You can have a seat. Thank you for being in the service, as you know. Maybe you came to hear Pastor Josh this morning. I am not Pastor Josh.
As you know, he's a much younger guy than I am. But he's on vacation. They're heading back from Florida, heading back to where they think it's going to be cooler.
But for a rude awakening, it's probably just as hot here as it is there. But do pray for them as they're traveling back. I also challenge you to be in prayer for Vacation Bible School as it starts tonight at 6 o'clock.
So, leaders, be here. Be ready. Bring the kids. Bring the grandkids. And we're looking forward to a great, great week.
I have one other. Now, we've been doing the summer hangouts. If you're interested in the golf hangout, I need to know something by today.
So, please either sign up or send me a text and let me know as well. But to have your Bibles, let's go to Judges chapter 13. Judges chapter 13, here this morning. Now, I don't know. You know, you look at all these. There's some animals around here.
And then you have to look at this animal for the service time this morning. I apologize for that. But I appreciate all those who have worked so hard. David's been overseeing it. And all the people who have been working so hard to get prepared for Vacation Bible School.
And it's going to be a great week. So, you pray for strength. You pray for God's touch on our lives. But here this morning, we're continuing our series, Sinners Like Us. Now, notice I didn't say sinners like you. I said sinners like us.
Why? We're all sinners. Every one of us. And yet, God decides to use us. And as God decides to use us, why would God use someone like me? I've thought many times. Maybe you've thought the very same thing.
But you know why? That's all He has. All He has is sinners like us. And that's who He decided to use in the ministry to do what God's called Him to do. Well, here in Judges chapter 13, and you may be familiar with the story, but we're talking about Samson. And I've entitled it, Samson the Womanizing Warrior. Now, I began to think it's like, okay Pastor, why did you pick me to do Samson the Womanizer?
I don't know why he was picking me to do that. But I have the task of looking at Samson. But you know, Samson had so much. And we'll see, we're going to be looking at the four chapters that he's involved in.
And obviously we won't be taking care of looking at every single verse. But Samson was one of the twelve judges that was being used. They didn't have kings, and the judges weren't like a judge we see today. That is, in a courtroom, a judge was more like a warrior, a leader, a general, if you would, to help the people of Israel.
Well, what would happen? Well, what would happen is that the Israelites would fall into sin, and God would judge them, and then God would bring us along a judge. And probably the two most familiar ones that we know of is Gideon, and then Samson.
You know, that's probably the two most popular ones. But the most popular one, of course, is Samson. It is said of Samson that he was bold before men, but weak before women. He was empowered by the Spirit of God, but he yielded his body to the appetites of the flesh. Called to declare war on the Philistines, but yet he fraternized with the enemy and married a Philistine woman.
He fought the Lord's battles by day, and disobeyed the Lord's commandments by night. Samson ended up in darkness, blinded by the very enemy he was supposed to conquer. Now, you look at what Samson was, and you know we have different ideas of who Samson was. Look with me at chapter 13.
And we're going to look at Samson's start was very well. If you look at chapter 13, and starting at verse number 1. And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, as we were talking about.
And the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. And there was a certain man of Zor, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah, and his wife was Baron, and Baronot. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold, now thou art barren, and barest not, but thou shalt not conceive and bear a son.
Now see, in his beginning, he started much like our Savior. How did she find out? Manoah, the husband, and his wife's name was his wife. That's all they call her. We see Manoah and his wife.
That was her name. I looked throughout the scripture, and she is not named in scripture for some reason. But Manoah and his wife were barren. They desired a child that was counted as like a blessing from the Lord.
And so they desired to have a child that was barren for many years. But in verse number three, you see the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman. He appeared unto the woman.
Here throughout chapter thirteen, thirteen different times, you see the angel of the Lord as it's being revealed about what Samson was to do. He was a child with an unbelievable promise. He was told by the angel that Manoah's wife was told by the angel of the Lord that she would bear a son. But yet, it was a promise of a child. The angel said, you will have a son. It was a promise of a child.
