Let's all stand. Brethren, we have met to worship
and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power
while we try to preach the word? All is vain unless the Spirit
of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray, and holy menna
will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round
you, slumbering on the brink of woe. Death is coming, hell
is moving, can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and
our mothers and our children sinking down. Brethren, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Sisters, will you join and help
us? Moses' sister aided him. Will you help the trembling mourners
who are struggling hard with sin? Tell them all about the
Savior. Tell them that He will be found. Sisters, pray and holy menna
will be showered all around. Let us love our God supremely,
let us love each other too. Let us love and pray for sinners,
till our God makes all things new. Then he'll call us home
to heaven, At his table we'll sit down. Christ will gird himself
and serve us with sweet manna all around. Please be seated. Good evening. Well, I can't sing
that hymn without thinking I'm I'm one of those sinners sinking
deep in sin. I'm the one who needs to hear
the gospel, God's free grace. I'm like David. Psalm 51, we'll
read for our scripture reading tonight. Welcome our brethren
in Sarasota. Psalm 51. This is every believer's experience. Have mercy upon me, O God. According to Thy loving kindness,
according unto the multitude of Thy mercies, blot out my transgressions. I've got no other plea than His
mercy and His grace. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. Like Paul in Romans chapter 7,
when I would do good, evil is ever present with me. I can't get out of my own way.
Against thee and thee only have I sinned, and done this evil
in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,
and be clear when thou judgest. David's taking sides with God
against himself. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. I've had this problem all my
life, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest
truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt
make me to know wisdom. The only way we're going to have
truth in the inner parts is if God makes Christ to be our wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall
be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins, and blood out all my iniquities. Lord, don't leave a shred of
it left, not one thing. Create in me a clean heart, oh
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Give me the mind of
Christ. Enable me to believe that I'm one with him. that as he is, so am I, that
I have his righteousness and his life as my life. Because
when I look at myself, I don't see any of that. Cast me not
away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
Lord, we would never presume upon your grace. Don't take your
hand off of us. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then, while
I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted
unto thee." Lord, I can't speak to anybody else until you speak
to me. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. Thou God of
my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
Lord, if I know that I'm not guilty, that there's no condemnation,
the law's been satisfied, my sin's been put away, then I have
reason to rejoice. O Lord, open thou my lips, and
my mouth shall show forth thy praise. I give you all the credit,
all the glory, and all the honor, for truly you did it all. For
thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest
not in burnt offerings. There's nothing we bring. It's all what he has done. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. A broken and contrite heart. That's the work of grace. First
and foremost, that's Christ. He's the one who had a broken
spirit before God. David said to have a heart after,
a man after God's own heart. Thou will not despise. Do good
and thy good pleasure unto Zion. Lord, it's not just for me, it's
for the whole church. Bless your people, build thou
the walls of Jerusalem. Then shall thou be pleased with
the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offerings and whole
burnt offerings. Then shall they offer bullocks
upon that altar. Lord, our worship and our praise
will only be pleasing to you if it comes from a regenerated
heart. Let's pray together. a merciful and holy Heavenly Father. We're
so very grateful that we have a throne of grace that we can
come to. We're so very thankful for the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, for his broken spirit, and for his contrite
heart, making us accepted in his sacrifice. We ask Father
that you'd be pleased tonight to bless your word by your spirit
to the hearts of your people, that you would enable us to seek
thy face, to rejoice in knowing that you are pleased with Christ
and those that are found in him. Lord, that we have nothing to
fear from thy wrath. knowing that you poured out the
full fury of thy judgment against all our sins on Calvary's cross.
