If you'd open your Bibles, please, to the 14th chapter of Judges. We're going to be looking at all 20 verses tonight, and we'll look at them as we go through the text. And before we begin our journey, let's bow and look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for the inspired scriptures. We realize that all scripture is given by inspiration of you and is profitable for us for a variety of ways. We pray that the profitability of this text will be wrought in each of us by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit tonight. And we will thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. I don't know how many of you saw the Tiger baseball game yesterday, but during the game they interviewed Michael Codire of the Minnesota Twins, who told a chilling story about 9-11. Michael Codire was playing double-A baseball at the time, and the season was winding down in the minor leagues, and all the players were making their flight arrangements to go home as soon as the last out was made and the final game was done. Well, the AA team that Kadair was playing on wasn't expected to make any playoffs, so his friend made arrangements to get a flight back to his home in Australia immediately after the final game. And Kadair had an incredible series. He hit a couple of dramatic home runs. He made a couple of great defensive plays. And as a result, the team had to stay over and play games in the playoffs. That plane that his friend from Australia would have been on was that first plane to hit the tower in New York. He said he hears from that family all of the time and they thank him for extending the season through his play. Now, who determines one person gets on a plane and another person doesn't? Who controls the moment when one person dies and another person doesn't die? Who is so sovereign that he could actually control home runs to keep a ball player from getting on a plane for which he had a ticket? There's only one person I know of that has that kind of power, that is the providential power of the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God means that God has the ability and the authority to do whatever pleases Him at all times. He can do whatever pleases Him in heaven, He can do whatever pleases Him on earth, and He can do that with angels, He can do that with humans. The providential sovereignty of God is a great mystery, but it's also an encouraging blessing. Because when you see a believer who loves the Word of God trying to do the will of God, you'll obviously sense at that moment that God's sovereign work is being conducted. But what becomes so difficult for us to grasp is that the same God has the same sovereignty at work when you see a believer who doesn't seem to love the Lord or doesn't even seem to be doing the will of God. The story of Samson is a story that is perplexing. On the one hand, you have the providential sovereignty of God that is unquestionably at work. It's completely at work in every aspect of Samson's life. And yet, on the other hand, you have Samson, who's a man dominated by his fleshly appetites and emotions and not by the word of God. When you look at Samson, at times he seems to be irrational and emotional, he's not logical, and yet God is sovereign even in all of that. I've come to the conclusion that no matter what is happening in a person's life, whether that person is yielded to God or not, God's sovereignty is still there. And God is still working out his providential plan. Even though you and I may not sense it, even though you and I may not see it, God is still sovereign. It's thrilling for the person who's right with God. It's scary for the one who isn't. Now last time we were together, we saw that Samson was born and the Lord blessed him. That's what verse 24 said, that his mom gave birth to a boy named Samson. The child grew up and the Lord blessed him. Those words mean that Samson was growing mentally, physically, spiritually at an extraordinary level. We learn from verse 25 that the spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahanath-dan between Zorah and Eshtoel, which would indicate that God is beginning to stir Samson in some of those Philistine areas. Probably he was getting a great dislike for the Philistines, and probably he was beginning to realize, I have some really unusual strength. Now what's so odd about Samson is more than any other judge that we meet in Judges, we read the words that God's Spirit moved him. So the thing that you're going to see here when you go through this tonight is that God was sovereignly working with a very worldly and fleshly Samson to accomplish his purpose to destroy many Philistines. Now the Samson story fits pretty nicely into the book of Judges because the book of Judges is a book in which people were doing what was right in their own eyes. Everybody was. No one was really interested in what does the word say and should we be following the word. Everybody was just living life their own way, doing what was right in their own eyes. And many commentators who've written on the subject of Samson address the fact that Samson is a tragic story because he kept giving into his fleshly passions. He never did become what he could have become. Now, it's true he was a very flesh-driven man, but I'm not so sure he didn't accomplish what God wanted him to accomplish. Certainly, there are many lessons that we'll learn about not following our emotional passions. However, I'm sure that we can say even if a person does follow their emotional passions, God is still sovereign in that. And you can't rule out the fact that God can accomplish His sovereign will, and you see that in Samson. Now when you look at this text tonight, there are ten narrative parts I want to show you, right out of the scriptures. Number one, Samson sees a Philistine woman and he wants to marry her. Notice verse one. Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines, so he came back and told his father and mother, I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines, now therefore get her for me as a wife. Then his father and his mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives or among all our people that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? But Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she looks good to me. However, his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, for he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time, the Philistines were ruling over Israel. Samson had a real weakness for Philistine women, and you're going to see it in the next weeks. His biggest problem in life is that he could never say no to any temptation. I'm telling you, that can wreck your spirituality. Ladies and gentlemen, a real key to spirituality is learn to say no to temptation. Samson never learned the lesson. He couldn't say no to temptation. What we need to do is ask God for the strength and the wisdom to create in us a clean mind and heart so we can resist any temptation. Samson wasn't there. As verse 1 begins, he traveled about four miles from Zorah to Timnah, which was a city on the border of Philistine land. Actually, this land is assigned to Dan, but the Philistines were occupying the territory. Apparently, the Philistines maintained somewhat of a peaceful relationship with Israel. Israel didn't even seem to mind that they were being dominated by the Philistines. In fact, they'd just as soon marry Philistine women. According to verse 1, Samson is in Timnah. Now, he'd gone down to Timnah not to get closer to God. He'd gone down there to Timnah because he wanted to party. He probably had gone down to this city to do a little drinking that I'll show you in just a moment, and he certainly went down there to check out the girls. And I want you to notice, by the way, verse 25 says, And the spirit of the Lord began to stir him, then he went down to Timnah. What that tells us is God's sovereignty is at work even in that. So while Samson was in Timnah, he spots a Philistine woman. The text is careful to point out that the thing that led him to this woman was that she looked good. He saw her and she looked good to him. Now Samson's a guy who loves women, so if he spots a gal who looked good to him, you have to admit she's probably a pretty gorgeous girl to look at. And we must assume that this woman had a good figure, a good face. But frankly, I don't know any men that would choose a woman who looked bad to them. But the emphasis of this particular passage is on the fact that he's making his choice solely on how this woman looks. He doesn't bother checking up on her spirituality. He doesn't bother checking up on her personality. He doesn't know what her emotions are like. She could be some emotional nutcase. He doesn't bother looking at that at all. He just simply looks at her and she looks good. It's so interesting that it's a weakness of his eyes that gets him into this trouble and eventually he's going to lose his eyes. You know, men need to be careful here and so do women. Wise are the men and women who look for a mate that has a good personality and one who loves God. If you make your choice, based simply on how a man or woman looks, you can end up in a real miserable mess. You can end up with a mate that can make your life miserable. Samson spots this woman from Timnah. He says, she looks good to me. In verse 2 says he went back to his parents and he told his parents that he saw this Philistine girl in Timnah and he said, I want you to go down there and you go down there and negotiate a deal for her because I want to marry her. Now, back in this culture, the normal custom was that the parents arranged marriages, which I don't think is all that bad of an idea, frankly. It's just that we can't work it out in the United States. That's the problem here. I mean, we met some girls along the way in our churches, and Mary and I had our eye on them and said, boy, there'd be a good one right there for one of the boys. But, of course, they weren't going to listen to us. We live in a society in which it's difficult for a parent to spank their child, much less pick out their meat. And according to verse 3, both of Samson's parents were against him marrying a Philistine woman. In fact, this is against the law of God. Israelites are not supposed to marry those that were non-Israeli. And Samson's parents are not happy with this idea that you're going to go marry some woman who's not an Israeli. This is a direct violation of the law of God, which said you do not intermarry with pagan people. Furthermore, his mom and dad already knew that God had a claim on Samson's life and they were dead set against him marrying this girl. But Samson said, that's who I want because she looks good to me. Samson was controlled far more in life by his lust of his eyes than he was the law of God. Three things I want to point out to all who are here tonight, regardless of your age. Number one, Samson was not interested in obeying the word of God in marrying this girl. He could care less about the word. Secondly, Samson goes against the counsel of his godly parents. His godly parents loved him. They wanted