 We have the joy of being back in the book of Judges. We're in Judges 13. I think we're over halfway, over the halfway point in the book of Judges. So we come to Samson and one of the, again, the larger sections of text relative to the Judges in this book. And so we'll spend about four chapters here talking about Samson. And tonight in Judges chapter 13, the second half of the chapter versus 15 to 25 is our text. So if you'll find that text with me, we'll read our text and then take a look at this text together tonight in our sermon. Judges chapter 13, verses 15 through 25, we hear the word of the Lord. Then Manoa said to the angel of the Lord, please let us detain you and we will prepare a young goat for you. And the angel of the Lord said to Manoa, though you detain me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord. For Manoa did not know he was the angel of the Lord. Then Manoa said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name? That when your words come to pass, we may honor you. And the angel of the Lord said to him, why do you ask my name? Seeing it is wonderful. So Manoa took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it upon the rock to the Lord. And he did a wondrous thing while Manoa and his wife looked on. It happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar. The angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoa and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. And when the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoa and his wife, then Manoa knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoa said to his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. But his wife said to him, if the Lord had desired to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands. Nor would he have shown us all these things. Nor would he have told us such things as these at this time. So the woman bore 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 upon him at Mahana Dan between Zora and Eshtao. This is the word of God. Amen. Amen. Well, let's pray together and we'll take a look, take a look at our text together. Let's pray. My father in heaven, we're very grateful to you Lord for the blessing of a Sunday evening service and being able to come back on an evening like this and consider your word together. Just another opportunity to sit under the preaching and teaching of your word, to sit under the instruction that your word affords us to allow you, Lord, through your spirit to work in our hearts and minds, conforming us to Christ's image, conforming us to your word. And we are grateful for that. We're grateful for the means that it is grateful for the work that you do through it and grateful for the work that you do in us. Lord, we want to know you and want to live for you faithfully. Help us, Lord, as we consider this text together. Help us to consider the lessons we have to learn here. And thank you, Lord, for your instruction, this admonition from the Old Testament. We're very grateful, Lord, to you for it. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, the title of our sermon this evening is His Name is Wonderful. His name is wonderful. Judges chapter 13, verses 15 through 25. And if you remember, as we get into this text together, we were introduced to the birth narrative, as it were, of Samson. In Judges chapter 13, we find at the beginning of the chapter, the children of Israel again did evil on the side of the Lord. And so the Lord does what He said that He would do. He delivers them into the hands of their enemies under judgment by the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. And then instantaneously, with no cry of repentance, just the Lord in His grace, in His mercy, in faithfulness to His promise. The Lord intends, verse two, determines to raise up a judge, a deliverer, a savior in Israel to deliver His people. And He does that by sending the angel of the Lord to speak to the nameless and barren wife of Manoa. The angel of the Lord makes sure that she understands that we all understand that she is barren and without child, showing us that this is a work of the Lord from the very beginning. And the Lord intends to do a work here to deliver His people. And He's going to deliver His people through this Son that the wife of Manoa will give birth to. So we have the blessing now of coming back to our exposition of the book of Judges and the account of the birth of Samson, beginning in verse 15 now in this chapter. And if you were unlike me and you actually paid attention in your physics class in high school or your chemistry class, you might have remembered hearing about a law of entropy or a law of decay under the title maybe of the second law of thermodynamics. I mean, some of us have heard of that. What that law essentially says is that order always winds up in disorder. That's the way of things in this created order in which we live. Order winds up in disorder. Everything ultimately undergoes a process of death or decay or entropy. Stuff falls apart. That's what that means, right? Stuff falls apart. I am a living testimony of that reality. Stuff falls apart. I'm falling apart the older I get. That's the way things work in this fallen world in which we live. Well, what we found in going through the book of Judges is that this is just as true spiritually as it is physically. Just as true of the spiritual condition of man after the fall, as it is true of the creation after the fall, stuff falls apart. Unless the Lord brings a life out of death, unless the Lord makes of us a new creation in Christ, we will spiritually die and decay in entropy. We fall apart. Sin brings forth death, right? When it's had its way, when it's been conceived, as