Judges 15:1-16:31 "I Once Was Blind, Now I See"

1:07They use lasers to reshape your eyes so that you have better than 20-20 vision. We refer to them in my household as my laser eyes. But I will tell you, the process of LASIK surgery is a bit nerve-wracking. And one of the things that makes it nerve-wracking is that after you have the surgery, you have to keep your eyes closed. And covered for 24 hours straight. And you can't help but thinking, what if something went wrong?

1:40What if I'm blind now? Blindness is a scary proposition. And perhaps the only thing worse than being blind is being blind and not knowing it. Thinking that you can see, but you can't. Last week we were introduced to Samson, the 12th and final judge of Israel through his origin story. We learned that Samson was supposed to be set apart from the people of Israel, but he ended up being just like them. And because he was just like them, he was unable to save the people of Israel. But we saw that in Jesus, God raised up the perfect Savior for us.

2:28Well, this morning we're going to finish Samson's story, and we're going to see that Samson, just like the people of Israel and just like every one of us, was blinded by his sin. He needed to have his eyes opened to the truth, just like you and me. And so this morning we're going to learn this. Sin blinds us to spiritual truth, but God gives us eyes to see. Sin blinds us to spiritual truth, but God gives us eyes to see. And we're going to begin by considering some specific sins of Samson and how they blinded him and how those same sins blind us. Revenge and pride and lust, how they blind us to spiritual truth, but how God gives us eyes to see. So let's take a look here at the beginning of chapter 15, starting in verse 1, where we'll see that revenge blinds us to spiritual truth.

3:36The outset of this chapter, you notice that Samson seems to remember that, at least in theory, he's married, and he decides that he's got the urge to go visit his wife. Well, you may remember that back in chapter 14, he married a Philistine woman, but she told her people the answer to his riddle. So after referring to her as a heifer and then paying off his gambling debt, Samson stomped back to his parents' house without ever consummating his marriage.

4:07So his father-in-law gives his daughter, Samson's wife, to Samson's best man. After all this time, Samson decides that he wants his conjugal rights, and he brings a young goat to maybe persuade her of this. We talked about transactional relationships a few weeks ago. But his father-in-law explains. That he already gave his daughter to somebody else, and so he offers his younger daughter to Samson, saying, Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead. This all seems very healthy.

4:44His father-in-law seems to know that Samson is a man driven by lust. Now, at this point, Samson could have stopped to think, you know, this is actually a small mercy. I shouldn't have married a Philistine woman to begin with. And so maybe this is God telling me, I need to get out of here. I need to go fulfill my calling. But he doesn't respond like that. He sets his mind on revenge. Look at verse 3. He says to himself, this time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.

5:21This time? Why does Samson say this time? Well, because if you remember, last time, he murdered 30 men in cold blood to pay off his gambling debt. He didn't kill them justly on a battlefield. He killed them for their clothes. He murdered them. He wasn't innocent. But now he believes that he is justified in seeking revenge for what his father-in-law did to him. So, like the riddle-telling practical joker he is, he gathers up 300 foxes. I don't even know how one would begin to attempt such. A thing. He ties them together like a Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon and ties torches between their tails, and he sets them free among the crops. All of the standing grain, all of the stacked grain is burned. The olive orchards are burned. This is a regional, if not national, catastrophe for the Philistines. And now they want revenge. So in verse 6, they come and burn her, Samson's wife, and his father-in-law with fire. Ironically, the same thing that she was trying to avoid back in chapter 14 by telling the riddle to her people. And so Samson cannot let that pass. He's got to have revenge. So he tells them in verse 7, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that, I will quit.

6:52Well, Samson does not seem to understand that's not how revenge works. You can stop the cycle of revenge anytime you want to by not taking it. But you don't get to tell the other people when they stop. So he attacks them, he strikes them with a great blow, and in verse 10, the Philistines get their own revenge. They make a raid on Lehi. And when they explain why they're trying to get Samson, the men of Judah come to Samson and they say, What have you done?

7:24Look at verse 11. This is so outrageous. As they did to me, so have I done to you. To them, he sounds like a five-year-old. They started it. And here's what's crazy: the people tell Samson they're going to bind him and hand him over to the Philistines, to their enemies. They are going to extradite one of their own people to one of their greatest enemies just to keep the peace. So, let's pause here and notice what has happened. Both Samson and the Philistines are blinded by their desire for revenge.

