Gooding, David: 13 - Sampson - Part 1

We begin our reading this evening in the book of Judges and chapter thirteen. Judges thirteen and verse one. um And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines Forty years. There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and bare not. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her, Behold, now thou art barren and bearest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing. For lo, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God, very terrible. And I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name. But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing, for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb to the day of his death. Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, O Lord, I pray thee, let the man of God whom thou did send come again unto us and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoah, her husband, was not with her. And the woman made haste and ran and told her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me that came unto me the other day. And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am. And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. What shall be the manner of the child, and what shall be his work? The angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman, let her beware. She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her, let her observe. And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, I pray thee, let us detain thee, that we may make ready a kid for thee. The angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread. And if thou wilt make ready a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord. For Manoah knew not that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, What is thy name, that when thy words come to pass, we may do thee honor? And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Wherefore askest thou after my name, seeing it is wonderful? So Manoah took the kid with the meal offering and offered it upon the rock unto the Lord. And the angel did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar, and Manoah and his wife looked on. And they fell on their faces to the ground. But the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah or to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die because we have seen God. But his wife said unto him, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meal offering at our hand. Neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would at this time have told us such things as these. And the woman bare a son and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to move him in Machenedan between Zorah and Eshtaol. And Samson went down to Timna and saw a woman in Timna of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up and told his father and his mother and said, I have seen a woman in Timna of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore get her for me to wife. Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren or among all my people that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me, for she pleases me well. But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time, the Philistines had rule over Israel. And may God's Holy Spirit interpret his word to us all. We come now to the final captivity recorded in the book of Judges, the captivity of the Israelites to the Philistines. And as we have done on all former occasions, we begin this evening by reconnoitering the enemy. The Philistines are a very interesting people because, in all likelihood, they were not Semitic. They seem to have come into Palestine from the Aegean Sea area, and that, uh, accounts for the fact that they inhabited, as you gather from your reading of Judges, the low-lying country on the southwest coast of Palestine. In the time of the Judges, they were more or less confined to that area, had five major cities in the lowlands. In later times, they became even a greater menace to Israel than they were in the time of the Judges, and we find them penetrating so far north, for instance, as Beth Shean, up toward Galilee. The historians reckon that these Philistines came in, as I say, from the area of the Aegean, pushed by the many migrating tribes that at that time were coming down into Greece and Crete, Mycenaean Greeks and others, who, um, dislodged the Philistines and compelled them to seek new areas for to settle in, and they therefore came across the Aegean and to the southwest of Palestine. Later on in history, the other nations outside the country that we now call Palestine, but in biblical times is called Canaan, other nations came to think that the Philistines were the people that inhabited Canaan, and therefore the name of the land came to be in the mouths of all and sundry, the land of the Philistines, Philistia, that is to say Palestine, land of the Philistines. It ought, of course, to be known, did it not, as the land of the Israelites, Israel. But in those days, the Philistines so interpenetrated amongst the Israelites that, as I say, to all outsiders, the impression was given that the land was the land of the Philistines, Palestine. If