Good morning, let's begin our
second service by standing and singing hymn number 263, A Shelter in the Time of Storm,
263. The Lord's a rock in Him we hide,
shelter in the time of storm. Secure whatever will be tied,
a shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, a shelter in the time of storm. A shade by day, defense
by night, A shelter in the time of storm. No fears alarmed, no
foes affrighted, a shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, a shelter in the time of storm. The raging storms may
round us feed, Shelter in the time of storm. We'll never leave
our safe retreat, A shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, A weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, A shelter in the time of storm. Rock divine, O refuge
dear, Shelter in a time of storm. Be thou our helper ever near,
a shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, a shelter in the time of storm. Thank you. Let's turn to Colossians 2. Colossians chapter 2. For I would that ye knew what
great conflict I have for you, and for them in Laodicea, for
as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. If their hearts
might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all
riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in
whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In this
I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For
though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit,
joining and beholding your order and steadfastness of your faith
in Christ. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up
in him, and established in the faith as ye have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men,
after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in
him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye
are complete in him, which is the head of all principality
and power. and whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried
with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from
the dead. And you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven
you all trespasses. plotting out the handwriting
of the ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled
principalities and powers, he made a show of them, openly triumphing
over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new
moon, or of the Sabbath days. which are a shadow of things
to come, but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your
reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding
into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by
his fleshly mind, and not holding the head, from which all the
body, by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered, and knit
together, increased with the increase of God. Wherefore, if
ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why,
as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
touch not, taste not, handle not, which are all to perish
with the using after the commandments and the doctrines of men, which
things have indeed a show of wisdom and will, worship and
humility and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the
satisfying of the flesh, Let's pray. Father, we come to You this morning
thankful for this passage of Scripture. And Father, that You
sent Your Son to blot out all the sin that we've committed,
and what we've committed, what we will commit, what we'll ever
commit, the thoughts we've ever had. And Father, we're thankful
that You sent a substitute to take our place and take those
sins. away from us and father we ask that you go with us into
this second message lord let us pay close attention let us
hear with our hearts not just our ears and father we just ask
that you continue to watch over and care for this congregation
father we ask that you watch over the pastor that you've sent
us and the steady time that you give him lord make it fruitful
and we just ask that you continue to watch over and care for us
in christ's name Our second hymn will be 249,
Just As I Am, 249. Close as I am without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidst me come
to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come. Just as I am and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark blood, to Thee whose blood can cleanse
each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, though
tossed about, With many a conflict, many a doubt, Bidings and fears
within, Without a Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am poor, wretched,
blind, Sigh, riches, healing of the mind, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve. Because thy promise
I believe, O Lamb, Of God I come, I come. Good morning. Let's go to Judges
chapter 13. Judges 13, we're now beginning
the account that our Lord gives us concerning the birth of Samson. Now Samson is a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ, but Samson is a Nazirite. He's a Nazirite, and a Nazirite
would voluntarily take a vow and he or she would do this for
some set amount of time that they determined in making this
vow to God. It might be a day, a week, it
could be several days, it could be a year or several years or
many years. But in Samson's case, It's the
Lord that dedicated Samson, that appointed him to be a Nazirite. And he did it from his conception
in the womb all the way to the time that Samson died. He was
a Nazirite his whole life. Now I said that Samson was a
type of Christ, but understand that Christ himself was not a
Nazirite. He drank wine. He touched the
dead and raised the dead unto life, things that were forbidden
for a Nazirite to do. But in these early verses, we
have pictured for us the fruit of the gospel, what the Lord
works in His people, and it's seen and witnessed in the vow
of the Nazarite. And our Lord does this for His
bride. He saves and delivers His bride,
and He separates them unto Himself, unto His own use purpose. And so, from the first five verses,
that's what we'll be looking at, verses one through five,
I want to declare to you the gospel, the gospel of our God. Now, to begin, let me say that
David wrote, blessed is the man whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
imputeth not iniquity." Does not charge him with sin. Though he's a sinner, blessed
is that man whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Now, the natural