7:58And we can all relate to that, can't we? Whether it was on the playground as children or the athletic field or a relationship or at the office, we have all felt the desire before to take revenge on someone who has wronged us. And why do we want revenge? We want revenge because we are wired for justice. We've all been created in God's image and likeness, and God is a God of justice. He is a just God. So, when things are not right, when they are not just, something inside of us says, This is wrong. It should not be this way.

8:50And you know what? That's exactly right. There should not be injustice in this world. The problem. Is that there is no such thing as perfect justice. And one of the main reasons that there's not perfect justice in this world is that sinful people cannot administer justice perfectly. We can't do it. I love the movie True Grit. It's a story of this girl named Maddie whose dad is murdered by an outlaw named Tom Cheney. And Maddie decides that she has to have revenge on her father's killer.

9:33And eventually she gets that. She shoots Tom Cheney with a rifle. But the recoil from the blast knocks her backwards into a pit where she's bitten by a rattlesnake and eventually loses her arm. The point of that movie is that revenge seems good. It seems like it will be sweet. But in the end, it poisons you. It takes so much more than it can ever give. God is the only one who can administer perfect justice in the end. Look on the screen at Romans 12. Paul says, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will reward. Repay, says the Lord.

10:33You see, Samson was blinded by revenge, and it blinds us just the same. Maybe you'd say that you've been in a place or you're in a place now where you are blinded by your desire for revenge. And like Samson and like Maddie from True Grit, you are tempted to take revenge into your own hands because you have been hurt, because you think, I've got to make this situation right, because you think I cannot let this stand.

11:04And all of that is understandable because human justice is often slow, it is always imperfect, and there are cases where you will get no justice in this life. But if we take justice into our own hands, we are being blinded by revenge, blinded to the reality, the spiritual truth, that God alone can administer perfect justice, and we must leave it to him. Samson was blinded by revenge. And Samson was also blinded by pride. Let's pick up in verse 14, chapter 15.

11:52When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms. Became as flax that has caught fire. And his bonds melted off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey and put out his hand and took it. And with it he struck 1,000 men. And Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with a jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men. As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramoth Lehi, that is, jawbone hill, which is sick.

12:46So you have here the Philistines ready to take their revenge. But the Spirit of God rushes upon Samson and the ropes melt away from his hands. He needs a weapon, but there's not much around. They're in the middle of nowhere, other than a dead donkey. I would not think to make a weapon out of that. But he sees this carcass. It's obviously a carcass and not a skeleton because the jawbone is fresh. It was a skeleton. It's dry and brittle. Probably going to break easily.

13:20You know what did break? Samson's vow. Yet again. As a Nazarite, he's not supposed to touch. Anything dead, but for the second time he touches a dead carcass. And he takes that fresh jawbone of that donkey and he kills 1,000 men. Now, perhaps you've heard about the important, edifying debate. Can 100 men defeat a silverback guerrilla? I don't know. Maybe? But how about this? Can one man with a jawbone slay 1,000 men? Definitely not. This is not debatable. That's not possible. The Philistines didn't walk over here with their hands in their pockets. They just made a raid. They are all armed. And yet God empowered Samson to defeat 1,000 men with a bone.

14:32And yet, look at verse 16. Samson takes all the credit. He says, I struck down a thousand men. He is blinded by his pride. Look at verse 18. And he was very thirsty. And he called upon the Lord and said, You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant. And shall I now die of thirst and Fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore, the name of it was called En Hakor. It is at Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines 20 years.

15:26Well, killing a thousand people with a bone has got to be tiring. He is really thirsty, and he has nothing to drink, so Samson cries out to God. You notice that he seems to give God some credit. You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant. But then look at how he talks to God in this verse. He's basically like, what, God? You're just going to let me die out here? How prideful. Think about this. Before now, have we ever heard Samson pray to God?

16:03Have we ever heard him give thanks to God for anything? Have we ever even heard him allude to God in any way? No, but now Samson needs something from God. And so he comes before God saying, I'm dying of thirst here. How are you going to let this happen to me? Friends, haven't we all done the same thing before? Every person has. Done this at some point. Many people in this world live as though God does not even exist.

