Don Graham Revival Ministries

The Portrait of an Unrevived Church

Judges 16

A careful study of the colossal figure of Samson is both disturbing and disquieting. Has a man ever been blessed with such opportunity and potential? Yet from such lofty beginnings he is remembered for the pitiful scene of alarm from sleep in Delilah's lap to rush out and do war against the Philistines now with a bald head. There follows this sad commentary: And he wist (knew) not that the Lord was departed from him. What an accurate picture of an unrevived church. Such a church, in desperate need of revival is marked by...

I. A Dangerous Drifting

Just as Samson still gives vent to his fleshly passion for women and sex (vs. 1-4; 14:1), so the unrevived church continues to give in and compromise with a society bent on self indulgence, feeding of the flesh, and developing in the local parish a proverbial Peyton Place. Sadder still we adopt wholesale, in the name of praise and worship, a music into our churches that was designed to invite the flesh. Yet, sadder still, like the church at Corinth we respond to such a decadent state with spiritual snobbery that tolerates such behavior. Such Peyton Places need to be purged to become pure places!

II. Deadly Dalliance

Just as Samson three times over teased Delilah about the source of his strength, so the church is in deadly dalliance with sin (vs. 7, 11, 13). As a boy we were told, Don't' dilly-dally around with fire—you 'll gel burned. So it is with sin. In a teasing and arrogant manner Samson dilly-dallied with sin. With each teasing revelation given to Delilah he came closer and closer to the real secret. So the church seems bound to see how close she can get to sin, play with it and little by little is building the gallows from which she will be hung.

III. Deafening Disobedience

Just as Samson could go to sleep in the lap of Delilah (v.19), who has shown her true allegiance in three previous attacks from the Philistines, so the church has gone to sleep in the lap of the world. F.B. Meyer said, Samson lingered as the moth which seems unable to resist the fascination of the flame, although already it has singed its wings. (Proverbs 1:10-19) Living so close to the world the church has become the enemy of God. "Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4) We have lived so close to the world now that we have lost our distinction. We have brought the world into the church. We want our pastors to be CEO's; we want our music ministers to be entertainers: we want our worship services to make the sinner feel as at home as he does in the local lounge; we allow immorality to rage rampant in the church, pulpit and pew, and scarcely raise an eyebrow; we read what the world reads, we watch the same movies the world does, we visit the same "hot spots" the world visits; we dress like the world and we hit the same spots on the internet that the world does and wonder why, when we gather for worship, there is no power, no fire. That smell you're getting is the singed wings of the moth too close to the world and God will not visit in power and revival glory a people He terms as His "enemies"!

IV. Dustressful Disregard

Just as Samson shorn of power, shook himself and went out in utter disregard to the Word of God, s bereft of the power of God, so the church rises from the dead on the Lord's parades off to some church building without the power of God upon her and, know it!

This is a pathetic portrait of the unrevived church—the church of our day! Oh, God help us!! I wish this O my soul, it is! My heart breaks for a people from whom the power has been lifted, a it has even happened. Your church and mine. A people going through the motions of without the touch of God upon her!

V. Disgusting Defeat

Just as Samson fell powerless to the Philistines, his eyesight destroyed and forced to grind corn as a laughing stock to the enemy (v. 21), so the unrevived church is but a laughing stock to the world that pays it only the attention of scorn. This verse (v. 21) describes "the blinding, binding, grinding effects of sin."
May God give His people opportunity for repentance! When God withdraws Himself from His people it is the most perilous of times. Beloved, it is our time!!! "It is high time to awake out of sleep...!" Grab your family, grab your church, get out of the world's bed and run...run to the Cross in repentance! I'll meet you there! God Bless!!!