O Lord, open that which no man can shut. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Abide with me, fast falls the
eventide. The darkness deepens, Lord with
me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts
flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me. Swift to its close ebbs out life's
little day. Earth's joys grow dim, its glories
pass away. Change and decay in all around
I see. O Thou who changest not, abide
with me. I need thy presence every passing
hour. What but thy grace can foil the
tempter's power? Who like thyself my guide and
stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, O
abide with me. Hold thou thy word before my
closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point
me to the sky. Please be seated. We're going to be in Judges chapter
13 tonight. Judges 13. Most people have such a low view
of God that they think they're going to be able to stand in
his presence just like they are. They don't know that flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. They don't know that
his eyes are too pure to look upon evil. They fashioned a God
in their imagination that's altogether as they are themselves, and they
have no fear of him. Not so. not so with those of
whom the Lord has shown a glimpse of his holiness. The greatest
fear that I have is that I might have to stand in the presence
of God on my own, that I would not have an advocate. that I
would not have a holy, righteous, sinless representative to speak
my name for me to God. The title of this message tonight
is, How Can I See God and Live? How can I see God and live? I hope one day to see Him. He's
shown me through the eyes of faith something of his nature
and his character and his work. But I'm hoping that one day that
veil will be taken completely away and that I'll see him in
the fullness of his glory. When I do, I want to be able
to have acceptance in his presence. I want to be able to live. Truth
is that all men one day will see God. All men will see God. He'll look right into the very
eyes of every child of Adam. And he'll say to some, depart
from me, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. And he'll
say to others, enter into the kingdom which has been prepared
for you. faithful ones. Oh, that's where
I want to be. The Lord told Moses on Mount
Sinai in Exodus chapter 33, no man can see God and live. How are we going to be able to
stand in the presence of God and live, not be destroyed, not
suffer the full wrath of his judgment. Manoah, the father
of Samson, had an experience where he saw God. And his response
was much like that response of Isaiah, who saw the Lord high
and lifted up, and he said, woe is me, for I am undone. I'm dead. No way I can live now, for my
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. That was Manoah's
response. Look at verse 22 of Judges chapter
13. And Manoah said unto his wife,
we shall surely die because we have seen God. Now, why didn't
he die? That's the question. He thought,
I've seen God, we're gone. There's no way we can live. The Lord said no man can see
me and live. In Deuteronomy chapter five,
the children of Israel said, for who is there of all flesh
that has heard the voice of God speaking out of a fire as we
have and lived? Who of all the sons of men have
heard the voice of God speaking out of a fire and lived? How
are we gonna live? Well, if we go back to the first
part of this chapter, I think there are some very encouraging
truths in this passage that will give us hope in knowing that
we can stand in the presence of God and not be destroyed. In verse one, the scripture says,
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. This was their pattern,
wasn't it? I mean, just over and over again,
up and down, just history repeating itself over and over and over
again. Sound familiar? We wouldn't dare look back at
the children of Israel and say, how could they be so unbelieving? How could they keep doing the
same thing over and over again? So the Lord handed them into
the hands of the Philistines. And they suffered under the rule
of the Philistines again and again. Now, there's encouragement
in that verse. The encouragement is that there's
a huge difference between the discipline of our Heavenly Father
and the wrath that is to come. And that the only way that we
can see God and live is if he disciplines us now, even as he
did the children of Israel back then. Why? Because we, like them,
just keep doing the same thing over and over again. You see this video of the woman
that was smacking her son around up there in Baltimore after the
riots broke out and she went in there. She found her son as
a part of breaking into one of those stores. You see that video?
She drug him out by the ear and was slapping him all the way
down the street. And there was some controversy
after that video was taken. I wonder if that was really his
mother. Of course it was his mother. Of course it was his mother.
She wouldn't be going around disciplining some other person's
child. And neither does our Heavenly
Father. He disciplines his children, doesn't he? And it's a good thing. It's a good thing. Because it's
the only means by which we're going to escape the wrath that
is to come. If we have no discipline, the
Scripture says in Hebrews chapter 12, we're illegitimate. We're not the children of God.
Listen to what the Lord said, despise not the chastening of
the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked by him. There's gonna
come a day when men are gonna faint in the presence of God.
Faint not at his chastening. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Truth is that correction is a
mark of love. If you spare the rod, the scripture
says, you hate the child. Now that's true in our relationship
with our children, but that's especially true in God's relationship
with his children. Amos chapter three, here's what
the Lord said. You only have I known of all
the families of the earth, therefore I will, now in the King James
the word punish is used, but in fact that word means I will
visit you. So you only have I known of all
the families of the earth, therefore I will visit you for your iniquities. How many nations did exactly
the same thing that the Israelites did and the Lord just ignored
it? Just let them go. They didn't
worship God. They didn't obey the law of God.
