One Small step to destruction.
Judges 16:1ff
We have been examining the Life of Samson. We have been seeing steps to bring down even the strongest of people. Samson was set apart by God at birth, he was the son of the Promise, a deliverer of the people, taking a Nazirite vow; yet he was physically strong he was morally weak. Let us review some of the steps toward that weakness.
1. Lust (Gotta have it)
2. Entitlement (I deserve it)
3. Pride (I can handle it)
4. Led by his emotions
Then we saw good news. He drank from a stream miraculously supplied by the Lord, his strength returned and He led Israel for 20 years. That was 20 good years; imagine if you would 20 years of prosperity and righteous leadership in our country? But in one day, one very bad day what could happen.
Judges 16:1
One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her.
After 20 good years, Samson has a very bad day. After many years of great leadership and righteous living one day, a day when David should have been out to war, he saw Bathsheba and it led him down a dangerous path. After 20 years of righteous leadership, Samson sees a prostitute and it leads him down a dangerous path. Proverbs tells us about that path. In Proverbs 5 it is about the path of an adulterous woman.
1. Her voice (flirting) may be as smooth as honey but she is full of gall (bitterness) (v4)
2. Her feet lead down to the grave (v5)
3. Keep off her path or you will give of your best strength to strangers (8,9)
Solomon learned this after being led astray by foreign women, David learned this with Bathsheba, Samson will learn this with Delilah. Will we before it is too late?
How this infiltrates the Church.
1. Unsound doctrine that sounds very Biblical
2. Charles Russell, Judge Rutherford, Fred Franz, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, David Koresh, Jim Jones and others made unsound doctrine sound so Biblical.
3. When we try to make the Bible fit culture rather than change culture to the Bible.
Samson is back to Pride and Entitlement. I can handle it, I deserve this break, but it will lead to destruction.
Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.
During that night, the people of Gaza learned that Samson was there. How dangerous is that? That is like learning where George Washington was during the Revolutionary War, or General MacArthur spending the night in North Korea. Here is the leader of the Jews in enemy territory cohabitating with a prostitute.
They were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and they lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, "At dawn we'll kill him."
Now, what's the significance of this? Well, Gaza was the headquarters of the Philistines. So, our idiot here, Samson, goes into Philistine territory, right into leadership square to get a prostitute. He travels 25 miles to go and risk 20 years of faithfulness.
Now, that raises the question: Who would be so stupid to risk so much for so little? And the answer is, men do it every single day, don't they? All of the time; I mean, good marriage, good integrity, good ministry, good career. All of these good things and they'll risk it for a quick sexual hit, for a quick high, for a quick experience. Who would risk so much for something so little? Well the problem is, men do it all of the time.
Now think about this: Since I'm a pastor, I only work one day a week! Actually I work two, I work Saturdays and Sundays! I'm just joking! But because I don't have anything to do in the week except for watch my Bible hover above the desk, I ask myself, how many steps would a person have to take to walk 25 miles? Well being on this Move program with the VA I learned that 10 thousand steps averages out to 5 miles. I learned that it was about 25 miles from where he was to Gaza. So on the average it took about 50 thousand steps to get to Gaza. That's what I do during the week! Okay, so think about this, it would take 50 thousand steps. How do most men ruin their life? Not all at once, but they do it one of these at a time.
The other thing to think about, which is pretty amazing, is to realize that Samson also had 50 thousand opportunities to say, "This is stupid! What are you doing?" And yet, he didn't do it!
Here's the problem, most men don't plan to mess up their lives. I don't know a single man ever who said, "You know what? My ten-year goal is to be a perverted sex addict. What I want to do is I want to be so locked in this pornographic world of lust that I live in a fantasy world and can't have any kind of real meaningful intimate experience because all I can do is objectify women and get off in this fantasy world." I don't know a single guy that does it, but what happens is, the guy's like maybe on the computer and sees an ad and he goes, "Oh!" Click to another ad and click and "Whoa!" Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click! And then over time, he ends up in a very bad place. He doesn't get there all at once, how does he get there? He gets there one step at a time.
As a Nation we did not fall all at once, we fell one step at a time. Reminds me of a line from Fiddler on the Roof. Tevye is debating about challenging the traditions of arranged marriages. He says, “One little time you pull out a prop and where does it stop?”
Remember what I said about playing in Satan’s playground?
1. He will take you further than you want to go. Samson, like David, is probably looking for a one-night stand, but it is going to take him further than he wants to go.
2. He will keep you there longer than you want to stay. Samson is looking for a short meaningless affair; he spends the rest of his life there.
3. It will cost you more than you want to pay. It will cost him his eyes, and later his life.
One step at a time we can ruin whatever good we have done in the past. It takes years to build a good name, but one indiscretion, one bad step to ruin it all.
There are three more steps to this big destruction:
1. He taunts his enemies (v3)
a. He takes the city gates and rips them off the hinges
b. These gates were said to have weighed 700 lbs
c. He taunts the enemy he sees, he does not know there is an unseen enemy who wants to destroy him.
1. Satan is behind all this destruction
2. He will not stop until Samson is destroyed.
3. He is more powerful, more crafty, bent on destruction, and never grows weary.
Men, we will taunt and underestimate the enemy by putting ourselves in places of temptation over and over and over again. Some of you guys are like real different from the world and you want to honor God with sexual purity and yet, you go out in stupid places. Or you know, "I'm going to wait and not have sex until I'm married." And then you get a girlfriend and you're like, "Hey, stay the night!" You're just putting yourself in a stupid place.
Or married guy, you go on a business trip and everybody is going out for drinks afterward. You're like, "Hey, I can handle this, it's no big deal!" And so, you go to the bar and have one, two, three, four, and there's women everywhere. What are you doing? You're just taunting the enemy.
Or financially you're strapped. You're tight and you're like, "Hey, let's just go walk around the car lot and just walk around!" What are you doing? You're taunting the enemy.
Here's the deal; a lot of us, we think we're okay, we think we're standing firm. Here's what Scripture says, the Bible says in First Corinthians 10:12:
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! Think about that any time we are tempted, it may seem small, it may seem harmless, but it is one small step that leads to destruction. Be careful. Samson, the first thing he did is he taunted the enemy.
2. He falls in love with Delilah. (4) He rationalizes an old sin.
1. He falls for the third time with a foreign woman.
2. She seduces him to tell his secret.
3. He gets prideful again to taunt his enemies.
He shows how powerful he is by breaking the bonds he is tied with.
She resorts to the one thing women are famous for, tears…”You don’t love me or you would really tell me…wait a minute….didn’t that happen earlier? Didn’t another Philistine woman play this same trick on him? Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!
3. He tells his secret
a. His final Nazirite vow broken
b. He is subdued, eyes gouged out, strength gone.
But that is not his destruction, it isn’t that his strength left or his eyes gouged out, his destruction is…(v20)
But he did not know that the LORD had left him.
David came to realize this over his sinful choices with Bathsheba and prayed
Psalm 51
PS 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
David realized God had left him so to speak, he prays for a renewal, a restoration, a new creation. We, like David, Solomon, Samson and others have all fallen short, we left God, and we can pray for a inward revival, it starts like this…
I want GOD, I need GOD, I want His Holy Spirit to guide me, I want His voice in my ear, I want His Word in my Heart, I WANT GOD.