what was best for him. He doesn't listen to them. And thirdly, he won't be happy at the end of this story. But as bizarre as this story is, we come to verse 4 which says, what Samson's parents did not know is that all of this was part of the sovereign plan of God. God was at work in this bizarre situation because he was about to start attacking the Philistines who were dominating Israel. The angel of the Lord doesn't come back to Samson's parents and tell them that. The angel of the Lord doesn't reappear and say, by the way, you need to know this. This is all part of the sovereign plan of God. So they are just distraught. They're living in the dark of this, that Samson sees this girl and wants to marry her, and these parents are distraught at this. But what they don't know is God is still sovereign. May I speak to you parents tonight, this encouraging note. When you're distraught because your children are making wrong, stupid, sinful choices, when you're distraught because your children are making unbiblical decisions, you can take comfort in the fact that your God is still sovereign. I don't know where all of your children are tonight, but no matter where your sons or daughters are, Before you go to bed, before you lay your head on your pillow, you pray for that son or daughter of yours and know they're in the hands of a sovereign God. Now, what part of this was the sovereign plan of God? Well, Samson goes to Timnah. He sees the face and figure of a Philistine woman. She looks good. He wants her. That's all part of the sovereign plan of God. He's working right there. The flesh weakness of Samson is being used by God in his sovereignty to accomplish his will. Now every single one of us here tonight has a flesh weakness or two and every single one of us here tonight needs to get on top of them so that we don't allow those weaknesses to destroy us. That's the problem with Samson. He never did get it right. We need to be learning to say no to temptation and moving in the ways of God so that God can bless us. But even if that stuff happens, God is still sovereign. Which brings us to the second part. Samson goes to meet the woman and he kills a lion with his bare hands. Notice verse 5. Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, so that he tore him as one tears a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. On the way down to meet this Philistine girl and he's traveling with his mom and dad, there's this young lion who comes roaring towards Samson and God's spirit comes on him and he tears him apart with his bare hands. But there are three things I want you to observe about this. First of all, it happens in the vineyard areas of Timna. And apparently his parents don't know anything about this, because when he gets back to them, he doesn't have a scratch on him. And obviously, he doesn't tell them, oh, I was in the vineyard areas of Timna. He just disappears. And those vineyard areas are areas where they don't see this happen. Now, of course, the question we have to ask is, what are you doing as a Nazirite, under a Nazirite vow, going into those vineyard areas? Why are you there? And there have been several speculations as to why he went there. Some think he went off there just to do a little drinking. He didn't want his parents to know. They were under that Nazirite vow. His mother was under that Nazirite vow, and he didn't want them to know that he was drinking. So he snuck off just to have a little snort, perhaps some brandy. Others have suggested maybe he knew a shortcut to get down there to that Philistine woman because he'd obviously traveled this route many times. Others have suggested he probably, being a young guy, outwalked his parents. They were older and they couldn't walk as fast as he could. So he probably got out in front of them and he just ducked into a vineyard to kill time. We may remember that Samson supposedly is under that vow, which means you don't want to have anything to do with vineyards. You're not supposed to go in there and eat grapes. You're not supposed to be around there at all. And we may be getting a glimpse here of the fact that Samson was a closet Nazirite vow breaker. He shouldn't have been anywhere near this vineyard, but that's where we find him. S. Lewis Johnson doesn't think he actually was drinking or else he would have lost his strength like when they cut his hair. But if we carefully notice in a few weeks, which we'll see when they do cut his hair, when he loses his strength, he definitely connects losing the strength to the cutting of hair, not to drinking. Secondly, Samson was enabled by God to kill this lion with his bare hands. He didn't even have any weapon. Now many people believe that God is actually warning Samson, you're beginning to move in a dangerous direction in this vineyard and he has this lion come out against Samson because he's moving in a wrong direction. He'd have never run into this lion if he hadn't been in this vineyard forbidden by God. When you get off on the wrong path, You can actually get ripped to shreds by things. But in this case, Samson didn't get ripped to shreds. He did the ripping. This lion attacked him and with his bare hands, he didn't need any weapons at all. He literally tore that lion to shreds. And that's true when you have God's power in you. You don't need a bunch of weapons. The only weapon you need is Almighty God. Thirdly, Samson didn't tell his parents about this lion episode. which tells us that he didn't have any noticeable scars on him. He's not bleeding. I mean, he must have just ripped