I want you to open your Bibles
with me tonight to the book of Judges. I'm going to call this message,
A Woman's Faith. A Woman's Faith. Judges 13. Chapter 13, verse 1, And the
children of Israel did evil again in the sight of
the Lord. The chief sin of this people,
Israel, national Israel, the chief sin was idolatry. Surprising and shocking what
revelations they had. They had the tabernacle. They
had the prophets. They had the sacrifices, they
had the priesthood, they had the oracles of God, presence
of God, and yet continually they departed from the true worship
of God, ran after strange gods. This nation has been blessed
above all nations. How God has blessed us with so
much light, the light of the gospel, and yet forever running
after strange gods. Well, God dealt with Israel in
judgment. Listen. Verse 1, He delivered
them into the hand of the Philistines, their enemies, for forty years. And then in verse 2, it says,
And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites,
the tribe of Dan, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was
Baran and Baranot. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman. She was out in the field or somewhere.
Her husband was not with her. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren,
barrest not, never had a child, but thou shalt conceive and bear
a son." You're going to have a child. Back then, Israel had
no king. Israel was ruled over by the
prophets of God at first, and then God raised up judges. And
here, He's going to raise up and give to Israel a judge, the
strongest man who ever lived, a powerful man who would deliver
Israel from the hand of the Philistines. His name is Samson. And the angel
of the Lord appears to Manoah's wife, and that's His message.
You'll have a son. miraculously, God's going to
give you a son. And this will be no ordinary
son, it will be a special son. Verse 4, Now therefore I pray
thee, beware I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong drink,
eat not any unclean thing. Now this is not out of the question,
this is no difficult orders that He places upon her, just don't
drink wine, don't drink strong drink, don't eat anything unclean
during your pregnancy. You see, this special son, this
judge of Israel, this man of God, is going to be from the
womb of Nazarite. Now listen, for lo, verse 5,
thou shalt conceive and bear a son, No razor shall come on
his head. For that child shall be a Nazarite
unto God, special servant of God, separated to God, an instrument
in the hand of God from the womb. And he shall begin to deliver
Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." It's a powerful
message he's bringing to this one. Now, what is a Nazirite? Well, let's go back to Numbers.
Numbers chapter 6. And read just a little bit. The
whole 6th chapter of Numbers has to do with this Nazirite
vow. Numbers chapter 6, beginning
with verse 1. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either
man or woman, it could be either one, a man or a woman, shall
separate themselves to bow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves
unto the Lord. In other words, a Nazarite was
a man or woman who under Hebrew law had separated himself or
herself and bound themselves to the service of God, not from
the womb. Samson was from the womb. God
set him apart as a special servant, bound and separated unto the
Lord from the womb to his death. But this Nazarite vow, the period
of the vow buried, wasn't necessarily a lifetime. Could be. It could
cover a lifetime. It could cover a certain period
of time. And when that period was concluded, certain offerings
were made, their hair was cut and burned in a separate ceremony,
and that person was discharged from that vow, that Nazarite
vow. If you want to read later, I'm
not dealing with this tonight, Acts 21, Paul assisted four men
in being delivered from that vow. They had learned the gospel
and come to know Christ. And in Christ, every believer
is separated to God, bound to God, dedicated to God a lifetime. And Paul helped these four men
to shave their heads and burn their hair and offer a sacrifice,
just like they were under this law, to be delivered from this
voluntary type of will-worship, if it's not truly of God. And there's no place for it in
faith in Christ. But this is back under the law.
Let's read a little more about it. Verse 3, And this person,
man or woman, shall separate himself from wine and strong
drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, nor vinegar of strong
drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat
any moist grapes or dried. All the days of his separation
shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the
kernels even to the husk. And all the days of the vow of
his separation there shall no razor come upon his head until
the days be fulfilled in which he separate himself to the Lord.
And he shall be holy, he shall be special, dedicated servant
of God, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. All the days that he separate
himself unto the Lord, he shall come at no dead body. You go on, you can read the rest
of that, but that's not what I want to deal with this evening.
Back to our text. But this young man, he said to
Manoah's wife, that your son will be special to the Lord.
