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6 on the first Who is on the Lord's side who will serve the King? Who will be his helpers others lives to bring? Who will leave the world side who will face the fall? Who is on the Lord's side who for him will go? By thy call of mercy by thy grace divine We are on the Lord's side Savior we are thine Not for weight of glory not for crown and palm Enter we the army praise the warrior's song But for love that claimeth lies for whom he died He whom Jesus nameth must be on his side By thy love constraining by thy grace divine We are on the Lord's side Savior we are thine Jesus thou hast bought us not with gold or gem But with thine own lifeblood for thy diadem With thy blessing filling each who comes to thee Thou hast made us willing thou hast made us free By thy grand redemption by thy grace divine We are on the Lord's side Savior we are thine On the last fierce may be the conflict strong may be the foe But the king's own army none can overthrow Round his standard ranging victory is secure For his truth unchanging makes the triumph sure Joyfully enlisting by thy grace divine We are on the Lord's side Savior we are thine Amen. Good scene. Brother Sean, would you open us up for a word of prayer? Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day and I thank you for this opportunity to be in church today, Lord. I pray that you bless everybody who couldn't make it today. I pray that you bless all aspects of the service, that you bless our worship to you. I feel Pastor Thompson, with your spirit, please give us ears to hear our praise and sing in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Our second song is song number 409, The Fight Is On. Song number 409, The Fight Is On. Song 409, The Fight Is On. Let's sing it together on the first. The fight is on, the trumpet sound is ringing out, the cry to arms is heard afar and near. The Lord of hosts is marching on to victory, the triumph of the Christ will soon appear. The fight is on, O Christian soldier, and face to face in stern array. With armor gleaming and colors streaming, the right and wrong engage today. The fight is on, but be not weary, be strong and in his might hold fast. If God be for us, his banner o'er us, we'll sing the victor's song at last. The fight is on, a rousey soldier's brave and true, Jehovah leads and victory will assure. Go buckle on the armor God has given you, and in his strength forever we'll endure. The fight is on, O Christian soldier, and face to face in stern array. With armor gleaming and colors streaming, the right and wrong engage today. The fight is on, but be not weary, be strong and in his might hold fast. If God be for us, his banner o'er us, we'll sing the victor's song at last. The fight is leading on to certain victory, the bow of promise spans the eastern sky. His glorious name, in every land shall honored be, the morn will break. The dawn of peace is nigh, the fight is on, O Christian soldier, and face to face in stern array. With armor gleaming and colors streaming, the right and wrong engage today. The fight is on, but be not weary, be strong and in his might hold fast. If God be for us, his banner o'er us, we'll sing the victor's song at last. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, our next song is song number 143, Blessed Assurance. Song number 143, Blessed Assurance. Song 143, let's sing it together on the first. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of his spirit, washed in his blood. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst on my side. Angels descending, bring from above. Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at rest. I and my savior am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking above. Filled with his goodness, lost in his love. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. This is my story, this is my song. This is my story, this is my song. This is my story, this is my song. This is my story, this is my song. All right, going to open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter number 5, if you don't have a Bible, there should be a Bible under the seat in front of you. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians 5, the Bible reads, It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much is named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body but present in spirit, have judged already as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good, know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company 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 an one know not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Brother Sean, will you pray for us? Heavenly Father, again I thank you more this day. I pray that you just help us. Amen. All right, this morning my sermon is titled forsake fornication, forsake fornication. Now you're like well we already know that we're not supposed to do that Pastor Thompson. Well I understand that. I've been preaching through kind of a series of summer vices. Now fornication is a problem that anybody could get into that's not married, and if you're not careful it could happen to you. When people are dating or you know this is a strong temptation that can happen to anybody, and you know there's probably people in this room that have committed this sin, and you know when if you committed before you're married that's what fornication is. You're doing something that is supposed to be done in the bounds of marriage, and so it's under the sexual sins that are forbidden in God's word and in God's law that you're not supposed to commit, and yes that carries over into the new testament. Adultery carries over into the new testament, and so just because you know that under the new testament we're not under the law it doesn't mean that you can commit these types of sins. Now in this passage we're going to get into the passage, but before we do that I'm going to kind of lay some groundwork, and why am I preaching this? Well this is a sermon that should probably get preached at least once a year to help people that are maybe struggling with this, or maybe new Christians that have never heard a sermon like this, or to you know just firm up our young people in this church to never commit this sin. People that are dating to not be tempted to do this sin. Wait until you're married. Wait until you're married. So this is a sermon that's very important to preach, and I think it's been a while since I preached it. Probably it's been a year. I'm not sure exactly how long it's been. I didn't actually look, but it is kind of in my summer vices sermons, and I've been preaching a lot of sermons, and you know why preach these types of sermons in the summertime? Well because this is probably the more likely time people are taking more clothes off than putting clothes on. In the wintertime we want to bundle up and be warm, especially in this area, but you know it seems like whenever the sun starts to come out, people's clothes start to come off, and when people's clothes start to come off, people lust more, and you know people are more likely to commit fornication in those situations. So like I said I don't want to read through some of these verses. You're more than welcome to turn with me if you want to, but I'm already going to have you turn to a lot of script. We're going to read a lot of scripture this morning, because I don't want to leave any stone unturned when it comes to this. So we will get back to first Corinthians chapter five, but Matthew chapter 15 verses 18 through 20. I'm not going to allow time to necessarily get there, but you may follow along with me if you want, or just write the scriptures down for later if you want