that thing to shreds in a heartbeat. He was strengthened by God to do that with his bare hands. There's a good lesson to learn here, ladies and gentlemen. Satan will come after you like a roaring lion. He'll come after you from the vineyards of the world. You stand your ground, you resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Which brings us to the third part, Samson meets the woman and when he returns to marry her, he scrapes some honey out of the lion's carcass. Now this gets intriguing, verse 7. So he went down and talked to the woman, and she looked good to Samson. When he returned later to take her, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion, and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion. So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it, but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion. arrived at Timna. He talks to the woman. She still looks good to him. They make the arrangements for the wedding. They travel back to their home. And then weeks later, they make their trip back to go marry this girl. And when he was on his way back to Timna the second time, he decided to go look at the carcass of that lion. And that's what soldiers do, by the way. They like to go back and reminisce where the battle was fought. Just today, we saw many people in New York City that uh... were downtown there because uh... they're going back some of those people that had been involved in the collapse of those towers were back there today looking things over because you typically go back to the scene and that's exactly what what sampson doesn't when he gets back to the scene he discovers that there are some bees there who who actually play a vital role in all of this and these bees have obviously form some type of hive to produce honey now i want you to think about this for a moment Bees typically will not approach anything putrid, but when you're in dry climates, things dry up quickly. I got an elk one time, went back to check it up a couple days later, completely gone. All flesh, all remnants of that were gone. Of course, there are predators out there to help do that. And it's been observed in the Middle East that dead carcass of an animal can almost be completely dried in 24 hours. And these bees play a vital role in this, because of all the places they could have gone, they go to this lion carcass, where Samson's going to go back and check up on this lion that he killed. They go to this lion carcass. They form a hive in there, and they start producing honey. Now, does you see the sovereignty of God in this? He controls Samson. He controls lions. He controls the bees. So Samson scrapes out some of the honey with his bare hands. He ate it. He goes back and picks up his mother and father in root. He doesn't tell them that he got it from a lion. Of course, to get it from the carcass of a lion meant you had to touch a dead carcass, which is another one of those violations of the Nazirite vow. There have been various views. Why didn't he tell his mom and dad that he got this honey out of the carcass of a lion? Some suggest because he didn't want them to know that he had touched a carcass to get this honey. He broke a Nazirite vow. He didn't want to tell them because he was somewhat ashamed of that. Some suggest he didn't want to tell them because he was humble. I kind of ruled that one out, knowing Samson a little bit. Some suggest that because he was planning to make a riddle out of all of this, he didn't tell his parents. And some suggest he didn't want to spoil his parents' appetite by telling him where he got the honey, but he got it and he gave them some. Which brings us to the fourth part. Samson's father and 30 guests of the bride show up to the wedding. Notice verse 10. Then his father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there. For the young men customarily did this. When they saw him, they brought 30 companions to be with him. Then Samson said to them, let me now propound a riddle to you, and we'll look at that in just a moment. When the time came, Samson and his parents went back to Timna for the wedding. The Hebrew word feast, by the way, mista, is a word that means place of drinking. And they're not drinking Coke or Pepsi at this deal. It's clear that at this wedding feast, there was plenty of alcoholic beverages. Again, I want you to remember the Nazarite vow. There wasn't necessarily anything wrong with drinking wine or drinking any beverage that had a little alcohol in it, as long as you weren't getting drunk. But the fact of the matter is, under Nazirite vow, you weren't supposed to do this. And as one writer said, there can be little doubt that the fruit of the vine passed between the lips of Samson the Nazirite. Verse 11 brings out the fact that when the Philistines saw Samson, they brought 30 groomsmen to be with Samson. Samson hadn't brought any of his Israeli friends, so the Philistines rallied around him. And he develops 30 new friendships at his wedding. That's the way it is when you're doing wrong. When you're out there in the world, they'll slap you on the back and embrace you. When you belong to the Lord and you are out in the world, you'll make a bunch of friendships, but in the end, those friendships are going to cost you. If you decide, I'm going to walk away from God, just like the prodigal son, there will be a bunch of worldly people that will be there to embrace you and tell you life is good, you're good, and everything is good. You're a great guy, but these same people don't care about your relationship with