All right, it's reading chapter 16 together. Picking it up in verse one, says Samson went to Gaza and there he saw a prostitute and he went into her. And the Gazats were told Samson has come here and they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night saying, let us wait till the light of morning, then we'll kill him. The Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron. After this, he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for your word. Thank you that you have not left us in darkness, that you have revealed yourself to us. Give me strength now as your servant, that I may speak of you, not of any of my own words, God, but yours alone. Give strength now, for we are weak. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. So last time we were in the Book of Judges, if you remember, Samson had been confronted by the Philistines. They were going back and forth with this feud they had with each other because what had happened to Samson's wife, she was burned to death by the Philistines there. First of all, Samson burnt down their harvest, which caused the Philistines to kill his wife because his wife had been given to his companion when he went away after she had betrayed him. over the riddle, if you remember, over the line and the honeycomb. And so, because of that, this feud had ensued, and they went back and forth with each other, and it culminated in Samson finding the jawbone of a dead donkey, and with that jawbone, killing a thousand men. After he had killed a thousand men, he was wondering, that was obviously some sort of desert he was in, and as he was wondering through it, he became thirsty. And when he became thirsty, he began to complain to God. He complained to God that God had saved him, he had done all these things for him, he had helped him to kill thousand men just to leave him in this wilderness just so that he could thirst to death. And we've seen last time the parallel between that and the children of Israel. The parallel between what Israel had done in their time in the wilderness. If you remember when God had brought them up out of Egypt, out of slavery, and they had spent 40 years in the wilderness. But even before that time when they had first went into the wilderness, they began to grumble and complain to God that He had brought them out of Egypt where there was the figs and the fruit and all those things and the water, plenty of it, and He had brought them into this wilderness so that they would thirst to death. And they did this in such a way that Moses even feared for his own life. He went to God and told God that the people are just about to stone him. They are so upset about not having any water. Yet God provided water there for them through that rock. And we've seen the same thing happen with Samson. God made water come up in the hollow place there and Samson was able to drink even though he had not been faithful to the covenant even though he had not been faithful to Yahweh. So we pick up our text in verses one and two. Let's go ahead and read them again together. It says Samson went to Gaza and there he saw a prostitute and he went into her and the Gazots were told Samson has come here and and they surrounded that place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night saying, let us wait till the night, till the light of the morning, then we will kill him. So we pick up with Samson here in Gaza, a port city that is thought to be the farthest you could get away from Zora, his homeland. If you remember, that's where Manoah, his daddy was from, and that's where Samson was from as well. So if you look at Zora on the map there, The furthest that Samson can get into the Philistine camps is indeed this place, Gaza, this port city on the outskirts there. And so this is where Samson is. We don't find that he's there for any reason, not that he's going there to destroy them or going there to do any action for the Lord, even though that God said that's what he should do, right? He should work for the Lord. But we find that he goes there and he obviously finds what he set out to do. He goes there and he sees a prostitute. He goes there and he sees something that he likes. Remember we talked about this before. It's just the premise of the entire book, culminating in Samson's life here. And that's what we're going to see today. And that's the fact that everyone does what is right in their own eyes. And so because of that, what we have seen is this anarchy, this anarchy and this recapitulation of the children of Israel going into idolatry, God saving them out of that idolatry, that judge dying, and then them going back into even worse idolatry. And this is what we're dealing with in the book. This is what we're dealing with in Samson's life. Someone who was supposed to be different, was supposed to be set apart to God. Remember, he took the Nazarite vow from the womb, not usually a vow you would take within adulthood. He took upon himself before he was even born. And the angel of the Lord said this would be so, right? He would be set apart. He would be different in this way. And so we had hoped, looking from a human sense, that Samson would be the one to come and to stop all of this evil. That he would be the one to come and to stop all of this death. And it looked very well. No other judge had been picked from the womb. No other judge has strength like Samson has and has feats like Samson has. We looked at it before, but all the other judges, even though it was great feats, you