to. Matthew 15 18 Jesus said this, but those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defile not the man. So what is the Bible, what is Jesus saying? It's the the sins that we commit in the heart, and some things that we commit with the body. Now fornication specifically is something that's committed in the body that's a sin against your own body, because you can you can get diseases and things that you can never be cured from. You can get diseases that are curable, but you can also get ones that are never curable that can actually kill you. And God, you know, as a Christian we should never commit this sin. You should never commit it as a non-Christian, but especially as a Christian, God's going to punish you more as a Christian than he would as a non-Christian. But non-Christians die of AIDS too. Non-Christians die of STDs also. And it's been that way for a long time. It's, you know, you're sharing, if you're committing fornication, you're some kind of a whore or a whoremonger, you're sharing your body with multiple different people who have been also with multiple different people. It's actually a disgusting act. You might not think it's disgusting while you're doing it, but you know, if you if you could just see all the people that that person slept with, then you probably would think twice about it. Now, so in the Church of Acts, the Acts Council determined for the Gentile believers that they were to abstain from fornication. Acts 21-25 says, as touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observed no such thing save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols and from blood and from strangled and from fornication. They said don't, you know, the Gentiles were known to be, you know, they would call them dogs because of the fact that they just committed all types of heinous acts, but fornication was one of the things that they were known to do. And the Bible says in Romans 1 that reprobates that don't want to retain God and their knowledge are filled with all unrighteousness. It says in Romans chapter 1 verse 28, even as they did not like to retain God and their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, and reprobates are filled with fornication. You don't want that to be one of the qualities that you're you have a quality like a reprobate that you're just filled with fornication. And of course, we know that a lot of reprobates are filled with really filthy acts of fornication, even being homos. And so the Bible says that fornication is also one of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5 19. It says now the work of the flesh, the works of the flesh, excuse me, are manifest which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. So adultery and fornication are paired together a lot. They're not the same sin. I know a lot of people will try to say that that's true, but it's not. Adultery is when you commit this an act when you're married to somebody, and you commit that act outside of bounds of marriage. Because once you're married to someone, that person is the one you're supposed to stay true to. You're not supposed to, you know, you're not supposed to lie with someone that is not your spouse. You are to be true to that person for the rest of your life and not lie with somebody else. So, but these are acts of the flesh. These are works of the flesh. The Bible says that fornication should never be named among a believer. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 3, the Bible says, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as become a saints. Let it not be named among you. The Bible is very clear about these things. The Bible says we're to mortify our members on the earth. What does that mean? Well, to mortify means to feel embarrassed or ashamed or humiliated about doing such things. It says in Colossians chapter 3 verse 4, it says when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members, excuse me, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. These sins are tied together because if you're coveting someone, then you're desiring that thing that doesn't belong to you. So when you're committing idolatry, then you're basically like you're kind of worshiping something else. And that's why it's saying you're, you know, you're basically worshiping something. You know, you're taking something and your desire is so intense for that thing that you're wanting that over what you should be wanting. Over God, over your own spouse, should not do those things. Over what God has allowed you to have. So the Bible says the will of God for us is sanctification. To stop doing such things. If you were a fornicator before, then to stop doing those things now as a saved person. First Thessalonians 4-3 says for this is the will of God, even your sanctification that you would, that you should abstain from fornication. That means to not commit that sin. The Bible says God will judge adulterers and whoremongers. Hebrews 13-4 says marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. Take it to the bank folks. If you are a Christian and you commit adultery or fornication, God will judge you. He will judge you. It's gonna happen. The shoe's gonna drop. It's going to take place. Do not think that you get to escape the judgment of God. It could cost you your marriage. It could cost you your life. It could cost you more than you want to pay. Don't play around with God and his commandments. The Bible ties strong judgment and even death to believers that would commit adultery and fornication. The Bible puts the death penalty on adultery. Not on fornication, but has God killed people for fornication before? Absolutely. And it is a sin to your body so you can just die because you've committed it. But God can kill you for any sin. God can take you home for any sin. I mean, Ananias and Sapphira, they lied to the Holy Ghost and God killed them for it. I mean there's sins that he doesn't put the death penalty on in the law for, but he still killed people for. 1 Corinthians 10-8 says, Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. You can find the story in Numbers chapter 25. In Numbers chapter 25, and this is when Phineas took this spear and, you know, cast the javelin in to that whore in the tent and killed the Israelite and the woman at the same time. He threw the spear through them and you're like, well that's just terrible that he would do that. How judgmental was Phineas for doing that? God was pleased. God was happy that he did that. He stopped cursing them. The plague stopped because he did that. But he still, when it was all said and done, twenty four thousand were done because of that. So, needless to say, God thinks that fornication is a big deal. You can say, well it's not that big of a deal, you know, I'm saved, you know, I can just do it. No, God hates fornication. In our text this morning, it's very clear that we're not supposed to keep someone in the church that is committing this sin. It is a big deal. If he killed twenty four thousand people in one day because of this sin, and what, go ahead and turn to Numbers. I just want to read a certain portion of that text. I have it put in my notes, but I was thinking, man, this is going to be a long sermon if I put everything in here, but look at verse one in Numbers twenty five. This is the account that God's talking about. Because he's like comparing things that happen in the Old Testament and saying, hey, we shouldn't do these things either. Numbers twenty five one says, And Israel abode and shit them, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. Now, they committed whoredom. That means they're fornicating with them, but they're also serving their gods. They've joined themselves