Judges chapter 2 now, Judges
2. Where did the Lord preach from
when He came to the book of Judges? You know, He went through all
the books of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms and preached those
things concerning Himself. Where did He preach from here
in the book of Judges? Well, there are several principal
people in this book. John, you love this book, don't
you? One of his favorites. Several
principal people in this book. In the first chapter, Judah,
though he's not one man, he's a tribe. And the Lord said, after
the death of Joshua, who shall go up for us against the Canaanites
to fight? And the Lord said, Judah shall
fight. And he's a picture of our Lord.
He's a picture of David, in the tribe of Judah, there were three
deliverers in chapter three. Three men who were raised up
by the Lord to be deliverers. And all those men represent our
Lord. Deborah, we're going to look at her a little bit on Sunday,
Lord willing. She's a type of the church. She
said, I'm a mother in Israel. And the Scripture says that very
thing about Jerusalem being the mother of Saul. But her captain,
the one who was with her was Beric, and his name means a glittering
sword. And he was the one that she said,
and I'm waiting to say that, get in. Now, his name mean warrior,
a mighty man, savior. We look at him, Lord willing,
Sunday. I'd love to look at Jephthah. All these four, Barak, Gideon,
Jephthah, Samson, are all mentioned in Hebrews 11. Our Lord could
have preached on these. I thought about doing all four,
but I started on one and couldn't get past one. Samson, my, my. He delivered Israel by his death. But tonight, we're going to look
at the angel of the Lord, beginning with chapter 2. This angel of
the Lord appeared to men throughout Judges three times. Three appearances. That's significant, isn't it?
After our Lord arose from the grave, he appeared to his disciples.
Three times. Who did He appear to first? The
woman, Mary. Many times our Lord appeared
in Old Testament days. In Proverbs 8, you may remember
we did a message on that, how that He rejoiced in the habitable
parts of the earth. His delights were with the sons
of men, how the Lord came in various times He is called the
angel of the covenant in Malachi. Malachi 3. He's the angel of
the covenant. And angel means messenger. He's the messenger of his own
covenant. If you have something vital,
important, to tell someone. You want to tell it yourself,
don't you? If it's your story, you want
to tell it yourself, don't you? I have to believe it was the
Lord walking in the garden when Adam and Eve first sinned, don't
you? And He preached the Word. He came to the first sinners.
He told them Himself. about the woman's seed. Then
Abraham, when he called Abraham out. Abraham, remember, was in
his tent and the Lord called him. And when he announced the
birth of the promised son, Isaac, that was the Lord. That was Christ. And then when Lot was in his
tent door, plainly said, it was the Lord that came to Lot and
laid hold of him. And old Jacob. Chapter 32. Who was it that laid hold of
him and wrestled with him? None other than the Angel. And when Jacob was recounting
that, he said, capital A, the capital Angel of the Lord. He
said, He watched over me all my days. That was crying. And then the one who spoke to
Moses from the burning bush. That must have been crying. And
then Joshua was faced with a man with a sword drawn, remember?
In Joshua 5. And Joshua said, are you with
us or with them? He said, neither. I'm captain
of the Lord of hosts. Are you with me? That had to
be the Lord Jesus Christ. To Elijah, Daniel, I've never
noticed this, but Daniel, when he was delivered from the lion's
den, he said to the king, he said, the angel of the Lord delivered
me from the lion's den. So he was there in that lion's
den. He's the one that stopped the mouth of the lions to deliver
Daniel. That's Christ. And so many others. Zechariah, the whole book of
Zechariah speaks of the angel of the Lord many, many times.
Revelation 10, Revelation 20, the angel clothed with the sun,
with one foot on the earth and one foot in the sea, that has
to be the Lord Jesus Christ. The angel who laid hold of the
serpent, that has to be Christ. Scripture says that the angel
Gabriel or whoever, Michael, did not contend with the devil
over the body of Moses. But now Christ, the angel, capital
A, laid hold of that serpent and cast him into the lake of
fire. We're here in Judges. Three appearances. Three appearances. Chapter 2.
