Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.
Can God do anything with a person who has wandered far away from Him? If Samson is any indication, the answer is yes. Today, the end of the life of Samson, a man who failed badly yet found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Stay with us for a final chapter of We've Been Down This Road Before.
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, today we'll hear about the calamitous end to the life of Samson. What are your thoughts as you'll look back over this long series from the book of Judges?
Well, you know, Dave, what comes immediately to my mind is this. The names are different, but the stories are the same. As you look through history, you realize that God has used people who are imperfect.
You can see cycles in nations when a nation seeks God and then turns away from God and experiences some form of judgment. All of the Old Testament was written for our admonition, for our understanding, and Samson in a particular way reminds us of the dangers of sexual sin. You know, this is the last day of this series of messages and that's why we're making it available to you for a gift of any amount so that you can play it and listen to it again and again. Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com.
That's RTWOffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. And even as we listen to the end of Samson, let's remember, not forget, we've been down this road before. What I'd like to do in the next few moments is to summarize the lessons that are to be learned. But before I do, I need to tell you that the Philistines seized him, the Bible says in verse 21, and gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza, binding him with bronze shackles, and they set him to grinding in the prison. What a story.
Let's get to the lessons. Number one, no past victory is a guarantee of future victories. No past victory is a guarantee of future victories. Now let's think this through for a moment because we were introduced to Samson when he was having that relationship and that awful disastrous marriage that we preached about in the first message on the series with a Philistine woman. And so we know that he has always had that weakness. But what we forget is that, say he was 20 years old when he finally matured, it says also in verse 20 of chapter 15, Samson led Israel for 20 years in the day of the Philistines. He was their judge.
This is the book of Judges. Do you realize what that means is that for 20 long years, people came to Samson to get their disputes settled. That's how wise he became. He really did mature. He really did walk with God. He was a man who really had something to contribute to society. And yet in the midst of all that, I want you to notice that he fell.
He fell because no past victory guarantees a victory tomorrow. That's a great lesson to learn. You know, it wasn't supposed to end this way, was it? Samson, when he was growing up and he had this power of the Holy Spirit upon his life, this ability to be able to be just incredibly strong and to destroy the Philistines, he didn't lie awake at night and say, oh God, I have a dream. And my dream is that someday my eyes might be gouged out and I would grind corn for the Philistines in a prison.
That's not part of the dream. It wasn't supposed to end that way and it wouldn't have had to end that way, but that's the way it ended because I cannot take the victory that I had yesterday and say that it will apply today unless I am vigilant also today and tomorrow and the day after. And it does not matter how many years I walk with God. The only time you and I will really be free from the possibility of moral failure is when we die and when the preacher says all kinds of things about us that we could never possibly believe about us if we were alive.
Then we'll know the chances are over. Second, we can lose in a moment what we cannot recover in a lifetime. You can lose in a moment what we cannot recover in a lifetime.
The question isn't one of whether or not you can be forgiven because Samson was forgiven and David was forgiven. That's not an issue, but the thing is that it can never be the way it once was. I have some very close friends, three or four come immediately to mind, who have fallen morally, in some instances pastors.
After they have ruined their marriage and in some instances their marriage remained intact, but after they were alienated from their children and they were reconciled to their children and time went by and their own commitment to their marriage was finally reproven and trust was rebuilt, the simple fact is though it never is the way it once was. You can lose in a moment what you can never recover in a lifetime. It'll never be the same. And nobody can predict the consequences.
That's the difficult thing about sin. You know, you think you've got it contained, you've got it secret, you have it walled in. Nobody is going to go there. This is, nobody's going to find out meticulous care to make sure that it remains hidden, but nobody knows the consequences. Former President Clinton could not predict the consequences. Gary Condit could not predict the consequences. You can't predict the consequences.
I can't predict the consequences. And it is possible to lose in a moment that which can never be regained. And if Samson were here, he'd be the first to say that. Let's look at a third lesson. The sin we tolerate today might destroy us tomorrow.
The sin that we tolerate today might destroy us tomorrow. Now, there's no question if you look at Samson, his beginning, his relationship in that bad marriage, you know, his fling with the harlot at Gaza and so forth, that Samson had a sensual focus that apparently was never really strongly confronted. It was always there and he tolerated it and it became the means that eventually his secret was given out. And he was supposed to be winning battles over the Philistines.