to Baal Peor, verse three, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And Moses said in verse five, Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye everyone his men that were joined unto Baal Peor. Look at verse six, and here's the real problem with it. This stuff, there was a congregation in the Old Testament, just like there's a congregation of the Lord today, though it says numbers twenty five, six, it says, And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation. That's not there on accident, folks. That's there on purpose. He's just showing up, and it's just like not a big, he's acting like it's not a big deal that he's bringing this whore into the camp, right? And that he's committing whoredoms himself with this woman. It says, in the sight of all the children of the children of Israel who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 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, 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, and those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. So this is the story that he's referencing in First Corinthians ten eight. And, you know, please don't check out of this sermon. Please don't check out of the sermon because, you know, yeah, maybe this doesn't apply to you. Maybe you're never going to do this. But, you know, you can apply, if you're married, you can apply this in your marriage too. Because some of these verses are talking about adultery. Hey, there's temptations to commit adultery. Don't do that. Don't go down that path. Because if you just, you know, taste a few breadcrumbs, the next thing you know you could be doing this sin, and you don't want to do that. Don't put yourself in a position where you're going to commit this sin. So, I'm going to teach the rest of this sermon and the rest of my points out of First Corinthians five, six, and seven. So, point number one is don't keep company with fornicators. That's from our text in First Corinthians five. Now, people just, they don't like these types of passages. You rarely hear pastors at other churches preach out of these texts because it's so upsetting to the people that are just love, love, love. I preached a sermon about this last Sunday night about how churches are just so weak. Churches won't even kick people out anymore. They let the fornicators in. They allow this to take place. And you wonder why these churches are so messed up. It's because they just allow everything to take place. The pastors are turning a blind eye to it. Now, I'm not saying that all Baptist churches are like that. They will stop these types of things. There's still some good Baptist churches out there that won't just allow this kind of stuff to go on. But they allow divorce and remarriage. They tell people to get divorced because someone did something that wasn't even something that's divorceable. Once you get married, it's for life, folks. That's what the Bible teaches. Now, look at verse one. The Bible says it's commonly reported there's fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. That's pretty weird, right? It's pretty wicked. And you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you. So they're like the modern church. I mean, they're like, hey, yeah, we shouldn't kick them out. We should just be loving. Yeah, let's love them. Just like the children of Israel were doing in Numbers. They're weeping at the tabernacle. They're crying. And what did the priest do? He said, no, we're taking these people out with the javelin. Now, of course, I'm not going to take a javelin and spear anybody in the congregation, okay? Modern day, we just throw them out. We don't kill them, right? So it says, for I verily as absent in the body, but present in spirit have judged already, as though I were present concerning him that have done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together in my spirit and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such and one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to deliver that person to Satan. So when we mark someone and we avoid that person and we kick that person out of the congregation, then Satan is going to have his way with that person. And the reason why we do that is so they get that chastening. God allows that chastening to take place. He allows the devil to destroy their life. Remember Job. Job didn't even do anything wrong and he allowed, you know, that was something so we could have some insight on what God will allow and not allow. Now imagine someone that actually deserves it and God allowing that person to endure the chastening through Satan. So it says, purge out therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump. What's it say? You got to take out the leaven. Leaven represents sin. We don't want to just allow sin to be in our church and go unchecked because what will happen is it'll leaven the whole lump. It says, as ye are unleavened for even Christ our Passover, I'm sorry, look at verse seven, it says, purge out therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. So we're supposed to purge out. That means get rid of the leaven, get rid of the sin that Christ says to get rid of. Everybody sins. Everybody has some kind of sin in their life, but there are certain sins that we have to purge out. We have to get them out. Like Phineas had to purge that Midianitish whore out of the camp and the man of Israel that was parading her around in front of the whole congregation. Parading her around, I mean it says Moses and the whole congregation of the children of Israel. Look at what verse nine says, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters for then must you needs to go out of the world, but now I've written unto you not to keep company 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. So what's he saying? He's saying that if someone's a brother in Christ or a sister in Christ and they are committing this sin that we are not to eat with that person. They're like well what if it's my actual sister and my sister in Christ? You are not to eat with that person. And a lot of times you'll have families that will come to a church and then if one person is kicked out of that family out of that church then all the rest of the family will go with them. Why? Because they have this mentality that well that's my family blood's thicker than water, but what they should be doing if they were right with God is that they would shun that person right along with everybody else and that would actually help that person get right and do the right thing and instead they enable that person and they and they side with that person against the man of God and against the congregation of the of the church and then they just they make it worse they're like oh it's okay honey we got your back and oh it's okay honey we'll still have a baby shower for your bastard or it's okay honey you know congratulations on your bastard let's have the you know just all this stuff congratulations on your fornication look we ought not to do those things you know we are spiritual brethren you know the fact that we have a spiritual brotherhood and sisterhood is more important than our our blood family and you can say that's crazy all you want but it's the truth if you love father or mother more than Jesus you're not worthy of him that's what the bible says if you love your children more than you love God then you're not worthy of him that's what the bible teaches folks now i love my children i love my grandchildren and i would i would go to hell and back for them if i if i could or had to but i will tell you what when it comes to choosing Jesus or my children i'm going to choose Jesus if they want to walk away and not serve the