There are many today who complain about the condition of the church. There are many who wonder where the power of old is. In the pages of the Bible, we read about great feats accomplished by believers. We see Christianity triumphing over every kind of idolatry you can imagine. We see thousands and thousands of people leaving everything behind, all the traditions of their fathers, to follow the Lamb. We see a handful of people turning the world upside down. Wherever New Testament Christians place the banner of the cross, they prevail and they conquer. The devil is defeated and Christ wins the victory. Church history also tells us of great feats accomplished by believers. A single individual fed thousands of children by the power of prayer. Pagan nations have been won to Christ by the preaching of a handful of men and declining churches and nations have known the reviving power of God through the ministry and prayers of faithful saints. My dear brethren in Christ, you and I are members of a people that has a glorious past. And I wonder how you feel when you think about that past. Many get discouraged because they find that at least in the West, much of the power that the church enjoyed seems to be missing. In many of our nations, it looks like believers have very little influence over the culture. The church at large seems to be losing the next generation. For some strange reason, someone could even think that Christianity lacks the attraction that characterized it in the first century. Where is the power, brethren? Where is the power of old? I believe that the verses we have in front of us today are very relevant to answer that question. These two verses have everything to do with power. Let's take a moment to think about the man who spoke the words that are recorded for us here. These are the words of Samson. Now, if you know anything about the Bible, you will truly know that Samson was a very strong man. He was so strong that he did things that were simply impossible for a normal human being. The scriptures say that Samson killed a lion using only his hands. On another occasion, he tore in pieces the course that he had been bound with and killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. This man took the two posts and the gate of the city of Gaza and carried them on his shoulders in the middle of the night. Can you believe that? It's almost unbelievable, but it's true. It really happened. Samson was able to do things that were impossible for an ordinary human being. This is the man who is speaking here. Now, what is the context of his words? You know the story, right? He's talking to a woman called Delilah. Samson is powerfully attracted to her. He's infatuated. He's obsessed with Delilah. The Bible doesn't say this explicitly, but I believe that we can argue from the context that it's extremely likely that he's committing immorality with her. It's also very likely that she is a Philistine, a foreign woman, a forbidden woman, a mortal woman. What we do know for certain is that Delilah is an ungodly woman. She's a traitor. She's willing to sell Samson to the Philistines. When the Philistines offer her money, she's ready to do whatever they ask. This woman is a mercenary. So the Philistines notice that Samson is infatuated with Delilah and they want to take advantage. They ask here to try to figure out where Samson's great strength lies and how he can be defeated. They know that that information is critical. With that data, the Philistines will be able to aim at the root of Samson's power and finally defeat this enemy that seems so invincible. So Delilah does precisely that. With her flattering words, she forces Samson to tell her the secret. This is a very, very sad episode in the life of this man of faith. Samson is acting like a drunk man. He knows there is danger for him, and he even lies to her three times, but he doesn't flee. He doesn't repent. He doesn't cry out to God. He's under the influence of the deceitfulness of sin. He keeps playing with temptation, getting closer and closer to the precipice until he's overcome and finally confides in here. And right then, When his intoxication seems to reach its summit, he speaks the most sensible words that came out of his mouth in this whole episode. Please look with me at verse 17. This is what Samson said. There hath not come a razor upon mine head, for I have been an ascerite unto God. from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me and I shall become weak and be like any other man. This was Samson's secret. There was one reason for his strength and one reason alone. He was a Nazarite and to God. That means that he was separated unto God. The Hebrew word that is translated as Nazarite here means precisely that. It means separated, consecrated, or devoted. If you remember, under the Old Testament, men and women could take a special vow known as the Nazarite vow. It is described for us in Numbers chapter six. Those who were consecrated as Nazarites were easily recognizable because of their long hair. They had promised that they would let their hair grow all the time of their consecration. They also promised that they would abstain from strong drink wine at the fruit of the vine. and they would also stay away from dead bodies, even if a family member died. All these promises were highly symbolic. They represented holiness. As you know, wine and strong drink can intoxicate people and take away judgment. So the Nazarites promised that they would totally abstain to have a clear judgment to serve God with. They would not even eat grapes. They would flee from every appearance of evil. They wouldn't touch dead bodies either because death is a reminder of sin. The wages of sin is death. But Nazarites were consecrated to God. So they would stay away from anything that reminded people of death. Sorry about that. They stood away. They stayed away from anything that reminded people of death. Anything that reminded people of sin. And one of the reasons why they would let their hair grow, is probably because shaving your head was a sign of uncleanness. In the Old Testament, when a leper was healed, he was supposed to shave off his hair in the ritual of purification. All the hair that had been unclean had to be removed from the body. Now, Nazarites were supposed to be pure. So why would they shave their heads? Hair was also a visible sign of submission, a visual reminder of their consecration both to themselves and to others. Every time someone saw a Nazirite, they could say, this is a special man, this is a special woman, This person has promised to be totally devoted to God and holiness. And in that sense, Nazarites pointed to Christ, the perfect lamb of God, the one who never sinned, the one who perfectly loved his father at all times. So the Israelites, brethren, were supposed to look at the Nazarites and understand something about their Messiah, about what their Messiah would be like. Holy. harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens. Samson was an asteroid. He had been separated to God from his mother's womb. An angel was sent to tell his mother that she should abstain from the fruit of the vine and that Samson's hair should never be cut. All his life was supposed to be a life of consecration because he was called to be a judge of God's people, a deliverer who would show Israel what their Messiah would be like. So that was Samson's secret. He tells Delilah, you want to know the secret of my strength? It's not in my muscles. It's not in my tools. It's in my hair. The secret of my strength is my consecration to God. God has separated me from my mother's womb to be a holy man for him. And if that separation is ever taken away, I will certainly become weak and be like any other man. Now, you know that Samson's heart was not separated to God at this point. And now he was about to have the external sign of his separation removed. What happened to Samson when his hair was cut? He became as weak as any other man and was easily defeated by the Philistines. I think you're already starting to see the application for us. What was true of Samsung continues to be true of you and me. Do you know what Samsung's name means? It means sunlight, or like the sun, S-U-N. Samsung could only shine like the sun. when he was separated to Jesus Christ, the son of righteousness. And in a very similar way, you and I, the members of the church are called the light of the world. How can we shine in the middle of this darkness? It's by being separated, consecrated to Jesus. who is the true light of the world. Brethren, the power of the church lies in holiness. Holiness means separation from sin and to God. We need to love God and we need to hate every appearance of evil. We need to be different from the world. This is a very sad age, an age when many churches have given in to the tactics of this world, to the music of this world, to the psychology of this world, to the practices of this world. The personal separation of believers has become less and less clear. Today, believers watch movies. that our forefathers would have been utterly scandalized by and with biblical reasons. They listen to music that would have been considered an abomination a hundred years ago. It seems that many are trying to leave us as much as the world as they can possibly justify. while they glory in their Christian liberty. The world enters their hearts and the world expels their love for Christ. The separation of the church from this world is becoming dangerously blurry. And the blurrier it becomes, the less power we have and the less we impact the world. My dear brethren, I don't want to sound legalistic. This is not about submitting to unscriptural rules of men or trying to be justified by works or to obey in our own strength. It is about fervently loving Christ. having sweet communion with him, following all the implications of his word and separating from everything that is displeasing to him. We are here to pray for revival. We want to see the church impacting the world. We will only see the church impacting the world if the church is different from the world. So let's confess our sins. Let's pray that God will make our hair start to grow again. Amen.