Prison Houses — David Wilkerson

You know, how can anybody describe the terror and the agony of this generation? Some of us as parents and some of us as preachers, we really don't begin to understand the agony and the terror that's going on in our high schools and colleges and the things that our young people are facing.

More than that, you who have Christian kids, your children are all saved and you feel they're safe and they've made it, in other words, as far as drugs and alcohol, sex and all these things. You said they're out of that danger zone.

But how do you explain the terror of so many parents now whose children are getting in trouble? Mothers and fathers and some of the ministers talk about the shock and disbelief when they discover their kids are deeply involved in the occult or drugs.

Parents Confront the Bondage of Their Children

I remember the time a Pentecostal preacher came into my office. Two teenage sons put his hat on the desk. His two sons sat opposite the desk. My office at that time was at 416 Clinton Avenue. And he said, I never thought, David, I'd be in the office like this.

He said, I've preached against drugs. I've read your book. I've stood in front of judges for young people in my church who got in trouble never dreaming my children would ever have a problem. He said, but yesterday Sergeant Precinct called me down, rolled up the sleeve of my boys and showed me a track and said, preacher, your boys are junkies.

They were caught with possession of heroin. He said, I didn't even suspect it except a few little signs here and there. My wife was washing their jeans one day and found some sweet-smelling stuff and we surmised it was marijuana.

And she saw blood on the bedsheets. And we didn't think about it not knowing they were mainlining heroin in the bedroom. Their grades were failing. We should have suspected it. We saw them sit at the table glassy-eyed.

But you don't think because they'd been so tender. They'd been, you know, youth camps. They'd been through the whole thing. They heard me preach. I'm a holiness preacher. Pentecostal preacher. And you know that man sat there, tears rolling down his cheeks.

And he said, he turned to the boys. He said, I don't know what I did wrong, where I went wrong. And he said, you're killing your mother. Mother was hysterical. He said, I don't know what I did wrong. And there was a hardness.

This silly grin, this mocked grin on their face. You could feel the resentment toward their father. And how that happened, because there were only teenagers at the time. One probably 15, the other maybe 16 or 17.

And I'll never forget that experience. It made such a mark. I can relive it right now. As that father turned and knelt between the two boys. And they said, please, come on to the teen child. He said, brother, they've given you bed.

You've got to be delivered. And they didn't answer. They just sit there with a smirk on their face. And he said, look, if you've got any love left for me at all in your heart, please, come into the center.

Let him, you know, Jesus can set you free. I don't know what I did wrong, but please, don't break my heart. If you have any love for me or your mother left. And there was a hardness. They just withstood that father with such a hardness.

It overwhelmed him. And I remember he just fell right on the floor. He laid right on the floor in front of them and wept. And pounding his fist. And he said, I don't know what I did wrong, Lord. Forgive me.

And I saw those two boys get up. And I hadn't even had a chance to talk to them. I saw them get up and walk over him. And go to the door and look at him laying there and laugh at him. With a smirk. And he got up and he said, I don't know what to do.

I said, I'm sorry. They have to want help. Can't help them until they want help. And I'll never get him just walking out the door. A Pentecostal preacher. Who can explain the thousands and thousands of parents.

Some of you sitting here right now. The terror. Knowing your kids locked in some prison house of the devil. How do you explain that terror? You know when Jesus was going to the cross. And all these mothers following him.

He stopped and he turned and said, don't weep for me. Weep for your children. Weep for your children. That's what I preach on the streets now. This past year that was my message. His brother over here was there.

I tell them, hey, weep for your children. And God knows what it's like. I know what it's like to have mothers in the ghetto come up to me. And they'll have a little girl. A little child. Just a baby sometimes.

And they're mostly Catholic. And they say, will you take this baby in your hand and bless it. I want God to keep this baby. I've got a girl who's a prostitute. I've got a boy in jail. Or I've got a boy that's been killed.

I want one of my kids to make it. One of them. And you feel the love they have for their children. But they live up in this environment. And you can feel the pain of those parents. I want just one to make it.

It's almost like in Ethiopia. You wonder why they have 10, 15 children when there's no food. They're trying to get one or two of them to survive. The healthiest of them to survive. To keep on the family name.

And to hear the terror of fathers who say, I heard my beloved daughter who was once tender say, It's true, dad, I'm hooked. Look at it. I prostitute. I sell my body. I have two daughters and two sons.

