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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. and reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

See there in verse one of chapter 16? Then when Samson, Tagazah, and saw their a harlot, and went in unto her. That means he did a no-no because he had developed some no-no’s, not I should have said he should have, but he didn’t listen and he did not obey you. But now the key thing is this, you see there in verse 20 of chapter 15 and he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines 20 years. So if he was about 20 years age, 20 started, 20 years has passed, so he’s maybe 40 something years old, I guess you could say this man was in his midlife crisis.

That’s when they say you’re in your midlife crisis. When you go back and you don’t think right, you don’t do right and you’re messing up your life. And first thing it says in verse one, he saw another woman. Well, that’s what happened over there in the other chapter 14. He saw a woman. You see, he set and developed some patterns in his life, but they were wrong patterns. And And because he got away with it, God didn’t really beat him up because of the first one.

Now he can go and have a whore and not be having to worry about that. He’s gonna get away with that. But see the pattern was, God is a good God and a gracious God and God gives a person time to correct a problem. But if you don’t, he’s gonna let you get caught. And it’s gonna really cost you good. The third one did him in, and that was Delilah. So he had developed some no-nose in his life. Things that he should not have done, but he did it anyway.

He went to the wrong places. You see down there in verse four, when it says in chapter 16, and he came to pass afterwards that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, and that’s a stronghold, and that’s a border town, and so it’s right on the edge. And there’s a lot of people who just live on the edge. They don’t play safe. They want to see how close they can play with sin and get away with it.

Like it won’t get me. It won’t get me. It got him. And so he says here whose name was Delilah. And so you have here a story about this woman and how she was able because of her beauty. She got her a man. And that’s sometimes all along. I got me a man. He got two legs. I’ll take him. So she wasn’t a spiritual woman, a godly individual. She was greedy. She was willing to sell him for a price, and she did.

But he went to the wrong places. And he also, he met the wrong person. You see, if he hadn’t been there, that opportunity would not have prevailed. He would not have had that opportunity. See, when you don’t do right and you don’t think right, you’re opening up your doors of opportunity to really mess up your life. You have to guard yourself all the time. And so it was a price that he didn’t have to pay. But because of his rebellion, he paid a great price.

So here we have in chapter 16, it shows you his unbridled passion. He had a passion for the opposite sex and it brought him down. It ruined this man. When you read the Bible, you’ll be surprised how many so-called good men messed up their lives because, hey, she’s cute. Hey, listen, you may fall in love with that little temple, but when you marry that temple, you get the whole thing. They say, well, marriage is love is blind. Yes, but marriage is an eye-opener.

And you’d be surprised at the price that some people pay instead of waiting there. In any way, as you go down through here and you see this, how could a man sow so much carnality and not reap a harvest? As you read about his life, you see all the wrong that he did, his decision, the patterns that he said in his life that were wrong, and going to the wrong place and meeting the wrong people and paying a price, it didn’t have to pay.

But you see, God is a good God and God will give you certain liberty to obey or even to disobey. And at times when it says in the book of Ecclesiastes, when sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, there is when the heart of man, the desire to do more. Because I got away with it. Nothing happened. Nothing happened. And that becomes your trap. whenever you use certain things or sins to satisfy that burning passion desire and then whenever it comes again and it always comes again, you’ll have a tendency to satisfy the same sexual desires the way you did the last time and it gets easier and easier and easier.

And next thing you know you ruin your whole life and it doesn’t have to be that away. And so there is a price that you have to pay. this. Samson believed about four lies, four major lies. You see, he thought because of who he was, a power that you can’t stop me. I do you know who I am? Do you realize what I can do? You can’t stop me. And he also thought, you can’t catch me. Did you realize this guy was able to go out and catch 300 foxes?

Have you ever tried to catch one fox? I tried to shoot a fox. I’m glad I didn’t because I’d probably been put under the jail. But I couldn’t even hit one. I mean, nothing was running all over the place. I’m like, you thought there was a war in Vietnam. And they don’t host you. And this man was able to catch 300 foxes. And he tied their tails together, and he put a stalk between them and set it on fire and send them into the corn fields so they would burn up all their harvest.

Set everything on fire. The man was fast, buddy. You can’t catch me. You can’t stop me. So do you see there could be an element of pride in this thing? Just a little bit. He says, you can’t harm me. They try to tie him up and he could just snap him like that, walk off with the gates of the sea. I mean the guy was one strong individual. He was as strong as God wanted him to be. He could do whatever God wanted him to do.