James would say, sin brings forth death in us. Why as we come to Judges chapter 13, Israel has fallen apart spiritually. Israel has fallen into decay and entropy and death. Spiritual rot has set in. They simply cannot, in and of themselves, they cannot maintain any spiritual fidelity whatsoever to the one with whom they are in covenant. And they continue, continue to fall further and further away, further and further into decay. If you remember, if you think back with me, there's a harbinger of this in their interaction with Joshua before Joshua dies after leading them into the Promised Land. Joshua had led them in conquest and he's essentially giving them his farewell address before he dies in Joshua chapter 24. And he tells them, choose this day whom you will serve. Do you remember that from Joshua 24? Whether the gods of your fathers or the gods of the Amorites who live in this land, as for me in my house, Joshua says, we will serve the Lord. So what does Israel do? Israel answers back to Joshua. Joshua, we will serve the Lord. He's our God. Joshua, it's an interesting, the fascinating response. I've always been fascinated by the way that Joshua responds. Joshua says to them after calling them to serve the Lord, Joshua responds, you can't serve the Lord. You can't do it. He's holy and he's not going to forgive your sin. You're going to forsake him. You're going to run off after your idols and he's going to do you harm. That's what Joshua says to them. Israel calls back to Joshua. No, but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua says, your own words are a witness against you. The harbinger of things to come. Joshua knew what would come. And here we are, Judges chapter 13. Israel is physically in the hands of her enemies. Israel is spiritually rotting, rotting from the inside out. Joshua's words have come home to roost. And Israel is far from their God. Entropy, decay, spiritual death has taken hold. And Israel now is in a position where they have absolutely no strength to do anything about it. They're under, as Del Ralph Davis said, they're under the power of bale. They have no strength, no ability, and frankly, no desire. They're in a position where they can't muster any help from themselves. It will take a miraculous intervention from God in order to deliver them from this rotten decay in which they find themselves. In all of this, in this condition, the reality is, is that God has made a promise. God has made a promise to his people. He refers to this promise immediately after the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, doesn't he? The promise of a coming savior, the promise of a seed who would crush the head of the serpent, destroy the works of the devil. He is this promise. He is the promised seed of the woman. He is the promised seed of Abraham, the promised seed of Isaac, the promised seed of Jacob. Well, in Judges chapter 13, Jacob is in trouble, aren't they? Jacob is in peril, serious peril. Man's heart is evil from his youth. His days of his life are few and full of trouble. And it would appear to anyone reading through the Bible at this point that the promise itself is in peril because Jacob is in such terrible spiritual, such a terrible spiritual condition. And almost by the time you get to this point in Judges chapter 13, we might think to ourselves, you know, God's word is God's word. He's faithful to his word. He won't go back on his word. But listen, if there were any reason to ever go back on your word, certainly Israel has given reason, haven't they? You know, if this were a Western and you had two cowboys and they shake hands over a deal, my word is my bond, you know, you have my word. And then one guy decides to cheat him in a deal or shoot his dog or burn the barn down or whatever he does in a Western. Before sundown, they're going to be drawing pistols at high noon in the city square and somebody's getting shot on that day, right? Israel has done so much to break the covenant. And one of the lessons I think we're to learn from the book of Judges in this is that as often and as frequently and as brazenly as Israel continues to break the covenant, violate God's law, sin against him, rebel against him and go off after other gods, which God has specifically warned them not to do as often as Israel has continued to do that. The Lord just simply remains inviolably faithful to his promise. If this promise of God to this people is kept, we can have every assurance in the faithfulness of God to his word that every promise that he makes to us is kept. Do you see? That's sort of the point. It's sort of from the lesser to the greater. What here would the Lord do? The promise would appear to be in peril. Jacob is in serious peril, serious trouble. Well, in great loving kindness, great faithfulness to his word, showing tremendous patience, all to the praise of his grace. God once again provides for his people in their time of need and raises up a saviour. Now, this saviour is not the promised saviour, the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed of Isaac and Jacob. But as we'll see, he certainly fuels the expectation of Israel that that promised seed is coming. And frankly, it should have the same impact, the same effect for you and I. When we read through a book like this and we see God raising up a deliverer, raising up a deliverer, raising up a deliverer, and then we see the fulfillment of that promise in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing, right? The Lord Jesus Christ comes and he saves his people from their sin, such that if you will turn from your sin and put your faith and trust in him, you'll be forgiven of your sin and delivered from your sin, freed from the wrath