we next ask what were the leading characteristics of this nation, then the fact is that we are not told very much about them in Holy Writ. Certainly there is no indication that they were a vicious crowd of people like some of the Canaanites were. But one thing is told us, and repeatedly told us, in practically every occasion where in the historical books the Philistines are mentioned. Repeatedly, many, many times, does God refer to the Philistines as the uncircumcised Philistines. or very often simply as simply the uncircumcised. Now that is interesting, and we shall find instructive. Many of Israel's Semitic neighbors were, in fact, like Israel, circumcised. For circumcision is not a rite that is, uh, confined to the nation of Israel. It was a rite practiced by many Semitic peoples, and also in some part by the Hamitic Egyptians. Of course, in Israel, circumcision took on a very special meaning that God gave to it, and it became with them not merely an initiatory rite, but a sign and seal of the covenant that God had with Israel, marking them out as descendants of Abraham, sharers of that special privilege, that special relationship with God that God had given to Abraham and to his seed. Now the Philistines, coming in from the outside and not Semitic, were of course uncircumcised, and it is therefore very natural that in these historical records, the historian should fasten on this point. The Philistines were unlike the Israelites. They were, of course, unlike in this respect many of the other Semitic nations around Israel. Philistines were marked out as being uncircumcised. And so we shall have to spend a good deal of our time this evening considering what circumcision meant for the Jew, and indeed what it has come to mean for us. Because when we have considered what circumcision meant or was intended to mean for the Jew, we shall then form more easily a clear picture in our mind of what those people were who were uncircumcised, and how they represented to Israel not only a very real threat, but a positive spiritual captivity, bondage, and disaster. The Israelites began circumcision, so Old Testament tells us, with Abraham. And God appeared to him after he had been justified by faith, and ordained that he and his seed after him observe this rite of circumcision, seal and sign of the righteousness which he had by faith. It was, so God says, a covenant between him and Abraham and Abraham's seed. So that at the very outset, circumcision, let us remind ourselves, was a sign of the covenant relationship between Israel and God. They were his covenant people. They stood in special relation to him, heirs to all those glorious promises that God had made to Abraham and to his seed. To be uncircumcised, therefore, was to be outside the covenant. And this was a very serious thing. So serious that God said to Abraham that any of Abraham's seed who were not circumcised were to be cut off from their people. A very clear demarcation line was to be made between those folks who belong to the God of Israel, were in his covenant, and those folks who were outside the covenant. And as presently we shall find, the great danger that the Philistines were to Israel was precisely this. In these early days, as distinct from later times when the Philistines became stronger, in these early days, the Philistines didn't war against Israel in pitched battles. You'll not read of any such pitched battles with great armies fighting against Israel in these early days of the Judges. It is true that later on, in the time of Saul and David, the Philistines had gained much more power, and they could field great battalions of armies. But in these early days, the danger they posed to Israel was not that of a great power that came with its vast battalions, all militarized with its tanks, to crush Israel. Simply they came in, pushed by the, uh, waves of invaders through Greece and Asia Minor maybe, coming on in front and settling and then acquiring a city and, uh, being very nice and pleasant and affable and neighborly and gradually penetrating. So much so that it would have been very difficult to distinguish where the Philistines began and the Israelites ended. And as you read this story, you will find that, uh, Samson, for instance, quite happily and seemingly without restriction, was able to get up one morning and go to a Philistine city, and get up and go to another Philistine city, and back to his own place. There was scarce a border as thick as the one that separates North and Southern Ireland, and they just went in and out, and in and out, and all amongst each other. It was a question of peaceful penetration. And you say, well, what's wrong with that? Oh, but my good man. There's everything wrong with that. The whole point of Israel's being circumcised was that it marked this special relationship to God that they had. Men of the covenant. Men in covenant relationship with God. So much so, I repeat, that if any were not circumcised in Israel, they were to be cut off. For God was determined that there should be a clearer distinction between the Abraham and his seed that had had an experience of God and stood in covenant relationship with him, and peoples