He could do it. And so he also felt under another lie, God, God won’t touch me. won’t judge me because I did this and I got away with it. I did this and I got away with it. I can get away with it. Do you think it’s possible he could have believed the lie? Do you know what people do to themselves? They deceive themselves. They lie to themselves and then believe the lie. Satan will lie to you. He’ll tell you that God won’t do this and God won’t do that and God doesn’t love you and this won’t work and next thing you know you live in total fear and you have put a prison of rocks all around your ming, I can, I can, I can, I can.

I can’t make sure you know you have everything for your self to live inside of. I don’t like all those, I can’t, I can’t again. I can, I can, I can’t. I live like a free man because you and God make a majority and you and God you can do more than you ever dreamed of. So as you go down through here, I want you to notice that… that the Elayla was trying to find out where is his strength coming from because some people wanted to know and they were willing to pay for this knowledge.

So he says, if I am bound by some ropes that’s never been used and she’d tie them all up and then she’d say, the full exchange of money, I’d bring the break all those things, you know. I could try that with some wet noodles or, you know, I’m saying, if I could break those. And you have the various tests that she would do. Then she got crying how a woman has to put the tears in her eye and she’s all emotional.

You don’t love me. And he says, if you do this, I’ll become weak. Look up here in the last part of verse 17, where it says, and if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me and I shall become weak and be like any other man. He knew he was not like any other man. He knew he was different. But he says, I’ve been a Nazarite, and therefore a razor has never come upon his head, so he takes a nap with his head in Delilah’s lap.

And lo and behold, she shaved him, cut off his hair. And then she says, the Philistine be upon you! And he says, I will just shake him off like I did before. See that in verse 20? and she said, the Philistines be upon these Samson and he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out at other times as before. It’s going to be just like all time. I’m going to have victory just like I did before, but it didn’t work that way.

He didn’t have victory this time. And he says in verse 20, and he wished not that the Lord had departed from him. He didn’t know. his strength was in the Lord and God had honored the vow of the Nazarite vow but now his hair was cut. The vow was broken, the Lord left himFINEST and because he didn’t have the Lord he didn’t have the strength and they got him and I preached a sermon one time on the binding, the blinding and the grinding.

Don’t I make a good three-point outline don’t you like that Bob that’s a good outline. I think every preacher has preached that sermon. But you’ve got to realize, he bound himself. He brought this upon him. It didn’t have to be this way. This is not all that God planned for him. But God can use anything. God can use your rebellion in order to whoop you and use you as an example. God wants us, he says, be thou an example of the believer ineanor word, and deed, and attitude, Among all these thingsPrevious God tells uliculty God tells\\\\\\\\ God tells us what He does want.

But if you choose your rebel, God can use you. God can use you If you ever had, especially whenever I was in school, I had a teacher tell me, he said, I’m going to make an example out of you. Oh, I don’t think I like that. I’m going to make an example. I don’t want to be an example, but it didn’t have kill me. So, I got a lot of spankings. That was back in the days when the teachers didn’t mind bruising you a little bit, putting a few words you.

I mean, they picked me clean up off the floor. I mean, my backside was so burning red, I couldn’t sit down. It stinging, it burned, it hurt. I mean, I, I was alishing agent too. But if they take me down to the boiler room, just drop them. And then they said, bend over and they take that paddle with both hands on it and come through it, hardly can come up and lift you clean up off the floor. You say they’d ever do that.

Yes, they did. They beat my sisters, both of them, with rubber hoses. They come home with welts on their body. Not today, I think they would probably go to jail. But most of us probably were raised by parents that would today be guilty of child abuse. Well, anyway, we’ll move right along. So there was something to understand about all this here that was going on.Weak He wished not that the Lord had departed from him. So in verse 21, the Philistinesemb took him, put out his eyes.

Look at that. Did he have problem with his eyes? He had problem with his eyes. Every time he turned around he was looking at the womengregationricted ende Laygregation You can get trouble too. Be wise, be careful. God tells us in advance and it can happen. And you can fall very quickly. And then He says they put out His eyes and brought Him down to Gaza and bound Him with fetters of brass. Now He doesn’t have the Holy Spirit on Him.

He did not know the Lord had departed, but now He does. And they bound Him with fetters a brass and he did grind. So he was the blinding, the grinding, and the binding. All these things happened to him and he ground in the prison house. How bit the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaven. I don’t know why it would say that. I think something’s His hair begins to grow, and so God’s honor. That is what David in Goliath was all about.

God’s honor. And you don’t give God’s enemies an opportunity to blaspheme God’s name. And this is what a lot of times we do. We give the enemy an opportunity to blaspheme the Lord. Before we tell you what happened to them, ending up this wonderful story, the Philistines made four major mistakes. They made a couple of mistakes. You see, they did not understand the judgment of God. They don’t understand how God works. But you’re not supposed to. They thought they captured Samson.

