All right, Genesis chapter three.
We're going to continue looking at this study on the heavenly
manhood of Christ. A glorious study, really, whenever
you start looking at it and seeing the promise that God has made,
as we read last week. God has made a promise, not only
in the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament, that he
would be with us. As a matter of fact, found in Exodus chapter 29 and
verse 45. Exodus 29 and verse 45. It says, and I will dwell among
the children of Israel and I will be their God. And then we found
the same promise from God in Revelation, chapter 21. Revelation 21 and verse 3. I know a lot of people will claim, well, that's
a future verse. It's not. Yet God has made this
promise through all time. He said it at the beginning in
Exodus. He said it at the end in Revelation.
Revelation 21, verse three, he says, and I heard a great voice
out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with
man and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people
and God himself shall be with, God himself shall be with them
and be their God. And so we see that God has promised
his presence with his people. And in the Old Testament, we
see that Jesus, was present with the Old Testament saints, not
only just in dwelling them, but he was physically there with
them at different times. And of course, in the New Testament,
Christ came and he lived for the time that he was here and
died and then ascended back to the Father after his work of
redemption was done. and then he has promised to come
again to us. But we've been looking here at
this beautiful picture of Christ and his heavenly manhood. And
whenever I talk about heavenly manhood, I mean that God who
is invisible, that triune Godhead, that indwelt, the man Jesus Christ,
that that manhood has existed before the foundation of the
world and was present throughout all the Old Testament, and then
once again was brought and made manifest through the Virgin Mary,
was born of Mary, and came and became our Redeemer and our surety. Of course, He was already our
Redeemer, our surety as far as eternity, all the way through
eternity past. But what we've been looking at
is just the fact that The Bible does teach that Jesus had this
manhood before he was born of the Virgin Mary, that we truly
believe that he is all God, he is all man. We truly believe
that he was born of a virgin. We just don't believe that that
manhood, as far as the scriptures tell us, if we just hold to the
scriptures. Now, if we go out and start listening to theologians
and confessions and creeds and and commentaries and things like
that. We're going to be filled with the traditions of men. But
if we look at the scriptures and just let the scriptures simply
speak about these things, we find that Christ was manifested
in the flesh before he was born of the Virgin Mary. Now, he was
given a body that could die. He was prepared a body by God
and given that body, and that body was definitely put into
Mary and he was born of Mary and he grew in stature in that
body. And that body eventually was
the body that he went to the cross with and that he truly
died. He didn't just swoon, he died.
And that body was then resurrected and was brought back to life. And so we believe that there
was a true body inhabited by God that dwelt with men. And it wasn't just in the Old
Testament, but I mean, just in the New Testament, but also in
the Old Testament. And that's kind of what I wanted to look at today
is this Christ in the Old Testament. Was Jesus in the Old Testament? Well, let's think about a few
things that we've already looked at. We've already looked at and
we've seen that God is invisible. He's a spirit. He can't be seen,
right? God can't be seen. Matter of
fact, the Bible says no man has seen God at any time, but we
have learned that the Bible speaks that we have seen God in the
face of Jesus Christ, that God has manifested himself or has
shown himself, revealed himself in flesh through the man, Jesus
Christ, his son, Jesus Christ. So that triune Godhead, that
inhabited Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus makes that God fully known. He is the image of the invisible
God. An image is something you see,
right? Something that you see is an image. If it's invisible,
you don't see it. But if it's an image, you can
see it, right? And Jesus is the image of the
invisible God. face of the invisible God. Whenever
you have seen Jesus, you have seen God manifested in the flesh. If you've seen Jesus, you have
seen God Almighty, but He's in the flesh. Okay? So Jesus, anytime
we see or talk about God being seen throughout scripture, it's
in Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible
God. Now, with that being said, and
us learning that Jesus has all the fullness of that Godhead,
Father, Word, Holy Spirit, living in Him, indwelling Him, okay,
that one God, Godhead, is in Christ Jesus, and Jesus is manifesting
that God. Well, let's see throughout Scripture
how God has kept that promise that I will be with them, I will
dwell with them, and I will be their God. So in Genesis chapter
3, look with me if you would, and I'm going to start reading
in verse 1. It says, Now the serpent was more
subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had
made. And he said unto the woman, Yea,
hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the
tree of the garden, but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst
of the garden, God has said, ye shall not eat of it, neither
shall ye touch it lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the
day that thou eatest thereof, your eyes shall be opened and
ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and the tree was to be desired to make one wise.
She took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto
her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them
both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they
sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Now look
here in verse eight. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day." Okay,
a voice doesn't walk, okay? A voice is something that's heard.