that had had no such experience and were outside the covenant. For, as you see, it was not merely a s- a question of some external right. Though, alas, with Israel, it very frequently degenerated into being just an external right. But in the early days, and with the spiritual in Israel, circumcision was meant not merely to be an outward emblem, but a meaningful symbol. Well, you say, now what is the difference between an emblem and a symbol? Well, take the humble shamrock. It is used, particularly in America, and sometimes here as well, isn't it, as an emblem. From where you see the shamrock, you think of the Irish. It's an emblem. Happens to grow here, I suppose. But suppose you took the old humble shamrock, an emblem of Ireland because it grows there, and you did what Saint Patrick is supposed to have done with it. You used the shamrock as an illustration of the Trinity, three in one and one in three. Now you've taken the thing beyond an emblem to make it a symbol of some spiritual truth. And circumcision was meant not to be merely an emblem, it was meant to be a symbol. It was given to Abraham after his tremendous experience, his regenerating experience of the living God. Justified by faith, he was called upon to walk before God and be perfect and wholehearted in his obedience to God. And as a symbol of that, he was to be circumcised. Where then s- uh, circumcision had retained its meaning, you would find a people not only nominally in relationship with God, but spiritually and experimentally in relation with the living God. Israel failed, of course. As I say, they sometimes, uh, uh, uh, took the symbols without evidencing any of the spiritual reality that lay behind the symbol. Let me read you a verse from the book of Leviticus, chapter twenty six and verse forty one. It goes like this. It is in the middle of God's solemn statement of the chastisement that was to come upon Israel for her disobedience. And the chapter tells in gloomy detail how God should banish them from their land because of their iniquities. And then in verse forty of chapter twenty six it says, and they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that because they have walked contrary unto me, I also walk contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies. If then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accepted the punishment of their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember, and I will remember the land. So then, even in Israel, Israelites, spiritual Israelites, saw that that outward circumcision was meant to represent a deeper spiritual thing, an attitude of the heart, a circumcision of the heart. And of course, where circumcision of the heart did not exist, the outward sign was valueless. Jeremiah says the same thing, doesn't he? Let's take a moment to read some verses that he writes in his chapter nine. Jeremiah chapter nine, Verse twenty five. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised in their uncircumcision. Egypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab and all that have the corners of their hair pulled, that dwell in the wilderness. For all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart. You say, what does all that mean? It means this. Those nations which are circumcised, Egypt, yes, they practiced it, and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon, well, Edom and Ammon and Moab did. Yes, they practiced the external right, but it had utterly no significance whatsoever. They were utterly unregenerate men. They had no experience of God. They stood in no relationship with God. They were outside the covenant of Israel. Without experience of God at all, yet they had themselves circumcised, these Moabites and Ammonites, and it's valueless, says God. Oh, but now have a look at Israel. They have circumcision, and they call themselves the people of God. And says God, it's likewise no use. For though they be Abram's children, and they have the sign of the covenant, and they are circumcised, they are uncircumcised in heart. In heart, utterly unregenerate. And that being so, the outward right profits them nothing. What Jeremiah said in his day, Paul said in later times, did he not? Let's read from Romans chapter, uh, two and verses twenty eight and twenty nine. For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Paul here, in his second chapter to the Romans, is exposing the bankruptcy of many of his fellow Jewish nationals. Externally circumcised, but in heart uncircumcised, externally having the sign and seal of the covenant, supposedly in covenant relationship with God and walking before him, doing his will, but in actual fact, walking clean contrary to God and disobeying God. Look, says Paul, then if that be so, your physical circumcision is of no use. It avails nothing. Real circumcision is circumcision of the heart in the spirit. And as we pass by, we could for- afford perhaps thirty seconds to preach ourselves a mini sermon, couldn't we? We too, in the Christian church, have ordinances. We have the Lord's Supper. We have baptism. And sacred symbols they are, and full of meaning. And happy is that Christian man who has obeyed the Lord and has