The book of Judges chapter 13,
Judges chapter 13, we're still in that great passage of scripture
that has to do with Manoah and his wife, or the woman, and the
promise of Samson coming. But there's so much that happens
after Manoah's wife is shared that she's going to have a baby.
She spent a lot of time, no doubt, because she's been barren and
she's not going to bear. She spent some time in that condition. And now by God's announcement.
Now I was sharing with a young fellow today to really get an
appreciation for the 13th chapter of the book of Judges. We have
to go to chapter 13, verse one, because in that chapter, that
verse of scripture, it says that the Israel did evil again, did
evil in the sight of the Lord. And then we're introduced to
two people out of all the hosts of Israel that he's going to
speak to, he's going to appear to, and he's going to share with
us the glory of his ascension to also. So we have that happening
here in the book of Judges. Now the last couple of verses,
we have the fulfillment of the promise that was made, and that
Samson is born, and then we spend three chapters on his life. But
this blessing that we have here, now I wrote in my notes here
before, I said I wanna just go over this a little bit before
we get started, because this is really a chapter of faith.
My goodness, the faith that God gave Manoah and his wife, that
as soon as he said that they were gonna have a child, Okay. There was no, I don't think so,
but there was just an agreement and okay. And you know, that's
really what God does for us. He gives us his faith and we
say, okay, this is right. So I just ask, have you ever
thought about your faith? Now I've had people tell me,
and I've had heard preachers say that I don't have enough
faith. Or they will go to the passage
of scripture there about the Lord speaking to his disciples
and say, oh, you have little faith. And you know, I just cannot
help but believe they said, at least in their mind, when he
said that, boy, he's right there. because it is not they that create
the faith, it is they that are given faith. He is the author
and finisher of our faith. Now there's a passage of scripture
where it says that the Lord upbraided his disciples for their little
faith. And you know, I just thought
about that as I could step into their position and they could
say, yes, he is so right. He's so right for doing that
to me. You know, the same thing is true
about all our sin. Have you not ever been uprated
in the scripture about over your sin? My goodness, we have that
happen to us continually. He upbraids us, and we say, Lord,
help me. Lord, give me more faith. He's the author and finisher
of our faith, so I cannot see him. belittling the church or
belittling his disciples or putting, castigating things upon them
when he is really in charge of giving it to them. Now, he shared
with his disciples one time, if you had faith as a grain of
mustard seed, well, I've been, you know, all the preaching that
goes on that, that just think what you could do if you had
the faith of a grain of mustard seed. You know what he's telling
his disciples? You don't have faith on your
own. You don't have faith. I'm the
giver of faith. I'm the author and finisher of
your faith. And you know, we say, and I believe those disciples
also said, boy, he's got that right. It kind of reminds me
of the preacher or that friend or that fellow that told Henry,
your church is just full of sinners. And Henry's comment was, you
got that right. I think that that often is our
response. Lord, you got that right. I am
wicked and undone. I don't have faith. And yet you
do help thou my unfaith. Give me faith. How many of us
understand all the Bible? How many of us understand half
of it? How many understand about three words of it? And we're thankful for what he's
given us. We don't find fault with him and he does not find
any fault with us because we don't know anymore because he's
the revealer of the word. So what we have is sovereignly
given. That's what we read about. It's
sovereignly given and we're thankful for what we have. And I look
at, as Mike brought out in a lesson many, a year or so ago, that
thought about, oh, you have little faith. That's just a term of
endearment. He knows our frame. He knows
our faith. Now I said all that to say this
because faith is quite evident here in this passage of scripture.
in the 13th chapter of the book of Genesis. As we look here,
I'm gonna start reading with verse 11. And Manoah arose and
went after his wife and came to the man and said unto him,
art thou the man that speaketh unto the woman? And he said,
I am. The M has been supplied. Now,
when we put the M there, we already know who we're talking about.
I just learned a word, Christophany. That's what this is. He's a pre-incarnate
Christ appearing to somebody in a bodily form. And we're thankful
for these as they are brought out into the scriptures. There
was a form that appeared unto Adam, a form that appeared unto
Abraham, a form that appeared unto Noah, there's a form that
appeared unto Gideon and to Manoah. It was a form that appeared unto
Joshua. And so the Old Testament is filled
with the Messiah appearing. Now for us, he always appears
in his word. I'll never get in an argument
over someone who says, I saw Jesus over here by the clothes
dryer. I'm just not going to go there
because it's not going to do any good. But I do know this, he
only appears in his word. And it's a spiritual appearance
that he gives to us because he is a spirit. And that's the difference
between Christianity and all religions. Christianity has an
invisible God. Religion has to have a visible
God. And that's why we have all the
icons and idols that are in those. All right, Manoah said, now let
thy words, verse 12, come to pass. How shall we order the
child and how shall we do unto him? So the word comes through
his wife. We've been promised a son and
my goodness, He says, now let thy words come to pass. All right. And how should we raise him?
