The book of Judges chapter 13,
and my fire is not stewed up yet. I'll have to do it the old way. I think this is coming up right
now. It's just being slow. If it doesn't,
I'm going to use that. Okay, the book of Judges chapter
13, and I would like to read a couple verses right at the
very beginning there. that share with us the issue
with, and I mentioned this to a couple today, you don't find
her name anywhere in Scripture. She is mentioned as Manoah's
wife or a woman. And they said, why is that? And I said, I think it has something
to do with the promise that the Lord gave in the Garden of Eden
that the seed of the woman And we never find the Lord calling
His mother mom. We always find Him calling her
woman. Woman, what hast thou to do with
me before my time? Woman, behold thy son. Son, behold
thy mother. So that sort of thing is what
we find with regard to this. So here in the book of Judges
chapter 13, and it says there, verse two, there was a certain
man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah
and his wife was Baran and Baranat. And we've mentioned that a couple
of times in the past, but it struck me as I was going through
that this week, that this really reminds us of our condition before
God, before we're born again. that there is not one thing that
we can do to produce that life. And we must have someone who
has the capabilities of dealing with death deal with us. We're
so dead in trespasses and sin that we cannot get out of the
mess we're in. So we're really dependent upon someone who has
all power to do that very thing. So we read there with regard
to Manoah's wife, that she was barren and barren not, and that's
truly where we are by nature. We are also reminded in this
passage of scripture about the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah,
because that's who Manoah and his wife began to meet. It was
on his time and according to his purpose that he came to Manoah
and came to Manoah's wife. It wasn't that they entreated
him to come, it was on his time, his purpose, and he's the one
that went through the process of revealing himself to Manoah
and to Manoah's wife. They didn't recognize him as
Christ. Now, there's a verse of scripture
along this line that I need to go to at this point, and that's
over in the book of Hebrews chapter 11. I've had people say, well,
Christ is not mentioned in the Old Testament. Well, Messiah
is mentioned, but notice here with regard to this in the book
of Hebrews chapter 11 with regards to Moses. This is such an interesting
verse of scripture here in the book of Hebrews chapter 11. And
there in verse 26, when we read about the condition or the position
that Moses was in and how he found it necessary to leave Egypt,
he was running for his life. But here in the book of Romans,
we find that in verse 24, excuse me, Hebrews chapter 11, verse
24, by faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to
be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. choosing rather to
suffer the affliction with the people of God than to enjoy pleasures
of sin for a season. And then notice verse 26, esteeming
the reproach of Christ. Now that tells us a whole lot
about the Old Testament and the saints of the Old Testament,
that it was Christ, the Messiah, as we are introduced to, as Manoah
and his wife were introduced to, as Moses was introduced to,
that this is truly the Messiah that appeared unto him. And we're
gonna look at a few verses that go along with that. But esteeming
the reproach of Christ, greater riches, than the treasures in
Egypt. We see him over there in the
book of Exodus kind of leaving under duress, but here we find
from God's side of things, he is leaving because he esteemed
Christ's greater riches than all that Egypt could produce.
So I love it when we read God's side of things, when we view
him, view Moses or Abraham or ourselves from God's side, he
doesn't see those imperfections. And as we read over there in
the book of Hebrews, or excuse me, in the book of Isaiah chapter
40, all the sins of Israel paid for double. So he's really looks
at us from a clean slate. All right, as we go through here,
We notice that Christ appeared. He hid himself
for a season, just like he did to the two on the road to Emmaus.
They didn't recognize who he was, and they'd been around him.
But he hid himself until the appropriate time. We find him
hiding himself from these people, though he's there speaking to
them. They're speaking to him. They don't recognize, and I think
for a little bit, they thought he was an angel. He's the angel
of the Lord. He's the messenger of God. It
came to them as they see more and more and Christ reveals himself,
he's the Messiah. And he's going to demonstrate
that by what he does when the sacrifice is brought by Manoah. In our day, we're not given these
apparitions. In our day, We are not given
visions of Christ. There is only one place in all
this world that we will ever see Christ, and that is in the
Word of God. That is the only place that God
has seen fit to show us Christ. We're not gonna have him come
through a vision and talk to us. He's gonna talk to us through
the word of God, and that's it. And I don't argue with people
that say otherwise. There's no need to argue with
them. The Lord, if he's pleased, will open their heart and show
them the truth of it. But if he's not, they're just
gonna go to their grave saying, I saw Jesus on the wall. We find
that the Lord Jesus is only revealed through his word, and it is very
interesting for every believer to find out as much as they possibly
can about this one, their Savior. That's what we are here for,
to learn about him, to understand more about him. And we pray that
he will, as he said, grow in grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is our blessing to grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we've
mentioned a number of times, we will never find him less than
we thought. We will always find him so much
greater that we put capacity of thought together. So he's
just almighty, gracious, and everything to the highest degree.
