I love to tell the story of unseen
things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story because
I know it is true. It satisfies my longings as nothing
else can do. I love to tell the story, it
will be my theme in glory. To tell the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. I'd love to tell the story, more
wonderful it seems, and all the golden fancies of all our golden
dreams. I'd love to tell the story, It
did so much for me, and that is just the reason I tell it
now to thee. I love to tell the story, to
help me my theme in glory. To tell the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. I'd love to tell the story, tis
pleasant to repeat. What seems each time I tell it
more wonderfully sweet, I love to tell the story for some have
never heard. The message of salvation from
God's own Holy Word. I love to tell the story, will
be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and
His love. I love to tell the story for
those who know it best. Seem hungering and thirsting
to hear it like the rest. And when in scenes of glory I
sing the new, new song, will be the old, old story that I
have loved so long. I love to tell this story. It will be my theme in glory
to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love. Thank you. All right, turn with me to Marker
16. Mark 16, and when the Sabbath
was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, and
Solom had brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint
him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they
came under the sepulcher at the rising of the sun, and they said
among themselves, who shall roll away the stone from the door
of the sepulcher? And when they looked, they saw
that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great. And entering
into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right
side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were frightened. And he said unto them, be not
afraid, yet ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified.
He is risen, he is not here. Behold the place where they laid
him. But go your way, tell the disciples and Peter that he goeth
before you into Galilee. There shall you see him, as he
said unto you. And they went out quickly and
fled from the sepulcher, for they trembled and were amazed.
Neither said anything to any man, for they were afraid. Now
when Jesus was risen early in the first day of the week, he
appeared first to Mary Magdalene, of whom he had cast out seven
devils. And she went and told them that
he had been with him as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard
that he was alive, and had not been seen of her, believed not.
After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they
walked and went into the country. And they went and told it unto
the residue there, and believed they them. Afterward he appeared
unto the eleven, as they sat at meat, and upbraided themselves
with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed
not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto
them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but
he that believeth not shall be damned. And these things shall
follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out
devils. They shall speak with new tongues.
They shall take up serpents, and if they drink, any deadly
thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick,
and they shall recover. So then, after the Lord had spoken
unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right
hand of God. And they went forth and preached
everywhere, and the Lord worketh with them in confirming the word
and signs following." Amen. Father, we come this morning
thankful for this passage of scripture. Father, we're thankful
that you sent your son to die for us, Lord, and that you made
it possible for us to believe, and actually didn't make it possible,
but made it certain that we would believe. And Father, we are thankful
that you came. and were raised on that third
day, because if you're still in the grave, we have no hope.
But Father, that you were raised up and live today, we have hope. And Father, we just continue
to ask that you watch over this congregation. And Father, grow
it as you see fit, or leave it just the same as you see fit.
And Father, we ask that you continue to watch over our pastor, watch
over him in his time of study, and have him bring messages to
us very clear and understandable as he always does. And we just
ask that you continue that for him. And Lord, we just ask that
you continue to watch over and care for us in Christ's name. As you remain sitting, let's
sing 354, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. 354. What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything
to God in prayer. O what peace we often forfeit! O what needless pain we bear! All because we do not carry Everything
to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden,
Cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge,
Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise forsaken,
Take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms He'll take and shield
thee. Thou will find a solace there. Thank you. One of the biggest
complaints I hear from some of my patients They don't sing the
old hymns anymore in their churches. I'm thankful that we do. Returning to Judges chapter 13. Judges 13, this is the account
of the prophetic announcement of the birth of Samson. And this
story here, when we're looking at this woman and Manoah, the
wife of Manoah and Manoah, it's a story of their encounter with
God. it speaks to our encounter with
the true and living God, who here, the promised word of our
God in Christ. And in this account here, it's
first to the woman, and then it's to that man named Manoah. And they are typical of our need. They're typical of our need,
and they're typical of our experience as believers. Now we were here
last week, we looked at the first five verses and we saw that the
church, this woman is a picture of the church and we see that
by nature she's barren and bears not. She cannot bear fruit. She cannot have a child and that's
typical of us by nature who cannot bring forth fruit unto God. But what we find in grace, the
