Did I do it again? I won't say the first part over. You know that every Scripture
sets forth the glory of our Lord and Savior. You know that. When
our Lord was on the road to Emmaus, two of his disciples, beginning
with Moses, all the prophets. He showed them himself. And their heart, they later admitted,
burned while he opened scriptures. You know, when the Lord opens
the scriptures to our understanding, our hearts truly burn. I'd like to try to look at a
passage of Scripture this morning, an amazing passage of Scripture
out of Judges 11. And I invite you to go back. I asked Brother Sammy to read
starting in verse 29 to the end of the chapter, but I invite
you to go back later and read this chapter. And I want us, as we consider
this blessed passage of Scripture, seeking the glory of our Lord
and the redemption of His people, Lord, show us Yourself. Just as a matter of bringing
you up to, for the sake of time, I want to give you just a little
bit of history to bring you up to where we're going to start
this morning. There was a man named Jephthah, and he was born,
the Scripture says, to a harlot. And later, his daddy married
and had sons by his wife. And the brothers or half-brothers
of Jephthah, the ones that were actually born to Gilead, Jephthah's
daddy, his wife, they didn't want Jephthah to share in the
inheritance. So they cast him out. They didn't
want him to be around. So he went and lived in a place
called Tob. stayed there. Well, in the process
of time, the king of Ammon approached
Israel and demanded that Israel give the land that God had given
to Israel. Ammon said, That's our land. And we want it back. Well, the
elders of Israel and those that had thrown Jephthah out, Jephthah
was a mighty man. Valor, Scripture says. And so
the elders approached Jephthah and said, we want to know if
you'd come back and be our captain and lead us. And Jephthah reprimanded
him, told him, said, you didn't want me before. And they said,
yeah, we want you now, though. And so he agreed to come back
and to lead the people. Well, he sent an ambassador to
the king of Ammon. And he tried to reason with the
king of Ammon. Tell him that, you know, we weren't
the ones that took this land from you. You lost this land
to another king, Sihon. And whenever the Lord delivered
us out of Egypt on our way to the land that God had promised
us, We tried to bypass this land. The Lord had instructed us not
to fool with people in this land. All we wanted to do was cross
over, go to our land. We wouldn't have it. The king of Sihon was fearful. Now, Sihon had conquered this
land that belonged to the kings of the people of Ammon. Sihon
conquered them. And then these Israelites come
and they are trying to circumvent. They are going to be obedient. They are not going to try to
go in and disturb. But Sihon, who had taken the
land from Ammon, Sihon was fearful of Israel. And so Sihon is going
to take on Israel. They don't want them to be around.
Well, when Sihon raised himself up, the Lord delivered Sihon
into the hands of the Israelites. And now this land that God had
given Israel is the land in question. Now, Ammon is coming back now
to Israel. He told them, he said, you took
that from us. Jephthah now who has stood as the captain. Beautiful picture of our precious
Lord. Jephthah says, no, no, wait a
minute. No, we didn't take that from you. Sihon took it from
you. And God gave us the land from
Sihon. And what the Lord has given us
is ours. Well, Ammon is not going to hear
that. Ammon is going to go ahead and
take on Israel. He is going to take on Jephthah.