take like Gideon, he still had what, 300 men with him in his great feats. But Samson is alone. He's doing these things by himself. He's simply a one-man army. So it seems as though if anybody could save the children of Israel, Surely it would be this strong man. Surely it would be this man who has such great power. But in all of Samson's strengths, what we're going to find here is that he's actually pretty weak. And all that God had given him, and all that God had helped him with, and all the great feats that he had, he still was not able to do the thing that God set him to do. The thing that we wished he would do as a leader for Israel, and that is to keep the covenant indefinitely. He's not the one we're looking for. We've seen that recapitulation over and over again. I want us to remember that because that's a big theme of the Bible. Through the entire Bible, that's what we're looking for. Especially when we start getting into the kingships and things like that. Especially when you start looking at David, right? David's the same character study. You look at David's life, you look how he comes up, he's a shepherd boy, he's humble, he kills the giant, he does all these great feats, he's even better than Saul, right? Saul killed his thousands, David killed his, I mean, yeah, David killed his 10,000. But yet, we see in David's life the same story that we're seeing here. And there's this recapitulation through the entire Bible until we get to Christ. And that's the importance of it. Once we get to the Gospels, we then have another character study. And one would seem and think, if you read through the Bible in order as it's set out in the canon, that this is just another man on the scene who is going to fail. Just like Samson, he has a miraculous birth. Just like Samson, he does all these great feats. Yet with Christ, he comes, he lives, and he dies, and although hope seems to be gone, he does not stay dead. Although hope seems to vanish from the disciples' faces, although the people on the Emmaus Road, when Jesus comes and talks to them, say, don't you know, Jesus was a great man, we thought he was the one, and we've been let down again. And he tells them that they have not. He tells them that all the scriptures speak about was actually him. All that the law and prophets spoke of. So now that we're seeing that from 10,000 feet, we can zoom in on this character study of Samson once again. and see what's going on in his life. So there's no clear reason why he's in this place, this port city. There's no clear reason. God did not tell him to go there. He is simply just wandering around and most likely he's going to the furthest point he can get away from his home, from his village, from his parents, so that he can enact these sins we're about to see. That's the most likely reason for it. So he goes there and we're told the first thing, we know it may not be the first thing he does, but the first thing that is recorded is that he sees this prostitute. And unlike before, if you remember before he had seen a Philistine woman in chapter 14, you recall that, the same thing had happened, the same series of events when he had went to Tamna, right? Chapter 14 verse 1, Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother, I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah, get her for me as my wife. Right? We've seen this reoccurring cycle with Samson and these Philistine women. He of course did, even though his mother and father advised him against it, and that woman and her father was indeed burned to death. And so now Samson has no wife. She is deceased. Philistines themselves killed her. And so this time, that's not what we find. This time, instead of learning from his mistake, as you think Samson would, understanding that God forbid these marriages, like we'll see in a moment, that he would totally neglect going back to these Philistine women. But that's not what happens. He actually goes even deeper into the sin. In that this time, He does not simply just want a Philistine wife, but he goes in to a Philistine prostitute. Deuteronomy chapter 7, we've been here many times, I'm sure we'll be here again, has been the backdrop of our time in the book of Judges, and it's been that backdrop for one reason. If they had listened to what God had said in Deuteronomy chapter 7, if they had heeded to His words, they would not find themselves in all the trouble that we find in the book. Because what is the main cause of God's wrath coming against Israel in the book of Judges? Idolatry. Which is disobedience. Idolatry is the main thing that we find that God's wrath comes against the people of Israel in the book of Judges because they didn't adhere to these words. Deuteronomy chapter 7. When the Lord God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it and clears away the many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, you must devote them to complete destruction and make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You should not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they will turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods. Then the aim of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will destroy you." Quickly, so this warning that Yahweh had warned many, many years before is hundreds of years before is now coming to pass over and over and over again. The children of Israel are intertwined with these pagan nations. They're not casting them out. And so because they're content and