It's invisible, but it's heard. But they heard the voice of God
walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and
his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. Okay, so here we see that God,
not only was speaking in a voice like out of heaven, you know,
saying, you know, what have you done? But God was actually walking
in the garden and they hid from his presence, meaning they hid
from him being able to see them. Okay, he was coming, walking
through the garden and they hid so he couldn't see them. At least
that's what they thought, he couldn't see them. Okay, well,
who was that that walked in the garden? that they heard? Who is it that they seen? Well,
it was Jesus Christ, because Jesus is the image of the invisible
God. He is also the Word of God. If you hear the voice of God,
you are hearing Jesus, because He is the Word of God. Okay? Now, look down at verse 21. It
says, Or actually, let's go back in
verse 19. It says, in the sweat of thy
face, this is where God now is gonna curse the land and curse
man. It says, in the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground. For out of it was thou taken,
for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And Adam called
his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Here it is, verse 21. Unto Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothed them." Okay,
so here we see that God made skins for them, made skin clothing,
but it said that God clothed them. God put it on, clothed
them. Okay, well who did that? It was the one who was walking
in the garden whose voice that they heard, that they were hiding
from the presence. That man who was walking in the
garden is the one who came and skinned those skins from whatever
animal it was that he killed and made them aprons and put
them things on them and clothed them. It was God walking amongst
them. And who is the image of the invisible
God? Because we can't see God. And
Adam saw God, so he saw who? Jesus, right? Turn with me, if
you would, to Genesis chapter 6. We'll start reading in verse 1. It
says, And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the
face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the
sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair,
and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord
said, My spirit shall not always strive with man. Now, pay close
attention here. Remember, I tell you guys, whenever
you're reading the Bible, that every word counts, right? God doesn't just put in filler
stuff here. It says, And the Lord said, My spirit shall not
always strive with man, for that he also is flesh." Who's God
talking about whenever He said, He also is flesh? He's talking about mankind, okay? The Lord said, My spirit shall
not always strive with man. And that word man there means
mankind. It doesn't just mean one particular
man. It means mankind. My spirit will not always strive
with mankind, sinful mankind. But it says, for that He also
is flesh. Who is God comparing mankind
who is flesh with? Well, who else has got flesh
that is of man? It would be Him. He also, He
says, For he also is flesh, but look
what he says, yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. So you've got to put a time frame
on man's flesh. Okay? You've got to put a time
period on man's flesh, but his flesh doesn't have a time period
on it. Okay? So here we see another
reference that God also was flesh here in the Old Testament. Turn
with me to Genesis chapter 18. I know some people would say,
man, you're just kind of stretching things on that. I'm just taking
a simple reading. What does it mean that he also
was flesh, okay? What does it mean whenever he
was walking in the garden, his voice was being heard, he had
presence that they could see his presence walking and talking
and cutting skins off of an animal and clothing him. That is a man
doing that. And we know that the only man
that is a mediator between God and man, the only man that is
a visible image of who God is, is Jesus Christ. All right, in
Genesis chapter 18, starting in verse one, it says, and the
Lord appeared. Now, another thing I haven't
really brought up, look at the word Lord there. You notice that
the word Lord there is all capitals, L-O-R-D, and I've taught you
guys this before. and hopefully you've remembered
this. In your King James Bible, this
is one of the good things about King James Bible, and the King
James language, actually, is when the translators translated
these things, whenever you see some of the words end, you know,
the vows and the these and all that kind of stuff, those actually are preserving
the Greek grammar. Where our English language doesn't
convey that, the old English language that this was written
in actually was able to convey and to preserve the vowels, I
mean, not the vowels, the grammar of the, whether or not it was
a vowel or a noun or whether it was plural or whether it was
whether it was singular. And so here's one of the things
also that we see. Every time you see the word Lord
all in capitals behind that word is the Hebrew word Yahweh or
Jehovah, okay? It speaks of God in his divine
nature. God who, that invisible God that
we cannot see, that's eternal, that has never come into existence,
who has always been. It's talking about God. And we
see here that God, that visible, invisible God, that is triune,
that God appeared unto him, this is Abraham, appeared unto him
in the plains of Mamre. appeared and so Jehovah is given
to the name of Christ. I remember one time I told you
that there was Jehovah's Witness that came to our door a few years
back and wanted to talk to me and I usually just kind of ignore
them and let them go their way and everything but this time
I just kind of decided I was going to engage them and talk
and I just happened to have my Bible sitting up there on the
banister and so anyway I began to engaged this elderly man and
it was also, he had with him a young woman who was kind of
a trainee, Jehovah's Witness trainee. But anyway, they came
and of course he started to engage and wanted to give me literature.
