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Mark chapter 7 verse number 1 the Bible reads then came together unto him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes which came from Jerusalem and when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled that is to say with unwashed hands they found fault for the Pharisees and all the Jews except they wash their hands off eat not holding the tradition of the elders and when they come from the market except they wash they eat not and many other things there be which they have received to hold as the washing of cups and pots brazen vessels and of tables then the Pharisees and scribes asked him why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders but eat bread with unwashing hands now here the Bible is talking about all of these rules and all of these little nitpicky regulations that the Jews and especially the Pharisees kept that were not found in the Bible they weren't found in the Word of God these are just the traditions of the elders and these rabbis basically are imposing these traditional things that they've received from the elders they're trying to impose that on Jesus disciples and say hey they're eating with defiled hands because they didn't wash their hands when in reality there's nothing in the Old Testament scripture that tells you that you have to wash your hands every time you're going to eat now these people are rejecting the Word of God Jesus tells them a little later and choosing rather to go with these traditions that they received from the Pharisees now the Bible has a lot of rules in it doesn't it I mean just in the first five books alone there are many hundreds of commandments but let alone all the commandments in the rest of the Old Testament the New Testament is filled with commandments there are enough commandments in the Bible where we should not add other commandments and enforce them upon people that are not in the Bible and I think a key verse for this if you're reading a King James Bible is in Ecclesiastes when God says fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man what does it mean to be the whole duty it means that that's it if you fear God and keep his commandments that's all that God expects of you to do he doesn't expect you to do a bunch of other things beyond what he's commanded you in this book everything that we are commanded to do and commanded not to do is found in the Bible now we might have other rules for ourselves that we make up and there's nothing wrong with making up rules for yourself and there's nothing wrong with making up rules for your family as the man of the house you might have certain rules in your family that have nothing to do with the Bible and there's nothing wrong with you making rules but you should not teach for commandments the doctrines of men there should be a difference between that which is your rule and your preference and your tradition and the commandment of God because my rules and my preferences are for me but I can't impose that upon you but when it comes to the commandments of God I should preach that for everybody okay but there's a difference between what God has told us to do and between just people making up their own nitpicky rules that go beyond that and there are enough rules in the Bible where we don't need to add more rules there's enough here and we should just worry about keeping these rules but let's keep reading here what Jesus answers these guys because they're rebuking Jesus and saying your disciples are not walking according to the tradition of the elders but they eat bread with unwashed hands verse 6 it says he answered and said it to them well at the zaias prophesied of you hypocrites as it is written this people honor with me with their lips but their heart is far from me how be it in vain they do worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men those are some very strong words out of the mouth of Jesus he's saying first of all your hypocrites and he says second of all your heart is far from God you're just doing lip service and pretending that you are interested in what God thinks of you but you're really not let's keep reading it says in verse 8 for laying aside the commandment of God ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and many other such like things ye do now I want to point out here that they had not added extra rules to the commandment of God but rather the Bible says in verse 8 that they laid aside the commandment of God in order to keep their tradition and let me tell you something this is true of Judaism today and people that are Christians for some reason have this weird idea that Judaism today or that the Jews today believe and follow the Old Testament and it's a lie it wasn't even true in Jesus day and it's even that's true in 2014 to say that the Jews believe and follow the Old Testament they don't now these rules that Jesus is rebuking all the many such things the washing of cups and pots today those things are known as the Talmud and here's what the Talmud is I'm just going to explain it to you quickly because that's exactly what Jesus is is against here the Talmud is what the Jews call the oral Torah and here's what they say well the Bible is the written Torah but then there's the oral Torah so they say that when Moses was on Mount Sinai God gave him all the words that would become Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy that's the written law of God the written Torah but the Jews claim that God also just told him a bunch of oral stuff that just never got written down it was just stuff that