submitted and does submit to those symbols and uses those symbols as pointers to great real spiritual realities. But it's a miserable and empty thing if we submit to the symbols but know nothing of the spiritual reality. I am baptized. But do I live a baptized life? It is possible, isn't it? It is possible for us as believers to use the symbol. Sometimes to forget their spiritual significance. Alas, down the centuries, it's impossible to do something more indeed. It has been possible to take those symbols and apply them to people that never did have any experience of God whatsoever and are still unregenerate. And when that is done, it inevitably leads to a horrible and dangerous confusion, where people think that you become a Christian by submitting to the symbols, and forget that the symbols are not true and mean nothing, unless we have first experienced the spiritual realities that they are supposed to symbolize. What of confusion? Yes, in the times of the judges, the, uh, Philistines peacefully interpenetrated Israel until the difficulty goes this, you didn't know tunnel from which. You didn't know where Israel started when the Philistines finished, or the Philistines finished and the Israelites started. And as, uh, you might have expected, when that kind of peaceful penetration was allowed to persist, it eventually, it wasn't the Israelites that got the upper hand. And so in Christendom, what a sorry confusion there has come by taking Christian symbols and applying them to unregenerate persons. Let us hear then further from the Christian apostles. Let's read Acts, if we will, please. Acts chapter seven, and we shall become, uh, begin to come now to the root of the whole matter. Circumcision, uncircumcision. Yes, from one point of view, the difference is between people that have the sign of the covenant and people that don't have the sign of the covenant. People that are in covenant relationship with God and people that are not. Now notice another distinction. Acts chapter seven and verse fifty one. And here is Stephen talking to the Jews of his day. He says, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? They killed them which showed before of the coming of the righteous one, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers, you who received the law as it was ordained by angels and kept it not. Oh, what solemn words for a Stephen to have to preach in the ears of Jewish men. There they were, physically descended from Abraham. There they were with the mark of the covenant upon them, circumcised. But circumcision was meant to be a cutting away of the flesh, symbolically a removal of the unregenerate flesh, and a heart now of meek obedience to do God's will and law. But alas, says Ste- says Stephen, you are incircumcised. Just one of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers. You who received the law as it was ordained by angels and kept it not. Oh, what solemn words for a Stephen to have to preach in the ears of Jewish men. There they were, physically descended from Abraham. There they were with the mark of the covenant upon them, circumcised. But circumcision was meant to be a cutting away of the flesh, symbolically a removal of the unregenerate flesh, and a heart now of meek obedience to do God's will and law. But alas, says Pete, says Stephen, you are uncircumcised in heart and ears, unregenerate men, physically circumcised, but marked by that rebellious enmity of the flesh, that flesh which is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. That flesh which basically is enmity with God, you do always resist the Holy Spirit. Yes, for the difference between circumcision and uncircumcision is this. The uncircumcised man is the man who is in the flesh, with all its rebellion against God. The circumcised man is the man in whom that flesh has been cut off, regenerate by God's Holy Spirit, and walking in that spirit. Hence it comes about that Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, uses this figurative language to describe what conversion means. Let's read together in Colossians in chapter two. Colossians chapter two, And first of all, verse thirteen. For here now is a description of these Colossian people before they were regenerate, in their unconverted days. Here they are. Verse thirteen: and you, being dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, I say, did he quicken together with him, dead in their trespasses. Dead not merely in their coming short of God's glory, but in their positive trespass and disobedience of his law. Gentiles, uncircumcised in the flesh, yes, and uncircumcised in the deeper level, uncircumcised in heart, still rebellious against God, dead in their trespasses. And how did they get converted? And what does conversion mean? Well, let's look in verse eleven. In whom, that is in Christ, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, wherein you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. Interesting verse, isn't it? It describes our regeneration, our salvation, our conversion in terms of circumcision, the circumcision of Christ. Now let's guard ourselves against one elementary mistake. There are some folks who tell us that