He's going to be a judge of Israel. He's going to deliver Israel
from the hand of the Philistine. And he'll have this bow upon
him, that accounts for the cutting of Samson's hair, you've read
that and so forth, but he had this bow. And so verse 6, then
the woman came and told her husband, now she didn't know that this
was the angel of the Lord. She thought it was a man. She
thought it was a special man, a prophet, a man of God. without
question, for she tells us that here. She says, she told her
husband, she said, a man of God came unto me. And his countenance
was like the countenance of an angel of God. She'd never seen
an angel. I don't know how, why she used
that term. But I think I know why she used
it. She used it to emphasize that his countenance, his appearance,
his face, different from an ordinary man. It was terrible. She used
the word terrible, and I believe she was saying it was awesome.
It was awesome. It was powerful. His countenance
spoke of heaven, heavenly things, spiritual things. She was mightily
impressed by this man. She said, I don't know where
he came from. I didn't ask him where he came
from, and I didn't I didn't ask him his name. He never told me
his name. I'll tell you why she never asked him where he came
from and why she didn't inquire about his name. She was taken
up with the good news. This dear woman, all the other
women had children. She had no children. Back in
these days, being barren was judgment. with judgment of God. Like you remember Hannah, how
she prayed to God, how disturbed she was. And this little lady
was sitting out there in the field under this barren bondage
and unfulfilled and unhappy. She'd never given her husband
a son. And this man of God came to him
and brought her, you're going to have a son. And she was so
taken up with the good news, she never even thought about
the messenger. She knew he was different. She
knew he came from God. She was impressed with him. But
she didn't know his name. She didn't know where he came
from. And I think that said something to me. The messenger, the true
messenger of God, is so taken up with his message. that God
gave him the good news to deliver to people. Deliverance, set free
from bondage, judgment, salvation. That he doesn't talk about himself,
he doesn't even sometimes identify himself, he doesn't even care
whether you know who he is. And the people who hear the good
news of Christ and the gospel rejoice so much and are so happy
to hear that news, they really aren't taking up with the messenger. I told you a story one time years
ago, I'll repeat it. But there were two brothers,
Ebenezer Erskine and Ralph Erskine, both great preachers who lived
a long, long time ago. And Ebenezer Erskine, was on
his way to preach in a meeting somewhere. And in those days,
the travel was so slow that he intended to spend the night with
a preacher brother, a pastor. He came in in the afternoon and
told the pastor he was going to spend the night with him,
then go on to his meeting the next day. And the pastor said,
well, Brother Erskine said, we're having a meeting at the church
tonight. We're meeting around the Lord's table. We're meeting
to worship the Lord and partake of the Lord's table. When we
come together to worship the Lord and partake of the table,
would you have a word to say to us? Would you bring us a word
from the Lord?" He said, I'll be happy to. So that night, they
went over to the church and the people assembled. served the
table, and the pastor said, we're happy to have my friend Brother
Erskine with us tonight, and he has a word for us. And he
preached after the service. It was a tremendous blessing.
God was there, the people worshiped. Sometimes I feel like when we
take the Lord's table, we're closer to real worship than any
other time. That's the way it was with them,
and the message was so great. Somebody said to the pastor,
Have that man back again sometime. That's the final message I've
heard in my life. Have him back again, Pastor Swerbel.
Maybe as he comes back from his meeting, he'll stop here and
we'll meet again. I'll ask him." So they arranged it. A few days
later he came through and they went over to the church and they
met again. And Mr. Erskine preached. And after the
service, The person that was so taken up with the message
the other time was a little disappointed. Told the pastor, said, I wasn't
blessed like I was last week when he preached. I don't know
what's wrong, but he said, last week I was so blessed. This week
wasn't that great a blessing. And the wise pastor said, well,
Last week when you came to the service, why'd you come? He said, we came to worship the
Lord, fellowship around the table of the Lord. He said, well, why'd
you come tonight? He said, I came to hear Brother
Erskine. And the pastor said, well, you heard him. You heard
God the other time. You heard Brother Erskine this
time. There's a lesson in that. When this angel of the Lord told
this dear woman, you're going to have a son, a special son
from God. She didn't even know where he
came from or who he was. She came and told her husband. She said, He said to me, Behold,
I shall 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, a servant of God, holy unto the Lord, from
the womb to the day of his death." Boy, how special. So verse 8, Manoah was a man
of faith, a man who believed God, and yet he had his He had
trouble, he's had his doubts, element of unbelief. He prayed
to the Lord and said, Oh my Lord, let the man of God which you
did sin come again unto us and teach us what we shall do unto
the child that shall be born. I want to hear him myself. And God hearkened to the voice
of Manoah and the angel of the Lord, the angel of God, came
again to the woman as she sat in the field. And again her husband
was not with her. And she made haste and she ran
and showed her husband, said to him, Behold, the man hath
appeared unto me that came unto me the other day. She still just
sees him as a man, a special man, but a man. And Manoah rose
and ran after his wife and came to the man. There he stood and
said to him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman.
