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["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] Lord God, Heavenly Father, I thank you for giving us this day. I thank you for allowing us to come here to your house, Lord, and hear the preaching of your word freely. And to fellowship with like-minded brethren, Lord, and to be here with God's people. And I thank you for every precious soul that's in this church tonight, Lord. I ask that you please bless this service tonight. I ask that you please bless the singing that may be pleasing unto your ears, Lord. And I ask that you please fill past me here with your spirit as he preaches. That he may preach boldly, Lord, and I ask that you please also give us your spirit as we listen. That we may leave here at a five. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen, you may be seated. Please turn your songbooks to song number 183. Song number 183, Oh How I Love Jesus. Song number 183, all together nice and strong on that first verse. There is a name I love to hear I love to sing it's birth It sounds like music in my ear The sweetest name on earth Oh, how I love Jesus Oh, how I love Jesus Oh, how I love Jesus Because he first loved me It tells me of a Savior's love Who died to set me free It tells me of his precious blood The sinner's perfect plea Oh, how I love Jesus Oh, how I love Jesus Oh, how I love Jesus Because he first loved me It tells me what my Father had In store for every day And though I tread a darksome path Yield sunshine all the way Oh, how I love Jesus Oh, how I love Jesus Oh, how I love Jesus Because he first loved me It tells of one who's loving heart Who in each sorrow bears a part That none can bear below Oh, how I love Jesus Oh, how I love Jesus Oh, how I love Jesus Because he first loved me Alright, great singing. Thank you for being here this evening. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song, which will be song number 100 day by day if you want to get that ready in your songbooks. Song number 100, just a few announcements. Of course, our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030 Sunday evening at 5 p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock currently going through the book of 1 Samuel. You see the so many times in teams and the list of expecting mothers. Please continue to pray for them and the important reminders there at the bottom. I do want to mention that, ladies, I want to make sure that you are utilizing the mother baby rooms throughout the service. Of course, the foyer and fellowship hall are designated for the men because we don't have a father baby room. And so, ladies, if you have to take out your children for a temporary time, make sure you're utilizing the mother baby rooms located on the side of the building. And then some of the upcoming church events. Of course, we have the ladies prayer breakfast coming up on Saturday, August 27th. You can see Ms. Janelle Gonzalez for more details about that. The September birthday breakfast along with the Judea soul winning is on September 4th. And then we have a homeschool field trip to the Discovery Cube in Orange County on Wednesday, September 14th. Of course, this activity is paid for. And so, if you are homeschooling your children, you can see my wife for details about that. And, of course, any activity in our church is free. So, I want to encourage you to be a part of that. We have the men's prayer night coming up on Friday, September 30th. And then, of course, the regular announcements there at the bottom. I do want to make sure that I am clear on the quiet time throughout the building is from 3 to 4.15 throughout the whole building. And let me just reiterate what that means. It means the lights are off and there's no fellowshipping in the building during that time. I'm not forbidding you to fellowship because you're fellowshipping before and after service. I'm designating this time to make sure that that takes place. And that means the lights are off. And so, when the lights are off at 3 p.m., that doesn't give you the right to go and just switch them on and, you know, kind of do your own thing. Make sure you respect that rule that we have at our church. And if you want to fellowship, there's plenty of other places outside of the building for that. But we are designating that particular time for people to rest and to get ready for Sunday night church. So make sure you respect that. And I don't want to keep announcing that. You know, this is something that's pretty clear. We announce it pretty much every week, and so make sure you respect that. And then, lastly, of course, make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. This is going to take so many numbers. Is there a reason why the SeaWorld card is here? Oh, it belongs to someone in our church. We'll make sure you collect this afterwards, Brother Ulysses, and give it to its rightful person, okay? And if you don't, then we'll take a trip this week, all right? No, I'm just kidding. All right, so many numbers. From Monday to Thursday, any salvations from Monday to Thursday? How about Friday and Saturday? Friday and Saturday? One. One right over here. Two right over here. One for Brother Glenn right there. Anybody else? How about this afternoon, salvations for this afternoon? Four for Brother Marcos' team. One for Brother Cody's team. One for Brother Morrie's team. One for Brother Glenn's team. One for Brother Ulysses' team. Anybody else? Did I miss anybody? Going once, twice, thrice. Okay, keep up the great work on soloing, and let's go ahead and sing our next song. Song number 100, Day by Day. Song number 100. All together on that first verse. Day by day, and with each passing moment, Strength I find to meet my trials here, Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear, He whose art is kind beyond all measure, Yet unto each day what he deems best, Lovingly it's part of pain and pleasure, Mingling toil with peace and rest, Every day the Lord himself is near me, With a special mercy for each hour, All my cares he fain would bear and cheer me, He whose name is Counsellor and Pound, The protection of his child and treasure, Is a charge that on himself he lay, As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure, This the pledge to me he made, Help me then in every tribulation, So to trust thy promises O Lord, That I lose not faints with consolation, Offered me within thy holy Word, Help me Lord with toil and trouble meeting, There to take as from a Father's hand, One by one the days the moment's fleeting, Till I reach the promised land. Amen. Wonderful singing. At this time the ushers will come forth to collect the offering, and you can turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter number 13. Amen. Amen. Good evening. Tonight we're in Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13 and the Bible reads, Let brotherly love continue, Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, For thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, As bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, As being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Let your conversation be without covetousness, And be content with such things as you have, For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, And I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Remember them which have the rule over you, Who have spoken unto you the word of God, Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ is same yesterday and today and forever. Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines, For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, Not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary By the high priests for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, Suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, That is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not, For with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, For they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, That they may do it with joy and not with grief, For that is unprofitable for you. Pray for us, for we trust that we have a good conscience, And all things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you, though rather to do this, That I may be restored to you the sooner. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, That great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make ye perfect in every good work to do his will, Working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation, For I have written a letter unto you in few words. Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, With whom, if he comes shortly, I will see you. Salute all them that have the rule over you, And all the saints, they of Italy salute you. Grace be with you all. Amen. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for this church, Lord. We thank you for the King James Bible, Lord. And we thank you for pastor right now, Lord. We pray that you bless him, and give him boldness, And fill him with your spirit, Lord, as he preaches your word. And I pray we're edified by the preaching, and we walk away changed, Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Hebrews chapter 13, and look down at your Bibles at verse number 1. It says, Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, For thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember then that are in bonds as bound with them, And then which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body. Verse number 4, Marriage is honorable in all things, And the bed undefiled, But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. And the title of my sermon this evening is, The destructive nature of adultery and fornication. The destructive nature of adultery and fornication. Of course, tonight will be the last installment of the series on the biblical home. And I want to address, of course, marriage, But more specifically, that which threatens marriage, One of the greatest threats to marriage is, of course, adultery. And of course, I know that not everyone here is married, And so I'm going to throw in the mix as well, the wicked sin of fornication. And the reason it's important to talk about these things is because, You know, we live in a day and age in which our society is very accepting of these particular sins. And not only accepting of them, but they kind of tolerate them. They try to belittle the severity of these particular sins. And we never want to be the type of church that, you know, It kind of just, it's like water off