Here's chapter fourteen, please. Judges fourteen. Verse five, Judges fourteen and five. Fourteenth chapter of Judges, and the fifth verse. Then went Samson down and his father and his mother to Timnath. and came to the vineyards of Timnath, and behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of God of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid. He had nothing in his hand, but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. And he went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. And after a time he returned to take her. and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. And he took their off in his hands and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat. But he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion. That's all we'll read for tonight. We'll try to begin where we concluded last Sunday night in reference to Samson and the lions. We did remember, you will remember, we mentioned the fact of the four mysteries in connection with this story. The first of all, the mystery of a slain lion. Here is a man, a human being, no match for the king of the forests, and he meets them without any instrument, without any weapon in his hand, and he kills the lion whose strength was many times more than his own. Why was he able to do it? Because it tells you here, the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. In other words, God was with Samson, and that's why he could slay this life. We mentioned the mystery. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was in Christ. And the reason Jesus Christ met the lion of hell, Satan, at the cross, and defeated him in that battle is because God was in Christ. He was not only the Son of Man, he was the Son of God. That's that marvelous mystery of the dual personality of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man. Then we notice this other mystery, a marvelous fellowship going on in the carcass of the lion, the result of that victory over the lion. Here see life in the midst of death. An old, smelly carcass. Yet here is a bundle of light and activity. What a wonderful fellowship we see in the hive of beings. There's the mystery of Christ and the church. The fellowship of the mystery. And this is a wonderful thing. This thing called Christian fellowship. Where you meet another member of the body of Christ. You have something in common. And when they mention the Lord Jesus, there's a response immediately in your heart. You can speak the same language. You have the same thought, the same desires to live for Christ. It's a wonderful fellowship. The fellowship of the mystery, the fellowship of the members of the body of Christ. Then there's another mystery we refer to. Here is Sanson returning the second time, and Jesus Christ is coming again. He says, behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, we shall all be chained, in a moment in the trembling of an eye, at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. We which are alive and remains shall be caught up to meet them with them in the air. The mystery of his coming again. We may have something to say in connection with that next Sunday night in concluding these messages. The next one is the victory, the victor eating the honey. Here you find Samson, and he takes of the honey. The result of this victory, there have been no hide there. No honey had it not been for his victory over the lion. And now he's feasting on the fruits of that mighty battle. And throughout eternity the Lord Jesus Christ will feast upon what you and I have done for him and what we can give him. It will thus be. that made the honey that fed Samson. What a sweet feast it was his. And in eternity the Lord Jesus Christ will look upon all his own. Every blood-bathed saint of God. He'll feast upon what we have done for him in our lives after he saved us here on earth. And throughout eternity it will be our privilege to minister to him and give him a little in return for what he did for us at Calvary. What a wonderful mystery, Daddy. Now tonight, let's get further into our subject. Here you have this hive, a picture of the church. Life and activity in the midst of death. You know it's a wonderful thing that in this world there's a group of believers washed in the blood of Christ, clean in the sight of God. My, what a contrast. These bees in a dirty, old, smelly cock. That's an unusual place to find bees. They generally seek a clean place. But here is the mystery. To think that in that scene of corruption, and in those surroundings that speak of death, here is life, death activity. And in this world, friend, there is a body of believers. They've got life, and they're busy as bees, waiting for the return of their divine sanctity. And this speaks of those, all those who have been saved by sovereign grace washed in precious blood. Let me say something. You're either one of the beings or you're part of the carcass of the land. There is no middle class. You're one or the other. If you're not in Christ, then you're part of this cordless world. God looks upon it as a carcass. I thought of it last night as I was reading this passage of a text the Lord Jesus uses, referring to the coming day of the Battle of Armageddon. He says, where the carcass is, there the