Samson, Delilah and the Secret of Strength — David Wilkerson

Samson, Delilah, and the Secret of Strength

This morning, Samson, Delilah, and the Secret of Strength. But before I minister, I want to just throw out some things that I heard this week. First of all, a charismatic church in an eastern city. I mentioned before, but I've got a little more details on it.

Introduced ballroom dancing in the church. They already have dancing during their services. They can dance in the Spirit on Sunday and then next Saturday night in the flesh. In Southern California, the big new hobby among swinging Christian couples is trading wine lists.

They used to meet for prayer and Bible study, now they party and sip and trade their special imported wine. Under show business this week in Time Magazine, the headline read, New Lyrics for the Devil's Music.

It described four Christian heavy metal rockers, and I'm reading from it, They come on stage in tight leather and spandex costumes, crisscrossed with black and yellow stripes, piles of makeup, spiky hair, dangling chains.

Their music sounds like a swarm of angry bees. Their stripes, they say, represent the stripes of Jesus by which we're healed. And they said, We are rock and roll evangelists. We are modern day John the Baptist crying out in the world of rock and roll.

Also, it said radio stations are popping up all through California now and around the country, offering 24 hours of evangelical pop. They said, We give you fun without hitting you over the head with the Bible.

Hitting you over the head with the Bible? One of the top female vocalists, Amy Grant, said, I want to play hardball in this business. I want to be on the same level professionally with all the performers in all areas of music.

I love to hear Billy Joel, Kenny Loggins, and the Doobie Brothers. And why not? I aim to bridge the gap between Christian and pop. For what? So all Christian young people can walk over that bridge over to the devil's territory.

Is that it? Here's a so-called Christian rock band. This is Petra, Miami reporter. And here's the leader of Petra saying, So many people have the misconception that being a Christian means hiding in the closet, not having fun of any kind.

But we have a tremendous time at our concerts. We dance all night. It's a full-fledged rock and roll show. Just a different spirit. That's the background for my message. Samson, Delilah, and the secret of strength.

That fired me up. I'm ready to preach. Heavenly Father, we have got to be separated from this godless world. You've drawn a clear line, and you've not let us pass over it. My God, awaken us this morning.

Lord, we're not down on anybody. We're not trying, Lord, to minister in anything but a spirit of meekness and love. Our spiritual blood does boil at times when we see and hear of things that are happening in the church that are so stupid and foolish and sinful.

But Lord, we want to minister in the meekness of the Holy Ghost, and yet with the power and the firmness of the Lord. So help us to find now Your mind. And Lord, we're not preaching to these people out there that we're talking about.

Separation From the World as the Source of Spiritual Strength

We're preaching to this audience this morning. We're preaching to those who hear this message here now. In Jesus' name, Amen. Total separation from the world is the secret of all spiritual strength. Separation from the world is the secret of all spiritual strength.

It's also the secret of authority, spiritual authority among men here on earth. Now, the Bible said the man who's spiritually weak flees when nobody's pursuing, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

And that's why you see so many young people fleeing when nobody's chasing them. That's why you see so many young people who have no strength like a lion because they're mixed with the world. There's no spirit of separation.

Now, God, I believe, is calling out for Himself a people who are going to be very strong in these last days because they're very separated. Very strong because very separated from the spirit of this world.

You show me a Christian who's totally separated from this world, and I'll show you somebody who's going to stand against every satanic attack that comes from the pits of hell in these last days. And the Bible said, Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil's come down unto you having great wrath because he knows, what?

His time is short. I wish some Christians knew as much as the devil knew about the coming of the Lord, that the time is short. But we need those who are strong in the Lord, who will be able to stand up and be able to say, As Jesus did, Satan cometh and hath nothing in me.

Satan is moving, he's coming toward the whole world, but he can't touch me because there's nothing in him, nothing in me that attracts him. Now, Samson is the strongest physical man on the face of the earth, but one of the weakest prophets God ever had.

I read a commentary yesterday, it says, Please don't judge this man too severely because he had his good points. Well, I want you to know that the life of Samson stands out in stark contrast to David and to John the Baptist, and it's one of the greatest failures in all the Word of God.

It is not a success story, it's a story of what happens when a man mixes with the world and loses his power and his strength. This man took one of the greatest anointings God ever gave a man and squandered it playing around with the world.