he told Moses and it was like don't write this down just just talk about this just pass this on verbally just only write that as but you know what it's a lie because everything that God commanded Moses is in this book right here everything you command and the Bible says he spake all these words and he spake no more unto them I mean everything that God commanded Moses is all right here and they were told you know read all the words of Moses and all the words of the law of God unto Moses but they claim no no there was this other really nitpicky really specific stuff that God told Moses basically explaining and expanding upon what's in the Bible so for example you know the Bible tells you not to work on the Sabbath day right but that's just way too simple so the Talmud just has hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages explaining exactly what you can and can't do on the Sabbath day so they add all these other nitpicky regulations and things and so that's that's what they call the oral Torah now this didn't used to be written down it was just passed on from person to person now the true story is that this teaching originated around 200 BC it doesn't go all the way back to Moses of course because everything that God told Moses in the Bible but actually these teachings originated around 200 BC and that's why we see Jesus Christ dealing with it because it was already on the scene when he was there in an oral form well later on after the Jews were kicked out of the promised land and make no mistake about it they were kicked out of the promised land for one reason because they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ Matthew is very clear on that that that is why the temple was destroyed and that's why they were thrown out of Israel was because they're rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ well when they were thrown out of the promised land they were afraid that they were going to lose all their precious little traditions about washing your hands and cups and stuff so they didn't want to lose that so then they started to write it down after they had been scattered abroad after rejecting Jesus Christ and they started writing it down and it was it was fully compiled and written down around AD 500 the Babylonian Talmud so about 500 years after Christ is when it was all written down and today it's in written form and it's an it's like an encyclopedia it's so but it's 38 volumes it's not just a book like that the Bible is a book in our hand these are God's laws the laws of the Jews are 38 volumes long and we've even talked to elderly rabbis that have said well I've never read the whole thing cover to cover because it's just so much but I say is it the Word of God yep it's the Word of God never even read it cover to cover and let me tell you something Judaism today doesn't just add 38 volumes to the to the Word of God no I'll tell you what it does it rejects this book completely and just worships those 38 volumes and in according to the Talmud it's all it's the rabbis it's the elders remember the traditions of the elders that matter and in fact God even takes guidance from the rabbis in the Talmud even God listens to the judgments of the rabbis they decide what's right and wrong and even God takes orders from them according to the Talmud and I've read the passages myself and that that's what it says it's very weird and it's it's a really stupid book I mean if you actually just sit down and just start reading several pages of the Talmud it's one of the stupidest things you'll ever read it's it's boring it's lame you know God's Word has power and whenever you try to read any of these other scriptures from other religions they're always weak you know you open the Book of Mormon and read a few pages it's ridiculous you read a few pages of the Quran you can tell something's wrong with this read a few pages of the Apocrypha and you're you're scratching your head about you know how how anybody could think this is scripture but when you read the Bible every page of the Bible is wonderful powerful and and you say how do you know the Bible is true because it's it's the power of God's Word because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God so this this teaching of the Talmud is what Jesus Christ is rebuking here and make no mistake about it if you talk to modern day Jewish rabbis they will say that they're following the religion of the Pharisees they'll even tell you that we're Pharisees because the Pharisees are the group that became the predominant rabbis after the destruction of the temple and they were scattered everywhere the rap that the Pharisaical rabbis are the ones who took power and in fact if you remember the Apostle Paul was trained by Gamaliel before he got saved remember he was brought up and taught at the feet of the Pharisee teacher Gamaliel Gamaliel same guy is one of the rabbis of the Talmud he's one of the main rabbis in the Talmud revered as being one of their greatest rabbis but of course you know the Apostle Paul said it was all dung that Gamaliel taught him remember Gamaliel had taught him nothing but he said all those things that were in hit when he excelled in the Jews religion he said I excelled in the Jews religion he wasn't talking about Christianity was he and he said above many my equals he said but what things were gained to me those I kind of lost for crying I count all things but dung he said and those things were worthless unto him once he found the Lord Jesus Christ so this is what Jesus is rebuking and that's why Jesus said if you believed Moses he said to