But you know what? That promise also came of a service for God. Look at verse four and five.
Now, therefore, beware, I pray thee, 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 to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Not only was he a promise of a child, but he had a promise of a service to God. God had a special promise for him. God had a purpose for his life.
And what was it? He was to be dedicated and consecrated to the Lord. He was to take the Nazarite veil, and if you go back to Numbers chapter six, it's the first mention of the Nazarite veil.
What did the Nazarite veil basically boils down to? They were to separate themselves unto a purpose of God and for what God was going to call them to do. They were not to take anything of the vine. They were not to drink any strong drink. They were not to drink any wine. They were not to even eat a raisin or a grape or anything that come from the vine.
Nor were they to touch a dead body, and nor were they to be able to cut their hair. And you think, Lord, I don't understand all these Nazarite vows, but that's what God says. But not only did Samson was under that, but if you look at verse four, Mom had to keep the Nazarite vow.
Because if you look at verse number four, he says, Therefore now, therefore, beware, I pray thee, drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing. So until Samson was born, his mom, his wife, her name, was supposed to take the Nazarite veil as well. Until she gave birth unto Samson. And he was consecrated unto the Lord. But there was a purpose for that.
What was the purpose? What was the promise of his calling? If you look at verse five, and the latter part of verse five, and he says, And he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. He was to take the Nazarite vow so he could be used of God to do the calling that God has called him to do.
Now I ask you a question. What has God called you to do? What has God called me to do?
We all have a different calling. And as God has called us to do a work for him, it was a promise of a calling. I'm sure that Samson probably didn't understand his calling.
He's like, how could someone like me deliver the people of Israel? But God had a purpose, and he had a plan. And yet, if you go on and look at the latter part of chapter 13, go down to verse 24 and verse 25 of chapter 13. He says in verse 24, And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and listen to this phrase, and the Lord blessed him. Verse 25, And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zor and Asherah.
God had a purpose. Now, when you think of what God was going to do, we have a certain picture of Samson. You know, as we see here that in the latter part of chapter 13, verse 24 and 25, the champion had an undefeatable power. He had an undefeatable power. Now, most of the time when we think of Samson, we have a certain picture in our mind.
I think there should be a picture. Now, most of the time, I don't know if you picture it just like this, but most of the time when we think of Samson, we think of a muscled, brute man that has just huge amounts of muscles and lots and lots of strength. Was that truly true of Samson?
You know, I thought like that for a long time. But you know, looking at God's Word, God never says that he was a specimen of great muscles. How does he have his great strength?
According to verse 24 and 25, that he was a person who was blessed by the Lord. You know, we think of today, you know, you think of back in my days, they used to love to watch superheroes. And I don't know, us older people, if you ever watched it, you know, you used to watch Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno, the Green Man, you know, he'd all rip out of his shirt and rippled muscles.
Later on, we heard of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Conan the Barbarian. You know, we think of people like that. Samson probably did not look like that. And we'll see later on how we know that, but we see that he was blessed of the Lord. You know, that goes to show us whatever you do, whatever I do, it's not by our abilities. It's not by our strengths. It's not by our intellect. It's not by what we do. It's what God does through us and through you.
And you know what? He decides to use sinners like us. And I'm grateful. We sing about a holy God. I don't deserve to have a holy God as my Savior, but why do I have Him?
It's because of Him. I trust it in the Savior. You know, for many years, I trusted in my ability.
Now, I enjoy working out, but I look nothing like that, not even close. That wasn't funny. I don't understand why you're laughing so much.
I'm going to do the Incredible Hulk. No, I'm not either. But anyway, I don't want to embarrass myself, and we're in church too. But you know, it's not about us.
It's not about you. If we're able to do anything for God, it's because of Him. Using us. Empowering us.