All married in ministry. But I can't imagine what that's like. And yet some of you sitting here do. I'm a junkie. Mother turns pale when she thinks of her daughter out prostituting. We usually stay at Ramada Inn on 48th Street.

Between 49th and 48th on 8th Avenue. And you look down on 8th Avenue between 48th and 50th. And you look at those prostitutes. Some of them 18 years old. 17, 18 years of age. Pretty young girls. And you know that at one time they were so tender.

And you know their parents, many of them are weeping. Because they come from Montana, from Iowa, and everywhere. And there they are. You see these great big stretch Cadillacs coming up. And their pimps there.

And your heart goes out because you know they're beaten. You know they're robbed. And not a dime they make goes to themselves. Except that which they eat. Yes. It's a time to weep for our children. It's a time to weep for the little girls.

Not even in their teens. They haven't even lived a childhood. And yet becoming prostitutes. Kids smoking crack and numbing their minds. Going hard and vicious at 15. That's what grieves me more than anything.

To see them lose their tenderness. A mother last week sent us a picture. I'm sorry, a brother. Sent us a picture of his sister. He knew she was on drugs. But she left home. I think she was 13, 14 years of age.

And there was a picture. A beautiful girl in her high school picture from the yearbook. Very beautiful girl. And then a picture three years later. He saw her picture in the paper. He said that's got to be her.

And it was her. You couldn't believe it was the same girl. The hardness. And three years etched in every line of her face. The terrible hardness. The prison that she was locked in. You know in New York City now.

In Spanish. In Black Harlem. There are more crack dens than there are children. In churches or bar rooks. Where for $50 a kid can go in there and smoke pot for eight hours. Or smoke crack for eight hours.

At $5 a crack. You weep for teenage boys who were once tender and obedient and loving to their parents. Who now jump out behind a building. In New York City and other cities. At traffic lights where cars are stopped for red light.

And hold a gun to the window. Say, roll it down. And hold up everybody in that car for their money. You look at a kid holding that gun without a tremor. You look at that kid with that hardness. Say, I'll kill you if you don't give it to me.

And he means it. And you say, how in the world can he get like that? He's only 16 years old. What happens? You weep for the college kids and the athletes. Some of them who claim to be Christians. Dying of drugs.

You know, if you go to 42nd Street. It's happened twice to me. You walk down 42nd Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue. You know how they're selling crack now? You know what the commercial is? Hey, I've got the stuff that killed Len Bias.

They're selling death. And that's the commercial. I've got the stuff that killed Len Bias. I've got death in my hands. Do you want some? And then you weep because this is just the beginning. The new drugs that are coming.

Now make this other stuff look like child's play. The new one. Phenytyl. 6 ,000 times more powerful than crack. 6 ,000 times more powerful than crack. Just one fix. Phenytyl. And you're hooked for life.

1138 doctors hooked on it. New designer drugs. New drugs like Black Tar, China White. New names. All kinds of designer drugs. You know what's happening? Some of these physicists and some of these brilliant minds that have concocted these designer drugs.

They've experimented with their own drugs and gotten hooked. And some of them wound up on the street. And have taken their formulas with them. And now they have made their own formulas. One doctor. I was reading an article.

One doctor has taken his formula. And he's made a form of it to stretch it from a 15 minute high to a 3 hour high. Stretching it out. This last year. I went to New York City. And Don had set up street rallies.

And I was hurt and shocked because. Before God I don't believe I'm exaggerating. Nearly a half of all those I prayed for were backslidden Christians. Many of them Pentecostals. And a number of them backslidden preachers.

Some of them Pentecostal preachers who are now on drugs and alcohol. And out serving the devil locked in prison houses. Full of bitterness. Because the city just ate them up and spit them out. That sense of hopelessness.

Isaiah’s Warning About Captive People

Isaiah the prophet said, Who among you will give ear? Look at Isaiah 42. Look at verse 23. You have it open there? Look at verse 23. Who among you will give ear to this? Who will give heed and listen hereafter?

In the original it says, Who will hearken and hear for the time to come? Isaiah is talking about our day. He said in the last day there's something coming so awesome, so terrifying. Who's going to give an ear to it?

Who's going to start listening? And look at verse 22. Verse 22. Same chapter. Isaiah 42, 22. This is a people plundered. Despoiled. All of them trapped in caves. Who are hidden away in prisons. They've become a prey with none to deliver them.