lord then i'm going to keep serving the lord if my grandchildren grow up and they don't want to be saved they don't want to serve the lord i'm going to still come to church i'm going to still serve the lord that's the way it is you know what if they want to walk a different path they're going to walk that path alone not with me i'm going to shun them i'm going to avoid them i'm going to avoid anybody that is in my family i don't care i care about them but i'm not going to stop serving God because somebody in my family isn't serving them that's insane i mean it's like people don't even read the bible or don't care i don't get it look what it says in verse 11 oh no verse uh 12 but what have i to do to judge them that are without do you not judge them there within but then there without God judgeth see once they're out God judges them that's the job you know we judge for them to leave God judges them once they're out therefore for this reason put away from among yourselves that wicked person and we shun them until they until they get right and come back now the bible is super clear if you are fornicating you're to be kicked out now i'm i'm not trying to be on a hair trigger just throw every person out if someone's a new believer i'm going to give them you know some grace and just say hey this is not right this is what you need to do if some boyfriend and girlfriend start coming here i find out they're fornicating or they're living together i'm going to talk to them i'm going to try to make sure that they just understand these things i'm not like you just be like you need to get out right now i mean of course we need to give grace i'm going to give them a couple weeks to get things right either move out from from from each other or get married you know it's get married or get out or move out and you know do do what's right by God or you're going to have to leave and if you get things right you can come back it's not like i just want to throw people out forever i just want people to do what's right and i want to do what's right by the bible so if someone's not doing right here in any way it doesn't matter who it is they gotta go so we as Christians are not to keep company with or even eat with a brother or sister in Christ that is actively living in fornication now someone if i find out and i talk to these people to someone and they're like yes we're going to get things right yes we're going to do what's right then it's no problem now people just act like once i find out that someone's doing something wrong that instantly they're gone and there's no going back no if someone's repentant and wants to make things right i'm not going to throw them out you know i just sometimes people get this idea so i just want to make sure that's understandable if i find if i you know if there's a reason i have to kick somebody out they're going to get chances to make it right and if they don't make it right then i'm going to proceed with what the bible says to do point number two let's go to chapter six point number two is flee fornication so we definitely need to not keep company with fornicators that's what the bible teaches and we shouldn't have fornicators open fornicators in our church but we need to flee fornication if you're in a situation don't put yourself in a situation where you're going to do or commit this sin look at first corinthians 6 12 it says all things are lawful unto me but all things are not expedient all things are lawful to me but i will not be brought under the power of any meats for the belly and belly for the 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 so very clear once again and god hath both raised up the lord and will also raise up us by his own power know you know you not that your bodies are the members of christ shall i then take the members of christ and make them members of an harlot god forbid what know you not that he which is joined to unharled is one body for two saith he shall be one flesh but he that is joined unto the lord is one spirit flee fornication for every sin that a man doeth is without the body but he that committed fornication sinneth against his own body so god says flee run away from it don't commit this sin because you're you're sinning against your own body a lot of sins are a spiritual thing that a wrong thing that you've done spiritually but this one specifically it says is against your own body what know you not that your body is the temple of the holy ghost which is in you which you have of god and you're not your own for you're bought with a price therefore glorify god in your body and in your spirit which are gods so god has bought us with a price yeah when we got saved maybe you just didn't realize that when you got saved but jesus christ has redeemed us with his precious blood he bought us with a price and you're not your own he has redeemed us and we are the temple of the holy ghost the holy ghost dwells within us so that's what he's making this point he's like hey you know if you commit fornication you're committing a sin against your own body and do you want your body which is the temple of the holy ghost or do you want to you know take that and make it join to a harlot do you want your the holy ghost to have you know because people talk about these temple prostitutes right do you want your body to be a temple prostitute for the with the holy ghost in there i mean think about that you know the temple prostitute thing is just not a not a real thing they try to do that to like explain away homos or whatever but but don't make your body a temple prostitute don't be a fornicator okay so turn uh just keep a ribbon here and turn to genesis chapter number 39 so i i really think that he's he's really talking about genesis chapter 39 i think he's talking about what joseph did he had the chance of course he would have been committing fornication and adultery at the same time because this woman that's trying to get him to commit this act with him is married but joseph is not married so he would be committing two sins at the same time he'd be an adulterer which is a death penalty situation and he'd be a fornicator because he's not married himself so um look at genesis 39 verse 2 it says and the lord was with joseph and he was a prosperous man he was the how he was in the house of his master the egyptian his master saw the lord was with him and that the lord made all that that he did to prosper in his hand and joseph found grace in his sight and he served him and he made him overseer of over his house and all that he had he put into his hand and it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house and over all that he had that the lord blessed the egyptian's house for joseph's sake and the blessing of the lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the field and he left all that he had in joseph's hand and he knew not ought he had saved the bread which he did eat and joseph was a goodly person and well favored this joseph's a good guy you know he's well favored god loves him he's blessing this man's whole house and everything he has because joseph's such a good guy and it says and it came to pass after these things that his master'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 whateth not what is with me in the house and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand there is none greater in this house than i neither hath 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 so joseph has the right attitude he knows it's wrong he's you know he's this guy is a virgin he's never done anything like this and i'm sure he's tempted really hard here it says and it came to pass as she spake to joseph day by day she's trying to wear him down wear him down