This morning, I want you to turn
with me to the Old Testament book of Judges, Judges chapter
13. I suppose it's nearly impossible
to mention the book of Judges and not think of the great and
mighty Samson. As a young boy, I loved the story
of Samson. I imagined and pretended to have
his strength. And oftentimes I got hurt. And then by the mercy and grace
of God, I saw that I had no strength. None. Without strength. And now in my weakness, for Christ's
sake, I'm made strong. As a boy, I desired to be like
Samson, and now as a man, I long to be conformed to the image
of Christ. Samson, in so many ways, is a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. His birth was miraculous. His
mother was barren, as we'll see. And Christ's birth was no doubt
miraculous. His mother was a virgin. Samson was sanctified. He was
set apart from the womb to be a Nazarite. And Christ, our Lord,
was sanctified before the foundation of the world to be Jesus of Nazareth,
the Savior of sinners. Samson's birth was foretold by
an angel. The birth of Jesus Christ was
foretold by an angel. Samson delivered Israel from
the Philistines by his great strength. And Christ put away
our sin, the sin of his people, by the sacrifice of himself. Samson died in his delivering
of the people. It was Samson's strength from
God, and yet Christ died for the deliverance, for the deliverance
of his people, and it was Christ's strength as God that did so. Now, Judges chapter 13, verse
one, we read, and the children of Israel did evil again. Again. and the sight of the Lord. And
the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines 40
years." You know, I was thinking about that. And rightfully so,
because today, my wife and I have been married for 40 years. Today,
40 years today. And she'll tell you that's a
long time. And it is a long time. Why, some of you weren't even
born 40 years ago. And some of you were young, Men
and women, 40 years ago, some even children. 40 years is a
long time. And here we see two things about
the evil of sin that just jump out in verse one. Israel did
evil again, again. And again, and again. They added
sin to sin. That's something that we're good
at. Sin is something that you and I are quite adept at doing. Israel, like us, could not not
sin. The chosen nation of Israel so
very well pictures the chosen people of God, don't they? In
our best state, we are, David said, altogether vanity and sin. And thank the Lord that the gospel
is a message for sinners. That's why it's good news for
sinners. Are you a sinner? Then I hope
that you find comfort in this gospel message. Now we don't
read here in verse one anything about Israel crying for mercy. As the first cause of all things,
the Lord initiated this deliverance. Only He can when it comes to
giving life. He's the only one that can give
life, especially to cold, dead, hard-hearted sinners. And the second thing that made
this repeated evil so atrocious is that it was in God's sight.
You see, friends, all sin is, it's in God's sight. Everything
we do is in God's sight. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are what? Naked
and opened, exposed. since all things are at his disposing
unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Now, this is
a God with whom we have to do, the God that we've sinned against.
And God's sovereignty, I said this not long ago, God's sovereignty
is not simply a doctrine that we preach. God really is sovereign. You
can't pull the wool over God's eyes. You can pull them over
me and I can pull the wool over your eyes, but none of us can
pull the wool over God's eyes. Just as the sovereignty of God
is not simply a doctrine, a teaching to be believed or rejected, neither
is the election of God. Verse two tells us that, 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. 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. Now therefore, beware, I pray
thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any
unclean thing. For though thou shalt conceive
and bear a son, and no razor shall come on his head, for the
child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he shall
begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.
So it's very clear here that God initiated this contact. The angel of the Lord appeared
to them. And someone said, I don't understand
election. Well, who does? Really? It's beyond our understanding.
