse eight. Remember now his wife has this revelation.
He's not present. She tells him about it, and we pick it up in verse eight. Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, O Lord, please let the man of God whom thou has sent come to us again, that he might teach us, plural, that he might teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born. He said, God, we're going to look to you for wisdom.
We are going to seek your face that we might know how to rear this special child for your glory and for your honor, that he might be able to fulfill the role that you have cut out for him. Now what's remarkable is that the wife, the mother of Samson also is asked to take this vow. And I think that God did this because he knew that the impact of a mother upon the life of a child is so great that what God is saying is if we want Samson to abide by the law of the Nazarite and the vow of the Nazarite, well then if he sees his mother drink strong drink, if he sees her violate what he's not supposed to violate, he's going to end up being greatly tempted to violate the vow.
And so she must provide that example because particularly in the early years, the mother is going to have the greatest impact. Now I can't prove it scripturally, but my suspicion is that Manoah himself also may have voluntarily taken this vow. What we do know is that together the couple is saying, oh God, grant us the wisdom that we need to rear this boy for your glory and for your honor. God said, I want to have a strong leader in Israel. He begins with making the parents what they should be. I don't think that it's by accident that when God wanted to prepare the Wesley brothers, he has Susanna Wesley, who what was it? I had 19 children and she taught them in the ways of truth. I'm not sure that her husband was greatly involved in her children's Christian education. But when you trace the history of those who are leaders, often, though not always, often they come from homes where there was stability and where there was Christian example and where the lives of the parents greatly impacted the lives of the children.
And to this day, the repercussion of the children continues because the parents began the process. I have the privilege of having two godly parents and they are still my best prayer warriors, praying for me every day, praying for all their children, for all their great grandchildren and the impact that my mom and dad have through the lives of other people and through the lives of their children. My sister's a missionary in Africa.
I have another sister who's been a missionary in Mexico. What God says is what I would like to do is to see parents who walk with God and then the Lord says, I will bless their children so that they can follow in their parents' footsteps. So first of all, when God wants to prepare a leader, he prepares the parents first. But second, and now what I have to say will not contradict my first statement, though it may appear to be that way, the commitment of the parents is often greater than the commitment of the children. There is such a thing as the second generation syndrome. The second generation does not necessarily feel the fervency and the devotion and the commitment of the first generation who forged their own faith, made it their own, who were ablaze for God, who communicated the fire, but somehow it begins to die out.
And that certainly is true. You look at the life of Samson. Samson ended up being very mixed, as we know. Samson becomes immoral. Samson becomes not only trivializing his life, but he treated all of life as if it were a gamble, as if he were in Las Vegas. He treated his life as if he wanted to go through life and grab for anything that he could get that would amuse him. Samson ended up being a gigantic child who never really grew up.
I mean, look at his parents. Look at how godly they were. If you remember the story of Samuel in the Bible, it says that Samuel walked with God. Samuel heard God's voice. Samuel did what was right in the sight of the Lord. And yet what does it say in the book of 1 Samuel? It says, but his sons walk not in his ways.
And they became immoral and drunk. Was it Samuel's fault? Was it Manoah's fault? I don't think so.
I don't think so. You know, the Bible says that even as a requirement for leadership, it is important that children be raised in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. And it says that if a man cannot run his household properly, how can he run the household of God?
That becomes a very important necessity for leadership. But there does come a time when the children grow old, if not grow up. There are children who do their own thing. And sometimes parents have borne too much guilt as a result of the way in which their children have turned out. Here you have an example of where Samson becomes responsible for his own decisions. His parents did what they could, but he didn't quite turn out the way he should have turned out. Now, sometimes the commitment of the parents is greater than the commitment of the children, but also, and I need to mention this as a means of hope, sometimes of course the reverse is true. I've known homes where there has been very little commitment, perhaps even non-Christian homes, and out of those homes God has raised wonderful children who came to know Christ savingly, who believed on him and who became great leaders and great people who walked with God.
So nobody has to feel that they are locked in because of their background. But generally speaking, you find that the parents are the ones that communicate the spiritual life and vigor to their children. There's a third lesson, and it is the most important. And that is, it's not how you begin, it's not how you begin, but it is how you end that is important. Samson had this awesome beginning. Certainly a man of privilege, somebody who would be on the front page of GQ magazine, somebody who would be getting all the attention if he had lived in the day of television cameras, he would be on the news from time to time.
All of this privilege and yet so meaninglessly squandered. If he had only ended well, you might say, well he did end reasonably well because in his death finally he did kill a lot of the Philistines. But the man who was supposed to conquer the Philistines ends up being conquered by them. He ends up in prison grinding corn for them, having his eyes gouged out by them. A tragic story.
He ended badly. And I want you to know today that the real question is not where you are at when you begin, but the real question is the direction in which you are moving and whether or not you're going to end well. And I say to you today that through Christ our Lord, it is possible for you to have today a new beginning because life can be a series of new beginnings if we know Christ personally.