Alright, look at it. Verse 1, the angel of the Lord,
an angel of the Lord, the messenger of the Lord came from Gilgal
to Bochum and said, now here's his message. And here's how I
know it's him. He's speaking in the first person.
He doesn't say, thus saith the Lord. He says, I made you go
up out of Egypt and have brought you into the land which I swear
unto your fathers. And I said, I will never break
my covenant with you. And you shall make no league
with the inhabitants of this land. You shall throw down their
altar. But you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this? Wherefore, I also said, I will
not drive them out from before you, but they shall be as thorns
in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. And
it came to pass when the angel of the Lord spake these words
unto all the people, or the children of Israel. That's who he's speaking
to. that the people lifted up their voices and wept. They called
the name of that place Bokom, that is, Weepers. And there they
sacrificed unto the Lord. So, this, the angel of the Lord
first appeared to declare to Israel their sin. He came preaching. The angel of the Lord came first
to preach and declare Israel's sin and guilt. The next time,
he's going to raise up a Savior. But this is what Christ came
to do, didn't He? Didn't He come? He said, I've come to preach.
He said, let's go into these other towns where hitherto have
not come to preach. To do? Preach what? God's righteousness,
like Noah was a preacher of righteousness. God's holiness. And man's sinfulness. He said, Son of man, declare
unto Israel, Jeremiah, tell Israel of their iniquity. Show them
their sin. Only sinners need a Savior, right?
Our Lord, on the Sermon on the Mount, that was His first public
sermon, wasn't it? What did He preach? Well, He
magnified the law, didn't He? And He began by saying, blessed
are the poor in spirit, blessed are they that mourn. What? Sin. So this angel came preaching
the guilt, sin of Israel, and those who heard his voice wept. And He said, I'm going to put
you in captivity because of this sin. But He's going to raise
up a Savior to get them out. So the Lord, or the angel of
the Lord came to reveal their sin. And Christ said this in
John, He said, If I had not come and spoken to them, they had
not sinned. But now they have no cloak for
their sin. See, light is coming to the world,
John 1. This is the condemnation. Men love darkness rather than
light. Light exposes darkness, Doug. Exposes all the things
that are supposedly hid under cover of darkness. But Christ
exposed all these things. He's the light. The angel of
light. So he came, like this angel,
to declare man's sin and man's need of a deliverer. All right, chapter 6. Now here's
the next. Here's the next appearance of
the angel of the Lord. Chapter 6. I'm calling out of
Gideon. The angel first came to declare
Israel's sin, and now the angel comes to call Israel's Savior. Chapter 6, verse 1. The children
of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord again. If you look
through this Through this book, well look with me, it says in
verse, let's see, chapter 13. We read that, you read it with
me, okay. But over and over again it says they sin again, they
sin again. So our Lord came to, the Lord
angel of the Lord came to raise up a savior of sinners. And verse
2 through 5, it says, the hand of the Midianites prevailed against
Israel. And because of the Midianites,
the children of Israel made them dens in mountains and caves and
strongholds. That is, they had strong enemies.
They were constantly fighting against them. And they sought
out little dens and little places in the mountains and caves and
strongholds where they could get away from these enemies.
What's that? Sounds like this place. These little dens, these little
Mount Zions, these little places, this stronghold of the gospel.