It was God that turned Samson over to them. Because if God didn’t want it to happen, it would not have happened. God didn’t have to read. He knew what was going to happen when he left Samson. Okay, Samson. You don’t want to do what I want you to do. Let’s see how good you are on your own. You prideful individual. You got problem with your eyes. So they’re going to take out your eyes. And you wanted your freedom. You wouldn’t obey me.

That’s how you lose your freedom. There is liberty in the spirit. When you do what God says, dude, there is liberty. And when you don’t, you become trapped and enslaved and chained by sin itself. So you’re going to find out what it’s all like. And so you wouldn’t use your time right, so I might as well take your time away. So now you’re bound in a prison house and things weren’t looking too good for Samson. But you see the enemy, they don’t understand how God works.

You see, they don’t understand that God can still reach down and take this Samson that’s totally defeated, humiliated, shamed, and God can forgive him. God can do that. And God does do that. And also they did not understand that, you know, they were worship and false gods. Did you know when you worship a false god and your God isn’t God, you have to believe in fatalism? Because your God, your God, can’t see and your God can’t hear and your God can’t move.

So whatever will be, will be because you see your God can’t do anything. So it’s gonna be whatever will be, will be because your God can’t change anything but the God of Israel, Jehovah, he’s real. And he is God. So what do you have? You have, Samson begins to pray and talk to the Lord. He says, Lord, one more time, one more time. And there’s a God that can answer. But you see, they worshiped the false God. They didn’t understand the courage of Samson.

You see, he was a judge of Israel and Samson had courage. You know, he knew that he was blind. He couldn’t see. He knew at one time what it was like to have the power of God in his life and now to be stripped of everything. And so, Samson says, the Lord just one more time. His hair began to grow and the Bible says that they wanted to have a little sporting going on and a little mockery. And I just, God, looks down and grays and says, I am.

I’m going to show a little mercy upon this boy. And so as time goes on, They didn’t understand the power of prayer because he’s Samson had a God that could answer prayer. I believe Samson was broken there at the end. I think he didn’t learn a great lesson, but in the shame you have to learn too late when you’ve ruined your life. And he didn’t have to be that away. Did he have to be blinded because he couldn’t control his eyesight?

He didn’t use the power of God in his life the way he should, so God takes away all this power. He couldn’t use his freedom the way he wants, so he lost his freedom. So much that didn’t have to be that away, but he developed some wrong standards in his life and didn’t do right. So look what he says up here in verse 28. Thompson, called unto the Lord and said, this is in chapter 16. He says, oh God, remember me, I pray thee.

Strengthen me, I pray thee only this once. Oh God, that I may be at once avenged ofDeliveryDate the Philistines for my God. Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it was born up of the one with his right hand and the other with his left and Samson says, let me die with the Philistines and he bowed himself with all his might and the house fell upon the Lord’s and upon all the people that were therein soWilson the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.

Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down and took him and brought him up and buried him. And he judged Israel for 20 years. It didn’t have to end this way, but God says, I’m going to raise up a deliverer. But wouldn’t it have been great if he’d have just done it right and put God first? But some people don’t always do that with the Lord. We got some hard lessons to learned. But remember this, did he have the potential of doing some great things?

And even though he may go down in history as the strongest man that ever lived, he misused his strength. When you talk about Solomon, Solomon was the wisest man in the world. You would think, with all that wisdom, he wouldBUG right. But did he do right? With all that wisdom, he used it to learn everything that was knowable. Try everything that was tribal. Well he wasn’t satisfied with one wife, he had a thousand wives. Now don’t andise why he was so, wise that is not true.

That he had all those counselors. No that’s not, he messed up. And God because of his sin split the kingdom after him. Did they get away with it? He don’t get away with it. And just because maybe this is to help commerize as a warning. Does God know what’s going on in each one of our lives? Or are you that are watching by internet? God knows. And does God see and know that you’reartmenting up and you’re making some wrong decisions?

And if you fail to correctBBC problem, is it possible that God could lower the boom on you? But because you got away with it, you think you can do it again and again and again and keep getting away with it. And then you wonder, why didn’t I wake up in time? Why didn’t I see this? And you’re gonna ruin your life and it doesn’t have to be that way.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the little bit of the book of judges. But look up here now. This hand represents you and me. And this wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us. Now God says that He loves us. Now He hates what we do wrong, but He loves us. He hates our sin. And the Bible says all of us have sinned, but God still loves us. But the wages of sin to pay for the sin is eternal separation from God.

