THIS WEEKS MESSAGE

"Spiritual Blindness-Mental Sickness"

Presented to by Pastor John S. Torell from his home church
RESURRECTION LIFE OF JESUS CHURCH
Sacramento, California

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RLJ-593

28 December 1997

Spiritual blindness mental sickness, also known as insanity. I have never heard anyone preach on the subject before. In the 30 plus years that I have been preaching, I've never preached on this subject before. I've never read a book about it. This is a message that God gave to me within the last 40 hours. It is much deeper than you may think, from your first glance at it.

Definition: Insanity is the condition of the mind, when a person cannot separate reality from fiction, cannot draw intelligent conclusions, unable to carry out everyday functions, is frequently procrastinating, leaving a string of broken promises, unable to change from a destructive pattern of living, and living in a state of delusion.

To be mentally insane or sick you do not have to have all of these characteristics. It will be obvious as I present this message to you that all people when they are born, that is a baby is born retarded mentally. The reason for this is, we are born in sin. [I will develop this later on.] The Lord showed me that there are probably very few people on this earth that really are fully mentally healthy. I had to do some work in a mental hospital while I was in the seminary. I remember the professor telling me that there is no such thing as a mentally healthy person. He states that, it is a matter of degree. There was a joke at that time which went like this. How can you determine who is a patient in the hospital and who is the guard.? The answer was, whoever has the keys. Otherwise you could not really tell. It is amazing that people who work in mental hospitals or people who worked in prisons will over the years show tremendous mental damage, which is actually very demonic.

Let's look at the first part of our definition of insanity. When a person cannot separate reality from fiction.

Have you ever lifted a rock or object from the ground? There will be bugs usually underneath it and they will scatter if you lift the rock. Then you step on them with your foot and they die right there. Those bugs do not have the mental capacity to assess the situation so that they can make a determination as to what to do, so they run to their death. This is how a lot of Christians are. We simply are not able to understand that certain things are destructive for us. If you would go to hospitals or convalescent homes and ask the people there that have arthritis, cancer, all different types of diseases, "Did you ever think of these different diseases when you were young?" They will say, "Never!" "Did you ever consider what you were eating when you were young?" "Of course not!" "What did you eat when you were young?" You know what the standard American diet is, carbonated beverages, French fries, lots of sugar in the things we consume. For some reason a person at the age of 21, holding greasy french fries in one hand and thinking about the soda they are about to drink, cannot relate to when they are 60 and they might be in a wheelchair having arthritis because of these two items. The brain does not compute that. That is insanity. It is total insanity.

If you were to drive into a service station and they told you that they are out of gasoline but they were able to come up with some diesel or kerosene. They will sell it to you for half price. None of you would say, "Oh, what a great idea. At half price I will put that in my tank." You would say, "No thank you. I would rather push my car to the next service station, because if I put that in there (COMPUTE, COMPUTE, COMPUTE, you now understand because we're talking dollars) you're going to burn your engine up and that means money out of your pocket. Which means you cannot buy your french fries. So you protect your car and destroy your body.

CANNOT DRAW INTELLIGENT CONCLUSIONS, UNABLE TO CARRY OUT EVERYDAY FUNCTIONS, IS FREQUENTLY PROCRASTINATING, LEAVING A STRING OF BROKEN PROMISES.

If you look at the average person you'll find out that these are the mental diseases that we're fighting every single day. There are two kinds of mental illness. One is caused by PHYSICAL DISTURBANCES OF THE BRAIN, the other is caused by SUPERNATURAL INTERFERENCE.

