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Amen, 1 Corinthians chapter 6 in the latter part of the chapter deals with the subject of fornication and the title of my sermon tonight is simply Fornication. And 1 Corinthians talks a lot about fornication. It condemns fornication pretty strongly in chapters 5, 6, and 7. It brings it up again in chapter 10 and it comes up in 2 Corinthians in chapter number 12. And all throughout the New Testament fornication is a sin that the Bible just condemns over and over again and speaks very strongly about. Let's start out here in 1 Corinthians chapter number 6. The Bible says in verse number 13, Meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God has both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body? For to sayeth he shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body. But he that commiteth fornication sinneth against his own body. Jump down to chapter 7 verse 1. Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband. So the answer to avoiding fornication according to the Bible is to keep that act within marriage. Now let me just start out by defining fornication for you. Fornication is when two unmarried people, two people that are not married, maybe they're dating, maybe they're boyfriend and girlfriend, whatever, but a single man and a single woman, teenagers, whatever, they would actually have intercourse with one another. They would go to bed together. They would sleep together. They would commit fornication with one another. This is what the Bible is referring to here. Now there are people today that would try to cast doubt on that definition. And I've even sat when I was a teenager in some liberal Baptist churches where in the youth group of all places, they would talk about, well, I'm not really sure if the Bible condemns premarital, you know what. And I'm just, I was just mind blown that they would actually put a question mark where God puts a period. And that's what the devil always does. Just like in the Garden of Eden where he says, well, yea, hath God said? But what kind of a foolish youth leader would get up in front of teenagers and say, oh, I'm not really sure what the Bible says, whether or not, why? Because in their NIV, you can't figure it out. See, the NIV just completely removes the word fornication. In the modern Bibles, they change the word fornication to sexual immorality. Well, if you look up what the word immorality means, it means whatever society deems unacceptable. Whatever a culture or a group of people determine is right versus wrong. That's their morality. It comes from the same Latin word as the Spanish word morar which means like to dwell somewhere or to live somewhere. It comes from, and the word ethics comes from ethnicity. So these words like ethics or morality, they have to do with what people decide is right. But God doesn't deal in ethics. God doesn't deal in morality. God deals in his commandments. And he tells us what is right and what is wrong. And the Bible condemns fornication. Make no mistake about it, fornication is premarital sex. That's what it is. Now a lot of people would try to twist that or change that and they might look at a scripture like 1 Corinthians 6 and say, well, when the Bible is condemning fornication here, it's telling you not to go in unto a harlot. And they would say, well, a harlot is one who sells her body. So that's what the Bible is condemning. But here's the problem with that logic. All throughout the Old Testament there's another term used that's called playing the harlot. And this term is used over and over again, playing the whore or playing the harlot. Let's go back and get some foundations from the Old Testament on what the word fornication means. Let's start out, first of all, the first time the word harlot is mentioned in Genesis 34. So turn back in your Bible to Genesis chapter 34. Genesis chapter 34. And we're also going to be looking at Deuteronomy 22. Deuteronomy 22. So we'll go to Genesis 34. We'll look at Deuteronomy 22. So yes, a harlot is one who sells her body for money. A whore is one who sells her body for money. But the Bible, over and over again, we don't have time to look at all the different instances because it's a lot of instances where the Bible talks about one who plays the harlot or plays the whore. That means they're not literally a harlot. They're not literally a whore. But they're acting as one or playing as one. And the Bible's crystal clear that even if they're not getting paid, when he looks down and he sees a young lady giving her body to a man that she's not married to, he looks at that as whoredom. He looks at that as harlotry. He looks at that as fornication. The man who commits fornication is known in the Bible as a whoremonger. And the woman who commits fornication is known as a harlot or a whore. Whether or not she's being paid, she's just playing the harlot. She's playing the whore. Let me show you the first time the word harlot is ever used in the Bible. In Genesis 34, this is after consensual relations between Dinah and Shechem. And because of this fornication that defiled Dinah, horrible events took place that I don't have time to talk about in this sermon. But the final verse here in Genesis 34, 31, where her brothers are so enraged that they've done something terrible, it says, you know, go and read the Bible and find out what happened. But anyway, Genesis 34, 31 says, should he deal with our sister as with the harlot? That's the first time that word's used. He's saying, look, if this guy committed fornication or had intercourse with our sister, he's treating her like a harlot. Why? Because he's having relations with her without being married to her. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 22. Deuteronomy chapter 22, the Bible says in verse 20 of Deuteronomy 22, it says, but if this thing be true and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel, then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house and the men of their city shall stone her with stones that she die because she hath wrought folly in Israel to play the whore in her father's house. So shalt thou put evil away from among you. So the young lady who's living in her father's house and she's assumed to be a virgin, she's under his authority, he gives her in marriage to a man and then that man that she marries finds her not to be a virgin, finds her not to be a maid. The Bible says that that means that she must have been playing the whore in her father's house. You can clearly see that a young lady who's living in her parents' house and has relations with someone has played the whore. That's what the Bible defines that as. The next time the word harlot or whore is used is in the story a few chapters later about Judah. When Judah sees a woman by the side of the road that has her face veiled and he assumes her to be a harlot or a whore, he assumes that she must be selling her body by the way that she's dressed. Now I wonder if some men ever look at the way that you're dressed young lady and assume that you might be selling your body. I remember when I was a teenager and I was dressed pretty worldly, I had a guy walk up to me one time and he wanted to purchase marijuana from me. Now you know that should have told me that I probably wasn't dressed right or looking right if somebody walks up and asks me if I have any weed. But you know what? That's not nearly as bad as if some car pulled up to you and said, hey baby, how much? But if it's not for sale, take down the for sale sign. Don't dress in what the Bible calls the attire of a harlot. Don't play the whore. Don't play the harlot. What does that mean? Save your body, save your purity, save your virginity for when you get married. Have respect for yourself. Go to Ezekiel chapter number 16. Ezekiel chapter number 16. In that story with Judah and Tamar, when Tamar is found to be pregnant outside of wedlock, society at that time deemed it as Tamar has played the whore. She's pregnant out of wedlock. She's played the whore. And he said, okay, she shall be put to death. So that's how society was back then. So we need to get the Bible's terminology here when we understand. When the Bible talks about a whore monger, that's not necessarily somebody who's paying for it. Because even the one who's doing it for free, God looks down and says you're playing the whore. You're as a whore. You're playing the harlot. You're as a harlot. And the man who sleeps around is a whore monger. These are biblical terms that we need to get reacquainted with. You say, I don't like those terms. They sound mean. Well, what would you prefer that we say? He's a player. She's easy. They had an affair. I just learned that the Spanish word for an affair is una aventura. Right? Am I right about that? Somebody who speaks Spanish? Help me out. Have you ever heard that? An adventure. Isn't that what that means? Aventura? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, she had una aventura. She had an adventure. It's not an adventure. It's not an affair. It's playing the whore. It's whoredom. And so we don't want to take really nice terms. Because I mean, adventure sounds pretty good to me. So the thing is, we don't want to take bad things and give them a nice name. You know, they take the perversion of sodomy and what do they call it? Gay. That's a nice word. I refuse to use a nice word like gay, which means happy, cheerful, and talk about something that's wicked. So we need to be careful with our language today. And we need to use negative words for negative things and positive words for positive things. And if we start using words like whore and harlot and whoremonger and fornication and bastard, then we would actually have our minds programmed that, oh, we got to stay away from all that. We better make sure that we wait until we're married to have that physical relationship so that we don't bring shame and reproach on ourselves, our families, our church, and everyone around us. We need to get back to the old time religion. And the reason why this sermon has to be preached over and over again about fornication is because the TV, the books, the radio, the magazines, all of the media is constantly telling us that it's fine. They're constantly showing us examples. Hey, as long as you love each other, as long as it's consensual, no. The Bible says marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. And so we need to understand that fornication is not acceptable. I do not desire that my sons grow up and become pastors or preachers. I have no desire that they become a preacher or a pastor or a missionary or anything like that. Now, if they decide to grow up and become pastors or preachers of some kind, great. But that's not a desire that I have for them. Because I don't care what they do with their life, but you know what I want for my children more than anything else? I want my children to be pure when they get married. That's what I want for them. This is all I want for my children. I want my children to grow up and be pure on their wedding day. And I want them to be faithful to their spouse until death. I want them to go to church and I want them to be a sole winner. That's all I want. Anything beyond that is just icing on the cake. If they become great men of God or great women of God and do great exploits, I'll praise the Lord for that. But you know what? That's all I want for my children. I just want them to live a clean and decent Christian life. And if they do that, they're going to be happy. They're going to be blessed. The Lord's going to take care of them. They're going to love the Lord. He's going to love them and they're going to be happy and they're going to be blessed. But I don't want any of my children to commit fornication. And I don't want your children to commit fornication. And I don't want you young, single men and single ladies to commit fornication. So I'm going to keep preaching it and preaching it and preaching it and hammering it and hammering it because that's what kept me pure and it's what's going to keep you pure. It was the preaching that kept me pure. It sure wasn't that foolish youth department when I was a teenager that, oh, I don't know if it's really even condemned in the Bible. Maybe it's not. No, you know what it was? It was the hellfire and brimstone preaching that I got in the fundamental Baptist church as a child that put the fear of God into me. And when temptation was strong, I knew that God killed 23,000 people in one day because of fornication. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. So therefore, I knew that God would punish and curse me if I committed that awful sin. This is not some unattainable standard. This is not some pie in the sky. No, no, no. It's your reasonable service to keep yourself pure and clean until you get married. Ezekiel chapter 16. Look at verse 25. Thou has built thy high place at every head of the way and has made thy beauty to be abhorred. Look, I don't care how beautiful you are as a young lady. I don't care how handsome and debonair you are as a young man. You will cause your beauty to be abhorred if you open your feet to everyone that passes by and multiply your whoredoms right here. I don't care how good you look. People will despise you. People will be disgusted by you. And people will have no respect for you if you multiply whoredoms, if you open your feet unto everyone that passes by. That's what the Bible says. Look at verse 26. Thou has also committed fornication with the Egyptians, thy neighbors, great of flesh, and has increased thy whoredoms to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore, I have stretched out my hand over thee and have diminished thine ordinary food and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines. Even the daughters of the Philistines, folks, which are ashamed of thy lewd way. It's pretty sad when even the world could even be ashamed of the stuff that you're doing. Whoredoms being a whoremonger. Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable, yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied. Now, notice the terms that we're using over again. Playing the whore and playing the harlot have come up a bunch of times, right? Whoredom and also the word fornication, right? It says right there in verse number 29, thou hast multiplied thy fornication. So we're defining fornication here. Fornication is when she's being with men that she's not married to. Playing the whore with them, playing the harlot with them. Thou hast multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea, and yet thou hast not satisfied herewith. How weak is thy heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious, whorish woman, and that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street, watch this, and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest higher. Now what that means, higher, what's higher mean? What does it mean? You're hired. Hired means you're getting paid to do something. To scorn something means you scoff at it, you have no respect for it. It doesn't matter to you. So when the Bible says, you know what makes you different than a harlot? He's saying you've scorned higher, meaning you're not motivated by money. You're not even doing this for the money. He said you've scorned higher. What verse am I in? Somebody help me out. But as a wife that comitteth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband, they give gifts to all whores, but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom. And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms, and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary, wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord. So when you're playing the horror, I mean, look, if I said, I'm not a fireman, but I play one on TV, right? What does it mean to play something? You're acting as that. So he's saying, look, you're not literally a horror, you're not literally a harlot, but you're playing the horror, you're playing the harlot, and what's that called? Fornication. What's that called? Premarital relations. What does that look like? It looks like a girl getting pregnant before she's married, right? And then what's that called? Oh, she played the whore, she played the harlot. Now how many guys do you have to commit fornication with before you get pregnant? What's the minimum? Just one, right? Just one. So you don't have to be with a whole bunch of different people before you've played the whore or played the harlot. If you just commit fornication with one dude, if you just commit fornication with one woman, you are still committing whoredom unless it's within marriage. This is what we see in the Bible. And let me just point out the foolishness of thinking that fornication could somehow be okay or that somehow having a physical relationship before you're married could somehow be okay, having intercourse before you're married. The only thing that would even make that possible for you to be sleeping together before you're married and to just have no consequence is birth control. So only because our modern society in 2017 has made birth control just acceptable and readily available are people even capable of living this fornicating lifestyle with no consequences. Because in time past, they would not have even... I mean think about the foolishness and stupidity of Jews today who think fornication is fine by the way. You think that Jews are getting up in their synagogue today preaching to the young people not to commit fornication? Amongst Jews, amongst those who practice Judaism, fornication is considered to be fine. They don't believe anything in the Old Testament. It's not just the New Testament that they reject. So these bunch of Jews or Catholics or whatever other religion that just allows their young people to just commit fornication and whoredom... You know what the