I'll try and speak, I don't know how
far I can get without it, but I'll
try.
My father was in his last illness.
I came home under conditions of ill health
a long time ago, and my stepmother and
I were in the big house nursing my
utterly helpless father, he had had a stroke.
Now, things had gone somewhat wrong in our
home.
My young half-brother had written to me,
having just been converted, and, no, it was
his mother who wrote to me, and she
said, Alan has come to the age where
he has to be called up during the
war, and he doesn't want to fight, but
he hasn't the strength of mind to be
a conscientious objector.
Can you help him in any way?
So I prayed about it, tell you what
I'll do.
I'll, if he likes to volunteer for the
coal mines, I'll go and join him.
I was then doing meteorological work up in
Scotland, and very much enjoying the heather, and
the wildness, and the Scottish people too.
My stepmother, for some reason or other, passed
the letter straight on to him, and very
quickly he wrote back to say, Dear Edgar,
thank you for offering to go down to
the coal mines.
I have put my name down for the
coal mines.
But, a little while later, I
thought I could take anything, but half of
me objected.
Symptoms, only symptoms, it was all.
So I found myself as much.
Do these things.
And I thought, it's time that she apologised.
Nursing our poor old Emma.
And she never seemed to realise the
deep bitterness of my spirit well enough.
She looked at me, and she said, Well
if that's how you feel, you'd better leave
home.
How you feel, we had better pray.
The bitter resentments had flowed out of her
bones.
She never apologised, only to
the lady and myself.
I did.
We sang a blessing.
Oh, glory to God, the old sourness was
out.
Thank you Jesus.
Hallelujah.
Oh, to live there with that tenderness, and
simplicity and honesty.
Amen.
Blessed are thee.
I want to pick up what David was
talking about last week, when he spoke about
Satan being a defeated foe.
And it's something that's very difficult to grasp.
But once you grasp it, you're
still able to do it.
And I would say that a great deal
hinges on the understanding in your spirit and
mine of what Jesus really did in that
tremendous victory against the Prince of this world.
It's not easy to grasp.
It's not easy to get into.
We're so used to the old pattern of
defeat and darkness and being under circumstances instead
of on top of them.
But it's not easy to enter into that
place of victory with him.
Down on Victoria Beach, Lagos, I was adventuring
in the area of swimming.
Victoria Beach is steep.
And the Atlantic comes in there with a
good deal of force.
The breakers build up rapidly and they come
crashing down.
My usual experiences on a beach like that
are to sort of paddle around waist-deep
and struggle over the surf every now and
again.
But I had an ambition this particular day
to get past the surf and out into
the deep water, which was only...
And so I dived through wave number...
Dived through wave number three.
Something was wrong.
Eventually I struggled up the steep sand.
And I feel that very often when we
seek to enter into our Lord's victory over
Satan, we get into rough water.
And it requires a great deal of grace
and persistence to win through to the place
where you really know the victory that Jesus
has.
Many of us find ourselves, every time we
try to break through the shadows, we face
unexpectedly...
He was led of the spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
He was in rough water until he came
through triumphant and was able to fulfill his
ministry.
If he went that route, we may be
sure that when we come to...
He did win.
The purpose of God is that you and
I should enter into the vision
of Jesus Christ from the dead.
When through death he destroyed...
Delivered them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject...
And I sought to show in that chapter
that once again we look back to the
great victory which Jesus won.
I don't think that it would be out
of place for me to try and emphasize
the same truth again.
...may get hold of the reality of the
victory of Jesus' triumph over Satan to such
a degree that we too experientially become more
than conquerors through him that loved us.
There are some Christians who get through to
this.
The majority must stay paddling around in the
rough water through.
And I hope there are hearts sufficiently eager
to be set on getting right through even
though the water and the wave goes over
your heads to come through into the victory
which Jesus has won.
...destroyed that victory here.
It's all very well to sing about it
when we get...
And one of the most delightful illustrations of
that victory is the well-known story of...
...found in Genesis 14.
You all know it.
You see me reading the small...
So the story of Samson and...
Samson is a fascinating...
...greatness of...
He had a tremendous...