of God, saved, right? Seated in heavenly places in Christ. We see that promise come to fulfillment of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it should, it should prompt us to know, to believe, to hold fast to the promise of God that he will soon come again. Amen? Jesus Christ will soon come again. And this continually, the Lord raising up deliverers to Israel, certainly a foretaste of the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his first advent to us who sit on this side of the cross, just further evidence of God's faithfulness to his word, that Jesus Christ will be coming back. This is in keeping with his promise. It's fascinating. It's a fascinating point to consider in Judges chapter 13, that this one who has been promised the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, that the parents of Samson met him in Judges chapter 13 foretelling the birth of Samson who would point to the coming Messiah that Manoa and his wife meet this one. First, Mrs. Manoa in verse six. A man of God came to me, his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God, very awesome. But I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. Well, following Mrs. Manoa, Mr. Manoa once in on that verse eight. So Manoa prayed to the Lord and said, Oh, my Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born. And God listened. That's amazing, isn't it? God listened to the voice of Manoa, such grace. And the angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field. But Manoa, her husband was not with her. Then the woman ran in haste and told her husband and said to him, you got to see this, right? You got it. You got to come. Look, the man who came to me the other day has just now appeared to me. So in verse 11, Manoa arose, followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said to him, are you the man who spoke to this woman? And he said, I am more gracious condescension on the part of the angel of the Lord here, right? He's accommodating himself to Manoa. This is the baby talk that we talked about in our study, the attributes of God, none greater. And we talked about how God accommodates himself to us that we can understand and relate with him. He said to Manoa, I am, right? Manoa said, now, let your words come to pass. This is great news, right? What will be the boy's rule of life and his work? After all this, Manoa was certainly expecting great things of this boy. But Manoa would have to wait and see that for himself later. The angel of the Lord, verse 13, said to Manoa, of all that I said to the woman, let her be careful. She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor may she drink wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her, let her observe. Well, as we come to our text now in verse 15, Manoa isn't ready to let him go. And the angel of the Lord continues to accommodate Manoa. Manoa is not quite sure yet who he is, but Manoa is going to very soon find out. And we'll see that in three points from our text. First, we see a humbling rejection. Secondly, we see a humbling refusal. Third, we see a very humbling realization. A humbling rejection, a humbling refusal. And a humbling realization. First, consider with me a humbling rejection beginning in verse 15. So Manoa said to the angel of the Lord, please let us detain you and we will prepare a young goat for you. So Manoa begins in verse 15 by offering some customary, ancient, near Eastern hospitality. But certainly Manoa's intentions here go beyond just hospitality. Manoa really appears in the text to be very grateful, right? He's been given this promise they're going to have a son. He appears to be genuinely grateful and then gratitude would motivate Manoa. They're childless, his barren wife will have a son. And so come, stay with us, let us detain you. We'll prepare a young goat for you. But likely there's also some curiosity here. And Manoa can't help it. Who is this? Who is this? His countenance, very awesome. This one looks like the angel of the Lord. Who is this? Well, Manoa's offer, verse 15, declined. Offer declined. The angel of the Lord rejects Manoa's offer and the rejection in verse 16 is interesting for several reasons. Look at verse 16 with me. The angel of the Lord said to Manoa, though you detain me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer the word offer it, literally send it up or cause it to rise. You must offer it to the Lord. For Manoa, this parenthetic statement here, Manoa did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. The sharing of a meal, if you think about the manners and customs of people of Israel at this time, the sharing of a meal would have been a joyful but a solemn act of fellowship. It was serious business sharing a meal together in the ancient Near East at this time. And frankly, Manoa and his wife, nor the nation of Israel for that matter, they're not in any position to have a fellowship meal with the angel of the Lord. You see? There are no position to have that kind of fellowship with the angel of the Lord. So this is a commentary, this rejection, verse 16, really is a commentary on the spiritual condition of the people and in particular on the spiritual condition of Manoa and his wife. So we saw the same response from the angel of the Lord in Judges chapter six when he came to Gideon. If you remember that back in Judges chapter six, the angel of the Lord with Gideon, he consumed the offering and Gideon called it a gift, called it an offering. He consumed the offering upon the rock in fire and did that before Gideon's eyes, but he didn't eat the meal, the fellowship meal with Gideon. Here we see the same thing. The other incident, if you think back in your remembrance of