16:37As Romans 1 talks about, they don't honor him as God or give thanks to him. They act like he's not even there. But then something bad happens to them, or they need something from God, and then they're like, Where are you, God? How could you let this happen to me? But I think even Christians can get to the place where we believe that God owes us something. We act like God, I go to church every weekend, or most weekends, anyway. I try to read my Bible and pray. I serve you. I try to honor you.

17:20Where are you at? We start to act like God owes us something for the way that we are trying to live our lives. That is what pride does. It blinds us into thinking that God owes us something. We stop viewing everything we have, including our lives, as gracious gifts from a good heavenly Father. We begin to act like God owes us. This is what Samson does. He takes all of the credit for the victory, and then when he runs into something, That he can't fix, he cries out to God, you just gonna let me die out here, and we do the same thing. Walking through our academic career, walking through our work life, our family life, not honoring the Lord, not giving thanks to Him every moment of the day. And then when something happens to us, we're like, God, where are you?

18:29Why are you letting this happen to me? Implicitly, we've started to believe that God owes us something simply because we are giving Him the worship and service and reverence that He is due. That is pride. And yet, God is merciful and gracious, He is abounding in steadfast love for prideful people who act like God owes them something. Even when we are blinded by pride, God provides for us. And He does for Samson here, doesn't He? God hears Samson's cry for help. He splits open a rock, water comes out, and He drinks from it. He calls the place spring of Him who called.

19:19Reminds us of Romans 10:13. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Samson called out to God. And God saved him by providing this water. Friends, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord for salvation will be heard and will be answered. Jesus will not turn away anyone who comes to him in repentant faith. So we see that Samson is blinded by revenge. He's blinded by pride. And now we'll see his biggest vice is a man who is blinded by lust.

20:05Let's get into chapter 16. Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went into her. The Gazites were told, Samson has come here. And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, Let us wait till the light of the morning, then we will kill him. But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.

20:47Yet again, Samson goes to a Philistine city not to fight, but to satisfy his lust. Nearly cost him his life, and he's not only Able to escape, but he pulls up the giant gates of the city. The gates, the posts, the bar. I don't know if you've ever replaced a fence post before. It will kill you. These things are two stories tall, and Samson goes and he rips them out of the ground, and he carries them 37 miles to Hebron.

21:31Unbelievable. No doubt, this experience only intensifies Samson's pride. He satisfies his lust over and over. He gets himself into bad situations, but every time he's able to escape or to fight his way out, you would think that he would learn from these experiences. But friends, he's blinded by revenge. He's blinded by pride, and he's blinded by lust. And lust is never, ever satisfied. That is something that this generation is learning the hard way. Lust is never satisfied.

22:14Let's pick up in verse 4. After this, he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what Means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1100 pieces of silver. A weird number. So Delilah said to Samson, please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.

22:48Now we're all thinking the same thing. Even if you've never read this story before, you're thinking, surely Samson is not so foolish as to stay with a woman who is asking him the secret of his great strength. You would think he would say to her, Listen, I have been betrayed by a woman from your country before, and I don't think it's best for me to reveal that secret to you. So please don't ask me that again.

23:20But he doesn't because he's blinded by pride and lust. Look at verse 7. Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man. Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber. And she said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. But he snapped the bowstrings as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

23:59Now here Here's your sign. If you tell a woman, if you bind me in this exact way, and then she does that to you, and there are dudes in the next room waiting to kill you, this is not a healthy relationship. But it's like a game to Samson. He can satisfy both his pride and his lust. So he does it again. Verse 10. Then Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you might be bound. And he said to her, No way, not again.

24:46And he said to her, If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man. So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread. Same deal. Samson's just having a great time with this. He is feeling invincible, like nothing could stop him. Verse 13.

25:18Then Delilah said to Samson, Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound. And he said to her, Fool me twice. No. He said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man. So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. How hard do you have to sleep for that to happen?

25:50And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web. Now we are really playing with fire, because you can see with each successive time, he's getting closer and closer to the true source of his strength. Now he's alluding to his hair. It's going to be the end of him. Look at verse 15. And she said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies. And when she pressed him hard with her words, day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death.