the Pharisees you would have believed me for he spake of me but if you believe not his writings how she believed my words so that jives perfectly with Jesus saying here that you've laying aside the commandment of God for your tradition you've rejected the teaching of the Bible and you've embraced the teaching of the Talmud and you've embraced all of these traditions and things that we see washing hands washing cups washing bottles and look if you have a rule that says hey I'm gonna wash my hands every time I eat that's fine but don't say that God commanded that because he didn't and we need to differentiate between our rules and God's rules and so Jesus says here in verse 9 he said in them full well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition then he gives an example for Moses said honor thy father and thy mother and who so cursed father or mother let him die the death but ye say if a man shall say to his father or mother it is Corban that is to say a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me he shall be free and ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father his mother making the Word of God of none effect through your tradition which he have delivered and many such like things do ye now you say well what is that about explain to me the core bond you know to be honest I don't really care because whatever was it was something that Jesus said is is is meaningless it makes the Word of God of none effect it's your tradition you know what I'd rather spend my time figuring out what honor thy father and thy mother means and what who so cursed father mother let him die the death that's a part of the scripture I'm interested in not what a bunch of unbelieving Christ rejecting Jews were doing in order to ignore what the Bible said so I'm not going to go get the towel mud and go figure out what core bond means because I don't really care because whatever it was Jesus rebuked it and told him it's worthless and that they need to get back on the Word of God and by the way this is Jesus teaching the death penalty because a lot of people say well you know in the Old Testament the death penalty was there but there are a lot of Christians in 2014 that are against the death penalty they don't think any crime should receive the death penalty but here Jesus is reiterating the death penalty and I believe in the death penalty even today I believe that murderers adulterers pedophiles you know should be put to death and today in this country sometimes murderers are put to death but it's very rarely and they just made a ruling of the Supreme Court about five six seven years ago that said no pedophile can ever be put to death again in the United States no matter how bad they are no matter what they do that they'll never put a pedophile that that's ridiculous you know every pedophile should be taken out like a dog and shot okay I believe in the death penalty people say well the death penalty doesn't work well if you kill somebody they're not going to molest anymore children and you know what whenever you read about in the paper some child molester it always says oh he was arrested back in 2001 for this then he was arrested in 2004 for this then he was arrested in 2008 for this because they just keep letting them out and then they just rape and abuse more children it's wicked and and you know we have no sympathy for these people anyone who would harm a child is is a sick person is a total reprobate that is a vile affection that is going after strange flesh that is not normal for an adult person to be attracted to children it's disgusting and so that's why we have so much pedophilia because these pedophiles are just put in prison and then they get with other people and they they literally exchange tips on being a pedophile in prison and then they come out and they do it more and you say well you know just put them on a registry now put them you know put them put them underground kill them and I remember a news story a while back where this guy was in prison and he overheard this other guy that was a there was a homo and by the way homos are pedophiles there I said it but anyway this guy was in prison he overheard the guy next to him it was some homo Catholic priest and molested kids or whatever and he was teaching other inmates how to molest children so somehow he got he got into this guy's cell as I read about this in the news a few years ago you know when they had opened the doors or whatever he got into this guy's cell slam the door shut jam something in the lock so that the guards couldn't get in and killed the pedophile with his bare hands he basically said you know I just this guy sitting there talking about how he's going to do when he gets out he's teaching other people how to do it he said you know I just felt like and he said I felt like God wanted me to do this you know now look I'm not saying that we should take the law into our own hands and and go out and do this obviously we should you know let the Lord take care of it and the law should be taking care of it I mean the government should have laws that would take care of these things it's not our job to take it into our own hands but I'm just saying that just goes to show you though what's going on in prison that they are in there exchanging tips and so you know when you hear a story like that so prison just doesn't work that's why God never taught prison in the Old Testament he never it was never part of his law the only punishments were death or a beating or paying a fine to the victim those are the only punishments that God ever had in his law but