man thinks that he can become that blessed man. He thinks by
his works, by his decisions and life choices that he can be that
blessed man whom the Lord looks upon and admires and says, wow,
look at this one really straining and struggling and sacrificing
to be that blessed man, to earn my favor and merit. And I know this because I am
that man by nature. I'm that man by nature. And I was very much caught up
in that thought, that mindset, that heroic mindset that when
the dust settles, I'd be that man whom the Lord approves of
and says, this is a good man. He's a good man. It was all built
on the flesh. It was all built on what I would
do and could do or tried to do. And so it is that there's many
men and many women that go to hell with that hope. They go to hell dying in their
sins, believing that God loved them. and that God was well pleased
with their good life and their good works and that they die
in their sin. being deceived because they thought
that they were pleasing God. And so it is that if God will
be gracious to you, if God will be gracious to any sinner, he
must destroy all vain hopes, all hopes of self-righteousness
and pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and becoming this
good, great, sanctified person. It's not going to happen. and
God's going to destroy it. He's going to meet it and he's
going to bring it to nothing in his people. He's going to
deliver us from those vain wicked thoughts. Now understand this,
that the scripture hath concluded all under sin. Paul writes of
this in Galatians 3.22, the scripture hath concluded all under sin. And we have just such a scripture,
it's throughout scripture, and we have just such and one scripture
right here in chapter 13 verse 1, where we read again, it's
familiar to us, 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 forty years." Now, recognize this is repeated
not concerning Moab, not concerning the Ammonites, not concerning
the Philistines, but this is speaking of the children of Israel,
a type and picture of the Church of Christ. This is us by nature,
we that are religious, we that think that we bring something
to please God with our own works. But the scriptures are showing
us again and again, here they are, here you are, here's me,
sinning, doing evil again in the sight of the Lord. And it's
not only here in Judges 13.1, but we can just look in the book
of Judges at Judges 3, verse 12. And the children of Israel did
evil again in the sight of the Lord. And so the Lord strengthened
the hand of their enemy, and he ruled over them for a time.
Judges 4, verse 1. And the children of Israel again
did evil in the sight of the Lord, when their last judge who
delivered them was dead. Judges 10, verse 6. And the children
of Israel did evil again. in the sight of the Lord, and
served Balaam, and Ashtoreth, and the gods of Syria, and the
gods of Zion, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children
of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the
Lord, and served not him." I wouldn't be surprised to know that they
thought they were serving the Lord all this time. They were
just incorporating a few good ideas. from the nations surrounding
them. They were just bringing in a
few little trinkets here and some shiny things there and things
that seemed to glorify God in some way, and they thought they
were serving God. But the reality is, They were
idolaters. They were idolaters. And that's
exactly what every single one of us is by nature. We are idolaters. And what an idolater does is
they bring God down to a level that they think that they can
meet his standards and requirements. They make God like unto themselves. And so that God becomes one who
is of like passions as you and I. and then they whittle away
the things that are impossible to do, and they like those things
that resonate with them, and that sounds good, I like that,
I can agree with that, and that becomes their God. And so whatever
it is, if it's just showing up every time for service, they'll
do it because they're now pleasing their God, or if Whatever it
is, they'll make it up, and they'll say, that works. That works for
me. God will be pleased with that. And he'll see I'm doing
my best, and he'll make up for the rest. And we've heard that
in religion. We've heard that even in legalistic
law religion. I was told, you do your best,
and God will bless it. He'll make up the rest. He'll
make up the difference for you. That's not the hope of the righteous.
That's not the hope of the righteous. That's not what the Lord convinces
us of. He shows us that in ourselves,
we're wicked. In ourselves, our works are vile
and wretched. How is it that God sees the works
of man? We know, again, there's many
scriptures that we could go to. We could look at David, a man
after God's own heart, and the scriptures show us that man being
king made a woman commit adultery against her husband to lay with
him and having committed adultery and trying to to cover over his
sin by bringing in her husband Uriah and he wouldn't do it he
wouldn't leave the side of David so he had him murdered for his
faithfulness and loyalty to David and he had him murdered and yet
God says that man is a just man before me. So we see the sin. We see that there's nothing to
praise us and our works and ourselves. We see that the scriptures conclude
we're all sinners. But how does God see the works
of man? Well, just before God destroyed the earth with a global
flood, He gave this testimony in Genesis 6 verse 5, and God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Does that describe you? Does that describe you, that
every imagination of the thoughts of your heart is only evil continually? It does me. It does me. If you're a child of God, you
know that that is true of you, even on your best day. All your
thoughts and your heart is so mixed with sin and so mixed with
the flesh that there's nothing that we could stand before God
and say, I didn't sin there. I didn't sin there. Whereas John
tells us that if we say that we have not sinned, We deceive
ourselves. We're deceiving ourselves, and
we're calling God a liar. The truth of God is not in us,
and we're saying, no, I was good there. I did right. I was in
the right over there. I did what I should have done
right there and should have done there, and I was without sin.
