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Series Code: AFP
Program Code: AFP000222A
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01:01 male announcer: This presentation is brought to you 01:02 by the friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry. 01:11 Doug Batchelor: The devil is trying to make a monkey 01:13 out of every one of you. 01:14 If he's got you thinking you can continue in a life of sin 01:17 and everything's gonna end well, you're being a fool. 01:21 Tell me I'm wrong from the Bible. 01:23 It does not end well for the wicked. 01:28 announcer: For over 40 years, "Amazing Facts" 01:29 has been dedicated to sharing God's Word through media. 01:33 This program features highlights from some 01:35 of our best television broadcasts. 01:38 We invite you to sit back and enjoy this edition of, 01:41 "Amazing Facts Presents." 01:48 Doug: We're continuing a series that we began a couple 01:51 of weeks ago dealing with the Bible character of Samson. 01:56 And today, in particular, we're gonna be talking about Samson 01:59 who was conquered by compromise. 02:03 Samson's story is something of a paradox, because through 02:07 the story of Samson, we see shadows of Jesus. 02:12 He was one of the judges, a leader, 02:15 a type of Christ in some respects. 02:17 Many failures, but, of course, David failed, 02:21 and Abraham failed, and yet, there were things 02:23 in their life that were clearly types of Christ. 02:26 And so, you'll see, as we conclude, I'm gonna do 02:29 my best to bring out a picture of Jesus in all of this. 02:32 Go to verse 4, Judges 16 verse 4. 02:35 "Afterward it happened that he loved a women 02:39 in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah." 02:43 Sorek was a little bit down the hill, right on the border. 02:47 It was a place that was famous for wonderful grapes. 02:50 Right on the border of the Philistines 02:53 and the people of Israel, the tribe of Dan. 02:56 And maybe Samson was thinking, 02:57 "Well, look, you know, I sure like so many things 03:00 about the Philistines." 03:01 He spent a lot of time with the Philistines, 03:03 I mean, that's how he ended up marrying one of them. 03:06 He thought, "I'm gonna find the halfway ground between the two." 03:10 He was looking for a compromise, and he found a girl that lived 03:13 in Sorek, Delilah, may have been very beautiful, 03:17 it says he loved her, but she sold him out, 03:21 which, again, is another type for Christ. 03:24 And so, when he falls in love with Delilah, 03:27 and by the way, the name Delilah means consumer. 03:32 It means something that is feeble, 03:34 and she made Samson, who was so strong, feeble. 03:37 He was consumed through this relationship. 03:41 So, the lords of the Philistines come down to her, 03:44 they said to her, "Entice him and find out where his great 03:48 strength lies, and by what means we might overpower him, 03:52 that we might bind him to afflict him, and every one 03:56 of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver." 03:59 Now, there were five lords of the Philistines that 04:01 we see several other places in the Bible. 04:03 They were like governors, there was a joint kingdom, 04:06 and that means 5,500, if I'm right, pieces of silver. 04:12 Now, a piece of silver would be worth about $20 04:16 in today's currency. 04:18 Jesus was sold for what? 04:21 Thirty pieces of silver. 04:23 The amount of money that they're offering her is approximately 04:25 $110,000, just to see if they could find out 04:30 where the secret was. 04:31 By the way, that's 183 times what was offered for Jesus. 04:36 Again, it was silver. 04:38 Well, now if Samson's strength was because his mother ate 04:42 very carefully, and she had good prenatal care, 04:44 and he was born just super strong, 04:46 and he had big muscles, then it would have been obvious where 04:48 his strength was, but the Spirit of the Lord came on him, 04:52 and he had supernatural strength. 04:54 They wanted to know what is the secret? 04:56 We've gotta fight fire with fire. 04:58 There is a spiritual thing happening here. 05:00 You remember even the king of the Moabites said one time, 05:03 called Balak, he said, "Look, it's obvious God is 05:05 with these people. 