I told him, I said, I won't accept your literature. And he asked
me why. I said, because you preach a false gospel and you're preaching
a false Jesus. And he asked me, you know, why
do you say that? And I said, well, because, you
know, you're, you preach the, you know, started telling him
all those things that, that we disagree with. And he, he handed
me his Bible and he said, well, can you show me in this Bible
where Jesus ever claimed to be God? And so I took his Bible,
which it was the new world translation, and it's a messed up translation. It's not a, a real Bible. They've taken it and twisted
it to fit their doctrine. However, I did take him into
his Bible and show him a few things, but then I got my Bible
and picked it up and I started going and I started places like
this, saying, who is this? Who is this? That was Jesus.
That was Jesus. Okay, well, it says right here
that his name is Yahweh. He's equated to Yahweh. Well,
anyway, I started going through The Old Testament, showing where
Jesus was identified as God, as Jehovah. And then in the New
Testament, where Jesus claimed to be God, and how the religious
leaders, they thought that what Jesus was saying was, he was
saying that he was God. So Jesus did claim to be God,
which Jehovah's Witnesses said Jesus never did claim to be God,
okay? And so anyway, as I began to
go more verses, more verses, more verses, showing Jesus to
be the one true God, I mean, this man, he began to shake violently,
just was sitting there shaking. And this woman next to him, she
was freaking out, because he was all acting weird, shaking
and everything. And of course, it ended up, he
said, well, we'll just have to agree to disagree. And I said,
well, I don't agree with you for anything. He wanted to shake
my hand, and he said, well, God bless you, and he wanted to shake
my hand. I said, I can't even shake your hand, because the
Bible says that you come with another gospel. You come with
a false Christ, and the Bible says that we're not even to wish
you Godspeed. So he turned around and left,
and I told the woman that was with him, I said, man, if I was
you, I would get as far away from this stuff as you can get,
that it's a false gospel with a false Jesus, and there's no
hope in that. This is one of the reasons why
we talk about these things. It's because there are false
teachers out there. There are false Gospels out there who claim
that Jesus is not Jehovah, that he's something different, okay?
He's a created being that is not divine, that he's not God. He's just a man, okay? There was a whole, you know,
argument about this back, you know, many, many years ago, you
know, in the 300s. There was an argument about this
among, you know, mostly the false Catholic churches, but, you know,
there was a group of people that believed that Jesus wasn't divine,
that he was just a man. Okay? And so, the Jehovah's Witnesses,
they believe that Jesus isn't Jehovah. Okay? And so, we look
and we see here, and the Lord, the word behind that is Jehovah
appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent
door in the heat of the day, and he lifted up his eyes and
looked, and lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them,
he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself towards
the ground and said, My Lord, If now I found favor in thy sight,
pass not away, I pray thee from thy servant. So we see here that
the Lord actually appeared in flesh to Abraham in the plains
of Mamre, or Mamre, however you say that, appeared to him. And so again, if God appears,
the only one who appears in God's, Image is Jesus Christ. So it
was Jesus who met with Abraham. Now, these next verses that we're
going to look at, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Because
I want to preference this before we start reading this, because
I'm sure somebody's going to think I'm just trying to be silly
or something. I really do take this seriously
and I do think it's something that can be a edification to
the people of God to know and to be comforted by. At least
that's my hope. In Hebrews chapter 11, look with
me if you would, starting in verse 24. This is something actually
this week that I come across this verse And I went ahead and
wrote it in to the notes that I'd already prepared on this
study a couple weeks ago, into my verse list here. But I added
this in because I hadn't, at least I didn't remember, I'm
sure I've read this because I've read through Hebrews many times, but
it just a little brought this to my mind. It says, by faith,
Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with
the people of God and to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. OK, so Moses by faith. OK, God
give Moses faith. And he refused to be called Pharaoh's
son. He chose to suffer with his people
instead of enjoying the sins for a season, it says there.
But look at verse 26, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures in Egypt. Wait a minute, I thought
Christ didn't come until Bethlehem. I thought in the Old Testament,
they didn't know about Christ, they just knew tides and foreshadows.
But it says right here in Hebrews, that Moses, esteeming the reproach
of Christ, he says, I would rather suffer for the name of Christ
than to enjoy the riches of Egypt and despise Christ. That's what
Moses did by faith before Christ ever supposedly came by Mary,
right? So he says, esteeming the reproach
of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he
had respect unto the recompense of the reward. And then in verse
27, look here. By faith, he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, look at it, read
it with me, as seeing him who is invisible. How was it that
Moses endured all the hardships in Egypt to continue faithfully
esteeming the reproach of Christ better than the treasures of
Egypt? How did Moses do that? Because he had seen Him who is
invisible. You don't see something that's
invisible, right? You see something that's visible.