coexisting with them, we see that the idolatry comes upon the people. And because of that, the people are enslaved. And this is what we are dealing with in the book. This is what we're dealing with with Samson. His unwillingness to actually be set apart. The very thing he was called to be, right? You're set apart. You're a Nazirite. This is your Nazirite vow. You're not only to be set apart in the ways that I described in the law, but you're to be set apart in these ways, remember? And that was the nothing from the vine, touch no dead thing, and don't cut your hair. These were the things that were described of Samson, that he was to be set apart to God for a select purpose. Many people took this vow for different reasons, right? His reason was what? God was going to use him to begin to stop the Philistines. He was going to use him, like the other judges, for this select purpose. And that's why the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, to enact these certain things. And so that's what we see with Samson. So here we have the one who is pure, the one who is supposedly pure, the one who is set apart in the midst of the Philistines, laying here with this prostitute woman, and his enemies are surrounding him. In verse two, when the Philistines hear of, well, he's in the city, what do they do? Well, they surround him, most likely wanting revenge for their thousand comrades. And so they surround him where he's at, and they simply say, we will wait to the light of day, and when he comes out, We will attack him. We will persecute him. But before we get to that, I think we can see in the life of Samson and all that Samson has done. We looked at it before in the wilderness and I mentioned it again. We can see a picture of Israel. We can see a picture of the nation as a whole and their leader in Samson here. We can see this picture as one who was supposed to be spotless, as one who was supposed to be pure and holy and set apart, is actually very common, is actually very unpure. And if you think, the nation of Israel was said to be this as a whole, right? This wasn't just Samson. If you remember when God brought them out, and even in Deuteronomy chapter 7, what does he say? In verse six, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God, right? I've not chosen you because you are more numerous, more greater, but because I love you. So you are a people that is supposed to be set apart. And so in that, we have this nation, and this is the same pattern that we see with Samson. You have this man, you have this nation who are said to be set apart to God, but what have we found through the entire book of Judges? Idolatry. Commonness. In some instances, worse actions than the Philistines themselves. Worse actions than the nations they were supposed to be a light to. And so we can see this same pattern in Samson's Law. We can take a good instance from the exile, if you remember what Jeremiah had warned of in Lamentations, right? That lament about what had happened. Lamentations chapter 4. We can go there together and we can see this parallel of what Israel did and what Samson is doing now. And Israel continues to do this after the time of Samson. This is many, many years after Samson. Hundreds, right? And we see the same thing occurring. The children of Israel are exiled from the promised land. Lamentations chapter 4. Here it is speaking of the princes And listen to what it says, these leaders of this time, just like Samson was a leader of their time. Let's see, chapter six there. For the chastisement of the daughters of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her. Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk, Their bodies were more ruddy than coral, and beauty of their form was like sapphire. Okay, so we're having described here these leaders, right? This is how great they were, right? Words used ruddy, right? Like they were red and vibrant and full of life, right? This great city that was said to be a beacon of God's hope. This is literally the people in which God dwells. Right? No other nation got that. Right? No other nation got a God that was so near to them. And they were supposed to look at the Israelites and say that, like, look at these laws, look at these statutes, and understand that their pagan gods and false idols were nothing at all. You see what I'm saying? They were meant to be this beacon. And so these princes that were pure than snow, that were like sapphire, now we see what has happened to them. Their face is blacker than soot. They're not recognized in the streets. Their skin is shriveled on their bones. It has become as dry wood. And this, of course, is explaining the exile. It's explaining the time that the children of Israel were cast out of the holy land there. But we can see this same pattern in where we find Samson today. as a leader of his time, as one who was said to be set apart, like we've said before, as one who was said to be white as snow, pure, we find him in the most commonplace at all. We find him laying with this prostitute in the midst of this Philistine city. You see? We can see that pattern through the book. This is speaking of, like I said, Israel and exile, but we can see the pattern between Samson here and the leaders of this time. And that's what we've seen in almost, well, definitely all judges in the book. Although they were supposed to lead Israel into these things, they weren't able to do so because they themselves were sinful. They themselves could not keep the