that he hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her he didn't want to be around her he didn't lie by her she's probably trying to hey just lay down on the bed next to me hey just just you know she's probably always trying to be in the same place as he is probably trying to grab him whatever and it came to pass about this time that joseph went into the house to do his business and there was none of the men of the house there within and she caught him by the garment saying lie with me and he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out literally flee fornication he fled out he booked it he took off running when someone flees they're running he's just like see ya and took off and it says and it came to pass when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and was fled forth that she called unto the men of the house and spake unto them saying see he hath brought in the hebrew unto us to mock us he came unto me to lie with me and i cried with a loud voice and it came to pass when he heard that i lifted up my voice and cried that he left his garment with me and fled and got him out so three times there it says he fled she even said it you know he fled forth he fled and got him out and the bible tells us by the narrator says that he fled and got him out so joseph fled that's why i believe that paul is specifically talking about this story flee fornication get out get out of the situation if you're in a situation where you're being tempted i mean if you know you're with you're with some guy or you're with guys you're with some girl and you're you're super tempted just remember this verse just remember all you have to remember is flee fornication and then you just go just take off and they'll be like what are you doing forrest gump you know i'm just running you know i'm just taking off right and they they just you know and if that person's a christian they they probably know what you're doing like oh he's fleeing fornication he's tempted but at least you're doing something biblical right you're doing what the bible says joseph did the right thing and literally fled fornication it says it three times he ran so that's what you should do flee fornication that's what the bible says to do now let's turn to first corinthian seven first corinthian seven point number three avoid fornication avoid fornication first corinthian seven the bible says now concerning the things where you wrote unto me it is good for a man not to touch a woman so this seems to be some kind of a controversial verse but what was first corinthians five about kicking people out of church for certain reasons but what was the main context of that passage it's about fornication isn't it it's specifically about a man that was committing fornication he says kick him out what's first corinthian six about it's about fornication isn't it then you roll so what is what is uh let's see let's uh i gotta look here what's verse 20 say in first corinthians chapter six sorry i gotta i'm just gonna look it up here i don't think i have it in my notes huh yeah oh yeah you're bought with the price we already read it so so you're bought with a price so you're not supposed in the context of that was you're bought with a price don't join your body don't be a don't be a temple prostitute right you don't put join your body with a whore you know because you're bought with a price you're the temple of the holy ghost so the what's the context it's fornication isn't it so what's what's the context here first corinthian seven it's still talking about the same thing now the concerning the were the things where you wrote unto me is good for a man not to touch a woman so what should you avoid well if you're not married and you're being in your in attempting situation don't touch them and if you whatever if you think that that's just solely talking about fornication then whatever but i think that if you're what what's going to tempt you if you're if you're if you are burning and you're you want to get married and you're dating and you know what do you think is going to tempt you do you think touching them is going to tempt you i mean what leads to the other thing when you start touching do you think kissing is going to lead to that situation do you think petting touching holding i mean holding hands is pretty benign when you're holding your mom's hand when you're holding your dad's hand but when you're holding someone that you're really attracted to his hand it's different folks it really just look i i'm i'm 49 years old i i've been there before i know i was a teenager once i was a young man once i don't play dumb with me i know what what what leads to that so touching if not married includes hugging holding hands kissing back rubs foot rubs i mean guys don't rub each other's feet but yet you think that if you're rubbing a woman's feet that that's not some kind of a sensual thing it is don't play stupid with me i mean i don't rub my wife's feet and she doesn't rub mine that's just something we've never done you know nobody i to me feet are just not something that's yeah it's just nobody wants to look at my feet anyway so i think they're gross it's one of the uncommon parts of the body in my opinion but but look what verse two says nevertheless to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband what's it talking about still oh it's talking about fornication so it's good for you to not touch like someone wrote someone asked him this question is what i'm thinking and he's saying hey it's good that you don't touch it's good for a man not to touch a woman and then it says to nevertheless to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife so what do you think paul's should we be able to touch he's just saying i think you should avoid it i think you should just not do it and here's the other thing touching leads to fornication it just does so if you're dating or courting or whatever you want to call it engaged i don't believe you should be touching and i think that you're going to find yourself fornicating if you do that's what i believe and you know you can do whatever and i'm not going to say you can do whatever you want you can't do whatever you want in this church if you're in this church you know there's a no touching rule if you're not married like if my wife wants to give me a back rub while we're sitting right there i'm not going to throw myself out i'm not going to throw anybody out for that but i'm just saying if you're not married to someone you should keep your hands to yourself leave room for jesus you know that kind of thing there there's just no reason why you should because like look just you know i like this this thought that was brought to my attention say there's a lady here and she dates 10 guys and then later on the 10th guy is going is becomes a pastor and say that you're okay with just smooching every guy that you date well you've kissed 10 guys and that guy that's going to be the pastor knows that you've kissed all those other guys i mean how awkward is that oh you've kissed all 10 guys and then every every guy that you oh yeah i kissed your wife before she was your i mean how how weird would that be how awkward would that be i don't know i mean i i think if you can save that for the marriage alter i think you should and here's the other thing you need to guys you need to go by the rules that the dad sets in place he you're nothing until he says you know who takes this man to be or who gives us this this woman away and then the the husband the or the dad shakes the hand of the the to be husband you know or whoever's giving giving that person away sometimes it's not always the dad but once that that authority goes and transfers to the