Who Turned up the Temperature?

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 95:1-7
• Hymn — Come, Let Us Sing to the Lord (#95)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Heidelberg Catechism — Lord's Day 10 (Questions 27–28, On Providence)
• Hymn — O God Beyond All Praising (#241)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Judges 15
• Sermon
• Hymn — Mighty God, While Angels Bless Thee (#218)
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26

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Sermon Title: Who Turned up the Temperature?

Scripture: Judges 15

I. The Folly of God's Enemies

A. The Philistines repeatedly attempt to subdue Samson, but every seeming success leads to greater failure

1. The father-in-law's offer of a younger daughter fails to appease Samson (Judges 15:1-2)
2. The burning of Samson's wife and father-in-law provokes a great slaughter — Samson strikes them "hip and thigh" (Judges 15:8)
3. The Philistines raid Judah seeking Samson, confident when he is delivered bound with two new ropes (Judges 15:9-13)

B. The Spirit of the Lord rushes upon Samson; the ropes melt off his arms and he slays a thousand men with a donkey's jawbone (Judges 15:14-16)

1. The jawbone, like the ram caught in the thicket for Abraham, is no accident — God ordained its placement
2. The enemies' arrogance in continuing to advance illustrates their blindness to who they are fighting against

C. God's enemies throughout history follow the same pattern of arrogant folly

1. Psalm 2:1-5 — the nations plot in vain; God holds them in derision
2. Those who mocked Christ on the cross thought they had won, yet their foolishness led to their own judgment
3. Comfort for believers: God is victorious over his enemies; the book of Revelation declares, in short, "God wins"

II. The Weakness of God's People

A. The tribe of Judah — from whom David and Christ descend — displays spiritual blindness and ungodly fear (Judges 15:9-17)

1. Three thousand men of Judah go to bind Samson rather than join him against the enemy
2. They seek only the restoration of temporary peace: "Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us?"

B. God had already declared his saving purpose through Samson from birth (Judges 13:5) — "he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines" — yet Judah is blind to it

C. This weakness mirrors our own spiritual blindness

1. We fear men rather than God; we seek comfort rather than trusting God's providential purposes in hardship
2. Christ, the full and final Savior, was not recognized by his people and was handed over to enemies — for thirty pieces of silver, a "little comfort"
3. Application: Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28); look in faith to Christ who freed us from our true enemies, sin and death

III. The Provision for God's Servant

A. After the battle, Samson is severely thirsty and cries out to God in dependence (Judges 15:18)

1. He attributes his victory to God, not himself
2. He asks not for fame or riches, but for water — a basic need

B. God splits open a hollow place at Lehi and water flows out; Samson drinks, his spirit returns, and he revives (Judges 15:19)

1. Parallels God bringing water from a rock for Israel in the wilderness
2. God teaches Samson to trust him for provision — a lesson Samson will desperately need in the darkness to come

C. This points to a greater Servant and a greater provision

1. Jesus on the cross said, "I thirst" (John 19:28) — yet was denied refreshing water; instead he drank the cup of God's wrath for sin
2. Because Christ drank that cup, all who trust in him are given the living water of his righteousness unto eternal life
3. Jesus at the well: "Whoever drinks of the water I will give him will never be thirsty again" (John 4:14)
4. Application: Come to Christ and drink; apart from him every cup is full of sand and will not satisfy