They were idolaters. and the Lord's hand was never
on them. You only of all the families of the earth have I
known. Therefore, I will visit you in
your iniquities, but it will be for the means of you escaping
the real discipline, the real punishment, the real judgment
of God, which is gonna come in the day of wrath. And that's
the day I wanna avoid. So Manoah, thinks that he's going to die
because he's seen God, but this whole passage begins with the
Lord lovingly and mercifully disciplining his children because
of their rebellion. And now he's going to provide
for them a judge, a savior actually. Samson, you know that's the story
here. And we're not going to deal with Samson that much. This
message is about Manoah and his wife and their encounter with
God and why they didn't die. I think it was last June, if
you want to look it up, I preached a message on the Nazarite and
dealt more in detail with Samson. But for the purpose of this message,
we'll just skim over Samson. and give our attention to Manoah
and his wife. Why did they not die? And there
was, verse two, a certain man. How oftentimes we've seen that
in the word of God. The Lord shows grace to certain
men. He singles out certain individuals. For God's grace to be certain
for us, in the day of judgment, we must be a certain individual
now. There's not a, there's not a
broad offer of grace and not a broad offer of salvation made
to mankind to be accepted or rejected. God always chooses
out certain individuals. A certain woman who had an issue
of blood thought that if I could just touch the M of his garment
and she crawled through the crowd. and the Lord healed her, a certain
individual. There was a certain man which
had the dropsy. There was a certain beggar named
Lazarus who received the crumbs from the rich man's table. There
was a certain blind man in Jericho, the scripture says, named Zacchaeus. There was a certain man at the
Pool of Bethesda who had spent 38 years with a crippling infirmity. God always chooses out certain
individuals. There are certain people that
are going to escape the wrath of God. And if we're to be one
of those certain individuals, the Lord has to show his particular
irresistible grace to each of us. He's got to choose us. He said, you didn't choose me,
I chose you. And so the scripture says now
that there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the
Danites, whose name was Manoah. Now, Menoah's name means the
same thing as Noah, which translated means rest. If we're going to
have rest in that day of judgment, if we're going to be able to
see God and not die, then the Lord's gonna have to give us
eyes of faith to see him now and realize that our judgment
was in the person of our substitute and have our rest in Christ. So this certain man was a man
who rested in the promises of God. He rested in the provisions
that God was going to make now for him. And the angel of the
Lord, the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto
her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not, but thou shalt
conceive, and bear a son. What is it that distinguished
Manoah and his wife from other men? They were barren. They were barren. They were sterile. She could
not bring forth life. Her womb was dead. And so are you. And so am I. Here's the thing that distinguishes
those who are able to see God and live. They have no ability
to provide life for themselves. None whatsoever. They're dead
in their trespasses and sins. They believe that Christ is the
life and that He is the light of men. And if He's not my life,
I have no life. When I was yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. I have no ability. I can't choose
God. I can't make a decision. I can't
pray a prayer. I can't perform a work. I can't
present anything. that will earn me favor with
God. And I know that. Why? Because
I don't believe the lie. I don't believe the lie. The
lie of man-made, free will, works religion, I don't believe it.
