Turn with me, if you would, in the Bibles, in your Bibles, or the Bibles in the pew before you, to Judges chapter 14. Judges 14, as we not only continue our consideration of the Judges, but in particular of Samson. Judges 14, as we read together and consider together chapter 14. Hear now the Word of God. Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife. His father and mother replied, Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife? But Samson said to his father, Get her for me. She's the right one for me. His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines, for at that time they were ruling over Israel. Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her. Sometime later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion's carcass. In it was a swarm of bees and some honey, which he scooped out with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's carcass. Now his father went down to see the woman, and Samson made a feast there, as was customary for bridegrooms. When he appeared, he was given thirty companions. Let me tell you a riddle, Samson said to them. If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If you can't tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. Tell us your riddle, they said. Let's hear it. He replied, out of the eater, something to eat. Out of the strong, something sweet. For three days they could not give the answer. On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us or we will burn you and your father's household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us? Then Samson's wife threw herself on him, sobbing. You hate me. You don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer. I haven't even explained it to my father or mother, he replied, so why should I explain it to you? She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day, he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She, in turn, explained the riddle to her people. Before sunset on the seventh day, the men of the town said to him, What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? Samson said to them, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of their belongings, and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he went up to his father's house, and Samson's wife was given to the friend who had attended him at his wedding. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, last week we said that Samson had a good beginning. His beginning was characterized by God's grace, by God's blessing, and by God's Spirit. He was called by God Himself to be a Nazarite separated from the world and consecrated unto the service of the Lord. And as a Nazarite, he was a picture, a visible sermon to God's people in two ways. On the one hand, as a Nazarite, he was a picture, he was a representation of what Israel was supposed to be. Set apart from the world unto their covenant God. But on the other hand, more realistic, he was also a picture of what they had become. Those who had forsaken their calling. You see, we sit here tonight so many years later with God's inscripturated Word before us. We have all of Samson's story, the whole four chapters of Judges spread before us, open before our eyes. And the inspired text shows us that indeed Samson struggled with his office and calling on the one hand and with his sinful desires on the other hand. Again, if we only look at Samson's actions in and of himself, we will not see the message of God here. In fact, if that's all we look at, we ought to be terribly turned off at this so-called deliverer. But we must look at what God is doing here. And that's the mystery, isn't it? That's the mystery that God uses the sinfulness of man to accomplish his purpose as we've considered the sovereignty of God. No, God is not the author of man's sinfulness. God Himself does not sin, but Scripture reveals to us more than once that the Lord uses the sinfulness, the hatred, and the hard-heartedness of man, both believers as here with Samson and unbelievers as with Pharaoh. And the Lord uses this to carry out His sovereign counsel. Now twice within the four chapters of Scripture that talk about Samson, we read that he judges Israel for 20 years. So therefore, in reality, we are only given a fraction of the facts concerning his work. But what the Lord has given us clearly reveals that Samson's downfall was his lust and his affection for foreign women. Now, of course, there are some who try to tell us that Samson's motive, his motive was always, his number one priority was always to look for a way to strike the Philistines. And well, these women, well, they were just secondary. He was just using them toward that end. Well, I don't believe the Scripture gives us any indication of that being the truth. I believe the text of Scripture makes it clear that it was God who used Samson's sinful desires as a means to accomplish the Lord's work against the Philistines. And it begins here in chapter 14 where we see that the Lord begins deliverance through Samson's apostate marriage. We want to notice, first of all, the disobedient desire leading to confrontation. The disobedient desire. Chapter 13, you recall, ended by reminding us of Samson's good beginning when it says, And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him. It began to drive him. But then all of a sudden, chapter 14 begins, Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young, flistan woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife. Now Timnah was a former Israelite city that was now controlled by the Philistines. And we don't know for sure why he went there. But it's clear that whatever the reason was, it turned into lust. Samson was looking where he should not have been looking. He began to desire that which he should not have been desiring. And his desire in turn was to do something that was disobedience to God's revealed will. We find that revealed will in Deuteronomy 7 where God gives the command forbidding intermarriage with the Canaanites. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. The command of God was clear and we can be sure that Samson knew it. but he says, get her for me. Now Samson's parents contest his desire. They try to change his mind, and rightly so. In those days, you see, the parents arranged the marriages, and even though Manoah and his wife knew that Samson's task was to begin to deliver the Israelites, it's no surprise to us, of course, that they couldn't see how marrying a Philistine could possibly fit in God's plan. has seemed the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do. He wasn't to become one with them. He was to deliver the Israelites from them. But another twist here is that Samson's giving the orders. He's not taking the orders from his parents. He's given the orders and it seems with clenched teeth, he says a second time, Get her for me. She's the right one for me. Or as another version says, She looks good. To me. It's clear that Samson fits with the last verse of the book, right? Everyone did as he saw fit, or that which is right in his own eyes. We begin here to see that sad picture of Samson the Nazarite, indeed a representative of Israel, but instead of being separate from the world, mingling with the world. And we can almost hear Samson saying to his parents, as maybe some here have said to their parents, Listen, this is Ms. Wright. If you're a woman, it's Mr. Wright. I can feel it. Don't you want me to be happy? Isn't my happiness important to you, Mom and Dad? She's the right one for me. I know it. But it's clear, isn't it, that she was not Samson's Ms. Wright. Why? Not just because of how things turned out in this marriage, but because Samson disobeyed God by marrying her. Anything that is disobedient to God is simply not right. And beloved, that's a truth that each one of us, boys and girls, young people, each one of us must take with us each and every day. Remember, anything that is disobedient to God is simply not right. You can justify it until you're blue in the face, But whatever it is, it doesn't make it right if it's disobedience to God. With regard to Samson's situation, we face this today, don't we? I suppose it's been faced in every age. Our Christian young people are sometimes tempted to date and to marry those who do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And they may even come up with interesting arguments as to why they should. Maybe God will use me to change this person. Maybe. Maybe. But that kind of attitude is testing God. And the Bible is clear that we are not to do that. Indeed, we are to work for the salvation, the conversion of others. But that happens long before one goes out on a date with that one. Instead, in truth, God's Word says in those familiar words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 6, do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Therefore, come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. People of God, especially young people, did you hear what the Lord says? Come out from them and be separate. He says, I will live among My people. I will live and dwell with My people, but not with those who are not My people. What is to govern our dating and our marriage? Indeed, our whole life, but in this particular case, our dating and our marriage? The Word of the Lord. Not our Samson-like desires, which we all have. Samson's desire was rooted in disobedience and his parents were right, as are Christian parents today. Samson's parents were right in trying to change his mind. Yet in this particular case, as we have recorded in Scripture, Mr. and Mrs. Manoa didn't know that God was going to redirect and use Samson's disobedience to serve God's own purpose. Verse 4 says, His parents did not know that this was from the Lord who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines, for at that time they were ruling over Israel. Again, some say that Samson was simply looking for an occasion against the Philistines because, after all, the Spirit of the Lord was stirring him. But we need to remember, as Scripture points out clearly, I believe, that the Spirit of the Lord was not always upon him. As we said last week, more than any other judge we read that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson. But in that 20-year period, there were those in-between times. When the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in a mighty way, then yes, he was looking for that occasion. But when the Spirit was not upon him, the Lord allowed him to follow his own sinful desire. And the text makes it clear. that Samson was driven by his own desires. She's the right one for me. She looks good to me. The Lord was looking for an occasion against the Philistines. And Samson's disobedient desire, his foolishness and his stubbornness were not going to prevent the Lord from accomplishing his design. God can and will use the sinfulness of his servants as the camouflage for bringing His secret will to pass, for unfolding His secret will. He did that with Joseph and his brothers. You meant it for evil, Joseph said, but God meant it for good. Christ's crucifixion and all that led up to it, the hatred, the deceit, the torture, the trial, and the cross gave the appearance that Satan and the Jewish leaders were triumphant. But that was all camouflage, you see. God moves in a mysterious way. We can almost imagine as Samson foolishly follows his temptation, we can almost imagine Satan's deceitful laughter turned into frustration as the Lord uses this disobedient desire to serve His purpose as an occasion to confront the Philistines. And it's interesting that as Samson is in the process of carrying out this disobedient desire, the Lord gives him a sign. he gives him a reminder of his calling in verses 5 and 6. Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. Now this is one of those events that we think, wow, that is simply amazing. Now, of course, a little bit of confusion here. It says he went down with his father and mother. We don't know where his father and mother were when the lion attacked. That's not something we really need to worry about. But the Hebrew word for lion here is talking about a young adult lion that was ferocious and bloodthirsty with youthful strength. And the idea behind came roaring at him was that it wasn't just roaring at him to scare him off, and it was roaring with the intention of attacking and tearing Samson apart. But in the strength of the Spirit of God, Samson tore it apart as if it were nothing. The idea of being kind of like you and I swatting at a pesky fly. That's all it was for Samson in the strength of the Spirit. But this was a sign from the Lord to Samson. As the lion lay silent and motionless at his feet, Samson was to be reminded of his office and calling, and this was to serve to teach him what the Lord could and would do through him as one consecrated to God. The same Spirit of God who made him able to tear this lion apart could also empower him to tear the Philistines apart. Remember David. David confesses that if the Lord could help him conquer the lion and the bear, that certainly he could do the same against Goliath. But it appears that Samson didn't take this sign to heart. In fact, he treats it as unimportant. He doesn't tell his parents or anyone else. Samson acts as if nothing else happened and continued on his way to carry out his disobedient desire to continue to get to know this woman and eventually marry the enemy. In this battle between the spirit and the flesh, it appears that the flesh was winning. Samson shows a blatant disregard for his Nazarite vow. Later, by eating the honey out of the dead lion and by throwing a drinking feast, that's what the Hebrew word is talking about when it talks about feast, at which it's hard to assume he didn't participate since it was his party. But those two things, through that he shows a lack of respect for his office as a Nazarite and a deliverer. Remember the restrictions of the Nazarite vow? He wasn't supposed to have any contact with the dead nor drink anything from the vine. He enjoyed the honey. He even shared it with his parents all the while ignoring God's sign to him that God could use him to restore the land to one of milk and honey. Samson is supposed to begin delivering the Israelites away from the Philistines, but instead he himself wants to marry into them. Beloved, the cross of Christ is a sign for us not to be ignored. A sign not to be ignored that heaven and earth are to be separated. That those who belong to the Lord don't belong indulging in the world. That's a sign of deliverance, you see. Not indulging in the world. But sometimes it's so convenient and attractive to blur the lines of separation and try to enjoy both. i remember when i was working for the metal company in los angeles as an inside sales rep i hadn't been there too terribly long and and i had taken an order from a customer for some metal and a few days later the customer called back and the instructions weren't followed where is my metal he says and and i really wasn't sure how to handle it so i went to my manager who was a nice guy to be sure a good worker but not a christian he says tell him anything except the truth just whatever it takes to smooth things over you see that's the way of the world praise God I wasn't able to do that not because I was strong I was very weak but by God's grace I was able to tell the truth and everything was fine as well you're probably familiar with what we read in the newspapers about college students cheating on exams by text messaging and cell phones that take photographs and so forth Again, the mindset is, what's the big deal? Who is it going to hurt? In the long run, it's not going to bother my job opportunities or how I perform my job, you see. And those are just a couple of illustrations where the lines are blurred. And even sometimes God's people are tempted to try to enjoy both, but it doesn't work that way. God says, come out and be separate. And our prayer is to be, God, Lord, what would You have me to do? But Samson continues on with his wedding plans. And then in the second place, we notice the game that set the stage for confrontation. At his week-long wedding feast, Samson is given 30 Philistine companions, one whom would become or be considered his best man, the one who his wife was given to later on. Other versions call him the best man. But this was the enemy, Israel's enemy