05:06 I've gotta find the secret to their strength." 05:08 If you could come and fight fire with fire, 05:09 if you just cursed them, it's a spiritual battle, 05:12 and we're gonna fight in a spiritual way. 05:14 So, they said, "Delilah, there's a secret here. 05:16 There's something spiritual going on here." 05:19 I mean, maybe, you know, the Bible doesn't say, 05:22 Samson could have been five feet five, 05:24 shorter than me. 05:26 He could have worn glasses and looked like a computer nerd, 05:29 and the Spirit of the Lord would come on him, 05:31 and he'd get his donkey jawbone and go out, smite hip and thigh, 05:34 and you can't prove me wrong. 05:36 I mean, I have the glasses, but it doesn't say anywhere 05:40 he was big, do you realize that? 05:41 Nowhere, nowhere does it say he had big muscles. 05:44 Matter of fact, when the Spirit of the Lord left him, 05:46 it says he was like everyone else. 05:49 So, she begins to tease him. 05:50 "So, Delilah says to Samson, 'Please tell me where 05:53 your great strength lies, and with what might you 05:57 be bound and afflicted.'" 05:58 Now, right away, if you're dating a girl 05:59 and she starts asking that question, how could you be 06:02 tied up and tormented? 06:04 I'd say, you know, I'm probably dating the wrong girl. 06:08 But, you know, when you're being governed by your feelings 06:12 instead of the truth, you make a lot of bad decisions. 06:18 How can you be bound? 06:20 And Samson said, "Well, if they bind me with seven 06:22 fresh bowstrings, that have not yet dried," a bowstring, 06:27 now bowstrings were very strong, because it needed to hold 06:33 a strong bow, it needed to maintain the tension 06:35 of a strong bow. 06:37 They'd find the very strongest fibers, like, you know, 06:38 a piano string for us. 06:40 They'd find the strongest fiber they could find, and when dried, 06:45 it could handle a long arrow and not break. 06:48 And he said get fresh new ones, they're not worn. 06:51 And you think, well, nobody's gonna break out of that, 06:53 that's like steel. 06:55 Tie me up with that, and I'll be as weak as other men. 06:57 She thought, "Okay," so, she has him tied up. 07:02 "Now there were men lying in wait with her," and she says, 07:04 "The Philistines are upon you, Samson, wake up." 07:06 And he wakes up, and he's tied up with bowstrings, 07:10 "But he broke the bowstrings as a strand of yarn 07:12 when it touches the fire." 07:14 You remember our illustration last week. 07:16 "So, the secret of his strength was not known. 07:19 Then Delilah said to Samson, 'Look, you've mocked me, 07:22 and you've told me lies. 07:24 Please, tell me now and where in where you may be bound.'" 07:27 Well, I would have been suspicious way before this, 07:30 but it gets worse. 07:32 "So he says to her, 'If they bind me securely 07:35 with new ropes,'" 07:36 well, he had already been bound with new ropes 07:38 by his own people when he was handed to the Philistines, 07:41 but these are new ropes that had never been used. 07:43 There's something spiritual about that. 07:46 "Then I'll become weak and like other men." 07:49 Notice, he even knows that it might be possible for him 07:51 to be weak. 07:53 "Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them," 07:56 I guess again while he was asleep, 07:59 and then she shouts, "The Philistines are upon you," 08:01 again, they're hiding in the background somewhere, 08:03 and he jumps up, and the Bible says, 08:08 "He broke them off his arm like thread," supernatural strength. 08:13 Then Delilah says to Samson, "Until now, 08:15 you've mocked me and told me lies. 08:17 Tell me with what you may be bound." 08:20 Now, he's getting tired of this, and so, 08:22 you notice what he keeps thinking? 08:25 Samson thinks, "I know, I can't trust Delilah," 08:28 but he was infatuated with her. 08:31 She may have been beautiful, he might have loved a lot of things 08:33 about her character, he just couldn't tear himself away. 08:37 And so, even though she keeps after him about this, 08:42 he keeps making things up, but you know, 08:44 interrogators have found that if you keep asking people 08:47 the same question again, you keep-- 08:49 and say, "Tell me the story," and you say, 08:50 "Well, I already told you," "Tell me again," every time 08:53 it seems like they give up a little bit more information 08:56 and they get closer and closer to the truth. 