nowadays, in Christianity, that the thing that is the counterpart to Jewish circumcision is Christian baptism. That isn't true, is it? Who would you say, sir, excuse me, uh, the verses you read have just said so. Have they really? Let's read it again. In whom you were circumcised with a circumcision, not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism. Now, if you try to say that baptism is the same as circumcision, you've got a difficulty here, haven't you? There is in Christianity, that is very true. There is in Christianity a something that corresponds to Israel's circumcision. There is indeed. It is called the circumcision of Christ. But unlike Israel's circumcision that was done with hands, how else? The Christian counterpart, we are here expressly told, is done without hands. You try baptizing somebody in water without using any hands. It's singularly difficult. But this is not merely a point of argument only. It it it comes to a very real thing. Oh yes, the the spiritual reality of which circumcision was a picture is a far deeper thing than any external rite or ritual. It is a spiritual operation. It is not made with hands. It is the circumcision of Christ. It is what happens when a man is born again. Now, why do you call it the circumcision of Christ? And what does it mean, anyway, to put him off of the body of the flesh? Well, think a moment. Think of that flesh, that fallen flesh, that flesh that is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Oh, that cruel flesh, as, uh, the famous and saintly Bishop Moule described it in his hymn. Mind of the flesh that is enmity with God and not subject to his law, neither indeed can be. Oh, how often we felt it. And say with Paul, in me that in my flesh there dwells no good thing. How to overcome it, how to master it, how to get free of it. Have you said to yourself from time to time, because you have felt its stirrings within you, you have said to yourself, oh, if only I had a knife that could reach down to the roots of that ungodly, disobedient, unruly flesh and cut it out. Oh, what a good saint I should be. You ever wish that? I have, yes. My besetting weaknesses and sins, and all the times I intend that they shan't rebel anymore, they do. I'd say, if only I had a knife that I could get down to where they are and cut the root of it, I'd do it. But there hasn't been a knife made yet to get to the root of that, has there? Then how? Listen, says Paul, be w- be aware, if you will, that in God's great salvation there is an element, there is a cutting, there is a circumcision, there is the circumcision of Christ. And And what what's its effect? Well, Paul tells us thereof, does he not, in, in Romans chapter eight, At least he describes the effect of it. He puts it this way. Verse nine of Romans eight. Well, let's read, uh, let's read from verse six. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. Oh, let's get hold of this verse, for it's glorious good news. Well, let's get hold of it and believe it. You are not in the flesh, says Saint Paul, but in the Spirit. You say, but I was once in the flesh, wasn't I? You were indeed. You are not now. You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. You say, how did the change take place? Well, if I might say, through the circumcision of Christ, of course. That cut, that link, that root, that joins you to the flesh. So that it is true to say, without exaggeration, you are not in the flesh. The very root of your personality has been cut loose from it, and you are in the spirit. Now, we've no need to to distort that verse to mean what it doesn't say. It does not say, does it, that the flesh is not in us. At last, the flesh is in us, very much so. And incidentally, peace be to all who say to the contrary, but it's very much alive. For if it weren't, you wouldn't be told to crucify it. It is very much alive, and don't let anybody kid you into thinking that the flesh is dead. And that flesh, still alive, alas, is in us. But now, all praise God for this divine miracle. You, if you really be Christ's, if you have his spirit, you are no longer in the flesh. The root of your personality has been transferred. You are in the spirit. You like me to prove that to you? When the Lord comes, you believe you're going home to be with the Lord. And then, praise God, there will be no more of that old, unregenerate flesh left, will there? You're not taking it to heaven. You say, no, I'm not taking it to heaven. Well, where are you going to lose it then? Well, you say, I think, I think, uh, oh. Perhaps the worms eat it up when I'm in my coffin or something. Well, if that's the way we got rid of the flesh, uh, bring in the worms, they want, and bring them in on a very big skirt. And the unregenerate rise, they will rise. How, what, all of them converted? Absolute saints? With no trace of the old rebellion left in their hearts? What? You say, no, of course, no. No, indeed not. And part of o- o- of their eternal suffering will be that precisely. That old rebellious nature is with them still, twisting and distorting them. Until they, scarce being recognizable as humans, are said by scripture to have perished. And what has saved us from