stupidity of that is? That if we were to go out and sleep around like that, we would produce a bunch of children out of wedlock, wouldn't we? Okay so who's going to raise these children? Whose are they? Who do they belong to? When women are being with this guy and being with that guy and guys are being with this girl and then they're with that girl. That doesn't make any sense, that's ridiculous. How can you produce a child and be ready to raise that child when you're not even ready to get married? If you're not ready to get married, then how are you ready for a child? Well guess what the product of intercourse is? It's a child! It's a child! So because we live in this modern, sinful nation that just makes all this birth control readily available, you're going to try to tell me that God is okay with you just using this modern technology just so that you can go commit whoredoms and fornication. It's stupid. It's stupid. Throughout history, the consequence of that kind of behavior was getting pregnant out of wedlock. And then it was like, burner with fire. I mean that's what it said in the Bible. So the whole thing that even makes all this fornication and whoredom easy for people to commit and quote unquote get away with it is the modern advent of easy access to birth control. Birth control, and look, this is why birth control was illegal in the United States less than a hundred years ago. Because they knew that if you just put all this birth control in the drugstores and put all this birth control even in the schools and in the college nursing departments, and if you just put all this stuff out there, what you're sending a message to the young people is, hey, it's a green light to commit fornication. Well you know, this is what they tell them in the public school, abstinence is great, that's the best thing, but we know you're going to do it anyway, so here you go. Let us teach you how to use all these tools. Let us teach you how to use all this birth control. Listen to me, that's the devil's agenda. The one who fought to even make birth control legal in this country was Margaret Sanger, the founder of the Birth Control Federation of America, which later was known as Planned Parenthood. It's a wicked agenda to get birth control in everybody's hands and then it allows young people to go out and commit fornication without facing the natural consequence, which is a child. And then there are all these questions about, okay, well, you know, who's going to care for this child? Who's going to raise this child? Who's going to take care of this child? But now we have 13, 14, 15, 16 year olds committing whoredoms, committing fornication in this country. It's wicked, it's foolish, it's stupid. Everything that the Jews are screwed up on and the Jew-run Hollywood promotes it all with the fornication and everything, they don't condemn this stuff at all. And then I guess the Roman Catholics, they can go out and sow their wild oats and then just go to the confessional booth and they'll just fix everything by chanting a bunch of satanic chants. Hail Mary, some goddess that they're praying to. Mary was a human being, not some goddess that we pray to and chant heathen prayers to. To sit there and say, oh God, God's will is that we go out and experiment with a bunch of people or get physical with a bunch of people before we get married. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard because you're going to produce all these bastard children everywhere and kids out of wedlock and it's ridiculous that anybody would even believe that for five seconds. No, the Bible's pretty clear what whoredom is, it's pretty clear what it means to play the harlot and to be a whoremonger and to commit fornication. Let's keep reading, it says in verse 36, thus saith the Lord God, because thy filthiness was poured out. And you know what, that's how God feels about fornication, it's filth, it's filthy, it's unclean, it's dirty, it's wrong. Now within marriage that physical act is righteous and godly and clean and pure and the bed is undefiled but outside of marriage it becomes something ugly, becomes something dirty, becomes something wicked. STDs are a perfect example of the uncleanness and another natural result and they say, oh well if you use this implement then you may not get the STDs. But you know what, people use that implement and they still get STDs because that stuff isn't going to work all the time. You're going to rely on that thing, it's not going to work all the time. It says that thy filthiness was poured out, verse 36, and thy nakedness discovered, discovered in the Bible usually means uncovered, through thy whoredoms with thy lovers and with all the idols of thy abominations and by the blood of thy children which thou didst give unto them. You know what happens in a society that doesn't have all this birth control? People go out and commit whoredoms and then they would actually murder their own children. Oh wait, never mind, we have that in our society too, it's called abortion. It's called abortion. Why? People go out, they commit harlotry, whoredoms, oh well they're not ready to have a baby yet, then quit opening your feet to everyone that passes by. You wait until you're married and now you're ready to have a baby. Because you're married, you're committed, husband and wife, and you know what, today there are just men and women, they just live together and ten years later they're still living together. It's insanity and they're not even married. Get married! And you know what, you women need to have some respect for yourself and not give your body to a man until he puts a ring on your finger and swears to be with you till death do you part. And you know what, the saying goes, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Why do you think he's going to marry you when you just give him everything without marriage, without that covenant, without that bond? And today women have so little view of themselves, they