I'm faultless in that. I'm blameless in that. Well,
you're calling God a liar to defend yourself. Because God
says, no, every thought, every imagination of the thoughts of
our heart is only evil continually in this flesh. That is our confession. And I'll tell you why the sinner
who knows confesses this to God, that his heart is only evil continually. Why does God bring his children
to see that all our works are sin? because that's when we cease
working. That's when we stop trying to
work a righteousness for ourselves and we're humbled before God
and confess our sin to Him and cry out to Him for mercy. Lord,
save me, a sinner. We beat upon our breasts, we
can't even lift our head up to heaven and we cry, Lord, be merciful
to me, a sinner. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through
our Lord Jesus Christ, because that's the one whom the Father
has sent to save us. Not you. You don't save yourself. You don't save your brethren.
You can't even save yourself. Christ. was sent to the Father
to lay down His life to deliver His people from their sins. And
so that one who confesses that they are a sinner and have no
righteousness of their own, that's the confession that the Spirit
of God puts into our hearts. So that we cease working, we
cease trusting in our own righteousness, and we look to the one whom the
Father has sent and cry out to God for mercy in Him. But the self-righteous man will
never confess such a thing. because they will go on in their
self-righteous works, in their religion, tinkering away on this
thing and fixing that and tweaking this in themselves and making
this better and getting better and better and better, progressively
sanctifying themselves, all the while denying what God is telling
us, that all men are sinners. Let God be true and every man
a liar. But He's the just one. He's righteous. He's holy and
faithful and just. And what are we before God but
sinners? Sinners, desperate for the grace
and mercy of God. And the self-righteous does it
because he's not that bad. He doesn't have a lot of sins
to be forgiven. He just needs a little help here and a little
help there, a little reminder, a little correction. But he's
got it. He's got it under control. Our
Lord Jesus Christ addressed this when he was speaking to the Jews
in John 8.28. He said, Therefore, because you
are trusting in yourselves, and you are not looking to the one
whom the Father has sent, you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I
am he, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ sent of God, ye
shall die in your sins. Because the only reason why the
Son of God came in the flesh is because there is no law that
we can keep that makes us righteous. By God sending his Son into the
world in the flesh to die for the sins of his people, it declares
we can't do it. We can't do it. We cannot save
ourselves. And so, if God will be gracious
to you, he's going to knock down all your strong towers of self-righteousness
and your works and confidence in this flesh to bring you to
nothing. To put your face in the dust
before the throne of God at the feet of Christ, crying out, Lord,
be merciful to me. And it sounds harsh. But it's
merciful, it's gracious of God to make us to see our need and
to know our need now in the day of grace that we might hear His
salvation and hear the voice of Christ and be healed and comforted
and rest in the rest of God and in the comfort that God has provided
for His people, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the fact of the
matter is, our God is showing us that in Adam, we died in our
trespasses and sins. And we're not going to get ourselves
out of this pit. We see how Adam tried to do it,
right? Adam tried. He ran to the woods
and he sowed fig leaves together. And as soon as he plucked them
off the vine, they began to die. And that's what we do in all
our works. We just have wilty, droopy things
that cannot cover our nakedness. We're just deceiving ourselves. God came and slew a beast, one
for Adam and one for Eve, to show that blood must be spilled.
And those beasts were slain in their place, not that the blood
of bulls and goats cleanses us from sin, but they pictured Christ. He was showing them the coming
Lamb of God that He had just promised back there in the garden. He had just told them of the
promised seed. And so, like Adam and his enmity,
the carnal man turns to various religions and various philosophies,
just like you read in Colossians 2, and various traditions of
men, touch not, taste not, handle not, which Paul said they're
all perishing. All our works are perishing,
and they come to nothing. There's no lasting power. They
are wood, hay, and stubble. The things that are going to
burn up in that day. And so he turns us from those
things because man trusts in those things. He trusts in what
he's done. He'll even trust in the law of
Moses. But, like we see here in our
text, like Manoah's wife, we are barren and bare not. We're
barren and bare not. Judges 13 verse 2. And there
was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose
name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and bare not." Now,
the name Dan means judge, and the name Manoah means rest, or
to seek rest. It signifies the seeking of a
marriage for a woman, to give her a cover, to protect her,
to provide for her. Today, we don't know what it
is to serve a king. We've never been under a king.
