SAMSON AND SIN’S TRIPLE-WHAMMY
Judges 16:21 "Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison."
INTRODUCTION: Christians who know that it was sin that nailed their Savior to the cross have no business doing the very things that crucified Him. Like Samson, who believed the lies of Delilah, we can become Satan’s slave when we fall for his lies.
I. Whammy #1 - SIN BLINDS US. "Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes . . ."
A. Satan’s principle weapon against us is his extraordinary cunning.
1. His first ploy against us was deception. (Adam and Eve)
2. He has always, and will always, be the Great Liar.
3. He often appears as "an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11.14)
B. While his power over Christian is limited (1 John 5.18; Rom.6.18 ), he still can cause us to harm ourselves when we are blind to his lies.
1. He roams about seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5.8)
2. We must not be ignorant of Satan’s tricks (2 Cor. 2.11)
3. There is no such thing as an "innocent" sin.
C." For sin ... deceived me." (Rom. 7.11)
II. Whammy #2 - SIN BINDS US. "They bound him with bronze fetters . . ."
A. Once you are blinded to the awful menace of sin it is not long until it begins wrapping its tenacles around you, gradually making you its slave.
1. We choose our masters. Romans 6.16
"Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?"
2. Whom do you obey? Who is your master?
B. But when we become the unspiritual servants of sin, we lose our power over it.
1.. This is most clearly stated in Romans 7.14-24
"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"
2. Sin is always at work against us.
III. Whammy #3 - SIN GRINDS US. ". . . and he became a grinder in the prison."
A. Sin ends in death and in the process grinds us.
1. This is most clearly typified in the demoniac of Gadara in Mark 5.1-9, whose sins had brought him under the grinding heel of the Evil One.
"This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones."
2. This is a sobering picture of what sin can bring us to.
B. Sin, like John, who took the book from the angel in Revelation 10.9-10 and ate it. It was sweet in the beginning but became bitter afterward.
1. Sin is like that.
2. Isaiah 5.20 "Woe unto them . . . that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"
CONCLUSION:J. G. Morrison, for many years the general superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene, used to tell the following story to show how there is only one way to free yourself from hard servitude to Satan:
My mother’s hobby was rasing a certain breed of ducks. Some of her ducks were prize winners, and she was justly proud of them.
One day I was out behind the barn with my slingshot, shooting at fence posts and other inanimate objects when around the end of the barn came one of my mother’s finest ducks. A moving target is always more exciting than a fixed object so I decided to see how close I could come to the duck without hitting it. Putting a rock in the slingshot I let it fly, but instead of missing it I hit the duck right on the head. Imagine my alarm when I picked it up and discovered that I had killed my mother’s prize duck!
As wrongdoers usually do, I looked for a place to hide my deed before Mother found out about it. Nearby was a haystack, so I ran to it, pulled up a bunch of hay and was just in the act of stuffing the bird under it when who should come around the end of the haystack but my older sister Jessie.
"What are you doing, Joe?" she asked.
And of course, I had to tell her the whole story. I hadn’t intended to kill Mother’s duck, it was an accident, but anyway I didn’t want her to know about it. But Jessie didn’t promise, which left me with a miserable feeling of uneasiness which, mingled with my sense of guilt, made me an unhappy boy all that day. A glance at my mother’s face when I came in told me that she did not know my guilty secret. I tried to eat, but my appetite wasn’t up to normal, and just when I was about to leave the house, Mother said to my sister, "Jessie, I want you to do the dishes. I’m going over to visit our sick neighbor this evening."
Quickly Jessie spoke up and said, "All right, Mama. Joe will help me."
When I objected, Jessie came close and whispered, "Remember the duck." So there was nothing for me to do but help her. The next day it was the same. I had to help Jessie with all of her chores. Every look from her said, "Remember the duck." This went on for several days. I found myself a literal slave to every whim of my sister.
The one day, tired of being Jessie’s slave and aching in my heart every time I looked at my other, remembering my guilty secret, I sought out my Mother and confessed the whole thing to her, laying my head in her lap and sobbing how sorry I was. "Go ahead and punish me," I cried, "I’ve got it coming."
"I’m not going to punish you, Joe, "she said, putting her arms around me. "I think you have been punished enough already. I’m going to forgive you."
That evening Jessie said, "Joe, you’re going to help me with the dishes." But I said, "No, I’m not1" And this time I knew I wasn’t.
"Remember the duck," Jessie hissed in my ear.
"Yes, I remember the duck," I nearly shouted at her. "But I went to Mother today and got it all straightened up, and I’m not going to be your slave ever again."
No more was I a slave.
Confession had freed me.