anyway let's let's keep reading here it talks about the fact that they had made God's Word of none effect through their tradition and it says in verse 14 when he had called all the people unto him he said unto them hearken unto me every one of you and understand there is nothing from without a man that entering into him can defile him but the things which come out of him those are they that defile the man if any man have ears to hear let him hear and when he was entered into the house from the people his disciples asked him concerning the parable and he saith unto them are ye so without understanding also do you not perceive that whatsoever thing from without enter into the man it cannot defile him because it entered not into his heart but into the belly and goeth into the draft and purging all meats and he said that which cometh out of the man that defileth the man for from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousness wickedness deceit lasciviousness an evil eye blasphemy pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and defile the man so what Jesus is saying here when he says nothing that cometh into a man can defile him what he's explaining is that what really defiles us is that which defiles us spiritually not physically he's saying that it's not eating dirty food that's going to make you unholy but it's rather a bad thought life that makes you unholy it's rather the things that you do such as you know evil thoughts adulteries fornication murder thefts covers it he said these are the things that defile the man covetousness will defile you blasphemy will defile you but he's saying to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man so what he's trying to do is get their emphasis off of just physical cleanliness and get onto spiritual cleanliness which is that which really defiles now some people have tried to twist this verse and try to say there's nothing entering into a man that can defile the man so therefore it's okay for me to drink alcohol smoke pot I mean I've heard this argument and people have said you know nothing that goes into a man can defile the man you know there you go case closed you know I can drink I can smoke pot I can take drugs whatever but obviously that's not what he's saying and let me just prove that false the Bible first of all talks about the fact that when you drink alcohol he says thine eyes shall behold strange women and thy mouth shall utter perverse things so if you drink alcohol you're going to do this stuff on this list anyway because the Bible says that if you drink alcohol your eyes will behold strange women and isn't that in this list as you know evil thoughts adulteries and evil eye because you know if you look on a woman to lust after her you've committed adultery with her already in your heart so to try to use this verse to justify or I've heard other people use it just to justify eating all manner of junk food you know I mean you know quoting this scripture in the McDonald's drive-thru you know nothing that cometh into the man can defile the man you know give me a Big Mac fries Diet Coke whatever other garbage but honestly you know your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you and we should glorify God in our body and in our spirit which are God's and so we should not put poisonous substances or junk into our body just because Jesus says hey you know washing your hands is not the problem it's it's getting your mind clean that's what really needs to happen but that's different than just saying well just take drugs smoke cigarettes drink eat junk food because there's nothing that can defile you I mean that's you know you're taking it too far there you're you know that's a little bit of an extreme view of this passage and it doesn't jive with the rest of Scripture you know we need to make sure that whenever we interpret a scripture it jives with everything else in Scripture and if Jesus is just saying here look you know worrying about cleanliness is not as important as worrying about keeping your mind clean and that eating with unwashed hands isn't going to kill you it makes perfect sense but let's not take it to some extreme of just yeah it doesn't matter what I eat it doesn't matter what I drink but here's the thing though if you eat junk food it's going to make you sick it's going to make you unhealthy it's going to make you overweight or whatever and so you know you need to stay away from that stuff and eat nutritious food in the Bible has a lot to say about food and drink etc but this verse is saying that it's okay to eat without washing your hands now I still wash my hands usually before I eat especially if I come into contact with a lot of people and shake a lot of people's hands you know when I was a kid we used to call it washing off the fellowship before lunch but honestly there have been a lot of times when I go to work and my hands are dirty dirty like with actual dirt and I'll just eat like that and honestly I don't think it's really bad for you because today we live in a little bit of an over sanitized society because we live in cities and we're very clean and everything's ultra sterile and ultra sanitized and that may not be the healthiest thing in the world because we don't necessarily develop our immune system if we're just overly clean and overly sanitary and there have been studies done that have shown that kids who play in the dirt and put a little dirt in their mouth are actually smarter and healthier you know that's what I heard but there's a study for everything right but honestly you know I like to go out and kind of be