I want to address today the supernatural interference. I will go back to my definition. A married couple has marriage problems. Here is how sane we are, we usually do not do anything about a problem until it is catastrophic. So usually when people come into a church their marriage is just about on the rocks, they are ready for divorce, they are in a destructive mode and now seek help. They get saved. We pray for them. We cast out demons. We minister to them. Relief is coming and their marriage is getting better. Here's where insanity comes in. As the marriage is getting better the couple say to themselves, "Well, we do not need prayer counseling any more. We do not need to finish up our homework that we have. We're doing pretty good right now." What happens is this, they do the same thing as a person that has the flu and you have been given a prescription drug. You take half the bottle because you're feeling good. You decide not to take the rest of them. Then the illness comes back and hits you harder than the first time. The couple will sit and not ask for help, they will let it deteriorate to the place where they are ready to shoot each other, walk out, and hand each other divorce papers. That is when you receive a phone call saying, "Pastor, help us now!" "What happened? Did it happen this morning?" "No! It has been deteriorating for six months." "Why did you not call me earlier?" "We were doing somewhat good."

The mental capacity is not there to compute, and to understand that we need to ask God for wisdom, as to what we need to do. Question! The door on the drivers side of your car is not opening or closing very well because the hinges are getting rusty and worn out. Eventually you tie the door with a string. How long will it take you to understand that one day the door is going to fall off? When it falls off you might get hurt. Have you ever thought about that? "Well yes, but that could be ten years from now. In ten years I could be in heaven. I think I will let that door set there a little longer." For some reason our brain capacity does not understand that our problems need to be addressed NOW. Not later on. Not in the future.

When Adam and Eve fell into sin in the garden of Eden, they not only died spiritually.

Turn to Genesis chapter 2 verse 17. "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

Genesis chapter 3 verse 7. "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Adam and Eve went from the mind of Christ to a reduced mental capacity. From that moment on man has made the most stupid mistakes ever. Let me ask you this question. We want clean air in California. The politicians work with the engineers of the oil companies. They come up with an additive that is very poisonous. They clean up the air, but now we have polluted all of our water. The politicians say that we have to make a change. The oil companies say they can't because they have invested billions of dollars in this new technology. If we take it out we're going to lose money. As human beings we have to make a decision, do you want to breathe clean air and have dirty water or you like to have somewhat dirty air and have clean water? What would you like, poison "A" or poison "B"? What a choice. How did we get there to begin with? Man does not think through. We do not have the capacity. That is where we make mistakes and are destroyed. Adam and Eve did not think about that before they ate the fruit, but their mental capacity was reduced, and from that moment man has been battling with his sin nature. Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" and which has caused murders, wars, divorce.

I'm going to ask you a stupid question. Let's say you're at home cooking in the kitchen, you happen to lay your hand on the hot burner. You begin to scream, yell and there is smoke coming up from your hand. Your hand is beginning to fry. I walk into your kitchen and there you are standing with your smoking hand kind of red and you say, "Oh man, did I ever burn my hand." I say to you, "I have a remedy for you. Take this pill. Once you take it, it will numb your hand so that you'll never again feel the pain. You can leave it on the stove all day long and you will never feel the pain." You say, "That is a great idea because I do not like that pain." That is not great because God created sense in my fingers, so that I will move it, so that I won't lose it.

Let's talk about your headache. So you have a headache. What is the first thing we do when we have a headache? We take something for the pain. Whatever we can find. The headache goes away. One thing you have not understood is that the headache is a warning signal to let us known that something is wrong in our body. What do we do? We take a pill. The headache goes away, and we continue in the destruction of our body. We don't feel the pain, and whatever it is that is going wrong is continuing. It is like the old mechanics in years past. When the brakes were noisy they would take sawdust mixed with oil and put them on brakes. The noise would go away, but you would also hit any car that was in front of you. Most people have gas problems. The reason for this is that they are not digesting their food. So what do you do? You take a pill that takes away the gas, but you are still not digesting your food. So you're still working on causing cancer in your body.

Look at what the pharmacies are selling to you. They are selling all kinds of medications that will take away the pain and the discomfort. These medications will not heal you. What they're doing is this, they're taking away the pain so that you can leave your hand on the stove. Burn it to a crisp and not feel it. That is insanity! This is how most of us live our daily lives.

Murders, wars, divorce, everything that you see around us is caused by the mental sickness of mankind.