get a little attention from some guy and then they're just willing to shack up with him and give him everything and then he just drops them whenever he wants because there's no commitment, there's no vow till death do us part. The blood of thy children which thou didst give unto them, behold, therefore will I gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure and all them that thou hast loved with all them that thou hast hated, I will even gather them round, you think these women who get in the habit of going to bed with this guy and that guy, they don't only do it with the ones they love folks, they do it with some that they love and some that they hate. That's how disgusting they become, that's how low of a view they have of themselves. Look, fornication takes you down a dark path and I can't even tell you how many times I've heard the testimony of a young lady who was pure, she committed fornication one time, listen one time and you know what her next thought is, oh well now that I've done it, might as well do it again and again and again and again and again. You think I'm making that up? You know it's out there. Once they say well now that I'm not a virgin anymore, might as well just again and again with those that you love and those that you hate and just with all kinds of people and it's a sad, sad life. Don't go down that road, you take that first step and commit fornication, you're going down a dark, dark path in your life, going down a dark path and you know what, the Bible says the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak but if you have a godly young man and a godly young lady, at least then if one of them has a weak moment, the other one needs to be there to say stop, no, we're not going to do this and we need to have godly parents that don't allow them to even be alone in situations where fornication would be possible because the Bible says make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Don't go on a date in a hotel. You don't go on a date in the bedroom with the door shut. Yo, we're going to go on a trip together, we're going to sleep in the same hotel room but we got two beds on Priceline, wrong. We're making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Now obviously when you're dating you've got to get to know each other and talk and spend time together but you need to do it in a public place. Have your privacy in a restaurant with 50 other people at your own table, that's your privacy but you don't need privacy in a bedroom, you don't need privacy in a car somewhere, on some dark alley somewhere, on some mountain top somewhere, you need to make sure that you flee fornication, that you run away from fornication, that you don't see how close you can get to fornication. Hey, let's just be as physical as we can without actually going off the cliff and committing fornication. No, no, you need to stay away from sin, flee fornication, we need to have parents that are guarding their children and guarding their young people and having rules for their young people. You know I wouldn't want my son to date a girl whose parents just have no rules. You know I don't even have to say that about my daughter because I'll have the rules for my daughter that are going to be enforced. We need to have rules and then we need a godly young man who if something happens where he gets in a situation where fornication is available, that godly young man needs to be like Joseph and run out of there. And we need a godly young lady who has some character and also has some self-worth and actually values herself that when some guy or her boyfriend or even the guy that she loves puts his hands on her and wants to use her body that she would have the strength of character to say no, stop, no, this is not going to happen. That way the weak moment could be overcome. And listen to me young lady, you are a child of the king and don't let Hollywood tell you that because you don't have a perfect figure, don't let Hollywood tell you that because maybe you're overweight, maybe you're underweight or maybe you have something about your appearance that doesn't look right or what the world would consider looking right. Don't let Hollywood brainwash you that oh, you're of a lower quality. No you are worth every bit as much as any other woman in this world. You're fashioned and formed by God himself, God loves you, Jesus Christ loves you, your pastor loves you, your church loves you, your parents love you, people care about you, your brothers and sisters in Christ love you and you don't need to just go and just find love through a physical relationship because you just feel unloved or something, no, read the Bible and figure out that God loves you. Read the Bible and figure out that if you're a virtuous woman your price is above rubies. It's above rubies and I don't think that that man who wants to commit whoredom with you is going to exchange rubies for that. You know these bunch of whores and harlots, street walkers and working women, they don't get paid in rubies. They get paid $20. They get paid $50. They get paid $100 to destroy their bodies. They get paid ridiculous amounts. You say well no, what about these high end, I saw, you've been watching too much Richard Gere and Julia Roberts and you got brainwashed with that Hollywood smut and you, oh, I don't care if they're paying you $10,000, you know what, your body is worth more than $10,000. You know what, I'd give all the money that I have for my skin and my bones and for my flesh and for my health. That's what Job would have loved to have paid all of his money to get rid of those sores that were all over his body, wouldn't he? All that a man hath would he give for the soundness of his flesh. Think about that. And what's a man profited if he gains the whole world in exchange for his soul? And your price, young lady, I don't care what you look like. I don't care if you're overweight, underweight, too tall, too short. I don't