08:58 And the devil will wear people down, and so, 09:03 he's flirting, he's toying with temptation. 09:08 He thought, "I'm chosen by God, I've got this strength, 09:11 this power of God," and because he sinned, 09:14 and nothing happened, he figured he could just keep on going. 09:17 This is a very important point, friends, 09:20 sometimes we deceive ourselves into thinking because 09:23 the sun shines and it seems like our job is good, 09:25 and the Lord has bless us, that that must mean that 09:28 even though we're living in known rebellion to God, 09:31 "I have the favor of God." 09:34 And because, sometimes we fall, and he gets us out of trouble, 09:38 and he gets us out of trouble, we start thinking, 09:40 "Hey, I guess, you know, this is just the way it's supposed 09:43 to be, is that I just keep doing what I want, 09:45 and God keeps blessing me and giving me his power 09:47 and his Spirit." 09:49 And we don't realize that we're playing Russian roulette 09:53 with eternity. 09:56 The Bible tells us that, if you read in Ecclesiastes chapter 8, 10:02 "Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed 10:06 speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set 10:10 in them to do evil." 10:12 If the first time that Samson had stepped over the line 10:15 began to compromise with the Philistines, 10:16 God had hit him with lightening--you ever seen, 10:19 they got these collars on dogs, you know, 10:20 they walk out of the circle and they get shocked, 10:23 and you can teach the dog, don't go past that point. 10:26 Matter of fact, I understand, I've never done this to a dog, 10:30 but I understand that once a dog finds out where the borders are 10:36 that they're not supposed to go beyond because they get zapped 10:39 every time they go beyond this, you can take the collar off 10:43 and they won't go anymore, because they say, 10:46 "Man, I get shocked." 10:48 God doesn't teach us like that with a shock collar. 10:52 He doesn't zap you every time you disobey, 10:54 have you noticed that? 10:56 Now, if you've got the Holy Spirit, 10:57 your conscience might trouble you, 10:58 but you can quiet that. 11:01 And eventually Samson kind of just felt, you know, 11:04 I'm the exception. 11:05 I've got the Spirit of God, I mean, 11:07 look at how many people I've killed, 11:09 and pride was getting after him. 11:12 He thought, well, I deserve it, you know, 11:14 being a judge is tough. 11:16 And so, little by little, he begins to sacrifice 11:18 his purity and sacrifice his consecration because he thinks, 11:22 "Well, look, God's still blessing me." 11:24 It's like believing once you're saved you can't be lost, 11:27 you ever run into that before? 11:30 And he kept pushing the boundary. 11:34 He said, "Yeah, my hair," so they tie his hair in the loom, 11:39 and she again says, "The Philistines are upon you." 11:44 He woke up from his sleep, he pulled out the batten 11:47 and the web from the loom. 11:49 He just gets up from bed and this whole big loom apparatus 11:52 is clanging and battering behind him. 11:54 And then she says, "How can you say, 11:56 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me?'" 11:59 It says, "It came to pass when she pestered him daily with her 12:04 words and pressed him so that his soul was vexed to death." 12:11 He's at the point of death. 12:14 Do you know the Bible says that Jesus, in the Garden 12:16 of Gethsemane said, "I am pressed even to death?" 12:22 And three times he said, "Not my will, thy will be done." 12:24 And Jesus was willing to die for a bride that did not love him 12:29 back, but he was betrayed by his own people into the hands 12:35 of the enemy, for silver I might add. 12:39 Do you see it, friends? 12:42 He couldn't tear himself away. 12:44 He says, "I've loved you with an everlasting love." 12:48 Doug: Don't go anywhere, friends, we'll be back 12:50 in just a moment with the rest of today's presentation. 