A whole chapter, Genesis 13, is given to
the account of the angel meeting with the
mother-to-be and then with the father.
And the more you read that story, the
more you realize this angel is no ordinary
angel.
But it's the angel of the Lord.
That same angel with whom Jacob wrestled long
ago.
And if I remember rightly, no one in
the whole Bible has such an auspicious announcement
to his birth about our Lord Jesus.
No one greater than Samson.
You know, Moses did have a certain amount
of announcement.
They discerned that he was a proper child.
But as for Samson, the angel of the
Lord actually appeared twice...
...to make sure that the parents understood that
this was an extraordinary savior who would be
brought into the world.
And that's unusual.
Even John the Baptist didn't have this honor
paid to his initiation into this world.
Samson.
What a call.
Whatever did God intend for this man when
he was introduced on the scene?
First of all, the angel came to the
woman.
And she didn't quite know who he was.
The angel of the Lord appeared to the
woman and said to her, Behold now, thou
art barren and barest not, but thou shalt
conceive and bear a son.
Therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not
wine, nor smoke, but conceive and bear a
son.
And no razor shalt thou use.
And he shall begin to deliver Israel out
of the hand.
And the woman came and told her husband,
saying, A man of God came unto me,
and his countenance was like the countenance that
I asked him not whence he is made.
But he said, Behold, thou shalt conceive and
bear a son.
And so on.
And he shall be a Nazarite to God
from the woman.
Manoah entreated the Lord.
That's rather nice to find.
He could pray to the Lord without temple.
He could talk to the Lord direct, and
the Lord could hear.
And teach us what we shall do.
And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah.
And the angel of God came again to
the woman as he sat in the field.
But Manoah, her husband, was not with her.
And she made haste and ran and showed
her husband and said, Behold, a man of
God appeared unto me and came upon me.
And that came upon me the other day.
And Manoah rose and went after his wife.
Let thy words come to pass.
How shall we order the child?
And how shall we do unto him?
The angel repeated all that he had told
his wife.
And Manoah said, Manoah said, I pray thee,
let's detain thee until we have made ready
a kid for thee.
A kid can be slaughtered and cooked for
a meal within half an hour.
The angel said, Though thou detain me, I
will not eat of thy bread.
And if thou wilt offer a burnt offering,
thou must offer it unto the Lord.
Manoah knew not that he was an angel
of the Lord.
So Manoah asked his name.
And the angel said, Why askest thou thus
after my name, seeing it is secret or
wonderful.
The same answer that was given to Jacob.
Manoah took a kid and offered it to
the Lord.
And the angel did wondrously.
When the flame went up toward heaven, toward
the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended
in the flame of the altar.
And Manoah and his wife looked on it
and fell on their faces to the ground.
But the angel of the Lord did no
more appear to Manoah and to his wife.
Then Manoah knew that he was an angel
of the Lord.
We shall surely die because we have seen
God.
Tremendous.
It means that Samson was designated for great
things in Israel.
This outstanding announcement.
And I don't give any doubt that the
angel is identical with the one who wrestled
with Jacob.
And the same confession is made.
We have seen God.
Here is one of those epiphanies of our
Lord.
Before he ever was born in a manger.
And Manoah, with typical negative thinking, said to
his wife, We shall die.
Dead right.
That's the best of being a negative thinker.
You can be dead right.
But his wife was more pragmatic than he.
And she said, If the Lord were pleased
to kill us, he would not have received
a burnt offering and a meal offering at
our hands.
Neither would he have showed us all these
things.
Nor would this time have told us such
things as these.
Praise the Lord.
Two ways of looking at the same event.
One says, We shall die.
And the other says, We're in pain.
Why envy those people who have, don't you?
They always look on the bright side.
I covet that kind of man.
That hopes in God, who is the health
of your countenance.
And doesn't turn every promise of God into
something negative.
But sees the good and the glorious and
the possible.
Hallelujah.
Oh, once again.
Here, if we can see that Satan is
a defeated foe.
It's going to help us a lot.
And bring us into the great yes of
God.
Instead of into the prohibition.
Blessed he has good things in store for
us.
God educate all our hearts to this blessed
optimistic simplicity.
Amen, Lord.