but something that is invisible that becomes visible by indwelling
a body, now you see that which is invisible. Jesus Christ is
the image of the invisible God. God promised to be with him. He says right here that it was
Christ. He would rather feel the reproach
of Christ, meaning I'm being persecuted because of Christ's
sake. than to have all these riches,
so he was doing this in worship and in honor and in, what's the
word I'm trying to think of? The word has left my mind. In loyalty to Christ, that's
the word I'm trying to think of. In loyalty to Christ Jesus. But how does he know that? Well,
because he saw him who is invisible. He saw Christ Jesus. You say,
well, where did Moses ever see Christ Jesus? Well, let's look
back in Exodus chapter 14. Now, I could go to the burning
bush and talk about Christ being in the burning bush, but I'm
mainly talking about Christ appearing as a man, okay? In the burning
bush, we heard God's voice. He appeared as a burning bush,
okay? But I'm talking about as He appeared
as a man in His manhood. But look with me, if you would,
Exodus chapter 13. Did I say 14? 13. I meant 13. Did I say
13? Exodus chapter 13, and look with
me if you would, and I wanna start reading here at verse 19. It says, and Moses
took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had straightly sworn
the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and
ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you. And they took
their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge
of the wilderness. Now look here in verse 21. And
the Lord, and there it is again, all in capitals, Jehovah, went
before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way,
and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day
and night. He took not away the pillar of
the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before
the people. Now everyone says, well, that's
a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. How's that God, Christ
being man, or what does that have to do with Christ's manhood?
Well, look closely if you would there. And the Lord went before
them by day in a pillar of cloud, in a pillar of fire, not as a
pillar of fire, or as a pillar of cloud, but
in it. He was actually in the pillar
of cloud. He was in the pillar of fire.
He was actually in there. It was his presence that was
there with them, leading them, coming behind them. He was there
giving the pillar of cloud by day, by the pillar of fire by
night. It was Christ in the pillar.
You say, well, do you have any other evidence that might lead
there? Because that just might be semantics that you're talking
about. Well, look with me at Exodus chapter 14. Verse 24, And it came to pass
that in the morning watch the Lord Jehovah looked unto the
host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the
cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians." So here we
see that Christ was looking through the pillar of fire, through the
pillar of cloud, and what was He doing? He was looking and
watching the host of the Egyptians. He was watching them as He was
in the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud. Drop down to
verse 20, excuse me, Verse 19, I should have read
that first. It says, And the angel of God,
which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind
them. And the pillar of cloud went
from before their face and stood behind them. OK, so he went from
before them, went behind them. And here in verse 24, we see
that through the pillar or through the cloud, he was keeping a watch
over the Egyptians. Look with me if you would to
Exodus chapter 33. Starting in verse 9. It says, And it came to pass,
as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and
stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses. There's that word Lord again,
all in capitals. Talked with Moses. The Lord talked
with Moses. Stood in the doorway. Verse 10,
And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle
door, and all the people rose up and worshipped every man in
his tent. And the Lord, there's all capitals
again, Yahweh, spake unto Moses, face to face as a man speaketh
unto his friend. And he turned again into the
camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man,
departed not out of the tabernacle. And Moses said unto the Lord,
See thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou hast
not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said,
I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in thy
sight. Now therefore I pray thee, If
I found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know
thee, that I may find grace in thy sight and consider that this
nation is thy people. And he said, my presence shall
go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him,
if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known
here, that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight. Is
it not that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and
thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the
earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also
that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight,
and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory, and he said, I will make all my goodness pass
before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee,
and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will
show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And he said, thou canst
not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, there
is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall
come to pass while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in the
cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass
by, and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts,
but my face shall not be seen. So here we see God in flesh. And he said, I'm gonna put you
here, and I'm gonna walk by, and I'm gonna put my hands in
front of your face so you can't see anything. And I'll let you
see the back side, but you can't see the front side. Because if
you look at my face, you're not going to live. So obviously, we see that this
manhood, this body that Christ had, was a glorious body. It was a very glorious body,
but yet it was a body nonetheless. It was one that came down and
stood. And the people saw him standing in the door. And the
people bowed down in worship. And they said that he talked
to Moses face to face. as a friend. So anybody that does that has
to be Christ because Christ is the image of the invisible God. Look with me if you would at
Numbers chapter 12. See, a lot of times we wonder,
you know, how those Old Testament saints, you know, how the Lord
gave them faith to believe in the Messiah that they've never
known or heard of or what was going to happen in the future.