It's hard for us even to imagine, especially as Americans that
are gun-toting John Waynes that can do what we want. We think
we're independent and free. So we can't imagine serving a
king. Well, in the same way, a woman today can go out and
get a really good job and make good money and provide for herself
everything that she needs. But there was a time, especially
back here, where a woman was very dependent on a man. She
needed a husband. And if she didn't have a husband,
she better be living under her father's roof because she's got
no one. She's open to any opportunistic,
wicked, evil man. at that time. So she needs a
marriage. She needs, that's her rest. And
that's what the name Manoah signifies. Rest. A marriage for the wife. A head here. And so she's trusting
her head. She's laboring in her head. And
yet she's barren and bears none. She brings forth no fruit. And
see, that's a picture of what we are in Adam. In Adam, all
die. In Adam, none of us. can bring
forth fruit unto our God. We sinned in Adam and God imputes
the sin of Adam to us because in Adam we sinned against God,
we rebelled against God. And we are born of the seed of
Adam and so we come forth in Adam's image. That image of God
which Adam was created in was defiled, ruined, destroyed. when he sinned against God. And
we inherit that same nature. That seed of Adam is how we are
born, so that we are not born in the image of God, but in the
image of corrupt Adam. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. We have no life or ability to
create life in ourselves. And so many, turning to various
religions and lifestyles and life mottos and creeds, they
just boil it down to something that works for them, that resonates
for them, and they think this is their life. And some turn
to the law of Moses, believing that they are keeping it. And
they do so to justify themselves, or they do so to perfect themselves,
or to make themselves holy. to sanctify themselves. That's
what they're saying there. But turn over to Romans 7, verse
5. Go to Romans 7, verse 5, and
then leave a marker there at Romans 7, because we are gonna
come back to it shortly. This is describing us in the
flesh, as religious as we might be, it's still us in the flesh. For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. We labor for rest. We want a
covering. We want something to cover our
sins and to protect us and to provide for us, and so we strive
to fix and correct what was destroyed in us in Adam. We try to fix
those things and right our wrongs, but we cannot put away our sin.
We cannot justify ourselves before God. We are barren and bare not. Just like Manoah's wife. We're
barren and bare not. And no man believes it. No man
understands it. No one receives the word of God
with understanding because he's naturally of the flesh. He's
carnal. That's how we are. We don't understand
until God opens our understanding. that we might understand the
scriptures and believe his word and testimony concerning our
sin and our salvation, our Savior. Now we preach the gospel because
the Lord commands us to preach this gospel, to bear witness
of what the scriptures testify that we're all sinners. Because
I can tell you, I read this from cover to cover many, many times
as a young man. And all the while, to me, I thought
I was reading a how-to manual, how to correct myself, how to
fix myself, how to raise myself up by degrees and get better
and better and more and more holy. Now, I knew Jesus was a
component of it. I knew He was the Son of God.
I did believe that, but I was still so troubled and in such
deep darkness and so tossed to and fro by every wind and wave
that came because constantly, when I thought I had arrived,
I was knocked back down and I saw, I thought that was fixed. I thought
I already dealt with that and fixed that. No, I didn't. No,
I didn't. Because the root in me is sin
and death and corruption. By nature, I don't have a spirit. I don't have fellowship with
God. I'm enmity against God by nature and I cannot please God
in the flesh. And so we preach this word declaring
that no, God says we're all sinners, but he sent his son. And we preach
that and proclaim that word because the spirit takes of the things
of Christ and shows them unto you, his child, giving us a new
birth of the seed of Christ. So that just as I died in Adam,
I sinned in Adam, and I'm born of his corrupt seed and inherit
that corrupt nature of Adam, so you, being born of the Spirit
of God, who takes the seed of Christ and gives you a new birth
in the new man, in the new man you inherit the nature of Christ. That's why John says, That man
cannot sin. That new man can only believe
God. In the flesh, we're still dead.