Squandered it, threw it away. I read Samson's lifestyle and there's something in me that cries out, Oh God, I don't want to be like Samson. I don't want to destroy God's anointing and truth in my life.

I don't want lust or pleasure to take anything away from me that God gave me. I don't want to end up in a blind stupor like this man. And believe me, he did wind up in a blind, hopeless stupor. Now, Samson teaches us two important things.

First of all, the secret of strength and then how to lose it. How to deplete it and throw it away. And I think that's very important for us now. Let's begin in Samson's life. First of all, Samson was separated unto God from the womb, the Bible says.

Samson's Nazarite Calling and Separation

Here it is, Judges 13, chapter 5. For lo, thou shalt conceive and bear a son. This is the angel of the Lord talking to what would be the mother, Samson. You're going to bear a son, and no razor shall come on his head.

For the child shall be amassed right unto God from the womb. And he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Remember, because of sin, God turned Israel over to be harassed by the Philistines.

I'll tell you, God always has a rod when you go wrong, doesn't he? He always has a rod. The Philistines were a rod because they had turned their backs on God and they were destined, the Bible said, to 40 years of harassment from the Philistines.

And now God's raising up a deliverer. He was to be very special. Totally separated unto God. And let me show you what a Nazarite really is. And you have to go to Numbers, the 6th chapter. Now don't turn there because you're just going to be going all through the Bible with me here and you'll be chasing everywhere.

Listen to me. Take it from me, it's in your Bible. Numbers, the 6th chapter, the whole chapter gives the distinctions of a Nazarite. Three of them in particular. A Nazarite, first of all, it says he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink.

Now that's all that was in the Bible. That a man is separated unto God and doesn't drink, that would be good enough for me because I tremble at God's Word. Some of you want a whole Bible to get you off your drinking, but I just need a Scripture verse.

He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. Number two, all the days of his separation he shall be holy and shall not let the locks of his hair grow. In other words, no razor shall come upon his head all his days.

Third, he shall not touch any dead body. All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord. In fact, this man was not to compromise, not for his father, not for his mother, not for his brother or his sister because he separated unto God.

He couldn't even go to his father's funeral. He couldn't go to his mother's funeral. He couldn't go to his brother's sister's funeral. He went to no funerals. That's why John the Baptist preached in the wilderness.

He knew that death was in Jerusalem. He went out in the highways and byways. He went out where there was no sign of death. He couldn't touch a dead body. Now you know the spiritual significance of that.

A child of God touches nothing that has anything to do with the death in this world. You don't touch it. You are to be totally separated from it. Now it was common for a Nazarite often to take just a 30-day vow.

And you remember when Paul shaved his head, he was under a 30-day Nazarite vow. It was his way. In fact, I see two times in the Bible that Paul takes this Nazarite vow. Jeremiah was a Nazarite. John the Baptist was a Nazarite.

That's why John the Baptist was one from the womb just like Samson. This was not a 30-day vow. The Bible said, this boy is going to be a Nazarite from the womb until he dies. This man is going to be separated unto God.

He's special. God says, I'm going to put my hand on him. I'm going to use him. He's my man. Now those who took the short vow, shaved their heads, and then after the purification of the last eight days, they took their hair and threw it in the fire.

Remember, underneath the peace offering. Not on the altar where the sacrifice was laid. But this polluted hair was thrown under the peace offering and burned. A sign of burning everything that was contaminated by the world, consumed by the Holy Ghost.

Now, those who were separated from the womb were not to ever cut their hair. And that symbolized to everybody that they were not of this world, that they were put aside under God. Remember, the New Testament, Paul said it's a shame.

Nature itself teaches it's a shame for man to have long hair. Now, this was a shame. This was bearing the shame of God. This was a shameful thing as far as the world was concerned. Now, not the Christians.

Those who really loved God, honored and respected this man because he was separated and the world laughed at him. It was a shame. It was a horrible shame for this man to have that long hair. Here's a hypocrite.

Here's a holy roller. Here's a man all set up. Here's the fanatic. That was a symbol. That was an outward sign that this man was set apart to God. There was no strength or power in his hair. That's what it represented.

Now, follow me please. These were outward signs and symbols of an inner truth. There were very few Nazarites, including Samson, who understood. I don't believe any Nazarite understood the inner working of their outward signs even during the day of Jesus Christ.

None of the Nazarites during Christ's time understood that God was looking for something inward. They believed that as long as they didn't drink, as long as they didn't cut their hair, as long as they never went to a funeral, touched anything dead, they were absolutely pleasing to God.