12:53 You know, Jesus said that a Christian must learn how to live 12:56 in the world without allowing the world to live in them. 13:00 The sad truth is, millions of profession Christians 13:03 are searching for ways to strike a compromise between 13:06 their Biblical convictions and the standards of the world, 13:10 how about you? 13:11 Are the values and the ways of the world creeping 13:13 into your lifestyle? 13:15 How can you know where to draw the line and take a stand? 13:18 Or, more importantly, where do we find the strength to resist 13:21 the constant temptation to compromise 13:24 our Christian convictions? 13:26 Well, I have some good news for you. 13:28 We have a free gift that will inspire you 13:30 in your Christian walk. 13:32 It's titled, "Compromise, Conformity, and Courage." 13:36 Learn what it means to be a light in the darkness and how 13:38 to draw a line between good compromise and bad compromise. 13:43 Learn what it means to stand tall for Christ 13:45 when others are bowing down. 13:47 To get your free copy, call the phone number on your screen 13:51 and ask for offer number 774. 13:54 Or, visit the web address on your screen, 13:56 and after your read this incredible resource, 13:58 make sure and share it with a friend. 14:01 Well, let's get back to today's presentation and learn 14:03 some more amazing facts from the Word of God. 14:07 Doug: Now, who does Delilah represent in this story? 14:10 Well, I told you she kind of represents a corrupt church, 14:12 but certainly the Lord's not with her, it's the devil, right? 14:16 How does the devil break us down? 14:19 Daily, he tries to undermine your resolve to do 14:23 the right thing. 14:25 And because we stay so close to the devil's territory, 14:30 Sorek was a place of beautiful vines. 14:32 He's surrounded by vines. 14:35 A Nazarite is not supposed to be near a grape, 14:37 he's not supposed to be near a raisin, 14:38 let alone wine, and so he's placed himself on enchanted 14:43 ground where he's not safe, and daily she's after him. 14:48 So, if you and I are living in a world where the devil's after us 14:50 daily, how do you compensate? 14:54 Give us this day our what bread? 14:56 Daily bread, Paul said I die daily. 15:02 Jesus said if you would live forever, 15:04 let every man take up his cross daily and come after me. 15:09 Being a Christian is a daily turning to God, 15:12 because you've got an enemy that will pester you daily. 15:17 Can any of you think of a day where you didn't have 15:19 any temptation? 15:22 If you think you had a day with no temptation, 15:24 you were probably totally sold out and didn't know it, 15:27 'cause you felt no resistance, you were just flowing, 15:29 going with the tide, and you didn't notice it. 15:32 But, if you try to swim against the current, 15:35 you are gonna daily feel temptation, amen? 15:38 You're in a word where you're just surrounded with evil. 15:43 A lady came once to the evangelist Billy Sunday and 15:46 she said, "Pastor Sunday, you're always preaching against sin, 15:48 you just keep rubbing the cats fur the wrong way." 15:52 And he said, "Sister, if the cat would turn around, 15:55 I'd be rubbing the cat's fur the right way." 15:58 So, you need to turn around. 16:00 So, if you're living in this world, 16:02 and you're trying to be a Christian, 16:05 you're just gonna meet with temptation. 16:06 Daily, she's after him. 16:08 Finally, he's vexed to death, "And he told her all his heart." 16:13 Notice the word heart. 16:14 She says, "You haven't told me your heart," and finally 16:16 he gives her his heart. 16:18 And he says to her, "No razor has ever come upon my head." 16:24 I would have moved out at that point. 16:25 I said, "Now she knows, she can't be trusted. 16:27 Every time I wake up, I'm tied up, 16:30 my hair is in a loom, you know. 16:31 Every time I tell her a secret, the Philistines are 16:33 in the house." 16:35 And she goes, "Oh, Samson, the Philistines are here." 16:39 I mean, you gotta be pretty dumb to know that she has 16:42 nothing to do with it. 16:46 Yeah, you ever heard the expression love is blind? 