a duck's back. We don't think much of it. You know, we're all sinners, and people just commit these things. You know, we want to make sure that our standard remains as high as God wants us to keep it, In regards to these particular sins, that we're not committing these sins, That we're not tolerating it in our church, And that we address them, not necessarily frequently, But often enough that we keep these at the forefront of our church's mind, So that we understand it completely. Now, here in Hebrews chapter 13, the Bible is telling us here that, Marriage is honorable in all things and in the bed of the Father. What does that mean? God essentially permits married couples to enjoy themselves. And obviously we don't want to get graphic, But he's essentially saying that he permits that physical relationship. There's nothing sinful about it. There's nothing wicked about it. Of course, the world tries to throw a wicked blanket over it, And tries to paint it as something that is dirty, Something that is forbidden. But the Bible says here that it's undefiled. Wow, the bed is undefiled between two individuals who are married, And have covenanted before God that they will remain with each other. You know, it's an honorable thing for them to be physical together, And in fact, God commands it. And in fact, the exact opposite is actually true. When two individuals who are married decide to abstain from that physical relationship, God actually considers that to be sinful. Because he's designated marriage to be that institution, Wherewith two individuals can fulfill that desire, And fulfill that need, that physical need that they have. But then he also counters that and he says, However, you know, whoremongers, Referring to a male who is just kind of sleeping around, He's just going around with different women, That's what a whoremonger is. He says, whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. So he's essentially saying, yes, marriage is honorable, But those who don't want to honor marriage, God's going to judge those individuals. You know, marriage is honorable in all things, the bed undefiled, But those who choose to defile the bed by not honoring marriage, God is going to judge that individual severely. Now, this is obviously true for the unsaved, Because there are built-in consequences to adultery and fornication, But it's even more true for Christians, Because we have God as our Heavenly Father, And the Bible says, Whom the Lord loveth He chaseneth, And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. And the Bible also tells us that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Essentially telling us that when someone is just in open rebellion against God, They are just involved in sin, they're not willing to repent or get right with God, God will chastise that person, And what that means is that He will punish them. Now, how does that take place? We don't necessarily know. It can range from anything from smiting them with a botch, To just taking their lives completely away. It's obviously at the Lord's discretion of how severe He wants that judgment to come upon that individual, But I'll just say this, I don't want to find out. I'm not here saying, well, it depends, what kind of judgment is it though? How severely am I going to get punished for that? I just don't want to get judged, period. Obviously, I love my wife, I know my wife loves me, But we are sinners, and if we're not careful, Both of us, anybody in this church, any individual, Can place themselves in a situation, in a precarious circumstance, Where they can commit an ungodly sin. And so, you know, in order to avoid that, We need to keep on the forefront of our minds that God will punish us, And that will motivate us to stay right with God, And not put ourselves in that position. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 21, if you would, Deuteronomy chapter 21. Let me say this, is that adultery and fornication are two sexual sins, That would be under the canopy of sexual sins, And they're the same in the sense that they are under that same canopy, But they are very much distinctive sins, In the sense that one is actually far more grievous than the other. They're both wicked, they're both very sinful, They're both grievous in the eyes of God, But one is far more grievous than the other, And the reason we know that is because there is a punishment that is instituted upon one, That is not instituted for the other. And what I'm referring to is that the act of adultery is so wicked in the eyes of God, That in the Old Testament, he essentially instituted the death penalty for the person who committed it. Would you think to yourself, what in the world, the death penalty? Isn't the death penalty for murderers? Isn't it for kidnappers? Isn't it for sodomites? Isn't it for all these other particular sins that are considered capital crimes? Yeah, well adultery in God's eyes is considered a capital crime. Now it's not like that in the United States of America, but who cares? Who cares what the morality of the world says? Who cares what the TV shows say, and how they try to water it down, And make it seem as though it's just a normal thing that people do, It's just the man being a playa, it's just the lady being, I don't know, a playa, right? What do they call a woman? What do they call her? I don't know. A ho, yeah. At the end of the day, it's grievous in God's eyes to the point where he would even say that it merits the death penalty. Now this is not to say that today in 2022, Christians are to institute, we're not God's hand of justice, To bring this about and try to put people to death for committing adultery. I will say this, if someone commits adultery in our church and they're unrepentant of it, they get thrown out of the church. That is the punishment that we've instituted, because God has deputized our church, and myself specifically, To judge those type of matters, whether someone should be allowed to have church membership, Based upon those particular sins that we see in 1 Corinthians 5. And 1 Corinthians 5 says that people can get thrown out for the sin of fornication, but not adultery, but folks. If you can get thrown out for the sin of fornication, God's expecting us to use common sense to say, Okay adultery, for sure you get thrown out for that. Now look at Deuteronomy 21 and look at verse 28, it says here, If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, That word betrothed means that she's not engaged. Now today when people get engaged, it's not necessarily the way engagement was viewed as in the Old Testament. When someone was engaged in the Old Testament, it was almost essentially like they were married. The difference being is that the relationship had not culminated to the point where they're physical with one another. He says, If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, And lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found, Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, And she shall be his wife, because he hath humbled her, He may not put her away all his days, A man shall not take his father's wife, nor discover his father's skirt. So what this is essentially saying is that, and by the way, what a lot of people try to interpret this as, Is that when the Bible says that he lays hold on her, They want to say that that's referring to rape. And the reason they'll interpret it as that is because of the fact that the modern versions of the Bible Will translate this as rape. Because it says, lay hold on her. But the Bible actually describes rape as being forcing. When a man forces a woman, the implication there is that he's raping her. When he lays hold on a woman, apparently people don't seem to understand That when two people commit fornication, it's impossible to be physically having physical intercourse Without touching each other. So you have to kind of lay hold on each other in order to do that. But the world's mind is so perverted that they wouldn't even think of laying hold on someone As being something that's forced upon them. Now what is the punishment for this individual who commits fornication with a woman who is not betrothed? Well the punishment is that he has to pay 50 shekels of silver and essentially marry her. He pays 50 shekels of silver as a dowry to her father and then he's obligated to marry this young woman Who he slept with. And he shall not put her away all his days. Now obviously dowry is not even a thing today. Although I will say this is that I went to a church where there was a lot of Cambodians. And Cambodians still practice dowry. And in fact I knew people in our church at that time who, there was a lot of Cambodians there who would get married And the father or the mother required a dowry. And I remember dudes having to save up money to purchase their wife or whatever. But typically the way it worked is they would give them a dowry, then they would get married and then the parents would give it back. And it was kind of like a test. Are you willing to pay this dowry for my daughter? The sad kind of thing was that dowries were buried based on how good looking their daughters were. And I'm not joking either. Because they would have certain families if they had various daughters. There were certain daughters that were worth more. And they had no problem with telling you this one is prettier than the other one. I mean it's jacked up but it's just the way things were. Another funny thing is, well I guess it's not funny, but they would pay this dowry. I've heard of stories where they would pay this dowry. And it's customary to give the dowry back after they got married but some of them wouldn't give it back. But it is a biblical concept that we see here. And I'm not saying that God has commanded us to do this. I'm not going to do this with my daughters. I don't think it's something that is imposed upon us. But it was customary for them to do so. But I think more than anything it pictures the fact that if a man commits fornication he should be willing to pay the price. You understand? There's a price to be paid for committing that act of fornication. What God is essentially saying is that hey there's some responsibilities that come. You want that privilege of having that physical relationship. Well you need to marry that woman and make an honest woman out of her. And actually care for and marry her and be willing to pay the price to have that physical relationship. Now that's one of the penalties essentially that someone would pay in those days for committing the