But God looks on the heart rather than the outward appearance. He was trying to give them an object lesson. He said, I want to see in the heart what you show on the outside. That's why those who have gotten rid of your television sets, those of you who don't go to movies anymore, and you don't do this, you don't do that, that means a thing unless you have your heart right.

There is an inward work, and that is just an outward expression of something the Holy Ghost has done inside. Nothing else. Now, in this new covenant age in which we live, the new birth is a Nazarite vow.

It's a Nazarite separation under God from the womb. Every one of us that are born again have been born in the womb of the Holy Ghost. We've been born in the Holy Ghost, the Bible says. There is no such thing as a 30-day vow.

A Nazarite vow in the new covenant. Every single man or woman, boy or girl that's born into the kingdom of God is born as a Holy Ghost Nazarite. Totally separated under God. We are not to touch anything in this world that speaks of death.

God's Peculiar Treasure and the Believer's Body

Now, from the very beginning, God has called his people, his wealth, his precious treasury, locked up to himself. In fact, it's under a Hebrew word, both in Hebrew and Greek, called peculiar. Have you ever heard of a peculiar treasure?

Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice, saith the Lord, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. For on the earth is mine, and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Then in Deuteronomy 14, 2, For thou art a holy people unto the Lord your God, and the Lord hath chosen you to be a peculiar people unto himself above all nations that are upon the earth. David said, For the Lord hath chosen Jacob to himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure.

Paul said, He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous to good works. Peter said, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.

There it is, all through the Old Testament, all through the New. And both in Hebrew and in Greek, the word peculiar, and I read it here, right out of the definition of Hebrew and Greek, the word peculiar means secured and safe treasure.

In other words, a treasure that's locked up in a safe. It means a precious set of jewels. Peculiar means his special wealth. You are my special wealth. You are locked up to me. I own you. It's like the man who is very wealthy and he takes out of his treasury these jewels and he lays them there and he admires them.

And he uses these jewels to his glory. He said, You are my special wealth. You are my people. Peculiar has nothing to do with strange. I know God has a lot of strange people too. No, he's talking about God saying from now on, since your new birth, you are very personally mine.

You are my glorious treasure. You belong only to me. You've been set apart. You've been locked up to me. And if you've been born again by the water and the spirit and the blood, you and I have no right to our bodies.

He purchased our bodies at the cross. He paid a dear price for this special treasure that's locked up to himself. What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God and you are not your own?

For you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. In 1 Corinthians 7 .23, you are bought with a price. Be not ye the servants of men. Don't take God's special wealth out and squander it in the world.

Now Samson was born as God's special, peculiar, separated treasure from the world. And so are we. Our birth by the Holy Ghost is as supernatural as that of Samson. It's as unique. It's as separated. It's as special as Samson.

It's to be just as dramatic, just as severe. He was not allowed to party. He was not allowed to be a part of the world. He was not allowed to drink. He was totally separated under God. The whole world knew it.

He knew it. His parents knew it. Everybody, this man is separated to God. And that's supposed to be the distinctiveness of the Christian, all of us. That our parents know it, the world knows it, we know it.

We are different. We're separated. Now we don't wear the long hair necessarily. But the long hair represented the crown of separation. It was a crown. But you see, this man, Samson, had a divided heart.

Samson's Divided Heart and Intermittent Anointing

Specially born, uniquely born, uniquely called, uniquely separated. But this man, from the very beginning, and I don't know how young it was, it must have been when he was a teenager, because when he was less than 20 years old, the Spirit of God began to move on him.

Well, listen to it. The Bible says the Spirit of God began to move on him at times in the camp of Dan. Now I want you to notice the difference between John the Baptist. It says that this man, Samson, stayed in the camp.

God's always worked outside the camp. That's where John the Baptist went. He went outside the camp, set himself in with God, and the Word came to John. There's nothing in the Bible about the Word coming to Samson.

Occasionally, the Spirit began to move on him at times in the camp. But while he's still mixing in the camp, when he should have been out like John the Baptist, alone with God. He should have been a man of prayer.

He should have recognized this special anointing on him. But Samson has a divided heart from the very beginning. Remember what the Bible says about David. David panted after the Lord as a heart or a deer pants after water.