grace of our God, is that He's the one, the Spirit sets upon
the trees that are the planting of the Lord, His people, He sets
that fruit that they should bear and it's by His grace and power
that we are made fruitful in good works, that we do those
things which are pleasing to our God because they are offered,
they're done in Christ, who is that incense by whom they smell
sweet, it's the savor of Christ. And so our God is pleased with
the works that come forth because they're not our flesh's works,
they're the works of Christ in us. We are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which our God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Now in this woman, I call her
the woman because most often in this chapter she's referred
to as the woman, but she is the wife of Manoah. But in this woman,
we are given a picture of the church. We saw this last week
that she is typical of the church of Christ, who in the flesh doesn't
bring anything good forth of her flesh, but Christ does in
her. And we see how that she's saved
by grace and she goes from being barren and physically unable
to bring forth works to God, but she goes from that barrenness
to being fruitful in and by the grace of God in Christ. And so
that picture that we saw of her being typical of the church,
we're going to carry that forward throughout this whole chapter. We'll see this, how that she's
encouraged by this word and is joyful. And so she goes to her
husband, she goes to another and tells him what's been said
to her. And then he comes needing to
hear this word for himself. And then when he hears this word
preached by Christ, then he believes. He believes he received that
word. And so we see how Christ is the gracious one. He is our savior. He's the one
who delivers us and brings us into life and truth. So I've
titled this, The Woman and Manoah. Now, the angel of the Lord here
is Christ pre-incarnate. This is Christ before he came
in the flesh. This is the Son of God by whom
we know the Father. He's the one that reveals the
Father to us. And so it's always been Christ.
He is the Word of God. He is the Light of God. He is
the uncreated Light that shines upon this dark world in which
we live. And when He shone forth, when
God brought forth the uncreated light, saying, let there be light,
and there was light, that is all Christ. That's all Christ.
Declaring that God had a gracious purpose for a people that He
would create and put on this planet. It was God's gracious
purpose being declared in that shining light. So this angel
of the Lord is Christ pre-incarnate and he confronts her and he declares
to her the promise of his grace. And we know that this isn't the
only time that this has been done. Christ appeared to his
people several times in the scriptures. And we read in the scriptures
how that oftentimes, most of the times, God spoke to us by
his prophets. By his prophets. He spoke to
the people by the prophets. But we're told in Hebrews 1 verse
2 that it's in these last days. since Christ came in the flesh,
that now our God speaks to us by His Son. He speaks to us through
His Son. Through Christ, we know the Father. Through Christ, we understand
the mystery of God, that which was hidden and kept hidden from
the foundation of the earth. We're told in the scriptures
that there were prophets who longed to look into these things
and see these things for themselves. They wanted to see, they saw
it through a glass dimly, and they didn't see it as we now
see it. And we know the name of Jesus
Christ, God with us, Emmanuel, God with us. And so he's the
brightness of God's glory, and he's the express image of his
person. And we know him by his power,
for he has purged us of our sins. And he is the one who is sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God with the majesty
on high. And so seeing that, how does
Christ appear to us today? If he came pre-incarnate and
spoke the truth of God to his people, then how does he reveal
himself to us today? We hear him speak in our hearts. He dwells in our hearts by faith. being born again, regenerated
by his spirit which he's given unto us whereby we hear and understand
those things which only the saints of God know and understand. Because
he's gathered you together in that precious body, precious
to our Lord. And so he continues to speak
to us and reveal himself to us by faith through the preaching
of the word, through scriptures, through his word it speaks of
him and we hear his voice and understand and know the things
that God has given to us freely and abundantly in Christ. Listen to Ephesians 3 17 where
Paul said that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. And in that context, verse 16
and 18, we learn that that's how we understand what the brethren
understand, what God has revealed to his church. It's by Christ
dwelling in your hearts, by faith. That's where we're strengthened
with might by his spirit in the inner man. Our Lord tells us
in John 16, verse 13 and 14, How be it when He, the Spirit
of Truth, is come? When the Father and the Son send
the Spirit to dwell in us, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself,
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. And He will
show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall
receive of Mine and shall show it unto you. What he's saying
there is the spirit comes with the preaching of the gospel,
and the spirit takes the things of Christ, declared in this precious
gospel word, and he shows them unto you. He shows you Christ. He makes you alive to receive
those things of Christ, and he shows them to you in the new
man, his creation, which he's made. Now, we saw this work of
grace in the message last week, where God promised to bear fruit
in this woman's womb. And so this woman has heard this
word, she's heard this, it's good news to her, and she comes
to her husband in great joy. in great joy. It's like what
our brother read there in Mark 16 when it said the women came
to the tomb worried, wondering who's going to roll away the
stone for us. But when they got there, they
were joyful. It didn't say that, but you know
it because it points out, it focuses saying the stone was
very great. Christ has lifted that stone.
