I'm back to Judges 13. I titled this message, If the Lord Intended to Kill Us. I started out on a different path when I was looking at this, looking at Samson, a man of faith, an example of faith. His barrack last week was an example of faith. But Samson here, we have so much more information. He is a picture of Christ. He is a picture of a believer. When you read his life, you think, he's really included in the Hall of Fame of Faith? And I think I'm going to look at this, if the Lord gives me any liberty in the study. I wanted to look at this tonight, if the Lord intended to kill us. And maybe, Lord willing, I'll come back and we'll look at Samson as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and we'll just look at Samson as the man, a man who believed God, a man of like passion just like you and I.

But here in Judges 13 we are given the birth announcement of Samson. He's one of the most unusual figures in the Old Testament. HE'S A PICTURE OF CHRIST AND HE'S A PICTURE OF A SINNER SAVED BY GRACE AND CHOOSED OF GOD. WE SEE IN HIS LIFE A REVELATION OF GRACE. WE SEE A REVELATION OF GRACE TO ISRAEL IN THE MIDST OF THEIR SINS. THE LORD VISITS THEM. THE LORD HAS MERCY UPON THEM.

This is one time in reading this that I noticed Israel did not cry unto the Lord for deliverance. The Lord in mercy just delivered them. He just delivered them. They didn't ask for it, but He remembered His people, He remembered His covenant, and He delivers them. This is what we have here, it's a revelation of Israel's sin and a reminder of also that God brings LIFE and DELIVERANCE where there is nothing but FAILURE and BARRENNESS. Only God can bring LIFE and DELIVERANCE from such a barren place. Only God can make a barren ground fertile. Only God can take a woman who was barren and could not bear. and make her have a son, enable her to conceive and have a son. Only God can do that. You know, life is of God. Women don't just get pregnant. Life is of God. No one comes into this world by accident. I know of a couple who said that they had their last child was an accident. No, it wasn't. It was to them, but not to God. Life is precious to God, precious.

Now, we have in this chapter a miserable people because of their sins. We have a miraculous promise of a special son. We have a threefold message of encouragement and I want to touch upon these as I go along tonight. In verse 1, we have Israel's condition The children of Israel did evil AGAIN! Didn't we read that last week? Didn't we read that? They did evil AGAIN! And I said last week, AGAIN, and AGAIN, and AGAIN, that can be written. They did evil again in the sight of the Lord. What a pattern in the life of God's people! What's it say about God's people? They're sinners. We are sinners from the time God, we were sinners from birth and we're sinners after the Lord saves us and we're sinners all the way home, all the way home. You know, any sin is an evil to God, is evil in the sight of God, any sin. David said, in thy sight, I've done this evil in Psalm 51. I've done this evil in thy sight. Every sin to God is evil. There is no little sin, bigger sin, it all comes from the same root, unbelief. It all comes from the same root. This is a pattern, we see it all through the Old Testament. And as I was reading this, I thought, this makes the throne of grace so precious to God's people. Aren't you glad we have a throne to go to, a throne of grace where we can seek and find mercy to help in time of need? Oh, I'm so glad God provided the throne of grace where sinful, wretched men and women like you and me can go there.

What was their evil? It was idolatry. Samuel dealt with this. It was idolatry. When Samuel dealt with it, they were worshiping the God of Ashtoreth and Balaam. It's idolatry. We are so prone to this by nature, we want to worship what we can see. We want to worship what we can see instead of worshiping the unseen God. God is SPIRIT. That's why He said, Don't make any graven image or likeness to Me. There's nothing you can carve out that is My likeness that can be compared to Me. There's nothing. Oh, we're so prone to this.

But because of this, idolatry, this evil that they did in the sight of the Lord. God chastened them sorely. God delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. That's a long time, for 40 years. You know, some chastening lasts a long time depending on the severity of the offense, but sometimes it can last a good while. You know the Word of God says where sin abounds, grace does much more abound, that's so. The very fact that God is delivering them again, and this time without them even asking.

But let me tell you this, where sin abounds, consequences abound also. There's a consequence to every choice we make. I was told, I think it was my granddaughter this not long ago, So there is a consequence to every choice we make. And where idolatry exists, bondage is sure to follow. You can just mark it down. Bondage is sure to follow.

