How To Overcome Defeat Through Faith (Series #18)

The secret of his strength is plainly shown right here in the Bible: “the Spirit of God came upon him.” That was the secret of his strength. The Spirit of God was in this man! And God, through the Holy Spirit, gave him supernatural strength! His physical strength in the Old Testament is meant to be to us an illustration of the spiritual strength that the Holy Spirit is giving to us in this day. Our Lord said, “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me.”

To what great heights this man soared! He was the judge over all Israel for twenty years. Therefore, not only was he a man of physical strength, he was a man of great wisdom. He was the hero of his day. His name was on the lips of everyone.  However, just as he soared to great heights, he also fell to great, great depths. How the mighty have fallen! Samson went from hero to zero. He went from victor to victim. He went from overcomer to overcome.

God blessed the child. In Judges 13:24, we read, “The Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at times.” Where did this sin come from? How did Samson ever get into sin to begin with? Here’s the source of his sin: no matter that he loved God and knew God and believed in God, he still had an old nature about him. The Bible says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Samson fell because of the old nature that was in him. He took his eyes off the Lord and allowed them to wander to certain temptations and things.

James tells us how temptation happens. James 1:13, states, “Let no man say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted of God.’ For God tempted no man with evil. Neither can he be tempted of evil.” You can’t say, “God made me do it.” You can’t say, “The devil made me do it.” “But every man is tempted,” James says, “when he is drawn away of his own lust. And lust, when it hath conceived, brings forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.”

There are three persons sitting in every seat the local church. You may say, “No wonder it’s so crowded.” Pay attention to this thought. There is the self that is sitting there right now. There is the saint that you could be. I mean, the person for God you could be. If you would just let go of this world and take hold of the Lord with both hands by faith, and say, “Sink or swim, live or die, once and for all, now and forever, I’m going for God.” You don’t know what God could do through you!

There is a third person sitting in that seat, the sinner we could become. I don’t believe that any of us realize the potentiality for evil there is in our lives. You may say, “Well, something bad would never happen to me.” You are no better than Samson. You’re no better than Simon Peter. You’re no better than King David. A lot of God’s choicest of saints have sinned and they’ve fallen! The Bible says, “Let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.” There is no sin of the flesh that a child of God is not capable of committing if he takes his eyes from the Lord Jesus Christ! The source of this sin is this: “Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed! And lust, when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin.”

We Need To Remember The Course Of Sin

I want you to understand the course that sin took Samson. First, Samson had the indifference of a careless life. In Judges 14:1-4, we read, “And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up and his mother and his father said, ‘I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.’ And 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 the wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?’ And Samson said to his father, ‘Get her for me; for she pleases me well.'”

He is not thinking here about pleasing God. He is thinking about pleasing Samson. The Bible says, “Without faith, it’s impossible to please God.” Samson is not acting in faith; he’s acting according to the flesh. He’s trying to please himself. As I have said before, if you please God, it doesn’t matter whom you displease. But if you displease God, it doesn’t matter whom you please.

He had no business being among the Philistines. He had no business looking around at those unsaved girls. He had no business wanting to marry an unsaved person. Did you know, ladies and gentlemen, that the Bible teaches that a Christian is not to marry an unsaved person? I see young people make foolish choices! They love the Lord God with all of their heart, and yet they go out and get unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. The Bible says clearly, “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” Samson married a Philistine girl. The Philistines were demonic people! The Philistines were wicked people! Yet, Samson married a Philistine woman! He married a child of the devil.

If you marry a child of the devil, then you get the devil for a father-in-law. You talk about in-law problems. This is where Samson’s problem began. He married an unsaved girl! He was out of the will of God. He just simply compromised. Here was what we call “the indifference of a careless life.” Now, that might not seem like such a great sin, but sin starts small. Nobody goes roaring off into sin. It starts with the wrong company. Samson was down there among the Philistines. He was where he should not have been! He was not practicing Biblical separation! You show me the crowd you run with, and I’ll tell you the kind of a person you are or the kind of a person you will soon become. He started running with the Philistines; before long he was living in sin and acting like the Philistines. The Bible says, “A companion of fools shall be destroyed.”

Secondly, Samson lived the indulgence of a carnal life. In Judges 14:5, we read,

Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath and, behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother. And he went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: 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 mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion. And so his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made a feast; for so used the young men to do. And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him. And Samson said unto them, ‘I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments: but if you cannot declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty sheets and thirty change of garments.’ And they said unto him, ‘Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it.’ And he said unto them, ‘Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.’ And they could not in three days expound the riddle.