new husband then you make the rules once the wedding is is complete and you say i do and then you kiss the bride then you get to make the rules but until then dad makes the rules dad has the authority that's that's how it is so if you don't like the rules that the dad is going to place on you then don't date him because if you're going to sneak around and end around what dad has to say then you're wrong because the authority structure isn't you you're just dating them you're not the man you're not the man until you put the ring you know if you like you better put a ring on it right so verse two also proves that there's a difference between fornication and adultery right doesn't it look at verse two nevertheless to avoid fornication will every man have his own wife bingo people say oh you know jesus said that you know when he when he said fornication he meant adultery no because he says to avoid fornication with every man have his own wife so once they're the wife it wouldn't be fornication anymore it'd be adultery came over all right so if you're married it's no longer called fornication marriage allows you to avoid fornication see so if you're going to date again if you're going to date some hair-legged man's daughter you better go by the rules and if you can't do that date somebody else look at verse eight it says i say therefore to the unmarried and the widows it is good for them to if they abide even as i but if they cannot contain let them marry for it is better to marry than to burn that's talking about burning in your lust so if you can't contain like paul was unmarried paul was you know he was able to just stay unmarried his whole life and he gave he gave rules for virgins and and he he thought that everybody to serve the lord the best that they could should be like him but if you're not going to be and obviously the human race wouldn't wouldn't pass on if we didn't if everybody stayed unmarried and didn't have children so this is not the norm most people are not going to be like paul most people want to get married most people want to have children and so on and so forth but there's a rare occasion where people don't and so but he said if you can't contain don't just keep holding out and then fornicate instead of getting married he says it's better to marry than to burn so it's better to marry than to burn in your lust your lust will bring about sin and the sin of fornication so that moves me on to my fourth point so the first point was don't keep company company with fornicators the second point was flee fornication the third point was avoid fornication and the fourth point is abstain from the appearance of evil including fornication so look at first thessalonians chapter 5 first thessalonians chapter 5 so we're also supposed to abstain from the appearance of evil now you can apply a lot of different things to these verses but if you don't want people to think that you're fornicating then don't shack up with people because people are going to think that you are if you're like oh no we're just dating and we're just living together people are going to think you're fornicating and most people are just going to flat out assume that you are because you know you're not everybody's the apostle paul in fact most people aren't and you know most pastors will just assume that you're fornicating if you're living together so and i and i understand that you might not be but that's just what people are going to assume that's what the pastor's going to assume look at first thessalonians 5 21 it says prove all things hold fast to that which is good abstain from all appearance of evil so if you're dating and you're living together but you're not married does that does it look like you're it looks like you're living together as a couple and that you're not married it looks bad doesn't it it looks like you're not doing something right so it says in the very god of peace sanctify you holy i pray and i pray your whole spirit and the soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our lord jesus christ so what you want to look and appear blameless you should be blameless and of course you know being living separately and committing fornication is still just as bad of course if you're living together you're not committing fornication it just looks really bad so we should avoid the appearance of that so my this point kind of goes along with the last point it's kind of like a first cousin by not touching it helps you avoid fornication but you know by getting married you avoid fornication and burning your lust but these things also help you abstain from the appearance of evil and of course if you're living together and you're not you think that you're going to just be able to not be tempted oh you we just want to live together we're going to withhold from each other you're look you can't spend all day and all night and live together in the same place be boyfriend and girlfriend and not commit fornication if you are you're the very rare zero point zero zero zero one percent of the population it's just not really it's not really the exception would prove the rule i guess so and just remember this that sin affects others around you sin affects the church and the appearance of evil would affect other people in the church if they see it they're going to think it and then it's going to be something that you don't want you know rubbing off on other people in the church so it sets a bad example to other believers it sets a bad example to children how do you explain that to people and you shouldn't have to because you shouldn't be you shouldn't be shacking up or living together before you're married even if you're not doing anything it's still a bad example it's an appearance of evil and you know don't get mad about it you know it just doesn't look good it's not a good example to others and it is the appearance of evil so let's go back to genesis 39 again and i just want to look at verse 10 and 11 and 12 real quick so joseph was a great man this is an oversight in joseph's mind and obviously god used these things to bless joseph later he wound up in the prison he was supposed to be in he wound up being blessed very greatly you know god worked all the evil things that happened to joseph out to be good i understand that god works all things together to them that love him to good right so but genesis 39 10 says and it came to pass as she spake to joseph day by day that he hearkened not to her to lie by her or to be with her so he put it in his mind like isn't it saying that he hearkened not to her to lie by with by her or to be with her he stayed away from her this was something in his mind said he already had but it says and it came to pass about this time that joseph went into the house to do his business so he's just like you know he's like doing his checklist or whatever and it says and there was none of the men of the house there within that's a mistake like he should have had like a buddy system if he knew this lady was on the prowl and that she was just trying to find an opportunity maybe he just didn't take it as seriously as he should have he didn't maybe he didn't know she was going to do this she was going to grab a hold of him at some point but she did and it says and she caught him by the garment saying lie with me and he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out what was the problem he didn't have another witness with him he was alone in a room with a woman that was throwing herself at him and then literally grabbed him and tried to do her best to make him do what she wanted i mean she's she's she's a sexual predator i mean she's the she's the the very low percentage of but women do these things women are can be