eagles are gathered together. He's speaking of the coming day of the Battle of Armageddon. And in the veil of Escalon, there you see the assembled armies. He looks upon them as a carcass. He says, there's where the eagles should be gathered together. Really, the prophetical application of that is this. It's the nations of the world wanting God's earthly people, Israel. And here they're converging upon the land of Israel. They're going to now almost exterminate, if they possibly can, the Jewish people, the one who brought forth the Savior, the Messiah, and as the nations us assemble in that mighty veil, where the eagles have come now to feast on that nation. God's chosen people, then the descending Christ will destroy those assembled armies. But it refers to them as a carcass. What's not in Christ is a carcass. And there's a lot today in the religious world that also is part and parcel of that carcass. Because it's dead. And it stinks to high heaven. of things God has nothing to do with, and yet it goes under the name of religion. It doesn't belong to the high of the bees at all. It's part and parcel of this unbloodly world. It's a social gospel. Trying to better this scene, trying to clean up the old carcass, trying to polish the bones and make them shine like ivory. Well, let me tell you, the church is not here to try and clean up the carcass. Business of the church is to make honey something sweet and precious for our divine senses, to try and get people into the hive. That's it. Let them become one of these little bees that are brought before us in this passage. Christians are to be busy bees, busy until the Lord comes. You know this little bee, and those of you who were here one time when we had that film from the Moody Institute of Science. Well, remember Dr. Moon giving that remarkable picture on a hive of bees. Lightning this hive under the church and the individual bees like the individual Christian. First of all, the bees are little things. That is, the honeybee. It's small. There are two men in their Bible and their name means little. One's Mordecai and the Old Testament, the other one's Paul of the New Testament. Their name means little. Evidently, they were small men. I'm going to tell you one thing. They packed a mighty wallop, although they were small. You know, you're either a bumblebee that makes a lot of noise, or you're a busy bee that makes a little honey. My, some Christians are great bumblebees, making a lot of noise. They're not making any honey. And it's not noise the Lord wants. He wants honey. And honey can only be produced by the Holy Spirit of God. And so we find they were little. I wonder if we are little in our own eyes. God can't use one that's proud, that's haughty, that's conceited. He has no time or place for such. If you want God to use you, You've got to be little in your own eyes. They're the ones you use. And so we find these little honeybees. Another thing about them, they're weak. Think how weak a little honeybee is. Paul says, when I'm weak, then am I strong. Not only are we to be humble, we are to be conscious of our own weakness. That his strength might be made perfect in our weakness. If you think you're strong and you can do things in your own strength, you're in for defeat and disappointment. When you think you can master the situation, you're quite competent. You're wise enough, you're intelligent enough, you're able enough. You can handle this, you don't need the Lord. Go in for defeat. It's when we're conscious of our own weakness. Then it is the Lord who put His hand upon us and let us experience His greatness and His strength. The little bee is weak. But I'll tell you, it packs a mighty wallop in that stinger. And here's the Apostle Paul, a little man. But I'll tell you, he had an awful wallop in the gospel. He had an awful punch when it came to preaching the Word of God. And it's these men. Little man, humble Christian, my what a testimony, God. It's just like a sting from the bee, the little honeybee. My can make you holler with a sting, yet so weak, yet so small. That speaks of a real testimony of a Christian. You know the truth hurts, just like a sting. And when you preach the word of God or when you preach the truth, it's going to hurt. And if the preaching doesn't hurt, there'll be no healing. A person's got to find out he's lost. He's got to be convicted of his sin first and realize he's lost. And help us then, friend, he can be saved by the grace of God. The preaching of the gospel doesn't flatter men and women. The preaching of the gospel doesn't exalt man. The religions of men exalt men. The gospel humbles men. But I'll tell you just like the bee, that little bee, it's got a sting. So those who are saved by the grace of God, their little bees, and that they're busy for the master, they've got a testimony, they've got a message, they've got something like that little stinger. And it makes people listen. It hurts. It hurts. I wouldn't know how many people have gone out these chapel doors. In the nine years we've been in this chapel, hurt. They've been stung to the quick. They heard some of the truth of God and they didn't like it. But the stinger struck home. Some have come back and found Christ. Others are still smarting under the sting. And