But even when Israel is faithless, even when Israel does evil in the sight of the Lord, God remains faithful and true to His covenant. GOD NEVER BREAKS HIS COVENANT. WE SIN, BUT GOD DOES NOT SIN. HE NEVER SINS. AND HE NEVER BREAKS HIS COVENANT. AND BECAUSE GOD IS WHO HE IS, HE COMES TO THEIR DELIVERANCE. HE COMES TO THEIR DELIVERANCE. AND THEIR MISERY BECOMES THE BACKDROP FOR GOD'S MERCY.

Doesn't that fit us? Our misery, our sin is a backdrop for the grace and mercy of God. You know this, you know this if you go to a jewelry store and you're gonna look at a diamond. What do they lay that diamond against? They usually lay out a black, a pure black cloth and they put that diamond on there and it'll shine. I tell you that diamond will sparkle against that black backdrop. The grace of God, the mercy of God shines so bright against our blackness and sinfulness. Oh, it just magnifies the grace of God. It magnifies it. The darker the night, the brighter his deliverance shines.

TO WHOM MUCH IS FORGIVEN. HE LOVES MUCH. HAS GOD FORGIVEN YOU MUCH? DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT GOD HAS FORGIVEN YOU MUCH? YOU WILL LOVE MUCH IF YOU BELIEVE THAT, IF YOU'VE EXPERIENCED THAT. YOU'LL LOVE MUCH.

Now verse 2 through 5 we have the promise of a SPECIAL SON to a barren woman. A woman who was barren, she couldn't bear, she couldn't bear. Into this national darkness that was going on in Israel, God speaks, makes Himself known to a barren woman. The wife of Manoah I thought of the Scripture, God chooses the weak things of this world to confound the mighty, to bring them down. God chooses the weak thing to accomplish HIS PURPOSE. A barren woman, He comes to a barren woman, and the angel of the Lord comes to her, and this is Christ, a pre-incarnation of Christ. And we'll see this in a minute, the way He goes up in the Flame of the Sacrifice. Manoah's wife was barren and barren not. She could not bear. This was a real affliction to women in that day because they wanted to have that man-child, that Messiah that was promised back in the Garden of Eden. And they wanted to bear a man-child. Rejoice, a man-child is born, they would say.

But this is a good picture of us. We are absolutely barren and bare not. We cannot bear any good fruit. We cannot bear any good works. We cannot bear any spiritual life. We cannot produce life. We can't do it. That's us. And God does His greatest work where human ability comes to an end. When we throw our hands up and we say, Lord, if you don't save me, I'm not going to be saved. I'm barren, I'm void of everything, poor in spirit, bankrupt. I have nothing to give, nothing to offer. NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

And here a barren woman becomes the instrument of God's divine purpose and intervention. I thought of the scripture with God, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. You know, if God saved me, He can save anybody. If God saved you, He can save anybody. With God all things are possible.

Here the angel announced to Manoah's wife that she would bear his son and he would be a special son from the womb. A child set apart as a Nazarite from the womb, one who belongs to God, one who is dedicated to God. God said, He's mine. You know, every child of God is a Nazirite.

Now, I've read a lot about a Nazirite, the Nazirite vow, but I'm not going to go into all that. But a Nazirite was dedicated to the Lord, committed to Him. He's mine. He's mine. He's not going to eat of the fruit of the vine. He's not to drink wine. He's not going to be given to the pleasures of this world. His hair is going to grow long, it's not going to be cut. That's an outward symbol of his dedication to God. He can't even touch a dead body. Even if a family member died, he couldn't go to the funeral. He couldn't be around it. What did that man say? Let me go bury my father. What did the Lord say? Let the dead bury the dead. You come follow me. Isn't that right?

Every child of God is a Nazarite, we are dedicated to Him. Now there were some of those vows that were just for a period of time and some of them were for a lifetime. Samson was for a lifetime, ours is for eternity. Our dedication to God is for eternity. I am His, you are His, lock, stock, and barrel.

That keeps a lot of people from coming to Christ because it is like, I don't want that. Christ is our life, isn't He? He's my life. People have trouble with this, that Christ being their life. You know, some of them, their job is their life, or their family is their life. No, Christ is our life. Everybody else get in line. Everybody else get in line. If it's not that way, we got a problem. There's a serious problem if it's not that way.

and here she's given this promise of a special son this child set apart and he's going to begin he says here the child in verse 5 is going to begin to deliver israel from the philistines he's going to begin to he's not going to finish it we know the story samuel if you're reading samuel he pretty much does he pretty much finishes it but not but not he's going to begin it Christ finished it.