Our country has an agreement with other nations. We cannot use biological warfare against other nations. We can shoot them, stab them, and burn them with flame throwers. We can bomb them to pieces. We can do anything to wipe them out. We're very humane in that we do not gas them. We do not spray them with biological warfare. We can run them over with tanks and smash them and destroy them with other means. Think about this. In World War I and World War II, is it sane when you have men behind enemy lines that are told to get up and run toward the machine guns. You known that they are going to be shot down. The world calls that being heroic. Do you know I call that? STUPID! You're going to die. War is stupid! Ask yourself this question. Has ever a people started a war? No! Wars are started by leaders. Leaders have a cause. Who gets rich from wars? The leaders get richer and the people get poorer. They also lose their lives. What a tragedy!

Satan has the capacity to cause spiritual blindness in people and thus destroy their mental capacity.

Turn to Second Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3. "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believes not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. [Satan causes spiritual blindness. There was a professor who is about 43 years old who lived in Taiyo. He was very prominent. This professor made a decision that he wanted to start a religion. He took a little bit of Christianity. A little bit of Buddhism, a little bit of New Age and then when he looked out into the sky, he saw vapors moving across the skies in a certain direction. He said, "This tells me that Jesus is coming back. Taiwan is going to be invaded by China. There's going to be a nuclear Holocaust and all kinds of things." He began to preach this, and in no time at all thousands of people believe him. They were converted to this new messiah. He was preaching that 1999 is the end of all. Where did this fellow go? He took all of his followers after they sold all of their possessions and moved to Dallas, Texas. That is a nice place to be if you want to wait for Jesus. They bought a beautiful group of homes in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, where they are living in luxury today. These were all rich professional people who decided that this man is God. He had to young men whom he said, one was Jesus Christ incarnated. The other was Buddha. By the way I am the father of Jesus Christ. You think that if someone came up with such a stupid thing that they would say, "Why don't you check yourself into a hospital for a 72 hour hold." That is what we do with people who have lost their mind. All the unbelievers, the older they get, the more stubborn they are. They reject the gospel because they have lost their mental capacity to receive Christ.

Turn to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 2. "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature that children of wrath, even as others."

Insanity is of the devil. In World War II we saw it with the Japanese Kamikaze pilots. They were young men that would put a special scarf around their neck. They would fill their airplane with explosives and fly off to sacrifice themselves to sink ships. This was all done for the emperor. We saw the same thing in Korea. Where half a million men were slaughtered. We also see it in Israel where young men and women would strap explosives to their body. They would walk into a crowded street or business establishment and blow themselves up. They were promised if they did this, they would go straight to Allah and receive the finest seat in heaven. Satan has blinded people! It is absolutely incredible if you think about it. It is insanity!

The second thing that Satan can do is seduce believers in Christ.

Turn to First Timothy chapter 4 verse 1. "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;.." God said through the Apostle Paul that there would be seducing spirits. The

Moonies are a good example. How could anyone buy into their program? Yet they have thousands of people that are at airports and other transportation facilities that have given up everything that they have. They sell little flowers, beads and different things. These people are barely surviving while Moon with his different wives and hierarchy are living in total luxury. You try to tell one of his followers this today and they will say, "I don't believe you." If you speak to a Mormon, and tell him about the scrolls that were wrongly translated by Joseph Smith, while he wrote the book of Abraham, He will say that he transcribed it from papyrus rolls out of Egypt. In 1967 the scroll was found in a museum in New York. It was brought to BYU in Utah. Scholarship looked it over, it was found to be nothing more than a book on how to prepare the dead for embalming. The professors and people that did the translating said that they were leaving Mormonism. Mormonism hangs on Joseph Smith and there could not be one mistake. It was brought up to their hierarchy. The hierarchy said that this information had to be suppressed. Kept from the people. If this information ever got out it would destroy the Mormon church. The Mormon church is built on a lie! If you ever talk with a Mormon missionary, tell them this and ask them to investigate. Their answer usually is, "I do not want to. I'm living by faith." INSANITY! It is total insanity. The crazier the gospel, or the more crazier the message the more followers you will attract. You preach the truth, and people say, "We do not want that." When I preach on the radio and preach Jesus Christ, who do I hear from? Almost no one. When I began to talk about the devil, deliverance, demons, finances, the telephone will ring off the hook. Everyone wants to talk to us. INSANITY!