That was the agreement. And here the Philistines are winning a battle over him. I find it very interesting that when they caught him, they gouged out his eyes to quote the word of God directly. I was just thinking about that, preparing this message that that actually was Samson's problem, wasn't it? His eyes. And men, listen up now, I'm talking to you, isn't that our problem too? Our eyes. Isn't it a problem that we can see better than we can think?
Isn't that the problem? That was Samson's problem. So the sin that we tolerate today might destroy us tomorrow. It might not be sensuality, but it could be even thievery. It could be taking something and getting by with it and thinking that now that you have proven that you can handle the consequences, you keep growing in your ability and your confidence to be able to sin and get by. It's a dangerous experience.
Dangerous experience. Let's go on to a fourth lesson. When God restores us, he does use us again. He does use us again.
It's not like it was before, but we are used. God does not cast off his people indefinitely. I want you to notice what happens. Samson is there in prison.
His eyes, of course, are out and he's grinding corn. And it says in verse 23, now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their God and to celebrate saying, our God has delivered Samson, our enemy into our hands. By the way, this is so interesting, I can only comment on it. Do you notice here they are attributing the wrong deity for what they deem to be a blessing.
You find that happens all the time. People pray to false gods and then something happens and they think that the false god has answered. But you'll notice they began to celebrate and they said, our God has delivered our enemy into our hands, the one who laid waste our land and multiplied our slain. When they were in high spirits, they shouted, bring out Samson to entertain us.
Can't you just hear it? We want Samson. We want Samson.
We want Samson. So Samson is led out of the prison and the Bible says that he entertained them. My translation says he performed for them. I'd really like to know what he was doing. Maybe he was just playing more games. Samson loved games.
He loved trivia, you remember. And when they stood him among the pillars, Samson said to his servant who held his hand, put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple and his servant did that. And it was crowded. In fact, there were 3000 men and women watching Samson perform. In fact, they were on the roof.
Now you may say, well, you know, that's difficult to believe. You have to understand that these ancient, ancient temples were awesome. I'd been to Baal back in Lebanon and marvel that acres and acres and acres of ruins with huge pillars going up to the sky, all for the God Baal. These people were creative in their building.
And so 3000 people on the roof is, is believable. And it says in verse 28, then Samson prayed to the Lord and said, Oh, sovereign Lord, remember me. Oh God, please strengthen me just once more and let me with one blow, get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.
And Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood, bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one, his left hand on the other. And he said, let me die with a Philistines. And he pushed with all of his might and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed the many more when he died and while he lived. And that's the end of Samson. But my point is that when God restores us, he uses us.
He still used Samson. Oh yes, some people that we know have been restored to God. Some people are now teaching Sunday school. Some people are having an impact.
Some people are witnessing at work. Some people have come through that experience and God has restored them to their spouses and to their church and to other believers and to the fellowship. We understand that and we embrace that in the name of Jesus. That's why all churches should be redemptive.
It's not just that we preach against certain things. The whole fellowship of God's community is a fellowship in which we recognize our own sinfulness and we as sinners to sinners minister to one another and encourage one another and once forgiveness has been extended to be able to put the past behind and to get on. But I want you to notice that Samson's hair grew back but his eyes never did see again. Some things can be restored.
Some things cannot be. There's a final lesson and that is the beginning of restoration I think begins with repentance. I can't point to a text to prove this but it's clear that Samson was back in fellowship with God when you think of this great prayer that he prayed and he asked God to strengthen him just once more and was willing to die along with the Philistines. There was his hair of course had grown back the text says and and now he was calling on God again and he was he was doing what he should have done before he went to Gaza.
I find it very interesting that what Samson did not do when he could see he now did when he was blind namely depend upon God and call upon God with all of his heart and so there was that sense of repentance that sense of restoration. Now I want you to know that there are three different levels of repentance. One is God I want to be forgiven but I don't want to be delivered. God forgive me for what I'm doing but I but I don't want to close the doors that are leading me in the wrong direction.
I want to keep those doors open but I desire a fellowship with you because in a sense I really do love you but forgive me but don't deliver me don't expect me to make the tough choice. We may question whether that's repentance at all but have we not sometimes prayed that in our own weakness and sinfulness. There's another level and that is the person who says God I want forgiveness and I want deliverance.