God. And these same people are letting you down because they don't care about your soul. Which brings us to the fifth part. Samson gives them a riddle. to the 30 guests and he makes a bet with them that they can't solve it. Verse 12 tells us, then Samson said to them, let me now propound a riddle to you. If you will indeed tell it to me within the seven days of the feast and find it out, then I will give you 30 linen wraps and 30 changes of clothes. But if you are unable to tell me, then you shall give me 30 linen wraps and 30 changes of clothes. And they said to him, propound your riddle that we may hear it. So he said to them, out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet. But they could not tell the riddle in three days. Now the typical wedding feast goes on for about seven days, and it was not uncommon for some people to play games, especially when you got the boys around. It was like a stag party. And you had all people around there and they came up with games and they would try to solve riddles and that was the typical entertainment at a wedding reception. And these were the kinds of games that were relatively normal. So at this wedding reception, Samson made a bet by proposing a riddle to his 30 guys, and the bet was this. If you can tell me the interpretation of this riddle within seven days, I will give you 30 linen wraps and 30 changes of clothing, which in this culture was a lot. But then he says, if you can't tell me within seven days the interpretation to the riddle, then you have to give me 30 linens and 30 changes of clothing. And since Samson hadn't even told his parents, he figured out there's no chance they're ever going to get this. And his riddle was kind of like a Muhammad Ali rhetoric. What floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee. It's that kind of thing. But this turned out to be actually a rhyming Hebrew poetry. Most of the time in Hebrew, poetry doesn't rhyme. It's a thought structure that communicates a point in parallelism. But in this case, it does rhyme. Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet. Which brings us to the sixth part, Samson's wife is threatened by these 30 guys. You'll notice verse 15, then it came about on the fourth day that they said to Samson's wife, entice your husband so that he will tell us the riddle or we will burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us to impoverish us? Is this not so? For three days, these 30 guys tried to solve the riddle. They couldn't figure it out, so they decided, we need some help. This shows you what these Philistines really were, by the way. These were supposedly their family friends. And their family friends go to this wife of Samson, and they said, if you don't tell us what the interpretation is to that riddle, at the end of seven days, we will burn you, and we will burn your father's house. We'll burn you out. Which brings us to the seventh part, Samson's wife cried and nagged Samson until he told her. Notice verse 16. Samson's wife wept before him and said, You only hate me, and you do not love me. You have propounded a riddle to the sons of my people and have not told it to me. And he said to her, Behold, I have not told it to my father or mother, so should I tell you? However, she wept before him seven days while their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him so hard. She then told the riddle to the sons of her people. Gary Phillips called this chapter the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. It's obvious that Samson's wife feared her life. What she should have done is gone right to Samson. She should have gone to Samson, and she should have told him the truth. Instead, she decides she's going to use a woman's tactic, which is still used today. Now, I'm not saying any lady in this church uses it. I'm talking about those who don't go to this church. The women out there in the world still use this tactic. The tactic is called marital emotional blackmail. And it's a simple tactic. It's described right here in scripture. It's used by a woman. Three parts. You cry, you nag, and then you tell your husband he doesn't love you. Day after day, she did that and she was relentless. She cried, she pouted, she put the pressure on Samson. Samson, you don't love me. If you love me, you tell us the riddle. Samson, you hate me. You must hate me or else you tell me this. Samson, you don't trust me. I'm your wife. I won't tell anyone. I'm not a blabbermouth. Come on, Samson, you can tell me. Well, old Samson said, I haven't even told my mom or dad. But after seven days of listening to that, listening to her whining and nagging, it broke him down. That's so interesting about Samson. He had physical strength to fight off a lion, but he couldn't emotionally fight off his own wife. And finally, it broke her down. Now, I want to speak to you ladies here for a moment tonight in light of what this context does reveal. Because you ladies can probably get most men to do, most men, to do just about anything you want if you decide to use those tactics. If you want to use your feminine enticements, and you want to cry, and you want to relentlessly nag your husband, and you want to just keep after him and tell him that he doesn't love you, you'll probably wear him down to the point where he's going to give in to what you wanted. But here's what you need to know in light of this text. In the end, you will not be happy if you get what you wanted. Because in the end, you will lose your husband's respect, you'll lose your husband's affection, and even though you