In the flesh, we're subject to the law of sin and death. But
in the new man, he ever liveth. Because it's Christ. It's Christ's
seed in you. The hope of glory. He's the one
by whom we believe God and only believe God. that's why there's
that old nature and that new nature always at war until Christ
returns and redeems his flesh transforms this flesh in that
in that day when he returns so the Lord gives us a new birth
and it's given to us by grace that we might hear and know and
so this is what we see now in verse 3 Judges 13 3 we'll come
back to Romans 7 in a moment Judges 13, three, and the angel
of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her, behold
now, thou art barren, embarrassed not. See, the Lord comes and
shows us. We know, but we don't know. And
then the Lord comes and makes it very clear to us. All your
labor, all your striving, all your spending for that which
is not bread, it's all come to nothing. It hasn't saved you. It hasn't raised you up one cubit
of one stature. You're still just as wicked and
evil in your flesh as you ever were. You've produced no living
fruit. But thou shalt conceive and bear
a son." He says there will be life. I'm going to give it. I'm
going to give you life in you. In that new man I will create
life. the life of my Son, I will put
in you, and give you life, and make you fruitful, and provide
for you, and nourish you, and feed you, and comfort you, and
give you rest, that rest which you sought from all these wicked
vain things, I'll give you rest in my Son. You'll be His bride,
you'll marry Him, you'll be His spotless, holy bride. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
who does this. God the Father sent His Son,
who came into the world willingly, obeying to the Father in all
things, fulfilling all the law of righteousness for His people,
doing that which we could not do. He did it for us and with
us and works His righteousness in us so that we are the very
righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, by faith. We received that atonement, that
reconciliation of our God in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's purchased
us for himself. Now let's go back to Romans 7
and let's pick up in verse 4 and read down to verse 6. And see
it in that context, in the context of life in Christ. Wherefore,
my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law. We're dead to
those other husbands that could not save us, that could not provide
for us. We're dead to the law by the
body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to
him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit
unto God. For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. We were barren and bared not.
But now, We are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein
we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, and
not in the oldness of the letter. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
makes us new creatures. In Christ, old things are passed
away. Behold, all things are become
new. That old husband that you slaved and worked for, he's dead.
He's dead, he's not your husband anymore. He has no authority
or power over you. Your head, your covering, your
salvation, your Savior, your Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ
whom the Father hath appointed. He's perfect and holy, righteous
in all his ways. And he has provided everything
for you, child of God. Everything that you could not
do under the law, Christ has done it all perfectly. And so
being made alive by Christ, now we see and understand, yes, Lord,
all our works, all our striving were vain works that could not
save. And He teaches us and separates
us from those things and shows us how that He is all sufficient. He's everything that we need
to come to the Father. And He says this now back in
Judges 13.4, Now therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine
nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing. You see, the
warning here is that the Lord is saying, don't look to Babylon.
Don't look back to Babylon. Forget about Sodom and Gomorrah.
Don't look back. They have no help for you there. There's no goodness, no strength,
nothing nourishing or edifying in the dead religion of Babylon. It says over in Revelation 18,
I'll be reading from there if you want to follow along. Revelation
18 in verse 1, the first thing that we see is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Revelation 18.1 says, And after
these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, this is
the servant of God as our mediator, having great power, and the earth
was lightened with his glory. That's exactly what John tells
us in John chapter 1, that he is the light of men. He is our
light. He is our salvation. He is the
glory of God. He is the one that has come and
brought light into this dark world and shown us that all our
works were worthless and could not save. But God is just and
holy and his wrath will destroy the inhabitants of the earth.
But in Him, in Christ, is our strong tower. He is our salvation. He is the name whereby we must
be saved. And we shall be saved in Him. And he cried mightily with a
strong voice, saying from the cross, It is finished. And that's what's being said
here in Revelation 18.2 Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen. I've destroyed all your enemies
and all that oppose you and stood between you and your God. And I've put away your sins.
I've defeated your foes. I've destroyed your sin. I've
put it away. I've made a covering with my own blood. And the grave,
it can no longer hold you. Death has no more power over
you. I've delivered you from that second death. You have nothing
to fear of. When you die, you shall be forever
with the Lord, you that believe in him. That second death has
no power, nothing to say to you. It cannot dictate what your inheritance
is. Christ is the one who has given
you an inheritance in Him. He's opened the door and brought
you in, and no man can shut it, and no man can push you out.