16:48 Some people think they're in love and they got these strong 16:52 feelings for someone, and this person is just tearing 'em down, 16:56 and they don't see it. 16:57 Everyone around them says, "What's wrong with you? 17:00 How come you don't see he's no good, she's no good?" 17:03 "Oh, no, I love him. They would never hurt me." 17:09 Come on, have you heard that before? 17:12 Now, if you're married, you're stuck. 17:16 I'm talking about the ones who are dating the wrong way. 17:23 And so, "She lulled him to sleep," and it said she shaved 17:29 off his locks, or had a barber come shave off his locks, 17:32 and boy, he must have had that razor sharp so that 17:34 he didn't hear it going snip, snip. 17:37 "And she said, 'Sampson, the Philistines are upon you,'" 17:41 and he gets up, and he's still a little groggy, 17:44 he doesn't notice that he's feeling a cool breeze 17:47 on his head that he had not ever felt before. 17:51 He doesn't notice the hair laying on the ground around him. 17:56 He gets up and he thinks I'll go shake myself another time 17:58 and then I'll throw those Philistines out the window 18:00 and out the door, and I'll teach them a lesson, 18:03 and he gets up, and suddenly, he's only five feet five 18:08 and he has no strength. 18:10 And the Bible says, "He did not know that the Lord 18:14 had departed from him." 18:17 You know, it's interesting, it says she woke him up 18:19 and she tormented him. 18:21 She sang him to sleep and woke him up in torment. 18:24 The devil will try to stroke your heads and lull you to 18:28 sleep, he'll get you to sin, and he's the first one to point 18:32 the finger at you, and he'll make the most of your torment. 18:36 He acts like, "You just listen to me, 18:38 you'll really enjoy yourself." 18:40 You just compromise, and you'll really have fun." 18:43 And then, when you do compromise, 18:45 you find out that it doesn't play well. 18:47 He did not know. 18:49 You know, that makes me shutter, I don't know about you, 18:50 just the very idea that you could have the Spirit depart 18:53 and not know it. 18:57 Did King Saul grieve away the Spirit? 19:01 It says the Spirit of the Lord departed and left him 19:02 because of his pride, and his stubbornness, 19:04 and his persistence and rebelling against God. 19:06 God finally said, "Look, you don't really want me to be 19:09 in charge, I'm gonna let you do your own thing," 19:11 and God withdrew the Spirit. 19:15 David, after he sinned with Bathsheba, 19:17 Psalm 51, he prayed and said, "Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit 19:20 from me." 19:23 One of the most frightening things is that there'll be 19:25 people in the last days that will stand before the Lord, 19:28 and they'll say, "Lord, Lord," he'll say, "I don't know you." 19:30 They'll say, "What do you mean? We thought we belonged to you." 19:35 And they didn't have the Spirit of God. 19:37 A lot of people doing religious things and they don't have 19:39 the Spirit of God. 19:41 "Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, 19:47 and brought him down to Gaza," remember Gaza 19:49 where he had torn the gates off? 19:51 He thought, "You could never trap me in Gaza, 19:53 I'll just tear the gates off." 19:55 Well, now he's in Gaza, "And they bound him with 19:57 bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in their prison." 20:02 How sad, now Samson, who had been called to be a judge 20:06 of Israel, a representative of God, a leader of God, 20:10 he's been living by the flesh, and he ends up 20:14 living like a beast. 20:16 Instead of being ruled by the Spirit, 20:18 he had been ruled by the flesh, and so, 20:21 now they've got him doing what animals typically did. 20:25 And I'll tell you, it is a pretty pitiful scene. 