I hope that they come back, they'll get stung again. till they find out how lost they are and how in need they are of a Savior. The truth of God always hurts. Another thing about this little honeybee, you know it supplies the needs of others without taking life. You take a chicken. It will take up a worm, a bug, a slug, and straighten it up for you and give you a nice white egg. It takes life, it kills, to give you something to eat. Little honey does, he doesn't do that. It takes the nectar out of the flower. It doesn't take any life. It feeds on sweetness and therefore it administers sweetness. Take the cow, for instance. The cow has to cut down on the grass. That's the death of the grass. It gives you that nice milk and cream. And other animals, there's got to be death preceding life. It is true the Lord Jesus Christ had to die in order for us to have life. But our message is one of life. And like the little bees, they're making honey. They're not taking life. They're giving life. That's those who are preaching the gospel. They've got a message of life. Jesus died that we might live. That's the wonderful story of salvation. Life through Christ, eternal life in the Lord Jesus. Another thing about the little bee is it's a clean little creature. Those of you who recall that picture on the bees, remember how the bees cleaned themselves before they went and sought to gather sap out of the little flowers, they cleaned themselves before they tried to make honey. They also cleaned themselves before they went into the hive. And they're a very clean little creature. That was amplified many times, so it was seen on the screen here. You know God's people should be clean. Be clean, ye that bear the vessels of the law. And when you go into the hive on Sunday morning, when we come here to keep the communion, at quarter to ten, God's people come together as a family, and they're making honey, something that's sweet and precious for our divine Samson, who gave his life for us upon the cross. And what scripture do you read in connection with that worship meeting? Let a man examine himself, so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Clean yourselves before you take the bread and wine. That's it. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup, and the little bee dreams itself before it goes into the hive. And that's what the Word of God does. It cleanses us. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word? We apply ourselves to this blessed book. This is the water. The water is the word. Before I take my place Sunday morning, partake of those end, Let me examine myself. Lord, are there any hard thoughts? Are there any unconfessed sin? Is there a bitter attitude in my heart toward another Christian? Have I been guilty of things that grieve thy Holy Spirit? Make those things right with God. Confess them right there in the end, and the Lord will forgive you. Then go ahead and take me in. There's a little bee cleaning itself. Hord, he goes into the hive to make pious. And so he says, cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh, protecting holiness in the fear of God. It's a clean little picture. You know this hive, it indicates fellowship, cooperation. My, it's wonderful to see the fellowship and the cooperation in this hive of these. It indicates help. When you see a hive, you can't help but look at it without seeing an indication of hell. My, how busy they are. Everyone has a job to do. You know, there's one kind of a bee that the other bees won't tolerate in a hive. I think you saw that on that picture, too. That's the bees they call the drone. The drones, they don't do any work. They just live on the honey that the others have made. You know what happens to them? The other bees sting them to death and haul them out of the hive and dump them outside. There is no room. There should not be in any church a place for thrones. Those that do absolutely nothing. But just live off and feed off what others do. For all kinds of bees in connection with the hive, there's the wax smitter, maker, water carrier, there are those that bring the pollen, the field workers, and the guards. Do you know a hive of bees has guards? Those that guard what goes in. Another type bee can't get into that hive, there are the guards right there. Those guards are very fierce. You notice that in that picture. Those guards protecting the hive from the intrusion are a bee that might bring damage. Only honey bees are permitted to go into that hive. The guards are there to see that. But I want to say this. There are those in a true assembly of God who stand as guards to watch that hive, to maintain its health, and preventing any getting in who would cause trouble. Anything foreign. The Bible's very plain that a church should be cautious after who it admits into its fellowship. Even the Apostle Paul, what a wonderful conversion he had. He went up to Jerusalem. He likely thought, why they'll swing the door open? They'll let me in. There'll be no question. He was fooled. When he got there, they wouldn't have seen. They turned the Apostle Paul away. And if it hadn't been for Barnabas, who went and got Saul after he had been turned down. He knew what had happened to the Apostle. He knew the remarkable conversion