This deer is running around the hills, and that deer has been running, fleeting. And he's looking for water, and his tongue is hanging. And David said, I'm like a deer that prances in the mountain, and I long for God's Spirit like a heart pants after water.

David's greatest fear was that even for a moment God would take the Holy Ghost away from him. He thought the worst thing that could happen in his life, that the Holy Spirit should be lifted. Samson was called to deliver Israel.

He needed the Holy Ghost at all times, didn't he? The Bible says, and the Spirit of God moved on him at times. Now, this is something that really bothers me, because you see, the Holy Spirit, it says here, by the way, why didn't God's Spirit move on him constantly like it did in David?

I say it's because he had a divided heart. Outwardly, this man was holy. Outwardly, this man was separated. But Samson had a driving lust in him. A driving lust that drove him all his life time. There was a secret sin in his life.

There was something that he didn't deal with from the very beginning. Probably from 15, 16, 17 years of age, when this young man had the very juices of life flowing through him, then something happened in him.

In spite of the fact that he was separated under God, Samson had a driving lust, because right after you read that the Spirit of God began to move on him at times, then the next verse, Samson went down to Timnath.

Now, that's enemy territory. He would not go to Timnath. What does he do? The first thing he does when he gets to Timnath, he sees a girl and falls in love with her. And he comes home and says, Dad, get her for me.

And his father was enraged, and his mother said, Aren't there any girls in Israel? You have to go down to enemy territory. And they know he was separated. This was against the law. Now, I know the Bible says, and I can quote it to you right here, His father and mother knew not it was from the Lord.

Now, I want to tell you, right now, God does not win his victories by breaking his laws. He doesn't win his victories by breaking his laws. That was against the law of God. It's against the law by which God honored.

Is it God honored? But Samson is the only thing God has to work with. And Samson goes down to Timnath and he says, Get her. And God is actually saying, Well, that's all I have to work with. I'm going to make his wrath praise me.

I'm going to have to turn that evil deed into good. I'm going to have to make that serve my purpose, because this is the only man I've got. And there are some of us today that are moved upon by the Holy Ghost at times.

They're up and down, hot and cold. You see, there's some of you here this morning that once had a real touch of God in your heart. And I want you to listen close, because this is the key. You were on fire.

You were ready to go all the way with the Lord. You were ready to leave the whole world behind. You said, Yes, I'm separated. I know God's touched me. God called me. But the next time we meet you, you're almost a stranger.

The fire's gone. You're no longer all out for God. You act and talk and think like the world. You're all mixed up in hearts. You're divided. There's no consistency of the Lord in you. When you're around Christians and there's fire, you catch a little of that fire.

But then when you go out and get with the crowds, you catch that spirit. And you see, my question is, are you separated or are you mixed? And it all depends on what day it is and who you're with. And that's wrong.

This idea of when I'm in the presence of God and I'm with Christians, I'll be on fire for God. When I'm out here with this crowd, I'll be like them. It's up and down, in and out, hot and cold. No consistency.

And the Spirit of God moves on them at times. I've seen drug addicts come in at Teen Challenge New York City. They'd walk out. They'd been really touched and filled with the Holy Ghost. They'd go out because they still have this thing, this mixture in them.

They'd go out and serve the devil and then they'd come in and get saved again. Saved and resaved. And boy, the fire God will move on them. They'll stand and prophesy. And you say, boy, he's got a real touch of God.

But the next day you see him in chapel and he's looking like he's half dead. And he's dry and he's empty because there's something in his spirit driving him. There's still the spirit of lust that's never been dealt with.

There's no consistency. Samson had one eye set on God and another eye set on Gaza. Remember the story right after this? By the way, God keeps Samson from marrying this girl, this heathen girl. God wouldn't allow that.

God says, I may have to turn your evil deed into My glory. I may have to work through that stupid move you've made, but I'll not let you touch her. And He didn't. God kept the man. And sometimes the only reason God keeps us is because of His mercy and His sovereign grace.

Not because we want Him to. He does it even against our will sometimes because He has a purpose for our lives. And you know, here's Samson now later on. And he kills, by the way, almost everything that happens from here on the last two years of Samson's life.

Those 18 years he judges Israel. There are not many victories. When you're not serving God with all your heart, there aren't very many victories, are there? And here he is now the last two years of his life.

And he's got a thousand Philistines, remember? They bind him. A thousand Philistines take him prisoner and he's bound by cords. And suddenly he snaps the cords off, takes the jawbone of an ass and kills a thousand Philistines.