We need some instructions here because this is going to be a
special kind of person. He's going to be a Nazarite.
And it tells us here in verse 13, the angel of the Lord said
unto Manoah, of all that I said unto the woman, let her beware.
She shall not eat of anything that cometh of the vine. Raisins. Wine, strong drink, all of that
is off. Neither let her drink wine or
strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. All that I command 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. Now, he's wanting to entertain. And the best way to do it is
bring food. Thank you, ladies, gentlemen, for all the good food
we just had. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
And Manoa is just like us. If we're going to have company,
let's have a snack. Well, he was going out into the
herd, and I cannot help but think that when he selected that goat,
he looked for one, of one of the first year without spot and
without blemish, because this goat is going to become an offering,
all right? And the angel of the Lord said
to him, though thou detain me, I will not eat thy bread, and
I will not eat of thy bread. And if thou will offer a burnt
offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord. Now, that's gonna
be interesting because the command has already been gone out now.
Manoah has already been instructed, if you're gonna offer a lamb
or a kid, it must be offered to the Lord. Well, it's interesting
that Manoah goes on and offers this. And I just can't help but
believe he recognized who is right in front of him, that this
is his Messiah. Remember the old man in the temple?
I think Manoah had some of the same feelings about this one.
This is my savior. This is my Messiah. This is him.
Because he offers an offering that only could be offered to
the Lord. He offers a kid. Now, when it
comes time to offer it, after they put it on that rock, they
did nothing. Manoah or his wife, neither one,
did anything. They just stood there. Well,
let's go on here and said, and Manoah said unto the angel, what
is thy name? And 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 a secret?
Now we brought out the other day that that word is the same
word that we find in another place is translated wonderful. It is a very kin, close kin to
the word in Isaiah chapter nine, verse six. His name shall be
called Wonderful Counselor of the mighty God. And he's going
to do some wondrous works. Look at verse 19. So Manoah took
the kid of the meat offering and offered it upon a rock unto
the Lord, and the angel did wondrously. Now his name is wonderful. He is the wonderful one, and
he is going to do wondrously. We would not expect any different
from the Lord. We're not going to expect him
to do anything but wondrously. And that's kind of, as Brother
Wayne said, oh my, oh my. It's above our pay grade to see
the wondrous works that God has performed. from everything to
everything is wondrously. Now we're gonna see that happen
right here in Judges chapter 13. He, the angel of the Lord,
the Christophany, the Messiah, the Lord himself is going to
do something wondrously here in front of Manoah and his wife. Now it tells us that Manoah took
the kid of the meat offering and offered it upon a rock. Now
there's some rules about this rock that's gonna have this offering.
And one of them is found in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 25. So would
you go over there with me? Exodus chapter 20 and verse 25,
we have this rule that God ordained with regard to rocks that are
going to be used for altars. Exodus chapter 20 verse 25, these
words are left here and it appears that Manoah had some knowledge
of this. because the rock that he offered
this kid on agrees with this rock or this altar in the book
of Exodus chapter 20. And if thou, verse 25, if thou
will make me an altar of stone, thou shall not build it of hewn
stone. In other words, I will not accept
your works. And that's all we do when we
start healing the stone and making it prettier. You know, it bugs
me to have parachurch organizations. We've got to have this group
for this group, and we have to have this group for that group.
The church is the place where the gospel goes out. And most
of those places, they just want to make God successful. We're
going to make God successful, so we'll start this other group
up, and that's just what happens. It is a farce. The church of
the living God, the place where the gospel is preached, is the
only thing authorized in the word of God where the gospel
is gonna be preached. Now, its members have the responsibility
and privilege of taking the seed out. All right, so it says, thou
shalt, if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build
it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou
hast polluted it. In other words, you have got
involved in my rock, and there's not going to be any of that.
No one is going to be involved with this rock. Now that word
rock there, it's not a pebble, it's not a small piece of stone.