the Old Testament, the other incident that we see that is similar to this is found in Genesis chapter 18. If you remember in Genesis chapter 18, you have three men that come to Abraham by the Tarabinth tree and Mamre. And we know those three men, two of them were angels. One was the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord appears, talks with Abraham, Abraham and the angel of the Lord and the two angels with him eat with Abraham. Abraham is in covenant with the Lord. And notice Genesis 18 comes immediately after Genesis 17, Genesis 15, Genesis 12, where the Lord enters into covenant with Abraham. Well here in Judges 13, a burnt offering must come first. It's essentially what the angel of the Lord said to Manoa in verse 16, right? If you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord. So a burnt offering must come first. The burnt offering was an offering for sin. In other words, the relationship must be restored first. The Israelites would have offered burnt offerings for sin. After burnt offerings from sin, they would have made peace offerings to restore peace or shalom with God. All that has to come first before they're going to have proper table fellowship with one another. Then, if you notice verse 16, an explanation for his ignorance in this matter is given at the end of verse 16. For, in parentheses there, for Manoa did not know he was the angel of the Lord. So already we have an inference here that the angel of the Lord is more than just an angel, he is the angel. This is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, in his pre-incarnate state. If it was just an angel, maybe he would have eaten, maybe he would have accepted Manoa's request. This is the angel of the Lord. It becomes a humbling rejection. Notice, secondly, with me though, a humbling refusal then that follows verse 17. Then Manoa said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name? That when your words come to pass, we may honor you. And the angel of the Lord said to him, why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful? So Manoa still seems confused as to his identity. Their inference is given, but Manoa is still not sure. He most likely thinks of him as a prophet at this time, and when this prophet's words come true in nine months time, we want to know who to give the credit to. What is your name? But the angel of the Lord essentially refuses to give his name. Why do you ask my name? Literally he says, it is incomprehensible. It's what the word literally means. Why do you ask my name? It is incomprehensible. In other words, it is Manoa's beyond your understanding. It is too high for you. The only other place this adjective is used in the Old Testament is Psalm 139, in verse six, where David says such knowledge, and it's interesting that in Psalm 139, what David's speaking about is how the Lord has fearfully knit him together, fearfully and wonderfully made him in the womb of his mother. And here we are talking about a birth narrative of Samson in the womb of his mother. David says, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. That's that word, right? David says, before I speak a word, he knows it. Before I take a step, he knows it. Such knowledge, too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it. It's transcendent, right? Transcendent. And it's there that David refers to how the Lord thoroughly knows him, right? The Lord formed his inward parts, covered him in his mother's womb, fearfully and wonderfully made him. The creation of a baby in the womb by God, even more so in the womb of a barren woman here in Judges 13, he knows my words, as David says, before they're spoken, it is too wonderful for me, I can't grasp it. We think about that, right? The knowledge of God, the wisdom of God, the work of God, the power of God, the identity of this angel of the Lord is becoming more and more clear, isn't it? More and more clear when we consider Isaiah chapter nine, verse six, for unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. The government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, Prince of Peace. And notice in Isaiah chapter nine, verse six, it's wonderful, comma, counselor, comma, mighty God. His name is wonderful. Well, we've seen a humbling rejection, a humbling refusal. Look thirdly at a humbling realization, beginning in verse 19, a humbling realization. So Manoa then, verse 19, took the young goat. He took the young goat with the grain offering and he offered it upon the rock to the Lord. And he did a wondrous thing while Manoa and his wife looked on. Now notice something interesting with me in verse 19. In verse 19, Manoa offered it upon the rock to who? To the Lord. The word there is Yahweh. He offered the offering, the young goat with the grain offering on the rock to Yahweh and he. Who's the he in verse 19 referring to? He, the nearest antecedent, is Yahweh. So follow the train of thought with me, right? He did a wondrous thing while Manoa and his wife looked on. Manoa took the young goat with the grain offering. He offers it upon the rock to Yahweh and Yahweh did a wondrous thing while Manoa and his wife looked on. What did Yahweh do? He ascended in the fire of the offering. There's a reason for that grammatical construction in verse 19, the angel of the Lord is Yahweh. Do you see? In fact, the angel of the Lord is the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, pre-incarnate. In other words, this is a Christophany. What was the wondrous thing that he whose name is wonderful did? What was this wondrous thing that he who is Yahweh did? Verse 20, it happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar. Notice now it's not a rock, it's an altar. The angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. This is an amazing manifestation of divine power. An amazing manifestation of his divine origin, the origin who is this angel of the Lord? It is Yahweh, God the Son, pre-incarnate. The fire consumes the offering on the altar. If you can imagine, right? Just the scene of that in power as Manoa places the young goat, the grain offering on what is now an altar. It's not a rock any longer. He places it on the altar and fire just comes up from beneath and consumes the offering. And as the fire comes up, the fire leapt up from the altar toward heaven and taking the angel of the Lord with it. This was a wondrous thing. A wondrous thing just would have stunned Manoa and his wife. Well, when Manoa and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. That is an appropriate response to such, certainly to such a display, but to who this is, an appropriate response. Their understanding is now informed, right? Manoa and his wife are overwhelmed and they would expect it to be. This would be the expected response. An encounter with a true living God will put men on their faces, will put your face in the dust. Brother was talking about Isaiah this morning and woe is me, I'm undone, right? An appropriate response, Peter in the boat. He has the catch of fish. I think it's in Luke chapter five, isn't it? And he realizes that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He realizes that this is the Messiah. There's a realization that comes upon him and suddenly Peter is swept up in conviction over his own sinfulness. Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. And here they fall on their faces to the ground when the angel of the Lord is swept up in the fire leaping from the altar toward heaven. An encounter with a true living God will humble. Men will humble women. It will put what was before a haughty perspective, a worldly perspective, and will put that perspective right. Will put us in our proper frame as we consider who we are in the presence of the Almighty. Awesome in appearance, magnificent in power, one whose countenance was like the angel of God, majestic in holiness. Mano and his wife were awestruck, terrified, right? The right view of God should humble man. Well, where do you and I get a right view of God today? We get a right view of God from meeting our Bibles. We have the prophetic word made sure, more certain. We read our Bibles to learn of him. When we learn of him, it puts us in a proper frame, puts us in proper perspective and gives us an understanding of who he is. And at the root of that is a doorway, if you will, to truth and that truth applied appropriately. We need that understanding. God says, by those who come near to me, I must be regarded as holy. And before all the people, I must be glorified. And if you remember those words, those words came after the Lord consumed Nadab and Abihu in fire for presuming to bring strange fire before the Lord in presumed worship. Many, many today are guilty of what Dale Ralph Davis calls a cheap familiarity, a cheap familiarity, right? It's the thought of God as someone with whom you can relate through a t-shirt that says Jesus is my homeboy, right? A cheap familiarity. The thing that just bothers me every time I see it is someone who is acting like a harlot, dressed like a harlot, or someone who is acting like a whoremonger, dressed like a whoremonger, wearing a cross around their neck. A cheap familiarity. Don't concern themselves with the awesome realities that lie behind what they are saying and doing. A cheap familiarity. By those who come near to me, God says, I must be regarded as holy. And before all the people, I must be glorified. Well, Manoa and his wife certainly figure out the mystery of his identity. They get it. Verse 21, when the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoa and his wife, then Manoa knew that it was the angel of the Lord. And what was Manoa's assertion coming to that realization? Verse 22, Manoa then said to his wife, they're laying in the dust, right? They're not up yet. We shall surely die. Why? Because we have seen God. You see how Manoa equates the angel of the Lord here with God. Manoa gets it. This was also, also an appropriate response on the part of Manoa. Exodus chapter 33, verse 20, no man sees my face and lives. That's what God says there. David said again, being too near God was not cozy. It was fatal. Being too near God was not cozy, but fatal. Well, Manoa here thinks he's seen too much. They've been far too close, far too cozy. But Mrs. Manoa, she's thinking here and she comes to the conclusion that they're going to live. She's thinking theologically and she gives her husband three reasons that they're going to live, beginning in verse 23. His wife said to him, if the Lord had desired to kill us, one, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands. Very good point, right? The offering was accepted because it was burnt up, consumed in the fire. He did not consume Manoa and his wife. He consumed the burnt offering from the altar, right? In the way that he consumed Nate, Abinabaihu, he did not consume Manoa and his wife. So Manoa's wife, thanks to herself, he accepted the burnt offering, the grain offering was accepted from our hands. Secondly, she says, nor would he have shown us all these things. This was done in their sight, which was a blessing to them for their benefit. Nor, number three, would he have told us such things as these at this time. In other words, one, he accepted our offering. The fire is the evidence that he has. Two, the Lord has displayed himself to us. He has come to us and then ascended in the fire. And three, he's given us a precious, a precious