<TITLE>03. Par 22-30</TITLE>L-22   What a symbol that is of the church of this day! What a symbol it is of a fallen race of people, that has sold out to the world and the very thing that we're here to conquer. The church that has sold its--its morals, that sold the Bible, sold it's strength, so surrendered its sword, and standing humiliated in the hour when the approaching signs of the Coming of Jesus Christ is at hand; when she ought to be washed, not a spot or a wrinkle, standing to receive her Bridegroom.

L-23   What a picture we see here, a symbol of moral decay that rests upon the nation, this nation. And I'm not going to try to stay with my Scriptures too long, so I can get through quick. But I could symbolize that with the church, with the nation, with politics, and with everything you can put your hands on today, besides God's Bible. Morally decayed, the human race itself, just in a terrible condition!

L-24 And there under atheists and unbelievers that can point their finger into the face of the church, who should have the Message for today, and asking them, "What does all this mean?" And they don't have the answer. They don't have the answer. Why? They did like Samson did. They've surrendered.

L-25   So see him standing there, and we would say, "So this is Samson?" Let's catch a picture of it, this great, mighty warrior. Let's picture him, this afternoon, that he had wide shoulders, great framework. And here this big bulk of a man stands there, blinded, tied with little strings, and led to the middle of the floor, humiliated, broken, defeated, with the great God of Heaven looking down upon it. Down here, his critics, drunken soldiers looking down.

L-26 I'd imagine, as they stood there, many Philistines had even shook in their shoes, to hear his name. Samson was a mighty name, one time; so was Christianity, the church was. And I'm going to parallel it with the church, this scene. Samson name, people just fainted, for he was some sort of a man that they had never seen a man like him. His strength was beyond anything that the world had ever had. There's nothing they had could match it. Many remembered him as they looked on him standing there in that condition.

L-27   Many looked upon him from the galleries and remember see him standing in another position. One day, standing with a jaw bone of a mule, in his hand, with a thousand Philistines laying around him, when they had fled to the rocks for safety; standing, motion his fingers, "Come on, if you want some of it!" But now look at him.

L-28 Many of the Philistines, that one night he was persuaded in by a harlot and in the--the city of Gaza, they took the great big gates that would have weighed tons, and fenced him in and caught him, and sent out to the soldiers and said, "Now we've caught him. We've hemmed him in." Like the devil is always trying to do, hem you in on something.

L-29   But remember when Samson awoke the next morning, or that night, rather, seeing he was hemmed in. He could feel back on the back of his head and still know he was a covenant son of God, and there was nothing could hem him in. The church once stood like that, too. What did he do? He rose up, walked down the street, pulled the gates out of its sockets, and put it upon his shoulders and walked up the top the hill and set down.

L-30 Many standing there that afternoon remembered that event. But look at him now, blinded, mocked, just a sport for the enemy. All of his powers that he once had for his protection, for God's achievement that he had been born in the world to do, had been stripped from him by a woman.


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