Giving us. The Lord blessed him. The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times. He was a champion that had undefeatable power.
Undefeatable strength. But it wasn't Him. It was the Spirit of the Lord. Now, if you look at chapter 14, now, the Lord's beginning to bless him. As we saw there that the woman bare a son, and Samson began to grow, and he began to mature and become an adult. And the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. We get into chapter 14, and I believe Samson begins to believe in himself too much.
And he begins to fall. He was a man of, number three, a man with unreliable character. Look at chapter 14. Samson went down to Temna. From Judah down to Temna. And saw a woman in Temnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up and told his father and his mother and said, I have seen a woman in Temnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
Now, therefore, get her for me. Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistine? And Samson said unto the father, Get her for me, for she pleaseth me well.
What happens? I believe Samson begins to rely upon himself. God had blessed him, but yet he took the blessing of God and it was all about him.
And guess what? He could become all about himself. Now, it seemed like he was the only child. Now, I'm not saying if you're an only child that you're going to be selfish, but all of us are selfish.
All of us desire our ways. And this is what we see about Samson. In chapter 14, he starts becoming the womanizing warrior. He sees a woman. He sees that they're in Temnath. They're a part of the Philistines.
And as you see, certain things there. Samson went down. We see him spiritually going down. He saw the woman and he desired her, even though she was a part of the enemy of God and his people. And then the next one that we see about there in verse number 2, and he came up, and look what he says, and told his father and his mother. He didn't ask them. He tells them to do that.
We see that he loses respect. Here, Samson, as we see, was a man of faith. He started out as a man of faith.
God blessed him. But he certainly wasn't a faithful man. He wasn't faithful to his parents teaching, as we see here. His Nazarite vows we'll see and then the laws of the Lord. But he begins to desire what he wants, and does not ask God what is desired of him. He begins to break the law of God. He sees he's lured by the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh, like all of us do. You know, it'd be nice that when we got saved, that these lust of the eyes and lust of the flesh and the pride of life would be zapped out of us.
But it does not happen. God desired for us to trust him each and every day. But Samson now desires what he wants. And he tells them, and he says, get her for me. He doesn't ask. He begins to tell his parents what to do as the son.
And of course, he's not showing respect to his heritage and to the God of heaven. And as you go on down in verses 5 through verse number 10, we see that as he was going down again to get the Philistine woman there in Timnath, that as he was going down, a young lion came up against him. And if you look down at verse number 5, then went Samson down and his father and his mother to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath. And see, he's supposed to stay away from the vineyards. And behold, a young lion roared against him.
And look at the next phrase. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid or a young goat, and had nothing in his hands. He literally tore the bear, killed the lion with his bare hands. Now, he did have some strength, obviously.
But where did the strength come from? The Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily. The Spirit of the Lord gave him that, but yet he forgets about it. Maybe the Lord was trying to get his attention, you know, by having the lion come against him. But God was trying to speak to him, but yet all he saw was his desires. He didn't see what God had a desire for him to do.
All he saw was his desires. And God came upon him mightily. And yet he went on, and the Scripture tells in verses through the rest of that, that he went down and he married a Philistine woman.
But yet, there's a portion there. Look down to verse 8. And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion which he had killed. And behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion.
And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and his mother, and gave to them, and they did eat. When I look at that picture, I love honey, but I look at that and I say, Yuck! There is no way, as much as I enjoy honey, I'm not going to stick my hand in a dead carcass of a dead animal and pull out honey and walk away singing praises because I've got honey to eat.
Yuck! I don't know about you, but that disgusts me. I mean, think about a dead animal, and he scoops it out. He's going down and eating the sticky mess.