act of fornication. Go with me if you want to. Go to Deuteronomy 24. That was one of the penalties. In the earlier chapter in Deuteronomy 21 what you actually see is that if a man married a woman and on their wedding night he thinks that she's not a virgin. Then what he would do is he would essentially want to put her away. But it was customary and the rule was you have to bring the tokens of her virginity. What that simply means is that on a marriage night if she's a virgin according to the Bible the tokens of the virgin is referring to the fact that the sheets would show that she was a virgin. That's all I'm going to say and you can ask your parents later on what that means. The sheets should show that she was a virgin. And so if he's like oh she wasn't a virgin, she claimed to be a virgin, she wasn't. Well then the judges would want to see the tokens of her virginity. And if the tokens of her virginity were there then he would be immersed in 100 shekels of silver. In other words he would have to pay 100 shekels of silver to her father because he brought up an evil report on the father. Just think about it. You go to the dad and he's like hey your daughter wasn't a virgin you guys lied or whatever. But then you have the tokens of her virginity, the father brings that to the judges and so they would immerse him and so he would have to pay that price for bringing an evil name. However if it was true that the tokens of her virginity were not there and she was not a virgin then essentially she would be stoned. They would bring it to her father's house and actually stone her to death. Now you say man that seems like a harsh penalty there. Well the Bible says that that would take place because she had played the whore in her father's house. And essentially what's being implied here is the fact that the father and or the daughter deceived the man into saying that she was a virgin. There was deception involved and then a covenant was made based upon this preconceived idea that she was a virgin but she wasn't because they were deceiving him. And so she would be put to death because she is playing the whore. Now look at Deuteronomy 24 verse number 1 it says when a man hath taken a wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes because he hath found some uncleanness in her. Then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his house. Now what is this talking about because it would almost seem as though it's the same situation here. Now I'm going to give you two interpretations to this and I'll let the viewer decide. I believe it's one of these and how we can interpret this as meaning here is that in Deuteronomy 21 you have deception whereas in Deuteronomy 24 the woman isn't necessarily given over to a man by her father. She's kind of like on her own. And there wasn't necessarily a promise that she was a virgin. They got married and then the Bible says here that he found some uncleanness in her. Now what does that mean uncleanness? Well I believe it could be referring to the fact that uncleanness obviously is synonymous with fornication but uncleanness could be that she had some sort of sexually transmitted disease. And yes STDs did exist back then. They've always existed because people have always fornicated and committed these acts and so it could be that he contracted some sort of STD and thereby he saw oh man there's some uncleanness in her and he wrote her a bill of divorcement because of the fact that she made him diseased. And obviously this is on the marriage night so if she's putting herself out to be someone who is not unclean then he would do that. Now we see an example of this in the New Testament with Mary. And if you notice the story with Mary we don't necessarily see anything about her father giving her to Joseph to wed. It's just the story between Mary and Joseph and then of course Joseph is minded to put her away privily because he thought she had committed this act of fornication in the betrothal stage. Therefore he was going to write her a bill of divorcement but then of course we know that what she has is of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, etc. But we see that's a proof right there that there are instances in the Bible where a man did not give his daughter away. Maybe the man wasn't even in the picture. And there's nothing new under the sun. Same case today. There's instances where a father does give away his daughter but there's other instances where some girls are just kind of on their own. And they get married and then you have a situation like this, etc. But in either case, no matter what it is, there is a consequence to fornication obviously. The consequence being either there's fornication involved prior to that, you can contract some sort of STD, you can have some sort of venereal disease that can destroy your body. I mean this is what we're looking at here. Now go to Leviticus chapter 20 if you would. Let's just read this verse to show regarding adultery. While you're going there, I'm going to read to you from 1 Corinthians 10 verse 8. It says, Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Now if God was still doing this today, there'd be a lot less fornication. Amen? Well you don't expect us to do, you expect us to see the story and fear God and thank Him for His mercy and recognize, you know what? Our nation should not promote fornication. It should not promote adultery because God at any point in time can just smite thousands of people. But this should also cause singles to fear and recognize, yeah, you know, your mom and dad might not know what you're doing and no one else might not know what you're doing other than your boyfriend or your girlfriend. But that doesn't mean that God doesn't know what you're doing. And God at any time can smite you with the botch, it can smite you with the itching, it can smite you with HIV. You say, well I thought HIV was only like a disease for sodomites. Yeah but sodomites also sleep with the opposite gender too. They go both ways. And so they can easily contract the disease from some reprobate and then sleep with you and give you that same disease and guess what? Your life is destroyed forever. I mean this side of eternity obviously. Or you might not even contract a disease but you might have a child, a bastard child. That's such a dirty word to say. Well you know that's the word the Bible uses and there's a reason why it's so coarse and there's a reason why it has such an intense feeling to it. It's because of the fact that God wants you to understand you should not have a bastard as a child. A bastard being when a child is born out of wedlock. You understand? You know two people fornicate, they create a child, they create a bastard in God's eyes. And that seems harsh but you know what? The law of the Lord is perfect and there's a reason He states it in this manner to cause singles to not want to do such a stupid thing as fornicate. You know control yourself, learn how to possess your vessel in sanctification and in honor and learn how to not burn within yourself. Go lift some weights, go eat something, go hang out, go soul winning, go work, go exert your body so you're not constantly thinking about that physical relationship and then you go out and do something stupid. And look folks, you know afterwards thy mouth shall be filled with gravel. You may have pleasure for a little night or whatever but you know what? The consequences that fornication brings upon a life can even be for a lifetime. And those consequences that you face after committing fornication will greatly outweigh the pleasure that you experienced for that one little season. So fornication is wicked and you know what? Any teenager or young adult that commits fornication in our church, you're on thin ice because you can get thrown out of the church just like that. And don't think well you know we just won't tell the pastor, he won't know about it. Folks you know I'm a prophet of the Lord and I am full of judgment and I'm just going to say this. For some reason, you know when things like that happen in our church, you know I just have a, somehow I find out about it. And it's not because I go investigate it, it's not because I'm just like policing everyone. It's just that God wants me to know about it to take out the leaven out of the church so it doesn't leaven the entire lump. So it doesn't destroy the church and then you're made a public spectacle, you're made a public example until the entire church because you committed a sin of fornication. You're not willing to repent about it and then I got to preach on it and call you out on it. You don't want that. Fornication brings shame, it produces bastard children. It can cause you to contract a venereal disease. There's all types of consequences that come with it. You know and so I'm going to give a couple points later on in the sermon regarding the singles and fornication. But let me just say this is that, you know, right off the bat, you need to control yourself. And if you're in a relationship where it's just like that temptation is constantly there, where you just constantly have to fight that relationship, then guess what? Get out of it. What do I do pastor? Well if that person is constantly tempting you to commit the wicked act of fornication, here's a novel thought. Break up with that person. Oh but they're a believer. Break up with that person. It doesn't matter. They're King James only though. Well apparently not so King James only that they don't seem to see what the Bible says about fornication. Look at the penalty for adultery. Leviticus 20 verse 10 says, And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, The adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. That's what the Bible says about adultery. It's so grievous in the eyes of God that their lives should be taken. That's what the Bible says. Now again, this is not something that we would institute today because the government doesn't issue the death penalty for adultery. But it's enough for us to recognize the severity of this sin that we should not take it lightly. The Bible also says in Matthew 5 28, Now here's a really stupid argument that people bring up. Oh you know how can you say that adultery should be put to death? You know that people commit adultery when they lust after a woman in their hearts. Are we supposed to put people to death who just think about adultery in their hearts? Well no because no one can see in anybody's heart. Smart aleck. There's no death penalty for what you think in your heart. Obviously