That's a stronghold on us. Christ dwelled. Verse 3, so when
Israel sowed, whatever they sowed, the Midianites came, the Amalekites
came, the children of the east came against them. They encamped
against them, destroyed the increase of the earth, left no sustenance. So whatever Whatever they did,
the enemy spoiled it. Now didn't Paul say, when I would
do good, evil is present with me. No matter what I try to do,
I've got these strong adversaries, within and without, that just
leave me troubled. Sixth says, Israel was greatly
impoverished because of them. They were poor and needy because
of all these adversaries constantly against them. See, sin is what
we struggle with, isn't it? The world, sin without, sin within. We're like Lot. How do you know
Lot was a righteous man? Well, he was vexed with the conversation. He was vexed. And how do you
know he was righteous? The Lord brought him out, being
merciful to him, laid hold of him. Well, these enemies, like
these Midianites and Amalekites, they just spoil everything. Sin
and everything we do. So we're poor and needy like
it says the Israelites were. And they cried, verse 7, so it
came to pass the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. The
Lord save us from our enemies. And this is what happens when
the Lord first begins to deliver someone from their sin. It shows
them their sin. They cry unto the Lord. Help
me. Lord, help me. What does the
Lord do? Verse 8, the Lord sent a prophet
before the angel became a prophet. Now that's what Malachi says,
doesn't it? In Malachi 4, and I don't want to misquote it,
right before the Lord came in Matthew 1, the very last verse
of the Old Testament, it says, Behold, I send you Elijah the
prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of
the Lord. So the Lord sent these people
a prophet before the angel came. And look at verse 8. What was
the message of the prophet? What did the prophet say to the
people? The exact same thing the angel did. You've sinned. Look at it. Thus saith the Lord. The prophet said, Thus saith
the Lord, God of Israel. I brought you up from Egypt,
brought you forth out of the house of bondage. Same message
in there. Man's guilt. Man's sin. Our sin. Our need of a Savior. And I drove them out before you
and gave you their land. I said unto you, verse 10, the
Lord said, I am the Lord your God. Fear not the God of the
Amorites in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice. So that was the message of the
prophet. What did John come preaching? Same thing. And then John said,
one day, so then someone came walking where John was preaching.
I remember John stood up and said, bring forth fruit meat
for repentance. John baptized the baptism of
repentance toward God. That's guilt. That's sin against
God. And then one day somebody came.
Who? The angel of the Lord. The Lord
himself. The messenger of the covenant. And John said, behold
the Lamb of God. There he is, the Savior. And
then comes the angel, verse 11. The second appearance of this
angel, verse 11, there came an angel of the Lord and sat under
an oak. He was sitting under an oak tree in Oprah. It pertained
unto Joash. That name means perpetual or
eternal father. Who wrote this book? And his son Gideon threshed wheat
by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. came to call
this little deliverer named Gideon. And I'm not going to deal so
much with Gideon tonight, it'll be Sunday, Lord, but I'm going
to deal with the angel. So he came and he was sitting
under an oak tree. Now, I told this to Mindy, she
said, tell it. And I thought, okay. But everything
is a picture of Christ. Everything. In this story, Christ
is the angel of the Lord. Christ is that prophet. Christ is Gideon. Christ is the
oak. He's unleavened bread. He's the
flesh. He's the basket. that the flesh
is in. He's the broth. His blood is
the broth. He's the pot. He's the rock. There's a rock. He's all and
in all. This angel sat under an oak and
it says this twice in verse 19. He was sitting under this oak
tree. Wonderful picture. This oak is
a wonderful picture of our Lord. Oak is one of the strongest trees
of all. Hence the old saying, strong
as an oak. You know, oak is a seed-bearing
tree, is it not? That's the first thing the Lord
created before he created man or anything. Things bearing seed.
Perhaps a tree, an oak tree. What was a tree of life in the
middle of the garden? An oak tree. I don't know. That's
what the Lord said, isn't it? But oak trees are full of seed.
In its lifetime, an oak tree will bear up to 10 million acorns. One oak tree. And all the animals
of the forest depend on it. Amazing. Strong as an oak. Build homes with it. Build dwellings
with that wood. Tree cut down. Barns and fences. You hedged about with flooring. Furniture. But the thing that
was used most widely, that oak was most used widely, was the
building of ships. Because it's so hard and it's
so watertight. Our Lord was sitting under oak.
He is the oak. He's the angel sitting under
that oak. Isn't that wonderful? Everything. Everything declares
His glory. When you see an oak tree, I hope
you'll think of Christ in it. Try to tie a red ribbon around
it, not yellow. Okay? I did that one time. We were
clearing land and I went around and there's two different kinds
of this tape, surveyor's tape. It was yellow and red. I said,
I'm going to put red on every tree I'm saving. Don't cut this
one down. It's got the scarlet line on
it. So this angel was sitting under that oak tree, and verse
11, Gideon was there threshing wheat. He came to call this man,
this angel came to call this man, a savior of Israel, a captain,
a conqueror for Israel, like he did Abram. He called Abraham,
didn't he? He called Moses. He called Joshua.