And he said, I am. I know who this is. The woman
didn't. And Manoah didn't. They will
later. But I know who this is. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
I know the word am is in italics. And he said, I am. He said, I. Are you the man that spake to
the woman, I? But this is the same I Am that
spoke to Moses from the burning bush. This is the One who appeared
to Abraham in Genesis 14. Turn over there and let's read
this Genesis chapter 14. I don't know whether it's the
right way to say it, but it is a pre-incarnation appearance. I don't know. Our Lord appeared
to some people in the Old Testament days, Christ himself. I think
about every time you see that word, angel of the Lord, angel
of Jehovah, it's Christ. And here in Genesis 14, verse
17, And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return
from the slaughter of Chedolei, And of the kings, they were with
him at the valley of Shaveth, which is the king's dale. And
Melchizedek, king of peace, king of Salem, brought forth bread
and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. And Paul
said in Hebrews, without mother or father, without pedigree,
without Beginning of days or end of days. King of Salem. Priest of the Most High God.
That's Christ. And he met Abraham and blessed
him and said, Blessed be Abraham, of the Most High God, possessor
of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God which hath
delivered thine enemies into thy hand, and he gave him tithes
of all. And Melchizedek, We'll see no
more. Melchizedek is Christ. You see,
the priest of the Most High God, and one of the things here that
will give you assurance that this is Christ, that all these
other prophecies, neither beginning of days or end of days, the King
of Salem, King of... Who's the King of Peace? It's
Christ. Who's the priest of the Most High God? everlasting priesthood,
only Christ. But he met Abraham and blessed
him and brought forth bread and wine. And back in these days, any time
a priest, representing a people to God, brought a lamb brought
blood into the law, all things are purified by blood. But this
is a priest without blood, without a sacrifice. Oh, wait a minute,
he has a sacrifice. This is my body and my blood,
the bread and the wine. That's who he is. And this, listen,
let me show you another scripture, Genesis 32. This is the one,
our Lord Jesus, who appeared to Jacob. Turn to Genesis 32. Genesis 32, verse 27. And he said to him, he wrestled
with Jacob. You remember Genesis 32, 27?
He said, what's your name? And he said, Jacob. And he said,
thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince
hast thou power with God, prince of God, and with men hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said,
Tell me, I pray thee, your name. And he said, Wherefore is it
that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. Never
told him his name. Every angel of God who ever appeared
identified himself. Check it through the Scripture.
The angel that appeared to Joseph and announced the birth of Christ
said, I'm Gabriel. Michael, the archangel. When
the angel appeared and one of the disciples fell down before
him, he said, don't do that. I'm a fellow servant just like
you. They always identified themselves
by name. But our Lord did identify himself
down here In Judges 13, turn back to the text, in a few moments
I'll show you he did say something about his name that tells you
who he is. But let's go on here. Let's go
back here to Judges 13, verse 12. And verse 12, Manoah said, Now
let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child?
How shall we do unto him? And the angel of the Lord said
unto Manoah, Of all that I said to the woman, let her beware.
She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let
her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat anything, any unclean
thing. All that I have commanded her,
let her observe. Now what's this? And Manoah said,
unto the angel of the Lord. I pray thee, let us detain thee,
until we shall make ready a kid for thee." I don't believe that
Manoah is altogether referring to making
a feast for the man to eat. He thought he was a man. He knew
he was an unusual man and a man from God. But I do not believe
that he was talking about fixing a meal, but he was talking about
offering a sacrifice. Let me offer a sacrifice in honor
of your visit. Let me offer a sacrifice in honor
of this prophecy, of this good news, of the coming of the child. Let me offer a sacrifice, and
he said down here in verse 17, He wanted to know his name, and
Noah said to him, what is your name, that when the saints come
to pass, we may do you honor? This is what he wanted to do.