All they had was types and foreshadows. Well, those types and foreshadows
were there, but yet we see that they experienced Christ in the
Old Testament and that they seen him. They knew him. They knew
that their Messiah would come. Okay. to them, because God had
given them faith to believe that, and that He would be their righteousness,
as Abraham believed. As we've seen in Hebrews 11,
all those people by faith did those things, and that faith
was the faith of Christ that was given unto them by Christ. In Numbers chapter 12 and verse
5, it says, And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud,
and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron
and Miriam and they both came forth." So here again we see
the Lord came down again in a pillar of a cloud to talk to who? To
Aaron and Miriam. Look at Numbers 14. Chapter 14 and verse 14. Sorry, verse 13. And Moses said
unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, for thou broughtest
up this people in thy might from among them. And they will tell
it to the inhabitants of this land, for they have heard that
the Lord art among this people, that thou, Lord, art seen face
to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest
before them by daytime in a pillar of a cloud and in a pillar of
fire by night. So here we see Moses declaring
that this truly is the Lord among the people and he's among the
people and they are seeing him face to face in this cloud and
in this pillar. They are seeing him as a man
in this and God is going before them. He brought them up just
as he promised. I will be your God and I will
be with you and I will, you know, I will lead you out of all this
as we just read. Look with me if you would at
Deuteronomy, chapter 31, verse 15. Deuteronomy 31, verse 15. It says, And the LORD appeared in
the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud, and the pillar of the
cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord
said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers,
and this people will rise up and go whoring after the gods
of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them,
and will forsake me and break my covenant which I made with
them. Then my anger shall be kindled
against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will
hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured And many evils
and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that
day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not
among us? Okay? So here we see that, once
again, God came down as a man in a pillar of cloud and was
seen as a man speaking to the people. Let's move out of this
with Moses and go into the book of Judges. Go into the book of Judges. We're going to talk here a little
bit about what happened at the birth of Samson. Everybody know
who Samson is? Remember Samson was the guy that
had the long hair and had all the strength and kind of fell
for a hot chick and cozied up to her a little bit too much
and told her the secret of his strength was his hair. She was
a Philistine and he wasn't supposed to be mixing and mingling with
the Philistines. God told him not to be mixing
and mingling with the other people of other nations and their other
gods and all that stuff. Well, Samson went ahead and did
it, fell in love with Delilah. And anyway, one night laying
in bed with Goliath told her, this is where my strength comes,
because she was trying to find out so they could take it away.
So the Philistines, because Samson was kicking their butts. I mean,
he took a jawbone of a donkey and killed a bunch of their people.
I mean, he was like strong and did all this stuff. Well, anyway,
so she's trying to find this out, right? Okay, so let's look
at verse 1. It says, 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. So that means she wasn't able
to have children and hadn't ever borne him a son. Okay, bore him
a child. Verse three. And it says, And
the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto
her, Behold now thou art barren and bearest not, but thou shalt
conceive and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray
thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink and eat not any
unclean thing. For lo, thou shalt conceive and
bear a son, and no razor shall come 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, saying, A man of God came unto
me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of
God, very terrible. But I asked him not which he
was, neither told me his name. But he said unto
me, Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink
no more wine, nor strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing, for
the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb of the day
of his death. Then Manoah entreated the Lord
and said, O 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, and
she sat in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.
And the woman made haste and ran, and showed her husband,
and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that
man 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 spaketh unto the woman? And he said yes." Now, let's
stop right there for just a minute. At this point, people are saying,
all right, well, get on with it, preacher. You keep saying
Jesus was here, but this is the angel of the Lord. This is not,
this is, this is Gabriel, or Michael, you know, one of these
angels that came here. Well, let's keep reading, verse
12. And Manoah said, now let thy words come to pass. How shall
we order the child and how shall we do it 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 of the
things that cometh of the vine, 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, 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 thus after my name, seeing it is secret? So Manoah took a kid with a meat
offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord, and the
angel did wondrously. 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, 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
to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was
an angel of the Lord, and Manoah said unto his wife, We shall
surely die, because we have seen God. But his wife said unto him,
if the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received
a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands. Neither would he
have shown us all these things, nor would, as at this time, have
told us such things as these. And the woman bearer's son called
his name Samson, and the child grew. The Lord blessed him, and
the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp
of Dan between Zorah and Eshto. Okay, so see here, we see him
called the angel of the Lord and it looks and appears as if
it really was an angel of the Lord because he wasn't going
to accept this sacrifice or anything. But it said, but it came to pass
when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel
of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar and they fell on
the ground. And it said there in verse 21,
then Manoah knew that he was an angel, and the word angel,
by the way, does anybody know what the word angel means? Anybody
know what that word means? Angel means messenger. So whenever
it says the angel of the Lord, it means the messenger of the
Lord, okay? Well, Christ Jesus is also the
messenger of the Lord. He is the word of God, okay?
So he is the messenger of the Lord. But we have in plain English
here in front of us, verse 21, It reveals to us who that angel
or messenger of the Lord actually was. And Manoah said unto his
wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. We've seen God. Well, if they've seen God in
the image of a man, because it said all through Judges 13 there
that this man kept coming up, this man kept coming up. If they've
seen God and they've seen this man, who is the only man? God.