There's no fluctuation with any of the attributes of the Lord
Jesus with God. There's no fluctuation with His
love. There's no fluctuation with His mercy. Everything is
a constant because He never changes. He doesn't change his attitude
towards the church from time to time, as we may, but he never
changes. And it is hard for us to deal
with that in our mind because we have a fallen condition and
thank God for salvation that gives us that new heart, but
we haven't been able to comprehend all of the things about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And even in eternity, there's
going to be that revelation on a continuous basis. throughout
eternity. If you'll turn with me to the
book of John, John chapter 16, we find here that the Holy Spirit's
whole ministry in our time, the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ,
is to reveal Christ, to open up our understanding of Christ,
to take us to Christ in the scriptures. And that's why we find that word
mentioned in the book of Hebrews there, chapter 11, with regards
to Moses. He esteemed the riches of Christ
more. And so here in the book of John
chapter 16, and beginning with verse 12, we read this as Jesus
Christ is teaching about himself, and he's teaching about the Holy
Spirit, and he's teaching us about the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to teach us about Christ. and he will never, ever brag
on himself. Now, when Christ is honored,
the Father is honored. When Christ is honored, the Spirit
is honored. But when we have more emphasis
on the Spirit or more emphasis on the Father and detracted from
Christ, nobody's honored. So we want to honor Christ. So
we're going to honor the Father and the Holy Spirit by honoring
Christ. Here in the book of John chapter
16, verse 12, I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot
bear them now. How be it? When He, the Spirit
of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." Now I'm
convinced that the Holy Spirit did this to the saints in the
Old Testament. Same thing. And some of this
I don't completely understand, and it's above my pay grade.
But I find that the Holy Spirit was the revelation of Jesus Christ
to Moses in the Old Testament, as well as all of the other saints
in the Old Testament, that the Holy Spirit had to deal with
them just like he deals with us. Salvation has not changed
over time. It was not part sacrifice and
part Holy Spirit and part this and part that. It's always been
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And those sacrifices demonstrated
that very thing to everyone that knew Christ. They looked at that
and said, this is not my hope, but it certainly does picture
my hope. It tells me of my hope. There must be this sacrifice
in order for me to be free before God. So how be it when he, the
Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth.
And so the Holy Spirit is never going to lead us into a falsehood.
Now, if we're led to a falsehood, it wasn't the Holy Spirit that
did it. That's all there is to it. And if people say that the
Holy Spirit is doing this and this and this, and it's not in
accordance with the Word of God, the Holy Spirit's not doing that.
And I'm not going to blame the devil for it, because the natural
heart of man is worse than we think. And so it's the natural
heart of man that leads us into that condition. The Spirit is
come, he'll guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak
of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that will he speak,
and he will show you the things to come. He shall glorify me,
for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All
things that the Father hath are mine, therefore said I, that
he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you. So the Holy
Spirit's ministry to us, we find out he brings to us the gospel,
preaches the gospel. Someone is influenced by the
gospel through the Holy Spirit to preach that truth about the
gospel. And it is scattered out there
and the Holy Spirit takes that seed and applies it in some miraculous
way. And then we find in a supernatural
birth, far beyond the comprehension, Now, we have difficulty understanding
and putting together the physical birth, so it shouldn't be very
difficult for us to understand the spiritual birth is more complicated.
And it is all in the hands of God, just like we find the physical
birth is, it's in the hands of God. A woman, Manoah's wife,
was barren. Not because she probably had
some disease, but on God's purpose, she was that way. So that we
could have what we read in Judges chapter 13, and we can have the
results of it in chapter 14, 15, and 16, and that's Samson.