He's taken away the deadness that laid upon us and crushed
us and kept us down, unable to hear, unable to see, unable to
believe, having no life in ourselves. He's delivered us. He's rolled
away the stone. He's risen again. And so we hear
and know our savior and she comes with great joy. Now look at verse
six and seven. 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. I'm reminded of that woman at
the well who heard Christ speak and said, I perceive that thou
art a prophet. thou art a prophet you know when
Christ has spoken to your heart and there will be life there
will be joy there will be a receiving of his word and she says but
I asked him not whence he was neither told me neither told
he me his name but he said unto me 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. That new man formed
in us by the grace of God in Christ. And she declares to her
husband what she has heard. And he can hear the joy in her
heart, the gladness of what she has heard, so that he must now
hear this man also. Now first, in verse six, when
she said, I asked him not whence he was, neither told me his name. I was thinking on this and I
thought, well, this is peculiar. Either she's not a perfect type
of the church, it's an imperfect type, and that does happen, or
our Lord is teaching us something about the gospel, something about
what he must do for each of his children. In the account, I realize
when we're reading Judges 13, I know that this woman, as the
wife of Manoah, knows little more than her husband. She's
seen him, and that's about all that she knows more, because
now she's told him everything that was told to her. But as the type of the church
of God, what we learn is that for all the joy, that you have
in Christ and believe Him and the excitement you have in your
heart, that life and joy and light which is given to you,
and you go and tell others that good news that you've heard,
doesn't matter how wonderful Christ is to you. they still
cannot hear, they still do not believe until Christ gives them
that word, until he gives them that same life which was given
to you. And so, she's not able to communicate
to him from where he's from, that he is the Christ, the son
of the living God, that he is the savior and the redeemer of
his people. She cannot give him his name so that he can hear
it, because he must be given that by Christ himself. Isaiah
asked, who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm
of the Lord revealed? It's got to be given and it's
not given by you or me to whom we would give it, but it's received. It's given by God and received
by those to whom God will be gracious and merciful. But you
are full of joy and you go and you spread that gospel word.
You cast that seed wide. You put it out there because
we don't know who the Lord's people is. but he does and he'll
reveal them through the preaching of the word. He'll manifest faith
in them. And so what the Lord is teaching
us about the gospel is all his people must hear that gospel. They must hear the voice of Christ
speak for themselves. When we're preaching it, that
voice must be lifted up with our voice and he comes as he
will in the preaching of the word and he brings it with power
to the heart of his people whom he will. He does that work. And so his child being born again,
regenerated, I don't understand the mechanics of it, but he shows
us in his word, preach this word, preach this gospel, because this
is how the Lord is pleased to save his people. So we declare
it, and he'll regenerate them, and they'll hear his voice. And
then they'll hear, and they'll know why you are so joyful, so
glad, because they'll have heard that word themselves. the same
thing that woman at the well right she went told the people
that lived in her town and they came and heard Christ and they
said now we believe not because of what you've said but because
we've heard him for ourselves we've heard him ourselves and
so Revelation 2 17 it says it this way he that hath an ear
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches To him
that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna. We are more than conquerors through
Christ that saved us. That's how we overcome, in and
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And our God gives to us that
hidden manna, that gospel, that mystery which was hid to others,
but is now revealed unto you. It's now given to you graciously. by the voice of our God. And
so she can't tell him where he's from or what his name is because
Christ has to reveal it to him. And you can describe him and
you can tell others what Christ has done for you and you ought
to. We should. But they're not gonna hear it
and receive it with joy and gladness and a living soul until Christ
gives them life. So you just keep on declaring
it as long as you have that open door, but it must be Christ who
reveals it to them. And it says that our Lord says,
I will give him a white stone and in that stone a new name
written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. Christ is that new name, the
Lord our righteousness. And that's our name as the church,
the Lord our righteousness. He's our righteousness in whom
we rejoice. And so, The Lord purposed to
be gracious to Manoah, and I know that because the next thing you
see is Manoah praying. Then Manoah entreated the Lord
and said, Let the man of God which thou did send come again
unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that
shall be born.' And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah. He answered
him, and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat
in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. Now remember, the woman is a
type of the church, and the church has been given the ministry of
reconciliation. And so she takes that word of
reconciliation, which we have heard, how that God has been
reconciled to us by Christ, and he's reconciled us to himself
by the death and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we
take that word of reconciliation, and go and tell. And that's what
she does. She runs and tells her husband, verse 10, 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 that's what the Lord does.