I mean, it's a sticky mess all through the situation. But yet, he does it, and then he goes and gives his mom and dad. But he didn't tell his mom and dad where he gets it from because they probably wouldn't have eaten it. Now, whether he was supposed to touch a dead animal, that could have possibly broken the Nazarite veil, but he goes down and he marries the Philistine woman. You go on in chapter 14, and he talks about marrying her, and the story goes on. As he marries her, then they trick him, and God gives him great power, and he gives a riddle, as you know the story, and we don't have time to read all of chapter 14. He gives a riddle as he's there at his wedding ceremony against God's command, against his parents' desires, but he does it anyway, and Samson's wife asks him, tell me the riddle. And all it was is she didn't love him.
She didn't care for him. But yet, he reveals the riddle, and then he has to go kill 30 Philistines and bring back the garments to fulfill his bet with the Philistines, the army, the people that he had done. And in that, now we move into chapter 15. As you look at chapter 15, and as it's broken down into basically two parts, in chapter 15, Samson avenges his Philistine wife.
Look at chapter 15. But it came to pass within a while after in the time of wheat harvest that Samson visited his wife with a kid, and he said, I will go in to my wife and to the chamber, but her father would not suffer him to go in. And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her, therefore I gave her to thy companion.
Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Take her, I pray thee, instead of her. The whole situation is just messed up.
I mean, when you go outside of God's will, it just brings heartache after heartache. So he's bouncing back down to Timnath to see his wife. He's gone for a short amount of time. Whether he had business with Judah, we're not sure.
The Bible doesn't say. But he goes back down to see his wife, and he's there to see her. He goes and meets his father-in-law, and he said, you don't have her anymore. I don't know how much time has transpired between the two, but his father-in-law gave Samson's wife to the best man in the wedding. I mean, it's a messed up situation.
It sounded like a soap opera to me. You know, it's difficult situation after situation. Well, what happened to Samson? You know, after that, he gets mad at the situation, and he catches 30 foxes. Excuse me, 300 foxes. And he ties their tails together. Kids, don't try this at home, okay? Don't do this at home. Tie cats together and set things on fire.
That's not a good thing. But he catches 300 foxes and ties their tails together and then attaches a fire stick and lets the foxes go. And during the harvest, when it's time to harvest all the products and the crops, it burns up all the harvest. Well, he enrages the Philistines. And what happens? By him enraging the Philistines, Samson goes there and the Philistines take Samson's wife and her father and burn them alive.
It's just one sad story after another throughout this. But God has a purpose of it all. And Samson killed the Philistines that burned his wife and his father-in-law. Well, then what happens of retaliation? Down in chapter 15 and verses 9 through 20, Judah is being retaliated by the Philistines and so Samson has to defend himself against his own people of Judah. The Philistines go up and they make things hard for Judah. They attack Judah.
So then what happens? Judah sends 3,000 men down to deliver Samson because he's just making things worse and worse in verses 19 through verses 20. And as it's going on, he allows them to take him. Obviously they could not as long as the Spirit of the Lord, but God had a purpose. Well, what's the purpose if you go down to verse 14 and verse 15 of chapter 15? Look at verse 14. When he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him. Now remember, he had taken him down. The 3,000 soldiers of Judah took Samson down and gave him to the Philistines. They said, look, do what you wish.
Leave us alone. But yeah, what happens? They had him bound. In verse 13, of course, they had him with a new rope and he allowed them to take him, but God had a purpose. Verse 14. And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arm became as flax that were burned with fire, and his hands loosed from the bands. And he found a new jawbone of a donkey and put forth his hand and took it and slew a thousand men therewith. So God had a purpose in all of this mess. What was God doing? God was judging the Philistines and allowed Samson by himself with a jawbone of a donkey to kill a thousand men by himself. Now, no man can do that.
I don't care if you look like that guy that I showed previously. There's no way even in that much strength that one man could kill a thousand people. But with God's strength, God enabled him to judge the Philistines for their wickedness. But then if you go down to verse 18 and 19, Samson was so exhausted from killing the thousand men, he cried out to God. Look at verse 18 and 19.
And there's a different cry. And he was sore at thirst and called unto the Lord. When you see that phrase, called unto the Lord, he didn't just say, hey, God, help me.
