You'll take your Bibles and turn
with me to Judges, Judges chapter 11. Judges chapter 11. Again, this is continuing what
we've been studying in Hebrews chapter 11, and the apostle had
come to the point where he said it would take him too much time
to go through the list there that
he had mentioned of Gideon, Barak, of Jephthah, and that's who we're
going to be looking at this morning, Jephthah, in Judges chapter 11. The title of the message is God's
Vow and God's Demand. God's Vow and God's Demand. Now, in Judges chapter 11, we read of this man Jephthah. who was a judge of Israel, this
man Jephthah. And I want us to see what God
demands. What God demands. Do you remember
in Micah chapter 6, in verse 8, it says, What doth the Lord
require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with our God? We've studied that passage before,
and we've realized that we could do none of those things. We in
ourselves could do none of those things that God demands of us. He demands righteousness, holiness,
pureness. And yet we ourselves cannot perform
these things. Now, this Scripture, as all Scriptures,
is concerning Christ. When you go to the Old Testament,
remember that we are studying of Christ every time we go. Every time you read, you need
to look for Christ, because God meant it that it should speak
of Christ. Jesus, when He talked to His
disciples in Luke chapter 24, He said, beginning at Moses and
all the prophets, He began to expound unto them all things
in the Scriptures concerning Himself. Concerning Himself. So, as we look at this history
here of Jephthah, this story here, I pray that God would give us
grace to see Christ. If we miss Christ in this text,
you miss Christ, it's useless to us. It's useless to us. And so I'm going to give us a
brief history. Our text is going to be found in 29, but I need
to give a brief history of what's going on here. This man Jephthah
was a man that was born the son of Gilead, but he was born to
a harlot. He was the son of a harlot. It says that in verse one, the
son of a harlot and Gilead begat Jephthah. Now, that was not as
though that was not bad enough. This man, Gilead, went and married
a woman and she had sons, legitimate sons. And when they grew up,
they they hated this man, Jephthah, and they kicked him out because
they didn't want him to have anything to do with the inheritance.
And so he dwells in this foreign land, the land of Tob. And in
the progression of time, there was a war fixing to break out. The children of Ammon had come
against Israel. And this man Jephthah was not
just any man. He was a mighty man of valor.
He was a man of great military skill. He was a man that was
needed in a time of war. And so they come back to him
in verse 4. It says, In the process of time,
the children of Ammon made war against Israel. And it was so,
when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders
of Gilead went and fetched Jephthah out of the land of Tob, and said
unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight against
the children of Ammon. Jephthah now, being needed, was
called back. He said, Aren't you the fellows
that kicked me? out of here, and now you want
me to come back and fight?" There was a great need. There
was a great need for Israel. Israel was going to war. And
he agreed to go. Jephthah finally agreed to go
to war. And he, instead of engaging in
battle to begin with, he tried to reason with Ammon, the king
of Ammon. See, the king of Ammon wanted
the land that Israel had. He said, you've obtained this
land without legitimacy, and we want our land back. And Jephthah
replies to him and says, no, that's not true. That's not true. We tried to go around your land,
but there was a king of Shihon at that time, and we defeated
him, and we took this land, and God gave it to us. And we're
not giving it back. And Ammon didn't like that, so
he went ahead and waged war with Israel. Now go to verse 29. Scripture says, And then the
Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and passed over Gilead,
and Manasseh, and passed over Mishpah, of Gilead, and from
Mishpah of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon." We
cannot help but see this in Gilead as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit came upon Gilead. I mean, it came upon Jephthah. The Lord raised up Jephthah as
a picture of Christ in that the Spirit of the Lord descended
upon him. Do you remember in the baptism
of Christ when the Spirit of God descended upon him as a dove? And the Scripture tells us that
when he first preached the gospel, what was his first message? He
said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. To preach the gospel. To preach the gospel. The Spirit
of the Lord. The Spirit of God was given to
our Savior without measure. He is given to us, and we possess
the Spirit of God, but we possess in measure the Spirit of God. We have the down payment, but
we don't have the full measure. He's had the full measure of
God. And He having the full measure of God's Spirit, we know this,
that the reason that He came and became a man was because
of a vow. The reason Christ came, the reason
Christ was made flesh and dwelt among us, the reason that Christ
came into this world so that the Spirit would descend on Him
without measure, the reason for this was the vow that God has
made for us. Look at that in verse 30. It
says, And when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah,
Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord. and said, If thou shalt
without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, then
it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth out of the doors of my
house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of
Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a
burnt offering." Jephthah desired victory. He desired victory,
so he tied his soul to a vow. He made a vow with God, made
a pledge, a covenant, that if God were to deliver Israel from
Ammon, that he would take whatever it is that came out of his house
to meet him, the first thing that came out. He would take
it and offer it as a burnt offering unto God. Jephthah gave his word. He gave
his word that he would offer a burnt offering to whatsoever
came out of his house. Now, the burnt offering was very
particular in the Old Testament in that the priest took nothing
of the burnt offering. Now, they took of the other offerings
and they were able to eat of it, but of the burnt offering
they were not allowed. It was wholly unto God. It was
wholly unto God. Wholly given to Him. It was also offered completely
to God without any given to the priest. Therefore, we can see
the everlasting righteousness by the everlasting vow of God. We can see that God vowed a vow. that He would provide an offering. God has vowed a vow that He would
provide an offering for us. Now, God, because He could swear
by none higher, swore by Himself. He swore with an oath, the Scripture
says. If you go to 2 Samuel chapter
23. Second, Samuel. Chapter 23. Verse one. Now, these be the
last words of David, David, the son of Jesse and the man who
raised was raised up on high, the anointed of God, the God
of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, The spirit of
the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue. The God
of Israel said, the rock of Israel spake unto me, he that ruleth
over men must be just ruling in the fear of God. And he shall
be as the light of the morning when the sun rises, even a morning
without clouds as a tender grass springing out of the earth by
clean shining after rain. Although my house be not so with
God. Yet he hath made with me an everlasting
vow, an everlasting covenant, an everlasting agreement, ordered in all things and sure,
for this is all my salvation and all my desire, though he
make it not to grow." Jephthah rested in God's promise
by faith. He knew that God was over all
things. He knew that God was sovereign
and ruled over all things, and therefore he vowed a vow and
said whatever it is that God provides. You see, he was trusting
God to provide whatever sacrifice was necessary. He didn't know
what was going to come out of his house. Jephthah didn't know,
but God did. But God did. God knew what he
would provide for himself. Jephthah also knew God would
provide a sacrifice by divine providence. He asked for a deliverance
of Israel and would offer to God whatever God demanded. That's what his vow was. God,
I want to offer whatever it is you demand. If you deliver us
from this evil people, if you deliver your people from Then,
Lord, I would offer whatever it is you demand of us." Whatever
it is you demand of me as a sacrifice. Let us see that the Lord in this
will provide Himself a sacrifice. You remember when Abraham and
Isaac went up the mountain. He told those men even before
they left, they said, I and the lad will go yonder and worship
and come again to you. See, Abraham knew as he offered
his son Isaac in his heart, he knew that God was able to raise
him from the dead and that they were going to come back to those
servants. And when he went up the hill, Isaac said, Father,
here's the wood, here's the fire, but where's the lamb? And Abraham
said this, God will provide himself a land. God will provide himself
a land. Jephthah laid everything at the
Lord's feet to provide whatever God wanted. Even so, every child of God knows
that if we are to be delivered from our sins, it must be that
we lay everything at the feet of God. We must lay our soul's
prostrate before God and know this, that if we are to provide
what God demands, it must be that God provide it. I can't
provide it. Can you? I cannot defeat my sins,
can you? I cannot slay my sins, can you? No. God demands us to be righteous,
and we cannot provide righteousness. So what do we do? We lay down
in front of Him and say, whatever you provide. You have to provide
it. I can't do it. I can't do it. We're to be delivered. We know
that God must provide an offering. That publican, he said, Lord,
be merciful to me, the sinner. Be propitious. He had his eye
to a sacrifice. And Jesus said, that man went
away justified. because he had his eye to a sacrifice. Jephthah had his eye to a sacrifice,
to a sacrifice that God would provide. And then we see in verse
32 and verse 33, the victory. And it says, So Jephthah passed
over the children of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord
delivered them into his hands, and he smote them from Aurora
even till they came to minneth even twenty cities, and unto
the plain of the vineyards with a very great slaughter. Thus
the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel."
Victory over Ammon. Behold God's faithfulness in
this victory. God's faithfulness. God's faithfulness to give the
victory. overseeing. The vow has been
made, my friends, God himself has made a vow. He's made a vow
to provide whatever it is his people need, whatever God demands,
he has vowed to provide it. And I tell you that he has already
provided the victory is already won because he has sent his only
Son. What was the price of Israel's
deliverance? What would it cost to save these
sinners? Verse 34 says, And Jephthah came
to Mishpah unto his house, and behold, his daughter came out
to meet him. What do you suppose went through
Jephthah's mind at this point? He said, Whatever it is comes
out of my house, I'll offer it as a burnt offering." I'm sure
that Jephthah never thought it would have been his daughter.