And Samson, we look at him and we say, that guy's a rascal,
but we get over to the book of Hebrews chapter 11 and say, he's
right there with God's faithful ones. This is how God looks at
him. If we ever see Christ, If you
ever see Christ, and that's what we're gonna look at here with
regard to Manoah and his wife, if we have time tonight. If we
ever see Christ, we will also see what we are. We read over there in the book
of Ezekiel, after God does this, and this, and this, and this,
and this, and this, and he says, I will, I will, I will, I will,
then you shall know your condition. So we're in a trap. Before we're saved, we can't
understand. We can admit that we have done
things wrong, but we don't know what it is. And again, I was
speaking to a couple today, and I had to bring up that salvation
is not salvation from hell. That's a benefit, but my goodness,
we don't have salvation from hell and that puts us in the
good standing with the Lord. We're saved from the wrath of
God. He is the offended party. It's God that we have to deal
with. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. So God is gracious and merciful
to send us the gospel through the preaching of the word. The
Holy Spirit takes that and in a miraculous way applies it,
gives it seed and gives us the new birth. And we come out and
we know ourselves like we never knew ourselves before. I remember
telling the deacon in the church where I was when the Lord saved
me. I says, I'm not completely sure what happened, but I know
more about grace now than I've ever known in my life. It used
to be a word to just try to find and define, get a definition
out of Strong's and use that. But, you know, grace is more
than just a definition out of a book. It is a heartfelt activity
of almighty God when he forgave us our sin and put us in the
body of Christ. And we look at it and say, thank
you for your grace. It's totally unmerited. There's
not one bit of it that I deserve, but here we are. I could have
the grace of God. So this is what the Spirit does. And if the Lord ever shows us
Christ, he's gonna show us more about ourself than we've ever
seen in our life. And that's where we find the
Apostle Paul towards the latter part of his ministry. He was
one that he got to see a whole lot about himself. And he said,
like all Christians will, I am the chiefest of sinners. There's
not one good quality about me. There's every good quality about
God and God's salvation. In the book of Romans, we find
this. We will find out if God ever lets us see Christ. You
will find out about yourself and you'll find out who he is
and what he has done for you. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. What good news? Best news I ever heard after
I was born again. All right, notice with me in
the book of Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. I have a Bible. It was given to me when I was,
I believe, nine years old. It was the year my grandfather
passed away. And I'm reading it, using it in church one time,
and my dad grabbed it, turned over to this passage, took his
pen out and underlined. And said, this is what you need
to do. Well, you know what he underlined. The first few verses
of this where it says, verse nine, thou shalt confess with
thy mouth and all that. And he never got down to verse
14. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? It's just an absolute necessity
that we leave salvation to God. It's just a necessity. When we
get involved, we're going to make a mess. But this, as we
hold forth the word of truth, God is pleased to apply that
word of truth to his lost sheep and save them by his grace. And the preacher will never be
able to say, I had a lot to do with that. It will not go down
in his book. Bragging points. It's a sham
when we have preachers that are using it as a bragging point,
how many they've won to Jesus. They have won no one to Jesus.
In fact, we find that the Lord said, you make these two times
more a child of the devil than they were before when you just
get converts out of it. Well, we're thankful that even
that the Lord takes and saves those kinds of people too. Well,
it says how, and then verse 15, and how shall they preach except
they be sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring good tidings,
tidings of good things. So this is, the Lord has preached,
God has preached through the word and God uses that word in
a magnificent, miraculous, way out of our understanding way. And God saves his people. And when we have that, we have
some knowledge about Christ that we never had before. We have
some knowledge about ourselves that we never had before. And
we have some knowledge about his word that we never had before.
It's all God's gift to us. In the book of Hebrews chapter
two, Hebrews chapter two and verse nine, we read this about
seeing the Lord. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 9.
It says there, but we see Jesus. Now that's a miracle. To see Jesus. As it's written
about Moses, to see Christ. As it's written about Abraham,
to see the angel of the Lord Christ. to have Moses spoken
to out of a burning bush, and I am the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. My goodness,
what was said to those folks? Well, here in the book of Hebrews
chapter two and verse nine, it says, but we see Jesus who has
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.