He called Elijah. He called all the prophets. He
called all the apostles. Our Lord called everyone that
was called. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself called them. Who else
could this be that was calling Gideon but Christ? He said, My
sheep will hear My voice. If His sheep hear His voice,
how much more shall His shepherds hear His voice? Gideon, his name means warrior,
He was threshing his wheat by the wine press. We're going to
look at that. Threshing in a wine press. We're going to look at
that Sunday. But we're here to look at the angel. Christ is
the Savior, isn't He? And Gideon couldn't do anything,
but this angel came to give him, to call him, to give him the
power, give him the ability to go out, and promised him his
presence with him, that he would not fail. Gideon could do nothing. He's just a man like everybody
else in Israel. But the angel of the Lord came
to call him and give him the power to deliver his people. Now, that's Christ calling His
preachers of the gospel in, His apostles, His prophets. They
are just men like anybody else. They can't save anybody. But
God has given them the power of God, which is the gospel,
the word of His power, the sword of His Spirit. And when Gideon
goes in, and Sunday's message, but when Gideon goes in, what
do you use? A sword. The sword of the Lord
and Gideon. Our Lord's gospel is His power
and the salvation. What is the sword? Christ is
that sword. Christ is the gospel. The power of God and the salvation
of everyone that believes. And it's Christ's gospel, and
it's Christ's power, and did not Paul say it's our gospel?
This is the sword that pierced my heart, and this is the sword
the power is going to pierce other men's hearts. So he called
out this man named Gideon, and he promised him. Look at verse
15. Gideon said to the Lord, O my
Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is
poor in Manasseh. I am the least in my father's
house. I'm just poor, and I'm less than
the least. Does that sound familiar? He came to call a man named Saul,
change his name, give him the power of the gospel to go out
and slay people with it. And Paul said, I'm less than
the least of all the same. I can't do anything. But the
Lord said now to Gideon and all his preachers, surely I will
be with thee. And thou shalt spite the Midianites
as one man. As one man. And then, so the Lord promised
him his presence. He said, I'm with thee. Go. And isn't that the very last
thing our Lord said to his disciples before he left for Delaware? Very last things he said, and
lo, I'm with you always, even unto the ends of the earth. Go
into all the world and preach the gospel. I'm with you. And then the story here we're
going to look at Sunday of the angel on the altar. But down in verse 24, Gideon
built an altar there unto the Lord and called it Jehovah Shalom. The Lord our peace. Now who is
our peace? Gideon named that after the angel
of the Lord who appeared to him there and said the Lord our peace.
Now that's Christ. He is our Jehovah Shalom who
made peace by the blood of His cross. Now the third and final
appearance in Judges chapter 13. One of my favorite stories. And this wife of Manoah preached
one of the best, shortest sermons ever preached in God's Word to
her husband. I just loved it. We just looked
at it two years ago. But it's not soon enough. So the angel came, the angel
of the Lord came to preach sin. Convict of sin. That's why Christ
did it. Convince of sin, righteousness,
and judgment all pertaining to Him. The angel of the Lord came
to reveal a Savior, Gideon, which is Christ Himself. And the angel
came to enter the sacrifice, the burnt offering, and ascend
to glory. Are you with me? This angel of
the Lord came to preach against sin, to expose sin, to reveal
sin. Then he came to reveal the Savior.
And then he came to enter into the sacrifice and send up the
Lord. Isn't that why Christ came? And
so, you read with me the story. And that's why Christ came. Now,
it says, Israel sinned, did evil again. I didn't mean to laugh,
but it's just so amazing now that, you know. What does man
do? He sins. What does God do? He
saves him. Psalm 107 says that four times.
Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, His wonderful
works to men. What are His wonderful works?