He wanted to honor this prophet. Let me get a, let me stay with
me a while, let me get a lamb, and let's sacrifice it in honor
of your coming, in honor of your appearance, in honor of the prophecy,
in honor of the child, and that when this comes to pass, we may
honor your name. All right, verse 16, go back.
And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, though you detain
me, I will not eat of thy bread. And if you offer a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord. Offer it
to the Lord. For Manoah knew not he was the
angel of the Lord. Don't offer it in honor of a
man. In honor of prophecy, offer it to the Lord. If you offer
a sacrifice, offer it to the Lord. Give God the glory. And this is when he said, Manoah
said to the angel of the Lord, Well, what is your name, that
when the saints come to pass, we may do the honor? And the
angel of the Lord said to him, Why asketh thou thus after my
name, seeing its secret? The word is, what is it in your
Bible is wonderful. My name is wonderful. What's
that song you sang, John? Government shall be on his shoulders,
and thus a child is born, a son is given. The government shall
be on his shoulders. His name shall be called Wonderful.
Counselor of the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. This is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now watch this. So Manoah took a kid with a meat
offering, and he slew the lamb, the goat, the kid, the bullock,
on a rock, burned it, offered it as a burnt offering unto the
Lord, shed its blood, and the angel did wondrously. Manoah
and his wife looked on. For it came to pass when the
flame went up toward heaven from off the altar." On this rock,
they fixed an altar, slew the lamb like Abel did, like the
Passover Moses sacrifice, shed its blood, burned its body. And as the flame ascended to
heaven and the smoke, the angel of the Lord ascended
in the flame of the altar. Now, that's as clear as it can
ever be made that this wasn't just an angel, and it certainly
wasn't a man. No angel of God would have tampered
in any way with that offering, would have gotten in the fire
and in the flame. But what the Lord is saying there
is, the sacrifice and the offering unto the Lord is Christ. Back here in these days, what
did you need? What was required to come to
God? What was required as a sacrifice,
a sin offering? Well, you had to have an altar. An altar. And Paul said over
here in Hebrews 13, let me just turn and read it. In Hebrews
13, Paul said, verse 10, verse 9, Be not carried about with divers
and strange doctrines. It's good thing that the heart
be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited
them that have been occupied therein." We have an altar. We have an altar. Well, they have no right to eat
which serve the tabernacle. We have an altar. It's Christ. Christ is our altar. It's not
down at the front of the church. It's not in some religious place
far off across the sea. Christ is our altar. All right,
they had an altar. Secondly, got to have a priest. It's got to be a high priest.
God ordained the priest to serve in things pertaining
to God for the people. And we have a high priest. That's
Christ. It's got to be a lamb. It's got to be a blood offering.
It's got to be death. It's got to be a sacrifice. Burn. Christ is our Lamb from before
the foundation of the world. He's our Lamb. Fourthly, it's
got to be a mercy seat on which the blood is sprinkled. Christ
is our mercy seat. God has set Him forth as a mercy
seat. Fifthly, it's got to be an atonement. It's got to be
the blood sprinkled. Priest, lamb, died, blood spilled,
mercy seat, a covering over the broken law, and an atonement. And by Christ we have the atonement.
So, when Manoah offered that sacrifice in that pagan land
full of idolatry and under the bondage of the Philistine, a
few worshiping God, he offered a sacrifice. And the Lord Jesus
Christ, who appeared to him, got in that sacrifice and ascended
to heaven. And listen to Manoah. Verse came
to pass, Verse 20, 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 his wife. Then Manoah knew it
was the angel of the Lord, God Himself. Because listen to what
he said, And Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die. We
have seen God. That's what the Lord told Moses
over there in Exodus 33. He said, you can quote it, no
man can see God and live. And old Noah said, we're going
to die. He'd been in the presence of
God. Seen this miraculous thing that the Lord in the sacrifice,
in the offering ascended to heaven. And he just turned to his wife
and said, we're going to die. We've seen the Lord. Well, this woman,
bless her heart, I want you to see in the closing moments her
faith. And this encourages us when we
deal with our sinfulness, our wretchedness, and inability,
and we come in to talk about sacrifice and forgiveness, and
deliverance, and appearance of God, and favor of God, and mercy
of God, and gift of God, and redemption. It's so awesome. And we said, well, Shirley, we're
going to die. And she said, no, we're not.