Now, it's hard for us to comprehend the glory that he had with the
Father before the world began. And it is hard for me to comprehend
that he would give up that glory for the suffering of death. And then it goes on, crowned
with glory and honor that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man. Now that would have been better
translated for the whole, for the church. Now there's a half
a dozen verses that have a quirk about them in that sense. And
that's the half a dozen that's going to be picked up on. And
there's 10,000 verses that declare the sovereign grace of God and
they're skipped. So here it should, it could have
been very easily taste death for the whole, the whole church,
the whole group, the whole elect. the whole sheep, everything,
was he tasted death for them. Now, if he tasted death for every
man and three quarters, many, he said the word many, go to
hell, then his death is absolutely valueless. There is nothing to
it and we might as well go fishing. But his death for his people
is effectual and takes care of all their sin And He has promised
as a result of going to the cross on their behalf to give them
everlasting life. We're everlasting life. It's such a quality that God
gives us that we cannot comprehend it. We are in death. We face
death every day. But thank God for that part that
he gives us in his Holy Spirit to indwelling us that can latch
a hold of that truth that he grants everlasting life. All right. And if they don't
hold this about Christ, if they don't hold this about the gospel,
then we find that Isaiah said, there's no light in them. They
just are dark. There's no light in them. Going
back to the book of Judges now, let's go spend a little time
over there in the book of Judges tonight, chapter 13. And we find
here that it appears, Judges chapter 13, and beginning with
verse eight, it appears that Manoah and his wife both thought
that this angel of the Lord was just an angel. They didn't realize
at this time. And we're going to see that they
do realize the events that take place and through the sacrifice
that was offered and the acceptance of that sacrifice that was offered,
we're going to see that they said, oh my goodness, we have
seen God and have not died. There was a revelation that they
had in that sacrifice. And we'll look at that as we
go through the scriptures here. Art thou a man? Art thou the
man? Is what we have Manoah mention
here. Verse eight, Manoah entreated
the Lord and says, oh my Lord, let the man of God, which thou
did sin come again unto us. Let the man of God and teach
us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. Now
we mentioned in the past that Manoah, like his wife, they were
both barren. Since she didn't have any children,
he didn't either. And yet when he hears this news
that she brings, that there's going to be a son born, by faith
he completely understands that that's going to happen. He doesn't
question that at all. And so he has a revelation given
to him, but here is this person standing in front of him, doesn't
recognize him at the moment as the Christ of God, the Lord Jesus. And it tells us in verse 9, when
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, a
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 says, 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 shall 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, a sacrifice for thee, a kid.
And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, though thou detain
me, I will not eat of thy bread. And if thou will offer a burnt
offering, notice this, thou must offer it unto Jehovah. You must offer, in order for
this sacrifice to be accepted, it must not be offered to a man
and it must not be offered to an angel. It must be offered
to Jehovah. And that was some of the error
that Israel had. They had forgotten that part.
that this sacrifice is unto Jehovah. This is not a sacrifice for me
to feel better about. This is not a sacrifice for my
friends to feel better about. This is a sacrifice that is to
be towards Jehovah, because we're going to find out that when Jesus
went to the cross, it was for God. Now we're the recipients
of it, but that sacrifice was for God. He fulfilled the agreement
between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That was
for God. So we're encouraged in the scriptures,
don't worship angels. They are created beings. There's no room. And yet we find
even in the time of the apostles, there were those in churches.
In the book of Colossians, in the church of Colossae, there
were those that were worshiping angels. And worship of anybody
but Christ is nothing more than idolatry. Now, I really appreciated
what Brother Henry had to say one time. Someone brought it
to him, his attention, and he said, after discussing the Lord
Jesus, he said, that preacher said, you just made an idol out
of Christ. And he said, that's the greatest compliment I've
ever been given. An object of worship out of Christ. And you
know, if people can see that, that he is our object of worship,
what glory it is. So God appeared, Christ appeared
unto many people in the Old Testament. We find that he appeared unto
Adam. And that's why Adam ran. If it had been just a man, why
would he have to run? But it was God, and he ran and
hid himself in the garden. And you know what? We, by nature,
run and hide from God and apply our own righteousness, our own
fig leaves, and it isn't until God comes to us. We never find
Adam going to God. We never find Adam crawling and
groveling and say, forgive me, God. We find that God came to
him just like we're going to find God coming to Manoah and
to his wife. That's the way God saves his
people from their sins. It is top-down management. All right, we find that God appeared
unto Abraham. We find that God, Christ, appeared
unto Jacob. Jacob wrestled with a man. He
says, I want to know your name. You know, Jacob halted the rest
of his life over that incident. He limped the rest of his life
to remind him that he met God. We read about Moses. We read
about Joshua. I like that incident of Joshua. He's looking at that city of
Jericho and he sees a man. And he says, are you for us or
are you against us? And Christ said, I am the captain
of the Lord's hosts. And you know what Joshua did?