promise. And that promise, the Lord being true to his word, will come to pass, verse 24. So, the woman bore a son in fulfillment of the promise and called his name Samson and the child grew and the Lord blessed him. It's interesting, the name Samson combines the Hebrew word for son, S-U-N, and the diminutive on, Sam son. The Hebrew word for son is the word shemesh. So really shemesh on, shemesh on, or little son, sunny boy is what one commentator said. She named him sunny boy. After all that has happened in Israel, it's actually likely here, sadly, that son worship may have played a part in Samson's naming. There was a town nearby. Name of the town was Bet Shemesh, Bet Shemesh or house of the son. And that town, literally house of the son, was known as a place of pagan son worship. And the name of the son God that was worshiped in that town was Shemesh. She names her son Shemesh on, or little Shemesh. And associated names like that, very common in the ancient areas at the time, very common. So here it's actually likely that Mrs. Minoa, naming her child after a pagan son God in Bet Shemesh in Israel. And this is one whom the angel of the Lord came and promised to her. Just as we work through the text, right? So many reminders of just how far Israel has fallen from faithfulness to the covenant, from understanding. And listen, brothers and sisters, that's true of us if we're not careful, right? It's true of us. I don't know if this is true of you. There have been many times, many times now where someone has left the Lord, left the faith. They've gone off in their sin, left the church to spend years out in their sin. And then years later, to come back, wanna have a conversation, maybe wanna think, consider coming back, following the Lord again, realizing they've sinned and fallen away. And when you're having a conversation, there has been an entropy, a decay that has taken place in their mind since the time that they left, where they're no longer thinking straight. Their biblical worldview has been dismantled, thread by thread, right? They can't think in biblical parameters anymore. Those things that once were so clear and right and sound and good to them, now are lost to them and mysterious and unknown and difficult. And it's just they've lost the ability to reason according to the truth, lost the ability to see things through that lens, that filter, which is holy, just and good. And it's amazing often how quickly that decays, how much death and entropy sets in in their hearts and minds. It is absolutely amazing. And it is a testimony, isn't it, of our fallen condition that when we do not labor in God's word to continuously renew our minds by His truth and His word, His will, His way of thinking, how quickly we can fall into destructive patterns of thinking ourself, right? Have you ever been there yourself? Where you think to yourself, you know this is right. And yet, when you come to your senses, you realize it was terribly wrong. We are needy and desperate. Apart from Christ, apart from His word, we are in great peril. We need the truth of God. We need His spirit. We need understanding. We need God to give us wisdom and give us wisdom in spades, right? We need that. The only way that comes is through His word, which He has revealed to us for that end, for that purpose. If we'll just go to Him, you know, go to His word and learn from Him. Seek wisdom. Get understanding, right? Solomon says, get understanding. It's actually possible that this couple, Manoa and his wife, so far influenced by the decay and entropy and death, spiritual rot around them, that this is actually what happened and where the name Samson comes from. Well, verse 25 ends the section of text that we're in, where the verse says, and the spirit of the Lord began to move then upon Samson at Mahaneh Dan, between Zora and Eshtal. And we will see the work of the spirit upon Samson beginning next week as we come to Judges chapter 14. The angel of the Lord has visited His people a pre-incarnate visit. You will give birth to a son, that one consecrated to God from the womb, and that one, that promised son will deliver Israel, all a foretaste of a coming Messiah who would ultimately deliver God's people. We praise God for Him. God in grace brings forth a deliverer. God will keep His promise. Amen, amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we're so grateful to you, Lord, for your word and grateful to know, and just rejoice in faith to claim and assert that you are meticulously, inviolably faithful to every word of your promises. And Lord, we have every reason to trust entirely in you, everything that you've said, everything that you've done, everything that you've promised. Lord, it is such a testimony of our own fallenness, our own unbelief when we fail to take you at your word. Please, Lord, forgive us this great sin and help us, Lord, to trust you, to entrust ourselves to you. Help us, Lord, to take joy, respite hope in your word. And I pray, Lord, in full expectation of faith, come, come quickly, Lord Jesus. We eagerly await the appearing of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And thank you, Lord, for this glorious promise. Thank you, Lord, for the promise of our resurrection with Him. Thank you, Lord, for the joy of looking forward to our inheritance. I pray there's anyone here, Lord, who simply does not know Him, that they would turn from their sin and trust in you who is faithful to His word. And I pray, Lord, that they would come to the realization that you'll be faithful to your word in judgment as well. And that you would save them for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ and His worship. We thank you, we love you, in Jesus' name, amen.