And she gave him three reasons. Listen. First one, she said now,
verse 23, if the Lord were pleased to kill us, He wouldn't have
received a burnt offering. Manoah slew the lamb, shed its
blood, burned the body upon the altar, and the Lord revealed
He approved of it. He got in it. Manoah took that
lamb and sacrificed it. It was Manoah's sacrifice. God
had mercy on Abel and respect to Abel and his offering. Abel
slew that lamb. God had respect. And Manoah is
why I said, you made a sacrifice, burned a lamb, shed its blood,
and God approved of it. God approved of it. God accepted
it when He ascended in your sacrifice. So I ask you tonight, if God
were going to kill us and destroy us, would He have sent Christ? Who sent Christ? God did. In the fullness of time, God
sent His Son into this world. Who nailed Him to the tree? Please
God to bless Him. Who raised Him from the dead?
God did. The man, Christ Jesus. Who seated
Him at His right hand and exalted Him above all exaltation? God did. And He's our forerunner
and our sacrifice. So I say with the Apostle Paul,
if God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us,
how shall He not freely with Him give us all things? That's
assurance. And that's what that dear woman
said to her frightened husband when he stood in the presence
of the appearance and power of God. He said, we're going to
die. She said, no, we're not. If He's
going to kill us, He would not have accepted the sacrifice.
But secondly, she said, I'll tell you something else, too.
If He was going to kill us, He wouldn't have showed us all these
things. What did He show them? He showed
them that He appeared to them three times. Really? He said not twice, three times.
He appeared to her. First time, told she's going
to have a son. And then he appeared to both
of them together, and went up in their sacrifice. And then
the third time, in verse 24, and the woman bear a son, and
called his name Samson. He appeared in the full film
of the prophecy. He once set the son. Yes, he
did. Three times. He came and announced
it. He came and approved it. He came
and blessed them with the Son, blessed them with the fulfillment.
You've got to turn to this one with me in Hebrews. Talk about
assurance. This is our assurance. Hebrews
9, look at this. I think of the appearances that
He made to Manoah and his wife there, and then I want to show
you three appearances for us. Hebrews chapter 9, it says here in verse 24, But Christ
is not entered into the holy place made with hands, with the
figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear
in the presence of God for us. Not yet that he should offer
himself as high priest as the high priest entered into the
holy place every year with the blood of others, but then must
he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.
But now, once in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put
away sin with the sacrifice of himself." He appeared in heaven
for us, our surety, our covenant head, from the foundation of
the world. He appeared on this earth and
put away sin on the cross with the sacrifice of himself. Now
look at the next verses. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ, who was
once offered to bear the sin of many, and unto them that look
for him, he'll appear the second time without sin. You're going
to see him. He appeared in heaven on our
behalf. He appeared on earth on the cross
on our behalf. He'll appear again. And when
he does, he'll receive us unto himself. Oh, He's not going to
destroy us. He's not going to destroy us.
And here's the third thing she said, and I'll close. This is
so woman's faith. She said it, verse 23, if He
were going to kill us, He wouldn't have received the offering at
our hands. Secondly, He wouldn't have showed
us all these things. And thirdly, He wouldn't have
told us. He wouldn't have told us that
we were going to have a son. God doesn't lie. God's not a
man that he should lie. He told Abraham about his seed.
He said, And thy seed, all the earth shall be blessed. People
of every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue. He told Moses about the
prophet that would come. He told David about the king
priest that would sit on his throne. He told Isaiah about
the substitutes that bear our sins in his body on the tree.
He told Joseph, call his name Jesus, he'll save his people
from this sin. He told his disciples, he said,
you believe in God? You believe me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I wouldn't have told you. Yeah, she said, he said, we're
going to die. She said, no, we're not. No,
we're not. Says, if he's going to kill us,
he wouldn't have accepted a sacrifice. He wouldn't have showed us these
things. And he wouldn't have told us. He wouldn't have promised
us a son. That's faith.