I'm trying to not get too much onto the other message I want to preach. I like to lay groundwork and then come back and build on it and build on it. And I'm struggling here trying not to reach over into it because our Lord finished it. He said it's finished. It's finished. It's like these types and pictures began but our Lord is the real and He said it's finished. But I'm getting over into another message.

Hear Manoah in verse 6 and 8, Manoah, he requests, he prays for instruction. You know what this shows? FAITH. They believe what the angel said. She's barren, she can't bear, she's bare not, she cannot bear a child for whatever reason, but he and she BOTH believe what the angel says. And he says, I want to know how are we going to handle this child? And what are we going to do when this child comes? It's not like Sarah who got behind the tent door and laughed. They're not laughing. They're saying, tell us what to do. That's faith. Oh, faith is believing God against all odds. Faith is believing God against everything. That's what faith is.

The woman told her husband what the angel had declared. Manoah then prayed for the Lord to send a messenger again to have further instructions about this child. Then in verses 9-14 the angel is revealed. He reveals something here, he reveals who he is. But here God answered Manoah's prayer. I wish we really did believe that God answers prayer. The fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. I wish I would pray more than I complain. How much complaining do we do about the political landscape? How much praying do we do about it? I'm guessing that it's a whole lot less than the complaining is. And I've learned this, the more I pray about something, the less I complain about it. That's true. The more you pray about it, the less you'll complain about it.

But Manoah here, he seeks the Lord. You know, I thought that scripture, Seek the Lord where he may be found, call upon him while he's near. Boy, when the Lord makes Himself known in the message, CALL UPON HIM! Seek Him! When Christ is made known in the message. MY SOUL, SEEK THE LORD, SEEK THE LORD, THAT'S THE TIME TO SEEK THE LORD, IT'S WHEN HE HAS MADE HIMSELF KNOWN.

There's no doubt this angel is the Lord Jesus Christ, appearing in pre-incarnate form as he did to Abraham. There was about Lot in that situation and other times. But verses 18 and 22 confirm the identity of this angel. He wants to know, he said, What's your name? You remember the woman said, I didn't ask him his name. She was so taken back and I had no doubt, joy, that she's going to have a child. And his appearance, his appearance undoubtedly just took her back. She said he was marvelous. You know, his appearance was something to behold.

But Manoah says, What's your name? And he said, My name's secret. Wonderful. Isn't that what Jacob asked the angel that he wrestled with? What's your name? What's your name? Aren't you glad you know his name? What's your name? Wonderful, Counselor of the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's standing there talking to them. The Word of God. God has never, ever, ever spoken to anyone apart from His Son. He's the Word. You hear from God, you're hearing Christ speak. And it's Christ speaking throughout the whole Old Testament. It's Him speaking. His name is wonderful. You know, all other angels, if you read in the scriptures over Luke 1, 19, Daniel 10, 13, they identified themselves. They identified themselves. This one says, it's wonderful. My name is secret. It's wonderful.

And then we come to the offering. Manoah asked the visitor to remain while he's going to prepare a young goat for them to eat. And he says, I'm not going to eat your food. Christ doesn't feed on the things of this world. He's the bread and He's the wine. He is. He said, I'm not going to eat, but here's what you do. You prepare that goat, that kid, and you offer it up as a burnt offering to the Lord.

Why did He tell this to Manoah? Because here's the, I believe this, I'm thinking about this. Because at that time, Manoah thought he was just a man sent of God. He thought he was a man sent of God. You remember that young man that came and said, good master? And the Lord stopped him and said, why do you call me good? There is none good but God. If I'm good, I'm God. And he's telling Manoah here, you offer a burnt offering to the Lord because the Lord is going to go up in the flame of that sacrifice. And then they're going to realize this is no ordinary man. This is the Lord.

