I'm glad to have Eric Lutter
with us, and I'm gonna ask you at the end of this service to
come up and lead us in prayer, please. The birth of Samson. Now, Samson
is the next person mentioned in the Hall of Faith, and I want
you to remember, in John chapter five, verse 39, the Lord said,
you search the scriptures, and he was talking about the Old
Testament scriptures. The New Testament had not yet been written.
And he's speaking of the Old Testament scriptures when he
says, you search the scriptures and in them, you think you have
eternal life and they are they, all of them, all of them. They are they which testify of
me. And Samson is such a beautiful
type of Christ in so many ways. He's the next person mentioned
in the hall of faith. And his name means like the sun,
S-U-N, like the sun. The story of Samson and Delilah
is one of the most well-known stories in the Bible. If you
would ask your average person if they know any characters from
the scripture, I believe most people would say Samson, known
for his great strength in the story of Samson and Delilah.
where she deceived him. Cut off his hair. He lost all
his strength. She let the Philistines take
him. They put out his eyes and made fun of him. And what is
glorious about that is the last chapter, chapter 16, his greatest
victory that he accomplished was his death. More people were
slain in his death than they were in his life. And what a type of Christ, the
great achievements of his death. He's probably most well known
for his superhuman strength. Look in chapter 14 of Judges
chapter 13, and Samson went down to Timnath and saw a woman in
Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up and
told his father and his mother, this is Judges 14, and he came up and told his father
and his mother and said, I've seen a woman in Timnath of the
daughters of the Philistines, now therefore get her for me
to wife. Then his father and his mother said unto him, is
there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or
among all thy people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised
Philistines? And Samson said unto his father,
get her for me, for she pleaseth me well, But his father and his
mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he, the Lord sought
an occasion against the Philistines. For that time, the Philistines
had dominion over Israel. That's an interesting verse,
isn't it? You can say this with regard to everything. It's of
the Lord. The Lord is working his purpose. Now look in verse five. Then
went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and
came to the vineyard of Timnath. And behold, a young lion roared
against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came
mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid.
And he had nothing in his hand, but he told neither his father
or his mother what he had done. Now you think about this, a lion
comes at him. He grabs him with his bare hands and rips him apart. No human being unaided by the
Spirit of God could do something like that, but he was given this
supernatural strength. One of my favorite stories about
Samson is how he slew a thousand Philistines with the jawbone
of an ass. That's my perhaps favorite illustration
of preaching. Never could it be truer. That's
how he works with the jawbone of an ass to defeat his enemies. But what we're going to consider
tonight is the birth of Samson. Chapter 13. And the children of Israel did
evil again in the sight of the Lord. A very sad and a very familiar
story. They did evil again in the sight
of the Lord. And the Lord delivered them into
the hand of the Philistines 40 years. You know, 40 years ago,
we were meeting in the storefront on Limestone Street. Lots happened
since then. 40 years is a long period of
time. And there was a certain man of
Zorah of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his
wife was barren and bare not. Now we don't read at this time
where they cried to the Lord for mercy. Maybe they did, but
we don't read about it. But we do read of this man and
his wife, Manoah and his unnamed wife, and she was barren. There's a lot in the scriptures
about barren wives. Sarah was barren, wasn't she?
Rebecca was barren. Rachel was barren. Hannah was
barren. The Shumanite woman that Elisha
was used to bless her and make it to where she could bear children
with her husband, but she was barren all those years, and it
was a great vexation to a woman to be barren, a great reproach. I don't know how long they had
been married, but this woman was barren, and I'm sure that
knowing the Lord which she did, she probably many times prayed
give me a child like Hannah, give me a child or I die. She
greatly desired to be with child. Verse three, and the angel of
the Lord appeared unto the woman Now, I have no doubt that this
is not talking about a created angel. This is talking about
the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. He made many pre-incarnate
appearances, and this is one of them. And we know this for
sure because of verse 20, for it came to pass of the same chapter,
for it came to pass when the flame went up toward the heaven
from 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. Then
Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord. And Manoah said
unto his wife, we shall surely die because we've seen God. He
knew who it was he had seen. And he thought at this time,
it's over for us. We have seen God. So this angel was nothing
less than a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman and said unto her, behold, now thou art barren
and barest 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 razors 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." Now, Samson is
such a clear type of Christ just in these verses. His birth is foretold. The birth
of the Lord Jesus Christ was foretold. Samson was sanctified from the
womb. set apart to be a Nazirite from
the womb. And a Nazirite is someone who
is completely consecrated to God. They took certain vows.