Christ. Christ Jesus is the man. Look
if you would, we're almost done. Look if you would at Ezekiel
chapter 43. Ezekiel 43. And brethren, there's probably a lot more verses
that I've missed throughout Scriptures on these things. I'm always welcome
for people to, you know, share those with me. It's always good
to see these things. Ezekiel chapter 43, and let's
look at verse 5. I'll tell you what, I'll go ahead
and start reading that verse 1. It says, Afterward he brought
me to the gate, even the gate that looked toward the east.
And behold, the glory of God Behold, the glory of the God
of Israel came from the way of the east, and his voice was like
a noise of many waters, and the earth shined with his glory. And it was according to the appearance
of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that
I saw when I came to destroy the city, and the visions were
like the vision that I saw by the river Shabar, and I fell
upon my face. And the glory of the Lord came
into the house by the way of the gate, whose prospect is toward
the east. So the spirit took me up and
brought me into the inner court, and behold, the glory of the
Lord filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto
me out of the house, and the man stood by me. And he said
unto me, son of man, the place of my throne and the place of
my soles and my feet, where I dwell in the midst of the children
of Israel, forever, and my holy name shall the house of Israel
no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, nor their hordes,
nor by their carcasses of the kings in their high places."
So here we see that the glory of the Lord was shown to Ezekiel
and he saw and the glory of the Lord filled the house. But it
said there that, I heard him speaking unto me out of the house
And the man stood by me. So the man was standing there
speaking to Ezekiel out of the house. And this was the glory
of God, the glory of the God of Israel who was speaking to
him. If you remember in John, John
said, and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten
of the Father. Okay, so the glory of the begotten
of the Father is speaking of His manhood. It's speaking of
that body that was prepared for Him by God for Him to inhabit. And He inhabited that body, and
that was considered a glory. You remember Christ, whenever
He came by Mary, He came with a body that would die. And that
body that would die He prayed to God. He said, I pray that
you would restore to me the glory that I had with you before. And
whenever he was resurrected, he definitely had a different
body, didn't he? He looked different to different people. He was able
to go through walls. He ascended up to the Father,
back up to God in that body. So we see that it was different. We see that in the Mount of Transfiguration,
whenever he revealed himself in that glorious body, what was
it? It was a body like we've just
seen, a shining light, a bright light, like the glory of God
that had come down. As a matter of fact, in the Old
Testament, in the times whenever God would come down to the tabernacle,
whenever they'd do their sacrifices, they said that God's glory would
come down. Now, they called it, a lot of people call it the Shekinah.
Hesitant to call it Shekinah because there's some there's
some Kabbalistic Ties to that word from the Babylonian Influence,
so I'm kind of hesitant to use that word. It's not a biblical
word. It's not found in the Bible anywhere Shekinah But whenever
God's glory would come down into the tabernacle, he said the glory
of God would fill the whole place and everything. And whenever
Isaiah saw Christ on the throne, he said it was Christ and his
glory filled the temple. Well, it was that exuberant glory
that came off of the man that was at the center of that glory,
which was Jesus Christ. Same thing here. This glory emanated
from this man who stood here in the door that was standing
by Ezekiel who was talking from outside or talking out of the
house. As a matter of fact, let's turn
to Daniel. We'll see another illustration
of Christ with his people. In Daniel chapter 3, I think
everybody kind of knows where we're going with this one. In
Daniel chapter 3, Look with me, if you would, down
to verse 25. Now, remember, this is the story
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three Hebrew guys that whenever
King Nebuchadnezzar made the decree that whenever all the
music starts playing that they built this great big idol of
Nebuchadnezzar that everyone was supposed to bow down and
worship it. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, whenever they blew
those trumpets or whatever, all those instruments that they played,
they didn't bow down because they don't bow down to any other
god except Jehovah. Well, whenever they did that,
the king, even though the king liked these guys, he'd already
made the decree that if anybody didn't do that, then they were
going to be thrown in this fire, okay? Well, they were cast into
the fire and they weren't burning up. They didn't die. And they
said, make the fire hotter than ever. You know, I'm paraphrasing
here. But here's where we find ourselves after they've been
thrown in the fire. Look at verse 25. He answered
and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of
the fire, and they have no hurt. Now they threw in three men,
but they're saying we see four guys in there and they're just
walking around. Now, I don't know what they were
thinking to begin with, whatever they said, and they were loose.