And a spoil with none to say give them back. Hey look at me. This program that our government has against drugs now is a panic move. They do not have the answer. They're going to spend millions and probably even a billion or two dollars or more.

Some believe it could go to ten billion dollars before they're finished. Trying to stop this thing. But it's a sin problem. They'll not stop it with their money. There's no one to deliver them and say give them back.

That can only be done through that point of the Holy Ghost. I hear people, I hear preachers. One preacher had a television program and he had a man dressed up like Uncle Sam and they were playing the Star Spangled Banner.

And he said, I give America back to God. That solved all the problems. We have released America back to God. That's like a preacher I heard, he said to the audience, I want everybody that's got a problem, everybody that's got a sin, everybody that's got a habit, I want you to take it up and make it like a piece of paper.

Roll it all up. Come on everybody, roll it up. Got it? Throw it away. Now let's raise our hands and thank God for deliverance. Now I'll tell you the walls are down around this nation and God's already sent judgment.

This nation's under divine judgment. I'm a faithful American and I love this country. But whether you know it or not, we're citizens of another country. And we'd better wake up to that. There's people robbed and spoiled, they're hidden in caves, in prisons, and there's no one to say give them back.

Samson’s Calling and His Prison House

I want you to go to judges. I want to talk about Samson tonight. Because nobody more clearly depicts what happens to a man that is in a prison house than Samson. Samson's life, it just makes me broken.

I can't read Samson's life without breaking up. What a tragic life. I want to show you how this young man starts out, how he ends up, and the lessons that we're to learn from it. Judges 13th chapter. Judges 13.

Let's start with verse 23. Verse 24 rather. Then the woman gave birth. This is Samson's mother. A godly woman. Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. And the child grew up and the Lord blessed him.

And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him. At Mahanadan. Between Zohar, Estel. Would you notice that this young man was blessed of the Lord? That the Spirit of the Lord, God, was on him? That he came from a godly home?

And God shows us the beginning of this man. Now let me show you. I want to show you the beginning. Now I want to show you the end of the man. And then I'm going to show you his story. His life story. Go to Judges 16.

The next chapter. Two chapters over. Three chapters. Chapter 16. Judges 16. Look at verse 21. This is the end of Samson. Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. And they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains.

He was a grinder. Where? In a prison. That's my message. This man of God wound up a grinder in the prison. Imprisoned by the devil. No discernment. His eyes taken from his head. Samson's downfall into bondage and into a prison is our example.

In fact, in 1 Corinthians 10 .15 it says, Now all these things happened unto them for examples. And they're written for our instructions upon whom the ends of the world to come. Now here's what the Bible is saying.

You can read the life of Samson. And that's your example. You learn your lessons from him. You're the ones upon whom the ends of the earth to come. You and I are to learn from the life of Samson. It's been said the only thing we don't, we just don't seem to learn these lessons.

Education and Heritage Cannot Defeat Sin

Learn this lesson. This has to do tonight for everybody that's been struggling with a habit. Everybody that's here saying I can't get through to victory. I want you to listen closely because this man was a prophet.

This man was called by God anointed to the Holy Ghost. I want to give you three or four lessons from his life. Lesson number one. No amount of education. No amount of Bible knowledge. Not even a godly heritage.

Not a godly upbringing can save you from the power of sin alone. That in itself cannot keep you from the power of sin. You can be born and raised in the most godly home and still be bound by the devil.

You can be educated in the things of God. You can be anointed to the Holy Ghost at the beginning and slip away and be bound by the devil and wind up in the devil's prison house. Samson was raised as a Nazarite in a very godly home.

Mother and father had been visited by angels. Those who had talked to God. They had been given divine instructions on how to raise their child. And this boy was raised on divine instructions right out of the throne room of Almighty God.

Dad, Mom, how would you like God to give you lessons? How would you like God to spell out how you would raise your children? God spelled out. This boy took a Nazarite vow. That means he was taught never to touch alcohol.

Never to touch alcohol. Nazarite could not touch alcohol. He could not touch a dead person. And Nazarite couldn't even go to the funeral of one of his relatives lest he dare touch the corpse. He couldn't touch anything having to do with death.

Especially he was raised that he would not associate with a wicked crowd. He was raised to know that Philistines were an enemy. There is no one in this book who had more the fear of God put into his heart.