No razor was to touch their hair, their beard. Their hair was to
get long. And it typified Christ, the true
Nazirite, consecrated to God. He delivered Israel by his mighty
strength. Christ, what about him? The scripture says, he said,
all power is given to me in heaven and earth. Thou has given him
power over all flesh, omnipotence over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. And Israel was delivered by his
death. All the lords of the Philistines
were killed when he brought that temple down. And they were delivered
by his death and how we're delivered by the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I don't know of a scripture that
I enjoy any more than thinking of Luke 9 31, when they spake
of the death that he should accomplish. Oh, the accomplishments of the
death of the God man. Verse five for low 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.
And what the Lord begins, he always finishes, doesn't he? What's that scripture Philippians
1, he that has begun a good work in you will perform it in the
day of Jesus Christ. Now, like I said, this seems
to be an instance where they didn't ask for deliverance. Usually
they would cry unto the Lord. Maybe they did, but we don't
read of it here, but yet the Lord sent them a savior. Verse six, then the woman came
and told her husband saying, A man of God came unto me. She
did not yet realize that this was a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. She thought it was a man of God
of some kind. She knew there was something
different about him. You can see that by how she describes
him. 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 whence he
was, neither he me his name. But he said unto me, behold,
thou shalt conceive and bear a son. And 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. Jesus of Nazareth. And I am quite sure that when
this woman told her husband this, she was so excited, I'm gonna
have a child. I've been barren, I've been unable
to give life and now I'm going to have a child. She was so happy
and she was glad for her child to be a Nazirite from the womb
and all the laws that would have to be obeyed with the association
of the Nazirite, the long hair and so on. Verse eight, then
Manoah entreated the Lord and said, oh 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 he shall be born,
that shall be born. He obviously believed the message,
didn't he? He said, this child's gonna be born. We need you to
send him back to teach us what it is we're to do when we raise
this child up. Now, his wife had already been
told, but he wanted to hear it again. And I understand that,
don't you? He wanted to hear it again. And God hearkened to the voice
of Manoah. And the angel of God came again
unto the woman, as she said 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 came unto me the other day. And Manoah
rose 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.
Do exactly what I said to do. Well, that's a good rule of action,
isn't it? I've already told you. You know,
I got to thinking about this. The Lord said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Okay, what do I do?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. This is the work of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent. Just the repetition. Verse 14, she should not eat
of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine
or strong drink, nor any unclean thing. All that I commanded her,
let her observe. Manoah said of the angel of the
Lord, I pray thee let us detain thee until we shall have made
a ready a kid for thee. Now this was not for supper,
this was for a sacrifice. They didn't want to just have
him for dinner, this had something to do with the sacrifice. And
the angel of the Lord realized at this time he didn't understand
who he was. He thought him to be an angel,
a great man, but you don't offer sacrifice to an angel or to a
man. So he corrects him. And the angel
of the Lord said unto Manoah, though thou detain me, I'll not
eat of thy bread, and if thou wilt offer burnt offering, thou
must offer it unto the Lord. You see, he didn't realize that
this was the Lord he was speaking to. It's kind of like when the
Lord said to the rich young ruler, when he said, good master, why
callest thou me good? Or good master, he said, why
callest thou me good? There's none good but one, that is God.
He knew this man, didn't realize who he was. And that's why I
said that, the same thing here. You offer your sacrifice. to
the Lord, for Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the Lord.
And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, what's 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 its secret? My marginal reading says, it's
wonderful. You see, when a created angel
would come, they would identify themselves. But here, he says,
why are you asking my name? It's wonderful. It's secret. Kind of like when, remember when
Jacob was wrestling with the angel? He said, what's your name?