Salvation for sinners. It seemed like all they could
do was sin. Well, His name is Savior. See, that's why He came. If you're not a sinner, He didn't
come for you. But He came for all sinners. So they sinned again. And the
Lord, the angel of the Lord appeared to a woman. To do what? To announce
the birth of a child. Does that sound familiar? Four hundred years where it was
in darkness after Malachi promised the angel of the Lord would come.
Four hundred years. And so an angel, it says, an
angel, which was Gabriel or one of them, came to announce the
birth of a child. And who did he appear to? A woman.
He said, that holy thing in you. The angel told her about this.
This is a Nazarite under the Lord. He's devoted. He's consecrated
under the Lord. He belongs to me. He's going
to deliver my people. Samson, son of flight. And that's the son of righteousness
whom the angel came to announce the birth of and appeared first
to the woman. This angel appeared twice to
the woman. Manoah didn't believe her. Does
that sound familiar? When our Lord arose from the
grave, who did He appear to? A woman. And the men didn't believe
her. But finally they did, because
they saw Him too. But she said, He didn't tell
me His name. He wouldn't tell me His name.
And in Manoah, look at verse 15. And Manoah said to the angel
of the Lord when he came, I pray thee, let us detain thee until
we've made ready a kid for thee. And the angel of the Lord said
unto Manoah, though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread.
If thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord. See, how do I know this is the
Lord? Because no angel would touch that sacrifice. Do you
hear me? You don't touch that. No man,
no mere man can touch that. Right, John? Remember Uzzah,
the story of Uzzah that reached up and touched the ark? Killed
him. You don't lay your hands on that. There's only one. This
is God. This is God's sacrifice. It's between the Father and the
Son. And no mere angel, a man made an angel, would enter that. No, this is Christ. He said,
if you burn an offering, offer it unto the Lord. And so Manoah knew not that it
was an angel of the Lord. And Manoah then said, what is
thy name? Now here's how we know it's Him. What is thy name that I may honor
you? We do the honor. The angel said
unto him, why askest thou thus after my name? It's secrets. Remember Jacob asking the angel
the same thing? What's your name? He said, why
do you ask my name? Listen to Revelation 19. I always
love this. It says, I saw heaven open. We hold a white horse. He that
sat upon him was called Faithful. Capital F. Faithful and true. Capital T. And in righteousness
doth he judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew, but he himself." Secret. His clothe of the vesture
dipped in blood. His name, what is his name? The
Word of God. That's significant, isn't it?
Christ said to the Pharisees, why is it you don't understand
my speech? Because you cannot. But he that
is of God knoweth God's word. He heareth God's word. We know
his name, don't we? It's on every page. What's his
name? Word. Kept secret from men. revealed
unto us and our children. Oh, we know his name. It's the
Word. The Word. And he hath on his
thigh, it says in that same chapter, a name written King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. My, my. What chapter that is. Back here in our text, the name,
he said, the name Secret in the marginal reference, and this
is what this version the Lord has given us. Secret says his
name is Wonderful. called his name Wonderful. The world just calls him Jesus.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. We call him Wonderful. We call
him Lord. We call him everything. Prophet,
Priest, King, the Word, Christ. So Manoah took a kid with a meat
offering and offered it upon a rock. There was a rock sitting
there. And the angel did wondrously. And Manoah and his wife looked
on. They looked, they beheld, they gazed on this angel of the
Lord and his wonderful works were right before their eyes.
