And 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. And there was a
certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, whose name was
Manoah. And his wife was barren and barren
not. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman and said unto her, Behold now thou art barren
and barren not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Now
therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong
drink, and need not eat any unclean. For lo, thou shalt conceive and
bear a son, and no razor shall come on 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. Then
the woman came and told her husband, a man of God came unto me, and
his countenance was like unto the countenance of an angel of
God, very terrible. But I asked him not which he
was, neither told me his name. But he said unto me, Behold,
thou shalt conceive and bear a son. 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.
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, 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?
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 any thing that cometh of the fine, neither
let her drink wine, or strong drink, or eat anything unclean.
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. And the angel of the
Lord said unto Manoah, thou shalt not, thou, 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. 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? And in the margin they said,
Wonderful. Secret means wonderful. So Manoah
took a kid with a meat offering and offered it up on a rock unto
the Lord, and the angel did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked
on. 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, 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 his wife than 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. But his wife
said unto him, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would
not have received a burn offering and a meat offering at our hand.
Neither would he have shown us all these things, nor would us
at this time have told us such things as this. And the woman
bare a son, called his name Samson, and the child grew, and the Lord
blessed him." I know I read a lot of scripture, but now I'm going
to try to get through this pretty quick. I said, you know, this
using still Old Testament pictures of Christ, Samson being born
here, first thing about Samson was his birth was a miracle.
His birth was a miracle. His mother was barren. God gave him to her. And our
Lord Jesus Christ's birth, an angel came and foretold his birth. And you know in our Lord Jesus
Christ was born of a virgin. And His mother was barren and
He had as her first son. Samson's birth secondly was foretold
of an angel of the Lord. And an angel of the Lord came
and told Mary that she was going to bear a son. And they told
him what to name this child and that's the way it was with Christ. This is what you shall name him.
And Samson was sanctified from his womb a Nazarite. That means
that he's separated and he's sanctified and he's not supposed
to cut his hair, drink any wine, drink anything from the grape.
And I'll talk about the Nazarite here in a little bit. But our
Lord Jesus Christ was separated by God His Father from eternity
and sent into this world to save sinners. And He was holy before
He ever entered that womb. He was holy while He was in that
womb. And He is holy when He came forth from that womb. God
bless His Son. And Samson was a mighty man.
Strong man. Mighty man. and destroyed the
enemy, destroyed the Philistines and saved Israel. Well our Lord
Jesus Christ, Samson is just a weakling compared
to our Lord Jesus Christ and his might and his power and his
glory. And how many, he just saved Israel. Christ saved all of his elect.
He saved his spiritual Israel. and this whole chapter in God's
words given to the appearance of this angel of the Lord to
Samson's father and mother and how they reacted to that how
they reacted to that now we'll just go quickly back down through
here and just make a few comments and show you what they said the
first verse says the children of Israel did evil in the sight
of the Lord And that's what you know they've been doing this
from the beginning. They murmured all the way through
the wilderness. And you know only two people
that originally left Egypt went into the promised land. Only
two of the originals that left. That was Jacob, I mean Joshua
and Caleb all the rest of them died but these people they were
idolaters they were guilty of this awful sin and God gave them
into the hands of their enemies for 40 long years well here comes
the angel of the Lord appeared unto Manoah's wife They were
of the tribe of Dan. And Jacob said this, that Dan
would be the judge of Israel. Be the judge over Israel. And
they come from the tribe of Dan. She was barren. She couldn't
bear a child at all. And he told her, he said, you're
going to have not only a son, but you're going to have a special
son. A special son. And he was going to be a Nazarite
from the womb and you would never, he'd never have his hair cut.
And he would be the mighty one, the judge that would deliver
Israel from all the hands of the Philistines. Now Nazarite,
and you can look at this up in Numbers chapter 6. is a person
who takes a vow on themselves that they're not going to cut
their hair. They're not going to drink any wine or take anything
from the grape. And they can do that for a year
or two years or five years. And then when they do go and
take that vow off of them, they go and they have to offer special
sacrifices and go through rituals and ceremonies and then cut all
their hair off. And at the tabernacle door cut
all the hair off and then they take that hair and they burn
it with their sacrifices. Well Nazarite, he's going to
be one from his mother's womb. He's never going to have his
hair cut. Not going to have his hair cut. And you know that happened
to Paul the Apostle. He went in with some men who
were having a vow on them. And it was a Nazarite vow. And
he went with them in to shave their heads. And that's when
he got put in jail and got in a lot of trouble from then on.