At least taught it. There was no one who was more clearly educated the things of God. There couldn't have been a more godly home in the Old Testament. Man in all this Bible is better instructed on what is right and what is wrong.

What is clean and what is profane. There's not a person here. I doubt there's a person here raised with any more holy fear of God in parents than these parents had. Now I know where they got that fear.

They got it from having seen the angel of God. They'd been visited divinely. It wasn't an apparition. They knew God had visited their home. This boy had been told that he was separated. That God had called him.

He knew he had a call of God in his heart. God had moved on him and instructed him to walk in his ways. Not only did he get it from his parents, but the Spirit of God moved on him. Stirred his heart. God blessed him.

That's what Bob's been preaching. That's what Don was preaching. That you can have at one time the blessing of God. You can have the anointing when you begin. And you can end up bitter and hard. Now, you sit and talk to them.

All you hear is bitterness. The Spirit of the living God is gone. All the knowledge you can have, all the Word. But if it's not mixed with faith, if there's a spirit of boredom mixed in with it all. And that's what happened to Samson.

This spirit of boredom. And I'll tell you what boredom is. It's the seed of rebellion. Rebellion is the seed of witchcraft. It's the devil trying to put a demonic spell upon you. It's Satan trying to relax.

You've worked hard. You deserve to relax. I hate that. I hate that message. That comes on preachers. Bob talked about it. One of the preachers, they're done I think on Monday. First of all, they say 95 of all the preachers want to resign on Monday.

I don't know. I hope that's not true. And then of course, they're regretted on Tuesday. You see this thing relax. Is it any wonder that the enemy comes back and he brings back his old spells on you when you open up your heart and allow this thing to come on you?

Idolatry, Boredom, and Spiritual Drift

How many remember what Ezekiel 37 says? Remember what Ezekiel 37 says? That's about the valley of what? Of dry what? Weren't you supposed to be pretty dead then? Did you ever stop to think how they got in that condition?

Let me show you where Ezekiel 37 came from. Let me show you where Ezekiel dropped bones. That valley of dropped bones turned to Ezekiel 6. And I'll show you how they got that way. I'm not off on chasing rabbits now.

I'm still on my word. Ezekiel 6, verse 1.

And the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. And say, mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, the ravines, the valleys.

Behold, I myself am going to bring a sword on you. See, it says valleys. And I will destroy your high places. So your altars will become desolate. Your incense altars will be smashed. And I shall make your slain fall in front of your idols.

I shall also lay the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols. And I shall scatter your bones around your altars. Where have they died? In front of their altars. Right in front of CBS and NBC and ABC.

Right in front of their idolatry. Bob was saying something, he was preaching in Toronto. And he asked the crowd a question. When you watch television, does that... What were your words, Bob? Does it change you?

When you're watching television, does that change you? And he was first going to say no, and the Holy Ghost stopped him. And he cried out, remember, he thundered. Yes, it does! It does change you. Being changed by our idols.

And God says, I'm going to slay you right in front of your idols. And I'm going to lay your dead bones right in front of your idols. And if you look far enough, if you just look hard enough in the valley of dry bones, you'll find a valley of idols.

He said, I'll slay you right in front of your idols. Now go back to judges. Look at me for just a moment. Think about Samson now. Here's a man of God, called by God. His nation in such dire trouble. Darkness all around, and how God needed him.

How God needed him. And this is the thing that breaks my heart. And I think it breaks the heart of all these that share this pulpit. The thing that, if it sounds like some of the preachers lately, sound hard.

You start to hear coming forth such a pounding, hard message. It's somebody's been shut in with God. It's somebody that's felt the jealousy of God that Bob's talking about. It's somebody that's seen this valley of dry bones and the idols that caused it.

And I'll tell you why it's going forth. Because there's such a need for holy vessels now. It's up in holiness and righteousness and crowned against the sins of the land. And this is the reason for this meeting.

This is the reason God brought you. Not just so that a preacher could get up and thunder against you. Not that some preacher could glory in your flesh and get you to confess something. I don't want to glory in anybody's flesh.

That's why if anybody smashes their idol and says, Don't tell me, I can't glory in the flesh. But you see, God has to do something in these meetings. He's got to get a hold of us so that we don't sit here saying, Oh, God, send a revival to California or to America.