and God's enemy. But to Samson, they were his companions. And as was customary, they had a game time. Samson thought that he would have a little fun at the expense of his new friends and he would use this lion for personal gain. But what was he really doing? Congregation, he was making sport out of God's special sign and gift to him. With regard to this riddle, another minister said that this was kind of like an Old Testament game of Jeopardy. Samson gives the answer, and his new friends must try to come up with the right question. The answer, out of the eater, something to eat. Out of the strong, something sweet. The price of the bet was high. To put it in our language, our terms today, Samson was talking about 30 sets of underwear and 30 new suits. Yet this game, this riddle, was no laughing matter. The companions accused Samson's wife of inviting them to the wedding just to make them poor. But the real problem, you see, was pride. In those days, a test of cleverness and wisdom was just as important as a test of strength. And these companions didn't like the idea of being made fools of. This riddle, you see, was a test of wisdom. And their threat to Samson's wife demonstrated just how barbaric and just how covetous the Philistines were. If you don't help us, then you'd better hope that your daddy's fire insurance policy is paid up. Because if we lose the bet, then you, Mrs. Samson, you will lose. We will see to it that things get mighty hot for you. But what happened? Even before the honeymoon, During the wedding reception, Samson's wife begins to nag him. She sheds those big crocodile tears and gives that line that every husband hates to hear, or boyfriend, you don't really love me. And finally, he can stand it no more, so he gives in and he gives to her and the Philistines a special secret. And congregation, the giving of that secret foreshadows it points forward to a much more sacred secret that he tells Delilah later on. And in our Bibles, if you notice, there's only a few words between he told and she told. And triumphantly, the thirty companions come to Samson saying, What is sweeter than honey, what is stronger than a lion, pay up, pal. Beloved, Samson learned firsthand that sin always reaps a sad reward. The Bible says that as you sow, so shall you reap. Samson's sin took a turn against him. And he was beginning to learn that it's impossible to mix God's call in the Spirit with man's sinful desires. The two don't mix. And again, we often struggle with that too, don't we? Those who believe in Jesus Christ by the grace of God are called to be separate. Yet the sins of the flesh that still cling to us, they still cling to us. And it's sometimes so much easier to become friends with the enemy than it is to fight the good fight. It's so much easier to compromise than to be separate. But the question before us is, what are you going to be? What are you going to be? Are you going to be the servant of God stirred to Christian action by His Spirit? Or are you going to be the chaser of your own desires? Joshua said, Choose you this day whom you will serve. And we need to understand, beloved, that sin always gives birth to misery and never to happiness. When is the last time your sin, a particular sin, resulted in happiness? Children, when you disobey your parents, you are punished, maybe even with a spanking. There's nothing happy about that. It hurts. Students, if you cheat, get caught cheating on a test, it results in a failing grade. There's nothing happy about that either. If you break the civil law, for example, if you get caught speeding, you pay a fine. It goes in your record. Again, there's nothing happy about that. And we could go on and on and on. And David makes it clear to us in Psalm 32 that sin against God, even sin that others may never know about, there's no happy result. The conscience of a believer weighs heavy upon him. He's sapped. His strength is sapped. taken from Him as in the heat of summer. Sin always gives birth to misery and never to happiness. Scripture says don't be deceived. God is not mocked. You see, the biblical formula for true happiness, beloved, is to seek first God's kingdom and He will take care of the rest. Well, finally, we need to recognize that this entire episode points then to the needed occasion that initiated confrontation. Again, verse 4 says that the Lord was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. But you see, God didn't need this occasion for Himself. The Philistines were His enemies. They were ruling over His people. And it would have been completely just for God to empower Samson to wipe out the whole nation. But the occasion that the Lord was seeking was for the benefit of the Israelites. Verse 4 says that at that time, they, the Philistines, were ruling over Israel. And this is talking about complete dominion. At that time, there wasn't even any attempted conflict between Israel and the Philistines. There was peace. But it was on Philistine terms. There was no desire or spirit in Israel to even attempt to fight off this Philistine domination. The root of the problem was Israel's apostasy. You may remember that in the introduction to this entire Judges series, we said that amnesia produces apostasy. They forgot God. They forgot His deliverance. So now they didn't see the need to fight evil. And beloved, that's what happens when we forget the cross of Jesus. When we forget why our Lord went to the cross, That He went there to suffer for you