He gives his pastors a message which we are excited to tell
you. We're glad. We're looking forward to preaching
this word. and to declare what God has revealed
unto us, that your hearts will be blessed and filled with the
joy that he's given to us. And so we preach this word. And
so Manoah rose and went after his wife and came to the man
and said unto him, art thou the man that spakest unto the woman?
And he said, I am. And we know that word blesses
our heart because we know exactly what he's saying. I am the true
and living God. I am that I am. Just as our Savior
said, I am. I am. It's Christ. He's our God, He's our Savior,
and He reveals to us our God and Father. And so, men are led
to Christ through the preaching of the Gospel. We see that. They're
led to Christ through the preaching of the Gospel. Verse 12, Manoah
said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the
child, and how shall we do unto him? And the angel of the Lord
said unto Manoah, of all that I said unto the woman, let her
beware. Do exactly what I've said to
my church. As the Lord has revealed it to
his people, you walk in that. You walk in that light that your
God has given to you. And let there be peace and fellowship
and joy in your hearts with one another, rejoicing in what your
God has given to you, revealing Christ to you. And so we see
here in this how the Church is taught that same message. This
is how the Lord saves all His people and comforts His people
together and settles them together, resting and rejoicing in that
one Savior, that one faith, by that one Spirit. in that one
baptism, that one hope of our calling, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're taught this through
that preaching, the faithful preaching of the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Not what you do for God, but
what God has done for you, richly, abundantly, in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then you carry that message
out, you carry that joy out, and you minister that grace to
others that has been ministered to your heart, to your heart.
Now, we have an example of everything we just read in Acts chapter
two. Let's turn there, Acts chapter
two, hold your place in Judges 13, but verse 36 is where we'll
pick up Acts two. And here's Peter preaching Christ
to the Jews that were assembled, gathered together by God, that
he might be gracious and merciful to this elect people here. He
gathers them together, his chosen, and he says, verse 36, therefore,
let all the house of Israel know it shortly. that God hath made
the same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." He's standing
there and declaring Christ to the people. He's declaring Christ. Now, when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest
of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Just like Manoah,
what shall we do for this child? What are we to do here? Then
Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Now contrary
to what the flesh teaches us, what carnal men teach, and show
this as works, you need to stop doing that and start doing this
and you need to get right with God. You need to repent and be
baptized. What he's focusing on there is
seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Be
turned from your works whereby you think to make yourselves
righteous and acceptable with God, trusting those things and
repent of them and be turned to Christ. believe him as testified
by your baptism. You're declaring publicly, I
trust Christ. He's all my righteousness and
my hope. I've repented from dead works
that cannot save under the ministration of condemnation and death, and
I've been turned by the grace of God to the righteousness of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby God is just and gracious to me
in his son. And we're baptizing him for the
promise. And that's what we're speaking
about here this morning, right? The promise. The promise of Christ. The promise of Christ. For the
promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are
far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And so what we see here with
Peter and these men and women gathered together under the sound
of the gospel who were blessed and turned, thousands of them
that day in hearing that word. So that's what we see here in
Judges 13. We see the Lord ministering his word and working salvation
in the hearts of his people. Now, there's a lot of spiritual
blessings that of our Lord spoken of here that are traced out in
this chapter in Christ. But collectively, what they show
us is that every child of God is going to have this word ministered
to them, and they're gonna be delivered from darkness and brought
into light and given an understanding of the salvation of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. It says in Colossians 1, 13, hath delivered us from the power
of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son, right? And that's what we saw declared
when we looked this morning at the redemption of Christ, the
blood redemption of Christ. He delivered us out of the hands
of justice wherein, and he delivered us where we were dead in trespasses
and sins and lay in darkness in a tomb. He delivered us out
of that death by his death and given us life in his kingdom
by his resurrection power, by his life we stand. So, through the gospel, men are
going to know who Christ is, what he came to do, that is,
who he came to save. He describes them in his word.