ended up getting what you wanted to get, you'll pay a price. A far better approach is to calmly tell your husband the truth, Let him make the decision and pray for him as he makes the decision. Don't throw some emotional fit if the decision does not go your way. If you play by those rules, you will earn his respect and affection for the rest of your life and you will see God do some incredible things. Which brings us to the eighth part Samson's riddle is told to Samson verse 18 So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the Sun went down What is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion? And he said to them if you had not plowed with my heifer you would have not found out my riddle the next day the Thirty men told Samson the interpretation to his riddle, and Samson didn't back down on his deal, which he could have. He could have said, you guys cheated. You guys did not figure this out yourself. Therefore, I'm not going to pay, but paying up on this deal wasn't a threat to Samson because he could kill Philistines to make the payment. But Samson knew that his wife had told him this, and he calls her what every new bride wants to hear. He calls her his heifer. This guy's got problems. I mean, you've got to see this here. He doesn't even call her his little heifer. I got in big trouble on radio years ago for using that term on a beauty pageant in Goebbels by calling him that. Try that on your honeymoon. Call your new bride. Come on, heifer, let's go. Anyway, Samson doesn't need to go back on his word because he knows deep down inside, I have power from God. I can fulfill this bet. That's no big deal. I'll just go and I'll take this stuff. Which brings us to the ninth part. Samson is empowered by God to kill 30 Philistines. Notice verse 19, Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon, and he killed 30 of them, and took their spoil, and gave the changes of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father's house. Samson killed 30 Philistines. He took the spoil. He paid off his debt and he went home. God was beginning to use him to destroy Philistines Which brings us to the final part his wife was given by her father to Samson's friend verse 20 says but Samson's wife Was given to his companion Who had been his friend Samson was just sick about the fact that his wife had told this riddle So he went back to his father's house He felt betrayed by his own wife. He felt that he'd been betrayed and the father of the bride gave his wife to another guy. Here's what you have in this story. You have a deserted wife, a betrayed husband, you have discord in the family, you have bloodshed and death. This is not a happy story. Now young people, you take a good look at this story. There are women who will pick out a guy simply because he looks good. They will pick out a guy and they'll go goo-goo-ga-ga over the guy. And by the way, we checked I spelled that right, so you can know that. They will go goo-goo-ga-ga for some guy they don't know anything about. They don't know if he works. They don't know if he's a lazy bum. They don't know if he'll provide for her. They don't know if he'd love her. They don't know if he would love God, if he would love the Word of God. They'll just pick him because of the way he looks. And there are men who'll do the same thing. There are young men who will pick a woman because she looks good. She's got a good face, a good figure. Dr. S. Lewis Johnson said he saw young guys pick a girl because they look good, didn't even know if they could cook a pancake or fry an egg. He said he didn't even know if she knew how to clean a house, and they didn't know anything about her spirituality. That is a foolish way to pick a mate. There is a key lesson to learn in this text, and it's a lesson that you look for a man or woman who loves God, loves the Word of God, and loves you. You look at a person who will love the Lord. Look at a person who wants to know the Word. And by the way, when you're looking for this type of person, along the way, it might be wise if you talk to your parents. This is not a happy story, but here's the amazing thing. This story is all part of the sovereign plan of God. That's what's incredible. Because God is going to destroy Philistines. He's gonna use his sovereignty to work out his will. Now God did not direct Samson to give in to his fleshly lusts, but he did not abandon Samson when he did. The fact is, when you look through this text, you have to say, boy, is God sovereign. I mean, he's making these crazy decisions and bets, and here's God still sovereign in that. And perhaps you're here tonight and you know in your life you've made some really dumb, sinful choices. Listen, the great news from the book of Judges is if you'll turn to the Lord, You'll find the forgiveness of God, you'll find the grace of God, and God can greatly use you. May we pray. If you're here tonight and you've never trusted Christ as Savior, listen, it all starts with that. Right where you sit, you pray something like this, God, I know I'm a sinner. I thank you that Jesus Christ died on that cross for me, and right now I turn to him. to come into my life and save me. Our Father, we thank you so much for the precious Word of God. We've all, in our lifetime, made ridiculous choices. If we could categorize them all here tonight, with all of us in this sanctuary, we've all made crazy decisions in life, and yet, in amazing sovereign grace, you allowed some of those decisions to draw us to you. We thank you for that grace and that power. In Jesus' name, amen.