in nature and get a little bit dirty get some dirt on my feet dirt on my hands and if you think about I mean the disciples they're going around in sandals their feet are getting dirty they're in a dusty dirty place like Arizona is the dustiest place I've ever lived I mean everything gets dusty and dirty but there's a difference between just dust and dirt eating a little dirt and you know germs from other people so we do need to be careful with other people's germs and the Bible talks a lot about germs and quarantine and stuff like that when people are sick but honestly I remember when when I used to go dirt bike riding as a kid I mean you swallowed a lot of dirt I mean your whole face would be covered in dirt your nostrils dirt mouth filled with dirt and you know after that eating with unwashed hands isn't a big deal anymore literally get a bunch of dirt in your mouth but that's what Jesus is saying here and he lists these things that come out of the heart of men and defile the man and he says these proceed out of the heart and he said they defile the man from within and so what this scripture is teaching us that all of these sins that we see on this list they all start in our mind so it's not like people just go through life having good thoughts and a clean mind and a pure attitude and then all of a sudden they just go out and just rob a store or just commit adultery or just murder someone I mean do you really think people just do those kind of things spontaneously no way there's a long process of evil thoughts the Bible says it comes out of the heart and defiles the man and so long before you will let's look at the list here it says they proceed evil thoughts from the heart adulteries that long before you commit adultery you have a lot of bad thoughts you don't just go through life you're happily married and you love your wife and you think that she's the greatest thing ever and you're so happy and you're content and then all of a sudden you just temptation comes and just boom you just commit adultery on the spur of the moment there's no way that that would ever happen not gonna happen I mean unless somebody's completely drunk or on drugs or something that's not gonna happen what happens is there goes through a period where people start being down on their spouse negative about their spouse and they start thinking that someone else is probably better there's something better out there and you know why did I marry this person and blah blah blah and then they start comparing their spouse to other people negatively and thinking that there's something better and then they start talking bad about their spouse to someone else and then next thing you know they're spending a lot of time with somebody of the opposite gender and at first it's not physical but then they start you know getting closer and more comfortable and it takes people usually probably months from the time that their marriage is starting to go downhill to the time that they're actually gonna go out and commit adultery it doesn't just happen and people will sometimes lie and say that oh yep everything was great and then you know I just was tempted I committed no no that's not true and a lot like I've said this and had people get really angry but I'm gonna say it again because it's the truth that people who have a happy marriage don't commit adultery and the reason why people commit adultery is because they have marriage problems because there's no reason here's the thing if you're happy in your marriage you're you have no reason to commit adultery there's no temptation to commit adultery you know it's people that are not getting something that they need in their marriage so they go looking for it somewhere else and that could be male or female you know they they're not getting the attention that they want but whether it's they're not getting the physical relationship that they that they need out of that marriage or they're just not getting the emotional that you know affection and companionship or romance or whatever it is they're not getting it that's why they're looking for it somewhere else and if you if you want to eliminate adultery then you have a good marriage because if you have a great marriage and love your spouse and they love you and you have a physical relationship with your spouse then you're not gonna be looking somewhere else and neither is your spouse because it's all right there but the the failure that leads to adultery is a failure to have the right marriage in the first place and and that's the best way to prevent adultery is to have a good marriage now people will sometimes misinterpret that or get angry about that because they'll say oh you're just you're justifying adultery you're you're blaming the victim but I'm not blaming the victim I'm just I'm not justifying it there's no excuse for adultery listen if your marriage is horrible you still don't have the right to commit adultery and adultery is a wicked sin even if you have an awful marriage even if it is bad that's not what I'm saying at all but I will say this if you have a horrible marriage your spouse is a lot more likely to commit adultery than if you have a good marriage that's just common sense my friend anyone with any brains would tell you that if you treat your spouse poorly that they're more likely to commit adultery than if you treat them well doesn't justify it doesn't make it right doesn't make an excuse for it but we would do well to have good marriage and look adultery is rampant in America the statistics on it are crazy off the charts like one out of three people are