And that's what God is involved in in our lives is giving us that new beginning so that we can end well regardless, regardless of our beginning, that our end might be different. I preached this message on Samson, but I have not defined his name. What does the name Samson mean? It really means little son, S-U-N.
In fact, one commentator suggests that maybe Samson, his nickname was Sonny, but spelled with a U. Does not this remind us of another deliverer that was supposed to come who doesn't merely begin to deliver, but who ends up doing the whole job, namely Jesus Christ? Take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 1 where Zachariah is speaking.
Luke chapter 1, and he makes this interesting statement. Now Zachariah, of course, is talking about the birth of John the Baptist who is going to anticipate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in verse 74, Luke chapter 1, to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteous before him all of our days. By the way, is that your desire?
I hope so. That we might be delivered from the hand of our enemies and serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness. And you child will be called the prophet of the most high. For you will go on before the Lord to prepare his ways to give his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God with which the sunrise from on high will visit us. To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet in the way of peace. Why is Christ spoken of here as the sunrise? Well, the sun, when you see the sun, it's the beginning of a new day. The sunrise dissipates the darkness. It gives light where there is darkness and Jesus Christ becomes the one who delivers us from our enemies that we might walk in light. He is the true sunshine.
Samson might be the little sun, but Jesus Christ is the great sun, spelled either S-U-N or S-O-N, and he becomes the answer to our need and to our deliverance. I may be speaking to someone today who says, I wish that I could begin again. I wish that I could come to Christ in such a way that he would deliver me from my enemies, the enemies within and the enemies without, so that I might be at peace. As you know, we have a radio ministry and yesterday I was here at the church and I decided to just look through the mail, see the response, and we receive a lot of mail from prisoners. And in yesterday's mail, or at least this week's mail, which was on my desk yesterday, there's a letter from a man who, because of sexual molestation, is in prison and he writes for help. And he's asking for deliverance. He's asking for a new start in life and I don't know how long he's going to be there in prison and I don't know what a new start for him might mean.
But the question is, is it possible to begin again even for someone like that? And Jesus Christ is the great son. He is the great deliverer.
He is the one who does what Samson could not do, to deliver us that we might serve him in fear and enjoy all the days of our life. Louisa Tarkington wrote, I wish that there were some wonderful place called the land of beginning again, where all of our past mistakes and heartaches and all of our poor selfish grief could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door and never be put on again. And that happens. That happens at the foot of the cross. Have you ever analyzed why it's so difficult for people to come that way to receive forgiveness and deliverance? It is because we fear, do we not, that if we come to Christ, he will deliver us from the sins that we have come to love. And yet when we do come for that deliverance, we discover that there is a whole new sense of freedom.
There is a life to be lived that is special so that we don't have to be a great person chasing trivia because Christ has changed us and made us different. The son of righteousness has come that we might be delivered from our enemies. And if you will, would you join me now in prayer? And our Father, we want to thank you today that Jesus Christ is our sin bearer. We thank you that he died for sinners and that I want the greatest sinner who is listening. Yes, even the criminal who is listening to know that Jesus Christ died for sinners to forgive them and to deliver them and to give them a new beginning and to do what Samson could not do. We pray today, Father, that you shall grant us that kind of faith for those who have never received Christ as Savior.
They have never believed in him. Today, Father, we pray that your spirit would draw them, grant them the gift of faith that they might believe. And for those of us who know you, Father, privileged people, privileged people, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, what a tragedy to squander the privileges that you have given us. Oh, Father, today, deliver us, we pray, deliver us from trivia. May we see the big picture, may we see Christ and may we believe on him with our hearts to be saved and then live our lives for his glory and honor. We ask in his blessed name.
Amen. At the end of the day, the question is whether or not our lives represented God, whether or not we were faithful, whether or not the work that he did in our lives resulted in good works and in the transformation of other lives. We here at Running to Win are deeply committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I want to ask you to contemplate a very interesting statement in the New Testament. The apostle Paul says that God loves a cheerful giver. I've often thought about that. Doesn't he love uncheerful givers too?
Of course he does. But there's something about cheerful givers that attracts the attention of God. Whether you support this ministry or not, I hope that you are a cheerful giver. For those of you who perhaps have even prayed about the ministry of Running to Win, I want to emphasize that at the end of this week, well, it'll be the end of our fiscal year. But we have a marvelous opportunity to make an investment that will be doubled. So whatever you send in between now and the end of the week will be doubled and your investment will reach many more people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We're looking for those who can give cheerfully as unto the Lord. Well, I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because I'm going to be giving you some contact info. Here's what you can do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now if you're like me, frequently you hear information.
You don't have a pen or pencil handy. So I'm going to be giving you that contact info again. But in advance, I want to thank you for holding our hands as the gospel goes around the world.
You can go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Pastor Erwin Lutzer has concluded, Samson, the man who had it all. The ninth of twelve messages taken from the book of Judges, all on the topic we've been down this road before. The Bible is very candid when dealing with the shortcomings of God's chosen servants. Next time we hear about Samson's marriage, a marriage doomed to fail. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