They are poor, they are broken-hearted, they are bankrupt sinners who
cannot deliver themselves. Christ came to save sinners,
of whom I'm chief. And you don't have to be ashamed
to say it, that I'm the worst of the worst, but Christ gave
his life for me. And if he could save me, he could
save a sinner like you too. And so he teaches us that that's
why we see how filthy we are. That's why we're brought low,
to humble us, to show us our need of Christ, to not be proud
and lifted up and think more highly of ourselves than we ought
to think of ourselves. But we look to Christ and we
know what he accomplished for us. He's gonna make sure we know
that he has saved us. Thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. It's a done
deal. He is the successful savior. He's accomplished what he came
to do. He did not fail. So first, just
looking at a few of these things in verse 15, we're gonna see
that he creates a hunger and a thirst for righteousness in
his people. We want him to stay with us. We want Christ's presence to
be with us. When he's near, we're near him
when he draws us to himself we're blessed and comforted where there's
peace and we may not understand all things about him there's
a lot that even even initially we see here with Manoah he didn't
really even know who he was talking to he just knew he wanted this
man to stay with him it says verse 15 Manoah said unto the
angel of the lord i pray thee let us detain thee until we shall
have made ready a kid for thee. You see, blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. And so it's your God that creates
that hunger. He's the one who reveals to you
your great need, that you are a sinner, and that he alone is
the savior, that he's the great physician that heals his people. And by his stripes, we are healed. We know how he healed us. He'll reveal that to us. And
so we see constantly in scripture how that there are those who
constrain Christ, who ask Christ, stay with me, please. Even in
that woman at the well, in John chapter four, it says that the
people constrained him to stay with them. And if I remember
correctly, he stayed two days. speaking the truth, ministering
that grace to those people there in Samaria, of all places. Now
second, he will give us a clear, having drawn us, having shown
us Christ, having created in us an interest in him as sinners,
needing his fellowship, his light, his life and power, he gives
us a clear knowledge and understanding of who he is, of just who he
is and how precious he is. He's not going to leave his child
in darkness. He is pleased to tell him. Does
he have to do that? No, I don't think he probably
does have to do it, but that's what he tells us he does in his
word. He does, he does bring us into light. He does give us
a knowledge and understanding of him. For faithful is he that
calleth you who also will do it. He's going to bring it to
pass. So verse 16 in Judges 13, 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. For Manoah knew
not that he was an angel of the Lord. Manoah didn't know everything
about Christ. He didn't see him perfectly. And so Christ was teaching and
making him to know you don't do sacrifice to heavenly creatures
just because they're angels or a spirit or something like that.
You offer your praise and thanksgiving to God. You don't worship men.
You don't worship angels. We worship God and God only. Only our God. And so he's laying
a good foundation for Manoah so that Manoah will come into
an understanding of who Christ is, that he is God. He is the
Son of God. He's the Savior. He's the mediator
between God and men. He's the one who delivers us
from death. Judges 17 and 18. 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 the angel
of the Lord said unto him, why askest thou thus after my name,
seeing it is secret? And the margin says, wonderful. His name is wonderful. And we do rejoice and sing praises
to our God and Savior because we see the wonder of His grace. We're going to wrestle with God.