But that's what happened. And I tell you what, now look
down here again. It says, Manoah's wife ran and told her husband.
We will have to go through the verses again. I read them to
you. But there in 6-8, Noah's wife told her husband, said,
listen, you know what I seen? There was a man of God, he is
terrible in sight, scared me. She said, listen, and he told
me, he told me that I was going to have a son. I was going to
have a baby. I was going to have not only
a son, but a special son. He would be the deliverer of
Israel, and that he's going to be a Nazarite from his mother's
womb. Well, Manoah in verse 8, he said, Lord, send this man
back. Send this man back. He began
to pray, let me see this man. Let me hear this man. And you
notice it says a man. An angel of the Lord, that's
a man. And when they asked him who he
was, he said, are you that man that came and told my wife these
things? You know what he said? I am. You know who always said
I am? So here he comes, and oh my. He prayed and then the Lord sent
him. The Lord sent a man back. He sent the angel of the Lord
back. And oh my, God hearkened, it said in verse 9, to the voice
of Manoah. The angel of God came again,
not to Manoah, but to his wife. Manoah's not going to have a
child, but his wife is the one who got the promise. And I tell
you what, so there they are. And he's concerned about this. And that woman ran and she said,
listen, told her husband, said, that man that appeared to me
before, he's here now. Obedoah run just as high as he
could go. He said, I won't see this man.
And then he began to talk to this man. And I tell you, the
angel of the Lord appeared to them, and this no doubt is the
Lord Jesus Christ, because he said, I am. And our Lord Jesus
appeared often times in the Old Testament. I mean he appeared
often times I mean you look at what happened there in the door
of Abraham's tent where the Lord Jesus Christ was there and Abraham
worshipped him and gave him bread and wine and when Melchizedek
met Abraham and Abraham took bread and wine from Melchizedek
that was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ And I'll tell
you what, beloved, and our Lord Jesus appeared unto Jacob. Jacob said, what is your name?
My name don't matter. Me changing
your name and your nature is what's gonna matter. And I tell
you what, and they asked him, said, what is your name? You
know, he asked him, what is his name there in verse 18? And look
what he said, it's secret. What's secret? That's wonderful.
Who else has got a name called wonderful? They'll sure call
his name wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God. And
I tell you, you know, in our Lord Jesus, his name was secret. It was wonderful. and you know
it often times when you go through the scriptures angels are asked
to appear and identify themselves and you know there's two angels
that appeared and they were named Gabriel when he came to Mary
he said Gabriel he told Mary said I've come from God I've
come from God My name is Gabriel. And told her everything that
was going to happen to her. When it was going to happen.
And how it was going to happen. And what are you going to name
him. And then the next time you hear an angel's name mentioned
is over in the book of Daniel, where it says, you know, that
Daniel, that Michael, the archangel, withstood Satan. Because Satan
was looking for the place where Moses was buried, and that angel
withstood him, Michael the archangel, the prince. A prince of God withstood
him to his face and said, you're not going to find his grave. He stood toe-to-toe with Satan. And that could not have been
anybody else than the Lord Jesus Christ. Michael, he's called
that prince of God. And so, angels often times was
asked their name and often times they was met by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I tell you what, There was
an angel of the Lord with Abraham. And I tell you what, an angel
wrestled with Jacob. And it was the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I look down here in verse 15. Now Manoah asked him said would
you let me let us detain you I pray thee let us detain you
and he you know And and until we have made ready a kid for
you. We're gonna offer a sacrifice to you. We're gonna offer sacrifice
to you You know what this angel answered to him and the angel
the Lord said this He says, though thou detain me, I'm going to
stay here. I will not eat your bread. And
if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, you must offer it unto the Lord.