he had. He went up to the brethren in Jerusalem. And he told them, he said, Paul's all right. He's no longer Saul. He's Paul. Death man's really saved. He's really found Christ. He's a changed man. He's already preaching. See them. There's a God. Not only a God, That is, elders or deacons in the church, keeping out those or trying to keep out those who are not born again, not living a godly consistent life, but the moment they detect one who is really saved, be sure and bring him in. And there's not enough of that today. And you know. Any Tom, Dick, and Harry can join most churches. Just walk down the aisle and say, I got a letter down the cut. What brought up here? He's received it. No questioning, no investigation, no asking him, are you born again? When did you get saved? When did you come to know Christ? None of that. They'll receive anybody who's got a pocketbook. Regardless of whether that person's saved or not, that's why a lot of the hives are not functioning the way they should. They're not all honeybees. Some in there are not even saved. Not born again at all. No guard has to go. Another thing about the little being, you know it has its marks of honor. I have seen some honeybees all in glass. They go out and they come in. If you're looking at them, do a glass. And you watch them as they come in from the outside. And if you're close enough, there was a magnifying section. of the glass that would magnify the little bees as you looked at those hides. You'd see some with broken wings. You'd see others and they had a broken leg. Broken leg. I remember up near Stafford, my home in Canada, who was a farmer had a lot of beehives. And his beehives were not far from the highway. And for some strange reason, no one knows. They tried to investigate the find. The bees were coming about four feet off the ground, and the cars on the highway were killing them by the cows, killing those bees as they were going through and through. A lot of these bees lose their lives. A lot of them have broken wings and broken legs, making honey. What did the Apostle Paul say? He died there in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. Five times was I beaten. Forty strikes, say one. I've been shipwrecked, says the Apostle. Yes, I've been beaten. I've been stoned. Paul at the end of his life will say, I bear my body with marks. The scar of the Lord Jesus. Listen, how many scars have you got? Correct. Have you got the scar of reproach? Let us go forth, therefore, unto Jesus Christ, without the camp, bearing his reproach. Let us, there are the people, go forth, unto him. There's the person. Without the camp, there's the place. And here's the price, his reproach. It means something today to take your stand for the word of God, the principles of the word of God. You pay a price. You're not going to be popular. Not a bit. If you take your stand for the truth of God as to a New Testament church, then you'll have your scotch, your receiver, criticism, reproach, the sneer, never mind the Adam. Marks of faithfulness are right. When we get to heaven, the Lord's not going to look us over for degrees, diplomas. Think of that kind. If you look us over, where are your scars? Can you show me any? Soldier boy comes back, he's been in conflict, he can show you some evidence. Yes. The shepherds in the east, many of them can strip to the waist and show you scars where they pop with wild beasts. And even robbers who would steal their sheep, they can show you scars. Jesus Christ in heaven will show us scars. He's the great shepherd of the sheep. He tangled with the line of hell. There's a scar. There are the scars rooted. I wonder if we're willing to receive scars for Christ. The little bee had those marks of honor. Scar. suffering for Jesus Christ. You know, oftentimes the little bee, in fact every case with a honey bee, when it stings a person, it dies. It has at once been in. And yet that little bee lifts the flight, it'll use its stinger knowing it's going to die. The stinger speaks of our message and think of the martyrs. who used that message knowing it was going to cost them their life. Back in the Dark Ages, read church history. They were slaughtered. They were put to death, thrown to the wild beast, burned to the stake. They had one message, one slinger. They used it, knowing it was going to be death. They knew they'd have to die for their faith in Christ. My, how easy we have it in America. There's no reproach to being a Christian. There's some reproach if you go to that Albany Gospel Chapel that's under nomination. But we're really not reproached much, are we? Not by comparison with what God's people suffer in our parts of the world. They bear the scars of their loyalty to Jesus Christ, the marks of the beads. Another thing about these beads is very interesting. You know, they make honey just the same way today as they did six thousand years ago. Four thousand years ago, two thousand years ago, the bees have never turned modern. They're not modern, some won't. They haven't conived some new idea to make honey. The little bee makes honey exactly today the way it did nineteen hundred years ago. On the honey Christmas sweet. Let me tell you that the old-fashioned gospel is the same day as it was nineteen hundred years ago. We