Would you turn back to Judges
chapter 13? I said this Wednesday night. I
heard this when I was in Mexico last week, and it's been such
a blessing to think about. An old preacher said to a young
preacher, make sure you preach a full gospel. Christ and nothing more. Make sure you preach a simple
gospel. Christ and nothing less. And you make sure you preach
a pure gospel. Christ and nothing else. And
I pray that's what takes place this morning. I've entitled this
message, Manoah's Wise Wife. We're not given her name, but
what wisdom she demonstrates in this story. Judges 13 verse 1, and the children of Israel did
evil again in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered
them into the hand of the Philistines 40 years. Now this story begins
in a sad but all too familiar way. The children of Israel did
evil again in the sight of the Lord. They repeated their sin. They
added sin to their sin. They did evil again in the sight
of the Lord. Now let me remind you, the only
people who can hear the gospel are sinners. You and I cannot
hear the gospel apart from hearing as a sinner. How are you hearing this morning? As he used to be sinner or a
present tense sinner? The gospel is the sinner's religion. That's what differentiates it
from every other religion. The gospel is the sinner's religion. And the children of Israel did
evil again in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered
them into the hand of the Philistines 40 years, 40 years. A lot can
go under the bridge in 40 years time. 40 years ago is 1979. I was still in college. Many
of you weren't even born 40 years ago. But they were delivered
into the hands of the Philistines for 40 long years. And we don't read about them
crying for mercy or deliverance, but the Lord initiated this. The Lord is gracious and he initiates
this. Look in verse two. And there
was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, whose
name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and bare
not. Now we're getting ready to read
the story of the birth of Samson and the Lord raised Samson up
to deliver Israel. Now this was wholly initiated
by God and the angel of the Lord, Christ Jesus, makes a pre-incarnate
appearance. Now we know that this was Christ
himself because that's when Manoah cried out and said, we've seen
God's face. We're going to be killed. They
thought they were in trouble. So this was a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ to them with regard to the birth of Samson, a great
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Samson's birth was miraculous. His mother had been barren. The
birth of Christ is miraculous. He was born of a virgin. Samson
was sanctified. From the womb, a Nazarite, Christ
was sanctified by God for eternity to be the savior of sinners.
Samson's birth, like Christ, was foretold by the angel of
the Lord. And Samson would deliver the
children of Israel by his mighty strength. And you think of the
strength of Christ in saving his people from their sins, the
strength in actually putting away their sins, the strength
in actually consuming the wrath of God so there's no more wrath,
the strength of making all of his people perfectly conformed
to his image. This is the mighty power of God. And Israel was saved by the death
of Samson. You remember when he was brought
into the temple of the Philistines or brought between the two posts
and he pulled it in and killed all the people that were there?
We're saved by the death of Christ. Yes, we're saved by his life,
but if he came here and lived and went back to heaven, it wouldn't
do us any good. He came here and lived a perfect life and
he died and put away sin. That's why the believers say,
because of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is he that
condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather that's risen
again, who is even at the right hand of God. Now here's the announcement
from the angel of the Lord, verse three, and the angel of the Lord.
And we know this was the Lord Jesus himself because of verse
22, where Noah said, we shall surely die because we've seen
God. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said
unto her, behold, now thou art barren and barest not, but thou
shalt conceive and bear a son. That's the same thing we said
to Mary, isn't it? The angel said to her, thou shalt conceive
and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray
thee, drink not wine nor strong drink and eat not any unclean
thing for lo thou shalt bear a son and no razor shall come
on his head for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the
womb. Now we read of the Rules concerning
the Nazarite, Numbers chapter six, they were not to drink any
wine, alcohol. Their razor was never to touch
their head. They were never to shave, long
hair. And it was a consecration vow
to the Lord. And he says, this young child
will be a Nazarite from the womb. And he, verse five, shall begin
to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. He's
the savior that the Lord raised up. Now, verse six. Then the
woman came and told her husband, saying, a man of God came unto
me. She didn't know it was an angel of the Lord. She thought
it was just a man, a man of God. A man of God came unto me and
his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God.
Very terrible, just awe-inspiring. But I asked him not whence he
was, neither told he me his name. But he said unto me, behold,
thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink no wine
or strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing, for the child
shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. Then Manoah, this is after his
wife had given him this information, Then Manoah entreated the Lord
and said, Oh my Lord, let the man of God, which thou did sin
come again to us and teach us what we shall do unto the child
that shall be born. Now, what I get out of this is
he believed the message. We're going to have a child and
I want you to tell me how we're to raise that child. He believed
the message of the prophet. He believed that child was coming
because that's what the prophet said. Verse nine, and God hearkened
to the voice of Manoah. And the angel of God came again
unto the woman as she sat in the field. But no, her husband
was not with her. He appeared to her while she was by herself. And the woman made haste and
ran and showed her husband and said unto him, Behold, the man
that hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day. And
Manoah rose and went after his wife and came to the man and
said unto him, Art thou the man that speakest unto the woman?
