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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 You can 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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

So now you can turn in your Bible to the book of Judges. The Book of Judges, we’re going through in all Sunday school classes, teach a little bit about the men and women of the Bible. And so I wasn’t sure we were going to be doing this as soon as we were, but some of these comments that we made before on some of these people in the Book of Judges. But what I want you to realize is that we’re talking about Samson, Samson.

And he was a, they were a pretty strong fella, built kind of like myself, you know, a big strong husky, you know, man. I used to tell people, you know how I felt, I used to build up my muscles. I used to build a bathtub, build a water, and then I’d pull the plug and then fight the current. I can assure you, it won’t work, it won’t work. When I was growing up, I was skinny. I was one skinny little kid.

When me and Betty got married, I weighed 128 pounds. my waist was 28. I mean for a guy to have a waist 28 inches, that was pretty good. But you should have seen the rest of me. I was like a radio, you know. But I had to go get a belt the other day and it wasn’t for a 28 inch belt either. You know, your size belt, you get all depending on where you want to put it, up here or here or down here.

All depending on where you want to put that belt, depending on what size that belt is going to be. But Anyway, you have a lot of interesting things that happens to you in life. And I remember one time, it was always in a fight. I was always in a fight. I never started one, but I was always in one. I don’t know why everybody wanted to whoop me. It’s just like going to tomorrow we’re going to be doing horseshoes.

But it just seems like everybody wants to whoop the preacher. Now why is that? Everybody wants to whoop the preacher. And all I want to do is just whoop everybody else. But anyway, it goes. So they get a little extra, I guess, rewarding heaven if they can take the preaching down. But I love competition, I do. I thrive on it. But when I was growing up though, I heard about Samson, how strong he was. And then I got on and started that great big old iron bar that I used to have to put in the stove and break up the coal and so forth, and got it fired up again.

And it was a big old heavy thing. So I’d come from school and I’d get that bar and I’d, mm, mm, mm, mm. No results, so I quit that. So I had this one kid on the bus, he was gonna fight me. So I rushed home and did some push-ups, I got ready. And we got ready to square off at each other and down at the bottom part of our garden. And there was a couple of the guys there.

And you just couldn’t get away from it. You just fought, that’s all you did, you just fought. But you know, it wasn’t a murder of kind. You know, we just make it give. And then that’s it. You didn’t even try to kill each other. And I can’t believe it. He swung one time, and what a lucky punch. I still say I wasn’t ready. And he hit me right dead in the face, bloodied my nose. And so that was the end of that fight.

And then it’d be another day I’d get him, I’d get him down and I’d beat him. And they’d say he’d beat me. We weren’t back in the form. But when I read this story about Samson, I said, man, I wish I could be like that. I’d love to be like Samson. What guy wouldn’t like to be like Samson? To walk around and have all that power and strength just to beat up on everybody, you know? Or at least they would leave you alone.

And there’s always bullies in this world. Somebody picking on somebody. Well, this guy, he looked for a fight. He was looking for trouble. Before we start here, take your Bible and look all the way over there in the book of the Hebrews chapter 11. He brews chapter 11, but hold your place there. I want you to lose it. But you’ll notice in Hebrews in chapter 11, this is what is called the Hall of Fame or the Hall of Faith chapter 11.

where the Lord is using these individuals as instruments or testimonies of great faith. And believe it or not, there’s his name. He’s mentioned right in there. See there in verse 30, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down because of, you know, he believed the Lord. Right before that time, Moses because he believed the Lord and talked about Noah who built an art because he believed the Lord and Abraham went up by faith because he believed the Lord and then you have right here in verse 32 and what shall I say more?

For the time would fail me to tell you of Gideon and Barak and of Samson? Samson? I mean he was one. I mean wild How old? I mean, he was a bad boy, and yet he made the whole faith chapter because he had great faith. Well, there’s things that he did, and you’ll find out that all of these men in the Word of God, they were not used because they were perfect. There were times that they floated in their life between obedience and disobedience.

David was a man after God’s on the heart, but did David do anything that he should have Well, do you? Did Moses, did he ever get mad and angry? He did a lot of things he shouldn’t have done. His anger kept him from getting into the promised land because he got mad and angry couldn’t control his anger. Well, what about, you know, Samson? Did Samson ever do anything wrong and yet God used them. You see, if you had to be perfect for God to use, God couldn’t use anybody.

God uses sinful people and there will be moments in your life when you are like an angel. You are so obedient. You are so sweet the honey just drips off of you. And And there’s times when you can be so mean and ugly, so quick. Ask your wife. Ask your kids. They don’t take that long before you can lose it. True? And yet at times you can be so sweet and lovely. Well that’s what you do before you get the guy.