As Jacob received that blessing and was given the name of his
God, and when he wrestled with that angel, We're going to wrestle. We're going to wrestle with our
God and we're going to know, we're going to be blessed to
know that He's our righteousness and He's our grace and that He's
fulfilled that promise of grace in Christ. And one thing I am
thankful for, and I know you are too that believe, that we
know the name of Jesus. That His name has been made precious
to us. That He's not just some name
that we think nothing of, but He is precious to us. That's
grace. That's given to you that believe. That's not your flesh. That's
given to you that believe by the grace of your God. And not
only is Christ preached plainly and boldly and clearly to His
people since He's ascended to the Father, but He's the one
that makes His name known in the hearts of His people. We know that He saved His people
from their sins. He accomplished it. He is the
name given which is above every name. The Father is well pleased
with the Son so that He is exalted above all the other names and
every knee shall bow to Him. Things in heaven and things in
earth and things under the earth, we're all going to bow our faces
before Christ. And so Christ is the Lord and
Savior, our Deliverer, our Friend. says in Jeremiah 31 34 they shall
all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them
saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember
their sin no more which as we heard this morning is through
that redemption of Christ by His bloodshed. That's why God
has forgotten our sin, because it's been put away. Christ, the
Lamb of God, has borne that sin in Himself and carried it away
into the wilderness so that it's gone. And you are spotless before
Holy God. We're free of our sins and condemnation. Now our risen Lord gives us to
know these spiritual things whereby he takes us out of darkness and
graciously brings us into the kingdom of light where we have
understanding and knowledge of him that loved us and gave himself
for us. And we have an example of this
again when looking at the man on the road to Emmaus. We see
them on the road to Emmaus over in Luke 24, and you can go there,
Luke 24, verse 29. We see this, how that Christ
works this desire of fellowship, this hunger for peace, and to
know our God, and to be blessed with the presence of God. Luke
24, 29, but they constrained him, saying, abide with us. For
it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went
in to tarry with them. Again, they didn't even know
who he was. But they constrained him to stay
with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them,
he took bread and blessed it, and break and gave to them. Now
he's their guest, but he's the one ministering the bread of
heaven to them. He's ministering to them. came
not to be ministered to, but to minister life to his people,
to lay down his life as the servant for them who are his people.
The greater served the younger. And we see his mercy there. And
their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out
of their sight. And they said one to another,
did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by
the way? while he opened to us the scriptures
oh it's a blessed blessed day when christ opens the scriptures
to you and preaches christ to you and gives you that understanding
to hear him and to rejoice in him it's a blessed day when you've
heard the voice of your savior and you leave here with joy in
your hearts being thankful for what he's done for you The third
thing we see is that all our works now are wrought in us by
Christ, and we're made acceptable to the Father. When we look at
ourselves in this flesh, we're not too pleased. And the more
we see, the less pleased we are with ourselves, and the more
fearful and doubtful we are about our salvation. But Christ is
your acceptance with the Father, not your works. It's never your
works, it's always Christ. And God receives every one of
his children for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. We stand in
Christ. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who was made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. That according as it's written,
he that glorieth, let him glory Notice the sacrifice that Manoah
made is sanctified by Christ. It's only received by God because
of Christ. Verse 19 and 20. So Manoah took
a kid with a meat offering and offered it upon a rock unto the
Lord. And the angel did wondrously,
just as his name is. And Manoah and his wife looked
on. Could you imagine their faces
glowing like, what is happening before our very eyes? All they
could do is look on. They stopped doing whatever they
were doing and just looked. They looked. And that's what
our Savior, by grace, works in our hearts. Look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look on Him. See His wondrous
grace and mercy and power. For it came to pass, verse 20,
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. They saw the sacrifice of Christ
made for them so that they're now righteous and precious in
his blood, in his offering, what he offered to the Father. That's
the free offer of the gospel is Christ freely offering himself
to the Father. and the Father received Him and
accepted Him. And therefore, you that come
unto God by faith are received and accepted of the Father. Because
in the Son, God is well pleased in Him, in our Savior. And so we see Him, we glory in
Christ, we're made to rejoice in Him when we are brought to
that cross to behold what our Savior did as our sacrifice,
dying our death in our place, giving Himself. and doing all
things perfectly, fulfilling all righteousness with us in
him, in him. We died with Christ. We were
crucified with Christ. We were put to death with Christ
so that we are delivered from the hands of justice. We're delivered
from the law and having to work a righteousness for ourselves,
which we could never do. And we were buried with him and
are raised again in and by the grace of our God in Christ, by
his power. And he fixes this understanding
in us. He shows us Christ. He shows
us his perfections and glory. And it says, verse 21, that the
angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife
then. Then Manoah knew that he was
an angel of the Lord. As soon as sight was removed
from the equation, then they saw by faith. And they knew this
is Christ. This is our God. This is our
Savior who we've been standing face to face with. Faith is the
evidence of things not seen. You believe because you see not.