But you just say, Lord, I'm one person. If that's all it takes, I want to be one. I want to be one. If I can't see it in my state, if I can't see it in my country, I want to see it in my heart. That's why God told me, Don't worry about America.

Don't worry about all that until you first make sure that your heart is broken before me. And I feel this holy thunder roll through my very being. God needed Samson. There had to be a message of deliverance.

There had to be a man holy. And Nazarite set apart. Nazarite means separated. This generation doesn't even know what the word means. Separation. He gets into this man. What kind of boredom is there in him?

What kind of a mixture? What happens to him? Look at chapter 16, verse 1. How could this be? You read that, and suddenly it strikes right out at you. Here's a man who's walked with God. Here's a man called to be a deliverer.

And look at this. Now Samson went to Gaza, and saw a harlot there, and went into her. Now look at this. In one act of rebellion, all of his education, all of his spiritual upbringing, all of the burden of the Lord is blown away.

Everything is suddenly, one fully satisfied. What's happened to this man? You know, this is what amazes me. Our government is going to start a drug education program. We're going to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions, thousands of millions of dollars to educate our kids.

But I'll tell you something. Most kids already know it. You can go to a drug education class, and you can explain it. That you take crack, and there's a substance in your brain called dopamine. And when you take even one, One doctor said it's just like your skull opening up, and the dopamine escapes.

Now even on heroin, you don't deplete your dopamine. And the dopamine is what gives you a sense of well-being. It's that which keeps you from getting depressed. And when you have the dopamine escaping from your mind, your brain, permanent depression sets in.

Paranoia sets in. You can stand in front of a high school class, and they'll nod their head, and they'll know it. They've watched their kids, they've watched their friends die. It's an amazing thing. I've buried kids over the years that died of an overdose, and their friends who were there when they died are right there watching it and they go right out and do the same thing.

There's no impact, it doesn't mean anything. These kids know, they can explain the escape of dopamine. And that's why this permanent paranoia has come now. These kids that are on crack and can be watching television, and they'll see a comedian crack jokes, and they take it personally, and they'll kick their foot through the TV set.

Mothers who write to me say, my boy has become so vicious, he's turned into another personality, I don't even know. He'll get up in the morning and scream and yell at me, and then he'll go in the bathroom, and five minutes later he comes out smiling, and he hugs me, and he says, I'm sorry, and he's changed his personality.

She doesn't even know until later that he was getting his fix, and he's high. And now that he's high, his personality's been changed. Up in Toronto, we had a very dignified woman come. She said, I'm bringing my son tomorrow night, and he sat right in the front row.

This kid was a genius. About 19 years of age, in college. This mother said, I fear for my life, he's threatened to kill me time and time again, and he schemes, he tells me, he's scheming a way to kill me so that nobody can know, and he won't get caught.

He's been so messed up with crack. And he said, all through my preaching, and after I poured my heart out, holy ghost conviction, he comes up after the service, and he says, I want to come tomorrow night, and I want to sing for you.

I want to be a part of the meeting. I want to help you. It got to his mind. There's nothing I could say would register the mind. It was gone. A godly mother. Uneducated. Raised under a godly mother. And yet, this curiosity, this boredom that sets in, this need to experiment, this need to be with the crowd.

The Bible said they become proud and boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to their parents. And although they know, they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but they also give approval to those who practice them.

Listen, who would know more about the dangers of drugs than a doctor? And why are so many hundreds of doctors getting hooked, in spite of all that education? Doesn't that say something to us, that that in itself is not enough?

And I fear for what's coming to this generation. I could stand here and prophesy for the next half hour, but I don't think some of you could handle it. But you see, once the mind is set on experimenting, knowing the dangers itself won't stop, the Bible said the sluggard or the lazy mind is wiser in its own conceit than seven men that could offer a reason.

In other words, the Bible said when you're set, your mind is set, nothing going to change you, even though seven righteous men stood in front of you and gave you a good reason, you wouldn't listen. Now that's the first lesson I want you to know.

That you can't lean on any past knowledge. You can't lean on any past experience. You can't lean on your godly upbringing. Now listen, where there's a godly upbringing, and the young man or the young woman mixes it with faith, bathes himself in the Word of God and keeps your heart open, that's the most beautiful combination there can possibly be.

And that's why some of us are preaching the gospel today. And that's why some of you have kids serving God. And I'm not putting them all down. But this man Samson goes out, there's something in him that wants to taste it.

