Victors, Never Victims Part 4, Story of Samson :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: July 27, 2021 by RR7

Judges 13-16; Judges 13:1-7

“Again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years. ² Now there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children. ³ And the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, ‘Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. ⁴ Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. ⁵ For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.’

⁶So the woman came and told her husband, saying, ‘A Man of God came to me, and His countenance was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I did not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name. ⁷ And He said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.'”

Over the past few weeks, we have looked at the way that God brings us victory in the midst of the trials of this life. We began by exploring 2 Corinthians 2:12-17 wherein verse 14 Paul tells us this,

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

Paul tells us that God “always leads us in triumph.” This is the promise we have from the Lord. If He is leading and we follow, we will always be led into Triumph. The Triumph was a procession that was held for returning Generals that had conquered the enemies of Rome. They would be paraded down the center of the city on the way to the capital, where they would be celebrated. The people would be shouting as the General is brought in along with his soldiers and also the spoils of war. It was a spectacle that may only happen once in the life of a General. But Paul tells us that God always leads us in Triumph in Jesus. For us, this could happen over and over again as we follow and obey the Lord.

We looked at several scenarios over the past few weeks, like what if your family is your greatest enemy? We looked at the life of Joseph in Genesis 37-50, and we saw the hatred and jealousy that his brothers had for him; they plotted his murder and eventually sold him into slavery. Over the next 13 years, God brought about a great Triumph in Jesus. Joseph ended up being accused of attempted rape, ended up in prison, and from there went on to be, for all intents and purposes, the Pharaoh of Egypt. He saved his brothers, the very men who wanted him dead, and he provided for them and their children. He came to the conclusion in Genesis 50:20 that they meant what they did for evil, but God meant it for good. Joseph left a legacy for God that lasted 400 years until Exodus 1.

Last week we looked at Job; we explored how God can bring you into Triumph even when Satan is deliberately attacking you. Job, a godly man, one who loved God and shunned evil, was put in Satan’s hands by God to be tested. Satan took his wealth, killed his kids, and then took his health. Later, some friends came by to torture Job with their observations that ‘bad things only happen to bad people.’ They spent a long time beating Job up; they called him a sinner, a liar, full of pride, that his words were just ‘hot air,’ and on we can go. But in chapter 42, God provided an ‘after this’ (Job 42:16). God restored Job’s wealth and health, gave him back 10 kids, and stood up for him to his friends. God gave Job a great Triumph.

Today, we will look at Samson and explore how God brings great Triumph even when we are our own worst enemy; and Samson is a good example of that.

Samson, a chosen child, Judges 13:1-7

Samson was a chosen child. We find often in the scriptures that a child was or is born with a specific purpose. Here in verse 5, we are told that Samson would begin to deliver the nation of Israel from the Philistines. In Jeremiah 1, we find that this prophet was called from the womb. In the New Testament, we see John the Baptist sent to introduce Jesus to the world, and then Jesus, who was born to take away our sins.

Before we go further, let us clear up an issue that is very prevalent here in Southern Ontario in many Baptist churches; that is the issue of predestination or Calvinism. These are heresies. One of the most important parts of being created in the image of God is that of ‘free will.’ God knew what Samson would do, but He did not make Samson do it. God knew that Jeremiah would be a great prophet, but He did not make Jeremiah do it. Even in Jesus’ case, He chose the cross for us of His own free will.

In John 10:18, Jesus says, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

Again, in Hebrews 12:2, we read this: “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus joyfully bore the cross for you and me. He did it because He wanted to, not because He had to. God does not owe us anything. God does not create some to go to Hell and others for Heaven. The Bible tells us that God is not willing that ‘any should perish.’ If He made some for Hell, then He is willing that many should perish. That is a lie. God knew what Samson would do, so He called him. He knew how Samson would fail, and He still made sure it got into the Cannon of Scriptures so we could learn and grow and trust Him even when we fail. It is always God who brings the Triumph.

Samson has a problem with women, Judges 14:1-5, 16:1, 4

Samson had an issue with women; he liked a lot of them. More often than not, he liked the wrong kind of women; unsaved Gentile women. There are plenty of saved Gentile women in the Bible, Rahab and Ruth the most famous of them. But Samson had a weakness for women, and one of them, Delilah, was the source of his downfall.

Samson was not the only man of God with women problems. David had 7 or 8 wives, and we are all familiar with the story of Bathsheba. Solomon had 700 wives and many mistresses, and these wives turn him against God in his old age (1 Kings 11:4). Many of us cannot understand how God can call David a ‘man after his own heart.’ If David showed up to most of our churches with his 7 wives, we would not draw the conclusion that he loved God and was a faithful man, used to write a large part of the Psalms. We could not fathom that a man with 700 wives could be used by God to teach on wisdom and even about marriage and intimacy, like in The Song of Solomon.