We've seen God. You see the sacrifice. You see, you can't know God or see who God is until you see Christ crucified. You can't do it, and it's not until the sacrifice is offered and the fire is lit that He goes up in the flame. He goes up in it. God's got to reveal Himself, He's got to make Himself known to us in the face of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

So when the angel went up in the flame, Manoah out there in verse 20, Manoah and his wife, what did they do? They fell on their faces. They fell on their faces. Boy, there's a difference when somebody's in the presence of God and somebody's just in a religious service and getting the flesh excited and everybody's all tore up and said, Well, the Holy Spirit was there. No, He wasn't. The Holy Spirit's there if Christ is preached. That's how you know the Holy Spirit is here. Who's getting the glory? Who's getting the glory?

And they fell on their faces recognizing, he said, we have sure, we're gonna die because we've seen God. Knowing that scripture in Exodus 33, no man shall see my face and live. And he says, honey, I'll call her honey. I don't want her name, she'll be honey right now. We're gonna die, we're gonna die, we've seen God.

How different it is when a sinner, now listen, this is important, because this is one of the things that's troubling me today in the church, and a lot of preaching that goes on, it bothers me, is how different it is when a sinner really meets God. Do you know what one of the first things that happens when a sinner meets God? For the first time, they're afraid to die. We're going to die. Have you ever been afraid to die? If you've ever really met God, one of the first responses is the fear of dying and meeting God. We could die right now and nobody's guaranteed us one second past what we got right now and we can meet God.

This happened to me several years ago. I was in my 40s. The Lord just let me have this experience because it really jolted me. I woke up at 2 or 3 o'clock in the night. My chest felt like it was splitting. I'm sure it was my esophagus. I've had trouble with that. It felt like it was splitting, and for the first time. The first time I was afraid to die was when I heard the gospel. I was scared to death of dying. And then I realized that time how quickly it's over. For the first time I realized how quickly life is over. I thought, I'm going to die right here. And it's over. I'm going to meet God. Those are two times in my life that it's just the first time is when I heard the gospel and it scared me to death. I was going to die. I was going to die. I got up and checked the doors to make sure they were locked. I was afraid somebody was going to break in and kill me. I was scared to death of dying. And when I thought I was having a heart attack in my 40s, and it just hit me like, I'm going to meet God right now.

He said, we're going to die. We've seen God, we're going to die. Because he said, no man has seen my face and lives. His face staggered in the presence of such majesty and glory. What was it reading there where John fell down? He fell down like he was dead and the Lord had to lift him up and give him strength. You read these Old Testament and New Testament people, when they met God, you go over in Revelation, they fell down as dead men. They didn't have the strength to even stand up. The Lord had to put strength in them. He had to do it!

You can tell when someone has met God, you can, they're broken, they're humbled, they really are, they're humbled. You can't meet God and be the same. And then a word of faith, a word of faith comes from this wise wife that God had given him. You know, men don't have a lock on wisdom, that's for sure. God used a lot of women throughout the Bible. To say wise things. We looked at Deborah last week. She was a prophetess. Anna, I went over and read Anna and Luke. She told everyone about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior coming. She was called a prophetess. Anytime you ladies, you witness the gospel, you're a prophetess. That's what you are.

She said, listen here. She's going to tell him that it's all right. He's falling apart and she's saying it's all right. It's all right. Here's a good word that we're going to look at this, but this is a good word for doubting believers. God's acceptance of the sacrifice. God has accepted Christ as our sacrifice. God's revelation of Himself in Christ. and God's promises all testify of His saving purpose in the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to save sinners. Are you a sinner? He came to save sinners.

And here's her response. Manoah's wife responded. She responded with FAITH and she offered a three-fold encouragement to her husband and to us, to us tonight. Here's the first one. If the Lord intended to kill us, He would not have received our offering. If He intended to kill us, He wouldn't receive this offering that we offered up, no. They obeyed the Lord in offering the burnt offering, and they offered the right offering, they offered a blood sacrifice. And the Lord showed His acceptance by ascending up in the flame. And she said, He wouldn't have done that if He was gonna kill us.