This is not the lifestyle that I want to live. I do not want to live my life with the blessing of God gone. To pretend everything was like it was and I'm going to go and be in church just like I've always been to church but somehow down deep you want deliverance but not right now not right now sometime in the future. And then there is of course biblical repentance that says I want forgiveness and I want deliverance and now let me add and I'm willing to do anything that God and his people want me to do to come clean. And that's really what God is looking for as a first step. It doesn't mean that all your problems are solved, doesn't mean you won't be tempted tomorrow because we're going to be tempted until the day we die as I mentioned. What it does mean is that God comes along and begins to say now at last we can work together. Now at last I see your sincerity of heart. Now I can see that your misery of sin is great.
It is so great that you would want deliverance even if it costs you something. Is not that the point to which God brings us all in our compromises and our sins? You remember David who lived for a long time. Some people think maybe several months almost a year without confessing his sin when he murdered Uriah and had a relationship an adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. And during that year of course he was hoping that nobody would find out but of course everybody was talking about it.
The people in Israel were able to count to nine just as easily as anyone else. And so his plan to cover up his sin was beginning to fall apart badly. I mean he murdered somebody to keep it hidden but somehow you just can't build the box tight enough and have enough nails in it and make the walls wide enough to contain it. So it was starting to get out.
And David could not see it. Let me tell you, you know Jesus when he said don't take the speck of sawdust out of somebody else's eye if you have a beam or a log in your own. Have you ever wondered why somebody with a log in his own eye is so desirous of taking the speck out of somebody else's eye?
The answer is because the person with a log in his eye simply does not even see that it is there. And by the way, people who are the quickest to criticize and to get specks out of other people's eyes usually are people who react strongly to any criticism of themselves. It's just human nature. And so one of the best illustrations of Jesus' story is David when Nathan comes and says, you know there was a man who owned some sheep and he had one little sheep and the man who had many sheep came and took his little lamb.
What do you think we should do? And David says I think we should kill the guy. Oh that was a big sin to David. But he was blind to his own. He literally could not see the log in his own eye. And then Nathan comes to him and says, gives that story and then says David you are the man. You're the one.
Wow. You see what we need is the Holy Spirit of God to show us who we are, to show us where we are at and then grant us the grace to deal with it as David finally dealt with it in Psalm 51 when he cried up to God. And what I'd like to do today as I close this message is to quote part of Psalm 51. And I quote it because not only is it a wonderful Psalm for all of us to pray for cleansing, but I want you to pray it in your heart with me. I'm not going to pause and have you repeat it like we sometimes do, but I want you to let my words be your words as we ask God to cleanse us and grant us the grace to be restored to the joy of our salvation, to have that restoration, to have that sense of saying yes, I'm down but I'm not out.
The fact that I'm alive means that God still has something for me to do. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according onto the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin as ever before me.
I always wonder whether or not people know. O Father, create within me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. And so let us pray.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we ask that you shall do in our hearts all that you desire to do. But having been warned from your word, we may run quickly to Jesus. We run to be forgiven. We run to be protected.
We run to have our motives purified. But we come and we say, O God, we pray, help our lives to end, fulfilling your dream and not our own. And Lord, may all who have listened to this message say that after it's over and after we get home and as we face next week, we are committed to do whatever you have asked, that your blessing may be upon us. In Jesus' name.
Amen. Well, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer and you have just heard the last in a series of messages entitled We've Been Down This Road Before. And as I look back over the book of Judges, the deep dive that we took throughout all these messages, I'm reminded of the fact that what we really need is a savior. The judges were imperfect. The people were imperfect. They sinned. They repented. They sinned. They repented.
History has always repeated itself, but what we need is someone who can rescue us from our sins. I want to thank the many of you who are helping us get the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to millions around the world. But as we conclude this series, we are making it available for you in a form that will be permanent so that you can listen to these messages again and again. Here's what you do. You go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now I'm going to be giving you that contact info again because as I mentioned, this is the last day we're making this sermon series available for you. But I want to thank you in advance for helping us financially.
It's because of people just like you that we can continue this ministry and we can even grow this ministry, believing that God is using it mightily for the salvation of people. Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com.
That's RTWOffer.com or you can pick up the phone right now and call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the series, We've Been Down This Road Before. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Pastor Erwin Lutzer has now concluded, Samson, physically strong, morally weak. The last of 12 messages taken from the Book of Judges, all on the topic, We've Been Down This Road Before. In the life of Samson, we've seen the chaos caused by poor marriage choices. Next time, we get to make good choices as we hear a series called The Marriage Puzzle, Eight Teachings on Making the Most of Your Marriage. Plan to join us. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
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