It's used a number of times in the Old Testament, and I'd like
to look at two or three of them in the Psalms. If you would turn
with me to the Psalm, and the same word for rock, where he
put that kid, He didn't light it. He didn't build any wood
under it. He laid it there because he knew, as that angel of the
Lord had told him, if you offer this kid, it must be unto the
Lord. Now, if you can't do that, don't
offer it. Well, it appears that he had
great faith in the word that was spoken to him, and he did
exactly what his heart told him to do. By faith, he understood,
this is what I must do. And by instruction he was given,
this is what you must do. So that's gonna happen. But turn
with me, if you would, to the book of the Psalms. Psalm 18,
Psalm 18, verse 31. In Psalm 18 and verse 31, we
have this left for us to help us understand what kind of rock
this is. This is no pebble. This is not
even a rock like we'd have in our backyard. For who is God saying the Lord? or who is a rock save our God. So this rock is going to represent
greatness, majesty. It's the same word that we find
over in the book of Exodus when Moses was told to strike the
rock. I can see that as a pretty good
size rock and a pretty good stream of water coming out of it. You
know, it watered three to six million Jews. So this isn't three
gallons of water. This is a lot of water came out
of that rock. So it's unhewn. It's a rock that
has had no human touch on it, and it is brought to this point
where we read about Manoah. In Psalm 62, would you turn there
with me? In Psalm 62, we have the same
word again, but it tells us a little bit more about our rock. It tells us in Psalm 62, verses
one and two, to the chief musician, Now, Psalm of David, truly my
soul waiteth upon God, from him cometh my salvation. He only
is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense, I shall not
be greatly moved. So we have here in this rock,
we have the rock that we read over here in the book of Psalms
chapter 18, or Psalm 18, we have a significant rock. We have an
interesting rock. We have a rock that is more than
average. It's a big rock. And this is
where we find Manoah brings that lamb, that kid. So let us go
back to the book of Judges chapter 13 and pick this up. In the book
of Judges chapter 13, Judges chapter 13, it tells us
here as Manoah follows the instructions of the Lord. If you will offer
a burnt offering, verse 16, thou must offer it unto the Lord. Nothing else will do. If you
go outside of that, it's unacceptable. We read about that in the book
of Malachi. Will you take these offerings
and give them to your governor, your mayor? Your president? No, you wouldn't do that. Well,
why are you offering him to me? Well, Manoah said in verse 17,
unto the angel of the Lord, why is this thy name? What is thy
name? Verse 18, it's secret, but wonderful. And then in verse 19, so Manoah
took a kid with the meat or meal offering, the grain offering,
which is so often offered in the book of Leviticus along this
line. and offered it upon a rock unto
the Jehovah." Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. And
then it says, the angel did wondrously. Now, we would expect nothing
else. Our salvation is a wondrous salvation. The faith that God gives is wondrous. His peace that he gives is wondrous. Everything about God he does
is wondrously done. I can't express it. I should have my friend right
here doing that for me. I can't express it. It is so
wondrously. His name is Wonderful and he
does great and wondrous things. He says the angel did wondrously
and Manoah and his wife looked on. Now that's how much they
had of themselves when this is going on. Now what he did, we
don't know all of it, but this we do know. It tells us in verse
20, this is a wondrous act. When those offerings were offered
in the book of Leviticus, when that offering was offered by
the prophet, when that offering was offered by Noah or by Abel, God signified the acceptance
of that offering in one wondrous way. Even if you pour a thousand
gallons of water on this sacrifice, He shares with us that He accepts
it in a wondrous way. Now, whether the fire came up
from the rock or came down from heaven, it makes no difference,
but it was consumed by fire. This sacrifice that Manoah put
on that rock, that wondrous rock, and that sacrifice that was no
doubt of the first year without spot, without blemish, dressed
accordingly and appropriately, laid on that rock. And he understood
that when he did that, he is offering this kid to the Lord. No one else. Now all the idolatry
going on in Israel at that time, they were spending their time
making their offerings to Baal. We have two people that we know
of, a remnant according to the election of grace, that are doing
exactly what God told them to do, and they're doing it with
pleasure. They're offering a sacrifice
on this rock, this rock of God. And we find that in verse 20,
it came to pass when the flame went up toward heaven from the
altar. So we have a flame that, and
by this flame, by this consumption of this offering, we find that
God is well-pleased. It's no wonder that there was
no fire for those prophets of Baal. When you offer candy corn, you
can't expect a crop. And they offered the same bullock,
similar bullock. It wasn't the bullock's fault.
They put it on the same altar. It wasn't the altar's fault.
They used the same wood. It wasn't the wood's fault. The
fault was who they were worshiping. Now, when the prophet did all
of that, he didn't stop there. We know the story. He made some
young men carry some water for a great distance. Down they went
to the sea, and up the mountain they came, and he asked them
to do it two or three times, and the water was flowing all
over, and then the fire from God fell. And this was wondrously
It was a wondrous thing that God performed that day. Well,
here we have, now we can travel ahead a couple of thousand years,
and we find out that the Lord Jesus Christ, as he did this,
as he pictured this, as he commanded this, he is going to be the sacrifice,
and he is going to be consumed like this sacrifice, and it wasn't
Manoah and his wife that started the fire. It wasn't Abraham,
it wasn't the prophet, it wasn't Abel, it wasn't Noah. God started
the fire because he was well pleased with the sacrifice. And
so when we turn to the cross, we find out that the Lord Jesus
Christ, he is consumed by the fire of God's wrath on that cross. Now, if he had not gone through
this, I just said, people say, God is love, God is love. You
see that all over. The love of God couldn't do anything
for us. It chose us before the foundation of the world, but
when it came to our deliverance, love couldn't do anything for
us. There must be payment for our sin. And that payment was
done wondrously at the cross. Now, to prove that it was a wondrous
payment, just like we read here, what happened? It says in verse
20, that the angel, 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. Now, you know, that tells me
a whole lot about the acceptance of that sacrifice. And it also
tells me a whole lot about the satisfaction of the Godhead over
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And as a result of that perfect
sacrifice for sin for all his people, he ascended back to the
Father. If he had not made a sufficient
sacrifice for sin, if he'd only made us savable, there is no
way in this world he could have ascended back to the Father.
It would have been unacceptable. So we have an acceptable sacrifice
signified by the angel of the Lord ascending back to the Father. And it says they fell on their
faces. It's interesting what seeing
the wondrous activities of God will do for God's people. They
worship. Go to the cross, God's people
worship. They worship as a result of what
happened at the cross. This is, we're just looking here
at the wondrous activity of a wondrous person whose name is wonderful. And he ascends back to the Father.
He goes, this flame, as we read here, it is a consuming flame.
It consumed the sacrifice, just like we find the flames around
the temple. There was nothing left of that
offering except ashes. And the only thing that we have
left of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is a body. The rest has been burned. He's
taken to a tomb. Three days and three nights later,
he is quickened. And it just typifies what we
must have. We must be quickened. And you
hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sin. He's quickened. Now he's quickened by himself,
he's quickened by the Holy Spirit, and he's quickened by the Father.
All three are involved in his quickening. He comes out of that
tomb victorious, and he reveals himself to his disciples over
time, and for 40 days, he's with his disciples, teaching them
that he did not come down here to set up an earthly kingdom.
That question comes up, and that question comes up, and he says,
it's not for you to know that, but his kingdom is in us. On that 40th day, After instructing
his disciples, we see the fulfillment of this passage of scripture.
He ascended back to the Father. The Father was so pleased with
that sacrifice. It was a consuming flame and
it consumed the sacrifice, but it was also a godly flame. This
is from God. God ordered it just like this.
Pilate was involved, yes. Annas was involved, Caiaphas
was involved, Roman soldiers involved, Pharisees, Sadducees,
Jews and Gentiles were all involved. But they were just doing exactly
what God ordained before the foundation of the world. And
it was a heavenly flame. God brought it, God consumed
that sacrifice, and then he went back to glory. We can say much
about the love of God, but it took this sacrifice of himself
for us to understand anything about it. They fell on their
faces to the ground. I just, you know, that's not
the first time we find people falling on their face in the
Bible. We find Moses. Take your shoes off. You're on
holy ground. Joshua. I can't help but think that Abel
had some of that same when he saw the fire fall. There was
an attitude of worship. They fell on their faces. Complete
payment brings worship and thankfulness. Turn with me, if you would, over
to the book of Hebrews, chapter 9. We've read this passage of
scripture many, many times, but I'm in love with it. So if you
turn with me over to the book of Hebrews, chapter 9. Hebrews
chapter nine, as we see the fulfillment of what we have over here in
the book of Judges. In Hebrews chapter nine, there
in verse 26, Hebrews chapter nine, verse 26 says, for then
must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.