but you see him and hear him by faith." By faith. We live
as new creatures in and by Christ. Now, Manoah, he was shaken by
this. When he saw what he saw, he was
shaken and he feared. And Manoah said unto his wife,
we shall surely die because we have seen God. But his wife,
again, typical of the church, 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. He wouldn't have raised Christ
from the dead. He wouldn't have even sent the
Son into the world. He would have destroyed us all
in Adam. Neither would he have showed
us all these things, nor would, as at this time, have told us
such things as these." It's a mercy when we come, when we hear that
gospel, when we see the holiness and the glory of God, when he
goes from being little g-god in our fleshly hearts and becomes
God Almighty, who is sovereign in salvation, sovereign over
all things, working all things to the glory and honor and praise
of his name. When he becomes God to us, then
we fear and we become afraid in ourselves because we see how
foolish we've been. this time thinking that we were
doing things to please God and He was looking to us for what
we would do and responding to us? No, we see that God is sovereign
and in control of all things and we're made afraid. But through
the preaching of the gospel, We're shown God has been merciful
to shake you, what you trusted in all your dwelling places of
wood, hay, and stubble. And he's burned them up before
your eyes and brought them to nothing. He's shaken everything
but those things which are of heaven. that are formed in heaven
by God, those precious things, silver, gold, and precious stones,
things that cannot be shaken, they'll last. They'll stand.
That which is made of Christ shall continue, and it shall
never crumble, it shall never fall apart. You have a lasting
habitation in Christ. That isn't falling apart. That's
not going away. It's not burning up. It's not
blowing away. It's not being carried away. It's fixed on the
rock, which is Christ. And that's our hope and our understanding. And so through that word, you're
settled again. You're settled. And that fear,
which you had in looking to what you are in yourselves, is settled
by pointing you once again to Christ. Look on Christ. Look
upon the servant of God whom he has sent, who faithfully was
obedient to the Father in all things which we could not do.
But he did them faithfully. perfectly unto the end. And so we're thankful. We're
thankful for His word of comfort. 1 John 5 20, And we know that
the Son of God has come, and hath given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that
is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. And so Believe your God. He is fulfilling all things before
your eyes. We're just looking on and seeing
everything that He has and is doing to bring to pass all that
He promised. He's already accomplished it
all. He's just working it out before our eyes. We're just seeing
it here. And I'll close with this promise
in Judges 13-24, what the Lord promises He performs, and the
woman. bear a son, and called his name
Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord
blessed him." And that's a picture of Christ, our Savior, who grew
in the eyes of God and men, who
was blessed. And we see the power and glory
of God, the Son of Righteousness. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your glorious salvation. that you did not leave us in
darkness, nor did you destroy us, but that according to your
purpose of grace, according to your compassion and mercy, Lord,
you've shown us Christ. You've revealed Christ to our
hearts. And more than that, you dwell
in our hearts by faith, Lord. We thank you for this. We thank
you for pulling back the clouds that darkened our understanding.
that kept us in death and darkness. But Lord, you've given us light
and glory and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, thank
you for this. Continue to show us Christ. Continue
to reveal the preciousness of our Savior. Deliver us from trusting
dead things that cannot save. Turn us from our flesh and looking
to it and having confidence in it, and turn us to Christ. Lord,
we pray that you would appear for us, even as you do for all
your people, and that you would establish this work, that you
would pour out your spirit upon us, that you would bless your
people, that you would add your people, drawing them out of dark
places, drawing them out of dead places, drawing them out of dead
works, and from death in this flesh, and gather your people
together as one body, worshiping and rejoicing and glorying in
our Savior. It's in Christ's name that we
pray and give thanks. Amen. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn. 332. My Jesus, I love thee. 332. My Jesus, I love Thee, I know
Thou art mine. For Thee, all my fault is of
sin, I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my Savior
art Thou. If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus,
tis now. I love thee because thou hast
first loved me, And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree. I love Thee for wearing the thorns
on Thy brow. If ever I love Thee, my Jesus,
test now. I'll love Thee in life, I will
love Thee in death. And praise Thee as long as Thou
lendest me breath, And say when the death do lies cold on my
brow, If ever I love Thee, my Jesus, this now. In mansions of glory and endless
delight. I'll ever adore thee in heaven
so bright. I'll sing with a glittering crown
on my brow. If ever I love thee, by Jesus
this now. Thank you.