Turn with me if you would now
to the book of Judges. Judges chapter 13. Judges 13. I read this recently in my study, and this is the story of the
birth of a man named Samson. It's the announcement of his
birth. And after our brother read this,
I was talking to another brother about Samson, about his life,
and it made me want to look at it. His account is given right
here in Judges 13, 14, 15, and 16. Four chapters. If the Lord is willing, we may,
over the course of a few messages, look at His entire story. I would
enjoy that if the Lord would have us to do that. If so, as
we do, we will see Him in light of who He represents. Samson
represents Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ. His entire
story, the entire story of his life is a picture of who Christ
is and what He did for His people. Everything about his life. Starting
with his birth. Samson's birth was announced. just like Christ's birth was
announced. And I want us to make that comparison
as we go through this. I just had our brother read for
our scripture reading Luke 1, where an angel came and announced
the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we read through this, I want
us to make that comparison. But for tonight's message, Ultimately,
I want us to enter into our salvation through what the Lord announced
to Samson's parents. In this announcement, through
this announcement, what he revealed to them is our salvation. What He caused them to realize,
it's the same thing He causes all of His people to realize.
All of God's people have this revealed to them. So tonight,
we're really going to look at the announcement and the realization
and the result of God's dealings with His parents. And then, if
the Lord is willing, next time we'll begin looking at the life
of Samson himself. Now I would think, at least for
a little boy, I'm speaking from my own experience here, but I
would think that at least for a little boy, Samson would have to be a favorite
story of the Old Testament. If you've ever been told anything
about Samson, if you ever told the story of Samson, For me, it was a favorite story,
and the reason is because of his strength. Oh, this man had
strength. When I was a kid, I had him pictured
in my mind, and I guess I have ever since. But I'm sure you've
seen pictures of these bodybuilders. Mr. Olympia, you know, muscles
on top of muscles on top of muscles. He may have looked like that,
but a man pointed out that nowhere in his story does it say that
he looked like that. You know, Goliath, we recently
looked at Goliath. He was nine and a half feet tall. You could look at that man and
see his own strength in him. Well, it doesn't say that Samuel
was you know, great in His own self, in His own stature. It
just says, this is all it says, "...the Spirit of the Lord came
mightily upon him." That's all it says. He might have looked
like anybody else. He might have just looked like
an ordinary man. And concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the Scripture
says, "...He had no form or comeliness." There was no beauty in him that
the natural man should desire him." But you talk about strength.
You talk about strength. Well, the Scripture does not
tell us what Samson's mother's name was. But his father's name
was Manoah. And chapter 13 begins by saying
in verse 1, 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." The evil that they did
again, there are some references right there, and if you turn
to them and look at them, it'll tell us that the evil that they
did again was they worshiped a God that was not the true and
living God. That was the evil they did again.
They kept falling into that over and over again. That is called
idolatry. They gave themselves over to
worshiping gods of their imagination. They just, and this is important,
I want to really stress this right here. This is what they
did that put them in the condition they were in. They made up in
their mind who they thought God was. They just made up in their mind
who they wanted Him to be. They made up what He was like. They made up things that He had
said. And that's the land we're living
in today. That's where we are right now.
That's where we are all over the world. The natural flesh
of every single man and woman on this earth, and I mean every
single man and woman on this earth, the natural flesh has
not bowed to the true and living God. The flesh does not have
any desire to bow to the true and living God. It wants to make
up its own God. The God of religion is a made-up
God. The God of religion is a made-up
God. And that's sad, isn't it? But
it's true. The God of religion is a made
up God. They say, men stand up in pulpits
and they say, God is like this. And God has said this. When God is not like that, and
God has not said that. They say God is trying to do
this when God is not trying to do
that. God does not try to do anything. God does not try to do anything. Anytime a man tells you God is
trying to do something, that's a false God. That's a made-up
God. That's a made-up God. God reigns and God rules and
God orders and God controls and God saves whoever He will, whenever
He will. This God who is being preached
today, who wants to save you but can't if you won't let Him,
that is no God at all. That is no God at all. If you're stronger than He is,
you're God. That God is just a figment of
idolatry. And men and women have given
themselves to it. They've just given themselves
to it. And unless we are delivered from the bondage of it, we will
die in the sin of it. Alright, verse 2 begins the but
God portion of the story. Verse 1 says, this is who you
are and this is what you've done, but God. Verse 2 says, and there
was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, whose
name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and bare not. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman and said unto her, Behold, now thou art barren
and barest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Manoah's wife could not have
a child in the condition that she was in. She was barren. And
the same thing can be said for a virgin whose name was Mary.