covenant. And so we look at that and we see all of Samson's strengths and all that was given to him and all his great might, and we seem to scoff in ourselves, I know it's easy to do, and say, with all that Samson was given, surely he would be able to do something more. than what he's done. Surely he could listen to God and obey his statutes and help Israel in this way. But it's easy for us to look at that and look at Israel and see the way that they stumbled off the book because it's recorded many, many times. That's what most of the Old Testament is. is describing Israel's apostasy and their idolatry and all these things. And those things are recorded for a reason. It's recorded so that we as the church today can look back upon those things and not be high-minded, but understand that apart from a humble and contrite heart, apart from clinging to the cross of Christ, this church would be the same way. Pastor Josh would be the same way. He would have no hope in the world and be just as idolatrous as these men. And that goes for me as well, you see? And so we look to that, not high-minded in any way. And you might say, well, those promises were made to Israel, right? To be holy, to be set apart. Well, we can look at it in 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter one there. 1 Peter chapter one. Peter's gonna give this charge to the church. Chapter 1, verse 14. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call him father who judges impartially, according to each one's deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile. So who's Peter? Remember verse one here, just for some context. Peter is writing to these elect exiles, right? These people that have went out. And he tells them in their time of exile to fear God, right? And he quotes something that they should do. He says, be holy, right? As I'm holy. He's quoting something there. What he's quoting is Leviticus 11. So, Peter... speaking to Christians in the New Covenant, applies Leviticus 11, because it's the same God, and says just as the Israelites were told to be holy, were told to be set apart, you too in this time of trial, you too in this intermediary time, and we can see the same in this time of hardship, fear God and be set apart. Something Samson could not do. Something the children of Israel could not do, what? Because in their time of trial in the wilderness, were they holy? They weren't holy one bit. They wandered around, right? Samson the same way. When his time of trial came, even though God had helped him and told him to be set apart and holy, what did he do? He complained. In your time of hardship, in your time of exile, I think the KJV uses sojourning. In this time where it seems like you've got nowhere to go and you're out in this wilderness, what does he tell the church? Be holy. be different, be set apart to the Lord. And so it's very easy for us, as people in the New Covenant, to look at our old covenant predecessors and say, well, they were just crazy. Surely they could follow God's statutes. And it's very easy for us, especially in the Bible Belt, to speak Christian language, Christianese, go to church, do all these things, and still murmur against God. In this time of exile, in this time of wilderness, right? We're in the wilderness now. We haven't went to what God has promised us yet. We're in the in-between. God has saved us. He's redeemed us. We've come out of slavery. But we're in this in-between time now. It is so easy for us to murmur against God for the state of our lives. So easy. That's me included. Just the little things, right, we murmur against God. Why do you make it like this? Why do I have to work so hard at my job? Why does my family life have to be so difficult, right? Why do I have to deal with all these afflictions, all these sickness or whatever? We tend to murmur against God and not remember where he brought us from, which was the same as that slavery in Egypt and actually worse. It was a deadness of sin and trespasses as Ephesians 2 says. And so we can look at Samson as a character today and we can throw off on him and say all these mean things about him and then we can go home and be the exact same way. That goes for me, definitely. We can. And so in these character studies, I want us to see these things. I want us to highlight these things, but not neglect for some self-evaluation in it, right? It's very easy to judge others. It's very easy to look at others, even if they're in the wrong, and say, you're wrong here, here, here, and here. And it's a whole other thing when it's turned upon ourselves and we see ourselves for what we really are. So as Peter says here, in our time of exile, he's speaking to these elect people who are actually in exile, but even, I believe we can see some application for us today, in this time of trial we are in, in this time of in-between, and when we're in the wilderness, not yet in the holy land, not yet in the promised city, let us not grumble against God. Let us be holy and set apart to the Lord. And that's why he calls us to do that. And you may say, well, You've focused all through the book of Judges about how the people couldn't do it. Right? I have focused on that. The people couldn't do it. They couldn't do what? Be set apart. They couldn't be holy. They were always idolatrous. And that was just their sin nature inherited from Adam, right? They couldn't do anything but that. So you may say to yourself, well, that's all nice and good, but how do you expect us to do it