Now here is where we are. Jephthah now, as he stands as
the leader, the captain, For Israel is going to stand against
Ammon, who now has raised himself up to take this land back. And now we find ourselves. That's
the history of what is about to transpire right here. And
in this, in this passage of Scripture, Brother Sammy read, I pray the
Lord show us deliverance. deliverance from all that oppresses
the people of God. What's the message? Where's the
gospel in this? And while we see this man Jephthah,
one of the judges in Israel, may the Lord show us the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ in our redemption. Verse 29, it says,
"...then the Spirit of the Lord came up, I came upon, Jephthah. And he passed over Gilead, and
Manasseh passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead
he passed over unto the children of Ammon. And we find now that
our Lord raised up this judge, a beautiful picture of our precious
Savior, God's Spirit was upon him. I know this. God's blessing, God's mercy,
God's leadership. But what a picture of Him who
has ever stood for us, who possessed the Spirit without measure, the
One who knows, the One who is able. And now we are going to
see how Is God Almighty going to deliver
Israel, a picture of His true Israel? How is He going to deliver
Israel into the hands of those that oppose Him? Well, I know
this. Jephthah and the faith that he
had in Almighty God was exhibited in the vowing of a vow. Jephthah
approaches the Lord and he says in verse 30 and 31, Jephthah
vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, If thou shalt without fail
deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, it shall be
that whatsoever cometh forth 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 and his desire for God's intervening
power in the victory of Israel over the enemies of God's people
bound his soul to the Lord with a vow. He promised He vowed,
when I come back, Lord, if you will surely deliver all that
opposes your people, Lord, if you will surely give us victory,
I vow, I promise, I give you my word, binding myself with
a vow to you, whatsoever cometh forth 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." Whoever comes out is yours. And I will offer it up for a
burnt offering. The burnt offering in the Old
Testament. That was the Lord's. That was
that sweet savor offering of a glorious obedience of our precious
Savior. The burnt offering was only for
the Lord. The priests shared no part in
it. Some of the offerings they could. They could enter in. They
could partake. Not the burnt offering. That's
the Lord's. All the Lord's. The sweet savor
of the precious Lord Jesus Christ. And Jephthah vows, Lord, you give me victory. Whoever comes out, whatever comes
out, it's yours. It's all yours. It's only yours. Whatever it took. to defeat the
enemies of God's people, to establish righteousness, was established
by an everlasting covenant, a vow. David said, 2 Samuel 23, 5, Although
my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, a pledge, an allegiance, a testament, ordered in all things,
ensure, for this is all my salvation, all my desire. All of my hope
is in God's promise, God's Word, God's truth. Hear this man, Jephthah. He absolutely rested in God's
providence. Jephthah knew by faith, back
in Hebrews 11, 32, by faith, the faith of God's elect, Jephthah
knew that Almighty God ruled in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. He knew. And He ordered all things
that nothing moved without God's permission, God's order, God's
hand, God's power. And He knew that Almighty God
was going to direct and provide the sacrifice. Lord, whatever You demand, this is
what He said by that vow. Lord, whatever You demand, whatever
sacrifice You desire, Lord, You that moves all things, Lord,
whoever comes out of that house is at Your instruction. Lord,
I'm asking You for the deliverance of Israel. Lord, I'm asking you for the
deliverance of your people. Lord, you've raised me up. Lord,
you've made me a judge. Lord, you've given me a desire
to ask. And Lord, I'm asking you whatever you demand for the sacrifice. Whoever comes
out of that house is yours. And Lord, You're going to order
whoever You want. I remember Isaac and Abraham was
going up on the mountain to sacrifice. Abraham told those fellows that
was with him, keeping the donkeys there, he told them, he said,
Y'all stay here." He said, the lad and I are going
to go up and we're going to worship God. We're going to worship God. And Abraham knew. The Lord had
already told him, I want you to take your son. You take Isaac,
your only son. The son that I gave you. And you take Isaac and you offer
him unto Me for a burnt offering." And Abraham, the Scripture says,
knew. God was able to raise this boy
up. God had already promised through this boy, the lineage
of this boy, the Savior was going to come. And he knew this is
what God demanded. And they're walking up that mountain.
And here's Isaac, the apple of that man's eye. And Isaac said, Behold, the fire
and the wood. Well, where's the lamb? For a
burnt offering. And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering. laid everything to the Lord's
feet. He said, Lord, whoever you send,
they're yours. I'm asking you for victory. Lord,
what's it going to take? What's it going to take to deliver
Israel? Verse 32 and 33 says, So Jephthah
passed over unto 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 come 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. Here we see. The faithfulness
of our God and the deliverance of Israel. Victory was sure. God's not going to fail. Victory
was wrought. Now we're going to talk about
the price. What was the price? What was the price of Israel's
deliverance? What sacrifice for a burnt offering
does God demand? Now we are going to see in a
beautiful type, this daughter, the daughter of Jephthah is a
picture. The daughter of Jephthah is a
picture, is a type. of our precious Savior, His daughter. What's it going to take? Verse 34 and 35 says this, And
Jephthah came to Mishpah unto his house, and behold, his daughter
came out to meet him 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."