What was he doing? Wondrous things. Have we not seen wondrous things
done by our Lord? His greatest wonder is we're
about to see Christ crucified. So they looked on, the man and
his wife. It came to pass, verse 20, when the flame went upward
toward heaven from off the altar, the angel of the Lord got right
in that flame, like that burning bush. He was not concerned. He got right in that flame. And it says, and it was a burnt
offering unto the Lord. And he accepted it. How do we
know? He entered into it for them. And so that flame, there were
times when men offered strange fire before the Lord, and the
Lord used that very fire to burn them up. Remember that? Fire
went out, burnt them up. Well, the Lord entered into that,
and rather than them burnt, He entered into that flame, that
burn off. Our Lord is the burn off friend. Our God is a consuming
fire, and yet God was manifest in the flesh, and God was in
Christ, reconciling us to the Father, and how we know that
God accepted Christ on our behalf is He ascended up to glory. Where He right now sits at the
right hand of the Majesty on high, and we accept Him, and
we love Him. It says, Manoah and his wife
looked on this burnt offering, this angel, and the offering
ascending to glory, and they fell on their faces to the ground. Well, Manoah said, we're going
to die. Why did he say that? He knows
he's a sinner. He finally realized, this is,
I've seen God. God's been here with us. I didn't
know it, now I do know it. And he'd seen me, and he knows
me, he knows my thoughts. This is what Peter said, didn't
he? Simon Peter, when he first found
out who Christ was, he called all those fish, and Peter hit
his knees, and fell at our Lord's feet, and said, depart from me,
Lord, I'm a sinful man. You read my thoughts, you know
everything about me. Not a thought in my head you don't know. You
know what a sinner I am. Ever since you've been with me,
right now, you know what I'm thinking. Oh, Lord, depart from
it. No. He didn't come to leave you. He came to save you from those
sins. Well, I know what I'm going to
say. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. Now, his wife,
she said, And we've got several wives like Manoah's wife in here
that know the truth. And she said three things, three
things now. If the Lord were going to kill
us, he wouldn't have done these three things. If the Lord were pleased to kill
us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering
in our hands. Who is he that condemneth? Who shall lay anything to charge
of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?
Christ died. Do you need a savior from sin?
Are you a sinner? No? Well, what's your hope? The soul that sinneth must surely
die. What's your hope? Christ died
for our sin according to Scripture. And God says, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you, and the plague will not destroy
you. It's going to be with you from
now on, but it's not going to destroy you. took our infirmity,
took our sickness, took our sin, took our iniquities in his body,
on the tree, and God, consuming fire, burned up our sin. The wrath of God fell on Christ,
crucified on Calvary's tree, and all our sins were paid for,
burned up, all right? But how do we know God accepted
it on our behalf? He ascended up to God. We write
now, ever lives to make intercession for whom? Sinners. Sinners. And then she said, if
God were going to kill us, he would have showed us all these
things. The angel didn't come to anybody else, did he? The
angel didn't come to their neighbor. The angel didn't come to Manoah's
sister or his wife's cousin. Has the Lord revealed himself
to your relatives? No. I hope he doesn't kill them.
I hope He saves them. If they're saved, it's going
to be by this same gospel. They're going to have to hear
this same gospel. But how I know that He's delivering
you is He showed you these things, He said. He wouldn't have showed
you these things. He wouldn't have showed you crying and caused your knee to bow right
now. Every knee is going to. And then lastly, she said, and
He wouldn't have told us such things as this. He wouldn't have
promised us. He can't lie. God who has promised
us eternal life. God who cannot lie has promised
us eternal life for doing what? Believing. He that believeth on the Son
hath life, He said, already hath life. And never be condemned. I want you to turn to Isaiah
in closing. This is my last scripture, I
promise. Isaiah 63. This is a fitting
epitaph to this message. Angel of the war. Isaiah writes
about Christ beginning with verse 1. Who is this that cometh from
Edom with dyed garments, glorious in his apparel, traveling in
the greatness of his strength? Who is it? I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Why are you red in your apparel,
not garment? I have treaded the wine press
alone, none with me. We'll go down to verse 7. It
says in verse 7, I'll mention the lovingkindness of the Lord,
the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed
on us, the great goodness toward the house of Israel, who? A bunch
of sinners. Which he hath bestowed on them
according to his mercies, according to the multitude of his lovingkindness. But he said, surely they are
my people, children that will not lie. So He was their Savior,
capital S. In all their affliction, He was
afflicted. And the angel of His presence
saved them. In His love and in His pity,
He redeemed them. And He buried them and carried
them all the days of the world. Angel of the Lord. All right,
stand with me.