Or the man upstairs helped me, as people of this world would say. He called out to the truth, Yahweh, I need you. He had a great, not only did God enable him to kill them, but he was going to die if God didn't minister to him. And he truly called out to the God of heaven.
He said, thou hast given me this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised. But God clave the hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water there out. And when he drank, his spirit came again. God miraculously made water to come up to him, whether it was out of the ground or out of the jawbone there, it's not real clear.
But God gave water, just like God gave water for Moses when he said, smoke the rock and speak to the rock, that God can bring his blessing anywhere he wants to. And here, God ministered to him. What was God doing? Throughout the story, God continued to show, I'm still here. I'm the one ministering to you, and you need me every step of the way. And God was showing him, even though the people didn't understand what God was doing and how God was going to work, God continued to speak to him through his difficult situations. And I say to us, and I say to you and myself, that when difficulties come, God is always trying to speak.
God is always trying to share words of wisdom and to speak to our hearts and to help us and to see his hand in our life. So you think, after chapter 15, that he would get the picture here. We'll move down to chapter 16.
Here we go again. The woman as a warrior strikes again. Then went Samson to Gaza and saw there in Harlot and went into her.
He had relationship with Harlot. And in verse number 2, and it was told to the Gazites, saying, Samson has come hither, and they come past him, and lay of wait, and all that night in the gate, and the city, and they were quiet all the night, saying in the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him. And Samson lay till midnight, and then arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate and the city, and the doorposts, and went away with him the bars, and threw them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the hill. Again, a great strength, but yet, he was living in sin. And yet, God blessed him. I'm not saying that we get God's blessing. God wants to bless us even greater, but sometimes our sinful ways get in the way. And God desires to use us. And here in chapter 16, Samson breaks the law of the Lord.
He has an illicit relationship with a Philistine woman. And then, as you see, if you go down to verse number 4, And it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And here's a whole other chapter opening up Samson's failures because of his lust of his flesh and the lust of his eyes. And God had a desire to work in him, but he kept allowing the flesh to get in the way.
And you know, before we look down our spiritual noses at Samson, we do the same thing. Maybe not in this way, but God doesn't look at our sin, the kind of sin. God looks at sin as sin. And my sin is just as bad as any other sin.
God doesn't categorize sins. God looks at breaking His truths. And here Samson does this, and he falls in love now with a Philistine woman called Delilah.
And we can see the story unfold. And I'm thinking, Samson, as strong as you are, as mightily as God's using you, you're blind as a bat. I mean, all he sees is the lust of his flesh. Because when you read this story, I'm thinking, Samson, are you dumb as a rock? Do you not see what's going on? It happened to you one time by your Philistine wife, and now we're going to see it's happening to him all over again. But sometime maybe God has said to me, T.W., are you dumb as a rock?
Are you doing it again? You know, sometime we fall. We all have weaknesses. You know, none of us like to admit that we have weaknesses.
But remember our series? Sin was like us. We all have weaknesses. And we all have things in our life that keeps tripping us up, that we keep giving into.
But God desires to use it. And so let's look at the story. As Paul Harvey says, and now the rest of the story.
Verse number 6. And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth. Why does she want to know that? Because she just loved him so much, and she desired to just know his intricate details of his life, and that, you know, that we need to be, as his best friend, and tell him all that was in his heart?
No. Delilah was deceptive. Why was she wanting to know? Well, I skipped it on purpose the verse prior. All the lords of the Philistines, the leaders of the Philistines, we don't know exactly, some say five, some say more, said to her, We will each one give you eleven hundred shekels of silver, if you will find out where his strength truly lies. She didn't love him.
She didn't care for him. So in chapter 5 here, through the verses here, she continues from verses 6 through 9, she says, Where is your strength? And three different times, she asked him, Where is your strength?