I know this. What does the Lord demand in
the deliverance of His people? What sacrifice did Almighty God
demand for the deliverance of Israel, the true Israel, God's
Israel? I tell you this, it had to be
a precious sacrifice. Victorious Jephthah returns and
made a vow unto the Lord, Lord, whoever you send, Whoever you
provide, whoever comes out of the house, Lord, that's the sacrifice. That's the one you provided.
And this was Jephthah's only child. Seeing her, his heart was brought
low. But the scripture says he put
his hand to the plow and he cannot look back. I've opened my mouth
unto the Lord. I cannot go back. The Lord has
spoken providentially. And Jephthah knew that all he
had was what God demanded. His precious child. Proverbs
23, 26 says, My son, give me thine heart. His only child. What's it going
to cost? It's going to cost all you've
got. That's what it's going to cost. All you've got. You say, well, didn't Jephthah
have anything else? That child was all he had. What would you keep for one of
your children? What would you not give up? for
your own. Samuel, what would you keep in
exchange for one of those girls? Oh, how we behold the love of
God toward His people in the establishing of their peace.
What did it cost God Almighty And we talk about free grace
and, oh, thanks be unto God for free grace. There was a high
call for free grace. For God so loved the world, the
arrangement, the order of mankind. Not all of them out of this world. Because He didn't pray for all
of them. He said, I pray not for the world,
but for those you've given me out of the world. But He loved
this order. He loved the order, the order
of man. God so loved the world of His
people that He gave His only begotten Son, the only one coming
forth from the Father, the only begotten, the only one. Romans
8.32, He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up
for us all, how shall He not With Him, with Him and Him alone,
also freely give us all things. Lord, what sacrifice do you demand? It's going to be a precious sacrifice.
It's going to be all that you have. All that God Almighty had
in His Son. Here's the second thing I know
God demanded. The sacrifice of Jephthah's vow. What does God demand in that
burnt offering? It had to be a willing sacrifice. Verse 36, Jephthah walked up
to her and told her, he said, I've opened my mouth to the Lord.
I can't go back. 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 hath proceeded out of thy mouth, forasmuch
as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even
of the children of Ammon." Here was Jephthah's precious daughter,
his only child. But oh, the miracle, the wonder
of the willingness of that girl right there, a picture of our
Lord, willing, it's like God's people, willing, made so in the
day of God's power. He told her, he said, I've opened
my mouth unto God. I've asked for the deliverance
of Israel. I can't go back on it. She said,
Father, You've opened your mouth to the Lord. You do to me what
you vowed of our precious Savior. John 17, 2, Father, the hour
has come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee. Do all, is what He said, to me
according to our everlasting covenant of grace in the redemption,
in the salvation of our people, do to me that which is demanded. He who has made sin, forsaken
of the Father. He who is of pure eyes and to
behold iniquity, He that would turn his back on his only begotten
Son and under indescribable wrath and justice, that which was due,
the elect. He said, you glorify me. You
do that which is absolutely right. What does God demand? He demands
a willing sacrifice. And our Lord willingly. Here's the next thing I know.
That sacrifice that was demanded of God was to be a pure sacrifice. Verse 37, Then she said unto
her father, Let this thing be done for me. Let me alone. Too
much. that I may go up and down upon
the mountains and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows." Jephthah's daughter was a virgin,
she was pure. And I know this, not in the sense
of being without sin, I know that, but her virginity was a
beautiful picture of the preciousness and purity of our Lord and Savior,
set forth Him in type who became us, who is holy and harmless
and undefiled and separate from sinners and made higher than
the heavens. And she went to bewail her virginity, knowing
that she would not be the one through whom the Savior would
come. All knew. They knew that the
Lord was going to cause a virgin to conceive. The Savior, through
a virgin, was going to come forth into this yard, into this sheepfold. And she knew, not going to be
me. This pure virgin. What does God
demand? Holiness. Holiness. I know this next. The sacrifice
that God demanded was one that was going to have to be trusted.