Give me grace to hope in God, who
is the health of my countenance.
And my God.
I tell you when we go through the
breakers in conceiving.
That Satan was indeed defeated once for all
at the cross.
We shall get many a temptation to go
back into negativism.
And we've got to come out of it.
Into the positive believing in God.
For Jesus is the yea and amen to
all the promises of God.
Where is the man, where is the woman
who will break through.
Into the calm supporting water of the full.
Great in his calling.
And in his birth.
And we don't know what he invited in.
But there was not only a calling in
the life.
And the crippling thing in him.
God had mighty purposes.
Samson had his own purposes.
And as you read through the long account
of Samson.
We're told a lot about him.
You will find that these two principles were
operating in his life.
The mighty purposes of God for him and
through him.
And Samson's own purposes saying.
I want my way.
I'm told that where the waters of the
blue and the white Nile meet.
The white Nile comes down with a good
deal of sediment from the hills.
And the blue Nile flows deep and true
and transparent.
Where these two meet.
They continue in the river.
And for miles down the river.
You can see the waters of the blue
Nile clean and transparent.
And the waters of the white Nile.
In Samson's life and in many of our
lives.
There are two principles operating.
The principle of God's purposes.
And the principle of my purposes.
God says go on now step in.
I say just a minute.
I've just got one or two things I
want to do first.
And our lives are muddied.
By that intermixing of the two purposes.
God's and mine.
And that's because we are all deceived.
And under that satanic.
Always liable to satanic deception.
Usually what we think is.
Or what I think is my will.
Is satanically injected.
And God.
If he is to fulfill his purpose.
Must bring.
My own self-centered purposes.
Into death.
And that's one reason why Jesus died.
That our self-will and our self-choosing.
Might be brought into death.
That the pure stream of God's plan.
For your life and mine.
Might flow unsullied from it's source.
To it's destination.
And I can look back.
And see how time after time.
My own bloody thinking.
Has spoiled what God.
Wanted to do in my life.
I've been going through quite a bit of
heart searching.
In the last few years.
And I've found this.
That God had.
Controversy with me.
Over several little things.
Which were all good.
And I said.
Oh Lord.
You're not going to touch that are you?
There's nothing wrong with that.
Is there?
And he would never answer me.
And so I said.
Alright Lord.
I'll yield number one.
Let's see what that will do.
Presently I said.
Alright I'll yield number two.
Let's see what that will do.
Quite innocent.
Quite harmless Lord.
Alright Lord.
If you're still silent.
I'll yield number three.
Then I found.
I wanted to take number one.
And number two back again.
And oh what a.
What a long.
Slow.
Battle it was.
To get to the place.
Where I would say.
Oh God.
Not much.
Which I am.
Choosing.
To prefer.
Quite a matter.
Going through the rough.
But there is a place.
Through death.
Not only Satan's.
Power to be destroyed.
But your own self will to be destroyed.
And then.
And not till then.
Can the pure.
And good.
And acceptable.
And perfect will of God.
Flow in your life.
Unspoiled.
And unsullied.
And remember this.
That God's will.
Is infinitely better.
Than those little things.
You thought were your will.
They're.
They're mostly.
Little baits.
Of Satan.
To keep you out of God's will.
That's chiefly what they are.
And oh praise God.
The Lord calls us.
To let go.
And let God.
Have his way.
And let go.
Doesn't just merely mean.
Sort of abandon yourself.
Although that may.
That may be part of it.
But very often.
There are different things.
We are holding on to.
And we say.
Say Lord.
Don't touch that.
That's mine.
God has something better.
Let go.
And let God.
Have his way.
But as for Paul Samson.
Always the two streams were.
Were intermingled.
And it's amazing to see.
How they flow together.
I'm always staggered.
By the account of David.
Spending the night.
With a thirst in heart.
And in the morning.
Rising.
In the power of the spirit of God.
In every sense.
Guilt and failure would have held him.
But Samson.
Somehow.
A blue isle.
Pure water came through.
A filthy muddy water.
Of his own self well earlier.
But in it all.
With that continual intermixing.
At last.
He finished up.
A blinded.
And all but defeated man.
And only in his tragic death.
Did he bring.