Four men were loose. Well, if they tied them up and
threw them into the fire, you think the fire's going to burn
the rope up? I mean, now it's a miracle that they were walking
around, but I was kind of surprised that they were surprised that
they were loose, because you would think that the fire would
just burn the rope up anyway. So, anyway, it's just stupid
observance of me, I guess. I see four men loose, walking
in the midst of the fire, and they had no hurt. And the form
of the fourth is like the Son of God." Okay? The fourth man that was
in the fire was the Son of God. Okay? It was Jesus who was in
the fire with them there. Now, we could easily, while we
were in Daniel, we could actually stop and look. in Daniel chapter 6 and in verse 19 if you remember
Daniel he also was a man who was favored by the king and the
religious men of the days tricked the king in trying to trap Daniel
because Daniel prayed to God every day. And they made the
king, you know, make a decree that if anybody prayed to anybody
other than the king, then, you know, they were going to be off. Okay. Well, they knew that Daniel
would be faithful and pray, and he did, and he was caught. brought
before the king, and the king hated having to do it, but he
had to do it to save face, and he threw Daniel into a den full
of lions. You guys have all heard the story
of Daniel in the lion's den, right? We'll look at, this is
where he threw Daniel into the lion's den. Verse 16, then the king commanded,
and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of the lions.
Now the king spake unto Daniel, Thy God, whom thou servest continually,
he will deliver thee. And the stone was brought and
laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his
own signet and with the signet of his lord's, that the purpose
might not be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to
his palace and passed the night fasting. Neither were instruments
of music brought before him, and his sleep went from him.
And the king arose very early in the morning and went and hasted
unto the den of lions. And when he came to the den,
he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel. And the king spake
and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is
thy God, whom thou service continually, able to deliver thee from the
lion? Then said Daniel unto the king,
O king, live forever. My God has sent his angel and
shut the lion's mouth, for they have not heard me for as much
as before him innocency was found in me, and also before thee,
O king, have I done no hurt. Then was the king exceeding glad
for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of
the den. So Daniel was taken up out of
the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he
believed in his God. And the king commanded, and they
brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into
the den of lions. their children and their wives
and the lions had their mastery over them and break all their
bones into pieces wherever they came at the bottom of the den.
Then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations and languages
that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you.
I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble
in fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God and
steadfast forever and his kingdom that that which shall not be
destroyed in his dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivered
and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and
in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the
lions. So Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the
reign of Cyrus the Persian." So here we see again, we see
that the angel of the Lord, and I would say, and I'm not going
to bicker on this one, but I would say that this was also Christ
who came down and did this because it speaks of the Lord God doing
it. Now, Isaiah chapter 6, I just
referenced this just a second ago. Isaiah chapter 6. Verse 1, it says, in the year
that King Uzziah died, this is Isaiah speaking, in the year
that King Uzziah died, I also, or I saw also the Lord sitting
upon a throne, that word Lord there is not in capitals, but
just, so that one means the king, means the ruler. It says, In the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings, with twain He covered His face, with
twain He covered His feet, with twain He did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the... Here's the Jehovah word. Lord is the Lord of hosts. The
whole earth is full of His glory. And the post of the doors moved,
and the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I
am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the
King, the Lord of hosts." The word King there refers back to
the first Lord that He sent in smaller case letters. The Lord.
The Lord of hosts. He's the King. He's the Lord
of hosts. So he said, so he saw him there. I said, well, yeah, some people
will say, yeah, but he saw God, the father is who he was seeing
it. That was a theophany. Okay. The word theophany, the word
Christophany, those words are just made up words by theologians. You don't find those words in
scripture. Nobody tells us here that this is a Theophany or a
Christophany. It's somebody sitting on that
throne. And the Bible says that this
person that was sitting on the throne was Jesus Christ. It wasn't just a Theophany or
a Christophany, just an image of God. It was actually Jesus
who was on there. We find that in John chapter
12. We're going to stop with this.
John chapter 12. Verse 38. that the saying of
Esaias, or Isaiah, the prophet, might be fulfilled, which he
spake, Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath
the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe,
because that Esaias, say it again, he hath blinded their eyes, and
hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes,
nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should
heal them. Verse 41, this is what I want
you to draw your attention to. These things said Isaiah, and
if you go back to Isaiah 6, you find out that after that, woe
is me for I am a man of unclean lips passage. After you do that,
you're going to see this passage that we just read here about
God blinding their eyes and hardening their heart. He said, these things
said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him. Him who? Jesus. Who's in context here. Jesus. Now, we've seen quite a few examples
throughout the Old Testament that Jesus Christ is the image
of the invisible God. That if you have seen Jesus,
you have seen God. If you have seen Jesus, you have
seen the Father. If you've seen Jesus, you've
seen the Word. If you've seen Jesus, you've
seen the Spirit manifested in the flesh. That Godhead, the
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost, these three are one, and they, in all their fullness,
indwell Christ Jesus, who is the image of the one true God,
who is the God-man. He's not part God, part man. He is fully God. He is fully
man. He is all of God in Christ Jesus. And it is Him who we give glory
to. It is Him who is our Savior,
who is our Redeemer, who is our surety. And when all this is
over, it is going to be Him who we worship, who we glorify, who
we will see sitting upon the throne for all eternity, and
who all of the creation of God that will be present from ages
upon ages upon ages will be worshiping. and will be crying, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. They're going to be saying holy, holy, holy. They're going
to be crying now because Christ is that holy God manifested in
the flesh. So anyway, I hope that's been
an encouragement to you, hopefully something that you, if you hadn't
learned, that the Spirit will teach you that this morning.
has shared that with you. And hopefully the things that
I speak are not in error. I pray that the Lord has given
me to speak truth and not conjecture, things that I think of out of
my own mind. But I pray that it is the truth.