He went to his knees. He knew who this was. This is Christ. This is the promised
seed that God had promised to come into this world to lay down
his life, a ransom for many. In the book of Matthew chapter
19, We have a similar incident as
Manoah and his wife there. And the angel of the Lord, Christ
said, if you offer this sacrifice, it must be to the Lord. Now in
the book of Matthew chapter 19, we have what we call the rich
young ruler. And he said something that Jesus
Christ put back at him. And he's not saying I'm not good.
Jesus never said, I'm not good. He's just saying, if you knew
me, if you knew me. Now he comes and said here, verse
16, behold, one came and said unto him, good master, what good
thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? Good master. And Jesus came right back and
says, why callest thou me good? Now over in the book of Judges,
we're going to have the angel tell Manoah and his wife, if
you offer a sacrifice, it must be to the Lord. You cannot offer
a sacrifice for yourself. You can't offer it for someone
else. It must be to the Lord. And that's what we find the Lord
Jesus Christ did. He offered himself a sacrifice
to God. Well, it goes on here. Why call
Estami good? There's none good but one, and
that is God. Now, if you really meant it,
you know who I am. But since you're just bringing
this up, you don't know who I am. Now, some people feel that this
was Saul of Tarsus. I don't know. He doesn't say
that. But the Lord answered him, but if thou will enter into the
life, keep the commandments. And he goes on and said, I've
already done all of that. I've kept the commandments. I've got
my own righteousness. Well, he went away sad because
he was very rich. But remember what the Lord said.
There's only one good one, and that is God. So if you really
believe that He's good, then He's been revealed to you as
God. That's the only way. All of the
Old Testament sacrifices were to be to God, and the greatest
and the only effectual sacrifice ever offered. You know, how many
books are in the Old Testament that talk about sacrifices? and
you go counting them up, on the day the temple was dedicated,
blood flowed like water. Thousands of sacrifices, and
thousands of sacrifices for those 40 years that they walked in
the wilderness, and up to the point of the building of the
temple. Thousands and thousands, and not one was effectual. There was not one sin forgiven
in all those sacrifices And we find in the New Testament, the
blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. Why? Because
they're a completely different strain than what is necessary.
We need a man. We need a man. And that is the
man Christ Jesus. Well, turn with me, if you would,
to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter five. In Ephesians
chapter five, and there in verse two, Ephesians
chapter five and verse two. And he says, this is a sacrifice
to God. When we preach the gospel and
pray to be faithful, is that for lost people or is it for
God? And we have to answer, if we're
really a servant of the Lord, it is for God. It's God's honor,
God's glory. God, he's given us faith to do
it. And if he would be pleased to
honor it, then he will save his people from their sins. But that's
not what we preach for and what's not what we pray for. We pray
God to be honored, God to be glorified. So here he says, walk
in love as Christ also had loved us and has given himself for
us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. The sacrifice is to God. We're
gonna find out over here in the book of Judges chapter 13, that
that sacrifice that Manoah offered, it was accepted by God. It was
to God, it was for God. As we follow this theme, we find
that there are a number of places going again to the book of Hebrews
chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine, it shares
with us again about who this sacrifice is for. Hebrews chapter
nine, verse 26, we read this about the sacrifice, who it's
for. If you offer a sacrifice, it
has to be to the Lord. That's the requirement. If you
err at that point, there's nothing that can help. If you err at
the point of who this sacrifice is for, if you err at the point
of who you were saved because of. You've erred. Okay. Here in the book of Hebrews
chapter 9 verse 26, for then must he often have suffered since
the foundation of the world. Now, if we read back just a little
bit, we have references to the Old Testament high priest and
the requirements imposed upon them, and they never could get
the job done because they died. They didn't have life. They were
human beings just like us, and it was impossible for them to
offer a sacrifice that would qualify to be effectual. So here
we have a high priest. It says here, since the foundation
of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath he
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He's the sacrifice, and he's
the lamb, and he's also the high priest, and he's also the prophet,
and he's also the king that's dealing with this. So everything
is in his hands. And just a little further there
in the book of Hebrews chapter 10, we read this about the sacrifice. As we hear over there, the angel
of the Lord, Christ himself saying, if this sacrifice, it must be
to the Lord. It cannot be to anywhere else.