only God knows what you think in your heart. Only God knows the sins that are in your heart. Only God knows the iniquity that you regard in your heart. But he's instituting a physical punishment of something that's actually carried out. And so obviously thinking about adultery in your heart, lusting after a woman in your heart is wicked in the eyes of God. And the reason we should abstain from even doing that in our hearts is because thoughts eventually lead to actions. When you meditate upon something, you think upon it, you are regarding it in your heart, it will eventually manifest itself in real life and you could potentially carry that act out in your life. You know for as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. It's important that we clean up our minds and we make sure that we don't regard iniquity in our hearts. That we meditate upon God's word and we keep our minds busy so we're not thinking upon those things. Go to Proverbs chapter 5 if you would. We're going to go through three different chapters in the book of Proverbs. And we're literally probably just going to read through the entire chapter and I'm just going to make some commentary. Because the chapters are so good when it comes to this subject of adultery and fornication. It's pretty self explanatory. But it has to do with the harlot, it has to do with fornication, it has to do with adultery. Look what the Bible says in verse number 1 of Proverbs 5. My son, untended to wisdom, my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding, that thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge. Now if Christians can just learn those first two verses. What is he saying? Listen to me. Just listen. Bow your ear to my understanding. Why? Verse 3. For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb and her mouth is smoother than oil. Now this isn't referring to her lip gloss, although this could probably apply it to that. When it says that her mouth drops as a honeycomb and her mouth is smoother than oil, it means this is a woman, this strange woman, is a woman who flatters with her mouth. She tells you smooth things. She tells her that you're a snack. She tries to appeal to your flesh and compliment you and say these things to you to kind of reel you in. And I also want you to notice that he calls her the strange woman. Another word for strange is like a foreigner. Think of foreigners are people who are not supposed to be. They're from another nation, right? And they are intermeddling with another nation. They're a stranger, they're a foreigner. Well, you know, pretty much every woman other than your own wife is a stranger. Right? Strange woman. You say, what if I'm not married? Well, still a stranger because you're not supposed to be committing fornication. That's not to say that you're just like every woman is wicked. Don't go to this MGTOW, you know, this Andrew Tate MGTOW type of philosophy where just like every woman is just wicked, they just want your money. And by the way, I know that's out there. And there's wicked women out there who just want to, you know, take a man's money or whatever. But you know what, if you're a Christian, you ain't got to worry about that. You probably ain't got no money. But don't paint women with a broad brush and say all women are bad. You know, these guys, these MGTOW fools who are out there, they just got dumped too many times or something. MGTOW is code for I suck at getting a girl. That's what it is. They're just like all women are bad but they only say that because all the women they try to talk to turn them down. Because they ain't got no game at the end of the day. But you know what, Christians, we shouldn't follow that philosophy. We go according to God's economy. And we know that there's still godly women out there, there's women who love the Lord, they fear God, they love the Bible, they love souls, they want to be pure. And yes, there are women out there who are virgins still. And so, you know, you young men don't get carried about with every wind of doctrine by this culture that says that all women are bad and they only want your money. Because that is something that has infiltrated churches and Christians. You see Christians buying into that nonsense. Well, I'm just going to give my life to so many because all women are bad. It's like stupid. This is the dumbest thing you ever hear. God has instituted, he sanctioned marriage and then you have these MGTOW fools who say, well that's wicked though because all women are bad or something. So you're saying that what God made is wicked? It's nonsensical. Learn how to talk to women. Get in a fire-breathing church. Get godly. Read the word of God. Pray for God's favor. And stop being a little weenie. And stop being so picky. And learn how to talk to women. Learn how to be respectful towards women. Don't treat women like your brother or your best friend. What's up bro? That's probably one of the reasons why you can't find a girl. Every girl you talk to you treat like a bro. Women are to be treated delicately. They're feminine. They're women. They're the weaker vessel. They should be treated with honor and respect. Not bro. But the strange woman. So it says in verse number 4, But her end is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold on hell. Lest thou shouldst ponder the path of life. Her ways are movable that thou canst not know them. What is he saying? You know the strange woman is unstable. They're movable. You know she doesn't stay at home. Verse 7, Here in me now therefore, O you children, depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove thy way far from her. Come not nigh to the door of her house. You shouldn't be best friends with the strange woman of this world. Lest thou give thine honor unto others and thy years unto the cruel. Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth and thy labors be in the house of a stranger. And thou mourn at last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed. And say, How have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers? Why didn't I listen to Pastor Mejia? I thought he was just being a meanie up there and he just said all those weird stuff and, you know, amigtao and all that. Nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me. I was almost an all-evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. He's saying, Look, wake up before you get to this point. Wake up! Don't be like this individual who says, Man, I wish I had made the right decision because there comes a point where you can no longer make the right decision. Verse 15. So obviously this individual here, this can be applied to a single, but it can also be applied to a married person because a strange woman goes for both. And therefore he says in verse 15, Drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of water in the streets. Let them be only thine own and not strangers with thee. You know, your bodily fluid should only be for your spouse. That's all I'm going to say about that. That's essentially what it's saying. Let thy fountains be blessed. Verse 18. And look what it says here. And rejoice with the wife of thy youth. What is he saying? You know, you should be happy and content with your spouse. Be happy with your wife. Rejoice with, you know, if you would just take the time to rejoice with your wife, you wouldn't be seeking to rejoice with someone else's wife or some strange woman who's not married or whatever. If you would just appreciate what you have at home, you wouldn't be tempted to go about looking for another relationship. Verse 19. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe. Let her breast satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished always with her love. What does that mean, let her breast satisfy thee at all times? He's essentially saying, because if you look at, let's see here. Verse 20 says, and embrace the bosom of a stranger. When he says, let her breast satisfy thee at all times, he's saying, be content with embracing only your wife. Because when you embrace your wife, her breasts are pressed against your chest as well. He's essentially saying, you know, you should be satisfied and ravished with your wife and embrace her bosom, not some strangers. What does it mean to be ravished? Just be in love with your spouse. What's wrong with just being passionately in love with your spouse? What's wrong with just being excited in your marriage and, you know, playing with your wife and playing with your husband, acting like you guys are still dating like back in the day? Ain't nothing wrong with that. The Bible says, be ravished with your wife. So stupid, it was just like before marriage, it's like you guys couldn't get away from each other. It's like you guys couldn't get off of each other. But then after marriage, it's like we have to like tell you to hold hands. We have to tell you to go on dates. It's like before marriage, it's like all you want to do is hold hands. All you want to do is kiss. All you want to do is hug. But then after marriage, it's just like, you know, hold hands. Where is the excitement in that? It's nonsensical. Verse 20, And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman? Embrace the bosom of a stranger. For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings. God's always watching you, my friend. His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. He shall die without instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. Now notice that it says regarding the strange woman that her feet take hold on hell. And here we see that he shall die without instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. Essentially what it's saying here is that just as a person, when they go to hell, they just never come back from that. You know, there's no one who's gone to hell, other than Jesus Christ, obviously. But there's no one who has died and gone to hell who's been able to come back. Don't listen to these prosperity preachers, you know, on Sid Roth's video channel or whatever. We're talking about, I went to hell and I saw people there and, you know, people need to repent. It's a lie. By the way, that person who's saying that is going to go to hell. He's lying about the fact that he went to hell, but he is going to go there one day, though, for sure. What this is saying, because it's relating it to that, it's essentially saying, you know, the person who commits adultery, they can't come back from that. That's like a reproach that stays on them for the rest of their life. Do you want that reproach