that? What has cut us adrift, so to speak? It's this, my brothers, that when you came to Christ and you accepted the judgment of God upon you, and submitted to the sentence of his law, and were incorporated into Christ, you were buried with him, you have risen with him. And the roots of your personality were cut from that old rebellious flesh and transferred. And you who were in the flesh, as the whole root of your personality and the ground from which it grew, you are no longer in the flesh. You are in the spirit. If you can walk after the flesh, alas, because we have the flesh with us still, we can walk after it. And if we do, we shall reap God's chastisement. We needn't. We can walk after the Spirit. Well, praise God again for the marvelous miracle. That at those depths where our spiritual eternity is being decided, every believer has experienced the circumcision of Christ, the cut has been made. He's no longer in the flesh, he is in the spirit. What a marvelous thing. Yeah, not the thing you can see with your visible eye, and yet such a profound spiritual reality that determines our relationship with God now and our destiny for eternity. And it must be. Oh, it must be. If we would be faithful to God, that we must insist and forever insist on the difference between a man or woman in the flesh, in this sense, and a man or woman in the spirit. What a tragedy to take an unregenerate man or woman and apply to them the Christian symbols, if this great change has not first taken place. I have talked of the Philistines in the earlier period of Judges, and I shall come back to that. Just for a few seconds, I want to anticipate a little Old Testament history and now talk of the Philistines in the period of Saul and David. They grew stronger as the years went by and became a very big power, often subduing the Israelites by sheer force of their armies. As they grew to strength, we see their basic characteristics come to full fire. They were men outside the covenant. Men that you would describe as carnal men, not having a spirit. Well, they had a religion, of course. In one city, they had a temple of Dagon, and we read about it in that famous story in one Samuel chapter five. The Israelites, on an occasion, were, had been very disobedient to God for many years. And when the Philistines came against them, they were defeated. So the Israelites took out from the temple of the Lord the Ark of God, thinking in their superstition that they could themselves live ungodly and unspiritual lives, and then in the moment of their need, they could bring that box that was the Ark into the battle, and the box somehow would save them. And they had to learn that there is no salvation in things. You will have a sacred ark, if you like. It's a sacred bit of furniture. It is a symbol. But arks don't save anybody. Symbols don't save anybody. It's nothing but superstition to think that you can live an ungodly, unspiritual life, and then in the moment of your need, call into play some symbol like the ark or some ceremony like baptism, and somehow it does the trick and save you. Doesn't. So the Israelites brought the ark to the battle, but the Israelites were defeated, and what is more, the ark of God was taken into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines put it in the temple of their god. And the Philistines were quite unregenerate men, and God had to teach them a lesson. So the ark was put in their temple, and hey, presto, when they came in the morning, their own god Dagon was fallen off his perch and laid prostrate on the ground. And the lords of the Philistines had a look at Dagon, and they said, dear me, that's, that's no place for a god to be. Poor god down there, just look at him. Well, now we better do something about that. So they put brain and brawn together, and they heaved up Dagon onto his perch once more. They came back the next morning, and worse had happened. Dagon was not only fallen off his perch before the Ark of the Lord, but his head was cut off and his hands were cut off. And they said to themselves, that's right, that's even worse. I mean, a god whose head is off and hands are off, what use is he? So, unlike Humpty Dumpty, Dagon was put together again, head on, glued on, I suppose, hands on, glued on. I heaved him back with might and main and all the intelligence they possessed, put him on his perch, and then fell down and worshipped him once more. That was funny, wasn't it? My, if Isaiah had been about in those days, he wouldn't half have ragged them. You learned Philistines with all your brains and all your abilities, your powers, your hands. What do you think you're worshiping in that Dagon, who couldn't even keep himself up on his perch, fell over and lost his head and lost his hands? You put him back again and worship him. What do you suppose you're worshiping? Well, I could see it if they couldn't. Gentiles who do that are simply worshiping the work of their hands, their own power of grain and of bronze. Comical when you look at it, but sad, you know. For that is what religion degenerates to with the unregenerate man. It ceases to be a real, vivid, living experience of the living God and his power to uphold