HE WOULDN'T HAVE ACCEPTED THE SACRIFICE IF HE WAS GOING TO KILL US! CHRIST, GOD'S LAMB, HAS BEEN SACRIFICED FOR US! AND HE HAS MADE US ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED, IT SAYS IN EPHESIANS 1. IF GOD WAS GOING TO KILL US, HE WOULDN'T ACCEPT CHRIST IN OUR PLACE, WOULD HE? THAT KILLS! THAT KILLS CHRIST DYING FOR EVERY SON OF ADAM! IF CHRIST DIED FOR YOU, I CAN SURE YOU ONE THING, YOU AIN'T GONNA DIE! SPIRITUALLY, YOU'RE NOT GONNA DIE! BECAUSE GOD HAS ACCEPTED THE SACRIFICE ON YOUR BEHALF! IT'S NOT WHAT YOU DO WITH HIM, IT'S WHAT GOD DOES WITH HIM! GOD ACCEPTED THE SACRIFICE!

And He accepted the substitute who died, rose again, ascended on high, and seated at God's right hand on our behalf. Now God, She says, if the Lord intended to kill us, He wouldn't have received our offering. And secondly, if the Lord intended to kill us, He would not have shown us these things. You know, the Lord doesn't bring anyone to hear the gospel and to taunt them. No. I know it's a saber of death unto death, but that's not God's fault. That's your fault. That's my fault. Unbelief is my fault. God doesn't cause me to unbelieve. That's on me. That's all on me.

But here?s the good news, if the Lord intended to KILL US, if the Lord intended to KILL ME, HE WOULD NOT HAVE SENT THE GOSPEL TO ME! That just gives me such comfort. The Lord wouldn?t have sent the gospel to me. He left me alone. He left me alone. He wouldn?t revealed these things to us. God had revealed Himself to them twice and identified Himself with the acceptable sacrifice. He identified with them and He revealed these things to them.

You know, in Christ, God has fully revealed Himself to us, hasn't He? You see, we don't just see Him as the God of thunder and lightning and and smoke and blackness, we see Him as the God of all grace and the God of all mercy also in Christ, isn't He? We see Him as God who is faithful to His covenant, to His Son, to His Word, and to His people.

Now He wouldn't have revealed that to us if He was going to kill us. He has shown His justice and holiness in the sacrifice of His Son. He wouldn't have shown us that! if He was going to kill us. He wouldn't make us understand how His justice is satisfied, how He can be a merciful Savior and save us in a just way. He wouldn't have shown that to us.

Somebody ought to be over there trying to hold you down. Really! He wouldn't have sent the Gospel here to Bethel Baptist. IF GOD INTENDS TO SAVE A PEOPLE, OR IF HE INTENDS NOT TO SAVE THE PEOPLE, IF GOD INTENDS NOT TO SAVE YOU, WHY WOULD HE SEND A SAVIOR? HE WOULDN'T! HE DIDN'T GIVE ONE TO THE ANGELS OF HELL BECAUSE HE DOES NOT INTEND TO SAVE THEM.

Christ said to those Pharisees, You don't hear my word because you are not of my sheep. That's a powerful statement. YOU ARE OF YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL, AND THE WORKS OF YOUR FATHER YOU WILL DO.

And then last of all, IF THE LORD INTENDED TO KILL US, AND HE HAS EVERY RIGHT TO, GOD HAS EVERY RIGHT TO KILL ME! EVERY DAY! EVERY DAY! HE WOULD NOT HAVE TOLD US SUCH THINGS, SUCH WONDERFUL

They had been promised a son, a woman who is barren and barren not, a son, Samson, who would deliver Israel. And this is the word they would believe and find comfort. He wouldn't have given us such a gospel, such wonderful things. I thought today, we've heard grace for the guilty. Have you heard that? Life from the dead, peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. God reconciled the sinners like us, and much, much more, much more wonderful things God has sent them to us.

Now, if He was going to kill us, He wouldn't do this. Doesn't that make you feel good? I don't mean, you know what I mean. It makes you feel good. It gives you comfort and peace. If the Lord was going to kill me, he wouldn't do this.

Oh, what a wife. What a wife that God gave Manoah. She says, calm down, calm down, calm down. It's alright. Let me tell you something. If the Lord was going to kill us, He wouldn't have accepted the sacrifice. He wouldn't have told us such things as these. He wouldn't have revealed such things as these. And He wouldn't have told us such things as these. He continues to tell us such things as these. Every week. Every week.

Oh, that lady's right, that Ethiopian woman's right, the half has never been told. Did you hear what Jesus said to me? They are all taken away. When doubts and fears arise, go to God's Word and trust His promises. and all His promises are yea and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right.