I can't believe it. I'm dead. I can't save myself. Look at verse 3. How is it that we're going to
see God and not die? We've got to have a visit from
the angel of the Lord. Now there's no doubt in this
whole passage as we go through it in the next few minutes who
this angel of the Lord is. It is none other than the pre-incarnate
This is the Lord Jesus Christ presenting himself to Manoah
as the angel of the Lord. And in verse, look with me at
verse 18. When Manoah asked the angel what
is his name, and the angel of the Lord said unto him, why askest
thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? And if you look
in the margin of your Bible, perhaps you have it written out,
that word means wonderful. Wonderful. His name is wonderful. And he's caught up into the heavens
with the sacrifice that is made, and Manoah confesses at the end,
we've seen the Lord, surely now we're gonna die. So this angel
of the Lord was Christ. His name was wonderful. Unto
you a son is given. Unto you a child is born. His
name shall be called Wonderful. Full, full, full of wonder. He's the God-man. He's beyond
our comprehension. He's holy. He's other than we
are. He's the one that walked with
Adam in the cool of the day in the garden. He's the one that
was worshipped by Abel He's the one that led Noah to build the
ark, and he is the ark in whom Noah and his family found safety. He's the one who made a covenant
with Abraham and promised him a seed, seed singular, that would
be the savior of his people. He's the Melchizedek of the Old
Testament. He's the one who came as the
king of Salem and present himself to Abraham, to whom Abraham paid
tithes. And here he comes as the angel
of the Lord, presenting himself to Manoah. How are you and I
going to be saved in that day of wrath? How are we going to
see God and not die? Only if the angel of the Lord
the messenger of God, visits us now. Comes and makes himself
known to us now. This is the same one that Jacob
wrestled with at the river Jabbok when his hip was dislocated and
he walked with a limp the rest of his life. And he asked the
Lord to know his name, and the Lord changed Jacob's name to
Israel. You and I have to have this same
one to visit us. He's the same one. that Moses
saw and heard at the burning bush, the bush that was a fire
but wasn't being consumed. A picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
on Calvary's cross, suffering under the wrath of God's fiery
judgment and yet not being consumed. He's the one that led Moses to
sacrifice the Passover lamb. And he is that lamb. He's got
to visit us, the same one. These are all manifestations
of Christ before Manoah. These are all before Manoah.
He's the one, he was the pillar of fire in the cloud by night.
He was the manna that fell from heaven. He was the rock from
which they received the water in the wilderness. And now he
comes as the angel of the Lord and makes himself known to Manoah. What is an angel? It's a messenger. That's what
the word means. It means messenger. He's bringing
the message of God, and when the Lord Jesus Christ comes as
the angel of the Lord, he is the message of God. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,
and the Word was made flesh, and He dwelt among us, and we
beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and full of truth." The Lord Jesus Christ is not
just the messenger, He's the message. And here He comes. How does He manifest Himself? How does He come to you and to
me? Not in the same way He came to Abraham, or Adam, or Moses,
or Noah, or Manoah. And yet, in a better way, in
a better way. Don't forget that experience
that Peter had on the Mount of Transfiguration when he said,
we did not bring to you cunningly devised fables, but we handled
the word of God. And yet we have a more sure word
of testimony. We've got the word of God. We've
got the spirit of God. We've got the preaching of the
gospel. These are the means by which God manifests himself now
to the hearts of his people. We're not looking for a physical
manifestation. We're looking for God to speak
to our hearts through the preaching of the gospel. And what a wonderful
means that the Lord has ordained for the angel to visit his people
through another angel. A messenger telling about the
message. It's the most humbling means. God knew that there would
be Joseph Smith's. God knew that there would be
Muhammad's. God knew that there would be
the self-professed theologian who thinks that he can go into
the into the corners of his study and come out having met with
God. God knew that there would be the unstable charismatic who
thinks that they've had some personal encounter with God.
God knew that. He knew that people would pride
themselves in claiming to have a personal encounter with God
without the need of another man. What did the Ethiopian eunuch
say? How can I, unless a man should guide me? What did God
say? How will they believe in whom
they've not heard, and how will they hear without a preacher?
And it's the most humbling thing. I'm not exalting preaching here
as a preacher. Preaching is the most humbling
means, not only to the one in the pew, but most especially
to the one in the pulpit. Trust me on that if you've never
tried preaching. I've never preached. I didn't
want to run and hide somewhere. I've never preached where I've
thought, you know, I just wish I could preach. I wish I could
tell people the truth as it is. I wish I could make it more clear.
I wish I could be more compassionate and more convicted. I wish I
could. It's a humbling experience, but
this is the means, isn't it? This is the means that God uses,
why? Because he's gonna humble everybody
involved, everybody involved, when he comes and visits his
people, the angel of the Lord. The angel coming through an angel.
the messenger coming by the means of another sinful messenger,
another sinful man just like you. The angel of the Lord peered
unto the woman and said unto her, Behold, now thou art barren.
He comes only to those who cannot bring life to themselves. Now
therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong
drink, and eat not any unclean thing. For lo, thou shalt conceive
and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head. For
the child shall be called a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he
shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.