don't need any change. It's sweet, just as sweet as simply. That's the message it doesn't change. Oh, today, there are a lot of innovations. Change. Modernism is creeping in. The National Council, my, how they're trying to change it. Trying to change. Let me tell you, friends, the old-fashioned gospel is just exactly the same today. God is not a modernist. There's one way to be saved, and that's through the precious blood of Christ. There's no new pangled idea. No social gospel. God has no time for all such. Modern theology, new thought. All this idea of a new approach into it is one message. It runs from Genesis to Revelation. As we said this morning, you can cut your Bible any place, and it bleeds with blood. In the Old Testament, it bleeds with the blood of animals that points on to the blood of Christ. In the New Testament, we read about the blood of Christ when we look back. It tells me where he shed that blood, and that's the message. God will not tolerate anything else, says the Apostle, woe be unto me if I preach any other gospel. So I or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel, let him be a curse. One lesson. One lesson. The same as it was two thousand years ago. No change. The honeybees haven't changed. Neither has God nor his people would have challenged us. You know there are two dead languages in the world. That's a strange word to use in connection with these two languages. It just simply means they haven't changed in centuries. Those two languages are Greek and Hebrew. They're exactly the same today as they were two thousand years ago. Three thousand years. Other languages have changed, and I say this for the benefit of young Christians. Don't become dismayed about a lot of these new translations that come out. They're not changing the original text. If you're a Greek scholar, you can get a Greek manuscript. and read it just the same as it was two thousand years ago. Same with Hebrew. Only two languages that haven't changed. They're the languages the Bible's written in Hebrew Greek. Now, they haven't changed, not even the crossing of a tea or the parting of the night. Meaning that the old-fashioned gospel, if read in the original, is exactly the same today as it was two thousand years ago. It's one now. So how wonderful to know we've got this old message yet ever knew. You know, there was some time to imitate it. I remember in Winston-Salem years ago, a man by the name of Mr. Blakely called, he and his wife were saved immediately had, and he was past seven days. He gave me one day, he said, Wilson, I want to make a confession. I want your advice. Well, what is it, Mr. Blakely? He said, I've been making artificial honey for years. He says, taste good too. He said, I sold a lot. He says, should I continue? I said, what do you got on the bottle? Have you got real honey? He says, yes. Well, I said to the Christian, I take it off. It was artificial honey that these had nothing to do with. And a lot of people can get food with artificial honey. They come up with a pretty good prescription. And you have to have a mighty good palate to be effective. And I'm going to tell you that a lot of subtle false teaching today is that it takes one who's living in touch with God who knows this Bible effectively. It's manufactured. It's not made by the beast. It's not the truth of God. And we're warned in the latter epistles. The second epistles of the New Testament have to do with the latter days and the coming of Christ. And they warn us against these latter days. These false prophets. These wolves that come to you in sheep's clothing, they look like real thieves. They're not. They're told to be in our guard against all such. Wondering about the beehive, you know, they hive off. Here was a big hive in Jerusalem. My was a wonderful hive. But then I see another assembly starting up in Antioch and another one somewhere else. And the Bible says they scattered everywhere preaching the word. And here's a hive off from Jerusalem. But you know the hive off was exactly the same as the mother church in Jerusalem. And how did they get the hive off? A big queen bee she takes off with her escort and the others carry her. All eyes of those bees are going to start a new hive. The eyes of all the honeybees are on the Queen Bee. She's the center of the traction. They're going to set up shops exactly the same as the mother hive back in Jerusalem. And here's where Christendom has gone off the track. If every hive off from the original church in Jerusalem had exactly all of that pattern, all the churches would be the same today, and you wouldn't have all these different denominations. They have their eyes fixed on the Queen Bee! And every church, according to the Scripture, should have its eye fixed on Jesus Christ. And if those people have their eye fixed on him, when they come together, where two or three are come together in my name, says the Lord Jesus, there am I in the midst of them. And all the beehives, from the first one till now, they are exactly the same as the original mother tie. The hives are... pattern up to the mother heart. That's the way God's people should be today. Take your pattern from the New Testament church as given us in the Word of God. That's all we do at the chapel is take our