Raising up false prophets who have lost their minds and reasoning power.

Turn to Second Peter chapter 2 verse 1. For those of you who are former Catholics, here is some wonderful news. The Roman Catholic church and its Pope have gotten very close to the Jews. For the first time this year at the Vatican, the Pope and his entourage celebrated Chanukah, together with Christmas. He said, "We have to do it all." There is now a question as to when they are going to celebrate Quonsa at the Vatican. After that they will probably bring in the Chinese new year and all the other holidays of the different countries. Talk about false prophets- they are here.

"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." I get so angry when I see the Sacramento Bee, but it is the only paper that we have in town. It is the most insane paper in the area. This paper five years ago formed a panel. Every time they have a religious page or article in their Saturday night edition, it is placed on the back of the comic page. That's what they think of religion. Their panel is composed of the most insane liberal group anyone could think of. Three of these people answer a question every week. The question this week was, "Should we allow people to be cloned?" Of course these liberal, atheistic, infidels said, "We have freedom in everything else, why not this?" How are you going to split your soul in half and clone yourself? Where in the Bible does it tell us to do this? As a matter of fact, God, in Genesis chapter 6 drown the people that did this. The in thing today is that you have to be politically correct. YOU HAVE TO BE INSANE TO FUNCTION IN THIS SOCIETY! The insane people are going to the top.

How many of you have looked at modern art? Do you know what modern art is? It is garbage! I can take five gallons of different colored paint and mess up any wall and tell you that this is art. Actually I throw the paint on the wall and let it run wherever it wanted to. There is a museum in Los Angeles, worth billions of dollars, a very beautiful place. Inside of it is hanging garbage on the walls. People go there that will try to be cultured. They pay good money to see this stuff and say, "Isn't it fabulous? Look how the red color ran down into the green?" A dog can even do this. IT'S INSANE!

Second Peter chapter 2 verse 13. "And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices! Cursed children: Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbade the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a Tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonous, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them Liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." The last part of this chapter is a tragedy, yet that is how the church is going today in the world, that includes America, Europe and the rest of the nations. Satan is seducing believers in Christ. He is raising up false prophets who have lost their minds and reasoning power. One of the most prominent so-called teacher prophet in the United States has been teaching for years, that Jesus died spiritually, had to go to hell and had to be one with Satan. A month ago there was a seminar somewhere on the Eastern Coast. This person as he stood there, went into a trance. His tongue went out of his mouth and went like a snake. He started to hiss and could not stop himself. As he was standing before the audience and hissing, the people in front of him started to do what he was doing. The entire audience started hissing and falling down on the floor with their tongues wagging. These people called this the holy ghost. Something is happening in this country. People are looking for experiences, instead of looking upon obedience and a sound mind. Here's what God will do; this ought to scare us more than Satan. GOD IS USING SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS AS A WEAPON!

TURN TO GENESIS CHAPTER 19 VERSE 10. [These are angels.] "But the men put forth there hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door. And the man said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hast sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law." I want you to see the tragedy that took place here. If you travel to Israel today, to Jordan, you will be able to find the place where Sodom and Gomorrah once stood. When you check the landscape you'll see that the land was melted. You will notice that the event that took place was catastrophic. What a tragedy, the angel said, "We are going to get Lot out of here, but the rest we're going to smote with blindness." Listen closely to me with your spirit. When we are disobedient. When we go beyond what God has spoken He will turn us over to blindness. Suddenly we are no longer convicted of our sins. We do not understand it. These men were trying to look for a window or door so they could go in and have a sexual relationship. They did not know that within ten hours they would be in hell. Incinerated on earth and then taken to hell. God, smites with blindness. We have seen it in the Soviet Union. The people that were close to Lenin, knew that he was a rambling idiot when he would be speaking. The moment that he would get up to speak it was like a supernatural power that would take over him. He spoke with such power that he blinded the people. The same thing was told of Hitler. He was also a rambling idiot. When he would get up to speak a spirit would get hold of him. He was able to us sway millions of people to give their lives. What a tragedy! In 1941, after the nazi armies had smashed over the systems in Europe, they had parades in Berlin. The people there were cheering the troops as they came home and worshipping them, throwing flowers. They did not know that within three years their city would be rubble, and that most of them would be dead. They were spiritually blinded.