How God can save all those that he's purposed to save and not
one of them be lost? The gospel is not to be understood. The gospel is to be believed. This certain man named Manoah
believed God, and Manoah had a wife that believed God, but
she was barren, we're told. Not only was she barren, but
the scripture says she bare not. A lot of commentators mean that
there was no possibility of her ever having a child. She was
never to bear a child. And if she was, it would only
be by the supernatural power of God. And what a picture the
barrenness of a mother's womb is of the barrenness of life
in the center. No life is possible without a
divine intervention from God. If God is not pleased to divinely
intervene in our hearts and give us life, there's no hope of life
within. God must make the barren womb
fruitful and God must make the barren heart alive. And you and I are dead and we're
barren and we're unable to produce life. All of us born of woman
are utterly ruined. That's not a popular message
today. Why everybody loves Jesus so
much. But that's not so. We're utterly
ruined. We have no ability, we have no
will, we have no power, we have no inclination to seek after
God. We are at enmity with God, hostile
toward God, hate Him and hate Him without a cause. We're ignorant
of our condition. By nature, man is ignorant of
their condition. They think themselves to be well
without the need of a physician, but they are sick, desperately
sick, desperately diseased. But we who think that we're rich
and creased with goods have need of nothing and know not that
we're wretched. We're miserable and poor and
blind and naked unless God does a work of life and grace and
mercy in our heart. We'll stay that way. We can no
more change our corruption than an Ethiopian can change his skin,
or a leopard can change his spot. How can we do good who are accustomed
to do evil? You know, out of curiosity yesterday,
I looked that word accustomed up in the concordance. You know what it means? It means
discipled. It means taught, it means learned. Evil is the result of our learning
from our teacher, our natural mentor called sin. We are accustomed, we're taught
by sin to do evil. How to perform that which is
good, we don't find within. Oh, wretched sinners we are.
That's what Paul said, oh, wretched man that I am. We're barren,
we're too poor to produce. No results, no achievements,
unproductive. Empty of any value, void of all
ability. So great is our barrenness that
only God can do something about it. Only He can give life. You know,
there were many great men of faith that had barren mothers.
I don't know that I really stopped and thought about that. And I
believe that's taught to teach us something about the greatness
of God's choosing and giving life. Sarah. Sarah was past childbearing
years when Isaac was born. Jacob's mother, Rebecca, was
barren until God gave her womb life. Hannah, what about Hannah? Everybody talks about Hannah's
prayer. Hannah prayed and the Lord gave her a child. And then
she turned right around and gave that child to the Lord. And his
name is Samuel, one of the great prophets of God. What about the
cousin of Mary, Elizabeth? She conceived a child in her
old age and gave birth to John the Baptist. All of these men
of faith were born physically by the overcoming power of God
Almighty. And if any sinner is to be born
spiritually, you, me, or anyone else, it'll be by the same means.
God's got to intervene. God has to give life. God has
to make this barren soul fruitful. And it's all by divine intervention. Now, what happened to this barren
woman? What a beautiful story this is. Well, we see that she
was confronted by Christ. In the scriptures, she's nameless. She's called the wife of Manoah.
You see, the name of the sinner is not important. You know why? Because they're going to take
the name of their husband. They're gonna be given the name
of Christian or believer. How about the bride of Christ?
Boy, that's a good name. What about the church? The church
of the living God. What about sons and daughters
of God? Isn't that a wonderful name?
In and of ourselves, we're not worth mentioning. Our name's
not important. But in Christ, we're given the
name of our heavenly husband. Now this angel was no doubt a
pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. That becomes very apparent as
you read the story. But at first she and Manoah believed
that this was a man. Yes, a man of God, but not an
angel of the Lord. And look at verse six. Then the
woman came and told her husband saying, a man of God. Not an
angel, not the Lord himself, but a man of God came unto me,
and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel,
an angel of God, very terrible. That word means reverential and
fearful. But I asked him not whence he
was, neither told he me his name. I didn't ask who he was, and
he didn't tell me his name. You see, he didn't have to. That's
his prerogative. But he said unto me, verse seven,
behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink no
wine nor 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. In other words, this is gonna
be a special child. Now, every parent thinks their
child is special, but this is gonna be a special child. He's gonna be under a special
covenant. God's gonna use him in a special
way. God's gonna use him for a specific
purpose. He's gonna deliver his people. And the type of Christ just continues
on. Verse eight, then Manoah entreated
the Lord. He prayed to the Lord and he
said, oh my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst sin come
again unto us and teach us. Teach us what we shall do unto
the child that shall be born. 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 Manoah, her husband, was not with her.
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 Menorah rose and he went
after his wife and he came to the man and he said unto him,
art thou the man that speakest unto the woman? And the man said,
I am. Manoah believed God. That's what I want you to see.
He entreated the Lord. He asked to see this man for
himself. He believed God and he wanted
to be taught of God. And God heard his prayer. You
see, Manoah wanted what God wanted. Every child of God does. Every
child of God wants what God wants. Look at verse 12. And Manoah
said, now let thy words come to pass. Whatever you said, let
it be. How shall we order the child
and how shall we do unto him? Lord, I want what you want. Amen, so be it to all that you
said. Then in verse 15, and Manoah
said unto the angel of the Lord, still not knowing that this was
an angel of the Lord or the Lord himself, he said, I pray thee,
let us detain thee until we shall have 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.