upon your life? Do you want that stigma on your marriage? That you just committed this act and you just can't? And by the way, obviously we have the grace and the mercy of God, and when two individuals make a mistake and they commit that act, you know, if they serve God and live for God and they do things the biblical way, you know, they can outlive those consequences. In the sense of, you know, they can put that behind them and start serving God and God can work all things together for good. You understand? But in general, that reproach is never wiped away. Now go to chapter 6, if you would. And I know what I'm saying tonight is a hard saying, but you need to receive it, okay? Because I want to save people from heartache, from destruction, save marriages from being just torn down and destroyed, save the singles from making a stupid decision of committing fornication, producing bastard children, or getting an STD. Is that so bad for me to want that for, you know, our church? Look at verse 23 of chapter number 6, it says here, For the commandment is a lamp in the law's light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. You know, part of life is just telling you you're doing wrong and correcting that in your life. But he says here in verse 24, why? He says, To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. What is the flattery of the tongue? It's the woman on Instagram, on social media, who flatters you, who sweet talks you. Why would it cause that flattery? Verse 25, Lest not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids. Now this may not make a whole lot of sense to you today, wait, maybe it does because I think long eyelashes are coming in now, right? You guys seen those long eyelashes? It's just like they can fly with those things. It's just like they wink at you and you're just like... Now why do they do that? Because they're trying to take you with their eyelids. And sometimes those eyelids, eyelashes are so big they may physically actually take you. This is all essentially referring to a woman who does all these outward things to attract a mate. And this is not to say, we're not saying women don't try to fix yourself up or whatever. Obviously the physical appearance is important for both men and women. What this is saying is that this particular individual, the evil woman, only depends on this. And is seeking to attract a mate by carnal means, you understand? By the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes. He says there, verse 25, Lest not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread. What does that mean? She'll make you go broke. And the adulteress, listen to this, will hunt for the precious life. What does that mean? You know, don't take lightly the evil woman. She's extremely dangerous. She's extremely dangerous and in fact, she makes it her agenda to hunt for the precious life. Now who's the precious life? Well that could mean, you know, an innocent young man, a virgin young man, a Christian who is serving God. That's a precious life because, you know, the whoremongers of this world are not precious lives, my friends. There's nothing valuable about them. You know what's valuable is a young man who's serving God, who's reading the word of God, who's in church, who has values and morals, who loves God, he loves his mom, he loves his dad, he loves the pastor, he loves the church members, he loves the word of God, he loves the Lord Jesus Christ. Well guess what? The adulteress will hunt for that precious life. You know, and who's this adulteress? We don't know. It could vary. It could be that woman on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok or it could be, you know, that woman at your workforce, right? Who's trying to tempt you to kind of reel you in. He says there in verse number, what verse are we in? Verse 27, He's saying, you know, if a person steals, there's actually a solution to that. When a person steals, they return that back, they recompense the individual who they stole from, but you don't want someone who commits adultery, there's like no solution to that. Especially not in the day and age in which we live, the death penalty isn't instituted for adultery. So you have to live with that pain, that pain, that sorrow and that regret, that emotional pain that a person experiences when adultery is committed. It says here in verse number 33, A wound and a dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away, for jealousy is the rage of a man. Therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts. Now obviously I'm preaching to the young man to beware of these evil women, but you know, young ladies can apply this to themselves as well and we can flip this around to talk about the evil men. Because there are evil men out there who want to take advantage of the ladies in our church or just innocent ladies in general, you apply these principles as well. And also, ladies, make sure you apply this in a way that this doesn't characterize who you are. Don't be characterized by being an adulterous woman, don't be characterized by being an evil woman, hey don't be characterized as one who is trying to seek to hunt for the precious life. And let me just say this again, if you were divorced, if you're divorced in our church, male or woman, you have no right to try to spark up or start a relationship with any young man or young lady in our church. No right! Stay away from them! And let me just say this, any time I preach something like this, and then the next service or the next couple weeks, you just do the exact opposite of what I just said, that's not ignorance my friend, you're being an open reproach to my sermon and this church and my leadership. You know, because the logical thing to do is like, you know, I preach this so that people can examine themselves and say, well, I gotta make sure I stay as far away from them as I possibly can. So that I'm not, you know, so that I abstain from all appearance of evil. That's like the logical conclusion that someone should come to when I preach on something like that, right? I preach on something, it's just like, alright, you know, pastor means business about this, we should just abstain from even looking like we're doing that. The stupid thing to do, and yes, I said stupid, idiotic, stupid thing to do would be to do the exact opposite and do exactly what I said you shouldn't do, okay? I don't care what your motives are. I don't give a crap what your motives are. Because I can't see your heart. And you can say, well, you know, it's purely platonic, we're just friends, and we're just trying to, we're just brothers and sisters in Christ. Both love the Lord and we're part of this church family. Yeah, but you know, it doesn't really look like that, does it? It doesn't look like that. And you know what? I'm just telling you, I'm being patient. I'm trying to be as merciful as I possibly can. I'm trying to be long suffering. But sometimes people just walk on thin ice. They just want to walk on thin ice. It's like, well, who am I supposed to be friends with? I don't know, there's like 130 people in our church. You can't find anybody else to be friends with other than single young men or single young ladies when you've been divorced? Hello? There's no one else in our church you can't be a friend with? Can the men who are, let's say, 20 years old raise your hand? 20 and up, raise your hand. Can the ladies who are 20 and up raise their hands as well? You could be friends with them. Of the same sex. There's just no one in our, you know, if you feel like there's no one in our church that you can be a friend of, I guess you've got to go to another church. Because we ain't got what you need, apparently. I guess you just have, you know, I guess there's, you need to go to some other fundamental Baptist church where maybe the pastor's divorced and he ain't got a problem with that and you can befriend every single Tom, Dick, and Harry in that church. Folks, do yourself a favor and don't bring me to this position here. Where I have to just constantly reiterate things because you just openly rebel against it. And I don't care, you can bring all the excuses in the book you want. Oh, you know, he's, she's just like my daughter or he's just like my son. Wrong answer. Wrong answer. Wrong answer. You're digging yourself deeper. And look, if you don't like what I'm saying, there's the door. Don't let the door hit you where the Lord split you. I can care less if you leave. I don't. Because if you're being, you're willingly being in open reproach to our church and to the preaching of God's word, we don't need you in our church. And I far more value the young men and the young ladies in our church who are trying to serve God, they're trying to be pure, and maybe they're unstable, okay, maybe they just don't have, maybe they're a little naive, because sometimes teenagers and young people can be a little naive. That's why God gives them, like, authority, their parental authority, they give them biblical authority to kind of help them navigate through these things. And so I want to protect the young people. Don't bring me to another situation like this, because the next time there won't be another, there's not going to be another sermon about this. There's not going to be another, I will not preach another sermon about this. Are you saying you're just going to let them do whatever they want? Nope. What I mean is that the next sermon is not going to be from here, it's going to be from here. To your face. Right before I throw you out of our church. And so let me just make myself very clear, quiet time is from 3 to 4.15 pm. Oh wait, that was the other rule I have to constantly reiterate. Here's the rule, if you're divorced in our church, we love you, the Lord loves you, there's plenty of friends that you can fellowship with who are your age in this church, and if you feel like that's not the case, then go somewhere else. Our church is only five years old, so we don't have all the glitz and glamour of having every single age range in our church, I get that, and if you feel like you can't flourish with your relationships in our church, and there's just no one who you can be with and talk to, then go find another church where you can do that. But don't disobey the rules of our church. Go to chapter 7. And look, this goes for anything that I preach. Anything that I preach on or against, from here on out. If you do the exact opposite of that, and look, I'm not saying you can't disagree with me, because obviously anybody can disagree