And he's sweating and he's tired and he's weary and he's laying down and he's thirsty and he says, My God, You gave me a great victory, but now I'm going to die of thirst. And God in His sovereign grace comes down and opens up a few beads in the jawbone of the ass and out pours water.

And he drinks miraculously from water out of heaven. What a glorious miracle that's done in this man's life. What an anointing! But the next verse, here he goes again. Then went Samson down to Gaza. Man, he just killed a thousand Philistines, one of the greatest victories in his life.

In fact, the greatest victory up to that time. He's had a miracle in his life. God has miraculously touched this man's life. Now he runs down to Gaza. Gaza in Hebrew means hardness, impudence, self-reliance, greed, covetousness, power.

Gaza and the Allure of Worldly Relaxation

Samson was suddenly drawn to this wicked enemy place. Look at this, the man goes to Timnath that belongs to the Philistines, it's enemy territory, and now he's down at Gaza. And I know what's going through his mind.

He's saying, just had the greatest victory in my life, seen a great miracle, it's time for a little relaxation, time for a little fun. And I'll tell you something, this idea of Christians relaxing and having fun is 90 of the hell that's created.

He said, well, after all, I've done my dead level best, I've worked hard, I've put my time in for God. I've had my nose to the grindstone. Every Christian should relax a little bit. Everybody ought to have a little fun.

Yeah. You see, he's got his eyes on Gaza now. I don't think he intended to do anything wrong. What he should have done was say, God, You're with me, and I know that Your Spirit's on me. And he should have walked away from that battle of the Philistines.

He'd been re-strengthened by that miraculous water from heaven. And that all-spiritual water that comes in the Old Testament is Christ. He's drunk freely from the life of Christ. What he should have done is say, there's a city right near here, less than 40 miles from where I sit, and it's full of harlots.

And it's full of wickedness. And I'm going down, and I'm going to tear the walls down. And I'm going to destroy it. I'm going to wipe it off the map. And he could have done it. He should have had a holy zeal for God.

He goes down there, and he's got a little curious streak in him. He's got this thing in him. I want to relax him. I want to have fun. I'm not going to do anything really bad. And he hears the music, and he begins to snap his fingers.

And I see it in young people everywhere I go. This Saturday night fever. Friday, Saturday night. Look at all the young people everywhere you go. Friday, Saturday night. It hits them. It hits a lot of housewives.

It hits husbands. Here he goes down to Gaza. And you've got to say, watch out, Samson, because you're headed for trouble, because Gaza is hardness of heart. That's self-reliance. You relied on the Holy Ghost.

Now you're going to rely on your own strength. You've got a spirit of greed in you. You're going to become impotent toward the Lord because that's the spirit of Gaza. That is impotence against God. That's a hardness of heart.

It's going to set in on you and destroy you. Now almost every Christian has a Gaza in their life. A place or a thing that tempts you and beckons you and calls you. It's something in you that says, come on down, just relax a bit.

Now don't go crazy. Come on down, look around and be one of us. Samson goes to Gaza, sees a harlot and goes to bed with her. The man who should have been tearing her apart sleeps with a harlot. You look at that man of God under great Holy Ghost anointing.

There he is, frolicking on a bed with a harlot. Don't tell me this is a story of victory. It's a shameful, shameful story. Listen to Philistine. Samson has come here. Look, Samson is one of us. There's nothing special about him.

He doesn't have a touch of God. He's just like the rest of us. And that's exactly what the devil's called when you go down and mix with him. Nothing special. That guy's supposed to be saved and filled with the Holy Ghost.

Now look at him. He's like us. Nothing separated about him. Nothing unique about him. Boy, I hear the Spirit screaming in me, Don't go to Gaza. You know your weakness. You know that thing that calls you.

And when it calls you, you stand up and say, That's Gaza calling and I refuse to go down to Gaza because that's where I'll get a hard heart. That's where I'll become impudent against God. That's where I'll get greedy for more.

You know what your Gaza is this morning. Everyone in this building. You know what your Gaza is. I know what my Gaza is. I step and I say, Oh God, I'll not go down to Gaza. I'll not touch it. I won't come anywhere near it.

I'm staying separate and clean to the Lord. I know what that Spirit means. I know what's down there. Some of you were saved out of drugs. Some of you out of drinking. And every time you get down and weak, there's Gaza calling you.