now if they couldn't do it then? How can I stand before you today and say, be holy, be set apart, when the same command, Leviticus 11, was given to these people and they were not able to accomplish it? Well, though we find our reasoning in verse 18 and 19 there. Listen to how Peter described it. So we do all this knowing you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that lamb without blemish or spot." Like that lamb without blemish or spot. So how can we have confidence going forward that we can be set apart to the Lord? Well, because we were purchased, we were ransomed. Remember, that's that language of slavery. Right? That ransom price, language of slavery. You were enslaved, someone bought you out, bought your pardon, right? We wasn't purchased with just gold and silver. Things that are seen as holy, as set apart in this world, but are actually very common. That's not what we were purchased with. What was we purchased with? the precious blood of Christ. The precious blood of Christ. And that's how we can go day to day, and we can trust in the blood of Christ, and we can trust that we are set apart and holy, and we can live in that light. We can live in that glory, in that set apartness, because it's not your own. Right? You're not set apart because of your good deeds, you're set apart because of the deeds of Christ. because of the cross of Christ. And that's how we go forward in this wilderness time, and we can be self-assured that if we're truly one of Christ, we will not repeat this. But the warning still stands, right? We need to heed these warnings. We all here, I think, see salvation as solely God, as the sovereignty of God's act upon a person, but still we have these warnings in the scriptures, and we should not neglect them. I should still be able to stand, and I should still be able to warn you not to be like the children of Israel. Not to profess one thing and do another. Not to profess yourself to be holy and set apart and actually be very common. which unfortunately, as the church as a whole, the visible church, that's what we see, is it not? People professing to be one thing, and actually they're another. People professing to be set apart to God, and indeed, they're actually set apart to the world. They're set apart to their own lusts and passions and things of that nature. And so let it not be so with us, but we trust in Christ, for in all that he is, in his blood, that he will carry us through this time of exile, this time of wilderness journey. That's what we were ransomed with, not gold or silver, but the blood of Christ. That blood, if you remember, it's not just simply, I'm probably going too long on this, but it's an important qualifier. It's not just simply the blood, but the blood represents what? Blood represents the life, right? It's not as if Jesus just bled and then we were, you see what I'm saying? So like some theologians have said one drop of blood could redeem the whole world. It's not true. It took his death, right? Because that's the wages of sin. You see what I'm saying? It took the death of Christ and the blood here represents the death. Right? Over in Leviticus, I believe it is, it says, remember, don't partake of blood, because why? The life is in the blood. You see what I'm saying? And so that's the connection there. That's off track, but that's important to recognize those things. So that's what we were ransomed with, the blood of Christ, which represents his death. So let's continue. That was all verse one. So now all verse three. These are going to go away quicker though, so just hold on. Back in our text. Chapter 16. Let's get back that together. Okay, 16 in verse 2 there. The Gazites were told Samson had come here and they surrounded that place and set an ambush for him. all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night saying, let us wait till the light of the morning, then we will kill him. So this is their goal here, for what they had done to, what he had done to their people, the setting of the crops, the killing of the thousands. They are going to get Samson while he sleeps here. In his time of, they think he's vulnerable, right? Not expecting anything. They're gonna try to strike against him. But that's not what we find in our text here. Let's go ahead and just, for the sake of time, we'll read the rest and discuss it. In three and four it says, but Samson lay till midnight and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts and pulled them off bar and all and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill in front of Hebron. After that, he loved a woman in the valley of How do you say that, Josh? I don't know. Sorik, I think. I've heard like 14 different ways as I've studied it. Sorik. I'll go with that. You're good. Sorik, whose name was Delilah. OK. So they set up this ambush against him. They think they're going to get him in his Roma place. But they're going to wait till morning. And that's not when Samson comes out. Samson comes out at midnight. Maybe he knew it, we're not really told why, but somehow he leaves before that. Maybe it was just the shame of what he had done. But he leaves, and men not here, and he goes to the gate of the city where these men are, and he takes the gate in his hands, and he rips it out of the ground. He then throws it upon his back and walks it approximately 36 to 40 miles uphill. It's like a great feat. Like, no one can do this. This is supernatural intervention, okay? No one can do these things that Samson's