care what the blemishes. I don't care what the bad complexion or the bad figure or whatever the world is condemning you for because of your physical appearance. You know what, your price, if you love the Lord, is far above rubies and you better realize that and not give yourself away cheaply because the world told you that you don't have as much value and hey, if a guy's showing you attention, you better just jump on that. That's what happens today. Girls, they get insecure. They don't feel loved or they feel like they're not as good looking and the first guy who shows them a little attention like a fool, they just give themselves to that guy. Well, you know what, if he really loves you, he'll put a ring on it and marry you and spend the rest of his life with you because that's what real love is. Fornication is not love. Marriage is love. Love is deceitful and beauty is vain. A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Her price is far above rubies. Behold, therefore, I'll gather all thy lovers, verse 37, with whom thou has taken pleasure, all them which thou hast loved and all them that thou hast hated. I'll even gather them round about against thee and will discover thy nakedness unto them that they may see all thy nakedness and I will judge thee as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged and I'll give thee blood and fury and justice. Now listen, this woman did not break wedlock. This woman did not commit adultery. This woman did not break her marriage. She's unmarried. That's why he's saying I'll judge thee as a woman who does that. I'll punish you the way that those kind of women get punished. So God can get pretty mad about fornication and he might even punish it like adultery if he feels like it. He gets mad enough, right? He didn't say you committed adultery. He said I'll judge you like those who do. He said I'll also give thee into their hand and they shall throw down thine eminent place and what is the eminent place? It's talking about these women putting themselves on display so that men would see them and that they would get the attention of men. That's what that means. And shall break down thy high places and they shall strip thee also of thy clothes and shall take thy fair jewels and leave thee naked and bare. Look at the end of a life of fornication, you know what you're left with? Nothing. You're left with nothing. You know how many women have been married to a man and shacked up with him and he just eventually got sick of them and moved on and they're left with nothing. Now look, sadly some people do that even in a marriage but at least with a marriage the kind of guy who's going to wait, the kind of guy who's going to wait to have that relationship with you until you're married is more likely to stay with you. Why? Because it shows that he has respect for marriage. He respects marriage enough to say well I'm going to wait to commit to this relationship before we have physical intercourse, right? So there's a guy who respects marriage. Well that's probably the same guy who's going to stay with you. Even when you are unlovable, he'll stay with you. And those of you that are already married, don't you want your wife to stay with you? Don't you want your husband to stay with you? Of course everyone who's married wants their spouse to stay with them and be faithful to them and be committed to them and be true to them and be their life's companion. So you need to do things God's way in order to have that blessing. Now there are some who might be hearing this sermon and get offended because they've committed fornication in the past but you know what, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We haven't all committed fornication but we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. So I'm not preaching this to condemn you because you know what you can do is from here on out to the side to do right. And if you're a single who has committed fornication in the past, you know what, you can repent and if you repent, you find mercy with the Lord. If you confess and forsake your sin, you find mercy. You can always start over with the Lord. Why? Because His mercies are new every morning. That's why the thought doesn't make sense. Oh, I've committed fornication once, now I'm going to open my feet to everyone that passed by. No, because if you've committed fornication and then you went to the Lord and said, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that, I'm not going to do that again, He'll be merciful with you. That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be bad consequences but it's going to be even worse if you do it a second time, a third time, a fourth time. And if you're today married but you made these mistakes before you were married, well the lesson for you is that you're going to be pure within your marriage. And you're not going to commit adultery and you're not going to get divorced and you're going to have a relationship that's right and godly from here forward, an undefiled marriage relationship going forward. He said in verse 40, they shall also bring up a company against thee and they shall stone thee with stones and thrust thee through with their swords. This is what the sitcoms and Hollywood movies forgot to show you. And they shall burn thine houses with fire and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women. And will cause, I'm so tired of people judging me, will they quit being a whore? That's what happens. You get judgments executed by you by other women. Slut shaming. Yeah, that's what you get for being a slut. The Bible says, you say I think that's a bad word. Well I think it's a bad thing to do. I think it's a bad thing to be. Might as well use a bad word to describe it. And you know what? Maybe if we use that word, maybe then young ladies wouldn't want to grow up and be a junkie and they wouldn't want to grow up and be a slut. And maybe they would actually keep themselves clean and pure and