Turn to Judges, chapter 7, verse 19. "So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and had but newly set the watch and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands." To understand this you have to understand how they fought in those days. They have path finders. These path finders would come in early morning when it was dark to attack camp. They would have a candle with a pitcher over it so you could not see the light. The path finder, would surround the camp. The troops would be looking for the light of the candle. They would brake the pitcher and hold the light up. They would take their swords out and scream. The soldiers behind the path finders would rush in and kill everyone in the camp. In this case there were no soldiers behind Gideon and his path finders. It was just them and God. "And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in the right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon. And they stood every man in his place around about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled. And three hundred blew the trumpets, and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath." What happened? God's Holy angels moved into that camp. They blinded them, and smote them with madness. Midianites were fighting Midianites. God used this as a weapon.

Turn to Second Kings, chapter 6, verse 11. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will you not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, None, my Lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speaketh in thy bedchamber. And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compressed the city about. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compressed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha." If you read the rest of this chapter you'll find that Elisha went out to the soldiers and asked them where they were going? They said, "We are looking for Elisha." He said, "You are in the wrong place. Let me take you by the hand and show you where this guy is." These soldiers were walking with open eyes. They could see but they could not see. He brought them right into the city of Samaria, the very capital of Israel. They walked past soldiers and did not see them. In the middle of Samaria, God opened their eyes. God, had smitten them with blindness. They lost their sanity.]

God is using spiritual blindness as a weapon, to judge people.

Turn to Exodus, chapter 7, verse 10. I hope today that you are really doing some deep thinking in your heart. "And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commended: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magician of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. And he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go." What a tragedy to have your heart hardened! After this Pharaoh could not repent. God is using spiritual blindness to judge people. Pharaoh eventually ended up at the bottom of the Red sea, where he drown with his best troops. He became insane. Napoleon, became insane. Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky, Hitler, MooSetong, there are many more in the list. All these men became insane. They could not repent. They could not repent even if they wanted to. God hardened their heart as a judgment. Herbert W. Armstrong-you'll read about him in our next Dove. Armstrong started out in a Christian church as a young man. He founded the worldwide church of God of Armstrongism. The last years before he died he told people that he was Elisha. His delusion was so total that he believed his own advertisement. He proclaimed and said, "I am truly Elisha as who is spoke about in Malachi the last chapter." God had hardened his heart. He could not repent. That is how he died, an infidel. He was married to a woman that was about 40 years younger than him. He had divorced his wife a few years prior to marrying this woman.

"Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shall stand by the river's brink against he come; and the rod which was turned into a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand. And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river. And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon the rivers, and upon their ponds, upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both vessels of wood, and vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commended; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. And the fish that is in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. And the magician's of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the Lord had said. And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also."

God judged Samson within sanity.

Turn to Judges, chapter 16, verse 1. "Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her." Samson, the man of God went into a whore. Did he lose his power? No, he still retained it. "And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compressed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is today, we shall kill him. And Samson lay till midnight, and rose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two post, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron. And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. [She was an unbeliever.] And the lord of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we made bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us 1100 pieces of silver." [Entice him. The judgment on Samson began when he went into the whore. You know the rest of the story about Samson and Delilah. She seduced him. He lost his power. The Philistines took them. They put his eyes out. They bound him to a grindstone. He died in the house of the Philistines, killing other Philistines. He lost his call. Samson was judged with insanity.]

Turn to Proverbs, chapter 6, verse 20. "My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbor's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house. But who so committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul."