doing, right? Like, great feat. Obviously, many commentators go back and forth about what this means, right? Some say it symbolizes Christ and his defeating of death and hell. I can kind of see that. The language isn't there, but I can kind of see that. Some say this was just Samson just making a mockery of the man. because they thought the gates would keep him in and he literally ripped them off and took them off and carried them away with him. And so I would lean more toward the second, but I can see the parallels there between what Christ has done and the gates of hell not prevailing against God's kingdom and the church and things of that nature. I won't go into far with that, but this is what Samson did and he actually ripped the gates up and threw them on his back and then he carried them this 36 to 40. I would go a little bit of a different place to here. I think what the writer is showing us can be shown in where it's placed, right? In the events that occur and where it's placed. This instance here is sandwiched between two parallel instances of Samson with these pagan women, right? The prostitute and Delilah, who we will see later on will be Samson's demise. And so it's sandwiched between these two instances of Samson's failure, Samson's unbelief, his failure to be set apart. And I believe that what the author is showing us is that even in all of his might, even in all of his greatness, just like men think that they are, they are actually very weak. You see, because this city, this great city, these big bars that he ripped up and threw on his back and carried, this great feat could not hold him, right? These men that set ambush could not stop him. But what could stop him was these women. These two women. That this story is sandwiched between. Showing the weakness of himself. Showing the sinfulness of himself. And though we esteem men great, right? In this world we have many heroes. We have men that we look at and are great. But there are really no great men. There are really no men that truly can do what needs to be done, that truly are set apart, truly holy in and of themselves, except for Christ. Except for Christ. So all men, don't have the strength of themselves to be holy, to be set apart. Although men are viewed as strong leaders and kings and all these things are viewed as strong, they are actually weak and none can stand in the presence of God apart from the blood of Christ. They can't. Samson included in all his great strength and all the things the Lord was using him to do. That includes our heroes, that includes the people we esteem. They are men just like ourselves. Had a great shock about two and a half, three years back, when Reformed theology really opened my eyes to all the things, the word of God, loved it, had theologians that I adored, and all of us took a trip to G3, and I got to meet some of them. You know what I figured out? They're sinful men just like me. We esteem them great. We put their quotes on everything. We post them on Facebook. We think they're great. And at the end of the day, apart from Christ, they'll be damned just as you. It's true. So this is showing us here that all Samson is a great man in the eyes of people. Although Samson is great in the eyes of the world, he's actually weak. So let's continue from there. So this man with great strength is doing all these things, holding these gates upon his back and walking them, yet he's brought down by this woman. And that's what we find in verse four there. This is the beginning, we're not gonna get into it, but this is the beginning of Delilah. It says that he loved this woman. He goes to this Philistine camp and he loves this woman, Delilah. And this is the setup of his demise, this other woman here. With Samson, he was said to be pure. He was said to be set apart and holy. But the one who is truly set apart and holy is the one that Peter spoke of. The one that is truly set apart to God for a purpose is Christ himself. And so this morning, just for the reason I'm stressing all this, as though we have great leaders in our country, as though we have all these great things, understand this, and I think most of us understand this, but we might not practice it like we should. If we trust in anything, legislation, presidents, right? the CDC, whatever that you're trusting, vaccinations, all these things, medicines. If we trust in anything to help us, to lead us through this time of exile, this wilderness that we find ourselves in before we get to the promised land that God has promised us, trust me, all these things will fail you. I don't care how great they are. I don't care their feats. And if they carry these gates 40 miles on their back, and it seems as though no one could stop them, they will be stopped. They will end. America is not where we find our hope. America will end. We're not trusting her as a country for our hope. We look to that one that Peter spoke of, who was the lamb, without spot, without blemish. And that's where we find our hope. And those who find him as a savior, find him mighty to save. So let's pray together. Father, I've done my best to speak of you. Lord, I understand that even at our best, Lord, we're no good. We're wretched. We're totally dependent upon Christ now, his atoning work on Calvary, his imputation of righteousness. Help us to cling to that and that alone. Although nations come and nations fall, heroes come and heroes die. Let us look to none except you. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.