virgin and godly. And you know what? You don't like the strong preaching and the hard words? Go to the church down the street and you'll never hear it and the kids are going to grow up and most of them are going to commit fornication because they're soft on sin down there. Not at this church. We're not soft on sin here. We're going to make sin exceedingly sinful in this church. The Bible says they'll execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women and I'll cause thee to cease from playing the harlot and thou also shall give no higher anymore. So will I make my fury toward thee to rest and my jealousy shall depart from thee and I'll be quiet and we'll be no more angry. Let's go back over to the New Testament to finish up here. If you would go to Ephesians chapter 5. While you're turning there I'll read you some other scriptures. The Bible says for this is the will of God even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication. And look, there's no doubt, we've looked at some evidence, we've looked at some scriptures, but there's no doubt that when you're having intercourse before you're married, you're committing fornication. You're playing the whore. You're playing the harlot. That's how the Bible defines it in the Old Testament. That definition carries into the New Testament which makes sense that he would say, well to avoid fornication you have every man his own wife and every man his own husband or every, I don't know if I messed that up. Every woman has her own husband and every man has his own wife, right? That's how you avoid fornication. Well that makes sense because if doing it before you're married is fornication, well then getting married helps you avoid that because now you have a righteous place to perform that in a godly way. And look, we all have that desire or at least most of us have that desire. Some people don't have a strong desire in that area and those people, the Bible says that they may decide to remain unmarried if it's not a big deal for them, but the vast majority of people do have a strong desire in that area. God gave us that desire. There's nothing wrong with that desire. But did you know that we don't have to just act on every desire? Because you know what? What if we just eat everything that we want to eat? What if we just drink everything that we want to drink? What if every time we don't feel like going to work we just stay in bed? What if every time we have a desire to go to sleep we just go to sleep? What if every time we see something at the store we can't afford it but we just take it because we desire it? Life is about denying self, taking up the cross and following Jesus. When you're a young person and you're not married, yeah, you have that natural desire. Nothing wrong with that desire. Keep under your body. Bring your body into subjection. Deny self and get married when the time comes and then you may indulge in that desire in a godly manner, in a righteous manner. That's what the Bible teaches. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 3, but fornication and all uncleanness, which is because fornication is a subset of uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient but rather giving up thanks. For this ye know that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. The children of disobedience is referring to people that are not saved. They've not believed on Jesus Christ as their savior. The Bible says that because of all these sins, God's wrath is on who? The unsaved. Verse 7, he's talking to believers. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. Unsaved people are going to do that. That's why God's mad at them. But you as a saved Christian, don't do it. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. And so because you're saved, you're automatically going to do all the right things now. No. He tells you you need to walk as children of light. Yeah there's a possibility for you to be a partaker with them. That's why he says don't be a partaker with them. Yes you're a child of light, but you need to walk as children of the light and not walk in darkness. Don't turn there but Colossians 3, 5, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is idolatry. Jesus said that out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications and murders. The Bible says in Revelation that when God's pouring out his wrath with the vials of his wrath and with the trumpets of his wrath, he says that the people even through all these plagues it says neither repented they of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their fornication nor of their thefts. So God looks at fornication, he puts in a list with murder, with sorcery, which is like witchcraft and demonic stuff, and with stealing. You know you break into a house and steal something, you rob a bank, you rob a liquor store, that's pretty bad. Murder is pretty bad, sorcery is pretty bad, well fornication is pretty bad too. It's a serious sin. It's so serious that in 1 Corinthians 5 the Bible says that if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, he's to be thrown out of the local church. He's to be thrown out of the local church. Now we're all sinners, I mean if you had to be perfect to come here, none of us could attend. But we're not all fornicators, and if one is found to be a fornicator they will be thrown out of the church. Many have been thrown out in the past for fornication. There are many, many people right now, they might even be listening to this sermon on a live stream right now, there are people who came to this church and I gave them an ultimatum, many people. And I said, look, you're living in fornication, you didn't know any better, you weren't saved or you were saved but you didn't know, or you were just backslidden or worldly or wicked, whatever the reason, hey God's mercies are new every morning buddy, you can get this right. And I gave them an ultimatum and said, hey, if you want to keep coming to church