You didn’t have to get him. I don’t have to keep him now. But anyway, Samson was some kind of a man. He had taken a Nazarite vow and his parents had raised him specifically to be one of the judges of Israel. So he judged the nation of Israel for at least 20 years. And so, since the Lord came upon him in the power of the Holy Spirit, and so he was able to accomplish some mighty feats, but he wasn’t always keeping his mind straight, but he was always seek an occasion to go after the Philistines because they were under the Philistines and they were always a problem to them.

And the Philistines always wanted to whoop up on them and here’s one man, one man. Now we don’t find that Samson ever tried to get an army together. He didn’t even try to get a good buddy to help him. He was a one-man army, a one-man army. incredible strength like they couldn’t kill him. This guy was just plain awesome and I know years ago when they were talking to me about this guy named Bruce Lee. Anybody have heard of Bruce Lee and They say Yankee you won’t believe this.

This guy can take on 15 20 guys all at one time and whoop them all. I Said yeah, right well anyway, they Had a film come out and they showed it on TV one night and always and what the guy was pretty impressive And he would just the right time make the right move and he would take them out all over the place. I said, now there’s a pretty good fella. And he was just a bag of bones. But he was quick, fast buddy, and he could take them out.

I said, but he’s no Samson. He’s no Samson. It’s amazing how many people they can build up their bodies and look strong, but there’s nobody quite like this Samson fellow. He did things that nobody has ever done before. Nobody’s ever done since. But look down here in chapter 14. And we’ll just start right there, but Samson went down to 10th and he saw a woman in 10 of the daughters of the Philistines. Now, number one, he should have went, but he did.

And he saw and he shouldn’t have seen. And he liked and he shouldn’t have liked, but he saw a woman and he wanted her. So he says, now, Mom, Dad, I want you to go get this woman for me. I want to marry this woman. And they plead you with him. Don’t you understand? You’re supposed to marry somebody of the Israelites. But you look up there in verse 4, but his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines.

For that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. I guess if Samson had just stayed in his country, what was he going to do? So he picked the fight and so he would do it deliberately. He said, well, that’s not the way I wasn’t doing it. Well, I have a friend of mine named Jack Matthias. I led him to the Lord back in the 70s. And Jack magnify us was a barroom brawler. He beat people up. I mean, he sent him to the hospital.

And his brother liked to choke one of the policemen half to death. And he was sitting in the police car. He says, oh Lord, if you don’t don’t know that, let him die. Don’t let him die. Because he knew if he did, he didn’t commit any murder. Anyway, I let him to the Lord. And he wanted to go to Florida Bible college named Bob Mepaius. But Jack was one bad dude and he was in a steam room one time and he was trying to witness to this guy about the Lord.

And this guy, another guy, was kept interrupting and he says, shut up, I’m not talking to you. And he would try to witness to this guy. And so this other guy kept buttoning. He says, one more time and I’m going to take you out. And so he started talking to his bud and he spoke up one more time and Jack jacked him, put him on the floor. He says, Jesus wouldn’t have done that. He says, I’m not Jesus. I’m Jack.

Well, he never did get some of that roughness out of him. He stayed like that pretty much all the time, but he won so many people to Christ. And he got over 200 and something people to come out to church one month. And I let a lot of his friends to the Lord. And they were weight lifters and bodybuilders, you know. And we had to have guys like that come to ranch just so they could protect the kids at ranch because we had about 12 buses running.

And we’d have four, five, six hundred kids at ranch. And we had to have these guys there just to kind of keep trouble down. And here’s Tom Matthias. He was Mr. Colorado. And then there’s Jack. And then there’s some of these other guys and these bodybuilders. kids, they didn’t have to say anything to the guys just by them being there, they would behave themselves and they would stand around here and they’d have on their muscle shirts and they’d walk around you know and these kids just said they’re just like little angels and so there was interest in but this man was different and so he was looking for an occasion to start a fight.

There’s always people like that. But anyway, if you’re looking verse 5, he was on his way down and he had a lion attacked him. And so he says in the last part of verse 5, a young lion roared against him and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he tore him as he would have been a kid. Let me go. And he had nothing in his hands and he told not his father or his mother, so they didn’t know about this and they went on their way.

Well it wasn’t long before you know he comes back that way and he sees that some bees had made you know some honey in the carcass of the lion so he went over to see what was going on so he reached down here and he got him some of that honey and he ate some of that honey so he made a pterittle out of this because he wanted to marry this girl and so he told him he says, now, I got a riddle and if you can figure out this riddle, he said, I’ll give you 30 garments of clothes and so forth.

But if you lose, you have to give them to me. Well, they tried their best to try to figure out this riddle and they couldn’t figure it out. So you see down there in verse 13, but if you cannot declare it, then shall you give me 30 sheets and change it, 30 chains of garment. and they said unto him, put forth thy riddle that we may hear it. He said unto them, out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.