So search the Bible. And as always, I encourage you
guys, let the Bible speak for itself. I posted this morning
on my Facebook. I wanted to read that though. I posted a quote by Elder Curry
this morning. It says, Our eyes have been so
long blinded by tradition that we scarcely see the plainest
facts of Bible truth. Our ears have been so completely
stuck with fables from our early youth that we are deaf to the
plain declarations of the inspired record. and our understanding
is so darkened by material affections that it is indeed difficult for
us to conceive the most prominent principles of the doctrine of
Christ. May the God of all grace enlighten
our eyes, unstop our ears, and open our understanding this morning
that we may hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And
as Brother Royce used to always say, one of the biggest things
that is a detriment to our learning is what we already know. One
of the biggest hindrances to our learning is what we already
know. Those traditions of men, those
theologians of old that people have put up on pedestals and
their words being co-equaled in some degree, they'll never
say it is, but the way that they go frothing at the mouth whenever
you ever contradict one of their My beloved theologians, whenever
we put those things above the Word of God and say, can't mean
that because this guy says this or this church history says this
or whatever, God's Word is our final authority. And sometimes
like this thing says, just plainly taking it as it says. And so
a lot of times we kind of become disagreeable with each other
and we become hateful towards each other. We definitely are
not long-suffering in meekness towards each other. We're just
quick to argue. We're quick to point fingers.
We think we've already got it figured out, and I'm just as
guilty as anybody else. So I pray that what I just read,
that quote by Elder Curry, I pray that that's our true heart. I pray that we come to these
issues like we've been talking about for the last three weeks.
I pray that we come to these things. And there's a lot more
to it, and I don't know it all. I know that. I don't know it
all. As a matter of fact, the Bible says, you know, who can
find out God by searching? Or who can, by searching, find
out God? Okay? His ways are not our ways. His
thoughts are above our thoughts. You know, we're finite. He's
infinite. And so, to get to the understanding
of this, it's a mystery. Paul said, great is the mystery
of godliness that God was manifested in the flesh. It's a mystery
that we have not been fully revealed. God has revealed some things.
The things that God has revealed, they belong to us, his children.
But the things he hasn't, we don't know. And it's still a
mystery for us. One day, hopefully the Lord will
reveal it all to us. But as it is right now, it's
a mystery and we shouldn't belittle our brothers and sisters in Christ,
you may not see the same things in the mystery. And we may have
our positions and our thoughts about it, and we pray that they're
of the truth, and if they are, if it is of the truth, it'll
stand. It'll stand scrutiny. But if it's not of the truth,
it won't stand scrutiny. And so, anyway, anybody got any
questions, comments? Lord Jesus, we thank you. We
thank you for your presence with your people. Whether it be as
Emmanuel, God with us in the flesh, or whether it be by your
Spirit, which indwells us as the comforter, we thank you that
you have desired, that you have purposed
that you have planned to be tabernacled with your people. Lord, we thank you that sinners
can be in the presence of God. We thank you that you have made
a body, that you have prepared it to indwell so that we might
see the invisible God. And Lord, we look forward to
the day that our eyes shall behold You. We look forward to the day
that finally the faith that You have given us to look towards
You, to look upon You, to trust in You for all of our salvation
will finally end whenever we see You face to face. And that
we will see You and know You and be with you, that you will
take away this flesh that's full of sin, that you will give us
a body that is without sin, that is eternal, a body that will
be able to glorify you for ages and ages. Father, what a beautiful
thing that we have seen, that you have been with your people
throughout the ages, that you have shown yourself to your people
that You have guided them, that You have directed them, that
You have protected them, that You have saved them from peril,
that You have saved them from the sword, that You have delivered
them through armies, that You have brought to them children
that they may never would have had. Lord, that You have done
the impossible because You are God and all things are possible
if it be Your will. Lord, we know that Through Christ
Jesus, you have made yourself known and we see God in His face. And so we thank you today for
Jesus Christ. We thank you that we have a God
that has condescended into flesh and has shown us who He is. But more importantly, we thank
you for not only taking upon that flesh to show us who you
are, but loving us and coming in that flesh to become a broken
body and shed blood for our sins remissions, to take on our penalty,
to be our substitute in life and death. Father, we are so
grateful for all that you have done for us. And we just look
forward to the day of your return. In Christ's name we pray, amen.