here, you need to get married within the next seven days. Otherwise, don't come back until you're married. Or you can stop living together. If you don't want to marry that person, then stop living together, stop committing fornication. You can either break off that relationship or at least move out from one another and handle that relationship in a godly way, or you can get married or you can quit the church, those are the options. There have been a lot of people who took the option and said, we'll get married. And they got married within that seven day period. Many people have taken that option. I'm not going to go down the list, but there's been many. But then there have been others who said, okay, well then I'm just going to have to stop coming here. Many people, many. And they loved the preaching, they loved the church, they were loving it and thriving and happy, but they wouldn't get that sin out of their life. And that just isn't going to work around here, because I don't want my kids coming to church and seeing people that are shacking up and thinking that we think that's okay, because we don't. Because a little leaven is going to leaven the whole lump. And I know that there are people, even in the valley, and sometimes I'll run into them or other church members will run into them and say, hey, you ought to come to Faithful Word, you ought to come to church. And they say, well, I can't, because this is my situation. I'm living in fornication. And hey, at least they're honest about it. But they need to repent of that sin, because how long is God going to put up with that? It's going to cloud up and rain on them. And you know what? And you say, well, I want to get married, but he doesn't. Give him an ultimatum. Give him an ultimatum. I give these people ultimatum. Women in that situation need to give the man an ultimatum and say, you know what? If you're not willing to marry me, you don't love me, I'm done with you. Or maybe if it's the other way. It seems to be usually that way. But maybe it's the woman who doesn't want to get married. Well then, you know what? If you don't love me enough to want to marry me, then you know what? We're cutting off this physical relationship. We're cutting off this, you know, I'm going to move on. I'm going to find somebody who loves me enough to do it God's way. Who has the love of Christ in them and will do it right. That's what we need today. Fornication is not a small sin. And look, this is what I'm the most afraid of. I'm afraid that we have a generation of young people today, even in churches. I don't think we do in our church, but I sure hope not. And this is what I would fear. A generation of young people who say, well fornication is wrong, and you know, the pastor said don't do it, my parents said don't do it, but we're all sinners, and you know, it's tough, and so, you know, it's something that happens a lot, and it's just something that you, whoa buddy, wrong. It needs to be a taboo. It needs to be something that's just no. That's how I felt about it when I was growing up, that fornication is wicked. That's how I felt about it. And that's what kept me scared and on the right path, because by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. And listen to me, you young children, you say, well this isn't even on my mind. Girls have cooties. Yeah, but you know what? I got the fear of God on this before I even fully knew what it was. I got the fear of God on this when I was prepubescent, getting that preaching when I was five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, you know, I got that preaching early, because you know what, it's a lot easier to hear this preaching and process it when you're seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, because you're still thinking clearly. I'm not kidding. So you boys that are nine, ten, eleven, you're not there yet, but you need to get this preaching and just put it in the computer now, okay, fornication's wicked, I need to wait till I get married, you know, and you'll understand more later, but you need to just get these truths in your mind while you're still thinking clearly, because when you get to thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, you're not going to be thinking clearly anymore. Hormones have a way of making you not think clearly. They make you crazy. Teenagers, they have all these hormones going on and they're not thinking clearly. So you got to understand these things and make these decisions as early as possible so that when you, when you're, your head's spinning and your hormones are raging and you have strong lust that you've already made this decision and you've already understood how God feels about it and what people are going to say about you and what God's going to think about you and what God's going to do to you. And get that settled in your mind now, ten year old, eleven year old, twelve year old, and you teenagers, hopefully you're having a moment of clarity right now and getting this preaching, because you know what? One day your, your, your, your, your sanity and your clarity is going to come back once you get to be eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, and hopefully it doesn't take too much longer than that. And you know what? You're going to look back and be like, what, what have I done? What have I done? I've been a total idiot. I didn't even love that girl. I didn't even love that guy. I didn't even know what was I even doing. I didn't even enjoy that. It wasn't even worth it. Or even if I did, it's not worth the pain. It's not worth the repercussions. Here's something to put in your computer, pleasure for a moment and pain for a lifetime. Just remember that and keep yourself pure. It's not worth it. Sin always takes you further than you want to go. It always keeps you longer than you want to stay, and it always costs you more than you're willing to pay. Remember that. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.