He said, it's secret. Wonderful. Now this word wonderful
is used one other time in all the scriptures, this particular
Hebrew word wonderful. It's where David says, such knowledge
is too wonderful for me. It's high. I cannot attain unto
it. And I thought about the wonder
of the gospel. What about the wonder of one
God? Here, O Israel, the Lord thy
God is one God. One God in three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. You understand that? Of course
not. I believe it. I believe it. I don't understand
it. I believe it. The wonder of being eternally united
to Jesus Christ, that he's always known me, that there's never
been a time when I'm not in him. Before the world was created,
I was in him. Wonder. I'm amazed. I can't comprehend it. That I
never had a beginning point with him, that I was chosen in him
before the foundation of the world, united to him, one with
him. What about the wonder of the
incarnation? That the infinite God became
a seed in a woman's womb. And the infinite God lived in
that time for nine months in a woman's womb, and yet all the
fullness of the Godhead dwelled in his body. Wonder. The wonder of the death of Christ. I can't figure out how he could
die. He's God. How'd he die? How did that happen? I mean, it did. I never will
forget one time I made the statement in a message, God died on the
cross. And a man wrote me and corrected
me. And he said, the man part died, the God part didn't. Oh,
OK. So you can explain that to me. I'm thankful. No, who can understand
that? The God man dying. What about
the resurrection? How wonderful. What about the
thought of a sinner being justified before God? That means if I'm
justified, I stand before God without sin, without guilt. Is
that wonderful? Can you, I'm sinless. God looks
at me and he doesn't treat me as if I had no sin. I have no
sin before God. What wonder, that's the great
doctrine of justification. We could go on and on with the
wonder of the gospel, the wonder of him right now, that man in
glory, a real man with flesh and bones, blood pumping through
his veins, representing me in glory. We believe all of this by grace
and we would, by his grace, die for this. And yet we don't understand
any of it, do we? We just believe. Wonder, wonder. His name is wonderful. I love what David said. Such
knowledge is too high for me. It's wonderful. It's too high.
I can't attain to it. Now let's go on reading verse
19. So Manoah took a kid with a meat
offering and offered it upon a rock. unto the Lord. And the angel did wondrously. He did what only God could do. And Manoah and his wife looked
on for it came to pass when the fire, the flame went up toward
heaven from off the altar that the angel of the Lord ascended
in the flame of the altar. Now here's another reason why
I know this was no created angel. He did this wondrously and no
created angel and no man would dare. approach the sacrifice
and become united with the sacrifice. The angels know this is the only
way God can be approached. But this angel could identify
with the sacrifice and he, where'd the flame come from? Well, I
think it came from same place the flame came when Elijah asked
for fire to come down from heaven. Fire came down from heaven and
consumed it. And the angel of the Lord came
into the flame and ascended up back into glory. Speaking of
the ascension of Christ after his death, his identification
with the sacrifice and rising, doing wondrously, doing what
only God can do. And Manoah and his wife looked
on it and fell on their faces to the ground. Verse 21, but
the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and his
wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord. And
Manoah said to his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen
God. Now, you cannot come into contact
with him, even in the gospel, when you're not aware of your
own sinfulness. That's what was going on here. When he came into contact with
who the Lord is, he was keenly aware of his own sinfulness. And he thought, we're going to
die. Now you're going to hear people who will tell you about
coming into contact with God. Yes, I know. If they did. They wouldn't do it in some kind
of, I don't believe they did for one thing, but if they did,
they wouldn't be so cocky and arrogant. They would have a keen
sense of their own sinfulness. We're going to die. We've seen
God face to face. Manoah verse 22 said unto his
wife, we shall surely die because we've seen God, but his wife. Now, this was a very
special woman, and she had more understanding than her husband
did. All her husband knew was, it's over for us. That's all
he could see. But look what this very wise
woman unnamed woman said to her husband and I would to God this
is the kind of preaching that would always come from every
pulpit where the gospel was preached. Now look what she says, but his
wife said to him, if the Lord were pleased to kill
us, we're going to die. We've seen
the Lord. 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 showed
us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us
such things as these. Now at this time, Manoah thinks
It's over for us. God's going to kill us. And he
had a reason to think that because the Lord said, no man should
see my face and live. I understand him feeling this
way and fearing this. And he couldn't think of a way
out of this. But his wife, his wife said, if the Lord were pleased
to kill us. Now let's stop right there for
a moment. He does as he pleases. And if he's pleased to kill us,
just and holy is his name. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he. You see, if you and I know God,
we know the God who is sovereign, who does as he pleases. Any other God is a false God.
It's a phony God. It's a non-existent God. The
God of the Bible is the God who does as he pleases. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?
He does as he pleases." And she recognized this. And she said,
if he was pleased to kill us, and he's not saying, she's not
saying, well, that could never happen, we're so good, you know,
nothing like that. She says, if he were pleased
to kill us, he would not have accepted the sacrifice. Now here is where assurance comes
from. Do you want to have assurance?