He said, I am. And Manoah said, now let thy
words come to pass, that we're going to have a child. And he
asked this question, how shall we order the child and how shall
we do unto him? Now, remember the angel had already
told the woman how this child was to be raised as a Nazarite. Verse 13, and the angel of the
Lord said unto Manoah, of all that I said unto the woman, let
her beware. I'm saying the same thing I've
already told you, And what I think about when I hear his reply is
there's never a change or an amendment to the gospel. It's
always the same. You tell her exactly what I already
told her. Verse 14, she may not eat of
anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or
strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her,
let her observe. And Manoah said unto the angel
of the Lord, I pray thee, let us detain thee until we have
made ready a kid for thee. Now he's not talking about till
we can eat supper together. I'll put this to death and we'll
cook it and eat it. No, he's talking about sacrifice.
He's talking about sacrifice. Let us make a sacrifice to you.
But he didn't realize this was with the Lord yet either. And
so this was wrong for him to even make this request. Let's
go on reading. And the angel of the Lord said
unto Manoah, though thou detain me, I'll not eat of thy bread.
And if thou will offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it
unto the Lord. You see, Manoah knew not that
he was an angel of the Lord. He said, you must offer it to
the Lord. And the Lord knew he thought
he was just a man. Verse 17. And Manoah said unto the angel
of the Lord, what is thy name? That when thy sayings come to
pass, we may do thee honor. And look at the Lord's reply.
And the angel of the Lord said unto him, why askest thou thus
after my name, seeing it is secret. Now that means incomprehensible. Why are you asking me my name? My name is incomprehensible. This word's only used one other
time when David said in the Psalms, Psalm 139, such knowledge is
too wonderful for me. It's high. I cannot attain to
it. Now, let me say this about the
Lord God of the Bible. If me or you could understand
and comprehend him, there wouldn't be much to it. You believe that? If you could comprehend, if I
could comprehend and understand him and grasp him so that I can
say, I understand this, there just wouldn't be very much to
him. The mystery of the gospel. Not so much to be understood,
but to be believed. Now that is the mystery of the
gospel. It's not so much to be understood
where you grasp it and intellectually have it down. It's to be believed. The mystery of the eternal God. how He never began to be. He
never had a starting point. Nobody made Him. He is. The mystery of the believer's
eternal union with the Lord Jesus Christ. I've always been, every
believer has always been in the Son. And there's never been a
time when I was not in the Son of Him. Are you in Christ Jesus? Can anybody understand that?
What about the mystery of the Trinity? God is one God in three
separate persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit. Does anyone grasp that? It's mystery. that is to be believed,
not so much understood, but believed. I think of the great mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. The eternal God took on flesh. What mystery? No one can understand
that. You can just believe it. I think
of the mystery of justification. That a holy God can look at this
man talking to you and say he has no sin. That God can look at me and not
remember any sin because there's nothing there to remember. Now,
you know as well as I do that if somebody sinned against you,
you remember it. You ought not, but you remember it. But God
doesn't. In heaven, he's not gonna look
at me and say, I remember what you did. I remembered what you
were. I remember, no. All he sees is that which is
perfect. Now that's mysterious. Every believer is justified before
God. He was delivered for our offenses,
raised again for our justification, therefore being justified. Is that mystery that you can
understand? No, you believe it though. I
believe that the righteousness of Christ is my very righteousness
of God. We could go on and on. The Lord
Jesus Christ is incomprehensible. Think of the mysteries of creation.
He's the one who created the world. How'd he do it? I don't
know. We believe though. Think of the
mystery of providence. He controls everything. And yet we do exactly what we
want to do. We're not Coerced, we're not
forced, we do what we want to do, and Christ is completely
sovereign and in control of that, so that everything you do is
according to His will. Well, does that make our sin
excusable? No, it doesn't. Not in any way. You can't say, well, he made
me sin. No, my sin's all my fault. Your sin's all your fault, but
thank God he really is in absolute control. There's so much mystery surrounding
his death. How could he die? How could Jesus
Christ, the God-man, die? I don't know, but he did. He
did. How could he be made sin? I don't
know, but he was. What mystery surrounds the great
transaction that took place on Calvary's tree? Somebody says,
I understand that. You're a fool if you say something
like that. Mystery. Why are you asking my name seeing
it's wonderful? It's secret. You and I can't
really understand. We can believe by his grace.