So, out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet. So what is it? Well, they didn’t know what it was. So, three days passed and they still hadn’t figured out what it was. So they tried to entice. So up here in verse 15, it says, enticed thy husband that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father’s house with fire, as he called us to take that we have, and tell us what’s the riddle.

Or we’re gonna burn your house and your parents. We’re gonna kill him. So Samson’s wife, wept before him, says, says, you don’t love me because you won’t tell me the riddle. So you don’t have a woman can do. She got it out of him and you got to watch your sweet talking woman so he can talk you into anything. But anyway, so verse 16 says that this is what was done. And so he told him, but now he knew nobody knew nobody knew mom and daddy didn’t even know about this.

So we died in verse 17 and she went before him the seven days while they feast, and he came to pass on the seventh date he told her because she lay sore up on him and told the riddle to the children of her people. So what did this woman do after she was told? Tidal tale, tidal tale. Catch a rat and know his teller. Y’all have heard that before. Anyway, and so in verse 18, and the men of the city said him on the seventh day before the sun went down, what is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion?

and he said unto them, if you had not plowed with my heifer, you had not found out my riddle. And I’m not saying this is justification to call your wife a cow. You shouldn’t do that. Not unless you’re Samson. And if you’re not Samson, I wouldn’t suggest it. Like this one man told me, he says, I’m not saying my wife’s an old mag, but she goes to the black a bit shop think it or shoes. So, you know, you just got to watch some things.

It’s not good. If you want to be married for a long time. So look at number 19. And the spirit of the Lord came upon him and went down to Ashelon. Swilled 30 men. So he killed 30 people, took their robes so he could pay his debt. But while he was gone, well, the daddy gave his wife to somebody else, because they didn’t know he was coming back. Now, when Samson heard that you gave my wife away, now he really got, and not only that, gave him to one of his friends.

See the last part of the verse 20, but Samson’s wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend. So, you see, even though you have this great power, and you can do some great things in time, what you do that’s wrong can still get you in a lot of trouble and bring you a lot of heart, they can grieve. So there’s a price to pay for doing good things the wrong way. And so there’s a price that he had to pay.

So now that really made him mad. You know, one of the hardest things for me to understand in the scriptures, I’ve tried to figure out this, but realizing that the Holy Spirit was on this guy, I couldn’t say that the Lord did this. How does a man catch 300 foxes? Would you like to try to catch one fox? I was up here in the mountains with my son Eddie. And I saw something run across there and it was red.

It was a red fox. But I can say this now because it was about 30 years ago, 35 years ago. And I shot it that but that fox went back and forth and then I found out later you can’t kill a fox. Not a red fox. And that thing was all over it so fast, how in the world could a man catch a fox? But you know what Samson did? He caught 300 of them. See there in verse 4 chapter 15, Samson what I had and caught 300 boxes.

And then what did he do? Tired tails together and put a little torch in between them and set it on fire. Now, would you, have you ever tried to get two dogs and try to tell a type two dogs tails together, would a dog be snapping at your hands? Have you ever tried to take some food away from a dog? Especially if it’s a big old knife dog bone? Try to take it away from the dog and see if you’re like, I don’t give, you know, it will bite the hand that feeds them, but he had 300 of them.

So that means tying the tails together, 150 kind, he had to do that. And then he says he put a fiber in between the tiff and they were set them loose now. And they would run wild all through, and he waited to the right time to wheat harvest, so that they would run through the fields and burn up all their fields. Now, Samson had revenge in his heart. Samson was, I’ll get even with you. He didn’t let anything go.

He got even with them. And so they asked them in verse 6. Then the Philistine says, who did this? And they answered Samson. And the reason was, it says, and the Philistines came up and burnt her and her father with fire. And Samson said to them, though you have done this, yet will I be avenged of you? And after that I will stop. So he brought some judgment upon the Philistines. And God used this one man as a one man army.

And he did a lot of damage. Now look down in verse 11 and then 3,000 men of Judah. Because now they’re mad at Samson. Because you’re going down there and you’re stirring them all up. You’re making them mad at us and they’re just going to make it worse upon us. And so they turned on Samson and says, we came here because we want to bind you and take you to the Philistines. Because they want you and then they’ll maybe leave us alone.

This isn’t wonderful to know that they got you back. I mean, he was doing what he’s doing because he’s killing Philistines and they’re mad at him. Now, sometimes you just don’t always perceive things the way they really are. You see, they didn’t see things the way God was in this. And it’s amazing how God moves in strange and mysterious ways. And the reason God can use you and me is because we’re not perfect either. And that’s why we stumble at times.

We make wrong decisions. We’re wonderful saints of God, and then we’re a little devil sometimes because we’ve got two natures. got a new nature and we got a new one. So he says that this is what I’m going to do. Now look down in verse 14. He said, all right, if I let you tie me up and deliver me, you’re not going to come on me yourself are you? And they said, no, no, no. No, we’re just going to deliver you to the Philistines.