committing adultery today in America have been married and gone outside of the marriage and and cheated on their spouse it's it's it's horrible but I'll tell you part of the reason why is because marriages are in horrible shape today that's a big part of it because Jesus said that these things that defile you they come from the heart of man they come out of the heart where evil thoughts creep in and then another thing that he lists a little bit further on his covetousness and one of the major sins associated with adultery is covetousness the Bible says marriage is honorable and all and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge let your conversation be without covetousness the Bible says right back to back just like in the commandments when he says thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife that's one of the main things that he brings up as what you are not to cover and so what leads to adultery according to Jesus Christ covetousness evil thoughts okay looking at someone else and thinking that they are better than what you have not being content with what you have and so we we in America today have a twisted view of marriage and that's why marriages are bad and that's why there's so much adultery because if you have a bad marriage then adultery is a possibility you know God forbid but and it doesn't excuse it but it's just a reality that that's going to be possible if you have a bad marriage now I don't have time to preach a whole sermon on marriage but the fault lies in churches today because the Bible is actually really clear on what a marriage is supposed to look like it's actually very clear it's not like God wasn't really clear enough and God was a little bit vague and so people are confused the Bible is crystal clear and one of the big things that the Bible teaches is that the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church and that as the church is supposed to be subject unto Christ so are the wives to be subject unto their own husbands in everything in everything that's what the Bible says the Bible is really good I mean the Bible says even as Sarah also who obeyed Abraham calling him Lord whose daughters you are as long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement the Bible says that the wives are to be taught to be good to be chased to be keepers at home and it says to be obedient to their own husbands so the Bible so clear but here's the thing is that what American marriage looks like today wives that are obedient to their husbands the husband the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church is that what we see today in marriages no and sure there are lots of other pieces of marriage advice that we find in the Bible and a lot of other things that we teach but you know the big elephant in the room is that wives aren't obeying their husbands today and and that's the problem because and you say well you're blaming the wives no I'm blaming the husband's because that you know we're stronger than women anyway so you know we can't really blame the feminazis for taking over America and and basically you know all their women's rights I am woman hear me roar you know because we as men have allowed it to happen in America today and especially pastors have a lot pastors have not had the guts to get up and preach this like it should be preached like the Bible preaches it so because pastors haven't had the guts to preach it and because husbands haven't had the guts to take the bull by the horns in their own home and actually confront this issue and actually take the lead and take charge in their home you know it's not I can't blame the the weaker vessel I can't blame you know it's it's it's really men at the end of the day who hold the responsibility to lead and take charge and to be the boss but honestly I blame pastors more than anything because you know I grew up my whole life and never heard strong preaching on on husband leadership you just don't hear it because it's not popular but I don't care if it's popular I'd rather have half the church walk out and be and be in charge of my home nuts to it cuz you know what my wife and kids are more important to me than being pastor of this church you know and I'm in a sample and by the way I'd rather help people's marriages and lose people along the way because you know what the people who actually get what I'm saying and actually get you know and this isn't a whole sermon on marriage but when I do whole sermons on marriage and go through all the scriptures the people actually get it and put it in practice it actually helps their marriage a lot and they're actually husband and wife are both a lot happier and have a better relationship and everybody is blessed as a result so you know what I'd rather help people and do that than to be popular and then to have a big crowd I'd rather actually just help some people have a better marriage and and and and to have my own marriage be right that's more important to me so here we see adultery begins in the heart in the mind obviously fornication same thing you know if fornication is premeditated of course you know yes you can fall into certain situations but you know it comes from putting yourself in those situations lusting and thinking about those things and you know it's hard today it's hard to be pure today it's hard for for young people not to commit fornication because of the fact that there's so much temptation out there and because it's just everything is crammed down our throat just the promiscuity everywhere so it would be easier for a young man or young lady to stay pure