Yet, God used these men, and their legacy is with us until this day; and the record of what God can do with fallen, broken, and sinful men is eternally written in the Holy Scriptures. It is God who gives the Triumph in all things. Now, I am not advocating that we start marrying multiple wives; what I am saying is that God is greater than our sinful weaknesses.

Samson liked to live dangerously, Judges 14:4-6, 12-20

Samson liked to pose riddles to the men around him and see if they could figure it out, and this usually ended up in battles where a lot of Philistines died. But it was sport to him. He took that a bit too far with Delilah. He gave her riddle after riddle and eventually the truth. He took it too far and ended up losing big time. Samson forgot that it was the Lord who gave him the strength and not himself.

Sometimes, God allows you to fail to get you back into your right mind. He did not abandon you; He just let you hit the ground. He is there for you and helps you back up, but falling is not failure. Samson failed and paid a serious price for his failure; he was captured, was blinded, and then used as an animal to grind corn or wheat. Oh, how the mighty had fallen, from deliverer to blinded and made fun of.

Samson’s God still loved him, Judges 16:22, 26-31

Samson was called by the people so they could celebrate the win by their god, Dagon. Little did they know that the true and living God was about to show up. Samson petitioned God one last time for strength. God allowed his hair to grow back, and the Philistines forgot to cut it.

We all know the story; Samson asked a young man to put his hands on the main pillars of the temple of Dagon, and in one last act, Samson killed 3,000 people of the leadership of the Philistines and died in the endeavor. His body was recovered and buried by the Jews, and he was remembered as a great Judge of Israel. But there is more. How did God see him? We are given a view of that in Hebrews 11:32.

“And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets.”

God listed Samson among the Hall of Faith and listed him in the same verse as great men like Samuel. Samson was God’s faithful servant; this is the highest title we can receive in the kingdom. God did it; God took a sinful man and made him into a great servant. God did it. God is the one who gives us the Triumph in all things.

Maybe, just like Samson, you and I struggle with fleshly failures and sinfulness, and at times there is a great price to pay for our sinfulness. But God has not abandoned us, and in Him, we can have great victory. We are still talking about Samson thousands of years later, and there is an eternal record of what God did.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Preparations For the Last Millennium: Part 1 :: By Bill Pierce

Published on: July 27, 2021July 29, 2021 by RR7

Text: Revelation 20:1-10

MILLEN’IUM, n. ‘A thousand years; a word used to denote the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20, during which period Satan shall be bound and restrained from seducing men to sin, and Christ shall reign on earth with his saints.’ (Noah Webster, 1828)

MAJOR EVENTS LEADING TO THE MILLENNIUM

According to the word of God, from this present time (July 2021), the following sequence of events will precede the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The church will be caught up—The next great prophesied event is “the first resurrection” (Revelation 20:5-6) when the dead and living members of Christ’s church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air (1Thessalonians 4:16-18; 1Corinthians 15:51-53), at which time “that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13) will be fulfilled. This great event is imminent—meaning that it could take place immediately without any forewarning signs or wonders.

Therefore, the Lord commanded: “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:13; Mark 13:32). We Bible believers “know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1Thessalonians 5:2).

The man of sin will be revealed—”The day of Christ…shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition…” (2Thessalonians 2:1-4). The Holy Ghost is now preventing the revealing of the antichrist. When he is taken out of the way—and the church goes with him, “then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2Thessalonians 2:7-8).

A time of great trouble will begin—The “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7) will begin when the man of sin is revealed to confirm a covenant with Israel “for one week [seven years]” (Daniel 9:27). Of this time, Jesus declared: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21)! During those seven years, many disastrous things will come upon the earth (Revelation 9:1-21; 16:18-19). One half of the world’s population will die during these terrible seven years!

Jesus Christ will come the second time—After these seven very troublous years, the Lord will come with “all the saints” (Zechariah 14:5), “with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 1:14-15)!

THE PRESENT CREATION

The first creation is only temporary—The Lord Jesus Christ declared: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). The apostle Peter wrote: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which [at the very end of Christ’s earthly reign] the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2Peter 3:10).

The apostle John wrote: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea…And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful” (Revelation 21:1, 5).

True history—The pure and preserved words of the LORD (Psalm 12:6-7), which are “For ever…settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89), were written in the Holy Bible when “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2Peter 1:21), and completed on earth around 100AD with the book of Revelation. As he did beforetime, God no longer adds knowledge and prophecies to men outside of the holy scriptures (1Corinthians 13:8-11). God commands and promises men: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

God’s word plainly declares that all men’s hearts are “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9)! Therefore, no man can be trusted to interpret scripture privately (2Peter 1:20)! The scripture also declares: “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26), and: “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5)

Abbreviated history—In addition to being “the record that God gave of his Son” (1John 5:10), the Holy Bible also reveals what God determined to be the essential truths and details of world history that all mankind should know. Obviously, for God’s word to be contained in one book that can be held in a man’s hand, an extremely abbreviated historical account was required. John wrote that if all things that Jesus did “should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen” (John 21:25).

