Sermon Tone Analysis

February 17, 2012

By John Barnett

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All of us in Christ's Church are called from darkness to light at salvation; and we are saved from the power of Satan; and we are being transformed into saints of God.

That process in called consecration.

Last week as we looked at the Church at Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29), we saw that their consecrated lives were slipping because of compromise with sin and false doctrine.

Jesus called them to repent, to have a change of mind that would lead to a change in behavior.

The letter to Thyatira is a challenge from Christ for His children of faith to do what is needed: repent of compromising their lives of sanctification.

Paul describes the deadly result of a compromised life.

Please open to I Corinthians 3:15 where Paul warns all believers about the danger of getting to Heaven empty-handed, and what it means to suffer loss.

In other words:

*Don’t Get to Heaven Empty Handed & Suffering Loss*

Please listen to this one verse, from God, through Paul, to each of us who will listen.

1 Corinthians 3:15 (NKJV) /"If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."/

Today, God's Word uses a well know person from the Bible to portray this description of being saved, yet so as by fire.

This person is Samson, and he powerfully illustrates Christ's warning to Thyatira.

The Scriptural biography of Samson teaches believers about suffering the loss that comes from a compromised life,

First, Samson is a believer, a servant of God, but one that was saved by fire, suffering loss.

We know Samson is a believer because the New Testament tells us so in Hebrews 11:32.

Next, we can classify the struggles Samson faced: chastening; because the Lord always chastens those who are really His, as Hebrews 12:1-11 clearly teaches.

Finally, we know Samson suffered loss because that is what Paul says happens to anyone who lives a compromised life like Samson, as I Corinthians 3:15 so hauntingly warns us.

Samson is a powerful reminder of God’s grace.

Though he descended into the depths of a lust filled life, wandering far from his calling, and neglected his consecration: the Lord never let go of him.

His soiled life is recorded.

His defeats are unvarnished and clear for all to see.

But against the backdrop of sin is the beauty of grace.

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

But the warning from the Scriptures is:

*Samson Shows Us How He Got to Heaven Empty Handed & Suffering Loss*

Samson was one of the most amazing Old Testament personages.

So many details God captured about his life are unique and profound in their meaning.

Here are just a few truths about Samson’s life:

• God’s Angels Announce His Birth: He was one of only a handful of people whose births were announced by angels.

Isaac, John the Baptist, and Jesus are the others.

So he is in the top 1/10 of 1% of all the 3,000 people named in the Bible.

• His Parents Sought God’s Help to Raise Him: His parents rank up there again with the fewest of the few.

Only Joseph & Mary, Job, Abraham, Hannah, and Samson’s dad Manoah are recorded as seeking and receive wisdom recorded in God's Word in how to raise their children.

• He is Consecrated to God from Birth: Now we are in special territory again.

God picked from birth Jeremiah, Samuel, John the Baptist, and Paul.

The calling that God placed upon Samson was to be a Nazarite: a person completely given to God for life.

The inward response to this calling of obedience was to be a chosen life of pointing to the Lord by obedience.

God gave Samson special supernatural strength.

The life of Samson is recorded in God's Word as a picture of the destructive power of sin, and the restoring power of grace.

Samson often lived in the lust of the flesh; Samson often walked by the lust of the eyes; Samson often responded with the pride of life.

The dangers of compromise, the consequences of wandering from consecrated living, and the wonders of God’s grace: are all seen in the incredible life of Samson.

• Experiencing great blessing and strength in one area of our lives does not make up for neglect and weakness in another area of our lives.

• Knowing the presence of God does not automatically overwhelm our will, we must choose to obey or we will disobey!

Few accounts in the Bible are as tragic as this one.

Here is a man to whom God gave twenty years’ time to begin to overcome the enemy, yet in the end, he himself was overcome by the enemy.

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

9:27, for Samson was a castaway.

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

“Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” /(1 Cor.

10:12, NKJV).

As we open to the book of Judges, God's Word traces the dangerous path that Samson chose, that led him away from blessing and into suffering loss because of his compromises with sin.

Note the steps that led to Samson’s sin and tragic end.

