Judges 13-16 record the story of Samson, perhaps the most well known of the Old Testament Judges. Who was Samson and what do we know about him? How does Samson fit into God’s historic plan of redemption? How did Samson interact with God and what can we learn from the way God responded to Samson? Join Pastor Jim for this 3 part series on the last of the major judges.
Sermon Notes
The repeated themes found in the book of Judges are:
“The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” occurs 7 times! (2:11; 3:7, 12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1)
“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Judges 21:25
1. God’s Way of Seeing Things is What Matters
“There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” – Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”
Proverbs 16:25
“For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”
2 Chronicles 16:9
“For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD, And He watches all his paths.”
Proverbs 5:21
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.”
Psalms 119:9
“Christian faith-biblical faith is not a matter of putting a brave face on things and trying our best. It is a matter of looking away from ourself and seeing the world as God sees it, as it really is.”
N. T. Wright
Small Faith-Great God
2. God’s Initiating Love
“Our Christian life began not with our decision to follow Christ but with God’s call to us to do so. He took the initiative in his grace while we were still in rebellion and sin. In that state we neither wanted to turn from sin to Christ, nor were we able to. But he came to us and called us to freedom.”
John Stott
3. God’s Wonderfully Mysterious Ways
“The whole secret of mysticism is this: that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand. The morbid logician seeks to make everything lucid, and succeeds in making everything mysterious. The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious, and everything else becomes lucid.”
G. K. Chesterton
Orthodoxy
“Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.”
Oswald Chambers
4. God’s Ultimate Redeemer is Jesus Christ
“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6
“Everybody has to live for something. Whatever that something is becomes ‘Lord of your life,’ whether you think of it that way or not. Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail him, will forgive you eternally.”
Timothy Keller
The Reason for God