Well, you know the story of Samson. and how his glory and his strength
was seen in his hair, and that he wasn't to touch anything that
was dead. That was part of the Nazarite
vow, and he wasn't to drink anything from the fruit of the vine. And
the fulfillment of that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. From the
very beginning of his ministry, he's called the Nazarite. We won't go into all the details
of how those things relate to him, but he is that Nazarite.
He's the one who had omnipotence seen in the hair. He's the one
who never touched anything unclean. He was holy, undefiled, separate
from sinners, the scripture says. And here he is as the deliverer
of the children of Israel. Then the woman came and told
her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance
was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible. But I asked him, not whence he
was, neither told me his name." She was so overwhelmed with his
appearance and with what he said that she couldn't speak. She was speechless. She couldn't
say anything. I'm always encouraged when someone
hears the gospel for the first time and God just shuts their
mouths and they just can't speak. And that doesn't happen often.
Most of the time, just the opposite happens. Most of the time, men
come and they hear, and you don't have to listen to them, but two
minutes before they just expose themselves by what they say. They just, you know, they want
to impress you with what they know. And what a wonderful thing
it is when the Lord makes himself known and just shuts our mouths. We just can't speak. She said, I didn't ask him any
questions. I didn't know his name. I didn't
ask him his name. And he said unto me, Behold,
thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink no wine
nor strong drink, neither eat anything unclean. For the child
shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.
Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, O Lord God, let the
man of God which thou didst send come again unto us and teach
us what we shall do unto this child. Manoah wasn't satisfied
with the testimony of his wife. You know, I kind of see that
this is sort of like the story of the woman at the well in Samaria. You know, she ran down into Sychar
and told the men about this man who had told her everything that
she'd ever done, is not this the Christ? And they wanted to
see that for themselves. They wanted to see it for themselves.
And what did they testify later? They said, we do believe that
he is the Christ, but not because of your testimony. but because
of him. Oh, we're encouraged by the testimony
of others, but you know what? When someone tells us about an
encounter that they had with the Lord, something tells, you
tell me about something God has spoken to you about and how he's
comforted you. My response is, Lord, speak to
me like that. Speak to me like that. Don't
let me be satisfied with a second-hand experience from someone else.
Lord, I want you to speak to me. That's what Manoah is saying.
His wife runs to him. She says, I've met this man. His countenance was terrible.
I couldn't speak. And so Manoah prays, Lord, speak
to me. Lord, come again. Come again. And God hearkened to the voice
of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she
sat in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.
So again, he comes to her. Humbling Manoah. Humbling Manoah. Everything God does is for the
purpose of humbling his people. And Manoah's gonna have to, his
wife's gonna have to come get him. And the woman made haste
and ran and showed her husband and said unto him, behold, the
man hath appeared unto me that came unto me the other day. And
Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and
said unto him, art thou the man that speaketh unto the woman?
And he said, I am. And Manoah said, now let thy
words come to pass. How shall we order the child?
And how shall we do unto him? So Manoah is asking the Lord
about how are we supposed to raise this child? Now I want
you to notice what the Lord's answer is. He tells Manoah exactly
what he had already told his wife. He doesn't change it a
bit. As a matter of fact, he doesn't
give him quite as much information. He says, And the angel of the
Lord said to Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman, let her
beware. She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither
let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean
that I commanded her, let her observe. You know, I see from
this, if we're to see the face of God and live, we're all gonna
have to hear the same message. The Lord personalized it and
speaks to each of us individually, and we need him to do that. But
it's the same gospel. It's the same message. I was
talking to somebody just today. They said, we all believe the
same thing. I said, no we don't. No we don't. We don't all believe the same
thing. Every believer believes the same thing. They all see
eye to eye. There's no division in Christ.
He's made himself known through the same message, by the same
spirit, the same word, same gospel to all of his children. So, when
you go and ask the Lord, Lord, what did you say to them? He's gonna say the same thing. Say the same thing. 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. And the angel said
unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread. Manoah, you don't have anything
to give to me. Now, if you wanna make a sacrifice,
that's another story. Manoah's offering him a meal.