In other words, you’re not going to try to kill me. I said, no. So he says there in verse 11, the last part of verse 11, he says, what is this that thou hast done unto us. He said unto them, as they did unto me, so have I done unto them.” Now, one man against all the felistings, he said, this is what I’ve done. So in verse 14, and when he came unto Lehi, the felistings shouted against him, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arm became his flax, which was burnt with fire, and they just snapped.

His bands loosed him from off his hands and he found a new jawbone of an ass as a donkey, put forth his hand, took it, and slew, get this a thousand men, a thousand. Now you know if you killed a ten men that would be a pretty good battle, wouldn’t it? You could kill ten of them, but what did you He could kill a hundred. That’d be a lot. But he killed a thousand of them. For the job on them a donkey.

Can you imagine what a fight that was? And they could not kill this guy. Now, I’d have loved, I wish that had been videotaped. When we get to heaven, there’s a few things I won’t got to give us a rerun on. Surely he videotaped all this stuff so we can get to see what happened. want to see another picture of the flood and I like to see the Garden of Eden and see exactly as that happened. That would be awesome.

It could take eternity to satisfy all of our desires with everything we want to know. But it’s interesting what he did, but a thousand of them. And Samson, he was thankful. He was proud. See there in verse 16, Samson said, with the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. He knew what had happened. But it says in verse 18, and he was soah thirst. Called him the Lord and says, Lord, I’m thirsty.

So he made some water appear in the jawbone of this donkey, and he got something to drink. And in verse 20 says, he ruled and judged Israel for 20 years. Now look how many, see what those people from Judah did, 3,000 of them delivered him to the Philistines, and then he killed a thousand of them. See God works in strange and mysterious ways. God can take the decision to misunderstand the people and still work his will. And so God is going to deliver them and that’s coming.

Now in verse one of the next chapter, he goes to this city and goes to see a harlot. So that’s ungodly. That’s wrong. Of course it’d be wrong. But he did it anyway. But so now the people are upset because of what he did and they take the gun to get him and so he He just gets up in the middle of the night about midnight and walks up and gets the gates and walks off out of the city.

Takes the gates and the gates are supposed to be made out of metal, big old heavy metal, and just picks them up and walks off with them. Anyway, that’s what he did. Put him on top of his shoulder. Carry him to the top of the heel in verse 3 of chapter 16. Then you’ve all heard the story of Samson and… See there? You knew Delilah. We really don’t have any information about what happened to Delilah. Bobbitt doesn’t say, but we know what happened to Samson.

Now Delilah evidently was a beautiful woman. And Samson says, I want that one. So he went after Delilah. And she wanted to know, how come you’re so strong? Yeah, well, if you bind me with some cords from a, you know, like a bowstring and you’d tie me up with them, he says, that is a little bit. So what she would do it? She would do it to him. He tie him up and then she’ll holler. The Philistines are up on you and he’s not.

And so you don’t love me. All right, new ropes. She tried it with that. But anyway, he says, if you do that, I’ll be weak just like any other man, because he knew he was not like any other man. He wasn’t like any other man. So he says it from verse 7, and Samson said unto her, If thou bind me with seven green wisth, that were never dried, then shall I be weak and be as another man. Then the lords of the Philistines brought her up seven green with which they had not been dried, and she bound him with them.

Now there were men lying in wait abiding with her in the chamber, and she said unto him that the Philistines be upon Sunday, Samson, and he break them as a thread and his strength was not known. The Lylon verse 10 said, and the Samson behold thou hast mocked me. Told me lies. Now tell me I pray thee, where would thou mightest be bound? He said unto her, if they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak?

And be like any other man? Now you would think by now he would sense, you know, I think she’s trying to to trap me. Why can he figure this out? Can you believe that if he knows he’s telling her a lie and what she’s doing, why would you tell her the truth? Well Samson had a few lies that he had deceived himself one. He says in the You can’t stop me. You can’t catch me. You can’t harm me. And God won’t judge me.

He thought, I’m locked into this. I’ll never lose my strength. Do you know who I am? Well, he had made some fatal mistakes. You think you would be smarter than this. Hello friends, thank you for listening to Bibleline, and thank you to those who write in and tell us how Bibleline is making such a big impact in your lives. It’s such an encouragement when we receive your letters and emails. Can I ask, how is your prayer life? Does it need some help?

Most Christians think of prayer as a secondary or last resort. Do you realize that Jesus spent hours upon hours in prayer to His Heavenly Father, and yet we so often fail to practice prayer as a priority in our lives. Well, during this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send you Dr. Arnold’s Four Sermon Series on the Power of Prayer. Perhaps prayer is a shortcoming in your life, and this teaching is surely able to help. 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. to live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.