us and save us. And it becomes a worship of the man himself. A putting of the trust in our own work, in our own brains, in our own intellect, in our own hands. Oh, it is the mark that separates idolatry from true faith. It is the mark that separates religion from salvation. For religion says to unregenerate man, do the best you can, think the best you can, think through your problems, then do the best to save yourself. Unregenerate men in the pride of their hearts take naturally to that kind of doctrine. God's spirit says a man cannot save himself that way. To be saved, a man must be brought to repentance and remove his faith from his own works, his own power, if need be, from his own intellect, and learn to put his faith in the living God. Look unto me and be you saved, all the ends of the earth. You will not be therefore surprised when I remind you finally of that occasion when Israel and the Philistines came to what was eventually the showdown, was the occasion when the armies of Israel were faced over against the armies of the Philistines. And there came out of the camp of the Philistines a man, the proportions of which had never been seen before. Oh, come, what a man he was. Just look at him as he strides onto the stage of no man's land between the two armies. A colossus of a man. That's how they produced them in Philistia. That was Goliath of Gath, and when he was gone, there were several others. The giants, his brothers. Giants of men. Well, now Saul was a big man, as men go. The record tells us he stood head and shoulders above everybody else, did Saul. But when Saul saw Goliath, then Saul gave up in sheer funk. He'd never seen such a big man. Just look at his arms, just look at his shield, just look at the size of his brain. What a colossal man. Man? Yes, now listen to him. I defy the armies of the living God this day. Yeah. Man versus God. This is not flesh so much as we had it with the Moabites, weak, miserable, and often filthy self-indulgence. This is flesh far more sinister. Man facing himself, idolizing his manhood, and in the end showing his basic enmity and disobedience to God. Such were the Philistines. Unregenerate mankind. And tonight we end where we began. And the danger, the appalling danger in Israel's day, that the uncircumcised Philistine, seeming to be so pleasant and affable, peacefully penetrates the people of God until the distinction is all done away with, and it doesn't matter whether you're circumcised or uncircumcised. And the whole of the truth of the gospel is at stake, and man's very salvation. You say, however, did the Israelites get to a stage when they seem to accept it? They did, didn't they? Yes, they not only accepted it, but when Samson began to make life uncomfortable for the Philistines, they told Samson to shut up and tried to bind him. Because life as they knew it was quite peaceful. What was wrong with interpenetration by the Philistines? Oh yes, suppose the Philistines had been getting the upper hand, uh, yet life was peaceful. What did Samson want to go around the country making all this trouble for? Fighting Philistans. The Israelites, many of them, couldn't see the importance of the distinction. God save us. God cause us to see that in that kind of situation, it is not a matter of party politics or sectarianism. It is a matter, as Paul would put it, of the very foundation of the gospel. Let this be obliterated, and the gospel is lost. The Lord give us good understanding of these basic principles, so that on Thursday, if he will, we shall begin to perceive his way of deliverance. Shall we pray? O God, we confess before thee that when we consider in detail the lapses of thine ancient people, lapses that have been repeated in principle down the years of the Christian era, then, Lord, our hearts are chilled as we think of the perversity of fallen men and the perennial weaknesses that even thy people show. And yet, Lord, as we have thought about these things, we pause to praise thee for that glorious salvation that thou hast made known to us. We do give thee thanks that we are not forever sentenced to live after the flesh. We praise thee for this great regenerative work, this release, this circumcision of Christ, this real salvation that works. And for that miracle performed in the hearts of those that sit before thee this evening, oh God, we do praise thee. Help us to grasp it. Help us to be men and women of faith who dare to count upon the true sayings of thy word. Know the uprisings of thy Holy Spirit within us, making us not merely thy children, but thy vigorous children, that we might walk in the spirit and therefore reap that life and peace and joy that are the fruits of that so same spirit. Help us in our day, Lord, to be men and women who have a care for thy people at large and the world at large. Give us true Christian charity, now give us clearness of vision, and help us in our day to stand firm for the truth of the gospel, that men and women in their sins and unregenerate may not be put to sleep in that state, but may be wakened to their need and brought to know thy Son as Savior. To this end, bless thy word we beseech thee, through that same Lord Jesus Christ.