*The First Step on the Pathway to Spiritual Loss: Samson Wandered from His Godly Heritage (Judges 13:1-25)*

Just think for a moment what God has done, and who you are today as a believer and follower of Christ.

We are each a special, unique creation with a purpose from God.

God made each of us exactly as we were born; and there were no mistakes in our manufacturing.

Then the Lord delivered each of us to exactly the right home with the right parent(s).

That is also what Samson had:

1.

A Godly Home: Samson was born into a godly home, to parents who believed in God and practiced prayer.

Samson was God’s special gift to them and a tool God wanted to use in Israel.

Samson’s father prayed, “Teach us what we shall do unto the child” (v. 8, 12).

Samson’s folks loved God and tried to instill this same love in their son.

2. A Godly Giftedness: God gave to Samson a special endowment of the Holy Spirit that made him a tool in the Hands of the Lord to accomplish His purposes as a Judge in Israel.

3. A Godly Calling: God told Samson’s parents that their son was called by God to be a Nazarite (lit.

a “separated one”), who was to be instructed in how to be completely surrendered to the Lord.

Samson’s parents were to teach him Numbers 6, where he would learn a Nazarite was never to drink alcohol; never touch anything dead; and to maintain the mark of his dedication by uncut hair.

But, despite this path God chose for him, Samson began to despise his wonderful heritage as he grew up.

Instead of surrendering himself to accomplish God’s plan, Samson chose to live his own plan.

How tragic it is when God gives us a wonderful heritage and His great plan, and we treat it lightly.

We now find the next step towards spiritual loss in Samson’s life.

*The Second Step on the Pathway to Spiritual Loss: Samson Disobeyed His Parents (Judges 14:1–4)*

One of the first signs of spiritual decline can often be seen in the way a young person responds to their God-given parents.

Samson clearly demonstrates his rebellion.

1. Samson decided to go away from the Lord.

Note in Judges 14 that “Samson went down...” (14:1), this statement is true both spiritually and geographically.

Instead of staying inside the borders God had given for finding a life’s partner, Samson went down into enemy territory looking for a wife; and disobeying both God's Word and his calling: Samson fell in love with a heathen woman.

2. Samson decided to ignore God’s rules.

Because Samson’s parents specifically asked the Lord how to raise him, Samson would have known the laws of separation God had given in the Pentateuch.

But Samson chose to ignore God's Words in Genesis 24:1–4 (don’t take a pagan wife); in Exodus 34:16 (beware of pagan wives); in Deuteronomy 7:3 (don’t marry pagans); and never forget that the same command from God is restated for us in the New Testament in II Corinthians 6:14–18.

3. Samson decided he was his own authority.

Note that God's Word captures that he told his parents; note that Samson was not honoring them by asking them.

Even worse, when they reminded Samson about God's Word they had taught him, he defied them as he said: “Get her for me, for she pleases me well!” Samson was not restrained by the fact his choice displeased his godly parents.

God does use Samson sin to strike the Philistines (v. 4).

But, a godly person will not intentionally disregard a true Scriptural admonition from their godly parents who obey God’s Word.

*The Third Step on the Pathway to Spiritual Loss: Samson Compromised His Life (Judges 14:5–20)*

In that culture, the parents arranged the marriage, and there was often a year between the engagement and the wedding.

Samson met a lion, and God gave him the power to overcome it even though Samson was disobeying God's Word.

After months of waiting, when Samson went to get married, he found that bees had built a honeycomb in the skeleton of the lion.

Though Samson had been taught that in Numbers 6:6–9 God said that a Nazarite was never to touch a dead body, Samson deliberately defiled himself for the sake of the honey!

“How many Christians today defile themselves just to enjoy a little honey in the carcass of a lion” —perhaps it is the honey we desire of:

• Compromising or defiling lyrics of a popular musician; or the

• God-dishonoring message of a video game; or the

• Spirit-grieving scenes in a movie; or the

• Disobedient-direction of an ungodly friendship.

As a Nazarite, and a leader of God’s People, Samson had no right to be sharing in the paganism of a worldly Philistine wedding.

As Spirit-indwelt, consecrated servants of God: neither do we have any right to defile the Temple of the Living God that we are to be for the Lord.