In the condition she was in, she could not have a child. And in that, we see two things.
Number one, we see our emptiness. Our absolute emptiness. With
man, it's impossible. It's impossible. There is nothing
that comes from within us that is capable of producing life. Nothing. In and of ourselves
there is nothing but death here. Alright, therefore the second
thing we see is salvation is of the Lord. Totally of the Lord. Life is a work of God in a person. It's a work that God does. This
angel told Manoah's wife, you are barren. that you are going
to conceive. Life is going to be produced
in you. And Mary asked the angel that
came to her, how can these things be seeing? I know not a man.
And that angel said to her, don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. God is
going to put life in you. you're going to conceive. If
God has purposed it, it shall come to pass. And that's the
message of the gospel. If God has purposed it, it shall
come to pass. The gospel has nothing to do
with what I'm going to do for God, but only what He is going
to do for me. That's it. Verse 4 says, Now
therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong
drink, and eat not any unclean thing. For lo, thou shalt conceive
and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head. For
the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he
shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. We will go into the details another
time. But in order for a man to be
a Nazirite, there were certain things that
the law said he had to do and could not do. He could not cut
his hair. He could not eat a grape or anything
that came from a grape. He couldn't drink wine. He couldn't
touch anything that was dead. He had to totally be set apart
unto God. The only one that can truly be
set apart is the Lord Jesus Christ. Only He was truly holy and harmless
and undefiled. Only He was truly set apart unto
God. Only He could be the Deliverer
of His people. He was the only one. Israel here
was in bondage because of their sin. But God told this woman,
I'm sending you a Deliverer. And that's the message of the
Gospel. What God is going to do for His people. I'm sending
you a Deliverer. Verse 6. Then the woman came
and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and
his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God,
very terrible. But I asked him not whence he
was, neither told 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."
And can we not see Christ in that? He's going to fulfill all
things from the womb to the day of His death. Verse 8, Then Manoah entreated
the LORD, and said, O my LORD, let the man of God, which Thou
didst 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, and the angel of God came again unto the woman,
as she sat in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with
her. And the woman made haste and ran, and showed her husband,
and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that
came unto me the other day. And Manoah arose, 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. Now in just a moment, we're going
to see that this angel is Christ Himself. When other angels appeared,
they always announced who they were or the scripture tells who
they were. When Gabriel came, he said, I
am Gabriel. I just stand in his presence.
John on the Isle of Patmos, the Apostle John, was bowing before
an angel that was sent to him in Revelation. And that angel
said, don't do it. Stand up. I'm of your brethren,
the prophets. Worship God. This angel said,
I am. Moses, you tell them, I am sent
you. He said, before Abraham was,
I am. That mob tried to come get him
and take him. They walked up to him, a whole
mob full of men, and they said, are you Jesus of Nazareth? And
he said, I am. And they all fell backward like
trees. Wouldn't you have loved to have seen that? 500 men. You know, they're sitting
there looking at the sky. He asked them, now who are you
looking for again? I am. When God comes to a sinner,
that's what He says, I am. I am. Verse 11, And Manoah arose,
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 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. She may not eat of anything that
cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink. nor eat any unclean thing, all
that I commanded her, let her observe. And 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. What he's saying is,
let us offer a sacrifice to you. Let us kill an animal, kill a
lamb, and offer a sacrifice to You. Verse 16, 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." He was teaching Manoah,
worship God only. Now this was God, but Manoah
didn't know that. And he would have been sacrificing
to Something else in his mind, so he's teaching him worship
God only nothing else No one else Do not worship the messenger
We thank God for his messengers. I thank God for his messengers
I thank God for the men who preach the gospel to me, but do not
worship the messenger. Worship God alone. Alone. That's what God the Father
said to Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration.
They saw Moses and Elijah, and they were so afraid, they said,
let us make three tabernacles, one to each of you. And God the
Father spoke out loud from heaven and said, Nope, my son only. Only my son. Verse 17, 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?" My name is secret. The margin in my Bible
says wonderful. It's wonderful. Unto us a child
is born. Unto us a son is given. The government
shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful."