the aggressor and will be the aggressor and then what she do she's she's doing what happens today still where women will lie and say that some man tried to do something to them do men do these things yes they do but this has been happening since genesis where a man didn't do anything wrong and then yet he's accused of doing something and then she just said well i yelled out and then like he gets thrown in prison based on the word of one lying woman that's a whore an adulterous and why joseph is the man he already said you know the bible said that he was the man of the house basically when potiphar wasn't there why did if he was in charge he should have had a man with him at all times and all i'm going to say to you is this don't put yourself in a position where you can be accused by somebody this is why you should not this is why we have people in pairs go to doors i always say don't leave your partner no man left behind don't just try to be ultra spiritual and go and try to get extra doors while someone's preaching the gospel i don't want you to do that why because of situations like this and people lie about you guys all the time out souling all the time they lie about you all the time they lie when there's witnesses and they call me all the time i mean one of these days it's going to be someone that actually lies and says something weird like this i don't even want to say it out loud because i don't want to give anybody ideas well i mean it's just so bad but what did he do that he shouldn't have done he should have had somebody there with him right i mean i'm not saying joseph's bad i'm just saying it was not a good move on his part joseph knew potiphar's wife's intentions joseph was in charge he could have done that now um let's see all right let's move on to the last point here point number five let's go to second corinthians chapter two second corinthians chapter two so and just the last thing i want to say about that is yeah if you're dating don't you think it's a good idea to have other people with you because here's the thing and i'm not saying right at the table with you necessarily i mean you can be creative people you don't have to it doesn't have to be weird where like your mom and dad are sitting right there the whole time or whatever of course you want to probably get to know people and whatever rules you have for when your children date or whatever your teen's date or whatever that's your business but think it through especially if it's your first teen or that's their first time dating you want to think these rules through i mean my kids got mad at me about some of the rules that i have but i mean like not sitting in a dark vehicle in the same seat remy got really mad at me about that one didn't you remy calling you out oh what was it nia oh he's now he's see they're always telling it they always try to make it the other one pretty sure it was remy they try to make it like i'm biden or something oh yeah it was dear no uh i'm just saying like think about it you're in a dark minivan and they're both in the back seat by themselves it's like i'm not saying that they were going to do something i just don't want an opportunity to the opportunity to arise where you know something can be said you know you just don't want to put your kids in that position you don't want to put yourself in that position because you don't know what that person's going to do either i mean you don't really know them that well so lit up places you know public places to date that's a good thing and you know having your narc your narc children with them so they'll tell on everything they do that's a good thing that's that was one of our rules you know and they would tell trust me they would tell on anything we knew that they would narc because they knock about everything else so of course they're gonna knock about any transgression out in public so that's a good way to have the buddy system you know because like if you're alone with a woman or or with a man if you're a woman you know you're if you if you're alone by yourself you're way more tempted to do something than if you have other people around i mean obviously right so that's all i say about that so let's move on to point five repentance and restoration from fornication some people commit this sin and i just want to say this that you can come back from it you can come back from it and we should allow people to come back from it just because someone does this sin it doesn't mean that their life's over as a christian it doesn't mean that they can't come back from it they can't come back from it and we should forgive people that come that want to come back from this sin look at second corinthians chapter two verse one we don't want to be hyper spiritual ultra spiritual unforgiving pharisees right look at second corinthians chapter two verse one it says but i determined this with myself that it would not come again to you in heaviness for if i make you sorry who is he that maketh me glad but the same which is made sorry by me and i wrote this same unto you lest when i came i should have sorrow from them of whom i ought to rejoice having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all for out of much affliction and anguish of heart i wrote unto you with many tears not that you should be grieved but that you might know the love which i have more abundantly unto you but if any have caused grief he hath not grieved me but in part that i may not overcharge you all sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many he's talking about the guy that he said in first corinthians five to throw out he's talking about restoring this man after he's after this has been done so it says so that contra wise you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him so see there is a comeback this guy's coming back paul's already said let this guy come back so so that contra wise you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much grief see if someone doesn't if someone can't be for i mean jesus forgave us for all of our sins right so shouldn't we be like jesus and forgive people of course we should let's perhaps such one should be swallowed with over much grief people should be able to come back from things wherefore i beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him make them feel welcome again make them feel forgiven again don't walk around and act like you just don't like them anymore or something because they've done something hey we've all done something we've all sinned and come short of the glory of god it says for this and also did i write that i might know the proof of you whether to you be obedient in all things hey he said throw them out you're puffed up they threw them out obviously now he's saying forgive them forgive this person and don't let this person have over much grief and make sure that you he knows that you love him and verse 10 says to whom you forgive anything i forgive also for if i forgave anything to whom i forgave it for your sakes forgive i it in the person of christ and be and so uh it says less satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices so you see satan then you know they cast them out so that satan could have his way with them god would judge him outside the church but see if we don't do what's right to restore the person then satan gets an advantage of us and that's what we don't want we don't want him to have an advantage over us because we're not forgiving and we're not loving the person that we're supposed to restore restoration should come when the repentance comes also and we should let that person know that we love them and the way things are done is you know we confront the person we kick the person out if they