We can believe, but understand? Let's go on reading. So Manoah, verse 19, took a kid
with a meat offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord,
and the angel did wondrously. He did what only God can do. And the angel did wondrously,
and Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came to pass when
the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, that the angel
of the Lord, this man who was speaking to them, ascended in
the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked
on it and fell on their faces to the ground. Now, this angel
ascended up with and was identified with the sacrifice. The sacrifice, the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ is the whole counsel of God. Do you believe that? This is how the angel identified
himself with the sacrifice. You see, the sacrifice of Christ
is the eternal purpose of God. It's why He made the universe. The sacrifice of Christ, the
cross of Christ is the full manifestation of the character of God, of all
of His attributes. And this angel went up and ascended
back to the Father in the fire of the sacrifice. He did wondrously. He did what only God can do. And what did they do? They fell
on their face to the ground. And that's the only response.
Worship, they fell on their face to the ground. Verse 21, but
the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and to
his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was
an angel of God. And Manoah said unto his wife,
we shall surely die. He couldn't think of anything
else. God's gonna have to kill us. We shall surely die. because we have seen God and hear the words of Manoah's
wise wife. But his wife said unto him, if
the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a
burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands. Neither would he
have showed us all these things, nor would as at this time have
told us such things as these." Now, these words demonstrate
Manoah's wife's understanding of the living God. The first
thing that impresses me about what she says is she says, if
the Lord were pleased to kill us, if the Lord was pleased to kill
us. Now, just making that statement,
she says he would be just in doing so if he were pleased to
kill us. Now this language speaks of the
sovereignty of the Lord. Our God, said David, is in the
heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he. In heaven, in earth, in the sea,
and in all deep places. Listen to this scripture regarding
the death of Christ. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It was his purpose. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. God only and always does what
he is pleased to do. And Manoah's wife knew that.
She spoke of the pleasure of the Lord. I love that scripture. Proverbs 21, one, the king's
heart, whoever that king is, president of the United States,
somebody in this room, somebody, anybody outside of this room,
me, you, the king's heart, whoever that might represent, the king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water, he turneth
it, whithersoever he will. Now that word will is the same
word translated pleased. in our text. He does with every
man whatsoever he is pleased to do. He said, I will do all
my pleasure. Now that's the God of the Bible.
Now listen to this statement very carefully. This is very
important. The God of free will does not exist. The God of free will is a man-made
idol. And someone who believes in free
will believes in a God that quite frankly does not exist. God is God. He does whatsoever
he's pleased to do. Not that long ago, a man said
to me, I have a problem with a God who elects. And my response
is, you've got a real problem, man. Because that is the God
of the Bible. That is who he is. His wife said, verse 23, if the
Lord were pleased to kill us, if that was his will, and have
you ever had some side of the Lord that makes you think, how
could he not kill me? All I deserve is to be put into
hell. Anytime you see the Lord, that's how you're going to feel
about yourself. And that's what he was thinking. Lord's going
to kill us. What else can he do? Look at
who we are. We've seen him and they couldn't see any way out.
Look what Manoah's wife says. If the Lord were pleased to kill
us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering
at our If the Lord was pleased to kill us, he would not have
received the sacrifice. Now here's the foundation of
any believer's hope. If the Lord were pleased to kill
us, if that was His will, I can see why He would do it. But if
that's not, if that is not what He's going to do, if He's going
to do it, He wouldn't have received the sacrifice. Now this is talking
about, remember how the angel of the Lord ascended up in the
sacrifice and identified with the sacrifice? The Son of God
as the surety of his people, as the representative of his
people, he came representing a definite people. And as the
surety of those people, he kept God's law perfectly for them. Oh, I love to think of the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I love to admire it, but here's
what I like best about thinking about it, and I guess this shows
how self-focused I am. His life is my life before God.
That's what I like thinking most about it. His perfect righteousness,
His law-keeping, His obedience is my personal obedience before
God. That's why I'm not afraid of
judgment. If I had any sin, I'd be afraid. But in Christ Jesus,
I stand perfect without sin before God. But not only did he live
a perfect life, what good would it have done me if he came and
lived a perfect life and went back to heaven? He wouldn't do
me any good at all. But what did he do? He was nailed
to a cross. Why was he nailed to a cross?