Come on in. And you know what's inside those doors. You know the moment you stick that bottle in your mouth that that's Gaza calling you. You know you'll wind up in bed. I'm not talking about just going to bed with a heart.

You'll go to bed with a bottle. You'll go to bed with that sin. And I'm telling you right now and I hear it ringing in my heart and I'm telling you out of my heart, I know the Holy Ghost told me to say it.

Everyone that's listening to me now, you've got a Gaza calling. Some of you have a Gaza calling to you right now. Come on down and relax. Don't do anything wild. Don't go crazy. But you can't be serving God night and day.

Every man has to have a little fun. It's this cry of fun. It's this cry of fun that's leading Christians down to Gaza. Don't go to Gaza. Now look, midnight, Samson crawls out of the harlot's bed and listen to what he does.

Listen to this. This is stupid. Absolutely dumb. He took the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts and went away with them bar and all and carried them up to the top of the hill that's before he'd brought.

Now what kind of victory is this? Gets up at midnight and he sees the gates and it's locked and he said, I'll show them. And so he picks up the gates and look at this man wasting his strength on a dumb gate that would be built the next day rendering the energy of God.

What kind of victory is this? The man should have been tearing... Any man that could tear the gates down could have torn the walls down. Any man that can tear those gates could have torn harlots apart.

He starts leaping with them. But you see, that's how... What kind of thinking this man has now. He should have set that city on fire. He set the fields on fire. Why didn't he get by a hundred of those foxes and set them loose inside that city and burn it down?

There's nothing accomplished. At least the Philistines see that man walking off with their gates and they're laughing at him. Now what was Samson's sin? What was this sin of Samson's? Is that just simple fornication?

I wish it was. I wish that was just a simple fornication example that he's given to us, but it's so much more than that. He'd touched the dead. He'd drunk in the wine of pleasure. He'd already lost his sign of separation.

The Nazarite vow had been broken. Absolutely broken. Everything Samson had done in Gaza broke. Now God in His mercy had not forsaken him yet, but he'd touched the dead. He'd blasphemed the name and the honor of God.

He's now married to the world because he that's joined to a harlot is one. And not married to God anymore. He's not separated. He's married to a harlot. No sign he ever went back to. But the Bible said that if you lay with a harlot, you're one flesh.

In the sight of God, you've created a oneness. If you're one with the world, you're married to it. That's what the Bible says. If you're one with the world, if you're mixing with the world, you're married to the world.

Delilah and the Loss of Spiritual Strength

Now, the word Samson means sunlight. But very soon, this man's never going to see the sun again. He's headed for horrifying darkness. His divided heart's about to cost him everything. His anointed testimony's going to become the laughingstock of the nation, both of the Christian and the sinner, the children of God and the children of the devil.

Because you see, a man who goes down to Gaza is going to end up in the lap of Delilah. And Delilah is the end of the road for anyone who mixes with the world. Delilah's the end of the road. And it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sork whose name was Delilah.

Delilah in Hebrew means languishing. Now listen to this. It means to ease up, let up. It means to weaken. It means impoverished. That means to lose everything and to become feeble. That's what her name means.

They named people in the Old Testament after characteristics. That's what her name means. Delilah means everything. Become weak. And everyone who has a divided heart, who rejects their Nazarite vow of separation unto the Lord, will end up in the lap of Delilah.

And what is that lap? It's a spiritual weakness. It's boredom. It's slowly giving in and easing up and finally losing everything to a spirit of apathy. Total apathy. You know what's amazing? I read that Samson loves a strange woman down in Timnath.

I read that he loves a harlot. And I understand here now that he loves Delilah. I see him. The record shows that he loves three women, but I don't find once in that whole story that he loved God! Not once!

Is it said that this man loved God? He loves Delilah. He loves a harlot. He loves that Philistine woman in Timnath, but he doesn't love God! That's why Christians mix with the world. That's why you still go with the crowd.

Because you don't love Him! If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is what? Is not in him. Samson loved the world and that's why we know the love of the Father wasn't in him. He didn't love God.

There's no record of it. If he'd loved God, he would have said, I'll not go down with that wicked crowd. I'll not mix with the evil crowd. I will not bring reproach on the holy name of my God. I'll not do it.

Now let's get it straight. Samson's strength wasn't in his hair, but it's in his Nazarite separation. The secret of strength is separation from the world. The Holy Spirit came upon him giving him strength.