with me. This is not some sort of church where you've just got to be in lockstep with what I say. But folks, use discretion and wisdom. Be a respectful person. Because it's disrespectful that when something is made clear, I blow a gasket, which I just blew another one right now, and I've got no more gaskets left. When I blow a gasket and then you do the exact opposite, that's disrespectful. And in my mind, regardless of what your motives are, you know how I see that? I don't care what he says. I'm still going to do it. Because I'm not doing anything bad. We're not going to do anything wrong. I don't care what you think or what you claim you're going to do or not. I'm talking about abstaining from all appearance of evil. And please, don't misunderstand me. Anybody can be friends with people here, but there are certain individuals that sometimes, they've crossed certain lines, where they build up their own reputation of not being able to just do relationships like that. And again, if you're divorced in our church, you're not married, you're not allowed to talk to the young single men or single young ladies in our church. Okay? And there I said it. You don't agree with that rule? You don't agree with that rule that I have here at our church? There's tons of churches that will agree with you and you can go there. But I want to be here. You can't then. Sorry. I mean, what do you want? I'm not changing on that. We could split the church in half if you want. Take everyone you... Anybody who agrees with that type of teaching, you can take off too. How are you going to pay the bills here? Folks, we've been under a tabernacle, and we're good then, and I'm fine with preaching in the tent if I have to. I don't care. Back to the sermon. Look at Proverbs 7. My son, keep my words and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments and live, and my law is the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister, and call understanding thy kin's woman. So according to the Bible, there's only one woman you should be closer to than even your mom, even your own sister. What woman is that? Wisdom. Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister, and call understanding thy kin's woman. Why? That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with their words. That keeps coming up. For at the window of my house I looked at my casement and beheld among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding. And let me just say this, the people who fall for these types of people are those who are simple and void of understanding. And you know what? If that's you, you're not a bad person, just get some smarts, get some wisdom. And you know the way you can get it is by being rebuked and corrected, but also by reading God's word. Don't resist what I'm telling you. Don't say, well, you know, pastor has a point, but I also think just shut up and just listen. Some people just need to shut up and just listen to wisdom. There's people in this church who have been around the block longer than you, they've lived life longer than you have, they know what they're talking about, and you know what? Yes, I am one of them. That's why I'm the pastor of this church. And don't roll your eyes at me either. Verse 8, so this person is simple, he's not discerning, passing through the streets near her corner, verse 8. And he went the way to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night. Oh yeah, perfect time, right? And behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart. She is loud and stubborn, her feet abide not in her house. Now is she without, now in the streets and light and wait at every corner. So first and foremost, we see that she dresses like a whore. Man, that's kind of rude. It says right there, I'm just... Attire of a harlot means she dresses like a hoe. That's what that means. Don't get offended, that's just what it means. Harlot is, okay, I'll translate it exactly the way it is. The clothes of a prostitute. Which, unfortunately, a lot of women out there in the world, even though they're not prostitutes, they just have a tendency to dress like one. And by the way, she's not a harlot. She's not a prostitute. She's not selling herself for money or anything like that. She just dresses like one. That's what the Bible's telling us. I know this is a hard saying, but you chose to come on Sunday night tonight and listen to this. The Bible also says that she's loud, she's stubborn, she doesn't hang out at home, her feet abide not in her house. It says in verse 13, so she caught him and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, Why I have peace offerings with me this day? Have I paid my vows? Therefore came I forth to meet thee diligently, to seek thy face. I have found thee. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have profumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. You know, she went to Victoria's Secret, got all the sprays and candles or whatever. Bath and Body Works. Thank you, Alex, for telling me about Bath and Body Works. This man knows his stuff, okay. Verse 18, Come, let us take our fill of love into the morning. Let us solace ourselves with loves. You say, well, you know, we're all sinners, and it just seems like, well, look what it says in verse 19. For the good man is not at home. He has gone a long journey. This is wicked. He said, you can stay till the morning because my husband's not going to be here for a long time. He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at a day appointed. What is she implying? She's implying that her husband's going to be gone for a long time because he took a bag of money with him, essentially saying that he's going to need those resources because of the long trip that he's taking. Verse 21, With her much fairer speech she caused him to yield. With the flattering of her lips she forced him. He goeth after her straight way, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stalks, till a dart striked through his liver, as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Harken unto me now, therefore, you children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, though not astray in her paths, for she hath cast down many wounded. Yea, many strong men have been slain by her. He said, Well, I'm strong in the Lord. I know the Bible. I'm King James Ollie. I go sowing. Well, many strong men have been slain by her, though. Yea, but I live weights. I mean, yea, but many strong men have been slain by her. And when I read that verse, I think of Solomon, David, and more in particular, I think of Samson. Because he was a very physically strong man. David was a godly man. Solomon was a wise man, but they all fell into these sins. Verse 27, her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. It sounds to me like God's trying to keep young men from committing this wicked act of fornication, and in particular, adultery. Right? Because if he's sleeping with another man's wife, that's considered adultery in God's eyes. It's a wicked sin. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. I'm going to read to you from 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 2. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor. God is saying, you know, you need to learn how to abstain from fornication and keep your body from committing these sins. He's saying you should know how to possess your vessel in sanctification and honor. In practical terms, you know, we can say today you need to learn how to keep busy so you're not committing these sins. And if you feel like you're just constantly burning and you just can't, then you're not working hard enough for something. You're not exerting your body enough because now your body is craving this particular need. It's not necessarily a bad need, it's just a bad need right now for you when you're not married. So you know what I'm going to say, right? Go lift some weights. Or go run some laps. Or go play a sport. Go do something that will just exert your body so when you go home you just crash. Go do squats. Go do deadlifts. Go do bench press. Go lift bells together. Go run. Go play. Exert your body as possible. You say why am I going to do all that? Go soul winning. Go soul winning extra if you have to. You say why? Because so you can possess your vessel in sanctification and honor so you don't commit this sin. And you know what? It's some of the laziest people that are given to these particular sins. Because they're lazy. They don't work. They're not exerting their body. And therefore they're always in a precarious situation where temptation is always available. You know the person who is constantly working? The person who is constantly active and doing things and obviously setting up safeguards in their life? They're not going to be given over to those things. So you know young people you should never have time in your day where you're just like I'm bored. If you are bored and you have nothing to do, contact Ulises Hernandez. He'll have a list of things for you to do at the church if that's what you need. You say will you pay me? Nope. Helping you to exert your body so that you go to sleep at night. Help you stay pure, amen. And if he doesn't have anything for you to do then we'll just dirty this place up and you know. So you stack up all these chairs, put them on the left and once you're done, alright put them back. Hey that's better than you know hanging out doing nothing and you know in front of temptation all day long. And then you destroy your life. And so fix that. Look what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6 verse 13. Meets for the belly and 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. What is he saying? Your body is not so you can go around and sleep with however many women you want or the same thing vice versa. Your body is for the Lord. So as a single person you should dedicate your body to serving God. Now this doesn't mean like you just have to 24-7 be soul winning, 24-7 be in church. It's saying you should live as unto the Lord. And you know dedicate your life to serving God by serving your father, by serving your mother, by serving your church, by serving your God given authority. You know if you're a young lady in the church you know you should be serving your parents, serving your dad. You know be there for your father and have him give you a list of things to do. Stay busy. Don't be at home. You know just constantly scrolling you should be keeping busy. Let me give you a couple points here and I'm done. Let me give you a couple points on preventing fornication. I know I already gave a couple points already but let me just give you some basic points here. You can write these down if you want. Number one obviously get married. That's the best idea ever. 1 Corinthians 7 to nevertheless to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband. So if you're burning then get married. Now here's the thing though. Don't take that as a carte blanche like you're just not even ready to get married. You don't even have a job. You don't know how to work. You're still an immature little brat. It's like well I guess I got to get married because I'm burning. Well no what you need to do is prepare for marriage first. Get a job. Learn how to mature. Become a respectable member of a church like ours. And then start working towards that end and you want to get married. Oh and by the way you got to find a girl too. I forgot to mention that. You got to find someone who actually likes you back. Which requires social skills. What do you mean by social skills? It requires game. If that helps you a little bit. Get married. Let me say this. Number two. And these are kind of like all over the place. I just wrote these down. Is that I strongly discourage long engagements. Because we're talking about preventing fornication. I strongly strongly strongly strongly discourage long engagements. Here's my advice and you don't have to follow this but I believe I have the Spirit of God. Is that no less than six months no more than a year. No less than six months no more than a year. You shouldn't be engaged for like years. Or if you are engaged you should be engaged with already a date in mind. It's like we're engaged. When are you guys getting married? I don't know. I don't know. But we're engaged though. You say what's the problem with that? Well this is all under preventing fornication. So no less than six months no more than a year. I also discourage overnight marriages after you just met. It's like we just met. We're going to get married tomorrow. Now if you've done that. God bless you. I'm just talking to the people who have not yet gotten married. And again all things can work together for good. But you know I've noticed that in our movement and by our movement I mean the new IFB. Who I am a strong advocate of. I am a new IFB pastor. But thankfully in the new IFB we can all have our own opinions. And you know what I think the vast majority of my pastor friends agree with me on this particular point. That you know sometimes people will look at other pastors who maybe seem to have gotten married right away and they want to use that as a template. But go ask that pastor if that's how you should do it and he would tell you no. It's not the best idea. Bottom line. And don't spread around in our church. Yeah people in our church they just get married right away and all. No they don't. No they don't. What are you talking about. That works. I discourage that. If you find someone that you're interested in go through the proper channels. Whether that's your parents or whoever is over her. Go ask for permission. Go through the right channels. You know date and I'll give you some more points in regards to dating. But go through the right channels get to know each other. And when the time comes that you feel like you want to marry this person. OK. Get engaged. Obviously at the permission of the parents but then also have a date in mind. It's not just like yeah we're engaged because we're going to get married but it's just like we just don't know when. You're setting yourself up for fornication. And if you're not ready for that then don't be engaged. Simple as that. If you're not ready to take on the responsibility of being a husband then don't get married. Don't be engaged. OK. But you know what. Before I got married when I heard this stuff I'm like I'm prepared now. Because I want to get married. What I got to do. What I got to do. I got to get money in the bank or what. You know what I got to do. I'll do anything. You've heard me tell the story. I was willing to do it all. OK. Jump through hoops with fire. Collect 200 foreskin. Whatever I got to do. Whatever a man got to do a man got to do. Get her done. And if you're not willing to do those things if you're afraid of responsibility then stay a kid and go work out and go do something else to control your inner inhibitions. OK. You're not ready for it yet. So I strongly discourage long engagements. Number three abstain from physical affection when you're in a relationship. I'm not talking about when you're married. Because we're talking about preventing fornication. OK. Abstain from hugging and this is not going to go well in our church but I can care less. I don't care what you think about this. I don't care if you disagree with me on it. I'm just going to say this till the cows come home and let me just tell you the cows are never coming home. Abstain from hugging kissing caressing etc. I thought the Bible said it's good for men not to touch a woman. When people read that do they just put their finger there just like then read the rest of it or something. Let me explain to you why I strongly discourage that. Because love has to grow. Love has to grow. And no that's not a hallmark saying that I saw at Hobby Lobby or something like that. It's just a fact. Love has to grow. When you fall in love with the person. OK. And those of you who are in that stage right now you know what I'm talking about. It's like that's all you think about. It's like that person is so perfect they can do no wrong or whatever. You know that's natural. That's OK. And those of us who are married you know we know what that's like as well. Where it's just like all you think about is her. Him. And that's great. But here's the thing it grows. And God you know made it made it that way so that it can culminate to the marriage night. Or you can finally come together and actually fulfill that God given desire. You understand. But if you're not ready for marriage and you're constantly hugging and kissing you're setting yourself up for potential fornication. And look what's wrong with you just waiting to hug and kiss and caress until you're married. Why do you have to do it now. Give me a good reason. Why you should do that now. Because I love her. Well do you love her enough to wait to marriage to do it. Well I just want to show her my affection and love. Well you know can't you wait until you're married to do it. Like give me a good reason someone give me a good reason. Why it's permissible to do those things during. I'll tell you why people do it because they can't abstain from it they have a hard time just keeping themselves from doing it. But you know respect your girlfriend respect your boyfriend respect your fiance respect your fiance and not touch. Because when you do that eventually it's going to lead to other things. And don't give me this nonsense that it doesn't. Anybody who's a red blooded man in this church and everyone better be a red blooded man in this church. All face that same temptation. If you don't face that temptation you're a faggot. There I said it. I remember I spoke to a person in my old church and he said this. He's like I'm not really tempted by this. I was like what bro what. What do you mean. I told him. This is what I said I said I love the Lord. I love the Bible and I don't want to do wrong. But I'm a red blooded man and just like any other red blooded man we all you know suffer with that temptation. So either you're lying to me because you're trying to make yourself look more godly which I hope that's what it was. I'm assuming that that's what it was. I said or you're a queer. OK. Bottom line. And so the reason I bring that up is because you know I'm trying to help you to realize that it's OK to have those feelings because the reality is this is we're all men. But you know what. Learn how to possess your vessel in sanctification and honor. Learn how to control yourself keep under your body bringing in this objection. Let's by any means when you preach to others you yourself shall be a castaway and get involved in fornication. It's OK to be a red blooded man but you better be a man who is disciplined and in control and capable of saying you know what. I have these desires but I'm going to control myself I'm going to restrain myself from doing those things because I keep under my body. My body's not going to tell me what to do. So let's get married. That's what you tell your body. Let's get married. Let's prepare for marriage so we can do this the right way. Love has to grow. Abstain from physical affection. OK. What about like a high five? You know if you're asking those questions you're too immature to get married. Can we fist bump at least? Also number four. I must hasten because we're almost out of time. We're already out of time. But I'm going to keep going. Abstain from developing relationships with unsaved or unprincipled Christians. You know because if you're in church and you're hearing this preaching you agree with it you know what the Bible says you're like yeah man this is good. But you know if you're involved in a relationship with an unsafe person they don't share the same values as you do. So they have no problem. You know if you if you find yourself in a weak state, weak condition spiritually and you're with this person who's unsaved they might not have a problem with you just kissing them right in the mouth right then and there. You're just like oh man I just sinned and they're just like oh don't worry about it you know we're all sinners. They might help you commit those sins. But not just unsafe people how about just unprincipled Christians. There's Christians out there who you know they're saved and they you know they might love the Lord but they're not necessary they don't have these they don't share these convictions of the Bible. So you should stay away from them if you're trying to stay pure. We're talking about preventing fornication. OK. Here's another one have chaperoned dates. Oh you guys are old fashioned. Yeah. Don't be alone with the opposite gender. Don't be alone. Just be alone. Have a chaperone with you. Why? For accountability. Man I'm 25 years old. Man I'm 30 years old. Man I'm 35 years old. Man I'm 40 years old. Take a chaperone anyways. This is not because you're not doing this to yourself because you just think you're immature. You're not making provision for the flesh. That's what it is. I know a lot of people don't agree with me but I don't care. Number six singles with unsafe parents or parents that are not grounded in the Bible need to work twice as hard to do all these things. You know I'm sure you know we have singles here who either have parents that are safe but they're not principled and not involved in God's word and not involved in church or they're just not saved. You know you have a lot of liberty. You have a lot of liberty. And that's good and that's bad because of the fact that you have the potential to commit sins because no one's really watching over you. So you know this is your lot in life and it shouldn't be this way but you know at least you're hearing this type of preaching to tell you you need to work twice as hard to not put yourself in a precarious situation. Number seven avoid precarious situations. Number eight dads should not allow their daughters to work in the secular realm. Why? Because we're talking about preventing fornication. Who gives a crap what YouTube says? Who gives a crap what the feminists say out there? Girl you do your own thing. May earn your money. Do they even snap their fingers at you? I don't even know. I don't care. I'm not going to let my daughters work in the workforce. Why? Because there's potential dangers. I can tell you horror stories upon horror stories in times past of dads who allow their daughters to work in the workforce and they were put in a situation where they met some RICO story. This RICO suave dude and they ended up committing the act of fornication and their lives were destroyed. Now you know again to the previous point maybe there's women in our church who are working in the secular realm because they have to for whatever reason. Okay if that's your lot in life and if that's what your parents are permitting you to do or whatever it is I'm not in agreement with it. The Bible's not in agreement with it but let me say this you need to work twice as hard to make sure that RICO suave who's working on your shift is not working to steal your heart and you're put in a position where you commit that act. So that's to prevent fornication. Let's talk about preventing adultery. Number one, don't have best friends of the opposite gender. Talk about preventing adultery. So who's your best friend pastor? My wife. And then Ulysses I guess. He works for me so I got to say or else his feelings are going to be hurting. But I don't have like another girl here who's just like me and them are just like we're like this. It's inappropriate. And let me say this man you know this nonsense of having a work wife. I've been hearing this a lot lately. Where people call it a work wife. They go to their secular job and they have some woman they have to work with and they literally refer to them as a work wife and vice versa a work husband. It would drive me insane. And my wife which obviously this would never happen but let's say my wife worked out in the secular realm she came home she was like yeah my work husband said this. What did you say? I mean it's on from there. But this where does this come from? This comes from you know those morning talk shows where you always have a guy a man and a woman working together. That's like her work husband. That's nonsense. It's not biblical. Okay. So make sure your best friend is your wife. Make sure your best friend is your husband. Why not? Oh you know I need some some you know I need other friends. Okay. Then why did it have to be of the opposite gender though? Oh man your wife is just she must be so miserable or whatever. No she's not. It's the best thing to be married to me. What are you talking about? I'm like the best friend she's got. And you know what she has her sister in laws her sisters she has ladies here in the church. And let me just say this my wife is far too busy with four kids to be going around just hanging out with a bunch of girls all the time anyways. She's way too busy. She's got to change all kinds of diapers and do potty training and homeschooling. She's got to iron my shirts and keep my operation going. I mean that keeps her busy. So whatever time she does have for other relationships you know it's very narrowed down because that's all she has time for which is her family and then the ladies in our church. Number two. Talk about preventing adultery. No secrets. Messages, IG emails, bank accounts etc. There should be no secrets between husbands and wives. It should be very open. It should be an open relationship. Your wife should be able to go to your phone and check it whenever she wants to look through the messages and vice versa. What are you doing? You don't trust me? It's not a matter of whether they trust you or not. Check it. There's my passcode. You know? Not a problem. As I mentioned there should be openness in marriage. Number three. Fulfill your God given roles. And I already mentioned this. Women should be keepers at home. Dads shouldn't be stay at home dads. And I'm not talking about if you have a business at home you have to work from home obviously. That's not what I'm talking about. If you have a business that keeps you at home and that's where you work from home, you're remote or whatever, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm referring to men who send their wives to work and they are stay at home dads. They're the ones homeschooling the kids. That's not biblical at all. You need to get your stones back. Because that's not your responsibility. Your responsibility is to go and bring home the bacon my friends. And this is big on Instagram by the way. Because sometimes you have these ladies who have these like pharma accounts or whatever and they end up making like a lot of money because they get like millions of followers. And she like tells her husband, hey you can stay home now. You know what I mean? Not your home. And if I was ever put in that situation where my wife just somehow if I wasn't a pastor she's just making like a lot of money on social media. And she says, hey you know I'm making all this money. This is what I would say. Well I'm taking over the business then. That's it. Guess who? Guess under new management I'll take it over and you're working for me. Because that's it. And look people hate they're going to hate that on social media. I don't care. Because then here's the thing is just like oh man she's paying the bills for me and I got to take care of the kids. That's not the way the home is supposed to work according to the Bible. Because of the fact that a man should be physically working. Physically working, physically laboring to you know that's the way God ordained it. And also when a woman's working out in the world she's just susceptible to temptation etc. Number four, couples shouldn't hang out with the same couples all the time. I know that's one from left field but that's important. Everyone can be friends here. We all hang out together. It's all fine and dandy. But you know you shouldn't be hanging out with the same couples just all the time though. Because what happens is when you have two couples that are the same age just constantly hanging out with one another. Eventually this is an unwritten rule but you know what happens? You start dating each other's spouse. That's what happens. They don't say it but that's what happens. I know this is uncomfortable but I love saying uncomfortable things behind the pulpit. So don't do it. And then lastly, listen to and fulfill your spouse's needs. You know husbands fulfill your wife's emotional needs. Okay she has emotional needs. Fulfill those needs. And you know your husband has physical needs. The physical aspect of the relationship should never be wielded as a sword. Or it's just like yeah if you don't do this or if you don't do this then you don't get this. That's wicked. Okay and we're talking about preventing adultery. One of the greatest ways to prevent adultery in your marriage is by keeping that physical relationship there. You know I don't know how else to say this. You just got to make sure that you're doing that frequently. I know this is uncomfortable but this is what the Bible says my friends. I'm trying to keep it PG-13. Okay but what I'm saying is that you know that's important. Because if you are taking care of that physical relationship back home in your marriage, your spouse is not going to be looking for someone else to fulfill that with. You know they're going to be like I got something better at home. I got something waiting for me at home. I got plans at home. I don't got to mess with all this. So listen to and fulfill your spouse's needs and this is how you can prevent adultery. This is the longest I've ever preached and I'm not going to say sorry because this is very much important for you to listen to. Okay so let's pray. Father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the principles thereof. I pray that this message would fall upon obedient ears and ears that are willing to hear what you're saying. And also just just the wisdom and instruction that not only I have gotten but this isn't wisdom that stems that originated with me. I got this from other people who have had successful marriages, successful families who were able to abstain from the sins and the wickedness of this world and succeeded in that area. Lord I pray that you help us as a church to stay pure. Bless our singles Lord. And personally I believe that we have the best singles in the world and I know they're young people, young ladies and young men who love the Lord. They love the Bible. They want to do right. If they didn't they wouldn't be here. And so I know they're trying to go in the right direction. Lead them and help us to help them navigate through these young years until they're ready to get married. And Lord bless us as we go on our way. We love you. We thank you. Bless our marriages in Jesus name. Amen. Please turn your song books to song number five. Song number five, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. Song number five, all together nice and strong on that first verse. When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the prince of glory dine, My riches gain I count but loss, And more content on all my pride, Forbidden Lord that I should boast, Safe in the death of Christ my God, All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood, See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow me go down, Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, Or thoughts composed so rich a crown, Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small, Love so amazing, so divine, Demons my soul, my life, my all. Amen. Wonderful singing. You are dismissed. Thank you.