if it was kind of out of sight out of mind you know I mean if you're just kind of busy living your life doing other things but it basically we're constantly forced to think about what goes on in the bedroom just because of just billboards and magazines and TV and everything where it's just kind of pushed on us and it makes it hard to be pure but let me tell you something that is not an excuse for fornication and it it's difficult to be pure but it is not impossible it is possible for a young person to be a virgin on their wedding day it's I've done it okay when I got married I was a virgin and you know what I've been with one woman in my entire life and hopefully I will go to the grave having been with one woman in my entire life because it is possible but let me tell you it was hard is challenging to grow up in in America in the 21st century and it well that was the 20th century when I was when I was coming out you know because I got married in the year 2000 so but I'm telling you it was hard it was a challenge because it's just it's constantly in front of you right you're constantly just being shown all these images that provoke you to lust and it's hard to resist the temptation but that's no excuse it's just as big of a sin now as it was when this was written and the Bible over and over again rails against fornication and over and he even said that those who just continue in fornication if they're called a brother should be put out of the church you know so this is a major big sin not something small to be trifled with and and to sit there and I've had people just say well it's just not realistic today though but I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me and you know what you got guys you know I believe that the Bible teach it's better to marry than to burn you know and the Bible teaches that to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband to avoid fornication so that the answer to avoiding fornication is to get married that's what the Bible teaches now obviously when you're a teenager that's not practical because you know you're you're you're still too young and you're you're you're still getting established as an adult and everything and so you need to be at and you need to be abstaining as a teenager and you just need to exercise self-control and wait until you're an adult and then just because you're an adult you might not necessarily find the right person right away but you need to pray that God will lead you the right person and listen guys you actually have to talk to girls you know you know you can't just expect it to fall out of the sky you know you have to actually go out and look for it okay and so you need to go out and and meet people and work toward that because honestly living as a single guy is dangerous if you're one that's that's has a strong urge in that area you know you need to get married that's the best way to do it and of course many churches and many sectors of our society will discourage you from getting married and they want you to be 30 when you get married and you know or they want you to at least wait until you finish this or finish that or whatever but you know what I think getting married young is a good thing in today's society now I'm not saying to rush out and just marry the first person that comes along but honestly there's nothing wrong with getting married you know if you find if you can find a godly person to get married to there's nothing wrong with getting married young you know and it's actually good for you say well you know you got to go live life but you know what your life is not over when you get married you know I mean it's not like that's it life's over it was fun now it's just time to begin the suffering phase you know you can still enjoy life after you get married but honestly when I when my parents were getting married but when my parents got married my dad was 20 and my mom was 19 and that was normal back then I mean that was just what everybody was I wasn't considered but then when I got married when I was 19 everybody's like whoa what are you doing you're getting married you're 19 or a pastor Roger Jimenez in Sacramento California he got married when he's 18 whoa what are you doing well you know what isn't it amazing how he's serving God you know and he hasn't gone off the deep end and he's married and has children and and doing a good work for God but then there are some of the other people who didn't get married in the same church youth group that just kind of went off and floated around in their single years and whatever and got away from the Lord and got backslidden and everything else so in a sense getting married sometimes kind of keeps you straight anyway you know and keeps you on the right path with with God because it's responsibility it's good for you but you know God says here evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts you know obviously murder begins with hatred in your heart for someone thefts that begins with coveting and lusting after things that don't belong to you lasciviousness or I skipped one here wickedness deceit lasciviousness and evil eye blasphemy pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and defile the man so that's what Jesus teaching that we need to get our heart right because if we cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter the outside will be clean also and if we have a clean heart and a clean mind and if we think the right thoughts about our spouse then we're not going to fall into this stuff because we have a good thought life that's very important that our heart is right