And if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it
unto the Lord. Now there's a real lesson here
that we read right over if we didn't, if God didn't show it
to us. Only the Lord is worthy of an
offering. Christ did not come to eat our
bread, friends. He came to be the bread of life
to and for us. And what the Lord is saying here
in verse 16 is this. If you offer a burnt offering
to me, you're saying that I'm the Lord Jehovah. Because we're not to make offerings
to anybody but the Lord. You know, just like that rich
young ruler that came to the Lord Jesus and he said, good
master, What must I, good thing must I do to inherit eternal
life? And the Lord said, why do you call me good? He said,
there's none good but God. In other words, if I'm good,
then I'm God. And we don't offer anything but
to the one that we've offended. The last part of 16 here shows
us something of Manoah's ignorance. For Manoah knew not that he was
an angel of the Lord. Then Manoah speaks the words
that are in the heart of every believer. And I believe this
is the believer's greatest desire. I believe that the child of God,
from the day God reveals himself to him to the day the Lord comes
and takes him home to glory, this is his desire. Verse 17. And Manoah said unto the angel
of the Lord, what is thy name? That when thy saints come to
pass, we may do thee honor. The child of God's life is to
know and love Christ, to honor and glorify Him, to become, as
we said in the first hour, more deeply and intimately acquainted
with Him. That's why Paul said, oh, that
I may know Him. That's the desire of every child
of God, first and foremost, oh, that I might know Him, have a
relationship with Him, that He might be my Lord, that He might
be my Savior. Verse 18, and the angel of the
Lord said unto him, why askest thou thus after my name, seeing
it is secret? Now that name secret means incomprehensible. My name is incomprehensible.
That's what he said. It means too wonderful to fathom
to understand. That's what that word secret
means. The only other time that that
word secret is used this way in the Bible is when David said,
such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's high, I cannot obtain
to it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit
or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend into
heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the outermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. It's incomprehensible. And it's the same with us. Such
knowledge is too wonderful for us, is it not? God's ways are
too high for me to attain to. God's ways are too high. How
unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.
So look at verse 19. So Manoah took a kid, a sheep
with a meat offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord.
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 off the altar 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. 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 the Lord. And Manoah said unto his wife,
we shall surely die. because we've seen God. But I tell you, friends, it's
here that we have the glorious gospel of Christ. Now Noah said,
we shall surely die because we've seen God. You see, no man can
see God and live. But Manoah's wife, she had great
faith. Her name's not even mentioned,
but she had great faith. Sometimes I wonder if I do, I
really do. And then here we have Manoah,
who had great faith, begins to have doubts. Manoah believed
God, he believed that God was gonna give him a son. He asked
the angel to teach him how to raise a son and then Manoah did
what we all do at times, he looked within himself and he began to
doubt. Did you hear me? You do it and
so do I. Oh, we come, we hear the gospel,
we sing songs of praise, we pray unto the Lord, we enter into
the thought that God is sovereign and He can do what He wills in
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and we're puffed up, and then the first thing, we begin to
look within ourselves, and we say, I can see Him dying for
others, but me? Can't do that. Can't look within. You'll never find any hope. You'll
never find any comfort. You'll never find any encouragement
there. No rest is to be found looking
within. He began to concentrate on what
He was. He began to think about all the
things that He had done. Instead of trusting in the One
who accepted His offering. Instead of trusting in the One
who was His offering. He began to doubt the Lord's
word and he began to trust. Instead of trusting in the sacrifice
that he made and God accepted, he began to look within. Why
do we do that? In the face of such majesty,
in the face of such holiness, in the face of such righteousness,
in the face of such holy justice, knowing himself to be what he
was, a sinner, unclean and undone, he began to doubt and say, this
holy, just, and righteous God is gonna kill us. That's what
we deserve. It's written, no man can see
God and live. We just saw God and we will surely
die. And before we're too hard on
Manoah, let's think back on the scriptures. Abraham doubted.