and for me to pay the penalty for our sin. That we might indeed be separate from the world. When we forget that, we don't understand what the big deal is all about. Why not compromise a little bit? At least we're getting along well. We don't see the need to fight evil. We're called to continue to fight evil. Maybe not with guns and tanks and so forth. If need be, yes. But we are called to fight evil. Israel was complacent. Israel was content. They lived comfortably. They were spiritually one with the Philistines. In a sense, they forgot that the Philistines were God's enemies and that they were supposed to be their enemies. Remember what we said was missing in connection with this particular cycle? This oppression didn't even stir them to cry out to God for help. Beloved, an occasion was needed to show Israel that there was indeed enmity toward God's people from the Philistines. They didn't understand it. See, I believe it's the same as I talk to people about professional faith, whether it's young people or even older, those who come to the church. We talk about profession of faith and the fact that Satan turns up the heat on those who confess the Lord Jesus Christ. For those he already has in the palm of his hand, he doesn't have to worry about them, does he? He's not busy with them because they're already his. But with those who look to the Lord Jesus Christ and confess them, Satan turns up the heat. He makes it difficult for you and I. The heat needed to be turned up on the Israelites. They didn't understand. There was no separation. An occasion was needed to demonstrate the Philistines' true colors as heathen, godless, selfish enemies. The Lord God, Israel's covenant God, used Samson's sinful marriage and his careless riddle as the occasion to begin not only his deliverance of Israel, but to begin to wake them up to see once again that the Lord He is God. And the text makes it clear that Samson's retaliation was not a revenge on his part. It may have been in his mind, but in truth it was orchestrated by the Lord. Samson's loss due to the riddle would actually become the Philistines' loss. He pays up, as we know, at the expense of 30 other Philistines. And this, in the power of the Spirit of the Lord, who, as the text says, came upon him in power. And thus begins the terrorizing of the enemies of God's people. Beloved, through the failure of Samson's apostate marriage, the Lord was showing him and us that true friendship can never exist between God's people and God's enemies. Because God exists with His people, with His mercy and His grace and His love. But He exists with His enemies in judgment, with His wrath. True friendship cannot coexist. But we also see the sovereignty of God and that He uses the sin of man to frustrate the plans of Satan. Again, when the Jews crucified Jesus on the cross, it looked like Satan was victorious. But the Lord used that seeming victory to utterly defeat Him. Now, was the loss of 30 men a big deal for the Philistines? Probably not. Probably not. But it was a demonstration of what God could do. And a demonstration of the strength that His people have by grace in His Spirit. And the answer to Samson's riddle, we might say, points back to the Lord. What is sweeter than honey? Psalm 19 says the law of the Lord is sweeter also than honey on the honeycomb. What is stronger than a lion? Well, obviously Samson under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God and ultimately the Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ. And beloved, in Christ we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. Thirty men made no dent in the Philistine army, but Christ's victory caused eternal damage to Satan's operation. Beloved, God uses sin. The sin of His people, the sin of those who are not His people. He uses it to accomplish His purpose, yet we are still responsible for our sin. The Lord may very well use your sin to advance His kingdom in some way, but if you remain unrepentant, He will also use it against you. And the Bible is clear how it will be used against you. The wages of sin is death. But, for those who repent of their sins by the grace of God through faith, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Lord begins deliverance through Samson's apostate marriage. God uses Samson to point to the hope his people have in Jesus Christ, who perfectly accomplishes deliverance through his righteous marriage with his church. Indeed, God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. God's grace is a mystery, but may our confession be, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, we thank You and praise You for this necessary reminder that You give to us through Your servant, Samson. Indeed, sometimes it's so easy to read of the episodes in Samson's life that we are given in Scripture and to completely miss the point of what You are doing. There is adventure. There is excitement. There is superhuman strength. Yet, Father, help us to see and understand what you did through Samson. And help us to see and understand how that benefits the church of Jesus Christ today. We thank you for the righteous marriage between the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, and his bride, the church. We pray, O Lord, that you would continue to lead your people to that blessed end as we look forward to your courts one day with all of God's people gathered around your throne. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray these things. Amen.