I'm sure he thought it would have been a servant. It would
have been somebody to come out and greet him other than his
daughter. And she came out with timbrels
and with dances, and she was his only child. Beside her, He
had neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass when he saw
her that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter,
thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that
trouble me, for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I
cannot go back." What sacrifice does God demand
for my soul? He demands what's pictured here.
He demands what's pictured here. This daughter of Jephthah is
also a great picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because what God
demands for the sin of my soul is a precious sacrifice. precious sacrifice. The vow was made and the one
that God provided, the one that God demanded, was His only daughter. What God demanded was all that
Jephthah had. That's what God demands. What
does God demand of you and me? All we have. All we are. All Jephthah had, he had to give,
and that was his precious daughter. How heart-wrenching was that?
He said, you've made me low. I've got two children. I tell
you, I wouldn't want to give either one of them up. I wouldn't want to give either
one of them up, especially in death. In death. It must have been heart-wrenching
for Jephthah. Jephthah was made low and his
pain was great. But friends, he couldn't go back
on his vow. He could not go back. Even so, God cannot go back on
his vow. God demands a precious sacrifice. And guess what? God provided
a precious sacrifice. He provided the sacrifice of
His only Son. God will not go back on His Word
to deliver His people, His elect. Stop and think what it cost our
God to save us. What did it cost God? Now, free
grace is free to you and me, but it was not free to God. It
cost God His precious Now, how much we think of that
is how much we think of God. How highly do we think of that? Free grace costs God His only
Son. Now, believer, if God sent His
only precious Son to save us, how shall He not with Him freely
give us all things? We think of God as begrudging.
The old nature thinks of God as, He's holding something back
from me. I want that, but He's not giving
it to me. He's begrudging me that. No. He's protecting you. Protecting you. If God gave us His Son, how shall
He not with us, freely give us all things that are good for
us? Why would He withhold anything? I won't forget this story, I've
told it to you many times, about Don when his daughter got married. His son-in-law came over to the
house and Don pulled out his keys and he gave him the keys.
He said, this is the key to my house, this is the key to my
car, this is the key to everything he had. He gave him a copy of
the key. And he said, why are you doing this? He said, I gave
you my daughter, why would I give you everything else? These things don't mean that
she was the most precious. How much more so that Jesus Christ
gave his son? And how much more precious was
his son than our children? Much more precious. Much more
precious. Second of all, the sacrifice
that God demanded must be a willing sacrifice. And we see this in
the daughter of Jephthah here. A willing sacrifice. And verse
36, And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy
mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which proceeded
out of thy mouth. Forasmuch as the Lord hath taken
vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon."
A willing sacrifice. This girl, she came out of the
house. She knew it brought her father
loathe that he had made a vow to God and can't go back. She
didn't begrudge his vow. She said, Father, whatever it
is that you've demanded, do it. Do it. She was a willing sacrifice. What a picture of Christ. A willing
sacrifice. I know you love me, but what
are you willing to do for me? I love you, but what am I willing
to do for you? Die for you? We should. Absolutely. Scripture says we
should lay down our lives for the brethren. If that be necessary,
we should. We should do it willingly. Even
as we have the example of Christ, who willingly laid down His life.
He said, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down willingly. Because the Father demanded it.
The Father demanded it. And He willingly said, Father,
I've glorified Thee on the earth. I've done exactly what You've
told me to do. This glory that Christ was to
receive must have come by way of the cross. There's no other
way for Him to be glorified and do what the Father commanded,
unless He die. Unless He die. A willing sacrifice. A willing sacrifice that God
provided Jesus was willing to be made sin for us. I know what it's like to be a
sinner. I do. By experience, I don't know what
it is to be righteous. I know I have the righteousness
of God. By faith I know this, but by experience I can't say
it. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. I know that. Everything I do is mixed with
sin. Imagine being the righteous son of God and being made sin
for us. Made to bear the guilt of God's
justice, bear the weight of God's justice, bearing our guilt in
His own body on the tree. He did it willingly, without constraint. He said,
This is the cup when Peter drew his sword out and smote that
servant's ear. He said, Is this not the cup
my father gave me to drink? Shall I not drink it? Will I
not drink it? And when sin was found by the
imputation of the father on Christ, God turned his back on his son
and slew him. And all this Christ did for the
glory of God. And he did it willingly. He did
it willingly. He was a willing sacrifice. Thirdly,
God demands a pure sacrifice. And she said unto her father,
let me do this thing. Let this thing be done unto me.