26:44And he told her all his heart, and said to her, A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazarete to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man. When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up again, for he has told me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. And she said, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. And he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times and shake myself free. But he did not know that the Lord had left him. And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison. But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

27:58Samson called himself a Nazarite to God from his mother's womb. But the truth is, Samson was a Nazarite in name only. He had broken every one of his vows by this point. Multiple times he touched dead animals. Multiple times he drank alcohol at feasts. And now his hair has been shaved off. His spiritual blindness is most evident in verse 20, where he declares, I will go out as at other times and shake myself free. But he doesn't know that God has left him.

28:48You see, friends, Samson has been walking away from God his whole life. There was a time when he was ashamed to tell his parents that he had scraped honey out of the inside of a lion's carcass. But now he is so blind by revenge and pride and lust that he gets to this place where he is openly living with foreign women who do not worship his God that he's not even married to. And so, in a physical representation of his spiritual reality, the Philistines seize him and they gouge out his eyes.

29:34His outsides now match his insides. He's been spiritually blind. Now he's physically blind as well. The Philistines take him down to Gaza, the place where he so often acted out his revenge and his pride and his lust. The place where he ripped the city gates out of the ground. And carried them away. And now he's a blind prisoner, a slave grinding at the mill. Friends, this is our spiritual state before God opens our eyes. We are all blind prisoners, enslaved to revenge and pride and lust and a host of other sins.

30:33Jesus said that anybody who sins is a slave to sin, because you are a slave to anybody that you obey. From birth, we have all obeyed our sinful desires. We are enslaved to them. I want you to see how Jeremiah describes the people of Israel hundreds of years later. He says, Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but see not, who have ears but hear not. Do you not fear me, declares the Lord? Do you not tremble before me? I place the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass. Though the waves toss, they cannot prevail. Though they roar, they cannot pass over it. But this people has to be able to be able to be able to A stubborn and rebellious heart, they have turned aside and gone away.

31:40You may not realize it, but you were born spiritually blind. You have eyes, but you cannot see spiritual truth. You have ears, but you cannot hear spiritual truth. From birth, we do not fear God or tremble before him. We have stubborn and rebellious hearts. Oh, but thanks be to God. He is gracious and merciful, and he opens the eyes of the blind to see spiritual truth. This is what God does for Samson at the end of his life. Look at verse 23.

32:21Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their God, and to rejoice. And they said, Our God has given Samson our enemy into our hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their God. For they said, Our God has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us. And when their hearts were merry, they said, Call Samson, that he may entertain us. So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. And Samson said to the young man who held him. By the hand, let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them. Now, the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women who looked on while Samson entertained.

33:21The Philistines pack thousands of people into Dagon's temple to rejoice and praise that false God, believing that he is superior to the God of Israel. Now, you remember, Samson's hair has been growing back. And if I'm the Philistines, that's the last thing I'm going to let happen. I'm going to be in there every morning with a razor. Shaving that thing is smooth as a baby's bottom. But we see here that the same pride that destroyed Samson is going to destroy the Philistines too. They think that their God is superior. They think Samson is blind and in chains. What could he do to us now?

34:14But they don't realize that Samson is not their problem. Samson's God is their problem. And they're about to find that out. Look at verse 28. Then Samson called. To the Lord and said, O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes. Samson prays to God for just as far as we know, the second time in his life. Yes, he's in trouble again.

35:03Yes, he's still somewhat motivated by pride and revenge. But look at how he talks to God this time. O Lord God, please, please, O God. Samson may be physically blind at this point, but it seems that finally God has given him eyes to see spiritual truth. It may be dim, it may be just a glimmer, but Samson seems to finally be realizing that he is not the hero of this story. He wasn't the hero, and he's not the hero now. God is the hero of the story, and Samson finally seems to get that.

36:00Because you see, if Samson's strength came from his hair, and Samson actually believed that, there is no reason whatsoever to pray to God. He can just say, These foolish Philistines, they let my hair grow out. And just as I killed a thousand people with the jawbone of a donkey, I will use my great strength and I will bring this place down on their heads. But he doesn't do that. And I think he doesn't do that because he recognizes where his strength actually comes from.