You can't even take yourself out of the hand of Christ or
the Father. You're His, secure in Him forever, brethren, forever. And he says, of Babylon, it's
become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit,
and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations
have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And
the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. And the
merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of
her delicacies. That was us. That's speaking
of, we were right there. We were all following the course
of the world. We're all dead in trespasses
and sins, following the voice of the prince of the power of
the air and going right along with the children of wrath and
disobedience. That was us. but God, but God, he delivered
us. And so he sends forth that word
of reconciliation, verse four, and I heard another voice from
heaven saying, come out of her, my people, come out of her. You
don't want to be there. That there's no life there. That's
a place of barrenness, a desert wasteland. It's, it's and cannot
save you. There's no life there. Come out
of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and
that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto
heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." And so when
Christ comes, all those old things have passed away. All things
have become new. And we come out of those dead
works, trusting those dead works, those barren things that brought
forth no fruit. We don't look to them anymore.
And when we do, Our God saves us and delivers us and mercifully
brings us out and declares this beautiful, wondrous gospel again
and again in our ears to know that's not my hope. There's nothing
there for me. Christ is all my salvation. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for
turning me again and again to look to your Son. So we don't
continue in the dead letter works. Christ is our Savior, not our
religion. Our holiness, our righteousness
is not our systematic theology. It's Christ. We love doctrine
that upholds and declares the Lord Jesus Christ, but we come
to a person. He's our husband. He's our salvation. He's the one who teaches and
instructs us and keeps us. Christ is our Sabbath rest, not
the law of Moses. We rest in Christ, not in our
keeping of the law. Christ is all. So all the spiritual
blessings of God are freely given to us in Christ Jesus. Let's
see this in verse 5, Judges 13 verse 5. For lo, 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." Now
in this is a beautiful picture of what Christ our Savior works
in His child. We are born in the womb of grace. And we are separated and sanctified as holy unto the Lord. We are holiness unto the Lord
because of the redemption, the blood redemption of Jesus Christ. Now, I'm not gonna read all of
number six, but you could write down number six is the chapter
where you can read of the vows of the Nazarite. It describes
all the vow of the Nazarite. But I wanna leave you with just
a few things regarding this vow that Christ, our Lord and Savior
accomplishes in us as his people, as those that have been set apart
for him. If you remember, At the beginning
here of Judges 13, the angel of the Lord, which is the pre-incarnate
Son of God, he's speaking to who? The woman. He's talking to the church, this
woman who pictures the church, and he's making her a Nazirite
for a set time while she carries Samson in her womb. First, the Lord told Moses in
Numbers 6 verse 2, He said, Speak unto the children of Israel,
and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves,
to vow a vow of a Nazirite to separate themselves unto the
Lord. So the first thing we see that's
beautiful is men and women are no different in Christ. He's
the Savior of all. He uses men and women in the
church. He brings us together. And we
all share and are partakers in that one glorious salvation of
our God and Savior. And He separates us unto Christ. We are His bride. Together we
are one body in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no difference.
between the educated and uneducated, the poor or the wealthy. It doesn't
matter your race, it doesn't matter your gender. We're all,
all his people are gathered as one in Christ. And we are separated
unto Christ who is made unto the believer He's made everything
to you and to me. Second, the Lord told Moses in
Numbers 6.3, he shall separate himself from wine and strong
drink and shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong
drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes nor eat
moist grapes or dry. So this was very strict. It was very strict. You couldn't cook with grapeseed
oil. You could add red wine vinegar
to your salad. or a little white wine vinegar,
cook your green vegetables, your green beans with some white wine
vinegar. Couldn't use that. That was forbidden. You couldn't
eat grapes and you couldn't eat raisins. Nothing of the vine
could you take. No product of the vine. And what
the Lord's showing us is it's just like the leaven of the Pharisees. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump. Have nothing at all to do with
it. And so what our Savior does is
he tells us, don't come in Christ alone. He tells us, come in Christ
alone. Don't mix works with grace. Don't mix Satan with God. Don't mix darkness with light.
You're separate from that. Walk in the grace and the light
of your God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 6, 16,
and 17 says, what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?
For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said,
I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their
God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you." So we come in the blood of Christ,
and we don't add our works. We don't think these things.
add to our justification, what we do is in the heart of thankfulness,
thankful for what our God has done. We rest in Christ and trust
Him. Third, similarly to what we just
read in Numbers 6.6, it says, all the days that he separated
himself unto the Lord, he shall come at no dead body. You that believe Christ, we don't
mix, we don't turn back to the law. That husband is dead. He
has no authority over you. We listen to the voice of our
husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our holiness. He's our perfection. He is our sanctification. So
don't turn back to the law of Moses. Paul calls the law of
Moses administration of death written and engraven in stones. That's the ministration of death,
he says. Don't look back to that which
is written on the stones. That's not your rule of life.