Did you know that people can reject theFalord, reject the Lord, reject the Lord? And one of these days they plan on getting saved down the road, I plan on doing it now. Well, I will, I will. and the road to hell is paved with good intentions. They’re always intense, and they never do. They think they’re gonna be in their clear mind, and next thing you know, they got all heimers, they don’t even know who they are and where they are.

And they blew it. They wait too long. So it’s better to make the right decision why you can still make the right decision about where you’re gonna spend eternity. See, God has already predetermined for the foundation of the world before we were born, before we did good or bad, that He will save everybody that will trust Him. God loves us, hates our sin. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in Him. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven.

To go to heaven, you have to be perfect because heaven is perfect and God.”,” is perfect. So to live with God, you have to be perfect. The only way anything canCatal forever is it has to be perfect. It’s not perfect can’t last forever and that’s why we needed to save you God says you cannot save yourself Your good works will never get you to heaven your good works don’t pay for sin this church can’t pay for your sins This hand represents Jesus Christ.

He’s the Lord God in the flesh came into the world because he loves us He hates our sin vulnerably called our sin separates us from the Lord So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die He took our sins paid for the moment cross came back from the dead said that if we would believe that He did that for us, and that means right where you’re sitting, right where you are, if you’ll believe that what Christ did on the cross wasStatement, that He made.

For your sins, to your account. And you get to go to heaven because you see, you don’t have any sin to pay forputer. And God’s eyes, you’re perfect, why? Because all your sins have been paid. You don’t have a sin dead anymore. But I mean, sin is to pay for it. He paid for my sins. And that’s why I’m going to heaven. Not because I’m good, but because he made me perfect. He made me good enough to go. He gave me his righteousness.

And therefore I’m going to heaven because of what Christ did. and he came back from the dead and said, if I would believe it, he would give me eternal life, and I’ll be with the Lord for all eternity, and nothing can ever separate me from the love of God. Let’s pray, shall we have? Every hit bomb, every act closed, and no one looked around. If you’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ to save you, or if you’re watching by internet, would you right now just say something simple like this, Lord, I know I’m a sinner.

I believe that when Christ died, I believe He died for me. And right now, I’m going to trust Him as my only hope of going to heaven. And if you will trust Him, He will save you. He’ll give you eternal life. I pray that you will. I hope that what I’ve said is made it clear enough for you to understand. None of us are good enough to go to heaven. But God is good enough to save everyone who will trust Him.

I pray that you’ll do that. So, in the quietness of this moment, just between you and the Lord, the Lord said, Lord, I know I’m a sinner. Believe you died on that cross. Paid for my sins. Tonight I will trust you as my Savior. I believe you died for me. And bring if you’ll make that decision, I like to know. And I’m gonna ask you in just a moment to raise your hand, raise and your hand doesn’t save you.

It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you. You see, preach it that made sense. I will trust Christ as my Savior right now. Would you just slip your hand very quickly and put it right back down and see it all? I pray that it makes sense to you. If you’re watching by internet, right there on the screen, there’s a little statement that says, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. I pray that you will.

Would you let us know? We won’t know who you are, but we’ll know that somebody trusts the Lord. We want to be a blessing to you. And also, if you trust the Christ as your Savior, remember, P-R-I-D-E, pride. Pride can destroy any man or any woman, Because we think we’re so good, and God loves us so much, He wouldn’t dare chase in me. He wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me. And whenever you play the fool, there is consequences.

God is gracious, yes, He’s merciful, but God is just, and He will chase them and discipline. I pray that you’ll do right. If there’s something that you need to take care of between you and the Lord, do that. Don’t put it off. Our Father, we thank You again for Your blessings. We thank You so much for the study of Your Word. We ask Your blessings upon each person here and those that are watching by internet. We pray that people will hear and understand, trust Your Savior, and that Your people, Your children, that already know You as Savior, would realize the importance of putting You first and serving You in Christ’s name we pray.

You’ve been listening to another great message from Dr. Arnold, and we hope that Bibleline is a blessing to You. In appreciation for your support of this ministry, we’d like to send to you a gift. During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send Dr. Arnold’s teaching on the subject of marriage. This nine lesson CD series includes titles such as God’s view of divorce, eight pressures of raising children, how to love your wife, and the humorous, but insightful teaching, and then the war began.

Whether you are married, single, or dating, You will certainly benefit from this teaching series on God’s design for marriage and divorce. And this CD Series is yours for a donation at any amount. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634.

And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. And we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So, live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.