Samson was walking along. There’s a lion that pounces upon him. The lion thought he would have a Samson burger steak. He had a mistake. He got hold of Samson, and Samson got hold of him, and he tears this lion apart, limb from limb! Now, he goes on to the wedding feast. There are thirty young Philistines. He says to them, “Say, I’ve got a riddle for you!” He said, “If you can figure out the riddle, I’ll make a little wager with you. I’ll give you thirty brand new suits. If you can’t figure it out, you give me thirty brand new suits.” And he says, “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” The lion was the eater. The meat was the honey. The lion was strong. The honey was sweet. That was his riddle.

When they couldn’t figure out this riddle, they went to Samson’s new wife, and said, “You get him to tell the answer to this riddle.” Thus, she said to Samson, “Samson, tell me the answer to the riddle.” And Samson said, “I’ve not told my father and my mother. Should I tell you?” Now, he shouldn’t have said that. That was his first mistake. Nobody ever tells a young bride that! “I haven’t told my father and my mother! You think I’m going to tell you?” Then she turned on the waterworks, and she began to cry! So, he then told her, and she told her friends and her brothers. Next, they told Samson, the answer to the riddle and he was infuriated. He said, “If you’d not plowed with my heifer, you’d not found out my riddle.” Now, I don’t advise a wife to double-cross her husband. I certainly don’t advise a husband to call his new bride a heifer.

So, Samson, he’s going to keep this debt. He goes out and in order to keep the debt, he kills thirty Philistines, takes their clothes off, and comes and pays this wager!  Samson is starting to go down, down and down.

Samson is now feast jesting, gambling, fighting, arguing and already in a terrible broken relationship with this unsaved woman because their home is not built on Almighty God.  You see him now as he starts to bend. Normally, someone does not go roaring into sin, but his life starts to come apart!

Next, Samson takes another step down. He lives the inequity of a callous life. In Judges 16:4, we read, “And it came to pass that afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.”

Eleven hundred pieces of silver equates to about three thousand dollars. They said, “Delilah! If you find some way that we can tie this man up, and do him harm; Delilah, we’ll pay you three thousand dollars.” Thus, she began to entice him. She began to bribe him. She said, “Sammy boy, would you tell me what makes you so strong?”

Samson said, “Well, I can’t tell you that.”

She said, “Well, uh, would you tell me how you could be tied up if someone wanted to hurt you? Just tell me. Just between you and me, Sammy boy.”

He responded, “Well, “If you were to tie me with seven green vines,” I wouldn’t be able to break those vines.”

So, she tied him up with seven green vines, and then she said, “Samson! The Philistines!” He jumped up, and the Bible says he broke those vines right away.

Delilah said, “Samson, you’ve lied to me. Now, tell me how you can be tied up, and what’s the secret of your strength?”

Samson said, “”If you tie me with seven new ropes,” he said, “then I wouldn’t be able to move at all.”

She got seven brand new ropes and tied him up, and the same thing happened again: “Samson! The Philistines are here!” And he jumps up, and the Bible says, “And he broke the ropes like they were thread.”

She said, “Now, Samson, you say that you love me, and you haven’t even given me all your heart.” In Judges 16:15, we read, “And she said unto him, ‘How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me?” It’s a shame he didn’t hear God saying that to him, isn’t it? “How can you say you love me, when your heart is not with me! Now, you tell me.”

Next Samson said, “You weave my hair in the web of the loom; then I won’t be able to move.” But wait a minute. He is getting closer now, isn’t he? He’s dealing with his hair now, but he’s still not telling her the truth. However, she begins to needle him, to nag, to beg and to plead.

The Bible says finally, when she vexed him unto death — Verse 17, “he told her all his heart, and said unto her, ‘There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarene unto God from my mother’s womb.'”

In other words, “The secret of my strength is spiritual; and if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me and I shall become weak and be like any other man. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart.’ Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him and his strength went from him. And she said, ‘The Philistines be upon thee, Samson.’ And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, ‘I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself.’ And wist not that the Lord was departed from him.”

Now, underline Judges 16:21, because it’s a key verse. “But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.”

What is the force of his sin? What did his sin do to him? What was the deadly force? First, is the blinding force of sin. The Philistines took Samson, and they took searing hot pokers, and they plunged them into his eyes, into his skull; and his eyeballs fizzled and fried, and they burned his eyes out. And sunshine would never see the sunshine again. The blinding power of sin.

I want you to understand that long before this had happened to Samson, he was already blind. Can you imagine when Delilah says to him, “Samson, what’s the secret of your strength? Tell me. “How could you be afflicted? Don’t you feel like saying, “Samson, you nincompoop! Don’t you see what she’s trying to do to you? Samson, how can you be so blind! Samson, how can you be so stupid!” There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.

People tell us sometimes that we need to get experience in sin. We need to be a part of the Avanti Garde. We need to be a little bit of a sophisticated generation. After all, why knock it till you’ve tried it! You know, that’s what the devil told Eve in the Garden of Eden, “After all, just get into sin! Live it up! Experience it! Don’t be a babe in the woods!” Mark it down, the deeper one goes into sin, the less he understands about sin.

