Sermon Tone Analysis

March 2, 2012

By John Barnett

Read, print, and listen to this resource on our website www.DiscoverTheBook.org

God has given us an inspired record of over 2900 hundred different people in the Bible, for a purpose.

God through those lives captured by Him in His Word wants to show us through their lives how to live right (for doctrine), how to live wrong (for reproof), how to get right (for correction), and how to stay right (instruction in righteousness).

One of those lives captured on the pages of Scripture is Samson, an example of a man who was a hero of the faith, but lived WRONG.

His life was characterized by life-long struggles with two big sins: lust and vengeance.

We all struggle to some extent with both of those temptations.

But, Samson gave into those temptations on a regular basis until they DOMINATED his life.

Romans 12:19 /"Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,”[Deuteronomy 32:35] says the Lord."/

*Consequences of Bad Choices*

The life of Samson is a tragic story of the cost of yielding to sin.

His life is recorded in Judges as a picture of the destructive power of sin.

The greatest enemy Samson had was himself.

What a warning to each of us who have the same problem—it is called our flesh.

Within each of us a traitorous inclination against God never slumbers, and always smolders.

Given any amount of fuel either through the desires of the body, the desires of the eyes or the pride of life—and it blazes to life in a conflagration of destruction.

Samson’s history is an illustration of Paul’s warning in 1 Cor.

9:27:

/"But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."/

Samson was disqualified.

In Heaven he was remembered as a man of faith.

On earth he was remembered as a man who was disqualified.

Hebrews 11:32 cites him for his faith in God’s Word, but apart from this, very little can be said on his behalf.

As a young man probably in his teens, we get the first indicator that Samson was not going the direction the Lord had pointed him.

He begins to live by his desires and not God’s.

He begins to serve his own lusts and not God's Words.

A string of women begin to parade through his life.

In fact seven times Samson is guided by the lust of his eyes when he sees women that please him.

That was a dangerous choice each time.

Here is the list: Judges 14:1, 2, 3, 7; 15:1, 2; 16:1.

The final, and deadliest woman is Delilah in Judges 16.4.

Her name has become synonymous with lust, deceit, betrayal and ruin.

She tries to find the secret of his strength for an enormous bribe.

She finally wears him down.

Samson knows it is his hair and in a series of three lies he slowly gives clues.

*Sin Binds, Blinds, And then Grinds*

Samson’s soiled life is recorded.

His defeats are unvarnished and clear for all to see.

Practicing of sin blinds us, then sin slowly binds us with its fetters and finally blinded and bound we have to go grinding through life because of sin.

Talk to anybody that’s lived an immoral life that’s come to Christ: ask them how empty and briefly exciting, sin really was.

Sin has a passing pleasure that slowly blinds, then it binds us with cords that we forge for ourselves that we cannot break; and finally we become the one who is grinding out an existence totally the captive of sin.

God forgives, God restores, and God uses Samson one final time.

What was Samson’s problem?

1.

First, Samson was *dominated by lust*.

That passion led Samson to desire a Philistine woman as a wife, which was strictly forbidden by God’s Law.

In addition, that passion led him to liaisons with prostitutes, like the one with the woman Delilah who betrayed him for money.

How many times do men say no, no, I’m doing that because I love her.

No- love can wait to fulfill a legitimate desire, lust can’t.

Lust always fulfills legitimate desires in an illegitimate way.

You want to know the difference between love and lust?

Can you wait?

If you can’t it’s lust.

Love always waits.

2. Second, Samson was* driven by pride and revenge.*

He was more moved by anger at personal affronts to strike out at the Philistines, than he was moved by the suffering of the people he was supposed to lead (cf.

14:19–20; 15:7–8; 16:28).

Judges 14:19-20 /"Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle.

*So his anger was aroused,* and he went back up to his father’s house.

20 And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man."/

Judges 15:7-8 /"Samson said to them, “Since you would do a thing like this, I will *surely take revenge on you*, and after that I will cease.”

8 So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam."/

Judges 16:28 /"Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray!

Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow *take vengeance *on the Philistines for my two eyes!”/

*Unforsaken Sin Is Very Costly*

The rest of the story shows the tragic end of the believer who will not let God have his way with his life.

From 16.20 on, Samson does nothing but lose.

What exactly did Samson lose?

1. *Samson loses his hair,* the symbol of his Nazarite dedication; for that dedication had long since been abandoned.

God allowed the outward symbol of it to be taken away from him.

2. *Samson loses his strength,* but doesn’t even know it until he is overpowered.

Judges 16:20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!”

So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!”*

But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him*.

3. *Samson loses his sight*, as the Philistines put out his eyes.

4. *Samson loses his freedom*, for they bind him with fetters of brass.

5. *Samson loses his usefulness to the Lord*, for he ends up grinding corn instead of fighting God’s battles.

What a picture of sin.

1st sin blinds, then sin binds, and finally sin grinds.

6. *Samson loses his testimony*, for he was the laughingstock of the Philistines.

Their fish-god Dagon, not the God of Israel, was given all the glory.

7. *Samson loses his life.*

Samson was a castaway he had committed sin unto death, and God had to take him off the scene.

His loved ones claimed his body and buried him “between Zorah and Eshtaol”—the very place where he had started his ministry (13:25).

So mighty Samson was crippled by his temptations fed until they became raging lusts that drove him to disobedience, sin, and ultimately his own destruction.

But God forgave him as his last words were cried out to the Lord; apparently during the grinding at the mill, Samson repented of his sin.

God offered him one more chance to act by faith.

His hair had begun to grow and Samson remembered his calling.

He asked God for strength to win one more victory over the enemy.

God answered his prayer, but in defeating others, Samson lost his own life.

Samson is a powerful illustration of friendship with the world through the lusts of the flesh—and those destructive powers that the lusts of the flesh wield.

o Samson illustrates people who have power to conquer others, but who cannot conquer themselves.

o He could easily break the bonds that men put on him, but the shackles of his own sin gradually grew stronger on his soul.

o He could have been remembered for what he built up, but instead everyone but God only remembers what he destroyed: lions, foxes, fields, gates, soldiers, women’s purity, and his own life and ministry.

Samson is a powerful reminder of God’s grace.

Though he descended into wandering far from his calling and consecration—the Lord never let go of him.

God’s grace tells us that even if we have lived like Samson—anyone can who will turn in faith and repent and look to God.

As a lost person, turn while you hear His voice.

As a believer, there is no one who has gone too far to miss God’s grace if you’ll respond while you hear His voice.

*The Man who Would Not Get Even*

Now think of what a contrast Samson’s life is to David.

David’s choice repeatedly through life was to surrender his desire for vengeance to the Lord.