Now when you offer an offering here, it's got to be unto the
Lord. And this is the same thing, and he said, and Manoah knew
not that he was an angel of God. Now that's the same identical
thing that happened with that rich young ruler. He came to
the Lord Jesus Christ and here's the first thing out of his mouth,
good master! What must I do to inherit eternal
life? You know what our Lord said to
him? Why in the world would you call
me good? God, none is good but God. Either I'm just a master to you
and a man to you or I'm God. One or the other. You come wanting
to know where eternal life's at, I'm going to tell you. I'm
going to tell you. And that's the same thing happened
here. He said, either you're going to offer sacrifice to the
Lord, and I'm not, you know, or don't offer it to me. You know, and what he was saying
was, if you offer it to a creature, then you're robbing God of His
glory. So he was saying was that, yes, I'll take the offering,
Because I am who I am. I'm the Son of God. I'm the Lord
of Glory. And I've come here to say something
to you. And that's why I said you offer
a sacrifice unto the Lord. Did he offer a sacrifice? He
did. Oh my. You know he prayed and didn't
believe that God answered when this man came back. And if Manoah
had to offer to that one, he was just a man and that's all
he thought he was. He would have been honoring the
creature instead of the creator. And so that's why he said you
got to offer to the Lord. So Manoah, look what it says
here now. In verse 19. He said in verse 17, what is thy
name that when we may give honor to you, Oh, you don't need to
know my name. It's secret. It's wonderful.
And so Manoah took a kid, verse 19, with a meat offering and
offered it upon a rock unto the Lord. Do you see that? Now watch what happens here.
And the angel did wondrously. And Manoah and his wife looked
on. 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 and Menorah and
his wife looked on and you know what they did they fell on their
faces oh my oh whoever ascended to heaven but
our Lord Jesus Christ but oh my getting ahead of myself And
as that flame of smoke rose up, that angel of the Lord ascended
up in that flame of fire. And oh, they said, this is indeed,
this is indeed. Verse 21, no one knew that this
was indeed an angel of the Lord. And his wife, they said, now
listen to what he says here now. In verse 22. And the Lord said to his wife,
we're going to surely die because we've seen God face to face. You remember what Moses, God
said to Moses when Moses said, I want to see your glory. God
said, Moses, no man can see me and live. No man can see me and
live. But he said, there's a rock right
over here by me. And he said, I'll put you in
that rock and then I'll put my hand over you. And you can't
even see, all I'm going to show you is my back parts because
you couldn't stand to see me like I am. He put his hand over
it. And that's what he said, we've
seen God face to face and we're going to die. And that's what
God said, you can't see me face to face. And had to put him in
that rock and put his hand over it. But now listen to Menoah's
answer. You're talking about the gospel.
Look at Menoah's wife's answer. And the wisdom and faith that
she has. She encouraged her husband with a three-fold argument. And
I believe they'll help us. And Menoah said there in verse
22, We shall surely die. because we've seen God but his
wife said unto him here's her first argument if the Lord were
pleased to kill us he would not have received that offering you know this is the way she
addressed God if he were pleased to kill us he would not have
received that offering and I tell you what They offered that burnt
offering. And the Lord was pleased to show
this and approve his acceptance by sending in the very flame
of that sacrifice. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
God's blessed Lamb and our Lamb, was offered on Calvary's tree,
but the fire of God fell on Him And instead of the flame going
up, he consumed that flame of God. That fire of God. And by faith, we look to Him,
the Lamb of God, and Him alone. I was talking to a preacher today
and he's talking about some man that says, you know, said, you
turn from your sin and you turn to God. Well, let me tell you
something. What you do is you turn from
yourself and you turn to God. But I tell you what, if you have
to turn from any one sin, what sin is it that you're going to
have to turn from? to get to Christ. Don't put anything between
us and Christ. Don't put a turning. Don't put any obstacle that says
you've got to do this before you can come to Christ. Christ
comes to you and He makes you willing. And how can you turn
from sin that Christ has already put away and He says we're dead
to sin and we don't continue no longer therein and sin don't
have dominion over us. I ain't going to tell you to
turn from nothing to turn to God. I'm just going to tell you
trust Christ and Him alone. Don't let nothing get between
you and Christ. Nothing. Oh, nothing. I mean, I tell you
what, if there's a hair's breadth, a hair's breadth that you can't
even see, a hair's breadth between you and Christ, you'll miss Him.