pattern from that original high. How did they do at the Apostle's day? That's the way we're going to do. There's the pattern. And a New Testament church, a true New Testament church, is a pattern. It's a replica of the original church in Jerusalem. That's what a New Testament church is. The trouble is. So many denominations split up and a church splits up. And if you get this trouble, the way they go is start another church. And then they have trouble there. Let me tell you something. Split churches will keep split. You mark that down. The church gets split, and they start another hill split. There's always that element that's going to cause trouble. The only way you can keep order in any church is the great regulator is this book. And I would go this far to say there wouldn't be a church in Albany divided. If this book had been given the place it should have had and the person of Christ given promise, I've made the statement. But I don't know of any division in this church, the Albany Gospel Chapel. I don't know two Christians that don't speak to each other or say can't speak to each other. And the only answer I can give you is this. This book has been the regulator. When you preach God's word, it makes God's people afraid. father of the nation. Or to grieve the Spirit of God. And the more we bow to this blessed book, and the more we're in love with Jesus Christ, the more we're going to hang together. There be unity. And that's what the Lord blessed us. We're present, well together in unity. There the Lord commanded the blessing, he enlightened us. But today, many churches, they in no way resemble the original church of Jerusalem. The honeybee. The hive today is exactly the same as it was in a thousand years ago. What lesson did he get from the little bee? Our time's up. There's a lot more to say about this next Sunday night. Do you, who are not Christian, let me ask you, why don't you come to Christ? You're not a bee, and you know it. You're part of that target. Even though you may be respectable, Paul, good friend, a good father, a good husband, sincere, but you've never been born again. You haven't come to know Jesus Christ as your personal savior. When Christ comes one of these days, he's going to take us at the carcass that I will be. He won't leave one be behind. Everyone's going to go. All that will be left is this carcass of an old world upon which his judgment will fall. Are you in the hive, or are you part of the apartment? Only you can answer that. Do you know the Christ we preach, the Savior we claim to love, the Master we seek to serve, and the Captain we seek to fight for, the bridegroom we wait for, the King we shall reign with, do you know him? Who is it? The Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that you would throw down your weapons of rebellion and hostility. Cast yourself at the feet of the Son of God, of who were lost, helpless, dying sinners. And say, O spotless lamb, I come to thee. No longer can I from thee stray. Break every band. Now set me free. Wash all my sins away. He will. You'll do it right now. He loves you. He gave himself for you a calvary. He shed his precious blood for all your sins away. He wants to bring you into the hive and make you one of his own, so you might be busy for him, making honey, something preparatory with his return. Listen, how are we spending our time at busy beach, or are we like the bumblebee? Or are we like the butterfly that dances around, sewing a little egg, a little grub that hatches out a worm, destroyed the flower? The butterflies are up and down, up and down. Butterflies don't make enemies sweet. They just do damage to the flower. But you are a butterfly up and down, up and down, one day up, the next way, day down, dropping those little grubs, those little ugly eggs of gossip and things that hatch trouble. Or are you a busy bee? Straight as a bee, they say the bee line. You know why they say that? When the bee has got its load, it takes a bee line for the hive. It's got one objective, one thing before it, one purpose in life, make honey. You've got one objective, one purpose in life. Is your eyes single? Is your body full of life? Are you Christian? If so, not only are you busy being, you're the happy being, waiting for the coming of our Lord. That's for us Christians. Again, you were not saved when you come to Christ. When you come right now, shall we do? Our Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we come to be in our sad desert, all thy word. How wonderful is thy truth. Thou has given us this precious volume that reveals the mind and heart and will and way of God, how we treasure it, we thank thee for it. Keep us loyal to thy word, for in the measure we are loyal to thy word, we are loyal to thee, we offer of it. Father, thou wouldst warn us against the traditions of men. Thou would have us to hold fast to the scriptures of divine truth. We trust that we'll have the courage in these closing days to stand firm and fast for all this revelation of thyself. When our Lord comes, our divine Samson, when he returns, for his bride, he will find us busy, busy with him. O God, we trust him. He will be faithful to become. Remember to hear unsaved ones. O Father, single of any known after Lord Jesus, may they bow