You know, you look at the verse time. What happens? She does what he tells her. And in the first one, in verses 6, If they bind me with seven green wits that were never dried, and shall I be weak and be as another? And guess what? He falls asleep.
He must have slept like a grizzly bear. Because all the things she continued to do to him each time, she would do it. In verses 6 through 9, he tells her.
She does it. She wakes him up and says, They're here, they're here. And he jumps up and breaks the bands.
You know, and he runs off. Well, he comes back to her the second time. Verses 10 through 12, and the third time. After one time, the second time, you would think, Surely he would understand and know what she's trying to do. But no, he does it to her yet again.
And the third time. And she whines to him and complains to him and keeps after him and after him. And finally he reveals the source of his strength. And he finally tells him all of his heart.
And he tells that no razor has ever come upon my head because of my Nazarite vow to God. And she realizes that he finally has told her the truth. And there's a sad part in chapter 16. That she put him asleep.
He went to sleep in her lap. And she had someone to come in and cut off his seven locks of hair. And then she said to him, Samson, Samson, the Philistines are here.
And he jumps up and was going to do as he did before, but he did not realize the Spirit of the Lord was not with him. And they captured him and took him off. And you know, as true as the story is, Samson was going to meet his demise in the latter part of chapter 16.
And what did they do? They put out his eyes. And they made him like a slave.
And you know, as great as his story began, his story also ended in tragedy. The thing that continued to fail him, the lust of his eyes, his eyes were put out. God brought judgment upon him.
But it says in verse 22, his hair began to grow back. And there, as the story continues to unwind in chapter 16, he tells a young lad, and for the sake of time, we don't have time, but he tells a young lad to help him to find the post so he could lean upon. And they strap him to the beams that basically was holding, supporting this great place of where they were there worshipping.
Why were they there? They brought out Samson to poke fun at it. They brought out Samson to use him as a mockery that their god, Dagon, had delivered this warrior into their hands. And that the god of heaven that Samson worshipped was not greater than the god that they worshipped, the god of Dagon. And it says there that the young lad strapped him to the beams there, and you know the rest of the story.
And what happened? Look at verse 28 through 30. And Samson called unto the Lord. He was calling out to the god of heaven and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and which it borne up, and on which the right hand and the other hand with the left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all of his might, and the house fell upon the Lord's, and upon the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which slew in his life. You know, you look at the story. And as the judges, when you go from the 12 judges, Samson, unfortunately, was the worst of all 12 judges.
Why? Not because his god was weak. His god blessed him mightily and strengthened him mightily to do great feats to defeat the Philistines. But he kept getting in the way of what God wanted to do.
You know, God was trying to speak to him. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know what battle you're facing. We're not facing the battles that Samson was facing.
But we face different battles. And they may look just as big as the battles of Samson. But God desires to speak to us even in our failures. As he called out to God, and his last dying wish was to use him mightily to destroy one more time Philistines. And it was said that he slew more in that than he did in his whole lifetime.
God was bringing judgment upon the Philistines. And as you look at the life, you know, I look at him and think, oh, the great warrior, the great muscle man, no, had nothing to do with that. He was a great man when God was using him, when he was listening to God. He was a great man and a great warrior. But when he listened to the flesh, what happened? He always went down.
He had always brought defeat to himself. And yet, I'm grateful that God still used him. What a great story to listen, but yet it's a sad story. But God is still faithful through it all. I challenge you, the great challenge is that God wants to use us even in a failures and that when we're going through those times, that we need to look, look for him, look for the hand, look for the heart of God, listen for his voice.
And you're not gonna hear his audible voice, you're gonna hear that still small voice and see how he wants to use you. Even though you fail, God still desires to use you. And God still desires to use each and every one of us. You know, it sounds like a great warrior story and it was, but it's really a sad story because God had such great things that he wanted him to do and yet God still used him. And I'm grateful that even in my failures, even in your failures, that God still wants to use us. The question is, will we allow him to use us?