Now we should read previous to this, this whole chapter, but
you take care of that. But now, once in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. So the sacrifice, and what does
that do for God's people? We worship him. We bow. Great fear, great reverence,
great respect comes upon us. And we do that by faith. It's
God-given faith to have this kind of worship of God. We can't
do it on our own, but we can by Him giving us the faith to
worship Him. Thomas, I like what Thomas had
to say. How many times has he been run
down for not being in church? But he makes a great confession.
My Lord and my God. I can't help but think that Manoah
and his wife were saying some of the same things. My Lord and
my God. Or he was satisfied with the
sacrifice of himself. There's a word that we find twice
in the New Testament. Once it's translated Rabboni.
Mary said, Rabboni, which means master. And if she wasn't in
a worshipful mode when she heard the voice of the Lord call her
name, Mary instantly, she knew exactly who had been speaking
to her. And she uses that term Rabboni. And that is the same
word that is used once, it's translated Lord, and it's used
by a blind man when he said, Lord, Jesus says, what would
you want me to do? And he says, the blind man said
unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. Rabboni, master. If that wasn't a worshipful statement,
the Lord Jesus spent every day working wondrously. Every activity
that he had, everybody he visited with, was a wondrously experience. Just as we find over here in
the book of Judges, chapter 13. To have Christ as our rabboni,
our master, our teacher. And if you'll turn with me to
the book of 1 Peter, chapter 1. 1 Peter 1. This is an interesting verse
because it shares some of the very fact to us about, have you
ever seen Jesus? Not like the disciples did. Now
they didn't have all the Bible at that time. We have the completed
Old and New Testament. In its original form, it was
absolutely without error. there was not one wrong dot or
jot or tittle. Now, in translation, sometimes,
and as time goes on, words change. And that's part of the teacher
or preacher's responsibility is to keep up on that and say,
this is what that word means right now. Brother Wayne was talking to
a friend of his there in Michigan, and the guy was talking that
the Bible talks about Easter. Well, it does. It uses the word
Easter. You look that word up, and every other time, several
times, five, six, ten times, it's the word Passover. So someone
did something. Easter is not the Passover. It's much more involved there. In 1 Peter 1, verse 8, Whom having
not seen, ye love. How can that be possible? By
faith. God supplied faith. Maybe little
faith. Maybe, what is that word the
Lord? Upbraiding faith. But it's still the faith of God's
elect. It's the faith that God gives
his people. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. Whom having not seen, ye love.
In whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Who gave us? the belief,
who causes us to rejoice with joy, unspeakable and full of
glory, because left to ourselves, we don't even know what those
words mean. We have two people bowing over
there in Judges chapter 13. Now, in the book of Ezekiel alone,
and I'm not gonna read it, you can just look this up, in the
book of Ezekiel alone, We have this term, thus saith the Lord,
130 times, thus saith the Lord. Well, when I find that, I think
I should pay attention. And then 430 times
in the Old Testament, thus saith the Lord. So it's pretty interesting
how often he spoke and used those terms. And he's saying, when
we read the word, when the word is read to us or preached to
us, it's not the person that's reading it, it's not the person
who read it, it is God that speaks to us. Now, he may use a preacher,
he may use a teacher, but it's the word that speaks to us. Well,
in closing, join me back in the book of Judges chapter 13, because
something so interesting happens here, and this is where we'll
be, Lord willing, next time. It says the flame went up, the
angel went up, and in verse 21, but the angel of the Lord did
not appear, no more appear to Manoah or to his wife, then Manoah
knew that it was the angel of the Lord. He knew this is the
Messiah. And Manoah said unto his wife,
we shall surely die. because we have seen God. Now, Manoah brings up, Manoah's
wife brings up three blessed statements. And they are for
us too, and we'll spend some time. But his wife said unto
him, if the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have
received the burnt offering and a meal offering at our hands,
neither would he have showed us all these things wondrously
things, nor would, as at this time, have told us such things
as these." So three things she brings up and says, now this
is why we're not going to die. And you know what? Noah understood. once she brought him up. And
then it tells us that she bare a son. The promise is fulfilled,
but we'll stop there for tonight and we'll pick up these last
few verses next time. I want to spend some time on
verse 23. Those three things that she mentions and their principles
for us today. They're the glorious, wondrously
things that the Lord gives us today. Well, we'll stop at this
point.