What had to happen? What kind of transformation had to come that he could cross over into the land of the Philistines? He could go right in the midst of a heart of people for the whole of his lifetime.

He's been told not even to touch them, let alone mingle with them, I mean to lay with one. This is death. Everything that he's been taught against is everything the Holy Ghost has told him not to do. And yet he does it.

Goes out, finds a prostitute. Now the second lesson I want you to learn with me tonight is that the most dangerous thing is your first encounter. The first time you do it. And I'll tell you why it's dangerous, because it usually works.

Look me right in the eye. By the way, before I go any further, I want to know how many there are in the building, twenty-one and under. Will you stand please? I've got to know somebody before I go any further in the message.

Everybody, twenty-one and under, stand. Everybody in the building, twenty-one and under, stand. Alright, thank you. You may be seated. That's not so I can look you in the eye. I'm not preaching at you.

In fact, I'll look the other way so you won't believe I'm preaching right at you. You see, the kids have learned now that all these scare stories about drugs is just what they are, scare stories. Now, Len Bias, they say, now this is not a judgment, this was in the newspapers, it was not just one time.

He didn't just take cocaine and die. Elvis Presley didn't just take an overdose of pills one time and die. He was moving in that direction. He developed that lifestyle. But you see, you can breathe right through your first experience without any hangover, without anything going wrong.

Now, some do die the first time. But usually, the devil so arranges it that your first experience is a pleasant one. And this is what happens with Samson. Samson laid until midnight. This is verse 3. Samson laid until midnight and he arose at midnight and took the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts and went away with them, barred all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the hill.

Now, Samson wakes up and he looks out the window. I don't know what time it was, probably twilight. And he sees the Philistines surrounding him. And the first thing is, uh-oh, God's caught me. I'm caught.

I'm going to be exposed. My parents are going to find out. All of Israel are going to find out. I'll not be judging Israel anymore. God, I'm so sorry. God, if you get me out of this, I'll never do it again.

Have you ever looked out the window and seen the warnings? But they fell asleep. And at midnight, Samson sees them sleeping and he prays, God, just one more time, give me your Spirit. Lord, this is a one-time affair.

I didn't mean it. It was a moment of weakness. Oh, God, get me out of this. I'll never, never... Oh, God, I've grieved you. I hope that's what he said. He must have, because the Spirit of God was gracious to him.

And look what he does. He waits until midnight and he rises at midnight and the gates are locked. They think they've got him locked in. And he just suddenly, the Spirit of God comes on and he picks up that great door and its side post and he puts him on his shoulder and he marches up on top of the mountain.

Nobody sees him. It's all theatrics. And that's exactly what happens when you lose the anointing. It becomes theatrics. And you see a lot of theatrics in the pulpit today. You see a lot of theater. It's good theater.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Aren't there supposed to be regrets the next day? Isn't there supposed to be some kind of hangover? Evidently not for Samson because the word spreads that the man has escaped and there's no judgment.

There's no lightning from heaven. God doesn't come down and strike him dead. He doesn't have a heart attack. Something very tragic happens. The mind is being programmed by the devil. It's being fully set.

Confirmed. And that's when the devil comes and says, one more time. Just one more time. Because you see, you don't have any memories of judgment. All you have is the memory of the ecstasy of the moment.

And you know, it usually happens after you've fulfilled the obligations of God. He probably spends the next few months judging Israel, doing what is right. But then that same boredom, that same spirit comes upon him.

His mind is being set. David said, transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart. There's no fear of God before his eyes for it flatters him in his own eyes concerning the discovery of his own iniquity and the hatred of it.

The words of his mouth become wickedness and deceit. He ceases to be wise. He ceases to do good. And he plans wickedness upon his bed at night. He sets himself on a path that's not good. And he no longer despises the evil.

He got away with it. He doesn't hate it. There's no hatred of this sin in his heart. He flatters himself that he was not discovered. And he plans to do it once again. Oh, beloved, hear me. The worst thing you can do is to replace some old past sin, to flirt with it in your mind, to try to draw some kind of pleasure, get your vicarious kick out of something that God delivered you from.

Take dominion over every thought and bring it into captivity, obedience to the Lord Jesus. Don't replay it in your mind. But you see, something happens to this prophet of God, he loses all sense of danger.