A mixed up life.
How will our life.
Appear in the register.
How will your life appear.
Like Samson's mixed up.
The pure.
Purpose of God.
Appearing sometimes.
And then your own.
Eager.
Blind self will.
Rising to the surface.
Is that how it's going to be?
God has something.
Better for us.
And once again.
It's in Calvary.
That he brings us.
Into death.
To our.
Wretched little self will.
That we might rise.
Into the fullness of.
His purposes.
Samson was so tremendous.
In his divine callings.
That in some things.
He became a type.
Of our Lord Jesus.
There are other times.
When he messed things up so much.
That he became a type.
Of the rebellious sinner.
There are other times.
When he messed things up.
To such a degree.
That he became a type.
Of you and me.
Oh don't we need.
A great salvation.
Not just from the.
Evil things.
Not the hideousness of sins.
Only.
But from.
The pleasurable little.
Bits of self will.
That mar God's purposes for you.
And cause you to miss the train.
When God has appointed it.
And you see.
God has gone on.
And left you behind.
Because you were busy on some.
Little scheme of your own.
Or else you rushed ahead.
And you left God behind.
Oh God.
Has to baptize us.
Into the death of Christ.
In every degree.
And in every way.
And that death has to be.
Uprooted us.
That the resurrection.
And Samson.
In the beginning of his.
Anointed ministry.
He was.
He was anointed with the Holy Ghost.
Became a type.
Of our Lord Jesus.
In fact most of the.
Old Testament men.
Of faith became types.
Every time they believed God.
They began to picture Christ.
Whoever they were.
Whether it's Isaac.
Or Jacob.
Or.
Moses.
Whenever they move.
In faith.
God says.
There's a man.
On whom I can write.
The name of my son.
And I can use him.
To express.
That which is dearest to my heart.
My own beloved one.
And on the lives of these.
Old Testament men.
God wrote.
When he could.
Something about the Lord Jesus.
And we like.
Stupid old school kids.
Rubbed off God's writing.
And wrote in our own.
Samson.
Had.
Plenty of excuses.
There was no one.
But there were other men.
In the Old Testament.
Who lived clean.
Joseph.
Without the Bible.
Without the law.
Without worship.
Without fellowship.
Lived clean.
There's no excuse.
For our sins.
That will justify us.
Before God.
No excuse.
And allow the convictions of God.
To come down through your life.
So that anything.
Which is.
Mounting God's purposes.
In you.
May be faced unto.
As sin and rebellion.
In heaven.
On the good side.
Samson gets his name.
Recorded.
Among the heroes of faith.
In Hebrews chapter 11.
And that's the one thing.
That pulled him.
Out of the rut.
And set him.
Among those whom God honors.
Even though he was unreliable.
And self-willed.
And rebellious.
He believed God.
In his most desperate hours.
He believed God.
But all things were wrong.
And it spoiled his life.
And it was shattering around him.
He believed God.
And he came through.
As one whom God loved.
But without faith.
It is impossible to believe God.
So if you've got nothing else.
Make sure that you have.
A faith in God.
That is so real.
That it will bring you through.
In your desperate hours.
I don't mean the kind of faith.
Which knobs the hay at the Sunday school
lesson.
I mean the kind of faith.
That can cry out of desperation.
And bring the power of God down.
And the pillars of the Philistines.
Crashing upon the host.
In death.
And it was because he believed God.
He was able to be a picture of
the Lord Jesus.
And he came down.
From the heights of Ishmael Dam.
Down over the steep slopes.
Towards Philistia.
Where the alien Philistines.
Had landed a few hundred years before.
And he was.
Seeking a bride.
And this bride.
Was a Gentile bride.
And in this already.
You can see God.
Beginning to trace a familiar picture.
Of our Lord Jesus.
Coming down from the heights of heaven.
To this earth.
Seeking a bride.
Who had no rights or claims.
Upon God's favour.
This bride was.
God's chosen bride.
She was there of the Lord.
She wasn't the same as the Delilah.
Who brought him to ruin later on.
Of this young woman.
Who had little sin against her.
Samson loved her anyway.
And he wanted her.
And his parents after some protest.
Agreed to go down with him.