Let's sit down, let's eat a meal together. And the Lord, it says
the Lord, he says to Manoah, he said, you're not going to
detain me. And I'm not going to sit and
eat with you. But if you want to make an offering, then if
thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord.
For Manoah knew not that it was the angel of the Lord. By the
way, you see that last phrase in verse 16? You remember Sunday
we saw the A was actually the word the, lie? Well, the word
an, a-n, angel of the Lord, is actually the word thee. I don't
know why the translators did that, but it is the definite
article. This is none other than the angel
of the Lord. It's not just an angel of the
Lord. And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, there they
translated it right. What is thy name, that when thy
sayings come to pass, we may do thee honor? Oh, Lord, tell
us your name. Tell us your name. Why do you
ask my name? For my name is wonderful. I'm the God-man. I'm the creator
and sustainer of all of life. I'm the one who's holy, holy,
holy. I'm the Lord God of hosts. I am. the self-existent one. I'm not like you at all. I'm the rock of ages. I'm the
Lamb of God. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. I'm Jesus, the Lord. Tell us your name. Believe on
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That's
what, when we believe on Christ, we're believing on everything
that His name tells us about Him. And He's given us so many
names in order to help us to see the fullness of His glory. I'm the rock that's higher than
you. I'm the light of the world. I'm
the Lamb of God. Here he is. Tell us your name.
My name is Wonderful. And it is appropriate that the
word secret is used here because, in fact, the meaning of his name
is secret. It is secret. The natural man
can't receive it. He can't understand it. He speaks his name accurately,
he articulates it. He'll even say, this person I
was talking to today, you believe in Jesus, don't you? I said,
yeah, I do. But it's probably not gonna be
the same Jesus you believe in. Oh, there's only one Jesus. No,
no. They speak his name, but they
give a different definition to what he means. Oh, we believe
that he is the Christ. Don't you love that picture of
him in the book of Revelation where the scripture says he had
a name written on his thigh, which no man knew but he himself,
and that name read, Lord of Lords and King of Kings. There he is. He reigns sovereign. He's the
omnipotent one in creation, in providence, and most especially
in salvation. He possesses all power and all
strength and all hope of our salvation is in the sacrifice. Now let's conclude with this. Here's the gospel. If you haven't
seen it yet, I hope you'll see it here. Look at verse 19. So Manoah took a kid with a burnt
offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord. Now he
just takes this kid, kills it, puts it on a big rock. Well, the kid's Christ, the rock's
Christ, the angel of the Lord is Christ, the fire that's about
to consume the sacrifice is the judgment of God. It's all about
him. And what are Manoah and his wife
doing? They can't do anything but just
stand back and watch. Look what happens. It came to
pass when the flame went up toward heaven, I'm sorry. So Manoah
took a kid, verse 19, with the meat offering and offered it
upon a rock unto the Lord, and the angel did wondrously, and
Manoah and his wife looked on. Here's a picture of the cross,
and all we can do is do what Mary and John and the other women
that were there, all they could do was just sit there and look.
They couldn't add to it. They couldn't take away from
it. They couldn't ask any questions about it. They couldn't object
to it. All they could do is look. And God says, if you'll look,
you'll live. Why? Because what I'm doing on
this rock is miraculous. What I'm doing on this rock is
wondrous. I'm satisfying all the demands
of God's wrath for all the sins of all God's people of every
generation so that they can stand in the presence of God and see
God and not die. The fire of God is falling down
on me. Where'd this fire come from?
The scripture doesn't say. Did the fire come out of the
rock? Did the fire come from a staff that the angel of the
Lord touched the animal with? Did the fire fall from heaven?
We don't know. But it was a miraculous fire. It was much like that fire
that came upon the sacrifice that was made on Mount Carmel
when Elijah called down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice. And here it is, a picture of
Christ on Calvary's cross, satisfying divine justice once and for all
by the sacrifice of himself, offered up for our offenses,
Manoah and his wife, all they could do was watch. That's all
they could do. Just step back and watch. And
it came to pass when the flame went up towards the heaven from
off the altar that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame
of the altar. So now the angel of the Lord,
with the smoke that's coming up from the fire and the consumed
kid, the angel of the Lord ascends into glory. What's he saying? Here's the ascension of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This sacrifice is acceptable
to God. That's the picture. And the Lord
is going into glory as the representative for Manoah and his wife. As your
representative, as my representative, he went into glory and took his
rightful place at the right hand of the majesty on high. And he
ever lives there to make intercession for us. Well, you can't read
this without seeing the disciples at the Mount of Olives when they
stood there gazing up into heaven as the Lord ascended into glory.