And if you really understand the gospel, then it will be to
the Lord. All right, here in the book of
Hebrews chapter 10, verse 12, we have this. And it says, but
this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God. That sacrifice was for God. Now, in that sacrifice, it put
away sin. In that sacrifice, he's able
to say, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. But that sacrifice
was because God was the offended party, we were the offending
party, and the mediator come in and took care of the offense
and paid for it as a substitute. And now he sat down at the right
hand of God, God the Father is well pleased with the sacrifice.
Sin has been put away. Sin has been forgiven to his
people. And as the gospel goes out, it
will reap the benefits that he promised would be until the very
last lost sheep is saved. And we've said this a thousand
times, this then will all be wrapped up. We won't be looking
for anything else after that last sheep. It will be over.
So the Lord Jesus has promised that. Well, going back, if you
would, for just a brief moment to the book of Judges again,
the book of Judges, Judges chapter 13. So we travel back there for
just a little bit. In verse 17, we read this. Manoah asked a name. Manoah said
unto the angel of the Lord, What is thy name? That when thy sayings
come to pass, we may do thee honor. What is thy name? And the angel of the Lord said
unto him, why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? You know, to me, secret means
a whole lot different than what this means. I've never, ever
been able to keep a secret. It's not our nature to keep a
secret. We've been asked to keep a secret.
We ask other people to keep a secret, but that's not what this word
means. There's one other place in the Old Testament where this
Hebrew word was translated and it really gives us the significance
of what this name means. And would you join me if you
would in the book of, let me see here. It's in the Psalms. Oh my goodness. Forgive me. Psalm 139.6. The word has been translated
in this verse of scripture Wonderful. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto
it. So the Lord is telling Manoah,
my name is wonderful. Now, where does that lead us
to? Isaiah chapter nine. Let's just step over. Now that
word is just a little bit different. The root is the same. And it's
just a very minute difference in the definition of this word
over in the book of Isaiah chapter nine and verse six. But the name
that is given here. Now, there's not multiple names
that are given here. In my understanding, it should
have been hyphenated names. It shouldn't be common names.
It shouldn't look like several different names. But in the book
of Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6, we read this, For unto us
a child is born, and to us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. What a name! Now that's what
the angel of the Lord shared with Manoah that time so many
years ago. My name is wonderful. Nobody is like him. Nobody can
speak like him. Nobody can do like him. He is
absolutely wonderful. And this word is found a number
of times elsewhere in the scripture, but I just want to close by turning
to Philippians, and we'll come back to this, Lord willing, the
next time we're in the book of Judges. But in the book of Philippians,
we have this said, as the Apostle Paul was led by the Holy Spirit
to give us the truth of the matter. Wherefore, God hath highly exalted
him and given him a name which is above every name. Philippians chapter two and verse
nine. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given
him a name which is above every name. Wonderful. That at the
name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven, things
in earth and things under the earth. And if we followed that
out in the book of Judges, we're gonna find they did exactly that.
They bowed their knees to this one. And every tongue shall confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And if we will follow that on the book of Judges, they did
exactly that too. This is the Lord. This is the Christ. So they're
gonna show us what it is to see Christ over there in the book
of Judges. But we're out of time for tonight and we'll pick this
up at the next time. Next Wednesday, brother Wayne
Boyd will be speaking for us. And then we'll have Thursday
off and then we'll be back on Friday, Saturday, and then Sunday
morning. So we'll stop here for tonight.