And as he came.
From the heights of Israel.
To Philistia.
He reached a vineyard.
And in the vineyard.
A young lion roared.
Against him.
Isn't that a pretty picture.
It's not just Samson.
God is seizing on this young man.
Noam Sully.
Seizing on him.
Because he has some faith.
And some love there.
And writing the future story of the gospel.
Upon his life.
And he sees his own dear son.
In the vineyard.
He hears the young lion.
A Satan going about.
As a roaring lion.
Roaring against him.
What an amazing thing.
To find a lion in a vineyard.
You find lions in thickets.
Away in the wilds.
But when Samson came down.
To Philistia.
He met.
He heard a lion concealed.
In the vineyard.
A place of cultivation.
How perfectly it corresponds.
To the large picture.
Of the son of God.
Coming down to earth.
In the vineyard of Israel.
And even soon after.
He is born of the birth.
Of his.
Errand of deliverance.
And right the way through his life.
In crisis after crisis.
You can hear the roaring of the lion.
He comes back to his home.
Sturge of unnatural anger.
A.
And all the way through.
From.
His birth.
Through his death.
He is aware.
That time and again.
Satan who has the power of death.
Is roaring.
And Samson heard the lion.
But he didn't run back.
To father and mother.
And say get reinforcements.
And let's get a few spears.
And some men together.
And a net.
And see if we can beat the thing
that way.
No he just went straight on.
And similarly in the gospel story.
We read that Jesus set his face.
As a flint.
To go to Jerusalem.
He knew what awaited him there.
And he went deliberately.
To meet the lion.
To face him that had the power of
death.
That is the devil.
He had heard his roaring all the time.
Now he was going to meet him.
And when that great lion.
Saw the man of God.
Moving clearly.
Can you picture him there.
Hiding behind a vine.
His tail twitching very very slightly.
As the spring.
He leaps out against.
The man who is walking through the.
And lay him.
In the enormous.
Powerful flesh.
And.
Left the bleeding carcass.
Laid aside.
And defeated.
And this is one of the great aspects
of the gospel.
When Jesus died.
He didn't merely.
Bear our sins in his own body on
the tree.
He wasn't only our.
Our substitute.
And our sacrifice.
But he came down to death.
As a mighty.
Conqueror.
And on that cross.
He overcame.
Him who had the power of death.
That is the devil.
He ripped the carcass.
He rose from the dead.
The third day.
Triumphant and victorious.
Our greatest Samson.
Our true deliverer.
All detail by detail.
Samson was enacting.
The same way when you walk in faith.
In love.
Made nothing of it.
Wonderful Jesus.
Mourned and comforted.
What a shame that his followers don't believe
it.
They don't see.
They don't understand the victory.
They never really gaze into the.
Vineyard.
And see what took place down there.
They are still fearful every time.
They hear what sounds like the roaring of
a lion.
They begin to tremble.
And go some other way.
They realize.
Oh beloved.
Destroy the lion.
Sometime later he was.
Taking his father and mother down.
To arrange for the wedding.
And their father lay through the vineyard.
And he thought.
See what's happened to my son.
And there.
Was the carcass of the lion.
The bones were a bit clean.
The skin.
Flabby.
And sweetness
of his own victory.
He came down his way.
Eating the fruit of his own.
And asking where he got it from.
He didn't tell them.
They just enjoyed the sweetness of it.
Blessed are they.
And there are lots of people who just
enjoy.
Don't they?
The sweetness of the gospel story.
They love to sing the hymns.
They love the choruses.
But they never ask why.
Or how.
Or what is the deep mystery.
Underlying all this.
The sweetness and joy.
Of sins forgiven.
And that's just as far as they go.
But I have an idea.
That most of us in this company.
Want to go further.
We want to know the mystery.
We want to know the depth.
The length and breadth and depth and height.
We want to know how and why.
We may be partakers.
Of the fruits of his triumph.
And how we may enjoy.
The sweetness of it all.
What a wonderful reviver.
Honey is.
Later on.
Everybody was prohibited from eating.
But Jonathan he saw.
The spirit of the light.
Givers of energy.
Night.
Well his parents got all the fun of
it.