Let me alone two months that I may go up and down upon the
mountain and bewail my virginity, I and my companions. A pure sacrifice. Jephthah's
daughter was a virgin. This speaks of purity. God did not require a death sacrifice
of us that could pay for sin. That's why hell is eternal. Because
we could never pay for sin. But Jesus Christ, He was a pure
sacrifice. Even though He was made sin for
us, He was still holy. unto God, he was still righteous.
He said, Father, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Even
though he bore our guilt, yet he maintained his impeccable
nature of divinity and righteousness. This is how he bore the wrath
of God. This is how he bore our sins
in his own body. He suffered and endured much
grief and suffering as the spotless Lamb of God. Fourthly, God demanded
a trusted sacrifice. This woman, she said, let me
go out for two months. Now, would you take a criminal
who is guilty of murder and he says, hey, let me go out for
a couple of months and I'll come back and be executed. Do you
think you'd really trust that? No, you wouldn't trust that.
But Jephthah knew that his daughter was sincere. He knew that she
would come back, that she was willing to do this. How much
more, Christ? Who first trusted in Christ?
Who was the first one? God. God first trusted in Christ. Ephesians, it's over in Ephesians
chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. And verse 11, it says, "...in
whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ." God first trusted
in Christ to be the offering for sin. And all that God vowed was in
the hands of Christ. All that Jephthah vowed was in
the hands of his daughter, and he let her go for two months.
Friends, from eternity, God's salvation has always been in
Christ. Always. He's always trusted Christ
with you, his people. He's trusted Christ from eternity
He's trusted His honor, His Word, His vow rests in His Son to accomplish
the promises. Do you see what's at stake here?
Do you see what's at stake here concerning the accomplished redemption
of Christ? God put His Word above His name
and gave that Word to His Son to fulfill it. All the burden
and responsibility of every soul Every elect child of God was
on the shoulders of Jesus Christ from eternity. And there was
a time where he bore that on his shoulders, but yet had not
fulfilled what he had promised. Only when the time came, only
when the two months were expired, did Jephthah's daughter come
back And friends, when that time came where the Lord Jesus Christ,
he came into this world to be the sacrifice for sins. This
is his whole purpose for coming to be our righteousness and sacrifice
for sins. And truly, he did come. And this
is what God demands, a faithful sacrifice. He was not only trusted,
he was faithful. By this, we know that Jesus Christ
has satisfied the vow that God has made. God said, I'll provide
a sacrifice for sin. I'll provide a burnt offering,
and I swear by my own name, I'll do it. And Jesus Christ said,
I'll be a surety for them. And he actually did satisfy God's
justice. He actually accomplished what
he was sent to do. Now, this woman, Jephthah, people
argue about this. I just don't know. Whether he
offered her as a burnt offering, and some say that he offered
her to be a virgin the rest of her life, that he sacrificed
her to be without children. To tell you the truth, I don't
know. It sounds as though from the vow, if you look at just
the vow, that he meant that he would offer her as a sacrifice. But I know this. I don't know
about this scene here, but I know this. God demands blood. God demands blood. Without the
shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.
Shedding of blood. God vowed vengeance on sin, and
he vowed mercy upon his people, and the only place those two
things meet is in the death of his son. That's it. In the death
of his son. He satisfied God's demands. And lastly, his sacrifice is
one to be remembered. Go back to there one more time
in Judges chapter 11. And Jephthah went with, I'm sorry, verse 40. And the daughters, let's read
verse 39. And it came to pass at the end
of two months she returned unto her father who did with her according
to his vow which he had vowed and she knew no man and it was
the custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went yearly
to lament the daughter of Jephthah, the Gideonite, four days in a
year. How do we remember this sacrifice? Because this is a sacrifice worth
remembering, isn't it? It's a sacrifice worth remembering.
We remember that by the preaching of the gospel. This morning,
I'm delivering to you the same message that I heard The same
message I received of the Father give I unto you, the same message
you also received by faith, which is that Christ came and died
for our sins and rose again according to the Scriptures. This is how
we remember. Have you thought of this all
week? I know you've got other things
that you've got work and you've got things like that. I know
that I'm here and I do think about it quite often. But. We come here to be reminded.
I need to be reminded. And we are reminded by the Lord's
table, he's given us that simple ordinance of the Lord's Supper,
that's important. It causes us to remember baptism,
that's an ordinance that causes us to remember the sacrifice
of Christ. Prayer. causes us to remember
the sacrifice of Christ. The only sacrifice God vowed
to give and the only sacrifice God demands, and he gives it
to everyone who believes in him. You believe on Christ and you've
got assurance that you've got a precious sacrifice. You've
got a sacrifice that God gave. You've got a sacrifice that's
accepted of God. And because of that, you're accepted. I pray that God would bless this
to your hearts.