Prophetic time—On several occasions, the scriptures speak of a thousand years as a day: “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2Peter 3:8; Psalm 90:4).

Age of the first earth—According to the scriptures, the present creation of the first heaven and earth will only exist for seven thousand years. At the end of the seventh and last day, in “the day of the Lord…the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2Peter 3:10). The apostle John also reported: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea” (Revelation 21:1).

Four days before Christ—According to the chronologies recorded in the scriptures, the time between the creation of all things by the Son of God (Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:13-16; Revelation 4:11) and the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:5; Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:31) “into the world to save sinners” (1Timothy 1:15) was four thousand years: four prophetical days.

Three last days—The scripture calls the period between Christ’s first coming and the end of the world the “last days” (Hebrews 1:2). This period spans three thousand years: three prophetical days. During the first two of these last days, the Lord has been building his church (Matthew 16:18). These last days began when the Lord “came unto his own, and his own [the Jews] received him not” (John 1:11). Because Israel as a nation rejected Christ at his first coming, “blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25). The fulness of the Gentiles will come in when the church is “caught up…in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1Thessalonians 4:17).

Israel’s state in the last three days—Because they rejected him, the Lord prophesied of the children of Jacob [Israel], saying: “I will go and return to my place [to heaven (Acts 9:11) to sit with his Father “in his throne” (Revelation 3:21)], till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction [“the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7)] they will seek me early” (Hosea 5:15).

Jacob replied to the Lord’s prophecy, saying: “Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days [the church age] will he revive us: in the third day [the thousand-year reign of Christ] he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight” (Hosea 6:1-2). “And in that day [the third day] there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10).

The “two days” (Hosea 6:2) typify the two thousand years of the present church age, which will soon come to an abrupt end (1Thessalonians 4:16-18; 1Corinthians 15:51-53)! After his resurrection from the dead in 30AD, nearly two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesus commanded his disciples: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Therefore, for almost two thousand years, the Lord has been sending his disciples as “ambassadors for Christ” (2Corinthians 5:20) to preach the “gospel of peace” (Romans 10:15; Ephesians 6:15), that God might reconcile both Jews and Gentiles to himself (Ephesians 2:14-18).

His disciples preach the soul-saving “glorious gospel of Christ” (2Corinthians 4:3-4), “how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1Corinthians 15:3-4). The gospel of Christ is glorious: “for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). Christ in every born-again believer is his “hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27)!

Man’s fearful response to God—Because God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2Peter 3:9), God “now commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30). It is extremely tragic that the overwhelming majority of people in the world today have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and his soul-saving gospel (John 12:48). Faith in the gospel is the only possible way that they might “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1), and “escape the damnation of hell” (Matthew 23:33).

According to recent religious polls, the number of truly born-again believers in the world today could be as few as eight percent, which at the time of this writing could possibly be only Eight percent = 630-million among 7.88 billion people in the world! Because the world has refused to submit to God through faith in the gospel of peace, very soon the Lord will come to judge and conquer the world through warfare!

BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON

History of the nations—Around 600 BC, God gave Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon a very revealing dream of a great image which signified and revealed the history of nations beginning with his kingdom and ending with the final kingdom of the “antichrist” (1John 2:18). In answer to the prayers of Daniel and his two companions, God then revealed to Daniel both the dream and the interpretation, which he then gave unto the king (Daniel 2:31-49). By comparing many other scriptures with this interpretation, we are taught the sequential order of the kingdoms of this world from Babylon unto the second coming of Christ. They are Babylon, Media and Persia, Greece, Rome, and the last seven-year divided kingdom of the “beast” (Revelation 17:17).

The conquering stone is Jesus Christ—After describing the image from his head of gold to his legs of iron, Daniel continued telling the king that he saw “…his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:31-35).

The precious foundation stone—The prophet said: “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste” (Isaiah 28:16). And the apostle declares: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1Corinthians 3:11). The Lord Jesus said to the chief priests, scribes and elders of the people, “What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” (Luke 20:17-18).

Destruction of the beast kingdom—Daniel goes on to speak of the final antichrist kingdom: “And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay” (Daniel 2:41-43).

This curious mingling of iron and clay brings to mind the time before the flood when fallen angels [iron] took wives of the daughters of men [clay] and produced children which “became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:1-4). This ungodly union corrupted man’s genealogy producing human/angel chimeras, which brought such great wickedness and evil to mankind that God declared to Noah: “And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die” (Genesis 6:17).

The Lord Jesus said, “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-27). Only God knows what kinds of corrupted creatures may be walking among us in these last days! Remember to “try the spirits whether they are of God…” (1John 4:1).

God will set up his kingdom—Daniel finished his God-given interpretation of the dream: “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure” (Daniel 2:44-49).

At the second coming of Christ—the stone “cut out of the mountain without hands” (Daniel 2:45)—all kingdoms of the nations will be defeated and “become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15; 2Peter 1:11; Isaiah 9:6-7; Psalm 145:13)!