don't repent you know if they repent we we allow them to stay but if they don't repent we shun them we wait for the repentance we restore them back to fellowship and you know revelation 2 verse 20 i mean god is pretty long suffering with people look at verse uh revelation chapter 2 verse 20 i'm almost done last verse i'll have you turn to we're almost done just hang tight for a couple more minutes here revelation chapter 2 verse 20 the bible says notwithstanding i have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols he had a there's a person in this church and he's calling her jezebel i don't know if that's her real name but i mean that's a pretty bad name to name your daughter i mean that's not one of the baby book names that i think that you should choose if you call your daughter jezebel i mean you're just in she's in for a fight for her life all the days of her life maybe he's just calling her that because you know anyway i'll talk about that later on but you know she calls herself a prophetess right and she's teaching what to seduce my servants to commit fornication she's telling people that it's okay to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols and it says and i gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not the lord gives space for fornication to repent from fornication so why shouldn't we and like even in the beginning of it like she's doing it and he gave her space so you're like well why don't you kick him right out well if the lord gives space for them to repent then why wouldn't i do that you know what i mean so like if they make it right then it's okay but it says and she repented not behold i will cast her into a bed and then they commit adultery with her into great tribulation except they repent of their deeds and i will kill her children with death and all the churches shall know that i am he which search the reigns and hearts and i will give unto every one of you according to your works see there's just no getting away with it and he says he'll kill her children i mean so much for jesus is always nice and never never punishes anybody he never judges anybody no he he said he will judge you know god will judge he will judge the church and you know he judgment must begin at the house of the lord that's why these things this is not trivial stuff folks this is really important that this gets taught every year young kids young children take heed to listen to god and how serious this sin is because one you might not like girls right now or you might not like boys right now because you're young children but someday they're not going to be gross someday they're not going to have boy germs or dog germs or whatever you want to call them but one day you will like them and take heed to what the bible says okay flee fornication avoid it pass not buy it teens you're growing up in a time when fornication is just not a big deal in the world it's not a big deal but in church it is to your parents it is and you're encouraged to be whoremongers and whores in the world but you know in schools in television in social media and all that stuff is just seed dropping into your mind and you you know just because you have all these hormones raging in your body and stuff it doesn't mean you have to give into it joseph didn't give into it joseph ran he he he literally ran away and you should do it too don't put yourself in a position men where you can have your you know young men where you can have your integrity question always be in a position where you have accountability because you don't want to be put in that position okay singles don't give into temptation if you can't contain find a spouse and get married okay and pick one that's of like faith don't pick the first catholic girl you see that's not really like faith don't pick an episcopalian don't pick a presbyterian you know just just because they sing better than you or whatever right brother bell but you know just because they say they're christian doesn't mean they are pick someone that's like you know like your spiritual equal or better right and parents warn your children and your teens about the dangers of fornication and don't bend to the teen's will this is the thing that i would say to parents that have teens they like to push the boundaries it's like they're they get their these all these feelings and all these you know they're getting the women estrogen in the male testosterone is starting to and then they start they start wanting to be adults they start starting to turn into adults and so then they start challenging thoughts they start challenging authority and and i don't even know if they can help it sometimes but they do and you have a tendency to just you know when they were you know running and grabbing your leg when you come in the front door or you know they want to be around you all the time and now they don't want to be anywhere near you they want you to talk to them or whatever not all kids are like that but some teens do turn into that just saying you know it's not always fun to say no it's not always fun to just stick to your guns on things but you have to and don't just let them steamroll you don't want them to you know they'll wear you down they try but stick to your guns and stick to your convictions and stick to what the bible says you know there's not a lot there's not a chapter on dating rules in here just you have to use the common sense that the bible gives you you have to look at i mean if you want to know how to not allow your children to commit fornication we'll just i mean there's three big chapters that we just looked at today that cover a lot of it there's a lot of actual verses that you can go to about it and how do you avoid it well don't let them be touching each other don't leave them in rooms together by themselves i mean those are pretty simple things you know and don't there's just a lot of things you can do but if you need some advice i'll try to help you as much as i can but warn them of the dangers don't just let them hang out you know and do whatever they want you have to you can be their friend but you still have to be their parent okay and some people just turn into they want to be their friend and still you know that's my best friend well they can be your best friend but you're still the authority and you still have to maintain that authoritarian uh dictatorship as their parent and they might not like you for a little while but when they're married and they have their own spouse and they did not commit fornication they're going to thank you for it so let's pray lord we thank you so much for the scriptures and what it says and i pray lord that you just help our church to be pure lord that fornication would not be a sin that's named in our church and i pray that you would help uh expose these things if they were happening in our church lord that we could take care of them lord i pray that you would just protect our children here in our teens and lord our singles that are here and that you would keep them from committing these sins and lord that would be something that they keep in their heart lord and i pray that you'd help me to continuously keep these things in mind and at least preach them on a regular basis so the people would fear and that they would teach their children these things also in jesus name we pray amen so praise god from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures here below praise him above ye heavenly hosts praise father son and holy ghost praise god from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures here below praise him above ye heavenly hosts praise father son and holy ghost amen good scene brother eli would you close the word of prayer my you you