He lied about Sarah being his sister because he was afraid
of the king of Egypt. Elijah, the great prophet Elijah,
he doubted. By himself, he faced the prophets
of Baal and he slew all of them and then ran from a woman named
Jezebel and fled for his life and hid from her. Peter doubted,
the one of whom Christ said, upon this rock I'll build my
church, ready to defend his master with a single sword against the
whole army of Rome. Now sits by a fire and a young
girl looks at him and accuses him. and says, you're the one
that was with the Lord, this man that they've arrested. And
he began to curse and he began to swear. And he said, I don't
know the man. He began to deny the very one
for whom he had violently fought for. Every single one of us have
doubts. But that's when we must remember
the words of Manoah's wife. What a gospel message she preached,
excuse me. We're all subject to fear and
unbelief. When we're at our strongest,
we exercise faith, but we still add the words, Lord, help thou
my unbelief. There is no perfect faith. Our
perfection is in the object of our faith, that being the Lord
Jesus. Our hope is not in perfect faith. Our hope's in a perfect sacrifice.
Anything and everything we see has no lasting help. We walk
by faith and not by sight. We must. And Manoah, having seen
God feared for his life, But look at verse 21. It says, then
Manoah knew that he wasn't an angel of the Lord and said, we
shall surely die. When Job saw his condition, he
abhorred himself. You remember that? When Isaiah
saw his sin, he condemned himself. He said, I'm undone. I'm a man
of unclean lips. Peter said to the Lord, Jesus,
depart from me. I'm an evil man. Paul said, I'm
wretched, man, less than the least, not worthy to be called
an apostle. And when Manoah saw the Lord,
he said, I'm gonna die, me and you gonna die. The Lord is too
wonderful for us to see and live. Then in verse 23, we receive
the gospel from the nameless mother of Samson. And that's
what I want you to consider for just a few minutes. I think she's
the one that had the real strength. Verse 23, 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." Here, this faithful, believing
woman gives us three things. And let me throw this in. Brothers,
if you have a wife that knows the Lord, you're a blessed man. The first thing is this, the
Lord revealed their burnt offering and their meat offering. They
had done all that the angel had commanded, but that's not why
the Lord accepted the offering. He accepted it because of who
it represented. They took the lamb and slew it.
They put the blood on the altar. They burnt the carcass. It was
consumed. And the angel of the Lord appears
in the sacrifice and ascends in the flame, showing us that
God accepted the sacrifice. Now, that's why the Lord's not
gonna kill you. Those faithful woman said, God
wouldn't accept our offering and then kill us. We shall not
die because the sacrifice did. We shall not be consumed because
the sacrifice was. Friends, you and I are great
sinners. In our flesh dwells no good thing. Sin is what we
are and sin is what we do. But we've seen the sacrifice. God sent my sacrifice into the
world to die the just for the unjust so that He might bring
me to God. I've seen the sacrifice and God
has accepted it. Therefore, I shall not die. Did
Christ not bear all my sin and His body on the tree? Was Christ
not wounded for your transgressions? Was He not bruised for your iniquities? Was it by His stripes that you
and I were healed? Is not the chastisement of our
peace upon Him God has accepted His perfect work and His perfect
sacrifice, and no one for whom Christ died will perish. That'd make Christ a failure
and make God a liar. If the just one died, then the
unjust can't. God's justice won't permit it.
The Lord Jesus was in the sacrifice of Manoah. The Lord Jesus was
the sacrifice of Manoah and God accepted it. Therefore, you and
I who trust in him shall not die. Isn't that the most wonderful
news you ever heard? If the Lord had been pleased
to kill us, he would not have accepted our sacrifice. The very
one that provided himself for us He has accepted the sacrifice
He provided for us. Manoah's wife based her faith
on the sacrifice. That's what we've got to do.
Not on what she had done, not on what Manoah had done, but
in who the sacrifice typified. God only accepts the sacrifice
that He Himself provides. And I love to say this, God provides
for Himself a sacrifice and God provides Himself as the sacrifice. And if there's anything that
we should learn from what happened upon Mount Moriah between Abraham
and Isaac, it should be that God provides what we need and
only what He'll accept. Manoah's wife knew something
else, second thing. Secondly, she said, he wouldn't
have showed us all the things that he did if he's gonna kill
us. He wouldn't have revealed so
many things to us. And don't you imagine that she
told Manoah, I know how you wives can be. Manoah, he showed himself
to us twice. What do you mean? He's the one
who told us to offer the sacrifice. He's the one that showed us the
sacrifice. He's the one who said, take a
lamb. He's the one who said, it must be offered unto the Lord.