And then the wedding was arranged.
Thirty young men came to be his.
And Samson.
Went down to receive his bride.
They met with a talk though.
And he said let's have some drink.
And he said yes.
During the feast.
I'll give you.
Thirty garments.
Of praise.
And thirty.
Garments for service.
But he said if you can't guess it.
You've got to pay me.
The same amount.
Fair enough they said.
They're teary.
Of praise.
There's something about the.
Generations.
I want to make known about him.
The secret.
Of the gospel.
There's something about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Which is secret.
It's God's secret.
For us.
Her and you and your father perhaps.
I believe the understanding of the mystery of
the gospel.
Is life and death.
So.
And for the remaining days of the feast.
She lay heavy upon it.
Samson.
And the witch.
Went.
And.
Gave the secret away.
So before the feast was over.
Those Philistines came back.
And they.
They faced.
Samson pretending to be ignorant.
Wiping a smile.
And I guess only a few months to
go before sunset.
And he said well.
Have you guessed my riddle?
He is stronger at that old.
Oh said Samson.
Very angry indeed.
With the girl who had let him down.
And angry with them.
Angry with everybody.
He went out and slaughtered.
Thirty Philistines.
And brought their garments.
There's a secret.
In the victory.
Of Jesus.
Over Satan.
That great roaring lion.
Which you and I ought to know.
It is a secret.
Which can be found.
And falsely obtained.
You can read textbooks about it.
You can read Christian writings.
And say well now I know what it
is.
But they're not yours.
They never are yours.
Unless.
It is revealed to you.
From above.
The inner secret of Christ's victory.
Real as it is.
Is never yours.
Until he himself.
Opens his heart.
God we need to know.
What Jesus did.
We need to know.
How he destroyed Satan's power.
We need to know.
By inward revelation.
The secret is never ours.
You may read about it.
You may sing hymns about it.
You may be like the Philistines.
By the Spirit.
Shown to you.
Only against him.
He destroyed.
He comes for.
You.
And in that blessed victory.
Of Christ and Calvary.
He comes to you and says.
Taste and see.
And know for yourself.
What has been accomplished.
We may know what his beholdeness is called.
And what is the exceeding greatness.
Of his power.
To us who believe.
Which he wrought in Christ.
When he raised him from the dead.
And.
Set in his own right hand.
You have bequeathed.
The word death.
Jesus has had the total victory.
Over Satan death and sin.
And here we are.
Guessing guessing guessing.
Look at circumstances.
Look at the breakers.
Look at the difficulties.
Why does this go wrong.
Why does.
Why don't all things always.
Obviously work together for good.
Oh.
You and I.
And the
reason that we don't know.
As much as we.
Stay in our hearts to receive the secret.
But God isn't content.
With second hand knowledge.
And that secret which he keeps.
From the crown of the heart.
He longs.
To reveal.
To the humble.
Eager.
Seeking hearts.
Oh.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst.
After this kind of righteousness.
They shall be filled.
With the sweetness of it.
Driven from their sin.
To heal themselves.
We need to know.
We must know.
Who Jesus is.
What he has done.
How he has.
Delivered us.
Once and for all.
Until the strength.
Of that victory changes.
Your fellowship life.
Your prayer life.
And you receive the garments of praise.
For the spirit of evidence.
And the garments of service.
That you might go out and do exploits.
For the Lord your God.
Because you know.
You know who Jesus is.
You know who you are in him.
You know that you are dead.
Jesus.
You taste.
Oh God.
You have given Jesus.
The agony.
The suffering.
And the pleasure.
He has hidden them there.
Where no one may steal them.
He has hidden them there.
Where the natural man.
Cannot perceive them.
He has hidden them there.
Where the carnal man.
Cannot partake of them.
But they are hidden for thee.
And when thou dost.
In thy searchings and strivings.
Come back to the one place.
Where the treasures reserved.
For thee are hidden.
There's the answers.
Yea.
Simplify your inquiries.
Until your searchings.
Are centralized.
That you might behold the face.
Of the redeemer.
Kingsman.
Deliverer.
Yea in beholding him.
Thou shalt discover the riches.
Already.
In thine hands.
Yea they shall be thine.