And the angels came, men of Israel, why stand you here gazing and
looking up? This same Jesus was taken up from you. He's going
to come again. He's going to come again. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God? Believe also in me. For in my
Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
so that where I am there you may be also. There's our hope. This is what this story's about. And Manoah says, we're gonna
die. We're gonna die. Look what, look. It came to pass
when the flame went up, verse 20, to heaven that the angel
of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar, and Manoah and
his wife looked on it and fell on their faces to the ground.
All they could do is worship God. All they could do is prostrate
themselves before God. That's all they could do. But
the angel of the Lord did not more appear to Manoah and to
his wife than Manoah knew that it was the angel of the Lord.
He knew it was God. He didn't appear to her. The
Lord has not appeared. I don't care what men say. I don't care what testimonies
they have, what evidences they have, the Lord Jesus Christ has
not physically appeared to man since he ascended into glory
2,000 years ago. And he won't until he comes back
in all of his splendor and all of his glory. And whatever men
have imagined in their minds is either just a distorted mind or it's demonic. But it wasn't the Lord. It wasn't
the Lord. And Manoah said unto his wife,
we shall surely die because we have seen God. Now look what
his wife says. Look what his wife says. 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. It was the offering that God received. that gave
her hope that God wasn't gonna kill him. If he was gonna kill
us, he wouldn't have taken the offering. If he was gonna kill you, he
wouldn't have received Christ into glory. It's the ascension
of the Lord Jesus Christ, his resurrection, his ascension into
glory. When he went back into glory, he took the names of those
for whom he lived and died and presented them before God. Here's
our hope. The word did not return void.
It accomplished that for which God sent it. So that's the first
reason she gives. He wouldn't have received the
offering if he was gonna kill us. Neither would he have showed
us all these things. We wouldn't have had this experience.
We wouldn't have seen what we've seen and heard what we've heard.
We wouldn't have heard it. We wouldn't have seen the fire.
We wouldn't have seen the angel of the Lord. We wouldn't have
seen the gospel. And you wouldn't see it. And
you wouldn't believe it if the Lord was going to kill you. He's going to kill those who
can't see. Those He hasn't spoken to. Those He hasn't called out. They're the ones that are going
to suffer the wrath of God. You have no reason to fear His
wrath. Why? Because of what he's shown you. We believe and are sure that
Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. We've got
no place else to go. We know who he is. He wouldn't have shown us that
if he was gonna kill us. Nor would as at this time have
told us such things as these." What's that referring to? It's
referring to Samson as the Nazirite, the one who came to deliver the
children of Israel. He wouldn't have shown us these
things. He wouldn't have shown us who the Lord Jesus Christ
is as the Nazirite. He wouldn't have shown us the
fire coming from heaven. We have reason to hope that we
shall see God and not die because we have seen God. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would speak to our hearts and comfort
us in hope. For we pray it in Christ's name,
amen. The soul that sins, it shall
die Word from God who cannot lie. Justice cried against my
soul. Law required eternal woe. Terrors from God's law that fell. Crushed my heart with thoughts
of hell. Righteousness I cannot give,
Less than that God won't receive. How can I be just with God? Can He save and yet be God? Can He pardon all my sin? Can He cleanse my heart within? Yes, O blessed word of grace,
Christ brings hope to Adam's race. He obeyed the law of God
and poured out his life in blood. God in justice looks on him and
forgives his people's sin. Jesus died for sinners' sake. Now as such, my place I take. Trusting Him, I cannot die. God has sworn and cannot lie. By your cross, O Christ the Lamb,
Free from sin and guilt I am Christ has full atonement made
Now my debt is fully paid I will sing of grace most free Just
as satisfied for me at the throne of God above, I will sing redeeming
love. That's such a beautiful picture.