This last week, America has been disgraced about as far down as we can go. Woody Allen, the American actor, years ago was committing incest with his adopted daughter-child abuse, sex with a minor. He was taken to court and bought his way out of it. He has now married this lady who is 27 years old, he is 61. If you saw the headlines and everything else in Paris, this great American Woody Allen, married this girl that he used to abuse as a child. The media said, "Isn't that a fairy tale story?" That is about as low as a person can go. This is insanity! Yet the media and broadcasters say, "Isn't this just marvelous!" God has smote this nation with insanity!

Turn to First Samuel, chapter 15, verse 22. "And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of ramps. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected thee from being king. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. And Samuel said unto him, The Lord has rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou." [The Holy Spirit left Saul.]

Turn to First Samuel, chapter, 16 verse 13. "Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, in went to Ramah. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. And Saul's servant said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee." [What a tragedy. What a tragedy for a man of God, Saul the anointed one, to have the Holy Spirit to leave, and to have the Holy Spirit to be replaced by demons.]

You can go to lots of different congregations today, and you'll find that America is loaded down with people that are demonized. Pastors are demonized, evangelists are demonized, people in the churches are demonized and they don't even know it. INSANITY HAS BROKEN OUT! Praise God there is a remedy. His name is, Jesus. Why did I preach this message today? Because God wants us to get rid of the spirit of insanity. He wants you and I to guard our mind and say, "In the name of Jesus, you shall not steal my mind." We have to guard our mind. It is precious. For 30 years I did not think about this, until God showed me that this is why people are succumbing to sin. Insanity!

Turn to Matthew, chapter 13, verse 13. [I see it again in this church. I want to root it out. I've seen people with good intentions. We take them through deliverance. We get them started on a recovery program. They're doing great. Out of hundreds that have started the program there are only a handful that have finished. They start out so good, but they cannot get themselves too complete it. It is a spirit of insanity. It is a mental breakdown. It needs to be addressed.] "Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear." [The battle that is being fought in this church is a battle for you as a congregation. I've sat down with men and women and have asked them, "How is your devotion life?" "It is sporadic." "Why is it sporadic?" "I just can't get to it. I want to have a devotional. I get sleepy." The biggest enemy you have right now is, the television. It is the biggest enemy that you have. It steals your time. It is a seducing thing. It is soothing when you're tired. You can set down in front of it and let your brain go dead. It will destroy your soul. Do you understand what I'm saying? Some will, some will not. Some will say, "I'm going to get with it. I'm going to understand the lesson that is being taught. I'm going to do it!" The following week comes and you say, "Brother you do not understand, I had so many interruptions this week." I say, "Look, every week you're going to have a disaster. Every week the devil is going to give us a disaster. You'll never finish if you're going to wait for the disasters to go away." You're going to have to set down and say, "In the name of Jesus, let the phone ring, I'm going to turn the TV off, I'm going to tell the in-laws to take off, I'm going to do my word study." If you don't do this you'll never finished and your blindness will increase. What will happen is that you can only stay with it so long and then you will begin to cool off. You will get bored and say I do not want to go to this church anymore. I am sick and tired of this and that. I'm going to go to some other place and do other things. Do you have ears to hear with? God judged the nation Israel and smote them with spiritual blindness.]

Turn to Romans, Chapter 11, verse 25. "For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." [There is a blindness upon Israel. We have to pray for the Jews. Unless we pray for them they cannot even hear the gospel.]

When an unsaved person rejects God or when a believer in Christ rebels against God's commandments, God will turn them over to a REPROBATE MIND -- which is the same as SPIRITUAL INSANITY!

Turn to Romans, chapter 1, verse 18. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Verse 28, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;"

On one of the major news programs this week, there was an interview with a lady that played a homosexual on a TV soap opera. She sat there during the interview very defiant. The host said to her, "Have you ever had any sexual encounters with men?" She laughed and said, "Yes, I have had sex with two men and it did nothing for me. I said to myself, Is that all there is to it?" And she laughed. The audience roared an applauded hearing these remarks, as she bragged about her homosexuality. Thirty or forty years ago if that would have been on the news they would've crucified that newscaster. Today it is accepted. A REPROBATE MIND!