How stupid Samson was! How blind he was! And this physical blindness was only a graphic illustration of the greater spiritual blindness, for the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The God of this age hath blinded the mind of them that believe not.” He was blind in his mind before he was blind with his eyes.

Additionally, to the blinding force of his sin, there was also the binding force of his sin. In Judges 16:21, we read, they “brought him down to Gaza, and bound him.”

Here was mighty Samson, bound in fetters of brass! But before that, he was already shackled by his sin, wasn’t he? And the binding in the physical way was only illustrative of the fact that already he had been bound by his sin.

There is none so shackled as the man or woman who’s shackled by his or her sin. People talking about being free. They say, “I don’t want to be a Christian. I want to be free!” The biggest slave in the world is a man or woman who’s a slave to his sin.

Did you know this? Satan says, “Jump.” And they say, “How high?” And they’re talking about being free. The Bible says concerning the Lord Jesus, “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

Here was mighty Samson who was bound. People say, “Well, I want to be free to drink my whiskey or my wine.” You do? It may be not long before you’ll be bound to drink whiskey. You know, the Japanese have a proverb: “First of all, the man takes a drink. Then the drink takes a drink. And then the drink takes the man.” He drank first of all happily. Then he drank heavily and habitually. He drank first of all delicately! Then he drank daringly! He drank first of all proudly! Then he drank ploddingly. He or she was carefree about it. And then he or she was crushed by it.

There was a man named the Tyrant of Syracuse, one of the meanest despots that ever occupied the throne. He was angry with the blacksmith, and the blacksmith didn’t know it. He called the blacksmith in before the throne, and he said, “I want you to show me how you would forge a chain.” The blacksmith got his molten metal. He got his anvil, his hammer, and began to make a chain of the finest steel. Finally, he had finished and he held the chain out up to the Tyrant of Syracuse, and he said, “There, Sire, is an example of my work! It’s the finest chain in all of the kingdom!” He said, “You could put a team of horses on either end, and they’d not be able to part this chain.” Then the Tyrant of Syracuse said, “Guards! Take him! Bind him in that chain! And cast him in the dungeon!” He was forging the chain that would bind him.

That’s exactly what Samson did. Samson was the one that forged those chains that bound him. There is the binding force of sin. Many today are slaves of sin, rather than servants of the Lord Jesus Christ!

However, it is not over yet. Afterwards, there was the grinding force of sin. In Judges 16:21, it says, “they put out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.” In this day when they would grind out the corn and the wheat, they would have a long pole, and an animal would be tied to that pole, an oxen, a donkey, or some sort of an animal. With the lecher’s lash they would make that animal go round and round and round and round. Here is Samson like a dumb ox! Like a donkey! Like an animal! The man who was meant to be a judge in Israel, he is grinding in the prison house!

If Samson could write his autobiography, he would have to say, “The devil lied to me. The devil told me this was the way of joy and the way of happiness, and the way of fun and fulfillment.” The devil will lie to you. It has been said, “The devil offers high wages, but he always pays off in counterfeit money.” Doctor Lee said, “Sin promises substance, but it gives shadow. Sin promises velvet, but it gives a shroud. Sin promises nectar, but it gives gall. Sin promises sleep, and it gives sins’ nightmares. It promises rest, and it gives sins’ weariness.”

The grinding power of sin! There’s nothing good about sin! There’s nothing that sin can do for you! You better treat sin like sin will treat you! And if you don’t understand how sin will treat you, then you study here in this story that God has recorded in His Divine Word. I had just as soon eat dirt, as to willingly sin. There’s the blinding power of sin! There’s the binding power of sin! There is the grinding power of sin! This was the force of Samson’s sin!

In verse 29 it states: “And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and the other with his left hand. And Samson said, ‘Let me die with the Philistines.’ And he bowed himself with all of his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all of the people that were therein. So, the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew with his life.”

What does all of this mean? It means in spite of what Samson did, in spite of the terrible tragedy, God is the God of the second chance. I suppose, Samson is one of the greatest heroes of faith because he had such great faith. You say, “Where was his great faith?” Samson had enough faith to know that even though he was a failure and a disgrace and shamed God, that God still loved him and would remember him when he came in repentance and faith. That’s a lot of faith!

Do you know what somebody called faith? Faith is our acceptance of God’s acceptance of us when we trust Him. Faith is our acceptance of God’s acceptance of us!

Maybe you have failed and you’ve failed so much! But, as a messenger of God I want to tell you that God loves you. And the same God that blessed Samson, who chose Samson as an illustration of faith, he learned to face his failure with faith!

Sure, Samson died prematurely. Sure, he lost so many of the blessings that he could have had. However, when he overcame his defeat through faith, God moved in his life one more time. God move in your life, for He loves you very much.