36:47And so he prays, O Lord God, please, please, O God, just this once. And God answers his imperfect, humble prayer. Look at verse 29. And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the Lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed in his life. Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel 20 years.

37:53Friends, we are born spiritually blind. We're blinded by our sin, by revenge and pride and lust and so many others. And apart from God's intervention, we will be spiritually blind until the day we die. But thankfully, we serve a God who loves to open the eyes of the blind. And if you read the gospel accounts, you see that Jesus opened the eyes of the blind almost more than he performed any other miracle, almost as if he was trying to teach us a spiritual lesson every single time he did it.

38:39Look on the screen at Luke 18. As Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. On me. And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, What do you want me to do for you? He said, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, Recover your sight. Your faith has made you well.

39:27And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. See, friends, the man in this encounter knew that he was blind. And he knew that was a problem that he could not fix on his own. So he cried out to Jesus, and Jesus came over to him and he asked him, What do you want me to do for you? And the man wasn't like, you know, I haven't thought about that.

40:03Let me get back to you. Do I get one wish or three? No, he says, Lord, let me recover my sight. I want to see. And Jesus opens his eyes. He says, Recover your sight. Your faith has made you well. Friends, for the first time, some of you see. Sitting here today, we are realizing that you have been spiritually blind. You've not been able to see spiritual truth. You've gone through your life blinded by your sins. Maybe revenge, maybe pride, maybe lust, maybe other kinds of sin, but it has blinded you to the fact that God created you in His image and likeness to worship and serve Him, to live your life for Him and for His glory. You've been blinded to that reality. You've thought that if you needed salvation at all, you could save yourself. You would do it through trying hard and being a religious person and trying to do more good things than bad things and everything else. You thought, I can do this. But something is different today.

41:21And that is because God is opening your eyes to see the truth that you have never been able to see before: that you are spiritually blind, and you must have God open your eyes today. He is doing that for some of you this morning. Some of you are seeing for the first time, I cannot save myself. I need to be saved. I need a perfect Savior. And Jesus of Nazareth is him. You see, he did not just come to teach us and to heal people.

41:57Everything he taught, everything he did. was to point to the reality that he is the only begotten Son of God. And that is seen most clearly in his sinless life, in him going to the cross and dying in your place and for your sins, in being buried and being risen again from the dead, defeating sin and death for you. Oh, friends, let today be the day. If God is opening your eyes to see spiritual truth, look to Jesus and look only to Jesus. He is the one who can and will save you from your sins, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

42:43So look to him. And if you are already following Jesus Christ this morning, friends, this passage provides us the opportunity for us to look afresh upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God to intercede for you every day of your life and every day for eternity. Every time you give in to revenge or pride or lust or any other sin, you have a perfect Savior seated at the right hand of God, interceding for you. And saying to the Father, look to me instead.

43:38Count my sinless life to their credit. They trust in me. Look to me and not them. Jesus is your mediator. Jesus is your Savior. And so, Christians, let's rejoice in God and His grace. Sin has blinded us to spiritual truth, but God has given us eyes to see. Let's pray. O Lord God, please, please, O God, hear our prayers for the men and women and children in this room today and in other churches in our community and across the world who have been blinded by their sin.

44:56Would you open their eyes this morning to see for the first time? That you are the Savior that they need. We pray that there would be many professions of faith this morning in this room and across our city, such that at the start of this new school year, we would see so many baptisms, it would be unlike anything we've seen historically in this town. We pray that many would have their eyes open this morning because you are gracious and merciful, and you love to open the eyes of the blind.

45:37God, for every Christian here today, we pray that we would honor you and give thanks to you and fix our eyes on you every day, the author and perfecter of our faith. Oh, God, help us. Help us to not live as though you are not there. Help us to live our lives in light of the gospel. Help us to live our lives for you. May we learn from Samson. May we be people who don't just give you the last few minutes of our life, but people who give you every minute of every day.

46:26God, we thank you that Samson is in the hall. Of faith hard to understand, but I think that's because I and maybe we think about people being in the hall of faith who deserve it, who have earned your favor. But there's not anybody who would be in the hall of faith then. Samson's faith may have been imperfect, it may have been short, but it was there. I pray that it encourages every person in this room today.

47:09It's not the size of our faith, it's the object. And so, Jesus, we look to you, the object of our faith. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.