I do. Assurance comes from seeing God's
acceptance of the sacrifice. Now if your assurance comes from
anything else, you've got a false assurance. It's wrong. You'd do best to get rid of it.
Well, I think I'm saved because I do this, or I do that, or I'm
like this. You better get rid of that. It's a false assurance.
The only true assurance that we can have that God will not
be pleased to kill us is because of his acceptance of the sacrifice. Now hold your finger there, and
let me show you a passage of scripture in Romans chapter eight. Verse 31, what should we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Now here's
where assurance comes from. he that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not? What could
possibly prevent him from freely giving us all things? Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? There's nothing
you can bring by way of accusation against them. Christ put their
sin away. There's nothing to accuse them
of. God justified them. Who is he
that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us? Who
shall separate us? Now, if the Lord were pleased
to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted that sacrifice, but
he did. He did. That's why she knew they would
be spared. Look back at our text. Verse 23, but the 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.
He wouldn't have accepted the sacrifice and then ascended up
into heaven to show his approval of it. Neither would he have
showed us all these things, nor would as at this time, he have
told us such things. Now, I'm afraid I'm going to
be killed. He accepted the sacrifice. Now
what does that mean? That means he's satisfied with
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He's satisfied, he's infinitely
satisfied. And I can't get any more pleasing,
I can't get any more loved, I can't get any more accepted, I can't
get any more holy than I am in that accepted sacrifice. God
is pleased with the sacrifice of Christ. That's what is meant
by him accepting it. Have I ever, well I sure hope
I have, have I ever learned to find my satisfaction in what
God is satisfied with? Nothing else. If he was pleased
to kill us, Christ would have never been raised from the dead.
But when Christ was raised from the dead, God said, I am infinitely
satisfied with who he is, what he did and everybody he did it
for. That's where assurance comes
from, not from anything in you. If he'd please kill us, he wouldn't
have accepted the sacrifice. And the next thing she says, he wouldn't have showed us all
these things. You know, he told them, you're
going to have a son and he's going to deliver Israel. If he
was going to kill us, would he do that? No. He wouldn't kill
us if he's taught us the gospel. He wouldn't have showed us the
manner in which the son would be born. He wouldn't have demonstrated
to us how we were to raise him up. He wouldn't have shown us
any of these things. He wouldn't have shown us the
acceptance of the sacrifice. The reason we know we will not
be killed is because of what he has shown us. Here's something that came to
my mind while I was trying to think about this. And I hope I say this in the
proper spirit. God has shown me that I am a
sinner. I didn't used to know that. I do now. Why did he show me that? Just
to make me feel miserable? No, because Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. That's why he's shown me that. Now, he didn't show me that just
to make me dread hell. He demonstrated that to me to
show me my need of him, my need of his grace, my need of the
gospel. We wouldn't have heard such things
as we have heard. Now, I know the gospel. And I know why I know the gospel.
He taught it to me. I wouldn't know it had he not
made it known. I'm dead sure of that. I would
not understand how I could approach God through Christ only had he
not made that known, but he's made that known. And I'm so satisfied
with this. If God was pleased to kill us,
he would not have made these things known. His wife said, if the Lord were
pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burn offering
and a meat offering at our hands. Neither would he have showed
us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us
such things as these. The salvation that was going
to come to his people through this boy that's going to be a
Nazarite. And the woman bear a son and
called his name Samson. And the child grew. and the Lord
blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began
to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtel."
Now, I suppose that means the Spirit of the Lord moved him
to do supernatural things at this time. We just read how he
tore that lion into pieces with his bare hands. No doubt the
Spirit of the Lord moved on him, but do you know someone who had
the Spirit not by measure? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
true Nazarite filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's
womb. And by the Spirit, he lived a
life that none of us could properly describe of perfect holiness,
righteousness, power. It was from the Spirit moving
on him. John the Baptist said, God giveth
not the Spirit by measure unto him. You and I have a measure
of the Spirit. A measure of the Spirit. That's
why we believe. That's why we've been born again. That's why we
trust Christ. We have a measure of the spirit.
He didn't have a measure of the spirit. He had the fullness of
God, the Holy Spirit. Samson, he's the man who is mentioned
in the hall of faith. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would give us the wisdom that this dear woman had. And
cause us to. Find confidence. In the acceptance,
your acceptance of the sacrifice of your son. And we ask that
you would give us to have. Confidence in the things that
we've seen and that have been told us in the gospel by you. Bless this message for your glory
and for our good. In Christ's name we pray.