He didn't tell us to offer ourselves. He didn't tell us to offer up
money. He didn't tell us to offer our work and our dedication.
He told us to offer a sacrifice unto the Lord. the very sacrifice
that He provided, an offering unto the Lord. And not only that,
He showed us Himself in the sacrifice. He showed us His approval of
it. He showed us His acceptance of
it by being made one with the flames, the wrath and the judgment
of God. God was in Christ, dear friends,
reconciling the world unto himself. Would God have shown us all these
things if he meant to kill us? God has revealed his son to us.
This is my son in whom I'm well pleased, he said. God has revealed
our sin to us. And then he paid the wages of
our sin, which is death. Would he have shown us all this
if he was gonna kill us? This is the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of His people in the world. The Father bears witness
of Him. John the Baptist bear witness
of Him. The Old Testament prophets bear witness of Him. Moses wrote
of Him. So did the prophets in the Psalms.
His work bore witness of Him. Everything bore witness to this
was God the Savior who came into the world to save sinners. Would
God have shown us all these things to kill us? Would God have given
us a desire to know Christ? Would God have given us confidence
in Him? Would God have given us faith
in Christ if He was going to destroy us? No! He would have
never accepted the sacrifice. He would have never shown us
all these things. And then thirdly, in the last
part of verse 23, She says, nor would the angel, as at this time,
have told us such things as these. She said, would he give us a
son and then kill us? You know, that's still a very
pertinent question. Would God give you his son and
then kill you? Would God have made such promises
to us if he had no intentions of fulfilling them? The word
of God to Manoah and his wife was you're gonna have a son,
he's gonna be special, he's gonna deliver Israel and I'm gonna
bless him. Would God have made those promises
if he wasn't gonna keep them? You see how relevant these things
are? God sent his son in the world
to save sinners. He's special, he's the God man.
There's none like him, there'll never be another one like him.
He's gonna save His people from their sin. He's going to, He
shall. That's the promise of God to
all His people. He's not gonna kill us, He's
gonna save us. Okay, well in closing, turn with
me to Romans chapter four, please. Romans chapter four. Look down at verse 20. Romans 4, verse 20. Abraham,
the father of the faith, staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief. And I might add, neither can
we. And being fully persuaded that what he, what God had promised,
He, God, was able also to perform. And therefore, because of this,
it was imputed to him, Abraham, for righteousness. Now it was
not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him. I
ought to underline these words. But for us also. not written for his sake alone,
but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him
that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for our offenses and who was raised for our justification. Friends, may Noah's wife, by
the Holy Spirit here, be our teacher. If God was going to
destroy us, First, He would have never accepted the sacrifice
that He made for us. If God was gonna destroy us,
He would have never been our offering. He would have never
showed us the things that He showed us. I remember it wasn't that long
ago, Chris came to me and said, I've sat in this church all my
life. He said, and I just heard words. He said, now those words
are life. That's what I'm talking about.
He would have never showed us what he's shown us if he was
going to kill us. Our sin, his righteousness, he's shown us.
Our need, his provision, our filthy rags, his perfect righteousness,
hadn't he shown And thirdly, God would have never
told us all the things that He's told us. He'd have never promised
us all that He's promised us. He said, come unto Me and I'll
give you rest. And to those that you have come,
you know that He did that and does that. He gives us rest.
We can rest in Him. He said, if I go prepare a place
for you, I'll come again. And He's coming again. He said,
where I am, you shall be also. That's our hope. That's our confidence. That's our assurance. The promises
of God in Christ are yay and amen. He's God. He cannot lie. He's not a man that He should
lie or a son of man that He should repent. He is faithful, they're
promised. Shall we die? No, no. No. Why? Because in and by and
through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's
people say, I'm accepted in the beloved. I am. I'm accepted in the Beloved,
the Lord Jesus Christ, for God's glory, for my good, and for Christ's
sake. And there's nothing to say apart
from that than yay and amen. So yay and amen. Oh, may God continue to teach
us something of our sin and His righteousness and the sacrifice
that He made for us on Calvary's cross. What a gospel it is.