The sins of the elect, the sins of His people, became His. He willingly took them upon Himself. They became His. He became guilty
before God. And the wrath of God came down
on Him because of His guilt. God is holy. He won't let sin
go unpunished. Ever! The sins of God's people
came upon Him. He bore them. When he said it
is finished, they were all put away and God received. God was satisfied with what he
did. Now, question. Did God accept what he did? Yes. What's the proof? The resurrection. The resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ was raised from the
dead, God said, I'm satisfied with him and everybody in him. I'm not looking for anything
else. He received the sacrifice. Now let me remind you of this.
Christ didn't offer himself to me or to you. That's the way
religion presents his sacrifice. Well, he offers himself to me
and to you. No, he didn't. He offered himself
up to God. That was his purpose. He wasn't
offered himself to me or you up for our acceptance or rejection.
That's so demeaning to him. He's not going to do that. The
blood was not for you. It was for God. God said, when
I see the blood, He didn't say when I see your faith. He didn't
say when I see your holy living. He didn't say when I see how
much you're progressing in sanctification. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. My dear friends, that's the gospel.
What was God looking for? the blood of his son, the satisfying
blood that put away sin. Turn with me to Romans chapter
eight for a moment. Hold your finger there in judges
and turn to Romans chapter eight. Now, when the Lord raised his
son from the dead. The key word is satisfaction.
Satisfaction. God was satisfied with what he
did. Look in verse 31. What shall
we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemns? It's Christ that dies. Yea, rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Is anything required from you
above and beyond what Christ did? I want you to think about
that. How do you answer that question? I love what this woman said,
if the Lord were going to kill us, he would not receive the
sacrifice. But he did. The Lord's going to kill us,
wait. I say with reverence, he cannot kill those for whom Christ
died. He cannot. will not, he cannot
kill for those for whom Christ died. Now there's things that
God cannot do. He cannot lie. He cannot act
contrary to his nature. He cannot act contrary to his
word. He cannot save at the expense
of his justice. And bless God, he cannot damn
at the expense of his justice. If your sin is paid for, it's
been paid for. It would be unjust for God to
send that one to hell for whom Christ died. He satisfied God. And God demonstrated that when
he received the sacrifice of his son. We're surely going to
die. No, if God were going to kill
us, he wouldn't have received that sacrifice. Look in verse
23 again. But his wife said unto him, if
the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received
a burnt offering for sin, a meat offering at our hands. Neither
would he have showed us all these things. Do you know you're a sinner? Who showed you that? There was a time when you didn't
see it. You do now. Who showed you that? Do you know, do you believe that
Christ satisfied God? You really believe that? Who
showed you that? Do you believe that God is as
he's revealed in his word? Who showed you that? It wasn't
some preacher. It was God himself. who demonstrated
that and showed you that. Now do you think that he showed
you that you were a sinner and made you to believe that what
Christ did is sufficient? He did that just in order, he's
gonna go ahead and kill you anyway? No. Anybody who sees they're
a sinner and sees that The sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ, God accepts, and that's her only hope. That's
a believer. Let me tell you something that
all believers do. They believe. Somebody says,
what's the difference between a believer and an unbeliever?
Well, a believer believes, an unbeliever doesn't. A believer
believes God's testimony. They believe what God says concerning
himself, regarding them, and how he saves sinners. Believers believe. And he would not have shown us
these things had he not, he wouldn't have shown us these things if
it was his purpose to kill us. And then, verse 23, Neither would he have showed
us all these things, nor would as such as this time have told
us such things as these. He wouldn't told us and caused
us to hear such things as these. Now, preaching the preaching
of the gospel is a supernatural thing. That's all you can call it. Hearing the gospel. is a supernatural
thing. Hearing with hearing ears is
a supernatural thing. And when one hears this message and doesn't believe, they're
not hearing as a sinner. If you hear as a sinner, how
you will rejoice in what Manoah's wise wife, had to say. You believe that Christ by his
strength delivers his people. And this woman, verse 24, bear
a son and call his name Samson. And the child grew and the Lord
blessed him And the spirit of the Lord began to move him at
times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eschatol. Lord's gonna kill us. I understand his concern. And I would justify God if he
does. But here's the reason he won't
if we're not killed. He accepted the sacrifice. And
he's revealed to us the gospel. What a wise woman. May the Lord give us the wisdom
of Manoah's wife. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you that you
sent your son to save your people. How we thank you for the hope
that we have in his sacrifice. How grateful we are that you
raised him from the dead, having put away all our sin. Lord, give
each person in this room according to your will. Beginning here. hearing ears to hear your gospel. Lord, allow us to see your complete
satisfaction with your son. And enable us to find all of
our satisfaction in what you're satisfied with. The person and
the work of your blessed son. May he be exalted in all this. In His blessed name we pray,
amen.