Christ is your rule of life. He's given you his spirit and
he asks, shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? Shall that not lead you and guide
you? Shall Christ not lead you and
guide you by his spirit? Is not Christ able? Why should
we listen and follow the way of the Pharisees who despised
and rejected Christ? They trusted their works in the
law. They trusted that the law was
their righteousness and they despised Christ. They refused
him and said, we'll not have that man reign over us. Why would
we turn from Christ? You're turning to the ministration
of condemnation rather than the ministration of righteousness. This is all in 2 Corinthians
3. And so those professing to believe on Christ but yet look
to Moses and the law of Moses, Paul says, they yet have a veil
on their heart. They're yet trying to see God
with blindness, through a veil on their heart. Nevertheless,
he encourages us, saying, when it shall turn to the Lord, when
the heart of that sinner shall be turned to Christ and Christ
alone, the veil shall be taken away. And then fourth and finally,
if a man defiled himself before the time of his vow was ended,
he had to start over. Number 612 says, but the days
that were before shall be lost because his separation was defiled. And what that means is if he
committed to the Lord a vow to do for a year, and he made it
to day 364, and someone dropped dead next to him, he had to start
all over. He would make a new sacrifice,
shave his head, and begin the clock all over, another 365 days. The point is, if we've been handling
that which cannot save and mixing law with grace or works with
Christ, whatever it is, whatever foolishness, Forget those things
and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, brethren, I count
not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind. They're all dumb. They're all
works of stubble and hay and they're burned up. I see that.
But I reach forth unto those things which are before. I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. That's how we walk. We walk in
Christ, looking to him. We're always being corrected.
We're always being humbled. We're always being taught that
Christ is all. This flesh is constantly getting
in the way. This flesh is constantly doing
and saying and thinking things for which we are ashamed. But
look to Christ. His blood is sufficient to save
the vilest of sinners. Look to Him, trust Him, believe
Him. Don't be turned away. Look to
Christ alone for all your righteousness. And that final thing he says
in Judges 13, 5, he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the
hand of the Philistines. And what I see in that is we
have the spear. Christ has given us his spear,
which has born in us the new man. We carry, as it were, in
the womb, Samson. It's been formed in us, that
life, that grace, that new man of Christ. And when he returns,
He returns. The work is, it's finished. Christ
has finished the work. I don't want to cloud that. It's
finished. But we still have this struggle and battle as we carry
this new man in the flesh. But when Christ returns, this
flesh will be put down and we shall be transformed in the image
of Christ where we shall see him as he is. And we shall have
a body fit for heaven to dwell with him forever and ever. So
rejoice, brethren, rejoice in him, for then shall be brought
to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. I pray the Lord bless that word
to you, to your hearts, brethren. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace and mercy. We thank you, Lord, for the peace
that we have, Lord, that though we, with our husband being Adam,
being religion, being our works, being whatever it is, though
we were barren and could not bear, we thank you, Lord, that
you have brought to us the voice of your son, the salvation of
Christ, the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. Lord, thank you for giving us
life in him. Thank you for delivering us from
barrenness and waste and ruin. and only to awake after we die
to see that we've been entirely wrong and dead. Lord, we thank
you for this word of grace which you've given to us with power
to deliver us from this flesh, from this death, from this life,
and to see the light and glory and power in the face of our
Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, we come to you in Him,
having no confidence in the flesh, but every confidence in him.
Keep us, Lord. Help us ever look to him and
help us to preach and proclaim this message clearly, continually
from this pulpit to the honor, glory, and praise of your name.
It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. All right, Brother Joe. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, number 224, I Know Whom I've Had to Leave, 224. I know not why God's wondrous
grace To me he hath made known, Nor why unworthy Christ in love
Redeemed before his own. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded That He is able to keep that which I've committed
Unto Him against that day. I know not how this saving faith
to me He did impart, Nor how believing in His word brought
peace within my heart. I know whom I have believed and
am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not how the Spirit moves,
convincing man of sin. revealing Jesus through the Word,
creating faith in Him. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. No, not what of good or ill may
be reserved for me, Of weary ways or golden days before His
face I see. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not when my Lord may come
at night or noonday fair, Nor if I walk the vale with him,
Or meet him in the air. But I know whom I have believed,
And am persuaded that he is able To keep that which I've committed
Unto him against that day. Thank you.