You'll miss Him. I'm not, listen, and if the Lord,
here's what I'm telling you. They would have said, if He's
going to kill us, He wouldn't have accepted this burnt offering. If God was
going to kill us, The Lord loved the church and He gave Himself
from the church. Now how in the world is it possible
for us to die if Christ died? And if He bore our sin, is He
going to come back and require it in our hand? No! And that's
the same argument she had. If He was going to kill us, He
wouldn't have accepted the offering. If God was going to kill us,
He wouldn't have accepted Christ. Huh? And the Lord Jesus Himself
is our sacrifice. Not only did he die, but after
he was buried, after that cross, guess what he did? He ascended
to God's right hand. Sit that down. Would God destroy
us or kill us after he's already sacrificed his son for us? Here's
the second thing she said. I've got to hurry on here. Look
at the second thing she said. If he were pleased to kill us,
he would not have received a burn offering and a meat offering
in our hands. Now this is the second thing she said. If he
intended to kill us, would he have showed us all these things? Oh, she said, would he have showed
us all these things, told us about us going to have a son?
and he's going to be a Nazirite and it would be a special son
that he's going to be miraculously born and he showed himself in
two appearances first to her and then secondly to her and
Manoah and when he offered that sacrifice he identified with
that sacrifice and went up with that sacrifice well if God revealed
himself to us in his blessed son is it possible that he would
come and not accept us if he's already and we see he revealed
himself to the sons of Adam in the person of his blessed son and he's shown us this is what
I love about the gospel he has shown us how he can be just I
love this about God. That God stays God. Stays just
and righteous and holy. And then turns around and justifies
the ungodly. How? By the sacrifice of His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He revealed to us the way
of salvation and peace through the offering and the obedience
and the death and the blood of His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if He didn't purpose to save
a people, why in the world would He reveal Christ to us? And then
there's the third thing she showed to him. Oh, this is such a blessing
to me. The second thing. Third thing. And the woman said, if he were
pleased to kill us, would he not have said, we're going to
die. He said, oh no, no, we're not going to die. He's not going
to kill us. If he had, he wouldn't have received the burnt offering
and the meat offering in our hands. Neither would he reveal
these things to us and show us these things. And look what else
he said. And told us, told us, told us
such things as these. Told us that, oh my, told us
that listen, you're going to have a son. And you know what
this son's going to do? He's going to save us from our
enemies. That's what he's going to do. He's going to save us
from our enemies. And then you know what else he told us about
our son? He's going to be dedicated to God's service from the womb
until he dies. And you know what the foundation
of our faith is? We believe the promises of God
in his blessed son. Huh? What did he tell us about
his son? Huh? He told us about him. Abraham, the scripture said,
Abraham was strong in faith, living glory to God, persuaded
that what he had promised, he is able also to perform. Oh my. And this is one thing
we cannot do. God help us never to do this.
Don't believe our feelings. Don't reason things out. Just
believe God. God told us a Savior was coming
in the Old Testament. He made a promise to Abraham,
and to David, and to Jacob, and to Isaac. Will He come? Through the womb of a virgin.
And then our Lord Jesus Christ, oh, time and time again, He said,
I'm coming again. I'm coming again. When they stood
and watched Him ascend up to heaven in Acts chapter 1, He
said, as He went up, those two angels looked at all the disciples
standing around watching Him go up and said, you men of Israel,
why stand you gazing up? Said, this same Jesus that went
up like that is going to come back the same way. And I tell you what, he was coming,
he has come, and he's coming again. And he said, we've seen God and
we're going to die. His wife said, no we're not.
If he was going to kill us, he wouldn't have first of all received
the offering. Secondly, he wouldn't have showed
us all these things. And thirdly, he wouldn't have
told us all these wonderful things. So everything that she said,
that's what we believe. Amen. Our Father, oh blessed, blessed
Savior, thank you for allowing us to meet here tonight, to deal
with your word, to deal with it as it is. And Lord, we thank you. Oh, we thank
you. that because you slew your son,
and we died with him, and when he died, we died. When he rose,
we arose. When he ascended, we ascended.
And so, O Lord Jesus, you'd never come back, never come back. And, O Father, never come back
and require anything at our hands. And we have seen God. only by
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, that one of these days, by your
blessed grace, we'll see him as he is. And we'll be made like
He is. And we'll see Him face to face. Oh Lord, what a day. What a day. We look forward to
that day. God bless you, dear people. All the folks that our
hearts are heavy for, please be merciful and gracious for
Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. He's the Savior of my soul, Jesus,
my Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul He's
the Savior of my soul my soul Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul.