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Alright brethren, so if you have a look at 1 Thessalonians 4, now this chapter is commonly about the end times, about the rapture, I won't be preaching on the rapture tonight. Look at verse number 3 though, 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 3, for this is the will of God. Have you ever wanted to know what the will of God is for your life? Well here it is, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication, that ye should abstain from fornication. The title for the sermon tonight is abstain from fornication, okay, abstain from fornication. If you want another title for this sermon tonight, this is sins that will get you kicked out of the church, part one, okay, sins that will get you kicked out of church, part one. You know brethren, there are some sins, we're all sinners, we all commit sin every day, I mean just the thought of wickedness is sin, just not doing good when we know we ought to do good is a sin, okay, but there are some sins that are so wicked, one of these sins is fornication, so wicked that it's not just a sin, but it is a reason to kick somebody out of the church if they're committing this sin, okay. Now please go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 with me, and I just want to teach you about this, obviously it's not my desire to kick people out of church, it's not what I, I never really want to do that, right, I mean if we have to do that, we have to do it, it's not really something that's on my heart, it's not something I'm driven to do, but if we're following the commandments of God, it's very clear that there are times when you need to ask somebody from this church to leave, okay, and it's because of their sins, okay, and if you have a look at 1 Corinthians 5, 9, 1 Corinthians 5, 9, it says here, Paul writing to the Corinthian church, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to accompany with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters, for then must ye need to go out of the world. So let's stop there for a moment, he's saying look, in this world, in the unsaved ungodly world, in verse number 9, 10, there are covetous, there are fornicators, there are extortioners, there are idolaters, right, we know that across this unsaved world, we're going to come and have to work with some of these people, you know, we may have to just go about life, they might be our neighbours, they might be our family members, all these kinds of things, there are people out there in the world that commit such sins, but then look at verse number 9, but now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother, hey, what's a brother? If I said brother Michael or sister, you know, what am I saying? A fellow saved person, right, a brother in the Lord, a sister in the Lord, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat, brethren, these are major sins and the sins we're focusing on tonight is a sin of fornication, what was the first one? A brother be a fornicator, okay, fornication, look at verse number 12, for what have I to do to judge them also that are without, do not you judge them that are within, within what? We're talking about without and within, hey, those that are without are people that are not part of the church, right, people that are worldly, the unsaved world, but those that are within are your brothers and sisters in the Lord that are part of this local body, so what did it say there? Do not you judge them that are within, brethren, you know what that's saying? That's saying we're called to make judgment on brothers that are part of a church, brothers and sisters that are part of a church that commit such sins where we are to make judgment on those people, we are commanded to judge those people. Verse number 13, but them that are without, God judges, so the unsaved world, God will judge them, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person, hey, who's the wicked person here, what did it say, verse number 11, let's go, who's wicked? The brother that is a fornicator, covetous, idolater, railer, drunkard, extortioner, the Bible calls these people wicked, you know, and if you've committed some of these sins, you know, in your life, and I'm sure many of us have committed some of these sins in this list, well, when you committed those sins, you were a wicked person, hey, that's the teaching of the Holy Bible, okay, and the Bible says here, in verse number 13, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person, you know, kicking somebody out of the church, asking them to leave, not being able to permit to be part of the church is a biblical teaching, it is a commandment that God says we are to judge, we are to judge these things, and so I want to focus a series as we go through this now, it's got a series of sins that will get you kicked out of church, and this is part one, part one on fornication, okay, fornication. Now, if you look at, let's go to, you're in 1 Corinthians, so let's go to chapter 10 now, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, let's go there, because, brethren, when it comes to fornication, what is fornication? First of all, fornication, you know, is sex before marriage, okay? It's defiling your body before marriage, it's not saving yourself for your wedding day, not saving yourself for your wife, for your future wife or a woman, not saving her body for a husband, right? You're doing that prior to marriage, that's what the Bible calls fornication, and the Bible said to abstain, don't commit fornication, right? And this is a battle that we have in our flesh, and here it says in 1 Corinthians 10, 8, actually before I read it, so when it comes to fornication, you know, 100 years ago, 200 years ago, it was a shame. If someone in your family committed fornication, and it was found out and published, it would be a stain on the family name, it would be a stain on their reputation, people would look down and see you as a defiled person. What about in 2020? Is that still the same today? No. In 2020, you're encouraged to go and, you know, live with your girlfriend, go and live with your boyfriend, you know, go in and try it, and then work out whether you want to get married or not, okay? That's living in fornication. And that's the world we live in today, brethren, we live in a world where fornication is, it runs rampant. I mean, it's just, it's considered life, I mean, that's what life is seen as now, just commit fornication, and then once you've tried as many partners as you want, then you can figure out who you want to marry. No, that is sinful, that is wicked, okay? And as Christians, especially as Christians that belong to a body of Christ, to a local church, we are commanded to not participate of such sin, of fornication. Now, for some adults, you could probably say, well, it's too late, it's too late, I've already done that, I've committed fornication, why are you preaching this? Well, there are young people in our church, aren't there? There are teenagers, there are children in this church that have not yet committed such sins, and they need to hear this teaching. And if you've made this mistake, as I know you're a parent, you've made this mistake, well teach your children not to make the same mistake. Tell them how wicked it is in the sight of God. And you know, for us, because it is so common in this world, we don't think about how wicked it is, okay? And so what I want to show you now in 1 Corinthians 10 is just how wicked this sin is in the sight of God. 1 Corinthians 10, 8, it says here, neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. What's the commandment? Let us not commit fornication as some of them committed. Who are the them? The Old Testament Israelites. You know, the Bible tells a story, now let's go to Numbers 25, let's look at the story. Go to Numbers 25, okay? This is one day where twenty-three thousand died because of fornication. God put them to death, God allowed them to be put to death, right, because of the wickedness of fornication. Could you imagine that in Australia, brethren, twenty-three thousand people dying one day because of fornication, because of God's judgment? You know, then we'll wake up and realize, man, God hates this sin. And God does hate this sin, He does not want this sin in the lives of His children. Numbers 25, please, Numbers 25. Let's look at this story, Numbers 25. The Bible reads, And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. Now, you know, let's backtrack here a little bit. One of the commandments of God to the Israelites was not to marry women of the Canaanites, right? Why? Because they had false gods, they worshipped false gods. And so, what do we notice here? That the children of Israel, the people of God, went and took daughters, or took wives amongst themselves. In fact, it wasn't wives. They committed whoredom here. They committed fornication with the daughters of Moab, verse number two. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods. And the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. So what's the natural consequence? They commit whoredom, they commit fornication, the next thing they're doing, they're worshipping false gods. Okay? Their hearts now are far from the one true God, verse number three. And Israel joined himself unto Baal-perl, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people, look at this, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. How does God want this sin to be punished? This sin of fornication? This sin of whoredom? He says, hang them, hang them up, all these thousands of people, hang them, kill them, he says. This is the anger of the Lord, right? You can see how much he hates this sin, verse number five. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, slay ye everyone his man that were joined unto Baal-perl. And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midian and a Taish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. So there's one person so wicked in Israel, he knows God's judgment, he knows God hates it, and God has commanded that they be slain, and he's so bold, he takes this woman, this Midian and Taish woman, right? And in the sight of all the people, he commits whoredoms, okay? And everybody knows about it. He's committing fornication. Look at verse number seven. And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand. Hey, like he takes a spear in his hand when he finds out what this guy is doing, verse number eight. And he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through. The man of Israel and the woman threw her belly, so the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. Now, if you've not read your Bible's cover to cover, that story probably shocks you. What in the world? You know, God's asking people to, you know, for these wicked people to be killed, yes. And this man does a righteous thing. He takes a javelin and he spears through the man committing fornication with the woman, right? And look, it says, so the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. There was a plague on the children of Israel. But when this one man stood up and did something righteous, the plague subsided, right? Verse number nine. And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. And now you may remember, it says here they died in the plague twenty and four thousand. Some people say this is a contradiction in the Bible, because when we read 1 Corinthians 10, what did it say? How many thousand? Twenty three thousand. How many here? Twenty four thousand. But what did it say in 1 Corinthians 10? It said twenty three thousand in one day, okay? What that means is the next thousand died maybe the next day or several days later, okay? It's kind of like if there's a disaster, people might say ten people were killed, five were injured and there's eight people in hospital when it's first reported. But then maybe when it's reported the next day, other people have passed away after they've gone into hospital or died from their injuries or something like that. So twenty three thousand died in the first day, but overall it was twenty four thousand Israelites that died because they committed fornication, okay? And they committed openly and God decides to slay these people, okay? Verse number 10, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Phinehas the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, have turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. You know what God's saying? I would have just killed you all. He says, but this Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, he subsided my anger. He did the righteous thing. He stood up and he took care of that situation. This is the wrath of God, the anger of God. We love preaching about the love of God and he's full of love. We love preaching about the mercy of God and he's full of mercy. But every now and again, brethren, we need to hear about the anger of God, the wrath of God, what he hates and the Lord God hates fornication. He hates whoredoms, brethren. And we need to learn to look after our bodies, save our bodies for our spouse, till death do us part. That's how God has created us. That's what he wants. He wants one woman, one man married for life, not committing fornication, not sharing our bodies with multiple people. Now if you can go back to 1 Corinthians, go to chapter 6 now, 1 Corinthians 6. The sin of fornication is a bit of a unique sin when it comes to the other sins we commit. You know, if I were to, let's say I were to lie to you, I'd lie to you, I would be sinning against you, right? Or if I were to steal from you, you know, I committed a theft, sold something that belonged, I'd be again committing sin against you. Or if I, you know, went and, you know, I didn't fellowship with the Lord, you know, didn't attend church, you know, started to get backslidden, I'd be sinning against the Lord, wouldn't I, I'd be sinning against the Lord. And so when we commit sins, more often than not, we're sinning against other people or we're sinning against the Lord, right? But when it comes to the sin of fornication, you sin against yourself. Not only do you sin against the person you committed fornication with, but you're also sinning against your own body, the Bible teaches. Look at 1 Corinthians 6 verse 18, 1 Corinthians 6 verse 18. Flee fornication, flee. You know why it says flee? Because when you're tempted to commit fornication, when that temptation is available, it's a very difficult sin to overcome. Most people will cave in and commit that sin. And so it says flee, get out of there, right? Every sin that a man doeth is without the body or outside of the body, but he that committed fornication sinned against his own body. What? No you're not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, and you have of God, and you're not your own brethren. You are not your own. Your body does not belong to you anymore. It's been purchased by God. You know, it's a temple of the Holy Ghost. He resides in you. And you as a Christian, who have been purchased by God by the shed blood of Christ, with the Holy Ghost inside of you, you there take that body, that temple and commit fornication with it. You're sinning against yourself, you're defiling your own body. Verse 20, for ye are bought with a price, what was that price? Jesus Christ, his death, burial, his resurrection, his shed blood, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. Your body, your spirit belongs to God, you know, it belongs to God. You take that body, you defile it, you know, you defile in that which belongs to God, okay? You're sinning against your own body. Now, what I want to tell you, brethren, is I want to give you some reasons why you should abstain from fornication, okay? What are some reasons for this? And I think if we just think about this logically, it'll help you if you're in that temptation to move away from that, okay? But let me just give you several reasons. Reason number one, if you commit fornication, okay, it'll make you less desirable to a godly Christian. Make you less desirable. I mean, listen, brethren, if we have, you know, there are singles in this church, I'm sure there's singles in this church, we've got singles in my church up in Queens, I'm sure they want to get married, right? And here's the thing, if you got a young man, let's say you got two men who are in church, you know, one has reserved his body, he doesn't want to defile it, he wants to save it for his wife, right? He loves the Lord, he loves his future wife, he doesn't know her yet, but he loves her, right? And we save himself for her. And then you have another man who's committed fornication, who's committed fornication, he's defiled his body, right? I mean, if you have a nice godly girl turn up one day who wants to get married as well, who do you think she's going to be more interested in? The man who has saved himself for marriage, saved himself potentially for her, or the man who has defiled himself, the man who has defiled another girl or another, or maybe several women? You know, it'll make you less desirable is what I'm saying. I'm not saying you can't get married. I'm not saying it's going to be impossible, I'm just going to say your chances are going to be fewer. You're going to be less desirable to the opposite sex if you commit fornication. I mean, that should be reason number one, right? Keep yourself pure. Number two, the reason you should have abstained from fornication is because fornication will increase your chances, in fact it will increase it very sharply, of catching STDs. Sorry, you know, maybe this is not child friendly, but this is just the truth, okay? By committing fornication, you'll increase your chance of catching STDs. Please go to Leviticus 15, Leviticus chapter 15. You see, God did not create our bodies. He created, well let's put it this way, God created our bodies in a very specific way. When he created Adam and Eve on day number six of creation, they got married. They were husband and wife. They twain became one flesh, the Bible says, right? And that's God's intention, right? That we would have these bodies joined to one person. And of course, look, there's the situations where you might become a widow, you might lose your spouse. And the Bible does teach that a widow, you know, should desire to look for, you know, another spouse. And if your spouse passes away, you know, so, you know, when you think about it, your body, you know, really is made for one, but it, you know, it's potentially able to have maybe two partners, three partners, maybe at the most, think about how many widows, you know, how many times your spouse might die before you get remarried, I mean, it's not very high, right? It's probably two, you know, or three potentially, at the most, but for, you know, but the ideal scenario is one person, you know, the ideal scenario is till death do us part, and that's how God has created our bodies. Now when it comes to this world, brethren, and the people that commit fornication, generally speaking, they're not committing fornication with one person, all right? I mean, our system, our world system is designed so you would have multiple partners. You know, you're a teenager, right, you're a teenager, when you're 17, 18, you get out of high school. The next thing they want you to do, you know, usually a teenager at that age, they're not even ready for the world. They haven't got anything, they've got no streets, they don't know, they haven't got any skills, generally speaking. And so the recommendation is, well, you better go to university, or you better go to some college for another four or five years, you know. And then they're into their 20s, right? But here's the thing, you know, that's the time where, generally speaking, you're seeking a partner, right, you're seeking a husband, a wife, but the way this world system is, they're trying to prolong you, you know, just remain single as long as you can, we'll put you in this campus, we'll put you in this university with other young single people around your age, and guess what's going on fornication? It's running rampant, okay? And not just one partner, two partners, three, four, five, dozens, hundreds of partners, back and forth. Listen, the human body is not made for such things. And this is where STDs come from, okay? And look, here's the problem, you know, you could potentially keep yourself for one person, but your partner may have been committed fornication by several people, they didn't have an STD, you have that one partner, and it gets passed on to you. I mean, it's such a bad thing to the body, when that's not how God designed us, right? Look at Leviticus 15 verse 16. Leviticus 15 verse 16. I want to show you this in the Bible. It says, and again, this might not be child friendly, but every word of God is pure, okay? Leviticus 15 verse 16. If any man seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water and be unclean until they're even. Now, when the Bible uses the term unclean, sometimes it can be a sinful act or sinful thing, what is unclean? But many times it's not, okay? For example, this copulation between husband and wife, it's not a sinful thing, right? Between husband and wife, and yet the result of that, the seed of the copulation there is considered unclean, okay? You are to wash yourself, you know, the Israelites are given these clear instructions for hygiene, okay? And the reason for this is because of this, it's to prevent disease, right? To wash yourself, to wash your clothes. Look at verse number 17, not just your flesh and water, and every garment and every skin whereon is the seed of copulation shall be washed with water and be unclean until they're even. The woman also with whom the man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water and be unclean until they're even. Okay, all I want to show you there brethren, is that the seed of copulation between man and woman there is considered unclean, okay? And the instruction is to wash, wash your flesh, wash man and woman but to wash, you know, the garments, whatever else, you know, that may have been in contact with that is to be washed to prevent disease, okay? To prevent disease, okay? And that's fine, that makes sense, husband and wives having to do such things, cleaning up and all that stuff, right? But what about when you're, you know, a university student, right? Listen, I mean, it's not even university, just the young people in this world. You know, some people have multiple partners in one night. You think there's any washing going on there? No, it's disgusting. It breeds disease, it breeds STDs, right? What are some STDs? HIV, AIDS, hepatitis, herpes, gonorrhea. I mean, these are disgusting diseases to have. And people that suffer with these things have a difficult life, have a difficult life. And brethren, I don't want our young people, I don't want our children to have these diseases. I want them to keep themselves clean, keep themselves pure for their marriage, you know, spouse. You know, that's why we need to teach on these things. Brethren, flee fornication. And so the Bible tells us, you know, it gives us these laws to manage cleanliness when it comes to these kinds of sins. Let me give you a third reason why you should not commit fornication. The third reason, it will hurt your Christian testimony. I mean, if you're someone, you know, habitually out there committing fornication, like I said, this is a sin that'll get you kicked out of church. Now, listen, the right thing is when someone's kicked out of church is that they come to their senses, they realize they've done wrong, they come back, they apologize, they make things right, then the church forgives them, forgive and forget, we don't bring it up again. But isn't it true there's gonna be a stain on your reputation? You know, even a stain on your family's reputation, a stain on your Christian testimony. You know, your reputation will get a beat in and there will be less trust. People will trust you less. It could prevent you to serve the Lord in a full capacity the way you want it to when you have such a bad reputation about yourself. It'll hurt your Christian testimony. The fourth reason why you should abstain from fornication, it is it'll bring regrets in your life and you'll carry unnecessary burdens, regrets and unnecessary burdens, okay, by committing fornication, all right? You know, past fornicating relationships often brings regrets and hurts. You know, people going back, thinking of their past, regretting the decisions they've made, they've been defiled by this person, by that person and it brings hurt. It brings a lot of regrets, brethren. The reason for this is because that union is special. It's meant to be highly emotional. It's meant to be something that leaves a mark in your life. It's something meant to be special between husband and wife, right, that God created, which is supposed to be beautiful and you take that which is beautiful and you defile it, you know, and that's gonna stay as an emotional sky in your hearts, you know, and this contains your view in marriage. This contains your relationship with your husband and your wife. You know, for example, you know, maybe, maybe there's a woman that's committed fornication and maybe before she was saved, you know, I mean, you know, that's what the world does, right? They've committed fornication multiple times. They've been hurt by all these men that took advantage of them, right? They've been hurt by this. They have a bad sense of men. You know, they think, well, men just want one thing, right? They're just after the physical. They have that thought. Then they get saved or whatever. You know, maybe they're saved already. They find the man they wanna get married. They get married, praise God for that, but you know what's gonna be bothering her all her life? She's gonna be thinking of men in that same way. She's gonna be thinking about, you know, there'll come times when she's emotionally struggling and she's gonna think her husband is just like these other men that used me in the past. Well, that couldn't be further from the truth. That husband may very well love you, maybe doing everything he can to make you a happy wife, but because of your regrets, the mistakes you've made in the past, you're now bringing that burden, all those regrets, all those pains, and putting them onto your husband. It happens, brethren. It happens. Even though that man had nothing to do with it, your view on men has now been skewed. Your view on men is now disgusting pigs, and then you bring that onto your husband, and that can hurt your marriage, or men. Men that have committed fornication in the past, right? You know, you've just seen women as something to use. You know, you don't need to maintain a strong relationship with them. It's just something physical. Then you go into marriage. You know, you're supposed to love this woman. You're supposed to communicate with this woman. You're supposed to help her feel loved. You're meant to edify her, strengthen her, but because of how you've treated other women, you think, well, you know, that's how I treat my wife. Wrong. And that'll hurt your marriage, okay? Because of the fornication you've done, you've gotta put that behind you, confess it to the Lord, and move on. But there's gonna be pain. You know, that's one of the consequences of our sin. Many of our sins have long-lasting consequences. They're forgiven. God's forgiven you. Christ has died for you on the cross. But many times, the mistakes we've made in the past are still gonna be there for the rest of our lives. And listen, you just gotta battle through it and teach the next generation of your children not to make the same mistakes you've made, all right? Abstain from fornication. And so what are the reasons to abstain from fornication? It'll make you a less desirable, godly Christian to someone that may wanna marry you. It'll increase your chance of catching STDs. It'll hurt your Christian testimony. It'll bring regrets and carry unnecessary burdens. And the last one, which is the theme, it'll get you kicked out of church. It'll get you kicked out of church. Now, brethren, if someone in this church is committing fornication, the right thing to do is to ask them to leave. Now, listen, do I really want people to leave church? No. But is it a commandment of God? Yes, okay? And the reason why we're commanded to kick out certain people is that they will then defile the minds of everybody else. It's not just about that one person getting kicked out. It's about protecting the body of Christ, okay? If one young person is committed fornication, and we're all turning a blind eye, guess what the other young people are gonna think? Well, if he can, why can't I? If we have such a low standard and we don't care about it as a church, then why can't I do such a thing? And then it would affect the other young people in this church. Brethren, that's why we need to protect this body, protect our children, protect our church, and that person is to leave the church. Now listen, some churches have a members list, right? And I'm not against members lists. If we need it one day, you know, for legal reasons or whatever, I'm not against it. It's not sinful to have, but it's not biblical. Like the Bible doesn't command you to have a list of members, okay? But it's not sinful to have. But a lot of churches make this mistake. When they have somebody in the congregation doing those sins, they will not physically kick that person out of the church. All they'll do is remove them off the membership list. Just, oh, crossing off your name. There, I've done my duty, I've crossed off your name. And by crossing off your name, you can't really serve in the local church, right? If you were like playing instruments, let's say, you won't be able to play instruments. If you're a Sunday school teacher, you know, some churches have that, you can't be the Sunday school teacher anymore. You know, but you're allowed to be part of the church. That's not what the Bible commands. The Bible commands that that person is to be removed from the body. Removed from the body, brethren. And so, and parents, I'm just saying this to you, okay? I care about this church, and I care about you and I care about your families. But if one of your children is committed for an occasion, we have to ask them to leave, okay? And guess what's gonna happen when that happens? You're gonna get emotionally invested. You're gonna think about my little boy, my little girl, and you're gonna be tempted to leave the church. Wrong attitude. Or your friends in the church will be like, well, that wasn't fair. And they will then be tempted to leave the church. No. The Lord's instruction is to kick that person out of the church to protect the body, okay? To protect the body. And if that person wants to get things right, come to the church. I'm sorry for committing for an occasion. I wanna get things right. I wanna walk godly. I don't wanna hurt the church anymore. I'm sorry, can you forgive me? Then we are commanded to forgive them. Forgive them, put it behind us, forget it like it never happened, okay? That's the commandment of, that's how we ought to deal with fornication or anybody else that commits certain sins that'll get them kicked out of church. Please go to Genesis 39. Genesis 39. I'm gonna end on two things here. How to overcome fornication, how to overcome it. Like I said, this is a sin, a temptation that is very difficult to defeat, okay? If you're in a situation, you know, a young man, a young woman by themselves in private that care for each other, they may even have desires to get married, okay? This is a very strong temptation that may come their way. And what I read to you before, you guys are turning to Genesis 39, and I read this before to you, 1 Corinthians 6, 18. Flee fornication, the Bible says, flee fornication. That's how you overcome fornication. When you're tempted to do such thing, the right thing to do is to get yourself physically out of that situation. The wrong approach is to think, I'm man enough, I'm strong enough to fight this temptation. The Bible says flee, get out of there. You know what flee means? Run, run, get out of there. You know, if you're being tempted by the opposite sex one day, you know, young people, whoever is able to commit fornication, even married people. You know, I've been, you know, in my workplaces, sometimes we needed to go to like a company, what I used to call them, company conference. So we'd go to the Gold Coast or something, right? We have all the coworkers, my wife would stay home with her kids, and there are married men, married women, and guess what's going on? Adultery, fornication, okay? Between work people, it happens even with married people. And when that situation comes up where you're one-on-one with somebody and you're tempted to do such a thing, the Bible says, flee, run out of there. You say, man, it's so embarrassing if I were to run. Just do it, do it so you can overcome the sin in your life. Look at the story here in Genesis 39, verse seven. Genesis 39, verse seven, the story of Joseph, and you guys know where this leads, but it says here, and it came to pass after these things that his master's wife, that's Potiphar's wife, if you remember the story, Joseph was like second in charge of Potiphar's household. He looked after everything. He says here, but his master's wife, Potiphar's wife, cast her eyes upon Joseph, and she said, lie with me. But he refused and said unto his master's wife, behold, my master, what if not what is with me in the house? And he have commanded all that he have to my hand. There is none greater in this house than I. Neither have he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Man, that's the right character there in Joseph. He's being tempted by this woman. She says, lie with me, and he says, look, your husband, Potiphar, my master, has given me everything in this house except you, okay? And he says, look, what did he say? He would say, how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Listen, is fornication a great sin, a great wickedness? Yes, it is, okay? You're sinning against the Lord when you do it. Verse number 10, and it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. Listen, every day, this woman is trying to tempt Joseph every single day, lie with me, lie with me, lie with me, right? And the next verse is where Joseph makes his biggest mistake, okay? Because look at verse number 11, it came to pass about this time that Joseph went into the house to do his business, so he's working, of course, in the house, and there was none of the men of the house there within. Big mistake, right? Big mistake. You know, he's used to just going to the house, doing his job, but this time there's no one else. It's just him and part of his wife. Now, I think Joseph should have been a little smarter here, right? I mean, this woman is bothering him every day, day by day, bothering him, trying to tempt him, and now it's just him and her alone. What should he have done? He should have just gone and looked after the garden or something, right? Whatever else, he should have just gone in the house and said, I cannot be alone with this woman. That should have been his approach. But what happens? Verse number 12. And she caught him by his garments, saying, lie with me, look at this, and he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out. And he's got great character, right? The Bible says, flee fornication. What did Joseph do? He fled, he got out of there, okay? He didn't want to commit this sin with part of his wife. Now, it didn't turn out well for him because she lied. She lied, we're not going into the story now, but she lied about him. She said that it was him that was trying to sleep with her. And then the story goes that Potiphar then takes Joseph and puts him into prison, okay? But Joseph was innocent. Joseph was innocent. You know, there was a time when I used to manage, we had like five teams. And one of the teams that I managed was a call center. And that call center had like, it was mostly women, okay? Mostly married women, single women, had a big team of ladies. And I had my own office, okay? And the previous manager that was in that office used to keep the blinds down in the office, okay? So sort of like, if the door was closed, you couldn't see anything in the office, right? Now, when I took over that office, the HR manager came to see me, the human resource manager, right? An unsaved man, unsaved, I believe he was Hindu. An unsaved Hindu man comes up to me and says, Kevin, can I have a word with you? I said, yep, all right. He goes, listen. He goes, I know you're a good man. And I know you wouldn't do this, all right? He says, but you've got a lot of girls under you. A lot of young ladies. He goes, this is what you need to do. All these blinds that are down in the windows, he says, remove them or just lift them up. Just keep your windows open. Make sure everybody can see you in the office. He goes, that's for your protection. He goes, I've seen it many times. Either inappropriate things happening in an office like that, or just false accusations. And then that person has no course. He's got no witness. He's got nothing to protect him. You know, it's her word versus his word. It's just for your protection. You know, lift up the blinds. Make sure anybody can see you, right? If someone's in your office, yeah, if it's confidential, close the door, but still everybody, because you know, they're the seafood, right? The walls, the glass. So everybody can see that there's nothing going on that's wrong. And I appreciate that advice. I said, absolutely. Next thing I did, I just carried those blinds, right? Opened it up. You know, everybody could, you know, I could see it. If I could see through, they could see through here. I appreciate that advice. But how good is that advice? You know, Joseph should have heard that. When there's no one else there, he should have just got out of that situation. And then what the problem was that he got false accusations, right? False accusations that were no other witnesses. And brethren, I never want to be alone with a woman. Never, I never want to be alone with another woman. When I was in my workplace, if I was in the office again, everybody could see. People are walking past, there are people out there. I'm talking to that person confidentially. You know, and if you're a lady in this church and you want some counsel, you want some advice, I'm not going to meet with you privately. I'm not. You know, either your husband's got to be there or if it's a young girl, your father's got to be there. All right. Or if, you know, my wife's not around here, but if it's my church up in Queensland, the other option is my wife has to be there. I will never give you counsel one-on-one advice. Many men have fallen. Many, not just good men have fallen, but this is where your false prophets, these are where your perverts come into a church. They take on positions of authority and then they're hunting. They're taking advantage of the women in their church. It happens. Okay, it happens. And brethren, we need to be careful. The Bible says flee fornication. So how do we overcome fornication? Number one, you flee. When you're being tempted, you physically get out of there. I don't care what you lose. I don't care what friends you lose. I don't care what embarrassment there is. You get out of there or you'll be tempted. You will give in to those strong feelings, okay? The second way you overcome fornication is, please go to 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7, verse 2. 1 Corinthians 7, verse 2. The Bible reads, nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband. What's the second way you overcome fornication? You get married. That makes sense, right? Then you can participate of that loving relationship, that union between man and woman, and you do it in its proper place, okay? The beautiful union between husband and wife done properly, a gift from God that you can participate off, and that will also help you to overcome fornication. So Brevin, my advice is don't delay marriage. The first thing you need to do is find someone to marry. I understand that can take time. But listen, once you've found them, just get married. Otherwise, you're gonna be tempted, whether to say that, to avoid fornication. That's one of the reasons that God created marriage is that you would not defile your body, that you would not sin against your own body, sin against that woman or sin against the Lord, okay? To avoid, don't delay marriage. Now, what I'm saying, young men, what you need to be doing if you're single, you're not married, prepare yourselves to get married. Prepare yourselves. Work on being a, prepare yourself as a man of God that you'd be someone that can look after a wife. Go get us a full-time job where you can provide not just for yourself, but now you can also provide for a wife. You can also provide for a house. And look, I have no doubt, if you prepare yourself, you say, Lord, I'm single, fornication is something that I wanna make sure I don't do in my life, or if I've done it before, I don't wanna do whatever again, Lord, I wanna find that wife. You work hard toward it. You know, you provide for this future wife to come. You live godly, you overcome fornication. I have no doubt that God will send you a wife. No doubt. You pray that to the Lord, and he sees you working toward it, it's gonna happen. You say, well, our church is only in some 40 people. I don't have, there aren't many options out there. There aren't many choices. You just need to strike once. If there aren't enough young single ladies here, men, go and knock some doors. Go preach the gospel, all right? Go get some of them saved, invite them to church, get them baptized, then marry them, okay? That's what I did with Christina. I didn't knock on the door, but you know, she got saved and I married her, right? That's one way to find a wife, okay? But I truly believe, brethren, you work hard toward this. You pray this to the Lord. He wants you to get married. He wants you to have a family. He does not want you to commit fornication. Now, please go to Numbers 25 one more time. Numbers 25, verse seven. Numbers 25, we'll end on this. So the conclusion, brethren, is fornication will get you kicked out of church, okay? It'll get you kicked out of church. And Numbers 25, verse seven. Numbers 25, verse seven. We read the story before, but let's read it one more time. It says, and when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand. What's a congregation? What's a church? The church is a congregation. It means the same thing, right? This is verse number eight. And he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. Brethren, I do not want a plague at Blessed Hope Baptist Church, okay? So what do we need to do? Then we need to pick up the javelin. I'm not a physical thing, all right? Just a spiritual javelin, all right? We take the authority that God has given us from the Bible. And if there are brethren here committed fornication, we have to ask them to leave. Physically leave. And when they're ready to get right with God, get ready to get right with the church, then they're allowed to be brought back into fellowship. Okay? Brethren, the sin of fornication, don't listen to this world. This world will tell you it's normal. It's acceptable. No, it's very wicked. In the sight of God, it is an extremely wicked sin. God wants you to save your body for your future spouse. Okay, let's pray.