20:27 I don't know if you've ever seen how they do that, 20:29 but there would be a large room, it might be outside in a yard, 20:34 and there was a big stone circle, 20:36 and on top of the stone circle platform, 20:38 there was a big stone wheel that had a wooden axel going 20:41 through it, and the axel stuck out. 20:44 And they would throw grain in the middle, 20:48 and this oxen or something would go around in a circle like this, 20:53 all day long, making--and then people would be off in the 20:56 middle of the pole, and they'd be shoveling new grain in. 20:58 It would be grinding, and it would slowly spill off. 21:00 It was sloped a little bit, so it would be spilling off, 21:02 and all day long the animal would go like this, 21:05 and there would be a rut. 21:06 Every now and then, some of the grain would fall into the rut, 21:08 and that's why Paul says don't muzzle the ox 21:10 that's grinding out the grain. 21:12 But now, Samson is going round and round, 21:15 and he's in the dark. 21:17 Sometimes the Philistines would come. 21:20 I mean, he'd been a judge for 20 years, 21:22 and this is after he'd killed thousands, 21:24 and he'd done all these exploits. 21:25 And the Philistines said, "Oh, we've conquered him," 21:28 and they'd come and they'd taunt him, and they would spit 21:31 on him, and they would poke him with an ox gourd, 21:36 and I'm sure they treated him very cruelly, like an animal, 21:41 and then he'd be by himself, bound at night. 21:44 What do you think was going through his mind? 21:48 Why have I wasted my life? 21:49 He probably, like Peter, he wept bitterly, day after day, 21:54 because he had been such a fool. 21:57 You and I read his story and we can see what Delilah's up to, 21:59 but it took him until he lost his eyes and he lost 22:02 his strength to realize how could I be so blind? 22:06 Now, he's blind and his eyes are open. 22:09 Before, his eyes were open, but he was blind 22:10 to what the devil was doing to him. 22:12 The devil is trying to make a monkey out of every one of you. 22:16 If he's got you thinking you can continue in a life of sin 22:18 and everything's gonna end well, you're being a fool. 22:23 Tell me I'm wrong from the Bible. 22:26 It does not end well for the wicked. 22:29 I don't know if I read the rest of that verse to you 22:30 in Ecclesiastes. 22:32 "Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days 22:35 are prolonged, yet I know that it will be well with those 22:38 who fear God, who fear before him, 22:40 but it will not be well with the wicked." 22:43 It might seem to go okay for a while. 22:45 God was so patient w Samson. 22:47 God is loving, he's merciful, but you can't continue 22:49 to live like that and expect it to end well. 22:53 You know, the amazing thing though is that while he was 22:57 going around, day after day, and he's praying, 23:03 his hair was growing. 23:06 But, it doesn't grow overnight, does it? 23:09 And it's interesting as the people came by and they saw him, 23:11 you know, he's blind, he's in chains, 23:12 they weren't afraid, and it just didn't occur to the Philistines, 23:15 you know, he lost all his strength when his hair was cut, 23:19 but his hair began to grow. 23:20 What do you think that means? 23:22 I don't think the big thing is that his hair began to grow, 23:24 I think that his heart began to grow. 23:27 His consecration began to return. 23:29 He was repenting of his sins, and God was hearing his prayers. 23:34 He was wishing he could do something else. 23:37 The reason he was raised up was to defeat the enemies 23:40 of God's people that had been oppressing them. 23:44 And so, there he is, grinding in the prison. 23:47 It says, "Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together 23:51 to offer"--I'm in verse 23, chapter 16, 23:54 "To offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, 23:56 their god, and to rejoice. 24:00 And they said, 'Our god has delivered into our hands Samson 24:04 our enemy.'" 24:05 I don't think a year had gone by, 24:06 because this is the first kind of national Dagon feast 24:08 their having. 24:10 All the lords of the Philistines, 24:11 they come together to Gaza, this one town, 24:13 they have this big national feast, and, 24:17 "When the people saw him, they praised their god, 24:20 for they said, 'Our god has delivered into our hand 24:22 our enemy, the destroyer of our land, 24:25 the one who multiplied our dead.' 24:28 So it happened, when their hearts were merry, they said, 24:31 'Call for Samson, that he might perform for us.'" 24:35 And so, they've got this great temple of Dagon, 24:38 and in the middle there's these two pillars that probably 24:41 are straddling an altar, or are near an altar, 24:44 and when they bring him in, it's a good chance they were 24:46 getting ready to execute him after they tormented him, 24:50 like someone else we know in the Bible. 