Look at verse 38. After she had said, she said,
let me go, let me go up two months that I may go up and down upon
the mountains and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. And he said,
go. And he sent her away for two
months. She went with her companions
and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains." Now you think
about this. Jephthah had vowed a vow unto
the Lord. He couldn't go back. He said,
I can't. I can't go back. And she said, Father, as you
vowed a vow unto the Lord, you do to me what you vowed." Willing. She said, let me go up and bewail
my virginity. And she knew. She knew. She knew what he'd vowed. And you know what he said to
her? You go. You go. He trusted her. He never Not
even recorded that he ever doubted his daughter. Didn't doubt her.
What a picture of our precious Savior. He knew his daughter
and he trusted her. Knowing what he had vowed unto
the Lord, she said, you let me go. He said, okay. Ephesians 1.11 says, "...in whom
also we have obtained inheritance." We've obtained 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." The Father trusted Him. Everything, His glory, His purpose
to show mercy and compassion, God's honor, God's will, the
redemption of His people, the fulfillment of that everlasting
covenant, all that God Almighty had ever promised according to
His Word, all of it, in the hands of the surety. Put all of it
into His hands. All power in heaven and earth
given to Him. Everything put in the hands of
the Son. Why? That He should give eternal
life To as many as the Father had given Him. And the Father
trusted Him. Trusted Him. Let me read this
Psalm 138, verse 2. I love this passage of Scripture.
Concerning God's Word and God's attitude, may I say it that way,
concerning His Word. Listen to this. I will worship
toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness
and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word above all
thy name." Above all your character. I read that, Brother Henry, and
I'm lost in the wonder of that. You've magnified your word. Above
everything else. Above all your name, your character,
your holiness, your God, your Word. My Word will not return
unto me void. It shall accomplish the purpose
for which it was sent. He trusted His Son. who first
trusted in Christ. This girl right here has a beautiful
picture of our Savior in type. Her daddy trusted her. You go. I'll tell you the next thing
about this sacrifice that the Lord demanded. The sacrifice
of Jephthah was faithful. went yearly to lament the daughter
of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in a year. She came back
knowing her fate. This pure daughter lived and
died faithful to the vow made by her father. It is a beautiful
type of Christ. I've had a lot of people ask
me this question. They said, do you think that
Jephthah truly did what he vowed? Well, I'm going to say this, according
to the wording of this Scripture, I think he did. Some said, well,
I think that she was just left to be a virgin. Well, I'll tell
you this, for sure. Her obedience to the fulfillment
of Jephthah's vow satisfied God's requirement for that vow that
was made. And the vow by faith, I know, concerning our Lord for
sure, was ratified by blood. Justice was satisfied. He said,
I'm a just God and a Savior. Our Lord said, this cup is the
New Testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink
it in remembrance of me. That was the last point about
the sacrifice that Jephthah was required. It was a custom in Israel that
the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter
of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in a year. The sacrifice
demanded of Jephthah and his daughter was a remembered sacrifice. Four days a year, it was custom,
they went to remember. I told some of you this. I told
Brother Henry the other day, I'm going to tell you, if I've
already told you, that's okay. Before Brother Scott died, I
was at my study one day, and he came in with a pocketknife,
a knife pocketknife. He walked in, he sat down, he
leaned over, And he handed me this knife. And he said, I want
you to take this knife so that you can remember me when I'm
gone. And I said, Brother Scott, do
you really think I need a pocket knife to remember you? But do you know Every time I
reach in my pocket or every time I open up my drawer where that
knife is and I see it, I think of Him. Our Lord, we remember our Lord
in the taking of the Lord's Supper, don't we? You might say, well,
that's just a little old piece of bread and a little old cup
of wine. But do you know what? Every time we eat and we drink,
we remember Him, don't we? And this morning, as we assemble
ourselves together in the remembrance of our Lord and His sacrifice,
He was a precious sacrifice. A willing sacrifice. A pure sacrifice. A trusted sacrifice. faithful sacrifice. And He's
a remembered sacrifice. Living in our hearts by faith,
we remember Him. Lord, bless these words to our
heart today for Christ's sake. Amen.