Just wonderful. Full of wonder. Secret. He said it's secret. It must
be revealed. It's secret. Man cannot see it. Man cannot hear it. Man cannot
know it until God reveals it. We beg Him to reveal it, don't
we? God must reveal it. Verse 19
says, So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering and offered it
upon a rock. Who is that rock? That rock was
Christ. He took a kid with a meat offering
and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord. And the angel did wondrously,
and Manoah and his wife looked on. The angel, Christ Himself,
did something wondrous in that sacrifice. And Manoah and his
wife looked on as He did it. Verse 20 says, For it came to
pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar,
that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. This angel of the Lord entered
into the flame and ascended up into glory. And Manoah and his
wife looked on it and fell on their faces to the ground. But
the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and to
his wife Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord.
And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because
we have seen God." We've seen God. We're going to surely die. We've seen something holy. We have just witnessed the holiness
of God This is what they saw. They saw
God in that sacrifice. Do you know that when men, the
flesh naturally sees this man, Jesus Christ, hanging on a cross,
they don't see God in that sacrifice. They see weakness. They see defeat. They see a martyr for his cause. They see many things, but they
do not see God doing what He will for whom He will. They saw
God in that sacrifice. They saw God in Christ reconciling
the world to Himself. They saw that it took the holy
sacrifice of God to appease Himself. Only God could appease Himself. Only God Himself could provide
intercession on behalf of His people. Only God could do that.
In that sacrifice, they saw His justice. They saw His wrath. And the fear of this holy God
struck Manoah. And it is a precious and glorious
thing to see when a man or a woman who knows nothing of the true
and living God, this holy God, it's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. And it is a glorious thing
to see when God reveals the secret of who He is. And fear comes
over a sinner for the first time because he knows what he's done. And he knows for the first time
who he's dealing with. The fear of this holy God struck
Manoah and he said, we're going to surely die. Have you ever
thought that? God's going to kill me for what
I've done. We shall surely die because we
have seen God. He is going to slay us because
of our sin against Him. Never saw that before, but sinners see it now. Once
God reveals these things, they see it now. Alright, now, I know
that women are not permitted by God to preach in the assembly
of worship. I know that. But that doesn't
mean that women are not permitted to preach in the privacy of their
own homes. And in that sacrifice, Manoah
saw the truth. He did. I've seen God and I'm
a sinner. And I deserve to die in my sins.
In that sacrifice, Manoah saw the truth. But his wife saw the
gospel. And she preached the gospel to
him as clearly as it's ever been preached before. I don't know
if anyone's ever preached the gospel this clearly before. She
comforted his heart by declaring to him three things. I just repeat what she said.
I declare this to us. She told him three things. Verse
22, Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die because we
have seen God. But his wife said unto him, No,
honey, we shall not surely die. She said, If the Lord were pleased
to kill us, number one, he would not have received a burnt offering
and a meat offering at our hands. If God were pleased to kill us,
we are sinners. God is angry with sinners. People say, oh, you know, God
doesn't love the sinner. God doesn't hate the sinner.
He just hates the sin. That's not what God said. And in the flesh, naturally,
we are sinners in the hands of an angry God. But here's the
good news. If God were pleased to kill us,
He would not have accepted a sacrifice on our behalf. She said, Christ entered the
fire, honey. Did you see that angel? Did you
see what He did? He burned in our place. He stood
before God's holy judgment and God accepted him. Did you see
him go up? If God laid our sin on Him, then
there's no sin left to be laid on us. None. We're not going
to die. Verse 23, But his wife said unto
him, If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have
received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands.
Number 2, Neither would he have showed us all these things. He never would have revealed
His justice and His holiness and His righteousness in the
sacrifice of His Son. He would have just killed us. He never would have shown us
the way of life to be through the death of His Son. And then she said at the end
of verse 23, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He never
would, as at this time, have told us such things as these,
such wonderful things as these. Such sweet promises of deliverance
and redemption. If He were going to kill us,
He would have never told us that He was sending a Redeemer. Never. He would have never declared
to us that He was going to do for us what we could not do for
ourselves. He never would have said that
to us. He's a God that cannot lie. And He never would have said
that. Verse 24 says, And the woman
bare a son, and called his name Samson. His name means sunlight. The woman bare a son and called
his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord
blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began
to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtial. And if the Lord is willing, we
will see what He did, how the Spirit moved on this man, and
how He sent deliverance to His people, how He redeemed His people. I'm looking forward to seeing
Christ in that man. Alright, let's all stand together.