I have people that are writing to us from prisons and they are Christians. They are from all over the country. Some were Christians before they were imprisoned. These people have committed all types of crimes. Their minds became reprobate. Finally God had no other choice, but to put them in prison. They write beautiful letters. They've time to study the word now. They have Bible studies in prison. They are having a wonderful ministry-what a tragedy. When they were on the outside they could not serve God under freedom. God had to lock them up.

Listen closely. We have lost a number of people from this congregation, that are today sitting behind bars. They were with us at one time. They practice the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Today they're in prison. Because they had a reprobate mind. They began to rebel against God, his word. They said, "We do not want to follow you completely." They lost their mental health. What a tragedy!

Turn to First Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 12. "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he known them, because they are spiritually discerned."

I saw a very pitiful thing this week on the news. In the Bay Area there were a group of people working with homeless children. One woman had adopted a little girl that was about 12 years old. They showed a piece on her life when she was first adopted. They showed that her mother was a prostitute. She had a little oxygen tank next to her so that she could breathe. She looked into the camera and said, " I am a drug addict. All I care about is to have a fix. I'm going to die. I will be destroyed. I have to give up my little girl. I'm thankful to this woman that wants to adopt my little girl because I am addicted to this drug." She died about a year later. THAT IS INSANITY! Do you understand that this type of insanity does not come in just a few moments? It does not come in one year. It takes years of abuse that destroys a person, until they finally come to a place where they are spiritually dead.

WHAT IS THE REMEDY?

Turn to Revelation, chapter 9, verse 20. "And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devil's, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor their fornication, nor of their thefts." [Spiritual insanity, you cannot repent. You do not have the capacity.]

I've been sitting with people in this congregation for the last 12 years, that I have to try to lead into repentance. They could not. Listen very closely. There was a family that was mightily moved of God. They went through deliverance. The wife went to a Woman's

A low meeting. On the way there she was almost killed in an auto accident. God supernaturally protected her. She came and testified of this. She was so filled with the Holy Ghost when I asked for testimony that morning, she got up and stood at the podium. I realized that I would not preach that day. Her testimony was taped that day. She preached for 45 minutes and the Holy Spirit moved greatly upon us. We wept. That woman today is divorced, she's living with an older man that has a lot of money. The last time I talked with her on the telephone I pleaded with her I said, "Please, do not throw your life away. Please!" At this time her voice had changed. It was smooth. She said, "It does not matter anymore." She had gotten a reprobate mind. She is rich now. She has a large business. This man helped her. She has the money and the power now. She has everything. BUT SHE LOST IN THE HOLY GHOST! You that are here today, I warn you. The demonic forces are out there. They are trying to get into our minds. To get us to come to the place where we become insane spiritually. This lady had two sons that were anointed. I remember how they prayed. They were big men. They would weep, pray and speak the word of God. They will not darkened a church door today. THEY HAVE A REPROBATE MIND! This lady's first husband also has a reprobate mind. He is now living with another lady. He is now letting curses roll out of his mouth instead of blessings. They were here with us for five years.

HOW TO HAVE A SOUND MIND AND BE VICTORIOUS!

Step 1: Living in obedience and repentance.

First John chapter 1 verse 7. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." [We have to walk in obedience, repentance and the light.]

Step 2: Guard your physical body and renew your mind.

Romans chapter 12 verse 1. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, perfect, will of God." [Guard your physical body. Guard your mind and say, "In the name of Jesus, you shall not have my mind, devil.]

Step 3: Use spiritual weapons to defeat SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS.

Second Corinthians chapter 10 verse 3. "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled."

The weapons of warfare are carnal. We can pull down the strong holds of the devil and cast down every thought that comes against us.

ARE YOU ENOUGH SPIRITUALLY SANE THAT YOU CAN REPENT TODAY?

My God richly bless you is my prayer,