24:53 "Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand," 24:56 he was blind, he said, "Let me feel the pillars 25:00 which support the temple, that I can lean on them.' 25:03 Then Samson called to the Lord, and said, 25:06 'O Lord God, remember me.'" 25:09 I don't think he's just thinking about his blindness, 25:11 I think he's praying that God will forgive them for the 25:14 Philistines making him blind long before he lost his eyes. 25:19 There's a lot of Christians out there that are blinded 25:21 by the world. 25:22 You may still have 20/20 vision, but the devil's blinded you. 25:26 Samson realized he had been blinded by the beauty 25:28 of the Philistines. 25:31 "I pray thee, strengthen me, just this once, O God, 25:36 that with one blow I might take vengeance on the Philistines 25:40 for my two eyes.' 25:41 Samson took hold of the middle pillars which supported 25:44 the temple, and he braced himself against them." 25:46 Yes, they must have been close enough for him 25:48 to reach them both. 25:50 "One on the right and the other on the left." 25:53 Jesus died between two thieves, on the right 25:55 and the other on the left. 25:58 "And Samson said, 'Let me die with the Philistines.'" 26:02 And before they could sacrifice him, he beat them to it, 26:05 "And he pushed with all of his might, 26:08 and the temple fell, and the people who were in it. 26:11 So the dead that he killed by his death were more than 26:15 he killed by his life." 26:18 The whole story of Samson is summarized right here. 26:20 You know, sometimes at the end of a parable 26:22 you've got the moral? 26:24 Samson is a type of Christ in that Jesus, at the end, 26:27 he stretched out his arms, 26:29 he laid down his life to defeat the enemies of God's people. 26:35 Samson, as I mentioned before, is mentioned 26:36 in the Book of Hebrews as someone of faith. 26:39 I think God honored his faith. 26:42 He was growing in the dark, and God gave him strength. 26:45 You look at the last few words in the story of Samson 26:48 at the end of chapter 16, it says, 26:51 "Then his family, his brother and his father's house, 26:53 came and they took and brought him up. 26:55 They took care of his body and they buried him." 26:57 Did the friends and family of Jesus come and take him 27:00 from the cross and bury him? 27:03 You know, the story of Samson is really the story of Christ. 27:06 It's a story of warning for us of how we can lose strength, 27:10 and it's also a promise. 27:12 You know, the wonderful thing is, 27:14 Samson was saved in the 11th hour because he turned to God, 27:19 even though it looked like he had nothing left to offer God, 27:21 he turned to God, and when Samson surrendered everything, 27:24 and he was willing to die, he received his greatest strength. 27:28 When do we receive our greatest strength? 27:31 When we take up our cross, and we are willing 27:33 to be crucified with Christ. 27:35 You know, I just love these stories in the Bible. 27:38 We don't wanna be blinded by the world, friends, 27:40 like Samson was, we wanna turn our eyes on Jesus now, amen? 27:45 ♪♪♪ 27:55 ♪♪♪ 28:05 ♪♪♪ 28:16 ♪♪♪ 28:26 Doug: The heavens were parted for him. 28:27 The Holy Spirit came down. 28:29 This is what God wants you to experience. 28:31 If you come to Christ, your sins are washed away, 28:34 you become a new creature. 28:36 It's a land of beginning again, and how many of you wish 28:38 you could get a new start? 28:41 announcer: "For I was hungry, and you gave me something 28:44 to eat. 28:46 In as much as you do it to one of the least of these, 28:49 my brethren, you did it to me." 28:51 ♪♪♪ 29:24 announcer: This presentation was brought to you 29:25 by the friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry. |
Revised 2018-07-13